A missed workout and call for recipes

Well, my first Trim to Win weekend isn’t anything to write home about, so I guess I’ll write about it here.

Saturdays are deadline days for us here at the newspaper, so most of the day until about midnight was spent in the office. Rather than the usual routine of eating nothing all day then having a big dinner at the end, I had some oatmeal and orange juice in the morning and took a couple applies to supplement during the day. The craving for Mexican food from the night before had long past and I was feeling pretty good.

So good, in fact, that while warming up the car I decided to clean it out as well. The freezing cold air apparently didn’t agree (yes, I admit it, I inhaled) and I woke up with a nasty chest cold. When I’m sick I don’t like to eat, and I admit sticking to my diet wasn’t high on the immediate priority list. Luckily, I cleaned most of the bad food out and didn’t have easy access to it. I ate some soup, drank all the OJ I had and zonked out most of the day.

I started to get ready to go see trainer Bill later in the afternoon, but just wasn’t up for it, so less than a week in and I was already calling Bill with what probably came off as a lame excuse. Back to bed, with more soup and some saltines later on.

Although I woke up Monday feeling guilty about not doing a workout the day before, the soup and rest seemed to have worked, as I felt much better by the afternoon and by late Monday after Tuesday’s newspaper had been put to bed I’m feeling downright energetic. In fact, that rumbling you felt about 11 p.m. Monday? Not an earthquake; just doing some jumping jacks in the office.

You’ll see we’ve added a spot on the Trim to Win page to upload your favorite healthy and great recipes. I think this is a great addition and hope everyone uses it. I know I could sure use some help with some healthy but easy and quick meals to prepare to add a little variety. That’s what always gets me down about a diet; that I always seem to fall back on the same limited menu and it isn’t before long I become bored with eating the same things over and over.

With my schedule and being a single guy, sometimes it just doesn’t seem worth it to go to all the trouble of an elaborate dinner preparation just for yourself. So, help me out, folks. Give me some recipes and I’ll pick a couple days of the week I have more time and do the bulk of the cooking then and freeze leftovers for the rest of the week.

In fact, if I try your recipe, I’ll let you know here and rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 carrot sticks. Here’s an idea I came up with when I had kids living with me (OK, as long as we’re being more personal here, here’s the nutshell, and this is all you’re getting: been engaged twice, but didn’t work out. Both had kids, who are still today like my own). They were always clamoring for soda or punch or anything else just loaded with sugar. They especially loved sno cones with all that disgustingly sweet syrup.

Anyway, during a record-breaking 100-plus-degree summer, instead of giving the kids popsicles I froze some orange juice in ice cube trays. Then, when they came asking for a cold treat, I put the frozen juice cubes into the blender, added a little more juice and some fresh strawberries (or blueberries, or raspberries, or bananas … you get the picture) and buzzed it up into a slush. By using the frozen juice as the “ice,” it doesn’t water down as it melts.

I know, it’s minus a billion degrees outside and I’m giving out ideas for frosty treats. Hey, what can I say? Good ideas are good all year-round. Let’s hear your good ideas. Heck, if we get enough of them, maybe when this is over and done with we’ll follow up the first Trim to Win community weight loss challenge with the first Trim to Win healthy living cookbook. It would make a great gift next Christmas for all those getting ready to Trim to Win next year.