the day in the middle of the week

food log:

• breakfast: oatmeal with a little bit of brown sugar and a lot of cinnamon, some sliced strawberries and some blueberries, and some 1% milk, and i know this will come as a shock: tea
• lunch: went to lunch ith tina and ordered a turkey sandwich on cracked wheat bread, which turns out to be fluffy hite bread with a few pieces of cracked wheat in it--MISTAKE. i ate it because i was starving, but i won't order it again. watch out people--if it doesnt say WHOLE wheat, it ain't whole wheat. annoying.
• dinner: eting out again, which sucks. we went to chilis though, which is easier than many places to get something good--i had their guiltless grill salmon, which was some grilled salmon with mixed steamed vegetables (read: broccoli and some bits of other stuff), and black beans--it was pretty good.
• snacks/other: no morning snack, had some almonds in the afternoon, and a slice of whole wheat sunflower toast after dance class
• desserts/sweets: none today

activities: two hours of dance class--whoo hoo!

monday and tuesday--the busiest two days of the week

tuesday
food log:

• breakfast: cheesy eggs and 1/2 a grapefruit
• lunch: oven roasted turkey on whole wheat with lettuce and tomato, a little mayo, and a big bottle of water
• dinner: i made some cicken chili
• snacks/other: totally forgot a morning snack. had some cilantro jalapeno hummus with cucumbers int he afternoon
• desserts/sweets: sliced strawberries with about 1/4 tsp brown sugar and some 1% milk, 1 small piece of dark belgian chocolate (note: 1 small piece, means 1 section of a neuhaus candy bar, which is a little bit smaller than one of those hershey's nugget thingys)

activities: nada today. cramps were too bad to even think about it.

i don't know how the rest of you deal with the pms and first couppld of days of dms, but man--it makes me useless. i haven't given up or anything, and i am still mentally in a good place. but i know that some days it's just not going to happen. tomorrow i have two dance classes lined up, and then i will try to hit the gym on thursday and friday. if i make all of that, i will feel pretty good.

monday
food log:

• breakfast: two eggs scrambled with thyem, two slices of turkey bacon (from applegate farms, which was WAY better than the butterball stuff we tried first), LS V-8, and tea
• lunch: lunch at chili's with harry--got the chicken fajitas ith no sour cream and no tortillas, with sides of broccoli and black beans. yummy, but too much food.
• dinner: leftovers from sunday: grilled chicken breast, sweet potato, and some sauteed spinach
• snacks/other: no snacks
• desserts/sweets: 2 small pieces of belgian dark chocolate with praline

activities: morning gym plan crushed by new home inpection. then i wokred late and failed to go after work--there was just NO TIME.

sunday skinny time again

the sunday skinny:

01/28/07	current	goal	lost this week	lost so far	left to lose
weight:	207.6 lb	160.0 lb	-.8 lb	6.2 lb	47.6 lb
body fat:	???	25 %	???	???	???

food log:

• breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1/4 cup blueberries and a few chopped walnuts with cinnamon and brown sugar, tea
• lunch: a whole wheat wrap with tuna salad
• dinner: grilled chicken with a rosemary and lavender-based spice rub, sauteed spinach with garlic, a small sweet potato with a tiny bit of butter, and cinnamon and brown sugar
• snacks/other: no morning snack, a little bit of cilantro jalapeno hummus (made by THK from 28 cooks) with cucumber and red pepper
• desserts/sweets: 1 little piece of belgian dark chocolate

activities: um, let's see... knitting... cooking...

so. i am up .8 pounds this week, which i attribute to the following: 1) too much eating out, 2) not enough time in the gym, 3) pms and The Bloat. the gym, is of course, the biggest factor here as it always is for me. this week has to go better, so i will just be in the red again next week, which would suck. so. not all weeks can be golden, and there's no point in beating my self up about it--some weeks are just going to be harder than others. this one was particularly stressful, which with that whole house-buying thing WHILE pms-ing. it's just not a recipe for success. the good news is that i really kept making an effort to be conscious of what and how much i was eating, and that's definitely something. today is the start of a whole new week, so yay for that. :)

playing catch-up again

i haven't fallen totally off the wagon, but i HAVE been really busy the last few days. here's the food logs for the second half of the week, all at once. note the lack of activities. yeah. pms + house buying = not a lot of working out. more on this later.

saturday
food log:

• breakfast: big breakfast: oatmeal with cinnamon and brown sugar, 1 egg, and 2 pieces of canadian bacon, tea
• lunch: didn't really eat lunch
• dinner: dinner at the puryears: mussels and w.w. toasted baguette appetizer, grilled mahi mahi with white nectarine salsa, roasted cauliflower, grilled vegetables and 1 slice of whole grain bread
• snacks/other: morning snack was 1 egg to hold me till breakfast, afternon snack was a little bit of leftover chicken salad from neomonde, had a glass of wine with dinner
• desserts/sweets: none

friday
food log:

• breakfast: 2 cheesy eggs and 2 slices of canadian bacon, LS V-8 and tea
• lunch: whole wheat wrap with neomonde chicken salad and bibb lettuce, and a small caesar salad
• dinner: splurge meal of the week, which SUCKED. we went to angus barn with some work friends of the hippie's, and the company was way way better than the food. i had some cheese and crackers, olives, and spinach salad with warm pppyseed dressing, a bacon wrapped filet with no flavor whatsoever, sauteed mushrooms, 1/2 of a stuffed potato, and two bites of creamed spinach. angus barn, for all its formidable reputation, is expensive and crappy. trust me--go to outback instead. or better yet, grill your own filet.
• snacks/other: no snacks. had a glass of wine with dinner
• desserts/sweets: none

thursday
food log:

• breakfast: 1/2 cup of oatmeal with 1/4 cup of blueberries, cinnamon and 1 tsp of brown sugar, tea
• lunch: leftover mediterranean chicken stew
• dinner: went to neomonde--had an artichoke heart stuffed with lamb and pine nuts, some chicken stewed with zucchini and carrots, some majadra (lentils and brown rice thing), cabbage delight (cabbage and spices and bulgar wheat)
• snacks/other: no morning snack, afternoon snack was almonds
• desserts/sweets: none

wednesday is for dancing

food log:

• breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1/4 coup blueberries, 1tsp brown sugar and cinnamon, tea
• lunch: 1/2 a tuna salad wrap with lettuce and alphalpha sprouts on a honey wheat wrap and a small caesar salad that had WAY too much dressing on it, more tea
• dinner: went to chilis before dance class as there was no time to cook (amy came--hey amy!)--i had the steak and portabella fajitas with no tortillas, and i added black beans and broccoli instead of black beans and rice. i also skipped the sour cream, because i hate sour cream. it was all way better than i expected, so yay!
• snacks/other: had some almonds in the afternoon, but i completely forgot my morning snack--remembering snacks is a problem for me as i am not a natural snacker. however, i am really trying to keep my blood sugar levels pretty constant, so it's important that i work on this
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: dance class was tonight, plus we had a private dance lesson before, so that's two hours of dancing. i have to say, about 5 minutes before the end, i was just DONE. DONE!

still not feeling deprived or like anything is a big deal. this week is weird so far because of how little i have cooked. and in fact, i won't be cooking until satuday if plans go as they are likely to--tomorrow night's game night so i get to have neomonde for dinner, and friday we are going out for steaks. both have plenty of healthy options available, so yay for that. saturday i will be back to cooking full throttle. :)

notice how i don't count breakfast as cooking? i wonder why...

catching up

tuesday
food log:

• breakfast: 2 eggs with thyem and canadian bacon, LS V-8, and tea
• lunch: leftover 15 bean soup
• dinner: mediterranean chicken stew
• snacks/other: morning was a wedge of cheese and afternoon was a little leftover chicken salad, had about 1/2 a glass of red wine with dinner
• desserts/sweets: 1 small piece of neuhaus chocolate

activities: weight training for chest, biceps, and legs, some ab work and stretching

monday
food log:

• breakfast: 1/2 cup of oatmeal with 1/4 cup of blueberries, cinnamon, and 1 tsp of sugar; tea
• lunch: curried chicken salad and bbb lettuce in a whole wheat wrap and 1 medium tomato cut up with salt and pepper
• dinner: out to dinner with eric and kylie at bonefish, which turns out to be WAY less diet-friendl than you might think. i ordered shrimp and scllops "pan-asian style," which i thought would be stir-fried or sauteed, and instead was grilled with a sticky-sweet sauce all over it. next time i will order it naked. that said, the wilted spincah and steamed vegetables that came with it were great, as was my caesar.
• snacks/other: had a glass of wine with dinner. morning snack was a wedge of LF cheese, and well--i forgot my afternoon snack
• desserts/sweets: 1 hershey's special dark miniature with peanuts

activities: nada

sunday: last day of phase one

the sunday skinny:

01/21/07	current	goal	lost this week	lost so far	left to lose
weight:	206.8 lb	160.0 lb	3.2 lb	7.0 lb	46.8 lb
body fat:	???	25 %	???	???	???

whoo hoo! 3.2 more pounds! not too bad for the first two weeks--i know this is going to drop off dramatically as we move into phase two of south beach, but i am still pleased with the progress so far. actually i am a little surprised, given how slack i have been about working out the past few days. i definitely could have done better. i am still working on making it just a part of my daily routine.

and for today:

food log:

• breakfast: 1 egg with 1 slice of canadian bacon and 2 slices of turkey bacon, LS V-8, tea (many cups)
• lunch: garden salad with smoked tomato dressing and a grilled shrimp skewer
• dinner: 15-bean soup with ham--YUMMY and very comforting on a cold rainy sunday!
• snacks/other: cashews in the morning, and a wedge of light LC cheese int he afternoon
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: heh--i am not sure knitting counts for this type of activity. :)

today was more cooking than knitting for me, but i managed to fit in some of each. i was trying to get a bit ahead on come cooking for the week, which is almost a necessity when you are trying to be healthy--otherwise you end up eating out more, which is very hard when you are trying to be good. now, aoo i need to to pump my activity level up more. evn on sundays--i should start going for a walk in the morning or something. oh well--one step at a time. tomorrow we start phase two--oatmeal for breakfast!

saturday night out on the town

food log:

• breakfast: 2 eggs with thyme, two pieces of turkey bacon, LS V-8 and tea--same thing we always eat, pinky
• lunch: grilled chicken caesar salad from cafe carolina
• dinner: splurge dinner out at 18 seaboard. i had homemade pasta with pulled chicken and roasted parsnips in a broth and garlic based sauce--SO GOOD--and a field green salad with a rosemary vinaigrette with a glass of red wine and a glass of champagne
• snacks/other: no snacks for me today
• desserts/sweets: a lovely small piece of chocolate paris cake from hereghty

activities: house cleaning like a fiend, but that's about it

went to see pink martini and the symphony tonight with a group of friends--definitely had the splurge meal of the week tonight as well. i spent my whole day running errands and house cleaning, so i spent no time at the gym. next week i have to do better--i have been a real slacker the past few days, and i can FEEL it!

busy friday

food log:

• breakfast: two cheesy scrambled eggs with 2 slices of turkey bacon, LS V-8, and tea
• lunch: leftover luch from thursday--1/2 a chicken breast stuffed with spinach and some caesar salad
• dinner: grilled steaks, mushrooms, and red and yellow peppers
• snacks/other: turkey roll-up with swiss cheese in the morning, and almonds in the afternoon, more tea
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: nada--see below

had grand plans to go to the gym and kick butt after work, but alas--there were houses to be seen. our realtor is very busy, so we go when she calls. we were right next to jenn and harry's so we ended up spontaneously grilling out over there late. fun, but no gym for me.

read this

sometimes i read fabulous things other people have written about all the issues that i always have running through my head, and sometimes they say things so well, i just want to yell, "YES YES YES!!!" i have come across a couple of such wonderful bits of writing this week, and i thought i would share them with you guys. GO! read these right now.

1) Brevity, thy name is ... someone other than me. from crazy aunt purl

2) Golden Globes Well-Played: America Ferrera, and then Golden Globes Red Carpet Fug: Well Played, Lots Of People from go fug yourself

and for the record, i am pretty jealous of jessica biel's butt. just sayin'...

snowy morning => no gym

food log:

• breakfast: two eggs with thyme, 2 slices of turkey bacon, LS V-8, and 3 cups of tea--it was dark and cold, i had extra tea today
• lunch: chicken stuffed with spinach and LF ricotta, small caesar salad
• dinner: salmon with white wine and lime, roasted cauliflower (my new favorite), and french beans
• snacks/other: an herbed turkey and cheese roll-up, and 15 almonds in the afternoon
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: not much today. i was a slacker this morning.

when i woke up this morning, it was snowing and sleeting, and it was dark and cold. i admit i STARTED to get up and go to the gym, but then--i let the bed win. it was warm and cozy and i just lay there for a minute listening to the rain fall before i dozed right back off again. it was amazingly peaceful, and i am not really sorry. i AM sorry that i am not going to make it to the gym at ALL today, since i have plans for tonight that i am unwilling to break. i guess it's all a matter of balance and priority. i will just try to do some extra lifting tomorrow so i at least hit every muscle group this week, and then i will add something cardio on sunday, even if it's just a walk through my neighborhood.

it's really weird how laid back i have been about this whole thing the past couple of weeks. in the past, i have always tended to get emotional and annoyed about the whole process. you know--beat myself up for every small failure, pat myself on the back for 3 days over every success, and eventually just get overwhelmed by the whole thing. so far, that is just not happening this time. and man, is that easier! plus i have now developed a pretty big repertoire of healthy recipes in my head, so that's easier, too. i don't know--i sure hope this feeling lasts!

posting early today, as i know i won't have time later, but i will edit if i eat anything i'm not planning to or end up slogging through the snow for 3 hours or anything like that. :)

damn, it's cold today!

food log:

• breakfast: two poached eggs with black beans and salsa, two slices of turkey bacon--a first for me, LS V-8, and two cups of tea
• lunch: leftover faux-jitas
• dinner: grilled beef burgers with cheese and tomatillo salsa, green beans with lemon, and asparagus salad--we had dinner with amy (thanks amy!) before dance class
• snacks/other: morning--i totally forgot to have a snack in the morning, but i am thinking that's ok since my breakfast was bigger than usual. had some almonds in the afternoon.
• desserts/sweets: none.

activities: weight training for legs, some ab work and stretching, plus dance class :)

making it to the gym this morning was a near thing. it was COLD, and fergus had come to cuddle up with me while i smacked the snooze alarm a few times. getting out of bed was haaaaaard. but i made it! go me! i did skip the gym cardio because my legs were so tired from the weights. i have decided i am ok with that since i have dance class tonight. tomorrow--no skimping.

leisurely tuesday

food log:

• breakfast: 2 cheesy scrambled eggs, 2 slices of canadian bacon, LS V-8, and a cup of tea
• lunch: leftover sirloin and tomato basil salad
• dinner: what we call faux-jitas: pan seared chicken, sweet onion, and red pepper with lime and chili oil, black beans with green chiles, garlic, and cilantro, fresh guacamole, and pico de gallo--we eat this like a big old salad, and it's GOOD!
• snacks/other: almonds, almonds, almonds, and 1/2 a wedge of LC cheese (i didn't like it--it was the herb and garlic flavor. i ate half and chucked it.)
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: nada--went to the gym last night, then overslept for the gym today. tomorrow will be today's gym visit... guess i am just switching my day off this week.

to tired to write any relevant thoughts tonight, folks--im goin' to bed so i can make it to the gym in the morning.

it's monday, alright.

food log:

• breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 2 slices of canadian bacon, LS V-8, and 2 cups of tea--sound familiar?
• lunch: went to neomonde, a lebanese restaurant, with jenn and G--had hummus, 2 cgrilled chcken kabobs with banana peppers and lettuce, a few olives, and some stewed eggplant and tomatoes
• dinner: the hippie's away, so i didn't cook tonight--picked up some jerk seasoned catfish, a few peel-and eat shrimp, green beans, and some roasted mushrooms from whole foods. all in all--i should have cooked.
• snacks/other: morning snack was a wedge of light LC cheese, and i forgot all about the afternoon snack
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: chest and biceps, 30 minutes of cardio on the treadmill, ab work on the blue ball (a step harder than silver, which is what i have been doing), and lots of stretching

today was a rough day--not diet wise, but just in general. definitely a monday. the gym was actually the best part of my day, which is a bit of a shock. tomorrow MUST go better than today did.

sunday knitting and cooking day

the sunday skinny:

01/14/07	current	goal	lost this week	lost so far	left to lose
weight:	210.0 lb	160.0 lb	3.8 lb	3.8 lb	50.0 lb
body fat:	???	25 %	???	???	???

i feel pretty good about that 3.8 pounds up there. makes me feel pumped up to continue! i really need to find a way to accurately measure body fat, however. i keep thinking i will ask at the gym, but the woman at the desk in the mornings is an IDIOT. it's hard to talk to her at all, much less ask her about body fat percentages.

and for today:

food log:

• breakfast: 2 eggs with LF cheddar cheese, a little parmesan, and a pinch of mutmeg, white pepper, and red pepper--REALLY good!
• lunch: turkey chili
• dinner: grilled marinated sirloin, roasted cauliflower, and sauteed greens with lemon and soy
• snacks/other: a wedge of light LC cheese in the morning, and 15 almonds int he afternoon
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: nada. this is on purpose--my knee is giving me fits. although i did clean the crap out of the bathroom, which always works up a sweat.

THK and our friend amy came over today for knitting, and we STILL stuck to the diet--very proud. THK is doing it, too, so she was easy. but it was hard not to open a bottle of wine or something in celebration of amy being over and the general fabulousness of the day. we did drink a lot of tea, but that was the biggest indulgence of the day.

saturday = best day of the week

food log:

• breakfast: 1 fried egg, 2 slices of canadian bacon, LS V-8, and 2 cups of tea
• lunch: turkey chili
• dinner: went out to frazier's for a date night dinner. i had roasted duck with chestnut polenta, sour cherry remoulade, wilted kale, and a glass of wine. delicious!
• snacks/other: morning snack was 1 wedge of light LC cheese and 15 almonds, afternoon snack was a cup of tea and 15 more almonds
• desserts/sweets: 1/2 a chocolate mousse

activities: went for a 3-mile hike with my friend kerstin and her puppy--fun!

i need a week of saturdays. i went for a hike, did some shopping, and went on a date with the hippie. i had all these chores to do, but having worked and cooked 2 meals a day all week had made me start feeling like all i was doing was work. so--i took the day to play out in the world. it was fabulous! and dinner was fabulous. we knew we were going to be having a non-south-beach dinner, so we chose a restaurant where the portions aren't huge. and we went to a little cafe for dessert, and i only ate half--i was pretty proud of myself, too, because man--that mousse was GOOD! it was also pretty nice not to cook. i have pretty much decided that for one meal a weekend, i am just going to eat what i want and not worry too much about it. not that i plan to go insane, but i do plan to splurge a little. :)

friday, thank god

food log:

• breakfast: two eggs scrambled with thyme, 2 slices of canadian bacon, LS V-8, 1 cup of tea
• lunch: turkey chili with green chiles and black beans, 1 cup of tea
• dinner: grilled chicken with roasted cauliflower and sauteed spinach
• snacks/other: a slice of turkey rolled up with a slice of LF swiss cheese in the morning, almonds and light LC cheese in the afternoon
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: went for a long-ish walk (about 1.3 miles) after dinner in jenn and harry's hood (hopefully soon to be our hood as well)

i was basically planning to do not must at all today, but then ended up going for a long walk tonight. the Right Thing. all in all, i fell pretty good--i am feeling more positive about this whole mess than i have in a long time. i am tired, and i do feel like this whole process is kind of like having a second job, but if i can just adjust to the new sleep schedule, then i think i will be ok. tomorrow morning--a hike! whoo hoo!

oops--wrote this yesterday but forgot to post it last night! better late than never. i just left the time stamp as it was when i wrote the post.

body fighting the new schedule

food log:

• breakfast: scrambled eggs with mushrooms and LF swiss cheese, 2 pieces of canadian bacon, LS V-8, and two cups of tea
• lunch: leftover mediterranean chicken artichoke stew
• dinner: leftover shrimp and vegetable stir-fry
• snacks/other: 15 almonds in the morning, a cup of tea and a wedge of light LC cheese in the afternoon, more almonds in the late afternoon
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: weight training for back and triceps, 20 minutes on the treadmill, some ab work

last night i could NOT fall asleep--i think i finally passed out at around 1am. so this morning when i tried to get up at 5:30am, it just wasn't happening. i literally couldn't keep my eyes open. it wasn't even that i didn't WANT to get up--i just couldn't. so. i had an extra late-afternoon snack and went to the gym after work. the hippie has game night tonight, and i had good leftovers to eat for dinner, so this worked out ok. i still want to change to an early morning schedule, but my body isn't quite ready to follow my head there yet it seems. hopefully tomorrow morning will go better.

by the way, two words on the gym in the evening as opposed to the morning: meat market. holy CRAP there were an awful lot of guys staring at an awful lot of girls' asses! further, there were more loud grunting men, even though the men who are at the gym in the morning tend to be in better shape than the evening gym folk. i swear, the grunters are just showing off. i actually thought one guy was dry heaving--it was weird. also, i noticed that it seemed like every time i looked up at the bank of TVs in front of all the cardio equipment, there was a food commercial on. i guess it was dinner time, but MAN. i do not need to look at video of TGIFriday's oreo pie while i am sweating my ass on on a 12% incline. i'm just sayin'.

2 pounds down, 51.8 to go

food log:

• breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled with thyme, 2 slices of canadian bacon, 4 oz LS V-8, 2 cups of tea (sound familiar?)
• lunch: went out to lunch with my friend carrie and her daughter ella--had chicken caesar salad with no croutons, which came with a lovely sweet potato biscuit that had caramelized brown sugar on top--that was the hardest thing i have had to resist so far. i gave it to carrie. go me.
• dinner: stir fried shrimp and vegetables and cashews
• snacks/other: 15 almonds for morning snack, hummus and grape tomatoes in the afternoon
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: dance class!

i didn't go the the gym this morning. wednesdays are good, but optional on this work out schedule i have going. there ar no weights on wednesdays--all cardio. and this morning i was just exhausted and really, really sore. i decided it was better not to go so that i could actually have enough energy for dance class tonight rather than force myself to go and then end up burning out. i am actually glad i slept the extra couple of hours this morning--i feel MUCH better! plus, i cheated and weighed when i woke up today--i have lost two pounds. yay!

by the way, i am happy to discover that the body fat percentage calculator on my scale is messed up--it's way too high! last time i had my BF% checked, it was 37, NOT 47. so. i need to figure out an easy way to track that.

day two

food log:

• breakfast: two-egg omelet with red peppers, onions, mushrooms, and low-fat cheddar cheese, 4 oz LS V-8, two cups of tea
• lunch: leftover london broil and tomato and red onion salad--YUM!
• dinner: mediterranean chicken stew
• snacks/other: wedge of light garlic herb LC cheese in the morning, red peppers and hummus in the afternoon, a cup of tea in the evening
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: weight training for legs, 15 minutes of cardio, some ab work and stretching

i made it out of bed on my own for the second day in a row, about which i am proud. i have already started trying to recruit other people to get in shape, too, which is part of my process (probably an annoying part, but a part, none the less.) i went to bed earlier last night, which is a Good Thing, even though i did sort of feel like my entire evening was devoted to cooking and food and the kitchen. tonight was a little better as there wasn't a huge pile of dishes to deal with. thank goodness the hippie is helping! anyway--i find that it helps my mental state to write down a workout plan for the next morning before i go to bed. it's like if it's already written down, then i HAVE to do it. i hope that will keep working.

so--in addition to diet and exercise, i am also making an effort to just be better to my body in general: put a little more effort into my appearance, try to wash and moisturize my face every morning and night, do at least one thing i enjoy before i quit for the day. this is helping my mental state quite a bit.

but man, i'm tired. and sore.

day one of the newest evolution

food log:

• breakfast: two eggs scrambled with thyme, two pieces of canadian bacon, 3-4 oz low sodium V-8, two cups of tea with 1% milk and 1 tsp raw sugar each
• lunch: chicken caesar salad (1 grilled chicken breast, 1 heart of romaine, caesar dressing--no croutons)
• dinner: grilled london broil, sauteed mushrooms and onions with fresh herbs and red wine, and swiss chard with lemon and garlic
• snacks/other: 1 stalk of celery and 1 wedge of light laughing cow cheese in the morning, half a medium cucumber and some hummus in the afternoon, an afternoon cup of tea and an evening one (i needed the caffeine!)
• desserts/sweets: none

activities: weight training for chest and biceps, 20 minutes on the treadmill, ab work and stretching

i woke up this morning exhausted from sleeping poorly. it was pouring rain and black as pitch outside. all i wanted to do was stay curled in the bed. however, i knew i was going to get up and go to the gym, and i did! i got up and went even though the hippie stayed abed. it's really weird--it didn't even feel like a big deal. i am not sure what's turned over in my head here, but i am just going with it. i have taken this different approach to things mentally--viewing working out as a maintenance of health issue and not as an emotional thing. i know if i keep doing it, the pounds will come off, so why stress about them coming off? it will take as long as it takes. it seems to be working (for now). i am VERY tired right now, but i think that just means i will sleep better tonight. maybe tomorrow it will be even easier to get up. :)

a fresh start

tomorrow is my new start. today is my preparation day. i feel like i have been gearing up for like 2 years, but man is it ever time to get my ass in gear, literally. i am not sure what the turning point moment is in my head, but i seem to have reached it. i am restless. i am anxious to feel better and to look better. i am tired of eating crap. so. fresh start. the nice thing is that i have so much support, not only from great friends, but also from the hippie, who will join me in this effort even though he is alredy in stupendous shape. (he will argue that this is not so, but those of you who know him can be my witnesses on that!)

tomorrow we will be revisiting the south beach diet, which i know works well for me, especially when combined with steady working out. i will also drag my ass up at early o'clock to go to the gym. it's suck-it-up time, people. and we all know that once i get used to it, it won't suck so bad. week 1 i will feel all self-righteous and proud. week 2 i will start to feel tired, but still be determined. then, y'all should be prepared for some serious complaining somewhere around week 3. i expect support. i mean it. i will be logging everything here, so this site may be about to become BORING, but i expect a select few of you to keep reading, just to help me. you know who you are.

today shall be the start of my new sunday tradition--the weigh-in. i haven't put much stock in this in the past, but i need constant motivations, so i am hoping this will help. this morning i got up, stripped, weighed, and took all my measurements. it's a starting point. i am also setting a weight goal for myself, which is also something i have never really done--usually for me, it's been about trying to FEEL better, period. but i am taking a little bit of a different approach. there's no time limit to this goal, and this is NOT a new year's resolution--i just want to get there, no matter how long it takes. so--i will robably only report measurements once a month, but the weight and body fat percentage i will report every week. disclaimer: i am not at all sure that my scale is good at BF% calculation, but this is aso going to be a test for it. if the BF% number doesn't start going down, i will get the folks at the gm to check me out.

anyway. enough babble. here's the skinny (or the fat, as it were):

01/07/07	current	goal	to lose
weight:	213.8 lb	160 lb	53.8 lb
body fat:	47%	25%	22%

• neck: 15 5/8
• bust1: 44 3/4
• bust2: 40
• arm: 16 1/2
• waist: 38
• hip: 47 1/2
• thigh: 27 1/2
• calf: 17