Well, I’m not sure that workout day vs. non workout day is making much of a difference while I’m off, at least with total calorie burn.  Having said that, I still stuck with the higher calories today, mainly from the post-workout shake.  I’m not sure what my plans are for tomorrow.  Depending on the weather I might become chauffeur for my mother while she goes to 5 or 6 different stores.  This is something I really don’t look forward to - I’m not a shopper. However, if needed, I will do it.  I’m crossing my fingers for a nice weather morning though.

Total calories burned today - 3394 (see, almost exactly the same as yesterday).  Of course, I did spend an extra couple of hours in bed after getting up and putting on the HR monitor. 

Food for today:

Total: 2313 (25% fat, 36% carbs, 37% protein)

Breakfast: egg/egg white omelet, honey oatmeal bread, jam, clementines (333)
Lunch: whole wheat pasta with turkey sausage sauce, apple, ruffles chips (584)
PWO: protein shake, frozen cherries (281)
PM Snack: white chocolate almond cherry bark (220)
Dinner: sirloin steak, corn, butter, salad w/dressing (623)
Late Snack: protein shake, apple (272)

I started off with 3 mins cardio (walking/jogging on the spot), the prescribed warm-ups, and then did:

Power Training - Strength Training (weeks 7-9)
Workout B2 (4 of 10)

1: One-arm Dumbbell Snatch - 35e/5, 35e/5, 35e/5, 35e/5
2: Forward Lunge - 55t/5, 55t/5, 55t/5, 55t/5
3: Romanian Deadlift - 165t/5, 165t/5, 165t/5, 165t/5
4: Side to Side Push-up - 5, 5, 5, 5
5: Bent-over Row - 130t/5, 130t/5, 130t/5, 130t/5
6: Dumbbell Alternating Press - 25e/5, 25e/5, 25e/5, 25e/5
7: Negative Chin-ups - 5, 5, 5, 5
8: Seated Russian Twist - 25t/5, 25t/5, 25t/5, 25t/5
9: Four-point Plank - 45sec, 45sec, 45sec, 45sec

Total time: 75 mins
HR monitor: 490 cals, Max: 158 (89%), Avg: 125 (70%)

No PRs here today, but not too bad of a workout. I definitely worked up enough of a sweat. The only real surprise was that I had to drop the weight on the dumbbell alternating press. I had done a 35-lb weight the last time, but today there was no way I was getting that weight up once, let alone 5 times. My shoulder is actually a little sore from the shoveling the other day, so that may have contributed.

This ended up making a lower calorie/lower protein serving than I had expected.  I thinned it down with another 8 cups of beef broth when it was made (as it really was pretty thick).  Next time I might divide it first, adding the beef broth, if needed, when reheating.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Turkey/Beef Minestrone <— Recipe here

I realized that it’s actually been three weeks since I posted a weigh-in. So, on November 30th I was 253.0 and today I’m 252.6. On the whole this looks good, but when you look at the chart below you’ll see that the last five weeks have been a bumpy ride. The 9-week loss is 8.6lbs (0.96/week) which is usually the ‘number’ I look at to see how things are going overall. At the moment I’m not too impressed with it, but since I’m off the maintenance week and back to normal I’m not going to worry about it at the moment. I’m a little surprised how much I jumped during the maintenance week, however, the last day before that high weigh-in was that party where I drank a lot (and probably ate more than I think I did). So it’s almost certainly a false number. The other little compulsive number I look at is how many days I’ve been ‘on plan’ primarily with food. I still consider the maintenance week ‘on plan’ since I accomplished what I wanted to. So, since my last slip this is day 32 on plan with food.

Today was really another low energy day. Don’t get me wrong, I accomplished what I needed to. I could have just done with doing nothing. And from a physical activity point of view I really didn’t do that much. I got up and started some beef/turkey minestrone, but after the initial flurry of activity… just didn’t do all that much. After lunch I made a point to use the treadmill for 30 mins though. I really need to start thinking about some of the tasks I was going to do over my break. I suppose I’ve started some (the cooking), but the tidying up is only marginally started, and I just don’t feel like getting the sewing machine out yet.

On the continuing HR monitor data collection, I ended up at 3375 calories burned for the day. Pretty close to the lowest day since I started (3344) so it’s probably a good thing that I did get on the treadmill.

From the HR monitor (treadmill):

30 mins, Cals: 220, Max HR: 146 (82%), Avg HR: 133 (75%)

Food for today:

Total: 2001 (25% fat, 40% carbs, 31% protein)

Breakfast: egg/egg white omelet, honey oatmeal bread, jam, clementines (335)
AM Snack: protein shake (180)
Lunch: whole wheat pasta with turkey sausage sauce, apple (494)
PM Snack: chocolate zucchini cake (235)
Dinner: crab-stuffed mushrooms, bean/carrot blend, butter, salad w/dressing (530)
Late Snack: protein shake, apple (227)

Tonight’s dinner was a dish I really quite enjoy, but haven’t made in a while. Although the macros are a little high on the fat and low on the protein, but they could easily be adjusted if you wanted. The calories are low enough that you can play around with it.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Crab-stuffed Mushrooms <— Recipe here

I’m playing catch-up on some of the cooking posts. This is another of my ‘lunch’ options. The hardest part about making this was the slicing it up. Although I understand that a slicer might be in my future in the new year.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Eye of Round Roast <—- Recipe here

So, I had a really low-energy day.  I was originally going to lift in the morning but decided I just couldn’t do it.  I had lunch early, then tried to nap.  I don’t know why, but I was so cold.  I actually lay down with the heating pad, trying to get warm.  After the attempted nap (I think I dozed a little) I went out and shoveled snow for an hour.  I’m counting that as my exercise for the day.  :)  It’s probably a good thing as up to that point I don’t think I’d done much of anything (that raised my heart rate much).  I did end the day showing 3617 cals burned though.  The one good thing about the shoveling is that it didn’t half-kill me as it would have in the past.  And carrying that shovel loaded with snow, to where I needed to toss it, was really quite easy.

I did slice up the other roast this morning, and put some stock on to simmer.  I separated it after dinner and picked out the meat.  I should probably work out the soups I’m going to make tomorrow, but I’m tired and I think I’ll do that in the morning.  I also switched around some meals today as well.  Minor stuff, like taking out the post workout shake, adding a little white chocolate/cherry/almond bark.  In fact I suppose it was the post-workout (shoveling) item.  I was going to have a piece or two of one of the snack cakes, but while making up a plate for someone I just decided that the bark would do.  I also switched around the dinner at the last minute as well.  That’s what I love about having a couple of completely cooked meals in the freezer.  I’ve actually got away from that recently.  There are plenty of items, but most of the meats are raw.  So, they really need to be considered the day before, not at 6pm.  I’ve got one more serving of the stewed beef, so I’ll need to make more before going back to school.  The crab-stuffed mushrooms we’ll have tomorrow.  They just needed more effort than I wanted to put in this evening.

So, tomorrow I will need to make soup (haven’t decided which one) and I think the turkey will be thawed enough to put in the brine (will decide tomorrow).  Of course, I understand we’re going to get… more snow.  I meant to take a couple of pictures today before we started shoveling, but forgot.

From the HR monitor (shoveling):

60 mins, Cals: 538, Max HR: 169 (95%), Avg HR: 149 (84%)

Food for today:

Total: 2000 (28% fat, 39% carbs, 31% protein)

Breakfast: two fried eggs, honey oatmeal bread, clementines (444)
AM Snack: none (0)
Lunch: whole wheat tortillas, mustard, eye of round, apple (438)
PM Snack: protein shake, white chocolate cherry almond bark (387)
Dinner: braised beef, potatoes, bean/carrot blend, butter, salad w/dressing (596)
Late Snack: protein shake, pomegranate (240)

So in the end I never did get on the treadmill today (bad girl). I spent the morning running around doing errands, then some last minute stuff for the people that were coming in the afternoon. Oh, and I hauled some wood in from outside, and then covered the woodpile as it seems like we’re supposed to get a storm tomorrow. Oh, and I discovered that the garage is warmer than the fridge in the garage (sad) so I’m now thawing the turkey on a shelf in the garage. I did put a small portable thermometer out to make sure that it wasn’t too warm (and it isn’t) and the good news is that it’s finally showing some progress. I put the thermometer in the fridge and it’s as close as dammit to freezing (0.2C - 32.4F) which is probably why the damn thing wasn’t thawing. I’m hoping that by tomorrow it will be thawed enough to put it in the brine tomorrow night and then smoke it on Saturday, although if it has to be Sunday that’s fine. If we do get snow tomorrow I’ll have to keep the barbecue area clear of snow as it comes down.

What else… oh, I roasted an eye of the round roast yesterday and it turned out beautifully. Since I’d bought two of them on sale, I did the other one this evening. I found the method online (with enough comments to make it work for me). I took a big (~7lb) roast and preheated the oven to 500F. I sprinkled it with pepper, salt, and garlic powder - placed it on a rack in my big roasting pan. Then I turned the oven down to 475F and cooked it for ~5mins/pound. The online recipe said 7 mins, but that was for smaller roasts, and comments said it didn’t work for larger ones. At this point I turned the oven back to 200F and cooked for ~ 3 hours. I did check the first roast twice, and ended up having to cook it longer, but tonight it was just perfect at three hours. It turned out evenly pink and really moist. The only real pain was trying to slice it thinly. I understand that a new slicer might be in my future as a delayed Christmas/birthday gift in the new year. I ended up with 19 lunch portions for the two of us (I can’t get my mother to take a larger portion, so I do 1/2 portions and whole portions). The roast I did tonight was a little smaller, but we’ll have plenty of beef to start off the new year. We’re actually almost out of the previously smoked beef and turkey, so the timing is good.

So tomorrow I’ll slice up the other one, and using the drippings and some soup bones will make some stock. We’re down to only 8 servings of soup in the freezer, so it’s time to make more. I’ll likely make more turkey soup next week once I’ve smoked the bird on the go and made some stock.

Oh, and the HR monitor experiment from today shows a total calories burned (10pm to 10pm) of 3659 calories, which makes more sense because I moved around more today (shopping, carrying wood, etc.).

Food for today:

Total: 2009 (36% fat, 32% carbs, 31% protein)

Breakfast: egg/egg white omelet, honey oatmeal bread, jam, clementines (332)
AM Snack: none (0)
Lunch: whole wheat tortillas, mustard, eye of round (368)
PM Snack: cookie-fest* (387)
Dinner: turkey/beef burgers with condiments, edamame, salad w/dressing (692)
Late Snack: protein shake, fruit salad (231)

* I really hadn’t planned so many, but, at least the macros/calories were still in line. I had originally planned to have a protein shake before people came (to keep me from picking at the food), but I didn’t. And then I just said ’screw it, I’ll deal with it later’, but it ended up being a really ‘hungry’ day, which is bad. I’m still a little peckish, but off to bed without eating anything more!

Speaking of school… okay, I brought it up.

I got my grades today. I suppose I’ll officially get them through the mail in a little while.

Damn I’m good. 

Of course, this just means I’ll have to work harder next semester to keep the grades up.  (yikes)