One step at a time

So, I decided to start wearing a pedometer daily again. I had been trying to start a walking regime in the mornings again, and have been hit or miss. A friend of mine wears a pedometer every day which I had forgotten till Matt found it on her belt and wanted to play with it one day. I remember hearing that those who wear pedometers are more active because it makes them more aware of it, which is definitely the case for me. When the "step" programs were popular a while back I know they said 10k steps a day to maintain your weight, so I was curious how I do with that, while chasing my toddler. I don't hit 10k every day but I do pretty well as long as I get at least a 15 min. walk in. If I don't get the walk in I get just over halfway there. Since I'm back up to the heaviest weight I've ever been before, I need to get serious about losing it as I don't want to trend higher. So far I've been down a few pounds, but not consistently on the scale. So, I really like the routine it helps to wear the pedometer with, and it definitely makes me think more about being active.

candy almost gone

The bacon caramels are gone. We have a little bit of peanut brittle around. And the the See's Candy also got finished off.

I have not gone running. I have not gone swimming. or biking. or hiking. or even for a walk (just for the sake of going for a walk).

Hmmm... maybe I need to get some exercise.

how not to lose weight

bacon caramels & peanut brittle -- those are my excuses for not going swimming this morning.

my friend Mir came over last night and made peanut brittle. since she brought her handy dandy thermometer gun with laser sighting (which T loved, of course), we decided to re-cook the failed bacon caramel. we had to wait until this morning to see if worked!

lo and behold, it did. so before T's carpool showed up this morning, we were manically wrapping bacon caramels. he did most of the half with lots of bacon, and I segregated out the bit that had substantially less bacon and wrapped those after he left.

but, with all that fun, I would have been too late to work if I went swimming.

of course, I also have about a pound of bacon caramel and two pounds of peanut brittle that isn't helping my attempt to lose weight. *sigh*

BUT, I can say that we managed to weasel in a fair amount of chemistry. nucleation sites, Fahrenheit vs Celsius, boiling point, heat capacity, black body radiation, crystalization... enough to make your head spin and your teeth ache.

Late New Year's Resolution...

Since about Xmas I've been trying to put exercise back in my life. Although it feels like a lost cause, I'm not giving up. I was doing okay until work and life didn't get better in the middle of January.

So this morning instead of going to work, I emailed in sick with a head cold, took some sudafed, and went for a run. Maybe it's counter-intuitive, but I've found a short run (isn't that the only kind?) makes me feel better. I figure it's because I tend to hack out all the crud in the process. Then a steamy shower to clean out the rest. And I always sleep better nights when I've done some exercise.

Also, I'm going to plan to go swimming at lunch later this week. I'd been avoiding it because I hate the sense that I'm just stripping all the color I just put in it. But I've decided that I need to swim. My knees and feet aren't happy with this extra weight and running just exacerbates it.