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When I first read this headline, I immediately thought of my Uncle Donnie, who used to work carnivals in Florida. It took me another few moments to remember that Uncle Donnie died over a year ago.
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‘Claiming that he is “literally being starved to death,” the 6′, 308-pound Laswell Friday filed a lawsuit charging that his civil rights have been violated by jailers.’
Quick Update
On my to-do list for this evening was posting more about the Japan Trip of 2007, since I’m running out of time to finish up with that before the next vacation. However, the other things on the to-do list took precedence.
I’ve rediscovered the joy of cooking, and spent a good part of this evening preparing food for the upcoming week. I cooked two cups of rice and portioned it out into six servings of one-third cup each. I made the Pureed Broccoli Soup recipe I read in this month’s Women’s Health magazine. Add to that the two single-cup servings of Three Amigos Chili I have stashed in the fridge from this weekend, and I’m loaded for bear.
Also on the agenda: a cardio workout with PUSH (quickly aborted ten minutes in, when the yoga-cardio chick started doing a V-step and some sort of jazz hands) and processing / uploading audio files from my Zen teacher‘s most recent retreat with his Zen teacher.
In the foreseeable future: Tomorrow is my second-ever Weight Watchers weigh-in and meeting. I have four more days of work before I get two weeks off. And I have only nine days to wait until I can see the sunny shores of Oahu!
I’ll try to post some more substantive entries within the coming week. We’ll see…
links for 2008-04-26
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Although I don’t necessarily condone the behavior described in the prank letter, I still think this prank was ingenious, and they seemed to pull it off well. Better idea than putting the principal’s VW bug on the roof of the school.
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If you must smoke, maybe you should just roll your own…
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‘On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter. The message only had one word. “Arrested.”‘
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“The shooter will not likely face a murder charge stemming from the deaths of the twins, Rinehart reported. That charge typically doesn’t come into play until a fetus is 7 months.”
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‘Motorists would be fined $60 for displaying the novelty items, which are known by brand names like “Truck Nutz” and resemble the south end of a bull moving north.’
links for 2008-04-25
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‘The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe.”‘
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“The high-frequency sound … can be heard by most people in their teens and early 20s who still have sensitive hair cells in their inner ears.”
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‘Adam Sternbergh’s long investigative New York Magazine piece, “You Walk Wrong,” makes a compelling case for shoes as inherently damaging to your feet and spine.’ – via BoingBoing
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“[T]he number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.”
Spring Challenge, Week #5
I’m not sure why I keep posting updates. Both James and I are sucking it up big time, and really can’t seem to keep focused on our weight loss goals. I’m back above my spring starting weight again.
However.
I took a big leap on my birthday (Tuesday, for those of you who aren’t keeping track): I joined Weight Watchers. My employer sponsors a Weight Watchers At Work program, so I can go to a WW meeting with my co-workers during my lunch break every Tuesday. It seems fairly well attended — I think there were at least 25 people there, probably more.
I didn’t get the standard-length Getting Started talk; instead, I got a quick explanation and the Week One materials. I’m OK with that, though, as everything seems fairly self-explanatory. The program isn’t difficult to understand. Take a short assessment of your activity level, current weight, gender, and age to calculate the number of points you should eat in a day; use the nifty slide rule to compare fat and calories and fiber to calculate the points value of a food; and track what you eat as you eat it.
Easier said than done.
I’m discovering some important things about myself. Firstly: I am an evening eater. During the day, at work, I’ll eat something small every two hours, and I’m fine. Once I get home, though, it’s time to relax and kick back — and part of the comfort of home is the comfort of food. I enjoy the physical act of eating.
Which brings me to my second point: if it’s in the house, I’m going to eat it. Before I decided to go on WW, I asked Aaron to buy some cans of Beefaroni during the weekly grocery run. (I knew I was being naughty, but I didn’t care.) Once I committed to WW, I could easily have stuck them in the back of the shelf and pretended they weren’t there. Did I? No. Instead, I calculated that one can of Beefaroni is ten, count ’em, ten points, and proceeded to eat the Beefaroni anyway.
Also during last weekend, I had a moment of weakness and bought some homemade sweets from a guy at the flea market: coconut-covered date rolls, chocolate-covered banana chips, and chocolate-covered espresso beans. I’ve been fairly good at keeping my hands out of those, though. Somehow.
Not only am I finding it challenging to slow my evening eating, but I’m finding Weight Watchers to be a major paradigm shift from eating low-carb in general (I haven’t been on the Atkins Diet proper for some time now). Things that I used to think were fine — unbreaded catfish nuggets, protein bars and shakes, peanut butter — are now taboo. Things that were once taboo — fruits galore and real milk, among others — are now encouraged. Where before I could satiate my snackie fix with an Ostrim (ostrich/beef stick — very lean), now I must go with strawberries or pickles.
I’m not expecting big things out of this first week. I’ve already eaten through most of my flex points for the week (even if you don’t count that first day, when I just ate “normal” to see how many points that would be). I know I’ll get the hang of it, and learn all the tricks of the Weight Watchers masters. For now, I really just have to focus on being dogmatic about the diet: Do what they say to do. Don’t question. Don’t go outside the lines. They know what works.
I’ve also discovered some motivation that I wish I would have thought of sooner: trying on the swimsuit I’ll be wearing on vacation in two weeks. It’s a one-piece that I bought a couple of years ago and haven’t had the chance to wear for real. While it does fit… I really feel like a sausage in it. My husband is probably the only person who will think this is sexy. And now there’s no time to do anything about it. I can’t take care of this in just two weeks. Well, I could, but it wouldn’t be healthy.
So, without trying to sound too down on myself, that’s where I stand. Can’t keep focused. Feel frumpy. Thinking that 175 pounds is a pipe dream.
I’m not as fat as I was. I have a lower BMI than many people in my Weight Watchers group. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy with the way I look and feel.
You’d think that would be enough motivation, wouldn’t you? Meh.