Despite Sandy’s best efforts, there was no “damage” to our home or property. A lot of tree limbs and small branches that died during the October 2011 snowstorm fell down, and the yard is a leafy mess again, but that’s it. Power never even flickered, but I still got two hurricane days off from work, so I’m happy to have – once again – avoided an actual hurricane (she was only a post-tropical system and we only got the outer bands).
I started feeling pretty lousy shortly after waking up on Monday. I chalked it up to my brain saying, “Oh, I get a pass today? Cool. Let’s shut it down.” I was exhausted. I napped, lounged around in my PJs, and never left the house. My crockpot meal was delicious, but I woke up around 3 a.m. with horrible stomach pains. I ended up getting sick a few times, but when I woke up Tuesday around 9:30 a.m., the pain was gone. However, within an hour or so, it was back along with all the symptoms of a head cold – blocked ears, headache, congestion (different from the post-surgery congestion I’ve had for a month), chills, extra runny nose, and just general aches and fatigue. I laid pretty low until my dietitian appointment.
My dietitian, KT, is a little bit odd, but she’s probably used to obese diabetics. She really spelled everything out for me even though I admitted I know how and what to eat, but cravings take over. We set four goals for me:
1. Eat better breakfasts so I’m not starving 90 minutes later. I can still have oatmeal, but I need to add fruit or protein to it. I am going to alternate that with an egg scramble that includes one egg plus two egg whites (or was it one yolk and two egg whites?), equal parts chopped veggies (today was red, yellow, orange peppers and mushrooms), and turkey sausage if I want it. It was great. I wasn’t ravenous at 10 a.m., and knowing I had to make real food encouraged me to wake up earlier, which makes me feel a lot less stressed in the morning. I tend to sleep until the last possible minute, and that’s a bad habit. I even drank my coffee at home instead of making it five minutes before running out the door and then drinking it at my desk. That way, I can start drinking water once I get to work, helping me get more water in.
2. Add fruit or vegetables to every meal, and by vegetables, I don’t mean starchy vegetables like potatoes, or vegetables dripping in butter or dressing. For example, last night and today for lunch I just added a spring mix/baby spinach salad (two cups) with a tablespoon of fat free dressing (Catalina is my current dressing of choice). I tend to eat poorly when I am tired or busy, and that’s every night after work, so I bought a bunch of bags of plain, frozen mixed vegetables that I can steam or microwave to add to my dinner when I get sick of salads.
3. Work out six times a week. This includes hardcore yardwork like the 1,500 calorie day I had on Sunday, but does not include cleaning the house or other small tasks. If I had tried to do an Insanity workout on Sunday, I might have died. I could barely shower after raking the entire yard and putting 40 barrels worth of leaves into the barrels.
4. Stick to 1,200 calories a day. This is total calories, so if I eat 1,500 calories but burn 300 doing a workout, I’m OK. However, the fewer calories I consume, the more weight I lose, so...you do the math.
I see her again in four weeks, which puts us at the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Although we didn’t set this as a goal, I want to try and really cut out sweets (candy, chocolate, ice cream, pastries) between now and then, so that I can splurge a little during the holidays without destroying my progress or feeling bad. The only successful “diet” I’ve ever gone on was when I gave up all the aforementioned sweets for Lent. I think it was my junior or senior year of college, because I was working at Target. I remember bending down to “zone” (Target speak for neaten and pull products forward) a bottom shelf and my pants almost fell down. My totally hot boss noticed and said something about how small I’d gotten and I felt the best about my body that I had in a long, long time (and probably since then). I was a lot smaller to begin with, but I think I remember losing 5-10 pounds during those 40 days and realized how disgusting my eating habits were…because I didn’t do anything differently except avoid sweets. Then again, I also had a ridiculous metabolism back then and I could eat cake for dinner and not gain weight. Now, I eat dinner and then want cake.
We did agree on some alternatives to help satisfy my sweet and salty cravings without falling off the wagon entirely. For salty, I can have a dill pickle (even better since I make my own), plain popcorn (also make my own straight from the kernel with nothing but a few drops of olive oil), kale chips (love them!), pretzels, or nuts—all portion-controlled of course. For sweet, she suggested peanut butter on an apple, frozen fruit bars, any fresh fruit with either Splenda or a small bit of real sugar sprinkled on top (I don’t like using artificial sweeteners), or a banana rolled in a few chocolate chips.
I explained to KT that it’s important to me to eat “clean” while eating healthy. She asked how I felt about frozen meals like Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisines. I told her they are never filling, are loaded with sodium, and taste microwaved (because they are). I don’t know if she was suggesting them or just testing me, but I told her I won’t go that route. However, I did allow myself to buy into the frozen vegetables simply for convenience (yes, I know they lose some nutritional value when frozen) and also picked up a few refrigerated precooked chicken breasts that you can just nuke and either eat plain or add to a sandwich or meal. It sounds gross but I had one last night along with some multigrain bread and a plain salad (working on achieving that perfect plate), and it was really good.
Despite feeling like crap, I have nothing to do tonight, so I planned on doing an Insanity workout tonight (today is cardio power & resistance). I just ate my 460 calorie dinner (pasta with sauce, chicken breast, and mixed veggies), and if I work out, I am in the clear. Otherwise, I am 23 calories over because I indulged in a Mint Three Musketeers mini bar. It's going to be a tough decision. In fairness to myself, my $100 running sneakers that I purchased over the summer are great for running, but terrible for Insanity. Even Shaun T. told me I needed cross-trainers, but I ignored him. I think I'll wait, not because I'm lazy, but because it's so painful in the arches of my feet and then later on I get shin splints.
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