And now for something completely different

In the 5 weeks since I returned from vacation, I have basically lost weight during the week and re-gained it on the weekend. Five weeks later and I’m still up 2 pounds on my pre vacation weight. This is ridiculous.

Our work has this new “healthy living” initiative. One of the things they offer is access to a “health coach”. It’s over the phone, but I thought this might be a good way for me to get some feedback and be accountable to someone.

Our first appointment was next Tuesday, and unfortunately we have to re-schedule. In any case, I will keep you posted!

Friday

When I got home yesterday, I took a short nap, did a bit of sewing, made dinner, and then went to the gym

I was the only person in class! It was “Playball!” which is a body sculpting type class with medicine balls. I was thinking old school, but these were smaller lighter, squishy weighted balls. Anyway, it was a great workout. There was one other lady that showed up at 6:40 (she thought the class was at 6:30). She came in & did a bit with us.

At home, the guys caught a lucky break because the cleaning lady came yesterday – right day, wrong week! Way to get out of vacuuming and cleaning the bathrooms!

I sat down with a calendar yesterday and wrote down what hub and I need to accomplish around the house this fall. Looks like we’re booked through October pretty much. Between your usual home maintenance (seal the deck, trim some limbs, paint some windows) and my desire to do some painting inside, we’re full up.

Work is doing a new thing where you can get money added to your health savings account if you do things like take a health assessment, sign up with a health coach, etc. Since my weight has been stalled for time & all eternity, yesterday I called and signed up with a coach. I figure it will help me be accountable to my plan.

I need to get a bit more frequent with the physical activity and dial back a bit on the weekends with the calories. I’m so close – I’ve maintained for a while, so I’m ready to take it to the next level. Overall though I'm doing really great!

Insert heavy sigh here

This week I lost the half pound I gained last week. Other than a beer, slice of cheese, and 5 chips Wednesday night, I ate really well. I went to the gym Tuesday (cardio) and Thursday (body sculpt, led by one of satan's minions). I have to remember that some weeks that's just how it is.

Have fun with the remodel Jack!

If you are celebrating, have a nice Labor Day weekend!

All's quiet here

It's been a good week. The whole family went to the gym Tuesday afternoon - yay! Both boy and hub have commitments this afternoon, so I plan to hit a body sculpt class. The kitchen is laregely put back together - I just need to finish & hang the curtains.

I've tried to eat a better dinner so I don't feel the need for an evening snack, and that's going pretty well. Hub has Monday off, so I've decided to take the day off as well. Not sure what we're gonna do - Sunday I'm headed to a friend's to do some sewing. So I'm looking forward to a quiet holiday weekend. Weather permitting, we'll grill out!

Take care.

Lesson (Re-) Learned

Something I know but tend to forget: If I fail to eat a sufficient dinner, I get hungry later. I realize that sounds self evident, but in my efforts to make healthy choices, I sometimes fail to eat enough dinner.

After Saturday night’s “taco incident”, the scale was up 1.5 pounds. No surprise, it was salty and I ate a fair amount of food late. I became frustrated Monday when that pound was still there. But then I realized that I ate a very light dinner Sunday, so later I had a snack. Not bad, but 1) it was late and 2) it was a bit salty. So it’s no wonder the scale hadn’t budged! Last night I ate a substantial dinner, didn’t need a snack, and lo and behold the scale was back down.

I got up and walked this morning - it was a wonderful 56 degrees with just a hint of “crisp" in the air. It’s been in the mid 90s here and even the nights have been warm and muggy, so this morning was a pleasant surprise. Hub is back on a M-F 7-3:30 schedule, so he will be getting home in time to go to the gym with the boy and I. We are going this afternoon! So that is wonderful – I’m so glad that we’ll all be going.

I know that day to day it sometimes feels (and sounds) like I’m not making progress. But I’ve still lost 20 pounds this year and while things like vacation etc. have made the scale bounce up and down, overall I’m headed in the right direction.

Grrr

After a very busy weekend (I painted the kitchen) and careful eating (other than Saturday night), I am up 1.5 pounds. ARGH!!!! I’m going to the gym this afternoon. Not sure what else to do – I mean, I don’t want to give up tacos for forever.

How it’s going

Back to school is always a challenging time of year. Besides all the running around to find supplies, clothes, go to open house, every year we have a new routine to adjust to. This year my son’s bus comes over an hour later than it did last year! So, a huge swing in our schedules.

For the first few days at least I want to be home long enough to ensure he’s up, clean, fed, and ready to go to the bus stop. That translates to me getting in to work much later than I have in the past.

Normally I get pretty stressed this time of year but somehow it’s going better this year. For one, he didn’t start back to school immediately after vacation, so we had time to get everything vacation-related cleaned and put away. My house is clean & organized and hub did the same for the garage. Second, I acknowledged that all my habits wouldn’t magically gel into a new schedule. I’ve gradually added things back, and that’s gone great.

I’m back to packing healthy meals and snacks, I’m getting up and walking in the morning. Yesterday the boy and I visited the gym in the afternoon to see how crowded it was and talk to the guy at the desk about when it begins to get busy. We are going to try going in the afternoons, starting next week. Weight is drifting back down. Hurray!

But most of all it feels good to be eating my healthy foods and going for those morning walks.

Monday - already!?!?!

I had the most amazingly productive weekend possible. And since the job site was closed, hub had a whole weekend off! Which was good, because it took him the entire weekend to get the garage put back together and all the vacation stuff put away!

Went out to dinner with friends Friday after work.

Saturday I got up early and walked, grocery shopped, and cleaned my kitchen. As in I went through every single drawer and cabinet and cleaned, organized, and culled out stuff I don't need/use. Goodwill is going to be very happy. Then we had an amazing dinner with friends – yummy and good company.

Sunday was laundry day. I also got the vacation stuff in the sewing room put away, that room mostly tidied up, and organized the linen closet. I had a big stack of old towels & some pet stuff that went to the animal shelter. We had friends come over for lunch, which was a nice break for us and it was nice to catch up with them. I also made a nice meal for dinner and got a bunch of embroidery done on my dress.

Is it Friday yet? I'm tired. hee hee hee

On the down side, I ate too much. Grrr.

No, I haven’t abandoned this blog.

I know I haven’t updated in forever. I haven’t even caught up on the blogs I read since we got back! We were on vacation for 2 weeks (it was very nice). Then we got back on the 9th and since then work has been super busy for hub & I, we’ve been busy getting things cleaned up & packed away, and the boy had freshman orientation the past 2 days and school starts next week!

One good thing I did was to give myself permission to ease back into my routine. Rather than trying to jump back in & be “perfect”, I spent a week getting my eating routines back in place, this week, I started walking again in the morning, next week I’ll add weights, etc. The net result is much less pressure on myself. According to my weigh-in this morning, I gained 2 pounds on vacation – pretty good!

I’m back to eating mostly vegan and feeling much better for it. This weekend is visiting with friends, sewing, and giving my kitchen a thorough cleaning & organizing in preparation to paint it!

Well, back to work but I wanted to make time to at least check in.

Have a good weekend!

I’m leaving, in a minivan

Car has been replaced with a 2007 Nissan Sentra.

Trailer wiring has been fixed. Brake lights work.

Garage is a disaster. No bets on how long it will take for the guys to load the trailer or what time we’ll actually leave. Hub says 6. However: in my world the trains run on time, he prefers what we call “Native American time” (day time/night time). A departure time in Hub-land is more of a general guideline rather than a deadline… plus (never minus) 4 or so hours.

Never in the history of the world has a woman ever needed a vacation as badly as I do now!

Vacation when?

Hub totalled his car Tuesday night. He's fine (thank goodness) and no one was hurt. He had to run off the road to avoid a woman who randomly decided to turn left right in front of him.

But b/c the car was so old we don't have collision, so we have to get a new car. Can I please return the roof I just bought???

Calgon, take me away! (More like, Budweiser, take me away!)

Since I love to read fellow bloggers (and blog myself), I thought this pic was pretty funny.

On a more somber note: A friend of our passed away this morning - she had been fighting breast cancer for quite some time. So really going on about my workout at the gym or what the scale said just feels a bit pointless right this moment, if you know what I mean.

Have a good weekend.

See saw

The scale went down the 0.8 pounds, and then it was back up again this morning! Gah! This is what makes me so nuts.

I took yesterday off from the gym - my body was giving me the (I am getting run down and your immune system is getting compromised and you need to rest) signals. So I went home and chilled, called hub & asked him to pick up pizza, then went to bed at 8. Maybe that's the 0.8 pounds - my fingers were swollen when I put on my rings.

Anyway, kettlebells this morning and gym this afternoon. My chore list isn't too horrible this weekend, but I am going to have to stay very focused on the food cause it's time to get off the see saw!

Happy Bastille Day

Today should be a good Tour day – being Bastille Day and having no top sprinters, the French will most likely launch tons of attacks, hoping to get in a breakaway and grab a victory. The French don’t really have any top riders for that matter.

Here’s a good quote from Will Frischkorn – a rider for Garmin-Slipstream:

“There are plenty of one-day races where you toe the line with a specific job, and that role doesn’t even put you remotely near the finish line. But then there are all the rest: the races where either you hope to find a result for yourself, you’re there training, or a stage race where you’re there working for the team; one day fighting it out for the sprinters, another day to position a climber, others on the front, grinding out the kilometers with your leader on the wheel.

These are all roles of the domestique, the category that the vast majority of riders fit into. You’re at a race to do your job. You’re also at a race because it’s what you love to do. The satisfaction of teamwork, is something often misunderstood in our sport. The way that you’ll drive yourself into the ground, knowing that as soon as the throw-down comes, the race will leave you behind. “

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Friday I did go home and rest. I had a relaxing yet productive weekend, and enjoyed watching the mountain stages. Even though I really didn’t want to, I went to the gym yesterday afternoon and did a good workout. My bag is packed for today as well, and this morning I got in a good kettlebell workout.

After dropping 1.2 pounds, the scale popped back up 0.8 and has stuck again. Grrr. I told my husband I’ll feel sad, but I’m afraid I’m just gonna have to smash it if it doesn’t behave. Heh heh heh.

Have a good one!

Friday Morning Randomness

Do you ever have one of those mornings where you feel like is sitting around saying something like “Oh ho! Some people are just thick. I’ve been dropping subtle (and not so subtle) hints all week that she needed to slow down. I guess now it’s time for a smackdown.”

I should’ve seen it coming. I was tired at the gym yesterday afternoon. After we finished watching the Tour, getting up and loading the dishwasher while hub vacuumed was one thing. By why scrub out the inside of the fridge after 9 pm? I mean, really?

Payback came knocking this morning. First, I hit what felt like a wall of tired during my kettlebell workout. And getting tired & making a mistake while swinging a 26 pound kettlebell is not smart. So, I skipped the last set. I splashed green drink on my shirt. I nearly forgot my cold bag to take with me to Costco this afternoon. When I started yelling because I had splashed laundry detergent on the dog leashes, I realized it was time to give myself a mental timeout. Luckily, no one was home to hear me but the dogs.

After Costco, instead of trying to do all my other grocery shopping, I think I’ll go home and chill out. I’ve been needing a bag to take to the gym (my regular gym bag is too big to fit in the lockers and I don’t need to take boxing gloves, my own neck pad for the squat bar, and swim gear with me just to use the freaking elliptical.) I have some nice asian print quilt cotton that I’ve been hoarding – maybe I’ll use some and make a nice bag. Then I’ll sleep in tomorrow….

I admit part of the reason I’ve been pushing so hard is that the scale has been stuck. Things are happening, but the scale doesn’t want to budge. Instead of wearing myself out overdoing it with the exercise, I need to just stay consistent. As long as I keep doing the right things, it’ll pay off.

I’d forgotten one drawback to having Lance in the Tour: all news outlets must be avoided if you want the end of the day’s stage to remain a surprise. I’d managed to forget that over the past 4 years, and an accidental glimpse at a headline on msn.com ruined the finish of yesterday’s stage for me. Gah.

Have a good weekend!

Divide and Conquer

I couldn’t decide whether to do food prep this weekend, or more sewing. I’ve decided to do both! That is, I am splitting my food prep tasks so I can do some of both on both weekends. I think it will make the cooking feel a bit less grueling. I love to cook, but hours non-stop in the kitchen gets a bit tiresome!

This weekend I’ll cook and freeze the spaghetti sauce, chili mac, beef stew, and zucchini bread. Next weekend I’ll make the meat pies. Since I make the filling and dough from scratch, that is an equal split of the work!

Tomorrow is the first mountain stage of the Tour. It’s really impossible to gauge who the most likely contenders for winning are until after a day or so in the mountains. The last time the Tour was in Arcalis (in 1997) Jan “Der Kaiser” Ullrich broke away solo on the final stretch to the summit (10.6km at 7.1 percent), decimating the field and laying the foundation for his Tour victory. He was supposed to be riding in support of his team captain (Bjarne Riis) – that didn’t work out so well, at least not for Riis.

The boy & my mom left for Florida today, so it’ll be pretty quiet around our place this weekend.

I have gone to the gym for the past 3 days after work, and the bag is in the car for today as well. This morning I was slated to do kettlebells, but I pushed those back a day so I could go for a walk in the neighborhood.

Going to the gym in the afternoons makes getting up at 5 a bit of a challenge. As a result, I hadn’t walked in the morning for the past 2 days. I don’t use my MP3 player much and I’m not burning up the roads or anything, I just enjoy being outside and listening to the birds and watching the sun come up. I’ve missed that.

But no worries – I can do kettlebells Tue, Fri, Sun this week.

Eating is going well – I’ve had a couple of evenings where I needed a snack around 8-ish because I was starving! I ate a bigger dinner last night and that did the trick. We had home made nachos – yum!

Good morning Sunshine!

I think that July is consistently the most enjoyable month of the year for me. Consider:

In July, I have no problem saying "no" to anyone - including myself. "I've got too much to do to get ready for vacation" is a universally accepted reason for not being able to do something - anything.

No homework to check/ help with. Minimal responsibilities at home. The boy is frequently away with one grandparent or another, and when he's home he's old enough to help out! Dinner? A Costco quiche and some steamed veggies are perfectly accepted. Or even better - marinate some meat & veggies & let hub cook them on the grill!

Routine. I enjoy going new places and trying new things. And sometimes my job feels like an exercise in change management. So it's nice to have such a well defined schedule as a refreshing change of pace. Go to work, go to gym, watch part of the Tour, fix supper, finish watching Tour with hub. Putz. Go to bed.

I'm doing stuff I love. I love sewing, I love cooking, and I'm a scheduling/organizing fool. And that's all I do for the entire month!

The Tour de France. Yeah, I know most people don't get this one. But I thoroughly enjoy watching the Tour. Yesterday was a perfect example: the team time trial. Although the course was so difficult this year, one team manager said it was "more like a team trial." By drafting you conserve 30% of your energy, so a team rides in an echelon, slightly angled based on the wind direction. They look like a flock of geese, with each rider taking a turn and then falling back to take a rest. It’s truly poetry in motion.

Stronger riders will pull longer, and since only 5 of the 9 have to finish together (the team gets the time of the 5th rider), one or more riders may have the job to blow himself up well before the finish line pulling the team for all he's worth.

There are time checks out on the road, so you know how you're doing compared with the others. Thanks to a truly epic final 9 km put in by Fabian "Fabu" Cancellara (dragging his team most of the way single handedly), he managed to hold on to the race lead over Lance Armstrong by a fraction of a second. Four days of riding hundreds of km and it took a long time to determine the lead because they had to go back and check the fractions of a second.

After the first stage, the rider who is touted as the world's best sprinter was ranked 4th-to-last overall. I am reminded to make the point that the position in the General Classification says nothing about the inherent athletic ability of the cyclist, and everything about the important job they each play on their own team.

I went to the gym yesterday afternoon and did the shortest of the 4 interval workouts on my MP3 - 35 minutes. Halfway through, a guy comes and gets on the elliptical right next to me. Why? I mean, there are only 2 with the moving pole/hand bar thingies, so I can understand if I were on one and he wanted the other. (I prefer that kind myself because I get a better workout moving both arms and legs). But the one next to me was one of the other kind with the stationary handlbars - and there are at least 12 of those. Grrr. Oh well, I still had a good workout!

I went Monday as well and my bag is in my car for this afternoon! My goal is 3-4 times per week. It's so nice & quiet at the gym when I arrive around 4 - it's the ideal time to go as far as I'm concerned!

Well, have a good one!

Thanks Jack!

Just a shout out to my internet friend Jack for taking time to comment last night!

After I posted I put on "Shrek 3" - I was too restless to simply sit and watch, but a little light comedy helped. I stayed up until 10. It's funny - I don't know whether it's the new Amazing Meal (from amazinggrass.com) or just the combo of healthier eating and more exercise, but I seem to be needing a bit less sleep!

This morning I got up at 5, did my kettlebell workout, and made time for a short walk in the neighborhood. It was nice and cool (58) and just felt fantastic! After that I got home and made hub a green drink before getting myself ready for work. He's been enjoying his AM green drink too, and it gets more veggies in him. Fruit is easy, but veggies can be a challenge!

I weighed myself this morning - down to a new low! Woot! I'm feeling accomplished. The good/bad thing is that at my current weight, I don't feel limited by my weight. I can do pretty much anything I want. I am very grateful for that. I admit I have a bit of fear that feeling that good will lead to complacency. I hope not!

I have added another work set to my kettlebell workout. My plan is to add one more. When that starts to feel "comfortable", it's time to buy a new kettlebell! And I have 5 more cardio coach CDs I haven't opened - my plan is to add one at a time. The later disks are more challenging and will give me something new to listen to.

I do understand why some folks need/want a race or triathlon or specific event to focus on to help them get to a goal. I want to try my hand at yoga again, and I'd really like to sign up and train with one of the trainers at the gym - he's a power lifter. That sounds right up my alley! So we'll see. I definitely have things I'm looking toward, but trying to appreciate how much better I'm feeling right now also.

Have a great weekend and 4th (if you celebrate it)!

Must let off steam

I had a craptacular day at work. I could write all about it, but there's no point. Some days you have crappy days - such is life when you work with humans.

I have tried to be positive about it - it happens, move on, blah blah. After work I headed to the gym and got in a great workout even though I didn't feel like going. I came home and made a healthy supper even though I didn't feel like cooking.

Then the boy came home from the beach in this huge whirlwind b/c hub had promised to take him to a movie. So he rushes in, dumps a bunch of stuff, and they rush out. Never mind hub and I were supposed to have a conversation about the budget b/c he is talking about buying a tool bench from a guy at work - tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm tired, I had a shitty day, and I'm home alone feeling like nothing I have to say is important. Maybe that's not fair, but that's how I feel. What I want is to each some nachos and have a couple of beers (we don't have any in the house). Instead I am posting here hoping to diffuse my frustration.

I feel so frustrated that I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes and a huge lump in my throat. I just want to stop feeling what I'm feeling. I'm tired & times like these I just wish I had an "off switch" when life seems to be invading my personal space. My off switch is spelled C-H-E-E-S-E.

Ugh. I know exactly why people use food to insulate themselves from their emotions. Something doesn't have to be tragic - or even bad - too feel like just too much.

What I’m up to

I’ve started going to the gym in the afternoons. I know, who knew I’d ever go back there again?? Ha ha ha. I loaded a couple more of my “Cardio Coach” (LOVE!) CDs onto my MP3 player – I now have 4 workouts to choose from. They make the time fly by.

Weight is dropping again. I’m walking in the AM, swinging my kettlebells, hitting the gym in the afternoons, and walking at lunch with my lunch buddy. The cool thing is that it really helps relieve stress, making it easier to not snack in the evenings.

Stuff is coming together for vacation – I’m in decent shape. Which is nice – some years I get all panicky!

The weather has been nice in the mornings. Hot by noon of course, but mornings have been in the early 60s.

I wish my husband would help out around the house on a more consistent basis. Just saying.