The Weekend!

It’s finally the weekend. I’m so happy! 4 hours of work this morning was more than enough for me. I’m so spent. We’re supposed to go running tonight but it’s raining and there’s been a bit of thunder and lightening so I’ll have to see if it clears out by 8pm (pretty much the latest we go). Hopefully it will. Good news is that it’s gotten cooler in terms of temperature.

So after my Oikos, Kashi, and blueberry breakfast I was STARVING at 10am. Really starving, like light-headed and confused starving. I’m never hungry that soon so I don’t know what was up. My nectarine looked a little suspect (I had forgotten to put it in the fridge) so I ended up having a few almonds:

Then, when I was still hungry, I had Chuckles that a friend had bought me:

I love Chuckles. I hadn’t had them in probably 18 years or something and then they appeared in the work vending machine. I don’t buy them often, but I enjoy them from time to time. The Chuckles are sitting on top of a box of chocolate I receive from the woman who retired and they’re sitting in front of Babar who I also received from the retiree, but I’ve re-named him after her.

For lunch I went to Qdoba. I rarely go there, but my friend wanted to go. I looked up the nutritional info when I got home and it’s really disgusting:

I got a naked (no tortilla) burrito with chicken and black beans. Besides the cheese there really shouldn’t have been anything awful in it. The amount of fat in just the rice is scary. 6 grams of fat! In rice! Doesn’t that seem like a lot? But every once in a while…

I didn’t take a picture of the burrito because I’m not sure if I want to tell my friends about the blog yet. I think I kind of what to see where I go with it and decide from there.

After lunch I went to Old Navy, Gap, and Banana to see if they had anything I wanted to use my 30% off coupon on. The answer was a big NO. I wasn’t too disappointed because I shouldn’t be spending money, but there are a few things I would like to buy. I was also incredibly frustrated by the fact that they’ve changed their return policy. It used to be 90 days, now it’s 30 so I now can’t return a bunch of stuff I don’t want. As I told the customer service people on the phone, it’s not that I disagree with the policy, I understand the policy, I just think the fact that they don’t make it VERY clear is deceptive. But, oh well, I just won’t shop there so much. Not that my few hundred dollars a year make a big difference.

Then I went to Target and bought more Kashi Heart to Heart and some Popchips and floor cleaner and then I walked to Uncle Louie G’s and got an Italian ice that I ate on the go so no picture. And then I came home to relax. I was exhausted and hot and sweaty and I’ve had the perfect last few hours.

Ok, it’s seemed like the rain has died down a bit. Fingers crossed!

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Friday!

I’m so happy it’s Friday. This was such a killer week at work and, more importantly, it’s the weekend of my first 5k!!! I’m so excited!

Friday’s are also good because we work half a day in the summer. We work longer (8:45-9:30) during the week so we get out at 12:45 on Friday. I think I’m having lunch with a friend and I also want to stop by the Gap to use their 30% off coupon. Hopefully the rain (and lightening) will hold off tonight so we can do our final training run.

For breakfast I’m eating a small container of vanilla Oikos, a cup of Kashi Heart to Heart Blueberry, and half a cup of blueberries. I’ve had maybe 1/4 of it and I feel SO full.

I like to eat a lot for breakfast on Fridays because I often don’t end up leaving work until after 1 and then I usually run some errands before I eat and I like to be able to resist the junk food temptations. I’ll probably have a nectarine at work this morning if I’m hungry or at least before I leave so I don’t get grumpy.

I’m not sure how I feel about yogurt. This is actually the first time I’ve ever had yogurt like this. Normally it freaks me out, the live cutures, the texture, the bitterness, I don’t know, I’ve always been picky about it. But I know it’s good for you and so filling so I decided I would try it and it’s not bad.  I don’t think I could eat it plain, it’s still so bitter, but it’s good like this. We’ll see. It’s so filling right now, hopefully it will hold over into the rest of my day.

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The end of a long few months

I don’t know why but I feel like today is the end of a long few months for me. Obviously I still have the big event of my 5k this weekend, but ever since May it’s been kind of go, go, go and I feel like today it kind of came to a head.

That might be because I cried so much today. When I said good bye to the woman who’s retiring I was practically bawling. I felt like an idiot. But I really liked her, she had an amazing sense of humor and was a real presence in the office. Plus there’s not a lot of VPs at a company who spend so much time and are so kind and caring towards assistants. She really meant a lot to me and I’ll miss her.

Ok, happier subjects! What could be happier than food? I ended up having an Emergen-C this morning:

The taste is kind of growing on me.

While I was walking to work I ended up stopping to get an OJ for more vitamin C:

And when I went to get the OJ I was bad and got a chocolate croissant that I ended up eating at our morning break from the meetings:

I also had half of a chocolate krispy kreme doughnut. I was bad today. In fact, since starting this blog I’ve been really bad with food. For lunch I had half a turkey wrap, tortilla chips, blackberries, and a few Pepperidge farm cookies.

During the break this afternoon we had toritlla chips, mango salsa, and margaritas for this taco book we’re doing. I’m pretty sure my margarita was 90% tequila so I just had a few sips.

I stayed late at work crying and when I got home at 7:30 or so I had a nectarine before I went running, I only photographed it when I was almost done:

Then we went running, we did 3 miles in almost 32 minutes. Obviously it’s really slow, but it’s so amazing for us.

I didn’t really want to eat when I got home, but I figured I needed food after my run and to help keep the cold away. I ended up having a black bean quesadilla with sauteed onions and a little bit of cheddar cheese I had left over:

Oh and some guacamole I made the other day. I wanted to make green beans or cut up some grape tomatoes, but I was just too tired.

Plus I opened a new bottle of wine.

I need to look up the exact name but I bough it originally because it’s from a winery called Maggiore which is like my last name! I’ve actually been to the town in Italy called Maggiore so I feel even more of a connection!

For dessert I had a vanilla chip ice from Uncle Louie:

I’m so excited I get to sleep until 6:30 tomorrow. Next week it’s waking up at 5:45  again so I can do the 30 Day Shred. I got the DVD in the mail today and I’m actually watching it while I write the post. I’ll probably watch it one more time before I do it just so I get the hang of it.

Good night!

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Another Rough Morning

I have to buy fruit again this morning, but at least now I know where to go. However now I feel a bit under the weather. My roommate gave me an Emergen-C last night and another one to have this morning. Hopefully I can either hold off whatever this is or it comes today and is passes by Sunday. I’m going to be so upset if I can’t run this race.

I didn’t end up going to bed so early last night. I ended up watching Top Chef from last week and then going to bed after that.

Before I went to bed I won a contest on one of the blogs that I read, Healthy Tipping Point. Caitlin was giving away a Shoewallet and my comment was one of the winners! I just wish had the wallet this weekend, but it will still be very helpful, of course. What I really need this weekend is somewhere to put my camera. I need to take a picture when we’re finished and I don’t know where to put it. I thought maybe one of those things people wear around their necks at water parks? But where can I buy one in NYC?

Now breakfast:

More Kashi Heart to Heart with skim milk (still hasn’t gone bad!). I’m a classic food repeater. I find something I like and then I eat it over and over and over again. Clearly I need to branch out for the purposes of this blog.

I’ll have a chocolate Vitamuffin when I get to work:

I’ll have another nectarine for a snack and then lunch provided by work again. It’s another day of meetings.

I need to get there early again today not only to check my emails and voicemails, but becaues I’ve yet to write the 3 presentations I’m doing this morning. Yesterday’s presentations went very well, btw. Ok, off to finish getting ready.

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Lame Post

I am exhausted. And I don’t feel very well so this is going to be short, to the point, and then I’m off to bed. A few people at work have been sick and I really don’t want to be sick before or during the 5k on Sunday. Plus I still have 2 more practice runs to do.

Food: so I ate my chocolate Vitamuffin once I got to work. Before that I stopped at Starbucks to get an iced green tea lemonade, but they were out of iced tea (yeah, it’s weird) so I got a passion iced tea in instead. During the break I ate my nectarine, I love nectarines. For lunch I had a grilled chicken wrap, a small salad with red wine vinaigrette dressing, a few blackberries, and a few Pepperidge Farm cookies. At the retirement party, which was lovely and amazing and I’ll have to talk more about another time, I had 2 small glasses of white wine and a beer. And 2 chicken skewers, a few (small) pieces of bread, and a slice of cake.

I don’t think I’m going to eat dinner. I think I might just go to bed at 8:39. Sad, but true.

One bad experience with food today. As you know I left my apartment early to buy fruit. I assumed, because why not, that all grocery stores opened at 7 at the latest. Well I get to the grocery store on my way to the subway and it’s not open yet! Outrageous. So then I had to walk backwards, in my skirt, in the heat, to go to another grocery store. But the fruit I bought was delicious. And I get to do it all over again tomorrow.

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A Rough Morning

I actually woke up with my alarm at 5:45 this morning. I have to stop at the grocery store on the way to work and buy fruit and our meetings start at 9:15 so I want to be there by 8:30 at the latest.

Why do I have to buy fruit? It’s for the lunch the company provides because we sit in all-day meetings. They used to do a big catered lunch with fancy sandwiches or salmon and an orzo salad, tons of fresh fruit, elaborate desserts, etc. Well, the recession came and they now order sandwiches from the local deli (which I like better), buy a few bags of chips, get a few boxes of Pepperidge Farm cookies, and send me out to buy $50 worth of fruit. Unfortunately there are no grocery stores close to my office so I have to stop in Brooklyn which means I have to carry the fruit onto the subway.

And, once I get to the city, I need to go to the ATM to get money so that I can then go back to the Greenmarket to buy my own fruit (and veggies) for the rest of the week.

Then meetings, meetings, meetings. But this evening is a party! A work party, but still a party! This amazing woman who I love is retiring. She’s been with the company for 42 years (the company has only been around for 60, so that’s saying something) and she started as a temp and worked her way up to VP. I’m so sad that she’s retiring and I won’t see her bright outfits and hear her laugh every day, but I’m happy that she will get to enjoy retired life.

To breakfast:

Another bowl of Kashi Heart to Heart Blueberry and skim milk.

I was kind of concerned because of the date on my milk:

It says 07 28 if you can’t make that out. Today is the 29th so it’s a day past. But it smelled ok and it tastes fine. I know with grocery store milk you have some wiggle room, I’m just not sure about milk that’s fresh off the farm. But we’ll see. I can’t buy more until Saturday so hopefully it will hold out.

When I get to work I’ll have a chocolate Vitamuffin:

And a nectarine for a snack.

I’m wearing a dress to work:

It’s actually the same dress I was wearing in my first post, but that version was white. I saw the dress on sale in J. Crew and since the white one is too big for me I decided to buy the smaller size. I think this is a bit too small though, but I’m throwing a cardigan over it so hopefully it will be fine. It seems like I should dress up for the retirement party. And for my presentation.

I’m off to do my makeup so I can leave and buy fruit!

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My Evening

I didn’t end up going running. My friend had texted me to say that she was stuck late at work so rather than going alone I decided to do my Bikini Ready Fast! DVD. I really like this workout. It was recommended to me by another friend and it really works for me. I don’t except to quickly be able to wear a bikini, but I’ve been doing it for a few weeks and I can definitely feel the impact of the work on my arm and leg muscles when I run. Ultimately I want my strength training to compliment my cardio work.

Following my workout I made dinner:

There are wax beans, which I had never had before, but I saw them at the Greenmarket on Saturday and thought I’d try; they’re ok, I think I prefer green beans.  And then two little skinless, boneless chicken breasts with a little bit of crumbled bleu cheese and cooked shallots on top. I cooked the wax beans in the shallots and then used them to melt the bleu cheese. This is one of my favorite meals. It’s easy and delicious. Plus I had the last glass from my bottle of Chateau L’Ermitage.

Then I had my favorite thing, a vanilla chip Italian ice from Uncle Louie:

The rest of my night was spent finishing Weeds from last night, going over my presentation for work tomorrow, catching up on my blog reading, and now I’m getting ready to catch up on Twitter and go to bed.

One last thing that is SO me. Since we have the 5k coming up on Sunday I’m trying very hard not to injure myself. I’m kind of klutzy and I’m always doing stupid things so I’m really trying to be careful. I’m watching where I walk on the sidewalk and street, I’m trying to stay away from sick people, etc. Well this morning I was leaving my apartment and somehow when I went to go out the front door of our building I slammed the door into my big toe:

I know it’s an awful picture (clearly my photography needs to improve for the purposes of this blog), but that purplish mark on the right side of my big toe? Not normally there. It hurt like all hell when I did it and was pretty sore all morning and now after pulling on it to get the picture it’s a little sore, but I think I’ll be ok.

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My Day

My day was exhausting. This is a week of meetings at work. This morning we had an company-wide meeting to recap the first half of the year and lay out goals for the second half; this afternoon was a 3 and a half hour meeting about our backlist titles; tomorrow and Thursday are day-long presales meetings about our spring 2010 lists. I’m presenting titles both tomorrow and Thursday and I wrote my 10 or so presentations in about half an hour this morning so I need to work on those tonight.

I thought I could come home and relax, but my running partner wants to go today and Friday, not Thursday and Friday like I had planned. That means I’m running 3 days in a row, which I don’t like, and that I have less time to do stuff tonight. But I’ll make it work.

Onto food…I ended up having half an everything bagel with a tiny, tiny little bit of scallion cream cheese, half a marble muffin, and a small glass of orange juice at the company meeting. Not great, but not terrible. At least I didn’t go for the chocolate croissant.

For lunch I had the leftover onions and peppers from last night’s meal with pasta:

I bought this pasta at the health food store the other day and I really like it. It’s a whole-grain pasta made with spelt, quinoa, and amaranth. It’s not as nutty as other whole wheat/grain pastas and it stays nice and al dente.

Then I had a nectarine, garlic knot (bad), and a 1/4 of a bagel with a little more cream cheese.

For my afternoon snack I had a chocolate mint Vitamuffin vitatop. I’m not so much into the processed foods, but I like Vitamuffins. There’s nothing awful in them and they’re packed with healthy things. Plus they’re super filling. Unfortunately the chocolate mint batch that I received was defective and had too much mint extract, so they’re a little over powering, but Vitamuffin is sending me more free of charge.

Now, before I go running, I’m snacking on blueberries, sour cherries, and a few tiny slices of cheddar cheese:

Plus lots of water. I’m off to stretch, let’s hope the rain holds off!

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My Daily Routine

Good morning!

I thought I’d write a little about my daily routine each day.

My alarm goes off at 5:46, on a good day I wake up and work out until around 6:30, on bad days (which are what I’ve been having recently), I go back to bed until 6:30. Then I get up, get in the shower, get out, make breakfast and sometimes lunch for the day.

Then I eat my breakfast while playing around on my computer (like right now), do my makeup, get dressed, and I’m out of my apartment by 8am.

Sometimes I think my commute is the best part of my day. I live in Brooklyn and I work in Manhattan (“the city”) and I’m lucky enough (I say lucky only on nice days, in the dead of winter or the rain it sucks) to live about half a mile from the closest subway.

Here’s my commute:

To the subway:

That’s .53 miles.

Walk to work from the Manhattan subway:

That’s .47 miles.

Walk home in the evening (I take a different train):

That’s .64 miles.

(all images taken from Map My Run)

That’s a total of 2.11 miles every day excluding a formal “workout.” And I’m a rapid walker. I do each of these segments in under 10 minutes.

I’ll finish my evening routine tonight.

I didn’t post what I ate for dinner last night, but I did photograph it.

This isn’t just gruel, it’s sausage, onion, peppers, and potatoes. Not a healthy meal, I know, but a few weeks ago I saw sausage at the Greenmarket and I had to try it. It’s delicious. I had to buy 4 links so I’ve been eating them every few weeks. I also don’t add any oil or cheese or anything so I’m not adding any fat to the already fatty dish.

With dinner I had a delicious wine:

It’s from a vineyard called Chateau L’Ermitage. I bought it from one of my favorite wine stores, Smith and Vine, and their description was “Like eating melon with a limestone spoon.” I don’t know if that’s my impression, but it is very good, although a bit sweet.

I also had a vanilla chip Italian ice from Uncle Louie G’s. I am a huge fan of Uncle Louie. His Italian ices are low in calories and fat and cheap ($2 for a regular which is the perfect size). I didn’t get a picture of it last night, but I’ll take one tonight.

Breakfast this morning is complicated. I just ate a cup of Kashi Heart to Heart Blueberry with half a cup of skim milk.

Milk (which, to the annoyance of everyone I know and for no good reason I pronouce “melk”) has always been something I’m picky about. It freaks me out, it’s like cow pee! But a few weeks ago I decided that I needed to learn to like milk. I decided if I was going to do it it would have to be hormore-free, organic, real milk, not mass-produced milk.

So one Saturday at the Greenmarket I bought chocolate milk from Milk Thistle Farm. I loved it, it was like a milk shake. It was also whole milk. Clearly I couldn’t go on drinking whole milk so the next week I went and I bought skim milk:

For a few days I tried drinking it plain and I just couldn’t stand it. I hated it. So it sat in the fridge for a few days before I decided I would try it over cereal. I have vague memories of having cereal and milk from when I was very young, so I probably hadn’t had it in 20 years. I bought the Kashi Heart to Heart and poured some milk over it Sunday when I got back from running and I LOVE IT! It’s so good. The cereal is soggy but still crunchy and the milk is just a little sweet from the cereal. It’s brilliant!

And that’s how I learned to like milk.

Normally I have fruit and a Vitamuffin with breakfast but this morning we’re having a company-wide meeting at work so they’re providing us with bagels. I haven’t had a bagel in maybe 2 months or so and I’ve been dying for one, so I decided I’ll eat one. Not very good for me, I know, but indulging when I feel the need to is important to me. I might try for half a bagel with just a little cream cheese, but we’ll see what happens.

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Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. This is going to be a rather long introductory post, so bare with me.

This blog is my attempt to document my goal of being a healthy person and, in particular, a healthy eater. I am an incredibly picky person, not only in terms of food, but with everything in life. But it’s food where my pickiness has been a real issue. I’ve always been overweight, sometimes more overweight, sometimes less overweight, but always overweight.

My heaviest was when I graduated college:

I was 202lbs, maybe evener heavier as I didn’t get on a scale until about a month after graduation. At the time I was shocked that I was over 200lbs. Even being overweight my entire life I never imagined I’d be over 200lbs. I’m 5’4 so that was massive for me.

A month after I graduated college (so July 2007) I was unemployed, living with my parents, and generally stressed and miserable about life. So what did I decide to do? I decided to lose weight! Between July and October I got down to around 182–20lbs, not bad!

Then, October 1, I started my job. Of course I was happy to finally be employed, but with a job comes birthday parties with cupcakes and wine, holiday parties with baked goods and wine, lots of options for unhealthy lunches, and a crazy schedule that doesn’t lend itself to exercising and dieting.

I managed to keep the weight off until the summer of 2008 when I moved to a different department at my company, a department known for having candy and snacks around. I was also really depressed, I didn’t quite realize it at the time, but I think I was having a difficult time adjusting to life in the city and making new friends and working and having my own place. Anyway, I turned to food and ended up gaining back about 10lbs which put me in the low-190s.

I kind of continued on at that weight for a while until, like every other American, New Years came and I decided I should get fit. For about 3 weeks I woke up early every morning to workout. Three mornings a week I did the elliptical trainer and 2 mornings I did a free weight routine. That went well until I injured my big toe and could barely walk, so that weight loss routine went out the window.

Fast forward to March and I decide to go back to the working out. Again I did 3 mornings of the elliptical and 2 of weights. I felt more energetic, I slept better, and I was happier, but I wasn’t losing weight.

I have to say that the number the scale tells me isn’t the most important thing. I care more about how I feel and what the doctor tells me. In the summer of 2006 I was told, for the first time, that my blood pressure was high. I don’t remember the exact number but it was something like 140/99. I never had to go on medication, but it was always a concern for me. I love salty foods (bad, I know) and my grandfather and my father (the healthiest person I know) have high blood pressure so I had genetics and my weight working against me.

Back to the story. So it was March and I was not losing weight even though I was exercising and attempting to eat a healthy diet. It turns out that people at my office had the same concerns about weight loss; one of them was doing Jenny Craig and another was doing Weight Watchers. I’ve never been a fan of processed food (and I’m broke) so I knew Jenny Craig wasn’t an option for me. Weight Watchers I had never liked, in fact I never liked any diet, but nevertheless I decided I’d try Weight Watchers, but I’d do it my way.

For me this meant eating REAL food, not the processed Weight Watchers food. That was the most important thing to me. I didn’t want to eat Weight Watchers bread or Skinny Cow ice cream; I wanted whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein. So on April 13 I started WW with a weight of 191.4lbs. As of today I weight 171.8lbs, a net loss of 19.6lbs!

Here I am about 10lbs ago, so in the low-180s:

I’m happy to say that when I put on that dress now it literally falls off of me.

What am I doing in addition to Weight Watchers? I continued to workout every morning and starting in the middle of May I began to do the Couch to 5k program with my friend Laura. There are not enough nice things for me to say about the Couch to 5k program. I’ve never been able to run for more than a few minutes and then I was in pain, I had shin splints, I hurt my ankle, my muscles would be sore for days, blah, blah, blah. But the Couch to 5k is completely different. We’re on our last week and on Sunday we’re running our first 5k! I tear up just thinking about it, I can’t begin to tell you what a sense of accomplishment it gives me to say that. When I finish running, like tonight when I did 31 minutes and 44 seconds and I did the last minute and a half up a big hill, I feel like I could do anything, and that’s why I’m doing this. And my legs look fantastic :).

Unfortunately as I’ve gotten into the longer runs I’ve slacked with the morning workouts. My goal for August is to get back into morning workouts with Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred which I’ll start on August 3, the day after our 5k. But in addition to the running, in place of the morning workouts, I’ve added a great DVD, Bikini Ready Fast:

I’ve had other DVDs from the instructor, Ellen Barrett and I liked them, but I think this one is really fantastic. It’s not too hard, but it’s definitely a great workout, I was massively sore after the first few days!

So that’s the history of my weight and my weight loss attempts. I don’t think I’ve ever been honest about all of that with anyone!

Where do I go from here…

• My next goal on WW is 5% of my current weight (I like doing percents) which is 8.6lbs and would bring me to 163.2lbs
• For the purposes of this blog I’m going to try to blog at least twice a day about what I’m eating and doing for workouts. I don’t know if anyone will read what I write here (if someone’s reading this please comment!) and I certainly don’t have lofty dreams of a book and/or movie deal (I work in publishing, I’m realistic), but I think this will be a good way to track what I’m doing and maybe even motivate other people to do right by their bodies.
• And now it’s bedtime!

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