a peek inside the fishbowl

This morning I put on a pair of jeans that I haven’t worn for about a year. Not only did I find five bucks in the pocket (SCORE), but they actually fit. And by “fit” I mean that I didn’t have to lie down on the bed, suck in my gut, and fight to do up the button. They are perfectly wearable and I’m happy to have a new pair of pants to wear.

I first wrote about the FitBit back in February, and now that some time as gone but I thought it’d be useful to provide an update in regards to that post and my quest to reach 10,000 steps every day.

At the beginning of the new year I promised myself to use the treadmill for a minimum of 20 minutes every day, and, amazingly, I have. Some of you might remember the “treadmill before Facebook” requirement that I had to create for myself to meet this goal. (Basically Facebook is the carrot that I use to get myself on there every morning. ) Well, it’s been working.

I haven’t felt this good in a long time, and although I’ve changed a few things these past few months*, I like to think that my walking a minimum of 10,000 steps every day has been a contributing factor. I truly feel like a brand new person. Sometimes I find myself doing a jig, or walking a little faster, or bounding up the stairs, at which point I think: WHO AM I AND SINCE WHEN DO I RUN UP THE STAIRS?

I am no longer dragging my weary body around the house, or fighting to stay awake at 3:00 p.m. every day, or stuffing my face at that time because I feel like I won’t survive the day otherwise.

I have had no problems with my FitBit One. There was a recall on one of the FitBit bracelets because of reported skin rashes (they looked pretty awful from what I saw), but I often wear my FitBit next to my skin and have never had an issue. The battery life is extraordinary. It seems to last a couple of weeks, and it’s also quick to charge. I originally had reservations about losing the thing, but so far so good. I mostly keep it in my pocket. And here’s something interesting… when I started using it I felt really competitive with the people on my friend list, but beating their step counts has lost its lustre and is no longer a significant component of my FitBit use. The only person I truly compete with is myself. If I haven’t reached my daily 10,000 I find a way to get it done, whether it’s by hopping back on the treadmill for awhile before bedtime or just pacing around the house.

The FitBit has made me do some uncharacteristic kinds of things. The dog has been getting extra long walks, and I’ve been known to sneak downstairs to the treadmill when I have ten minutes to wait until dinner. I park far away from the school/work/grocery store just so I can squeeze in extra steps. I started taking the stairs at work instead of the elevator (although I think I deserve a badge for tackling the stairs in heels every time).

My other observation: I’m getting better at the treadmill. It sounds like an odd thing to say, because, duh, it’s like saying that I’m getting better at walking, but I feel more coordinated. It took a couple of months to get there but my balance is better, and I’m able to walk faster, and for longer. I’ve even started incorporating intervals into my treadmill time, and it feels pretty darn good, especially when I’m accompanied by my music.

*Other things I’ve been doing since January include the following:

• Taking a daily dose of vitamin D and B-complex
• Leaving my iPhone downstairs at night. I no longer sleep with it on my night stand and I think it has improved my quality of sleep.
• … and for the last few weeks I’ve drastically reduced the amount of sugar and bread I consume. I think this is a biggie.

I’d love to know if YOU have a FitBit or a pedometer, and how your experience has been with it. Care to share? I’d love to hear what works for you.

I was looking up a song that I’ve been listening to on repeat lately and found this video on YouTube that I wanted to share here:

Isn’t that sweet? We’ve done stop motion projects before (like this one) but I think I’d like to try something like this with the girls over the summer.

I had a bit of a culinary epiphany at the grocery store the other day. I was picking up some salsa when I spied a package of tostadas. For your reference, it looked like this:

They also came in jalapeno flavour (!) but I had to leave those behind. Tostadas are fried corn tortillas… essentially flat tacos which measure about 5″ across. They are crispy, salty goodness, basically, everything you’d want out of a taco but (a) it’s flat and (b) you don’t actually have to heat up the oven. This is key, and I suspect this will come in VERY handy in the summertime and for quick weekday meals.

For the dinner in question I browned some ground chicken (adding salsa near the end to spice it up), grated some old cheddar, and chopped up a bunch of other toppings such as tomato, red pepper, and lettuce (and of course extra salsa, sour cream, and hot peppers). The toppings were put out in bowls and everyone served themselves, topping their own tostadas like they were small crunchy pizzas. Success!

Leftovers made a lovely lunch for me the next day too, although I had to restrain myself from eating too many as chips. :)

Sadly I was missing avocado and coriander, which would have made this absolutely heavenly.

I’ve bookmarked a few tostada recipes for future consideration. (I can barely read these without my mouth watering.)

• Black bean tostadas with avocado salsa
• Breakfast tostada recipe
• Salsa verde chicken tostadas
• Grilled fish tostadas

Have you bought tostadas before? If so, what do you top them with?