Day Twenty: Craving for Convenience

I'm a little weirded out by my lack of cravings so far. I miss salt, butter, oil, cheese, etc, but so far it hasn't been a compulsion to resist, just the simple thought that my food would taste better with ____.

On the other hand, I'm a total addict of convenience. None of you need me to tell you what a pain in the ass it is to make every meal, every day. The nights I lay around, imagining something delivered or made by a friend, the deep craving is for me to show up and just have the right food already ready already. Just typing that sentence made me nostalgic.

I might be in luck. A new-ish friend just came back from vacation. Right before she left, she had us over to dinner with her family and I want to reciprocate, but there just isn't that much I've made so far that I'd want to share--and she's got four kids, who aren't picky but are still kids. So I told her about the project and she responded with this awesome full week of meal plans she'd put together for her husband a little while ago--including snacks and lots of whole grains and egg whites. It was gorgeous. It included salt and oil, but in quite small amounts, and some of the meals had beans or pork tenderloin instead of fish for protein, but I wouldn't feel like I was cheating eating any of them. I'll still need to cook the whole family a bang-up dinner or three at some point, but perhaps, in the meantime, I can go over to her house and eat something delicious, PCP-friendly, and COOKED BY SOMEONE ELSE just once before then?

In other subjects, Patrick had asked about changes we'd noticed at the end of this third week. I've definitely lost lots of fat in the middle of my body. When I was on vacation in July, my old jeans died--developed unstoppable holes in inappropriate places. So I headed to the Gap for replacements, and they didn't have my size available in a short enough length. Needing something immediate, I settled for the next size down despite the giant muffin top. Those jeans now fit well. I have extra room in the legs and seat and no trouble sitting in them for hours. Whoo!

Finally, the workouts. The pace is the best thing about them. I start, and then basically don't stop for more than a few seconds until the whole thing is over. And then it's done for the day, to vast relief. These last couple of days, I've been trying to be more present--really paying attention to my muscles working instead of letting my mind drift while my mouth counts. Makes the burn stronger! Showering within half an hour of some of the shoulder exercises has become a little difficult since my arms don't want to reach up high enough to shampoo. And then walking down the steep hill punctuated by stairs that takes me to work can be a little tricky, too. A couple of times, I've had to slow down and be really careful--wouldn't want to end the program early with a broken ankle.

Okay, that's probably enough. Apparently I had a lot to share tonight.