Weekly Update, 1/6/10

What's New

Welcome to the year Twenty Ten! I hope it's going well so far for all y'all, and that working toward your goals this year goes smoothly and enjoyably!

We enjoyed the last few days of 2009 at home, with a mini New Year's Eve party (culminating with the Eastern time ball drop at 9 p.m.). Things 1 & 2 went crazy, blowing horns and shouting. We also did the family tradition (from my side) of hiding coins outside on New Year's Eve; when you find them in the morning, it's supposed to mean that you will have a prosperous year. Mr. Handsome-and-Handy had never heard of this one and quietly rolls his eyes; I continue it anyway. I'm not sure if this was just something my dad's family made up or if it's a cultural/regional thing. Anyone ever heard of this? It might be a variation on prosperity-themed foods at New Year's, a lot of which seem to focus on foods that resemble coins, or food with a coin hidden in it that brings luck (and hopefully not choking) to the finder. I suppose I should be grateful that my husband's family did not preserve the German/Polish tradition of eating herring at midnight! *Shudder*.

We knew that Monday would bring the return of early mornings, so on Sunday we bribed the kids to get up earlier by promising to take them out to breakfast. There's a little cafe at our local airport that has some seriously tasty food, and they make fresh orange juice, plus there are lots of model airplanes and pictures on the walls. (Our favorite dish, the "Flying Farmer's Feast," is a sort of hash: various sausages, including chorizo, mixed in home fries that have bits of onion and red & green bell peppers. I got the sliced tomatoes instead of pancakes, but Mr. H&H and Thing 1 shared a few bites of theirs. Thing 2 got a grilled cheese sandwich.) Afterward, the kids clamored for a park outing, so they could "exercise and burn some calories." Egads! How did that seep into their consciousness? I really don't talk about exercise and calories much outside the blog world. Sometimes the kids are curious about "what's healthy" and I chat with them about eating "good for you" foods and what those are (somehow dark chocolate has made it into this list...insert some nonchalant whistling here) and that moving around is good for your body. But I prefer to just do my thing and not really bore them with a lot of talk about it. I think it was because Mr. H&H played Level 2 of Jillian's 30 Day Shred last week and the kids and I followed along (but not overly intensely; I was sore from BodyPump). At the park, though, I think Mr. H&H and our ancient dog got more exercise, shuffling through the neighborhood, because the Things decided that building a replica of the Hawaiian Islands in the sand box was much more fun. It did feel great to get some sunshine and fresh air, though, and to think tropical thoughts.

So...it's back to training in earnest this week. I was really dreading going back to the pool. It was grey and cold on Monday, and the way my schedule was going, I'd decided to swim after work. Not inviting at night, the idea of getting wet and cold. (The pool is outdoors.) But other than a little *gasp* on getting into it, the temperature turned out to be just right, and I remembered how much I enjoy swimming. I wanted to track my distance, so I tried using a mini knitting row counter (aka "kacha kacha") to count laps. I put it on a rubber band, then stuck the rubber band around my wrist. It will take a little time to figure out how to advance it smoothly while swimming; I tended to tread a little while clicking it. But it made a decent lap counter, I had one already, and it's about half the price of the ring-style swimming lap counters I found online, too. I also found that my breaststroke is more efficient than my front crawl (19 strokes vs. 30 to cross the pool) and is about the same speed. Interesting! So now that I hopped over that little mental hurdle, getting in the pool next week should go a bit more smoothly.

Oh, and a quick Chia Sponge Bob update: It's dead. We killed a Chia Pet. Can you believe we killed a *bleepin'* Chia Pet? That explains why our only house plant is an ancient, dessicated cactus. So Chia SpongeBob is spending his Chia Pet afterlife as a garden gnome; he's all cleaned off and placed in a planter with the remains of a cilantro and a basil and an "I'm not dead yet" mint plant. Which has to be much more interesting than sitting on a hutch with shrivelled chia clinging to one's head (and back).

A New Challenge

Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans just started its new challenge: "Rethink Your Shrink." Part of the "homework" was to commit to three goals over the next 7 weeks and come up with a non-food reward. Mine are as follows:

(1) Run, bike, and swim at least 20 miles (total) each week.
(2) Strength exercise 2x a week (instead of my current one day).
(3) Stay within 1000 calories of my weekly budget.

Non-food reward - I've already signed up for a sprint triathlon in 8.5 weeks! Seeing a time improvement over my last triathlon will be a great reward.

Progress This Week
("Rethink Your Shrink" goals marked with a *)

7-day blood glucose average: 98 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting blood glucose average: 101 (met goal of less than 120)

Weight goals: Down .4 this week.

Food goals:
* Calorie tracking: I blew off tracking calories over the holiday weekend. On the tracked days, I was under my calorie limit only one of the days. *blush*. Not so well done last week. I know I was over "stay 1000 calories within range" last week.
Fiber: I averaged over 30 grams fiber/day.

Exercise goals: While I did not meet the 5x30 goal, I did do 4x30. I also missed my goal of running during the week.
* Total mileage: 33.94 miles (hurrah for spin class!)
* - Wednesday: 60 minutes - BodyPump class, plus a bit of 30 Day Shred Level 2-done-lightly with the kids. (Yes, Jillian, I phoned it in. Neener!)
- Thursday: 51 minutes, 15.38 miles - spin class
- Friday: Nothing today.
- Saturday: Nothing today either.
* - Sunday: Untracked "playout" at the park. I played on the monkey bars a little bit, and felt it in my arms the next day. I'm counting this as my 2nd strength exercise of the week.
- Monday: 34 minutes, 850 meters (1/2 mile) - freestyle lap swimming.
- Tuesday: 57 minutes, 18.06 miles - spin class

Sleep: I think we actually did get 7 hours/sleep per night, but with back-to-school this week, it sure didn't feel like it.

Goals for Next Week
("Rethink Your Shrink" goals highlighted with a *)

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

Food goals:
Track calories in my food log.
*Stay within 1000 calories of my limit for the week. (To ensure that I at least maintain.)
Track fiber. Minimum 30 grams fiber/day. (Include both insoluble and soluble sources.)

Exercise goals:
30 minutes of activity 5 days/week.
*20 miles minimum distance.
*At least one run, one bike, one swim
*2 strength sessions (BodyPump + something on my own)

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