Day 3 - PCP redux

Well, folks -

After a great PCP, I've slipped off the wagon. I was hamstrung twice - once with my father dying three weeks after PCP ended, and twice with the development of Achilles tendinitis almost immediately after I started getting back on track (which, truthfully, I could have worked around. Equally truthfully, I didn't. Instead I sulked and overindulged)

While my Dad's death was not entirely unexpected, it also wasn't something I was (or even could have been) really prepared for, and it threw me off in ways I hadn't anticipated and in ways I wasn't even immediately fully aware of. I kept waiting to be in a good place to get back on top of things.

Eventually, it occurred to me that waiting to just arrive in that good place was going to be more like waiting for Godot than anything else; if I wanted that good place, I'd better suit up and hunt it down. Now that I've knocked out a couple of big personal things that took alot of time, energy, and anxious fretting, it's time to go hunting.

So I'm on day 3 of PCP redux - and feeling good about it, and better about life in general. Gotta love those endorphins!

Day 90 - Reflections and Rules for the Road

WOOT! Congratulations TEAM!!!!

Well, first off -

WOW, am I glad I did PCP. Thank you Patrick and Chen and my fellow PCPers for all your help and encouragement! It has been a fantastic experience that I fully expect to stay with me in the weeks, months, and years to come.

A little Backstory

I stumbled across The Peak Condition Project, Patrick's blog about his path to achieve Peak Condition a while ago. I no longer remember exactly when or how, but it was either at the tail end of his own project, or sometime when the first group of PCPers were going through the project. Something about the whole idea I found interesting, but it didn't occur to me that it was something I could do, or was really interested in doing. This is primarily because:

In 2007 I resolved to run a marathon. I did so to raise money for children orphaned by the AIDs epidemic in Africa, to (I hoped) lose some excess weight, and to finally do something I'd been meaning to do for years. I trained and ran that marathon. I raised a good amount of money, and finally did something I'd tried and failed to complete a few times before. I did not lose any weight - you can't run away from a bad diet, and (duh) running that many miles makes you more hungry so if you're diet is poor ... but while I'm proud of the fact that I trained and completed the marathon, it came with a price.

The biggest negative was that I very likely over-trained and was not motivated to do any sort of training for about a year afterward. (For those who think that maybe someday they'd like to finish one - watch this and remember that the bulk of the training is for the mind, not the body - and that's where I failed, pushing myself past what I was really willing to commit to).

So when I first stumbled on PCP, I was just beginning to come out of my burn-out. For some magic reason, every little while or so I would circle back and check out who was doing the project and see how they were doing. Kind of like a confused homing pigeon, I suppose. Last year I got back into running again, and ran a half-marathon and began to think that maybe, just maybe, I'd like a positive marathon running experience under my belt.

Late last year, I again revisited the PCPers - and this time the "Next PCP Begins in:" caught my attention and I began toying with the idea of actually being a part of PCP. I thought, if I was serious about getting my health and fitness back on track, then I couldn't just rely on doing it myself. I had to be willing to ask for help.

And this looked like the place for me to do it.

Two days before Christmas, I typed a shy email and quickly hit "send" and ... it was one of the best decisions I've made.

Hurrah! And thanks again to Patrick and Chen and my fellow PCPers!

Expectations and Surprises

I expected PCP would work. I expected that if nothing else, holding myself accountable to a team of other people would keep me in line and on a healthier path. I did not expect it to work so well or to suit me so well. I expected to lose some weight. I did not expect to lose more than 16 pounds and at least 2 pant sizes.

I expected the workouts to be hard. I can push myself to keep going, but I didn't think I could push myself past the hurt, or push myself to do all those icky strength-training exercises I didn't like. I did not expect to so swiftly adjust to doing the hard, or to actually enjoy strength-training.

I expected the diet to be really hard. I expected to have to give up treats like cheese, fried food, etc. I did not expect that I would so seldom be hungry. I did not expect that my more frequent complaint would be that there was TOO MUCH food. I expected to eat the obvious good-for-you foods such as complex carbohydrates and vegetables. (I'll confess I didn't expect to have to give up salt). I did not expect how quickly my palate would adjust to less salt and sugar in my food. I thought that I'd be craving the foods I was giving up the whole time. I did not expect to wander through a grocery store (I still can't figure out how to buy enough egg whites) the day before the end and TOTALLY NOT BE EXCITED. Celebratory post-PCP food binge? Not so much. Not really interested. Kinda of want a new toy - oh, wait, I have one - THE NEW ME.

I thought that I had anticipated the hard parts - But I did not anticipate the time commitment that was needed. Underestimate the exercise time a little, grossly underestimate the food prep time (and all the grocery shopping 'cause I still can't get it right), underestimate the blogging time. It was all time well spent - especially once I began to get the hang of preparing the bulk of my food on the weekends - but still unexpected.

I expected to slowly adapt to my adapting body - I didn't expect that I'd begin to marvel each day at what I can now do, and how I (don't) fit into my clothes. It's like I woke up and found myself in a brand new body and I'm delighted.

I did not expect the 90 days to go by so Gosh-Darned fast!

I thought I'd be excited for the end, instead of a little lost and wistful.

The Road Ahead

Unexpectedly enough, I'm going to miss PCP. Not so much the time commitment, but the camaraderie, the sure knowledge of what my workout and diet was going to be, the growing pleasure in the progress I've made.

I'm going to keep going with a little PCP on my own. For one thing, I'm a little shy of where I want to be. I'd really like to work on my pull-ups and dips so I can do them without a counter balance. That's just an itch I've got to scratch. And the whole bicycle thing ... I'd like to be able to do 6 reps of 60 seconds without having to stop midway through. And for another - it's finally sinking in that cross-training and strength-training will really help my running, so I want to continue to build on that.

But I'll (mainly) retire the jump rope and devote my time instead to running. Goodness, I miss the running.

Rules for the Road

Since I finally dipped into the PCP world after reading other PCPer's blogs, I thought I'd drop a few things that I learned from the experience in the hopes of helping a future PCPer. Here they are:

- chewy food is more satiating. If it's a choice of 100 grams of broccoli cooked al dente, or 100 grams of broccoli blended into a soup ... the first will sate you much more than the second. If it's a choice between 100 grams of soft white bread and 100 grams of chapati - the chapati will see you a whole lot further.

- using markers to count jump roping helps alot (sidewalk squares, for example). Counting jump roping bored me out of my gourd. Too bad it took me weeks to figure out that I could just count to 100 and the jump to the next sidewalk square so I wouldn't have mental thoughts like this: " 725, 726, oh ... wait.. was that really 725. Damn it. Need to be sure I'm not cheating. 625, 626 ...."

- That first photo might make you cringe, might later still make you cringe, but even though you didn't believe him when he told you you'd be glad you posted it, Patrick is right: it's lovely to be able to see your progress.

- Also in the theme of "Patrick was right and you were a doofus for doubting him" - a plastic jumprope is a million times easer to manage than a nylon woven one. A million.

- What you think is going to be hard may not be. For me, the diet wasn't hard (it helps that I love to cook and love vegetables). The exercises were (mostly) not that hard. Consistently putting aside the time to weigh and prepare the food and do the workout and blog ... that was hard. But committing to it gave me the results I wanted.

- It make life alot simpler to weigh out and package a weeks worth of meals over the weekend. It may not make for an adventurous week of meals - but food really shouldn't be an adventure at every meal. And have the time for other things is really nice.

- You might think you've prepared to commit. You are prepared to work out hard. You are prepared to let go of bad-for-you-foods... but have you considered if you are committed to the TIME it will take to do the workouts, stick to the diet, participate in the group, and figuring out how to fit PCP into your regular life? Just make sure.

- when you need new clothes - buy new clothes. You don't want your pants falling down at the wrong moment. Really, this is lesson you don't want to learn the hard way.

Day 90 - The Workout

So Patrick unveiled our workout for our last (sniff) PCP day...

What a great idea - to go back to an early workout and repeat it. What a fantastic way to show us how far we've come.

I went back to day 1. HA! I could have done that workout in a ball gown - I didn't break a sweat, and finished it in just about 10 minutes! The jump rope sets? Did them all at once, not tripping once. The pushups? I remember how hard I had to struggle to not do them on my knees ... this time I didn't even get my heart rate up.

Wow! That does hammer the point home :)

Day 89 - 1 more day.

Ok. Patrick told us to not psyche ourselves out, thinking about the workout.

But, for me, that's like waving a red flag and telling me not to look at it or telling an acrophobe not to look down.

So I freaked out a little. Which was probably a good thing, as I got up half an hour earlier to knock the workout out of the way. It was probably a mistake to do the back&chest exercises immediately before the abs - because those ab exercises were killer this morning. Then again, we've been doing them pretty consistently for a week, so maybe I've just been wearing my poor abs down.

It's a good thing I can't freak out about tomorrow's workout, which is still a mystery.

So I'll freak out about what I'll do the day AFTER tomorrow, when this little bird is pushed out of the nest and finds out if she can fly :)

GO TEAM GO!!!

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and milk

Breakfast

egg, egg white, broccoli, chapati
milky coffee

mid-morning snack

yogurt - late, not hungry

Lunch

half a chapati

arugula salad with 1/3 my chicken and red bell pepper

not hungry to eat more. I may try to eat more later if my system decides more food is necessary.

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites and mushrooms.

Evening Snack

strawberry milkshake

Day 88 - 2 more days. Yikes!

Watching the end of PCP coming up so fast - it's exciting and scary! Obviously I'll be excited to cross the finish line, but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to miss the whole PCP thing and feel that I have another few weeks in me yet...

Doing planks and V-sits until failure is the fastest way I've found of feeling like a weakling. Oh boy. And it was harder today than it was two days ago, go figure. Doing the pull-ups and dips together makes sense, and I've done them together before when I knew there'd be issues getting to the gym (although then it was full reps of one and then full reps of the other) and it's fun to do something different.

Even if, all the time, a small part of my brain is worrying about the plank/v-sit torture still to come ...

I've definitely got to get to bed early tonight to prepare for tomorrow's workout. I felt fine this morning, but it tapped me out and now I'm fading and this morning's workout seems like a far, far distant memory.

It also looks like I'll be taping up my little toe for a month or so. Sigh. Poor baby toe. So badly abused. I can walk on it all right, but need to be wary of twisting motions, but I can't clench it without pain and it's slowly turning a deeper shade of purple ...

Not to gross anyone out - but do you know what lands today?
The KFC double-down "sandwich":I feel a little ill now ....

(Full disclosure - I've never cared for fast food and the last time I ate KFC was in spring 1994 so I'm naturally biased against it...)

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and milk

Breakfast

egg and egg white with broccoli rabe
chapati
milk
saffron muffin

I am soooooooo full.

mid-morning snack

yogurt. not really hungry

Lunch

chicken and arugula salad

saffron muffins

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites with mushroom and avocado

Evening Snack

milk. egg white.

Day 87 - 3 more days!

I woke this morning ahead of my alarm, my eyes swollen and sealed shut and my head congested.

Grrr. Arrrrrrgh.

A part of me hopes that since my allergies are hitting me a full month early this year, they will also be over a month early.

But I'm terrified that it will actually mean that my allergies will be a month longer this year.

Sigh.

So I'd better prepare myself for being slightly under-rested and thick-headed for the next few months.

Whimper. On another whiny note - I stubbed my toe yesterday. My little one. The one (I think) I broke a couple of times back when I did Tang Soo Do. Hurts like hell everytime I stub it now. It felt ok when I got up this morning, but after the jump roping, floor jumps, and creep ... it was tender. I hope I haven't broken it again.

I made muffins this morning - the recipe seemed reasonably PCP - whole wheat and all-purpose flour, almonds, not too much sugar or fat: Lucia muffins from 101cookbooks.com

Yum!

You'll note that it calls for saffron. I'm not sure how critical this is. My Dad gave me some saffron that he'd bought in Jordan in 1998 (yeah, way back when... I'm not sure why he never used it. It's expensive, sure, but even more so if you don't use it while it's still useable..) that remarkably enough was still fragrant.

The muffins were divine, though. Barely sweet, nutty, and chewy.

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

Egg and chapati

broccoli

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

saffron muffin

chapati

arugula

chicken

mid-afternoon snack

milk - not hungry. couldn't face yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites. No veggies. Not hungry

Evening Snack

none. Not hungry. Sleepy and going to bed

Day 86 - Four more Days

Holy Crap Batman!

Today was a tough workout (TGI weekend!) and the plank-V-sit combo was killer! I'm pretty sure I had an out of body experience in the process ...

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt.

I don't know when I've enjoyed it more

Breakfast

egg and broccoli

wheat toast

avocado

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

chicken on whole wheat toast with a little avocado

The problem with this diet is that for lunch and later: AMAYW veggies usually means squat all. Too much protein and carbs ...

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites and broccoli rabe

Evening Snack

Milk and strawberries. Egg white.

Strongly tempted to have a drink - but didn't.

Day 85 - and 5 more days to go

This morning was hard - mainly because I didn't get enough sleep last night - but I crawled out of bed anyway, got dressed, and stepped out into the rain to do my jump roping and floor hops (man the last two reps were killer) and began to wake up and feel better. I know that we've had a lot of rain this spring, but I am delighted that it came to wash the skies clean. No yellow film over my car this morning!

Doing the shoulder-fly exercises to failure was hard - because it took forever, and failure was not preceded by burning, but a funny ticklish feeling that was uncomfortably weird. The chicken wings were an easy burn, as were the V-sits.

While I feel so much better after my workouts and I'm glad I've done them - this week it's been harder than usual to motivate myself to start them. I tell myself it's because I've had such a crazy schedule and have not been getting enough sleep but still I'm worried about my post-PCP habits ... and I've looked at the workouts ahead and am (squeak) intimidated. I'm definitely going to need to be getting enough sleep and allowing a little extra time for my workouts next week!

And we have a mini-gun update:

Growing slowly ...

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg and couscous and asparagus

milky coffee

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

chicken on whole wheat
red bell pepper

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites and broccoli rabe.

Evening Snack

Egg white and strawberry milkshake

Day 84 and 6 more days to go.

This morning - the exercises nearly killed me. No, wait, that was the pollen. We've had unseasonably warm weather the past several days (well, the whole season has been weird) and yesterday it hit 91!!! This morning when I got up at 4:45 to jump rope, it was 71.

It's been out of season warm and the plants are going nuts. There is a yellow film over the cars in the parking lot, which does not give me the warm and fuzzy.

So I started jumping rope and by 5 minutes into it I was sneezing and crying up a storm. I didn't quite make the full 18 minutes, I was so miserable, and hurried inside to shower and clear my sinuses. Thank goodness for working in an air-filtered building!

Last night I made banana bread - using up some well-past-done bananas and relieving some stress. My idea was to bake the bread, take it to work, and have a small slice as part of my breakfast. Pushing the boundaries of my last week of PCP, I suppose.

So I ate my egg and broccoli and settled down with a slice of banana bread. I was done with it after 3 or 4 bites. It sat there on my desk for half an hour before I looked at it and thought - I don't want anymore. So I tossed it.

I don't know that I would have ever done that pre-PCP.

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg and broccoli. And banana bread.

milky coffee

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

tuna and chicken on pumpernickel and rye
steamed broccoli

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

asparagus. Egg white.

Evening Snack

pineapple. milk. egg white

Day 83

I stumble on this article while searching for ab exercises (note that it's on an egg PR site :)):

Eating eggs for breakfast helps reduce calorie consumption throughout the day by 18 percent. A new study demonstrates that eating protein-rich eggs for breakfast reduces hunger and decreases calorie consumption at lunch and throughout the day.

Ah, the lovely egg.

I couldn't find the ab exercise that I used to do when on the spring-board diving team (a great sport for core exercises, btw), probably because the name we called them was straight on wrong. They require a partner but are pretty good exercises.

The person doing the exercises lies on the floor, prepared to do leg lifts while their partner stands in their armpits, facing their feet. Grab your partners calves/ankles and start doing leg lifts. Your partners job is to throw your feet back towards the ground (reasonably gently) - your job is to make certain your feet don't touch the ground. For added difficulty, the partner can throw your feet off to the side.

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg and asparagus with toast

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

pumpernickel, tuna, and arugula with red bell pepper salad

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites and asparagus

Evening Snack

milk and pineapple and egg white

Day 82 - Good lord how quickly time flies

One bad thing about going away for the weekend and having a social activity Monday evening: it sucks to feel sleep deprived early in the week.

And despite getting to bed late, I woke about an hour before my alarm, so something within me was not interested in sleeping any longer. Grr. Arrrggh. Since I was up - I did my PCP workout, but now I'm lagging.

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg and couscous with toast and asparagus

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

pumpernickel, tuna, and arugula. Well, and some carrots

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites and asparagus

Evening Snack

milk and pineapple

Day 81 - The Gym

Patrick asked us to go to a gym and look around.

Well - this is easy. I belong to a gym, and I went there this morning.

I joined the gym almost six years ago for one reason and one reason only: to use the treadmill in the winter when it may be too cold, too icy, and most certainly too dark for me to run safely outdoors. I chose this gym for three reasons: they had what I considered sufficient treadmills to ensure that I could use one when I wanted, the price, and proximity to my apartment. Everything else is just gravy.

And this is not just a long preamble to explain why I belong to a hokey gym. I actually got very lucky and it's a very good gym. There are all sorts of free classes (I think I took one spinning class, but haven't taken any of the others), a lap pool, free weights, weight machines, and a variety of aerobic machines (stairs, treadmills, bikes, rowing, other ones whose names I don't know ...), a free monthly session with a trainer and nurse (if you choose).

What I like about the gym, is that the people who go are, by and large, fairly serious and sensible about working out. We do have our share of mirror lovers (mostly men), people who drape themselves over the console to make their workouts easier (why not just choose a setting you can manage?), and men who are there more to look like they're working out when they are really after some quality male-bonding/gossip time (nothing really wrong with that, expect when someone is waiting to use the equipment, and they are usually pretty good about moving if you ask). There are a few who I think are looking just to bulk up and not so much about being functional, but in general, it's a pretty good gym membership.

Then again, my selection might be a bit biased - those who go to they gym at 5 am instead of 5 pm might self-select differently.

So many other people have had negative experiences with their indulgences, and I ... I'm still waiting. I ate more than I should have Saturday night, and consequently wasn't feeling all that comfortable - and I'm happily less comfortable feeling uncomfortable than I used to, if you follow - but still no negative side effects. Hmmm. I've always had a pretty good stomach, but still wondering ...

Exercise

I will confess to not exactly following Patrick's instructions to the letter this morning regarding our workouts. After a good night's rest (with bizarrely peaceful dreams about hunting a serial killer), I went ahead a "made up" the parts of the workout I missed yesterday because the gym was closed. Mainly because pull ups are something I can see myself avoiding on purpose and am now over-compensating. Sometimes I think I'm so concerned with not cheating that I swing too far the other way.

Sigh. Nothing like raising the bar too high to get over it. My superpower.

Food

Breakfast

egg and broccoli with couscous

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

tuna, pumpernickel, arugula salad
spinach and salsa

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites and carrots. (I know, boring. but it's what I have on hand. Weekends away make meals more boring)

Evening Snack

milk, egg white, pineapple

Day 80

Short post -

Got up early to do as much of my PCP workout I could, saving the pullups and jackie chan sit ups for after I drove back to New Jersey - needing the gym equipment and a mental restart after 6 hours in the car.

Cranky and headachy, I unpacked and made myself go to the gym ... only to discover they are having holiday hours and were closed. So I'm going to bed.

Day 79

You know ... it didn't occur to me until about 9:30 this morning but ...

Getting up at 3 in the morning to get most of my PCP workout in before driving up to Boston. I am NUTS.

Of course, it was a nice morning for it. And the jogger that ran by as I was doing my jump roping - also NUTS.

This trip I remembered my resistance bands. But forgot part of my PCP meals. Sigh. Arrrgh. Put one thing in memory and another thing falls out (and you know it's never one of the useless marbles at the bottom, like what the 20th digit to pi is ...4 but a useful number like bringing your coupons to the store)

Two semi-funny things today (as in, more funny if you are not me):

1. While struggling to carry all my groceries to the car, my pants nearly fell down. Mental note - possibly not a good strategy to postpone the dreaded clothes shopping until I've done changing shape.

2. While doing the 90 second planks, desperate for something to distract me from the trembles, I looked down at my stomach: the remaining saggy fat just hanging there. A bit disturbing that I couldn't see it move... even if I clenched my stomach, even while breathing heavily. Ewwwww!

Decision to not take my indulgence taken out of my hands: I left part of my PCP meals back in Jersey and Mom had bought the fixin's for Easter dinner for me to cook.

My favorite.

Roast Duck.

That whoooshing sound? My decision to not indulge flying out the window.

Food

Post PCP snack

nothing - too rushed to get going

Breakfast

hard boiled egg. Chapati. chocolate milk (whoops). carrots

mid-morning snack

driving

Lunch

chapati. tuna. spinach and arugula. red bell pepper

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

roast duck and steamed asparagus and half a glass of wine

Evening Snack

Are you kidding? didn't happen.

Day 78

New Diets, new workouts.

Also - really looking forward to going to bed early tonight.

In principle (perhaps old habits speaking through?), I'm all in favor of more food. However, with last week's diet, I consistently felt like I was eating more than I really wanted. This is partly my fault: AMAYW should mean I should stop when I'm getting full. But I like veggies, and (although I don't) if I ate my carbs and protein first, I wouldn't want any. Sigh. As it is, my AMAYW veggies for dinner more often than not ended up being a single mushroom and a slice of avocado.

I know, whine, whine, whine.

Patrick suggested that for my indulgence I need to use it or lose it. I'm leaning towards losing it - or, rather, counting last Sunday's brunch as my indulgence.

Food

Breakfast

egg and spinach on chapati. (spinach leaked water and it was messy)

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

chicken and chapati
steamed sugar snap peas

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites and carrots.

Evening Snack

milk

I need to go to the grocery store ...

Day 77

A couple of weekends ago. I broke some glass in my kitchen.

Despite sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping twice, I apparently did not get it all. I have thick calluses on the bottoms of my feet and the splinter got in fairly deep before I even realized it was there. It is also very difficult to remove a transparent splinter – for all practical purposes it was invisible. I think I got it all removed, but decided to forgo bouncing up and down on my feet until I am sure. Good thing today was a rest day - easier to be easy on my feet, and I had the time this morning to fish the sucker out.

I still haven't come up with an inviting indulgence - although I do really want to indulge, there just doesn't seem to be something in particular calling my name, and it seems ... wasteful to not indulge in something that I really want.

I suppose it also hasn't helped that with this week's diet, I'm sooooooo not hungry.

Food

Breakfast

egg, couscous, and broccoli rabe.

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

chicken and chapati
steamed sugar snap peas

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites and carrots.

Evening Snack

milk

Day 76

Not much to report today - I had a poor night's sleep last night. Woke up, groggy, convinced that the night was nearly done and annoyed with myself for waking before the alarm.

Then I checked the clock - just a little past 9pm. I don't think I'd been asleep for an hour. Then I woke again a little past midnight. Something in me just wasn't prepared to sleep last night. So I'm a little sleepy today.

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg, couscous, and broccoli rabe.

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

chicken and couscous and broth

chapati
steamed sugar snap peas

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

avocado and Egg whites.

Evening Snack

pineapple
milk

Day 75

Well, it was a struggle to get out of bed this morning. I'm not sure, but I think it had something to do with the soothing patter of lots of rain that roused my primal cave instinct. But I had work, and my PCP workout to do first so ...
I didn't think I'd manage it, but I did 2 full reps of 90 second planks before I had to collapse. Which was great, but I'm feeling it in my lower back so I wonder whether if I was doing it wrong ...

*****************

So Patrick has emailed us to tell us that we have another indulgence coming - which surprises the heck out of me. Firstly, because we're so near the 90 days (just over 2 weeks left - GASP! How will I cope?) that I just didn't expect another indulgence. Secondly, because ... I'm oddly unexcited about the prospect. I sort of feel that I had my indulgence on Sunday when I went out to brunch with friends. Except I'm not sure that was 1000 calories ...

We'll see. Maybe I'll get into the mood. Maybe I'll just share a normal Easter dinner with my family. Or ...

and I know this will send Patrick 'round the bend ... but ....

I still find this appealing:

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg, couscous, and broccoli rabe. Yum.

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

chicken on pumpernickel
steamed sugar snap peas

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

red bell pepper, mushrooms, avocado and Egg whites.

Evening Snack

pineapple
milk

Day 74

And my ankles are still sore. But I still can't bring myself to regret my run...

Wait a minute. It occurs to me very belatedly that throwing some one-footed jump roping in the same weekend I start throwing in a long run might not have been the best idea ever. Doh!

There was something I was supposed to do this weekend, but I find it kind of stressful and kept putting it off and putting it off and ... didn't do it. So I didn't sleep well last night, stressed about it, and spent some of my valuable PCP time this morning actually doing it. And, having done it, I felt alot better. Except. I’m paying for it all day today. Not enough sleep – low focus. Not done with PCP – a distraction until this evening. Not enough sleep – too much caffeine during the day. Not enough sleep - low mood.

Maybe one of these days, before I'm eighty, I'll learn that a job doesn't get easier by putting it off. In fact, it often gets harder. It's certainly alot more stressful. One of the reasons I like to do my PCP workouts first thing in the morning - then I don't need to worry about finding the time and energy to do it later - my slate is clear. My legs might be giving me lip, but it's done...

Food

Breakfast

chapati, egg, broccoli rabe with sesame oil

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

couscous with chicken (and broth) and braised cabbage

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites and a little red bell pepper and avocado

Evening Snack

Pineapple and milk. No - not together.. Ewwwww!

Day 73

No run today - though I was tempted. But my left calf is tight, so I thought I'd take it easy today. (I also felt pretty wiped by the end of yesterday).

Later: glad I didn't. muscles in ankles and calves sore.

As are my arms. Oh la la

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

Went out to brunch with friends at a not so PCP friendly place. Breakfast quesedilla

mid-morning snack

still out and about - and not hungry

Lunch

egg and veg chapati - but didn't finish, still not hungry

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites no veg. not hungry

Evening Snack

milk no fruit - still not hungry.

Day 72

This morning, for a treat, I went for a 5 mile run instead of jump roping. It looked beautiful out - but on stepping outside I realized it was a bit more chilly out than I realized so stepped back in for a fleece and some gloves. But it was beautiful. And I saw masses of robins. 23 on one lawn, 31 on another. It's been raining, so I wonder if there was an earthworm buffet for them?

The rest of the PCP workout was killer, and I had a real hard time with the planks for some reason today. Oh well.

Then I made chapati for breakfast:

250 g whole wheat flour:

Mix with 175 ml water and let rest for about half an hour:

then roll out a chapati:

Sear for one minute on a cast iron skillet, and 30 seconds on the other side:

Put directly over the flame until it puffs up:

And there you have it!

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg with broccoli rabe

mushrooms

red bell pepper

chapati

avocado

(I forgot my milk again. sigh)

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

couscous, chicken, cabbage

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

2 Egg whites (late lunch - still not hungry).

Evening Snack

banana milkshake (I think bananas aren't supposed to be "fruit" but it's the last one I have)

Day 71

I have to say that I'm super excited with the change to my dinner plans! No more all-white meals! hurrah! Unfortunately with the new diet, there is also more food ... which means ...

Dum Dum DUM...

More exercises.

I fully expect my arms to fall off tomorrow. Or perhaps later today. In which case, for my next set of arms, I want a stronger set.

I should also like to note that my jump rope has thinned considerably where it strikes the pavement, and I'm beginning to suspect that I'll be on jump rope number 3 by the end of PCP. I'm getting better at the cross-overs, but the doubles ... not so much. Shivani talked about what it feels like to be in the zone - while I can't speak to what it feels like to look forward to jump roping (except by analogy to what it's like to look forward to a run) but I am totally in-sync with her about the marvel of being in a new body. I know we've been at this for a little over two months, but while that's not no time at all, it still seems like nowhere near enough time for the changes I'm registering in myself. Especially as it seems as though most of the changes have occurred in the last few weeks. I'm shrinking faster than I ever imagined I would, and have been pulling out clothes from the back of my closet that fell into the "hope-I'll-wear-again-someday, but-feel-like-I'm-holding-onto-them-just-to-hold-onto-the-hope" category and finding them loose on me. Not losing weight so fast, though. Before I began the project, I had a hoped-for weight at the end. I've revised that - UP. With the added muscle mass, I no longer think my initial hopes are sensible.

WHICH BLOWS MY MIND.

Unfortunately, this means I'm very shortly going to need to go clothes shopping. Which I loathe (in this respect, I am so not a girl). Before I began this project, I would occasionally think of the vast array of health/exercise books in the bookstore and wonder about the authors and their wild enthusiasm for their topic. Now I understand a bit better. It feels amazing to be in a strong and healthy body, with a good diet and exercise routine in place, to be where I am now. No wonder they want to share.

Note: After writing the above, I was struck by the forewarned temptation to let up because I feel I'm doing so well. Yay veggies for keeping me in check.

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg, couscous, red bell pepper, corn

I left the house in a rush and forgot to drink my milk. come to think of it - I ran out of milk making yogurt last night.

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

chicken on rye with avocado as a spread (with an egg - I ran out of other protein)
red bell pepper (a little, not so hungry after the carbs and protein)

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

Egg whites, mushrooms, bell pepper and corn

Evening Snack

Egg white. Peach milkshake

Day 70

Whoopie! A day of rest!

And to cap it off, I actually feel as though I got a good night's rest (although my face is a bit red from allergies). So I spiced up my jump roping with some cross-overs (I could do left over right ok, right over left was a disaster) and some doubles, which made the exercise more interesting.

The only thing I don't like about the plastic jump rope, is that it stings like hell when I trip over it and it catches me behind the legs! Motivation to not trip, I suppose.

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg, rice, broccoli rabe with soy

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

chicken on rye with avocado as a spread
pickled beet slaw

mid-afternoon snack

egg white with cayenne

Dinner

banana. Green Tea latte. Egg white.

Evening Snack

Egg white.

Day 69

Spring has sprung. There is (for me) usually a day or two (last weekend) when I'm excited and overjoyed that spring is finally here.

Then allergies kick in, and I remember why I don't like spring. I don't sleep as well (check), my eyes become swollen (check), my skin is itchy and rough (check), and I get congested (not yet).

Grrrrr. Arrgh.

So I'll need to remember to stay away from the raw veggies for the next month or so. And maybe strategize my outdoor workouts.

The workout? I'm Sooooooo excited that tomorrow is a rest day! Everything felt difficult this morning, even things I don't think should have. whew!

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg and rice
steamed sugar snap peas

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

rice & chicken
Steamed sugar snap peas

mid-afternoon snack

egg white with cayenne

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white with lavender pepper (couldn't taste the lavender).

Evening Snack

Egg white.

Day 68

Has kicked my butt-

I could barely finish 1 plank without collapsing. Those elevated push-ups? If you squinted you could see my dipping - which was all I could manage.

Oi!

I think that I'm looking forward to our rest day.

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg and rice and broccoli rabe with a splash of soy sauce

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

rice
arugula and avocado salad

mid-afternoon snack

egg white

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

egg white

Day 67 - 48 bpm, baby

Another day, another PCP workout under my belt. I actually think that I'm beginning to get used to pushing myself.

It was a delightful weekend - but my skin and eyes are telling me that allergies have come early this year and perhaps it's a good thing I'll be breathing filtered air at work today.

I missed my mid-morning snack today because I was getting my biennial physical for work. Grr. You'd think that they'd see me within an hour of my appointment but noooo.... and the x-ray technician wasn't there so I have to go back tomorrow. What a waste of time. On the plus side, everything checked out excellent and my pulse was measured at 48 bpm - which surprised the doctor who measured it again and found about the same thing. I'm pretty sure that's lower than it's ever been. Ever. I'm not in any rush to get it lower, either. How low can you go without being, you know, DEAD?

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg and brown rice
steamed sugar snap peas

mid-morning snack

whoops, missed

Lunch

green pepper stuffed with rice and chicken
arugula salad

mid-afternoon snack

egg white

and an odd thing happened - our office brings in bagels and cream cheese for all on Mondays and my officemate had half a toasted bagel ... and I was not even remotely tempted! Maybe new habits are setting in!

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white (cooked in chicken stock).

Evening Snack

egg white

Day 66

Wow - am I glad I ran only a couple of miles yesterday. It appears that I was running on empty since I slept like the dead, and it seemed like every part of my body is feeling either sore or lethargic.

I took a lazy start to the day, and when I finally brought myself to the PCP workout mat ... I had to push myself all the way through it. I worked most of the soreness out - but suspect that I'll be sore in new places tomorrow - and am now feeling tapped out. And my left calf is still stiff and annoying.

Looking forward to a lazy day!

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

egg

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

chicken on rye

carrots

avocado

mid-afternoon snack

egg white

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

egg white

Day 65

Wow. Day 65 already.

And the weather is GREAT! I had no idea how much I'd missed nice weather until it came back. Yay!

Last week I had three people comment (favorably) on my changing appearance, which was great to hear, though I didn't think it was so very obvious. But still ... Yay me!

Today, because the weather was so nice, I went out and had my first outdoors run of the year. It was only 2 miles because

a) I'd already done my PCP and didn't know what I had left in the tank

b) my left calf was/is pretty tight and while it doesn't hurt it's not comfortable

c) (the main reason) I left the run too late in the day and it was a little over-warm in the sun

Despite the heat and my calf ... it was lovely.

Since last week was a bit of a disaster time-wise, I invested some time today preparing my food for the week:

washing vegetables,

roasting a pepper:

cooking brown rice in beet juice with an onion:

steaming broccoli rabe:

Food

Post PCP snack

egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

it's the weekend and I had time - a rainbow of veggies, including a fresh batch of mushrooms!

egg with tarragon

rye toast

avocado

red bell pepper

steamed broccoli rabe

spinach with garlic and cayenne

non-fat latte

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

green bell pepper stuffed with brown rice cooked in beet juice and chicken

red bell pepper

sugar snap peas

mid-afternoon snack

egg white with cayenne and cilantro

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

egg white

Day 64

Hey - new diets and new workouts ...

I'm not sure how I feel about the diets - it looks like my calories are moving about the day. I think I'd rather have more flexibility at dinner time. Because, really, there's never any excitement about dinner anymore :(

And I'm back to yogurt twice a day. Sigh. I think that much yogurt does not-so-great things to my digestive system.

This morning it took an amazing effort (and, really, more hitting of the snooze than I think appropriate) to pull myself out of bed and do my PCP workout. Once I got going, it felt great, but beforehand ....

I'm thinking I just may go to bed as soon as I get home this evening - and sleep until I wake up.

Food

Post workout snack
egg white and yogurt

Breakfast

couscous cooked with and egg and cilantro
spinach with garlic and cayenne

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

Joined friends and colleagues for lunch to wish a friend well as she goes on maternity leave:
roasted veggies
1 slice pizza with roasted garlic and fresh mozzarella

it was salty. And it was GOOD!

Felt like napping afterwards, - though I can't be sure if that was the food or that I need sleep, or both.

mid-afternoon snack

egg white

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white. Sigh

Evening Snack

Egg white

Day 63

And boy-oh-boy do I feel the need for a rest day. Although I didn't feel it yesterday (except in my stomach) my muscles were a little sore this morning - and I'm just generally feeling worn down. I went to bed a little earlier last night, exhausted, and then frustratingly found it more difficult than usual to fall asleep (To be fair, sleeping might very well be my super-power, so more difficult to fall asleep probably meant about 20 minutes), and then I found it difficult to pull myself out of bed this morning. So a slightly more leisurely morning really hit the spot.

This has been a very busy week, so I'm really looking forward to the weekend!

Food

Breakfast

couscous cooked with and egg and tarragon
spinach with garlic, cayenne, and ginger on the side. (used a little too much ginger ... meh)

mid-morning snack

egg white and red bell pepper

Lunch

arugula and chicken on chapati with avocado
arugula and avocado salad

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white. Sigh

Evening Snack

pineapple. Egg white

Day 62

So today I finished my little project of not wasting egg-yolks and, erm, corrupting my colleagues for after eating all those egg whites I have a pretty substantial collection of egg yolks:

A Fruit Tart! (aka: Death in a tart pan). As I was making it, I was reminded why I haven't had or made one in more than a decade. I used to think they were a healthy-ish dessert, until I made one for a friend's birthday and realized what was in them.

In the crust: flour, confectioner's sugar, butter, egg yolk, and cream
In the custard: egg yolks, half and half, sugar
In the glaze: mostly sugar, some fruit

Their prime redeeming feature is that they taste fantastic. At least, I assume this one does. I didn't have any.

And then I was so excited to be making it, I forgot to eat breakfast until nearly 9:30. Doh! And then forgot my mid-morning snack until 11:30. And then I got busy at work and didn't realize I'd forgotten my afternoon snack until I got home, hungry for a change. Sigh. Brain freeze. I keep thinking that I'm getting enough sleep ... and then feeling like I didn't. A couple of years ago, while training for a marathon, this happened to me and eventually I figured out that I just needed more sleep than usual to compensate for my training. I wonder if that's happening now? The plus side is, that pizza was provided at work and I wasn't even remotely tempted.

Food

post-workout egg-white with cilantro and cayenne

Breakfast

couscous cooked in beet juice, spinach sauteed with garlic, cayenne, and ginger, all cooked with an egg:
Looks abit like a Christmas disaster, but was tasty!

mid-morning snack

egg white and sugar snap peas

Lunch

arugula and chicken on chapati and rye toast with pickled beet (yum! ... yes, I have weird food tastes)

mid-afternoon snack

forgot!

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white. Still Boring

Evening Snack

pineapple. Egg white

Day 61

Woke this morning feeling a bit unwell in the stomach. Did my PCP workout and felt a bit better - but those planks were the longest 5 minutes EVER. It felt like every pore in my body opened up to sweat.

Feeling a nervous rush about the end of PCP - today I keep thinking about things I'll do "after PCP". Which kind of makes me wonder if I'm really embracing the idea of a lifestyle change, or if my subconscious is going to make a run for dominance when the pressure is off. Or maybe I'm just feeling the urge to celebrate after finally seeing the sun after way too long ...

Food

post-workout egg-white

Breakfast

fried egg on beet greens and chapati - yum!

mid-morning snack

egg white and beet greens

Lunch

arugula and chicken on chapati
carrots

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white. Boring

Evening Snack

pineapple. Egg white

Day 60 - 2/3s through PCP!

Wow - we're 2/3 of the way through PCP! The first third went by really quickly, and I had some doubts that 90 days would be long enough to really cement in some of these good habits. I'll confess that the second third went by a bit more slowly. Which I think is a good thing, on the whole, as it is partly because the novelty was coming off and I'm beginning to see how I'm going to adapt to a new way of living, instead of viewing this as a quick band-aid.

I really want these to cement into habits - so I will feel more comfortable with occasionally stepping out, instead of petrified that I'll fall tumbling back into bad habits.

Food

I was initially excited to have my food allotments ramped up ... but now I've a little sense of deja vu to week 2, when I had a hard time eating all that was on my diet. I'm not really hungry for the bigger mid-morning snack - and it just makes me less hungry for lunch. Although for all I know that could be the plan - we'll see.

Breakfast

egg white after workout

egg and red bell pepper on chapati with wilted arugula and avocado

mid-morning snack

egg white and sugar snap peas

Lunch

chicken and arugula on rye bread

beet greens

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner (not really hungry)

banana. Milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

strawberries and egg white

Day 59

Today has been pretty hohum, PCP-wise. However, I've relaxed a bit in the kitchen doing non-PCPy things. For example, I made butter! Which is now safely in the freezer for some post-PCP cooking. (And it was cool and easy to do!).

I've also started a project for my work colleagues, who will be benefiting from all those egg yolks that I've not been eating.

Seems a little contrary to the spirit of PCP to spread REALLY non-PCP food to others, but on the other hand it eliminates waste ...

Food

Breakfast

egg and broccoli and rye toast

mid-morning snack

egg white and sugar snap peas

Lunch

chapati & chicken & avocado & bell pepper 'tacos'

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

banana. buttermilk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

strawberries and eggwhite

Day 58

Long day - running about and doing stuff - so my PCP diet went a little haywire: had dinner out at a baby shower and missed some, well, all of my snacks.

Food

Breakfast

latte

egg on chapati with bell pepper and avocado

Lunch

poached chicken, bell pepper, arugula and avocado on chapati

Dinner

Chocolate milk. 2 meatballs on bread