Becoming an addict

Today was my down day from exercising, but since my internal clock has been reset to early morning workouts, I was up at 6 anyway, and that was sleeping in! The interesting thing is that mentally, I kind of wanted to go to the gym. My brain kind of thought "Hey, you could work out 6 mornings this week instead of 5 - imagine how that would help your weight loss! And you know you feel good when you are all done working out. Even if you accomplish nothing else all day long, you have done that. You're up anyway. There isn't anything here at home that you need to do this early." As you can tell, my brain likes to convince me to do things - hence the reason it can be so hard to avoid eating those baked goodies I love so much - my brain makes such compelling arguments! But my body was telling me a different story, one about achey-burningness in my shoulders and lower back, and stiff legs that were threatening to not even carry me down the hallway, let alone to the gym. I think that right now, with as hard as I am working out, it is important for me to take two days off a week. But I am beginning to see what people say about working out being addictive.

Onto my fourth day of gratefulness - today I was driving Hubby's truck when it ran out of gas on the freeway. No, that isn't what I am grateful for. But I am grateful for my sister-in-law who came to save me from being picked up by a random trucker. She brought gas for my car, and then followed me to the gas station and put in a few more gallons so I could make it home (payday isn't until Saturday - which is why I hadn't filled the tank already to avoid this predicament!) So for all that I sometimes wish for some distance from my in-laws, I am eternally grateful for Jamie's love and assistance.

Weigh-in and a cutie

I cannot wait for the time change on Sunday - dragging myself out of bed at o-dark-thirty is rough. It doesn't help that the house is cold then either. This morning I woke up at 4:30 - the alarm was set for 5, but I always start waking up before them for fear that the alarm will go off and wake up Hubby. For some reason, it has become impossible to set the volume at which the alarm goes off, and it is set at a jump-out-of-bed-you-are-being-robbed-and-murdered volume. Not good. So I was out of bed at 4:50, and at the gym at 5:35.

Since I completed the C25K plan last week, but am still under 3.2 miles, I have extended my running time this week to 32-33 minutes, and am up to somewhere between 2.6 and 2.7 miles. I've got three weeks, and I am slooowly working my way up there.

Weigh-in for my family challenge was today, and I was down another 2.6 pounds, for a grand total of 11.4 pound in the last 6 weeks. Given that I am also adding muscle, I am THRILLED with this. And I am still winning percentage-wise. Which is great - Mama needs a new pair of boots! But I haven't won it yet - my step-mom is making a comeback with her weight loss, and given that she is 30 pounds smaller than me, she doesn't have to take off as much to have a higher percentage. She currently stands at 5.6%, while I am at 6.2% - that is not a big gap. I hadn't perceived her as so much of a threat before, but she is on my heels. Its always the quiet ones! I will tell you, it was much easier to want to take my brother-in-law down, though - I have a bit harder of a time talking smack about my step-mom. I won't let that stop me, though ;) I am going to take her out!

So only good things for this blog post - that is nice. It is bright and sunny here in Northern California, and slated to be unseasonably warm. And here is day #3 of being thankful:

On day #3, I am thankful for my youngest, 3 1/2 year old Jonathan Neil Joyner. With the other three in school all day, he and I get to spend a lot of time together. He is extremely cute, just ask any of the women who he charms each week at church. He flirts with women shamelessly, at the store, the library, the school - any age, any shape and size - he is equal opportunity! Jonathan constantly tries to talk his way into/out of things, starting sentences with "How about" or "I know!" and raising his eyebrows repeatedly at you to try to get you to do what he wants. I am completely immune, unfortunately for him. Since being potty trained earlier this year, he is determined to mark his territory, asking me at every place we go "Do they have a bathroom here?" I have started telling him no, just because I can't take going into one more bathroom when I know he is forcing himself to go (he also has amazing control over that!) He can be cute and cuddly or independent and willful, and I love watching him figure things out each day. One of my favorite things is the fact that he can pick up almost entire songs the first time or two he hears them, and I will catch him singing parts of them while I am driving or while he is playing (makes you pay attention to what he hears - he was singing "Highway to Hell" from the backseat a while back.) I am thankful for all that he adds to my life and our family.

A Serious Topic

Today I have a very serious issue to talk about. Something that has been plaguing me in the last few weeks as I spend my time in the gym. An issue that I suspect I am not the only one familiar with. This issue, dear readers, is butt sweat. (Should I have put a warning at the top that this may be a TMI post???)

When I work out hard, which I have been over the last couple of months, I sweat. I don't get dewy, I don't glisten, I don't glow. I sweat. Sometimes profusely. From my face, from my neck, in my cleavage, and sometimes my arms and torso. All of which I am ok with. It means I am working my body hard, and I am burning calories, and those are the reasons I go to the gym. And I always wipe down the machines after I use them, with a paper towel and anti-bacterial spray. But when I get up from a weight machine where I have been sitting, and there is a strip of sweat on the seat from my derrière, well that is kind of gross and offsetting. Now, when I work out, I wear plain old cotton undies, and usually a pad *just in case*, so shouldn't that block some of that sweat? Maybe it isn't butt sweat, but rather thigh sweat. Still not my favorite. 

So do any of you have this problem. Or are you now sitting at your computers, cringing and thanking the heavens that you don't work out where I work out??? Any input or advice? Or butt sweat stories you'd like to share???

Also, it is Day 2 of Counting My Blessings , and while perhaps I need to work up a thankfulness for my sweating, it isn't what I am grateful for today.

Today as I sit at my desk, making phone calls for dental appointments, calling for support for our upcoming hospital stay, and checking in with family and friends, I am thankful for Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. I know that there are days when I wish that the telephone wouldn't ring anymore (last night, when all the politicians kept "calling" me to secure my vote is a good example) and I long for a trip to a desert island where no one could find me, but this morning I find the telephone to be an invaluable invention.

What are you thankful for today?  

Counting My Blessings

Somehow it is already November. I have no idea where it came from, or where the year has gone, but there it was this morning, waiting for me when my alarm went off. As we all know, the big deal this month is Turkey Day. Also known as The Day We All Eat Too Much. Or The Day Before Black Friday. Or, for some of us, The Day We All Get Dressed Up To Go and Fight With Our Families (I haven't experienced that one, but have heard stories.) But, officially, it is known as Thanksgiving.

This month, in order to keep  my blessings at the forefront of my mind as our family is going through some hard things, and in order to truly remember to give thanks for those blessings, I am instituting the 25 Days of Thanksgiving. Every day I will post something that I am thankful for. I encourage you all to do the same, whether you post it or not, just take some time every day through Thanksgiving to write down one thing that you are thankful for. Keep the list to look at when times are darker. Or if your times are dark now, use that time every day to find a shaft of light to follow. Surely in this world, where we are all alive and surviving, where we have food and clothes and roofs over our heads, we can find just 25 things to be thankful for.

So today, on the 1st of November, I am thankful for a body that is able to run (even if it doesn't like it) and then go and take a workout class without passing out or throwing up. What are you thankful for?   

Rough road and curves ahead

Life is funny in the way it throws big things at you when you aren't looking for them. My 11 year old daughter has scoliosis. She was diagnosed a couple of years ago, and has been wearing a brace 23 hours a day ever since in an attempt to delay the inevitable surgery to correct the three curves in her spine. She has been seeing her spinal surgeon every three months, with xrays every six. Our appointments always go quickly, with the doctor looking at her spine and checking the curves and declaring that not much has changed, which is a good thing. Until today. And I knew the moment that he paused for more than two seconds in looking at her latest xray that something was different.

He was quiet as he ran the level over her spine and looked at the numbers, then turned again to look at the xray. I knew. And Hubby knew. Something was different. One of the curves has reached the point where surgery can't wait any longer without risk of being unable to fix it. What we didn't know was how long we had before the surgery would actually occur. Turns out it is weeks. Within 10 minutes we had a date scheduled - December 3. 5 weeks from now. 4 to 5 hours of surgery, followed by 3-4 days in the hospital, followed by 6-8 weeks of recovery at home.

So now we are in that in-between place. The "hurry up and wait" zone. Where I want to be in planning mode, but there isn't much to plan for. Just time to think. About the best way to soothe her fears. About waiting in the hospital. About the long incision down her back. About managing her pain once she gets home. The good things as she sees them? She no longer has to wear her "shell" as we call it. Ever again. And after surgery she will have gained a few inches from the straightening of her spine (she may even be eye to eye with me - that is thrilling to her.) The hospital itself is not a scary proposition - we were on the same floor a little over a year ago when she was diagnosed with diabetes. But the rest is a big unknown. And it wigs me out a little. So here we go - 31 days and counting down.

Weigh-in and some NSV love

Weigh-in day. Up 2 pounds. 177.4. Frustrated? Yes. With the scale? With the world? With everything conspiring against me? No. Because I am owning it. I knew that this week I didn't have enough veggies, or hardly any fruit. And while I didn't make necessarily bad choices in what I did eat, I also didn't go overboard making great ones. So it is one week out of a total of 9 for this competition, during which I have been steadily losing. And I saw lower numbers during this last week, so it could be that today is just a result of yesterday. I am still in it, and I will just be watching what I eat (or am not eating) a little closer this week. I am not letting that number psych me out.

On a better note, I have had a couple of NSVs in the past couple of weeks which I thought I would share:

1) I bought a pair of Lucky Brand jeans for $40 a couple of months ago (I know, amazing price right? But that is not the cool thing about it.) I bought them in a size 12, and at the time I could button them, but they were obviously too tight. I bought them with the intention of getting to where I would fit in them. And guess what? As of last Thursday, I officially do! And they look fantastic! Although they are Lucky Brand, so of course they would look good on anyone. They are officially my best pair of jeans, the only ones that make me feel really good, and I am trying to get together enough money to go and get another pair. I should have taken a picture in them - I will have to do that and post it later.

2) When Hubby and I took the kids to Fort Bragg a couple of weeks ago, we of course took many pictures. Hubby likes to take a lot of natural pictures, which usually means I am not looking or I am talking or they are from behind (and who likes that, really?) This time was no different. There were a bunch of different pictures incorporating my backside. But you know what? I wasn't horrified. I can really tell a difference in the size and shape of my butt. And that was nice. I will put a picture in that my eldest daughter took of Hubby and I down by the water.

Ok, I am off to the gym to get my run and my class in. Hope everyone has a great day!

* One last thought that I am going to edit into this post after having come back from my workout class: we will call this NSV 2 1/2 - You know how when you start to lose weight, your brests are the first thing to shrink? And not many of us really want that to happen. Well, lately I have noticed that the girls actually seem a little bigger...after a period of shrinking I was pondering how this came to be...and I realized from looking at all those stinking gym mirrors that they aren't getting bigger, they just look bigger because my torso is trimming down so much. Score!

How About Some Information Please?

For the past 8 weeks, I have been working the program. The Couch to 5K program, that is. I have sweated my way through runs from 90 seconds to 28 minutes. Now, as I face my final week, wherein I will run 30 minutes without stopping, I have a question that I am hoping one of you out there can answer for me. What happens when you reach the end of the program, which you have been running according to the times and not the distances (since you are given the option) and you are not running a 5k??? 

My last run, which was 28 minutes, only ended up being a distance of 2.2 miles. According to the program, the appropriate distance would have been 2.75 miles. And by this week, I should be doing 3 miles. Now, a 5k is actually 3.2. I am a whole mile short, and I am fairly certain that an extra two minutes of running this week are not going to equal another mile. So what am I supposed to do? I realize that the logical answer would be to run faster, but I feel lucky every time I make it through my whole run as it is.

So I am putting it out there for those of you who have followed this crazy program - were you successful? At the end, were you running as far as it said you were supposed to? If not, what did you do? I still have about 4 1/2 weeks until my 5k, during which I will just keep running and trying to get my distance up, but does anyone have any good advice?