upDate & romanTic views...

long time no see, am I right?

after a troublesome, nerve racking computer issues, I just decided to make my post on another computer until my main one is off its blues...

 

so, much has happened!

I turned 25, and had a couple of lovely parties, I went trift shopping, had romantic dinners with my sweetest, saw expositions, and changed dramatically my hair color.

now the trouble is:

how to put you guys up to date with all of this?

 

I'm foreseeing an intense blogging spree...

wich is also a good change of air, since I've been studying like crazy these last days (and still am) so, I guess these blogging sprees will be my coffee break from the horrors of spanish book's analisis, fonetics & morphology projects, and syntaxe tests...!

 

***

 

let us be as chronologically has we can, so... my valentines dinner with my dearest:

 

because we are poor translation students we often work out the best deals possible, and for our romantic dinner we bought a voucher especially for the occasion, wich allowed us to enjoy a really expensive dinner for about 12€ each, drinks not included.

 

 

we went to a quaint little restaurant that served the best portuguese delicacies and I just fell in love with place, the decor and dimmed lighting...

 

 

these were the starters:

boiled quail eggs, raw cod fish with chikpea, octopus salad, goat cheese in olive oil, dry-cured black boar ham, cow cheese slices, black olives, and bread from Alentejo (portuguese region)

 

kind of makes me proud of being portuguese when I look back at these delicious dishes.

at least we have good food.

carrying on...

 

 

 this was part of our main course:

pataniscas de bacalhau (deep fried battered cod fish), peixinhos da horta (deep fried battered bell peppers), sauteed mushrooms, and an assortment of farinheiras (potuguese smoked sausage) and choriços (portuguese pork sausage, fermented or grilled).

 

to more on these delicious foods, wikipedia has a fair to decent descriptions available.

 

 

 after that we went to my dearest's house where we had more wine, with ice cream and watched some horror movies.

the perfect romantic evening.

 

I know this is extremely late but...

happy valentines day to all the ghouls out here!

 

xoxo

 

 

have your Cake and Eat it

 *no dieting, Just exercise* 

this is not an easy post...

I feel I consumed so much time thinking about my weight and every little flaw in my body (or my head which is more likely) that for a period of time I was living my life more worried than really being living it.

even tho I felt happy looking into my reflection, a part of me was sad.

I convinced myself that, unfortunately, such sacrifice like passing up tasty carbons should be done in order for me to keep a slender figure.

but this could never last that long.

not for a person as myself that adores the simple pleasures of life;

food and drinks.

so, different measures had to be taken at once!

I decided to take a leap of faith and try to get back to my normal eating habits.

but with a different twist:

more exercise and more diversified.

and then suddenly I realised that, not only was I happier on my everyday routine but my night time binging was naturally cut down to almost 90% 

and the best thing about it is that I really saw a weight loss of 1 pound, maintained and actually got my curves firmer, and all I had to do was to be less sedentary.

you see,

the trouble with diets is that you are basically denying your body food that your brain perceives as a pleasurable activity, and therefore it is much harder to maintain control over cravings and to keep an overall high level of satisfaction.

people do see results when dieting and exercising, of course, the trouble is when people reach their weight goal and think "I believe I can afford myself to live/eat normally again!" and they fall into old eating habits, which will automatically result in a complete weight gain of the previous number and sometimes even more.

so you're in fact sabotaging yourself.

(unless you're able to diet for the rest of your life... but I don't think most people can do that)

the best thing to do is to have healthy eating habits, with allowance for salads and cheeseburgers, the trick is to have variety and teach your body to work out for longer periods of time and with as many different styles of exercise as possible.

your body will burn calories for hours and hours after the workout, and with more exercise your metabolism will get used to run on a faster mode.

 thus being able to consume more calories and burning more calories.

and that is it.

you can see for yourself my results :)

disclaimer:

I am not saying that everyone should give up on dieting, I'm just saying that for many people there's no real need to get so aggressive on calorie fighting. 

 

this Pains me so Sweetly

my life.

my food.

have you ever realised that the most happy moments of your life were spent in front of a plate...?

in hidden, small restaurants with dim lights and exotic aromas flowing and dancing from every food platter, grabbing to the walls, and mixing into a characteristic odor aged by years and years on those very walls.

my life.

the anticipation rising, with bubbly laughter inside, excited with the gift of foresight;

tall and slender glasses cradling deep purple and ruby red of the best wine your money can buy, the shared happiness between the couples sitting in corner tables, and you upon entering, almost as if it was an acknowledgment from a fellow club member, ready to join the delights of food loving nights.

my food.

the sweet, almost pillow talk, soft conversations while waiting for the starters, and hearing the bottle pop and drip the smell of oak bark and berries, sipping romantically, almost flirty like, the wine chosen by it's loved name, as a child expected. the surprised aww's when the starters come and the sheer delight of that first inhalation. the silvery fork introducing a brew of tastes and combinations of flavors.

my life.

the loud laughter that eludes our bewildered mouth, and escapes trough the fingers, bracing our blushed face. the shine on your partners eyes, partaking in your brief loss of composure, while every bite of creamy, deliciousness piece of heaven called food dances inside your mouth.

near the end... we are filled with the most virginal glow of happiness and contentment...

...and ready to face the world once again...

my food.

my life.

~Sara Corpsie

 

 I am medicating myself with food.

sometimes I can stop myself... other times I can't.

I gained about 2kg during the last month and I can see I'll have to take extreme measures to end this binging trip. the answer is simple:

have some self control.

xoxo