Terrence’s Blog

So, I’ll be posting on here what I eat for each meal throughout the day so that I can consciously keep track of what goes into my body.

I’m working out pretty intensely every day during the week, so I think the only thing holding me back is my diet.  I’m drastically changing that now.  So hopefully I’ll be seeing some more pronounced results soon.

So if you see updates regarding my meals, just ignore them or post a comment, either way.

Had a Burrito from El Taco Veloz.  Carne Esada.  A little spicy, but quite tasty!

(I also had 3 donuts today… grrr)

I just got back from one of the most relaxing and best weekends ever.

After work on Friday and RAN out of the office to beat traffic and meet up with Vu at his friend’s place where he’d be leaving his car for our journey to the mountains. I’m a fairly schedule oriented fella, so when his roommate and friends weren’t there on time and I was ready I was like, “well, let’s go they can meet us up there”. I didn’t want to waste any time.

So that’s exactly what happened, we left and they met us up there at 10pm (yeah I would have been so pissed had we left that late).

We got up there, relaxed, set a fire in the fireplace using a flint and steel, fluff from the drier, and some paper towels… oh yeah! I felt like McGuyver!

The cabin was really nice. 3 rooms, hot tub out back, covered and screened porch. Nice kitchen, jacuzzi tubs in each bathroom and a 2 person walk-in shower. All-in-all one of the nicests cabins I’ve stayed in.

So after a while we were getting hungry on Friday and decided we’d go into town because I was sick of waiting for his friends and I was hungry. Well, we went into Helen and to my amazement, it was this little German village. Very small, quaint and kind of fun looking. It was showing signs of its age though. And not like, this place has been here for a hundred years age, more like 1970s old Disney World age.

We kept trying to find parking… and EVERYTHING was pay… so we finally found a lot but it was a restaurant’s lot and it was really pricey!

So anyway, we left the village and proceeded north towards Cleveland. I stopped for gas just south of 368 (i think) and the lady in there told us about a buffet a few miles up the road. So I was like, it’s better than nothing. It was a West’s Family something or other.

You could tell this was the place where people go that live there on a Friday night. We were getting there about 8:30 and everything closes at 9pm, so it was all a little worse for wear, but still pretty good. It was SO expensive! It was 17 bucks per person and drinks. I was like… dear lord, we’re in the middle of nowhere country and it’s this expensive? I guess they can do that because they are the only shop in town.

So anywho, after gorging ourselves; I ate a good bit of fish (friend and not) and some mashed potatoes, and Vu ate 3 WHOLE fried catfish, with some mash and some popcorn shrimps. He didn’t blow up like a balloon so I’m guessing he’s not that allergic to shell fish… haha.

After we waddled back to the car after our feast we headed back to the cabin… in the dark! So, driving in the dark and rain in the mountains with no street lights… not easy!

As I headed down GA-78 looking for the GA-368 I saw it approaching and prepared to turn… and I was going WAY too fast to make the turn! I was pissed that I missed it and Vu did not let me forget it! haha So I had to drive like 3 more miles to find a turn around… and some guy was on my ass the whole way… I mean like 3 inches from my bumper. Not happy about that. But after a while, I turned around and headed to GA-368 and then turned down it… I made it this time.

So we winded our way back to the cabin, which was off road for part of the way… in my Ford Focus… haha!

Anywho, we made it fine and dandy and relaxed in from of the HDTV Dish Network and proceeded to build another fire… I think we like playing with fire.

After we had relaxed for about an hour, the girls finally showed up. INTO THE HOTTUB!!!

So, I didn’t wait for those slow pokes… I dressed and hopped in the hot tub… it was freezing outside and raining… but the porch was roofed and screened in… it was great. I shivered and then hopped in the hot tub. It was 101F and great! So I’m sitting in there steaming, but after about 15min I was hot. I stood up a bit to cool off in the breeze. We sat in the hot tub, then the girls and Vu hope in… well the hot tub had a bit too much water in it for that many people… so a water fall ensued! haha

We sat in there drinking and talking for a while until I got WAY too hot and decided my boiling time had been met. I hopped out and got changed into my night clothes. I got my camera and start taking some shots of the group. I never really understand people that want digital pictures on their camera… it’s all digital I’ll just give you copies of mine… from my WAY better camera… dumb!

Anyway… after taking a few shots we curled up and watched some videos on the TV.

One of the girls had their boyfriend drive out… I think he was drunk… not happy about that. Anyway, he showed up and and bummed around with us the next day in Helen.

Helen was ok… it is very small and I’d be hard pressed to justify paying as much as we did for things while we were there the next time we go. We ate lunch at a little german eatery… I had the weiner schnitzel with pasta and sweet red cabbage. The cabbage was MUCH too sweet for me. We shared a hot cider too. After that we walked around a bit, it was rainy and miserable, so we cut the day short, but I got to see the town and the river so I was happy. They have these nice little sweets shops, so those were fun.

We headed from town up to the Ingles in Cleveland, and there is a little winery on the way so I made a sharp turn into there to see what they had. They’ve got a great selection of some local wines. Their wines are quite sweet, so I wouldn’t recommend it to those who like their wine very dry. I think it was the Habersham Winery or something along those lines.

I bought so Peach Treat wine and then a Chalet. The Peach has a very distinct peach flavor.

We went back to the cabin, started a fire and then the girls decided to leave and go back to Atlanta, but come back later. That made NO sense to me, but it gave me and Vu some alone time. So we hopped into the hot tub with our wine/drink (he was doing ameretto sours) and we relaxed for about 30-60min. It was nice.

We got out and cooked dinner, we were going to wait for the girls (they said they’d be back in about 1.5 hours. So at 8 I was like, fuckit! I cooked us some steak, Vu managed the vegies. The steak was a bit tough, but it was the cut I got and we didn’t have a grill to make it all tasty! It was a really nice little dinner we had.

We watched TV and built another fire (I bought some long burning logs from Ingles… they are great!). We laid on the leather couches and relaxed for another couple of hours until the girls arrived. We then hopped back into the hot tub for another 30-45min. Drinks were had!

I got out a little early and headed for the TV and couch. We wound up watching Saw V. Gees… that franchise needs to die!

The next morning was breakfast and packing/cleaning. So I made an egg sandwich and ate in front of the TV while the rest of the crew didn’t do too much. Vu cooked for everyone else and they ate together… haha I was watching TV and didn’t feel like getting up, I had eaten already too.

So we cleaned and headed back to Helen for funnel cakes and ice cream. We poked around a bit, but then decided that’s really all there was to do and started our rainy journey back to Atlanta. I dropped Vu at his friend’s house to get his car and made a B-line for home.

And that’s my trip to Helen!

Ok, starting today I’m on a 50 pound challenge.

I’m going to do the following:

• Record what I eat for Lunch Every Day on this blog.
• Record My Workout Patterns
• Make Changes to My Plan as Necessary but only to allow me to reach my goal.

Milestones:

• Reaching the 20pound marker.
• Being able to do 3 sets of 30 pushups and sittups.
• Being able to run 2 miles without stopping.

That should be a good start.

This pasta is sooooo easy.

Take about two thumbs (bunches about the size of your thumb) worth of whole wheat pasta of choice.  I used the Kroger brand because I’m not that discerning, use whatever you like though.

A handful of bit sized carrots sliced length wise, a tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan, saute until just starting to brown.

Add artichoke hearts and halved whole kalamata olives.  They add a little zip I think.  Saute for about 2 minutes.

Add 6 tablespoon of your favorite Italian tomato sauce. (I had some vegan stuff I bought in the store and needed to use.)

Saute until some of the liquid evaporates and the sauce thicken quite a bit.

Throw paste in an toss.

Serve!

Takes about 10 minutes (the time to cook the pasta).