Day 182: Accidental Rest Day

Today, I woke up with an annoying throbby headache--this happens to me every couple of months. That means I missed yet another class this week. Joy's going to think I don't like her class, but it's really just that Thursday is my hardest day to get up because I work out so late on Wednesday. This headache has been haunting me all day, accompanied by a general malaise that makes me feel like I may be fighting something off. Ugh. When I feel like this, all I want to do is sit down and knit and eat whatever is available and not a lot of effort for me. Thus, I didn't say no when offered a beautiful sour cream doughnut. And when the kids wanted Chick-Fil-A for dinner, I ate it, too. Today is an accidental rest day, and a bit of a fitness waste.I'm going to go to bed early and get back on track tomorrow. Whew.

Log: 

Exercise:

• Day 12 of the 30-day Abs Challenge: Rest Day

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: a slice of Great Harvest honey whole wheat toast with Big Spoon Roasters' Mission Almond Butter and half a banana, tea with milk and raw sugar
• Lunch: Leftover pan seared pork chop with mushroom gravy, basmati and wild rice with herbs, Swiss chard gratin
• Dinner: Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich and fries dipped in Chick-Fil-A sauce
• Snacks: half a homemade sour cream doughnut (People at work need to stop giving me things like this! At least I just ate half...)

Stats:

• Steps: 5688 (pitiful)
• Calories: I can't even face this, plus I have no idea how to calculate lunch.
• Weight:186.5

Day Forty-Three: Lazy Sunday

Today, we slept in, which is unheard of around here! Then I got up and made buttermilk pancakes (pig shaped ones for the kids!) and bacon from Holland Brothers in PA, which is equivalent to family treasure. I had some, but I held back on the portion. Then, since we ate breakfast at something like 10:30am, I didn't really eat lunch.

The grandparents showed up for a visit at around 2, and I made us a big cheese plate with two lovely hard cheeses, some pecans, fig preserves, apple butter, and crackers. We opened a really good bottle of wine and had a glass or two while chatting. It's hard to feel too bad about all that--I think we all needed it.

For dinner, I roasted a chicken over some tiny delicious fresh potatoes, and served it with roasted carrots and French green beans tossed with porcini salt. Delicious, heavy on the vegetables, and again--I held back on the portions to keep it from getting too crazy.

No exercise was had beyond the carrying of laundry and the family dance party we had right before the boys' bedtime. Tomorrow is my big reset and the day that Jason leaves for the Netherlands for a whole week, so today was just a day of puttering around the house getting things done.

Log:

Exercise: 

• uhhhhhh...

Nutrition:

• (Late) Breakfast: two homemade buttermilk pancakes, 2 slices of bacon, 1/2 a honeycrisp apple, a cup of tea with milk and raw sugar
• Lunch: N/A
• Dinner: roasted chicken breast, French green beans with olive oil and porcini salt, roasted carrots, baby potatoes roasted under the chicken
• Snacks: cheese plate with 2 cheese, fig preserves, pecans, and crackers, 2 glasses of red wine

Stats:

• Steps: 4615
• Calories:  1277 consumed,  0 burned
• Weight: 200 on the home scale (shocking!)

Pigs & Crossbones for Breakfast

Day Forty-Two: Family Fun Day

Today was all about family time. We all went to the farmers market together, then we went with Jason to pick up a lost debit card in Chapel Hill. It was so astoundingly gorgeous out, and so lovely driving in the country, we took a spontaneous trip to Maple View Farms, a local dairy farm with an ice cream parlor on site--SO. GOOD. that i can't even feel bad about the massive serving of ice cream I had in a giant waffle cone while gazing out over the lovely farm.

Then, just to complete the day of craziness, we went to our neighborhood's food truck rodeo, where I had an absolutely fantastic bulgogi sandwich and 4 pork and chive dumplings from the Pho-Nomenal food truck. I skipped the free beer and the ice cream truck--I figured I'd had enough with the earlier ice cream extravaganza. At least we walked to and from the food truck party, so there was some exercise--better than nothing, right?

Log:

Exercise: 

• Walk to/from the neighborhood food truck rodeo: 1.8 miles

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: a slice of Great Harvest low-carb, high-protein country crunch bread with Big Spoon mission almond butter and a sliced banana, a cup of tea with milk and raw sugar
• Lunch: turkey roll-ups with avocado, cucumber, and havarti, half a honeycrisp apple
• Dinner: dinner from the Pho-Nomenal food truck at our neighborhood food truck rodeo--Cheerwine bulgogi sloppy joe (sliced marinated and grilled beef topped with kimchee and Sriracha mayo), 4 pork and chive dumplings
• Snacks:an ENORMOUS waffle cone with scoops of lavender honey and rosemary ice cream at Maple View Farms

Stats:

• Steps:7679
• Calories:  1812 consumed,  248 burned
• Weight: 200 on the home scale (still holding..)

View of Maple View Farms from the Ice Cream Porch

Day Forty-One: Slowly Coming Back to Life

Today, for the first time in a week, I woke up feeling almost normal. Two nights of going to bed early seem to have helped, thank goodness! I guess life is bound to be full of false steps and good weeks and bad ones. The key, as always, is to get yourself back on track as soon as you can. As I have said many times, I want to get to my goal weight in a healthy way. I believe part of that is not making myself miserable. If I need to rest, I need to rest--that's just a fact. And I am trying to just give myself a break for this week's exhaustion and move on to the next step without feeling like I have failed. That's something that's happened to me in the past--I am great till my first moment of defeat, and then I can't get back up. I am not letting that happen this time. I am making positive changes overall, and I need to remind myself frequently of the bigger picture, which is far more important that the day-to-day performances.

I was glad I managed to sneak in a little walk at lunchtime today, though it was shorter than usual since I was meeting my friend Sonya for lunch. There are never enough hours in my day.I had good intentions of getting in another evening walk, but I opted in favor of Family Movie Night, which is a Friday night event we haven't had in a while. In fact, I made a decision not to kill myself this weekend in favor of spending some good time with the family before Jason leaves Monday for a week in the Netherlands. I am well equipped to have a good healthy week, and this weekend, I plan to relax, love up on my family, and get some more rest!

Log:

Exercise: 

• Lunchtime walk: 1.5 miles before meeting a friend for lunch

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: cup of tea with 2% milk and 1/2 a tsp of raw sugar, 2 boiled eggs, 2 Applegate Farms chicken and sage sausage links, a chopped up heirloom tomato from my garden
• Lunch: Lunch at Page Road Grill with my friend Sonya--a turkey, bacon, and avocado sandwich with pesto on whole wheat toast, house made chips with ranch, half and half iced tea. Good lord, it was a lot of calories.
• Dinner: a bowl of Kashi oatmeal flakes with blueberry clusters and milk
• Snacks:

Stats:

• Steps:7880
• Calories:  1501 consumed,  194 burned
• Weight: 200 on the home scale (Amazed that I am holding after this week!)

Day Forty: Bleh--Still Tired

I don't know what is wrong with me this week--I am so tired, I am barely functional. Granted, we tend to be pretty active when we're on vacation, so maybe it's just residual from last week. I am telling you though, working out this week is just not in the cards. Jason was encouraging me to go to the gym tonight, and it nearly made me hostile. I missed my lunchtime walk because I had to take Kieran to the doctor, but I did at least walk the dog this evening, so I got in some active minutes, It's definitely not up to what I am trying to make my usual standards. I am calling this week something of a wash, but I will try to reset on Saturday.

Log:

Exercise: 

• Walkin' the Dawg: 1.61 miles

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: cup of tea with 2% milk and 1/2 a tsp of raw sugar, scrambled eggs with cheese and half a honey crisp apple
• Lunch: Lunch out with Jason and his team in the cafe in their building: NC BBQ sampler with pulled pork, hoppin' john, collard greens, and a piece of cornbread. Not awesome, but way better than the country fried steak with gravy and mashed potatoes that I really wanted. Lol.
• Dinner: A bowl of cereal. Sheesh.
• Snacks: Oh god--the worst possible contraband: donuts! (~5 bites of donuts from a local bakery that a very nice coworker/friend brought for me to try. Thank goodness Kieran was with me to eat half of them.

Stats:

• Steps: 7231
• Calories:  1580 consumed,  205 burned
• Weight: 200 on the home scale (But not for long if I keep eating like today and not going to the gym!)

Days Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight: Packing and Heading to the Beach

I'm at the beach! Yay!

However, working a full day when the kid has early release from school, and packing for the beach at the same time makes this mama a freakishly busy person with no time or thought to give to fitness, eating, or blogging. I had no time to eat breakfast, then ate a late lunch because I had to get to the school to get the kid. Last night I was packing like a crazy thing while still doing laundry, and my friend Meredith was arriving, and there was all kinds of frenzied activity. I literally forgot to do my ab work, let alone blog about the day. I skipped zumba on purpose, though I felt a little bad about that. But there it was, 11:40pm, and I realized as I was crawling into the bed that no ab work had been done and not one thing had been logged for the day. I did manage to eat decently, though not enough calories. I thought I had eaten so much food till today when I logged the calories--skipping a meal is a mistake.

Today, I made up for the calorie thing yesterday. We ate a good breakfast, but then lunch on the road at Chick-Fil-A while driving. One cannot eat a salad while driving, and I knew that we were going out for dinner, too, so I just declared today a cheater day. And how. I ate more calories for lunch than I ate all of yesterday. Ugh. Not only that, after Chick-Fil-A for lunch and fried seafood for dinner, I feel like crap on toast. I will NOT be doing that again tomorrow--I want green things.

Today should have been day 28 of the ab workout, which is a rest day, so I just did day 27's workout today, and I will skip the rest day. Only two more days to go, which is hard to believe. Now, I need to figure out what ab work I am going to keep as part of my daily workout. I definitely need to keep going with the ab work--I can already see and feel a difference in my body from the past 28 days of dedicated and targeted work.

Tomorrow begins my official vacation, and I plan to walk and walk and walk. I brought hand weights, a medicine ball, and resistance bands with me, so I am going to try to fit in some mild strength training as well. And there will be stretching--I want to stretch every day.

Day 27 Log:

Exercise: 

• Does packing count?

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: N/A
• Lunch: big salad with lots of veggies, avocado, and turkey breast, with honey dijon dressing, muhammara and 5 pretzel thins
• Dinner: a small grass fed ribeye, French green beans with olive oil and porcini salt, heirloom tomato salad
• Snacks: 1 mozzarella Babybel

Stats:

• Steps: 5965
• Calories: 732 consumed, 57 burned
• Weight: 201 (home)

Day 28 Log:

Exercise: 

• Day 27 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge: 115 sit ups, 62 leg raises, 180 crunches,  110 second plank

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: two eggs scrambled with cheese, microgreens, little tomatoes, watermelon
• Lunch: Chick-Fil-A sandwich and fries with iced tea
• Dinner: went to Frost, a fried seafood joint at the beach (tradition)--I split a popcorn shrimp plate with Meredith with a side of squash casserole and a small salad with ranch dressing
• Snacks: N/A

Stats:

• Steps: 5407
• Calories: 1978 consumed, burned
• Weight: no scale at the beach

Day Twenty-Four: Weigh-In Day and Still Off Track

When my alarm went off at 5am this morning telling me to get up and go to my barbell strength class, I still felt pretty ill. I skipped it. I hate that--I know rationally that skipping it was the right thing to do, but man, I dislike feeling like I have wimped out! Further, I had a hair appointment this morning, which means to time for a lunchtime walk. I optimistically brought my shoes with me, just in case, but I knew it was a long shot. And no, it didn't happen. I am not beating myself up about this or anything, but I do want to find a way to make it up.

I did stop by the gym to weigh in at least, and was delighted to be officially down a bit more. I am down 8.4 pounds by the official scale, which is about 4 pounds heavier than the scale at home is measuring. Good progress so far, and motivating to see. Yay!

Upon analysis of what I ate yesterday, I think my nausea may have been coming from the fact that I just didn't consume enough calories yesterday. It seems clear that to feel good and have energy, I can't go much below 1100 calories, or things start to feel off. This morning, I didn't eat breakfast at all, which is out of the ordinary for me, and I feel a bit like I paid for that throughout the day. I was sluggish and lower-energy all day long. And yet, here I am at the end of today in nearly the same caloric boat. Tomorrow, I will get up and eat a good breakfast, and just hit a giant reset button for everything.

I went to knitting tonight, and at dinner at Panera. I chose the soba noodle broth bowl since the grains were whole in the noodles, and I wanted something more filling than a salad after skipping breakfast today. I definitely got it--I am still stuffed hours later! I think my body is in carb shock.

Today's Log:

Exercise:

• Not crap--today was a day with no time in it, and I am now officially off a day on the 30 day abs challenge. Dammit. I will do day 23 tomorrow, skip 24 (the rest day), and if I can stand it, the next rest day, too, to make up time. Ugh.

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: hot tea with 2% milk and 1/2 tsp raw sugar - didn't eat anything because I was still feeling nauseated---bleh!
• Lunch: chicken breast with grilled asparagus, mushrooms, and peppers, little tomatoes, arugula salad with radishes, walnuts, and goat cheese with champagne caper vinaigrette, a small honeycrisp apple
• Dinner:Panera's soba noodle broth bowl--SO SALTY! iced tea
• Snacks:24 almonds, 1 Babybel, a little muhammara and 3 pretzel thins

Stats:

• Steps: 4713
• Calories: 1215 consumed, 0 burned
• Weight: 201.5 (home), 205.9 (Official Weigh-in, -8.4 lbs)

Day Twenty-Three: A Bit De-railed

Today was a little off track for a number of reasons. First, Finn's school was closed because of a scheduling error, which meant I was working at home with him all day on a rainy day. I tried to motivate him to come with me for a lunchtime walk, but we didn't make it far till there was the tiniest bit of drizzle, and we had to go inside for a movie marathon (for him, at least) instead.

My plan was to do a longer evening walk after the kids were in the bed, but instead, I started feeling really nauseated. To the point that I didn't even do the abs workout I have been keeping up with so religiously. I felt like such a wimp, but I think it would have made me throw up. Hopefully this will pass swiftly, because this, folks, is NOT how I want things to be.

Today's Log:

Exercise:

• Teeny tiny lunchtime walk with Finn: 3.62 miles
• I was supposed to do this: Day 23 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge (100 situps, 150 crunches, 58 leg raises, 90 second plank), but Day 24 is a designated rest day on that schedule, so I am just going to flip flop those two days. This of course, means that Day 27 is going to be rough, but so be it. I refuse to lose steam.

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: hot tea with 2% milk and 1/2 tsp raw sugar, 2 eggs, over easy, 2 pieces of turkey bacon, little tomatoes
• Lunch: chicken breast with roasted red pepper, BBQ sauce, and cilantro, watermelon, 1 Babybel mozzarella
• Dinner: baked salmon, summer squash, and little tomatoes from the garden
• Snacks: N/A

Stats:

• Steps: 6039
• Calories: 992 consumed, 111burned
• Weight: 202 (home)

Day Fifteen: Frustration Central

Today is my birthday, and I didn't get a lot done. It was a day filled with frustration. We drove home from my mom's house, made a VERY ill-advised stop at Denny's for lunch, where it took us almost an hour to get some extremely mediocre food that had way more calories than it should have. YUCK. Then when we got home, later than expected due to the Denny's delay, I had to rally Kieran to finish a school project, which led to quite a pile of whining and a whole lot of not fun for any of us. Meanwhile, I ran to Target to get some rolls, only to run face first into the last minute Target run before the first day of traditional school. Again, not a mistake I want to repeat any time soon. There was no time to exercise unless I did it at night after the kids were in bed, and honestly, I am just too tired. I did go my abs workout, but that's as far as it went. Back on the wagon tomorrow, come hell or high water.

Today's Log:

Exercise:

• Day 15 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge (70 sit-ups, 95 crunches, 42 leg raises, 60 second plank)

Nutrition (if we can call it that):

• Breakfast: hot tea with 2% milk and 1/2 tsp raw sugar, 2 eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese, 1/3 a honeycrisp apple
• Lunch: Denny's on the road, a mistake I will not repeat again--a cup of brocooli cheddar soup and half a chicken salad sandwich on 7 grain bread
• Dinner: a little bit of homemade BBQ and 1/3 a honeycrisp apple
• Snacks: 24 almonds, a small piece of my birthday cake with a cup of 2% milk

Stats:

• Steps: not doodly--4203
• Calories: 1752 consumed, 0 burned
• Weight: no scale again, so no weighing today

Day 14: Designated Birthday Cheat Day

I am at my mother's house, and I have to say, it's easier to eat healthy at Chick-Fil-A than it is at her house. There are no fresh vegetables in this house but a handful of baby carrots (which I bought the last time I was here). There are grapes at least, but that's not so helpful when you are trying to limit sugar. Couple that with the fact that tomorrow is my birthday, and the fact that we were planning to be out most of the day apple picking and exploring with the boys, and I decided not to worry about it for one day. As Jason said, "You work hard so you can play hard, right?"

And he's right. One cheater day doesn't derail a whole plan unless you let it. And I won't. I am pretty proud of how far I have come in just two weeks, and I want to keep going--I am not going to let a couple of slices of pizza and a little bit of birthday cake kill my long term goals. So here's the log, shameful as it is for today, and then after that--some pictures of the beautiful day I spent with my family in the mountains. Tomorrow is soon enough to get back on track.

Today's Log:

Exercise:

• Apple picking
• Short family walk on the Flowering Bridge in Lake Lure, NC
• Day 14 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge (65 sit-ups, 85 crunches, 42 leg raises, 55 second plank)

Nutrition (if we can call it that):

• Breakfast: hot tea with 2% milk and 1/2 tsp raw sugar, 2 eggs over easy, 3 applegate farms chicken apple sausage links
• Lunch: Super Cheater Lunch at Mezzaluna in Hendersonville (not sorry): fried calamari, 3 pieces of Marguerita pizza, side Caesar salad
• Dinner: Mama's spaghetti (not much--still stuffed from lunch) and a piece and a half of garlic bread
• Snacks: 1/2 a fresh honey crisp apple, i.5 inch square piece of chocolate birthday cake

Stats:

• Steps: 7204
• Calories: 2022 consumed, 229 burned
• Weight: no scale, so no weighing today

 Apple Picking at Stepp's Orchard

 

 

 

 Beautiful Flowers from The Flowering Bridge in Lake Lure, NC

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to Me!
(even though my birthday is really tomorrow)

Day 12: Off the Wagon

Today was my first total bust. My alarm went off at 5am this morning, and I just didn't get up. I am torn between feeling like a failure, and realizing that I was simply too exhausted to make it today. My knee was hurting a little bit, but mostly, I just could not keep my eyes open. Then I had to take Kieran for a new cast, which took forever, and pretty much erased my lunchtime work. This also meant working later and off hours today, which ate into any later walking time that might normally have happened. It was just a mess all day long. At least I still ate well instead of caving to the cravings for things like fries. (We ate lunch at a place with AMAZING fries, and I had none.)

I know that realistically, there are going to be days like this, where life intrudes and your well-laid plans fall by the wayside. I think the real test is going to be getting back on the horse after a day like this one. I really don't like it when my fitbit isn't all green at the end of the day.

Today's Log:

Exercise:

• Basically nothing
• Day 12 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge (Rest Day)

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: hot tea with 2% milk and 1/2 tsp raw sugar, 2 eggs scrambled with cheese, 2 Applegate Farms chicken sage sausage links, about 1/3 cup of little tomatoes
• Lunch: from the Cafe at Jason's office: mixed greens salad with citrus vinaigrette, cucumbers, tomatoes, and about 3 oz baked salmon
• Dinner: Roasted chicken breast, sauteed zucchini with peppers and onions
• Snacks: 24 almonds

Stats:

• Steps: a pathetic 5339
• Calories: 1313 consumed, 0 burned (under the caloric glad for the day by the skin of my teeth)
• Weight: 204