Day 28

Today I tried three of the meals I've been saving. The blueberry pancakes, tomato and corn chowder, and veggie fajita. For breakfast along with the pancakes (which looked terrible because I used an old pan and they stuck to it, but they were great) I had facon, a banana, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack today was grapes and yogurt. Lunch was the chowder along with broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce. The chowder kinda tasted like chili so that means I LIKE it. Afternoon snack today was 2 servings of sugar free jello pudding. For dinner Kim and I each had a veggie fajita, with fake chorizo, onions, silantro, and 2& cheese. I also had a salad with peppers and olives & even made 2 servings of veggies which I couldn't eat because I was stuffed from the huge fajita. Dessert tonight was the fudge brownie.

I made it to the gym today to train calves (6 sets total) and 30 minutes of cardio on the treadmill. Kim and I also walked the dogs this morning for about 2 miles. Kim was bitten by some ants this afternoon and her foot has swollen so we were unable to walk this evening.

I'll weigh in again in the morning for my 1 month total. I'm afraid I had such a large dinner I may be a little heavy. Guess I'll see in the morning. If I think I've weighed heavy I may weigh in again on Tuesday morning.

Octopus! (Day 27)

Tonight I ate my first non NS meal in a month. I did forget my afternoon snack a few weeks ago and had to eat a mini taco, but this was the first planned meal off the program. Our meal? Grilled Octopus, mushrooms, broccoli rabe, and a small salad with olives. We weighed each serving of octopus (3 oz each) of which I had 2. Each serving has 70 calories, almost no fat, & over 12 grams of protein. My total meal was less than 300 calories. This is how I want to eat after NS. Good food, sensible portions. Octopus is a real treat for us. The nearest place we can get it is in Atlanta, so that's an hour drive there and another hour back. Luckily Kim wanted to go to the Buford Hwy Farmers Market today while I watched football. She came home with the octopus and about 5 pounds of Monk Fish!

For breakfast today I had lowfat granola cereal, facon, multigrain bread, and a banana. My morning snack was yogurt with a banana. Lunch today was a chocolate peanut butter bar and a fake chicken veggie patty. Afternoon snack was again jello pudding (2 servings). Dinner was the Octopus feast. My dessert tonight was a peanut butter cookie.


The only cardio I did today was about a 2 mile walk with Kim and two of our hounds. I'll have to get to the gym tomorrow to train calves and get in another good cardio session.

GO DAWGS!

Horrendous Leg Workout (Day 26)

Friday. Leg day. It was a horrendous (wonderful), grueling (exhilarating) workout. I added an extra exercise to the workout today bringing the total sets to 18. I started with 3 sets of hack squats, 3 sets of squats, 3 sets of leg presses, and 3 sets of extensions for quads. For hams I did 3 sets of leg curls followed by 3 sets of hyper-extensions. I was so tired and spent by the end of the workout I couldn't do my cardio at the gym. I tried, but my knees kept buckling. Once I returned home I felt cold and sick. My Pug curled up with me on the sofa for a few minutes and helped me to get to feeling a little bit better. The chicken noodle soup I had for lunch helped out a good bit as well. This evening after I got home Kim and I walked Jumping Jack Flash Gordon around the lake for about 1/2 an hour. At least I was able to get one cardio session in today. I'm afraid I'm gonna be silly sore tomorrow and worse on Sunday from my leg workout.



My first meal of the day was maple brown sugar oatmeal with facon, a banana, and a slice of multigrain bread. This morning's snack was yogurt and a banana. Lunch was chicken noodle soup, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce. My afternoon snack was pudding. One chocolate and one caramel vanilla. For dinner this evening I tried one of Kim's vegetarian meals. I had the cheese ravioli with basil tomato sauce which was very tasty, broccoli with cheese sauce, a salad with peppers and olives, a slice of multigrain bread, and a nectarine. The nectarine was delightful. I'll have to add it as my fruit more often.

I Weigh Less Than The Weights I Lift! (Day 25)

Today's workout was biceps and triceps. I had a neat experience while using the hammer strength seated dip machine. I loaded around 275 lbs onto the rack and put my hand onto the grips and went to set down (in which doing so would raise the weight into the air to begin the workout) and I didn't budge. I frowned and looked at the machine to make sure it was in proper working condition and then it hit me. I don't weigh enough to raise the weight with my body weight alone. I smiled, sat on the machine, used the seat belt attached to the machine to hold my self down, and then pressed down on the grips using my arms only! Woohoo! I weigh less than the weights I'm lifting. So the actual workout went quickly today (I was training alone). 3 sets of press downs, 3 sets of overhead presses, 3 sets of the aforementioned hammer strength seated dips, and 3 sets of rope press downs. Biceps consisted of 3 sets of seated incline curls and 3 sets of barbell curls.

I got an email from NS today telling me my next shipment date and that I could coustimize my order until 6PM the day before. I've already made lots of changes, but I'm sure I'll adjust it more before the ship date. For breakfast this morning I had a chocolate chip scone, facon, a banana, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack today was yogurt and grapes. For lunch today I had a chocolate peanut butter bar, and in lieu of 2 veggies I had one of Kim's fake chicken burger things. I over nuked the chicken thing, but it was still OK. My afternoon snack today was 2 servings of sugar free chocolate pudding. Dinner tonight was one of the meals I had been putting off for weeks. The chicken with dumplings. They were OK, but they will not be in my next order. I also had a salad with olives & peppers, broccoli & cauliflower with cheese sauce, and a slice of multigrain bread. Dessert tonight was an almond biscotti dipped into my cup of vanilla caramel tea.



Leg day tomorrow at the gym and then off to my job site where I guess I'll collapse and rest in my car.

Pull Ups

Today I added a something to my back workout that has been missing for years. I began the workout with a set of pull ups. It was a pathetic set of 4 reps, but they were good full extension at the bottom honest to goodness pull ups. Next week I'll get 5 (maybe). I used to start with 3 sets of pull ups. The first set would be about 15 reps, the second between 11-12, and the third would be at least 8 or so. That's a good goal, get back to doing 3 sets of pull ups. After my pull ups today I did 3 sets of lat pull downs, 3 sets of hammer strength low rows, 3 sets of seated rows, and 3 sets of straight arm press downs. Cardio at the gym was 30 minutes on the treadmill, incline 11.5, speed of 3.6. Tonight Kim and I walked one of the dogs around the lake for about 30 minutes as my final cardio event of the day.


For breakfast I had the cluster crunch cereal, a banana, facon, and a slice of multigrain bread. Morning snack of yogurt and grapes. Lunch today was black bean tortilla soup, and 2 servings of cauliflower with cheese sauce. Afternoon snack today was sugar free chocolate jello pudding. Dinner this evening was mashed potatoes with meatloaf and tomato sauce, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce, 5 olives, a plum, and a slice of multigrain bread. Dessert tonight of double chocolate almond cookie.

Chili and the thought of a Krystal (Day 23)

I got a new toy today. I ordered a softbox to use when I shoot (photos) a wedding next week and it arrived today. So I'll get to test it out over the next week or so on all of my food photos! I don't think there will be any noticeable differences in the food pics from before, but I'm very happy with it so far. I used it in the photo of the chili in today's post.

My mother joined in my workout this morning so I was able to train just a little heavier than usual with her spotting me. We trained shoulders. We started with 3 sets of military presses, followed by 3 sets of side lateral raises. Next up was 3 sets of upright rows, then 3 sets of rear delts. At this point mom returned to the treadmill but I still had to do shoulder shrugs. 3 quick sets and I was finished and off to the treadmill as well. I again did my usual cardio workout of 30 minutes, incline 11.5, speed 3.5. Hopefully Kim and I will get to walk this evening, but quite a few thunderstorms have rolled through North Georgia this afternoon and it's not looking good.


For breakfast this morning I had berries & multigrain flakes (NS & yum!), along with a banana, a slice of multigrain bread, and 2 slices of facon (yes, fake bacon). Morning snack was slightly different this morning, yogurt & a banana (crazy not eating grapes, I know). Lunch today was chicken noodle soup (NS and good with a little Cholula), & 2 servings of mixed greens. My afternoon snack was the zesty herb snack mix (NS, yawn, I'm kinda sick of it). Dinner tonight was a treat. I started with a salad with peppers and olives, mixed greens, and cauliflower with cheese sauce. For my entree I had chili with beans (NS) with a dash of 2% cheese and a slice of multigrain bread. I added some Cholula again to spice it up and I loved it. I really don't know if it was actually good or not since I haven't had any real chili in a long time. I used to love chili. On hot dogs, omelets, burgers, even as a dipping sauce for the nastiest food in the world, Krystals. The NS chili seemed to taste great, but after 23 days without any non NS entrees, I could be NS Crazy. My dessert this evening was the fudge brownie (NS). The first time I had the brownie I liked it, but wasn't crazy about it. Now (again 3 + weeks in) I love it. I heated it up to make it warm and gooey.

I'm really looking forward to my next order arriving, because most of the things I have left are either the things I was afraid to try (Split Pea Soup) or things I hate (pretzels) or things I've enjoyed and held out for later (pizza, burger, meatloaf). Next order has much more sweets and
no pretzels.

Day 22

My gym was closed today so I the only workouts I got in were two walks around the lake with my dogs. Back at it tomorrow to train shoulders.

For breakfast today I decided to try the NS pancake mix. Loved it. I guess it was such a treat to have something with syrup. Along with the pancakes I had a little facon, a banana, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was yogurt and grapes. For lunch I had a real treat. Kim made a meal for us using the black beans and rice NS lunch meal. She prepared both ours together and added 2 vegetarian chicken breasts, then chilled the mixture and served it over lettuce with some radishes, jalapenos, and red peppers. Wow. It was great. Maybe she should submit as a recipe to NS. My afternoon snack was troublesome. I tried to eat some NS sour cream soy chips, but one bite in I balked and threw them away. Instead I had some sugar free Jello pudding. For dinner I had the rotini with meatballs and tomato sauce, cauliflower and broccoli with cheese sauce, a salad with peppers and olives, and a slice of multigrain bread. Dessert was the NS chocolatey nougat bar with peanuts and caramel.



All in all today was a nice slow day. All my meals were easy and good. Hope to have another good week and pass the 20 pound mark during the week.