drumcorps

Twilight Sheen

I ended up taking a brisk walk around the neighborhood this evening, just before dusk. I’d strapped on my iPod, and the first podcast I queued up was On The 50 (a weekly podcast of drum corps opinion), and I’m sure that affected my mood on some level.

As I finished my first lap around the neighborhood, I’d also finished the podcast. The sky was that particular shade of blue that means the sun has set, and that it’s going to be very dark in about five minutes. The stars had begun to come out, and a light breeze was cooling the sheen of sweat I’d managed to accumulate. Circles of light pooled under the streetlamps, spilling over curbs onto the street.

I queued up another podcast as I started my second lap, but my brain was still focused on a memory. Drum corps in the mid 90’s.
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health & fitness 3 Comments

Standing My Ground

Doing well on the punctuality thing. Clocked in at 8:01 yesterday and 8am today. Even confused myself by getting to the front doors before 8am and having to swipe my card to get in. o_O

Doing well on the menu thing. Had to substitute turkey for ham in this morning’s muffin, but that was probably for the best.

Almost not doing well on the evening exercise. I need to do cardio today, not just a pleasant walk around the ‘hood, but I’m uncomfortably hot and sticky. I’m tossing around the idea of playing DDR in nonstop mode, or doing my Yoga For Dummies DVD (I know, that’s not cardio), or maybe even checking out the cardio track on my current PUSH DVD. I just can’t get excited about driving to Wildwood and taking a jog. I’ll do *something*, though.

I won’t even be hungry for another hour and a half, probably. My afternoon protein shake ended up being the shake that eats like a meal. In the future, I need to actually stick to the recipe.

health & fitness 2 Comments

Something’s Not Right Here

I just spent 45 minutes preparing breakfast, lunch, and two snackies for tomorrow. All that food totally fills up my lunch koozie.

It just doesn’t seem right that:
a.) I spend more time thinking about food when I’m trying to lose weight; and
b.) I eat *more* food when I eat healthier than when I just eat.

Holy crap, that’s a lotta food. I think I’m gonna go do a calorie tally on what I ate today, to make sure I’m not off-base.

weight loss 3 Comments

Diet & Fitness Update: I Declare A Do-Over

My back is officially healed from its traumatic bedroom-painting experience, and today is officially six months since I decided to really lose weight.

WTF. *shakes head*

I’m somehow reminded of that Tubthumper song from back in the late 90s: “I get knocked down, and I get up again…” ad infinitum. Sometimes I feel like that’s my diet story this year, except I don’t really get knocked down. I just lose momentum, and stop giving a shit, but then I realize what my apathy has done and I resolve to work even harder. It’s luckily not resulted in a massive yo-yo of weight, but the yo-yo of mental fortitude is damaging enough.

My stats haven’t changed much in the past two months, apart from going back up to 210 and 35.1% bodyfat. Lost a quarter inch in my bust and neck; gained a quarter inch in my chest; gained a half inch in my lower arm; and my waist, hips, thigh and calf stayed the same. I screwed up on measuring my upper arm, because it says I gained an entire inch in the past two months, and there’s no way that can be right. My arm can’t be as big around as my neck. Can it?

I’m embarking once more on the John & Sheryl diet method, shared with me by Sheryl back in… when was it? January. Yes. Back in January. This time, though, I’m setting myself up for success by planning out my entire week of meals in advance. I have my meal plan posted to the fridge, and I intend to spend some quality time each evening preparing my meals for the following day. Protein shakes, fish, chicken, whatever needs preparing and assembling. I think that should help considerably. And when I’m done eating, I’m done eating. No more snacking after my last meal of the day, even if it seems like a healthy snack. Water will have to do.

And since my back is all healed, I’m going to continue with my PUSH workouts again. I was hesitant to do strength training or even cardio when my lower back was all fubar. Now, though, I’m ready to go for it again. Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be my PUSH workout days, and Tuesday and Thursday I’ll go jogging at Wildwood.

*checks weather.com for this week’s outlook*

OK, I might have to come up with some alternate indoor cardio for Thursday. Maybe rebounding (trampolining). But, still, that’s my plan. As always, I’ll be walking at least 30 minutes a day over my lunch. Likely 45 minutes, assuming I get to work on time and don’t have to short my lunch hour.

That’s something else. I’m going to wake up earlier (i.e. not hit the snooze) and get to work on time this week. See, I have up until eight minutes after 8am to technically be “on time” by the timeclock’s rules. I’ve been just missing that by a minute or two, usually clocking in at about 8:10am. So, I have to short my lunch by ten minutes or so in order to get my full eight hours in. This week, I’m not going to let myself be late like that. The idea is to eventually be awake early enough to at least do some morning stretches, and preferably take a walk or jog around the block. That’s not for a while, though. For now… let’s just be on time to work, shall we?

So, this week’s success will be measured by:

  1. Sticking to my prescribed menu
  2. Exercising every evening
  3. Arriving to work on time every day

I’m also giving myself a non-food reward to look forward to: when I lose five pounds — when I reach 205 — I’m buying myself some clothes. But not until. (I’ve been addicted to mail-order catalogs this spring and summer.)

That’s the plan. And I’ll tell you what, if I don’t lose any weight (or bodyfat) this week, after setting myself up for success as best I can, I will be highly disappointed. But I think I’ll do fine.

I’ll keep you updated.

music

Chiropractor, Conclusion

This morning at ten o’clock was my last visit (hopefully) with Dr. Sue. I’m feeling much better now, and very close to normal again.

Last time, she had mentioned that her younger son — Drew, was it? — plays piano and trumpet and xylophone / marimba / bells. She also has a picture of the local chapter of the Sweet Adelines up on her wall. So, I decided to wear my Dick Does Drum Corps shirt to my visit, as a conversation-starter. And did it ever work!

We got talking about music, and how her son has braces, so he had a real problem with the trumpet for a while. (I was thinking that he needs to work on his mouthpiece pressure, then, and use that weird wax that Amber used to use when she played mello with braces. I kept that to myself, though.) Then I talked about being a music ed major for a while, and how I only started playing clarinet in high school, and how I was a choir person before that.

Cue segue into Sweet Adelines discussion.

Turns out that my chiropractor is a baritone in the Pride of Toledo, and that they rehearse not very far from my house on Tuesday evenings. I may go check out a rehearsal, but even with their completely reasonable dues of $30 a month (and their super-close rehearsal location), there’s no way I’m devoting that much time to a musical group again. Not yet. Maybe I’ll see if I can still sight-read for the hell of it, though. 😉

Back to the actual chiropractor visit.

After she was done with my adjustments, and after I was decent, she asked me again about my insurance. I told her that they pay 80%, I pay 20%, and reminded her that I hadn’t paid her for the last visit. So she opted to have me pay $30 for both visits, and she’d see what my insurance would cover. I wonder if I’ll get a refund if the insurance actually pays for what it’s supposed to, or if she’ll just keep the change.

Either way, I’m still curious about Dr. Smith. I mean, Dr. Sue is very cool and gentle and easy to talk to, but Dr. Smith has The Thumper™. With any luck, though, I won’t have to schedule another series of chiropractic visits for some time.