beating the storm and the humidity

Today I walked early. Bonnie is still sick and I wanted to get out before the violent thunderstorms and humidity. Neither materialized.

I decided to do the south Bethlehem Volkssport walk. I'm kind-of itching to get my books full and get new ones. I have two more in the distance book. Three in the total fifty walk book (I think it changes color next time!) and four in the Pennsylvania walk book. All of these will be done by the end of the month. I'll do three walks just collecting paperwork at the end of month!

Things have changed a bit on the Greenway. In the area of the meadow and the Asia gazebo they have built vegetable gardens. With no fence. Clearly this is a pick-your own adventure? The cabbages were huge.

Further down, by the townhouses, people have started planting flowers on the Greenway. I wonder what the city thinks of that. I bet it makes mowing harder. But it sure looks pretty.

The casino, and ArtsQuest area is the same as always. When I arrived at OraSure it started to drizzle, but it never materialized as rain. Coming back thru Lehigh I found more sculptures and more stairs! I'm sure the others will be thrilled about that.

Crossing streets at that hour is a real pain. But otherwise it was a nice hot, sweaty walk.

I thought I try a fitness challenge tonight—Kettlebells. But I read the website wrong. It was drop in, but you needed to be a member. Further investigation led to the discovery that no kettlebell classes are without some sort of membership class. And, a three-hour orientation before you can can take one. Cross that off the list.

I checked the Saucon, Palmer and Bethlehem Tsp Community Centers, and the Y. Nothing new. Nothing different.

Tonight in the park is Power Toning. If we are done with dinner I might try that. Once Bonnie gets well I'll try one of the swim classes.

This fitness challenge takes a whole lot more planning than I anticipated.

walking the burbs

After today's walk, I'm less than 50 miles from "Nome" in the Idita-Walk. There is a small part of me that wants to go out there and just finish it. The larger voice keeps yelling, shut up and sit down. You've got a poop-load of work to do. I guess I need to listen to that voice.

Lydia was up to her eyeballs in paperwork today so she didn't go. However, she wanted to share some great news this weekend. She was chosen for the Bariatric Support Group fashion show, and she's down to a size 16. She is now officially thinner than me. That stings just a little. But I'm not willing to have surgery, so it is, what it is.

She also signed up for the First Stride program at the Bethlehem Township Community Center. I hope she learns a lot and burns lots of calories. Sharon and I did the program. If you finish all 12 weeks (Lydia there's homework!) you get a performance shirt and a pin. Our shirts were red. Graduation is a 5K.

I planned for a 4, 4.5, and a hair under 5 mile walk today. We ended up doing the four. Pretty much starting at Wegmans, heading down Stokes Park Road, a loop thru the subdivision that used to be Kohler's farm, up Jacksonville, and back Crawford. Bonnie needed the restroom so we didn't do the 1/2 mile or almost mile extra loop.

Walks in the 'burbs are fairly flat, rolling hills, so we could do some speed walking.

After walking, we shopped. Carts full of fruits and veggies and other healthy things. It begs the question, why are we still fat girls?

night walk

My niece Eryn doesn't drive and depends on other people for rides. Tonight that was me.

Her son belongs to a flag football team. I took them. Her daughter is not impressed with flag football and always brings something to do. So Aunt Gayle tried to make it fun. If you call a side trip to Walgreens fun.


When we came back it was dark, and the moon was nearly full so we decided to walk on the trail in the dark. It was fun. We did the whole thing, probably a mile at a very quick pace. I almost needed to run to keep up with the 9-year-old.

When we arrived back at the playground, we swung awhile, hugged a couple of trees, then headed back to the community center.

We thought the game had five minutes left. They hadn't even started yet. There was some sort of a delay. We should have stayed outside.

a chilly 5K

It's mid-April, right? Yesterday at the Strides for Shelter 5K it felt like November.

I did this 5K two years ago and I think the weather was worse. The lady at the registration table said the weather is always bad for the event. I'll have to keep that in mind for next year.

But before I go into the details I have to mention that I'm blogging from the parking lot of Planet Fitness. Sharon is inside working out. Since she switched her membership I can't go inside. I did a bit of a walk before it started to rain and dropped something off at my brothers house, and now I'm back in the car blogging. Modern technology. At one time I'd be reading a book or working on a crossword puzzle.

Back to yesterday.

Bonnie picked up Sharon and I at 8:10. The race started at 9. At home it was cloudy and cool, but not cold. I grabbed a sweater to put over my fleece for the standing around and waiting part. I was planning on leaving it at the start line. Sharon didn't grab anything extra. That was a mistake.

The race began at the Hanover Township Community Center. In what used to be a farmers field. Wide open and it was cold and the wind just whipped around. Sharon must have been chilled to the bone.

Bonnie and I tried to swing to keep warm, but it didn't work. Sharon was whining about the cold so I showed her how to hide in a tree. Like we did at gs camp. It didn't occur to me until later last night that the tree could have fallen over. Oops.

Not many people at this race. Maybe the curse of bad weather is well known. The runners went first, then about a minute later we went. The course is pretty easy. Bonnie and I thought we were going at a good pace but ended up finishing at 52:40 and 52:59. Not bad, but not our best.  Sharon finished in 62:49. But she finished which is all that's important.

Afterwards we went to Perkins for breakfast and planned out our walks for April and May. We're doing Joan's Run, The Run for the Cure, Tortoise and Hare, and MS at Piggy Park, I think. We're also going to get info on two Volkssport walks. Give them a try. Since we're not training, we have flexibility and don't have to do 8-10-12-15 mile walks that take half the day.

Speaking of long walks, Bonnie loves the idea Betsy had for October. Now we just have to come up with a plan. I'm thinking it should be a 5-10-15K walk. (3.1-6.2-9.32 miles.)  So that any fitness level can join. I need to come up with a fancy name and will advertise it under every two feet. I'm guessing Lyd and Kathy will do the 5K. And Bonnie, Betsy and I the 15K.

Stay tuned.

Keeping a promise ...
One of my former girl scouts Stephanie has a Etsy shop (stitching in socks) and is celebrating her 200th sale with a baby quilt giveaway. Go to her blog Jonquils and Ladybugs for details. The link is to the right. She's a contemporary quilter—no calicos here—and made my laptop bag. If you need great handmade gifts, especially for little ones,  check out her shop.

stop eating with your head

Tonight I went to the nutritionist, I weighed 5.5 pound less. Whoopie. I weighed much too much last week, so it was either bloating, or constipation. Both are gone and the weight went with them. Could have been the clothes too.

So now she's upped my weight loss goal for the 5 weeks to 15 pounds. My 950 calorie chicken sandwich last night didn't seem to impact my weight loss, at least this week.

She (and Angel and Bonnie) told me to up my protein so I eat less carbs.

My new goals are 1500 calories
75 grams of protein (60 grams from biological protein)
50 grams of fat
190 grams of carbs
5 days of exercise for at least 45 minutes. T'ai Chi only counts as stress relief.

Plus the old goals, which I didn't reach
Eat only 4xs a day (I'm a grazer)
Reduce coke intake even more

She seemed please that I did two 5Ks this weekend. Belle sent me this site that calculates how many calories you burn doing ordinary things. Including sex.

She told me I needed to learn to eat with my mouth and not with my head. That's hard.  She told me to reduce my stress which triggers eating. That's even harder.

an epiphany

me, high school graduation photo

Last night was my first of five meetings with the nutritionist, Lisa, at the Bethlehem Township Community Center. Her day job is with one of the hospitals.

She thought I was "motivated" to start this at this time of the year. Perhaps "crazy" is a better word. But I don't think I gorge myself at holiday meals.

Some background, for people who haven't been on this journey with me.

The reason I wanted to go see a professional was to sort out all this information I've been reading on healthy eating, and come up with some way to make it work. Ultimate goal, I lower my blood pressure and get off meds. Loosing a couple pounds wouldn't hurt either.

My way hasn't worked. Keeping a food diary recently made me realize I eat way to many carbs and sugar. But if I don't eat carbs, I'm hungry.

That's the first thing I know for sure.

The second thing is if you tell me "no" I will eat twice, maybe three times the amount I eat now. So I need something that doesn't have "no" in it. The old 80% good/20% bad theory.

The third thing is I am an emotional eater. I eat when I happy, sad, stressed, bored, it goes on and on.

So I went in there looking for the magic wand, and I didn't find it. And that disappointed me. I went for healthy eating. She's all about making a diet.  If I wanted to count and measure I would have gone to Weight Watchers.

So she took my background. Looked kind of shocked when I told her I was well underweight before my mid-twenties. I guess most people with my problem struggled their whole lives.

She weighed me. I'm 10 pounds heavier than on the doctors scale. That hurt.

She wants to take away my last Coke of the day. It won't happen. On this I am sure. I told her how much I used to drink and she was floored.

She doesn't count walking as exercise. You only burn 100 calories an hour. Steps either. Or T'ai Chi. She'd like me to go to the gym. I'd rather stand on my head and clean the toilet with a toothbrush than do that. If it doesn't work for me than it work.  I'm "active". I don't "exercise".

So my goals for this week is one 16 ounce Coke per day or less, four "meals" a day, keep a food and exercise journal. Initially she'll fill in the calories. I have to weigh and measure. Yuck. She's going to give me a generous 1500 calories a day. She thinks I eat at least 500-750 more.

My friend Angel has been trying to give me advice. But as always, I'm stubborn and pig headed and don't listen. She told me to email her last night and tell her how it went. I did.  This was part of her reply:

" Well, I know you hate the word diet and it's emotional implications—but remember with your health issues that a diet is more medical than a mere "gee I have to lose weight."

A medical diet—though restrictive and a pain in the ass—will train you what's good/ what's bad/what's appropriate and make these things habit…   I know you want the freedom and knowledge to make good choices. This is the potential boot camp to shock you into it. "

I didn't like that reply. I got my panties into a gather pretty dang quick. When I typed the reply I had a bit of an epiphany:

"You’re right, I do need to lose weight. But that’s not why I decided to do this. I wanted to learn to eat right. Maybe I should have joined weight watchers. Accountability....

Actually I probably already know what to eat. It’s just doing it.

But that is not the problem. Not even close. That light bulb came on late last night. I have a food addiction. I chose food instead of booze or sex or drugs. THAT is the big problem. I should go to a shrink instead of a nutritionist.

Meanwhile, I had my half cup of oatmeal for breakfast and I’m not a bit hungry but I am counting the minutes till lunch. And more than likely I’ll eat lunch and I’ll do the same thing till dinner.  Yep. I bet if you looked food addiction up, that’s exactly what it would say was a symptom.

But unlike booze or drugs or sex or shopping or any number of things stopping the activity is not an option."

OMG. I'm a food addict.

so I was in the dollar store ...

and the phone rang. It was Lydia. I'm coming over to process some pumpkin. "Do you want to walk at Lehigh? Maybe do some stairs?"

I've created a monster. And soon that monster will weigh less than me. But then I still get to eat real meals.

On the way back from the dollar store. My phone rang again. I told Sharon to answer it. I have no headset and I was in Allentown, where it's illegal to talk on the phone and drive. (Click and Clack from Car Talk on NPR were so ahead of their time on this issue. I always wanted one of the "Shut Up and Drive" bumper stickers.) It was Lisa, the nutritionist from the Bethlehem Township Community Center. Sharon seemed confused. From the bits of conversation I heard I knew it was important and found a space to pull over and snatched the phone from her hand.

She asked if I wanted to wait till after the holiday. That would be an emphatic "No". So we're planning on meeting tomorrow, 6:30, after school. The places are about a mile apart. I'll let you know. Better put my food journal in the car.

so far this week

Sharon and I walked Monday morning and I went to T'ai Chi last night. When I arrived, I found out it was the last class in the session. To continue I need to buy another session ($25). If I do I would also l sign up for the nutritionist (5 weeks, $125).

So far my roomies haven't a clue what I'm doing Tuesday night. I make up lame excuses to leave the house. Not sure if they even realize it's every Tuesday since my schedule is so erratic. Can I fool them for another six weeks?

I really like the class. Still can't do any of it, but I like it. It relaxes me, at least for a hour. The six o'clock time frame is a bear with the rush hour traffic. Is it worth it? I relax while there, and two seconds after I walk in the house the stress is back. If I check my phone then any good is wiped out by a screaming message "where the f*ck are you?" Yes, I'm 50 something and they are not my mother. Besdies, she wouldn't use that language.

Gotta decide by the time class is over. The community center is a mile away. It's now or never.