How to plan a plan or why

after four days of planning to plan my training plan I still have no plan?

Seriously, I had this point of planning my training ("a plan that I will stick to" does something like this even exist in this universe of the multiverse?) on my tasklist for four days now. And while I finally do some strength drills again (yes, I stopped. Again...), I still haven't sat down to write down a training plan that I will stick to (or not).

I mean seriously I have some high goals (Ironman Hawaii, remember?), yet I don't get my b... moving. Instead I ate tons of chocolate, over the day, not in the evening, so the thing my doc did works well. Unfortunately I said nothing about no sweets for the whole day. Whoops.

Maybe I'm just in a phase of high self-sabotage?! Could be true.

So here I'm standing more or less on the same spot I started last year. Well, if that isn't an accomplishment. Yada, yada, yada.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD! (ahhaaa, as if I would!)

Taste Bud Adventures - Espresso

Over the last few months I had nearly no motivation to try anything new foodwise, which changed luckily a few weeks ago.
This week is a peak with lots of new tastes, like: Starbucks Chocolate Mocha, Bulgogi and Kimchi (Korean food on my birthday, yummy) and a newly made up pasta dish with soba noodles and salmon. So far I really like this week. ;-)

Anyway, a few weeks back I decided that it's time to try something new and this was the Espresso. I never drank coffee and still don't like it. However I thought that its time for some experimental stuff.

(I took those pictures.)

HOMEMADE ESPRESSO
It was the week of the car manufacturer interview. I spend the weekend with a very good friend in the Black Forest and when I told her, that I wanted to drink Espresso for the very first time, she got really excited and offered me that we drink some together, freshly made with her stove espresso maker. She bought Lavazza Rossa for this little adventure, since she hadn't been drinking espresso for a while and therefore no espresso at home.
When we got back from our trip to Basel (Switzerland) it was 10 PM and we had a small but very tasty dinner, with chicken on salad and fresh figs for dessert. Afterwards we really commemorated my first cup of espresso. The special part: We used the Starbucks espresso cups that I had just bought her as a gift in Basel. (Since we always go more than once to Starbucks, when we spend the day together in Basel. They come without the saucers.)


As you can see in the picture, it doesn't have a crema. The scent resembled interestingly enough not the fragrance of the powder, which is something that surprised me. When you make tea, the scent doesn't change this much.
The taste: "bitter". It was the first thing I thought, when I sipped it. The next thing I registered was that it only tasted on the tongue front and middle, not on the sides. It was also quite tart.
After a few small sips I added some sugar, but it didn't make it any better for me.

However, I slept quite well after this late coffee, when I went to bed at 4 AM (we had talked till 3 AM). Good thing next day was Sunday. ;-)

STARBUCKS ESPRESSO
A week later I decided to try an Espresso at Starbucks. I ordered a single shot of Espresso. It had a crema. The scent was different from the one I had at my friends apartment, but I can't say something like: "Well, I could smell that this was a variety from Colombia, from a region with a mild climate and the farmer had tarragon and blueberries planted too and drives a red Camry, the soil there is definitely rich with quartz and kryptonite." Or whatever a coffee afficionado would say. It smelled different, not better or worse just different.
The taste: "Ugh, I don't like coffee". Interestingly I tasted Starbucks coffee more on the sides of my tongue, though I can't really describe it. Adding sugar made the taste worse for me.

CONCLUSION
I don't like Espresso!
Neither homemade or Starbucks and I won't try any other varieties in the next few months, since it's a waste of money for me. I like tea, just now I'm trinking organic applemint tea and it tastes fantastic.


Have a great weekend and don't forget to

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

And the knee goes on...

Okay, glad that AZ will keep the skirt lessons in mind. ;-) Funnily enough I saw a lot of girls in the city with even shorter skirts and dresses the next day. Maybe it's just getting used too. Still waiting for the companies decision. I just hope that if there's a no, they don't give it to me tomorrow, this would totally ruin my birthday mood.


Anyway. Friday I went to my Doc again. Concerning the knee I get one more round of physiotherapy in the hope, that if all my muscles and ligaments are free, my knee get's back to normal. Until then it's bike and swim. I also got some stuff to help my connective tissue to get rid of the toxins it harbors and get the lymph flowing, which might lead to less inflammation and therefore a better knee, too.

And we got rid of my bad evening and night eating habits including my preference of sweets, wohoo. It seems to work, though it takes some getting used to on my mind/habits. I strolled out Saturday night, took a good look on the fridge and the kitchen cabinet with the cookies, but I didn't like anything and went back to sleep, which is new. Somehow Eliot (my dragon, that lazy a**) seemed to think on the weekend: "Ooouuuhh, no more eating in the evening? We need to compensate!" Which lead to stuffing myself over the day. Ts,ts,ts.

Hopefully the new way of eating is thoroughly implemented now and I'll finally get rid of the excess fat. It worked well with the nosespray (4 Months already, Wohoo.) so it will work with sugar in the evening, too.

Chris and I went for our usual round, but on Saturday and went by bike to some art exhibitions yesterday. Very sporty weekend. Even though I slept a great deal. Sleeping in the warm sunshine is pure luxury for me. I even did it on a beach on Big Island Hawaii. Pure bliss.


Okay, got some stuff to organize and look up some new job offers and apply.

Have a great new week everyone.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Maybe too short

Okay, so yesterday I learned quite a few things about wearing skirts.

#1 If the skirt is long enough when you stand, this does not necessarily mean it is long enough when you sit! Oy veh, did I feel uncormfortable when I sat down.

#2 Tights and velcro don't go well together. My wonderful and expensive Burlington might be ruined without being worn at all.

#3 Burlington is much more comfortable to wear than Falke 40DEN.


#4 Kunert 80DEN is much more comfortable to wear than Falke 40DEN.

#5 Having a unique style and wearing a skirt gets you noticed. In a good way!

#6 A skirt has to sit snuggly to keep you warm. I often felt like I was wearing only tights yesterday, totally weird. Mom said, I just wasn't used to wearing skirts.

#7 I need more tights and skirts (preferably tighter and longer). Good thing that next week is my birthday, I already told my mom that it's time for a shopping tour. Work dress or skirt, several tights and a trenchcoat are calling to be MIIINNNNNEEEE.

On the job, it's in communications of a huge company. But the companies HR works really well and the team seems to be really nice. The job is interesting too. Keeping my fingers crossed, that this works out.

Have a great day.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

New "Gimme-that-job-outfit"

Except for make up, lingerie and red gloves, this is my new "I'm the right one for this job" outfit.

Tomorrow I have my next interview.

Keep Moving Forward!

Readjusting the second

Since I have another interview next week and I want to look gorgeous, I've decided to make today and maybe tomorrow (depending on how I feel after today) detox days. I use Mireille Guilianos "Magical Leek Soup", which consists of nothing more than leeks and water. Now, I really like leeks so this should turn out well. (At least I hope so, there were some horror stories on the frenchwomendontgetfat.com forum.)

Except for the detoxing, it's also said to clean up the taste, free it from the processed food cravings. Since I have adopted some eating habits that are really bothering me and my food snob self, I think it's high time to do this cleaning. No more eating a quarter chocolate streusel cake for lunch! (Yep, did that one or two weeks ago! So sad.)

And since a clean body enjoys a clean room, I will also do another room cleaning including getting rid of some unnecessary stuff. There are still some boxes with clothes I want to look through. And then there is the huge heap of stuff on my wardrobe that needs sorting. I would've thought, that after one year of sorting out I would finally be done with it, but no, still way too much stuff clogging up my energy flow and my room. (No wonder I don't own a car, I sank all my money in "unnecessary" stuff. ouwww.)

But the getting rid of old stuff seems to help with getting rid of my bodyfat too. I had a nice surprise when I stepped on my scale this morning (to see if the claims of Mireille hold true for this too and not only for chocolate ;-). Since my worst times in January or February this year, when I weighed 66,6 kg I got rid of 4,9 kg, my scale showed 61,7 kg (roughly 10 pounds are gone). I wasn't this "light" in years.
My 33 birthday is in 12 days. It would be a fantastic birthday present to myself when I'd be under 60 kg by then, 59,9 kg is perfectly fine with me! But no pressure. ;-P

I'll keep you posted how the detox goes. And I have two new Taste Bud Adventures in the pipeline, which I'll post as soon as I get to it. (Hahah, no more promises for blogposts on a certain time, I've learned my lesson.)

This is a pic I took on one of Chris and mine Sunday bike tours.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Readjusting

Okay, so for the last two days I've pondered the question: "For what kind of jobs do I want to apply?" Again.

The trouble is that I've heard time and again that I'm "too creative" for the job, go figure. This happened 10 years ago when I worked in real estate management (pure boredom, my personal nightmare). This happened again last year in my job. This happened in April when I had an interview at an advertising agency(!), where I applied for a job that fits my occupation (engineer). This happened again last Friday during the interview at a German car manufacturer. Hell, the interviewer even offered me the contact details for ad agencies who might need someone like me! And when I think about it there were a few more interviews, where they hinted that I might be too creative for this kind of job.

This is freaking me out. I mean, there I was always thinking that the German economy needs creative engineers to keep our little head start we have against China and India. But it seems I was wrong! No job contract for this creative engineer. So China and India, you don't need to spy on us, the german HR departments make sure we kick ourselves out of the competition. Just wait a few more years, dwindling birth rates, old world thinking and the famous German Angst will eliminate us.

So what am I doing now? Well, I readjust my search parameters. From today on I also apply for jobs as a writer at advertising agencies. I'll take whatever job I think is most interesting, pays enough that I can live well. I will continue applying for engineering jobs. But I won't limit myself to it anymore.

And I get a new application picture taken. I'm currently getting the stuff together, I already have the red satin gloves (who would've thought that it's that hard to get gloves in this city? The sales clerk said they were leftovers from carnival. No sense of style this woman.), next is the black bow tie (40€ ouch, but I want one that I tie myself, the pre-tied ones lack style.), the earrings (Pearls or diamonds? That's the question. At the moment I lean toward pearls, though I'd have to buy them too.) and the appointments (Photographer and make-up artist, I simply can't apply the needed Sixties eye make up myself. Well I could, but it's supposed to be a close up portrait, so I need a perfect make-up, otherwise the pic would be ruined.). And yes, I'll show you, as soon as it's taken.
Loni, a friend of mine with whom I discussed this whole job matter yesterday evening, just said: "Cool idea, but you won't ever get an engineering job with that kind of picture! It's way too creative." Whoops.

And to state the fact that I'm creative, again, a shot from my new "Leipzig at Night" series for you.

Leipzigs "Uniriese" (MDR Skyscraper - officially) at night. It took me a few times to get it right (I wasn't used to use a tripod and long exposure, but from the third shot on I knew how to do it properly.), but here you go.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!