Tuesday, November 30, 2010

How to Lose 2 lbs. During Thanksgiving Week, Part II

Click here for Part I

Monday

Monday should begin with coffee and an actual, productive work meeting in the morning. Following this meeting, you should participate in an information webinar and Q&A session for a grant proposal you need to put together in the next few weeks.  This will be marginally informative, and take up 2 hours of your day.
 
Then more socializing work with old grad school friends in the late afternoon.  The day ends with a 5 pm work meeting regarding the grant proposal over a beer.  This quickly turns into a 3 beer meeting which expands on topics beyond the grant proposal. At this point, your planned departure for this evening is changed to tomorrow morning. This is completely due to the weather, and has nothing to do with the beers. 

Dinner at the bbq restaurant you had lunch at a few days ago. Another huge meal is ordered, but you are able to talk yourself out of ice cream.  No exercise today, overtraining can lead to injury after all.

Tuesday

Get up at 6:30, pack up, and drive 2 hours to sisters house.  Upon arrival, you get to see your 6 month old niece who has grown a lot since Labor Day weekend. After a (cold) 4 mile run, make your way over to your parents' hotel pool where the niece gets her first taste of swimming. She loves it. 

On Tuesday evening, you eat your body weight in sushi, vegatables, and rice at a Japanese restaurant for dinner. You will feel extremely handsome and young-looking after being carded by the waitress when you place a sake order.

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning you should have an oil change scheduled at 9 am.  After sleeping in until 9:01 am (literally) and getting the oil change done, spend the rest of the day trying to get some grading and other work done.  Later in the afternoon, head over to the hotel and run 3 miles on the treadmill. Then, attempt to spend 30 minutes on their crappy elliptical.  After 15 minutes, realize just how crappy it is and go back on the treadmill for 2 more miles to punish yourself.

Thursday (Thanksgiving)

After waking up at 8 and stalling for a couple of hours, you take the road bike out for a 10 mile ride to justify the second helping of mashed potatoes and gravy you plan to have later.  The temp is in the teens, with a wind chill in single digits. 10 miles is more than enough.  When you get back, walk around gingerly for about 15 minutes while trying to get feeling back in your feet.  After showering, prepare for the meal. 

Here was my, apparently successful, two-pronged strategy: 1) load up on veggies so that you are almost full before the real food is even served, and 2) resist the urge to have seconds after inhaling the first plate of food for at least 10 minutes. This allows time for the uncomfortable full feeling to set in before you do any more damage.  Mission accomplished on both counts.  No pie after dinner. Back to the hotel for 3 miles on the treadmill and to check some football scores.  Return to sisters' house and eat some pie.  And chocolate-cashew clusters.

Friday

Plan to be on the road by 7 am.  Wake up at 7 am and pack, and be ready to actually hit the road by 7:30.  At this point you start to realize you won't see the niece again until Christmas. Also, she will be in a good mood, smiling and happy to sit on your lap and play with some of her toys. So you stay until almost 8:30. 

After stopping to ride some trails for a few hours, you finally make it home around 4 pm.  Shockingly, your post-Thanksgiving weigh-in is a few lbs. lighter than when you left.

See, wasn't that easy?

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