Perfect No Frills Tuna Salad

My step-dad devised this recipe for tuna salad. This is great if you want a protein-packed nutritious food. Of course it can be eaten on a sandwich (he likes it on toast) but I prefer it on multigrain saltine crackers.

Ingredients:

1 12 oz can chunk white tuna in water
1 12 oz can light chunk tuna in water
approx. 1/2 cup mayo
approx. 1/2 cup diced yellow onion

1. Open tuna cans and drain out all the water. Fend off suddenly very interested cats.

2. Empty both tuna cans into a large bowl. Break up chunks with fork. Optional: place cans on floor for aforementioned cats to lick clean before recycling.

3. Begin adding mayo about a tablespoon at a time, stirring & mashing the mixture as you go. The mayo is subjective. We like to use as little as possible to get a good texture without it being too mushy.

4. Once the tuna and mayo is at a texture you like, add onion. I use the pre-diced stuff because I hate cutting onions. This is also a great time to use up any left over onion you might have in the fridge from recipes you made earlier in the week. I just kind of eyeball it. Mix in the onion.

Voila! No salt or pepper necessary, and no silly celeries or anything chopped in there. You're welcome to add those if you're into that sort of thing (eww). For example, when I use this to make a sandwich for my boyfriend, I add a few spoonfuls of relish to the mixture. This recipe makes enough for me to have several lunches, and has very few calories depending on how much mayo you put in.

Gross Food

I think everyone has foods that completely turn their stomach, make them gag, etc. I know I do. And I feel VERY strongly about them. I always joke with people though that someday when I'm having pregnancy cravings I will probably crave these foods and that's how I'll know I'm pregnant, hahahaha. So here's my gross foods list. What's on yours? These kinds of things fascinate me, because it's so weird how one person can love a food and another person hates it. For example, my boyfriend will eat every single thing on my list with no complaints. (But he's crazy, so...)

Macaroni Salad
Sour Cream (this is my #1 gross food. I cannot handle it. I just. Can't. Even the thought makes me want to dry heave.)
Mayonnaise
Sourkraut
Peas
Watermelon
Creamed Spinach
Raspberries
Ripe Bananas (I love bananas, but only when they're still slightly green / JUST barely yellow)
Cooked Carrots (unless they're in a soup and just taste like whatever the soup is lol)
Cooked Tomatoes (like large chunks of them in a sauce or a soup? heck no. I skip 'em.)

Also... weird quirk, warm fruit. Gross. So the whole warm apple pie thing? No thanks. Cold pie please.

Workout Routine

I am by no means any kind of fitness expert, but my workouts have left me feeling pretty good. I have no idea if I've lost any weight or anything, as that's not my focus right now. I am trying to build lean muscle mass because the more muscle mass you have, the more fat your body can burn. Magic. Anywho, here's what I've been doing on my trips to the gym lately. What have you been doing?

Warm-Up: 15 minutes or so on treadmill, walking at a steady pace (about 2.5 or 3 on the treadmill settings) with an incline of 3 to 3.5.

For my purposes, a set is 15 reps. On the various machines 24-hour fitness has to offer, I do these exercises usually on weight level 3, which is about 15 - 20 pounds, I think. I don't get every thing in to every workout, but this is a loose plan.

Abs
2 or 3 sets of crunches
4 sets of side crunches (2 on each side, for a total of 4 sets)

Legs
2 or 3 sets of inner thigh machine
2 or 3 sets of outer thigh machine
2 sets on the leg press
Sometimes depending on what machines are available, I'll do a set or 2 on the quad extension machine or the calf extension machine instead of that 3rd set of thigh machine reps.

Arms
2 sets of pectoral fly
2 sets bicep curl (or sometimes I'll do these with a resistence band if the machine's not available)
2 sets of the deltoid machine (no clue what it's called, but it makes you flap your arms like a chicken haha so we just call it the flappy machine)
2 or 3 sets of tricep extension (I hate my upper arms!)

So that's pretty much what I've been doing. I try to get to the gym at least 3 times a week to do this. Sometimes if I'm not feeling good I will just walk on the treadmill for an hour, but I always vary the incline as I'm walking. For me, I find it more effective to walk on an incline than to run. It's lower impact and it still gets my heart rate pumping.

Maybe I AM An Introvert

I've always thought of myself as a very extroverted person. I'm friendly, talkative, social, all of those things that they say extroverts are.

But I also really value my alone time. I kind of like being in my head. It's a nice place and nobody judges me there. Sometimes I like taking a little hiatus from life, being alone, and not answering phone calls or emails within minutes of receiving them like I normally do. I just briefly lose interest in interacting with my surroundings. Sometimes it lasts for a few hours, other times for a few days. I write better when I'm in one of these moods.

Does that ever happen to you?

I also don't really care for parties. Being around large groups of people is often not something I find appealing. I much prefer hanging out with one or two people to a large group. But with those few, I am open, animated, and engaging.

I have a full face of makeup on today. And very little desire to go anywhere with it. Even places that I would normally find very appealing, like the mall. Hooray for online shopping.

New Stuff

What is it that makes us wake up and decide we need new ________ ?

I've been on the hunt for a new eyeliner brush for a good week now, despite owning tons of brushes. But no, I don't own one like that and I need one.

What makes us decide...I need new jeans. I mean. Really. How many of us buy one or two pairs and then wear them until they fall apart and thus create a real 'need' for new jeans?

But sometimes we just decide... I need new jeans/eyeliner brush/shoes/purse/earrings etc. whatever it is.

I don't know where I'm really going with this one. I just find it funny. If I don't get the new thing I have decided I need, I hunt for it. Thought of it consumes me. For a few days. Then it's just gone because I need something else. Weird, I know.

Job Listings Astound Me

Aside from the obvious listings where companies want people who are REALLY overqualified for absurdly low wages (I was recently interviewed for a managerial position that started at minimum wage for 30 days and then offered the possibility of $13-16/hour based on performance. Manager. Wow. No.) another thing I've seen lately demonstrates such a lack of understanding of social media, and even marketing in general. What I'm talking about is job listings that require a candidate to have a large following on Twitter or lots of friends on Facebook. 


Um, what does how many personal friends and family I am connected to on Facebook have to do with the people I'd be marketing your products to? Running a corporate Facebook account is not as simple as just spamming the crap out of friends and family you are already connected to. I would imagine a lot of my friends and family would very soon remove me from their contact lists if I started to do that. Just because I do social media doesn't mean my Facebook and Twitter accounts are made up with Joe Anyone I can just spam crap to. Give. Me. A BREAK. 


I have Facebook for the same reason any other Joe has Facebook. To keep in touch with people and kill time. When I am managing a corporate Facebook account for a client, I target specific people to become fans. People who oh, I don't know, fit the target demographic? Your product's target demographic is PROBABLY not "oh just anyone our marketing person happens to be friends with". Get real!


I also don't like the notion that just because someone has tons of friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter means that they're some great social media guru. Quality over quantity, people. I'd take a smaller amount of followers who actually engage with me and interact over a gazillion people (most of whom are probably just trying to spam you in the first place) who are following me just to follow me (probably in hopes I'll follow them back so they can spam me with their RSS feeds).

CA Kinda Sucks

The other day I applied for a job only to find out minutes later it's to a company I've already interviewed with. 4 times. Awkward! How does this happen? They're hiring for lots of positions, all of which I'm qualified for (some of which I'm even overqualified for), and being somewhat desperate to get back in the workforce, I apply to all of them. I've had interviews and second interviews for 2 different positions. Sheesh. Maybe I'll get a couple more interviews and yet again be thought of as a great candidate but apparently not great enough. :| What, me bitter?

The jobs/company in question are in Austin, TX. I am in CA. I understand that companies nowadays do not have the funds to provide relo assistance, but now it seems none of them are even willing to talk to you if you aren't already local. Some job listings even specify a certain mile radius in which you must live. I understand where they're coming from, but at the same time how is anyone supposed to MOVE anymore? 

I would like to move outside of CA (ironic since I just started OC Beauty, a blog about local businesses in Orange County) because the only thing higher than our freaking sales tax is our unemployment percentage. The cost of living is nuts here and I want out. I'm young; I'm only 24. But I want to start a family within the next few years. In CA with things how they are right now, I don't foresee my boyfriend and I being able to get married, own a home (yeah right!) and generally be as stable as I'd like to be before starting a family. Not to mention that I'm uninsured, and the medical costs of having a child are enormous even in a pregnancy that goes well. Living here in CA most of our incomes (if we had any!) would be eaten up by rent, leaving little room for saving.

I don't even like having to think about this stuff. Again, I'm twenty-freaking-four years old. And I'm already thinking about this stuff? But if I don't, no one else will, and it's my future here. UGH.