Archive for November, 2009

Operation Crazy Owl continues

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Well, I’m starting week 3 of Operation Crazy Owl. I started going to the gym at 5:00 on Wednesday the 18th, so the first week was a short week. I did it again last week, but Wednesday, the door wouldn’t open to let me in; Thursday, I exercised at home; Friday, I went around 8:00. So this week will be the first actual full week of getting up at crazy early in the morning to go to the gym.

It really feels like I’ve been doing this for longer than I have. I can’t put my finger on why that’s the case, but it really feels like I’ve been doing this for ages. It’s still not fun getting out of bed at that time of day. I’m still struggling with being super tired later in the day.

But getting that done right away makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something really difficult. It helps me know how much I can eat for the day because I’ve already done my exercising. I have the option of just going home and slouching around the whole evening without feeling too guilty because I’ve already done what I would usually be avoiding on those evenings. And I’ve been falling asleep more quickly in the evening.

It has its pros and cons, but I’m definitely enjoying the pros much more than the cons are bothering me. I really hope to be able to sustain this for the long run.

Which is good because I had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday and my cholesterol levels and my triglycerides are up. (Dad, those triglycerides are probably partially your fault! ;) ) So I’ve got an appointment set up for 3 months to see if what I’m doing is making a difference to those things. I’m adding fish oil pills to my diet, and I’m going to make sure I get the milled flaxseed put back in there, too. With those two things, the exercise I’m doing, and the changes I’m making to my diet, I should be able to make some progress on that.

I’m still having trouble figuring out a “heart-healthy” diet. From my research, this is what I should be doing:

Fat should make up 25-35% of my daily diet.
Of that, less than 7% should be saturated fats
And less than 1% should be trans fat

I should have less than 200 mg of cholesterol a day

I should have 25-30g of fiber a day, in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes

Sodium should be less than 1,500 mg a day.

And I should eat fish twice a week.

I have a really long way to go.

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Very fun!

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

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Responses to comments

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Because writing a new post is so much easier than making a response comment to a comment:

Krista

Thank you!

Mom

What is a package of butternut squash?  Is that just one squash?  Your recipe sounds SO good, though!  I’m definitely going to give that one a try!

Right now what I’m doing for my oatmeal is this, usuallywith water, though the one day I added pumpkin spice soy milk it was AMAZING:

  • Oatmeal, dried cranberries, brown sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg.

I’ve also done:

  • Oatmeal, apple cider mix, brown sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg.

And:

  • Oatmeal, raisins, brown sugar, flaxseed.

(I really need to remember to add flaxseed to my next batch that I mix up.)

And I’ve done:

  • Oatmeal, apple bits, brown sugar.

I’ve never tried peanut butter, but it just doesn’t seem like it would taste very good . . . .  I’m a little chicken.  :)   But I’ll try to try it over this weekend, since I’ll be doing breakfast at home.  And I’ve never tried ginger, either.  I’ve not done much of ANYthing with ginger.  I’ll give that a look, too!  And the applesauce idea sounds SO yummy!

I really have to find a way to cut down on the sugar I’m putting in there, too.

I absolutely love shrimp!  I don’t have it very often because it’s kind of expensive.  But I should really look into learning how to shell and de-vein them myself and I betcha I could find a local fisherman selling them fresh really cheap.  I should really take advantage of living on the coast!

I haven’t done much fish cooking, either, actually.  I’m nervous about not cooking it through all the way or doing something that makes us both really sick.  I love having baked fish when I go out to eat, though, so I should really learn how to cook it at home.  Plus there are so many good things in fish.  Your salmon recipe sounds really good, too, so I’ll see if I can figure out how to get more confident in that one.

Amy

I like a wide variety of things.  What I’d really love is a bunch of ways to fit vegetables into my meals, though.  I’ve been stuck in a salad rut for veggies and there have got to be so many other ways to include them!

I heard a baked veggie idea that I’m going to try.  And I’m definitely trying Mom’s soup idea, but Justin doesn’t like squash, so he won’t eat it.

I tend to eat a lot of complex carbs like breads.  And I need to cut down on those A LOT.  Especially for my body type, I need to kick those as much as I can.

And there are days when I enjoy cooking and days when I don’t.  Justin and I have been known to spend well over an hour working on a meal.  And then there are those frozen pizza days . . . .  But now that I’m exercising in the morning most days, I have more time in the evenings to make meals, so longer, more complicated meals are a welcome concept!

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Whirlwind weekend!

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Friday was a long, difficult day at work.  There was a lot of craziness going on trying to get a project finished.  I actually ended up staying an hour longer than I usually stay at work just so I could finish up my part of the project before heading home.  Once I got home, I started packing for our weekend away from home.

We didn’t actually leave the house until after 5:00, so we didn’t make it to Orlando until probably around 11:00 Friday night.  It was late.  I’d been up since 5:00 and I was tired.  We climbed into the room set up by Justin’s ex-stepmom and her husband and went to sleep.

The next morning, Justin, his mom, his sister, and I made a fairly slow start to our day.  The other half of our party (Justin’s ex-stepmom, her husband, and her father) went to visit family in the area, so the rest of us were on our own for the day.  Justin and his mom went to Target to pick up a few things (breakfast, sunscreen, etc.).  And then the four of us went to Disney World for the afternoon!

It was a blast!  We went through the Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Tour, the Swiss Family Robinson House, the Pirates of the Caribbean, and Stitch’s Great Escape.  My favorite was probably the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor.  It’s just a comedy show done by the characters from the Monster’s Inc. movie.  But it’s so cool!  They pick people from the audience for parts of the sketch, and even though it’s completely animated, the characters REACT to the things that the audience is doing, with no visible delay.  And it’s hilarious!

I think Justin said his favorite was Splash Mountain, in a big part because of my reactions.  I’d never been on that ride before.  I don’t do roller coasters very well.  And we were in the very first row of the car.  I was absolutely TERRIFIED going down that waterfall.  And at the bottom, I was completely soaked down the side that was toward the outside of the ride – shoulders to knee.  Justin felt really sorry that I got so wet and he was surprised that I was shaking after we got to the bottom because I was so scared, but he was so glad that I was brave enough to try something that was scary for me.  And he was more than willing to give me hugs and a ridiculously expensive cappuccino to help me warm up.  And it’s funny how getting scared totally out of your wits can be so FUN!

Space Mountain was down for refurbishment and we decided not to wait in the incredibly long line for Thunder Mountain.  We were there all afternoon and a little into the evening before we decided to call it quits because we were too tired.  We went back to the room, showered, I took a bath in the Jacuzzi in our room, and then chatted with Justin’s stepmom, et alii, until about midnight when we all crashed into bed.

Sunday morning, we had to check out of our room and get moving between 8 – 8:30.  Justin’s mom and sister are staying in Orlando with the rest of the group until Thursday, and the other three are flying out on Saturday.  Justin and I had to be back for work this morning, so we threw all of our luggage in the car while Justin’s mom and sister put all their luggage into the other room with everybody else.  And then we set out for Cape Canaveral.

There, we met a gentleman who used to work in the Air Force base and who gives tours to groups of people all around the Cape.  Justin’s ex-stepmom’s father used to work at the base back in the 50s and 60s on one of the early rocket programs, the Navaho.  So we drove around to where they used to launch those missiles.  And then we drove around to see a whole lot of the other launch pads, where they launched the Gemini missions and the Apollo missions and the first satellites and oodles of others.  We got to see, from a fairly good distance, the rocket that was scheduled to go up last night at midnight.  We got to get right up close to the beast of a machine that brings the rockets from the Vertical Assembly Building over to the launch pads.  Basically, we drove all over that base and a little bit of the Kennedy Space Center without being on a tour bus and getting into a lot of places where people aren’t usually allowed to go.  It was a fascinating bit of history and I should do some research to figure out exactly what it was that I was allowed to see.  It was really mind boggling to see all of it.

After the tour, we went to a seafood place to eat a very late lunch and treat our tour guide to a meal.  We chatted and enjoyed some great company together for about an hour, when Justin realized it was already after 5:00.  We had a long drive yet to make, so we said our good-byes and set off to drive back home.

The drive home was uneventful, we made it in sometime between 10 and 11 o’clock and crashed into bed to sleep.

It was a whirlwind couple of days!  But it was an absolute blast.  We had a LOT of fun.  And we got to spend some good quality time with Justin’s family.  This was basically our Thanksgiving holiday with them so we made the most of the time that we had.  And I think we used up that time as much as we possibly could.

I don’t have any pictures because I completely failed to bring my camera.  I do have a picture on my phone of the Cinderella castle, but that’s it.  I think we’ll get some photos emailed to us from the other people who were there, though, so hopefully I’ll be able to post some eventually.

And there you go!  That was my weekend!

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I wish . . . .

Friday, November 20th, 2009

I wish people would not assume that I don’t understand nutrition.  I get it.  I know how it works and how important it is.  I even understand a whole lot about how it’s supposed to work together with other parts of fitness and living a healthy lifestyle.  That I’m not very good at it is not an indication that I don’t understand it.  It just means that I’m not very good at it.  I like egg nog.  And bread.  And juice.  But I’m not going out and having sausages for breakfast, burgers and fries for lunch, and ice cream for dinner.  I’m not downing 2 liters of soda a day.  I’m not having chocolate milk for breakfast.  I’m eating oatmeal and salads and things that are healthy.  I’m just not doing everything quite like I should be.

I wish people would not assume that what worked for you is going to work for me.  If pilates did it for you, I’m happy for you.  If nothing but broccoli and squash worked for you, I’m tickled for you.  But it doesn’t do it for me.  So please stop trying to make it so.

I wish people would not talk about how they’re so heavy and so awful-looking and have so much work to do before they can get skinny.  I’m almost 100 pounds overweight.  If you, at 15 pounds, have a lot to do, it makes me feel like a whale.  And it makes me feel like you all are looking at me like I’m a lazy, ugly, slob.  Even if that’s not at all what you’re trying to do, it’s how it seems from my end.

I wish people would understand that it’s not that I just didn’t notice the weight coming on.  It’s that there were too many other things that were more important or more interesting.  And those other things haven’t gone away.  So if I’m paying more attention now, it’s not that I wasn’t paying any attention before.

I wish people would not assume that all I want to talk about with you is weight, fitness, and food.  Yeah, I’m doing this.  Yeah, I’m thinking about it a lot.  But it’s a long, frustrating journey and I’m failing to even make a solid start.  When I’m not so sensitive about it, then I’ll be happy to chat about what’s working and not working for you and me.  But please, can we talk about something else?

I wish people would say “Of course you can!” instead of “You’re doing what?”

I wish people would share healthy recipes.

I wish I knew how to say all this without upsetting anyone.

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