Par-Tay

Tim turned 34 on Friday and as a result we had 4 days of birthday celebrations.    Noteably, we ate 2 dinners in NYC and had a friends over to celebrate as well (pictures can be found on flickr).   My favorite part of the whole weekend was Sunday night at the bar at Otto where we shared some red wine, a cheese platter and gelato.  In fact our anniversary is 2 weeks away and we may just repeat the same evening then.

Having said that, I’m glad the party is over.   I ate more carbs this weekend than I have in weeks and my body was sluggish and miserable because of it.      I am eating strictly today and I already feel better.    Interestingly enough, I don’t have much guilt, nor was my confidence shaken by the food and drink festivities of the past weekend.  First of all, I planned for it in advance and moreover, it’s the fact that I can still enjoy life (in moderation) that makes it easy to go back to being strict on those normal days.  

Brush with Nature

On Saturday Tim and I hiked 9miles of the Appalachian Trail.     Sounds rather impressive, huh.   You should see the huge black and blue on my left butt cheek (no idea) – now that is impressive.   

I have never hiked through nature before.   I have hiked 52 miles through London over a 3-day period, but this experience had a 1000ft incline and no pub in sight.

Tim has always wanted me to hike with him, and I had always worried that I couldn’t do it, or that I’d hold him back.   Lately I’ve realized the only thing that’s been holding me back, is myself.  And we were smack dab in the middle of his birthday fortnight celebrations with Saturday promising to be an uncharacteristic 70 degrees and sunny.  

When the alarm went off at 8am, I felt for sure he was going to bag the whole idea in favor of sweet sleep.  The next thing I knew he was making an insane racket in the kitchen and it was on. On the ride up I was quiet and worried and he assured me it was an easy trail.

Given that I had no idea what to expect and learned (afterwards) that the first 2 miles are the steepest climb (about 700ft) – I can tell you the beginning was rough. I was cursing Tim over and over. I was cursing nature. In fact, at one point I incredulously asked him  if “people actually do this for recreation?”  Two things kept me going, first I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and second Tim was carrying (normally forbidden) cheese in our cooler. 5 miles later I was rewarded as we stopped at a pond for lunch.  I ate a 1/2 of a sandwich (oh sweet bread carbs), drank 1/2 a gatorade (oh sweet sugar carbs) and a few bites of some cheese (oh sweet fattening dairy).  Best. Meal. Ever.

I didn’t realize it would go this way, but the hike back down was more stressful than the up.  The entire path was a rocky mess and I was so worried about turning over on my bad ankle (in fact, we gave our ice pack to a poor guy who had sprained his ankle).    I did apologize to Tim a few times because at this point I slowed him down, but I realized it wasn’t a lack athletic ability that was holding me back but very careful step choice through the rockier parts. 

When it is all said and done, there is a certain amount of adrenaline that kicks in with this kind of exercise and eventually I was more focused on pushing my body and proving to myself that I could do it.    Also, hiking is a great workout;  I wore my heart rate monitor and burned approxiately 1500 calories too.  Even sweeter is that Tim sat me down at home and thanked me for going and said he really enjoyed the time together. I responded with a typical “you’re welcome, and let’s never speak of it again” – and then we both laughed.   We got great photos too.  Too bad they were accidentally deleted by some drunken raving idiot on Saturday night (read: me).

Also to note, after 9 miles of hiking, we spent 3 hours doing some retail hiking at the outlets (hey, it was on the way home and there may have been a few mumblings that hiking would cease to happen if there wasn’t a Coach store at the end of the rainbow). Anyway, I bought a really cute skirt on clearance at JCrew, 2 of the softest cotton shirts ever at Banana Republic, and pale green vneck sweater at Calvin Klein. In a size medium. Me-di-um.

I finished off the weekend on Sunday by sorting through a bag of tiny clothes I had forgottenly stashed under our bed. I tried on a good 40+ items.  I packed up the end of my fat clothes.  There is nothing left to fit into. This process wasn’t easy as I woke up that morning (and today) with my lower legs and entire hip/butt system screaming in agony. Fucking nature.

Color

Recently Tim informed methat  he felt our abode was a tad too sterile.   To contrast this we have been decorating a bit.   

I still have to wrap the stems but I really
like the color and I love hydrangeas.
We also decluttered the top of this cabinet.
It belonged to my grandmother.

 
I fell in love with these vases but
figured I could not afford them.
In fact, they were $12 each on clearance!
I felt obligated to buy a few as gifts too.
We had no idea what type of flowers
to use, but these turned out well.

 
These purple beauties bring some life to
an area full of wine coolers and wine cubes.

I also put up some green hydrangeas in the hallway and Tim hung some wrought iron candle sconces and some wrought iron hooks (just posted on flckr).  He also picked up some floating shelves (which I hate), but hey, he lives there too.     Furniture wise we are almost done.   We have agreed on a bench for the foyer and a coffee table from Crate & Barrel.

Picture courtesy of Crate & Barrel

I called the electrician today to learn more about having pendant lights installed over the bar. We chose mica fixtures from home designs as they match various other bar lighting. Still considering that.

7 Month Update

Here I am clocking in after completing 7 months of healthier living.  Never in my life have I kept a commitment for this long.   It feels really good to take care of myself too.  It feels even better that I kept the promise I made to myself in January.   I am slowly building the confidence that I am in this for the long haul.

Numbers wise it was a decent month.   I lost 2.9lbs (all in a whoosh this week too) and 4 inches (mainly off my upper arms and thighs, but a tad off my waist and hips).   4 inches?  I was stunned enough to remeasure 3 times.    I think it’s safe to say I’m building muscle and my body is redistributing.  Plus I also spent 2 weeks in Cape Cod.  Why oh why does my body swell the minute I leave my normal routine?    To note,  I have now entered a new 10lb range:  the 150’s.     The lowest weight I was ever able to maintain was 152.5 and I am moving towards it!   Every 10lb range still feels like a fucking war, and although it has not gotten any easier, it’s becoming more routine.

Today I experienced a rather fantastic non-scale victory too.   It’s been a goal of mine to re-fit into a particular pair of Old Navy khakis.  Well 5 pairs, to be honest.  I love them (can you tell, I purchased 5).  They are soft cotton, slim my waist and hips, hide my tummy, and are perfect in the length too.   Just last month Tim asked me if I was planning to wear them soon/again as “your butt looks great in those.”  I didn’t know that, or I forgot, but then of course I was salivating to wear these pants because hey my butt looks great in them!  As a sidebar, it’s a good thing my husband is a butt man (you know, over a legs or boob man) because damn do I got me some ghetto booty (and short legs and an average rack).   But I digress. The Old Navy Khakis are also the smallest thing in my closet and they have not fit in years.   Periodically over the past 5 months I have tried them on with increasing confidence and finally last month, I got them up but they were too tight in the thighs and stomach.  After learning I lost 4 inches this month I decided to give the pants another go.  Today they fit PERFECTLY!    Like a little bitch, I even ran down to the lobby to confirm this phenomenon from the multiple mirrored angles.

Recently I have witnessed various bloggers denouncing the simple concept of “losing weight/taking care of yourself for health reasons.”   Instead they proclaim it’s really vanity or other shallow denominators.   Honestly,  I’d like to challenge any of these people to witness their father experience a quadruple bypass surgery that left him in the CCICU for 2 months.    How would it feel if you were only allowed to visit him for 30 minutes a day even though the sedatives made it so he didn’t recognize you?  How would you feel when a doctor sat you down and said “you need to understand, this doesn’t look good?”  Furthermore, I cannot explain how gut wrenching it was for us when they opened him back up the 2nd time due to complications.   Add to that the gruesome detail that they left his chest open for 3 days, covered by a brown sponge.   I can still picture it now, and they kept him like that until his 3rd surgery.   I’m not sure if the further complication of a  pulmonary embolism (ie. a blood clot thrown to the lung)  was worse, but at that point I was just numb.     He spent 6 months in the hospital.  1 month in rehab and multiple months recovering at home.  He went back a year later for a 4th surgery due to additional complications.    My mother’s complication free quadruple bypass surgery in 1999 had her out of the hospital within 1 week.  It took her a few months to recover, she did that home..  My father-in-laws first quadruple bypass was the same, his second was more complicated.

I cannot explain the overwhelming amounts of gratitude and awe I have that these 3 people are still in my life.  To this day, I cannot even think about how lucky we all are to still have each other without tearing up (in fact, I am blubbering now as I type this).   So sure, fitting into those skinny Old Navy Khakis are a wonderful fringe benefit — but it’s not my first or immediate goal.   I’d like to say this to those individuals who so casually denounce such real reasons for weight loss and bring it all back down to vanity:  I , for one, would honestly prefer that you go fuck the hell off.   And on that note I’m off to to do Turbo Jam.

Back to Reality

After approximately 7 months of watching my food intake, I think it’s safe to say that my body simply does not react to complex carbohydrates well at all. For the first 4 months of 2007 I followed a strict diet from my doctor and consumed only 1 complex carb a day, and it was always a whole grain. Overall I felt significantly better, less bloated, and maybe TMI, but I was regular for the first time in years. After 4 months of the strict diet, we were allowed to slowly slowly reintroduce additional whole grain carbs, but to limit or ideally eliminate white carbs completely. I did well with this till July, when here and there I found myself taking a bite from a white bagel, or eating 1 cup of white pasta. And interestingly enough, since April I have been struggling and have become increasingly bloated, etc. I never really correlated the 2 but I have charts and spreadsheets galore that really point to some sort of food sensitivity, be it wheat, or gluten or something of the like. I’ve decided that since I’m having a huge blood panel done in 2 weeks, I am going to call today and also schedule a food sensitivity test too.

Another interesting thing about July is that all of a sudden my clothes are falling off me (and my favorite black pants are swimming on me and I really cannot afford to buy new clothes right now), yet my weight has stayed relatively the same. I am planning to break out my measuring tape tonight, as I have a feeling the addition of 3-4 weight training sessions a week is playing a part in these numbers. I track my weekly calorie deficits and they tell me I should be down approximately 3lbs in July, but I’ve seen the same number (give or take 1/2lb) everyday for 20+ days. Fun no? I definately need to drink more water too.

I figure the only way to react to the above information is with a plan. So …

• I am going to shake up my diet for the next two weeks, returning to the strict rules of early January. I will be curious to see if I lose the bloat and discomfort when I lose the white carbs.
• I will be changing up my workouts, specifically (re)schedule in swimming and walking. Plus, I am going to introduce some turbo jam as well.

Exercise
Monday – OFF
Tuesday – Turbo Jam (40 minutes)
Wednesday – OFF
Thursday – Hip Hop (60 minutes), Turbo Jam (40 minutes), Upper Body Weights (15 minutes)
Friday – Elliptical (60 minutes)
Saturday – Hip Hop (90 minutes), Lower Body Weights (Thighs: 10 minutes)
Sunday – Cybex (70 minutes), Upper Body Weights (15 minutes)

The food is pretty boring. 3 fruits a day. 1 whole grain carb. A lot of veggies and lean protein. I cannot wait!

Update

Quick post from Cape Cod.  The gym here is phenomenal.   Eating as been pretty good.  There was 1 day with 1/2 a clam chowder and 1/2 a lobster salad sandwich, but I worked for it.    I skipped baked ziti for it.    I am now the smoothie queen and my family eagerly awaits the smoothie of the day.  Today, nectarine vanilla.    We have tried to sit at the beach but fidgiting is more our style.    Urbanites struggling to relax.  What can I say.