Changing my weigh-in day

So. Nobody wants to take a tapeworm pill with their breakfast, eh?

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a Weight Watcher leader. ["Hi, I'm Debbi and I've lost 32 pounds on the Weight Watcher program and I've kept it off for two years!" ::Wild applause::] Tapeworm stories were tossed like lettuce at training meetings, but I never met anyone who had met one up close and personal.

I weigh myself every time I walk past the bathroom scale – kidding! – but record my "official" weight on Tuesdays. I do scale hop a lot, though, and all week long I've shown a two-pound loss from last Tuesday. Until this morning. Which shows no loss. I'm feeling so good about not eating sugar and drinking lots o' water and exercising regularly [six days out of the last seven!] right now that it would be Just. Plain. Demoralizing. to record yet another "stayed the same." So I'm going to make Friday my official weigh day from now until the next time something demoralizing happens, when you can be sure I will shift things around again.

The only reason I can think of for today's news is that yesterday was a pretty salty day. In fact, I felt so bloated and uncomfortable leaving my drawing class at the prison last night that I could barely walk. Lovely mind picture, isn't it? I don't think I've ever experienced a salt reaction like that before.

I usually don't eat canned foods, but canned beans [unrinsed – never again will I neglect that step!] were on the menu last night and I believe I've paid more than enough for that transgression.

I have another horse-feeding gig this week and next. Mornings only, which is good. It gets me off the computer in a timely manner and the horses live near one of my running routes, so I can hit the road as soon as I finish feeding, before it gets too hot and humid to make excuses.

Yesterday was the first day of 16 training weeks; I lifted weights and did a rowing machine session, since Mondays are rest-from-running days. I will run 348 miles in the next four months. If I headed west from Cleveland, I'd end up in Chicago.

A couple of blasts from the past

First, thanks for your nice comments about Saturday's run. I think Mary Christine has the right idea: Go for the big races. The larger venues truly do have runners of every shape, size and speed. I hated being the fattest person on the course, and I hated knowing everyone was waiting for me and Mr. Geezer to cross the finish line so they could get on with announcing the results. It's not their fault that I was so slow, and I really was pleased with my time. I doubt I could have gone any faster.

I did my Sunday run on the hilly road I live on in about 52 minutes. At one point going up a hill I passed three Amish horse-and-buggies. I felt like Rocky at the Philly Art Museum. Of course, they smoked me going downhill!

A friend sent me some images of old ads, two of which are relevant for those of us who are busting lard. This first one, especially, falls into that category:

And the second is just appalling! I guess the FDA wasn't around when this product was being marketed:

Today is the first day of 16 weeks of training for the City of Oaks Half-Marathon. Mondays are rest days … woo hoo! Heh. I'm going to lift weights and do 30 minutes on the rowing machine, because rest days also can be cross-training days and I'm motivated to start this session off on a positive note.

Somebody has to be last

About yesterday's race: I wasn't dead last. I was dead last for the women. One old geezer shuffled in a couple minutes after I did. I think he got first place in his age division.

However. I did four miles in 46:19, an 11:35 pace, which is pretty awesome for me! The overall winner was Speedy Gonzalez, who did his four miles in slightly less than 22 minutes. We had to wait for him to pick up his trophy because he was coming back in from his second run of the course. Not counting the warm-up run he did prior to the start.

Most of the forty-two – yes, only 42! – entrants were from the Southern West Virginia Road Runners club, and most of them are young, fit, lean, fast men. I learned something about "low-key" fun runs: These guys take it seriously! I had lots more fun at the mega Country Music Half-Marathon than I did yesterday morning.

The female winner in my age group was friendly, but mostly I felt quite out of place. [I was second in my age group, woo hoo! But there were only two of us. Heh.] Maybe if my body fat was 12 percent I'd have been more at ease.

Considering that I got a cramp in my right calf about three-quarters of a mile into the run, I feel good about even finishing. I willed myself to keep going, despite intense pain and the eventual numbness of my right foot. I kept looking down to see if it was still attached to my ankle. And I had to take several walk breaks. I doubt if my time would have been better, but I'm sure I would have had more fun.

There was a table loaded with granola bars sugar, donuts sugar and snack cakes sugar at the finish. The early finishers ate all the bananas. I was tempted to reward myself with food, but instead I grabbed a bottle of water. Two, actually.

The leg cramp worked itself out sometime yesterday afternoon, so I'll go run this morning, and I plan to enjoy myself. If you're racing today, may your feet be swifter than mine. And not numb. And may you have bananas at the finish.

Look at me: Sugar-free!

Two days down.

The first time I went sugar-free, back in the early '90s, it was suggested [by a psychologist, a chiropractor and an Overeaters Anonymous sponsor] that I might feel overwhelmed and emotional, that I would probably cry for no reason and that these feelings would last about three weeks.

Sure enough, they did.

I'm not buying into that this time. I haven't been eating sugar on a regular basis – I'm not scarfing down Snickers bars on a daily basis, or whipping up gooey desserts for weeknight dinners – but I haven't been diligent about eliminating it when I can. And the Fourth of July was a complete carb-and-sugar fest. With a pork tenderloin thrown in.

No, I feel like I'm just getting back to what is normal and right and healthy for me.

My food yesterday was similar to Thursday's: tuna salad and a tomato for lunch; no afternoon snack [not hungry, too busy], and one of my favorite concoctions for dinner – pesto pasta with chicken sausage and vegetables.

I realized after dinner that I'd "carb-loaded" for this morning's four-mile race. Heh. Thanks, Wendy, for remembering it was today. It should be fun and low-key, and since I've never registered for and run a four-mile it'll be a PR no matter what my time is. The best part of being a novice runner is that every time I run a race, it's my best time for that distance.

Since registration starts at 7 and it's now 6:50 and I'm still in my jammies, I'd better scoot.

I realized after I posted yesterday that I had again forgotten it was Friday, when I usually put up a motivational quote. I'll get back to that next week, as it's been one of those helpful things I've been doing consistently for quite some time now. [Foolish] consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds, but it's also a key element of living a healthy lifestyle. And not so foolish.

The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful

One of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs, and slightly appropriate to today's report.

We've seen a dramatic cooling in temperatures this week, meaning I don't feel like I have to leave the house at 6 a.m. [not that I ever have, mind you] to get a good run in. It also means I don't feel like a wadded-up washcloth when I'm done.

Yesterday I walked a brisk half-mile warm-up, ran three miles and walked slightly less briskly for a half mile. The total time was 55 minutes. The three-mile time was 33:15. Adam was moaning about how much his 11-minute pace sucked and I was giving myself a high-five because I thought I was so awesome!

It's all relative.

Here's what the temperatures looked like at the start and finish. I'm not sure the starting humidity was accurate; it didn't feel that close or damp. Coming to the finish was great, though. One of my most satisfying runs all summer.

And no sugar yesterday! One day down, the rest of my life to go.

I ran on an empty stomach in the morning and had a scoop of tuna salad [made with light mayo] with a fresh tomato when I finished. Mid-afternoon I had some cheese and whole-wheat crackers. Last night was a Greek salad topped with grilled salmon. A pretty high-protein day, all in all, and I didn't have any cravings for sweets. Well, maybe a little, but I talked myself out of it because I knew y'all would be wondering.

Training for the City of Oaks Half-Marathon starts Monday. Like Mary Christine, I love training. I love the discipline, I love crossing off each day when I'm done, I love knowing I will be doing whatever that little schedule says to do, no matter what. There's no "will I or won't I" once the schedule kicks in. I should live every day in training.

For the two or three people who find my blog every day [seriously!] by Googling for "Sicko in WV," the wait is over. The Great Escape theatre in Nitro, WV is now showing it. Nitro is north of Charleston and east of Huntington. Enjoy!

We're chic!

We knitters, we're chic. The New York Times says so. But then we knew it all along. Heh.

KISS

Thank you for your thoughts yesterday on food's addictive properties. In addition to everyone who weighed in here [pardon the pun], I also had an e-mail conversation with a very dear friend, during which I sent her this link, a wrap-up of the conference. Here's part of it:

"Dr. Mark Gold, chief of addiction medicine at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute, said one possible bit of evidence is the dramatic decline in the risk of substance abuse as the pounds increase. The obese, in general, do not smoke, drink to excess, or do drugs, he said.

Conversely, those with eating disorders such as anorexia have remarkably high rates of addiction, and people who give up drugs, cigarettes and alcohol invariably gain weight, he said.

'It turns out that food and drugs compete for the same reward system in the brain,' Gold said."

At the end of the story, it says maybe we should feed kids boring meals.

Sounds like YOAD to me!

At any rate, during our e-mail conversation, my friend reminded me of the KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid [although I'm sure she meant Sweetie] – theory. We've known each other for nearly 10 years; we met on-line in an Atkins forum so she knows well my struggles with my weight.

Since sugar seems to trigger binge eating in me, it makes sense to abstain from sugar. That would truly be KISSing it. My friend wrote: "When you're off sugar you're happier and seem to feel better about yourself and happier about your nutrition." Well, duh.

I've been able to abstain from alcohol for more than 16 years. The consequences of continuing to drink were dire; the consequences of continuing to eat just don't seem to be so life-or-death. But they are!

And even if they weren't [but they are!] the rewards of abstaining from sugar are many: running comfortably, playing with my grandchildren, wearing smaller sized clothes, less moodiness [Mr. Shrinking Knitter would welcome that!], more energy, normal blood levels.

I've gained 14 pounds, as of Tuesday, since last fall when I squeezed into a size 12 dress for our wedding reception. I'm sure I couldn't get that dress zipped this morning, and I'm certainly not going to try. I don't need to use myself as a whipping post.

I do need to feed myself healthy, fresh food in reasonable portions. I need to move my body, slowly at first and then with confidence and vigor. I need to get back on track, and I know I'm not the only one out here in fat-blog land who's thinking the same thing.

I need to Keep It Simple, Stupid. Er, Sweetie.

Addicted to food

An article in yesterday's USA Today described a conference focused on determining if food has addictive qualities. Could food addiction be yet another cause of the obesity epidemic?

Overeaters Anonymous has long held this view; I attended OA meetings many years ago, and while we didn't say we were food addicts, as some narcotics addicts do, we identified ourselves as "compulsive overeaters."

[For the record, OA was helpful in many ways, but I didn't see much in the way of true recovery, if recovery was defined as weight loss. I no longer attend meetings.]

One of the researchers defines food addiction as:

"Eating too much despite consequences, even dire consequences to health; being preoccupied with food, food preparation and meals; trying and failing to cut back on food intake; feeling guilty about eating and overeating."

Um ... that would be me. And probably some of you, too.

Andrea quoted yesterday from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now:

"Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain. Whatever the substance you are addicted to -- alcohol, food, legal or illegal drugs, a person -- you are using something or somebody to cover up your pain. That is why, after the initial euphoria has passed, there is so much unhappiness, so much pain in intimate relationships. They do not cause pain and unhappiness. The bring out the pain and unhappiness that is already in you. Every addiction does that. Every addiction reaches a point where it does not work for you anymore, and then you feel the pain more intensely than ever."

So Tolle thinks food can be addictive. That paragraph really resonated with me.

What is it that keeps pushing me into the pantry? I don't think I have a lot of pain and unhappiness inside me. In fact, I think I'm pretty happy.

And why didn't I get addicted to running, instead of booze or food?

What do you think: Is food addiction real or not? Discuss.

Our phone lines are acting up, after very heavy storms last night, and I may not get back online until tomorrow morning. I hope you'll share your thoughts about this theory. I'm truly at a point where I think it has to be more than calories in/calories out.

A milestone, of sorts

Yesterday was my 500th post. For someone who used to register with various and sundry blog services and abandon them in less than a week, I think 500 semi-regular posts is pretty cool.

It is raining, raining, raining this morning, and looks like it'll be one of those steady, all-day soakers. We can use one. I've already turned the AC on in our second-floor office, where the rowing machine and treadmill are located. I haven't done a treadmill run since February. Maybe March. I'm trying to tell myself it won't suck – mind over matter!

It's been too many days since I've had a proper workout. Last run was July 4. I lifted weights last Friday morning. Since then the heaviest thing I've lifted is a six-pound, 14-ounce baby girl, and the farthest I've ambulated was from a parking garage to a hospital.

Thanks so much for all your congratulatory messages. It's great to have all of you out there to share this exciting news with.

What would also be exciting [but not nearly so]? Hmmmm ... maybe getting to goal? Time to get back to work on that.

Mr. Shrinking Knitter and I have travel plans one weekend out of each of the next four months. How that will work with race training remains to be seen.

I'm going to unofficially begin training this Saturday, with a little local four-mile race. Maybe I'll meet someone else doing the Army Ten-Miler – a training partner! Those long training runs would be much less grueling with company.

It occurs to me that when I started this get-healthy plan in January of 2006, I never dreamed I'd be running in organized races. Another milestone!

I'm smitten

There's just something about a newborn …

I'd love to share her photo with you, but that's something I haven't done [with the other two grandchildren] and won't do with her. If my children want to plaster baby photos all over the internet, that's one thing, but I think it's their privilege, not mine.

That said, she's adorable! I bet you knew I'd say that. Heh. I was at the hospital six hours Saturday and five hours Sunday and she slept in my arms the whole time, unless she was feeding. Or pooping. That's how newborns roll: They sleep, eat and poop.

I was able to pick up some things my son and his wife needed while I was there. The baby was two weeks early and while they were ready, there were still a couple things to do. So I was somewhat useful, when I wasn't lounging around the hospital room watching her sleep.

I didn't knit a stitch, nor did I break a sweat. But I also didn't have much time to eat. Lack of food plus lack of exercise means I should be holding my own.

Not nearly as soul-satisfying as holding my granddaughter.

She's here!

Much to everyone's surprise, the newest addition to our family arrived last night. My new granddaughter was born at 10:30-ish, a full two weeks early. She weighs 6 lbs. 14 oz. and is 19 inches long and I'm leaving in a couple of hours to go meet her.

Guess who won't be blogging tomorrow?

I'm only staying one night. The new little family will be coming home tomorrow and they want to spend their first few days on their own. I'm the closest grandparental unit – a four-hour drive – so I'm taking advantage of close proximity to see them while they're still in the hospital.

And damn dial-up internet connections anyway! I've been waiting and waiting for her picture to download into my e-mail inbox and it keeps timing out. Grrrrrrrr. Oh, well. I'll be seeing her this afternoon! Today! Heh.

I thought I had two more weeks to finish her "welcome-to-the-world" gift, which is about two-thirds of the way done. Oh, well ... she surely doesn't need a blanket in July in North Carolina. I'm pretty sure she has everything she needs for a comfortable start.

So ... blog break tomorrow!

Catch. Up.

Didja miss me? Heh. I sure missed you!

Another Fourth of July has come and gone, in which I spent the majority of my time preparing food. That's totally my choice – Mr. Shrinking Knitter's family would be happy eating in restaurants or eating meals that started from packages, rather than scratch. But I love entertaining and don't get the opportunity very often so I tend to wallow in it when I can. And they're very appreciative and complimentary, and who doesn't like to be complimented and appreciated? A win-win, I say!

The wife of the family has been doing C25K and was happy to go out and run with me in the mornings. Her normal running time is early evening, so it was quite different for her, and a little more challenging, just being out of her routine. Having another person along was good for me. I liked the sociability of having a running partner, but she was fine with our having different paces. She's much taller than I, but I was a little faster than she was, much to my surprise.

So, lots of fishing, target shooting, running, eating and fireworks around here this week, but not much computering.

Mr. Shrinking Knitter was feeling a letdown after everyone left yesterday morning. On a whim, I went to Fandango to see if Sicko might have opened nearby. Success! Two hours later we were at the Grandin Theatre, where we finally got to see the film.

Let me add my voice to the long list of those urging you to see it. Please don't wait for the DVD. Because my husband and I have been working with PNHP for several years, we knew many of the facts of the health care issue. But seeing the facts up close and personal and learning the backstory behind the creation of our health care system was shocking. How could we have let this happen?

Since it's Friday Quote Day [but I'm all out of whack because of the holiday], I'm going to leave you today with my favorite Sicko quote:

If you can find money to kill people,
you can find money to help people.
~ Tony Benn

The new before

I'll definitely find a better place to take next month's picture. I just didn't have time to screw around with lighting and angles and lenses, oh my!

And I think I definitely looked better a year ago than I do now. The camera doesn't lie. Or maybe the camera I was using then did. The new one? Not so much.

Lots. Of. Work. To. Do.

Even though I no longer belong to eDiets, I still get some of their newsletters. In this morning's missal is this article highlighting the basics most fit people follow. Good advice and nothing we haven't heard before. But hearing and doing are two different things.

In a nutshell, here are the 10 tips [the ones most challenging for me are in purple]:

• Sleep well and wake up naturally.
• Get prepared.
• Exercise in the morning.
• Plan meals.
• Rebound from setbacks.
• Make lasting lifestyle and behavioral changes.
• Separate the psychology of success from self-help snake oil.
• Lose weight and keep it off.
• Use positive self-talk.
• Set and accomplish goals.

I'm still looking for the easy way out, but I'm doing a lot of things right. Keep. Moving. Forward.

Michael Moore's Sicko

Lynette got to see it last night; read her review here.

Not a single theatre in West Virginia is screening it. Not even the state capital. The closest place for me is Raleigh, NC – four hours, one way.

Mr. Shrinking Knitter and I watched Larry King's interview with Moore Friday night. While we didn't need convincing that something needs to be done about health care in America, it was affirming to know that we're working for something that really, truly could and should happen. Visit Physicians for a National Health Program to see how you can help, too.

One thing Moore said that really struck me is that we don't have to wholly adopt another country's plan. We can pick the two good things from Canada's plan and the two good things from France's, etc., and come up with a way to make it work, learning from others' experiences.

The other thing I gleaned from the program – it wasn't emphasized, although it was mentioned – is that we must do something meaningful about campaign finance reform. As long as the health-care industry is padding politicians' pockets, we won't see any change. Period.

In the past three or four years I've gotten bolder about contacting my elected representatives and letting them know how I feel. I don't always agree with their views, but I think their views should reflect those of their constituents, and since I am one, I call, write, e-mail and speak to them in person whenever I can. I also watch their votes and have learned that my voice really does make a difference.

So can yours. Speak up!

I may not be posting much until the end of the week ... I'm going to try to find some time today to take a first-of-the-month "before" photo, but even that may need to wait until our guests leave on Thursday. I could have planned to really get on this bandwagon the first of August, but I'd be wasting three good weeks – and this first, potentially good week, of July – all in the name of starting fresh on the first. Starting fresh can happen any day.

Oh, dear

Lori tagged me and, to tell you the truth, I just don't have time to respond. It's too much. When I first looked at her post, I thought, "Oh, I can do that," because I thought it was just one question: "What were you doing 10 years ago?" But it's a lot of questions and I guess I'm going to break the chain.

I will tell you that 10 years ago I had just moved to West Virginia from Ohio. Mr. Shrinking Knitter and I met in Ohio in 1993. He moved back to his home town in 1995 and we did the long-distance dating thing for two years. And then I quit my job, sold my house, left my friends – and my gym! – and moved to the Middle of Nowhere.

Quitting my job wasn't a big deal. I knew I would find things to keep me busy, and I have.

Selling my house wasn't a big deal. I went from a small townhouse in a large city with a postage-stamp-sized yard to a lovely home in the country with lots of grass, flowers, trees, a pond and mountain views.

Leaving my friends wasn't even a big deal. We have e-mail and a flat-fee long-distance plan; going out to lunch with someone once in a while would be nice, but it isn't necessary for nurturing a friendship.

The worst thing about moving here was losing the gym. I give exercise most of the credit for my original 50-pound weight loss, and I blame lack of exercise for my subsequent 70-pound weight gain. Blaming the lack of exercise on not having a gym, however, is simply making excuses for not wanting to do whatever it takes.

I've been mostly back on track for a year and a half, and this active and healthy lifestyle is definitely my new normal. I'm getting ready for a houseful of company over the Fourth of July, including three teen-agers who eat non-stop. I've been stocking up and preparing snacky type foods which are never on my menu. I'll certainly be sampling, and don't expect a weight loss, but I'm looking at it as an annual event, not an everyday thing.

In other words, I won't be falling off the wagon. Heh.

The most significant thing that happened 10 years ago is that my dear little granddaughter was born in March, 1997. And now we're all anxiously awaiting the birth of the newest one, who is due in about three weeks.

Lori, I'm sorry I'm such a slacker about this, but right now I can't even remember my own name, let alone the lyrics to five songs! But thanks for thinking of me!

Every picture tells a story, don't it

"The photograph itself doesn't interest me.
I want only to capture a minute part of reality."
~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

"Photography deals exquisitely
with appearances,
but nothing is what it appears to be."
~ Duane Michals

First, kudos to Lady Rose, who actually follows the advice of so many weight-loss-and-fitness articles/websites and fits exercise in when and where she can, in addition to her regular routine. Push-ups waiting for the microwave to beep? Of course we've all heard that advice. But who among us thinks it's worth doing? I'm still doing pliés when I brush my teeth, but I can do a lot more. Thanks, LR, for the encouragement and for setting such a good example.

MPA commented yesterday that can't bring herself to take before-and-after pictures of herself. Her profile photo is pretty cute if you ask me. But I absolutely understand the apprehension inherent in the process of capturing for all eternity the dreaded "before."

The reason I want to start including monthly progress pictures [I call them then-and-nows] is that it was helpful, for me, to have a visual record that what I was doing was really working. I was a little disappointed the first three or four months, but you encouraged me by pointing out where I looked fitter and smaller and eventually, well, the proof was in the pudding, so to speak!

My new "before" photo will look very much like this one's "after." I weigh approximately the same as I did a year ago. I'm delighted that I can actually maintain a 35-pound loss for a year, but I'd like to lose that much more. I'm fitter now than I was then. Last July I hadn't yet started running, and you know I wasn't interested in weight training. [Yes, I did the weight routine yesterday. Yeah, me!]

The monthly progress photo is just information, much like the number on the scale. [Can you tell I'm trying to talk myself into that attitude?] It's not a judgement or criticism, it's just the facts. I'm very happy I took those once-a-month pictures in 2006. I just hope that strategy will work as well for the remainder of 2007!

How do you guys work and work out and, well, you know …

Yesterday my day started at 5:20 a.m., when the alarm started yelling at me to get my ass out of bed and into the shower so I would have time to make it to an all-day conference I'd been invited to attend. I didn't actually make it into the shower until 5:45 a.m. ws was already out running. [Person-to-person to ws: I hate those phantom aches and pains! I'm sure mine are all in my head, no matter where they manifest themselves in my body.]

I left the house at 6:30 a.m., giving myself a little extra time to get lost because I'd never been to the Beckley Federal Correctional Institution before. It's tucked away at the end of an industrial park, in a beautiful wooded setting. During one break I looked outside and saw a grazing deer.

The conference topic was prisoner re-entry, a Bureau of Prisons initiative designed to prepare newly released inmates for success as they transition back into society. Most of the audience was BOP staff; to say I felt like a fish out of water is quite the understatement.

But I made the best of it, learned a lot and even contributed to the discussion – a big step for me. Speaking up in front of a room full of prison case managers and probation officers is not easy. At least for me.

I most often see prison staff in non-supportive, punitive roles, so I hope this initiative eventually takes hold among the uniformed guards. But I'm not holding my breath.

At any rate, I left the conference in the late afternoon, drove another hour to get home and immediately began prepping dinner for a couple friends who are here working on settling their late father's estate. No time for an afternoon run, and, truly, no desire either, since the temperature was in the mid-90s with humidity to match.

Back in the old days, when I used to do Real Work, I was in the office at 6 a.m. and in the gym by 5 p.m. Regularly. Routinely. I was, as Mary Christine recently reminded me, much younger then. It would take a lot of effort now to get back in that groove.

So yesterday was a day off and I'll get back on track today.

MPA wanted to know how the job jar idea works. I want it to help me overcome two bad habits. I intend to pull a slip every time I find myself mesmerized by computer solitaire or the contents of the refrigerator/pantry. I can keep up with the day-to-day maintenance of my home – cleaning floors and bathrooms, emptying and loading the dishwaser, laundry – but closets and dresser drawers and once-in-a-while projects tend to go by the wayside. No one but me sees the results, and no one but me is bothered by them. My laissez-faire attitude does not lead to organized closets or neat garages.

The fun, hobby-type projects I listed – paper crafts, beading, etc. – are activities that make me completely lose track of time. The idea behind the job jar is to do something – anything! – that will keep me busy, productive, engaged and not wolfing down the kitchen.

I posted a couple weeks ago about starting over, with my current weight as my beginning number instead of the 35 pounds heavier one I started with 18 months ago. I haven't quite made that fresh start yet. What worked for me then was eliminating sugar, following a low glycemic plan, logging my food and exercise, calculating weekly calories in/calories out and taking a photo on the first day of the month. I realize I'll start race training again in a couple of weeks, and I might end up staying the same, but I want that focus back again.

I hope I'm preparing myself for success.

The job jar experiment

I think I'm ready to start doing this job jar thing I talked about last week. I listed several distracting tasks or projects on paper yesterday, cut them out and stuck them in a container in my office. Some of them are chores and some are fun stuff, because I don't want the job jar to be a punishment. The fun stuff things are activities I really enjoy; they also tend to make me lose track of time.
I'll more than likely add and subtract activities as time goes on. This looks like an interesting hobby, for instance, but it didn't make the cut. Yet.

I must make sure the first slip I pull is the one that says "Office worktable," don't you think?

Weight-training happened yesterday! Woo hoo! A good, solid half hour of bench work and the dumbbell pyramid. I know some of you put a lot more time into weight training, and I'm happy for you. But I'm even happier for me that I managed to get a decent session in to start off my new week.

Today is a running day, four flat miles. Tomorrow is supposed to be a running day but I have to go to an all-day conference out of town. I have serious doubts about running at 5:30 a.m. [although I can and do run very early in the morning when I'm visiting my daughter. Hmmmm.] Five-thirty in the afternoon might happen. At any rate, tomorrow is a mini blog break. "See" you Thursday.

Pride goeth before the fall

So yesterday morning I drove down to the four-mile long, flat road, planning to make my turn at the three-mile mark. I'll be darned if the guy who lives there wasn't on his porch, watching the world – including me – go by. And I'll also be darned if I'm going to turn around in front of someone. As if he cared!

So I kept trotting to the end of the road and logged eight very slow, very torturous miles. I probably walked a total of two; I definitely walked the entire last mile. I was completely out of gas.

At least I didn't fall. Heh.

I want to clarify something about eating one meal daily: That only happens when I'm just too darned busy to stop and eat. With any luck, this week will be like that, as we count down the days – and tasks – until our mini family reunion. Yesterday? Not so much.

Also, almost immediately after I published yesterday's post, I noticed I have an all-day conference on Wednesday, so my weight-training schedule will be Monday, Thursday, Saturday instead of M-W-F. I might try to run when I get home Wednesday evening.

Today is still my rest-from-running day. I kind of wish it could be a rest-from-everything day. Eight miles, even with some walking thrown in, is a long way when you haven't done it since April! It will do me good, physically and mentally, to hit the weights today, though.

About the only thing I got done yesterday was some knitting.

Nice segue, Debbi!

I started a Big Bad Baby Blanket [from the first Stitch 'n' Bitch book] a few days ago. I'm using two strands of fingering-weight acrylic [for washability] held together with a size 6 needle. I'm doing the center section first and will then pick up stitches and add a border in a different color later. The original pattern is all one color.

My new granddaughter is due in less than a month!

Hungry like the wolf

Frankly, I don't know how hungry wolves get, having never been one, nor even met one up close and personal. But this morning I woke up hungry, something I rarely do.

We had guests for dinner last night, so today's breakfast was a leftover biscuit and half a dozen of the yummy little appetizers I whipped up. Mix pesto with cream cheese, spread on a soft-flour tortilla, roll up tightly and cut into half-inch pinwheels. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Good.

I realized when I went to bed last night that dinner was the first meal I'd eaten all day; the same thing happened on Friday. I'm doing a quick weight-check every morning – information only – and my weight is going down again. One meal a day just might be how I need to eat.

I guess I've blown it for today already. Heh.

Everything we've read or heard about revving up one's metabolism includes the suggestion to eat something every three or four hours. But you know, I was busy-busy the whole day Friday and Saturday. I didn't even think about food. I was grateful to sit down for dinner, but I didn't wolf down what was in front of me and I didn't overeat.

Something to think about. Mr. Shrinking Knitter has maintained a 60-pound weight loss for 20 years or more [much longer than I've known him] by pretty much eating one meal a day. He usually has a nocturnal spoonful of peanut butter, but dinner is and has been his one and only meal for as long as we've been together, vacations excepted. He loves big breakfasts when we're on the road or when we have overnight guests.

I logged just 14 running miles last week, and only two weight-training sessions. Today is the first day of a new week. I'm planning to do a longish run – six miles at least. Weight-lifting is scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week; Monday will be my rest-from-running day. I feel like I'm getting my ducks in a row, in preparation for race training.

It feels good.

Looking on the bright side

There's at least one good thing about a daytime power outage: You don't have to light candles or kerosene lamps in order to get anything done. In other words, reading by candlelight while sitting on your ass is not an option. My pre-Fourth of July to-do list gets shorter and shorter.

I'm not praying for another one, mind you, but having the power go out means the time-sucker computer is off for hours at a time. No sneaky little breaks "just to check my e-mail." And no computer solitaire.

It sounds like we're all in agreement that both cardio and strength-training are necessary for optimal weight loss. [Even Lux's link-comment quibbled only with numbers, not with benefits.] I know one reason I resist [resisted? I'm not quite ready to say that yet.] lifting is that I've read over and over again that walking – good, old, plain-vanilla walking – is a weight-bearing exercise, enough to protect and strengthen your bones.

Preventing osteoporosis is as much a motivation for me as weight loss. I watched my grandmother lose several inches in height as she aged. Also? She could – and did! – break a bone by simply walking across a room or getting out of bed.

But to get what I really want, adding consistent, challenging weight-training should make a difference. And if it doesn't? I guess I'll cross that bridge when/if I come to it.

My busy-busy Thursday went quite well. Taking time to lift and run first thing energized me for the entire afternoon. I saw something while I was running I've never seen before, on any of my three usual routes. Are you ready? I saw another runner, complete with gear pack and compression t-shirt. He looked as surprised as I was. He was just starting a 10-mile loop; I was finishing my four-mile one.

[Note: I purposely used a positive, optimistic title for this post and have gone back and edited out all the parts that were what therapists call "negative self-talk." It's amazing how many there were!]

May your day be sunny and bright. And may all your Christmases be white. Heh.

If a tree falls on a power line …

at 4 a.m., does Debbi get any sleep?

You can bet she doesn't. And since power wasn't restored until 10:45 a.m., I'm well into my routine du jour, and not really in a blogging mood.

If only I'd kept up with my Mother Earth News subscription I'd be off the grid by now.

I'll try to catch up tomorrow. Your comments were thought-provoking, as always, and I don't want to ignore them.

The other thing about strength training …

is that it's worked for me before. When I lost weight a long, long time ago, my strategy was to eat fewer than 20 grams of fat daily and work out like a maniac. I lost about 20 pounds in the first two or three months and then stayed the same. I was going to a lovely, fancy gym with all kinds of equipment and trainers and saunas, oh my!, so I talked with one of the staff and ended up working with a trainer to learn how to use the free weights properly.

Oh, my, indeed. I was so intimidated the first time I walked into that area of the gym. But learning to lift [instead of using the Nautilus machines] was all it took to start shedding pounds again. I lost 47 pounds in five months, lost five dress sizes and could wear anything I wanted. [One caveat: Eating a very low-fat diet makes you feel pretty crappy. But you'll look great!]

The difference between then and now, as I alluded to in the previous post, is consistency. When you're sauntering into a gym where all the staff knows you and your goals, you're not going to pussyfoot around on the treadmill at 2.5mph. You're going to grunt and groan and sweat and, um, show off every time you're in there. I alternated upper and lower body work, so I was in the weight room every day. Like I said, a maniac.

But it worked.

Maybe I should get a life-sized cardboard cutout of my old trainer and prop him up in the garage.

Why strength training is key to weight loss

Yesterday, Denise commented:

I find it interesting that you do the cardio and think that strength-training is the key. I do the strength-training and totally believe that cardio is the key to weight loss! I'm beginning to think that between us we've discovered the true secret - ya just gotta do BOTH! (Man, no wonder they kept that a secret - it sucks!)

This article goes into the whys and wherefores, which I'm sure Denise already knows. [The article also points to something to buy; ignore that!] Also, you can use Google to search "strength training for weight loss" to find more information. I like the friendly tone of this article, and it also specifically talks about what strength training can do for women. But it's quite long.

Basically, the higher your resting metabolic rate [RMR], the more efficiently your body uses the calories you consume. And the way to raise your RMR is to add more muscle. Also, five pounds of fat takes up more room than five pounds of muscle, as M@rla eloquently explains and illustrates here. So weighing the same, but having that weight be muscle instead of fat, makes you look hotter. Heh.

I've never had a scale that calculates my body fat percentage, but I'm tempted to get one. Perhaps seeing that number go down as a result of weight training would motivate me to do more, or at least to be consistent with it. Anyone want to weigh in on that idea?

But really, what could be more motivating than having Mich give me an attagirl?

I'll be on the bench and then doing my pyramid before 8 a.m., after which I will run four flat miles, after which I will get my teeth cleaned, after which I will shop 'til I drop.

After which I will [tomorrow morning] probably tell you how tired I am!

Gimme a T! Gimme an H!

Gimme an A-N-K-S!!!

Those comments you left yesterday were sooo supportive and encouraging. It's great having cheerleaders! Thanks bunches. And Jeannie, you can butt in any time to tell me to stop thinking negatively. I like to think I'm being realistic, but negative thinking produces negative results.

Maybe I need to start referring to myself as a weightlifter. Heh.

Hell might have frozen over yesterday, as I actually did spend some time in the garage lifting weights! Not too heavy and not too many reps, since I felt like I was back at Square One. [Surprisingly I wasn't; the only part of the pyramid I couldn't manage was the 12-pounders. Fifteen reps at eight pounds was hard enough.]

Some of those treacherous storms came through here last night, leaving us windswept, soaked and without power for several hours. If we can figure out how to live in outer space for months at a time, you'd think we could figure out how to keep the electricity on during a thunderstorm.

Wendy, if you're serious about throwing some free-lance work my way, e-mail me: shrinkingknitter AT citynet DOT com. If you were kidding: Hey, that was funny! Comments sometimes don't get across the real intent of the message.

Changing gears here a little bit: Sicko will be in sneak previews this Friday night in several U.S. cities [San Fran, LA, Boston and Philly were mentioned.] I talked about the film a little bit here. Will the Middle of Nowhere be one of those sneak-preview cities? Not on your life. But if you get to see it before its national release June 29, I hope you'll let us know what you thought of it.

I'll be whittling away at my to-do list today and making yet another list, this time a shopping one as I'll be in town tomorrow to begin shopping for our annual Fourth of July mini-reunion. The menus are planned; just need to make sure I have everything I need to execute them. Mr. Shrinking Knitter's cousins's family eats a lot and frequently – seems like every activity involves or ends with a meal or a snack. I'm not stressed about it for myself, but want to make sure we have enough food on hand to handle the demand. I've got a "hostess-with-the-mostest" reputation to uphold. Heh.

Finally, the Shapely Tank is done. Let me just say I'd be happier with the fit if I was happier with my body, especially my mid-section. The tank has some waist shaping, and I do have a waist, but I also have a gut.

Crunches, anyone?

Have I ever mentioned …

how much I love to run?

Yes, I suck at it, and yes, I sometimes feel the aches and pains you'd expect a 56-year-old fat lady to feel.

But I do love to run.

Yesterday morning I did four miles in 50:52. That's 40 seconds per mile slower than my – ahem – race pace at the half-marathon.

I'm cracking myself up! I am slower than slow, and yet I call myself a runner.

The shoes I bought in Nashville are the best so far. It's hard to rotate with the other recently bought pair; that's how much difference there is. I feel like stocking up before they discontinue this particular style.

My quest to lose a few pounds before I start training for the next half hasn't been very successful. When I started losing weight and blogging about it, I searched other blogs for success. I found it in lots of places. I was inspired and motivated and rewarded with pounds dropped and fitness gained. I know I inspired and motivated others during that first year, but I'm surprised at how many of you are still here through all these months of staying-the-same. Thanks for hanging in there.

I'm still hanging in there, as well. There's no quitting! As always, the missing link is probably weight training, something I simply cannot or will not put into the regular rotation. You weightlifters – you and you, especially – are my heroes. But unless you come to my house and stand over me with a whip, I'm probably always going to find an excuse not to hoist the dumbbells.

I'm pathetic.

Despite being pathetic, I'm in a good mood and am Getting Things Done.

I dreamed last night that I was offered a job creating advertising for a power company in Columbus, Ohio, where I used to live. I've been out of the job loop for so long now that I'm pretty sure no one would hire me, let alone a major utility. I have a couple little volunteer graphic design gigs on the horizon, and that's as much as I want right now. I wonder why my dreams want me to get a job?

Speed-blogging

I couldn't sleep last night and was up for almost two hours, reading blogs and playing solitaire. So of course I slept later than normal and now Mr. Shrinking Knitter wants to play our usual wake-up game of Super Scrabble this minute, before I've had a chance to post anything. I wheedled 10 minutes out of him so I could throw a post up here.

'Cause I'm compulsive like that.

So I've made a dent in the guest room and in one of the crafty projects that's on my list. I'll have to add "make a job jar list" to the Google list or I'll forget about all the things I want to do to stave off boredom and create more stress. Heh.

I did a lot of knitting this weekend while watching the U.S. Open. [Interesting to see the short, chubby smoker win, while the incredibly fit Tiger came in second-best, wasn't it?] The Shapely Tank has a neckband and has one side seamed. One more side seam and the finishing around the armholes [unless I decide to do short sleeves] and it'll be done. I keep thinking it's going to be too big, but since it's cotton I might be able to attack it with hot water and get it to shrink. I've not tried it on, though, so it just might be okay.

I'll be running or walking today, probably four miles. Didn't do anything yesterday, mostly because it was foggy – pea-soup thick – until 11 or so and I had to be at a meeting at 12:30. Yes, I could have used the treadmill or the rower, but I didn't. So there.

So y'all have a great Monday. It took eight minutes to write all this drivel, probably took you less than a minute to read it and now everybody's happy. Or at least well-read.

Sooooo close!

You long-time readers know just how much I detest the dial-up internet service I'm stuck with here in the Middle of Nowhere. I'm not willing to shell out the big bucks for the satellite internet service I've seen advertised on cable TV. The equipment alone costs hundreds of dollars.

There were lots of cool links to cool things in some of your blogs this weekend. Wendy's dress at Anthropologie, M@rla linked to a very creative paintjam artist and that My Heritage celebrity look-alike thing is going around again. [The only celeb they matched me with was Gwyneth. I soooo don't look like Gwyneth!] Each foray into flash-based websites or YouTube tests my patience. It had better be damned worth it.

These were.

Anyway, Verizon was out here yesterday scouting a bit of our property to put up a tower. In our yard! Well, practically in our yard, which is why Mr. Shrinking Knitter nixed the idea. Property values and all that. I was so close to buying Airport for my Mac I could taste it. I could visualize myself uploading photos and downloading music in the blink of an eye.

Patience, Grasshopper. Surely someone out here in the Middle of Nowhere will have the perfect piece of property for a tower. At least they're looking.

It's so great to have Greta commenting again! When Blogger switched from old to new, many readers couldn't log in or comment any more [or maybe they got tired of my blather and moved on]. Greta, you certainly know me well enough to know that boredom can be an issue. I'd love to be able to play inside my own head like Crazy Aunt Purl talks about in this post. Then again, I've lost 20 years' worth of brain cells by virture of being older, and who knows how many more by virtue of being a recovering drunk? Those were the days ...

Maybe I need a job jar. You know, just write down a bunch of activities on a slip of paper, throw them all in a container and pull one out when I'm feeling like I'm at loose ends. Yet another interactive to-do list!

Well, I ran yesterday. For a long time. First long run – six miles – in ages and ages. I'd like to be able to honestly say I run 20 miles a week when I fill in the Smart Coach plan for the next race. Last week, counting yesterday, I logged 21, but about half were walking.

Race training starts mid-July for me. I've registered for the Army Ten-Miler and the City of Oaks Half-Marathon. The 10-miler will be a long training run leading up to the half, and also will be a fun weekend with Mr. Shrinking Knitter to celebrate his birthday [which is actually the following weekend, but I couldn't get the Army to change their race date].

Today only! A Saturday quote!

I do believe the rain did what I'd hoped it would do. The sneezing? Gone. I'm glad it wasn't a summer cold and, truthfully, I didn't even think it was. So here's what we'll think about this week:

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.”

~ Amelia Earhart

I've got the decision down pat. In fact, I've made the decision [to lose weight] at least a hundred times in the last 56 years. And I've actually lost weight several times, so "acting to change and control my life" is not out of the realm of possibility.

I experienced that "the process is its own reward" while training for the half-marathon. I loved the training. I felt like I really was working toward an achievable goal, step by step, making discernible progress week after week. I trusted the process [Runner's World's Smart Coach] because it seemed to be based on good science and lots of experience.

I haven't thought about the paper tigers as they relates to busting lard. I'd like to think I have no fears about having a normal BMI, but perhaps I do; perhaps that's what's holding me back.

The tenacity is definitely missing in action. I can read an article or a blog post and think to myself, "YES! That's what I want!" But by the end of the day, the thrill is gone. I need to learn to be tenacious 24/7, not just the first six hours each morning, when I'm blogging, busy and not especially thinking about food.

The sad thing is, I don't do anything – work outside my home, take care of children, support elderly parents – that needs rewarding. You know what I mean, don't you? I can't use my stressful life as an excuse for making poor food choices. The rigors of daily living aren't making me so tired I have to spend my spare time on the couch. I don't have any stress! If you listen to the news, you might think I'm the only person in the U.S. who doesn't.

Tenacity. I wish someone would bottle and sell it. I'd be first in line.

Friday Quote Day – not so much

I can't seem to sit up for any length of time without blowing my nose, which greatly interferes with quote research and typing. I'm pretty sure it's just allergies and hope the wind and rain that blew through here yesterday also blew away all those nasty little pollen thingies.

Until tomorrow …

I almost broke my arm …

yesterday patting myself on the back for my accomplishments. Heh. Here's what I did:

• Ran four miles.
• Watered all the plants.
• Mowed the lawn.
• Purged my closet.
• Purged my dresser.
• Unpacked the suitcase.
• Washed, dried, folded and put away three loads of laundry.
• Washed dishes by hand.
• Emptied the dishwasher.

I am woman. Hear me roar. Heh. Looking at that list would make you think I'd taken a hit of speed in the morning instead of an Aleve.

The run went pretty well, considering I haven't run four continuous miles in a long, long time. To be honest, these miles weren't continuous, but the walk breaks were infrequent and short – about a minute each. Still, though, it took almost an hour. But I felt good and my quad felt good and obviously starting my day off like that did wonders for my energy level.

Today will be more of a routine-maintenance day, which means cleaning the floors and sprucing up the bathrooms and kitchen. I might do a little work on the guest room. The Roomba is already working on the bedroom floor.

The other good thing about yesterday is that I started journaling my food again. Total calories for the day? 1374. A little higher than I like, but I think the run made up for it. And it was all good food. I could have brought it in at 1200 if I hadn't had an evening snack of a little bit of peanut butter smeared on a 60-calorie slice of whole wheat bread. I could have brought it in at 1300 if I'd mixed up some PB2 instead of using the Smucker's Natural.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

At any rate, it's time to get this party started. I hesitate to declare my specific to-do list intentions two days in a row – that's a fail-safe, perfect way to screw it all up. Let's just end with this: I hope your today – and mine – is as productive as my yesterday was!

Change of course

First, ws just left a comment wondering if I'd been affected by severe weather in my part of the Middle of Nowhere West Virginia.

Not only was I not affected, I didn't even know about it. Guess I should read some local news once in a while. Thanks for your concern, ws!

I was going to write a post about my volunteer gig at the prison last night, but it had nothing to do with fitness or eating well or losing weight or running or knitting [although I did deliver some donated yarn for the inmates' Yarn Project], so I deleted it all and am forced to change my train of thought.

If you have a Google home page, you know you can add many little units to it, some informative, some useful, some just for fun. One of them is a To-Do list, which I've had for a long time but which I've never used. There's just something cool about physically crossing an item off a list that is sooooo satisfying.

However, I spend more time in front of my monitor than I do in front of the list attached to the refrigerator. Hey! There's a victory! So I filled it up and am now working on deleting each and every task on it.

My list-making tends to be of the Big Project or Getting Ready to Go Somewhere variety. I don't need a list of daily chores; the laundry gets done, the floors get swept, the dishwasher gets unloaded and reloaded without a reminder. Usually. But closets and dresser drawers just seem to get more crowded unless I write down that it's time to purge.

Today's the day. I can't Clean the Guest Room until I Unpack the Suitcase, wihch I'm storing in the guest room. And I can't Unpack the Suitcase until I Purge the Closet and Dresser. I refuse to put all those clothes back when I'm not wearing half of what's already in there. Fourth of July is three weeks from today and we're having company, so Cleaning the Guest Room is pretty high on the priority list.

Because we don't have a tent.

I've read a couple blogs lately where the writers want to only wear things they love that fit. I'm willing to settle for things that fit. I still have too many too-big things taking up too much space. I'll keep some of the too-small things, but if I don't love it, it's going to our local food-and-clothing bank. [It's called Loaves and Fishes, but a friend calls it Fishes and Chips, which delights me every time I hear it.]

My hip and quad are feeling good this morning, and the doctor says it's fine to take an Aleve every morning and night for arthritis pain. [With the caveat that it's best to take it with food.] I'm going to run four flat miles, then come home and tackle the closet. Until I'm finished:

• I will not read e-mail.
• I will not read your blog post.
• I will not play computer solitaire.

So there.

Ouchhhh!

So I was a mile and a half into my morning walk/run yesterday, descending the first steep hill at a pretty fast clip when I felt a severe pain in my upper left quad. Searing. Pain. And did I say, "Ouch?" You betcha. I limped back home and took it easy the rest of the day.

It's always something.

Interestingly enough, I feel much better this morning. If I press on the searing-pain spot, it feels like a healing bruise. But I'm not limping and, in fact, I don't feel any pain whatsoever. I'm not sure if I should take a walk or give it another day.

I have arthritis in my left hip, and forgot to take an Aleve yesterday morning. Perhaps I was unconsciously favoring my left side – one pain leads to another. See what you young chicas have to look forward to? Heh.

The problem I have with taking an Aleve every day is that it makes me feel so good, so normal, that I think I can do anything. Am I risking further injury by masking pain, or am I treating pain so I can keep on keepin' on? Not really a chicken-egg question, but close.

Okay, the Thinking Blogger award has led me to this: Drop Dead Gorgeous by way of Perfuncto who was nominated by Grumpy. Interesting, somewhat disturbing, challenging and thought-provoking photos, and the accompanying interview is equally thought-provoking. Thanks, Grumpy, Perfuncto and especially the photographer Daniela Edburg. And thanks, TMN, for making the photos dial-up friendly.

Your comments yesterday also fall into the thought-provoking category. My little quibble with my insurance company pales in comparison, but I did call the doctor's office when they opened to see if any progress had been made. The billing clerk said I'm one of a dozen in the same boat. She insisted they are a provider and that the company who actually submits the claims is using the wrong tax ID number. She has patients who were seen in January who still haven't been billed.

Universal health care would solve those those problems. And Mel would get to choose her own provider. Mel, I wish you well, and I hope you read H4H's comment yesterday. Good advice from someone who knows.

Tag!

Thank you, Anne, for including me in your list of Thinking Bloggers. Thinking – and especially writing to make others think – doesn't feel like my strong suit, so the fact that I've landed on such a list is high praise.

What this means is that I get to pick five blogs that make me think, and they get to pick five and they get to pick five and before you know it we've all read every blog on the internets. Hmmmm. I think that means we spend too much time on our asses in front of the computer.

At any rate, there are rules associated with this honor:

• If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
• Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

I'm reluctant to choose more food-or-fitness related blogs. Since I'm a knitter, I'll head out in that direction and see where I end up. My 5 tagged thinking blogs are:

• String or Nothing
• The Panopticon
• Parlez Moi
• Hungry for Hunger
• Sicko

Okay, Hungry for Hunger is sort of about food. But he's such a great writer. And the last one's not a blog. But it should make you think about the sad, sorry state of health care in this country.

I don't talk politics much here. Knitting and lard-busting seem to take up all of my available blogging time. But if you've ever checked out my links over there on the right, you'll have noticed Physicians for a National Health Program and Mountain State PNHP [West Virginia's chapter of the national organization].

Mr. Shrinking Knitter was out walking yesterday and stopped to visit with our 93-year-old neighbor. His daughter and her husband were there. The husband has become disabled, so our neighbor's daughter has gone to work in order to provide health insurance for both of them. Her wages cover the premiums; they pay for the rest of their needs with the husband's disability income.

She needs gallbladder surgery, but the insurance company is refusing to pay, citing a "pre-existing condition." Who's providing the health care here, the doctor or the insurance company?

Here's what's worse, though. Our neighbor, who is a WWII veteran and retired from the Army Corps of Engineers, is not eligible for Medicare. Retired government workers do not receive one of this country's "guaranteed" forms of universal health care; they have a different and more expensive form of coverage.

There's just something so wrong about that. I would bet that you all have a horror story or two. I currently have a set of forms from my insurance company, appealing their refusal to pay for my recent annual visit to my gynecologist. According to them, he's not a provider. According to him, he is. And I'm the one who has to spend the time and energy to make the calls and fill out the forms to try to get them to pay. Also? If it turns out he isn't a provider, I have to find a new doctor and cancel the appointments I've made for my mammogram and bone density test. The new doctor will need to see me – that's two gyno appointments in one year, and who knows if insurance will pay for that – to order a new mammogram and bone density test.

The best way to manage one's health in the United States is to never get sick.

Okay, off the soapbox.

Speaking of sick, that's what I was yesterday morning. So I didn't run at all. If you've been here for a while, you know I have IBS. I had a bit of a flare-up yesterday. My IBS is usually the constipation variety, but I've been see-sawing lately and there are no public bathrooms on any of my running routes. I thought it best to stick close to home.

A good rule of thumb, I think, is whether I would have run a race for which I'd already registered. There's no way I could have done that yesterday morning. I'll try a four-miler today.

Just in time for summer

I have a tiny little spot next to my garage where I plant a "salsa" garden – tomatoes, hot peppers and cilantro – every spring. I almost gave up on it this year. I just haven't taken the time to go buy plants and soil and, frankly, I could do without the whole tomato worm experience.

But yesterday I stopped on my way to the grocery to see if the little garden place had anything left. It is June, after all, and most good gardeners are eating the results of their labors by now. I was surprised and pleased to find that not only are there lots of healthy plants left to buy, you can buy them cheap! Tomatoes and jalapenos were four for a buck! I got three of each.

They didn't have any of the kind of cilantro I like. What they had looked like a fern and didn't smell very strong. Cilantro is one of those love-it-or-hate-it herbs, and I love it. Wimpy cilantro need not apply. So I'll be buying it; tiny Kroger stocks it in warm weather.

The best find, though, was a little "patio garden" – a large pot already planted with oregano, globe basil and a tomato plant. Looks like spaghetti sauce to me! I also planted a separate pot of another basil variety, the kind that makes good pesto. [My son-in-law sent me home with a grocery bag full of basil, which was quickly transformed into two cups of pesto.]

So after walking in the morning, I spent an hour or so puttering around with a shovel and hoe and worked up quite a grimy good sweat. Two workouts in one day. What's the world coming to?

I haven't had a good, long, solid run in a long time now. I wonder if I can still do it. I'll probably have to take a lot of walk breaks, but I'm going to do eight miles this morning. Walking or running, it'll be a good workout.

Still eating well. Still not journaling. Still feeling energetic. Thanks for your comments yesterday. It really is "just" food, isn't it?

Snakes on a plane porch

I started to leave the house yesterday afternoon and this rather large fella was gliding past the front door:
All together now: Ewwwwwwww!

Thank goodness for cell phones. Mr. Shrinking Knitter was in the garage/office so I grabbed my cell and called him there. Minutes later he was rescuing me from the big, bad black snake. [Please don't ask for details. It was messy. 'Nuff said.]

I don't mind them as long as they don't cross the boundary of my domicile. That was too close for comfort. My toes are still curled up just thinking about it.

We now return to our regular programming.

Jonathan got tons of comments from his Thursday night post in which he was dithering between eating or dumping a piece of cake. One person remarked, "It's JUST food!", and I've been thinking about that off and on ever since I read it. I maybe need to tattoo it on the back of my hand.

It's just food is exactly the attitude which has mysteriously overcome me the last few days. I've no doubt the feeling will leave as suddenly as it came – that's why I need the tattoo – but in the meantime, I've had three days of calm, peaceful meals. Yesterday afternoon I was getting a little antsy and had a handful of chopped walnuts, which is what the YOAD doctors recommend as a before-dinner snack. I didn't drag the whole bag o' nuts with me, but had just what would fit in my cupped hand, which turned out to be a couple tablespoons.

My, my, my.

I'm trying not to think about it too much, as I don't want to break the spell.

What's really remarkable is I'm not really planning anything ahead of time, nor have I been journaling. This is kinda crazy if you're a Professional Dieter like I am. I keep telling myself I'm going to start tracking my food again soon, soon, but I haven't started since I returned from my trip and I kind of like it. How hard is it, anyway, to figure out breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Three squares day. A long walk/run in the morning. Plenty of water. Stay busy.

So far, so good

Friday Quote Day

“Though no one can go back
and make a brand new start,
anyone can start from now
and make a brand new ending.”

~ Carl Bard

That's what I feel like I need to do: Start from now, at this weight, not looking back at the last 20 months of success and stagnation. I want to trick my body into releasing at least 10 percent by the end of the summer, whether I'm in training for November's half-marathon or not. If I can do that, I only have 10 more percent to go to reach my ultimate goal.

Y'all know what fun – hah – it is to start fresh, right? That old oomph of motivation you get on Monday or the first of the month or when you've just decided enough is enough and This is The Day?

Well, I've been slowly working toward this all week, in a good way. No last-gasp binges or trips to the Dairy Queen. I've been staying busy, eating three small squares and taking long walks. I've been planning and pep-talking and determining what works best for me.

YOAD isn't really the answer I wanted it to be – too many calories for this old, slow metabolism – but I can adapt it because it's just so darned healthy it's silly not to use it as a framework. I like choosing from one or two breakfasts and lunches every day. I like the way I feel when I "eat clean." I'll cut back on the starchy carbs and increase the vegetables. That means vegetable omelettes instead of cereal, smaller pasta portions, snacking on crudités instead of pretzels.

My workout calendar is posted on my wall, along with a sheet of little star stickers. This week has been rather haphazard as far as distance and intensity, but all in all I feel like I've been active in ways other than prescribed intentional activity.

I know that when I'm busy with a project – the DVD I've been working on is a great example – I don't even think about food. So one of my challenges will be to "create" projects. It's great getting paid to do a slideshow, but not every project I undertake will result in a bank deposit. So the "work" I'll be doing has to be its own reward.

Unfortunately, knitting doesn't really fall into that category. As much as I love to knit, I'd rather be watching television when I pick up needles and yarn. But making cards, working on scrapbook pages and playing with my camera are absorbing hobbies that kind of take me out of myself. My daughter loaned me a self-study photography course, along with a couple of books she found most helpful when she was starting out. They're still in my unpacked suitcase, but not for long.

I also have some household projects on my list: closets and dressers and cupboards, oh my!

I wish Blogger would let us post little midi files the way they do photos. That way you could click on a button and hear the music from John Lennon's (Just Like) Starting Over. The words don't really fit, but that's the earworm that's been in my head all week.