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