Day 45 - Halfway There!

Can we really be half-way through the PCP? In some (most) ways it feels to me like we've just started ...

I had thought to have a blog entry on my reflections on the project thus far - surprised, good and bad, and obstacles expected and unexpected.

Unfortunately, after a late night and poor sleep, I woke with a headache and in a dreadfully bad mood. I took a couple of pain killers, hoping to kill the headache so I could do my PCP workout and started my day ...

For my birthday, a good friend of mine gave me a mushroom patch, and yesterday morning I collected a "crop":

Look at that baby! And look at the surprise inside:

So I sauteed that up with some zucchini and an egg and served it up on a chapati for breakfast:

Food

Breakfast

egg, zucchini, oyster mushroom and chapati

milky coffee

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

chapati pizza with clams. (not great, but the only protein I had at home, except eggs)

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

apple.

banana.

egg white.

Evening Snack

fruit salad and yogurt

Exercise

Did my PCP. not a great idea. My headache blossomed into a killer. stoooooopid. So although the day started out ok, it crashed and burned. I was in a foul, unhappy mood, feeling guilty until I did my PCP workout and then regretting it afterwards, and not wanting to do anything. Peevish and silly.

And, OMG, did I crave something salty. I don't know that I've ever had a craving so strong before. To be honest, I have no idea how I managed to not fall off the PCP diet. It helped that I recognized at least a part of my craving as being an ugly old habit of trying to eat my way into a better mood, but still.... I just put off and put off and put off falling off until it was time to go to bed.

I did NOT help that I'm more of a savory person than a sweet person - and with yogurt, apple, banana, fruit, and more yogurt after noon ... I get really tired of the sweet.

Day 44

It's interesting - while everyone around me has been mainly supportive of my PCP efforts, and interested (if not at all jealous) in my workouts and diet - whenever I actually mention losing weight, I get two reactions: noises of encouragement, or "you don't need to lose weight". Well - define need. I'm carrying around more storage energy than I'm likely to need short of an adventure in the desert or some sort of cataclysmic disaster. To them I simply point out that I'm planning to run a marathon in November, and if I'm going to run another 26.2 miles (plus training), I'm not interested in carrying with me 20 or so pounds of non-contributing weight.

Food

Breakfast

(late)

egg, zucchini & chapati

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

chapati, broccoli rabe, spinach

mid-afternoon snack

no time (late lunch, meeting friends from out of town for dinner)

Dinner

out to dinner - so no apple/bananna/egg white: iceberg garden salad (blech)

Evening Snack

fruit and yogurt

Exercise

Barely made it through my PCP exercises - dead tired

Day 43

No jumproping for me today - it wasn't so much the snow, as it was the ice and gusting winds. So I went to the gym. Where I know I could have jumproped, but there aren't any handy markers there for helping me count, so I treated myself with half and hour of intervals before tackling the rest of the PCP exercises.

I could only manage 1 un-interrupted 50 sec plank session. Oi! Those are hard! I guess it'll be months before I'd be able to manage these:

It is a one minute plank done as follows:

The first twenty seconds, the right leg is raised as high as it can be raised towards the ceiling…an Arabesque right leg, if you will. Without leaving the plank position, do the next twenty seconds with the left leg Arabesque position. Finally, do twenty seconds of the plank. This is how to increase your life: that minute will feel like forever.

And I'm still growling at the push-ups. Of the 48 assigned, I had to do 18 of them on my knees, and the expression on my face and the whimpering/grunts ... good thing I couldn't see myself is all I'm say'in ...

While my weekly photo continues to disappoint ... my clothes are looser, I'm losing weight and, excluding the soreness inevitable somewhere everyday, I'm feeling GREAT! I'm almost at the point where I'm enjoying pushing myself. Almost. Not as resistant, anyway. And I'm not (generally) as hungry as I thought I'd be. Though I am excited to not have to weigh out my lunch veggies(yay!) and still really miss salt.

Food

Breakfast

egg
rice
zucchini and broccoli
milky coffee

mid-morning snack

egg white - wow. that is NOT A LOT eating nothing would be easier

Lunch
rice
broccoli rabe (yum), spinach, & red-pepper
tuna
mid-afternoon snack
yogurt

Dinner

had dinner out with friends before seeing Black Grace (FANTASTIC - those dancers are Athletes!) - sashimi.

Evening Snack

none

Day 42

I finally got close to enough sleep! And boy am I ready for a day of "rest"! I did my jumproping in the dark, as big wet snow flakes fell - and it was peaceful and, I'm convinced, helped me with my longest no-tripping string of jumproping thus far! (which I'm beginning to realize has more to do with my wrists getting ever so slightly out of sync than anything else).

On the down side, my yogurt wasn't ready when I left this morning - so I'll substitute with milk. Blech. Don't like straight milk.

Food

Breakfast

egg
rice
zucchini, broccoli, & red pepper with garlic
milky coffee

mid-morning snack

milk

Lunch

rice
broccoli, red-pepper
tuna

mid-afternoon snack

milk. blech

Dinner

apple. banana. egg white. A very pale meal

Evening Snack

fruit salad (apple and pear) and yogurt. Another pale meal

Day 41

Oi ... I really need a day when I can sleep in!

Food

Breakfast

egg
rice
1/2 whole grain bun thingy
zucchini
red pepper
cayenne and paprika
milky tea

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

spinach and red pepper salad
tuna on multi-grain bread

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

apple. banana. egg white. A very pale meal

Evening Snack

fruit salad (apple and pear) and yogurt. Another pale meal

Exercise

I'm not digging the bicycle thingys. Ouch!

Oh boy - it looks like we'll be getting EVEN MORE SNOW!

Day 40

Thanks for all the positive vibes people! I'm using my "guilt" to throw myself even harder into my workouts ... we'll see how long that lasts :)

I don't think I can really see it in my weekly photos ... but I do think that I can see progress! Which is a boost to my motivation. I don't think that I'll be where I want to be on day 90 - but, you know, I'm ok with that. I'm pretty optimistic that I'll have some good habits in place and be able to continue (in all likelihood a little slower) to make progress. So I'm in a good mood

Food

Breakfast

I paid for not finishing my dinner/snack last night and was STARVING this morning.

egg with cayenne and paprika and broccoli on toasted wheat pita
milk and coffee

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

toasted wheat pita, tuna, spinach, and red pepper - didn't finish: not hungry and too rushed at work.

When Patrick sent out our diets last week, I thought that I'd have problems. But I've not been as hungry as I expected to be. Perhaps because I've been more tired than I'm used to being. But that's a positive change: I used to feel an urge to eat when tired, hoping for more energy. Now I don't. Yay! Although, judging by how hungry I was this morning after last night's incomplete meal, I expect that not finishing was not a good idea.

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

I had dinner out with a client - so had no choice over the restaurant (which had a menu surprisingly deficient of vegetarian options - just two creamy pasta dishes that were very non-PCP), and it's not obvious how to substitute for an apple, a bananna, and an egg white on a restaurant menu with limited vegetarian options. So I had grilled swordfish with zucchini. Which was mis-leading as the zucchini = 1 baby zucchini. Tasty - but really, too salty.

Evening Snack

none.

Exercise

Today's workout WHUPPED my A$$. I think I loathe every day that involves:

Today, for some reason, they were more difficult than most days. Grrrrr. Arrrggggghhh!

Day 39

Confession: Yesterday was not a good day for PCP. While at my parents' place in Boston, I allowed myself pancakes as a carb for breakfast and probably ate more than my allowance. But the big whoops was that I planned to do my exercises after my drive back to NJ - but then was headachy, cranky, and tired after the 6 hr drive and just couldn't motivate myself to do it - and then fell off my PCP diet for dinner.

So I'm disappointed and frustrated with myself.

So I got up early this morning to throw myself into my PCP workout. (1 hr, 25 minutes - including travel time to gym, but excluding stretching) and will strive to stay better on track. I suppose that it's a little ...erm.... optimistic to assume that I'd waltz through this project without any problems and failures. Sigh

Food

Breakfast

egg and broccoli in pita

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

steamed broccoli and bokchoi and tuna on wheat pitas

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner&Evening Snack

apple banana egg white

fruit salad and yogurt

Was more tired than hungry. Didn't finish and went to bed

Exercise

Threw myself into it. I expect to hurt tomorrow.

Day 37

Confession: I did not do my PCP exercises yesterday. After a late night, a long day, a long week, some necessary chores, and planning to get up early this morning for a trip up to Boston, I had neither the time nor the energy.

I got up this morning at 3 am to start my PCP exercises before driving up to Boson - my new jumprope arrived yesterday and WOW! Patrick said (but yea, she did not believe) that the fabric jumpropes are the pits. Now I know and now I believe. It is SO MUCH EASIER with my new jumprope, it almost feels like cheating.

I am so glad I abandoned that old torture device :)

Food

Breakfast

hard-boiled egg

pita and bokchoi and mustard sandwich

milk

mid-morning snack

missed - on the road

Lunch

tuna and egg on whole wheat pita

carrots

mid-afternoon snack

out and about - missed

Dinner

This week is a hard week to stay on PCP and dine out with old elementary school friends. I chose to go out - but also chose to stick as close as I could: mexican vegetable stew.

Day 35

Wow. Over a third the way through our PCP already - and I'm fighting the crave. I don't crave anything in particular ... I'm just shaking the bars of my cell, saying I don't want to be here anymore. We had lunch brought into the office yesterday and I looked at the pizza and felt ENVY. I didn't particularly want a piece of pizza. In fact I actively didn't (it's greasy), but ... I envied the ability to just have a slice.

I think that what I am really struggling with is the time lost to PCP, which is making me feel a bit caged. Especially this week, since I had a full weekend and didn't prep my meals for the week.

On the plus side, I'm feeling thinner and stronger, although I can't really see the difference yet. My pants are looser in the waist, but a little more snug in the thighs.

Food

Breakfast

Rice, broccoli egg stir-fry

mid-morning snack

yogurt (plain w/marmalade)

Lunch

rice

steamed broccoli and bok choi
avocado
salmon

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt (plain w/marmalade)

Dinner

broccoli, bok-choi, and egg white

Evening Snack

fruit salad and yogurt -and I was STARVING! (even the thought of an iceberg lettuce salad was appealing)

Exercise

I've ordered a new jumprope - but today I just couldn't face wrestling with tripping all over the place, in the dark, in the cold - so treated myself to running quarter mile intervals at tempo (the pace I'd LIKE to be able to race at but can't) pace.

Day 34

I never thought I'd say this - but this morning I accidentally made non-fat mozzarella. I'd intended to make yogurt last night, but must not have scalded the milk enough, or something, because the yogurt hadn't gotten itself together.

Figuring I'd just start again, I went to scald the milk again - but as I was stirring it, something felt funny:

now if I hadn't had as a resolution last year to learn how to make mozzarella, I'd never have recognized what was happening. So I just went with it - stretched and kneaded my "yogurt"

and soon enough I had a little ball of the stuff.
Weird things happen.

Food

Breakfast

egg, rice, corn, and cilantro

mid-morning snack

yogurt mozzarella

Lunch

rice

steamed bok choi
salmon

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt mozzarella

Dinner

stir-fry baby bokchoy and egg white

Evening Snack

peach and milk shake

Exercise

You know that you haven't been stinting on your workout when you bend over to pull off your socks and topple over because the muscles to stabilize your balance just don't have anything more to give ...

No injuries incurred in removal of socks.

Day 33

Damn it! I woke up grumpy AGAIN!

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to like them damn jumpropes.... Of course, I'm feeling particularly peevish today because I'm grumpy and because my jumprope is beginning to unravel and makes it particularly easy to trip myself up. (Not a magic combination for a happy work out).

I'm going to focus on being positive today. I hate being in a pissy mood (and am spoilt by normally being pretty happy).

Later: Hey - it worked!

Food

Breakfast

spinach pie
mueslix

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

rice

steamed broccoli
salmon

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

spinach pie

Evening Snack

peach and milk shake

Exercise

I'm totally cheating on those dips ... I just don't seem to have the wrist strength to dip very far. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Day 32

I woke this morning grumpy. And stayed grumpy pretty much all day.

And you know what bites? It's my own fault.

Last night I just didn't feeling like preparing for a presentation I gave today. So I didn't. So I didn't sleep well, worried about it. So I got up early and started my PCP exercises - fretting about it.

Eventually, I scratched that itch and quit my PCP exercises mid-way through to prepare that damn presentation.

So I was anxious until the presentation was over - and then was tired and grumpy because I knew I had the rest of my exercises to go and was just NOT IN THE MOOD.

Grr.

On the plus side, I did get a few miles of running in to warm up before the rest of my PCP workout, which did help my mood. Still tired though. Still feel like an ass for doing this to myself.

Food

Breakfast

spinach pie

oatmeal w/yogurt

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

rice

steamed broccoli

salmon

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

spinach pie

Evening Snack

fruit salad and milk

Exercise

Running and PCP!

Day 31 - Indulgence

So I used my indulgence today - had a meal without worrying overmuch about PCP. I hosted brunch myself, so had control over the menu:

bacon

lox

scrambled eggs (It was supposed to be an Emu egg - but cool as the shell was... inside wasn't quite so fresh. Fortunately, I'd thought that perhaps not everyone would be so excited to eat an emu egg so had lots of regular eggs on hand)

spinach pie

scones

croissants

fruit salad (apples, pears, grilled pineapple with a dressing of orange juice and honey)

uniq fruit (thick rind - tastes like a cross between a grapefruit and an orange)

orange juice

coffee

mueslix

So I stayed on my PCP diet - but didn't weigh out portions. I'd initially intended to eat my breakfast and mid-morning snack beforehand - but slept late and after doing my PCP exercises (Oi! those frog jumps are killer) and running around prepping for guests ... time slipped away and it didn't happen.

You know, reading other people's blogs and their indulgences ... and their subsequent disappointments... and I thought that I would feel differently. That I would not be disappointed with my indulgence.

I was dead wrong. Well, mostly wrong. I did enjoy the non-counting things out part of it. THAT I got right. But the food ... not so much. It tasted good, but I would have enjoyed a plate of steamed veggies just as much and wouldn't have felt so ickky after - a little over full, a little over-sugared, a little why'd I do that?

Which is both disappointing and pleasing. I'm delighted that the PCP diet (the food, not the having to weigh out the portions all the time) has become more of a habit than a diet. I'm now much more optimistic than I was earlier in the program about how much of this PCP thing I'd carry away with me after 90 days.

But now I need to think about how I'm going to manage dinner. I'm still not hungry, but will need the energy for tomorrow's workout.

Day 30

Had a great workout this morning - and then spent the day cooking. Which I thought would be torture, but was awesome. I've missed cooking and apparently miss the cooking a little more than the eating. Having people over tomorrow for brunch!

Food

Breakfast

egg, rice, and zucchini

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

rice, salmon, avocado, and cilantro

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

spinach and egg

Evening Snack

peach milkshake

Exercise

I totally cheated on the dips - there just isn't enough strength there to support my body weight. And, can I say - 1300 is alot to count without losing track! And, like Cory, my jumprope is a few jumps away from breaking. Damn concrete.

Day 29 - and Week 5 begins.

And it begins with a concern that I'm going to find this week hard. I woke this morning feeling negative and discouraged. Stepped on the scale, and very little change from last week. Looking at my weekly photo ... and I see little change.

Nevermind that I feel different, better, stronger - I still wanted to curl up under the covers and give up for the day - but given that I'd had weird dreams involving trying to rent a bicycle to cross a mountain range and instead wasgiven two folding stools with wheels on them - I got up and did my exercises.

This time, the magic worked, and I was in a push through it frame of mind for the rest of the day.

Food

I had to make yogurt last night for my new diet - wow, an 80 ml snack is not a lot. Barely enough for me to even realize I'd eaten anything!

Breakfast

egg

broccoli

rice

milk

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

rice

steamed broccoli and red pepper

salmon

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

celery

egg white

avocado

kind of a non-dinner. hungry

Evening Snack

mango and milk shake.

Hungry still. Time for bed.

Exercise

I had to push myself to do it all - and the frog jumps are killer! but ended in a better mood than I started, so all's good.

Though I am seriously reconsidering being able to do any other sort of work out while on PCP. If there's any energy and will - there certainly isn't any time! But I miss the mental plus of going for a run ... :(

Day 28

I bounced out of bed this morning with a pretty high energy level - although how much of that is simply because of all the lovely snow outside, I don't know.

Food

Patrick sent out our new diets and exercise plans ... WHIMPER! I have a very strong suspicion that next week is going to be HARD, HARD, HARD. And to top it off ... today I started having cravings for forbidden fruit. It was mostly just I-don't-want-to-have-to-pay-attention whining, but part of it is no doubt my getting nervous about next week.

More and harder workouts - fine. But coupled with a diet that right now looks like not-quite-enough ... OI!

I'm a little worried. Patrick says that it'll get easier ... I guess I'll see

Breakfast

egg
zucchini
red bell pepper
chapati
milky tea

mid-morning snack

grilled pineapple

Lunch

chapati
broccoli and zucchini
shrimp

mid-afternoon snack

grilled pineapple

Dinner

Red bell pepper and shrimp

Evening Snack

mango and milk shake

Exercise

Jump-roping.

Day 27

So I slept nine hours last night. I still feel a little run down and low energy, but closer to normal than I did yesterday. I was not wildly enthused about going out into the wet snow to start my PCP workout, but did so anyway and am really glad I did. I am also really glad that I got so much sleep last night.

Geeeesh! Everyone has had such awkward experiences with negativity! I think my only experiences with negativity have been internal. Everyone I've spoken with about PCP have been supportive and interested.

Maybe I just have a really good filter for hearing what I want to hear?

Food

I have to agree with Helen - prepackaging meals seems to be the answer to trying to find the time to do the exercises, eat the PCP diet, and have time to do other things. Like laundry. And dishes. And there are a lot of dishes. Lots and lots of dishes.

Breakfast

egg
zucchini
avocado
chapati
milky tea

mid-morning snack

apple

Lunch

chapati
squash soup
cabbage
hard boiled egg and mustard

mid-afternoon snack

apple

Dinner

broccoli, avocado, and shrimp

Evening Snack

mango and milk shake

Exercise

I have to say that the push-ups are still kicking my butt. I can see some improvement - but it seems as though I make more progress on every other exercise than that one. Grrr.

Day 26

I'm wondering if I'm fighting something off, with the low energy yesterday and a suppressed appetite today. I had to force myself to finish my breakfast, completely forgot my mid-morning snack, and was not so hungry for lunch and forced myself to eat it over 2 hours.

My clothes are beginning to feel looser - which makes me happy and sad. Happy to be losing volume, but I HATE shopping for clothes.

Because my appetite is down today, I'm finding a little hard to get enthusiastic about my "treat". I've also been noticing that most of my cravings have been more about me looking for a treat and wanting to eat emotionally than an actual craving for something in particular. I've decided to hoard my "treat" like a get-out-of-jail-free card until this Sunday. I'm having friends over for Brunch, and so will use my "treat" to have a meal where I don't explicitly weigh out all my food - and possibly have a few more carbs than allocated. It'll be mostly eggs, veggies, and fruit anyway:)

Food

Breakfast

egg

red bell pepper

avocado

chapati

milky tea

mid-morning snack

forgot

Lunch

rice

chicken

squash soup

mid-afternoon snack

grilled pineapple

Dinner

chicken and cabbage

Evening Snack

none. dead tired. bed

Exercise

After a later than usual night last night, I slept in this morning so had to push my PCP exercises in the evening. But I had to stay late at work - and with feeling as tired as I do and my appetite gone into hiding, which practically NEVER happens, I elected to have dinner and crawl into bed at 7:30 instead

Day 25

Food

Yay! For those of us in the States, the FDA is looking into making the serving size on packaged foods more realistic:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/business/06portion.html?hpw

on a related front - it seems that slowly moving my calories, week by week, to the beginning to pay dividends. Or I've snapped to a new schedule: starving in the morning. Not so hungry in the evening.

Breakfast

egg
chapati
zucchini & avocado

mid-morning snack

grilled pineapple

Lunch

rice

squash soup
chicken

mid-afternoon snack

grilled pineapple

Dinner

carrots and chicken

Evening Snack

peach and milk shake

Exercise

Whoa baby - today is a low energy day. I had to push myself through all of the exercises. Usually my heavy lack of enthusiasm blows away as soon as the blood starts flowing and I throw myself into my workout - Hence the 10 minute rule: if I don't feel like running, I get myself out the door by promising that if I still feel that way in 10 minutes, I'll quit and 99% of the time I enjoy it.

Not today. Today it was a push all the way. Pretty tired all day too.

Day 24

Last night my elbow ached every so often and this morning my shoulders and back are sore and I want to be lazy. In my pre-PCP life, I always gave myself rest days. But rest days didn't mean light days, they meant completely lazy days - and I miss them.

Food

Today my food fell a bit off schedule. I didn't want to eat before my workout, and puttered around for a bit, procrastinating, before I did it - so it was 11 before I had breakfast, and I was STARVING. I still felt hungry afterwards, but went to work on a project and then wasn't hungry again until 2, at which point I was only sort of hungry. Sigh. Then I was starving again. Totally out of whack today.

Breakfast

egg with charred poblano chili

chapati

cabbage (not really breakfast material, but it was there already cooked and I was lazy)

small, only slightly burnt croissant unearthed from the depths of my freezer.

mid-morning snack

forgot and missed

Lunch

squash soup

rice

steamed tilapia

mid-afternoon snack

grilled pineapple

Dinner

chicken and broccoli soup

Evening Snack

strawberry and peach and milk shake

Exercise

Had to push myself into it this morning, grumbling because I wanted to be lazy, my toes hurt (raw skin, probably from prancing around in the snow with wrong-size boots on), and so on. I began to feel back into it at about jumprope 700. My knee felt tight and sore after the squats but a half mile of light jogging on the treadmill loosened it up and it feels fine now. We'll see how it feels tomorrow.

That plank thing is a lot tougher than it looks.

Day 23 -

It's snowing!

Which means my jumproping will require some clearing of snow ...

Food

Breakfast

egg - soft scrambled with charred poblano chile

Chapati

Broccoli

mid-morning snack

apple

Lunch

rice

steamed shrimp & cilantro

squash soup

avocado

mid-afternoon snack

grilled pineapple

Dinner

chicken in soup

cabbage

Evening Snack

strawberries and milk shake

Exercise

I must have looked like the fitness freak I most certainly am not, jumproping in the midst of a blizzard, to the amusement and utter bewilderment of the children sledding across the street.

"What are you doing, jumproping in the snow?"

uh....

"Jumproping in the snow!" I shout back

"Why?"

why, indeed.

"Because I like it!" And, oddly, true. Well, not the jumproping part, but I love going out in the snow. Secretly ... I like shoveling the drive and clearing out my car.

There's a few minutes of thoughtful silence and I'm trying to remember where my count is.

"You're weird!"

Sigh.

"I know!"

Note: WOW does straightening your legs for the dip make a difference. OW!

Day 22 - Week 4 begins

Patrick has just said that it's about this time that our initial flush of enthusiasm will begin to wane. I took a look at today's workout, which because of my personal schedule I cannot do until this evening when I'll be tired and a blizzard is expected, and winced. See, I enjoy working out but have never learned to really push myself more than just an eensy-weensy bit.

So a little part of me deflated at the hill ahead of me. Think of it as a challenge... or better yet, think of it as a test and you'll get inspired. I'm weird. I like tests.

Then I stepped on the scale this morning - Woot! More than 5 lbs lighter than when I started the project!

Still, I expect this week to be hard and will have to pay attention. I've noticed an odd thing - 160 g of broccoli is a whole lot more filling than 160 g of pureed broccoli. Odd that. Is chewing that important? If so, it's a bummer since I love soups.

Food

I've noticed that my taste buds appear to be re-setting. Apples seem much sweeter than they used to. Eggs, chicken and shrimp seem saltier than they used to. Plain steamed veggies seem more flavorful. I like this!

Breakfast

egg

milky tea

broccoli and rice

mid-morning snack

apple

Lunch

rice

steamed shrimp
squash soup

mid-afternoon snack

apple

Dinner

chicken and broccoli and charred poblano chile in chicken stock

Evening Snack

peach and milk shake

Exercise

This evening (blech - hate Fridays and working out in the evening) I timed my PCP workout: 38:44 from stepping out the door with my jumprope (need to get that in before the blizzard) to lying collapsed on the floor after my last crunch.

Factoring in a trip to the gym for some running: 1:28:00

Heh. No wonder I feel like I'm not managing my time well. I guess I'll need to think about how I might streamline that process.

I was also whining to myself, not really wanting to work out after a long week and a long day and just before what looks like a retreat-to-my-cave-and-watch-the-weather-form-within weekend, when I realized: three weeks ago I was huffing and puffing my way through 250 jumpropes and now I don't start feeling the blood flow until about jumprope #800.

Woot!

Day 21

Food

We received next week's diet plans today. My magic 8-ball tells me that next week ... is when the cravings and temptation will start to hit home.

Breakfast

egg over broccoli

oatmeal

milk and coffee

mid-morning snack

apple

Lunch

rice

chicken

avocado & cabbage (again, NOT together)

mid-afternoon snack

apple

Dinner

rice

shrimp

avocado, broccoli, and cilantro

Evening Snack

peach and milk shake

Exercise

I very badly wanted to be lazy this morning - but I got up and did my jump roping nonetheless. I think I tripped over the rope more times than since the first week! I'm wrestling with family-related stresses at the moment (I'm not making the transition of being cared-for to caregiver easily) so was a bit distracted.

Soooooo looking forward to the weekend!

Day 20

Am I the only one having trouble managing the time investment? I mean, the time spent washing dishes, measuring, working out, eating ... I feel like there must be a better way of managing this, but not being able to eyeball the masses - or find a way to make an all one dish sort of dish - I feel like I'm making too many steps.

Food

Breakfast

milky tea

egg, soft scrambled

steamed broccoli rabe

oatmeal

mid-morning snack

mango

Lunch

rice

chicken

cabbage and a little avocado (well, not together)

mid-afternoon snack

Mango

Dinner

squash soup

chicken

sesame rice balls (ok, so they were packaged. But they don't have any ingredients I can't pronounce or excess salt)

Evening Snack

Mango, Peach, and milk shake

Exercise

Had a great workout this morning in the early morning snow - and had a nice run in too! But I can't wait for the days to get light enough to run on the streets ...

Day 19

I did not get to bed on time last night and so had to split my workout as I couldn't do it all in the time I'd left. Which is the story of my life. My ability to apportion time is severely handicapped by my habit of trying to squeeze more in by pretending it takes less time to do things than it actually does. Sigh.

Food

Breakfast

egg and spinach pie

chai

oatmeal

mid-morning snack

grilled pineapple.

Lunch

rice

calamari

steamed broccoli rabe

mid-afternoon snack

grilled pineapple (last of it :()

Dinner

rice

chicken

broccoli soup

Evening Snack

mango and milk shake.

Exercise

Had to split my workout - did jumpropes, squats, pull-ups, and the chest-thingys this morning. Ran and did the rest in the evening. I mentioned my ...ahem ... less than stellar pushups at lunch today and learned that a colleague of mine starts the day with 50 push-ups. Now I'm feeling competitive.

Day 18

Food

I am realizing either a) I didn't eat very much protein before PCP or b) PCP diet calls for a lot of protein!

Also - while I like seafood, it does not re-heat well.

And I'd like to echo Mickey's sentiments ... I feel like I'm cooking, washing-up, cooking, washing-up, rinse and repeat. I need to learn to balance the food prep part of PCP.

Breakfast

oatmeal cooked in cider

spinach and egg pie

chai

mid-morning snack

grilled pineapple

Lunch

lunch is the biggest meal of the day ... and I think it's still just a hair more food than I'm comfortable eating in one sitting.

whole wheat pasta

calamari and clams cooked with a spoonful of curry paste

broccoli soup

confession: my officemate baked me a chocolate cake for my birthday. I had two large bites.

mid-afternoon snack

grilled pineapple

Dinner

whole wheat pasta &

poached chicken, cooked ala Mark Bittman in resultant chicken broth

braised cabbage

Evening Snack

mango and milk shake

Exercise

I did all my jumpropes in a row! Well, stopping often for tripping over the rope ... but no breaks!

We won't discuss the shameful state of my push-ups. Sigh.