Week 6 Day 6 Cheater Day Eve

And am I ever ready for a cheater day.  Tomorrow.  I can hold out until tomorrow.  We’ve been invited to share a hotpot dinner with some student friends, and I can almost taste a Starbucks latte.

In the meantime, here are the results of our Friday weigh in:

Ruth:  67.9 kg. = 149.63 lbs.  Ruth says it’s been a long time since she was under 150 lbs.

Zale:  100.9 kg. = 222.44 lbs

My starting weight was 109.6 so I have lost 8.7 kg. = 19.2 lbs.

Ruth’s starting weight was 73.9 so she has lost 6 kg. = 13.2 lbs.

We’re just slightly over half way to eleven weeks.  If I keep losing weight at this healthy rate, I’ll be very close to two hundred pounds by the end of the eleven weeks.  Close to two hundred may not be good enough for me.  I may keep going until I get my six pack.    And then try to maintain at that rate.

This morning I noticed that I can feel my stomach muscle cuts through my flab.  I can’t see the cuts yet, but I know they are there.

Okay, enough motivational contemplation.  Time to hit the elliptical.

Okay.  592 calories in 31 minutes.  We watched the start of a documentary on the Chinese revolution, and that made the time fly. Very interesting show.

I didn’t have breakfast until noon today – the usual brown rice, chicken breast, and Chinese greens.  Then we took the dog to the pagoda on the island and practiced music for a while – fiddle, guitar, banjo.  That was a great break.

Ruth cooked up a nice mixture of garlic shoots, mushrooms, zucchini, and a bit of lean pork for flavoring.  Since we hadn’t made any rice, and were out of potatoes, we got our carbs from the whole wheat French bread, but with no butter.

After dinner we went to a student performance in the auditorium – the usual, songs and dance and a bit of amateur music.  Good energy though.

Snack this evening, the last of the bread with cottage cheese and tomato slices.  Delicious.  Time to shut down for the night.

Week 6 Day 5

604 on the elliptical trainer in 31 minutes.

Watching a great TED talk while I did my workout took the pain out of it.  Amory Lovins – 50 year plan for energy.   Great talk.  There is every reason to be optimistic about the future of humanity, and the future of this planet.  That is if we can just rein in the homicidal military industrial complex.

The rest of the day.  Same old same old.  Three periods of classes in the morning.  Two in the afternoon.  Our Chinese lesson was canceled because our teacher is sick.  We’re on a weekend again.

Lunch was the new lean pork and cabbage soup over brown rice.  Really good.

After classes we rode our bikes to Auchan and picked up some supplies, including salmon and something I believe was swordfish.  The former was its usual deliciousness.  The latter had a strong flavour and we could not eat it.  Even GouGou refused to eat it.  I put it out by the garbage cans and I think we heard cats fighting over it.  I made another batch of cottage cheese, and microwaved a squash and small potatoes to go with the salmon.

We did pick up a loaf of whole wheat French bread while at Auchan, but we ate it without any butter.  I also picked up two bananas, one of which I ate before we rode our bikes home and the other I ate as desert this evening.  Yikes.  That’s over two hundred calories just in bananas.  No, that’s okay. I need calories.  I’m not on a calorie restricted diet.

It’s now half past twelve.  I feel fat.  I’m going to bed.

Week 6 Day 4

621 calories this morning on the elliptical, with thankfully no alarming angina, if it even was angina yesterday.  There are many things that can mimic heart pain, I’m told by my nursing sister, Sadie.  Anyway, this morning was pain free.

Eating breakfast now – brown rice, chicken, and some Chinese greens that resemble spinach.  The greens came tied with a very interesting knot.

You know you're in old China when veggies come tied like this.

As an old sailor, I’m fascinated by knots, and this one is a beauty.  Just pulling one end releases it.  I managed to retie the bundle with the same knot.  Not to complicated.  In fact, beautifully simple.

Must hit the shower.  Class in half an hour.

Okay, back from classes and dinner finished.  Dishes washed.  I’m feeling bored with this process.  Not with the program.  That’s obviously being very effective, and I feel skinnier every day.  As we approach the halfway mark, I find myself really looking forward to week eleven, when all this patient care should pay off.  I do feel like I’m halfway there.  But I’m bored with blogging about it.  This is getting tedious.  One can only comment on diet details for so long before it all becomes a drag.

Dinner tonight was leftover barley and chicken drummettes with mushrooms added, plus a section of squash that Ruth mashed with tomato chunks and the last of the last batch of cottage cheese.  All tasty.

You see what I mean?  Boring.  I’m going to have to spice this up with stories and anecdotes.  Or simply stop writing sentences and start posting a daily list of details.

Today I was thinking about Amour de Cosmos while I put in my time on the elliptical.  One of my heroes, except I don’t know much about him.  Let’s see what Wikipedia says.  Okay, he can stay as one of my heroes, even though he became a Mormon.  But I do like the fact that he was an eccentric liberal reformer who changed his name from William Smith to an inaccurate translation of “Lover of the Universe.”  Gotta hand him something for that.

I just had some skinless chicken breast strips as a snack, but no carbs.  I think I should balance with carbs, so I’m going to have an orange right now.  And then I’m for bed.

Week 6 Day 3 late starting

614 calories in 31 minutes on the elliptical this morning.

Finished off the barley with some Chinese greens and skinless chicken breast all boiled up in whey.  Tasty as usual, but I’ll be glad to get back to brown rice.  Just don’t like the texture of the barley.

On the elliptical this morning around the 25 minute mark, with five minutes to go, I felt a sudden pain on the left side of my chest.  Angina?  I don’t know.  I slowed down a bit, and the pain passed.  But I don’t need the irony of having a heart attack while trying to get in shape.  I well remember Rodney Willis.

Must get dressed and off to classes.

Lunch was soup, as usual.  Since I’d finished off the barley, there was nothing to add to the soup and it was a bit thin.  For dinner I cooked up another pot of brown rice, and we had that with half a can of salmon each plus beans steamed with bamboo shoots topped with fresh tomato.  Not a bad dinner at all.

Cooked up some more chicken breasts before bed.  Ready for tomorrow.

Week 6 Day 2

Up and running now.  Feeling good.  626 on the elliptical this morning in  my 31 minutes.  Someday I must explain that 31 minutes. Odd number.

Now have finished my breakfast – barley instead of brown rice because I cooked up barley by mistake.  Skinless chicken breast.  Chinese greens.  All cooked in whey with a bit of soy sauce added.  Okay, but I’ll be glad when the barley is gone and I can go back to brown rice.

The nice thing about the elliptical is that it gets my brain working.  I had some thoughts, and have already rewritten one of the speeches I’ve prepared for my speaking class students to deliver as practice.  Much improved.

Time for a shower.

Lunch report:  our standard leftover soup, mostly beef and barley, cabbage and lots of veggies.

Dinner report:  Ruth cooked up some chicken drummettes in the crock pot, then threw in barley and sprouted beans.  As a side dish we had garlic shoots, at least we think they are garlic shoots.  They don’t taste like garlic to me.  The garlic shoots were dressed with fresh tomato.  In all a very tasty, very healthy dinner and totally on the program once we fed the chicken skins to the dog.  The dog is making out very well on this program.

Now we’re off to give the dog a run beside our bikes.  Ruth wants to pick up some oranges at the fruit store, and I need some bananas.  I think there may be a bit of durian in my future as well.  High in natural sugars, but I need a bit of an energy boost.

Week 6 Day 1 Toxic

Get me back on the program.  I’m toxic.

This morning I got up with a head full of ideas. I have to write a number of short speeches for my oral English presentation class.  So before I did anything else, I got started.  I have two roughed in already.  But I desperately need to get on the elliptical trainer and burn out this muzzy poisoned feeling.

I’m having a weird day.  Went back to bed and didn’t get up until almost 400pm.  It’s now 5:00pm and all I’ve had to eat so far today is one banana.  I did 617 calories in my 31 minutes on the elliptical.  Must eat something, but I’m dripping sweat and I think it’s my turn to make dinner.  I saw Ruth eating a mango a while ago.  I wonder what she’d like for dinner.  Okay, I’m on it.

Dinner was a three inch by two inch thin beef steak (maybe a quarter of an inch thick) boiled with mushrooms and slivers of bamboo shoots, with a squash and potatoes mash up.  Steamed broccoli.  Cottage cheese.

We just got back from taking the dog for a run, and stopping at the campus veggie store for apples, greens, oranges, cabbage, and garlic shoots.

I’m having a bowl of orange with cottage cheese.  Great snack.  Bed soon.

 

Week 5 Day 7 Cheater Day Yay

I started today with a banana.  That’s not cheater day food, right?  But then I had an ice cream bar and we’ve gone through about half a whole wheat French loaf with Irish butter.  That is so good.

I did get on the elliptical.  594 calories in 31 minutes.  Just finished my cool down.

So this cheater day is off to a great start.  I’ll have a shower.  We’re planning grilled cheese with ham and tomato for lunch, and then we’re off on the bikes to Auchan to return my defective new keyboard and then… then it’s a vente latte at Starbucks.

There’s been a suggestion that we should pick up a couple of Breezers, because hey, it’s summer, when we stop at Auchan.  And then “The Avengers” has just opened at the Wanda cinema.  Josh Whedon directed.  Great reviews.  Shaping up to be a great cheater day already.

We’re back. Actually, we’re back and gone out to dinner and back from that too.  “The Avengers” was fun.  Bubble gum for the brain.  Total eye candy.  But very well done.  As long as I park my brain at the door for that kind of movie, it’s a fun ride.  It’s only afterward that I feel like I’ve had a very empty calorie feast.  We did stop at Auchan to pick up my new keyboard, the one I am typing on right now, and we did pick up four Breezers for each of us, three of which I consumed while watching the movie.  I had my Starbucks vente latte before, and got another to go after.  So I’ve been well cafinated.  Then we harnessed up the dog went out to a little restaurant near the campus for gan jia li ji (dry fried pork), xi hong xi chao ji dan (a scrambled eggs with tomatoes dish)  and hao you xiang cai (lettuce cooked in oyster sauce), all with mi fan (white rice).  I bought a bottle of huang jiu (yellow rice wine, with a sweet flavour that reminds me of prune juice) to go with the meal.  I took the remains of the bottle home with me from the restaurant and I’m enjoying a glass as I fill in on the day, right now.

So all told it’s been a great cheater day.  Tomorrow I will need to do some class prep, and I’ll be back on the program.  A cheater day is sure a great reward for being strict all week.

Oh yeah, about that movie.  I gotta get me a long black leather coat.  And a great body.  Could take some time.

Would I look too kinky in a coat like this one?   It's a great look.

Week 5 Day 6 Cheater Day Eve

And boy oh boy am I ever ready for a cheater day.  Rough night last night.  Couldn’t sleep.  Woke up early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep.  Don’t know why.

We’re skipping the elliptical this morning in favor of a long bike ride.

I weighed in at a disappointing 101.5 kg. = 223.8 pounds

Ruth weighed in at 68.3 kg. = 150.6 pounds

I’ll do the math and comparisons when we get home again.  Right now must have some breakfast.

Well, that was about three hours of steady cycling.  Didn’t feel like a lot of exertion, but I think it was.  We left at 9:15am and got home again about 2:30pm.  Two major stops on the way, the first at Hui Shan ancient village to eat our lunch (left over chicken, rice and zucchini from dinner the other night)  in our new favorite ancient garden, the second at Auchan grocery store to pick up some supplies.  A very pleasant morning in all.

Ths n kybad dsn’t k.  Half th kys a dad.  h ms s ndfl.`1  This line was typed with my brand new keyboard, which obviously isn’t working.  It skips many letters.  Half the keys are dead.  Back to the old keyboard.  Must return the new one.  What an inconvenience.  Oh well, it could be worse.  Too bad, because I only bought it because my old mouse is dying on me, and the new mouse works great.  Tomorrow we’ll have another bike ride, to Starbucks this time, and to exchange my new keyboard for one that works.

I realize that I’m not following my program as strictly as I thought.  I’ve ignored the injunction to eat six meals a day.  We’re still eating our three meals a day, with a protein and carb snack at half points whenever we feel like it.  Not bad, but maybe I’d get faster results if I really follow the program.  Speaking of results, here they are.  We did the photo session this afternoon.

Well, it's progress. Never as fast as I'd like, but then I'd like instant and that isn't going to happen.

I think my progress shows up better in the profile shots.  I'm shrinking.  Yes. (Pumps fist)

Okay, I’m seeing some results here.  I’m at the halfway point in the eleven week shape up program.  If this is half way, the end of eleven weeks should be worth the wait and effort.

Now for the math I talked about before our bike ride:  My starting weight was 109.6 kg. or 241.6 pounds so I’ve lost 8.1 kg or 17.8 pounds.  Not as much as I hoped, but something.

Ruth is doing well too.  She started at 73.9 kg. so she’s lost 5.6 kg. or 12.3 pounds.  Way to go, wife of mine.  Her pictures show a more dramatic difference than mine do, but she doesn’t want them posted.

Week 5 Day 5

597 calories on the elliptical trainer in 31 minutes.  Eating breakfast in a rush.  Must get to classes.

Not much of anything to report today.  We’re on the program.  Same old same old.

In the interests of full disclosure I will admit to feeing low energy and shaky this afternoon, a feeling like I’d had too much water and not enough sugar.  That passed when we ate dinner, which tonight was a very small lean beef steak with mushrooms, Chinese greens that resemble clover, yam and potato baked in the microwave and then both mashed, with a bit of cottage cheese on the potato and a bit of horse radish on the beef.  An acceptable dinner but I’m starting to look forward to Saturday, our cheater day, day after tomorrow.

Tomorrow is photographs and evaluation day.  I’m curious to see whether my weight loss makes a visible difference yet.  Today I was comfortably wearing my belt three holes back from the end.  In fact, that’s where it is right now, totally comfortable.  So much so that I had to check to see if it really was in the third hole back.

Weel 5 Day 4

Off to a great start this morning.  584 calories on the elliptical in 31 minutes.

Good breakfast – the standard pre-cooked brown rice, skinless chicken breast, qing cai (Chinese greens), all boiled in when and the whites of two eggs added.

Now back from morning classes.  Just ate a banana as a snack before lunch.  Soup is heating.

Last night was the first time I got a hint of the old wow-I’ve-had-a-body-transplant feeling.  I really am starting to feel the weight loss, and my body feels like it’s tightening up and coming more alive.  A great feeling, and I’m expecting it to intensify.