Sunday, February 3, 2013

Food Orgies & A Reckoning

Continuing my update on last week:  (warning this is a long post so if you're pressed for time... sorry.) Thursday and Friday both started off well but ended up as food orgies.  It was a little ugly.  Here's how it went down:

I headed to the office Thursday morning armed with my standard Greek-yogurt & granola for breakfast, and some leftover black beans & rice for lunch.  I was eating fairly light since we had the group dinner to look forward to after work and I figured it would be a sure calorie-blow-out, and of course I wouldn't have a chance to hit the gym.  Work went well and I got out of there by 5:30.  By the time we were seated, I was starving. (Have I mentioned how hungry I've been all week? It's the weirdest thing...)  I started off with a raspberry cosmopolitan and had a few bites of the various appetizers that went around the table.  I ordered a salad with honey-mustard dressing, the chorizo-stuffed pork tenderloin, about a 1/2-cup of Yukon gold mashed potatoes, and steamed green beans.  Somewhere in there, a second raspberry cosmo happened, and then there was dessert.  We ordered several for the table to share, and I had more than a few bites of them as well, though I must admit, none of them actually tasted as good as they looked, so it wasn't too hard to put down the spoon. There wasn't any nutritional info to go by, but my best-educated-guess is it ended up around 1,100 calories for the one meal.  So yes, a bit of a food orgy.  A great time was had by all, and yeah, I ate a ton of calories, but I didn't end the day feeling over-full or sick from high-fat fried foods... I was glad I ate conservatively during the day!

Friday.  This is where, I have to admit, it all completely went off the rails.  Once again, it started out alright, but Friday was the first day of the month, a HUGE busy day for us cost accountants, and it was a tough one this month.  I had my yogurt & granola for breakfast but by the time lunch came around, I was 3 hours behind schedule, stressed, and not in a frame of mind for making healthy long-term-goal-affirming food choices.  We sent the take-out menu around for Famous Dave's, and someone went to pick it up for everyone.  I ordered the Devil's Spit burger, no cheese, with fries.  I did eat all of the burger and maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the fries.  I'm gonna call it about a 700-calorie lunch.  Recoverable... but that's not the frame of mind on this day.  By 6:30pm, everyone in the group was still working hard, with no end in sight, so the boss ordered some pizza.  There were 3 pizzas, one Veggie, one Supreme, and one Taco. I had one slice of each.  I know this was a poor choice, I mean literally, while I was taking that third slice, I asked myself... "If there were only two kinds of pizza here, would you really be having a third slice?"  The answer was definitely NO. But I ate it anyway.  I finished my long, long day just before 9pm and got home to find my loving husband hanging out, drinking some beer, and listening to all our favorite music.  I was exhausted and annoyed and really needed to decompress, so I busted out a bottle of Shiraz & joined him on the couch, enjoying a well-put-together medley of mid-to-late 70's hits and little-known gems.  I had three glasses of wine (which is to say, it turns out my wine glass is perhaps a bit large... I found when I poured the third glass, it emptied the bottle.  Yup, I topped off this insane food-orgy day by drinking an entire bottle of wine.)

I have no defense or rationalization for Friday's indulgence - no it's not indulgence - Thursday was an indulgence, Friday was just this side of a binge.  That was a real shit-show.  All I can do is move forward.  Saturday was all about reckoning.  I had a light breakfast and headed to work to finish up - spent about 3-4 hours at the office and my month-end Close was finally done.  I headed straight home from there and took Coty out to the Lake for a 4.37-mile run.

It was cold windy out there, we'd gotten about an inch of snow overnight.  But the roads were pretty clear.  Well, maybe not "clear" as there was snow on the road for about 2.5 miles of the route, but it was packed and not slippery so I was able to run about 3.5 miles of the loop.  That first mile felt a lot like punishment for my "sins" of the previous 48 hours or so, with the wind in my face and my body not yet warmed up, but I kept reminding myself that I'd be warm soon enough if I could just keep pushing until my heart rate got going.  Again in the last mile, I was away from the protection of the tree line and the wind was cutting in, while running up that nasty hill.  I literally talked myself through it.  I imagine it would sound pretty funny - I should tape my audible self-talk during a difficult portion of a workout!  Here's about how it went:  "Here we go - this is not a problem.  Hill? What hill?  This ain't no hill for a climber.  We love the wind, don't we Coty? Wind.  Thinks I'm gonna slow down?  We'll show that wind.  Nothing's going to slow this run down.  It's frickin' COLD out here, it'll only be colder if we slow down, I'm just gonna keep on jogging up this hill and once we turn that corner we'll be out of the wind and we can relax and ease on down to the finish line and get in that nice warm car."

 Now THAT. Felt. GREAT.

Last night I headed out with Jason for burger baskets and a few cocktails at our favorite watering hole.  We even ran into a dear old friend who we haven't seen in years!  It was a great way to cap off the week.

Our friend Pete.  Haven't seen him in years!
What a treat.
Bubba caught a good snap of me at some point.  Found it on my phone this morning, forgot he took it!


Today started with a great bowl of Cream of Wheat - made with milk, no salt, and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.  Wonderful, healthy-ish(?) and warm start for a very cold day.  I ran to the grocery store for avocados, which quickly devolved into a QUEST for ripe avocados (I was so distracted with work all week, I never thought to pick some up and let them ripen on top of the fridge.)  While I was out & about, Jason texted me that he "Needs 2 McDoubles".  And that The Teenager needed 2 McChickens as well.  I've been contemplating Friday's excesses and managed to exercise some control.  I got their sandwiches, and nothing else.  I had yogurt and granola for lunch!  I win!



And of course today is Superbowl Sunday!

As a Sunday, today's a weigh-in day.  I was up about 0.8 lbs over last week's low.  Not a shock considering the food intake of the past couple of days.  Could even be a normal water-weight swing too, so I'm not going to let myself get twisted up about it.  I should be able to work that off with one good on-plan week and be back on track.

On a lighter note, we are heading to a friend's house this afternoon to watch the game.  The guacamole is made and I can't wait to enjoy this annual tradition!!  The SuperBowl is my second-favorite holiday (behind Halloween, of course).  I just have to remember that I'm NOT there to eat a bunch of junk food.  I AM there to enjoy the company of our dear old friends and all the best that the U.S. has to offer:  spectacle, showmanship, marketing, and maybe, just maybe, even a little football.


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