The Peak Condition Project - HeatherLin

Day 3 - PCP redux

2010-11-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

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

2010-04-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-14T02:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-13T03:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-12T03:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-11T05:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-08T02:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-05T05:14:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-04T15:17:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-02T05:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-31T14:54:00.001-07:00

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

2010-03-30T03:44:00.001-07:00

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

2010-03-29T03:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-24T03:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-23T03:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-18T05:13:00.001-07:00

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

2010-03-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-16T03:23:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-03-15T04:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-13T17:32:00.001-08:00

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

Day 57

2010-03-12T06:08:00.001-08:00

I like Fridays. Aside from the normal reason - that the weekend is nearly here - I get excited about Friday's because that is the day I usually take stock of my PCP progress. I weigh myself on Fridays, take my weekly PCP photo on Fridays - and this Friday ... well, while I'd like to say the PCP for me is all about the health and well-being, I would like to point out that I AM human, and today I preened a little bit in front of the mirror, checking out my muscles and steadily slimming form. :)

So - happy dance!

Look - baby guns!

I've also been recording my resting pulse as the project has progressed:
It bounces around a bit - mostly dependent on when I measure it and what I've been doing before hand - but it's dropped from an average of about 64 bpm to being pretty regularly below 55 bpm!

Yes. I am a bit anal :)

Food

My new diet plan is a bit of a surprise this week - more food! I'm not sure how I feel about that. Yay more food! But it's more food in the morning, when I'm already getting more than enough to satiate. I would prefer more food later in the day ...

As far as the PCP diet has been concerned, I definitely feel that I have a built in advantage (aside from loving vegetables and natural foods), in that the balance of my day is in the morning and that is when I usually do my PCP workout. So a typical day is:

get up, putter about
PCP workout
shower
pack food and go to work
breakfast
mid-morning snack
lunch
mid-afternoon snack
home and putter about
dinner
evening snack
and in bed by 8

So most of my food is up front with when I am the most active. If I were a night owl and did my workouts in the evening - I think I'd be STARVING and hating the skimpy dinners.

Breakfast

couscous, egg, and beet greens cooked in beet juice
milky coffee

mid-morning snack

egg white with broccoli

Lunch

egg whites, rye, broccoli and purreed roasted red pepper

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

pineapple. Egg white.

Exercise

Day 56

2010-03-11T03:03:00.000-08:00

I miss cooking. I also miss having more time to do other things. But, really, I miss cooking. I don't mind the food, per se, on PCP - it helps that I love me my veggies, although I'm not a massive fan of milk and would prefer a less sweet end to my day ...

But I enjoy cooking, find it relaxing, soothing, and fun - and I'm chafing a bit at the restrictions PCP places on my cooking. Baking treats is clearly out - I can get behind baking treats to lavish on others, but to not have any myself? Really takes the fun out of it. The limitations on salt and fat likewise take the fun out of it.

To be honest, perhaps I should just cut myself off from food porn for the rest of the PCP project:

Sigh. Or maybe I can just see it as a challenge and try to find something PCPy to make. Or rummage through my cookbooks and find something to make to bring up to my parents. Or just suck it in and find something else to do to relax.

I did make a loaf of rye bread this morning - mmmmm, fresh baked bread ..... mmmmmm.

Would have been AWESOME with butter.

Food

Breakfast

Rye bread
egg and corn and green beans and artichoke hearts. And that uses up my freezer veggies

mid-morning snack

egg white (with a sprig of cilantro and a splash of cayenne)

Lunch

beets, beet greens, goat cheese and tuna on rye
broccoli rabe and tomato sauce

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

pineapple. Egg white.

Exercise

Just the jumproping - I liked the extra time, but contrary to the last few weeks, didn't really feel the need for a rest day. The fact that spring is in the air helps.

Day 55

2010-03-10T04:35:00.001-08:00

Well, I got a little more sleep - but as a consequence, had a rushed morning. Counting the days until I can have a relaxed morning ...

My energy remained high until about lunchtime, at which point it slipped, and I found myself - for the first time in weeks - tempted by food because my energy was low. I wasn't hungry but wanted to eat. I didn't - but it wasn't a great feeling. I'm definitely going to bed early tonight.

Food

Breakfast

egg&couscous&green beans&corn&artichoke heart

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

arugula and tuna salad
steamed beets and beet greens on rye w/hint of goat cheese

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

pineapple
milk

Day 54

2010-03-09T04:39:00.001-08:00

I Soooooo did not want to get out of bed this morning - I'm still playing catch-up on sleep - but half-awake, I did so anyway and hied myself off to do my PCP workout. I think it was a plus that I didn't quite wake up until partway through my push-ups. Still not a fan.

But I felt more and more awake, and more and more energized the further into the workout I got, and am now really glad that I got up and did my full workout this morning. I find that working out in the morning, for me, is really the only way to go. And working out at the same time everyday helps my recovery.

But ... I really miss a leisurely lazy morning. Really, really, really miss it. And since I'm playing catchup on sleep and sleeping a little longer, and since I was away last weekend and didn't prepare my meals in advance ... these mornings are a rush with no quiet and restful time for myself. Time I think I need. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to prepare my meals and go to bed early and tomorrow I can recapture some quiet time.

Food

Breakfast

egg and couscous and green beans and artichoke and corn (kinda garbage meal, but tasty)

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

tuna and arugula on rye, arugula salad, carrots. Ok. This was HARD. A vendor brought in Primo's hoagies which I find very hard to ignore. I had a spiced mozzarella ball. Well, two. But then I could cut myself off. A little worried about day 91 ...

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

banana. Milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

fruit salad and egg white

Day 53 - The Day After

2010-03-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

Well - reflections on my indulgence ...

Overall - both a disappointment and a pleasure. Let me explain. First of all, thus far I have had no side-effects from my indulgence, unless you count general fatigue from staying up too late which is really just my own fault. Second of all ... where I was once a cheap date, now I'm a "practically free" date. I got a little buzz going on half a glass of wine. Thirdly, the indulgence both was and was not all I'd built it up to be in my head.

I enjoyed it, and it tasted good, but not quite as good as I expected it to. So in that sense, a bit of a disappointment. On the other hand, I had also been really worried that my old bad habits would come snapping back as if they had never left, and I'd find myself reaching for more than my allocation of chips, or a second glass of wine. And that was soooo not an issue. I could have stopped eating chips or not finished my glass of wine without any real regrets. The real joy of the evening was the freedom to eat them and to not think about what I should or should not be eating, and I'm ready to go back to my PCP diet.

Well, to be honest, I'm still not wildly excited about the evening meals. Sigh.

Food

Breakfast

rice, corn, artichoke heart, green beans, and egg

milk

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

tuna and arugula on rye

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

banana. milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

fruit salad and egg white.

Exercise

I'm so tired right now, I can barely remember my PCP workout. The pistol squats are killer - and I've reminded myself once again that I'm happier if I allow a full 24 hours between workouts ... working out last night and then this morning really wore me out. I'm also a little frustrated that I feel that I'm dropping further and further behind in the pull-up and dip departments. Sigh.

And I must be in the minority, but I'd kind of like to have Madonna arms - or, more precisely, Linda Hamilton arms. Not to keep, mind. But I'd not be disappointed to get there. I'm pretty sure I have the cup space to support it :). Not having a "feminine" shape isn't something I think I can achieve without surgery :)

Day 52

2010-03-07T06:03:00.000-08:00

Well - you know what they say about best laid plans and all ...

Despite my best intentions, I overslept 2 HOURS yesterday morning and did not have time to do my PCP workout before leaving (an hour late) for Boston and then did not have time to get to them later in the day.

Which tells me in a giant way how much sleep I needed to make up - and probably still need to make up.

I also forgot to bring my resistance band with me so could only get partway through my PCP workout this morning (ah ... spring is FINALLY on the way and it was a beautiful morning for a workout) and tacked on some squats and creeps 'cause it felt good.

After the long drive back to NJ, I thought for sure I'd cave and fail doing the rest of the PCP workout - but I didn't!

YaY me! I also threw in some dips and a plank! Maybe I should take my temperature or something ....

But now the rest of the evening is for my indulgence:

Wine! And chips! (salt and alcohol weeee!)

but to put it in perspective:

A single glass of wine (I love these little bottles - no need to open a full bottle when all you want is a glass!) and a bowl of chips, zoned out in front of the boob tube to watch the shiny-glossy-people in my former town: LA.

To be honest, I think I'm more excited about the prospect of just kicking back than the actual indulgence, but we'll see how it goes ...

Day 50

2010-03-05T06:16:00.001-08:00

Fridays are always hard for me - I think I've said that before. I managed to get up early and finish my PCP workout this morning, but at the expense of getting enough sleep :( Before all you monkeys get on my back - I'm making certain to get my PCP workout done early so that I'll be able to go to bed at an appallingly (I hope) early hour this evening. Exercising in the evening is a good way of making getting to bed and sleeping early all but impossible.

I'm going to Boston this weekend to help out my folks - I'm looking forward to a lazy weekend NEXT weekend. Sloth sounds verrrrrry good about now. Fingers crossed that I'll have time on Sunday to get a jump on preparing the week's meals, or next week will be a mess.

Aside from being frazzled and tired, I'm in a pretty good mood. My weight has been slowly dropping. I don't understand why it's not clearly evident in my weekly photo (hated weekly photo), since my clothes are noticeably looser and I'm beginning to think about shopping soon for a belt to hold my pants up. .. which delights me no end :)

Food

Breakfast

egg, zucchini, red bell pepper, and roasted red pepper puree on rye

milk

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

chapati

tuna

arugula

avocado

carrots

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

banana. milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

fruit salad and egg white. I like the egg whites!

Day 49

2010-03-04T15:46:00.001-08:00

Yay - another indulgence!

But what I really need now is a good night's sleep - I've woken up the last couple of nights with strange dreams (a laptop/skateboard?) and am really looking forward to a good night's rest.

Food

Breakfast

egg and wilted arugula on rye

milk

broccoli rabe and tomato sauce

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

chapati

tuna

arugula

avocado

carrots

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

apple. banana. milk. Egg white.

Evening Snack

fruit salad and yogurt

Day 48

2010-03-03T03:20:00.000-08:00

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Am I EVER ready for a rest day. My whole body feels limp and useless. But I was really surprised to find I could manage 60 seconds of plank. Only for the first rep - I collapsed after 40 sec for the next two reps and after 30 sec on the last rep.

Hmmm. I think I'm seeing an explanation for my feelings of limpness ...

Food

Breakfast

egg
red bell pepper
zucchini
arugula
chapati
milk

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

steamed broccoli rabe and tomato sauce
eggwhite and arugula and avocado on rye

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

apple. banana. egg white. milk

Evening Snack

fruit salad and yogurt

Bed early for me today!

Day 47

2010-03-02T12:22:00.000-08:00

Well, I woke a bit tired this morning - that's what happens when you start reading a good book! (and which is why I try to remember not to start a book until Friday ...). Sigh.

Food

Breakfast

egg scrambled with roasted red pepper and paprika
chapati pizza with avocado, zucchini, and arugula
milk

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

steamed broccoli rabe with tomato sauce and clams
arugula, avocado, and red pepper on rye

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

apple.

banana.

egg white
milk

so boring!!!!!!!!

Evening Snack

fruit salad and yogurt (you know, I'm going through milk at an unprecedented rate with all this yogurt making - it's almost like I'm a normal American family!)

Exercise

Got up and did my PCP even feeling tired - which gave me some energy until about mid-afternoon ... A little sore everywhere ...

Day 46

2010-03-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

All right. Now I'm in a good mood (YAY!) and ready to reflect on my PCP journey so far.

Exercise

I've liked the variety in workout exercises. The lazy part of me, however, was and is less than enthusiastic about how painfully difficult many of them are. I'm getting more into (but not yet enthusiastic about) pushing myself but there are some exercises that I like better than others. For giggles, I ranked them (in decreasing excitement about doing them):

squat
lunge
sit-up
side crunch
floor jump
standing ovation
triceps extension
rowing
lawnmower
davinci
thumbs up curl
ski jumper
shoulder press
pull down
chicken wing
curl
outside curl
one-arm curl
shoulder fly
show-off
leg-up
forward shoulder raise
v-sit
creep
jumprope
pistol squat
double katana
triceps dip
elevated tricept dips
pull up
chest dip
push up
plank
bicycle

In general, I prefer leg and core exercises to upper-body workouts - and I prefer exercises that don't kill me to complete. Upon reflection, this isn't altogether surprising. The sports I've participated in have been:

running
skiing
skating
springboard diving
Tang Soo Do

Only Tang Soo Do involved much upper body strength, unless you count pulling myself out of the pool when diving. Skiing, skating, and diving require decent core strength (especially diving). So I prefer exercises that play to my strengths. Or - more to the point perhaps - because upper body strength is my weakness I find the exercises more frustrating and dispiriting.

Today I could finish only ONE complete rep of the push-ups, and all the remaining reps had one or more breaks when my arms collapsed. I'm nowhere near pulling my full body weight on my pull-ups and dips and I'm still working to muscle collapse.

Leg-lifts got demoted because my left hip jumps in it's socket while doing them, and while not painful is certainly not comfortable.

Jump roping got demoted not so much because I hate jump roping, but because I CAN'T STAND COUNTING. It's just too boring.

I find that the pace of the exercise ramp-up is a little frustrating - but admittedly is directly related to my initial level of fitness. In the first few weeks I had no real difficulty with the exercises (push-ups excepted) and in hindsight would have benefited from a faster initial ramp up. In the last few weeks I've been a little frustrated because while my lower body is able to play catch-up ... my upper body has most definitely not and I feel as though I'm falling behind. Which is a bit frustrating.

It's also a bit humbling to realize how poor my initial upper body strength was.

Food

The first two weeks I found very difficult with the PCP diet - partly because I'm a bit detail oriented and always felt I was on the edge of cheating because my usual diet was variable enough that I had no idea what half-portions would have been appropriate.

I naturally prefer more hard and fast rules.

The second week was a nightmare of feeling nausea - it was just way too much food for me and I wasn't accustomed to it even at the end of the week. When a more sensible and reduced plan arrived week 3, I was relieved. I expected the plans to continue to reduce, and expected to find some difficulty in the other direction:being hungry.

To my surprise, while I've occasionally been ravenous, by and large I have found instead that my appetite has been suppressed and I haven't always been hungry for the food when one of the nine meals rolls around. Which I find SHOCKING. I really like the regular eating, which I think plays a huge role in my reduced appetite. I like the smaller dinners - though I miss having carbs at dinner time and right now am heartily sick of so much fruit and yogurt weighted at the end of the day. I haven't really had too much in the way of cravings (yesterday excepted), but I miss salt. I really miss cheese. And I miss being able to occasionally have a glass of wine.

I'm (usually) getting better about planning my meals ahead of time - but before starting the PCP, I'd grossly underestimated how much time I'd end up spending preparing and packaging my meals. Which, with the exercise, has been a significant chunk of my available free time and I've found that difficult to manage. I miss the freedom to eat without all the calculation and thinking. On the plus side, my grocery bills are moderately lower (see cheese, absence) as my normal diet was heavily vegetables and home-cooked meals to begin with - with significant amounts of expensive goodies. Moreover, I'm wasting practically no food (excepting all those poor egg-yolks ...) and have a more open refrigerator.

How I feel

I feel GREAT and am feeling more alert, stronger, and healthier. I occasionally hit snag days - and am sometimes upset by the hemmed in feeling that I have by adhering so strictly to the exercise and diet plan. But overall - very pleased and optimistic that what I'm doing will transfer more easily to regular habits than I thought it would before starting this project.

Looking ahead to the next 45 days!

Food

Breakfast

homemade rye bread

egg scrambled with pureed roasted red pepper and paprika

avocado

steamed broccoli rabe

milk

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

chapati pizza with zucchini, red pepper, and avocado

broccoli rabe with tomato sauce and clams (yum!)

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

apple. banana. egg white

Evening Snack

fruit salad & yogurt

Day 45 - Halfway There!

2010-02-28T06:16:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-26T12:01:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-26T05:26:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-25T07:58:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-24T02:44:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-22T16:11:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-22T03:25:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-20T13:51:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-17T16:07:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-17T03:42:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-16T03:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-13T16:18:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-02-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-11T06:05:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-10T04:01:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-09T04:10:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-08T02:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-07T04:54:00.000-08:00

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 -

2010-02-06T10:01:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-05T03:53:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-04T04:05:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-03T04:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-02T04:24:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-01T03:38:00.000-08:00

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.

Day 17 - whiny

2010-01-31T15:43:00.000-08:00

So I woke this morning uninspired. I didn't want to do my work out. I felt.... whiny and peevish. And I didn't like it. But still, I didn't want to work out. Was I tired? No. Stiff? No. I just didn't feel like it. For no other reason than because I had to. I felt boxed in. But I did. And I felt better for it. But am still distressed at being unmotivated.

Food

Breakfast

Chai

egg

corn & paprika

chapatis

mid-morning snack

grilled pineapple ...mmmm

Lunch

crackers

avocado

egg

mid-afternoon snack

grilled pineapple

Dinner

whole wheat pasta

calamari with thai curry paste

squash soup

Evening Snack

mango & milk shake

Exercise

Not bad - but was really unmotivated

Day 16 - My Birthday!

2010-01-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

So - there's nothing like a day of pain and nausea to make the next day FANTASTIC!

I woke after 10 hours of blissful sleep rested and pain-free.

Food

I have to say I am much happier with these portions!

Breakfast

egg and steamed corn omlet

rice

chai

mid-morning snack

was out and about and missed it

Lunch

Was taken to California Pizza Kitchen - had a grilled vegetable salad with grilled shrimp. Undoubtedly had salt added (yum) and n

o carbs ... but I didn't feel at all temped by the less PCP-y items on the menu.

mid-afternoon snack

grilled pineapple

Dinner

boiled broccoli pureed with a spoonful of basil,

whole wheat pasta

clams

Evening Snack

mango and milk shake

Exercise

Did my work out at the gym this morning - toooooooo cold for jumproping outside... my lungs would shriek! But it felt great!

Day 15

2010-01-30T06:23:00.000-08:00

I woke with a migraine ... which is never good. Pushed it to the back of my head with painkillers but spent the day challenged to be functional and holding my head delicately.

While I did stick to the PCP diet, I did not do the PCP exercises but instead went to bed early and slept the migraine away.

Food

Breakfast

egg

mid-morning snack

oatmeal and peaches

Lunch

rice

hake

avocado

mid-afternoon snack

fennel

Dinner

bread

avocado

egg

Evening Snack

mango and milk shake

Exercise

none - went to bed early

Day 14. In which I am slightly less sore.

2010-01-28T03:41:00.000-08:00

I woke this morning stiff and sore in my shoulders and arms - but not so bad as yesterday.

I also woke with no appetite whatsoever and contemplated my breakfast with a very real sense of fear. One thing I will say for this weeks diet: it does marvelous things for eliminating temptation. I baked a cake for friends this evening:

which is dead easy, and consists of simply butter, eggs, chocolate, sugar ... and 1 tablespoon of flour, which makes me rather wonder why they call it a cake ...

Anyway, I was too full to be tempted to try it!

Food

Breakfast

Oh, but this was a fight to eat. Not at all hungry

steamed broccoli

milk

duck egg - soft boiled (colleague has ducks and apparently doesn't want to eat that many eggs)

mid-morning snack

oatmeal and peaches

Lunch

eyed a spiced mozzarella ball but was easily able to leave it alone. SOoooo not hungry.

rice

steamed tilapia
steamed zucchini

confession: I only managed a little more than half before I began to feel ill and stopped

mid-afternoon snack

carrots

Dinner

rice

steamed Hake

steamed fennel

avocado

Evening Snack

not feeling well. none.

Exercise

Did my longest straight round of jump-roping! So did my 800 in 3 sets, with brief breaks in-between.

Day 13 in which I am sore all over

2010-01-27T04:00:00.000-08:00

Energy Levels

*******(8/10)

About the same as yesterday

Food

I keep expecting/fearing that I will get accustomed to eating all this food, but no sign of it so far. 2 more days. Hold on for 1 more day.

Breakfast

scrambled egg with steamed zucchini and ground sage

milk

mid-morning snack

oatmeal and peaches

Lunch

quinoa and rice

steamed tilapia with lemon zest

steamed broccoli

mid-afternoon snack

forgot

Dinner

rice

steamed hake

steamed arugula, fennel bulb, and avocado

Evening Snack

mango and milk-shake

Exercise

I am sore pretty much all over. Which shouldn't be a huge surprise as I finally managed something approximating the inclined pull-up, got my push-up bars, and accidentally did lunges two (now three) days running. But this morning I was excited to do my jump-roping in only 3 discrete sessions (with about a 40 second break between). Maybe by next week ... oh, wait. The number's probably going to ramp up ...

This is what pushing yourself is like. Trying to play catch-up :)

I do need to do more stretching - my legs feel tight and I had to do about half a mile of intervals this morning before my legs felt even close to nice and loose.

Day 12

2010-01-26T03:14:00.000-08:00

Energy Level

something must have clicked last night! I went to bed early (early enough that I was confused to wake up midway through the "night" to see that it was 10)

******** (8/10)

Food

Breakfast

egg
arugula braised in veg stock and lemon zest
zucchini braised in veg stock with ground sage
oatmeal
milk

Oh-la-la ... hating the feeling of being stuffed. One way to dodge tempting "shunned" foods: eat so much else that thinking about food is unpleasant. I keep expecting this to get easier, but it isn't.

mid-morning snack

1/2 mango

Lunch

rice

steamed tilapia
zucchini braised in veg stock and ground sage
carrots

mid-afternoon snack

mango

Dinner

quinoa

tilapia & tuna

broccoli

Evening Snack

mango&milk shake

Exercise

I am still nowhere near being able to do all my jump-ropes at once - the most I've been able to manage has been about 200 before my feet cramp up (not that I don't appreciate the little breather) and it took me about 15 minutes to do the full 700 this morning. Sigh. I went to the gym this morning to get a little run in because it's still raining out and used the counter-balance chin-up machine instead of doing the incline chin-ups as I've yet to find a good way of doing that at home. Then, forgetting that I'd done them yesterday, an extra set of lunges. No wonder they were so difficult.

My push up bars (you know, if you just transpose 2 letters ...:) arrived. My push-ups have now officially slid from a train wreck to a disaster. I had been warned. And I can see how they help with form and focus ... but they're a disaster on the personal pride/motivation front.

I'm pushing myself, which I like, but I am not enjoying it. Yet.

Day 11

2010-01-25T03:07:00.000-08:00

So today I woke in a grumpy I-want-to-stay-underneath-the-covers mood for no apparent reason. I went for a little run to try to put myself in a better mood, but it didn't really work as my energy levels are low. Not so low I couldn't get through my work out ... but low enough that it felt like I was working harder than I should have to.

I'm not so good at pushing myself.

Energy

****** (6/10)

Food

Breakfast

oatmeal

carrots

egg

milk

mid-morning snack

apple

Lunch

Quinoa

steamed tilapia and tuna

cabbage

Afternoon snack

apple

Dinner

cabbage

rice cooked with V8

steamed Tilapia

Evening snack

mango&milk - shake ... mmmmmm

Exercise

Ran intervals for 20 minutes but my energy was low. I was unmotivated all day today. I got enough sleep, am certainly eating enough - just meh all day. Of course, it's also been pissing down rain all day, which didn't help.

End of day thought: I am very very tired of eating.

Day 10 - Reflection

2010-01-24T04:32:00.000-08:00

I woke this morning a little bit sore and stiff - which I figure is either because of the PCP exercises, or (more likely) doing the exercises and then going to sit in a car for 5+ hours. I slept like the dead for a solid 11 hours (a little sleep deprived and a very long day). Although I woke briefly at my normal time, I rolled over and snuggled back into my dreams (which involved a magic school. A Disney version of Hogwart's. With infants. And fast cars. And Michael Keaton.)

Food

Patrick gave me the thumbs up to spread my eating out, so I hope to be better able to finish my portions for the rest of the week.

Breakfast

1 egg

1 cup milk

2 pancakes

mid-morning snack

1/2 mango

Lunch

2 pancakes

carrots

(no protein - forgot to be prepared for my drive home)

mid-afternoon snack

forgot to be prepared for drive home. Had carrots instead of fruit

Dinner

Steamed Tilapia

Quinoa

cabbage

carrots (sigh ... no more carrots for a day or two)

Evening Snack

mango&milk-shake

Exercise

Today I managed the jump-roping better than yesterday. But jumping out of a car and jumping rope is not a great improvement over jumping rope and then jumping into a car. Blech. The rest of the work out went fine, with two exceptions:

I still haven't found a good option for the inclined pull-ups. There was one possibility (or so I thought) at the neighborhood playground, but it was too low to the ground for me to get any leverage for pulling myself up.
Push ups - blech. They start out fine, but I had to do the last 3 on my knees. If anyone was listening, there were NOT any whimpering sounds coming from my apartment. I deny everything.

Day 9 - Adapting

2010-01-23T10:52:00.000-08:00

This weekend I'm up in Boston visiting the folks. I drove up this morning and am a bit annoyed with myself for waking up ahead of the alarm and then being unable to get back to sleep. Even I, the morning bird, think that waking up a 2:15 am is WAY too early. So I just dozed until I couldn't take any more and got up to do my PCP workout before leaving at 4:30 to drive up to Boston.

It may sound abit like I'm beating my chest about getting up early ... but I sound absolutely pathetic when I need to get to bed by 8. Or earlier.

So I did my workout, and pressed through. The squats are really beginning to burn and the push-ups ... ughhh. To collapse. Feels good AFTER ...during .... not so much. Ditto the leg lifts. Did the jump-roping in as close to continuously as I could manage .. but had to take brief breaks occasionally.

Breakfast

1 hard boiled egg

1 cup milk

1 bowl oatmeal

carrots

This was

a) not as good as yesterday's, but (aside from the oatmeal) easier to travel with

b) finished ... over about a 3 hour interval.

Mid-morning snack

half a mango

I think I managed the mid-morning snack partly because I ate breakfast over a longer window (which might have been cheating) and partly because my morning was a few hours longer than usual

Lunch

spinach

tuna

rice

The weights were estimated, but I think I did pretty well. Except for the spinach. (I think I'd have to eat a carload of spinach to hit the vegetable weight and that was out of the question). But I'm pleased by what I managed away from home and without a scale. I was reheating pizza for my Dad for lunch and spent a moment or two contemplating it. It's still early enough in PCP that I didn't find it difficult to rummage around in the fridge to find what I could to follow my PCP diet... but I definitely got a sense for what I might be craving in the next days/weeks.

Melted cheese. Salt. Sigh.

Dinner

A challenge - Dad wanted Mary Chung's for dinner so ... I attempted to do my best by my PCP diet - rice and baby bok choy (mmmm bok choy), and chicken velvet.

Now ... sleepy ... bedtime for bongo ....

Day 8 - New Diet. You're Kidding. Right?

2010-01-22T04:17:00.001-08:00

Patrick sent us an email summarizing what we should have taken away from last week’s half-portion diet. Of the three typical responses, I hit two:

· Hey, I was probably eating too much.

· Hey, I never thought so much about what I was eating.

The restrictions on this (an following) week’s diet are not too much of a surprise. I don’t have a huge sweet tooth (but do need to sweeten my morning oatmeal), but I’m going to miss salt. Sigh. I expect my taste buds will adapt.

But as to how much we’re to eat …

These numbers did not seem intimidating until I actually put together my first breakfast.

You’ve GOT to be kidding me.

Breakfast

1 bowl of steel-cut oatmeal (cooked in apple cider for sweetness and to use it up) with half the milk

1 fried egg

Bell peppers sautéed with cayenne and paprika – and half an avocado because I didn’t have any other vegetables prepared and used up my bell pepper

½ the milk

Wow, that’s an impressive amount of food – easily 3x what I normally eat. Because I was running late, I wolfed down my breakfast and headed to work.

And then got progressively more uncomfortable as my stomach got around to letting my head know how much I’d eaten … and how unhappy it was. I felt a bit ill. The morning snack? Didn’t happen. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to finish my lunch.

And did I?

Nope. No way.

Lunch

Arugula, half-avocado, tuna, and bread

I had maybe a little more than half my lunch before I just couldn’t bring myself to eat any more. My Friday workouts are in the evening, because I’m out late Thursday nights – So perhaps I’ll be better able to manage this meal plan after a hard work out – or after I’ve made a meal plan as opposed to trying to eat out of my fridge. But right now … No way. I still ate more than I feel comfortable eating. Blech. I’m looking forward to digesting what I was able to eat and work out.

Mid-afternoon snack?

Didn't happen. I didn't want to throw up during my workout

The workout went pretty well, and while I like the pick-me-up in the evening, I wish I'd had the time in the morning. Since Patrick said the jump-roping was meant to be all in a row ... I gave it my best shot, but my lungs just aren't there right now. That and my arches began to cramp up. The inclined pull-ups will have to be a no go until either I find some place in the neighborhood where I can do them, or Patrick suggests a work-around.

Dinner

Quinoa cooked in vegetable stock with a spoonful of Thai green curry and a few stalks of lemongrass

steamed Tilapia

Avocado and cabbage.

Nearly finished. But I wanted to stop after it was 1/3 eaten.

Evening snack?

I don’t think so. I’m going to have a hard time with this one, as I get home between 5 and 6 and go to bed at around 8 …. (I get up at about 4 – I’m a morning person, what can I say?) I may have to start taking my dinner to work so I can eat it before I go home ...

I’m going to bed now – I’m getting up at 3 for a 6 hour drive up to Boston to visit my folks, who aren’t doing so well. I’ll try to manage this diet the best I can in the next day or two but may just stick to shunning the things I ought to shun.

I should be able to manage most of the work outs, with the possible exception of the incline pull-ups.

End of Week 1

2010-01-21T03:11:00.000-08:00

Day 7 has arrived -

I slept better last night (Woot), but will confess to lying in bed a few minutes longer than I needed to, momentarily intimidated by doing 500 jump-ropes.

Food

I'm expecting that our week 2 diets (which should be arriving this afternoon) will be more restrictive that our week 1 diets. Which, on one hand I'm looking forward to - I think I'm much more of an abstainer than a moderator - which is a way of saying I'm better and find it easier to give up something entirely than to allow myself "moderate" portions. Mostly, I suppose, because "moderate" is not clearly defined and I start playing mental mind games with myself - and have to devote a lot more of my attention to the issue. My main frustration with this past week of half portions - where, with rare exceptions, has been a non-stop argument with myself about how big my "regular" portions would have been.

On the other hand, I'm expecting to have to give up some foods that I really enjoy - say, cheese - and I'm not so much looking forward to that.

But I am curious and (at least initially) excited. I'm going to try to think about what I expect to miss the most in the coming weeks and see if I can squeeze in a half portion today.

other half of my omelet

1 cup coffee

1/2 bowl squash soup

1/2 salad

1/2 plate cheese and crackers

(was going to have 1/2 bowl broccoli cheddar soup .. but didn't like the taste when I got home so tossed it. Not wasting my last half a meal on stuff that doesn't taste good)

Exercise

It turns out the jump-roping was not so bad as I feared. I wasn't sure if we were meant to do them in reps of 70 or not. There was no way I was going to be able to do a straight 500 in a row - so I did them in as long a rep as I could manage. Which turned out to be 100 before my lungs and legs took over my body and stopped the madness.

Was kind of headachy all day - definitely need to get enough sleep tonight!

Day 6

2010-01-20T03:45:00.000-08:00

Good News, Bad News.

The good news is that all my soreness has disappeared.

The bad news is that I think it'll be coming back tomorrow. I also didn't sleep well last night (had trouble falling asleep, which for me means ~30 minutes, kept waking up, and accidentally set my alarm an hour earlier than I'd intended. Grrr). I also had weird dreams involving a warehouse full of early 20th century children's literature and fear of getting frostbite while doing the Tour de France in Chicago. Trust me, by my dream standards this was not particularly strange.

Food

So far so good. Except I made a giant pot of vegetable soup a week ago as part of my resolution to try to clear out my freezer and I am sooooo tired of it. I may just have to abandon the last two servings. Done. What a relief

Peach, raspberry, and almond milk smoothie

1/2 bowl oatmeal

1 cup coffee

1/2 bowl squash soup

1 meatball

1/2 chocolate turtle

1/2 omelet

1 glass wine

Very much to my surprise, I haven't been that hungry today. Hmmmm.

Exercise

Yay! I had 3 clear reps of jump-roping! Maybe I'll graduate to first grade soon :)

I began to feel some strain in the final set of lunges - I expect that will bring back some of my soreness.

The push-ups? The slide from ugly to train wreck has begun. My last two push-ups were a whimpering disaster. I suppose that my first set looked better than when we first started ... but unfortunately, the last push-ups are the memory I'll carry away with me today.

Hey - I finished! And despite not getting a great night's sleep last night, my energy levels were pretty high all day today.

Hope this keeps up!

Day 5

2010-01-19T03:09:00.000-08:00

Well here we are at day 5. I'm not sure if it feels like it or not ...

Food

I am still wrestling with the concept of half-portions. It's interesting to realize how little awareness I had/have on portion sizes - with the exception of breakfast ... it's easy to remember how many eggs I'm likely to have - and how little my "usual" (meaning not-at-all) menu is amenable to regular sizes. It would be a whole lot easier if I had a sandwich for lunch. The hardest meal for me is dinner - when I'm tired and the most hungry is not a great time for making honest evaluations of what a normal sized portion would be. But I'm trying.

But enough whinging. Today I had:

Blueberry and Almond milk smoothie

3 cups of tea

1/2 bowl oatmeal

1 bowl vegetable soup

1/2 chocolate turtle

1/2 serving cabbage and pork

I think I'd be a little preoccupied by food today if I hadn't been so busy at work.

Exercise

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to have a clean sweep of jump-roping reps ... I'm enjoying them, but I feel like an idiot catching my feet so often. Like maybe I shouldn't have graduated from kindergarten ...

I've been doing my jump-roping on the sidewalk outside of my apartment because my ceilings are too low to do them inside, it's nice and cold outside, and there's a streetlamp to see what I'm doing. My rope is beginning to get a bit fuzzy where it strikes the concrete ... I'm curious to see if it makes the 90 days!

The lunges and sit-ups so far are less of a challenge - but the push-ups are my wall of shame. If these exercises measured fitness imbalances ... well I'd be the anti-Popeye. So I expect to see the most progress in my upper body. The leg lifts run a close second.

I think I've found a place to do pull ups in the children's playground down the street. Though I'm not sure the equipment was designed with adult use in mind. I'll keep my eyes open for an alternative.

Overall

It's not so much of a surprise to see that I'm finding the diet portion of the plan so much more of a challenge than the exercise. I love exercise and going to work out. I've always been active: skiing, figure skating, and swimming in high school; running and springboard diving in college; running and Tang Soo Do in graduate school; running and hiking as a post-doc; running now.

But I've loved cooking and eating almost as long - and I keep finding myself tempted to cook - even though I've already prepared meals for the week (thinking to save time and limit my opportunities for nibbling). I think that I use cooking to relax and relieve stress.

I guess that I'll need to find something else to serve the same function

Day 4

2010-01-18T03:49:00.002-08:00

Well, here we are at Day 4

Food

I'm still stressing about the half-portions. I have to worry about something!

Almond milk and blueberry smoothie

1 cup herbal tea

1/2 bowl oatmeal

1/2 bowl vegetable soup

1 dumpling

pinch o'pretzel

half a handful of carrots

1/2 serving cabbage and pork

And I'm beginning to notice that I'm a tiny bit more preoccupied with food today.

Exercise

For some reason, I kept getting tripped up on the jumprope this morning. Serves me right for being so cocky after yesterdays workout.

I'm a bit stiff and sore - so I was worried about the lunges. I needn't have worried, I warmed into them all right. But ramping up the push-ups .... they've now slid from ugly to a car wreck ....

I hope for some improvement when my bars arrive.

Overall

Pleased so far ... I'm missing running, so might see if I can squeeze the time in for a light run tomorrow.

Day 3

2010-01-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

Well here is the reason I'm doing PCP:

I'm not very comfortable posting this picture.

That is inaccurate. I'm pretty damn uncomfortable posting this picture, but I'm posting it anyway. Lying to myself about how I've let myself slide out of shape and over-weight just makes it easier to find excuses not to do anything about it. I want to remind myself what I'm working towards, and I think some straight-up honesty will help.

I'm going to steal Marissa's approach of PCP blogging; right now I'm thinking about this project as a diet project and as an exercise project.

Food

I'm pretty sure I blew the half-portions yesterday. I will note that I set the bar pretty high for myself, but even accounting for that ... I think I strayed.

So I'm learning that I should pay more attention to what I eat. My eating habits are a mixture of good and bad.

The good:

I eat a lot of vegetables

I don't eat a lot of meat

I eat practically no processed food

I do not have a particularly strong sweet tooth

The bad:

I tend to eat when bored

I tend to eat when tired

I tend to comfort eat

If something tastes good, I don't stop when I'm full

It takes a long time before my stomach lets my head know that I'm done.

I have a weakness for the salty and fatty. (Cheese, glorious cheese ... )

If I can learn moderation - and the world doesn't stop spinning - I'll be ok.

Exercise

So that happy zing of yesterday became a slight soreness today. Which I like. I've missed that reminder that I've been pushing myself. Probably because I haven't been - lazy me.

Jumping rope is getting easier - even though we added a few hops today. This is 100% my getting more efficient and 0% getting stronger. I noticed, when I accidentally did a set with a double hop, that I found it easier to double hop than single hop. Which made me realize I was putting more effort into my single hops than I needed to.

Push-ups, on the other hand... they're still ugly. Possibly getting uglier.

Day 2

2010-01-16T13:25:00.000-08:00

I was much happier this morning to do the exercises first thing - and to realize that I am slowly getting my jump-rope legs under me. After I was done, I had that happy zing that comes from using muscles seldom used. Of course, it was only 9 or so hours after my first round, so that may have had something to do with it.

I'm finding the half-portions more difficult than I expected. Not so much because I'm starving, but because I'm beginning to realize that I don't have terribly regular eating habits and I'm not at all sure how much is a half serving. I am paranoid that I'm cheating. Perhaps I should plan meals that can more easily be split in two.

But I like that I'm starting to pay attention to what I eat.

Day 1

2010-01-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

So here it is - the close of Day 1.

So far so good. Going half portions is easy in some places (I know how much oatmeal I usually have for breakfast), less easy in others (how much would I normally have for dinner? Really?) but so far so good.

The exercises ... I was disappointed to have to schedule my workout in the evening (I am SOOOO much more of a morning person) but I couldn't manage both getting enough sleep and getting to work on time - never mind adding a workout - after my regular Thursday evening activities. I not only prefer morning workout because I'm awake - but they rev me up for the day, and I'm always afraid that something will come up, or I'll invent an excuse or distraction to abandon a workout in the evening. And when I am tired I am more prone to insensible decisions like wanting to veg out instead of work out ...

But I did it -

Wow. Jumping rope let me know that I'm not as coordinated as I thought I'd been. I guess I knew that I didn't have any upper body strength, but still managed to get the push ups done. They were ugly, but they weren't on my knees. The squats and crunches were ok - those are exercises I'm used to.

Looking forward to tomorrow - but not so much the loading of my "before" photo. Sigh. You need to face it to address it.

This is it! La Premiere post

2010-01-13T13:48:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Heather's PCP blog. She's going to blow your mind!

Wow. I wish.

Well... maybe:)

So I'll dip my toes into this project. Though I'm really much more of a jump-right-in sort of person. I may circle the waters a bit beforehand - is it cold, are there jellyfish? - but sooner or later (generally sooner, especially if people are watching) I'll just leap right in. Except for that one 4th of July a few years back, when the pier wasn't quite long enough (and the water wasn't quite deep enough) and I found a painful way of marking the date of my last tetanus shot, it's served me well.

So here I go.

I am both nervous and excited to be a part of this project. I am excited to dive in and start a more varied exercise program than I usually do. I am hopeful that 90 days will be long enough to see some serious progress and develop habits I'll carry into the future. I'm looking forward to the benefits of a support group, and (hmm) the visibility. (all right, looking forward to the visibility might not be precisely accurate. ahem).

I'm a bit nervous that I'll fall short and disappoint myself - or that I'll throw myself into it too hard and burn out my enthusiasm. And I'm a little worried that I haven't adequately recognized how much time this will take out of my daily routein.

But overall, I'm more excited than nervous.

So while the enthusiasm is high ...

Bring It On.