Thursday, July 16

Breakfast: An apple, peanut butter, and a glass of skim milk.

Lunch: Sandwich (whole wheat bread, ham, turkey, pepperjack cheese, onion, bell pepper, mustard) and water.

“Study Break”: The mechanical engineering organization for graduate students holds a “study break” every Thursday afternoon so we can have a snack and socialize.  This week it was pastries and lemonade.

Dinner: Dijon crusted tilapia with oven roasted garlic (yay for pre-seasoned filets that just need to be put in the oven!), steamed green beans with a little butter and salt, water.

Evening Snack: Nectarine and a glass of skim milk.

Exercise: About 10 min. on the elliptical, and then Workout A of the two DR gave me.

Daily Log–Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Breakfast: An apple, peanut butter, and a glass of skim milk.

Lunch: Sandwich (whole wheat bread, ham, turkey, pepperjack cheese, onion, bell pepper, mustard), cheese flavored Quaker rice cake snacks, water.

Afternoon Snack: Pepperidge Farm cheddar flavored pretzel crackers.

Dinner: Sauteed zucchini, bell pepper, mushrooms, and garlic over whole wheat pasta with olive oil and feta and Parmesan cheese; water.

Evening Snack: Nectarine, one Dove caramel chocolate, and a glass of skim milk.

Exercise: About 10 min. on the elliptical, and then Workout B of the two DR gave me, substituting pushups for the arm exercises.

Daily Log–Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I impulsively bought some beets at the farmers’ market over the weekend, and now have no idea what to do with them.  Suggestions?

Breakfast: An apple, peanut butter, and a glass of skim milk.

Lunch: Sauteed onions, garlic, and zucchini and toasted chickpeas cooked with crushed tomatoes (still taking name suggestions for this) over brown rice and topped with shredded cheese, water.

Dinner: Salad (Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, balsamic vinaigrette), roasted green beans, high fiber bread (this stuff is so dense and yummy tasting, I love it) toasted with butter, water.

Evening Snack: Water, Pepperidge Farm pretzel crackers with sun-dried tomato hummus, lemon sorbet.

Exercise: None today.  I got sucked into Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on HBO.  Whoops.

Daily Log–Monday, July 13, 2009

Everyone says keeping a food diary is a good thing, but I never seem to be able to keep one for very long.  Maybe if I start posting everything here, where people can see it and comment, I’ll last longer.  Comments and advice are welcome and appreciated, but meanness isn’t.  Please be constructive.

Breakfast: An apple, peanut butter, and a glass of skim milk.

Lunch: Sauteed onions, garlic, and zucchini and toasted chickpeas cooked with crushed tomatoes (my own creation, I have no name for it, so suggestions are welcome) over brown rice and topped with shredded cheese, water.

Dinner: Sandwich (whole wheat bread, chicken, turkey, pepperjack cheese, pickles, onion, mustard), grape tomatoes, Pepperidge Farm pretzel crackers (savory cheddar and plain) with roasted red pepper hummus, water.

Evening Snack: Nectarine, one Dove caramel chocolate, and a glass of skim milk.

Exercise: Walked/ran about 2 miles (according to the treadmill) in 30 minutes; week 2, day 3 of the one hundred pushups challenge (I’ve been on that for a while, as I suck at pushups); the dead bug for a little less than 5 minutes, and some crunches.

Whoops.

So.  Things to work on:  updating more frequently, definitely.

I’m at about 185-188 lbs now (so down 34-37 lbs since last August), and I’ve been there for a while.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to lose any more.  I mean, I know it’s physicaly possible, but I’d either have to eat less or exercise more than I am currently, and I’m not sure if I’m willing/able to make those changes.  :-/

One thing I could use everyone’s help on is lunch ideas.  I have to bring my lunch to campus every day, and for the last few months I’ve been defaulting to sandwiches:  whole wheat bread, pepperjack cheese, ham/turkey/chicken, mustard, and some combination of bell peppers, onion, and lettuce.  And it’s beginning to drive me INSANE, but I can’t think of anything else that’s quick and easy to make and throw into my lunch bag in the few minutes I have in the morning.  Any ideas?

Related to that:  what sides would be good to add?  A sandwich just doesn’t seem like enough, sometimes, but I’ve again defaulted to bringing either an apple or broccoli and ranch dressing, but I’m becoming sick of those as well.  Sometimes I’ll bring cheese-flavored Quaker rice cake things, because they satisfy my love of crunchy things and are hopefully not as horrible as chips.  But other than that, I’m drawing a blank.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Success and Failure

I finally dragged my ass to the gym yesterday, and did an interval workout that DR suggested for me.  Score!

However, that point got taken right back, because oh my, are my legs weaker than I thought they were.  The first part of the workout is all squats and lunges, and you’re supposed to do as many sets as possible in 25 minutes, only resting between the sets.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  I only finished three (Four?  Three?  I really can’t remember already) sets, stopping many times during the sets—and even during the reps of one exercise—because I was afraid my legs were going to give out.  Gotta work on that.

I also took a while during the other parts of the workout, because my head was spinning and I had to stop and close my eyes because, oh, the apartment complex probably wouldn’t appreciate it if I threw up on their equipment.  I have no idea why I got nauseous, though.  Working out first thing in the morning, after having a martial arts class the night before?  Not warming up enough?  The workout itself?  Bad posture?  (I think I have a tendency—I have no idea why—to tilt my head back and look “up” while I exercise…maybe that put strain on my neck?)  Taking a pain killer right before I went to the gym?  (I have no idea if that’s bad or not.)

The nausea went away about half an hour after I got back to my apartment, though, so…yay?  Everything’s good?  Except for the fact that my legs stiffened up more and more as the day went on, so now I have to be careful that when I sit down, I don’t fall down instead?

Don’t worry—I may be complaining, but I’m still going to (try to) keep with it.

Just as soon as I can walk normally again.  Ow.

This is familiar.

I’m down to about 195 (ish) pounds now.  One of my pairs of jeans is in danger of falling off when I wear them, and I could have maybe gotten a smaller size when I went shopping the other day, if I wanted to spend the money.  (I think I’ll wash them instead, and hope they shrink enough.)  I went in The Limited on a whim and tried on a few shirts.  They didn’t look wonderful–a little too tight–but they fit.  I could actually get them on, which I’m sure I couldn’t have done earlier.  Obviously, something’s going right.

And yet none of this was enough to get me out of bed this morning the needed hour earlier to go to the gym.  Exercise?  Ugh.  Motivation:  I No Can Has.

I’ve never loved working out.  I don’t think I get that “exercise high” I’ve heard people going on and on about.  I guess I feel okay after I work out, but that knowledge never seems to be enough when that alarm goes off and I’m still sleepy and warm and comfy under my covers.

I don’t know what to do.

More Than Numbers

I know that I’ve lost about 20 lbs since August, but it can be hard to “see” what my scale tells me.  So it’s nice to get reinforcement sometimes.  I have a blazer jacket thing that I usually wear open, because otherwise it can be a bit snug.  I pulled it out again today for an additional layer (desperately needed, as we’ve been in Arctic degrees for the past two days), and this time…not snug.  Fit pretty well, actually.

However, I think I’ll still wear it open most of the time–it fastens by slotting metal hook things into little loops, which seem to come unfastened by, like, shifting.

Ow.

I’m used to having my arms and legs get sore, but my neck?  This is just ridiculous.

Knowing vs. Doing

I know I should exercise more, and that the morning would probably be the best time for me to do it.  But that doesn’t stop me from hitting the snooze button on my alarm clock until it’s too late to go to the gym.

I know that I have a problem of snacking when I’m not hungry.  Sometimes I’ll even say to myself, “Brit, you know you’re not hungry.  You just want to eat to be eating something/you like the way this tastes/you’re bored/upset/etc.”  And then I’ll eat it anyway.

I feel like I just don’t have enough willpower or something.  I don’t know how to fix that.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

And on another topic, I’m tempted to join a CSA this year, because it would give me a large variety of veggies to choose from, and I would be forced to use them.  However, the two in the area I’ve checked out so far cost $500+!  I know that’s for over 20 weeks, so it’s not as much per week, but that’s still a daunting figure.  Also, since I’m only cooking for myself, I’m afraid that I would get too much per week, and it would go to waste.  Do you think I should just stick to the grocery store, and the farmer’s market when it opens back up again in the spring?