Week 4 of the Holiday Hoedown!

UGH!!!!  I can't believe how the holidays went from nothing much going on to EVERYTHING going on!!!  Eeeeek!  But I know, that's what it usually does and we'll get through it.

So, how did last week go for this Tinsel Vixen?  Pretty well!

• I exercised 285 minutes last week!  And I was so excited to meet my goal of 1000 miles of activity for this year! (I counted everything:  walking, running, biking, spinning, elliptical, and swimming.)  

• I did the Tinsel Vixens Mini-circuit!  In case you're curious, here's what Team Tinsel Vixen came up with for a strength circuit. We did not specify weight or number of reps, but most routines I've seen recommend 10-15 reps (each side for the one-sided ones) in a set for the arms and legs.
  
  
  • Burpees (at least 8.  The variation I did involved jumping out to a straight-arm plank, then doing a pushup, then jumping back to a squat, and no mighty leap up at the end.)
  • Tricep kickbacks
  • Bent-over rows
  • Bicycle crunches
  • Military shoulder presses
  • Straight leg crunches
  • Hammer bicep curls
  • Squat + inner thigh lifts
  • Butt bridges
    
• Fruits & veggies?  You know it!
  
• Water - I didn't track that this week, but with all the tea and coffee, I'm sure I was close.
  
• Scale-wise, I'm down .6 lb from last Wednesday, to +.2 of the weight I was at the beginning of the challenge.  So I'd say that's moving in the right direction.  (Unfortunately, it's up a couple of pounds from Friday.  My week/weekend eating is kind of like Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde.)
  
  
• Blood glucose levels: 7-day average is 101, fasting 7-day average is 103.
  
• Fun stuff:  Got to see the Harry Potter 7 Part 1 movie.  Very well done, even if there were some parts that were filmed as an obvious bow to the 3-D movie experience - at least no gratuitous plot changes like in HP6, but I'm sure there were several side-story things that would make those who hadn't read the books wonder, "Huh?"  Mr. Handsome-and-Handy also got a date night to see rock guitarist Gary Hoey!  If you like rock & roll instrumentals, his "Ho Ho Hoey" series of Christmas albums are a treat. The show was FANTASTIC!  The venue was rather small, and there were way less people than we were expecting, but they put on a show worthy of a stadium.  Best of all, the band genuinely seemed to enjoy performing, and that makes for a good show.  I also took the kids to a great birthday party, which included a nature walk/scavenger hunt and playing in a ship-inspired fort and in the mud.
  
• And aaaaaack!  I'm so far behind on my race report and book review!  I'll see what I can do, but I'm not sure I will be getting it done before next week.

Week 3 of the Holiday Hoedown!

Just a quick update from Week 3 of the "Holiday Hoedown!"

• Exercise minutes: 333 minutes last week
• Weight change: Down 1.2 pounds this week, but I'm still up .8 for the challenge and am 3 pounds away from where I usually maintain.  With a few planned exceptions, I'm still on portion control and a calorie budget until I get back to my usual maintenance weight and stick it for a couple of weeks.  I think this will take about 3-6 weeks.
• "Try something new" challenge: Does a distance PR of 13.1 miles count? I certainly think so. It's 5.1 miles farther than I've ever propelled myself on foot.
• Doing the "Tinsel Vixen" circuit: Didn't happen this week.
• Food goal of 1 no-junk food day: I crushed this one. I went junk-food free 4 of 7 days this past week. For me, this meant no "sugar added" sweets (sugar-free stuff with some nutritive value, such as the sugar-free caramel latte I enjoyed on Friday, was okay). I also kept within my calorie budget 3 of the 4 days on which I fully tracked food intake.
• Food goal of 3 fruit/veggie servings: I met this one 6/7 days last week.
• Saying one nice thing about myself each day: The Tinsel Vixens added this goal as the more concrete (and often achievable) version of "no negative thoughts."  I don't really struggle much with being overly critical about myself, this week especially. I was lucky to be in the company of friendly companions, which eased my anxiety about the social aspects.  The race was well-suited to walkers as well as runners, so thoughts of athletic inadequacy didn't creep in, either. I'm still in thankful awe of my body and its ability to endure the crazy stunts I throw its way.

As you can see, the Tinsel Vixens were well represented!  Perfect shirt or what?!?  

Not sure what makes more attractive headwear, though: bondi band or swim cap...

Left to right:  Jr. McBody, blogger Foodie McBody, and me!

An Embarrassment of Riches

Forward: Sometimes my life seems best summarized by the idiom, "an embarrassment of riches," both tangible and intangible, great and small.  Today's post is about some of the greater ones lately....

I am....

Relieved that I can finally write about the "Pay It Forward" gift I received from Debby!!!

Oh, whew! (*mopping brow*)

Debby delivered my gift in person at breakfast, and I thought I was going to burst into tears.  It is some kind of gorgeousness!!!  I cherish it, and am wondering how to best display it.  But I was even more moved to read Debby's account ("Pay It Forward Challenge") of how she created it and personalized each segment that she made for Juice, Jill, and me.  I love that our quilts have a connection; it's really reflective of the blog community!  (*sniff*...I'm getting a little teary again...)

Debby's account has the better pictures, but I wanted to talk about some of the details I've noticed so far, and love.  It's an intricate quilt, and I have a feeling that the more I look at it, the more I'm going to see and appreciate.

I love the butterflies!

I love the buttons, and the position of the heart-shaped button by the dedication.

I also love how the stitching goes around the flower blocks to create petals, 

and then extends down to create the stems and leaves.

I also love the richness of the metallic gold in some of the fabrics;

you can't see it too well in the photo, but the brown fabric in the upper flower has it,  

and it adds to the richness without overwhelming.

Isn't the spiral and star stitching on this flower cool?

More of the lovely stitching and embroidered details...I love how she combined these.

More embroidered detail to compliment the center of this flower.

Here's a view of the full treasure!  

Thank you, dear friend!!!

Training:  Well, I was all happy after the big run on Sunday, and then I noticed my ankle got achy after my stationary bike ride on Monday morning.  Bother!  So I swam on Tuesday instead of running.  It felt good, though it took an effort to get over the ugh-have-to-drive-there-and-get-wet-and-reshower inertia.

I think my mantra has to be "Trust the Training."  I ran today (Thursday, day after CardioSculpt class) and my legs weren't 100%, and I felt really sluggish.  My ankle feels fine though.  I have to remember that if I do this *consistently*, the results will follow.  I'm working to build distance, but a little more pep in my step would be welcome.  Rest day tomorrow, then a 4-mile run on Saturday.

Knitting:  Yeay, I finished another baby hat!  No, not for me, but for Christie O's baby shower for the parents of premature babies at her local hospitals.  She and a mom's group in her area do this every year, so I'll be sending her along some hats as part of my "Pay it Forward" project.

I was a little worried about this hat.  I was short on blue, so I switched to cream; I was knitting a pattern that you knit on straight needles in the round instead and saw some flaws in the details.  I agonized whether to start over, but I kept going.  And you know what?  When I finished it, it looked fine, and it's so soft.  I think there's an analogy here.

Yes, I finished this one in the car.  

Don't worry, I'm parked.  

It seems to be one of the few places I can bind off, undisturbed.
(Oh, and no, it's not a toilet paper cozy. :-)

Healthy:  So grateful that the numbers are good.  My 7-day fasting blood glucose average was 106 and my overall 7-day average was 107.  My weigh-in day weight has remained unchanged since the beginning of the month.  I'm happy that this is so, even though I'm not weighing daily. (Trust the training!)

I want to...

Keep doing the good stuff.


Publish some of the draft posts I've started.


Start that sweater for the adorable Chloe!

Weekly Update, 7/28/10

I am...

Learning Stuff from my Family!  If you missed yesterday's post, I interviewed my family in a guest post for Foodie McBody over on her blog, FoodFoodBodyBody.  My family is tremendously supportive, and it was fun to pick their brains about what they think people should do to be healthy and happy.  (Of course, the Things were thinking in terms of what OTHER people should do....)

Playing!  It was a hard week, in some ways.  Swimming, usually the balm of my soul, was an emotional suckage this week; Pilates and Cardio Sculpt felt really hard, and I chaffed a big gouge into my shoulder during my 13 minute treadmill run in the wrong bra.  Ouch.  But I'm satisfied that I at least touched on all areas, and I even did a little yoga!

Sustaining!  I'm still food blogging, and that's been valuable.   forgot to weigh this morning.  As of yesterday, though, I was down 1.4.  As long as it stays within a couple of pounds of where I am right now, I feel very neutral about what the scale says.  Interestingly enough, Debby summed this up beautifully in her "TVP, Part Deux" post, in support of her not weighing:

I am making good choices, and I don’t want to eat less.  I only want to stop eating when  I am already full and of course, I want to stop eating when I am anxious/bored/irritated/whatever.

I think as long as I'm honest about my choices being good and my motives--in other words, satisfy my physical hunger in a way that pleases my senses and best fuels my body--then the scale will continue to be a useful tool for me.  As a tool, it helps keep me honest about whether I'm truly making the best choices with my food and fitness; it won't change good behavior, but it can help me course-correct.

Getting Excited about the Lompoc Sprint Triathlon!  I printed out the registration form and the course maps, and I got this little rush of excitement.  I'm looking forward to this event.  I haven't been training for it particularly well, but you know?  I realized that I'm okay with that, even if it's not in alignment with my crazy-ass dream.  I know I can finish it, although it will still be challenging.  The swim is a pool swim in their aquatic center, and the pool is the same width as the pool I train at now, so I'm comfortable about that...no weird swim start like the Treeathlon, no wetsuit, although I may have to share lanes, which I feel comfortable about doing.  The bike is an out-and-back course, completely flat.  The only thing that could throw me there is the infamous Lompoc wind, although it would be at my back on the way back, if it's even blowing in the morning.  And the run is also flat.  Registration was duly mailed yesterday afternoon.

Reading!  I finished Chapter 3 of Savor this morning.  Good stuff, and it makes sense with my own experience in some ways.  I'd read the advice in a book about simplifying your life to stop subscribing to magazines, because they are primarily a tool for advertising and can increase your feelings of dissatisfaction with life.  I'm down to Country and my mom gets me Guideposts, both of which have minimal advertising.  (Well, Guideposts has an awful lot of pharma ads, but I ignore those.)  So when I recently purchased Shape magazine to read their interview with Lori of "Finding Radiance", I was struck by all the ads, and articles masquerading as ads for stuff.  I much preferred the stories about real people and their experiences with gaining health and fitness, which to their credit, they did have several.

Maintaining Blood Glucose Levels!  Overall 7-day average is 109, fasting 7-day average is 109.  My only out-of-range reading was a 124 before breakfast on Sunday, and I'm guessing it was the party food on Saturday.  (Boo hiss, because it was 101 at bedtime!)

Trying New Recipes!  Well, one was new (yummy "Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake" from askGeorgie.com) and one was a new twist on a favorite (another askGeorgie.com recipe, "Roasted Crunchy Garbanzo Beans," but with different spices).  The first was a glowing success, the latter...okay.  I liked the batch I made before better, the spice combo I tried didn't work as well as I'd hoped.

I want to...

Keep on photo blogging the eats.  It's still fun!

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.  Revel in the last month of being able to feast on fitness, because the school year makes everything much more complicated.

Speaking of goals...I read an article over on Zen Habits the other day, "The Best Goal is No Goal" .  It provoked a very strong "Yeah, try applying that one at school and work, pal!" reaction in me...and then I had to pause and wonder where such a visceral reaction came from.  I couldn't help but think of the compulsory nature of school and work, of how stressful and hard it is to keep the kids on track with their homework, with how it's even a struggle for me to keep on track with everything at home and work that needs doing.  Somehow, I doubt that my kids' vision of "you wake up and do what you're passionate about" would include going to school and doing their homework.  This summer, it's looking more like playing with toys, riding bikes and scooters with friends, and playing stuff on their computers (and watching videos of other kids playing stuff on their computers via YouTube...oh the recursive horror!).

What do you all think? 

On the other hand, I think it's valuable to not become too attached to specific goals.  Because, as the author says, "I end up in places that are wonderful, surprising, great. I just didn’t know I would get there when I started."  Also, too much attachment to a goal can sometimes make me dissatisfied with the journey; things eating me can cause me to eat too many things.  I mean, I need to do fitness things to stay healthy, but the more I can find joy and fun in them, it means I'll be more likely to stick with them.  Angst is not fun.

Keep those blood glucose levels happy. (average <120 overall and <110 fasting).

Keep on reading.  I'd like to finish "Savor" before the library demands it back again.

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.
   

Weekly update, 7/14/10

Just a few things...

Mindful Eating Experiment, Continued: After hearing much positive buzz about it, I'm testing one week of a photo food journal in blog form.  I strained a few brain cells coming up with the scintillating title:  it's called "Pubsgal Eats."  Here's how I introduced it over there:

Today was the first day of my "Week of Eats": a photo food journal.  All the cool kids seem to be doing this now, with the surge in
mindful eating from the Two Fit Chicks podcast.
Foodie McBody started one, inspired by
Mary of A Merry Life's food blog.  It does seem like a good way to make oneself pause and contemplate the food that will be fueling one's body.

Anyhow, I'm going to experiment with this for a week.  If it feels like it helps, I might keep it up longer.  If I find it too crazy-making, out it goes.  Maybe I'll even incorporate it into the regular blog, but then I'd sort of feel like I was copying Lori of Finding Radiance
and Biz of Biggest Diabetic Loser

I've only done it for a couple of days so far, but it's an interesting experiment.  When I don't have a "whoops" meal--photographing empty dishes and wrappers--I find myself taking a little time to present the food and look at it, to appreciate the colors and textures before I eat.  It made me realize that those "7 Guidelines" that flicker through my mind are kind of a heavy cognitive load.  Why have 7, when 3 will do?  I'm going with the old crossing-the-street saying, "Stop, Look, and Listen."  As in, STOP just grabbing and shoving stuff in my mouth, stop when satisfied with the meal, definitely stop when eating starts feeling like a "forced march."  LOOK at what I'm eating, take a little time to be thankful for it, and notice when the eating situation doesn't feel good (too distracted, multitasking, etc.).  LISTEN to my hunger/fullness signals during meal time, to what I really want, to my feelings when I want to binge or want to eat when I'm not hungry.

Gym situation: So far, so good. Some classes are very different.  The new ownership does not do licensed classes like BodyPump anymore.  But our same darlin' Brazilian drill sergeant is there at the same time slot, kicking things up a notch with her Cardio Sculpt class...I've had to go lower on the weights for all body areas.  It's scary-good what her newly unleashed creativity is coming up with.  Other classes (non-licensed ones) are same, with the instructors and the course content and times kept fairly similar. But all class names have changed in a fit of creative writing.  "Spin class" is now "The Ride."  (Haven't been in awhile, so not sure if it's different...each instructor had their own style and music, so I imagine each class is still similar.)  "Pilates on the Ball" became "Belly, Butt, and Thighs Bootcamp," although the instructor says that name is changing to "Power Ball."  One change on the schedule had me puzzled:  the Pilates instructor used to have a "Pilates on Foam Roller" class, and the name and description changed to "R&R," as in "rest and relaxation" (a flexibility class).  The instructor said ignore the schedule, the class is the same; in other words, a complete misnomer.  If they need a creative new name, I'd suggest "OWWAFEST" - as in, "Oh, when will (my) abs finally ever stop throbbing?"

So far, no rate changes, although I have a feeling they will eventually.  If they change much, I may have to re-evaluate this gym.  It doesn't have a pool, so I already have to go elsewhere for swimming.  Right now, there's a community pool that I spend about $16.50-22.00 per month using, on top of my gym fees.  So if the gym fees go up more than $15, it would be comparable to two other facilities that have a pool included, and I'd consider changing.  The *almost* priceless part about my current gym is that it is right next door to my work, so no additional drive.  The others are fairly close en route, but it would add extra time to my cram-in-a-workout schedule, probably an extra half hour at least.  (Which explains why I typically only swim once a week, it's 6 miles round-trip out of my way.)  Anyhoo, we'll see what the future brings.

Meet the Summer 2010 Neigh-bors:  We have some lovely new faces on the other side of the back fence!  You can't seem them too well, but there are two adorable foals in there with the mares.

Progress This week
7-day fasting blood glucose average: 107
7-day overall blood glucose average: 105

Weight: +1 pound this week.  Considering I hit redline over the weekend, I'm happy that I was able to rein it in and get that down to only +1.  (To put it in perspective, though, I'm still 3 pounds up from last month, where it finally looked like I was heading out of the 190s.)

Food goals:
* My goal was "Apply the '7 Guidelines', aiming for high fiber choices."  I don't have time to do a detailed analysis at this point, but I'd say I did so-so on the guidelines and well on the fiber choices.
* Read "Savor" - Just got this and the vegan baking cookbook "Babycakes" from the library the other day and browsed a little bit last night.

Exercise goals:  Here's the chart from my Daily Mile log.  Love Daily Mile!



Misc. goals:
* Got about 7 or more hours of sleep most nights, exception being Monday night, where I got about 6.
* Morning tooth flossing works for me!

Goals for Next Week

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

Food goals:
* Complete "Week of Eats" over on Pubsgal Eats, aiming for high fiber and "Stop, Look, and Listen" behavior.
* Continue reading "Savor"

Exercise goals:
* 30 minutes of activity 5 days/week, tracking through Daily Mile.
* At least one run, bike, and swim per week.
* At least 2 strength things per week.

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

"Life is Good" Award + Update 2x

Jill over at The Sassy Pear gave me a "Life is Good" award. Thanks, Jill!  I'm finally getting around to this!

Of course, it comes with a condition: you have to answer a few questions that the Award-er makes up. Jill came up with some ring-a-dingers:

1. What do you do in the privacy of your own home that you would NEVER do in front of anyone?

As someone else said (was it Debby?), why on earth would I describe here something I would do in complete private?  Sheesh.  I guess there is one "safe for blogging" quirk:  I don't like working out to exercise videos in front of other people, even my family.  I don't mind taking classes, as you well know, probably because there is a whole group of people ripe for embarrassing themselves in some way or another.  But there's just something skin-crawlingly awkward about having onlookers as I shake my groove thing to the 15 Minutes Dance Express or contort myself along with Rodney Yee (um...well, now, come to think of it, that does sounds a little sordid...we're talking Yoga positions, people!).  I'll finish my workout video with my family in the room if I must, but I much prefer it when they blissfully sleep through the whole thing or are preoccupied with their computers or something.

2. If you could be someone else for one day, who would it be?

Do I get to pick which day, too?  Maybe Chrissie Wellington at the Ironman Championships last year, provided that "being her" meant my consciousness would be just tagging along for the ride, not actually "driving." :-)

3. What’s the bravest/scariest thing you’ve ever done?

When I was in college, I went to live in North Carolina for a 6-month internship.  I knew absolutely no-one in the area (nearest family was in New York). I drove cross-country with one of my best girl friends. What a blast! This was long before Google maps--*gasp*!  However, my parents had gone to AAA and had them make for me a little custom map booklets, from my starting point to my destination.  It was like having a hardcopy of the driving directions, in flip book form, and it came in really handy.  Putting my friend on the plane home was sad, though!  Those 6 months turned out to be one of my most amazing life experiences and it gave me a lot of confidence, but it was a little scary, too.

So now I'm supposed to nominate people and have them answer questions.  I want to nominate everyone, so if you're reading this and want to play along, please consider yourself nominated, and link up in the comments!  Or add to the comments instead, if you want.  Here are my questions for you:

1. What's the most fun travel experience you've ever had?
2. Who are your self esteem heros? (Nod to Dietgirl for that one.)
3. What things make you feel that "Life is Good"?

Update x2

Some thoughts on feeding: Well, it's been a couple of weeks since my last update!  I've been dabbling with...not sure "intuitive eating" is the right term, I'm going for something like "eating like a person who is sensible about food would eat."  I think that is, in fact, what I've been training to do over the past couple of years: eat what my body needs (and, within reason, what it wants), without having to track it or follow a set meal plan.  If I need to go back to those, or other tools, I'm fine with that, too.

So far, it's been 5 weeks since I tracked calories or followed a written plan; the "what" of my food plan is pretty much habit by now.  It's been really nice in some ways.  I wouldn't call it an unqualified success, even though scale-wise, I've stayed about the same (as of yesterday, I was down a couple of pounds since 6/2, but am back up to exactly the same today).  The "when" and "how much" and "put DOWN the nuts and step AWAY from the jar" and "I'm feeling bored/stressed/like eating that" is definitely not 100%.  There's the usual "is it emotional/craving or is it hunger" thing to listen for, and I'd say there's progress there.  However, physical hunger alone as a cue to eat doesn't always work for me as a person with diabetes, as I've written on some of your comments.  I've had experience in which my stomach was rumbling, yet my blood glucose levels tell me that the last thing I ate was still sustaining me just fine, thanks.  I've also had experience when I'm feeling content, hunger-wise, even when I could stand to eat something (such as before or after exercising) if I go by my meter reading.  Letting myself get "hangry" doesn't serve me too well, either, although I tolerate the tummy rumbles pretty well if I know I'm close to a meal and it won't hurt me to wait a little bit.  And what to do with elevated fasting levels?  Do I just not eat breakfast, even though I'm hungry and the elevation might be from my liver making some extra glucose because I haven't eaten in awhile?  For me, I have to apply common sense of timing along with the bodily cues, cross-checking with my meter as needed, and including "refresher courses" on my portions for some foods.

14 day blood glucose average:  106
14 day fasting blood glucose average: 105 (There were some funky fasting numbers with this vial of strips: 125/123 the day I started the vial, and 119 another day.  Control solution says these strips are good, but I'm wondering if I got some bad ones in this batch.  Those numbers are way out of fasting range for me.)

Exercise:  I have been faithfully tracking over on Daily Mile; had 3 rest days out of the last 14, and I definitely got at least 30 minutes per day.  Cardio intensity has been lower, though; more walking and workout videos, plus strength classes at the gym, but I haven't been to spin class since before my last tri and I haven't been running as much, either.  I'll need to step things up a notch before that Lompoc Tri in 5 weeks.

One thing that has rocked my fitness world is that the gym next to work changed to a different franchise altogether!  I'm hoping that they won't be raising my rates, or if they do, it will still be within my budget.  I've investigated other options, but I'm hoping it I won't have to change gyms.  I really like the instructors for the classes I'm taking--even though those are changing a bit--and I love the convenience of it not involving another drive.

Sleep:  You'd think this would be good, being summer and all, but our whole household is staying up later and later, and I don't get to sleep in.  Averaging about 7 hours/night.

Teeth:  Haven't tracked, but I have been better about flossing.  For some reason, mornings are great, because it seems I find it easier to convince myself to do things when I'm half-awake, and it doesn't seem quite so "last hurdle before bed."

Goals for Next Week

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

Food goals:
* Apply the "7 Guidelines", aiming for high fiber choices.

Chia seeds for your tea, anyone?

("Slimy, yet satisfying!")

* Read "Savor" (it's waiting for me at the library)

Exercise goals:
* 30 minutes of activity 5 days/week, tracking through Daily Mile.
* At least one run, bike, and swim per week.
* At least 2 strength things per week.

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

Weekly Update x3

Hi everybody!  It's been awhile.  It's been so long, Blogger added these nifty templates, so I decided to spruce things up around here.

Since my last update...

Under the Sea! 

(The gala party shrimp trays and tuna salad sandwiches sort of reminds me 

of the surreal fare at a company party I went to at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  

Picture tables of sushi and pans of paella next to the kelp forest tank...)

We completed the 3-day marathon that is Thing 1 and Thing 2's dance recital, "Under the Sea," inspired by The Little Mermaid.  (1 night of dress rehearsal + 2 performances)  I appreciate so much that the dance teacher does her best to make sure the younger dancers (elementary school and younger) spend as little time as possible waiting backstage, and actually get a chance to see most of the show.  Especially since the backstage room heats up quickly, and we had warmer weather than we usually do.  Thing 1 and Thing 2 did a fine job and had a lot of fun.  Thing 2 was a sailor and a very pink flamingo, and Thing 1 played Grimsby and a frog.  Wish I could show you pictures of the preschoolers; imagine tiny girls in black leotards and tights wearing sea creatures; the snails were adorable with sparkly cloth "shells" that looked like little sleeping bags rolled up on their backs.

The Flamingo Princess and The Frog

I did the "Tri the Coast" sprint triathlon bike leg; my friends did the swim and the run. I owe you a race report...

Pubsgal, Biker Babe!

We attended two birthday parties, same weekend as all of the above.  (I felt sorry for the folks that had to clean up the blue icing ravages of 20+ children under the age of 9...)

Surf's up!  (And so, too, will be the cleaning deposit on this party room, I imagine!)

We also made it through the end-of-the-school-year frenzy.  We enjoyed the school picnic and fund run (same day as dance performance #1).  I chaperoned and drove on Thing 2's zoo field trip on the Monday after that weekend.  One of the moms at our school is a zoo insider, so we got a special tour.  And I realized my life-long dream of PETTING A KOALA BEAR!  *squeeeeee!!!*  Yes, they are very soft. (Coincidentally, this was the same day as we said goodbye to our Bela.  Who, for the record, was softer than a koala bear.) Thing 1's class had a picnic and swim party the day after the zoo trip. Hurrah for tag-team parenting!

Pubsgal with Lollipop, a koala of great forbearance (har har), and the koala keeper.

According to her keeper, koalas in general don't like much contact, even with each other.  

Which begs the question: why do they look so darn cute?!?

(And how old are we in this picture, little girl?)

We also enjoyed our trip to Tucson in the summer time, with temperatures in the 100s.  We spent a ton of time in my dad and step-mom's swimming pool, but we also enjoyed lots of fun outings and a very nice Father's Day.  (Most pix on my other camera, so not much here.)

 "3 Peds Cured"

(C'mon, Debby!  All the cool kids are getting pedi's!) 

Mine are the purple toes...yes, I had a little help from Thing 2 in choosing the color.

In addition to all of the above, there were hairy work deadlines, several graduations of family and friends, a company-client dinner, and a farewell dinner (sadly) for our excellent next-door neighbors.

Progress This Month


[Oh, that's RIGHT!  This is a HEALTH-related blog!]

30-day blood glucose average: 104 (met goal of less than 120)
30-day fasting blood glucose average: 103 (met goal of less than 120)

Weight goals:  Since 6/2, I am down 1 pound.  "Summer of Sustaining," baby! <-Lookie there, I found the link to Lynn Haraldson-Bering's marvelous post on "Refuse to Regain," in which she discusses "maintenance" vs. "sustaining."  Which led me to recently dub this my "Summer of Sustaining," because I really wasn't feeling up to "challenges" anymore.  Although, yeah, I made an exception for Charlotte Hilton Andersen's June experiment of "Eating Like a Normal Person".  Because it's called an "experiment."  That makes all the difference, right? 

Food goals: Well, I stopped tracking during the crazy-busy weekend, and it has actually been kind of nice to not track.  I don't know how that will work when going back to the usual routine, because "if you bite it, write it" can be rather effective when I'm inclined to eat from being bored or stressed.  Jill's post today on The Sassy Pear, "I don't have a weight problem, I have an eating problem," really rang a bell for me.  When I'm happily busy, I don't feel the need to self-soothe with food.  When I'm stressed and/or bored, I do that.  Part of why I haven't regained seems to be a combination of exercise, the mental/emotional support of blogging, and the kind of foods I've been using to self-soothe.  I've gotten dangerously clever about the "what," but I've learned that binging isn't about the what, or sometimes even about the how much:  it's the out-of-control mental state.  Yuck.

Fiber: No idea.  I'm guessing I'm averaging about 20 grams/day, since I am eating my chia and lots of veggies, but I didn't have chia on my trip.  That's about the only drawback I've found with not tracking.

Exercise goals: I'll spare you three weeks of details.  But between workouts and playouts, I met my goal of 30 minutes of activity 5 days/week.

Teeth: [Insert "who me?" whistling soundbyte here]
Sleep: Getting 7-8 hours per night most nights, especially if you count the sybaritic slumbers of my recent vacation.

Goals for Next Week

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

Food goals:
* Apply the "7 Guidelines", aiming for high fiber.  I think I'll give myself one more week of not tracking, and see how it goes.

Exercise goals:
* 30 minutes of activity 5 days/week, tracking through Daily Mile.

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

* Use the time I'm spending NOT food tracking to establish daily tooth flossing.

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.

Weekly Update, 5/12/10 (The Screamingly Busy Edition)

Well, it's been a screamingly busy week (so how did I just write so much?).  The weekend was pretty relaxing, though.  I'm happy to say that I more than made up for missing having Mexican food on Cinco de Mayo last week; as a daughter of California, it felt kind of wrong to not have any on that day!  Mother's Day was sweet; I got a lot of knitting done on hat #2 and enjoyed sitting by the fire.  We had rain!  Rain in May!  Nearly unheard of in these parts.  Mr. Handsome-and-Handy and the kids spoiled me with homemade cards and school crafts and flowers, and we all enjoyed dinner at our local Mexican restaurant.  (Chicken fajitas! Yum!  You inspired me there, Biz!  And glad the "pink chicken" story made you laugh.)

Thanks!
Thanks, everyone, for all of your support and encouragement.  I try not to gripe about it too much, but sometimes I think it helps to share that I still struggle with keeping the healthy habits going and eliminating those that have outlived their usefulness.  Just to clarify, I don't equate my struggling with feeling like a failure, I equate my not following through on something I say I'm going to do with feeling like a failure.  Plus "feeling like a failure" is very different from actually failing.  For me, actually failing would look a little something like this...

Pubsgal [throwing up hands in disgust.]: "*Bleep* this, I'm outta here."
[Grabs several pints of premium ice cream, eats self back into sedentary stupor, goes blind, and loses limbs, etc.]

Hmmm.  I don't think so.  Even if "success" often looks like I'm jogging in place, guess I just gotta throw on that sweat band and wear a hole in the floor.  (Although there might be some monthly whining about it. ;-)

I think Lori might have been on to something.  I don't think my general goals are excessive, but it's funny, I usually feel like I'm not exercising enough, even after a week like this past one.  I think it's because I'm sure I was doing more last summer.  But anyway, after my next race in a couple of weeks, I'm going to shift my exercise habits a bit.  I've had a lot of cardio going on recently, and I'm thinking of adjusting in favor of strength, just to shake things up a little bit over the summer.

Hockey
Our Beloved Detroit Red Wings were defeated by the San Jose Sharks.  A moment of silence, please.

[Pubsgal bows her head reverently...]

Well, the Sharks are a pretty good team, too, and they're local, although I'd love to see one of the Canadian teams get the cup.  Then again, Canada got the Olympic gold medal this year, and the Sharks have never gotten to hoist the Cup.  So other than Mr. Handsome-and-Handy's brother rubbing it in our faces, it would be nice to see the Sharks have their year with Stanley. 

Cool news!
First, I'm going to see Foodie McBody of FoodFoodBodyBody in her solo performance show on Sunday! 
Woo hoo!!!  I met her last year in person at the See Jane Run "I Race for Chocolate and Champagne" 5K, so it will be good to see her again.  I'm a little anxious about going up to the city by myself, country mouse that I am, so this should be a good experience, aside from enjoying her show.

Second, I picked up a copy of May 2010 Shape magazine to read about our fantastic Lori of Finding Radiance!  Loved the article!  You looked fantastic in print, too, Lori!  (Although...no mention of your blog!  What's up with that?)  I noticed another article that cracked me up a little bit.  It was about how fun and accessible sprint triathlons are, with a starting training plan, and I thought that was terrific!  Where I parted sentiment from the magazine, though, was in their "stuff to get" gear recommendations.  If you really needed to have $140 running shoes and a $1000+ road bike to enjoy this sport, I'd still be sitting on the sidelines waving my cowbell.  (Except...I'd have to have bought a cowbell.) 

Progress This Week

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

Weight goals: +.2.  Maintenance, I'll take it.  I'm not surprised; I was over my net calories for last week.  There is a glimmer of good news, though; because I was more careful than I had been, my weight wasn't all over the place during the past week, like it has been tending to do.

Food goals: I tracked 6/7 days last week.  (I ended up taking Mother's Day off.)  Of days tracked, I was over by 481 net calories for last week.  Trouble days were (predictably) Friday and Saturday...and probably Sunday, although I didn't feel like I went too far overboard.
Fiber: On days tracked, averaged 29 grams/day.

Exercise goals: Met all goals this week, although counting climbing around on the monkey bars as a strength workout is stretching it a little bit, I suppose.....
Total mileage: 41.79 miles (2 spin classes - woot!)
Wednesday - 70 minutes (2.18 miles) - Stationary bike (10 minutes, 2.18 miles) to warm up for Body Pump class (1 hour).
Thursday - 82 minutes (20.07 miles) - 58 minutes (18.07 miles) spin class + 24 minutes (2 miles) on the treadmill at the gym.
Friday - 29 minutes (1.52 miles) - Neighborhood walk.  Blood sugar before was 132; blood sugar after was 87. Walking is a great way to counter elevated blood glucose levels. I'm still amazed at how well it works.
Saturday -Rest
Sunday - 45 minutes - Family "play-out" at the park after dinner.  Lots of tag and climbing, and Thing 1 and I ran a circle around the park.  Mr. H&H wondered why we were the only parents there not parked on a bench, but we sure needed to move after dinner out.
Monday - 53 minutes (15.02 miles) - Spin class.  It usually goes for an hour, but I think the evening instructors having back-to-back classes means that they have to finish the spin portion a little earlier than the lunchtime classes.  I didn't really like this particular instructor; he did too much yelling at people to go faster. I much prefer the instructors who tell you what you need to do for a particular drill, and yell encouragement, but each person has different capabilities speed-wise, and the instructors need to have respect for that.
Tuesday - 60 minutes (3 miles) - Lunchtime walk.  I walked to the post office, so got stamps, sunshine, and a great walk!  Score!

Teeth: Flossed all but one day.
Sleep: Getting 7-8 hours per night.
Hockey Respite for Mr. H&H:  Some of those games were early, but I'd say this was accomplished.  Coming off the goals list this week, since the Red Wings are out.

Goals for Next Week

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

Food goals:
* Track food intake DAILY.
* Track fiber, aiming for at least 30 grams/day average.

Exercise goals:
* 30 minutes of activity 5 days/week.
* Spin class at least once per week. I'd like to shoot for two, since I'm doing the bike portion of the "Tri the Coast" in early June.
* 2 strength sessions

Misc. goals:
* Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans 21 Day Habit Challenge goal of flossing daily.
* 7 or more hours sleep/night.

Weekly Update, 4/28/10 (OMB! Edition)

Happy Wednesday!

First of all, thanks for sharing your insights on coke/soda/pop! I'm a word geek, so the regional variations are fun for me! I know that out here in California, we generally call it "soda"; in Michigan, where Mr. Handsome-and-Handy's family resides, it's "pop," and the "o" is pronounced somewhere between an "o" and an "a," so it sounds more like "pap." I've never heard of it being called "coke," and I lived in North Carolina for 6 months--which I realize is not Tennessee, but is close. So far, the soda issue has been a non-issue. The Things generally drink water or milk at home.  I suspect we'll handle soda the way we do fruit juice or punch: allowed outside home or when we host parties, but we won't go out of our way to buy it.  For parties we host, we'll still favor real fruit juice or something like sparkling fruit juice if they want something fizzy, or maybe use your make-your-own-soda-with-fruit-juice ideas, I liked those!


OMB!

Thanks, Debby of Debby Weighs In, for the "Oh My Blog" award! Woo hooo!!!!

Here's what I get to do:

1. Get really excited that you got the coolest award EVER! (DULY ACCOMPLISHED)
2. Choose ONE of the following options of accepting the OMB award:
1. Get really drunk and blog for 15 minutes straight, or for as long as you can focus.
2. Write about your most embarrassing moment.
3. Write a “Soundtrack of your childhood” post.
4. Make your next blog a ‘vlog’/video blog. Basically, you’re talking to the camera about whatever.
5. Take a picture of yourself first thing in the morning, before you do anything else (hair, make up, etc)and post it.
3. Pass the award on to at least three, but preferably more, awesome bloggers as yourself. Don’t forget to tell them.

And my "pass-it-on" picks are...oh my. I have too many bloggers who inspire me with their awesomeness. But for this one, I'm going to pick the following people. (And gals, I will not be offended if you choose to opt out or not pass it on, but I thought you might enjoy playing):

• Christie O of Baby Tea Leaves, who constantly inspires me with her Iron HumanitarianHotmama-ness and to our delight also enjoys writing about item 2.2.
  
• My favorite yogi, Ms. Fatterton, of The Weight-Loss Blog of Fattie Fatterton. Did you know that she and Future Hubby are walking the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K? You go, girl!!!  Thanks to you both, on behalf of my mom, aunt, cousin-in-law, and childhood friend, all breast cancer survivors.  It touches so many people.
  
• Brooke of Smart + Strong = Sexy, who just experienced a terrific breakthrough and is training for her first sprint triathlon!
  
• Josie (the Runner!) of 35 and Shrinking for her irrepressible optimism and amazing successes in health and fitness!
  

As I told Debby, perhaps if I combine ALL of the #2 options, it would result in a *new* most embarrassing moment. Entertaining as that may be for all y'all, I think the online world is really better off without a first-thing-in-the-morning drunken vlog of me singing "Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Stayin' Alive! Stayin' Alive!" Truly.

So I'm going with embarrassing moments. You all know that I love me some fitness misadventures. Scattering belongings across the bike course in a triathlon? Sporting a wetsuit and swimcap in public places with camerapeople? Farting in Pilates class? Forgetting my t-shirt for BodyPump class and baring my midriff in all its fluffy glory (and nearly spilling the girls out of the inadequate sports bra) rather than miss class? Wearing the wrong clothes (loose t-shirt and very undergarment-looking bra) for yoga class inversions? All just more fodder for the blog.

But they're nothing compared to my most embarrassing moment. Which wasn't in high school, when I helped set up a volleyball net at the beach, slipped, and dangled from the horn cleat (the t-shaped thing around which you wind the rope) before my sweatpants gave way with a hearty "rrrrrrrrrrip!" and left me sprawled on the ground. With a big ol' rip in the front of my pants. Nope, that wasn't it. It was fall of my first year in middle school, and our PE teacher's #1 rule was to take our clothes home every weekend and wash out the gym class funk. Made sense, even if you weren't a very modest and rule-abiding lass like myself. (Hey, quit snickering out there!) Unfortunately, I forgot my clothes one Friday. When I tried to go to the locker room after school, it was...well...locked. So I went to the office to ask to be let in. The very trusting secretary gave me the key, and when I put it in the door and started to open it, I was face to face with a man! It was the coach of the visiting football team. Apparently, since the high school games were played on the middle school field, the visiting team got the girls' locker room. A whole room full of teen boys in various states of undress let out an uproar. I blushed a hue of red not commonly seen in nature. Yet, I persisted! (*groan*. I know.) I allowed the coach to escort me to my locker. More hooting and cat-calls. I dialed the combination with trembling hands, and yanked. Chukka-chukka-chukka. Nothing. I tried again. CHUKKA-CHUKKA-CHUKKA! Damn.  I'm sure I would have thought some more choice words had I been a little older. "Um...I must have the wrong locker." At this point, it was all just too much, so I just allowed the coach to escort me out, sans gym clothes. I slunk off to the office, returned the key, clambered into my mom's car, and burst into tears. She did, too...hers were tears of mirth, though, when I told her what had happened. Turns out that getting my locker open would only have increased my humiliation: I'd left my gym clothes in math class.

Of course, somewhere out there in blog land, that guy I tried NOT to see (honest!) sporting only a cup is probably writing, "Well, MY most embarrassing moment was when this GIRL came into our locker room before the big game. And Coach actually believed that story of hers about forgetting her gym clothes. Can you believe it?!?!"

Progress This Week

7-day blood glucose average: 103 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting blood glucose average: 100 (met goal of less than 120)

Weight goals: +4.2. Huh, weird. This puts me over my "red-line" weight; time to buckle down.  Luckily Mr. Handsome-and-Handy bought some bags of salad on sale!

Food goals: Tracked 4/7 days. Guess I'm tracking the *wrong* days.
Fiber: On days tracked, averaged 40 grams/day.

Exercise goals: Making good progress on my training. And I met all of my goals this week. Woo hoo!!!
Total mileage for the week was 43.78 miles. (Thank you, spin class, for helping me racking up the miles!)
Wednesday - 77 minutes (1.36 mi) - 1 hour of BodyPump class and 17 minute treadmill run/walk.
Thursday - 60 minutes (15.94 miles) - Spin class
Friday - Rest day
Saturday - Rest day
Sunday - 60 minutes - Intensive yard work. Definitely counting this as strength exercise!
Monday - 65 minutes (20.38 miles) - Spin class
Tuesday - 30 minutes (6.1 miles) - Stationary bike before bed. If I were only so good about flossing my teeth.

Sleep: Getting 7-8 hours per night.
Hockey Respite for Mr. H&H: Accomplished! And the Red Wings advanced to round 2, so looks like I'll have to keep this in my goals.

Goals for Next Week

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

Food goals:
* Track food intake.
* Track fiber, aiming for at least 30 grams/day average.

Exercise goals:
* 30 minutes of activity 5 days/week.
* Spin class at least once per week. I'd like to shoot for two, since I'm doing the bike portion of the "Tri the Coast" in early June.
* 2 strength sessions (BodyPump + something on my own)

Misc. goals:
7 or more hours sleep/night.
Continued "Hockey Respite" for Mr. H&H: It's Stanley Cup season - where possible, get home in time for Mr. Handsome-and-Handy to watch the Detroit

Red Wings playoff games. (Go Wings!)