The Fire’s in My Shoulders

Good things about doing the Fire series every other day:

• Increased strength in my shoulders and triceps.
• Further-toned abdominals.
• The food I gobble after completing the workout is far more delicious than usual.

Bad things about doing the Fire series every other day:

• FRIGGIN’ OW.

When Hypoglycemia, Security Issues, and IBS Collide

A couple of things have been going on with my body lately.

For the last three weeks or so, I have been fighting the urge to eat constantly. I want to eat immediately after a nice filling meal. I want to eat an hour later. I want to eat before dinner and during dinner and in the middle of the night. I know full well that I’m not actually hungry during all of these times, only some of them, but the urge is there all the time.

Hello, Is There Anybody In There?

Is it me, or have things been a little quiet around here?

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been in that place where life keeps getting in the way of my spare time. And whenever I have had a minute to catch my breath, I usually catch it and then immediately fall asleep.

I have managed to start back on the morning walks with the ankle weights, have revisited Jillian twice in the last two weeks and that’s, well that’s about it. I’m really, really hoping these cool crisp mornings soon begin to extend to the rest of the day and I know, I KNOW that will be the final push I need to completely get back into the swing.

Either way, another month is about to come to an end and I’m using the opportunity to get motivated anew. The academic year has always inspired me to get off my ass and this time I’m applying that to my fitness and health. It doesn’t hurt either that The Biggest Loser’s new season starts in a few weeks (I think September 15th) – laugh all you want, but man I love that show.

I hope everyone else is doing okay; drop me a line sometime!

Changing our Lifestyle

Well, one way to dedicate yourself to changing your lifestyle is to basically be ORDERED to do so by your doctor. Calvin’s seeing a heart specialist because he’s been having weird, random palpitations. He’s got hypertension and (very) high cholesterol, and the doc has basically told him, “Change your diet and exercise habits, OR ELSE.”

So he and I have been talking a lot about the small, gradual changes that we can start making together (since healthy eating is my goal as well), in order to ease him into a pretty significant overall lifestyle change. Gradual adjustments are best, since changes that are adopted over time tend to stick.

First off is the beer. Calvin and I both tend to prefer the darks, the lagers and porters, ala 1554 and Black Butte. The carbs in those types of beers are off the chart, so we’re switching to lights and ultras. And then cutting back on the overall consumption of alcohol, in general. Strangely enough, the doctor advised against quitting altogether – he understands that one should not cut all the things he or she enjoys out of their lives entirely. Moderation is the name of the game. Calvin has already significantly increased the amount of plain old water that he drinks every day, which is a HUGE step for him.

Next is the salt. We’re foregoing the salt shaker altogether (the doc says we should just throw it out!), and we will no longer purchase packaged, sodium-filled foods. The biggest culprit in our pantry is the boxed rice pilaf dishes, so I came up with a brown rice cooked in sauteed garlic and chicken broth that more than adequately replaces Near East. I have become a Certified Label Reader, now, checking the sodium on everything.

Then we’ll tackle eliminating the simple carbohydrates – or, “The Whites”. White bread, pasta, white rice, corn, and potatoes. This is very much in keeping with the South Beach diet plan, which I’m quite familiar with. Calvin has expressed a (TINY) bit of interest in accompanying me to the local Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings, so that we can explore more fruit and vegetable additions to our diet. Getting him to eat wheat bread is going to be a bitch, though. And we practically LIVE off of potatoes. Le sigh.

Following that is food preparation. Roasting instead of pan frying. Olive oil instead of butter. Sauteed, braised, or broiled, instead of coated in flour. Our consumption of red meats will be reduced, and our consumption of fish will be increased. And I’m going to start exploring various recipes for beans that can be prepared in the crock pot.

Calvin needs to be reminded to eat at least three meals a day during the week – he’s always been one to skip breakfast altogether, and sometimes he gets so busy at work that he plows right through lunch, as well. So, often times dinner is the ONLY meal he’s eaten in a day. Which, as we all know, is Not Good. The problem is, he’s on the road so much that his typical lunch option is a drive-thru, which is pretty much opposite of the kind of food he should be eating. He doesn’t want me to pack his lunch, but I’m willing. It’s hard to make healthy choices when you’re faced with a never ending repetition of Wendy’s, McDonalds, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell.

The only thing we’re not too clear on at the moment is increasing his exercise. He works so physically hard at his job every day that he’s wiped when he gets home – but the exercise he gets on the job isn’t cardio, which is what the doc wants him to increase. We have the bikes, which we’ll ride on the weekends when the weather cools off. We really need a treadmill, but we can’t really afford one at the moment, and have no place to put one, anyway. AcronymCo has a gym that’s free to employees and their family, but that would require actually going somewhere, which is something neither one of us are interested in. So. That’s still something to work on. We have the tools at our disposal, we just have to get off our asses.

It’s going to be an interesting few months as we get used to all of this, I think.

De-Vacated

Like most of you, I threw caution to the wind during my (too brief) vacation.  I bought junk food at the grocery store, and I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies before the trip that ended up FAR bigger than I intended.  Or that any rational human being would ever prepare at one time for a family of three.

I told all of y’all not to feel guilty about it, and b’gawd, I’m not going to feel guilty about it, either. I’ll probably pay for it in a few different ways, but I won’t feel guilty about it.

On the plus side, we walked quite a bit in less-than-comfy temperatures and mostly survived.   (Poor Dys’s Viking ancestry did NOT prepare her for this sort of weather.  On the other hand, our son has a better than average chance of looking like Alexander Skarsgård because of said heritage.  Pick your poison.)

As it turns out, all day Saturday I was wearing my belt on the tightest notch…and I didn’t notice until day’s end.  That’s a minor victory.  I’m not sure I could wear it on that notch today, but hey, it’s within striking range…

Making the Most of It

So I survived being on a boat all day yesterday with a tan, hot blond in a bikini. Go me, right? Turns out I was right about the fact I was so happy to be out on the lake that I probably wouldn’t have minded if Giselle had joined us on the boat. Well, that might be an exaggeration. But hopefully you get the idea. I think I’ve finally hit that point in my life where I’m (mostly) thankful to have a (mostly) well-running body, one that is able to do whatever I need it to do. Could be better/could be worse type of situation. And as long as I’m doing things to make it better, that’s all I can do. Considering they still haven’t figured out a non-tortuous way to make people taller.

My body type is somewhat problematic when I’m at the higher end of my weight spectrum. I’m fairly short (between 5’3″ and 5’4″), have an extremely short torso and boobs that become melon-like when I’m carrying extra weight around. Some people have expressed melon-envy, but these people need to realize it’s not all fun and games. Clothes do not look great on “apple” shaped women who are larger on top than on the bottom. Buttons gape open hatefully. I sometimes need to go up a size to ensure the girls will be contained within the shirt so that the rest of it looks big and sloppy. Joan (hot bikini friend) took a picture of me yesterday where when I saw it I actually gasped out loud, as my boobs cast a shadow that could provide sun protection for a small village. And this is ten pounds DOWN from where I was. Oy.

Weight Issues on Vacation

I was able to go for three runs on my seven day vacation.   All of them between 6-8 miles each and the same routes that I ran when I was in high school.  

Due to some “bathroom issues” that have plagued me since childhood, (information from my mother and sister regarding similar public bathroom issues for decades) I limited my food intake but a couple few evenings with former classmates increased my alcohol intake…tenfold.

After a week of being away from home, I still came back three pounds lighter than when I left…

…and that was after reintroducing myself my my “own” bathroom.

I can’t stand the silence

(Shut it, Crisitunity.)

I feel like I’ve been a non-contributing lump lately.  But my workouts have been hella boring.

I have gotten some good reading done, though.  Although I had to start bringing in a ruler to hold my book open on the little tabs on the cross-trainer.

Typical five-minute stretch, say 20 minutes into the workout:

• TB:  Flips page, grabs towel, wipes sweat off bald head and face
• Book:  Left side page flops out, perpendicular to my line of sight
• TB:  Adjusts book
• iPod:  New song starts, volume very quiet
• TB:  Adjusts volume
• Book:  Right side flops out
• TB:  Adjusts book, loses stride
• iPod:  Falls out of the cupholder, left earphone pops out, it’s hanging by my right ear
• TB:  carefully pulls iPod up through the slot in the cupholder by the cord
• Book:  Right side flops out
• TB:  Loses a step on crosstrainer, almost falls off, adjusts book, grabs towel, wipes sweat
• Book:  Right side flops out
• TB:  Curses, adjusts book
• Book:  Left side flops out
• TB:  Resists urge to throw book across room, adjusts book
• iPod:  New song starts, volume way high, blows eardrums out
• TB:  Adjusts volume, grabs towel, wipes sweat, turns page
• Book:  flips TB the bird

I might have hallucinated that last one.  But I’m not betting on it.

Ah, my darling husband.

The scene: Calvin and I are relaxing on the couch last night, watching “Gary, Unmarried”. The female protagonist of this particular show (Paula Marshall) looks like this:

So, Calvin turns to me and says, “You know? She reminds me a lot of you.”

I look, a little incredulous, because she’s really really pretty, and I’m all hair up in a clip, grubbies on, slightly sweaty after futzing with dinner and night chores.

He continues, “You’ve got better hair, though.”

Now I’m chuffed and flattered and thinking, oh what a wonderful husband I have.

(Wait for it.)

“Well, except,” he continues, “she’s a lot skinnier than you are.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, my husband.

I started cracking up – because, really, you HAVE to laugh when he stuffs his foot so far into his mouth that he’s nibbling on his kneecap. He looked confused for a moment, then a dawning horror broke over his face as he realized just what he said. “No! I mean! Uh! Wait! I just meant… !”

Uh huh.

He’s keeping me humble, people.

Come Sail Away

I was all prepared to write a (hopefully) helpful post about my body type, the problematic areas and some tricks I’ve learned to help camo those said areas when all of sudden an emergency developed. I need help y’all, and I need it fast. And yes I just used the word “y’all.” That should tell you a little about my state of mind right now.

We just got invited to go sailing Sunday. I should preface this by saying there’s almost nothing I’d rather be doing than chillin’ on a boat on a body of water, anytime, anywhere. And this particular body of water, Lake Murray, happens to be one of my favorites, ever. My first grown-up house was on the shores of this lake. I got married in Brian’s dad’s back yard which also happens to be on the shores of this lake. I love this lake lots. And while I’ve been on all sorts of different boats, I’ve never been on a sail boat and I’m darn excited about it.

I’m sure you’ve already guessed what the problem is, right?