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.