Daily Calories

Today's Total is 1895

I faced couple challenges today. I had a sausage Mcmuffin no egg from McDonald's for breakfast and a slice of Pizza from Sam's club for dinner. I did have plenty of fruits and vegetables with my lunch and snacks.

My biggest challenge today included my old "Candy Bar Club". For a time period of about a month, three of my co-workers and I created a Candy Bar Club. This involved buying four candy bars and then handing them out to the other members and yourself. This usually occurred three times a week. I was basically eating three King Size candy bars a week for an afternoon snack. Much to the chagrin of my club mates, I quite two weeks ago. Two of the members are trying to keep it alive and the person who sits next to me brought in six candy bars today and left them lying on her desk out in the open.

This included a Hershey bar with nuts, a Kit Kat, and Reece's Peanut Butter Cups. Have I ever mentioned that these are my three favorite candy bars? It was killing me all day to have to walk by them. But, I said no as I know I had a fast food breakfast and there was pizza on the horizon for dinner. I was doing good until I went back to my desk at 4:15 and the Hershey bar had jumped to my desk. I practically yelled, "Who the Fu*k put this Hershey bar on my desk!" I was very upset as I didn't want it in my vicinity. I did put it back, but it was sending me over the edge.

I had my second personal training session today with Hadley and she was great. My legs are still aching!

Daily Calories

I am currently at 1720 calories for the day. I am going to have another small snack in a bit and that should take me up to about 1900. I did it again! I stayed inside of my daily calories and I even turned down an offer to eat at Texas Roadhouse. You know I really wanted to eat there, but I would have totally blown my day. The rolls alone would have killed me. I want to save my cheat day for next Saturday when we are going to Bloomington for the day. I am sure there will be wine and a scrumptious place to eat.

After biking today for 2 hours I decided to go to my brothers house to wash his car for fathers day. When I got there he didn't want me to touch his precious BMW under the guise that he washed it on Saturday. So I washed Tracy's car instead and as soon as I began my arms were killing me. I guess this is the result of the horrendous car waxing I did on Saturday. It was all I could do to finish the task and I think I was moving like a snail.

Next weeks extra activity involves balls. I guess I will have to encourage the children to play soccer with me a couple times. I am sure Taylor, Paige and Sarah will be up to the challenge.

On an odd side note I got sunburned in the funniest place today. I forgot to put my watch on today and that little 1/2 inch spot on my left wrist is bright red. I found it vaguely amusing.

Wax On....Wax Off

Nutrition Counseling

I had my second nutrition counseling session with M today. I met her a Marsh and she took me grocery shopping. I thought I could benefit from this. I hoped it would help me make good choices at the store. As much as I like M, I don't think that I found this service useful. 95% of the things that we went over I already know. I am not trying to be a know it all or anything, but I guess I just need to put what I know into practice.

She did bring me some good recipes and I picked a couple to use as meals for next week. She helped me pick the best options for that food choice. At the end of our meeting I asked her about the payment and she said that I could call the gym with my credit card number. I had assumed that this service was $55 because that is the one hour rate. I was mistaken. It was $79. I about had a heart attack on the phone. That was almost how much I spent on my weekly groceries. I really don't think that I want to pay for this service anymore.

Things that M tried to teach me at the store:

1. Buy as many fruits and vegetables that I can eat.
2. Shop in the perimeter of the store and stay away from the interior boxed foods.
3. Buy low fat cheese not the fat free variety because it sucks.
4. Don't buy ice cream as it appears that I am unable to control myself around it.
5. Oatmeal with frozen blueberries is one of the best things that I can eat for breakfast.
6. Clean and prep the vegetables when I come home so I will be more likely to eat them.

This is about it. I bought lots of good groceries and have a plan for the week. BTW...I made these terrific turkey feta meatballs for dinner and they were divine. I cooked them and they tasted good...it was a miracle. I also made some sweet potato baked french fries. Dinner was good after my crazy afternoon.

Let me explain. I mowed and trimmed the lawn this afternoon for about an hour. It was blasted hot outside and I had to come inside and collapse on the couch to recover. About an hour into Sense and Sensibility (I LOVE this movie...the end makes me cry every time) I got my energy back and went outside to wash and then gasp...gasp...gasp...wax my car. I now know I have gone insane. What ever possessed me to wax my car? I don't mind washing the car, I have done it before and it isn't that much work. But wax it? That is hard! My arms were killing me. I am not kidding. About an hour into the project I started to drink some water and my arm was shaking at the effort to hold up the water bottle. As if! I NEVER want to do it again. I would rather do so many other horrible things than wax my car. But, I had to finish. I couldn't just stop waxing halfway through right? This tortuous task took me 2.5 hours to complete and I was excited to collapse on the couch again.

As I was doing these things I was thinking to myself that I just didn't do enough today. Why would I have that thought? Isn't all that outside side work plus a grocery store trip plus general house cleaning and multiple loads of laundry enough? I guess my brain thought I could do more. My brain is crazy!

Food Today
I am at 1608 calories so far today, I have about 300-400 calories left for another snack. I think that I did really well today.

BTW...thanks for all of the supportive emails...keep them coming.

Daily Calories

I was able to stay within my calories today.

Total - 1908

I prepared a pasta dish for dinner that was about 700 calories and not very good. I will eat the leftovers but I don't think that I will make this again. I went out to lunch today and went to the Ale Emporium. I ordered their Breaded Pork Tenderloin sandwich and switched out the fries for a salad. I ate about 1/4 of the bun so I estimated that the pork was about 450 calories, the bun 100 calories and the salad with a light vinaigrette was about 50 calories. I did break a M rule because it was fried. I didn't even think about that when I ordered it.

I feel like it was a pretty good day.

Nutrition Counseling

I had my first appointment with Mandy on Tuesday evening after a grueling Push It class with her. I was excited about this visit because I had anticipated it for a month. We had a good honest talk and I tried to fill her in on all of my bad food habits. These are some of the things she gave me advice on.

1. No more eating in bed. (ohhhh...I really like doing this)
2. No more eating in front of the TV. (This is going to be difficult)
3. Drink a minimum of 80 oz a day of water. (I can handle it)
4. Fried foods are forbidden.
5. Limit of two diet Cokes per day. (Ya...I don't have to give them up completely)
6. Must eat breakfast every day. (I always do)
7. Eat at least every 4 hours.
8. Eat a protein source with every meal. (New to me)
9. Keep a food journal. (A necessary evil)
10. Minimize eating out.


She gave me a goal to loose 8lbs by July 16th and put me on a 2000 calorie a day diet. OK...nothing here was a revelation, except maybe eating a protein with every meal. This visit cost me $55 and I had original signed up for a six meeting package for $219. However, because of difficulties with my flexible spending account I couldn't prepay for this service. So upon my first visit I decided to pay for the service as I use them.

The thing is I am not sure I need it. My good friend Nicole hinted this to me but I didn't listen to her. I talked with her for a couple of hours a few weeks ago and she told me most of these things already. I am a smart girl and I already know most of these things. I just need to put them in practice. The first step is the food journal. I started keeping one a week ago on a website but I have since found that it is much more difficult than keeping an old school paper journal. Me and old school technology this is quite a contradiction.

I was scheduled to have a home visit from M to view my pantry and fridge and help me get rid of the wrong foods. I decided to cancel this service because I don't think that this is my problem area. To be honest I don't buy that many groceries so there isn't that much to look at. My problem with food doesn't have anything to do with what is at my home and in my pantry. It has to do with my large quantity of eating out and consequently what I am choosing to eat when I am at the restaurants. Perhaps if one of my sensible eating friends wants to come and view my pantry I wouldn't turn them down.

I told M in my email that I might like to add a couple half hour visits and I think that I would like to talk to her more about eating out. Of course I still think I know what do do here. I know how to look up nutritional information online I just have to consciously make these decisions.

Her email back to me was fairly scathing. I don't think that she thinks that I am making the right decision. But it is my money. She also recommend an hour grocery store visit. I think that this might be a good idea. I could use more ideas in this category. I just want to feel that I am getting something out of the money expenditure.

I was thinking I could utilize my online friends to help me be accountable on the eating front. I would post my daily calorie intake and perhaps that will help me be able to stay within it so I don't embarrass myself.

Today emotional eating reared it's ugly head. I had a visit to the dentist today and after I was done I stopped by CVS and bought some comfort foods. I got a 2L of diet Coke, a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup and a pint of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream. I ate the Recces on the way home and I then ate the pint of ice cream for dinner at 9pm after my nap. Isn't it interesting how I can rationalize behavior as I am doing it. "I don't feel good...my mouth hurts...I deserve to eat ice cream for dinner"

This is how I have done this week:


Wednesday (06/17) 2372
Areas of Improvement:
9 Oreo Cookies
480 calories

Thursday (06/18) 2848
Areas of Improvement:
Pint of Ice Cream for dinner
1000 calories


I have only eaten one meal out this week. I went out to lunch on Monday. That is incredibly good for me. I plan on going out to lunch tomorrow and I will make good choices.

The Dentist is my Favorite Person (Sarcasm)

Today was my favorite day of the year. I got to visit Doctor C., she is my dentist. In January when I had the first of my bi-yearly cleanings I got this news from my dentist. Basically, I needed three or four new crowns in my mouth. She wanted me to do the work right away but I hesitated because I knew I didn't have the money for that amount of extensive work.

After some thought I decided to wait until May when I could renew my flexible spending benefits at work. I decided to flex $3700. This amount seamed astronomical for me because most people who flex this amount have families or medical problems or have to pay for child care. It is just me! I knew that I didn't want to charge this expense so it appeared to be the best long term solution.

I was originally going to go in today and get all four teeth worked on. But, I had some second thoughts. I was worried that in addition to the crowns I would also need some root canals. This always happens to me. The dentist says that I only need crowns and then BAM, I have tooth pain and they need to remove the nerves and root. When I arrived there this afternoon I changed my treatment plan and requested that they only work on the two worst teeth to ensure I had enough money to cover any unexpected root canals.

This was a good decision. The dentist decided to work on tooth #12 and #13 (I go so often that I have now picked up on the lingo). These are the two teeth on the top left side of my mouth in front of my molars. She starts by giving my the shot with the exceptionally long steel needle. I grimace but take the pain as I know if will wade quickly. Doctor C. then states that she thinks she needs to give me a shot in the roof of my mouth. She said that she knows that I don't like it, but I will probably need it as she will be drilling close to the gums. I blurt out "What if I start to cry?". I don't know why that came out of my mouth except that I have horrible memories of this particular mouth shot. I told her to do it because I knew that it was the smartest move, but I was scared.

She prepped the needle and it looked like small metal clamps the stick into my gums. It was horrible but not as horrible as my previous memory of it. I didn't actually cry but there were a couple tears that squeezed out of the corners of my eyes. It was over quickly and my mouth became numb.

The dentist began working on my teeth and I sat there trying to be relaxed, but clenching the arms of the chair with my hands. I often use self talk techniques during this process in order to relax. I was envisioning a relaxing bike ride with my friends. I am not sure if it really helps but it does let my mind focus on something else.

About fifteen minutes after she began drilling she stops and tells me that I need a root canal on both of these teeth. Wow, I must have had a premonition because I sure called that.

The end result today was that I had two root canals and crown preps. I was in the office for three hours and I was exhausted when I was done. I have been going to this particular dentist for the last four years and I feel that this is the best relationship with a dentist that I have ever had. Ok...I haven't had very many but still. I was impressed today that she remember my phobia of the roof mouth needle. I was also impressed that she remembered how much I don't like the plastic sheet they put in your mouth to isolate the tooth during the procedure. I often find it difficult to breathe and I get a bit claustrophobic during the process. I liked that she talked me through it and tried to make me as comfortable as possible. Could there be more stuff in my mouth at once? A plastic sheet, metal clamps, a rubber thing to hold my mouth open, a cotton thing in my cheek, a drill, and two hands. I don't think that my mouth is that big.

Your mouth starts out with 32 teeth. I now have 9 crowns and 6 root canals. So the percentage of crowns to actual teeth is 28.1% and the percentage of root canals are 18.7%. I wonder how close to 100% I will get. I guess that is called dentures.

Exercise Overload

I went a bit overboard on the exercise today. Let me start by saying that my sleep is all Fuc*ed up! I didn't go to bed on Sunday night until 3:30am. That is way too late for me. I worked all day and I was actually productive. Imagine that!

I then attended my first personal training class with Hadley. She was great and worked me very hard. She had me doing what seamed like an endless set of lunges. I think that they are evil. I felt good after our 45 minute session and then drove to meet ems and zlionsfan for a short bike ride. I think that short is a relative term. I traveled 15.3 miles and rode for 1:45 minutes. This was not short considering I had already had a hard workout for 45 minutes. But, I did have some fun with my friends. I was dragging a bit for the last two miles and zlionsfan had to push me along.

I traveled the shortest distance of my friends. I think that zlionsfan traveled over 40 miles. Isn't that incredible. I don't think he meant to but it just happened. We had some conversation tonight that involved me getting a new bike (I am seriously lusting after a new one with gears but it isn't in my budget) to make these long distances easier. We even talked about eventually riding a 100 mile marathon in a day. Doesn't that seem impossible...But I now know that it isn't. It would just take some training to work up to that level. Perhaps I need to increase my average speed above 8.5 mph.

Thanks for hanging in there for my biking obsession and consequent blogs relating to the topic.


Stats:

Distance: 15.3
Odometer: 164
Average Speed: 8.7
Max Speed: 13
Time: 1:45