Exercise and Appetite

7:15 am - With the cold not yet departed, I'll have to pass on the weight workout. Too much intensity for my slow moving body. 50 minutes on the elliptical again, a couple of notches higher than yesterday, but still moderate, and more Oprah magazine articles get me through.

9:15 am - Where did the time go? Aiks! I have a 9:30 call and the oatmeal isn't ready. Got to love the mute switch. I munch a few bites while chatting. It's not very pleasant, and it's hard to focus, so I save most of it until I'm done with the call.

10:00 am - I haven't had my decaf. capuccino and I really want to listen to my friend Heather Dominick's Energy Rich Business Re-Charge call (check her out at http://www.energyrichcoach.com/). I really do get a re-charge from them, but then there's my addiction to decaf. coffee. So, cordless phone and headset in place, I head to the espresso machine to listen and brew. Again, not ideal, but it gets the job done.

1:30 pm - I got into a flow state working on my book proposal. Nothing like an interested publisher to focus the mind. So lunch happened late, and I was hungry, but not like I normally would be at this time. I guess my body has adapted to the lower intensity work outs and wants less food.

It's a zucchini, mushroom and cheese Peasant Pie, and some light vegetarian chili from my favorite local lunch spot.

3:00 pm - I have rediscovered my appetite. I'm back from lunch, and I'm still hungry. You guessed it - a Zen bakery raisin bun and a stick of organic string cheese (http://www.zenbakery.com/).

4:15 pm - I'm medium hungry, and feeling sluggish, from sitting and typing for so long. An orange beckons, and I'm wondering if I really need to eat it, but I do.

7:00 pm - I'm not as hungry as I would expect at dinner time. Probably the orange. It's another of my famous salads (2 big cloves of garlic tonight) and a frozen chicken burrito. The kids aren't very hungry but they ask for salad (really), and get their special version - lettuce and their favorite organic goddess dressing.

I eat the remnants of my son's cereal.

I was seriously thinking of having my own bowl, planning on it really, but I can't say I'm hungry. I know I'll be fine until morning, so I might as well call it a night.

I will feel great in the morning if I do. :)

PS I booked a terrific last minute guest for Monday's call: Charlie Badenhop. He's doing some fascinating work with emotional release through the body http://www.seishindo.org/. The Childhood Obesity topic will be moved to the following week. More tomorrow.

Dr. Atkins Would be Appalled

7:15 am I've come down with a cold, so yesterday's workout didn't happen. Today I managed a low-key cruise on the elliptical for 50 minutes. I planned 20 or 30 minutes, but a few decent articles in Oprah magazine got me through. Still, I took it easy. It's definitely not a day to push.

8:30 am - The usual oatmeal with a few grapes, and a decaf. capp. Made with organic whole milk.Yesterday's ferocious hunger has thankfully subsided, so I'm back in the range of reasonable servings.

1:15 pm - Soba noodles in broth with veggies and steamed tofu. Very nice, light. Maybe too light. We'll see how it settles. Another terrific local eatery. San Francisco is a great place for food.

3:30 pm - I'm very hungry, so my current fave, a Zen Bakery raisin bun and a stick of organic string cheese are called to service. I love these buns-made with whole wheat flour, and sweetened with white grapes. Yum.

5:45 pm - The kids descend on me in my office and I'm recruited for kitchen and homework duty. I'm starving, so I pull out the organic baby carrots and eggplant hummus. As I eat a few bites, I realize the hummus doesn't actually taste very good, so I give up the effort. It's not worth it.

I eat two scraped spoonfuls from my son's cereal bowl. Yes, bad mom. The kids had cereal for dinner tonight. With their desperation for food (my son is climbing on the counter to the cereal cupboard), I know it's a losing battle to get them to wait until I prepare something reasonable. At least it's whole grain, low sugar, with some organic walnuts, and organic, unsweetened yogurt in the mix. There are worse things.

For me, it's a salad (see post Renee's Famous 10 minute (or less) weeknight salad http://weightlesshypnosis.blogspot.com/2006/03/renees-famous-10-min-or-less-weeknight.html ). Today it's mixed organic greens, red pepper, mushrooms, avocado and feta cheese. The dressing is flax oil, balsamic vinegar, and three cloves of crushed, fresh garlic. Just as well my husband is out. I'm serious about getting over this cold a.s.a.p.

The main course is a frozen chicken burrito, which my daughter decides looks good, so I lose a few bites, and make them up when she decides she wants a tamale and I get a few bites.I'm still hungry.A piece of Acme Whole Wheat Walnut bread from the freezer, with a bit of organic butter, and some more salad.

I realize this isn't enough to get me through the night comfortably, so the family classic happens again - a bowl of cereal, shortly before bed. Dr. Atkins would be apalled, but then again, I'm thinner than he was...

As I write this, I'm a tinge hungry, but it will have to wait until morning. I want those jeans to stay loose :)

A day I'd rather not report

But I've made the commitment, so here it goes!

7:15 am I started the day with a jog over the hill and through the Castro to my gym, where I did a weight workout, and jogged back.Note to self: lying in bed after the alarm has gone off is a very bad time to make a decision about exercise. Thank God I ignored my brain as it searched for a plausible reason to keep me in bed.

8:35 am. I'm seriously hungry. No time to mess around, I have a 9:00 am client. My usual oatmeal, grapes and a home-made decaf. capp.Again, I was starving by mid-am, but a cup of roibosh with milk got me through.

12:30 pm Thai veggies with steamed tofu and rice. Yum. And only $4.95 at the local Thai restaurant. One of the few bargains in this city-great food.Not quite enough, but I made it to

2:00 pm. Another Zen bakery raisin bun bit the dust.

6:30 pm. At my kids school, where I'm volunteering. There's a spread of food for the volunteers, and I have little time to eat it. I don't enjoy a meal like this, but I'm starving as usual so:

1 egg roll
1st and 2nd servings of spinach salad with toasted pecans and some kind of blue cheese. Not bad. 1 piece of slightly greasy middle-eastern bread with a bit of Brie and a handful of the biggest raspberries I've ever seen
small cup of red wine

Paper plate, plastic fork. Standing. Not a lot of ritual here.I

'm not particularly hungry when I get home, but I'm feeling unsatisfied and the whole family is tucking into their after dinner cereal. I want my share, and I want my ritual. So I serve a small bowl. Now I'm really not hungry, but I have another bowl anyway.Tonight I sit on the sofa, free from tempting text distracting me from the task at hand-enjoying the cereal that I probably shouldn't be eating.My jeans have been a bit tighter than I like lately, so I'm wanting to eat less than usual. Tonight didn't qualify. It was a holding pattern night. There are worse things.

Plus, the tight jeans could have something to do with the squats I've been doing at the gym on my lift-the-butt campaign.Lesson learned-eat a small snack before I go, skip the rushed, united nations buffet meal, and eat in a relaxed manner at home. Not ideal, but better. After all, I'm going public with it!

The Secret Life of Organic Corn Flakes

7:15 am. I started the day with my usual winter breakfast - organic oatmeal with a few grapes thrown in and a decaf capp (whole milk). That didn't really do it, so the last bite of my son's Van's waffle (whole grain) with a smattering of cream cheese found it's way into my mouth. Then off for..

a 5.7 mile run in glorious Golden Gate Park - 8:40 pace.

Very fast for me, fabulous.which left me starving...But I managed to make it to lunch with a cup of roibosh tea with milk. I wanted to enjoy lunch by being hungry.

12:15pm. Good lunch, tofu black bean Peasant Pie (baked whole grain crust, they are great) and soup. Good but not enough so 1/2 of a Zen bakery raisin bun with a stick of string cheese. I love these buns. I cultivate hunger in the afternoons so I can have one.

5:00 pm. I'm starving again. The other half of the Zen bakery bun departs the planet.6:30 pm. I'm starving, again, and so are the kids. We make a spinach salad to eat with the chard/brown rice casserole and quiche I made over the weekend. I did a decent job of minimizing the snacking while prepping, but with effort!

Still hungry, so the leftovers of my son's dessert - cereal - finds it's way into my belly. Boy that was good. More is poured, and I find myself munching while serving. Yuk. Very uncivilized, but it's those darn organic corn flakes and that flax granola. I'm aware this second helping is about putting some weight in my stomach, about wanting to feel more full, about them tasting good, but I decide to do it anyway. We all have our weaknesses.Worse, I'm wanting to read while eating - an old habit that dies hard. I know that every time I do it, I barely notice the food, but the trance of it beckons, and anything legible near where I am sitting gets read in sneaky glimpses between bites.

9:30 pm. My teeth are brushed, but amazingly enough I'm kind of hungry. Phew, I guess those corn flakes weren't so bad after all. I must have been hungry. Redemption is mine, at least for tonight.

Baring All...that I ate

I've decided to bare all and report on what I eat, and how I exercise. Integrity is a big deal to me, so here we go, starting with the rather odd lunch I ate today.

I went to a luncheon, the kind where you pre-select your food before you go. It was all about how to promote your book, and I met an interested publisher. Very cool.I ate:1 oversized piece of peasant style bread (good crust, soft inside) with 1/2 pat of butterabout 6 bites of pasta with a boring sauce of only tomotoes.This wasn't sitting too well with me, and was a chore to eat while I chatted with a fascinating author of racy romance novels, Rachelle Chase (www.rachellechase.com), so I abandoned the effort with my plate mostly full, thinking I was done.

But, dessert appeared. Warm apple pie, flaky crust, with whipped cream. It proved to be quite delicious. The cream was too sweet for me (I prefer unsweetened), but I managed to eat 1/2 of it, and every bite of the pie. As I didn't eat sweets for 16 years, I figure this is a sign of success!I finished at about a 6 on my 10 point scale of fullness, so I'm good.

Exercise: I'm tired today, still suffering the prolonged crash after yesterday's overly agressive decaf latte (it's kind of pathetic, I know) So it's a rest day, but I brisk walked for about 50 min. total to and from the BART station. I love city walking!