Crime and Punishment

That show “You are what you eat” is now in my tivo queue – there are 2 shows waiting when I get home each night, which I have been watching with my hub. While our eating isn’t nearly the disaster of most of the folks on her show, I’m hoping some of the message will rub off.

For the past couple of months, they have been having a “bootcamp” class at my gym Tuesday evenings. I’m not opposed to calisthenics – heck, I know they do some really good stuff for you! I will admit that the name makes me twitch a bit (yes, I have my share of evil drill sergeant stories from my Army days), but I’ve been thinking about going. Yesterday I called the gym and Josh answered, so I asked him about the class. He assured me that it was an hour, but you didn’t have to stay for the whole hour or anything. Which left me wondering: Does he say this to everyone or is it because I’m fat?

The end result of everything was that I was really dreading the class! It felt like punishment. “Sorry fatty, you let yourself go and now you have to subject yourself to being yelled at by some fit chick for an hour.” Gee, doesn’t that sound fun? I normally like a challenge, but I was feeling bad & defeated before I ever went to the class!

When I got home, I put a leash on Bess (the Chihuahua) and took her for a walk. I got home early, so there weren’t many cars because most folks weren’t home yet. It was around 72 with a nice breeze, and the neighborhood was just so quiet. We could hear the squirrels playing in the trees! It was so peaceful and the air smelled so good and it felt so nice. Doing that – walking the dog – felt fantastic. But the thought of going to that class just made me tense up.

When I got back home and said I’d decided not to go, my son said “Why? You’re always saying how you want to lose weight.” Am I really always saying that? (I think he wanted to go to the gym.) I lifted weights yesterday morning, and I went and had a great cardio workout today. Maybe I need to get some longer workouts under my belt before I feel ready for bootcamp. But I don’t want to go to punish myself – I want to go because I’m longing for an awesome workout.

It’s funny how I used to love some weight lifting days and tolerate the cardio days – now it’s just the opposite. Since I’ve been using the “cardio coach” CDs, I’m loving my workouts! The weights are still underwhelming, but I’m doing them.

For the curious, here’s what I’m eating this week:

Breakfast: varies. Maybe lox & bagel (small), this morning 2 eggs & grits.
Snack: 5 prunes & half a can of tuna
Lunch: Moroccan eggplant, vegetable, & bean stew (no meat)
Snack: homemade hummus and a sliced cucumber
Dinner: varies. Tonight its baked turkey cutlets, baked potato, and steamed broccoli.
Snack: half a pimento cheese sandwich

Eating is going well.

I have been thoroughly enjoying the freakishly warm weather. Its back to winter Saturday, with the high for the day 38. Which sucks, because I have to put the dogs outside since the cleaning lady is coming (she’s scared of them) , and that’s awfully cold for them. But I have had the windows open and have really tried to treasure every fresh breeze!

Speaking of fresh breezes, there are 2 organizations I am considering joining:

PATH: Piedmont Appalachian Trail Hikers, is a nonprofit trail club that maintains a section of the Appalachian Trail in southwest Virginia.

Or

Piedmont Hiking & Outing Club

I haven’t discussed either with my family. PATH is the more organized of the 2 from what I’ve seen, but PHOC seems to offer more local activities. I may check both out. I want to do something that will allow me to enjoy the beautiful area we live in, and spend some quality time with my family.

Speaking of spending time together…. Today was the day that hub’s company was supposed to complete the building they are working on and turn it over. Ha! They now pay $1500 per day in penalties for each day they are late. Starting today, it’s 10 hour days, 7 days per week. Gah. He gets 3 whole days off at Christmas (he has to work the Saturday before). We had made those plans for January, and he can get the Saturday & Sunday, but I had to cancel the Sunday night (we’d planned to come back on Monday). Also, he has a side job for January that is going to get pushed back. Not to mention our deck…. I feel so bad for him, but we’re both glad he has a job. Construction jobs are hard to come by these days.

Well, that’s probably enough for today!