Fit is Hard

you know that song about Major Tom and he just goes off into space ... do you ever feel like that? No? Okay, moving on then.

Getting Fit is hard.

I got a new exercise video and the person was talking about helping me become an athlete. I don't want to become an athlete. At this point I don't see how that could ever appeal to me. I've always been very unathletic. But I do want to be fit.

You would think switching to eating healthy and getting in a regular exercise habit would pay off quickly. And maybe it does in some invisible way. But you know, most of the time it's just hard. Pressing on, seeing slow changes, hitting plateaus. Sometimes it seems like not making progress at all.

I thought I was over the hump of healthy eating, settled into my groove, but it's hard for me to stay in my groove. I keep bumping up out of it, trying to get down into it again, finding it a rough and wobbly ride.

And some days when I look at the results in the mirror of all the extra walking and the wobbling and trying to press on eating healthy, it doesn't look much different than before, eating junk and not really trying. I know it IS better, but ...

It's hard to persevere.

The Day Of The Suited Moving Men

So ... did I tell you we ordered a treadmill?

The Grand Lunar got an incredible deal on one ... and today it arrived.

Of course, when you get a great internet deal, and then they have someone deliver it freight, it means a giant truck shows up at the end of your driveway, and some poor guy with a dolly stands in there, staring at the 2 foot by 4 foot by 8 foot, 241 pound box, wondering how to get it to your door. I got the impression he didn't pack his own truck, and was surprised at how big this particular residential delivery was. His truck didn't have one of those lift things.

"Does Mr. Lunar happen to be home?" he asked.

"Nope!" I replied cheerfully.

"Well ... can you help me guide it out of the truck?"

"Uhhh ... sure." -- perhaps he didn't notice I was just a little short girly girl?

We got it out of the truck. And he brought it up near the door. I politely held the door open. He said, "There's no way I can get that in the house. Is this good?" and set it down with a thump right outside my front door.

And he was gone.

Uh huh.

I thought maybe I could take it in piecemeal.

There looked to be a lot of pieces.

I took the first layer of stuff in, piece by piece.

Then it was time for a nap.

Ha ha! No, I kid. But look at how big that box is, I fit right in there!

So then, for the next hour, I shoved and pulled and tugged and pushed. I managed to get the huge heavy base piece off of the pallet* -- no small feat! -- but for the life of me I could not get it into the house myself. It was too wide, too heavy, too cumbersome.

So I left it like this, and emailed the Grand Lunar to bring home a dolly and some helpers.

And then I started making cookies for the helpers.

Promptly at 5:10 the helpers -- Daniel and Justin -- arrived. They came in suits. Are they not the sharpest looking movin' men you've ever seen?? And they're not just suited movin' men, they're blog friends, too! They arrived before the Grand Lunar even made it home. They spoke with the most amusing Bronx "Mover Guys" accents. And they got right to work, almost before I could take pictures.

White Glove Service has never been so good as the Suited Guys From Work, I tell you.

They even stayed to play on the fort. In a suit.

And they left. And the Grand Lunar left, to take Gark out for dinner.

And there I was with my treadmill.

Some assembly required.

And you know what? I did it! All by myself!

All the big kids and I got a chance to try it out. Here's me, gleeful... or was it dorky? I get them mixed up.

One big reason we got one was because we'd read about treadmill desks and wanted to build one. Turns out we were able to quick-rig one using a currently unused shelf from the basement and two bungee cords! I was able to bring the kids' school laptop out and check their school while walking!

I've never been so excited about exercise. The plan is to get a splitter and extra monitor to mount on the wall, and a wireless keyboard and mouse for me, so that I can still use my computer while walking. The Grand Lunar has his own laptop, so he can just hop up and walk while surfing and working at home.

At 11 pm, walking and checking school, I realized I was starving -- because I had been so excited about setting it up, I forgot all about eating dinner. (Or maybe because I'd eaten about 20 cookies worth of dough?)Whoops.

Woooo hooo! Isn't this fun?

* Special thanks to Pickle for the spelling correction :)

Moon Rocks and Germs

It's not a song, Rosanne, don't try to look it up. LOL.

So the Grand Lunar *rocks* !!! He fixed my blog spam issue by upgrading my blog software and working out all the bugs. I should have a handy-dandy annoying captcha like everyone else, now! WOOO! If you mistype it, it currently goes to some lame-o page that says your text wasn't accepted. It doesn't mean your comment, it means what you typed for the "type the mystery code to prove you're real" thing, so just back up and try again. Just to warn you.

So anyway, thanks Grand Lunar, you're the bestest.

In other news, I'm sick! Wah!

I usually manage to avoid disease and germs, but there's something going around that my children were thoughtful enough to pass on to me. While symptoms vary slightly, it seems to involve a cough, sometimes a sore throat, and sometimes pain behind the eyes, most often when looking around. I have a slight fever, cough, and congestion. And feel like poodoo.

(pauses for you to work up lots of pity)

In the wonderful words of Mrs. Bennett, "I have such tremblings, such flutterings all over me such spasms in my side, and pains in my head, and such beatings at heart, that I can get no rest by night nor by day..."

Yeah, if only I had some servants, so I would wear a frilly nightgown and retire to my bedroom for the sake of my poor nerves, to convalesce.

But I'm not dying, and the chore machine doesn't run very smoothly without (or with! ha ha!) my input, so I only took half the day to lounge about coughing and moaning.

I have to be better by tomorrow, though, I'm the designated chaperone for a rehearsal.

In other other other news, I'm making a concerted effort to eat healthy again. Have I already told you about that? This time around (because I've been around this road several times) I'm not going all out trying to make all my family eat healthy without me. I'm sure it's a lame excuse, but it undermined my poor ego to make healthy food that no one liked. I have never been able to be strict enough for long enough to have the family's tastes change and begin to really, truly, enjoy the healthy food.

So this time around it's just me. I mean, I'm willing to share if anyone wants some, but as much as possible I'm cooking meals in pieces so that I can choose healthy and they can add on what they desire.

Most of you who know me already know the path I follow for "healthy" but for those that don't, I am a big fan of Dr. John McDougall's plan. If you want to lose weight, if you're facing health problems and want to avoid a life of "inevitable" medicines, check it out. Do some reading. Diet and Exercise. It really works. Go figure.

And, along those lines, following the McDougall plan, I've lost 10 lbs this year. Now I'm sad to admit that the first 6 or so are the SAME 6 lbs I've gained, lost, gained, lost, and gained again in the last year or two. But the last 4 are really new territory that I haven't seen since Eminoodle was little. So that's exciting. I've also been walking, walking, walking, but that you do know.

The good news is, now that I've "unhitched" my enjoyment of eating a healthy plant-based diet from familial complaints, I'm really truly enjoying what I eat, and feel like I get plenty to eat. And am losing weight, as a bonus, at a nice, steady rate.

The bad news is I must be getting old ~ I certainly don't feel as thin as I did back when Eminoodle was little. Same numbers, or getting close to them, but rearranged unfavorably, I guess. I don't really feel much like I've lost 10 lbs, despite what the scale says, and despite what the little fat-o-meter reader saying most of what I've lost is, in deed, fat rather than lean muscle. That's good, yes, but I guess I was hoping to feel skinnier, too. Maybe that will come in time.

Sorry to ramble on, it must be the brain-fog from being sick.

Anyway, leave me a comment so you can oooh and ahhhh over the bot-blocker.

One Million is a lot.

As of today -- March 21, 2008 -- I have walked over 1,000,000 steps this year.

My widget over on the left seems bent on showing the total since I joined, despite repeatedly changing the start date. But no matter. I know the truth.

Here's my stats for this year:

Period	Total	Average
2008	1,010,206	12,628
March	275,091	13,100
February	370,114	12,763
January	365,001	12,167

Woooo!

I should note these are total steps, as opposed to just my "counting miles" exercise walking. But still. It's a lot of walking!

Walk On!

exercise update and some griping

exercise update

been a long walking month ... forgot to update all my tickers, but I'm keeping track here. Walking challenge buddies, get out your spoons for the dust eating:

94 for the month, 404 for the year. Go me!

I also started a new excercise thing which seems kind of weird but effective. I started doing the Basic Plus T-Tapp workout (search YouTube for some of the moves, mini workouts, or try them on their site) and also got her walking workout, Step Away The Inches. The T-Tapp SATI is interesting because it gives some techniques you can use in any walking program and it really really increases the intensity. I am so not kidding. It's amazing. I just started the walking thing this week, the first DVD I received was a dud, but they graciously sent me a new one. Anyway, I can't wait to see in a month or two how much difference it makes in the inches ... but whoa my legs and hips are impressed with the extra effort the Ttapp alignment makes.

In other related and good news, I finally hit 20 lbs off my high. yay. It took awhile, I stalled out there. But it appears I'm back on track.

I'm tired today though, not enough sleep and a clingy two year old who woke at 2 am and 6 am ... so that's all I've got to say.

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog and blog buddies. I still love you. Kissy kissy.

I forgot what I was going to gripe about. Oh yeah. Blog spam. Can't weed through it fast enough. It's wearing me out. only a few comments squeeze through to get posted, but many still are asking for approval that I have to dump. Tired of it. So. very. tired.

But I didn't DO anything

You'll never guess what happened.

My back did that thing again.

It was fine yesterday - in fact, so fine that I was thinking, "Wow, it's really fine!"

And then, on the way to the vet, I realized it was tight and hurt in that spot, again. That spot that felt fine an hour before, a day before, etc. As the evening progressed it got worse and worse.

It's not horrible this morning, I can move around and function, but it's far from fine.

It's not like it's hurt this whole time, a little, and got worse. It was better! Really and truly better! And now it's not, again.

So I don't know what's going on. Maybe I'm just getting old.

In other news, I hate the time change. Ugh. I don't want to do it. What happens if we just don't comply? Will we end up in an alternate universe where time and daylight progress at a steady rate? Would that be so bad?

Plumb Tuckered Out

Good morning!

I promised you a February Challenge update. I'm sure you're all just hanging on the edges of your seats waiting, as if you had nothing better to do. But oh well.

So since Feb 1 I walked 89 "miles" (this means I did 89 15+ minute intervals of aerobic exercise, 45 minutes (3 miles) most days) .... making for my highest month ever, and bringing me to 167 for the year.

I took my measurements Feb 1 and today, but I can't find where I wrote down Feb 1's, so I've got nothing to compare to. Lame! But I lost 8 lbs in February, which of course averages 2 a week, so still a nice rate. Even if in my head it didn't seem so, I kept feeling stalled out. I am not restricting how much I eat, nor eating just insanely low calorie salads, for anyone concerned. I am doing my best to eat good healthy carbs and lots of whole natural foods, and continuing to exercise at a moderate rate into this pregnancy. So I'm not concerned about the loss, I'm glad to know that, at this early stage, the healthy eating is helping.

Anyway, I'll post the inches lost if I can ever find Feb's ... otherwise, on with March.

But I'm tired today. I think it's the weather. The forecast went something like: snow, sleet, and freezing rain. Then snow. Then turning to freezing rain on top of the snow. 2-3 inches of snow, with 1/4" to 1/2" accumulations of ice. Sounds nice, huh? I wonder if they'll cancel Kung Fu, and if they do, will they call us?

Guess what I did tonight?

You'll never guess. I'll just tell you!

I fixed my grain mill!

It's been busted for a long time, and I was holding out hope that maybe I could somehow jiggle and clean it to fix it. It has a lifetime warranty to a defunct company, so I couldn't send it anywhere free to get it fixed, so I figured I better try, myself, to make it work.

And I did it! I'm so happy! I can grind grains again!

I also tidied the tops of our dressers in the bedroom, which is a pretty rare occasion. I'm trying to do a little more cleaning/decluttering/organizing/niceifying each day. That's my plan. After working really hard to get ready for our Small Group Bible Study on Sunday, I was thinking, really, I could make much better progress if I worked on it during the week, instead of the last minute panic.

Although, really, it's good news that even in the last minute cleaning panic I'm making *progress* -- I think it gets a little cleaner each time. But I still have a LONG way to go.

I decided to gate off both rooms in the basement, leaving the cats only a small cat zone. Then I can finish tearing out the dumb closet thing and paint the one side, and use it for storage, and start decluttering and clearing out the other side to let the kids do crafts and games in. It's not going to end up a nice *finished* basement like nearly all our friends have, but hey, it'll be better. I only wish people wouldn't have to walk PAST the newly defined smaller cat zone to get to the play room. But I'm getting ahead of myself, I haven't actually DONE that work. Maybe the cats will ... um ... pass on ... before I get the work done anyway. They are pretty old, for cats, really.

AnyHOOOOO It's time for us to get exercising. I can't stay and chatter all night.

I have a nice picture of a taco salad with baked potato cubes, and a nice picture of bok choy soup to post, but I keep getting distracted and not getting them up. So you'll have to hold on for those.

Oh! And today I hit the 15 lbs lost mark. I'm pretty excited about that. I still have a ways to go, but it's nice to be breaking new ground rather than losing the same 5 over and over again.

I hope you don't mind if I put down in words ...

... that I've walked one hundred miles already this year.

Er ... exercised the equivalent, anyway. I still feel kind of funny about that. I'm counting 15-minute increments of aerobic exercise as 1 mile.

Maybe I should change my goal for the year, I don't know. Right now I'm aiming for 3 miles / 45 minutes a day. A few times I've exercised twice, because I've done one video walk and then later walked again so that The Grand Lunar and I can exercise together.

That's really the more exciting part, The Lunar and I have been exercising together in the evening. He rides the exercise bike, I jog on the rebounder-thingie, and we watch movies. It's a double-whammy, not only do we get exercise, but I don't fall asleep watching them! LOL!

I have walked 22 miles -- 36.67% of my goal of 60 miles in Feb!!

Oooh, here's another good thing to report. I'm really liking my healthy eating program, and I'm doing pretty well in my 28 days On Program February Challenge to myself. The part I like best is that there are days like yesterday where I had a few potatoes for, I guess it was brunch, a really late breakfast. And then I had a huge salad, the kind I like with buckwheat soba noodles and a peanut sauce, and then I had soup and bread for dinner and ate probably more than I should have eaten of homemade, whole grain bread ... so this morning I woke up thinking boy, all that bread, how could I NOT gain a bunch of weight? But I didn't, my weight is still slowly slipping down, down, down. I'm almost to the 15 lb mark (down from my highest) ... I love that feeling of "wow, I ate a lot, maybe too much, of foods I enjoyed" and have it not count against my weight on the scale.

In unrelated (to this health entry, but related to this moment in my day) news, I had a dream last night that I was a camp counselor for about 30 teenage girls. There was a camp schedule, so I expected the girls to know what they were supposed to do, and do it. They were supposed to clean up their cabin and get some things ready for the day's activity, which was a long bike ride in some exotic spot. But the girls woke up and just monkeyed around. They didn't come for breakfast on time. They didn't do their cabin chores. And at the last minute I was scrambing around trying to help them get ready, and scolding them for not doing their responsibilities. Um ... there's a dream that doesn't take too much analysis to figure out, eh?

Lastly, I didn't make the finalists in the Share The Love Blog Awards, but that's okay, I didn't expect to. I'm just all warm and fuzzy that you like me and keep coming back. You and the spammers. I've got all I need in that.

Well, really, I have all I need in Christ, and you guys are just icing on the cake. But you know what I mean.

But go ahead and vote for some finalists in that thing. There's one for blog design that's all green and pink, I'm rooting for that one.

Thus Endeth January

January is over by 21 minutes, now.

...

I have walked 78 miles -- 130% of my goal of 60 miles in February!

It was a good month for walking, that's for sure. I'm not so sure I can keep up that pace, but I'll try for another 60 in February.

My February goal, in addition to walking at least 60 miles (or the equivalent in 15 minute=mile exercise increments), is to eat healthy, stay on plan. Tomorrow morning I think I'll take my weight and measurements and consider this a little 28 day challenge.

Or maybe two 14 day challenges, as my birthday falls in the middle of the month, and it might be nice to have one day to celebrate. :)

Join me in the challenge?

Feelin' Groovy

Alright, first off, I have a confession to make.

I don't hate exercise anymore.

I know.

Me, of all people. Hater of All Exercise.

Don't you hate when they are right? They, the ones telling you that if you get into exercise you'll start loving it and blah blah. Okay, well, I don't love it. I promise you that. But sometimes I kinda like it.

I like the idea of being a healthy, fit person, someday. And I like the idea (theoretical as it may be) of being lean and muscular, someday. I love when Leslie Sansone talks about being 'functionally fit' ~ having enough energy to *do* stuff. But also, sometimes, when I'm walking, especially on the longer walks, I just have fun. Sometimes I do the 4 mile on a Saturday when I have extra time, and I rewind the DVD back a mile from the 3 mile marker to the 2 mile point, and do an extra mile! Okay, some of that is to get ahead of Rosanne, but some of it is just because it feels good to be walking and know I have the stamina for 5 or even 6 miles, repeating the fastest pace miles.

Sometimes I wonder, if my life weren't so busy, if my disorganization didn't keep me from bumbling out with 6 children in tow, might I walk every day, for the rest of my life? I'd like to be one of those people who wakes before dawn and walks 5 miles. Maybe I could even run ?? Okay, ha ha, I'm going off the deep end, now.

ANYway, where am I going with all this? Nowhere, you should know that by now. I'm just rambling.

So at WalMart the other day I'd set out to buy Leslie's 5 mile walk, having heard it was there, but it wasn't. So I bought a 2-pack of Billy Blanks Tae-Bo workouts. Crazy! I've always wanted to try them. Yes, yes, I was planning to borrow Barbie's, but I just couldn't wait any longer, LOL. Maybe she has different ones, so I can still borrow hers.

So tonight Iliacat and I did a 45 minute Tae-Bo workout and it was HARD WORK! Boy, do they move fast. We spent the last 35 minutes of it counting the minutes to the end and saying, "I might not make it!" but we made it! I am hoping I burned a ton of fat. Iliacat has no fat to burn, poor child. So I hope she survives the workout. She's gonna be one lean and mean nice kid, LOL. It was definitely harder work than the most pumped up 4 mile walk I've done. We'll see if I can walk tomorrow, with the poor burning leg muscles and the other ones that I probably pulled tipping over trying to kick. I'm not so coordinated as I'd like to think, but I'm catching on. The video was fun because it was full of energy, with the other participants shouting out the counts and, I believe, yelling "no!" in (perhaps feigned) disappointment when he stopped a move and yelled "walk it out!" ... I had fun and ended the evening tired but pumped, feeling good that I made it through.

In semi-related news, I made this yummy salad today, and my sister sent me a link to a Flickr group on posting recipes, so I posted it there. So you get to see the picture of my food. LOL! This is a variation on one of my standard lunches, I really like big asian-style salads. I'm sure I've blogged about it before. This is the dressing, just before blending it, isn't it pretty? (Oh, and Linda, I picked up some Agave Nectar at Meijer and it's pretty tasty! But expensive. But still! ) You can see the salad -- mostly napa cabbage and regular green cabbage, in the background.

As far as the walking/exercise goes, I've decided to count non-walking aerobic workouts as miles in 15-minute increments. So if I Tae-bo for 45 minutes, that's the equivalent of 3 miles. I figure since I walk non-aerobic steps around the house each day and don't count those, it'll even out. And that way I won't hold back on other fun exercise just because it's not walking. That's fair enough, right?

So ... to wrap this rambling up rather abruptly, here's my WalkOmeters for the month/year:

I have walked 55 miles -- 91.67% of my goal of 60 miles in January!!

The Walking Tickers

I didn't want to be pestering my readers with walking posts all the time. But I think I'll date this post 12/31/07 so that it stays on top and just use the little updating ticker thingie, at least for the 2007 goal. Did you know that TickerFactory lets you store a password and just update the ticker, so you don't need to re-paste it as a new URL each time? That's handy!

I have walked 31 miles -- 62% of my goal of 50 miles this month!!

*** Changed my mind about keeping it on top. LOL ***

Not Competitive?

I didn't think I was competitive.

But I walked 6 miles today because Roseygrape walked 4 yesterday, trying to get ahead of me.

Maybe I am a little competitive.

I have walked 29 miles -- 58% of my goal of 50 miles this month!!

I Would Walk Five Hundred Miles

... and I will walk five hundred (or) more ...

As of today, I have walked

in 2006.

I award myself with this shiny gif. Being a quitter at heart, this is quite an accomplishment!

I wish to thank my family, for not falling to pieces while I was walking in their midst. My husband, for letting me buy pedometers and endless walking videos. My dear friend Rosanne, for beginning the monthly challenge in the first place. The guy at the hospital wearing the "I walked 1000 miles" shirt who was the inspiration for the larger goal. Leslie Sansone for cheerfully encouraging me, day after day, without ever growing weary. And all of you who have encouraged me, especially when I was flagging, slumping, slouching, and about to give in. I couldn't have done it without you.

Ticker keeps on Ticking

I have to post again because TickerFactory now 'updates' their tickers rather than making new ones each time. So if I change my ticker in one place, it'll change everywhere, including last night's post.

I walked 3 miles today. So now I've only got TWO miles to go. I'm so excited to be nearly at goal that I almost walked another two, LOL.

Here's my new ticker, which will probably look just like the one in the post below, but really, the one below SAID 5 miles at the time I posted it, LOL.

4 days to go. Only 2 miles left!

Um ... was there anything else I needed to tell you, while I was here?

No, I don't think so. I should get to work, I've got company coming on Friday and am taking a meal somewhere tonight, so I need to be busy today.

Oh, and I need to go fill my bird feeders. Sigh. Those squirrels can empty it in half a day, no matter what I try. I could become consumed with unsuccessfully trying to outwit squirrels, I think.

Feed Hot Walk!

Feed

I moved the RSS link up on the sidebar and reworded it, but here, also, is the link to it: http://andfam.net/kimblog/index.rdf ~ now you don't have to check in on me daily unless I post daily!

---

Hot!

Here's the Recipe I've been working on. It's not quite perfect, but it's close enough to post. I'm still tinkering with the sugar and vinegar amounts.

Chinese Hot Garlic Sauce
Serve on cabbage salad, or over steamed rice, shrimp or chicken, and veggies.
You could substitute honey for the brown sugar, sesame oil for the chili oil, and of course adjust the pepper flakes to taste. This doesn't taste tooo spicy when you dip your finger in, but increases in heat when it's spread over your lunch. :) Mmmmmm, spicy!

Ingredients
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
6 clove garlic clove(s)
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp chili oil
1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions
Mince Garlic. Combine with other ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Garnish with sliced green onions if desired. Makes 1 cup total; 4 quarter cup servings. Weight Watcher's points = 2 pts per 1/4 cup, or 1 pt per 2 Tbsp. -- I may try to tinker the points lower ~ it's low fat but high in sugar...

Quick and Easy Spicy Asian Salad
2 cups bagged coleslaw mix (without sauce)
2 T. Hot Garlic Sauce
1 T. slivered almonds

2 points per serving.

---

Walk

I did the WATP 2 mile Express this morning Gark and I had our date out and walked a mile down the Rail Trail and back, 2 miles total. That was nice.

So that makes 32 miles this month, I think. And, erm, no water today. Yet!