What is the Price of Experience?

The second weekend of my challenge went WAY better than the first.  Friday night I walked up to meet Kim from work, we had dinner at Penelope and then walked back – 4 miles RT to help digest dinner.

We were up early on Saturday to take a truck load of boxes to storage and completely re-organized the unit to generate what looked like more space than there had been in there before.  Another walk to the west village for brunch after the box-lifting and a quiet afternoon and evening.

Sunday was another early start and I went surfing out to Long Beach.  Not many decent waves, but I also swam as well as surfed.  I really need to work on shoulder and paddling strength over the winter as that is what is really hurting me.  Back at lunchtime and then a walk over to the Apple store on West 14th to check out the new iPhones and then down to Marshall Stack to meet Billy for a couple of beers.  I feel like 2 or 3 beers are justified after 90 minutes in the sea and 61/2 miles walking.  And in the spirit of being encouraged to make small changes by this commitment, rather than eat at the bar or order take out on Sunday night, I stopped at WF salad bar on the way home and put together a way better dinner.

Much, much better.  Back on track with diet and exercise.

One hour at the gym – 50 mins bike plus some weights.  Fake chicken and ranchero beans for dinner.  Good sleep.

Hmm – setbacks so early?

Weekends were always going to be a challenge – eating out, having some drinks, blowing off the gym.

Suffice to say all those things happened along with unhappiness, because this fucking apartment sale is driving me crazy.  Which makes me sad, and then …

I did walk through the EV on Saturday after brunch, and I did have healthy breakfasts every day.  I walked in BK in the heat on Sunday and got very dehydrated and very pissed off. I slept poorly every night. I ate cheese on Sunday which exacerbated my chest congestion.

Reset button pushed and we are on day nine, and how to deal with challenges and stress is part of growing and improving. Start simply: sleep (reasonably) well. Have a healthy breakfast. Sidetrack – get annoyed and angry at Microsoft tech support. Do some pushups. Clean the kitchen. Heat up some healthy chilli for lunch.

Decent progress continues – stuck to regular diet and rode the bike for 50 minutes at the gym yesterday.  I think the key for me is the little changes making this commitment forces.  On Wednesday night, after a four mile walk around the EV, I stopped at Maoz to grab a falafel sandwich for dinner.  Most times I would have had the fries with it too, but this time it was just the sandwich.  I think (hope?) that it will be these small changes that add up.

Today I also set about cooking more of multi-bean high-protein chili to refill the freezer and keep me going for lunches and dinners through the next couple of weeks.  I soaked the beans last night and ended up putting WAY too many in the pot.  So now I have literally gallons of chili cooking on the stove. (One great advantage of working from home is that you can cook long-simmering things during the day).  I’m completely happy eating the same thing for days on end, but I’m not sure I’ll have freezer space or containers for all of it.

Recipe (in case anyone is interested):

• Beans – black, red, pinto, navy, mung, adzuki, green lentil, brown lentil, chick pea
• Crushed tomatoes
• Garlic, onions, leeks – organic from farmers market
• Quorn crumbles – I usually don’t bother but I had them in my freezer and they were getting old
• Red, orange, and purple peppers – also organic from Union square market
• Zucchini – also organic from market
• Carrots – none at the market today, so these are from Whole Foods
• Jalapeño peppers – from Farmers Market
• Paprika, cayenne, cumin

As of September 15 I decided to step up my commitment to health and fitness with the 100 healthy days challenge.  I’m generally pretty active and eat reasonably well, but my gut indicates I could do better at both.  I first became aware of this effort through @caro on twitter and I like the accountability and awareness of tracking progress and staying on track.

I chose monday to start as the 100 days will then take me right up to Christmas – although I’m hoping that the good habits embedded in this process will then last for the next 12,000 plus healthy days.

So – day one, decent start.  Regular breakfast, healthier than usual lunch, regular dinner. 50 minutes on the bike at the gym – and even though it was at an easier setting then usual, I could feel the fact that I’ve been away from the gym for three weeks or so.  Also made more effort than normal to drink water.