We eat a lot of rice. We buy it in those huge bags, the size of dog food bags, and go through it fast. We don't have potatoes often, bread is always around, pasta happens a couple of times a week, but rice is more common for us. Recently, we acquired a rice cooker, a stand-alone appliance that makes it even easier to eat rice. As long as the ratio of water to rice is correct, you just turn it on and ignore it. It cooks and turns itself down and so far, has kept well without burning for some time after it's ready. (This contrasts with our old stove-top method which consisted of turning the flame on high until the pot boiled over leaving starch all over the stove top, then overcooking the rice and burning the pot.)
Of course, I'm not actually eating very many of any of these starch choices at all. But I've got a new theme right now to try to make sure I'm cooking the same things for my family that I want to eat. So tonight I decided to give brown rice a try.
There is no question brown rice is way better for health than white rice. It has more nutrients, more fiber, a lower glycemic index, yada yada yada. If I'm going to eat carbs at all, the whole grain is the way to go. But the main reason I hardly ever have used it is it takes so long to cook. Very nearly an hour, versus the 20 minutes for the white rice we use. Plus, it doesn't keep forever (they say six months, versus six years or more for white rice). It doesn't keep because the very nutrients that make it good for you also have the possibility of going rancid. Lastly, until recently, it was only "brown rice", and I've gotten used to focusing on basmati versus jasmine versus arborio, enjoying their different textures as part of other meals. Now, it's easy to get named varieties of brown rice. I'll have to experiment to see if their textures correspond with their white counterparts.
So tonight's brown rice was ok. It still took an hour to cook in the rice cooker, so I'll have to be in the habit of starting it very first thing when starting a meal. I had brown basmati rice, when I wanted jasmine, but the texture was good and fluffy and went well with my stir fried chicken. (Yesterday I listened to a podcast of "The Splendid Table" where Lynn Rosetto Casper explained varieties of rice this way: long grain = fluffy, individual grains like jasmine rice; medium grain = creamy like arborio in risotto dishes; and very short grain = sticky rice.) It had a mild nutty taste, stronger than any white rice, but really subtle. I had two half cup servings as I wanted to soak up more of the sauce from the chicken. I sought feedback from the family on the switch and they seemed perfectly indifferent. With no objections, and me voting "yea", the motion to switch to brown rice (time permitting each time) carries.
I think I'll buy new stores, not too much, of brown rice. I read it can be kept in the freezer for longer than six months and we certainly have the space. I have seen five pound bags of jasmine, basmati and arborio brown rice at the food coop, so that will be my stop to make sure I've got fresh stocks. A small move in the direction of healthier food for all. I'll report back if I'm actually carving out the time, and not hearing objections. Today the rice, but tomorrow NOT the pasta - I've never yet found a whole grain pasta that worked for me.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Still Stalled
I kind of took a couple of weeks "off". What does that mean? I kept all my gym appointments (except for when I u-turned to the emergency room two weeks ago) but I have really spent very little time thinking or planning for any other exercise or food. It just seemed like too much work, with all else that is going on. I continued to weigh myself religiously, and I watched it bounce every day up and down and up and up. Dinner was thrown together from whatever ingredients were already at hand (we were consciously using up the freezer) and lunch was grabbed at work on the fly. Breakfast often skipped, or else a small hunk of cheese. Lunch on the fly generally means the food bar, where I pay by the pound for steam table chinese food and salad. Snacks of nuts at work (already on hand) but jelly beans and cakes in the evening. Dinners leaning heavily towards pasta dishes. Not tracking or counting. Carbs in the evening wreaking havoc on my insulin.
So I am roughly where I was a month ago, after wrestling a couple of pounds off, then putting them back on.
Now I have a new normal, with management of a third household added to my chores. My mother is counting on me for shopping, financial management, transportation and consultation. Some of this comes out of family time, some out of work time, and some out of personal time, which also includes sleep. But you know what? Right now, I'm relatively content. Maybe its just the endorphins from the gym earlier today, but I am somewhat serene.
Work is heavy, but I still love it, and some of the frantic-ness has ebbed. I've got some good and competent staff backing me up. Also, the government tends to bill itself as "family friendly" and will at least say the right things. I put the frantic demands in perspective while in the emergency room, and it feels manageable right now.
There are significant teen issues underway, and they come up and sandbag me when I'm looking the other way. But I feel our relationships are relatively sound so when not in the middle of tears or shouts, I have some degree of confidence we'll muddle on through.
And where I have stalled in my weight and body shape still feels so much better than where I was a year ago. Am I going to buckle down and get slimmer and stronger? I really really want to, but to do it means focusing and planning and working toward it. Never does it just happen. This weekend might be a time to get some things in place for the next couple of weeks. Time to turn my attention to the day and figure out where to go next.
So I am roughly where I was a month ago, after wrestling a couple of pounds off, then putting them back on.
Now I have a new normal, with management of a third household added to my chores. My mother is counting on me for shopping, financial management, transportation and consultation. Some of this comes out of family time, some out of work time, and some out of personal time, which also includes sleep. But you know what? Right now, I'm relatively content. Maybe its just the endorphins from the gym earlier today, but I am somewhat serene.
Work is heavy, but I still love it, and some of the frantic-ness has ebbed. I've got some good and competent staff backing me up. Also, the government tends to bill itself as "family friendly" and will at least say the right things. I put the frantic demands in perspective while in the emergency room, and it feels manageable right now.
There are significant teen issues underway, and they come up and sandbag me when I'm looking the other way. But I feel our relationships are relatively sound so when not in the middle of tears or shouts, I have some degree of confidence we'll muddle on through.
And where I have stalled in my weight and body shape still feels so much better than where I was a year ago. Am I going to buckle down and get slimmer and stronger? I really really want to, but to do it means focusing and planning and working toward it. Never does it just happen. This weekend might be a time to get some things in place for the next couple of weeks. Time to turn my attention to the day and figure out where to go next.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Shopping
I hate shopping. I don't think it's just because ive never been truly comfortable with my body- how it looks overall and how it's shaped. I've never looked on clothes shopping as a recreational experience. I was also raised to never just walk into a store and buy something retail. My mother only shopped the sales and outlets. For me, that adds greatly to the frustration because the chances of finding what you want in your size goes way down. I didn't grow up in a place where "going to the mall" was something that was easy or convenient or what teenagers did. We didn't have much of a a clothes-shopping main street either, and besides, I lived entirely in jeans, tees, and dresses made out of bed spreads during my high school and college years.
I have had a couple of useful and memorable trips to the outlets when I started needing grown up clothes. When I was moving to Washington in the mid-nineties, I was also moving from a casual, operational-oriented corporate environment to the status conscious very formal seat of government, at a visibly leadership level in my organization. I was the fattest I'd ever been in my life, and none of my previous work clothes came close to fitting me. My hips were beyond the pale, but even my upper arms had gotten flabby, meaning shirts and blazers were not right. My mother came to visit, and together we made a trip to the huge outlet centers just across the Wisconsin border. I had been a regular at a Liz Claiborne outlet near where my mother lived, but as I got fatter I was more discontent with what they had. They had separate clothes for fat ladies, tent-like in either drab or inappropriately loud fabrics. But we scored bit at the large Jones New York outlet. I discovered the way their collections worked - continuous in all their sizing ranges. They had named collections so that all the pieces in the collection would work together in compatible colors and patterns. I could find plus-sized bottoms and petite-sized tops - and even petite-plus sized (ie short) trousers. Starting from scratch, I bought over a thousand dollars worth of clothes that day, and found my mother to be the best and most honest critic one could wish.
After the Big Loss, at the end of last century, I had another great trip and reinforced my love of the colors and styles of Jones New York. Tailored and classic, but with current colors and fabrics. Since then, I've been in more of a maintenance mode, and as my weight crept up over the last five years, I did my best to spent as little money as possible. The easiest way to do that is to stay out of stores, no hardship for me.
I do like cruising the catalogues. But the ones that make me swoon are all casual, active clothes. Atheleta, Title Nine, LLBean, REI, Patgonia, and Sahalie have lovely and expensive clothing I simply can't justify beyond a few basics. I bought some hiking pants, base layers, and an array of fleeces for my trip to the arctic this summer. Spent my budget and more on it. Still the catalogues come and I drool over the work-out and hanging-out clothes, the patterned t-shirts, yoga clothes for me who has never done yoga, and more and more hoodies. But fancy or work clothes? Not very interesting to me.
Most days at work, I wear tailored lined trousers (black, navy, grey or brown) in seasonally-adjusted weights of wool gabardine, a cotton or silk t-shirt, and a seasonally weighted jacket. Color comes with the top only. The Internet has been a great boon to me- allowing me to just search, click, and buy. You find out right away if they have your size. For several years, Nordstrom and Lands End both had exactly what I was looking for in trousers, and minutes were spent in keeping me supplied from their web sites. Only one pair of pants I bought then has ever actually worn out, but my sizing has changed so most of them don't fit. And now, those two sites do not carry what I'm looking for.
Lately I haven't been sure what my size is. Not only has my weight gone down, but also my shape has changed. Plus, there may have been some size inflation on the part of the manufacturers, over the last ten years. So the sizes I'm looking for now seem different than the numbers that seemed to work last time I was this weight. I found one pair of heavy wool trousers in the back of the closet than I had never worn, which fit perfectly and carried me through a couple of months of doldrums. But I've been uncomfortable at work in clothes that are wrong. The seasons are changing, and summer clothes have always been harder than winter for me, because I like tailoring and structure, and very thin wool is hard to find. Plus, I think I've got another size to go down, so I don't want to spend a lot of money. But I've got to get stuff that looks good.
Saturday evening I decided to head to Syms, a barn like place with a real outlet feel. I was on a specific mission: black tailored pants, of which I had NONE that fit. Trousers for women these days often are very low rise, very unflattering and uncomfortable on such a pear-shaped woman as me. (I carry my savings for the coming famine entirely between my knees and my waist.) But the "better" clothes meant for the office are not so low rise. Since I was on the mission, no browsing for me, I headed directly for the petite size 12 rack, and grabbed every pair of black or dark grey trousers there - 8 pair - and tried them all on. Four pair fit, and the pricing was such I decided "why not?" Then, the spirit of "why not" seized me, and I cruised the jackets and found matching jackets for two of the pants, in grey tweedy fabrics. The labels that worked for me were not my usual - Anne Klein and Evan Picone. (I don't think I've even seen Evan in twenty years, though that label was a foundation for me when I first started in a corporate environment.) I was just thinking that maybe I needed some color and heading for the tops when the store closed. A good thing for me, as I overspent my budget. But I got six pieces for under three hundred dollars, and enough to wear for the next several months.
Trying on pants can be very demoralizing. I am still fat, and disproportionately fat in my seat. Yet, I have made visible and tangible progress towards a more balanced body, and that is what pushed me to go ahead and buy. I can't gain any weight back if I'm going to wear these clothes. They are sized to fit me now, but should continue to look good for at least another ten pounds down. Their weight is seasonally appropriate through spring and summer. Today, I'll wear something from this big purchase and hopefully it will keep me feeling good and motivated and mindful of both eating and moving.
I have had a couple of useful and memorable trips to the outlets when I started needing grown up clothes. When I was moving to Washington in the mid-nineties, I was also moving from a casual, operational-oriented corporate environment to the status conscious very formal seat of government, at a visibly leadership level in my organization. I was the fattest I'd ever been in my life, and none of my previous work clothes came close to fitting me. My hips were beyond the pale, but even my upper arms had gotten flabby, meaning shirts and blazers were not right. My mother came to visit, and together we made a trip to the huge outlet centers just across the Wisconsin border. I had been a regular at a Liz Claiborne outlet near where my mother lived, but as I got fatter I was more discontent with what they had. They had separate clothes for fat ladies, tent-like in either drab or inappropriately loud fabrics. But we scored bit at the large Jones New York outlet. I discovered the way their collections worked - continuous in all their sizing ranges. They had named collections so that all the pieces in the collection would work together in compatible colors and patterns. I could find plus-sized bottoms and petite-sized tops - and even petite-plus sized (ie short) trousers. Starting from scratch, I bought over a thousand dollars worth of clothes that day, and found my mother to be the best and most honest critic one could wish.
After the Big Loss, at the end of last century, I had another great trip and reinforced my love of the colors and styles of Jones New York. Tailored and classic, but with current colors and fabrics. Since then, I've been in more of a maintenance mode, and as my weight crept up over the last five years, I did my best to spent as little money as possible. The easiest way to do that is to stay out of stores, no hardship for me.
I do like cruising the catalogues. But the ones that make me swoon are all casual, active clothes. Atheleta, Title Nine, LLBean, REI, Patgonia, and Sahalie have lovely and expensive clothing I simply can't justify beyond a few basics. I bought some hiking pants, base layers, and an array of fleeces for my trip to the arctic this summer. Spent my budget and more on it. Still the catalogues come and I drool over the work-out and hanging-out clothes, the patterned t-shirts, yoga clothes for me who has never done yoga, and more and more hoodies. But fancy or work clothes? Not very interesting to me.
Most days at work, I wear tailored lined trousers (black, navy, grey or brown) in seasonally-adjusted weights of wool gabardine, a cotton or silk t-shirt, and a seasonally weighted jacket. Color comes with the top only. The Internet has been a great boon to me- allowing me to just search, click, and buy. You find out right away if they have your size. For several years, Nordstrom and Lands End both had exactly what I was looking for in trousers, and minutes were spent in keeping me supplied from their web sites. Only one pair of pants I bought then has ever actually worn out, but my sizing has changed so most of them don't fit. And now, those two sites do not carry what I'm looking for.
Lately I haven't been sure what my size is. Not only has my weight gone down, but also my shape has changed. Plus, there may have been some size inflation on the part of the manufacturers, over the last ten years. So the sizes I'm looking for now seem different than the numbers that seemed to work last time I was this weight. I found one pair of heavy wool trousers in the back of the closet than I had never worn, which fit perfectly and carried me through a couple of months of doldrums. But I've been uncomfortable at work in clothes that are wrong. The seasons are changing, and summer clothes have always been harder than winter for me, because I like tailoring and structure, and very thin wool is hard to find. Plus, I think I've got another size to go down, so I don't want to spend a lot of money. But I've got to get stuff that looks good.
Saturday evening I decided to head to Syms, a barn like place with a real outlet feel. I was on a specific mission: black tailored pants, of which I had NONE that fit. Trousers for women these days often are very low rise, very unflattering and uncomfortable on such a pear-shaped woman as me. (I carry my savings for the coming famine entirely between my knees and my waist.) But the "better" clothes meant for the office are not so low rise. Since I was on the mission, no browsing for me, I headed directly for the petite size 12 rack, and grabbed every pair of black or dark grey trousers there - 8 pair - and tried them all on. Four pair fit, and the pricing was such I decided "why not?" Then, the spirit of "why not" seized me, and I cruised the jackets and found matching jackets for two of the pants, in grey tweedy fabrics. The labels that worked for me were not my usual - Anne Klein and Evan Picone. (I don't think I've even seen Evan in twenty years, though that label was a foundation for me when I first started in a corporate environment.) I was just thinking that maybe I needed some color and heading for the tops when the store closed. A good thing for me, as I overspent my budget. But I got six pieces for under three hundred dollars, and enough to wear for the next several months.
Trying on pants can be very demoralizing. I am still fat, and disproportionately fat in my seat. Yet, I have made visible and tangible progress towards a more balanced body, and that is what pushed me to go ahead and buy. I can't gain any weight back if I'm going to wear these clothes. They are sized to fit me now, but should continue to look good for at least another ten pounds down. Their weight is seasonally appropriate through spring and summer. Today, I'll wear something from this big purchase and hopefully it will keep me feeling good and motivated and mindful of both eating and moving.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Fresh Air and the Illusion of Exercise
Motorcycles can raise your pulse without you having to go to all the trouble of actually exercising. I show up at work and park with the big boys with roses on my cheeks and a smile that lingers for a while.
- iPhone uPdate
- iPhone uPdate
Friday, March 11, 2011
Don't Call Me Shirley
One of the greatest movies of all time, Airplane, has many enduring and cherished bits of dialogue on top of the never ending homages to the great aviation movies. Based on the great movie Zero Hour!, it also includes many references to the movie generally rated tops by today's older generation of airline pilots, The High and the Mighty, with the unforgettable cockpit slap in the Captain's face by John Wayne as the co-pilot. It also nods to From Here to Eternity and Saturday Night Fever and The Singing Nun, among many others. There are sight gags galore, but rhythm of the repetition with variations of lines funny the first time is part of what propels this movie to the top ranks.
Since I've now worked in the aviation industry for twenty-seven years, I nearly know this movie by heart. And running through my head today was the line that Lloyd Bridges, as the air traffic tower supervisor, keeps coming back to with progressively worse conditions: "I picked the wrong week to (1) quit smoking (2) quit drinking (3) quit shooting up..."
Let's just say I picked the wrong week to re-energize my diet and leave it there.
Let's just say I picked the wrong week to re-energize my diet and leave it there.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Even Less Activity than Usual
Frustrating day spent hanging out in the hospital room. The patient is doing very well, thank goodness. But the doctors were illusive and so I hung out most of the day waiting for them to show up. When I left, during her tests, I spent my time on the computer and phone trying to catch up on work. At least it's keeping me away from food. Prepackaged salads from Trader Joe's.
May get a break tomorrow. Things could be worse.
May get a break tomorrow. Things could be worse.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Dress for Stress
I was off to the gym dressed in sweatpants and a hooded sweatshirt at 5:55 this morning when the phone rang, two layers down beneath my jacket and sweatshirt. I inappropriately started working my way through the zippers to get at it while continuing to drive. Good thing I did get it, too - it was my mother, calling from the emergency room. "I've been here all night" she announced breezily. "Didn't want to bother you until I knew something. I have blood clots in my lungs." So a quick u-turn and I was at the hospital in six minutes. That was three minutes longer than it needed to be - I actually stopped at my house to grab my new big purse that holds everything in the world. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew it would be better if I were properly equipped with the right stuff.
This is a serious and life threatening condition - pulmonary embolism. But my mother felt fine except for shortness of breath, and looked and sounded like herself, not some sick person. Still on top of things enough to discuss her symptoms and treatment with the doctors herself. One doctor shared a lot of information and I took assiduous notes. I know a lot of this information will fly right out of her head as soon as she moves on - and even right out of my head too. Stress is not conducive to short term retention of vital information.
With a lull in the proceedings, I headed out to get the kid off to school and to clear the decks for the housecleaning crew. I took the time to take a shower, because I figured whatever the day held, it would be better for everybody if I wasn't stinky, and then actually spent a fair amount of extra time (at least five minutes) figuring out what I would wear. I was pretty sure I would spend the day in the hospital or with related chores, no office attire. I pulled on the size-too-big chords that were at the top of the drawer, and grabbed a knit top. But then I backed up and re-thought it.
I was raised with a "save the best for last" philosophy. In particular, save your good clothes for special occasions. As a practical matter, that often meant never wearing them at all. I've recently and consciously changed to "wear your favorite clothes all the time". That doesn't mean fancy, just favorite. (It also means much more frequent laundry and trips to the drycleaners.) These days, I reach for my favorites first. I keep them in the top layer of the drawers and in the front of the hanging closet. I expect to start getting rid of things I never use.
Whatever the day would bring, I'd be happiest if I felt good about what I was wearing. I settled on my new Champion royal purple sports bra and dark purple-heather v-neck tee shirt in a wicking fabric for the top. Replacing the unflattering and indescribably-neutral-colored cords are my new hiking pants. Made of some miracle fabric, they have the appearance and soft hand of cotton fabric, but with a stretch and a give that makes them flattering and comfortable and even good for the gym. Low profile yet plentiful pockets add to the practicality. On my feet, my Ecco black sneakers with purple highlights. And over my shoulder, the purse that holds everything.
Functional flattering clothing makes me feel competent. That was what I needed to face the day. Every previous encounter with health care people has left me feeling incompetent and out of control. I strutted back into the ER to find my mother charming a doctor, just three bays down from where my sister died. Together, my mother and I dealt with the ins and outs of her grave (but not immediately life-threatening) situation, asking questions and getting answers we understood. The staff there is very caring and competent, but also very busy. If you don't ask, they just move on. I've just left her for the night, and will be joining her in the morning, (for tests and more tests) appropriately attired for the stresses of the day.
This is a serious and life threatening condition - pulmonary embolism. But my mother felt fine except for shortness of breath, and looked and sounded like herself, not some sick person. Still on top of things enough to discuss her symptoms and treatment with the doctors herself. One doctor shared a lot of information and I took assiduous notes. I know a lot of this information will fly right out of her head as soon as she moves on - and even right out of my head too. Stress is not conducive to short term retention of vital information.
With a lull in the proceedings, I headed out to get the kid off to school and to clear the decks for the housecleaning crew. I took the time to take a shower, because I figured whatever the day held, it would be better for everybody if I wasn't stinky, and then actually spent a fair amount of extra time (at least five minutes) figuring out what I would wear. I was pretty sure I would spend the day in the hospital or with related chores, no office attire. I pulled on the size-too-big chords that were at the top of the drawer, and grabbed a knit top. But then I backed up and re-thought it.
I was raised with a "save the best for last" philosophy. In particular, save your good clothes for special occasions. As a practical matter, that often meant never wearing them at all. I've recently and consciously changed to "wear your favorite clothes all the time". That doesn't mean fancy, just favorite. (It also means much more frequent laundry and trips to the drycleaners.) These days, I reach for my favorites first. I keep them in the top layer of the drawers and in the front of the hanging closet. I expect to start getting rid of things I never use.
Whatever the day would bring, I'd be happiest if I felt good about what I was wearing. I settled on my new Champion royal purple sports bra and dark purple-heather v-neck tee shirt in a wicking fabric for the top. Replacing the unflattering and indescribably-neutral-colored cords are my new hiking pants. Made of some miracle fabric, they have the appearance and soft hand of cotton fabric, but with a stretch and a give that makes them flattering and comfortable and even good for the gym. Low profile yet plentiful pockets add to the practicality. On my feet, my Ecco black sneakers with purple highlights. And over my shoulder, the purse that holds everything.
Functional flattering clothing makes me feel competent. That was what I needed to face the day. Every previous encounter with health care people has left me feeling incompetent and out of control. I strutted back into the ER to find my mother charming a doctor, just three bays down from where my sister died. Together, my mother and I dealt with the ins and outs of her grave (but not immediately life-threatening) situation, asking questions and getting answers we understood. The staff there is very caring and competent, but also very busy. If you don't ask, they just move on. I've just left her for the night, and will be joining her in the morning, (for tests and more tests) appropriately attired for the stresses of the day.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Stalled
I haven't been posting much recently. That is mostly driven by the continuing frantic pace at work, and no corresponding let-up on the homefront. But not coincidentally, I made no weight-loss progress in February. First, let's get the brutal truth out there:
NO progress in February. A whopping eight pound total in six months. There was the holiday stall, from Thanksgiving to New Year's. I got that fixed and back on track in January, but since then-- not so much. February did see crossing into a new "decade" of weight, but only on brief bounces on individual days, not yet for a weekly average.
So what's going on? What am I doing wrong?
I was not diligent in tracking my meals at the beginning - in fact, I didn't do a full day before February 19. So the data on intake is scarce. Once I started tracking, I would guess I probably also cut back and stopped such generous interpretation of what constitutes an acceptable carbohydrate. Looking at my calendar, I did have some wacky days in there, with a cold, and The Big Speech, and other disruptions. I've been pretty good about tracking since then - almost every day. There are no days with totally out of whack total calories, but the carb counts are considerably higher than I am targeting.
I did wear and transfer data from my little armband limpet calorie counter. And here is the sad, sad, truth.
Since I've been tracking my calories burned, February 2011 is the lowest average for the whole month, and January 2011 was also very low. (The other low point there is March 2010.) Many days I never even made 2000 calories burned, which I wrote before should be the absolute baseline. I kept up my paid appointments at the gym (except when I had a head cold) but I'm not doing much beyond that. If I don't take a walk at lunch or in the evening, I'll be below 2000 calories. Period.
So the truth is my energy and commitment are flagging. My single biggest excuse is pressures from work, but if that is not going to change, I need to figure out how to adapt. If being in shape, and being thinner is important to me, I have to make changes. Often I am deciding to stay in my office and catch up on emails during my work day, which is strung together as back to back to back to back meetings, so I have to block bathroom breaks onto the calendar. I'm at my desk about twenty minutes earlier than six months ago, and spending time catching up on emails in the evening.
Brief off topic rant: I am now averaging well over 100 actual work-content emails from people I know a day - these are things I have to read, think about, and often reply to, after I've applied fancy filters to weed out broadcast messages and news bulletins and other things where I don't absolutely have to be responsible for digesting the content. There is an expectation at all layers that all emails are read instantly during the work day, which leads to attempting to read your blackberry in meetings, which means not focusing on the subject at hand. I have a bunch of people stopping me in the hall saying "did you get my email?" which is eliciting borderline rude responses from me - the mildest is "which one on what topic?".
Back on topic.
Since my only "found" time is first thing in the morning, and since I am much more a morning person than a night person, I am working on how to add activity in the morning. And lunchtime walks have to be prioritized higher, which will get easier as it gets nicer out. But, next weekend is the time change, and it will be dark again in the mornings, but lighter in the evenings. Hmmm....
Awareness and focus is what I need, and this public accounting helps keep me focused. Thanks for listening.
 |
| Horizontal Gridlines are 2 pounds apart |
So what's going on? What am I doing wrong?
I was not diligent in tracking my meals at the beginning - in fact, I didn't do a full day before February 19. So the data on intake is scarce. Once I started tracking, I would guess I probably also cut back and stopped such generous interpretation of what constitutes an acceptable carbohydrate. Looking at my calendar, I did have some wacky days in there, with a cold, and The Big Speech, and other disruptions. I've been pretty good about tracking since then - almost every day. There are no days with totally out of whack total calories, but the carb counts are considerably higher than I am targeting.
I did wear and transfer data from my little armband limpet calorie counter. And here is the sad, sad, truth.
Since I've been tracking my calories burned, February 2011 is the lowest average for the whole month, and January 2011 was also very low. (The other low point there is March 2010.) Many days I never even made 2000 calories burned, which I wrote before should be the absolute baseline. I kept up my paid appointments at the gym (except when I had a head cold) but I'm not doing much beyond that. If I don't take a walk at lunch or in the evening, I'll be below 2000 calories. Period.
So the truth is my energy and commitment are flagging. My single biggest excuse is pressures from work, but if that is not going to change, I need to figure out how to adapt. If being in shape, and being thinner is important to me, I have to make changes. Often I am deciding to stay in my office and catch up on emails during my work day, which is strung together as back to back to back to back meetings, so I have to block bathroom breaks onto the calendar. I'm at my desk about twenty minutes earlier than six months ago, and spending time catching up on emails in the evening.
Brief off topic rant: I am now averaging well over 100 actual work-content emails from people I know a day - these are things I have to read, think about, and often reply to, after I've applied fancy filters to weed out broadcast messages and news bulletins and other things where I don't absolutely have to be responsible for digesting the content. There is an expectation at all layers that all emails are read instantly during the work day, which leads to attempting to read your blackberry in meetings, which means not focusing on the subject at hand. I have a bunch of people stopping me in the hall saying "did you get my email?" which is eliciting borderline rude responses from me - the mildest is "which one on what topic?".
Back on topic.
Since my only "found" time is first thing in the morning, and since I am much more a morning person than a night person, I am working on how to add activity in the morning. And lunchtime walks have to be prioritized higher, which will get easier as it gets nicer out. But, next weekend is the time change, and it will be dark again in the mornings, but lighter in the evenings. Hmmm....
Awareness and focus is what I need, and this public accounting helps keep me focused. Thanks for listening.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Ah, The Light!
The bedroom was light before I had to get out of bed this morning. I left the office at my normal time last night into blazing sunshine, bright yellow from the low angle of the sun.
This time of year the rate of change in day length each day is palpable. It's exciting and energizing. Hooray for Spring!
- iPhone uPdate
This time of year the rate of change in day length each day is palpable. It's exciting and energizing. Hooray for Spring!
- iPhone uPdate
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)