Low and Slow

Choreboy is a marvelous husband who (wisely) is highly appreciative of everything I cook for him. Well, there was that one time where my brain died and I forgot finishing butter had salt in it, which totally destroyed two tilapia fillets -- spectacularly awful fail there -- but other than that? He's not turned up his nose at anything I've put in front of him.

He mentioned that this weekend he wouldn't mind pork roast. I started thinking pressure cooker, but then he clarified that he'd kind of like it roasted in the oven.

Yipes.

Full disclaimer here, folks: I have been scared to pieces of roasting meats in my oven. I'll bake in there like nobody's business, but being able to cook a good roast in the oven? Nope, not there yet. I do most of my meat cooking in the pressure cooker. It's easy, it's fast, and it consistently delivers an excellent result.

My oven? Not so much.

So I did what I always do in these situation and consulted those much wiser than I:
The People of teh Intranets.

Turns out that low and slow isn't just for barbecuing -- you can do it in your own oven at home, too! Yeah I know, I'm a dork... but I've dealt with so much barbecue TV and so forth that I had it in my mind "low and slow" was synonymous with "ginormous black barrel-shaped grill".

There were variations on this theme, but the most consistent advice I saw was to blast the meat at a higher temperature until it developed a good crust, then lower the temperature to a ridiculous level for eight to nine hours.

Holy cow.

So last night I got out my Boston Butt pork roast, all 7+ pounds of that sucker, rinsed it, and patted it dry. Then I rubbed an herb paste I'd made all over it (I dumped together a bunch of granulated garlic, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, dried thyme, red pepper flakes, oregano, and a bit of olive oil, then ground them together by pretending my small bowl was a mortar and one of my spice containers was a pestle), covered the roasting pan, and left it in the fridge all night.

This morning when I got up I preheated the oven to 450, and slid the pork roast in. The Gum Zombie had a choir rehearsal at 9:00, and I had a root touch-up scheduled for 11, so... yeah, it had to go in then. In fact, I'd set my alarm last night so I'd be up in time to make dinner.

Clearly, I have lost my mind.

While the roast was "crisping up" in the oven (I left it there about 45 minutes, for the record), I chopped up 4 carrots and 2 small-ish onions. Once the crisping phase was complete, I pulled the roast out of the oven, dumped the chopped vegetables in the pan with the roast, and poured two cups of chicken broth over the whole thing.

Then I cranked the temperature on it down to 225, and left. It was 8:30 a.m.

We got home just before 4:00, and I took the roast's temperature. 170 with my instant-read digital meat thermometer -- success!! And not even a full 8 hours -- whoa. So I left it in the oven on "warm" for a bit more (hoping Choreboy would get out of work early), then gave in and fed the boys around 5:00.

I now have to guard the roast because they keep picking at it. They had a serving of pork, green beans, carrots (the elder had those -- the Gum Zombie no-thank-you'd them after a taste test) and a pesto-parmesean toasted bun, and still they sneaked up on it, each with his own little fork, both trying to snarf down the entire seven pounds before Choreboy got home and he and I could eat.

They've now been threatened with Dire Consequences and are in my direct line of sight. Meanwhile, I wait for Choreboy's arrival.

I'm starving. The man isn't actually scheduled to get home until 9:00 tonight.

He might have to eat alone. Just sayin'.

Weigh-In Day

You know, this is the first time I've had an official weigh-in day since 2006, back when I was first on my push to lose weight after the Elder, then seven, announced to the entire shopping community of Publix "Mommy, you weigh 200!!"

He's never been a quiet child.

But I think this is a good thing, having a day when I'm definitely accountable for what I've eaten. Since that big weight loss push I've been weighing in when I felt like it. Sometimes that was daily, other times it was every 3-4 weeks or so. Weekly, though... yeah. That works.

So I hopped on the scale this morning, after saintly behavior last Thursday and Friday, the Attack of the Samoas and Reese's Eggs on Saturday and Sunday, then more saintliness on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week. So, five out of seven days I was good.

And I was rewarded. The scale dropped to 162. YES!!! Normally I wouldn't have a four pound loss in one week, but that 166 was also affected by my lack of hydration coupled with recovery from "that special time" when the bloat-fest is well and truly upon me. So I'll take that 162, for sure.

This week the goal is to be good 7 days out of 7. Weekdays it isn't so much of an issue, but the weekends kick my butt. Fortunately, Hungry Girl announced on her Twitter feed that Publix was having buy-one-get-one-free Vita Tops starting today, so guess where I'll be stocking up after I leave work?

All that said, I just found this recipe for St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake. And the Smitten Kitchen blog itself.

I'm just grateful I don't own a stand mixer, because if I did? My weekend would be shot.

Thursdays

Last Thursday I decided to re-commit to logging my foods and regularly prying myself off my couch. This was brought on by a weigh-in at my parents' house on their "doctor's office" style scale, which put me at 166. Now I've been as high as 168 recently, but I turn 40 in less than a month and my goal was to weigh LESS than my starting weight of 160 when I started this last push in January of 2009, not to weigh MORE by the time this birthday hit.

So. Thursday and Friday I did well with my calories, and I even managed to hit the treadmill both days. Yay!

Saturday and Sunday I was, sadly, attacked by the Girl Scouts and force-fed a box of Samoas. Then I tripped over a bag of Reese's Eggs and landed mouth first on them.

Erm, that was more like two bags.

Whoops.

On the plus side, I didn't bake any cakes or cookies this weekend. I did bake a dozen muffins, but I didn't fall in lust with them or anything, so I only ate two.

"Only." Good grief.

Fortunately, Monday hit and I did well both Monday and Tuesday with the caloric intake, and today is looking good too. I haven't been on the treadmill due to a cold I came down with on Monday, but I'm going back on it tomorrow.

Tomorrow also happens to be my weigh-in day. The heck with this Monday garbage, I'm going for Thursday. It's a good day, and it's also well enough into my work-week to scare me off of going out to eat at lunch.

We'll see how it goes. Here's hoping I don't get attacked by a ginormous Quarter Pounder on my way home...

Eleven Years

Eleven years ago today is when my ability to sleep in disappeared for a decade.

It's when my status as a voracious reader became endangered.

It marked the beginning of a six-month period during which I ate perhaps 5 hot meals.

And it's the day when a dark-haired, blue-eyed little boy entered my life.

I wouldn't change a thing.

I'm on a horse.

Best. Commercial. EVER. I just hear it coming on the TV even from another room and I start to smile.

Yep, I'm a huge dork. But I appear to be in good company.

And better yet, there's a sequel! You can catch it at the Old Spice website, I think: Old Spice Manmercials.

Choreboy Strikes Again

I think he's a bit overwrought. In my defense... well, I did that in the comments.

His latest entry is here.

Go. Read. You might even giggle.

Parental Pride

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

One Sunday for the children's sermon, our minister had picked a topic familiar to most children: consequences. And she then asked the cherubs surrounding her just what they would do if they could do anything, anything in the world, without having to worry about consequences.

"I'd play with my friends all day!"
"I'd play video games!"
"I'd visit my grandmother!"

Ah, the little darlings.

The next child she called on was the Elder Offspring, who looked so grown up in his blue oxford cloth button-down and khacki pants.

"I'd ditch school."

I sank down in the pew.

And next, she finally saw the Gum Zombie up in the choir loft, nearly dislocating his shoulder with the violence of his hand-waving.

"Yes! And what would you do?"

"I'd rob a bank!"

The entire congregation giggled, and those who knew this was my spawn were shooting me looks equally divided between horror and amused sympathy. Not that I noticed so much, because now I was trying to figure out how I could fit under the pew -- forget this wimpy "sinking down" nonsense.

Remember, this is the same child who tried to pick a lock using a twig. Here's hoping my flippant "Our Future Burglar" prognosis doesn't bear fruit.

*Note: Yes I see the humor in this. HUGE amounts of it. It just wasn't quite as funny at the time... go figure ;)

An Open Letter to the Food Network

Dear Food Network,

Heaven knows I love your channel. And Heaven also knows that my husband wishes Alton Brown were not on at 11:00 p.m. our time, because I'm busy watching Good Eats then instead of doing other things. So, clearly, I am a dedicated viewer.

Also, I like to cook. It's an enjoyment born out of self-preservation because I have two children at home and a husband who works in the restaurant industry and therefore does NOT cook once he hits home turf, except in the case of dire emergency/ Cajun food craving. So since it's either cook or starve, because eating out is pricey... I cook. It's just something I do. I also wash clothes, scrub toilets, drive a car... I do many things, because they're just part of living.

I am not a laundress, a custodian, or a chauffeur, although I perform all these functions. And I am not "a" cook. I'm just a person who cooks... because again with the eating-instead-of-starving preference.

And believe me, Food Network, I am fully aware I am nowhere near being a chef. I have zero formal food preparation training, and would never presume to hold a candle to many of the amazing chefs who grace your shows. What I do have is the ability to follow or modify a recipe, and an ability to find excellent ones. It's like chemistry class, only less accuracy is required (except with the baking -- oish!). It's fun, and when you pay attention you can produce some pretty tasty stuff.

All that said, would you please, oh pretty please, abolish the term "home cook" from your chefs' vocabularies? I had never heard the term, actually, until Chef Anne Burrell used it on the final episode of Worst Cook in America with words along the lines of "These meals weren't prepared by us, they were made by home cooks."

Cue gasps of horror and shock from the judges' table!!!

Then to top it all off, she revealed that not only were these people members of the dreadfully shocking "home cook" class, they were actually really, really, bad home cooks.

The horror!! The horror!!!

Okay, someone who initially cooked terribly badly being brought to a level of not only competence but excellence is impressive. And I enjoyed the show. But that line "home cook" rankled.

Then on an episode of Chopped, Chef Alex Guarnaschelli remarked that a dish was simple like something a "home cook" would have made. My lip twitched, and I was really worried that she'd get a crick in her neck with the way she was holding her nose up in the air.

You know, it wouldn't be so bad if your chefs didn't say "home cook" with the same inflection they use to utter "raw pork," "rotten fish," or "Guy Fieri". But as it stands, a "home cook" is something that is apparently as appealing as a communicable disease.

The vast majority of your viewing audience isn't cooking for a living. We aren't chefs. We don't cook in restaurants. Where the hell else do you expect us to cook other than at home?

It's an inherently condescending term, used in a consistently patronizing manner. And it's an insult to, I'd say, the majority of your viewing audience.

Cut it out. It rankles.

Thanks,
Amanda

Whap!

First of all, thank you everyone for the well-wishes for my knees and whatever else ails me. It's frustrating, but this too shall pass in some form or fashion, even if it ends up just being me having to get used to a different way of living and developing a new definition of "active."

Secondly, Tycho? See subject line. Ahem.

But seriously, it seems like the whole "turning 40" thing has hit. I was fine a month ago. Just FINE. I could walk, run, move around, all with little to no incident. Okay, other than my amazing ability to trip over carpet lint it was "little to no incident". And the lack of depth perception, which has me walking into doorways I know darned good and well are there. Er... okay. Shutting up.

Ultimately though, I'm used to those things. This whole new weird thing with my knees is aggravating, and to top it all off they decided over the weekend to bring pain into the equation. I think maybe slogging through the Florida State Fair for a few hours on Saturday wasn't my best move.

On the plus side, without going to the fair I wouldn't have discovered there's such a thing as Harp Therapy. Yep, and for a mere $15 a CD, you too can get yourself some therapy. As played on a harp.

By a woman who apparently feels that wearing a white velour choir robe is a good marketing gimick.

I swear, you can't make this up.

So anyway, since I haven't heard about my rheumatologist's appointment yet (I don't expect to hear anything until Wednesday when I'm to call back if I haven't heard), I've been once again consulting Dr. Google.

You know, because the last time was so very successful.

Eyeroll.

Well, this time Dr. Google has very kindly suggested I might have Vitamin D deficiency! I came across this little gem while googling "swollen joints", because the other search terms ("edemic femur" and so forth) weren't garnering much in the way of hits. I'd do the happy dance that I'm a textbook case for this (little to no exposure to sunlight, lactose intolerant, perimenopausal) except that I was also textbook symptomatically for the ACL injury.

Humph. But I'm going to grab some Vitamin D and start taking it anyway. As Choreboy said, "It wouldn't hurt either of us to consider supplements at this stage of life." And he's probably right.

Except, just what stage is he talking about with this "us" anyway? He's 48. I'm .... *glancing at the sidebar* not. Not even the same decade, dude.

That said, I move like I'm eighty. So I guess it all comes out in the wash.

Nonplussed

So.

I don't have any ACL issues. I went to my doctor to go over the MRI results and the report said, "The ACL, PCL, fibular collateral and medial collateral ligament structures are intact without evidence for tear or sprain. The menisci are normal in morphology and signal characteristic without evidence for injury. Articular cartilaginous surfaces appear intact..." and went on from there (I'll spare you the rest).

Huh.

On the one hand this is good news. Yay, no ACL surgery!!!

On the other hand, then what's wrong with my knees? What's causing the sensation that my body is about to rebel and throw me to the floor?

No clue.

"The findings do not have typical appearance for AVN (avascular necrosis). The findings are nonspecific and may possibly be seen with RDS (huh?) or atypical inflammatory/ infectious process..."

Which sounds to me like radiologist-speak for "Well, would you have a look at that?"

My doctor agrees, so she's referring me to a rheumatologist (due to the "inflammatory" bit). I should know when my appointment is in about a week, so we'll start the countdown to the next specialist then.

In the meantime I did get the okay to walk on my treadmill, so hooray! She did tell me she wouldn't okay jogging or running due to the whole inflammatory possibility since the higher impact wouldn't be good for that, but walking is fine. And my treadmill has handrails and a safety key, so even if I stumble chances are I won't fall and even if I do, it will shut off.

I just don't see the cane being a good idea on that machine, yanno?

So anyway, like the post title says, I'm a bit nonplussed. I thought I'd have a definitive answer for what's going on and instead I just have more questions.

And a cane.

And I turn forty in less than two months.

*blink*

But I can walk. I'm not going to discount that.

And My Status Is...

With all the medical appointments, MRI scheduling, and regular hoopla, I figure my mindset at this point is best reflected by my recent Facebook status messages:

Amanda Justice Note: to everyone who calls a place of business, please STATE YOUR DAMN NAME. Kthanksbai!

Amanda Justice Those of you who work at front desks (this includes me) -- do your damn job. Don't pull this "I'm just one person" garbage. If anyone needs to hear that it's your boss, not your clients or patients. Tell the clients that you'll get it taken care of... then DO IT.

Amanda Justice When your office makes a mistake, it behooves your office to fix said error in as swift a manner as possible. It is NOT a good idea to treat your client/ patient like a burden for an error on your part. Just sayin'.

Amanda Justice People don't listen. Me, 3 minutes ago: "Good morning, Random Initials Architects!" Caller: "Yes, is this Citywide Painting?" *headdesk*

Amanda Justice A helpful hint: at the conclusion of a telephone call, please say "goodbye" before hanging up the phone. Did your mother raise you in a barn? No? Couldn't prove it by me!

Where have common courtesy and customer service gone? The way of the dodo? Holy cow, some days I feel old.

Seriously, not doing too badly... life gets frustrating and at the moment I'm in the middle of one of those frustrating bits. In some way or other it will pass, though. I've got an appointment tomorrow for MRIs on both knees, so shortly after that we should at the minimum have a better idea of what's going on. Hooray!

Oh, and on the really good news front, today the joint instability has been much better which gives me hope that I can at least start walking on my treadmill again. That would be awesome, because I am sick and tired of having to watch every little stupid calorie I consume. UGH.

I never thought I'd be excited to exercise, but one thing I'm learning through this injury, whatever it is, is to never take my body's functionality for granted.

And I will run a 5K. It will have to wait awhile, but I will do it.

MRI Incoming!!!

So I went to my actual, real-live "has a medical degree and license and everything" doctor, and after bending my knees six ways to Sunday she confirmed my self-diagnosis, which had admittedly been aided and abetted by consultations with Choreboy and Dr. Google (two arguable medical references, to be sure).

My ACL is injured in both my right knee and my left. In proper medical terms, this is known as "hosed" (*koff*).

From everything I've read, ACL injuries don't necessarily need surgery unless a) you're in a high contact sport, or b) you are experiencing joint instability.

Guess which one of those describes me? In both knees?

So anyway, I'm going to have an MRI on this upcoming Wednesday. My doctor will follow up with me when she gets the results, and expects to be referring me out to an orthopedist and we'll let that actual real doctor with a medical license and everything make the surgery call.

I'm thinking 2010 is more of a casual walking, biking, and yoga kind of year. The 5K is going to have to wait until 2011.

And I swear I'm going to use this cane to trip the next person who looks at me weird. It's a cane, people! Lots of folks use them. We live in the retirement capital of the nation. Good grief.

Just FYI...

People look at you really weird when you're visually young-ish, yet toddling about with a cane.

This sucks.

We Are Not Amused

It's Monday, and while a good portion of the nation is off work, I'm sitting at my work computer sucking down my bowl of soup for lunch as I type this.

I'm a bit bummed because my knees are still all out of whack. I decided to forgo any more running until the group run on Tuesday, but the way my right knee keeps trying to collapse or whatever it is it's doing, I think I'm going to have to bail on that, too.

So I've sucked it up and called my doctor. Going in on Wednesday afternoon. I have a feeling this is the first visit in a long line if something in my knee is totally hosed. Or my knees.

Here's hoping she just tells me to wear a brace or something. I hope this is that easily fixable. It doesn't hurt which to me is a positive, but Choreboy had a friend whose ACL was on its way out and it started similarly.

Ick.

T.G.I. Saturday!!

I know T.G.I.F. is the standard, but obviously I missed Friday. In fact, the whole week has been insane! Boredom, please. I'll take boredom.

First off, thank you Jenn for the lovely blog award!!

And also thank you for your lovely comments about my profile picture. I happen to be rather fond of it myself (and I still think the DMV ought to let me use it for my next drivers license photo).

There are rules and passing on things and stuff as far as the Beautiful Blogger Award is concerned, and I'll get to that early next week. Saturday is The Dead Zone as far as blogging is concerned. And I want Jenn's generosity to get more than a Saturday hit :)

Meanwhile (because whining is fun regardless of the day/week issue), Couch-to-5K is kicking my butt this time around. Or my knees, to be more precise. Primarily the right one, although the left knee has also shared its displeasure with me. I was fine last week, joint-wise. It was strictly muscle pain I was dealing with and that was pretty much gone by the time I did W1D2 on Thursday that week. But this week? Erm... no.

The run went well on Tuesday night. I'm not a huge fan of running in general, but I am very interested to see what I can make my body do (in forty years it's about damn time), plus the company of so many other people similarly huffing and puffing themselves around our trail cannot be appreciated enough. My SIL didn't make it this week because she's recovering from some nasty cold bug, but it's a really friendly group of co-sufferers/journey-ers, so I wasn't bereft.

Come Wednesday morning? Rut-roh. I got out of bed, feeling a bit stiff but not bad, and then my right knee acted like it wanted to slide out of place or something. I know, it's a hinge joint and all, but that's what it felt like.

And that continued the whole. Freaking. Day.

It wasn't that it was painful exactly. There were moments of "eeek!" but mostly it just felt... weird. It started to improve mid-afternoon and was making fewer threats of sliding out of place (again, my perception/ description of the feeling). And on Thursday it wasn't feeling weird anymore, but had developed just a slight, dull ache.

Friday all was well with no ache or weirdness, so I decided to do my W2D2 run on the treadmill. I'd opted out on Thursday due to the ache-factor. I knew I could make it, but one extra day couldn't hurt I figured.

I should have taken two extra days, I think. Because this morning, there's my right knee... threatening to slide out of place again.

The good news is it's not as extreme as it was on Wednesday. I'd done some reading on knee issues and right after my run last night I stretched well, showered, then immediately took some aspirin and started icing the knee. So maybe that helped. But I'm thinking that the actual intelligent move would be to just suck it up and show up on Tuesday for the group run without running again.

I don't know. On the one hand I don't want to "wimp out". But on the other hand I don't want to keep pushing a body part that's been historically pissy with me and end up completely hosing my chances of ever finishing this class, let alone a 5K.

If anyone is out there today (or in days to come) and has any thoughts, ideas, or knows if maybe strapping up my knee or wearing some sort of brace might work? I'm open for suggestions.

Well, time for me to get a move on. I've got grocery shopping to do (hello knee brace), and then a day of cooking to get in. I'm working on making tons of stuff in advance so I'll be sure to have food for both work and dinner during the week with no excuses for eating out. I ate out Thursday, and the results were... embarassing.

Oh what the heck. I'll take a page out of Jenn's book. Here's what I had on Thursday, with the evil calorie tally thereof:

Yeah, it's ugly. Bear in mind that the foods listed are approximate, and the calorie count could actually be worse. It was an Asian buffet for lunch, then Chuck-E-Cheese for dinner. Yikes. Poor restaurant hits, and then lousy choices when I got to each.

On the plus side, I averaged up my caloric intake for the week and even with that paean to poor dining, I was still within my "losing" calorie range. That's something I try to remember -- that one day won't do me in. A whole run of them (see Halloween - New Year) will, but one day? That can be worked with.

If anyone's interested, here's what I'm cooking today:

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken
Black Bean "Hummus"
and
Creamy Spinach Zucchini Soup

Have a great weekend, everyone! Clearly I'll be trapped in the kitchen awhile... ;)

Homework is DONE!

I made it through the first week of this new Couch-to-5K program my SIL and I signed up for, and I did it at the pace I'd planned which pretty much rocks. I'm still really amazed that picking back up close to where I left off was nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be. I remember the first day I started walking purposefully again, way back last summer, and I was lucky to make it 20 minutes! To tell the truth I was really afraid it would be that bad last Tuesday with the running, so I'm extremely relieved my body seems to not have fallen nearly so far into slackitude as it could have.

We had the group run on Tuesday, and I did my "homework" runs on Thursday and Sunday. The lady who owns the training company that, in cooperation with our running store, runs this is also a former student of mine, and heaven knows it just Would. Not. DO. if her former teacher showed up to class without her homework done, no matter who the actual coach of the class is!

Damn I'm old.

And seriously y'all? This cold weather can leave any day now. I'm getting all dry and patchy in spite of religiously lubing myself up morning and evening. I'm turning into a lizard. Completely unacceptable.

Last but not least, never ever try to serve Zatarain's Jambalaya to a native Louisianan. It makes them giggle, especially when you use turkey sausage.

Just sayin'.

Cold

People, I can see my breath out here.

Our computer room (aka "The Dungeon" according to Choreboy -- not for any salacious reason, but rather because the room is a pit) is a converted porch. The previous owner of the house walled it in, and that was that. I'm not even sure he used any insulation. It's not hooked up to the main house's central heat and air, so although we've got a window unit installed for air conditioning, there is No. Freaking. Heat.

The high today is supposed to be in the mid 40's. I'd be hard pressed to say it got out of the low 40's, if that.

There were snow flurries in our end of town today. Snow flurries.

And where do I live?

Florida. Welcome to the sunshine state, y'all. I'm moving back to the couch to wrap up in the electric blanket.

Words Fail...

It's the "breaking news" designation that makes it art.

Couch to 5K, Take Deux!

Yep, I'm back in the saddle, folks.

I was doing well with all my exercise from June through early October, but once H1N1 hit our house I just splatted. Exercise? Huh? Moderation in eating? What?

Yeah. Ugly.

Weighing in at 168 still. I've dipped down, but clearly I've managed to spike right back up.

My one-year anniversary over at Spark People (I'm AmandaJCD there if anyone else from the blogosphere would like to friend me!) is on January 19th, so basically it's looking like I have 2 weeks to lose 8 pounds so I won't weigh MORE than I did when I started. UGH!

Okay, if some of the weight I'm holding onto is water there is a slim chance I can drop the 8, because I might as well have been eating from a literal trough the past month or so. But the likelihood is that I'll be over 160 still in a couple of weeks.

I'm annoyed.

But as I said, I'm back up with C25K, which should be entertaining. This time I'm going a bit different route. My sister-in-law and I have both signed up to do this through our local running shop, and we had our first session this past Tuesday.

Let me tell you, making my first serious physical activity in three months a run? Likely not the best move ever made. Yesterday I think I'd have been happy if I could just have amputated everything below my ribcage. I thought I'd be fine because I have a sedentary job. Well, I learned yesterday it's more of a "sedentary" job, quotation mark usage required. By "sedentary" I mean "sedentary except when I have to get up to deliver a phone message, file, hunt someone down for the phone, figure out someone left without telling me, write them a message, take it to their desk, come back to my desk, get up to make copies, deliver copies, make it almost back to my desk and then hear the dulcet tones of The Anonymous Architect bellowing my name across the suite..."

Ouch.

Sitting hurts. Standing hurts. Walking hurts. Stairs are especially high on the "yipe-o-meter". This is even an improvement over yesterday, when I was audibly whimpering. Oy.

And I'm clearly insane because I'm planning to do the second night tonight. In spite of everything I'm excited about this, in a masochistic kind of way.

The setup is that we meet once a week for the first run of a cycle (3 day cycles just like last time), and do the other two on our own. And the increments are different from the C25K I did last year as well -- for that one, the first week is run 1 minute, walk 90 seconds, repeat for 20 minutes. For this particular fitness instructor's group, we had several options the first night: walk 1, run 1; walk 3, run 1; or walk 5, run 1. My SIL and I went with the second group, figuring we didn't want to totally flake but we also knew we weren't up to alternating minutes quite yet.

Now the sheet we have for the rest of the week gives three options too, although those are a bit more tight: run 1, walk 1; run 1, walk 2; and run 1 walk 3. Day 2 it's for 20 minutes, and day 3 it's for 25.

I figure I'll again hit the middle group which means amping it up a bit to the walking 2 minutes and running 1. Eh, we'll see how it goes. I think I'll keep up the timing but slow my running if need be.

Now to tackle the food. I'm on track today so far. But that's just today. So far. I need to get a bit more consistency with this. I think Tricia at Endurance Isn't Only Physical hit the nail on the head with her blog title. And I could sure use a bit more mental and emotional endurance.

You've Gotta Laugh

Gum Zombie: May I have my chips back?

Me, as I return said bag: How'd you know I had them?

Gum Zombie, moving out of range: Because I couldn't find them anywhere else.

Choreboy: Bwahahahahahahaha!!!!!

Me, plopping back on the couch: Shup.

Yep, that's been my M.O. for food of late. So... bleah.

My sister-in-law and I are starting a Couch to 5K program through our local fitness gear store on Tuesday, though. That's been in the works a couple of weeks. So I've got plans.

I just have to act on them before my jeans stop fitting.