Battling the Bulge

I have no earthly idea of where I am at diet-wise at this point. It has been almost two weeks of chaos since I left for the States and I honestly just have gone with the flow to preserve my sanity.

I have had the interesting opportunity to try a bit of the South Beach Diet cuisine because it is the diet du jour for my brother and I have to say it’s quite tasty! My sister in law, who is a fabulous cook is very supportive of his dieting endeavors and because she is a stay at home mom, she cooks dinner for us. She is really organized and prepares these fabulous marinades and freezes lots of chicken breasts ahead of time so she can simply pull them out of the freezer to cook. That way, they marinate as they thaw throughout the day.

We freeze our chicken breasts, but I never thought to add the marinade prior to freezing. Genius! And way yummy! One of my recipes was a chili-citrus marinade and another had teryaki (sp?) which was divine! The other thing that I LOVE was a white fish fillet that was baked but topped with a thin layer of ricotta and spiced chopped tomatoes. To DIE for and so healthy! Add some yummy roast veggies and I am in heaven. Since it is so cold here, the warm food is comforting.

An interesting note is that things taste different to me now. Milk, eggs, beef, vegetables, and water, even. Here things taste different than they do in Australia. My, what an odd thing - that I truly did not expect. Not bad, mind you - just different. Except vegetables. Here, because of the season, the poor veggies look a bit anemic.

One of the things that I have started to do is to eat a few nuts about an hour before each meal. That has done wonders for my hunger - I am not ravenous before meals now, which is a nice feeling. Thanks, Dr. Oz! I haven’t had time to read any more of the You on a Diet book but that was one tip that I picked up. Now if I only could push myself to drink more water!

So much has happened since I arrived that I haven’t processed it all. If you want details, I will post more on my other blog in the coming days. It involves a mess at LAX (including one of my suitcases being deemed ‘abandoned’ and therefore a security risk), lots of poopy diapers, screaming children, flat tires, massive sleep deprivation along with a serious case of jet lag, sensory overload, driving on the wrong side of the road at night, and much more.

Despite it all, I have managed to eat alright - I have had a bit of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, to tell you the truth, but the South Beach Diet cuisine seems to have really done the trick. I have made sure that I have had healthy snacks (bananas, apples, cheese and nuts) and have tried to drink mostly water. The real problem is the lack of exercise.

At my office, there are stairs that go up to the loft area where my office is and I can tell that I haven’t really had to climb stairs in the past year and I can tell - It has really done a number on my knees. I am so out of shape. Even the work that I have done in the gym in the 2 months before I left Australia did not undo the havoc that I have wreaked upon my body in the past year. I have LOTS of work to do.

I have no excuse any more - I have recovered sufficiently to start kicking my own ass again. I have my workout DVDs with me, and my brother has a Bowflex. My beloved elliptical is nowhere to be seen, unfortunately, but I can work on my core strength, which is probably for the best. Six weeks of that can’t be bad for me.

My old standard line is that ‘I just don’t want the numbers on the scale to go up’, but now I want them to go DOWN. I am not satisfied. And I no longer want to let myself off the hook!