Jump Start Day 1

Yesterday was day 1 of the jumpstart.  Of course my plan of getting out Friday night and grabbing groceries didn't happen so Saturday was almost not the first day of this fun.  Luckily I realized I had everything but dried plums that was required for the last day of the 4 so I shuffled some things around and the fun began.  Cream of wheat, sunflower seeds, blue berries and of course, Sassy Water (SW).  Lydia and I managed to squeeze out some time for coffee so I had to be a little creative, my first coffee challenge!  I reserved the skim milk I was supposed to have with breakfast and had it at the coffee shop, in the form of steamed milk.  Worked out pretty well!

It was great catching up with Lydia.  Afterward I headed home to gather laundry and run to Trader Joes for supplies.  They have frozen microwavable brown rice!  Whoo hoo!  There were only 2 things on my list that I disliked:  Squash and fish.  I hate fish.  I keep trying it but I just don't like it.  But it's only one meal so I'm willing to eat it.  Of course, I've never cooked fish, so that could be fun.  I'll let you know, the adventure is scheduled for tonight.  Of course, it seems tilapia was quite popular around Trader Joes yesterday.  The closest I could come was some that was rubbed with garlic and chili powder.  I decided that was a little more adventurous than I was willing to sign up for.

With the laundry done and the groceries home it was time for lunch.  I had 4 oz of deli sliced turkey that I cut into squares and topped with string cheese.  I steamed some carrots (love my rice cooker/steamer) and found I actually like them that way-before I was a raw or not at all.  And a glass of SW.  All and all pretty satisfying.

There was still the rest of the list to complete so after a little nap (the couch was just too comfy) Frank and I headed to Giant in search of some staples, tilapia and the elusive Flax Seed oil.  It's in the supplement section if anyone goes looking for it.  It's a vegetarian way to get Omega 3 which is good for your heart and raises your good cholesterol levels, something both Frank and I need.

Once home I started our dinners.  Veggie pot pie for Frank and grilled chicken with brown rice and yellow squash for me.  It worked out well I much say, and I finished my 2 liters of SW for the day.  We curled up on the couch for a movie and then SNL.  I made strawberry smoothies with some flax seed oil (adding a little sugar to his) and it made a nice movie snack.

So day one is done and I feel pretty good, though I have stared longingly at the coffee pot a few times.  I do feel less bloated this morning, so that's pretty cool.  Tomorrow I'll tell you how the fish turns out!

Week 1...mostly

So Monday was a very yummy flax seed waffle with bananas, nutmeg, cinnamon and pecans, and a cup of coffee, for breakfast. Lunch was brought in, but instead of getting the pancakes or French toast I went with scrambled eggs and fresh fruit. Too much salt in the eggs, but overall not a bad compromise. Snack was part skim string cheese, brazil nuts, baby carrots and an apple. Then it was off to the gym where Sean had me work my arms until I couldn’t lift them. Dinner was not in the book, we had Indian: Madras Lentils, Punjab Cholie and basmati rice. And 2 liters of Sassy water…and a beer.


Tuesday was ¾ cup of oatmeal with blueberries and pecans, and a cup of coffee, for breakfast. Lunch was brought in, this time a tomato, basil and mozzarella sandwich on marble rye with fresh fruit…and a cookie. I at the cookie and truth be told, as good as it was, it was heavy. Snack was non-fat French vanilla yogurt (Stoneyfield Farm, really good), a cup of skim milk, brazil nuts. Then off to the gym for 30 minutes on the elliptical. Dinner was whole wheat penne pasta with red bell pepper, broccoli florettes, onion, garlic, fresh basil, Italian cheese blend and non-fat ricotta cheese. Not my favorite but I learned that I really should just make one portion for me and something else for Frank. Easy enough to do with pasta. And 2 liters of Sassy water.

Wednesday was that yummy banana waffle again, and a cup of coffee, for breakfast! Lunch was a turkey wrap that meant well. I couldn’t find a whole wheat wrap at Trader Joe’s so I picked up brown rice wraps…they are brittle chewy things. So what should have been a wrap turned into more of a salad. There was turkey, tomato, onion and romaine lettuce. Snack time brought string cheese, sunflower seeds and unsalted, unbuttered popcorn with parmesan cheese sprinkled on. That was a cool idea. Trainer Sean had me do 15 minutes of step aerobics and another 15 of leg work, then I bicycled with Connie for 25 minutes. Dinner was leftover cheesy veggie pasta (better the second day oddly enough) for me and masala burgers for Frank. And 2 liters of Sassy water…

Thursday was blueberry oatmeal, and a cup of coffee, again for breakfast. Lunch was a meatball pita-2 veggie meatballs, some Paul Newman marinara sauce with a little olive oil added and some Italian cheese shreds in a whole wheat pita. Quite good. Snack was yogurt, skim milk, pecans and an orange. No gym after work because I usually take Thursday off for gaming. I got home and plopped on the couch, and felt munchy. Hm…this is not good. So I got up and cleaned the bathtub. Then headed for the kitchen where I made my Sassy water for the next day, did the dishes and decided to start my dinner. Frank was working late and I was planning on having turkey with my pasta so I figured I’d go ahead and make my cup of pasta, brown the ground turkey and sauté the tomato and basil in olive oil. There was supposed to be broccoli too, but I forgot and used it all in the cheesy veggie pasta on Tuesday. So I added 2 tbsps of marinara sauce. Again, quite good. I did the dishes and when I sat back down on the couch I wasn’t munchy.

So all this makes me think that the actual food prep is important. There’s something relaxing about chopping the veggies and following the recipe. You aren’t thinking about what happened at work, or what needs to be cleaned. You’re just making sure you don’t lose a finger. And you aren’t sitting on the couch bored.

I have to admit, I do feel like I have more energy. And this morning? Well with all the snow I decided to wear jeans to work today, and they fit better! That was quite exciting. So breakfast was a banana waffle (and a cup of coffee), lunch is being brought in and I plan on doing tofu and veggies, snack is string cheese, nuts, an apple and carrots and of course Sassy water! I don’t know about dinner because it’s time to go to the store.

Oh, my greatest triumph of the week? I actually used all the fresh fruit and veggies before they went funky! Whoo hoo! That’s actually something the book strives for, which I think is pretty awesome.

Next: Anti-Bloat-can Liz make it 4 days without coffee?

Sassy!

So here’s the story. Last Saturday I went to the doctor to get my yearly blood work done and have some prescriptions renewed. I also had a question about the annoying leg cramps I’ve been having for ages now. What I came away with was a potassium deficiency and he was unhappy with my blood pressure. Oh goodie. So more bananas for me and new diet as well. Again, oh goodie.


It seems I am fated to go down the path of my father. We are a lot alike in many ways, one of those being we like food. Neither of us eat to fill a void or as a comfort when life is rough. We like food, it tastes good. Dad comes from a family of “hearty eaters” and I’m not an exception to that. When Dad was around 44 he had bypass surgery and from then on there was a big change in his diet. Low fat, low salt. He took it in stride, mostly because my mom does the cooking and he eats what she gives him. There were still outings for ice cream on occasion, but those became very infrequent when he was diagnosed as diabetic. So he’s lost a lot of weight from the big man I remember as a child, and is in general good health for someone in their 70s.

That said, I’m now on a “Mediterranean diet”: Nuts, olive oil, low fat, low salt, more calcium…wheee! I miss the salt, but otherwise it’s not so bad. My doc recommended “The Flat Belly Diet” because the advice is good and the recipes have gone over well with other patients. So I picked up the book, put out by Prevention Magazine, went shopping and Monday started the new food vocabulary. As I said, I’m my father’s daughter so if he can do it so can I, without the bypass and diabetes.

The book encourages you to journal, so I thought I’d do it here. If this diet works out then I can encourage others, if not, well you’ll know that too!

So it wants you to start with an anti-bloat jumpstart for 4 days, but this week was not good for that (3 company lunches) so instead I followed the guide for the regular weeks and will start the anti-bloat part tomorrow (happily coinciding with the start of my period, so I could use the less bloaty-ness). The idea is you have four 400 calorie meals a day, each having some mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) in them which are good for your heart. These MUFAs are things like olive oil, nuts and (whoo hoo) dark chocolate. The four meals should be spread through the day so you don’t go more than 4 hours without eating. This is working great for me because that 4:30 snack gives me the energy I need for the gym, and we usually don’t eat dinner until 8 or so during the week.

And then there is the Sassy Water. The nutritionist for this book’s last name is Sass, so that’s where the name comes from. Take 2 liters of water and add 1 sliced lemon, 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger (I’ve decided this is the best smell ever!), 1 peeled and thinly sliced cucumber and 12 mint leaves. Leave in the fridge over night then drink the next day. It smells great and tastes better than plain water, which is good, because you need to drink 2 liters of it a day!

Stay tuned for the week’s munching.

Monday took the Day off So Stupid Filled In

Initially I was thinking that the Tuesday Monster had taken over for Monday today, then I realized even it isn't this frustratingly stupid. We'll call this a filling by Monday's "special" little brother.

This morning started kind of normal, until I got to work. I walk in the door at 8:30 and there in the middle of the lobby is 200lbs of freight. Oh joy. As I'm trying to get my coat off and edge around this hill I notice the mood lighting over my desk. I go to turn up the dimmer only to realize 1) it's up all the way, 2) The face plate has falling off the switch and 3) The light bulb has burnt out. Sigh.

I get my coat off and am scaling Mt. Crap looking for a packing slip when our CSO (Chief Strategic Officer) comes in with her 3 children-one teenage and 2 under 8, all seem nice. She then heads into the conference room where I know someone else has a video conference at 9:30. And she doesn’t have her keycard so I let her and the children into the main office knowing just how much fun awaits!

She returns sans kids and I ask if she’s got a video conference, why yes she does. Great, no one booked the room so now there is a conflict and trust me CSO, Eastern head of Engineering and Global head of Engineering trump just about everyone. So I call the admin in Acton MA who scheduled the other meeting to give her a heads up. She suggests that at 9:30 the folks for the other meeting just go into the conference room and kick the CSO out. Really? I’m thinking this is a bad idea. I let her know how well I think that one will go over and set out to find Marshall, the poor soul who’s just been volunteered to interrupt the CSO.

Marshall is very happy I warned him, has no intention of doing this and I suggested he call Sandy to reschedule.

Shortly before this my boss came in and I’d hoped to get his take on the situation, but he was late to the CSO’s meeting. Ah well.

Fred came in and claimed Mt. Crap…Yay!

The guy from our alarm company came in to see our IT guy, who wasn’t in yet. I got Kep (who is rapidly becoming the I go to for sanity checks and general help) who serves in his place at times. Turns out that Tony never told the guy we didn’t need the motion detector light by the alarm pad so he was here to install it. Um, no. The guys are happy with the flashlight in the closet (which they suggested). We call Tony who says it would need to be approved anyhow and send the alarm guy away after relaying this message. Kep asks if we are having fun and I say not really. He kindly listens to my recitation of stupid.

Jaya needs markers for the CSO’s kids and do we have anything for them to play with? Um, no. I find some coloring pages and print them out. I must say the kids were pretty excited so that was cool.

I contacted facilities and they were going to see about resolving my romantic lighting issue (it’s now 3:30, I’m doubting I’ll see them today).

Then Fedex Ground showed up with 3 large boxes.

I attempt to make order come from the chaos of the mountain range and my boss comes out to see what I need. We sit down, I tell him about the situation, ask about finding out who owns the meeting and having them reserve the room going forward would be okay, he says yes. And then I say he could point to this moment as yet another justification for us getting another video set up and he agrees. He is then sucked into another meeting.

UPS shows up with 8 large boxes.

And thus the “Dear God What Is This?” Mountain Range came into being.

Oh, and then the lunch guy arrived. So with the help of my lunch elves, Ken and Eric, food is set up and the seething hordes descend upon meatball subs.

I head up front to check something then grab a plate of food and go back to the stack of packing slips I’m trying to match up with POs. Then there was some lunch, yay!

Fred comes in with one of our coops and clears the mountain range. I call the admin in Acton and straighten out the conference room stuff. My boss finally approves my timesheet for last week and two outstanding requests I’ve been pestering him about. Fred’s 2:30 appointment shows up, but Fred’s been sucked into a conference call. He gets off that to meet with this guy and 5 minutes later his 3 o’clock appointment arrives. I settle the new arrival, track Fred down and peek in the kitchen to wrap up leftovers. What leftovers? There was half a veggie hoagie and 3 potato chips left. So I clean up and come back here to make calls for our big end of month luncheon.

Tony stops by to fax something and asks why the alarm guy didn’t install the light. Hm, because no one approved the expense? I told him I’d bring it up with my boss, but $100 vs a flashlight no one is complaining about seems a long shot. He didn’t feel it was a big deal, but really it seems like using a shotgun to swat a fly to me. But that isn’t my call.

And that’s when my trainer called to cancel our appointment tonight because his grandfather passed away, which really put things in perspective.

Yes, there were a lot of goofy dumb things today, but nothing truly bad save that man’s passing. And hey, the day went really fast. Plus I just got a fax for a seminar on how to manage emotions under pressure. Creepy.

Now as it is 4 PM I am going to listen to an episode of Red Panda then start straightening the conference rooms for another day!