Clawing my way back...one day at a time

I had a major breakthrough at the end of April finally breaking past my previous low weight of 185.4 to reach 184.9 pounds.  It took months and months and months of work to undo the impact of poor eating habits over the period before I started work at my new job last year, and the holidays at the turn of this year.

My personal trainer, Mr. Fitness, was a major part of this turnaround.  Another part - - a very big part, as it happens - - was my disciplined eating habits.  Reducing snacking and keeping my calories within a reasonable range helped me drop the weight slowly but steadily.  The workouts helped me improve my overall fitness and get me toned.  Together the eating habits and my workouts combine to improve my fitness level every week.

At the end of April, right after hitting this milestone, I went home to Edmonton for a holiday.  Healthy eating habits went out the window with numerous dinners out combined with unhealthy-ish food at the Patriarch's house.  After I got back from Edmonton I had a few moderately good weeks, then it was back on a plane to New York and all the food and drink that one finds there.  More eating out, and more street food.  It turns out that I am very good at finding food in New York.  Hey, a girl's gotta have a skill. 

After this veritable smörgåsbord of eating and drinking I knew it would take a few weeks of highly disciplined eating and intense workouts to get me back into shouting distance of my previous low.

So that's what I did.  I kicked the workouts up a notch and I stopped snacking at the office.  After the usual 3 or 4 day withdrawal period this was no longer a major struggle and I found it relatively easy to stay on track with my eating plan.  Now after a couple of "clean" eating weeks I have virtually no desire to snack and it is much easier for me to manage my food consumption every day.

I am now back down to 186 pounds and change, a mere whisper away from my previous low milestone of 184.9 pounds.  I feel toned and strong and am noticing that my clothes are fitting better than before. 

On the one hand it is easy to get despondent about putting myself through what is essentially a 2-month plateau.  One week of really bad eating requires at least 6 weeks of good behaviour to undo - - yikes!  That math really sucks.

On the other hand it is wonderful to know what works and to have the confidence to apply what works knowing that it will pay dividends sooner or later. 

On the "sooner or later" front, one comparatively recent innovation is that I no longer set time limits on myself to lose "x" pounds/week or to reach my goal weight by a specific date.  As long as I am making positive strides in controlling my eating or pushing my exercising or I see that I am losing something (no matter how little), I remain positive.  I know that the way my body behaves it will lose a little, or none at all and then suddenly lose pound after pound in its own good time - - as long as I stick to my program.  Although I would like to control when the weight comes off I am apparently not the boss of this and so have gradually learned how to accept the uncertainty (although admittedly with more zen-like calm some weeks than others). 

All in all, then, it has been a good couple of weeks.  I am sticking to my program and I continue to see progress.  That makes me very happy.  

Exhausted

This new heart-rate based workout is a killer.  It is apparently much more intense than that candy-ass (!) workout I had previously been doing, because I have been positively dragging ass all week.  By this morning I could barely get myself out of bed, although some of that may have had to do with the ride-along with a merchandiser I did yesterday, putting product on shelves for 8 hours. 

Amusingly, I wore my Polar H7 heart rate monitor yesterday while merchandising, just to see how hard I was working.  Which was, it turns out, barely at all - - my average heart rate for the 4 hours until my phone died was 84 beats a minute, which qualifies as "awake" but is not anything near a workout. 

It felt like a workout, though, what with stomping around on concrete grocery store floors in my steel-toed boots for 8 hours.  My legs ached from all the walking so that it was hard to fall asleep last night, even though I was exhausted. 

I had to actually have a nap this afternoon because I was falling asleep on my feet this morning at shopping and coffee with the Matriarch, and even after my nap it was all I could do to finish the 60 minutes on the elliptical at a decent heart rate.  I was able to keep an average heart rate of 132 bpm for the workout (mostly zone 2 with a little zone 3), which, although not the most intense workout I have ever done, feels like about the most I could have survived today.  And even after dinner I am still feeling my legs.  They're not painful, exactly, but I am noticing that they are there, which is a strange feeling.

I am hoping that next week is a bit better, and that my body will get used to this new and improved workout so that I do not feel exhausted all the time.  When I am tired I want to snack and sleep, and while one of those impulses is good, the other is counterproductive. 

Trying to get this zen thing down

One of my biggest challenges whenever I have worked to lose weight (both back in 2000 and more recently over the past couple of years), is that I am impatient.  I want to lose weight, and I want to lose it now.  I am sure that this is because somewhere in the dinosaur part of the back of my mind is the idea that if I just lose the weight, I can go back to "eating normally" and stop working out.

Of course you and I both know that this thinking is based on an inherently faulty premise, namely, that one can ever really "stop" eating healthy and working out if one wants to stay healthy. 

"Nothing"

I am starting to discover that lifestyle change is just that - - a change in one's overall lifestyle.  This is something that continues on and on and on, no matter what one's weight.  Viewed through the lens of lifestyle change, it really doesn't matter whether I am overweight (as I currently am), or morbidly obese (as I once was), or a normal BMI (as I once was, ever so briefly) - - the lifestyle does not change. 

I am slowly, over time, coming to realize (and more importantly, to accept), that being vigilant about what I eat and working out 6 days a week are just part of my life from now on.  Like a recovering alcoholic, a recovering "foodaholic" like me needs to be constantly aware of the opportunities for backsliding as well as aware of coping mechanisms to deal with the addiction. 

In my case, my most successful coping mechanisms have involved regular exercise and logging my food consumption in a food diary.  I will likely need to keep a food diary for years no matter what my weight is, because I am still working through my tendency to overeat and binge.  Emotional eating is never more than arm's length away for me, and I need to keep tracking to keep myself accountable. 

Surprisingly, the exercise has been easier for me this time (compared to back in 2000).  Back in 2000, I was doing 60 minutes a day with a combination of recumbent bike (boring!), NordicTrac ski machine (too challenging), and weight machine every other day (super fun).  I learned that consistency is critical, and the key to consistency is finding a workout routine that you can maintain.  For me now this means elliptical machine (a true godsend), free weights, and walking, along with opportunistic exercise like swimming or kayaking on occasion. 

This time I am not so desperate to hit my goal weight just so that I can stop working out, because I know that working out will be a part of my life even after I reach my goal weight - - perhaps not to the same intensity, but it will still be a part of every day.  I hate to admit it, but perhaps I have started to experience endorphins.  In other words, working out makes me feel good.  More accurately, perhaps, finishing a workout makes me feel good, but I do love that feeling of accomplishment that comes from pushing myself and getting a good sweat on. 

I would not say that I have reached a Zen-like state of perfect acceptance.  But I am getting there.  I am focusing less on "when will I hit my goal weight?" and more on "what can I do as part of my healthy lifestyle today?" I still would love to hit a normal BMI, but I am beginning to recognize that it is the journey, and the mental changes I am making along the way, that is important. 

So not quite Zen, then, but Zen-in-progress.  I'll take that.

The downside of losing weight

Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled with the progress I have made since recommitting myself to my workout and healthy eating plan.  But there's definitely a downside.  My workouts burn fewer calories.  And my body requires fewer calories to function.  It's like a metabolism double whammy!

With this week's loss I am down to a base of 1,500 calories per day on a rest day.  It's no 1,200 calories, to be sure, but it's a tough target to crack when a meal can easily run 600-700 calories. 


Although it is a little depressing to see my workout burns steadily decreasing and my baseline calories falling, I know it's because my metabolism is changing, which is all to the good (at least I keep telling myself that it's good!).


It just makes it tough on a rest day like today - - I have to be super vigilant and cannot snack even the slightest bit, what with my lavish 5 calorie buffer on the books today. 


It also makes it almost impossible to eat out on a rest day, what with some restaurant meals starting at 1,500 + calories - - not to mention all the sodium.


If I keep making progress and losing weight as I have been, though, I will not complain (too much).  The results are worth it.  I loved how my jeans and blazer fit today.  So what if it's challenging to keep under the 1,500 calorie target - - I need to get used to it sometime, since this will eventually be the "new normal". 

New Job, Getting Back into Routine

Last week was incredibly stressful.  I had my last 3 days at the law firm, and my first 2 days at the new company.  And along the way I had 3 nights of working until 4 am, 1.30 am, and 10 pm to wrap up the old job, just in case there was a remote chance that I would have the tiniest bit of energy to start my new job. 

And yes, I was the last person out of the office Wednesday night, as usual.  I had previously made arrangements to hide my laptop with the tech team and left my calling card and security pass under the door of my associate manager so there was nothing left in my office.  Nothing, that is, other than a dotted outline on my desk where my candy machine used to be.  The candy machine may be mourned more than me at the end of the day - I hear that people have been "crabbypants" since I left, and I suspect it's a result of chocolate withdrawal.

The transition was literally hellish and after pushing to complete as much as I did before I left I am completely ready to leave that place and never look back.  Every time I think about the work I was doing I thank god that I am gone.  Perhaps I was just burned out, which is not surprising, all things considered.

The new job is good, so far.  It is of course incredibly stressful to start in a new place where I don't know any of the people or processes or traditions or unwritten rules, and no one knows me or what I can do.  In some ways that's good - no baggage.  But in other ways it's not good, because I have no goodwill on which I can trade.

There is also the issue of not having any of my old tools or routines - - I don't know how to access servers, my iPad is not hooked up to the system, I don't have a way to remotely access my email, my laptop internet connection is hinky from home, and I have no connection to printers yet.  All of these are just fussy system things that will get resolved over the next week or so, but for now, these are irritations that make it harder for me to do my job.

  

This week I need to try and learn as much as I can in the next 2 days before my predecessor leaves for Atlanta again, and I need to try and integrate myself into the department and the system.  And most importantly, as Col. Hadfield notes in his book An Astronaut's Life, I need to try and be a zero in the immediate short term - - not try to make my mark too soon, and try not to screw anything up.  Just float in the middle there with my eyes and ears open until I can get my bearings.  

The people at the new place are very nice, and everyone is working in the same direction, which is a pleasant change.  The offices (shown in the photos) are pretty new and clean and uniform, which means that a lot of my tchotchkes and photos and diplomas from the old office are not going into my new office - - I can't have anything on the walls other than 1 piece of approved corporate art.  My office carpet is another casualty to the new design esthetic, and it will need to stay at home for the foreseeable future.  Thankfully, the candy machine is more than welcome in the new office.

The new company really values wellness and health and has lockers and showers in the office for people who want to bike to work - - fantastic.  There is a super duper pop machine that dispenses water, ice, and juices for free.  It is great, and it has really bumped up my water consumption during the day.  And let's not forget bathroom breaks as a result - - another source of steps during the day, because the washroom is at the other end of the floor.  As a final innovation, my office has a standing desk, so I can work standing up and reduce some of the sitting I do in a day.  There's even a cushy rubber floor pad to help reduce leg fatigue.  The rubber mat is great, but I have picked up a couple of pairs of comfortable loafers to replace my stylish but painful heels just in case.

This past week has been a virtual dead loss from a workout routine point of view.  Between the mother of all colds and 3 ridiculously late nights at the old firm and 2 welcome lunches at the new firm, I have been eating out far more than usual and exercising less than usual.  I was still able to lose a pound and a half, though, which gives me hope for this week. 

Today was a holiday so the Nerd and I were able to sleep in slightly while still doing full workouts.  I am still fighting the lingering effects of this damn cold so it was not easy to do my weights today (I feel weak as a kitten), but I was really glad to get back to a solid 90+ minute workout like I used to do.  Tomorrow will be all-elliptical, all the time, so I need to brace myself for a nice long cardio session.  I should be even better tomorrow, though, so it should not be too difficult.  I am starting to feel better (ever so slowly), and last night was the first truly good night's sleep I have had in almost a week - - I needed that!

The Nerd and I also took a little walk to the new office today to bring more binders into my office.  It's a nice 12-15 minute walk each way, and when we went there it was nice and sunny.  I wanted my office to be as ready as possible so that I could hit the ground running tomorrow when the fun and games really begin.

The balance of today will be homework - a packaging opinion as well as basic research into advertising and packaging law as a refresher.  No time like the present to try and make it easier to get up to speed.  

90 minutes on an elliptical machine is a loooonnnnnggggg time

I have continued to kick my ass with exercise this week, and am now up to 6 days of working out and eating well.  I am almost entirely back in the saddle; another couple of weeks and I will be officially back on the healthy routine, and these last few months of binge eating will just be a distant memory.

Yesterday was a 90-minute elliptical workout day, and I swear to god it almost killed my spirit.  It turns out that 90 minutes is a very long time when all you want to do is get off the elliptical machine.  I wanted to stop at 30 minutes, then I very badly wanted to stop at 45 minutes, and then again at an hour.  I don't know how the hell I managed to push for the entire 90 minutes, but it was more grueling than usual. 

I can put my finger on part of the reason why the workout was tougher than usual - - my old groin strain (gotten from a failure to bend my knees during my second-last move) has been flaring up since my ill-fated attempt to run.  It's not painful, per se, it just gives me twinges and maintains a dull ache with occasional sharp stabby bits once in a while.  Not super fun.  It makes the elliptical a little more challenging than normal.

The other reason why 90 minutes on the elliptical felt like it would never end is that I was reading a book that was ok, but not great.  I have many good non-fiction books on the shelf to read, but for some reason I prefer to read pulp fiction on the elliptical - - I can't have anything too intellectually demanding for my early morning workouts.  Usually it works great, as pulp fiction books are usually sufficiently engaging and distracting that they make the time pass.

I have been going through series after series of detective thrillers - Lee Child's Jack Reacher books, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski books, the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell, Howard Engel's Benny Cooperman mysteries, Ellis Peter's Cadfael books, the Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton, Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan novels, and Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles series.  Most of these series have strong female leads or good action, and I have generally enjoyed most of the books. 

Some of these books are better than others, however.  The Cooperman series was a little too self-deprecating to be true escapist fare - probably what I should have expected from a Canadian author.  The Stephanie Plum books were good, but the lead character deals with stress through eating donuts and junk food, and I found that I was craving those foods as well just from reading the series.  Thank god I have read everything in this series, because picking up those eating habits helped to erode months of progress.  I have literally never craved donuts like I did when I was reading the Plum books - - sheesh!

I just finished the first two Eve Duncan books by Iris Johansen.  They were all right, but not nearly distracting enough to keep my mind from clock watching during a 90-minute elliptical session.  I have picked up the next couple of books in the series to give the works a fair shake, but if they aren't engaging enough I may need to bring out the big guns and go back to non-fiction. 

Today was Sunday and both the Nerd and I were up at 7 am to work out - - we both did weights and elliptical, and I did a bit of walking on the treadmill as well.  Three years ago our Sunday morning would have started with a lie-in until 9.30 or 10 am, followed by a breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns with cheese, and hollandaise sauce full of butter, washed down with coffee with Baileys Irish Cream liqueur.  3 mugs of it, at least.  Those were probably 2,500 calorie breakfasts, and it goes without saying that there would have been no workouts in that era.

The Nerd and I were waxing nostalgic about those days whilst we sweated in the workout room this morning (mostly missing the hollandaise, cheese, and Baileys Irish Cream), but you know what?  Although it's not super fun to get up early to work out, neither one of us would go back to the way things were.   That's progress, I think.  I know that and a buck fifty will get you a double double at Timmy's, but I'll take it (the progress, not the double double!).

Recap - 2 years of working out (photo heavy)

Today is the second anniversary of my first workout.  Yep, that's right.  January 27, 2012 was my first tottering (and achy!) step on the path to fitness.  And although my body is still not yet the perfect temple and I am still a long way from my goal weight, my lifestyle and habits have changed enormously over the past 2 years - - overwhelmingly for the better.

In the spirit of focusing on where I am now and what I have done to get here, I thought I would look back at some of the many milestones and stepping stones along the way. 

The first 6 months:

After the first 6 months I found that working out was a regular part of my daily routine.  Eating consistently healthy was still a struggle until I started tracking my food with MyFitnessPal in July of 2012. 

The second 6 months:

The back half of 2012 really laid the foundation for the wins I would see in 2013.

One year down, the third 6 months:

 This was by far the period with the most dramatic change.  I did so many things for the first time in years - or even in some cases, ever -  during this period and I finished it off by reaching size 14, which meant that I would go shopping anywhere I wanted for the first time in 10 years or so (except Abercrombie & Fitch, ha ha).  I had some huge wins in this period.

The most recent 6 months:

I won't lie to you - - the last quarter of 2013 was a tough one for me, but I managed to regroup and get focused back on my healthy eating and strong workouts once more, and I am seeing results.  I am once again at my lowest weight in years, and have completely eliminated the weight gains of last autumn. 

From now my plan for the next 6 months is to keep focusing on my goals: do a pushup (or 10), run 5K, and reach my target weight.  All of these things should be possible within the next 6 months. 

Here are some of my favourite experiences/memories over the past 2 years of lifestyle change:

 

As I look at these photos I am struck by something that is completely new for me - - many of these photos involve something physical that I was able to do that I either could not do before or hadn't done before.  Swimming, kayaking, walking 5K, cycling ... I was excited to do these things and had fun to boot.  I just never thought of myself as someone who does physical stuff for fun.  Who knew that a semi-active person was trapped in a fat girl's body when I started out on this journey?  Not me!

I ran like a big girl today ...

... for all of about 60 seconds.  But you know what?  It felt GREAT! 

So you know that I have been working on a C25K program for the past 3 weeks, yes?  I have worked up to intervals of 2 min run - 2 min walk - 3 min run - 3 min walk, for a total run time of 10 minutes and a max run interval of 3 minutes.

Up to this morning, I have "run", if you can call it that, holding onto the treadmill arms or handle with a death-grip.  The treadmill is set to 4.5 mph, and I am performing movements that may eventually be running, but for now, are mostly like a strange bouncy part run-part shuffle hybrid. 

Today, just for shits and giggles, I decided to let go of the treadmill.  I had already completed about 7 minutes of running intervals by that point so there is a very real chance that I was oxygen starved and hallucinating, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.  So I just - let - go.  And then there I was, running.  Just like a normal person, arms pumping.

I ran for all of a minute before I realized what I was doing and completely forgot how to run all at once.  Then it was back to my death-grip on the treadmill in a flurry of arms and legs while I tried to comprehend what had just happened.

I know it is baby steps to running, but you know what?  It actually felt much easier and better to run like a normal person than what I have been doing holding onto the treadmill.  I enjoyed it - - at least for the brief instant in time when I was able to do it.

I can't wait for next time to see if I can run for a bit longer before spazzing out. 

I can't believe I just said that.  Who are you and what have you done to my brain??

On related news, I was able to lose another 2.1 pounds this week, thanks in no small part to the above-mentioned running (and all the other workouts I did this week).  This brings me back down 141.1 pounds, and less than 8 pounds away from middleweight.  Slow and steady is the way to do it, right?  Well I certainly have the "slow" part down - - and now that I've gotten back on my program, the "steady" part seems to be back on track too. 

I now weigh 192.8 pounds, and as you can see from the above chart, my lean mass and fat are starting to inch ever closer to the normal range.  Hitting a normal BMI will be such a triumph when it happens, as I have been overweight (or obese, or super-obese) more of my life than I have been normal. 

Something feels different about this time, though.  I feel like I am more consistently making healthier choices, and I am choosing an active lifestyle not because I have to do it to lose weight, but because it's fun / easy / better than being inactive.  I walk places I would previously have taken transit to, or, god forbid, taken a cab.  I walk when I don't need to.  I take extra trips because, hey, incremental steps.  This mindset is a completely new one for me. Before, working out was a necessary evil to be avoided as much as possible.  Now, I look for opportunities to work being active into my lifestyle, from working out on the elliptical and treadmill, to walking to work, to taking the stairs, to walking to shops rather than driving...this attitude change has taken 2 years and it just blows my mind, I have to tell you.

I feel like "yes, losing weight takes a long time and you have to work at it every day, but look at all the benefits and all the new things you can do".  I believe that I will reach my weight goal, it's only a matter of time.  I like this spirit of optimism - - it makes me think I can do anything, given enough time.

Maybe even one damn pushup one day. 

Speaking of pushups (!), for next week I think I will stay the course on my routine and keep doing 3 sets of 15 reps on the 8 exercises I have been doing to work my upper body, along with the usual 45 min - 60 min elliptical routines plus the C25K workouts.  This program is working for me so far, and I feel strong and good.  No injuries yet, touch wood! 

Christmas was Tryptophan-tastic!

A few events of note happened this week.

The first is that I once again dusted myself off and got back on track for healthy eating and challenging workouts, just in time for the orgy of food that is Christmas.  Ah well, my timing has never been what we can call "good". 

This week I also began a new upper body focused weight routine, as well as a couch to 5K program with the intention of learning how to run.

As for the eating portion of my healthy lifestyle, I have been doing pretty well.  I managed to control my hitherto unbridled snacking when we had both sides of the family over to the Palatial Estate on Christmas Eve for a cocktail party, and I ended up staying on track for the most part.  At one point I caught my hand diving into a dish of cashews before the party and I turned the motion into an elaborate swoop and moved the dish into a cupboard to keep it out of my eye line and that seemed to work - - my snacking was kept at a minimum and I stayed on track for my daily calories. 

Yesterday on Christmas Day we had the full turkey dinner experience at the Nerd's sister's house, with all the tryptophan that comes with it.  The dinner was one of the best turkey dinners I have ever had, and I enjoyed every bite of it.  And the Mexican wedding cookies.  And the peanut brittle.  And the candy cane brittle.  And the chocolate letter "M" (for "Magniloquent", natch).  OK, so I went a little bananas yesterday with the food.  But I got it out of my system, and today had the usual breakfast and no cravings for illicit chocolate (or licit chocolate, for that matter), which is good. 

I have completed week 1 of the "5K Runner" C25K program using the iPad app.  Like most C25K apps, this one sets a warm-up period, then intervals of running alternating with walking, followed by a final cool down period.  The first day was a 25 minute workout involving a 5 minute warm-up followed by 6 intervals of 1 minute running + 1.5 minutes walking, followed by a 5 minute cool down.  Days 2 and 3 still involved the same warm-up and cool down, but with 8 intervals of 1 minute running + 1.5 minutes walking.  All in all this week I "ran" 6 minutes on day 1, then 8 minutes each on days 2 and 3, for a total "run" of 22 minutes this week. 

Am I actually running?  Probably not, but I am going 4.5 mph on the treadmill and I am making an awful lot of noise.  It could actually look like running, if you squint.  The point is to get my body used to the mechanics of what could eventually turn into running, and this is what the app appears to be good for.

Interestingly, for someone who has done 30 minutes to 90 minutes on the elliptical machine for months now, the cardio of the treadmill is very different and much more challenging.  I barely break a sweat after 30 minutes on the elliptical, whereas on the treadmill I am sweating up a storm after the first running interval.  I feel the treadmill more in my hamstrings and glutes than I feel the elliptical, too.  Overall, it's a very different cardio workout.

Right now I am still having to really push to complete the C25K workout, because: i) it is difficult; and ii) running is still not a natural motion for me.  But the emotional reward I feel for completing a C25K workout is still very positive and is helping to keep me on track, which is good.  I don't get a "runner's high", but I get a "stubborn woman's glow", which is almost as good.  The other nice thing about the C25K workout days is that I "only" do 45 minutes on the elliptical, which feels like I am getting away with something. 

On weight days I have been doing 3 sets of 10 reps of my various upper body exercises, which takes between 30 and 40 minutes, depending on how much I futz with the weight bench.  Overall the workout is very challenging, and I am definitely spent after it is done.  I have been following those weight workouts with 60 minutes on the elliptical machine, and each day this week I have really had to push myself not to stop early.  But I did it, and I feel the smug feeling one gets from pushing through to accomplish something one really doesn't want to do. 

Next week I will be doing week 2 of the C25K app, and it already looks a little intimidating to me - - 4 intervals of 1.5 min run + 2 min walking, followed by 2 intervals of 1 minute running + 1 minute walking, for a total run time of 8 minutes.  It's good for me to see that it is the same "run" time as I did this morning, just packaged a little differently.  We'll see how it goes...

This week I had a moral win by getting up at 3.15 am (!) to do my usual weight + elliptical workout on Christmas morning so that we could get out to my parent's house in Brampton around 6.40 am to open stockings with the family.  Driving back to town from the Nerd's sister's place at 10.30 pm I was initially puzzled that the CN Tower was still displaying the same festive green-white-red stripes as on Christmas morning, until I realized that it was still Christmas Day ... just an incredibly long day.  Whew!

Today (Boxing Day) the Nerd and I slept in to 8 am, and although we both did full workouts (he did 90 minutes on the elliptical and I did 30 minutes of C25K and 45 minutes on the elliptical), we were in no rush and it was a very relaxing morning, all things considered.

Tomorrow is Friday, and a normal day.  It's weigh-in day, too, so we'll see how virtuous I *really* have been able to be this week.  I will also be back to the office and back to 60 minutes on the elliptical, according to the plan. 

The balance of today is scheduled to be the day of a thousand naps, so I should get to it.  Those naps won't have themselves, after all...