Natalie and I don't change over so well when the clock goes back. My alarm is set for 4:45 but, during the fall and winter, Natalie starts to try to get me up @ 3:30 or so. Her internal clock is set at "breakfast" and it doesn't change with the time change. For some reason when we "spring" ahead she gives me an extra 15 minutes.

DH had a bad night so we didn't get much sleep in any case. I will join the ranks of the tired and cranky at work today. I'm hoping DH is so tired tonite he'll sleep like a rock. So will I then.

Dagmar :tired:

Monday, with the blessed and long-awaited thaw continuing.

Today's Meals:

Breakfast: Roasted squash and peppers with spinach egg bake; home-made banana raisin muffin; cantaloupe and yogurt
Lunch: Romaine salad with cold asparagus, pecans, half an avocado and goat cheese
Snack: String cheese stick
Dinner: Meatloaf, sweet potato, steamed cauliflower and asparagus
Dessert: Bag of Bare Fruit Granny Smith apple chips

Today's Exercise:

Front leg raise 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Side clams 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Bicycle 3x20, Kickback 3x20 and High knee 3x20

Physical therapy: 12 minutes on the Cybex elliptical !!!!! at low hill resistance, which made me really sweaty; alternating weighted step-ups and leg raises with both legs (for abs); 4x12 quad raises and hamstring curls; 4x12 abductor and adductor sets

Hooray for the thaw! May it continue in earnest!

Saef, have you ever considered calorie cycling? Or switching up your food menus to vary macros (high carb/low fat alternating with low carb/high fat)? Having looked at your food and exercise for some weeks now, I'm struck by how similar all of your days are. Many of the "pop" diet and exercise sites (as opposed to places like Weight Watchers) advocate trying to keep your system "guessing" and not get too used to a constant routine.

Andrea, I don't count calories, so I'd have to do that first before attempting calorie cycling. I don't believe I want to do that, though -- the less I think, the better.

The meals look similar because I do so much "batch cooking" to save myself from having to plan, plot or cook during the week. And because I seem to get stuck on certain foods for a while, and can't get enough of them, then tire of them, move on and leave them.

One thing I can tell you: I don't binge when I eat this way, and haven't for the many months since my accident.

ETA: The sameness also reflects my OCD personality and the way I use routines to allay anxiety. Hard to admit, but I do put it all out there for you -- food, exercise, cycling moods, everything that seems to contribute toward bodily state and weight.


Weigh in: 144.6, post intake and outtake

Tuesday, a day of too damn many meetings.

Today's Meals:

Breakfast: Ham, broccoli and spinach egg bake; home-made banana raisin muffin; cantaloupe and yogurt
Lunch: Arugula salad with cold asparagus, half an avocado, sundried tomatoes, goat cheese and almonds
Dinner: Crockpot pork chop, baked potato, mixed vegetables (those Steamfresh kind with cauliflower, broccoli & carrots)
Dessert: Bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips

Today's Exercise:

Front leg raise 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Side clams 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Bicycle 3x20, Kickback 3x20 and High knee 3x20

At the gym, unfortunately curtailed, since my mother still drives me there & drops me off, and I underestimated the time it would take: 30 minutes recumbent bike, random hills, resistance at eight, easier on this bike than the other; 3x12 rows & db bench press, 3x12 flys and lat pull-downs, 1x12 each curls, hammer curls, dips, kickbacks, lat raises, except for 2x12 alternating shoulder presses

Wednesday: Temperatures are supposed to rise up to 50 degrees today. I heard cardinals trilling in the trees this morning. I am feeling restless and hopeful, and I can see my mother is feeling the same, and wants very much to return to her home. I will miss her, but I know her eating preferences have influenced my food intake lately: A piece of meat, a potato and two sides.

Weigh in: 144.3, post intake and outtake

Today's Meals:

Breakfast: Ham, broccoli and spinach egg bake; home-made banana raisin muffin; cantaloupe and yogurt
Lunch: Arugula salad, roasted vegetables, pecans, sun-dried tomatoes, half an avocado and goat cheese
Snack: Bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips
Dinner: Steak, sweet potato, steamed broccoli, sauteed mushrooms

Today's Exercise:

Front leg raise 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Side clams 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Bicycle 3x20, Kickback 3x20 and High knee 3x20

Physical Therapy:

13 minutes recumbent bike, about 2.7 miles; quad raises and hamstring curls 4x12, abductor/adductor machine 4x12, high-stepping over orange cones; balancing for 10 seconds at a time on unstable foam surface with recuperating leg.

My knee is sore and stiff tonight, as Arvin stretched it, too.

Saef, not binging is a HUGE plus. Not having to plan meals every day is another bonus. You are sticking to things that work for you and as a result, you have not derailed into weight gain over an incredibly difficult time period. You are right; I am looking at your meal plan with MY eyes and thinking how I would feel/react.

I am going to go to the gym shortly, and remind myself afterward that if I eat back all my calories, I will remain stubbornly up 3 pounds. No matter how "healthy" they are, nuts are not my friends.

Andrea, there is absolutely no need for apologies, since I know you are trying to help me with what we're all here for, which is loss of weight and maintenance. You left me thinking about my choices. It's good for me to question my routines & habit toward repetition, which I take up as a way to reassure myself and to automate parts of my life, but can end up feeling oppressive and obligatory.

I came from a lower-middle-class family whose fare was always plain, almost the equivalent of a farmer's table; I've often thought they were a little too ashamed of their ethnic origins as their wages increased, and too eager to purge "unusual" flavors and foodstuffs from the table. In my family, there was no equation of eating intriguing & vivid food as part of living a culturally enriched, educated life. I'm a self-educated cook, and though I'm able to appreciate good food if its caloric load doesn't frighten me, I'm not much of a gourmet. Access to all that NY offers by way of food is usually wasted on me. I read with curiosity and wonder about Michele's, Allison's and Becky's culinary activities. I would never think of doing our local equivalent of visiting Napa for wine and food, and I rarely cook for others as entertainment, mostly looking up recipes to find yet another use for ground turkey. I don't think this monk-ish plainness is a virtue; I think it's a culturally stunted area of my life, and that I've deliberately overlooked it in recent years as yet another method of weight control.

No weigh-in today. I'll wait a few days.

Today's Meals:

Breakfast: Ham, broccoli and spinach egg bake; home-made banana raisin muffin; two kiwi fruit (one nearly fermented!) and yogurt with a quarter-scoop of whey protein powder added
Lunch: Arugula salad with roasted vegetables, half an avocado, goat cheese, almonds and Craisins
Snack: Bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips (yes, I bought a case)
Dinner: Lentil soup sprinkled with cheese

Today's Exercise:

Front leg raise 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Side clams 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Bicycle 3x20, Kickback 3x20 and High knee 3x20. Tried one pushup -- didn't get very low but was able to do it.

At the gym: 10 minutes warmup on recumbent bike, resistance at five; upper-body weights routine, then Pilates mat class, so frustrating, as I know the form, but can't attain it. That must be the "muscle memory": You remember what you ought to be doing and how that feels.

Saef~you should check out foodgawker.com It is a site that amasses recipes from all sorts of blogs. Kind of like pinterest where you peruse photos of recipes. Click on a photo and it takes you to the blog and recipe. (I also use Paprika app to save the recipes I find that sound enticing.) Foodgawker also has a search function where you could plug in turkey and ground to find new recipes. If you also had Paprika and saved the recipe you can easily adjust serving sizes for one or a dozen (if you wanted to make something with leftovers).

Friday: No weigh-in today.

Thanks for the foodgawker tip, Allison. I think my first search term is going to be "ricotta." I've got a lot in the fridge and I want to make something savory with it, not some kind of dessert.

Today's Meals:

Breakfast: Ham, broccoli and spinach egg bake; home-made banana raisin muffin; strawberries and yogurt
Snack: Sliced-up Braeburn apple. (I eat lots of apples, partly because I like them, partly because a nurse told me they react well with other nutrients to promote bone growth -- and I am all about growing bone these days.)
Lunch: Arugula salad, roasted vegetables, walnuts, Craisins, half an avocado and goat cheese
Dinner: Pork, steamed broccoli, butternut squash
Dessert: Jell-O frozen pudding cup

Today's Exercise:

Front leg raise 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Side clams 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Bicycle 3x20, Kickback 3x20 and High knee 3x20.

Physical therapy: 12 minutes on the Cybex elliptical; quad raises and hamstring curls 4x10, abductor/adductor machine 4x12; step-ups, just bodyweight, 4x12 each leg; walked on treadmill for 12 minutes at 1.5 with great concentration

Oh, and as irritated I've been by my mother -- or rather, by my extreme dependence on her, particularly in the early weeks after my injury -- when she leaves (as she may do next week) this will be me:

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...ALUvRrO0DsKtIg

This is the first Saturday that has felt almost normal. I woke up early, read the paper a little, and walked to the gym. Yes, walked. Which meant crossing the street where I was hit, this time alone. The streets were rainy and quiet and a little underpopulated. In return for managing this -- on high alert for any approaching cars, particularly in the left-turn lane -- I was rewarded with a nearly normal morning at my gym.

No weigh-in today.

Today's Meals:

Breakfast: Ham, broccoli and spinach egg bake; home-made banana raisin muffin; strawberries and yogurt
Lunch: Arugula salad with roasted vegetables, walnuts, Craisins, half an avocado and goat cheese
Snack: Bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips, of course
Dinner: Lentil soup with cheese sprinkled on top
Dessert: Frozen Jell-o pudding cup

Today's Exercise:

Front leg raise 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Side clams 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Bicycle 3x20, Kickback 3x20 and High knee 3x20.

At the gym: 15 minutes recumbent bike, the tougher one, resistance at five; my new upper body routine, with the same weights as Thursday, except I went up to 75 lbs. for 3x12 lat pull downs; and then a Pilates class, where, wouldn't you know, we used the dinky little 3-lb dumbbells for leverage, just when my arms felt burned out.

Sunday, waking sore in the neck and shoulders from Pilates and weights yesterday.

Weigh in: 145.3, post-intake but pre-outtake. I'm going in the wrong direction.


Today's Meals:

Breakfast: Ham, broccoli and spinach egg bake; home-made banana raisin muffin; strawberries and yogurt
Lunch: Arugula salad with roasted vegetables, walnuts and water-packed sardines
Snack: Bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips
Dinner: Chuck round steak, steamed cauliflower and Trader Joe's French green beans

Today's Exercise:

Front leg raise 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Side clams 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Bicycle 3x20, Kickback 3x20 and High knee 3x20.

At the gym: 30 minutes recumbent bike, resistance at 5; 4x12 stepups with a pair of 5-lb dumbbells; 4x12 shaky calf raises with same; 3x12 RDLs with same
Felt exhausted afterward. Nearly called my mother for a ride home but managed to walk back.

This is one of those Mondays that I just need to get through -- several major meetings with me on-camera, a physical therapy session, and then the insurance company's doctor examines me, with my lawyer at the office.

Today's Weigh-In: Post intake and outtake, 144.9

Today's Meals:

Breakfast: Ham, broccoli and spinach egg bake; home-made banana raisin muffin; strawberries and yogurt
Lunch: Arugula salad with roasted vegetables, walnuts, half an avocado, Craisins and pieces of one string cheese stick
Dinner: Baked salmon with dill, steamed green beans and broccoli, roasted butternut squash
Dessert: Bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips

Today's Exercise:

Front leg raise 3x15, Lateral leg raise 3x15, Side clams 3x15, Lateral leg raise 3x15, Bicycle 3x15, Kickback 3x15 and High knee 3x15.

Physical Therapy:

12 minutes Cybex elliptical; 4x12 leg curls & leg raises; 4x12 abductor/adductor; 10 lb dumbbells for weighted stepups, 3x10 alternating with 10 double leg raises; 12 minutes treadmill walking at a quicker pace

Day one of no energy drinks for me. One coffee in the a.m. and one tea at lunch. Period.

Dagmar :eek: