To blog or not to blog

Late in a week during which this post was linked to from both DietGirl and Elastic Waist – heady company, indeed – I find myself with very little time to write anything for newcomers to read.

Mr. Shrinking Knitter and I spent much of the past couple of weeks with his mother [who was finally released from the hospital yesterday], and I will be taking yet another blog break beginning Sunday, one I'm very much looking forward to, as it will mean spending time with my younger and newest granddaughter.

How do you bloggers with jobs, families, workout routines and other interests manage to keep up the blogging pace? I'm fortunate to not work outside my home, my children are grown, I have two easy-to-manage dogs and a husband who knows how to [mostly] take care of himself. Oh, and I like to knit. When I have time.

Knitting was, at one time, an all-consuming passion. I'm sure my children were, at times, thisclose to committing me. My interest in fiber arts has slowed down considerably; three or four [or more!] hours of knitting daily has shrunk to maybe an hour in the evening, while watching the news and Jeopardy. [Oh, my, don't I sound old?]

And workouts? You haven't read much about running or weight-training or rowing lately, have you? I ordered and received the new cable for the rowing machine more than a month ago, but have I installed it yet? Nope. If I had the camera handy, I'd post a photo of the envelope containing the cable, still sitting on the rowing machine waiting for repair.

The dumbbells made it all the way to Florida and back, on the floor of the back seat of my car, where they still are. Actually they're probably under the seat by now. Have I looked for them? What do you think?

The Garmin – a much-coveted running tool and one I'm thrilled to finally own – has accompanied me on exactly one run since its delivery. ONE! Granted the weather has been pretty sucky, but still. There've been at least a couple of nice, run-outside-worthy days in the past month here in the Middle of Nowhere, but I've been otherwise occupied.

I'm looking forward, someday, to life settling down again. In the meantime, I think I may need to take a time management course.

When I can find the time.

Two down

Sometime in the past I noted in my electronic calendar that today marks the second anniversary of this blog. However, when I went back to the very first post, it was actually January 10, 2006. Instead of a day late and a dollar short, make it two.

So two years and two days ago – there is a bit of symmetry in that – I found the magic of the blogosphere.

The biggest deal the first year was that Mr. Shrinking Knitter and I ran away to Las Vegas to get married. I can never call him the Spousal Equivalent again. We agree that tying the knot was one of our better decisions.

The second year found me running not one, but two half-marathons and a grueling 10-miler and, sadly, not losing an ounce of weight in the process.

The most important event of 2007 was the arrival of my second granddaughter, my son and daughter-in-law's first child and a new cousin for my granddaughter and grandson. She is now six months old, sitting up, eating cereal and taking two-hour naps. We learned later in the year that Mr. Shrinking Knitter's son and his wife were expecting triplets. They'll be here this spring, thus doubling the number of grandchildren in one swell foop.

I did a lot of knitting, a lot of healthy eating [today marks two full months of being sugar-free. Again.], a lot of running and, well, a lot of writing. My blog stats have gone up, along with my spirits, and I'm blessed – truly – to have virtually met so many supportive and caring people.

You've extended yourselves in so many ways to help me along this sometimes torturous path to health and fitness. I'm quite sure I'd have thrown in the towel long ago if you hadn't been holding my hand.

So thanks. Lots.

This isn't what I'd planned to write about today

I really was going to talk about some knitting progress [or lack thereof], and my run yesterday [eight miles in 88 minutes – yeah, me!]. But then Amy wrote yesterday:

i've been wondering lately about some dieters. folks who've been at the same weight for ages and ages and are still trying even though nothing seems to change. i've been wondering where the breaking point is? when is it time to accept mediocrity if not defeat?

Hmmmm. You talkin' 'bout me, Amy?

This particular weight-loss trip started for me in January, 2006. By October I'd lost 43 pounds – not as much as I'd hoped to lose, but certainly enough to make a huge difference in body, mind and spirit. Most of my exercise was walking on hills; I'd just started running again during the summer.

Then I developed plantar fasciitis, and couldn't run or even walk for a very long time. I tried to compensate by using the rowing machine, but it's boring hard to row nowhere for the length of time necessary to release endorphins and burn fat. I tried to eat less and more carefully, but I eat when I'm bored and depressed. And when I can't exercise the way I like to – running outside is my number-one choice – I'm bored and depressed. And also? I eat.

So I reluctantly accepted the return of 10 of those 43 pounds. And they've pretty much been here ever since, give or take a pound or two.

I am the definition of someone who's 'been at the same weight for ages and ages and [is] still trying even though nothing seems to change.'

I haven't reached my breaking point. Yet. I don't feel like I'm even close to giving up, and I don't really know what giving up would look like. Would I start eating sugar on a daily basis? Would I make more fast-food drive-through trips? Would I stop running? I'm not doing any of those things. Yet.

Ten years ago, at my thinnest adult weight and also at my fittest, I thought I would never get fat again. I did, though, gradually and eventually, regain the weight I'd worked so hard to lose and added even more. How did it happen that it was okay for my fitness level to decline and my weight to grow, year after year? What will it take for that to happen again?

I hope to hell I don't find out!

I think, although I don't know, my first step to giving up would be to stop blogging. Whether you need me or not doesn't matter. I need this accountability and I enjoy this venue for spouting off and celebrating and sometimes even whining. As Amy said, "We're here to support each other."

Amen.

I hate when I can't think of a good title

I was cruising around Google's Blogger search yesterday and found a blog called 'Training for My First Half-Marathon.' He'll be one of my 18,000 best friends at the Country Music race in April. Heh.

I find it difficult to ferret out the personal blogs from the commercial ones when I do Blogger searches. I can't tell you how many times I've gone looking for inspiration among weight-loss bloggers, only to find an advertising pitch for some bogus miracle cure, or what I think of as a pseudo-blog – something to lure you in to find out you have to pay to get to the meat of the message.

So I end up going back to some of your archives, to read how you got started, what motivated you, how you conquered a particular obstacle or triumphed over a challenging situation. I'm not thinking of anyone in particular. I just know I couldn't have continued putting one foot in front of the other, following a food plan and working out regularly, without you.

Some who inspire me don't have blogs, but we do e-mail, regularly or occasionally, with reports and questions and struggles and victories.

My life would be so small without the internet. Thanks.

Okay, moving on ... last night's House? A little strange, if you ask me. I was glad for all the tight close-ups of that cute Hugh Laurie being all earnest and everything, but it seemed as if the writers had been challenged to create a script that didn't include an obscure disease-of-the-week. And they didn't quite know what to do with that. After two weeks' worth of commercials hyping the episode, I was disappointed. Sorry if this is a spoiler; I'm trying to be as non-specific as possible in case you haven't seen it yet.

Yesterday was one of my rest days, so I did an easy two-mile walk on the treadmill and a short weight-training session. Today is the weekly tempo run – five miles total, with the middle three run at a fairly good clip. I'll be on the treadmill, unfortunately, as January has decided to exit with snow and bitterly cold temperatures. Five miles on the treadmill ought to be good for most of a Rocky movie, though.

Isn't that sad … my life is so dull that I'm looking forward to watching a two-star movie while at the same time running nowhere.

Eighty-seven days until race day.

Guess who's a year old today?

Yes, the Shrinking Knitter is growing up. But not out! No more getting bigger as we get older. Nosireeee.

It's not my birthday, it's the anniversary of my first blog post. Technically it wasn't my first, as I tried out a couple of other blogging services before I settled on easy-peasy Blogger.

I played around this week with new templates, thinking perhaps it was time for a fresh look. But in the end, I believe in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. And besides, the pink Blogger template isn't my kind of pink. There are hundreds of blog skin sites out there, but I'd rather sort yarn and clean closets write than learn how to make them work. Heh.

A year ago I wrote:

Today, I feel unfit, weak and horrible. My weight is a constant – I am never not thinking about it. I don't like living like this and I intend to succeed this year.

Part of that remains true, and I doubt that any of you who are reading this and also trying to lose weight would disagree with me. My weight is a constant, and always on my mind. These days I'm not quite so negative about it, but I can still get pretty depressed over how I let my past success slip away over the years. [For those who are new, in 1997 – for about 10 minutes – I weighed 128 and comfortably fit into a size 8.]

But I honestly don't feel unfit, weak or horrible any more. Oh, when Mr. Shrinking Knitter wants to move a 200-pound chrome wire shelving unit from the lower to the upper level of the garage I feel pretty weak. But you would, too! It was heavy!

I couldn't have done that a year ago. No. Way. But we did it Sunday.

If I still felt unfit, I wouldn't have registered to run the half-marathon in April. And if I still felt horrible, I sure wouldn't have stuck with writing these posts, eating prescribed amounts of food and working out almost every day for a year, now, would I?

It's a fact that when I compare my life now to my life a year ago there's a world of difference. And I'm just slightly more than halfway to goal. I won't be able to stand myself! Heh.

Without getting too sappy, I just have to thank you for sticking with, linking to and commenting here on the blog, and for supporting me in my first of many more Years of Living Healthfully.

You're the best.