I went to bed about 1am last night and was up by 7:30a.  I heard the alarm go off and was up.  So I'm going to try and get an early start on my exercise and knock it.

Last night, I baked the chicken in the oven and steamed some brocolli.  I put Butter Buds on the brocolli. 



Nice meal.  Little clean-up (caserole pan and the vegetable steamer).  Not too bad.  They both washed up quickly in the sink.  It's not worth putting them in the dishwasher.

Today, I intended to do 500 ab crunches and 40 minutes on the exercise bike but ended up doing 1,000 ab crunches, 60 minutes on the bike and 20 push-ups on the stairs.  I haven't done that level of exercise since before my PS in mid-June. 

Since my last fill, I have been struggling with getting enough solid protein in at lunch & dinner so today for lunch, I eliminated the Wasa crackers and had 3oz of lean turkey lunch meat (Oscar Mayer) with mustard in a condiment bowl for dipping and a peeled & cored pear.



Getting the protein in each day is the most important thing.  Next would be complex carbs which are also in fruits and vegetables so the whole grain ones are always optional.

I took out some pre-marinated teriyake chicken breasts (CostCo) to thaw for dinner tonight.



And some wild sockeye salmon (Trader Joe's) for dinner tomorrow.



I hope the salmon is good.  It's more expensive than the grocery store but I've read that wild salmon is alot better for you than farm raised.  Plus I think the flavor is milder.

I just finished my work-out today.  I intended to do 500 ab crunches and 40-45 minutes on the exercise bike.  I ended up doing 1,000 ab crunches and 60 minutes plus 20 push-ups on the stair-case.  Mostly because I was watching some stuff I had recorded and lost track of time on the bike.  I saw the Oprah episode where she had teens who had WLS.  I got about 1/2 way through the episode so I'll have something to watch tomorrow.

I feel very tired but energized and accomplished.  I haven't knocked out this level of exercise since before my PS in mid-June.  So this is huge.  Although, I did do 750 ab crunches last week and had been back up to about 500 a day for the past couple weeks.

I don't know that 1,000 crunches versus 500 really makes that much of a difference physically but mentally, it does.

Although I need to take a shower, I decided to blog, cool off and then I am going to go downstairs and try to finish sanding the walls in the basement.  There are a few spots that need more spackle but I'm about 80% done with the sanding.  Maybe I can finish that up, touch up the spots that need it and then sand those down later tonight or tomorrow.  Then it's time for priming & painting.
 

Today we went to the grocery store and spent $83 but that included Febreeze, a new baking soda to put in the fridge and some other non-food items.  There was a lady in line who spent $88 on her groceries and had all canned vegetables.  When you look at my groceries, there's an obvious difference.



It's almost all fresh produce.  I also bought some sugar free jell-o pudding, sugar free grape jelly and some fresh granola (Bear Naked and a generic / bulk granola).  There were 2 boxes of South Beach Diet meal replacement bars and a box of Carnation Instant Breakfasts. 

We didn't buy any meat since 1) I have a freezer full of chicken breasts and parts from CostCo and 2) I don't usually know what I want to eat that far out.  Normally, I think about a lean protein for dinner and go pick it up that night.  The other items that I would normally add are: skim milk, lunch meat and Wasa crackers but I already had those.

A friend sent me this link talking about how the media is making it more acceptable to be overweight, maybe even celebrating it.  I feel that these images and messages are lost in the plethora of images and messaging that says we should all be a size 0 or toothpick thin.  That young girls have poor body images because of what the media (MTV, movies, television shows, etc.) depicts as the "desired state". 

That, combined with fast food, drive throughs, high fructose corn syrup and home automation (remote controls, automatic garage door openers, gas powered lawn equipment, etc.) all have driven our ability to consume many more calories than we burn off.  We've become a society of "instant gratification" using food, shopping, gambling, drugs, alcohol and sex to tickle some part of our brains to give us a rush of endorphins and a feeling of happiness.  But it's shortlived.  We end up realizing we didn't change anything.  We still are unhappy with who we are, where we are in life or what we have or don't have. 

Learning to be happy in our skins can be challenging.  I think when I was heavy, I first hated myself, felt unattractive and beat myself up mentally.  Then I slowly came to accept my body as a "given".  As I become more self-confident, some might have mis-read my acceptance of being overweight as being proud of it but that was never the case.  I just came to accept the fact that 1) I was not attracted to overweight people, 2) that everyone's definition of attractive is different and 3) some people will find me attractive physically or mentally.  The real challenge is finding someone you find attractive and who finds you equally attractive.  Hopefully, you are attracted to that person for who they are (funny, witty, charming, intelligent or caring) instead of what they look like.  Judge Judy says it best when she says, "Beauty fades but dumb is forever."  If the only thing you like about the person you are with is what they look like, you will eventually grow tired of them.  You have to have a variety of things that you like to find a lasting relationship that grows closer over time instead of drifting apart.