Return from Tahoe

I'm back now... a few days later to posting than I originally wanted. I actually returned Saturday evening, but the events of the last few days have made things rather crazy around here. First - the actual trip...

I'm proud to say I think I did fairly well for being away! I mostly ignored my family's comments about my "weird eating" and stuck to eating frozen vegetables, beans, and fruit in the little hotel room we had. Luckily, it was equipped with a microwave and small fridge. No, I wasn't ETL-perfect. On the days I snowboarded, the day generally consisted of a breakfast of 1/2 bag of frozen vegetables and peas, a lunch of a peanut butter + banana sandwich on whole wheat, and a dinner of 1/2 bag of frozen spinach with more mixed frozen vegetables, and 1/3 cup of lentil soup poured on top. The lentil soup definitely had way too much sodium but it was all I could find in the local grocery store. I had to dilute it with water. The rest of my companions had fast food every night we stayed in. We spent the last night at a fancy restaurant, where I strayed somewhat, eating bread and fish. I did also make sure to order vegetable sides -- delicious but probably had too much salt and oil.

I was getting lots of rest too, feeling very good overall (besides the bruises from falling!) and my pants even seemed looser.

Then we came home.
And it was back to the stressball life.

I spent most of Sunday doing homework for a class I'm taking. While in Tahoe, the Boy found out his condo was leaking into his neighbor's. We later learned that the damage to his condo is quite extensive and trying to be the gracious girlfriend, I of course offered to have him stay with me while his home is being repaired. This should be an interesting test... now he will see just how crazy I really am with my early morning workouts and truly "weird" eating habits. But I figure if things develop into something more serious, this is a good way to see if we can handle each other.

And finally for the biggest stressor... on Sunday my sister sends me a strange text message asking questions about a guy I dated last year.

Her: "Does he own a road bike?"
Me: "Yes - why?"
Her: "Because this guy at my superbowl party looks a lot like him..."
(Minutes later)
Her: "Oh it IS him! Maybe I will chat him up!"

Hours later, she calls me on the way back from the party and gives me the scoop. Her friend just bought a place and decided to hold a superbowl/housewarming party and coincidentally his new roommate is ... the former boyfriend. But not just any former BF either. This one broke my heart and trampled on it. Strangely, while my sis and I are talking, the jerkhole in question sends me a text message.

He says he ran into my sister and how random it was and hopes I'm doing well. Typical. So as not to be rude, I send him a message back, "small world!" to which he replies "Maybe we could catch up if you want?"

Hmmmmm.

It bothers me that this whole episode bothered me at all. I thought I was over him and had moved on. Heck, I'm dating a great guy right now! Yet I couldn't put it out of my mind.

And so what happened? I ended up bingeing. I am kicking myself now as I write that. I wanted to numb my emotions with food, which of course, never works.

Now I am somewhat calmer, but worried that my episode has put weight back on. Well, only time will tell... Scale Day is tomorrow.

Snow Time

Leaving today for a snowboarding trip that will last to the end of the week.  I plan on ETL-ing as well as I can.

Day 5/42

Today was much better. Not that this makes up for yesterday, but I did a KILLER bike ride today and also ate relatively well. The group decided to do a ride we had done two weeks prior, except that we were going to start further away to give ourselves a better warm-up and a longer ride time. The plan was to climb one of the local mountains.

What we didn't count on was that last week's heavy rainfall brought SNOW at the top! As we climbed closer, I could see some of it along the side of the road. "How cute!" I thought. That's novel..

It wasn't so cute when the patches of snow slowly starting creeping onto the road, and soon grew in size as we rode higher in elevation. It got to the point where the entire road was blanketed in snow! We thought we were close to the top, so we decided to walk the bikes through.

I still think this was the best plan, but that was some walk! We were walking unsteadily with bike cleats for almost 2 miles and of course, all uphill. 45 minutes and some cursing later, we finally made it to the main road, which had been cleared of snow by plows. After dusting off the snow that had accumulated on our brake pads and wiping the dirt from our cleats, we cruised downhill. After that workout, there was no way I wanted to ruin the day with poor eating choices.

B - (pre-ride): 1 banana, (during ride): diluted OJ, powerbar, dates

L - about 4 oz spinach, and 1/2 bag of mixed vegetables (corn, black beans, peppers, onions, broccoli)

D - large salad: romaine, collards, bell pepper, carrots, zesty tomato dressing
- cauliflower curry

E - bike: 3:15, walking in the snow 0:45

Day 4/42

I've been out and about most of the weekend and am only now finding time to post. Since this is supposed to be an honest food log, I must honestly admit I wasn't perfect this weekend. Some friends and I went and had coffee yesterday and one of them brought me some homemade cookies as a "thank you" for something I did for her.

Can you guess what happened? My first instinct was just to throw them away because I don't trust myself with a temptation like that. But I didn't. And about 4 hours later, I consumed them ALL. Yikes!!

I then had a "let's throw in the towel because I've already blown it" moment but backed away from it and came to my senses. Hurray for that! So no all-out binge... although there was still some unnecessary food at dinner.

B - 1/2 cup oats, 1 banana

L - zucchini noodles, 8 oz cooked spinach, tomato sauce
- 1.5 cups lima beans

S - soy tea latte, then later, 5 cookies

D - broccoli, about 4 small new potatoes (too much starch), 2 pieces dark chocolate with nuts

E - run: 1:00

Day 3/42

So glad I got to swim this morning!  Honestly, I don't know how people don't exercise.  We were meant to move!

I had more dribble written for today but I left my draft at work (oops, did I say I was doing non-work activity at work??) and since I'm in a rush I am not going to be able to re-create it. Just wanted to get down the bare food log:

B - green smoothie: lg apple, 1 kiwi, cauliflower stems/spinach (7 oz total), 1 T flax

L - huge salad: romaine, cabbage, 1 roma tomato, 1/4 cucumber, 1/2 cup garbanzos, 1/2 red pepper, baby carrots, nut-based ETL dressing

S - 4 clementines (was supposed to eat with lunch but too busy working through lunch)

D - zucchini noodles (raw), broccoli (2 small crowns) and tomato sauce

E - swim: 1:00, weights: 1:00

Day 2/42

Woke up late this morning so I didn't get my morning workout in! DRAT. I swore I was going to do it later, but then I ended up having to work late and didn't end up going to the gym. I suppose I could have gone after work but by that time I was really hungry and just wanted to go home and eat dinner. I know I should have a "no excuses" mentality (I usually do!) so now I'm just feeling guilty about it.

B - 4 clementines

L - salad: romaine, cabbage, roma, 1/4 lg cucumber, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 cup garbanzos, baby carrots, 1/2 sm avocado, nut-based ETL dressing + 2 clementines

D - 2 whole wheat tortillas, roasted broccoli and black beans + grapes

Day 1/42

Uneventful. I wasn't too hungry most of the day because I think I overate Monday and Tuesday. I didn't need to eat at 4 pm either but I was having fig newton vending machine fantasies so I compromised by digging up some clementines from my car. Who would have thought lazy grocery shopping (by that I mean where I leave things that don't need refrigeration in my car to be brought inside later) would save me?

B - green smoothie: 7 oz cauliflower stems and spinach, 1 kiwi, 1 lg apple, 1 T flax

L - salad: romaine/cabbage, baby carrots, 1/2 orange pepper, 1 tomato, 1/2 small avocado, 1/4 large cucumber, 1/4 cup garbanzos, nut-based ETL-dressing

S - 3 clementines

D - cauliflower curry, and a lot of roasted broccoli with tomato sauce

E - bike: 0:50, run: 0:20