Diet update: I've lost 18 lbs

Sunday mornings are my weigh-in days. I’ll sometimes weigh in on other days, but this week I was dreading the scale, as I had over indulged on Friday night and had skipped exercising on Friday too. I was hoping for 197, or at least not more than last week’s 198. I stepped on the scale and waited for my magic number. When it blurted out 194.5 in all its LCD glory, I air pumped a “YES” with my fist. That means I’ve lost 18 lbs now.

In addition to my green smoothies, I think one reason I lost a lot of weight this week (relatively speaking), is that I was finally able to jog a considerable distance. It’s about 3.5 miles from my house, around Lake Nokomis, and back to my door. It’s a path I’ve walked and ran many, many times. As I’ve been getting back into cardio shape, initially I had to walk, run 100 yards, walk, run another short distance, and repeat. In doing this, I’ve gradually been able to increase my running distance.

One mistake that I’ve made is to forget that I’m prone to plantar fasciitis. I do stretch nearly every day, but I need to give special attention to this. The tendons from my calf to my heel seem to be shorter in my left leg than my right. After a particularly great run this week, I awoke to discover I tore a tendon that connects to my heel. I could hardly walk for a couple of days. I’ve been icing it, stretching it, resting it, and I’m wearing a medical boot to bed that keeps my calf tendons from contracting at night. I’ve signed up to run a Halloween 5K race, and I really want to be ready for it. I’ve battled this injury for the last 10 years.

Regarding green smoothies, I was worried that I might grow tired of them, but I have not. I continue to experiment with different green leafy vegetables and different fruits. Eventually, I’ll experiment with spices, such as cinnamon, but for now, I’m just enjoying the natural sweet fruit flavors. I’ve been very consistent in using the green smoothie for a meal replacement. I always have one for lunch. I sometimes have one for breakfast, but sometimes I enjoy just slicing up tomatoes and fruit on a plate for breakfast.

In fact, my favorite snack is sliced tomatoes that are salted and peppered with balsamic vinegar drizzled over them. You know you’re on the right track when you think of sliced tomatoes and your mouth waters. Seriously, this freaked me out the first time it happened.

Another challenge to my diet is that we go out to eat a lot. To address this, I’ve decided that I will always order a salad when I go out to eat, and I’ll try to avoid salads that have a lot of the white carbs in them. This is meeting with success in my diet plan for weight management and in my health plan for more nutritious eating.

With my heel injury and substantial weight loss this week, I’m not expecting next week to be as good, but I’m going to stay the course the best I can.