9/30/12: Week 31 photo, Running Record, and Good Bye 170s!

9/30/12 - 31 Weeks and 55.2 Pounds Later

I can't believe I'm tucking in my shirt.  I never thought that would happen again!  But since this t-shirt is a little baggy it looked better tucked in, so tucked in, it is!  Jack and I took all of my too big clothes to Goodwill yesterday.  It felt great to get rid of them!  When I've lost weight before, if something was too big I would push it to the back of my closet.  Not so this time.  I am so confident that I am going to maintain this weight loss that every time I put something on and it looks like crap because it's too big, I pull it out of my closet for good.  As of today there is very little left in my closet, but since I still have 18.8 pounds to lose, I'm not buying a lot of new clothes yet.

18.8 pounds?  Did I say that?  Oh yeah, that's right!  I weighed 168.8 pounds this morning!  Yeah!!  I am still a little above my trend line, but not much, and I have lost all of the travel weight gain plus some!  It is very exciting to be in the 160s!  I feel like I am in the home stretch.  I have averaged 8 pounds per month, so by November 1st chances are I'll be inching into the 150s.  Woo Hoo!!  How exciting is that?

My last little bit of news is I set a new running record yesterday.  Jack and I mapped out a 6.4 (actually almost 6.5) mile course yesterday and I ran the entire course, without walking any of it, in 1 hour and 15 minutes!  That's slightly better than 12 minute miles!  I felt pretty good about that.  Now I know I can run the distance, swim the distance, and bike the distance.  All I have to do it put it all together!

9/29/2012: Travel Bloat

I weighed 170.8 pounds this morning which brings me within 4/10ths of a pound of what I weighed before I left for China.  Deep down inside I knew I couldn't have gained three pounds in five days, but it still feels good to see it gone so quickly!!

Yesterday I consumed 1551 calories and did strength training in the morning.  In the evening, I slept!  I totally crashed at about 7:30 last night.  I barely had the energy to have dinner with Jack and watch a little TV.  Perhaps I'll be back to normal today.  I hope so.  I don't think the jet lag will be too bad since I wasn't in China long enough to adjust to the time, there.

October is going to be a busy month.  Carla is coming home on Thursday, my dad and his wife are coming to visit next weekend, Carla's boyfriend, Drew, is coming to visit on October 13th, and I think Ruth is coming to visit in October, too!  It'll be great to see everyone, but I guess we better get some house cleaning done this weekend!

9/28/12: Frustrated, But Not Disheartened

Predictably, yet regrettably, I was almost 3 pounds heavier this morning than I was on the morning I left for China.  This morning I weighed 173.0 pounds.

It was hard to get on the scale and see the weight gain, yet I know in my heart of hearts that this is temporary.  The travel days were really rough.  It took about 27 hours to get from the door of the hotel to home.  We took a taxi to the ferry, the ferry to Hong Kong, a direct flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco, and then a direct flight from SF to Kansas City.  We would have arrived in Kansas City earlier, but our flight that was scheduled to leave San Francisco at 10:20am didn't end up leaving until 2:00pm.  In addition to the long and tiresome day, the hotel wasn't serving breakfast before we left, so we did not get to eat breakfast until we got to the airport and then we didn't have time to eat a proper breakfast so I grabbed a smoked salmon sandwich as we were boarding to eat on the plane, about 6 hours after I got up.  Between a disrupted meal schedule, the discomfort of the 12 hour flight from Hong Kong to SF, high carb airline meals, a sleepless night the night before we left, and sketchy sleep while on the plane, I found it very difficult to eat appropriately yesterday, particularly as the day drug out an additional 4 hours due to our delayed flight from SF.  Also, as I mentioned in my last post, I found it difficult to eat on a schedule and eat within my normal calorie parameters while in China.  I tried not to over-eat, but I knew I was eating more calories than normal.  I also was not drinking enough water

On the flip side, I felt very good about maintaining my normal exercise routine while in China.  I exercised for an hour every day that I was on the road, and stuck very close to my normal routine.  That part felt good!

I am confident that this three pounds will come off pretty fast, as I am sure that most of the gain is water retention.  I felt my ring getting tight after our first day there.  The food was all pretty salty and I know I ate way more salt than I normally do.  Also, the stress of the travel day yesterday took its toll.  I hope to see a pretty quick drop and to be back down into the 170.somethings by my weigh-in on Monday. 

It appears as if going to China will become a more or less regular occurrence for me, so I'll have to get a handle on the food and water part of the traveling.  I can do a much better job packing snacks such as Luna Bars and I can insist on getting a couple of cases of bottled water to put in the conference room while I am there.  If I snack appropriately and drink plenty of water, I should be able to have much better control of my meal times.  I was finding myself ravenous at some of the meals, because we were eating on such a weird schedule, and I would overeat if the food was good.  At other meals the food would be so bad I would barely eat at all. 

I'm a little bummed about the weight gain, but I can't let it get me down!  I got up like normal this morning at 4:30am for my regularly scheduled personal training session with Jeremy, so that felt good to get right back into the routine of things.  My plan is to immediately get back into my normal routine of exercising 6 mornings a week for an hour, exercising most evenings for about half an hour, and eating between 1500 and 1600 calories a day.  I just hope the weight really does come off pretty fast.  I am glad that when I revised my goal I gave myself until December 31st to get to my goal weight of 150 pounds.  Because of my consistent trend line, I felt pretty confident that I could get there by December 3rd, but I thought it best to give myself until the end of the year in case there were any hiccups along the way.  So, even if I don't drop this 3 pounds in a couple of days and I just go back to losing at my normal rate, I should still reach my goal by the end of the year.  I just need to work out a solid plan for future trips to China.  At least now, I know what to expect!

China Trip - September 22nd to September 27th

It's Sunday night here in Shenzhen, Sunday morning in Kansas City. We left Kansas City at 10:00 AM central time on Saturday morning and arrived at our hotel here in China at about 9:30PM local time, on Sunday evening. We had a direct flight to San Francisco, then flew to Hong Kong from there, and took a ferry to main land China from Hong Kong. Saturday morning, before leaving for the airport I went for a 45 minute run and I just got back from the hotel gym, where I ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes. I don't have any idea how many calories I ate today...I ate the airline meals for lunch and dinner. I figured if I was going to be on a plane for 13 hours I better eat what they give me. It was hard to get enough water. I need to be sure to bring water with me on the way home. I feel like I ate too many calories, but also didn't feel like I had a lot of choices. I could have been a lot better prepared with snacks from home, but I did not have a lot of time to get ready for this trip.

It's now Monday morning, my first day in China. We are in Shenzhen and are going to spend the day with the accountants that prepared the account reconciliations for our Chinese motor manufacturing plant. It should be an interesting day and I am sure that I will learn a lot.

I started out the day with a 50 minute strength training workout in the hotel gym. They didn't have all of the equipment that I would have liked but I was able to improvise a pretty decent workout. There wasn't anyone else in the gym last night or this morning, not even an attendant. I kind of felt like I shouldn't even be there, but no one ran me out so I figured it was OK. It was hot, though! In general, Shenzhen is very hot and muggy and the hotel air conditioning isn't awesome, but it's ok. Unfortunately, both times that I went into the gym the air conditioning was turned off. I turned it on both times and propped open the doors the second time, but it was still pretty stuffy. I will say I got pretty darn sweaty! I wish now that I had packed two sets of gym clothes. I'm going to have to lay out the ones I have to dry as soon as we get to our next hotel, tonight.

Speaking of hotels, here is are a couple of photos from my room and through my window. Looks like China...















It is Tuesday morning, now, and we have changed cities after a very successful meeting yesterday with our Chinese CPAs. We are now in Zhongshan, which is where our Chinese factory is, and we are staying at the lovely Crowne Plaza Hotel. My room is beautiful and I am waiting for Patrick and a couple of other coworkers to have breakfast.

Food is a bit of a problem for me. Breakfast yesterday morning was wretched and I did my best to eat a reasonable number of calories. Lunch was delicious and I was ravenous, so I ate too much, not knowing where my next meal was coming from. Dinner was ok, but too soon after lunch and I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat much. I have no idea the number of calories I consumed yesterday, I am not even trying to count, but I am trying to eat reasonably. My hands are swollen, so I know I am eating way too much salt. Getting enough water is a problem because you can't drink the tap water. I drink bottled water whenever it is available, but that is not often enough. I went to the gym this morning and ran on the treadmill for 45 minutes at 8km per hour and did 15 minutes on the elliptical. This hotel has a nice set of weight machines and free weights, so I should be able to replicate my regular strength training workout tomorrow better than I did yesterday.

It looks like I may be coming to China regularly, as it appears as if I am going to play a major role in the oversight of the accounting for our Chinese factory. It's all quite interesting. Who knew this is where I would be, today?

It is now noonish on Thursday, September 27th, we are at the San Francisco airport waiting for our flight, which has been delayed by about two hours.

All in all, the trip to China was probably a success. We have some difficult decisions to make for the company, I have a tremendous amount to learn about operating a company in China, and we have a lot of details to work through, but I think we are on the right track towards doing the best thing for the long term health of the organization. I wonder if I can learn Mandarin? Rosetta Stone? Foreign languages have always been difficult for me to learn, at least for me to learn how to speak, but it would make my job a lot easier if I could at least understand some Mandarin.

The hotel we stayed in while in Zhongshan was very nice. Here are a couple of photos of my room and the view:




This photo was taken from inside the bathroom. Notice the big window between the tub and the bedroom. There a blind you can electronically close if you want privacy. Here is a picture with the blind halfway down.





And here's a photo of the room looking back from the window. It really was a very nicely appointed room. Knowing I will be staying here will make traveling to China regularly much more bearable.




And the view from my room...




Prettier at night...



Most of the buildings are decorated with elaborate lights at night.

The trip was a whirlwind, so I didn't get any photos other than those of and from my room. Ah well...I was actually surprised by how western everything appeared. Eventually, one of my trips to China should be long enough to do a bit of sight seeing.

I am very anxious about my weigh-in tomorrow. It was difficult to eat normal meals throughout the trip. All of my meals were much later than normal with breakfast at 8:30 in the morning and dinner often at 8:30 or 9:00 at night. Sometimes I was very hungry and I would eat a lot, because I did not have access to snacks, and other times I was not very hungry at all and I ate small amounts to be polite and to keep from getting too hungry before my next meal. It was difficult because all of our meals were centered around business meetings and I was not in control of where and when we ate. I drank no alcohol, but I did have two cokes because drinking the water was not an option. Each morning I had three fresh bottles of water in my room and I was able to refill the one I brought with me to the gym, so that helped. I still drank less water and more coffee than normal. I have no idea how much I will weigh tomorrow. It's not helping that our flight out of SFO is now 3 hours delayed. Pretty soon I am going to want to eat again. I am getting anxious to get home to my routines and my food! If I gained weight, which I am guessing I did, I hope I can lose it quickly.

Even though the food part of the trip was difficult, I was successful when it came to exercising every day. I had a little fantasy that i may be able to exercise twice on some days, and that did not happen, but I was able to go to the gym every day that I was in China. That helped me a lot.

Lastly, between our vacation and my trip to China, I have missed two Sunday photos! That's sad. So this is best I can do for now; here's a very tired looking photo of me (we left the hotel in China for the Hong Kong airport 21 hours ago) at SFO waiting for our flight to Kansas City:




Till tomorrow...here's hoping the scale results are too awful!!!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

9/21/12: China is Happening

I leave for China tomorrow (Saturday) morning.  I hope to write some blog posts while I am gone, but I may not be posting them until I get back on Thursday.

Have a great weekend!!

9/21/2012 - Measurement Day and Goals for 2013

Yesterday, as I confessed in yesterday morning's post, I did not exercise in the morning.  We didn't get home from bowling until way too late and then I had trouble sleeping, so I opted to take Thursday as my morning off to get a couple more hours of sleep, in spite of the fact that I am just starting to get back into my routine after vacation.  Although Thursday is my normal morning off from exercise (because of the late Wednesday nights), I was not very pleased about missing this particular Thursday as I feel the need to re-establish my exercise-every-day mindset.  When I decided to sleep in, yesterday, I made a commitment to myself to get to the pool last night, which I kept.  I swam for 33 minutes, 48 laps of a 25 meter pool.  Swimming was harder than it was last time I was in the pool, which was about three weeks ago.  I like being able to swim a couple of evenings a week and I can see how important it is going to be to make sure I am consistently hitting the pool to build up my distance for the triathlon next summer.

This morning was my strength training session with Jeremy.  It was pretty rough.  This was my set for today:

Run on treadmill: 2/10 of a mile at 6.7mph (This is very, very fast for me!)
--Repeat the following set 4 times
====16 Hammer pull downs: 70lbs - This exercise is on a machine, seated with chest facing the back rest.  Reach up, grab the handles and pull down.  70 pounds was very heavy and exhausted my muscles by the end of each set.
====16 Bicep curls:  20lb straight bar - This was a relatively light weight meant to stretch out the biceps after the much heavier and more difficult Hammer Pull Downs

Run on treadmill: 2/10 of a mile at 6.8mph (Getting faster!)
--Repeat the following set 4 times (Because this was measurement day, which takes time, we only repeated this set 3 times.  When on my own, I will repeat 4 times.)
====16 Cable squats: 60lbs - This exercise is on a machine, standing facing the machine, stand away from the machine a little.  The arms of the cable machine are pointed towards the floor.  Standing far enough away from the machine so there is tension on the cables, do a squat, sticking your butt out first, then lowering into the squat. (Hard, but not really hard)
====6 Walk backs:  60lbs - Still using the cable machine, hold one handle in both hands.  Squat down, keep back straight, and walk backwards, holding squat position, to fully extend cable.  Walk back holding squat position.  (Seems easy-peasy at first...but by the fourth one your quads are screaming, "No More!" and Jeremy is saying, "Two more," with that cute little grin of his...)

Run on treadmill: 2/10 of a mile at 6.9mph (Faster, yet!)
--Repeat the following set 4 times (Again, today was only 3 times because of measurements)
====16 Hammer Shoulder Presses: ?lbs (Jeremy, you forgot to write the weight down!) - This exercise is on a machine, seated with arms bent at elbows.  Push up into a shoulder press. (I find these exercises very, very difficult.  My shoulders have always been my weakest muscles, I have heard that they are also one of our smaller muscles.)
====12 Side Arm Raises: 8lb dumbbell in each hands - Start with an 8 pound dumbbell in each hand, feet should width apart, and arms at sides.  Raise arms up to the side to shoulder height.  Lower and repeat.  (Again, this is a very difficult exercise for me.  I've always had trouble with this one!)

Finish with a run on the treadmill: 2/10 of a mile at 7.0mph (Again, because of measurements, this didn't happen today.  I will finish with this when I do the routine on my own.)

And here are the results of my measurements. I am adding them to my March and August stats:
WEIGHT
March 7th:  220.4  (Actual start weight on 2/27/12 was 224.0 pounds)
August 17th:  177.2
September 21st:  170.4
Pounds lost to date:  53.6

BODY FAT %
March 7th:  39.9% (Ugh!!!)
August 17th:  32.11% (Still Ugh!! but better)
September 21st:  31% (Improving...slowly)
% Body fat lost:  almost 8.9%

CHEST MEASUREMENT (Directly under pits, above boobs)
March 7th:  40.5"
August 17:  36 1/8"
September 21st:  35"
Inches lost:  5 1/2"

WAIST MEASUREMENT (at Belly Button)
March 7th:  39"
August 17th:  32.5"
September 21st:  30.5"
Inches lost:  8 1/2"

HIP MEASUREMENT
March 7th:  49"
August 17th:  41.5"
September 21st:  40"
Inches lost:  9"

I asked Jeremy what a reasonable body fat % goal will be for me, once I have reached my target weight of 150lbs.  He suggested that 24% body fat would be "rocking it!"  I ran that number by Jack, and he thought that sounded like a great goal.  I don't know much about what a good body fat % for a fit 50ish year old women should be, so I think I am going to go with the 24% goal.  If anyone has any suggestions regarding reading material to help educate me about body fat, reasonable goals, etc..., I am always up for learning more about such things.  My original goal was to weigh 150lbs by February 4th, 2012.  I am on track to reach that goal by December 3rd, if I stay on my trend line.  Even if there is a little flattening of the trend line as I get closer to goal, I should have no problem reaching 150lbs by December 31st 2012. 

So I am officially revising my original goal:
**Goal Number 1:  Weigh 150lbs by December 31st, 2012.

And I am adding 2 fitness goals:
**Goal Number 2:  Complete an Olympic length triathlon the summer of 2013.  Olympic length is defined as:  a 1.5 kilometer (0.93 mi) swim, 40 kilometer (25 mi) bike ride, and a 10 kilometer (6.2 mi) run.

**Goal Number 3:  Reduce body fat % to 24% by December 31st, 2013.

I will have no goals to further reduce my weight once I reach 150lbs, though I recognize that I may lose a little more weight as I work towards my 2013 fitness goals.

I guess that's it for today.  I had every intention of reading a couple of chapters from "Women, Food and God" during lunch yesterday and talking about those chapters this morning, but I had early migraine symptoms (white blind spots) at lunch and needed to practice relaxation techniques instead of reading, to head off the migraine.  Luckily, I have gotten good and recognizing symptoms and learning how to avoid getting a full blown headache, and I lost the blind spots, held the migraine at bay and only had a low grade headache for the rest of the day.  I also started getting a headache this morning.  This seems to happen whenever I switch jobs.  I am not extremely stressed and I love my new job and the people I am working with, but I think I try to cram too much new information into my head all at once.  I am multi-tasking on multiple levels; learning everything I can about the company and the job, trying to produce high quality work, trying to get to know the people I work with, etc...  I think that all adds up to more stress than I realize.  I don't feel bad, in fact I feel energized and strong.  But I've had a couple of restless nights and I am having this problem with the headaches.  I think I just have to keep exercising, eating right, and getting plenty of sleep.  After a few months, the job will no longer be new and the headaches will go away.

Have an awesome Friday!

PS - Comments are always welcome.  Anyone should be able to comment on the blog, whether you have a google account or not.  Just click on the link below (if there are no comments yet, the link will say "No comments") and write away.  When you are ready to post, select "Anonymous" from the drop down menu, below the comment box (it is the last option available), and you should be able to post your comment without any trouble.  I just ask that if you do select Anonymous, please sign your name so I know who commented.  I had one person leave a comment with a link, but I didn't know who it was so I deleted the comment.  I didn't know if the link was good or not and I didn't want to risk anyone getting a virus by clicking on an unknown link on my blog.  If that someone was you, I hope you understand!!

9/20/2012: China? So Soon?

It looks like I may be going to China in a couple of days.  Yes, a couple of days!  I sent my visa application to Washington DC yesterday via UPS Red and with a little work and a little determination on their part, I should have my passport back tomorrow and we'll be headed to China on Saturday.

Castle Creations has a factory in China that manufactures electric motors.  We manufacture the controllers here in Olathe.  I am going to China to meet the CPAs that are doing the audit of our China factory and to tour the facility.  I am really looking forward to it.  I'll be traveling with the CEO of Castle, Patrick, and with Kate, the Business Director and the person that used to be in charge of the finance functions.  It will be a good opportunity to spend time with both of them and learn more about their thoughts, concerns and hopes for the company.  I am excited about the trip.

On the other hand...we leave on Saturday.  Yikes!!  I have to be firmly committed to exercising and eating right while I am traveling.  I am certain the hotel in China will have a gym, so I will use that.  In may be hard to count calories accurately, but I am going to give it my best shot.  Of course, my goal will be to stick to my trend line.

Speaking of trend lines, I am slightly above my trend line (but several pounds below my goal line) right now, but that fits with the stair-step pattern that has developed over the last several months.  I am confident that I will have a big enough drop one of these days, soon, to get me back to it.  Thursdays, as you probably are already aware, are my mark-my-chart day and I weighed 170.6 pounds this morning, a four-tenths of a pound drop from yesterday.  It's good to see the gradual progress, but my goal is to stick to my trend line as closely as possible.  If I do continue to lose weight at the rate that I have lost weight since mid-April (an average of 1.8 pounds per week), I will reach my goal weight of 150 pounds on December 3rd, 8 weeks ahead of schedule.  That's my plan!!

Last night was bowling night and it went late, we didn't get home until about 10:30.  Then I had a ton of trouble falling asleep so I slept until 6:00 this morning and did not go to the gym.  My at-home schedule is to have Thursdays off, because of bowling, so I don't feel terrible about that.  I will swim for at least a half-hour, if not longer, tonight.  Yesterday was kind of a nutty eating day.  I ended up running around in the morning to come home and get my passport and get a photo taken for my visa application.  Then I had a couple of important projects to get done prior to a 5:00 board of directors' meeting.  I stopped at Panera's for their 390 calorie strawberry and chicken poppy seed salad for lunch and they don't have it any more.  I ended up getting the 530 calorie roasted turkey salad instead.  I only used half the dressing, so that helped, but I still ended up eating a little more yesterday than I intended to.  Total calories for the day were 1674.

This morning I will offer a very brief introduction to "Women, Food and God," by Geneen Roth.  The book centers on Roth's philosophy that our relationship to food is an exact microcosm of our relationship with life itself.  She believes that everything we believe about love, fear, transformation and God is revealed in how, when and what we eat; and that we don't eat compulsively because we are hungry, our compulsive eating is a form of acting out a world of hope or hopelessness, of faith or doubt, of love or fear.  Roth believes that if we really want to know how we feel about ourselves, the world around us, and our faith, we need to look no further than the food on our plates.

I read most of this book aloud to Jack as we drove down I-70, on our way home the last day of our trip.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it's an easy read.  But as I read it I had a lot of ah-ha moments.  There were several times when I said, "She's nailed it!  That is exactly how I've felt!"  There were also passages in the book that helped me truly understand why this time really is different.  This time is different, I've known that for a while, but I didn't exactly understand why it was different.  I've never bothered to go back and add up all of the pounds I've lost and gained and lost and gained in my life.  Too many, that's for certain.  I don't know if it's 1000 or more, which is what Roth says she has lost in her lifetime.  But there was definitely a pattern of getting to be 75 or more pounds overweight, getting absolutely disgusted with myself, going on a diet and losing 25 - 50 (or more) pounds, staying at a reasonable weight for a while, then going through some transition that caused me to lose focus on my weight and start eating again, and experiencing the inevitable weight gain.  Of course, each time I'd start a new program I'd say this time is different, I'm not going to gain it back.  But, of course, on February 27th, 2012, I weighed 224 pounds.  I had gained most of it back.  For the record, the most I have ever weighed (on a scale) was 238 pounds when I was 39 years old.  I have no idea what my high weight actually was because that time around I did not actually get on a scale until I had been working hard at Tae Kwon Do for a few months and had already started watching what I eat a little.  I couldn't face getting on a scale at my heaviest, but I am guessing that I was somewhere around 250 pounds at my heaviest, over 10 years ago.

For several months, now, I've known that this time is different.  I know it's different because I am not "white knuckling" it and struggling with food choices.  It's been pretty easy to eat a reasonable number of calories most days.  I also haven't craved alcohol since I decided to stop drinking.  After thinking through all of the pros and cons of consuming alcohol, it just made sense to not drink, anymore.  I don't find myself wanting my "diet" to end.  I know that I'll be keeping track of calories for the rest of my life, and that makes sense to me.  I am looking forward to reaching my goal of 150 pounds, just because it is the end of that stage, and I will get to move on to the next stage, but it doesn't mean much will change about the way I eat.  I'll eat a few more calories, because I won't be trying to lose weight anymore, but that just means I'll be adding a little more protein or a little more fruit.  Not binging on cookies and ice cream.  Until reading the book, I didn't understand what changed, though, I didn't understand why it was different.  I think I do now.  As I re-read the book and blog about it, I'll share my ah-ha moments with you.  It's starting to make sense, and I like the way that feels!

9/19/12: Back At It, and Thoughts on a Couple of Books

I go back to work today after a vacation that was just one day shy of two weeks.  As I ate my breakfast and read the funnies this morning, I found myself chuckling at most of them.  Was it because they were really funnier than normal, because I haven't read funnies in a couple of weeks, or because my sense of humor has improved because I haven't been to work for a couple of weeks?  Whatever it was, it was fun to enjoy the comics this morning and get some good chuckles out of them.

Yesterday it was about getting back into the routine of day-to-day life, so we spent the day doing some of the essential chores and I went for a 5 mile jog, that I was sort of dreading.  Why was I dreading it?  I don't know.  Maybe because my last 5 mile run, while Jack and I were visiting West Point, was so damn hard.  But yesterday's run was almost pleasant.  It felt good to get back out there, run my familiar route, and be able to run the whole thing without really wanting to walk any of it.  I have started thinking about lengthening my route to six miles, to start to prepare myself for the triathlon.  It occurred to me yesterday that I could just keep running for another mile, but that's hard to do when you are so close to home.  What I need to do is add another mile to my loop.  I'll scope out a new route this weekend.

This morning I got up and did my "Hotel Strength Training Regimen" one more time.  It's one tough workout!  I am getting stronger, though.  I can do about 10 push-ups before collapsing on the mat and I can do all 20 of the elbow-ups, with a couple of rest breaks.  Tomorrow I will do cardio at the gym and Friday I'll have a strength training session with Jeremy.

It looks like I will be going to China for a week, starting this coming Monday.  I am going to have to work hard to keep up regular exercise throughout my travels.

I have recently read two books, one was excellent, the other was pretty good.  The pretty good book was "Aging Well," by George E. Vaillant, M.D.  The book was very interesting because it discussed three longitudinal studies of three different groups of people from childhood or young adulthood to old age (75 -85).  I appreciated the fact that several of the author's preconceived notions about aging well were destroyed because of the study; to me, it always makes a book a little more interesting when the scientist writing it is discouraged that his own theories don't pan out.  I'll admit that the book is a bit of a slog and my sister felt like the author talked down to the reader a little bit, which may be true, but I am so fascinated by the concept of "Aging Well" that I plowed my way through the book, anyway.  I found the most illuminating information about two-thirds of the way through the material.  Dr. Vaillant talks about the 7 aspects of our lives at age 50 that most accurately predict whether or not we will be Happy-Well or Sad-Sick at 75-80 (or dead before then).  Two things were very surprising about these predictors.  The first thing that was surprising was what they were not.  The list of items that did not statistically affect a 50 year old person's longevity or Happy-Wellness/Sad-Sickness at 75-80 were ancestral longevity, cholesterol level at age 50, stress at age 50, parental characteristics (including parental social class, stability of parental marriage, parental death in childhood, family cohesion, and IQ), childhood temperament, and vital affect and general ease in social relationships.

To me, the very good news was that the accurate predictors (at age 50) of our 75-80 year old selves' Happy-Wellness/Sad-Sickness were all items that are under our control.  They are:  no heavy smoking (or had smoked heavily once and quit several years ago), no alcohol abuse, having a stable marriage, some exercise, not overweight, and having mature defenses (or having an adaptive coping style, being optimistic, being able to find a silver lining or turn lemons into lemonade, not making mountains out of mole hills, etc...).  The seventh, very interesting, predictive factor was years of education.  Those that completed high school were much more likely to be among the happy-well than those that did not.  Completing college was also a statistical boost to being among the happy-well.  The author found that having at least a high school education made a significant difference in making choices about such things as food and exercise.  What the author found, through his research about the three groups he studied, is that if a person exhibited 5 or 6 of the 7 positive predictive factors at 50, the likelihood of being Happy-Well at 80 went way up.  In one group, 106 men enjoyed 5 or 6 of the 7 predictive factors at 50.  At 80 years old, half of these men were among the Happy-Well and only 8 were among the Sad-Sick (the remaining 48 were in between).  But there were 66 men, in the same group, that possessed fewer than 4 of these protective factors.  Of those 66 men, none were among the Happy-Well at 80 and 21 (almost a third) were among the Sad-Sick.  In addition, men that had fewer than four protective factors at 50 were 3 times more likely to be dead thirty years later than men with more protective factors, and all 7 men in the study that had fewer than two protective factors at 50 were dead by the time they were 80.

As I said, I consider this great news.  I am relieved that my childhood and my ancestors longevity are not statistically relevant to my happiness and health in my old age.  I look at that list of 7 predictive factors and know that they are all things I can do something about.  I can influence my own happiness and well being as I age.  I guess the best way to put it is that information gives me a sense of empowerment.  I've never been one to just let life happen to me, but reading about these studies gives me an even greater sense of my own ability to affect my health and happiness as I age.  That's a good thing.

The second book I read while on vacation, which I thought was excellent, was, "Women, Food, and God," by Geneen Roth.  This was a much easier book to read and was much closer to my ideal for a Self-Help Book.  I am a firm believer that most self-help books are way too long and most authors can say what they have to say in a self-help pamphlet, but they don't do it because they can't figure out out to sell a pamphlet for $15.  Geneen Roth's book is short and to the point.  I have decided that I am going to re-read this book and blog about it, much like I did "Younger Next Year."  I found a lot in the book that helped me understand some of my own behaviors and Ah-ha moments.  It will be helpful for me to internalize more of the information in the book by blogging about it.  So over the next few weeks, if you keep checking in, you will learn more about what Geneen Roth has to say in this book.

Until then, have a great Wednesday.  It looks like it is going to be a pretty day in this part of the world!!

9/18/2012: Back into the Routine

Week 28 Photo 9/9/2012

Back to the routine!  Yes, I guess it's time.  Here is my week 28 photo.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of me from this past Sunday, so I won't have a week 29 photo. 

I stayed pretty disciplined throughout the rest of our vacation with regard to my calorie consumption.  Here are the last several days calories, on the road:

Thursday:  1532
Friday:  1586
Saturday:  1309
Sunday:  1673
Monday:  1307

I only really exercised one of those last 5 days on the road, which was Friday's strength training.  Other than that, we did some light walking at various points of interest but none of the days were very conducive to spending an hour exercising.

I did lose weight while on vacation, a whole pound plus two-tenths!  The morning we left I weighed 172.4 pounds and this morning I weighed 171.2.  I was hoping to weigh 170.0 this morning so that I would be right on my trend line, but I am OK with the fact that I lost a little instead of staying the same or gaining a little.  I think if I had been able to keep up with the exercise over the last several days I may have seen my 170.0 this morning, but it's all good.  Today I am going to get back in the habit by doing a five mile run, tomorrow will be strength training in the morning before work, and then I will be back on track.

Here is a current photo of my weight loss graph; it's getting harder to get the whole thing in one snapshot!

Progress!!!!  29 weeks and 52.8 pounds later!!

9/18/2012: The Last Leg of the Journey

Thursday we pulled up camp and headed west on country roads. Before leaving Lily Bay State Park I put on my bathing suit and went for a quick swim in the lake.

Swimming in a very cold Moosehead Lake!!

I figured if I am going to do a triathlon I should do an open water swim. The water was freezing and swimming in it was very difficult. It felt like the water was really heavy and I had trouble swimming even 50 yards. I guess it was because the water was so cold, probably about 55 degrees. A cold front came through before we got to Moosehead Lake and we learned that the first big cold front of the season causes the lake to churn, bringing the 20 foot deep water up to the surface. It was fun getting in the lake, but eye opening at the same time. I have a lot to learn about open water swimming!

Thursday we drove through Maine, New Hampshire, and part of Vermont. We spent the night in White River Junction. Nothing special, just a place where the state road met the interstate, so we knew we'd be able to find a clean place to spend the night. It's kind of funny that we are very adventurous when it comes to our routes and the dining establishments we choose on the road, but we stick to names we know when it comes to lodging. We've stayed in one fleabag motel while on the road, and one was enough for both of us!

Breakfast stop, they had homemade whole wheat bread!

We ran into a couple of surprising points of interests on the road Thursday. One of them was The Shrine to Our Lady of Grace in New Hampshire. The Shrine was a series of dozens monuments along paths on both sides of the road that documented the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. There was a chapel and an outdoor chapel area, a statue of the Virgin Mary, and a shrine to motorcycles, too! The entire area was still used, most of the candles were lit, but the grounds were not very well maintained, probably from lack of funding or volunteers. It was definitely worth the stop.

Amen, Brother!

We also stopped at Fort Ticonderoga, right on the border of New York and Vermont. A lot of battles have been fought over this piece of land because it controlled the water ways between Canada and the US. The French built the Fort in the early to mid 1700s, the British attacked the fort twice, once in 1758, unsuccessfully, and a second time in 1759 when they won and took possession of it. The fort played a vital role in the Revolutionary War when Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys attacked and demanded surrender of the Fort very early in the war. The continental army then had in their possession their first heavy armaments with which to attack to the British. 60 tons of cannon, supplies, and equipment were then hauled 300 miles by Henry Knox, his men and teams of Oxen to Boston which allowed George Washington to successfully drive the British out of that city. It was awe inspiring to see this site of vital importance to our fight for Freedom and to get a deeper understanding of the effort required to haul those cannon the 300 miles from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston.

The British recaptured the fort from the Americans by shelling it from this hill

Our drive through New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York took us through beautiful scenery including the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack's of New York. We got to see a 200 year old wire bridge, canyons and beautiful vistas, mountain lakes and much, much more. It was a beautiful drive.

We spent the night just west of Buffalo Friday night and drove to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls Saturday morning. We beat most of the tourists and were able to easily park the car ($15 for 90 minutes) and walk along the river to both sets of falls. Gorgeous and magnificent, of course. We took plenty of pictures, but we were able to see everything we wanted to see in the hour and a half.

Jack's eyes are kind of closed, but this picture captures the fun we had on this vacation!

Niagara Falls

We then headed back to the US and spent the afternoon and evening with our friend Derek and his family. We went on a driving tour of Buffalo where we learned about Buffalo's industrial beginnings and then toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House, built in the early 1900s. The home, particularly when compared to the other homes in the neighborhood that were built in the same period, was impressive in it's unique architectural style, open floor plan, use of natural light, and much, much more. Even as a lay person, it's easy to see why Frank Lloyd Wright was considered a visionary in his time. I recommend the tour if you are ever in Buffalo.

Martin House - Constructed between 1904 and 1905

The last craftsmen left the house in 1907

We had a wonderful time visiting with Derek and meeting his family, but needed to get back on the road, so after a cup of tea we left their home around 8:30pm and headed over the Peace Bridge to Canada.

Our only purpose for going back to Canada was to cut through lower Ontario to get to Michigan. Luckily, we were able to get the second to last motel room in Brantford when we decided to stop at about midnight.  By that time it had been a long day and it is very dark in Canada in the middle of the night.  We were both getting tired and beginning to think we'd have to drive through the night.  We were glad that didn't happen!!

We made it to East Lansing at about 12:30 in the afternoon on Sunday and had time to rummage through a flea market before showing up for a 3rd grade flag football game that Ruth was coaching.  My sister had a couple of assistant coaches helping her out and, as she put it, her team may have been a little "over-coached," but they did dominate the field.  It was a lot of fun watching the kids play and Ruth working work with them.  We spent the afternoon visiting with Ruth and Terry, including taking a walking tour of the MSU campus.  It was great to catch up a little bit, talk about swim camp in October, and to just see my sister for a few hours.  We left East Lansing at about 6:30 and headed south, with the goal to be west of Indianapolis before getting a motel for the night.

The rest of the drive home, I-70 through the Midwest, was just that, I-70 through the Midwest.  We did find one little town that had lots of anitque shops, so we spent a few hours there.  Jack found some great army men buys and I found a few things I liked, too. 

Trip Treasures - some new, some old

Army men!!

We made it home before dark yesterday.

It's good to be home, I guess.  I feel a little sad as I sense us getting back into normal routines, yet I know how important those routines are.  And, yes, we still need to work for several more years.  I'm looking forward to planning our next vacation, already!!


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Location:I-70 west of Indianapolis

Wednesday, taking it a little easier

After Tuesday's crazy hike we decided to take it a little easier yesterday and explore town a little, do our laundry, and go on a short, flat hike. After doing laundry at the Wishy Washy, we poked around the town's 5 shops and picked up a couple of souvenirs. We then decided to do the base trail hike to the nature reserve's visitor center. The map warned us that the summit trail was steep and rugged, but it failed to mention that the base trail went up the first half of the mountain. In retrospect, I guess I should have known that is what base trail meant. Anyway, it was a pretty hike through the southern end of Maine's 100 Miles of Wilderness, a huge section of forest that has never been logged. It is a wildlife sanctuary but the only wildlife we saw was two snakes, squirrels, and lots of chipmunks. We also chased about 5 wild turkeys across the bridge on our way to the hike. The way up was arduous enough that we decided to skip the rather long looking path to the scenic overlook. At the visitor center (an unmanned outpost where you register before taking the summit trail) there was a beautiful mountain pond called sunrise pond.

We walked around that a bit and enjoyed our snack. We decided to take the access road back to our car which was a longer distance but more evenly graded. We were glad we did because the access road passed a lot closer to the scenic overlook and we didn't skip it on the way down. It was by far the most majestic panoramic view of the region's mountains, valleys, and lakes that we have seen yet. Stunning view!!!

All in all, the little hike took a couple of hours, 90 minutes up and about a half hour down. Not too shabby for a day off.

We were originally planning on staying one more day and doing one more big hike today, but I've developed a pretty good blister on the big toe of my right foot. I have a bunion on that foot and the blister is on the spot were my big toe bends in and rubs the second toe, as a result of the bunion. I'm pretty bummed because I don't want that bunion to be a chronic problem as I hike into my old age. The blister feels better today, it's a little less tender, but we have 700 miles to drive to get to Buffalo and we want to get there Friday night. So after weighing the pros and cons of further aggravating my blister/bunion and country road vs. interstate driving, we've decided to break camp today and head on out.

With regard to the bunion, plan 1 is to do a lot more hiking at home and to try to toughen up my feet a bit. Plan 2 (in conjunction with plan 1) is to wait until I am in excellent shape and than have the bunion removed, probably January of 2014. By then I should be so used to exercising every single day that the surgery won't derail me. If anyone has any experience with bunions and has other ideas, please let me know. So far, it hasn't been bothering me when I run, cycle, or lift weights. I think it was the two long hikes in boots that did it. I also might look for boots with a bigger toe box. I'm already wearing a man's boot for the width. I'd take suggestions regarding boots, too, if you have them.

Yesterday I ate 1950 calories with over half of those calories coming from a protein packed breakfast. I think I was still making up for the calorie deficits on the two previous days! After eating about 1000 calories for breakfast, I ate lightly for the rest of the day. With our 2 hour hike I still netted just slightly over 1200 calories for the day.

It has been a wonderful few days here at Lily Bay State Park. Moosehead Lake is easily one of the most beautiful lakes in the country and this is an amazing, unspoiled part of the world. It's worth the drive if you love the outdoors. I'm glad we spent this time here. It has been good for me! Jack's had fun, too!

I am enjoying the book, Aging Well. It's too tedious to type on my phone to talk much about it, but I will definitely blog about it when I get home. My recommendation is to read it, though. If you can stomach the thought of reading about getting old when you're 40, I'd read it about a decade before you turn 50. Unfortunately, most of us are too wrapped up in beginning to be middle aged to even think about being aged, so it may be a stretch for a 40 year old to read the book. But it's a great book for anyone, no matter how old, to read if you are interested in taking an active role in how well and happy you'll be in your 70s, 80s, and beyond. The book is full of fascinating stories and statistics. The most encouraging thing about the book is the fact that the six biggest predictors (at age 50) that indicate how well/happy we'll be at 80 are things that are completely under our control. I found that so liberating! Factors like ancestral longevity and whether or not you were loved by your mother as a child have no statistical relevance to your health, happiness, and well being as an old person. It's worth the read, I recommend it. I'll tell you more about it once I'm on my PC at home.

Now it's time to finish my final campsite coffee and break camp. Have a lovely day! I know we will!



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Tuesday

We had an awesome time yesterday hiking the Gulf Hagas Loop Trail. The trail runs along the ridge of a canyon that was created by the West Branch Pleasant River. The gorge has sheer walls that are about 400 feet high and it is surrounded by trees and other vegetation. The trail stayed as close as it could to the edge of the canyon, but several times we had to take spurs in to see the falls. There was a series of 6 falls on the trail, it was spectacular.

We ate lunch at the lower end of the Screw Auger Falls. I'll post pictures when we get back to KC.

Lunch Break at Lower Screw Auger Falls

The trail was challenging, to say the least. There was a lot of climbing involved. In fact, if I lost the trail, which I did a few times, I just had to look for the most vertical ascent or descent and I'd find a blue mark painted on a rock 20 feet directly above my head or below my feet. It was a riot. Definitely the most challenging hike I've been on in my adult life.

Look up for the blue mark

Up she goes!

The map of the trail cautions users not to underestimate the exertion required to complete the trail. It says, "In the past several years a number of people have become lost, hurt, or exhausted because they underestimated the difficulty of the hike." I can see why! Jack and I were ready to quit when we finished the loop, but we finished in good form! Not lost, not hurt, and not exhausted. Tired yes, but still laughing and having a good time! Not bad for a couple of old rookies! It felt good to surprise the ranger when we turned in our day pass. I could tell she was surprised when I answered her question about how we did. Before we started she gave us old folk some cautionary words, I don't think she thought we'd complete the whole loop, but we did. It took us about 6 hours, all together.

I ate more yesterday. After entering in my calories and exercise on Tuesday I realized I under ate rather significantly. Yesterday's hike was much more difficult than Monday's, by the end I felt like I had just finished a hilly 100 mile bike ride. So I purposely ate about 2600 calories. It was a little difficult to not eat more than that. As we were cooking dinner last night I wanted to scarf down anything that wasn't attached to the table, but I made do with a few prunes.

We had a delicious dinner yesterday of grilled chicken sausage with sautéed onions and peppers, sweet potato fries, and sliced avocado and tomato. Yum! Then, of course, we couldn't let the hot coals go to waste, so we had s'mores! A perfect reward after our crazy day on the trails of Maine!

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Location:Gulf Hagas Loop Trail

Heaven

Coffee on the beach...


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Location:Moosehead Lake

Sunday and Monday

Here is a picture of our home away from home at Moosehead Lake. Unfortunately I am having some technological difficulties with my iPad, and can't take pictures with it or do any Internet stuff without it shutting off and going back to my home page. But I can take pictures and, it seems, post one picture at a time from my iPhone, so I am giving that a shot.

I am still on track with my food and ate between 1500 and 1600 calories on both Sunday and Monday. Sunday I did not exercise because we drove until about 3:00 and then spent the afternoon and evening setting up camp, fixing dinner, and getting oriented. Yesterday we went on a four hour hike, we're estimating between 10 and 12 miles with a couple of climbs. We also went canoeing for a couple of hours, so we got plenty of exercise, yesterday.

We are having a great time. Our drive on Sunday was beautiful and we got to see a couple of historic sites. We stopped at Kingston, established in the early 1600s and the original Capitol of New York.

Church in Kingston

Kingston Street

Jack at the Kingston State House

Kingston State House

We also saw the Battle of Bennington monument. It is about 400' feet tall and we got to ride the elevator to the top of it. Jack was relieved that the stairs were closed.

Yesterday's hike was on a portion of the Appalachian Trail, or the AT, as it is known around here. We saw a few beautiful mountain ponds, crossed some beautiful creeks, and had a wonderful time. All of my working out made a huge difference on the trail. I was much more sure footed than I was this spring and did not tire easily. I ended up carrying the pack for the last three hours of the hike and hardly noticed it was there. I didn't slip or stumble at all, which has been a problem when hiking for the last three year. All of the strength training has done a great job making me more balanced and coordinated. Of course, it didn't hurt that I weigh 50 less pounds either.

Jack on the Appalachian Trail

The sky really is bluer and the trees really are greener in Maine.  I love Maine for its unspoiled beauty.

Our canoe trip was out on a 9 acre pond. We were looking for moose and didn't see any on the pond, though we saw 5 on the van ride back, but the pond was still and serene, absolutely gorgeous. It was a lovely, peaceful way to spend the evening.

We really did see a moose!!

We are planning another 10 mile hike today where we should see a lot of waterfalls. Other than that, we don't have any plans. The sky is blue, I don't know the date (and can barely figure out the day of the week), and all is well.

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Location:Moosehead Lake, Maine