Tuesday, July 27, 2010

This week's list of random collected items of little or no interest.

I'm still trying out the Glycemic Load diet, and after losing 2 pounds the second week, I gained 2 1/2 pounds the third week (no change the first week, BTW). That was kind of depressing, so I drowned my sorrows in chocolate covered almonds and raisins. Then, back to the program again. It occurred to me later that the 2 1/2 pounds might well have been muscle, since I've been getting in some consistent workouts for a change. Let's give it a month to see whether I can chip away at my badonka-donk on this diet, and if not, I'll probably switch to something else.

The exercise program has been terrific. Some neighbors (not the bike riders next door; other neighbors) turned me onto a half-marathon training program that they did last year, which takes you from novice/5K runner to half-marathon in 12 weeks. They said it was really good, and another friend at work also did it several years ago and vouched for it as well. So, I'm on it as well, with a little adaptation...

He assumes you're starting from 5K. At one time, 5K was no big deal -- the typical morning jog to work was about 5K, and the afternoon jog home was 10K cross-country on hills.  Oh, to be young and invinvible and elastic. That was 4 years ago. Since then, I've alternated between being a little out of shape and just plain lazy. So, I'm taking 2 weeks to get to the base level of the program, doing basically the first week of the program but with shorter running distances.

For starters, I ran 2 miles on Sunday. I went early to beat the heat. HA! It was hot, it was muggy, there was no breeze. My heartrate wasn't very high but I could not push my body to any kind of speed and the whole time I felt like I was going to just keel over with heat exaustion.
Monday is a "stretch and stregthen" day, so I did the Yoga DVD that PIC loaned me. That was great! I did the warm up and level 1, so it was just 30 minutes, and it felt so good to do deep stretches and hold poses that made my muscles all warm and tingly. It was refreshing. I especially like that the instructor reminds me of Neil Patrick Harris, and all I can think of are the Harold and Kumar movies, and Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog, and that just makes me smirk and giggle the whole time. I also like that the models in the DVD are not skinny. I hate skinny models on workout DVDs.
This evening I ran 2 miles in light rain, cool air, a little breeze, and it felt SOOOOOO GOOOOOD. I could push the speed further, enjoy taking deep breaths (instead of feeling like I'd suffocate from the heat), and afterwards, I did 30 minutes of Yoga for a cooldown and stretch. E-baby even did some yoga with me, but eventually decided she would prefer to do pilates, so she did a pilates workout alongside my yoga. You go, girl, do your own thang. I like both.

NON-WORKOUT UPDATES-- In just the last week, Jambuca's been really working hard at talking. It's mostly words that only a mother can understand, but for example, yesterday in the hour of getting ready for work in the morning he said six different words that I noticed. For the record, they were fish, flower, milk, bowl, bear, bird, and food. Or approximations thereof. I'm so delighted. It will be really fun to have little tiny 1-2 word conversations with him.

Garden's go lots of big melons, some of which I did not know I planted. I have no idea what they are. They are probably the seeded pollinators that are required to accompany a seedless melon variety so that they'll pollinate, but they sure aren't watermelons! They're light green and football shaped! I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

The tomatoes we have are delicious served in thick slices, topped with sizzling-hot turkey bacon and melted cheese over that. Mmmmmmmm.

That's all for now. Have a great week!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Work Deadlines, Familiy Visits, Fad Diets, and More!

Since March, it has been so busy at work that at home, after the kids are in bed, I'm usually working. Last week, the worst of it passed. This project has been tremendously fun, but I'm glad to have a little time to sit and write a blog entry for a change.

I'm also glad to be able to ride to work again. I've had to get to work as early as possible and stay as late as possible given the daycare's schedule, and that means no biking. Next week-- bike!!

It's been bothering SNG and me lately that we haven't been on the bikes in so long, and never without pulling a trailer, so I made arrangements with one of e-baby's old teachers to babysit on Saturday mornings for us. The guys next door also ride, and they've gotten tired of the group ride shenanigans, so we now have a running date with them to ride out from the cul-de-sac. Sweet! As a warm-up, we rode a hilly 16 mile loop this weekend. Um, ouch. I am in sorry shape. It was really fun, though, to feel the wind and hear the road, out with friends on a bike, without a trailer, and be able to say 4-letter-words (which I did, repeately, with reckless abandon).

After the bike ride, Dianaverse came over and we worked on her chair. She has this cool highbacked dining chair she picked up for a song somewhere and it is begging to be artifully decorated to match this old embroidered cushion she also has.

The garden's doing OK. While my parents were in town week before last, we put in trellises for the melons. It's nice, but more than half of the little baby melons are molding and turning black and dying before they get bigger than a golf ball. I don't know what the deal is there.

While mom and dad were here, mom got me started on her latest fad diet, the Glycemic Load diet. Like so many others, it's a no sugar, no flour, low starch diet. Unlike others, you can have all the fruits and vegetables you want. I love fruit, which has been my problem with so many low-carb diets. So far, so good. It isn't hard, and if I can drop 15 pounds on it, I'll be happy enough to eat (or not eat) whatever they tell me. I fixed a batch of banana bran muffins using a recipe from the book, but with wheat germ instead of wheat bran. I thought they were the same thing! They're not. The muffins were super-tasty and that was my first clue that something was wrong. So, back to the store for a bag of sawdust and I made a second batch, with the right ingredients. They were still quite acceptable. Not as tender as the ones with wheat germ, but the taste and moistness were good.

So between the new diet and the time to get some exercise, hopefully by this time next year, I'll be writing about how none of my clothes fit because they're all too big, woe is me. :-)