Happy Anniversary Jack! I have never been happier in my life, that is a fact!! A lot goes into that, but a big part is the unconditional love and support I get from you!
This week has been crazy already. I'm at work and don't have much time to chat, but suffice it to say that time has been tight. I did not get to work out yesterday but we got lucky last night and bowling was done at 9:00, I got to bed early and got up this morning and ran 6 miles on my normal day off. I think I will be light only one leg workout this week. Not too bad...
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
2/27/13: A Year Later
I should put up a deep and thoughtful blog post, I started this journey a year ago today.
But I am in a hurry. The snow day messed up my schedule last night, there is way too much going on at work, one of my son's best friends was killed a few days ago and I am upset about that and worried about my son, both of my kids are coming to Kansas City for the funeral services tomorrow evening, and I did not fall asleep until after midnight last night. Needless to say, I slept in this morning (until 6:00). I need to get to work early today so I can take a long lunch and get my lower body workout in.
Jack and I shoveled snow for about 1.5 hours yesterday, so that counted for one of my exercises this week. Works for me. We even made a snowwoman. I'll post a picture of her when I get a second.
But I am in a hurry. The snow day messed up my schedule last night, there is way too much going on at work, one of my son's best friends was killed a few days ago and I am upset about that and worried about my son, both of my kids are coming to Kansas City for the funeral services tomorrow evening, and I did not fall asleep until after midnight last night. Needless to say, I slept in this morning (until 6:00). I need to get to work early today so I can take a long lunch and get my lower body workout in.
Jack and I shoveled snow for about 1.5 hours yesterday, so that counted for one of my exercises this week. Works for me. We even made a snowwoman. I'll post a picture of her when I get a second.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
2/26/2013: Snow Day
It's a snow day so we are off to a slow start, which includes not having much to blog about. I took Ruth's suggestion and emailed yesterday's blog post to the authors of 'Younger Next Year.' It would be cool to get a response that they received it, but that is probably a long shot. With any luck at all, they will actually get the email and read it and know that they helped improve the quality of one more person's life.
We have snow shoveling in our near future. We got about 9 inches of wet, heavy snow. It needs to come off the driveway before we drive on it. The driveway is so steep we cannot afford the risk of driving on the snow and having the tire tracks ice up. After the snow is shoveled I'll be able to head to the gym for a swim.
I weighed 152.8 this morning, so I am solidly back into the middle of my 150 - 155 comfort range. Funny how quickly I lose the desire to "diet" when I am back in the 152s. Just saying...
We have snow shoveling in our near future. We got about 9 inches of wet, heavy snow. It needs to come off the driveway before we drive on it. The driveway is so steep we cannot afford the risk of driving on the snow and having the tire tracks ice up. After the snow is shoveled I'll be able to head to the gym for a swim.
I weighed 152.8 this morning, so I am solidly back into the middle of my 150 - 155 comfort range. Funny how quickly I lose the desire to "diet" when I am back in the 152s. Just saying...
Monday, February 25, 2013
2/25/13: Coach?
A few months after I started my Get Fit Initiative my daughter came home from a visit with her aunt to tell me that Julie was blogging about her weight loss journey, too. I started following Julie's blog that day. You can read it here: www.theweightofmyweight.blogspot.com. We chose different paths. Julie attends Weight Watchers meeting regularly and has lost about 50 pounds over the last couple of years (is that right, Julie?) and has only 23 pounds to go. She wants to weigh 150 pounds because she knows that will be a healthy weight for her and getting to 150 pounds will allow her to be a Weight Watchers leader which is something she really wants to be. Her strategy has been, "slow and steady wins the race," and she never set a timeline for her weight loss. While she has been incredibly successful in losing the first two-thirds of what she was trying to lose, she has been stuck for several months. We ran a 5K together in August. On that day we both weighed right around 175 pounds. (Julie, I checked my chart and I weighed 175.8 on that day) Since then I have reached my goal of 150 pounds and Julie is still in the low 170s. She has gotten frustrated with being stuck. When she read my blog posts last week, particularly the part about helping someone else reach their weight loss goals now that I have reached mine, she reached out and asked me if I would help coach her to her goal. I gladly accepted her offer.
We are very different people and have different strategies for reaching our goals. We have been following each other's blogs for months. We have known each other for decades. Julie knows that I take a kind of hard line attitude towards reaching goals and she is a little afraid of that for fear of not succeeding. In spite of this, or maybe because of this, we are excited to be working together.
I confess, I have become a Get Fit evangelist. As many of you who follow my blog know, I give the book, 'Younger Next Year' a lot of credit for being the game changer in my life. Since reading that book I have no longer been able to consider not exercising every day as an acceptable way to live my life. A year ago I would have told you that I hate to exercise. If you go back and read my early blog posts you will read about how much I hated to exercise. I was doing it because I felt like I had to exercise to achieve my goals, but I was complaining a lot about it along the way. A year later I feel like a million bucks. I feel better than I have in years and years. I don't know what to compare it to. 40? No, I feel better than I did at 40. During my 40th year I started Tae Kwon Do after I topped out at what I am guessing was around 250 pounds. I had an incredibly stressful job and was way overweight. In fact I was so overweight that I would not get on a scale. I did not weigh myself until I had been doing Tae Kwon Do 5 nights a week for about 3 months and on that day I weighed 238 pounds. That is the highest number I have ever seen on a scale (and I will never forget it), but I had already lost some weight, so my best guess is my high weight was about 250 pounds when I was 39 years old. On my 40th birthday I tested for my blue belt. A few months later I got my recommended black belt. I had lost about 50 pounds. I felt pretty good at that point, the Tae Kwon Do had helped a lot. In fact, I think it laid a foundation that I am still building on. But I was still in the 180s and was not yet at the top of my game when I stopped doing Tae Kwon Do, for a couple of reasons. First, I switched jobs and my school was now almost an hour from work. It was no longer convenient. Second, my mom was dying of cancer and I was spending almost a week every month in Sequim, WA. My work was very generous about paying me without taking time off without pay. I reciprocated by working as much as I could the 3.5 weeks a month that I was in town. I no longer had time for Tae Kwon Do. I don't know exactly when I started gaining weight again, but it probably wasn't too long after that.
30? No I pushed over 200 pounds for the first time in my life in my 30th year. I was fat, stressed, depressed, and had no idea where I was going in my life. 20? Yeah, I was feeling pretty good at 20, I weighed about 135 pounds and felt strong and pretty happy. I was exercising a lot, including a lot of jump rope. Most of my exercise was cardio though, there was very little, if any, weight lifting. I was probably wearing a 10, which is a size larger than I am now, even though I weighed less. Yeah, I felt pretty good at 20, until I got pregnant. My pregnancy was rough though. By the end of my 20th year I had been hospitalized for several weeks with preeclempsia and was a day away from having my son, Steven. It was a rough year, to say the least.
I'm not going to say that there weren't times in between the "Big Birthdays" that I didn't get in ha;f-way decent shape. In 2007 I did the AIDS/LifeCycle ride for the first time. That was a 565 mile bike ride from San Francisco to LA. I had been working with a personal trainer in San Francisco for about a year or so and he talked me into it, in spite of the fact that I had not been on a bike in 20 years. I lost about 25 pounds while training for the ride with the primary motivation being to make it easier to get up the coastal mountains that we were going to cross on our way to LA. I was feeling pretty good by the time the ride was done, I was down to 178 pounds, when I ended up in the hospital for an emergency surgery due to an ovarian torsion (you never want that to happen to you - this was the most painful moment in my life). I was also having other "female troubles" so I had a hysterectomy at the same time. As hard as I tried not to let it happen, the surgery was a set back. I blame it a little on my hormones changing. Maybe that was just an excuse.
There were other times that I almost got there over the last 30 years, but I don't ever remember feeling as good as I feel now. I have never been so sure that I have changed my lifestyle forever. I have never known, in my heart of hearts, that I will exercise an average of 6 hours a week for the rest of my life. I am a completely different person, when it comes to exercise, than I was a year ago, than I have ever been. I get it now. I have a choice to make every day, grow or decay. How I want to feel tomorrow is my choice. Whether I can play into my 80s, 90s, and 100s or end up on a couch watching other people play on TV is up to me. If I get up tomorrow morning and exercise, I will grow a little. If I stay in bed and sleep for an extra hour, I will decay a little. The choice is clear. This morning, I really did not want to get out of bed. But I didn't have a choice to make. I got out of bed. I did an upper body workout. I am glad I did.
My transformation has changed more than my body, it has changed me. I feel brand new and I am full of joy and energy. I am 50 years old and I feel brand new. It's crazy. And I want to share this amazing gift with other people that are struggling with the exact same things that I struggled with my entire life.
There are so many things that factor into why we are overweight and don't take great care of ourselves. We are all unique individuals. Different things motivate us, scare us, excite us, make us happy, bring contentment. So part of helping others is really listening to what they have to say, really understanding what motivates them, really understanding their fears, really understanding what they can take on right now, and really paying attention as they grow and can take on more and bigger challenges throughout the process of reaching their goals. It isn't just being a person that "holds someone accountable," it is about helping a person break through their own mental blockades. It is true, Julie and I are very different people, but she wants this thing. She is committing to her goal. She is ready to take the plunge. She is admitting that what she was doing wasn't working for her anymore. She is ready for a change. I am excited to be here to help her. I am looking forward to learning about helping someone else reach her goal. I know we have a lot to teach each other. I know Julie will reach her goal in the next 26 weeks. I know helping her will help me.
We have both agreed that we will blog about this process, so if you have time I hope you will read her blog, too. It will be interesting to see where this journey takes us.
A quick update about me. My Week 6 exercise chart was completely filled in! I did not miss a single session and Week 7 has started off well. Saturday, I did a bike (36 minutes) / run (6 mile) brick to complete Week 6. Yesterday I played racquetball with Jack and then did my lower body workout. This morning I did my upper body workout.
On a less exciting note, on Saturday morning I weighed exactly 155.0 pounds. That is the upper limit of my comfort zone. I started dieting Saturday morning. This morning I weighed 152.8. I will diet until I weigh 150.0 pounds again, then I will stop dieting. I think this is a reasonable and healthy way to maintain my weight. For the most part, I can eat as much as I want and stay around 153 pounds. Therefore, most of the time I am not dieting and I am not decreasing my body's metabolism. I should be able to diet for a couple of weeks and get back to 150 pretty easily. It was amazing how well the 155.0 pound trigger worked. I saw that on the scale, came out of the bathroom, announced to Jack that I was dieting again until I got to 150.0, and felt fine about it. Perhaps this is exciting. I like a plan that works.
That's it for now. I better get to work. It looks like we may have another snow day, tomorrow.
We are very different people and have different strategies for reaching our goals. We have been following each other's blogs for months. We have known each other for decades. Julie knows that I take a kind of hard line attitude towards reaching goals and she is a little afraid of that for fear of not succeeding. In spite of this, or maybe because of this, we are excited to be working together.
I confess, I have become a Get Fit evangelist. As many of you who follow my blog know, I give the book, 'Younger Next Year' a lot of credit for being the game changer in my life. Since reading that book I have no longer been able to consider not exercising every day as an acceptable way to live my life. A year ago I would have told you that I hate to exercise. If you go back and read my early blog posts you will read about how much I hated to exercise. I was doing it because I felt like I had to exercise to achieve my goals, but I was complaining a lot about it along the way. A year later I feel like a million bucks. I feel better than I have in years and years. I don't know what to compare it to. 40? No, I feel better than I did at 40. During my 40th year I started Tae Kwon Do after I topped out at what I am guessing was around 250 pounds. I had an incredibly stressful job and was way overweight. In fact I was so overweight that I would not get on a scale. I did not weigh myself until I had been doing Tae Kwon Do 5 nights a week for about 3 months and on that day I weighed 238 pounds. That is the highest number I have ever seen on a scale (and I will never forget it), but I had already lost some weight, so my best guess is my high weight was about 250 pounds when I was 39 years old. On my 40th birthday I tested for my blue belt. A few months later I got my recommended black belt. I had lost about 50 pounds. I felt pretty good at that point, the Tae Kwon Do had helped a lot. In fact, I think it laid a foundation that I am still building on. But I was still in the 180s and was not yet at the top of my game when I stopped doing Tae Kwon Do, for a couple of reasons. First, I switched jobs and my school was now almost an hour from work. It was no longer convenient. Second, my mom was dying of cancer and I was spending almost a week every month in Sequim, WA. My work was very generous about paying me without taking time off without pay. I reciprocated by working as much as I could the 3.5 weeks a month that I was in town. I no longer had time for Tae Kwon Do. I don't know exactly when I started gaining weight again, but it probably wasn't too long after that.
30? No I pushed over 200 pounds for the first time in my life in my 30th year. I was fat, stressed, depressed, and had no idea where I was going in my life. 20? Yeah, I was feeling pretty good at 20, I weighed about 135 pounds and felt strong and pretty happy. I was exercising a lot, including a lot of jump rope. Most of my exercise was cardio though, there was very little, if any, weight lifting. I was probably wearing a 10, which is a size larger than I am now, even though I weighed less. Yeah, I felt pretty good at 20, until I got pregnant. My pregnancy was rough though. By the end of my 20th year I had been hospitalized for several weeks with preeclempsia and was a day away from having my son, Steven. It was a rough year, to say the least.
I'm not going to say that there weren't times in between the "Big Birthdays" that I didn't get in ha;f-way decent shape. In 2007 I did the AIDS/LifeCycle ride for the first time. That was a 565 mile bike ride from San Francisco to LA. I had been working with a personal trainer in San Francisco for about a year or so and he talked me into it, in spite of the fact that I had not been on a bike in 20 years. I lost about 25 pounds while training for the ride with the primary motivation being to make it easier to get up the coastal mountains that we were going to cross on our way to LA. I was feeling pretty good by the time the ride was done, I was down to 178 pounds, when I ended up in the hospital for an emergency surgery due to an ovarian torsion (you never want that to happen to you - this was the most painful moment in my life). I was also having other "female troubles" so I had a hysterectomy at the same time. As hard as I tried not to let it happen, the surgery was a set back. I blame it a little on my hormones changing. Maybe that was just an excuse.
There were other times that I almost got there over the last 30 years, but I don't ever remember feeling as good as I feel now. I have never been so sure that I have changed my lifestyle forever. I have never known, in my heart of hearts, that I will exercise an average of 6 hours a week for the rest of my life. I am a completely different person, when it comes to exercise, than I was a year ago, than I have ever been. I get it now. I have a choice to make every day, grow or decay. How I want to feel tomorrow is my choice. Whether I can play into my 80s, 90s, and 100s or end up on a couch watching other people play on TV is up to me. If I get up tomorrow morning and exercise, I will grow a little. If I stay in bed and sleep for an extra hour, I will decay a little. The choice is clear. This morning, I really did not want to get out of bed. But I didn't have a choice to make. I got out of bed. I did an upper body workout. I am glad I did.
My transformation has changed more than my body, it has changed me. I feel brand new and I am full of joy and energy. I am 50 years old and I feel brand new. It's crazy. And I want to share this amazing gift with other people that are struggling with the exact same things that I struggled with my entire life.
There are so many things that factor into why we are overweight and don't take great care of ourselves. We are all unique individuals. Different things motivate us, scare us, excite us, make us happy, bring contentment. So part of helping others is really listening to what they have to say, really understanding what motivates them, really understanding their fears, really understanding what they can take on right now, and really paying attention as they grow and can take on more and bigger challenges throughout the process of reaching their goals. It isn't just being a person that "holds someone accountable," it is about helping a person break through their own mental blockades. It is true, Julie and I are very different people, but she wants this thing. She is committing to her goal. She is ready to take the plunge. She is admitting that what she was doing wasn't working for her anymore. She is ready for a change. I am excited to be here to help her. I am looking forward to learning about helping someone else reach her goal. I know we have a lot to teach each other. I know Julie will reach her goal in the next 26 weeks. I know helping her will help me.
We have both agreed that we will blog about this process, so if you have time I hope you will read her blog, too. It will be interesting to see where this journey takes us.
A quick update about me. My Week 6 exercise chart was completely filled in! I did not miss a single session and Week 7 has started off well. Saturday, I did a bike (36 minutes) / run (6 mile) brick to complete Week 6. Yesterday I played racquetball with Jack and then did my lower body workout. This morning I did my upper body workout.
On a less exciting note, on Saturday morning I weighed exactly 155.0 pounds. That is the upper limit of my comfort zone. I started dieting Saturday morning. This morning I weighed 152.8. I will diet until I weigh 150.0 pounds again, then I will stop dieting. I think this is a reasonable and healthy way to maintain my weight. For the most part, I can eat as much as I want and stay around 153 pounds. Therefore, most of the time I am not dieting and I am not decreasing my body's metabolism. I should be able to diet for a couple of weeks and get back to 150 pretty easily. It was amazing how well the 155.0 pound trigger worked. I saw that on the scale, came out of the bathroom, announced to Jack that I was dieting again until I got to 150.0, and felt fine about it. Perhaps this is exciting. I like a plan that works.
That's it for now. I better get to work. It looks like we may have another snow day, tomorrow.
Friday, February 22, 2013
2/22/13: Suggestions from Family and Friends
In Wednesday's blog post I talked about the emotional transition I am going through now that I am a couple of months into Phase II of my plan. I find myself missing the emotional highs that came from my successful weight loss efforts and am wondering if I should try to replace them with something. I find it emotionally difficult not to be able to measure my successes in this phase as easily as I did while I was losing weight. I am not struggling with maintaining my weight, I am easily keeping my weight between 152 and 154.5, which is within a comfortable range for me. I am not struggling with getting to the gym. I like my exercise schedule and it has become part of my normal routine to exercise every day. So all of that is good. What I am struggling with is a sense of loss. Because I can't measure my progress towards reducing body fat and becoming more fit by doing something as simple as stepping on a scale, I don't get to have my daily or weekly mini-celebrations of success.
The following are comments that I received on yesterday's blog post with suggestions on moving forward. There are some good suggestions here. I have followed each comment with thoughts of my own.
From my sister:
I was wondering when this would happen to you. I remember exactly when and how it happened to me. When I was a junior in college, I got fat and out of shape. I decided to lose weight and get back in shape. Then I wanted to make the women’s basketball team. Then I wanted to get into a good grad school, pass my prelims, and get a fancy-pants internship. The summer of my internship is when it happened. After a long day of working on the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and a hard run, I stood in the driveway and thought – I have done all of the hard things, what do I do now? I soon had two kids, so I didn’t think about it much for 18 years or so, but I think about it now.
For me the answer is to have hard things to do almost daily. Hard workouts are necessary for me, but not sufficient. I need to challenge my body and mind by trying to accomplish something difficult almost every day. If I don’t, I get depressed. It helps if the hard things are meaningful, but they don’t have to be. Right now I am training for that triathlon, taking a math class, learning to play the piano and doing my job. On some days my favorite hours are spent doing math homework. I am calm and content when I am focused. All of the natural chaos of the world disappears. This also happens in a hard workout, but I can’t do hard workouts every day anymore.
If you try to achieve your “quick highs” by continuing to lose weight or working out even harder, you are at risk for an eating disorder and injury. You are fit. You are athletic. You need to work to keep yourself in shape, but the rate of your improvement will not be enough to make you feel like you are achieving a goal.
If I were you, I would abandon your body fat goal. You really can’t measure it well enough to use as a goal. Also, if you maintain your eating and exercise habits, your body fat will stay at a healthy level. Some of the latest studies show that decreasing body fat beyond a certain point does not lengthen life or improve health.
This is what I suggest –
1. Help someone else achieve what you have achieved. Now that you are fit, people will start asking you to help them, so pick someone and help them create a plan and stick with it.
2. Pick a sport that you have always wanted to learn and take some lessons.
3.Find a non physical goal that is difficult and requires all of your concentration. Dedicate a certain amount of time every day or every week to that goal. Make your blog into a book. Write a new book. Take a chemistry class. Create something. I have no idea what will work for you, but something will.
Humans are not naturally happy or satisfied (in my opinion). We have to work at feeling good by constantly challenging ourselves just like we have to work at staying fit.
For me the answer is to have hard things to do almost daily. Hard workouts are necessary for me, but not sufficient. I need to challenge my body and mind by trying to accomplish something difficult almost every day. If I don’t, I get depressed. It helps if the hard things are meaningful, but they don’t have to be. Right now I am training for that triathlon, taking a math class, learning to play the piano and doing my job. On some days my favorite hours are spent doing math homework. I am calm and content when I am focused. All of the natural chaos of the world disappears. This also happens in a hard workout, but I can’t do hard workouts every day anymore.
If you try to achieve your “quick highs” by continuing to lose weight or working out even harder, you are at risk for an eating disorder and injury. You are fit. You are athletic. You need to work to keep yourself in shape, but the rate of your improvement will not be enough to make you feel like you are achieving a goal.
If I were you, I would abandon your body fat goal. You really can’t measure it well enough to use as a goal. Also, if you maintain your eating and exercise habits, your body fat will stay at a healthy level. Some of the latest studies show that decreasing body fat beyond a certain point does not lengthen life or improve health.
This is what I suggest –
1. Help someone else achieve what you have achieved. Now that you are fit, people will start asking you to help them, so pick someone and help them create a plan and stick with it.
2. Pick a sport that you have always wanted to learn and take some lessons.
3.Find a non physical goal that is difficult and requires all of your concentration. Dedicate a certain amount of time every day or every week to that goal. Make your blog into a book. Write a new book. Take a chemistry class. Create something. I have no idea what will work for you, but something will.
Humans are not naturally happy or satisfied (in my opinion). We have to work at feeling good by constantly challenging ourselves just like we have to work at staying fit.
My response:
I have been thinking about abandoning the lowering body fat % as a goal. I like the idea of lowering my body fat %, because even though I have lost a lot of weight and have been working out regularly for a year, I still think I can achieve some pretty significant gains on improving my lean body mass / fat ratio with a reasonable amount of exercise. That said, I agree with Ruth, that it is too hard to measure to be a real goal. I will continue doing all of the things that I have been doing, but trying to achieve a certain number is too difficult, given it is almost impossible to determine the number. It's interesting to me that my first attempt at a chart for 2013 included a body fat % line. I was not happy with that chart and when I made a new one a couple of weeks later the body fat % line came off of it. Now I am tracking exercise and my weight and I have a spot to make comments about how I feel or what I am thinking about. So as early as mid-January I knew that tacking body fat % was not the way to go. I just never formally decided to give it up as a specific goal.
I can see the danger of developing an eating disorder or injuring myself if I continue to focus on weight loss or body fat % as an ultimate goal. I got a glimpse of the allure of losing weight because, "It's fun," the other day when I started to think about losing another five pounds. It's interesting how much easier it is to understand other people when you spend even a few minutes in their shoes. I've been lucky enough to see the other side of a lot of streets in my life. It pays to keeps one's eyes, ears, and mind open to what is happening around us. We are often too quick to judge and condemn others. Until I have walked a mile in their shoes... So, I am reaffirming the goal to stay within a few pounds of 150, exercising regularly but not excessively, and being fit and healthy. My goal is not super thinness, but being as healthy and vibrant as I can possibly be.
I can't think of a sport that I have ever really wanted to be good at, though there are a lot of recreational sports that I have enjoyed in the past except for the fact that I felt like I was a drag on the team because I was so poor at the sport. Volleyball and softball come to mind. I think it would be a lot of fun to be part of a volleyball or softball rec league, but it would be nice to be good enough that my team members didn't cringe when the ball heads in my direction. Perhaps actually become OK at one of these sports is something to think about. I am enjoying learning how to play racquetball and we are playing just about every weekend. I get better every week. Jack and I have whacked a tennis ball around a few times, too. Perhaps tennis lessons this spring would be fun. I'll give this some thought.
As far as a non-physical goal that is challenging is concerned; in many ways works fills that bill for me. I enjoy my work and it is very challenging. On the other hand, it is not quite enough. I thought I had made the decision to start turning my blog into a book about a month ago but I have not done anything with that. I have always wanted to learn to play the piano, so piano lessons might be a good idea. Besides being able to play the piano, I think learning to play would be good for my brain and my left hand coordination. For years I have thought about buying an alto sax and trying to get half-way decent at playing the saxophone, but all I have ever done is think about it. I talked about taking wood shop class a few months ago. I love to build and create things. I think these are all interesting and good ideas. I need to pick one and start it.
I also think I need to focus on some sort of a community activity that gets me out and about in my neighborhood, meeting people, and giving me the opportunity to make new friends.
Regarding your comments in general about, "What next," I am reminded of something I learned in therapy many, many years ago. I am a problem solver. It is very satisfying for me to be neck deep in a big problem and have to figure a way to get myself out of it. In my younger adult life, when I got bored I had the tendency to make big life decisions that would get me into really big messes that would take me years of hard work to get out of. It was sort of like I would do something stupid that would trap me into a nasty cage and then it would take all of my strength and ingenuity to figure a way out of it. That process of figuring a way out of it was satisfying, but getting into the cage in the first place was debilitating. A large part of my therapy was learning about how to avoid making those stupid decisions in the first place. Group therapy taught me a lot about talking through my thought processes. I learned that if I was honest about what I was thinking and doing and I shared my thoughts and actions with others, I avoided making the really bad decisions in the first place. In fact, I learned that if I think about the fact that I am going to have to tell people what I am about to do, I often stop myself before doing really stupid stuff. I knew before I wrote it that I didn't need to lose another five pounds, but I couldn't get the thought of starting to lose weight again out of my mind. For some reason, the thought of losing more weight was intoxicating. So, I did what I learned to do in therapy, I told others about it by writing about it in my blog, and it helped. Writing about it helped. Talking to Jack about it helped. Your comment about my blog post helped. Therapy helped.
From my Niece:
Both of your thoughts are very interesting to me! I know that I felt very happy yesterday when I worked hard put together a long-shot application. I also felt good going back to the gym after taking a little bit of time off for being sick. But because I am trying this not-weighing-myself thing, I am also missing the "quick highs". For me, that is a little bit by design... I want my health and fitness habits to be permanent, and they can't be if I am getting high off them each week.
I think Aunt Ruth is right that you should look at some other areas where you can work hard :) You are already very inspirational to me and surely others!
I think Aunt Ruth is right that you should look at some other areas where you can work hard :) You are already very inspirational to me and surely others!
My response:
I would love to help others with their own weight loss and fitness goals. I've already become the go-to person at work when people (usually women) want a little advice or a little motivation. I am always buying copies of 'Younger Next Year' and I keep them in my office to give away when I think they will help someone. Perhaps I need to think of a way to be more consistent with helping others with their health and fitness goals.
From a Friend:
Hey Roberta!
A few months ago I read 'The Power of Habit' by a NYT science writer guy (Charles Duhggie?) who chronicles the 'trigger - response - reward' aspect of any habit/practice and what is actually happening in our brain at the same time. It's a fascinating read and I think relevant to what you're describing. While your initial trigger was not feeling great about your physical being and the response was the incredible, dedicated weight loss/conscious exercise, the initial reward of getting to your target weight goal might not have been the real reward that you're craving. It might be more like what you describe here of feeling really great about having developed a healthy practice (with specific aspects like weighing yourself, a routine about counting calories, etc... you get the idea). So, following my unsolicited conjecture here, I'm guessing the reward isn't about losing another 5lbs, but like your sister said, finding some other 'response'/practice that makes you feel great.
Jen V.
A few months ago I read 'The Power of Habit' by a NYT science writer guy (Charles Duhggie?) who chronicles the 'trigger - response - reward' aspect of any habit/practice and what is actually happening in our brain at the same time. It's a fascinating read and I think relevant to what you're describing. While your initial trigger was not feeling great about your physical being and the response was the incredible, dedicated weight loss/conscious exercise, the initial reward of getting to your target weight goal might not have been the real reward that you're craving. It might be more like what you describe here of feeling really great about having developed a healthy practice (with specific aspects like weighing yourself, a routine about counting calories, etc... you get the idea). So, following my unsolicited conjecture here, I'm guessing the reward isn't about losing another 5lbs, but like your sister said, finding some other 'response'/practice that makes you feel great.
Jen V.
My response:
I am always looking for a good book to read that fits into where I am at the moment. 'The Power of Habit' sounds like it may be my next read. It is true that my real goal was never a certain weight, my real goal was to be "Younger Next Year." I want to be physical, active, and fit as I age so that I can thoroughly enjoy the second half of my life. My favorite things to do are things that require me to have a fully functioning, healthy and strong body. I love to hike and camp, do home improvement projects around the house, and work in my garden. I want to backpack in the backwoods and mountains and ride my bike across America in the years to come. I knew I needed to start getting fit immediately if I want to be able to do these things when I am 70. Losing 5 more pounds now does not make those things more achievable. Staying fit does. I'll read the book. I'll also think about those things that motivated me to start my program in the first place. Maybe I should start getting serious about learning about and gearing up to do some backpacking. Maybe I should start looking for a backpacking club here in Kansas City. This is certainly worth thinking about.
In summary: I want to thank all you that comment on my blog. Your comments help me get beyond whatever is sticking me up at the moment. They help me start down new thought paths or they remind me of what my true motivations have always been and help me stick to path I chose from the beginning. Writing a blog post helps me keep my thoughts in order. I use the phrase, "It keeps my thoughts linear," meaning that writing my blog keeps my thoughts from spiraling around and around without making any progress. That alone makes keeping a blog "worth it." Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure I am sleeping better since I started blogging. My brain doesn't go into death spirals as I try to fall asleep,anymore. You know what I am talking about, don't you? When I was unhappy with something I was doing in the past and got stuck, I would go to bed at night and be unable to sleep because my mind would just play the same tape over and over and over again. I can't think of the last time that happened.
But I am not sure that I could keep up the blog if I didn't know people were reading it and if I didn't get your comments every now and then. Writing the blog almost daily is doable because I know people are reading it. I am writing to someone. I am not writing to myself. I am not talking to, "Just hear my head rattle," as my dad used to say. And your comments inspire me, force me to go down different paths, remind me that there are other ways to think about things, and remind me to stay healthy and focused on the big picture. I thank you for that.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
2/20/2013: Plan A?
OK, OK, OK...let's reevaluate our goals here.
Seriously, it's time to think about what I've been thinking about. Not quite two months ago I decided I wanted to exercise consistently for a year while maintaining my weight and see what happens. I established a goal to lower my body fat % and to successfully complete a triathlon. These seemed like reasonable goals.
Then over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about losing a little more weight. Why, exactly? I am not sure. Part of it is because I don't like this roll here or that bulge there. But I think a more significant part of it is that I miss the easily measurable success of weight loss. Each week, for 10 months, I celebrated my success as I weighed a little less, week after week after week. I think I miss the little high I was getting each week from my weighing myself and watching all my hard work pay off, as reflected by the number on the scale. It was fun to shop for clothes and find out 12s were too big, then 10s, and now, oh my, 8s fit well and can even be a little loose. Since I have stopped losing weight I have missed that a little bit. The obvious changes in my appearance as reflected in my weekly photos, the scale showing my weight loss, and being able to buy smaller and more flattering clothes were all successes that I got to experience on a regular basis. They kept me going and kept me motivated. I worked hard to be able to achieve and celebrate the next success.
It's all different now. I am not losing weight anymore. I am still surprised by my appearance sometimes, particularly in photographs. When I see a snapshot of myself I am surprised by how thin I look. When I get dressed in the morning and look in the mirror, I am comfortable with the way I look. So what's going on? During Phase I, the payoff for counting calories and exercising every day was weight loss, I got to mark my chart and see the line go down, I could buy new, smaller clothes, I felt a little better every day. During Phase II the payoff is a little more subtle. My body fat % is theoretically decreasing, but the more I investigate ways to truly measure body fat the more I realize what an inexact science that really is. I have only found one place in Kansas City that measures body fat and they use a Bod Pod, which has mixed reviews, at best. They also only take appointments from 8:30am - 4:30pm Monday through Friday. I haven't found a good time to do it yet. Part of me isn't excited about getting the measurements done because I am not sure I will believe the results anyway. So, as much as I believe that decreasing body fat % is a good goal, and as much as I believe that I am probably making progress towards that goal, I do find it frustrating that I can't accurately measure my progress and see my success.
Feeling great is an obvious payoff for Phase II. And I do feel great. I feel as good as I can remember feeling in my adult life. I feel strong and healthy and like I can do just about anything I want to do. On the other hand, when it comes to feeling good, Phase II feels more like maintenance and holding on to my hard fought gains rather than achieving noticeably new levels of "feeling good." Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining nor am I suggesting I am going to give up on Phase II or on exercise or on weight maintenance, because maintaining how I feel for the next 50 years is of paramount importance to me. I am just saying that I think I am missing the highs from my weekly small wins during Phase I.
So yesterday, I posted that I may try to lose a few more pounds. Get to 145 pounds. Try to lose this roll or that bulge. I also mentioned that I know I need to restrict calories to do that but hunger has been winning out over dieting. I was feeling somewhat adrift and wanted a measurable goal and, perhaps, the chance at achieving an easy win.
Then, last night, a very simple comment that my husband made helped everything click back into place. I've been noticing lately that my muscles are getting a little bigger and more well defined. I particularly notice it in my arms. I'll be doing something and inadvertently brush one of my biceps and say to myself, "Whoa, there is a serious muscle there." I am also noticing it in my back and core. While I am drying my hair in the morning and have my arms above my head I will see a well defined muscle in my back or abdomen that was not there a couple of months ago. So last night I said to Jack, "Have you noticed that my muscles are getting a little bigger?" And he sighed a little bit, and said (as if he was tired of this topic of conversation - I mean, really, how could be possibly be tired of this? It has only been twelve months!!), "Yes, I've noticed." And I said, "No, really, it seems like all of a sudden, in the last month or so, my muscles are growing and getting more defined. I don't understand why, all of a sudden, after I've been working out for a year, I would notice this now. It doesn't seem like I am exercising that much more." Then Jack said, "It's because you are eating enough. You are giving your body enough calories to actually build muscle, rather than starving it every day to lose weight."
Ding, ding, ding!! That's it. That makes sense. I am decreasing my body fat %, I can see it. I don't need to get my body fat measured to know that. I am not gaining weight. I weigh myself every day to make sure of that. But my muscles are getting bigger and I am getting stronger. I can see that. I sense it every day. I can feel it. Well, that can only mean one thing. If my muscles are bigger and I don't weigh more, I am losing fat. I am hungry because I am exercising about 9 hours a week. That makes sense. I am building muscle now. Not losing weight. It is a completely different thing, physiologically. And psychologically, I guess.
So, back to Plan A. No, I am not going to try to lose any more weight. Yes, I am going to weigh myself every day and keep myself within a few pounds of 150. Yes, I am going to continue to strength train so I can decrease fat mass and increase muscle mass. Yes, I am going to continue to train for my triathlon. Yes, I am going to delight in the fact that I feel great almost all of the time.
My question is, do I need to have weekly wins? They certainly motivated me through Phase I. My chart does help. Putting my exercise schedule on the wall and filling in my bar graph does make a difference. But those aren't really wins, those are more like, "I'm doing my job." Do I need wins? Is that what the triathlon is for? When I complete that, it will feel like a huge win. But it is so far away. Ruth suggested that I sign up for an indoor mini-tri here in Kansas City. I don't really want to do that for some reason. Perhaps it is just time. I've been too busy with too many things and I cherish my down weekends when I don't have things I have to do. But a mini-tri might give me the "win" I crave. Is this just a craving, just me looking for a cheap thrill, a quick high? Does it make more sense to try to shake the need for wins, and settle into acknowledging that being fit and healthy is just part of every day life? Does it work that way?
This is all new territory for me. I've lost weight before. But I've never successfully maintained a healthy weight before. I've always let transitions in my life derail me. Not anymore. This change that I have made is for life. I know that part, but what I don't know is what this is going to be. Do I be satisfied with the status-quo? Do I always strive for improvement? Does this become old hat, just the way it is? Do I revel in my success and feel accomplished for being a very fit 50 year old? I don't know how this works. I guess I am going to find out.
Seriously, it's time to think about what I've been thinking about. Not quite two months ago I decided I wanted to exercise consistently for a year while maintaining my weight and see what happens. I established a goal to lower my body fat % and to successfully complete a triathlon. These seemed like reasonable goals.
Then over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about losing a little more weight. Why, exactly? I am not sure. Part of it is because I don't like this roll here or that bulge there. But I think a more significant part of it is that I miss the easily measurable success of weight loss. Each week, for 10 months, I celebrated my success as I weighed a little less, week after week after week. I think I miss the little high I was getting each week from my weighing myself and watching all my hard work pay off, as reflected by the number on the scale. It was fun to shop for clothes and find out 12s were too big, then 10s, and now, oh my, 8s fit well and can even be a little loose. Since I have stopped losing weight I have missed that a little bit. The obvious changes in my appearance as reflected in my weekly photos, the scale showing my weight loss, and being able to buy smaller and more flattering clothes were all successes that I got to experience on a regular basis. They kept me going and kept me motivated. I worked hard to be able to achieve and celebrate the next success.
It's all different now. I am not losing weight anymore. I am still surprised by my appearance sometimes, particularly in photographs. When I see a snapshot of myself I am surprised by how thin I look. When I get dressed in the morning and look in the mirror, I am comfortable with the way I look. So what's going on? During Phase I, the payoff for counting calories and exercising every day was weight loss, I got to mark my chart and see the line go down, I could buy new, smaller clothes, I felt a little better every day. During Phase II the payoff is a little more subtle. My body fat % is theoretically decreasing, but the more I investigate ways to truly measure body fat the more I realize what an inexact science that really is. I have only found one place in Kansas City that measures body fat and they use a Bod Pod, which has mixed reviews, at best. They also only take appointments from 8:30am - 4:30pm Monday through Friday. I haven't found a good time to do it yet. Part of me isn't excited about getting the measurements done because I am not sure I will believe the results anyway. So, as much as I believe that decreasing body fat % is a good goal, and as much as I believe that I am probably making progress towards that goal, I do find it frustrating that I can't accurately measure my progress and see my success.
Feeling great is an obvious payoff for Phase II. And I do feel great. I feel as good as I can remember feeling in my adult life. I feel strong and healthy and like I can do just about anything I want to do. On the other hand, when it comes to feeling good, Phase II feels more like maintenance and holding on to my hard fought gains rather than achieving noticeably new levels of "feeling good." Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining nor am I suggesting I am going to give up on Phase II or on exercise or on weight maintenance, because maintaining how I feel for the next 50 years is of paramount importance to me. I am just saying that I think I am missing the highs from my weekly small wins during Phase I.
So yesterday, I posted that I may try to lose a few more pounds. Get to 145 pounds. Try to lose this roll or that bulge. I also mentioned that I know I need to restrict calories to do that but hunger has been winning out over dieting. I was feeling somewhat adrift and wanted a measurable goal and, perhaps, the chance at achieving an easy win.
Then, last night, a very simple comment that my husband made helped everything click back into place. I've been noticing lately that my muscles are getting a little bigger and more well defined. I particularly notice it in my arms. I'll be doing something and inadvertently brush one of my biceps and say to myself, "Whoa, there is a serious muscle there." I am also noticing it in my back and core. While I am drying my hair in the morning and have my arms above my head I will see a well defined muscle in my back or abdomen that was not there a couple of months ago. So last night I said to Jack, "Have you noticed that my muscles are getting a little bigger?" And he sighed a little bit, and said (as if he was tired of this topic of conversation - I mean, really, how could be possibly be tired of this? It has only been twelve months!!), "Yes, I've noticed." And I said, "No, really, it seems like all of a sudden, in the last month or so, my muscles are growing and getting more defined. I don't understand why, all of a sudden, after I've been working out for a year, I would notice this now. It doesn't seem like I am exercising that much more." Then Jack said, "It's because you are eating enough. You are giving your body enough calories to actually build muscle, rather than starving it every day to lose weight."
Ding, ding, ding!! That's it. That makes sense. I am decreasing my body fat %, I can see it. I don't need to get my body fat measured to know that. I am not gaining weight. I weigh myself every day to make sure of that. But my muscles are getting bigger and I am getting stronger. I can see that. I sense it every day. I can feel it. Well, that can only mean one thing. If my muscles are bigger and I don't weigh more, I am losing fat. I am hungry because I am exercising about 9 hours a week. That makes sense. I am building muscle now. Not losing weight. It is a completely different thing, physiologically. And psychologically, I guess.
So, back to Plan A. No, I am not going to try to lose any more weight. Yes, I am going to weigh myself every day and keep myself within a few pounds of 150. Yes, I am going to continue to strength train so I can decrease fat mass and increase muscle mass. Yes, I am going to continue to train for my triathlon. Yes, I am going to delight in the fact that I feel great almost all of the time.
My question is, do I need to have weekly wins? They certainly motivated me through Phase I. My chart does help. Putting my exercise schedule on the wall and filling in my bar graph does make a difference. But those aren't really wins, those are more like, "I'm doing my job." Do I need wins? Is that what the triathlon is for? When I complete that, it will feel like a huge win. But it is so far away. Ruth suggested that I sign up for an indoor mini-tri here in Kansas City. I don't really want to do that for some reason. Perhaps it is just time. I've been too busy with too many things and I cherish my down weekends when I don't have things I have to do. But a mini-tri might give me the "win" I crave. Is this just a craving, just me looking for a cheap thrill, a quick high? Does it make more sense to try to shake the need for wins, and settle into acknowledging that being fit and healthy is just part of every day life? Does it work that way?
This is all new territory for me. I've lost weight before. But I've never successfully maintained a healthy weight before. I've always let transitions in my life derail me. Not anymore. This change that I have made is for life. I know that part, but what I don't know is what this is going to be. Do I be satisfied with the status-quo? Do I always strive for improvement? Does this become old hat, just the way it is? Do I revel in my success and feel accomplished for being a very fit 50 year old? I don't know how this works. I guess I am going to find out.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
2/19/2013: Feeling Strong
Halfway through Week 6 I am feeling strong, if a little sore. Both my lower body and upper body workouts are tough this week. My legs and butt are still sore from Sunday's workout and my arms feel buff and pumped from yesterday's workout. I guess that means it is all working.
I made it to the gym yesterday afternoon for my bike ride and this morning I swam 1500 meters. I am right on track.
This morning's weight: 153.2.
I do want to lose that extra three pounds and I am starting to think about losing another five pounds and getting to 145.0. But, while maintaining my weight between 152 and 154 is not a problem at all, I can't seem to bring myself to restrict my calories enough to lose weight. My body seems to know exactly how many calories to consume to support my current weight with the amount of exercise I am doing. Every time I start thinking about losing a few more pounds, the desire to not be hungry wins out. Humph!
At this point, losing a few pounds would be for purely cosmetic reasons. I feel great and I don't necessarily think being 145 pounds would be any healthier than 150 or 153, but I do think losing just a few more pounds would make a difference in how clothes fit. I don't like the bulge of fat above my bra strap and under my arm pit, for example. I am hoping that by the end of this year my solid weight lifting routine will have increased muscle and decreased fat, but I also think losing a few more pounds wouldn't hurt. It would take a little more discipline than I have been exhibiting, on the food side, to make it happen. I obviously haven't committed to that, just yet.
I am committed to the exercise and I am committed to maintaining my weight. Both of those things are going well. Week 6 is going remarkably well after a light Week 5. Perhaps it is because I had a chance to rest. I know it helps me a lot to have my workout schedule back up on my chart. It makes a huge difference if I can just look at my chart before I go to bed and register in my brain that tomorrow is a swimming day. That helps me just get up and do it. I also clearly marked the days that I would work out at lunch, and that helps, too. I am much happier getting my second workout of the day in at lunch rather than after work. In fact, it is a huge relief to me not to think about having to do any exercise in the evening. It's not as if I needed proof that I am not an evening person, but if I was wondering about that at all I guess I have all the confirmation I need. After a day at work I am done and I just want to come home and do nothing. Part of that is because I go to bed pretty early. If I workout in the evenings, I find it much hard to fall asleep. So far, my new schedule seems to be working pretty well. For now, I think decreasing the swimming to 1500 meters a week was the right move. The only thing I changed about my schedule from the first 4 weeks is I am swimming 1000 meters less and running 1 mile less per week. For some reason, that small change makes the schedule much more manageable. As I get closer to my tri, I may need to strength train a little less and swim and run a little more, but for now I think this schedule will work well for me.
Off to work!! Have a great day!!
I made it to the gym yesterday afternoon for my bike ride and this morning I swam 1500 meters. I am right on track.
This morning's weight: 153.2.
I do want to lose that extra three pounds and I am starting to think about losing another five pounds and getting to 145.0. But, while maintaining my weight between 152 and 154 is not a problem at all, I can't seem to bring myself to restrict my calories enough to lose weight. My body seems to know exactly how many calories to consume to support my current weight with the amount of exercise I am doing. Every time I start thinking about losing a few more pounds, the desire to not be hungry wins out. Humph!
At this point, losing a few pounds would be for purely cosmetic reasons. I feel great and I don't necessarily think being 145 pounds would be any healthier than 150 or 153, but I do think losing just a few more pounds would make a difference in how clothes fit. I don't like the bulge of fat above my bra strap and under my arm pit, for example. I am hoping that by the end of this year my solid weight lifting routine will have increased muscle and decreased fat, but I also think losing a few more pounds wouldn't hurt. It would take a little more discipline than I have been exhibiting, on the food side, to make it happen. I obviously haven't committed to that, just yet.
I am committed to the exercise and I am committed to maintaining my weight. Both of those things are going well. Week 6 is going remarkably well after a light Week 5. Perhaps it is because I had a chance to rest. I know it helps me a lot to have my workout schedule back up on my chart. It makes a huge difference if I can just look at my chart before I go to bed and register in my brain that tomorrow is a swimming day. That helps me just get up and do it. I also clearly marked the days that I would work out at lunch, and that helps, too. I am much happier getting my second workout of the day in at lunch rather than after work. In fact, it is a huge relief to me not to think about having to do any exercise in the evening. It's not as if I needed proof that I am not an evening person, but if I was wondering about that at all I guess I have all the confirmation I need. After a day at work I am done and I just want to come home and do nothing. Part of that is because I go to bed pretty early. If I workout in the evenings, I find it much hard to fall asleep. So far, my new schedule seems to be working pretty well. For now, I think decreasing the swimming to 1500 meters a week was the right move. The only thing I changed about my schedule from the first 4 weeks is I am swimming 1000 meters less and running 1 mile less per week. For some reason, that small change makes the schedule much more manageable. As I get closer to my tri, I may need to strength train a little less and swim and run a little more, but for now I think this schedule will work well for me.
Off to work!! Have a great day!!
Monday, February 18, 2013
2/18/2013: Reboot Achieved
Yesterday I managed to squeeze in time to get my Weeks 5 - 8 exercise schedule filled out, printed, and pasted to my chart. It's just a week late, Week 6 started yesterday! It feels good to get a schedule back up on the wall. It is similar to my first four weeks, except I cut the swimming back to one 1500 swim a week and I changed the 2 five miles runs to one 6 mile run (on Saturday) and one 3 mile run (lunch hour). I now have 3 lunch hours planned during the week, I will be using my lunch hours to do my two 38 minutes bike rids and my 3 mile run. I hope this schedule feels a little more manageable. I think it will. I finished week 5 strong, with a 1500 meter swim followed by a 3 mile run.
Week 6 started with a bang, as well. Yesterday Jack and I played raquetball, followed by a lower body workout for me and 45 minutes on the ellipitical for Jack. I continue to improve at raquetball, I have not won a game yet, but I am consistently getting into the mid to upper teens by the time Jack gets 21 points. Keep in mind that I still get my handicap. I can score a point when I serve or when Jack serves. Jack can only score points when he serves. I'm doing a better job tracking the ball and figuring out where it is going to be so that I can hit it. I still have a hard time hitting the ball out of the corner, particularly my backhand corner. It seems like I need to use a little more wrist in that backhand shot. When the ball is in the corner and very close to the wall, there is not enough room to get a swing at the ball.
My lower body workout yesterday was rough! I came home from the gym knowing I had worked hard!! This morning's upper body workout was not much easier. It seems as if Jeremy has kicked it up a notch, recently.
This morning's weight: 152.8
Week 6 started with a bang, as well. Yesterday Jack and I played raquetball, followed by a lower body workout for me and 45 minutes on the ellipitical for Jack. I continue to improve at raquetball, I have not won a game yet, but I am consistently getting into the mid to upper teens by the time Jack gets 21 points. Keep in mind that I still get my handicap. I can score a point when I serve or when Jack serves. Jack can only score points when he serves. I'm doing a better job tracking the ball and figuring out where it is going to be so that I can hit it. I still have a hard time hitting the ball out of the corner, particularly my backhand corner. It seems like I need to use a little more wrist in that backhand shot. When the ball is in the corner and very close to the wall, there is not enough room to get a swing at the ball.
My lower body workout yesterday was rough! I came home from the gym knowing I had worked hard!! This morning's upper body workout was not much easier. It seems as if Jeremy has kicked it up a notch, recently.
This morning's weight: 152.8
Sunday, February 17, 2013
2/17/2013: Sunday Morning
Yesterday's day of nothing to do turned into a pretty busy day, after all. After paying off the Rabbit, we went to the bowling alley to practice bowling for a while. Bob was available, so we had another lesson. We both picked up a few more hints and our last game after our lesson Jack bowled a 187 and I bowled a 164. Not bad, not bad at all!
After bowling we had lunch at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. It is called Guadalajara and it is on the corner of State Line and 103rd Street. I like it because the food tastes very fresh and very light. It is not loaded down with tons of cheese and beans and I can get a delicious meal at a restaurant within a reasonable number of calories. After lunch we went shopping for two things, a birthday present for Sharlynne and a new refrigerator.
A new refrigerator? That's crazy talk, but yes we did it. I have disliked the refrigerator in the house since we bought the house. The only good thing about that fridge is the fact that we were able to get it and the stove thrown into the bargain when we bought the house so we didn't have to buy a refrigerator three and a half years ago. The fridge has been something I've had to work around ever since. The most frustrating part of it is that it is a side-by-side and for all practical purposes the freezer is useless. There is no room in it and it is almost impossible to use it for freezing cookies, setting frostings on cakes, etc...
In spite of how much I have disliked the fridge, after first looking at refrigerators a couple of years ago, I couldn't bring myself to buy a new one when we had one that worked and we did not have the cash to pay for one. The last time we looked at refrigerators was at Christmas. I passed yet again.
Well, two things have changed since Christmas. First the refrigerator broke and second, we are out of debt and we can afford to pay cash for a new fridge. Well, actually, the ice maker broke, but close enough! The ice maker takes up half of the already useless freezer, so if it can't even make ice the freezer is completely worthless. There was one other thing that prompted this purchase yesterday, our fourth anniversary is on February 28th. We decided on our first anniversary to buy each other traditional gifts. For fourth anniversaries the traditional gifts are flowers and fruit, I think, but the alternative is appliances. It seemed like destiny!
There was one little snafu, of course. There always is. They are delivering the refrigerator today and when we got home and measured how high our spot is, we discovered we underestimated the height of the cabinet by about 1.5 inches. So last night before going to the gym I took the small cabinet from above the refrigerator off the wall to find two different kinds of wall paper (I was not shocked by this). We ran to the store to buy some wall paper remover and paint, and I had the wall paper off the wall about a half hour later. My trip to the gym gave the wall enough time to dry so I could patch it when I got home. This morning, the wall has already been sanded, a few patch spots touched up, and I will be able to paint in about an hour. It will look as good as new!
I am very, very excited about having a new refrigerator in the kitchen. It's time. In addition to deciding to finally buy a refrigerator that we have been wanting for three years, Jack and I had a very good discussion about finances yesterday over lunch. As soon as I am done with this blog post I will begin working on a spreadsheet, laying out the different financial goals we want to achieve, now that we have reached our first goals and this watershed moment of being out of debt. Later today we will put numbers to the conversation that we had over lunch yesterday, and Phase II of our financial plan will begin in earnest. Phase II...that is starting to sound like a theme!
Yesterday's workout consisted of a 1500 meter swim and a 3 mile run. I wanted to get both in because I had not run or swim at all last week and yesterday was the last day of the week. Yes, it was hard. Yes, it wore me out. But if felt good to be able to get both types of exercise in before the end of the week.
This morning's weight was 152.6. Progress.
After bowling we had lunch at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. It is called Guadalajara and it is on the corner of State Line and 103rd Street. I like it because the food tastes very fresh and very light. It is not loaded down with tons of cheese and beans and I can get a delicious meal at a restaurant within a reasonable number of calories. After lunch we went shopping for two things, a birthday present for Sharlynne and a new refrigerator.
A new refrigerator? That's crazy talk, but yes we did it. I have disliked the refrigerator in the house since we bought the house. The only good thing about that fridge is the fact that we were able to get it and the stove thrown into the bargain when we bought the house so we didn't have to buy a refrigerator three and a half years ago. The fridge has been something I've had to work around ever since. The most frustrating part of it is that it is a side-by-side and for all practical purposes the freezer is useless. There is no room in it and it is almost impossible to use it for freezing cookies, setting frostings on cakes, etc...
In spite of how much I have disliked the fridge, after first looking at refrigerators a couple of years ago, I couldn't bring myself to buy a new one when we had one that worked and we did not have the cash to pay for one. The last time we looked at refrigerators was at Christmas. I passed yet again.
Well, two things have changed since Christmas. First the refrigerator broke and second, we are out of debt and we can afford to pay cash for a new fridge. Well, actually, the ice maker broke, but close enough! The ice maker takes up half of the already useless freezer, so if it can't even make ice the freezer is completely worthless. There was one other thing that prompted this purchase yesterday, our fourth anniversary is on February 28th. We decided on our first anniversary to buy each other traditional gifts. For fourth anniversaries the traditional gifts are flowers and fruit, I think, but the alternative is appliances. It seemed like destiny!
There was one little snafu, of course. There always is. They are delivering the refrigerator today and when we got home and measured how high our spot is, we discovered we underestimated the height of the cabinet by about 1.5 inches. So last night before going to the gym I took the small cabinet from above the refrigerator off the wall to find two different kinds of wall paper (I was not shocked by this). We ran to the store to buy some wall paper remover and paint, and I had the wall paper off the wall about a half hour later. My trip to the gym gave the wall enough time to dry so I could patch it when I got home. This morning, the wall has already been sanded, a few patch spots touched up, and I will be able to paint in about an hour. It will look as good as new!
I am very, very excited about having a new refrigerator in the kitchen. It's time. In addition to deciding to finally buy a refrigerator that we have been wanting for three years, Jack and I had a very good discussion about finances yesterday over lunch. As soon as I am done with this blog post I will begin working on a spreadsheet, laying out the different financial goals we want to achieve, now that we have reached our first goals and this watershed moment of being out of debt. Later today we will put numbers to the conversation that we had over lunch yesterday, and Phase II of our financial plan will begin in earnest. Phase II...that is starting to sound like a theme!
Yesterday's workout consisted of a 1500 meter swim and a 3 mile run. I wanted to get both in because I had not run or swim at all last week and yesterday was the last day of the week. Yes, it was hard. Yes, it wore me out. But if felt good to be able to get both types of exercise in before the end of the week.
This morning's weight was 152.6. Progress.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
2/16/2013: Reboot
Wow! It is Saturday and I have very little I have to do! It feels fabulous.
One of the first things we are going to do this morning is go to US Bank to pay off the Rabbit. Woo Hoo!! I paid off the Subaru last week (I could do that on-line. US Bank needs to get with the times!), the credit cards all have zero balances, and the Rabbit gets paid off today. Now the only debt Jack and I have is the house, and I can live with that. We both want to accumulate more of an emergency cash fund, but after that we will need to decide if we are going to pay a little extra on the house every month, or what comes next.
I know money is a personal thing and maybe it is crass to discuss it in public, but money management is one of those things that can cause a lot of stress in a couple's life together and it is on my mind at the moment. I suppose my readers can decide whether they want to read this blog post or not, as it is mostly going to be about money.
When Jack and I decided to get married a little later in life (I was 46 when we got married and he was 52) we knew that we needed to talk finances. We had both been divorced which, as anyone who has been divorced will tell you, sets you way back on that financial planning road. We both also helped our children pay for college educations and still had one child each in college. So once we started talking about getting married we decided we needed to have a financial planning day. I was still living in California at the time, so I put together a spreadsheet showing everything I had spent money on over the last couple of years, by category, gathered together my 401k and credit card statements, and anything else I could think of, and flew to Kansas City. Jack had done the same thing and we just spread everything out on the living room floor and talked. We talked about what is important to each of us; I have a tendency to spend money on memories (think vacations and doing fun things) and gifts for my kids and Jack is a little more conservative. We talked about what we needed in order to feel comfortable with combining our finances and we came up with the outlines of a financial plan. We have had some expected and unexpected expenses come up since we got married and bought our house. An $18,000 home improvement project to keep our basement dry being the biggest one. And we've bought two cars. We bought the rabbit when I moved out here, because my little Nissan (Thank you George, she was a life saver!) just wasn't going to make the trip. Then after we bought the house the Saturn got wrecked. We were a one car family until I started working in Olathe, and then that required the purchase of a second car, the Subaru. Cars have gotten expensive, but given the range of car prices these days, both of these cars would be considered rather economical purchases. And we had one daughter starting her senior year in college and another in her freshman year.
Anyway, a little over three years ago I developed a three year plan to be out of debt by the time Bri graduated from college and, in spite of the unexpected expense on the house, we have achieved that goal a few months ahead of schedule. We achieved this goal by tracking every dollar we spend. I spend the first hours of every Saturday updating our budget and expense log and reconciling our checking accounts and credit card statements. It works out great because even though I am the one paying the bills and tracking everything, Jack is fully informed. The spreadsheet is right there, along with the graph that monitors our debt, and he can check it whenever he wants to see what we are spending our money on. Periodically, we have sit down meeting where we discuss what we want to accomplish over the next few weeks or months. Annually, we develop a new budget. When we realized we were spending too much on "entertainment and eating out" we decided to establish a monthly cash budget for those items. We each get an allowance for our own pocket money and we have a joint allowance for eating out. That really helped us keep our cash expenditures in line. I also maintain a balance sheet where I update our assets, liabilities and net worth every quarter. That, as much as anything, helps us see our progress as we work towards our financial goals. Today, I am relieved that we are out of debt (with the exception of the mortgage) and so is Jack!
I am proud of all six of our kids. This spring, when Bri graduates from college, all six kids will have graduated with Bachelor's degrees and no one has any student loans. I think that is a huge accomplishment. Jack and I both made commitments to help our kids pay for their Bachelor's degrees, as did our ex-spouses. In addition, the kids made huge financial contributions to their own educations, all of them getting jobs and paying for their own living expenses (with varying degrees of assistance needed, along the way). Between their willingness to work to help cover expenses, and Jack's, mine and our exes' ability to cash flow tuition and the rest of the expenses that the kids couldn't cover themselves, we've managed to get six kids through school without any student debt. In addition, two of our children decided to get graduate degrees which they figured out how to fund, themselves. Aaron has his master's degree and Steve is working on his PhD. All of our children are remarkable!! I don't think I tell them often enough, particularly the ones that made the biggest financial contributions to their own educations (you know who you are), how proud I am of them for this accomplishment. Yes, your parents helped, sometimes a lot, but each one of you made it happen. We could not have supported all six of you through college without your help, it would have been impossible without the impressive work all of you did to support yourselves while going to school. I congratulate each and every one of you for this accomplishment!!
I bring all this up because Jack and I are at a new branch in the road, financially. With the dept paid off, college educations all but complete, and both of us fully employed (for the moment), we are on the brink of being able to accelerate our savings for retirement. It feels like it happened all of the sudden, but it has really been like any other transition. The progress has been slow and steady, we have been getting closer and closer to this moment since the day we got married almost four years ago, but all of a sudden, here we are! So much has happened over this last year. My new job, travels to China, getting fit, paying off debt, Carla coming and going, and what else? I can't even keep track. I feel like the solid foundation of financial planning, budgeting, and daily tracking of our expenses has really paid off. Yet it feels like our lives are exciting and unpredictable and I don't know what is around the corner. As crazy as it sounds, I like this combination of discipline (financial and health) and the unknown. The stability of our marriage and love for one another and the discipline in the basics provides a solid foundation for risk taking in other areas. Jack and I are so different in many ways, yet together we seem to have all the bases covered. I don't know why it works, but it does.
OK, this is not where this post was going to go when I called it, "Reboot," but when I started talking about paying off the Rabbit I just got all excited about it. When I titled my post I was really thinking about rebooting my exercise regimen. Week 5 ends today. I have not yet made my exercise schedule for the 2nd four weeks of Phase II. I need to do that today and make sure I start Week 6 off on the right foot. Today I will swim, at the very least, but all in all, Week 5 was a light week. Fine. I will step it back up in Week 6!!
Go, Fight, Win!!!
One of the first things we are going to do this morning is go to US Bank to pay off the Rabbit. Woo Hoo!! I paid off the Subaru last week (I could do that on-line. US Bank needs to get with the times!), the credit cards all have zero balances, and the Rabbit gets paid off today. Now the only debt Jack and I have is the house, and I can live with that. We both want to accumulate more of an emergency cash fund, but after that we will need to decide if we are going to pay a little extra on the house every month, or what comes next.
I know money is a personal thing and maybe it is crass to discuss it in public, but money management is one of those things that can cause a lot of stress in a couple's life together and it is on my mind at the moment. I suppose my readers can decide whether they want to read this blog post or not, as it is mostly going to be about money.
When Jack and I decided to get married a little later in life (I was 46 when we got married and he was 52) we knew that we needed to talk finances. We had both been divorced which, as anyone who has been divorced will tell you, sets you way back on that financial planning road. We both also helped our children pay for college educations and still had one child each in college. So once we started talking about getting married we decided we needed to have a financial planning day. I was still living in California at the time, so I put together a spreadsheet showing everything I had spent money on over the last couple of years, by category, gathered together my 401k and credit card statements, and anything else I could think of, and flew to Kansas City. Jack had done the same thing and we just spread everything out on the living room floor and talked. We talked about what is important to each of us; I have a tendency to spend money on memories (think vacations and doing fun things) and gifts for my kids and Jack is a little more conservative. We talked about what we needed in order to feel comfortable with combining our finances and we came up with the outlines of a financial plan. We have had some expected and unexpected expenses come up since we got married and bought our house. An $18,000 home improvement project to keep our basement dry being the biggest one. And we've bought two cars. We bought the rabbit when I moved out here, because my little Nissan (Thank you George, she was a life saver!) just wasn't going to make the trip. Then after we bought the house the Saturn got wrecked. We were a one car family until I started working in Olathe, and then that required the purchase of a second car, the Subaru. Cars have gotten expensive, but given the range of car prices these days, both of these cars would be considered rather economical purchases. And we had one daughter starting her senior year in college and another in her freshman year.
Anyway, a little over three years ago I developed a three year plan to be out of debt by the time Bri graduated from college and, in spite of the unexpected expense on the house, we have achieved that goal a few months ahead of schedule. We achieved this goal by tracking every dollar we spend. I spend the first hours of every Saturday updating our budget and expense log and reconciling our checking accounts and credit card statements. It works out great because even though I am the one paying the bills and tracking everything, Jack is fully informed. The spreadsheet is right there, along with the graph that monitors our debt, and he can check it whenever he wants to see what we are spending our money on. Periodically, we have sit down meeting where we discuss what we want to accomplish over the next few weeks or months. Annually, we develop a new budget. When we realized we were spending too much on "entertainment and eating out" we decided to establish a monthly cash budget for those items. We each get an allowance for our own pocket money and we have a joint allowance for eating out. That really helped us keep our cash expenditures in line. I also maintain a balance sheet where I update our assets, liabilities and net worth every quarter. That, as much as anything, helps us see our progress as we work towards our financial goals. Today, I am relieved that we are out of debt (with the exception of the mortgage) and so is Jack!
I am proud of all six of our kids. This spring, when Bri graduates from college, all six kids will have graduated with Bachelor's degrees and no one has any student loans. I think that is a huge accomplishment. Jack and I both made commitments to help our kids pay for their Bachelor's degrees, as did our ex-spouses. In addition, the kids made huge financial contributions to their own educations, all of them getting jobs and paying for their own living expenses (with varying degrees of assistance needed, along the way). Between their willingness to work to help cover expenses, and Jack's, mine and our exes' ability to cash flow tuition and the rest of the expenses that the kids couldn't cover themselves, we've managed to get six kids through school without any student debt. In addition, two of our children decided to get graduate degrees which they figured out how to fund, themselves. Aaron has his master's degree and Steve is working on his PhD. All of our children are remarkable!! I don't think I tell them often enough, particularly the ones that made the biggest financial contributions to their own educations (you know who you are), how proud I am of them for this accomplishment. Yes, your parents helped, sometimes a lot, but each one of you made it happen. We could not have supported all six of you through college without your help, it would have been impossible without the impressive work all of you did to support yourselves while going to school. I congratulate each and every one of you for this accomplishment!!
I bring all this up because Jack and I are at a new branch in the road, financially. With the dept paid off, college educations all but complete, and both of us fully employed (for the moment), we are on the brink of being able to accelerate our savings for retirement. It feels like it happened all of the sudden, but it has really been like any other transition. The progress has been slow and steady, we have been getting closer and closer to this moment since the day we got married almost four years ago, but all of a sudden, here we are! So much has happened over this last year. My new job, travels to China, getting fit, paying off debt, Carla coming and going, and what else? I can't even keep track. I feel like the solid foundation of financial planning, budgeting, and daily tracking of our expenses has really paid off. Yet it feels like our lives are exciting and unpredictable and I don't know what is around the corner. As crazy as it sounds, I like this combination of discipline (financial and health) and the unknown. The stability of our marriage and love for one another and the discipline in the basics provides a solid foundation for risk taking in other areas. Jack and I are so different in many ways, yet together we seem to have all the bases covered. I don't know why it works, but it does.
OK, this is not where this post was going to go when I called it, "Reboot," but when I started talking about paying off the Rabbit I just got all excited about it. When I titled my post I was really thinking about rebooting my exercise regimen. Week 5 ends today. I have not yet made my exercise schedule for the 2nd four weeks of Phase II. I need to do that today and make sure I start Week 6 off on the right foot. Today I will swim, at the very least, but all in all, Week 5 was a light week. Fine. I will step it back up in Week 6!!
Go, Fight, Win!!!
Friday, February 15, 2013
2/15/2013: TGIF
I am so glad it is Friday. After spending the weekend in Utah and therefore not resting, I have had a ridiculously busy and stressful week at work. I packed my gym clothes and my lunch yesterday and thought a trip to the gym might just happen, but it didn't. There was an emergency at work that required "all hands on deck" and that kept me busy until the end of the day, when I had an interview scheduled. The interview went well, though, so that's good. I think I may be hiring some help.
This morning I did an upper body workout with Jeremy. All is well there. I continue to get stronger, which I like. The week is over tomorrow and I think I will only have about half of my normal workouts in for the week. Jeremy was not too concerned about that, though. He, like Ruth, suggested some lighter weeks may actually be a good thing. I am not worried about it. Week 5 is going to stand out on my chart because of my bar graph, but for the first time in my life I know that I will never let exercise slip away from being part of my daily routine. The fact of the matter is that I went to the gym 3 of the 5 days that I was in Utah and I have exercised three of the four days since I have been home. That's not exactly slacking, it's just not the same pumped up pace that I was keeping for the first four weeks of Phase II. It's kind of funny when I think about it that way. In the last 9 days I have gone to the gym and exercised 6 times, and that is a light exercise schedule for me. Wow, who is this person and were did the old Roberta go? It feels good to know that even in weeks that I cannot keep up my "training" pace I am still doing some exercise almost every day. No complaints.
I still weigh in the 153s. I think I was 153.4 this morning, which is good considering I ate too much yesterday. It was an incredibly stressful day at work and because it was Valentine's day there was food everywhere! It's kind of funny to say, "I think I was 153.4 this morning." I did weigh myself this morning and I know I was in the mid 153s, but that's all I was really looking at. Getting on the scale today was just a sort of routine check in, just to confirm that I was about were I needed to be. The obsessive weight checking and freaking out about every tenth of a pound is over and part of the past. I still weigh myself everyday, but I am just making sure I am in the range I want to be in. It's nice not to be obsessed about every little fluctuation anymore.
I have an 8:00 meet-for-coffee meeting this morning, so I better run. Have a great day!!
This morning I did an upper body workout with Jeremy. All is well there. I continue to get stronger, which I like. The week is over tomorrow and I think I will only have about half of my normal workouts in for the week. Jeremy was not too concerned about that, though. He, like Ruth, suggested some lighter weeks may actually be a good thing. I am not worried about it. Week 5 is going to stand out on my chart because of my bar graph, but for the first time in my life I know that I will never let exercise slip away from being part of my daily routine. The fact of the matter is that I went to the gym 3 of the 5 days that I was in Utah and I have exercised three of the four days since I have been home. That's not exactly slacking, it's just not the same pumped up pace that I was keeping for the first four weeks of Phase II. It's kind of funny when I think about it that way. In the last 9 days I have gone to the gym and exercised 6 times, and that is a light exercise schedule for me. Wow, who is this person and were did the old Roberta go? It feels good to know that even in weeks that I cannot keep up my "training" pace I am still doing some exercise almost every day. No complaints.
I still weigh in the 153s. I think I was 153.4 this morning, which is good considering I ate too much yesterday. It was an incredibly stressful day at work and because it was Valentine's day there was food everywhere! It's kind of funny to say, "I think I was 153.4 this morning." I did weigh myself this morning and I know I was in the mid 153s, but that's all I was really looking at. Getting on the scale today was just a sort of routine check in, just to confirm that I was about were I needed to be. The obsessive weight checking and freaking out about every tenth of a pound is over and part of the past. I still weigh myself everyday, but I am just making sure I am in the range I want to be in. It's nice not to be obsessed about every little fluctuation anymore.
I have an 8:00 meet-for-coffee meeting this morning, so I better run. Have a great day!!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
2/14/2013: Week 5 Starting Slowly
Week 5 of Phase II is off to a slow start. I started Phase II all gung ho and ready to go. Most of my exercises boxes were filled in and I was aggressively pushing through all obstacles. Well, almost all obstacles. I believe there is nothing that can slow a 50 year old woman down more than her 5 grandchildren. Yes, Jack helped me find a hotel with a decent gym that was not far from a 24 Hour Fitness. I did use the gym 3 times, but by the fourth morning an extra hour of sleep won out over an hour of exercise. And nothing was going to keep me from getting to Rebecca and the kids at a reasonably early time in the morning. As it worked out, those two days I missed were the first two days of week 5. Thursdays are my normal day off. I thought I might exercise this morning because of the two days I missed early in the week, but that didn't happen because we were up late last night bowling, (We won 3 out of 4 points!! We are starting to improve!!) and I am still recovering from my trip to Utah. I was tired when I got home! I am going to try to get to the gym today during lunch and I may swim this evening. I feel like I need to get something in to get back on track for the week. Tomorrow I work out with Jeremy. That is one good thing about working with a trainer once a week, you can never get too far off track!! This weekend should be "normal," whatever that means, and by the beginning of week 6 I should be back on track. But on my chart week 5 will definitely have some holes in it.
I am incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to spend 4 1/2 days with Rebecca and her family. They live too far away from us and we don't get to see them often enough. It was wonderful being there all day every day for four days because I felt like I got to know everyone a lot better. The kids are all very special, each in their own way, and Rebecca is an incredible mom. My favorite part of the day was school. It was fun to watch each child, even Caden as he wrote his name, did his ABCs, and read his story (he turns 4 in March), work hard on some subjects and breeze through others. It turns out the eldest doesn't particulalry like division, though her times tables are a breeze, and the almost 7 year old has amazing reading comprehension, but doesn't like to write out complete sentences. Helping them with their schoolwork brought me back to my elementary school days and I started wondering what I liked and didn't like to do back then. I seem to remember really disliking spelling, but the memories are pretty vague. Rebecca is homeschooling the kids, which is a huge commitment on her part, and the kids are so lucky to have this opportunity to learn at home. They move quickly through the lessons that are easy for them and have the time to work through the subjects that are more difficult. Each child gets the attention they need on the necessary subjects and for the most part (if not in every aspect) they are ahead of their peers in their lessons. It was pretty amusing watching the five year old who is in kindergarten. Some of his lessons were just plain silly, trying to teach him things that he must feel like he was born knowing. But other lessons were more difficult. Telling time was a little challenging, focusing on that little hand and whether or not it was before or after a particular number to determine the hour of the day. He had to determine which half hour each clock was closest to, which did seem kind of tricky for a five year old. He definitely had to think about it.
School is done for the day in a youngest to oldest order, and the kids sort of peel off and wander out of the classroom as they are done with their classes for the day. I don't think I ever saw the television get turned on while I was there. As school was done they would begin playing make believe games, read, play games, and engage their grandma in whatever activities they could coax me into. Zombie Attack was one of their favorites. It was one of many games that they made up while I was there. They are a creative bunch, no doubt about that. The homeschooling seems to foster that independence and creativity. They don't spend much time bored, waiting for instruction or for classmates to get caught up. They also don't spend much time frustrated with something they don't understand and waiting for help. They do have to take turns, so patience on everyone's part is an element of homeschooling when you have five kids, but each child gets what he or she needs on an individual basis. It's a pretty amazing process to watch and even more amazing to get to be part of, if even for a brief moment in their lives. I hope they all enjoyed it as much as I did!!
I am incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to spend 4 1/2 days with Rebecca and her family. They live too far away from us and we don't get to see them often enough. It was wonderful being there all day every day for four days because I felt like I got to know everyone a lot better. The kids are all very special, each in their own way, and Rebecca is an incredible mom. My favorite part of the day was school. It was fun to watch each child, even Caden as he wrote his name, did his ABCs, and read his story (he turns 4 in March), work hard on some subjects and breeze through others. It turns out the eldest doesn't particulalry like division, though her times tables are a breeze, and the almost 7 year old has amazing reading comprehension, but doesn't like to write out complete sentences. Helping them with their schoolwork brought me back to my elementary school days and I started wondering what I liked and didn't like to do back then. I seem to remember really disliking spelling, but the memories are pretty vague. Rebecca is homeschooling the kids, which is a huge commitment on her part, and the kids are so lucky to have this opportunity to learn at home. They move quickly through the lessons that are easy for them and have the time to work through the subjects that are more difficult. Each child gets the attention they need on the necessary subjects and for the most part (if not in every aspect) they are ahead of their peers in their lessons. It was pretty amusing watching the five year old who is in kindergarten. Some of his lessons were just plain silly, trying to teach him things that he must feel like he was born knowing. But other lessons were more difficult. Telling time was a little challenging, focusing on that little hand and whether or not it was before or after a particular number to determine the hour of the day. He had to determine which half hour each clock was closest to, which did seem kind of tricky for a five year old. He definitely had to think about it.
School is done for the day in a youngest to oldest order, and the kids sort of peel off and wander out of the classroom as they are done with their classes for the day. I don't think I ever saw the television get turned on while I was there. As school was done they would begin playing make believe games, read, play games, and engage their grandma in whatever activities they could coax me into. Zombie Attack was one of their favorites. It was one of many games that they made up while I was there. They are a creative bunch, no doubt about that. The homeschooling seems to foster that independence and creativity. They don't spend much time bored, waiting for instruction or for classmates to get caught up. They also don't spend much time frustrated with something they don't understand and waiting for help. They do have to take turns, so patience on everyone's part is an element of homeschooling when you have five kids, but each child gets what he or she needs on an individual basis. It's a pretty amazing process to watch and even more amazing to get to be part of, if even for a brief moment in their lives. I hope they all enjoyed it as much as I did!!
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
2/13/2013: Back in Kansas City
Some of you are probably wondering if I will ever get back into the routine after my visit to Utah to help take care of our newest grandson, James. It's been a week since I made a blog post. I got back late Monday evening and now I am getting back into the swing of things.
First, the stats. I weighed 153.0 pounds this morning, so that is 6/10ths of a pound less than when I left, which isn't bad considering I was away from home and my normal routines for 5 1/2 days. While I was in Utah I did manage to exercise 3 out of the 5 mornings I was there and, of course, there was a lot of rough housing with grandkids, which is definitely exercise. I got my weight lifting in, there is no doubt about that. It seemed like their favorite games involved me picking them up in one form or another! Yesterday morning I did my lower body workout and this morning I rode the stationary bike. I am getting back into my normal exercise patterns! I still want to weigh 150.0 on February 27th, the one year anniversary of the start date for my Get Fit Initiative. I don't think that will be a problem.
I had a wonderful time in Utah. I am so glad I had the opportunity to be part of Andrew and Rebecca's family life for a few days. It was truly a treat to spend time with baby James while he was still a precious infant and I had a blast spending time with the four older children. Yes, I have some stories to tell, but for now, I think I will just share some pictures as I need to get to work this morning.
Here is our newest grandson, James:
And here are some bedtimes pictures that we texted to Grandpa Jack my first night there:
I brought gifts for the kids, including this cool set of building blocks. I couldn't figure out how to build one of the cars, so here is Andrew coming to the rescue after a hard day at work. Thanks, Andrew! You are an amazing father!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
First, the stats. I weighed 153.0 pounds this morning, so that is 6/10ths of a pound less than when I left, which isn't bad considering I was away from home and my normal routines for 5 1/2 days. While I was in Utah I did manage to exercise 3 out of the 5 mornings I was there and, of course, there was a lot of rough housing with grandkids, which is definitely exercise. I got my weight lifting in, there is no doubt about that. It seemed like their favorite games involved me picking them up in one form or another! Yesterday morning I did my lower body workout and this morning I rode the stationary bike. I am getting back into my normal exercise patterns! I still want to weigh 150.0 on February 27th, the one year anniversary of the start date for my Get Fit Initiative. I don't think that will be a problem.
I had a wonderful time in Utah. I am so glad I had the opportunity to be part of Andrew and Rebecca's family life for a few days. It was truly a treat to spend time with baby James while he was still a precious infant and I had a blast spending time with the four older children. Yes, I have some stories to tell, but for now, I think I will just share some pictures as I need to get to work this morning.
Here is our newest grandson, James:
 |
| James Craven |
 |
| Our three grandsons |
 |
| Me and James |
 |
| James |
 |
| The Four Musketeers & Pinky |
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| Our eldest grandson |
 |
| Our middle grandson |
 |
| Our eldest grandchild with Rebecca |
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| Our middle granddaughter (our youngest granddaughter lives in Oregon) with Pinky |
I brought gifts for the kids, including this cool set of building blocks. I couldn't figure out how to build one of the cars, so here is Andrew coming to the rescue after a hard day at work. Thanks, Andrew! You are an amazing father!!
 |
| Dad helping build a car that Grandma could not figure out |
And finally; I think this photo is precious. On Saturday Andrew took the boys to Lowes to participate in their Build and Grow event. He took this adorable photo while he was there. Just look at that expression!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
2/6/2013: Early Morning Appointment
I had an early morning appointment today and had to race out the door to be at work by 7:30. The good news is the appointment went well. I interviewed a candidate for a job and I think she may be a great fit for our department and the organization. I am scheduling her for a second interview.
I didn't have time to blog though, so this is just a quick update to say all is well. I head to Salt Lake City this afternoon to help take care of James and his family. I am looking forward to that! I am bringing my laptop, but blogging will probably be hit and miss. I'll do my best to check in a time or two over the next several days.
Have a great rest of the week and weekend!!
I didn't have time to blog though, so this is just a quick update to say all is well. I head to Salt Lake City this afternoon to help take care of James and his family. I am looking forward to that! I am bringing my laptop, but blogging will probably be hit and miss. I'll do my best to check in a time or two over the next several days.
Have a great rest of the week and weekend!!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
2/5/2013: Crazy Week
I didn't get home from work until about 9:30 last night and I am headed to work early this morning. I did not get my swim in, yet. I am hoping to get home early enough this evening to swim before going to bed.
I need to get a project wrapped up before leaving for Utah at 2:00n tomorrow. It is beginning to look like I am going to have to make some compromises. The historical bookkeeping is kind of a mess. Ugh. This does not make me happy.
I'll figure something out today, I just don't have any idea what time I will be home. I appreciate Jack picking up the slack at home when I work too much. On the plus side, when I get this project done our China company should be much easier to manage, freeing me up to focus more on our company here in Olathe.
I weighed 153.2 this morning. Better...
I need to get a project wrapped up before leaving for Utah at 2:00n tomorrow. It is beginning to look like I am going to have to make some compromises. The historical bookkeeping is kind of a mess. Ugh. This does not make me happy.
I'll figure something out today, I just don't have any idea what time I will be home. I appreciate Jack picking up the slack at home when I work too much. On the plus side, when I get this project done our China company should be much easier to manage, freeing me up to focus more on our company here in Olathe.
I weighed 153.2 this morning. Better...
Monday, February 4, 2013
2/4/2013: Warm February So Far
It was 45 degrees at 4:30 this morning so I ran outside again today. I can't decide whether running outdoors is easier or harder than running on a treadmill, but it is different. I hope I continue to have opportunities to run outside this month.
I ran 5 miles in just under an hour, so it appears as if I run a little more slowly when I run outside, probably because I don't just set the pace and go. I know I am getting stronger because the hills don't slow me down as much as they used to. In fact, this morning I did not really notice the hills until I was half way up them and all of a sudden realized I was working harder. Just as I was wondering why the run was getting hard all of a sudden I would notice that I was going up hill. This is a lot better than what I was doing only a few months ago. A few month ago I would start dreading the hills the second I started my run and have to psych myself up for each one of them. It feels good to see the improvement.
Yesterday Jack and I played racquetball and I did much better. I was getting set for more of the shots and doing a better job getting the ball to the wall. We actually went into overtime for one game (still using modified scoring - I can get points when Jack serves, but he can't get points when I serve). After playing racquetball we did a strength training workout. I modified one of the workouts that I did last summer for Jack to do at the gym at work. I think it will be a good all around workout for him to do a couple times a week, though it seemed to be a little too much after the racquetball yesterday. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Between going out for dinner and ice cream (yes, ice cream!) Friday night and having a snack and half a beer while watching the super bowl last night I did not do well with my goal to start working towards weighing 150.0 on February 26th. This morning I weighed 154 pounds. I seem to be fluctuating between 152.5 and 154.0, without dieting at all. I am having trouble motivating myself to count every calorie, but I know that is what I need to do to reach my goal of 150.0 by my one year anniversary. I will do better this week.
I ran 5 miles in just under an hour, so it appears as if I run a little more slowly when I run outside, probably because I don't just set the pace and go. I know I am getting stronger because the hills don't slow me down as much as they used to. In fact, this morning I did not really notice the hills until I was half way up them and all of a sudden realized I was working harder. Just as I was wondering why the run was getting hard all of a sudden I would notice that I was going up hill. This is a lot better than what I was doing only a few months ago. A few month ago I would start dreading the hills the second I started my run and have to psych myself up for each one of them. It feels good to see the improvement.
Yesterday Jack and I played racquetball and I did much better. I was getting set for more of the shots and doing a better job getting the ball to the wall. We actually went into overtime for one game (still using modified scoring - I can get points when Jack serves, but he can't get points when I serve). After playing racquetball we did a strength training workout. I modified one of the workouts that I did last summer for Jack to do at the gym at work. I think it will be a good all around workout for him to do a couple times a week, though it seemed to be a little too much after the racquetball yesterday. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Between going out for dinner and ice cream (yes, ice cream!) Friday night and having a snack and half a beer while watching the super bowl last night I did not do well with my goal to start working towards weighing 150.0 on February 26th. This morning I weighed 154 pounds. I seem to be fluctuating between 152.5 and 154.0, without dieting at all. I am having trouble motivating myself to count every calorie, but I know that is what I need to do to reach my goal of 150.0 by my one year anniversary. I will do better this week.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
2/3/2013: Warmer Weather = Workout Outdoors!
Yesterday as Jack and I were running errands it occurred to me that it was warm enough for me to do my scheduled brick outdoors. It has been a while since I rode my bike or ran outside, so it seemed like a good idea to take advantage of the opportunity. We have a bike path that starts about 3 miles from the house that I've been wanting to check out, so that was my destination for yesterday's ride. I rode to the path, stayed on the path for 18 miles and rode home for a 24 mile bike ride. After I got home, I pulled off my shorts and leg warmers (my running pants were on underneath for a warmth layer), changed my shoes and went for a 2 mile run. I made the decision to run only two miles because I felt pretty tired after my bike ride, it was getting dark, and my toes were very cold. After running the two miles, I knew I could have gone further, but it felt like enough, for now, so I called it a day. The 24 mile bike ride and 2 mile run took me two hours and 17 minutes. The bike ride came with it's share of obstacles including stop lights, traffic, people walking dogs, an unpaved section of the trail that was loose gravel, a section of the trail that was 3-4 inches deep in mud causing me to go up and over the trail, dog walkers, baby walkers, etc... I estimate that I lost about 20 minutes to obstacles.
It was good to ride outdoors on my bike. It was harder than I thought it would be. I made a conscientious effort to not stop pedaling, there was no coasting on yesterday's ride. Whenever I could, I pedaled hard, gearing up so I was always working with resistance. Riding on the path was nice because there were no stop lights and there wasn't any traffic, but there were several blind curves that I needed to approach cautiously and I needed to slow down for those. Overall, the path was better than the city streets because I had to stop a lot less often. Better yet would be getting out in the country, but that requires a little more planning and a little more time. It's harder to slip a two hour workout into the day if you need 45 minutes to get there and another 45 minutes to get home, particularly when the days are so short.
It was a different experience to run after getting off my bike. It was very, very different from getting off a stationary bike and getting onto a treadmill. For the first 1/2 mile of my run I felt very awkward, like a baby learning how to walk. My legs did not want to run. I felt like I was tottering, almost. My brain was able to tell my legs what to do, but my legs were not happy about it. I almost felt like I was running on peg legs or on legs that belonged to someone else. On top of that, my poor toes were frozen so I couldn't really feel my feet. The next time I ride outdoors I will wear warmer socks! My feet started to thaw out as I ran so about a mile into the run I felt like I had huge toes. By the time I got back to the house, everything felt normal, my toes and my stride, and I knew I could keep going if I needed to. But at that moment I didn't feel like I needed to go any further. I learned what I needed to learn, yesterday, which is what it felt like to go from my bike to running, without a rest in between. And yes, it was difficult.
All in all, I was happy with my workout yesterday. I will continue to workout outdoors when possible. Winter will be over before too long and then all of my running and cycling will be outdoors. That will be nice!
It was good to ride outdoors on my bike. It was harder than I thought it would be. I made a conscientious effort to not stop pedaling, there was no coasting on yesterday's ride. Whenever I could, I pedaled hard, gearing up so I was always working with resistance. Riding on the path was nice because there were no stop lights and there wasn't any traffic, but there were several blind curves that I needed to approach cautiously and I needed to slow down for those. Overall, the path was better than the city streets because I had to stop a lot less often. Better yet would be getting out in the country, but that requires a little more planning and a little more time. It's harder to slip a two hour workout into the day if you need 45 minutes to get there and another 45 minutes to get home, particularly when the days are so short.
It was a different experience to run after getting off my bike. It was very, very different from getting off a stationary bike and getting onto a treadmill. For the first 1/2 mile of my run I felt very awkward, like a baby learning how to walk. My legs did not want to run. I felt like I was tottering, almost. My brain was able to tell my legs what to do, but my legs were not happy about it. I almost felt like I was running on peg legs or on legs that belonged to someone else. On top of that, my poor toes were frozen so I couldn't really feel my feet. The next time I ride outdoors I will wear warmer socks! My feet started to thaw out as I ran so about a mile into the run I felt like I had huge toes. By the time I got back to the house, everything felt normal, my toes and my stride, and I knew I could keep going if I needed to. But at that moment I didn't feel like I needed to go any further. I learned what I needed to learn, yesterday, which is what it felt like to go from my bike to running, without a rest in between. And yes, it was difficult.
All in all, I was happy with my workout yesterday. I will continue to workout outdoors when possible. Winter will be over before too long and then all of my running and cycling will be outdoors. That will be nice!
Friday, February 1, 2013
2/1/2013: Starting to Feel a Little too Busy
This seems like a cyclical issue for me. I'll get a little bored and a little under stimulated and I start looking for things to do. As I start making changes, I get more engaged and I get busier until all of a sudden I am too busy. Then I have to take a step back, do an assessment of what is important and what I can let go. All of a sudden I am feeling pretty darn busy.
It's mostly my job including my travel schedule and the fact that I am working on major issues for two different companies, the one here in Olathe and the one in China. The issues are very different but the goals are the same. Of course, there are two different sets of shareholders and employees to work with. Sometimes it is a little daunting.
Last night I had trouble falling asleep. I don't know if it was because yesterday was a rest day and I didn't exercise, so I wasn't very tired, or if it was because I worked a little late and had a project on my mind. Either way, I had a hard time waking up this morning.
I have not been to the gym yet, but I am confident that I will get there during lunch to do lower body strength training, which is the only thing on my schedule for today. I am keeping this post short so I can get to work early, prior to the interruptions starting. I have to get a project done today. I'm hoping this weekend will be restful.
Thank God it's Friday!!
It's mostly my job including my travel schedule and the fact that I am working on major issues for two different companies, the one here in Olathe and the one in China. The issues are very different but the goals are the same. Of course, there are two different sets of shareholders and employees to work with. Sometimes it is a little daunting.
Last night I had trouble falling asleep. I don't know if it was because yesterday was a rest day and I didn't exercise, so I wasn't very tired, or if it was because I worked a little late and had a project on my mind. Either way, I had a hard time waking up this morning.
I have not been to the gym yet, but I am confident that I will get there during lunch to do lower body strength training, which is the only thing on my schedule for today. I am keeping this post short so I can get to work early, prior to the interruptions starting. I have to get a project done today. I'm hoping this weekend will be restful.
Thank God it's Friday!!
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