35 days

Since I’ve been getting emails from readers and in the comments, including from folks I don’t even know read me, requesting password and coaxing me to let them read and since am oh-so-flattered that, I am in fact helping others, I figured I’d not do this pwd protection after all.Generous me right?  The truth is, I am in fact, quite happy. As in, whether I lose weight or not, at least a handful of ones are all making an effort to make the move in the right direction. That sure is a pleasant feeling, and thank you. Sometimes all it requires is a little push and it can come from the most bizarre places, including online countdown moms! 🙂 

Foods:

1. 1st glass of warm water
2. 1 cup of coffee
3. 1/2 cup of oatmeal + 2 tsp of yogurt (this stuff is gooood! I added water to 1/2 cup of oats, nuked it for a minute, added 2 spoons of yogurt, filled the 12 oz glass with water, a dash of salt, mixed it up and gulped it down. Q delicious if I may say so myself!) 
4. 2nd glass of water
5. 1.5 cups of rice + dondakka curry + mango daal.
6. 3rd glass of water
7. 1/2 cup of coffee
8. 5 tbsp of semiya payasam-halwa-whatever thingy. (went to visit a friend who underwent a similar and more complicated knee surgery and her mom literally opened my mouth and shoved these in albeit with so much love, that I couldn’t refuse. I was half good tho’ – leaving more than 1/2 the bowl full on the table. She must be disappointed coz if one could count the times I refused politely, one would be forced to think that I was throwing all my weight round… Heavens knows I have plenty and more to spare!) 
9. 1 murukku (I had to have this piece to get rid of all that sugar in my mouth. Like the caboose of it all. With that, you may stick a fork in me, I am so done *Sigh) 
10. 4th glass of water  (It’s only 3.30 pm and I think I’ve maxed myself out completely. In fact, am beginning to feel lethargic, sleepy and icky inside my stomach. *gah The urge to crawl upstairs into my cozy bed is irresistible. The house is quiet, with each doing their own thing in silence. It’s siesta time, with outside temps touching 30 F, the body wants to hibernate. The mind is resisting. Common sense tells me I need to go to the gym NOW. The daughter and husband are on their way back from the tournament and once they get here by 5, I might have to visit a cousin’s prayer thingy, and then the gym would close by then. So yes, I shall go. Gawd! There’s this little devil with a pitchfork sitting on my left shoulder poking my eyes shut. *sigh. But no, am gonna knock the guy down with his own pitchfork and sprint upstairs, change and head out. Sense shall prevail!) 
11. 5th glass of water 
12. 6th glass of water 
13. Salad – cup of frozen cooked corn, baby carrots, and cucumber, with a dash of salt and lime and chopped coriander. 
14. 1 cup of Light Silk Soy Milk. 

The journal that I am now using at mycaloriecounter tells me that I’ve wolfed down 1229 calories. I’ve of course overshot the sugar levels and am now running in red for that (heh, this place does the math in targeted and actual consumed). I did go to the gym and apart from the weights I run through, did the HIIT workout today.  It suggests that you increase and decrease intensity level, but I chose to do the speed. To me, that worked, and in effect, results to the same; Increased heart rate. My workout today:

15.26 minutes of bike at level 4 to cover 2 miles. For every 4 minutes, I increased speed. 4 minutes of 8.5-9 mph and then 1 minute of 11.5-12 mph. I will be picking the speed up a little more over the days and also shorten interval times see the effect it has after a week.

The knee, am glad to report has been behaving itself and though it does look like a well fed twin compared to the skinny left one. Maybe it’s gotten used to what am putting it through. 

I am continuing a couple of Pilates exercises. The ones that target the abs, butt and the legs are actually working great! The leg exercises are a modified version of the PT ones I am used to doing. A couple of the abs ones are effective. Very. Despite it being two days (though I continued do the moves today and yest at home) there’s an ache deep inside the core somewhere way behind the belly button, every time I cough or move in a way that engages it. It’s tolerable and hardly complaint-worthy. 

The weights am sure helped in their way, but adding the Pilates has most definitely showed an improvement. My mother made a positive remark when she landed home from the sister’s. If a mom can say something good, it surely must be better than good? 😉 

And o, this is what I gazed and managed 15 minutes in a blink of an eye, while elliptical-ing: The tux was of no help at all. 

On a separate, mom-brag note: daughter’s team won 2nd place at State’s. They had a grueling 4 hour entrance exam (for a specialized High school admission) on Sat AM for which they’ve been working very hard for a few months, and then as soon as they got out at 12.30, we trooped them into a van with Pizzas to go and the coach race-car-speed-drove to Harrisonburg (James Madison U) to make it on time for a Presentation at 2.45 pm. They made it, presented it, and won it. Cool huh?!