Twas a wee bit of a bad month:  only lost 4 lbs, and my waist is about the same.  Had a terrible time when my swim goggles busted early on in the month, and no place in town (  I tried eight different shops!) bloody well sells anything except Speedo and Aquasphere brands.  And let me tell you, neither of those fit a big guy’s face.  They either aren’t large enough across the nose bridge (and none of which are sold with adjustable nose pieces anymore for some Hermes-forsaken reason), or the actual goggle eyepieces are so small they suction onto me bloody eyeballs instead of the sockets.  Faugh!

Worse, my old goggles had the logo worn off so I couldn’t even order a new pair from the same manufacturer.  And I wasn’t keen on ordering online, as I couldn’t easily return them (not that most stores in Edmonton took goggles back either – what’s up with THAT?).  Finally after doing a boatload of online searching, I gambled on ordering the Barracuda Predator.   Luckily for me, they turned out to be the same brand as my previous goggles.  Win!

So I had about two weeks with no swimming (aside from one day when I went and just did kicking).  Lazy me   However, this wasn’t all bad as I needed to rest up my elbows after pulling them too hard last month anyway.  I’m not doing any front crawl at all now, just back stroke – I’ll try front crawl again after November and see how that goes.

I also ate badly those two weeks – too much chocolate, and I splurged a couple times on big bags of chips (for some reason the lightly salted Ruffles aren’t in the stores often, so when I saw them I grabbed ‘em).  I also did all you can eat sushi twice… NOM!  Good for protein, but bad for all that white rice.

So while I’m definitely getting more mass in my quads, pecs and shoulders I’m a bit unhappy about the lack of development in my biceps/triceps.  Given the elbow issue, this is hardly surprising.  Going to have to do some research to see if I can find something I can work my upper arms with that won’t damage me…otherwise I’m going to look awfully strange with such big legs and shoulders and teenie arms.

I also learned some interesting things about my metabolism and diet by trial and error as well.  For one, eating more than about a cup of anything (especially carbs) tends to trigger a sleep cycle – no matter what time of day I eat it (although it’s especially bad around lunch time).  However a liter or so of yogurt and strawberry smoothie doesn’t seem to have that effect.  I’m thinking that’ll be my go-to when I have daytime hunger; lots of protein, low carbs, heaps of delicious taste.

Strawberry Smoothie

• 375 ml natural yoghurt (no pectin, etc)
• 150 ml warm water
• ¼ tsp pure stevia powder
• 2 big handfuls of frozen strawberries

Blend together until smooth, adding water if necessary.  Makes about 1.25 l.

Dinner is usually yummie home made greek salad and/or baked chicken (marinated in garlic-paprika yoghurt).  The greek salad is a great mix of veggies and a little protein from the goat feta, and chicken is always a good protein source.

Not-Quite-Greek Salad

• 3 green peppers, cubed
• 3 red, orange or yellow peppers, cubed
• 1 cucumber, cubed
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 250 g goat feta cheese,  well crumbled (cow feta is too mild for my tastes)
• 1 dozen white mushrooms, cubed (I hate black olives! and these soak up flavour nicely)
• 1 large yellow onion, cubed
• 2 tbsp garlic, minced
• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 3 tbsp (heaping) dried oregano
• 3 tbsp (heaping) dried dill

I sauteé the onions and garlic for just a bit to take out the sharpness of the flavour – just til the edges of the onions start to become translucent.  Otherwise I find the onion tends to overwhelm everything else in it’s nasty strongness (which is also why I use a sweet onion instead of a purple one). Mix everything together thoroughly in a big bowl

I usually have about 1 ½ – 2 cups per meal, and this makes enough for a week (about 10 servings).  Make sure you keep it well refrigerated and drain it every time you grab some, or the vinegar will chemically cook the salad and make it mushy.

Sleep is much improved when I have my carbs about 90 minutes before bedtime.  A bowl of 1 ½ cups of Honey Nut Cheerios and a ½ cup Quaker Harvest Crunch Raisin & Date mixed together with a ½ cup 1% milk seems to be perfect.

I think I’m back on track now, so November should see some good progress.  I’m also bound and determined to integrate yoga back into my nightly routine as it definitely does help with sleep, and for some reason my flexibility seems to be decreasing as of late.   I also really must get my exercise bike seat properly modded so that it’s high enough up to be comfortable so that I can get in some cycling in the office.  I’ve been shamefully neglectful of that.

Off to bed – have to swim in the AM!