My Week Of Food, Fitness, And WI

Good Morning (as it is almost 1am here in Idaho right now). Kenyon and I just got home from seeing “A Walk in The Woods.” It was a bit slow but a cute movie with several laugh-out-loud moments.

My goals at the start of the week was to ramp up the intensity of my activity, to keep sweets to a minimum, and to conserve as many WPPA as I can for Saturday. Up until this morning all three of those goals were right on track. As of now I have recently figured up the PPVs of my impromptu breakfast at Marie Calendars and realized I spent 22 WPPA for an omelet.

That meant I only had 10 DPA left and I guarantee you, I ate more than 10 PPVs for lunch let alone dinner. Hey, two out of three ain't bad and at least I don't have to WI for a whole week!

Here are my trackers and what I have been eating:

I pre-tracked on Monday and saw I wasn't using many PPVs. I added an extra egg when I cooked breakfast. I ran to the store to pick up some grocery items during my lunch break. I debated getting some bakery granola to top my yogurt with since I had extra DPA available. I also debated getting a Reese's pumpkin candy bar when I got the register. I opted for the bakery granola. It was a wise choice.

On Tuesday I met Kenyon for breakfast to redeem a 2 for 1 coupon I received for my birthday from Original Pancake House. I ordered an omelet and subbed fruit in place of pancakes. Since that was my early AM breakfast (from getting off work Monday night/Tuesday morning) I tacked it onto my Tuesday so I could try and off-set those high PPVs with the rest of my food day. It worked out pretty good. I wasn't in the mood for eggs so I had a leftover pancake with peanut butter when I woke up before work. Boy did that hit the spot.

On Thursday we went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse to use a $5 off coupon. In the past I have never really had much luck getting my steak cooked right but I just didn't feel like chicken. I ordered my steak medium/well since every time I say well done it is really, really well done. The steak came out pink and had juices running. Yuck! No way was I going to eat that. I asked her to just throw the steak back on the grill for a few more minutes. A short time later the manager delivered my steak, along with a side of mashed potatoes. I cut into it and could see, once again, it was pink. I knew they did not put my steak back on the grill and instead brought me a whole new steak. I didn't want to send it back a second time and waste another steak just because I don't like my meat to be pink (that's what she said).

Our waitress returned asking if they got my steak right. I explained that the new steak was still too pink for me but that I wasn't going to send it back. I would just microwave it when I got home. She felt horrible. She returned with our bill and a $20 coupon for our next visit. I felt bad for complaining so that was very nice of her.

I warmed up my steak cooking out the extra pink in the micorwave and ate it at home. I wasn't quite satisfied. I still had quite a few PPV left and it was all-you-can-fill for $4 at Aspen Leaf Yogurt. I love all-you-can-fill days because that means I can pack on the fruit. I made a deal that I would get a little yougrt and a lot of fruit. I also treated myself to one scoop of Reese's peanut butter cups. Oh man did the froyo hit the spot!

When we got home from froyo Kenyon saw he had another Outback Steakhouse coupon but this time for $8. It had the same expiration date, this Sunday. So, we went to Outback Steakhouse again before our movie. We used the $8 coupon and the $20 coupon so our dinner was just $6. Not a bad deal. I ordered the chicken this time!

I have gotten I some good activity this week. Sunday during my mental breakdown I worked out heard on the treadmill at work. Monday I walked the stairs at work. By Tuesday my calves were killing me! I took a long walk on Thursday to Axiom to cancel my gym membership I have no been using. I have earned 17 APs for this week.

Since tomorrow is the end of my week I am pretty much out of WPPA. We are celebrating October birthdays downtown and I am going to have fun regardless of the PPVs. I don't want to be hyper forced on it but I also want to stay mindful. I think bottom line what has been helping me is lose weight is keeping that sugar in check. I need to keep this in mind when I am celebrating tomorrow. I will have my whole DPA available as I'll have just woken up from sleeping before we head downtown. I'll also make sure to eat a healthy breakfast.

Speaking of losing weight, I had a great WI this week at my WW meeting and then dropped a little more the next day when I got on my scale at home. The scale is going in the right direction.

Pizza Chicken

Last week while I was watching TV on the couch (not much else to do on days off when you work night shift) I decided I was hungry and start thinking about what to make. I have some polenta on hand in the pantry and though about making some polenta pizzas. Kenyon is trying to keep is carbs in check and I didn't really need to be spending extra PPVs. So I decided to make the pizza on top of a breast of chicken.

When I asked Kenyon if he wanted any he said he would wait and see how mine turned out. I'll admit, it does sound weird to put pepperoni pizza toppings on top of a chicken breast. But I figured I'd try it. I cooked my frozen chicken breast in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes before flipping it over to the other side. I seasoned it with a little Red Robin seasoning during cooking.

Once the chicken was fully cooked I took it out of the oven and put it onto a cutting board. I decided I'd cut into the chicken to make sure it was fully cooked and then stuff my pizza ingredients inside vs put them on top. I added a mix of tomato sauce and tomato paste, which I get already seasoned with garlic and basil, some turkey pepperoni slices, and some sliced mozzarella/provolone cheese we had on hand. I added some additional sauce to the top of the chicken beast and put it back into the oven, still at 400 degrees, for another 10 minutes.

side note: I changed the foil under the chicken as I didn't want all the cooking chicken stuff to be on my final chicken breast.

It turned out really well. It was so yummy that Kenyon ate half of my chicken breast. I made him two additional ones and stole half of one of his. I topped his with extra cheese on top and since I forgot to take a photo before I dug into mine, I remembered to take a photo of his.

We almost went out to eat late last night/early this morning but when I remembered I had everything on hand to make another round of pizza chicken we stayed in and had that instead. On this round we added olives. I think some cooked bell pepper strips would be good too. The possibilities are endless, it is just about how much you can stuff into a chicken breast!

Mental Breakdown

This has been a rough week that has exhausted every bone in my body and tested every bit of my patience. I’ll be happy to see the weekend start…as soon as I complete my six- hour shift tonight.

Sunday was brutal. For some reason my confidence level was really low and I was struggling bad. My trainer picked up on this and commented it in my evaluation at the end of our shift. This seemed to open the flood gates of uncontrolled fits of crying. Could. Not. Stop. Crying. I was feeling everything from frustration for not picking up the job nature faster to embarrassment for looking so stupid most of the time. It was the first time the thoughts of quitting actually ran through my mind. I had serious doubts I was ever going to figure out how to take a 911 call properly.

side note: no food was harmed (i.e. consumed) during this mental breakdown

I had quite the pity party on Sunday night and my anger and frustration fueled a pretty intense workout. I went to bed still feeling lost and woke up Monday afternoon with a massive headache. I told Kenyon I didn’t want to go to work and proceeded to start crying again as I explained to him how much of a failure I was. I am very lucky to have such a supportive spouse as Kenyon told me he had faith in me that I can do this job. I got dressed and headed to work.

My friend Jamie and I exchanged a few text messages before I left the house and she called me just as I pulled into the parking garage at work. Talking with her about my thought process over the last 24 hours had fresh tears in my eyes and me making ugly crying noises from my mouth (damn you hormones). I had managed to pull myself together to walk into work avoiding eye contact so nobody saw the red tint to my eyes. I was just about to go out onto the dispatch floor when the supervisor Beth asks to talk to me.

If you are still reading this long story I am sure you can guess what happened next. Yep, I cried even more. I am surprised I had anything left in me. Beth was very encouraging and listened to all that had been said to my friends/family but not actually to anybody within the department. She told me that she didn’t want to see me go but that it always should come down to me being happy. I told her that I am not a quitter and that it would be silly to quit before I even got a chance to talk on the radio. We talked about working on my confidence and believing that I can do this job. It will be hard and the program is designed to come in small “bites” so it is more manageable. She also said it will get better but then adding something new means it will get bad again. It is just part of learning. I once again pulled myself together to start my 12-hour shift. During my first break I opened my locker and saw this elephant photo with some words of encouragement inside.

It really made my day. I am glad I had a talk with Beth. My Monday shift went better. It was a slow night with few calls but I felt it went well. My 12-hour shift on Tuesday also went well. I’ve been talking to my trainer on the things I am to be working on. I will admit, I still struggle with her abrupt nature, impatience, and sometimes the tone of voice she uses to talk to me. However, I am working at being less sensitive to it. This is a BIG task in itself.

My friends, family, ISP coworkers, and NPD coworkers are all very encouraging. It is nice to have so many people in my corner rallying for me to not give up. When I woke up yesterday afternoon Jamie left me a text message that she got me a Dutch Bros coffee and left it outside my door along with some bread from Great Harvest. When I called to thank her she said the broista at Dutch Bros didn’t even charge her for my drink when he heard about my struggles with the new job. I also go an email from Jamie’s husband Kevin talking about his struggles when he was forced to change jobs because of layoffs at his company.

We all struggle with all different aspect of life. Whether it be medical, weight loss, new job, school, etc remember you are never in it alone. I need to work on my confidence and continue to tell myself that I CAN do this job.