Weekly update, 11/11/09

First off, Veterans Day greetings. If you have served in the military, are serving, or are the supportive family member of a man or woman in service: you have my heartfelt thanks.

What's New?
Firstly, thanks to everyone for all of the nice comments on the 5K! I appreciated it very much.

Well, it's been an interesting week. Due to lots of other things bumping up in the queue (Mr. Handsome-and-Handy's nasty bout of flu, various medical screening appointments-finally got around to my annual mammogram, and all's well with "the girls"), my exercise has been really inconsistent. The 3 days I exercised, it was all-out...and the 4 days I didn't, it was nothing. (Not even walking.) It's not really the best mode for me. There have been a lot of hard lessons this week.

#1: I need to run a bit more regularly if I want to improve.

#2: I can't do spin class any less than 100%. I'm not sure why, but I just get too worked up over keeping up with the instructor. Part of it this time might have been going to a different class and having a much more intense instructor. She had this interesting juxtaposition of a wizened face, muscular physique (I want her arms when I grow up!), and bouncy pigtails. She kicked our posteriors in a drill-seargently way, but after class kindly gave me some tips for better adjusting the spin machine. I liked her. Anyhoo, no more kidding myself with, "Well, I'll just only spin at 80% today, I don't feel up to 100%." I think I overdid it. Monday spin classes only after active rest weekends, not race weekends!

#3: I'm learning that listening to my body about exercise is not always easy or what I feel like doing, and not just in the "I'd rather lay on the couch and eat bon-bons" way. Today's run was just sad and weird. I was really looking forward to running outside for a change, since the kids had the day off and I while I still had to go to work, I didn't have the tight schedule. I had missed doing anything yesterday, so I felt like I really needed to do something. It started off well enough, and I stretched when I got to the end of the street, and as I ran I just felt more and more stressed and tired and tight. As I reached the end of my first lap around the neighborhood, I told myself, "You can stop after this lap if you want to. You know, it's probably better to leave yourself wanting more" Usually that galvanizes me to push through and finish, but I just couldn't do it today. I felt so incredibly frustrated by this, and I got a little teary with Mr. Handsome-and-Handy over it. Not sure if you all do this, but sometimes I get really worked up over minor setbacks, along the lines of, "How am I going to go longer? I didn't push through today! I'm never going to be able to progress in triathlons if I can't run twice around the neighborhood! All the other kids are running long distances! Whaaaaaaaa!" The rest of this half of the week is going to be somewhat odd exercise-wise, too, and I just need to try to relax and roll with it. And maybe get in some more stretching or yoga DVDs in there. (Oh, and is this a seasonal thing, with days getting shorter? What gives?)

(Wow, listening to Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone podcast #4 as I write this, and heavens! "Not comparing", "trusting yourself," etc. Timely!)

In the Kitchen with Pubsgal
I don't really spend a lot of time in the kitchen (Mr. Handsome-and-Handy is our Iron Chef), but every now and then I get inspired. This weekend, the secret ingredients were "pumpkin" and "a whole mess of vegetables." (I know, I know...I need to take a lesson from my bloggies and take MORE PICTURES!)

Pumpkin Experiments: Thing 2 and I had fun with a can of pumpkin. I tried two things: a variation on Debby's pumpkin custard and pumpkin cheesecake pudding. Loved the custard! We used a sweetener (erythritol) I'd gotten to experiment with some unsweetened chocolate; it didn't work well with that, but it worked nicely in the custard. The pumpkin cheesecake pudding experiment involved mixing a batch of fat-free, sugar-free cheesecake pudding and adding half a can of spiced pumpkin. It didn't really have a strong pumpkin taste, and actually seemed a bit bitter. Maybe this would work better with vanilla pudding.

Grilled Crockpot Ratatouille: I just can't seem to get enough of this stuff, but I make it a little differently every week. This week, I sliced and grilled 2 eggplant, 4 zuccini, and 1 head of garlic. I roughly chopped these, and added 2 tomatoes, 1 red bell pepper, 1 onion, a little bit of unroasted garlic, and 1 rutabaga. All of this went into a crockpot with 1 tsp each of basil, rosemary, marjoram, sage, and thyme...I might just go back to "a few shakes each", since this batch seemed more bitter than previous batches, but not sure if that was the rutabaga instead; this did mellow over the days, so it was still edible. I added 1/4 cup of olive oil, and cooked until everything got soft and blended...about 4 hours, I think? I think I liked the batch I made with brussel sprouts (instead of rutabaga) best, although the small batch I made the prior week was nice, too (in which I used less oil than the first batch, and everything got roasted.)

Progress last week

7-day blood glucose average: 93 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting blood glucose average: 96 (met goal of less than 120)

Weight goals: -.2, so it's heading in the right direction, ever-so-slowly.

Food goals:
- Brought lunch from home on 3/5 work days, but went nice & healthy on the Whole Foods days.
- Ate lots of veggies. Made my crockpot grilled veggie ratatouille again, with less oil; still delicious!
- Got in at least 4 meatless meals and 2 fish meals. (met, finally, although tuna salad might not be the best choice for fish meals...)
- Fiber: at least 4/7 days were over 30.

Exercise goals:
- Wednesday: 60 minutes BodyPump
- Thursday: Nothing (long mammogram appointment + sick husband = no workout)
- Friday: Nada
- Saturday: Zip, zero, zilch
- Sunday: Theta Breakers 5K; ran in 33:06. I felt extremely sore afterward; I've never had my hamstrings feel quite like they did after this race. I don't think I warmed up enough.
- Monday: 60 minute spin class, 16.5 miles (what was I thinking???)
- Tuesday: Nothing (on standby for possibly having to pick up kids, so skipped walk at lunch)

Sleep: Met goal of 7 hours/night. Wish they were a little more uninterrupted; Thing 2 has resumed her nocturnal attempts to get me to give up my side of the bed, so lots of walking her back to her own bed. Ugh.

Goals for this week

7-day blood glucose average goal and fasting numbers: below 120.
Weight goal: Maintain or make progress toward goal.

Food goals:
- Keep going with the veggies!
- Rein in the nuts and dark chocolate; pass by some of the "just a taste of this" and "I'll have a dab of that."
- Bring lunch from home 4/5 work days.
- 4 or more meatless, low-fat meals and 2 or more fish meals.
- Track fiber. Minimum 30 grams fiber/day. (Include both insoluble and soluble sources.)

Exercise goals:
Not sure I'll hit it this week, but I'm going for my 30 minutes of activity 5 days/week. Prepare as best I can for the Pillar Point 10K on 11/22.

Misc. goals:
- 7 or more hours sleep/night.