Julia Child Dinner, Number one-- January 15, 2011

Next Weekend will be Julia Child dinner number one. We would have done it this weekend, but frankly we were broke.

On the menu:

Appetizers: Cheese Wafers with a Gruyere "fondue" on top

Soup: Leek and Potato

Main Course: Chicken Supremes (Chicken Breasts) in a cream and paprika sauce

Vegetable: Asparagus with Orange Hollandaise

Dessert: Chocolate Mousse

I'm super excited! Particularly about the Chocolate Mousse.

The diet is off to a slow start, partly because of a fundamental misunderstanding about what we are allowed to eat in endless quantities and what we are not. However, after having bought the book (Called The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss), and actually reading a bit of it, I think we're back on track. Cutting out most of the cheese, and reducing nuts to 1-2 servings a day. I think that should help.

First cheat day was yesterday, and at nearly noon today I am still in my night clothes nursing a monster headache and drinking large quantities of water. I think the headache may be a result of the total lack of caffeine yesterday (due mostly to not having any cokes in the house and not having enough money to go buy any), but I am going to blame it on the bad diet. Motivates me to not cheat the rest of the week.

I'll need that motivation. Tomorrow is "Birthday celebration" at work, which means everyone brings treats to eat to celebrate the month's worth of birthdays. This is my first really big test. We'll have to see how it goes.

We also finally got the last big of exercise equipment we ordered in-- two kettlebells. I'm excited about starting to use those in addition to the Wii fit.

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Orienteering...

So I went orienteering this Saturday. It was my first go at it-- Husband does it fairly regularly, so he dragged me along not-so-unwillingly.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, orienteering is basically running (in my case, walking, huffing, puffing, crawling, and trudging) through the woods with a map and a compass. The map shows a series of "Control points" which you have to go to in order. At the point, you punch a card with a pin puncher that makes a series of tiny pin-sized holes in the correct square of the punch card. More advanced courses use a nifty little electronic thumb pad.

Mostly due to my husband's insistence that the easiest course, White, was "for little kids", I was running the next easiest course, yellow. Again, I'm using the term "running" quite loosely.

As far as the actual map reading and locating skills went, I did fine. Didn't get lost, and only had a small amount of trouble finding one point.

As far as the physical skills required to walk 3-4 miles through woods that seem to predominately consist of steep hills... well, I wasn't quite prepared. I discovered this as I was clinging to the edge of a gully, frantically trying to scramble up as my fingers and feet slipped through the mud and grass.

I made it, though. Covered in mud, wheezing like an asthmatic octogenarian, and swearing that I was going to kill my husband, I came up over the last hill and enjoyed a leisurely (flat) walk to the last two control points.

The results haven't been posted yet, but I'm fairly certain that I placed first in my category owing to the fact that I was the only one in my category. If there was another 19-35 year old female running the yellow course, well, I didn't get first. I can just about guarantee that.

All in all, it was fun. I should probably be in much, much better shape, but I survived and finished, so that should be something at least. There's another meet in two weeks, but it's larger. The suggestion was made that perhaps I should run a white course this time around. I'm not arguing. Read More......