Day 89? Holy crap. What are we going to do without you to look up to? There isn't even another group bringing up the rear that we can feel somewhat superior to (we are the rear....)
Nathaly and Ramiro - first of all, you live the town of my alma mater and one of the coolest places in the world, how could I NOT envy you? Love reading about all of your outside-PCP activities and I really appreciate all of good, bad and the ugly insights you bring to your blog posts.
Stu - when ever I hesitate to swear a lot in a blog post, I think, "would Stu say this?" Thanks for being my "it's ok to swear, a lot" role model! You've turned stream-of-consciousness blog posts into an art form. Keep on rockin out - and never, ever shave your chest hair:)
Kim - I love all of your amazing hiking shots as well as how well you write about food (most of the time you're writing about food you can't have, but soon you WILL be able to indulge in beer, fish balls and chili crab - have some for me!) Your husband also sounds like the best support system any PCPer could have. You rock - those LAGs don't have anything on you.
Thanks for showing us this CAN be done, and that we WILL get there some day. Don't be strangers!!!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Day 42 - Thoughts while checking out this week's diet/exercises
The first couple weeks of the PCP I didn't skip ahead and only opened each PDF on its assigned day. Now I have to know what's going on throughout the week and open all of them at once!
First of all - was kind of hoping the lovely apple/milk dinner would be a thing of the past, but as Patrick said, this is the PCP valley so I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer to eat "real" protein at dinner again!
Jumping - could it be true? Could counting while jumping be a thing of the past??? Be still my heart. Very much looking forward to setting the timer for 2 mins and just jumping w/o thinking as much about it. Maybe I'll start listening to music while I jump - just need to find some headphones that don't pop out with all the jumping - any recommendations?
60 second planks? Good god.
And lunges are back? I thought they'd gone the way of the dinosaurs...
JFD, Sara, JFD....
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Wonder if this qualifies as 1 egg....
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Friday, October 22, 2010
Sweet potato chips
I just love the fact that a giant sweet potato only weighs 50 grams after slicing thinly and baking in the oven. Yum yum yum....
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Incline pull ups
I think there are two camps in PCP - those who CAN do a pull up, and those who can't. Hopefully all of us will move into the CAN by the time this is over, but for now, the incline pull up and I have become friends.
At the beginning, I was clueless about where exactly I was going to do these exercises. My dining table is rickety, no other indoor options were working - and then I remembered the unused sawhorse in my basement.
Now it's my new best friend. My brother in law took this photo the other night. Notice my hand pads - they're oven mitts. I'm nothing if not a classy PCPer!
At the beginning, I was clueless about where exactly I was going to do these exercises. My dining table is rickety, no other indoor options were working - and then I remembered the unused sawhorse in my basement.
Now it's my new best friend. My brother in law took this photo the other night. Notice my hand pads - they're oven mitts. I'm nothing if not a classy PCPer!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Phew!
Thoughts about today's workout...
I read Patrick's email first and the phrase "if it's not tough you're doing something wrong" stuck in my head the whole time. The pistol squats WERE very hard, I kept my heels on the ground, but didn't feel like I was getting very close to the ground. I guess practice makes perfect - something tells me we'll have many more opportunities to perfect this:)
The shoulder presses kicked my butt tonight - I was moaning and groaning throughout the last set. Wanted to cry when it was over.
The bicycles? Just like the leg lifts, I felt them SO much more in my legs. My thighs were burning like crazy, and that pain far outweighed the pain in my abs. Am I doing these wrong? Should I be sitting upright in the chair, or should I be reclining more?
Happy to get through another day.
JFD.
I read Patrick's email first and the phrase "if it's not tough you're doing something wrong" stuck in my head the whole time. The pistol squats WERE very hard, I kept my heels on the ground, but didn't feel like I was getting very close to the ground. I guess practice makes perfect - something tells me we'll have many more opportunities to perfect this:)
The shoulder presses kicked my butt tonight - I was moaning and groaning throughout the last set. Wanted to cry when it was over.
The bicycles? Just like the leg lifts, I felt them SO much more in my legs. My thighs were burning like crazy, and that pain far outweighed the pain in my abs. Am I doing these wrong? Should I be sitting upright in the chair, or should I be reclining more?
Happy to get through another day.
JFD.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Best reason ever to avoid frozen vegetables...
A man found a frog in a bag of frozen veggies. Full true story here.
Then again - is frog considered a lean protein?? :)
Then again - is frog considered a lean protein?? :)
WOW!
Two fantabulous PCP related things happened tonight.
First - I went to a pot luck dinner tonight as part of a non-profit I work with at my older son's school. Everyone (about 10 people) signed up to bring a dish, and I signed up to bring a veggie dish (they're my speciality now - prior to PCP I was the dessert girl). Remembered this morning that dinner now consists of an egg white, banana and apple, so flipped things around a bit (just this once, Patrick, I swear). Had my egg white, banana and apple for lunch, and my lunch for dinner. I had a pretty PCP-friendly dinner of a big green salad (was already dressed, but not too bad), quinoa salad, and swiss chard and roasted carrots (my offering). The best part was dessert. I helped cut the cakes (chocolate with chocolate frosting, and pumpkin cheesecake) and didn't have ONE BITE! Had no desire really at all. Earlier in the dinner I thought, "no one here knows I'm on this program, so if I have some bites of dessert, no one will know that I'm not supposed to be eating it." Instead, I realized that I didn't even WANT to eat the dessert, wasn't in the mood for it, and told everyone why I wasn't eating sugar for the next 70ish days.
Second - I left jumping until I got home tonight. We've been fortunate to have a string of beautiful days/nights lately and my new thing is to jump at night, under the street lamp, right in the middle of my street. Tonight I totally found my rhythm and jumped multiple sets of 300 without tripping. I was completely in the jumping zone and it felt great! Yee fucking haw! Hopefully it lasts. I used to love the privacy of jumping on my back patio, but realized that the uneven bricks were probably the main reason I was tripping every 10 jumps. Now I'm a jumping bandit, out in the open. Just waiting for neighbors to start calling the cops:)
JFDD is my other new motto - Just Fucking DON'T Do it. Don't eat dessert, don't stress about jumping, don't care if the neighbors can watch you jumping, etc. etc.
First - I went to a pot luck dinner tonight as part of a non-profit I work with at my older son's school. Everyone (about 10 people) signed up to bring a dish, and I signed up to bring a veggie dish (they're my speciality now - prior to PCP I was the dessert girl). Remembered this morning that dinner now consists of an egg white, banana and apple, so flipped things around a bit (just this once, Patrick, I swear). Had my egg white, banana and apple for lunch, and my lunch for dinner. I had a pretty PCP-friendly dinner of a big green salad (was already dressed, but not too bad), quinoa salad, and swiss chard and roasted carrots (my offering). The best part was dessert. I helped cut the cakes (chocolate with chocolate frosting, and pumpkin cheesecake) and didn't have ONE BITE! Had no desire really at all. Earlier in the dinner I thought, "no one here knows I'm on this program, so if I have some bites of dessert, no one will know that I'm not supposed to be eating it." Instead, I realized that I didn't even WANT to eat the dessert, wasn't in the mood for it, and told everyone why I wasn't eating sugar for the next 70ish days.
Second - I left jumping until I got home tonight. We've been fortunate to have a string of beautiful days/nights lately and my new thing is to jump at night, under the street lamp, right in the middle of my street. Tonight I totally found my rhythm and jumped multiple sets of 300 without tripping. I was completely in the jumping zone and it felt great! Yee fucking haw! Hopefully it lasts. I used to love the privacy of jumping on my back patio, but realized that the uneven bricks were probably the main reason I was tripping every 10 jumps. Now I'm a jumping bandit, out in the open. Just waiting for neighbors to start calling the cops:)
JFDD is my other new motto - Just Fucking DON'T Do it. Don't eat dessert, don't stress about jumping, don't care if the neighbors can watch you jumping, etc. etc.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Day 34 - Leg lifts, how much do I hate you?
I dislike leg lifts so much that I did 8 min abs tonight instead of leg lifts. And I enjoyed it! (can't believe I just wrote this)
Even felt stronger during the planks - maybe because of the 8min ab warm up??
Thursday, October 14, 2010
AMAYW? I want A LOT!!!
I was very excited to see AMAYW on my diet last week and even happier that it's still there this week. Some days I don't have the energy/time/available food to fully take advantage of it, but today I'm going to change that:)
On my lunch menu:
Cauliflower soup (onions and cauliflower simmered in homemade salt-free chicken stock, then pureed)
Roasted cauliflower
Roasted broccoli
Swiss chard
Mixed green salad with chicken, beets, balsamic/onion dressing and homemade croutons (toasted old wheat bread)
Eating makes me happy. Eating AMAYW makes me happier.
Day 30! We're a 1/3rd done. Go us!
JFD Cookie Monsters, JFD
On my lunch menu:
Cauliflower soup (onions and cauliflower simmered in homemade salt-free chicken stock, then pureed)
Roasted cauliflower
Roasted broccoli
Swiss chard
Mixed green salad with chicken, beets, balsamic/onion dressing and homemade croutons (toasted old wheat bread)
Eating makes me happy. Eating AMAYW makes me happier.
Day 30! We're a 1/3rd done. Go us!
JFD Cookie Monsters, JFD
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Two things..
First - banana/milk/cinnamon/crushed ice smoothies are DELICIOUS.
Second - what do you do when you settle down for your apple dinner (the only apple left in the house, mind you) and your 7yr old asks you to share? I didn't want to be mean mommy, but it was my DINNER! I gave him 1/2 a chunk and then offered him a pear.
Second - what do you do when you settle down for your apple dinner (the only apple left in the house, mind you) and your 7yr old asks you to share? I didn't want to be mean mommy, but it was my DINNER! I gave him 1/2 a chunk and then offered him a pear.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
These are a few of my favorite things....
First of all, just want to say how much I can't stand jump roping right now. I suck at it. I still can't jump more than 25 w/o tripping. I've tried a shorter rope, a longer rope, holding my hands close, holding them far away, jumping fast, jumping slow, counting, not counting, etc. etc. Still, I'm a complete jumping fuck up.
But rather then focus on my shitty jump rope skills (really, I suck and it pisses me off, can you tell??) I wanted to share some things I've been loving lately.
Food:
1 - Roasted veggies - I've been roasting almost every veggie I can get my hands on. It's really, really easy and makes things a little more interesting then just steaming them. Preheat oven to about 350F (approx 176C), place veggies on a cookie sheet or roasting pan - the more uniform the pieces the better. I use foil so I don't have to deal with clean up. Don't crowd the pieces or they'll steam instead of roast. If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll use about a 1/2t. of olive oil and toss everything together with my hands. Check on them often, using tongs to toss them around as they're cooking. Yum yum yum. Favorite options are broccoli, cauliflower, yams, potatoes (a bit boring), asparagus, green beans, carrots. I make a couple of trays at a time and mix them together for later.
2 - Sugar Dumpling and Delicata squash - I'm not usually a big squash fan, unless it's covered in butter and brown sugar, but these two varieties are so delicious and sweet on their own (sugar dumpling has a bit of an edge on sweetness, so I'll buy it over delicata if I've got the choice). For all squash, cut in half, scoop out the seeds, place cut side down on a cookie sheet/baking pan with a little bit of water. Roast in a 400F (204C) until soft - usually by the times the skin starts getting a little brown it's ready. Scoop out of the skin and enjoy. I think I've eaten approx 15 sugar dumplings since PCP started!
3: Kale chips! Sarah posted about these a couple of months ago. I can't get enough. I'm guessing lots of the nutritional value goes out the window when you make them this way, but they're like a 1000% better for you than potato chips and just as addictive. I use maybe 1/2 teaspoon of oil, if that, on them but they're just as good with just a little cider vinegar. Again, don't crowd them on the pan or they'll get gooey.
4: Paprika - I swear, it's smoky flavor makes things taste like bacon:) Which made me very happy while eating my over easy egg this morning! This is the brand I like, you can get it mild or hot.
Lots more favorites to come, including non-food PCP things (sexy items, like roasting pans and an avocado keeper) - would love to know more about what others are eating.
BTW - the cake I made for Sunday turned out better then I expected. I'm thinking the boost I got from the friday night indulgence gave me the inspiration I needed. It's definitely not my style of cake, but the client was happy, so that's good enough for me!
FINALLY - I'm with Ian - what's up with the double katana? My arms literally wouldn't budge, especially when I was trying to keep my elbows from moving. The jumps are fun (in a weird way) and but I don't know about the creeps. Am I supposed to be in the same position the whole time? Walking around like a duck?
JFD
JFD
JFD
But rather then focus on my shitty jump rope skills (really, I suck and it pisses me off, can you tell??) I wanted to share some things I've been loving lately.
Food:
1 - Roasted veggies - I've been roasting almost every veggie I can get my hands on. It's really, really easy and makes things a little more interesting then just steaming them. Preheat oven to about 350F (approx 176C), place veggies on a cookie sheet or roasting pan - the more uniform the pieces the better. I use foil so I don't have to deal with clean up. Don't crowd the pieces or they'll steam instead of roast. If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll use about a 1/2t. of olive oil and toss everything together with my hands. Check on them often, using tongs to toss them around as they're cooking. Yum yum yum. Favorite options are broccoli, cauliflower, yams, potatoes (a bit boring), asparagus, green beans, carrots. I make a couple of trays at a time and mix them together for later.
2 - Sugar Dumpling and Delicata squash - I'm not usually a big squash fan, unless it's covered in butter and brown sugar, but these two varieties are so delicious and sweet on their own (sugar dumpling has a bit of an edge on sweetness, so I'll buy it over delicata if I've got the choice). For all squash, cut in half, scoop out the seeds, place cut side down on a cookie sheet/baking pan with a little bit of water. Roast in a 400F (204C) until soft - usually by the times the skin starts getting a little brown it's ready. Scoop out of the skin and enjoy. I think I've eaten approx 15 sugar dumplings since PCP started!
left: delicata right: sugar dumpling
3: Kale chips! Sarah posted about these a couple of months ago. I can't get enough. I'm guessing lots of the nutritional value goes out the window when you make them this way, but they're like a 1000% better for you than potato chips and just as addictive. I use maybe 1/2 teaspoon of oil, if that, on them but they're just as good with just a little cider vinegar. Again, don't crowd them on the pan or they'll get gooey.
4: Paprika - I swear, it's smoky flavor makes things taste like bacon:) Which made me very happy while eating my over easy egg this morning! This is the brand I like, you can get it mild or hot.
Lots more favorites to come, including non-food PCP things (sexy items, like roasting pans and an avocado keeper) - would love to know more about what others are eating.
BTW - the cake I made for Sunday turned out better then I expected. I'm thinking the boost I got from the friday night indulgence gave me the inspiration I needed. It's definitely not my style of cake, but the client was happy, so that's good enough for me!
FINALLY - I'm with Ian - what's up with the double katana? My arms literally wouldn't budge, especially when I was trying to keep my elbows from moving. The jumps are fun (in a weird way) and but I don't know about the creeps. Am I supposed to be in the same position the whole time? Walking around like a duck?
JFD
JFD
JFD
Friday, October 8, 2010
Reunited and it feels so good....
Reunited with buttercream, chocolate ganache and chocolate cake scraps, that is...
That's right, mere hours after Patrick gave us the indulgence #1 go ahead, I indulged. I didn't really even plan for it to happen, and thought I'd take days and days trying to figure out how exactly I wanted to bust out, but it's done and it was YUMMY.
I'm making a big cake for someone on Sunday and wanted to get all the basic work (cake baking, frosting, etc) out of the way tonight so I could concentrate on decorating it tomorrow. I made a delicious chocolate ganache filling (bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, vanilla, coffee extract and good old butter), along with devil's food cake and vanilla buttercream frosting (all homemade, all ingredients my grandmother would recognize... Michael Pollan would be proud:). Lots of scraps left over and I initially just tasted a couple of times to make sure everything was on the up and up -- it was.
I fed Doug and my dad scraps so I could live vicariously through them, and then Doug suggested THIS be my indulgence. It made sense - I knew I'd like it, I knew what was in it and it was sitting on the table in front of me! So I indulged - and it was SO worth it. Semi frozen pieces of cake top, with a couple of blobs of ganache and buttercream, chased with a glass of icy cold skim milk.
I can already feel a yucky sugar headache coming on, and the queasiness will follow soon, but for the moment, it was worth it!
Hope you all enjoyed your indulgence as much as I did.
That's right, mere hours after Patrick gave us the indulgence #1 go ahead, I indulged. I didn't really even plan for it to happen, and thought I'd take days and days trying to figure out how exactly I wanted to bust out, but it's done and it was YUMMY.
I'm making a big cake for someone on Sunday and wanted to get all the basic work (cake baking, frosting, etc) out of the way tonight so I could concentrate on decorating it tomorrow. I made a delicious chocolate ganache filling (bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, vanilla, coffee extract and good old butter), along with devil's food cake and vanilla buttercream frosting (all homemade, all ingredients my grandmother would recognize... Michael Pollan would be proud:). Lots of scraps left over and I initially just tasted a couple of times to make sure everything was on the up and up -- it was.
I fed Doug and my dad scraps so I could live vicariously through them, and then Doug suggested THIS be my indulgence. It made sense - I knew I'd like it, I knew what was in it and it was sitting on the table in front of me! So I indulged - and it was SO worth it. Semi frozen pieces of cake top, with a couple of blobs of ganache and buttercream, chased with a glass of icy cold skim milk.
I can already feel a yucky sugar headache coming on, and the queasiness will follow soon, but for the moment, it was worth it!
Hope you all enjoyed your indulgence as much as I did.
YUM YUM YUM
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Damnit!
I think I'm getting sick. Patrick - I think your "you will get sick during this project" email is what did me in. Ugh. I never get sick. I'm hoping it's just allergies, but it's 8:34 pm and all I want to do is go to sleep.
To make matters worse, I have a big cake due on Sunday. Normally I'd be spending the next three nights working from 9pm - 3am to get it done, but right now I just don't have the energy.
tomorrow will be better, right? good night.
To make matters worse, I have a big cake due on Sunday. Normally I'd be spending the next three nights working from 9pm - 3am to get it done, but right now I just don't have the energy.
tomorrow will be better, right? good night.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
another food score....
I've been doing a ton of cooking in the last couple of days -which has been really nice. It's gotten much chillier here but I don't want to cave into turning on the heat yet and with the oven going, our kitchen is a nice toasty place to hang out!
Discovered yesterday what could be my new favorite PCP treat. Our PCP forefathers (and mothers) have written about making smoothies, but I never really have dairy and fruit around the same time on my diet. Yesterday ate late and had to get kid #2 to school so I didn't get to having my milk. I was famished around my fruit snack time, and made an amazingly delicious milk/banana/green tea smoothie. It was completely PCP friendly and HUGE! Used 200 ml skim milk, 1 130g banana (riper the better), a couple of tablespoons of unsweetened green tea powder and a bunch of crushed ice. So good!
I've made something similar in the past, but always added some agave or honey - but with the banana, I didn't need to do that, it was sweet enough.
I know I'll regret saying this, but excited to see new leg exercises this week. The squats bore the hell out of me. I thought I hated the lunges more, but once I started doing walking lunges (I can do 10 across my patio), I don't mind them as much.
Sun is finally out and I'm happy:)
Discovered yesterday what could be my new favorite PCP treat. Our PCP forefathers (and mothers) have written about making smoothies, but I never really have dairy and fruit around the same time on my diet. Yesterday ate late and had to get kid #2 to school so I didn't get to having my milk. I was famished around my fruit snack time, and made an amazingly delicious milk/banana/green tea smoothie. It was completely PCP friendly and HUGE! Used 200 ml skim milk, 1 130g banana (riper the better), a couple of tablespoons of unsweetened green tea powder and a bunch of crushed ice. So good!
I've made something similar in the past, but always added some agave or honey - but with the banana, I didn't need to do that, it was sweet enough.
I know I'll regret saying this, but excited to see new leg exercises this week. The squats bore the hell out of me. I thought I hated the lunges more, but once I started doing walking lunges (I can do 10 across my patio), I don't mind them as much.
Sun is finally out and I'm happy:)
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Yummy
More food and exercise thoughts to come. Have to go eat this before it gets cold!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Alternate team name???
Warning - NSFW language ahead.. avert your eyes if you wish...
Just finished my workout and would hereby would respectfully like to submit an alternative team name - Team JFD. It's the family friendly version of the phrase that's been running through my head all morning: JUST FUCKING DO IT.
Yes, yes, I know that technically it should be JFDI, but that doesn't have the same ring to it, does it???
I spent lots of time yesterday and again this morning stressing over the fact that I keep tripping after 20 jumps (is my rope too long, too short, too heavy? will this jumping session be as annoying as the last?) and how much I was dreading the lunges... In the middle of jumping I thought, "just fucking jump, who cares if you trip, just keep jumping and keep counting..." Same thing for the lunges - "so what if you hate them, just fucking do them.."
Now work out is over and I'm happy. I Just Fucking Did it.....
Just finished my workout and would hereby would respectfully like to submit an alternative team name - Team JFD. It's the family friendly version of the phrase that's been running through my head all morning: JUST FUCKING DO IT.
Yes, yes, I know that technically it should be JFDI, but that doesn't have the same ring to it, does it???
I spent lots of time yesterday and again this morning stressing over the fact that I keep tripping after 20 jumps (is my rope too long, too short, too heavy? will this jumping session be as annoying as the last?) and how much I was dreading the lunges... In the middle of jumping I thought, "just fucking jump, who cares if you trip, just keep jumping and keep counting..." Same thing for the lunges - "so what if you hate them, just fucking do them.."
Now work out is over and I'm happy. I Just Fucking Did it.....
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