I haven't blogged all week -- a lot going on in the personal realm that I don't care to delve into, but suffice it to say it's taking up pretty much all of my emotional energy.

Before I go into the synopsis of week 3, an explanation for my title:
During week 1 of this effort, my husband found out he was losing his job. The ensuing stress from this announcement led to a really tough workout at the gym, over 400 calories wiped out.
This week, on Friday, I finally nailed a job interview for a full-time position after plastering my resume all over the internet and networking for the past four months or so. And none of that even mattered, because the interview is for a reporter position at my very own company that I didn't know about until Thursday. My interview is Monday the 30th, and this huge confidence boost translated to (guess what) a really hard workout at the gym, over 400 calories wiped out!
In between these two events were a few days where I was just feeling like a pile of doo-doo, and those workouts weren't so great (twice I got off the machine before reaching 30 minutes) so they don't really fit into the pattern, but it seems that I have learned how to use exercise to help take the edge off stress, and to celebrate good news. Which in itself is good news.

Now, for Week 3:

FOOD
I discovered something amazing this week: sugar-free smoothie shakes. I've made two different varieties so far, and I call them smoothie shakes because they have the sweet desserty flavors of a milkshake but without any ice cream, just milk. The two flavors I made were chocolate peanut butter cup and pumpkin pie, and I think I may have made one that was chocolate and pumpkin. These things are LOADED with protein!
I take a few ice cubes, about two cups of milk, a good heaping spoonful of cottage cheese, and then the remaining ingredients depending on the flavor - 3 tbsp of peanut butter and 2 tbsp of cocoa powder for the peanut butter cup, a heaping spoonful of pumpkin puree with vanilla and pumpkin pie spice for the pumpkin pie one, and sweeten each of them with artificial sweetener. I puree/blend for 15-20 seconds on high and 15-20 on low -- I try to get rid of all the ice chunks -- and it's usually enough for two smooth, creamy servings. I swear I could survive off these things if I had to, and I'm brainstorming new flavors to try.

Other than those wonderful treats, I did OK on food this week, with the exception of Monday when I gorged on a homemade thin-crust pizza. Since there are only two of us to feed and I was really hungry, I kind of ate half of it. :( And on the same day I didn't go to the gym, either. So that sucked. I also had one very small alcoholic drink on Sunday night after work - a Diet Coke with Bacardi Select (lower-calorie Bacardi) that was so loaded with ice that I barely got three sips out of it. But I behaved for the rest of the week and didn't dine out at all. I haven't had Chipotle in 3 weeks! (I do miss it, though.)

EXERCISE
I went to the gym every day but Sunday and Monday. On Sunday I did yoga at home for about 45 minutes, though, so I still got some activity in. On Monday I was just too wiped out after running errands. Tuesday I went by myself and didn't give myself enough time before work so I had to jump off a little early. Wednesday was rock-climbing day, and I climbed three walls, including one new rout that was pretty challenging! I average about 10 minutes a climb, so I total up my climbs to figure out my calories. Belaying takes some effort, too but I don't think it counts as cardio - it's just good for the arms. And I know I'm getting better at climbing because I wasn't exhausted after two climbs, and my arms were barely sore the next day, which means I'm using my legs more, like I should be doing. On Thursday my workout was admittedly half-hearted, and Friday I had the happy-about-the-job-interview calorie killer.

Since I reached my calorie goal for the week I'm not going to be too upset if I don't make it to my morning yoga class, although if I do wake up on time I will go.

WEIGH-IN
I was a little disappointed to only lose 1 pound this week, but I blame that darn pizza. Last week it was Chinese, this week it was pizza, and next week I'm just glad I'm working on Thanksgiving and won't have a chance for another slip-up.
I haven't decided if it's time to go to Phase 2 yet. After three weeks on Phase 1, I feel like I can probably do one more, and move on to a very-controlled Phase 2 in December. My birthday is December 8 so I'm going to have to plan around that - we're going to a Brazilian steakhouse with a ton of friends and doing tapas and cocktails, and the night before that I have dinner at my parents' house, so I'll have to be careful. Maybe I should put off Phase 2 until after my birthday? I'll give it some thought and decide later.

No specific workout plan this week, I just plan on making it to the gym 6 days, hitting 1800 calories, and my day off will be Thanksgiving.

Gobble gobble!