Two bad food days in a row. I know that I have not been getting much sleep and I know that when that happens I reach for the carbs. Pasta. Rice. Not very effective, since within two hours I am again unbearably sleepy so then I reach for caffeine and chocolate. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Well tonight I am going to bed  very early. I have already taken dog for a walk and I am filling the bathtub as we speak….err…you know what I mean. Bubble bath and bed, that sounds soooo good.
Tomorrow is a big day. Lots of VIPs around.
Ok, I am sure that I am not the first one to notice this, and probably not the last, but what is UP with fashion sizing? I bought some shirts yesterday, medium, which are usually a bit tight, BUT these are huge! The salesclerk said I looked like a small or maybe an extra small and I laughed. Out loud. But I guess in this store everything has been supersized. So now I have to exchange the shirts.
I have noticed this with pants, skirts, jackets. Now, there is no way I am a size 6 but that is what it says inside my winter coat. Come on. My hips are 42″ around! I have skirts from university (ok, 20 years ago) that say 12 on the label and I can’t get them past my knees. (Let’s leave aside for a moment the whole question of why I kept them.)
I would rather have the sizing stay the same and have a decent chance of finding clothes that fit because you know what the numbers mean. As it is now I seem to spend too much time in the dressing room of every store in the mall when I need the simplest item of clothing, all because of these supersized sizes. Doesn’t make me feel good to have to buy a ’small’ when I know it is faked.
My energy level seems to be pretty high these days. Yesterday, I even climbed up on the roof, cleaned out the gutters, cut back some tree branches, and to commemorate the occasion, took a panoramic picture….lol! See, I had been too chicken to get on a roof ever, even this one which has a very gentle slope. My too-vivid imagination went into overdrive and all I could think of was how much it would hurt when I fell. But yesterday I crammed that fear into my pocket and got my quivering butt up that ladder. (And of course Loverboy was holding it tight and straight for me). (The ladder! the ladder!) I was feeling pretty darned cocky, let me tell you.
Got a lot of work done today at the office, too. One corner of my desk is almost clear.
And I cooked when I got home. Yes! A real meal with FIVE different vegetables. Fitday’s nutritional reports have spooked me - I am way too low on many critical nutrients so have upped the veggie intake substantially, cut out bananas and added more variety of fruits, too, and am drinking at least one cup of organic unsweetened soy milk a day.
Maybe it is exhaustion-generated euphoria…lol…darn dog has decided that 5am is a good time to start the morning. This is new and not welcome behaviour. I thought I had him trained to sleep in!
I have been maintaining the 60 minutes a day minimum walking. So far so good. I hope that gets me closer to my goal than I managed last month. Maybe I should take advantage of this early am rising and stay up to do some stretches and toning. Anyone ever heard of sleep-ab-crunching?
Tired and achey (sp?) due to the four hours of hard physical labour today. I have a 2 basement apts in my house and one has been vacant for about a year because the previous tenant trashed it. And after the insurance company stripped the place and sprayed it I have been unmotivated to do anything with it. Needs a good scrub top to bottom, new floors, paint job, and all the little details fixed. Last week a neighbour stopped by and offered to rent it because he is looking for a small, cheaper place. So now I have a month to get it in shape, on top of everything else I need to do around here. Or I guess instead of. This afternoon I pulled up all the tile - three rooms plus the bathroom. Tomorrow I will take down all the light fixtures and clean them….someone is coming Monday to scrub it down, then I can paint…it is all good but all so overwhelming. I don’t know what I want to do with the floors. I am not sure how I feel about having another person in the building. I am away a lot so it won’t really have an impact on my life.
On the other hand, my inner HGTV design diva is being released!
Also, in addition to the hard work today, still have to go for a walk AND I am under 1700 again. Yay me!
Not going to count the labour as exercise for the ticker though.
Friday. Man, I was lulled into thinking this would be an easy day. And it was, until about 3pm, then BAM BAM  BAMBAMBAM. Now I feel guilty for taking the weekend off.
No, leave all that behind…
I got a great haircut today. Best ever so far from this stylist. Cool, high style, adult, smooooooth look. Really, really like it. Will never ever be able to make it look like this myself ever again.
Loverboy arrives around midnight tonight. He’ll be tired and stressed. Like I am now. I am going to take the dog for a short walk, have a bath, and go to bed. Wait for him to crawl in beside me. I do like sleeping next to him. (Unless the snoring starts, and then I move to the couch….lol).
The thing I had forgotten about the low carb eating is how hard it is to take in a lot of calories. Even with the two beer after work (k, I know, not low carb) I am still at less than 1600 for the day.
I stopped by the mall on the way home and found a charity book sale that also had a huge supply of albums. Jazz, big band, blues, swing…albums and 78s. I bought a box full. Loverboy has an old turntable at the cabin and I am imagining dancing on the porch some rainy afternoon.
Having a hard time concentrating today. Brain fog. I worked from home this morning and got a few things done, now I am just going in circles. I really want to go home to nap.
Read some research yesterday that says that a low-carb diet is more succesful for people who are insulin resistant, while low-fat works better for people with normal insulin responses. This makes sense to me…I have always felt that I was very sensitive to blood sugar levels, and when I have stuck to a low-carb food plan I feel better and have lost a lot of weight, which incidentally stayed off for a long time. My weight gain is always linked to lack of exercise, and sudden increases in sugar and alcohol consumption. Then I shrink back until the bad habits kick in again.
I have been eating very low-fat, but high-carb (lots of whole wheat and more sugar than I need); and drinking wine quite regularly. Now I need to shift back to the protein and veggies. I like it, don’t know why I drift away from it.
Loverboy says he will start using fitday…I set up my profile and will use it for a while instead of my own tracking program, even though I like mine better. More info and reports. I am trying so hard not to nag him but I am worrying about him. Maybe should worry more about me!
I really want to go for a bike ride tonight. Have to find my helmet.
Well, I have not made my exercise goal again this month, and in fact I am further away than I was last month. 1,516 minutes of exercise in 31 days = 49 minutes a day average. Although many days were far more than that, I did take some days off and do some shorter walks. Also, I did not do the longer weekend treks this month and that had an impact.
I am not going to lower my sights for the next month - once again, I will aim for 2,400 minutes of exercise and work really hard at not letting myself shorten up the daily time. To make that goal, I need to finish an average of 77 minutes each day of sustained movement.
My next goal is going to be to get minimum 7 hours of sleep each night. That would make such a difference to my whole life, I think.
It snowed. On the May 2-4 weekend. Could NOT believe it. Although, now that I think about it, I was at this cabin last year for the same weekend and it snowed THEN too! And again, I did not dress for it - I brought t-shirts and sarongs and beach flip flops and lots of sunscreen…lol. So I spent the weekend wrapped in a blanket and Loverboy’s old school jacket. He thought it was cute.
Nice things about the weekend - got two strenuous hour long hikes in, on the logging road back behind the lake. Found a creek and fought my way through the undergrowth to a moss-covered rock I am sure no one has ever seen before. Sat a while and meditated on how lucky I have been in my life, considering. The next day I walked into this spot of complete and utter silence. No noise, at all - a hush that I could feel in my bones. Then, slowly, the sounds of the world came back…it was like feeling the earth pause.
Also had a great beach bonfire Sunday night - I spent all afternoon building the driftwood pile for it, then we sat on the drydock and chatted by the firelight, watching the moon rise and the stars come out.
Did not hit or even see a moose on the highway - that too was a very good thing.
Have been trying to talk Loverboy into setting up a fitday profile, and then taking a walk every night. Maybe I will make him a ‘walking’ cd. He has nothing to do there after work except eat, watch tv and smoke. He needs to lose probably 30-40 lbs, and his knees are getting worse and worse. Also he carries it all in the abdomen, which is worrying. If we are going to build a life together I want it to be a long and healthy one.
And, yay me! another sub-1700 cal day. Time to update that ticker!
K, finally got some sleep and feel so much better. Thanks for listening patiently to the whining! 
It’s a beautiful evening although a little cool. Dog will get a short jaunt, then I am going to go listen to a great blues guitar guy. Don’t usually go out Thurs any more but I think this will be worth it.
Boss wanted to send me on a business trip overseas and I had to admit I have let my passport expire. I can’t believe I did that…now what happens when that fabulously wealthy and handsome prince appears to whisk me off to Tahiti? I’ll hide in his luggage? {yoohoo..where are you anyway??}
This week has been a total bust as far as calorie control goes, as an example today I had a muffin AND a chocolate bar. This will stop.
I am not going to beat myself up too much but geez! What’s the point of that?
Bought a great pair of pumps in the big city. I had 15 minutes to shop and I got the shoes and 4 shirts. Am I good or what?
You know what? I need to take a break. I can’t keep up the pace this week, I have just drained all my backup energy supply. Finished work at 8:30 tonight, (that was an 11 hour day for anyone who’s tracking this…lol), then did the groceries.  Tomorrow, I have to get up at 4am to be on a 6am flight, back home in the evening, about 10pm. Then I have an 8am meeting the next day, followed by a full, full day and an evening out at a blues concert. Then another day of meetings, and a 3 hour drive to Loverboys cabin for the long weekend. It’s bad when fun feels like a chore.
Sorry, I am drained. Pooped. Flat. Done. Oof.
Damn, still have to walk the dog. Whose idea was this anyway?
