health & fitness Leave a comment

Back in the Saddle

That would be a funnier title if I attended the spin class at work. Alas, I don’t do spin, since the one time I tried it, I managed to rotate one of my vertebrae. I have no plans to try spin ever again — even though that was a couple years ago.

What I am doing is getting back to my normal fitness routine. When I’m not being a total slacker (as I was over the holidays), I typically attend fitness classes at the work gym over lunch once or twice a week, then do weights once a week. I’ve been mixing it up recently, though, and throwing in some treadmill instead of strength training, just because tracking my cardiovascular fitness with my new Fitbit Charge 2 is a new fun thing for me. #datanerd

(Also because I’d have to adjust my lifting plan to my post-hiatus fitness level, and I haven’t felt motivated to do that yet, truth be told.)

Monday was kickboxing class.

Max heart rate: 156

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parenthood Leave a comment

Morning Ritual

The morning ritual starts with me — having finally convinced myself to get out of bed — walking down the short hallway, reaching inside Connor’s bedroom door, and turning on his lamp to start waking him up. Then I go into the bathroom to get ready for work, and he generally stays in bed until I come in and cajole him awake.

Lately, though, the cat has been going into his room before I get there. She hasn’t jumped up on his bed of her own volition yet, but give it time.

When I came out of the bathroom this morning, Connor’s door had been pushed wide open — presumably, when the cat walked in and right back out into the hallway. She followed me into Connor’s room, meowing loudly, as she does. I sat down on Connor’s bed, and she let me pick her up and stand her on my lap — another recent addition to the morning ritual. Connor sat up to listen to Mei purr.

While Connor and I sat on his bed, quietly petting Mei, she started turning in circles on my lap like a dog. Connor exclaimed, “She’s doing a cat jig!”

I’m glad to see Connor’s progress in learning how to pet our cat so she won’t just try to remove herself from the area. She still won’t stick around long — especially not on someone’s lap, and not without an adult also petting her — but she seems to enjoy his petting more than just putting up with it.

Related: I’m grateful that we have a fresh pet-hair-remover wand.

weight loss Leave a comment

Return of “Why Did I Eat That?”

An old friend reminded me on Facebook (where I cross-post all my blog entries) that I need to do the “thought work” behind the food and fitness decisions that I make.

Sounded like a good time to reinstate the old Why Did I Eat That? exercise.

Friday and Monday were good days.

I don’t have it marked on the graph, but my Daily Target is 30 SmartPoints. I also get a Weekly Allowance of an additional 35 …which didn’t cover my indiscretions this week. Not even close. (But I at least kept tracking.)

Also, for those not familiar with Weight Watchers, the Points system is basically a way to encourage healthy food decisions — it’s loosely based on calories, with emphasis put on fresh fruits and vegetables and lean protein. Saturated fats and sugars are discouraged in the Points algorithm, as well.

So, depending on what I eat, my calories could look just fine, but my SP Values would be all wonky. That said, I ate way more calories than necessary on Tuesday and Thursday — 2,000 and 2,300 respectively. Sunday was around 1,400, but some of it was sugary snacks, which is why my SmartPoints total was all whack. On my two Perfectly On Plan days, I ate 1,200 and 900 calories, with a healthy percentage of my calories coming from protein.

You’ll note that I’m skirting the issue. So, why did I eat that? And what did I eat, anyway?  Continue reading →