Hmm, I might be hitting a little bit of a plateau. I was hoping for a loss after last week's gain-for-no-reason, but instead I had another little gain-for-no-reason. I'm not sure why the scale/my body is doing what it's doing right now, but I'll be patient. I gained .8 pounds this week, for a total of 2 pounds lost since I started Getting There.
2/16 170.4
2/23 171.5
3/2 168.4
3/9 170.6
3/16 166.7
3/23 167.6
3/30 168.4
The week started out slow, but the last few days I've been so busy that as I sit down to write this post on Friday night (I'll just update with my stats tomorrow morning), I'm just as tired as I was last week... but I won't wuss out with a super-short post two weeks in a row. However, I might be slightly incoherent. You know how simple things become complicated when you're exhausted? I can usually figure out how tired I am at night by how long it takes me to figure out what time I need to set the alarm for. If I stop to reread and edit this as many times as I usually do, I may never get to bed. Bed sounds really good right now! So I'm not going to overthink anything in this post.
I am excited to report that I love, love, love my new job! I'm a happy sushi chef. :) I haven't ever had a job that engages me on as many levels as this one... My body is moving nonstop, maneuvering around the kitchen to prep ingredients or roll the sushi, filling the case, unpacking food orders, running to the walk-in freezer for supplies (and climbing up the shelves like a monkey in a few cases when the ladder just isn't tall enough)... I get to spend plenty of time in my own head, quietly prepping or rolling or packaging, but there's lots of opportunity for social interaction as well. Not only do I click really well with my primary co-worker Jessica, but I also get to spend a few hours every day sampling our food and talking to customers about sushi. We use really fresh ingredients that taste so good together, I know that everything we're putting out there is delicious (although it may not all appeal to everyone!), even if I think it's a little overpriced- it's cheaper than most restaurant sushi, and better for you than fast food. It would be hard for me to make/sell something that I didn't think was a really good product, and I don't have that problem here. I also get to be creative... we're encouraged to try new rolls and see if they sell. My coworker Jessica and I were excited to experiment with the bean curd today, and we made some beautiful and delicious Inari!
2/16 170.4
2/23 171.5
3/2 168.4
3/9 170.6
3/16 166.7
3/23 167.6
3/30 168.4
The week started out slow, but the last few days I've been so busy that as I sit down to write this post on Friday night (I'll just update with my stats tomorrow morning), I'm just as tired as I was last week... but I won't wuss out with a super-short post two weeks in a row. However, I might be slightly incoherent. You know how simple things become complicated when you're exhausted? I can usually figure out how tired I am at night by how long it takes me to figure out what time I need to set the alarm for. If I stop to reread and edit this as many times as I usually do, I may never get to bed. Bed sounds really good right now! So I'm not going to overthink anything in this post.
I am excited to report that I love, love, love my new job! I'm a happy sushi chef. :) I haven't ever had a job that engages me on as many levels as this one... My body is moving nonstop, maneuvering around the kitchen to prep ingredients or roll the sushi, filling the case, unpacking food orders, running to the walk-in freezer for supplies (and climbing up the shelves like a monkey in a few cases when the ladder just isn't tall enough)... I get to spend plenty of time in my own head, quietly prepping or rolling or packaging, but there's lots of opportunity for social interaction as well. Not only do I click really well with my primary co-worker Jessica, but I also get to spend a few hours every day sampling our food and talking to customers about sushi. We use really fresh ingredients that taste so good together, I know that everything we're putting out there is delicious (although it may not all appeal to everyone!), even if I think it's a little overpriced- it's cheaper than most restaurant sushi, and better for you than fast food. It would be hard for me to make/sell something that I didn't think was a really good product, and I don't have that problem here. I also get to be creative... we're encouraged to try new rolls and see if they sell. My coworker Jessica and I were excited to experiment with the bean curd today, and we made some beautiful and delicious Inari!
The platters sold almost as soon as we put them out there, and I think both of us were a little bummed, because whatever doesn't get sold is fair game for the chefs to eat for lunch the next day! Although we're welcome to make our own fresh food for lunch, it's much easier just to grab something that didn't sell from the day before (and less wasteful!).
What I need to watch out for is impulsively grabbing one of our high calorie rolls for lunch or dinner, justifying that I don't want to waste it. That may have been my only food-related mistake this week. My favorite is the Wasabi Crunch- shrimp salad (heavy mayo), avocado and cucumber rolled up in rice and then covered with wasabi mayo, ground up wasabi peas and eel sauce (which contains no eel and is, in fact, mostly sugar). It is delicious! But one roll, which I can eat in under three minutes (I don't know why I judge whether something is worth the calories by how long it takes me to eat it, but I do), is over 700 calories. And it's not very filling- in fact, it makes me want to run and grab another one. You know, so it doesn't go to waste.
What I need to watch out for is impulsively grabbing one of our high calorie rolls for lunch or dinner, justifying that I don't want to waste it. That may have been my only food-related mistake this week. My favorite is the Wasabi Crunch- shrimp salad (heavy mayo), avocado and cucumber rolled up in rice and then covered with wasabi mayo, ground up wasabi peas and eel sauce (which contains no eel and is, in fact, mostly sugar). It is delicious! But one roll, which I can eat in under three minutes (I don't know why I judge whether something is worth the calories by how long it takes me to eat it, but I do), is over 700 calories. And it's not very filling- in fact, it makes me want to run and grab another one. You know, so it doesn't go to waste.
The amount of food waste at the grocery store where my sushi bar is located is STAGGERING. I'm sure it's like that in most major food retailers, but man. Every day I walk back into the warehouse and see pallet after pallet of food that may have passed its shelf life, but I would not hesitate to feed it to my family, and my heart breaks a little to know it's on its way to a dumpster. And Meijer does participate with a local food bank and provides lots of food from its shelves to families in need, but I look at the produce that is just starting to turn, and I know that while they can't sell it to a customer, I wish something could be done other than dumping it. I wish they didn't order so much more than their customers will buy.
On a completely different topic, exercise has gone well this week! I get Tuesdays off, and for the last two weeks I've been meeting my mom at her gym so we can both get in a workout and have some time together. That has been lovely. I've been using the indoor track and I'm happy to say I'm back up to being able to jog for 30 minutes nonstop! My speed is about what it was in the fall... I tend to run a mile in about 12 minutes. I'd like to speed up, but I'm proud that my endurance is back to what it was! Mom's gym is a great place to work out, because it's in a retirement community, and it's the only place where I can be the fastest one on the indoor track and be told "Good job!" and "Keep it up!" I also love to take a quick swim after I jog, and spend a little time in the hot tub and steam room. It makes me want a gym membership of my own very badly, but it's just not in the budget right now. Oh well- it's warming up (finally!) and so I'll take my runs back outdoors sooner or later, and get Chris back out on the tennis court.
Going to wrap up for now... I've got a fun day ahead of me between a breakfast with Chris and Natalie at IHOP, work, lunch at Epic Deli, and a reunion of the FCC Players (theater company I founded about nine years ago) where there will be cake. Oh yes, there will be cake.
On a completely different topic, exercise has gone well this week! I get Tuesdays off, and for the last two weeks I've been meeting my mom at her gym so we can both get in a workout and have some time together. That has been lovely. I've been using the indoor track and I'm happy to say I'm back up to being able to jog for 30 minutes nonstop! My speed is about what it was in the fall... I tend to run a mile in about 12 minutes. I'd like to speed up, but I'm proud that my endurance is back to what it was! Mom's gym is a great place to work out, because it's in a retirement community, and it's the only place where I can be the fastest one on the indoor track and be told "Good job!" and "Keep it up!" I also love to take a quick swim after I jog, and spend a little time in the hot tub and steam room. It makes me want a gym membership of my own very badly, but it's just not in the budget right now. Oh well- it's warming up (finally!) and so I'll take my runs back outdoors sooner or later, and get Chris back out on the tennis court.
Going to wrap up for now... I've got a fun day ahead of me between a breakfast with Chris and Natalie at IHOP, work, lunch at Epic Deli, and a reunion of the FCC Players (theater company I founded about nine years ago) where there will be cake. Oh yes, there will be cake.