Weekly Update, 6/2/10

Happy June, everyone!  Hope you all are enjoying the spring-into-summer time!  Thanks so much for your kind comments on my last post.  As I wrote to several of you, my friend has lots of friends and family nearby, so I know she is well-supported.  (I feel well-supported by you all, too. :-)

"Stop and Smell the Roses" Challenge on Daily Mile and Weekend Recap

Over on Daily Mile, I was invited to participate in a challenge: "Get outside this weekend and during your training run/ride/walk/whatever take a picture of a flower.  I know, silly, but it will force you to slow down and enjoy the scenery."

Luckily, we had a gorgeous day and I had about 40 minutes while the Things were at dance rehearsal, so I took a trot on down to our local harbor.  I jogged along the beach inside the breakwater, scrambled around on top of the breakwater a little, and jogged back to the dance studio.  I saw several "Team in Training" folks, some riding bikes and others running, so I'm assuming they were practicing for a triathlon.  *sigh*...not much longer to wait, because this coming weekend is the "Tri the Coast!"  Can't wait to write about my first triathlon relay!  I'm excited to be racing with my neighbor and her friend.

We had a ton of outside time this weekend.  In the afternoon, I took a bike ride into town to the Farmer's Market, then perused the shops looking for my kids' art.  (Local merchants are displaying art created by the local school kids through the "Art in Action" program, in which they learn different styles of art.)  I found Thing 1's bird picture, but I couldn't find Thing 2's trees.  So the quest will continue....

Then we enjoyed a sunset scooter ride (kids) and walk (grown-ups) along the coastal trail.  Sunday was also nice, so lots of yardwork (mmm....love the smell of fresh cocoa mulch!) and a trip to the park.  Monday was gloomy, but we had a major bubblefest with the neighbor kids in our front yard, so that was fun.  (I planted, hoping against hope, four tomato plants.  I think I've doomed my corner of the world to permafog for the growing season.  No topsy-turvy this year, though...it was an unsuccessful experiment last year, but tomatoes are notoriously tricky to grow in our area.)

Flowers and boat at the entrance to the local harbor, during my jog on Saturday

Saturday evening on the coastal trail with the Opposite Family!

Rite-Aid Matching Donations to ADA

Stumbled across this on the ADA web site:  During the month of June, Rite-Aid is matching donations dollar-for-dollar that are made to the American Diabetes Association, up to $50,000.

Eat Like a Normal Person?  Worth a(nother) try...

I highly recommend checking out Charlotte's "The Great Fitness Experiment" for June, for no other reason than to laugh at the picture and caption.  She usually does hard core stuff like Crossfit, but this month she's trying to eat by the guidelines in Geneen Roth's "Women, Food, and God" book that I keep seeing around. (Mentioned on several blogs, and I even saw a copy in a friend's car the other day.)  Have any of you read this?  What do you think?  I figured I'd give it a try, too, so I commented "I'm in!" and jotted the guidelines on a sticky note.  (I suppose I ought to read the book now.)

I keep *saying* I want to be more mindful about what I'm eating, but I haven't really followed through on this too well.  No time like the present to focus on this, although eating in the presence of others and eating without distractions is going to be tough.  Eating with enjoyment?  Never a problem here.  Eating until you're satisfied?  Sometimes I have a problem with putting on the brakes.  So anyhow, I gave it a try yesterday.  I felt hungry before my lunchtime walk, and afterward, my body said it wanted a no-sugar-added mocha from Peet's and broccoli sprouts with light ginger dressing for lunch yesterday. Bizarre! But surprisingly filling.  Dinner update:  Hmmm...Thing 1 playing a Nintendo DS driving game, Thing 2 watching Scooby Doo on TV, Mr. Handsome-and-Handy setting out a plate full of yummy food...it was definitely what I wanted (beautiful grilled peppers & onions, and 1/2 a cob of corn, and a grilled burger patty with cheese and guacamole), I was hungry, I was in full view of others, and I enjoyed it.  So I guess it was 4/7.  I sure wasn't hungry afterward, so no trawling the cupboards for nuts, and I woke up with stellar blood glucose this morning.

I will still be tracking food and exercise--at least the noting stuff part--mainly because I want to have a record, so I can see if I actually do anything differently when I try this.

On a related note, Sagan was discussing emotional attachment to food and emotional eating the other day.  As I commented to her, regarding emotional eating, stress and boredom really trigger me. I’ve gotten to the point where I can ask the question, “Pubsgal, are you really hungry?” I can now often articulate the reason: “Oh, daaaang, I’m so booooored!” or “Ugh," [insert situation or person] "is driving me batsh*t crazy in this moment!” However, I still struggle with alternatives. What do you do when you know why you want to eat for reasons other than hunger, but you still go for that food anyway?

Progress This Week

14-day blood glucose average: 109 (met goal of less than 120)
14-day fasting blood glucose average: 105 (met goal of less than 120)

Weight goals:  No change from last week, but up 3.6 from 2 weeks ago.

Food goals: I tracked 7/7 the previous week and 4/7 this past week.  I was way over the calorie budget, so I can see where the 3.6 pounds came from.  I was over not quite so much last week, so it makes sense that I stayed the same.
Fiber: Averaged about 25 grams/day (fell a little short of 30).

Exercise goals: I'll spare you two weeks of listing my workouts, but overall, I'm quite pleased.  There were only 2 days of the past 14 that I didn't get some form of exercise.  I got in two BodyPump classes, two spin classes, two bike rides (including a practice run of the triathlon course), a little running, and a lot of walking.

Teeth: Flossed 7/14 days.  Oh my.
Sleep: Getting 7-8 hours per night.

Goals for Next Week

I've dubbed this upcoming week the "Disharmonic Convergence," because there is so darn much going on.  I had to take 2 vacation days to shoe-horn it all in:
Thursday: Dress rehearsal for the dance recital
Friday: School fund run and picnic; night 1 of the dance recital.
Saturday: Dance recital matinee, neighbor's birthday party
Sunday: Triathlon, birthday party, graduation party
Monday: Kinder field trip
Tuesday: Thing 1's class picnic, birthday party
*whew!*
[Pubsgal mops brow!]
The bright side?  I can't foresee eating from boredom!

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

Food goals:
* Apply the "7 Guidelines", track as best possible, given the crazy upcoming weekend schedule.

Exercise goals:
* 30 minutes of activity 5 days/week, make best effort to get some strength stuff in there.


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