Rallying, Sort of

I woke up at 4:30am, on account of the birds, and thought about all the places I could go if I got up and drove - New Hampshire, breakfast on Cape Cod, etc. But then I realized I could also go back to sleep and rest my body, which is what I did. Until 9:30am.

I thought about riding my bike to World's End but the air is smokey and my lungs were a bit hackey this morning so I didn't. I did clean the kitchen and am boiling some golden beets and eating almost an entire head of steamed cauliflower with Bragg's amino acids on it.

I did not eat enough vegetables this week (unless pesto counts), which may be what led to my getting sick. I need to get back to having them as the base of my diet. Which means buying them. And preparing them so they are easy to grab and eat.

Also, even though I said I wasn't weighing myself, I have. I still haven't dropped a pound. I'm still right around 180 (never below.) And I'm realizing that even though this doesn't matter in yoga class, it might matter when I hike I think. I'm not going back to tracking my food and counting calories, as nothing changed then either, but I will just be conscious of the fact that these hikes will be different because I weigh more. But they will also be different because I am stronger. And older. So, who knows...

For now, I'm going to lie in the sun and read.

Lunch!

Last night's frittata, brown rice and beets.

Coucous, Veggies & Fish

That's what I ate over the summer when I lost the 15 pounds. And I biked a lot. And did more yoga. Shouldn't be that hard to do again. I like couscous and veggies and fish. Yes, the winter vegetables are different but leeks and cabbage are lovely foods, and broccoli and kale are available, and all the lovely peppers I froze over the summer.

And, sure, it's too cold for biking and it's dark in the mornings and early in the afternoons but there are other options - walking in places where there are lights and not just in the woods, taking advantage of day light on the weekends, being ready for snowshoe weather.

The key is to just remember what I did back then (and it's all tracked on Sparkpeople, so I can read it) and do it now. And keep doing it. Easy peasy, right?

Last night's yoga was a lovely relaxing practice from Shiva Rea's Drops of Nectar. I'm going to do 21 days of yoga to get me started. Even just a few minutes a day, since I know that gets me down the path.

Plan:

B: Kashi's version of Grape Nuts & milk.

L: remainder of leek casserole, beets & something protein-ish.

D: something with the eggs I cracked this morning before realizing I wanted cereal. Maybe a veggie frittata?

E: Yoga, sit ups, maybe a walk.

Slowly but Surely

Yoga last night for 25 minutes. I know that I start off slow, going to the mat before I actually want to go to the mat. Feeling agitated and wanting the practice to be over, but sticking with it because I know what it leads to over time - strength, flexibility, contentedness, a sense of well being that pervades everything.

Plan for the day:

B: english muffin with almond butter.

L: leek casserole w/ boiled beets on the side.

D: sauteed leeks and mushrooms and cabbage with rice or something. And turkey?

E: sit ups, lift hand weights, yoga.

I was awake at 4am for a bit, then awake for the day at 7:30 and am now running quite behind.

no zumba

no moving

no packing

no cleaning

no worries

no stress

no nothing to do for anyone else tonight. or tomorrow morning. my time is mine again. my weekends are mine. my worries will be about me and things that I can control, not about a parent who can hopefully take care of himself from here on out.

I have a big fat new book, The Forgotten Garden, that wants to be read.

And some Louise Hay Power Thought Cards that somehow always know the right thing to tell me: "I breathe in the fullness and richness of life. I observe with joy as life abundantly supports me and supplies me with more good than I can imagine."

Today's meals:

B: whole milk drunk out of the carton, whole wheat english muffin with PB& J eaten in the car on the way to work.

L: cold salad of whole wheat cous cous, salmon salad, beets and avocado. (one of the best meals ever.)

D: chicken thighs, couscous, zucchini & beets. boring but satisfactory. goat cheese toast on the side. wine.

I don't really seem to be calorie cycling this week, just staying within my range. And that's ok.

All Dressed Up But Not Going

I have my bike clothes on. But I can't get moving and I've decided to bag the ride. I may be having a slight existential crisis.

I've decided to pack a bag with workout clothes and then either do zumba or yoga at 5:45 tonight. I'm thinking yoga is what I need.

Breakfast: english muffin with almond butter. milk.

Snack: cantaloupe and cucumber.

Lunch: beets, salmon, whole wheat cous cous.

Dinner: chicken thighs and mushrooms?

Beets!

If all goes well, I will be eating beets whenever it is that beets are the right size for eating. These are red beets. 


I also planted some herbs: basil and oregano


creeping thyme, sage and something anise.


Not much in the way of walking or biking the last 2 days, but lots of house and yard chores, and good eating choices. I also planted pepper plants, and I still need to get kale and arugula. If I garden next year I will get some gold beets.

Back to Bento

A lentil and rice dish is the perfect thing to have in the Bento. So, I busted out the Bento this morning and filled it with some of the lentils, and the put beets and olives in the top section. The calories are a little lower than normal, but I'm not very hungry and it's Taco Night tonight so I'm sure I'll make up for it later.

Food Prep & Picture Day

I still haven't done any cardio today. Whatever germs are in my throat are still there and are not compatible with heavy breathing. So I went to Whole Foods and got my groceries for the week: broccoli, golden beets, asparagus, shrimp, artichokes, lemon, chicken thighs, broccoli rabe, scallops, arugula, and a wall of Fage yogurt. I have lots of grains and beans in my pantry, so I was all set with those.  

This was the cranberry pecan roll I had on my way home. When I got home, my lunch was a piece of pork loin and broccoli stir fried with Braggs, hot sesame oil and 5 spice powder. Lovely and light.  

Afterwards, I cooked the beets, cubed them, and put them in tupperware for the week. I also cooked the 2 artichokes and took out the spikey things from the middle so I can eat them when I want to, I also made a pot of brown rice, and roasted the asparagus. This will give me lots of choices for lunches and dinner this week. I think dinner tonight will be scallops, roasted asparagus and brown rice.

This is the odd dog who tries to shove into small places to be next to people. I was lying on the couch and he was trying to get very close to me, but was really almost pushing me off the sofa.
I will do some upper body work tonight, and at least go for a small walk with the dog (not that dog. That is The Boy's dog. My dog is normal but not nearly as photogenic), but other than that I will take it easy.  I'm just cleaning and doing laundry (hoping the things on the line dry before tonight), and wishing I had more tupperware or zip-lock bags so I could prep the broccoli rabe.  

My Very Own Fitness Blog

Everyone else has one apparently, so I wanted one, too.

As for the title, well, I love beets, I love butter and I love mountaintops. And one of my goals is to be here around the end of August, with warm up trips to Lafayette (one of my favorites) and perhaps my old faithful friend Kinsman.

I don't count points or eat anything sugar free, "lite", or "diet." I do eat grass fed beef, pastured eggs from one of a few farms near me, real butter (although less of that since I stopped eating english muffins), beets, kale, arugula, coffee, brown rice, sushi, chocolate chips for dessert, and whatever else I think my body wants to eat. Another goal is to really listen to my body when it tells me what it wants to eat (and doesn't want to eat.) Lately it seems to want yellow foods - gold beets and grape fruit. And it really wants the farm stand to open so I can have baby arugula. Nothing like the bitter greens of spring to cleanse the liver. Ooh, and the raw goat milk that will be ready in May.

I will tell you at some point how much I weigh, and what my measurements are - maybe, but I will definitely keep you up to date on what I'm doing, eating and accomplishing. And in later posts I explain how I came to be this heavy, and what I think of it.

The golden beets of happiness. Boiled, then cubed with salt and pepper. They are the perfect addition to any meal.
Tonight's dinner, prepared in my tiny kitchen. The stove and counter are all one piece so dishes cannot be drying at the same time food is being prepared. It makes me be more tidy, less cluttery. I wish for a smaller cutting board. Anyway this is what it is: 1 piece of sirloin (fat trimmed and given to the dog), some onion, peppers, kale all seared with salsa, the wrapped in a tortilla (or 3) with more salsa. Less meat than I normally use, but they were perfect. The onion I chopped was too much, so I now have some partially cooked onion waiting to be made into something else.
mmmmmm. a few chocolate chips for dessert topped everything off perfectly. And since all the cool kids are cutting back on their wine intake, I figure I might try that as well. So, just water with dinner.

Other changes I've made so far:

1. I have not eaten english muffins with butter in 3 weeks. These were the bookends of my days but then I ran out (after years of making sure I never ran out of those whole wheat english muffins) and the world didn't end so I wrap my eggs in a tortilla now, and I have no need to snack on tortillas, unlike the english muffins which were pretty much the yummiest things in the world when spread with butter and sprinkled with salt. You'd think that having given them up might have lead to some weight loss, but no, it seemed to lead to a 3 pound gain.
   
   
2. I clean my kitchen before I go to bed. This means I also fix my lunch - which is usually brown rice, a vegetable (kale and beets are this week's choices) and then chicken, shrimp or steak, although I might make some chick pea curry for one of the days this week. I like a sort of routine with what I eat.
   
   
3. I walk every morning for at least 30 minutes, and longer on the weekends.
   
   
4. I go to bed early (it is 8:41 pm and I'm posting from bed) and get up early (alarm is set for 5:30 am, I'll probably be up by 5:45.)
   
   
5. I've actually gone to bed feeling a little bit hungry the past few nights.