"They run for fun..."

...but not on the hot, hot sun. Except maybe once in awhile. It's mostly foggy, or cool and breezy, at my son's elementary school. Thing 1 has PE class once a week. Starting in first grade, their PE teacher uses foot print charts to log their running. Each time they complete 5 miles, they get a tiny, plastic foot.

At open house last night, his PE teacher came up and asked him if he'd received his silver foot. It turns out that a silver foot means a child has run 50 miles, and his was waiting on his desk in their classroom. (Plus they get a special prize when they achieve 50 miles, other than amazing their parents.) Wow! My people aren't built for fast running--and this discourages Thing 1 a bit--but we are a persistent bunch.

If your kid likes running, or might like to try it, the Kids Running web site has charts similar to the ones they use at my son's school.

Our school district also has a great program for learning about healthy eating, agriculture, and the environment. I'm not sure exactly how much Thing 1 absorbs in HEAL class--he's not terribly communicative in general about his school days--but he always brings home a good joke from class and he tells us about the new foods they try. Last Friday: "I tried a *whole grain* today. It was good." Not like this is completely new--we get bread with whole grains--but I guess it's something completely different when you try just the grain itself. ;-)

It's very comforting to know that kids are being exposed to good stuff like this at school. Sometimes hearing the same stuff from someone other than your parents makes it just that much more credible....

Weekly Update, 5/19/09

It's going to be a hectic time over the next month: major work deadlines, end of the school year, and the Things' big dance recital! Aaaiiieee! I probably won't be posting on my own blog more than once per week, but I'll probably still be reading and commenting on other blogs, for sanity's sake. :-) And of COURSE I'll be posting about my May 30 race, when "I run for chocolate and champagne!"

The discussion over on MizFit about kids and body image (and what we can do to help) definitely has me thinking a lot about how Things 1 & 2 perceive food and exercise. On the one hand, I wonder how much they notice my exercise, since I tend to work out before they wake up or at lunch. I'm also interested in their inevitable post-race question: "Did you win?" They seem disappointed when I tell them "No, but I had lots of fun." Definitely need to get them to an event to show them how much fun it can be just *being* a part of it. (Most events are really early on a weekend morning, and the last one was very rainy. I'm hoping we can all make it to the race at the end of the month.)

Food-wise, I know they get some mixed messages from Mr. Handsome-and-Handy and me. We both struggle with balancing love of tasty food and desire for healthy bodies. Quality-wise, we do okay (mostly!); quantity is the challenge. They see me eating mostly after work; I tend to be rather food-obsessed when I walk through the door, and I think I need to be more mindful of what message that gives them. Perhaps I ought to plan on spending a half hour or so on "re-entry" before I tackle my plate. Maybe a snack when I leave work would help? (Said plate is loaded with healthy stuff; good. The after-dinner-cupboard-rummage that sometimes happens? Not so good.)

Thing 2 wanted me to go outside with her and play. I was balking; I'd just gotten home from work and felt a little tired. "C'mon!" she urged. "It'll give you muuuuuuuscles!" That not only cracked me up, it also got me into my "play clothes" and out the door rather quickly. Thing 1 has been kind of reluctant to get outside as much, since the herd of boys next door moved away last summer. I think I need to do a little more noodging to get him outside with us. He's fast and agile on bike and scooter, and he's developing great thowing and catching skills at flag football class. Sadly, it sometimes takes him a loooong time to do his homework. When I'm on homework duty, I sometimes have him break it up a bit and do some quick exercises as he gets set parts of it done. We jump around and run laps around the living room.

Progress last week

7-day blood glucose average: 99 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting average: 101 (met goal of less than 120, 100% of days)
Weight goal: 0 lb (met goal of either maintain or make progress toward goal)

Food goals:
- Consumed 4 meatless, low-fat meals and 1 fish meals. (met meatless meal goal; missed fish meal goal)
- Met goal of 30 grams of fiber or greater 3/7 days last week. (didn't do quite so well as last week's 4/7...it's challenging to get that much fiber into a day!)
- Met coffee goal 5/5 week days.

Exercise goals:
Met my Women's Challenge goals, but didn't quite meet the personal goal of 30 minutes x 5 days/week, and I missed my swim. (Unless sitting in the wading pool with Things 1 & 2 and having them pour water over my head counts. No? Drat, didn't think so.) Did 1 spin class, one run, two "30 Day Shred" sessions, and one walk. Since I missed BodyPump class due to work schedule, I did my strength training at home that day.

Misc. goals: Got adequate sleep all nights.

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:
- 4 or more meatless, low-fat meals and 2 or more fish meals.
- On work days, switch to tea and plain water after that first cup of coffee.
- Track fiber. Minimum 30 grams fiber/day and work up to consuming 50 grams fiber/day. (Include both insoluble and soluble sources.)

Exercise goals:
Minimum of 30 minutes of workout 5 days/week. Workouts to include at least 1 bike, 1 run, and 1 swim per week, plus 2 strength training per week.

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

Weekly update, 5/12/09

Progress last week

7-day blood glucose average: 99 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting average: 97 (met goal of less than 120, 100% of days)
Weight goal: -1 lb (met goal of either maintain or make progress toward goal)

Food goals:
- Consumed 5 meatless, low-fat meals and 0 fish meals. (met meatless meal goal; missed fish meal goal)
- Met goal of 30 grams of fiber or greater 4/7 days last week.
- Met coffee goal 3/5 week days.

Exercise goals:
Met ALL goals! Woo hoo!!! Workouts: at least 30 minutes/day for 5 out of 5 days, plus one 20-minute workout on the weekend. Did 1 spin class + half run, 1 full run, one swim, one walk; did two strength workouts: BodyPump class and one at-home workout.

Misc. goals: Got adequate sleep all nights. I didn't always brush and floss right after dinner, but will leave that on the goal list.

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:
- 4 or more meatless, low-fat meals and 2 or more fish meals.
- On work days, switch to tea and plain water after that first cup of coffee.
- Track fiber. Minimum 30 grams fiber/day and work up to consuming 50 grams fiber/day. (Include both insoluble and soluble sources.)

Exercise goals:
Minimum of 30 minutes of workout 5 days/week. Workouts to include at least 1 bike, 1 run, and 1 swim per week, plus 2 strength training per week.

Misc. goals:
- 7 or more hours sleep/night.
- Brush and floss teeth right after dinner!

P.S. - LOVED the new Star Trek movie! What a blast!!!

TGIF

It's Fri-DAY! Friday Friday Friday Friday Frrriiii-DAY! I'm in a silly mood, could ya tell? Must have been the last item on the "miscellaneous good things this week" list:

• I am one strength exercising away from meeting my Women's Challenge goal for the week. (LOVE being on Team MizFit!!!)
• The Detroit Red Wings won Game 4. Decisively. :-D
• The SFGate.com parenting blog, "The Poop," had an article this week that is now one of my all-time favorites: "Benefits of Parenting: kids are optimistic". Things 1 and 2 are not all sunshine and rainbows all the time, but I love how often times it's the littlest things that make them giddy. (For example, thanks to Mr. Handsome-and-Handy-and-Innovative, the card game "Go Fish" has a new rule: if you get a pair of Jacks, you get to tickle the other players!)
  
• We're going to see the new Star Trek movie on opening weekend! We hardly ever go to movies together anymore, with babysitting being so expensive, but we always make an exception for Star Trek. (And you know something is funny when you get it sent to you from two people who usually do not bother forwarding humor stuff. From The Onion: "Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'.")
  
• Oh, and for MizFit: On track with fiber goals (thanks, in part, to ch-ch-chia!), mostly on track with the coffee. Got an extra one after the dentist yesterday; it was just a cleaning, but boy, going there really stresses me out. Today, I just wanted a Friday treat, and it was the totally worth it, totally delightful cappuccino this morning (thank you, Three Bees barista!):
  

Hope everyone has a terrific Friday and weekend! Early "Happy Mother's Day" to all the gals out there, moms (of kids human or otherwise)/daughters/aunties/nieces/grandmas!

Weekly update, 5/5/09

Feliz Cinco de Mayo! It's been rainy in my corner of the world, which is a bit unusual for May. Luckily it stayed dry enough to run yesterday morning...after days of gray, I sure didn't feel like going, but I went. We had a good friend come over for dinner on Saturday, and Sunday was the marathon Red Wings vs. Ducks hockey game. Sadly for us, the Wings lost at the start of the 3rd overtime.

Thing 2 and I enjoyed a "puddle walk" on Sunday afternoon, much needed after being cooped up in the house. How did she get so much splash out of such small puddles? She also collected snails and handed them to me. I think I had about 20 twining over my hands and making their way up my jacket. We piled them on the grass next to an old rose tree between our yard and the neighbor's, where they untangled themselves and started oozing for cover. I feel kind of torn about snails: they're cute (albeit slimy), but they can wreck havoc on a garden. Most of our plants are snail resistant, but they keep chomping down my broccoli sprouts and eating the strawberries. The things we do to make kids happy....

Last Friday, I exercised my "social muscle" (vs. my "resistance muscle" or my *cough* "spinning muscles" like I'd planned) and went to lunch with co-workers. I have no regrets (except, maybe, picking up an order for Mr. Handsome-and-Handy to enjoy for dinner). (Which is why I started doing more workouts at lunchtime.) We went to the fabulous "Piccadilly Catering" and were served the best fried chicken I have ever eaten, lovingly prepared by Pam the Funktress (who's also a local DJ). It was better than bacon...AND chocolate. I was also delighted by the fresh green salad: mixed greens, cucumber, and tomato, with the dressing served on the side (without one having to ask for it that way). Hmmm...is ordering fried chicken with a side of salad sort of like having a diet coke with a cheeseburger and fries? ;-)

Speaking of less-than-optimally-healthy food, want a visual on how much sugar is in a pint of Ben & Jerry's (and other foods)? Check out "Sugar Stacks". (Ice cream is under the Dessert link).

Progress last week

7-day blood glucose average: 97 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting average: 94 (met goal of less than 120, 100% of days)
Weight goal: +.8 lb (did not meet goal of maintain or lose)

Food goals:
- Consumed 8 meatless, low-fat meals and 0 fish meals. (met meatless meal goal; missed fish meal goal)
- Met goal of 30 grams of fiber or greater 4/7 days last week.
- Met coffee goal 3/5 week days. (not so good)

Exercise goals:
Met goal of 30 minutes/day for 4 out of 5 days. Did 1 run and 1 half-runs, one swimming workout, and one walk. Missed spin class and strength by 1 workout (made my BodyPump class, missed my home workout).

Misc. goals: Got adequate sleep all but one night. I didn't always brush and floss right after dinner, but will leave that on the goal list.

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:
- 4 or more meatless, low-fat meals and 2 or more fish meals.
- Keep the good coffee habit going on week days: 1 coffee/day, with 2T fat-free half-and-half and 1/4-1/2 cup almond milk. Switch to tea and plain water after that first cup.
- Track fiber. Minimum 30 grams fiber/day and work up to consuming 50 grams fiber/day. (Include both insoluble and soluble sources.)

Exercise goals:
Minimum of 30 minutes of workout 5 days/week. Workout to include at least 1 bike, 1 run, and 1 swim per week, plus 2 strength training per week.

Misc. goals:
- 7 or more hours sleep/night.
- Brush and floss teeth right after dinner!

Review of "The Beck"!

[OMG! I finally posted something more interesting that a weekly update! :-D]

I finished listening to The Beck Diet Solution audio CD. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to finish it, because--as I noted in a previous blog entry--the reader's voice really bothered me at first. (Interestingly enough, I'm not alone: several of the Amazon.com reviewers also preferred the author's voice to the narrator's, saying that Dr. Beck's voice was more "real" and "personable" and that the narrator sounded too "peppy and Hollywood.")

As I kept listening, though, I found that I didn't mind so much. I'm thinking that one of the following happened:
A. The narrator warmed up to the material as the book progressed.
B. I felt ashamed of my intense reaction and got over it.
C. I realized that the narrator's voice sounded a lot like the narrator in the children's TV show Miffy, and that was somewhat less threatening. (The Miffy narrator sounds like she may have been Martha Stewart's preschool teacher....)

Oh yes! The content:

Likes:

• The book talks a lot about hunger vs. cravings vs. just feeling like eating, and it coaches you on how to develop mindfulness of and resistance to all three. I don't really like the idea of not eating when you're hungry, but it is something I had to do at first: I always felt hungry, because I was used to eating a larger volume of food than I needed and because hunger can be one of the signs of blood glucose levels that are *too high*. Anyhow, the way she talked about learning to distinguish the three and deal with them made me think that mindfulness training would be very helpful for dealing with the habit and craving part. (Especially if you're having a hard time distracting yourself: sometimes you just need to sit with a feeling.) I was reminded of Pema Chodron's works--a lot of her teaching has to do with addictive behavior--especially Getting Unstuck.

• Similarly to the Life is Hard, Food is Easy book that Juice is reading, Dr. Beck talks very sensibly about deprivation. There are some areas of our life in which we have "must do" and "must not do" behaviors, and we often don't give them much thought at all. What's the deal with food???
  

• I don't know why, but I liked the "oh well" as a catch phrase for accepting unpleasant circumstances. "I don't like this, but I accept that it's what I have to do, and I move on."

• Some of the sabotaging throughts/helpful responses were kind of hokey, but I think it's a useful technique to talk oneself down from a sabotage situation.

• Negative emotions are not an emergency. How often I forget that simple fact!

• I liked her maintenance advice. I've read it elsewhere (Hi Miz!), and it seems very sound. I like that she emphasizes going for a realistic healthy weight than an impossible-to-maintain goal weight, and that it might take some time for a person to figure out what that range is going to be.

Dislikes (very few!)

• Word choice. "Diet" and "skinny" and "thin," mainly. I suspect that Dr. Beck uses those terms, because "being thin" really does motivate a lot of people, and she's offering a more sensible way of "dieting" than crash diets and the like. This time around, I am much more motivated to be healthy than to be thin, and my end result may not be my goal weight.

• The "you can't have this" advice. I guess in some ways, I use it, but I tend to not make "always" or "never" type of rules. (Which, as I've noted before, don't work for me: they set up "forbidden fruits.")

• Contradictory, or common sense? There's advice later on to be flexible and to avoid the "always or "never" type of thinking...the context is that being too rigid can put too much stress on a person, and too much stress is unhealthy.

Book vs. CD
Aside from "the voice," I think the audio CD would be better as a companion piece to the book. There's a lot that didn't stick with me, and were I following the plan, I'd want to have the book around for reference and refreshing. I don't think I'd find the book alone as useful, either: I often have a hard time staying engaged with non-fiction material. And I liked the way that bits and pieces stuck around in my memory later, as sabotaging thoughts and behavior came up, "helpful responses" would pop into my mind. Which is undoubtedly why the program calls for people making response cards and reading them repeatedly. Kind of nice to have the CD do that for me. ;-)

Becking and Blogging
I found that very little of the material was completely new to me, especially since I've been reading numerous health and fitness blogs for nearly a year now and had been a Weight Watchers member in years past. Blogging really complements "Becking," because the online community is like having a whole bunch of diet coaches, and blog writing and commenting provide ways of working through the sabotaging thoughts & behaviors and figuring out helpful responses.

Weekly update, 4/28/09

Wow, what a week! Not totally to plan, but more "on" than "off." I think cutting back on the nuts and upping my veggies (and fiber) during the week helped more than I thought, especially since we had a date night on Saturday and I indulged. I think my only regret is not having fit in some more strength training.

Progress last week

7-day blood glucose average: 101 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting average: 95 (met goal of less than 120, 100% of days)
Weight goal: -2.4 lbs (met goal of maintain or lose; new "official" low)

Food goals:
- Consumed 4 meatless, low-fat meals and 2 fish meals. (missed meatless meal goal by 1; met fish meal goal)
- Met goal of 30 grams of fiber or greater 6/7 days last week; the one missed day I got 25, the minimum recommended. Upping my fiber has been challenging, but I feel like I'm making better food choices to get there.
- Sugar-free candy removed from the car. The car has long been a place of mindless eating for me, so gum only seems to be a better way to go.
- Met coffee goal 4/5 week days.

Exercise goals:
Met goal of 30 minutes/day for 5 days. Did 1 run and 2 half-runs, one spin class, one swimming workout, and one walk. Missed strength by 1 workout (made my BodyPump class, missed my home workout).

Misc. goals: Got adequate sleep all but one night. I didn't always brush and floss right after dinner, but will leave that on the goal list.

Monthly measure

I'm happy to report some progress here! Bust is down half an inch, waist is holding steady, and hips are down half an inch. Thighs are down 1 inch. Woo hoo!

Goals for this week

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

Food goals:
- 4 or more meatless, low-fat meals and 2 or more fish meals.
- Keep the good coffee habit going on week days: 1 coffee/day, with 2T fat-free half-and-half and 1/4-1/2 cup almond milk. Switch to tea and plain water after that first cup.
- Track fiber. Minimum 30 grams fiber/day and work up to consuming 50 grams fiber/day. (Include both insoluble and soluble sources.)

Exercise goals:
Minimum of 30 minutes of workout 5 days/week. Workout to include at least 1 bike, 1 run, and 1 swim per week, plus 2 strength training per week.

Misc. goals:
- 7 or more hours sleep/night.
- Brush and floss teeth right after dinner!