Day 16 - a bad day

I’m such a private person. I could probably blog here every day for the next 65 days and none of you would really know anything about me (the one with the wheat berries, you’d say). Well, it’s been a really bad day here and I’m going to blog it out because that’s how we’re supposed to do this, right?

My husband and I are trying to adopt a baby. I’ve been trying to be a mom for 10 years. This morning at 9:30 we got a call that a baby was born yesterday and the birth mom was making an adoption plan. He would be ready to leave the hospital tomorrow. We agreed to put ourselves forward for this case and 6 couples were profiled. We found out at 1:30 that we were not selected. For the 4 hours in between I fantasized that that baby would be ours to raise and love. I am absolutely devastated.

I know that another great couple will become a family and I don’t begrudge them that joy. I know that there will be another baby – a baby we are meant to parent. Knowing those things isn’t making me feel one bit better.  I really thought this was it.  

And so how on earth is this related to PCP? How is it not? Right now I want a big glass of wine (I actually want half a bottle of wine) (or more) and I want to eat the foods that give me comfort and I want to crawl into a hole and cry until I have nothing left. And then I want to sleep for 3 days.

Day 15 rained out

I worked out later than usual today because I was supposed to play tennis at 8:30 and thought I would get up early to do my workout but it was so DARK and WET and GLOOMY. I stayed in bed an extra hour... tennis courts were too wet to play so we went for coffee instead and then I did my workout between lunch and breakfast. And I have a post-workout snack now - I love that! I hard boiled some eggs so that I can grab an egg white right after my workout as I walk the dog and not be too famished for breakfast. Yay for snacks!

Did a bunch of veggies this morning and am simmering a pot of ratatouille to have on some brown rice for my supper (with chicken. blech).

I saw that Brian said carbs were his least favorite part of the diet. Mine is definitely the protein. I want the muscle though so chicken and I are going to have to find a way to get along.

Have a great day - I hope it's sunny in your parts of the world!

PS: Am having canned tuna again today with much better results.

Day 14 - protein fail

I totally screwed up my lunch today or at least the canned tuna gods did. I chewed down and there was something hard in there, it looked like glass. I have no idea. I spat everything out and I was completely put off. I had eaten my carbs already and have chopped a few veggies to compensate but I can't open another can of tuna and try again. I kind of feel sick so I'll wait for supper. Am thawing some shrimp.

I was glad for just jumping today. I managed 856. Tomorrow will be better.

EDIT: I just found this question and answer posted on the Bumble Bee website (the brand I ate):

I found something that looks like glass in my canned seafood, what is it?

Don't be alarmed by glass-like crystals that you may find in your canned seafood. They are simply Struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate), a naturally occurring mineral, that develops in the can during storage. They are sometimes present as small crystals that impart a grittiness to the product or they may occur as crystals 5-8 mm long. Struvite is not harmful and will readily dissolve in the digestive juices of the stomach.

How can struvite be distinguished from glass? Place crystals in a few drops of hot vinegar and they will gradually dissolve, while glass will not.

Struvite is extremely rare. For example, the incidence of struvite in our sockeye salmon is 2.4 in 1,000,000 cans.

If you have any concerns or questions about struvite, please don't hesitate to contact us. We are more than happy to answer your questions and always make it a priority to ensure that our customers are satisfied.

2.4 in 1,000,000 cans? Perhaps today is the day I should buy a lottery ticket!!

And yes, I feel better...

Day 13 - I have arms of steel

At least that's what I told myself when my jumprope broke this morning. The rope snapped off right at the handle. WOW! I am so strong that I am making mincemeat of this jumprope!!

Nah...

It just happens that the life expectancy of a $3 jumprope is approximately 13 days (or 6200 jumps).

6200 jumps - look at us go!

(and look at me go shopping this afternoon...)

Day 12 - finally not too sore

Maybe my body is getting a bit used to the exercise, but I'm not nearly as sore as I have been. I'm definitely feeling my workouts though. And those 20 second rests between ab sets? Best 20 seconds of the day! I am doing allright on the food front. I don't find this part of it too challenging and I figure this is because:

a) I work from home and eat all my meals at home
b) I work part-time from home so have more time to cook
c) I don't have children so my free time is "free"
d) I cook a lot anyway and the cooking I'm doing for my PCP diet is very alligned with how I usually cook (altough there's WAY more protein in my diet now)


(my point is that I admire and commend all of you with extremely busy lives. this is quite a pursuit and a test of time management, and I know it can be done!)


The part I find hard (and hope I don't struggle too much with in upcoming weeks) is the exercise. So far it's been good. And I love getting it over with first thing in the morning. But every time I do the incline pull ups I wonder if I'll EVER be able to do a proper overhead pull up. I can do all my reps. And in the first set I can even get myself all the way up to the bar, but by set 3 I'm barely there at all. I wonder when I will feel stronger. Also I look in the mirror a lot to see if I can notice any difference... anyone else doing that?

That said, I did play tennis today, and I felt quicker on my feet and better able to get to the ball. I guess that's strength.

Anyway, good tips yesterday, Patrick about the veggies. I do the same for everything. I never just make one meal's worth of anything (and this is where I don't differ from pre-PCP). I eat lunch at home and Simon, my husband, takes his lunch to work everyday... so when I cook rice, I cook a LOT of rice and it's great for a few meals. I recommend this to people too. You end up eating the same thing for a few meals in a row but it saves time in the end and takes a lot of thinking out of it come supper time.

Oh, and wheat berries are my new favorite food. If you haven't tried these yet I really recommend them. I had them this morning with my milk, better than any boxed cereal I've ever had and more hearty than oatmeal. They take a long time to cook however (I did them last night) but totally worth it!

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.

Team Blue!! (Anybody ready to change that name yet?) Team Don't Get Blue? Team Blue Skies are Coming? Team ROCK HARD ABS?

Day 10 - Supper for breakfast

When I was a kid my mom sometimes made pancakes for supper and I thought it was the best thing ever. Breakfast for supper! Well, now it seems it's supper for breakfast, which suits me just fine; I like savory food so I'm happy to eat veggies for breakfast. Today instead of trying to find a way to make them "breakfasty" I just reheated the leftovers from last night's supper and substituted the salmon for an egg. It was brown rice, veggies (zucchini, eggplant, peppers and tomatoes that I'd baked with herbs) and a poached egg. It was the best breakfast I'd had in a long time and I took a picture of it for y'all:

I found a park around the corner with a perfect bar for incline pull-ups. So I jumped (which was TOTALLY hard today) and headed over there to do the pull-ups while I was warmed up and then came home to do the rest of the workout. It's not ideal as breaks the momentum and takes longer. I could leave them until the end of the workout  and do them when I walk the dog, but if order of exercises is important, that might not work either.

Patrick, thanks for addressing the bean and nut issue in yesterday's email. I was wondering about that.

Peanut butter, I shall miss you!!

Day 9

My body aches all over and I love it. I had a massage this morning and I could really tell that I've engaged a lot of my muscles in the last week.

Despite the load of food yesterday, I was FAMISHED when I woke up this morning. Today I don't feel like it's been too much food at all. Clearly my body is using the fuel somehow. I bought some wheat berries today as well as some buckwheat groat. I'm going to take this opportunity to experiment with all kinds of different whole grains! I'll post any recipes I find or things I make that work really well... I hope everybody else does the same. The shared tips are really helpful