Day 45 - Halfway There!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Food

Breakfast

egg, zucchini, oyster mushroom and chapati

milky coffee

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

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

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

apple.

banana.

egg white.

Evening Snack

fruit salad and yogurt

Exercise

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

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

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

Day 44

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

Food

Breakfast

(late)

egg, zucchini & chapati

mid-morning snack

egg white

Lunch

chapati, broccoli rabe, spinach

mid-afternoon snack

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

Dinner

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

Evening Snack

fruit and yogurt

Exercise

Barely made it through my PCP exercises - dead tired

Day 43

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

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

It is a one minute plank done as follows:

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

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

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

Food

Breakfast

egg
rice
zucchini and broccoli
milky coffee

mid-morning snack

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

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

Dinner

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

Evening Snack

none

Day 42

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

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

Food

Breakfast

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

mid-morning snack

milk

Lunch

rice
broccoli, red-pepper
tuna

mid-afternoon snack

milk. blech

Dinner

apple. banana. egg white. A very pale meal

Evening Snack

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

Day 41

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

Food

Breakfast

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

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

spinach and red pepper salad
tuna on multi-grain bread

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

apple. banana. egg white. A very pale meal

Evening Snack

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

Exercise

I'm not digging the bicycle thingys. Ouch!

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

Day 40

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

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

Food

Breakfast

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

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

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

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

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

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner

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

Evening Snack

none.

Exercise

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

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

Day 39

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

So I'm disappointed and frustrated with myself.

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

Food

Breakfast

egg and broccoli in pita

mid-morning snack

yogurt

Lunch

steamed broccoli and bokchoi and tuna on wheat pitas

mid-afternoon snack

yogurt

Dinner&Evening Snack

apple banana egg white

fruit salad and yogurt

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

Exercise

Threw myself into it. I expect to hurt tomorrow.