Day 953 and a menu.

Making better choices in my diet and exercise for nine hundred fifty three days now and loving every minute of it, I promise you I am! Starting off not being able to walk a half mile to where I am today hiking, biking and hitting the gym regular like my life is completely different than it was when I began down this road paved in low calorie meals and sweaty bike rides. Living life on this end of the spectrum is a lot nicer than where I started, the view is much better from this side to put it simply. Something that has happened recently is that since the kids have been off of school my exercise has slowed way down and I know that having them here makes it more difficult to have a strict exercise schedule but I should honestly be able to get something into every day regardless so my lack of movement sits squarely on my shoulders, it is what it is. My weight has sort of whats the term the kids are using these days? plateaued? for the last couple months...hey! exactly when I stopped going to the gym every day, who wouldda thunk?? but its the reason that I am not too worried about it too. What it shows is that I can maintain my weight pretty easily because I am not really up in weight in the grand scheme but I am fluctuating within about a 10-15 pound range that hasn't changed in a couple months.

Did somebody mention the view being better on this side?

Here is my menu from yesterday, I did go over slightly but I swear its not my fault! those rice and beans that I make are seriously addicting for me and I really should stop making it! but I can't! I must!! there is no way that I can't have them! think of your ass man! but! but! no pun intended! or was it? oh I don't know any more....see?? I've gone crazy talking to myself in my own blog over them..... here is the menu at any rate.

Breakfast
8:15 AM
onion/peppers/tomato/1T smart balance 87
6 egg whites 1 whole egg 160
1 whole grain deli thin 100
1 garlic pickle spear 5

11:30 AM
1 banana 105

12:30 PM
1 med tomato 25

Lunch
2:00 PM
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T strawberry jam 40
2 slices whole wheat bread 140

2:30 PM
1 Yoplait thick and creamy yogurt 100

3:45 PM
1 med tomato 25

Dinner
6:15 PM
1 1/3 cup rice&beans 400
6oz panko breaded baked haddock 250
tartar sauce 50

8:00 PM
1/2 cup rice & beans 150

That comes to 1732 total calories for the day which is not bad at all and pretty much on the button but truth be told I did take a bite or two more than the measured portions that are listed so it is a tad bit higher than the 1732 on my excel sheet. I've started weighing everything again too which means that all of my chopped veggies and smart balance etc is getting itemized into my spreadsheet again, its sort of just a check system for myself to make sure that my visual scale skills are still sharp. I never stopped weighing portions of meat and I never stopped measuring my rice or pasta etc on my salter scale or in measuring cups but my diced veggies, whole fruits etc I have been eyeballing for a while now. before I weigh anything now I take a guess and I am happy to say that I am still pretty much right on so my eyeballing skill has held up.

I am working out a schedule to make sure that I can get to the gym every day because I must do it, I miss going regularly to the gym and my weight hasn't budged since I stopped going daily so it must resume. The problem that I run into when I go to the gym later in the day, meaning early evening is that I am all kinds of pumped up and awake after my workout that I end up staying up until after midnight because of that high so my sleep suffers. When sleep suffers everything suffers because I am tired and not at my best so its hard for me to commit to a late workout but I am thinking that I have to because besides the fact that I am not getting in the cardio that I would like to be I just plain old miss it.

Today I will be at the gym at some point, the plan is my 15-15-15 workout but I changed it to 20-20-20 so that its an hour of cardio instead of the 45 minutes. I have 4 eggplants out in the garden that are ready to be picked so perhaps a healthy version of eggplant parmesan will be born today. My day must begin so that's all I got for now, the one thing that I ask of you is that if you made it all the way to this point of my post is that you get up now and go grab a glass of H2O to start your day off right, I am already down 1/2 a gallon of water and 30 seconds after I hit publish I will have a glass of Green tea in my possession.

Keep on keepin on, its all that we can do..

As Ever
Me