Wonders never cec

Yesterday was an odd one. I've decided to try forgoing the gym on Mondays, since it's just too stressful to try to get up early on Monday mornings. On top of the usual Monday stress, we got a strange announcement regarding work yesterday. More on that later.

So, not having to go to the gym meant only having to have one breakfast - SWB and Turkey sausage, of course. Someone in the office did the right thing and brought apples in to share. It seems like a small thing, but I appreciate someone bringing in something healthy, instead of stupid cookies and brownies and what not.

The apple helped me to resist chips at Austin Grill, where we went for lunch to discuss / commiserate over our job situations. I went Bevo Salad, dressing on the side, natch. In retrospect, there was probably too much cheese and what not, but it could have been worse.

For a snack, I measured out a cup of Kashi Go Lean! Crunch Honey Almond Flax. That stuff is super sweet and I knew better, but it's good. :-)

I was actually invited out yesterday to a beer garden by a friend I'd missed very much, so I had to go. That meant no Heroes for me, this week, but the sacrifice was well worth it. Wonderland Bar & Grill, aka Knob Hill's patio provided a great backdrop for conversation. Two more coworkers even randomly surprised up and stopped by! In addition to the chicken quesedilla (which was big and greasy - yum), I had three beers, which seemed large at the time, and even larger this morning when I had a pretty bad headache. Not to worry, nothing that ibuprofen couldn't fix.

I got my arse on up this morning, had the usual breakfast, and worked out. Today I did some weights and intervals on the treadmill and am of course wo' out. Today's protein powder was tdf. Off to a good start. Let's keep it up.

Promises, Promises

Movie theatre popcorn is the devil.

After hearing reviews like, "Viggo Mortensen burns a whole in the screen," I had to go see Eastern Promises. It was by no means a popcorn movie, but did that stop me? No. T and I got the usual - the #2 with large popcorn and two large drinks and we (or should I say I) ate it too. And yes, there was butter--and salt. So here was the cute part: ten minutes into the movie, when the popcorn was ALREADY half gone (yes a large), I decided it was gross b/c the butter and salt had run out. Now instead of putting the bag down and taking that as a hint, my dumb ass got up, left the theater and got some MORE butter. Awesome.

The movie itself was great. I thought the story was compelling and everyone played their parts well. As I mentioned to T on the way out of the theater, I thought Howard Shore's kind of broad scoring fit well with a big city like London, more so than it did in A History of Violence. That one was set in a small town and I kept thinking that the music was trying too hard, and overpowering the movie. I think he's calmed it down a bit since LOTR. Anyway, burn a whole in the screen? Maybe not. But Viggo was very good. He really went for it. I even enjoy Naomi Watts, whose acting abilities were totally lost on me in King Kong, where she literally screamed for an entire movie.

So anywho, after the movie, I found myself at Cactus Cantina. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say, there was a cup of queso and an order of steak fajitas involved. And of course, more chips. I am done even saying I'm done with those things. They win. Tortilla chips are my masters.

Thankfully, today was much better - I started off with some cereal b/c I was going to church (I don't know why). At church I of course had to have two oreos with my coffee - because they were Golden Oreos and they make my life.

I met David and his friend for lunch at Matchbox and was very proud of myself for getting a small salad with grilled salmon on it. No bread, no appetizers, or nothin. Success.

that left me room for a small caramel gelato - I do not go to the National Gallery without it. that reminds me I think I may have too many food associations. I too often find myself saying, " I shouldn't eat this, but I don't go to x place without getting y." That is not a good reason, but it totally lets you justify what you're doing. I'm going to have to find a way to break that. But first, examples:

Lauriol Plaza - chips and queso
Annie's Steak House - home fries
National Galllery - gelato
Matchbox - miniburgers (except today)

So, yeah. I'm gonna try to break those associations. I think if I go somewhere three times and don't get whatever the associated food is, I may be able to break the habit. We'll see.

So I had the last of my squash soup a couple of hours ago. It was good, but I am tired of it now. Maybe next fall. In my kitchen today was a coupon for a large pizza (two toppings) for $9.99 and I want to order it. The thought of it has consumed me since I saw it. In fact I am only distracting myself by flogging. I am going to go in the kitchen and see if I can't make myself a healthy alternative. Something with less carbs and bad fats. Wish me luck!

Emergency?

Mr. Scale was not kind to me today. I have apparently put on 6-7lbs of some sort over the last 2 months. Based on the ratio of my strength training and cardio workouts, I'd guess that some portion of that is probably muscle. But by NO means is all of it. I crossed my self-imposed no-cross zone today so it's time to switch things up.

This morning when i was going over what I ate yesterday in my mind (in an act of needless self-justification) I completely skipped over all the junk I ate between meals and snacks, including not one but two pieces of banana bread, a chocolate bar and a spoonful of peanut butter. I see this happening 30-40 calories at a time.

It is in that light that I should mention the bowl of oatmeal (carefully measured, skim milk, two teaspoons of peanut butter, one serving of raisins) I had for breakfast. After lifting (which I am going to scale back on), I had my usual chocolate protein powder and am now having my coffee with one mini-moo. Everything else will find its way here because it has to.

on the road again..

Strange that I should pick today to start flogging again. Although, having stayed out of work because of my first real cold in a couple of years, I suppose I have more time today than usual. Things were getting bad again, so I had to do something. While a quick trip to Gap assured me that I am indeed still a medium - and comfortably so - there is no need to watch my progress slip from me inch by inch. Besides, with winter coming on fast, it's best to be a little on the thin side, as it makes for a better look in layers. :-)

Today started out well enough - SWB for breakfast. Then I agreed to meet a friend for lunch and he chose a kabob place. Now, kabobs aren't bad per se, but I'm not sure why they feel the need to give me both rice and bread, nor do I understand my need to eat them both because they are in front of me. While I won't say it was a disaster, it was pretty close.

After my workout, I went with protein power - berry and also had a can of tuna, just for good measure.

sins of omission

The last couple of days have been weird. Both nights I've gone to have drinks, and both nights have ended up with weird dinners. Tuesday night, after having 2 1/2 beers and 2 1/2 chicken wings, I decided to get a bowl of Italian Style wedding soup. (yes, this was two different places). The wings were from Austin, where I went for my weekly happy hour, now again with Original Mike, since New Mike is MIA. Then I hung out w/ C-Lo at Stoney's. Stoney's has the best soups, I swear. I was going to get their chili, but it comes with cornbread, and we all know what a disaster that would have been. Turns out that all their soups come with cornbread. Not to worry, I sent it back :-).

Yesterday during the day was largely according to plan, a south beach wrap for breakfast, a peach for a snack, grilled chicken tenders on whole wheat for lunch and then a bowl of cereal of second lunch / afternoon snack. The snack was mainly to keep me from starving because I knew I was going out after work and didn't want to eat TOO much bar food.

It worked, for the most part. Though I was at McGinty's for nearly 3 hours, I managed to have only 14 fries and two drinks. I had a "black velvet" which I recommend, highly. Half Guinness and Half Cider. Now when I left McGinty's I was clearly still hungry, but decided to skip dinner instead of eating crap that late at night.

This morning, I decided to go with cereal instead of another wrap before my workout and chocolate protein w/ milk after. Then at our team meeting, my boss brought DONUGHTS. And not generic chain store doughnuts. These were the real thing from a local bakery. One maple glazed donught later, I was kind of sick. But I made it.

Lunch was a salad at Adega. This time, mixed green salad with pecans, candied pears. There was some sort of dressing on the side, which I only had a bit of. I decided to make today my diet coke day. Had my one for the week. Good times.

Unlike most days, my fear is that I haven't been eating ENOUGH for the last couple of days. After the meeting I just had, I don't think that will be a problem for the next few. My job is making me want carbs..

ya dun good

So, I ended yesterday well. I had two servings of trail mix in the afternoon, but that could have gone worse I suppose. This pack has to last me all week to though, so I'd better lay off or amma be strugglin.
The trail mix (along with a good deal of water) did stave off hunger yesterday afternoon - I was fine until I got home at after 9;30. Then it was time to cook.


Even though it was way too late, I had to eat something, so made myself some pan-seared chicken tenders (with a garlic herb marinade) and some steamed winter veggies. A plum as an appetizer. Not a bad dinner. Yesterday was a model.

Today has also not been terrible. I had my oatmeal with peanut butter and raisins (I know, weird). Instead of having second breakfast after lifting (and I lifted pretty hard), I had a protein "shake" which was basically a cup and a half of milk and a scoop of protein powder. I've learned how to mix it properly and have grown accustomed to the taste. I'm spinning it was "Cecil's Famous Hot Chocolate."

A peach served as morning snack (yes I am on a fruit kick. It's part of my eating locally / seasonally - more on that later.) Before I knew it it was after 1pm and time for me to eat my South Beach frozen meal. Today's was Chicken Alfredo a la Roma. I know I always claim this, but this one was REALLY good. If you haven't tried South Beach products, they are amazing.

It's almost 430 and I just had another serving of trail mix. I know that's nuts two times today, which is probably pushing it, but I'll cut it back tomorrow. Today is on track. Let's see how it finishes. I'm wanting a beer. Luckily, I won't be eating tortillas.

Jesus can you hold two wheels at once?

Boy this weekend was not good. It wasn't quite a spiral, but it was definitely a curve, on what feels like a larger , slower, month-long spiral. I feel like not flogging is the problem. I am therefore back. I've got family reunion coming up in two weeks and I will NOT have my people talking about me (too bad). So I've got to lose at five lbs in two weeks. Not sure how that's going to go, but anyway it's a goal. In order to accomplish it, I've given up refined carbohydrates for the duration. We'll see how that goes. We all know I love a good slice of pizza.

Today has been pretty good so far. Had a bowl of my shredded wheat and bran for breakfast. No sausage this time, b/c I was too lazy to go to the grocery. Instead of having a full-blown second-breakfast, I had a plum instead. That held me over until lunch, shockingly enough. It being Monday I went Lebanese, where I had a chicken schwarma sandwich with Jerusalem salad. I ate the filling out of the sandwich and left the bread there. I also had some iced tea as I was not in the mood for water today.

Let's see how the rest of it goes.

A couple of announcements:
1) I am officially eliminating death triangles (aka tortilla chips) from my diet.
2) I have decided that there is no such thing as "good fat."

now dip, baby, dip

Yesterday could have gone really well. I had a good workout, avoided sweets for the most part, ate several small meals, and and even brought my lunch.

Then I went to a party..

First of all, I don't know whose idea a Tuesday party was, but it was brilliant and should be done every week.

Equally brilliant was the food at the party. All chips and dip! One "redneck dip" which was creme cheese and hot sauce and then some sort of cheese, butter, cream dip thing with spices. And of course, guacamole, because you've gotta get your "good fats." Sadly enough I had just read two articles yesterday that mentioned the fact that "good fat" is still fat. In no way did that stop me from participating. At various times throughout the night, I employed my ten-foot rule and T was there to say "careful" and to make flogging noises at me if I veered too close. Then, someone else came along eating them and I sorta went for it. My guess is that between the chips, the dips(s) and the three beers I had, I must have taken in at least an extra 1000 calories, so way to ruin a day of progress.

On a positive note - I've decided that slightly warm YuengLing in a can might be my new favorite beer. Last night, for the first time, I understand how it became the official acceptable cheap beer of our generation.

better late than never

So it looks like it's going to be once a day. I had a weird eating day today. Breakfast was normal enough - oatmeal with peanut butter and two turkey sausages.
I read through my ABS Diet workouts today and designed a new abs workout for myself today. that went really well - I could really feel the difference by doing new exercises. Followed that up w/ some cardio.

Today, instead of eating the lunch I brought, I went to Negril w/ the old Research gang. I suppose it was something of a going away lunch for a colleague. Another one escaped! I got the jerk-chicken sandwich. Ate half the coco bread and all the chicken, just to be safe. That was especially important since I had to buy a cookie to make my total more than $5 so that old lady would let me use a credit card. She has the most attitude, I swear! It's like..hello, you're out of the way even for silver spring. be glad i'm here!

The afternoon got pretty bad. Even though I'd already had a cookie, I decided that more animal crackers would be a good idea. (Oh and before that I had a mini Mr. Goodbar) Someone brought them (animal crackers) to our meeting. I did have a cheese wedge with them, just to balance out the carbs a bit. I think that helped me to eat fewer of them.

It was my plan to eat the lunch I brought for dinner, while waiting for Anna, so we could go see Hairspray. But she changed her mind about the gym, so we grabbed a quick slice of pizza from Z. Had I not had a small veggie tray early this morning, that would have been a whole day w/o veggies. I can't keep doing that.

Anyway, Hairspray - cute. It is the third of the movie musicals I've seen. While they are entertaining, there is somethin subdued about them. For one thing, the actors they pick are never the strongest singers. They tend to cast big names, so the studio can justify doing it in the first place. Hairspray suffered from that big time. In my opinion, the singing was just awful. Happily, a few of the songs were good enough to make up for it. Also, the overall message was positive enough that even the heavy-handed treatment it received here didn't ruin it. I came away secretly wanting to dance (with fully choreographed backup dancers) , which is what any good musical should do, I think. $10 well-spent.

After the movie, natch, I had seriously like 8 green beans (because I had them available) and a peach. And with that..I am going to bed.

Whatever it takes

Somebody told me I was looking thin, today. Now, I clearly wasn't, but I appreciated the sentiment all the same. I didn't return it, for fear that it would seem disingenuous. Oh, life!

So this morning, I was all excited about how I was going to make a Turkey sandwich to bring to work today for lunch. I made the Turkey sandwich (on flat-out), and even got breakfast in (3/4 serving SW and 2 turkey sausage links). I was feeling very proud of myself until I got to work and realized that in my haste, I'd forgotten to pack gym gym clothes. Brilliant, I thought. Well of course, I had to go shower, anyway, so I figured I'd just head over there, shower, and then go have some coffee. Then when I got to the gym, I realized that they sell clothes there! My boy at the front desk let me get a whole outfit for 20 bucks. I am not going to ask what the nature of this discount was, but I do know I gave him cash, so, I'm sure that ended up being lunch money or something. He probably thinks I'm a total nut-job now as I took about 10 minutes to pick out a shirt and pair of shorts with suitable style and in the right size. Oh well, I had a hell of a workout and even finished my workout on time.

I took a looong time mixing up my protein and skim milk this morning. It was decently smooth and tasted good.

Even though I brought lunch, somehow I let Robert talk me into going to Lebanese taverna, because its cheap on Mondays. I was all ready to eat that. When we get there his "crew" announced that they weren't eating there because suddenly it's "gross" even though we've eaten there 3x/month for the last 3-4 months. Anyway, he of course, decided to go with the (they're his crew, right?) and so I, totally over, walked to whole foods w/ Monz to get a tiny salad to go with my sandwich. It was truly tiny -- only $1.44 at whole foods prices :-) That and my turkey wrap made for a good lunch.

The vendor who came to present at 3 brought chocolates and Tori totally let me eat two Hershey's miniatures special darks. Delicious, but of course I had heartburn. And then I was hungry again. So, I decided to have a cheese wedge. Not having any crackers, I decided that animal crackers would do. After all, do I not like cheese on nilla wafers? It's the same thing, right? Wrong. It was gross. The animal crackers in our vending machine should be burned. The taste is vaguely lemony, too sweet and has none of the subtle flavors of "name brand" animal crackers. We're done!

Strugglin

Even though I got about 7 hours last night, I was REALLY strugglin this morning. Again, I had to grab a south beach wrap on the way out the door, because I was running late. It didn't help that the FIRST thing I heard this morning was the death toll from a bridge collapse. NPR can be depressing in the morning, sometimes.

I did have the presence of mind pack a scoop of chocolate protein powder before leaving home this morning. I had that, when I finished lifting, this time using skim milk instead of water. While that makes the stuff TASTE a lot better, I swear it just won't dissolve. Anyway, I drank that in two gulps. I had a glass of water, again , instead of my morning coffee.

I was supposed to go to lunch with my crew, but I had to work on a press thing! So, I guzzled down a mini Atkins bar, b/c I was starving.

When Monica finally did get back with my Salad from Adega, I ate half of it before dashing off to another meeting. This salad was DA BOMB. It's the tofu salad with chicken. Basically enough food for two meals.

Which was good b/c I definitely ate the other half around 4 when I got done with that meeting.

At some point today I also had an apple jolly rancher. As I mentioned yesterday, someone brought a ton of them to work. Have you ever smelled a jolly rancher bouquet? It's heavenly. Just open a bag and sniff one day. Both your troubles and the enamel on your teeth seem to melt right away.

Housewarming Happy Hour at Dawn's tonight. We'll see how it goes.

Chicken Sahny

So, I decided to invite R Mike to have "a pint" after work. My original intention was to go to Eggspectations and grab one of those huge mugs they have for like $4 between 4 and 8. But, he wanted to go quarry house and I think it was a wise decision. I knew there would be beer, and just so it didn't hit my stomach too hard, I decided to go ahead and eat.

Thankfully, I resisted both the burgers and the tots (tots!) and ordered myself a grilled chicken salad. Unfortunately, the waiter heard, "grilled chicken WITH salad" so he brought me a sandwich with a side side. It was fine, but I'd rather not have had the white bread and mayo that came w/ it. Nonetheless, it was delicious. Surprisingly fresh tasting too, for quarry house.

I also got a chance to try two beers from Louisiana. "Abita" I want to say. First I had a Turbo Dog, b/c I read that it was dark and I like dark beers. Something about it was a little flat though. Then for my second I had a Purple Haze, which while not horrible, but was a bet much in the raspberry flavoring department. It honestly tasted like someone squoze fake raspberries into a decent wheat beer. Anyway, you never know until you try 'em right?

Cancer in a can

Oddly enough, on the day I'd decided to ween myself off soda, Zinger sent me this article. Turns out soda can kill you. Old news, I know, but it's all compiled here for you to see. Most of the warnings are about regular sodas, which, as you know I don't drink. Diet soda is apparently associated with various cancers, though, as I always say you're pretty much guaranteed to die from SOME kind of cancer these days. Might as well live until your doctor tells you which one is yours.

Still, the article is worth a quick read-through. Be sure to take note of WHO is publishing this information. :-)

Why Wednesday?

So today was supposed to be Why Not Wednesday, but Neela is being lame. Way to go, Neels.

I was determined today was going to be a good day, and I think, so far at least, it has been. I was reasonably productive at work, and even got to the gym for some cardio during lunch. (Remember, Calabash).

Breakfast was some SW and strawberries (the glut continues) and three turkey sausage links. Marketing left about a million bagels and Jolly Ranchers outside my cube. I managed to avoid the bagels, but I did have two mini Jolly Ranchers throughout they day. There was also cantaloupe, of which I ate about one serving, along with a home-made fortune cookie (who makes those??) for second breakfast. I figured I'd need some carbs for lunch.

At the gym, they were giving away these tiny little Atkins bars which I naturally ate as soon as I was done w/ my workout. To have only 1/2 gram of sugar and quite a bit of protein, they're actually pretty tasty. Maybe Atkins wouldn't have been so bad, after all.. maybe next time I'm obese, I'll try that instead.

Having gone to the grocery last night, I was all set with a frozen meal for lunch. I usually go South Beach brand, but this time, healthy choice was on sale for $2, so I figured I'd try it. Brother has to save some money. The Mancicotti meal was quite tasty. Two pieces, with a serving of broccoli and some oatmeal apple cobbler thing. The dessert section puts the calorie count at a slightly high 380, but I'm a grown man, so whatever.

Snack was two cheese wedges and the remaining serving and a half or so of multi-grain all-bran crackers.

I have decided to gradually ween myself off caffeine. I skipped my morning cup of coffee and that was okay. I had some water and that helped me a bit. By about 2pm though, I was starting to feel it and decided to have a diet coke with my lunch. I guess that's a start. Eventually, I figure I'll get down to 2-3 caffeinated beverages per week, instead of 2-3 per DAY like now. Baby steps.

Stop being a bitch!

can you believe I actually made it to the gym? God knows it was a little bit of a struggle. I actually had a hell of a work out, strenuous, but not too much so. Unfortunately, the gym was very crowded, as it is wont to be at 6:30pm.

The Yeller was there. For those unfamiliar with The Yeller, he's a huge, late 40's / early 50's black guy with a shaved head who talks to and yells at himself continuously. He always tries to lift way too much weight and does so with the shittiest imaginable form. (I know, I hate form judgers and I don't usually do it, but this guy deserves it!) He yells things like "get it!" and "stop being a bitch!" t0 himself, while he's lifting weights. Then he SLAMS down the weight, as if to demonstrate how monstrously heavy it is to the rest of the gym and the greater silver spring area.

Of course, I missed the S4 bus that was leaving right when I got to the bus stop so I got to stand around for a while. Fortunately, they'd posted a map of northern DC, Silver Spring, Bethesda, etc, so I got to study how all the roads fit together. NEAT!

Dinner was one flatbread pizza with turkey pepperoni and a serving or of broccoli (no cheese this time). I know broccoli doesn't "go" with pizza, but I needed veggies, so I went for it. Turns out, broccoli DOES go with pizza. Cecil's House of Pizza AND Cruciferous Vegetables, anyone? :-)

aaaaaaaaaaand we're back!

So,
Just got back from vaca. Went down to Myrtle Beach with the fam. The vacation itself was fine, but getting back proved to be a nightmarish experience. Eating was...bad. It could have been WORSE, but I'd have had to REALLY go for it. Yes, there was a buffet at some point and yes there was calabash. There was also bojangles, pizza, potato chips, oreos, sweet tea, and at least one instance of ice cream. Suffice it to say, I will not be going NEAR a scale for two weeks.

So anywho. Pretend like today is the 26th and let me tell you ALL about it.

Today was press highlights day, so I had to get to work semi-early. I was also up late last night hanging out w/ c-lo, so I couldn't wake up for the gym. I am planning to go after work.
Grabbed an "All-American" south beach wrap on the way out the door.
Morning snack was a handful of multigrain snack crackers and a wedge of low-fat swiss cheese (Laughing Cow, I wanna say?) The stuff is incredible. I don't believe the nutritional information on it though. It tastes too good to only have 30 calories per wedge.

For lunch, I went to Z Pizza today to have a zbq salad. Ignoring the delicious-looking already done pizza in the case, I ordered the small salad w/ dressing on the side. I was quite proud of myself.

Afternoon snack was 2/3 of a chocolate chip cookie dough protein bar. It was all I had (besides more snack crackers). Let's see how dinner goes.

I know this one wasn't all that interesting, but keep reading. I'm back, I promise.

Fat is contagious!

This really interesting Washington Post article talks about research which strongly suggests that network effects put people disproportionate risk for being overweight if their family and friends are/become overweight. My revised friend/relative application form will have a BMI question. :-)

Z

So I had my pizza. One slice of pepperoni, one slice of veggie. I went with water, instead of getting another drink. I couldn't handle any more caffeine. I was also very tempted to get myself some ice cream, but held off, per my rule of waiting for dessert.

I did eventually end up walking back to chick-fil-a, however, to get myself a small ice-dream cone. So good, and really not terrible for you as ice cream goes.

The afternoon, of course, included more snack crackers, which I have now taken home for safe-keeping. NO more of those this week, I think. I need to bring one serving at a time until I regain self-control.

For dinner, I made myself a tuna wrap with fat-free mayo and salad cubes. I used one of those Multi-Grain Flat-Out breads that I ususally use for pizza. certainly did the trick. Needing veggies, I had the other 15. servings of green beans from the night before AND steamed some broccoli, upon which I naturally put juuuust a bit of 2% Cheddar. Quite a tasty dinner.

Wanting to read, I went back out and ended up having an unsweetened tea at Starbucks.

Harry is getting good!

Damage control

I am going to the beach w/ my family this weekend, and will no be able to work out on Friday, so the temptation was the call this week a wash. But, I'm going to be good.
I got my arse up early this morning and went and had a decent workout. I still have that weird tightness in my shoulder from the decline triceps extensions I did on Friday. I am going to monitor that.
Anyway, rather than having two whole breakfasts, I broke first breakfast into two parts. Pre gym was shredded wheat with strawberries and skim milk (still lovin the berries).

AFTER the gym, I had my three links of Turkey breakfast sausage. And get this. Today I went with a diet mountain dew! This sucker is gross too, but I bought it, so I'm drinking it.

A few minutes ago, I somewhat mindlessly had a few (half serving?) of multi grain crackers. Until lunch, I am done!

new habits die easy

Funny how quickly you can get out of the habit of doing something. Having only resolved to start flogging again yesterday, as of this morning, it was totally gone from my mind. Will have to be a little more diligent for the next couple of days to get going again.

So, yesterday afternoon, obviously involved another half-serving of the snack crackers. I also went over to the vending machine to buy another snack, but then I felt bad and headed back to my desk. Good call, since I only had about a half hour of work left.

Last night, I rushed home to go buy pieces to hang up blinds with Frankie. We have been totally without window coverings for nearly six months now. Only Frank and I. I mean, really. We went the hardware store at 17th and Corcoran and were shocked to find that, although they didn't quite have what we wanted, they have all kinds of other housewares. I have lived there for 3 years and never know it had an upstairs part (accessible only by a separate door) where all kinds of curtains, clocks, decorative items have been stuffed. Whoever did the undetectable expansion charm on that store really knew their stuff.

So, like the rest of America, we ended up at Home Depot. I was shocked once again by just how large that store is. Everything from the parking lot to the signs that (badly) direct to you to various departments are totally out proportion with the small, quaint nature of most non-governmental structures in DC. Perhaps the Home Depot should be relocated near the capitol, where it would better fit the landscape :-)

Anyway, food - I forced myself to go to the grocery (yes on a Monday, bleh). Because it was after 8, the line wasn't bad! I stocked up on all manner of veggies.

Dinner was - A South Beach wrap of some unknown variety, since I had thrown the box away and couldn't quite place the taste. I also had a serving and a half of steamed green beans (yes they're back) with lemon pepper and Smart Balance. I skimped on the Smart Balance, so they weren't QUITE as good, but they were still good. I also had a glass of milk, just for the extra protein boost.

My mind then, of course, turned to dessert, but thankfully, I didn't have any.
So, around 9:00, I went to bed and read for an hour or so before falling asleep. All in all, not an AWFUL day.

Back on the wagon

Three is often held to have some magical significance. I have not written in three days, and was thus tempted to think that flogging might be done for good. In truth, I think, I was so sick of typing on computers after last week at work that didn't want to look at one long enough to write. Let me sum up the weekend in a word:

fat


So, it's Monday. Today I started off with oatmeal, the usual, peanut butter and raisins. I skipped the gym, because I was up way too late reading (yes, I went and bought a copy).

That did not stop me from enjoying a second breakfast / snack around 10:30. I made the mistake of buying these All-Bran snack crackers, on the pretext of having something health to snack on at my desk. In reality, these are, like the peanuts that came before, going to do more harm than good. They have one of those weird tastes after you eat them that only goes away when you stuff another one, mindlessly, in to your mouth. Because of that, I was able to go through at least a serving and a half, enough to make myself feel sick.

But not SO sick that I couldn't eat a Lebanese Taverna. I opted for lunch with Harry today, which was nice. But I remembered why I hate reading and eating. There's that weird balancing act and you have to constantly make sure not to get sauce on your book, etc.
I went with the Damita Jo today, after a few weeks off. It was tasty. Not able to stomach double-salad today, I opted for a serving of house potatoes instead, which, mercifully, was skimpy. Still, I was full half-way through the meal, which of course, did not stop me from finishing it. In that sense, I'm not back on the wagon at all. Something is up...
thinspiration, please..

Okononomiyaki explained

Wikipedia has a decent article on Okonomiyaki, for anyone interested.

Okonomiyaki, etc

I decided sometime around 3:45 that I was hungry and that not having eaten any meat all day probably wasn't a good idea. I convinced Tori to walk to whole foods with me but then she changed her mind because it was "raining." I went anyway and got myself a little snack. A bit of spinach, some Brazilian chicken salad (which was delicious) and a couple of pieces of broccoli. I actually said to myself, "Hm, I haven't had any cruciferous vegetables all week..."

Later in the afternoon, I of course ate several more bit sized pieces of shredded wheat, mainly because they were there and because I was working late. (Summer hours are killing me.)

It was decided that C-lo (short for Carlos, a nickname for Carl) would come over for dinner. Of course, I had almost no food, so we decided to buy ingredients and make stuff, per usual. As I was waiting for him, however, I started throwing away the aging and potentially dangerous foodstuffs in my pantry (some of this shit expired in like '02). I happened to come across a bottle of Okonomiyaki sauce in my cabinet. If you haven't had okonomiyaki, it's a real treat. I hadn't had it in years (5 years maybe?) so, we decided to make that. That's right, I had no ingredients for the pancake itself, but I had SAUCE so we went for it.

Carl and I bought all the stuff and made what I think were delicious okonomiyaki, along with small salads of Spinach and other mixed greens. I had 10 spritzes of Asian Silk(tm) on mine, much to his amusement. We also has "Salad Toppins" which is a bottle of random crunchy things to put on salads. Not bad. I made four pancakes, per the recipe, and Carl ate 2, but I had one. It's almost as though I was saving room for the slice of cake (sliver, really) and the small glass of icy milk that I was going to have about 30 minutes later. (Also with dinner, he had a miller lite, and I enjoyed the last of my Blue Moon Summer Wheat Ales. I love those things.)

For anyone interested in what Okonomiyaki is, it's basically a cabbage pancake. We used chicken (although pork is best), shredded cabbage, all purpose flour, eggs, and water, a fairly simple recipe. It can get fancy, with corn, mochi, etc. Oh right, we also added cheese. When I lived in Nagoya, I used to frequent an Okonomiyaki shop with this old lady ("Baa-chan, if you will) who made the BEST Okonomiyaki and she would put cheese in it, must to the disgust of my Japanese friends. It was the closest thing to soul food in Japan, in that it was greasy and it made you feel stupid all afternoon. Baa-chan if you're still alive (she was old as hell, then), this is for you!

A lunch I can live with

I thought I was going to have to go to a one o'clock meeting today, so I grabbed a cup of soup real fast from downstairs. It was quite tasty. White beans, and other veggies with small pieces of pasta in a tomato sauce. Yummy! I also had the four crackers.

Minutes later I was confronted with rather tasty looking pizza that was leftover from a previous meeting. Part of me was like, "well I only had soup," but even as I had my hand ON the pizza (sorry, guys), I thought "you know what, I don't need this." And I resisted.

Eating one thing at a time is a good rule. I may try to employ that more.

dust yourself off and try again

Today has to 'make up' for yesterday.
First breakfast was a bowl of special k red berries that I stole from Frank, b/c I wasn't in a shredded wheat mood (and I was out of strawberries to put on it)
I did a full hour of cardio today just to get my metabolism going.
Now having a cup of blueberries and a bottle of water for second breakfast. Meetings all morning - bleh!

Quick & Dirty

Lest I fall behind again, here's the rundown on Wednesday -

First breakfast - a few raisins and some Turkey breakfast sausage
LONG workout again
Second breakfast - half serving or so of SW and remaining half of naked juice.
Morning Snack - half cup of blueberries
Lunch - Chipotle - Carnitas burrito bol, no rice, black beans, fajita veggies, mild tomato salsa (skipped the corn this time )..and a touch of cheese.
One Brownie Bite from Tori for "dessert."

Afternoon Snack was a bag of those Quaker baked cheese snack thingees...
And of course because i worked late again I had the remaining half-serving or so of peanuts in my jar!

Dinner with R Mike at Eggspectations - Yes I went chicken quesedilla. I don't know why. I wasn't good, but that didn't stop me from eating most of it. Along with two very large beers.

And that also didn't stop me from having the thinnest slice of cake when I got home.
All in all, not a good day. Distinct lack of veggies and don't even get me started on the two desserts thing.

The longest tuesday

This morning, for some reason, I decided to make oatmeal for breakfast, the usual way, skim milk, peanut butter, etc. It made me late for the bus, so I decided to walk to the metro.

For some reason, the moment I got to the gym, my stomach started to hurting. I shook it off, and decided I'd just change and get on with it. However, by the time I finished my warm up it was EXCRUCIATING. I have no idea why. I was about to walk down the stairs to skip the workout and sit down, then I got a sudden surge of anger and muttered, "fuck you" to nothing/no one in particular and decided that since my stomach was going to hurt, it could hurt while i was on the exercise bike. It turned out to be a good decision; by the time I got done pedaling, the pain was gone. I even got in a short abs workout.

Second breakfast was 3 turkey sausage links I brought from home - the protein continues. Later around 11 I had another 1/3 cup of bluettes. Then, because I found out lunch was going to be at ONE OCLOCK, I decided to eat / mindlessly ate a serving of peanuts to tide me over. (Are you counting the peanut references).

I ate Lunch with both of my Mikes (how lucky can one guy get, really) and R. Mike's brother, John. (Aardie, we're done.) We were supposed to go to Quarry house, and I was geared up for a Cuban sandwich. Because last time I had it, it was phenomenal. But really a sandwich with TWO meats and cheese...how could it not be? Unfortunately, it was closed! They're not open for lunch anymore.

We went to Austin Grill instead, and, while it's a favorite, I cringed a little because John being FROM Austin - like..was there two days ago, I didn't want him to judge our "Austin Style" food. He seemed okay with it. I successfully fended off not one, but TWO baskets of chips and ordered myself a Southwest Ceasear with grilled tuna. The Tuna was outstanding, cooked just right (and I didn't even specify). Getting the dressing on the side made it a reasonably healthy option, overall.

Which left me room for the frozen mini kit-kat I ate around 4 oclock. I was kinda hungry anyway, but then Schief was all, "I want a frozen snickers." I wasn't going to participate, but then someone (i swear to god) said to me, "hey would you like a frozen kit-kat?" when I walked by their office. So, I ate it..and MAN was it good. Work went long, and yes, there was another serving of peanuts. There's only one left, don't worry.

I decided to do dinner at home again tonight, to save money. I half way wanted to go pizza again, but I remembered while packing up to leave work, that I had a can of soup in the cupboard. Campbell's Select steak and veggie or something? Pretty tasty, although, frankly, it could use more steak and less potatoes. the whole hunkin can, though, comes in at around 250 calories, which is cool. I obvi (that's right) skipped most of the broth - salt can kill you. Besides, I wanted to save some sodium for my green beans - i ate the other serving and a half tonight. This time I added the slighted bit of garlic salt and man..again..SO good.

Here at Steam Cafe, I'm having a cup of decaf coffee with Splenda and whole milk (need the fat because their coffee is terrible). Save my whitening toothpaste, this will be the last thing I taste today.

A long workout, 9 1/2 hours of work, 1.5 hours of commuting and a couple of hours of my own work and I am wo' out. We'll flog it out again tomorrow.

When one dream dies, find a new one

So I fell nearly two days behind on the flog - not good. Here's what happened: I talked with my buddy Dan for a while on Sunday and we cooked up all these grand dreams of building flogging into a big thing. All of this, though, was contingent upon me owning the rights to the word and the concept of the flog. Turns out I own neither. Not only are there flogs out there, some has already TRADEMARKED the word! (although not quite in the sense that I am using it.) So, crushed by that, I decided to give up flogging.

But in the words of Diddy "Can't stop, won't stop." Perhaps "Good Boy for Life" can be my theme song... I don't know if the flog will ever be big. I can't really put too much into it without a sense of ownership...maybe I could sue the silicon valley guy who trademarked it for trademark-squatting..that has to be a thing right?

Anyway this week was the 4th in my 8-week workout plan - yes the one with FIVE SETS of each exercise. I decided to load up yesterday to make sure I had enough nutrients to take advantage of the hard work out..(hehe)

1st Breakfast was a South beach breakfast wrap - Denver omelet style, I believe. I really love those things. They taste like actual food and not diet crap. Plus, oddly enough they have more fiber than the cereal I typically eat. Guess all processed foods aren't bad...

After my workout, I drank half of one of those naked protein drinks - yes, half. that's only 18 grams of protein, I know, but I can't drink a whole one.they're too...something. I am sure I also had at least an oz of peanuts as well yesterday morning. (this is the disadvantage of flogging two days later.)

For lunch, we went to Lebanese Taverna Cafe, as usual, and I got myself a half-priced Chicken Scwharma Sandy. I like the "Damita Jo" as Monz calls it, but I decided I didn't want to deal w/ all that grease. The schwarma is much leaner I feel like. I went double salad (a must in the hot weather -- and yes we sat outside in the 100 degree weather..white folks, man..) Anyway, I ate most of the stuff from my sandwhich and left the shell alone.

About an hour after lunch, I remembered that I was supposed to get a brownie bite from Tori and actually made the mistake of doing so. It was very tasty, but it gave me heartburn.

The rest of the afternoon obviously involved more peanuts and I'd say 1/3 of a pint of the delicious blueberries (bluettes, if you will) that Monz brought me back from NJ!

I decided to try making dinner at home. Since I bought flat breads and stuff the other day I figured I'd make think whole-wheat crust pizza. Naturally I needed some meat - big workout, gotta have protein - so, I walked to Giant on the way home from work to get some Canadian bacon. Only when I had the Canadian bacon in my hand did it occur to me that I already bought Turkey Pepperoni the other day. What a doof. I delayed my commute home by a good half-hour including wait time, for no reason.

Anyway, I made the pizza and it was good - I used 1 Flat-Out brand flat bread, a 1/3 cup or so of pizza sauce, 1/4 cup of mozzarella (the real stuff) and exactly 17 (one serving) of turkey pepperoni. It came out good and I think the whole thing had around 450 calories (maybe a little less). Just to get my obligatory vegetables in, I made some fresh green beans - steamed those up and put about 1/2 teaspoon of SmartPromise spread on 3 servings. I also added lemon-pepper for good measure. The green beans were AMAZING.

When I was cleaning up the kitchen, I noticed that Frank brought home birthday cake from Tracy's family party. I started to, but I just couldn't...and a good thing, too..

Some serious thinspiration

My friend robert sent me this and it's amazing. You know I love a good weight-loss story...

Sunday, Greedy Sunday

Sunday was a brunch day. Gotta have one per weekend. You know how life is in the 'hood. I went to Annie's with Josh and Sarah. It was good catching up with Josh and hearing what ridiculous accomplishment he was accomplishing now. Turns out this time he's working for the DOJ and doing independent research on comparative torts - I can't even hate, really.

So anyway, I went for it. I went french toast and three egg platter. I gave Sarah one piece of my french toast and skipped one. Which means I only ate one slice of the french toast, but i had all my sausage and eggs and maybe half of the potatoes. It definitely could have been worse. Maybe the three cups of coffee helped.

Before Harry Potter (which was brilliant, btw) I had around 10 plain m&m's from one of those total rip-off machines they put outside the theatres now. Frank was trying to offer me a snack wrap which he smuggled in, but I resisted. About the movie, no matter how much I love those Harry Potter movies, I always just get more upset when I leave that none of it is real. I was talking to my friend Dan about this and he shares my feeling. I think it's because we both think of ourselves as extraordinary people and believe we would be powerful, in this world of wizards and muggles.

I already had dinner plans with Rob and Dan (mentioned above) decided to join us. I went with him first though to DSW in pentagon row, to pick out some new dress shoes. He did a good job, and really didn't need me there.

Since we had two hours before dinner and we were starving, SOMEONE thought that guacamole and chips from Baja fresh would be a good appetizer. While it was delicious, we ate SO much guac and SO many chips. The regular order of guac is a ridiculous size at baja fresh. I recommend it for your next party. And for 3.25, you really can't beat it! The funny part about having as much nutritional knowledge as people do now is that you can do what I did and, knowing full well that you're consuming 5-6 servings of fried tortilla chips you can say "well at least the gauc has lots of hearth healthy omega-3 fatty acids," which is ridiculous.

Dinner was at Vapiano's in Balston. I knew that place was weird but jeez. They have this odd ordering system, terribly ill-equipped to deal with the crowd that was there for some reason on Sunday night at 8:30. The place has pasta, pizza and salads, as main dishes and as much as I WANTED to get pizza, I decided I'd be half way good, having already had some bad shit. I went a reasonably sized salad, with a lot of veggies, light on the dressing with steak. The food was ...on the good side of okay. What bothered me more was the attitude in the place. I am SO SICK of nondescript dance music playing in the background everywhere I go. It's like, you know what...this is not Europe! We don't need techno or whatever playing in the background in order to pick out a shirt or enjoy a slice of pizza! (Not that I think europeans do any of this, I just think it's done to make eurotrash wannabe americans feel special.) If you don't know what I'm talking about, go any clothing store in Pentagon City mall, and you'll hear it.

"Dessert" was one more glass of wine back at Rob's (forgot to mention the one before dinner). In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have had that...

On Parties and why I'm never going to one again

So Saturday night was Chris's birthday, and phil did a great job planning. The setting, Hotel Helix, was very nice and the food was tasty. I had myself a blue moon, a diet coke and quiet a few veggies and so forth from the veggie tray. Also three pita triangles.

I made a pretty good rule for myself that I wasn't allowed to stand within 10 feet of the the food table, b/c you know how easy it is to munch when you're standing right there. That was definitely a good call.

I even left before the cake was served, to go to ANOTHER party...

This party also had veggies..but more important, it had chips...and meatballs...between the pita chips, tortillas, and meatballs..I must have consumed at least a thousand calories at this party. It was bad. I blame the size of the space. The venue being a small one bedroom, I was forced to stand within feet of the food table at all times. Plus, wine kept showing up in my glass, and you know what alcohol does to you..

I did still leave the party feeling the urge to have something sweet and, pre-flog, I would have gotten myself an ice cream sundae, but not this time. I took my ass to sleep!

Somehow I made it

Saturday, though it was, I got myself up this morning at 8 to go to the gym. I started off with some Shredded Wheat with Strawberries and a couple of turkey sausage links.
I finally got around to that third workout in the plan that i was supposed to be doing for the last couple of weeks. The workout went great and I was especially pleased with the squats, which were pain-free and done with excellent form, if I do say so.

Lunch 1 / Breakfast 2 was the remaining ShakeNBake Turkey chop and some grilled asian vegetables that I got from Safeway. Not bad. A little bland though.

By the time I got to the mall with Todd, though I could barely stand. I had to have an apple. that helped for a while. After a couple more hours of walking around and shopping, we decided it was time to grab another bite to eat. We went to this Greek place and had Gyros. It was chicken, lettuce and garlic mayo (a bit too much garlic mayo) on pita. Delicious! I forwent the sides as the sandwich was already pushing it. No word on what we will be eating for dinner tonight at Chris's birthday party. Maybe nothing? I am gonna lose it..

Off Early?

While I was supposed to be getting off early, I was of course stuck working on pres highlights. Which of course made me want to eat more peanuts, which I of course did.
When I finally made it home, I decided to have some strawberries while figuring out what to do for dinner.

I decided to have a Friday Pity Party, which involves hanging out by myself on a Friday because I don't know where anyone is. I hate so much that I do that, but somehow I can't not do it. Anyway, I decided to do Teaism, since that's a good place to hide out. I had the "Palak paneer," which is kind of a creamy spinach curry with cheese. It was just okay, really, but that didn't stop me from eating it all, along with the serving of rice it came with.
Also got myself some "ice cream" last night. It was some of that 10 calories per oz frozen yogurt stuff that you get from Larry's. Those guys, btw, are really assholes. I hate when you eat somewhere and they act like they're doing YOU a favor. Still, 10 calories/serving is pretty solid. I got a small (80z or so). It was quite tasty. It was really too much, but I finished it anyway for obvious reasons.

Later on I went to a bar by myself as well, and had a Miller Chill before leaving. I am definitely over them now.

Snacks

One last serving of polenta chips (done with those). and probably another 2oz of peanuts...still goin.

Who knew?

Today I managed to get myself up and make it to the gym for some cardio. I did the thing again where I skip breakfast before going. It actually felt pretty good --well I did have a half teaspoon of peanut butter just to get myself going.

I ran on the treadmill for a while and then hopped on the stair machine - about 10 min into that, not having eaten was startin to get to me. I didn't want to be that fool passed out at the gym, so I just gave it a rest.

I weighed in today and have been singing about killing cops ever since. Free lunch to anyone who can tell me why... :-)

It being Friday, I of course rewarded myself with an everything bagel (reduced fat creme cheese) and a Diet Dr. Pepper. I then proceeded eat half of the bagel before dashing off to my meeting. I had the remaining 1/2 cup or so of blueberries to make it to lunch.

Anna and I had plans to go to Austin Grill for lunch. In fact, I specifically skipped the other half of my bagel, just so I would have "room" for chips and Salsa - which were delicious. Somehow the guy across from me felt like ordering "more" was a good idea..I didn't punch him this time.
As usual went with the Bevo salad which is a must. Lettuce, tomato, black bean/corn salsa, guac, cheese, and grilled chicken. There's also some dressing, which I ordered on the side and barely ate any of. Unfortunately I didn't finish the chicken or the salad either b/c the chicken wasn't done towards the middle. They comped it though, so it's all good.

I was going to go for ice cream, but then I saw Mike T and he made a "flogging" motion in my direction, so I changed my mind. What a jerk / good thing. I didn't really want it anyway. I was again tempted by the Italian ice vendor today - Little Jimmy's, if you will.

Toil and trouble

that did not, however stop me from enjoying the ginger snaps my boss brought us. Thankfully, Monica agreed to split one with me. It was good. Too good! After i sat there and stared at them for a while, the started to tempt me again through the very long meeting that went until 7:30! So, I went and got myself some blueberries to munch on. By munch, I mean i ate about half a pint of them :-(. Oh well, it's just fruit.

I had a beer with the Happy Hour network people. There were some obnoxious "family" members there, hamming it up....I believe I made some comment to the effect of "so, just how much are you guys paying Sambo for this evening of entertainment?" Needless to say I wasn't there long.

Still, by the time I left, it was 9:00 and when I finally got home at 9:30, it was really too late to eat. I was just going to go to bed, but...I don't want my body to be going into starvation mode, so I grabbed myself some protein - namely a turkey chop and was in bed before 10:00.

no chocolate for me

I just passed up a tray of chocolate brownies and what not, in favor of.......6-7 grapes and about 1-inch squares of cantaloupe.

Za

I went for my pizza for lunch. Two reasonable slices - one cheese and one pepperoni. Also 3 glasses of diet coke. I should be good and wired this afternoon!

Could be worse

I got my arse back on track at the gym this morning and did workout B of my plan. I think it went fairly well. Form was good. First breakfast was the same as yesterday - maybe 3/4 serving of shredded wheat, a few strawberries and a couple of turkey sausage links.

When I got done working out, i was looking around for lean protein sources. I decided I'd have the turkey chops I had brought and put in the work fridge. It's kind of an odd choice for 9am, but I was gonna go for it. Only to realize that I'd in fact picked up Frank's chicken wings. I was NOT about to eat chicken wings in the morning. So, I got myself a skim latte from downstairs - that's tow more servings of skim milk and a pretty decent chunk of protein, I guess. Then of course I had half a serving of peanuts and about a serving of the polenta chips to "pad it out." By now I'm sick of these peanuts. To my credit though, I have made a jar of peanuts last for nearly three weeks. I would have eaten those in two days, once. I feel like lunch is going to be pizza. I skipped pizza last night at Open City, b/c it would have been a WHOLE pizza, which I would have been obliged to eat. A couple of slices at Z should be okay right? The big boss has called a meeting and maybe we'll have food there. Who knows??

Polenta...so hot right now

I had to skip the gym on Wed. b/c the stupid electrician was coming to fix my light switch. 7-8 minutes later, he was done, and charged us about $100. Breakfast consisted SW (no B...they were out) strawberries, and of course my turkey breakfast sausage. Morning snack was, you guessed it, 1 1/2 oz of peanuts.
I planned on having the remainder of my turkey chops for lunch, but when I went to get a salad to go with them from downstairs, i realized that they had tortilla soup. So, lunch was a cup of tortilla soup and 4 crackers instead.
Fast forward to the afternoon, when I went to get a bday cake for Mike T. I was goin to get a whole cake, but then I figured I'd be tempted to eat some, so I just got a tiny little one for him - Cappucino cheesecake..very serious. Anyway, while at whole foods, it also seemed like a good idea to munch on various samples (mainly little crackers and so forth..) and to also buy some polenta chips. Now, as we all know, polenta is really just grits. While I usually don't eat corn chips, somehow they fru-fru nature of these made it seem okay to a) buy them and b) eat 2 1/2 servings in one afternoon. And yes, I also had myself a handful of blueberries to round out the afternoon.

Schieff and I had dinner on the way to Mike T's bday party. Open City again. Love that place. now I WANTED the pizza or the Cuban sandwich, but I decided to go with the grilled salmon, substituting spinach for the rice and roasted carrots for the other side. That would have been a decent meal in itself, but I of course saw that they had mixed fruit shortcake on the menu. Thank fLog, the shortcake was a) small and b) not very good. I ate all the fruit and half the shortcake and called it day.

Though it was Mike's Bday and I was planning to drink heavily, two beers did the trick. I had one Heff that I can't remember and a blue moon. The wonderland was bumping last night for a Wed. I did quite well with the ladies. One in laughed at a topology joke I made. Gotta love smart girls. :-)

Meat me on Tuesday

I skipped first breakfast this time b/c I was doing cardio and I have been reading that if you don't eat then you have to burn reserves, rather than the sugar in your blood stream. It was fine, I just had to keep the cardio to 30 minutes. Much longer than that and I'd run the risk of passing out.


For some reason I decided to take Megan's advice and try the Chic-fil-a chicken minis for breakfast. They just weren't great, and I would have loved some more chicken and less bread.

Peanuts.

Lunch was at Baja Fresh. I spent some time before researching reasonably healthy options before going. The side-by-side is my standby, but I wasn't feeling it yesterday. Everything is AWFUL for you there. No one should ever eat it. I settled for the Tortilla Soup with Chicken. That wasn't totally wrong for me. I also had the side salad, which basically consists of lettuce and tomato. I also went w/ Salsa Baja for the dressing, rather than ranch.

afternoon snack was more of that damned quaker snake mix and of course a serving of peanuts...i should throw those things away, honestly.

Having been guilted by Monica, I decided to cook myself dinner last night. Since Brad always talks about ShakeNBake, I thought I'd give that a whirl. I went with turkey chops, since the pork chops at safeway were gross-looking. Honestly the chops were okay, but I don't feel like it was crunchy enough. Maybe I should have put more "nbake" on 'em. Also had a whole CAN of green beans, b/c I like those and I hadn't had them in a while. And...strawberries for dessert.

Good News!

CecilMedia, the people who brought you Necessary Judgement, are proud to announce a new addition to our fLog family: Blue Sky Dream Life. Check it out at http://blueskydreamlife.blogspot.com/ !

Back to Life

A South Beach breakfast wrap provided me all the energy I needed for a workout.
Post workout, I finally at the MetRx Protein bar I'd had in my cabinet for ever.
Lunch - obviously Lebanese - Kafte this time, not sure why.
Afternoon Snack of Quaker Snack Mix
"Dinner" - Two Shiners, Chips/Salsa and Wings at Austin Grill

Okay here's the deal....I know I SHOULDN'T HAVE had a cookie last night, given my eating throughout the day. I'd just had an ice cream sundae the day before and decided I didn't really care for it..thought I'd try a cookie this time..I think I'm over desserts. Gonna try to lay off again for a while..we'll see how it goes.

The Carbs Continue

Sunday was laughable. I was so Carl. That afternoon, I decided to finally have that ice cream Sundae I was wanting. It was honestly just okay. Later on of course, probably too close to dinner, I hate a mini bag of lite popcorn. (I don't know why).
For Dinner, I decided to keep it real, and got a salad with lots of veggies and lean proteins from whole foods. Also had an Honest Tea.

Sweet Success

I made it! 7 Days and no dessert. As I've mentioned to everyone that I've encountered, I was shaking the first couple of days, much like a meth addict in rehab. Now though, I'm fine. It's not even really a thing anymore.

I started off my day with some oatmeal. The usual. I've got to buy some damned splenda. Then I had a medium coffee while reading over eat Java house. I've grown rather fond of the old place. Nice and close. Right now I'm having one more bowl of this retched pasta. I think I'm done with it. We'll see. Eating this kinda puts me in a tight spot in terms of dinner options. Can't be anything too carby. I need to go buy veggies.

17th Street Cafe

After sleeping until 10:30! I met Jay, Todd and Ira at 17th Street-Cafe. Owned by Jay's friend Chris, it's a neat little bar/restaurant/lounge place. In the age of free wi-fi everywhere, the old Cyber Stop didn't make too much sense anymore.
The food was decent. I'm not sure it was anything I couldn't have gotten for the same price. I had the "hangover cure," which included eggs, smoked salmon, hashbrowns (which I didn't eat), and toast (which I ate half of). I'll probably go back b/c I like the guy that owns it and it's reasonably good and close.

In the afternoon, I had a small salad of mixed greens with some of that spritzy asian dressing. Frank and Alex also talked me into having two servings of multi grain chips and salsa.

Call it lunch or dinner 1, I had a burger and chips at a party with Todd and Ira. The burger was delicious - hadn't had one cooked on the grill in eons. The chips were also good. I had a miller chill, a YuenLing and a diet coke as well.

Dinner or Dinner II depending on how you think of it was a half bowl of chili and a half piece of cornbread at Stoney's.

One more miller chill and two Amstel Lites for the rest of the night.
I found myself with Mike and one of his friends way too late in Adams Morgan. I watched them eat their jumbo slices and, while I was tempted, I resisted. I think it was a good move, considering how late it was.

Friday Schmiday

Oatmeal, the usual. for breakfast.
More peanuts, leading up to lunch.
Mike T and I decided to go to the Ruby Tuesday salad bar for lunch. My salad consisted mainly of produce -- the whole point was to get in some veggies. I also got some ham just to get the olel protein in.
Mini bag of popcorn and a diet Dr. Pepper for an afternoon snack.
Dinner - We decided to go for it at Georgia Brown's. I went pork chops. Not a bad option, I think. I had a serving of collards, and a half serving of the sweet potatoes. They seemed sweetened to me. Don't wanna violate the moratorium. On that note, I did resist the peach cobbler that someone insisted on offering. I did however have both one of the little biscuits and one of the little cornbread thingees that they bring to the table before the food. yes, there was butter.
Last night I had two beers when we went out. One coors lite and one miller chill. Somehow it was not as good this time. I am totally still going to drink it.

Strugglin

It was readily apparent to me that I had several drinks last night when I woke up this morning. It wasn't quite a hangover, more like a grogginess.
I had to use sugar in my SWB this morning, being out of Splenda. I have to say that even though I only use a teaspoon I think i'm allergic to white sugar. I was sick as hell this morning, in that way that you get when you drink a regular coke. (I might be in my mind, but that's as good as anything.) I also had two turkey sausage links - gotta eat those before they go bad on the 7th.

Lots of peanuts this morning.
Lunch was at Eggspectations - I was craving their quiche. It was a veggie quiche with a ceasar side salad (dressing on the side). The whole thing was delicious, but too much. I knew better.

The original plan was to have a pizza-off, but none of the pizza huts near us have a buffet. Providence.

A couple more peanuts this afternoon, but not too many. I was able to successfully fend off a whole mountain of brownies today. Strangely, I found I didn't want them.

right after my workout this afternoon, I had the other half of my Odwalla naked juice, for protein.

Dinner was - you guessed it: simple salad and more whole wheat pasta. I am somehow making like 6 meals out of 3 servings of pasta.

Happy Bday America

Breakfast - I decided to go for a country breakfast. I made myself some grits, two links of turkey sausage and of course a couple of eggs. I twas a very heart and satisfying breakfast.

Lunch was a simple salad, field greens and a few spritzes of my asian silk dressing. And some pasta I made. Basically some whole wheat shells w/ a meat sauce I made a LOT of this stuff, so get ready to read about it several times.

Afternoon refreshment - one vitamin water. I had to see what all the fuss was bout. I don't think I get it. It's just semi-sweet juice as far as I can tell. I'll just try to get my vitamins from my food, like humans have always done.

Snack - walking around w/ the kids in georgetown, we got hot / hungry, so, we split (between four of us) like 6 shrimp and had a beer each. I went Corona.

Dinner was naturally MORE of this pasta concoction of mine. I wanted to eat SOMETHING to avoid be too tempted to eat the inevitable goodies at billy's party.

There I would have what I am calling two serving of chips - one tostitos and one potato chips. I did successfully avoid all the desserts. Baby Steps. Yesterday was a "chippy" day overall. I feel like I had "two or three" chips as several times throughout the day, for no particular reason. Chips may soon have to be added to the moratorium. So anyway, also at billy's party I had one and a half "Miller Chill"'s. I have to say - pretty good! i wanted to hate it because it felt like a corporate but, I've gotta say - taste wise they nailed it. I might be hooked.

Later that evening I decided to go out with Brian and Less. I had a blue moon and a miller lite to finish off my day.

Break, breakdown - steadybreakinmeon -down

I had a near meltdown today. I was supposed to be going to a "bar crawl" with Mikey and some of his friends. On the way over, i was seized with what I think was an honest to god panic attack. There were what seemed to be millions of people, of varying degrees of jackassery, streaming from the midtown bars. Let me paint good: All straight white people, between the ages of 24-34, dressed in trendy and or preppy things, all wearing bright green arm bands indicating that they were part of the "crawl". At least six white girls walked by me twisting with that look on their face that said "I know you want me, but you can't have me." By the time I got to Mackey, my head hurt, and I was disoriented. It was some combination of confusion, anger and disappointment. So I had to cancel on Mikey. I think he took it fairly well. He didn't call me a pussy or anything, like usual.
So, I decided to go see Todd in Georgetown. On my way over, I had a diet coke, and realized that my problem was that I hadn't had caffeine all day! half way through the DC I was fine.
Anyway, Todd and I went to some restaurant in Georgetown - Paul Smith's maybe?
Anyway, I went salad again. Todd and I split a spinach/artichoke dip as well. What's the deal with that stuff? I mean, what is the artichoke contributing? Are spinach, creme and cheese not enough to constitute a good dip? I demand that artichoke be removed from. Anyway, the salad was good -greens, cucumbers, obligatory grilled chicken, honey-mustard dressing on the side. I also had a couple of beers.

Desseert Moratorium Day 3: I am losing my mind. All I can think about are cake and ice cream and various other desserts. I'm thinking about smoking pot or cookin up some meth to distract myself. Nothing like a little addiction transfer. Augusten would be proud.

Zazlunch

Today, the Zaz treated us to lunch for being such an awesome network. TLC is a 'smokestack' apparently? Anyway, it was very nice. except there was a MOUNTAIN of desserts. Still, i went for the handful of grapes.

Breakfast - oatmeal, the ususal
Second Breakfast (post lift, of course) - four slices of turkey bacon, and some spinach
Lunch - halves of two different cosi sandwiches at zazlunch. Some salad and a diet snapple.

Snack? 3/4 serving of SWB, a banana and some milk.
There may or may not have also been a 100 calorie pack of baked cheetos...yes, i know. Dinner will be lettuce.

Sunday-Monday

Sunday
cereal, blueberries, coffee
lunch: Korean barbecue (don't ask..a lot)
half of an appetizer-sized quesedilla
two enchiladas and a shit load of chips at lauriol plaza. chips moratorium, anyone?

Monday
more cereal, final bit of blueberries for breakfast
peanuts before lunch
chicken schwarma sandwich w/ salad
popcorn (yes, regular)
dinner - half tuna sandwich, cup of soup at Camile's

Everything but

For some reason today when I woke up, I had two things in mind. The first was getting a haircut. Even though I didn't get in bed until around 2:30, I was up at 8:30 hoping to get to the barber shop right when it opened. The other thing I was thinking about was a McSkillet Burrito from McDonald's. They sent me a coupon about a month ago for a free one, and today was the day I HAD to have it. I also sent Carl a text asking if he was available. He was, and it was determined that I would loan him my bike.

McDonald's was a nightmare. There were like 10 people in line and we all know that in this neighborhood, while everyone eats at McDonald's, one dare not be seen there. The judgement and the knowing looks never end. So, the longer the line, the greater likelihood of judgement.
5 Minutes later, I've got myself a McSkillet Burrito and a LARGE diet coke - I had to buy a large drink to get the burrito for free..I told that bitch to just charge me for a large and give me a medium b/c I didn't want that much soda. But, no, that's too hard.

The burrito wasn't as awful as Frank made it out to be. The shell was nice and soft, the sausage and eggs seemed like real produce - ish. The potato kinda threw me though. I could have done without that. Anyway, as McDonald's has refused to post the nutritional information on those, I have no idea what I was doing to myself.

I decided to RIDE my bike to Carl''s house, just in case. I met him at the Courthouse Cosi, where I had an Iced Tea and managed to resists their assortment of gross pre-packaged baked goods. We ran into a girl I know, Nina, who insisted on paying for my tea -- I pretended to refuse, that whole thing. Anyway, we all sat and discussed Ayn Rand for a while and then parted ways.

Back at Carl's I was confronted with a HOT Margarita pizza from Armand's and I almost lost it. I kept it together though.

While I was waiting for Carl (don't ask why I was waiting), I got a chance to play with the iPhone. It was pretty neat. Very sexy. Highly recommended.

Lunch was courtesy of El Charrito. The Salvadoran place. I went with the #2 - one papusa, and tow tacos and ANOTHER diet coke. It was really just a liiiiiitle too much, probs. I skipped most of the rice and the second taco shell. Every little bit helps, i reckoned.

Dinner was very enjoyable, with Todd. Went to busboys, where I'd never been in Daylight. Their hummus appetizer is delicious - but be sure to ask for extra bread ahead of time. It's always not balanced properly. I used a good ordering strategy tonight. I decided before leaving home that I was going to order a salad and then when I got there, I opened the menu, and picked within 30 seconds. No deliberating, no fretting. It was genius. I also had a terrible glass of red wine, recommended to me by the waitress. I started to cut her, but I let let it go.

Somehow during dinner, it was decided that we should get shakes from Ben's Chili Bowl,, already being so close. We got "small" ones and they were delicious, but a bit much.

Okay, here's the thing: the milkshake was the last straw. Desserts are slowly killing me. I am therefore declaring a week-long dessert moratorium, with the option to extend for two weeks. Like past moratoria, this is designed to break a habit, in this case, my habit of consuming small but significant quantities of refined carbohydrates between meals. If you read about so much as a Teddy Graham, I demand that you judge and leave bitchy comments. I do reserve the right to eat whole fruit, however, as I need "antioxidants," which I've decided is just code for "nutrient you've never heard of with vague and questionable efficacy, but food companies are allowed to market to you as something that MIGHT cure cancer" (see: lycopene).

Finally, one more jack and diet at the new restaurant on 17th (formerly cyberstop) where Todd and all Jay's friends met for big Chad's birthday and general tomfoolery. Tiramisu was definitely involved, but I forwent my bite in order to start the moratorium early.

On a somewhat happy note. I went to Gap today b/c that's what I do. A lot of summer sales are going around. First I went to Brook Brothers and while 3/$150 is a good price for shirts, i was so overwhelmed by the sea of blue and white stripes of every imaginable variety that I just left, flustered. That's how I wound up at Gap. There, it's much simpler. There are 4 items in the store that aren't crappy and 1 or two of them will be on sale. If it's a good enough sale, you try it on and you buy it. Today, I found four things that I liked: a pair of shorts, two pairs of dress pants and a dress shirt. Only when I got in the fitting room did i realize that they were all too big! I am TOTALLY Lohan, right now. fLog, what are you doing to me! :-)

Some more friday

Friday afternoon was a real drag. What started out as a fairly productive day ended up going to hell. I was still working on stupid press highlights when six thirty rolled around. Who works late on a FRIDAY? Anyway...
I got home by 7:30, and had myself a handful of blueberries, b/c I had dinner plans. Because my 8:30 dinner plans (shockingly) got pushed back to 9:00, I was forced to eat some dessert concoction Tracy made for us with fruity and creme and shit.

Dinner - For some reason, having only eaten one serving at Indian, I felt entitled to pasta. So, I had some linguine..yes, with creme and veggies. The only appetizing / affordable meat dish on the menu something called "Rigatini" and Neil was ordering that, so I didn't bother. My waist-line thanks me, I'm sure. The Peroni (Italian beer) I had with it wasn't half bad, though.

Rest of the night consisted of one vodka drink and a few Miller Lites. It would have been one miller Lite, but my friend came out and he's a drinker / pressurer. Anyway, it was good to have a noob on board. We saw some guy passed out completely on the side-walk outside stoney's when we came from not eating there --- that's right, we went in, sat down for like 4 minutes, talked and then walked out. We all know that ordinarily I would have gone for the chili w/ cornbread or something, but I didn't have the heart to write it down. And thank goodness - Saturday was a doozie.

Friday

I am HELLA sore today from the last few workouts. This new plan from Men's Fitness is kicking my arse. Hopefully in a good way, eventually. Mirror issues this morning, but largely forgotten. This fat shirt, though, is not doing it for me...

1st Breakfast - 1 South Beach breakfast wrap
Post workout - 2nd Breakfast - 1 scoop of chocolate flavored protein powder, 6 oz of water (it was really gross today b/c the water was lukewarm and I put too much). 1 Banana.
cup of coffee
handful of peanuts b/c I got bored
Lunch - Indian Buffet. Tori was in charge of making sure I only got one plate. She did an excellent job. I don't think the plate was THAT much more than my typical first. It was really about a serving of all the stuff I like, heavy on the chicken, for good quality protein. Small victories...

Thursday

Breakfast - Oatmeal, with raisins and peanut butter - just like I like.
Diet Coke to keep myself awake during team meeting.
Lunch - leftover squash / zucchini casserole. That stuff is finally gone. Also leftover sprouts.
Eileen's Party - 2 tablespoons of guac, 3 chocolate covered strawberries, 1 0z (approx) cheddar cheese, 1 mystery cookie, 1 serving of red wine
Dinner - Two tall Red Hooks and half a chicken quesedilla (shared with Mikey, of course)
Gluttony - slice of strawberry cake - i swear I'm throwing that shit away.

Stomachache

I woke up with a TERRIBLE stomachache yesterday. Hadn't had one that bad in a while. Not being able to sleep, I figured I'd just head to the gym.
Breakfast - Blueberries
Second Breakfast - Turkey bacon, Egg-White, Cheddar sandwhich from Starbucks, Grande Skim Latte
(Remainder of Teddy Grahams)
Lunch - Kashi Lemongrass Chicken Frozen Meal
Diet Coke, Mini Bag of REGULAR popcorn, that I bought by accident.
Disaster that was Happy Hour/ Dinner - Okay, so..we decide to split some appetizers...Chips with dip..and then hummus with pita and veggies..I can't account for how much of them I ate, but it was my fair share. Lesley and I split a burger with cheddar and Tater Tots. I think I ate like.....50 tater tots? It was bad. Also 2 1/2 beers.
I thought about that strawberry cake again last night..but I just couldn't go there..