Between vacation and a nasty cold I picked up after we came back I went exactly a month without going to the gym. Since I ate off-plan a lot during the trip (with the exception of an absolutely magnificent display of carnivorisity at a Brazilian steakhouse in Vancouver, literally one of the best meals I've ever had) I kind of wonder if somehow that weakened my immunity and caused me to catch the cold. But I got to the gym twice this week including yesterday, which was my birthday. I remembered last year, which was my Big 4-0, spending the weekend getting drunk and eating crap and watching football. This year my big luxury was going to the gym at 7:15 instead of 4:30. Fear my audacity.
Thanks to various gift certificates and moolah laid on me in honor on the natal day, I decided to shop--specifically for jeans.
The back story: last year before our vacation I decided that I was going to buy jeans. I didn't own any and was tired of wearing sweats. I ventured into Lane Bryant with a sense of embarrassment. I don't care how they tart up the place, it is and always will be the Fat Chick Store. Once there, I did find jeans ... in size (gulp) 24. And although they were stretch they were still tight around my non-existent waist. I bought them, but I drove home severely bummed, and after the trip they hung in my closet, dark blue testaments of how far I had fallen.
Fast forward to this year, getting ready to rampage in the Pacific Northwest. I'm rummaging in my closet and find the jeans. For the hell of it, I try them on ... and I look like a gangbanger because they're so loose. I don't particularly want to buy new ones, so I take them to our tailor and have them taken in a bit. They're still huge, though--I can literally pull them on and off while buttoned and zipped, but since they're stretch I brought them anyway just so I could have the pockets. There were a couple of times during the trip that I literally feared they'd fall down around my ankles because I had stuff like my camera in the pocket.
So yesterday I ventured into TJ Maxx in search of cheap "transitional" jeans. Since the jeans I had were 24s and I'm a crappy judge of sizes I picked out a pair of 22s and a pair of 20s to try on. But then I thought "wait. Should I maybe try an 18?" I found a pair from a different maker than the twenty-something sizes in an 18 and brought it in, figuring I'd try them first.
And ... they fit. They were tight, but they fit. I didn't care for the styling, though, so I went out to see if I could find a pair like the twenty-somethings sizes. I did ... and they fit perfectly.
I have not been able to fit into a size that started with a one in roughly five years. My squee of joy echoed throughout the dressing room.
Progress.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Eight more things about me, or I'm Being A Post Whore
The indomitable Tracy of Fear and Loathing in the Kitchen apparently didn't scroll down far enough to see that I'd already done the Eight Things About Myself meme, but since she is a most cool and funny chick I figured what the hell.
1. By nature I am not a superstitious person, but whenever I fly I always wear my Yankees cap. Even if it clashes with my outfit. Then again, navy goes with everything.
2. I ADORE the NFL (in case the name of the blog wasn't a tipoff). The ONLY reason I have digital cable is so I can get the NFL Network. I have a brokerage account whose sole purpose of existence is to pay for tickets and trips to games. I frequently break the "if you're over 30 you're too old to wear jerseys outside of games" rule. I have three fantasy teams this year. Ironically, I couldn't care less about college football, although the bowl games were handy mind-occupiers in my younger years when I was recuperating from New Year's hangovers.
3. Outside of sports, I rarely watch TV. Name any popular show and I can guarantee you I've never seen it (with the exception of one episode each of "The Sopranos" and "Desperate Housewives"). This year I even missed the Oscars, the one non-sports event I look forward to, due to being exhausted by travel. I went for several years without owning a TV and just kind of fell out of the habit. However, I can and do put in twelve-hour couch potato sessions during football season.
4. I used to be a voracious reader, but being on the internet almost non-stop seems to satisfy my print addiction. The last book I read was the new Harry Potter. I used to spend a fortune on books and come home from the library with armfuls of stuff, but not anymore. When I do read it's usually historical fiction or biographies, with the odd mystery thrown in.
5. One thing that I ALWAYS need is music. Even when I was absolutely dirt-poor I always had some source of it, even if it was a shitty 1970s-era cassette player. Now, of course, I have my iPod. I am not the one to come to for the trendy music. In my mp3 list I have everything from 50 Cent to music written for a 15th-century wedding of a Medici and a French princess. My current favorite band is Within Temptation, a Dutch band with a female singer whose music is described as "symphonic metal." If you have hard guitars with a chick singing I'll listen to it, since during my teen years I worshipped Pat Benatar.
6. It is rare that even armed with a map and a decent sense of direction I do not make at least one wrong turn when going someplace I've never been before. However, once the place is found I will always be able to find it again from memory, even if decades pass between visits.
7. I can vomit at will without the aid of fingers or implements down the throat. This was a skill I learned in childhood because my mother, a nurse, demanded, uh, hard evidence that you were sick when you claimed it in order to stay home from school. I often employed this to avoid alcohol poisoning in my younger years. I'd be a hell of a bulimic.
8. I can talk about myself endlessly. :D
1. By nature I am not a superstitious person, but whenever I fly I always wear my Yankees cap. Even if it clashes with my outfit. Then again, navy goes with everything.
2. I ADORE the NFL (in case the name of the blog wasn't a tipoff). The ONLY reason I have digital cable is so I can get the NFL Network. I have a brokerage account whose sole purpose of existence is to pay for tickets and trips to games. I frequently break the "if you're over 30 you're too old to wear jerseys outside of games" rule. I have three fantasy teams this year. Ironically, I couldn't care less about college football, although the bowl games were handy mind-occupiers in my younger years when I was recuperating from New Year's hangovers.
3. Outside of sports, I rarely watch TV. Name any popular show and I can guarantee you I've never seen it (with the exception of one episode each of "The Sopranos" and "Desperate Housewives"). This year I even missed the Oscars, the one non-sports event I look forward to, due to being exhausted by travel. I went for several years without owning a TV and just kind of fell out of the habit. However, I can and do put in twelve-hour couch potato sessions during football season.
4. I used to be a voracious reader, but being on the internet almost non-stop seems to satisfy my print addiction. The last book I read was the new Harry Potter. I used to spend a fortune on books and come home from the library with armfuls of stuff, but not anymore. When I do read it's usually historical fiction or biographies, with the odd mystery thrown in.
5. One thing that I ALWAYS need is music. Even when I was absolutely dirt-poor I always had some source of it, even if it was a shitty 1970s-era cassette player. Now, of course, I have my iPod. I am not the one to come to for the trendy music. In my mp3 list I have everything from 50 Cent to music written for a 15th-century wedding of a Medici and a French princess. My current favorite band is Within Temptation, a Dutch band with a female singer whose music is described as "symphonic metal." If you have hard guitars with a chick singing I'll listen to it, since during my teen years I worshipped Pat Benatar.
6. It is rare that even armed with a map and a decent sense of direction I do not make at least one wrong turn when going someplace I've never been before. However, once the place is found I will always be able to find it again from memory, even if decades pass between visits.
7. I can vomit at will without the aid of fingers or implements down the throat. This was a skill I learned in childhood because my mother, a nurse, demanded, uh, hard evidence that you were sick when you claimed it in order to stay home from school. I often employed this to avoid alcohol poisoning in my younger years. I'd be a hell of a bulimic.
8. I can talk about myself endlessly. :D
I'm not dead!
Sorry for the long silence. Mr. LRA and I are currently in Vancouver on our vacation, which started (and will end) in Seattle. It's been a couple weeks since I've hit the gym due to a nagging deltoid pull, but I've pretty much been on plan and am endeavoring to do so on the trip, more so by avoidance than anything else. I do not, however, regret the amazing scoop of caramel/coffee gelato I had at Butchart Gardens yesterday, which along with some macadamias and sugar-free apple drink was about all I ate. I do have a couple of small indulgences planned--garlic fries at Safeco Park during the Mariners game, which if they taste halfway as good as they smell (they also serve them at Qwest Field, where Mr. LRA and I took in Seahawks/Bucs on Sunday) will be awesome and some rice with my shawarma at a little place here in Vancouver that comes highly recommended and happens to be conveniently located in my hotel plaza--but other than that I'm staying reasonably paleo.
The arm is feeling better, so once home the weights will be hit with a vengeance.
The arm is feeling better, so once home the weights will be hit with a vengeance.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Mouse Hole Report
Because I don't like typing twice I've copy-pasted the following from my post on the low-carb forum I frequent, changing some names and dates as needed.
It was a successful journey to the Mouse Hole. The family reunion went swimmingly and I got to go on all the rides I wanted to--Mission: Space was a little disappointing (listen, if people are croaking on this thing I expect intensity, LIVE UP TO THE HYPE DAMMIT) but Expedition Everest more than made up for it. The sun was BRUTAL so we did the parks either in the early morning or night and spent the rest of the time visiting with my ginormous amount of relatives in air-conditioned hotel rooms. We stayed at All Stars Movies and I feel sorry for the poor people on our floor, as we basically monopolized the balcony all weekend. Good times.
As for food, I was very proud of myself. I figured intermittent fasting would balance out any "bad stuff" that came my way, but there wasn't a lot of "bad stuff." Friday was a VERY low food volume day--basically all I ate were a couple bags of peanuts on the plane, a Casey's Corner hot dog at the Magic Kingdom (sans bun, thank you) and a bag of apple slices with cheese sauce with a lot of water. The next morning I was REALLY stiff and sore as we headed over to Animal Kingdom, no doubt because I was running on empty. After doing Expedition Everest three times in a row we went to a place called Restaurantsaurus, which had an all-you-could-eat breakfast buffet, and I ate my weight in eggs, bacon and sausage because I was starving (I also got molested by Pluto during my meal). I felt MUCH better after that. The family dinner at Boma went well--ate prime rib, a piece of chicken, green beans, roasted veggies and peppers, then I had a "treat plate" with small amounts of hummus, chocolate mousse, a baked custard that was kind of like coconut custard without coconut, a tiny mango cream tart, and some other little mousse-tart thing. It was good and I enjoyed it and I didn't have a reaction to the sugar considering it's been a while since I ate any (no cravings either). Sunday we did Epcot and ate lunch at the British pub in World Showcase--I had "ploughman's lunch," which is basically a meat-heavy chef's salad with roast beef, ham and turkey. It included some delicious chutney and onion jam, which I ate on a three-inch long inch-thing slab of bread. Again no bad reactions to the wheat thankfully. I drank a lot of water and ate no snacks, including the mass amount of chocolate that was in the reunion goodie bag (I snuck it into other people's bags because I'm evil like that).
What I (and Mr. LRA) noticed was I kept up with everyone. I'm notorious for yelling "SLOW DOWN!" as Mr. LRA charges through our vacations, but I kept up. My legs are sore from pounding the concrete--anyone who's been to Disney knows it requires a ton of walking--but I'm not even close to the agony I previously experienced. Yay leg presses.
I was down to 215 last week, but the Dread Pirate Ovulation is making me retain water so I'm currently at 217.
And yes, Tracy, I'll do the eight things meme again just for you.
It was a successful journey to the Mouse Hole. The family reunion went swimmingly and I got to go on all the rides I wanted to--Mission: Space was a little disappointing (listen, if people are croaking on this thing I expect intensity, LIVE UP TO THE HYPE DAMMIT) but Expedition Everest more than made up for it. The sun was BRUTAL so we did the parks either in the early morning or night and spent the rest of the time visiting with my ginormous amount of relatives in air-conditioned hotel rooms. We stayed at All Stars Movies and I feel sorry for the poor people on our floor, as we basically monopolized the balcony all weekend. Good times.
As for food, I was very proud of myself. I figured intermittent fasting would balance out any "bad stuff" that came my way, but there wasn't a lot of "bad stuff." Friday was a VERY low food volume day--basically all I ate were a couple bags of peanuts on the plane, a Casey's Corner hot dog at the Magic Kingdom (sans bun, thank you) and a bag of apple slices with cheese sauce with a lot of water. The next morning I was REALLY stiff and sore as we headed over to Animal Kingdom, no doubt because I was running on empty. After doing Expedition Everest three times in a row we went to a place called Restaurantsaurus, which had an all-you-could-eat breakfast buffet, and I ate my weight in eggs, bacon and sausage because I was starving (I also got molested by Pluto during my meal). I felt MUCH better after that. The family dinner at Boma went well--ate prime rib, a piece of chicken, green beans, roasted veggies and peppers, then I had a "treat plate" with small amounts of hummus, chocolate mousse, a baked custard that was kind of like coconut custard without coconut, a tiny mango cream tart, and some other little mousse-tart thing. It was good and I enjoyed it and I didn't have a reaction to the sugar considering it's been a while since I ate any (no cravings either). Sunday we did Epcot and ate lunch at the British pub in World Showcase--I had "ploughman's lunch," which is basically a meat-heavy chef's salad with roast beef, ham and turkey. It included some delicious chutney and onion jam, which I ate on a three-inch long inch-thing slab of bread. Again no bad reactions to the wheat thankfully. I drank a lot of water and ate no snacks, including the mass amount of chocolate that was in the reunion goodie bag (I snuck it into other people's bags because I'm evil like that).
What I (and Mr. LRA) noticed was I kept up with everyone. I'm notorious for yelling "SLOW DOWN!" as Mr. LRA charges through our vacations, but I kept up. My legs are sore from pounding the concrete--anyone who's been to Disney knows it requires a ton of walking--but I'm not even close to the agony I previously experienced. Yay leg presses.
I was down to 215 last week, but the Dread Pirate Ovulation is making me retain water so I'm currently at 217.
And yes, Tracy, I'll do the eight things meme again just for you.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Three more down
I came in at 221 Friday, so for those keeping score at home that's another three pounds gone, nineteen overall. To reward myself, I bought a shiny black 30 GB video iPod. I now have a separate playlist for cardio and lifting. I R N NERD. I previously had an iPod Shuffle which used to drive me crazy by playing the same ten songs over and over again. I have given it to Mr. LRA, who is mystified by anything computer-related but who is thoroughly delighted that he can now listen to Neil Young and Jimi Hendrix while watching CNBC at the gym.
Travel time is approaching at Chez LRA--next week we're going to Disney World for a family reunion (gah, Disney in August, what I do for family), then three weeks after that we're on our way to Seattle for a week, with two days in Vancouver during that time. We've also scored tickets for the Seattle Seahawks/Tampa Bay Buccaneers game since that's the opening weekend for the NFL (which are Holy Days of LRA Obligation). A few weeks ago I purchased a Seahawks jersey to wear to the game, a men's medium. When I tried it on, it was tight across my middle. Yesterday I was in my closet and glimpsed the jersey, and for the hell of it I tried it on ... and it's definitely loosened. Huzzah.
As far as eating goes, I'm going to try my best to stay on plan. As a rule we don't tend to eat a lot on vacation anyway. I don't think Seattle/Vancouver will be a problem, but Disney isn't exactly the most welcoming place for healthy eating. We did luck out that the big family dinner will be at the restaurant at Animal Kingdom Lodge so I can get some decent meat and veggies. I will have a hot dog from Casey's Corner in the Magic Kingdom though, as that is tradition and I do not fuck with tradition. Believe it or not on one of the Disney fansites someone posted an article about doing low-carb at the Mouse Hole, so I'll take a look at it.
I'm adding two days of cardio this week. Pray for me.
Travel time is approaching at Chez LRA--next week we're going to Disney World for a family reunion (gah, Disney in August, what I do for family), then three weeks after that we're on our way to Seattle for a week, with two days in Vancouver during that time. We've also scored tickets for the Seattle Seahawks/Tampa Bay Buccaneers game since that's the opening weekend for the NFL (which are Holy Days of LRA Obligation). A few weeks ago I purchased a Seahawks jersey to wear to the game, a men's medium. When I tried it on, it was tight across my middle. Yesterday I was in my closet and glimpsed the jersey, and for the hell of it I tried it on ... and it's definitely loosened. Huzzah.
As far as eating goes, I'm going to try my best to stay on plan. As a rule we don't tend to eat a lot on vacation anyway. I don't think Seattle/Vancouver will be a problem, but Disney isn't exactly the most welcoming place for healthy eating. We did luck out that the big family dinner will be at the restaurant at Animal Kingdom Lodge so I can get some decent meat and veggies. I will have a hot dog from Casey's Corner in the Magic Kingdom though, as that is tradition and I do not fuck with tradition. Believe it or not on one of the Disney fansites someone posted an article about doing low-carb at the Mouse Hole, so I'll take a look at it.
I'm adding two days of cardio this week. Pray for me.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Lift cycling
In the Low Fat Days when I subscribed to both Shape and Fitness before realizing it was the same magazine, I read an item that proved useful--weight cycling. If you lift three days a week, you do light weights/high reps one day, medium weights and reps the second day and heavy weights/low reps the third so your body doesn't get used to one particular weight. I did this with some success back then so I decided to try it again. I figured that Monday was my medium day, so I did the heavy stuff on Wednesday as follows:
5 minutes warm-up on the cross trainer, level 3
All sets 5 reps
3 sets pull-ups on gravitron, 45 pounds resistance
3 set leg presses, 165 pounds
3 sets lat pulldowns, 85 pounds
3 sets shoulder pulldowns, 35 pounds
3 sets push-ups on gravitron, 45 pounds resistance
3 sets seated rows, 35 pounds
3 sets tight seated rows (hands close together), 70 pounds
3 sets tricep presses, 42.5 pounds
3 sets donkey presses, 100 pounds
And oh, did I feel it. I just about managed good form on the last sets on some of these (mainly the lat pulldowns, those totally kicked my ass) but I did manage. Tomorrow is the light day, a nice way to finish out the week.
And I HAVE to add cardio. Outside the gym I'm basically inert and I have to move if I want to get rid of this fat. When I move, I lose. I'm not going to go insane and repeat the hypoglycemia thing, but walking a couple miles every day is pretty much necessary for me since I spend so much time sitting on my ass. I have the food thing pretty well down so this is the final frontier.
Oh--and I weighed myself today for the hell of it, even though I'm retaining water because of my cycle. 223.5. Since I weighed 224 at the beginning of the month, I hope to hell I have a nice whoosh next week.
5 minutes warm-up on the cross trainer, level 3
All sets 5 reps
3 sets pull-ups on gravitron, 45 pounds resistance
3 set leg presses, 165 pounds
3 sets lat pulldowns, 85 pounds
3 sets shoulder pulldowns, 35 pounds
3 sets push-ups on gravitron, 45 pounds resistance
3 sets seated rows, 35 pounds
3 sets tight seated rows (hands close together), 70 pounds
3 sets tricep presses, 42.5 pounds
3 sets donkey presses, 100 pounds
And oh, did I feel it. I just about managed good form on the last sets on some of these (mainly the lat pulldowns, those totally kicked my ass) but I did manage. Tomorrow is the light day, a nice way to finish out the week.
And I HAVE to add cardio. Outside the gym I'm basically inert and I have to move if I want to get rid of this fat. When I move, I lose. I'm not going to go insane and repeat the hypoglycemia thing, but walking a couple miles every day is pretty much necessary for me since I spend so much time sitting on my ass. I have the food thing pretty well down so this is the final frontier.
Oh--and I weighed myself today for the hell of it, even though I'm retaining water because of my cycle. 223.5. Since I weighed 224 at the beginning of the month, I hope to hell I have a nice whoosh next week.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Iron diva progress
The weights, they are going up. This is what I did today:
5 minutes warm-up on the cross trainer, level 3
All sets 10 reps
2 sets pull-ups on gravitron, 25 pounds resistance (started at 10)
2 set leg presses, 150 pounds (started at 105)
2 sets lat pulldowns, 55 pounds (started at 25)
2 sets shoulder pulldowns, 20 pounds (I do these instead of bicep curls)
2 sets push-ups on gravitron, 25 pounds resistance (started at 10)
2 sets seated rows, 20 pounds (for some reason this weight still kicks my ass)
2 sets tight seated rows (hands close together), 27.5 pounds (new)
2 sets tricep presses, 30 pounds (new)
2 sets donkey presses, 80 pounds (started at 50)
My left shoulder is feeling much better--just for shits and giggles I did ten push-ups on my stairs this morning on my way up to take a shower, and for the first time in a long time didn't feel any pain in the motion. I still feel it a little bit though so I'll continue to lay off the bench presses and other stuff, but I'll try to get in some push-ups on lifting days. I think I'm going to up it to three sets next week. I can always feel it after I've lifted but I'm not sore. I don't want to be in screaming pain, but I want to feel like I'm challenging myself.
I ate my first official organic meat tonight--chicken drumsticks. I feel very virtuous.
5 minutes warm-up on the cross trainer, level 3
All sets 10 reps
2 sets pull-ups on gravitron, 25 pounds resistance (started at 10)
2 set leg presses, 150 pounds (started at 105)
2 sets lat pulldowns, 55 pounds (started at 25)
2 sets shoulder pulldowns, 20 pounds (I do these instead of bicep curls)
2 sets push-ups on gravitron, 25 pounds resistance (started at 10)
2 sets seated rows, 20 pounds (for some reason this weight still kicks my ass)
2 sets tight seated rows (hands close together), 27.5 pounds (new)
2 sets tricep presses, 30 pounds (new)
2 sets donkey presses, 80 pounds (started at 50)
My left shoulder is feeling much better--just for shits and giggles I did ten push-ups on my stairs this morning on my way up to take a shower, and for the first time in a long time didn't feel any pain in the motion. I still feel it a little bit though so I'll continue to lay off the bench presses and other stuff, but I'll try to get in some push-ups on lifting days. I think I'm going to up it to three sets next week. I can always feel it after I've lifted but I'm not sore. I don't want to be in screaming pain, but I want to feel like I'm challenging myself.
I ate my first official organic meat tonight--chicken drumsticks. I feel very virtuous.
Monday, July 16, 2007
In which LRA remembers she can't do shit like that anymore
Crappy week. REALLY crappy. Between the low blood sugar/cardio overdose and some heinous dental work (five fillings. And a cleaning. And I'm a former dental phobic, which means I was highly on edge for three hours. And the novocaine took SIX FUCKING HOURS to wear off) I was, as my icon t-shirt says, drinking like a Roethlisberger today. Well, actually, I was drinking like a Roethlisberger the whole weekend. Plus I ate french fries (OMG TEH HORROR).
I could handle that at 21. At nearly 41, the body's like "I don't fucking think so, dumb bitch." Lifting does ease the hangover a bit. But I cooked LC like a mofo yesterday and went to the gym and am slugging water down.
And I chucked the Bacardi. Amazingly I still had some left. But it's just one more thing to add to the list.
Damn, this getting old shit sucks.
I could handle that at 21. At nearly 41, the body's like "I don't fucking think so, dumb bitch." Lifting does ease the hangover a bit. But I cooked LC like a mofo yesterday and went to the gym and am slugging water down.
And I chucked the Bacardi. Amazingly I still had some left. But it's just one more thing to add to the list.
Damn, this getting old shit sucks.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Feast and famine
On my normal intermittent fasting schedule I eat two meals a day--one at 12:30, my work-mandated lunch, and then around 6:30-7:00. When I first started, I tried to do a 24/24. I did, but I felt kind of tired and blah and decided the 18/6 would work better for me.
Today I was lazy and ran late, so I decided not to pack a lunch as a result. "Fuck it," I thought. "If I'm dying of hunger at lunchtime I'll go get a salad, no big deal." 12:30 came and went ... not hungry. A little tired, but I did hard cardio today so that contributed.
But then came two o'clock. And I hit the Wall of Low Blood Sugar Level so hard I'm surprised I didn't bounce. I had my first true experience of ketone breath--to me it tasted like blood without the salt. I felt nauseous. I had the beginnings of a headache. When I stood up, I literally swayed back and forth because I got such a head rush. The floor vending machine sells only one low-carb item--peanuts. Once I was able to regain my equilibrium, I bought a pack and downed them ... and felt better almost immediately. I made it home and had a fat and (for me) carb fest--chicken thighs (ate two, ate the skin off two more) and a steamed "garden medley" (broccoli, cauliflower and baby carrots) topped with a cup of cream seasoned with salt and pepper and thickened with xanthan gum. No doubt my body's going "Dude, what the fuck, make up your mind!"
It occurs to me, though, that that was literally the first time I'd experienced the stuff that's your body's way of yelling FEED ME SEYMOUR. I still feel a little strange, but hopefully digestion and a good night's sleep will take care of that.
And I WILL bring lunch tomorrow.
Today I was lazy and ran late, so I decided not to pack a lunch as a result. "Fuck it," I thought. "If I'm dying of hunger at lunchtime I'll go get a salad, no big deal." 12:30 came and went ... not hungry. A little tired, but I did hard cardio today so that contributed.
But then came two o'clock. And I hit the Wall of Low Blood Sugar Level so hard I'm surprised I didn't bounce. I had my first true experience of ketone breath--to me it tasted like blood without the salt. I felt nauseous. I had the beginnings of a headache. When I stood up, I literally swayed back and forth because I got such a head rush. The floor vending machine sells only one low-carb item--peanuts. Once I was able to regain my equilibrium, I bought a pack and downed them ... and felt better almost immediately. I made it home and had a fat and (for me) carb fest--chicken thighs (ate two, ate the skin off two more) and a steamed "garden medley" (broccoli, cauliflower and baby carrots) topped with a cup of cream seasoned with salt and pepper and thickened with xanthan gum. No doubt my body's going "Dude, what the fuck, make up your mind!"
It occurs to me, though, that that was literally the first time I'd experienced the stuff that's your body's way of yelling FEED ME SEYMOUR. I still feel a little strange, but hopefully digestion and a good night's sleep will take care of that.
And I WILL bring lunch tomorrow.
Monday, July 9, 2007
If I'm Tagged, where are the supermodels?
Christine at the mighty Lift Like A Girl has apparently already figured out that I spend my life on the internet and tagged me for a meme. Ah, fuck it, why not?
Here are the rules:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people (I'd choose all the same people Christine did, so that's kind of worthless) to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.
1. I spoke my first words at six months, was speaking in complete sentences at nine months, said the ABCs at eighteen months and could read my mother's nursing school textbooks when I was three. However I didn't roll over until I was four months, didn't crawl until I was almost a year and didn't walk until I was almost two. Some doctors thought I had cerebral palsy. My mother's eldest sister told her that it was okay, I could always attend college in my wheelchair. Needless to say that didn't go over well with Mom.
2. I am mostly right-handed, but I eat and play pool left-handed.
3. Mr. LRA and I were engaged seventeen days after we met and married seven months later because I wanted a wedding with the big white poofy dress and six months gave us time to plan. We'll celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary next month and still make people around us nauseous with various lovey-dovey stuff.
4. Speaking of dresses ... my wedding was seriously the last time I wore one. I don't even own one. I also rarely wear makeup and don't even have pierced ears. I'm pretty sure that in my past life I was a really macho gay guy.
5. I have never broken a bone in my life despite such mishaps as falling out of a four-story window, being in a car accident where I was catapulted through a windshield, and falling down the side of a mountain so hard I left blood on a trail of rocks about a hundred yards long. Milk does indeed do a body good.
6. Although I currently reside in the capital of the Confederacy, I was born and lived in central New Jersey most of my life. This tends to freak people out because they think that everyone from New Jersey talks like people on "The Sopranos" and I really have no discernible accent. Except for the words "mall," "walk" and "asshole." Must be the l's.
7. I am practically impossible to offend and will laugh at the sickest stuff you can come up with. An example--right after 9/11 one of the many sick bastards I know sent me a picture of some guy falling out of one of the World Trade Center towers. The caption on the picture was OH SHIT I FORGOT MY LAPTOP! I laughed so hard I cried. Fortunately I have equally sick friends who also thought it was hilarious, so when I go to hell I'll be traveling with a large group.
8. I hate shorts and refuse to wear them no matter how hot it is. It has nothing to do with my legs, I just don't like them. I wear sweats or yoga pants to the gym or out and about.
I'm sure you all found that deeply fascinating.
Here are the rules:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people (I'd choose all the same people Christine did, so that's kind of worthless) to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.
1. I spoke my first words at six months, was speaking in complete sentences at nine months, said the ABCs at eighteen months and could read my mother's nursing school textbooks when I was three. However I didn't roll over until I was four months, didn't crawl until I was almost a year and didn't walk until I was almost two. Some doctors thought I had cerebral palsy. My mother's eldest sister told her that it was okay, I could always attend college in my wheelchair. Needless to say that didn't go over well with Mom.
2. I am mostly right-handed, but I eat and play pool left-handed.
3. Mr. LRA and I were engaged seventeen days after we met and married seven months later because I wanted a wedding with the big white poofy dress and six months gave us time to plan. We'll celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary next month and still make people around us nauseous with various lovey-dovey stuff.
4. Speaking of dresses ... my wedding was seriously the last time I wore one. I don't even own one. I also rarely wear makeup and don't even have pierced ears. I'm pretty sure that in my past life I was a really macho gay guy.
5. I have never broken a bone in my life despite such mishaps as falling out of a four-story window, being in a car accident where I was catapulted through a windshield, and falling down the side of a mountain so hard I left blood on a trail of rocks about a hundred yards long. Milk does indeed do a body good.
6. Although I currently reside in the capital of the Confederacy, I was born and lived in central New Jersey most of my life. This tends to freak people out because they think that everyone from New Jersey talks like people on "The Sopranos" and I really have no discernible accent. Except for the words "mall," "walk" and "asshole." Must be the l's.
7. I am practically impossible to offend and will laugh at the sickest stuff you can come up with. An example--right after 9/11 one of the many sick bastards I know sent me a picture of some guy falling out of one of the World Trade Center towers. The caption on the picture was OH SHIT I FORGOT MY LAPTOP! I laughed so hard I cried. Fortunately I have equally sick friends who also thought it was hilarious, so when I go to hell I'll be traveling with a large group.
8. I hate shorts and refuse to wear them no matter how hot it is. It has nothing to do with my legs, I just don't like them. I wear sweats or yoga pants to the gym or out and about.
I'm sure you all found that deeply fascinating.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Sweets for the sweet
After we went out for our usual Saturday night date dinner last night (if you ever see anything on the menu called "bacon cheeseburger salad" GET IT, it's a low-carber's dream), Mr. LRA and I hit the supermarket for a couple of things. He decided he wanted a "treat" so I stood patiently in the freezer section, watching as he dithered between various desserts ranging from a Pepperidge Farm coconut cake to Haagen-Dazs.
Mr. LRA has been very supportive of my lifestyle change, to the point of giving up his own favorites just so they wouldn't be in the house and therefore exist as possible temptation. After some thought, however, it seemed that it was very unfair for me to restrict him just because I'm the fat ass in the family. He's naturally hyper so he's extremely active anyway. He has made some switches--instead of the quarts of sherbet and five or six ice cream sandwiches he used to down while watching Fast Money on CNBC he now snacks on Splenda-sweetened yogurt and jello--and he dropped about sixty pounds between losing the ice cream and stepping up his gym activity. If I didn't love him so much I would hate his guts for that, heh heh.
But watching him rummage through the freezer case last night didn't stir envy or resentment. I'm fortunate that I've never had much of a sweet tooth; if I binged on something it was usually Fritos or pizza. Last night for dinner he had mass quantities of pasta. Now I truly love pasta, so you would think that I would be staring and drooling and cursing myself. But ... no. I was perfectly happy with my salad. While he was trying to decide on pie I thought about the blueberries and raspberries in my freezer. I could throw the frozen berries with a little cream and stevia into my baby Cuisinart and make soft serve, or I could thaw them and mix them with some Greek yogurt and stevia. Cake? I could make three-minute chocolate cake out of almond flour, or maybe cinnamon cake.
In the end he decided on a piece of Dutch apple pie. I got involved with a computer project when we got home and forgot about dessert all together. I seem to do that a lot these days.
Tomorrow I get to lift. Joy and huzzah.
Mr. LRA has been very supportive of my lifestyle change, to the point of giving up his own favorites just so they wouldn't be in the house and therefore exist as possible temptation. After some thought, however, it seemed that it was very unfair for me to restrict him just because I'm the fat ass in the family. He's naturally hyper so he's extremely active anyway. He has made some switches--instead of the quarts of sherbet and five or six ice cream sandwiches he used to down while watching Fast Money on CNBC he now snacks on Splenda-sweetened yogurt and jello--and he dropped about sixty pounds between losing the ice cream and stepping up his gym activity. If I didn't love him so much I would hate his guts for that, heh heh.
But watching him rummage through the freezer case last night didn't stir envy or resentment. I'm fortunate that I've never had much of a sweet tooth; if I binged on something it was usually Fritos or pizza. Last night for dinner he had mass quantities of pasta. Now I truly love pasta, so you would think that I would be staring and drooling and cursing myself. But ... no. I was perfectly happy with my salad. While he was trying to decide on pie I thought about the blueberries and raspberries in my freezer. I could throw the frozen berries with a little cream and stevia into my baby Cuisinart and make soft serve, or I could thaw them and mix them with some Greek yogurt and stevia. Cake? I could make three-minute chocolate cake out of almond flour, or maybe cinnamon cake.
In the end he decided on a piece of Dutch apple pie. I got involved with a computer project when we got home and forgot about dessert all together. I seem to do that a lot these days.
Tomorrow I get to lift. Joy and huzzah.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
The truth hurts
In the low-carb forum I post on, someone linked this most kick-ass op-ed piece in which the writer is brutally honest about the physical and mental obesity in America. Any article entitled "Fat Bastards" will automatically get the LRA Seal of Approval anyway. He even touches on one of my pet peeves, the fat fuckers on Rascals who almost run me over in Costco because they're too busy cramming themselves with pizza and Pepsi to watch where they're going:
Lots of those obese people deal with it by purchasing electric carts to haul themselves around in. You’d think when you’d gotten too damn fat to walk, that fact might be a wake-up call, a message from God or just an indication that something is a little out of whack in the old lifestyle department, but the message lots of Americans take from the confabulation of flab is that it’s time to motorize the motion.
While most respondents commented favorably, there were these responses too, both copy/pasted from the post:
This article makes me sick. I suppose this idoit thinks this type of article is going to shape up America. Makes me wanna go out and run laps, lemme tell you.....
Swine, huh?? Totally unnecessary.
In fact, these were the only two negatives. Unsurprisingly--at least to me--both posters feature the Evil Sparkly Signature (whoever invented the technology for this abomination should be taken out and shot for crimes against humanity). If you look in their journals it's fucking social hour, full of smiley emoticons and endless talk about kids--oh, and once in a while they'll talk about low-carb. Hello, middle America, welcome to Completely Missing The Point.
Listen, I'm all for optimism and encouragement, and fortunately there's a few people I've met on the forum who are serious about this and are intelligent and funny to boot. When I go wandering, however, all I see are the sparkling signatures and those fucking Ticker Factory things--another inventor who needs to go up against the wall--and bad spelling and the emoticons. Okay, the one that waves is kind of cute, but I digress. I didn't join the forum to make friends--I joined to have a way of tracking my progress. The people that I've met there are just bonuses.
/rant, kthx
I need to start challenging myself more with workouts, so I'm upping the weights and lowering the reps on Monday. I got to the gym five days this week but have to stick around today to await a repairman. Depending on the weather I may do another three-miler tomorrow. I'm also surfing the red wave, which explains why I would have sold body parts for pizza and ice cream yesterday (ate neither, thank you very much). Stupid girl hormones.
Lots of those obese people deal with it by purchasing electric carts to haul themselves around in. You’d think when you’d gotten too damn fat to walk, that fact might be a wake-up call, a message from God or just an indication that something is a little out of whack in the old lifestyle department, but the message lots of Americans take from the confabulation of flab is that it’s time to motorize the motion.
While most respondents commented favorably, there were these responses too, both copy/pasted from the post:
This article makes me sick. I suppose this idoit thinks this type of article is going to shape up America. Makes me wanna go out and run laps, lemme tell you.....
Swine, huh?? Totally unnecessary.
In fact, these were the only two negatives. Unsurprisingly--at least to me--both posters feature the Evil Sparkly Signature (whoever invented the technology for this abomination should be taken out and shot for crimes against humanity). If you look in their journals it's fucking social hour, full of smiley emoticons and endless talk about kids--oh, and once in a while they'll talk about low-carb. Hello, middle America, welcome to Completely Missing The Point.
Listen, I'm all for optimism and encouragement, and fortunately there's a few people I've met on the forum who are serious about this and are intelligent and funny to boot. When I go wandering, however, all I see are the sparkling signatures and those fucking Ticker Factory things--another inventor who needs to go up against the wall--and bad spelling and the emoticons. Okay, the one that waves is kind of cute, but I digress. I didn't join the forum to make friends--I joined to have a way of tracking my progress. The people that I've met there are just bonuses.
/rant, kthx
I need to start challenging myself more with workouts, so I'm upping the weights and lowering the reps on Monday. I got to the gym five days this week but have to stick around today to await a repairman. Depending on the weather I may do another three-miler tomorrow. I'm also surfing the red wave, which explains why I would have sold body parts for pizza and ice cream yesterday (ate neither, thank you very much). Stupid girl hormones.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
One little victory
ETA 7/4/07: I weighed myself first thing this morning (I'd planned to anyway) and I've actually lost TEN pounds since last month, coming in at 224. I drink at least four liters of water a day and had consumed at least two liters since lunch so I guess I was still carrying it around. I weighed myself four times in twenty minutes just to make sure the scale wasn't fucked up and scared my cats with my squee of joy. LRA
The scale at my gym has been broken, so I decided to stop being a cheap bitch and buy one. I hadn't weighed since June 3 and I was curious. Would the period-induced Bacardi/Sheetz/Ben & Jerry Debauch have lasting effects? How about not going to the gym or really doing any sort of physical activity for 18 days in a row? Would three some-odd weeks of "clean" eating make a difference?
The answers are apparently no, no, and yes. I lost five pounds.
So since I've gotten serious about this whole thing (late May), I've lost eleven pounds. I will pause here to throw myself congratulatory horns.
\m/
I took a three-mile walk Sunday as my cardio--it was too gorgeous a day to be cooped inside the gym--lifted Monday and made an attempt at interval cardio today. I was kind of a pussy, though--I did about five or six sprints but I had the arc trainer hill interval program on level one. Level two next time. Feel free to marvel at my daring. I can lift tomorrow too, off Thursday, lift Friday, cardio Saturday, off Sunday (my normal off day as to not to fuck with future football), then get back on schedule.
Eleven pounds may not be a lot when you start out with a hundred to lose, but it's eleven pounds that I haven't lost for years. And I'm eating fat on steaks and chicken skin and butter in my eggs and olive oil on my salads and didn't work out regularly and STILL lost it. The intermittent fasting schedule is working well too. I love lifting and am seeing small gains in strength even in this short time. My left arm is still an issue, not as much as earlier but enough to keep reminding myself not to overdo it.
Now let's combine clean eating and working out regularly and see what happens.
go me!
The scale at my gym has been broken, so I decided to stop being a cheap bitch and buy one. I hadn't weighed since June 3 and I was curious. Would the period-induced Bacardi/Sheetz/Ben & Jerry Debauch have lasting effects? How about not going to the gym or really doing any sort of physical activity for 18 days in a row? Would three some-odd weeks of "clean" eating make a difference?
The answers are apparently no, no, and yes. I lost five pounds.
So since I've gotten serious about this whole thing (late May), I've lost eleven pounds. I will pause here to throw myself congratulatory horns.
\m/
I took a three-mile walk Sunday as my cardio--it was too gorgeous a day to be cooped inside the gym--lifted Monday and made an attempt at interval cardio today. I was kind of a pussy, though--I did about five or six sprints but I had the arc trainer hill interval program on level one. Level two next time. Feel free to marvel at my daring. I can lift tomorrow too, off Thursday, lift Friday, cardio Saturday, off Sunday (my normal off day as to not to fuck with future football), then get back on schedule.
Eleven pounds may not be a lot when you start out with a hundred to lose, but it's eleven pounds that I haven't lost for years. And I'm eating fat on steaks and chicken skin and butter in my eggs and olive oil on my salads and didn't work out regularly and STILL lost it. The intermittent fasting schedule is working well too. I love lifting and am seeing small gains in strength even in this short time. My left arm is still an issue, not as much as earlier but enough to keep reminding myself not to overdo it.
Now let's combine clean eating and working out regularly and see what happens.
go me!
Sunday, July 1, 2007
I'm still a puny girl
This is what I'm currently doing three times a week:
5 minutes warm-up on the cross trainer, level 3
All sets 15 reps
2 sets pull-ups on gravitron, 10 pounds resistance
2 set leg presses, 105 pounds
2 sets lat pulldowns, 25 pounds
2 sets push-ups on gravitron, 10 pounds resistance
2 sets seated rows, 20 pounds
2 sets bench presses, 30 pounds
2 sets bicep curls, 10 pounds
2 sets donkey presses, 50 pounds
Friday was the first day I did two sets; before I'd only done one. My hamstrings and triceps are still kind of pissed at me about it, but they'll just have to deal. I've been having issues with my left bicep for a couple of months due to some bad posture habits at work--it's improved but is not healed. I feel it if I raise my arm above my head then lower it in a clockwise motion--the hours between one and three suck. It didn't help that Friday's bench presses seemed to aggravate it thanks to my wide handhold on the barbell. I can do curls and other stuff with no problem, though. I'll try a closer handhold tomorrow and see if that makes a difference. If it doesn't, then bench presses are off the agenda for a little.
My plan is to do the two sets for maybe a week or so, then go up to three for a week or so, then increase my weights and go back to the single set, etc. I still do cardio mainly because I spend the majority of my time sitting on my ass and need to move, but I hardly do any on lifting days. When I was doing the low-fat thing I was doing straight cardio for an hour three days a week then working on weight machines with twenty minutes of cardio before and after the other three days. I like cardio and try to mix it up (although I avoid the Demon Treadmill, I hate that fucking thing), but I also like concentrating on the weights on lifting days. I know that so many seem to say that cardio really doesn't do shit as far as losing weight but it has been my experience that it does do shit for me. I did kind of do HIIT with it (trying to get my mileage to a certain point usually) so I need to start implementing that again. What I have to remember is not to overdo it as I am so prone to do.
Sunday is normally my off day, but since my gym's hours are going to be fucked up this week due to Fourth of July I'm going today since I won't be able to do the 4:15 thing on Thursday. Then I'll come home and start cooking stuff for the week. And maybe post again.
5 minutes warm-up on the cross trainer, level 3
All sets 15 reps
2 sets pull-ups on gravitron, 10 pounds resistance
2 set leg presses, 105 pounds
2 sets lat pulldowns, 25 pounds
2 sets push-ups on gravitron, 10 pounds resistance
2 sets seated rows, 20 pounds
2 sets bench presses, 30 pounds
2 sets bicep curls, 10 pounds
2 sets donkey presses, 50 pounds
Friday was the first day I did two sets; before I'd only done one. My hamstrings and triceps are still kind of pissed at me about it, but they'll just have to deal. I've been having issues with my left bicep for a couple of months due to some bad posture habits at work--it's improved but is not healed. I feel it if I raise my arm above my head then lower it in a clockwise motion--the hours between one and three suck. It didn't help that Friday's bench presses seemed to aggravate it thanks to my wide handhold on the barbell. I can do curls and other stuff with no problem, though. I'll try a closer handhold tomorrow and see if that makes a difference. If it doesn't, then bench presses are off the agenda for a little.
My plan is to do the two sets for maybe a week or so, then go up to three for a week or so, then increase my weights and go back to the single set, etc. I still do cardio mainly because I spend the majority of my time sitting on my ass and need to move, but I hardly do any on lifting days. When I was doing the low-fat thing I was doing straight cardio for an hour three days a week then working on weight machines with twenty minutes of cardio before and after the other three days. I like cardio and try to mix it up (although I avoid the Demon Treadmill, I hate that fucking thing), but I also like concentrating on the weights on lifting days. I know that so many seem to say that cardio really doesn't do shit as far as losing weight but it has been my experience that it does do shit for me. I did kind of do HIIT with it (trying to get my mileage to a certain point usually) so I need to start implementing that again. What I have to remember is not to overdo it as I am so prone to do.
Sunday is normally my off day, but since my gym's hours are going to be fucked up this week due to Fourth of July I'm going today since I won't be able to do the 4:15 thing on Thursday. Then I'll come home and start cooking stuff for the week. And maybe post again.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
THE INTRO
I have never been thin. Until recently, I was never hugely fat, either. Being sedentary since earliest memory probably never helped. After roughly 33 years of various self-destructive behavior, my five-foot-four-inch self stepped on a scale one day and almost had my head explode. 211 pounds? WTF?
Around that time (1999) the Mayo Diet thing was making its rounds. I also had a co-worker who swore by Protein Power. I bought the PP book and a gym membership, but fell prey to the low-fat mantra and started following that instead. I did lose weight--about sixty pounds, to be exact. I was working out six days a week, but I was also starving hungry pretty much all the time and found myself practicing bulimia if I ate something I deemed "bad." We, meaning Mr. Laser Rocket Arm and I, moved to Virginia, and in the midst of setting up our new lives I drifted back to my whatever/whenever eating plan combined with a charming alcohol habit.
Flash forward seven years. I got sick and needed to go to urgent care to get a note to go back to work (I tend to avoid doctors). The nurse took my blood pressure, and her eyebrows raised. Another nurse came in, did the same thing. Another nurse ... well, you get the idea. My BP was through the roof. I got weighed (I don't own a scale so I won't be a slave to it).
211? I wish. Try 240.
I am a huge NFL fan (as if the name of the blog wasn't a huge obvious clue). The first thought that went through my head when I saw the scale was "OMG, I weigh the same as Ben Roethlisberger." Yeah, Big Ben--who is thirteen inches taller than me. I can definitely drink like a Roethlisberger today, but apparently eating like him isn't a good idea. Oh--and don't forget the high blood pressure! Armed with a prescription, I went home and really looked at myself. My family always remarks on my resemblance to my mother. That day, I saw it. The round, red face. The bloated body.
And I remembered my last sight of her--in her casket, dead at 43, no doubt of obesity-related causes. And I had just turned 40 in the autumn.
I knew that I needed to do something. I get up at 4:15 in the morning to go to the gym (my job pretty much ties me to a desk and I hate the after-work crowds at the gym). I know it'll be a long journey, but I'm trying to look at the long term goals of health. I used to be all cardio all the time but in my never-ending internet prowls I came across Stumptuous.com and got sold on weight training, which I started seriously about two weeks ago although I lift pretty girly weights. I also do intermittent fasting, eating only twice a day with no snacking. I kind of do a Paleolithic diet--I eat a LOT of meat (mostly chicken, but I do throw in steak and pork) and eggs and keep to the really low-carb fruits and veggies. I don't eat wheat or sugar at all and very little dairy except for butter and some cream in salad dressings. As a result, I feel great--I sleep MUCH better and am never hungry between meals. And I'm losing weight. The last time I weighed myself (early June), I weighed 234. The scale at my gym is currently broken, but I've noticed my clothes getting looser and that I can feel the edges of my rib cage when I suck in my stomach, which I haven't been able to do in about two years.
So that's me in a nutshell. Most of this I took from my intro post on a low-carb forum in which I participate under a different screen name, but since I may occasionally want to bitch about people there--like a lot of "diet" forums it's full of stay-at-home mommies who pass around Oprah sayings and Bible verses and post about eight gazillion recipes for low-carb cheesecake--I won't link to it, although I will happily link to sites of people I've met on the Paleo section who seem to have more brains than most on there. I use the forum as my food/gym journal and will probably end up copy/pasting more stuff from it over here but won't abandon it since I like how it's set up. I may also talk about football and post YouTube Peyton Manning commercials since I do sort of have to honor the guy who uttered the words that became the title for this blog. Just so you're warned.
I have never been thin. Until recently, I was never hugely fat, either. Being sedentary since earliest memory probably never helped. After roughly 33 years of various self-destructive behavior, my five-foot-four-inch self stepped on a scale one day and almost had my head explode. 211 pounds? WTF?
Around that time (1999) the Mayo Diet thing was making its rounds. I also had a co-worker who swore by Protein Power. I bought the PP book and a gym membership, but fell prey to the low-fat mantra and started following that instead. I did lose weight--about sixty pounds, to be exact. I was working out six days a week, but I was also starving hungry pretty much all the time and found myself practicing bulimia if I ate something I deemed "bad." We, meaning Mr. Laser Rocket Arm and I, moved to Virginia, and in the midst of setting up our new lives I drifted back to my whatever/whenever eating plan combined with a charming alcohol habit.
Flash forward seven years. I got sick and needed to go to urgent care to get a note to go back to work (I tend to avoid doctors). The nurse took my blood pressure, and her eyebrows raised. Another nurse came in, did the same thing. Another nurse ... well, you get the idea. My BP was through the roof. I got weighed (I don't own a scale so I won't be a slave to it).
211? I wish. Try 240.
I am a huge NFL fan (as if the name of the blog wasn't a huge obvious clue). The first thought that went through my head when I saw the scale was "OMG, I weigh the same as Ben Roethlisberger." Yeah, Big Ben--who is thirteen inches taller than me. I can definitely drink like a Roethlisberger today, but apparently eating like him isn't a good idea. Oh--and don't forget the high blood pressure! Armed with a prescription, I went home and really looked at myself. My family always remarks on my resemblance to my mother. That day, I saw it. The round, red face. The bloated body.
And I remembered my last sight of her--in her casket, dead at 43, no doubt of obesity-related causes. And I had just turned 40 in the autumn.
I knew that I needed to do something. I get up at 4:15 in the morning to go to the gym (my job pretty much ties me to a desk and I hate the after-work crowds at the gym). I know it'll be a long journey, but I'm trying to look at the long term goals of health. I used to be all cardio all the time but in my never-ending internet prowls I came across Stumptuous.com and got sold on weight training, which I started seriously about two weeks ago although I lift pretty girly weights. I also do intermittent fasting, eating only twice a day with no snacking. I kind of do a Paleolithic diet--I eat a LOT of meat (mostly chicken, but I do throw in steak and pork) and eggs and keep to the really low-carb fruits and veggies. I don't eat wheat or sugar at all and very little dairy except for butter and some cream in salad dressings. As a result, I feel great--I sleep MUCH better and am never hungry between meals. And I'm losing weight. The last time I weighed myself (early June), I weighed 234. The scale at my gym is currently broken, but I've noticed my clothes getting looser and that I can feel the edges of my rib cage when I suck in my stomach, which I haven't been able to do in about two years.
So that's me in a nutshell. Most of this I took from my intro post on a low-carb forum in which I participate under a different screen name, but since I may occasionally want to bitch about people there--like a lot of "diet" forums it's full of stay-at-home mommies who pass around Oprah sayings and Bible verses and post about eight gazillion recipes for low-carb cheesecake--I won't link to it, although I will happily link to sites of people I've met on the Paleo section who seem to have more brains than most on there. I use the forum as my food/gym journal and will probably end up copy/pasting more stuff from it over here but won't abandon it since I like how it's set up. I may also talk about football and post YouTube Peyton Manning commercials since I do sort of have to honor the guy who uttered the words that became the title for this blog. Just so you're warned.
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