The Productive Day & The Lazy Day

A post in 2 parts. The first was written Saturday afternoon. The second on Sunday evening.

Saturday:

When I awoke to find that the dog was feeling better (and that I didn't have to scrub the floor in the morning) the day seemed much brighter and better than the ones before it.

I was out and about by 9, trash and recycling to the dump, then to Homegoods for some frames and back home for breakfast by 10:30. I thought of skating, but it seemed to chilly and the house needs tending to. Hot dogs for lunch with cantaloupe and I'm trying make sure I drink plenty of water.

Now I'm working on a genealogy/art project and watching season 9 of BH90210 (with Hillary Swank, Kelly getting shot and then getting amnesia and who knows what else.)

Sunday:

A mostly lazy day. More of the genealogy project. Cleaned the kitchen. Did laundry. Cut grapefruit. But no exercise. No gym. Bah. Tomorrow I'll go after work. But I still need to blog even when I don't exercise.

The Endless Day

Well, not endless (because it's about to end with me going to bed at 8:45pm) but filled with 87 errands and non-ideal meal planning.

Breakfast was kashi and milk. Lunch was hummus and pita (forgot cantaloupe.) Then I rushed out of work after my last client to meet Stacey for a walk. We did a fast (and somewhat chilly) 60 minute walk by the ocean (and in my rush out the door in the morning I hadn't chosen ideal clothes but for once I wasn't boiling hot.)

Then after the walk I rushed home to get the dog to bring her to the vet. I swigged some milk and put some dry kashi in a zip loc bag to eat on the way down to the vet. Drove for 45 minutes to the vet (took a wrong turn and realized that I was driving into a prison) then at the vet for about an hour. After the vet had to stop at Trader Joe's for white rice and chicken for the dog. By that time it was 5:30 and I was hungry. I bought some string cheese and some pretzels and ate those on the way home. Stopped at the dry cleaners and the wine store (come on now) and finally back home. Then made rice and chicken for the dog (Trader Joe's doesn't have plain white rice, so she's getting basmati) and a little pizza for me.

I'll track my food in the morning but a quick glance makes me think I'm within my calories, although I could have used more veggies and probably more water.

Plan for the rest of the night: sleep sleep sleep. And not wake up at 4am. Please.

Plan for tomorrow: clean kitchen, gym, lift weights, read some of my new books.

The dog has already perked up which is good. Here she is among the crocuses last spring.

Good night!

Check Check Check!

Gym?: check! 42 minutes on the treadmill at 3.5-3.9 speed, elevation between 4 and 7 (if it had gone much higher I think I might have hit my head. I was under a low beam.) And I joined so now I have to go.

Calories within range?: check! So 2 days ago I was famished. Today, I'm totally full and have eaten 800 calories less than I did the day I was famished and couldn't stop eating. I guess my body is doing its own calorie cycling, and the week will average out to normal. I had kashi & milk for B. My homemade chile with a last bit of pulled pork and cantaloupe for lunch. Then dinner was: 2 hot dogs, 1 in a bun, hummus and pita and a pickle.

Freakish gained pound gone?: check! Actually 2 pounds are gone for a net loss of one. It's not so much the 1 pound, it's more that I want things to generally move in a downward direction.

Now I'm sleepy and want to lie on the couch and watch 90210 and maybe lift some weights. But there are evening chores to be done. Hopefully by 8 I'll be back on the couch, or on the floor lifting heavy things over my head.

No Snow

I felt like I ate nonstop today. I could not get full for the life of me. I had first breakfast (the weird barley plus) then had Kashi and milk about 2 hours later for second breakfast.

First lunch was hummus with pita. Second lunch was a cut up hot dog and cantaloupe. Somewhere in there I had pickles.

First dinner was more hummus and pita. Second dinner was the best meal of all: seared cabbage and seared bok choy. So so good. The recipe says its addicting and I fear it is.

The good thing was everything I ate was healthy. Fruits and veggies and fiber. The other good thing was that I was at home so I had way more options of what to eat (and there are no cookies at home, only at the office.) I think I need to incorporate more meat into my diet since that keeps me full longer. And maybe have more for breakfast?

And now I'm done eating for the day. I have given my body the fuel it needs. Whatever else it thinks it needs can be met with something other than food, since it's not actual hunger.

I'm packing up some workout clothes for tomorrow so I can go to the gym on the way home.

For Those of You Keeping Score At Home

I've gained a pound. Nice. I'm sure it's from my new quadricep muscles. Or my new triceps. Whatev. I'm joining the gym on Friday.

Breakfast: Barley Plus cereal. It tastes weird.

Lunch: chili and cantaloupe. Or hummus and pita.

Dinner: seared red cabbage and rib eye?

Exercise: shoveling snow.

It's going to snow today. And I'm out of bread and milk. So now I will be one of those people who is at the grocery store buying bread and milk before a storm. Classic.

Other fun things today: reviewing my budget v. actual numbers for January (hmm, I could also review my budget v. actual numbers on Sparkpeople...), billing some hours and drinking tea. Also, coming up with more exciting things to blog about.

I am not the Biggest Loser

It would have been easy to feel like a big loser today. My lunch of lentils, squash and collards just wasn't cutting it. I picked at it but didn't eat all of it. So of course when I came home I was too hungry and ate too much for dinner. It could have spiraled from there but thankfully there are no snacks (or bread or butter) in my house so my dessert was the rest of the grapefruit I had cut up. (BTW, red grapefruit is very sweet and tasty.) Then I pouted and wished for cookies and moved on.

The Biggest Loser is on Hulu tonight so I watched some of it while I cleaned my kitchen and the rest while I lifted my hand weights, stretched and did my sit ups.

I need to be getting more aerobic activity. I hate walking at night in the dark and cold. I am walking or snow shoeing on Friday, but I need something during the week that I'll actually do. I think this means I'll be joining the gym that is located in between work and home. 30 minutes on the treadmill will be good, and if I can get over being creeped out by weight machines that other people have sweated on (even if they clean them off) I will use those too, otherwise I'll keep up with my weights at home. But, something must be done.

Now it's tea and quiet time.

These Are The Days

These are the days I'm glad to come home to a fridge full of prepped food. I'm feeling impecunious and tired of running a business and that is what often leads to "if I have sushi, I'll feel better." Well, that may be true. But what also makes me feel better is not using food as a coping technique, allowing myself to feel crappy while still acting in a way that leads me towards what I value, and healthy things like that.

So I put on my cooking head-scarf and apron. I chop the leeks & zucchini, I thaw the shrimp, I boil the water for the pappardelle and then I'll mix it all together in a happy blend of pink and green. And I have some wine. And I track it in Sparkpeople and blog about it.

It's cold and I want tea. And warmth.

I Can Hear Birds

The last 2 mornings there have been birds chirping outside. A very nice sound, heralding spring.

I woke up with aching quadriceps this morning from the elliptical. All 7 minutes of it. But that was the only muscle that hurt, strangely.

I had eggs for breakfast and some grapefruit and milk. (435)

Lunch is packed: chili, a little pulled pork, collards. Cantaloupe. (450)

Dinner: Lentils, collards and squash?

Off to work!

Pork and Beans

My legs are beginning to catch on the fact that they worked today. I am also figuring out that treadmilling for 30 minutes straight at the same speed (and varying inclines) is a more intense (although shorter) workout than when I hike. I'm never just plowing up the mountain non-stop when I hike. I trod, trudge, meander perhaps and definitely get more of an arm workout with my poles, but aerobically today's workout was quite good for my lungs.

I got my cantaloupe and grapefruit cut for the week. And made some Chile con Elote from The New Laurel's Kitchen. Basically it's an onion & garlic sauteed with 1+ tsp. of chili powder, 1 tsp. cumin then add 1 cup diced tomato, 1 cup corn, 1 chopped pepper, 2 cups mashed black/pinto/kidney beans and 2 cups whole beans. 1.5 tsp salt. Simmer for 30 minutes. So sweet and spicy and yummy. And it can be made with cans of everything - corn, beans, tomato. Perfect for a speedy healthy meal.

I had a little of that with some pulled pork. And some of the spicy cabbage coleslaw from last week. Lots of spice and a little crunch.

Now to clean up the kitchen for what feels like the 7th time today. Then I will clean and chop the greens while I watch some 90210 that came from Netflix. Yes, cheesy tv keeps me entertained in the kitchen.

(And if my former blogging buddy is reading this, consider this a little nudge to start the blog anew, perhaps to record your training for the 3-day and keep me company in the big blogosphere and on the treadmills and sidewalks.)

I Went To the Gym And It Did Not Suck

I decided to experiment with indoor exercise today at the local "fitness room." It can't really be called a gym since it's just a small room in a basement with weight machines, treadmills, and some horrible elliptical thing (which I barely lasted 7 minutes on). I did not fancy spending time getting all dressed in a million layers to brave the 23 degree weather and then getting boiling hot 10 minutes into the walk and spending the next half hour alternately putting on and taking off clothes so I figured I'd see what working out indoors was like.

I asked if I could buy a day-pass, but they don't have those so they let me use it for free to try it out. The treadmills were full so I tried the elliptical. First I think I was going backwards which confused me and felt weird. Then we I went forward I didn't like the motion or the weird way my feet felt on the pads so I was thankful when a treadmill opened up. The treadmill was as it should be, 4 miles an hour with varying inclines. 30 minutes later I was sufficiently sweaty and my lungs knew something had gone on.

For some reason the last couple of days found me consuming sugar in vast quantities. Like a heroin addict going through withdrawal. It seems to have worked itself out and I'm back to the old favorites of squash, kale and lentils. But it's also important to support your local cupcake store.

Breakfast was eggs on toast and coffee.

Lunch is pulled pork (I made it again and added honey to the final sauce. And instead of just plain water I used water, white wine and apple cider vinegar. Yum.), roasted butternut squash and baby lentils.

I have a bunch of kale and collards to wash and prep, 2 grapefruit to chop and some baby bok choy to make into something. And one last cupcake to eat to get it out of the house....

WTF Wednesday

Breakfast: eggs on english muffin.

Lunch: lentils and kale. Much tastier than it sounds. And grapefruit. And some of the cole slaw last night. Very crispy and spicy.

Dinner: Whole Foods Mediterranian Platter at the meeting I'm going to. Yum. Hummus. Baba ganoush, roasted veggies, pita.

Slightly annoyed with technology issues at work. Very pleased with my new bra. I'd call that a wash.

I didnt' do yoga last night. I watched the biggest loser while I cleaned my kitchen and made lunch for the next day and then did about 30 minutes of hand weights, sit ups and stretching.

Mid-Week BBQ

Tonight's dinner: pulled pork that I made over the weekend (200 cal for 3 oz.), on a Vermont Bread Potato Roll (180) with some coleslaw from Veganomicon (cabbage, carrots, pickled jalepeno, a little apple cidar vinegar and salt and pepper) (20 calories?) and some wine. I put the roll in the pan with the pork while it slowly heated and it was quite lovely.

It's a mid week BBQ. And fast. And healthy. It seems like if I had some baked beans that would go really well. I thought that once upon a time I owned a bean pot, but I think on one of my decluttering sprees I got rid of it, sure I would never make baked beans. Hrmph.

I got fitted for and bought 3 amazing new bras today. Yes, amazing, life changing bras. At Bloom, for my local peeps who want to know where to go.

I plan a walk tonight. Even though it is already 7pm. And 23 degrees. Or maybe not after seeing that temp... I commit to washing all the dinner dishes, prepping my lunch and coffee, and doing 30 minutes of yoga before bed. But first I'm going to watch House.

Tuesday Morning

I watched the Biggest Loser last night. I don't have a TV so I'm limited to what is on hulu and that was on. It seems like the most wrong show on the planet. How is it healthy for someone who has never exercised in their life to ride a bike 26 miles? How is it healthy to lose 30 pounds or 6% of your weight in a week? That would be like me losing 10 pounds in a week. Sweet, in 3 weeks I'll be done! I just need to bike until I puke, take some laxatives and diuretics and then tie a semi-truck tire around my waist and drag it across a foot ball field.

Anyway, it entertained/disturbed me while I cooked and cleaned my kitchen. I made French lentils (the tiny green ones) with a rose and spice seasoning, couscous and some more kale. And roasted another butternut squash. I love all those nutritionally dense winter veggies to get us through this dark time before the tiny greens of spring renew us.

And as a reminder to myself, here's the link to the Calorie Cycling calculator.

Monday 1636

Tuesday 1416

Wednesday 1964

Thursday 1636

Friday 1473

Saturday 1800

Sunday 1636

In Which I Discover That I Love Butternut Squash

I've had 2 small butternut squash sitting on my counter for about 3 months. I bought them at the organic farm near my house thinking "Ah, yes, squash. The perfect vegetable to get me through the winter." The hearty souls, they just sat there patiently waiting for me. Because really I was thinking "ew, gross. squash. mealy. stringy. gaggy."

Then I had some butternut squash someone else made. Small cubes. Roasted. Yum. So I cut up those little squash, dice-sized cubes, drizzled with a little olive oil and roasted on 450* until they were nice and caramelized.

I cannot believe I spent so many years not eating this! I mixed it this evening with my some collards & kale that I'd chopped and sauteed with red onion & jalapeno, and some red lentils with garam masala and ate it with some pita. So colorful and perfumey and delicious.

And I figured I'd try tracking in Sparkpeople again and it was so amazingly healthy.

Breakfast: english muffin with peanut butter and milk.

Lunch: Annies mac & cheese, kale, butternut squash.

Dinner: lentils, kale, squash, wine.

I will commit to at least 20 minutes of walking tonight. And I may have had dinner early enough to do some yoga later. And I will bring my ice skates to work tomorrow and go for a spin around the rink after work.

--

Edited to add: I walked for 40 minutes. A flashlight (which doubles as a hand weight) and a pod cast

make quick work of a walk.