• What: upper body weights
  
• Duration: 57 minutes
  
• Ave Heart Rate: 102
  
• Calories: 198

  
  

Didn't do a whole lot today other than house stuff shopping. Groceries, mice, no hubcaps. Why are all the hubcaps so ugly? I just want plain ones! Until I find ones I like, that back tire is simply going to be sans hubcap.

At night while Paul was etching his board, I got to do some upper weights -- the only part that make me crazy was the last set of triceps. I do those last and they always slay me because I'm so tired by that point. Was pretty relaxing though. All I have to think about is counting. Nothing else. For some reason this is soothing.

Progress Prompt:

The size of an airplane seat is always an issue with overweight passengers. Write about your recent airplane ride. Was it a positive or negative experience?

My last air trip was um... Thanksgiving maybe? At least I think it was. We went to see Paul's father in TN. I don't remember a whole lot about it. While overweight, I don't have a problem with airline seats. I fit fine, I buckle up fine. My only complaint is not the seats, but the space between rows because you just can't get a good leg stretch in there. But even that is not a big deal... I book e-tickets and self-check, so I don't have to mess with counter people. I wear sneakers so my feet are comfy, and I wear either a t-shirt with shorts or a t-shirt with fleece pants depending on the season so there is never fussing with zippers, buttons, pockets, etc. I carry a water bottle so I don't get thirsty. Paul and I do the crossword puzzle togehter and that usually takes up a lot of time. Or we play cards or travel scrabble. We get to where we are going, and that's about it. I make him travel super light, so neither one of us ever sees baggage claim. I truly don't mind flying anywhere -- it's always been painless and very straightforward for me.

• What: Treadmill walk
  
• Duration: 60 minutes
  
• Distance: 3 mile
  
• Ave Speed: 3.0 mph
  
• Ave Heart Rate: 138
  
• Steps: 7433
  
• Calories: 423

Easy walk while watching Romancing the Stone. Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas are so young there! The walk was easy but I can't get this darn sportbrain calibrated. It thinks I went 3.7miles! Grrr.... will have to try it again and just the treadmill's output until they match up. .

I called up RRS and they were so nice to me I forgave them the confusion over my sneaker order. Turns out they'd tried to e-mail me about the problem but I never got it. Or maybe it got sent to my old e-mail. Who knows? The point is that my sneaks shipped TODAY and I should have them pronto. Thank goodness, because the ones I am wearing now are so worn it's annoying me.

• What: lap swim, Water Aerobics
  
• Duration: 15 min each
  

Horrid weather. I got to the pool at 5:30 just as Claudia was getting there so I started doing laps to warm up before class with one eye on the sky and one of on the annoying little kid who kept popping into my lane. The whole pool was empty save for me, Claudia and this kid, and he couldn't stay on the other two lanes or in the shallow pools, he just HAD to be in my lane or in Claudia's section. Dingbat.

I was surprised that 10+ people showed for class in that weather -- usually I expect people not to show. We got 15 min into it before the lifeguards made us get out and we hung around for another 20 to see if it would lighten up but it didn't. So we all went home. My tie-dye bathing suit is dead. The chlorine has killed it just like the orange flower one. The orange flower one died in the side and stomach, this one is getting it in the back -- going all thin and no longer stretchy. So I have to move on to the hawaii print one for class. This means I have to go shop for a second back-up suit because I give the hawaii print a few months of weekly wear before that one also dies.

Paul understands this feeling entirely. It happesn when a sentence from a book pop sinto your head nad you have to read that paragraph. RIGHT NOW. So you hunt madly for the book so you can rest at ease. Or it's a line from a movie and you have to watch it. RIGHT NOW. (Bless DVDs... fast forwarding on tape is a drag.) Unfortunately for me it's Chuck Berry and I'm fighting in my head.

Me: Chuck Berry! Now! Now!

Me: Shut up. We have no Chuck Berry.

Me: Chuck Berry! Now! Pleeeeease!

Me: I said we have NO Chuck berry! deal with it!

Me: I caaaaan't.

It's just been "Riding along in my calaboose, Still trying to get her belt a-loose" the whole dang time.

Weigh-In Wednesday:

Portion Distortion

1. True or false: American portion sizes are significantly smaller than portion sizes around the world. What makes you believe that?
No, and I believe that because for the first 17 years of my life I lived in Central America. And while portions could be large, it didn't stop me from going into SHOCK when I saw some person in a US restaurant order a steak that could feed a family of four. Greed figures into portion sizes here.

2. Is a cup of rice (for instance) the visual equivalent of your fist?

Yes.

3. What's one way you can make smaller portions seem like hearty portions?

Use smaller dishes? Take advantage of veggies being low cal and eat more of them? Add some healthy fat to cooking? Lots of ways.

• What: Treadmill walk
  
• Duration: 24 minutes
  
• Distance: 1 mile
  
• Ave Speed: 2.5 mph
  
• Ave Heart Rate: 128
  
• Steps: 2633
  
• Calories: 132
  

I have this evil headache that will not go away. I've had it all afternoon, evening, and night. Ugh. Damn PMS!

Super short, super easy, walk. Just enough to try to calibrate my sportbrain but not jar my head too much. And those eggs? Didn't happen. Told you I wouldn't eat it.

I am eating my yogurt and dread, dread, dreading having to make and eat eggs for lunch. Just not in the mood. But I have to use them up. You know how that goes.

Last night I felt super bad and hid in the couch and whimpered every time Paul came along trying to show me bits of this thing he's making. I wasn't esp. enthusiastic and he started getting worried about me. I had a headache, I had cramps, my boobs were killing me, I was queasy. Basically I just wanted to be left alone and I watched the commentary to Cecil B. Demented until I dozed because Paul had put it on and I didn't have the energy to change it to something else I wanted to fall asleep to. 2:38 AM rolled around and I dragged myself to pee, brush my teeth and get into bed properly and wouldn't you know... my period started. If I had more energy I'd cheer and dance but I don't so the period party will have to wait until the weekend. I'm sure Paul will be thrilled when the boob ban is lifted and he can go back to fondling me at will rather than having me snap at him when he gets too close to me.

• What: Water Aerobics
  
• Duration: 60 min
  

Water aerobics was fun, but painful. I didn't think about my chronic breast tenderness being a problem until we started bouncing around and I realized I should have worn a different bathing suit or a sports bra with it. Ugh! Although I've lost a some of the bloat, my breasts still hurt and have been that way for almost 2 weeks. Holly told me when I missed last class because I hurt way too much to come it was just as well because one of the little kids had a... Caddyshack moment ... and all classes were canceled so they could disinfect the whole pool. Yikes.

I came home to a message from Dr. Hall on the machine telling me not to start the Provera because looking more closely at my temp. chart I'd taken to my morning appt. there was a pregnancy possibility. Unlikely, but still better to get checked before starting the Provera. Hrm... I really wasn't thinking this cycle was looking that good but what the hell. I'll call him back tomorrow to see if an HPT is good enough or if he wants a blood pregnancy test.

This morning he told me my last thyroid values were perfect but my testosterone is still too high and I'm to focus on weight loss so we see more of a change in my 3 mos. followup appointment. And I have to get more lab work before then. And he said my Colette Harris PCOS Diet book looked interesting and it seemed sane so go ahead with it.

So some things to mull over.

Progress Prompt:

Childhood obesity is on the rise. Why?

I think childhood obesity is on the rise because of these things:

• school requirements for PE or recess have changed
  
• kids don't get themselves to school as much as in the past -- they are driven or take the bus as well as walking or biking
  
• we are now a TV/Internet culture where radio/TV were luxuries in the past
  
• kids play baseball more in videogames than in the field
  
• kid's parents are also more inactive, so they pass the habit on
  
• school lunches are really usually corporate "leftovers" and not necessarily balanced nutrition
  
• vending machines in schools
  
• family food habits aren't great and kids learn their eating habits at home
  
• kids have more spending money and if it's up to them to get something to eat, it's going ot be junky.
  

Really, the list of possible reasons can go on and on.

• What: Treadmill Walk
  
• Duration: 40 min (5 warmup + 30 walk + 5 cooldown)
  
• Ave Speed: 3.2 mph
  
• Distance: 2 miles
  

After my chat with Adrith, Paul and I watched the commentary to Hairspray while I took my walk and he finished making his new power supply thingie. I had asked him if he wanted me to renew our Sportbrain's since they've gone to membership fees and he said, "Yep." Now I kick myself for not asking him earlier this weekend because after putting in today's walk I realized I'm going to have to futz around with calibrating it again since it's been reset. I know I walked 2 miles, it thinks I walked 2.5. I know I didn't go faster than 3.2 mph but it thinks I went 3.7 mph. That's too big an error margin and it took me forver to get it calibrated the last time. Pooh.

But the walk was easy going and my sneaker didn't bother me for a change although I could feel it was totally worn down in the toe box. I'm NEVER doing a catalog paper order from Road Runner Sports again. Online orders get processed so much faster. How long have I been waiting for my sneakers to arrive?!

Time for Lust in the Dust. Yay!

I hurrrt! Have no desire to exercise. Have no desire to eat. Have no desire to MOVE at all, but I have to make myself go out and get snake food. Nnnnrgh. My nipples are so sore and sensitive that it hurts to not lay still because they will rub on my clothing and scream in pain. I know it's a symptom of being pregnant -- super sore nipples -- but I'm not holding my breath for that. I just want it to go away.

It's so bloody hot! Argh!

I got my glasses fixed and got groceries but in between the two I stopped at a neighborhood community center to see what they had water aerobics wise and they told me they only have adult swim at night (ie: laps). But it was a a very nice facility and they had kid programs and a decent gym apart from the pool. Good to know for when we have kids -- I can enroll them in the kid programs while I work the gym. They have racquetball -- I'm going to have to make Paul go play in them because he used to like that. The daily fee is cheap and the annual pass (which lets you into any of the city's centers) is ridiculously cheap at about $100. Made me think of that annoying Bally's guy calling. Dork.

• What: Water Aerobics
  
• Duration: 60 min
  

Had water aerobics yesterday. Claudia went interval crazy and I was getting both dizzy and tired from doing things in a circle really fast. I've been thinking about either a) going to the morning classes too or b) finding what other pool had WA on MWF at night. I just like exercise more at night for some reason.

Had some guy from Bally's call me up to try to get me to claim a 2 week pass by tomorrow. So I asked him why I couldn't just print a 2 week pass from the website any time I felt like it. So he told me about membership promos right now. And I asked him how getting tied to a new 3 yr contract was supposed to be better than renewing my old membership for $100 for a year. He agreed that if I was going to renew it would be cheaper. I think he realized I was going to be a hard sell by the time I said goodbye.

There's a reason I got a pool pass and a reason I went with a basic home gym. Hellooooooo!

No formal exercise today. Today was gardening. This morning when I got up I went to look at the bachelor button seeds to see if they were sprouting. They were coming up so I cleared away weeds and leaves out of the flower bed and then decided to uproot 2 or 3 lariopes to spread them out around the rim better. They looked crowded. Paul came out when I was wrapping up and I told him that 2 more lariopes would round things out nicely. We went to lunch and then to Wal-mart and Lowe's for garden shopping.

We got round-up, weed & feed, the lariopes, some more bachelor button seeds, a hose caddy, 3 pavers, a flat tip shovel, and some vinyl coated 16 gauge hardware cloth and two stakes. When we got back Paul wound up the hose while I weeded behind the AC generator and then he helped me set the pavers back there in the gap so no more weeds can grow there. It's too hard to get the weed eater in there so I'm glad we won't have to deal with that any more. Paul put down weed and feed in the front yard while I squirted the cracks in the sidewalk with the round up and Mrs. H. next door offered some of her bags of rocks so we took 3 bags and filled the planters on the front stoop. I put the plants and seeds in the bed, and then we made round "tubes" from the wire mesh and closed the ends with more wire. Then we spent the rest of the time until dark raking and filling up the new compost bins. We wrapped up just in time because the rain started coming down.

The compost bin thing really makes me laugh. I found this picture of my mesh tube bin which they will sell to me for $42. Ridiculous. I spent $20 on coated wire mesh and coated training wire at Lowe's and made two bins. I have so much wire mesh leftover I can make 4 more bins if I feel like it. Why would anyone pay more? I thought I was going expensive because I felt like getting coated mesh instead of just galvanized. Someday I'll think about a different design but for now, this is fine.

So all I do this week in the yard revolves around mowing, weeding and raking. I can clear the rectangle bed out and get my dwarf ixora but once the compost is ready we can plot out a whole new bed and get a slew of bricks to outline it. Then we can relocate the shrub into it and decide what will go around it. Fun! :)

• What: Water aerobics


• Time: 60 min.

Felt better in today's class. My energy is coming back. Yay!

I have this annoying little boil kind of thing in my armpit and now that I'm reading I see a lot of PCOS people get them. Joy. Yet another weirdly skin thing to watch out for apart from the neck rash, the groin rash, the jaw acne, the skin tags, the dry hair and elbows, the dark patches, the velvet texture to my ankle... I have my annual physical with the GP monday and then the next week the RE. I was telling Paul that I'm starting to feel so wacko that Nancy's suggestion about going back on the pill just to give myself some time out to get more stable feeling is starting to sound more and more attractive. I'm at the mercy of hormones. Yargh! :P

• What: Water aerobics


• Time: 60 min.

Lara left this evening. She came to water aerobics with me on Tues. and said she enjoyed it so much she's going to see if there's a class out in CA she join. We have a bigger group in class so maybe once we hit 20 people they will add on an extra class so we aren't so crowded. I got through it but I felt REALLY tired -- that "I've been sick and tire easily" thing.

After much surfing, talking and consulting with the spouses and popping in the AAA office, we decided we have to take our vacation in Spring 2004 to accomodate Dean's doctorate work so it ruled out a lot of the colder places like Alaska, the deserts, Maine. We ended up choosing Hawaii as the first choice so we can see the volcano park and if that falls through Yellowstone. Hawaii was warmer and contains all the stuff we wanted -- canyons, falls, volcano, caves, etc.

I was right in my rough budget of about $3000 so later in fall I can work on trying to lower it by finding specials.

Progress Prompt:

You have a lot to be grateful for as you lose weight, become active and feel good about yourself. Write a gratitude journal entry.

This is going to be hard. Not because I'm not grateful because getting me to stop will be interesting... every day I'm grateful for a lot of big and little things. I'm grateful our parents are alive... I'm grateful my toothpaste does not make me gag. I'm grateful my 8 year old car is still holding up and I'm grateful I've never been a victim of any kind of major crime. Maybe I'll just do the top three?

1) Paul. Of course he's going to be my number one. He's my number one for everything. At the risk of sounding unhealthily obsessed with the man, he's everything I ever wanted in a life companion. He's the center of my universe and what centers me. He's the apple of my eye -- and whatever other corny expression you can think of. Those are all him. I feel privileged to know him and I feel ridiculously thrilled at the thought of being his wife. Ten years later and he still excites me and he still makes me laugh. We spent one hour on Sunday after waking up just laying in bed talking silly at each other. Making up rhymes and making up crazy stories and tickling not much else.

2) A nice home and a comfortable life. I live in Suburbia Generica and I lead a very calm, middle-class, existence. I can't tell you how much this makes me happy. The same things happen in my life that happen to everyone else -- mowing lawns, paying bills, worrying about the air conditioner, spaghetti once a week. We have iguanas rather than the family dog, but hey, so what? The point is that it is HOME.

3)We're not ill and we're reasonably healthy. Ok, so we both have a cold right now, and I have issues with my thyroid and PCOS stuff going on. But none of these things is lessening the quality of my life. We can do whatever we feel like doing when we feel like doing it.

There. I stuck to three. Yay.

Still semi-sick. My eye is pink and watery and I feel achy all over. Paul is coughing and breathiong shallow from the congestion.

Ziggy's tail is healing up ok and his finger... well we hope he won't have to have it amputated. Clyde was fussy at the vet but her claw should regrow ok. We have rechecks for both of them next Sat. And then I noticed Galahad has something up with HIS hand. Why, why, why do they all have something worng with their hands?!

Lara is coming to visit tomorrow and while I look forward to her company, I'm dragging as far as getting the guestroom tidy enough for someone to sleep in there. I hate being sick.

Went to water aerobics after all.... it was ok.

Rescheduled vet and Paul's not going to be happy. Instead of 11 AM for just Ziggy, we now have to be there at 8 AM for him and Clyde. All because spaz Clyde went totally nuts yesterday and decided to pull one of her claws off and bled all over the place! She ran around yesterday in our room like a total freak and Paul put her outside in the cage to help restrain/contain her and it didn't stop her antics. Last night we had to soak her hand in Nolvosan and clean her up. She shredded Paul some more. Paul gave her a nest box to see if having a hiding place would help her out. I'm upset about the claw but Galahad pulled one off in infancy and I think so had Janis. Both grew back.

Lucy doesn't get this way when she's gravid. Moody, yes. Claws at the patio door, yes. Tries to bite Galahad if he tries to mate with her, yes. Poops all over? No. Shreds us to bits? No. Injures herself? No. She's mostly tired and cranky but still sweet. Shoot, she's confident enough to lay eggs in my hand.

Lucy's laid a few times but Clyde never has. So if Clyde is being this way because she's gravid and plans to lay, I need to plan to get her spayed ASAP. It's too stressful for her and too stressful for me. The last thing I need is for her to be gravid and then bust some eggs inside herself with her running around like that and then need emergency surgery. Ay!

Can't reach Holly. May end up going to Wa after all. Paul's home early with more Sudafed. Clyde keeps pooping in our bed. What IS her damage?! Is she mad? Gravid? What? Why is the litter box not a good thing any more? Why is my bed better? I'm tired of doing laundry. Nrrgh.

Paul sick. Now I am sick. Ugh. Trying to call Holly at work so she won't come get me for water aerobics.

Still no workout... but the lawn is mowed, the fences and beds edged, and I've put down 6 packets of bachelor's button. Next comes building my compost bins and massive raking which I should have done in fall but somehow missed entirely. After that, some planning and a trip to the nursery for the plants I don't want to start from seed. Possibly some railroad ties to make some fast rectangle beds because I don't have the funds to buy a mess of stone to make beds from. Sure it'd be nice, but I can't afford it. The two beds we did in stone were aloready several hundred -- can you imagine the whole border of that huge yard?! Not unless I win lotto. And since I never buy tickets that tells you how soon that will happen.

I got David Holt's Best Half Marathons book today from Amazon. First skim and my impression is that the info is sound enough but the layout of the book is amateurish. Not enough margin space, the font is too chunky, and the endless blocks of text with no side bars or quotes for visual relief makes me tired even before I get into it. I hope another edition comes out down the road that's better designed.

Ugh. Slept rough. Damn foot. So I'm looking at upper body weights today rather than a walk. Probably after lunch.

Reading a mess of runnning articles I hadn't read before. Kind of neat.

Lost 0.5 lbs last week. Go me! But my food log predicted a loss of 1.25 lbs. So that means one of two things -- a) my food logging is off and I need to get strict with measuring things or b) my thyroid meds need checking. But I'll take any loss. Yay!

• What: water aerobics


• Time: 60 minutes

Class was ok, but m left ankle is NOT happy with me. I spent most of the time doing all the moves on the right side and avoiding having to do then on the left side because of my foot. During that noodle stretching bit it was horrid. I foresee having to stay off it this week. So I may have to change gears and go with weight training rather than walking....

As if I needed more evidence that my shoes are shot -- woke up with aching toes. I put in an order at roadrunnersports.com this morning and I hope they come sometime this weekend. Or early next week. I called both New Balance stores here and both have gone on to 879 and I wanted the 878. I hate it when shoe models change. Why do they bother changing it?

Paul is home sick and I don't feel great myself.

"Progress Prompt:

Do you eat out? How often? Are you able to select healthy choices or are you easily overwhelmed or intimidated by the food menu? What are your strategies for staying OP if you're having a meal outside your usual parameters (at home, at work)?

We've been eating out a lot lately. Probably like 5 x a week or more. Isn't that terible?! I've had zero interest in food lately. And when I'm not interested, I don't want to eat, nor do I want to cook, so I end up eating stuff not because it's tasty or nutritious or I like it but because I have to eat something. A lot of it is just junk, but I try to lean toward things that are slightly better (ex: chinese food that's not fried) or at least choose kid's portions. When I'm more OP, I eat out on weekends only and I try to plan ahead what it will be so I can fit breakfast and lunch around it so my calories don't go too far off kilter.

[...]

I got a letter in the mail from Dr. H. saying that I need to reschedule my appt. with him because he can't make it -- which stinks because now I have an even longer wait to go see him. I see my GP on the 17th still so that's good. I really need to know why I've been feelings strange lately. I did order a mess of HPT's from saveontests.com so I can take that some time this week as well. I measured and my stomach is noticeably bigger. And I'm stressed, so my neck rash is itching like crazy!

I took the weekend off and did nothing. Oh, we went out on saturday but it wasn't for errands... it was for browsing garden plants so that was kind of relaxing. We also watched a movie and played computer games. Today Holly invited me to dinner so we had sushi and we also poked around at Ross and tried on a mess of things for kicks. Lots of fun. I feel mentally rested but physically I just itch all over. Nrgh.