(The fact that it's Day 123 was calculated after catching up on my journal. I am very bad... I have gotten out of the habit of journalling meal by meal or even day by day. The journal I originally needed as a checklist to make sure I was doing everything necessary--it has check boxes for all the supplements, 10 8-oz amounts of water, etc., plus blanks to fill in your meals and add up your carb count. But now I am so much in the routine of the diet I could do it in my sleep, no checklist needed, so I get a little... negligent.)
In fact I've been bad other ways this week, and have a feeling I'll pay for it on weigh-in day. I've crept a little into Phase Two by having meat with lunch a couple of times this week, basically because my fridge was on the fritz and it was going to go bad otherwise. Then there was the veggie curry Thai dish I had for lunch yesterday, coconut-milk based. I don't need my coaches to tell me that was a no-no... my tastebuds know full well, the guilty little demons.
I'm being very good for the rest of this week.
But what I really came here to write about was swimming, something I have always loved to do. I like to do it in freshwater lakes and rivers, not chlorine-infested pools, so it is pretty much a summer activity, though I start earlier than most people. This year it was during the March Break heat wave; the ice was melted back from the shore enough that I could get most of myself immersed if I sat down. Then over April, May and June, Lake of Bays warmed up nicely and is now at its very pleasant summer temperature. And I've been wondering, with all this fat loss (62 lbs. as of Aug. 5) ...would I notice a difference?
In case you don't know, the higher your body fat content, the more buoyant you are, because fat is lighter than water. (See here for Lynn Johnston's take on it.) Over the years as I've gained weight, I've noticed it getting easier to stay afloat. When I was a kid, I had to do the eggbeater kick or scull constantly, usually alternating, to tread water, whereas in recent summers I've just had to scull, and not very hard. So this summer I've expected a sudden reversal, akin to the one time I went swimming when I was about eight months pregnant, and freaked myself out in the deep end by how much my body wanted to sink (I hadn't been swimming since very early in the pregnancy).
Tell the truth, it's been nothing like that, probably because it's been more gradual. I hardly noticed anything at first. I think what happened was... well, two things. First, I don't tread water all that much; I'm usually moving, most often doing breast-stroke. Second, I think my body has just automatically kicked into swimming more like I used to when I weighed less, and it's still familiar, so it doesn't feel that different.
However, yesterday, I decided purposely to try treading water. Sure enough, I have to alternate between kicking eggbeater style and fast sculling to stay up, again.
The other clear difference I notice is that when I swim underwater, which I dearly love to do, it is much easier to stay down. If I were a scuba-diver, I'd need fewer belt-weights. So I'm more likely to go longer distances, as I'm expending less energy pointing and pulling myself downwards. I think I'm also more aquadynamic, displacing less water as I move through it so that it takes less energy to go further, faster.
I feel more sleek, more like a dolphin than a whale. Like everything else with this diet, it's a good feeling.
And this would hardly be a proper Ideal Protein Days blogpost without a recipe, so...
Thai Tomato Basil Soup
Meh, this is so simple it doesn't even need a formal recipe. Just cook your veggies--I did it with asparagus but I think it would work with any except zucchini or brussels sprouts--in low-C chicken stock, pepper and chopped garlic, combine with the soup and add Clubhouse Thai seasoning to taste (in my case it must have been a tablespoon). This was another bowl-licker for me. You'd never guess a protein packet was involved.
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