Day Fifty-Four: Counting Cards is Bad

Today's high temperature was 98, (sorry only could find a map of yesterday's highs, which were a smidge under today's). That's 13 degrees above normal which broke a record from the late 1800s. I could tell it was going to be a scorcher today. This map is basically the color of my brain on a hot day. I had gotten behind on my PCP exercises due to some unexpected guests/events this weekend (darn you, weekends and your helter skelter lack of routine and schedule!) and so I woke up to catch up on them this morning. But even at 9a.m. in the shade the thermostat read near 80. Uh oh. I did as much as I could, then scurried inside, slammed some headache meds, ate and when the inside temps got to much (I don't have AC), I passed out in a sweaty, dreamy coma for the afternoon to avoid/sleep through the coming mirgaine. It was just too bright and sunny, which took me down HARD yesterday afternoon. It was rough. I didn't want a repeat performance; sleep, food and pain meds help. So do a quiet house.

When I awoke, I was rather chipper and did my usual PCP shopping and went on to finish my workout(s). The mosquitoes are getting smart and nailed me two places bug spray missed: my knuckles and my ears. Which makes it even harder to jump. Man ... I suck at these timed jumps. It's hard to slow down. I also get fatigue in my wrists, ankles and even my fingers holding the rope. I always have to stop for a few seconds, usually with 1:30 to go. And if I try to slow down, I trip. It really sucks when you trip, but then you get the nice sting from the rope against your legs or arms to remind you how much you truly suck. Implement of Torture indeed! To sweeten my timed jumps, which I time with my iPhone, I used a pinball ring tone, so when I'm finished, it sounds like I won the jackpot.

Day Fifty: No Go

It seems when I lack structure, all hell breaks loose. Today was a new schedule for me and the kiddo, and then some appointments I had made on my day off were canceled last minute which threw off my plans, and then my to-do list grew to 10+ things, and I got them all done by golly and while doing this I managed to eat PCP-ly which was fantastic especially since I really wanted pumpkin bread or a cookie, but see I was no where near a printer today (I don't own one) so I did not have my handy dandy printouts of my workouts and sure I could lug my computer out to the garage or scribble them down on scrap paper, but there's nothing as satisfying as the scratch of my pen making hash marks next to each workout and tiny printed-out Patrick deftly doing his PCP exercises. See I have a thing, I like this way of doing things and it didn't happen today. It'll happen tomorrow but not today unfortunately and now I have a headache and now I'm going to bed. Do I feel bad? A little bit. But I got 2/3 of PCP done today (blog + food), which is not an excuse and it's not enough but it's what I did get done. Tomorrow is back to 100 percent. Actually, 133 1/3 percent ... i was never good at math.

Day Twenty-Nine: And the Cupboard was Bare

Not happy today. Not happy with myself at all.

See I went food shopping last Friday and loaded up on PCP foods to last me the week. But then the weekend came, and so did three guests who ate the food (as they should) and gobbled up any time I typically would have spent prepping any cooked and chopped food for this week. Monday came, and I realized that I had less food than anticipated to get me through to this Friday, which is payday. And while I have some flow in the bank, it's already squirreled away for the kid's doctor's appointment tomorrow. She's been having a minor, yet chronic health issue with her ear this summer. Each doc appt is costing anywhere from $45 to $90, depending on the number of meds she needs. And that's approximately what's left in my bank account for the next two days. So no PCP food shopping until then, which means until then, my diet plan is completely off mark. And I feel it!

I've exhausted all protein options, sans a giant thing of stew beef which after two days is still defrosting in my fridge; can't defrost it in the microwave coz it's from Costco, which means, yes, it really is a huge meat ice cube. Nor will it fit in the Crockpot. Must wait. I feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends. I also rationed out my drinkable yogurts to two a day, two fruits a day, and I'm eating mostly vegs from my garden. Tonight, a friend dropped off a spaghetti squash from his garden for me to try (never ate one before!) and so will give that a go. My dinner tonight: Cream of Wheat with cinnamon and milk. Tasty but not at all PCP. But with this week's rainy, cool weather (think Colorado in March, not late July), I needed something warm and satisfying and this was about as good as it was going to get. I'm bummed, but it's a minor setback.

In better news, I got through my exercises despite being a little pissy about my food situation and the inclement weather. It stopped raining enough for me to feel OK about exercising in the dark and dank >50 degree F temps. This is the kind of weather that typically gets my asthma riled up so I am pretty cautious about being active during these times. But I rocked the jropes and subsequent exercises and can now get on with my life.

Day Twenty-Six: Let Them Eat Cake

Surprise: another weekend throws a wrench into the PCP plan. We have out of state guests for the weekend, which sucks up a lot of time typically spent on planning exercise and food.

Instead I woefully under-ate yesterday. I had taken someone to the Antiques Roadshow in Denver yesterday; tickets said expect two hours. YEAH, not two hours total, but two hours standing in line to just get in to see an appraiser(s). We were there for five hours. I carried this wooden box with an unknown brass instrument (later to be determined some Asian detonation tool for torpedoes, they thought) for these five hours; it weighs nearly 20 pounds. Think about it. Lugging 20 pounds around for five hours. Today my back and upper body muscles are en fuego. (And today my guests want to go for a hike? Mercy!) But yesterday trying to plan ahead, I had packed two drinkable yogurts in a small bag of ice, an apple and a bag of baby carrots. All of which I left in my purse which I left in my car. By the time we got out of the Colorado Convention Center, it was past dinner time so lunch was a moot point. I snarfed down my snacks in the car (YUM) and then had a decent dinner filled with greek tabouleh, zucchini, beets from the garden (not just any garden: my garden!) and a simple burger. The grandparents had brought my little one a Dairy Queen ice cream cake because she starts kindergarten next month. Being the only grandchild has its perks, eh? And while I knew I had an indulgence this week (200-400 calories? think of the possibilities!), this was not my kind of indulgence. Which I know for some people is blasphemous. But I am fully aware that I get three indulgences during these 90 days, so I want to make them count. And if I'm going to get the shakes or nausea from an indulgence, it better taste like heaven in my mouth. So, unbelievable even to me, I declined the ice cream cake and have plans for either tonight or tomorrow for my indulgence.

Also, since I was stuck in the land of old people and even older things yesterday, I missed my PCP exercises and so did Day 25 this a.m. and plan to do Day 26 tonight. I did the a.m. exercises at the park, and now have blood blisters from doing tricep dips on a grated playground surface. Oops. The V-sits and inclined pull-ups continue to torture me. Sweet.

Day Eleven: Try, Try Again

Surprising discoveries this weekend so far.

First, I am buying and eating fresh fruit. I'm not a fan of most fruit. I don't even like fruit-flavored things (except candy like Skittles and Starbursts. But not Jelly Belly; that's asking too much. Oh, and sno-cones at fairs and lemonade. Yep, I think that's about it.) So while I'm not loving this part of the PCP, I'm sticking with it because it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The PCP, with its three-fruits-daily requirement for me, has kind of forced my hand at expanding my horizons and making new choices. Before, I would have ambitiously bought a bag of apples and by Day 4 of said apples, I would have called mercy and not tried apples again for two years. But maybe the key is variety. For example, on Friday for my a.m. snack I ate a banana and for my p.m. snack I ate a bosc pear during a work meeting. I ruled!

Second discovery: weekends are harder for the PCP diet than anticipated. Why? Lack of structure on the weekend can let things get all willy nilly right out the window. As I mentioned in Day Ten, dinner was going to have to wait until after my softball game. Well, after the game (we lost 5-2, but heck I played second base the entire game AND I accounted for one of those runs, so boo to the yah!) my team badgered me into joining them at the usual post-game bar. Sometimes we eat; most of the time they drink. I hadn't seen everyone in weeks so I felt obligated to be social and besides this was my night out (yes my life is very exciting, try not to be jealous). I felt OK with my iced water and cup of coffee to tide me over, but as soon as my friend seated across from me got her order of food, I knew I had to leave. Deliciousness was taunting me in the face. So I went home, it was 10p.m. and, too tired to cook or stomach the usual PCP dinner, I cobbled together my PCP carbs (simple bowl of generic GrapeNuts) with milk portions (so no vegs, protein or fruit). It was awesome, but not awesome for the PCP. Dang. Tomorrow was a new day to get it right. Right?

Nope. I ran into this problem AGAIN this morning (again, thanks to lack of planning on my part) when I woke up ready to hit the gym for my usual Saturday a.m. cardio kickboxing class, which I've done for three years now. I LOVE IT. But unless I wanted to wake up at 6 a.m. to eat that mammoth breakfast before the 9a.m. class (which you have to get there by 830a to get a pass that's how popular it is, which means leaving the house at 8a.m., so sleeping in is ...730a.m.? which I totally did!), eating would have to wait. But once I got home and showered, I remembered I was going to visit fellow PCPer Gwen today (who I might add is thisclose to her Day 90! Awesome!). So I grabbed some cheese and hit the road. Once I got home, I ate my breakfast meal ... at 2 p.m. Then the day got away from me AGAIN. My generous and lovely neighbors, curious about the PCP, ended up feeding me some of their dinner: lamb chops, artichokes and couscous because it was 7:30p.m. and I was ravenous with no meal in the works at my own house and they wanted to hear more about this PCP and incredulously wanted to see me do real push-ups (which I did a set of 12 on their patio ~ in flip flops!). During the work week, there is structure and predictability. Weekends ... not so much. So I need to change that. Which leads me to my ...

Third discovery: So knowing I had undereaten this weekend (with two additional activities) due to lack of planning and lack of structure, I went grocery shopping tonight and bought new things I've never bought for myself nor eaten before. The kid and I had a blast picking up vegs and fruit which I will prepare for the week's PCP. Fresh artichokes? Sure! I've never cooked one or eaten one that wasn't already in a pasta or cheesy dip, but heck I can Google how to cook it at home! Fresh bing cherries? Um OK I need another new fruit in the mix so I don't grow tired of the amicable bosc pear. Limes? Lemons? Sure! I need something to flavor that fish, couscous and who know what else. This experience reminded me of something the kid's preschool does, it's called a No Thank-You Bite. Whatever snack or lunch is served, you must try a NTYB before you can get seconds of the stuff you do like. Make sense to me! You've got to keep trying foods you're "sure" you don't like because taste buds change and you've got to keep trying new foods because they might just be your new favorite food.

Day Nine: The Joy of Cooking

I am getting inspired. But I could use some help. I don't know how long this PCP food plan is in place for me (a week before a different one comes along? or here for the remaining 80+ days?) but I know I can get bored easily with food or I want to eat the same food for three weeks straight and then never eat it again. I don't want either to happen.

Just today as I was thinking about how to make my PCP food more desirable and more cohesive as a meal, Patrick emailed us about this very topic ~ it's all in the timing. Take the time to chop and steam. And while you're at it: Think colors. Shapes. Textures. Flavors. So I tried. I had fun. Not bad to look at, eh? Tasted like a meal. Like comfort food. For dinner I broiled some deli chicken meat, cheese, tomato slices on wheat bread, and then a simple pasta-cherry tomato mix. Delish. (No elephants were harmed in the making of this meal.)