A New Beginning

Weight 170 pounds

That number looks better. Last week I'd gained another half pound which put me at 174 so I buckled down and got more serious. Also, last week school started and I was much more active. Another side benefit from being back in school is that I don't have access to food as much as I do on vacations.

My summer vacation just flew by this year. They always seem to go fast, but this one especially so. I had to move from one classroom to another on the other side of the building so I spent quite a bit of time at school moving and setting up a new room. Then there was all the time I wasted in front of the boob tube. My intentions for this past summer were to stay active working in my yard and helping with a large garden at my mom's place in Escalon. You know what they say about good intentions (in case you don't, the road to hell is paved with them). I did work in my yard and plant some new jasmine and honeysuckle vines along with some ground cover, but that was about it. I seem to get more done when I don't have as much time to do it in. Maybe it's the discipline of being back in school, but I'm more productive at home during the school year. Go figure.

One thing I'm planning on doing at school is to be more physically active with my class. Having kindergartners, at this time of the year, I need to take activity breaks often during our mornings to let them get their wiggles out. So instead of just supervising the activity, I am joining in with them. Besides the benefit of providing comic relief for my kids, I get in a little extra exercise. I'm also taking them out for P.E. and am more of a participant there as well. This year we have three kindergarten classes at Van Allen and a couple of times a week I will be taking half of them out for P.E. while the other half are playing indoors. Yesterday was the first day we did this and the kids did well considering it was the first P.E. lesson. I'm looking forward to a very active year!

Vacation Indiscretions

Monday, August 8, 2011.

Weight 173.5 Gain of 3.5 pounds.

No surprise at the gain. I've been sliding quite a bit lately. Last week I was on vacation for a few days on the coast. Thursday through Sunday I did very well with watching what I ate. To save some money as well as calories, this time I brought an ice chest along and packed it with fruits, vegetables, yogurt, low fat deli meats, pancakes and turkey bacon. So most of my meals I stayed pretty much on my eating plan. However, on Monday I went nuts.

One of my favorite television channels is, of course, the Food Network. A couple of years ago I was watching an episode of "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" and a little hole in the wall cafe in San Francisco was one of the diners featured. The name of the place is "Dottie's True Blue Cafe". It's on Jones Street near Union Square. They serve the most wonderful, creative foods - all made there in the kitchen. It's a very small place with a line of people out the door waiting to be seated. Although they are famous for their blueberry cornmeal pancakes I ordered one of the daily specials, chocolate chip, butterscotch chip french toast with chicken apple sausage. Oh yummm!

Then I hopped on a cable car and it was on to Fisherman's Wharf. I walked around looking at all of the tourist trap places and managed to resist the temptation to spend a bunch of money there. The Exploratorium is a place I've never visited and I decided to walk to it from the Wharf. It's over two miles, but it was a nice, cool, overcast day and I enjoyed the walk. I arrived at the Exploratorium only to be told that it's closed to the public on Mondays. As I turned around to walk the two miles back to the wharf I fantasized about what I was going to order at Ghiradelli Square. By the time I got there I had decided against totally blowing my diet by indulging in Ghiradelli chocolate. Score one for me.

That evening the lure of dinner at an Italian restuarant in North Beach, however, was too much to resist. I walked up and down the street trying to decide where to further blow my diet. Finally I chose to eat outside at Volare. An order of spaghetti with meatballs, french bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a glass of white wine anda piece of double chocolate cake later I headed back to the motel for the evening.

I probably could have avoided gaining as much as I did if my "naughty" eating was confined to Monday. However, I continued to make unwise choices until Thursday morning when I went back to the gym to work out. All in all, I didn't do too badly. Going on vacation used to be just one long excuse to eat whatever I wanted. That didn't happen this time and I feel very good about that.