This morning’s weigh-in was 238.6, which is 2.2 pounds down from last week. The 9-week loss is 13.4lbs (1.49/week) which is usually the ‘number’ I look at to see how things are going overall. The other little compulsive number I look at is how many days I’ve been ‘on plan’ primarily with food. I still consider a maintenance week ‘on plan’ since I accomplished what I wanted to. So this is day 16 on plan with food.

I finally feel like I’m back in control of myself. The drop this week was nice, but some of that may be getting back to regular workouts. I’ll see how I’m doing in a couple of weeks to decide if the calorie levels are good.

Next week’s plan is:

Continue on with The New Rules of Lifting for Women, 3 days a week. Cardio if I feel like it. For March at least that I’ll do 1900 on non-workout days and 2200 on lifting days and see how that goes.

So, what did I do today? Not very much really. Brought in some wood, did some Solidworks drawings, and nothing much else. I thought about getting on the treadmill in the afternoon, but for whatever reason, didn’t. Okay, I just didn’t think about it that hard.

The dinner tonight was really quite nice. I made a dry rub (paprika, splenda brown sugar, salt, pepper, chili powder, cayenne powder, and allspice) for a pork tenderloin and did it on the barbecue. I sliced it up and served it with a little warmed-up salsa. Very yummy. Tomorrow I’ve got more homework to do, my hair to colour, and a lifting workout to fit in. Oh, and a load of laundry as well. I always think on Saturday night that I should have done more during the day. Sigh…

Food for the day:

Total: 1894 (21% fat, 42% carbs, 37% protein)

Breakfast: egg/egg white scramble, 1/2 sandwich thin, salsa, orange (360)
AM Snack: chocolate zucchini cake (156)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, smoked turkey, mustard, lettuce, celery, apple (435)
PM Snack: hummus, carrots (178)
Dinner: grilled pork tenderloin, salsa, broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, butter, salad w/dressing (458)
Late Snack: protein shake, fruit salad (307)

So after having an excuse to blow her off all ready, my lab partner told me she couldn’t stay. I did take a few minutes showing her how I prepare for the labs on Mondays. The catch is I think she’s decided not to buy the textbook, and that’s what is hurting her. Today’s quiz was homework question #41. So, assuming you did the homework it was a breeze. Those who didn’t (and it was obvious) struggled with it. I left the college just after 10am, went to Costco and was still home by 11am. I had lunch, a short (unplanned) nap and cut the pussy willow back fairly well. I didn’t go nuts with it, as there’s no question we’ll get another cold snap. However, it’s pretty hard to kill. I restrained myself from doing other pruning on things that might not deal well with another cold period. It’s 60F out, which is pretty amazing for early March. Unfortunately there’s a wind that would take your head off. I’ve decided that I’ve had enough for the day. If it doesn’t rain tomorrow and Sunday I will probably go clean out the pots that I didn’t finish doing in the fall.

I cleaned the ashes out of the fireplace from earlier in the week, and I might actually vacuum the family room. Or I might just grab the laptop and catch up on logs…. No, family room first, then computer!

- - - -

So, a really fast posting and then off to bed.  I’m hoping that my short nap in the afternoon doesn’t affect my ability to sleep tonight.  I don’t think so as I caught myself yawning just a few minutes ago.  I’ve got the fire going in the family room (where I am now), so I’m probably going to crash on the couch.  I’ll be trying a new recipe for the pork tenderloin tomorrow - Dry Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Fire-Roasted Tomato Sauce.  Well, except, looking at the recipe for the tomato sauce, it’s kind of like a warm salsa… so, I’m just going to use my homemade salsa and warm it up just before serving. 

Food for the day:

Total: 1899 (20% fat, 48% carbs, 32% protein)

Breakfast: breakfast bake, 1/2 sandwich thin, orange (3839)
AM Snack: none (0)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, smoked turkey, mustard, lettuce, celery, apple (435)
PM Snack: protein shake, hummus, carrots (230)  <– two separate times
Dinner: turkey sausage sauce, whole wheat pasta, parmesan, salad w/dressing (554)
Late Snack: protein shake, fruit salad (230)

So, I’m having a petty / bitchy day. I feel like I have to say out loud (to more than one person) - ‘it is not MY job to get you through college’. My problem is that I do tend to be too helpful, and people take advantage of it.

One of the women, who is my lab partner in electricity, is struggling greatly. I’ve probably talked/whined about her here before. I feel badly that she failed her electricity test before the break. I do wonder if she really understands what we do in the lab, but I write up the reports. I do this because we get the same grade, and I’m not willing to do poorly to give her more practice. So, I scan and email the lab sheets before the lab, and suggested she does what I do. I read them over, answer any of the questions I can before the lab, etc.

She doesn’t do this.

Now, for this class (since it’s completely new for me) I also go through the chapters on my own from the textbook. I do all the review questions for each section of the chapter, and I do the sample quiz for each chapter. I also do the homework questions that are assigned.

I don’t think she’s doing this either. Mainly because if she’s at least doing this, there’s no way she could get 40% on a relatively easy test. So tell me, why do I feel badly that she failed the test? Then I heard myself offering to review the lab on Fridays with her, since there isn’t time on Monday before the actual lab. The problem is that she’s also struggling in AutoCad/Solidworks and the Problem Solving course. I think she’s barely passing the Math / Stats classes as well, but I believe she’s using the math learning center for help here.

I was a little short with her today when we were supposed to be working on something in Problem Solving and she didn’t want help, she just wanted to copy mine. This is something that will be ~25% of the midterm exam. If she can’t do it on her own, how will she do it on the test? She got a lot of help last semester (in my opinion) in that she passed all her courses. This in itself bothers me. The staff have promotion meetings and will bump people to a pass for various reasons. I know for two different classes, she didn’t have the grades to pass unless she wrote 100%+ exams. She was counting on them to make up the difference if she was close.

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I’m actually a little pissy because I looked at the forecast for tomorrow and see that it’s supposed to be 57F in the afternoon. I need to go to Costco, and I was thinking that I’d blow off Statistics and leave the college at 10am. Then I remembered that I’d offered to help her. So, I will give her an hour of my time and then take off.

As well today I took my electricity book with me, to finish up about 10 questions I wanted to do. So I got 2 or 3 done before Math, 2 done between Math and Problem Solving - while answering math questions for one guy. Then with 90 mins to kill in the afternoon I barely got the other 5 done because another of the guys decided today that he would start his… and he didn’t have a clue. Sheesh, am I not allowed to work on my own stuff? This has happened to me before, and it’s really starting to bug me. What it means is that I’ll start hiding from people during longer breaks, which I don’t really want to do.

I’m finding it very hard to draw the line between being helpful and letting them suck the life out of me. I also don’t want to be a bitch about it, as one or two of them might be helpful in future courses (maybe). I also truly like some of them, but I’m really glad that tomorrow is Friday. Although I know that there’s some skill and aptitude involved… I put a lot of work into school. Others that don’t, and then expect everyone to help them, bother me.

Nothing much else to add for the day. I think the morning workouts take a lot out of me, which makes me kind of draggy by the late afternoon at school. This is why I originally went to a Friday afternoon workout, but I wanted to leave that time open for other things (especially as the weather gets nicer).

Food for the day:

Total: 2203 (24% fat, 41% carbs, 35% protein)

Pre-WO: protein shake (210)
Breakfast: breakfast bake, 1/2 sandwich thin, orange (389)
AM Snack: none (0)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, eye of round, mustard, lettuce, celery, apple (449)
PM Snack: zucchini spice cake (114)
Dinner: chili with cheese, multi-grain tostidos, salad w/dressing (811)
Late Snack: protein shake, fruit salad (230)

I really hate morning workouts. I always feel I need to be awake enough to them, which I’m not. Anyway, I did 15 mins on the treadmill, and then:

A: Front Squats - 70t/15, 75t/15
B1: Push-up - 15, 15
B2: Bent-over Row - 80t/15, 80t/15
C1: Step-up - 20e/15, 20e/15
C2: Prone Jackknife - 8, 8

I bumped up the front squats a bit. I need to go look and see what my max on front squats were before (as I didn’t do them all that often). The step-ups are really taking a lot of out me. See, they’re a perfect example of an exercise I probably should do, but don’t unless it’s in a set program.

From the HR monitor:

40 mins, 273 cals, Max HR: 168 (95%), Avg HR: 126 (71%)

Nothing much going on today.  Wednesday’s are brutal.  It’s not so much the early start, but the 3hr break in the afternoon.  I was thinking about heading to the park for a walk, but I’ll admit that I’m a wimp with cold weather.  It was still below freezing, although barely, with a wind chill… and it was so cold this morning I didn’t take my shoes with me.  So I worked on Solidworks for a while, did some homework, etc.  Tomorrow morning I will get up early enough to do a workout before school.

Food for the day:

Total: 1907 (25% fat, 44% carbs, 31% protein)

Breakfast: breakfast bake, 1/2 sandwich thin, orange (389)
AM Snack: none (0) <— forgot
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, roast turkey, lettuce, celery, salad dressing, apple (412)
PM Snack: zucchini spice cake, soy nuts (247)
Dinner: orange pork, broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, salad w/dressing (536)
Late Snack: chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (323)

I really didn’t have time for a workout today, but found a little time in the afternoon. I really will do a cardio warm-up on Thursday! Instead, I did a really short warm-up, followed by:

A: Deadlift - 80/15, 85/15
B1: Dumbbell Shoulder Press - 32e/9+30e/6, 20e/15
B2: Pullover - 20e/15, 20e/15
C1: Lunge - 27.5e/15, 30e/15
C2: Swiss-ball Crunch - 8, 8

I did the same today as I did the other day, tried starting with my finishing weights from the last time I did NROL4W. The deadlifts weren’t too tough, although not easy. The shoulder press was where I ran into trouble. It’s that stupid sore elbow, which wasn’t too bad… until I was trying to lift the 32-lb dumbbells into place for the shoulder press. It’s not the actual press, but some way my elbow turns while getting it into place. I think the next time I’ll switch it to a barbell and see how it goes. Same with the pullover (which I did cut the weight way back on).

From the HR monitor:

30 mins, 204 cals, Max HR: 156 (88%), Avg HR: 127 (72%)

Then I went back and did more school work. The annoying thing is that I didn’t get it all done. Tomorrow I’m going to take the electricity book with me to school and finish up during my break. Other than that, I have nothing much to add for the day. Oh, I baked another pan of cake for the freezer (using up the zucchini, honest) and forgot to put in the cherries and sunflower seeds. Oh well, it turned out okay, lower calories, but very different macros. On the plus side, it’s now got a higher percentage of protein (but lower fat).

Food for the day:

Total: 2187 (25% fat, 42% carbs, 33% protein)

Breakfast: breakfast bake, 1/2 sandwich thin, orange (389)
AM Snack: none (0)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, mustard, sirloin steak, lettuce, celery, apple (453)
PWO Snack: protein shake with sour cherries (267)
PM Snack: hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner: beef/turkey burgers, sandwich thin, condiments, salad w/dressing (705)
Late Snack: zucchini spice cake, fruit salad (209)

Just making a quickie post tonight. School was good today, just a long day. I got my stats exam back (99%) and found out my grade for the electricity one (92%). And although the teacher for the Cad class isn’t much of a teacher, I picked his brain about solidworks for a while as others worked through the tutorial (that I’d already done). So I think at the moment I’ve sorted out most of my problems with it. And that puts me ahead of the class, so I’m happy with that.

Unfortunately the day didn’t end well. My mother’s sister has been hospitalized for the last week or so, and although this morning she was doing well, did not survive this latest illness (a stroke). For me, it’s not such a big thing as primarily she’s an occasional voice on the phone (although I have met her, but I probably haven’t seen her in a decade). She’s actually the youngest of the 4 siblings, but was diagnosed with diabetes almost 50 years ago. She’s struggled healthwise pretty much since then, with a slow degradation in the past decade. In fact, although my mother is the oldest of the siblings she has far fewer ongoing health issues than the rest. So, it was a bad afternoon for my mother. I’d tried to talk her into changing her flight dates (she’s going to Scotland in a month) but my aunt’s husband talked her out of it. He didn’t want his wife to think that they had ’sent for her’, but I’m now sorry I didn’t talk her into it. Although perhaps it’s better that she didn’t go now.

I’m exhausted tonight, so off to bed I go.

Food for the day:

Total: 1904 (22% fat, 43% carbs, 35% protein)

Breakfast: egg/egg white scramble, salsa, 1/2 sandwich thin, orange (353)
AM Snack: none (0) <— no time on Mondays
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, sirloin steak, lettuce, celery, salad dressing, apple (493)
PM Snack: zucchini spice cake, soy nuts (362)
Dinner: apricot ginger chicken, broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, butter, salad w/dressing (467)
Late Snack: chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (230)

I should have taken a picture, but we had started eating before I thought about it. This was supposed to to use apricot nectar (I’m assuming juice), but I used our homemade apricot jam instead. It was super easy and took just over 15 mins from start to end. It was a nice slightly sweet sauce with a gingery bite.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (~8oz used)
3 Tb apricot jam (140 cals)
1 Tb chopped gingerroot (4 cals)
4 oz chicken stock (11 cals)
4 secs canola oil spray
salt, pepper

Spray small, non-stick pan. Season chicken with salt and pepper while pan is pre-heating on high heat. Brown lightly on both sides (about a min on each side). Mix all other ingredients together and pour into the pan. Cover with a lid and simmer for 12-15 mins. Lift chicken breasts out (keep covered) and boil sauce vigorously until thickened. Serve.

Notes: I used a small pan, and half a cup of liquid was enough. In a larger pan you probably would want more chicken stock. Since I never pan cook chicken I cut it in half to check if it was ready, so I ended up slicing it and spooning the sauce over top. My homemade jam is a less sweet than most commercial jams, however, you could add a little lemon juice if you needed to. The original recipe called for apricot nectar (12oz), but this would have been way too much liquid for my pan. You could also use oil as I tend to use the canola spray as it’s handy.

Sauce: (serves 2) 195 cals (42 from fat, 5 from protein, the rest - carbs)