C2 is building quite the jewelry collection this year. All of my kids' teachers have what they call treasure boxes. Parents donate items to go into the boxes and the kids get to pick what they want. In C2's class, the kids who have stayed "on green" all week (no disciplinary action against them) get to pick one item from the box on Friday. Since C2 is a pretty quiet kid, she comes home with an item almost every week. She usually picks jewelry and it is usually pretty nice. Today she brought home a necklace with matching earrings that came from Claire's Boutique. As a teenager without a job, I would have loved to be able to buy jewelry at Claire's. Sure, it is costume jewelry but it is nice enough that an adult wouldn't be ashamed to wear it.

I've been too tired to post this week. It is taking all of my energy to stay awake after work while the kids finish homework and take baths. I haven't exercised, either.

In addition to my fatigue, I am being thrown off by ABM's new schedule. Whenever he switches schedules, it takes me a while to adjust my routine. My husband is a great guy, but when he is home he thinks that whatever he wants to do comes first. There is a little jockeying for position unitl we get things settled (who gets to use the computer first, I want to go straight home when he wants to run errands, etc.) Sometimes I give in because he already makes a lot of sacrifices as the sole driver in this house. On other things, I have to remind him that I had a routine I followed when he wasn't home and I would like to stick to it.

Health Update

I'm a little disappointed. I met my daily goal (no fries and no sweet iced tea) every day this week. I exercised three times and actually broke a sweat. With those changes I should have lost a pound, but instead I gained four. Still, I am not going to give up. I like the Biggest Loser Workout DVD that I've been using so I will continue with it next week. I will also continue avoiding fries and sweet tea.

My new food goal for next week is to have a proper breakfast before I go to work in the morning. Most mornings, my breakfast consists of two large coffees and something out of the vending machine. I know that breakfast is a big part of a healthy lifestyle, but I don't get out of bed early enough to fix anything. I guess I'll have to sacrifice a little sleep.

My new non-food goal for next week is to go to bed by 11p. I don't usually go to bed before midnight. With ABM's new schedule, I can see myself staying up until 1a because I have trouble making myself go to bed before he gets home. This has got to stop. I know that I make poor food choices when I am tired, so getting more sleep may help me lose weight.

Today's Exercise: Biggest Loser Workout (routine #1)

Can you believe that I exercised on a Friday night? I don't usually do anything on Friday night but order pizza and camp out in front of the TV. My Biggest Loser obsession still has a hold on me. I finally got the book from the library and I am thinking about following the diet plan, albeit a bit loosely. I'm not in the mood to do any counting but I think I can follow the basics without carrying a calculator to every meal.

Today's Exercise: Biggest Loser Workout (routine #3)

I made it all the way through this time! I also skipped the fries and tea again today. I doubt I will meet my goal of losing one pound this week, though. ABM made brownies and bought vanilla ice cream. I cannot allow vanilla ice cream to sit in my freezer uneaten. It is a sad affliction with no known cure :-).

Today's exercise: Biggest Loser Workout (routine #1)

I made it through the warmup and the body of the workout but I started feeling queasy during the cool-down. Perhaps I drank too much water. I tried to sip, but I was so thirsty (a rare occurrence for me). If I had made it all the way to the end, I could have counted 40 minutes for today. Oh, well--there's always tomorrow.

On the upside, I think I finally understand how to "engage my core" so that my abs get a workout without traditional situps. As much as Billy Blanks annoys me, I have to admit that his advice to concentrate while exercising is working. Exercise doesn't come as naturally as breathing to me so I often have to be told, "You should be feeling this in your abs." Then I actually have to think, "OK, legs, stop doing all the work. Abs, pull!" Workouts that I thought were light make me break a sweat once I start concentrating.

I met my daily goal of no fries and no sweet iced tea. Since I was out of drink mix, I tried Splenda in unsweetened tea. It wasn't bad. I think I found the balance that eliminated the bitterness of the tea without leaving too much of an artificial sweetener aftertaste. Best of all, tea is free at work.

Reasons why I overeat

Whenever I see a list of reasons why people overeat, I never see anything that applies to me. Although I believe that there are people who stuff their faces because of low self-esteem or emotional pain, I'm not that girl. Once I come across the standard list of reasons in a diet book, I usually stop reading. My thinking is that if the list doesn't apply to me, then the rest of the advice won't, either. Winning By Losing also has one of these lists, but Jillian Michaels get points from me for also stating that there may be other reasons why a person overeats. Here are mine, some common and some not:

1. External Cues: I'm tempted by food on television, but not in the way you might think. Commercials rarely make me hungry, while people eating on TV shows will send me to the kitchen every time. Gilmore Girls is especially tough to watch because they talk about food a lot. Strangely, weight loss shows also make me hungry. As they go on and on about all the healthy food you should eat, I find myself craving a burger.

2. Entertainment: This is not the same as boredom, which is a common reason found on most lists. I have so many interests that I don't have time to be bored. Unfortunately, many of my favorite activities are conducive to consuming calories. Watching TV, surfing the web, reading, doing puzzles, playing games--all of these can be done while munching away. The only hobby that can't be done while eating is needlework. Unfortunately, I have to limit my stitching to 20 minutes a day to avoid wrist and shoulder pain. This leaves me many more hours to stuff my face.

3. Socializing: Just as there are social drinkers, I believe there are social eaters and I am one of them. As in many families, no social event was complete in our house without a large spread of food. Even now, a date or gathering of friends is more special to me if there is great food involved and in my mind great food doesn't include low-fat or artificially-sweetened anything.

4. Entitlement: This one is a bit difficult to explain without making it sound like emotional eating. I don't eat when I am sad; usually when I am upset I lose my appetite. I also don't eat to reward myself for a job well-done. If I've worked hard, I treat myself to more time in front of the TV or the computer. I eat what I want because it tastes good and I feel like I am worth it. There are so many things in my life that I can't have or don't have control over (the big one is working when I would rather be at home with my children) that I want to enjoy my food. Eating healthy food makes me feel deprived. It's not so bad when I am at home, but to pick the salad at the caf when other people at the table are eating fries just gives me a bad attitude for the rest of the day.

OK, I've written them down for the three people who read my blog to see. Now what?

Health Update

I'm on Biggest Loser overload. I've been watching the Australian version of the show, Netflix just sent me The Biggest Loser Workout DVD, and I started reading Winning by Losing this week. I know I said I didn't want to follow yet another weight loss plan, but my casual approach isn't working. I still hate the idea of thinking about diet constantly, so I've got to find some kind of balance between obsession and apathy.

Anyway, I just started reading Jillian Michaels' book and the first task is to write down your health goals. This sort of thing doesn't usually work for me; I have such a contrary personality that I will purposely go in the opposite direction of what I wrote down. I guess I figure that if I am going to fail, I might as well do it on a large scale. So I thought that if I proclaimed my goals publicly I might do better. Here goes:

ULTIMATE GOALS:
I want to lose 100 pounds.
I want to wear a size 16 again.
I want to increase my sexual stamina.

WEEKLY GOALS:
I will work out three times this coming week.
I will lose one pound this week.

DAILY GOALS:
I will not eat French fries for lunch!
I will not drink sweet iced tea with lunch!

She recommends listing rewards for meeting each goal. Honestly, I don't find this step necessary. Part of the reason that I am in such poor shape now is because I indulge myself. I can find a million reasons why I deserve to sit in front of the TV or take a bubble bath. I need to just get on with it. Besides, if I lose enough weight then my improved sex life will be reward enough!

Another Book Meme

I got this one from Judith. It doesn't look like I have much on my bookshelf, does it? This is one list where at least I have heard of most of the books. These literary memes always remind me that everyone's idea of "well-read" is different. I have read a lot of books, but I realize now they are not the books that show up on lists like these. In my youth I had great disdain for Harlequin romances, but I didn't realize until later that the same pulp sensibility could be found in hardcover books. The reading list from my early years is filled with what I call generational books, stories that start in the 1900 and follow a fictional family's history to the present day. Howard Fast's "The Immigrants" is the book that comes to mind.

Meme instructions
Look at the list of books below.
Bold the ones you've read.
Italicize the ones you might read.
Cross out the ones you won't.
Underline the ones on your book shelf.
Place (parentheses) around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
(The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger)
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
(Life of Pi - Yann Martel)
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
(The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
(The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini)
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
(Angels and Demons – Dan Brown)
Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
(Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson)
(The Secret History – Donna Tartt)
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis
(Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides)
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman)
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert

Lost Holidays

When I was in elementary school in NY, I was aware of almost every holiday and religious observance. The teachers made a big deal of decorating for everything: Washington's birthday, Valentine's Day, Columbus Day, etc. There would be smudges on Catholic foreheads for Lent, and the Jewish kids would leave on Friday afternoons for Hebrew lessons. Nowadays, every holiday except Christmas seems to catch me unawares. Part of it is because I am not in school, but I think living in a semi-rural area is also a factor. I don't think any of my kids will be invited to a bat mitvah or first communion party as long as we are living here.

Anyway, yet another holiday snuck up on me this week--St. Patrick's Day. Green is not a big part of my kids' wardrobes. They each lean toward a particular color and I encourage this because it helps me greatly when sorting the laundry:

M is pink
C1 is purple
C2 is red
DJ is yellow

Because of my poor planning and the lack of green clothing, I was stringing beads to make necklaces and bracelets for the kids to wear so they wouldn't get pinched. Just in case my sister is reading this: C2 is wearing AKA colors today :-).

Today's Exercise: Stretch Fusion

This exercise session was a bust. I was already sleepy when I got home from work, and then this workout didn't wow me. Instead of switching to one of my other ones, I just bailed.

One of my MANY problems with exercise is that I get bored easily. I have four different workouts on my TiVo plus two DVDs beside my bed, yet I'm bored. It's not because I've mastered them--I'm far from that. The instructors' patter gets on my nerves. The Carmen Electra workout has the option of doing the routine to an instrumental track, but when I do that I miss the cues to move on to the next exercise. I can't wait until we can get a new treadmill!

Mild Rant

I should have known better. I visited the forum for a reality show that I watch and worked myself into a dither. It only took me a few minutes to run across three of my current hot buttons.

1. I would like to have the word alliance struck from the vocabulary of every reality show contestant from now until infinity. Ever since the first season of "Survivor", people on these shows have walked on the set searching for a way to form an alliance. The mere sound of the word drives me nuts and is enough to ruin my enjoyment of an episode of any show. It is even worse when contestants start talking about alliances and playing mind games on shows where it will not help them. For instance, "Project Runway" is based on each designer's skill, but that didn't stop Wendy Pepper from playing with people's heads in the first season.

2. It drives me nuts when someone assumes that viewers are mindless drones who will give over half their paychecks to a certain company just because they have secured prominent placement for their products on a popular show. I'm not talking about kids' programming; children need to be educated by their parents and teachers about the ways that companies will try to convince you to spend money. Adults, however, have watched enough TV and wasted enough cash to know that you don't have to buy everthing that has a cool commercial or is endorsed by your favorite actor.

ABM and I laugh at product placements. When I play Crazy Taxi, I think it is fun to take a passenger to Pizza Hut rather than a generic restaurant. When a reviewer pans a movie because of heavy product placement (Judge Dredd and The Island are two that come to mind), we rent it on purpose so that we can count how many times we see the Taco Bell sign. If watching an ad gets me a free day pass to read the articles on Salon, then bring it on. Just because I watch your ad doesn't mean I will buy your product. Cost is the overwhelming factor that drives my buying decisions and no matter how cool I think your ad is, I'm probably not buying it.

3. Every show doesn't have to be educational. I've read more than one complaint that one of my favorite shows, The Biggest Loser, gives people false ideas about weight loss. That show has disclaimers at the beginning and end of every episode warning viewers that the rapid weight loss depicted on the show is monitored by a doctor and shouldn't be attempted at home. They've done their job. However, there are people out ther that can't give the viewers credit for knowing that this is a reality show they are watching, not an instructional video. When I watch that show, I'm not looking for weight loss advice. I am just amazed at how far people can push themselves. Yes, I have said in the past that it inspires me to move but I don't expect to be working as hard as they are. When I watch it I am thinking, "If they can make themselves work out for extraordinary amounts of time, then I can push myself to finish a normal 30-minute workout."

Rude awakening

Most of my workouts lately have come from a show called All-Star Workouts on FitTV. One of the instructors is named Michelle LeMay and she does a hip-hop workout that I like a lot but I can't keep up with it. I figured it was because I was older and less fit than the people in the video. It turns out that I only got the "less fit" part right. Today I got home in time to catch a stretching routine by Michelle LeMay. She revealed that she started doing this routine 13 years ago when she had a lot of injuries and it has been a key part of her ability to be flexible today at 43 years old. 43? I thought this chick was about 25! She's older than I am! Exercise has been very, very good to her.

Cathi chastised me for talking about Pizza Bites and then not telling how they taste. Well, I wouldn't know because I didn't get any. The kids scarfed them down, though, so they must have been good. I got a Veggie Lover's pizza and I must admit that the crust wasn't as bad as I remembered.

As for the mystery concerning Pizza Hut knowing my address, ABM says that we ordered from them several years' ago. This brings me to one of ABM's quirks. When I wondered out loud whether Pizza Hut delivered to our house, he said they do. ABM is a man who will insist that something is so just because he believes it should be. Hence, I usually require a little more evidence instead of accepting a simple "yes" from him. He knows this and I think he takes perverse pleasure in not providing it. Why can't he just say, "Don't you remember, honey? We've ordered from them before?" Instead he makes me figure it out myself and then says, "You should have remembered." Arggh!

--

Something garlicky is going on

Pizza Hut is my least favorite pizza chain. I think their crust tastes like a buttermilk biscuit. That would be great if it was slathered in butter next to a slice of ham, but it is not the flavor I am looking for when I order pizza. However, DJ has been begging me to order their new Cheesy Bites pizza so I gave in. I called to place my order and the girl asked me for my phone number. Nothing unusual there. Imagine my surprise when after taking my number, she called me by name and read out my street address! My mind may be a bit feeble at times but I know that I have never called for a pizza delivery from that restaurant. I wasn't even sure they delivered. ABM seemed awfully sure that they delivered, though. I think he's been ordering pizza when I'm not at home.

Remember those commercials that began with the announcer whispering, "We've switched Mrs. Johnson's regular detergent with new Wow It's Clean. Let's see if she notices the difference." Well, someone switched the Advil bottle that I keep by my bedside with a bottle of Junior Advil. Yes, I noticed the difference. Luckily, it was before I took any. Now I am in pain and I can't find the regular Advil. This is going to be a long night.

Yesterday's exercise: Ballet Strength video (resistance bands and weights)

I won't be exercising today. I just came back from my kids' teacher conferences and I am in pain from sitting in those teeny chairs. My next stop is a tub full of hot water, then bed. However, I plan to get back in the groove tomorrow because I am starting to feel a difference. My body hasn't shown any visible changes, of course, but my mentality has. I'm more willing to eat a salad or drink water. I'm still getting fries at lunch, but twice this week I left half of them on my plate. I'm not making a concious effort to eat less or eat healthier; it's like my body is saying, "I didn't do all this exercise for you to mess it up!" and just switching off the hunger.

Today's Exercise: Hip-hop dance video

I pushed myself to 30 minutes again today. My back is bothering me; I think I should have stuck with the ballet strength routine that I did yesterday. I'm going back to that tomorrow.

Yesterday's exercise: Ballet style with resistance bands and weights

Just a quick post to let you know that I exercised yesterday. I didn't make it through the entire workout, but it wasn't because I couldn't keep up. I just started too late and had to quit to deal with household stuff. I only feel sore in my abs today. This surprises me because the ab work was done standing up. I'm SO glad that I found ab work I can do standing up because I hate crunches; I can't find a way to do them that doesn't make my neck hurt.

Growing My Own Gamers #4

Saturday night my best friend Rabbit and her husband HSG came over for dinner and games. Since I have been doing the research, they left all the choices to me. This gaming session illustrated how a game changes depending on who is playing.

Reiner Knizia's Poison: This was the second time I played this game and the first time for everyone else. When I played this with the kids, everyone was trying to take as few cards as possible. This time around, the men latched onto the fact that the person who ended up with the most of a color wouldn't have to count the points for that color. It became a game of taking cards to block the other players from getting a majority or poisoning the pot. Everyone seemed to enjoy it; however, ABM suggested that we use a timer next time so that people don't have time to add in their heads. It might spice up the game to play it on speed.

Michigan: I originally learned this game as Newmarket. Since Rabbit is from Michigan, I introduced it to the group under this name. We played with the variation that allows each player to decide how they want to split their chips among the boodle cards. This appealed to the aggressive playing nature of the men. When I played with the kids sans this variation, each player focused on being the first to get rid of his/her cards. With the variation it was more of a betting game as the men placed all their chips on one card, gambling that they would have that card in their hand AND that they would be able to get it into play so they could get their chips back. I expected the group to play one or two rounds and get bored since this is a light game. Surprisingly, the men continued to play even after Rabbit and I went out. We will probably play this again. ABM, ever the tinkerer, suggested that we cut the playing time down by doubling the amount of chips we bet each round.

Racing Demon: Rabbit and I played this while the men were finishing their game of Michigan. It is basically speed solitaire where the foundations are common to both players. Canfield is the patience game that is traditionally used for this, but I thought that Klondike would be easier since it is more well-known. I should have known that Rabbit would be the one person on the planet who has never played solitaire on the computer. She hasn't played solitaire at all since grammar school. Still, she beat me three times in a row.

Word Thief: This was the last game of the night. As in previous sessions, the game play was easy to understand but the scoring tripped everyone up. Basically, when you make a word you count the score but if someone steals the word from you then you have to subtract those points from your score. This resulted in a lot of pausing after each person's turn as the score for each word was figured out.

I played the game again today with the kids using a streamlined scoring method from BoardGameGeek. It is so simple that I am embarrassed that I didn't think of it myself. Since there is a lot of word stealing in the game, it is a waste of time to add points right after your turn since you will probably be subtracting them again after the next person's turn. So it is easier to just write down the points for locked words and any bonuses you earn at the end of your turn, then at the end of the game count up the points for the words that are still in front of you. Each player ended up with the same amount of points they would have gotten with the original method, but the flow of the game was greatly improved. I can't wait to try this method with the adults because right now this game is in danger of becoming a closet clogger.

Health Update

The most work I've done this week toward my weight loss is change my ticker :-). Although I like the graphics from the Ticker Factory better, this one from Choosing2Lose is easier to read because the numbers don't overlap when the current weight is very close to the starting weight. As you can see, I am down half a pound from my January starting weight. This is actually one pound less than I weighed last week. It's not much, but I am moving in the right direction.

Speaking of moving, I didn't do much this week. If you've read my last few posts, you know I've been in a bit of a funk since last weekend. To pull myself out of it, I did housework and played cards with the kids during my exercise time. I hate housework, but it's the one thing that makes me feel like I'm contributing to the family. However, the weather is getting nicer here in NC so I may load some podcasts onto my SD card and start walking before work again.

What is making me feel more inspired to exercise, you ask? I've been watching Australia's Biggest Loser. It is almost the same as the US program; they even use the same trainers, Bob and Jillian. The biggest difference is that the Aussie version is only 30 minutes long and is aired five days a week. Now that I've found a couple programs that make BitTorrent my friend, I have a fresh episode waiting on my computer the morning after it airs. Shows like this make me want to get up off my butt, even though I know that they are working in a controlled environment and I will not lose weight as quickly as they did. Plus my brain is getting a workout as I try to convert kilos to pounds in my head :-).

As for food, I didn't make any drastic changes but I did better than I expected. I managed to go without sweet iced tea for four days out of the five and I skipped fries for three days out of five. That's probably how I lost half a pound. Next week, I will try to switch from coffee to green tea in the mornings. I think this will help because I tend to use less sugar when drinking hot tea than I do when I drink coffee. By the by, all these changes I'm making apply to the weekdays which is when I do the most mindless eating. I'm not stressing about the weekends right now because I tend to get wrapped up in activities and not eat as much.