Ok I’m reasonably sure I’ve put on about 5 pounds during this week in Chicago. I’ve only worked out once and there’s a buffet for every meal every day.

I did pretty well the first day–just eating fruit and yogurt for breakfast, salad and soup for lunch, passing on all the unhealthy snacks they pile in our break area, and eating seafood and salad for dinner. I passed on dessert and didn’t drink that first day.

The second day it all went to crap.

I ate one cookie at lunch and it was like a downward spiral from there. I started adding more startches to my meals, I started eating snacks at snack time (although I did stick to hard boiled eggs, veggies and peanut butter, etc) and I started eating desserts. Stopped running. Strarted drinking

Ugh. My clothes are fighting more tightly and I just feel gross and uncomfortable. I have GOT to get a handle on this.

Have you ever found that the more you eat the hungrier you are? I had a bigger breakfast today (eggs and and english muffin) and I’m STARVING now. Weird.

Stand by for more plans, and me losing weight *determined*

Well this is a little on the depressing side. When I get to the end of the year I think to myself: where did all the time go? Like most people I’m raring to go in January. I’ve got goals and plans and I’m going to use this year to make something of myself! And then I look back in November and I’m pretty much where I started in January. So uh…what did I do with all that time?

I’m not entirely sure, but the year isn’t over yet so I want to make the best of the time left. I’ve finally started lifting weights again (yay!) and I’ve been sore for the last few days. I’m going to try to do an every other day thing where I run a couple miles one day, lift weights the next etc, with one or two day for rest.

I’m tracking my food, but I’m not being really strict about the quality of calories because I’m still working like crazy and my ability to plan meals is restricted by the fact that I’m rarely home to cook them. :\

But  I think counting calories still helps so I’ll keep up with that. We’ll see where I am in a month and go from there.

ALSO. I took out my size 8 jeans the other day. I LOVED these jeans. I always felt so cute and skinny when I had them on. Surprisingly I can get them over my hips, but I have a raging muffin-top going on if I try to close them. So I think my first goal will be to get those suckers closed. Then I’ll worry about actually fitting into them.

Well I know the answer to that question. I just can’t seem to find any motivation to do it.

If I say I’m going to exercise in the morning I hit the snooze and roll over. If I say I’m going to do it after work I end up on the couch.

I know I feel good after working out–it’s just the set up to get there…change clothes, get all sweaty, all my flab flapping about as I move. Ugh. Maybe I just need to go back to that mind set of just doing 2 miles a day. I wish I could wake up in the morning to do them though. I just need to get up 20 minutes earlier, but for some reason I just canNOT wake up in the morning. Even if I go the bed earlier. Blah.

This is a very down post. Sorry! My eating has been really good though! Hopefully I’ll get up off my duff and have some real results to post.

*slinks in*

Gosh. I know not many people read this, but it’s still a little embarrassing to disappear and to do so badly while you’re gone.

I’ve been working really long hours lately–ten to eleven to be precise. It’s been tough on exercise and healthy eating. I just don’t have any drive for anything except carving out some relaxation time somewhere. So there’s been alot of eating out and sitting on my butt and generally not doing anything to try and reach my goals.

Well, I did run the Army 10 miler on Sunday. This is my 3rd year running it, and it was my second best time so I’m happy about that. I’m not sure if I’m going to be running it again. There’s a great feeling a few days after the race–a feeling of accomplishment and pride. But I gotta tell ya, I’m not a great runner. I’m not even a good runner. It’s painful those last 3-4 miles. I don’t think 10 miles is a good distance for me. So now that I have my nice 3 medals I think I may stick to 10Ks after this. But we’ll see. Already in the back of my head I’m thinking: “Maybe I’ll do even better next year!” Ha, I’m a sucker for punishment.

Also, I have a very sweet and thoughtful boyfriend. I trekked out to Whole Foods to try and find Soy Joy bars. I had a free sample in Tel Aviv and I thought they were so good! But I haven’t been able to find them here, and Whole Foods was my last shot. No go! I complained to Jay about it and the next day? He gave me a hug from behind and in his hands were Soy Joy bars! He found some at the CVS in his office.

In other tofu news: Shirataki Noodles? No good. I was excited that like 2 cups of “noodles” was like 40 calories. But I could NOT get over the texture. It has absolutely no taste, so I guess it had that going for it. But the texture was so off from regular pasta that I couldn’t eat more than two spoonfuls.

Oh well.

I’m going to do what I can to cut back my late work nights and try to get into some planned healthy meals and workouts.

This isn’t really a weight loss blog isn’t it? It’s more like a weight-waffling blog. Blah.

Ugh. My back is hurt and I’ve got my 10 miler this weekend. :\

Oh and also I finally have my site back at home.

I can’t wait to get this challenge up off the ground though. I think it’s going to be great! And a real motivator which I desperately need at the moment.

I’m going to take it easy for the new few days with my back and then hopefully I can get back into workouts. I most definitely need to get some weekly menus/grocery lists going too. Gotta get some of my eating back under control.

Well, still no blog access from home. Gotta get on the phone tonight and ask what’s going on.

The good news is I’m totally done coding the challenge stuff for the 15 week challenge. As soon as Amy is ready I think we’ll be able to go live.

The not so great news is as soon as I stopped photographing my food it all went screwy! I think there was also some motivation not to show you guys terrible meals (aside from last Thursday…and Friday) but as soon as I knew no one was watching I justified my 3pm candy break–albeit not quite as voluminous as before.

I’m back to running today though. I was having some hip issues after that long run on Saturday. I feel back to normal though which means I see a treadmill in my future!

I never meant to be gone, but it looks like my provider thought that one of the files that I created for the challenge was a malicious script. Probably because I messed up the timing of it. Ah well.

BUT this means that I’m missing some days from from my challenge! I took all the pictures (although I accidentally deleted one, and forgot to take one other) so I’ll try to get them up soon. (I still can’t view my blog from home which is a problem considering that’s where I do my photo stuff.)

I did learn a lot about my eating during this challenge though. One: Being the type of food blogger that takes a photo of every bite is tough! Yesterday I broke down, and after photographing a bag of mini M&Ms I ended up eating another couple bags away from my desk without taking a photo! Although the part that I thought would be tough–taking pictures in front of other people–wasn’t hard at all. No one really cared or said anything. Huh.

I definitely have a tendency to eat very oddly when I don’t plan my food intake.  Weekends also aren’t very good especially if I’m going out. I have to remember that I go out with people ALL THE TIME. And that meeting someone for dinner/lunch does NOT mean it’s a special occasion! Not when it happens once or twice every week! Sheesh

The good news is that on weekdays and when I do plan my eating is pretty good. Filled with seasonal fresh fruits and veggies and lean proteins. I just need to figure out how to take Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (the ones I actually plan) and use those same strategies on Friday Saturday and Sunday.

But the best news is that I lost about 3 pounds from when I started this! Yipee! I gotta keep this momentum going!

Now you get to see what happens on the really bad days! I skipped breakfast, and had left overs from an earlier lunch.  Brown and wild rice mixed with black bean soup. (The soup is fantastic–it’s a boxed soup from Imagine. Tons of flavor for a boxed soup.)

I forgot all about food until around 6pm when I remembered I had an apple in my desk.

I may have also forgotten to mention–I don’t drink anything but water. If I do you’ll see it in the photos. But I drink about 24oz at work and then a glass or two after.

Anyway–I was hungry for dinner and so was the BF. We decided on Indian food which I LOVE but of course can be dangerous. I ended up actually measuring the rice (which I never do and now I can see I probably usually have 1 1/2 cup to 2 cups otherwise. O_o) and using that as the base I’m guessing I had about half a cup of tikka masala and saag paneer. I also had half of the HUGE piece of naan that we got. I’m guessing that the half was about the six of one whole naan from Trader Joes.(And yes…in the past I would have had more than just half.  )

With dinner I had two 3 oz pours of one of my favorite wines. A Petite Sirah from Bogel. Yum!

After dinner I may have had another tiny splash and 5 dark chocolate chips. So my total for the day is probably closer to 1400 not bad!

Today was a rest day, but tomorrow I’m going out for a run with a friend!

.66 Serving of brown and wild rice, 1 serving of black bean soup - 315 Calories

Fuji Apple - 80 Calories

1 cup rice, half serving of chicken tikka masala, half serving of saag paneer, 6 oz of wine, 1 piece of naan (not pictured) - 893 Calories

So today you get to see what happens when I don’t plan anything at all. At breakfast I was just going to skip it, but decided at 10:30 to go scrounging and see if I could find half a bagel from my company’s bagel day. But at that point they were all gone and there were only a few donuts left. I just said to heck with it and grabbed a plain glazed figuring it was the least calories. It was–but that’s still a lot of calories for what was basically air.

But it help me through until around 2pm–we’re just swamped at work so eating is the last thing on my mind a lot of the time. I took a break at 2 and went to Au Bon Pain. I grabbed a medium potato leek soup and some multi-grain bread. It was a rainy drizzly day here in DC and to me that means a warm bowl of soup. It’s the little things that keep me going during these long work days.

When I got home I ended up  feeling nibbly and I needed something to go for a run. So I took a small piece of some scones I baked this weekend. Blueberry!

I forgot to take a photo after my run but I did 2 miles again. So that’s -248 or so.

And then a late dinner. I just didn’t feel like cooking that late (didn’t eat until 9:30 or so–that’s why I’m posting so late) so I ended up with just a bowl of cereal and some chocolate milk.

Even though it’s not a lot of food that’s around 1300 calories.  That’s because there’s like no fruits, veggies, or even protein. Yikes. But that’s what happens when I don’t plan. Also when I run out of groceries. I need to go to the store this weekend!

Glazed Donut and Earl Grey Tea - 220 Calories

Au Bon Pain Potato Leek Soup and Mulitgrain Baguette - 550 Calories

Blueberry Scone - 115 calories

Kashi Cereal + 1/2 cup of soup, 1 cup 1% milk + lite chocoalte syrup - 405 Calories

Breakfast: Blueberries, yogurt, and kashi - 232 Calories

Lunch: Pita, hummus, carrots, tomatoes, sprouts, lettuce, avocado -415 Calories

Arr! 130 Calories

Blood Sugar Low-72 Calories

Snack: 180 Calories

-238 Calories

Dinner: Barilla PLUS Pasta, olive oil, broccoli, thyme, and parmeggiano reggiano - 333 Calories

The Midnight Milky Ways were WEIRD. I mean–I love them but it’s like my blood sugar was so low my mouth was freaking out and when the chocolate hit my tongue it was almost painful for a second. Not sure why.

Got of kind of a headache so I’m out…