The planting is done! Oh, there’s still plenty of work that needs to be done, but everything that needs to be in pots, is. I held back 8 plants because some of the stuff I grew from seed may not make the transplant. My fault really as they should have been separated at least 6 or 8 weeks ago and I didn’t do it. So I left them in the 6″ pot that I seeded them in and they were not in great shape. 100% hindsight I should have probably just dropped them into the pot without separating them, but I didn’t. So we’ll see how that goes.

Tomorrow morning I’ll do my morning walk (although my mother still has planting to do, so she won’t join me) and I’ll lift in the afternoon. I’m sitting here at the computer yawning so I’m hoping that means I’ll get to sleep pretty quickly when I get there.

Food for the day:

Total: 1996 calories (26% fat, 34% protein, 40% carbs)

Breakfast: two fried eggs, multi-grain sandwich thin, orange (472)
AM Snack: beef jerky (108)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, mustard, sirloin steak, lettuce, apple (450)
PM Snack: hummus, flatbread (231)
Dinner: tandoori chicken, broccoli, butter, salad w/dressing (460)
Evening Snack: fruit salad, protein shake (276)

I still feel like a truck has run over me. I think the up/down the stairs with the pots on Saturday took more out of me that I thought. I’ve been up since 6am (not on purpose) but didn’t get started in the garden until about 11 as I made a shopping trip first. I spent the rest of the day planting (with breaks for lunch and a swim). Then it was garbage night, so collected and got everything to the curb. I had pretty much planned to skip the planned workout, which I did. Tomorrow morning we won’t walk as we both still have a lot of planting left to do. I think if I really work at it tomorrow I can get it done, although I’ll have to get some mulch and tidy up a few spots afterwards.

Food for the day:

Total: 1989 calories (27% fat, 35% protein, 38% carbs)

Breakfast: breakfast bake, cracked wheat oatmeal bread, jam, orange (364)
AM Snack: beef jerky (108)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, mustard, eye of round, lettuce, apple (438)
PM Snack: hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner: sirloin steak, corn, butter, salad w/dressing (708)
Evening Snack: fruit salad, chocolate zucchini cake (206)

A real quickie post, as I need to go start planting!

This morning’s weigh-in was 245.6, which is 2.0 pounds down from last week. The 9-week gain, however, is 10.6lbs (1.18/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 26 on plan with food.

Scary how quickly my weight went up, isn’t it? The quick drop appears to be over. I suppose I’d hoped that it would last another week or so, although I’m in the middle of my period at the moment, and my weight is often wonky around that time. I did briefly see 233.6 at the end of March, so seriously, no congratulations until then!

Next week’s plan is:

Continue the Break-in phase of New Rules of Lifting, 3 days a week. 30-45 min walks 5 days a week (with my mother), aiming for 45 mins on non-lifting days. For May at least that I’ll do 2000 on non-workout days and 2250-2300 on lifting days and see how that goes.

And the depressing little graph…

I keep hoping at some point it will get easier. I seem to forget I’m still hauling around the extra weight - until I do something like I did today. Definitely took a lot out of me, but got everything where it needs to be. Tomorrow I’ll start the planting, which I hope to get done before Tuesday night. We’re supposed to get a ton of rain over Wed/Thurs and that would make sure that everything is well settled.

So, I’m just going to add the food for the day and then maybe head off to bed. Although I’ve got laundry in the dryer, so it won’t be right away.

Food for the day:

Total: 2001 calories (31% fat, 34% protein, 35% carbs)

Breakfast: breakfast bake, cracked wheat oatmeal bread, jam, orange (364)
AM Snack: beef jerky (108)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, salsa, smoked turkey, cheese, apple (535)
PM Snack: hummus, flatbread (164
Dinner: szechwan stir-fry with broccoli, salad w/dressing (554
Evening Snack: fruit salad, protein shake (276)

All I can say is my rest day is only just started, and I’m beat! Three garden centers - 12 flats of plants (and trust me, this is a slow year for us) and the shopping is done. So then we decided we should take the stuff out of the crawl space and outside. That’s another 3 flats of plants… and maybe 30 or 40 pots of stuff we brought in from last year. Okay, it’s probably closer to 30 (I might actually count later) but some of them are freakin’ heavy. Think step-ups carrying pots, and opening the door at the top of the stairs.

Somehow I got talked into another tomato plant, some ‘ugly looking’ but supposedly tasty variety. The funny thing is that while my mother was talking me into it she also talked another woman into buying one as well. I really shouldn’t say anything as I probably talked another woman into buying some amaranthus (love lies bleeding). It really is stunning though. I was sure I had a better picture of it, but this is the first one that I found from a couple of years back.

That’s it in the bottom right corner. It’s hit and miss whether you find it in the garden centers, although it usually reseeds. Unfortunately that bed is currently over-run with violets and violas, so we broke down and bought 4 plants today.

Oh well, off to make lunch, and then start with the pots.

Anyway, the insane plant buying period has begun. We went to a plant sale this morning, but it turned out to be perennials only (which we don’t need). So, we headed over to the garden gallery (where we have $40 worth of coupons from last year’s purchases). So, $54 later… and yes, that’s with the coupons taken off. We’ve decided to let ourselves start today (the forecast looks good) and we’ll head off to the garden center furthest away and work ourselves back this morning. I did empty a number of pots though, and will plant less this year. I still think we’ll end up spending an obscene amount though.

I realised I forgot to post yesterday’s wrap-up, so… 45 min walk in the morning at the lake front, 2003 cals (31% protein, 26% fat, 43% carbs). Meals were the usual, with the new chili for dinner (the one with the TVP in it). You really couldn’t tell, and it’s a lot cheaper than cutting the ground beef with ground turkey so I think I’d make it that way again.

Today was a mixed bag kind of day.  Walked on my own this morning, did a little outside, made a big pot of chili, worked out in the afternoon, had a swim.  Nothing particularly interesting, but it was kind of a low energy day.  I’ve got ten portions of chili in the freezer, and we’ll have some tomorrow for dinner.  It’s an attempt to mix TVP with ground beef instead of turkey.  Just for fun, no specific reason.  Tomorrow morning we’ll do the walking down by the lakeshore.

Food for the day:

Total: 2286 calories (25% fat, 33% protein, 42% carbs)

Breakfast: breakfast bake, cracked wheat oatmeal bread, jam, orange (364)
AM Snack: beef jerky (108)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, mustard, roast eye of round, lettuce, apple (438)
PWO Snack: protein shake with sour cherries (281)
PM Snack: hummus, flatbread (231)
Dinner: beef/turkey burgers, multi-grain sandwich thin, condiments, salad w/dressing (736)
Evening Snack: fruit salad (127)

NROL - Break-in B3

I did a 5-min cardio warm-up outside, followed by 10 reps each of the prescribed warm-up (except for the t-push-ups - can’t do them). Then I did:

A: Deadlift - 70t/15, 70/15
B1: Step-up - 15e/15, 15e/15
B2: Dumbbell one-arm shoulder press - 20e/15, 22e/15
C1: Chin-up (assisted/attempts) - 15, 15
C2: Reverse Crunch - 20, 20

Then I did the metabolic overdrive intervals - 3, with 5-min warm up and cool down. (19 mins total)

53 mins, 369 cals, Max HR: 167 (94%), Avg HR: 125 (71%)

Ugh, I could have easily skipped this workout. Not sure why, but by the time the early afternoon rolled around I could have just had a nap instead of a workout. However, in the end I managed to eek it out, but probably with not as much enthusiasm as I would have liked.

I managed to get the pots all ready on the patio today, although I still won’t likely plant until next week.  It was warm enough that the cats came in (on their own) before me at about 1pm.  The best part was having a swim and not freezing when you got out of the water.  Tomorrow will be a little more tidying outside and checking on the plants inside.  So, that’s about it for the day.  I should be off to bed soon as that’s the one thing I’m really working on - getting plenty of sleep.

Food for the day:

Total: 2014 calories (25% fat, 36% protein, 39% carbs)

Breakfast: breakfast bake, cracked wheat oatmeal bread, jam, orange (364)
AM Snack: beef jerky (108)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, mustard, roast eye of round, lettuce, apple (438)
PM Snack: hummus, flatbread (311)
Dinner: roasted pork tenderloin, broccoli, butter, salad w/dressing (438)
Evening Snack: protein shake, fruit salad (276)

Just adding my food for the day, then off to bed.

Food for the day:

Total: 1988 calories (29% fat, 30% protein, 51% carbs)

Breakfast: breakfast bake, 1/2 multi-grain sandwich thin, orange (352)
AM Snack: beef jerky (108)
Lunch: multi-grain tortilla, mustard, roast eye of round, lettuce, apple (438)
PWO Shake: protein shake with sour cherries (281)
PM Snack: hummus, flatbread (231)
Dinner: meat sauce with whole wheat pasta and parmesan cheese, salad w/dressing (724)
Evening Snack: fruit salad (127)