Day 2: The “In-Between Plan”

*Note: My friend/editor is still out sick, so again, apologies for any mistakes you find – I’m covering her job at the front desk, so I’m hastily posting this right before the end of the workday.*

Today we’re moving to one of the other (less strict) meal plans in the book – for the “In-Between” figure. I was just as miserable about getting out of bed as yesterday – I swear one of these days I’ll actually be able to get up on time. But I did get up soon enough to make breakfast, though not early enough to wash my hair. Oops! #priorities.

Breakfast: 

Includes: 

• Glass orange juice (in place of berries)
• Glass water with lemon juice
• 2 slices of toast with butter *I strongly suspect toast back then would have used smaller slices of bread, but this is what I had*
• 1 poached egg *I didn’t have a coddler, so it’s poached – also it’s hidden inside the toast…I’m not great at making my food pictures photogenic. Plus I was hungry.*

Thoughts: So satisfying. I don’t eat hot breakfast very often before work, but every time I do it makes me so happy. I love eggs and toast, so I’m very pleased with this meal – especially since I was allowed to have butter on my toast! 

Mid Morning Temptation:

The donut of shame. What wise-ass thought it was a good idea to bring a jelly donut into this office??? I mean, of course I ate it. It was delicious and I have no regrets. But Sylvia would probably beat me. 

(Literally – she seemed like a pretty violent person – wait for my post on her advice on “squeezing off” fat and hitting your friends to make them stand up straight. It’s hard to believe Hollywood stars tolerated this kind of treatment.)

Lunch:

Includes:

• Glass tomato juice *this was meant for mid afternoon, but I figured I’d just have it now*
• Salad of lettuce, avocado, cottage cheese, and parsley
• ½ cup jello

Thoughts: Shockingly tasty. I definitely wasn’t expecting much from a bowl of lettuce (and I didn’t even use as much as she asked for – she wanted me to eat a whole head of lettuce – no thanks!) avocado and cottage cheese as dressing, but it wasn’t bad. Sylvia certainly enjoys parsley – the taste is one I’m not used to in my food, but I don’t hate it! 

Dinner:

Includes: 

• Cup of clear hot soup (veggie soup from yesterday)
• Small piece of steak (pan-fried again)
• Baked potato with the center scooped out (this will never not be tragic to me)
• Green vegetables with butter (brussels sprouts in my case)

Thoughts: Again, this was WAY more food than I’m used to eating for dinner. I drank the soup while I cooked the other food, and there ought to have been a salad and piece of fruit included as well that I was planning to bring to rehearsal with me as a snack…but I was running late and so ended up skipping that part of the meal entirely- to be fair, I didn’t feel deprived or hungry, so I’m cool with it. I’m sad that jello wasn’t on the menu today though. It’s hard to leave it sitting in the fridge – I want it!!! 

(Important note: I’ve always had a weird obsession with jello. My mom used to whip it with cool-whip and it was my favorite thing as a kid. She also made this cool jello/raspberry/graham cracker crust pie thing – I could have eaten POUNDS of it without any trouble. So having a whole pan of it in my fridge and not eating the whole thing in a sitting is really a problem for me. I really deserve a prize for this kind of self-control.)

Note for tomorrow: I wasn’t going to go back to the lower calorie count plan until Thursday, but because of my poor grocery planning, I don’t have the avocado I need for lunch, so it’ll have to wait. Back to my liquid lunch tomorrow! 

Measurements: 

Here’s a fun extra for you today! Madam Sylvia offers up a chart of “perfectly proportioned” measurements for women of different heights. I mean, at least it doesn’t include weight, but this honestly might be worse. See below.

Woof. Women were TINY back then. I’ve taken my own measurements for comparison. See below. (Measuring myself like this made me feel like Midge from Marvelous Mrs. Maisel!)

Height: 63″ (5’3″)
Neck: 13.5″
Bust: 41″
Upper Arm: 12.5″
Wrist: 6″
Waist: 36″
Hips: 43″
Thigh: 25″
Calf: 16.5″
Ankle: 9.5″

I’m not quite Sylvia’s idea of proportioned. She does at least acknowledge that some peoples frames are different and make meeting these measurements basically impossible. It’d be nice to get a LITTLE closer to these, but I think my body would topple over if I had a 26 inch waist. (A 10 inch difference!!) I don’t think my bone structure would support that little flesh. It’s just one more way the times have really changed – I’ll never fit into the authentic vintage clothes of the era – people shaped like me either didn’t really exist, or, like me, they wore their clothes until they fell apart. 

Thanks for tuning in again! Tomorrow I’ll detail another chapter of No More Alibis, and on Thursday (since I don’t have rehearsal) I’ll show you some of the fun exercises she suggests for “spot reducing”.

Also, if there’s something you’ve seen you’d like more info on, or would like me to clarify (or if there’s just something you’re curious about in general), please feel free to comment and I’ll do my very best to get back to you ASAP!