No time to read

I have had zero free time to myself to get any further reading done in my Rachel Cosgrove book. I'm bummed, because I really do feel like I need a swift kick in the pants to get my diet back in order (by diet, I don't mean the kind that helps you lose weight; I just mean the eating-right-on-a-regular-basis diet). But alas, when 8:30 at night rolls around and I'm finally sitting down, we actually engage in our nightly ritual of watching some TV before my daughter goes off to bed. It's weird, but when one of us is in the room, but not engaged in the show we're watching, it changes the dynamic of the experience of "family time", as we call it, so I don't like to read or anything else during that time. Anyway, once the kid goes off to bed and it's about 9:30, I then want to enjoy some TV watching with my hubby. So the moments I have to squeeze in time for reading a book are few and far between, unless I want to (and actually can) stay up late. Which I usually don't want to do since I get up at 5:45 am to go to the gym most mornings.

And so the cycle continues.

I weighed myself today. 138.8 pounds. I'm up almost 2 pounds from where I was last week when I weighed in. I honestly don't know what goes on in my body. I wish that I truly understood all of the molecular things going on in there because I just find it hard to believe that with what I eat and the working out that I do regularly, I still gain weight.

So what did I eat yesterday? Well, breakfast was a delicious bowl of oatmeal with some blueberries and packet of Truvia. I was too busy for a snack in the morning. Then I went to lunch at Mad Mex. I love Mad Mex, and this time I ordered wisely and got the grilled chicken salad. Of course, we had chips to start off, and I probably ate more than I should have, but seriously, don't we all? And does everyone perpetually gain 2 pounds every week? I would think not. This is when I get all "woe is me" and think that I'm the only one this happens to. 

Anyway, my salad was great. Not too much chicken, a scant serving of melted cheese, and half of an avocado. I got the dressing on the side, and used probably the normal 2 tablespoons serving size.

Back at the office, I had 2 mini Reese's peanut butter cups for dessert. Then later for a snack, I had a blueberry Greek yogurt, and maybe 4 little honey braided pretzel sticks.

For dinner, I had a 3-oz. lean hamburger on a bun, no cheese, vegetarian baked beans, and a small serving of boxed mac-n-cheese (organic, mind you). For dessert, I had a 60-calorie popsicle. When I got hungry later, I made some air-popped popcorn with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.

So you tell me, since this was a fairly typical day of eating, does a diet like this sound like the kind of diet that is going to make someone that works out 5 to 6 days a week gain weight? I don't think it does. But it does. So apparently, for as knowledgeable as I think I am in the world of nutrition and health, I don't know as much as I think I know. Or I am in so much denial that I can't see the bad in my regular diet, maybe because I don't want to change my eating habits. I don't know.

Anyway, let me move on to something positive. I've been lifting weights at the gym for almost four months now. I really enjoy this form of exercise. Just recently, I realized that I can't continue to let the cardio workouts take a backseat (I was only doing them maybe twice a week if I was lucky), so I've been trying to do 25 minutes each day of cardio, then about 20 minutes of lifting. I really feel good about this routine. My cardio is hard. I sweat, and I like the way that makes me feel. I sweat when I lift, too, because I'm lifting heavy. At least it is heavy for me. I do 15-pound bicep curls with free weights. Same for chest flys (or is that flies?). Triceps aren't as strong, so I probably do 10-pound free weights for those. My legs are strong, so I can do 20 or 25 pounds in each hand for squats. My shoulders are sensitive so I never try to push them too much. They're in that range, too. But all this muscle building makes me feel strong, and I like to feel strong. 

So today's thing I like about my body: my strength. Yay, me!