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Bone Tired

I’m all moved in. Gahhhhhhhhhhhhh…I made the final drive and got HOME @ almost 11:30. It was a long day, but, I’m home.

My thighs, quads, calves, lower back, biceps & triceps are screaming sore. But I’m home.

DSL has been ordered, not sure when I’ll get computer hooked up and no electricity in either bedroom and no phone line in living room, so it may be a few more days before I not only post, but get pudge pics and training journal etc, updated. But I’m home.

Callie seems to be enjoying her new digs. Places to investigate, things to sniff…large windows to gaze out of. When I get my energy back, I must share the tale on how she almost got stuck between the wall and bathtub, as in she slipped through a crack and how she reminded me to take her things before I moved out of the old place.

Right now the house is a HUGE mess. When I get in later, I need to re sort what I’ve packed so I can find my vitamins and scale and commonly used things. Everything is scattered about, though losing the scale isn’t too bad…heh

The last two days eating has been awful. Yesterday I had a late breakfast @ noon and next time I had a chance to eat again was almost midnight. I did drink a lot and have found myself getting addicted to both frapachinos from Starbucks, loving the cinamon dolce, and McDonalds $1/larget sweet tea and iced coffee. Basically anything super cold has been hitting the spot. And now that my mini fridge is hooked up, I have two bottles of water that should be nice and chilly by the time I get in.

What else?

Oh, I hit the gym yesterday, before going to pack up the last of my things. And it was a sauna! I was drinking water and guzzled so fast, it dribbled down my shirt and felt…wonderful. So I looked around, sloppily guzzled some more…ahh…coolness.

Then I had the bright idea to pour the water on the top of my head. HEAVEN. So that’s my new gym trick. Sure people were looking pretty grossed out to see me coming in a t-shirt that was practically plastered to me and soaking wet, surely they thought I sweated out all those fluids. But I was the one feeling nice and cool so there.

Later, as I was getting changed in the locker room a woman commented to me how humid it was in the gym. I thought it was just me feeling extremely hot and bothered. Too bad that pour ice cold water on top of your head trick doesn’t jibe too well @ the 9-5.

Back when I get DSL up and running…(sorry for typos/grammar, as the title sez, I’m bone tired!)

Almost Back

Welp, got my computer hooked up, @ least the bare minimum, monitor, keyboard & hard drive. No camera, video or speakers.

Plus I’m still sharing a dial up connection so till my mom leaves town, my posting will be sporadic. In any event…it’s good to be back :D

Week 28

YIKES! Can’t believe I haven’t posted in a week. I’m so very sorry, the last 7 days have been a blur. We closed on the house on the 20th, which feels like a month ago, and I’ve been packing like a madwoman. My last day here is on Tuesday and I spent all weekend boxing things up and carting them over. I’m pooped, and the real fun hasn’t even begun yet *groans*

But I’ll have a home again and my own space and room for Callie and maybe another kitty but who even knows. Callie is such a hissy little beyotch, I don’t think that’ll be a good idea.

No idea if I’ll post before Tuesday and for @ least a few weeks I’ll be on *gags* dial up, which is why I quickly posted the current video.

Let’s see…what else? Though I’ve been slow to update the site, workout wise, I’m doing good. Had a great week last week and though I had to take today off, need time to pack. I’m mindful to not let that slide too far. Okay that’s all for now. After Tuesday, my first priority is to get the computer going, oh and make sure Callie has food and litter of course, and I hope to be back online before the end of the week, though my next update her may not be till the weekend.

Till then I leave you all w/the latest video…

Week 28 Weigh In

192.8lbs down 3lbs from 3 weeks ago.

Dusting off yet another old and forgotten category. I’ll update it every 3 weeks and make not of anything significant that occured. May as well go back to FitDay which netted me all the fancy schmancy charts and graphs. Next update, August 12th.

All Done

I finished week 5 of Couch to 5k!! [small voice]so what it took me a month?[/small voice]

As grouchy as I was to workout today…as reluctant as I was to run…I just sucked it up and did it. I’m also super proud to report for the last 4 weeks I’ve been doing week 5, during the running minutes, I did not stop once. I reeeeeeally wanted to. Most times I felt like my legs wouldn’t make it, but I just summoned up the strength to go a few more seconds. I wonder if that feeling would ever pass? Today, I used music and the closed captioning on the TeeVee to get me through it all.

The month of July, will have me doing week 6, which is the final time I run in intervals, after that, it’ll be pure running *eek* so I hope I am conditioned for it. While I’m doing segments, I’ll still do 4.5mph for those runs, then the solid run will be done @ 4mph.

Sometime next week, I’ll post the workout routine I’ve been following. It’s pretty intense, each day I do something different and every 3-6 weeks I up the intensity. But it’s also consistent, in that every M, W, F, it’s the same routine.

Now that I’ve been following it religiously for the last 6 weeks, I’m going to push the stakes and add to it. Gotta do it. Summer time is the worse time for me workout wise. The heat makes me cranky and sluggish. All I want to eat is super cold sweet tea, Oreo McFlurries, Double Chocolate Chip Frappachinos or Vanilla Shakes from Crystals…so yea…in lieu of doing that, I must use sweat to cool me down sweat beads

The 20 min Run

Today was the day all my Couch to 5k preparation for the last few months came in handy. My first str8 run, 20 whole mins. I’ve been looking forward to and dreading this day all week.

Is it wrong that I said a silent prayer and made the sign of the cross before the run began?

Is it even more wrong that I just lied about praying and making the sign of the cross?

Dammit.

I’m already on the slow boat to hell for a whole host of human transgressions, I s’pose I just speeded my trip up a tad.

Anyhooozle, back to the run.

Sure I’ve waxed poetic about running before. But this was different. For one, there was absolutely no rush. The other Couch to 5k jaunts went so quick, I didn’t quite enjoy the process if building up my stamina as much as I was barreling through each week to tick it off my exercise checklist.

But first things first, before I run, I had to have my iPod filled w/enough tunes so I didn’t have to watch the clock and enough beat, to keep my hype. These are the little diddies I chose:

* Finale B – Rent Soundtrack
* Encore – Linkin Park & Jay Z
* Ceremony – New Order
* I’m Not Okay = My Chemical Romance
* Mr. Brightside – The Killers
* Under Pressure – Queen
* How to Save a Live – The Fray

I made a mental note when Under Pressure came on, I was almost done, but made the stupid mistake of looking @ the clock during I’m Not Okay…11 minutes done (6 ran) 14 mins to go.

I do think I ran in and out of conscious. It wasn’t so much hard, like my lungs and legs weren’t screaming, as it was laborious. I felt every single on of the excess lbs on my body.

The good thing about stretching out Couch to 5k, doing each week for an entire month is, I had the stamina, today it was just mental and being that I can’t run w/my eyes closed to focus on the music, I had to trust that when Under Pressure came on, I’d be almost done. I forgot I had one last song and was so pumped to hear How to Save a Life, I renamed it How to Save My Run…lol

No clapping or patting myself on the back when I was done, I was in a public gym after all, but a DRENCHED t-shirt was enough sign of a job well done. The next run, will be back down to 5 mins w/3 min walks. Then the 8 min run that almost took me out this week, will seem a tad easier then next week when I do the next 20 min run, I have the strength of completely this 20 min jaunt in one swoop, w/o stopping or walking to motivate me.

No Joke

I have high blood pressure.

A few months back, when I joined the fitness center, they did a reading and it was high/normal. Meaning the guy told me it was fine, but when I looked the number up online, it said prehypertension. I shrugged it off.

Last summer, on my way back from the gym, I got it read @ the machine in Target. It also said prehypertension. I shrugged it off thinking I just got through a strenuous work out, that musta been what caused it.

After my reading this morning, I can no longer afford to shrug it off. My pressure reading is 148/74.

The woman who did the reading kept looking @ me w/confused and concerned eyes. I think I went into a bit of denial when she gave the reading b/c I don’t even remember uttering a word, just nodding my head dumbly thinking I have to keep a brave face. Not sure why.

Then I gathered up a few pamphlets and booklets and beat a hasty retreat. After getting some work done, all the while my head is swimming w/the phrase, “I have high blood pressure” and feeling tears wanting to sting my eyes, I have to accept that I did this to me.

It’s mostly food, though in recent years I’ve gotten better at not dousing everything in salt but it’s mainly weight. Tipping the scales @ 200lbs is doing this. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I’m a bit under stress w/planning to move in the next few months and finding a place to live. This has been one of the worst weeks for me in recent months, but w/o all the fluff…it’s the weight.

While things have been hectic, I fought very hard not to let my workouts go completely kaput and have managed to workout @ least 2x a week up to 5 times a week in the last month doing anything from @ least 30 mins to 45 mins.

So it’s weight. I can’t continue to dick around w/this. What seems like forever and ever ago, my blood pressure used to be under 120. That, more than anything else, will be my new focus, to get my blood pressure in the optimal range, 120/80.

This has been my wake up call.

Not Cool

On a whim, I took one of those online test thingys for lapband surgery.

Hold onto to your drawers, I’m in NO WAY considering it. For other purposes, I got an email and wanted to check out the link. I saw where I could plug in height/weight/age and see if I “qualify”.

I did.

@ 5′ 5″, 205lbs (as of Sunday 5/20: 201 on the home scale & 203.5 on the L.A. Fitness scale) so I rounded up a bit, I got the “good news”.

According to them, my BMI is 34 and here’s the graphic kick in the teeth…

…good candidate. As if.

I know what I’m willing to do to lose weight and what I’m not. Since my recent health alert, I’ve been quiet about what I’m currently doing. Mostly b/c I’m gun-shy about the whole blogging about it only to not keep it up lather rinse repeat sorta thing.

Let me get a few more good days under my belt before I get into detail. You can always check out my training journal to see how I’m sweating and I add a few daily thoughts on the good ole pudge pic blog.

As for eats, I have been logging my food in a seperate forum, I’m just too put it in Fitday. When it’s all said and done, I’ll post it here.

One of the great things about the public blog is support when you least expect it. For the next few weeks I’m buddying up offline w/another longtime blogger buddy who is also facing blood pressure issues, to just check in and keep each other accountable.

For now, that’ll do just fine.

Sugar Shock!

For the past month or so, I’ve been keenly aware of how my body reacts when I eat lots of refined carbs vs. whole unprocessed foods. It’s like night and day. A feeling that I hadn’t noticed, or perhaps was numb to, 5 years ago. Immediately after eating fast food, I’d cough and/or feel queasy. No matter if I got the child or regular size. I felt stuffed.

When I eat unprocessed foods, even to the point where I feel I can’t take another bite (which is rarely if ever) I don’t feel that way. I feel satiated, but light. When I eat refined carbs, late at night, the next morning I wake up ravenous, like I haven’t eaten in weeks. When I end my night with a balanced meal, I feel a twinge of hunger, but I can still get my AM workout done on an empty stomach. For all the extra fat burning and all.

So I was happy to get a copy of the book Sugar Shock. Perhaps this book could tie in all the reasons my body felt out of whack. And tie in it did. The cover of the book states, “How sweets and simple carbs can derail your life – and how you can get back on track”

Who amongst us doesn’t want to get back on track?

The book is in 6 parts. Part 1 starts off with sugar addicts confessions. Part 2 gets into more details about processed carbs and explains why whole unprocessed carbs are better for us. At the end of Part 2, there is a sugar challenge: Restrict simple sugars for 3 weeks, the next day, eat some of what you were eating before you started the challenge. See how you feel.

Without officially partaking in this challenge, having done my own form of limiting refined carbs from time to time, I already know the answer to that question. You’ll feel awful.

Skipping ahead to Part 4, you’ll learn about sugar, your emotions and how you can become dependent on sweets. Another personal anecdote, I notice something about my eating habits. When I eat whole foods, I have less cravings for anything else. When I eat more refined carbs, I HAVE to end the meal with something sweet. It’s like I need something to take the edge off.

Over the weekend, coming off a tail end of lotsa refined eating, I bought some peach cobbler. On Monday, I stocked up my fridge and freezer with the foods that make me feel satiated. Three days later and the peach cobbler is STILL sitting in the fridge. I just realized I haven’t eaten it.

Towards the end of the book, you’ll learn that yes Virginia, you can have a life without sugar. Usually when you say sugar free or no sugar, people think yummy things are off limits. That’s not the case. For the record, I personally don’t think sugar to be evil. Actually, I rather have “regular” products with natural sugar vs. “sugar-free” loaded with extra fat or unpronounceable chemicals to mask the taste.

One of my favorite, albeit scary, chapters is the Top 10 Food-Lable Misconceptions About Sweetners. Let’s just say all the things we thought we knew: Honey is better, sucrose is natural, fructose comes only from fruit and that “sugar free” foods contain no sugar, we’ve been so very very wrong.

While this book is a tad more radical than I’d like to live, it’s still a good read. I believe the holistic approach is best — limit the processed refined stuff and increase the whole natural stuff — I also believe if you say no sugar, next week you’ll be found face first in the sugar jar.

When it comes to eating, if sugar addiction has been your downfall and if you are looking for a good way to get off the sugar crack pipe, check out this book. [Please don't sue me Sugar Association, I'm just being cheeky.]

Turtle

When I went out of town last week, I learned Maggie (Callies’ mother) had another batch of kittens. Six of ‘em just five weeks fresh out the oven, she stole them from where she lived and plopped them in my mom’s shed.

Over the past few days I got a chance to know them, 5 boys and 1 girl, though my lack of a biology degree initially had me thinking she had 5 girls and 1 boy. Must reread the book on the birds and the bees.

Anyhoo, of them all, this one…

Turtle

…endeared himself to me the most and I don’t even like boy cats. I called him Turtle. B/c when I’d go visit them @ the shed, he’d run underneath and stick his head out, see me, and stick it back under, then immediately stick it out again.

I think he’s the runt o’ the litter only b/c when I’d feed them, he’d rather stand in the shed and not eat…

Aloof

…he’d also fall asleep while standing up…

Dozing

…he didn’t play much w/the others. At least not when I was around. Rather, a tornado of kittens would go flying by…

Fight!

…he’d get caught in the backdraft, tussle w/them for a bit, catch me standing there and scamper off.

When we brought them all inside, @ one point having 9 cats in the house!! (Queen Maggie, her 2 cubs: my Callie and Callie’s sis Holly & the 6 kittens) he’d go around the rail, under the planter and start to meow like he was lost. I’d bring him back with the others, he’d go back around the rail and under the planter and start to meow.

In addition to Head Cat in Charge, Maggie…

Maggie

There was Mykah. RIP Mykah (he was run over by a car @ 7 months) Older bro to Callie & Holly, they were 5 weeks when he was 7 months…

Mykah

There’s Holly, littermate to my Callie…

Holly

They meet again (Callie’s laying down)…

Sisters

The Tiger Twins (One boy, one girl)…

The Tiger Twins

Black Boots Twins…

Black Boots Twins

and lastly, Callie Jr…aka CJ…

CJ

…who may or may not be blind in one eye…

CJ

Thus named CJ b/c it goes both ways for a girl or boy and of all the kitties, his fur looked the most like Callie’s when she was that small.

Baby Callie…

Baby Callie

I wished I could bring them all w/me but baby kittens are hard work. Plus Callie hated them all w/a passion. For some odd reason, they’d see her and try to nurse…lol

Two last shots…b/c it just melts my heart…

Family

…and makes me smile…

Chowing down

the backwards nursing…they are so determined…I think that’s the same anklebiter w/his legs all splayed out on the white blanket.