Week 8, Day 1: 6.4 pound weight loss

The water weight from last week's funeral food is gone along with a few more pounds. I did try to tip the scales in my favor a bit by going for a moderately aggressive 10 mile ride before weighing in, so that I'd sweat and breathe off my three big cups of morning coffee.

Today was a three milestone day, weight-wise, whee!

• 10% of body weight lost
• Remaining weight loss now in double digits
• Weight now under A.Significant.Number.

I made a nice, cheap, low calorie entree last week -- bean salad with crunchy vegetables. The ingredients:

2 cups cooked pink kidney beans
1 cup fat free yogurt
1 T olive oil
one large red pepper, diced
two stalks of celery, diced
some tex-mex seasonings (a chili blend, some Tabasco or cayenne, I forget which)

Yield: 2 entrees
Cost per entree: about $.85
Points per entree: 4.5

Hee.

The beans were on sale at $.79/lb when I bought them. I cooked up 2 lb and froze them. The red peppers were on sale, also at $.79/lb. I think the most expensive item was the cup of Stonyfield yogurt, about $1.00.

I did everything cooking-wise that I said I was going to do, except that one of the beef eyes went into the freezer whole because I forgot to cut it up and it needed to be frozen NOW. The chicken fed me Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday...it fed Mr. Southphl and me for Wednesday dinner and for two meals on Thursday. By then we were heartily sick of it, although we still had two perfectly good leg-thigh combinations remaining. So into the pot it went, hindquarters and all, and we'll have an unbelievably rich chicken stock to add flavor to things.

So far, this weight loss thing is working out pretty well. But Monday I get on a plane for a conference and don't come back till Saturday. Apples and Clif bars in the suitcase and we'll see how well I cope with hotel food, reception food, etc.

Week 7, Day 1: 1.4 pound weight gain

The excesses of last week showed up on the Weight Watcher scale this morning: a 1.4 pound weight gain over last week. This despite a bike ride last night and another this morning. Judging by the look of my hands, I'm still packing a heap of water.

Last night for dinner I had about 1-1/2 cups of cooked [frozen] spinach with a little bit of olive oil, a cup of nonfat yogurt, and a small apple. That's the most spartan dinner I can ever recall eating, and I was fully satisfied. Imagine that.

This morning's bike ride was a leisurely spin down to The Lakes and then a fairly aggressive three circuits of The Lakes, then on to Weight Watchers and then home. I am guesstimating that at about 12 miles.

My husband is going out of town tomorrow, and will be gone for several days. I think I'll roast a chicken tonight and feed on the carcass while he's gone. They're on sale at the PathMark. SuperFresh has big round roasts on sale and I'll get one or two of those and cut them up for medallions of beef the way I do with pork tenderloin. Tomorrow I think I'll make big batches of brown rice and barley.

Week 6, Day 7: A time to cast away diets

My oldest dearest friend of my youth lost her husband Sunday and called me moments after his death. That was my cue to make plane reservations so that my husband and I could fly out and be there for the viewing and the funeral.

This did not strike me as a time to beat myself up over sticking to program. I gave myself permission to eat anything I wanted as long as I wrote it down. And that's about what I did. I was a careful eater on the trip until after the viewing -- when I wanted a robust late supper including a couple of drinks. I also fortified myself before the funeral the next morning with several helpings of scrambled eggs from the breakfast buffet, plus a small container of yogurt. After the funeral I ate two sandwiches from the buffet plus two large cookies and a couple bites of this and that. Once we left and were at the airport waiting to come home I had pasta primavera (with olive oil but no creamy sauce) and a glass of wine, plus another glass on the plane. I wrote everything down but didn't do the math.

Today I added up the points. Unsurprisingly, I blew through all my bonus points, and I went about eight points in the hole. But I'm a little surprised it was no worse than it was.

Today I'm on program but it's a bit of a struggle again. A late evening bike ride may get me back in the swing of things. I even think I'm willing to face the music at weigh-in tomorrow.

Monday morning quarterbacking the funeral luncheon, I now realize that if I'd moved the chips from the big table on the patio and replaced them with the tray of raw veggies I could have eaten compulsively all afternoon and still stayed on program. The veggies were off in a location where no one was eating them. 20/20 hindsight and all that.

Week 6, Day 3: Arm exercises

After frying my knees and ankles by cycling a little too aggressively over the weekend, I thought I'd move to some arm exercises -- especially since my upper arms are to floppy to be seen in public, even during this horrendous heat wave.

Of course, most arm exercises involve using weights, and buying weights involves spending money. However, for the moment, a one-pound weight is about all I need, and a 1.25 pint water bottle full of water will take care of that nicely. I have a nice collection of pebbles from my gardening projects, too, so when I need more weight, I can try adding some pebbles.

So. For today's exercises I did two sets of 20 of that triceps thing where you point your elbow toward the ceiling and then raise your forearm, and two sets of alternating biceps curls. I'd do some crunches for my gut but I don't feel like it.

Some easy exercises here.

Week 6, Day 1: 5.2 lb weight loss last week

The metrics from today's weigh-in:
Weight loss last week: 5.2 pounds
Weight loss to date: 26 pounds

My physician ought to be pleased. I'm certainly pleased.

Before weighing in this morning, I got on my bike and rode downalakes (down to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, aka "the lakes"), then then round the lakes three times, and thence to my Weight Watchers meeting. By the time I got there, my tank top was sopping wet, so I went into the ladies' room and changed into a dry one, reflecting that I probably sweated and breathed off a couple of pounds on the way in.

We read in the paper last night that the price of pork is likely to rise sharply in the coming months. Perhaps the purchase of another couple of pork loins is called for. Either that or eternal vigilance looking for the sales.

I bet there's some cheap produce at the Reading Terminal Market. But I don't much feel like slogging through the 95+ degree heat to find out.

Week 5, Day 6: Dieting on the road

Getting up at 4:00 a.m. for a one-day jaunt to Pittsburgh is't exactly my notion of fun. But I'm enjoying, I think, the challenge of staying on my diet while on the road.

Point count so far

4 -- breakfast, 2 hard-boiled eggs, cooked last night
2 -- 2 oz chicken in a kebob at lunch
1 -- misc fats and oils in lunch
0 -- small salad w/mustard dressing (maybe 1/2 tsp, counted in above)
0 -- approx 1/2 c steamed whole beans
3 -- NuGo smarte carb energy bar* -- snack at airport
---
10


*TheNuGo smarte carb bar replaces the Cliff Bar I brought along. Nutrition values are 160 cal, 4 g fat, 200 mg sodium, 24 g carb (16g sugar alcohol), 16g protein. It's not the most tasty bar around, nor is the mouth feel as satisfying as the Cliff bar. Next time I think I'll spend the extra point.

Because there's free wireless, I'm relaxing at the airport and enjoying myself playing on the internet. This morning I walked up and down a fair bit.

I have plenty of points left for a nice lamb & barley dinner when I get home.

Folks at the meeting noticed my haircut,which is the most dramatic change in my appearance since I saw them last. But they commented that something else was different. I don't know if they were reacting to the weight loss or the smug sense of self-mastery I suspect myself of projecting.

Week 5, Day 2: An Atypical Day

We went for a 15 mile slow-but-steady bike ride, including a couple gentle hills, punctuated by some walking about and taking of pictures (here's one, of Boelsen Cottage along the Schuylkill, to the right), and ending up with a romp through the PathMark and a hauling back of (for me) about 40 lb of stuff in panniers and bags bungeed to the back.

I've about got the cheap meats and starches licked but woof, those fresh vegetables are expensive. I mean, I bought another 7 lb chicken for six bucks and it will see us through for many many servings, but the fresh broccoli we ate last night set me back about $2.50. Must buy more from the $.99 table at O.K. Lee, or ration the broccoli (I think we each had two servings, but I haven't quite got the knack of estimating portion size of fresh veggies).

Having messed up on the timing for my breakfast, I breakfasted on a Clif bar, wondering if it would upset my appetite all day to have missed my morning omelet. It didn't, and I had my omelet for lunch instead.

I used the cute little slider thing to calculate my earned exercise points. Using the lowest intensity (not sweating), I earned nine points for my morning's entertainment! And I didn't use them. Must remember to ask my leader whether I can count all my points, or whether they're like fiber points -- only 4 allowed.

Peaches were also on sale at the Pathmark, so I splurged and bought three small ones. Blanched and peeled, then sliced, then served with a cup of plain nonfat yogurt and nutmeg, they were more tasty than ice cream to me. In fact, ice cream has become a weird and repellent food to me -- too greasy, too sweet. Let's hope that feeling sticks and isn't just early-diet virtue.