Strawberry Picking, Saratoga Walking, & Weight Gaining
by Christine on June 27th, 2011
filed under Christine's Life Updates
Good morning Revolutionists! It’s been a busy weekend here with me, as usual. Here’s a little sampling of the goings-on this morning:
Strawberry Picking
Yesterday a friend and I meant to go hiking in the Berkshires, but it was a little rainy on the way there, so we stopped at a farm and went strawberry picking instead! Unfortuntely the weather totally cleared up and we SHOULD have gone hiking, but ah well, you can’t predict these things!
The rest of the weekend was just as fun. Friday I wandered off on my own. I went to Paneras for a salad for dinner, then went to the mall and bought a cute skirt on sale. On Saturday we went to the gym (I had a great arm-weight workout!) and in the evening we went to a friend’s house for a housewarming party. I had a hot dog (no bun) while I was there and a beer or two. Yesterday was strawberry picking + dinner at home (salad with grilled chicken).
Saratoga Walking Tour
This is a little belated, but last weekend we went on a walking tour of Saratoga Springs, as a free event with the Saratoga History Museum. What a great event, and what a great day! The guides were funny and informative. The group were very friendly. And we even got into the usually-locked Gideon Putnam burial ground, which was cool for me since I’m kind of a local-history-phile. Since then I’ve reached out the history museum to see if there is any way I can help to volunteer with the organization, and I’ve got a meeting with them on Thursday.
Weight Gaining!
Oh dear. After 6 months of maintaining my weight loss, the pounds and EXPLODING back on! Not creeping…exploding! We’re talking 10 pounds in the matter of two weeks people. What’s the culprit? The big one is the fact that I’m on a new birth control system, and boy it’s like my hormones were zapped with electro-shock therapy!! I’m distressed utterly about the very sudden weight gain. When I have my surgery next week I am going to ask for a big fill to see if I can counteract the weight by using the band, but I’m not sure. If the weight gain is due to hormones, then no amount of portion-controlling myself is going to counteract the effects. Oh dear. I’m a little flustered and at a loss for what to do about this. I’m watching what I’m eating, I’m hitting the gym (like I did on Saturday), and I’m trying to make smart choices…not that that seems to matter at the moment.
But in better news….
My new optometrist told me this morning that my eyes look amazing one year after my laser eye surgery! Woohoo! Although it was somewhat of a traumatic surgery, the outcome has been fantastic! (read about that here if you are considering laser eye surgery.)
Then my surgeon’s office called to say that my port re-attachment surgery next week was approved by insurance! Hooray! So we’re all good to go! I told my doc’s new assistant that I want to have a fill on the day of the surgery, so I only have one week to go until then. I hope my weight gain can take a break until then!
Just for my own records (I like to periodically keep myself in check) here is my food journal from the weekend. I was consistently losing weight when my calories were approx. 800 per day; I think 1000 calories was a good “maintenance” level. Keeping that in mind…
Friday:
8 a.m.: Coffee (168)
Cheerios (80)
Skim milk (23)
10 a.m.: 1/4 of a tuna sandwich (150)
12:30 Select Harvest Soup (160)
7 p.m: Paneras You Pick Two with tomato soup and classic cafe salad (387), diet coke
Total Calories: 968
Saturday:
9 a.m. Coffee (90)
10:30 a.m. Cheerios (80) and skim milk (23)
11:30 a.m.: Select Harvest Soup (150)
4 pm: Coffee (168) and a donut (168)
7 pm: 2 hot dogs, plain, no bun (140?), 1 beer (100)
Total Calories: 1011
Sunday:
9 a.m.: Cheerios (80) and skim milk (23)
11 am: small bag of Doritos (150)
1:30 pm: 6 inch subway sandwich, only 1 bun, ham and turkey, veggies, vinegar, cheese (250)
3 pm: Wine tasting (100), strawberries (15)
5 pm: 1 Beer (150)
7 pm: Grilled chicken homemade (100), side salad homemade (30), water
9 pm: Skim milk (120)
Total calories: 1018
As you can see, my choices have been less than stellar and could use vast improvement. Furthermore, my calories need to be cut down by 10-20% as well (which would inevitably happen if I wasn’t drinking so many calories.) That being said, I’m not eating so much that 10 pounds should have magically appeared overnight….sigh…
Athlete motivation and inspiration!
by Christine on June 24th, 2011
filed under Christine's Life Updates, Exercise
This week my husband told me about this woman, Babe Zaharias, who is considered one of the greatest athletes of all time. Not just the greatest “woman athlete” (why does that always seem like less of an accomplishment than “male athlete?“) but the greatest athlete of all time….including men AND women.
And I was shocked that I had never even heard of this woman! So who is she and why was she so freaking amazing?
- Babe Zaharias (1911-1956) was an immigrant from Norway.
- Her nickname “Babe” references Babe Ruth (not from her looks). She was better than most men at baseball and could hit a ball further than most. She had a batting average of over .400.
- She is widely known for her Olympic records in track and field. This is amazing: in the 1932 AAU championship Zaharias competed in a track-and-field event as a one-woman team and single-handedly won the team championship with 30 points (the 2nd place team, which had 22 athletes, had only 22 points). That is AMAZING, people! She competed on the 1930s track and field team and won two gold and one silver medals. Women at that time were only allowed to enter three Olympic events at the time, but she broke four world records.
- Babe is best known for her abilities as a golfer, a sport she didn’t even take up until her 20s. She won 17 straight amateur victories in 1947 (even Tiger Woods can’t claim that). She turned pro in 1948 and won 33 tournaments, including 10 majors and 3 US Opens.
- She was an amazing basketball player and even won the National Women’s Amateur Athletic Union All-American forward for three years. She often scored 30 or more points per game.
- In addition to all of the above, she was an expert diver, roller-skater, bowler, tennis player, boxer, volleyball player, swimming, and billiards player.
- She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1953, and even after undergoing cancer surgery she made a comeback in 1954 and won the US Woman’s Open (golf) championship, just one month after surgery.
- She was an award-winning seamstress and made a lot of the clothes she competed in.
- She was a singer and harmonica player and had several records in circulation.
While she was celebrated as an amazing athlete during her day, there were many that refused to recognize her impact on the sports world.
“It would be much better if she and her ilk stayed at home, got themselves prettied up and waited for the phone to ring,” said sportswriter Joe Williams.
I really think Babe Zaharias should be a household name, not just a name that is recognized among real sports afficionados. That’s some pretty amazing stuff. Just remember what this woman could do the next time you complain about doing a couple of situps or jogging at the gym!
How balanced should you be?
by Christine on June 14th, 2011
filed under Christine's Life Updates
So here’s what I’m thinking this morning, and maybe it’s my overly-obsessive, calorie-counting mind that is over-thinking things a little bit.
In an ideal world, we wouldn’t eat crap food or overindulge. I understand that optimal, healthy food choices and reasonable portion sizes are the ideal thing to strive for. But let’s face it, even the strongest-willed person can cave every now and then; 100% saintly eating just isn’t reasonable.
Well, on Sunday night we had friends come over to the house. I am always really excited to have guests because it means I can cook foods that I normally don’t (because hubby doesn’t eat it). I made bratwurst (what a treat!), hamburgers, fresh salad, homemade salad dressing, and pasta salad. Our friends brought over chocolate cake and rice krispy treats. I had 1 bratwurst–no bun of course–and some fresh salad. Until evening. Then I dove into that chocolate cake, pretty much head-first, like a baby attacking his first birthday cake. It’s weird because I normally don’t even like chocolate cake. But it was there, and I was PMSing, and I did some damage.
Let me tell you, it didn’t feel good. I felt sick to my stomach from the sugar. The taste wasn’t even all that great. And afterwards I started playing head games with myself:
How do I fix this mishap?
There’s three ways to go about this. First, there’s the balanced reaction. In order to balance a huge caloric mishap, shouldn’t you need to go to extreme measures in cutting your calories the next day or two in order to make up for the indulgence? I mean, really restrict your calories until you’ve reset yourself to “ground zero?” If your cake indulgence was, say 1400 calories, then cut 467 calories out of your diet for the next three days. For me, since my Calorie Setpoint is somewhere around 800 calories, that would leave me 333 calories per day, for three days, to consume. That’s way extreme. But it IS balanced.
The next reaction is similar to the first: Burn those extra calories at the gym. In the end, the goal is the same as the first reaction: you’re balancing your calories. Except with this method you’re choosing to burn it with exercise instead of through food and diet. If I exert myself with high-intensity interval training (read about that here), I can burn 700 calories per gym outing for two days to burn those extra cake-calories off.
But then there’s the third reaction: just go back to your normal eating. Eat nice balanced meals, at your Optimal Calorie Threshold, and basically just pretend that the OOPS never happened.
Which method do you take to counter-act your Oops? What is the correct answer?
I can tell you that, as an Eating Disordered person, I gravitate to the first method. I know I can control my food intake, and I can starve for as long as I need to in order to reset my calorie bank to equilibrium (read that story here). It is drastic, and on the positive side it can balance you out in a day or two. On the other hand, this method theoretically screws up your metabolism.
I then gravitate to the second option. Exercise. Punnish yourself. Beat yourself up. Sweat until you hurt and want to scream and teach yourself that having a weak will and eating that cake just isn’t worth the pain and suffering at the gym. Yeah, it’s sadistic but haven’t we all done this, many times, in the past? The benefit is that exercise is great for you, it boosts your metabolism. The downfall is that it can take longer to reset your calorie bank to zero (especially if you’re only burning 200-300 calories at a single gym outing) and you can really beat yourself up mentally with this method. At least, I know I can. I’m actually more likely to indulge in that cake when I’m done with the gym because, after 2 hours of telling myself how weak-willed, stupid, ugly, fat, and horrible I am, I need to console my bleeding heart with more chocolate cake. It’s a viscious cycle, at least for me.
But then there’s the last method: Move forwards as normal and pretend the slip-up never happened. The benefit is that your mental health doesn’t take a beating, there’s no need for punishment. The downside is that it may take a very long time for those chocolate cake calories to be reset, and you may not have the chance to learn from past mistakes.
All my life, I’ve been a drastic-action-taker. I have starved and exercised myself into exhaustion after dumb eating choices, and it just made me fatter and fatter and fatter. One of the things that changed with the lap band surgery is that I stopped punnishing myself for indulging every now and then and I took the last method: I just move forwards, doing whatever I was doing normally, and pretended that the mishaps never happened.
And I lost weight.
It’s still hard for me, this big mental change of pace. After eating that cake on Sunday, I still wanted to starve myself silly the next day. Instead, I am carefully choosing a normal, healthy choice of meals in order to move forwards. Yesterday, in my “punishment day” I ate a perfectly normal amount of calories for me, and chose healthy options all day. Today will be the same. But I’m on watch for myself, to make sure I don’t start slipping into extreme reactions.
My brain doesn’t believe that this will work, but the last 2 years (losing 100+ pounds, reaching my goal weight) tells me that it will. Hmmm.
Canoeing and having fun with friends
by Christine on May 16th, 2011
filed under Christine's Life Updates, Exercise
Calories burned canoeing (moderate) = 413 per hour (130 pound woman)
Calories burned canoeing (vigorous) = 708 per hour (130 pound woman)
Well, I can’t say that I really canoed all that moderately. While we have gone whitewater canoeing before, we did not this time. Mostly I sat back in my chair and sipped on a diet coke and laughed at friends acting goofy. We were out for about three hours. But it was rather chilly out, so perhaps I made up for the lack of exercise by shivering? I also helped haul the canoes on and off the cars and in and out of the water.
Read about last autumn’s canoeing trip with my cat here!
Thursday after work I went to the driving range to work on my golf swing. Man, it was a good thing I did because I was seriously out of practice! I hit two big buckets of balls and spent about an hour and a half swinging. I’ve been incredibly sore since then, mostly in my quads (100 squats!) and my back (swinging). On Friday I played golf for work and mostly sucked, but had a great time anyway!
Calories burned at the driving range = 177 per hour (130 pound woman)
Calories burned golfing with golf cart = 207 per hour (130 pound woman)
It doesn’t sound like a lot of exercise, but it adds up! My point is this: You don’t have to be miserable sweating behind a treadmill to get some exercise! You should find some excuse to get outside and PLAY! Have fun! Giggle a lot. It’s funny how exercise creeps up on you while you’re doing that!
I’m excited for my upcoming trip to Las Vegas! This is my reward for reaching my goal weight, and I’m proud to say that since reaching my goal in December, I have managed to keep my weight off for five months! That’s something to celebrate!
I also bought a new pair of downhill skis at a garage sale this weekend! $25 for a really nice, only gently-used pair of skis. I can’t wait to take the out for a whirl this winter!
I should get my rollerblades back from the cycling store this week, too. I desperately needed new wheels put on them. I haven’t replaced the wheels since purchasing the blades 10 years ago in Paris. I can’t wait to rollerblade at lunchtime when the weather gets nicer!
A little confession + Half marathon training day
by Christine on November 30th, 2010
filed under Christine's Life Updates, Diet, Food, Nutrition, Exercise
Okay I have a tiny little confession to make.
This morning I found the scale (that hubby hid on me) and weighed myself. I was at 127.2, which was disappointing because I thought perhaps I was at my goal weight already (125). DANG!
But this is not the end of the world. I have two pounds to lose in two weeks. I KNOW I can do this.
So what has prevented me from being at my goal weight already? I think it can all be boiled down to one major thing: Sugar. I’ve been on a chocolate kick lately, and I have been eating a little chocolate every night before going to bed. Don’t get me wrong, I only eat a TINY little bit, so I’m not doing any major damage to my lifestyle. That being said, I think the extra calories aren’t doing me any favors. Plus, there is no reason why I have a “treat” every day. Every 2-3 days would be perfectly sufficient.
December 12th is my OFFICIAL weigh-in, when I am hoping to be at my final goal weight. That gives me about two weeks to really buckle down and pay attention. My plan is this:
(1) Count calories every day. I do this already–I’ve been doing it for so long I’m not sure that I could actually stop doing it at this point. But I know that I haven’t been entirely honest with my calorie-counting either, such as the little chocolate nibbles at night (approx. 50 calories worth) and a little sugar in my coffee (30 calories or thereabouts). Those little cheats throughout the day really add up. So for the next two weeks I’m going to count it all and be very strict with myself.
(2) Stop all the excess sugar already. No more chocolate at night. No more sugar in my coffee. No more nibbles here-and-there. I’m stopping it all for the next two weeks. Oh, I’m going to go through some major sugar withdrawl. Hell, I know I’m a sugar junkie; I’m not going to lie to you or to myself. But I’m going to do my best to stop it. Instead, if I get a chocolate or sugar craving, I’m going to eat some protein: almonds and tuna fish, primarily. I will also feel free to consume fatty foods (cheese, cream, butter, etc) but in moderation of course; I have a calorie limit to maintain, after all, and high-fat foods will make me reach my maximum calorie limit early. No, I mean to limit those high-fat foods, but I’m still going to eat them. They are, after all, very good for you in limited quantities.
That’s it. Two steps. I know that if I can stop with the sugar, then I will be able to meet my goal weight easily. Today I have already begun, and it’s been a good day!
This morning I went to the gym for my Last Chance Workout before THIS SUNDAY’S HALF MARATHON DAY! I am very excited about this! I already have a list put together of items I don’t want to forget to bring with me (extra water bottle, extra pair of socks, pen and pencil, etc.). Today’s gym day was heavy on weights, and I really wrecked myself on a few machines! It felt great, and I expect that I will be very sore tomorrow. I finished up with 2 miles on the treadmill, a very light cardio day considering I’m going to be going 13.1 miles on Sunday! I am going to be supported by:
- Karen from Not Just Celery, who is running the Vegas Rock n Roll Half Marathon!
- Shane from Losing it for the Family, who is going to do a 5k (or is it a 10k?) that day.
- Patrick from Responsibility 199, who is considering doing the full 13.1 miles that day!
- Libby from This One Time at Band Camp, who is going to do a 10k on her treadmill that day!
Thank you, all four, who are helping to motivate, inspire, and encourage me! I am going to tape a notecard with your names on my treadmill so when my brain wants to quit on me on Sunday, I will look at that card and remember you four who are going to be working out the same day as me! WE CAN DO THIS! If anyone else is interested in participating by jogging a 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, or Full Marathon, let me know!! The goal is to push yourself to the next level, so do whatever works best for you.
I have two people who are going to be at the gym with me to help support me in-person, too: my hubby and my friend Peter. They have offered to come by for an hour or so and jog along with me, so I won’t be alone for the duration of my half-marathon. That’s so nice of them!! I need all the support I can get.
Allan, from Almost Gastric Bypass, is also helping me out. I’ve been searching everywhere for the gatorade gel stuff that helps fuel you during your workout. I’m concerned that I might get dizzy during the half-marathon (because I eat so little), so I’ve been trying to find those gels to keep my body fueled up. I can’t find them anywhere, but Allan is a sweetheart and agreed to send me a few. THANK YOU!!!
I also hope that getting this half-marathon behind me will help push my body over the edge so that I am at my goal weight on the 12th! Now, remember that exercise will not magically burn those “bad calories” you are munching on, but every little bit of exercise helps you be fit and healthy!
Okay I’m going to wrap up this up with a few pictures our Christmas Tree Decorating this past weekend!
