Progress

It snowed this weekend, and everything is kind of iced up, so I did most of my working out in the gym. I didn't hit the 20k steps I wanted to get for each weekend day, but I did get 13k and a really good upper body workout Saturday and lower on Sunday. Actually, I may have had too good an upper body workout, because my back is kind of killing me. I had a really bad back injury years ago that I'm still seeing a chiropractor for now. I have to kind of temper the whole "give it all you got" mentality with some common sense about what I can actually handle.

That said, I seem to have broken through the plateau (or, rather, the losing and gaining the same 4 pounds and not actually continuing to lose), because yesterday morning I weighed myself and was 185. I haven't seen that number in a while, and it's really good to be making progress. I originally had a goal of being out of the 180s by February, but I'm not sure 6 pounds is realistic, considering there's only a week and a half left. If it happens on its own, I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I'm not changing anything. I'm still eating 1600 calories per day and still working out the same as always.

I cooked more today. Just 3 servings of whole wheat pasta, low-fat ricotta with egg yolks (I fried the whites and ate them as a post-workout snack), 5 chopped sauteed zucchinis, a package of mushrooms, sauteed and 5 chopped lowfat string cheeses (they were cheaper than buying actual mozzarella). I just put it together in a 9x12 baking dish and baked it for 40 minutes. It's not amazing, but it made 6 servings (320 calories each) and it's already packaged up and ready to take to work.

So far this month I have not eaten anything for lunch other than food I've made at home. No visits to the cafeteria, no frozen meals, just homemade food.

Healthy day

I decided to go for a long walk today. I was hoping to get in like, 12,000 steps at the park. This usually takes just around 2 hours. I wanted to try to get 20k for the day. I've been able to do this before, so I strapped on the pedometer (5 bucks, CVS, right next to the "diet aids) and off I went. I'm walking, and I periodically check the pedometer. After an hour, it's somewhere around 3000 steps. That's not right. After two hours, I'm somewhere around 6,000. Definitely not right. I walk for a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes and I could not even get to 10,000 steps.

When I got home, I got my shopping list, strapped on a backpack, and headed out for another walk. After about an hour and a half, I'm at 13,000 steps. I stopped in at CVS, got a new pedometer, wore both of them for the next half hour. I check both pedometers. The new one has about 3000 steps. The old one...somewhere around 1100.

 Grrrrrr......

 So right now, I'm officially clocked in at 17,000 steps (or 8.5 miles), but I'm sure after nearly 5 hours of walking, it should be closer to 28,000. Bah.

I'll count that as being a great offset to last night's little debacle. The boyfriend and I wanted a smoothie from a place near New Brunswick. Once we got most of the way there, he announces that he wants a sandwich from the Rutgers grease trucks. (If you live in NJ, you might know about these, if not...look at this link at your own peril.)

I estimate this sandwich at about 1000 gloriously empty calories. And that's all I'll say about that.  I'll donate the missing 11,000 steps to helping offset that mishap!

Despite this insane sandwich, I weighed 3 pounds less today than yesterday.  So, from yesterday's 192, we're at 189!