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

Fro Yo

The big new sensation in town. You grab a cup, fill it with as many of their dozen or so flavors as you want, then top it with candy and hot fudge, and pay by weight.

So not worth it in my opinion, which was probably affected by the long line on Saturday night. But the favors were indistinguishably soft squishy: cookies and cream, chocolate, and coconut all tasted pretty much the same. And I guess the no or low fat is supposed to be good for you, but not with candy and hot fudge on top.

I'll hold out for locals like Moorenko or Giffords, or even a good dark chocolate from Ben and Jerry's. I do love my ice cream, and the denser the better. I'm less concerned about fat content than most dieters, and will try to portion control into reasonable calorie counts.


Sherbert update

Un-Fresh and Un-Local

I've hit a new low this week in family dinners. Pretty much everything I served was prepared and packaged food from the freezer. Let's see:

Monday: spaghetti. Sauce from a jar, enhanced with sautéed onions and basil from our front door pot. Fresh ground beef from Whole Foods. This is the highlight of the week.

Tuesday: pizza delivered

Wednesday: Tempura chicken from Trader Joes- basically chicken nuggets.

Thursday: Aidell's chicken apple sausages with pan fried frozen French fries.

Tonight-- nothing planned, company coming in from Africa and I don't need to handle it.

These menus would not be such a problem if I was able to add a credible veggie side dish or was sure everyone was eating fruit. But I'm not. The occasional meat and carb only meal is ok, but not a whole week's worth. Especially when my girl is flirting with being a vegetarian.

I'm getting my vegetables at lunch, but there is a real lack of fruit and veggies at home. I never went to the supermarket all week, and I haven't been to a farmers market in a couple of weeks. Many of the fruits and veggies from the week before have rotted unused. I'm trying to promote more healthy eating by my kids but I'm not giving them much to work with.

So what's the solution? There is no magic bullet on this stuff. Sadly, we all need to eat many times a day and dinner comes at least once a day. I've got to continue thinking about this every day, and planning out the week.

One of the things I've learned is, it is easier to plan one day at a time. My schedule doesn't permit stopping at the grocery every evening on my way home. I'm starting to cook at 7 pm as it is; I wouldn't want to push that later. One thing I've done sometimes is go to the grocery after dinner for the following day. That works sometimes. But buying a bunch of veggies on the weekend intending to cook them later that week leads to compost. I need specific plans for the veggies, and I have to actively market the fruits.

So today I walked down the block at lunch to where the US Dept of Agriculture sponsors a little farmers market next to their headquarters building. I got zucchini and grape tomatoes, for a sauté. I got cucumbers, for finger food dip. I got blueberries, and will get whipped cream for a treat.

It's a start. This has to be constant. I am so much better at the big grand gesture, the big push. Every day maintenance is so much harder. I would wish to just coast for a while, but that is what leads to menus like last week's.

Sherbert update

The Practice

I've been to several yoga classes now and I'm really liking it.  Still not so much of an aerobic workout, though I get a good chance to use my strength as well as trying to improve balance and flexibility.

It feels so good!  I am getting micro-corrections into my stance, and I'm trying to incorporate what I'm learning more into how I stand and sit all the time.  I don't know if that is what others do, but I find myself standing still waiting for the elevator, and I plant my feet with the second toes pointed straight ahead, I dig the balls of my feet into the earth, I rotate my inner thighs back, I grow my tailbone straight down, scoop my pelvis, curve the mid part of my chest forward while pulling my shoulder blades back and together, suddenly I'm rooted to the center of the earth and feeling both powerful and thankful.  I suspect the untrained eye detects absolutely no change in me at all, it feels so subtle and yet profound what I am doing.

I think this is really good for my back problems, the specific posture I'm practicing. It's taking pressure off the vertebrae that squeeze my sciatic nerve, and I feel better for it. I don't know if this is what I'm supposed to be doing - incorporating portions of the positions into my everyday movements - but I'm enjoying it. The teacher has not really talked about doing that, only about maybe practicing certain positions and transitions in a set-aside time and place. But this is what I'm doing with what I learned.

The other part of what we are doing involves positions requiring strength and balance. I'm also stretching a whole lot, trying to get my incredibly tight hamstrings so I can straighten my legs when bent in the middle. I love the way the stretches feel, especially afterwards.

I'm going to sign up for another set of sessions for after my vacation.

Danger Danger Danger

Major meltdown with my girl. Very worried and at same time furious. Did my best for now.

But I'm totally out of dogforod and off to the store. DANGER!!!

Of course I deserve a little ice cream after all this. And in what way will that make anything better? But it'll comfort me. And when the pants get too tight, that's comforting?

In and out with just the dogfood. That's my plan.


- iPhone uPdate