Weigh-in

The bad news is I chugged a full bottle of mint green iced tea last night and found myself up until around 4 in the morning -- I guess it really DOES have caffeine in it!

The good news is I weighed myself this morning before breakfast and came in at 229.4 -- about five pounds lighter than a month ago. I credit three factors, in no particular order:

• The new eating regimen, even if I faltered a little this past month. The goal is expand the repertoire this month -- the challenge is to not over eat when I'm working as GM at the restaurant for one full day a week starting in a couple of weeks.
• The weight lifting twice a week. I started at struggling to do five push ups, and now I'm struggling to do 10 push ups. I already developed a new routine to do this month focusing on non-bike muscles. I feel more toned.
• The bike riding. I've been doing 60-100 miles a week this past month, and while it's been matched with calorie intake, my stamina and aerobic health has definitely felt a boost. Going to do the first century of the season this month.

That is all. Will restart reportage of what goes down my neck Monday...

Ah pizza, you rascal!

Fell asleep yesterday while doing the laundry after the bike ride, so spent the morning slogging through that chore. We got out of the house and zipped over to BK to visit C and her tiny lil' Autumn. By the time I was taking the train home, I realized I hadn't really eaten lunch and was starving. Stuffed down a bad slice of streetza, and when we got home, ordered a proper pizza with the wifey. Ahhhh, pizza!

Tomorrow, we go upstate for the weekend for a wedding. This blog will go silent until Monday, though tomorrow morning I will weigh in and give some thoughts about the last month and the coming month, in terms of diet and goals...

BREAKFAST: 9am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, mint iced green tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: noon, banana bread, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, slice of pizza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:30, Cesar salad, mushroom and onion pizza, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, mint iced green tea

Old Standby

After yesterday's sweets n' meats blow out, definitely went into the day looking to go for the green. Almost did, but a ride to Coney with a friend went into the red, and when I got home I was so blown out, I fell back on an old standby...

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Almost forgot about these. As I'm drinking, I'm thinking, DAMN, this is delicious! Ripe banana, acai juice, good yogurt, fresh ground flax, frozen mango, cherries and blueberries, a dash of salt.

LUNCH: 12:15pm, 2 sammiches of sardines in mustard on demihippy bread, large green salad, a pickle, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, freshly baked banana bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Creamed a stick of butter with a stick of good quality butter. Added 5 super ripe bananas and 2 whole eggs. Then the scrapings of a vanilla bean, a teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of sea salt. Took it off the mixer and folded in 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, poured into a grease loaf pan, baked for an hour at 350. Came out close to perfect, though maybe still a little too sweet. Next time will do 1/4 cup of brown sugar....

PM SNACK: 6:45pm, hotdog, small amount of fries, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Coney Island with a friend, who was also eating this.

DINNER: 9pm, shrimp fried rice, shrimp eggroll, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked this on the way home from the ride, just starving and tired and wanted to eat fast and simple.

High Green, High Red

I made sure to eat in the greenzone in the morning, because the afternoon I taught a class on pastry, which I knew would involve eating a lot of sweets, followed by a visit to the restaurant, which I know would involve eating something sinful.

Brief parental bragging: Edie & I wet to the swim class in the neighborhood this morning. There were 3 other babies. Edie was all grins, arm flapping and D-smiles, the teacher kept using her as the model because she wouldn't fret when taken from me, and was just the bomb-diggety all around. I've said it before, I'll say it again -- she is the the Rufus of babies. (Rufus is my wonder cat....)

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, whole wheat waffle, smoothie pop, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, large green salad, a few flax tortilla chips, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACKING: 4-5:30pm, various bites of all sorts of chocolate, a few chocolate chip cookie, a couple of freshly fried donuts, cup of milk, seltzer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:45pm, stuffed pepper, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A meaty non-menu item from the hands of L.

EVENING SNACK: 11:15pm, flax tortilla chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cheesecake logic

Not a good eating day, with the exception of a meal taken with the HVS. Looking back, I think the stress of B not feeling well and having to run around with Edie to a play date (working around her nap and eating schedule) effected my eating for the worse. And it didn't help having tons of cheesecake lying around the house...

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 9am, a slice and half of cheesecake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I wasn't intending this to be breakfast, but I realized I was going to bring the cupcake cheesecakes to a play date and I hadn't actually tried one yet. And another cheesecake I was slicing and packing -- 3 containers, 5 slices each, but the cake yielded 16 pieces. Can't let that piece sit all by it's lonesome!

AM SNACK: 11:30am, a few pieces of lavash cracker

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, a few slices of cured meats, a cookie

LUNCH: 2:30pm, 5 pork n' chive dumplings

PM SNACK: 4pm, popcorn

SNICKLEDINNER: 6:15pm, quinoa salad with string beans, 2 pieces of cheesecake, 1.25 bowl

Many sweets made, none eaten!

Another day split in three. In the morning arranged the house while Edie napped then did the food market thing. My friend T.M. came over and we cooked -- first a round of olive oil granola, then a special batch of chocolate chip cookies (minus the chocolate chips, plus a "special" ingredient supplied by TM to "flavor" the butter in the cookies) and a series of NY-style cheesecakes. The granola is for the HVS tomorrow, my share of the cookies went into the freezer for friends, and the cheesecakes will be distributed somehow, as little down my neck as possible.

When B got home, I made salad and ate it, felt lazy and we ordered a pizza from our local 2boots. Not horrendous, not great either.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, glass of iced mint green tea
Not happy with this batch. Need to make it stronger.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, whole wheat waffle, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Broke it and toasted it, far superior than the microwave floppiness.

LUNCH: 2pm, beouf bourginon over mint pasta, seltzer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pasta and red meat on the first day of the week, but it was a very reasonable portion.

DINNER PT. 1: 6:15pm, large green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER PT. 2: 6:45pm, 3 slices of 2boots pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Out of sorts

Despite about 9 hours of sleep, felt very out of sorts today -- still not enough sleep, and the rainy weather did not help. Couldn't really eat in the morning. Went to a tour of an abandoned train tunnel under Atlantic Ave with a friend's b-day crew, then met up with B&E at her lunch thing at a bar -- good homecooked food, and I was starving.

Felt run-down and under the gun (in a good way) in the evening to finish up some school-related things, got everything done, but ordered in some Japanese comfort food. A new week starts, and next weekend I weigh in to see if anything has happened...

AM SNACK: 9am, a few snips of lavash cracker, water

AM SNACK: 11am, handful of almonds

LUNCH: 1:30pm, pulled pork, mac n' cheese, coleslaw, 1/2 a beer, 1.5 bowl

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, a few snippets of cheese and lavash, a sip of wine

DINNER: 9pm, sushi, tempura, shrimp shumai, green salad, water, small hunk of chocolate, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5