It's only NUMBERS

OK - I am really pissed! Suzanne just sparked a big arugument in our area by sending us this article. How is it that a state government can charge more money for someone's health insurance by checking ONE NUMBER!? So - of course we all did our BMIs. I am 36.1 MORBIDLY obese. Suzanne is 26 - Overweight. But - Suzanne has high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and she carries her weight in her waist and is 10 years older than me. I have no health issues, but because I have a higher BMI I would get charged $25 a month more for my health insurance. How does that make ANY sense? How can the cost of health insurance be determined by one number? And one number that when it comes down to it discounts a WHOLE lot of other factors!? This really upsets me. It is like Gattica is really coming to pass. The article says that people will be screened for other health issues - but in that case why do the BMI at all. Are they only going screen the fat people? Skinny people can get as sick as they want?

Exercise makes you younger

Here's an article about the study that said that exercise actually makes you younger. It's not the same one I read before, but it cites the same study.

Younger muscles

Sarah and I had a funny (not) conversation about being twice people's age. How is it that we could possibly be twice someone's age? I am still used to being the person who is half someone's age. When did we switch???


But that led to a conversation about a study done recently about exercise not only making you healthier, but actually reversing the aging of our muscles. You get YOUNGER by exercising. I have got to tell you, this is one of the best motivations I have received in a long time for exercising! I want to get younger. I wonder what exercises I can do for my face. Maybe I will start chewing gum again. I know I looked a lot younge when I used to chew gum. Sarah - if you think of it I would like to see that study that you were talking about.

Anyway, I have decided today that I am no longer going gluten free. I guess I will still make gluten free choice when I can (i.e. rice instead of pasta) but I have decided not to spend the money on gluten free bread for toast anymore. This means I can start having sandwiches for lunch. It is SO hard trying to pack lunches without bread! I am going to continue to try to be sugar free (as possible). I think I have a bigger problem with sugar anyway. I get reflux immediately now days when I eat sugar or sweet snacks.

I was going to say something about wanting to start using the pool at the gym - but after reading Sarah's post I am rethinking it. 8-) Sarah - you need to wear Speedo's and do the sidestroke!

I hate swimming

I'm just back from the pool. Three years at this job and this is the first time I've gone to the pool on campus. You know why? Because I hate swimming! I hate wearing a bathing suit, and I hate the temperature of the water (which is always too cold or too warm) and I hate the temperature of the air as soon as you get out and I hate the chlorine, the way it burns your eyes and makes it look like you've been crying for about six hours straight and the way it dries out your skin and makes you smell terrible, I hate not being able to breathe properly and getting water in my nose and lungs when I miscalculate my breathing just a tiny bit, I hate getting water in my ears no matter what I do, I hate not being able to see where I'm going very well or see what I'm doing wrong because I can't see myself.

But I kinda sorta told Connor's old teacher (not old at all--she's all of 26 I think, but "old" as in "last year's teacher") that I'd do the Iron Girl triathlon with her next year. She just did it on Sunday. She is not a competitive athlete. Far from it--she has a form of lupus and all of the steroids she was on made her gain all kinds of weight, so she started exercising to counteract that and has managed to lose 60 pounds (but still has a ways to go) and is off most of her medications but is still subject to pain and joint inflammation and all that fun stuff. In any case, she did the Iron Girl against her doctor's recommendation and then turned around the next day and started teaching a class of autistic six year olds. This was one of those "if she can do it, I can do it" moments, so she said she'd help me get ready for next year's Iron Girl.

I'm not concerned about the biking or the running. I can already run (well, trudge/jog) a 5K, and I can bike 17 miles at a very slow pace, but I can't swim. I told Claire I could--I was telling her what a triathlon was and she said "but Mom, you can't swim." I said "yes, I can swim, I'm just not very good at it." But I think Claire was right. I can't swim. I can just not-drown. The swim portion of the Iron Girl is .6 miles, give or take. Sara (Connor's teacher) says that that works out to 22 laps/44 lengths of the pool. Today I only managed 11 laps/22 lengths, and only managed THAT by resting for 20 or 30 seconds after each length. And I only did 8 of those lengths freestyle because that's the stroke that has me gasping and sucking in water and not getting enough air and stopping halfway to recharge. I did 11 lengths with breaststroke and the other three were just on my back kicking. Not even using my arms. There was a woman in the far lane with a weighted belt who was pool walking because of mobility problems, and I swear she was going faster than me. I almost wimped out and didn't go to the pool at all. You know what my reasoning was? It's raining, and I might get wet on the way over and back! OK, even I realized what a lame excuse that was so I forced myself to go.

So I said I'd do this, so I have to figure out a way to not-drown my way through .6 miles of open water (oh, ugh, even worse than chlorine!), and then a way to do that and follow it up with 17 miles on the bike and 3.4 miles (the route is a bit longer than a real 5K) running. I think I could manage two in a row at this point, but not three. Maybe I'll see if I can slowly work my way up to only stopping to rest after each lap and not each length, and then I can start adding on more laps. I should be ready by my 50th birthday. But the first order of business will be to get some goggles (which I hate wearing--did I mention that?). I can't believe how badly my eyes are burning right now, and I've been out of the pool for more than an hour. If I had tried swimming after work instead of at noon, I wouldn't have been able to drive home!

142.5

Remarkably, that was also my weight yesterday morning after a week in Alabama.  While I was there I ate indiscriminately and spent 24 hours straight at a place called Bridge Street where you go and eat, and sleep, and watch movies, and shop, and basically just spend money in every way possible.  (No, we did not go for a gondola ride -- having bridges and water doesn't mean being on the water going under bridges is interesting.  It takes two thousand years of history for that.)  So we ate (and drank) and went to the movies (and ate and drank) and hung out in our hotel (and drank and slept and drank some more, so the champagne wouldn't go to waste) and ate and shopped and ate some more.  I don't even want to know how many calories I ingested, but it had to be bad.

We did go running on Tuesday, but my legs ached afterwards until late Thursday, and then we were busy every minute until we left.  And on the day I arrived I was freezing (they put the A/C on to 68 or 70 degrees) but for the rest of the week I was roasting hot.  It was very strange -- it was like my metabolism was on overdrive.  Now I understand why people kick the covers off in the dead of winter.  Maybe I'm starting menopause.  At any rate, despite all the calories, I somehow managed to LOSE two pounds in the place where I can usually count on GAINING between two and five -- case in point, in May I exercised there every single day and ate with some degree of moderation, and I came back with a five pound gain.

Anyway, yesterday I started my annual fall diet (this is three out of four years running, and since the last two attempts proved successful, I might as well go for it again) and I hope to meet Sarah's challenge of losing 8 to 10 pounds over the next two or so months.  I'm logging on Daily Plate again.  I went to the gym yesterday and kept my calorie intake down to just below 1200 (I didn't mean to fall short; I just still wasn't very hungry after all the travel) and today I went to the gym again and have kept my calories reasonable (but it's pizza for dinner -- that will be a test).  Tomorrow I will miss the gym (couldn't get a slot) but it will be brunswick stew for dinner, which is always a lean but filling meal.  So I've got a good start going!

143.8

Eek! I've been more like in the 142-something range the past few days, but this morning I was way up. I'm completely blaming my diet from yesterday alone--we went to the fair last night and I don't think you can get out of there without gaining a pound. It was fun, though, although I'm glad we got that out of the way for the year! I've been pretty good about exercise the past week--three trips to the gym and one day riding to work. I was hoping to ride to work today as well, but decided not to since it's Back to School night at Connor's school and I don't want to get to that all sweaty and out of breath. The trip home from work is lots of long, slow uphills and by the time I get home all I want to do is take a shower and lay down somehwere.

So much for the sleep thing

Actually, I have been very good about getting to bed at a reasonable hour. All last week I was in bed by 10:45. The weekend wasn't so good - I stayed up reading or whatever until about 1:30am each night - but then I slept later in the morning, so I still got 7-8 hours of sleep. Then Sunday night, I was in bed by 11pm, but LAST night I didn't go to bed until 11:30. Then, I had one of those really bad nights where I didn't sleep deeply at all. I had a lot of weird surface level dreams - and woke up repeatedly. Finally, about 45 minutes before my alarm went off I got up and went to the bathroom - THEN, as expected, I feel sound asleep. I ended up hitting my snooze twice. Anyway - so I am tired today. TONIGHT I will definitely go to bed by 10:30!

My weight was on the high end of my range. That was probably because of the popcorn last week. We finished it off yesterday. Then - Halloween candy is in the stores. I bought a bag of Junior Mints. The bad news is I bought them over the weekend. The good news is I haven't eaten them all. I can't do that again!

Exercise - same ole same ole - all on Wednesday. I picked out a color for my exercise room - if I ever get to clear out all of the stuff. Laura's stuff still lives in my basement. However, I am going to do my exercise room in a pretty dark, soft coral - and light pergo wood floors. It will be beautiful if I ever get it done... The basement I think I am going to do in raspberry - with white fixtures. Which means I need to start painting the existing shelves from my sewing room...

Damn Popcorn!

I have been eating Fisher's popcorn. April went to the ocean last week and brought back one of those giant tubs of popcorn. I was aware of it when she announced it - but forgot (thank goodness) about it...................... until yesterday. Then, sometime around lunch I kept smelling something really good. I didn't think about it until Suzanne said "Ugh! Get this popcorn away from me!" Then I remembered it. I still would have been OK, but I actually ate some. It was downhill from there. Luckily - I am on the other side of the wall from it - so I have only had one mug full today and about 1.5 mug fulls yesterday. But it is so sugary it doesn't take much to make my gums hurt. Sigh. Maybe I should eat some real food - that might help.

It's been too long

Hello everyone, 

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile but it seems everyone has been in a similar mode. July was crazy busy with work as Congress scrambled to go out of session for the summer.

I also had out-of-town plans every weekend beginning with the last weekend in July that included trips to Pittsburgh, a long weekend in Atlanta for my dad's 65th and, of course, a weekend away for my BIG 4-0. Whoa. 

During the past month I've also moved (the day before my b-day) and I had agreed to complete a sizable freelance piece around the same time. Although I had movers move all the big stuff I handled a lot of it on my own, taking about four additional days to complete everything. 

Now, just as I'm settled in the new place and trying to get into a good pattern of sleeping and eating I leaving for a two-week trip to N. California beginning Saturday. Trust me, no complaints about but I've still got some work to finish before my departure. But I'm nearly ready. 

I will be doing some hiking and kayaking out in Yosemite, touring around SF and tacking on a trip to Napa. So there will be some activity in there. 

But my plan upon my return from Cali is to buckle down again. I actually think I've trimmed down during the past month or so (must be the 4,000 times I climbed the stairs in both condos) but I actually can't wait to get back into a routine where I've got good food in the house and am making lunch and dinner and eating a good breakfast. 

I hoping since I've been able to at least maintain that a focused diet and exercise plan will help me drop pounds and tone up. 

Hey Sarah, if you're reading I'd like to get together with you, Debbie and Maureen sometime next month for a little 4-0 celebration. Maureen is meeting me in Cali to do Napa. Should be fun. 

Good luck to everyone as you start off on your new fall routines. 

144.5

This has been an absolutely awful month for me.  Until yesterday I hadn't exercised since July.  I did get some exercise during zoo camp week, just walking around the zoo and Mill Mountain, but that WAS July.  We've had lots of company this month and a laundry list of things that have needed to get done and I've just been lazy.  Oh, and with company that means some eating out and a lot of fixing food for other people, which means I've been eating more.  But really this is all excuses (except for the lazy part) -- I just got tired of exercising and watching every bite.  Going to bed at 1 am after Olympics and not getting enough sleep hasn't helped.  So through the month of August I have done nothing, and I have paid for it by watching my weight climb.  That weight is actually Monday's, since I didn't have a scale on Tuesday, but Tuesday, I'm sure, was no better.  Sunday was worse.

We are in Alabama now, so yesterday Daniel and I went out around lunchtime (in the 90+-degree heat) and went for a run.  I got through slightly  more than two miles before I had to slow down (my new shoes aren't working out for me -- they seem to prevent the supination but they don't provide the arch support so my toes start feeling dead and then my arches start paining me), and then I split the last mile between walking and running.  But at least it was exercise.  Today I hurt all over (teaching Mary the butterfly stroke in the pool didn't help -- that added upper body aches to the lower body, but it was worth it, because I LOVE the way butterfly feels while I'm doing it) so I can't do anything except go for a walk, and probably not much of one.  Tomorrow is our anniversary, so we're spending the afternoon and night in Huntsville; if I get out early I might be able to go running.  If I don't hurt still.  Friday and Saturday are pretty full of activities so it'll be catch-as-catch-can, I'm afraid.

Next week we are back to a ROUTINE!  Woo hoo!  I'm going to get us back to the gym, and we'll have school during the day (i.e., less time to wonder what food I can scrounge up to snack on next) and just be busy in general.  I'm re-starting my diet again (as I seem to do every fall, though at least it also seems to be successful) to try to get back to my weight from this winter, i.e., mid-130s.

143 again

I only exercised once last week--I ended up running three miles on the outdoor track because the one day I made it to the gym, the gym was actually closed! I didn't make it on Friday because I had only gotten two or three hours of sleep the night before and didn't feel up to it, and yesterday I brought my stuff and didn't go because I forgot it was convocation day, which took up the whole afternoon. But I DID ride into work today--it felt like an easier trip, even though I had to stop and catch my breath on one of the hills. But today was cooler than the first time I did this, which helped, and just being more familiar with the route helps as well. I'm looking forward to school starting next week--I should be able to consistently manage to ride to work at least two days a week, and maybe three. I'm debating what to do when it starts getting dark and cold for the commute. The cold doesn't bother me too much--it's not fun, but it's manageable with good clothes and just keeping moving. The dark is harder. There are some really good light systems out there now, but I don't know if I want to invest $200 or more to be able to do this. Well, I DO want to invest that, but I don't know if it's worth it when I may end up wimping out.

My resolutions

I was about 1/2 a pound up today from yesterday - but still a pound lower than my upper limit of my "current" range - so I guess that counts as holding steady.

I feel like I am performing a balancing act. It has been SO LONG since my weight has been steady that I am not sure what to do about it. I am usually gaining and - very rarely - losing. I want to see how long I can go without increasing anymore. So far it has been about three months. Even through my periods. I haven't even gained the usual four pounds. I feel like I should DO something. If my weight has truly stabilized I should be able to make it turn around and start going down. Right? BUT (says my skeptical doubting Thomas mind) what if I make a change and knock myself off of my precarious precipice and suddenly start gaining again? So, I am starting slow (No suddennnnnn mooovements...).

So - my first resolution that I am trying to enact is supposedly an easy one - but one that so far has proven more difficult than eating breakfast in the mornings. I am going to attempt to get enough sleep. ALL of the diet books, articles, websites, etc. say that the WORSE thing you can do when trying to lose weight is to not get enough sleep. I haven't gotten enough sleep in - well - forever, I think. Since, in my case, it is primarily self induced (no kids to wake me up during the night and all...) I should be able to break this habit. It is basic math. I get up at 6:15 every work day, therefore I should go to bed by 10:15 each night. Yeah. Right. I go to bed at 12:15 - except on the days when I go to bed at 1:15am. So, last night was the first night under my new plan. What I did was go upstairs and get ready for bed at 10pm. Then I read for a little while, and ended up turning off the lights at about 10:45-ish. I woke up just once during the night (at 1:47am - which was just weird because I had been in bed for a long time by then...) and I fell right back to sleep. I woke up again right on schedule about 20 minutes before my alarm was to go off. Perfect! Now, I just need to see if I can do that consistantly. I know 10:45 was about 1/2 an hour later than I should have gone to bed - but it was almost 2 hours earlier than normal!!

Betty Foy

I think I've mentioned Rivendell bikes on here before, haven't I? Maybe not. They're just the most beautiful bikes in the world--all handmade lugged steel frames, designed for real life riding and not racing or tearing around mountain trails, and with gorgeous cloisonne head badges as well. They also start at around $3,000 for a complete bike, so clearly not something I'd ever buy.

Except now apparently they are building a bike for me. It's a mixte frame (of all their bikes, the current mixte is my favorite) and will be named the Betty Foy. Betty Foy was a character in a Wordsworth poem--the overly responsible and somewhat guilt-ridden mother of an "idiot boy" who she loves more than anything in her life. In the poem, she is forced to send her son off for the doctor when she's caring for a sick neighbor, and her son doesn't return. Thinking the worst, she tears all over the English countryside (insert 400 lines of ghastly romantic poetry here) looking for her son and berating herself for ever letting him leave. Eventually she finds him sitting staring at a waterfall.

I don't know why they decided on Betty Foy for the name of their bike (except for all the tearing all over the countryside bit) but clearly I have to have this bike. The good news is, they're having it built in Taiwan instead of Japan or the U.S. so the frame will be around $700 instead of the normal $1,600, and the completed bike will probably be under $2,000. I need to start saving my pennies now--the bike won't be available until next year sometime.

Ho Ho Jog

Well - I guess we are all back now to our "real lives" - sigh. I was pleased to discover that I didn't gain any weight while I was away. Actually SHOCKED would be a better word for it. The Folk School feeds us well; three meals a day like clockwork - dessert with both lunch AND dinner - and each of the meals were more calories than I normally eat in a sitting. OTOH - they were, for the most part, balanced meals with vegetables and protein - and the dining hall IS at the bottom of a hill and so we are forced to walk (albeit very slowly) after each meal. When I was there in January I did gain 5 pounds - and so I expected the same thing this time too.

Katie and I walked a lot more this time around. We went out on "morning walk" each day - which was only about a mile or so - but still! Also, the studio was farther away from the dorm this time - although still not super far. It is amazing how much time you have for walking when you don't have to commute to and from work each day. I would happily walk for 1/2 an hour each morning and evening in place of my commute. It seemed like I was walking up hill all week though. By Thursday my calves were really feeling it. It wasn't just me - Katie said she was feeling it in her calves too. We walked down (and therefore up) the BIG hill to the blacksmith shop at least three times... picture runestone hill, only imagine the path doing a three layer switchback and ending with the steep incline - although the last incline piece was shorter than our Pennsic hill. However, once you are at the top of this hill it doesn't flatten out into the merchant area, you end up with several more smaller hills. So - in the end - even though we were averaging 8-10 hours a day in the studio I mananged to walk about 10,000 steps a day - none of it aerobic, but all of it leaving me huffing and puffing.

This is another reason I thought I gained weight - starting about Wednesday I found myself struggling with breathing everytime I did anything. I thought it was because of the extra weight I put on. However, on Thursday the skinniest girl in the class asked if anyone else was having chest tightness. Someone else said that the goldenrod was in rare form - but we also speculated that it could be the gas that we were breathing in all week. Katie and I both had congestion starting on Tuesday night - that was helped significantly by Sudafed - so we think it was actually allergies not gas poisoning.

It was SO beautiful there! I took some good pictures. I hope to get them uploaded to Smugmug in the next day or two. The weather was perfect. We were told on Sunday that rain would be moving in on Tuesday - but we got just a few after dark showers that night - and then we were back to perfect, clear, beautiful weather.

I have returned home with some new health resolutions - but I will get into them tomorrow.

Yikes! 143!

How did that happen? Oh yeah--vacation. Lots of food, very little movement.

Back to the grindstone.

141

Down a pound from last week, but not really.  I've hovered between 141 and 142 with virtually no deviation for two solid weeks, and only a half pound deviation from that for pretty much a full month.  Not bad, considering the only exercise I'm getting is near-daily walks to Kroger!  Oh, and I'm watching OTHER people exercise a lot -- the Olympics are bad for my health.

Oops again

It was 142 on Wednesday, even though I forgot to post it then.  Then 141 then 142 again.  I've been really consistent for the last month.  I've also been consistent about not exercising and about eating without regard to the consequences.  I haven't even touched my bike for two weeks (not that I've been driving anywhere, either -- we've been homebodies!).

Oops!

I forgot to weigh myself this morning.  That's pretty rare for me!  And on a Tuesday, no less.  I'll weigh myself tomorrow and post the results.  I've been around 142 all week, though.

weigh in day

Amy, I was surprised to see your post. I figured that if Sarah was at Pennsic, you and Katie would be, too. Are you going at all?

Again I was 149.5 yesterday, but this morning I was 150. I know that is a very slight variation. In the course of the last week I was up to 151.5--maybe even 152. We had broiled tilapia lat night, and we will have it again, leftover, tonight.

Nothing more to report, except that I have ordered two pairs of sneakers, a black pair and a white with pink pair, different New Balance models. They are coming from Coward Shoes (such an unfortunate name) in, I think, Arizona, so they will probably arrive while we are down in Blacksburg next week!

Excited for the peppers

and I suppose the tomatoes also... I was out watering my "garden" this morning and noticed that all three of my pepper plants are loaded with microscopic peppers. One plant has two that are developing nicely, the other one has five and the third had about 10 buds and two bumps. The four tomato plants have multiple green tomatoes on them - but they seem to be growing slowly. The plants I have all came to me as seedlings from Sarah - so I am not sure exactly what I am going to get. She told me that two of the tomatoes are heritage and were acting fragile (in they baby state). Since all of them took nicely to the pots I put them in, I am not sure which were the fragile ones. One plant has two tone green tomatoes - so I think that may be one of the heritage plants - but I am just guessing. They could also be two tone from the sun/water/dirt/bird poop combination that it has been receiving... I have this idea that I am going to chop up and freeze my peppers the way Mom and Dad used to so I can use them year round. Katie and I cook with a fair number of green peppers. I am not sure what I will do with my assumed bumper crop of tomatoes...

My weight was again where it has been for weeks now. I was .4 down from my weigt last week - but that is still within the three pound zone that I expect - but still on the upside from it.

On Saturday I walked to the coffee shop in Reisterstown to meet Kristy for coffee. My shins were KILLING me the whole way there and back. This didn't make a lot of sense to me because I had just walked about the same distance wearing the same shoes on Wednesday and had no problem. But I also noticed that while I was walking on Saturday I was walking very heavily. Like my legs and butt and body weighed more than it normally does. It was weird.

Goodbye BMI, hello PBII???????

I found this amusing...Women's funny weight loss math

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/08/01/o.women.weight.loss.math/index.html