Logic - What a Concept

Reading snippets of news on Yahoo is part of my morning routine. Some of my favorites are the weight loss and healthy eating articles. Most of the time, it's just not news. It's logical. Our society has so completely confused the average person with regards to what to eat or not eat, what to do for exercise, what's good, bad, and in between, that if you asked 100 people how to lose weight - you would get such varying responses it would make your head spin.

I happened first upon this article, discussing the amounts of sugar in popular foods. And although I'm not shocked by the fact that processed foods and restaurant foods are filled with sugar and calories, I AM shocked at just how much more than in a home-made baked good. I can bake cookies and muffins at home, and they're delicious. And they don't contain even half the fat, calories, and sugar that those purchased at a chain bakery would be. How is that possible? I don't skimp, I use butter and sugar. But my recipe has a shelf life, first off. And secondly, I don't use the cheapest of the cheap ingredients. Sure, white sugar isn't the healthiest thing you can ingest - but it's a lot, a LOT, A LOT better than high fructose corn syrup. Label reading is becoming a huge past time of mine, and I've decided that the only treats and desserts we'll have in our home are the ones I make myself, period. I can make it better, tastier, and healthier at home, and since it takes time to bake a cookie - I guess we'll have to REALLY want it to be able to eat it. No convenience packaged cookies, easy to swipe and stuff. And I guess the thing is - isn't it logical that those additives are what's causing our health and weight problems in this country?

The second article I read was this one, which talks about fat calories versus carb calories. What they're basically saying here, in regards to weight loss, is a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Period. You cut back the number of calories you eat - you lose weight. Doesn't matter how you're choosing to cut back, you will lose. BUT - the real question is whether you're going to keep the weight off. And the answer, resoundingly and logically, is NO. If you "diet" by the current sense of the word (in other words, you follow a plan that cuts back on one thing, or you follow some wacked out eating plan that makes no nutritional sense, or use pills, or crash cut your calorie intake) you will lose, at first. But then you will find that you gain back. Because you cannot expect to lose eating one way, and keep it off eating normally. So low-fat, and low-carb, and the grapefruit diet, and any of those weird and strange food-combination or ultra-low-cal diets have one thing in common. It is this - rare is the person who can eat like that the rest of their life. And once a person stops eating the way the diet says to eat, the pounds will come back. And often, the pounds you lost will bring friends with them.

The bottom line? LOGIC. Except somehow, we have to retrain ourselves to think about food rationally and logically. Basically, eat food. Don't eat too much. If you have pizza, have pizza - but 2 slices, instead of 4. Incorporate fresh, unprocessed foods as much as possible, both for the benefit of filling you up with less calories, but also for the healthful side effects. Eat to be healthy, not to lose weight. Eat to be balanced and have energy. Food is fuel. You deserve premium.

Just Like the Seasons

Amazing how much life changes. When I was in high school, I didn't really think about how very liquid your friendships can be. We all thought we were best friends, to the end, never thought we'd lose touch. And yet, some friends can move through your life like a swift river. They come, they leave their mark for better or worse, and they go. They carve out a piece of you, leaving you changed. I think the changes, no matter if done with love, hate, or indifference, always bring about beauty. I think that no matter how badly things might be when you part ways, there's still a lasting beauty left behind. There's the beauty of the good times, of course. But there's also the beauty of the strength and change that happens within you from anything that goes badly. We all grow and change as a result of the people who leave us.

I have always tried to live my life while keeping in mind that I would rather have that bad parting or that fight or that ugly blow up, if it means I had the beautiful part of the relationship. I would never give up my wonderful memories to avoid the painful ones. Never. And that, I think, is how a person keeps from becoming bitter and nasty to people, old and new.

Yes, I have a few people from my past for whom I still have some anger and yes, one even has (deservedly so) my antipathy. But for the most part, I try to let that go. I try to see the results of the worst of it. I try to see how much more love I have for the people who truly care about me. I try to see the strength of my friendships that I retain, how much deeper and more amazing because they weathered a storm or two. And I try to see how my judgment and personality have been formed by those who are no longer within my sphere.

So it is the wounds that highlight the best in our lives. I truly do feel that I would not appreciate what I have today if yesterday had not happened. I would not appreciate comfort if I had not felt pain. I would not appreciate life if I had not faced death. And I would not appreciate the friends I have if I had never lost the ones who are gone.

Not As Bad As I Thought...

I'm in a medical weight loss program. Which sounds like a lot more than it really is. My husband started seeing an endocrinologist at the Bariatric Center at our local hospital. He wanted to find out options that weren't surgical, and try those. He was quite heavy. And his mother died from complications due to bariatric bypass surgery. So we want to exhaust all non-surgical methods first, as one could guess.

Anyway, to show solidarity, I started going too. They have us trying an insulin-controlling medication, and we're having pretty good results. We're both happy with it.

The one thing about these centers, though, is that it's a whole being approach. In other words, you don't only go see the endocrinologist. You also have to see a nutritionist, an exercise expert, and a few others I have yet to need to see. I saw the nutritionist at my first visit, and duh - it was all information I knew. I KNOW it. I just don't always DO it. Like, for example, at 11pm in the kitchen when I have a mad case of munchies and only peanuts or something equally salty and fatty will do. THAT is the moment I need the nutritionist to step in. But obviously, they do not pay house calls.

So today was my appointment with the exercise expert. It was a fairly comical meeting, to say the least. I actually looked forward to her reaction to me. You see, I'm tall - 6 feet, to be exact. I'm also built in the "sturdy" or "bigger" method of people....you know, big bones, decent musculature even when I don't lift weights - that sort of thing....

I weigh - uh, let's just say, a lot. But I'm also fairly fit. I told her first about my knees and neck, though. And then she asked me what I do each week for fitness. This is where it got comical. Because, honestly, I do a lot for someone who is my weight. I told her about the 2 hours of spin I normally do a week, and the 3 hours of karate I do at MINIMUM. Add to that the half hour of rehab weight lifting each Wednesday with my doc, and she kinda just stared at me. The look on her face was priceless - a somewhat amazed, bemused look, that said, "Why the heck are you overweight then??"

Ahhh, priceless....

So we discussed some things I can do to modify weight lifting in order to increase my muscle mass - it's the one place I've been floundering because of my knees and neck.

AND then .....

cue dramatic music....

It was time to test my body fat percentage. OY. VEY.

I was terrified, I will not lie. First off, the electronic body fat testers often run wacky on someone with higher muscle mass. The scales that test body fat will tell me I'm something like 65% body fat (uh, sure, yeah - I'll go lose 130 pounds, k? Not....accurate, eh?? I mean, I have bones, no? And organs?? Those have to weigh more than 100 pounds...) Secondly, I just did NOT feel like being depressed today...

This tester was awesome. It measures at the bicep. I carry my fat in my midsection, and have skinny arms and legs (for a chubby gal). WOOHOO! It also asks 7 questions which it takes into account for results. Things like, what frame are you? How often do you work out? For how long? Double woohoo!

I am in love with this machine....it told me I'm ok! woot! I am 28.7% body fat. Which is UNDER the obese category - happy day! I was expecting like 40% with it being the electronic ones...but WOW, it was fairly accurate! She said I should be about 22%, so I've got 6% to work on. This is far less daunting than the ones that told me I had to lose about 45%....

So I guess it was a good visit. I think she was impressed with my fitness knowledge (former instructor, I should hope I know how to do stuff! LOL! ) And my attitude....so I see her in October again - she said she'd test my body fat again....can't wait, actually!!!

Little Pitchers Have Big Ears - AND Mouths!

As any parent will tell you, kids will listen and retain what they hear around them, even if they are seemingly completely in another world. They will parrot what they hear back at the most inopportune moments, as well. And in the case of our 7 year old, they will stick to their story, no matter how wrong they have it. And no matter how many adults refute them. Or maybe it's just him.

He decided to tell his grandmother, who is a McCain supporter, that McCain is a bad man because he will force everyone in the US to go to church.

I heard him start to say this, and I thought, OH MY GAWD. No, please no - tell me he isn't saying THAT.

Yes, he was saying that.

And then he went and blamed it on his FATHER. Little booger even had a scape goat! Thankfully, my mother #1, knows her son-in-law and the level of his intelligence, and #2, knows how 7 year old boys are, and THEIR level of intelligence.

So she said, there is no way your father said that.

And here's where it got interesting!

So Joe decides to argue the point with her, and tries to back up his argument with "information" as well. But he mixed up names of people, and even blamed some sort of church-going foul-play on Hillary Clinton, as well. And despite both my mother's and my telling him he had heard wrong, and that he was mixing things up, as well as saying something patently false and unfair and somewhat insulting - he argued on. My mother and I looked at each other, and just amazingly, we had to be thinking the same thing. That he takes after every SINGLE male in our family. OY.

I finally got him to listen to us, and to hear us. We also told him that being wrong is not such a horrid thing, and that he isn't stupid if he's wrong. We also told him that, in fact, he looks stupid only when he clings to an idea and refuses to back down.

I'm hoping he learned at least to just keep his mouth shut a bit more and listen to adults. We're working on that one, because, apparently, we adults are pretty uneducated, dull, and slow in his eyes.

And hopefully, he figured out too that saying political things just gets him in trouble.

I would so love to hear the actual stuff we were saying that he heard and scrambled in that granite block of his....

Summer is for Losers

Losing pounds, that is...

Summer is a wonderful time for doing things outdoors, and for finding new ways to get a little exercise in. As we begin the summer vacation, and hotter weather, I keep trying to find creative ways to get just a little extra in each day. I call them random acts of fitness. It is an interesting challenge to find a way to get in a few squats on the playground without looking like I have lost my mind, though. I am sure that I am an amusing sight to the other moms and dads. Or else they think I am the town nutcase. All of that aside, I still try to do it. The hotter weather reminds me of how much I hate shorts that don’t fit quite right, and how much my thighs chafe when I am at this weight.

It is amazing the tiny differences and changes that you barely notice when you are either gaining or losing weight. I notice that as I lose, I can walk in shorts easier. I do not have to keep pulling the legs of the shorts out of a bunch between my legs. I do not walk bowlegged from time to time to get the fabric to fall straight. If anyone else has ever had to do this, you will understand completely what I mean when I say I am ecstatic to realize halfway through doing these things that it is not necessary to perform this ritual. Every time I tic off another size or pound gone, I try to remind myself how far I have come. It is much easier to despair of how far I have left to go, since that is such a distant future. Where I was is not nearly as enjoyable as where I am now, and I know where I am going will be a grand, wonderful place, filled once again with buying off the clearance rack, and not having to ask for a bigger size. I am starting to drool just thinking about that place.

So I keep trying to find ways to trick myself into working out without realizing it. It is a big contest to see if I can work out for a half hour without noticing the time. So far, I have found that I can do an hour if I am in a challenging class or have good tunes. And all those little random acts of fitness I do in a day start to add up. Which is good, considering how fast 2 hours of the day care at the gym fly by! I don't get in a lot of weight training yet. But then, the aerobic is more important right now.

Add in the gardening I'm doing to "save money" and heck, I should shock the other moms at school next fall!

Indiana Jones and the Insanity of Momma

Oh. My. GAWD.



This is basically all we hear at our house right now. This song is burned into the walls, we hear it so much. Why is it that a four year old can get a hold of an idea or character, and wear it into the ground with overuse?

With our guy, first it was 2+ years straight of Jack Sparrow - wigs, swords, and Swashbuckling Sea Songs all day and night.

And now it's Indiana Jones, all day, every day. I don't know why, but I put the music from the movies onto my iPod. WHAT was I thinking?? Oyyyyy....

T minus 4 days and COUNTING!

EEEEK! It snuck up on me! It came from way out of left field! It's the last week of school.

Oh, holy hell - what in the world am I supposed to do with two of them all day, every day? And gas prices aren't exactly encouraging me to fork over the money to enroll them in "summer camp" that I'll have to drive to and from. My only respite appears to be my gym membership. Apparently, I'm going to be in good shape on the other side of summer vacation.

Either that, or the snack counter girl and the hot tub will be well acquainted with me!! Don't get me wrong - as I've said before, I love to Spin. But there are days I do prefer to sit. And do nothing, obviously.

I would say, however, that my sanity will take less of a hit if I take the kids to the gym activity center (fancy word for baby kennel) every day or so.

It's just that I've gotten used to my 7 year old being away all day long. And the 4 year old and I have gotten into a rhythm with our days. So throwing in an overbearing older brother COMPLETELY obsessed with Pokemon (and can we just beat up the person who thought THIS up??) into the mix will be, to say the least, "difficult."

My boys get along most of the time. But lately, they're just on each other's nerves. A LOT. My mother bought me a subscription to Family Fun magazine. I like it, because it's not chock full of preachy, never-real-world-possible advice. But let's be realistic - how long will newspaper hat folding occupy them? And baking is a dangerous undertaking with my two.

I never quite pictured that motherhood would involve so much screaming. I knew they would yell, I would yell, their father would yell. I'm damned if I knew they would scream, and whine, and shout so often, so loud, and so annoyingly! I adore my kids, and I adore that I can stay home. But just once, I'd love to know how to keep them happily playing, so that none of us is required to raise our voice.

How does that Duggar woman do it? I still haven't figured it out. I'd be stark raving mad - hell, I'd have gone stark raving mad at number 4 or 5, let alone number 18 or 19!! More power to them - if they can handle it, and afford it, have at it. So not for me.

People ask me all the time when I'm going to "try" for "your girl." As if you're supposed to have at least one of each sex among your children. As if two weren't enough to sap my brain. I have enough patience (barely) for the two I have. I just think the people who ask this are trying to amuse themselves, at my expense. Oooh, fun, look at Deanna trying to navigate Target with 4 kids screaming and running around! Isn't that a hoot?

So yeah, not happening. Now, if we can just get past the Class Picnic (why did I volunteer to be Room Mom again??) and the insanely elaborate show and tell guessing game project we're supposed to make and bring on Friday - then it's summer. And hopefully before school starts again, I will have figured out how to entertain these guys!