172.0 Lost 4.8 Lbs in July

WOW!!  I lost 2.6 lbs. yesterday, even though I had a couple drinks and some semi-fattening chicken.  Clearly biking is the way to go!  I am elated right now.  This means I lost 4.8 lbs. this month; for reference, my initial goal for July was 4 lbs.  By the way, I've officially lost over 15 lbs. so far.

Yesterday I went to the muscle works class then biked for 2 hrs.  I probably won't go that long everyday; in fact, today I'm planning on taking a 1-hr. ride, partly because it's really hot out and partly because I'm sore from yesterday (mainly from the muscle works class, although the bike seat has done a number on my butt).  Here's what I ate yesterday:

2 mini pastry crisps
granola bar
2 carrots
nonfat cottage cheese
2 medium tomatoes with salt
organic fruit rope
roasted chicken leg and wing
sauteed veggies
Coors Light
1 glass red wine

174.6 Long Bike Ride

I took a 2 hr bike ride today on the KT trail.  I felt exhausted afterwards, but I wasn't in pain so it was still better than running.  I hope I am still burning as many calories.

I did not work out yesterday besides a few ab exercises with an exercise ball.  Here's what I ate:

2 poached eggs
2 biscuits with butter and jam
granola bar
bratwurst with bun and mustard
mashed potatoes
large glass of apple juice

? Loving the Olympics

I have been having such a good time watching the Olympics!  I've felt sort of neutral towards them in years past, but this time for some reason I'm sort of obsessed.  Maybe because I'm more interested in being fit!

I did not work out today besides doing some ab exercises while watching womens gymnastics.  Yesterday for my workout I went for a bike ride with Jack for an hour or.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
1/2 avocado
medium tomato with salt
1-2 servings tortilla chips
black bean and veggie wrap with sweet potato fries
2 light beer
1 glass red wine

? Tandem Problems

Whoops!  Forgot to blog yesterday.  I meant to in the evening, but then my eyes were so glued to the TV screen (Olympics Opening Ceremony was on), that I completely forgot!  I weighed 175.2 yesterday, which means I had no net weight loss last week.  :(  I guess it must've been the chicken we had for dinner two nights ago; I did notice it had quite a bit of fat on it (Jack made grilled "beer can chicken"--it was the moistest chicken I've ever had!).

I was in intense pain yesterday after running.  Not just my shins, but my entire legs and hips.  Even walking to my car was very difficult.  And I only made it to 1.2 miles!  I think I'm going to take Jack's advice and do something else for my workout for a while.  Today we went biking on the KT trail and decided to take the tandem, which we hadn't used all season.  Once we started, we began to realize that many things were wrong with the bike, such as a missing cog, a messed up derailer, and the metal post under the front seat was bending back.  Yes, bending.  That's how hot it is here.  So the bike ride turned out to be pretty difficult.  But I think for the rest of this week I will make biking my workout.

Thursday for my workout I walked half a mile, ran 1 mile alternating between 6.7 and 6.9 mph, then went to the muscle works class.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
leftover spaghetti and meatballs
small glass of strawberry milk
2 grilled chicken legs
small salad with cheese and caesar dressing
small serving of candied sweet potatoes
spumoni ice cream

Yesterday for my workout I walked .5 miles, ran 1.2 miles alternating between 6.7 and 6.9 mph, and walked .4 more miles.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
salad with leftover chicken breast and caesar dressing
glass of V8
large glass of strawberry milk
4 small pieces of pizza
1 chicken wing
salad with cheese and Italian dressing
chocolate chip cookie

174.4 Tomato Blight

I only lost .2 lbs yesterday, but that may just be because I went to the gym at 5 pm today.  In order to get to my goal of 2 lbs for this week, I will have to have lost a whopping 1.2 lbs by tomorrow.  It's happened before!

Sadly, our 16 beautiful tomato plants are afflicted with blight.  It's bad.  The other day I bought some copper soap as a fungicide, recommended to me by an employee at the lawn and garden store.  All I had was a regular spray bottle, and let's just say that by the time I was done covering those 16, 7-foot tall plants, my hands were pretty tired.  I need to get a more effective spraying contraption.

Today I only ran a mile since I was going to the muscle works class afterwards, but I increased my speed slightly to 6.7 and 6.9 mph.  It felt fine.  Yesterday for my workout I walked .7 miles, ran 1.8 miles alternating between 6.6 and 6.8 mph, walked .7 more miles, then ran .6 more miles.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
1/2 avocado
small tomato with salt
oatmeal raisin cookie
handful pistachios
this rabbit fricasee recipe: 2 legs, 1 thigh, and 1 loin
small portion white rice
16 oz. Mich Ultra

174.6 Lost 2 Lbs Yesterday!

Yay!  I lost 2 lbs yesterday, which probably means that I was retaining water (from the Chinese food we had 2 nights ago).  Today for breakfast I had a slightly larger bowl of cereal, and I felt pretty energized during my workout.

Last night Jack and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings because I was really in the mood to play trivia but couldn't think of anywhere else that would have it.  They had a new menu that listed the calories for absolutely everything, and I was horrified!  Almost every item on the menu had at least 1000 calories.  I think if more restaurants started doing this, salads would become a lot more popular.  Indeed,  I ordered a salad, but I sort of felt like one anyway.

Yesterday for my workout I walked .5 miles and ran 1.8 miles alternating between 6.6 and 6.8 mph (and taking a 2 minute break towards the end).  Here's what I ate:

cereal
1 large tomato with salt
nonfat cottage cheese
2 chicken wings
salad with blackened chicken
1 Bud Light

176.6 Why So Little Energy??

Whoops!  Forgot to post yesterday.  Yesterday I weighed 176 lbs.  I've been gaining weight the past couple days.  :(

Today for some reason I found running to be extremely difficult.  After 1.2 miles, I had to stop for a couple minutes and drink some Gatorade before finishing out the 1.8 miles, and I didn't run another .6.  On top of that, I can't remember the last time I was so exhausted after a workout.  I felt like I could barely walk and I was zoning out on the drive home.  I got a decent amount of sleep last night and had cereal for breakfast this morning, so not really any different from usual.  I also had some iced tea which should have given me an energy boost if anything, but is likewise not outside the norm.  Could it be my body being mad at me for what I ate yesterday?  Could it be dehydration from too much salt (we had Chinese food for dinner last night)?  I really want to know what's up because I don't think this is normal for someone my age who's sort of out of shape but not drastically so.  I should be able to run my measly 1.8 miles!

Sunday for my workout I walked . 6 miles, ran 1.8 miles alternating between 6.6 and 6.8 mph, walked .6 more miles, and ran .6 more miles gradually increasing my speed from 6.6 to 6.8 mph.  Here's what I ate:

nonfat greek yogurt
BBQ at Jack's parents' house: 1/3 porksteak, chicken breast and wing, small portion of pasta salad
3 glasses white wine
16 oz. beer

Yesterday for my workout I went to the muscle works class then walked .6 miles, ran 1 mile, and walked .25 more miles.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
1/2 leftover meatball sandwich
leftover vegetable tian
chinese food: medium portions of pork and chicken entrees, small portion fried rice, 3 crab rangoon
large lemon bar

175.8 Yogurt Didn't Work So Well

Today I had yogurt for breakfast, hoping that the mix of carbs and protein would give me more energy and help with my shin splints.  Well, it did neither!  I didn't have as much energy as yesterday and after my final run I had moderate shin splints.  Jack suggests that I lay off running the next couple weeks to let my shins heal, but I really can't imagine doing that.  He also suggested going to the doctor to get special custom-made inserts for my shoes (he had to do the same in high school), so I might try that.  Tomorrow I will eat cereal again for breakfast and see if I have the same energy level as yesterday.

Yesterday evening Jack and I, along with his parents, went to the casino.  Jack won about $50 playing craps, and I wasted $20 playing video poker (next time I might try craps!).  Then we went to an Italian restaurant with his parents.  When we got home, we watched a 3-hr + Japanese movie from the early 60s called "Red Beard."  It was really good, and we got a kick out of the fact that it had an actual intermission in the middle of it.  We made popcorn on the stove and "danced" to the sounds of classical music during it.

Yesterday for my workout I walked .6 miles, ran 1.8 miles alternating between 6.6 and 6.8 mph, walked .6 more miles, then ran .6 more miles, starting at 6.6 mph and gradually increasing my speed to 6.8 mph.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
1/2 avocado
1 leftover BBQ rib (tried to avoid most of the fat)
large glass of strawberry milk
1 Mich Ultra
2 bloody marys
1 vodka diet coke
1 slice of bread with olive oil
1/2 meatball sandwich
few bites of pasta
1/2 package M&Ms
few handfuls popcorn

176.6 Carbs and Protein

For the past few days I've been having a hardboiled egg for breakfast instead of cereal.  I was able to run pretty well and my shin splints weren't so bad.  Today I had cereal for breakfast and I found that running made me much less tired than before.  I pushed it out to 1.8 miles and could have gone even longer but I stopped anyway.  After the additional .6 miles, however, my shin splints were pretty bad.  This could be from increasing both my distance and speed (for the .6 miles I gradually increased my speed from 6.8 to 7.0 mph...it started as an accident but I just went with it), but what if it was because of not having any protein?  I can't really think of a reason that protein would help with shin splints, since I don't think they have anything to do with muscles, but it couldn't hurt to experiment here.  Tomorrow I'll try to get both carbs and protein into my breakfast; maybe I'll have a yogurt.  Then I'll see if I both have more energy and feel less sore.

PS--the thing about the carbs makes complete logical sense.  Your body uses sugar first for energy before having to dip into other resources, so it follows that if you sugar up before running, you will be able to run longer before getting tired.  I don't know why I didn't think of this before.

I gained 1.4 lbs yesterday because of eating a giant waffle at Schlafly and drinking beer.  Hopefully most of that weight will be gone tomorrow.  Yesterday for my workout I walked .6 miles, ran 1.7 miles alternating between 6.6 and 6.7 mph, walked .6 more miles, and ran .6 more miles, starting at 6.8 mph and gradually increasing my speed to 7.0 mph (it got really difficult towards the end but also felt great!).  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
2% fat greek yogurt
1/2 leftover apricot chicken breast
small portion leftover vegetable tian
8 oz. pom juice
mussels
chunk of french baguette
belgian waffle with syrup, strawberries, and blueberries
3.5 beers

175.2 Good News, Bad News

The bad news first: I only lost .6 lbs this week.  :(

Now for the good news: no shin splints today!  I felt completely fine after my 1.7 mile run and only had some slight soreness after my additional .6 mile run.  We're getting places!

Tonight Jack and I are going to a mussel festival at Schafly brewery tonight.  I'm excited!  I love mussels.

Yesterday I did not workout.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
apple
nonfat greek yogurt
8 oz. pom juice
chicken breast with apricot sauce
medium portion of vegetable tian
large lemon bar (1/12 9x13 pan)
3 glasses of red wine

? Tomato Sauce From Scratch

I had all good intentions of going to workout today (it would've been a Muscle Works day), but I ended up just not having time.  Jack and I had a couple friends over for dinner; they brought the main dish (chicken breast with apricot sauce) and I made the side dish (this amazing cheesy vegetable thing) and dessert (these sweet and tangy lemon bars--not at all low cal).  It took a while to prep and cook and I didn't make it to the class.

Yesterday I undertook the weighty (heh--no pun intended) task of making spaghetti and meatballs with sauce from scratch.  Roma tomatoes are perfect for this sort of thing, and since we had some ripe ones from our garden, I thought why not?  I followed this recipe but ended up messing up a lot and changing/adding things.  Basically my big mistake was using the number of tomatoes the recipe called for, because I think it meant large tomatoes, not roma.  If I did this again, I think I would use about 40 roma tomatoes (4 times the number the recipe calls for).  Which would be a ridiculous amount of work since the hardest/most time consuming part was peeling, deseeding, and slicing the tomatoes.  Also the sauce I made did not have as much flavor as I intended; this is because I removed all the solid/chunky parts about halfway though the cooking time.  Next time I would leave them in but puree the whole thing.  I added 4 jalapenos for spice, and the sauce had absolutely no kick at all.  Here's my photo tutorial:


The tomatoes I used:

After boiling them, just peel the tomatoes like you would a hardboiled egg:

Onions, carrots, garlic, and jalapenos sauteeing in butter and olive oil:

Then I added the diced tomatoes, along with sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and basil from our garden:

I let it simmer for half an hour and this is the lovely slop that resulted:

Took out the chunks with a slotted spoon.  Clearly not much to work with!

Added a 6-oz. can of tomato paste and about a cup of water.  Much better!

After simmering for another half hour, added meatballs (frozen from the store):

The finished product, with fresh angel hair pasta (this was Jack's portion; mine was smaller!):

It wasn't bad, but like I said, it didn't have much flavor.  I'd like to try it again some time when I have nothing else to do and definitely someone to help me!

Yesterday for my workout I walked .6 miles, ran 1.7 miles alternating between 6.5 and 6.7 mph, walked another .6 miles, and ran another .6 miles starting at 6.5 mph and gradually increasing my speed to 6.7 mph.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
nonfat greek yogurt
leftover bratwurst with hot sauce
ginger ale (6.8 oz. bottle)
medium portion of spaghetti and meatballs
salad with provel cheese
1 glass red wine
1 Andes mint

176.0 Back in the Running Groove

Hurray, I seem to be out of that bad running funk I was in for a few days!  Today I wore a different pair of shoes that have an extra support insert in them.  That seemed to have helped, since I felt pretty ok after my 1.7 mile run and was able to run a half mile more.  After that extra half mile, though, I had terrible shin splints.  I probably just need to get a new pair of running shoes, but money is a bit tight right now.

Last night Jack and I made "chicken with 40 cloves of garlic," a traditional French dish and one of my favorites.  There is a lot of preparation involved (30 mins. of brining the chicken and 45 mins of roasting garlic before cooking the chicken) but if you plan ahead it's not so bad.  I had a whole chicken leg (thigh and drumstick) with the skin on (it was so crispy, I couldn't resist!) and the sauce was pretty fattening; so, I was afraid I wouldn't lose much weight today, if any.  But look at me, I lost 1.4 lbs!

Yesterday for my workout I walked .6 miles, ran 1.7 miles at 6.5 mph, then walked .4 more miles.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
hardboiled egg
leftover fish taco
tomato, sliced, with salt
handful raspberries
8 oz. pom juice
chicken thigh and drumstick
large portion cole slaw
cookie
large glass white wine

177.4 When It Gets Tough...Keep Going!

Running has been slightly difficult for me of late.  I either feel extremely tired, my legs feel like lead, or I have terrible shin splints afterwards.  I've really been taking steps backwards in terms of goal of getting back to running 3 miles a day.  This morning I wondered whether my feelings of low energy may be from not feeding myself enough for breakfast.  I usually have only either a hardboiled egg or cereal for breakfast, and today I had both.  I think it helped, as I was able to run my usual distance (actually a little more) and the shin splints weren't as bad.  They were still bad enough, however, that I didn't feel up to running another half mile afterwards.

When I first started running today, it felt like I was wearing lead shoes.  I just didn't have that bounce in my step that I was feeling a couple weeks ago.  I told myself I'd probably only be able to run half a mile at a time, just like yesterday.  But half a mile rolled around and I felt a little better, so I thought I'd go until .8.  When I got to .8, I was already feeling pretty good so I extended my goal to a mile.  When I got to a mile I decided I could do my regular distance!  And once I was close enough to that I decided to stretch it a little further this time to 1.7 miles.  This was still not a big step forward since I was running at 6.5 mph the whole time, but it just goes to show that when working out seems tough at times, just keep going and eventually it gets easier!  Just don't give up.

I lost .8 lbs yesterday.  It would be nice if I could lose at least 3 more lbs by the end of this week, so that I still have some net weight loss for this week.

Yesterday for my workout I went to the muscle works class, walked half a mile, ran half a mile, walked another half mile, ran another half mile, and walked another half mile.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
small glass of orange juice
half an avocado
5 raw broccoli floret with a small amount of dip
salad with leftover tuna steak and light italian dressing
small glass of strawberry milk
nonfat greek yogurt
dinner at Chevy's: chips and salsa, 1 fish taco, a few bites of rice and beans, and tomalito

178.2 Gained 2.4 Lbs This Weekend

Wow.  Look at that, I gained back almost all the weight I lost last week over the weekend.  This weekend we stayed at Jack's family's farm, which is really not a good place to be for someone trying to lose weight.  I always end up eating a ton of junk food and drinking a lot because 1. there's not much else to do there, and 2. everyone always brings lots of junk/snack foods.  So I ended up eating a bunch of chips, cookies, M&Ms, etc.  And don't forget the beer!  Next time we go there, I'm going to try to talk Jack into going just for one day and night to try to avoid this happening again.

Despite my negativity, I had a good time over the weekend.  We relaxed on the lake, played cards and other games, and rode around on 4-wheelers looking at deer.  Allow me to outline the past few days:

Friday I walked half a mile, ran 1.6 miles alternating between 6.6 and 6.8 mph, then walked another .6 miles.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
1 carrot with sour cream dip
1 serving (1 cup) yogurt smoothie
apple
2 thin slices salami
1 slice cheese
2 handfuls chocolate covered nuts
dinner at a BBQ restaurant: small plate of "hog 'n tater salad" (fried potatoes and bacon with sauce, not really a salad at all), 3 BBQ ribs, few bites of fried fish, few bites of mashed potatoes and gravy, few bites of baked beans, and a few fries
2 oreos
handful peanut M&Ms
7 Bud Lights

Saturday I swam in the lake.  Here's what I ate:

2 small sausage patties
biscuit with jam
4 strawberries and 5 cherries
hot dog with bun and mustard
4 deviled eggs (2 whole eggs)
chips
cookie
2 frozen chocolate vodka drinks (low cal)
strip steak
1/2 twice baked potato
roasted veggies
small slice of chocolate cake
6 Bud Lights
vodka tea drink

Yesterday Jack and I swam at the pool.  Here's what I ate:

2 small sausage patties
1 slice bacon
1 piece of toast
handful blueberries
1 cup yogurt smoothie
glass of strawberry milk
chips
bratwurst with bun, sauerkraut, and mustard
corn on the cob with butter and salt
cookie

175.8 Lost 2.8 Lbs This Week

Hurray!  I met my goal of being 176 or under by today.  I only have a net weight loss of 1 lb for the month so far, but if I lose at least 2lbs a week for the next two weeks I can still have a 5 or 6 lb loss for the month.

For some reason, running felt pretty difficult for me both yesterday and today.  Yesterday I planned on running my 1.6 miles, but found myself having to stop at 1.3.  I didn't feel too bad about that though because I still went to the muscle works class afterwards.  Today I ran 1.6 miles but had really bad shin splints afterwards, so that I couldn't run another half mile like usual.  I don't know what's going on with me!  Back when I used to run a lot, I never felt pain from it.  I didn't even know what a shin splint was! I really regret ever stopping my workout routine.  Oh well, starting again now is better than nothing.

Yesterday I walked .4 miles, ran 1.3 miles, walked another .4 miles, then went to the muscle works class.  Here's what I ate:

1 cup yogurt smoothie
salad with leftover tuna steak chunks and caesar dressing
apple
leftover burger with bun, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ketchup
a few sesame sticks
glass of chocolate milk
a few bites of roasted chicken
4 frozen jelly straws (about 22 calories a piece)

177.0 Spicy Pickles and Pickled Eggs

Today I set out to make some spicy pickled eggs.  Jack made some a couple months ago using cayenne powder and they turned out great, so I thought I would try some using the tabasco chili peppers from our garden.  I filled up two jars with 20 peeled hardboiled eggs (more on that later) then filled them with boiling pickling juice which contained (note: we don't use canning/sanitization techniques because we just stick the jars in our fridge.  If we ever get really good at this and make larger batches that have to be stored at room temp, we will have to start canning):

10 cups cider vinegar
3 T pickling spice which we got at a local spice shop
about 10 red tabasco peppers, chopped, with seeds

Realizing that 10 cups of pickling juice was way too much, I decided to make some pickles too, which I had been meaning to do anyway.  There were 2 cucumbers in our fridge, so I sliced one lengthwise and one widthwise, filling 2 more jars.  Then I just added the same boiling liquid to the jars.  Later I realized that you need a slightly different recipe for the juice for pickles than what is used for eggs.  I looked at a bunch of recipes and they all included either sugar or salt, or both.  So these probably won't turn out very good but they might be ok.

About peeling the eggs:  I made a big mistake and boiled eggs that were very fresh, making them near impossible to peel (as a result, many of the eggs have sort of a pocked appearance).  I won't be making this mistake again!  However, during the process of peeling them I did learn the hard way a few good tips and tricks:

1. Crack and roll the egg around lightly and evenly.  If you roll too hard, you might break the surface of the actual egg.
2. Put the egg under cold running water for a second
3. Start peeling at the small end of the egg.  For some reason I found that the shell comes off easier and in larger chunks when starting from this end.
4. There is a very thin membrane under the shell.  Be sure to peel this with the shell (just makes it easier).
5. Once the shell is off, place the egg under cold running water again to rinse off any remaining shell pieces.

The best tip, however, is probably just to make sure you boil eggs that are almost at, or even past, the expiration date.

Last night Jack and I went to see Beach House and Wild Nothing at the Pageant.  It was a pretty good show, but drinks were pretty expensive and there were some really annoying people in front of us.  When we got home, I ate some chips, but this time because I was actually hungry!

Yesterday for my workout I walked for half a mile, ran 1.6 miles alternating between 6.5 mph and 6.7 mph, walked another half mile, then ran another half mile at 6.7 mph.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
2 banana peppers
apple
1 serving (1 cup) yogurt smoothie
1/2 mocha frappuccino
2 sushi rolls
small bowl of miso soup
small cucumber salad
5 Bud Lights
chips

177.0 Another Pound!

Can we please keep up this losing a pound a day?  Cuz it feels great!  I wonder if I'm getting more results because of running more than usual.  I do know I was in great shape back when I ran 3 miles every day!

Yesterday I walked half a mile, ran 1.6 miles, walked another half mile, and ran another half mile.  For the 1.6 miles I ran a minute and a half at 6.5 mph then 30 seconds at 6.7.  For the half mile of running, I just stayed at 6.5.  Here's what I ate yesterday:

hardboiled egg
1/2 mocha frappuccino
2 banana peppers
2 crab rangoon
fortune cookie
handful sugar snap peas
burger with bun, tomato, lettuce, mayo, and ketchup
large serving of baked beans
small serving of coleslaw
2 scoops of spumoni ice cream

178.0 Lots Of Food and Drink Found Its Way Into My Body Last Night

So I lost a pound yesterday, which is sort of surprising since I drank and did drunk junk food eating last night.  In fact, the list of what I ate and drank yesterday is alarmingly long.  Oh well!  I am still on track for my weight loss this week.

Yesterday for my workout I walked on an incline for half a mile, went to the Muscle Works class, then walked .25 miles, ran .75 miles, and walked another .25 miles.  Here (sweet Jesus) is what I ate:

cereal
1/2 avocado
handful sugar snap peas
leftover caprese
apple
lowfat greek yogurt
a few chips
small glass of chocolate milk
5 fried shrimp
2 vegetable egg rolls
white rice
glass of red wine
5 Bud Lights
1 Busch
3 small pieces of pizza
more chips

179.0 My Week Of Veggies Begins

I've gotten back to eating healthier and I can already feel the difference.  Fruits and vegetables make my body so happy!  I hope to lose at least 3 lbs by the end of this week...maybe 176?  If I manage that I will have just about broken even for the month thus far.  : /

Yesterday for my workout I walked for half a mile, ran for 1.6 miles, walked another .4 miles, then ran another .4 miles.  Here's what I ate:

leftover bratwurst
glass of chocolate milk
1/2 cheese cracker package (3 crackers)
summer salad
1/2 seared tuna steak
1 serving of 4 cheese risotto
caprese

179.4 "Holiday Week" Is Over

Whew!  It's been a very fun week, what with entertaining our friends from out of town and me throwing my diet to the wind.  By now my body is very angry at me and it's time to remedy the situation.  Today Jack and I went to the garden to find it literally overflowing with vegetables, so this week they are going to make up most of my diet!  Emily left to go back to Memphis today, so the fun's over and starting now I can focus more on working out and eating right, and less on drinking.

I think I might give up doing the elliptical; I'm starting to get really sick of it and I want to focus more on my running.  Today I decided to start doing the 30 seconds on/minute and a half off with my running, going from 6.4 mph to 6.6.  Tomorrow I think I will bump it up to 6.5/6.7.

Yesterday I did not work out.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
nonfat greek yogurt
several shared small plates at a restaurant called Salt: beets, corn soup, manchego cheese with baguette, smoked trout with baguette, and half of a fried chicken breast
2 cocktails
beers

178.6 Re-Assessment

Eek!  I haven't posted the last couple days.  My friend Emily is in town and staying with us and I've been spending all my time with her and having too much fun to blog!  Today was my re-assessment.  Sophia apparently no longer works at the gym, so I'm with a new girl named Ashley.  Here are my measurements, followed by how much I've lost since last month, followed by how much I've lost total (since Ashley's measuring technique could be slightly different from Sophia's, how much I lost this month might not be completely accurate):

shoulders: 44.5/-2/-4
chest: 42/-1.5/-1.5
waist: 38.75/-.5/-1.25
hips: 41.5/+1/0
thighs: 22/0/-.5
arms: 11/-1/-1
body fat %: 32.9%/-.9%/-2.1%

I suppose I will outline the past three days.  Tuesday I did my regular workout with a total distance of 5.15 miles.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
leftover cod
few bites of couscous
glass of juice
nonfat cottage cheese
grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato on hamburger bun
order of fries
7 beers
chips

Wednesday (the 4th) I didn't workout, but I danced that night.  Does that count?  Here's what I ate:

cereal
chips
bratwurst with bun, sauerkraut, and mustard
summer salad
glass of chocolate milk
lots of alcoholic beverages
chips and dip

Yesterday Emily and I went to the Muscle Works class.  Here's what I ate:

BLT with avocado and mayo on toasted wheat bread
chocolate milk
package of M&Ms
package of Mentos
can of sparkling juice

179.2 A New (To Me) Way to Steam Fish

Cod with zucchini and tomatoes en papillote, with mediterranean curry spiced couscous

Last night Jack and I made the above dish using a recipe from our new cookbook, "The Best Light Recipe" by Cook's Illustrated.  It is a traditional French way to steam fish, in which you wrap the fish in parchment paper with a tight seal and cook it in the oven.  Since no steam is allowed to escape, the fish steams perfectly.  This recipe was modified slightly in that it called for aluminum foil instead of parchment paper.  I fell in love with this way to steam fish because recently Jack and I tried to do it in a basket over boiling water and the water boiled too high, getting the fish wet and thus ruining it.  The recipe turned out great and the zucchini, basil, and oregano were from our garden (the tomatoes need a bit more time to ripen).

It would seem that I gained .2 lbs yesterday, but I think that may just be because I went to the gym after eating lunch today (a bit later than usual).  I did my regular workout today and it was really difficult.  I sort of felt like I was dying.  I think that is probably because the last time I did this workout was Friday 6/22, a week and a half ago.  Yesterday for my workout I went to the Muscle Works class then ran for 1 mile and walked half a mile.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
lettuce wrap filling (we were out of lettuce)
hardboiled egg
nectarine
nonfat greek yogurt
a few slices of salami
a few tomato slices with salt
6 oz. cod with zucchini and tomatoes
couscous
small glass of red wine

179.0 Fun, Fattening Weekend

Well, looks like I gained back in Columbia the weight I lost in KC.  For some reason when we go back to Columbia I throw it all to the wind...maybe because we are seeing old friends and maybe because being there reminds me of being in college.

I did not record everything I ate on Friday and Saturday, but it was a lot of unhealthy food and alcoholic beverages (Saturday night I decided I'm on a jalapeno simple syrup kick and had the bartender put it in all my drinks, including beer, which was actually really good.  I'm going to try to make some myself from the jalapenos in our garden.  Supposedly it's very easy).  Last night Jack and I cooked Italian braised chicken thighs, which were excellent, but of course a bit fattening.  Although they were delicious, they were sadly unsatisfying because while it took over 2 hours to make them, they took so little time to eat!  Tonight we are using a recipe for steamed white fish from our new light cookbook (Cooks Illustrated's "The Best Light Recipe").

For my workout Friday I ran 1.5 miles and walked .5 miles.  Saturday I did a few ab exercises but nothing else and Sunday Jack and I swam in the lake on his farm.  Here's what I ate yesterday:

Chalupa from Taco Bell
banana
2 small braised chicken thighs
butter pecan ice cream
2 beers