Weekly Update, 7/21/10

I am...

• Photo blogging my eats!  I think the few of you who are interested have already wandered over to take a look at "Pubsgal Eats".  For those who haven't, it's mostly photo food log, with a pinch of food review, a dash of recipes, a sprinkling of suggestions and discoveries (who would have thought Laughing Cow Lite Garlic would be so tasty mashed up on steak?), topped off with a quirky caption or two.
  
  It's made me more aware of a few things:  I tend to dive into my food and start chowing down without really *looking* at it first.  I'm more self-conscious about what I eat around others, whether that's "in person" others or "virtual" others.  Taking pictures also helps with "food amnesia."  I took a photo of a piece of corn, to remind myself of the 3 bites I'd eaten.  I totally forgot about it when I went to blog about it, and there was the photo to remind me.
  
  I've also found that photographing my food in front of my family, and their curiosity about it, has opened to door for me to talk about why I'm doing it.  That didn't happen with my paper journal or the tracker on my phone.  This morning, Thing 2 asked me if I'd taken a picture of my breakfast yet.  "Not yet.  I'm still making it."  She went and brought me my camera.  "I just wanted to remind you to do it," she said.
  
  An unexpected plus:  photo journaling and writing about my food is fun for me, probably because it gives me yet another way to really savor my food.  I still enjoy eating, even though a lot of what I eat these days looks like either the dog's dinner or the rabbit's.  I really thought I wanted to be a solely "food is fuel" person--because heaven knows having a dispassionate attitude about food would be a lot easier--but I think "food is fun" will always be part of it, too.  Discovering what parts make it "fun" for me and best adapting those to my "fuel" needs itself is kind of fun.  For example, what spices can I discover to make veggies more exciting?  What new, healthy recipes can I try?  What new foods can I find that are healthy and tasty? How can I add humor to my food photo blog?  That sort of thing.

• Playing!  I'm getting enough activity to meet my goals (mostly), but still feeling like I'm not training hard for the triathlon in August. (OMG!  It's only 3.5 weeks away!!!  I'll be able to finish it, but I can't say that I'm really taking it as a serious step in moving up to Oly distance next year.  I have mixed feelings about that.)  The fun part is that Thing 2 is now riding on 2 wheels instead of 4, and we went for a couple rides around the neighborhood last week.  I loved this!  And even though it's not intense, riding around the block a few times can rack up the mileage. (Loving my bike computer for telling me this!)

• Maintaining blood glucose levels fairly well.  Weekly overall average: 110 and Weekly fasting average: 102.  I had a sharp uptick one evening after eating a slice of potato bread (after 2 "low carb" flour tortillas that had a net fiber of 14) to 150 post-meal, which only went down to 120 before bed.  Mild exercise (16 minutes on a stationary bike) squashed it back down to 92 before I went to bed.
  
  
• Yawning at the scale.  Up .2 this week.  Meh.
  
  
• Reading...slowly.  If I spent as much time actually reading "Savor" as I do checking for new blog posts to read, I'd be halfway through it already!  There's some good stuff in there!  I sure wish my library had it on CD, because I find it a lot easier to listen to books like this than make the time to read them.
  
  
• Going to do the Las Vegas Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon FOR SURE!  Just registered and got my plane tickets last night!  (Thanks to Mr. Handsome-and-Handy for booking the flight and supporting me in yet another crazy scheme!)  Gotta admit, my personal preference would have been for the "MizBooRun" to be somewhere like Hawaii, but somehow I don't think MizFit and RenMan would have gone for a Don Ho impersonator renewing their vows.
  
  
• Knitting! I'm working on hat #3 of my "pay it forward" goal.  Still need pom-poms on hat #2, but I finally put the finishing touches on hat #1.  I'm not too crazy about the pattern for hats 1 & 2 (and making pom-poms is pretty tedious stuff), so I've adapted a pattern I like better, but I'm knitting it in the round.  We'll see how that turns out.  (Jill, now you see why knitting is nearly as perilous for me to be doing as canning pickles would be....as for the rest of you, get on over if you haven't already and check out Jill's Unfolded Laundry!)
  

I want to...

• Keep on photo blogging the eats.  But not getting overly wrapped up in this.  It's a fine line now, with all the technical logistics of getting the photos up there.  And if you have suggestions for what you'd like to see over on Pubsgal Eats, let me know!
  
  
• Keep meeting goals.  I want to stay consistent with my goals, especially fitness ones: Get out and play 30 minutes x 5 days; play with weights 2x per week; do at least 1 swim, bike, and run per week.  Making the swim a priority this week.  Revel in the last month of being able to feast on fitness, because the school year makes everything much more complicated.
  
  
• Keep those blood glucose levels happy (average <120 overall and <110 fasting).
  
  
• Read more consistently.  I'd like to finish "Savor" before the library demands it back again.
  
  
• Try a new recipe.  It's been too long since I did this.