Run Down

So I've been walking like crazy this week. I walked 5 miles yesterday. I just kept going. And every so often I felt like running. So I'd just start running until I stopped. Then I hack up a lung because it was like 30 degrees and windy and made it hard to breathe. Then I'd walk my little heart out some more. Then went back out last night for a half hour walk.

The night before I walked out the door and was hit by such a blast of cold air that I just started running and before I knew it I was half way down the street. Then I walked more. Then ran, then walked.

Today, my quads hurt. Like worse than mountain climbing. And my knees are wondering what I did. And my shins think something might be up. I'm trying not to blame it on age. But I'm thinking we'll take it easy on the running for now. Walking is just fine and I can get the bike out if I need speed.

But I walked 40 minutes tonight. It was so pretty and just the right temperature.

According to my little tracking system I have walked 535 minutes so far this week, and burned 4057 calories. Sweet. Let's see if we can get it up to 600 by tomorrow.

Thank heavens for my jacuzzi tub.

A Little Habit

I seem to have developed a little habit. I don't want to jinx it but it appears that I go for a morning walk every morning at 7 (2 miles, 30 minutes) and then when 7 at night rolls around I'm back out for an evening walk (2 miles, 30 minutes, 1 flash light, 1 reflective vest). I have a few routes and they are all exactly the same length and take exactly 30 minutes no matter how slow or fast I think I'm walking.

It's nice. The air is nice now and I like walking in the dark at night. I like seeing the other people out. Soon I'll be able to start seeing people's Christmas lights. And walk when it's snowing which is so beautiful and peaceful.

On the morning walks I tend to plan my day and have epiphanies about work and look at the ocean. In the evening I look at the sky and make up pretend stories about my life and talk to myself.

I highly recommend it. All of it.

Moving In

It's beginning to look at lot like a home!

Movers came on Tuesday and moved me into my new home. Helper Mouse came and helped me unpack. Washer and dryer were delivered today (my first appliances!) and the Verizon guy is getting me set up with internet (borrowing the neighbor's until then. Thanks, neighbor!)

There are still boxes every where.

Here's what it looked like before:

Here's a slight after, at least enough to make it look habitable:

It's not nearly done, and there are a ton of empty boxes and paper to go to the dump (tomorrow!) and I have to buy a broom and dustpan and figure out where the pots and pans get hung and where to put a bunch of furniture and what the flow of the rooms is, and figure out where the art and lamps actually go, but it's getting there. And I'm waiting for it to stop smelling like someone else and start not smelling at all because it smells like me.

I've been pretty good in terms of keeping my head on and only once had a slight bit of embarrassment when an o.b. tampon fell out of some drawer the guys were moving and I had to surreptitiously pick it up off the ground. Smooth. I'm sure they didn't notice.

I love my kitchen, I love the breezes, I love the faint noises of the happy cooing baby and his parents that I heard early this morning, I love the birds in the tree and the crickets, I love my washer and dryer, and my stove and the tall ceilings and the space.

Urban Hiking

I found myself in Cambridge yesterday afternoon after lunch with a couple of hour to kill so I decided to walk around for a while. I had on my Keen walking shoes with Superfeet in them so I knew my feet would be happy. And the humidity had gone away, so I knew the rest of me would be happy. I walked around for an hour or so, but when I got to Harvard Square all of the weird people were out - the ones who want to hand you a grungy piece of paper, the ones who want to talk to you, the ones who want to sell you something, and all the ones who smell like different things.

I found myself rather overwhelmed by the humanity and had to escape. Thankfully I came across this gorgeous, gated, brick-walled garden at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, so I ducked in. There were a few other people lying in the sun or sitting on a bench, so I found a bench in the shade and lay down, watching the trees and the sky and the people. Wondering what things the people study there. Thinking about my mom when she was in college (she was a Cliffie, 'cliffe? However you write it. She went to Radcliffe. Back when the boys when to Harvard and the girls went to Radcliffe.) It was very quiet and dignified and relaxing there. So different from the scene a few hundred yards away.

That's all the hiking I'll get in this weekend, although a mountain bike trip is planned for this morning. The move preparations continue. The boxes are closing in on me and I scoot around my house like a hoarder must, turning this way and that to fit in between the boxes.

Coffee finished. Breakfast finished. Off to find biking implements before resuming the wrapping and boxing of things.

I Lied

I lied. I am going to tell you what I ate today. Because when you are keeping track of your food you want company during such a boring chore.

Pre-ride breakfast: english muffin with almond butter.

Post ride: small bowl of grape nuts.

Snack: Chobani pineapple.

Lunch: cheese ravioli & pesto (from farmer's market) with asparagus and cauliflower.

Dinner: bread & cheese upon arrival home (famished) then kale, leek and mushroom frittata, Harpoon Summer Beer.

The key to today was being mindful. Paying attention (via tracking) to what I was eating, noticing what the computer thought I should eat v. what I knew I should eat due to the bike ride (a couple hundred extra cals), making sure I used veggies as the base of my meals and remembering that more protein at lunch makes me happier.

I boiled one of the two dozen eggs I picked up at the farm down the street. Those will be a good addition to my days.

I was awake at 4am this morning (birds, not insomnia) so I'm foreseeing an early bedtime, another early morning and a bike ride with my new sunglasses.

Wring It Out

Today's class was all Parivrttas, revolved poses. Basically you take poses that are already challenging - trikonasana (triangle), ardha chandrasana (half moon) and you revolve them so that your torso is twisted the opposite way it normally is. Yes, it's about what it sounds like. Awkward and even more challenging.

Then Stacey and I had a the bright idea to take a two hour walk on the beach, and were both hobbling by the end and in desperate need of some stretching. Walking on sand works so many more muscles than walking on cement and our poor hips and legs were not happy. Thankfully our planned hike had already been moved to next week! I came home and read with my legs up the wall for a while, and tried to stretch out some more.

Now I shall list the parts of my body that hurt: the second toenail of my left foot which apparently does not like my sneakers and is threatening to turn purple, my ankles, my hips, my hip flexors, my glutes, my trapezius, 11 other muscles whose names I don't know. Thankfully my level 2/3 yoga class is not for another 14 hours so I should be fully recovered by then. Right?

My plan to steam and eat some cauliflower was thwarted by the drunk person who drove into a telephone pole near my house and made the electricity go out for an hour and a half. Now I'm too tired to cook and shall just finish the laundry, lay out my clothes for tomorrow and head to bed.

This is the glamorous life of someone who decided at age 37 to find out what her body was capable of and wring the life out of it (or, rather, back into it.)

And the slug scurries back out of the rain

The rain has returned. And I carried my gym clothes back and forth to work today, never setting foot in the gym.

But, I tracked my food today and have already planned all my meals for tomorrow. So, that's a good thing. And not eating too much at dinner means I should be in good shape for some yoga tonight.

What else? I learned all about raw milk and cheese making at a local eaters event last night. I've found local grass fed milk, and may take a trek to find the raw milk.

So, I just watched the Biggest Loser which made me cry, again, but now my dinner is digested so I'm going to do some yoga.

And I should probably stop referring to myself as a slug.

The Slug Peers Out Into The Bright Sunlight

Spring is here! It always returns.

I went for my second bike ride of the season today. I went on Wed. on the mountain bike which is heavy and sluggish (a bit like me). But a half hour later my lungs and legs were feeling primed for a spring and summer of flying down the road ways.

Today's ride was on my 10-speed, which is almost 20 years old. I bought it in high school and in the intervenening years I have replaced the seat (post broke going over a pot hole in California), the wheels (stolen when I lived in a sketchy apartment building in CA), the sprockets and brakes and cables and chain (sort of necessary after 20 years). It rides like a dream now and brings me much joy.

Yesterday was more sun and walking 6 miles around Boston. My poor feet have blisters on the bottom despite my good choice of footwear. I want to go to YogaDance tonight and am hoping that I can dance ok despite my injuries.

I have a brisket to cook and want to make this lentil and eggplant dish and hang all the bed clothes out on the line to freshen up in the sun.

Happy Spring!

Check Check Check!

Gym?: check! 42 minutes on the treadmill at 3.5-3.9 speed, elevation between 4 and 7 (if it had gone much higher I think I might have hit my head. I was under a low beam.) And I joined so now I have to go.

Calories within range?: check! So 2 days ago I was famished. Today, I'm totally full and have eaten 800 calories less than I did the day I was famished and couldn't stop eating. I guess my body is doing its own calorie cycling, and the week will average out to normal. I had kashi & milk for B. My homemade chile with a last bit of pulled pork and cantaloupe for lunch. Then dinner was: 2 hot dogs, 1 in a bun, hummus and pita and a pickle.

Freakish gained pound gone?: check! Actually 2 pounds are gone for a net loss of one. It's not so much the 1 pound, it's more that I want things to generally move in a downward direction.

Now I'm sleepy and want to lie on the couch and watch 90210 and maybe lift some weights. But there are evening chores to be done. Hopefully by 8 I'll be back on the couch, or on the floor lifting heavy things over my head.

I Went To the Gym And It Did Not Suck

I decided to experiment with indoor exercise today at the local "fitness room." It can't really be called a gym since it's just a small room in a basement with weight machines, treadmills, and some horrible elliptical thing (which I barely lasted 7 minutes on). I did not fancy spending time getting all dressed in a million layers to brave the 23 degree weather and then getting boiling hot 10 minutes into the walk and spending the next half hour alternately putting on and taking off clothes so I figured I'd see what working out indoors was like.

I asked if I could buy a day-pass, but they don't have those so they let me use it for free to try it out. The treadmills were full so I tried the elliptical. First I think I was going backwards which confused me and felt weird. Then we I went forward I didn't like the motion or the weird way my feet felt on the pads so I was thankful when a treadmill opened up. The treadmill was as it should be, 4 miles an hour with varying inclines. 30 minutes later I was sufficiently sweaty and my lungs knew something had gone on.

For some reason the last couple of days found me consuming sugar in vast quantities. Like a heroin addict going through withdrawal. It seems to have worked itself out and I'm back to the old favorites of squash, kale and lentils. But it's also important to support your local cupcake store.

Breakfast was eggs on toast and coffee.

Lunch is pulled pork (I made it again and added honey to the final sauce. And instead of just plain water I used water, white wine and apple cider vinegar. Yum.), roasted butternut squash and baby lentils.

I have a bunch of kale and collards to wash and prep, 2 grapefruit to chop and some baby bok choy to make into something. And one last cupcake to eat to get it out of the house....

Mid-Week BBQ

Tonight's dinner: pulled pork that I made over the weekend (200 cal for 3 oz.), on a Vermont Bread Potato Roll (180) with some coleslaw from Veganomicon (cabbage, carrots, pickled jalepeno, a little apple cidar vinegar and salt and pepper) (20 calories?) and some wine. I put the roll in the pan with the pork while it slowly heated and it was quite lovely.

It's a mid week BBQ. And fast. And healthy. It seems like if I had some baked beans that would go really well. I thought that once upon a time I owned a bean pot, but I think on one of my decluttering sprees I got rid of it, sure I would never make baked beans. Hrmph.

I got fitted for and bought 3 amazing new bras today. Yes, amazing, life changing bras. At Bloom, for my local peeps who want to know where to go.

I plan a walk tonight. Even though it is already 7pm. And 23 degrees. Or maybe not after seeing that temp... I commit to washing all the dinner dishes, prepping my lunch and coffee, and doing 30 minutes of yoga before bed. But first I'm going to watch House.

Belly Aching

I don't know what it wrong with my stomach. Ever since Friday it has felt weird. At the top part of my stomach like heartburn or a hangover, but it's not either of those things. Eating doesn't help. Not eating doesn't help. An hour long walk in the woods didn't help. I may go out in search of Tums or something after a shower.

I'm trying to figure out what to make with eggplant. I love to buy them, and they have such pretty varieties at the farm stand. Maybe a small batch of eggplant parm. The recipe from Laurel's Kitchen is good - no frying needed so it goes together quickly.

I'm having some fresh corn ravioli for lunch with some cold salmon from last night's dinner. The temptation when I feel like this is to keep eating, hoping that it will help. But since I know it won't, I'm going to track my calories and stay within my goal. And hope that tomorrow brings wellness.

Bike Swim Bike

My own mini biathlon today. After hitting the farmer's market for blueberries, eggs and coffee I realized that the best way to beat the steamy heat was with water - sea water! So I biked to the beach (about 10 minutes) slowly made my way into the water (about 5 minutes, it was a bit brisk at first) and then swam and floated and swam for about 40 minutes before I could feel that I had cooled down to the core.

A quick dry and a nice ride home and I'm feeling so much better.

Lunch was egg salad with chopped jalapenos and a little of the burdock root that I got the other day, some cherries on the side and milk.

Hiking tomorrow, and later today I'm going to check out some small day/hydration packs at REI that will hopefully be less sweaty on my back than my pack I use now.

No Way I Can't Do This

Down another .2 this morning from Friday. I think the hour of yoga on Sunday morning helped, the Solar Practice from Yoga Sanctuary. For some reason when I do that practice I just keep going. Maybe because most of it is done on the floor... but it is such a nice workout and I can feel my legs getting stronger and my muscles getting more flexible. I also took a few walks with the dog, and lifted my hand weights and did my sit ups.

There was a little party on Sunday and I brought the veggie tart with bacon which disappeared in a flash, and there was corn and some chicken wings and rose' so I think my calories were all where they were supposed to be.

This morning I just did the weights and sit ups and will talk the dog on a walk when I get home.

I have a client meeting at 6:30 which means I had to plan more snacks for work so I'm not ravenous when I get home (or while I'm meeting with my clients.)

Here's what I brought (breakfast was english muffin with almond butter):

Veggie tart slice (sadly, no bacon in this one)

Carrot sticks

Almond butter & jam on english muffin

Some crunchy cereal

All of that plus breakfast puts me at about 1000 calories, so I should be fine until I get home and have something for dinner. I also have some dried bing cherries.

I know I can do this, and I make sure I can do this by planning and doing.

What to do with a grey Sunday morning.

Hike, of course. No need for suncreen, and the trails are much quieter. Somehow even though it's only 60 degrees and there was a light mist, I still managed to sweat my tail off. That is why I do not like summer. I think my internal thermostat is set higher than most people's. Which sadly doesn't translate into higher metabolism, just a bright red face and more sweat. But there were some lovely cool breezes. And there were no bugs, thank heaven.

Anyway, you can see the trail map here. If you see where Exit 2 is off the highway, I took the red trail to the observation tower, then the upper blue line trail to the big star (State Police & reservation HQ) then the lower blue trail back, and the red trail back to my car. It took 2:45, and as you can see from the elevation lines it involved lots of up and down. I had my hiking poles with me this time and was so thankful for them. Hiking as a 4 legged creature instead of 2 legged one makes my knees very happy, and gives a good arm workout, too.

Since I hike alone, I often just have random thoughts running through my head, and for part of this hike I imagined that I owned a little cabin up in the White Mountains and I imagined how I would decorate it. It would have been (or will be, you never know) really cute.

I had cereal before I left, a little of the veggie pie on the hike and some blueberries and strawberries (including some little blueberries that I picked!), and then had an english muffin with avocado on it when I got home.

Dinner might be shrimp, tagliatelle and leeks with roasted broccoli on the side.

One Foot In Front of the Other

This is how I will get where I want to be. It would have been easy to say "oh, I burned all the calories I need to for the week on Sunday so I can cut back on my exercise," but that wouldn't have propelled me any further down this path.  So, yesterday morning I did some gentle hatha yoga (then lay in bed and watched movies in the afternoon because my knees and feet were killing me so I just envisioned all my cells repairing and restoring themselves) then this morning I got up and back into my routine of a morning walk with the dog.  

I was very glad to find that my cells had indeed restored themselves and I am not achy at all any more.  

Breakfast: eggs on toast. 

Lunch: carrots, ham & cheese on an english muffin with avocado. 

Dinner: ? Fajitas maybe? Lentil something or other? 

The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow

I sometimes have to force myself to not go to bed before 9 since I will usually then wake up around 3am which isn't fun. But yesterday I did my YogaDownload Lunar Flow which was so relaxing I was in bed at 8:45 and asleep by 9:30. And I slept like a rock the entire night, until 5:30 when I woke up to listen to the birds for a while, then got up and walked the dog. 

Dinner last night - I wasn't overly hungry when I got home so I started with a  Sam Adams Blackberry Wittbier (Wheatbeer) which was yummy and not too sweet. Then I had an open faced tuna sandwich on my whole wheat no-knead bread with some chopped up pickled jalapenos in it. Yum! 

I need to find some more veggies, and get some more fruit because at the end of the day Sparkpeople is telling me that I have not had enough carbs and some days I've not had enough fiber. And then I don't get all green check marks, and I am motivated by green check marks. 

Today's plan:

Breakfast - I think eggs and mushrooms, maybe in a whole wheat tortilla. 

Lunch: PB&J. Carrot sticks. 

Dinner: Couscous, asparagus and turbot from Trader Joes. 

See, only 3 servings of veggies there. Maybe I'll make some slaw out of the cabbage at dinner. And have some dried cherries as a snack. We'll see what Sparkpeople thinks of this plan, and make adjustments as necessary.  

Have a great day! 

Bridge to Somewhere

 I started doing the free 25 minute sessions from YogaDownload. The instructor talks kind of fast but they are a good workout.  I did a gentle yoga session last night and slept like a rock afterwards. This morning I did the Morning Flow yoga which was full of back-bends like Bridge, Locust, Wheel (which I can't do yet), some Warrior poses then Plow & Shoulder stand to end. It was nice and energizing and a great way to start the day. 

And I just realized that I have a YinYoga DVD from netflix that I can do tonight.  

Breakfast was 1/2 a piece of wheat bread before yoga, then the rest of the kale/cabbage frittata chopped up. It was about 2 eggs worth.  Lunch is a room temp. salad of whole wheat cous cous, asparagus, chickpeas & 1/2 a small avocado.  I had not prepared it last night, so it was pretty much created out of things that could be cooked in 5 minutes or less. 

Now time to start the work day. I wonder if the rain will stay away to allow for a little after work bike ride. 

Just like a triathlon!

Sort of. 

I walked this morning with the dog and my coffee.  Well, first I rolled out of bed and onto the floor and did my sit-ups and some lifting of my 10 pound weights. It helps me wake up, and makes me think I'm still sleeping since I'm lying down.  

Then I make the coffee and put it in a travel mug and go out to walk with the dog. Sometimes I see my neighbor with his coffee and we do the coffee wave to each other. 

After work I had an errand to run, and I decided to take my bike. And wear my bathing suit under my clothes just in case the water was warm enough for a swim. And it was. It was refreshing and breath-taking and I can't wait for my after work swims. (Note to self: do not wear grey t-shirts to swim or you will look like a lactating mother on the bike ride home.) 

So, I walked and biked and swam today and it feels great! 

Well, Hello There

I tried to make a smoothie this morning out of greek yogurt and frozen blueberries and raspberries. It needs work. I think greek yogurt is too thick for smoothies and I had no orange juice to thin it out, so I added a little water. It's rather tart. But it's full of antioxidents and fiber, so I guess it will do. 

I've taken to rolling out of bed and onto the floor to do my sit-ups in the morning. That way I'm sure to get them done.  Then the dog and I go for a walk, (I bring my coffee in a travel mug) and we both have a nice start to the day. 

Things I'm learning: 

1. Avocados are delicious, and have fiber in them. 

2. Sparkpeople has a free iPhone app! 

3. A 20 minute walk in the a.m. +  a 20 minute walk in the evening + 25 minutes of yoga before bed = over an hour of exercise effortlessly integrated into the day! 

4. If I don't have about 900 calories between breakfast, lunch and a snack I come home from work famished and cranky.  Knowing this, I can make sure to plan so that I have enough calories throughout the day, and can prepare dinner at a normal pace.