Thursday, October 28, 2010

Semi-Anonymous

In spite of the pictures posted of Choreboy and me on this blog, I'm still what I refer to as a "semi-anonymous" blogger. And by that, I mean that the entire surrounding community out here in the real world isn't aware that I blog. Or if they are aware, they have no idea what the URL is and likely couldn't possibly care less.

I'm semi-anonymous by choice, and now it's becoming a necessity. Both boys are getting older and, unlike the rest of the folks I know, they are painfully aware that their mother is a [cue gasp of horror] writer.

It's gotten to where they'll do or say something, then whip their heads around, glare at me, and say, "Don't you dare put this in your blog, Mom."

"Awwww, come on, can't I?"

"No. No, no no no NO!"

"Uhm... can I put that we argue about what I can blog about in my blog?"

Resigned sigh. "Okay. I guess. But nothing else!"

So, them getting older equals fewer stories about the Elder and the Gum Zombie, and more navelgazing for their mother. Fortunately I am endlessly fascinated by belly button lint.

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In the world of food, exercise, and weight, I stayed within my calorie range again last week, and got in all my exercise as well. This current week is looking iffy on the exercise due to circumstances totally outside my control, but my hope is that I can at least make up some of the time over the weekend.

My next weigh-in is tentatively scheduled for next Thursday, November 4th. I'm hoping for 145, but we'll see if the scale chooses to cooperate. After that weigh-in I'll wait another minimum two weeks, so if I don't weigh in on the 4th I'm not going to bother until the 18th, one week before Thanksgiving.

Why the big gap in time? Well, you see, the evening of the 4th I'll be heading up to NYC to finally visit my niece, the two-month-old Divine Miss M for the weekend. And air travel plus my scale just don't mix. I've seen folks weigh just after a flight, and to those willing to do so, more power to you! I know the games my brain plays on me, though, and if I weigh in after all the exercise and decent eating I've been doing and see a higher number than I believe I should? It has the potential to send me into a tailspin. Frankly, the last thing I need a week before Thanksgiving is to get in that "what's the point?" mindset.

The fallout would be severe... as would the pie consumption.

Oh, and just a note to would-be thieves trolling blogs for burglary targets: it's only me going. The rest of the house including the Guard Hound will be home... er... guarding.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Twenty Down

I've been checking out my reports at SparkPeople, and I saw that I'm not only 20 pounds down from my high of 166 in early March, but Friday also marked exactly once month of staying precisely within my calorie range with no deviations.

Of course, for those of you following the math it also means that I lost a whopping 0.75 pounds in the past two weeks. But folks, that's three sticks of butter. I'm good with it, especially because I know I've been on point for both food and exercise, consistently. Okay, I'm also good with it because it's been Hormone Fest around here this week, so really I wasn't holding my breath too much anyway. This isn't The Biggest Loser. My high was 200 pounds, I'm now at 146 pounds, and I only have 16 pounds left until goal.

This is likely going to take awhile, especially since I'm already at what is considered to be a healthy weight for my height (although my knees would beg to differ). So, to keep myself from freaking out when the scale is moving at the speed of a constipated snail, I've embraced The Slowest Loser concept initiated by one of the Spark execs. I'm working on losing weight at the lightning-fast speed of half a pound per week, which will put me at goal on, oh, say... May 19th?

So, yeah, plenty of time to manage that.

Anyway, lightning fast speed aside, when I put my new goal date into the system I kept my exercise at 2000 calories burned per week. And they raised my calorie limit to 1820 calories per day. YIPES! Honestly, I'm not sure I can lose weight if I eat at 1820 per day consistently, but it's nice to have that flexibility.

That said, I'm forty (see, I can almost say it without stuttering now). The metabolism, she isn't happy. So I'll likely eat at the lower end of my range (1370) most days, and just enjoy knowing that I can spike up a bit higher if the urge hits and still not compromise my goal date or my "streak" of eating within range.

Exercise-wise I'm on track. I've been hitting the elliptical again since I figure it's something I need to conquer. Being straight with myself, I've gotta say that I hate that sucker because it makes me work much harder than my treadmill does. So to ease my pain somewhat I've started working out with my music cranked up.


This carries me through 20 minutes of elliptical and 30 minutes of treadmill (at 3+ MPH and 5% incline), nicely wrapping up with Flogging Molly's "Kiss My Irish Ass".

Which is pretty much what I want to say to my exercise equipment at that point anyway.

Weirdly, I've not exercised with music much before. I mean, I own an MP3 player, but I usually watch TV or read while I'm on the cardio equipment. And man, what a mistake that's been! I don't know about the rest of you, but when the music hits a certain tempo it's nearly mandatory for me to ramp up my speed to match it. It's adding some good interval training and variety to my cardio that was lacking prior to the musical inclusion.

Plus it's just plain fun. Fun is good. And "Devil's Dance Floor" is beyond good for getting that speed going. Just saying.

Okay, time to get that grocery shopping knocked out. And tonight is DATE NIGHT. Yes, for once Choreboy and I get to go out on the town without the offspring. We can talk without being interrupted by "Mo-om!!!" fifty-thousand times.

I'm not entirely sure what we'll do with ourselves, but I have every confidence we'll be able to think of something.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Pre-teen Mom Angst

The Elder was quiet on his way home today. He finally burst out that he and his best friend are not friends anymore.

He's devastated, and I'm broken-hearted for him. I kind of saw this coming when the other two guys in their formerly tight foursome got kind of down on this one kid because, as they said, he was "being a jerk" to them.

The two he was being a jerk to were still in fifth grade, while the Elder and this kid moved up to middle school.

Now it seems he doesn't need my son anymore just like he didn't need the younger two guys anymore. He feels free to not only cut off the friendship, but also to a) gang up on my son with another child, and b) rub my son's nose in the fact that he's been talking poorly about him in one of his classes.

I'm sickened and disgusted. If this continues, it smells alot like bullying.

I just wish I could fix all this for him...

Friday, October 15, 2010

So...

Last week I picked up a pair of khacki pants I'd dropped off to have hemmed and taken in at the waist. I've mentioned before that I have the very dickens of a time finding a pair of pants that will fit me. And clearly these didn't fit well either, but they looked like maybe they could be brought into line.

So anyway, I tried them on at the alterations place and they fit fine -- no gap at the waist, etc. They weren't great. My saddlebags preclude almost any pair of pants from fitting truly well. But all in all, not bad.

That was Thursday, the day before I weighed in at 146.75. And I swear, I don't know what happened between Thursday and Tuesday, when I chose to wear those slacks to work, but something gave because I put on those pants and suddenly they didn't fit worth a flip. The legs dragged, and the waist gapped hugely.

It was freakish. I've got no clue. All I can figure is I dropped a boatload of inches between those two days, but for the life of me I can't figure out how.

In other weirdness, I have developed a lovely brownish patch on the left side of my chin. Thank you sunscreen that apparently does me no good even though I dunk myself in you religiously to even go grocery shopping! Good grief.

And where I'm getting extra pigment on my face, it's leaving my hair in droves. You would think I might have gotten my paternal grandmother's greying pattern since I apparently inherited her facial hair problem, but no dice. I've got my mom's early grey, but my grandmother's mustache.

Thankfully I've got an appointment shortly to cover up those stubborn roots (and a nice little jar of wax to take care of the other... erm... issue). Hey, better living through chemistry! I'm all for it.

Okay, time to get on the treadmill before I lose all momentum. Have an awesome weekend, y'all :)

Oh yeah, and if anyone's checking, I'm still within my calories for nearly four weeks straight, and yes I'm exercising (obviously). No, I haven't weighed in again which would be another reason why I have no idea if I've lost weight since I tried on those stupid pants.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Holy Consistency, Batman!

I did it -- I managed to make it through the weekend after an awesome weigh-in, and I didn't go over my calories even once.

Yes. Y'all, this is huge.

Okay, Saturday wasn't a big deal. We had the pork roast and all, but I pre-tracked for the entire day well before I had my dinner and I stuck with my plan. I'm allowed between 1320 and 1670 calories per day, and ended up with a total of 1620, which included breakfast (yogurt, Kashi Go Lean Crunch, and raspberries), lunch (sandwich with lean meat and cheese on a sandwich thin, along with 1/2 an avocado), and dinner (pork, carrots, green beans, oven "fried" potatoes), along with a square of a Godiva White Chocolate Vanilla Bean bar and two Biscoff cookies.

Sunday, though... I had to work on it Sunday.

The day started off without much challenge. The Elder and the Gum Zombie woke up wanting pancakes, so I made a batch with Bisquick Heart Smart mix. I had some raspberries left from my breakfast on Saturday and tossed those into my pancakes and enjoyed them with some light butter/ canola oil mix spread and real maple syrup. That ran about 400 calories. It's more than I usually have for breakfast, but I was planning a repeat lunch from the day before, so I figured no biggie, right?

Right. Best laid plans and all that. Well, we had a ton of errands to run because for once Choreboy was off on a Sunday, and we got out the door around 11:00 a.m. The man had passed on breakfast (I know he shouldn't, but please go tell him that) and mentioned eating out. We tossed around several ideas, including the really terrible possibility of visiting the local Asian buffet, but ended up at Red Lobster.

And actually, this wasn't a bad choice for me. I ended up eating two lobster nacho chips (hey, they were good!) on top of the lunch portion salmon with double broccoli and a Caesar salad. Dinner was the infamous Moroccan chickpeas with quinoa and half a Haas avocado.

Total calories consumed? 1660. I cut it close, but I made it.

I know that I often plan overages into my eating, but right now I feel very strongly that I need to stick strictly within my designated range. I don't see eating over a calorie range as any sort of excuse when it's done in a planned, educated fashion. I just don't. But I do see that for me to blast through my current calorie ceiling at this precise time in my process would be a bad scene. Am I capable of dropping the calorie log for a day and getting right back on the ball the next? Yep, youbetcha! But right now, right after I've finally gotten below 150 for like the bajillionth time in 2010 is so not the time for me to test myself.

Over the past four years I've come to realize that losing weight isn't about any one right way, even for one individual. It's about whatever way is working for you at this precise time in your process. Sometimes flexibility is key. Other times, you've gotta be hardcore. The trick is figuring out which approach needs to be applied when.

I'm still learning that part, hence the mad weight waffling up until this point.

Speaking of which, I'm on track for today as well. Breakfast was a treat -- I stopped at Subway and picked up a Black Forest Ham Egg White Muffin Melt with provolone cheese (160 calories) along with a bag of apple slices (35 calories) and a black coffee with Splenda (I don't even count black coffee). I also ate 3/4 of an ounce of almonds (120 calories) when I was done, because at under 200 calories I knew I wasn't going to be able to limit myself with the candy bowl around unless I got a bit more food in my system.

Ah, the candy bowl... I had 3 Hershey's kisses mid-morning. There was much happiness that ran me around 76 calories, and was worth every one of 'em. Lunch was my standard (see Saturday, except subtract the avocado half and add instead a cup of grapes), and clocked in at 290 calories.

Insert 3 more Hershey's kisses here. Dessert is important, yanno.

Dinner will be baked Cajun-seasoned catfish, broccoli, some focaccia bread, and a little olive oil for dipping, totaling 507 calories. My day at the moment tops out at 1264 calories, and will probably end right at 1340 calories because I hear about 3 more Hershey's kisses calling my name.

Not bad for a day's work. I can live with this.

Note to the FTC, on the off-chance they're worried about a blog with 45 readers: I don't receive any compensation from any companies I mention by name. I just feel like being specific. Besides, I have a feeling they have better things to do with their resources than expend them on me.

Saturday, October 09, 2010

This Just In

Attributed to the Associated Press:

"To reduce the risk of being bitten by mosquitoes, the Florida Department of Health recommends that people should attempt to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes."

Uhm... duh.

Friday, October 08, 2010

146.75

So I caved. I weighed myself.

146.75.

I haven't weighed that little since I quit smoking back in March of 2009. In fact, when I quit smoking I weighed 147.

So my dears.... BOOyah!!!!!! Yes, yes, yes!!!

Now I'm going to ignore the scale again for... awhile. I figure the latest I'll weigh myself will be the beginning of November, but I'm not going to carve that in stone or anything.

Weirdly, I'm not worried about flaking out with being under 150. I weighed in because finally the worry that I was eating too much (yes, it's a valid concern -- I'm working out heavily but I'm 40 and perimenopausal, so my metabolism is freakish) outweighed my fear that I'd gorge upon learning I was below some arbitrary scale number. Now I've seen that I can go on eating exactly as I have been, which is something I can easily live with

I eat in the low 1400's most days with some spikes to the upper 1600's, for the record. Average weekly calorie burn due to exercise is 2000.

I'm totally on a roll at the moment, too. I've not gone outside my calorie range, not even deliberately, for nearly three weeks. Additionally, I've made my exercise goals for over three weeks. I still don't have a problem with planned overages, but for right now I'm on what we at SparkPeople call a "streak" and I'm going to see how long I can drag this sucker out.

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In the world of food, I finally managed to make baked sweet potato fries. I searched around for a good recipe for them (weirdly I am not a fan of sweet potatoes -- tubers should be savory, not sweet), and I finally came upon a recipe that used curry powder with them.

Total score. They were awesome. Even the kids liked them.

Dagnabbit.

Tomorrow I've got a pork shoulder I'm going to roast. No, it's not low on the calorie end, but with a bit of moderation (and a bit more concentration on, say, more sweet potato fries), it will fit into my plan just fine.

That sucker is 8 pounds. Choreboy is going to have some serious leftovers to hoover down. We might have to call my little brother in to pinch hit.

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On the exercise front, I'd started back up with C25K and my knee raised a ruckus. I'm really annoyed by that, but I guess my father's right. I'd told him I'd started running again and he clutched his head.

"I don't know what it is with your brother and you. You both just need to come to peace with the fact that your bodies, through ill-luck with genetics, are fragile. Why can't you pick something you are able to do regularly and just do it?"

"Because it gets boring?"

"Okay, that's a point. But still..."

So here I am, walking my ass off again rather than running. I might have to completely give up the thought of running a 5K. It kind of sucks that I've managed to get too old for my body to cooperate with that sort of thing, but at least I can still do little intervals and sprints here at home, and my walking exercise is at 5% incline at minimum for 60 minutes, so it's not like I'm taking it easy.

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Okay, in theory Choreboy should be home soon -- "theory" because his assistant manager has a mysterious variant of morning sickness that only strikes on the weekend, thus requiring that my husband come in to work for her. Fortunately, he's her boss so this won't continue forever. But for now I'm trying to bite my tongue.

And before himself spills it in the comments, I'm failing miserably at this whole tongue-biting dealie. But in my defense, we haven't had a single weekend day together for nearly three weeks.

And I'm old.

And crabby.

And I'm outta here before I whine much more. Have an awesome weekend, folks!