Holding steady

My weight crept up during the week but it was back at 156.5 today.  So my weight is keeping itself within a steady range of 156.5-158.  So far the only change I've made since Labor Day is in my snacking -- I'm not eating constantly during the day and I'm trying to remember to eat almonds instead of cookies when I want a satisfying crunch.  I'm not perfect, especially around dinner time and beyond, but at least my weight isn't rising anymore.  

I can't seem to establish any kind of routine that will allow me to go to the gym.  With the start of school, our work is taking us through almost dinner time every day (should that be "dinnertime everyday"?) and we're still not getting much done, and when I'm not teaching I'm laundering ten years of children's clothes from the basement (actually at least half the boxes are mold-free, thank goodness, but it's still a lot of clothes, the hand-me-downs of five children since 1998).  And I'm co-leading the Girl Scouts this year and trying to get Xander back into Cub Scouts, in a reasonable troop, so that's two nights a week gone.  And Fridays are Happy Hour, though I'm only going every other week, but now one Friday a month I'm leading a craft project club (for grown-ups) and Fridays tend to be group activity day for school, so that's a third night shot.  And Sundays don't have childcare at the gym.  So I think I'm down to three days a week that I could go, IF I could get an appointment and if the kids don't have doctors' appointments (those should settle soon -- we were due for everything when we got back) that knock our day out of whack.  I feel better seeing this in print -- I've been wondering why on earth I don't have time, and now it seems obvious.  I AM procrastinating on calling the gym, but it's with good reason.

At any rate, my mental goal of being not-overweight for my class reunion seems unlikely at this point, unless I crash diet and actually DO exercise to lose the next four pounds before October 3.  Hmph.  I guess that's not SO unreasonable, but I'd have to do it, and *whine* I don't wanna.

Tuesday again

I didn't weigh myself last Tuesday - or today for that matter. I did weigh myself inbetween last week and today - and I was what I expected - about 10 pounds higher than my high water mark. Sigh.

My eating has gotten MUCH better. Katie and I are eating breakfast and dinner and I have been packing pretty healthy lunches. Last week I did a crock pot chicken and had chicken salad (made with pineapple and lime juice to reduce the need for mayo) all week. I also made a chicken and rice soup which we didn't eat at all. I had a bowl for dinner the night I made it - but it was very greasy. Then - since it is now a week old - Katie and I decided we should probably throw it out. I thought about freezing it early last week, but I realized that it was not appealing enough to me to make me ever want to thaw it to eat. Oh well. It only cost me a potato, a carrot, and a cup of rice. Anyway - in addition to the chicken salad I have been packing yogurt, grapes and almonds to go with me to work. Amazingly, this combo of food seems to be really appealing to me each day - and in most cases I manage to eat it all by the end of the day. I am going to see if I can make this my standard.

I still feel like I am eating too much sugar. I was threatening to go cold turkey last week - but I don't really think I can do that. I need to switch back to agave in my coffee. I want to make some crock pot yogurt which I can then sweeten either with JUST fresh fruit, or agave. OH! I just remembered that I have peaches in my freezer from this summer. Maybe I will experiment with that this weekend.

I have NOT increased my exercise. I seem to be paving a road to hell. Each morning I move my gym bag so it is more conveinent to taking with me to work - and each day I realize just about at this time that I have forgotten it. Sigh. We have had such beautiful weather lately - and I THINK about going out for a walk, but then something more facebooky comes up. I am giving up facebook for Lent!

Sunday I measured my hips. Actually I was measuring for a bra. I wanted to see if I need to increase a cup size (I think no, but a band size wouldn't come amiss). Anyway, while I was there with a measuring tape I measured my hips. I was 2"s smaller than I thought I was. I don't know if this is because I am actually SMALLER, I was measuring a different point on my hips, or if I was just mentally thinking I was bigger, but I was not sad by the discovery.

I then started thinking about how odd a size I am. I mean, I spend a good chunk of my time feeling really HUGE and fat. My reflection in my kitchen window (which probably isn't the best guide) and the reflection in the door approaching work CLEARLy hold up my theory that I am HUGE, but then I spend time telling my friends who are fatter than me that yes I AM as fat as them. It is odd. I regularly have friends (bigger and smaller than me) tell me that they don't think of me as fat. Maybe it is because I am tall and have long calves - or maybe I dress to hide it - or maybe I carry myself better than other fat people. Why is it that I feel the need to convince these poeple that yes I am indeed fat? Why can't I just believe them? I want to lose weight for MYSELF, because I know I look bigger than I feel like I should be. I don't know. I wish I could let go of my self impressions based on what others think. Maybe THAT should be my goal. Ironically, when I was feeling less concerned with what others thought I DID stop gaining. How can I get myself BACK to that?

The day after Tuesday

So... I haven't been exercising much (though I did take the kids out for a jog the other day, but that wasn't exactly strenuous for me -- well, except for Cecilia's whining) but I have at least been watching my intake (some of the time). Basically I've cut out the cookies and other junk food snacking, at least for a good chunk of the week. I can think of a thousand exceptions, though. OK, so I haven't been all that good. My weight went down to 157 by yesterday, and then I totally caved and ate badly from 4 pm on yesterday, and I was punished by a weight of ... 156.5 today? That can't be right.

Anyway, this tells me that I really am ready to shed this weight if I'll just get my act together. The 156.5 is the lowest I've seen except for the first day we were back, which was a fluke 156. Our routine isn't very well established yet, I'm sorry to say; we tried to get going as of Monday, but we wound up with a playdate that afternoon, and then today we had a dentist appointment. And yesterday Mary's math took her from 11 am to 5:30 pm. I keep thinking things will settle down but they haven't so far! I guess I just need to stop waiting for that and just schedule the gym appointments, and hope that the kids find a way to get their work done anyway.

I'm baaack

Hi all,

I just got caught up on the blog. I've been out of my normal routine and kept forgetting to read. But I'm happy to see that we're all on the same page.

First, I may be interested in the Iron Girl. Maybe, based on who signs up, we could do a team race. Just a thought. I'm not terribly motivated to do a tri but I recently decided that I have to a goal to reach.

I've been trying to get back into a routine that I can fit into my work sked. What I'm opting for is 2-3 different morning workouts. Something short and quick -- mostly involving planks, ab work, some stretching and weight work. Then I try to do 20-30 minutes on the bike (on the trainer).

But the idea is to get in a workout of some kind in the morning. Then when I get into town I'm walking from the parking garage to the Capitol (about 15 minutes).

I have found in the past that doing two 20-minute walks a day after lunch or dinner not only spurs weight loss but has gotten me into condition to start running. I ran the Army 10-miler a bunch of years ago and that's how I prepared. But I found it really reduces stress and as I get faster and walk farther I want to increase my time. I'm trying to figure out the best routes around the Capitol. I prefer being outdoors but that's not always possible so thank goodness for the habitrail underground.

Considering my good eating habits it seems like I should be losing weight but I am maintaining, which might not be possible otherwise. Aging really sucks. But I've cut way down on meat consumption and try to eat loads of fruits and veggies. I'm working at the Reston farmers market and getting my produce free. So tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, eggplants, apples etc. fill my kitchen. I love it. I've been trying to get ALL sugar out of my diet and I avoid white flour, sugar and rice. I found a great red jasmine rice and some kashi pilaf that looks good. I roast veggies and enjoy.

My normal routine looks something like this:

Breakfast: Plain Stonyfield or greek yogurt with whatever fruit I want -- some cinnamon, golden roasted flax seed, sliced almonds and sometimes bear naked granola. Yum. I have the occasional OJ but it's loaded with sugar so I try to get water going early. I always bring my 16 oz water bottle in the car to drink for the commute.

Lunch: All summer I've eaten greens with loads of tomatoes, onion, sunflower seeds, goat or blue cheese, red pepper and anything else that looks good. I use an organic salad dressing called Drew's or plain ol' balsamic, which is so good on fresh tomatoes.

Snack: Yogurt/almonds or fruit/almonds

Dinner: I've been trying to mix it up but love making chicken and bean or just bean tacos with corn tortillas, fresh salsa, an excellent taco sauce I make. I buy amazing heirloom beans that cook up much faster than hard store-bought beans. I've also trying to use a grain such as rice/quinoa/pilaf with roasted veggies.

I do keep organic dark chocolate around.

So now I just have to get into a good exercise routine. I'm getting there.

Happy Anniversary

I see we all had the same idea - Tuesday after Labor Day - a new year. I made cookies last night. I don't remember the last time I made cookies that WEREN'T for Christmas. Anyway - they were whole wheat cookies... if that makes a difference. I didn't think so... I at three of them today - so I am off to a REALLY bad start to my new year.

I brought my gym clothes with me - but I didn't take a lunch break. I am planning on going to the gym tonight - but it is already after seven, so I am not sure if I will make it. I wish Katie would join the gym so I could meet her there. That would help.

I didn't weigh myself today. I didn't want to see that I am carrying around 100 extra pounds. I am sure I am up.

I had split pea soup for lunch, poached eggs and toast for breakfast (with orange juice) and a serving of 2 Fruit a Day (which is like pre chewed fruit and not as good as I thought it would be. I am sorry I bought it...). And three cookies. No coffee. Red tea. With the exception of the cookies, not a bad day so far. I am not sure what is for dinner.

Starting the new year

I was 159.5 this morning. So that's 20 extra pounds I'm carrying around! My clothes don't fit -- I've had to pull jeans out of the "give away" pile that's been sitting in the corner for over three years. (There are some advantages to being a packrat.) Today is supposed to be the first day of my diet and exercise routine, so with that in mind I went to Daily Plate to count calories.

Except it's not working. As soon as I try to add anything to my plate it sends me to these text-only LiveStrong pages where nothing works. It let me log in, but then it went back to being no good at all! So I'll post here for now, to keep me honest -- I've had a half cup of Honey Nut Shredded Wheat (95 cal), a cup of skim milk (80 cal), 6 slices of ham on a slice of bread (180 cal) and 1/3 serving of almonds (50 cal), which puts me at 405 calories today. I have to figure out how to get in some exercise -- I need to call the gym and start making appointments.

Tuesday post on Tuesday

It's just not the same Tuesday, so this'll be two Tuesday posts in one--I meant to post last Tuesday as well. I was getting back into exercising last week, after taking the week off after the triathlon. I want to spend the fall focusing on two things--strength training and weight loss. I was up to 148.8 last week (yikes!), although I'm down this week to 146.4. That's still about an extra 10 pounds or so I'm carrying around, and I really DO mean "carrying around." If I can maintain my aerobic conditioning and increase or maintain muscular strength, then think how much easier it would be to run four miles or bike 20 miles if I weren't carrying a ten pound weight around my waist! So as of last week I was back to a plan of three days of weight training and three days of aerobic training per week, only I immediately fell off the bandwagon and only managed two of each. But at least it's something, right? And I'm already behind this week since I wasn't at work on Monday and thus wasn't at the gym on Monday.

Tuesday Check-in On Thursday

As I reported in my last post (or the one before that) I have been steadily gaining again. I think it was because I was eating like crap all summer - but now I am not so sure. Katie and I have been back to our breakfast routine for the better part of three weeks, yet today (when I finally weighed myself) I was up AGAIN! So, after holding steady (an increase of about two or three pounds) for close to 18 months I have jumped up 10-12 pounds in three months. This, I think, is cause for alarm. My added bonus to this is over the past several weeks I have noticed myself getting breathless very easily. It takes VERY little to make me start breathing like I just ran several miles. Again - cause for alarm from my perspective.

The sad thing is that I feel absolutely NO motivation to do anything about this. Usually, when I would see my weight increasing or my activity ability decreasing I would get excited about planning healthy meals - or a new diet - or something. Now, I just feel tired of it all. Not discouraged exactly, more like resigned. My weight is increasing again? Oh well. Nothing I can do about it. Out of breath? Maybe I better start exercising... tomorrow... I don't feel like making a plan - and I LIKE to plan!!

So - Here is my half hearted plan... I am going to start going to the gym during my lunch breaks again. I am going to change HERE go there and then walk (or run slowly!) on the treadmill for half an hour. That is it. I can handle that... right? I still have the swimming goal in mind too, but that will be IN ADDITION to this other workout. Besides, getting my aerobic capacity up again through walking will help with the swimming too. I don't know what to do about the eating. Katie and I HAVE been eating pretty well for the past three weeks. I have increased my fiber dramatically - although, I haven't really decreased my sugar. I really AM like an alcoholic. I was fine with my minimal sugar in my life up until the last several months and now I can't imagine how I will purge it again. Darn me!! (Oh - connection much between when I started eating cookies, etc. again and when my weight started increasing? And - now that I think about it THAT was triggered by eating yummy candy in Norway. I AM an alcoholic!!! Only with sugar!!! GRRRRR! Although, now that I think about Norway, my out-of-breathness started with the swine flu I had in Norway. I was having AN AWFUL time breathing there ((lung sickness and mountains)) that has never gone away... I need to strengthen my lungs!! I wish I could quit smoking again, but that horse has already left the barn...)(I wonder if that aside should have been it's own paragraph?)

So there we have it. I will start walking again. I will continue my GOOD eating habits and reduce (stop) my sugar intake.

Tuesday check-in

I've had a busy week -- at home I did a lot of yard work (and basement work), and at the Crawfords I went running once (but only once; I was sore for three days, and then on the road yesterday), though it was more VERY slow jogging and surprisingly slow walking. I'm at 159 today, but now I enter a full month of no travel, so I should be able to get into a routine and start eating better and exercising more. I desperately need it! My jeans today barely went on -- I'm OK if I don't wash them, but these were newly washed, and the muffin top is really gross. My "fat" jeans that I wear when I'm working in the garden fit much too nicely right now! Ugh.