Highlights from last week:

DISNEYLAND with my boyfriend as an early birthday gift and celebration. Disneyland is the one place where I can feel carefree. I love the nostalgia, the rides, the feeling that I’m on a vacation/in another world (even though it’s 25 minutes from my house). We went on Wednesday and it turned out to be a perfect day — perfect weather and hardly any people! We got to go on our favorite rides three times each. And, no lie, I could have gone on Space Mountain 10 more times.

Do you like my Chewbacca backpack? When I came back from using the restroom, I couldn’t find my boyfriend, so I sat and waited. He appeared a couple minutes later with the backpack. It’s already a joke that I laugh like Chewbacca and have hair like him, so why not embrace it? We all have an inner wookie, ya know? A couple years ago, at another birthday-inspired Disneyland trip (this time celebrating him), my boyfriend pulled a similar move when he left our dinner table to “use the restroom” and came back with a Pirates of the Caribbean “Jack Sparrow” hat for me. What can I say. I am his living and breathing costume-wearer.

So, I want to give full disclosure that the above picture makes me a little…emo. It makes me want to wear all black, comb my hair over half of my face and listen to Dashboard Confessional. Why? Because I compare it to a picture taken of me at Disneyland a couple years ago when I was at my thinnest. And, seeing that picture of me, 28 years old and certainly not at my thinnest as an adult, reminds me that while I haven’t “let myself go,” I have allowed myself to put work and other “priorities” before myself. But here’s the caveat – at my thinnest, on that day in Disneyland, I was in the middle of what became my bout with bulimia. So, obviously, I shouldn’t yearn to be the thin that also made me obsessed with my weight to the point of valuing thinness above everything else…including my health. and my life. I’m doing my best not to go wa wa wa, I’ve packed on some pounds. Cuz that’s freakin’ life, right? I’m still super active and kicking ass in weight-training and running, so that’s what I should be focused on and proud of, right? Not some picture of my bulimia skinny. Ok, I’ve talked myself out of the funk, thanks for listening. I’m taking off the black, combing my hair back to normal, and turning off the emo music.

After D-Land, we went to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, The Veggie Grill, in Irvine. Mmmmm
My papaya salad with quinoa; his chipotle “burger.”

Another highlight of the week was when friends of friends, at zumba, mentioned that they loved my recipes! Reminds me how much I miss cooking! I used to cook and bake AT LEAST once a week. Now I’m living off of Trader Joe’s Vegetable & Grain Country Salad (omg you have to try it!), toast & fruit. every.single.day. No bueno!

On Friday, my actual birthday, my boyfriend took me to one of my favorite restaurants in Long Beach — Open Sesame. Lebanese food with plenty of vegan options. yuuuum!

Then, on Saturday, my twin and I had a joint birthday party with his girlfriend – whose birthday is also this month – at a dueling piano bar. The highlights?

My bandmate paid the pianists to get me on stage.  This is me wagging my finger “no!” because the pianist asked my group at the back of the room if she should do a naughty or nice song with me — everyone screamed “naughty!” Let’s just say she sang a song about me and my boyfriend, “Dick.”

More highlights?

Getting to see old friends who I miss dearly
Remember Nia? She guest-posted here for a while

seeing my twin…

who I miss more than I want to. It’s tough that as we grow up, our lives become so hectic…and separate. I miss the days where most of our challenges were joint challenges that we could co-conquer. Or simply ignore by eating together lol. Seriously though, I think one of the biggest voids in my life is not having him around to confide in.

The final highlight of the night was when my sister-in-law complimented by boyfriend’s biceps. He then deflected the compliment by pointing out that I have biceps. My sister-in-law didn’t seem too convinced, so my boyfriend pulled up my arm and rested a can of Redbull on my bicep. It stayed. And I thought…man…that’s pretty bad ass!

Exercise Recap

11/7 Mon. nada
Tues. 25-mins strength
Wed. Does walking all day at Disneyland count? I guess not, since it was not “intentional” exercise, ya know?
Thurs. 6-mile run (1 hour)
Fri. 4-mile run (40 minutes), 1 hour zumba, 25-minutes strength
Sat. nada
11/13 Sun. 6-mile run (1 hour)
Total: 270 minutes intentional exercise = average 38 minutes exercise/day

Thoughts – For my birthday week, not too bad. This week was better, but I’ll report on Monday!

<3,

The Cranky One

So, on the magical day of my birth, my knight in shining armor (that camera-shy boyf of mine) and I (cranky and not-so-camera-shy) took a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.  Look, I’ve been going to Disneyland for as long as I can remember, but there is something about going when you are on the brink of 30 (what, 26 counts for “brink of 30,” right? that makes it that more special.  If I may add another factor that made this amusement park like no other, it’s that damn birthday button.  Look, I’m not typically your “look at me, look at me!” person (*brushes off brothers’ voices going, “you have a freakin blog, how ‘look at me, look at me!’ can you be?!”), but having all the Disneyland cast members forced hyped to wish me a happy birthday made me feel like the whole park cared that I was born.  Ok, so I’m exaggerating a little but it was muy fun!

Want to know what was even cooler?  Of course you do!  It was the fact that my boyfriend made it his duty to see that I was well-fed on my birthday.  See exhibit #A below.

You have two choices — 1) hide and pretend it didn’t happen

or 2) just do it and look like a goober doing it, to boot!

Churro for breakfast.

Exhibit #B

A hot fudge sundae complete with two chocolate chip cookies all stuffed in a waffle cone for lunch.

I think the antique-tinge gives it a moralistic feeling, don’t you? Moral: Have your cake sundae and eat it too!

Exhibit #C

A grilled “chicken” sandwich with pesto and chipotle vegenaise (to-die-for! Review of the restaurant to come in another post)

Verdict:  The birthday girl was officially de-cranky-fied.

It was an amazing day.  From Captain Hook scaring me half to death to the delight of the entire line of people waiting for the Pinocchio ride, to the weird picture captured of me in an Herbal Essence-like pose, hands in hair and all, on Space Mountain and to getting over my fear of sitting first in the log on Splash Mountain (irrational fears? Guilty!), it was exactly what the quack doctor ordered for the Cranky One to forget her term papers and stresses.

A few have asked me if there are healthy food options at Disneyland.  Sure there are!  But it depends on what “healthy food options” means to you!   How’s that for an evasive, catch-all answer?!  (I did work for lawyers for three years!).  Ok, seriously, I found that there quite a few healthy snack options, but fewer “real meal” healthy options.  The healthy snacks available include: whole apples, pickles, apple chips, celery and carrot sticks, trail mix, fresh mango, mixed fruit bowls, and baked chips.  It was harder to find healthy food options at the sit-down restaurants.  The best bet is the Bengal Barbecue across from the Indiana Jones ride since they offer skewered, grilled, vegetables (and meats); however, they did seem rather greasy.  The other best option was a plain salad from Carnation Cafe, but a salad of plain lettuce and carrots for $8 just couldn’t beat a huge ice cream sundae for $5, so you can see where my stomach, sweet tooth and frugal sensibilities converged in a sweet love affair with a cherry on top. You can always choose to dine at Downtown Disney which has a host of restaurants with dishes that are more easily adaptable to health concerns.  Or, you could always choose to drive to Irvine where the boyf and I dined for our vegetarian feast at the Veggie Grill.  Or, shh, bring in your own snacks!  I brought an apple, banana, and cranberries for snacks.  If it’s not your birthday and you insist on staying in character (so to speak) whilst at an amusement park, you can go so far as to eat a healthy breakfast at home, bring your own lunch packed and stored appropriately in your car, bring your own healthy snacks into the park and then eat at Downtown Disney for dinner.

Sure, eating a churro (approx. 326 calories) for breakfast and an ice cream sundae (approx. 970 calories) for lunch may not be the smartest investment of calories at face-value.  But on a deeper level, it was a smart investment in my mental health and attitude towards eating without guilt.  If you can’t eat an ice cream sundae on your birthday when you’d like to, then it’s time to reevaluate your relationship with yourself. Birthdays and special occasions are not necessarily a free-for-all, eat like crap circumstance, but they are certainly opportunities to (re)evaluate how food does factor into your life and how it should. And that, my friends, is where I’ll leave it — if I must practice moderation in food, I think I must also practice it in yapping.

What is your general philosophy on eating while at theme/amusement parks?  On your birthday?

<3,

The Cranky One