VICTORY!

Yesterday was the 1-year anniversary of a co-worker's tenure at work and we went to a Vietnamese restaurant. Yep. A Vietnamese restaurant. Vietnamese food, where there's an entire category of entrees with the name caramel. Guess what? I ate smartly and my blood sugar stayed within range. Admittedly this was a gringo style Vietnamese place but it was great to have options and the food there was awesome. This is what we ordered:

Watercress salad with beef (tricky because there's usually quite a bit of sugar in Vietnamese sauces)
Sauteed pea shoots (SOOO tasty and SOOO good for me)
Salt and pepper squid (calamari so remember to calculate the breading)
Curry chicken
And of course, rice

You know what I'm finding out? Rice is my friend. Even white rice. Why? Easy to portion out and eyeball how much. All in all it was a nicely balanced meal and way satisfying. I didn't even have my afternoon snack because I was so full.

The other victories for the month is that the running is getting way easier. I've upped my the amount of running from 3.1 miles per run to 4.5 miles per run with a weekly long run for 6 miles. It's definitely hard to do a long run on a treadmill at the gym because people start giving you the stink eye. I've limited my long to run Saturday mornings where the gym is empty.

The other thing I'd recommend, especially for women is dancing. Last month, J and I went with our friend West Coast Rebecca to see her neighbor do flamenco dance. This neighbor is normally a research chemist and looks like Mary Alice from Ace of Cakes. But not on that night where we wore swishy dresses, had her hair slicked back and dramatic makeup. She was incredible. It's great to claim your space as a person and make it all about you. and really, it was all about her. When she would do the group numbers, I would look at a couple of her classmates and feel sorry for them because they didn't have her hips and bust.

This inspired me to go to a zumba exercise class at the gym. This was an aerobics class that incorporated Latin dance moves. For many parts of the class I looked like a fool but when I kept up, it was so much fun. I say this to you all, dance. Even if it's in your own house cleaning up. It gets your blood going but more importantly, it helps you say, I'm HERE.