I guess I run now

Seriously. Anyone? Anyone? I can pay you in low-carb cheesecake.

So I’ve almost dug myself out of work-work only to find that all that time spent on work-work has left our house in an absolute shambles. So today I’m staying home to see if I can combine a little work-work with some house work. & a workout, of course.

I got my kettle ball (with video) yesterday, so on tap for today is pilates followed by a kettleball routine. Didn’t get a strap & handweights to do the Power 90 DVD that I’ve had for ages because the combined cost was a bit much. Once I tire of the kettleball, I’ll move on to that.

Yesterday food:

Lunch with a colleague: salad with salmon & coffee with half/half (carbs!)
Dinner: chicken alfredo over spaghetti squash
Snack: handful of nuts (very bad) & two mini cheesecakes (yummy)

I managed to tidy up the kitchen this morning thinking about (but not) eating a cheese cake, which tells me it’s time to get those suckers frozen so I don’t indulge myself into no weight loss this week. Carbwise they’re fine, but I’m suspicious of even Splenda as being too sugar-like.

Food Today:
Lunch: leftover chicken on salad with egg
Dinner: pork chops (no creative ideas for what to do with them…wonder what frumpmomma would do), green beans, salad.

Update: Wardrobe Fun & Games

Couldn’t wait to get hubby out of the house so I could play in my closet & see what new (read: old) outfits I can wear next week. I’m back in most of the stuff I was in last fall. Some stuff is still too tight to wear to work, but in another couple of weeks, it’ll all be good to go. This is where things start to get fun. I mean, what could be better than going from “well, maybe no one will notice I’ve got only 1 pair of pants & one skirt that fit” to having actual options in the morning! Hell, I think I’ll go back to setting out what I’m going to wear in the evenings again…seemed a pointless exercise since the decision was has for some time been based on one question: “did I wear these pants yesterday or the skirt?”

Have a great day chicks!

are in the oven…figuring 2.5-3 carbs each! Hot diggity dog!

More later.

Clearly Tuesdays are going to be a sore spot for me, especially since, with course prep, Tuesday technically begins Sunday night and ends late Wednesday afternoon. Oh Tuesday, I CURSE you!

So…where was I before Tuesday so rudely interrupted me?

Okay, yesterday food was really light in the day (wrong, right?), only one hard boiled egg. But hubby & I planned to go to a fun place for our anniversary, so I wanted to have all 20 carbs available to use there. Went over, of course. But it’s my anniversary!

Here’s the damage: cup of lamb stew (didn’t eat a single potato, but there was surely roux involved), flank steak over salad. Then hubby asked if I wanted a bite of his entree (he ordered the grilled chicken special). Had a bite & said “is that a batter on there.” He said, “no, it’s grilled.” & it was this incredible grilled chicken with a gravy (roux again). Then he took second bite & said, “I think the waiter messed up, this is like chicken-fried steak, with a batter.” Argh, so more flour! Then I had tea with milk (carbs!). A treat, but this place has about 30 amazing (no ordinary) beers on tap, so I held my own against that temptation at least. Then I made hubby order a dessert for himself (and for me to have a bite of): a fancy ice cream sandwich. Had 2 bites, but it was pretty unexciting, so no great temptation there. When we got home, hubby made me a small gin & diet tonic.

Test strip this morning showed me still in Moderate fat burning mode, but I’m sure I didn’t lose yesterday. Still YaY!

Lunch today…a lunch meeting with Jimmy John’s sandwiches, so when our dept secretary took my order, I asked for their unwich (a lettuce-wrap rather than a sub roll).

Dinner: hb egg & 1/2 cup spaghetti squash

Exercise: REALLY stressful day at work & all I wanted was a nice rich beer or a rum & coke or a bottle of wine to take the edge off when we got home. But then I remembered I’d planned to exercise after work, so rather than pulling a bottle of wine out of the basement, I stayed there & did 15 mins of yoga & 20 mins of a mat workout. Got the Power 90 “Sculpt 1-2″ set up in the DVD player…will do that after I’ve had a chance to buy some weights & a strap.

I am seriously too tired & stressed to run tonight, but I need to start the C25K program if I’m going to run a 5K in May.

Happy evening chicks!

Oh, it’s a banner day here. First of all, getupnow’s back! WOO HOO! Check out her new blog at: http://www.3fatchicks.com/diet-blogs/groundhogday/

Second, I’m down 3.1 pounds this week. Not huge numbers by Atkins Induction standards, but I feel like I lost my big number the week of Thanksgiving & I can so live with a 3-pound loss!

I’m more than half-way to my first goal of 25 pounds!

Food:
Lunch: leftover dinner meat & 1/4 cup of spaghetti squash
Dinner: steak tips…just steak tips. Not much appetite: I think I got a stomach bug!
Snack: cause I felt like I need to eat something or stall my metabolism–2 small pieces of cheese.

Exercise: not happening on Mondays this semester: my “nope, never taught it before” class meets Tuesday mornings & my online class work (and responses to the previous week’s discussion) must be posted by Tuesday afternoon. It’s been a long day/night of prep & I still have about 50 pages of reading to do for tomorrow.

I’m not complaining, though. I think I got two great classes this semester.

Happy Monday Chicks (happy it’s over, that is!)!

that there will finally be some movement on the scale on Monday. Not hoping for terribly much, just enough to break on through to a new number that I haven’t seen in a while. By my next weigh in, I’d like to be able to wear a pair of pants that haven’t fit in a year or more, but we’ll see what the scale says.

I was toying with the idea of making mini atkins-friendly quiches (baking in muffin pans & freezing all but one), but then I thought that maybe the second week on induction isn’t the time for even induction-approved indulgences? Last night doing this seemed like an absolute necessity, but today…yeah, something sweet might be too much of a trigger at this point. Okay, that’s decided.

Food

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: 2 hb eggs
Snack: about an ounce of cheese
Dinner: beef tip (in crockpot) with spaghetti squash in a cream sauce

Exercise: got totally inspired by siobhanmc’s post on “That Girl” and headed to the basement to workout. Didn’t feel up for pilates (so sore), so I did a 25-min mat workout video with some squats, lunges, abs, situps, plants, etc. Then pulled out a 14-min am-yoga tape & did that. The 20-minute pm-yoga tape is loaded up for tonight…when I think I’ll do a run as well. Back to pilates tomorrow, but I used to love the way yoga made me feel (and look), so I’m going to do that as well.

Update: rather than yoga & a run, I took a walk in the freezing-cold night air with hubby & the dog. Cold & dark enough that we did only the 1-mile, not our favorite 3-mile across the old apple orchard (sounds pretty, but most of the old orchard is slowly becoming new house lots)

Have a great Sunday Chicks!

He surprised me this morning by suggesting we go shopping together. Yippee! I actually enjoy this chore when he’s there.

We hit Whole Foods first for meat…so for those keeping score, eating humanely is both expensive and time-consuming. Got away with enough meat to last a little over a week (we make big dinners so we can pack up the leftovers for lunch) for about $40. Twice as much as we normally pay, so I’m going to have to start cutting corners (goodbye ebay & etsy) and coupons. That or go vegetarian again, but I can only barely remember how I did Atkins as a vegetarian last time.

Then we hit the regular market for veggies and supplies. It ended up being a not-too expensive round of shopping, and hubby seems okay with what he’s calling my “little experiment.”

Today’s challenge will be dinner out with another couple from the department. They chose the restaurant, our favorite Indian place. I LOVE Indian. Give me a nice curry, a lovely koorma, some tikka masala. YUM. Sadly, most of those sauces aren’t Atkins approved for induction. & nothing with lentils or potatoes would work either. Rice? NOT! Naan? NOT! So I did some research & I think I’ll go either for a tandori chicken or for a chicken tikka saagwala, small portion (rest can be hubby’s lunch) no rice & no naan. Hell, I can remember what both rice and bread taste like: what I can’t remember is what it feels like to be thin & healthy. So we’re thinking long-term pleasures tonight, not fleeting ones.

Food today:
Breakfast: oops, nothing prepared & we woke up late anyway
Lunch: leftover meat from the beef stew so many nights ago & two cheese chips (which is just shredded cheese cooked in the oven until crispy), one manchego and one Irish cheddar (we hit costco last week & both walked away with huge blocks of our favorites).
Dinner: will be in my control to every extent that’s possible. Had the chicken & spinach dish I’d planned to have. Ignored the pampadans, the garlic naan, the lovely rice. Drank a lot of water, but then on the ride home hubby mentions the food was salty. And if he noticed, that’s gotta be a lot of salt. Mine may have been less salty since I didn’t notice it, but now I’m worried. Still, I proved I can say no to the carbs even when they are some of my favorite carbs in the world.

Exercise: planning a pilates session after I’ve digested lunch a bit Update: did the 25-min pilates tape. Then got on the treadmill to see if I could run the 1/2 mile again….did it & decided the better goal would be to run 10 minutes without stopping. Did that, walked a bit, ran 2 mins on a higher speed, walked. Finished up 22 mins only, but I feel good. & I’ll be ready to repeat this tomorrow!

Weight: stepped on the scale for an unofficial weigh-in, and I’m happy with the progress from just 3 days of induction.

Food:

Breakfast: 2 deviled eggs
Lunch: leftover burger on lettuce with bleu cheese dressing
Snack: 3 deviled eggs, small piece of cheese
Dinner: pastrami (too salty!) with cheddar in a lettuce wrap
Snack: munching cheese, thinking about getting off my butt to make kale chips

Exercise (what?!): 25-min pilates tape! Woo to the Hoo! It’s a beginning!

Ya’ll have a great weekend!

Realized I probably should go into work with hubby tomorrow to help him with his review materials & meet with my dept. chair before I send off this grant.

Which means, for those of you playing along at home, that my plan to spend tomorrow morning cleaning the basement & arranging it into a workout room is out. BOO, BOO!

What’s in is taking the dog for a walk through the snow after dinner & THEN cleaning the basement and getting it arranged.

Yay! Treadmill’s in a good spot; there’s tons of room for my mat in front of the TV; the TV, VCR, and DVD player are hooked up & ready to go; cobwebs & dust are history.

When I was done cleaning, just for kicks, I hopped on the treadmill & started running. Very slowly, but a run nevertheless. Figured I’d try for .1 mile, but then hit that & upped my goal to .25, hit that & upped my goal to .3, then .35, then .4, and at that point there wasn’t any good reason not to do a half mile. YAY! I might’ve gone longer, but I was in jeans, a turtleneck with no bra, and socks, so dressed more to clean than to run.

But I’m ready to do this…& my pilates tape is loaded up & ready to run tomorrow when I get up.

Hey, look at me! I’m proud of myself!

Breakfast: 2 deviled eggs
Lunch: hubby’s parm chicken with buffalo sauce over lettuce with bleu cheese dressing
Snack: about 2 oz cheese & a deviled egg
Dinner: probably my first grass-fed burger ever with cheese, 1/4 cup snap peas, salad
Snack: I’M STARVING…how is that possible?…so I’m heading to the fridge for another egg & a slice of cheese.

and how writing about the plan in any huge detail might make enacting the plan impossible.

Sunny’s right…you don’t drop as much weight as she has & enjoy good health being wrong, of course. I need to set aside time to exercise. Interestingly enough, though, time isn’t the biggest issue (most weeks)…space is.

I have a basement office that is also a den. Once we moved the old couch down there, the treadmill & my space for yoga got shifted to a back corner, away from the TV & DVD player. So…not good. Also, I do most of my work at my real office at school during the day (& weekends) & on the couch during the evenings. So the space where I could workout is cobweb & dust central right now & I need to re-imagine the space to make room for the treadmill, my matt, and some small handweights & a kettleball.

Okay, so normally there’d be no days off or weekends for a while: beginning of the semester blues. But I worked like a madwoman before break to get grants, my review materials, and courses drafted, so I’m taking tomorrow morning off to clean the basement and exercise. That basement will be my space to workout.

& that lollypops and gentlegerms is The Plan.

Show of hands, who hates the first week back to work? I do, I do!

But I’ve been good, food wise, not exercise wise. We’ve been leaving for work early, getting home late, and continuing to work til sleepy time. It’s no excuse, but it’s what I’ve got.

I’ve sorta slipped out of induction & into Bigprof’s Revolutionary Weight-Loss Plan…the revolutionary part is, undoubtedly, that you don’t lose anything on my plan. Yeah, I’ve been making up Atkins as I go, based on memory and denial of memories. Eating nuts when I know they’re wrong for induction. Having as many veggies as I want every day.

But today (this week, next week, the week after that) I’m full-on induction: even getting rid of my Crystal Light since it has aspertame, which Atkins suggests can slow weight-loss.

So…plenty of protein & fat; 2 cups of salad & 1 cup of veggie a day. I’m not dropping coffee. You wouldn’t like a decaffeinated Bigprof. No one would like a decaffeinated Bigprof! But everything else will be by the book…which I bought last night since I can’t find my copy of it anywhere!

We’ll see how it goes. The eggs for deviled eggs are boiling now.

Lunch: hubby’s yummy parmesean coated (and only parmesean & herb coated) chicken strips over 1 cup salad. 2 deviled eggs, cheese.

Dinner: will be something with ground beef, salad, spinach or spaghetti squash.