Tuesday, January 31, 2012

This Does NOT Mean I'm a Morning Person

5:00 AM. Again. 40 minutes, made it 9.6 miles today. Maybe I'll hit 10 tomorrow?

But seriously, y'all, this kills me. Back in the dark ages when I wasn't known by the poly-syllabic "Mo-oooooom!!!!", I was a night person. The only time you'd see me up at 5 AM was when I hadn't been to bed yet. I'd teach all week, then pull two 12-hour overnight shifts at the police department (I was a member of the reserve, and was one of the few who never had trouble meeting the monthly mandatory minimum, go figure). Or I'd read endlessly. Or just stay up late talking with friends. Once I had children -- okay, children who slept through the night -- that ended. Sleep has become my holy grail, and it's rare I'll let anything get in the way of that from either end.

This is one of those times when I just have to suck it up, though. I hate waking up this early. I cannot begin to express to you just how much I freaking hate it. But I hate not being able to get in my exercise even more. I am a couch potato by nature; however, my good sense and a ton of reading tells me that I have to move a certain amount of time per day to be healthy. And because my family needs me, and because I'm rather fond of my body, that's what I'm doing, no matter what it takes.

I also know that if I don't move regularly I'll stop fitting into my clothes. One thing I did this fall when I got down in the 130's finally is I got rid of all my "fat" clothes. I literally have almost nothing I can wear in public if my weight gets past a certain point. It tends to keep me honest, and gives me a threshold I just can't cross. Maybe some people can afford to replace an entire wardrobe due to poundage creep, but I'm not one of them. I bought these clothes, they're the only ones I have, and as God is my witness they will (and do) fit, no matter what it takes.

So you're all going to hear from me every single day I get up and do this thing, even if it does mean I'm up before the birds. Because that, kids, is what it's going to take.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Oh-Dark-Hundred

Just a quickie to say that at 5:00 a.m. it is a) dark; and b) cold. Yes, even in Florida... in January at least.

40 minutes on the bike, 9.4 miles, not bad.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Day 2, Back in the Saddle

Hooray for recumbent stationary bikes! Today I went 45 minutes and got somewhere over 10 miles (I looked at my mileage but forgot it -- drat). After yesterday's weight lifting insanity my entire upper body is screaming at me. I was lifting 15 lb. dumbbells before Procedure Fest 2011-2012 kicked in, so I figured dropping to 10 pounds while jumping back in full-bore was a good idea. One day later, though, I'm thinking maybe 7-pounders might have been brighter. Oh well, too late! And the 10's weren't too heavy, so this is likely just the price I pay for being out of commission for so long.

My knees, however, are fine. I'm thrilled! Finally, consistent cardio without a limp. Well, without a joint-related limp. We'll see if my quads are more offended tomorrow. At the moment they're only mildly peeved with me, but as we all know that can easily change overnight.

Now the biggest trick: getting out of bed at 5 AM Monday to hop on that sucker for 30-40 minutes. I'm stating here and now that I will do it. So I'll report back tomorrow to confirm.... or hang my head in shame, which I'd prefer not to do.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

I Haz a Bike!

I just had to chase the boys out of the room so I could type this brief entry. I told them they were very cute, but too talkative when I'm trying to get a blog post up. As they were departing, the Elder said, "I'm glad we could cause a disturbance in The Force."

Nerd like me. It'll do.

Anyway, we got the bike! Choreboy, saint that he is, was willing to turn his truck around right after he got home from work yesterday and pick it up, with the rest of us in tow. And although I don't think he was planning on assembling it last night (okay, I know he wasn't planning on it -- thank you anyway, dear!), he did it so I could get in some cardio today.

It. Was. Awesome. My knee, which is aggravated at me for hurling myself to the ground again, didn't even peep during the 40 minutes I was pedaling away. I'm still getting the gist of the programming options, but I sure can pedal at least! And after the cardio, I went ahead and lifted my weights and ran through the rest of my resistance routine.

Life is good. And now I'm off -- dinner at the parentals' tonight (we're filling in for a couple who couldn't make it for a dinner party-type thingie), so I have to scrape the muck off and spackle my face. Thankfully, rumor has it I clean up respectably. Whew.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Bike!


Okay, it's not an actual "has wheels and can go places" bike, but a recumbent exercise bicycle. That said, I'm psyched. As we all know (because I drone on and on and on about it), my knees functionality-wise are somewhere on a level lower than crap. Then that's added to the fact that I have all the gross motor coordination of a 10-month-old learning how to walk (and about the same ability) which means I fall a bunch and catch myself... on my knees.

Yippie.

Anyway, I damage myself a lot. And I needed something that was going to give me the ability to do my cardio workouts with less strain on my knee than my treadmill and elliptical. They're good at times, but when I've managed to body slam myself straight into my knee three times in one week? I need a better option.

So sometime this weekend, whenever we can get over to the store to pick it up, I'll have one. I already paid for it (Schwinn 220, if anyone is interested) because it's on sale and I'm not risking paying $150.00 more when the sale ends. It was either this or join a gym, and right now my life just doesn't have that kind of flexibility, so recumbent exercycle it is!

Now the catch will be where we're going to put this sucker. I'm thinking of moving the elliptical out of the computer room and putting the bike in its place. My only concern with that is I need to do my cardio in the mornings, because I can't count on an evening session due to the kids' homework needs. You might think the computer room should be fine for this, but due to a need for both of us to get some sleep*, Choreboy tends to end up out there more often than not. I tested the bike out at the store and it seems very quiet so it may be I can ride it without disturbing his slumber. We shall see.

If all else fails, I'll move it into our bedroom. At least that way I'll see it first thing and my commute to my exercise will be less than three feet.

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My gums appear to be healing again, and I finally went nuts earlier this week and bought fish to eat. Apparently there's only so long I can go without actual animal protein, and since other meats can be more firm or get stringy and catch between my teeth, fish it is.

It was good. I like chewing.

In fact, this recent food restriction has had me getting a little more creative as far as my meals are concerned. I'm also cut off from broccoli (the little flowers can get caught, just like stringy meat) and had more than two weeks without any dark greens, so while I was buying my fish, I also picked up a bag of organic spinach. I washed it off when I got home and just stuffed the whole bag into a giant pot with a little (1-2 TBSP) olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and a few sun dried tomato pieces. I've eaten it over three days and it's really hit the spot, and also reminded me that switching things up a little (I tend to be an extreme creature of habit) can be a positive.

Have a great weekend, y'all! I'll be the one pedaling in the corner.

*He snores. I wake up. I rub his back and tell him he's snoring. He says "Yes, baby" and either a) falls back asleep, in which case, repeat previous scenario; or b) he gives up and moves to the computer room. It's not ideal. We're working on finding a better solution because I kind of like not having separate bedrooms :P

Thursday, January 19, 2012

In Brief


There's a flattering picture for all of you! Yes, I had the left side of my mouth done today, so in addition to my usual left-eye-wandering joy, I also have left-side-of-mouth droopage because even though I got the Novocaine shots around 9:00 this morning, they're obviously pretty much in full force three hours later.

Also, I just noticed that I am much more blonde than I was almost a year ago. Remember this picture?

Yep, still arguably brunette there. Now, I'm pretty much indisputably blonde.

Oh,before I go (because theoretically this is "In Brief"), check this out! It's an article about making our cardio into a "virtual journey", so we actually have a destination in mind while we're racking up miles on the treadmill, elliptical, recumbent bicycle, or pounding pavement, etc. I'm thinking I'm going to give this a whirl in a couple of weeks when I'm back to normal(ish). Any ideas on where I should pick for my virtual destination?

Anyway, I'm off. It's too much of a hassle wiping the drool from the left corner of my mouth at the same time as I'm trying to type. For lunch I have a choice of Slim Fast or Slim Fast. For dinner I'm planning an peach-mango-banana smoothie. All in all? It could be worse.

So could the drool, but still.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Friday, January 06, 2012

Thlllllurrrrrrp!!!!!

See that *pointing up at the title*? That's the sound most of my meals are making at the moment. I just had gum surgery thanks to periodontal disease,* and for the next week I can basically eat anything I can suck through a straw. That's it. Needless to say, my dinner options are somewhat limited, and I'm fairly certain I can't liquefy a Reese's peanut butter cup so I'm in a bit of a quandary. I repeat this loveliness in two weeks for the left side of my mouth (right now only the right side has been assaulted).

Oh, and I can't have spicy foods either, which I didn't know beforehand, so now I get to return the bottle of Spicy V8 that was going to help me keep my sanity.

Adding insult to injury, I feel like I've been kicked in the jaw by an exceptionally angry horse.

On the plus side, I can have all the SlimFast I want! Uhm... yay? More like ick. But at least it keeps the calories going in. I see smoothies in my future.

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Charlotte the School Chicken is now housed inside the school office after everyone has left campus for the day. She was put in her coop one night and a raccoon almost got her (he did get a few of the feathers off once side of her head, the poor baby), and the school administration felt it was in her best interests to become an even more domesticated chicken than she was already.

She is also now laying eggs, much to the excitement of the students and the slight alarm of the staff (who I can only assume are envisioning small children finding random eggs and deciding to chuck said potential projectiles at other, much less alert small children).

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Other than that, not much is up at the moment. I'm on light activity right now, but I've downloaded some MP3s with Tabata intervals, and once I have the go ahead to start pounding pavement again I've already set up playlists with two rounds of Tabatas (4 minutes each) , so I'll be ready. That is, if my knees agree. We'll see how it goes.


*Usually I don't discuss my ex, but I will say that his theory on dentistry was "You're too sheltered. Nobody keeps all their teeth, don't be such a baby!" so dentist visits for any of us weren't high on his priority list -- it, uh, wasn't a good situation... to put it mildly.