i begin my lonely week and half

my husband left this morning for a business trip, and he will be gone for a week and a half.  well, technically, he has the weekend off, but it's no sense flying back home from the west coast just for one day of being at home.  i don't blame him for wanting to stay the weekend out there -- i would do the same.

my dude works from home when he's in town, which means i get to see him a lot more than i would if he worked from an office.  we spend mornings together, him kissing me goodbye as i set off for my day of work.  when i get home, he's there with a big smile on his face.  i guess i just got used to it, because now i'm trying to schedule as many activities with friends as possible while he's gone.  sitting on the couch watching tv isn't very fun when you are by yourself.

oh, this is the lunch i just devoured:

(pictured: pasta primavera, grapes, and water.  not pictured: my giant appetite.)

(no idea why it is displaying vertically, but i'm just going to leave it because i have to go to a meeting soon.)

i have really been impressed by the quality of 'smart ones' meals.  today's entree was pasta primavera, and i am left feeling full and even saved my grapes for a snack in a few hours.  yesterday i had the santa fe style rice and beans, and i have to say that it was very tasty.  highly recommended.

Shapeups at the mall

My friend Shaun recently wrote on Facebook that he saw a ton of people wearing Shapeups with regular clothes at the mall, and how inappropriate it was.  I usually agree with Shaun in most areas, but we differed on this subject.  I have a pair of Shapeups and I wear them to and from work most days.  This means I wear them with my "going to work clothes" and they look pretty ridiculous (even though I bought the "casual" pair that are supposed to resemble trendy flats). 

I applaud those people who actually care enough to get a pair of shaping shoes and wear them while they are out.  Most of the people he saw in the mall were probably getting a better workout than usual (AKA no working out at all) because they wore special shoes.  Forrest Gump had special shoes too. And look how he turned out.

I don't know if the shoes work, but I can tell you that my husband says my butt looks better.  Whether this is from the shoes or from something else I can't say, but at least I'm trying to add spice to my workout.  And next time I'm in LA I'll make Shaun wear them out to the clubs. 

monday (weigh-in day)

oh god, here we go again.  after 5 days of weight watchers, i had only lost 0.2 lbs.  the scale says 209.

i get off and wait until the numbers disappear.  then i gingerly step on again.

no luck, still 209.

it's not for lack of motivation this week -- i've been tracking EVERYTHING i put in my body, as well as all of my exercise.  the latter is the biggest problem, as all the exercise i got last week was walking to and from places (work mostly).  while walking is a good exercise, it's not going to get those pounds off.  i've gotta start hitting the gym on a regular basis.  this will be my most difficult undertaking throughout this whole process, i think.  but i'll do my best.

today is a typical monday around my office. i thought i'd share a pic of part of my desk, complete with my trusty nalgene water bottle.  there's an ice-cold water dispenser in our break room that i visit about 7 times a day.  another place in the office i often visit?  the restroom (all this water!).

i am going out to dinner with my friend emily tonight.  it's restaurant week in new york city, which means exquisite prix fixe menus for lunch ($24.07) and dinner ($35) -- the place we are going is a seafood restaurant that my husband and i say is our favorite restaurant in all of the city.  the food is GOOD and i can't wait to eat a healthy piece of fish.  yum! 

(started playing "words with friends" on my iphone and now i'm addicted.  all hail the mighty time waster.)

fiber one bars

I'm at work, and it's 2:08PM, which means my stomach is grumbling.  It's that in-between lunch and going home feeling, and although I can't make my day end sooner, I CAN grab a healthy diet-friendly snack.

Let me tell you about my favorite snack of all time: Fiber One Oats & Chocolate chewy bars.  One bar contains 140 calories, with 35 of those calories from fat (also 4 grams of fat total).  There's 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 29 grams of carbs, and the best part, 35 percent of your daily fiber (9 grams)!  They are super delicious and I feel like I'm eating a candy bar every time I have one.  I pair it with a cup of skim milk and my tummy is full and I also satisfied my sweet tooth.

i love my polar heart rate monitor (in fact, i heart it!)

I don't know what I did before I used a heart rate monitor while working out.  Like really, I have NO IDEA how I did it -- did I hold on to those horrible metal bars on my treadmill at the gym?  But how long could I do that while jogging?  I just can't remember life before my heart rate monitor, and that's a good thing.

I use a Polar F6 heart rate monitor (it's pink!) that I bought over 4 years ago from my gym (Equinox in SoHo at the time).  I bought it at the urging of my personal trainer in our first session, and haven't looked back.  While my exercising isn't as consistent as I want it to be, I know I can always count on my Polar heart rate monitor to help me along.

Sometimes it doesn't work very well, and I can't figure out if it is just my gym equipment (treadmill in the basement gym of my apartment building), or if the monitor is slowly failing.  About once a week, the monitor won't interact with the treadmill display, and is throws up wrong numbers (I was full-out running and it said my heart rate was 45 for example). 

I'm just hanging on until the poor thing dies, and then get a new one.  I will be sad to see it go, though!

day 2

Day 1 went OK -- the first part of the day was amazing, as I ate a healthy lunch at work (weight watchers smart ones pasta primavera) and drank tons of water.  I even cooked a healthy dinner of "oven fried chicken" from a weight watchers recipe.  It was delicious, and I got to eat as much corn and asparagus that I wanted.  Plus I had a fun night with my husband Matt and my best friend Lorie.

The downside was that I had three glasses of wine, and I also ate too much dessert.  I know I'm not supposed to limit myself too much, but I really went overboard with the tiny reeses cups. 

I keep telling myself that today is a new day, and every new day is another chance to turn it all around (thanks 'Vanilla Sky' script writer).  I brought some fizzy water in my water bottle with me to work, and enjoyed it on the bus on my way.  I also got off on the stop before mine so I could walk the extra two blocks.  That means I am walking about 20 minutes in the morning to work and 20 minutes in the evening when I go home.  I would walk the entire way, but these mornings have been so hot that I just can't get all sweaty before I come to my desk (it's not nice to co-workers who sit next to me among other sweaty reasons).

In related news, I thought about buying today's KGB deal of one month of unlimited yoga... but I have been wavering because there are pros and cons to it.  One pro is that the classes are around 60 minutes as compared to 90 where my friends do hot yoga.  Another pro is that it is on my way home from work so I have no excuses and force myself to go after work.

A con is that if I get addicted to doing yoga at this studio, it is pretty darn expensive once the 30 day pass goes away.  Also another con is that my friends do yoga at another studio, and it's nice to have that support.

What to do, what to do?  I guess I have until midnight to decide.

greta says it's hard, but to hang in there

My friend Greta struggled with her weight during her life.  She joined Weight Watchers and would go to the support groups each week, sometimes with good news from the scale, and other times with frustration.  But she kept at it, and lost the weight, and is now is a different woman!
Greta and I were on a ski lift together two years ago.  We both love to ski and were having a wonderful morning, but somehow my weight frustration came into the conversation.  She listened to what I had to say, and then told me her story.  From all the things she said that day, there's one piece of our conversation that still is fresh in my mind.

She told me that losing weight was the single hardest thing she has ever done in her life.  Harder than graduating with top honors from NYU, harder than getting her first job... harder than anything else.  She explained that food addiction is unlike any other addiction in the world because we can't go cold turkey and "quit" food -- in order to succeed, we have to change our fundamental understanding of a proper diet and exercise. 

Today, Greta is training for her fourth triathalon.  She also competes in bicycle races and leads a super active life.  She is proof that we can all do it!