Sunday, March 28, 2010

Calorie counting fail. Or not?

You know how I mentioned that I'm trying to get into better shape because damn, carrying around an extra 20 is just not right. Right? In December I started going to a gym. And have gone faithfully (not counting when I got the cold from hell. I opted out while expelling that much phlegm) and feel really good. I was told that I needed to count calories too because "You just don't realize how much you're eating until you count them". I ball parked my calories in the past. Best estimate by doing that I averaged a bit under 2000 calories a day. People said, "No that can't be right or you'd be losing weight" (I'm not btw, still rock steady at 20lbs too much). Sure, ok, fine, I'll do the 'official' calorie counting. Downloaded the Lose it app. It was (is) an awesome app for such things. It told me how many calories to eat if I wanted to a)maintain my current weight or b) lose x amount of pounds in x amount of days. It has all these grocery store foods/brands preloaded into it along with many many restaurant foods. It told you how much you could eat and calculated (added more calories you could consume) depending on your exercise (also something it had pre-programmed in). It also had a place to put your weight in and you could share with your friends and keep track of each other. Nifty.

I did it for a few weeks. Had a friend who was doing it too. Turns out, yes, I was normally eating well under 2000 calories a day, just like I thought. People who can't ballpark their daily intake aren't paying attention. You don't need an app to tell you these things you just have to pay attention. People can't even pay attention when driving, I don't know why they'd pay attention with their eating habits. According to the app in order to maintain my current weight I couldn't consume more than 1800 calories a day. No problem, I don't eat more than that in a day. I'm just not that big peeps. If I ate more than that I'd explode. Or I'd be making Paula Dean meals all day every day. I grew up in So Cal, my diet just doesn't include that much pork fat, Crisco, or butter. According to the app if I wanted to lose 1 pound a week (a goal I found to be totally practical) I could only eat 1300 calories a day. OK. I figured that was challenging enough that I could use the app and count my calories. Does 1300 calories sound horrible and totally non-do-able? It's not. I found after 2 weeks that I thought entering things in the app was too tedious. I never ever went over, even on days I ate cake or a huge snack in the middle of the day. I only lasted like 2 weeks. After I got sick and was eating very little and exercising not at all I stopped bothering. If I never ever went over my allotted 1300 then why waste my time with the app?

My gym took away the scale they had there that I was using too. I believe that you should only use 1 scale to weigh yourself since they all read a bit different. Of course I don't have one at home though. So now I don't count calories and I don't weigh myself. I feel great, my body looks better, I don't fit into any of my clothes any better. By my best guess I am more tone but haven't lost any weight. Oh also, I don't really care as long as I feel good. That's the important part right? Eventually, if I keep at it, app or no app, I'll get my fat gone.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

This months sounds and the confusion that ensues....

So for the last year or so, since I've discovered I like it, the child is exposed to country music whilst riding in my Jeep. She has her favorites and is smart enough not to voice her opinion about her not so favorites. Her first was "I'm a country boy" by Alan Jackson. Then came "What was I thinkin" by Dierks Bently. Please don't ask me to explain that first name, as far as I'm concerned there is no excuse for jacked first names, it's a voluntary choice and some parents are just stupid. This last month I finally found a female country artisit that I liked and got a cd by Miranda Lambert. She's like pretty white trash and her songs are a scream.

The child has latched onto the first song on the cd, Gunpowder and Lead. Funny song, about a woman who got beat up by her significant other and is waiting for the man to get out on bail with a shotgun and a cigarette behind the front door. OK, not the usual topic of conversation for 8 year olds but it is a good segue for the less than stellar boy friends a girl can run into. She's been sheltered and has no idea what nasty relationships are like. She really had no idea that men hit women and though it was just some sort of made up story. Me being the odd parent I am I went into the rights people have and how legal (or illegal) it is to shoot someone if they are attacking you. I told her about Texas' castle law too and she thought it was the coolest. Hey, we're a gun totin' household, we practice our rights in this home. As soon as we can talk her into it she'll be at the gun range with her own pink pea shooter. Priorities, we gots 'em.

None of this was what really surprised me about her choice in songs. Well not so much surprised as entertained. We were on the way to school one morning (ya know, the 3 minute drive) and she requests her song. Then she asks why everybody in country music sings about shotguns. So I explain to her that when you live out in the country you often have to shoot wild things you don't want about like snakes and skunks and then the occasional shotgun wedding but I told her that I'd explain those later. The ride to school is too short to explain shot gun weddings when I have yet to explain sex or where exactly babies come from. We've gotten away with vague descriptions so far but we'll get to that conversation. Eventually.

Her answer to my response to why country people all own shotguns was soooo funny. She though they were country fashion accessories. Shit you not, my kid thought shot guns were fashion accessories. How cool is that? Not totally misguided mind you, I've seen some seriously beautiful shot gun stocks but damn, a fashion accessory. I think that getting her on the gun range will be simpler with this as a basis for it don't you?

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Still here, all by my lonesomes

I'm also still breathing. Kind of. Labored but still alive.
This week, in the Great State of Texas (I know, sarcasm is hard to pull off on the 'nets, it's there though), is spring break. Yes, I know, the rest of the US knows that spring break should occur during Easter week but Texas, in it's infinite wisdom, thinks it should be the second week of March. Freaking retards that they are. Some states still have snow for crying out loud. Texas? We're celebrating spring here. Now mind you, it is in the 70's but that's just luck. We have had ice still in March, just not this year.

Lucky us, the mother in law volunteered to fly the hubby and the child out to San Diego for this event. Which leaves me here to tend the whiney ass dogs. I keep telling them they should be happy that I feed them and let them out and that I don't love them. Their loving owners left them with me and they need to suck it up. They, being of indeterminate (i.e. very little) intelligence, just have yet to catch on. Dumb asses. The hubby was nice enough to leave me with his absolutely violent cold and I have yet to sustain a full day at work this week. Tomorrow I'm going to try for it. I have gone in every morning though. And by noon been on the brink of death. I try! There are things that just need to be done so I go in and do them. If I'm really lucky I've diseased a few co-workers in the process. If they are really lucky then I haven't. It's a really sucky cold, I got the shakes at one point and it freaked me out. Don't you hate that? I'd have thought it was the flu but I never got a temperature. Plus I did get all the flu shots, not that is any sort of guarantee or anything right?

So last Tuesday the hubby and kid left on a plane, both recovering from this cold that I was yet to hit the peak of. Today I got a call from the hubby that he missed me. Only took 2 days and some kinky dream he had last night. He had gone out drinking. And this is what it takes for the husband to miss the wife...at least the dream was about me right? In the mean time I am bored senseless at home. Bored enough to actually turn on the desktop and catch up on other blogs. I think the last time I was on was 2 weeks ago. Maybe three. When was that last blog post of mine? 2009?

For the sake of being honest, I'm still going to the gym except for this week. Because ya know, when you can't breathe and you've got muscle tremors getting on a machine at the gym is just not a wise decision. I may not even be breathing well enough until next week. Gawd I hate being sick, good thing the family is gone because I am super bitchy when sick. Just ask the dogs....

Monday, March 1, 2010

The reality of getting old

Yes, yes, I know, it happens to everyone. It's just that I wasn't really paying attention. There's a first time for everything right? What, you say I consistently don't pay attention? Isn't that the reason why I ended up with a kid? Sure yeah but this is different. OK well meybe nosomush huh?

A few months ago I realized that not only was I feeling creaky, slothful, and a wee bit less flexible (that last one really shouldn't count, I've never been flexible and at best can only sit cross legged for a minute) but I was getting a little plump around the edges. After the brain explosion fiasco of 07 I was down to a whopping 120lbs. Which put me at slim in pictures size, i.e. stupid skinny. Mind you, I've been skinnier (haven't we all?) like as in 104 lbs at my towering 5'1". 104 was post high school and lets face it, no one gets back down to that size. That's like pre-depression of adulthood and child birth. Not gonna happen, never ever again. Which is fine, at that point my head looked too big on my body. But I popped on the scale one day in, oh, December? And I was fast approaching 150. Like at break neck speed. WTF?

That was like 25 lbs in one year. Time to bring that train to a screeching halt, no? First came the evaluations. I couldn't fit into any of my clothes. Good thing I wore scrubs to work every single day. Wait, no that was probably a bad thing. It made me notice the belly roll much later than I should have. MUCH later. So I took a look at my exercise. 1.5-3 miles a day of walking the dog. Should have helped. Nope. Eating? Hasn't changed in years, I've never been a big eater. Growing up in So Cal does that to a girl. Anorexia is our friend when in a bathing suit. Went to the doctor, told her about the fast weight gain. She didn't find much problem with the weight I was at (good thing I do though) but was alarmed at the rate and the lack of any lifestyle change. We did thyroid and lipid testing. All great. Still fat. Not happy.

So I sucked it up and joined a gym. I used to be a member of a gym. I hate exercise but when I did belong I kicked ass. Went in every single day. Back when I was young and durable. I was also working at that particular gym (biding time after college graduation, prior to moving back to San Diego) and had just broken up with my last boyfriend in Maryland. While we were still living together(awkward much?). I didn't want to be around him so I was either working or working out. It was the best shape I had ever been in as an adult. Too bad I dropped the habit once I left the state. I am not against gyms at all but I hate paying money every month to go to them. Some are sooo expensive! I've found some super cheap ones but, ew. Mine is middle of the road but I figure if I go 5-6 times a week it'll be worth it.

The end result I had is probably not a gym I would have gone to in my younger years. It's small, clean, very new, and only staffed like 4 hours a day. There's no pool (I wouldn't use it anyway) and they only just rented space next door to think about having classes. They have 3 Treadmills, 1 Tread Climber, 4 Elipticals and 2 recumbent bikes. There's a weight area and a boat load of Nautilus machines. At any given point in time there are maybe 4 people in the gym. Many times I've gone and been the only person there for all 2 hours of my work out. Not something you're going to see at most Gold's or Bally gyms. I've found that I prefer to be left in peace when I work out. I know lots of gyms have a 'womens' area where it is small and secluded. My gym is like that in it's entirety, I LOVE it. That's saying something mind you, I hate exercise.

So here's what I've been doing while I haven't been on the net, exercising. Seriously folks, to get a good workout in and have time to spent a wee bit of time with the family is almost a joke. There isn't enough time in the day. I've been doing the gym thing 5-6 times a week for 3 months now. 45-60 minutes of cardio and 25 minutes of weights each time. The results? I feel a lot better. When I'm not in pain. Weight loss? NONE. I'm sure I've lost fat and gained more muscle because I've lost an inch off the belly roll. Now if I was just looking at numbers though I'd be depressed. I've concluded that my body just likes to bulk up muscle and coddle the fat. It took at least a year to put on, figure it'll take at least a year to get off. It's ok, I'm still going to work out regardless. Hence the lack of blog postings. Sorry, once the days get more than 24 hours in them I might be able to pop on more. In the meantime, priorities ya know?

And for those of you that think I'm obviously eating too much (I can't tell you how many people go on an on about this no matter what I tell them I eat) I downloaded an iPhone app called Lose It. You tell it how much you want to lose (or maintain if you want) and it gives you a certain amount of calories you can eat per day based on your age, height, and weight. I log in all of the food I eat and all the exercise too. My calorie allotment, if I want to lose a pound a week, is 1367. Yes, that's right, I get a whole 1367 calories to consume per day. If I exercise that allotment goes up accordingly. You know what I figured out? I ate about that much even without recording it. On a really super splurge day I'd maybe go up to 1500 or 1600 but never 2000. So you know what? I still don't know why in the world I gained 25 pounds in about 1 year. Age? Who knows, my doctor doesn't think so. All I know is that I am never going to get this close to 150 again. It may take me a year but this spare tire is on it's way out.

See ya on the flip side of 150!