What do they have against fiber here???

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

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

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

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

Update

I ate poorly this weekend. I stopped tracking it because I couldn't remember what I ate. It wasn't a LOT per se, but none of it seemed to have nutritional value. I ate popcorn, canned soup, spinach dip (at the coffee shop where Loch Raven played) some Girl Scout cookies... I can't remember what all. By Sunday night I wanted straight up protein. So I got sushi. The plain old blobs of raw fish sushi. It was SO good!!

I have been pretty good on the exercise front. Saturday I got up and immediately put on my exercise clothes and tennis shoes (brand new on Friday!) to go out for a walk. I got no farther than downstairs, I DID, however, exercise - in the working in the yard sort of way. I ended up cleaning up the deck, which was in desparate need of cleaning. I moved all of the big planters off of the deck onto the stairs, threw out all of the little plastic seeding pots (which - it just now occurred to me - I might regret) moved the fireplace from its tucked away "storage" spot back onto the main deck, swept everything - several times - scrubbed and scraped at some of the moldy black and green spots - pretty much to no avail. I really need to power wash it next spring. There are several branches of the big pine tree behind us that I want to take down. There is no way I could get all of the over hanging branches, but I want to get the ones that reach farthest into my yard. I also really need to get gravel delivered to spread over the non-patio area of the yard (otherwise known as the mud pit) under the deck. You can't even walk on it currently. It is too muddy. I did a calculation on how much gravel I would need to cover that area and, based on 18x15 feet 2" deep (although, it is probably more like 15x12 feet) it would be THREE TONS! I can't haul three tons of gravel. Maybe I will just buy one bag of gravel each time I go to home depot until the area is covered. I wonder how long that would take? That actually kind of makes sense for the short term. I could do a path area from the bottom of the steps to the slider at least. Hummmmmm....

So, after I did all of this I felt bad that I hadn't actually gone out for my walk - so a few hours later I took a short (about a mile or so) walk around the neighborhood. Then Saturday night after I got back from the coffee shop I did my push-ups. My calves were still feeling it, but my tricepts were REALLY feeling it. Yay!

Sunday, however, I did no exercise. Sigh.

Today we did a team lunch. I hate that I can never positively influance my people into where to go for lunch. Not that ANY prepared food is that good for you, but they ALWAYS want to eat at Silver Spring Mining Company. I hate that. Their food - first of all - isn't very well prepared. Then, everything is deep fried and/or covered in cheese. It is like TGIFridays, only I don't like it as much. So I had a Bison Burger. It is leaner than beef (supposedly). I ate only half of it - and it was very dry. It did, however, come with one onion ring (my perfect portion) and then fries. I usually remember to order not the fries (applesauce is my preferred substitute - or a salad). Believe it or not, I don't really LIKE French fries that much, however, if they are there, I will often eat them. Today was one of those days. I ate all of the fries. I think I did that because our server was very slow to return to our table after we were done eating, and I was enjoying the conversation - so I wasn't paying attention and so picked at the fries on my plate. I did pack some of them up with my remaining half burger, but I ate them this afternoon.

I have to get back onto Daily Plate. I was on over the weekend, but not diligent...

The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy

I just read on Yahoo news that Nestle's - who makes Libby pumpkin, used for pumpkin pie fillings - is experiencing record low crop yields, due to wet weather. They just announced that they have picked all of the pumpkins they can for this year. Furthermore, LAST year had bad weather too leading to less surplus than ususal, which resulted in spotty outages in late summer (before the new crops came in). So, they are out of pumpkins, and won't get anymore until next year (side note - buy now!). HOWEVER, Wholefoods, Trader Joe's and Farmers Market Organic, are all saying that they don't know what the heck Nestle's is talking about - they had no pumpkin disasters this year. So, my question is - Is Nestle's trying to create a run on the pumpkin market just in time for the holidays? Jack up prices now to "get while the getting is good?" Is it a conspiracy?

In other news... I just ate a BLT. I know! Bad for me, huh? I don't know... I made it with Arnold's Ancient Grains whole wheat & more bread, fresh lettuce, fresh tomatoes and just a tiny smidge of mayo. It was 15 grams of fiber (I am supposed to shoot for 10 per meal and almost never get there), only 7g of sugar, and it was emotionally satisfying. AND - I got in a serving of vegetables!!!

So I have been good with my exercise this week. Well - good as compared to, say, last week! I haven't missed a day since I said no skipping, no excuses, including T-day. Last night was a little bit skimpy I have to say, however, I am feeling it today - which has got to say something. I was intrigued by Emily's comment about the 100 pushups. I decided to check that out... Back when I was doing weight training in college, my big mark of accomplishment was that I went from doing 2 push ups, to 25 push-ups, and I could have kept going! I was very proud of myself. So, I decided I wanted to get back to that...

Step one was your Initial Test. How many "correct form" sit ups can I do now? Well, none. Actually, half. I was just fine with lowering myself down in a controlled manor (plank pose in yoga) but I couldn't push back up (I could go into down dog however...). So that was no go. The website said that if you could do 0 correct form push ups that you should try one of the modified versions. The girl style, knee bent form didn't work for me either (too much pain in my knees). A bench style push up was also described (which sounded like you would place your hands on a bench or chair and lower yourself up and down there. That sounded reasonable, but then it warned you to make sure the bench was stable. I immediately had visions of myself flipping my wooden hallway bench over, falling smack on it with my face and walking around with a fat lip, broken nose, and black eye for the next three weeks. AND break my bench to boot. So, I went with the final version - wall push ups, which is TOTALLY cheating (I thought). It said the farther you stand away from the wall the better the workout. The farthest I could get away from the wall before hitting furniture was four feet. I did 10 wall push ups. I then went back to the guide to see what I was supposed to do. It said if you could do 0-5 push-ups on day 1 you should do sets of 2, 3, 2, 2 3+(as many as you can squeeze out) resting for 60 seconds in between. Since I had already done 10 I didn't want to drop back down to TWO. So I did four sets of 10. By the fourth set I was feeling it and struggling to do the last few. For my last set I pushed past the 10, got to 12 and thought, ugh, but did 13 and then knew I couldn't stop on 13! so managed one more for a total of 14.

What impressed me this morning was that I was feeling it in my calves! It totally makes sense, but I just didn't think about it in advance. So, I am excited to stick with this. I figure if I can get to 100 wall push ups I can try the floor ones again!

Thanks Vickie for the yogurt suggestions! I will definitely check them out.

Check this out

I'm just here to announce that despite more time in my schedule due to my unemployment I'm not making any headway and haven't really gotten into a good routine. Booo!

Apparently I need to spend a minimum of 27 hours a week playing a Swiss mountain goat with girl scouts in order to have the discipline to get my ass in shape! Go Sarah!

But I'm working on it. In my pursuit for a good routine I saw this today on Fit Bottomed Girls.

Truly food for thought: http://fitbottomedgirls.com/2009/11/★fitstars-celebrity-trainer-mike-heatlie/

Challenge update

When did I sign on to the challenge? I can't remember. I know that there weren't anything like 16 days until Thanksgiving when I signed on, but I'm mentally starting it from last Tuesday, so starting from that date I've done five days of exercise (two outdoor cycling, two PT, one exercycle). I had planned to get to the gym today but that isn't going to happen this late in the day, so I'll do pilates tonight. I think that's close enough to what I'm doing in PT that it shouldn't injure me more, and I really need to work on my core strength.

Meal planning is fine for the meals that I plan, which is pretty much just breakfast and lunch. I never didn't plan them, so it's not exactly a challenge! Brian is in charge of dinner, and he's been good about that as well so we've been eating regularly and not junk. I've been craving soup, though, so tonight I'm making roasted cauliflower curry soup and tomorrow (or Thursday or Friday, depending on my time) I'm making garlic soup. Yum. Claire will hate it. The kid can't stand soup.

In other news, I counted up my hours spent last week with Girl Scout activities--27 hours last week! Admittedly 7 of those hours were ostensibly spent sleeping, but the rest was all waking hours of hands-on time. No wonder I kept falling asleep on the sofa at night! And that was on top of running the Children's Liturgy at Mass on Sunday (anyone remember the readings? It was all apocalyptic end of the world stuff--soooooo much fun to bring down to a kid's level!), going to a conference in DC on Monday and Tuesday, plus my usual workdays the rest of the week (which included a lunch event), two days of basketball for Claire and a team meeting with Connor's therapists on Saturday. So if I could do five days of exercise in there with all of that, I have no excuses for any other week of the year!

Moving in the right direction

Last week I carefully counted calories M-F. On Saturday I started caving in to more treats and on Sunday I gave up almost entirely, but after a week of calorie restriction (and since church kept me from eating before 11, so I had a late start) my appetite wasn't that outrageous so I didn't completely undermine my efforts. I'm 5 1/2 pounds down from last Monday -- which tells me a chunk of the weight wasn't real, but I've probably lost a real two or three pounds, anyway, and as of yesterday I was back to calorie restriction. I took the kids to McDonald's last night (Daniel is out of town and we'd had Girl Scouts -- which I'd almost forgotten about -- and we had no groceries, and it was 8:30) and got a salad even though the fries smelled REALLY good. I ate all of three french fries all evening, and I was stuffed on the salad (even with very little dressing), so much so that when I stayed up way past my bedtime I didn't get hungry before bed.

My response to the challenge has been less successful, however! I did dinner planning for the next month as of Saturday, but then I promptly ignored the first three days of the plan. And the only exercise I had on Saturday was my push-ups (I'm working on the hundred push-ups plan) and a short walk with the kids, and then NONE on Friday or Sunday. Yesterday I had an appointment, but then a friend came over (I've barely seen her in the past year or so) so I cancelled, which is why I forgot about Girl Scouts as well, and I never managed to fit exercise in. So after only a few days of the challenge I've already completely missed three days, which gives me only one day of leeway in the next week and a half. Yikes! Time to go back to no-excuses exercise!

Challenge Results To Date

OK - So, after I said last Tuesday that I was going to do 12 days of exercise leading up to Thanksgiving I promptly forgot about it. I remembered on Friday night, after I went to bed (at 1am after my party, which was a lovely success!). I had to get up and look at the calendar to make sure I hadn't already failed before I started. I hadn't - quite. I had 12 days exactly remaining from Saturday to Wednesday - which meant I was now on a no skipping, no excuses plan. I have failed at THAT too. I ended up skipping on Sunday - which REALLY pissed me off because my first thought when I woke up was that I should get out and take a walk. Instead I ended up cleaning up from the party (yes, I know! I didn't do it on Saturday! it was gross) and then doing laundry - which is a work out in itself considering the stairs - but, hardly counts when you only do two flights up and down once every 40 minutes or so... Then church, then (since I read Emily's blog post on Saturday) menu planning and a trip to the grocery store. THEN I was just lazy and didn't exercise. SO - now I am on no excuses, no skipping INCLUDING Thanksgiving. This is better (I tell myself, not quite believeing it). This means I will get myself in a hard and fast habit with NO days off. Right? I thought so.

So, last night my exercise was a "yoga burn." I love yoga, right? I know yoga can be aerobic - and there are times where I am just pouring sweat and my heart rate is up... This, however, was not one of those times. Don't get me wrong, I was breathing hard and my heart rate WAS up, but I can't imagine what I was doing was beneficial! She moved through the poses SO quickly that you couldn't actually GET into the pose. Furthermore, some of the stuff she had us doing was stuff that only someone who had been doing yoga their whole lives would be able to do (i.e. bend from the waist to the side and "ground your hand into the floor" for Triangle Pose - even yoga magazines and books only takes your hand to your shin for triangle pose. You can easily touch the floor from that angle, however most people would have to bend forward and stick their butt out to hit the floor - and that is NOT triangle pose. Or my favorite, laying on your back reach down and grab your big toe - keeping your leg straight, draw your leg up at an angle towards your shoulder. Yeah. OK. I will get right on that. I can do that perfectly - with a strap that has my hand about a foot from my big toe!). I have done a little bit of Flow yoga - which is where you move fluidly from one pose to the next, and then repeat the sequence. I really like that. It is graceful and smooth and makes you feel stretchy and elegant. THIS, however, made me feel blocky and bulky. I am glad I HAVE been doing steady yoga for the past two years because I WAS able to go from up dog to down dog to plank without having to check what she was doing, and without falling over - but I would have been MUCH better off just planning a sequence of my own and ignoring HER input!! As to the burn... The only thing that was burning by the end were my knees, and one random spot on my back where I think I pinched a nerve!

So, menu planning wasn't hard for me since my menus ARE already planned, with the exception of lunch. That has been my weak spot all along. Katie and I are PERFECT for breakfast and dinner - but from 7:30am to about 7:30 pm I can't get it together. However, over the summer was it? I discovered that if I pack a nice collection of foods (fruit, cheese stick, sandwich and veggies, yogurt and something crunchy - like crackers or pretzels or nuts) and then eat the FRUIT first, I love my lunch. I have the fruit and cheese stick for a morning snack, the sandwich (or left over chile yesterday and left over tilapia today) and veggies for lunch (although I forgot to pack the veggies today!) and the yogurt and cruchy stuff around 4pm, I am good for the day. PLUS, now that I have figured out the formula I am set for the rest of my life. Yesterday's total menu was just under 1600 calories - which is a little low for me now, but will be perfect once I drop about 60 pounds! 8-)

Now, I have to figure out my evening eating. I don't tend to eat much in the eveings - but I do want something sweet at this time. Last night I ended up eating Samoas (6, 450 calories! but kept me under my calorie goal on TDP). When I first went on Jenny Craig I had a nightly snack of chocolate yogurt with slivered almonds mixed in. That was perfect back then, but I haven't been able to find a chocolate yogurt that I like anymore. I will have to think about this a little more.

I have started using The Daily Plate again. That is fun until it gets tedious. I also have to be careful that I don't become so obsessed with my eating again, like I did before.

Our challenge

ONE - to exercise twelve of the sixteen days before Thanksgiving. Bonus points for extra days.

TWO - to plan meals for every day between now and Thanksgiving. You can either sit down and plan all sixteen days now or plan two days at a time each day so that you get ahead eight days by the middle of the time. Or something in between. Or plan a week in advance each week. Or whatever works for you.

What "plan meals" means is up to you -- just something that will allow you to eat more healthy foods in the quantities you require. In Amy's case it means all this lower GI and fiber and such. In my case it means I need to know what dinners we're having so I can shop in advance so I'm not always going to the grocery store at 6 pm when I'm starving, so we end up with junk food in the house that I can resist until dinner time or right after that, when I start consuming mindless junk. It's bad for the whole house. So I need to plan dinners, which means I know what other food groups I should be covering during the day and how many calories I should be getting at those meals and snacks, so I don't find myself at dinner time with only 400 calories behind me and another 800 or so to go.

Who's interested in meeting the challenge? It's only two weeks -- we should all be able to do this!

Hufflepuff

I would like to claim any of the other houses, but I am definitely a Hufflepuff. I can tell from all of the huffing and puffing I do when I walk. Or stand. Or laydown.

So, I am shocked and appalled at how quickly I got out of shape. Not external shape - I was never IN external shape. I also never saw much advantage in the exercise I would grudgingly force myself to do. I never lost weight. I never lost flab. I never built muscle. I never got stronger. The only exercise I SAW improvement doing was yoga. That DID make me stronger, and more flexible, and able to move better. After now, many months of NOT doing anything aerobic (other than two water aerobic classes, one swimming session, and two weeks worth of dog walking over the summer) I can tell you that my clothes fit about the same, my butt and legs are no less flabby but no MORE flabby, my muscles don't get any more firm really - so VISUALLY exercise does me no good. HOWEVER, I can tell you that for the first time in my life I am huffing and puffing like a fat old lady! The weird mis-rhythem of my breathing seems to have passed for the most part. I still notice it in the shower which is probably related to the steam - and I still notice it when I am stressed - but not as much as before and not as constantly as before. I also am no longer doing the staggered deep breath - which is a big relief to me. So - all of the huffing and puffing I am doing now is ONLY related to me being out of shape.

I am with Emily. I need a challenge too. I have made NO progress with the low GI diet planning. I need someone to give me a specific schedule of what to eat and when and why. This thing about GI levels, but off set by protein and fiber is just too confusing to me. What I SHOUDL do is plan healthy meals and then see how it measures up to the glycemic index. Hey! There is an idea. PLAN healthy meals. I'll bet they wouldn't include leftover halloween candy. OTOH, I have hardly touched the Girl Scout cookies.

In the past two weeks, however, I have given up coffee (so far successfully) and dramatically increased my water intake (although not yet to 123 oz a day... I think I will shoot for 96 ounces).

It is 16 days until Thanksgiving. Maybe I will do a 12 days thing... I have to exercise 12 days before Thanksgiving. I also need to start tracking what I eat again, and then fix the trouble areas...

Despicable Me

I have been blaming my weight gain on Norway, but as of this morning I'm up four pounds SINCE then. Maybe five. At any rate, I'm still gaining, at a rate of a pound or two per month. For the past month or so I've been exercising vigorously three to four days a week, and over that time my weight has gone up three to four pounds. So, as in the past, exercise alone is simply not enough.

It has gotten to the point that I am thoroughly grossed out by my own appearance -- for the first 10-15 pounds of gain it wasn't really noticeable (though my boobs looked pregnant and my clothes were tight) but now I'm blobby all over. Ever since I started feeling YUCK about my appearance I've been trying to motivate myself to cut back on my calories but I haven't seemed to be able to get moving on it -- and this during the two months of the year (September and October) when I have traditionally been very motivated and organized about losing weight.

So now I'm forced (by a new high today) to try to cut calories during peak calorie season. I've started logging my foods on Daily Plate but I tried that once before this year and I'm fearing that that won't be enough. I need some stupid challenge or a weight loss competition or SOMETHING to get me moving and keep me going! I'm already OK on the exercise front -- I'm making gym appointments and sticking to them and I'm finishing my third week of the 100 push-ups challenge (but I missed Friday because of the slumber party and didn't make it up this weekend -- shame on me, and now I'm behind), but I have a food addiction -- especially sugar! Our house is loaded with fresh fruit right now -- we have clementines, apples, and bananas, and we just used up the grapes -- but I always end up going for the candy -- which we are also loaded with right now. Help!