Week 13, Day 1: 2.2 pound weight loss

Given last week's excesses (pizza! martinis!), I'm pretty happy with this weight loss.

Week 12, Day 5: On program (barely)

Yesterday, after my brave resolutions to get back on program, I was ambushed by a pretty blue bottle of Philadelphia-distilled gin. I am happy to report, though, that despite two martinis I managed not to eat the walls and woodwork and ended the day without having to bust into my bonus points.

Dinner was a vegetable extravaganza: the entree was a small mound of brown rice topped by a medley of onions, green peppers, zucchini and mushrooms sauteed in a little bit of olive oil, dry vermouth, and concentrated chicken stock. The vegetables were seasoned with oregano, marjoram, and cayenne. Accompanying this was steamed broccoli lightly dressed with olive oil and more concentrated chicken stock.

For dessert I worked through more of the giant container of blueberries we bought at our granddaughter's suggestion.

This morning, to work off the martinis, I biked 20 miles -- slowly, but I got the miles. Breakfast was quite late, so I'll have a snack to hold me till dinner.

Week 12: Day 4, barely on program

My excuse is that The Grand-Daughter is here. I've had a few wobbles.

Sunday evening: We ordered pizza. The good news is that we ordered one with cheese and vegetables, no fatty meats. The almost-good news is that I almost held the line at two slices. The bad news is that after staring at the third piece for 45 minutes I ate it. Alas, close doesn't count. I wound up using 3 of my bonus points, although I did ride 15 miles. If our leader is wrong and all exercise points count, I would have been even.

Yesterday: no biking, although we walked a little bit on our sightseeing tour, which was mostly by bus. I had my regular omelet for breakfast, salad bar from the Reading Terminal, and a semi-careful dinner at the Union League. I passed up the breads. I had the green salad. I had boar for dinner -- a tablespoon of "pulled pork" in a small polenta cup, a boar chop that couldn't have been an ounce of meat, and a boar sausage that was very dry and, presumably very lean. For dessert I had a baked apple, and I had two glasses of zinfandel. Paperwork remains to be done.

Today I am going to have my omelet and I think I will eat vegetables for the rest of the day. Grand Daughter leaves this evening and we will celebrate by gobbling up all the broccoli in the house.

Week 12, Day 1: Weight loss and exercise report

I've lost more than 9 pounds since my weigh-in two weeks ago. However, my last weigh-in reflected the third in a series of setbacks related to travel to events where I had no control over what was served. (I'll definitely need to work on how to handle that.)

The good news is that I have a net loss of 4 pounds over where I was prior to the setbacks, or a total weight loss of 35 pounds since I started in early May.

This morning I rode:

5.6 miles back and forth from The Lakes
11.9 miles at The Lakes (7 trips around the park)
1.0 miles back and forth to Broad St for the Weight Watchers meeting
----
I make that 17.5 miles in total. And I'm two gears over where I was a couple weeks ago.

In other news, I made another tasty and more-or-less cheap salad last night:

1 pint home-boiled black beans ($.25, if that)
1-1/2 zucchini, cubed (on sale at $.99/lb, probably $.75)
1/2 onion, coarsely diced, if there is such a thing ($.25)
1 medium green pepper (on sale at $.99/lb, probably $.35)
2/3 pint grape tomatoes (the big extravagance at $2.00)
1 stalk celery (maybe $.15?)
1/8 c. olive oil (I think the stuff was $7/liter, which would make that, what, $.25?)
Flavored with Latino stuff: Ancho Mama seasoning, chili powder, cumin, cloves, and a whole lot of Tabasco

Total cost: $4.10
Yield 6 servings $.69
Points per serving: maybe 3?


Mmmm. I'm going to have some with a piece of leftover chicken for lunch, then add rice and use it as the main course for dinner, along with a heap o' vegetables that Mr. Southphl bought at the Farmer's Market this morning.

Week 11, Day 6: Biking routes and distances / weight loss report in Daily News

Home to the Lakes (FDR park): 2.8 miles

Round the Lakes: 1.7 miles

Home to the Lakes, round the Lakes 3x, and back): 10.7 miles

Home to the Union League to Chemical Heritage Foundation, down to Oregon via 4th St, over to the Lakes, round the Lakes 3x, and home: 14.5

Home to the Union League, down to South Philly via 4th St, over to Pattison Ave, down to the Lakes @ 20/Pattison, round the Lakes 3x and home: 16.7 miles

Google maps/directions is a fine mileage calculator. No need for an onboard computer.

So far this week, I've biked 10.7, 10.7, 14.5, and 16.7. That would be more than 50 miles, and I still have two days of "this week" to go. This plus scrupulous adherance to "the program" ought to reward me on the scales Saturday morning.

In other news, the Philadelphia Daily News reports a two-year study wherein both the low carb and the Mediterranean diets beat out low-fat for weight loss AND cholesterol. Heee.

Week 11, Day 2: So where was I?

Oh, poop. Another business trip, another week of program shot to smithereens. I stopped journaling my food entries on Wednesday. I didn't go to the meeting on Saturday, either.

However, hope springs eternal. I picked up a couple extra journals last week, so I started over yesterday. With ten-mile bike rides yesterday and today. I think I'm ready to recommit to the program, even if my motivation seems to have gone on holiday.

Week 10, Day 1: 5.4 pound weight gain

Sigh. I was expecting a weight gain, and I guess five pounds over two weeks is about right.

It's mostly water weight, I think. I hope.

The Los Angeles trip was hard on my ability to stay on the program. Although I had packed apples and Clif bars for emergencies, I had expected to be able to make more food choices that included my usual strategy -- to eat heaps of vegetables. No such luck. Not at the airport, not form room service (except at one heck of a price), not from the food available at the conference.

I didn't find a grocery store within walking distance of the hotel. My order of vegetable curry at an Indian restaurant was long on sauce and short on vegetables -- I saw two pieces of potato, a tiny carrot cube and a green bean. I ordered a plate of steamed vegetables from room service and almost fainted at the $30 tab. Filling out my food diary was a struggle. I took to scribbling what I'd eaten in tiny writing in the margins of the notes I was taking at the sessions. It was a chronicle of a downward spiral -- although I never did break into the bags of fatty snax or candy bars they had thoughtfully left in my room.

By Thursday I had pretty much given up, even on writing down what I ate in the margins. I ate what I wanted at the Thursday dinner buffet -- lots of Mexican food and a big piece of cake at dessert. Oh, and champagne. Friday I ate my box lunch, cookies and all, andwhen I moved to the Hampton Inn my choice was pizza delivery, $15 minimum, so I wound up with a Mexican pizza and a big green salad. I ate the toppings off the pizza and ate the salad.

Saturday morning I had some improbable "fried eggs" from the breakfast buffet, plus a biscuit with gravy because I felt like it. I had a salad entree at the airport, and a Clif bar and apple during the flight (which was delayed).

Riding home from the airport at 3:00 a.m., the car in which I was a passenger was rear-ended on the Schuylkill Expressway. I wasn't injured but I was pretty shaken up, literally and figuratively. I got home around 3:30 a.m., tired and hungry. My husband was in Roanoke. The dog wasn't much company at that hour. There wasn't a thing in the house to eat that didn't require defrosting and cooking except for two small bags of potato chips. I poured myself a big glass of whiskey and ate all the potato chips. The rest of the week I was off-kilter -- jet lagged, sore muscles and a bit of a back-ache, rattling around the house by myself. There were no fresh vegetables and I didn't feel like shopping. I pigged out on beans and rice and cheese.

Today is my first day back on program, although I don't think I did too badly yesterday. We did go to the PathMark and I got lots of fresh broccoli, fresh green beans, fresh mushrooms, fresh zucchini.

Week 9, Day 7: A vacation from weight-watching

I spent the week of June 23-28 traveling to Los Angeles, attending a conference, and then traveling back. I have spent the past five days recovering from jet lag and minor physical effects from having been in an automobile that was rear-ended as I came home from the airport at 3:00 a.m.

I believe that my "excesses" would have seemed like spartan eating before I started Weight Watchers...and while in LA I did a fair amount of walking. Today I have gotten back on program, and I've walked a couple of miles, and I'll see how bad the damages are tomorrow morning when I weigh in.