Garbage That GOO!

Watershed

Well, some of the weekend weight gain is now off... I'm hovering slightly below 223 pounds. But that's a number that is not making me very happy after seeing the 2-teens ever so briefly! So I'm trying to rein in the eating and eat cleaner and fewer calories while my feet are recovering.

They are being slow about it. I've decided not to push this week and just keep off them as much as I can. I'll return to exercise on Monday. My body could use a break and it's telling me "OFF THE FEET NOW!" The flare-up has pain in my heels... usually the pain is located in my arches. I'm taking my fish oils, my Aleve and drinking a lot of water and icing.

I did fine with eating on Monday... so-so on Tuesday/Wednesday. OK yesterday, except I found one last PowerBar unpacking and ate that for breakfast and I got on a bit of a peanut butter eating thing last night. Calories were still firmly in line, but didn't need those extra fats.

I am clicking along today.

Meal 1 = (362 calories) smoothie (green tea, plain yogurt, protein powder, flax meal, almonds, spinach, Greens Plus wildberry burst and blueberries)

Meal 2 = (320 calories) grass fed lean ground beef with onion, carrot, mushroom, baby bok choy, spinach and green pepper and 2 TBSP red curry sauce. Also a tangelo.

Meal 3 = (420 calories) smoothie (green tea, cottage cheese, protein powder, flax meal, almonds, walnuts, spinach, cinnamon)

Meal 4 = (465 calories) Pure Catch Marinated Tilapia - Toasted Black Pepper (from Safeway), 2 cups broccoli, reduced-fat feta cheese, sesame seed, a little sesame oil, lemon juice, craisins

Meal 5 = (203 calories) a little pudding/softserve dessert with cottage cheese, coconut milk, a little grated ginger root, 1/2 serving of banana flavored protein powder and frozen strawberries whipped up in the new Vita-Mix.

Total: 1770 calories.

Why lunges are tough

I figured out the other day why doing lunges is so darned difficult.

I realized that I've NEVER done them before at any point of my entire life! No wonder it's been a struggle! It's an entire motor skill I've not used, never learned. Balance on these is really tough for me. I'm not sure I could do them at all without the assist of the TRX trainer or my fitness ball.

I'm working on it. Today, we did intervals in water aerobics and I threw myself at that, so I was wiped after. Didn't want to walk or swim. But I did take the time to get in the shallow end and practice walking lunges in the water. It's not real work for my muscles because of the water support, but it's hard balancing in the water, so I thought it would help me with that and just getting the form and motion down.

Anyway, good class, good workout.

My new 2X swimsuit (hopefully the LAST 2X) arrived yesterday. It fits! It actually looks a bit more stylish, or at least you can tell that I have an hourglass shape. Though I think the top half of the hour glass is shrinking more than the bottom half. I'm not sure how good it will be for swimming, but I expect I can live with it for the three months it will last.

I just had a smoothie of fresh pineapple, banana, coconut milk, green tea and vanilla protein powder. And spinach. Hit the spot!

Poor eating stops now!

This week has certainly been a move away from my goals. A lot of unplanned eating and poor choices. As I've turned 51 recently, you'd think I'd know better. I DO know better! But I slacked anyway. However, it's time to end the goofing off and get back on track.

On my birthday, I went to the store after my workout for some needed groceries and managed to justify bringing home TWO KING SIZE CANDY BARS. And a snack pack bag of Doritos (Cool Ranch) and Cheetos (Crunchy). And ate them all at once. I didn't really even enjoy it that much. I was horrified when I finally dared to look at the nutrition labels!

Hubby brought home a couple Lindt 85% dark chocolate bars for me... he's learning! And no, I've not taken so much as a square of those yet. When I need some chocolate, I seem to have a little control with the Lindt. I can eat a square a day and keep it to that. He did however also bring home a lovely 70% dark chocolate raspberry bar... that got eaten the next day for breakfast, sigh.

I got my exercise in on my birthday... water aerobics followed by a half mile swim! And I'd planned to cook a healthy dinner. But by the time hubby got home, I was fatigued and when he suggested going out to dinner, I was ready to jump aboard that train! We settled on going to the Wildhorse buffet. Yeah, there's another bright choice!

However, as it turned out, the buffet was not to be. I got there, we'd actually paid our entrance, been seated, had ordered water and diet soda and were about to load our plates. As I looked over the buffet, I just didn't see much for protein choices that I liked. It was steak, steak, steak and more steak and fried chicken and fried shrimp. OK... I love fried shrimp, but I didn't want to eat ONLY that! And the steak looked fatty and greasy and was not appealing at all. Nor did there seem to be many vegetable dishes. Baked beans, potatoes, rice, mac n' cheese and other starchy fare, yes. It just wasn't my day. We've been there when it has been much better.

I turned to my husband and said that I couldn't eat. And we went to the register and told them that today's fare just wasn't what we were planning on and that we wanted to cancel. So they did. We did leave a tip for their trouble!

Then, as we had never tried the Wildhorse's fine dining restaurant, Plateau, we decided that would be fun. This time we looked at the posted menu first before proceeding! However, once I saw that they had steelhead trout with fiddlehead ferns, morel mushrooms and fingerling potatoes, hubby would've had to have dragged me away! It's been a long time since I've had fiddlehead ferns and I've never had the trout or morels. Suffice to say all was good, very good! Though it was clear that there was no sparing the butter in the preparation of the dishes! We had salads before dinner, I had a lovely spinach and watercress salad with salmon pastrami, red onions, bacon and sliced strawberries. Delicious! And the steelhead trout was wonderful, the combination of fiddleheads and morels absolute heaven!

At any rate, it seems like most of the week I've been off track with my eating... but today, I'm getting back on my onward rolling wagon.

Leanward, HO!

Saturday Masters golf meltdown

Went to the accountant with our taxes Friday, still managed to get to water aerobics class afterwards and did a full workout, even with minimal sleep! I don't know if it was the stress from taxes or just plain lack of sleep (probably the latter), but I had rather a dietary and exercise meltdown yesterday.

We did another pizza Friday night, which would've been OK, if not ideal twice in a week, but I'd also picked up salads for the next day. As it turned out, those were low carb... but pretty loaded with fat. That's what my late breakfast was Saturday.

And the rest of Saturday just went right down the drain afterwards. I had no energy, so mostly I just sat watching the golf show and enjoying that and nibbling here and there on nuts, peanut butter, cheese and whatnot. No veggies to speak of other than the lettuce in the initial salad. Eventually I had a bowl of Kashi GoLean with milk and protein powder. So nothing horribly unhealthy, just not my normal eating pattern at all!

No exercise yesterday. My shoulders felt crappy and I had no motivation. I just rested. Which means today I DO need to do my workout! And that probably won't look pretty on my weigh-in tomorrow, if my muscles are retaining water, which is almost a sure bet.

I did try to keep up the water drinking yesterday, but fell short of getting my gallon in. I feel it... Saturday I felt quite a bit dehydrated, even my eyes felt dry and irritated, it's better today, but I need the liquids. I'm aiming to go get breakfast and then try and do my workout before the golf starts, because I will want to watch!

Tired but pleased…

I was pleased with myself last night.

I was tired yesterday, really wasted after water aerobics. Speaking of which, I just couldn't bring that up to peak level... though I did try hard. Probably because of the hard intervals the day before. I did swim a quarter mile after though.

I was tempted to do a second shake last night, when I was waiting for hubby to get back home, instead of my planned chicken/broccoli dinner, I'd even started to get out the measuring cups and then I stopped, asked myself if the shake was a better idea than the chicken and told myself no. Then I got out the chicken, spice rubbed it, grilled it up while steaming the broccoli, made a nice lemon juice/olive oil/garlic drizzle for the broccoli and dinner was good.

Days when I am tired are the hardest... that's when it's easier to not have my veggies, or grab for snack foods like cheese, nuts, peanut butter, etc... but I didn't.

Taxes and binges

I'm still procrastinating on tax paperwork and must stop. I swear to do at least one tax related thing by the end of the evening. And tomorrow afternoon/evening will be devoted to it. Probably Saturday too.

Today this procrastination kick led to a brief eating binge. I hate paperwork... but binges fall into the category of decisions that do NOT further my goals. Obviously I need to read my last post again myself!

I ate 4 Wasa Fiber Rye crisps with about a teaspoon of butter on each spread thin topped with a tablespoon of sugar. Yes, I actually measured the sugar for my binge. Sick or what? This was followed by either 4 or 6 Lindt 85% dark chocolate squares. I didn't check the square count left on the bar before inhaling. I did follow this with a serving of protein powder in milk... to get some protein with all the fat and carbs.

That was the last of the Fiber Rye crisps though. That package has been around for a while, like since early last fall. Nevertheless... breads in any form are a weakness of mine. I don't think I'll replace those for a while yet.

I plan to eat very light, yet compliant meals for my next two meals. I don't think I'll be hungry. I felt pretty icky and bloated after the binge.

Eating cave-in last night

I had a 10% meal all planned, Papa Murphy's Gourmet Chicken Bacon Artichoke DeLITE thin crust pizza. On a workout day, I figured it wouldn't be so bad. And I do like to eat close to maintenance on Mondays.

Trouble was, for whatever reason, yesterday I was really physically hungry. I ate before my workout, I drank whey protein/water after, I had my oatmeal when I got home and then three hours later I made a HUGE salad... one with close to 4 cups of various veggies and topped with 3 ounces of salmon. Also used a serving of Annie's Naturals Tuscany Italian Dressing on top of that. So, I was not lacking in protein or fats... but I ate that salad and was hungry after. Not boredom hungry, but actual hunger pangs going on.

I waited 10 minutes. Hunger still there. I ate a tablespoon of almonds. Waited a little longer. No change. I ate two slices of reduced fat swiss cheese. Still hungry.

At that point, I realized it was getting late and I needed to go pick up the pizza before the joint closed. So I did that. I was still feeling very hungry in the car. I headed to Albertson's, thinking that I could buy a Power Bar and maybe stave the hunger off.

BIG MISTAKE... NEVER go to the store when hungry!

Entering the store, the first thing to meet my eyes was a shopping cart piled high with assorted Easter candy on a HALF PRICE SALE. Including BAGS and BOXES of my favorite, Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs.

ARRRRGGGGHHH! Intense cravings were hitting! But I resisted the bags and boxes. I really didn't want to go there, because I know myself. I'd eat the bag or most of it in a sitting. Same for the box of six.

I got the Power Bar... but it was not the Power Bar I craved. So, I caved and bought 2 Reese's Big Cups. Well, two of those were still better than a bag full of the PB eggs, but that's about the only good I can find. I ate my goodies upon getting home. Then had the pizza two hours later.

NOT a good eating day, 3400 calories! My weigh-in was AWFUL today!

Having to write this post... also not fun.