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.

family 2 Comments

Thirty Years Ago Today

Several years ago, Mom gave me the small “baby diary” she’d kept during the first year after I was born. She started it in July 1976, when I was 10 weeks old. It’s really a fascinating look into my Mom’s life as a single 21-year-old mother in the 1970s.

July 14, 1976:

Today Bonnie and I went to see the lawyer. I know it will be hard for you to understand why your father doesn’t want to admit you are his. I hope it can have a happy ending for all of us.

Well, we took you to have your picture taken. And you heard a squeeky toy for the first time. And you smiled real big for the man. Mommy was glad you smiled.

Your Uncle Donnie held you and you talked to him. He played a harmonica, but you didn’t like it.

Good night,
Mom

(It’s a small book. That filled up the whole page for July 14.)

Actually, now that I’m older than he was at the time, I can understand. I don’t agree with his reaction to the situation, but I do understand. He was 25, messing around with his 20-year-old girlfriend. He wasn’t looking for any of this. When he found out, it was probably easier to deny all responsibility. Although I don’t know if I can understand his offering to pay to have me aborted. (Sorry, abortion rights activists, but I am pro-life by default. No matter what I might have said when I was 15, I truly am glad to be alive.)

It’s been interesting growing up fatherless. I don’t think I was scarred by it — of course, I really don’t have a basis of comparison. I learned at some point in my youth when it was OK to talk about my parentage, and when I should just let people draw their own conclusions about how I came to live with my Mom and my grandmother. As I got older and more open with people, and as single parenting became less of a stigma, I began telling more people in more situations. Now I’m to the point where I can discuss my bastard nature with co-workers who are younger than me — and who, surprisingly enough, share very similar stories of their own unusual parentage.

I’ve never met my father face-to-face. It would be interesting, if awkward, to have a discussion with him about that stretch of time in 1975 and 1976 when he so vehemently denied being my father. I’m just curious if he really believes that he isn’t the one. I wonder if he ever thought about it, years later.

On a lighter note, I look forward to reading this while I blog about my own (still unconceived) child’s first year of life. Or maybe I’ll get a little diary and write a few words in my own hand after she goes to sleep at night. I know I’m enjoying reading Mom’s (and Memaw’s, sometimes) handwritten thoughts, thirty years after the fact.

Update, 9:40pm: Continuing to read through the diary. Some of these entries are making me all misty. Dammit. 😉

gardening 1 Comment

Filling In The Gaps

Since some fantastic small furry animal (perhaps now gathered together with several of its friends in a cave and grooving with a pict?) ate my sweet basil, I decided to start some new plants indoors. Three sweet basil, three lemon basil, and three lavender. They’re currently living under the plant lamp, which is on a timer, and they’ve been there for… three days? Four? Something like that. All three sweet basil are almost an inch tall, the lemon basil are over half an inch tall — the two that germinated, anyway — and the lavender aren’t doing crap.

I thought maybe I got three duds. So I planted a couple more yesterday, in the same peat pellet pots. No love today.

So, I went online to check the germination time of lavender. (I believe the internet before I believe the seed packet.) And what do I find? Lavender can take up to a month to germinate! I might have to research some alternate germination methods (in the fridge?!) to make these babies grow.

Oops. Who knew?

food 2 Comments

Tonight’s Main Course

Homemade shrimp and cucumber sushi. I haven’t rolled sushi in years, but this turned out relatively well.

I took the less-pretty pieces (shown) for myself, and put the better-looking ones in the fridge for Aaron when he gets home from work. He’ll be surprised; we haven’t made sushi at home in probably almost three years.

For future reference: I cooked one cup of brown rice in the rice cooker, then added two tablespoons of rice vinegar and two tablespoons of Splenda after the rice cooled. That yielded two rolls. Two strips of cucumber and six shrimpies per roll. It actually turned out a little sweeter than I’m used to, so I might have to revise the recipe next time I try this.