Week 1 #3

30 min 1,8 miles speed of 3.7

It took a long time to wake up my body, especially to get the heart pumping at a speedier rate. But I was listening to an R&B mix and alternated travelling songs (Hit the Road, Jack) with uplifting (Strength Courage and Wisdom, I Choose). Serendipity at the iPod. Now I am literally dripping with sweat. Off to get ready for work.


- iPhone uPdate

Week #1 Session #2

Exactly 2 miles in 30 minutes for an average speed of 4.0 mph. Jogs at 5.1 today. Heartrate soared to above 160 bpm when I first sped up. I think it was instrument error but I kind of like the notion of my heart waking up startled and scared: what's this? Fight or flight? Must be flight? But the heart quickly settled down. Under 140 bpm in the jogs and down to 120 bpm on the walks.

(Later edit) The secret to my going to the gym so faithfully, and working so hard there, is the accountability that comes from having an appointment and working with someone there. So I may be doing some very boring posts here, dear reader, but I'm right now wanting to be publicly accountable for keeping up with the prescribed workout plan and getting to the 5k race in April.  I ought to post each and every session on the plan - and since I can do it from my phone right there, there is no excuse not to.

There are supposed to be three sessions per week each week.

- iPhone uPdate

Going for the Epic Win

I'm focused on doing a 5K race in April.  This is scary, since I don't know for a fact I've ever run a whole mile IN MY LIFE.  But today I began the training, following the regimen of one of the many "Couch to 5K" patterns on the web.  In the very first workout, I walked for 90 seconds and ran for a minute, and repeated for 25 minutes total (8 minutes of running is all), plus warm up and cool down.  All told, 33 minutes, exactly 2 miles, at an average of 3.8 mph. All the workouts are about 30 minutes, which means I'm expected to be going fast enough at the end to cover 5K in 30 minutes. I think I need to do some arithmetic later to figure out how fast that is.  I know it's faster than my current "run" - which is more of a jog at 5 mph.

I want my life to be effortless, or "friction-less" in current internet-speak.  I have a treadmill in my basement, and I can wander down to walk at any time, in my jammies and slippers if I want.  But to run takes some preparation: shoes and socks, a water bottle, a bra, my heart rate monitor, music.  This is so little, but I see it as potentially an obstacle at 5:30 in the morning.  We'll find out Friday, when I'm back to work.

For now, feeling good from this little bit of exertion. Excelsior!

Buckling Down

It has often seemed silly to me to wait for New Year's Day to start a new diet.  For me, the main event is Christmas. Sometimes we're travelling and don't get home right after Christmas, and usually the parties and social whirl continues through to New Year's, so Boxing Day isn't necessarily the best kick off time for a new diet. But for me, usually this week "in-between" is a good week to start the planning and even the new habits. Things are slower at home and at work. There are still parties to give and go to, but these parties will have consequences and so need to be tracked and planned into overall strategies. There is time to reflect and to plan.

I did pretty well (so far) at holding the line this holiday season.  I tracked. I'm using my new treadmill. I'm keeping up my personal training. I declared Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to be calorie-free days for me.  Interestingly, that really translates into deciding that while only two days of free eating have no long-term consequences to worry about so I just wouldn't think about it, my body still feels and reacts to the short term consequences.  I can't eat too much sugar without feeling bad.  The wine with dinner is great, but two glasses is almost too much for my head. So I ate and drank what I wanted, but what I wanted wasn't as bad as it could be, even though to the outside observer it looked like enough to feed a village for a week.

Monday starts my weight watcher's week, so I'm going to start out tracking today.  I'm going to plan to make sure there are healthy choices around, as I clean up and get ready for the next party.  My oldest boy is around for a month (hooray!) and he is choosing to eat very vegetable-and-meat centric (he calls it "paleo") just like me, so it will be somewhat more rewarding to share the menu planning for a while.

The sun is shining,  it's unseasonably warm, I've got things to do but plenty of time to do them.  Merry Christmas every one!

Activity versus Eating

I've successfully tracked in WW all this week.  My activity is definitely up, thanks to my new toy in the basement. I'm tracking the activity as well, and WW uses this to offset some food consumed. However, it takes a lot of activity to really make a difference.

WW has three kinds of points that can be used as your eating allowance: daily, weekly, and activity.  Daily points are always used up first. There are several options for how to use weekly and activity points to account for more than daily points.  I've set it up so it uses any activity points earned before any weekly points, and activity I'm earning now - even today and tomorrow - can be used to offset all the food I consumed at the beginning of the week.  I entered my gym visit this morning, and those points were immediately applied to Monday's excess, and more "weekly" points were put back in the bank. But all the exercise I've done all week still does not cover Monday's consumption.  Wow.

Even so, this kind of feels like cheating to me. I know it is just accounting, and daily numbers matter much less than long term trends. But this is the most generous treatment of activity points. I can exercise tomorrow to offset Monday and Tuesday?  I'm going to stick with this for now, but I figure on getting really serious about losing after New Year's. I'm thinking activity points should only be used on the day they are earned, which means any day with a binge will be largely offset by the weekly allowance, which means the weekly allowance will get eaten up faster. So to speak.

Going Nowhere

Santa put a lovely new treadmill in my basement!  So now I can go nowhere at whatever pace I like.

I did a minimal amount of due diligence research before taking the plunge (as it turns out, Santa needed a lot of direction). Consumer Reports had an overview and a buyer's guide and ratings, which I relied on heavily.  The main guidance I got from them was this:  the lightweight and "portable" ones are really not sturdy. The heavier fold-able ones are sturdy enough for walking, but if you want to run you should not get a folding one. I want to run, and I have the space to keep it.

Then I went to the Treadmill Doctor.com and read their reviews, and figured out my price point.  It can go very high very fast, and I put myself at $2K all in - which is the bottom of the high end price range.  This would get me a very sturdy, big platform, quiet, with built in heart rater monitor treadmill.

I decided on a Sole77, based on reviews, and traveled up to a big box exercise store that carried them. They didn't have that model in stock, but had others by the brand.  Another point Consumer Reports emphasized - try before you buy.  Features include how wide the tread is, how big overall the platform is, how the controls are configured, and where the water bottle holders and ipod docks are.  I liked the set up and figured out the controls.  But it turns out the not very helpful salesman couldn't order the model I wanted, even though the store chain's website said they had them.

Sidenote:  for within $50 of the same price of the model I wanted, they had a Sole85 which Treadmill Doctor says is the finest folding model made.  If the salesman had been more enterprising, he might have talked me into getting that instead, and I probably would have been quite happy with it. But he wasn't so I went home and went to buy on-line.

I was going to buy via Amazon, but I stopped to read their reviews. They talked about how big it is, how delivery goes over the threshold period, and you have to assemble it yourself.  They spoke of issues with that, with time estimates ranging from one to eight hours, and calls to the customer service center.  I was within a click of "buy" on Amazon when I decided to try to shop locally one more time.


I briefly considered my friend's advice about Craig's List.  There is a big market in lightly used exercise equipment around, as New Year's resolutions fall by the wayside. But the information I had gotten about difficulty in moving it and setting it up, and some comments about needing to adjust the belt, made me shy away.  I consider myself handy and more than capable, but I wasn't interested. The fact is, for this purchase, I decided I had more money than time to invest in the project of acquiring the treadmill.  I was just anxious to get moving as quickly as possible.

I went to a smaller specialty place and they didn't have the Sole brand. But they did have the Precor S.27, at the same price point, with the same features and good reviews.  They would deliver it and set it up for free.  I was in the shop a grand total of fifteen minutes, and the deal was done.

In order to make room for the big thing, I had to do some major rearranging and cleaning in my basement, which had devolved to become simply a storage place for all the stuff I don't use but wasn't ready to get rid of.  There will be trip to the shelter to donate some winter coats, and I had to scrub the floor from the last flood. Ironically, that work day burned more calories than any day in November!  Already the treadmill was making me more fit, and I didn't even have it yet!

So now I have to use the darn thing to justify the investment. It arrived Wednesday, and my girl and I figured out how to push all the buttons and make it work. I'm thinking I may use it some in the evenings, though I'm trading off the exercise for later bed times, and I need to figure that out. This morning I woke with the symptoms of a head cold, but I headed down to the basement in my jammies and slippers, clutching a cup of coffee rather than water, and listened to NPR while I strolled along at a fairly slow pace. Finally the caffeine took hold and I got up to a brisk walk, and felt better for it.  Just a few minutes, but so much better than spending the same time sitting on the couch.

I mentioned I wanted to run. I aspire to run in a 5K.  This is as huge to me as a marathon is to some people. I can walk forever, but running is a very new experience for me.  Right now, two minute intervals are all I can manage, and that at a speed some guys walk but that my short legs turn into a jog.  I have tentatively picked out an Earth Day run at the end of April here in Silver Spring.  But I'll start on a "couch to 5K" training plan in January, and see how I do.  I'll keep you posted.

Actually Tracking Versus Just Thinking About It

The special occasions continue to mount. Today was the office holiday potluck.  I felt like I didn't do too badly, even if I did visit the dessert table twice.  They were such tiny portions I took.  But I sat down after dinner tonight (chicken in bottled curry sauce, asparagus, rice) and decided to try to estimate it all.  I was appalled!  It comes out to 41 points for the day!

Alarmed, I went back to track yesterday (Monday is the start of my WW week) and discovered my two slices of oh-so-good made by my girl pumpkin bread brought yesterday's total to 41 points as well!  Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!  Some thing's gotta change here!

I do have to note how insulted I am when I read that "free living" people (versus confined in institutions people) are notoriously inaccurate in our food diaries.  As possible overcompensation, I try to be really generous in estimated portion sizes for tracking.  But the temptation to whittle it down (surely that was only five ounces, not six) and watch the point total shrink in proportion is really strong.

The way WW works is I get a daily total (26 points) and a weekly set of extra points to use when I need them. Any activity I log can be used as extra points. My morning gym appointments get me three points each. Sticking within the daily total is difficult unless I really really focus on major vegetables. I do have some weekly points left, and I can certainly start to get more activity points built up, but I want to try to stay within my limits. Thus, when my girl needed an emergency run for more lip gloss (smooth lips are very important to her), we went all the way to the supermarket to make sure we've got what we need for a leafy-greens-based dinner tomorrow.

Looking at the actual points written down and added up, versus just casting back through the day mentally, has really been a wake-up call.  Got to stay grounded in reality. Time to go back to tediously accounting for everything, and even more tiresomely, planning out meals well in advance and making sure I've got all the ingredients on hand.  It's the only way to get through this holiday season without having to re-do this whole year's worth of weight loss all over again.

Every Day is a Special Occasion

Tonight was a business dinner at Cuba Libre, a great new restaurant in DC. I decided to try to handle things right. Last night, I checked out their menu, and decided I would go with one of their fish and citrus items. I decided no drink and no dessert.

I tracked in the morning, and felt really good. But it was a *really* stressful day at work, full of active engagement with others on difficult issues. But the absolute worst and emotional part was witnessing the very public disgrace of a man I like and worked with for years.

So I arrive at the restaurant to find I had not scanned the drinks menu in advance-or, I should say, the mojito menu. They had over a dozen types, all sweetened with their pressed-in-the-restaurant-from-fresh-sugarcane and muddled with their actual Cuban mint. So I went with the classic, upgraded to their best rum. The first sip was heaven, and the last was nearly as good.

The other wrinkle was the other folks decided to go tapas-style, which actually worked out fine. More fried things than I would have gotten, but actually not a huge volume of food.

But then came dessert. I looked at the menu and said "no". Just "no". I felt really strong and powerful and virtuous. "Do you want to split the Fallen Chocolate Souffle?" asked the man next to me. "Sure" I said.

My Family Qualifies

I don't think you need to test my family to know where we are on the genetic pre-disposition to weight continuum.  But this article from the New York Times holds a kernel of hope - get moving.  Which I am very overdue for doing this morning!  No more computer!

When Fat Runs in the Family

An Inconvenient Truth

Sigh. I took the time to chart my data, and my assessment of "holding my own through the holidays" seems a bit optimistic when you look at the data for the last six months.

If it weren't for the timely intervention of an extremely nasty stomach bug, it appears I have been headed for disaster.  AND, it appears my body has adjusted and has decided to resume the trend.  The complacency I felt about eating earlier today is gone. FOCUS. TRACK. PLAN. BRING FOOD TO WORK.

Holidays Around Us

Life continues busy, and I've had an additional challenge in blogging. My mobile blogging app has been unusable since the last post I did. To the extent I was keeping up either this blog or my garden blog, it was almost entirely mobile from my phone or ipad, on the go or on the couch or in bed before going to sleep. The software developer says it will be fixed "soon", and I haven't bothered to research much less invest in a different solution.  So just one more obstacle to keeping this up.

The running commentary continues in my head where several interesting topics have come up and been discussed in a witty and informative fashion.  I do noodle these ideas quite a bit, but actually setting fingers to keyboard requires thinking things through in a more disciplined and articulate fashion. I miss comments and feedback and knowing someone is listening. I like the short form essay to think through a topic, and go back and polish it just bit before posting. I love comments and feedback and looking at the traffic stats - the thrill of knowing someone is out there. So here I am, actually sitting at an actual computer, checking in.

I am enjoying being the size and weight I am now, which is bouncing around fifteen pounds less (+/- 2 pounds) than I was January 1 of this year. (January 1 happened to be the absolute high point of my holiday weight gain last year - the first few pounds came off very rapidly, so I sort of feel like it's cheating to measure from there but what-the-heck, it is at least technically true.)  I am continuing at the gym, but pretty much all other activities except the occasional walk or vigorous chores have disappeared.  I'm eating well or not at all for breakfast, scoring 50% or less on where I'd like to be for lunches (trying to either bring lunch or take the time to walk to a good place to buy it, and if I buy it, make sure it is portion controlled). Dinner with the family is definitely getting healthier as the kids are more open to different foods than in past years - hooray!  But my big achilles heel is my evenings when I return alone to my house.  I'm tired, my ego is nearly depleted (remember this post?), no-one but my dog is watching, and if there are sweets in the house they tend to go in my mouth.  I'm dealing with this by having fewer sweets in the house, (since the dog refuses to do anything but cheer me on whatever I do) but this area of weakness should be the subject of further focus next year, when I try to re-energize getting those next fifteen pounds off.

Right now, I know I need to get moving.  I wrote about it in October, and it is still entirely true.  My magic device continues to document how few calories I am expending.  I have put new batteries in my Wii balance board and played around there a bit on slow moving days, but that is truly minimal exercise.  I go to the gym, and that is really good. One day a week I am doing a small group session now, saving a bit of expense and also adding a social element that includes a friendly competitive element that makes me work faster.

I am very seriously contemplating buying a treadmill to be able to run at home.  My trusty old Nordic Track just isn't entertaining me the way it used to. It is still fully functional at seventeen years old, but when I jog on the treadmill at the gym I am working harder than any other exercise I've ever done.  And I'm enjoying it, too. Winter is upon us, so it is dark when I'm not at work and thus jogging outside is not much of an option. Jogging outside also requires a lot more attention to keep from falling or being run over, and what is working for me is getting lost in the ipod at the gym.  It's a rotten time to focus on bike riding as well. Going to the gym on days when I don't have a personal appointment is too often just falling by the way-side, and requires more planning and time than something at home.

This will be a four-figure purchase, so not one to make on a whim without research and budgeting. But my original Big Loss was driven by six days a week on the NT.  I've just read Half-Assed by Jeanette Fulda, (a quick and easy read about which I may write more later) and her transformation was fueled by the treadmill.  Having an expensive item in my basement is likely to guilt me into using it. At least I do have the history of the NT to reassure myself it will not just become an expensive storage rack for things waiting to be donated.

Thanks for reading. I'll try to get here a bit more often.

Off to the Land of Carbs

In the airport, waiting for my flight. I'm off on a ridiculously quick trip to London. I packed for the trip by charging all my devices. While sitting here and surfing, I found an article ( that I can't figure out how to link to) called Wheat Belly. Apparently a NY Times best seller, it narrows the anti-carb focus to modern wheat. It recommends trying a four week wheat free period, just to see what it does for you.

I just read the article, not the book, but it seems like a refinement of what I've read in the low carb literature. I'm certainly not going wheat free with Thanksgiving (stuffing) and Christmas (cookie) season coming up, but it might be worth a try in January.

We'll see how I do on my travels. This is why I have such modest goals for where I'd like to be in January.


Sherbert update

It's The Exercise, Dummy

I'm very stalled, and even beginning to trend upwards a bit.  It's lack of attention, because other things need my attention.  But taking a few minutes just to look at what I've actually been doing opened my eyes.

I haven't been tracking my eating very often, and that is of course because I'm allowing myself to eat as if it didn't matter.  So no data there, except the lack of data, and the hazy memories of apple crisps and fancy ice creams.  But I wear my magic device that tracks my steps, my periods of extra exercise and activity, and it estimates the daily calorie burn.  So that is what it is, collected even when I'm not paying attention. I don't have time to build charts, graphs and tables like I would love to do. But a quick paging through summary statistics shows a dramatic decrease in my calories burned over the last month.  Steps, minutes of exercise, and summary totals all are down significantly. This isn't a surprise, though actually I was surprised by how much activity I managed to get in this summer.  But the onset of fall has slowed me way down.

This is partly, truly, driven by the change of seasons. As I noted last year, my reptile brain wants me to slow down and bulk up to make it through the hard times that are coming.  But, the less I do, the less I do, and I've got to keep moving.  Inspired by this insight, I did get 20 minutes on the basement NordicTrack this morning, before even having a cup of coffee.  This is the easiest exercise to add to my schedule, and perhaps I will be able to keep it up.  That's a short-term goal: two more NT sessions this week.

We are entering the Eating Season, from now through New Year's.  What is realistic to achieve for the next couple of months?  I would be happy to end the year with the scale showing the lowest number I've already seen so far this year.  That would be five pounds lower than today's reading, though only three pounds less than I saw a couple of days ago.  That low weight was in August, after a little blitz to move off my six months long plateau.  It would be a nice symmetry to end the year on the lowest number, after having hit a huge spike up so that I started the year at the highest by a lot.

The challenges I will face are considerable:  a short international vacation, two birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, folks wanting more social events at work.  The only way I can manage the eating side of the equation is to make RULES.  I am going to need to devote some energy to making rules in advance and then following them in the moment. If I stop paying attention, all is lost.

But every time I've been successful at losing weight, there was a large amount of exercise happening at the same time. Let's at least get some more movement in there.  So easy to be motivated on a weekend, when I've got the time to spend an hour at my computer. Now, errands and chores will soak up the time for the rest of the day. But - I have 20 minutes of pushing myself into exercise already behind me - it's in the bank!  Reason enough to consider this approach as a habit to cultivate.

How Much is Too Much?

Well, I got one of the items on my long list taken care of. I've gone through all of the clothes in my room, and significantly reduced the size of the collection.

I live in a small house, built in the 1950s when people apparently had a lot less stuff than now.  I get the master bedroom to myself, but its still not a lot of storage space. I've decided, however, that it should be enough space. I am not going to let my clothes take over the rest of the house.  I simply have too much stuff.

I have lived in this house for coming up on 15 years now, and so I haven't been forced to touch everything for a while. And during that while, I lost 50 pounds, gained 40 of it back, and had some ups and downs in between. Add to this having to dress like I'm testifying before Congress most week days, wanting to work in the garden and be active in a variety of outdoor activities that each come with specialized needs on weekends, and then top it all off with what I would consider normal clothes - what I wear to be a soccer mom - and it can add up quickly to large piles of clothes.  And lately, that is what my bedroom has become: piles of clothes  everywhere because there is no place to put them away.

I have an old antique four drawer chest, two small Ikea dressers, six feet of closet rod, and an inaccessible top shelf deep storage over the closet rod.  I know the closet space can be made more efficient, but I also know I have lot of stuff I don't wear ever, and even more I wear rarely. Or - I did, this morning. It's much less now.

There has been a fad in the past couple of years about cutting back on stuff. "Six Pieces" was one trend - you should be able to make every outfit you need with only six well-chosen pieces. I read a blog for a woman who was living with just a few black, white and grey pieces every day. When you read beyond the headlines, though, it appears they actually have quite a lot. I was awed by the way the Six Pieces people must be dedicated to their laundry every couple of days - until I read they considered multiples of the same thing to be ok. If a black t-shirt is one of your six pieces, its ok to have six of them (and even in slightly different styles). So what's the point of that? Why not have a rainbow, if you are going to have a bunch of stuff.  But who needs six black tshirts?  Laundry every couple of days is excessive, but presumably things eventually get washed and put away. So how many is enough?

I started at one corner of my room and went through everything in every drawer, getting rid of as much stuff as I could in order to make room for the stuff piled on top. I buy Tshirts as souvenirs; but how many do I need? How many souvenir Ts, how many stylish trim girl cut Ts for work, how many stylish Ts not quite good enough for work but perfect for the soccer sidelines, how many athletic Ts, how many thermal Ts as base layers?  How about the Christmas, Fourth of July and Halloween clothes?  It was easy to get rid of things that are old, stained, otherwise not quite perfect. But I have lots of pieces that are perfectly fine. They are not worn out, I like them well enough, they fit fine, I wear them occasionally, but there are just plain too many of them. So I went with the technique I learned from watching de-clutter TV shows:  I could keep X number in a given category, and out goes the rest.

This was really hard.  Each item of clothing has a story. I know when I got it. I know when I wore it. And what if I need it again some day? What if the occasion arises for which they are the absolutely perfect solution to the fashion needs of the moment? And, the stuff I'm keeping will wear out some day. I could use this other good stuff then, right?

But my house is just plain too small to keep all this stuff just in case.  I'm donating to Purple Heart, which will pick up and take everything, sell most of it to resale shops, and bundle the rest to become recycled rags.  Let's just get this stuff out of here, and maybe someone who needs it will get to use it.

I ended in the top inaccessible reaches of the shelf at the top of the closet, where plastic storage boxes from the Container Store have housed items since probably 2002.  I had found the box with my long underwear this summer before my trip to the Arctic, but today I found a box filled with khaki pants, skirts and shirts from the last time I went to Africa, in 2002.  I also found a box with the dresses made from bright wax-dyed african cloth during my first visit to Africa, in 1989, when I stayed in the mud hut with my Peace Corps Volunteer sister.  I kept both boxes. I'm ten pounds away from being able to wear the khaki, and there aren't a lot of places I would wear the african dresses, but they are too precious to let go just yet.  On the other hand, the box full of tshirts from my air show days as a new pilot all got tossed out.

I did find a fair amount of stuff I had forgotten I have, including a number of pairs of tailored wool slacks in the very back of closet from when I last weighed about what I wear now.  If they fit, I kept them for now. If they were too big, out they went. If they were slightly too tight, I kept them as well.  I really want to get down to goal weight and they could be a good motivator.

I feel virtuous, and it will be easier to keep things organized for a while. But hanging on to stuff that is slightly too small.... Not if I eat the way I have the past few days.  I've been eating as if it didn't matter, as if there were no rules, as if there were no consequences.  I'll feel the consequences soon enough and regret the very closet purge that right now has me feeling good.  It does matter what I eat, there are rules I should follow, and tracking is rule number one. Why I'm eating the way I am is a topic for another day. For now, I'll just be glad at the ability to easity access all the clothes I care about.  What should I wear tomorrow?

At Least I Was Efficient

Very sluggish start to this new week.  I've been to the gym, but every move was like I was moving through jello. I took a minute to plug in the magic device and upload my activity and sleep. I've spent the last week scarcely moving at all - very low levels of calories burned. And sleep - not so much.

I blame both the lack of sleep and the lack of movement on reading. I just finished the Swedish trilogy that begins with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  It sucked me in and every available moment was spent with it. I finished last night - too late to get a long night's sleep.  But to my surprise, I appear to have had the longest uninterrupted sleep I've had in weeks. I got less than six and a half hours total, but that is with only lying down for a few minutes more than the sleep.  By the scoring of my activity software, I was 96% efficient in my sleeping.  No waking up and tossing and turning.

So more "duh, it's so obvious". I'm starting the week with a sleep deficit. But it appears all I have to do to get more sleep is turn out the light earlier.  Huh. But sometimes it's worth slapping yourself in the face with a big dose of the obvious.

It's Just Life

What's up with me? Why am I not writing here?

It's such a prosaic answer:  it's just life. No big thing, but many little things.

I think about this all the time. I yen to set fingers to keyboard. But I fall short of my aspirations to write, just as I fall short of my aspirations to do better in the diet and exercise world.

I want to:

• go through my closet and throw away all the clothes too big right now.
• get all of the discarded clothes out of the house and to a donation center.
• add early morning aerobic exercise on days I don't have a personal training appointment.
• get my bike fixed so I can ride it.
• walk more in the course of the day and evening.
• buy and cook better food.
• always pack a lunch.
• always have a good breakfast close at hand.
• have fruit for an afternoon snack each day.
• lose those last 15 pounds to get down to goal weight.
• pull out my cognitive behavior therapy diet workbook and start working through all the steps again.
• track every single bite through weight watchers.
• export my daily calorie and activity data from my magic device and spend time poring through the data looking for insights on how to be more effective.
• export my sleep data and look for patterns that will help me improve my effectiveness.
• write more here.
• build a plan to stop my evening overindulgences:  Change Anything
• hire a personal makeover consultant to revitalize my closet and take me shopping.
• hire a closet designer to redo my small closet space into a closet / dressing room.
• do lots more yoga.
• try zumba.
• spend more time outside.
• go through cookbooks to get some new more interesting recipes.
• empty and defrost the big basement freezer; start over with good stuff.

And that's just the diet and exercise-related items.

What I am sure I actually will do:

• keep going to the gym appointments till the money runs out.
• eat reasonably well during the day.
• cook some vegetables sometimes for dinner.
• start out most weeks tracking through weight watchers.
• get out for a walk at lunch at least once a week.

I might do some of the other stuff. I might not. Life just keeps on happening no matter how hard I try to slow things down so I can catch up.

Can't Relax for a Minute

Yeah, I lost focus. Almost deliberately started eating badly. For no single reason, just overall stress, I have fallen off the wagon. Last night at dinner I thought of blogging how my big victory was turning down the second portion of tortillini for an apple. Except I didn't. Then I decided to blame it all on ego depletion leading to decision fatigue. Sounds so much better than saying I was tired from a hard day and took the easy way out.

So right now, I'm focused on tracking exactly what I am eating. I'm going to try to remorselessly and brutally honestly write it all down and count it up with weight watchers points. Starting with yesterday. Awareness is the first step towards modification.

54 points for the day. Should be 29. Starting the week behind.

Now, I've got to climb my way back out of this. I can buy back some weekly points by extra activity. I can start eating right this morning. This can happen. Every day is a reset and every week is a reset. Every meal is an opportunity to do things right.

If the sun shines today I will be more inclined to get this resolution past arriving at work.


Sherbert update

Drinking Coffee: I'm doing it right!

From the Well Blog: drinking coffee is correlated with less depression in women. I'm thinking about all those depressive Norwegian ancestors of mine, and thinking this must be why enough of them survived to give me my existence.

http://nyti.ms/oRyTwp



Sherbert update

In the yard

- iPhone uPdate

Why Diets Fail

Jane Brody's New York Times column this week talks about a series of articles  in The Lancet, a medical journal.  Three of the four articles are focused on public health and the obesity pandemic. The third, of greatest interest to me, focuses on quantifying weight changes based on energy in versus energy out.  (I'd like to save the world, of course, but how about me first!)  Because I am a geek and because I wanted to avoid all chores and other problems for a while, I flopped on the couch this morning and read the actual Lancet article on this quantification.

So guess what? Existing projections of how much weight you should lose by cutting calories or upping exercise are wrong, and overestimate weight loss.  Well, duh. We knew that, those of us out here in the trenches of the weight wars. The sophistication they have added to the calculations isn't overwhelming:  very fat people lose weight more quickly than others for a given cut in food or increase in exercise, simply because it takes more calories to maintain their body weight (they burn more calories while lying on the couch) and because they burn more calories during aerobic exercise (it takes more calories to move those big bodies). As your weight declines, you lose that effect and so it takes cutting out more calories or upping exercise even more to continue to lose at the same weight.

(They do not include in their model any assumption that exercise leads to greater muscle mass which burns more calories - they include the relative burns of fat versus muscle, and assume the fat goes away as weight loss occurs, but explicitly do not include any increase in absolute muscle mass. They say it's probably not a big deal for aerobic exercise. Very fat people have to have muscles just to move, of course. I know I've added muscle, not just relatively but absolutely, but I do quite a bit of weight training.)

An additional conclusions they reach which I have to quote because I can't follow all of how they got there:  when there is a lot of fat to lose, you will lose faster by adding exercise, but after a certain level of exercise has been added, there is more benefit to cutting food than to adding more exercise.  Going beyond the math, they suggest it does make sense to "go on a diet" - have a big, artificial restriction in food - at the beginning of a weight loss program, because otherwise their model's predictions of how long it will take to get to goal is very discouraging. Most books I've read of popular diets follow that approach - lose, then taper off towards maintenance.

They spend some time looking at plateaus. They note that many dieters reach a plateau after eight months, and speculate on why.  Apparently no in-patient studies go beyond six months, and they say only in-patient studies are accurate for food intake and exercise records - "diaries are notoriously inaccurate". Because there is no change in the math they have calculated during the six months, they don't think there is a sudden change at month seven or eight to account for the plateau. Instead, they note there is a lag between adding food and gaining weight back, and they hypothesize most "free-living" (their term) dieters stop being rigorous in their diets after a few months, but the weight loss continues and so they think they are ok doing that, but it finally catches up with them and they plateau on the scale with no additional cheating going on. This is a second answer to "why doesn't what I do now work the way it used to?".

There is a side-bar on whether diet composition (eg high carb versus low carb) makes a difference.  There is a very grudging tone to any discussion about whether low carb works - there really is a prejudice out there - it's not just purely scientific. They say several studies support that low carb leads to greater weight loss, "at least in the short term". They offer some possible reasons for this: (1) physiology at the cell / molecule level means (I think they say just like Atkins et al) that carbs take less energy to turn into fat; (2) eating protein means you feel more energetic and thus burn more calories; and (3) high protein, low carb may lead to more satisfaction with your diet and therefore fewer calories consumed. They go on to say that since diet logs lie there is no way to tell what people are actually eating. They go on to conclude that any effect from composition doesn't matter over the long term (based on what?) and so they say it doesn't matter over the short term either and a calorie is a calorie is a decent rule of thumb. I don't exactly get this.

So how might I use this information? I don't know. The very short takeaway for me is that if I want to lose weight, I have to keep up the exercise, but I really have to cut calories, and even then it will take a long time.

Sigh. I think I actually knew that already.

Reset

One of the things I really like about the WW program is the way the points you use just reset. There are daily points, and no matter how much you eat in a day, the points start over tomorrow.

This is relevant because I have my worst time in the evenings during the week. I'm all alone with my dog, and she thinks frequent trips back to the kitchen are wonderful. No matter how tired I am, I have to have my little snack while sitting down and reading or writing in the quiet and solitude. Sadly, my resolve is at its weakest then, and that leads to incidents like the one last night involving chocolate Jo-Jos. Sigh.

But every morning is a new day. I mark off my excesses against my weekly budget for excesses (and how lovely a concept is that!) and start over in the morning with a fresh budget. And the daily budget is just fine all by itself. It doesn't require constant self denial to stay on it- instead, it forces a constant focus on fruits and vegetables to eat well while within the allowance. I have yet to prove whether the allowances will really lead to weight loss for me, especially when I use the weekly points. It feels more like maintenance, but I've now got less than 15 pounds to go and so that is probably right. There should be a tapering off of restrictions in order to get used to maintenance. The problem with that is it's hard to see any progress.

I'm thinking another cabbage family blitz is in the cards fir me, perhaps starting this weekend. Wish me luck.


Sherbert update

That's Two in a Row

Tracking, that is. It makes me so much more conscious of what I'm doing.


- iPhone uPdate

Back to Tracking

Score a tiny victory for one day of tracking with WW on-line. I have a big box of cookies from Trader Joe's in the house (bought for but not eaten by young house guests). Here I am at the end of a stress filled day, my most vulnerable condition, and I looked up their points and put them in BEFORE eating them. Kept me below my point totals for the day. Hooray.


Sherbert update

Weight Watchers on Vacation

I'm really enjoying this placid slow time on vacation. But, if I don't want to undo the blitz, I'm going to have to be more actively paying attention to my eating and activity.  I like WW because it lets me reset each day, and gives me flex for the week.  My WW week starts on Monday, so I went back and tracked yesterday, and intend to keep it up for the rest of the week. I drove down on Saturday and I'm ignoring my eating for those two days.

But--- I get 29 points a day, plus 49 extra points to use over the course of the week, plus any activity points I can earn.  Yesterday, I made carb-heavy choices, which means point-heavy choices.  A grand total of 47 points for the whole day!!!  I better get out there walking the beach to earn lots more activity points - maybe even a jog - to get back to a stage where I can still have my daily beer and daily single piece of chocolate.  I'm going to have to get to the supermarket for more fruit as well.  I have some convenient snacks lying around, but they are not point-friendly selections.

TO my day! Excelsior!

Decision Fatigue

There is a particularly interesting article in the New York Times about making decisions. Basically, it's really tiring, you have a budget of how many you can effectively make during the day. Exersizing willpower is effectively making a choice, like going to the buffet and restricting yourself to salad instead of the yummy orange chicken. Carrying your lunch in a bag eliminates the need to make a decision and thus conserves your willpower. A shot of sugar helps you make more effective decisions. Eating an apple on the way home from work should help me make better dinner decisions. My interest in cognitive behavior therapy and needing to have some structure in the diet and exercise world makes sense with this perspective: making a rule not to eat doughnuts means "no choice" and making an appointment to exercise means "no choice". It also explains what I know so intuitively about days with lots of meetings. If I am running them, they are very very tiring.

I'll link to the article when I get the regular computer up and running later.
UPDATE: Here is the link

Sherbert update

Location:Topsail Beach

The Scale Is Broken, Long Live the Scale!

I remained suspicious of the remarkable numbers showing on my scale. Wednesday, it had been down 5.5 pounds from Tuesday. Thursday, my scale read the same, but when I weighed myself at the gym, I got a higher reading. However, I hadn't used the gym scale before (an old-style doctor's office with sliding bars for the the weights) and the readings varied by clothes, shoes, and time taken. But Friday, my home scale was down another four pounds and that just wasn't credible. So Saturday, just before I left the house for the gym I weighed myself in clothes and shoes, and then immediately got on the scale in the gym ten minutes later. EIGHT POUNDS DIFFERENT!!!  Clearly the home scale is broken.  I don't get how a scale "breaks" but it is twelve years old, dirty, big, and I decided it was time to go shopping.

I have a lovely sleek new electronic glass and metal scale with a WW logo on it. (Bed, Bath and Beyond, $29).  Besides weight, it purports to tell me fat percent, water percent, BMI, and bone density.  Except when I read the pamphlet, it basically said all those other readings are very unreliable.  The main thing is, it works for my weight, I can read the number without wearing my glasses, I like how it looks, and it fits in my room.

Living for a couple of days thinking I might be near my ultimate weight loss goal stimulated some new thoughts, which I may write about at another time. Now, I simply want to note that the blitz actually did more or less what I hoped it would, really. Moved me through the plateau and onto a new downward trajectory. The trend is real but fragile. My most recent accurate readings are the lowest in six months.

This graph shows the plateau since February. The light line are my daily weights and the dark line shows the weekly average, taken on Saturdays. The total vertical range of this graph is ten pounds (I had to change the scale to get my latest weight on it!).  It's so clear how I've been bouncing around in this same space. This last week, I filled in my bogus data points with estimates from the gym, and yesterday and this morning are real on my new scale. I think I'm breaking through the barrier. This is what I need to keep myself motivated and moving forward.

The main change I've incorporated since my first four day all cabbage all the time phase is I'm trying to organize every meal around the vegetables. Start with that, rather than start with the meat.  I'm using meat more as a flavoring than a mainstay of the meal. My snacks are fruit, not nuts or cheese or something more starchy.  Thank goodness for peach season!  And apples are just starting to appear locally. I'm keeping with the WW on-line - I like the point totals, and that certainly keeps me vegetable and fruit focused.  Maybe because of the points, I've limited myself to a single dove dark square for a single point, every night.

And yet, it hasn't been all green.  I had dinner out with friends Friday night - the dinner was 31 weight watcher's points when my daily allowance is 29. (Shouldn't have had the piece of garlic bread - six points! And I didn't need to consume the whole piece of salmon - it was big enough to cut in half and set some aside to take home.)  Yesterday, I had an ice cream cone. Could have saved some points by having it in a cup, but the ice cream itself was worth it.

So I'm feeling quite optimistic and in control. This week, I'll be able to manage my eating mostly on my own with kids doing their own thing. Next week:  the family at the beach. Our tradition is not to eat out, so it'll just be controlling the beer and ice cream, and making sure we have fruit and easy vegetables in the house.

Still Down

This morning, the scale read the same as yesterday. A comparison to the scale St the gym was ambiguous, so who knows exactly what I weigh? It's clear at any rate the blitz worked-- I'm off the plateau.

Sadly, the level of planning and control and focus- and availability of precooked blitz food--is not sustainable. But I've got another week or so before vacation, and I think I can keep the focus at least to capitalize on this progress.




- iPhone uPdate

Is This Even Possible?

I got on the scale first thing today, as I do every day, and I stared and stared at the number. I got off and back on sevral times, then went off and had my coffee and stared at the wall and weighed myself again before my shower.

I was down FIVE AND A HALF POUNDS from the day before!!! How can that be? Is the scale malfunctioning?

To recap, I've been plus or minus the same four pounds since February, on the mother of all plateaus. I very slightly exceeded that after my vacation, but quickly got back to the range. I started Weight Watchers on-line and felt comfortable with the points and the emphasis on fruits and vegetables. I lost a tiny amount of weight the first three weeks, from the top of the range to the middle, a whopping two and a half pounds. But I was using lots of the weekly points, especially having too much chocolate in the evenings, and even allowing more than a single serving of ice cream in the house, with predictable results. I decided it was time for drastic measures. Time to blitz my way off the plateau. There was one answer that towers over any other when desperate times are here: Cabbage Soup.

I've done a number of things right the past few days. Starting Saturday morning, I loaded up at the farmers market and at Whole Foods. I spent Sunday cooking cabbage and cauliflower. I made Cole slaw with ginger miso dressing, cabbage soup with lamb, and braised cauliflower. Hugely tasty. I included olive oil in the recipes. I've decided the savor I get, the richness, from sautéing the vegetables in good olive oil makes the difference between cabbage soup as medicine and having it as a satisfying dish. The same thing holds for the other dishes I made Sunday. If I'm going to live on it, it can't be just fuel. (On the other hand, I have gone too far the other way on previous blitz attempts and made lamb stew with cabbage- completely different proportions and way less effective.)

So I've been living on my cabbages, and peaches and cherries and watermelon. My points total plunged from averaging 33 last week to averaging 17 for the last five days. Another smart thing I've done is put the Cole slaw in tiny containers and have it for my afternoon snack. And, from the start, I decided on a single Dove dark after dinner. Just the one, no returns. For these five days, I've been able to stick to this.

My Monday weigh-in for WW was exactly the same as the week before, though I started with the cabbage on Saturday. If that was my only clue, I would be crushed, but I weigh myself daily and had seen lower weights. Tuesday was down a pound and a half from Monday, just below the lower edge of the range. Progress! I was up several times last night to pee, but that is not unusual. But when I looked at the scale, I truly didn't believe it.

My scale is an electronic scale, which I've owned for more than a decade. I got it because it has big numbers I can read without my glasses. Also because the number is the same whether you lean right or left, unlike my old dial scale. But it has a peculiarity which I believe is deliberate because other people have told me theirs work the the same way- it is biassed to show the same weight as the last time it weighed something. This really bummed me out once when I thought I was on a plateau but instead my weight was inching down. I have developed a technique to break the "stickiness" of it's number-- I have a brick in my bathroom (pulled from the tank where it had been used to reduce water usage). Every morning, I step on the scale with my brick that weighs about five pounds, then back on the scale without it.

So when I saw the weight the first time this morning, I thought the scale must be broken. It doesn't have any adjustment / calibration mechanism-- I checked it again this morning to be sure. I moved it around, making sure it was on a hard flat surface. I stepped on and off several times, with and without the brick. I did get one reading half a pound different, but that was it. I went away and came back half an hour later and it was exactly the same.

I'm still a little suspicious the scale is off. If the scale is accurate, then most of this weight is water. But so what? That probably means I've burned some fat up and replaced it with water, and finally peed it off last night. I've been both thirsty and peeing all day, just a side effect of the cabbage.

What will I see tomorrow? (I won't be home till bedtime so won't check tonight. Besides, I never weigh myself at night.) If it's still down, I'll check on the scale at the gym to see if it's in sync, just to make sure it's not the scale.

So what does this matter? Did my clothes fit me differently today? Not really, certainly not from yesterday. But this number was seven pounds above my goal weight. My goal weight has been the goal for thirty years. I don't know when last I actually saw it, except for a few days at the end of The Big Loss, in 1999. This goal could become reality some day. Even if what I saw today was ephemeral, it's still far below the range I've been in, and represents a real change from the plateau.


Sherbert update

Cabbage Soup

Since Saturday, I've only eaten cabbage and it's close relative with a college education, cauliflower. Oh yeah, and fruit. Lots of fruit. Cherries and watermelon and peaches.

Sadly, it's not yet time for the winter vegetables, so my brassicas are from Whole Foods, probably the west coast. I've had cole slaw with ginger-miso dressing, braised cauliflower with beef broth and curry flavor, and cabbage soup with lamb necks. all really delicious, and I'm stuffed. But according to weight watchers, I've barely scratched my points. Plus, I think I spent less than ten dollars on four days worth of food.

When I was in Norway a few years ago, I attended a lecture on the civilian experience during the Second World War. The Nazis sent most of the food away to Germany, and so everyone was hungry. They grew cabbages on every square foot of land they could find. But it turns out you can stuff yourself on cabbages and still lose weight. Let's see how true that is.

I'm focussing on these "hero vegetables". Next up: broccoli.


Sherbert update

Good Enough?

So is WW working?

I have stabilized my weight back where I was before vacation, and the weekly averages are trending every so slowly down.  But I'm right at this same plateau I was on since February.  Clearly my body likes being this weight. That probably worked to my advantage during vacation, and just as homeostasis keeps me from losing weight, it worked to keep me from gaining much.

Is this weight "good enough"? I've written about how its less than I weighed for sixteen of the years since I turned 35.  But I really don't think it's "good enough". And let's not be too righteous about my goals:  this is now much more about how I look than about being healthy and strong. I am healthy and strong now, though I was not when I started this a year and a half ago.

So if I actually want to lose weight, I can't settle in to a comfortable, treat-allowing, long-term way of eating. I've got to do something radical to de-stabilize the homeostasis that has kept me hear since February. I'll up the activity, clearly. But I've got to dramatically restrict my eating. I think I have two choices:  Atkins, or cabbage and fruit.  Either will work. Either will be "real weight loss". Both are hard to stick to for any length of time. But I've got the next two weeks to focus, with a limited social life, lots of work to do at work, and plenty of chores at night.  After a two-week blitz, I'll revert to more normal weight watchers.

Given the time of year, I pick cabbage and fruit. On this way of eating, no breads or grains, but the emphasis is on vegetables and fruit, low fat, not much lean meat, any fresh fruit I want (except bananas which I don't really like anyway). If I were doing Atkins, the emphasis would be on meat with few vegetables and no fruit. I actually made cole slaw last week from a cabbage I got that day at farmer's market, and it astounded me how good it was - that fresh cabbage was better than long-distance stored cabbage. I had not really thought about the freshness of cabbage making a difference, not like tomatoes, for example.

So I'll be off to farmer's market after the gym in a few minutes, and I intend to stock way up. And then cook. Cole slaws with vinaigrettes, cabbage soup, fruits and fresh tomatoes, a zucchini or cucumber for variety, and we'll see where we go from there.

Let's see how my resolve works in the face of ice cream and beer season. But I'm off to the beach after my two week blitz, so I'm going to try to hold out till then.

Monumental Bike Ride

Yesterday, I took a walk along a bike-hike trail.  Towards the end, I was hot, foot-sore, and cranky about retracing my steps. I continually eyed the bicycles going in both directions, thinking about how free and fast they seemed.  I occupied myself during the walk thinking about whether I should get myself a new bike, one I'd actually want to ride.  Then, right at the end, the penny dropped.  I belong to a bike-share!  There aren't any bikes anywhere near where I live, but plenty near places I want to ride. And those bikes are way nicer than any bike I've ever owned. So I formed a plan.

This morning, it was up very very early, and down to park on the street outside my office. I used my bike key, and was off and gliding in minutes.  I dislike hills, but downtown DC, where all the monuments are, is totally flat. It's all landfill of a swamp, after all.

The bike has only three gears - but I only used two of them.  I was off to the Capitol first (driven by which light was green) and then down the length of the mall to the Lincoln Memorial, and then down into Potomac Park to Hain's Point. I'm a bit nervous about urban riding, but I was rolling before 7:30 am and there was little traffic to contend with. I have been observing bikes around town, and it seems to me that bikes choose between car and pedestrian rules as it suits them.

I saw bunches of bikes down along Hains Point. Every bike I saw going in direction passed me, but I didn't care.  It was relatively low humidity and a good breeze was blowing, and it just felt really good.  I stopped down at the point to get a sip of water, and almost immediately was set on by biting flies.  I didn't linger, and headed on back.  I accidentally rode through the FDR memorial (saw the "no bikes" sign on the way out) and wandered through the sidewalks around the memorials, a bit turned around. I was surprised to realize I had come on the Korean war memorial. Things are all torn up between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument where the reflecting pool is being reconstructed.

This is the longest bike ride I've taken in a couple of years - more than ten miles. It felt good, though I was plenty ready to be done.  But I thought about how with this bike share, I certainly can explore different parts of the District or even Alexandria. The bikes are often at metros, so it would even be possible to do a one-way ride, or a walk and a ride to make a circuit.  Early in the morning is the ticket.

I don't know how much I'll do this, but there are possibilities, and this certainly was fun.  Here are the stats and the link:

Monumental Ride

Ride Time: 1:07:13
Stopped Time: 6:50
Distance: 10.88 miles
Average: 9.71 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 22.99 miles/h
Ascent: 246 feet
Calories: 480

Potomac River Walk

Saturday, I had to go early to the airport to put my boy on a plane for frisbee camp. It's been brutally hot, but it was slightly less horrible on Saturday, especially early. By nine a.m. the boy was beyond security and out of my reach. I had missed my normal weekend gym appointment, and decided to take a walk.

I know there is a bike-hike trail all along the Virginia side of the Potomac River for miles, from somewhere opposite the District down to Mount Vernon. I've seen it, but never been on it in the section south of the 14th St bridge.  It took a bit of casting around in the airport to find it. I've walked around between terminals and down to the hangars before, but which path would keep on going wasn't obvious to me. I came to a dead end in the rental car garage, and consulted the closeup satellite view on google maps to figure out where to try next.

I ended up on the correct side of the metro tracks, and the actual exit to the trail was alongside the little known Congressional parking lot. (There is a very close-in lot - as close to the terminal as the metro station - restricted to Congressmen and Supreme Court justices.  I was glad to see it was nearly empty, as they should all have been hard at work.)  I followed it south towards General Aviation, and was much relieved to come upon a signpost, pointing one way for Alexandria and another route to Crystal City.

I hadn't really planned on this walk, and I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt, and sandals. My plan was just to walk until I was ready to turn around. I knew there was a sailboat marina between airport and Alexandria, but only had the vaguest notion how far anything was. I figured I could find water or a bathroom at the marina if necessary.

It was really lovely. It was hot, and it was humid, but I just walked along and it wasn't too terribly bad. Much of the walk is through woods, and it was shady. A slight breeze was blowing, and I was efficiently sweating off the heat. I was listening to a fascinating book on the ipod, which helps the miles click off. The walk led along the shore, and at one point was on a boardwalk above a little swamp where hibiscus were blooming.  As I went, it got more and more crowded. Lots of walkers, runners, and plenty of bicyclists. Finally, I came to a power plant along the shore and turned around to come back. I dislike retracing my steps, but this was linear. A look at the map suggested that the next metro stop was still slightly further away than turning around, and I did have other things to do during the day.

The return trip was hotter, but just as nice.  I remembered to start up my tracking app on the phone, so I have stats for the return trip.  I also experimented with the technique of taking photos of myself, trying to capture the lovely feeling. The last bit of the walk was really hot, and I was thirsty and had to pee. My shoulder bag seemed much heavier, and I started carrying it in my hand to take the weight off my shoulder. I started to get a blister from the sandals. The bicycles started to seem really appealing to me.  I eyed all the different ones I encountered, thinking seriously about going bicycle shopping later.  I was really ready to get back to car.  Just as I did, my boy texted to let me know he had arrived at the destination.

Part of what really appealed to me on this walk was because it was a place I've never been before. There was the thrill of discovery, the joy of exploration, along with the good sensation of striding along while listening to a great book.  I've got to get out more, go on along and find new places to explore.

I went on into the airport terminal where I was glad for the air conditioning. I used the rest rooms, and got a sandwich and bottle of water from the fancy grab and go restaurant there.  I just sat on a bench in the terminal and enjoyed the sandwich and water in the air conditioning, before driving home in the heat.

Here's the stats and a link to the map of the return trip. All told, nearly six miles. Not bad for a totally impromptu stroll. And I didn't go buy a new bicycle after all.

River Walk Map

Walk Time: 58:06
Stopped Time: 5:27
Distance: 2.82 miles
Average: 20:35 /mile
Fastest Pace: 12:43 /mile
Ascent: 64 feet
Calories: 217

Time to try credit again

I've not been entering anything here, while I took my vacation break ( which oddly seemed to include a couple of weeks leading up to vacation). Now I'm tracking in WW, but that isn't the same as what I mean the credit log for. "Credit" is a concept for positive reinforcement. What am I doing that is praiseworthy? And I do like my scoring. Time to focus on that again. Maybe not every day- especially if I raise the bar for what is worth noting.

We'll see how it goes.


Sherbert update

Exercise in the News

Today's New York Times says that exercise, even moderate exercise, staves off brain deteoriation as you age. It buys five years. That seems worthwhile.  And I even like it, so why not?

But the best part was my brother's comment on facebook:  "This might explain a lot, like my Mom"

Link to NYT article

Couple Blips in the Posting World

Working with the iPad last night, I accidentally deleted a couple of posts and my most current post decided it was the year 2000. Through the magic of copy, cut and paste I got the posts back (I think I got them all) but I didn't get the comments restored. Sorry for any confusion.

Preoccupied

I was so busy and absorbed today at work that---- I forgot to eat lunch! I'm not sure that has ever happened before. I'm normally so obsessed and focussed on what I am eating that this is astounding to me. Even more astounding, I was home and thinking about dinner before I even realized it, in spite of stomach rumblings and other cues. 

I had a satisfying breakfast (leftover bacon and chard). I took a brief walk at lunchtime (the giant heat has broken slightly) and when I got back to my desk, I decided to make some phone calls first. And during that, my phone gave me a buzz to make sure I had logged my lunch into the WW tracking system. "Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it" I thought. Then, I was hungry in the late afternoon and regretted not having brought a snack. But my lunch was there in the fridge across the hall, all nicely packed and ready for the microwave. "I wish I had some nuts" I thought around 4 pm. "Oh well, I'll just go fill up my water glass from the cooler.". And never once thought about that lunch. At least it's there for tomorrow. 

I'm well under my daily points. Probably not a good idea to try to reach my cap by filling up on chocolate now!

Sherbert update

First Week on WW

My WW week officially starts on Monday (I don't know if that is a function of when I joined or if that's just what they do) but I'm not so likely to post during the week.  Here is what I'm thinking.

The tools are imperfect but usable, now that I've gotten used to them. They are different on the different platforms (computer vs ipad vs iphone) and I can do things on the ipad I can't do on the computer. Weird. But I can live with it. Some parts of the website simply don't seem to work. For example, when I go to the main page, there is a box with headings for my instant summary - but no numbers appear there. That may be function of using Chrome as my browser, I suppose.

The allowances seem really generous. I read that my allowance, 29 daily points, is the lowest they give. I was able to live within the daily limit every day except my Ikea  extravagance and the party last night. I had a couple of points each day to eat a couple of pieces of chocolate, my special evening snack. And I was able to cover the special occassions easily out of the weekly points and points earned for activity. But nevertheless, it is constraining my eating by guiding my choices and cutting back the snacking at night. (Evening snacking is also helped by my falling asleep at 9:30 every night!) So now, on the last day of my week, I have more weekly points left than my total daily points. So the trick will be - will I lose weight on this style of eating?

I weigh myself every day, and didn't gain as much on vacation as I feared (three pounds). I've bounced at the high end of this plateau-weight range all week, down and back up again. It's the average and the trend that matters to me, though WW is about the weekly weigh-in. Entering the weight on Monday stacks the deck against me - it is often the highest weight of the week, probably because of big and salty eating on weekends.

Ironic side note:  I mentioned WW remembered me from years ago. The weight I was then is basically the weight I am now. I've been mostly higher, not lower, in between. How about that?

Vegetables

I totally believe vegetables are the key to success. My return from the Arctic has coincided with peak summer produce. I've gotten fruit at Whole Foods (which does make an effort to get east coast produce not just California) and the peaches and plums are completely wonderful. And free on WW. But they are not a meal.

This morning after the gym (smug virtuous reference) I finally got to a local farmers market. "Abundance" is the feeling. Despite the heat and drought, there is lots to choose from. I had to hold back because it all looks so good. My history is of overbuying and letting things rot, so I tried to focus on specific dishes for specific meals. There is another market tomorrow, so I can get more good stuff right away. I'm thinking that for this season, I should just try to get to a market or store every couple of days, so as to waste less and always have fresh stuff. It's more work, and we'll see how it works out.

I know we have ready ripe fruit on the dining room table so I didn't get any more of that. I got the usual zucchini, eggplant, peppers for side dishes. I was very restrained on the tomatoes. Only a couple of heirloom ones. If I don't know exactly when they'll get eaten, I should pass them up.

My one impulse buy was chard. It was so beautiful, fairly small sized leaves. Since it was still breakfast time, I had the idea cooking it right away for breakfast. I had in my mind a dish I've had with other greens: bacon and greens and a splash of vinegar. I've only cooked chard a couple of times, so I consulted How to Cook Everything, and modified a recipe. It worked out ok, but not up to my expectations. Served with fresh tomato, it was kind of a BLT with no bread and C instead of L. Not a big hit with anyone else, either.

I got a darling little cabbage as well, and I'm going to shred it with a cilantro vinaigrette for a cole slaw at a picnic tonight.

Here's to the season!

Sherbert update

Planning is Everything

So after two whole days on WW, I've come to realize (for the umpteenth time) that planning is everything. Sadly, a new computer program to enter what I've already eaten will not do much for me at all. It's using the program to plan ahead before I eat that will make the difference.  And it's planning that is all the work, especially as I go back to work.  I love my job, but it sure does take a chunk out of my day!

So day one was a day out of time due to jet lag. I went wild for fresh fruits and vegetables, wasn't able to be awake in the evening hours that are my downfall, and so used my last couple daily points to eat some chocolate and went to bed feeling the allowances were generous and a piece of cake. Monday did include an Italian dinner cooked by my girl who attended L'Academie de la Cuisine while I was gone. All fresh ingredients, sounded like a good idea. But then I realized the salad she was making was bread salad, and the shrimp scampi had five tablespoons of butter in it!  It was terrific, but I was tired and barely awake, and had munched on fruit and cucumbers all during the cooking, so portion control was not a problem for me. And luckily there were no leftovers.

Yesterday, a bonus day off from work, we spontaneously decided to have lunch at Ikea.  Salmon, I thought. But the meatball lunch was only $2.99!  How could I pass that up? With potatoes, of course. When I sat down in the afternoon to calculate points, I realized I had already gone over all my daily points, used my sole activity point, and dipped into my weekly extra allowance.  For a while I contemplated no dinner, but the rest of the family wanted to be fed, so I coped. First, the afternoon was again full of fruits, totally free on the program. Then, I cooked baked salmon, using basil leaves and a squeeze of lemon instead of slathering in pesto as I would ordinarily do. I cooked zucchini, onion and tomato in sprayed olive oil for zero points. I didn't make a starch, instead offering the good Italian bread from the day before to the rest of the family.  Worked for me, only six points for the salmon and nothing for everything else. Not a disaster, but an early lesson in planning ahead. Had I not calculated after lunch, I would have had a lot more for dinner.

So my complaints: I've done a lot of on-line tracking, starting with WW back in the last decade and then going mobile on my Treo with a different database, upgrading to at least three different ones on the iphone, and now back to WW, with iphone app.  The WW database is small compared to others I've used. The name brand database so far has not coincided with the brands I use.  The fast food database doesn't include the restaurants I frequent for lunch (Cosi and Quiznos and Panera). So far, I haven't been impressed with the way you add foods to use recurrently to the database. When I entered my Muesli cereal, for example, it only allowed entering one "portion" for the values. The portion on the box is 2/3 of a cup, but I want to eat only half a cup. I can do that to add to the tracker, but if I come back to this food after a while, I'm going to have to figure out all over again what a "portion" is and adjust for how much I actually eat.  Also, I found a way to add permanent foods on the iPad app, but haven't found it on the computer version!  How weird is that?

They have blogs and message boards so I'll have to find where the geeks talk about the way the interface works.  The iPhone app is only rated 2 stars out of 5 on average, with which I would concur.

More later. Work awaits. Breakfast is ready, and lunch is packed.  Starting out right.

Episode IV: A New Hope

Back from vacation and full of new resolve. I am groggy with time changes. My journey home involved being awake for 24 hours straight (that hasn't happened in years) with flight disruptions and all. I went to bed at 1 am, which by my body clock should have been getting up time.  Ironically, it is actually likely to help me adjust faster - I was able to sleep in till seven this morning because I was so tired.  The trip was a wonderful and magical time out of real life, to one of the few true wildernesses left on the planet. It was, however, a luxury tourist excursion, not a polar death march, and pretty much a diet and exercise disaster.  I haven't visited the scale yet, but I downloaded my magical exercise tracking device and verified my overall activity level was about equivalent to the low side of normal life here. Hard to get all the steps in on a very small ship unless you go to the gym - which I did do twice, hooray for me.  The food and drink was good, and I just went with it.  I drank more alcohol last week than the previous year altogether.  Almost entirely in the form of beer, which was what I was feeling. Ice cream as well every day. Dinner portions were small, but the rest was served as a buffet and that didn't help moderate my consumption of the good tasting food. But it was was it was, and now I'm going to re-focus back here.

During my seven hours in Newark airport yesterday, I went ahead and signed up for Weight Watchers on-line. I'm studying the meal suggestions, and getting ready for my first shopping trip. Every new diet seems to start with buying food, oddly enough.  This time, it's fruits and vegies, baby.  This is the right time of year for that!  One of the things I dis-liked about WW last time was the emphasis on highly processed "lite" versions of things, as opposed to eating lower on the processing chain. Now, I think the fresh fruits and vegies, enhanced with leaner versions of meat and dairy, will work for me. Nuts are more welcome now than before, too, I think, which works for me.  

I had done weight watchers on-line a while ago, and they still had my login information - I think it was 2002 when last I checked in..  I like tracking and counting, etc., and in the pre-phone app era, WW was the best on-line experience I found.  Don't remember how long I stuck with it.  They now have specific apps for the iphone and ipad, which I'll get a chance to check out soon.  

Right now, clean up, weigh-in, eat something, start unpacking into the laundry, and off to the food store. No work today - a chance to adjust and get ready. I'll scan the hundreds of work emails later today. 

Personal Bests

Ok, so the eating and drinking on this wonderful trip has been -- well, I'm going to describe it literally as calorific. I don't want to use a value laden word such as a disaster. It's been a lot more calories in than out. But I'm still feeling virtuous.

I'm just back from my second trip to the gym- a first for me on cruise ships. The other ships I've been on have a deck you can walk around, and I've walked and walked and walked. This one is too small. I am doing stairs a lot, but it's still a very small boat.

We've been to shore a couple of times but that hasn't been a great deal if exercise- a stroll where we study artifacts and flowers and wildlife every few steps. More field natural history than hiking.

I went kayaking for an hour or so. That was absolutely a thrill. But when I got back on board I went directly to the gym, because I knew it wasn't enough. I didn't do much- a little bit of walking an jogging on the treadmill. But even that little bit felt really good.

Now I'm just done with a good solid workout session. I covered two miles more quickly than ever before on the treadmill, which presumably means more quickly than ever period. I averaged 4.5 miles an hour. I stuck with the jogging pace for five minutes at a time which is more than Ive done in the past. I'm a little suspicious the settings on this brand of treadmill are a little generous compared to what I'm used to, but also this was really the optimum time to workout. Two hours after a couple of meals, plenty of sleep, ready and raring to go to get that heart beat up after several easy days in a row. I rounded out with some push ups and crunches.

There is no way this exercise bout makes up for the calories I'm consuming. But it does keep me in the pink of fitness. I wonder if my lack of sleep had me almost over training before. Often the workouts seemed to be going uphill. Walks at lunch were easy to by pass. But right now I'm strong and I'm happy.

As I finished my exercise, I looked down from the glass wall to the sun deck below. There were my friends, first in line for the outdoor beer and brats in the Arctic. It seemed the perfect finish to my lovely workout. My quota of three things is more like four or five.

I expect a good five pounds up when I get back. But as long as I'm strong and healthy, it'll be the perfect time to start a new diet and get to lower than I was before. So I'm happy.


Sherbert update

Location:Svalbard

Not Worrying About Food

Plenty of other things to think about.



Sherbert update

Planning for Vacation

I've got my middle boy off to camp, and my girl all programmed while I'm gone. At last, my thoughts can turn to my own great adventure. (My oldest boy will do the dog sitting.) Today I'm starting the laundry push. I've been doing digital packing, too. Reading books loaded onto the kindle and audio books onto the iPod and a movie onto the iPad. Digital guide books and maps. Researching software for managing photos. Checking out international and shipboard computer and phone rates.

Journal or blog? If a digital journal, what is the difference?

I guess it's the audience that makes it different. When I started this blog, I wrote for a while before I let people know about it. I've kept journals on and off since high school. I've kept separate books for separate purposes, writing in one specific one to track my weight, another one for my garden, and an intensely private one for private things. I have a green hardback book I have used as my journal for voyages. I've written in it on a cruise ship in Norway and a small sailboat in the Caribbean, in Alaska and Quebec and all over the Chesapeake. It will come with me on this trip, but I'm thinking the electronic tools for the iPad that allow me to bundle with photos could be a lot of fun. Internet access on the trip is too expensive to post from the road, so there will only be a journal, none of the interactivity I enjoy on this blog. But the electronics will permit me to eventually export it as a pdf and post it somewhere, and I think I'll probably do that. Writing for an audience makes a difference.

Having just a small audience of a few friends changes the nature of what I write here. I've always been honest, though sometimes I edit by omission. But I really enjoy knowing someone is likely to read it, and having this audience and interactivity does bring the "diet buddy" dimension to life. It brings accountability and focus. The comments help bring motivation.

So I'm planning for the trip, and I've been thinking through how to handle food and drink. This will be a somewhat active trip, so only on the travel days I'll need to focus on getting an airport walk. (Hmm, implications for the size of my carryon-can't walk the halls schlepping a heavy bag. While traveling, I'm on my own and will need to have everything together the whole time.)

On the travel days, there are likely to be prefab chicken caesar salads available, my standard goto meal on my lap. But on board the ship, there is likely always food available, and plenty of drink as well. I'm thinking of making a rule, maybe something like a points system. Ice cream, alcohol, and French fries each as a point. Then, two (or three?) a day. These are my downfall foods. There will be other desserts, of course, also costing me a point. So is three points too many? My companions drink, but luckily only beer really tempts me, and it fills me up so quickly I won't go overboard. It's too hard to stick to low carb foods- often sandwiches are what's available. but I can't be counting all the time, just those things that bring big cost. Alcohol, dessert, and French fries.

Time to advance the laundry. Back to the packing.

Any thoughts on how to handle eating and drinking on the road?

Sherbert update