I guess I run now

Got an extension on my book review until the end of the month. So…a responsible academic would get right back into the book & get to work. But then you already know where this is going next…

So…a bit of lovely blog reading to catch up, a long walk, a lot of house cleaning, & then I’ll get right back into that book…you betcha!

Okay, I’m off to see what ya’ll have been up to this past week!

Update: almost caught up on my blog reading…ya’ll been busy! Busy losing, busy lifting, busy traveling, busy making trouble. House isn’t clean, but it’s tidier than when I arrived & that’s a start. & I even had time to make a quiche, clean/freeze strawberries to make into jam when hubby’s less busy, and begin organizing all the research I gathered last week. Phew! Feels good to accomplish something & feels really good not to have to leave for another long road trip. Nice to be home.

Breakfast: HB egg (90)
Lunch: 1/2 serving leftover pasta (300)
Snack: 8 medium strawberries (30)
Subtotal: 420 calories
Dinner: will be quiche lorraine (1/6 total = 316), salad (96)
Subtotal: 832 (368 remaining)

Snack: 20 pretzels (100) & 4 oz sangria (71)
Exercise: 1 hour & 10 min walk in morning; 25-min walk in evening

Tomorrow is my first fasting day…looking at this list, I can see it will be a day filled with veggies, some berries, and an egg or two to fill me up. A little nervous about dropping down to 600 calories…isn’t that silly? It’s not like it’s forever, only for a day.

Got a loverly cortizone shot at the doctor’s yesterday & he’s got me taking 1800 mg of ibuprofen a day now (up from my self-medicating 800 mg). This is how we’re approaching the joint pain, which is, it seems, the rheumatoid arthritis back again. I sort of knew it…it’s been in/out of remission since I was 16, & it’s hard to ignore the crazy swelling & pain (although that’s what I did during my 20+ years uninsured), but I was really hoping all that was the fault of my lazy metabolism cause there’s a real treatment for that. Not much beyond major ibuprofen & hoping for another remission to do for the RA.

He’s keeping me on the metabolism meds, since it’s in a subclinical range, but I don’t have to go back for two months, when I’m hoping the swelling will be way down, I’ll be back running, and I’ll have lost some serious weight. That stuff I can control…what the blood work shows may be in someone else’s hands.

He also suggested (again) that I try a fast every week…actually, he suggested two semi-fasts a week. Last time he recommended one 800-calorie day a week. This time he says two 600-calorie days. Given that I’m walking 1.5-2 hours a day, he figures my problem is calories. I figure my problem is mainly fruit & nuts (too much of both). So…calorie counting for me. Oh joy! There’s little I hate more than measuring & counting & adding up calories.

I need to focus more on veggies & lean proteins. Lunch needs to be a salad every day with maybe some extra green veggies thrown in if I’m especially hungry. I need to keep hard boiled eggs on hand since those are hugely filling. I also need to cut out all eating after 8:00 (up here the sun doesn’t even think about setting until 10, so we tend to eat late, walk late, get to sleep late)…then make certain I have breakfast so my metabolism is firing steady all day long.

& back to food recording here now that my insane travels are over. Food recording complete with calorie counting. Argh

Okay, today I need to get this stupid book review finished (it’s technically due tomorrow), so if I’m going to get my long walk in, I better head out now.

Breakfast: kashi (190), skim milk (45), blueberries (65) = 300

Snack: (so much for cutting down on fruit…it’s strawberry season in the UP!) 5 medium-sized strawberries after my walk (19)

Lunch: (eggs are boiling) will be salad (lettuce = 20) with egg (90), grape tomatoes (24), radish (2), & asparagus (13), lite Paul Newman dressing 1 capfull (30). (179 total)

Subtotal 1200-498=702

Dinner:Ham (91), Peas (44), pasta (363), squash (20), half/half (78), parm cheese (28) = 624

Snack: Hb egg (90)

Total = 1212

Exercise: 1 hr & 35-min walk in morning; 30-min walk in evening.

Happy day Chicks!

to be back with hubby & dog tomorrow night, to be back to a regular work schedule, to have time to read something fun (like blogs) other than 100-year old news print, to be back to my food & exercise routine.

Terrified to step on the scale. I walked a lot during my time in IL, but my food wasn’t great. Doctor’s appointment tomorrow…we’ll see what my weight is then, when I have no choice & must step on the scale.

For now, I hit my food goal today, took a 20-min walk around campus in the morning. Back at home, I was pulling into the garage when I noticed the weeds growing between the cracks in front of the garage. So I tossed my keys on the front steps & pulled those weeds, which drew my attention to the weeds in the small front beds & while I’m at it, I hit the major garden in the middle of the front yard. 45-minutes later…& I’ve had a little bit of a workout.

After dinner I forced myself outside for a 30-minute walk, which turned into an hour-long walk. Helped that I’m sort of mentally drained today, so I got lost big time in my own neighborhood. Yay! More stars to make up for my zero stars yesterday…road tripping up from Chicago & I was beat when I got home.

Food today (good, but too much of a good thing):

Breakfast: 6 plump blackberries & a handful of blueberries
Lunch: 6 grilled asparagus, 1/3 cup tri-color orzo salad, handful of blueberries
Snack: 6 whole wheat crackers with 1 oz smoked gouda
Snack #2 (& why I didn’t just have dinner at this time is a mystery): 1 cup in-shell peanuts
Dinner: salad with crumble bleu, 4 oz flank steak, small biscuit with 1 teaspoon butter
Snack #3: beer

Hey, Hey, Hey…I’m almost back…another day or two to catch up with everyone & I’ll feel like I never left!

the people here who I count on the most.

Today, that means looking on the bright side. The research is going well. My relationship with fellow researcher is strained, I knew it would be. So…bygones. Truth is I couldn’t gather the amount of material we’re finding alone…or I could, but it’d take a month or more to do it alone. So…no.

Bright side also means that I’ve driven my car only once since Monday…to Whole Foods last night to get a lovely spinach pie, grilled asparagus, and blackberries (incredible) for dinner & snacky food. Otherwise, where I’ve needed to go, my feet have taken me & I’ve needed to go to a bunch of different sites for research over this past week. I’m all over this town!

So…food is not good. No it is not! It isn’t terrible either & I’ve obeyed some strict rules about leaving half the food (or more) on my plate at each meal. But I’ve also managed to work exercise into a research schedule that would otherwise involve nothing more than sitting very still & inhaling some very old newsprint dust.

& we’re on schedule with our gathering of materials from the various archives & at the mercy, tomorrow, of these various sites with their own schedules. This means that tomorrow morning I’ll get to read blogs before breakfast, walk to the car, then to kinkos to make copies of our sources, then the car goes back to the garage & I’ll be walking again to the Historical Society. In other words, the morning is mine & there’ll be no crazy squinting through decades worth of newsprint…in the morning, at least.

At least, that’s the plan for now…could change if I have to make a mad dash to a library in the middle of the state to see some old journals that I can’t see on Saturday since the university library will be closed on Saturday (thank you, education budget cuts!). It’s complicated, but it’ll work out. Somehow. Okay, odds are darn good I’ll have to drive down to mid-state on Saturday, spend the night there, hit the library on Sunday (only between 1-5), and drive back to detroit (7.5 hours) that evening…only to then hit the doctor on Monday before driving the 9.5 hours back to the UP. Sucks…yes. But BRIGHT SIDE! It’ll all be over in a matter of days & I’ll be back in the arms of hubby & the beautiful (and restful) UP.

These are words I need to learn to live by!

The salad was very good at dinner last night & I’m glad I ordered it instead of the dozens of really tempting & fattening offerings on the menu. But I also had 2 beers & fries with lunch. So…to recap…my only exercise has been walking around the town at a leisurely pace (although, altogether these walks add up to just over 1.5 hours of my day) & I’m making bad choices with food.

So the plan for today is more walking, which should be easy to do since in addition to my walks today, we’re taking the L to the Cubs game tonight, so there’ll be plenty of walking to the game. Also, I need to start making better choices at least until the game when, I suspect, I’ll end up eating a hotdog if we don’t get dinner first.

Gee, interesting how that plan sounds so much like NOT A PLAN AT ALL! Okay, I’m not planning today: today I’m winging it & making good choices as I go.

Happy Day Chicks!@

I’m here for a week doing some research in a high school archive. Staying at a nice place with a mini-kitchen, which I hope will help me stay on track with food as there are about 100 different food temptations right outside the hotel.

Still, I’ve parked the car in a parking garage about half a mile away & all the places I need to work at are a good walk away, so I should be able to get some exercise this trip in spite of all the sitting around required for the research.

I’ve put the running on hold. My knees were shot with all the stairs, squatting, & box-lifting of mom’s move, so the break will do them good. I’ll be all about the walking this week…& light posting until I get back with hubby in the UP next week.

Happy week chicks!

Hey, look who won the challenge. I was kinda hoping for 3rd place so I’d have something to shoot for this month, but the competition is fierce, so I’ll take it, happily.

I’ll post more tomorrow, but I’m back in the Detroit area, mom’s moved in, I’m exhausted, family is all okay now. I’m hoping for a loss this week, but we’ll see how things shake out tomorrow.

Can’t wait to catch up with everyone. THANK YOU ALL for your support & encouragement this past, very stressful, week.

I decided to un-wuss yesterday & weighed myself shortly after posting my long diatribe about why I was going to wait til today to weigh myself…blah, blah, blah. & we have movement on the clicker that puts me  about a third of the way towards my first weight goal. So that’s about 2.1 pounds per week that I can pretty much attribute to two things: my metabolism is functioning again & the W8 has me motivated not to skip a day of exercise. Now to make sure I lose 2.1 next week when I get back from MA.

Yesterday I walked only 30 minutes around campus. But I had a ton of errands to run, got only 2.5 hours of sleep the night before, and was pretty beat up from the road trip on Monday, so I think a day off was called for. I’m moving things along early today so I can get to the airport an hour & 1/2 before my flight & walk that gloriously long Northwest terminal.

I’m also probably going to end up with very light posting this week since mom has no internet. We’re a little nervous that the bank isn’t ready to close on the house she’s buying on Friday, but if all goes according to plans, this will be a week of cleaning & unpacking & heavy-lifting. I plan to walk every day as well & since all mom’s kitchen stuff is packed up, it should be easy to resist the temptation of home cooking.

Food today:
Breakfast: same as yesterday, a stop at the market for a coffee & a nectarine
Snack: dried fruit & nut mix
Lunch: unless I find something packable at the market, this will be a late lunch, but I’m hoping mom has salad mixings
Dinner: my nephew wants to take me to his favorite pizza place. Restraint, salad, & one slice.

Water…I’m upping my intake for the day to 5 pints cause of the dry flight & all the temptations along the way.

Plan: I’m going to keep tracking my food/exercise in a journal & post it all here whenever I get within spittin’ distance of WiFi.

Exercise: one-hour walk at the airport…in fact, I think I’ll pack an extra shirt in my carry on in case it’s a sweaty walk.

Happy Day, Happy Week Chicks!

The chicken sammie was probably a mistake, but Quiznos was next to Starbucks, so it seemed like the perfect non-McDs stop. & I really should’ve asked for no bacon or cheese, but I was all focused on just-saying-no to the chips & cookies. Although I didn’t exactly say no to the M & Ms, now did I? Argh, so many excuses & the truth is I could taste the overload of salt on the sammie, so now I’m worried about today’s step on the scale & thinking of saving it til tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to walk/sweat off some of the water I’m sure I’m retaining.

Okay, that’s silly. It’s only been 22 days since I last stepped on the scale, so I can’t expect big numbers anyway & it’s only about 7 weeks since I couldn’t fit into my fattest pants even…so I know there’s been some progress. I’m just terrified to find out how much or how little progress much right before I head home to the land of fried clams, clam chowder, & mom’s cooking. Okay, I’ve decided. I’ll step on the scale first thing tomorrow & post the news here before I leave for the airport. That’ll be 23 days since my last weigh in.

Today’s food:
Breakfast: a mystery in a house that hasn’t been occupied for weeks. I guess I’ll stop off at the local market for coffee & a piece of fruit. Save my calories for lunch
Lunch: cup of beer cheese soup & a side salad at the brew pub. I figure if I hit there for lunch, I won’t get a beer, but I will get my pub fix.
Dinner: leftover Thai apple salad & chicken curry

Long story (for me anyway), but there’s a happy ending along the way that I thought I’d write about today. Although I intend for this to be a story with many happy endings!

Getting ready to come up to the UP for the summer (so back in early May), I tried on my summer clothes from last year & realized they were much, much, much too tight. With some, I couldn’t even get close to zipping them up. Horror!

I’d been wearing the same 2 pair of jeans for months, & I do own a scale, so this shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was. An unhappy surprise. At first, I refused to buy any pants or summer capris in the next size up (thus my attachment to those 2 pair of jeans that were stretched to the point where it could’ve qualified as a miracle). But I gave in & stopped at the eddiebauer outlet on the way up here & tried on some the next size up. & they DIDN’T fit. They were so tight as to be obscene. But I bought them anyway cause there was no way in hell I was going up two sizes!

Fine. I resolved myself to a couple of more weeks in the miraculous (but tired, tight, uncomfortable, and boring) jeans. Eventually (maybe early June) the new (bigger) capris fit. Today they are baggy in a very satisfying sort of way.

In fact, they’re so baggy that I just tried on last year’s summer clothes in anticipation of packing for my trip to see my mom in MA. They fit! They fit a little snug, but not in an obscene way. In fact, since they all loosen up after about an hour of wear, I’m packing them & wearing them & happy, happy, happy to have reached the first milestone on this gawdforsaken journey.

Okay, I’m off for a 9 1/2 hour road trip back to Detroit. My flight leaves for MA Wednesday at 10 & I’ll only be able to post periodically for the next week since mom doesn’t have internet service.

Tomorrow morning I’ll step on the scale for the first time in almost a month. I hope it shows progress. I’m nervous. Traveling is going to present a huge break in my routine (and I’ll be gone for 3 weeks in all) & a huge challenge. I’ll be crushed if the scale doesn’t show progress. I’m worried it’ll send me into a tailspin. But I need to keep myself grounded & focused here: the smaller pants fit, which is the only sign of progress I should want or need. Right?

Road trip food:

Breakfast: nuts & dried fruit (about a handful)
Lunch: Chicken sammie from Quiznos
Snack: diet green tea & small bag of M & Ms (bad prof!)
Dinner: thai apple salad & chicken curry

Exercise: none…darn it!