Hate.

So remember this morning when I was bitching about my belly-ache and blaming it on the wine last night? Not so. it has become quite apparent that I have some kind of food poisoning from dinner last night. I'm not going to tell you all about the gory details...but I will say they are not good.

Fortunately for me, the client's office closed at noon today so that the employees could 'prepare for the storm' that isn't even going to be close to here for another 5 days. And we couldn't get on to earlier flights, so now we just have to sit in New Orleans until our flights leave at 4 tomorrow. But at least I got to come home so that I could deal with my illness in private instead of in the public bathroom at the client's office.

Needless to say, I'm probably not going to be eating or working out today, so an update tomorrow will probably not be coming.

How many more sicknesses do you think I can get this month???

Food and exercise diary - Wednesday

Don't judge me on my dinner situation; when we're out of town, we get one free meal out a week, and it's usually at a fancy gourmet restaurant, so I find it hard to contain myself. But I"m definitely going to try harder in the future, because my stomach has been extremely upset all morning. I'm not a fan.

Breakfast (8am): Bowl of honey nut cheerios w/skim milk

Lunch (11:30am): salad with lettuce, grilled chicken, tomato, artichoke hearts, red onion, balsamic vinaigrette, two cheesy breadsticks

Snack (3pm): Tow bite sized peanut chews

Dinner (7pm): one potato roll, lightly buttered; two tiny cornbread rolls, also lightly buttered; green salad with balsamic vinaigrette; maple roasted chicken with roasted carrots and kale (I only ate half of the chicken); half a bottle of pinot grigio; half of a small piece of chocolate torte w/berries.

Exercise: 10 minutes recumbent bike and 40 minutes uphill treadmill walk

Seriously though, I feel like absolute hell right now. I feel like I could vomit. I'm blaming the wine. This will not be repeated.

On a funnier note, look at the picture Blake sent me from his phone last night. It made me laugh, so it is now the backdrop on my computer.

Food and exercise diary - Tuesday

I'm still doing pretty well I think. I know I haven't lost weight yet because it's been two days, but I feel much better, so that's good!

Breakfast (8am): bowl of honey nut cheerios w/ skim milk; melon cubes
Lunch (11:30am): Spinach salad with grilled chicken, tomato, red onion, black olives, feta, oil and vinegar, and two breadsticks
Snack 1 (2pm): Two bite-sized peanut chews
Snack 2 (6pm): two crackers, two cheese cubes, handful of walnuts and some red bell pepper strips
Dinner (8pm): Salad with lettuce, grilled chicken, tomato, carrot, radicchio, balsamic vinaigrette

Exercise: 30 minutes lifting (see pull out cards in this month's Self magazine; my triceps, back, and hamstrings are in serious pain right now); 15 minutes recumbent bike; 40 minute treadmill run/walk

Tonight's the big free dinner out, so I'll probably have some dessert...I'm going to try to be good though!

Food and exercise diary - Monday

As a part of my weight loss regimen, I'm going to chronicle my food intake and exercise activities here daily. So if any of you see a problem that I'm oblivious to, I expect you to warn me about it :)

Breakfast (8am): bowl of cheerios w/skim milk, melon cubes
Lunch (11:30am): salad with lettuce, grilled chicken, green bell pepper, broccoli, mushrooms, olives, salsa, monterrey jack cheese, balsamic vinaigrette dressing
Snack 1 (2:00pm): two bite sized peanut chews (dark chocolate, peanuts, caramel)
Snack 2 (6:00pm): two crackers, two cubes of cheese, a few bell pepper and carrot sticks
Dinner (8:00pm): salad with baby greens, grilled chicken, artichoke hearts, tomato, bell peppers, cashews, feta, and vinaigrette dressing

Exercise: 35 minutes elliptical routine (pulled from and lengthened from this month's Self magazine) and 15 minutes recumbent bike.

So far so good I think. :)

Bad Kitty.

I took pictures off of my camera this weekend, so I wanted to share with you all Norman's activities from Saturday morning. Blake had filled up a bucket in the kitchen sink to water the balcony plants. He then left the bucket on the counter while he ate breakfast. And this is what happened:












After he realized that it was just water, Norman dismounted and stood up on the counter leaning up against the bucket and continually put his right arm in it to completely intentionally splash large amounts of water out of the bucket and onto the kitchen floor. It's a good thing he's so damn cute.

(the boys)

Self-bribery

So I haven't worked out at all for the past week. It started off because of my illness (you can't run when you can't breathe), and then as I started to feel better I wasn't sleeping well because of the coughing, so I was too tired, and then by this weekend I just became lazy. This is unacceptable. I would like to lose 10 pounds, and although I haven't been working out for the past week, I have been eating pretty well. I think I'm actually ready now to make the commitment to eating better and working out more so that I can lose this annoying weight. It has to be done before busy season, because I almost always gain a bit when I'm working 70 hour weeks.

And so, as an incentive to get my ass in gear, and also to keep myself away from the mall for a few months, I have decided that as soon as I lose 10 pounds I will buy myself the purse that I've been eyeing up. In reality, I think I could potentially lose 15 pounds, but I don't want to put that much pressure on myself quite yet.

I did have a bit of a "that's it" moment this weekend that made me decide to lose this damn weight once and for all. And I realize how ridiculous this sounds, but that's how I roll. I was trying on the dress I bought for Kelli's wedding in a few months. I actually bought it in December and was waiting on an occasion to wear it. When I tried it on at the store, I did so in a regular bra, knowing that I'd need a fancy low-back bra situation when I'd actually wear it. So I bought what has to be the only convertible bra that is made in my size on Saturday and tried it on with the dress. And no. My boobs to NOT fit in this dress. At all. I even tried without the bra on, and it was ridiculous. I got the dress on major sale (I think it was like $30), so it wouldn't be the end of the world if I couldn't wear it, but I was pissed. And I'm hoping that a major weight loss will cause my boobs to shrink, even slightly. I'm getting really tired of them. Do you know how long it's been since I could buy a button down shirt? It's absurd. Although I'd clearly also like some of the weight loss to come from the stomach and upper thigh regions, of course.

And so, once again, I'm going to lay out my plan here and hopefully this time it will stick. I'm going to continue to do 45 minute cardio sessions 5 times a week, and I'm going to mix them up, but I'm definitely adding a running/walking routine I read about in one of my magazines this month. When I'm out of town, I up the cardio to 60 minutes a day, because of the increased eating. I'm also going to work in 3 total-body strength training routines. Once I'm back in my house instead of out of town on business, I'm going to continue my 6 30-minute morning Wii Fit routines, and I'm going to add one 30-minute Pilates video a week.

As far as food goes, I'm definitely sticking to my on-the-road plan of eating salad for lunch every day. For breakfast I've been having fruit and cereal. I just have to be a bit better about dinner and avoid desserts. Once I'm home, breakfast will be a protein shake and fruit, morning snack will be two hard boiled egg whites and some fruit, lunch will be a salad (I'm going to make a different fancy salad for each week to keep me interested), afternoon snack will be some fruit and a whole grain cracker with peanut butter. Post gym I'll have a string cheese while I'm making dinner, which will be some kind of lean meat and lots of veggies, or a vegetarian option.

The most important thing I think is watching my portion sizes when I make things like pasta and risotto. The problem is that Blake doesn't eat lunch most days because he's so busy, so I make like 4 servings of these side dishes and I eat more than I intend to because when I only make 2 servings for dinner, Blake is still hungry. I'm going to try to be more careful about that.

Tomorrow, the games begin. And this will eventually be my prize:

Oops.

So sadly, most of the movie theatres are no longer showing Stepbrothers, and if they are it's at totally awful times given our evening plans, so Scotty and I didn't get to the movies today. But I did get back to the mall. And I bought the purple shoes. And I found a way to not need them in black: I also bought this pair of black shoes, which (of course) were more expensive. But I like them and I had wanted booties and here they are (yay):

I also got a few t-shirts and the scarf below, which I will be wearing with a white t-shirt, dark jeans, and my purple shoes as soon as I can get away with fall fashions around here:

In conclusion, I have now spent roughly (exactly) $600 on shoes this month, plus some other items, so I am on mall restriction for several weeks. I tried to spot the pretty purse that I want at Nordstrom's, but they only had the smaller version. It's probably good that I didn't keep looking at Neiman Marcus, because that almost certainly would have ended badly.

Pretty new shoes make me hate my job less...cause it allows me to afford them whenever I want. And it gives me an excuse to wear them. :)