Weight doesn't exist during the holidays, right?

I weighed myself yesterday for the first time in a few days, and I was up a couple of pounds. No surprise there, especially since the heavy food I'd been eating for the previous two or three days had left me feeling very, very gross. I'm in Alabama now and eating as badly as ever. I brought my running clothes, but I haven't gone out yet -- it's hard to be enthused when there's snow on the ground!

Storm coming?

I did NOT sleep well last night. I woke up feeling very sick again - but not. It was weird. That is two nights this week so far. Then I couldn't settle back into sleep. I tossed and turned the rest of the night. I have also been very headachy. I think a storm is coming in. I also think maybe all the wind we had last night was keeping me awake.

Katie spent a good chunk of the day moving the rest of her stuff out of the yoga room. There is still a lot of sewing room stuff that needs to be moved down the basement, but other than that it is ready to be turned into an exercise room. YAY! Now, I just have to USE it!

I dreamed last night at one point that Sarah was about to go running and didn't want to (btw, she was wearing the running shorts and tube socks of our youth. it was fetching) so I said I would do it for her. In my dream that seemed perfectly reasonable. We lived somewhere by the water. It was very hilly, but nice. I do sometimes dream about running. It is much nicer in my dreams than when I actually do it.

I am off the rest of the week after today. THANK GOODNESS! However, I need to spend most of my time cleaning and cooking for Friday night. I also think I will need to come into work tomorrow for about an hour. Sigh.

I remembered to weigh myself this morning, but chose not to. I was (am) feeling very blobby and fat. I didn't want to know what I weighed.

Insomniac

Since last Tuesday, I have had exactly ONE night where I didn't wake up two or three (or four) hours before I'd had a solid night's sleep. This is extremely unlike me. I slept solidly through midnight sun; why can't I sleep when it's dark outside and I'm exhausted? I'm managing not to be completely cranky, but I am drained dry by the end of the day. I thought the problem was Daniel's absence -- the morning Cecilia slept with me I was able to go back to sleep -- but today he was back and I still woke up. I'm too groggy to want to get up but can't actually sleep, so I waste two or three hours in a haze getting no real rest.

My current theory is that since it's not Daniel's fault it must be the lack of exercise catching up to me; I've been consistent at exercise for years now (Norway being the notable exception), so this two-month stretch with only a handful of exercise days is throwing my system out of whack. Daniel thinks this is a reasonable theory and is coming home early enough today for me to get to the gym. After the new year I'll be back into a reasonable routine, and choir is more or less disappearing, so I'll have at least one more day when I can make appointments to exercise.

Yet the uncharacteristic weight decline has continued. Today I was at 140.0, but that was my highest all week; I actually saw 137.5 the day before yesterday. I think that day I was dehydrated. I'm not eating much (I keep forgetting lunch and wolfing down a half-dinner on my way out the door to someplace) and definitely not drinking enough. Of course I'm happy to see lower numbers on the scale, but I'd really rather see them for the right reasons, because the pounds will come back with a vengeance when things calm down (and I start sleeping again).

Grr

I have some sort of sinus situation brewing, and I wouldn't usually be too cranky (overall--I know how the ropes for getting through it) BUT this time something has gone awry in my right ear and I am terribly aggravated with it. I am not in pain, even with my sinuses, however there is a constant pounding in my right ear, I guess from fluid build up. It is driving me NUTS and causing me to have super sonic hearing for things far away, but I can barely hear someone talking to me 4 feet away.

When I eventually fell asleep last night, it was on my left side, but the RIGHT side of my head was a disaster this morning, and still is. I doubled up on the cold medicine at the recommendation of my pharmacist boss, and it has subsided a teeny bit. I really don't want to go to the doctor because I'll most likely end up leaving there with a prescription and then a REAL illness from all the germy people. Right now I don't have a fever or anything, so I am trying to deal with it on my own. Anyone have experience with adult ear problems? I wonder the best way to clear out those tubes without prescription meds or a trip to the doctors. WebMD recommended ear drops, so I might stop at the Rite Aid and scope that out. Google health said to chew gum with Xylitol in it; luckily I had that in my purse and I am on my 3rd piece.

Even with this aggravation, I did go to the gym last night and spent 35 minutes on the bike. I felt decent while working out and right afterwards, but then as I cooled down it was like all the junk in my head re-congealed. I was so tired though, I only slept about 3 hours the night before, and those weren't consecutive. Then last night I discovered I can stream netflix movies on my ipad and it actually works. I stayed up too late, partially because of my ear and partially because of my discovery. I got most of the way through Lord of the Rings before I fell asleep.

But it is a short week here; I have the rest of today and then tomorrow before I am off until January 3. This week off is the single best part about having a job with the university system. Next week I have grand plans for cleaning, organizing the house, and going to the gym. We'll see how that pans out...

I hope you all have a great Christmas with your families and friends!

And The Recipe

Sorry - I almost forgot. I have this one memorized in fact...

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
40 saltine crackers
2 cups chocolate chips
chopped pecans (or not)

Line a jelly roll pan with tin foil and spray with cooking spray. Line up the 40 crackers on the pan (5x8) Melt the butter and sugar together. Cook until "foamy" (three minutes past the point where it begins to boil). I stir constantly so it won't stick - but that may not be necessary. Pour evenly over the lined up crackers. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Remove and let stand for a minute or so. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the hot goo and let them soften (about five minutes). Spread the melted chocolate out in an even layer. If you want to sprinkle chopped pecans on the chocolate you may. Put in the refrigerator until chilled completely. Crack up into pieces and store in a sealed container. Or eat it all in one sitting. Your choice.

No weight today

I forgot to weigh in, again. I thought of it after I was out of the shower and COULD have weighed, only I was already dressed and I didn't want to get naked again, and besides, I have been having a case of PMS from hell, so I didn't really WANT to know my weight.

I have sort of eased up on my cookie binge. I made two batches of Christmas Crack (recipe to follow - all healthy ingredients... low fat, low sugar... really, I promise) and have eaten very little of it. We are doing our team lunch today, and I may actually get a salad.

I have done NO exercise. None.

Oops! I forgot to check in today

So I haven't read anyone else's posts tonight and now I'm about to go to bed. But if I don't post now I'll forget by tomorrow. I weighed 140.5 this morning, and my weight has ranged from 139.0 to 140.5 over the past week -- so somehow I shed a pound or two mysteriously. I think they are in hiding and will come back with friends over the next three weeks. But at least I exercised yesterday and I will *try* to exercise a few more times this week. I'm sore today after running yesterday, but not in my formerly-injured leg or knees. Hooray!

Cookies Galore!

I have been a cookie eating machine the past several days! I think I am having really bad PMS because I am in one of those moods where I want to eat everything in sight. Unfortunately, everything in sight seems to be a lot of cookies!!! OTOH Katie, who is not PMSing said she has been ravenous also, so maybe it is just the lack of heat in our house.

It is funny. The yoga room is mostly done. I mean, the floor is in, the walls are painted, most of the exercise stuff is up there - but I am still picturing it in my head differently. In my head it has a light wood floor and gold walls... or sometimes blue walls, like Katie's bed room. I bet if I was actually USING the room for exercise I would picture it the way it actually looks, but so far it is still a storage room. (Of course, in my head I picture myself about 10 years younger, 120 pounds lighter and running on the treadmill... so what does THAT tell you!?)

So, yes, back to no heat. It seems that the trigger to turn the electric heat on is what is not working. Once Corby fixed it last time it stayed fixed until it got warm enough to not need to run. Then it never STARTED running again. I am hoping all it needs is a new thermostat, but I still fear that the heat pump is shot. It should run SOME of the time - and I don't think it has run at all since I noticed it not running before... I know for a fact last winter in the snow it was running. I wonder what we did with the old junky thermostat. Maybe we could put that back on until I get a new one. At least then we would know it is the thermostat.

Sooo close...

My last class (ever) is tonight...then I have to get everything graded by Monday at 4:30 pm. After that, I will experience total freedom and subsequently have very few excuses for pretty much anything. I am actually looking forward to this.

The gym called me last week to make sure I was ok...I guess it has been A LONG time since my last visit. I didn't even bother to calculate it. We had been planning to go for another hike Sunday (we visited Oregon Ridge two Sundays ago and that was excellent) but it was cold and raining, so no thanks. I did go to the gym instead. I need to find my heart rate monitor to double check the readings on the machines. They usually read a little bit high for me, but my heart rate was awful when I was on the elliptical. The reality is that it could just be that terrible right now, but I hope not.

I have off work starting the 23rd, potentially the 22nd if I decide to ditch work, until the first Monday in January. I am looking forward to that for a number of reasons. First, my house is a wreck. I have BIG plans for MAJOR cleaning/decluttering activities. Second, I already have the gym schedule and I am taking some classes. Third, I am NOT waking up to an alarm clock ANY day.

I've been doing ok with my health month game; my exercise is not consistent, but I have been doing really well with not drinking soda. And I have the excruciating headache to show for it. I have been trying to drink tea in the morning, but it just doesn't have enough caffeine. It is getting better though, slowly but surely.

Good luck to Sarah & (hopefully) Vicki when running the race Saturday. Stay warm and the snuggle up in the cool t shirt once you are finished!

Holy moly, it's cold out there!

I only managed two runs last week, both of them on the treadmill. I planned an outside run on Friday and never made it, which turned out to be a good thing--when I gathered my bags to leave work that evening, I realized my gym bag wasn't with me. So even if I had made the time, I wouldn't have been able to do anything.

So today I tried to come up with excuses for why I could go running outside. The real excuse, of course, was that it was cold and I didn't want to. Once I admitted that, I had to go. I figured if I ran outside today, I wouldn't have to do it again until the race on Saturday and after that I wouldn't have to run outside at all if I didn't want to until the spring. So I bundled up in my wool t-shirt and Underarmor tights and shirt (more like a tunic--clearly the women's large size is designed for very tall women!) and gloves and headband thingie and off I went. Incidentally, races in the winter would be much easier for spectators to follow--in the summer you're pretty much dressed like everyone else (I'm the one in the black shorts and light blue shirt!) but in the winter you're hard to mistake (I'm the one in the bright purple shirt with the red jacket over top but the purple shows underneath because it's so long and I have on multicolored stripey ear warmer things.). Pity it's too damn cold to want to spectate at much of anything.

And yes, it was cold. 29 degrees, I found out afterwards. And worse, the wind was horrible--gusty and from all directions. You'd turn a corner and it would slam into you, taking your breath away. The prediction for the day was 30 m.p.h. gusts, and I think I had them. I was running uphill into a headwind for most of a mile along the route and thought I was having so much fun, and then the snow started! Seriously, it snowed on me. Just flurries, but it was snow. It made me laugh.

But clearly I made it back--I did all five miles and made it in just over 50 minutes (five seconds over), which probably has jinxed me for Saturday. But the important thing about this race is not how fast I do it, but that I'm getting a cool shirt out of it. Right? Oh, and keeping up with the running at a time of the year when I have a million good excuses for not exercising at all. But really I'm in it for the shirt.

No exercise + eating to appetite = weight loss?

I don't think I've actually lost much weight this week, but I saw a surprise 139.5 last week one day and today was 140.0. The other days I was closer to 142. But the truth is that I have had ZERO exercise -- grocery shopping is as mobile as I've gotten -- and I have not tried to restrict my snacking. However, I haven't had a huge appetite, and though I have been eating far too many sweets throughout the day, I haven't had much alcohol at all (it hasn't appealed to me) and I've been forgetting to eat dessert in the evening as often as not. I've just been sick and tired. The pleurisy has faded, but I'm into laryngitis, round 2, and Mary and Cecilia have been significantly sick this past week (Mary hadn't had even a touch of this until the last few days, but Cecilia was into at least round 2 or maybe 3). With SOMEbody being sick every day for the past month or so, I haven't been to the gym in ages. But generally speaking if I don't exercise I do gain weight, almost immediately. All I can figure is that I'm either eating less than I thought I was, or I'm converting a lot of muscle back into fat (depressing but probably true) and it's going to catch up to me over Christmas.

Back to salads

I forgot how much good eating salads for lunch did me over the summer. I am not sure why I got away from it. I had a cobb salad on Friday and am eating an Asian chicken salad today. I just need to plan for it.

Milk - I can't think of a milk reference...

So - here is an interesting bit about milk. Make me almost want to drink it... I think maybe that will be my next health month rule. I don't think I can manage more than two glasses a day... Maybe with some coffee added for flavor...

No heat - no exercise

OK - you all who get out and exercise in this freezing cold weather are INSANE, but I admire you. I started December with the intention of exercising 4 days a week for 30 minutes a day. That is one day less than the goal I set in November, and I MET that goal (mostly). I have not done ONE DAY of extra exercise since December started - only my normal yoga class. I am blaming it entirely on the lack of heat in my house. I know, logically, that it is because I am a lazy butt and didn't actually get myself up and moving that I didn't exercise - but when the temps in my house were in the mid 50s, all I wanted to do was curl up in a blanket and huddle by the space heater. I was completely aware that when I was moving around I was warmer AND the air in the house would warm up (using the portable 98.6 degree radiator), but my brain was doing the "if it is this cold INSIDE what is it like OUTSIDE" thing. So I have one day to get in one more exercise session.

I need to start going to the gym during the day. Afterwork is just not happening for me.

OTOH, my weight was exactly the same this week as last week.

Houston, we have a problem

My calf. I strained it several weeks ago and it's still plaguing me, enough so I'm not sure if I'll be able to run the Celtic Solstice in less than two weeks (scream here.). I can go about 2.5 miles before it seizes up on me. It's just not fun and I'm not happy about it because, even though I've always been a slow runner, I can usually do the distance. I'm in decent cardio shape and everything else feels great, my legs have the ability to keep running but my calf is stopping me.

So I finally decided to do some research and found people talking about "the stick." Sounds sexy. Not really. Basically, people are shelling out inordinate amounts of cash for a stick to rub on their leg. Many people complained about the calf issue and said "the stick" really helps. After looking at it online I pondered a cheaper alternative -- a device that would help unball (not a word but whatever) my calf muscle. My solution -- a rolling pin. I have one of those longer ones. So I decided to give it a go. Now mind you, the calf stops hurting shortly after I stop running and isn't sore to the touch so imagine my surprise when my handy dandy rolling pin found the baseball-sized knot -- yeah, ouch. So I did the only thing I could do -- roll out the muscle and groan. It seems to be helping at least pinpoint the problem and get blood into the affected area for healing. So, we'll see.

I haven't had any issues running in the cold weather -- I heat up pretty fast. But the problem is maddening and, from what I've learned, quite common among runners.

So I'm trying to keep up with the bike work (inside on the trainer) and weight work. At this point I'm just not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. There's "fun" torture -- when you have to get up before dawn and stand in the freezing cold with a bunch of other crazies and run a race you figure you can finish. Then there's "stupid" torture when you realize your chances of finishing are based on when your body seizes up on you end up dragging your zombie-like (got it in there) carcass to the finish line. No fun. I'm hoping I'm ready for the fun torture because I've been looking forward to it.

Not bad (and not just for December!)

I was down nearly 2.5 pounds today, to 144.2. This would feel like more of an accomplishment if I hadn't fluctuated down to this weight fairly regularly anyway--the magical sub-140 weight still seems nearly impossible, although I don't know why. I held steady below 140 for quite a long time--it's only that pesky triathlon training that got me above 140!

Taking time off with no exercise wasn't a good idea. I've gotten to the gym or out for a run several times in the past week and it's definitely not the easy task that it was a month ago. I'm trying to get back up to 5 miles--yesterday I did roughly 4, but it was killing me. The 3.5 I did last Friday outside wasn't too bad, but it absolutely was more work that 5 miles was at the start of November. But yesterday's workout was just one of those workouts where you can't get it together--I was on the treadmill (yuck, but I only have one pair of cold weather tights and they were still drying yesterday morning), then kept having to stop--once because my iPod went flying (didn't break, thank goodness), once because I accidentally knocked off the emergency stop thing (which zeroed out my run and I wasn't exactly sure where I was with the distance), and twice because my HRM was acting up. I finally gave up on the HRM; I think it measured my heart rate at roughly 69 bpm during most of the workout (really, really wrong) except for when it shot up to 213 bpm. And I couldn't keep my speed up--I did the first 15 minutes at 6 mph, but then had to drop it to 5.7 and 5.8 for most of the rest of the workout. I'm not entirely sure I made it to 4 miles, but at least I kept running for 40 minutes. I'll bump that up to 45 minutes later this week. The race is a week from Saturday and I'm hoping to finish in 50 minutes or less, but I'll be happy with under 55 minutes. And I'll be REALLY happy if the winds die before then and we get back up to a balmy 40 degrees!

One pound up

146.6 today, which was better than I expected. I ate road food and Thanksgiving food all week and didn't exercise at all. In fact, I haven't gotten any formal exercise since the bike trip two weeks ago. My work schedule has been so weird that I haven't been able to take lunch breaks to get to the gym, and my desire to get up at 5 a.m. to go running is precisely zero.

Getting on the scale this morning, I literally closed my eyes, scared of what I might see, so 146.6 was a bit of a relief. I'm not saying I'm happy with the weight, but I was worried that I would have gone all the way back up to 150 again.

I've got two or three weeks until the Celtic Solstice run, which seemed like such an easy event a few weeks ago when I was running regularly and the air was crisp but not cold. Now with cold rain I'm worried that it'll be a miserable event--lousy weather making being outside horrible and me out of shape again making 5 miles seem endless. But I'm going to the gym this afternoon, so that'll be a start. Another start. I've had a lot of fitness related starts in the past five years!

Food-wise, I've discovered two foods in the past 24 hours that should be yummy but aren't, and I regret getting them at all. Yesterday we were having 15 bean soup for dinner so Brian asked me to pick up some crusty bread to go with it. I was at Sam's Club and got a roll of their French bread, which looked o.k. enough in the package. Turns out it's squishy and flavorless, so flavorless that even Claire rejected it, and she's usually more than fine with squishy and flavorless. Then today, after prompting from some FB friends, I ordered a salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks. Really not worth the calories! Yuck! To be fair, it may have been made wrong--the barista messed up when putting the lid on the first time so ended up reapplying the whipped cream, caramel, and salt. That was the mistake, I think. Way too much salt. It wasn't bad at the start, but it all sank to the bottom of the cup and the last half inch was undrinkable and I'm still sucking down water like it's going out of style. I like salty-sweet combinations, but I think I'll stick to chocolate pretzels from now on. And my usual Americano from Starbucks.

Just out of curiosity

How many grams of sugar do you all eat in a day? I haven't actively tracked mine yet - other than the pretty random tally I did last week when I was trying to reduce my added sugar. As I said at the time, the ONE (one - 1) article I read said that 40g was a reasonable amount of sugar for an adult on a normal day. That seemed about right to me so I didn't look any further. So I checked me and on the day I was "cutting back" the end of it all I was up to 57g. That was with just sugar in my coffee and NO sweet snacks. Granted, I had leftover pizza with a white flour crust for lunch that day - and I don't remember what dinner - but, all in all it was a low sugar day for me. This leads me to think that if I had 57g on a LOW sugar day, and the appropriate amount is 40g on a normal day for other people, I am somehow WAY off base. So, what do you all do in a day? Since you all are my "control group" can you take a day in the next week or so to track your sugar (TDP tracks it if you use that tool) and tell me what it is on an average day for you. Don't try to do anything special - like don't skip the sugar in your coffee for the day just to make your total lower.

So today is the last day of the first month where I set the rules up on that website Julie was talking about, and doesn't this sentence read smooth-like and everything? Healthmonth.com. I lost three health points out of 10 in the 10 days I did it - which means I would have succeeded for the month with one remaining point had I done the whole month. I exercised, went to bed on time, and FAILED MISERABLY on the no added sugar rule. I am doing it again for December, but this time I am doing the sleeping rule, the exercise rule and flossing. December hasn't started yet, but so far I am 100% on track.

I hope to go to yoga tonight. It is the HARDEST thing in the world to get me there after work, but I am fine once I am there. So, tonight I plan to do it.

The yoga room is not set up. Katie wasn't able to get the rest of her stuff moved over Thanksgiving, and she has a pretty hectic schedule over the next couple of weeks, so I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Of course

It's Tuesday, so my weight went up a pound. It was 142.5 -- in a glance at my calendar, I'm happy to report that that's the highest I've seen in three weeks. Wait -- I'm happy that I've stayed under it for 3 weeks, not happy that I'm there now. I haven't posted in a while because there is SO nothing to report in my life -- my weight has been consistent, my eating so-so, and my exercise nonexistent. I've been sick forever. I had that cold that caused laryngitis, and when that wore off it was too chaotic for me to have time to exercise. Now that I'm back to a routine for three weeks, I'm sick again.

I have pleurisy! That sounds like such an old-lady disease. I think I should start calling it pleuritis, its more formal name. It's when the lining of the lungs gets infected. It's usually viral, and in my case almost definitely so, since it follows on the heels of a cold. It's also horrendously painful at its worst and can drag on for weeks or months. You have to take anti-inflammatories to keep it under control, and on Sunday when the ibuprofen wore off, before my newly-prescribed Meloxicam kicked in, I would have sworn I had a kidney stone. I was on the verge of going to the ER to prove that the doctor's tentative diagnosis was wrong, but I decided to hang on a little longer, and it eventually subsided to a dull ache (which a kidney stone would not have). Last night I was a little more prompt about taking the second dose, but not prompt enough -- it wore off just as I was headed to the grocery store so I had a miserable shopping trip (but it never got to the kidney stone pain level). The most frustrating part is that when it starts really hurting, I can't get a deep breath (it is painful to yawn, cough, sneeze, or hiccup -- very maddening since I can't control when I have a sudden hiccup or sneeze!). And even when it is not actively painful, it is painful to breathe deeply, so I have no idea how I can exercise in any significant way. Maybe I should go back to one of my "Walk Away the Pounds" videos, because (a) those aren't exactly the most demanding tapes, especially the short walks, and (b) I can skip any part that hurts, or quit altogether if I have to.

That's better

145.6 today, with steady loss throughout the week. Vicki was right that I dropped a couple of pounds almost immediately (or rather, that the extended ride over last weekend led to water retention that I lost quickly) and the rest was through plain old diet and exercise. I'm doing a kind of modified South Beach thing right now. There's a woman in my office with similar habits to mine--lots of regular exercise, good diet, but difficulties losing the weight her body wants to hang onto around her stomach. Her nutritionist over the summer recommended eating normally throughout the day but reducing or eliminating carbs for dinner, and she's had amazing results--looking really good while maintaining her level of fitness and varied diet. So this past week I've been doing the same thing--my normal stuff during the day (and "normal" this week meant one day of Thanksgiving dinner for lunch with coworkers, so it hasn't all been portion control!) and then grilled chicken/fish/beef for dinner with a big salad.

The biggest problem with this diet is that it's really boring. And probably easier for my friend at work who isn't cooking a separate meal for her family and then this for herself. Last night I made lasagna and couldn't resist, so I had a small piece of that--clearly my willpower isn't perfect. But overall I can't complain, and I'm happy to see at least a bit of weight loss!

More Cowbell

I can't remember how that title relates to my post, but I decided it was the title, and then had to research the phrase to figure out if it was "more cowbell" or "not enough cowbell" and so now I can't remember why I wanted to say it.

Anyway - so, I signed up for the HealthMonth game. I am not yet sure how to play the game - but I will check on it each day. I think I already said in my comment (but since I can't remember then maybe you all won't remember either) that I am doing three rules; get at least 7 hours of sleep a night (in bed by 10:30, lights out by 11), do 30 minutes of exercise five days a week, and limit my added sugar in-take. So, I have been good about the sleep for the past two nights. I didn't exercise yesterday - but April and I took a 30 minute walk today. The added sugar one is harder... My decision was that I could have 150 calories of sugar in a successful day... but how do you figure out what percentage of food is sugar calories? According to one nutrional website 40g of "added" sugar is the acceptable amout a person can have in a day. So if I want to limit my intake, how much should that be? 20g? 10g? 35g? I don't know... A gram of sugar contains 4 calories - so 150 calories would be 37.5gt - which isn't much of a limit. But the 150 calories was totally random made up based on the fact that 4 sugar packs in a large coffee is 80 calories - and if I have two in a day that is 160 calories - and I could cut back on one of the sugar packs or more on each of them and that would be me limiting my sugar intake. Maybe I should have decided all of this before I set the rule... OR MAYBE this is what I need to make me aware of how much sugar I consume!!!

One Year - give or take...

I realized that Katie will be getting married one year from this weekend. That wasn't a great revelation since we had been discussing that very fact all weekend. HOWEVER, it just occurred to me late last night/early this morning that is is one year from this weekend that I will have to put on a bridesmaid dress and walk around in front of people. People looking at me. AND I will have to have my picture taken. Multiple times. AND I WILL LOOK LIKE AN ENORMOUS FOOTBALL!!!!!! STANDING ON END!!!!!!!!!!! Crap.

I also did the math. Even if some amazing miracle should occur and I am able to lose a pound a week between now and next November, I will STILL only be at about the same point as I was when Sarah and I went on our cruise. AND I WAS FAT THEN!!!. Now, if I am able to lose TWO pounds a week (which is on par with me saying "and if I am able to find 10 million dollars in my bank account") I will be at the same point as I was when Sarah got married a thousand years ago. I was a size 10 then. I think I was skinnier for Sarah's wedding than I was for Emily's - but maybe not...

So what do I do? I thought about going back to Jenny Craig - only that costs $70 a week (give or take) and didn't help me much. That was the first experience with losing 12 pounds then gaining 20. I have to talk to my doctor. I have multiple times, but she doesn't do or say anything. I need to join Julie's goal setting website - only my goals need to be sleep more, move more, in addition to eat less. I need to get busy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting site

So I have been struggling with finding a creative outlet I can manage with my crazy schedule, etc right now, so I decided to go back to writing. I found this website called 750 words (http://750words.com/home)that challenges you to write 750 words every day. It even has challenges and badges and this really neat analytical tool that I find fascinating--a lot like what we used to talk about in the beginning with this blog, but all focused on writing. The guy that hosts 750 words also hosts a website called Health Month (http://healthmonth.com/hello). It is a game that lets you set goals and then check in and get points, etc. To keep it free, you have to choose only 3 goals, but you can also pay per month ($5) if you want to have more. I am going to play for December with 3 rules. It starts on the 1st of every month and the rules are a combination of things to cut back on and things to increase each week.

My rules for December are cut back on soda, cut back on fried foods (I am interpreting this as eating out) and exercising 3 times a week for 30 minutes. We'll see how it goes.

I turned in a my resignation from the community college last week; the schedule for being in class and then all the stuff that leads up to class is just too stressful for me anymore. I know this stress has been a major contributor to my weight gain. I am so tired through the week I never go to the gym, then on the weekends I am so busy trying to catch up on the things I neglect through the week. It just has to stop.

Plus I realized about 3 weeks ago that teaching isn't fun for me anymore. I had a student ask me halfway through the semester, halfway through a lecture, whether or not she should be taking notes. I had an internal mental meltdown and realized that I really don't enjoy being in the classroom anymore.

So that is one of my major changes I am working to bring around. Unfortunately, my resignation hasn't exactly been accepted yet, so I am up in the air as to whether or not my dream to have that time back in play in my life will occur for the spring or not. I'm on a semester to semester contract, so it's not like they can make me teach, but at the same time I don't want to be a jerk about it.

We'll see how it plays out. One of my unwritten goals is to survive November (almost there) and survive the end of the semester. I am waiting for a huge weight to be lifted from me. I really hope it happens. Wish me luck!

Fat, fat, fat

Can I just use this post to talk about how much fun it was to bike up to York and back this weekend and not to even mention that I gained *another* pound (more, actually--up to 149.2!) this week?

Ugh, that was a shock--I thought I'd at least hold steady from last week. I haven't been weighing myself daily (need to get back to that) so I wasn't aware of the gain until today, and I figured I haven't really been eating more than usual, while my exercise has been pretty consistent. Clearly I was wrong.

But the cycling! That was fun. Good people, gorgeous weather - seriously, when is it ever that nice in November? - pretty route, fun riding. The trail in Maryland is better than the one in Pennsylvania, although you wouldn't think so to look at it. The Pennsylvania side is pretty uniformly surfaced with fine gravel, and is generally wider than the trail through Maryland, plus it runs alongside more things that are worth stopping for--lots of places to eat, some historic sites, and a winery that we stopped at on Saturday. But the gravel makes it really noisy, which was my biggest complaint, and it seems to be more heavily used (maybe not as packed as the NCR Trail is at the southern end, but there are more people up and down the whole route, so you don't often get the trail completely to yourself). The Maryland side has you dodging more rocks and potholes, but the surface is much quieter, and in the places where it's it good shape (which is a lot of it) it's almost as good as paved. We made pretty good time while we were riding, and had several long, leisurely stops (where I ate and drank too much, obviously, or I would have lost weight). It really was a perfect weekend.

141.0

The zombies have not, apparently, reached this section of Virginia yet. Sorry. Just a boring weight check-in. I got to the gym yesterday and I have an appointment for tomorrow, so that's one day more of exercise this week than last (though I did walk downtown on Friday -- all of about a mile and a half). My leg had absolutely no complaints during yesterday's workout (all bike, so not weight-bearing) but it was hurting at bedtime -- so no running for me yet. And it got tired during the long walk, but nothing worse than that. I'm over my virus (I went to the doctor on Wednesday and was diagnosed with some kind of infection in my throat) but I still have laryngitis (and probably will until Christmas. I hate laryngitis!).

My weight is holding steady -- I cut calories a couple of days last week and tracked them on Daily Plate and Spark People both, mainly so I could look up my recipe data on DP and transfer some of it to SP -- I definitely like SP's environment better. It's more fun. But DP's food tracker is somewhat easier to work with and gives you more control over how your food is listed throughout the day. SP's "Snack" is too vague and general -- I'd rather be able to see if I was pigging out all morning, or all afternoon, or after dinner, or if I distributed it through the day. But I lost enthusiasm for tracking after a couple of days. It's so much work and it isn't really helping my willpower! The Halloween candy is all but gone in our house (and I've been very restrained anyway -- a piece after lunch and after dinner, and that's about it) but Thanksgiving is coming -- and then Christmas junk -- I'm doomed!

Why are zombies all the rage these days?

I actually did a demonstration on spatial aggregation of data in my mapping class last week using a fake (obviously) data set I made up regarding the distribution of zombie attacks in central Maryland. Then we compared the distributions when the attacks were aggregated by zip code, by county and by census tract.

Anyways, I feel like a zombie. I've put into motion the possibility for some major changes in my day to day life that look like they could come to fruition in the next few weeks. With those changes I am really optimistic about a number of things, and high on that list is regaining control of my body and my super gross fatness situation. I am hopeful that everything will come together like I want it to, otherwise I am not sure what my plan B will exactly entail. I'll cross that bridge if I have to. I do find it interesting that my lowest adult weight was at a time in my life when I was most unsettled relationship-wise, and subsequently my highest adult weight comes a few years later when I am unsettled professionally.

Well, to those of you sticking to your plans: congratulations. I am proud of you and I hope to join your "team" by the end of this year. But for now, I am stuck in survival mode.

Where have all the good zombies gone?

The zombie line worked for Amy so now I'm luring you into my zombie trap. Maybe if I could get some zombies to chase me around for a few miles I'd be ready for the Celtic Solstice next month. Maybe.

So I too, like Emily, have been plagued by the plague. A nasty cold that has lasted more than a week, although it was bad for only a few days. Still, it kept me from working out most of last week.

I finally got on the bike on Friday and stayed busy all weekend with walking and a hike Sunday. Besides feeling a bit tired I'm raring to go.

I decided on Monday to get back to running and while on my way back, feeling pretty good I might add, my left calf muscle seized up on me. Argh! I went to my massage therapist that night and he worked out most of the tension but it's still sore. I'm going to make sure it feels good before I run again. I'm starting the ice and heat combo along with some stretching.

That's the bad news. The good news is I can bike and had no trouble last night doing a workout on the trainer along with my ab/weight workout. So that's a relief.

Sarah and I will be the biking wounded this weekend with my calf and her sore butt. We'll make quite the pair.

Meanwhile, I'm trimming down and shedding pounds and am motivated by that to keep up the workouts. A friend passed along some of her bootcamp workouts -- ouch. Still, it's good to change up the workouts and add harder exercises to challenge my muscles and avoid getting bored.

Let those zombies chase me into six-pack land.

Sick, but in the ordinary way

I've been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks. I took prednisone the first time laryngitis threatened but I only had the one dose on hand -- I didn't expect to need it again so soon! Friday night the real thing set in and I have had the most painful, raging sore throat I can recall having in my adult life. I tried to get to the doctor today but there were no appointments available, and I couldn't do after-hours, so unless I take a sudden turn for the better tonight I'll go tomorrow come hell or high water. This is horrid. It doesn't look like strep, though, so I'm not sure what they can do (except more prednisone, but it's a little late for that) -- there's a good chance antibiotics will be useless.

Anyway, as a result of this I am drinking TONS of tea (to keep it bearable) and not eating much (I get hungry but not much is appealing, and a lot of food hurts to swallow) so I'm back to 141.5 as of this morning.

I did exercise yesterday! I went to the gym and used the bike for 20 minutes, and that felt good enough that I tried the elliptical for 20 more -- both pretty gently. My bad leg got tired but nothing worse. I had grand plans to exercise at home this afternoon but I'm feeling so much worse with the cold (or whatever) today that during my planned exercise time I curled up on the sofa and read. SOMEday I'll be able to get back to a normal routine!

e Coli and Zombies

So, Katie and I have e coli. Or so we have been telling everyone. This is Sarah's fault, but I am not entirely sure I am kidding... We had some of the Baugher's cider that was recalled for e coli. We joked about it as we guzzled it down. However, ever since we have both been having horrible gas cramps and queasiness. More than NORMAL that is. I did look up the symptoms of e coli and many adults who have it never present any symptoms. However, queasiness, abdominal cramping and bloody diarrhea are typical symptoms. We have a and b, but (and I can't speak for Katie here) no c. Thank goodness. But I am getting tired of going to bed hoping I don't end up throwing up. Sunday night I lay in bed planning out how Katie and I could both be sick in the upstairs bathroom at the same time. Ugh. So. E coli.

Or it could be post nasal drip. That has the same symptoms as e coli. Or possible we have been eating too much Halloween candy.

Regardless, I weighed myself for the first time since I got back from Canada. I was worried about this. I have a HIGH WATER mark that is the point where I need to cut off my head to maintain my weight. I went above it in June - spent the summer getting below it again (successfully) had a BAD relapse right before the cruise, but got back down after the cruise. I was worried that I would need to set a new cut off my head level this morning, but I didn't. I was below the original (which, incidentally, is about 25 pounds above the ORIGINAL original high water mark, sigh) horrors level.

I am glad that October is over. It is always so stressful. Fun. Beautiful, but stressful. I forgot I am supposed to be walking 500 miles in a year beginning in September. I was good for that month - but didn't do ANY extra walking in October. I need to start walking laps after breakfast, lunch and dinner, like I did on the cruise. Katie has been SO GOOD walking or biking to and from work each day. I would love to have a built in exercise plan. I told April today that we need to do two walks a day - for about 20 minutes each. We need to NOT worry about switching into walking shoes, but we just need to get up and walk. She is on board with that. She is going to Ireland in June and wants to lose enough weight to be comfortable sitting on a plan for six hours. I want to lose enough that I am not ashamed when we buy our bridesmaid dresses for Katie's wedding.

OH! I had a good dream/bad dream the other night. I dreamed I was marrying Colin Fergueson (yum!). Katie and I went dress shopping, but everyone wanted to sell a dress to HER and not ME. I kept saying "But I am the one shopping for a dress." and the shop ladies would say "Of course you are, dear..." in that annoying "you keep telling yourself that" way. There were no dresses that would fit me, except one - that actually made me look very skinny (skinny like I was for Sarah's wedding). It wasn't the dress I wanted, but it fit perfectly. I asked the lady if all of the dresses were size the same (so I could order that size in the dress I wanted) she said yes. Then I asked her what size it was. She said 28!!!!! Sigh. Maybe I do need some anxiety medicine. But, Colin Ferguson...

Anyway, I just put in the bit about zombies to get you to read my post. Hee hee...

Good news/bad news

The good news is I've been working out regularly--last week I ran twice (and in those two runs I went roughly the distance that I normally go in three runs), ellipticalled (is that a word?) once, and, of course, went roller skating.

The roller skating isn't the bad news, although I guess it should be. I still feel like I've been body slammed, which I suppose isn't far from the truth. I ache all over from that fall, and I'm spending a lot of time with ice packs on my tail bone.

The bad news is I haven't been able to get myself to stop eating so damn much, so I gained another two pounds last week--I'm now up to a completely unacceptable 148! Someone needs to lock me in a cell with a treadmill and nothing but (whole grain) bread and water, and maybe some vegetables and lean protein. Or 1200 calories a day of Twinkies! I'm not picky.

I guess the other good news is that the Halloween candy is gone, thank goodness.

I went for a run yesterday, sort of (oh, that one isn't included in my list above--that list was for the last Monday - Sunday week). The jarring really hurt my tailbone, so I walked a lot and the jogging I did was really slow, so I only covered 3.5 miles. But it didn't make me hurt any more than I had before, which eases my mind a bit--it means I'm just bruised and not sprained or broken.

Vicki and I have our plans in place for the ride to York this weekend--the weather looks like it'll be beautiful. I'm making my packing list today and then will see tonight if it'll all fit in my panniers. I'm hoping to get by with just one pannier--I had four panniers and a handlebar bag for a year on the bike, so one overnight should only require one mostly empty pannier, right? I wish it worked that way.

The Twinkie Diet

Maybe you guys saw this, but it was an interesting article on CNN today.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html?iref=NS1

Celtic Solstice training done

I ran five miles today, just for the heck of it.

Since I had so much luck with my four mile treadmill run on Monday, I laid out a five mile outdoor route (pretty much put together my two regular routes and cut out the section at the end of one/beginning of the other where they overlap), then decided there was no point in building up slowly--five miles isn't really that much more than the 3.5 I usually do, and since I knew I could do that 3.5 after swimming and biking for nearly two hours, I was pretty sure that adding another mile and a half to my run would be not that big of a deal.

I was right. Of course I told myself that I would keep the pace slow and would stop and walk when needed, and I only "had" to run the first four miles since that was my goal for this week, but I felt fine the whole way, so I just kept going. The second half of the route has a lot of traffic lights, so you get a lot of breaks while you wait for the light to change, and that certainly made the run easier. And the Columbia Bike Guy blew me a kiss as he passed while I was on one of the long hills, which made me smile.

I finished the run in 50:33 and then wished I had sped up just a tiny bit to break 50 minutes, so that'll be my offiicial goal for the race, now that I know I can go the distance with no problems (barring injury or heavy snow or icy ground or air that's so cold it hurts to breathe).

On another note, registration for Iron Girl opened on Monday, and closed six hours later! I'm glad I hadn't planned to register--I didn't even think about the registration opening until the mid-afternoon, by which time it was probably already full! Crazy.

There could be worse timing for a cold ...

So I've been cruising along with my exercise and food routine and -- finally -- making noticeable progress such as better fitting clothes and visible weight loss. Then, of course, comes a hurdle, a bad fall cold. It started over the weekend and has gotten worse. I actually feel better today and my head seems to be draining of all its grossness.

I haven't been able to work out at all so I've tried to keep my food within a good range but I've been SO hungry. I haven't been that bad -- I never get kids on Halloween so I don't have candy around the house and I've been eating relatively healthy.

Today I plan to at least get out for a walk and maybe do some basic exercises so I'm not losing all my conditioning. It's just amazing how much energy has been sapped by this cold. All I want to do is sleep and eat.

Anyway, now I'm even more eager to get back with the program, especially when I was getting results.

146.4

Whew! I'm so glad Emily gained weight too!!

There, I said it.

Misery loves company, as they say. And it sounds like she and I are on the same diet and exercise plan, resulting in two or more pounds gained in a week. I'm hoping I don't repeat last year's gain, where I ended up after Christmas at 156 pounds (did I mention that here? I don't think I did. We had all stopped posting at that point, but it was the wake up call I needed to start exercising and eating less).

144.5

I'm definitely seeing the results of no exercise and too much eating. The number above is a definite upswing and my clothes are starting to be snug around the middle. I think I'm going to have to figure out a way to get moving despite my leg, because I hate feeling like such a lump, and I know that even if I cut way back on calories (which I've started trying to do, though yesterday was unsuccessful because I had virtually no restraint at the restaurant for dinner, and then I had a bit of frozen yogurt for dessert a couple of hours later completely unnecessarily) I won't lose much weight without exercise. For me it has always taken both, and lots of it.

Time is also an issue -- Daniel is usually up and headed to work very early in the mornings, so I can't leave the kids with him and disappear (even if I could stand early morning exercise, which I never have). We have school all day (if we don't do it during the main chunk of the day, it doesn't happen, and besides there is only limited child care during the day -- 4 is when they are fully staffed) and lately we have activities all afternoon and/or evening -- at least on Tuesday (band, and, tonight, church), Wednesday (choir starts at 6, which means I need to be out of the house by 5:45 having cooked and eaten dinner first), Thursday (Girl Scouts at 6 for Cecilia and 7 for Mary, going on until 8:30), and Friday (piano lessons, art class, then date night when we can manage it). I have in the past tried squeezing a gym trip in on Wednesdays and Thursdays before our activities, and that kind of works but leaves me feeling VERY frazzled. I guess that's what I'll have to go back to, and I'll have to get better about using the crock pot and leftovers. I hate the school year!

Thinking to myself here -- it is less hectic if I don't actually have to get to the gym on those squeeze days. I can exercise in and around home if I can find something non-weight-bearing to do. Bicycling takes me too far from home (there's no challenge within a mile of here, and if I get stranded with bike troubles that means a LONG walk home on a bad leg with the kids at home unsupervised) and my videos are definitely weight-bearing. Maybe I can just do lots of aerobic floor exercises?

This is how it all starts

This is the busy time of the year when, despite my best intentions, I end up skipping breaks or spending my lunch breaks running errands so I never make it to the gym. As of today it had been 13 days since I exercised in any form (walking around trick or treating doesn't count) and between Girl Scout cookies and Halloween candy I've been eating way too much, to the point where not only do I not weigh myself but I can't even look at the scale gathering dust in the bathroom.

So I forced myself to go to the gym. That's the stupid part--I really had to convince myself to go. I have no pressing deadlines, I have no work that is so important that I can't put it off an hour or so and I was fighting sleepiness, which I knew I could counteract with moving. But I still put it off and put it off. Then I promised myself that I only had to do 30 minutes at a low level on the elliptical, so off I went.

And I had a great workout. The ellipticals were all taken, so I got on a treadmill. I *did* set it to 0% incline and 5.5 m.p.h. (knowing now that I lose fitness so quickly when I stop exercising that anything more would be too much) and only for 30 minutes, but it felt so good to be moving again that I kept adding time and ended up on the treadmill for 50 minutes. I kept it slow the whole time to keep my heartrate down, but felt at the end that I really could have kept going a while (not another 22 miles though--what's wrong with those people?).

It's a start, and the challenge will be to keep this up so I don't fall into my usual holiday slump. I've got the NCR trail ride in a couple of weeks, and the Solstice run a month after that (today I did a little under 4.5 miles between the run and the cooldown, so I think five miles for the Solstice run will be easily do-able as long as I keep up the running between now and then). I need to get some winter running clothes. I was on the treadmill today because I packed my gym bag two weeks ago so everything I had was for THAT weather, which was much warmer. A sleeveless shirt wouldn't have cut it today. I have one pair of warm tights, one long sleeved shirt, and a softshell jacket that is too small. That's enough for one outdoor run, but if I want to run outside more than once a week (or do laundry only once a week!) I need to get some more.

Um, yeah, what she said

Except for the swimming part, the leg injury part, and the weight part, I could have posted what Emily did. My weight this week was precisely the same as last week (144.2) which shocked me a bit since I haven't even really been thinking about my diet and I haven't exercised since a week ago Monday when I went for a run. On Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday my fairly light work week turned into a really heavy work week (went from one federal grant due this week to three) so I just haven't been taking lunch breaks at all, and on the couple of occasions that I did take a break, it was to run errands I couldn't do at other times (scout shop only open 10 - 2, Halloween costume shopping with work people). Then I spent the weekend wedding dress shopping and making Halloween costumes.

Speaking of wedding dresses, I was wondering about the mirrors in that place that made me look much skinnier (but not fun-house skinny) than I am in real life. Turns out there is such a thing as a "skinny mirror" that they use in high end clothing shops (and some lower end ones too)--it's a way of hanging the mirror so it is slightly tilted so you appear taller and thinner than you really are. Some people hate them since you buy clothes based on how you look in the mirror then get home and don't look nearly so good. Some people love them and go out of their way to hang their mirrors at home the same way. It was a pretty obvious ploy--Katie pointed out in one of the photos Amy took that showed both her in the dress and her reflection that her mirror image really DID look thinner than she was--and I can't see that it would be really helpful in a bridal shop--you put on a big white lacy sparkly dress and you're going to look really good. You don't need a doctored mirror for that. But I can see why department stores might install them to encourage impulse purchases.

142.0

Again. I've been eating whatever I feel like, in terms of quantity, though I've been trying to make sure it qualifies as "food" most of the time. Probably not enough plants in my diet, though. I haven't exercised since swimming last Tuesday; my leg is definitely not better. No, I haven't gotten around to a doctor's appointment yet. One of these days!

Torture-fest 2010-2011

I did my first run today -- a short one -- just over two miles but it's what's prescribed in the 9-week training program for a half marathon. My main goal today was to see if anything hurt and to test out where I am physically. I actually felt good -- not aches or pains -- but I definitely need more fuel. Still need to eat lunch and that might've helped some.

My only obstacle on my short jog was a black snake that was tightly zig-zagged on the trail -- he was a little guy so I ran around him and he had moved on my way back. I'm fine with black snakes because I know there are copperheads around here and there not as friendly.

I signed up for the Celtic Solstice with Sarah -- the more the merrier. It could be 20 degrees or 80 degrees. Either way it looks like a blast.

I have an idea for a T-shirt -- it would say "This IS my happy face" and it would have one of those emoticons gritting its teeth because we LOVE pain. haha I might have to do it.

So one run down. I'm still alive and am happy for any company on my torture-fest ... I guess Emily is way ahead of me though.

Am I gonna regret this? Maybe.

During the past day or two -- prompted by Sarah's post about doing a century ride -- I started thinking about what I needed to do fitnesswise to drop more weight and get into better shape.

Then it hit me during Thursday's walk -- I need to start running again. I've been in denial about it and have mostly been wanting to enjoy my daily walks but I realized yesterday that I need to accelerate the pace of my weight loss and conditioning.

This epiphany led me to think crazy, crazy thoughts -- like maybe I can train like crazy and run the Atlanta half marathon on Thanksgiving Day? No, that's just stupid. But they do have a 5K and that would get my fat butt out on Turkey Day for some exercise. Hmmm ...

Then I found a triathlon that includes kayaking, running and biking -- 17 miles total -- that takes place in April. I immediately decided to recruit Sarah and vowed to teach her how to paddle a kayak straight -- even if it's not necessary.

Sarah then mentioned the Celtic Solstice race in December -- a 5-miler. Cool shirt. Not too long. Sounds good.

About 10 years ago I ran the Army 10-miler through DC. I ran the entire thing and was plenty happy about that. I had considered, at the time, training for a half marathon and ended up running shorter races.

Well, Disneyworld has a relatively new -- 3 years old -- Princess Half Marathon at the end of February. It's all girls and is in late February when I know I'll be fed up with winter weather and darkness.

WDW's other marathon and half marathon is in early January and I just wasn't sure if I'd be ready by then. This gives me four months and the promise of a trip to warmer climes in late winter. I may even turn it into a spring training trip.

So ... I think I'm going to train for it. Anyone want to go to Florida in the dead of winter? Let me know.

Overall my goal is to participate in one event a month. With the North Central bike ride in November and possibly the Atlanta 5K and Celtic Solstice in December that's two months down.

Now it's time to do the work for all these plans I'm making ... so come jump on the crazy train with me. Woohoo!

Swag

Sarah's comment on swag reminded me I wanted to sum up what was in the Baltimore Running Festival bags. They gave us an Under Armour T-shirt (in a hideous neon yellow, for the marathon; the half had a nicer shirt, though theirs was short-sleeved and ours was long), a cheapo pair of knitted gloves (which I realized the next day were perfect for a chilly 8 am start, because then you could toss them and leave them when you got warm), small packages of tomato-basil wheat thins, corn thins, and yogurt-covered pineapple chunks, a backpack-style reusable drawstring bag with the Geico Gecko on it (Alexander likes it), and tons of papers, mostly advertising other races. There was a 15% off Under Armour coupon and a $500 Red Star gift card (they do sunglasses, which I can't wear because I need a prescription, and you have to pay a 9% S&H fee, but otherwise they look like very good glasses -- so if you need some sport sunglasses let me know). They also linked us to an online "iGiftBag" which had numerous other discount offers, but they're almost entirely local to Baltimore (not surprising) so not much use to me. I really wasn't all that excited by the swag.

There. Now if somebody tries to Google the swag bags for this race, they'll get a hit. ;-)

Seagulls or geese?

First a brief update--I completely spaced last Tuesday and didn't even weigh myself that day. On Wednesday I was 143.6, so that'll have to be my official weight for the week. This week I was 144.2 on Tuesday. Wrong direction, but no great surprise given all the food I've been eating.

My exercise has been pretty good--last week was one run, one day on the elliptical. all the cycling around the marathon (29 miles) and then a five mile hike with the Scouts on Sunday. So far this week all I've done is a run on Monday (and I tried to take before and after pictures to show that unlike Emily I turn beet red and look awful after just 3.5 miles of running! It's like I stop and all of the heat in my body escapes out my head, making me red and sweaty and making my hair frizz. But the pictures didn't work--my cell phone can't catch subtleties like skin coloring.). I've got my stuff with me today for another trip to the gym.

Seagulls or geese is in regards to the century rides next year--there's the Seagull Century and the Wild Goose Chase. The Wild Goose Chase is sponsored by Terry Women's Cycling and is an all-women's ride that supports the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge. The ride is in the refuge and in and around Cambridge, Maryland (so basically the Chesapeake Bay part of the Eastern Shore). There are other events surrounding the main ride--guided kayak tours in the wildlife refuge are among the most interesting. Oddly, while I've seen maps with the 100 mile route shown for this ride, the website only lists rides up to 62 miles (a metric century) so I don't know what's up with that. If they aren't doing a "real" century then I'm not sure I'm really that interested. Accommodations before and after the ride are in area hotels and B&B's.

The Seagull Century is based out of Salisbury University and generally rides out to Asateague Island and through the eastern/beach part of the Eastern Shore (this year there were two century routes--one to Asateague and one through Snow Hill). It's a larger event (8,100 riders this year). There's no one charity that it supports, although lots of the participants are raising money for other organizations (often the same people you see at other events, like Team Fight and Team in Training). Lots of accomodation options (because there are more people, so they are packing them in all the Salisbury hotels, sending them to Ocean City and other areas, and generally using up all the hotel rooms in the vicinity), including camping. Lots of family-friendly entertainment (many of the pictures included kids along for the ride).

The real questions--who has the best shirt, swag, and food--I can't find answers to!

Both are in October (a week apart), both are dead flat routes. I don't have any real preference for which one to do. They'd both be nice. I suspect the Wild Goose Chase has more of a supportive-estrogen-fest-Iron-Girly feel to it, while the Seagull Century is more energetic-madhouse-party. Both have their appeal.

Any ideas on which one to do?

Week three

First, a huge congrats goes out to Emily for achieving her goal of running a marathon. Awesome.

I'm into my third week of my new routine and I have to say it's going pretty well. I'm beginning to feel the need for longer, harder workouts and am trying to push myself. I used the first couple of weeks to gauge my level of fitness and am now making a bigger push. I'm mixing up weights, cardio and exercises such as planks, squats, etc.

I tend to build strength quickly and that's happening again. So that forces me to reevaluate the amount of weight and reps.

Food has been good. I've focused on salads and have whipped up several homemade soups with all fresh ingredients. It's nice to have some soup ready to eat with the cooler weather.

The best part, of course, is in the difference in how I'm feeling and that I'm trimming down a bit. But there's much more work to be done.

142.0

That's my update for today. Yesterday I was at 140 even though I'd been taking in plenty of liquids (but not a lot of food -- I had to eat food slowly for a while because of my teeth, and then even when I'd eaten it my whole system tended to feel a bit weird, so I was eating what I craved but not very much of anything). But today I'm feeling 90% normal in terms of food and drink, and of course my weight hopped right back up to where it was. I guess I can't go on using the excuse "I just ran a marathon so I can eat whatever I want" for very long. Time to start paying attention to calories again. *Sigh*...

Race report

Well, as you all know, I survived. The first 9 miles were pretty good -- after that it was tough all the way, until about 23 miles, when I finally got a second wind. Then it was still tough, but I was able to make myself run a lot more. But stamina wasn't the problem; I was breathing well and wasn't tired in that respect, but my legs were in AWFUL pain. My IT-bands were never sore (and are still feeling good two days later, and I haven't even worn the straps since the race ended), but my right calf began to hurt (remember the first injury I had from marathon training, five months ago? Hasn't bothered me since? Sheesh) and my left quad (the one that was problematic last week) also ached (understatement of the year). My hamstrings were terrible, and they've never been an issue before. I had normal all-over achiness in my legs, but nothing I couldn't handle (if it had been by itself). My toes also hurt a lot -- I think I'm going to lose my big toenails from this, and the second two toenails were just starting to come back but probably won't for a while now -- but, again, that I could put up with. But the longer I went, the harder it was to make my legs keep running, or to start running after I walked. The first two or three running steps were excruciating each time. I was surrounded by people in the same state, though, so anytime I ran at all I passed a ton of people (but anytime I walked they streamed by me the same way). The people around me mostly looked familiar by the end!

For the first 13.1, I pretty much stuck to the 4-minutes-running-one-minute-walking plan, even though I felt silly in the first three miles (though I kept hearing other runners' walk timers go off, which made me feel better). Somewhere past the halfway mark, though, I remember thinking it wasn't SO bad if I didn't start running at 5 minutes, or if I stopped running at 3 minutes, and by 16 miles or so I realized that the timer was pointless if I was walking after a minute and not running until 10, and it was just making me feel guilty. I ended up just walking until I could bear running, then running until I couldn't anymore (which was never more than a minute or so for what seemed like a long, long way). But over the last three miles, which were mostly downhill, I found myself able to run for longer, so I probably ran as much as I walked in terms of time (and more running, in terms of distance).

Remarkable to me is that of roughly 5,000 registrants, only 3,361 people crossed the finish line. I wish I knew how many actually started, but it seems reasonable that only a few people (a hundred or two, anyway) who paid that registration wouldn't actually go through with the race to begin with. So some 1500 or so dropped out. Short of injury, how could that many people just lose the will to go on, given that they'd had the nerve in the first place? Sarah asked me how I kept going when I was so miserable. But I don't know that it ever seriously crossed my mind that I could quit. I kept going because that was what I had to do. If there was anything left in me, I was going to move forward.

The winds were pretty bad in the second half -- at one point when I was back to jogging there was a gust so hard that I wobbled (I was wobbly anyway, though), and I kicked myself in the other leg. Very weird. I'm glad I wasn't wearing a hat. No doubt the windiness contributed to my lack of enthusiasm -- I remember the lake as being the most depressing place in the course (when I'd been looking forward to it!) and that was also probably the windiest (but not where I kicked myself, because I barely ran at ALL around the lake).

But the course was really quite pretty, except for some of the industrial areas (I was sorry we didn't get to do the Ft. McHenry loop like they used to -- construction!); people who described the "ghettos" in race reports I've read were unnecessarily unkind (or don't remember Baltimore in the 80s). Even the poorest neighborhoods were pretty cool -- I love the colorful trim on so many of the houses! There were also very few stretches without people cheering (come to think of it, the lake loop was short on those, too -- another reason it was tough -- though there was at least a water table and food halfway round); I had been told in advance that that would be one of the best parts, and it really was. And there was SO much to eat on the course! In addition to the promised bananas, cereal bars, and gels (ick), there were people with a range of fresh fruit (oranges and grapes were awesome -- I actually turned around to get at the grapes), gummy bears, fruit snacks, swedish fish, Skittles, M&Ms, Twizzlers, and I don't know what-all. And even beer, though I didn't see any takers on that!! I took Skittles early on, but they left my hand sticky and colorful, which I didn't really want, and I got Skittles up my nose when I tried to rinse my mouth out while running, so after that I stuck to the snacks I had planned on (mostly Shot Bloks, but I also ate the sport beans at the lake, which were just perfect at that point) and any fresh fruit I could grab (except bananas, which seemed to be all the wrong texture). And a cereal bar at the lake, since I was actively feeling hungry at that point.

My final time was 5:10:21. The first half I averaged a 10:27 pace (2:17:00 was the split), which was fabulous for half a marathon, and the second half it was 13:14!! Stupid rebellious legs! I'm glad I did it (mostly) and I'm finally recovering (my teeth settled down last night, and I still limp only because of my left quad, but I'm about back to where I was a week ago, so by Saturday I'll be fine again). I really don't think I'll do another marathon, even if I could train injury-free and avoid the leg pain, however, because it's just not that interesting. Five hours of running is a long, dull time. A half marathon would have been all right, but a marathon is simply too much. You'd have to really love the feeling of running for its own sake, and I don't. I'm just thrilled that it's done.

Now I am NOT going to run for SIX WEEKS, and you can quote me on that. Not until November 27. I went swimming today and just did regular laps (a half a mile, which is a lot less exercise than I remember it being) -- my left leg couldn't help with flutter kick but I was surprised to find out that there was no problem with a breast stroke kick! By next week I should be up to bicycling (on a bike or at the gym) but I'm not even going to try it before then. Then I'll ease back into elliptical and other machine exercise as it seems appropriate.

Just trying to survive

After acquiring a second knee strap (which I am also allergic to, but I've decided I'd rather put up with the skin irritation than the IT pain until I get through Saturday) and a compression sock, my legs started feeling somewhat better. The compression sock was for that odd leg pain I alluded to last week -- I finally concluded that it was a posterior shin splint (as opposed to an anterior shin splint, the normal kind that you feel in the front of the shin, this is more behind the bone to the inside of the leg) and it needed shoring up. As long as I'm wearing the sock (which I do, 24 hours a day, except in the shower) I don't notice the discomfort. When I'm not wearing it, I don't really feel it, either, except that it seems a tiny bit tender; I don't plan to push my luck, though, so I'm wearing it until Saturday is done, at least.

Anyway. I went for a run this past Saturday, just over 6 miles, in the hopes that I could at least complete my last week of training. I stuck to flat roads and it seemed OK -- I got bored and tired but I had no problem getting through it. My IT-bands were fine (at least by my current standards). But afterwards my quads were sore -- the next day even worse, as expected (so much for maintaining my conditioning!!). On Monday they were a bit better so I attempted the 30 minute run on the schedule by running on the nice, flat, springy track at the gym. By last night, though, my left leg was aching terribly, and today it is in atrocious shape. To the point that I even tested it to see if I had a stress fracture (I don't seem to). ARGH! So I am NOT going to try tomorrow's run. At this point I am officially abandoning any pretense at training and am merely trying to let what remains of my non-shredded muscle tissue heal, and as of Sunday I am not going to run for six weeks, period. I may go back to swimming and bicycling and other non-weight-bearing exercise for a while, because if I skip exercise entirely I'll gain 20 pounds again, especially since Halloween and Thanksgiving are in my non-running period.

My weight today was 143 again. I haven't been dieting. In fact, I spent four days in Alabama, and given how I always eat there (there is CANDY all over the house, and meals tend to be very good but low on whole grains and high on fat and salt) it's remarkable that I didn't gain five pounds.

I can diet when the marathon is over. I am dreading Saturday.

Eat This Not That

I normally love these stories because I mostly never eat the foods being discussed, however, this one hit home.

My only complaint? Now 'n Laters instead of caramels - doesn't work. Neither does Tootsie rolls in place of Twix. They aren't at all similar, and therefore would not nip the craving in the bud. Just saying.

I am off to get my new car. Sigh.

I just want to report that I am JUST NOT RIGHT!! As you know, I was on a 10 day cruise ending on Oct 2. (BTW I wrote a post when I got home and another last Tuesday, but apparently, I can no longer post from my work computer...sigh). I weighed myself Sunday afternoon and was down just over 3 pounds from my last weigh in weight. Now, it was a very off time for me (Sunday, afternoon, etc.) so I took that weight with a grain of salt. However, last week on OFFICIAL weigh in day, I was down ANOTHER three pounds! So my weight was lower than my previous low weight of the summer (by .2 pounds). I forgot to weight myself today, to see if it was sustained, however, I am beginning to think that my weight and stomach issues are more anxiety related than anything. Whenever I go on vacation ( including Pennsic) I have virtually ZERO stomach problems. Even with the stress of my car last weekend and the bad weather in Canada, I had no reflux or anything. AS SOON AS I walked in the door at TESSCO, My reflux started up.

My conclusion to this is that I either need to win the lottery or get on some anti-anxiety medication!

A good week one

I stuck with my week one routine for food and exercise -- had a couple of sore days getting back into workouts -- and I feel great.

I got in some walks, biking, weight-lifting work and I'm continuing my quest to do 100 consecutive push-ups on a six-week plan. I'm on the slow plan for that but after only a week I've made great strides.

For me personally it's a matter of routine -- I can eat healthy and work out but I just need to program myself to do it.

So far I've lot a little weight but I'm mostly concerned with being consistent with the routine. Most of last week was used to get my rhythm and retrain myself to think about healthy eating, stretching out my portions into several meals and exercising. Now that I'm focused it's much easier to keep it going.

To-do list. Meal, exercise plan. Check. Check.

So I've gotten back to designing my meal and exercise plan. I did the meal plan first and wrapped up work -- mostly -- on the exercise plan last night.

I started with the meal plan yesterday and also started back -- after a long absence -- to start back on push-ups -- making my way toward 100 consecutive. Depressing start but that will change.

I've got a weights routine, cardio, a few other additions to keep things moving along.

Here's an example of my food menu:

Breakfast -- fruit smoothie with no-fat yogurt (add kale for fun)

Lunch -- Salad with tomatoes, onions and peppers with salsa for a dressing

Snack -- Yogurt and almonds

Dinner -- Grilled halibut with zukes and fairytale eggplant

Plenty of water.

Onward with the plan, downward with the pounds.

I didn't even try

This past week, I didn't even pretend like I was trying to drop weight. I kept up the moderate exercise (two runs, a bike ride, a short hike) but didn't curb my eating. I didn't overeat either--I just didn't cut down. The end result is that my weight is just .2 pounds different from last week (144.6 instead of 144.8). I'm now finding it hard to get the energy together to go to the gym. I didn't make it there yesterday, and I'm so cold and sleepy today that I don't want to move.

Argh! I can't win!

I finally got out to Dick's yesterday to see if I could get an IT-band strap there. They didn't have exactly that, but they had the dual straps that look more like a knee brace, and those had adjustable neoprene buffers to put where you need the most pressure. So I wore that all day yesterday -- it was surprisingly comfortable and seemed to be doing a lot of good (even with the NEW pain that cropped up on Sunday below my knee on the inside of my leg... sigh...). But at bedtime I took the strap off, and I discovered I am allergic to the neoprene!! The reaction wasn't too bad -- at first just some redness that I could have dismissed as a result from 8 or 10 hours of pressure, but it was accompanied by a burning sensation (took me a bit to realize it wasn't the IT-band itself, but on the surface) that soon gave rise to a rash. The rash was mostly gone by this morning, but from what I've read about the neoprene reaction (it's actually more likely a reaction to the chemicals they use to process it, but you can't wash them off) it gets worse if you keep exposing yourself to it, so I'm disinclined to use the brace again. It cost more than the IT-strap usually does, too, so I'm going to see if I can return it. Grrr.

They had a single strap, but it was designed to go below the knee. I tried it on in the store to see if I could wear it above the knee, and it slipped right down over my kneecap as soon as I moved. I also can't order the strap that Amazon has (with Amazon Prime, so I'd save on shipping) because it's neoprene, too, which means I'm going to have to order the same one I have, which costs more to ship.

My weight was 142.5 this morning. It has stayed in the 142-142.5 range all week -- surprisingly consistent! My entire success at the "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" approach so far has been a switch to cereals with far fewer ingredients, a switch to cage-free eggs (but that was because of the egg farm stories -- gross), and a lot more vegetables at dinner. I've tried to keep my meat portions small at dinner, but I seem to be the only one trying for that. Oh, and it was fish four times this past week (two nights of leftovers, of course) so that's an improvement. I'm going to work on better lunches but we're trying to use up what we have (macaroni & cheese for the kids, some cans of ravioli for them, some lunchmeat with more ingredients than a package labeled "smoked ham" should have, etc.) first.

T-2 Weeks

My marathon will be over 14 days from now. (One way or another!) I went running on Tuesday evening, just 5k on a fairly flat surface, and my leg in the IT strap did pretty well, but my other leg hurt for a day or two afterwards. I went to the local running shop today and they were sold out of straps (it's marathon season, and every runner in town is injured) but I'm fairly certain I'm going to need a strap on each leg. With the straps, I think I can just manage to finish, but the time isn't going to be anywhere near what I hoped, I fear! They pack up the water stations if you average longer than a 16-minute mile. I've never been that slow, but we'll see!

At the running shop they showed me some more stretches and some strengthening exercises and told me absolutely NO downhills in the next two weeks! Otherwise they approved of what I've been doing. I went to the gym then and did 7 "miles" on the elliptical in about the same time I would take to run 7 miles (when I'm not injured, anyway). I had no knee problems and my quads got good and tired but nothing outrageous, so I don't think I've lost too much conditioning. My heart rate and sweat felt more like running than the pool jogging does, so I should probably be doing workouts like this as much as the swimming ones. I'm worrying about next weekend, though; I'll be in Alabama from Wednesday until Sunday, so it's running or nothing. Or driving an hour to find a gym where there's an elliptical I can use. If I can get another strap before we go (I'll try the big chain stores tomorrow, and if that fails I may pay for shipping to get it in time -- or maybe I should look at the stores in AL?) I'll try running, but I'll have to go about a mile from the house to get to the flat part of the road, and that means mostly running where the scary dog lives. :-(

Time for a plan

Driving up to Maine on vacation last month I noted an bad trend -- not sure why I hadn't made the connection before -- but as consumers we're pushed to eat fast food, drink beer, smoke cigarettes -- they we're told in the next breath to take some pill so we can lose weight or stop smoking. It's a vicious cycle.

I was happy to Emily's post about food. For the past several years -- and it continues -- I've done my damndest to get the freshest foods down my gullet and I will say it helps immensely with energy levels and how I feel overall.

One weekend I had several meals that all consisted of fresh, local food. All simple.

My suggestion -- and this is certainly my method and has helped enormously -- is to design an eating and exercise menu and follow it. What it does is provide a nice roadmap and when you're thinking about what to eat or get off track you have an answer right in front of you.

I think the hardest part is developing your initial plan and then editing it as you go. I write out one plan then note what I did and change it up so I don't get bored. I also have followed an exercise routine in a book that helped with that.

I prefer the legal pad/clipboard route. I keep a list of complex carbs so I can build my menu.

Last night I made grilled, boneless pork chops with a lime, garlic sauce and quinoa with tomatoes, black beans, scallions and a similar lime concoction. Delish and pretty healthy.

What I've done in the past is give myself 2-3 options for breakfast, the same for lunch, a snack, and dinner. I'll sometimes get an extra snack in there if I need it. I bring my food and snacks to work and try to incorporate exercise.

I've lost weight by taking two 20-minute walks a day after main meals. When I did that routine I was able to build up to other, more strenuous exercise. The walks were multi-purpose -- exercise, stress relief, a bit of quiet time.

I absolutely think that getting locally grown produce and eating in the seasons is a great way to go. BUT I think eating healthy and staying away from processed foods is a great place to start.

Plus, don't think calories, think fresh food -- you should be able to pronounce all of the ingredients on food packages. Read every label.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in joining me please post your plan. I will post mine and provide weekly updates. I know it's time for me to reinstate a stricter plan that also allows me flexibility.

142.5

I figured my weight would get lost in my other post. It dove down to 140 one day but came back up over the next two. I haven't been watching my calories (or, really, even my food quality yet; that's just starting) but I have been good about exercise, including an hour-long session of deep water running on Sunday that really left my legs tired. This week I won't do as well; the kids' band practice prevents my usual gym trip on Tuesdays (so I'll have to find a substitute), my birthday is Wednesday, and I forget why I don't have an appointment on Thursday. Oh, I remember -- I wanted to try to get to the pool instead. And Friday is always my day off because it tends to fill up otherwise. My marathon is in less than three weeks, and I haven't run on land for almost that long. Yikes!

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

So I've been reading "In Defense of Food" (by the same guy who wrote "The Omnivore's Dilemma," which I've never read, but everyone's heard of it) and it's making me mad because it's telling me what I already KNOW I should be doing, only so bluntly that it's hard to keep ignoring it. His mantra is what I put in the subject -- we should all be eating REAL food, not anything processed or chopped into a million pieces and put back together with added nutrients and vitamins, because once you take things apart you're going to miss some of the little pieces. After 150 years of nutritionism (his word for the near-religious approach to thinking of food as a collection of nutrients, rather than a whole) we still haven't figured out what is important, and even if they give a diet with exactly equivalent nutrients to some whole food, the people eating the whole food end up healthier and thinner and so on relative to those who eat the sum of the parts. And we shouldn't eat too much (obviously), and we evolved on a mostly plant-based diet, and by dropping all those leafy greens from our diet we've left something important out. People eating real food diets have lower rates of obesity, cancer, diabetes, and heart problems, even from widely varied cultures (and hence widely varied real foods -- there's no perfect diet). He doesn't really address the exercise side of things -- the people in those cultures tend also to be more active (though even in cigarette-heavy countries their health problems are fewer) -- but what he says makes good sense, and, as I said, it's hard to ignore.

And we all eat too much sugar. Too much refined sugar in particular -- he does mention glycemic index but that's not part of his core thesis; the point is, when you refine sugar, you lose the whole-foods aspect of the original sugar plant and you're not getting what little nutrition you might have gotten. But even if you use raw sugar it's only a marginal improvement. Too much sugar. Sigh... (I love sugar.)

So now I'm trying to pay more attention to what is in the foods we eat. I haven't finished the book yet, so I may revise my thinking before the end. But I'd already switched my bread; when I came back from Norway I found the processed breads (even the expensive whole wheat ones) too depressing to eat, so I started buying the whole wheat bread from the bakery. But one day we needed bread that day -- and I realized it at breakfast time, and I didn't want to go to the grocery store -- so I made it in the bread machine. The response from the kids was so overwhelmingly positive that they've started complaining when I suggest I might buy bread, so now not only am I making bread from whole grains, I'm making it from scratch. (And, alas, with refined sugars -- there are plenty of recipes with honey or molasses or no sugar at all, so I'm sure I can adapt my plain whole wheat bread machine recipe, but today I was adding oats to the plain whole wheat recipe and I didn't want to change two things at once; next time I'll use molasses or even raw sugar instead of brown sugar.)

And, as I posted this weekend, I was already changing eggs. I didn't buy free-range, but cage-free grain-fed, which isn't quite the same thing (the author argues that you want your animal food sources to have a varied diet, too, if you're going to have more nutrition in YOUR food), but at least these chickens didn't come from an "industry standard" disease- and fecal-matter-infested henhouse. Even if they weren't killing me, I don't want to reward that level of grodiness. Ick.

We're trying some new breakfast cereals this week. I discovered, to my surprise, that the cereals on the natural foods aisle have (1) FAR fewer ingredients on their lists, having left out all the additives and preservatives (though not always the refined sugar and oat fiber (another food taken out of its whole food), but it's usually raw sugar, at least), (2) nearly identical styles to the cereals on the cereals aisle (there is a Reese's equivalent, though not a Lucky Charms equivalent that I saw), and (3) comparable prices to the main cereal aisle, since cereal prices leapt to outrageous levels several years ago after a price-fixing scandal or something and never came back down. So there's no excuse for me to keep eating that stuff.

I also realized most of our dinners aren't too bad. I'll need to start soaking kidney beans instead of buying them canned, because the canned ones are in corn syrup, but I usually plan chili a day or two in advance, so that will be cheaper and no big deal. White corn comes with added sugar, too -- but I can't find white corn in the freezer section and I can't digest yellow corn, so I think I'm stuck on that one for now, or until I start canning my own corn (as if!). But the rest of our canned goods are fine. (NOT counting the kids' ravioli and Mary's lunch soups -- but I don't eat those, and they don't eat much; I'll just stop buying those.) I can do better about using brown rice instead of white, but I'm already most of the way there on that one. Pastas and noodles will take some thought, but I found that most of the whole wheat pastas don't have long additive ingredient lists, even on the normal aisle (the Kroger brands aren't too great, though); however, I get rebellions with whole wheat pastas. Maybe Daniel will be more receptive this time.

I'm getting a fair amount of support from Daniel on this because the evidence from his family is kind of overwhelming. Among his grandparents, there were three major cases of heart disease and the fourth one developed cancer. His mother had cancer. His father has serious colon troubles. His brother, only 44, has colon cancer now. Daniel is in better shape than his brother and his mother but not his father, so the only thing he can hope to improve on over his father is his diet. Alexander is doomed -- there isn't a man in his family tree who hasn't had heart troubles (no -- his paternal grandfather just has colon troubles that I know of-- but Alexander's doomed on those, too). We're already working with the kids on exercise, but I think diet changes will help, too.

The "mostly plants" thing I haven't figured out yet. He hasn't addressed the specifics of that as far as I've gotten, except to say that historically we ate more plants than animal products and that we should think of meat as a side dish, not the main course. I'm trying to get more seafood in our diet (a frequent resolution of mine that has yet to take effect) but I'm not sure about how to cut back on dairy products much more than we have, without a radical change, or how to eliminate meat from my regular lunch diet.

I'm making these changes gradually; I'm not going to throw out all the white sugar and flour. Or all the ice cream in the freezer. Or the cupcakes Cecilia and I made this weekend. I refuse to bypass birthday cakes (WITH icing, but I'm happy to have that icing made with butter, not Crisco) or Halloween candy (refined sugar ten times over, but a necessity of life) or Christmas cookies (but the lebkuchen at least use honey instead of sugar, for the most part). But I can do more homemade stuff, with better ingredients.

And I'm not expecting my weight to miraculously drop even if I do switch to better foods. The "Not too much" is an important part of this -- though he points out that if we're eating whole foods we're getting the things that tell our bodies we're full, the things that are generally left out of foods like, say, jellybeans or candy corn, allowing us to eat entire bags straight (not that I would ever do such a thing...). So we're less likely to overeat as much. But the author also says that even if we DO eat all whole foods, we're not likely to get the same nutrition we would have 200 years ago, because all these foods have been bred for quantity, not quality, and the range of nutrition and opportunities for variety are long gone. So not only do I need to eat less sugar, I need to eat less, period. More depressing news that isn't really news.

Thank you for reading this far, if you've made it! I'll be happy to loan out the book when I'm finished, so you all can be as depressed as I am about how one's diet should change. (I LIKE sugar. I LIKE white flour, at least in many things. I don't WANT to change.) And if I loan out the book then I won't have it around so maybe in six weeks or months or so its effects will wear off and I can go back to my old bad habits. (Except for the eggs. Ew.)