The Weekend is Quickly Approaching!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful these past couple of days.  I managed to get in a fairly decent bike ride last night.  Hip hip hooray!  Was out for about 30 minutes riding all around Union Sq.  Felt really good.

Had pasta for dinner and sauce with ground turkey.  Very tasty.

Had raspberry yogurt and an iced coffee this morning.  Minestrone soup for lunch and an orange.

Hoping to get in another bike ride tonight seeing as it might be rough this weekend.  We’re supposed to be getting storms.

Anyway, feeling better today than yesterday.  So that’s something!

P.S.

My blood pressure is not doing well either!!  I used one of those free, blood pressure taking machines at Stop and Shop the other day and it was 146/73.  NOT GOOD!!!!!  Granted, I was a tad on the frustrated side when sitting at the machine…so I’m sure that didn’t help much.  But STILL!  That’s really bad.

Not Going Well!

GAH!  So, it’s only a week into this thing and already I’m seriously lacking in any kind of discipline.  Notably, my lack of writing here…but more importantly, I’ve been eating somewhat horribly.

The long, Holiday weekend was really bad.  I had a breakfast sandwich (egg, ham, cheese on toasted english muffin) from Dunkin’ on Saturday, roast beef sandwich with fries (BAD!) on Sunday, Thai food for dinner….then came Memorial Day.  Like all proper Americans, we had a BBQ on Memorial Day.  Which really wasn’t TOO terrible.  I had grilled chicken and a couple of grilled steak tips.  But quite a few chips (reduced fat, but STILL!), 4 lite beers and a few cookies for dessert.  OH!  Almost forgot, also had pasta salad.  Not made with mayo, but with italian dressing…so, most likely just as bad.  Not a good weekend AT ALL!

Back at work I’ve been okay.  Still sticking to yogurt for breakfast and soup for lunch.  Enjoying a piece of fruit in the meantime.  But then I get in trouble when a co-worker brings two cookies and I scarf them down as if I hadn’t eaten in days.  I really have such a hard time saying no to sweets and baked goods!

And then there was last night…I had a cup of beef stew for dinner.  Didn’t eat much of the potatoes in the stew, but ate all the meat and lots of the peas and carrots.  So, not TOO bad.  But then Brian suggested ice cream…or more that he said he wanted ice cream.  And, well, I can’t say no to ice cream!!!  It’s a problem.  So we each got ice cream bars.  Later in the evening I had a couple handfuls of mini pretzel sticks.

Today I had light yogurt and am eating an apple now.  The apple isn’t great.  Tad mealy and not much flavor.  But it’ll have to do!

Also, I’ve been good about drinking plenty of water and I did go for a nice bike ride on Saturday.  Would like to take another ride tonight after work.

That’s where things stand as of today.  So, it’s not going well.  I don’t want to get too down on myself or start to feel defeated because that’s when I give up….and I definitely don’t want to give up.  Just have to keep forging forward!!

5/22 Recap

i left work and walked to lechmere.  the walk is just over 2 miles which i did in just under 40 minutes.  felt very good.  hopped on the 87 bus and was home just a little before 6.  was pretty hungry at that point so i had a handful of mini-pretzels and some hummus.

my brother then arrived at my apartment and together we walked over to Target.  where i promptly (after picking up trash bags and toilet paper) purchased a bike last night! nothing fancy, just a schwynn mountain bike that will be fun to ride around the ‘ville. very happy.  brother then left on his merry way after making sure that i and the bike made it home safely and in one piece.

it was rainy and cold last night and by the time brian got home (7:30 or so) we were both very hungry. we desperately need groceries, but because the weather was so awful, we didn’t go last night. instead we decided to try Precinct (http://www.precinctbar.com/ – not a lot of info on that site yet. try this one as well http://www.toastlounge.com/) which is a restaurant/bar right in union sq. basically, Precinct used to be Toast.  they’ve completely redone the inside and i believe is all new management and staff.

it was really comfy, all new bar stools and chairs with full, cushiony seats.  the menu isn’t large but offers a good variety.  my eyes were on the spinach salad with grape tomatoes, walnuts and crumbled blue cheese.  i contemplated adding grilled chicken or sirloin to the salad.  instead, brian and i split an appetizer of grilled sirloin tip bites.  which, i’m assuming, is just the steak tip entree sans veggie and starch.

so, i had the salad (with dressing on the side and only used a little) and ate all the spinach and tomatoes.  left most of the blue cheese crumblies and some of the walnuts.  blue cheese has a tendency to be overpowering to me.  a very little goes a long way.  and is really good, just not too much.  it was delicious, as were the sirloin tips.  brian had also ordered sweet potato fries in which i had to partake of a bit.

got home and while watching the basketball game with brian i had a tootsie pop.  i really love them and there’s a whole bag of ‘em sitting right there in our living room…i just have a hard time saying no to sweets.

food rundown for May 22:

• 6oz fat free strawberry yogurt
• 16 oz coffee w/skim milk
• veggie soup
• apple
• pretzels w/hummus
• spinach salad, grape tomatoes, walnuts and bit of blue cheese
• 4 sirloin tips
• sweet potato fries
• tootsie pop
• 2+ liters of water

diet

so i decided to start myself on a diet. while watching game 7 of the celtics vs. cavs game on sunday, i saw an advertisement for some weight-loss challenge called the “50 million pounds challenge.” got to work monday morning, found the website (www.50millionpounds.com) and joined. to my disappointment, there isn’t a LOT of interactivity on the site. but i did come away with a number different guidelines, suggestions and tools to hopefully help keep me on track.

here are my guidelines that i’ve set for myself based on info previously mentioned:

• 6oz fat-free yogurt for breakfast
• coffee with skim milk only
• Mon – Thurs lunch will be soup
• fruit in between meals (mostly apples, oranges, pears and bananas)
• water – 2 liters daily
• diet soda and freshly squeezed juices
• no alcoholic beverages Mon – Fri
• brown rice and whole grains and/or wheat bread when applicable

those are my initial guidelines which can be added to as time goes along. i would also like to note allowances for healthy snacks such as almonds, hummus, granola and popcorn (no butter, little salt) all in moderation.

dinner becomes a trickier situation due to sharing some meals with brian. and i certainly don’t want to make him eat the same way i am, but we do like having meals together when time permits. the past two weeks i’ve been fairly good about having either a smart ones or lean cuisine meal as my main meal. however, i don’t find those to be completely satisfying. within a couple of hours i’m usually very hungry. in which case i tend to head back to the kitchen for snacking or picking off of brian’s french fries/chicken fingers. …. so, that’s no good.

last night i think i did okay. i got a 6″ turkey on wheat with lettuce, tomatoes and mustard from subway. along with baked lays and diet lemonade. i gave in to a sweet-tooth craving and enjoyed a tootsie pop. then popped some popcorn around 9:30. not bad…but not perfect either. but overall i’m okay with it.

this morning was fat-free strawberry yogurt and coffee with skim milk. i have vegetable soup for lunch today and an apple. will head out a little later this afternoon to pick up a beverage and stock up on more yogurt and fruit for the next few days.

i know this is not the most aggressive sounding diet in the world, but i know myself and know if i’m to achieve any modicum of success i have to ease into this. i think my main struggle will be with exercising. i’ve been fairly good about taking 20 – 30 minutes (sometimes longer) of brisk walking in the evening. covering an area of approximately 1 – 3 miles. the past month or so i’d say i’ve been able to do this at the very least, twice a week while sometimes getting to 3 or four times a week. i’d love to be able to consistently keep to at least 3+ days/week of these brisk walks.

also, there is the hope of purchasing a bicycle for myself. i love bike riding and feel it’d be a fun way to get exercise. and because i enjoy the activity, will hopefully not look upon it so much as a chore but more of something fun to do!

so THAT’s where i stand with all this. what i’m envisioning for this blog is just a running tab of what i eat each day. exactly everything that passes through my mouth. along with keeping track of exercise. since i do not own a scale, i don’t see charting any kind of weight-loss progress. however, i feel emotionally this will be a huge boost! not to mention the possibility of my clothes fitting a bit better.

thanks for reading. any input would be VERY welcome.