Friday & Saturday

Friday:
- Worked 8-5pm
- Arrived home from work
- Departed 5 minutes later for dinner with 1,000 calories available for consumption
- Arrived @ Zenna Noodle House
- Consumed Chicken Massaman Curry (1 cup), Rice Noodles (1 cup), & Chicken Pho (1 cup), Deep Fried Coconut Ice Cream (1/3 of total dessert)
- Swooned over Andrew Bird from the second row
- Returned home at 11:30PM
- 30 mins on elliptical, 10 mins on rower
- Bed @ 1am

Saturday:
- Dragged self out of bed at 10am
- Weighed self one day before official ‘weigh-in day’
- Lost another 3 lbs
- Reached goal of 249 by February 1 despite riding the cotton pony (damn you! I probably lost more!)
- Sister arrives
- Panera Bread enters the belly leaving 1,000 calories for dinner
- Video games from 12pm to 5pm
- Five slices of thin-crust spinach & feta pizza consumed while watching TLC
- Sister departs @ 8:30pm
- 45 minutes of Wii Fit
- 20 minutes of elliptical
- Video games, video games, video games
- Bed @ 2am

Reel It In

Bowling was amazing. I had a great time with some great people and nearly bowled a turkey! Next time, I just might land that third strike in-a-row!

Half-turkey aside, my favorite part of the night was when I leaned against the wall and noticed that my back wasn’t floating into outter-space. YES! Both ends of my body can touch flat surfaces in perfect harmony!

My second favorite part was standing with my arms by my side without having to bend and ‘rest’ them on my love-handles. GREATNESS IN A CAN!

I also sort of liked sitting six inches from Korey as he ate a BBQ chicken pizza and six inches from Janice and Josh who ate buffalo chicken smothered in blue cheese — two of my favorite foods. I liked that I was content with my newfangled routine. I liked that I was able to accept the fact that other people have their own. I liked that I didn’t feel deprived and that my stomach didn’t rumble my brain into temptation.

I liked that I didn’t have anxiety about going out. I liked that I enjoyed myself for every minute of the night rather than just enjoying myself for those ten minutes I stuffed my face with food.

I wasn’t planning on working out when I got home, but I ended up hitting the elliptical for thirty minutes after Supernatural. I’m glad I did because it didn’t dawn on me until I was half-way to busting a lung that I won’t be able to workout tomorrow due to the Andrew Bird concert. I know two days off won’t hurt me, but I feel so much better when I am using my body rather than just inhabiting it.

It felt good.

I posted some RDA ‘goals’ in my last entry and failed to mention that I haven’t been trying to hit each and every one of those numbers even though I have added them to my FitDay account.  Let’s face it, that would be clinically insane!!

Instead, I glance over the numbers after entering my last morsel of food to see where I may or may not have hit the jackpot for the day. It is shocking to see that I’m inadvertently hitting 80% of the recommended allowances except when it comes to sodium (over the RDA) and fiber (under the RDA).

It’s not a huge deal, but I like knowing where I am at so that I can try to make better choices using this data.  I know that too much sodium won’t kill me, but I’d like to bring that number down over the next few months.

I realize that I probably sound like some lunatic sitting in a corner with drool running from my mouth as I mutter numbers like the Rain Man, but it’s not like that! There is strength in knowledge and I am enjoying the new information I am being exposed to. I take everything I read, hear, or see about ‘diet’ and ‘exercise’ with a grain of salt. It keeps me sane in the midst of all the contradictions.

What it boils down to is simple: I like knowing why I should be cooking more and eating fewer foods from a box because it’s easy for me to shrug such information off as ‘hearsay’ or (my personal favorite) ‘bullshit’.

I’m just trying to take the mystery out of this process.  I’m reeling it back to earth!

Yep.

I guess you could say I’m keeping it ‘reel’.

Sushi + Numbers = Bowling?

I’m bowling after work tonight with some of my co-workers and I am most definitely looking forward to it. I participated in the last two work-sponsored leagues and had a ball! There’s nothing like letting off a little steam by chucking a circular brick down a slippery surface. But, like everything, there are two sides this ‘bowling coin’. Even though I was actively participating in something that requires the lifting and subsequent hurling of a twelve-pound sphere, I was stuffing my face with tasty bar food while waiting for my next turn!

Yes, you read that correctly. I bowl at a sadistic alley — one that serves bar food right to your lane! Not only that, but the waitresses are on tap fulfilling all of your adult beverage needs! D’oh.

I won’t be eating at the lanes tonight, that’s for sure. Instead, a co-worker and I have decided to hit an adjacent sushi bar before we head across the street to knock down some pins.  $3 California Rolls = a yummy and cheap way to fill the belly.  Although California Rolls aren’t my number one choice, I absolutely can’t beat the ‘happy hour’ price.

One California Roll (8 pieces) has around 255 calories, 7 grams of fat, 38 grams of carbs, 5.8 grams of fiber, and 9 grams of protein. Not sure about the sodium and the carbs are a bit high, but as long as I stay within my nutritional goals, I say, ‘Carb me up, Scotty!’

Speaking of nutritional goals…

Someone over at Inspire’s message board got me thinking beyond just calories. I started to wonder how much fat, saturated fat, carbs, etc. I should be eating according to my 1,500 calorie, nutrient balanced regimen. I did a little math (which I am absolutely terrible at) and came up with these numbers:

Fat: 48.75g max
Sat Fat: 15g max
Trans: 1.5g max
Cholesterol: 225mg max
Carbohydrate: 225g max
Fiber: 18.75g min
Sodium: 1,800mg max
Potassium: 2625mg max
Protein: 37.5g max

There’s a good chance that these numbers aren’t accurate due to my shit math skills, but hey! It’s a starting point at least!

Recalculating II

I’ve decided to recalculate my calories now that I have lost twenty pounds. My new schedule is as follows: M-Th: 1400, F: 1600, Sa: 1700, Su: 1500 — a total of 500 calories less per week. Not a huge difference, but there’s a reason for that.

My choices were:

1. Eat less
2. Workout more

At the beginning of this journey, I decided that my mission was to get fit/healthy rather than to simply ‘lose weight’. To me, being thin doesn’t automatically equal fit/healthy. I’ve seen many, many, many thin people huff and puff their way up a flight of stairs! With that said, I chose to increase the intensity and length of my workouts rather than significantly decrease my caloric intake.

For the past few days, I’ve been working out to JM’s Fitness Ultimatum 2009 for forty-five minutes on ‘hard’. I returned the heart-rate monitor I purchased from Amazon, so I don’t have a means to accurately gauge my ‘calories burned’ at this time. According to the game, I am burning around 500 cals. Even if I shave 100 cals off that number, it’s still pretty good.

Afterward, I hop onto the elliptical for a twenty-five minute session. At the end of my twenty-five minutes, I’ve gone 2.5 miles, supposedly burned another ‘300 calories’ (give or take), and want to die.

I grab a glass of water, chug it, and then hit the rower for an additional ten minute workout/cool-down. When I’m done, I do a few bicep curls and call it a night.

I’ve noticed that when I use the Wii Fit before the elliptical, I fly through my elliptical workout. It’s less of a struggle and it’s actually enjoyable. It’s the weirdest thing.

Anyhow. I need to get a heart-rate monitor. I want an awesome one, but not sure which to go with. The one I bought from Amazon had great reviews, but it was confusing, a pain in my ass, and cheap as hell. Too bad the Body Bugg is so damn expensive.

Lesson #2746565930868

I ripped into that small bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs I bought on Sunday after I devoured two English Muffin Pizzas last night. I was one calorie under my goal for the day and completely full from my dinner, but ripped into them anyhow.

I blame stress.

I had a mock-up due before midnight and I hadn’t even started it due to a plethora of other projects monopolizing my entire weekend (actually, monopolizing my every waking moment for the last two weeks). After I got home from work, I attempted to tackle my workout, but I was worn fifteen minutes in by both the task at hand and the loom and doom of that stupid mock-up. Fifteen minutes into my sweat-fest, I threw the towel in and never looked back.

Consuming 210 calories of egg-shaped chocolate-y goodness and shorting myself of a quality workout won’t kill me. I’m not disappointed with myself and I don’t feel bad about it. I just need to make better choices — and this time, it doesn’t have to do with food! I’m really starting to realize how other areas of my life affect my eating habits. I am starting to realize that it goes beyond what I physically put in my mouth.

Triple Pounder!

Another three pounds gone. What can I say? It’s been a good week. I was on track every day. I overpowered a few cravings that popped up here and there, but all-in-all, I have no complaints.

I went food shopping today. I’ve realized that it’s important to replenish supplies every week rather than trying to stretch it to two. I need my Egg Beaters, dammit! I also picked up some fruits and vegetables (…and a small bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs).

After I put the goods away, I threw a few bags of salad together in my silver mixing bowl, cut up some tomatoes, and put it in the fridge for later. I also picked up some balsamic vinegar. I had never even heard of this stuff until Jillian mentioned it on her radio show. I was never a big salad fan because I don’t like creamy dressings and I don’t like sweet stuff on my shrubbery.  Balsamic is absolutely perfect for me. Throw some peppercinis on there and it’s an Italian’s dream salad.

For dinner, I fixed myself an English Muffin pizza on whole wheat using your standard spaghetti sauce, fat free mozzarella (aka glue), turkey pepperoni, two slices of mushrooms (a sign that I am slowly easing into the veggie scene!), and some onions. Holy amazing, Batman!! I was a little wary after being able to (literally) pick each slice up by a stand of cheese (nothing budged, it was weird!), but it was DELICIOUS. I threw together a cup of salad and chowed down before moving onto the pizza and I’m completely full.

The rest of my food intake can be seen here and is somewhat is chronological order: http://arthutomedia.com/journal/sunday.jpg

I might have a small snack after I workout since I am allowed 1,600 calories, but I haven’t decided yet. There’s one peanut butter, chocolate, a vanilla Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich left and it’s calling my name.

Only two more pounds until I break into the 240’s! My goal is to get there by Feb 1st. I will be so, so, so stoked if I can manage to get ‘er done. I think I can do it! This is the first month I have actually logged all my food without so much as skipping a single meal or day. I recorded most days in December, but skipped out on eleven days (including a week-long holiday food fest!). Woo! I feel good about taking responsibility for what I am eating. I like that I am beginning to pick up on healthy alternatives and portion control.

I’ve been thinking about reducing my Friday, Saturday, and Sunday calorie goals by 100-200 calories each day (200 would be reserved for Saturday) — not because of the goal, but because I am finding myself eating crap just to reach my goals (hence the half can of Sprite).

We shall see.

Great Week!

What a week, what a week! I just got done with a sixty-minute workout and I feel divine (as long as I don’t have to pee anytime soon since my legs no longer bend).

I’ve been kicking the workouts in high gear to counteract the craziness that was last week. I feel much better. I know by now that energy and will-power has a tendency to phase in and out on the daily, but both aspects have been on steroids this week and I am lovin’ it.

Rather than counting down the seconds on the elliptical , I’ve been using each passing minute to push myself. I set a goal to elip 0.1 miles for each minute whenever I jump on that thing. I make the cut nine times out of ten. Today’s workout was great. I made it with fifteen seconds to spare on level three. The machine said I burned 198 calories, but word on the street is that these machines spout pretty inaccurate information (although I did enter my weight and recorded my heart-rate).

I’ve also started working out to Jillian Michael’s Wii game. I have to admit, I wasn’t too impressed the first couple of times I played. The graphics are a joke, her motivational comments suck, the music is ridiculous, and I hard a hard time getting my avatar to respond to my movements. But I kept with it and eventually figured out how to work the damn thing enough to feel like I was actually getting a workout.

I upped the difficulty and set it for forty-five minutes and let it rip. It sort of kicked my ass this time around. I burned 571 calories running, log-jumping, monkey-barring, and grenade-throwing my way to victory. My calves hurt like hell.

In addition to working out for thirty to sixty minutes each day, I have also stayed within (and sometimes below!) my calorie goals. Big thanks to that wonderful salmon/turkey pepperoni/onion/egg beater omelette that boasts a mere 250 calories and approximately 2,000,000 grams of protein. I had it for lunch to days in a row and whipped it up for my friend Chris this morning after he spent the night. He loved it.

While I’m good at tracking my calories in, I haven’t mastered tracking those outgoing cals. I purchased a heart-rate monitor from Amazon, but I am not too thrilled with it. It’s going back. In its place, I’ve ordered the FitBit which is set to ship sometime during Q1. I am awfully excited. It looks promising. We shall see!

Tomorrow is weigh-in day!

Stress, Stress, & More Stress

I have been embarrassingly busy for the past week+ due to freelance. I have managed to keep up with my exercising routine without a hitch (raping myself of ‘me time’ for a mere thirty-minutes a day doesn’t seem justifiable), but something became terribly, terribly apparent as I was flailing and drowning in this Sea of Lance: I am a stress eater.

Holy shit. I am a stress eater.

When I’m stressed, all I do is think about food. When can I eat again? How many calories do I have left? How can I squeeze one hundred calories out of these remaining ten?! When I am stressed, I am obsessed.  It sucks! This week has been especially hard. I’ve managed to stay within my goals thus far, but I am teetering on the edge of insanity. One quick move and the whole wagon can (all too easily) come crashing down.

It’s interesting to see how great of an impact emotions can have on my journey toward a healthier me. I’m not quite sure if I am eating to procrastinate (eating delays working?) or if it’s chemical (the ‘high’ of eating?). Either way, these are dangerous waters. I owe it to myself to lessen the workload so that I may improve my life. This needs to be done and it will be done.

The Girl and I spent a wonderful weekend in Salem — not far, but far enough — away from the stress of freelance, family, friends, and litter boxes.  It was part of a brilliant Christmas gift and could not have come at a better time. In the same breath, this was my first real ‘vacation’ from the hamster wheel I’ve been running on for the past few months. I could have done better, but I could have done much, much, much worse.

For the most part, I ate items I knew I could track which is a major step in the right direction.

While waiting to be seated at the Cheesecake Factory on Friday, I managed to pull up the nutritional information on my iPhone. It was no surprise to me that most of their dishes were in the 1,200-1,500 calorie range. After all, these people pride themselves on out-of-control portion sizes (and yet, their chairs aren’t thunder-thigh friendly — what gives?!). I usually wrestle between the Crusted Chicken Romano and the Club Sandwich (the Italian dish versus a plate full of fries is always a tough choice!), but those dishes were no longer an option. I decided on the Renee’s Special which consists of a Turkey Sandwich (1/2) and a small Green Salad.  The Girl ordered her usual (Crab Cake Sandwich smothered in butter, batter, and mayo with a heaping pile of fries) and decided to throw in an order of Thai Lettuce Wraps for good measure.

I hadn’t planned on getting an appetizer, but surely something consisting of grilled chicken won’t come around to bite me in the ass, right? Wrong! One serving of peanut-topped grilled chicken wrapped in a frickin’ shrub is 250 calories. Unaware, I quickly gobbled up two helpings for a total of 500-ish calories.

Ugggh.

On top of that, I had three slices of bread and a single pad of butter. Oh yeah, and four fries.

At this point, I wasn’t aware of how many calories I had actually consumed, but I was still (somewhat) reeling from my impeccable meal choice until it came to the table complete with a mega-bowl of clam-frickin’-chowder.

I’ve never had their chowder, but I figured it wouldn’t differ too much from their Baked Potato Soup which ultimately tasted like wallpaper glue the first and only time I’ve ordered it.  I took a bite and this is when the ‘OH CRAP’ moment happens: IT’S ACTUALLY GOOD.

What gives?! I made a great choice (albeit, I wavered and secretly begged the waiter to come back before I could change my mind), and yet, my good choice has lead me to murky waters! Am destined to fail because of this highly unexpected tub of Steamy-n-Creamy Clam Chowder?

Hell no. It’s Bargain Time, baby!

Eating the chowder was absolutely not an option. Instead, I simply dipped my Turkey Sandwich (all 1/2 of it!) in the soup before each bite as a compromise (…and because the turkey was dry and tasted way, way, way too ‘fleshy’).

Without accounting for the bread, butter, and 1/10th of my clam chowder, my day ended at around 1,850 calories. Granted, I went over my allowance by a ‘mere’ 150 calories, but who knows how much badness was in those items unaccounted for. Thinking back to the 500-calorie grilled chicken and shrubbery, I am pegging the bread/butter/chowder/four-fry combo as at least seven jillion calories. AT LEAST.

Saturday was a bit better. Okay, not really. We made the trek down to Revere to catch a movie even though there was a movie theatre down the street from the Inn we were staying at. Why the nine mile road trip? Pretzel Bites. Literally. The Girl has an obsession with these small, buttery morsels of absolute heaven. Complete with your standard concession nacho cheese, these bullets of greatness pack a punch. Unfortunately, The Girl doesn’t have a severe weight problem like yours truly (naturally thin people be damned!), so pretzel hunting it was. I decided to indulge because I hadn’t eaten yet and figured I could spare the extra calories (meal combining is fun!). Even though the pretzels weren’t going to kill me, it really bothered me that I was eating yet anther Mystery Item. I used to be insanely against the Numberfication of Fatness (due to laziness), but it’s definitely become second nature.

Down the hatch they went!

Before I knew it, it was dinner time. I hadn’t eaten since the pretzels and The Girl was craving — you’ll never guess what Crappy McCrap food I am about to type next — Burger King! We don’t eat a lot of fast food. In fact, there are only one or two joints in all of Newton that fall into the traditional ‘fast food’ category. I think I saw a Taco Bell/KFC at one point, but I’m not sure if we had secretly crossed into Watertown or if it was simply a mirage. At any rate, we’re not big fast food eaters (pizza is more like it!), but for some strange reason, I am always willing to take it up the @$$ for The King. Yes, I love Burger King.

I ordered approximately 1,150 calories of complete crap (read: goodness) and devoured it like it was going out of style. Yum, yum. I washed my dinner down with vendor-sized bag of onion rings for dessert a few hours later and called it a night.

Not counting the pretzels and molted-plastic cheese, I ended my day at 1,560 calories — 240 calories less than my goal. I’m sure the pretzel/cheese combo put me over with flying colors. Although this could be considered a ‘win’, these calories (plus the unaccounted for!) were made up of a total of five items. FIVE ITEMS. I won’t even get into the 77 grams of fat that went along with it…

I promised myself that Sunday would be a better day. We woke up to another wonderful New England snow storm. It chased us out the door, into our car, and straight to IHOP.

Why, why, why?!

I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to find the nutritional information online for IHOP during the day at some point. I decided to take a stab at piecing together a decent meal without looking it up beforehand. I ordered the Quick Two-Egg breakfast and quickly realized that substituting my eggs for Egg Beaters was altogether pointless since the whole thing was (what I assumed to have been) cooked in butter. My turkey sausage never showed up. Instead, I received standard pork sausage and thus, ate it anyway. My wheat toast was pre-buttered and the hash browns were crispy.

After our very long and snowy car ride home, I hopped on the computer to find some good ‘ole nutritional values for the stuff I had eaten. To my surprise, there’s very little nutritional information available for IHOP. Unless you’re eating pancakes, you’re eating in the dark. I did manage to find a dish comparable to what I had — all 600 calories worth (which didn’t include hash browns). I knew I should have gotten the Ham & Egg sandwich (only 555 calories!).

Another 1,885 calorie day down the drain (285 calories over my goal).

The thing that bothers me the absolute most is that I didn’t enjoy many of the things I ate this past weekend. From the appetizer at the Cheesecake Factory to my entire meal at IHOP — it just wasn’t that great. YET! I ate. And ate. And ate. It just wasn’t worth it in the end. Hopefully I’ll be able to do better next time.

It may seem like I am blowing things out of proportion a bit since I went over my goals by a ‘few hundred calories here and there’, but I beg to differ. The reason? I’m pretty sure I should have recalculated my calorie goals as soon as I hit my first fifteen pound loss. As it stands, I am eating enough calories for someone who weighs seventeen pounds heavier than I currently do, and yes, it apparently makes a difference.

Even though I ended up eating close to 1,000 calories more than I should have last week, I still should have lost at least one pound! There’s a glitch in the system and I think it’s because I haven’t recalculated. My goal for this week is to remain within my original (and current) goals and to workout for 30-45 minutes per day. If I don’t lose weight, there’s a problem. It can’t be because I am eating too little. I’ve been varying my caloric intake on a daily basis (M: 1400, T: 1500, W: 1400, Th: 1500, F: 1700, Sa: 1800, Su: 1600). I haven’t really increased my workouts (I’ve increased the intensity somewhat, but not drastically) and with 114 pounds left to go, I doubt I can over train at this point (due to stored energy).

We shall see!

I’m on track so far this week, but am weakened by the stress of all this damn freelance. I made a very hard decision last night after receiving an email that threw me over the edge head-first. That decision was to let a new friend and extremely hellacious client go. There’s only so much ‘run-around’, so much of that ‘free-for-all’ mentality one can take before they snap.

AND SNAP I DID.

Also, if you haven’t seen Gran Torino, I highly recommend you do (but skip the pretzels, seriously).

Things I’ve Learned Today

- Late night eating is only bad if you’re eating beyond your caloric allowance! If possible avoid carbs late at night, but eat so long as you’re not going over your cals.

- Never workout on an empty stomach. Eat a couple hundred calories of carbs/protein 45-60 minutes before working out so that you feel energized and burn more calories.

- Never stretch before working out. Only stretch after (if you feel the need to stretch at all)

- Low intensity cardio does not burn more calories! High heart rate = burning more calories and fat. Higher heart rate = increased after burn. Increase the intensity of your workouts to burn more calories! Work to 80-85% of your heart rate.

- Crunches do not flatten your abs. You cannot spot-reduce fat.

- Dunkin Donuts has reintroduce the Dunkaccino® , thus, I am officially effed.

Adult Beverages

Sunday is weigh-in day. And what a glorious Sunday it has been (minus the hangover)! Another 3.5 pounds bite the dust. That brings my total weight loss to seventeen pounds since mid November.

I don’t want to jinx myself, but I have to admit, the high of working out beats the high of stuffing my face by a long shot.  I love the idea of strengthening my body. I love that I went dancing last night and dropped it like it was mother-effing hot after four Malibu & Diet Cokes and four Kamikazes without a problem.

In addition to drinking myself into a mini-coma, I went to Fuddfuckers for lunch yesterday. Luckily, their burgers are amazing and don’t require ‘fixings’ to make them yummy. I ordered a naked turkey burger (next time, plain bun — not toasted!). NO FRIES. NO RINGS. Why? Because I knew I would need those calories to while out later that evening.  I also did my homework before going (thank you Daily Plate!):

Malibu = 1 shot, 51 cals
Kamikaze = 1 shot, 172 calories

Even though I knew I was going to dance, dance, dance, I decided to leave at least 500 calories for alcohol consumption. That way, if I passed out face-down on the floor before getting a sufficient amount of groove on, I would still come in under or close to my allowance. It worked like a charm! Screwing myself over last night was mathematically impossible.

For the first time in a long time, I am not feeling deprived and/or like total shit.

Cheers!

Mini Binge

I’ve been doing well despite going over my calorie allowance two days in a row. Tuesday’s mishap was due to poor math skills (even though I use Fitday to do my calculations!) and completely forgetting to add that Cafe Vienna I had sometime during the work day. I went over by 154 cals. Not going to complain about that too much.

Yesterday’s mishap was a different story. I blew my remaining calories at dinner time (5:30pm) and was only four calories over when 10:00pm rolled around. What is the significance of 10pm? Top Chef, of course. Between 10pm and 10:20pm, I mini-binged (which obviously included cheese) and consumed 280 calories I did not need. Let’s not even get into how ridiculous it is to eat a meal of Tapas De Crap at 10pm.

From now on, I will simply DVR Top Chef and watch it on Thursday with my dinner. It’s crazy how something like a TV show can catalyze a mini binge. Laughable, even. But it’s a reality. And I have to embrace the ridiculous to change it.

I have yet to have a ‘perfect’ week where I stay within my calorie limits and exercise as planned. My workouts for the week are on track, so that feels good. If I didn’t have that as a ‘feel good fall back’, I would be one hundred percent screwed right now. I know that for a fact.

Look like those 434 cals over my allowance = 43 extra minutes on the elliptical and/or rower for me this weekend. Must. Be. Accountable.

An Up!

I feel pretty damn good today despite having two freelance projects due tonight, cardio tonight, zero clean pairs of underwear to my name (aka laundry tonight), two inches of slush covered by an inch of ice on the ground outside, the lack of Massaman Curry in my life, and a piece of apple in my mouth.

Yes, I do feel pretty freaking good.

New Foods on the Horizon

My food log is starting to look like Groundhog Day. That’s OK. I am not bored of all the same ‘ole, same ‘ole yet. Although I love trying new things, I am very lazy when it comes to cooking. ‘Cooking’ usually involves a microwave or a pot of water. On a good day, it might involve a frying pan or a cookie sheet (for reduced fat crescent rolls, not cookies!). I’m OK with eating much of the same day in and day out. I think that’s what got me here in the first place. Same ole crapola with a cherry on top.

I am 99% sure that as I progress, I will become more motivated to cook. I am almost positive that my taste for veggies and fruits will also improve greatly, too. At this point, cooking seems a lot more difficult than keeping up with the exercise and eating as best I can without going ‘all out’ in that area. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I try to become the next Top Chef in these early stages, I will let all that fresh food spoil, grab what I can out of frustration, and fail.

When I feel like the time has come to expand my menu, I will do so with much passion and enjoyment. Until then, I am sticking to the yogurts and the turkey/chicken burgers and the salads and the salmon and the reduced-fat cheese sticks and the balance bars and the occasional tortilla-less burrito with brown rice and the shredded chicken and the buffalo jerky and soy dogs and the soy sausage and the soy bacon and the gazpacho and the egg beaters and the turkey pepperoni and the high fiber cereal with no fat milk and the various veggies and fruits (far and few between, but there nonetheless). Of course, this isn’t ‘it’ — it’s just … most of ‘it’.

My interest in finding recipes for those yummy, healthy, feel-good, home-cooked dinners is definitely starting to creep up on me. Otherwise, this entry wouldn’t exist!

McOuch

I have gotten into the terrible habit of writing down the nutritional information of whatever I eat on whatever I can find. Surfaces ranging from paper plates to paper towels to torn envelopes to various body parts — I just can’t seem to stop and it’s starting to hurt the wallet! It’s so obvious that my new habit is born out of total and utter desperation. If I don’t write down the nutrition then and there using the .00002 ounces of patience I have left, I WILL NEVER WRITE IT DOWN.

I got my thirty minutes of cardio done this evening. I was dying after the first five minutes. I just don’t understand. On some days, I can bust right through it. I put my head down and tighten my grip and smash through twenty or thirty minutes. When I am in the groove and on my way to thirty consecutive minutes, I start bartering with The Powers That Be around twenty-five minutes (you know, the usual ‘I will never eat poorly again, just speed up time for me!!!’). I consider that ‘normal’.

On the other hand, I have those days where I can barely make it to ten minutes without having a mini coronary. When that happens, I struggle to push myself to the next ‘big even number’ — be it ten or twenty. When I do, Plan B is conceived. My Plan B for today became ten solid minutes on the elliptical (after wanting to retire after three, what the frock?), ten solid minutes on the rowing machine, and ten more solid minutes on the elliptical.

If the first ten minutes almost did me in, you can only imagine how shitty I was feeling during the second round. I was literally begging for a reason other than shortness of breath and loss of vision (which I was clearly experiencing) to get off that machine. Instead, I got it done and drowned myself in water, water, water.

Why-oh-why does my cardio ability seem to vary greatly? Could be that I haven’t stepped on the machine in at least a week due to substituting ‘front-side’ and ‘back-side’ strength training instead?

PERHAPS.

Now that some of the glamor has worn off, I should be able to stick to my new, more realistic five-day exercise schedule.

Christmas, Part Deux

I am cracking up.

I got on the scale today to see what damage I’ve done after not working out very much for the past week and after consuming nine slices of pizza (the crust was extremely thin, okay?!) on Wednesday and an additional five on Thursday (same thin crust style) to celebrate the New Year (backwards logic, much?).

The scale read 257.5.

I was waiting for a little robotic voice to emanate from the scale in the same manner as my GPS unit with a hearty, ‘recalculating!’ but it never came. There I stood in silence. And most importantly: awe.

In the past five years, I have made it to down to the 250’s twice. Both times, my accomplishment vanished as quickly as it arrived. A part of me doesn’t quite believe this is actually happening. I suspect I won’t ‘officially’ believe this ‘new way of life’ is working until I am safely out of the troubled 50’s and into the fabulous 40’s. In fact, my new short-term goal is to break into the 240’s by February 1st.

I was so excited by the number that I immediately wanted to work out. I decided on Jillian Michael’s ‘Backside’ DVD. It kicked my butt (literally). After wards, I cooled down with a bit of rowing and then hopped in the shower for a super cool-down.

I’m still riding the high as I prepare my dinner — two chicken burgers from Trader Joe’s, one Thomas’ Mini Square bagel (whole wheat, of course), and some rice puffs. Should be good.

Hell, at this point, I’d be happy eating shit on a cracker after seeing that 257.5!

Worth It

Crunching numbers sucks, mainly because I am terrible at math. I  am (yet again) armed with a Sharpie marker and a notebook for the hundredth time since the end of November trying to figure out exactly how much I need to eat. It dawned on me while watching TV a few minutes ago that I’ve been figuring in daily exercise expenditure into my calorie allowance.

Problem? I am not working out everyday. Not good. I’ve decided to get real with myself and set a workout schedule:

- Monday: cardio (30 min)
- Tuesday: front-side strength training (5 min warm-up + 30 min + 5 min cool down)
- Wednesday: cardio kickboxing (5 min warm-up + 20 min + 5 min cool down)
- Thursday: back-side strength training (5 min warm-up + 30 min + 5 min cool down)
- Friday: cardio (30 min)

I feel like I should take Saturday and Sunday off for the most part to let my body ‘rest’ and to serve as a reward for working out everyday during the week. Rather than applying a consequence for not working out, I am thinking about adopting one for caloric overages, as I need a bit of ‘help’ in that area. Perhaps an one extra minute of cardio per ten extra calories consumed. This will take honesty and personal responsibility to a new level. Might as well give it a try.

Back to the math.

I have a feeling that my numbers from previous blog posts are off because:

1. I blow at math
2. I don’t have a heart rate monitor

I’m heading to Amazon.com right now to order one. I need to get serious about this. I need to re-crunch the numbers using accurate information. I will never know how much I burn unless I get one of these puppies. More money spent, but surely, I AM WORTH IT.