Adventures in Cooking, a 30-day Challenge, and Wildlife

In an effort to get more veggies into my life, I decided to try grilled zucchini the other night.  Although the Food Network (food porn...oh yeah!) is one of my most favorite channels, that does not mean I possess the ability to cook. 

I Googled some recipes and finally decided that I would just toss zucchini slices in olive oil and add a little salt and pepper.  Simple, right? What could possibly go wrong?  How about waaaaay too much salt and pepper?  Yeah.  So I ended up washing off the slices and starting all over.  Mike grilled them for me, and then I sprinkled on some garlic powder for added flavor, and they weren't too bad.  It's not something I will sit and daydream about eating again, but it was food, the flavor wasn't horrible, and I didn't die after eating it.  Those are all highly desirable qualities that I look for in food.  You should, too.

This afternoon, I got a text out of the blue from my friend, Kristy, in Tennessee.  She asked if I would like to participate in a 30-day challenge with her, starting tomorrow.  She is going to give up soda, because she is brave and has the soul of a warrior.  I, on the other hand, do not wish to end up in prison for killing random people, so I quickly decided that I would not like to give up soda, but I would give up chocolate instead.  When I told Mike what I had agreed to, he informed me that this did not mean I could eat everything in my chocolate "stash" tonight.  What he doesn't know won't kill him.  So go Kristy and go me!  We can do this!

We spent the afternoon in Macomb, doing our weekly grocery shopping.  We got home around 6:30 p.m., so Nick and I decided to go for a walk at the local park, Scripps.  They recently put in a walking trail around the golf course.  We had gone one evening last week, around 9 p.m., and it was a lot dark and just a tad scary because the trail is about 2 miles and goes through "the forest" (as Nick called it).  Since it was still daylight tonight, we thought we might see what it was we couldn't see the other night.

It was about 7p when we got there.  Nick asked how many times I thought we could walk the trail before it got dark.  Apparently, he no longer has a desire to walk there after dark now.  I told him we could probably do it 2 or 3 times.  So he decided that's what we would do - we would just walk until it was dark!  Ummm...ok.

As we walked, we saw bunnies, squirrels, a beautiful red cardinal, and then....a SNAKE!  I came very close to stepping on it, and Nick claims I screamed, "OH GOD!"  I will not deny it at all.  I was brave enough to go back and look at it, just to confirm what I thought I had seen - it was dead.  Thank God, or that child would have had to walk back to the car by himself because I would have taken off running across the golf course and left him there.  I don't mind bunnies, squirrels, or beautiful red cardinals, but I do mind walking with snakes.  Blah!

We only walked the trail once.  One snake a night is my limit - dead or alive.

My weigh in nights will be Monday nights, so I'll be giving an update on my new weight tomorrow night.  I will say that I took a sneak peek at the gym yesterday...and I'll tell you tomorrow what the official number is.  I have been doing pretty good on eating - not eating too much and too terrible.  There are things that can be improved, and that will come with time.

I'm a little bit afraid that I may have too much on my plate, so to speak, because one of my summer classes starts tomorrow, and I know it's going to take a lot of time.  My other class starts July 5, and they both end July 29.  The next 6 weeks will be a little crazy, but I'm just going to keep putting one foot in front of the other, as best I can.  I know I have a few people reading this already, and I thank you for that.  I don't want to let any of you down.  I'm hoping that by knowing you are all out there, following what I'm doing, it will help keep me on track.  And I know several off you will personally kick my butt if I get off track.  And that's ok.  One day at a time, one meal at a time.