What do they have against fiber here???

I'm in Alabama right now. Lunch when we got here yesterday was barbecue with white buns (I skipped the buns). Dinner last night was steak, baked potato, and a romaine-based salad (OK, a tiny bit of fiber there). For breakfast this morning the options were banana bread (very light and fluffy, not very banana-y, so I couldn't pretend it was healthy) and cocktail smokies in buttermilk biscuit pieces. For lunch I bypassed the barbecue and went for a turkey sandwich on the "whole grain" bread -- but I knew it wasn't going to have fiber because it didn't say 100%, and I was right -- less than one gram per slice, and I only ate one slice. Today I've already had half my calories and two thirds of my main meals and I'm barely up to TWO grams of fiber -- usually my breakfast has 8 and my lunch has 5 and I have fruit at some point between them!! There is fruit on the counter here -- red delicious apples and bananas. I tell you, it's a serious fiber-free conspiracy. I'm going to be ill by tomorrow. As usual.

My exercise continues to be spotty. On Friday and Saturday last week I spent time raking leaves -- according to Daily Plate this is a gym-level workout, and after the first day of it my heart rate was rapid and the next day I was sore, so I believe them! I also spent every spare minute on Saturday and Sunday working on cleaning in the basement -- so no formal exercise those days, but I was very active and my step count was over 8000 on Sunday. Yesterday I missed exercise; we had about 6 hours of sleep before we departed for Alabama, then drove 7 hours, and then crashed in the afternoon (after said fiber-free lunch), after which it was too dark for me to get outside. So today I got up and got dressed into my exercise clothes so I'd have no excuses, and Daniel and I went out for a 5k after breakfast. This was the same run that killed me two or so months ago, and today it felt pretty good. I ran 3.36 miles in 33:47, which is pretty much dead-on a 10-minute pace. I brought enough clothes to exercise every day, so I don't have that excuse. And I can't use lack of time as an excuse while I'm here, either! I think my only hope is the weather!

I stumbled on to week 5 in my push-ups this week after my disappointing exhaustion test last week where I got no further than my usual max, even without four sets behind me. I made great strides in my max over the first two or three weeks but have hit a bit of a wall. But I made it through the sets today and managed to eke out one extra push-up (kind of one and a half) beyond the max. My arms are a good sore today, but my back is what hurts the most when I do the push-ups. I just don't know how to strengthen it, though! I do crunches (even though I've read in several different sources that they're not what's best for a flat stomach or for weight loss -- but I'm genuinely trying for ab muscle strength so my back doesn't have to do all the work) but I don't know how else to make progress on that front.

I didn't weigh myself yesterday and don't have a scale for this week, but I am trying to keep portions down. As of Sunday I was back into the range of the number I saw the day I got back from Norway (but never saw again, so it was a fluke). Now I'd like to get back to the range of the end of Tromsø, another 8 pounds down -- if I can be good through December I can maybe do that by Christmas! I'm using the Daily Plate to keep me honest. I don't like Livestrong and the site is slower, but it's got years of data for me, and I know the drill, so I'm sticking with it.