It's All About the Walls

Better Late than Never

2012-02-16T21:22:00.001-05:00

5:00 AM, 40 minutes, 10.6 miles

Okay, actually when 5:00 hit I had an argument with myself. I was so tired it seemed like my body was saying "No! No! Stay in bed and sleep. You can always exercise later..."

Yeah, sometimes my body is a lying liar that lies. So I ignored it, got up, and did my cardio.

And now I'm beat. I'll be up in less than 8 hours anyway. Nite!

Playing Catch-up

2012-02-15T12:47:00.004-05:00

Saturday, sometime in the afternoon, 40 minutes, 10.5 miles (2 sets Tabatas mixed with solid-state cardio)
Tuesday, 5:00 AM, 40 minutes, 10.5 miles
Wednesday, 5:00 AM, 40 minutes, 10.4 miles (2 sets Tabatas mixed with solid-state cardio)

Whew. So yes, I've been at it, even though I haven't reported in. It's been absolute lunacy the past few days what with the pipe bursting and some refrigerator dramatics. But whatever, we're through it. I think I need to sacrifice a weekday solid-state cardio session or two to resistance training instead. Or mix in some circuits. Planning to do those on weekends is all well and good, but I like to have a bit more variety during the week rather than have clumps here and there. And with weights and circuit training, I definitely need a few days in between. Maybe even just trading out one cardio session for a circuit day, then do the other one on Saturday. That could work. So then I'd have two solid-state cardio days, two 2 sets Tabatas mixed with solid-state cardio days, and two circuit days.

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Oh, and we just had our first major adolescent meltdown*. Poor Elder. I can't say anything to make him feel better either. All I can do is listen, and I'd be happy to if the child would just freaking talk to me. He won't, though, because I am his mother and therefore I am the epitome of clueless. Or dense. Or whatever word they're using these days to describe parental stupidity.

Sheesh. My appreciation for my own parents grows daily. The fact that they let me live past fifteen is still something of a marvel.

Anyway, have a good one folks! Here's hoping I don't go home to curdled milk.

*I'd describe it but then the child would find my blog, read it, and we would have the meltdown to end all meltdowns.

Best Laid Plans (I think I've used this title before...)

2012-02-13T11:02:00.002-05:00

So yesterday there I was, in my workout gear, ready to hop on the bike for 10+ miles or so. The Season 3 premiere of Swamp People was replaying and since I'd fallen asleep halfway through it on Thursday, the actual premiere night, I was tickled pink. Figured I'd pedal away, watch Troy & Co. choot 'em some gators, and life would be good, right?

Yeah, it didn't happen.

I was just tying my shoes when Choreboy came in with a serious look on his face. "You need to come see this."

Water. Dripping out of the side of my house. And it was steaming.

Ugh.

Nothing like the hot water supply line breaking to put a crimp in your day. Goodbye, cycling; hello, Lowe's.

Thankfully I am married to Mr. Fixit. In fact, I'm rapidly starting to believe if Choreboy can't fix it then it's broken for good.* All it took was a trip to the store to pick up some emery cloth, a length of copper pipe, and this new ball valve thingie he wanted to put on the water heater. He already had everything else he needed at home. In fact, if you'd like a detailed version of events, here's his blog entry about it, in glorious technicolor detail.

So now the hot water is as it should be, happily contained in its pipes and no longer spewing everywhere, and Choreboy once again wins Best!Husband!Ever!

*That said, he's actually very straightforward about things that are beyond his abilities, like the garage door spring when it broke. That definitely merited a call to the garage door repair folks.

Who Knew?

2012-02-11T11:55:00.003-05:00

I upped the resistance on the bike yesterday and came in at 10.8 miles, which is a new all-time high for me. Holy crap. Who knew?

Nothing is sore either, which is actually a bit of a bummer. It's definitely time to get more intense about things. I don't want to hobble around in pain by any means, but I do want to push myself a bit more. I think I need to do circuits on the weekend, a couple days of Tabatas during the week, and a couple days of just straight cardio. Variety is a good thing, and I know I need more.

Food-wise I had to rethink things at the grocery store. My plan was to get a turkey breast and roast it, but because I don't make turkey that often I forgot that turkey breast tends to be frozen this time of year, and I'd need to give that sucker some decent thaw time which I just don't have this weekend. So instead I'm making my lentil soup for the week, which involves a pound of lentils, about 4-6 organic carrots, a full bag of baby organic spinach, chopped onion, two ribs chopped celery, tomatoes, chicken or vegetable broth, and whatever spices I feel called to toss in at any given moment. Sometimes I feel like Middle Eastern and throw in a boatload of curry powder; other times I forego the curry and instead use a heavier hand with the basil and oregano.

There is always garlic, just because.

Anyway, time to hit the kitchen -- have a great Saturday, everyone!

What a Week

2012-02-10T13:40:00.002-05:00

Out of the past six workdays, counting today, I have worked a full day exactly twice. That's it. Last Friday was getting the Gum Zombie to urgent care, Monday was a full workday, Tuesday was the Gum Zombie's trip to the orthopedist, Wednesday was Taking the Elder to the Dentist day, Thursday was Subject the Children to Dental Procedures day, and today, blessedly, I am once again planted at my desk for a full eight hours.

I have precisely 2 days and 1.5 hours of sick leave left. Until 2013.

It hasn't been a banner week for eating either, but I have managed to stay within my 1300 - 1350 calorie range by juggling food items here and there. It's not ideal, but at least I'm through it. And after work today I get to go home to my very nice Slow Cooker Provencal Chicken and Beans, fix the boys their food, then climb onto the bike again since I ended up taking my cardio rest day yesterday. Thank you, scheduling insanity!

I think I'm going to up my resistance on the bike. I won't say that 10 miles in 40 minutes is at all effortless (I absolutely sweat buckets), but a bit more effort would be a good thing. Or maybe I'll work on my Tabata intervals. Eh, I'll figure it out. Regardless, this evening there will be movement of the deliberate and fitness-enhancing type.

Now I just need to figure out what I'm cooking for next week, get the list made, and make sure I eat breakfast before tomorrow morning's grocery store run. We all have our limits, and mine snap when I'm confronted with endless food on an empty stomach.

Have a great weekend, all!

Broken Pattern

2012-02-08T20:14:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, 3:30 PM, 40 minutes, 10.3 miles
Wednesday, 6:00 PM, 40 minutes, 10.1 miles

Well, at least I got it done.

I hate it when I mess up a good pattern of behavior. After not waking up on time yesterday you can bet your bottom dollar that I had my alarm set this morning to drag myself out of bed. I woke up at 4:45, stayed in bed until the alarm went off, then proceeded to beat that sucker into a pulp until 6:00 AM. When I lose my rhythm with something, it's murder getting it back.

On the plus side, it wasn't hard to get in my workout this evening. Choreboy is closing the restaurant the rest of this week and into the beginning of next, so making the best of a somewhat bummerish situation, I'll just snooze in a bit and work out at night instead.

It'll do.

It's Not a Tumor!

2012-02-07T13:32:00.002-05:00

5:00 AM, Zzzzzzzzzz

That would be the sound of me sleeping through when I should have awakened, due to my failure to turn on my alarm. I only woke up half an hour late, but that was too late to get in the early-morning workout. Drat.

On the "Cue the Hallelujah Chorus" side of things, however, I am pleased to announce that the Gum Zombie's foot is not, I repeat not broken! The orthopedist says he's just got a bad sprain, so the boy is in an air cast for three weeks with no jumping, running, leaping, or otherwise sproinging about, but outside of that we're fine. Hooray!

And because it took so long to get everything done for the child this morning, I'm out of work for the remainder of the day so it looks like I have a little extra time to park my happy self on that recumbent bike anyway.

Sometimes it all just works out. Whew.

Monday Monday

2012-02-06T10:35:00.003-05:00

4:45, awake. 5:00 alarm. 10.2 miles, life is good.

I took Friday as a cardio rest day, did my weights and resistance training that night, then went an hour on the bike on Saturday (average 15.1 MPH, but covered only 14.9 miles, no I don't know how that works), and 40 minutes on it yesterday. Getting up this morning was evil in spite of the fact that I now wake up well in advance of the alarm, but setting my mind that I will do this and report back has some good accountability going.

The Gum Zombie is hanging out at home today with Choreboy, bless both their hearts. We finally have an appointment with an orthopedist, but that's not until tomorrow morning so until then we're still doing the splint/ ACE bandage combo. It's actually kind of a good thing because I can make sure the child is clean this way, as I can take off the splint for him to soak in the tub for a little. Once we have a cast on (I'm praying they'll decide on a boot instead of a cast -- please!!) it's going to be a whole 'nother ball game.

Oh well, it's part and parcel of the parental package. And at least he waited until he was older to break his first bone. The Elder managed to break his arm when he was 3. That child is a talent.

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In other news, I finally managed to bake a decent banana bread yesterday. Hooray! I don't understand why, but for some reason baking anything with bananas was just giving me fits. They'd be raw in the middle, or dried out, or the last instance the loaves turned out more like... banana bread pudding? Which wasn't awful or anything, just not bread-like.

And I wanted banana bread. Dammit.

In order to dispose of the loaves efficiently (i.e., not strap them to my ass with duct tape), I brought one in to the office and also cut a generous slice from the "home" loaf to take to my parents this morning. My hope is that Choreboy and the Gum Zombie will consume mass quantities of the remaining loaf while I'm at work, and by the time I get home it will be all gone.

Wishful thinking, perhaps, but a girl can dream.

Hey, Bring That Back!

2012-02-03T19:21:00.003-05:00

They're carting away my Mother of the Year trophy. Again.

You know how there are some children who, frankly, veer toward the dramatic? And every injury down to a paper cut demands the care of an entire surgical suite? Yeah, I have one of those.

So yesterday when the Gum Zombie hurt his ankle at his after school care center, I looked at it, saw it was neither bruised nor swollen, and figured it would be better in the morning just like countless similar injuries have been. Instead, this morning he couldn't put any weight on it and as luck would have it, the doctor at the urgent care center said the X-rays appear to show a small fracture.

I was horrified. He has been positively gleeful and has gloried in telling me (repeatedly) "And YOU kept telling me to put weight on it! No trophy for you!"

The kid is true to his genetics, what can I say?

So at any rate, we have a child who is tickled with his crutches, is nearly as enthralled with his splint/ ACE bandage combo, and who will be going in to the orthopedist as quickly as can be managed next week.

I'll be the mom in the corner wearing the dunce cap. Oy.

Wake-Up Call

2012-02-02T09:01:00.004-05:00

Actually, I don't need one. A wake-up call, that is. After a couple of days of this whole "getting up at 5:00 AM" thing, my body has adjusted and since yesterday I've been waking up at 4:45 without the alarm.

I don't know whether to celebrate or scream. It's probably going to be a little of both.

Anyway, 5:00 AM! 40 minutes, 10 miles again. Okay, more accurately it was 10.28 miles, but right now I'm happy with sticking at 10-ish miles per day for the next week. I'll worry about building more speed maybe around the end of next week.

I also need to figure out how to work in my intervals. I can't really watch the display to see how fast I'm going on a steady basis because it isn't lit, and I work out in the dark due to Choreboy's desire to continue sleeping. When I want to check my miles to make sure I'm on track for 10, I turn the iPad around and shine the light from its screen onto the bike display.

Pitiful, but effective.

So I'm thinking that I may reserve my interval training for the weekends. That mostly works for me, but part of my brain is still saying I need to spread those out a little more, so I'm going to need to give it a little more thought. I do have that Tabata MP3 playlist I put together, and I can definitely do that without seeing my display... so that could be an option.

My only concern with adding intervals to my early-morning workouts is that I'm kind of liking the alone time I have, snoozing husband notwithstanding. I'm reading a new series I'm really enjoying (the Jennifer Scales books co-written by Mary Janice Davidson -- she of the "Undead" vampire series fame -- and her husband, Anthony Alongi), and although the biking slows me down reading-wise, I'm still able to focus on it. That would change if I tossed Tabatas into the mix. I don't do change well.

We'll see.

Speaking of snoozing husbands, Choreboy let me know later yesterday morning that he'd actually been awake most of the time I'd been out there on the bike, and that he in fact witnessed Roach Fest 2012. Excuse me? I'm squeaking and freaking out over a damn bug and he can't even bestir himself to make it dead? Topping off his perfidity*, he failed to pitch the poisoned monster and it escaped. It's probably now going to develop a resistance to the lemon-scented Raid I doused it with and hunt us down in our sleep to stuff lemons in our ears or something.

When it does, it'll be all Choreboy's fault. And I'll be telling him about it. Repeatedly. And at great volume.

*Note: the dictionary says the word is "perfidy" rather than "perfidity". The dictionary is an ass.

Victory is Mine!

2012-02-01T09:20:00.004-05:00

5:00 AM. 40 minutes. 10.1 miles today. Yes!

I managed that along with kicking over the dog's food, cleaning up same, shrieking because a freaking roach appeared behind my shoulder (ew, ew, EW!!!), killing same... you get the picture.

Oh, and one of the cats left a rather pungent gift for me this morning in the litter box. Better in than out, certainly; but still. It almost killed my appetite.

Almost.

One interesting effect of morning exercise appears to be that I am flat-out starved for the rest of the day, and I'm trying to mitigate that. My breakfast has been rather light (as in 1/2 cup egg whites plus 1 TBSP Parmesan "light"), so I added a little bowl of oatmeal. That didn't do much for me so I tossed in a banana yesterday. Still no luck, so this morning I upped my egg whites to a shade over 3/4 cup (because that's how much was left in the carton). We'll see how that works out. So far so good, at this point. I haven't eaten my Emergency Backup Banana yet, nor have I dipped into the This is Really Really an Emergency Peanut Butter Stash, which gives me hope that I may have hit on the right combination.

Tomorrow I'm just going to shoot for 10 miles again. 15 MPH sounds pretty good to me, but I need to watch my bike display to see what that is in RPM, then I'll have a better idea of where I am on the whole effective exercise continuum. I'm reading this article from Livestrong, and it's giving me some ideas... should be entertaining at least. Or give me something new to obsess over. Either way, it works.

This Does NOT Mean I'm a Morning Person

2012-01-31T13:01:00.002-05:00

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.

Oh-Dark-Hundred

2012-01-30T09:01:00.002-05:00

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.

Day 2, Back in the Saddle

2012-01-29T18:41:00.003-05:00

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.

I Haz a Bike!

2012-01-28T15:14:00.003-05:00

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.

Bike!

2012-01-27T10:18:00.004-05:00

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

In Brief

2012-01-19T11:50:00.007-05:00

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!

Thlllllurrrrrrp!!!!!

2012-01-06T12:06:00.003-05:00

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.

When the Guitars Scream, I Don't Have To

2011-12-28T19:42:00.007-05:00

I'm turning into quite the metal-head in my old age. Choreboy and I were hosing down the house the other week in preparation for the Gum Zombie's 9th birthday party, both jamming out to our MP3 players.

He? Was listening to Air Supply.

I? Was listening to Iron Maiden.

We're twisted, but it works for us.

I'm sick today, and when Choreboy came home there I was, resting in bed listening to Bullet for my Valentine's Scream, Aim, Fire album. Not something restful, no no no... no, an album labeled "Explicit" on iTunes.

I'm going to lose my Sainted Mother trophy. I just know it.

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I had jury duty a couple of weeks ago, and of course it was the week that overlapped the 15th of the month, which is payday/ bill paying time at the office. Now if I died, they'd figure out a way to pay everyone, but as I'm not dead yet (I feel happy!!!), the plan was that if it came down to it I'd just come in the night of the 14th and run everything out for payday, then come in the night of the 15th and run out all the AP checks.

My group of jurors was slated for a felony trial. We were trapped up on one of the top floors of the courthouse for over 3 hours with no access to caffeine (speaking of cruel and unusual punishment), and right as we were about to be taken in for voir dire, the bailiff came out and said, "The trial has been continued. The judge said to tell you thank you for your service."

Most of our group agreed that this was, indeed, proof there is a Santa Claus.

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Christmas was a frenzy of cooking, baking, and dining insanity. A week prior was the Gum Zombie's afore-mentioned birthday which included a Bakugan cake -- NOT made by me, thank goodness -- and a warm bacon blue cheese dip that was. Then we had the office Christmas party, then Christmas Eve at my house featuring Death By Lasagna and a cream cheese pound cake. The entire insanity-fest culminated at my parents' on Christmas day with more Bacon Blue Cheese dip, crazy amounts of cheese, beef tenderloin, Super Taters, and a triple-decker gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting studded with crystalized ginger.

My stomach hurts just typing all that.

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Speaking of weight... I'm not speaking about it. Or maybe I am. Since the ablation I've been off-kilter. Cravings have been out of control, and adding to that I'm having severe bloating in my chest which isn't helping matters at all. I don't know what I weigh right now because I'm sick of getting on the scale even when I'm doing everything right and seeing it go up, and frankly, since I have not been doing everything right for the past couple of weeks or so, I shudder to think of what the results are now.

I'm getting back on that bad boy in mid-February and not a minute before. I'm picking that date because my GYN says I should know the final results of my ablation at that point, and I'm hoping that means the chestal insanity (I just went down a bra size, people -- and now I swear I'm up one! at least! and this is not a positive, kids) will have abated. Until then I'll eat and exercise as I should without the shriek-fest my recent weigh-ins have engendered.

Now all I need is for someone to start texting my lazy ass next week* at 5:00 AM ET so I'll haul my butt out of bed and knock out my cardio before I can come up with an excuse not to do it. Any volunteers, please hit me up in email and I'll shoot you the number.

Accountability is a good thing.

*I have a very bad cold on top of everything else right now, so this isn't an "I'll start in 2012" issue, so much as it is the "I can't breathe through my nose and it's dripping anyway" type.

Activity -- Huzzah!

2011-12-04T13:05:00.010-05:00

I finally made it back onto the treadmill today. Hooray! It was the first day I actually didn't feel too gross to sweat (recovery from the ablation involves ****TMI ALERT**** discharge in varying quantities and NO tampons, which leaves me feeling like a huge pile of ick ****END TMI ALERT****), and it was good to actually move myself just for exercise sake again. I only did 30 minutes on the treadmill at a rather low 3.1 MPH, minimal incline, but bear in mind that on Friday I pitched myself over the dog gate yet again, resulting in two horribly bruised and otherwise damaged already-iffy knees.

Sad thing is, on Thursday I'd just been thinking how neither knee hurt finally! And wasn't that great? And that if I were smart and cautious, maybe I could start back to running...

Uh-huh. We all know where this is going. You know that old saw about "If you ever want to make God laugh, tell him your plans?" I always get hit by that one. Good grief.

So anyway, 30 minutes on the treadmill, hooray! Both knees were slightly displeased with me when I was done (they'd prefer I never walk again as I appear to be rather bad at it), but they've already gone back to their pre-walk distant throb, so it's all good there.

If I didn't know better I'd swear my orthopedist has set up a system to raise the dog gates at random intervals to help me trip a bit more frequently so I'll push up the arthroscopic procedure he has in mind for when I can't stand my right knee anymore. There's no one damaged structure, just general degradation of the joint and "debris," in his words. Chondromalacia patella is the actual diagnosis, which I believe is accurately translated as Damn you're old, and your knees sure know it!

Ahem.

Anyway, I can let him go in and "clean it up in there" if I want, and part of me does want, but the other part of me says "Six weeks of no weight-bearing? And this is on my right knee, which means no driving? Uhm... no. Thanks just the same." I get 2 weeks of sick leave per year which I use up by October at the outside thanks to the kids, so nothing is banked. And beyond that, the transportation issue is huge. Public transit isn't an option (it's non-existent for folks in my end of town -- we're outside the city limits and even inside it's iffy), and even though I know my family and Choreboy would pitch in where they could, there are also the boys to consider and again, SIX WEEKS. It's just not feasible.

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In other news, I made my first tart! This one was a browned butter tart topped with cranberries that I found at the Food & Wine website: linked here. Sucker took over 4 hours out of my life, but it was good.

The crust isn't gorgeous visually, although it was very tasty because I was careful not to overwork the dough and kept it chilled, but it was my first homemade crust, after all. Usually I figure the Publix refrigerated pie crust is sufficient. Practice is a marvelous thing, and I suspect this is a recipe that will have to be repeated.

Okay, enough! Must finish reading my book of the moment, Tim Dorsey's When Elves Attack. Any book with these opening lines:

"My name is Edith Grabowski. I'm ninety-three years old, and I've decided to stop having sex.

I guess you just reach a certain age,"

has my vote. Hee! Have a good one, y'all :)

Recovery Notes

2011-11-28T12:50:00.004-05:00

What freaked me out most after the endometrial ablation wasn't anything I'd anticipated. The cramping has been minimal-to-nonexistent, all after-effects as far as bonding with absorbent devices is concerned has been minimal. All in all, it's been negligible... that is, except the weight gain. The first time I got on the scale post-procedure it was up near 145.

That's 8-10 pounds higher than it was pre-op. YIPES!! And yes, it was all fluid retention. Holy cow.

I guess because most of my recovery has been a non-issue, part of my brain has been thinking that the ablation was more or less a non-procedure. Nope, not true. My body at least recognizes that it's been traumatized, and from what I can figure it's been recognizing that by bloating like crazy. And not only was my abdomen bloated, but also my chest (I almost outgrew my bras -- eeek!), and additionally my lower back.

I think that last was the weirdest part. I'd put my hands on my hips, but sort of toward my back, and I realized it felt different. Fuller. I kept poking and poking at myself and wondering, "Huh... maybe I just didn't realize how much padding I have back here," even though I knew that something was off.

I should have trusted my gut. Because this morning, after having a weekend of having to run to the potty every hour or so, most of the bloat has vanished (including the majority of the back bloat) and put me at 137-ish.

Back bloat. Huh. Who knew?

Hooray, I'm Conscious!

2011-11-19T07:44:00.005-05:00

Followed by School Chicken News

Hey there everyone :) Yes, I'm alive and well after the endometrial ablation yesterday. My procedure was scheduled for noon, but because my veins behaved in their historic fashion by running away thus requiring the services of the nurse who is, apparently, magic with IV insertion, I ended up going in after the person who was supposed to go after me, but I did eventually make it in. First I was in the OR, chatting with the nurses, and next thing I knew I was waking up on the recovery side of the center.

The only thing I felt was dizziness and nausea after I woke up -- no pain whatsoever. Everything went smoothly, with no surprises found during the hysteroscopy portion of the procedure. YES! Choreboy and I left the surgical center in late/mid afternoon and went to my parents' house to pick up the Gum Zombie (who's been sick, bless his heart) and to feed me a little bit of my mother's homemade macaroni and cheese. It was good, but the dryness in my mouth (I figure it was caused either by the anesthesia, the fact that my mouth was cranked open with a tube in it, lack of oral fluid intake, or a combination of factors?) made it kind of stick. Still, nothing a little Diet Coke couldn't cure.

As soon as we got home I fell into bed and crashed. I woke up about midnight, still a little wobbly and "ooky", but nothing remarkable, and by 2:30 AM the wobbliness and residual nausea had mostly gone away. I was back asleep around 4:30 AM, after eating my microwaved Quarter Pounder with Cheese, and woke up for good around 7:00 AM today.

For the record, about my doctor saying all I would need would be aspirin: she was right! I haven't even felt a twinge of a cramp. From purely anecdotal reports I've read online (like on this endometrial ablation discussion board), easier recoveries tend to be more the norm with the NovaSure procedure*, which is what I had. Not every woman has as easy a time as I'm having even with NovaSure, and I know I'm under 24 hours out so things could change, but I have to say that at this time I'm tickled pink.

*Disclaimer: this applies to my experience only, remember "anecdote" is not equivalent to "data", and that any decisions regarding your health care should not be based on my experience or that of any other layperson, but rather between you and your chosen medical professional. I received nothing from NovaSure for this statement (although if the fine people at Hologic® want to change that I'm open to compensation :P).

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Now what's that chicken stuff about in the subtitle? Well, here's my Facebook status from about a month ago:

I live in central Florida, and contrary to popular misconceptions the entire area isn't one giant theme park. I'm in one of the larger towns, but we still have our rural touches especially in the unincorporated areas:

Charlotte (no, not that Charlotte!) is now the Gum Zombie's elementary school's official pet chicken. Yes, they love her so much the entire school voted on her name. Hee :)

Near as we can figure out, she wandered over from the pasture next door (which also contains an assortment of goats and two donkeys), decided she likes it just fine where she is right now, thankyouverymuch, and is not leaving. It's really kind of fun, as you don't know where Charlotte is going to show up next! Kind of like "Where's Waldo," with bonus chicken droppings.

Only in my county, folks. Visit Legoland, and see Charlotte the School Chicken! Y'all come back now, y'hear?

Update

2011-11-17T22:42:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone, just a quick heads-up to let you know I'm alive and all that happy stuff. Still 135-136 on weight, it's just so depressing that I'm not bothering to record it even though I weigh in every other day or so.

The last 5-ish pounds sucks.

I have the endometrial ablation in the morning (Friday) and I'm freaking out at the moment. I hate general anesthesia but, in spite of my insistence on deliberately birthing #2 son at home, I'm not hardcore to the point where I just want a local and a bullet to bite on.

So on the one hand, aspirin only?* Am I to take this seriously as a surgical-ish procedure? But on the other hand, general anesthesia. Riiiight...

Freaked out would definitely cover it. I'll update tomorrow after I get home. Or sometime this weekend. Here's hoping I'm like the women I've seen who've had the EA (Novasure is the exact procedure I'm having) who barely even cramped, rather than the ones who woke up in the middle of the night for pain meds to stay on top of it.

Nite, y'all. I hope someone sleeps tonight. It isn't going to be me. If the anxiety doesn't get me, the Cytotec will. Yippie.

*edited to add, this is what my doctor is recommending for post-operative pain relief. No prescription, which is fine, I'm just scared that she's too optimistic and I don't want to be curled up in the fetal position praying for death.

WW Weigh-In, Week 35

2011-11-04T14:07:00.002-05:00

Weight: 135.75
Mood: weirdly relieved

Because it could have been worse.

And for the record, I did weigh myself yesterday and I even posted the weight in my sidebar. Unfortunately I ran out of time to get up a blog post. But the weight was entered.

Now I just need to stay on track as much as I can, and get my exercise in for the next two weeks because I'm going to be pretty sidelined after that for a bit. No, not forever, but I don't yet have word on how long I'll be out of commission for anything more than light walking (research tells me 2-6 weeks, depending on ablation type and physician preference). So best get it in while I'm able, and and afterward pay attention to what goes on in the kitchen because I'm not going to have much else to help me!

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In other aging news, today's whine is my current Facebook status:

One of my friends suggested coloring in the hair with an eyeliner pencil. Not that she's ever had to do this herself...

Have a great weekend, all!

Let's See if I Remember to Weigh In Tomorrow...

2011-11-02T19:24:00.003-05:00

And why would I, a perfectly rational, sane adult forget to weigh in tomorrow?

For the exact same reason the Gum Zombie "forgot" his math book after I told him Tuesday morning that every night would be Math!Night here at Casa Justice. That is, until he nails multiplication/ division facts into his amazingly gyrating brain and tops it off with a heaping helping of fractions.

Poor kid. It took me until I was almost 30 to figure out that math is just another language. And I'd like for him to finish 3rd grade in well under twenty years.

So... yeah. Remembering to weigh in, and to put that number up here. Post-Reese's and post-vacation.

Ugh.

Oh, and just to cheer everyone up endlessly with more of Amanda's TMI-Fest, I finally have my ablation scheduled. Yay! It's set for November 18th, which means I'm both relieved and freaking out. My period or whatever it was this last time lasted 26 days. Sheesh, I should update my sidebar. So... yeah. I'm about done with that. We'll see how bad the recovery is. I have an appointment to get my roots touched up on the 19th, so I'd better be minimally functional the next day.

I am not missing that hair appointment, y'all. I had 3-month-long roots last time I went in for a touch-up and there will be no repeating of that travesty. Bad enough I'm feeling like some dried up useless husk of an aging female (and the kicker is that I know better than that! And I'm done having kids anyway, so what do I care that fertility is out the window? And... and... and... *headdesk*); I will NOT be some useless old husk of an aging female with multiple months of grey hair growth at her roots.

If I'm going to be a husk, at least I'll be a blonde one. Dammit.

So there.

Now I'm going to shuffle off and remind myself that chocolate* isn't going to solve this.

*Problem is, I'm pretty sure that the combination of chocolate and peanut butter might.

The Best Laid Plans

2011-10-25T11:47:00.004-05:00

It's good to recover from vacation.

And I know the last entry was rather "blah". Seriously, though, after the events at the end of vacation (followed up, might I add, by the Elder wanting me to commit his Lego Wish List to memory -- EXCUSE me?) I think my brain finally fried.

All in all, we had a great time, the boys most especially. Choreboy and I plan to go back by ourselves to one of the parks (either Epcot or Hollywood Studios) and just enjoy rather than running willy-nilly from line to line. He's not into thrill rides too much anymore -- they're making his stomach leap about -- and I figure I can forego a rollercoaster or two in the spirit of marital cooperation :)

I'm having a bit of trouble getting back on track food-wise. I don't usually keep much tempting stuff at home, but with the holidays looming I've got it around every corner. It's even invading at work, and honestly it's driving me batshit crazy. I lost the vacation bloat pretty quickly, but I couldn't tell you how much I weigh right now because I'm totally avoiding the scale.

Until this coming Thursday, that is. November 3rd. I have a feeling -- okay, a certainty -- I won't make the 130-lb goal by then (official goal date was 11/2/11). But what I can do is eat well this weekend and in the upcoming days and be as close to it as I can. Exercise is good, but ultimately weight loss comes from the kitchen.

Speaking of exercise, I was right back on the ball with my Jillian Michaels circuit training. Yeah, see the past tense there? Yesterday morning I got distracted while stepping over the doggy gate into the kitchen, and managed to faceplant myself right on the extremely ugly, hard, mid-eighties vinyl floor. I was carrying my iPad and a Diet Coke at the time and am happy to report that they escaped without injury (I'm such a Diet Coke fiend that I manage to keep them upright when I fall). My right wrist and right knee -- the bad one -- are extremely unhappy, however. So it's back to just watching the food here, at least for a few days.

Big goal of the week? STEP AWAY FROM THE CANDY BOWL, AMANDA!

Vacation, Home From

2011-10-23T12:25:00.002-05:00

Whew.

We went to Disney for a few days this week. Left home on Wednesday, and got back about half an hour ago. We visited four parks in two days and the boys had a blast. The highlight of their trip (outside of the resort's pool -- we stayed on the Disney site at Port Orleans - French Quarter) was getting to ride the Expedition Everest roller coaster at Animal Kingdom five times in a row during the "Extra Magic Hours" timeslot for resort guests and pass holders. Meanwhile I lost my new glasses and my sunglasses case, so I couldn't see after dark (because I was wearing the sunglasses but had the regular ones in the sunglass case). Then I was sick all day Saturday, which to be honest could have been worse -- at least we were done with the parks and were having a planned "rest at the resort" day. Then one of the children has a massive systems malfunction of the intestinal variety Saturday night...

So, more later. Right now, I'm definitely on the "I need a vacation from my vacation" train.

WW Weigh-In, Week 32

2011-10-15T06:53:00.005-05:00

Subtitled: Really, you'd think this would be going better...

Weight: 135.25
Mood: "..."

I'm so frustrated.

[TMI-fest begins here... just so you're warned.]

On the plus side, I got the results of my ovarian cyst rescan and all is well. Well, the specifics are that the cyst on the right side, which was 3 cm diameter, has gone down to 1 cm. But now there are 3 cysts on the left ovary, two at 1 cm each, and one at 2 cm diameter. Entertaining, no? But from how it was explained to me, the fact that the cysts are flip-flopping sides and decreasing in size over time means this is just more of the hormonal hullabaloo that accompanies the perimenopausal shift.

We also did an endometrial biopsy, because as of yet my period has not started. Or maybe it has. I can't tell at this point. It's been 75 days... or so? I do know that I'm bloated as all get-out, and I'm really aggravated that I cleaned out my bra drawer last weekend. I tossed the larger cups, and right now I NEED THEM.

Oh, and I have a zit right below the right corner of my mouth. It wouldn't be so bad except it emphasizes where gravity is pulling down and is making me Google "face lift".

Anyway, I have an appointment for a week from Monday to review the results of the endometrial biopsy and figure out where we're going from there. Apparently the cystic madness changes things to a degree. Or maybe not. I'll worry about it later. I'm on vacation this week, so the heck with all of them :P

Of course, I'm going in to work today. I know, I'm on vacation. And it's Saturday. But some things just don't wait. It's all good, though, because at this point I need the extra hours to make up for all these blasted doctor's appointments.

Food-wise, I've had a rough time of it. It's not what I used to describe as a "bad time", and I catch and stop myself from making less than awesome choices -- sometimes I catch myself and kind of look the other way -- but I swear I feel like I'm losing my mind. Give me greasy food and give it to me NOW! Preferably super-sized. Thankfully, Ann wrote an awesome post over at Dr. Fat to Fit that really helped me get my mental mojo back. Lady seriously rocks. My goal for this next week is to NOT use vacation as an excuse to consume mass quantities. I plan to have fun, but I'm going to maintain my focus on whole foods and movement, and hope to come out of this with a decent weigh-in in a couple of weeks.

Have a good one y'all!

WW Weigh-In, Week 31

2011-10-07T14:16:00.004-05:00

Weight: 134.75
Mood: I don't want to talk about it.

Okay, it's hormones. At my weight I can claim that and with the insanity my body is committing against me at the moment*, let's just say that if anyone dares to argue with me on this front at this time, they're going to get a big, whopping dose of Krayzee upside the head, mmmkay???

*TMI ALERT - skip to picture below second set of asterisks to avoid TMI!!
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I've been spotting since Sunday, but only spotting and just barely. So tell me, does this count as a period? Or not? I can't tell to save my life. I'm fluid-y, in spite of being well-hydrated enough to withstand a month-long drought. I'm a teensy bit cranky... but it's not what I'm used to, considering that my usual state of affairs period-wise tends to be more "tsunami" than "meh". Yanno? If it's not a period, I'm at 67 days and counting. And I'm still waiting on the call back on my cyst rescan. It's been a week and no news tends to be good news. Dr. Google keeps calling, though. Damn his hide.
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Okay, TMI-fest over. Now y'all know I love SparkPeople and almost everything about it, right? That said, check out this screen capture from my food log:

You know, there are some things I just assumed were a given. Apparently I was wrong.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Before & After

2011-10-01T07:19:00.004-05:00

If you click through the slideshow you'll see a few familiar faces. If you get all the way to slides 17 and 18, you'll see mine.

http://www.more.com/amazing-weight-loss-transformations

What kills me is the Diet Coke in my "before" picture. Because that makes it all better, yanno? Sheesh :)

WW Weigh-In, Week 30

2011-09-29T07:12:00.002-05:00

Weight: 133.5
Mood: vindicated

Now that's more like it, and bears out my theory that last week's spike was fluid retention of some sort. It might have been because I was coming down with a nasty cold though (snotty nose, moving to chest congestion, but at least it's improving to a degree), because "our little friend" still hasn't shown up after 59 days as of today, which makes this officially the longest I've gone without. I'd be dancing in the streets if it weren't for the other concerns. Oh well, repeat ultrasound is tomorrow so I'll have something more concrete soon. Yay!

Average daily caloric intake over the week was right at 1300 calories. I had a higher calorie day on Saturday because Choreboy and I went out to dinner at the local "We Try To Serve Cajun Food And Don't Do It Too Badly (But It's Still Not Real Jambalaya)" restaurant, and I didn't hold back. The chocolate bread pudding was awesome, by the way. After that higher calorie day is when the cold finally hit (in fact I was getting stuffy nosed at dinner which was decidedly unfun) and since I couldn't work out I kept my intake around 1200 a day. So it all evened out and resulted in a loss. Yes!

I also realized that my exercise wasn't as intense as I thought it was. I ended up joining the Jillian Michaels website and did two of her circuit training sessions before The Cold hit; holy crap, let me tell you, that's some serious stuff! The first one I was drooling and feeling ill... it wasn't pretty. The second one I felt only mildly less like death afterward. But I will note that it was an improvement. So the plan is to continue with her circuits 4 days a week, my own cardio on the 5th day (or at least I think it is -- I may have to clarify with my coach), and go from there.

That is, after I shake this chest congestion. Ick. My mother's just getting better after a lovely round of pneumonia, so my brain is naturally (for me) going into overdrive. Gotta love it. It's only sheer willpower that keeps me from another consult with Dr. Google.

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On another note, I wanted to say thank you to all of you who read and comment here. It makes me feel a bit less like a voice shouting in the wilderness, you know? I try to reply to all comments and it just doesn't happen some weeks, but I wanted you all to know that I really do appreciate that you take time out of your lives to come by and drop me a line.

Y'all seriously rock.

WW Weigh-In, Week 29

2011-09-22T09:34:00.003-05:00

Weight: 136.25
Mood: *snort*

Food intake for the week? Good. Daily caloric intake averaged 1364 for the week, which is right around my supposed BMR not accounting for any activity over basically breathing. Burned 2000 calories with cardio. Also lifted 3x this week. Water intake was superb -- minimum 64 ounces per day, most days over 100. Protein intake was excellent. All whole grain bread. Very little refined intake. Basically, it's what I did the two weeks prior when I lost weight. Perhaps even better on the water intake front.

With all this, I'd expect a loss. Just a teensy one, perhaps. Maybe drop down to 134? I'd even take maintaining. But NOOoooooooooo... instead I gained almost two pounds.

Tell me about the math, people. Oh do.

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Now that I've vented, most likely I'm dealing with more hormonal joy. As of today it's been 52 days since "that special time" showed up. And although this isn't the longest I've gone (58 days), it's long enough to definitely count as a "miss" since I usually run on a 26-day cycle. I still don't have any updates on the ovarian cyst. I don't even know the size of that sucker. Maybe it's growing? Could be. I have the repeat ultrasound on the 30th, so I should have some news within a week after that.

And because I'm a masochistic freak, I keep googling "ovarian cyst". Like that's going to do any good. All it does is make me flip through the boatload of errant information I've now got floating through my brain, worrying about causation, malignancy, potential abdominal scars... yes, from the legitimately worrisome (though unlikely) to the petty. I don't have any scars on my abdomen as of this time and I'd like to keep it that way, thankyouverymuch. Not that anyone much sees my gut, but still. It's the principle of the thing.

So what do I do now? I wait... at least until I get the ultrasound results back. And I contemplate joining Jillian Michaels' website. Or a gym. Or both. It may be time to shake things up a bit more.

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In other news, tonight is the Elder's Open House. Middle school, insufficient parking, zoo-like atmosphere, and no time to eat between work and the time it starts. The offspring will be munching granola bars, and I'm going to hope my afternoon apple-and-yogurt (Fage rocks, for the record) holds me over.

Pray for us.

WW Weigh-In, Week 28

2011-09-15T19:27:00.002-05:00

Weight: 134.5
Mood: I feel like Tim Conway's "Little Old Man" character...

Slow-moving much? I know, I know, it's going in the right direction. And yes, I'm definitely happy about that! Better down than up, even if it's only a quarter of a pound. That's a stick of butter. And at my weight, I'd better remember that. It all adds up. Although I will say that at this rate, the last five pounds might be off by January.

Of 2013.

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In other news (this is getting to be a pattern, no?) I've had some totally phenomenal non-scale-victories this week! For one thing, I ran an entire quarter mile straight. So it was on my treadmill, and in this realm of actual 5K runners -- forget marathoners -- I know that's not a big deal, but in my little "Amanda Tries Couch-to-5K and Develops Stress Fractures in Both Legs" world? It's freaking huge! In fact, running for distance seems to work better for me mentally than running against a clock does. Somehow, watching a distance-oriented goal approach enables me to run longer than staring at the stopwatch counting down.

And for the record, Ke$ha's "Blow" rocks for getting that energy back up right when I'm flagging. Yes, I'm 41 and listening to a girl who spells her name with a dollar sign in the middle of it. Voluntarily. You can't possibly be more shocked than I am.

For another NSV, I'd mentioned the other week that I moved up to 15 pound dumbbells. Well, I was feeling really pansy-ish for only being able to knock out 10 reps or so with them when I'd been able to do 15 reps with the 10 pound weights without much strain. So yesterday after I did my set of 10, I picked up my old 10-pound weights and they felt like feathers! Whereas before if I went much beyond 15 reps on those weights I was struggling for it, last night I was able to do 25 reps with good form. Hah!

That totally makes up for the fact that I scared myself when I was putting on makeup and saw the cuts at my bicep and deltoid. Or this morning when I was turning the steering wheel and a flexing muscle (my own) distracted me. My visual ADD-esque issues better not get me into a wreck. "What distracted me, officer? Well, see, my forearm muscles were flexing and..."

Yeah, that wouldn't be good.

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And if you'll let me indulge in a brief Mommy Brag moment, the Gum Zombie has tested into the gifted program at his elementary school. I am a combination of unsurprised, pleased, and mildly appalled. But mostly tickled pink. Yes, sadly my ego is partially tied in to the accomplishments of my spawn, even those as base as inborn intelligence. Actually, this has been slightly challenging to deal with as the Elder didn't qualify for the gifted program when he was the Gum Zombie's age, but Mr Problem Solver soothed his ego by reminding all of us (repeatedly) that he took the test at the beginning of second grade, whereas his little brother took it at the beginning of third, so obviously the child had an entire extra year to prepare himself.

The kid might have a point, actually, because the Elder is the child who figured out how to escape his crib at 19 months, and one month later worked out how to unzip the crib tent I'd installed over it to keep him confined. He's the child who built a ramp to climb over the gates I installed to keep him alive. He's the child who, when confined to his room for some misdeed or other at age three, decided he wanted out and since I had told him he couldn't come out the door, he worked out how to unlatch his window and had removed the screen and was carrying it into the hall to put it down when I caught him.

He's the child who caused me to utter the words "We don't use the ice dispenser as a toe-hold."*

Not gifted? My happy asterisk.

But all that said, I am truly tickled for the opportunities this will open for the Gum Zombie at his school. Hopefully he can be convinced to use his powers for good and not for evil. Because yesterday, Choreboy caught him doing flips off his elder brother's bed.

It runs in the family. There's a reason I purchase my haircolor.

*This involved Oreos and a Mommy who thought putting them on the side of the fridge top AWAY from the counter would keep a determined child out of them. Silly, silly Mommy!

WW Weigh-In, Week 27

2011-09-08T07:30:00.005-05:00

Weigh-in: 134.75
Mood: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Looking at my sidebar, my enthusiasm is perhaps a little more tempered than my mood above would indicate. It's been seven weeks since I was last below 136, and that 7 weeks included a spike up to 138, so in light of the hormonal insanity that rules my life I'm going to try not to hold my breath for a repeat of this downward motion next week.

Operative word: try. Because in spite of reality staring me in the face, I am still so psyched! I haven't been this weight since I was in my early twenties, albeit on the way up the scale. My calories for the week averaged again in the mid 1400's -- 1430 this time -- and that includes Labor Day when I was viciously attacked by a casserole dish filled with cookie dough and cream cheese.

In my own kitchen.

Oops.

Obviously I won the encounter, although I did come away with a few... "injuries." Heh. But outside of the Labor Day festivities, the cookies and cream cheese bars were successfully off-limits, and the boys finished them off for me last night. Bless them, because I'm not sure how much longer I could have held out. Cookies and cakes are admittedly my Waterloo.

Food was good overall for the week, with moderation in place even on Labor Day. Exercise was also good edging toward awesome. Target was having a clearance sale on some of its exercise equipment last Saturday and I picked up a few resistance pieces while the boys scouted out the toys. I came away with two different resistance band options, one called a "Fit Stick" and one adjustable height fixed band device that is now attached to my door. I also picked up two variable weight dumbbells, which can weigh from five to twenty-five pounds depending on what setting is selected.

The Elder hijacked the Fit Stick and accompanying DVD. They disappeared into his room and in all probability won't be seen again until I next dare venture in there, which will likely be the twelfth of never as I value ~~what is left of~~ my sanity. The Gum Zombie and I tried out the door resistance bands on Saturday and although I did a light workout, the change in exercise actually worked out my hamstrings to the point where they were mildly offended. Score! I've also moved my weight up on the dumbbells from 10 to 15 lbs, and dropped my reps from 15 to 10 or 12. By the end of the second set of curls I'm definitely working for it.

I haven't tried out the upper body options on the door resistance yet, but that's in the works for Friday or Saturday.

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In more hormonal news, That Which Shall Not Be Named still hasn't shown up. We're now at Day 37. The record was set last August at 58 days, so we'll see how this one goes. My back is aching in PMSsy-fashion, but it could be due to the fibroid or the ovarian cyst so that's possibly a complete non-sign of anything significant. On the other hand I'm still moodier than blazes, which is so freaking fair to Choreboy. Poor man. There's a reason he's listed as "tolerant" in my sidebar! Fortunately we're good at talking over things, and I'm not always in full-on lunatic mode which is A Very Good Thing.

I'm also not craving chocolate at the moment, so I'm going to run with my good eating streak and see where it takes me. September 15th, I'm looking at you!

Enough with this "peri"menopause. Just freaking pause already and we'll be good.

WW Weigh-In, Week 26

2011-09-01T07:56:00.003-05:00

Weigh-In: 136.5
Mood: Exasperated

Can we discuss saintly here, ladies and gentlemen? Because I was. I baked and cooked nothing inappropriate. I ate nothing inappropriate. My calories averaged at 1450 a day, and I burned through over 2000 in exercise this week. I'm not expecting speedy weight loss at my current weight and proximity to goal, but at least a vague gesture in the correct direction on the scale would be appreciated.

Bueller? Bueller?

Adding insult to injury, That Which Shall Not Be Named was supposed to show up last Saturday, the 27th. Has it bothered to rear its unwelcome head? No it has not. So here I sit at thirty-one days and counting, bloated and seething with hormonal angsty-ragey ick, glaring at the scale, and wondering if there are enough absorbent products in the Lower 48 to contain the monsoon that will surely be incoming. It's only a question of when.

It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the ridiculous moodiness which has now extended far beyond its "welcome" (assuming there ever was any). For example, last night I was trying to delete a corrupted audiobook file from my iPad. In my understanding, Apple products are supposed to be all user-friendly and even close to idiot-proof, so this shouldn't have been terribly difficult. Well I'm here to tell you I'm one idiot they haven't met. I searched the web for instructions. I followed them to a "T". Nothing. I was only rescued from chucking both my desktop and tablet out the window by Choreboy who, through a complex series of gestures and incantations, was able to make the problem go away.

When he suggested I just let him fix these things before I reached the boiling point, I wailed "But I was trying to be a grown-up!"

After recovering from a mysterious coughing/choking fit, he responded, "Uhm... you weren't doing a very good job of it?"

Then for some reason, he ducked.

Humph.

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In other news, the forced marches continue to go well. The last two hikes this past Saturday and Sunday didn't net us any gator sightings (thank goodness), but the Gum Zombie regaled us with his knowledge of birds ("Oh yes, that's a juvenile glossy ibis") and the Elder managed to develop some sort of allergy to grass.

We're now stockpiling Benadryl.

I moved up from my little leather "going to a theme park and want to keep my hands free" backpack to my actual, real, orangey-rust-colored "I need room to carry a lake's worth of water with me" backpack. This was necessary, because the previous week I'd run out of water before we finished our hike and it was only my forethought in packing an emergency backup can of Diet Coke that kept me from being totally parched for the last 20 minutes. So I'm now carrying not only a larger water container in the first place, but also 3 backup bottles to refill the first one, and a container or two of coconut water to round out my re-hydration sequence.

Saturday's hike was at the same nature preserve as the previous week's, but Sunday we hit the park with the fitness trail and it took until Wednesday evening for me to be able to move comfortably again. Did you know, you have muscles over your ribs? And if you work them after not knowing they existed for over forty years, those suckers hurt! Go figure.

On the plus side, now I have two measurable goals that don't depend on a scale: "be able to do ONE pull-up" and "be able to do ONE slightly-more-horizontal push-up". Because my upper body strength is pitiful.

At least I get to go swimming on Monday, and I get to show off my new bathing suit. Heh. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend, everyone!

WW Weigh-In, Week 25

2011-08-26T17:02:00.005-05:00

Weigh-In: 136
Mood: Bemused

I have no clue what netted me a 136, especially considering my water retention is ramping back up. I give! I have determined, though, that I'm not going to go on any more baking frenzies for awhile. In five weeks I've managed to actually lose... well, nothing. Which is crap. And one thing I've been doing consistently over those weeks, except this past weekend, is bake evil desserts.

It appears I've found my trigger food. I can take it easy with chocolate bars, I can do just one serving of ice cream, but put me near a cake or cookie-like substance and I lose all sense of proportion... or portion. The same thing happens with potato chips. There's a reason I don't bring many of those into my house.

Fortunately I'm well back into working out, and I've been on top of it. I'm still sick unto death of my treadmill and my elliptical is possessed (really, it is) so after forcing myself onto the treadmill all week (I can at least read on the blasted thing) I'm going to repeat last week's hiking theme with the boys. We're heading to the same nature preserve for another gatoriffic hike tomorrow, and Sunday we're heading to a different park that also has hiking trails. This one even promises to have a playground for the boys for afterward.

And yes, there will be more alligators. It's Florida -- we can't escape them. The boys have been informed that if we see one at anything resembling close range the only instruction I have is "RUN!!!!!!!"

Gator cardio. Gotta love it.

I'm curious to see figures for the next two weeks' weigh-ins. There WILL be saintliness, and I'm interested to see if it will be rewarded.

WW Weigh-In, Week 24

2011-08-22T07:54:00.004-05:00

Weight: 138
Mood: Relieved

Yep, relieved about sums it up. Honestly, I haven't been eating like someone who's trying to lose weight recently. My activity was spot-on for the week, though, and that's what saved this weigh-in to any degree despite what I crammed down my gaping maw.

I've reached that point where I'm bored with my food again. This time, it seems to be my lunch that's really getting to me. Breakfast is good, dinner is good, snacks are usually okay (yes, usually... some issues there although it's not the worst of it), but lunch?

Nope. There is no way that eating a Chipotle burrito bowl two times in two weeks equals a good choice for someone trying to lose weight, especially not when combined with an outing to McDonald's, a Cuban sandwich, and 2 oz. of Dirty Potato Chips Black Pepper and Sea Salt flavor. Again, I didn't consume this all in one day, but it's still not sane.

Don't ask me about the cookies-and-cream-cheese bars. I'm not talking. See veiled snack references above.

In spite of all this I'm at 138, which all things considered is good, and arguably maintaining. It's not goal, though, and I'd really like to see 130. I've got a new lunch plan which should take care of some of the cravings (must. have. peanut. butter. NOW.), so it's full speed ahead.

-------------------------

Mammogram results are back and normal. My re-scan on the ovarian issue is at the end of September. Meanwhile, I'm able to give myself numerous diseases and dire conditions (curse you, Doctor Google!), so the rational part of my brain is torn between trying to ignore the fact that I feel like crap (Silly Amanda, you're just talking yourself into feeling lousy!) and trying to explain to the anti-malingering gene that I really do feel sick (Really, Amanda, just because you're capable of talking yourself into feeling sick doesn't mean you aren't legitimately ill).

Good times.

------------------------

I spent Saturday de-fleaing the house. Choreboy washed Teddy and put the flea meds on him Friday, so Saturday the Elder and I cornered all three cats and managed to get their flea stuff on them with zero bloodshed. Score! Then we locked down the cats and sprayed the bedrooms, followed by intensive vacuuming. After that, we moved all the cats into one of the flea-free bedrooms and poisoned the rest of the house, after which more vacuuming ensued.

I came close to freaking out when the Elder said later on that evening that he'd found a flea, but he followed it up quickly by saying it was dead. I tell you, four furry housemates in Florida during high flea season? Not fun for any of us.

Sunday I couldn't face the treadmill so the boys and I headed out for an 80 minute hike at one of the local nature preserves. The Gum Zombie spotted an alligator so he was tickled. That got my heart rate up (we were on a path called "Alligator Alley" during nesting season -- what was I thinking?), and it stayed up until we were well away from all vaguely swampy areas. Now I have shin splits because I'm so accustomed to the treadmill that I completely overestimated my ability to walk on normal ground. Genius.

But it was a good end to the last, perfect summer. This was the last year my boys were able to attend the same summer program because the Elder ages out once he turns 13. And he's not yet hit puberty big-time, so he and the Gum Zombie are still my little boys. But the hair over the Elder's upper lip is darkening, and I was just looking at our vacation pictures from last year and noticing how much older both boys now look.

My babies are growing up. They're supposed to, so it's all good. I just feel a little... lost. I'll snap out of it, but I miss my little boys. And I hated to see the summer end.

Ultrasound Results, in Brief

2011-08-16T17:41:00.004-05:00

I had a pelvic ultrasound the same day I had my mammogram, and the u/s results are in. I've got a small fibroid in my uterus, which is a non-issue. And I've got a cyst on my right ovary, which may or may not be a non-issue.

They'll be re-scanning me in 6 weeks, and we'll go from there depending on what the results are.

As for the mammogram, no results in on that yet. Word is that 70% of first-time mammograms need a repeat, and considering the whole fibrous-breast issue, I'd put that more like at 90% for me.

Looks like 2011 is Year of the Medical Tests. I tell ya, you get past 40 and the whole body goes downhill :P

WW Weigh-In, Week 23

2011-08-11T18:49:00.003-05:00

Weight: 137.7 (okay, 137.66, but I'm rounding up today)
Mood: Less annoyed than I was.

So the scale is creeping down again, albeit slowly. I've still got some weird retention issues going on, so I'm just going to throw it to the hormone gods and try to remember them when I have another super-impressive weigh-in.

---------------------

The Elder had his 7th grade physical today, and I am happy to announce that not only can the boy hear perfectly, but I now have documented proof! Those of you who live or have lived with an adolescent understand my excitement.

Gotcha, kid. Heh.

He wasn't too happy about the turn-your-head-and-cough-fest, but I told him that I was the wrong person to approach to expect that to get him out of anything. I just had a pelvic ultrasound yesterday (with The Probe), as well as my first mammogram. No, I didn't share ALL this information with him, but I did make it clear that sometimes we just have to suck it up for our health, and it's only once a year so although I truly feel his pain (so to speak), he's going to have to deal.

Regarding the mammogram, by the way, it was totally no sweat. Even though I'm still retaining a bit of fluid, it didn't get above mildly uncomfortable. So ladies, if you're of that age, get out there and get those boobies squished! If a pansy like me can take it, anybody can.

Speaking of age, Choreboy turns 50 in a matter of days. I'm still working on getting him to go in for all those fun "I'm 50 and over!" medical tests. No, I'm not holding my breath. The man is cute, and that cuteness is equaled only by his hardheadedness.

Outside of all that, I got nothing. Oh, except a new bathing suit. But I'm not posting that on the web. Y'all will have to wait until we get back from vacation sometime later on this year and see if I allowed a camera near me while I was wearing less than full coverage. And my dears?

I just don't see that happening. But it's freaking adorable, and I have that on very good authority.

Have a great weekend, all :)

WW Weigh-In, Week 22

2011-08-07T13:40:00.006-05:00

Weight: 138.5
Mood: Resigned

You know how last week I mentioned that the emotional end of the PMS-fest wasn't off the charts? Yeah, that might have been a bit premature. Last Sunday night Choreboy and I were peacefully watching TV when something in my brain flipped and we ended up having a 20-minute "discussion" involving the TV, the air conditioner, and the number 77.

I never said I was logical. And if I had, that particular moment in time would have proven otherwise.

I also did indeed make the chocolate peanut butter cake.

Twice.

Ouch.

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Full disclosure: the need for two cakes was because the first was in part for my mother's bridge group, and that combined with my kids' intake wouldn't leave enough for the office. So of course I had to make cake number two (which I liberally decorated with Reese's Pieces on top of the ganache) to ensure the office got a complete cake rather than three rather tiny slices. Clearly this was entirely a humanitarian effort.

I'm avoiding mentioning the four slices I managed to consume on my own.

So the cake didn't nuke my weigh-in. Outside of the four slices I totally didn't mention in the fine print above, my food intake was on point for the week. What gave? Well, the hormonal water retention fest nailed me, probably in conjunction with the fact that I couldn't exercise. And I'm still retaining bucketloads of that water, which isn't improving my mood in the least.

And although the cake didn't necessarily cause the scale gain, I'm relatively certain it didn't help either.

We'll see what this coming Thursday brings. I'm not holding my breath. I am, however, going to pry my butt out of this chair and go get on my treadmill post-haste. I can exercise again, and I'm going to burn off every calorie possible before next weigh-in.

WW Weigh-In, Week 21

2011-07-28T08:49:00.003-05:00

Weight: 136.5
Mood: Meh.

I'm up 3/4 of a pound from last week. I'm mildly bummed because I'd like to have hit the 134 range, but I'm also not surprised because The Main Source of my TMI-Fests is due on Monday. Joy. So I'm retaining a lake's worth of water, basically, concentrated in my lower abdomen and my chest.

Compounding the hormonal misery, I also ate out for lunch on both Tuesday and Wednesday. I stayed within my calorie range both days, but I know the sodium probably didn't help my weigh-in. My hope is that next week I'll have less eventful lunch hours and less fluid hanging out in my torso.

Outside of that, my exercise has been good and I'm even looking at bringing in some heavier dumbbells or something because the 10-pounders I've been using for my curls and triceps stuff are getting less challenging. I also need to find something to give my quad work more "umph", but I'm at a loss on that one because my exercise equipment at home is limited to the treadmill, elliptical, a stability ball (I use it at my back for squats for my quads, and under my legs while I'm reclining on the floor for some hamstring thingies), and the 3, 5, 7, and 10-pound dumbbells. I can't have much more than that due to sheer space constraints. Clearly I need to do some research.

So all in all? Not bad. I haven't even put on a whole pound, and I've had months where I think I've loaded on five. And the emotional PMS-fest isn't off the charts (yet) either. So that's a plus.

All I have to do now is make it through the weekend without making a peanut butter pound cake with chocolate ganache glaze. Not so sure how I'm going to do with that*.

*Not so sure I'm that committed to not doing it, either. Heh.

Music to My Ears

2011-07-25T18:48:00.004-05:00

Bet no one's ever said that about their annual girlie exam before. Okay, now that I've already squicked out half my readership, TMI-fest incoming. If you'd like to avoid it and get to my findings on The Great Publix vs. WalMart Pricing Wars, scroll down below the ruled line.

We're all clear then?

Anyway, as you probably figured I had my annual girlie checkup today. I have a new GYN and she's awesome, I'm happy to report. As far as these appointments go in general, I'm good with the results. I had to go in anyway because The Yeast That Wouldn't Die is back, so I've got new medications incoming for that which should nuke it nicely. You'll all be so interested to know that I have a "classic" yeast infection. Thrilling stuff, eh?

The music to my ears part of this was when she looked over my anal-retentive records of two-years-plus of my cycles and said, "I don't like your periods." Yay! I don't like them either! So we're going to roll with the oh-so-fun pelvic ultrasound, followed by the endometrial biopsy, and then assuming everything comes back benign, Amanda finally gets her uterine ablation.

YES. I swear, I've never been so happy about a surgical-type procedure in my life.

On the downside, I'm also being scheduled for my First Annual Boob Squishing. I have really dense breast tissue, so this isn't going to be fun. But I've seen more than one woman with breast cancer who has my same family history of zero breast cancer prior to her own case, so better safe than sorry.

Still, not looking forward to it. Luckily, my GYN understands that I reserve the right to whine about any test she schedules... and that I'll go, regardless of how little I want to.

---------------------------------

Now for the grand price war results! I set my alarm like a good little price checker, and once the boys and I staggered around for awhile, we got out the door and arrived at WalMart at 5:50 a.m. Holy Jesus God that is early. This better be good.

It was, from the financial perspective. I did my grocery shopping, the boys waxed rhapsodic over the toy department, and then later on that day after I'd gone for a walk with my local SparkPeople team, I finished up the shopping with my Publix run to pick up sale items that were actually cheaper at Publix than at WalMart, as well as to cross-check my prices.

Some items were cheaper at Publix when on sale: Diet Coke was cheaper (3 12-packs for $12.00) and eggs were cheaper (2 dozen of my preferred type for $4.00). Overall, though, WalMart came out the clear winner.

Prices will vary from week to week at both stores, of course, and I'm far from crossing Publix off my list of places I'll go for groceries. I prefer to shop there even with the higher prices, to be honest. I like how they treat their employees and I want to support that as much as I am able. But the $13.75 speaks for itself. Over a month's time that's near sixty dollars, and with my income that's nothing to sneeze at.

Money in the bank, folks. And that, too, is music to my ears.

WW Weigh-In, Week 20

2011-07-21T08:58:00.002-05:00

Eating is good for you. Who knew?

135.75 lbs., yay! And now I've finally officially lost all my "baby" weight...

...from the 12.5 year old. Somehow I think after a certain point the weight became less about "baby" and more about "Doritos". Ya think?

I need to remember that 1200 calories only works for me when I'm not exercising. And for those who want to know how in the world I can forget that, bear in mind that I've been at this for awhile, and over time I've become well accustomed to what foods will both fill me up and provide my nutritional needs for a minimum of calories. I'm not starving by any means at 1200 calories, and even manage to get in a couple of scoops of ice cream.

Daily. Plus chocolate. So I'm not suffering.

But yeah, about that ice cream. Now bear in mind, it's Edy's Slow Churned Yogurt Blends Caramel Praline Crunch (With Live and Active Cultures!), so it's not as if I'm chugging down the Blue Bell. Plus I can even argue -- badly -- that it's good for me. I can guarantee you, though, that eating two scoops of it wasn't helping matters. I needed something a bit more nutritionally dense, so I switched one scoop out for a 1/2 cup of Cabot 2% Vanilla Bean Greek Yogurt and a cup of blueberries.

I kept the other scoop, and they'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.

I've also thrown some avocado back into my life (love avocado!), and that combined with the yogurt and blueberries -- which run a bit higher calorically than one scoop of the ice cream -- plus a change-up to quinoa and chickpeas from my standard lentils or black beans has given me that extra 100+ calories for my day. So yep, going to keep it about 1300 - 1400 calories per day from here on out. Although 1200 calories is sufficient for the nutritional needs (see WebMD or a host of other legitimate and sound sources regarding the 1200 calorie threshold) of a 41-year-old sedentary woman who isn't gestating or breastfeeding or anything like that, it's definitely not sufficient for this 41-year-old woman, even though my activity level can be described as "moderate" at best.

I also had salmon twice this week, and tilapia twice, lessening the legume onslaught. So I may have to watch the seafood sales more closely and see what I can do to keep the fish consumption happening.

---------------------------

Along those lines, I'm actually going to brave WalMart for my weekly shopping on Saturday. Usually I go to Publix, which is a local chain down here in the southeastern US, but although they have good sales at times, their base prices appear to be markedly higher than WalMart's prices. In general I'd feel the markup is worth it for the atmosphere and the customer service, but in this economy I'm going to attempt to just suck it up and deal.

That said, I'm not dealing with the WalMart crowds. No way, uh-uh, ain't gonna happen, kids. I'm setting the alarm for 5:00 a.m. on Saturday, and I'm going to drag my bleary-eyed self out the door and get the shopping handled before the rush hits. I've done grocery shopping at WalMart during the day before on rare occasion, and it is a flat-out misery. Early morning* is the only way to go.

On the bummer side of this, I kind of thought my early rising meant I'd get to go shopping alone for once in my life. Nope! As soon as the Elder and the Gum Zombie heard where I was going, they excitedly opted in. The early hour was no barrier. It would appear they have some allowance burning holes in their pockets, and because I tend to avoid WalMart at all costs, this is like a trip to freaking Disney for them.

Hopefully they'll remember there's a real trip to Disney happening later on this year (four nights -- squeee!!) and let that guide their spending, because what they manage to save will directly affect Choreboy's and my contribution to The Offspring Souvenir Fund.

*Looking at my weights from last August, which is when that link was located, I'm over 10 pounds down -- yay!

WW Weigh-In, Week 19

2011-07-14T09:30:00.009-05:00

138

No tenths or hundredths... just flat-out 138.

I should be more excited, because hey, I finally dropped a whole pound after FOUR WEEKS of this 139/ 139.25 stuff (yay!), but because I'm a moron I weighed myself on Monday and was 137.5 then, so now I'm wondering why I gained a freaking half pound.

I know, a half pound fluctuation is well within normal limits. I just wish it had been fluctuating in the downward direction today. Oh well. Good news is, the near-plateau is busted!

Now I just have to figure out what to eat when I'm actually, say, exercising. Because I'm thinking the big reason I haven't seen much movement in the past 8 weeks (just over 3 pounds down) is because during most of that time period I've been exercising more while keeping my food intake right around 1200 calories/ 29 Points+.

By "exercising more" I mean just the mere fact that I've been exercising, by the way. I burn between 1000 - 2000 calories per week with cardio, along with whatever unknown number of calories I'm burning with my 2-3 20-minute resistance sessions a week. Clearly I'm not killing myself here. It's a moderate effort at most. But it's also the one thing that really changed that correlates directly with my weight loss slowing down to a dead crawl.

However, during the past two weeks while I've been marginally out of commission due to The Illness, I've actually lost a pound. Still eating 1200 calories/ 29 Points+ per day. So... I'm thinking I'm going to go up a hundred calories per day (and up by whatever number of points corresponds to that) for the next two weeks and see what that does for me.

And if the scale won't budge, I'll go up another hundred. Like they say, if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got.

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In other news, Choreboy is made of awesome. I know this comes as no shock to regular readers of my blog, but he really is.

My refrigerator gave up dispensing water and making ice back some time in 2008. Or it's not so much that it gave up as it is that the water dispenser refused to shut off and poured water all over my floor, and the ice dispenser refused to dispense, which caused the entire ice maker to freeze up... it was ugly. Eventually, we just shut off the water to the blasted thing.

Then last weekend we took it into our heads to clean off the top of the fridge. And by "we" I mean "he" and by "our" I mean "his". During this bit of family fun, his interest in the dispenser was piqued, which resulted in me coming home to a functional water dispenser and ice maker on Monday. Yay! The ice dispenser portion still wasn't working, but only for lack of a part which arrived yesterday, and now we have full functionality for a financial outlay of $40.

Excellent. The man seriously rocks.

And then there are the cats. Three of 'em, to be precise. I brought the cats into the home knowing fully well I was allergic to them, and Choreboy married me knowing I had cats and that he was also allergic to them. What can I say, we're gluttons for punishment. Anyway, allergies must run in the family because the largest of our cats, Daniel, is allergic to fleas. Kind of inconvenient when you're a cat, especially when you live in a house along with a tiny, yappy dog who will insist on going outside to go potty rather than using a litter box like a civilized creature. Even one flea will drive Daniel into a frenzy of scratching and hair loss, resulting in a mostly bald, bloody, pitiful, angry feline. Needless to say, this is unacceptable both to him and to us, so we take the cat in every three months for a steroid shot which helps immensely with the itching.

And this is another time when by "we" I mean "he". Historically, Daniel has made resistance to getting into The Box nearly a pathology. He runs. He hides. He braces himself against the box. He shreds any human attempting to put him in the box into bloody ribbons (did I mention all the cats are fully clawed?). This makes transport somewhat... iffy. And since our vet's office has only limited office hours on Saturday, which is the only day I could get him in (assuming I didn't bleed out in the process), it usually falls to Choreboy to do the deed.

He hasn't needed a transfusion yet.

Monday was The Day for Daniel. He'd actually gone quite a long time without a shot this go-round, due in large part to a change in his diet which appears to have greatly lessened his itching issues. But it's summer, and with summer comes more fleas, so into the vet he went.

And this time. This time, the super-sekrit-cat-whisperer-who-is-my-husband got Daniel into the box without bloodshed.

Not only that, but when they arrived home from the vet's office, Daniel walked right out of the box as calmly as if he did it every day.

Made. Of. Awesome. Truly, I am wowed. And grateful, both for the functioning fridge as well as for the change in The Daniel Cat's behavior. Yay, Choreboy!

WW Weigh-In, Week 18

2011-07-07T08:33:00.014-05:00

Followed By Bonus Overshares!

Week 18: 139. Ish. I'm not entirely sure, because I'm still running a fever so I'm not yet back to work. This means that I don't have access to The Official Weigh-In Scale, located at my parents' house (plus they'd really prefer I didn't spread The Plague over their way). So instead this morning I got on our little floor scale, which has an accuracy best described as "quixotic", further aided and abetted by the fact that the dial is way way far away from my aging eyes, and even with my glasses on my reading of it is... iffy at best.

It looked like 139, give or take the wiggle of the dial as I struggled and squinted, so 139 it is.

Oh, and if you want the entire numbers rundown, check the sidebar under my Followers widget. Once I passed 12 weeks it started getting a bit unwieldy; I finally caved and just made it a page element. It is to be hoped that I have a more accurate reading for next week.

Preferably lower as well.

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Okay, next is the overshare part. Anyone reading who doesn't want to be exposed to information about yeast infections, menstrual cycles, ice cream or chocolate needs to go away now.

You have been warned.

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So it's not enough that I'm sick. Oh no. On top of that, I developed a charming yeast infection. I held off asking Choreboy if he'd please pick up an over-the-counter treatment pack for me for two days because I kept thinking surely I'd be better in the morning and could get it myself before things got too bad.

Needless to say, that didn't quite pan out. Bless Choreboy (best husband in. The. World. Bar none.), he went out with my detailed description of the particular pack I needed -- the one with the inserts, the ointment, and the wipes, thankyouverymuch -- and after only a little struggle due to labeling issues, he returned home with the goods.

I raced to the bathroom for some desperately needed relief and quickly discovered that the degree to which I was hosed had just doubled. Nay, quadrupled. Because not only was I dealing with yeast infection treatment (which is sticky and ooky and just plain aggravatingly messy at best), but my period had started!

Ah, good times.

See, you can treat a yeast infection while menstruating, but tampon usage is not recommended. I bleed like a stuck pig for the first 24-48 hours of my cycle which is bad enough with a tampon/ backup pad combo. With only a pad? Basically, I get to sit here and pray I don't spring a leak.

Then to top it all off, my pads were in short supply because my usual weapons of choice in the period wars are tampons, preferably of the "suck up the volume of a lake" caliber. Since I had to drag myself out of the house anyway, the boys got their dearest wish and went to their summer program for the first time this week and I then went straight from their daycare site to the grocery store one block away.

My plan was to buy pads and two cans of soup.

I walked out of the store with two boxes of "Shamwow is Jealous" absorbency pads, two cans of soup, one box of Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters in dark chocolate, and two 2-for-$7.00 1.5 quart containers of Edy's Slow Churned Yogurt Blends -- one of Caramel Praline Crunch, and one of Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Chocolate much? I am such a freaking hormonal stereotype.

I'm just grateful tomorrow is Friday so if I go to work I can wear jeans.

Tardy

2011-07-06T10:17:00.004-05:00

Weigh-in for Week 17 was a solid 139, without the point-two-five. I had excellent intentions when it came to blogging, but I got hit by company coming into town followed swiftly by the 4th of July holiday weekend, which was then followed by the post-4th-of-July gastro-intestinal virus.

Fun!

The Fourth of July weekend was actually a blast. We went to my brother's house on Sunday for swimming and sloppy joes (nine Points+ -- yipes!), then repeated that process on the 4th itself, sans sloppy joes for me (I packed some of my lentil soup instead). And for dinner that night I made burgers, oven fries, and broccoli, followed up with Edy's Slow Churned Yogurt Blends Caramel Praline Crunch, which is made of awesome.

My stomach started feeling a bit "off" after dinner, but I chalked it up to two days of being in the sun for hours in the heat of the day, along with the attendant pool chemical inhalation. By the time Choreboy and I got to bed, though, my entire stomach was cramping up. I spent the night in and out of the bathroom, and by morning when I felt like if I could just hurl (I never did -- I was spared that aspect, something of a mixed blessing) I might feel better, but then again maybe not since again with the gut cramping and toilet-sitting...

Uh, yeah.

So. In light of the fact that in the past forty-eight hours I've consumed precisely one piece of toast topped with one tablespoon of peanut butter, who knows what tomorrow's weigh-in will bring?

I think I'm doing better, as evidenced by the fact that I've actually eaten something and it's stayed where it was put with minimal ill effects. I mean, my stomach feels a bit worse for having eaten, but I'm not screaming and I haven't lost it, so that's a plus. The worst thing right now is the achiness (body and head) which may be caused in part by being in bed all day yesterday. So I'm up and vertical today -- even did some typing from work that they brought over -- and my hope is to be back in the office on Thursday.

Prayerfully without a bucket.

WW Weigh-In, Week 16

2011-06-23T19:01:00.002-05:00

Meh.

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25
Week 8: 143.99
Week 9: 142.66
Week 10: 142.33
Week 11: 141.125
Week 12: 140.7
Week 13: 140.25
Week 14: 140.9
Week 15: 139.25
Week 16: 139.25. Yes, again.

Actually, maintaining this week isn't a bad thing. Father's Day was Sunday and we went to a massive brunch buffet late that morning. I still ended up the week with a positive activity Points+ allowance, but it was a close thing. It does give me some concern about when I'm actually on maintenance, though, since my metabolism appears to be on the slower end of average.

---------------------------

On the end of speeding up the metabolism, though, I've been working on running more again, both with Tabata sprints (two sets of those in one evening had me this close to puking) and with some longer but less "balls to the wall" running intervals. Tonight I managed to run 10 minutes, divided into 2 minute bursts. And so far my right knee, which is usually the one that gives me fits, isn't objecting. Well, it's not objecting any more than it was before my workout, which is saying something.

Okay y'all, I'm going to cut this week's entry a bit short. It seems it's a bit difficult to compose a blog entry when one's spouse is giggling like a maniac watching Wipeout in the same room. Oh well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em... hee!

WW Weigh-In, Week 15

2011-06-16T09:22:00.009-05:00

Cue the Hallelujah Chorus, Kids

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25
Week 8: 143.99
Week 9: 142.66
Week 10: 142.33
Week 11: 141.125
Week 12: 140.7
Week 13: 140.25
Week 14: 140.9
Week 15: 139.25!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh. My. God. FINALLY. Yay!!!!!!! Okay, only 9.25 pounds to go...

Looks like I'm at the part of this whole weight loss thing where I basically lose half a pound a week when averaged out over a few weeks. So if I keep it up at this rate, I should hit goal right before my November 3rd weigh-in. As far as the theory of it goes, I'm good with that. Intellectually I know that I'm at a healthy weight and have been since I got below 160. My body is perceiving these last 20 pounds (now less than 10 -- HAH!) as "vanity weight," and is pretty hesitant to let them go. So I'm having to kind of sneak them out. And it will happen, in time.

Meanwhile, out here in reality-world, it's a royal pain. I keep going because my knees will thank me (the less I weigh, the less strain on both of them, particularly the right knee). And I keep going in part, too, because I gain weight in the "saddle bag" style, which means that I'm not only a pear shape, but a lumpy one at that and less weight overall means the saddlebags get proportionally smaller making it easier to find pants that fit well enough to pay for the price of having them tailored.

----------------------------------

At some point, when the scale gets extremely stingy with the rewards, you have to buy into the whole lifestyle aspect of weight loss. Sure, we can parrot on about how "it's a lifestyle change, not a diet!" all we want, but it takes a long time to truly internalize that concept. That's one reason why the whole deprivation angle of "thou shalt not eat items X, Y, and Z" never worked for me. It's just not sustainable, and there comes a time where it has got to be about what you can live with.

It's about activity.
I walk 10,000 steps minimum 5-7 days per week. On a weekday, that means I hop on the treadmill at the end of the workday for 40 minutes. Even at only 3 MPH, that puts me above 10,000 by the time I'm done. Anymore I'm at a minimum 5% incline and pushing up both that and the speed, because for me walking on a level surface at 3 MPH is just... sauntering, really.

I'm also working on my resistance training 2-3 times per week, 20 minutes per session. I'm once again maxed out on my weights at home (granted the highest I have is a 10 lb. dumbbell). Muscle memory is a marvelous thing.

And I've also been researching the hiking paths around my area. There's only so much one can do on a treadmill. Besides, the boys will enjoy forced marches... maybe?

It's about food.
I had a major NSV (non-scale victory) earlier this week. My parents have been away and in their absence I've hijacked their minivan, in large part because their fifteen-year-old-chihuahua-on-Lasix is staying with us and I need the back of the van to transport her and Teddy back and forth to their daytime location during the week. Well, Monday when I put the key into the ignition I heard an ominous "click-click-click-click-click".

Lovely.

So Choreboy gave me a jump and I got to work. About 4:40, I went out to check the van.

"Click-click-click-click-click."

Oh dammit all to hell. So once again, Choreboy rides to the rescue. I picked up the boys and we met him at the local auto parts store where I then replaced my parents' car battery for them.

You're welcome.

By the end of all this, the last thing I felt like doing was going home and cooking a new batch of lentil soup, so we went to the local family-sports-bar-like place, conveniently located in the strip center right behind the auto parts store.

I scanned the menu. If I were on the Deep Fried Items Only diet, I'd have been in hog heaven. Finally I found the grilled mahi sandwich, which looked fairly okay. I ordered it without the bread and with a side of steamed broccoli. The sandwich toppings were basically a Caesar salad and tomatoes, so salad + broccoli + grilled fish = win, all things considered.

I did, however, snag a couple boneless wings from Choreboy. They were good.

And yes, I logged them.

It's about consistency.
I have set myself up for success. For me, that means having my lunch-of-choice already stocked at the office. Apples, grapes, hard boiled eggs, reduced fat cheese (I usually eschew reduced fat cheese, but I've found two kinds I actually like -- Cracker Barrel 2% cheddar, and Babybel Light), whole wheat pitettes, and Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter -- these are what keep me going during day.

It means making a GINORMOUS pot of lentils or black bean soup. Yeah, I flaked out on the lentils Monday, but Tuesday night I was in the kitchen chopping carrots once again. And I think I'll set the black beans out to soak Saturday night.

It means getting into the habit of choosing wisely with both activity and food, so those times when a truly outstanding food opportunity comes along (hello pound cake/ chess pie/ vanilla bean cake/ REESES!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I can indulge with a clear conscience. Honestly, I'm not going to live a life without certain things (full fat cheese, desserts, guacamole, chips, cheese dip), so it behooves me to find ways to live with them now. Reasonably.

And then I log every bite of it. Because that's what works. For me.

It's about persistence.
I've been at this since fall of 2006. At 5'-7" tall, I weighed 200 pounds which gave me a BMI of 31.32. Technically I was categorized as "Obese Class 1". And I wouldn't have known my weight if I hadn't followed my kids onto the scale at Publix on a crazy whim. They weighed themselves, then I climbed on.

You know, you can tell yourself that the scale is off, that the dryer is shrinking your jeans, that you're bloated... you can say these things for a certain amount of time. And they may even be right. But there's nothing quite like the reality check you get when your seven-year-old announces to the entire freaking store, "Mommy, you weigh 200! Isn't that quite a lot?"

The now-twelve-year-old is very proud of his role in my wake-up call, as well he should be. Since that fateful day I've used just about every method out there to lose weight, and I've learned from each one of them. I started with NutriSystem, which reset my brain for standard sized portions. It also helped me realize I needed to get this weight off once and for all because no way was I going to eat that crap long-term. When Lean Cuisine tastes like a gourmet treat? Something's gotta give. I read The Hacker's Diet (free online!), and that's what finally kicked the calories in/ calories out switch. I got under 160, which officially put me at a healthy weight. I joined SparkPeople. I tracked my food. I exercised. I joined Weight Watchers.

I've had my ups and downs, but over time the trendline has continued to point in the right direction.

And in just a bit more time, goal.

November, watch out.

WW Weigh-In, Week 14

2011-06-10T11:44:00.004-05:00

There is no subtitle adequate to describe my feelings at the moment. Well, there is, but it involves more cursing than I'm comfortable using in public.

The scale got an earful, though.

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25
Week 8: 143.99
Week 9: 142.66
Week 10: 142.33
Week 11: 141.125
Week 12: 140.7
Week 13: 140.25
Week 14: 140.9 !@)(*$(*@*@#$@)(&@%)((!)

Where is the "primal scream" emoticon when you need one?

Okay, confession time: I (foolishly) got on the scale this past Monday, for what reason I do not know. It read 138.5. I was elated. The 130's! I'd done it! I could finally report on my blog that I'd broken the accursed plateau!

Then I weighed myself on Tuesday, and it read 139.25.

Huh. Well, weight fluctuates, and three-quarters of a pound is within reason.

I didn't get on the scale on Wednesday, because I felt like I'd kind of jinxed myself with Monday and Tuesday's weighing-in antics, so for Thursday I was fully expecting to be rewarded for my good behavior.

Nope. 140.9. Probably there are a few more repeating 9's in that series, but we're just going to leave it at one decimal place.

So anyway, the mind started kicking. I know my food has been good. I know my exercise has been good. I even started back with the weights this week! Hmmm... that could cause a little fluid retention, but not this much.

Then I thought to check The Calendar.

Yup. Screwed by hormones again. I'd thought my stomach was looking poochier than usual, but I was thrown off because the latest weight I've lost (and I have lost it) has affected my chest, thus making any retention in that area less noticeable. But indeed, it was due.

So guess what showed up right before I went to bed last night?

Sigh. Delightful.

At least I know what's up. Here's hoping next week will be it!

---------------------------------

Adding insult to injury, my bra size has apparently dropped even where the scale hasn't, which I didn't notice until I wore a dress this week with a certain bra and noticed that we were having a gravitationally challenged moment. The band size is definitely smaller -- I'm going to have to move down to a 32 -- and it's possible my cup size has shifted as well because that isn't a "volume" thing, but is instead proportional to the band size.

Y'all, if I dropped to a C I'm going to need an entirely new vocabulary. Just sayin'.

Oh well, on the plus side I took today off work. I've already bonded with the treadmill and am about to do my resistance stuff without my children staring at me as if I'm a very interesting bug in a terrarium. Gotta take those small pleasures where we can find them. Have a great weekend, folks!

WW Weigh-In, Week 13

2011-06-03T13:05:00.008-05:00

Subtitled: ARRRGH!!!!!!!

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25
Week 8: 143.99
Week 9: 142.66
Week 10: 142.33
Week 11: 141.125
Week 12: 140.7
Week 13: 140.25

*muttering to self* Slow but steady, Amanda... slow but steady...

It was a good weigh-in. It really was. I lost almost half a pound in a week where I baked both a vanilla bean cake and a chess pie, and partook in both of same multiple times. I had a cheeseburger on Memorial Day. And the night before weigh-in I was attacked by a box of Triscuits that were mercilessly taunting me and consumed probably 3 servings of them instead of dinner, along with all the attendant sodium that involved.

So truly, I did well. I'm just looking at that scale i-n-c-h-i-n-g its way down oh-so-slowly and it's driving me nuts! I know the last 10 pounds or so can take forever, but I wish The Grand Stall-Out had started at, say... 139.9?

Perhaps?

--------------------------------------

In other news, I completed Jenn's 10K a Day (in May!) challenge and managed a minimum of 10,000 steps per day each day in the month of May. Hooray -- go me!!! And then I cracked Choreboy up because I looked at him on May 31st and said, "I'm not going to get on the treadmill tomorrow. I'm just going to take a break," but then proceeded to jog in place to get my steps up to 10,000 yet again for the first day of June.

Obsessive much, me? Nah...

I did, however, take a real day off of working out yesterday. I needed it mentally if for no other reason. And today I'm going to get on the treadmill but my plan is to mix it up a bit by using one of the pre-programmed workout circuits on the machine. I haven't tried one of those since back in 2001, way before the Gum Zombie was even a vague concept let alone any sort of cellular entity. Then tomorrow morning our local SparkPeople group is meeting at the mall for walking at 9:00 a.m. We had been walking around one of the local lakes (we've got a plethora of lakes here), but the last time we walked the humidity really got to a bunch of us (and to my hair -- talk about an explosion!) so we're moving the party indoors until things cool down a bit.

So... December, probably. Okay, realistically I'm thinking late October at the earliest. I will officially be hating my power bill for the next six months.

My challenge to myself this next week: get some resistance training back into the schedule. Seriously, it won't kill me to lift a freaking dumbbell. I might as well do it.

WW Weigh-In, Week 12

2011-05-27T07:37:00.003-05:00

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25
Week 8: 143.99
Week 9: 142.66
Week 10: 142.33
Week 11: 141.125
Week 12: 140.7

Unfortunately, I let myself hope for the 130's even though I knew it was a bad idea. Four tenths of a pound is something, but it's obviously not quite what I wanted. I guess we'll go with the whole "Slow and steady wins the race" concept. It's not like I have much choice in the matter. My eating is on point. I've averaged right at 1200 calories (+/- 30) for the past five weeks at least (email me if you want a link to my food log on SparkPeople -- I believe there's a version I have shared somewhere out on teh intarweebs), the food has for the most part (*koff* oreos *koff*) been of good quality, I've walked a minimum of 10,000 steps a day.

I'm looking at it and there's not much more I can reasonably do at this time. I'd like to run, but my body has been very clear that any response to running -- even sprints, dagnabbit -- will be along the lines of "Excuse me? What do you think you're doing? I'm taking you down, toots," so we're just not going there.

Some parts of getting old pretty much suck. Just so you know :P

Good news is, it's still trending downward. Yay!

Lentils By Request

2011-05-25T07:59:00.006-05:00

In the comments to my last post, Sarah at Thinfluenced asked about my lentil recipe. As many of you know, this year I've been on a mission to lessen my hatred of The Vile Legume. I started with chickpeas, since I already knew I didn't hate hummus or falafel. After mastering the chickpea, I moved on to lentils. Why? People, I have the attention span of a gnat. The "why" for the lentil could be anything. Best I can figure, there was a random nutrition/ fitness/ cooking article out there that mentioned the virtues of the lentil and my ADD-esque brain grabbed onto it, causing me to research nearly every lentil recipe extant. Finally I figured I'd just go with soup. I'm a kitchen slacker, what can I say?

I finally found a recipe I liked, but it's been severely tweaked since reading the comments that followed it (reduced oil, went with broth/ stock instead of water, added curry powder, more carrots and onions, etc), so this is what I've finally come up with:

2 TBSP olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
4 carrots, sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced or diced
2 bay leaves
1 TBSP garlic powder (original recipe calls for 2 garlic cloves minced -- see "slacker" statement above for justification)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 TBSP curry powder
1 lb dried lentils
8 cups/ 64 fl oz. chicken broth (or stock, or vegetable stock if you prefer)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (I like the ones with basil, garlic, and oregano)
1 package thawed and rinsed frozen spinach (optional)
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot (I don't know much about sizes – mine's about 8inches high and 10 inches around maybe?) heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery and cook until onion is translucent. Add bay leaves, garlic powder, oregano, basil, curry powder, crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper. Cook for two minutes. Add rinsed lentils, broth, and tomatoes and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for at least one hour (I usually take about 2). Check periodically and add additional salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste. Use caution especially on that last one. After at least one hour, add the balsamic vinegar. If you're adding the spinach (which I haven't lately, but it's harmless), this is where I'd do it. Then continue to simmer until done, where "done" is measured by "Are the lentils still crunchy? If so, continue to simmer until edible."

The base recipe over at Allrecipes says this only serves 6, but I get at least 10 1-cup servings out of it, and consume it over the course of a week or so with occasional nibblings by the offspring and Choreboy. My favorite thus far is to top it with some shredded parmesan, but I have a feeling avocado would also go nicely on it. Might have to give that one a whirl.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out!

WW Weigh-In, Week 11

2011-05-20T18:28:00.006-05:00

My comments never came back from the Blogger outage -- rats!!!!!!!!

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25
Week 8: 143.99
Week 9: 142.66
Week 10: 142.33
Week 11: 141.125

Yes, those decimals are accurate :P

I'm so close to the 130's... but I'm going to try not to dwell on it because that way lies insanity. And it would probably stress me out too, which would make me retain water, and that would Not. Be. HELPFUL.

I'm just going to keep on with what I've been doing and see what happens.

-------------------------

As for what I've been doing? Well, my basic day of eating is pretty dull:

Breakfast:
1 egg
2 egg whites
1/2 oz. cheddar
1 cup fruit (usually berries)

Lunch:
1 hard boiled egg (I like eggs a bit)
1 oz. 2% cheddar
1 pitette w/ 1 TBSP Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter
6-8 apple slices (depends on how many I grab from the bag)
1 cup grapes

Dinner:
1 cup lentil soup
1 TPBS parmesan cheese

Snacks:
Range from ice cream and Oreos (in fixed amounts) to apples and cheese.

I tend to stick around 1200 - 1300 calories per day (yes, even on Weight Watchers I'm still counting calories), and on the weekend this varies a bit more; for example I'll bake some fish for dinner, or hit a restaurant for a meal. And for special events I'm admittedly perfectly happy to throw caution to the winds. I've also got a pretty kick-ass black bean soup recipe I've been alternating with the lentils, so that's brought in some welcome variety too.

Tomorrow morning, I fully intend to indulge in a raspberry white chocolate scone for breakfast. Sure it'll cost me some points, but believe me it's worth it.

Points-wise, I stick right around 29 points a day. Sometimes it's a little more (and is covered by activity) and on rare occasion I might end the day with a couple of points left over. Thanks to the 10K a Day (in May!) walking challenge I've been getting a good 3 activity points per day, and that adds up nicely during the week.

I'm not pushing myself severely on the activity front because my body does not like to be pushed, and shares that with me via stress fractures, my knees acting up (I've got a lovely case of chondromalacia patella, if I spelled that correctly), whatever it takes to get me to ratchet down the stress to my joints. So after being sidelined repeatedly with my attempts at running and more intensive physical goals, my goal at this point is to just keep moving consistently.

So far so good. 41 years down, hopefully more than 40 to go.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

GRRRRRRRRRRRR

2011-05-13T11:59:00.005-05:00

Stupid Blogger. My last two entries have been eaten, along with entries of thousands of other bloggers.

Anyway, in case they don't restore entries, Week 10 WW Weigh-in was 142.33 pounds, down 1/3 pound from last week. I'd thought I might gain due to water retention but the Scale Gods were on my side.

Also? I wear rubber bands around my wrist sometimes.

That is all. Have a great weekend!

Edited to add: the posts are back (Hooray!!!), but alas, not the comments!

WW Weigh-in, Week 10

2011-05-12T07:39:00.000-05:00

Subtitled: Quitcher Bitchin'

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25
Week 8: 143.99
Week 9: 142.66
Week 10: 142.33

Well color me floored. After yesterday's weight (a "monstrous" 143 -- yeah I know but it was moving in the wrong direction) and the continued increase in size of certain, erm, body parts due to that lovely cyclical water retention, I'm pretty surprised to have netted a loss of any kind. But hey, I'll take it! This also puts me at my 5% weight lost goal for Weight Watchers.

It also caused the WW e-tools severe alarm, because according to their records (inaccurate due to my absence from the "real" scale last week) I've lost more than a single pound at a time. Danger Will Robinson!

-----------------------------

In other news, I'm currently wearing a rubber band on my right wrist. Why, you might ask? Because I'm a complete dork would be the answer. And a creature of severe habit.

I almost always wear earrings. Usually the same pair of gold hoops.
I almost always wear a necklace.
I always wear my wedding ring on my left hand.
I almost always wear my maternal grandmother's ring on my right hand.
I almost always wear my watch on my left wrist.
I almost always wear a bracelet on my right wrist.

And when, for some reason, one of those items is missing, I spend the whole day looking at whatever part it's missing from and clutching it until I remember "Oh yeah, I didn't wear that because..." and today's reason for failure to wear the bracelet is "I got distracted mid-jewelry assembly and forgot." Hence the rubber band, so I don't freak out.

Please tell me I'm not the only ~~weirdo~~ person like this.

More Miscellanea

2011-05-11T12:19:00.000-05:00

Weigh-in for Week 10 of Weight Watchers is tomorrow. Truth be told, I'm not looking forward to it and it's not because of my eating. I've actually done rather well with that; even on Mother's Day I was careful, and didn't break 1300 calories. The pound cake went to the office Monday morning and was gone by midday Tuesday. My activity has also been good -- I'm still on track with Jenn's 10K a Day (in May!) challenge, and so far I've walked a bare minimum of 10,000 steps per day this month.

No, no, what's stressing me out is the lovely hormone fest. We're midway through the cycle right now and that's when things start to get fun, if they're going to. So this month, after a couple of months of things behaving themselves, I'm already retaining a lake's worth of water. I weighed myself this morning just for fun and I'm already easily up to 143. Add in to that the fact that Choreboy took me out to lunch today (I didn't overdo, but the sodium will nuke a weigh-in faster than anything) and I'm pretty sure I'm hosed.

Oh well. We'll see.

On the plus side, I just discovered these:

They're Godiva Pearls, and each pearl is approximately 3.25 calories. I use chocolate like medication at certain times (like this) and it cracks me up that these actually look like little pills! Now I can feel even more honest about medicating myself. For the record, a serving is 8 "pearls" for 25 calories, or 1 PointsPlus value.

I can live with that.

They come in dark chocolate, dark chocolate with mint, white chocolate, some sort of coffee variation (I only know that because I saw it in a picture) and milk chocolate. Needless to say, I have the dark chocolate... and it is good.

We'll see what the scale says tomorrow. All I know is that a bra that fit me fine on Monday now has me spilling over the top, so like I said, I'm not holding my breath.

WW Weigh-in, Week 9

2011-05-06T08:16:00.007-05:00

See, I did manage to get this up faster than last week's results! Let's cut to the chase, shall we?

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25
Week 8: 143.99
Week 9: 142.66

Hah! Take that, scale! I'm below 143, and in utter shock because I am now, arguably, in the low 140's as opposed to mid. It's been well over 10 years since I've seen a weight this low.

No words of wisdom/ shrieks of doom from the Weight Watchers e-tools, though. For one thing, it's barely over one pound, and for another, I didn't have my actual weigh-in scale for my official weigh-in yesterday because I was still at home with the sick Elder son, so all I could do was get out the little floor scale we have at home that has the spring-loaded dial and everything (yes, we're complete Luddites) and try to read it from a standing height.

When you're 41, in denial about your need for bifocals at the minimum, and are admittedly past due for a new glasses prescription, these visual things can get tricky.

Anyway, after moving the scale from its upright storage position -- because there is truly nowhere in our house we can put it down and leave it down -- making sure it was level, and then hopping on that sucker, it said 143.5...ish? Maybe? It was the best I could figure with all my squinting and moving about trying to gauge where the pointer actually landed. So that's what I entered into Weight Watchers. Then today, after winning mother-of-the-year for shoving my potentially-malingering adolescent out the door to school, I made it to my parents' house for my official weigh in on their medical-style scale, which is where I've formally been weighing in since back in 2006 when I started off at 200 pounds.

And that scale, my dears, is what netted me this lovely number in the 142 range (and yes I totally taunted the scale with glee once I realized I was below 143).

------------------------------

Moving on, in comments on my last entry Tony Van Helsing said: "I'm not sure what pound cake is but it sounds like it would be disastrous to dieters." Okay, Patsy, Marie, anyone who's over in Great Britain, do we not have pound cake on your side of the pond? Yipes!

It's good. It's heavy. And no, it's not diet food -- not by a long shot. As for disastrous, well that depends on how much of it one crams down one's gaping maw, I'd say. One slice isn't going to do a dieter in, assuming the dieter in question is capable of stopping at that one slice.

Since I know myself well, that would be why I am a) leaving the pound cake at my parents' on Sunday rather than taking it back home, and b) will be delivering it to the office on Monday so my coworkers -- most of whom are males and have never seen a diet they didn't scoff at -- can consume it at will. I'm not worried about eating it before I take it over to my folks' because my ego is tied up enough with my baking that I'd rather have a perfect, whole cake to hand over for the celebration than something with an obvious slice removed. Sure, I could argue I was just doing quality control (and have), but, uhm... they know me a bit better than that.

Here's hoping we aren't there long enough for me to lunge for seconds.

WW Weigh-In, Week 8

2011-05-04T12:32:00.006-05:00

Subtitled: OMG I have two free moments!!!

Sheesh. THAT took long enough. It's not like Week 9 weigh-in isn't tomorrow or anything. Good grief. Anyway:

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25
Week 8: 143.99

Yeah, it really was point-ninety-nine, not 144. 144 made the nice little weight arm dip down and hit bottom. Sometimes it's fun weighing in on an old-style doctor's type scale. The visual and the mechanics of it all work for me. There's just something satisfying about that "thunk" when the weight arm hits bottom at a weight that previously made it top out.

Clearly, that didn't happen this week. As we all know, Easter kicked my ass. Specifically, baked goods. I did as much damage control as I could the rest of the week, calorie-wise, but it wasn't enough to completely erase the indulgence. On the plus side, seeing this (and the fact that at this point it doesn't look like tomorrow's weigh-in will even have me back down to Week 7's weigh-in number) will make it a bit easier to moderate myself at our family Mother's Day luncheon on Sunday.

On the minus side, I'm bringing the pound cake. Fortunately, I have a plan: I have hungry coworkers I will foist it on the following Monday. I don't think they'll mind. My leftover Easter candy has been amazingly popular with them.

--------------------------

In other news, the reason I have a free moment is because the nurse at the Elder's school called me. Child was feeling sick to his stomach, so we're now both at home. And now that we're both home, I'm not feeling that awesome myself. I'm still going to work to make my 10,000 steps though, for Jenn at Watch My Butt Shrink's 10K a Day in May challenge:

(click on the image above for the link -- I can't believe I figured out how to link through an image!!!)

I started the challenge WAY early, actually -- back in mid-April. So far I've made it over 10,000 steps each day with the exception of last Monday and Tuesday, the two days after Easter. The challenge didn't officially start until Sunday, May 1st, though, and my numbers thus far have been 11,693 for Sunday; 10,511 for Monday; and 11,156 for Tuesday (yesterday). Today I've only got 4,816 steps in so far, so I need to get moving! Fortunately, I walk 150 steps per minute at 3.5 MPH, and 125 steps per minute at 3 MPH, so even if I'm moving a bit more slowly I can make my goal in under 45 minutes.

I am such a data freak.

Speaking of which, I need to bond with my treadmill while I have the opportunity. I will do my level best to get up the results of tomorrow's weigh-in much sooner!

WW Weigh-In, Week 7 - In Brief

2011-04-26T18:35:00.002-05:00

This is late, late, LATE kids! Sorry about that. Without further ado:

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25
Week 7: 143.25

Down another pound, and at the lowest weight I've seen since I was expecting the Elder, let alone the Gum Zombie! I am psyched!!

However, we'll see how well that sticks this upcoming Thursday. Easter... well, Easter kind of happened. And so did these biscuits.

Of which I ate five.

In one day.

Erm... oops?

So in all, on Easter Sunday (following the Thursday weigh-in I'm referencing), I consumed slightly over 3,300 calories, which included all my weekly allowance points plus and several activity points I'd racked up as well.

I can only be grateful I had those activity points, because at least I'm not in the hole as far as Weight Watchers goes... but I am being absolutely saintly the rest of this week.

WW Weigh-In, Week 6; also, Stylish!

2011-04-16T15:34:00.009-05:00

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5
Week 6: 144.25

Another drop of more than two pounds, only THIS week I didn't get the "Danger, Will Robinson!" alert from the Weight Watchers website. No, instead I got this:

FIVE POUNDS down, baby! It seems when you hit a milestone, the website defaults into congratulations mode. Whatever it is, I'll take it.

I'm pretty sure it's the loss of hair mass that did it, actually:

Yeah, the hair's in pigtails today, but that's about the size of it. It's cute. I'm adapting. I can't guarantee I'll keep it this length, though, because although the washing time is greatly reduced, the styling time is greatly increased. We'll see -- it's only been a week.

Oh, and the fact that my right and left eyes are looking in completely different directions? Totally normal, sadly. I have amblyopia (lazy eye), and my left eye takes frequent vacations. I was patched for years as a child and am fortunate to have as much vision as I do in that eye; but as it is, only about 20% of my field of vision is in the left.

Wait, I need to save that for this last part of the post!!

Stylin' in my pigtails I guess? Hee! This is thanks to Alexia over at Dimple Snatcher. I love reading her blog -- she's a cat person, and also she just has such vibrancy and joy combined with an ability to share it through her writing. It's a bonus that she's in NYC, which is conveniently where my nearly eight-month-old niece The Divine Miss M resides (along with her parents). Hop over there when you have a moment :)

Anyway, on to the rules for this award:

Create a post linking back to the person who gave you the award.
Share 7 random things about yourself.
Award 15 recently discovered bloggers with this award.
Contact the bloggers you’re awarding to tell them they’ve won.

1. Okay, done!
2. As I kind of implied above, we're going to count the amblyopia issue as my first random thing. Don't gripe, because I almost figured I'd use the haircut picture as the second random thing. It might still show up as number seven. I'm not sure yet.

Second random thing about me? My hair is totally grey. No, no, I mean under the dye, dearies. The reason I'm nearly blonde now isn't just because I'm covering a few greys, it's because I'm covering a freaking boatload of them. My hair is truly more grey than women I know who are 20 years older than I am.

Third random thing? Uh... given my 'druthers, I type sitting cross-legged in my office chair. This doesn't work so well at the office, but at home I'm free to cut off all the circulation I please.

Fourth, if you google "stinky Birkenstocks", my blog is the second website listed. It used to be first, but apparently someone on the Mothering forums started a thread that really took off. Stinky Birkenstocks are a big problem, it seems, because that is one of the main search terms that brings traffic to my blog.

Weird, huh?

Fifth, I just figured out today that my normal activity level plus 30 minutes of bonding with my treadmill will net me 10,000 steps per day. Awesome!! The reason I know this is all Jenn's fault, by the way. She's running the 10 K a Day (in May) walking challenge, and because I signed up for it I had to get a new pedometer (the Gum Zombie hijacked my old one), and since I had to get a new one, of course I got the way-cool Weight Watchers pedometer that keeps track of not only steps, but also mileage and activity points.

Yeah, I know, I'm a huge dork. But I'm good with that (plus now I can tell I've also already scored 3 activity points today --total data geek heaven).

Sixth? Hmmm... this is getting more and more difficult. Sixth random fact, uh... I read lots of paranormal fiction. Yes, I even read the Twilight books. And I while I will poke fun at them mercilessly -- sparkly vampires, really? -- I'll also grudgingly admit I made it through the whole series in less than two weeks.

Moving right along (because seriously, Twilight? I have an English degree, people... this is shameful) my seventh random fact is that they will pry my Diet Coke out of my cold, dead fingers. I eat fresh produce, and the majority of my diet is comprised of minimally processed whole foods, but there's something about that addictive little can of chemicals I just can't resist.

Now I'm supposed to pass this sucker on. If you've read me for any length of time you know I'm lousy at this part -- like, truly terrible even. I'm going to give it a shot though (and I'm going to make the term "recently discovered" pretty... erm... flexible).

Jenn at Watch My Butt Shrink (like I wasn't going to tap her after already linking her in this post - heh)
Natasha at Creating Natasha (welcome back to the blog world!)
The Ninja over at Cooking it Off
Dizzy Girl at Dizzy
Draz over at It's Just Me, Drazil, & Sheniqua
Sara at Domestically Challenged
Tina at Faith, Fitness, Fun
JAFG at I'm Just Another Fat Girl (see, here it is -- inspiration to post again! Well, either that or run far, far away...)
Kendra at I'm Totally the Turtle (how can you not love a blog title like that?)
Mrs. X from Mrs. X's Journey from the Dark Side
Sarah at The Weathered Word

Okay, I'm not at 15 yet but I'm getting freaked out because I hate worrying I'm leaving people out, and I know I've probably put some folks on here who are going "Oh geez, just what I needed, another meme!" and others are probably wondering just why I didn't add them and...

...uhm, I overthink things? So hey, if you want to respond, regardless of whether or not you're listed, please do so! Anyone who reads my blog is a jewel and worthy of any award that comes along. And if you don't have the opportunity, no worries y'all :)

Enjoy your weekend!

WW Weigh-in, Week 5; also, Hair

2011-04-09T05:59:00.010-05:00

Let them eat cake!!

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25
Week 5: 146.5

Eh, considering I consumed six pieces of birthday cake over Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday, I'll take it. Calorie-wise I haven't taken in enough to gain 1.25 pounds... in theory at least.

Weekly Calories/ PointsPlus Breakdown:
3/31 - 1158; 27
4/1 - 1214; 26
4/2 - 2391; 55
4/3 - 1251; 41
4/4 - 852; 21
4/5 - 1006; 26
4/6 - 1185; 28

That's an average intake of 1294 calories/ 32 PointsPlus per day. And no, I didn't use all my weekly allowance points last week, in spite of threatening to. I still had 18 left after trading in 7 activity points (and all this means nothing to those of you not on WW... sorry!).

I figure the spike is due to excessive cake consumption, i.e., too much processed flour, sugar, and fats. It's as good a reason as any, and seriously, like eating six slices of cake (delicious, buttercream frosted pound cake with strawberry and custard filling with edible glitter) is ever a good idea?

Hee... probably not. So yes, I was excessive. The scale reflected the excess, in spite of the fact that other than cake-overload I didn't go nuts. I knew it was a possibility, and there it is, in black and white.

I'll live. :)

We'll see what Week 6 brings, now that I'm back on track. I'm not expecting anything much considering that I'm cycling up as far as water retention goes -- I'm already grumpy and have to set aside points for medicinal chocolate, so The Bloatfest isn't far behind.

------------------------

In other news, I'm getting my roots touched up today, and I might get the hair chopped off. I'm tired of washing it; I have to wash it in two parts, first the front half and then the back half (upside down, even) to make sure I get everything on evenly and well-rinsed. Add to that the fact that I'm still using the ringworm shampoo (because I am PARANOID) and have to let THAT mess set on my head for 5 minutes twice a week and... yeah. It's a timesink.

I'm just so used to having long hair I'm not sure how well getting it cut off is going to work. I mean, when I think of myself I see this:

Which doesn't quite mesh with my current reality:

Not bad for 41, especially considering the picture was taken at a less-flattering angle on my birthday by the 12-year-old (good news is I've clearly learned that less = more when it comes to makeup and my coloring) but definitely not 28. Also, the hair is severely leaning toward blonde which is yet another mental disconnect because I have dark brown hair, dammit. I'm sure of it.

Yeah, I know. Sigh.

On the plus side, I'm using tooth whitening strips again because holy cow, those chompers look dingy. Anyway, I need to go ahead and post this because now I'm seeing some of the differences in my face that 13 years have wrought, and I've already decided that my brow has dropped. Much more analysis and I'll be booking an appointment with a plastic surgeon.

WW Weigh-in, Week 4

2011-04-01T16:50:00.003-05:00

a.k.a. After the Deluge

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12
Week 4: 145.25

That air raid siren-like sound you hear in the background? Is my Weight Watchers e-tools shrieking "Too fast! Too fast! Slow down IMMEDIATELY!!!!"

Heh.

In actuality, 4.75 pounds lost over 4 weeks time = 1.1875 pounds lost per week. Nothing to sneeze at, but nothing to freak out over either. My eating was in line with the past weeks I've posted, wherein I've both gained and lost weight. I know for a fact that I'm retaining way less fluid than I was in Week 3; ergo, I just can't bring myself to stress over the big drop this week.

In more "weird stuff WW e-tools do" news, Weight Watchers is calculating me at an average of only .9 pounds per week lost because they're counting my starting weight as one full week, when in actuality I joined WW on a Wednesday and picked Thursday for my weigh-in day, not realizing that the e-tools would count that whopping ONE DAY as a whole week.

Fortunately I can do math so it's no big deal; also, as time passes that start week will matter less and less as far as all the statistics are concerned. But you'd think that since the e-tools calculate how much average weight is lost, that the programming could take that into account before the "Please slow down!!" freakout.

Ah well. It's all good. And outside of that I'm really pleased with the program. I'm not even displeased with the weirdness with the e-tools; I'm more slightly bemused/ amused. This is the best loss over time I've had in months, and the quality of my food intake is much better than it has been prior.

You just can't argue with success, yanno?

So of course, being me I'm going to throw a wrench into it. Now I could say it's because I want to test the PointsPlus program and see how well I do in a week where I consume not only all my activity points, but also my entire weekly points allowance as well. And yeah, I'm curious, but to be honest...

... Saturday's my 41st birthday, and I am having cake. Lots and lots of cake. With strawberry filling and custard filling on alternating layers. And we're going to Olive Garden for dinner.

And did I mention the cake? This is a repeat of Choreboy's and my wedding cake. It's even from the same vendor, but it's a quarter the price because it's smaller (by only a third) and not for a wedding.

Bliss.

That said, I'm also preparing for the Olive Garden excursion by checking out the PointsPlus values for the food. I'm setting my mind to look our soon-to-be-well-tipped server right in her beady little pasta-pushing eyes and ask her very nicely to please bring half my meal in a to-go box. Because although I fully intend to burn through every last weekly allowance point, I'm not going over.

Which would also be why the leftover cake is already slated to head to the office next Monday. I can only handle so much temptation.

I'll be interested to see what the April 7th weigh-in brings. I may be on the upswing with the water retention, or I may not. So at this point we're looking at the potential for anything from a modest loss up to a ridiculous spike. If nothing else, it should be entertaining.

He's At It Again

2011-03-28T16:04:00.002-05:00

Choreboy Strikes Back!

He's blogging, AND blaming me for his spare tire. Geez.

I can't help it if I was forced at gunpoint to bake four-dozen cupcakes this weekend. Granted, it was a space ray gun wielded by the four-year-old Nephew, but still....

Okay, seriously. Go. Read. Comment. I'm sitting right beside him laughing so loudly that I'm scaring the kids and have forced the cats into hiding. Hee!!

WW Weigh-in, Week 3

2011-03-24T19:49:00.006-05:00

Wherein Amanda Laughs Hysterically

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25
Week 3: 148.12

Yep, that's down 2.2 pounds from last week, and I'm totally freaking out my Weight Watchers Online Tracker. It only understands each week individually, so it's going nuts with wailing sirens and such (not literally re: the sirens), hollering "You're losing weight too quickly!!! Click here to see how to slow down your weight loss..."

Riiiiight. Because a 1.9 pound net loss over 3 weeks is so unreasonable. I think I'll be ignoring that little quirk of the WW etools...

So, did I do anything significantly different from last week? Hmmm. Caloric intake:

3/17 - 1184, 28
3/18 - 1490, 33
3/19 - 1345, 29
3/20 - 1294, 28
3/21 - 1234, 28
3/22 - 1206, 28
3/23 - 1126, 28

That's an average of 1268 calories/day, and 28.9 PointsPlus/day. Last week was 1229 calories/day and 27.5 PointsPlus/day. I ate 273 more calories this past week and showed over a two pound loss, compared to last week where I ate less than Week 1 and gained three pounds.

Go figure.

And I can't blame the loss on less fluid retention because, well, I'm still retaining. Ask Choreboy, who's wondering how I manage to stand upright with the boulders I've got mounted on my chest at the moment. Yeeouch!

Okay, that was probably TMI. Anyway.

My prediction is that somewhere between Weeks 4 and 5 I'll see a drop below that 147.25 I hit at the end of Week 1. That weight was taken around day 10 of my cycle, and day 10 of this next one has a good chance of hitting in the next couple of weeks. So we'll see. I may end up tracking my weight not just with the same time of day/ same scale/ same clothes scenario, but also at the same phase of my cycle. Oish.

Oh well, as long as the trend line keeps going down it'll work out. I'm just really curious to see how far below 147.25 I go on day 10, whenever that happens to be.

Fortunately, I'm easily entertained.

-----------------

In other news, The Evil That is Ringworm appears to be fading from our home. Mine is virtually undetectable, and the patch on the anonymous child's arm is getting there too. Thank goodness.

That said, I fully expect the unafflicted to come down with it... likely as soon as I think it's safe to shelve the anti-fungals.

WW Weigh-in, Week 2

2011-03-17T07:38:00.018-05:00

Subtitled: Our Bodies, They Are Not Bank Accounts

Note: there may be some "language" in today's post. This would be why:

Start: 150
Week 1: 147.25
Week 2: 150.25

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That's a 3 pound gain. And if you think I'm going to blame it on hormones...

...you are dead on the money.

Let me give you the data. Here are my calories and points for the week:

3/10 - 1670, 37
3/11 - 1261, 28
3/12 - 1163, 29
3/13 - 1312, 29
3/14 - 948, 22
3/15 - 1247, 27
3/16 - 1005, 21

That averages out to 1229 calories per day, 27.5 points per day.

Last week when I lost 2.75 pounds, my average intake was 1252 calories/ 29 points per day.

So basically, I managed to gain weight while consuming 161 calories less than I did last week. I know I'm scrupulous about logging every bite. Like I've seen others say, if you don't journal your food, your butt will. I know the truth of that -- if I weren't logging every bite (seriously y'all, I made sure to put in the six lousy chocolate covered almonds I ate yesterday), we'd be looking at an even higher scale number.

The simple truth is, my body is holding onto a boatload of fluid. I'm on day 17 of my current "cycle" and it's prime time for the water retention to kick in. I don't like it, but it's a physiological, medically-verifiable fact.

And hell yeah I'm pissed. It's not even as if I can comfort myself by saying "Oh, next week will be better!" because who knows? Next weigh-in will only be day 24 of the cycle. So... maybe yes, maybe no. My last cycle was 35 days. The one prior was 17 days. The one before that was 26 days. I've gone as long as 58 days between periods.

There is no telling.

Welcome to perimenopause, kids. In spite of being used to this insanity -- I've been going through it since I was 37 -- I am so freaking aggravated. These are not mathematically valid results. At least not by the average 3500 calories/ pound measurement they aren't. Theoretically, at the absolute bottom end I should be eating 1660 calories per day just to maintain my weight. By that math alone, I should have lost almost a pound. Or something. Hell, I'd have taken holding steady. So instead to gain?

Frustratingly, it's just more proof that our bodies aren't like bank accounts.

It annoys my "Give me something concrete and I'll run with it" mind to no end, but it's the jaw-clenching, tooth-grinding truth. Sure, it's comforting to think "Okay, if I put 3500 calories less into my body than it needs to function on a daily basis, I'll lose a pound, and that means if I put 7000 calories less into my body than it needs, that's two pounds, and then..." but the math just doesn't hold true in reality.

That 3500 number is an average, which means there are those freaks of nature (of whom I am shamefully jealous) who burn calories as if they're well-aged pine, and then there are those on the other end of the scale whose bodies are exceptionally efficient (i.e., they hold on to fat as if famine were around the next corner, rather than McDonald's) and only require a minimal number of calories to sustain life.

Those are the types of people on both ends of that 3500-average bell curve. The rest of us fall somewhere in the middle, some higher than 3500, some lower, and a precious few right on it. You simply can't look at intake and assume a specific weight loss. It's a nice guide, but we're all running with different metabolisms. When you then throw in the hormones (don't even say it's an "excuse" boys/ girls who've never had a hormonal fluctuation in their lives or I won't be held responsible for my actions), tormenting yourselves because your weight loss isn't adhering to a specific, mathematical formula is unrealistic at best, and self-sabotage at worst.

Be honest. Journal your food. If it's the chocolate that nuked your weigh-in (I've been there), then own it. By the same token, if it's the hormones, quit bitching yourselves out and own that.

I do.

Majorly Skeeved

2011-03-14T18:34:00.004-05:00

Me, squealing: It's gross!!

Him: It's not. It's nothing.

Me: It's gross!!

Him: It's just a little parasite.

Me: Oh my God, it is not a parasite it's a fungus. Eewww!

Him: It's a parasite.

Me: Fungus! Like! Mushroom!

Him: Fine. It's a fungus. We'll save the flakes from your scalp and we'll put them on a pizza.

-----------------

You know, it's one thing blogging about your child's ringworm.

It's quite another matter when it's your own.

I'm more than capable of giving myself a healthy case of the psychosomatic itchies. When they're accompanied by red lesions with a distinctive, raised ring around the borders, though... well, that's how I found myself driving home from my doctor's office today, shrieking and cursing to myself in an empty car. So I'm now the proud owner of anti-fungal shampoo and ointment, because I'm special and my case of ringworm happens to be on my scalp.

Not enough ick in the world to cover this.

Oh well, at least it's not impetigo.

(knock wood)

Just a Quickie

2011-03-13T15:59:00.002-05:00

You know you're aging when you have to wear your reading glasses to give yourself a pedicure.

Good grief.

Okay, I'm Caving

2011-03-11T20:19:00.007-05:00

No, not on my food! Good grief, I'm on a roll there! No, no, it's just that I've been seeing this "ABC's of Me" meme running amok, and since I want to post something tonight but really have no clue what to post about, I'm in.

A - Age: 40 years, 11 months, 9 days. Not that I'm counting.

B - Bed size: queen

C - Chore you hate: scooping the litter box. Making the bed has also always seemed pretty pointless.

D - Dog's name: Teddy, a.k.a. Hound

E - Essential start your day item: something caffeinated. Coffee is best, Diet Coke will do.

F - Favorite color: green

G - Gold or Silver: gold

H - Height: 5'7"

I - Instruments you play: piano and violin, neither one that well anymore

J - Job title: office manager/ ruler of all she surveys (I'm very nearsighted in my good eye, so they let me get away with this)

K - Kids: 2 boys

L - Living arrangements: married, offspring, 3 cats, 1 dog, innumerable dust bunnies, and more books than there is shelf space

M - Mom's name: Yo, ma!

N - Nicknames: A, A.J., Ralph (yes, Ralph -- my father is a very twisted man)

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: for a tonsillectomy when I was 4 -- 2 nights! The nephew just had his removed and it was out-patient.

P - Pet Peeve: bullying and hateful behavior. Don't get me started on this rant...

Q - Quote from a movie: “Since the invention of the kiss, there have only been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.”

R - Right or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: 2 - one sister, and one brother

T - Time you wake up: the alarm goes off at 6:00. I'm usually awake around 4:30 or 5:00, because my body hates me and wants me to die of sleep deprivation :P

U- Underwear: uh, yes? (who wrote this thing?)

V - Vegetable you dislike: freaking PEAS. Bleah.

W - Ways you run late: my beloved children attempt to thwart my efforts at promptness

X - X-rays you've had: lots of dental, legs (for the stress fractures), wrist (fracture), chest... more, but I've lost count

Y - Yummy food you make: monkey bread, buttermilk pie, chocolate cake with chocolate ganache glaze, lentil soup, mustard maple pork tenderloin, salmon with mustard dill sauce, curried sweet potato oven fries... shoot, now I'm hungry and I just ate.

Z - Zoo favorite: elephants. Always.

First WW Weigh-In!

2011-03-10T08:58:00.005-05:00

Back during the holiday season I was determined not to go above 150 again. And I haven't.

Well, not on The Official Scale I haven't. That's the medical-style scale at my parents' house.

On our little scale at home? Erm...

uh...

it might have been another story (*koff* 154 at the height of the bloat *koff*).

Ahem.

So my starting weight last Wednesday for Weight Watchers was 150. It was actually 149.99999999 (on The Official Scale, after some of the bloat water had drained off), but for all intents and purposes?

150.

After a week and a day on plan, though?

147.25.

YES.

2.75 pounds lost. I'll take it.

Weirdly, I was really excited to weigh in this week. I haven't been excited to get on the scale in months, even when I was losing consistently; but with counting PointsPlus instead of (okay, in addition to) calories, something just clicked. I'm not sure if it's the fact that fruit is zero points or what, but it's just working for me. And as I've said before, I'm all about using whatever method is working best at a particular moment in time. For me, at this moment in time, Weight Watchers happens to be it.

Another thing I'm really enjoying about the WW site is that it breaks the weight lost down into percentages. So by the time I hit 142.5, I'll have lost 5% of my starting body weight; and at 135 I'll have lost 10% of my starting body weight. Goal is 130, so I'll only be 5 pounds away by then. Awesome.

I'm ridiculously excited by all of this, as you can tell from the relentless babbling.

----------------------------

One thing I have to say SparkPeople has over Weight Watchers is the interactive community. Weight Watchers has a thriving online community; don't get me wrong. But from my perspective SparkPeople's community is better organized and easier for a newbie to both navigate and jump into. I could be missing something, though, and I'm open to suggestions if anyone has them.

----------------------------

In other news, rain, rain, and more rain is in the forecast for our area of Florida today. It started last night and hasn't really stopped since. This morning I was in and out of the rain four freaking times by the time I finally walked into the office. I'm soggy, my stupid shoes are wet, and the cuffs of my pants aren't exactly dry either. Fortunately, the rain was needed and all of the sniffledy people here at the office (and at my home) are thrilled that this might actually bring the pollen count down. Between the oaks flowering and the orange blossoms blooming, it's a nightmare for the hay fever-prone.

Speaking of which, I need to make sure we have enough tissues. Better wrap this up. Later!

An Open Letter to My Co-Workers

2011-03-07T09:05:00.003-05:00

Dear Co-Workers,

My blue pen and post-it note pad appear to have wandered away from my desk. Granted, this is not like The Great Scissors Debacle of 2010, but still.

I. Want. Them. Back.

If they return by lunchtime, no one gets hurt.

The office supply cabinet is two bays up to the north. Use it.

Sincerely,
She Who Generates the Paychecks

Hard Reset

2011-03-03T08:44:00.006-05:00

I've seen a few folks talking about needing to do a "hard reset" with their weight loss efforts, and I believe it's quite evident I've reached that point myself. I'm still far below my high weight of 200 pounds, but if I don't do something that might not always be the case.

Failure is not an option. So yesterday, I joined Weight Watchers Online.

As most of you are aware, I've been using SparkPeople for two years now for tracking my food and whatnot, and truly, I can't say enough good things about it. The tools are easy to use, and the community is great. I'm even one of the leaders for my local SparkPeople team (may God have mercy on us all).

And it's free. You can't beat free. Also, I'm twenty pounds down from last year's high of 166-168 pounds. It's hard to argue with success.

But right now, calorie counting isn't cutting it for me. I'm just treading water. It's too easy for me to eat at the middle to top end of my 1350 - 1670 calorie range. "Eh, go ahead and have that donut, Amanda. You can fit it in. Oh, that cheese looks good! Just a little slice..."

You know, that's just fine sometimes. But not daily. And there are moments, especially when I'm in the pits of hormonal hell, where a little more structure might be helpful.

Plus whining about it endlessly is proving somewhat ineffective.

So after following Sheryl, aka Bitchcakes for the past year-plus, and also watching Jenn and Patsy with Weight Watchers, I bit the financial bullet and signed up. The change in social security withholding gives me enough extra monthly to be able to justify the cost (right around $18.00/month); additionally, they're running a membership special at the moment where if you pay for 3 months online membership at once, the initial fee is waived.

To be honest, I'm really pretty psyched about this. I've always been interested in Weight Watchers, and the whole "points" system has intrigued me. I'm clearly a marketer's dream, because the new PointsPlus system that's been the talk of much of the blog world as well as mainstream media has further drawn me in.

So here I sit, a full-fledged Weight Watchers Online member. I get 29 PointsPlus per day, and 49 more weekly... I guess they're flex-points or something? And because I'm a total data geek, I'm tracking my food on SparkPeople as well as on my Weight Watchers plan manager. Hee.

Turns out 29 PointsPlus per day is in the neighborhood of 1200 calories, give or take for fruit and vegetable intake. I have to say that fruit being zero points is a benefit to me already, because yesterday I picked grapes for a snack rather than some lovely glazed pecans (that I really should move away from my desk, say, now). Also, having my "extra" points all in one neat little bundle works for me mentally. I totally have hoarding tendencies (ask Choreboy) so my preference is to hoard the points rather than expend them on food. That said, it's wonderful that they're there in case we're out at dinner, or if I really desperately need that quarter pounder with cheese (which is THIRTEEN FREAKING POINTS OH MY GOD).

Ahem.

So anyway, I can see this being a good thing. I'm fired up again, which is what I really needed.

And in case anyone wanted to know, Hershey's Special Dark kisses are 2 PointsPlus for 3 kisses. That's vital information right there.

Okay FTC, once again, NOT BEING COMPENSATED. Weight Watchers and SparkPeople are getting publicity and linkage for free. Not that I'd mind being compensated, but no one's offered :P

It's About Time

2011-03-02T09:08:00.003-05:00

After thirty-six days, all is well. I was feeling more settled yesterday and as the day wore on I noticed that my stomach was looking a little flatter.A couple of hours later I discovered why. It's amazing how intense the bloat gets -- the scale can vary as much as five pounds from one day to the next.

You know, I'm so done with the whole "peri" part of this peri-menopause. I'd like it to just pause already, thankyouverymuch. And thank you very much for listening to Sunday's rant.

Oish.

In other news, it's becoming apparent to me that small boys bring home icky things. Last fall it was impetigo, and now one of my precious snowflakes has developed a most charming patch of ringworm on his arm. If it's not the bacteria it's the fungi apparently. And they're all out to get me. See, I can take vomit. I can take blood (good thing too because the Gum Zombie's nose is a veritable fountain of carnage at times). I can take just about any body fluid you throw at me, although I may make little gagging noises in the process. In the end, though, it's no biggie. I changed diapers for close to seven years straight, for crying out loud.

But communicable skin conditions? GACK!!! Yep, throw me something a bit scaly, oozy, and most importantly, contagious and I turn into a complete pansy.

Here's hoping the ointment works as described. If not, you may next find me huddled in the back of a closet with my iPad.

Baking Again

2011-02-27T16:08:00.002-05:00

Bread today. White. First loaf.

No, not a good sign diet-wise. Baking rarely is, for me. My hormones have gone around the bend. I'm somewhere between a week and a week-and-a-half late and bloated as hell; my cycles are ridiculously varied and even by their standards I'm behind. I'm crabby and emotional. I spent at least an hour last night in tears over the ills of the past few decades -- those committed by me and those committed against me -- like that does anyone any good at all.

Oh, and I'm fairly convinced I will NEVER lose this last fourteen to twenty pounds. Urrrgh.

Hopefully the bread at least turns out decently. I'm having an entitlement moment; I'm owed a good loaf of bread.

Dammit.

Is this thing on?

2011-02-20T16:54:00.010-05:00

I feel like I should tap into a microphone or something, since this place is way dusty after being neglected for the past -- oh holy crap -- nearly three weeks.

Mea culpa, y'all. And thank you for hanging in there while I contemplated my navel for a bit.

I go through cycles with my food, and at the moment I'm sick and tired of what's been working for nearly six months. URRRGH. Boredom with my tried-and-true menu items leads to baking (mmmmm.... butter), which finally leads to me figuring out something new to cook and then settling down. So between February 1st and now, I've been baking.

I got to play with the stand mixer Choreboy gave me for Christmas -- yay! I made monkey bread from scratch, and let's just say that yeast and I are not yet on totally friendly terms. I made one batch and the yeast activated just fine, everything rose, life was beautiful. Then I started up another batch (I believe we had a teensy "binge", aided and abetted by my offspring), but the stupid yeast didn't work.

Yes, we ate it anyway. I wasn't wasting all that dough, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter!

Ahem.

The next weekend was Valentine's weekend, and Choreboy had requested a vanilla bean cheesecake. After much use of power tools (i.e., the Kitchen Aid and the food processor) we got that sucker mixed up, baked, and in the fridge. And let me tell you, it was awesome. I adore vanilla beans, and although cheesecake isn't my favorite dessert, I'd eat this every night if I could.

If you click on the recipe, by the way, check out the hilarious nutrition information. It's 538 calories per slice assuming 16 slices per 10-inch cake. GACK!!!

Fortunately, this past week marked the end of the baking fest and the return to sense. I made a move to animal-based proteins away from the legumes I'd been concentrating on for dinner with a lean pork tenderloin and a lovely cut of salmon. Happily for my budget, Publix* had a sale on the Eat Smart pre-cut veggies ($1.00/ bag -- for those of you who are Publix shoppers I believe the price goes through this Thursday if you want to grab some) so I stocked up on a bit of fresh broccoli.

Also, today I made a HUGE batch of lentil soup at lunch. It might seem counter-intuitive considering I was trying to move away from legumes, but lentils are different from chickpeas, plus I had carrots to get rid of and what better way than to toss them into soup? It turned out pretty well, I believe, and that's a good thing because I have a ton of it left over. I think my parents are going to have a little soup coming their way.

So, next weigh in? I'm guessing around my birthday, which will make it the beginning of April. I'm going to concentrate on eating well over the next several weeks, because I have this dress I want to wear come summer and although it fits kind of at the moment, it will definitely be more flattering with a few less pounds attached to my ass.

For those who don't want to do the math, I'll be forty-one. I've barely resigned myself to forty. Bleah.

Next up is getting back on my treadmill. JAFG kindly sent me a kick-in-the-butt text (heheh... thanks chica!) and although my words were good, my follow-up sucked. In my defense, my husband has left a table propped against the treadmill so that is impeding my progress somewhat.

Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking to it (ignore the fact that I could have moved the table my own damn self and burned a few calories in the process). Tune in next time for more True Confessions of a Diet Tortoise!

*Note to the FTC: once again, I'm only mentioning brand names and stores because I feel like it. I receive no compensation from anyone for the products or vendors listed.

Fourteen to Go

2011-02-01T20:32:00.005-05:00

I'd determined back in December that I wouldn't do a full, official weigh-in until February 1st. Leading up to the holidays I saw over and over throughout blogland that we needed to decide if we were going to lose weight through the holidays, or if we were "just" going to try to maintain. Quite frankly, the phrasing bugged. Maintaining weight over the holidays can be a huge struggle. There is no "just" about maintaining over the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New-Year's season. Maintaining is awesome!

It's also what I chose, and what I did*. Which, with all due self-awareness, might have a tad bit to do with my defensiveness regarding the usage of "just".

On November 18th, I weighed 144.5 pounds. Today, I weighed in at 144 pounds. And if I want to stretch it -- okay, I totally want to stretch it -- it was more like 143.9. Take THAT, holiday food fest!! 144 is an all-time low from back in 2006 when I weighed 200 pounds.

56 down, 14 to go.

Goal date: December 31, 2011. And geez, that seems a bunch closer than it did back in November!

------------------------------

In other news, I'd rate my back at 90-95% of normal, and feeling 100 times better than it did a couple of months ago when I first managed to mess it up. Hooray!! The only thing truly bothering me now is trying to determine just how I managed to hurt myself. Was it scrubbing the bathroom floor at work? Carrying the Gum Zombie-who-really-weighs-too-much-for-me-to-pick-up to bed? Dancing around like an idiot to Pink's "Raise Your Glass"? Four times? In a row?

All of the above?

I wish I knew, because I'd really prefer not to torture myself. Also, I want to exercise but there's a serious fear component involved at the moment. So... I'm trying to look at this realistically. In all likelihood I didn't hurt myself exercising. It was probably one of the things I listed above (darn you, Pink!). I know I can walk on my treadmill. I can probably even do the evil-that-is Tabata sprints.

There go those excuses. Looks like my treadmill and I have a date for tomorrow.

*Yes, I did report a post-holiday weight of 146 or thereabouts, but it wasn't from the real weigh in scale; ergo, it was not an official weight. So there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it :P (Okay, plus a couple of pounds fluctuation is maintaining in the real world.)

Calling All Sports Fans!

2011-01-23T18:32:00.005-05:00

I might have mentioned previously that I am not an active soul by nature. When I was a child, my favorite activity consisted of shutting myself in my room with a book. If this wasn't solitary and sedentary enough, I'd move to my closet with a flashlight.

Come to think of it, not much has changed. Okay, you can find me on a treadmill now but more often than not I'm reading on the thing and if I could? I'd shove that sucker in a closet so I could get a bit of peace and quiet while I'm on it.

So of course, because God has a tremendous sense of humor, I managed to produce two very bouncy boys, a descriptor which was evident even in utero. The Elder was literally spinning like a whirling dervish during his first ultrasound at six weeks gestation (I'd had some worrisome bleeding, but after watching his antics I figured he'd just tried to kick himself loose), and the Gum Zombie was the only awake and active fetal wunderkind for his scheduled ultrasound session at the midwife's office. I swear that child made the sonographer's day -- we got a solid 30 minutes watching him wiggle around in there.

So yeah. Active. Now don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for this because not only are they healthy but they also have an unholy love for video games, so it's a darned good thing they have interests that counteract their mother's genetic contribution to their makeup. It's just... wow.

The Gum Zombie, being the free spirit that he is, blithely informed me a couple of weeks ago that he wishes to take gymnastics. Now this is the child who likes to hand-walk up doorways and hallways and hang there until I catch him at it. Failing that, he will watch TV with his hands on the back of the couch and walk his legs up the wall until he's at a good forty-five degree angle to the floor until there's too much blood rushing to his head or, again, until I catch on that my walls are being abused. Really, I shouldn't be surprised.

A few days later he asked, "Don't you want to know why I want to take gymnastics?"

Well, yes; yes indeed, I was curious.

"Because I want to learn how to do backflips. I'm going to be a ninja when I grow up, and ninjas have to do backflips."

I blinked a couple of times still hoping I could somehow get out of this (do you know how dangerous backflips are????), and then he played his trump card:

"I went to the library and checked out a book on gymnastics, so I already know all about it."

All of you who are parents are nodding right now. Yeah, I'm so hosed. Clearly I have to get him into gymnastics and support his chosen profession of ninja, because he went to the library and researched it on his own. Initiative must be rewarded. Here's hoping the Y's gymnastics program is less cost-prohibitive than the two closest gymnastics studios.

Meanwhile, the Elder has more pedestrian goals. Last fall he approached me with a pamphlet for the basketball program at the church that houses his before-and-after school program.
Practices started a couple of weeks ago, and he had a game yesterday. Let me tell you, it was high comedy. No, I'm not a huge sports fan, but I swear watching sixth-grade boys running up and down the basketball court is hysterically awesome. They're up the court, they're down the court, they're up the court... oh, there's a melee breaking out over the ball! Wait, the kids brawling are all from the same team. Snerk. There's more traveling and double-dribbling than you can shake a stick at, and throughout the whole thing they're just giving it every bit of heart they've got. I was grinning like an idiot.

And then there was the Elder, in the last 35 seconds of the game. He'd already scored 4 points, and I guess he figured then was as good a time as any to clean his glasses. As I watched him take them off and start wiping the lenses on his jersey, I thought, "I sure hope that ball doesn't come toward him."

Remember that whole God has a sense of humor thing? I sometimes swear he's listening in and giggling.

The ball came straight at the child. He looked up, and without even flinching he got the ball and started dribbling with the one hand while continuing to polish his glasses lenses with the other. He finally passed it (still one-handed) to another of his teammates who ran it down the court right as the buzzer sounded. I was clutching my head in my hands and everyone around me was howling with laughter, regardless of who they were there rooting for.

Again, awesome. A bit more of this and I could almost become a sports fan.

...And Make Sure You Use GOOD Wine...

2011-01-17T20:20:00.006-05:00

Yeah well, Ina... turns out Fish Eye merlot ($5.47 a bottle, screw top) works just fine for your Parker's Beef Stew recipe.

The picture above is after all four of us had eaten dinner. Choreboy alone had two helpings. Sorry Food Network, but no way this serves only six; in the end we calculated it at a minimum of 10 servings per recipe.

It's not as if we're even talking small servings here -- this stew is seriously good stuff. But after two hours of prep time before that sucker went into the oven (not counting the bit of chopping and marinating I did hours earlier) it had better be.

The only tweak we made to the recipe was we used green beans rather than peas, because peas = eeew.

No, my recent Campaign to Not Hate Legumes hasn't extended to those nasty little green spheroids. My loathing for peas goes beyond mere texture, it seems.

Ah well... it's been a great three-day weekend. Tomorrow, back to the grind. I hope everyone who had a day off today enjoyed it! I sure did.

[Now I'm going to pay for it, because I have to get the tax paperwork together at the office -- UGH. Honestly, I'd rather eat peas. And y'all know that's saying something.]

Whew.

2011-01-12T19:30:00.007-05:00

I love the holidays. I love the food, the family, the food, the presents, the food, the togetherness...

... and I have I mentioned the food? Oh yeah.

I was nowhere near saintly over the holidays. In fact, I came close to declaring a free-for-all between the Gum Zombie's birthday on December 18th through January 2nd, which was the Sunday night prior to returning to work. It was glorious, and I was bloated as hell.

So, entirely reasonably, I refused to get on the scale. Until tonight that is. What spurred me on, you might ask? My hipbones. They finally re-emerged from the water retention wonderland that was my gut, so I figured it was approaching safe.

It wasn't the "official" scale, and it wasn't the "official" time, but the scale said 146-ish. I'll take it. Considering the enjoyment over the holidays, I'll absolutely take it.

As for the rest? I'm done. Pooped out. Resting. I realize that before I know it, the 2011 holiday season will be upon us; but until then, I'll let The Divine Miss M give my current holiday thoughts:

Yep, that about covers it. Here's to 2011, everyone!

Never Say I Can't Take a Hint

2011-01-03T20:47:00.002-05:00

Him: Still no new posts on your blog!
Me: I haven't had time.
Him: Three days into the New Year and you couldn't even talk about how The Divine Miss M is down?
Me: Dude. You go months without posting.
Him: I'm a boy.

Duh.

So here you go m'dear... now go thou and do likewise :P

I'm Back!

2010-12-21T18:59:00.004-05:00

Well, as much as one is ever "back" in the thick of the holidays. And speaking of my back it is, dare I say it? Showing signs of improvement.

I went to see my doctor a week ago and to my relief she determined this was most likely a muscular issue rather than a slipped disc or something of that ilk. Whew. My family has a "curse" wherein some of the lumbar vertebrae like to give out in the early forties.

And guess who's forty? Hint: check the sidebar, kids.

Fortunately, though, this curse comes out of the male side of the family and thus far only males have been old enough to be afflicted with it. Of course, on the minus side, my distaff progenitors have managed to produce a particularly vicious strain of spinal arthritis.

So I'm likely screwed regardless. But not yet!! Heh. I'll take it.

Treatment-wise we kept to what I had been doing: 650 mg aspirin every 4 hours, 4-6x/day (preferably 4x, due to me preferring that my gums not bleed), and heat with either an adhesive heated pad at work or a heating pad with 20 minutes on/ 20 minutes off at home. She also gave me an anti inflammatory ointment that I looked over but opted not to take after reading that it was contraindicated for folks who've ever had hives from taking any of a laundry list of NSAIDS.

Both Naprosyn and Anaprox gave me hives back a little over 20 years ago. I'd taken Naprosyn for a year for "girlie" issues and it was awesome. Then one day I took it for the usual reason and my skin felt prickly. I didn't know what was causing it and didn't really put 1 and 1 together until the next dose when I took it around my mother, and within moments I was scratching at myself a bit and welts were breaking out. Mom quickly recognized the hives for what they were.

I was pretty bummed, but my GYN said sometimes folks have a reaction to one formulation and not another, so she gave me a sample of Anaprox to try. I got home and my parents insisted I try it when they were both home, with Benadryl at the ready.

More hives. Yippie.

So at that point, my GYN told me this ridiculously long list of stuff I couldn't take that effectively knocks any NSAID into contraindicated territory.

For years I wouldn't touch even an aspirin, but since Tylenol has never been effective for me I started taking aspirin when I was absolutely desperate for migraine pain relief about five years ago, and I haven't had a problem yet. So since I've been okay with aspirin it's possible that I could use this anti inflammatory ointment, but the name of it is somethingorother-sodium, and the similarity of that name to naproxyn sodium just... doesn't sit right.

Plus I just wasn't desperate enough to risk hives. If the aspirin and heat hadn't been helping, I may well have sung a different tune.

So I figure I'm going to have a sit-down with my doc at some point and see what I can do about all these supposed contraindications for just about every other reasonable pain medication out there I've been told I have, because if I can actually take some of them as I get older, my life is going to be a whole lot more pleasant. This is one huge reason why I make sure I have a primary care physician, because at least there's someone in the world who knows my record regarding pain medication (i.e., as a rule I don't request it and I don't take it) so that if I'm ever in the position to actually need something at least there's good backup that, in spite of the ridiculous allergy list, I'm not "drug seeking".

I hate how the jerks of the world make it harder for the rest of us to get needed medication.

And don't get me started on the restrictions on cold medicines that actually, say, WORK. I swear, if one more pharmacy tech gives me the look that says she just knows my 20-pack of Drixoral is going straight to a meth lab, I won't be held responsible for my actions.

-------------------------

In other news, the Gum Zombie has enjoyed a full recovery from Hurl Fest 2010, and was able to completely enjoy his 8th birthday this past Saturday. We just had a little family party this time around, with the child's grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin in attendance in addition to the Elder and me (Choreboy was working). And as a special surprise, Miss P, GZ's preschool/in-home-daycare lady came!! She knew him before he was born (the Elder and her grandson went to the same preschool so she saw me waddling around nearly 42 weeks pregnant), and had him in her daycare from the time he was 18 months old until he left for kindergarten. She's awesome, and it was so good to see her again and have her over.

Outside of that? Not much. Oh, my eating is terrible at the moment. Yes, I've lost all control. I'm below 150... barely. Well, maybe not now considering I ate birthday cake, chips, and dip with reckless abandon and followed that up with all the office treats well-meaning professionals keep dropping off at my workplace.

And I can't do my tabatas because I'm scared they'll hose my back if I jump back in before it's healed.

So color me frustrated. I'm trying to just count small victories at the moment, like the fact that I had a lower-calorie soup for lunch instead of going out and getting a sub. It's not much, but that's 600 fewer calories than I could have eaten. I'm more or less good with that.

Okay, time to get away from the computer and back onto my heating pad. Merry Christmas and/ or Happy Holidays, folks!!

My Buddy Murphy

2010-12-11T17:31:00.007-05:00

Yes, that would be in reference to Murphy's Law.

Yesterday my back was doing much better by the time I got home from work. It wasn't great, mind you, but if I was just standing I was fine -- no stabbing pains, no burning, nothing. Awesome!! And I could recline on some angles, with proper support, rather than having to be perfectly parallel to whatever surface I was on.

It was marvelous. I caught up on some blogs and even managed to comment here and there. I didn't go straight back to my bed, and gave the poor forlorn Hound some attention. And thank you, all of you, for your well-wishes. I'm no fan of back pain, and I have every hope that this too shall pass. However...

... it won't be as quickly as I thought.

So, the Gum Zombie was complaining that his tummy hurt. Considering that the child had mixed tortilla soup with Oreo Cakesters, I had chalked it up to indigestion.

[Note: this is the part where, if you're eating, you should go away for awhile, then come back without food and with a settled stomach. Trust me here.]

Anyway, I was on my way to rest on my bed, after enjoying my first more-or-less normal evening of the week, and the Gum Zombie was still grousing about his tummy. He decided he wanted to go to bed also, and we had just turned to head that way when the floodgates burst loose.

Twice.

His stomach contents for the day were ejected with such force and at such volume that they covered fully two-thirds of my entryway (blessedly wood), splattered three feet up two walls, and splattered another three feet into the kitchen and onto my family room rug (oops).

Choreboy was at work. The Vomit Comet was on one side of Lake Puke. I was on the other.

He'd managed to keep most of himself out of the line of fire, so I sent him down the hall to his bathroom where he proceeded to turn his stomach inside out (and worse) while I scrubbed down the carpet and cleaned the floors and walls. Poor little fellow... he was absolutely miserable.

As I got onto the floor to scrub the carpet I had one brief thought of my back, then I was too wrapped up in scraping everything up and helping my shivering boy that I didn't think of it again until this morning.

On the plus side? My nose has been stuffed up for days, so I couldn't smell a thing. Also, the child is doing much better. After he'd fully purged everything from his body last night I tucked him into bed, and this morning he woke up looking much more perky. He's run a low-grade fever today, but after a steady diet of Gatorade, ginger ale, toast, and rice pudding he appears to be on the mend. Bless his heart.

As for my back... let's just say that "ouch" is an understatement.

Back Issues

2010-12-08T18:34:00.003-05:00

Hey gang, I managed to hose my back somehow. At the moment I am functional, but once I'm home from work I can't sit at my desk too long because apparently some idiot installed a freaking knife in the back of my chair that jabs me in my mid-back any time I'm parked in it.

So anyway, the upshot is that I'm trying to get my back in a less painful situation. I'm giving it another week to see if the pain changes (it's already gone through a few mutations), and if it's the same or worse I'll be hauling myself in to see my doctor. Fortunately I'm having some luck with aspirin and positioning for the pain aspect.

Speaking of positioning, sitting here typing doesn't work for me for long. I'll keep y'all updated, but it'll be brief until someone pulls the sawzall out of my spine.

Yet Another Thanksgiving Post

2010-11-25T08:03:00.003-05:00

So.

The plan was that I'd get some of my baking done on Tuesday. I'm in charge of the mashed potatoes and desserts for this year's Glut Fest, and it's usually pretty labor intensive so I figured why not spread the joy out over a few days.

You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men and all that. There's a reason for it.

In addition to my plans for baking on Tuesday, I was also running on about three deadlines. I'd arrived at work half an hour early, worked through lunch, successfully got one deadline knocked out and was well on my way with the next when the phone rang.

It was the Elder's vacation daycare folks. Seems that when middle-sized boys are playing "tag" football, things can get a bit bloody... especially when one child catches the football (mine) and another child fails to note this, resulting in front tooth meeting hard skull.

One trip to the ER, 3 hours, and 4 stitches later the Elder was just fine. The other kid broke his tooth-- poor little guy is only 10 and now has to have a crown.

So although I have been/ will continue to whine endlessly about all the baking I've been doing yesterday and today, I am thankful for plenty:

my family
my health
Choreboy's morning groans, which indicate he is off work at home rather than at work getting caffeinated
the Elder's thick skull
the Gum Zombie's new passion for gum

This list could get really long. I think I'll stop it here. Besides, I have potatoes to mash.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Blink

2010-11-18T08:54:00.003-05:00

144.5 lbs.

That's what the scale said this morning.

I haven't seen a weight below 145 since I was in my twenties. In fact, this is the longest I've spent in any portion of the 140's since my twenties, let alone being below 145.

Let's check that sidebar, kids... yep. I'm forty.

Holy crap. I mean, this is a totally good thing, but... wow.

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In other news, last night I made personal history by staying on my much-abused-and-maligned elliptical for thirty entire minutes. Yes! And I wouldn't have done it, but Draz over at It's Just Me, Drazil & Sheniqua blogged about power and I committed to 30 minutes in the comments.

It's amazing what the threat of public embarrassment will do for one's motivation.

On tap tonight, more Tabata sprints (dangit Charlotte!), followed by my resistance workout. I've reduced my cardio to 30 minutes a day, 5 days per week. I did months at an hour a day for six days per week, and followed that up with an hour a day for five days per week. I didn't hate it, but I also came to realize that neither of those options are livable or sustainable for me. I began to resent the time spent away from my family, the enforced sandwiches-as-dinner so I could manage to get in my workout, help with homework, get kids bathed, etc. all before nine at night. There are only so many hours in a day, and I don't want to spend the lion's share of my waking time at home essentially running or walking nowhere.

Thirty minutes per day, however, is both livable and sustainable. It also enables me to take the time to get in my resistance work as well, which is super-important considering my family's history of osteoporosis (not to mention my own stress fracture history).

I've set my date for reaching goal (130 pounds) as December 31 of 2011. Yes, that's over a year from now. I'm at a healthy weight; there's no need for urgency with the scale. I want to see it moving downward, and while doing that I have to be sure I'm not concentrating on weight loss at the expense of my family time, cooking time, or just plain "me, not on a treadmill" time.

I'm not trying to be all dramatic with this. I mean, my kids are amused by my exercise attempts, Choreboy is incredibly supportive, and I know ultimately that I do my best to balance work, home, and self. It's the resentment I was feeling over that hour that's more to the point, I think. Like I said, it just wasn't sustainable for me. I work forty hours per week, commuting adds another ten hours minimum... it feels like life's just flying by.

The boys are maturing. The Elder is getting a little dark shadow over his upper lip that's more impressive than mine; the Gum Zombie already looks alarmingly like a middle-sized kid rather than a little boy. And I don't want to blink and be fifty and wonder where I was for the last decade.

You Win Some...

2010-11-14T10:07:00.014-05:00

... and you lose some. Okay, since I'm human it's something I do at least.

NaNo this year appears to be a bust. I was thrown off track by my trip to NYC to see my little sister and to meet my niece, The Divine Miss M! Let me tell you, this child is adorable.

Wait -- show, don't tell.

And yes, I got her mother's permission to post her face on the blog. Although the Gum Zombie and the Elder appear only from the back in here, my sister and I agreed that The Divine Miss M is likely to change sufficiently in the intervening years that the facial characteristics of a two-month-old just won't be that pertinent.

So in light of that, I also present her wearing The Hat of Shame:

As you can see (via the clenched fist), she was clearly less than pleased with our choice of headgear. In fairness, her other hat was in the wash.

Oh! While in New York I also got to ride the subway. It was my first time and I was so psyched (yes, I'm a huge dork). I was also amazed to see the work of the Mustache Artist! For those of you who follow Bitchcakes' commuting blog, this picture may be old hat:

We found the poster at the 7th Avenue stop after disembarking the F-train, just shy of Prospect Park. And yes, I was way more excited to find the poster than I likely should have been, but what the heck -- it's not every day I get to go to New York! I was a total gawking tourist, and tickled pink to be one.

Even if I hadn't seen the work of the Mustache Artist, this alone would have made the entire trip worthwhile:

--------------------------

In other news, I'm well on track with food and likely weigh 145. I'll weigh in next Thursday, and I will get back on my accursed cardio (which I let slide in all the travel madness) before that time.

[Update: Tabata sprints kicked my butt. I blame Charlotte, who incautiously blogged about them the other week.]

I've also been baking again, since it's the season for it. A total win in my family has been Carrot Pumpkin Bars, recipe here. They're really quite good, and have cream cheese swirled through them. I've substituted half the sugars in the recipe with Splenda (brown sugar is Splenda blend, and white sugar is half granulated and half Splenda) which brings the total calories per bar down to 104.7. I only get 24 bars out of the recipe because my pan is smaller than what the recipe designates... so if I were able to spread these out enough for 48 bars I'd be more at 52.4 calories per. Not bad, all in all!

This next is a win taste-wise, but visually, the Pumpkin Cranberry Breakfast Cookies... well, I'll let you see for yourselves.

Choreboy says they look a bit like colorful horse dro.... erm, yeah. Click to zoom in. They're grainy, and that's putting it mildly.

The original recipe is from Food.com. My recipe is adapted from that using suggestions from the comments on the recipe. In addition to deleting the applesauce and raising the pumpkin amount to one full cup, I've subtracted 2 TBSP of the whole wheat flour and replaced it with 2 TBSP of ground flaxseed meal (hence part of the graininess) and I've additionally used 1/2 cup of Splenda Brown Sugar Blend in place of the 1 cup of brown sugar.

Oh, and I added 1/3 cup of white chocolate chips... which kind of negates the brown sugar substitution, but a girl has to have priorities, dammit.

I also added the zest of one full orange. I love orange zest with cranberries, and it wasn't a mistake to add it here.

I've made the cookies larger than in the original recipe, and dividing the dough into two batches of one dozen cookies each with the substitutions I've made nets cookies with 108.6 calories each,
2.4 grams of fiber (yay, flaxseed), 2.8 grams of protein, and a full 25% of the daily recommendation of Vitamin A. They're hearty, and two of them keep me satisfied for quite awhile. Just make sure you refrigerate them in a sealed container after the first day. Trust me on this.

So for me, these are a definite win. The Elder agrees. Choreboy and the Gum Zombie are instead rather appalled by them.

I have, however, caught the Gum Zombie picking random craisins out of the surface of the cookies. Like his mother, the boy has his priorities.

Pre-Teen Mom Angst Redux

2010-11-11T08:55:00.005-05:00

Well, in the case of the former best friend of the Elder?

It appears they're friends again. Or at least friendly. They've apologized to each other for whatever wrongs they committed (using the infamous "I'm sorry for whatever I did or might have done" pretext).

So that's good.

But on the downside, the FBF's parents have decided the boys can't be friends. I don't know their exact reasoning, but I figure it has to do with the fact that their child was called down to talk to the dean twice about how he was talking to my child, and that they were contacted by both the school and the before and after school center both boys use.

Embarrassment is a huge motivator. Sigh.

You know, in a perfect world I would have called the other mother before any of this snowballed. But in a perfect world, I also would not have lost her phone number. Or she would have called me. Or I would have thought to leave a note with the childcare folks for them to give her with my number on it and a request to call. Or she would have done the same.

But unfortunately, none of these things happened. I lost her phone number. She didn't call me (her son has our number in his phone, but in fairness he could have deleted it). Neither of us had the presence of mind to figure out an alternate contact even when witnessing our sons' friendship disintegrating. And then the boys (the FBF and another child) started taunting the Elder at school as well as at the childcare center, and all hell broke loose on a small, typical, sixth-grade boy scale.

I waited a week, and I still don't know if it was too long or not long enough. And I didn't call in the "big guns"... I emailed the guidance counselor for suggestions. But due to what was going on, he had to pass it up to the dean. And even so, when the dean asked if I wanted to "throw the book at them" I emphatically said no. These are kids. Kids do dumb things. Just get it to end.

Thankfully the dean is a bright guy and knows how middle schoolers are. I'm grateful for that, and for how he handled the situation.

No one was punished -- the parties involved got a stern talking-to, and warnings of consequences that would follow if certain behaviors continued. I hear the director of the child care center also talked to the parents of both the other boys involved, although I have no idea what was said (perhaps what was said at that meeting is why they are not supposed to be friends -- who knows?). And it was a good lesson for all of us. I've told the Elder that he and FBF need to remember to be careful with each other. I've also told him to be respectful of FBF's parents because I can't blame them for being cautious -- they likely don't know how careful I tried to be with their son, even considering all that went down.

If the shoe were on the other foot, I can't say I wouldn't react similarly, especially knowing how well kids tend to skew events to show themselves in the best light. Shoot, I hear rumors even parents tend to do that a bit...

The entire thing gives me a headache.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

2010-11-02T07:07:00.004-05:00

Yep, my right to whine about our government is assured for the next two years at least.

How about you?

NaNoWriMo 2010

2010-11-01T05:07:00.002-05:00

Yes folks, it's that time of year again!

So, what does the fact that I'm trying to spew forth 50,000 ill-chosen and poorly-constructed words in one month mean to you, my readers?

I've got no clue.

Some years I'm so focused on (losing) NaNo, that I don't post at all. Other years I'm so busy procrastinating on my (perpetually unfinished) novel that I am inspired by post topics more than I am during any other month of the year.

And I have been known to post excerpts of execrable prose, for your reading pleasure/ pain.

I guess the best take on NaNo comes from my mother who, when reminded NaNoWriMo started today, responded with, "Oh God."

No plot, no problem? Riiiiight....

Semi-Anonymous

2010-10-28T08:42:00.002-05:00

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.

--------------------

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.

Twenty Down

2010-10-23T09:46:00.003-05:00

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!

Pre-teen Mom Angst

2010-10-18T19:09:00.002-05:00

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...

So...

2010-10-15T17:21:00.003-05:00

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.

Holy Consistency, Batman!

2010-10-11T13:00:00.005-05:00

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.

This Just In

2010-10-09T19:52:00.003-05:00

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.

146.75

2010-10-08T20:20:00.003-05:00

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.

---------------------------------

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.

-------------------------------

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.

---------------------------------

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!

Just Three More Hours

2010-09-30T12:52:00.007-05:00

Tonight after work:

5:05 - Pick up the dog.
5:25 - Pick up the Elder.
5:40 - Pick up the Gum Zombie.
5:45 - Arrive home.
Let dog out back.
Feed snack to Offspring.
Scoop litter boxes. Have staring contest with cats.
Let dog back in.
6:00 - Leave for the Elder's middle school's Open House.
6:30 - Open House begins.
Continue cursing under my breath because the middle school and the words "adequate parking" are never to be found in the same sentence unless joined by a negative.
During mandatory PTSO meeting, wonder why in the world Herff Jones is selling middle school class rings. Holy crap.
8:00 - Open House ends.
Attempt not to be run over by the several hundred other parents who've also missed their dinners and are desperately trying to be first to get to their cars to hit the McDonald's drive through.
Feed children.
Take out dog.
Staring contest with cats. Someone used the litter box again. Pungently.
8:45 - Showers for both boys.
9:00 - Gum Zombie's bedtime is ignored because he has a spelling test in the morning and needs to study his words. Yes, he could study them in day care. No, he won't do it. Why? Because he's seven. And balky.
9:30 - Put Gum Zombie to bed, because all the studying in the world won't help the child if he's too tired to remember what he's learned.
9:45 - Finally get on the treadmill for W1D2 of C25K.
9:46 - Stop the treadmill to answer the phone. Choreboy's on his way home. Put on coffee prior to his arrival.
9:50 - Get back on the treadmill.
10:00 - Off the treadmill to greet Choreboy. Elder's bedtime. "Yes, now. Yes I mean it. No you may not watch the rest of WWE. I don't care what CM Punk is doing tonight."
10:10 - Kick side of treadmill. Get back on.
11:10 - Stumble off of treadmill after post C25K walk. Shower. Wash hair.
Midnight - Remember I haven't eaten dinner yet.

So yeah... I'd like just three more hours for this evening, please. That's all.

Clarity

2010-09-28T17:01:00.003-05:00

I'm not going to weigh in this Friday.

I don't even know if I'll weigh in at the beginning of November, which was my original goal date.

What I do know is that right now I'm hovering around 150. Whether that's above or below is up in the air, but I can tell the ballpark from how my pants are fitting. And not to be too graphic, but I can also tell from how the skin sits on my abdomen. I don't have a huge amount of redundant skin at this point, but my time in obesity (sounds like a prison sentence) combined with two pregnancies where, if eating were a gauge, I should have been Octomom twice... well, it's going to take its toll somehow.

So anyway, I recognize the draping pattern of my skin, and that tells me I'm right at 150, probably a bit below.

If I saw that on the scale there would be fallout of the negative sort, but not knowing what the scale says is really helping me to stay on track. If I weighed myself I'm sure I'd overeat. And I'd do it because either a) eating well for x-number of weeks obviously hasn't done any good, so I might as well enjoy myself, or b) I've done so well that I deserve to eat, dangit!

Yeah. Not good. And I wish I weren't like that because I'd really like to know what I weigh, but there you have it.

So instead I'm going to get on the treadmill tonight and do the first night of C25K again, after nine months off from running after my stress fractures (for the record my bone density test came back just fine, so my doctor and I have collectively thrown our hands in the air for a cause). And then I'll ignore the fried chicken sitting in the fridge (I've been ignoring it since I bought it -- it's for the boys in the house), and the chili, and instead I'll dive for the Moroccan chickpeas and quinoa, and half an avocado.

And if I must, I still have the calorie allotment for one Biscoff cookie, and as much black coffee as I can hold.

Anyone else who has a twisted relationship with the scale, however it works, please share. Quirkiness loves company ;)

Okay, I'm dressed, I'm hydrated, and I'm off. See you on the other side!

Yes!

2010-09-25T12:08:00.004-05:00

I have totally kicked ass this week.

I finally got back on my cardio because my knee is behaving itself again. I'm at 100% on the treadmill and about 80% on the elliptical, even with the time I had to take off. The downside of this is that it could mean that my body is really efficient at adapting, which is a total bummer for my metabolism.

Fortunately, I'm not shocked. It just means I have to continue to make physical activity a priority, which can get a bit sketchy with the way my joints like to behave, but if my grandmother (God rest her soul) could walk six miles a day at age eighty with severe spinal arthritis, I think I've got the genetics and the gumption to soldier on through.

My food has been on point as well. Among other things I've had Moroccan style spicy chickpeas with cilantro-lime quinoa and avocado; salmon with a dijon-dill sauce*, brown rice and quinoa, and broccoli; and tonight I'm making chili (no beans, because other than chickpeas they are The Sum Of All Evils) with 93% lean ground beef. The chili's kind of a one-off, but whereas the chickpeas and the salmon were multi-day meals (3 on the former, 2 on the latter), I'll only be eating the chili tonight. And tomorrow I'll either make another batch of chickpeas, or hit up the mustard maple pork tenderloin (recipe here -- it's awesome).

With breakfast and lunch I'm extremely boring. Most days I have an egg for breakfast, along with some form of whole grain (seeded wheat bread or perhaps some Kashi), dairy (nonfat milk or yogurt), and fruit. Lunch tends to be 2 oz. of a lean meat on a sandwich thin, one slice of cheese, more mustard than the law should allow, a HUGE bunch of grapes, and 3 pickle spears.

Snacks revolve around chocolate. I tell myself it's health food because it's over 80% cacao. Hee.

All in all, my daily calories hover around 1430 (my SparkPeople range is set at 1320 - 1670), and with exercising at a minimum burn of 2000 calories per week (low end is 5x/ week @ 400 calories each session), I can live with that.

I still have no idea what I weigh. It was close this week because I am extremely curious, considering how some of my jeans are fitting (loose-ish), but I didn't cave. And now I'm thinking... do I really want to weigh in next Friday? I know how my mind works, and if I'm below 150 that's a huge trigger where I have historically said, "Yes! Under 150! I can eat again!" and massive potato chip and Reese's consumption ensues.

I just don't want to go there.

I have been fighting this last twenty pounds for three years. The first fifty came off within a year, but I've been yo-yo-ing between 145 - 155 (with a few higher spikes) since fall of 2007. ARRRRGH. So perhaps I'll just keep on tracking my food and exercising, but not weigh myself.

It's still up for debate. I'll figure it out.

*1 lb salmon fillet
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 TBSP dijon mustard,
2 TBSP lemon juice
2 TBSP freshly chopped dill
1 bunch of chives, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Rinse fillet, pat dry, and place in the bottom of a 2 qt. glass casserole dish (I spray my dish first with a cooking spray). Salt and pepper fillet to taste.

Whisk together sour cream, mustard, lemon juice, and dill, until thoroughly blended. Spoon over fillet and smooth until entire piece of fish is evenly covered. Sprinkle chives over the top. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the fillet flakes easily with a fork. Serves 4 unless you're pigs (which we are) in which case it serves 2. Or maybe 3. If you're lucky.

De-Mucking

2010-09-19T17:13:00.007-05:00

Ooof. Sorry for the radio silence, y'all. We had a nasty run-in with impetigo (I know! eewwww!!!) and I've been so skeeved out that I could barely think without my brain going into squick-out mode.

On the plus side my house is now practically sterile, and my pediatrician confirmed that washing the bath mat every day was probably overkill. Anyway, since I had already de-bacteriafied the main living part of the house, the hall bathroom and both boys' bedrooms (only one had it and for his privacy's sake I'll not say which one), this weekend I was inspired to hit up the master bedroom.

Let's just say it was past due.

In the end of it all, I scraped out the entire room including my dresser drawers and closet. Choreboy lacks my hoarding tendencies and thus was not part of the Grand De-Mucking outside of moral support and vacuuming assistance. I ended up trashing a small garbage bag worth of clothes and filling a HUGE -- I think 37 gallon? -- bag for donating. I also went into the bathroom vanity and threw out fully 75% of the junk under the sink.

All my clothes fit in my drawers and closet. My shoes are also in the closet rather than piled by my dresser.

Choreboy can't stop smiling. I can't say I blame him.

Oh, and just as a general note? After age forty it is perfectly acceptable to throw away the plaid dress with the Peter Pan collar, the teal paisley number with shoulder pads, and the Flashdance sweaters.

Yes I totally had to have that conversation with myself.

Thursday

2010-09-09T15:22:00.003-05:00

Well, in the Gum Zombie's elementary school's continuing quest to drive me completely around the bend, they just sent home the reminder about tonight's open house last night.

I know, I know, we're all grown ups and should have looked this up on the school website (which they update maybe once a year... in May), but seriously? Sending the reminder home the night before? Just not bright. Try the beginning of the week, kids. Most of us try to pay attention, but when you throw this on our [overloaded] plates less than 24 hours in advance, we get a bit skittish.

Choreboy has valiantly offered to accompany me, to help keep me in line. Otherwise I'd likely sit and read a book through the entire PTA meeting.

Shame for me to ignore the whole thing. Yes, I'm trying to convince myself of that.

--------------------------

In other news, food went well this week. I've still not weighed myself and I count that as a bit of a victory as well. My brother told me on Labor Day that my face looks the thinnest he's seen it in recent memory.

I think he needs glasses. But I'll take it.

My knee is improving, thank goodness. One more week off it and I hope to be back on track with my cardio. And Choreboy's job situation just improved exponentially, which means I can finally breathe again.

Whew :)

Ooops, my reminder to gather the office garbage just popped up. Better get a move on. Have an awesome weekend!