Waiting for AAA to come try to jump start my car or replace the battery. Sigh.

Moving:

ab-bicycling   15

crunches 25

Pilates hundreds 100

—-

W: 135 

B (6:30 AM): grape nuts w/skim milk, banana slices; coffee w/skim milk

L (11:30 AM): whole wheat English muffin w/slice of lofat swiss

Sn (2 PM): a few bites of fruit, coffee w/half-and-half

S (7 PM): spaghetti noodles with anchovies, red wine. Going for pure comfort here, and may wind up walking to the ice cream store to seal the deal. Sometimes food is not a bad way to address unsettling times.

Update: didn’t walk to the store — had a WW frozen chocolate treat at home.

So I’m holding steady at 136, sort of, which is good. But the stated goal last week was to maintain 136, so goal achieved.

I’d gone below 136 last week, though, and would like to hold steady at something lower! Patience. I suspect hormones are involved right now, plus stress, so I’m not going to worry too much about it, just stay on track. My missed cardio times (the walks in to work or from work) are part of the plateau, too.

Moving:

1-song boogywoogy 

walked home the hilly way: 35 mins.

B (6:30 AM): yogurt w/kashi crunch; coffee w/skim milk

L (12 PM): Michelina’s Lean Gourmet whole wheat spaghetti with roasted red peppers. Sounds kinda good, eh? Well, it took me longer to type it than to eat it. There is not much in the box, for one thing, but that’s actually totally FINE because what is in the box is, um, not so good. So I didn’t eat it all. Good kick-in-the-pants reminder to make my own lunch and not depend on frozen thingies.

Sn (3 PM): banana-nut bread

S (7 PM): fatoosh, bit of rice, 1 grape leaf rollup, hoegaarden

Lesson learned from my Fiber Week: If I want to hit close to 25g every day, I really need to include high fiber cereal in the day’s eating plan.   

Today is nuts in terms of everything that needs to be squeezed into it, from 7 AM till 9 PM, so I don’t see where I’m going to get cardio time, which is driving me a little crazy. Maybe 6 intense minutes in my office during a break of some sort and then half an hour squeezed in at the track on the way home? We’ll see….. The weather sure isn’t cooperating!

Moving:

sit-ups 1×25

Pilates hundreds  100

bicep curls 3×8 (8′)

rows 3×8 (8′)

——–

B (6:30 AM): kashi w/skim milk; coffee w/skim milk

L (12 PM): 1 cup chickpea salad (yummmm), water, slice of blueberry bread for dessert

Sn (3 PM): coffee w/half-and-half; lofat cheese stick

S (7 PM): b’day celebration for DS’s GF: beer, 2 slices pizza, chocolate cake

B (6:30 AM): multigrain toast w/butter; coffee w/soy milk

L (1 PM): chickpea salad, coupla bites tabbouleh, 1 strawberry, 1 kiwi wedge, Perrier

Sn (3 PM): leftover nan, leftover vitamin water

S (6 PM): chocolate caramel ice cream from Bruster’s

Sn (9 PM): all-bran w/skim milk

My lettuce seedlings have started to come up! Yay!

On the intake front: I ate waaaay too much yesterday. It did not feel good.

Moving:

sit-ups 1×25

Pilates hundreds  100

bicep curls 3×20 (5′)

———–

B (7 AM): multigrain toast (nice thick slice) with a little bit of butter; coffee w/soy milk

Sn (10 AM): lofat cheese stick; water

L  (1 PM): leftover palak aloo, chunk of nan

Sn (4 PM): 2 Hammond pretzels

S (8 PM): Olive Garden: wedding soup, 2 bread sticks, 2 slices pizza w/tomato & onion, glass of red wine

What a week. Or what a ten-days. In either case, I feel like I’m *surviving*.

Moving:

Walked in to work: 45 mins.

———

B (6:30 AM): TargetKashi (12 g) with soy milk; coffee w/soy milk

Sn (10:45 AM): I’m starving. 1 Hershey’s kiss with about a quarter-teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter.

L (12 PM): Boss took us to TheFancyPlace for lunch today. I ate too much. Salmon appetizer, salad, mystery canape, turkey, couple bites of haddock, some angel hair pasta with teeny shrimp, a potato wedge…. All of that pretty minor, actually, since I just had a bite here and a bite there (except the turkey). But then it was time for dessert. Chocolate cake and chocolate cheesecake and a macaroon. I didn’t eat all of anything, but ate most of the cake and cheesecake, and washed it down with coffee with cream.

S (6:30): out with BF: red wine at UF, then dinner at Indian place. I had a little nan, some rice, and some palak aloo (spinach, potatoes). One samosa. Tall glass of mango juice. Lots of water.

Hate to state the obvious, but it’s been the kind of week where I’ve absolutely lost track of what day it is. I kept thinking yesterday was Tuesday.

Moving: walked home from work. Used the hilly route, so walked about 20 mins, took a 10 min break, walked another 20 mins.

———–

B (6:30 AM): 2 eggo nutrigrain/whole wheat waffles (3 g — that’s it! 3 miserable gs!); coffee w/soy milk

Sn (11 AM): coffee yogurt (0 g), water

L (12:30 PM): kashi TLC bar (4 g); skimmy cafe au lait

Sn (5:30 PM): salmon cup (0 g)

S (8 PM): oodles of brussels sprouts roasted in olive oil & kosher salt (5 g), bite of goat cheese (yowza! lotsa flavor! but 0 g), red wine, 2 dates (1 g)

135 on the scale this AM. Oh my. Wow. I am happy.

Fiber project update: So the typical American apparently gets about 11 g of fiber per day, while the American recommendation (for women) is 25 g. Different recommendations in other parts of the world apparently, but I’m fuzzy on the details.

Anyway, so I have been hitting close to 25 this week without really trying, but that’s primarily because of my morning bowl of cereal. Without that — if, for instance, I had yogurt or eggs for breakfast — I’d not be close.

LATER: Rough morning here in terms of stress. But my urge was not to eat but to… move! How ’bout that! Also to note/remember: best thing for me to do at lunch time, for mental health, is to (a) get outside and (b) do something creative. Doesn’t have to be a hike outside and doesn’t have to be bigdeal creative. Taking pictures counts.

Moving:

bicep curls  3×20 (5′)

sit-ups  25

Pilates hundreds  100

walked in to work  ~45 mins

———–

B (6:30 AM): Target-kashi(12 g) with half a banana (1.5 g) and soy milk; coffee w/soy milk

L (11:30 AM): cheese sandwich: 1 slice whole wheat bread (3 g), slice of lofat swiss, lotsa lettuce (1 g); Flavor-Splash water

S (6 PM): South Side drink (bourbon, mint, simple syrup), fish taco w/salsa, guac, lettuce, (1 g) a little sour cream (I didn’t eat the tortilla); dark chocolate (3 g)

Fiber count: ~21 g.

Voted before I came in to work this morning. (Yes, we can!)

Tuesday morning weigh-in: 136. So this is my new steady point, I think, and I can reasonably work from here. I can choose to try to maintain or to remove a few more pounds. I have choices to make.

For this week, my choice is to maintain the 136 and to “play” by counting fiber grams.

————————– 

Moving:

sit ups  1×25

Pilates hundreds 1×100

little bit o’ walk from car in park to work

——

B (6:30 AM): Target kashi (12 g) with 1/2 a banana (1.5 g) and soy milk (.5 g); coffee w/soy

L (12 PM): skimmy cafe au lait; cheese sandwich (1 slice wholegrain bread (3 g), 1 slice lofat Swiss (0 g) , lotta green lettuce (1 g))

S (7 PM): yogurt (0 g), coupla bites of seaweed salad (1-3 g), toast (4 g) with a kiss of butter (0 G), red wine

Reality check: 22-25 g! woohoo!

Weighed myself when I got in to work: 136. Will check a coupla more times throughout the day to see if that holds steady and then use that as a starting point while working toward a new goal…. Down to 130? That’s been a goal for several years and I don’t seem to be able to hit it. Question is whether that’s because I’ve gone about it wrong or because I’m truly set at a point above that. So I need to give this some thought, but right now that’s the tentative goal. I need to commit to it still and to a timeframe.

In the meantime, this week I think I’ll play with a fiber goal. We’re supposed to get 25 g/day, so I’m going to track and see how I do. Will try to hit or exceed 25 on the majority of the days of this week. 

Moving: walked in to work (45 mins); walked home (another 45 mins)

——–

B (6:30 AM): Target’s version of Kashi Go Lean (12 g fiber) with 1/2 a banana (1.5 g fiber) sliced into it; coffee w/soy milk

L (12 PM): whole wheat English muffin (3 g fiber) with some crunchy peanut butter (1 g fiber)

S (6:30 PM): mango-cran-berry juice (1 g fiber), 2 pretzels (0 g fiber!!!), hummus (1 g), goooood dark chocolate (3 g)

Reality check after supper: so that’s about 22 grams of fiber. I’m surprised there wasn’t more fiber in the juice, surprised that there was NO fiber in the pretzels (WTF?!), and thrilled to find that dark chocolate (though not milk choc) is a decent source of fiber.