California

I just got back to the UK yesterday from California.  The interview went really well (fingers crossed!) and I had a super relaxing 5 days of vacation afterwards!  I even came back with a wee sunburn…hurray!  I managed to do fairly well with the eating for the first few days.  I’m sure the stress of the interview helped!  Of course this is all relative.  “Fairly well” while travelling, still means pretty crap by normal standards.  I blame Virgin Atlantic for getting me off on the wrong foot.  Why did they have to ply me with profiteroles, ice cream bars, and cadbury bars throughout my 11 hour flight.  The next 2 days during the actual interview were not bad though.  It started to go a bit more downhill on Saturday.  My sister had booked a babysitter so we went out for delicious Mexican food that night plus I had margaritas and beer!  Then, of course, on Easter Sunday, much candy was eaten.  Not to mention the deviled eggs, the delicious steak dinner, the beer…

The next few days were more of the same, but at least we did quite alot of walking those days while shopping, going to the beach, and visiting Universal Studios.  Weigh in this morning revealed that I gained 2 lbs though : ( Thank god I was only there for a week! 

 I’m totally suffering from serious jet lag now, and I haven’t been so good with the food today.  I’m going to go stock up again on major South Beach foods this weekend though and get back on the wagon.  I am very inspired to lose weight this summer!  I need to be much fitter before my summertime trips to Sri Lanka and Australia where I will have to wear a bathing suit in front of my co-workers…aaargh!!!  Also, my short term goal is to lose at least 5 lbs before May 8th when I have to go to a formal dinner and wear an evening gown!

 

I am so lame

Sorry for letting the blog languish this long – I have been seriously off the wagon and I jsut can't make myself post the junk food I have been eating.  Today I am leaving town for a trip and won't have internet access, but I figure I might as well post now anyway.  For breakfast I had a bagel with cream cheese and sliced tomato, and some diet coke.  Then, I won't be able to eat all day because I get motion sickness on planes and have no appetite!  I did bring a luna bar with me for the plane ride but I think it might be a little hard on my stomach when it's feeling sensitive.  

I did gain again at WW last week and this week I can't go, so next week will probably be a disaster weigh in too.  I am really not going to overeat while I'm out of town though – I have this problem where I don't relaly like to eat too much in public because I am worried I will start to feel ill and won't be able to go home.  Wierd, huh, but it makes vacations less of a pig-out fest like most people have.  But don't worry, I pig out in other ways, and I am sure that I will tell you all about them!  

Okay, I'll check in within a few days.  I want an update on your trip to America, Bunny!

 

Happy Hour

I swore that I was going to work all weekend, but I think I might have to go out tonight for a little while at least.  I have worked late every night this week and I deserve to go out dammit!  Not that there will necessarily be anything that exciting to do.  Friday nights usually consist of having drinks at work during our "Happy Hour" and then going off to a pub for some food and a couple more drinks.  Rarely does anything very exciting happen.

 I am worried about my diet over the weekend though.  The first problem is that Happy Hour involves drinking beer, which is a big South Beach no no.  Sometimes they have wine, which I'll drink if they do, but usually not.  The other problem comes with dinner…as long as we don't end up going to the Noodle Bar (obviously bad for SB), I should be able to find something not too bad.  The GI diet is quite big here in the UK, so lots of places tend to have at least a couple suitable meals.  On the plus side, I think I'm playing squash this weekend, which, according to caloriesperhour.com will burn 1000 calories per hour!!!  That should make up for a beer or two tonight

 Also, for the record:  here are photos from my recent weight extremes:

Me at 209 lbs, April 2005.  Yuck!:

 Me at 186 lbs, September, 2005. Not as bad, so I'll make it big: 

 

Oh how I love the little pizza

So, Trader Joe's has these great little pizzas that are about 300 calories and 6 WW points, and I buy them quite frequenly for dinners because they are fast and easy. I usually have one paired with some broccoli or other frozen vegetables. So, dinner tonight was a little pizza with a bit of parmesan on it, some frozen peas and broccoli with some "smart balance" margarine" and parmesan, and a glass of wine. And then another half of a little pizza that I split with my room mate. So, I have had a total of 29.5 poins today – I'm supposed to have 24 per day plus an extra 35 points spread over the week. So, 29.5 is just fine. Except I'm pretty sure I'm going to have another glass of wine before I go to bed!

I have class on Thursday nights, and there is a damn McDonalds right next to where I have my class – it's seriously so hard to resist, because after class it's 8:00 and I haven't had anything to eat for 7 hours. But, I resisted. I had to get some gas and this dude pulls in opposite me, in a shitty old truck with an big RV cap on it, like you can just imagine he's probably got someone tied up in there or a dead body, and is all like hey do you got a man? I could use a nice looking girl like you. And I'm like uh, good luck with that. At least he laughed. But, um, yeah, does that happen to anyone else? Because super creepy dudes are always talking to me and I never know what to say.

 

Thanks M & S…

for making such delicious salads.  I knew I was going to have to work alot this week, and couldn’t take my normal european style 1-2 hour lunch break.  So, yesterday, I went to Marks and Spencer at lunchtime and stocked up on pre-made salads and lunch meat for the next few days…Today for lunch I had a Ham, Omega-3 egg, and tomato salad (220 cals) and a 3-bean salad with mint vinaigrette (200) calories…very delicious!  Yesterday I had a Greek salad and a packet of roast chicken breast (~400 cals total).  I ate the same tonight for dinner since I’m working late, but I might need a snack and a glass of wine when I get home.  All I have left in my stash for lunch tomorrow is a smallish salad of tuna and borlotti beans.  I might have to break down and go for our weekly pub lunch tomorrow.  I swear I am not going to have any chips or beer though!

 

Disaster – almost averted

So, my friend Sue works in a little shop that sells kitsch-y things, like vintage postcards, t shirts, decorations, old fashioned candy, things like that. They had some Christmas candy that the owner had instructed her to throw out, it's called Peppermint Bark. There is a layer of chocolate, a laye of white chocolate, and then a candy cane broken up on top of it. The whole thing is flavored with peppermint oil. Instead of throwing it out, she brought several boxes of it home, and then begged me to take it off of her hands when she realized she couldn't stop eating it. I took it, against my better judgement, because I figured I could give it away, or at least donate it.

I kept it in my car for a little while, hidden in the trunk, but I am lending my car to a firend for the weekend so I had to clean out the trunk, and the candy ended up in my office with me! I resisted the urge to eat it for a couple of hours, but then I fially gave in and had a bit. Mind you, it comes in like a one pound box, and I only ate one serving. 140 calories, not too bad, but then I decided to throw the whole thing in the garbage. I just can't have a pound of candy sitting open in my office. Lesson learned, must say no.

 

Super fascinating breakfast

Not really – I had half of a Trader Joe’s super fiber muffin – 5 g of fiber, and 110 calories, just one point on WW. And a Fuji apple. Also 1 point. It was delicious. I’m going to have the other half muffin as a snack, along with a piece of light string cheese, later on. For lunch I brought another Trader Joe’s lentil thing, which I am going to eat with rice. This one, though, is not so spicy, and has less fat.

 

Procrastination dieting

I've recently restarted Phase One of the South Beach Diet for the umpteenth time.  I've previously lost up to 23 lbs on this diet, and generally find it much easier to stick to than others.  Even when I'm eating fairly bad, I usually keep the principals in mind when choosing what to eat. Unfortunately though, I always end up cheating too much and the diet has never fully stuck.  Therefore, I've been yo-yoing between about 185 and 209 lbs for the last several years, though I've managed to stay below 200 for over a year now.  Currently, I'm at 193.6 lbs, having lost 5.5 lbs in my first 10 days of Phase One. 

The reason for my sudden return to the Beach is a forthcoming job interview for a very *big* job at a California university.   Of course, I would have preferred to go to this interview as a much thinner version of my current self, but like most things involved in my interview prep, I have procrastinated until the last possible moment. Oh well, at least I have a cute suit to wear! 

Another example of my extreme procrastination is that I am sitting here, posting my first entry in a diet blog instead of working on my presentation or reading the copious amounts of literature I have planned to get through before the big 2-day interview…yes 2-day interview…better get right on that.

 

My weigh in

So, I have been going to Weight Watchers, off and on, for over a year. I weighed 222 when I stared in January of 2005, I lost about 15 pounds pretty fast, and then stopped going, but didn't gain anything back. Then last summer, I started back up and lost a bunch more, and eventually got down to about 185. In October. And since then I've been basically gaining and losing the same 5 pounds. I was down to 181 in January, then I go up to 190 in March, and then I lost 5 pounds with a burst of exercise and sticking on program last month. Well, today was my weigh in day and I gained 1.6 pounds. I'm not too worried, I haven't been drinking any water, and I had a really salty lunch, etc, I am sure it will come off next week. But, on the other hand, I didn't exercise at all this week – I had a test in my Psychology class and was super stressed and studying, and didn't feel like I could take the time to exercise. Also, I had Mc Donalds on Monday, and also some candy. And, I had PMS. So I guess the 1.6 pounds makes sense. I really think it will come right off next week though.n  But, right now I am 186.6
So, for dinner, I had about 2 C of broccoli, tossed with some smart bablance margarine and a bit of parmesan. And, a Trader Joe's little pizza (300 calories, 6 points). And 2 bottles of beer. Crap.

 

What I had for lunch today

Today, because I am trying to both save money and incorporate more fiber into my diet, I brought a Trader Joe’s “Indian Fare” prepackaged lunch with me to work. I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks, and usually they are pretty yummy, sort of dull, lentils and stuff. Today, though, I was trying out a new kind, “Punjab Choley”, and it was way spicier than usual. I guess I should have been tipped off by the two chili peppers that were in the photograph, but I just didn’t pick up on that – I was totally surprised by the spiciness. Ugh. I added some pre-cooked rice. Total for the lunch was about 420 calories for the lentils, 200 calories for the rice, about 10 points on the WW plan, and totally not worth it.