Keeping up

When you get behind in such things, it can be discouraging -- not only do you need to attend to the new work of the day, but you need to bite the bullet and swallow the frog (and so on with other useful metaphors) and catch up on all the work you didn't do, the work that is already late. It's a debt of work, with interest compounding.

As I try to shake off the pathological need to do things perfectly (natch) or not at all, here's this: instead of NOT doing posts for the days I missed this week, I'll just move on ahead, with the numbers I do have, without going through the bother of trying to remember all the food I took into my system.

When I weighed myself yesterday morning (in the dark dark bathroom -- the sun is no longer up when I am; winter comes...), the scale read 252.4.

This morning, it weight 252.6.

Some data is better than none at all. Pressing on.

PS: Without breaking any mental sweat, I can recall the pop-tart-type breakfast pastry that Jenna and I shared on the way to the train yesterday morning. Just a moment ago, she texted me to tell me what she's just learned: that each (each!) of the two pastries in each packet has 200 calories. Mon dieu. No more breakfast pastries for me, thank you all very much. I'm glad I skipped this morning.

A monday

I weighed 254.8 pounds this morning when I stepped on the scale. Breakfast was a piece of wheat bread with peanut butter and prunes, and a can of diet Mountain Dew. Lunch was a half a cob of corn, and a cup and a half or so of summer salad (feta, blueberries, sliced onion, tomato and cucumber, in a vinaigrette) and yellow rice with sauteed diced onion and peppers from the garden. I had an iced coffee and two glasses of water during the work day. Dinner was a foot-long Subway sandwich, oat bread with buffalo chicken and American cheese, light mayo, lettuce, onions, olives, and tomato. I also had a bag of Lay's popped chips, some sort of newfangled diet food. And a cup of diet cola. Dessert, at home, was a slice of strawberry shortcakish cake, with ladyfinger cookies and whipped cream.

Faturday?

I didn't weigh myself this morning; not after yesterday's unrestrained eating. I was probably feeling sheepish.

The first thing I did in the morning was go downstairs to run the now full dishwasher, and assess the groceries situation. Not good; some produce was going to go bad if it wasn't used. So use it I did. I made a container of guacamole with five soft avocados and some tomato from the garden. I made a salad with butter lettuce, goat cheese, diced peaches, and very thinly sliced onion limbs, with a vinaigrette.

I brought Jenna breakfast in bed: a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats, with blackberries from the woods, and vanilla almond milk. I finished the milk she left in the bowl, but had water for breakfast otherwise.

I hopped in the truck and did the groceries. I came home, and delivered Jenna her requested treasure: a vanilla-cream-filled doughnut from Dippin' Donuts. I had perhaps a third of this, the "rind" that she leaves when she's eaten the soft underbelly of the pastry. I had a good deal of whole grain Tostitos Scoops chips with the guac. I made a sandwich for us to share for lunch -- turkey pastrami and white American cheese, on a cinnamon raisin bagel, with a little brown deli mustard. I had my half, and a bite of hers. We also split a plum, and each had a large soft peanut butter cookie from Hannaford's. I drank more water.

I snacked during the day on the remaining chicken 'n' waffle Lay's chips. It was unpleasant to eat them.

Dinner was pizza; I had two small slices of cheese, and one slice of pepperoni. I also made stuffed horn peppers, with a filling of minced peppers, onion, tomato, basil, and oregano flowers, mixed and cooked with diced wheat toast, goat cheese, and shredded parmesan. I baked the peppers for twenty minutes in the oven. I had one of these with my pizza. I also had a serving and a half of that salad I'd made in the morning. I drank water.

We went to the movies tonight, and saw We're the Millers. A sweet stupid film, one which scratched the itch. I'd made brownies that afternoon, loaded with chopped pecan pieces and dark chocolate chips and berries, and ate three of them while I sat in my seat watching. Come on, man. Jenna and I shared two small diet sodas, and a hot dog with mustard. She turned me on to this hot dog idea with her impression of it rolling, blank-eyed, back and forth in its countertop cooker. 

A backslide

My morning, pre-game weigh-in: 251.4.

Last night, I'd made three chicken salad sandwiches by chopping very finely the BBQ left from the previous Sunday, and mixing it with a little mayo and a little blue cheese dressing. I sliced some tomato from the garden and put this and the chicken onto whole wheat bread. I made three sandwiches.

Jenna saw these sitting on the counter in their little plastic jackets, and decided they needed a little something extra. So she found a marker and wrote on them:

"LOL I AM ZAK'S SANDWICH WTF OMG"

"I AM A ZOMBIE SANDWICH FILLED WITH BRAINZ"

"NOM NOM NOM I AM A SAMMY NOM"

She is a hoot. I ate one of these on the train, with a can of diet soda.

I ate the other two not long after I arrived at the office. This is an unreasonable rate of consumption, I know. Why the backslide? I think it is because I knew I wasn't going to the gym that evening (was going to Finnegans instead), so I didn't have to avoid having a heavy stomach. I remembered that there'd been a book club meeting in the office the night before, and as I walked into the office from the train I dreaded the chance that there'd be pizza leftover in the fridge. Because I didn't know how I'd avoid eating it.

I felt gross as it was happening, as I put away one after the other of these minced meat sandwiches. I also had a few peanut-butter-filled pretzel bites, and a miniature Mr. Goodbar during the work day; and, of course, two iced coffees.

At Finnegans, I demolished a "Canadian" cheeseburger (so-called because of the slice of Canadian bacon atop the patty-cooked-rare) with a side of sweet potato fries. I drank three diet Cokes.

At home, I made Jenna a dinner of frozen entree tikki masala, and ate (!) the frozen broccoli-stuffed chicken breast she'd already baked. She wanted the Indian, and I was going to put away the chicken, and instead I ate it. One two three, gone. I also finished the sriracha chips from Thursday night. I had a lot of water. 

Use it up night

This morning the scale reported that I weigh 251.6 pounds. To start the day I had a package of miniature powdered doughnuts, and a can of Coke Zero. At work, I found a half a leftover sandwich someone had left in the fridge -- pastrami on marble rye, with some french fries. I, I am sorry to say, ate it. I washed it down with the usual iced coffee. My lunch was a sandwich on whole grain wheat bread: a baked (alright, microwaved) whole egg, two slices of white American cheese, a sachet of ketchup, some sliced tomato brought from home, from the garden. I also had six or so of those peanut-butter-filled pretzel bites. I had an iced coffee with it.

Dinner at home was an effort to use-up leftovers and garden produce. I made a box of Annie's cheddar bunnies shells, and served this with a spicy ragu of tomatoes and purple and yellow horn peppers fresh-picked from the garden, sauteed with onion and bacon in olive oil and a little sriracha. I mixed my serving of the pasta with a thigh's-worth of chopped BQQ chicken from Sunday's big dinner. I also cooked thinly sliced two small summer squash, also just brought in from the garden, and cooked this with butter and fresh oregano. I drank diet root beer; but also had a few sips from a can of NON-diet root beer, a result of my inattention when buying soda at the convenience store. Foolish me. I also had a glass of water, and a few bites of Jenna's breaded buffalo chicken strips (she did not want leftover BBQ, for she is fancy). I buckled to temptation and had a single-serving ice cream sandwich bar for dessert. 

Uncouth am I

Weigh-in: 249.8. Breakfast: a sleeve of miniature chocolate doughnuts, and a can of Coke Zero, on the train with the dog. At work, two iced coffees (the usual: three creamers and four Splendas each). For lunch, a glass of water and a wheat bread sandwich with prunes and peanut butter. Before lunch, however, a snack: a miniature Mr. Goodbar.

We stopped at Burger King so Jenna could get a veggie burger. I had the top half of the bun, and a handful of her small order of fries, and some sips of her diet cola. I also had one of her mini doughnuts from the morning; she'd not gotten to it.

Before boxing, I drank a Gatorade of yellow flavor, with some low number of calories -- 45? After we got home, I had a chicken leg and a chicken thigh; a hard-boiled egg crushed with a little horseradish cream onto a potato roll; a plum; and a piece of cake. And, oh, the rest of the chicken 'n' waffle chips from the night before. I drank with this diet Mountain Dew. Straight from the bottle I drank it, because I am uncivilized.

Hoovering the leftovers

Morning weight: 250.8. Breakfast: One of Jenna's mini buttercrunch doughnuts, and a diet Mountain Dew on the train. And at work, second breakfast, or Very Early Lunch (VEL): a cup of leftover scalloped potatoes (Patty makes them with boursin cheese; brilliant, no?); a cup of leftover summer squash, FROM OUR GARDEN; a half a sliced cucumber. At lunch time, I had no lunch; I was still recovering from yesterday's food crush. Dinner: Two bites of leftover wheat-wrap-wrapped-around-cream-cheese-and-veggies; four deviled eggs (each a half of an egg, so, by my math, two eggs); some leftover salad, a cup, dressed with a splash of lemon juice and a squirt of creamy horseradish; a leftover BBQ chicken thigh; and a little less than half of each of three bags of Lay's potato chips -- we were trying out the three new flavors: Chicken 'n' Waffles, Sriracha, and (the best) Cheesey Garlic Bread (by my calculation, I had about 350-400 calories' worth of chip). Dessert was leftover trifle: pound cake, pudding, whipped cream, banana, and pineapple. I had two servings of diet Mountain Dew.

Much later in the evening, feeling blue, Jenna and I shared some kind of flavored Triscuits while watching stupid television. 

A gym day

Morning weigh-in: 253.4. Not surprising, considering yesterday's excesses.

I had a diet Mountain Dew for breakfast. I had two peanut-butter-filled pretzel bites at work, and the usual iced coffee: four Splenda, three creamers. For lunch at 2 PM, I had a sandwich of peanut butter and prunes on wheat bread. I drank water with that, and drank water all during my time at the boxing gym.

On the train ride home, I had water and a chocolate chip granola bar.

At home, I had about a serving and a half of macaroni and cheese (shells, not elbows); and about two and a half (!) servings of baked ham. I also had some of the leftover chips (TOSTITOS® Multigrain SCOOPS!®) with the dip I made for yesterday's smorgasbord, of fresh picked cherry tomatoes and basil leaves finely processed and blended with sour cream, cream cheese, and spices. I didn't have too much chip and dip; but what I did have, I enjoyed. With this all, I had a diet Mountain Dew.

Jenna declined to allow me to enjoy any of the leftover trifle (pineapple, banana, pudding, pound cake, and whipped cream). She is the best/worst.

Visitors and the spread we gave them

I was discouraged from typing up the day's consumption, because of the high volume of snacking involved. We had relatives visiting, which meant hors d'oeuvres and munchies and chips and dip, not to mention a large meal of BBQ chicken and a ton of fixin's. So I simply went to bed.

My morning weight-o-meter reading had been: 251.2.

Eating away from the house

Breakfast: a cracked whole egg (no oils), cooked to doneness in the microwave, with salt and pepper. Half a plum. One and a half strawberries. A Pillsbury home-bake iced cinnamon roll (and a bit of Jenna's). An iced coffee, with almond milk and four packets of generic calorie-free sweetener. A glass of orange juice, diluted (the acid is unpleasant to me) with water. A Who-Nu? cookie. At the Humanist cookout, some boursin dip with five Triscuit crackers. A serving of tortilla chips, salsa, and seven-layer dip. A tablespoon of tabouleh. A cup of pudding parfait. A cookie, about as large as my palm. Four ravioli. A Sam Adams summer ale something. Afterward, at Starbucks where Jenna and I went to talk with Josiah, some kind of fizzy canned Starbucks drink, pomegranate flavor (as well as a few sips of Jenna's iced coffee). For dinner, at a sports bar in Canton where we ended up when we drove in the wrong direction on 95: the chopped southwestern salad with grilled chicken (with bacon, toasted corn, tortilla chips, chipotle creamy dressing). And a serving of sweet potato fries, off of Jenna's plate; and three-eights of Jenna's grilled chicken sandwich on white (they didn't have wheat) bread. I had a cup of diet cola with dinner, and a refill. 

With gratitude to squids

Morning weigh-in: 249.8. On the ride to the train: A snack pack of crackers-and-cheese -- Cheddar (or whatever stand-in these snack pack manufacturers put into their product) and whole wheat crack-a-lackers, and three-quarters of a can of Diet Mountain Dew. Early lunch was more Chinese leftovers: two pieces of (breaded) sweet-and-sour chicken, two crab rangoons, and a half pint of veggies in gloopy sauce. At noon, a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew. Before the end of the work day, three of those peanut-butter-filled pretzel bites, and a banana.

At Waterline meeting one of the founders of March of Dimes, an appetizer raft of fried calamari (which I demolished, a gin & tonic, and three glasses of diet cola. At home, a diet Mountain Dew, and a sandwich of cheese and tomato with mustard on potato pun.

Back down to an eighth of a ton

Morning weigh-in: 250! This a low-water mark I am delighted to have sunk to. The day's intake:

A banana, whilst being delivered to the train. At the office, a miniature Mr Goodbar chocolate bar, stolen from the pile of devotional offerings in front of our teensy-tiny small statue of Ganesha. At the start of the work day, three peanut butter-filled pretzel bites. An iced coffee with three Coffeemate creamers and four Splenda (a glass and a half). At three in the afternoon, an ounce or two of prunes, and two pieces of wheat bread with reduced fat creamy peanut butter. A lot of water at the boxing gym. Two Gold Emblem chewy chocolate chip granola bars on the train to North Station. At home, a can of Diet Mountain Dew, a cup of stir-fried veggies in gelatinous saice from an order of Chinese food, and three boneless pork ribs, two baked chicken wings, and a skewer of what I am hoping is beef, with a dab of sweet and sour sauce.

And since Jenna was eating potato chips in bed, a few of those. Actually, she gave me the "empty bag", leaving my sleepy self to contrive some way of cutting and crimping the bag so the crumbs pasted to the bottom in a greasy lump could be gotten to. Delicious; indulgent. She looked on, horrified. The dog looked on, with an expression that spoke clearly of his admiration for my resourcefulness.

Rabbit rabbit.