Tuesday, June 16, 2009

breakfast today and goal for tonight

shredded wheat, frosted 200
skim milk 75

It's youth church night tonight. I know what this generally means for my calorie count. So Karen, let's try for maintenance at least, and not gain....

yesterday's summary: incredibly good food

Ugh, I didn't get back on this blog and figure out my calories last night. Hmmm here goes the reconstruct:

no coffee
banana 100
several bottles of water

leftovers for lunch: whole wheat spaghetti 200 w/swiss chard 10, tomatoes 25, onion 10, garlic, and olive oil 200, topped w/romano cheese 50, black olives 25, and walnuts 99

strawberries 40

whole wheat penne 180 w/zucchini 18, fresh oregano & basil grown @ home, red onion 10, bell pepper 5, black 25 & green olives 15, olive oil 200, fresh mozzarella 40, and grated parmesan 20, with a glass of skim milk 90 and a nice piece of garlic bread 200

strawberry 40 shortcake 80 w/cool whip 50

Total for the day: 2007. This is 131 calories over my loss number, but still well under my maintenance number. And the food was incredible, and I'm feeling fine with what I ate yesterday.

Not exercising, on the other hand....not so good.

Monday, June 15, 2009

skippity do dah

Okay so I haven't blogged since Thursday night.

I haven't exercised since then either, except for vigorous housework.

I have eaten pretty reasonably though.

Focusing on trying again, and not on where I have not met my own expectations.

Breakfast: shredded wheat (frosted) 200 and skim milk 75. Good lunch packed and of we go.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

several items of good news, despite the PMS lurker

I dodged caffeine completely today and it helped. I felt far less murderous, though I was still pretty overstimulated all day. I remembered right after breakfast that dairy products are unhelpful for PMS issues...and oops I had consumed 2 full cups at breakfast. Oy vey.

Lunch was a very small bowl of chicken noodle soup 200, handful of baby carrots 30, and half a handful of grapes 15.

Supper was french bread 600 with sauce 60, parmesan 40, asiago cheese 110, and olive oil 240.

Total calories for the day, then, are 1845.

YES!!!!

THAT is UNDER my loss number by 21 calories!

Furthermore (she says happily), I walked 35 minutes tonight, at least half of which was huffing, puffing, heartpounding, sweating and definitely cardio healthy stuff.

Drinking some water and pondering it all.

This feels much less like failure.

the pms monster

Ummm. Hello, blog that I just ignored again for 2 days.

No good diet or exercise choices to report from that period.

Yesterday, the PMS monster ate me. I had Extreme Oversensitivity/Overstimulation. I could feel the tags and seams in my clothes, and they drove me crazy. The sounds of people existing were magnified to the point that every noise was like fingernails on the chalkboard. I hadn't realized I was in the PMS zone and had consumed a very large quantity of caffeine directly before it all hit. PMS + caffeine = someone must die. Happily, I resisted the urge to follow that equation, though I DID make a surly face I still feel bad about at the drive thru at McDonald's (hot fudge sundae w/nuts, to feed the beast in me)...their cash drawer wouldn't close and well, let's just say they needed some training on what to do with the customer while you're having a mechanical failure.

About 18 years ago I had a wicked year or so of PMS that included spectacular stunts like throwing the kitchen table, and other embarrassing behavior. I learned back then how to make it go away or at least hold it at manageable levels without the Xanax my doctor so kindly prescribed (diet can kill it or feed it). Yesterday I think my hormones were back at the kitchen table tossing level. The good news: I am an entirely different person than I was back then. I can use both the diet stuff I know and the much more important spiritual stuff I know to battle it this time around.

Did you know....some people with mood disorders and/or ADHD also suffer with the same struggles I described above (trust me, I've studied this in depth). The next time you want to kill that rotten kid with the bad mouth and nasty attitude who can't sit still...consider that he might be feeling the seams in his shirt and hearing your voice as nails on the chalkboard...and cut him some slack already, okay? (Hmmmm...that was a very non-diet sermon.)

Doing today's blog, despite the lack of success, just to remind me not to give up, even though if this were school I'd be getting sent back a grade by now.

Breakfast toast 100 peanut butter 200 jelly 50 milk 200 (not the best start I could have made).

There be good music in my car. Glad that's next!




Tuesday, June 9, 2009

here we go now

breakfast: toast 100 peanut butter 200 banana 100 skim milk 160

I did not get up in time to walk today. But the day is not over yet.

Monday, June 8, 2009

intention to remount, and my labs

Okay, so I coasted all weekend. Just indulged in comfort food while processing my son's impending departure (which occurred this morning). And today I kinda did some more of that. BUT I did walk tonight (and with my daughter, so it was at a good, huffy puffy pace), and tomorrow's goal is to Get Back On That Wagon.

Meanwhile: my lab results from that blood test awhile back finally came (after I made another reminder call). Posting them here so it will still be available if I lose those 2 pages.

Item, My #, Goal range

glucose, 89, 70-105
bun, 12, 7-21
creatinine, .51, .44-1.00
est. gfr, 132, none given
bun/crea, 23.5, 5.0-43.0
sodium, 139, 135-146
potassium, 4.2, 3.4-5.0
chloride, 106, 99-119
co2, 26, 21-31
aniongap, 7.0, 5.0-19.0
osmalal, 276.8, 265.0-315.0
calcium, 8.5, 8.6-10.8
protein, 6.8, 6.8-8.3
albumin, 3.6, 3.5-5.3
globulin, 3.2, 1.2-4.6
alb/glob, 1.1, 0.7-2.9
bilirubin, 0.5, 0.2-1.2
ast, 19, 13-30
alt, 12, 7-46
alk phos, 91, 38-98
cholesterol, 158, 122-240
hdl, 44, 35-95
chol/hdl, 3.6, 1.4-8.6
ldl-c, 96, 55-160
triglycerides, 91, 40-200
t4, 6.2, 4.0-11.0
tsh, 4.73, 3.60-5.60
wbc, 5.6, 4.0-11.0
rbc, 3.80, 3.60-5.60
hgb, 11.5, 12.0-16.0
hct, 34.2, 36.0-48.0
mcv, 90.2, 80.0-100.0
mch, 30.2, 27.0-31.0
mchc, 33.5, 31.0-36.0
rdw, 14.8, 10.0-20.0
plt, 299, 150-450
%neutro, 52.8, 45.0-80.0
%lymph, 38.2, 20.0-50.0
%mono, 4.2, 1.0-10.0
%eos, 4.2, 0.0-5.0
%baso, 0.6, 0.0-2.0
#neutro, 3.0, 1.5-8.0
#lymph, 2.2, 1.0-5.0
#mono, 0.2, 0.1-1.0
#eos, 0.2, 0.0-0.5
#baso, 0.0, 0.0-0.2

Notably: I am anemic (which has been true my whole life) and I need to focus on iron in my diet and probably work harder on remembering to take an iron supplement.

And my calcium is low, which is weird because generally I am a big milk drinker. But then as I've cut calories, my milk consumption is way, way down. Need to do more spinach, etc and get that up, I suppose.

Otherwise: those are some great results!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

walking twice, good news and bad news

So the good news is I walked twice yesterday (the second time for 25 minutes). The bad news is I didn't track my food. The good news is I was mostly good. The bad news is I cleaned up after another of my son's going away parties last night, and indulged in nacho cheese doritos and root beer, just cuz his approaching departure left me in that kind of mood, at that moment.

The good news is today is a new day. Let's see what it contains.

Friday, June 5, 2009

a walk and a badly behaved back

Well a battle has been won this morning. I got up and walked 20 minutes (I had decided last night that I need to walk at least once a day, preferably twice, every day until I leave for my Swiss vacation, so that I won't die or embarrass myself while trying to keep up with my hosts).

On last night's 20 minute walk, my back started begging for mercy halfway through. This is a combination, I think, of the fact that I fell back out of the practice of trying to make my stomach muscles do the work of lifting my belly...and the simple truth that when one's body does all day every day in various chairs, that body protests at anything that is not a seated position. This morning, the pain didn't start till the last 5 minutes. So that feels like progress. We'll see.


Thursday, June 4, 2009

stress eating, careless choices, but also walking

coffee w/sugar when I got to work 135 and it was so strong I had to add milk (we only had whole on hand) 25

Lunch was leftover pasta 500.

Piece of licorice at work 40

After work hot fudge sundae 340 w/nuts 40 (stress eating as I had been upset all day)

Supper Hamburger Helper 750 and tea

Calories for the day 2250. This exceeds my loss number of 1876.

On a better note, I walked 20 minutes tonight. Golly I am in poor condition. Gotta get to work.

no walkee

Woke in plenty of time to go walking this morning...and I had gone to bed early enough last night to leave no excuse for lingering. But you know, I did. The bed felt soooooooo very delicious, and I talked myself around in circles, eventually curling up for another hour of sleep. Not a good choice. Aiming to choose better tonight...maybe I can walk with my daughter (who is incredibly motivated just now).

Breakfast: toast 100 peanut butter 200 apple butter 20 milk 100.

Beautiful day out there. Off to live it.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

if you like healthy, this will make you wince

morning snack strawberries 40

lunch chipotle soup 150 and enormous chicken breast 480

snack leftover mac n cheese 260

supper 2 pan-fried bacon 104 tomato 10 cheese 100 burgers 600 on buns 240 and a glass of sierra mist 150

calories for the day: 2644, which is just a tad over my maintenance number...not too bad considering my completely appalling but absolutely delectable supper selection....

and hey, i blogged twice today.

progress, progress. it ain't pretty but i'll keep crawling forward.

gonna be nice to me

Was reasonable, though not wonderful, over the weekend. Definitely dodged the blog.

My blister is better. I need to be walking. This morning, I cooked bacon and taters for my son, who leaves soon for boot camp (so his mommy wants to do nice stuff for him). The good news: I did not indulge in what I cooked.

My friend the fellow diet sufferer reminded me that I'm being a bit negative about me lately. Ummm. That's true! Today's goal: work on that. And stick with a better diet plan than "eat whatever I feel like."

Breakfast: whole grain toast 100 smucker's peanut butter 200 crabapple jelly 50 and skim milk 160.

Off to work we go.