real food comming soon

Well I found this sign in the window of a restaurant space and I thought it was funny at the time, hilarious now.

I think grocery shopping is so much easier/faster when you primarily visit the produce, seafood, bakery and dairy. 90 percent of the store is off limits/irrelevant. How liberating!

Speaking of food, this big guy is my BFF, Cliff. He was in a real funk when his share of the 1/2 meals ended, week two. But he is back on his game today, enjoying my discarded hard boiled egg yolks each day during snack.

We almost lost Cliff in November (he's an old dude, 15 or so) to a nasty lung infection. We took him home from the vet's and tried to think of something he might like to eat, so we boiled a chicken with some barley, brown rice, carrots, celery, potatoes and green beans, mushed it up and fed it to him with a syringe. Low and behold he bounced back! He has been eating this "soup" ever since and seems much healthier and happier. As I was making his food today it occurred to me that it is very PCP friendly. No salt either. Hmmm, I might have some for dinner. 

The workouts are going great and I am getting more sleep! 7 hours is genius. But I am a bit ticked off at the pull-ups. I can do a few real chin-ups with the hand position reversed but cannot even imagine doing a proper pull up... And my skipping rope broke today. Hardcore or what?! I am finding the abs a bit too... um, easy... so I've added my old ab routine at the end. I am sure I will regret this or drop it at some point.

The last few photoshoots I have done I have noticed how much easier it is to haul my camera equipment, tripods, ladders around by myself. This is awesome!

But the weekend was a challenge with several social outings which resulted in me not eating enough or cheating (as in puff pastry) because I was unprepared and let's face it: WEAK in the company of caramelized onion, dried fig and feta pizza... (on puff pastry).

But I hope everyone is grooving on the sweet goodness of those fruit snacks...

sweet weekend

I did make it through my deadline and "snack attack" last night, but just barely. Somewhere in the wee hours I ate a tiny bit of my breakfast food just to shut my mind up. The bigger cheat was only getting a few hours sleep. Chocolate bar is still intact although I may have to wrap it with duct tape going forward.

Some funny reactions to the new diet Patrick sent. One: I got more snackage added... um, an egg white (not exactly what I had in mind last night). Note to self... careful what you wish for. Also, a friend looked at my food grams and proclaimed, "He's trying to beef you up." Hmmm, I have to admit, the thought has occurred to me.

Had another crazy start this morning but got going even earlier to prep some food and skip. Love it. Up to sets of 250 occasionally. Not always. Sometimes I get to five.

Had boiled egg, sprouted bread, steamed yam and spinach for breakfast. Pear and cinnamon for snack. Lunch was a tuna panini... not the sashimi I had requested (panini sounds like sashimi apparently). I took the cheese off, ate the sandwich with cucumber on the side but felt gross after. Too heavy, mayo and not enough veg. Next time I will not be so polite. To "make up" for getting the sushi wrong, the caterer brought me three chocolate chip cookies as "a surprise" with my coffee. I considered licking them, but gave them away instead.

When I asked for skim milk, another acquaintance said, "Skim? You should be drinking cream by the glass..." I have to say, being relatively slim does not net much sympathy on a "diet". I have started to call it this my chemistry project instead. I have one skinny-fat friend and she gets it. We both want to be lean and mean (strong). I also want to be badass.

Tonight I am finally at my last destination of the day, a retreat on the edge of Porpoise Bay inlet in the Village of Sechelt, BC. on a travel assignment. Along with lugging my camera equipment, laptop, scale, workout gear etc. I packed in all my own food. I will be having steamed prawns, brown rice, spinach and cucumber with potatoes for dinner. Chopped cherries and blueberries with a bit of yogurt later for snack. Lucky! Then I am going to sit in that steamy hot tub and go to bed.

It's official. I am really going to try and get my sleep situation in order. Surrender and follow the "rules".

Happy weekend everyone. Happy eating.

hit me with your best shot

I am having difficulty sticking to the snacking schedule. I mean I am sticking to it, but I am not liking it at all today. I wish I had written yesterday, when I was IN LOVE with my sweet, succulent fruit cup at 3pm. I carried it all the way from a cafe in downtown Vancouver to the ferry terminal (on the bus) feeling very smug and health-nutty. I ate it slowly during the ferry trip, while seemingly everyone else ate french fries. I thought, "Those poor, dear souls, they just don't know what they're missing."

Today is the opposite. This afternoon I opened the fridge and thought: "I don't want a f-ing fruit snack."

So what's the diff? Today I am really behind and facing insane deadlines, so it is prime snack time. Plus, I don't have a nice fruit salad all prepped and ready for me, just plain apples and pears. Besides, I prefer crunchy things and chocolate when I am freaking out about deadlines. Luckily I cleared the cupboards of those temptations save a 99% dark chocolate bar (for serious emergencies only).

I fear I have a lot to do tonight and not nearly enough snackage to get me through it... Plus, I am anxious about upcoming diet allotments.... What if there are less snacks! I have to go back to the city tomorrow and I have no food prepared.... a dangerous situation to be sure.... yes, anxiety driven snacking. My nemesis.

Eeeks. Okay, deep breath. I am thinking... success at the PCP is maybe similar to me trying to be more successful at meeting my deadlines. For both I need ample:

Preparation
Commitment
Focus and...
Coffee!



(and just a few more snacks please)... xx C 

best news I've had all day!

"...even a very thin crust pesto pizza is possible."

(from Patrick's Day 12 email).

you've got to be kidding

Just read Patrick's email. Eight hours sleep? I'm screwed. I think I average six hours, with at least one all-night work frenzy a month. Like tonight is probably going to be, and the first night of the new decree. Jeez. But wait a minute, what time zone/PCP day am I on? Maybe I can start tomorrow! Yes! I am really going to try but honestly I don't know how to carve out that much time to just sleep... good luck everyone.

getting into the swing

Day three of the diet and I am onto it. Note to self: raw greens are an overwhelming choice for the veggie allotment unless you want to drown your sorrows in chopped kale. And carbs don't have to be bread: I am enjoying less bulk of heavier things: cooked quinoa, barley, brown rice.

The workouts have ramped up so I am hungrier too. Usually I gain around 5lbs when I work out, so this will be interesting going forward, as I have lost a couple of lbs so far, likely post-christmas revelry, good riddance. Week two pix are up. I think I look the same, but I feel stronger so it's all good.

Breakfast today was two slices sprouted bread (made from sprouted grains rather than flour) toasted and slathered with roasted squash "butter" (literally, just roasted squash mashed up), sliced hardboiled egg and tomato. Bit of cracked black pepper. Three cups of tea and milk... little piggy. Nice.

I love eating like this (although the amounts are still double my choosing)... sans sugar especially and with the protein, makes me feel even in temperament and clean in body. And the workouts are energizing, once I figured out the pull up thing. Now I just use my stationary pull up bar attached to the door frame, using a chair seat and booster positioned to raise my feet and body.

Hope your week is going well so far too... I am both distracted and sad by world events overnight.

All good wishes.

oh my goodness

Okay, day one of the new diet and oh my, that's a lot of food for me. At first I was like "Yeehaw, bring on the toast..." but by lunch I figured there must be a mistake, my diet has been mixed up with a vegetable-loving linebacker's diet... Now it is nearly midnite and I still haven't eaten my whole dinner allotment, plus I have milk and fruit to consume... This is stressing me out a bit.