tech tryout...cough cough.

I mentioned before that bought myself a new toy the other day, a garmin forerunner 305.  I did this so that I could start tracking my workouts more effectively.  Today may not have been the ideal day to go out considering I still have trouble breathing through my nose and am coughing up fun stuff.  I decided that I would run as far as comfortably possible, then walk, then run when I could breath again.  The ultimate goal was to give the garmin a test drive and also get in 30 minutes of cardio even if it meant my pace would suffer.  The garmin performed admirably, Susan was right, I am going to love this toy!!

Today was a beautiful sunny but cold day.  At the start of my run it was 28 degrees, so I put on the compression heat gear, running jacket, running gloves, iPod, heart monitor, garmin watch and mint gum.  I started off on a brisk walk, ran until I was able to get my pace into the 8 minute mile range according to the watch, and held the speed for as long as possible.  Ultimately I was not able to hold speed for very long as I became short of breath very rapidly and that devolved into hacking coughs.  But I pressed on, running as I could and walking when I couldn't.  As you can see from the graph, at times I was able to carry a pace of up to 8mph, but then would start hacking and would slow to about 4mph.  I covered a distance of about 2.8miles in  34 minutes.  I am not happy with the end result but I understand my limitations at this point.  Plan on seeing this improve soon! 

Overall I am really pleased with the purchase of the forerunner 305.  It works as advertised and can you ask for much more?  Cough Cough Cough...

mmmm greasy spoon.

Today was a weigh in day for me.  After the disappointment of last week I can't say I was entirely enthused about jumping on the scale.  Then again, I had nothing to be ashamed of even if I didn't lose weight because I am making healthier choices and doing more exercise.  My initial weight was 235lbs,  my first weigh in after 7 days was 225.8, second weigh in was 222.8.  I jumped on the scale thinking I would fall into the 220-221 range based on previous loss and was pleasantly surprised to see the scale register 218.6!!  I lost 4.6lbs this week!!!!  Bringing my grand total to 16.4lbs in a little under 3 weeks.

So how else to celebrate than to meet my coworkers at a local diner for breakfast?  (In my case, brunch because this meal will have to hold me till dinner!).

After perusing the menu I settled on the veggie omelet with hash browns and rye toast.  Luckily the 3 egg omelet took up 2/3rds of the plate so there was little room for potatoes on the plate.  (about a half of large potato).   Total points 23.  Lucky for me this breakfast will hold me most of the day.  I will snack on a banana and some other fruit in the afternoon and if I am really hungry when I get home at 2 I will make a smaller version of the mega salad to hold me over.

Hungry Man Rating: Stuffed to the point of guilt.

I am feeling a little better today as the cold has left my sinuses and has settled in my chest.  I may have to make a dr. appointment on monday though because I think I may have something brewing in my ears.  Normally I shy away from the doc when I get a cold, not much they can do for a virus, but I am getting on a plane in a week and the last thing I want is to do that with an ear infection.

On a side note, I am jealous and excited for a friend George T. who is doing the tough mudder today down in Texas.  http://toughmudder.com/

That is a race that I will definitely be putting on my schedule either this year or next!!

on the bright side.

Woke up this morning feeling a bit under the weather.  I have a runny nose and my sinuses are stuffed up.  Thank heavens for Zicam, advil cold and sinus, and NyquilD.  I don't feel run down and tired which makes me hope this will be a short lived sickness.

On the bright side, I am not hungry at all.  So I am forcing myself to eat some protein and some fruits.  I am also loading up on the vit c and zinc.

I finally received my garmin forerunner 305 after its delay due to weather on the east coast.  I can't wait to get outside and try  it.  Barring foul weather on monday (or bitter cold!) I may just have to jog around the block to get a feel for it.  More to come on that new training tool later.

Since I am working all weekend I plan on sleeping alot and getting plenty of fluids. 

bloggers block?

My life has been very uneventful that last few days, nothing new to talk about in the diet and no new workouts to talk about either.  Is bloggers block a real thing?  People who blog seem to be able to talk about anything, I mean how hard can it be to come up with something to talk about I do it with the people around me everyday.  The city is abuzz with talk of the Steelers off to the Superbowl again.  I love football and love the Steelers.  But could I please get one day in the news that doesn't discuss "Steeler Nation?"  I didn't need to know that Big Ben sneezed 4 times yesterday and was in the bathroom on 3 separate occasions.   I can do without the speculation of who will play and who won't, and the different news channels constant predictions that the Steelers will win.  This manufactured hype just annoys me.

I decided to daydream again back to the days a few months back when my wife and I were in Italy.  We traveled all over from Venezia, Firenze, Tuscany, Pisa, and Roma.  Aside from the history, romance, and beauty of Italy there is the food.  Oh did I mention  the delicious food.  Every place we went to was better than the next.  But the place that holds dearest my heart  stomach,  was a tiny little place in Firenze called il profeta (The Prophet).  They have a soup in Tuscany that is called Ribollita, which means "re-boiled,"  it is basically a vegetable soup that is very thick with day old bread mixed in. You store it overnight and reboil it the next day to serve.  Profeta has so many great foods but their Ribollita was out of this world.  During my daydreaming state I started to think that this recipe would be quite friendly for me in current change of diet.

• 1 cup cannellini beans, uncooked
• 1 large red onion, sliced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 4 potatoes, diced
• 10 zucchini, diced
• 1 1/2 cups swiss chard, shredded
• 1 leek
• 1 savoy cabbage, shredded
• 1 bunch kale, shredded
• salt and pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 days old stale Tuscan white bread

1. Soak the beans overnight and then cook over low heat. It will take approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours for them to cook.
2. In a pan, gently fry the onion. Add the other vegetables, with the exception of the cabbage, kale and beans which are added at a later point. When the vegetables have sweated out their juice, cover with hot water and then add all the cabbage and kale. Cover and simmer for an hour over medium heat.
3. Add the cooked beans (some of them whole and some puréed), salt and pepper. Leave to simmer for another 20 minutes, stirring frequently because the beans tend to stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato paste.
4. Slice the stale bread and, in an earthenware casserole, alternate layers of bread with the soup until the bread is soaked. Let rest for one day.
5. To serve, remove the desired quantity from the casserole and reheat it, or "re-boil" it, as the name in Italian suggests.

I am not sure how many points this would be, but seeing as it is mostly vegetables mixed with bread it really shouldn't be that much.   A word of warning, when you reboil it heat it very slowly the bread and beans will burn or stick to the pan as it warms.

Also, when I have made it in the past I just kept dumping in vegetables because those above amounts are just recommendations.  I usually buy all the veggies and just keep adding them until my stock pot can't handle anymore.

When its all said and done cooking and you are ready to serve, spoon it out onto a plate or bowl.  Drizzle lightly with EVOO and crush some kosher salt on top.  Enjoy!

mmmm tasty.

During my trip to the supermarket yesterday I picked up a bunch of new things to try, one of them was turkey breakfast sausages.  They are 3 points each on the WW plan.

I woke up this morning did 30 minutes on the treadmill.  Walked for 3 minutes at 3mph, ran for 22 minutes, then walked for 5 to cool down. At my fastest I was running at a steady clip of 7.3mph.

Breakfast today was a 10pointer.  1 egg, a Multigrain bagel thin, 2 pieces of turkey sausage, and a banana.

It is now 12:15pm and I am still not hungry.  So this breakfast is definitely getting high marks on the Hungry man scale.

Hungry Man Rating: Very Satisfied (5 hours of satisfaction)

Super Salad.

Busy Mondays are a gift when you are trying to lose weight.  I find myself making poor food decisions when I get bored at work.  It also doesn't help that my store is stocked up with all my favorite salty snacks like chips, crackers, combos, cheez-its, and candy.  You see, I am a salty snacker and would walk past candy all day and never touch it but if you put out a bowl of chips and dip I am like superman around kryptonite.

Today for breakfast I made a 2 egg omelet stuffed with fresh cut tomatoes and doused in hot sauce.  For lunch I had a 7 point Weight watchers meal (Chicken Enchilada Suiza) and for a snack I had a Fiber Now bar from Aldi (4points).

I decided to stop at the supermarket on the way home to get some more lunch foods, some healthy snack items, and more fruits and veggies.  My fridge is now stocked with apples, pears, grapes, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, mushrooms, and more.

I have 22 points left for the day so I really wanted to fill up on the healthy stuff so I went nuts when I got home.  I made a quarter pound turkey burger with (85/15) ground turkey seasoned lightly with season salt (6 points).  The burger was served on a multigrain bagel thin (3 points) with a bed of lettuce and my favorite Claussen pickle slices and a little spicy mustard.  It was so delicious.  I was shocked how good the turkey burger tastes and at 140-160 calories they are a great replacement for beef.

I knew the burger wouldn't completely fill me up because it's just not enough food.  So I also decided to take advantage of the 0 point vegetables and whip up a super salad.  I used about 3 cups of bitter young greans, a half cup of diced red peppers, a half cup of grape tomatoes, a cup of cucumbers, a small handful of broccoli and cauliflower florets.  I also used a quarter cup of baby bella mushrooms, 10 green olives (1 point), about 10-15 hot pepper rings, an ounce of skim milk feta cheese (2 points), 3 teaspoons of EVOO (3 points), and a good amount of balsamic vinegar.  Then I crushed some black pepper, dried hot peppers, and a little kosher salt on top. 

Total dinner points 15.

Hungry Man Rating:  Stuffed to the rafters and very happy!

That was definitely a manly salad.  It had some spicey kick, was really filling and just a bit of salty mixed in.  Although with all those vegetables I do think my wife should be very afraid, maybe I will be a good husband and go take some beano now before things get ugly later!  If I can continue to fill up on all these healthy options this lifestyle change is going to be a piece of cake! mmmmm cake!

weigh in day.

Today was my second official weigh in day.  I started off my journey at 235lbs, after weighing in today I am at 222.8.  I have averaged 6.5lbs per week doing weight watchers for men.  I am partially bummed because I thought this week would be better because I lost so much my first week...after just a peek earlier in the week I have actually gained back a pound in a half.  But the bottom line is I am still losing and I have added motivation to get down even further this week.  I am praying for a stretch of warm(er) weather this week so that I can maybe get to the track for some speed work.

Today is the AFC Championship game between The New York Jets and The Pittsburgh Steelers!  Snacking during a game is definitely a "past" time for me.  I would skip lunch because I knew I was going to be jamming down nachos, wings, hoagies etc.  I remember reading an article on yahoo or msn before that said that during football season some people could average a weight gain of over 20lbs because of the excess calories consumed on game day.  Looking at how I used to eat and how I am learning to eat now I can definitely believe that.

So for the game today I have decided to put together a healthier snack tray for myself.  No doubt about it, I am going to miss my nachos, hoagies, and wings!  I am going to prepare some fresh cut veggies (0points)and use hummus (1/4 cup=4pts) for dip.  For dinner the wife suggested we order out so I think I am going to try the Applebees under 550 calorie meals.  I am leaning towards the Grilled Dijon Chicken with portobellos for a whopping 12 points.  Hopefully its as good as it looks in the picture.

As a side bar, today would have been the 82nd birthday of Pittsburgh's beloved Myron Cope.  He will be watching from his booth in heaven as the Steelers Crush the NY Jets and on toward their 8th appearance in the Super Bowl!  Grab your terrible towels, put on your black and gold and get ready to cheer on the Steelers!!