weight loss 1 Comment

Diet & Fitness Update, Week #5: MINI-GOAL #1

Bottom line: I didn’t quite make my goal of 209 by Valentine’s Day. If not for my ultra-depressed weekend of yummy binging, I might have made it. I ended up being only a pound and a half short of my goal, weighing in at 210.5 lbs.

Measurements as of 2/16/06:

Height: 5’10”
Weight: 210.5 –> down two pounds since 1/16/06
Bust (at maximum fullness): 45″ –> down one inch
Chest (just below bust): forgot to measure this one
Waist (one inch above navel, where my pants live): 43.75″ –> down 1.25″
Hips: 49.5″ –> down ½”
Neck: 14.5″ –> down ½”
Upper Arms: 13.25″ –> down ¼”
Lower Arms: 10.25″ –> down ¼”
Thighs: 25.5″ left / 25.75″ right –> down ½” left, ¾” right
Calves: 16.125″ –> increased one-eighth inch

Still not exercising as much as I should. Did Tae Bo Cardio on Monday (didn’t make it through the whole workout), worked my abs and chest on Tuesday, and slacked for the rest of the week. I’ve taken a 30 to 40-minute walk every day at lunchtime, though. My day feels totally incomplete without that.

My fat intake is a little elevated, and my carb intake is a little lowered. I’ve still been eating fish and chicken, staying away from burger, and eating vegenaise and other low-fat condiments and dressings. However, I’ve been eating major carbs just for breakfast, like oatmeal or my new Cranapple Crunch cereal. The rest of the day, I’ve been sticking with salad and veggies and meat.

So, that’s the long and short of it. Still eating well, still making an effort to be more active. Still coming to terms with the fact that this is taking a lot longer than I’d hoped… but still sticking with it.

memories, photos 6 Comments

Happy Birthday, Carrie (er, Carolyn)!

Carrie and I were best friends in Middle School. We sat next to each other in the first day of Choir in seventh grade, completely by chance, and ended up as friends. We were both awkward adolescents in our own ways, rejected by the majority of our classmates, and that fact was probably our biggest bond. I was a new kid at the school that year, too, and shy to boot, so finding friends wasn’t easy for me.

As with all friendships at that age, we had our ins and outs. Carrie had a very peculiar sense of humor, and if you didn’t know better, you might think that her jibes and insults were really meant. She liked to call me “Tech,” because I always used long, technical words, and she often poked fun at me for my long strides and fast walk. At dances, the term “wallflower” somehow morphed into “Wall Idiot,” her endearing term for my tendency to never actually dance, and especially not with boys.

She also never failed to badger me during the two months between her birthday and mine. Her mantra would be, “Ha, ha — I’m older than you!” (If you know how old I am, you can already see where this is going.)

During the summer after 8th grade, Mom separated from my stepdad, Tom, and so ended my stint in the North Central Local School District. Carrie (who opted to go by her full given name of Carolyn in high school) and I still stayed friends, visiting one another during the summers between school years. Even into college, I would borrow Mom’s car and drive from Medina to Creston to visit during breaks, especially summer.

We started to lose track of one another later in my college years, especially as she became involved with her then-boyfriend, now-husband Jeff. Still, though, we made sure to keep in touch somewhat, always making sure that we knew how to reach one another, should the occasion arise.

Not long ago — well, over a year now, I guess — I received baby photos from Carolyn’s mom, Candy. Shortly thereafter, I received an invitation to attend a baby shower for Carolyn. Of course, I Mapquested the directions to Carolyn’s house in West Bumfuck, Ohio, and drove the two and a half hours out to see her and her new son, armed with a soft and fuzzy teddy bear.

The coolest thing about the visit, besides seeing Carolyn’s new son, was hearing her call me her best friend again. It’s like that, isn’t it? Once best friends, always best friends, even if you have other best friends in the interim. Sure, we hadn’t seen one another in probably four years, but I still have the right half of our “Best Friends” necklace from circa 1988. 🙂

Tomorrow, I believe, Carolyn turns 30. I have a card all ready to send to her. My inscription?

“Ha, ha! You’re older than me!”

I’ve been waiting over 15 years to say that. Now I just need to unearth her mailing address…

Update, 10:35pm: Found it. Had to clean (well, sort) my entire desk area, but I found the baby shower invitation. Carolyn’s address is now in my Palm Contacts, synched to my iPod, so I won’t lose it again. 😛

genealogy

Tracking Uncle Russ (1915 – 1996)

Looks like the check I sent to the State of Ohio Vital Statistics cleared on Friday night. That means that Uncle Russ‘s death certificate should be on its way to me soon! Yaye!

I plotted out a timeline / ancestor profile for William Henry COOK last night. It’s amazing how much of my information is straight from the U.S. Census. There’s barely any primary sources at all, mainly because the family moved around so much that I don’t know where all his kids were born. Getting Uncle Russ’s death certificate should help give me somewhere to start, though.

podcasting 2 Comments

Constructive Podcast Criticism

I do appreciate constructive criticism. I can always pretend to take it in stride, even if it bruises the perfectionist in me.

After beating up on myself about my diet, though, hearing from a listener that I tend to go off-topic, and plug too many other podcasts (or “blogs,” as she called them), and that my musical interludes are too long… that didn’t feel as constructive as it was probably meant.

I got kudos early on for my musical selections, and I thought they were a high point of my podcast. And I thought that referring my listeners to other podcasts that might help them would be… well, helpful. And I thought that broadening my topics to include low-glycemic and fitness issues would bring more listeners into the fold.

I know that one person out of 150 having qualms about the tightness of my production doesn’t necessarily mean that I suck. I have to wonder, though, how many people aren’t saying anything.

I might consider throwing in the towel if I weren’t the only low-carb podcast out there. I’ve gotten plenty of positive e-mails in past weeks, though. It’s just that this tidbit of constructive criticism was poorly timed. I’m already in a slump, and being reminded of my shortcomings — or, rather, having new ones brought to my attention — doesn’t really help matters.