strawberry shortcake

During my last foray at The Body Shop, I ended up with a sample of strawberry body butter. I love their butters (so much that they’re my primary reason for going there), but I would never have picked out strawberry. Hey, it was free.

Now, having rubbed my way through all the olive body butter that I actually paid for, I’m working on the strawberry. It makes me smell exactly like a McDonald’s strawberry sundae. If I was 8 or so, I would be positively enchanted. But I am thirty. And I stopped wanting to smell sweet quite awhile ago. It’s fun for a change, but I won’t buy it when I go back for more buttah.

Exercise: walk with The Husband
Breakfast: croissant and cafe au lait
Lunch: Southwest Turkey Stromboli at Old Chicago
Dinner: Bacon, mushroom, and swiss quiche. A glass of pinot noir, followed by much water once the first twinklings of a headache hit.

laundry day

Today was drizzly and cold, so we stayed in. I’ve been doing laundry and updating one of my spring courses.

Exercise: 70 stairs, some yoga

Breakfast: woke up too late, then got busy. Too stupid to eat.
Lunch: Turkey sandwich with swiss cheese, guacamole, and sprouts. Three baby dills.
Snack: vanilla yogurt with fresh blueberries
Snack the second: banana, T of peanut butter
Dinner: grilled chicken, cheese tortellini with pesto, steamed broccoli

I know I said this yesterday, and I know it’s not news at all, but I’m fascinated by seeing the food all listed like this. It makes it so obvious what’s going wrong, and it also makes me think about healthier choices during the day. For instance, could have had potato chips. Had a banana and peanut butter instead.

The “Gone to Apple Valley Edition”

So lots of walking yesterday, albeit it not at a very fast pace. The drive down goes across pretty wetlands, and I got to spend the afternoon hanging out with my very best friend in the whole wide world.

Breakfast: banana, T of all-natural crunchy peanut butter
Lunch: 1/2 turkey sandwich with 1/2 slice swiss, guac, and sprouts; small handfull potato chips, 3 spears pickled okra
Unfortunate Snack: medium Dairy Queen cone
Dinner: blueberry pancakes with butter and light application of maple syrup, 2 sausage links

Wow, that’s a lot of fat in the diet. Interesting to see it all listed like that.

Whatever Works

I’ve always resisted using this place as a straight-up What-I-Weigh, What-I-Ate diary, but maybe that’s what’s needed for now. I’ve been rummaging around in Marla’s archives, and it looks like that was what kept her going at first. Worth a shot, anyway. And this is Start #3 in the past two and a half years. My start weight the first time, post-thesis, was 230. My second start weight, a year ago, was 225. This time, post-exams, it’s 240. I hope this is like quitting smoking — the more times you try, the higher your chances of actually succeeding.

This time, I’m working on adding in healthy habits incrementally rather than trying to change everything at once. I do consistently well enough already with water intake. So my current goal is simply to add in movement every day and remember to take my vitamin. I’m working on making decent choices in eating, but not being anal-retentive about it yet. Mostly, I’m aiming for an intake of primarily whole foods, which isn’t all that much different that what I usually aim for. That will change later, when I worry more about portion size, fat/protein intake, and whatnot.

So today:
Breakfast: oatmeal with blueberries, maple syrup, and soy milk.
Lunch: turkey sandwich with swiss cheese, guacamole and sprouts.
Snack: two apricots, handful of potato chips with low-fat onion dip
Dinner: Pork roast, green beans, and couscous.

Exercise: hour-long walk with the husband.