*In the past 8 months I’ve lost 20 lbs.

In the past month I have lost about 8 lbs by having a more structured eating/exercise plan.

For someone my height (5’2″), twenty pounds, is quite a bit and it really shows when you gain or lose that much.

When it comes to food, I have focused on consuming less than 20g of carbs each day during the week and on the weekends just eating whatever I want without binging and going overboard. I eat meat and a ton of vegetables. I am not doing Atkins. I’m just simply counting carbs as a way to keep myself in line. When I didn’t do this, I didn’t lose weight. Well I did but it was a very slow and not too surely process.

So the rule is: Monday-Friday, consume up to 20g of carbs everyday. Weekends, eat whatever I want!

Since this is a lifestyle change and not a diet, I have finally come to terms with the fact that my weight loss might not be a speedy as I initially hoped it would be.

I decided to not post photos of myself for another few months when I do a “Before and After” post. Instead I thought I’d post some delicious food pics instead.

Some things I like to eat during the week:

Al pastor with a side of fajita veggies at Los Gorditos

Trader Joe’s Applewood Smoked Bacon over a bed of mixed greens. Such a great, fast meal. For Produce I shop at New Seasons.

Peking duck of course. We get this is from Chen’s Good Taste Restaurant.

Tons of cured meats, lox and cheese with olive oil and pepper. For this kind of stuff, I shop at Trader Joe’s. Great value for a way smaller price than the Whole Foodesque stores anywhere.

For snacks during the week I tend to eat strawberries, 85% dark chocolate and yogurt (once in a while). Everyday though I do try to stay under those 20 grams of carbohydrates. It’s become pretty normal and my body is feeling great.

On the weekends I have more wiggle room and choose what I want to eat very carefully. Since I know I only have two days to eat what I want without feeling that it is being detrimental to my weight loss and general health, I make sure that what I eat is delicious.

Weekend foods:

Fish and chips at Year of the Fish

Sedona pizza (has bacon and arugula!) from Southwestern Pizza Company

Chicken and Waffle from Miss Kate’s Southern Kitchen

Salted caramel ice cream from Ruby Jewel. Patrick and I share.

Yep. Eating all of the above and losing weight consistently. The great part about this is that I don’t ever have cravings because I know to listen to my body and satisfy myself (don’t be gross) when I need it.

I also exercise 3-4 times a week by going to Barre3, going on long walks and doing aerobic workouts at home. Patrick and I are going to try and incorporate outdoorsy things into our routine.

So far, it’s all going great. Getting healthier and healthier, slowly but surely.

*The graph has a lot of dots. I do weigh myself everyday but only to track. If I wasn’t tracking my weight, I would only weigh myself once a week.

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Wow so much has happened that this year is just flying by! So far this year:

• We started planning our wedding after getting engaged over the holidays
• We both have started becoming healthier eaters
• We spontaneously moved out of Patrick’s tiny one bedroom apartment and into a three bedroom house which would be our home together
• Our families have met for the first time
• I have finally hit the 20 lb weight loss mark (YAY!)
• We have started settling into this home and are learning how to make it even cozier by taking up more DIY projects.
• Patrick has been kicking major ass at Star Craft 2!
• I’ve gotten serious about my health and have been exercising consistently at Barre3.

It’s been a major roller coaster ride but an exciting one. So much has been happening that it has been a little bit overwhelming.

There are still many more things we have to do and obstacles to overcome but we know that Patrick and I can get through anything together.

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We have received a couple of wedding gifts recently so we have started writing out our thank you cards. We are writing out each card as each gift arrives so we don’t get overwhelmed and also so that we don’t wait too long to send the thank you cards back.

I was actually going to wait until after the wedding to send the cards out because I wanted to include actual wedding ceremony or reception memories in the cards but according to some research I did last night, it’s better etiquette to send them right away. I think. I actually just skimmed the page but either way, I feel better about getting started on the thank you cards now and expressing our gratitude sooner than later.

Update: Well, apparently, we’re supposed to send them out after the wedding so we can thank them for coming to the wedding too. Oh well, I will still send out these first two cards now since I already wrote them. No sense in wasting them. Then they’ll get another card as a post-wedding thanks. Guess that’s a treat for them being early birds! From here on out, I will start on the thank you cards as the gifts arrive but send them out after the wedding. That does make a lot more sense.

Update 2 on April 21, 2012:

Back to original plan. Writing our cards as we receive the gifts. A good bridal expert friend of mine pointed out that it would be easier for everyone if we sent the cards as we got the gifts. It helps the guests know that their gifts have been received. That is a great point. Now back to writing cards!

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I scored a vintage, solid wood coffee table at the thrift store the other day. I’ve been obsessed with furniture restoration blogs lately and have been wanting to get into this hobby that I finally went out and bought my first piece of furniture to be restored.

I love all the detail and carvings on the top and the sides of the table. It was pretty dinged up on the top so it needed sanding.

I kind of like the decorative knobs but they’re pretty old. When I figure out what I will do to finish the project (whether to just stain and varnish or paint instead) I will know what kind of decorative knobs I need.

This was my first day of sanding. I used 50 grit to start. When I found out my local hardware store sold 30 grit sandpaper (a lot more course), I got that and made the sanding process much easier.

I look so weird. At least I wasn’t getting stuff in my eyes and respiratory system!

First layer done. Still have ways to go on that part (not to mention the sides and legs).

Will post an update soon I hope.

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Patrick and I are both trying to get healthier and in better shape so we’ve upped our protein intake and lowered our carbs but have remained with the same leafy green vegetable intake.

I am a huge fan of Trader Joe’s for their lox, cured Italian and Spanish meats and cheeses, mostly their mozzarella and brie). It also is easier on our wallets than some of the pricier grocery stores around.

Thick slices of mozzarella and lox with good olive oil and fresh ground pepper are always welcome in my tummy.

A plate of cured Italian meat (calabrese salame, prosciutto and capocollo) also with good olive oil and fresh ground pepper make for a quick and easy meal.

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I haven’t been around the past week because family (specifically my brother and aunt) visited from California. I had such a blast showing them around. And by showing them around I mean taking them to the best neighborhood eateries (they got a kick out of the many food carts we have), drinking lots of coffee and doing lots of vintage shopping!

My brother decided he liked the Southeast side of Portland (where we live) better than downtown because of it’s residential but still city vibe. My brother bought about five vintage suitcases to use as decor in his new apartment. Pat and I also scored some vintage wooden furniture so that was lovely. My aunt got herself some aprons and scarves and Pat and I had to say no to her getting one that had marijuana plants all over it. We didn’t even realize what they were until we looked closely. LOL.

They had less than a week here so I focused more on showing them what everyday life mostly like here for most of us. So I stuck closer to home because walking around is so convenient and we have so many amazing things to see here. Hopefully the next time they come, it will be less rainy and we can do something else more “touristy” like go to the Portland Art Museum or the Japanese tea garden but they definitely got their taste of authentic Portland. From the thousands of Suburus around the neighborhood to the homeless outside Powell’s to the hipsters at the pub to the hippies at the local grocery store, they now have seen what Portland is like.

Pat’s parents also drove down to meet my aunt and brother and we all bonded over Indian food. It was so nice to see our families talking and getting to know one another.  I am very excited to have our two families join together on our wedding day.

My aunt and brother just left a little while ago to head back home but I already miss them! Can’t wait to see them again.

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Patrick and I went to Powell’s book store in Downtown Portland. We wanted to look at travel books and get excited over possible honeymoon destinations.

While Patrick was looking at books on Goa…

I was looking at books on Thailand’s Beaches and Islands.

We’re both pretty excited about going to either place because of their beaches. We haven’t booked our tickets yet but those are the top two choices. We’ll see what happens!

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Wedding Invitations:

So yesterday while Patrick was at work, I took a break from cleaning and unpacking. We still have a long way to go.

The idea of “relaxing” to me was, obviously, focusing on something else that needed to be done but was more tedious. It’s hard for me to relax when I know there are things that need to be done.

Without hesitation, I pulled our invitations out of the closet and started stuffing and sealing envelopes. Within ten to fifteen minutes I was done. It was so nice to have that part taken care of. We also got a free personalized address stamp from Vistaprint so we are definitely going to cut our addressing time in half.

Speaking of which, I have yet to collect everyone’s addresses. I was browsing the net and found Postable. It’s pretty freakin cool! Instead of us individually collecting everyone’s address, each individual can input their own address into our online address book, which no one else has access to and is completely secure. Their addresses wouldn’t be used for any type of “mailing list” aka spam. Totally private. Totally secure. Totally convenient. I can’t wait to use it. Will probably send out a halfway there planning greeting card to our invitees to let them know how everything is going and to alert them to give us their address.

Other stuff:

We’ve been working on the wedding website a lot lately. The biggest thing we’re talking about in there is public transportation. Portland has really become one of those cities where it has become a bit more difficult to drive (at least in Downtown).

We have an appointment set up to meet with our reception DJs in a few weeks to go over music and finally sign the contract.

As for honeymoon stuff, we still have not figured out where we would like to go! It is a bit challenging because the world is massive and there is an excess of countries we’d like to travel to. So, we are going to go on a date to the bookstore and look at travel books and see what gets us excited. We will then factor weather, cost, and travel conditions into our decision on where we will go. We are very excited. Not too frustrating of a problem, not being able too decide

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This big fat mess and blank walls to boot. We finally cleaned out and turned in our keys to the old apartment a few days ago. Unfortunately, we’re only truly getting started now on unpacking most of our stuff. We haven’t even had time to think about finding art work to put on our walls. I can’t wait to hit up an art show.

Sleeping in the guest room on the mattress on the floor. Actually this part isn’t so bad. It’s knowing we still have to wait for the master bedroom to be ready.

The smell on our new memory foam king mattress on our newly assembled bed. It should take a few days until it’s increased to it’s full size and doesn’t smell so “new”. Yep, it smells like chemicals. We also have yet to shop for sheets.

Ugly window valances the old tenants left behind in almost every single room. I removed a few of them already. Quality of life shot way up.

What is keeping us sane:

The food carts close by. Here’s Patrick enjoying some pork tacos from Koi Fusion. Seriously, having a plethora of eateries within walking distance is quite the blessing.

Carbs when we have a lot of lifting and carrying to do. Don’t worry, we are trying to take care of ourselves and have plenty of protein and vegetables.

The increasing amount of cherry blossoms. They are on almost every block in our neighborhood.

And huge mugs of Cellar Door coffee!

We’re hoping to be finally unpacked and settled in properly by the end of the month. If I don’t blog for a while it’s probably because we’re swamped with stuff we have to take care of, including wedding planning.

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We have found our baker for the wedding, Pastrygirl, in Portland, Oregon.

To recap, we did two other tastings before Pastrygirl’s tasting. A pie tasting at Pie Spot and a cake tasting (which I explained I did not want over the phone but got anyway) at Sweet Pea.

After sugar high blogging about our tasting at Sweet Pea Baking Company, we realized that they are not a good fit for our wedding. On top of that, Lisa never sent us a price list for the desserts. But that doesn’t really matter since we kind of already knew we didn’t want to go with Sweet Pea not too long after our tasting.

As for Pie Spot, we really love them and the pies are great. But we realized that the delicious pie holes are a bit too big for what we think would be reasonable for a dessert bar. However, when we have a rehearsal dinner or wedding brunch, we will order pie holes from Pie Spot because we love them so much.

This is what we were looking for. And we found it at Pastrygirl. We found this bakery on Yelp and it has the highest reviews. We hadn’t heard of it before Yelp because we rarely venture out of our own neighborhood because there are so many eateries, coffee shops, bars and bakeries that there isn’t really a need to trek out.

I called and set up an appointment with her a couple of weeks back and tonight was finally our tasting. Laura, the owner/baker of Pastrygirl, was very sweet and kind. She had us try an array of pastries from cookies to brownies to cupcakes to “lemon syrup squares” (imagine lemon bars but not so sugary and a bit more firm and spongy so it doesn’t melt in the summer sun).

Patrick and I were both very impressed. There he is with a chocolate fudge cookie underneath the brownie. Get this, that brownie was *so* good but it was gluten-free! Imagine that. Side note: We decided to get the brownies as normal brownies and get anything gluten free from a 100% Gluten free bakery. We don’t want to risk any type of cross contamination with wheat for our loved ones who actually are deathly allergic to gluten.

I only make embarrassing faces when I’m trying to open a jar without a nonslip mat or if I am eating something very delicious. So obviously my taste buds were enamored (the hair was a result of the wind and rain). As I tried my fifth cookie I decided I wanted to work with Laura. Patrick felt the same way. Also, he and I both personally liked her a lot. She is a talented baker and is just so nice and professional. That was icing on the cake.

I probably ate a little bit too much because I felt a little queasy after. I couldn’t help it. It was just too delicious.

We can’t wait to have Pastrygirl treats at our wedding.

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