Sushi and Racquetball

I think two of my favorite healthy things in life are sushi and racquetball. Playing with Cindy this weekend reminded me of how much I love the sport, so I'm actually gearing up to go to bed early so that I can get court time early in the morning before work. I would never be so motivated to get up early just to use the treadmill. I know I am asking for trouble by working out so hard before work, but it'll be worth it. The only thing I hate about racquetball is the glass wall where people can stand and stare. I try to use the gawkers as motivators to force me to play better. If I don't think of them that way, I get self conscious and start to think I don't deserve time on the court because I'm not a good player. That's no way to think, though. After all, no one starts out playing great; we all have to start somewhere.

Today I ate pretty decently. I had an Egg Beater omelette with salsa, an ounce of feta and some avocado slices. For lunch I was at a work event where they served a fattening buffet, but I chose a salad, about 2 oz of grilled chicken, and fruit salad. I did eat one bite of a fudge brownie though. Boy was it delicious, and a bite was enough. Since my lunch was pretty small, I ate the bean soup I'd brought. For dinner I had 4 oz. of broiled salmon, a baked sweet potato, and some more avocado. I am actually within all the calorie, carb, protein and fat recommendations for SparkPeople, miracle of miracles.

I Love Sushi

Today went pretty well. I didn't have a smoothie; instead I started the day with watermelon and my brown rice salad, along with the other half of yesterday's avocado. For a snack I had a little fruit salad of watermelon, honeydew, strawberries and cherries. Lunch was Campbell's lentil soup. I didn't do much today; in fact, the day was very relaxing and non-demanding. However, by 8 pm I was read to work out. I had different sneakers and they fit me well enough to not aggravate the large blisters I still have from my previous workouts. I did 40 minutes on the treadmill, completing 1.95 miles. My goal when I work out is to do a little bit better than I did the previous time. This could be through increasing the incline a little more, increasing the speed, working out a little longer, etc. Today my goal was to walk a little further, so I didn't stick to the 2.5 mph suggested by the trainer; I hovered around 3.0 mph. Having my new earphones really helped; I considered doing more than 40 minutes because the music was so good, but I still needed to have time to eat. I decided to have nigiri sushi again. So now it's after 11 pm. I didn't mean to eat so late but if I had skipped dinner, I would have had only about 1/2 the day's calorie requirement.

I had joined Weight Watchers earlier this year (and since quit, of course) but I kept my membership to their e-tools website. I've been using it to enter my foods these past couple of weeks. At my current weight I'm supposed to eat 37 points worth of food a day, but today I only had 18.5, and I used up 3 points (or 4, I can't figure it out) when I worked out. This means that I ended the day with about 15 points. NOT GOOD! I will have to make up for this deficit over the upcoming week. Besides the 37 points a day, I get an extra 35 points a week. I didn't use those points last week. I can see already that I am probably going to have the same problem I usually have when I eat healthfully; my appetite lowers so much that I don't get enough calories and could end up losing weight too quickly (yeah, boo hoo, right?) But losing weight too quickly is not healthy. I'll just have to take this one day at a time, I guess!

Mmmm You Gotta Try This

I made my brown rice dish tonight and boy is it delicious- I just had to share. I eat it cold and I think I might have another serving, this time with avocado on the side. Between the olive oil and the avocado, I'm gettin' those good fats in.

Brown Rice Salad

• Cook 1 cup dry brown rice according to the directions (and don't burn a batch like I did)
• Add 1 large bunch of parsley minced/finely chopped (I used curly parsley)
• Add 1 large clove of garlic, grated or minced
  
• Add 1 cup salsa (or just chop up enough tomatoes to make one cup, and add 2 or three chopped scallions)
• Squeeze in the juice of 1/2 lemon or lime
  
• Add 4 oz of crumbled feta
  
• Add salt to taste
• Add 1/8 cup of olive oil
  

Obviously you can add these ingredients in whatever proportions you want. Or add/subtract items- I'm all for creativity. Bon appetit!

I did not work out tonight but I did get the key to the workout room, which means I will have two locations to get my treadmill sessions in. I'm getting sneakers tomorrow. I did not meet with the trainer today because she was supposed to send me an email with information in it first, and also verify the specific time of our meeting but she never did. That's ok- I was sleepy as heck today anyway and wouldn't have been alert.

For my working lunch today we went to a sushi place. I had 7 pieces of nigiri sushi and 1 California roll. WAY too much food- I was stuffed! So yummy, though. I love my sushi Fridays.