Glad you tried the grated turnip, Andrea! It seems to add a little sweetness and moistness to my eggs, but no particular taste.

I'm to the point where I've whittled down my acceptable weight range so I'm always losing 1 or 2 pounds. But it seems just as hard as losing 5. And if I don't actively try to get the scale down, it will go up. Ah, life's tribulations.

Sure wish I could do Strong Curves, but I'd have to eliminate most of the exercises because my knees won't tolerate them. I will have stick to hiking up a lot of hills, a few deadlifts and some donkey kicks for my glutes.

I'm doing another 4 day backpack starting on Wednesday. It will be to the Big Five Lakes and Little Five Lakes in Mineral King.

Monday, not pleased about going back to the office. Heading out to physical therapy at 5:30 AM, thinking how nice it would be if I had nothing to do or worry about, if I had taken the day off, which I can't.

Weigh in: 139.3, not up two pounds after the weekend! This reflects all the errand-running and activities over the weekend, which was not relaxing. I'd worked late every day of the previous week and had lots of domestic tasks to perform (picking up clothes strewn across the guest bedroom, vacuuming, shopping & cooking, that sort of thing).

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with broccoli, mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes; cantaloupe; yogurt
Snack: A MacIntosh apple of some distinction
Lunch: Spring mix with roasted asparagus, roasted sweet potato, peaches with cilantro & chili powder (seriously, this was delicious), and chicken breast
Snack: Red and yellow cherries, a bit too soft
Dinner: Ham & vegetable soup
Dessert: Chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bar

Exercise for Today:

At physical therapy, 12 minute warmup on Cybex elliptical, 4x12 squats with a weighted bar (if they only knew what I am doing at my gym, on my own) alternating with 4x20 crunches; 3x12 leg raises and hamstring curls; 3x12 abductor/adductor machine; 12 minutes on treadmill, alternating from fast walk and slow walk, at an incline

Tuesday morning, feeling saddened by how my work piled onto me yesterday, as I realized all that I've got to accomplish before next week's offsite meeting in San Diego.

Weigh in: 139.9, an unusual trend for my weight this week

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach, ham, mushrooms and tomatoes; blueberries with cinnamon, yogurt
Snack: Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips, the 130-calorie bag
Lunch: Arugula salad, roasted vegetables, lots of almonds, some plain tofu chunks, goji berries, half of a tasteless California avocado
Snack: Peach
Dinner: Ham & vegetable soup
Dessert: Cinnamon Swirl Quest bar


Exercise for Today:

At the gym, the usual 20-minute recumbent bike warmup, resistance at 10, hill program; then Workout 3C of the Strong Curves Advanced Program. I can now bench-press a single 30-lb dumbbell in one hand for eight reps, probably could do more. This is a relief when I think back to where I was in February after several months of barely moving.

Wednesday morning, walking through air so humid, it feels like wading through water. Reminds me of visits to Florida in July for meetings during the past two years. Just a resigned feeling when I think about work and anger growing at management over how long I've carried jobs for two people. It must be saving them so much money.

Weigh in: 139.9, same as yesterday. I double-checked after a scale re-set. That's unusual.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach, ham, mushrooms and tomatoes; blueberries with cinnamon, yogurt
Snack: Slightly overripe plum
Lunch: Watercress salad with farro, roasted peppers, almonds, chicken breast and two small stuffed grape leaves
Snack: Cherries, a small "white" peach
Dinner: Roasted chicken thighs with harissa and yogurt sauce, cauliflower & carrots, broccoli rabe
Dessert: Double chocolate chunk Quest bar


Exercise for Today:

At the gym, the usual 20-minute Cybexz arc trainer warmup, resistance at 10, slogging through the interval program; then Workout 3A2 of the Strong Curves Advanced Program. Here's where I am: Rowing a 40-lb DB, squatting 110 lbs, deadlifting 125 lbs and weighted glute bridges at 125 lbs.

As long as one is successful at doing the work of two people, no matter the personal cost, management has no incentive to change anything. They will just let one keep on doing it.

It might be time to start slipping deadlines instead of meeting them, saef, so that you actually have a life again and management perceives the problem.

Thursday morning, at the office at 7:30 AM, and just feeling tired, looking at email from India, time-stamped 1:30 AM. At least the humidity dropped and the temperatures did, too, and it was even a bit chilly, in the 60s.

Weigh in: None. The scale wouldn't work. Even after I changed the four batteries and am pretty certain they're pointing in the right direction.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach, ham, mushrooms and tomatoes; blueberries with cinnamon, yogurt
Snack: Two peaches, and then later, since lunch was very late, raided my afternoon snack of cherries
Lunch: Half watercress salad with tomatoes, half kale Caesar salad, with six dolmas on the top
Dinner: Ham and vegetable soup
Dessert: S'mores Quest bar


Exercise for Today:

At the gym, 30 minutes on the recumbent bike, pushing hard with the recovering leg and sweating hard, too, even though the gym was chilly and not humid.

At Trader Joe's I saw Quest bars so picked up a cookies and cream bar. Usually those kinds of things are overly sweet IMHO and don't have much protein. I was surprised to see 21 grams of protein and only 1 gram of sugar. It tasted pretty darn good, too. I can see why you like them, saef. They're pretty spendy at TJ's, though--$2.29 each. My DH and I are going to try for a walking PR of 20 miles through Seattle on Saturday, and a Quest bar might come in handy.

Sheila, that's a wonderful West Coast regionalism: "Spendy." And actually, $2.29 isn't bad. If I get from at Shop Rite, they're $2.50 each. Or I buy a 12-pack from eBay with free shipping for $25.95.

I don't mind because I don't buy alcohol, or drink, and I don't buy any junk food anymore, I work hard, and honestly, I make a decent salary, so I find Quest bars affordable.

And yeah, the low sugar/high protein and the great taste of some of the flavors is why I'm eating one a day, as a dessert.

I go on jags like this with food. I am sure I'll get tired of Quest bars, and one day I'll look back on 2015 as my Year of the Quest bar, but right now, I like them a lot.

Back from the workshop. I learned some, and definitely made some important and (hopefully) useful contacts in the Neurology grant-funding world. Now the onus is on me to finish my research study protocol and write the grant proposal to go with it. But for the first time in my career, I actually feel like I have the same advantages that all the other grant applicants have (that I never had, like an understanding of what it takes to submit a competitive grant application, and a mentor who advocates for me).

A little afraid to get on the scale because I sat all day, ate big (for me; they were 1/2 of what other people ate) meals and had wine with dinner two nights in a row. We'll see.

Very Off Topic
 

This is wildly off topic. Thanks for your patience with my curiosity.

Thank you very much, Sheila and saef, for pulling me up and making me think. 'American' has obviously been challenging me so much that I haven't even considered its regional variation. And yet I do this all the time in British English and other languages ...

From neurodoc:

So very glad to hear at last of a workshop that was positive and encouraging. And it sounds wonderful to have someone who's going to be on your side, helping you out. This phrase jumped out at me as I understand mentoring and advocacy to be two different things. Roughly: mentoring ~ support and encouragement; advocacy ~ speaking on someone's behalf. I'd be very interested to know what this person will be doing for/with you.

Here you go: Blue pins represent people who use or have heard the word "spendy" and red represent those who haven't heard it at all.

Where I live, I never hear it, and the reason I know what it means is that a friend of mine who moved from Upstate NY to Medford, Oregon told me all about it.

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/edu...grammar/spendy

There are surely New York-isms that aren't heard as often in other parts of the country. New Yorkers use more words derived from Yiddish than many people in other parts of the U.S. -- there's even a difference between Upstate NY and the greater NY metro area.

Friday, sitting bolt upright at 5:15 AM, realizing I forgot to set my alarm, and my physical therapy appointment was for 5:30 AM. A moment of panic over whether I ought to simply reschedule, but I got myself dressed and drove over, and yes, I was over 20 minutes late, but they were having a quiet morning and it wasn't a problem at all. It wasn't irreparable, it wasn't even really an emergency.

Weigh in: 141, when I finally got the scale to work, after physical therapy and breakfast.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach, ham, mushrooms and tomatoes; blueberries with cinnamon, yogurt
Snack: Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips, the 180-calorie bag
Lunch: Arugula salad, roasted vegetables, almonds, goji berries, feta cheese and several forkfuls of hummus
Snack: Cherries
Dinner: Roast chicken with harissa and yogurt, roasted cauliflower, steamed green beans
Dessert: Cookies n' cream Quest bar

Exercise for Today:

At physical therapy, 12 minute warmup on Cybex elliptical, 4x12 step-ups with 10-lb dumbbells (too easy because I've been doing high step-ups on my own) alternating with 4x20 crunches; 3x12 leg presses; 3x12 leg raises and hamstring curls; 3x12 abductor/adductor; 12 minutes incline treadmill walking at varied speeds.

I don't think I've ever heard spendy, although I instantly knew what you meant.

I'll have to check TJ's for Quest bars. I can find them at the grocery store (not all the flavors) and if I'm lucky they're $2.50 each. I have picked up an assortment from Amazon, but the assortments are more expensive than buying one flavor. I do like them--they keep me satisfied for a long time and I haven't yet had one that I didn't like.

Re "spendy" - I knew instantly what it meant from the context in which it was used, though I've never seen it in print before or heard anyone say it. We up here in Canada have some unique expressions that I'm sure most Americans don't know. The province of Newfoundland has several dialects that the rest of Canadians find quite difficult to understand - much like the difference between "network" English and "cockney" English.

Dagmar :dizzy:

Spendy is one of my favorite words.

Andrea, glad your workshop went well! It is wonderful that you feel more supported now in your pursuit of funding. I'm supposed to be writing for an R award now that the last year of my K is upon me. But all I want right now is to get off of that merry-go-round for a little while.