Day 11

Blogging. Because that's one of my 3 Diversion Activities when I really would rather be eating a chocolate eclair. I start each day totally excited, probably because I get to eat oatmeal, and I get my 11 grams of simple carbs for the day, in the form of a single squirt of agave nectar. Yum! It is surprising what foods taste "sweet" to me now. Topping the list are carrot sticks, sugar snap peas!, tomatoes, and berries. I melt for a bite of banana. If I'm in the mood for something creamy and chocolatey, I make a protein shake. It's best frothy from the blender, with a straw.

Foods I miss: pita chips, granola bars, Honey Bunches of Oats, & Cheerios. Kashi crackers with Babybel cheese. Notice it's not pizza, hot dogs, Twinkies, or Oreos. I never eat those anyway. Like I said, I was healthy before, minus the chocolate and ice cream, which I do also miss. But all these items do not provide enough bang for my buck. When you're limited in calories & you have a protein requirement and sugar limit, you're going for your nutrient's worth, and unfortunately, variety is NOT a feature.

But it's worth it. I was reminded of this fact when I weighed in this morning. 123.9. I'm trying to recall the last time I saw 123 on my scale. It was before my marathon training got heavy, so it's been many months, and I was beginning to worry I would never see that number again. I wanted to kiss my scale this morning, that number-- it was like running unexpectedly into an old but very good friend. I'm dumping "128"-- I'm so over him! (If we must assign a gender to our weight, it ought to be the one that is the source of most of our troubles, right? I'm referring to my puppy. And my son. And occassionally my husband . . .)

BTW, my cardio seems to be getting easier, or at least back to normal. The first week was rough, but yesterday I hit the ellitpical for 10 minutes, taught Zumba for 30, Pilates for 30, then ran 4 miles. And no, I don't spend the rest of the day in bed. I spent it dancing around at chorus practice (I volunteer 2 hours every Thursday at my kids school), playing with the dog, taxiing kids around town, and strolling through Costco, of course. Today I taught an hour of Cycle then did an hour of weights, followed by an hour of personal training, which required no physical work on my part but it does demonstrate that my energy levels are great. Had to immediately run to the school to deliver a baby gift for my daughter's teacher's baby shower, jet over to the eye doctor to fix some glasses, then finally arrived home for my 1 pm meal and a shower. energy's still feeling good, but this rainy-snowy-haily weather is making me want to veg on the couch, catch up on Grey's and Private Practice, and bake homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Well, so much for baking . . . but the couch still sounds good right now!