New Year's Resolutions

I don't usually make resolutions beyond "I really should work at loosing weight this year." Certainly nothing formal. But I think I shall resolve to work at eating healthily and incorporating exersize into my everyday life. I have a friend who's joined a nearby Curves, and she's pushing me to go (with my encouragment, I need pushes!). So she's going on Wednesday when the kids are back to school, and I think I will join her.

Read an interesting article today, can't remember the magazine, though. It was talking about how we really have three parts to our brains - the totally unconcious automatic controls (heartrate, breathing), the basic part we share with all other animals, and our "higher conciousness". She called the basic part the "bunny" brain, and said one of the reasons we so often fail at changing our behavior is that we scare the bunny. Habits are deeply ingrained in that part of the brain, so it takes real effort and slow steps to change that. That's why you can resolve to go jogging at 5am every morning, but when the alarm goes off, the animal part of your brain says, "it's cold, it's dark, I'm going back to sleep." So if we really want to change, we have to do it in ways that the bunny brain can accept.

Don't know if it's true, but it's an interesting idea. I guess it ties in with using positive reinforcement on ourselves. I'll try to find the article again and put in any useful suggestions she has.

Here goes...

Hope this works and doesn't slow anyone's computer down. I have a website too, but I still need to update the last few quilts. The website currently only shows my personal quilting projects (quilts I make all parts of). My business is just finishing the tops that other quilters make but don't want to put together. http://cavnet.dyndns.org/lisa/quilting.html

This is a beautiful black and red quilt that was brought to me by a friend. She made it for her grandson. She's not sure she's going to give it to him because she likes the quilting I did (very customized job), so I feel a bit bad since he's been wanting it. She's worried he won't take care of it as he's only 14 years old. I just freehanded designs in the quilt. The only pattern I marked was the outside border/large red strip.

Bits and Pieces

I'm very happy that I had a free day today. I managed to finish a quilt early (promised for after Christmas) and the customer it was for was so excited about the quilting I'd done she paid me extra. Always a big kudo when that happens! Plus she had to bring it to two different quilt groups to show them my work, so I'm glad that I spent so much time on it. Now I get to have some time to myself till Christmas. John is off work too so I'm sure we'll just hang out and I do have work to do, just at my own pace for now.

Plus, the other good news for me in the last two weeks was it turns out my cholesterol wasn't as bad as I thought. Part of it was I asked the Dr. how it compared to last year, and it turns out it had gone down. Still borderline high, but the whole meeting changed when she realized it had gone down. Kind of funny. Still, I should keep an eye on it of course.

I do hope everyone is looking forward to Christmas. I'm hoping to be bad and back some cookies tonight. Trying to get more into the spirit of things, and I have a potluck/staff party next week I thought I might give them out at as gifts. Hopefully I can get most in the freezer or given away so I don't eat toooo much.

Forced Exercise II

I am just catching up after not having Internet access for several days (or even time to go find some). I am getting lots of "forced" exercise. First it was moving stuff. Then it was working on removing old vinyl. We also now live in a house with steps. Right now a lot of stuff got unloaded into the basement so I am making many trips up and down the steps. My legs are sure feeling it.

cough cough

My asthma has kicked in, and I've been coughing for weeks. That's my excuse for not getting any appreciable amount of exercise for almost a month which means I'm completely out of shape for skiing (assuming I can stop coughing long enough to try to ski). Of course, getting enough sleep would be helpful. Or remembering to use the inhaler that I finally got.

But it's December and life is always a little bit crazy. I've been feeling like the Grinch, and everyone else at home is completely into Christmas. We got a 10 1/2 foot tree that looks great. Michael and they boys did a great job decorating. There are tons of presents under the tree already. We've opened some (that came in the mail unwrapped). We've even got most of Timothy's birthday presents under the tree, as well.

I shouldn't be too grumpy because I'm done with shopping. The gifts are all mailed. I'm not thinking about the holiday letter until we get past Christmas day. Still, I haven't finalized plans for Timothy's birthday party or sent out any invites. I haven't started packing, I don't know when my in-laws are arriving, and their room isn't ready.

I've started a second new project at work which is overwhelming. It's good news because it means I'll likely have enough work to go full time later in January (because Michael has requested a 12 month unpaid leave of absence). Hmm... I wonder why I'm stressed.

No matter how much things change, they stay the same.

Bad Habit

I wish I could stop doing this - I eat something I really like, and I feel hungry, i want more, so I have more and then I've had too much. Made pierogies for lunch today, and the first few I boiled, then fried in a little butter so they were crispy, and had low-fat sour cream on top. Not great, but not so very horrible. Until I made another batch, omitted the frying because I wanted them NOW and they were not nearly as good. And then I was uncomfortably full because I'd gobbled them down.

I'm slowly losing weight, but not if I eat like this! Bleah.

I hate cold rainy days

I didn't let William play outside today because we had more rain than snow. I am now paying the price because he is whiny and bored. We are going out to dinner with friends - their daughter just got admitted to MIT. William doesn't want to go, he doesn't want to try Thai food (even white rice) he wants someone to play with ....

Ok, i didn't get much done today, and I spent a long time on the couch with him watching TV - I understand that he's bored but leave me alone for 5 minutes!!!!

Arrgh - it is compounded by the fact that I offered him several different things to do this afternoon (making cookies with me, eg.) and he declined them all.

Forced exercise!

Well, I'm a little proud of myself. We got about 9 inches of snow. Steve's away. The only chance I have to clear it is when the kids are sleeping. So, having never used the snow blower before, I learned how and cleared the driveway. It's kind of a beast to meneuver and manage the direction of the snow while working on our hill of a driveway, but I did it! And then followed up with a good scraping with the shovel and salting (our driveway is steep and impossible to get up with any amount of snow or ice on it.) Yes, the house is still a disaster (and -- gross -- there's been cat barf on the carpet in my office for 2 days) but I'm glad to know that I can do the things I need to, even on my own.
Of course, I just found out that school for Owen is cancelled tomorrow morning, so it's less urgent that I be able to get out first thing, but I still have places to go! I wonder if Sierra's gymnastics is cancelled....

One load down! Many more to go

I got one load out of the storage unit. It at least made a difference in the storage unit. There are many more loads to go but I am counting it as exercise!

Just a little more than yesterday....

I'm alone with the kids this week, and sometimes I use that as an excuse to not get anything done. But this week I've resolved to go to bed each night with the house a little cleaner or at least a bit more done than when I woke up in the morning. Yesterday that wasn't hard, given that the house was a disaster when I woke up, but I did manage to clean all the old condiments out of the fridge and wipe down the downstairs bath before going to bed. Plus, the kids and I did manage to get the Christmas tree decorated! They were actually a big help! Now if I can at least get the candle lights in the windows the neighbors won't think we're the Grinch family. Anyway, I've got so much to do around the house, if I can keep up this goal of just a little more each day, even after Steve gets back, perhaps it will eventually all get done! And if my house cleaning and to-do's get under control, perhaps I can feel relaxed enough to stop and exercise once in a while!

Bummer

Went back to the surgeon's office today to get the steri-strips taken off my incision. Apparently I got it wet, or keeping it covered made it too moist, because the skin layer hasn't healed all the way yet. She said it looked good except for the outer layer, so I have to put Bacitracin on it twice a day and either leave it open or if I wear a sock I can put a gauze pad over it (held in place by the sock). Right now I'm wearing socks - its cold, and the hem of my pants was rubbing it.

It's cold and rainy and gray and matches my mood, I'm afraid. The incision is tender, probably because she broke the scab, and I'm feeling very sorry for myself. I'm tired of being "broken". I want to be able to do all the things I need/want to do, and right now I feel like I can't. And this is just the biopsy site, we haven't even gotten the results yet! Oh, yeah, there's a reason we mutilated my leg.

I don't know if I'm going to get presents out to family before Christmas - I bought them, but have not wrapped let alone shipped anything. I know, they'll understand and its hardly the first time, but I really want to get done on time. For once. And I need to clean up at least some because family is coming, and I'd like to bake cookies (another cookie exchange on Sunday, now), and the tree still has no ornaments.

Bleah. I know at least half my mood is the weather - I guess it's a good thing I don't live in Seattle, eh?

Well...

Should be an interesting week. I get to call and change my appointment with my Dr. My cholesterol results were high so they want to see me to talk about my results. I don't know what they are yet as they didn't say in the message they left. To top it off they keep leaving messages on the phone I've asked them not to leave messages on and never approved for messages. Rather annoying.

I've had higher cholesterol since getting married. I know I've also gained weight since marriage as I cook every night and eat full meals, vs when I was single I would sometimes have peanut butter and crackers and call it good. More fun to cook for two, but there are some drawbacks.

Hope everyone has a better week then it sounds like it was last week.

On the upswing

I'm really hoping that no more bad things happen, for at least a few days. It's been a really rough week. My leg, my teeth, my poor cat... that's three, right? I'm done for a while?

I'm actually feeling pretty good despite everything, and I've realized I've lost 12 lbs. since May without doing a whole lot on purpose. I'm trying to choose healthier foods and be mindful of when I'm eating for hunger vs. eating emotionally. I don't necessarily NOT eat just for therapy, but I'm trying to be aware of it and realize that's a choice I'm making.

Exercise is going to be a while away, I think. Walking isn't too bad, but when I step wrong it's like little electric shocks radiating into my foot. The incision doesn't hurt much, it's the nerve pain from the severed nerve that's getting me. Even pushing on the wrong place on my leg will trigger it. John was poking around trying to figure out where the numb patch is and hit a spot that just lit me up, and it wasn't particularly near the incision. The nurse says that will improve with time, but it's wierd now.

So today I let myself eat what I wanted (fish and chips for lunch, golden fried goodness!), but I also walked around the mall for quite a while and took the stairs between levels twice. If I can keep making the better choices most of the time, maybe I can make progress.

Progress

Yesterday I bought a new water bottle. I also finished off the last of the Coke so there is no more soda in the house that I am willing to drink (Jim and I have discrete tastes in soda for the most part).
I also found the address list finally. I knew it was somewhere in the RV and not just on the hard drive that is under the bed. So now I can actually get our Christmas letter out. I am also just about done shopping (the boys have been troopers).

I might have even managed to get a serving of fruits this morning as Andy was being "Mr. Host" and shoved a huge chunk of banana in my mouth before I could object. He told me "momma needs this."

Inspiring Article

Inspiring in the "every little bit helps" sense.

"Fitness trumps fatness"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071204/hl_nm/fitness_longevity_dc;_ylt=AuXTgmbT_QPRu1DH0pd5lwta24cA

Opps

SO I was doing great with my new water bottle... all 3 days I used it...and then it appears that I accidently managed to throw it away on Friday (long story). So at least it turns out that Jim bought it off the clearance table and it was only $2.
Now I just need to get my mind wrapped around everything I need to do which I can't seem to remember even long enough to get it written down. I am making progress even if a little inefficiently.

2 down, ? to go...

Ok, I'm through the root canal also. Gotta admit, i think I've had cavities that were more unpleasant (ok, could be that he gave me nitrous). I'm currently numb, including half my tongue, which is a little wierd. But I've got uberMotrin, which I will take with lunch when I can eat without hurting myself.

Have I been eating well, exercising, taking care of myself? No, no, and sort of. It's really hard to exercise at the moment, although my ankle is healing up nicely I think. Still sort of limiting my mobility. And it's really REALLY hard to be eating well right now - especially since I'm feeling sorry for myself. But all of these medical things are part of taking care of myself, so I am trying to be reasonable about portions and not beat myself up when I'm not.

Next week, I have a follow-up with the surgeon's nurse (just to inspect the wound), the results from my rheumatologist, and currently have the crown scheduled for Friday. Somewhere I have to actually do the Christmas shopping for which I've had the good idea, and I'm desperate to get cards out this year - we've missed two years, now, and I hate it.

Vidi Vini Visa

I came, I saw, I shopped

I am feeling a whole lot better about Christmas shopping. In high school and college I had the luxury of going around a bunch and window shopping until I found something that spoke to me. These days I am toting children and usually need a plan before I go. So Jim and I went to the outlet mall near my in-laws while they watched the kids, and we made a gigantic start on our shopping. I am actually feeling like it might get done, which is good because I know that this month is going to go very quickly.

I'm alive!

Ok, well, that was never really in doubt, but it's nice to have it over. Had my biopsy this morning, and while it was very grumbly to get up at 4 am and be at the hospital by 5:30 am, we had to be there that early because I was the first surgery scheduled for my doctor. Turned out to be a good thing - by the time I came out, I spent an extra hour or so hanging out in recovery because the same-day center was so busy they didn't have a room for me to go back to. Eventually the nurse gave up and went and found my clothes and John and discharged me directly from recovery.

So now I have "discomfort", as they say, and the outside of my foot is definitely numb. A little wierd, I don't know if that's going to change much. I was told a "small numb patch on my foot", but this is the whole side including heel and I think little toe. And the waiting game for results begins.

And I'm on an uber antibiotic, which makes the root canal on Monday a non-problem. I'm not bothering with the dentists antibiotic, and since I have to take this for 7 days, I'm probably covered both before and after. So I still have that to look forward to, but so far so good.

Anticipation is often worse than actuality. Usually.

Cool clear water

I forgot to get a water bottle while I was at the store the other day, but then Jim went and did the laundry and stopped by the store for the things I had forgotten (which included more than just the water bottle). He did not get me a really big one with all the water for the day, but he did get me a sports bottle that had markings for amounts on the side, and a screw top so that water will not leak (we have some old water bottles that the tops leak on now). So today is the first day I carried it. I should have filled it up before I left school so I could have had it for the whole afternoon, but I did get it filled up twice which should equal 8+ glasses so I know for sure that I got my recommended amount.
I have also been really good about not even looking for the bus on campus and just walking (though I take the shortest most direct route and park in the closest space possible...but it is a start and I am usually carrying enough junk with me that it probably counts as walking with weights).
I have also decided that when the current supply of Coca-cola runs out that I am not refilling it. I can still get it when we go out but I don't need it at home (though I still intend to drink coffee). I even informed Jim so he would not buy any for me (of course his response was "who are you and what have you done with my wife")

Multitasking!

I've been getting no exercise lately, but today, when I woke up, it was about 50 deg. outside. So I took the kids for a walk in the wagon. They got fresh air, I got some exercise, and I distributed some flyers around the neighborhood for Owen's pre-school fundraising concert! I felt like I accomplished something when I got back. Keep in mind that my neighborhood is huge, so it was it pretty decent length walk. (Yes, it's true, I have ~5 miles of safe neighborhood roads to walk/jog/run on and I never get out there!)

It is what it is

thanks for putting up with my little hissy fit yesterday. I did a little more internet research on the biopsy (sural nerve biopsy, if anyone is interested), and the biopsy itself is relatively minor. If I have vasculitis, that's a little scary, but I don't really fit the usual profile except for my tingly toes.

And as for the root canal, that's just a bummer. If I were in tons of pain, I'd probably be looking forward to it for relief. It's more that I really hate that drilling thing - sound and smell more than the pain, so i may ask to be out for a bit.

I'm really hitting a point where i'm thinking, what next? I thought I was being good by going to the doctor and taking care of all these things, but there's a part of me that would rather not know at this point! I have to do my mammogram soon - I'm just so excited to do that now! I would really like to hit a point where nothing new comes up for a bit, you know?

You Gotta be kidding me

So, I have a biopsy scheduled for Thursday. To help figure out why my feet are tingling and numb. It's been scheduled for a month, and I'm kind of stressing about it.

However, I've also had a problem with my teeth for a couple of months now. In August, I went in with a serious toothache, and found out it was actually a sinus infection. Three rounds of progressively stronger antibiotics later, it's mostly gone, but then a tooth, on the same side of my mouth, starts gradually hurting like, 2-3 weeks ago. I think it's still the sinus thing, but finally, since it still hurts, go in to the dentist today.

The root is infected. I need a root canal. As soon as possible. And to take three days of antibiotics ahead of time so we don't spread the infection. But since I'm having surgery Thursday...

I cannot believe this. I've called the surgeons office to find out how I can mesh these two things, and had to leave a message. Right now, I'm scheduled for the root canal on Monday. I may or may not be driving yet from the biopsy. Augh!

I think I'm going to stay off the celebrex and get the 800mg Motrin from the dentist (if the surgeon says ok). If I drank, this would be the perfect opportunity.

Sanity saver

So we had Thanksgiving on Friday again this year. It's been a bit of a tradition at our house. It started because Michael and I were both putting in insane hours at work and didn't have time to prepare, but we're both traditionalists at heart. So to be able to put a turkey with all the trimmings on the table, we decided to have turkey on Friday. His parents liked it because they go travel when everyone was eating their turkey. We also had some friends join us who have family nearby and had family obligations on Thursday.

So Thursday morning we went bowling, then grocery shopping. Once home, we baked cornbread for stuffing and made a couple of pumpkin pies. We had spaghetti squash for dinner, and cleaned up a bit. We felt so prepared that Friday morning we spend a couple hours at the zoo before picking up a turkey (19 pounds which was larger than we were looking for, but a small price to pay for a mellow celebration). With Michael helping, we got everything ready for a dinner at 6 PM. There's lots of turkey leftover, but we made a huge dent with sandwiches at lunch today.

Thanksgiving

I don't understand why I feel obligated to eat more just because it is there. Not just picking, but a second helping when I really am comfortably full. I guess it was foods I don't usually make, but not even that really. Because you're supposed to eat too much at Thanksgiving?

Except for stuffing and gravy, I actually did ok on Thursday. And nobody in our house wanted Pumpkin Pie, so I only made Apple, so I only had one slice, not two. Ok, yes, ice cream.

But we've been pretty active this weekend, not with "exercise", but cleaning around the house, I've been painting a set at church for the youth group, and I walked around a flea market all morning on Friday. Didn't get on the scale yet, so we'll see if I at least broke even...

Children's books

I have been trying to be good with my kids and help them establish healthy habits. I do try to not be a hypocrite though. If mommy can eat in the car then they can eat in the car, if mommy can have a cookie for an afternoon snack then they should be able to have a cookie also. Perhaps I need to start making them eat super healthy snacks and then I will have to also.

Anyway, I noticed when we were reading an alphabet book we have that in the picture where "V is for Vegetable" that of the 5 items shown, 3 of them are actually fruits.

Tools

I have decided that half of doing the right thing is having the right tools. I used to have a huge water bottle that held the amount of water you were supposed to drink in a day. It was great because I could see where I was at in my amount of water and I just carried it with me. Then one day the boys knocked it off the counter and it developed a fatal crack.
So now I can never keep track of how many glasses I have had. I decided that I am going to find another water bottle that holds the right amount. I also decided that I will always walk on campus and not use the bus system unless it is pouring down rain. I even decided that once I can walk from my current parking spot without being winded that I will start parking farther away.

Surprised

So I found out today that fruits/veggies are only 1/2 cup to be considered a serving. Which means I was better then usual and actually had 3+ servings of fruit (my weakest point). Of course veggies, which I usually do better at, was only 1 + servings. Ah well, at least I was better eating wise, and worked on restraint. In fact my usually non dessert motivated hubby ate the last brownie yesterday, and I managed to refrain. I didn't even noticed he'd eaten till today.

I'm hoping that's a start in the right direction for me. The exercise isn't a huge problem for me since I walk a lot, but I am thinking about adding Yoga for flexability. It's embarressing when I have women I know that are around 60 and they are more flexable then I am. I have had trouble putting my socks on in the morning if it's right after I get out of bed. Ugh

Now to just work on my liking more fruits and veggies... and less starch/carb items.

Success!

Well, a little, anyway. After I posted my comment on Julia's post, I changed my shoes, went downstairs, moved laundry, and then actually did walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes (plus 5min warmup, i was honest). Don't know that it made a huge difference in my energy level for the day, but did make me feel like I could do it again tomorrow.

And I posted a bunch of stuff on freecycle that will hopefully disappear over the next few days, and I'm sort of keeping up with the dishes, and I made all the phone calls I needed to today, so it's good! Small steps, but progress.

Off to move more laundry so I can walk more tomorrow.

Jump in where you are...

Not that I'm always good about it, but like the Nike commercial says, "Just Do It."

I did squats in the shower this morning. I did crunches waiting for the boys to fall asleep (in the dark with the dog nosing me because she decided she did want to go back upstairs). I justified skipping swimming this morning because I wanted to get a free latte at work.

There's no perfect time to start working out. There's no perfect workout. It takes about 30 days to form a pattern and 90 days to form a habit. I'd love to go swimming more, but I think I need to think smaller. Starting tomorrow (it's a little late for today), I'm going to try really really hard to move for 15 minutes. Whether it's walking or swimming or jumping up and down with the kids (have you noticed if they haven't gotten enough exercise, they start doing laps around the house just before dinner time?), I'm going to do it. Wish me luck.

The me in my mind Vs. the Actual me

I wanted to post something about who I think I am in my mind (and want to be) vs. who I've actually become. Sometimes I talk to people about the things I like; ice hockey, backpacking, hiking, rock climbing, triathlons; and I feel like such a poser because if you look at me it seems perfectly obvious that I can't actually do any of those things in my current condition. A while back I inquired about a backpacking trip run by a group called Wild Women Workshops in CA. (Check them out at: http://www.wildwomenworkshops.org/.) A little over a month ago they got back to me with at trip they were trying to run at the beginning of Nov. for women over 40 (yikes, I qualify!) if they could get enough participation. I was SERIOUSLY considering going on this trip. At some point I realized that the timing was horrible for me to be able to keep up an exercise routine every night so that I would have a chance of being about to manage it, and even if I could, I probably would not have been in good enough shape to carry a backpack, let alone do it up a steep switchback trail. But the point is, I WANT to be able to do these things! I want to be able to say to someone on a moment's notice, yes I'll go hiking, yes I'll play hockey, yes, yes yes! And I want to be a person who, maybe is not the best at that sport, but is certainly in good enough shape to not struggle and hold my own. In my mind, I imagine that I'm this person. In my mind I imagine I could even wear the appropriate clothing for these activities and not look like a pork sausage! But I'm not this person, and it's depressing. I'm a mother who's too tired every night to get any exercise, not a morning person (so don't even suggest morning exercise,) and the kids never let me get any exercise during the day. The kids snack, so I snack. I love watching TV at night to turn off my brain. And the sad thing is, I KNOW that if I can stick with the exercise routine long enough, I will eventually begin to crave it -- eventually it won't just be painful, but it will give me energy and make me feel more like the person I want to be and I will want more of that. And feeling more like that healthy person will make me crave better foods and less junk. I was watching video of Sierra's birthday party yesterday of me helping her open presents. Yuck! In my mind I just don't look like what I really look like....

Thanks for listening.

The End of Halloween Candy

So I decided to throw out the last of Timothy and Christopher's Halloween candy after putting the last "good" candy in Timothy's lunch for tomorrow. There's just no point in keeping it around for the boys to whine about and for me to munch on when I don't need it. I decided it was better in the garbage than on me. Then I opened the pantry to find that there's at least a dozen full sized candy bars leftover from what we were handing out. I give up.

Of course, I made peanut blossom cookies with the boys today forgetting that there's chocolate sandwich cookies, candied popcorn, and more sweets in the cupboard already. Good thing I don't have a big sweet tooth.

Exhausted but not in a healty way

I don't know if being on my feet for 2 1/2 hours at William's party counts as exercise but I'm exhausted. And yes, I had pizza and cake and junk, so really not such a healthy day.

I did step on the scale this morning and was down about 3-4 lbs from the last time a week or so ago. That was kind of exciting!

It's going to be just us for Thanksgiving, which is good and bad. No pressure about having certain foods, which is nice, or cleaning the house, but guests can be fun and make it feel like more of a special occasion. But I think it will be nice, kind of relaxed.

First thing in the morning...

Ann said something in a comment that made me laugh out loud.

First thing in the morning, even before getting out of bed... I'm not sure that I can manage to figure out how to get up before Christopher wakes up.

The frustrating thing is I am usually most successful with an exercise habit if I do it in the morning before I take a shower. These days, I feel lucky to get a shower before getting the boys out of the house on time. That said, when I have my act together, I've been going swimming after dropping the kids off and before going into the office. I manage to swim several times a week for a few weeks before I can't get near the gym for one reason or another for several weeks. Plus, my swim buddy is on maternity leave/can't find child care to go back to the office and is working from home.

I keep trying to do stretches or crunches in the morning, but if the kids aren't trying to climb on me, the dog is thrilled I'm on the floor ready to play with her.

Back to those carrots...

Parsnips & Celeriac

The kids are finally to bed, and I really should clean the kitchen before going to bed. I'm permanently exhausted by the time dinner rolls around.

We eat pretty well around here. Too much perhaps, but definitely healthy, except for the hot dogs at Costco for lunch today. And I'm not entirely sure about the dino nuggets for the boys at dinner, but they won't eat lamb chops or steak. DH Michael won't give up lamb chops or steak. Compromises.

I signed up for a winter CSA again. I must be a masochist. I'd been doing pretty well keeping on top of the produce until we went to San Francisco to visit family last weekend. We were gone for 4 days, and since I was gone all weekend, I had all the weekend chores to catch up on during the week. Needless to say, there wasn't a lot of time to cook, so I cleaned out the fridge this afternoon. I made butter parsnips, mashed celeriac, and cauliflower for veggies tonight. Despite tossing most of the slimey stuff, I still have brussel sprouts, carrots, fennel, salad mix, delicata squash, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, and potatoes. Oh did I mention I have another delivery on Wed?

The good news is both boys are relatively adventurous eaters. At my Nana's 90th birthday banquet, Timothy tried shark fin soup and abalone. My cousin also talked him into trying a fish eyeball (even I haven't been willing to try that!). I should also add that Timothy didn't care for any of the new foods. He stuck with the crab, lobster, duck, and chocolate chip cookies.

It's late and I need to scrub some of the baby carrots.

Busy Saturday

Well, didn't get the dining room or great room completely cleaned up, but made progress. And the family room got vacuumed, so that's a big plus. Trailer is next to the house, just have to put the cover on, although John did 99% of the winterizing. I did get the kitchen straightened up and moved the microwave to a new location - got rid of some old piles of stuff, so that was good.

Had a lousy lunch (hot dog and pretzel) at William's soccer because I ran out of time. Had coffee and a donut later in the afternoon because I was almost falling asleep while taking JC to a friend's house. But a nice dinner, although portions were too large.

I do better on snacking when I stay busy, but there are days it's really hard to be motivated. Today was good, mostly. Still haven't done my stretches, and I have to go off the Celebrex on Tuesday so it's out of my system for the surgery (biopsy), so I'm thinking I have be doing the back stuff so I can move in the morning. So since it's sort of early, I'm going to do them now. Yoda says there is no try, only do.

A Very Pooh Birthday

So this day was about Sierra's birthday. I cleaned the house and got things ready until guests arrived around 11am (it was just family.) And I had been up until 2:30am decorating the cake and cleaning and prepping. I'm SO tired. (I'm off to bed after I write this.) The cousins stayed for dinner and then we got the kids to bed. Then I ate my 2nd piece of cake for the day.

So that brings me to my hobby, which is one of my many weight-loss will-power problems. Cake decorating. (See attached photo.) I'm always making cakes for someone, because I enjoy it, but I tend to nibble on the icing and cake bits as I go. And now, after the party, the pooh cake is gone, but the 3 balloons, which are 3 giant cupcakes, and the other 3 cupcakes that I got out of the batter are in my kitchen and I do try to teach my kids healthy eating habits (ironically) and not let them eat too much of it. (And, of course, they don't actually seem to be learning the healthy eating habits.) Well, I'm tired so I'm not sure I'm ever going to get to a real point here, so I'll end and go to bed.

car naps

I hope the construction crew across the street doesn't wake Christopher up because he's taking his nap in the car (just about the only way he naps on the weekend). I took advantage of the time to put away the stuff from Costco (why do we always end up with twice as much as we planned to get when we walked in the door?).
So I lost LOTS of weight last year, but for all the wrong reasons. I picked up some stomach bug last Thanksgiving (the only one to get sick), and couldn't keep food in me for most of December and January. I think it's also related to the case of appendicitis I had in June. I managed to get down to 120, which is where I was when we moved to Seattle 12 years ago, but now I'm back up to 125 (and climbing). I'm mostly content with my weight, but I really need to get some regular exercise into my life because my body just hurts all the time when I don't. It's so insane, that most of the time I'm lucky if I can do some crunches and squats in the dark waiting for the boys to fall asleep.
Ooops. Michael just came home and woke up Christopher.

Off and running

So, I probably have a leg up on everyone here not having baby weight to lose (that is a definate advantage I think). I'm at 155 (lost 15 pounds two years ago and have kept it off). I'd like to lose another 15-20 pounds to get me back at the top half of my recommended weight area and back to where I was at my heaviest in college.

Yesterday was a fun, though not conducive to eating well, day. The charity quilting my small quilt group was doing ended up being at my house (the lady who was going to host it is older and not doing well as of last week). So I baked brownies (only had 2 small pieces, I was good!) and put out just a few cheese and crackers to munch on. I tried to be good after reading what I have been reading about calories etc. and also one of the other girls is trying to lose weight, so I didn't want to have too much to tempt her, it wouldn't be nice.

I've become pretty immune to guilt which can be very nice, but I'm not always the most disciplined. I gotta work on the will power more then anything!

Today unfortunately will be another sitting day, plus this morning I don't have time for the longer walk we usual do (good thing we walked more yesterday) as I have a quilting class to teach. It'll be fun, but I have so many things I need to get caught up on this time of year.

DH John has taken the week off and I managed to get out of the shop job, but looks like I have too much work to do at home (quilting for others) for me to fully get the week off and work on the house/do things for fun for me. Ah well, it's nice the new business has taken off as well as it has.

Day 1 Summary

As you may have guessed, setting up this blog was my creative thing for the day, and counts as for others, too! I did manage to spend most of the day not on the computer (yea!), I did eat about 8 frosted sugar cookies (boo, but homemade), but I did NOT use that as an excuse to loose all control later in the day when I was starving (double yea!).

Two bathrooms are sparkly, the smallest is not as bad but yet to sparkle, I cleaned all the dead stuff out of the fridge, and got William to his dr. appt. early. And maybe I'll do my back exercises while William's in the tub.

Net good on this end. Feeling positive. Tomorrow goals - clean dining room, do exercises, winterize trailer and get it out of the driveway. (along with all the regular stuff)

Ambitious (but do-able!) goal

I'm thinking of setting the Boston-area Danskin women's triathlon for 2008 as a fitness goal for myself. This is a yearly event that's run in various places around the country. I did it twice when I lived in CA. It's a VERY beginner-friendly mini triathlon (you know, ra-ra, you go girl, etc.) There's one near me in July and there's one in the New York area (Sandy Hook, NJ, actually!) in August, I think. (Check out http://www.danskin.com/triathlon.html) Would any of you be interested in training for that, or some other doable event that suits your likes and abilities? (Some quick web searches can reveal some really interesting racing events!)

Me too!

I figured it out, too! (Ignore my email plea for help, Ann.)
So I have to be honest, I'm already feeling panicked that I can't possibly make any positive progress toward weight loss and fitness because life is so crazy this time of year, but perhaps that panick, along with your support, will help me out!
This morning I was rear-ended in the car while driving my son to school. It was just a bump from someone desparately trying to stop on a wet road, but it's thrown me off for the day. It makes you think how easy it is to get into an accident with kids in the car and it's scary. My whole being is a little bit on edge, mentally and physically, because of it. (So now I'm eating Halloween candy to feel better...!)
AND, tomorrow is my daughter's birthday party. I still have to decorate the cake (my very time-consuming and FATTENING hobby), clean the house, and decorate the house. Yikes! (At least I ordered food from a caterer to relieve a little pressure.)
Anyway, as for my goals, I'm probably about 40 lbs. over where I'd like to be. (Ideally, I could be less, but I don't think that's realistic.) Pregnancy and nursing did a number on my weight, mainly because I was always so hungry so I was always eating, but not always so healthy. Right now my weight is the same as it was at the very END of my first pregnancy (and I started that pregnancy overweight.) I'll be the first to post my weight: it's 180. I don't feel like I can be successful starting a "diet", but ultimately I'll do better if I begin to work out and ramp up my exercise routine. Getting good exercise generally makes me feel like eating healthier, or at least gives me better will-power for eating better, so that's where I like to start. But starting is an issue. Making it routine. That's HARD.
Thanks for letting me babble. And inviting me to join this blog -- I love the comraderie, and crave it!

Figured it out

I couldn't figure out how to post at first, till I finally found the article about the dashboard. :)

I don't have the mommy distinction for the blog, but I do have goals I am working on. I probably have a leg up on the exercise thing because I don't have a choice. The dog makes sure I stay motivated to go every morning and we walk about about an hour/2 miles or more, 6 days a week. The days I work it's a bit less, but it evens out a bit.

I've been working on reading a book called "what to eat" by Marion Nestle. It's interesting and talks about some of the "politics" of the food industry. Boy, what a tangled web that is! The getting in shape motivation came from a program I saw with a panel of people that have been studying food trends in the US. I enjoyed some of the different perspectives and found it interesting. It got me to drag John to the library and renew my library card in this area (had expired it'd been about 5 years since I last lived out here), and check out some of the books they had talked about.

So, we'll see what I learn! Off to do that walking of the dog thing... as the sign at the vet said, "There is no snooze button on a hungry pet."

Hello

Right now my internet time tends to be in the morning so I may have to report about the previous day (although I already had more sweet rolls for breakfast than I think I should have).
Anyway, I was thinking that a more positive thing to do as far as any weight things would be to report in terms off amount lost or something like that instead of total weight.
I was also thinking goals and stair step goals (the little goals to get to the big goal) might be a good thing. For instance while I know I need to lose more my first goal is to lose about 30 pounds, and an even smaller more daily goal is for me to get back to drinking the amount of water that I should be. Especially while I am breastfeeding (which I realize gives me a little bit of an edge in that category) the water is important.

Welcome

Ok, I've set up the blog and invited Jill, Julia, Susan, and Lisa to be authors. I can add more people - didn't know if Mom would be into it! I put up a bunch of polls, although it seems to be limited to 4 answers / poll even though it says you can add more....

Right now the polls are set at 6 days, although we can shorten that if we want to be more "daily". I'm thinking we'll be posting and commenting, but we'll see. And I'll probably put in a counter later, now that I've figured out how to do that on my other blog!

Off to work on cleaning my house, as my walking partner flaked on me (again) this morning, and the house is disgusting.