I guess I run now

Any early and late work day today, but I am making time for some exercise this evening…just as soon as we leave the office…and have dinner…I’m starving! At least that’s one good thing exercising will do for me right away: it’ll give me a nice break in the stupid long work day!

Feeling good about this new start, but I’m also aware that I’m making my own rules here, so…what should those rules be? Well, for one, I need to leave some nuts in the office because, and I don’t know if I mentioned this or not, I’M STARVING! Having some protein shake mix in my coffee to hold off some of the hunger, but it’s not working or working too slowly.

I know that processed carbs & grains are out (excepting my occasional low-carb pasta indulgence & since corn is a grain, I’ll have that from time to time). I know that real sugar and corn syrup are out. Small portions are in, as are veggies and fruit (in strict moderation 1-2 a week). & I’ll stick to berries mostly, although I’m having fantasies about apples these days. That’s all I have for now & it doesn’t look much like a diet. Mostly it’s just avoiding foods my grandmother wouldn’t have had access to and even some of those (like yummy baked goods) she would’ve eaten. But maybe focusing on exercise will have some effect. Do I sound lost here? Probably, but I’ll Make It Work!

Food:

Lunch: beets & salad
Snack: protein shake in coffee
Dinner: leftover lamb, cucumber salad w/ a little arugula
Exercise: thinking pilates or yoga and some kettlebell work

Cheers Chicks!

wherein “this” signifies “Atkins.”

So I’m coming off a successful Atkins week. I’ve kept my veggie intake to around 1-2 cups a day (no more, sometimes less). Since saying goodbye to junk food is remarkably easy for me (remarkably easy given that I look like someone who eats only chips and chocolate), but saying goodbye to veggies is incredibly difficult, I enter Saturday thinking that things are going well.

Then I run errands: video duplication store to see about getting old movies transferred to DVDs, oil change, bank, car wash, market. By the time I get to the market, I’m starved. Now, if this were the regular Kroger I go to, that’d be no big deal. But I go to the good farmers’ style market where there are around 7 varieties of greens, six varieties of green beans, and 4 varieties of eggplant…to name just a few. So I bought green beans, beets, arugula, tomatoes, fennel, and roasting onions.  So last night we had cherry chicken burgers (no bun), beets, and salad. Yum!

That’s when it hits me that summer is coming & summer meals for me are fresh corn, beets, salads, sliced tomatoes, cucumber salads, avacado, green beans, squashes, apples, blueberries, peaches, plums, cherries.

So…this isn’t working. Atkins works. I know it works. But it isn’t working for me any more. I need veggies & I miss fruit. I don’t need bread or potatoes or rice or chips or cookies or candy or sugar soda, but I need fruit and veggies again. I want to dive into a big glass of spicy tomato juice. I want to dig my teeth into an ear of corn. I want to feel the pop and twang of that first bite of a Fugi apple. It’s time to give Atkins a rest and figure something else out.

So a couple of changes:

In exchange for getting to add fruits & veggies (in moderation) back into my diet, I’m going to start exercising again. Walking/running & kettlebell or yoga at first.

I’ve been a slacker blogger, so it’s back to food blogging and reading blogs again! This place works if I work at it, and I haven’t been doing that lately.

No frivolous carbs…I’m going to let myself eat the veggies I want to eat without guilt and, until summer gets here, the occasional bit of fruit, but pasta will still be a 1-2X a month deal & it’ll be the low carb stuff still, no processed carbs, no baked goods, no white carbs like potatoes and rice. I will probably have popcorn a couple of times a month, but for special movie nights or as a special treat.

I still need to count my carbs. I’m going to shoot for 40-50 carbs a day still. That’s 20-30 more than I’ve been getting (on good days), and it’ll free me up to indulge in a 19-carb apple from time to time. It will also permit me to have two salads and 2-3 veggie servings a day without worrying that I’m messing up my diet.

It’ll take longer to get to my goal, but I’ve lost a lot of time see-sawing back & forth on Atkins induction, so what’s the rush anyway?

Food:
Breakfast: crabcake Benedict, 2 embarrassingly small wedges of melon, coffee…(not exactly the healthiest start)
Lunch: see breakfast
Snack: coffee & protein shake mix
Dinner:  lamb, leftover broccoli, leftover beets
Snack: nuts

Exercise: (that’s right!) Week 1, Day 1 of the C25K…plus a few minutes for 32 mins total walk/run. After-dinner walk with hubby & dog (1 mile).

Back from my conference in Louisville…where I carb’d it up.

Back on Atkins induction…where I’m seeing progress after only 2 days of being really good.

Back in a bit to check in with all of you!

Cheers gang!

why do you taunt me?

Went to get my nephew a big chocolate bunny (we don’t live near him, so it’s just a little, “we love you” treat) & I bought a small one for myself (split it with hubby). So that was yesterday’s carb count & then some.

But I did an unofficial weigh in today & I’m down .6. I think I’ve been lower than that this week & I’m beginning to think that I’ll finally hit the 20 pounds lost (non-goal) goal this week! That should inspire me to be good at the conference next week, although just having some actual conference outfits that fit is pretty inspirational as well. The goal this week is to do an official weigh-in on Tuesday before we leave for the conference & to be good for the remaining of the week so that I see some actual progress with that weigh-in.

Today is going to be a carb perfect day. & the weather is so spring-like that I think it’ll be long walk day as well.

Lunch: omelet, cheese, 2 slices bacon
Snack: will be protein shake
Dinner: will be roast chicken, asparagus, possibly salad ribs & cucumber salad (wasn’t in the mood for roasting a chicken & the ribs were on sale at Kroger)

Side note for folks using protein shakes: I was checking out the protein shakes in the Kroger health-food section. I like my “super high protein powder” in the orange/purple carton because it’s really high protein with no carbs, but the taste is just terrible, so I was looking for something similar in Vanilla. No luck unless I was willing to pay $20 for 12 oz of the stuff. I’m not. So I hit the diet food aisle just to see if there were any bars I could take on my trip next week. And there I found the Kroger brand protein shake in a pretty good vanilla, pretty cheap ($12 for 16 oz), & it’s 25 grams of protein for 2 carbs. Sold.

Breakfast: protein shake
Lunch: salad with cheese
Snack: nuts
Dinner: 1/2 steak with 2 shrimp & peas (peas not atkins approved, but it was the only veggie the restaurant had, so I ate a half portion
Snack: last Atkins cheese cake & spoonful of almond butter (with flaxseed)

Exercise (wha? bigprof doesn’t “exercise”): walk with hubby & dog.

not many, but…

Today’s good idea was what to do with leftover, leftover roast beef. We buy bigger cuts (hello Costco!) so that dinner naturally becomes lunch for the next day. But this roast was a wee bit bigger than I thought cause it did dinner Saturday, dinner Sunday, lunch for hubby Monday, and now I’m staring a third night down it’s terrifying face & wondering what to do.

First thought was curried beef, but that really begs for rice, so I thought…what veg instead? Then it hit me…stirfry sesame beef & broccoli. & yes, it took me a long time to get there (you’d have gotten there sooner), and yes, I’m sortof proud of this brainstorm, which should explain 2 whole agonizingly-boring paragraphs about how I decided what to cook for dinner.

Okay…what’s really happening is that I’ve spent the whole day (til just now) grading online responses and papers & my brain is mush. I still have 5 papers left to grade, but if I get up early enough tomorrow, I can get them done before class & Bob’s-Your-Uncle, I’m free from grading again until…well, until students hand in their drafts during class. Also, there’s this other class of students who probably want some grades & feedback & stuff. ARGH! Let’s go back to talking about dinner, shall we?

Actually, it’s not been a bad day…I do like getting work done, that feels good.

Breakfast: protein mix in coffee
Lunch: 4 small celery sticks with shrimp dip, 4 olives, handful of nuts
Dinner: umm…why can’t I remember this? Oh yeah, sesame beef & broccoli
Snack: sugar-free jello, more nuts

I’m more into fat-burning mode today! Not into big fat-burning mode, but getting there!

Happy Tuesday Chicks!

Just for kicks I checked my first blog entry here, knowing the 2 year mark was close & it’s today, March 7.

I’ve been blogging here with ya’ll for 2 years.

Okay, I don’t have much by way of weight loss (and maintained) to show for it, but there are other things to be thankful for on this anniversary:

• Community: It’s the weirdest thing, but I talk about ya’ll to my husband and my mom. I feel like I know you all, and I feel like I can count on you in ways that I can’t count on other people in my life (”real” friends, co-workers, some relatives).
• Goals: two years ago my goal was to run a 5K & I did that. Did that with some of you! I’d like to get back to running, but for now I can say that I accomplished something I really wanted to accomplish, largely because of this community.
• Commitment: has wavered over the last two years, but I’ve come back, started again, started over, renewed my commitment to losing and to living a healthier life.
• Laughter: there are times when I leave 3FC with tears in my eyes from laughing…there are some amazing storytellers in this group.
• Connection: okay, maybe this is “community” again, I don’t know, but it seems to me that the healthiest thing I’ve done in the last two years was connecting with a group of women who are struggling with many of the same things I’m struggling with. Those connections have taught me so much about the way my mind works and have given me so many alternatives to choose from when it seemed like I could make only bad choices.
• Inspiration: this one’s a no-brainer…just tonight I was inspired to run another 5k, hike the Appalachian Trail, join a roller-derby team, start P90X, re-join the Y, and eat a better breakfast. Okay, so I’m probably not going to do all of those things tomorrow, but I see what you’re doing & I’m inspired to move.

Okay, I think this list is worth revisiting this week. Bottom line: I’m really grateful to all of you for the support, encouragement, and damn good reading material you’ve provided over the last two wonderful years!

You’ll pay for the whole seat, but you’ll only use the edge!

Okay, I may be over-selling today’s blog post a wee bit.

Yawn.

Was a lazy day largely without work…emails and a little online course work this morning/evening, but otherwise a pretty laid-back kinda day. Took a nice long walk around the dog park, took a nice long nap, registered a wee (pun?!) bit of fat burning on my test strip last night, so hoping for much more tonight.

I’m back into Atkins…easy peasy.

Made hubby’s atkins-friendly shrimp dip (block cream cheese, 1 cup mayo, can of those super small shrimp, 1/2 cup each of celery and green pepper, little lemon, little onion powder, little tabasco, mix together with an electric mixer, adding the shrimp last…yum), which I ate for a snack today on celery. It gives me that satisfying crunch that I miss from time to time. I’m also back on the olives, and have several nights’ worth of sugar-free jello made for late-night treats. Everything’s falling into place again.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Food:
Brunch: 2 eggs, 1 sausage patty, 1/2 roma tomato
Snack: 3 small celery sticks with dip, nuts, 4 olives
Dinner: roast beef, leftover cauliflower, snow peas
Snack: will probably be jello

Exercise: walk around dog park, but I see that Tiny2b did a 3.5 mile walk/run…maybe that should be my goal for tomorrow morning. Trick is not letting myself feel pressured to get to work early.

Have a great last few hours of this glorious (sunny & warm) weekend!

not quite back in fat-burning mode with my revisit of Atkins.

So what’s that mean? Well, apparently it means that I’m sitting here craving jelly beans (of all things) & there’s no “but I’d knock myself out of fat-burning mode if I had any” deterrent to keep me from indulging. I’ve got that “should I just go out & get some” feeling that I used to get when I’d just quit smoking. Ugh. I hope I remember this feeling the next time I decide to take a little break from Atkins.

So…I gotta get myself into FB mode ASAP for so very many reasons.

The last two nights I’ve registered only a trace amount of fat burning on the strips, so I’m hoping for better news tonight.

Food today:

Lunch: celery with shrimp dip (atkins-friendly stuff), 5 olives, nuts
Dinner: roast beef, roasted cauliflower, 4 oz red wine
Snack: sugar-free jello

Okay, bigprof’s still here…but the Atkins-inspired, let’s lose this weight, part of me took a little holiday.

I’m calling the last few days my “personal days.” I didn’t go nuts or anything: a few beers Saturday night, a waffle Sunday morning, some rice AND popcorn last night, and a total of 3 dove (dark) chocolate bites and 2 milk chocolate ones over the last 3 days. Hey, at least I’ve kept an inventory of my carb indulgences. I’m giving myself credit for at least being conscious and deliberate (if more than a bit foolish) in these decisions.

But I’m back on the wagon now chicks. Off the scale until next week or the week after that (when I leave for a conference). The upside is that I’m almost 20 pounds lighter than the last conference in November. The bad news is that I’m hovering around the weight I’ve been hovering around for years, so no one at this conference will notice.

Hey, at least I have something to wear for this one…not going to have to worry about how to make 2 pair of jeans and one pair of black pants look professional enough for 5 days of wear. :0

Okay…here’s the accounting so far today:

Breakfast: coffee with protein mix
Lunch: salad with leftover flank steak, cheese, tomatoes, green onions, low-carb dressing
Snack: um…2 of those Dove dark chocolate pieces I mentioned above…at least the last one inspired me to come here & write. right?