Day 2 – Friday March 23rd, 2012

Woke up today feeling great! I wonder if today being the last day of work before Spring Break had anything to do with it? Probably.  I chugged my sludgy Herbal Cleanse, grabbed my food for the day and hit the road for work.

After settling in to work I scarfed a bowl of red seedless grapes and made my morning Spark energy drink.  Then I began my day by calling my missing students to get their butts into school, and teaching Algebra to the ones who were on time. Shortly after 8am, I realized I had forgotten my hard boiled eggs, and panic set in.  What was I going to eat today?  Yesterday the eggs and oranges had me stuffed until lunch, and I wasn’t even in desperate need for lunch either.  Without them I felt like I might cave under the pressure, and as I entered the break room I noticed the familiar odor of something strangely addictive.

There on the table in the middle of the room, were two large buckets of chicken wings, two boxes of bakery fresh donuts, and a bag of chips with the big daddy size of French onion dip.  My mouth immediately began to water, and I think I even drooled a little. I walked over to the fridge to put the rest of my food for the day inside, while passing all my grubby co-workers who were devouring the treats.  It was tough, but I made it out without caving.  I immediately began to think about where I could score some hard boiled eggs for my 10am mid morning snack.  I called the Peacock Family Restaurant in town, and had my eggs ready to go in plenty of time. Thank heavens for the Peacock. It cost me $3.49 for the three eggs, but I figure it was worth it despite being able to buy a few dozens for that price.  Lesson learned: don’t forget ALL your food on the 24 day challenge.

The eggs and oranges disappeared quickly at 10am, and I also took my medications and the Omega Plex capsules.  Throughout the day every time I turned around, I’d see a staff member with a paper plate full of pizza. The aroma filled the hallways and crept into my classroom. The nerve of some people! Pizza has to be my favorite food (as long as there isn’t any foie gras around) and to smell it all day was unbearable. I started to sweat a little bit when the realization struck home regarding when the next time I’d be able to eat pizza again.  It’s devastating. Eyes on the prize, though.

I had a leftover chicken cordon bleu (not breaded; baked) and some carrots for lunch.  My bottle of water count was somewhere around four by lunchtime. I wasn’t really hungry, but “pizza” is stuck in my head. Calling to me.

“I hate this dog.

Before going to the gym I had a Greek yogurt and two celery stalks with almond butter (~2TBS) and a Spark. My workout today was ended abruptly, but I still got a decent amount of work in:

Ran a mile (12 min 15 sec)

Bench press 1×10 (135); 2×5 (185); 1×5 (205); 1×5 (215)

Incline Press (fixed); 4×10 (135)

Lat Pull Down 4×10 (100)

Seated Rowing Machine 4×10 (80)

Elliptical (Weight Loss/Level 3) 15 min

I would have like to finish my elliptical program but it didn’t work out that way. Since we hadn’t taken anything out of the freezer for dinner, and the late hour, we decided to just go out to eat. I was instantly very negative about going out to eat, but I brainstormed to try and find a place that wouldn’t be too unhealthy.  We settled on HuHot, a build your own stir fry place. You pick out your protein (I went with chicken and tilapia), starch (used the tiniest bit of rice noodles), veggies (I grabbed most of them), and a sauce. Most of my concern regarding unhealthy foods for HuHot centered around the sauces.  I realize a lot of sugar and fat are in these sauces so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t overdoing it, or picking something that was way too unhealthy.  In retrospect, I should have asked for some nutritional information. Carly was being a pistol, and it was getting late, so I went with my gut. I chose the Black Bean Garlic, Hot Chili Oil, and the super spicy red sauce (forget the name). When I got home I hopped online and checked out the nutritional info, and low and behold, I did a good job selecting sauces. Surprisingly, most of the sauces there are fairly low in calories, carbohydrates, and fat. I also had a side Asian house salad (dressing on the side, used a teaspoon, maybe two) and a few bites of my wife’s Egg Drop Soup. The soup and the salad were nothing to write home about, but I had two plates of stir fry loaded with lean protein and tons of veggies. I didn’t use hardly any noodles, and I didn’t miss them really.

We did a little more shopping and then rushed home to get C-Rose in bed. No more real hunger attacks the rest of the night, so I finished day two with the Herbal Cleanse capsules and some Call of Duty carnage.

“Charlie is Oscar Mike.”

Edit to add: Carly Rose had an apple for dinner, and some chocolate milk. She wouldn’t try anything at the restaurant and she skipped her afternoon nap so she was cranky. We didn’t want to push it.