Saturday, waking around 5:15 AM, telling myself that the business trip to San Diego for our Offsite is no big deal. Right. Three hours later, that's all I can think about on this overcast, humid day full of errands, many having to do with my personal appearance.
Weigh in: 140.6, down when I thought my Diet Pepsi consumption yesterday would have spiked it.
Meals for Today:
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach, ham, mushrooms and tomatoes; blueberries with cinnamon, yogurt
Lunch: Baby kale & spring greens mix, roasted vegetables, pecans, Craisins, feta cheese and some forkfuls of hummus
Snack: Cherries
Dinner: Roasted chicken with harissa and yogurt, steamed broccoli
Dessert: Cookies n' cream Quest bar
And a second snack tonight, unusual for me: Bag of Bare Fruit mixed flavor apple chips, 180 calories
Exercise for Today:
At the gym: 20 minutes on Cybex arc trainer, the usual, taking me about .69 miles; then Strong Curves Workout 4A, glute bridges & deadlifts with the 45-lb plates, and other upper body work, leaving me very little for the Pilates mat class afterward.
Saef... What is offsite? When do you go to San Diego and for how long?
We are planning a few days in Southern California in August. Planning on amusement parks, eating, and sightseeing. Before that, I am going to Houston to visit dd.
My weight is going up rather than down. I do feel stronger though. Many days I'm getting two workouts in, though my food could be better.
Debating gym vs, yoga today as I won't have time for both. Thinking I will go do spin as I'm trying to vary my workouts.
My copy of Strong Curves arrived while I was attending the workshop, so now I'm reading it. Interesting- I thought I had read pretty much everything every published about fitness and body weight by now, but Bret Contreras has managed to throw out a few "facts" (no citations of course; this isn't a scholarly article) I was previously unaware of. Most relevant to me is his assertion that the majority of muscle mass increases occur during the first year after beginning weight training, and decreases by roughly 1/2 for each additional year, asymptoting around years 4-5 (where I am now), even if you continue to increase weight/reps throughout your training years. He gives the example of a woman who adds 10 pounds of muscle her first year, 5 the second, 2 the third and perhaps only 1 additional pound during years 4 and 5 respectively. If she were a lean 5'4" and 120 pounds to start with and gained no fat mass at all, she would weigh 138 lbs after 4 years of weight training, but her % body fat would have dropped considerably (because the fat mass would be a smaller portion of her total body weight). Saef- does this ring true for you? Michele, what do you think, as you're always fighting to get below 125? It certainly does for me. I am by no means "skinny" but I look ok in a bathing suit when I'm only a few pounds away from an overweight BMI (132 lbs for 5'2").
JayZee, good on you for having gotten a K (I never managed that feat). Yes, there's definitely the stress of "keeping the ball rolling" in order to transition to an R, and there was more than a little talk at my workshop regarding that very thing. One piece of "good" news from the NINDS representative they had onsite for us (Stephen Korn) was that the payline for R01s for New Investigators and Early Stage Investigators was ~20%ile. Worse than the 25% "best ever" numbers (in the early-mid 2000s) but a lot better than the 14%ile for R01s overall.
FWIW, if anyone's keeping score, I've never heard the term "spendy" in MI either, but also instantly figured out what it means. Way easier than the many slang words my 16 year old throws around.
Happily, I managed to keep my eating enough in check during the conference to be down another pound. Working hard not to blow it with gratuitous evening grazing now that I'm back home and near my overstocked pantry.
TV yesterday was interrupted by a news alert. We then spent the next hour or more watching the North Fire as it swept up and over I-15 and destroyed 20 cars and damaged many more. At the time they said people had been injured by the fire, but today's paper said no one was hurt. Four homes were also destroyed.
Then a couple hours later an haboob ran through our valley. One city to our east got pouring rain (it is less than 10 minutes from our house) but we got nothing. The skies are overcast and the humidity is very high as we get remnants of tropical storm Dolores (my godmother's name).
My in-laws drove to Idaho and are returning Sunday. I had to tell them that once they hit Las Vegas they need to check the news and highway conditions. I-15 may be closed and the route through the high desert could have potential flooding from the storm which can cause road closures. DS is staying at their house to watch their cats, but he'll go back home Sunday evening. If they don't get home I guess we'll be on cat duty.
Basically, they take a large portion of managers (me, too) and stick them into an overly air-conditioned hotel for a week to attend constant meetings, speeches and workshops, and to have all of their meals together buffet-style, and to only leave the hotel on closely chaperoned events.
It's a test of my endurance. I like being with people but I have a strong need to be alone periodically to recharge during unstructured time. It doesn't take much. But this event insists on 24x7 togetherness and supposes that all people are gregarious, like we're all in the sales org or something.
I will see very little of San Diego except on a single chaperoned outing, like last year, when I saw almost nothing of Orlando except for a disastrous rainy outing at a theme park (I honestly forget which one). Last year, we were at the Ritz Carlton. This year, it's the Marina Marriott or something like that, I feel like there's three names to it. I have been there before, maybe 10 years ago, for a convention my company threw. We have an enormous events business, which probably gives us leverage with hotels and discounts for smaller meetings like this one.
What's the point of going to some far away location if you're not allowed to enjoy it? Just put everyone in a local hotel and "lock them in" for a few days. They'd probably spend a lot less, too.
It's part of the culture of certain industries. As though you don't get enough of your co-workers during the work week. Something about "bonding" and getting on board with the company "vision."
Sunday, trying to let myself relax into the predicted heat in the 90s today.
Weigh in: 140.7, up just a fraction.
Meals for Today:
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach, ham, mushrooms and tomatoes; blueberries with cinnamon, yogurt
Snack: Cherries
Lunch: Baby kale and spring mix salad, walnuts, roasted vegetables, feta cheese, goji berries, and some forkfuls of hummus
Snack: Bare Fruit Granny Smith apple chips, 180 calorie bag
Dinner: Miso-glazed salmon, lots of broccoli raabe, steamed green beans
Dessert: Double chocolate chunk Quest bar
Exercise for Today:
At the gym: 20 minutes on recumbent bike; then Strong Curves Workout 4B, trying the military press with a 60-lb fixed barbell.
Andrea... Food for thought.... I know I do struggle to get and stay under 125 when a few years ago I hovered around 120. I'm not sure how much of it is my mental state, muscle composition, or other factors.
I'm hovering around 130 at the moment which is obviously much higher than I like. Hopefully I can stay focused this week and get a little lower.
Typing this from somewhere over Arizona, on my way to San Diego, on JetBlue's Wi-Fi. It amazes me that, in my lifetime, we have this connectivity.
Weigh in: 138.9, down, which may change while I'm on my business trip.
Meals for Today:
Breakfast: EAS protein shake muffin with cacao nibs; egg bake with spinach, ham, mushrooms and tomatoes; blueberries with cinnamon, yogurt
Snacks on a six-hour plane ride, during which I was strangely ravenous: Bing cherries taken to the airport in a baggie, a nectarine, a 180-calorie bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips, and a Cinnamon Swirl Quest bar. Probably should have brought some almonds or peanuts.
Lunch: Kale salad with too much dressing and a piece of grilled salmon. Was embarrassed when another woman stared at my plate, clean but for a few dressing-sodden pomegranate seeds, and said, "Gosh, you really were hungry, weren't you?" In some part of my mind, it's shameful for a woman to have an appetite.
Dinner: Not so hungry, but nevertheless had some romaine lettuce with many pieces of grilled skirt steak, a bit of mahi-mahi and a few cubes of mango
Exercise for Today:
At the hotel gym, all Life Fitness stocked, clean but small: 30 minutes on Life Fitness recumbent bike, resistance at 10, and hills; 3x12 hamstring curls; 3x12 leg extensions; 3x12 leg press; 20x each leg 18 lbs on cable weights strapped to ankles for adductors. Then some random curls and pullovers & etc, as I was influenced by thin young dudes gazing at themselves in mirrors and doing random curls. I am as vain as a 17-year-old boy of my arm muscles.
Tuesday, waking up with slightly burning eyes, a sign of tiredness and maladjustment to the hotel climate and the time difference. This day is a marathon, not a sprint, with unrelieved togetherness starting at 7 AM and running to nearly 10 PM.
Meals are going to look wonky as I pick & choose from the convention fare at various buffets.
Meals for Today:
Preworkout at 4:15 AM: Bag of freeze-dried strawberries and cup of black coffee
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, blueberries, cantaloupe and lychees, and corned beef with potatoes
Snack: Apple
Lunch: Romaine salad with some specks of raw vegetables, crumbled bacon and the contents of some roasted vegetable wraps spilled onto it. The pickings have to get better after this.
Snack: Quest S'mores bar, because I was ravenous, and dinner seems a long time away
Dinner: Finally some vegetables: Baby zucchini, carrots, green beans, iceberg salad with tiny flecks of vegetables, Southwestern quinoa (delicious!) and a couple barbeque ribs
Exercise for Today:
At the hotel gym, 20 minutes on Life Fitness elliptical, resistance at eight, alternating forward and backward; then Workout 4C of Strong Curves advanced program. I had to use the Smith machine for weighted hip thrusts and roll up a yoga mat for padding. I got some odd looks from colleagues at my company while doing this, and also when I did the so-called "Naked Getup" variation on Turkish getups.
I went on a trip in May where I was definitely overindulging, and I couldn't bear to weigh myself. I finally did today, and I'm at 149. Not horrible, but not quite where I want to be. *Sigh* This maintenance journey is not an easy one.
Meals for today:
B:Green smoothie with protein
L: Small portion of chicken, brown rice, and veggies. Side of kale salad, small amount of goat cheese.
S: Apple and string cheese
D: Not sure yet...
S: Brown rice cake with almond butter and jelly.
We are on your side. 
