I see a treadmill in my immediate future

Need I say more?

Did I say I was going to row and lift weights yesterday? I forgot about a late-morning board meeting at the prison, and by the time I remembered I had to shower, dress and go. I'm not one to take two daily showers, especially in dry-skin-inducing winter, so I bagged the workout.

Then when I got home I felt like such a loser, so I lifted weights. Briefly. So I wouldn't, um, glow. Heh. Anything's better than nothing, right?

I did all my regular moves – curls, presses, lunges, squats, etc. – but instead of two or three sets of 12 or 15, I just did one set of each until I couldn't do any more. I counted the bicep curls, to get an idea of how many I could do, but stopped after 30.

Perhaps I need to move up to a heavier dumbbell. Hmmm.

Thanks for all your good wishes about the babies-to-be. It will be no surprise to some of you that I have enough yarn for all three blankets "in stock," so to speak. But the brown isn't quite right, so I ordered more. One will be blue, one will be cream and one will be brown, to match the nursery, although I guess babies don't sleep with crib blankets any more.

And a belated thanks for all your good wishes about this round of race training. It's so cool to have so many cheerleaders out there in blogland. Mr. Shrinking Knitter does what he can, but race training isn't quite the novelty it was the first time around.

Remind me I said this when I do a 20-miler, 'kay?

I'm starting to wonder how in the world I'm going to be able to find something to photograph every day for the rest of the year. This seemed like such a good idea a week ago. I've already stooped to stealing ideas from others. Perhaps I'll come up with a monthly theme. I might actually have to go on these things called "photo shoots" instead of just hanging 'round the shanty looking for inspiration.

What a concept.

Friday Quote Day

"Hard work often leads to success.
No work seldom does."

~ Harvey Mackay

Well, duh.

The key word in the first sentence is "often." Also? It helps to define success.

As both all of you long-time readers know, I've given this diet-and-exercise thing my all [not all the time, of course – I'm Not Perfect], and have experienced varying degrees of 'success,' if you define 'success' as fitting my ass into smaller jeans.

But giving it one's all is tiring and boring and frustrating when one's ass stays the same for weeks – nay, months! – on end. Staying the same despite great effort and diligence leads to carb fests and snacking and sloth, oh my.

And so I must learn to define success as something more like 'feeling good about accomplishing my daily goals.' Did I drink the water my body needs to stay hydrated and turn my pee straw-colored? Did I forego the evening snacks? Did I plan my meals, and eat what I planned to eat? Did I get some exercise? Did I write down what I ate? Etc., etc., etc.

Well, so far so good. Today is Day Three, and I'm still on plan with the exception of the evening snack. Last night was hummus and fresh vegetables – it could have been much, much worse, had Mr. Shrinking Knitter requested crack popcorn, because I canNOT turn down crack popcorn. To my credit, I decided to put myself to bed rather than eat an entire container of hummus. Sometimes drastic measures are called for.

I don't feel deprived, nor do I feel like following this healthful plan is any great burden.

But ask me again in a month or so, when my jeans are the same size as they are today.

Thanks for checking out my Project 365 blog. I had to kind of scramble to find something yesterday. And, of course, after I took the photo I realized I could have rearranged the elements to work better. That's one purpose of the project, to make you think before you shoot. Then again, I think shooting something as is might also be part of the procedure.

At any rate, I'm looking at my little world with new eyes, and while that's not so great when one is driving, it's making hanging around the shanty a lot more interesting.

WVU is the new Boise State

Well, maybe it's not quite that dramatic, but still … I didn't hear one single analyst predict the Mountaineers' win over the Oklahoma Sooners prior to last night's Fiesta Bowl. [The Tostita commercials were sooooo bad I refuse to attach the sponsor's name to the event.] With WVU's season-ending loss to Pitt and the subsequent departure of Coach Rodriguez, everyone had the Mountaineers dead and buried for their BCS bowl.

Take that! 48-28! A decisive victory and a defense that was seriously ready for battle.

The first touchdown of the game belonged to Owen Schmitt, already a legend in Morgantown. Known for his mohawk 'do and his propensity for breaking facemasks, he's the one I'd have voted least likely to scamper 57 yards into the endzone. He's also my new mind picture for How to Run. He's a big guy, but ran like the wind. Like me, right? Heh.

May I mention how spectacularly bad the announcers were? And the sound quality of the broadcast? Fox just doesn't get it. You're not supposed to be biased for Oklahoma either team, 'kay? And the bands' drumbeats shouldn't drown out your play-by-play. Oh, and when a player does something great, or when an official throws a flag, that might be a good time to cut the chit-chat and actually tell the viewers what's going on do your job. And maybe speak up, so the band doesn't overpower your voice.

Give me ESPN for college football, please. Or – and I can't believe I'm saying this because I really, really don't like Brent Mouseburger Musburger – the ABC team of Brent and Kirk Herbstreit.

I take my sports very seriously around here.

On to other things … I thought about yesterday's list of Things That Work all day. I drank 1.5 liters of water, which is a lot for me when it's cold and I don't think about hydration. I did 45 minutes on exercise machines – 30 on the treadmill and 15 on the rower – and about 10 minutes of strength training. My shoulder is a little stiff, but all in all I'd say my arm is definitely ready to rock. My pre-planned food was healthful and in reasonable quantities, and I'm still sugar-free. I had a few pita chips during the game, but hey – it was a game! And I didn't go overboard. All in all, a good day from morning to night.

Since I'm so in love with my new camera lens, I decided maybe this was the year to really do Project 365. I started a new blog just for the photos, so I don't have to bore you with them here. But if you'd like to have a look [hint, hint!], it's here, and I also have it listed in the Links sidebar.

Finally, have you heard of Spirit of the Marathon? It's a running film, and is being shown in theatres for just one night – Thursday, January 24 – in select cities [large cities, not the Middle of Nowhere] around the country. Mr. Shrinking Knitter and I need to go to Ohio sometime this month; I'm thinking January 24 would be a good time to get there. Heh.

How are you all doing with your first-of-January health-and-wellness plans? Let's keep this new resolve alive and kicking!