Home Run!

I was going to title this ‘Touchdown!’ but then I realized I don’t even understand football.  So I thought of what sports I understand, and baseball came to mind.  And home run seemed like a good analogy, except that I didn’t even know how to spell home run.  How come its not one word–homerun??

ANYWAYS, last week was a real victory for me.  Working all those days, and feeling good, enjoying the days of work for the most part, being tired on my days off, but normal tired, and still getting a bit of work done.  To me it was an experiment to see if I could keep working for a while and still live a normal life.  And I think I can.  I just need to allow myself to rest up on my days off.

I ended the week (yesterday had a six hour day) with a trip to Big 5 to get a new pair of Saucony running shoes!  Love them, and they are a half size smaller than I have gotten in the past.  My feet are finally shrinking a little bit.

That darn Noah already initiated them with a big muddy paw...

And a stop at Costco.  I stuck with my shopping list.  Scored some great fruit–strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and a current favorite of mine, asian pears.

Today was a day off from my ‘Vicky food.’  And I decided to have some of my favorite foods, even if it wasn’t the most balanced menu.  I started off with protein pancakes (I just make one big one, much simpler.)  My favorite way to make these is with walnuts cooked into the pancake and mashed bananas as the ‘syrup.’  Scrumptious.

Headed off to the gym and church (after taking Noah for the prerequisite walk) and took a couple of snacks with me–my favorite apple snack (1/2 an apple smeared with one laughing cow light and some walnuts) and one lo-bar.  I started a batch of Dineen’s Roasted Tomato Soup before I left.

Had a good workout at the gym.  And took some pictures of the other kind of shoes I am so fond of–only wear them to church, and only have to stand/walk in them for a relatively short period of time hehheh!

But aren’t they pretty?  THRIFT STORE!!!  Love shoe shopping at the thrifts!  Today I wore an electric blue and black dress with those blue suede shoes–dress also from the thrift store.

It was sunny today, after two days of rain, and so Noah got a bath.  I tried to take a picture of him and Sophie on our walk, but they are really uncooperative.  This was the best shot I got, and I guess it is typical–Noah having whatever is close by in his mouth.

Back to the food.  I had some cottage cheese and grapes for lunch, and later a snack of greek yogurt and raspberries.  See?  I told you I was going to have all the food I really like.

For dinner, I had some of that roasted tomato soup, along with some roasted cauliflower a la Lynn, and a few whole grain chips from Trader Joe’s.  I saved enough calories to have a little air popped popcorn and dark chocolate for a snack tonight.  The tomato soup is really good, and is especially versatile as far as adding in other stuff.  I am going to try adding a little corn next.  But its good just as it, and only about 110 calories per cup.  If you follow Lynn’s directions for the cauliflower, it is absolutely perfect.  Has a little crispiness on the outside, and nice and soft on the inside.  Its my current favorite roasted veggie.

Hey, do you guys know about these freezer mugs?  I LOVE mine.  They have some liquid inside that freezes, and so they keep your drinks really cold without adding ice.  My diet coke stays cold AND fizzy for a long time in these mugs.  I found them at Ross–$5 for four of them.

During this past week I have had some days where I was a little too snackie, as my famous friend Lori would say.  It was pretty frustrating to me, since I am paying to have Vicky’s food, the object of which is to control and limit what I eat each day.  ‘What’s wrong with me?’ is typical of what I say to myself.  So for bedtime reading one night, I reached for my ‘The End of Overeating‘ book.  And I was pleasantly surprised to read this statement in the chapter on food rehab:

Conditioned hypereating is a biological challenge, not a character flaw.  Recovery is impossible until we stop viewing overeating as an absence of willpower.

And then this:

Lapses are to be expected.  Most of us are never fully cured of conditioned hypereating.  We remain vulnerable to the pull of old habits, although with time and the rewards that accompany success, they do lose some of their power.

There was a lot more good stuff in there, but these two statements were particularly encouraging to me, especially when found in a book titled ‘The END of overeating.’

Hope to be around a little more this week–back to more normal work weeks for a while.