Dinner for one, as usual.

Another night, another dinner alone. The typical life of a chef's wife. People who watch the Food Network think being a chef is all glamor and excitement. The reality of the situation is it's stressful, it's often working sixty hours each week, it's working nights and weekends, it's not taking vacations because you have to work, it's not interacting with your spouse because you are too tired to deal, it's not celebrating holidays and other important days with family or friends (yes my husband is currently sitting in a bar de-stressing from his crappy day at work on valentines day....not that we celebrate it, but thats pretty typical of what happens in our house), it's giving up the work-life balance that most people strive for, and it's eating fast food because you don't cook at home or because you are sick of fine dining (yes, my husband eats at McDonald's). You get the point.

A little known secret outside of the Bach household is that I do most of the cooking. It is probably for the best because Jeff and I are of very different philosophies when it comes to the preparation of food. He believes that fat is flavor and food should be cooked in fattening ways. I believe that fatty food items should be rubbed directly on the thighs because that is where they end up when I eat them. Give me the low-fat or no-fat version and I'll eat it. Then again, if I were 140lbs and 6 feet tall, I'd be slathering my gravy all over my potatoes too.

Speaking of low-fat, my nutritional plan has been going well. Though as you can see from the picture above, I'm not totally rigid about this diet thing. I refuse to give up my wine entirely, so I try to keep it to one glass per night (I have been known to throw down a half or full bottle on my own every now and again). I'm currently down from 142lbs to 132lbs. Once my training takes off a little more, I'm sure the rest of the weight will drop right off.

Unfortunately my injuries are going to be a major issue for 2008. My doctor is concerned about my wrist/ulnar nerve injury. She said things like, "This isn't typical", "Some people have to get surgery, though we should try to avoid it", "This might be a chronic problem for you"," You might have to change sports". I told her "I figured it wasn't typical problem", "I agree, I won't be having surgery","If this is a chronic problem, I'll just ice and tape it","I won't be changing sports". It's a good thing she is a cyclist so she understands my lack of logic on the matter.

Besides the wrist thing, there is still a very large bump (or the more appropriate description might be - divot) on my quad from my accident at Lake Geneva. It hurts when I pedal my bike and when I pedal faster it hurts even more. It hurts when I get up in the morning and walk around the house. I guess I'll just have to endure all the hurting. Maybe in 2-15 years it might go away. We can't be too certain. It's a shitty hand of cards to be dealt, but I'll be playing them in 2008. I personally think it would "hurt" more to sit on the sideline again.

The final piece of my plan has fallen into place. I pulled the trigger and hired a coach.....Rachel.

I can't wait to get started.