Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Gym Blues

Seriously, I CANNOT wake up lately. Every night I go to bed and set my alarm to go to the gym. Then I wake up and realize I've been hitting snooze for an hour. THEN I fall back asleep and wake up with just barely enough time to catch the last reasonable bus to work.

It may have something to do with not getting to sleep until 11:30 or 12 at night. I'm realizing that I need at least 7 hours of sleep or I feel seriously deprived. When I go to sleep at 12, I don't really want to wake up at 5:45. Call me crazy. It's hard, though, when Jason doesn't get home from work until 8:30 or so and I want to spend a little time with him. I've tried to talk him into going into work a bit earlier (like before 10:30 or 11) and getting home a little earlier, but he will have none of it. I may just need to stick to my guns and figure I won't see very much of my husband during the week.

It may also have something to do with the nights getting cooler and the mornings getting darker and my bed feeling so cozy... But, no! I am not going to fall back into this not working out until January - maybe February - pattern.

I wish I had a gym buddy. Then I would know that I have to get up because someone will be there to meet me. My secretary walks with her mom in the mornings and it's a great motivator because she knows her mom is waiting for her to swing by and pick her up, so she's there, every morning. A girl from Jason's lab just joined my gym, but we have completely different schedules and she likes to work out in the evening. I just have too many things pop up and know that if I planned to work out in the evenings, I would get to the gym MAYBE twice a week. Maybe.

I know the answer, of course. I have to fight the tired one morning and then that night I'll want to go to bed by 10:30 or so and then I'll be able to wake up more easily the next morning and so on. It's that first early morning that's a bear, though. OK, I'm committing here to all of you. That morning is tomorrow! Thursday! It all starts coming together on Thursday.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Daily Exertion

I'm getting back into thinking about ways to fit exercise into my daily routine. Today I walked to work and I plan to walk home (mainly because it's a beautiful day, but also spurred along by the fact that I can't find my bus pass. Maybe it's in my coat I wore on Friday...). After walking home, I planned to get in the car and drive to Whole Foods, just down the hill from our house.

Then it occurred to me (because I'm brilliant) that if I slightly modify my route home, I can just walk to Whole Foods then walk the rest of the way home. This is the way I want to think. I want to be on the lookout for those little ways to increase my activity since I spend most of my day on my bum in an office chair.

Monday September 28
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with 3 egg whites, 1 egg, Jones all natural sausage crumbled up and cheddar. I discovered that crumbling up some sausage into my eggs gives them enough flavor variety that I'm not so tired of them anymore. That should last a couple of weeks. I planned to eat a Chobani yogurt this morning, but for whatever reason I'm not very hungry today.

Lunch: 2 baked skinless chicken thighs; salad with spinach, red leaf lettuce, feta, real bacon bits and a tiny bit of tomato and vidalia onion vinaigrette (tiny not because I'm concerned about the fat and calories, but because this dressing packs a flavor punch).

Snack: rooibos chai tea with 1% milk; 1 oz almonds; maybe the Chobani if I get hungry.

Dinner: French onion soup in the crock-pot with gruyere cheese melted on top in my most adorable soup bowls (NOTE: when we got married, the soup bowls were brown with cream undertones, instead of the other way around. Personally, I like the brown ones better. So great, now I'm scared I might break one). I just put the soup recipe in a recipe calculator and realized it has hardly any calories. Huh. Maybe I'll have some extra cheese. And a protein smoothie.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Hangover

This morning it was so hard to get out of bed. I felt hungover - or at least what I imagine that feels like. And here, my friends, is why I've determined my body does not like carbs. Yesterday, I had a fancy lunch with clients and a fancy dinner up in Boston with our entire department. Lunch wasn't too bad - one piece of French bread was really the only obviously carb-loaded thing. I also had tomato and dill soup and a salad with scallops and shrimp. Yum! But at dinner they served this amazing focaccia bread in little buckets and then I ordered the gnocchi with wild mushrooms. It was all delicious and I have no regrets (although I tasted someone else's braised short ribs, which I was also thinking about getting and it was absolutely amazing. Should have stuck with the protein after all, I guess).

This morning, though, I felt like I had been run over. I wanted to walk to work, but couldn't drag myself out of bed in time. Even taking the bus, I was still late to work. I thought to myself, 'why do I feel so yucky?' and then I remembered all the food I ate yesterday.

So yeah, moderation is key when it comes to me and carbs, apparently. It's kind of amazing to me when I discover these things about myself. I find it fascinating, though I know it's just a bunch of navel-gazing.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Food Food and More Food

I'm continuing with my lowish carb lifestyle - at least during the week. This past weekend we went to Texas Roadhouse on Saturday with a couple of good friends and I had to have a couple of their rolls. Because their key ingredient is crack, basically.

Saturday night I made banana bread for the girls at church and left a couple of pieces for Jason and I to enjoy. I have determined that this is the best way to make baked goods: give most of it away. Then I still get some, but not so much that I wind up with a sugar buzz. Also, I used half whole wheat flour and halved the sugar in the bread recipe and it was perfectly fine. Bananas are sweet, yo.

FYI, with this whole heavy on the protein thing, I'm getting tired of eggs. Does anyone have any good protein-based breakfast ideas that don't involve eggs? I don't think they exist. It's eggs or Lucky Charms - those are our choices in America. I am a big fan of Greek yogurt too, the only problem is, I can't just eat plain yogurt (because I don't like it) and all of the yogurt additions (honey, strawberries), up the carbs. Not that I'm not eating the yogurt with the honey and the strawberries, I'm just making an observation.

The Food Journal
I've blogged almost all of the September weekdays so far and I must say, there isn't much I've been ashamed to put in here. Honestly, I think overall, I eat pretty healthy. Go me.

Monday, September 21
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with 2 eggs, 2 egg whites and .5 oz feta; non-fat Chobani with honey.
Lunch: 1/2 baked skinless chicken breast; salad with romaine, feta, bacon and lite olive oil vinaigrette.
Snack: 5 bacon-wrapped scallops (went to a work thing at 4 PM at a country club where they had bacon-wrapped scallops, which I ADORE); handful of potato chips.
Dinner: Salmon; roasted broccoli and cauliflower.
Evening snack: Sugar-free chocolate fudge and cheesecake puddings, mixed with a bit of whipped cream to make chocolate cheesecake mousse. Love. I understand pudding is not a whole food. Whatever, it's awesome.

Tuesday, September 22
Pre-Workout Snack: 1 Cabot cheddar low-fat snack pack.
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with 2 eggs, 2 egg whites and .5 oz feta; smoothie with strawberries, blueberries, almond milk and whey protein.
Lunch: Mexican salad of black beans, chicken, cheddar, sour cream, salsa and lettuce.
Snack: 2 slices colby jack cheese; 1 oz almonds.
Dinner: Pan-fried hamburger patty (left over from Sunday's BBQ); stir fried sweet onion and zucchini.
Evening snack: Sugar-free chocolate fudge and cheesecake puddings, mixed with a bit of whipped cream.
Workout: Swim 72 laps.

Wednesday, September 22
Pre-Workout Snack: 1/2 oz of almonds (I think it's time to throw that bag of almonds away. I'm pretty sure I had a rancid one and my stomach has been a little squiffy ever since)
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with 2 eggs, 2 egg whites and .5 oz feta (can you see why I'm getting sick of the eggs?); smoothie of strawberries, pineapple, almond milk and whey protein.
Lunch: Baked skinless chicken (2 thighs, 1 leg); salad with romaine, cheddar, tomato and Italian dressing.
Snack: 1 oz almonds (from a different bag); maybe some Madagascar Vanilla Red tea.
Dinner: Probably Boston Market because we have coupons and I feel lazy. I just discovered the brisket has only 280 mg of sodium, which is about a quarter of the sodium content of pretty much everything else at Boston Market. Maybe it was a typo.
Evening snack: Probably the pudding thing again.
Workout: 30 min on elliptical; strength exercises at home (crunches, push-ups, squats, bicep curls, etc.)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Pumpkin Bread and Weight

I posted the pumpkin bread recipe.

In other news, I think I may be losing weight, which is kind of amazing. My weekly weigh-in I was down 2.4 pounds, and it was below the low point of my plateau so I think it might be for real.

Woo hoo!

Friday, September 18, 2009

New Clothes!

Well, I did it. A coupon for a free tote bag plus buy one get one 1/2 off on sweaters lured me into the Dress Barn just around the corner from my office.

I really hate the name "Dress Barn".

Despite the name, I bought 4 sweaters and a dress and came away with my free green croc tote bag. And the saleslady didn't automatically give me 1/2 off the 2 cheapest sweaters, which is what I was expecting. She paired the two cheap sweaters and gave me half off one and then gave me half off one of the more expensive ones. Excellent.

Two of the sweaters are nice enough to wear with a suit or at least layered under a blazer and since they're new, they're not nubby and faded yet like all my other sweaters, which is a bonus.

I almost bought a skirt, but decided in the end that it made my bum look just a little too lumpy. I always have a hard time finding bottoms. Today I tried on 2 skirts, 2 dresses and 5 pairs of pants that all managed to convey the message, "Hi, I have HUGE thighs. Particularly the upper bits. Check those out."

One of the sweaters is my official favorite sweater of Fall. It's brown and warm and cozy and I really hope it's cold enough when we go apple picking in October to wear it.

Food Journal

Thursday, September 17

Dinner: Potluck! I just totaled up my calories on SparkPeople and even though I felt like I was munching a lot last night, calorie-wise, I was way low. I ate 2 eggplant feta rolls, which we brought, a small slice of veggie/tofu lasagna, 3 crackers with brie, a bunch of green salad and a couple of bites of a tiny sliver of pie. I took 2 slivers of 2 different kinds of pie and ate one bite of each because, frankly, they weren't very good. In the past, I might have mindlessly just shoveled them in my mouth, but I really thought about whether I actually wanted to eat them. The answer was no.

Friday, September 18

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with 2 eggs, 2 egg whites and 1/2 oz feta; Chobani nonfat Greek yogurt with honey.

Lunch: crock pot chicken (the chicken that keeps on giving) - 1/2 thigh, 1/2 breast; salad with cheddar and balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack: Almonds

Dinner: salmon; roasted broccoli and cauliflower; collard greens cooked...some way. The Farm Share is winding down a bit with regard to selection and kale and collards seem to be the featured vegetables lately. When I tried to make collards in June, they gave us a bit of gas. I know, TMI. I'm hoping I can cook them longer this time or figure out what it takes to make that not happen, or maybe I should just take some Beano.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Food Journal & Pumpkin

Wednesday, September 16
Snack while walking to work: Cabot 50% reduced fat snack pack.

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with 2 eggs, 2 egg whites and 1/2 oz cheddar; smoothie of 1 C. milk, 1/2 scoop whey protein, ice and vanilla.

Lunch: skinless crock pot chicken - 1/4 breast, 1 leg, 1/2 thigh; salad of spinach, bacon and feta with 1 T. lite Italian dressing.

Snack: 2 T. natural peanut butter.

Dinner: salad with lettuce, tabbouleh, hummus, falafel, gyro meat, tahini and tzatziki.

Thursday, September 17
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with 2 eggs, 2 egg whites and 1/2 oz feta; flax muffin.

Lunch: skinless crock pot chicken - 1/2 thigh and 1/2 breast; salad of spinach, bacon and feta with 1 T. lite Italian dressing.

Snack: 2 T. natural peanut butter.

Dinner: TBA. We're going to a potluck so we'll see what's there.

So last night I made pumpkin muffins for the 12-17 year old girls I work with at church. First of all, none of them had ever had pumpkin muffins before! Or pumpkin bread or anything else made with pumpkin other than pie. We were planning our activities for the rest of the year and the week before Thanksgiving we're going to cook. One girl wanted to cook a turkey and I told her that might be a little involved for the hour to hour and a half we have. I suggested pumpkin pie and one of the girls piped in with, "Can we make these pumpkin muffins?" Absolutely! I told them it was my great-grandma's recipe and they were suitably impressed.

Anyway, I didn't eat any. I made muffins out of half the batter, and then put the other half in the freezer, with the hope that when my birthday rolls around in October, I can make myself some muffins (OK, technically, we'll be in California on my birthday, but maybe I can make some muffins to bring with us). I did lick the beaters because I figured I could have a little treat, but the girls ate all the muffins except for a couple that I left for Jason - which he ate.

And now that I've been talking about the pumpkin muffins, I should probably post the recipe over at Bee's Knees. I'll do that later and let you all know when I do.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Food Journal

Tuesday, September 15

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with 2 eggs, 2 egg whites and 1/2 oz feta; flax muffin (Note: eggs + flax muffin definitely helped me stay more full today. Flax muffin recipe below.)

Lunch: 2 skinless baked drumsticks; 1 stuffed summer squash (I substituted 2 T. flax seed meal for the bread crumbs. Because I'm brilliant.)

Snack: 2 T. natural peanut butter; Madagascar Vanilla Red tea with a splash of 1% milk.

Dinner: I have a work meeting at 7 and I'm pretty sure they're going to have pizza. I brought a chicken breast in no sugar added tomato sauce with some parmesan sprinkled on top, which I will try to eat before I leave work. I may have some edamame when I get home. Mmm, fiber...

Evening Snack: If I'm still hungry after all of that, I might make another smoothie with unflavored whey protein, 1 C. milk, Stevia and vanilla. That turned out GOOD last night. Like a vanilla shake.

Individual Flax Muffin
(for the life of me, I can't remember where I got this recipe last summer, so my apologies to whoever invented it)

2 egg whites
1/2 packet Stevia or Splenda
1.5 t. cinnamon
3 t. plain yogurt
.5 t. baking powder
3 T. flax seed meal

(when not so hot and bothered about carbs, I use 1 t. agave nectar as the sweetener, cut the yogurt to 2 t. and sometimes throw in some raisins or Craisins just for kicks)

Spray a microwave-safe ramekin or small bowl with cooking spray (or use a muffin liner). Mix the egg and sweetener until well combined. Add yogurt and blend well. Mix in the ground flax seed, cinnamon and baking powder until well combined. Pour in ramekin and microwave on high for 1 minute, 30 seconds (note the ramekin should be no more than half full since these do rise a lot, if it is too small they will overflow).

Obsessed!

Jason informs me that I appear to be unhealthily obsessed with food.

In other news, the sky is blue.

Actually, I took affront to his comments initially, but I realize he's probably right to a degree. Granted, if you just read this blog (which is what he was doing at the time), I come off as thinking and talking and living for food and exercise only. I do have another blog. I do have other things I do. For instance, the other night while Jason worked on a paper, I listened to ghost stories on my ipod and crocheted a couple squares for a baby blanket I'm making.

Really, what I'm trying to do here is figure out what works for my body. What makes me feel the best I can. Thus far, I have discovered that eating a lot of sugar/white flour on a regular basis makes me feel like crap. I have discovered that a higher protein diet gives me more energy and keeps me more full (I mean "diet" in the what I eat every day sense, not the restricting calories for weight loss sense).

This blog has been useful recently to vent my frustrations about not losing weight. But also to celebrate my victories - particularly with regard to what I can accomplish physically. OK, not so much since I got bronchitis, but before that I was having a lot of fun doing new things with my work outs.

The thing is, I come by my food issues naturally. Both of my parents have been obese for as long as I can remember. Their weights have been up and down for years. My grandpa was obese. My grandma was obsessed with her weight and always made sure to comment on whether it looked like I had lost weight or not. In addition to food issues, there are also alcohol and drug issues and other signs that maybe my family hasn't quite figured out how to cope with things yet. For me, my issue is food, and I know that. Maybe it would be alcohol, but I don't drink. I find that when I give myself license to just eat whatever, I do exactly that. Having a sugar restriction helps me keep that under control. I try to limit the sugar in our home. I mean, if I was an alcoholic would I buy big bottles of vodka on a regular basis, just to have around, just in case?

Frankly, judging by the rapid disappearance of a giant bag of Red Vines, I don't think Jason is such a paragon of self control. So I think it's best we just don't bring it into the house.

I'm trying to get to a place where I can eat healthy without thinking about it and not be tempted beyond what I can bear by a tray of mini desserts (like, ahem, on Friday night). I think generally I do pretty well with that, but sometimes I go off the wagon in a big way. So for now, maybe this blog will reflect a bit of an obsession. I'm working on it.

OMG

I don't want to jinx anything here, but this morning I weighed in at 186.8. That's the first time I've been below 188 in about 4 or 5 months.

OK, acting calm...

Monday, September 14, 2009

Food Journal

I am not very good with the consistency over the weekends. Oh well. We'll call this the weekday food journal.

Monday, September 14
Pre-Workout Snack: Cabot reduced fat cheddar snack pack.
Breakfast: 2 eggs and 2 egg whites scrambled with feta; 1 C. 1% milk.
Morning Snack: 2 T. natural peanut butter (because the eggs - not enough to hold me until lunch. Need to reassess breakfast); Madagascar Vanilla Red tea with a splash of 1% milk (I forgot how much I LOVE this tea).
Lunch: 2 baked skinless chicken thighs; salad of mesclun mix with mozzarella and a little prosciutto with balsamic vinaigrette.
Snack: Chopped cucumber with a bit of feta, drizzle of olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar.
Dinner: Crock pot rotisserie chicken; stuffed summer squash; roasted broccoli.
Evening Snack: smoothie of whey protein, milk, ice, splash of vanilla (honestly, this will probably be my "fixing dinner snack" since Jason probably won't be home until 8 and it's 6 and I'm already hungry).

If you can't tell, I am really working on minimizing the carbs right now. Need more vegetables. And eggs.

When Do I Buy New Clothes?

I am tired of most of my clothes and, frankly, a lot of them are starting to look kind of raggedy. As an attorney, I need to look polished and pulled together, so I've become hyper-aware of how my clothes are faring over time. I have been putting off buying new clothes because the plan was to lose weight. I didn't want to buy new things, only to turn around and bestow them on friends who can use them, sell them on Ebay for way less than I paid or just ship them off to Salvation Army. In the past when I've been losing, that has happened many times and I have bid farewell to super cute items that I only got to wear once or twice. We're in money-saving mode right now so I want the dollars I spend to go as far as possible.

But, of course, this year I'm not losing weight. I've been holding off on having a shopping trip through Spring and Summer. Now we're entering Autumn and I'm pulling out the same raggedy sweaters that I've had for 3, 4, 5 or more years. I call my style "classic" so it's not like I'm concerned about being out of step with trends, but the items are starting to show wear.

I'm hoping that I will actually start losing weight again at some point. I don't want to spend $98 (!!!!) on a pair of nice slacks at Banana Republic, only to have them not fit in a month or two.

(Also, I probably won't be spending $98 on a pair of slacks. Hello, Banana Republic outlet! But it's the principle of buying something that I won't get the full use of.)

What do you think? Should I bite the bullet and go spend a couple hundred dollars so I look nice, knowing that there's a chance I might be doing it all over again before the clothes have worn out?

Friday, September 11, 2009

Food Journal

Wednesday, September 9 (last 1/2)
Dinner: salmon, roasted broccoli with parmesan and a leftover scallion pancake from the Chinese take out we got after driving home from Vermont.
Snack: 4 cinnamon graham crackers and 1 C. milk.

Thursday, September 10
Breakfast: plain Chobani Greek yogurt with 1 T. honey, 1 C. Fiber One with 2/3 C. milk.
Lunch: whole wheat crepe with mushrooms, chicken, spinach and bechamel sauce.
Snack: Apple Pie Larabar.
Dinner: ground beef soft tacos (leftovers from camping).

I JUST discovered that Fiber One has aspartame in it. I glanced through the ingredients to make sure that there was no HFCS without even noticing. I'm bummed because I like Fiber One a lot and wow, does it have a lot of fiber, but I don't really want the extra aspartame.

Friday, September 11
Breakfast: Dunkin Donuts turkey sausage egg white flatbread (apparently, it's the official sandwich of the New England Patriots).
Lunch: leftover salmon. I figure I should have something else - but I'm not sure what. I'm not really feeling food so much today. You know those days where you're just not really interested in eating?
Snack: Chobani Greek strawberry yogurt.
Dinner: unknown. We're going to a work function tonight. Last year at this event they had pasta bars, which would have been ok except for they mixed up all the ingredients in about a cup of oil. This is after I told the chef to go easy on the oil. I tipped my plate sideways to let the oil drain to one side, while I ate the pasta off the other side.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

How Do You Eat Healthy For Cheap?

Yesterday, Jason sent me a link to a blog post with the subject line: "this is amazing". The blog is one of his favorite economic bloggers and he happened to be talking about a woman who spends less than $10 a week to feed her family of 6. The section about the "Queen of Coupons" includes some of the receipts and a picture of all of the food she bought.

Only, here's the thing. It's all crap. Well, except for the milk. I don't think she had a coupon for the milk, though.

Here's what I wrote back to Jason:

"What would really impress me is someone who feeds her family for super-cheap without having to buy only processed food. There are never coupons for fresh produce or meat, and very rarely for beans. If you look at those receipts they include fruit juices (which are less healthy than fresh fruit because you get all the sugar with none of the fiber), sugary cereals, sugary jelly, salad dressing, noodles, peanut butter that includes sugar and preservatives, Aunt Jemima ready-made pancakes, etc.

This is why it's hard to eat healthy when you don't have any money."

I had the same reaction when I went to a local store that several people I know had praised to the skies for their cheap prices. I will grant that they have a fair produce section (no organics, of course) and great cheese and meat choices if you want to cook Latin American or Portuguese cuisine. However, most everything else was the boxed processed stuff you find in the middle aisles of your average grocery store. They did have one Kashi cereal and some plain shredded wheat, but all the other stuff was the opposite of healthy. But it was SOOOO cheap. So there were all these moms with their kids hanging off the carts, piling the carts full of processed, sugary crap because that's what they could afford to feed their families.

I'm sure they like the processed food. Heck, I like processed food. However, overall I like it less now that I know how bad it is for me. I have these discussions with my friend Rachel about where the problem lies in all of this. Farm subsidies. Lack of education. Powerful, powerful food lobbies. There are so many pieces at play, but it all adds up to, it's hard to eat healthy on a budget.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I am going to the gym. Now that I'm feeling well enough (not well enough to climb a mountain apparently, but well enough), I'm starting to feel antsy with the not working out. I think my body is done fighting the illness and now it needs something else to do. I feel sluggish and blah.

Also, there are a couple really unflattering pictures of me from this weekend in Vermont. One in which my jeans are pulled TIGHTLY across my upper thighs.

Also, I saw another picture of me taken in July at a church function that just depressed me. Another one in which I thought I looked pretty cute in my jeans, but I kind of didn't. They look too small.

I think I have a reverse body image problem in which I think I look thinner than I actually do. Those pictures are a harsh dose of reality. I blame the mirror in the guest room. I think it elongates me when I stand in front of it.

When I'm working out, even if I'm not losing weight, at least I feel better overall. I know I've said this before, but I'm having a really hard time believing that I'll ever lose weight again. So I'll just eat healthy and exercise and I know I will feel better, if frustrated by the lack of movement on the scale.

It doesn't help that I was confronted this past weekend with the comments of someone who clearly doesn't understand that you can eat well and work out and still be overweight. His comments were general and not directed at me in any way, but I'm sure he looks at me and thinks, as so many probably do, that I just lack the self-control to lose those 30 pounds. He's a cretin and he's offensive and he's just kind of ignorant about these things (and about reading social cues), but sometimes it's hard to know that those sentiments are out there.

Wow, I do need to get back to the gym to pull myself out of this funk.

Oh, Right...

So I got a bit off-kilter with the food journaling since I was in Vermont for the better part of 4 days. It's a good thing I do the SparkPeople food journal too because I honestly don't remember what I ate yesterday.

Tuesday, September 8
Breakfast: Starbuck's Greek yogurt with honey and some granola-ish stuff. Yummy, but cost way too much considering I have stacks of Greek yogurt in my fridge. Day after vacation = lazy.
Lunch: Au Bon Pain low-fat Southern Black-Eyed Pea Soup (for the record, not as good as my black-eyed peas); little packet of 5 crackers, a bit of cheddar and some grapes.
Snack: Cherry Pie Luna Bar.
Dinner: Sushi (mainly California Rolls) and some seaweed salad.

Wednesday, September 9
Breakfast: Chobani fat-free Greek yogurt with 1 T. honey; 1 C. Fiber one with about 2/3 C. milk.
Lunch: Turkey and Havarti on wheat with cucumbers, spinach and dijon mustard.
Snack: 2 graham crackers with peanut butter (leftover S'mores ingredient that is going to go stale)
Dinner: TBA. I really need to start planning our dinners again. I have to be somewhere at 7:30 so Jason is on his own. I'll probably fix myself some salmon and maybe roast some broccoli.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Vermont

I posted some pictures of our trip.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Hiking - Not So Good, Actually

Well, I made it up one mountain. Kind of.

Saturday morning we hiked up Camel's Hump. Right after we started ascending, I realized breathing was going to be a major problem for me. When I started wheezing, my friend Rachel gave me a puff off of her inhaler. It helped a bit, I think, but it just went downhill from there. Not literally, unfortunately.

The lack of oxygen led to my muscles getting increasingly more and more tired. I'm sure for avid hikers the hike wasn't that technically difficult, but I don't think I've ever had to climb up and over quite so many rocks before. Or maybe it just seemed that way since I was already feeling pretty horrible. Everyone was very kind to me and would wait for me to catch up and encourage me. I kind of wanted them to just go on ahead and let me continue at my own pace by myself. I knew I couldn't turn around at that point, and I felt really bad holding everyone up.

Also, I got a blister. Next time I will apply the moleskin BEFORE starting the hike.

By the time I dragged myself to the top, I just wanted to curl up on a rock and stay. The idea of hiking 3 more miles to the bottom of the mountain seemed insurmountable to me. I ate a sandwich, drank some water, looked at the view, tried not to pass out, then started down the mountain with everyone else.

The sad thing is, the view was really amazing. Sitting on top of that mountain with the wind whipping around us was pretty outstanding. The air was clear and we could see Mount Washington almost 70 miles away. But all I could think was how much I just wanted this hike to be over.

The next day everyone else climbed Mount Mansfield, the tallest peak in Vermont. Listening to them talk about the difficulties of the trail afterward, I'm really glad I didn't go. And I'm sure they were really glad I didn't go. Instead I drove up to the visitor's center, with the intention of meeting them and hiking one more mile to the summit. I made it about halfway but that day it was my blister holding me back more than the lack of oxygen, since the ascent wasn't as bad to just get from the parking lot to the summit.

I did have fun camping and hanging out with everyone and sitting by the fire. I was just really frustrated by my lack of lung capacity. Once it became clear to me that the hike up Camel's Hump was going to be extremely difficult and that Mt. Mansfield was out of the question, I cried a little to Jason during one of the times when he was waiting with me to catch my breath. I had been looking forward to this trip and to accomplishing these hikes. Instead, I got bronchitis four weeks ago and here we are. Also, since I haven't been able to work out at all for much of August and then I did a 5 1/2 mile hike, my thighs are really yelling at me today.

Next time will be better.

Friday, September 04, 2009

Food

We wound up running around last night grocery shopping and getting last-minute camping supplies. So I ate a chicken leg and thigh and that was it for dinner. I actually made some kale chips - or tried to. They turned out pretty horrible. I made them before and they worked so I'm not exactly sure what I did wrong.

Around midnight as I was packing I realized I was hungry again and then I realized I only ate about 1100 calories all day. Whoops. But by that time I had brushed my teeth and knew I would be in bed soon so I let it go.

Here's today:

Friday, September 4, 2009
Breakfast: 1/4 vegetable frittata, strawberry Chobani Greek yogurt.
Lunch: Footlong ham and turkey from Subway. I entered it into SparkPeople and holy cow, that's a lot of sodium. I was craving Subway for some unknown reason. Should have just gotten a salt lick.
Dinner: Unknown. Guessing probably PB&J on whole wheat since that's what we bought tot ake to Vermont.

And we're off!

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Food Report

I don't have anything that interesting to say today other than I'm feeling increasingly better and hopeful that I WILL be able to hike Saturday and Sunday.

I am liking this idea of being accountable for my food by reporting it on the blog. Makes me think more about what I'm putting in my mouth and whether I REALLY want to disclose it.

The food:

Wednesday, September 2
Dinner: 2 skinless baked chicken thighs (I'm a dark meat girl. I've never been able to make a chicken breast that wasn't too dry for me. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but until someone tells me how to do it right, I'm perfectly happy with the dark meat. It works out well since Jason likes white meat); 1 cup edamame; 1/2 cup Fiber One with 1/2 cup milk.

Thursday, September 3
Breakfast: 1 cup Fiber One with 1/2 cup milk.

Breakfast 2: So I had to be at a meeting at 7 AM this morning, which meant I ate the Fiber One at 6 AM, which meant by the time I got into work at 9ish, I was starving again. (Jason is always annoyed by how I eat a little something and then I'm hungry again a few hours later. It's just the way my stomach works. I can't help it.) So I stopped by Dunkin Donuts and got a Turkey Sausage and Egg Flatbread. Not ideal, but we have very few breakfast options around my office. At least the flatbread has some semblance of grains and the whole shebang is relatively low fat.

Lunch: Mexican salad with black beans, chicken, cheddar, sour cream, lettuce and salsa.

Snack: Strawberry Chobani Greek yogurt.

Dinner: TBA. Again. We're supposed to do some shopping for the camping trip tonight so it may be a forage in the fridge kind of dinner. I pick up the Farm Share after work and I still have some stuff left over from last week so, if nothing else, we'll have vegetables.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Back in the Game

It's September and I'm feeling much better. I got my new hiking boots from LL Bean yesterday (20% off and they have wide widths) and I'm going to give hiking a try this weekend. I may not make it all the way up either mountain, but I can give it a shot. I'll be sure to bring a book in case I reach a point and have to wait for everyone else to go up and back.

The weather has been gorgeous this week and I confess that I'm so out of the looking for any opportunity to exercise mentality that it didn't even occur to me that I should be walking to work until a woman at work yesterday asked me if I had been walking. No, but I should be. I've been known to walk home from work in February when it's unbelievably cold and there are piles of snow in my way. I should really take advantage of this perfect weather.

In an effort to not gain 15 pounds this winter, I'm concentrating on keeping up with my healthy eating. I've gained 15 pounds the last 2 winters, but in fairness, I lost 15 pounds the last 2 summers. This summer, as I have written about obsessively, there has been no weight loss, so I really need to watch my indulgences this year.

Monday marked the beginning of another sugar purge and I was fighting migraines both Monday and Tuesday. At first, I thought it was just because my shoulder is sore from my unergonomic office set up. However, the office has not changed, my shoulder is still sore, but today I have no headache. My body really takes hold of sugar and runs with it. It's like crack for me.

On the camping trip we'll be eating S'mores because that's what you do on camping trips (I'm partial to dark chocolate with cinnamon graham crackers). So that will be my September splurge. (I wish there was some way to cart ice cream up to the mountains of Vermont...). Then in October we have my birthday, November is Thanksgiving, December is Christmas and then voila! we're back in January with limited temptations. I won't lie, I may have a treat now and then, particularly since we have friends who have been known to bestow delicious cookies on us around Christmas time. But my goal is to eat healthy every day of the month except one.

Maybe I should start reporting on my eating here. I log it on SparkPeople, but it's not like anyone's reviewing that on a regular basis. OK, so for the month of September, I'll write my food at the bottom of my posts. If you're not interested, just ignore it.

Tuesday, September 1
Breakfast: 1/4 vegetable frittata, strawberry fat-free Chobani yogurt.
Lunch: Turkey and Havarti on whole wheat with cucumbers, spinach and dijon mustard, 4 squash fritters.
Dinner: Baked skinless chicken (3 thighs, 1 drumstick), roasted broccoli and cauliflower, 1 cup Fiber One cereal with 2/3 cup milk.
(Usually I have a snack somewhere in there, but I got busy yesterday. Thus, my dinner was huge)

Wednesday, September 2
Breakfast: 1/4 vegetable frittata, strawberry fat-free Chobani yogurt.
Lunch: Small Au Bon Pain Southwest Vegetable Soup (low-fat, reduced sodium), ABP multigrain baguette.
Snack: Banana
Dinner: TBA - I have to be somewhere at 7:30 and am not sure when I'll be leaving work. I may just grab some leftover chicken and hope for the best.