Welcome to November – and Happy Day of the Dead! Or Days of the Dead as John pointed out, since technically it is 2 days. Of course, every day is day of the dead until coffee time!
Don’t you love this coffee break? I asked for permission to use this photo – if you want to see Collin’s other work, here is his website.
We are now a candy corn free household (until the sales, that is), but I did have breakfast in my candy corn bowl!
Cold and icky today. I did a 3 mile walk today in rainy and blustery 45 degree conditions and I got a deep chill. Pixie was wanting a lot of warmth, too.
I think she really knows how very lucky she is to have come up to our door.
Anyhoo, new month means new goals! These are my plans for this month:
1. Do several days a week of lower-carb/grain-free. To help prevent holiday pants busting, I have found this really works well while still letting me enjoy the yummy foods this time of year, like pumpkin pie bagels and eggnog lattes! Now for me, lower carb means 100 total grams of carbs a day. I don’t bother with net carbs. So if it is not net carbs, is it gross carbs? LOL. Going grain free makes it easier to cut those down as well. So, 3 or 4 days a week will be my goal.
2. Organize the bedroom. Having decluttered the downstairs, now the upstairs is a mess, particularly the bedroom. I tend to dump my clothes (clean) on the floor by my bed. I need to organize the closet and get more storage. That means thrifting for a couple dressers. Wooden only – no MDF!
3. Run a 5K on Thanksgiving. Not an official 5K or anything, but just going out and doing one on my own, running the entire thing. I am up to 2.3 miles now, so this should be doable. Of course, if the weather is really nice – I may bike on turkey day (highly unlikely, but I have my hopes).
4. Get out and do more. We have been homebodies too much lately. Goal this month is to do some things other than go out for coffee at night.
5. Going with the no-grain days in goal 1, I will also make some new grain-free recipes and post them. They won’t all be desserts, either 😀
Sound good?
We decided to work on the goal of getting out more and went out to dinner tonight. Seeing as I won the football picks for the third week in a row – because I rock – I got the dinner choice! We went back to Siam Thai Sushi, where we went on John’s birthday. Being the nice wife that I am, I had a BOGO coupon to use for a free entree. Wasn’t that nice of me to do since he had to pay? Anyway, check out the world’s largest spoon.
Seriously, this thing is like a ladle. I actually used the spoon served with my tea to eat with since I didn’t feel like using a shovel to eat.
My dinner – Massaman Curry with shrimp.
I guess the picture probably doesn’t look as good as this tasted! It was wonderful! It has potatoes, peppers, carrots and peanuts in a coconut based spicy sauce. I added the shrimp for protein. This must be recreated at home and soon!
Bonus is that I brought home half to have for lunch tomorrow as well.
More guitar practicing for me today 😀
I don’t quite look like this, but close 
Just add skin and remove the mustache.
You are so good with your monthly goal setting. I need to be more like you. I like the idea of having some lower carb days through the holidays to help balance it all out. Carb cycling works for me as well.
I hope John appreciated your thrifty side with BOGO coupons! Dinner looks delcious, I do love me some shrimp. 🙂
I like the goals just to keep things interesting.
John definitely loves my thrifty side 😀
Hmmm. I should join with you on the bedroom goal. Lately I ‘ve realized that I actually do keep up the rest of the house. ITs just the bedroom that is a mess.
Don’t you think that soup might be a little like the recipe Helen posted a bit ago? It might be a start for you anyway.
Ooh, I will be watching your no grain days with interest! MAYBE I’ll join you!
Give in to the no-grain dark side, Debby. Come join us LOL!
I am so jealous of your candy corn bowl!
Great goals.
I always use a teaspoon to eat soup 🙂
wow you are so good with the goal setting 🙂 and I love the grain free idea.but being vegetarian (no eggs too) i sometimes get so bummed!!! I resolve every morning that: today is going to be grain free”. But nope, no progress there. I am going to try though since it is festival time here in India too!!!
Great goals! I read about Chris Powell’s carb cycling program (he’s the one on extreme weight loss reality show) – you should check it out
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/chris-powell-carb-cycling-recipes-low-carb-day
Ok, I’m satisfied with the Pixie picture! And yes, she has a charmed life 🙂
Running 5K sounds like a big goal, but then I remembered that you’re talking about kilometers, not miles…
Love your goals for the month. Funny that I have been thinking about adding lower carb days too but I haven’t worked it out yet.
We love being at home but I do realize we could get out more. I’m going to keep an eye on groupon deals more for dinner and we just booked a weekend in February for the three of us.
Have a great weekend Lori.
I just decided to do some no grain days in November myself! Goodness knows I need to do something to counteract my lack of exercise right now.
Halloween is so messed up down here – some towns had it, some cancelled it, and some postponed it (again, don’t even get me started!) that the stores are not putting the candy on clearance! Better for my hips I guess 😉
I have an old dresser but I don’t use it for my clothes…I have everything in my closet, either hanging up (yes, even t-shirts) or in small bins, or folded on shelves. Never could make it all fit in drawers and I finally gave up trying. Now the dresser is home to gift wrap, craft and sewing stuff.
I hang up my tshirts as well. I don’t have shelves in my closet, so I want a dresser to put in there for my pants and sweaters that I don’t want to put on hangers. Our closets are small because it is an old house – and I share half of it with John! Eeek!
Love your November goals! I am going to try to keep my carbs to around 125-135 this month. It’s cost effective for me too, because that means I take less insulin!
As soon as I saw your dish I wanted it! I love the combination of flavors in those type of dishes – I think I am going to make this version for home – let me know what you think!
http://theveryhungrycook.com/?p=822
Happy Friday!
Yum – that looks good! I have had a hard time finding tamarind up here in tiny town. I may have to make a trip to Albany to get some special things.
Great November goals Lori!!! I LOL at you saying “add skin remove the mustache” and this looks like me playing guitar. HILARIOUS. LOVE sleeping Pixie too. Have a wonderful Friday!
PIXIE LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have missed her pics! I hope Boo is doing well too! Did they give him a new name?
Love the coffee pic & the others on that site – Carla would love that!
Great goals as always! I don’t think I can go grain free even 1 day! 😉 I suppose I could but I think I will wait until the hormones get really really bad for me – like they are not already but I am managing with what I do right now. It is a great plan though for the holidays & letting you enjoy! 🙂
Yahoo for a football win for you!
Catching up again!! So excited to see you’re up to 2.3 miles already!!!