Me, too, update

Not that there's much to say. I'm just trying to make myself post to keep thinking about the diet and exercise. Last night I almost wimped out on exercise, but I'd said "I will do it," so I would have felt idiotic if I didn't. So I watched an episode of Angel and jogged and walked in place for 20 minutes. I didn't feel like I was going fast enough but in the end I was dripping with sweat so I think I must have been working harder than the WATP videos do! I watched the (first?) episode with the Scourge (an army of marching demons), which turned out to be perfect, because there was a lot of marching to keep pace with as I jogged, and it kept speeding up on me!

I made a concerted effort to go to bed hungry last night. After exercising I didn't want to eat or drink right away, but I was hungry before the video ended and I did NOT let myself get a snack. The stuff I eat at night is just junk.

Today I have a gym appointment at 5:30. So I'll get a good, solid workout today.

I was 141.5 this morning. Again. I'm starting to think my scale is stuck!

Update

OK - for those of you that haven't heard, yesterday TESSCO was raided by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) along with eight other (eight total?) companies in Maryland who used Jones Networking for temps. Apparently Jones has been under investigation since October and the bust was yesterday. TESSCO feels a little slighted because we weren't mentioned in ANY of the news bulletins. Under Armor and Baltimore Port Authority got a lot of attention. We - however - are sticklers about proper documentation, even with our temp agencies. We had just done a self audit about two months ago that included requiring our agencies to provide us with proof of right to work in the US. We did have two people taken away - but they didn't work for Jones and we DID have paperwork on them, but the ICE people told us that the documentation was fake - good, but fake. Never-the-less, about 30 agents with flak jackets and guns invaded TESSCO, took us all into the cafe, asked for i.d. and stuff. There was a helicopter over head. It was very surreal, but not as frightening (for us) as you may think. WE (HR) then spent the rest of the day RE-auditing our I-9s, running reports and meeting with lawyers about this. It was very stressful - but kind of interesting. The timing couldn't have been worse. Our fiscal year ends on Sunday so yesterday and today are the last days to get everything done. So that was my cardio for the day...

Anyway - then last night, as soon as I got home Katie and I went to Bonefish for our Bi-weekly trip there. I had Rockfish with crab and asparagus, and steamed vegetables. And much needed mojitos. Yum!

My weight this morning was 219 - yesterday was 218.8, Wednesday was 218 - or something. Maybe it was 217 - I don't know. All I know is that I am VERY SORE. But it is achy sore, like I am getting the flu rather than muscle sore like I worked out hard. I did not do any exercise yesterday. By the time Katie and I got back from Bonefish, I set up the coffee pot and went to bed because this morning I had to be at work at 5:30 (I made it by 5:45) - so I needed to get up two hours earlier than usual. That means I also didn't walk this morning. I will definitely have to walk tonight. I would like to get out of here early, but we have a 3pm meeting today that will probably go until 5pm.

Luckily, I changed my workout time for tomorrow from 8:30am to 9:30am. BUT - on Monday I have to be at work at the crack of dawn again, and I will probably be working late - so I don't know what I will do about by Monday time. Maybe I will move it to Tuesday.

Stupid conscience

After the gym last night we went to Lowe's, where I did some heavy lifting (well, mostly heavy dragging -- I put mulch and soil into my cart, then I put it into my car), and then I offered the kids dinner out. They picked Chick-fil-a, which turned out to be a bad idea for me, as they don't actually serve any non-fries/non-drink items which do not contain chicken, and I've been avoiding meat most of the time (it's been about once a week all Lent -- and no bacon at all). So I resigned myself to having chicken, and what I *really* wanted were some high fat, nice, hot, deep fried chicken strips. But I felt that that would be overindulging on the chicken, and very unhealthy when I just said yesterday how I'd like to get my weight down, so I grudgingly got myself a caesar cool wrap instead and barely used any of the dressing. And I only ate half of it because I got full quickly. Today I ate the other half for lunch. But chicken strips eaten all at one go would have been more fun.

My weight has been 141.5 both days since weigh-in -- why couldn't it have done that on Tuesday? Sheesh.

At the gym yesterday I ran a mile (after taking out a locker) but I quickly became bored with the running. But by that time the bikes I like were full (I won't touch the uprights -- they give a horrible wedgie!) so I did 30 minutes on an elliptical instead. I had a book going on my iPod and I definitely wasn't as bored as I would have been on the bike, and I really worked some different muscles (when I wasn't getting out of whack on my stride -- I never feel fluid on the elliptical, and about four or five times I did a jarring step). Today my hamstrings are quite sore, and while I was working I found I was using my abs much more than I would on the bike. My quads, surprisingly, didn't get tired at all, so they must be in pretty good shape. I burned over 300 calories in the 30 minutes, according to the machine. I'm not saying I'd want to do this every day, but it was a good change.

After the cardio work I did shoulder presses and chest presses, and I went for smaller sets (6 at a time instead of 15-18) at a more consistent weight. I ended up getting through just as many exercises as usual, with a much higher average weight. Today I am not sore but I can feel some stiffness if I lift my arms over my head, which seems about right.

Today it's raining so I'm going to have to do something boring inside. But I will do it. Sigh.

Real exercise

An hour and a half in the garden yesterday put all those muscle machines at the gym to shame! After pulling weeds and squatting and standing up repeatedly, my arms and hamstrings were aching and my muscles were wobbly all over. It wasn't aerobic, but I counted that as my exercise anyway. Today I have the soreness that I lacked yesterday. Whew!

Tonight I have an appointment at the gym, so I'll get exercise that way. It seems a shame to waste this gorgeous weather, but I just can't get the aerobic workout I need when I have the kids in tow. I am hoping once Daniel is back in town I can use some of the non-gym days to go for an outside run.

I was 141.5 again this morning. I would love to get below 140 before Easter because I know I'm not likely to see it in the week after Easter! So I'm going to do my best to watch my calorie intake for the next ten days.

142.5

I was disappointed at that this morning because it felt like the same weight as last week, but it wasn't -- it was a pound down. But last week's weight was higher than the week had been, and this week's weight was higher than the past couple of days have been -- I've seen 142.0 several times and yesterday I saw 141.5! But the point is that I'm making progress, and I haven't seen 147 or 148 in a while now. Whew!

Yesterday I did 30 minutes on the bike at the gym, intending to run a mile on the track as well. But they don't put pockets in women's athletic shorts (Why? Why? Why??) so I had the keys tied into the drawstring, and 15 seconds into the run they fell off. So I walked one loop and re-tied the keys more securely and tried to run, but after one more loop I gave up because I couldn't stand the darn things whacking my stomach all the way. It seems ridiculous to hog a whole locker just for keys, and I'm not keen on leaving my keys just sitting in an open cubby. Anyway, since I still had time to kill during my gym session, I did VKR, chest press, shoulder press (ugh, I still suck at that), leg curls, and leg lifts. I felt like I was working hard doing all of those, and I had to keep dialing the weight back a bit at a time to finish the sets, but today I don't have the slightest bit of tiredness in my muscles, so I could probably do more.

Today I will exercise at home, which isn't as fun or as satisfying, but it's better than nothing.

135.4

I refuse to worry about that weight gain because my period is due any second now and I know it's because I'm bloated like I haven't been in a long time! Yesterday I was 134.2; Saturday I was 133.8. So I expect my weight to fluctuate back down in the next couple of days.

That said, I was a bit too free and easy with the calories yesterday. I had a cupcake for Connor's birthday, and Brian made hamburgers and fries for dinner. I thought it was a big concession to not have my burger with cheese! So I know I overate, but not a pound of overeating.

Went to the gym. Ho-hum. I'm shortening my warm up time and increasing my "sprint" time (not really a sprint--just a steady 6 m.p.h. pace) at the end so that I'm covering a slightly longer distance and burning a few more calories each time, but that doesn't amount to much--maybe another 10 calories burned and another .03 miles added on!

Weigh in

I was 217.2 this morning. I didn't walk on the treadmill this morning yet either. I didn't sleep well last night - I woke up probably ever hour or two. I fell right back to sleep, but it was like I was doing my early morning waking up thing ALL night long. But the real reason I didn't walk on the treadmill this morning is that last night at the trainer's my shins were hurting SO BAD they felt like they were on fire. I know this was just because since Sunday moring I had done more walking than I have in a long time and the muscles were fatigued. They were so bad that when he had me doing sit ups they were hurting THEN! I need to do some toe alphabets to see if I can get them better before tonight when I HAVE to do my walking.

The workout wasn't too bad. It isn't something I am looking forward to repeating - but I survived it. I am a little bit sore this morning - but I have been worse. He mostly was working on assessing what I can take (not much! I am a wimp!) on my upper body. Which, I guess means he will do my lower body on Wednesday. He started out with my shoulder muscles that I have such a hard time with. Figures! He had me doing everything in three or four sets of 10 (a few sets of 20 or 15 depending on what the exercise was). There were three other people there when I arrived, so apparently he overlaps people - which is fine as far as I am concerned. In addition to working my upper body he had me do some calf raises (easy!) and then leg extensions - which I normally have no problem with - but by the time we got to them I was exhausted... so I only got through two sets of 15 and couldn't do anymore. The only thing I COULDN'T do is when he had me lay on my back and lift my legs straight up. I can't do that. He didn't believe me, until I showed him I couldn't do it. So - he made me do one leg at a time - but then he didn't count them on my chart. Meanie! I can't help it that I can't lift my legs up - find a different exercise and move on! I mean - How often do you find yourself in a position of having to lay on your back and raise your legs - NEVER!

My food was pretty good yesterday. We had tilapia for dinner last night - which is one of my favorites!

I *really* need to get into shape!

You'd think that a year and a half of regular exercise and three miles on the treadmill three days a week would have me in moderately good shape--at least enough to walk around being a tourist for a day, right? Well on Saturday I met some people in DC for the afternoon. I arrived around 12:45, parked on Capitol Hill, walked to the Smithsonian castle to meet them, walked with them down to the Washington Monument and then the Lincoln Memorial, then back the same way. Then later in the day I took Connor for a walk in the stroller. I mapped these two walks and it was a grand total of 8 miles--six in DC (over about three hours, so a nice, slow pace) and two with Connor (much faster--I had him in the jogging stroller and kept up a 4 m.p.h. pace). And by Saturday evening I ached! And I still ached on Sunday! If I can't keep that up, what am I going to do in Disney World? Of course, Florida probably doesn't have any hills nearly as steep as Capitol Hill, and I doubt that they put stairs like the ones on the Lincoln Memorial in a theme park, but clearly I need to step up my level of activity so I don't get wiped out in June!

Brian had someone come look at our home gym to see if we could get it working again. Turns out it just needed some lubricant and adjusting, so I can get back to that. Of course my scrapbook area is blocking part of the machine--can't do some of the legwork--but I can go back to the upper body work and some lower body stuff.

I'm looking forward to going to the gym today--I downloaded Chicago over the weekend and started it yesterday so I can't wait to get back to it!

Day Two

I forgot to mention that my trainer doesn't want me weighing myself everyday. I think that is silly - but I am giving it a try for now. I will make an exception for weigh in day on Tuesday, but today is the second day in a row where I didn't weigh myself. I know it is really a matter of personal philosophy. I think I am going to stick to my eating habits better if I am watching my progress closely - rather than stepping on the scale once a week only to be blindsided by the number. I also like having the record of my progress.

I can't help but question these "professionals." I feel like - minus the science part - I have as much knowledge as the nutritionist when it comes to planning a healthy diet. And, while I KNOW I don't have as much equipment and stuff as the trainer, I am not a total moron either. He told me that my exercise shoes are the reason my knees are bothering me. I know shoes will affect your knees - but I hardly think a pair of shoes that I wear AT BEST a few times a week are going to be the source of my grinding. I would think it is more likely the heels I wear here at work. He told me it was time to replace them. They are practically BRAND NEW - I don't even feel like I have broken them in yet. He stuck his hand in and pressed around - but I don't know what he was pressing - because when I did it, it felt uncomfortably firm, and even in its firmness. I can barely bend the stupid things. I am not spending another $60 plus for new shoes anytime soon!! Additionally he said to me that a woman's waist measurement should be about 28 or 29". I would LOVE to have a waist that small - but with my build I would look like Barbie! I had a 28" waist before I was fully grown. I told him according to what I have read, 28" is at the LOWEST end of the scale!!! He thought I was wrong - I told him if he expects that of me we are both doomed to fail. Goals should be realistic if you ask me!

I did 15 minutes on the treadmill this morning (150 calories). Morning exercise frustrates me. I had to get up a half an hour early to get in 15 minutes of exercise - and then I needed a shower afterwards. Sigh. AND - Morning news shows SUCK! I have to get a radio in the sewing room so I can listen to NPR while I exercise.

Personal Trainer

So I met with the trainer yesterday. He seemed nice. We didn't work out yesterday - but he set me up for three days a week this coming week - but I don't know if I can afford to do that for long. I want to talk to him about just doing two days a week. In addition to the three days working out with him he wants me to burn 400 calories a day on the treadmill - that is about 45 minutes at my current weight and pace... If I increase my running I can probably reduce the amount of time I will have to spend - however, he wants me to increase it to 500 calories by next month. Quite frankly, I don't think I care THAT much about getting skinny that I want to give up most of my free time at home just to walk on a treadmill. Sigh.

I still have to figure out this meal time thing. I don't see how people do it.

Boring week

Seriously nothing worth posting about my diet or exercise. I eat, I run. OTOH, my disgustingly boringly regular diet and exercise habits don't explain my anything but regular weight fluctuations. On Tuesday I was 133.6. Wednesday I was 133.0, Thursday I was 133.8, then today I'm 134.4. Whatever. I've stopped trying to figure it out.

We bought a car! That's our big news this week. We got a Scion Xb. It's blue. And because of that, I'm actually deviating from my regular exercise routine--I had to spend my lunchtime today going to the insurance company and the credit union. Assuming the hubcaps and radio have been installed, we should get the car tonight.

Does This Count?

I was going to post - I DID IT! I ate a whole meal in one sitting that wasn't dinner -but then I realized my meal was breakfast - but it is now noon. Sigh. I did eat a bowl of cereal, with skim milk followed by 1/2 cup of blueberries and a bottle of water. It was a good, balanced breakfast - at lunch time. I DID eat something this morning - a package of cheesey peanut butter crackers. We have been giving out stuff each morning since it is the last month of our fiscal year and cheese crackers were it today. So - I ate a pack. I didn't INTEND too, but at 9am they were there and so I ate them instead of my healthy breakfast. I guess that counts for my "free" calories for the day. Actually that is exactly within my parameters - 225 calories of FREE not to exceed 30g carbs - This was 220 calories and 23g of carbs. Man! Now I am bummed that I already USED my free-bies. Sigh... I guess I COULD count it as part of breakfast because I AM supposed to have TWO starches, and cereal only counts as one... and I AM supposed to have a fat and protein for breakfast and I had neither of them (fat free milk, and that doesn't come under the protein list anyway...). Well, we will see how the rest of the day goes. My calories for the past two days have been WAY under the alloted amount - mostly because I don't eat during the days and I have been going to bed early lately - which keeps me from eating at night.

Tomorrow is my date with the trainer. I wonder if I can get a year's worth of aerobics and weight training done between now and then? I have 24 hours... Hummmm. Even if I started now and didn't stop until tomorrow at 11:30 I would still only get in about 8 weeks worth. Oh well.

My excuses are getting worse

That is, they seem to be reproducing. Yesterday I cleaned out the basement for most of the afternoon, so at least I was productive and mildly active. But then I planned to exercise after Daniel went back to work in the evening, after the kids were in bed (I cleaned up the kitchen while he was putting them down). But after he came downstairs we worked on some graphics problems for a while, and I continued after he left, and then just as I shut that down to start exercising, Patrick Dolge (!!) called! We were on the phone for 45 minutes, and by then it was 11:15 and I was exhausted. And I still had to take vitamins and medicine and do my nighttime routine, so I gave up on exercise. Sigh.

Today I have an appointment at the gym, so there's no excuse possible. Except my stomach is upset, I think from my period, which arrived on day 19 of this past cycle. How is that possible??? My period barely just ended! It's not quite that bad -- it did stop 2 days early this month and plunged straight into what looked like fertility, which I thought I was misreading, but apparently I wasn't. Ugh. Anyway, I hope my stomach settles by this afternoon or I'm going to have a lousy time at the gym.

Daniel is out of town starting tomorrow so I can't use him as an excuse anymore -- I have no reason not to exercise every day, since I'm not working around someone else's schedule!

Meal Times

Other than dinner I don't know how to eat a meal in one sitting. I have been trying today - but I keep getting distracted. Breakfast didn't take me long to eat, once I got it together... at about 10:30! That was cereal, skim mik and grapefruit (and coffee of course!). Then lunch was leftover fish from Bonefish last night and a salad. I ate the fish just fine - but is taking me a long time to finish the salad. I am not sure why... and I still have my lunch fruit (grapefruit juice squoze from my breakfast grapefruit) to eat!

I am working from home today since the Verizon people are supposed to be coming to fix my DSL. A very nice (and kind of cute in a bald way) man came around 10am and couldn't get a signal at the jack or at the outside phone box - and so came back to tell me he had to bump it back to the home office to see what was happening. He then called me back in 20 minutes to say that he was being reassigned to a downed cable and that someone else would be getting back to me. Shoot! I asked him what that meant for me. He said - well, I hate to have you stick around your house all day - just make sure you are available when they need to come back. I asked if that would be today - and he said it should be... but here I sit at 1:39 and still no DSL! The phones (not the line, but the phones) seem to be dead too. They are about 3 or so years old, so it wouldn't surprise me if they died completely. Sigh. That means I need to replace them too. Grrrr.

Well, I finish my salad - and I am too full to eat anymore. See - THIS is why I graze during the day - I fill up fast and can't fit in the healthy food I am supposed to eat.

Why do I bother?

Yesterday I totally missed exercise. We had school all morning and into the afternoon, then piano, then we had to go to the mall (eek!) to get Xander's glasses repaired and his hair cut, then when we got home it was time for me to get dressed for church (I was cantoring a Lenten thing), and then I got home in time for dinner and putting the kids to bed. Then I talked to Mom and then folded laundry until after 11:30. So I genuinely don't know where exercise would have fit in. Maybe I should have done crunches while I talked to Mom or something!

Then this morning I was at 142.0. This makes no sense -- except that I was so busy in the evening that I went to bed with an empty stomach. But not two pounds of empty stomach. So that's my reward for keeping busy but not exercising. Hmph.

Meeting with the nutritionist

So I met with a nutritionist yesterday. I liked her. I don't know if it was worth the $100 bucks it cost me because I didn't really learn THAT much. In fact - she said that I was obviously well informed.

She suggested a few things - she said that German heritage usually means that my body is extremely adaptable. This is not at all unusual in German women - which is why they tend to be very stocky. She said that they also have excellent muscles. She wants me to work more on building up my muscle tone. She hooked me up with a personal trainer ($250 for 12 sessions!) who I plan to meet with on Saturday. This may do me some good. Even when I do work on strength training I don't push myself as much as I could. She said - what I already know - that muscles burn calories better than anything.

Then she also said that I have to allow for set meal times. She said this current theory of "grazing" doesn't work for people who are already overweight. She said it is like keeping a little bit of gas in the car all the time. It will never run out (and therefore use up stored fat) and it isn't burning most efficiently. So my goal in the next several weeks is to try the eat then stop, eat then stop, eat then stop - etc.

She told me to eat protein for breakfast. She said that when she eats carbs for breakfast she is hungry again right away. I told her I RARELY feel hunger at all so that really isn't a factor in my food planning.

She thinks I need to be treated for PCOS also. She brought it up a couple of times. However, I told her that I have been tested for PCOS twice and each time my numbers all fall within the "normal" range. Normal for who I said - and she agreed with me completely. However, she also agreed that getting a doctor to prescribe metformin just because we all think it would work is impossible. I did tell her I would bring it up with Barbara Ball again.

She told me that she didn't know but I should check the affects of weight gain when using St. John's Wort. Many sertitonin uptake inhibitors cause slow steady weight gain - and that is what I have experienced and it has been within the years that I started taking St. John's Wort. However, it has been a fairly long while since I DID take that consistantly - so I would think I would no longer be seeing the impact of that.

She gave me her menu plan - which is pretty much the same as ALL the healthy eating menu plans... I will do it though. She wants to meet with me again in 6 weeks - but the next appointment available is 8 weeks (which is fine with me considering it is so expensive!).

OH! Most alarminly - when she checked my height I had lost an inch! AN INCH! Her measuring thing-y said I was 5' 6.75" I said you mean 5' SEVEN.75. She measured me again. I told her I was 5'7.75 as recently as July - and have been my whole life. I think her thing is wrong. She said it could be off as much as 1/2 and inch - and you are taller in the morning than at night... but STILL! I think I need to have my knees checked - they seem to be collapsing...

I was 217.6 this morning.

143.5

That's down from last week but not as low as I was hoping for -- it was 142 at my lowest this week and I saw 143 several times. Yesterday I exercised at the gym (30 minutes on the bike, plus 60 VKRs, plus one set each on the shoulder press and the tricep press) and ate pretty well most of the day -- no, wait, I had peanut butter at lunch and a burrito that was larger than it should have been for dinner, so maybe I didn't eat that well. But I didn't feel like I was pigging out all day.

There's no question that the daily exercise is helping me -- I'm finally seeing a decline over the past few weeks when I was holding steady before, even though my eating habits really haven't changed. Except for not eating sweets. So maybe it's not the exercise after all. Hmmm.

I recently upgraded my browser and it checks the spelling on everything I type. So far today it doesn't like VKR, Hmmm, Argh, and Grrr. It's going to have to get used to me. ;-)

133.6

That's a pound down from last week but the same (I think) as the previous week. Can't complain, I guess. And at least I'm staying within my acceptable range again.

I actually had a really good run on the treadmill yesterday. I have no idea why some days are easier than others. I had only gotten four hours of sleep on Sunday night so I expected it to be more difficult than usual, but I hardly even got out of breath and at the end my heart rate was lower than it usually is--and that was with me upping my speed for longer stretches of the run. Go figure.

I'll blame (or credit) the sugar. When mom told me that even her mother agreed that Sundays aren't part of Lent so she would eat normally those days, I decided that I could indulge in sweets on Sunday. It's amazing what a good mood regulator sugar is! I broke into the Easter jelly beans and they were the best thing I ever tasted. And I think that just knowing I can eat sweets on Sundays will keep me from wanting to cheat during the week.

Other than the jelly beans I've been pretty good with my diet, so there's nothing to report there.

Have a fabulous time in India, Julie!!!

I am getting confused

I was posting on Dad's blog and started in with what I ate, how much I weighed this morning and stuff... It was easier just keeping up with one blog!

Katie and I went for sushi last night. We had a hard time deciding what to do for dinner. We knew we weren't in the mood to cook... but we only have three places that we eat - IHOP, Sushi and Bonefish. We just had IHOP on Sunday night, Bonefish takes too long and is kind of expensive, and I was more in the mood for hot food instead of sushi... Sigh. It was a real issue. The sushi was good - but IHOP would have been cheaper.

I have my nutritionist appointment today. I have all of my charts printed and ready to go. I have my food tracked for the past three days and I am annoyed. I really DON'T generally eat out more than once a week. I NEVER buy lunch, and yet in the past three days I DID eat out two days and bought lunch on the third. Luckily - the lunch was a salad and 1/2 a tuna sandwich.

I have back slid on my exercise. I will really have to get my butt in gear if I want to earn my pecan nouget egg for Easter. Of course, I haven't bought a pecan nouget egg (and I would be willing to bet that Katie hasn't either...) and they are hard to find. I hope it isn't too late already. I will see if I can order it online still.

OH! So my weight today was 218.2. That is down a pound from last weeks horrifying high - and pretty consistant with what I have been seeing the past couple of weeks. Sigh.

Julie!! GOOD LUCK IN INDIA!! I hope you have an incredible trip.

Double Blogging It

I signed on earlier today and posted on the Dad's Heart blog - but forgot I also planned to post on this one.

I have nothing really to post. My weigh was the same as it has been the past several days... 218.2 on Saturday and 218.6 yesterday - then 219.0 this morning.

My period has been trying to start since Friday - but other than a little light spotting it has been nothing. I have a HORRIBLE headache - and have for about four days now - but I think that is more due to my sympathetic non-pooping. I have been drinking water, coffee and cran water with fiber. No help so far.

I have my appointment with the nutritionist tomorrow and so I have been tracking everything I eat and drink for the past couple of days. I did notice that yesterday and Saturday my sugar intake seemed higher than normal. I had mochas each day - and two hard ciders on Saturday -and sweetened cereals. I also ate potato chips on Saturday. I wouldn't normally eat potato chips except they are in the house still from my birthday party. I threw away the rest of them yesterday.

I haven't exercised since Thursday - or was that Friday? I don't remember. I do know I did NOT exercise on Saturday or yesterday. I can't remember if I did anything on Friday. I don't think I did though. I still haven't been sleeping well. In fact, I went to bed at 10:25 last night and then woke up at 11:45 and wondered why it was so early. Then I proceeded to wake up every few hours all night until 4:56am - when I woke up and did NOT fall back asleep until about 6:15 (when I needed to get up at 6:30). I SHOULD have just gotten up at 5am and walked on the treadmill.

My knees are hurting. Not RIGHT now - but yesterdya when Katie and I were walking down from the fourth floor I noticed that my knee hurt for most of the first flight. Then today I noticed that my knee was hurting MOST of the walk back from the bathroom. Usually, it will twinge my first step down on stairs or the first step or two when I have been sitting for a while and then it will work itself out. Today it was like there was a kink that wasn't unkinking. I don't know. Maybe I should tell my doctor about it on my next visit.

Weekend End

I saw a lovely 142 on the scale yesterday morning, before the weekend hit in full force. Then yesterday I snacked lightly all day, but mostly on junk, and we went to Casino Night last night. This was (as always) a blast -- drinking and pseudo-gambling and door prizes and the women all dressed up fancy -- my friends and I joked that it's almost like the prom the way we've started getting ready for it! I wore the same $30 dress as last year (for shame! but it's a full-length thing so it's fun, and then after we got home I went onto Chadwick's clearance store and ordered two more really cheap ones to choose from for next year) but this year I bothered to do my hair properly. But this is off the subject -- last night I ate one plate of hors d'ouevres-type food but then proceeded to drink two glasses of wine and two beers over the four-hour evening, and then a smidge more wine at home. I never felt drunk but it sure affected me this morning!

To make matters worse, I ate THREE waffles at brunch this morning. Daniel opened the Irish butter and it was really outstanding (far superior to the "I Can't Believe It's Not New Zealand Butter", I might add) so I've felt compelled to enjoy it to excess. Dinner would have been healthy but I ate a quantity of French bread with butter as well. And popcorn now (but not with the butter -- the SmartPop stuff) and a beer. I'm starting to feel a bit gross. I am never eating again. Until I get hungry or someone offers me more legal junk food.

On the plus side, I did exercise at the gym on Friday -- 12 laps on the track (1 1/3 miles) and 30 minutes on the bike, plus leg lifts and leg curls. On Saturday morning I did the 30 minute walk-jog tape. Today I did nothing (except clean out under the basement stairwell, which ought to count for something).

Needless to say, after last night's excesses I was back up to 144 this morning and tomorrow will doubtless be worse. Ugh. This week I'm going to have to be really good.

Just dropping in

I weighed 143.5 yesterday and 143.0 today, my low for the year. I'm glad to be making some progress. Unfortunately, both of those came on days after I hadn't exercised! I've missed two days in a row -- the first because I was genuinely unable to, but the second out of disorganization. I wasn't completely well yesterday but I wasn't sick enough to use that as an excuse anymore. So since starting "no excuses" I've missed three times, and only one was a genuine reason to miss! Still, I have exercised far more than I would have otherwise, and I guess that's really the point. Today we have a gym reservation, so I'll get about an hour-long workout in.

The scoop on India

So I leave 3/21 and I'll be home 4/12. I am going with my friend Sharad, his wife Ruchi and their baby Aman. Aman will be participating in a ceremony where they will shave his hair and offer it to their gods as a thank you for a healthy child.

So, We get to Dehli on 3/22, Sharad and Ruchi have to visit the embassy 3/23, then we'll be with Sharad's family for a week, Ruchi's family for a week and then I will go on my own for a week on this train.

http://www.palaceonwheels.net/

It is surreal.

Bad, bad, bad, bad!

I didn't weigh myself this morning. Didn't want to face it.

Good news is that I went to the gym both Tuesday and yesterday, so I'm on track there. On Tuesday I was there with a coworker and she said "man, Sarah, you can really run!"

Bad news is I ate a whole pot pie for dinner (700 calories) and then broke down in my Lenten resolution and ate some tootsie rolls before bedtime. Ugh. I think this is the first time I've *ever* broken a Lenten resolution. And it wasn't even like I was hungry--that pot pie kept me full all night--I just was craving sugar and gave in.

Ugh

I am back up today... I did about 30 minutes of yoga yesterday. I did 2 10 minute sessions - but they have parts that are too hard for me (and transition too fast) so I miss stuff. Then I did about 15 minutes of my new Fat Lady Yoga DVD. That I like - but it moves just a bit too slow. It is very neat seeing someone fatter than me (actually she is built much like me) doing yoga. She has tips and tricks for what to do with your body parts. She has an exercise for large chested women to help build up the boobie support muscles. So - I am counting yesterday as 30 minutes (3 stars).

I ate pizza yesterday - left overs from Tuesday night for breakfast - then leftovers from the ocean for lunch. I had sushi for dinner. Katie went from the hospital to Tracey's house -so I was on my own for dinner... So I got sushi on the way home.

I wanted to take a bath last night. My muscles have been very tight and tense and I wanted to lay in a hot tub - but Laura used up all of the hot water before I got home. Sigh. So I did yoga.

Crazy...

My visa is waiting for me at the post office in Glen Rock, so that means this trip to India is REAL. I cannot believe I leave in 6 days for a 22 day trip. Insanity.

Sick

Despite the sore throat I did exercise yesterday, but it was just the 15 minute "Muscle Mile One" so it wasn't much. But during the night I was feverish and restless (hooray for ibuprofin or I would still be in truly terrible shape) and today I have been icky much of the day. I went to the doctor this morning and I do have strep. So now I'm on antibiotics but it will be another day before I'm really starting to get back to normal. At any rate, I won't be exercising tonight!

Retaining Fluid

In addition to having sympathy non-pooping issues I was also having sympthy fluid retaining issues - but I wasn't aware of them until 6am today when I got up and peed away about three pounds. My weight this morning was 216.8. Sheesh!! Why wasn't that YESTERDAY morning!??

Katie and I had hospital food last night - pizza (very doughy) and salads. I didn't exercise again last night since we didn't get home until after 9:30. I did get one of my new yoga DVDs though - so I am going to do a few of those sessions before I head to the hospital.

The worst EVER

This is it - the worst ever weigh in day weight... 219.2 today. I was 217.2 yesterday - so two pounds up in 24 hours - and almost two pounds up from last week. Yeah - this was bad eating on the weekend - and minimal exercise. I didn't do any yesterday. By the time Katie and I left the hospital we were ready for dinner, but not for cooking, so we decided to go for sushi. It was around 9pm when we got back from that and I was just beat. It wasn't until I was getting in bed that I remembered that I hadn't done any exercise. Oh well. So -apparently just about a week is what I can do in a row... Sigh. I will start up again today. I am going to the hospital earlier than last night.

So - I think I am having sympathy non-pooping issues. I am so full right now my belly hurts and all I have eaten was a bowl of raisin bran. I bought blueberries last night, so I hope those will do the trick - but for some reason I am not moving anything through either. And it is starting to HURT (not to mention my weight gain!)

I am very tired today. I woke up around 4am this morning and never really went back to sleep. I was stewing about the hospital having thrown away Dad's flowers. WHY didn't they bring them down with the rest of his personal stuff? Why not the vase at least? That is really bugging me!!!!!!!

Oh - Julie, you knew Dad was in the hospital from surgery on his stomach last week - what you don't know is that yesterday he had an episode of heart failure (he has congestive heart failure) which landed him in in ICU. He is still there as far as I know... Sarah did some research into what this actually meant and it was that his body is over producing fluid which filled up his heart and lungs making them operate ineffectively at best. They put him on an oxygen tube and what looked to be a stomach draining tube. They suspect that the swelling from the surgery is preventing food from passing into and through his digestive system, leaving him vomiting - and causing his distressed body to respond by producing excess fluid which then fills up his lungs and heart. Well - that is what Drs. Sarah and Amy (with a consult from Katie) came up with.

Stupid scale

134.8 today. How frustrating is that? UP a pound from last week's weight, even after being in the 132 range all week! And it wasn't like I was horrible at all--I went to the gym three days, then as I said yesterday I was pretty active on the weekend. My food during the week was really good, and even on the weekend when I didn't eat GOOD food, at least I didn't eat a LOT of food. No fair!! I hope I'm just retaining water or something. Or I can blame it on the time change--how about that? Phooey. Seriously, there's no reason at all for me to have gained a pound from last week, or for having gained over two pounds from my Friday weight!

I didn't go to the gym yesterday--went to the hospital instead. I'm going to try to make up for that today, although I have a lot of work to catch up on.

144.0

Yay! That was a nice surprise this morning -- it was 145.0 yesterday. But I didn't overeat yesterday, and we did go to the gym. I did 40 minutes on the bike (plus a minute or two of cool-down) and then three sets of chest presses and two of shoulder presses. No ab work because the VKR was full and we ran out of time (we only managed to get an hour-long slot). But it was a tough workout -- I managed to do slightly better weights than the last time -- and I'm sore today, so this afternoon I'll do lighter exercise. (But still exercise!)

See, I knew my weight would go back up!

This morning I was back up to 135. It'll probably go down a bit tomorrow, but probably NOT to the 132.something I saw all last week. Sigh.

It's not entirely a fluke, though--I ate crap all weekend. I never overindulged in any one particular version of crap, but essentially everything that I took in was unwise in some way. Fried eggs and english muffins, grilled cheese sandwich, potato chips, thin crust pizza, fish and chips. I ate one orange and one apple all weekend!

I was moderately more active than I usually am on weekends, but that WAS a fluke--ice skating on Saturday (I fell on my butt, thank you very much. Although I didn't fall on my butt until I was stepping off the ice to leave! Some idiot girl had made a little pile of ice shavings at the edge of the rink in front of the exit/entrance and I ran right into it, stopping my feet dead and making the rest of me overbalance.) and gardening on Sunday. With any luck I'll actually get my peas and lettuce in early this year.

Back to the gym this afternoon.

Oops

I missed exercising on Saturday. I was busy with one thing and another all day, and we had company in the evening, so there was never an opportunity even though I was looking for one! So yesterday I made up for it by doing the hour-long walking exercise. Let me tell you, I am getting sooooo sick of those walking videos! But the hour went faster than I expected it to and I pushed myself hard through it (well, through the first half... I'm only human!). I got some form of exercise six out of the last seven days -- so, not perfect, but pretty darn close.

Today I weighed 145.0, which was nice to see because it has been higher lately. I haven't been eating too badly but I haven't been as good as I could be, so this week I'm going to try to focus on keeping my snacking under control. We have a gym date three days this week, and on Tuesday and Thursday I'll work out at home. Let's hope we can stick to the gym visits -- all three kids have had strep now, and they've all been on antibiotics long enough that we should be able to go, but there's no guarantee they won't come down with something new in the meantime!

147

I *might* actually get to post that officially tomorrow! But I might not...

The beach was a blast. As Amy posted we went down to the beach for a litte bit but the wind was too much. We did also each take turns posing for action shots so Amy & I could fool around with our new cameras. Sunday while Amy & Katie went to church I went running. I got the Nike+ iPod doohicky and 10 blocks is approximately 1 mile. I went up to the Bayside skillet and back, but only ran half way. I like the idea of running at the beach since it is so flat, but the whole salty air thing doesn't work for me. My nose ran sooooo bad it was gross. The temperature was really nice for running outside, but the salt. Ick.

Yoga for Inflexible People

Really... I am not saying that I should make a video called that - BECAUSE THERE ALREAY IS ONE!! Hee hee. I was tickled to discover this on Amazon yesterday - so I promptly ordered it. There was also another one put out by the Just My Size people for plus sized women that I also ordered. I am hoping that when these chicks do Downward Facing Dog they look like a coffee table instead of a triangle too. Although, I was pleased to note that Katie also looks like a coffee table - so I feel fairly safe on blaming that on our short waists and NOT the extra 80 pounds of belly fat I have.

I have been eating HORRIBLY this weekend. We had omlettes with seafood for breakfast yesterday - pizza (with just veggies) on Friday night, leftover breakfast for lunch yesterday and then dinner was crabcakes and stuffed shrimp last night (Julie and I had applesauce and cole slaw Katie had baked beans and baked potato). Today we have been eating leftovers all day. We were going to go back to Bayside Skillet for breakfast after chuch, but I was still full from yesterday and Katie still had her leftovers from breakfast. So Katie ate them, I had leftover pizza and Julie had a power bar. We all had raspberry lambic with our meals (HEY! They do it in Europe!!).

I did yoga on Friday, but yesterday my only exercise was walking on the beach - which probably only counts for 10 minutes - but it was really windy and cold - and we also had to cross the street - twice... so maybe 15 minutes... Then last night I did an impromptu split getting into the bathtub - so that counts for my inner thigh stretching...

My update

I got three stars yesterday... one for the walk around the church property (Katie approved it) and then two more for a 20 minute yoga video. I am addicted to it. I know it isn't aerobic, but I love doing it. I actually DON'T hate this form of exercise. I feel strong (if lumpy) doing it, and everything says that yoga is a great total body workout.

I was 216 today. I don't know how I am going to lose another 6 pounds in less than 40 days.

I am going to do my yoga now while Katie is in the bath. We walked about a block on the boardwalk when we got here - and then stopped...

Dirty socks

Washed the bras, forgot about the socks. Oops. Didn't have any clean running socks this morning (and before you make fun of me, please remember that when I started running I had the worst problems with blisters but as soon as I switched to good socks designed for exercise, the blisters went away) so I did the guy thing and pulled a pair out of the laundry. At least I sprayed them with Febreeze, though! I'm also out of shirts--only had a long sleeved one this morning so I'll be *really* sweaty after the gym today. Oh, and Connor woke up at 3:30 this morning so I wasn't able to get a shower this morning. Basically, you don't want to be downwind from me today!

I got an email saying that my post yesterday was filtered by Katie's work spam blocker. I guess you can't say "two jogbras" in a title without it coming across as risque to a Catholic school.

My weight was back up a bit today--132.6. Hardly earth shattering, but it would have been nice for the downward trend to continue!

Excuses, excuses

I barely exercised yesterday. I had hoped to work out while Mary was at Girl Scouts, but I realized I needed to use the time to go pick up my sewing machine, which had been sitting repaired in a shop in Radford for a month. But we got home from that (and Girl Scouts) and it was a nice day so I let the kids play in the backyard then. Cecilia needed supervision so I couldn't go do a video, but I certainly could have run around the yard for a while, or something! I didn't even think of it, which is sad -- I just sat and read.

As bedtime approached and I got desperate I did manage to do a full set of crunches and even to bounce around for about five minutes while I watched some TV, but I was tired and cranky so that was it. I'm a wimp. Today I really have to get some serious exercise.

On a side note, I called the gym 8 minutes after they opened this morning to reserve our slot for next Friday and they were ALREADY too full to take my three kids at 4:00!! I had to settle for 5:30 again, which really stinks. They told me there's another woman reserving four slots, so I'm going to have to call the very moment they open. Grrr....

Two jogbras......

....all clean and ready for service today and tomorrow. No excuses now.

Brian has been busily fixing stuff around the house the past few days, all those big and little annoying things that he doesn't seem to notice until they reach a critical mass. So he's been changing lightbulbs and fixing sinks and tightening doorknobs and gluing broken things. And while he hasn't actually switched the faucet in the kitchen, he DID buy a new one (sorry, guys, the one you got me for Christmas doesn't work with our sink) so that'll get fixed. This is all relevant because the other HUGE thing he plans to fix this weekend is the utility sink in the basement. The area around the drain corroded and water now leaks all over the place from it (and idiots that we are, we just kept running the dehumidifier down there. It took us a WEEK to think of putting a bucket under it!). Putting in a new utility sink is no big deal, except that the old one is solid cement. I have no idea how we're doing to get that one out of the basement! And the relevance of the utility sink in the basement is that while that's out of commission, I won't be able to do laundry, so the plan was to skip last weekend's laundry and do it all this Friday and Saturday so that Brian will have up to two weeks to get the old sink out and the new one in place. So when I run out of jogbras again, I might be out of luck if Brian is having problems with the sink. (Really, that story was going somewhere that related to weight loss.)

My tapeworm has been busily working as well. I was down to 132.2 this morning. And that was with dinner at McDonald's last night (of course I had the grilled Asian chicken salad with fat-free sesame ginger dressing, so didn't do too much damage) and no exercise. Weird. It'll be really disappointing when my weight bounces back up, though, as I fully expect it to do.

Gang aft agley

Though we finally had gym reservations yesterday -- the first time in aeons -- we had to cancel because Alexander had a virus. He had a fever on Tuesday and was throwing up during the night after that, and they don't let kids into the gym within 24 hours of illness. He was acting normal most of yesterday and he even went to his piano lesson (he requested it and his teacher approved -- she said there's no possible way he could be carrying anything to which she hadn't been exposed already), but the gym was out. But I didn't let the day be a total waste; I did do the 15 minute Muscle Mile One, where you walk in place with weights. Better than nothing, I suppose.

We have reservations for next Monday and Wednesday, neither at our preferred time. We have to call the MOMENT they open, apparently, because yesterday I called within 30 minutes and it was too late to get the time I wanted.

Today it will probably be another video -- though I may go for a walk outside if it's nice enough. Yesterday was gorgeous but there wasn't a good opportunity to go out during daylight hours due to school, lessons, naps, and cookie delivery. Today there's a chance during Girl Scouts. I am such a suburban Mom!

I am so old!

Old and fat that is me...

But this time I am old because I am forgetful! I totally forgot to weigh myself this morning. I don't know how I did that. I haven't forgotten to weigh myself more than a few times in the past TWO years... but I have forgotten TWICE In the past week. I was 216.8 this morning.

I only earned two stars yesterday. I did 10 minutes of shovelling - and 10 minutes of yoga. I intended to do more, but was having real motivational problems yesterday. I did read two books yesterday - A Girls Guide to Witchcraft and Plum Lovin' - both cute, mind candy books.

Do I get a star for walking around the WHOLE church today? Katie needed me to drop off something to her classroom today after I went to mass - but the entrance to the school is on the exact oposite side of the entrance to the church - and there is no good cut through that I know of - so I walked around one side to get TO the school and the other side to get back to my car. Ok - that was probably only about 8 minutes of walking... but I did have to navigate unshovelled snow and ice - with no boots.

I am in love with my 10 minute yoga routine. I am going to do it EVERY DAY! That is guarenteed to earn me one star a day.

Tapeworm?

This morning I was down to 132.8 (then 133, then 132.4, but I'm going with the middle number, which is also the weight I got three times in a row). There's absolutely no reason for this that I can tell--my food yesterday was entirely normal all day, then we had Nicoise salad for dinner, then I had half a beer and popcorn in the evening and I didn't exercise, so I can't figure out why my weight would have dropped so much.

I'm also not going to make it to the gym today. I went to pack my gym bag this morning and realized that all of my workout clothes are in the laundry. I didn't do laundry this past weekend and I've been to the gym four times since I last did the laundry so except for socks, I'm out of clothes. If I can do the laundry tonight, I'll go to the gym tomorrow and Friday so I can get all of my workouts in.

146.0 -- again

That's actually up from last week but last week was a fluke, so it's not really any change from the last two months. BUT I have been eating OK -- no sweets and not too much junk (last night we opened some gourmet cheese and it was amazing but so subtle that you had to eat it slowly so we hardly ate any), and I've started exercising again! Yesterday Daniel came home early so I could get to the gym, and I did 30 minutes on the bike, three sets on the chest press, two sets on the shoulder press, and three sets on the VKR. I have lost a lot of upper body tone; my starting weights were lower on both of the machines and I had to go down quickly, especially on the shoulder press. On that one I wound up at the lowest possible weight and couldn't do any more sets. But if it went away that quickly, surely it will come back as quickly if I work at it.

Today I did the 30 minute walk-jog at home. I have started NO EXCUSES exercising -- seven days a week -- from now until Easter. Then I'll take Easter off but I'm going to try to stick with it even longer. We shall see. It feels so good to be moving again. Tomorrow evening we have an appointment at the gym, and we have one for next Monday as well. Now I have it on my calendar for 9 am every MWF to call them to get a slot. But if I don't call before 10 I'm lucky to get anything, so the times I'm landing are less than ideal. They need more childcare! (Or I need fewer kids, but that's not gonna happen!) Heaven help us if I have another child -- then I'd need FIVE slots once the baby arrived (baby counts double) and that's durn near impossible. Sheesh.

I'm so fat!!!

And only one star so far... I was 217.6 today - so .4 down from yesterday - FOUR POUNDS up from last Tuesday. How can that be?????

Actually, I think I know how that is. Aside from the not great eating and no exercise for forever, I have been under A LOT of stress here at work. They took down my database for all of my work. They are migrating me to a new server and software. It was supposed to be done by the end of the day Friday - but I STILL haven't gotten back up yet. It is the last month of the fiscal year, so EVERYONE is asking me for reporting - that I can't do - AND, in the next month there is a HUGE push to get buyers and orders in our system. I mean huge enough that they are saying they are putting everyone on the phones. I told them I would be happy to pick and pack out orders, and data entry (I am good at that) but I WON'T go on the phones. I was supposed to be off on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - but now it looks like I might not be... and tomorrow - sometime between 7am and 8pm someone from Verizon is supposed to come fix my DSL - which was cut off just about the time that I got Verizon to turn our phone back on. NEITHER ONE OF THEM SHOULD HAVE BEEN CUT OFF!!! I spent close to two hours last week on the phone with them trying to get them to fix it. GRRRR.

So - I am normally a pretty laid back person, but my stomach has been acting up for over a week now - and I am just now seeing that I am stressed out. My shoulders, neck and head are so tight that I swear I can hear nerves pinging from the tension! I keep telling people "I AM IN ITALY RIGHT NOW - PRETEND LIKE I AM NOT HERE!!!"

Does this mean that when the stress passes I will lose 4 pounds? Yeah, I didn't think so...

I did a 10 minute Pilates workout last night. It was one of the 10 minute solutions DVDs. I intended to do 20 minutes - 10 for abs and 10 for flexibility - but by the end of the first one I was laughing so hard - and in so much pain that I was done. Bodies aren't SUPPOSED to move that way!!! That and dinner was ready.

Katie made an AWESOME tilapia with pistachio nuts and a veggie souffle for dinner last night. VERY GOOD!

133.8

Yay! Yay! Yay! I'm back down into my acceptable range! Actually today's weight shocked me a bit--all last week after Tuesday I was in the 134 range, then I didn't weigh myself on the weekend, then yesterday morning I was back up to 135.6. I figured that was my usual Monday leap up (although I wasn't *that* bad on the weekend, but pretty much any weekend involves less activity and more food than weekdays), but then yesterday I was pretty terrible about food--I had a meeting at noon that I didn't realize was a lunch meeting, so I ate before going, then while I was there I ate half of a half of a sub (they were maybe 4 inch subs; I took a bite or two, removed the yucky American cheese, took another bite or two, then just took out the meat and ate it plain. Too much mayonnaise, slimy lettuce--really unappealing.) and some potato chips. Then in the evening I had to work at the front desk of one of our fundraisers at a Chinese restaurant. All-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. So again I ate before going (just yogurt and fruit) but fortunately after my shift at the check-in table the buffet line was too long so I just went home without eating. OTOH, I probably should have stayed because we had hot dogs for dinner. So overall, I ate far more than I usually do on a weekday.

Anyway, end result--thought my weight might not go down today as it usually does on Tuesday, but not only did it go down, but I'm lower than I've been in a LONG time. I hope this isn't temporary!

148

Lower than last week but still not that lovely 147 I was seeing two weeks ago. I ran on Sunday, but because I haven't done that in so long I was pretty sore so I did not do anything yesterday.

Food has been terrible because I am pms-ing and everything looks tasty but then ends up not hitting the spot.

Today is going to be a crazy day. I better gear up for it...

Sugar Free

http://www.realage.com/News_Features/tipPrint.aspx?cid=17755

RealAge Tip of the Day Why Sugar Is Not Always Sweet If it tastes good, it must be bad for you, right? Well, not always, but in this case the answer is yes. Love your Lucky Charms? Can't give up your Cocoa Puffs? It's time to tame your taste buds. Eating 5 to 7 teaspoons of sugar a day -- whether it's called honey or sucrose, whether it's in soft drinks or doughnuts -- ups your risk of pancreatic cancer by 70 percent. Check labels and skip foods that give sugar star billing. Watch out for these hidden sources of added sugar

Cakes, pastries, cookies, ice cream -- some foods just scream sugar. Others -- from salad dressing to ketchup -- aren't so obvious. Good rule of thumb: If it's processed and comes out of a can, jar, bottle, or box, there's a good chance it contains sugar. So get into the habit of checking labels. If you see sugar or its many aliases (pretty much anything that ends in "ose," such as sucrose, dextrose, maltose, and high-fructose corn syrup) near the top of the ingredients list, you might as well be eating it straight from the sugar bowl. The danger? Excess sugar puts your pancreas into overdrive, forcing it to crank out massive amounts of insulin to process all that glucose in your blood. And continuously high blood sugar and insulin levels -- the kind you get when your day is filled with sweet snacks and sugary drinks -- can damage your pancreas in ways that invite cancer.

References: Consumption of sugar and sugar-sweetened foods and the risk of pancreatic cancer in a prospective study <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17093171&query_hl=15&itool=pubmed_docsum>. Larsson, S. C., Bergkvist, L., Wolk, A., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2006 Nov;84(5):1171-1176.

Copyright(c) 2007, RealAge, Inc. All rights reserved. RealAge shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. RealAge(r) is a federally registered trademark of RealAge, Inc. Real Age(tm) and Age Reduction(r) are trademarks of RealAge, Inc Sugar Free

JUST DO IT

I just read the comments you guys posted on my last post. OK - this is it. NO MERCY!!! I want to see how many days in a row I can exercise. COUNTING the trip to the ocean.

I need a potty chart. I need to give myself a star for every 10 minutes of exercise I do.

I need 40 stars by Easter to eat a pecan nouget egg. I know I am not supposed to reward with food - but that is my ULTIMATE guilty pleasure.

Maybe my scale is broken

I don't know how much my weight increased in a 24 hour period because I forgot to weigh myself on Sunday, but between Saturday (214.2) and today (218!!!!!) I gained SEVENTEEN POUNDS! Or - close enough!!!! I am not sure what happened.

I went out Saturday night - but actually called it an early night - and went home at midnight. I had two drinks plus one at home earlier with dinner. Katie and I went grocery shopping on Saturday and we have decided that the poverty ridden countries are on to something. We bought a bunch of rice, dried peas, lentils, bananas, etc. to make some of the freaky International recipes that Katie downloaded off of the Operation Rice Bowl website. Lots of food - but comparatively, not very expensive. I made a big pot of Burundian Spinach Stew after church. It was VERY yummy - although it looked and smelled exactly like what you would expect African food to look and smell like.

Yesterday I was worse. I had meatless Eggs Benedict for breakfast, Girl Scout Cookies for lunch and then Katie and I used my Red Robin coupons for dinner. I went meatless... but as we established on Friday, meatless is NOT low cal. I had the fried fish sandwich - AND onion rings (althought I only had two - maybe three - of them). Katie had the garden burger. I must say - the meatless Red Robin experience was kind of disappointing. The margaritas were good, the onion rings were good, but the sandwiches needed something - like a big fat BEEF patty!

I snacked on pistachio nuts all weekend too.

So - I guess it all caught up with me today. The upside of this all is that I am now motivated to LOSE it all. I want to lose 8 pounds in the next month. I want to be down to 210 by Easter. Is it possible? Well - it would be if we used my Friday weight of 213.8 - harder if we use today's weight. I was already disgusted with the floppy nature of my belly fat - and motivated to exercise (well, I THOUGHT about exercise). So - maybe my stars are aligning now. I have an appointment with the nutritionist on the 20th. I am not expecting any great progress from her - but who knows. Maybe she will give me drugs.

Not Low Cal

Emily - why do you think you meet so many fat vegetarians? They fill up on white flour, pasta, cheese, and stuff. Then they put sour cream on it all. ACTUALLY - meat really isn't all that high in calories in comparison to a lot of foods... especially chicken and fish - it is how you prepare it.

That being said - Katie and I went to Bonefish last night, and sushi the night before. Both COMPLETELY within our meatless resolution - but plenty fattening all the same. THEN - I topped off my dinner late last night with icecream. I didn't want ice cream really - but I wanted to use MY NEW DISHES!!! I LOVE THEM! They arrived yesterday afternoon, so Katie and I went to pick them up after dinner. After displaying them on my counter all night, I had a bowl of ice cream. My stomach had been acting wonky all day - my spastic colon was spasaming for a good chunk of the day... so the ice cream DID NOT sit well. I was too tired to be sick - so first thing this monring, I was bolting for the potty. This was good because it left me with my weight down to 213.8.

No exercise still. I have to start that up again...

"Meatless" should mean "Low Cal"

Because I've been making some awesome bean burritos this week, but the TORTILLA has 180 calories alone! Eeek! And it gets worse -- I cooked black beans and leftover corn in Kroger's taco seasoning -- not sinless right there -- and added salsa and brown rice and mounds of cheese. It's not quite up to the Mean Bean's standard but it's still soooo yummy and very filling and it's not fish.

Tonight we're having fish. Tilapia, which I don't usually fix, so we'll see.

Apart from being meatless the whole time Daniel was out of town I haven't been doing well at all. I haven't exercised except for 22 lengths at the pool on Wednesday, which didn't amount to very much time, though one length was butterfly just to see if I could still do it (tecnically, no, though I did flail until I reached the end of the pool and I didn't drown). I haven't had any sweets, though last night for the first time I was SORELY tempted when I learned Daniel's flight was cancelled and he wouldn't be home until noon today, which made me totally blue. But then he got put on a flight to Greensboro that should have arrived around 10 pm, which meant I had to drive 2 hours to pick him up. Except it didn't come in until nearly 2 am, by which time he'd long since lost his space on the flight that would have arrived this noon so we were stuck having to drive down in the middle of the night. I got to bed around 5 am. So exercise today is looking mighty unlikely!

I'm banning Doritoes and chips from my house

Not just because I can't seem to keep out of them, but also because if we have them in the house, that's all Connor will eat. For some reason Brian picked up two bags of Doritoes when he went shopping yesterday. Connor hasn't been eating much of anything recently since he's been so sick, but we started antibiotics on Tuesday so he was feeling a bit better last night, so I made him a grilled cheese sandwich and he literally wouldn't touch it, but kept demanding more chips. I finally got some applesauce in him with his nighttime meds, then 15 minutes later after beating me to a bloody pulp (or so it seemed) during his breathing treatment, he threw everything up all over the computer keyboard. Kids are such a joy. So now I'm just not allowing food in the house that has no nutritional value at all. If Connor is going to eat almost nothing and throw up what little he does eat, it better be nutritious to start.

Anyway, except for my one serving of Doritoes my food yesterday was boringly healthy, I ran three miles, flossed my teeth, and except for turning into a complete banshee after Connor puked on the keyboard I was a total model citizen yesterday.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Well - maybe not so much the knees and toes - but my head and shoulders hurt! I had a headache last night that I thought would go away with sleeping - but it is still here - and I feel like I slept clenched up because my shoulders are very sore this monring... Now that I think about it I COULD make a claim to the toes - I need new shoes.

See - this is what happens when you turn old... you get crotchety. 8-)

I ran around A LOT yesterday, ate badly, (including some pre packaged Coldstone) and didn't exercise. I heard Fresh Aire TWICE however (once on the DC station and then on the Balto station) since I was in the car that whole time! My weight shows it today - I was 215.2. I was 214.2 yesterday - so if the world maintains the same mass, I have gotten Sarah's pound a day.

Here is my dilemma. I have never been one to buy into the "Sunday isn't Lent" theory - thereby exempting us from our sacrifice... BUT - I was raised by Dad and think coupons are a great idea. That all being said - I got in my email yesterday a coupon from the Red Robin Birthday Club giving me one free burger - and one for $3 off my purchase. They expire on 3/14. It would be horribly wasteful NOT to use the coupons - but Katie and I gave up meat for Lent. So - can I go eat a hamburger on Sunday? This is after going to daily mass yesterday where the priest gave a homily that our faith can't be on OUR terms, but have to be on God's terms.

Today I am starting my daily journal of what I eat. I am doing that because I have my nutritionist appointment on 3/20 (I may try to move this up) and I need to be able to report all of my food to her (including anything I drink...).

CRAP! It just occurred to me that I didn't place a SINGLE Sale-a-bration order in the last two months. Oh well - I need stamps like I need a hole in the head!