Day 95, Nathaly: Then & Now

So, it's been 5 days and I still don't exactly know what to say... I've kind of be avoiding this post because -- what can I share that is of any use of any of you out there??  This whole journey has been so personal and in-my-head that I struggle with crafting a "final" post.  I'm honestly still processing and feel I've probably learned just as much in this last week post-PCP or so as I did the first 5 days of the program. Sooooooo.....

Before and after pictures is what you're after, right? lol That's a simple measure of progress. This first set you'll likely be familiar with from our PCP Flickr stream:

Day 1 ...................................................................................................... & Day 90

In the 90 days of the Peak Condition Project, I:

• Lost 10 kilos (22 lbs)!!
• Lost 9 cms off my waistline, 8 cms off my thigh, and 2.5 cms off my bicep (I started measuring on Day 22, actually -- so these numbers only reflect 68 days of fat loss)
• Returned to a bra-line width of 34 inches
• Went down 2 full pant sizes (from a 12 to an 8 -- and maybe 3 if you consider that I really should've been rocking 14s but refused to accept it)

But these numbers are meaningless, really..  So much of the benefits I've derived from these last 90 days has been in terms of increased self-confidence, self-appreciation, and a slowly increasing sense of the value of self-care (still working on that last one!). In the 90 days of the Peak Condition project, I:

• Began to feel sexy again (enough to recently return a small collection of thongs Ramiro has probably completely forgotten about back to my undies dresser from a box at the bottom of the closet)
• Realized how little of me I dedicated to me in the past
• Learned I actually enjoy jumping rope -- I think I've been getting lots of those happy-chemicals to the brain b/c of it!
• Collected a small toolkit of easy-to-make, delicious, balanced and good-for-you meals (if you've got more, send them my way!)

And this next set of pictures, offers a slightly longer historical timeline. "Then" was October of 2009, when I decided I'd had enough of my chubbiness and decided to once again attempt to take control of my weight & body image issues..  I did this by eating smaller portions (of whatever I wanted), taking the dog on longer walks, and going to university fitness classes 1 or 2 times a week.  A couple months later, I realized this approach wasn't terribly productive and I decided to up the ante -- I started counting calories and publishing my weight on Facebook once a week as a status update. I learned that the community accountability piece was something I really benefited from and started to lose about .5 lbs per week on average, but did some definite yo-yo'ing and lots of stress eating (2nd year of grad school...) and was still feeling frustrated. 

By the time Ramiro mentioned this cool thing one of his co-worker's was doing (have you all met Mr. Will Awesome?), I was again ready to take another small step forward, but the hubster seemed to think I was better off taking a leap instead and urged me to consider doing the PCP. And, frankly, he was RIGHT.  (So nice to have that sort of vote of confidence from my better half). Doing it as a couple was by far my the biggest source of strength for getting through this all, and well -- here're the pics to prove it was a good move!

Then............................................... & Now
(I tried to re-create the shot as best I could, but I can't find that sweater anywhere.. )

There's so much more to say (about setting good priorities and truly living healthily), but I think I'll try to capture that in another post.. Maybe the words to express my heartfelt appreciation for Patrick and Team Fantastic-Carrots-who-eat-LAGs-for-breakfast will come to me sometime soon.  Keep posted, if you wish.  And thank you, thank you, thank you for believing in us!

Heart hugs,

Nathaly

Well, and just for fun -- a Halloween family shot!

A bumble bee, Marge Simpson & Bat-dog

Day 72, Nathaly: Here we go again!

Hey all!

Hope you haven't missed me too much.  I've been doing the crazy climate organizing thing and have had so much fun and such a re-invigoration of energy and momentum to fight this crisis.  Thanks for your understanding my absences lately.

All the great organizing unfortunately meant that I took a bit of a step back on the PCP.  I kept generally PCP-compliant as far as the food rules are concerned (except for yesterday, 10/10/10, when I was stationed in Burlington's Battery park from 6:30am to 7:30pm and had to eat what was around), but definitely not in terms of gramage/allotments.  It meant that I vastly under-ate, usually getting in two quick meals a day (grossly lacking in vegetable content) and I wasn't exercising at all.

So I got back into the jumping this morning and thought I would fall apart after just a couple minutes.  I was glad to find that the worst of it was the boredom.  The workout was also fairly do-able, but definitely resulted in some painful moments, especially the breakage of a friggin' resistance band, slapping my thigh on the way to the kitchen floor.  That's gonna be a pretty welt..

What else to share?  I guess I just hope I can keep it up.  I have a dangerous love of convenience and a penchant for loading too much on my (rhetorical) plate, which can very easily lead me back down the path of easy cheese and greasy carbs. So, have I thrown all that effort from day 1 to day 60 away?  I really don't think so, but I also acknowledge that the likelihood of me reaching a "peak condition" -- even if I kept up with the regime beyond Day 90-- is pretty low.

In all honesty, what's the real danger in feeling like I've done pretty good thus far?  I've lost 20 lbs and I like how I look.  I wouldn't mind having more definition in my arms and mid-section, but I also like that I feel like I can sustain where I'm at, versus reaching some chiseled look and then losing it...  Am I again letting a fear of failure get in the way of me giving this my all?  Am I being realistic here or just plain lazy?  These questions are more for me than for you all, but I appreciate you being an audience out there to read my words.

I'm tired.  It's late.  I'm going to bed.

Day 65, Nathaly: Quick Update

Hi all,

apologies for not being more present on the blogs here.  By way of a quick update:

Nathaly's baby neice was born.  I was home all weekend, waking up in the middle of the night to be there for my sister who's still recovering from this lovely little 8lb, 6oz baby girl, Chloe.  I followed PCP food rules, but didn't bring my scale, so it was guesswork -- except for some apple spread and crackers I bought on the 6-hr drive.  Jumping happened, work outs didn't.

Ramiro is back to work today for the first time from the horrible sinus infection -- out of work for 4 days plus the weekend, fever for about as many day.  On a 10-day antibiotic cycle. He also didn't do exercises due to this and ate little because of associated nausea and plain old fatigue.  He lost 2.5 lbs this week.  Poor baby..

We both want to jump back on the bandwagon, and with the new diets (and the increased consumption, especially for Ramiro!) this isn't gonna be the easiest task.  I had a full breakfast this morning and couldn't get lunch in til 2pm.  Had some catch-up sleep this afternoon and still feeling the food floating around in there.

Tigger is well -- a little smelly.

Cheers all!

Nathaly

Day 57, Fantastic carrot knows no fear...Pain on the other hand...

Day 57 -- My, how time flies. Today's workout was a both a tremendous success and failure. Before I started this program my eating schedule was really up in the air, like everything else. I ate when I was very hungry, and eating was a far second priority to being entertained. I've mentioned my A.D.Dness in past posts; my mind pretty much needs constant input in order for me to maintain sanity. Boredom is painful. I'm at my worst when i'm bored for any length of time. Anyway, this causes my meal time schedule to fluctuate. As the program has progressed my managing of food has improved, but today my mind got the better of me.

I woke up around 11 and had breakfast around 12 something. Naty came home and wanted to eat out so lunch was down the gullet at 2:30pm (way too soon after breakfast and morning snack). As soon as I snarfed down the p.c.p compliant salmon sandwich I knew it was going to sit there all day. Dinner came sometime later, but the damage had already been done.

When exercise came around I had to summon the intestinal fortitude of my forefathers to mentally dictate "I will do lunges and frog jumps now" (frog jumps is what I call them, I always make believe I'm handcuffed). Lunges were a bear -- nothing new there.We had to do frog jumps in the backyard as to not disturb our downstairs neighbors. Mind you, it's 10:15 at night and we're in our backyard in sweat pants under a flood light. It's come to this. In the last post attention was brought to the rest periods in between the sets -- with that fresh in our minds, we endeavored to complete the frog jumps with the correct break times in the charts. I had one of those awesome moments when that little voice in your head is telling you in a semi-panicked, but sincere voice "pretty sure you can't do this chief, we sent the order to the quadriceps and they agree. We will hit you with the pain if you don't cease and desist immediately." That was on set 3, by set 4 my body was trembling pretty hard core. I had to reach in deep and play every grunting exercise movie montage I could muster (ALL the Rockys...and G.I.Jane... just being honest).

Set 5 was an out of body experience. It was kinda like my carrot plank vision. I knew I was jumping, I knew I was counting the jumps, but I don't know how my body was following through with the order. It just was.

The limits we set on ourselves can be re-set. That's what I learned today. I finished all the sets with the right rep count in record time. Going back up the stairs to our apartment was arduous. We limped and swayed like two drunkards. The feeling of personal accomplishment was great and was a bit of a perspective-changer. It's funny how some of the biggest wars we wage are all quietly fought in our heads. Naty was four feet away and  could not have had a clue I was going through such an intense experience. I'm actually surprised I'm voicing my thoughts to this extent. Hope it helps any.

After the high of finishing the leg exercises faded some, my stomach was again center stage. I got through a bit more than half the shoulder exercises before I had to stop or risk immediate expulsion of dinner. There's the failure bit -- if I had woken earlier and spaced out my meals correctly, today would have been an all-around smashing success. Not the case. Workout Day 57 incomplete. That sucks, man. I'll get it right.

ROCKY MONTAGE!!

Day 56, Nathaly: On 34s, brunch & 4-min sets

Hey all,

Not much new today.  Have been able to get through that mid-week slump by leaning on Ramiro quite a bit -- I know I would secretly be skipping workouts & eating out a lot if it weren't for his encouragement and his steadfast determination and pure joy at this whole getting fit thing.  It doesn't hurt that he's constantly complimenting me on the weight loss.  :)

WARNING: Potential TMI alert! (especially if you're a guy..)

Speaking of which -- I'm back down to a 34 bra size!  I realized early this week that I was feeling pretty loose-y goose-y in my 36 & decided to go into the local ladies undergarments store for a fitting. The assistant seemed pretty sure I was in the 34 range, which gave me a quick jolt of gratitude for all this effort, but it dissipated a bit when I started doing some fittings and found that even though the tightest setting of the 36 has come to feel too roomy, the loosest I can go on a 34 is still a little snug.  I've still got work to do, but man do I love this new bra!

It's a Saturday so we slept in like usual and after the dog walk (which resulted in a quick visit to a friend's house) and the jumps, I was pretty much starving for breakfast.  AND it was once again late enough in the day that I had to do a bit of PCP-finagling and get in both my bfast & lunch portions.  That's a LOT of eating for one sitting, let me tell you!  Especially when it's of some weird combination of whatever can be prepared most quickly.  I hate those thrown-together meals.  It turned out alright though: I wrapped some chicken and a scrambled egg in a wheat tortilla and had some zucchini & corn on the side. It would've been sooo much nicer to just walk to a local diner and order my usual homefries with cheese & onions and over-easy eggs, but I fought back the urge (again, mostly a factor of having Ramiro as a PCP partner and watchdog).

Regarding jumping rope in 4-minute sets:  for the first time this morning, I felt comfortable setting the alarm clock on my phone instead of using the stopwatch function.  I had to sorta sit there waiting for the minute to change, but it was such a better solution than constantly fighting that urge to glance over every 20 secs to see if I can stop yet.  After the 1st set of jumps, I sat and figured I'd just break for a minute to start the next set of 4, but that was over in a heartbeat!  I rushed to get into my next set, figuring I must've been very distracted my the mommy slurping up maple creemee excess from a toddlers cone (mmmm creemees!) and jumped my way through an almost perfect second set.  The next experiment with breaking for only one minute confirmed that sneaking suspicion: time is a fickle beast.  4 minutes jumping can feel never-ending, but 1 minute sitting on the porch is over before you can even catch your breath.  I decided to just break until I felt ready to go again between the 3rd & 4th set and learned that my preferred break time is a whopping 3 minutes long.  Talk about inefficient!!  Jumping for 4 & breaking for 3 -- no wonder work outs take forever!  I'm gonna try to get better about breaking for only the allotted times from now on...  I almost wish I was working out in the morning solely so that I could have more of an urge to get it all over with already -- when working out at night, the only thing before me is that measly egg white, apple & milk; a shower & the bed. One solution I've found is my Shakira Pandora station.  Do what it takes, right?

Day 48, Nathaly: Slacking with the updates DOESN'T mean we're slacking!!

Hey all,

SOOOO sorry to be slackers this week.  I actually have had several personal ah-HAH moments and I'm a loser for not sharing it with you all, but I wanna send a shout out to Kim, especially for reaching out to check in on us via email.  (Funny to think we don't really use email in Team Mango -- when did we choose that name? lol -- given how much I rely on it for my day to day communication).

OK -- so how to sum up the last 5 days?  There's been frustration and there's been moments of real, deeply-entrenched strength.  I'll try to go day by day.  The veggie post was done on Sunday night, so this is gonna be a long one.  APOLOGIES FOLKS -- we both PROMISE to be better!

MONDAY
The new form of jumps has meant re-acceptance of my abilities with the rope (I took to it naturally from the beginning).  I love love love getting thumbs up from cars driving by smiling at me jumping my little heart out in front of my house every morning.  I think my fave moment so far though, as certainly been from a little girl who was obviously impressed by also really shy and still managed to give me a double thumbs-up.  SO cute.

So, what had happened was that I was chugging along from Day 1 (50 jumps in a row) to somewhere around the end of month 1 (up to 200 in a row) and I realized that b/c it was so difficult to maintain, my breaks in btwn sets were going for too long (and therefore, I was taking too long getting jumps done).  So I went back down to sets of 100, but when the 2-min sets started, I worried I would tank. Turns out that because I also re-committed to doing jumps in the morning (based on Patrick's email about how that's when they've got the greatest fat-burning effect), they've been totally manageable.

TUESDAY
Definitely fell off the bandwagon this evening.  It was a SUPER long day starting with a morning 350 organizers mtg (I'm helping to plan a huge local day of action around climate solutions on 10/10/10 as part of the 350.org campaign's climate movement building -- if you've never heard of 350, def check it out and sign up!) and followed by a full day of work and then running up to campus for a grad school gathering and some work on my grad thesis and culminating with a two hours rehearsal with the Burlington Choral Society for our upcoming concert of the Duruflé Requeim and Britten Te Deum Festival.  LONG LONG day.  Anyways, I was perfectly PCP-compliant all day with the diet, but by the time I got home at 9:30pm, I just needed to sit (the wrong choice, I knew even as I made it..) We popped in our latest Dexter netflix arrival which was interrupted by a friend stopping by and before I knew it, it was 11pm.  I was absolutely exhausted and knew that I was just not going to make it.  Ramiro got a little pissed that night (as he had waited for me to do them with him, like I promised) but was a total champ and proceeded to do his workout even at that super late hour.

WEDNESDAY
I knew that Tuesday had been bad and made sure to get up early enough to do my jumps before work.  I had my 2nd choir day of the week (I also sing with the choir at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington), but I planned my day around it and did just fine.  It helped to have gotten a really good night of sleep in, of course. Victory for the day: a guy stopped by the office with a tray of assorted Lake Champlain Chocolates.  he offered each of us one and I grabbed my favorite flavor (dark chocolate mint) as i didn't wanna go into the i'm-on-a-diet spiel.  I set it on my things and gave it to one of the interns the following morning without too much mental struggle (felt very much like bilbo baggins asking himself in the 1st LOTR why he shouldn't keep the ring, "it's such a little thing, what harm could it do?" lol.  YAY NATHALY.

THURSDAY
A friend came in from California late Wednesday night and I was really worried about waking him up in the morning, so after getting ramiro his breakfast and a cup o' joe (those guys stayed up pretty late catching up and playing video games), I stayed in  bed til 9am (NICE) and then took Tiggs out for a nice long walk and did my jumps outside.  It was a slow morning and I realized that in order to get everything done (walk, jumps, shower, bfast) and feel comfortable getting to work without feeling rushed, I need a full two hours.  DANG.  I honestly can't imagine how you all who ALSO do the workout in the mornings handle it.  More power to ya!
That evening we decided to call the day our "saturday" (the 7th day of our PCP week which would normally be only jumps) in order to enjoy some time with the folks from out of town and some other friends. The host made a spaghetti dinner and I had some salad and a bite of carby-loveliness and did a great job of resisting the homemade chocolate cake, but the red wine and Long Trail Ales had my mouth watering..  In a small dip in my rock solid sweets resistance record, as I was helping to clean up, I decided to let Tigger have a nibble at a spoonful of cake someone left on their plate and gave my finger a lick.  WOW was that yummy.  Made seeing that half-eaten tray soo much harder to resist.  lol.  And, knowing our indulgence was around the corner, gave my mind plenty of fodder for going back and forth with questions and such..

FRIDAY (today)
I've been exhausted lately.  We were up late last night and ramiro got crazy allergies from the bunnies at our friends house, so we all slept in.  A morning without the alarm makes for a very difficult time waging the hour, however, and I was in bed until 11:34am.  Wow.  So, I made Tito some coffee and took Tigger out and was only done with jumps at 12:35pm.  Which meant breakfast and lunch kinda collided a bit.  We went to a local Jewish diner to spend a last couple hours with our friend from out of town and had to be really creative to stay within PCP.  To be honest, neither of us ate enough probably, but at least everything was within bounds, except for a couple bites I had of latke (fried potato pancakes) before giving it away. We went to the market to pick up more milk and eggs and when I got home, I did a little reading and felt that exhaustion coming in again DESPITE the frigging 10.5 hrs of sleep!  I was also a little cold, so I used that as an excuse to curl up in bed ("I'm not napping -- really!") and proceeded to sleep the afternoon away, only to get woken up by a VERY exciting message from Ramiro -- our PCP indulgence is of 500-700 calories!  WOOHOOOOOOOO  I was so excited (and thankfully ready to be up again), I flung my arms all around the air and hit the hubster in the face.  LOL.  So, obviously, not a good day, but INDULGENCE, here we come!!

OK -- last two things, i've been saving to share:
1. At some point last weekend, I think (or maybe Tuesday.. possible why i was so wiped out that night), I made the mistake of skipping BOTH my breakfast carbs and lunch carbs.  Never before would I have known how incredibly important they are to functionality.  How do those atkins ppl function?!?  I mean, honestly, I ended up having to add a slice of toast to my dinner meal that day.

2.  How could it have taken this long to learn to do push-ups effectively??  I guess, my arms have been too high this whole time.  It was only Wednesday of this week that I actually did push ups correctly and i've been feeling it ever since.  I really hope my boobs don't shrink too much!!

OOH -- last thing, i promise (SORRY for the long post!!):  YUMMERS BFAST SANDWICH IDEA:  Smear half and avocado all over your breakfast bread carb portion and layer an egg onto THAT.  LOVELY!!

OK -- DONE

Day 43, Nathaly: VEGETABLES!

So, Ramiro's been hungry the last couple weeks and our weekly diet message saying he could eat as many veggies as he wants made his eyes light up -- so healthily cute.  lol  This is a man I used to have to trick into eating fruits and vegetables back in the day!

Anyways, so as i've mentioned before, I've been pretty bored with the veggies lately, so I went to the lunch counter at the local co-op the other day and checked out some veggie medley options that could be adapted to be PCP compliant (as simple as removing salt from ingredient list for the most part).  Two looked really yummy so I bought some on the spot and enjoyed them thoroughly.  Recreating them based solely on my memory of the ingredients list was certainly the hard part..

From L to R: zucchini/corn medley; mustardy roasted broccoli & roasted red peppers; asian slaw (PS -- that peanut butter is exclusively for Tigger's daily pill delivery -- fear not! (I get no more that one finger lick per morning)

1. Home versions of City Market creations:

• Yummy roasted broccoli thing (shown in the center shot above)!  Mmmm MMM M!  I'd never even had roasted broccoli before (can you believe it?) and it stood out a little while back after Sarah left this great comment with lots of veggie suggestions.  Anyways, this is simply roasted broccoli with roasted red pepper and (here's the ta-da ingredient!) MUSTARD.  not your typical hot-dog stuff, the classry stuff with the seeds.  SO GOOD.  Also a little drizzle of olive oil. 
• My version of the Napa cabbage thing (pictured on the right) was not so great (and I made a LOT so i'm gonna be eating this mistake for most of the rest of the week..).  I think this one definitely req'd precise measurements as opposed to the free hand thing I was doing -- mine has too much apple cider vinegar and has never really got sweet, despite 3-4 drizzles of agave nectar.  Anyways, the original recipe had toasted almonds and soy sauce which I omitted from mine and am definitely missing.

2. Other stuff I whipped up this afternoon:

• Zucchini corn medley (pictured on the left above):  The original recipe which I shared before (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Corn-and-Zucchini-Melody/Detail.aspx#) includes bacon and although is did make for a really lovely dish, it's not bad without that salty-greasy loveliness..  As mentioned before, I add 1/2 of a seedless jalapeño for a little kick. I think it's cuz the corn I got is from a local farm (19 cents each a week ago!) and in season and I cooked it perfectly (not to brag or anything), but I ate a whole ear for lunch today without even blinking cuz it was just SOOOO lovely.  Guys -- if it's corn season where you are, do it up! WARNING: avoid licking fingers if you've recently been chopping jalapeños..
• Roasted fall veggies:
• eggplants (below, foreground):  I was in the first stages of making some baba ganoush, but by the time I was done with the stuff I've already listed, I really didn't feel like pressing on.  Plus, I don't keep tahini on hand, so I'm gonna hold off on that.  Hope the eggplants will keep (they were already sorta borderline..

Roasting fun. 

• beets (center): we had bought these to juice, but never got around to it, so I found them tossing around a fridge drawer and thought, what the heck..  Here's the thing:  I don't really like beets.  I'm thinking I'll try to sneak them into Ramiro's food somehow.. lol I'm open to other ideas, of course!
• potatos (background): a new fave.  ramiro had one for lunch while I went with a nuked sweet potato.  not as lovely as the last one I nuked, but still fun times.  

This is what's left to cook up/eat before the next trip to the super market:

Anyone have any suggestions for what to do with that watercress I bought on sale?  I'm thinking of trying this, .http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Avocado-and-Watercress-Salad-242342, but am afraid of experimenting with asian after that sad slaw

OOh -- and as long as I'm in this fun picture-sharing swing, I've been saving these next couple images to work into a post at some point.  Now seems as good as ever:

A PCP-compliant refrigerator: fruit & veggies galore, milk, homemade chai & lean meats (not shown here..)

Local Farmer's Market Bounty!  YAY for VT in the summer!

And last, but not least..

My teeny weeny garden red onions.  Hold back the giggle, folks! It's a product of my very first gardening attempt.

OK -- it seems I had a lot to share today.  Total bummer I lost dinner bananas, btw..  I was really loving those banana milkshakes.  OH -- and HUGE bummer that I didn't lose any weight this week.  I knew it was too good to be true:  last Sunday's weigh-in shown I had lost 4 lbs in a single week which seems WAY weird.  Must've just been a glitch in the matrix.  150 lbs, here I come!!

Day 39, Nathaly: Finally getting used to the diet

So, I realized today that I've got this diet under my belt. It's kinda boring sometimes and I still miss cheese & butter, but most of the strong cravings are gone and it's really not all that hard to say no to the non-PCP-compliant stuff.

On the other hand, when lunch gets inconvenient (which has happened 3 or 4 times since the start of the program), I don't bat an eye at the thought of grabbing a veggie sandwich or a shrimp salad.  It doesn't feel like breaking the rules since it's all the right stuff (no fats, sugar or salt), but it's obviously not perfectly weighed, so it's kinda lame and Ramiro (who's really into playing the perfect gram-age game) is not really a fan. In essence, there's little of that guilty feeling that we all know equals cheating, but it means it's not a perfect PCP day.

The last couple days have been super busy (and super awesome!) and house chores have sort of fallen to the side lines so, as a result, creativity in the kitchen has reduced considerably (especially given the weird assemblage of uncooked veggies mocking me in the fridge).  The newest rendition of the diet makes it kinda difficult to make anything that will produce leftovers unless you wanna eat the same lunch everyday, so it's a constant battle to make something I know I will enjoy.  Ramiro doesn't mind mixing together weird combinations of carb/veggie/protein, but I like meals that feel like a meal. Please share ideas, folks!

Anyways, enough rambling for now and off to make some late-night meatballs!

PS:  went back to jumping rope in the morning and realized it's not that much earlier out of bed and it makes it so much easier to split up the work out.  Yay for morning jumping!

Day 36, Together: Some Favorite Recipes

Potato Curry: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Potato-Curry/Detail.aspx

• switch from ghee to olive oil
• i've never used mustard seed and haven't missed it
• great with whole wheat tortillas!

Zucchini Corn Medley: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Corn-and-Zucchini-Melody/Detail.aspx

• obviously, you gotta forgo the bacon & cheese
• i like to add peas
• you can also add 1/2 of a small jalapeño for zing

Balsamic Marinated Eggplant & Zucchini:

• cut into 1/2 inch rounds (i like to leave the skin on)
• dip in balsamic vinegar
• pan sear on med-high heat for about 1 min on each side
• serve with your choice of protein (i like lean steak)

Pasta Primavera:

• toss appropriately weighed angel hair pasta with:
• cherry tomatoes
• sugar snap peas
• broccoli spears
• a sprinkle of Parmesan
• a drizzle of olive oil
• serve with your choice of protein (i like salmon)

New Favorite Pasta Sauce:

• sautee at low-med heat:
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 2-3 medium garlic cloves, crushed or diced
• add 1 large can low-sodium, organic diced tomatoes
• stir in 2-3 tablespoons of homemade pesto sauce
• sprinkle in fresh basil to taste
• serve over turkey meatballs & pasta 
• OR make a turkey meatball sub on a whole wheat sandwich roll (i like to sprinkle on some Parmesan)

Shrimp & Veggie Lo Mein:

• weigh out & stir-fry together: 
• frozen lo mein noodles
• frozen shrimp
• frozen veggie mix

Banana milkshake:

• 2 medium bananas
• 250 ml milk
• handful of low-sugar breakfast cereal
• 1 tsp on maple syrup

Other easy fave's:

• nuked potato with plain yogurt
• nuked sweet potato with drizzle of maple syrup
• steamed broccoli with garlic
• frozen blueberries

Day 15, Nathaly: Going home for the weekend

My sister's baby shower was this afternoon.  Pretty much everything there was out of the question and I didn't have my trusty scale to bring me back to true PCP form.  So, I struggled to both gauge the right amount of food (I pre-weighed meals using last week's gram allotments and there's been a slight shift) AND fight the temptation of everything before me at a typical family gathering.  So, I've decided to let the pictures speak for themselves in the latter of these struggles.  The following images are all foods I deprived myself of this weekend -- I'm pretty proud of myself for not giving into the simple excuse of "just one bite"!

WARNING: The following images may make you salivate for all the wrong things. Keep reading at your own risk.

my sis grinning as she prepares plates of junk food at a park BBQ after my nephew's victorious little league game.  Nothing like a hot dog & some soda on a hot august afternoon.

mom's flan-cocho: half flan, half cake, drizzled in sugar-syrup. she made it for some friends that came over for dinner &  games Saturday night.  I've never had it before -- this was definitely the hardest to resist. 

pre-lunch snacks at my baby shower table.  moving from the back forward, cheese & crackers & tuna dip; tortilla chips & salsa, potato chips & "health food" exotic vegetable Terra chips; leftovers from someone else's beef empanada (2nd hardest temptation of the weekend); and sprinkled all over the place are decorative "it's a girl!" Hershey's kisses (the bulk of my neice's un-supervised lunch) and soft dinner mints.

 a friend enjoying a lovely slice of red velvet cake. Classic soul food dessert from Harlem! One of my favorite desserts. oh man -- I even considered grabbing a piece to store in my freezer until October 31st.. lol. decided against it as I still have a 6-hr drive back to VT to overcome.

My preggers sis showing off one of the prize baby bottles filled with sugary goodness. This one is full of gummy bears, one of my favorite stress-eating treats -- not too messy and not nearly as sweet as jelly bellys, satisfactorily chewy without the jaw ache, and can be stretched for fun (ideal for both it's distraction value and stress-relief properties).

So -- there you have it. Tomorrow, I have to contend with all the highway drive-thru's, also.  I'll be driving up to VT alone and much more likely to stop for breaks meaning temptations at the store. (at least during the trip down, I rode with a couple ladies who could keep me entertained).  In truth, it wasn't as terribly hard to just say no, but the only reason I could make it through was that I know this program isn't a forever diet.  Maybe that's dangerous talk, but I can't bear the thought of never having a buttered slice of toast again.  How I dread that dry toast..  haha.

I'm proud to have made it through these last couple days in one piece, considering all the sources of temptation. Ramiro's doing pretty well keeping things going up in VT, as well.  I can't wait to get back home and away from all this deliciousness -- back to the beauty of garden sungolds (our favorite variety of cherry tomato) & the Wednesday veggie truck.

Day 12,Ramiro: need more food!!

It's amazing to me how quickly my body stopped complaining about the sudden abundance of food and started grumbling for more. I'm hungry and that's very odd considering I'm eating twice as much as before. Snickers bars are a bigger threat than I would have suspected. I haven't buckled under the pressure yet....yet. All the exercises are coming along nicely even the dreaded jump rope is on its way to being tamed. Small worry though: I feel all the workouts in my shoulders, even the jump rope, very curious. Naty's leaving for the weekend and we depend on each others support a lot so it will be a trying test to keep focused. Usually when she goes out of town I start a Ben and Jerry's and scotch movie marathon that ends promptly on the minute of her return. Yes, I'm 27.  Read 17.
stay tuned.

Day 10, Nathaly: dieting

Day 10 -- we've made it this far!  Can we keep this up for another 80 days?  It's not gonna be easy, but I think so. For me, the biggest bonus to keeping straight on the diet is knowing there's an end in sight. :)

Truth is, the diet is less hard than I would've thought.  I think it's 'cuz of all the eating - it's helped reduce my emotional eating cravings, but i'm really missing the salt.  Gonna have to jump on that lemon/vinegar/citric acid thing Kim's been talking about.  Will also recommended using lemon pepper -- so i'm gonna pick some of that up tomorrow along with a gallon of milk (we're going through that pretty quick!), some bulgar wheat & quinoa (new!) and more lean meat.

I've been enjoying eating local, in-season veggies (mostly zucchini right now) & fruit (heirloom melons and tree-ripened plums!) and have reached out to folks in my grad student community about getting my hands on some lake fish.  A friend is delivering some filleted white fish for me on Thursday (a by-product of her research!) and another has even offered to teach me to fish.  Fun fun :)

Ramiro and I have both noted that the program is (inadvertently?) helping shape our lives closer to what we consider "grown-up" life to be:  treating our bodies right with healthy foods and regular exercise, having regular sleep patterns, regular showers and even less of the dog begging at the table.  These seemingly-simple things are actually pretty big adjustments for us and we're glad to make them, so that's a definitely plus!

OK -- it's almost 10pm and I've gotta join Ramiro in finishing up our fitness routine.  Keep those recipes coming, folks!  Today I marinated 1/4 inch slices of eggplant & zucchini in balsamic vinegar and pan-seared them at high heat.  Very yummy.