Another Manic Monday

Again to all my faithful readers, I apologize that I didn't get this post written up last night. I had to work really late and only had time last night to eat a bit, shower and pass out. And kudos to those of you who put together that the title of this post and the last post are lyrics from The Bangles "Manic Monday". And for those of you who didn't figure it out. That's okay. You're not missing much.

A couple of people of have asked me to talk a bit about my dietary plans while I'm going through this journey toward insanity a.k.a. the marathon and I figured now would be the best time since as of last night I started on the original low-carb diet. No not Atkins. Although you have to love a diet that tells you bacon is good for you. Last night was in fact the beginning of Passover and believe me nothing will make you want to eat carbs less than the knowledge that your only option is matzah. For those of you who don't know, we Jews eat matzah to honor the fleeing of the Israelites out of Egypt. We ran so fast, that our bread didn't have time to rise and thus was only baked into a delicious cracker like food. That is also I believe that last time anyone saw a Jew run. I'll wikipedia that to double check. However, it makes me wish they would have grabbed a few things of beef and carried them on their back instead. Wouldn't it be better if Passover was instead known as the Festival of the Medium Rare Steak? I'd have Seder every night.

A lot of my gentile co-workers ask me if it sucks to give up bread etc. for a week and I say "Of Course," but by focusing only on the lack of bread, you really miss the point of Passover. Yes it is predominately about remembering our time as slaves and what tremendous acts of G-d, bravery and faith it took to get us out, but I say that there is another level to it. Holidays are in part meant to be times of reflection and I think that Passover offers the best time to focus on what we eat and how imbalanced our diets and subsequently our lives really are. I could rattle off a huge litany of foods that I am going without this week and yes I will miss them, but it gives me a chance to see how focused I am sometimes on just one food and hopefully I'll benefit from finding other alternatives to my regular routine such as salads.

Okay but enough about faith etc. I promised I would talk more about food and also my workout, plus the results of the first weigh in. You see how I set that up as a tease. That's marketing! Please don't scroll to the bottom and see the results. Remember we're on this journey together now.

I don't really know what to say in regards to food except I'm trying hard to be mindful of portion control and just overall what foods I put in my body. That didn't stop me from slipping a bit and having a brisket dip the other night at Junior's Deli however, but during the week I'm pretty spot on. I take my lunch with me to work everyday which I find accomplishes three goals. One, it saves money, which I obviously need to do right now. Two, it ensures that I have something to eat if things get hectic and I can't get away from my edit bay for a while. And three, it puts me in control over what I'm eating. That's also why I've been trying to cook and eat dinner at home more often. I'm not forced into having my choices reduced to what someone puts on their menu and I can control the portion size as well. Someone that messaged me mentioned snacks. There is nothing I love more than snack foods, but I have been focusing on replacing pretty much all of them with fruits and vegetables. I have started packing a banana or a couple little clementine oranges in my lunch. Also, one of my favorite snack foods which also helps me get my vegetables in and still kind of makes it feel like you're cheating is sugar snap peas. They're freaking good, don't make you feel all crappy like carrots can and they have a bit of a sweetness to them that makes feel like you're eating candy, if candy were crispy and good for you.

Wow this is a long post. Sorry. This is what happens when you ask a fat man to talk about food. I could go on for hours. So let me talk a bit about the workout and let's call it a day. I was feeling super sore on Monday because of all that awesome kickball action so I decided to try the eliptical again. Since Monday was a run/walk day, I still incorporated that element of training into the eliptical, where I would go slower for 90 seconds and then increase my speed considerably for 60. I don't know if the same principle does apply away from the treadmill, but I wasn't hurting as much and the workout felt really good. I do love the eliptical. I've decided after last Friday's depressing showing on the treadmill that I would repeat week one of my Couch to 5K plan. I'm going to spread it out to hopefully 2 1/2 months instead of just two. I might even go three with it. I'm trying to be kind to myself as my brother suggested.

And now to the part you've patiently waited for, the weigh in. Okay, probably most of you don't care, but I had to hype something and really I had very little to work with to entice you to stay. Maybe next post I'll put a cute picture of my cat at the bottom to keep you reading until the end. Anyways, as of yesterday morning when I stepped on the scale I was 275, down three pounds from day one. At this rate, I'll burn off 156 pounds by the day of the marathon. Putting me at a scary 122. Yeah...something tells me the weight loss will plateau at some point, but until I'll keep working at keeping it at a peak.

Thanks for reading!