Phase II, Day 1

------------------------------------
Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 129 pounds
Bodyfat: 27.0%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 28.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 29
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 31.5
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 33
Hips: 37
Chest: 31
Bust: 37
Thighs: R21.5, L21

------------------------------------

I believe a table is in order (sorry it's messy; I can't figure out how to insert a *real* table):

Weight: 134 131 129
Bodyfat: 0.29 0.29 0.27
Waist, sucking in: 28.5 28.5 28.5
Waist, hanging out: 30 29.5 29
Belly, sucking in: 32 31.5 31.5
Belly, hanging out : 34 33.5 33
Hips: 38 37 37
Chest: 32 31 31
Bust: 38.5 38 37
Thighs: R22/L21 R22/L21 R21.5/L21


That's right, friends and neighbors, the two pounds I lost last week came off my boobs and my right thigh. And a damn good thing, because I was *really* self conscious about the asymmetry. I'm pretty sure I heard people laughing and joking about it one day on the train. Interestingly, I also lost a half an inch in the middle of "noneffort" girth. By this I mean that sucking in my stomach measured the same, but when I'm not trying, I lost a half an inch. That's actually good (I think), because I'd rather not have to try so hard to look thin. But I can't figure out why, physiologically, things would work this way. Am I squooshing all the fat down to my hips when I suck in, or something?

Okay, so for what it's worth: In two weeks I ate round about 16,500 calories. Normally, in that two week period, I'd have eaten approximately 27,500. So, I had a deficit of 11,000 calories. Since a pound is 3500 calories, this computes to about three pounds. I actually lost, though, *five* pounds. Is the difference the magical edge that the South Beach Diet has over the laws of thermodynamics? In all sincerity, I dunno. Two pounds is well within the margin of error for my body weight. It's also a reasonable amount to have lost as water weight, given the amount of glycogen I purged from my muscles. And I might also have calculated my caloric intake over the past two weeks, or my typical weekly intake, incorrectly. But when I look at inches lost, it seems like five pounds to me.

We'll see what happens over the course of the next few weeks--where I get to eat GRAINS! FRUIT! again. (As I write this, I'm happily munching on a half a multi-grain bagel with 1/2 T almond butter, mmmm....) At an aggressive rate of two pounds a week, I should reach my goal of 120 pounds in about a month. And since I've got my simple(r) carbs back, it should be easier to get back to my running. I'm not sure how often I'll record my food, like I've done in the last two weeks. I wanted to be really careful in Phase I, in order to give the diet a fair shot and be able to evaluate it precisely. I'll probably be equally careful in Phase II for the first week or so, just to make sure that reintroducing grains and fruits doesn't make me go bonkers with the calories.

********************

Breakfast: 1/2 multigrain bagel with 1/2 T almond butter; mug of black tea

Lunch: salad with avocado, cucumber & grape tomatoes; 2 papadum; Diet Dr. Pepper

Snack: orange sugar-free popsicle. Didn't taste like an orange, but did taste like Tang. Is Tang food?

Snack: cucumbers with this bean dip I threw together from last night's leftovers

Post-run snack: 1/2 multigrain bagel with 1/2 T almond butter

Snack: cherry (or should I say "cherry") sugar-free popsicle. Actually, this flavor tastes the most like its eponymous fruit.

Dinner: roasted eggplant and red peppers with sundried tomato pesto ; diet Dr. Pepper

Exercise: two-mile run

********************

I've decided I'll always eat one of my simpler carbs after a run. Today, I could barely manage two miles. I sure hope that as Phase II progresses, I'll be able to ramp that back up...