Random Thoughts From A Bored Mind...

October 28th, 2009

2009-10-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

Power Training - Strength - Push-Pull Week 1(c)

I skipped the 3-5 min cardio warm-up. Anyway, did the rest of the warm-up, then did:

One Arm Dumbbell Snatch: 35e/5, 35e/5, 35e/5, 40e/5
Forward Lunge: 6, 6, 6, 6
Push-up: 6, 6, 6, 6
Dumbbell Alternating Press: 20e/6, 20e/6, 20e/6, 20e/6
Cable Woodchop: 10, 10, 10, 10
Four Point Planks: 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s

46 mins, no idea on stats

I forgot about the HR monitor until about 15 minutes before the workout. I was doing laundry tonight so I washed it out. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I need to put in a different type of push-up as 4x6 is well, kind of easy. I know, I didn't say that out loud. I seem to remember doing ones with my feet on the fireplace the last time. Incline/decline or some such name. I'm still not doing the cardio portion, but the heel is healing nicely. There's just a small piece of scab on it and the rest looks fine. Hopefully by next week I can go back to the usual and maybe a couple of walks outside as well.

-----

Well, the entire day is done and I really don't think I spent much time studying. I did flip through the Statics stuff a bit, but I've got 2 x 2hr breaks tomorrow so I can review again. I'll probably take the other stuff with me as well and give it a once over again (doing a last look at it on Friday morning). I'm trying to get into bed soon so I can sleep as long as I want (don't need to be up before 9am tomorrow).

Oops, just realised I have a workout to do before I head off to school so definitely getting up about 7:30. I'll try to post it before I leave but if not I'll post it when I get home... quite late (after my exam).

~9700 steps today

(Hmmm... if I'd known it was that close I'd have made a point to do another 300 somewhere along the way.)

Food for the day:

Total: 1941 calories (19% fat, 32% protein, 49% carbs) 1791 without PWO shake

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, roll with jam, half grapefruit (283)
AM Snack - chocolate zucchini cake (78)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, mustard, eye of the round, lettuce, apple (438)
PWO: protein shake with frozen berries (150)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - beef/turkey burgers, multi-grain sandwich thin, condiments, salad w/dressing (722)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

October 27th, 2009

2009-10-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

(I'll post today's workout later with my food, but this was from earlier today.)

Yesterday was a weird day. I'm not sick, but didn't feel well. During my break I was doing work in the cafeteria in my coat, and still getting chills from time to time. Last night I was extremely cold and tired and fell asleep on the couch about 10pm. I had planned on either going to the desk and making a post, or grabbing the laptop and making a post... but neither happened. After sleeping pretty much 11 hours (almost uninterrupted) I feel reasonably decent, but still kind of tired.

~7500 steps

Food for the day:

Total: 1698 calories (25% fat, 25% protein, 50% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, roll with jam, half grapefruit (283)
AM Snack - chocolate zucchini cake (78)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, mustard, eye of the round, lettuce, apple (438)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - chili with cheese, doritos, salad w/dressing (561)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

The Doritos are from the halloween box. Usually we buy multi-grain tostidos but we were out and it seemed more reasonable to use what we had on hand. They're packaged into 1oz packages so the calorie count is actually less than if I'd had the tostidos. Oddly enough I kind of like the plain tostidos better. I will (after halloween) be swapping out my afternoon snack (hummus/flatbread-164 cals) for the bags of chips and such that we have left (140-170 cals)... unless I get to the point where I can't just eat one bag.

Anyway, I've done my tutoring for the day and now I really do need to force myself to study a little for two midterms on Thurs (Statics) and Friday (Measurement Systems). Neither class is giving my troubles, and the content is a little on the dry side. I'll take a break in the afternoon to do my workout though.

October 26th, 2009

2009-10-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

Power Training - Strength - Push-Pull Week 1(b)

I skipped the 3-5 min cardio warm-up. Anyway, did the rest of the warm-up, then did:

Clean Pull: 85t/5, 85t/5, 85t/5, 90t/5
Single Leg Supine Hip Extension: 6, 6, 6, 6
Bent Over Row: 115e/6, 115e/6, 115e/6, 115e/6
Single Arm Lat Pulldown: 6, 6, 6, 6
Cable Woodchop: 10, 10, 10, 10
Core Rows: (with 10lb dumbbells) 45s, 45s, 45s, 45s

47 mins, no idea on stats

I had problems with the HR monitor - kept registering 00 for heart rate. I'm trying to remember if I've washed it recently (thought so) but will rinse it out just in case. It's also possible that the transmitter needs a battery. It's also possible that I need to tighten the strap better. I pretty much gave up trying to get it to work early on, so the numbers are useless. I had issues yesterday, but they were brief. No big deal really, since I'm really just using it more to time myself.

-----

I don't really have anything else to add tonight. It was a reasonably decent day. I got my lifting done and I did some homework and now I'm off to bed. Such an exciting day.

Steps today ~9800

Food for the day:

Total: 1966 calories (23% fat, 27% protein, 50% carbs) 1816 + shake

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, protein waffle with vanilla/peach syrup, half grapefruit (364)
AM Snack - beef jerky (108)
Lunch - beef barely mushroom soup, rolls, apple (454)
PWO: protein shake with frozen berries (150)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - tourtierre shepherd's pie, salad w/dressing (551)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

October 25th, 2009

2009-10-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

Power Training - Strength - Push-Pull Week 1(a)

Oh look, a workout!

I skipped the 3-5 min cardio warm-up and I'm amazed how painful the heel was once I put a shoe on it. I've been going around barefoot all weekend and I'd pretty much forgotten about it. Anyway, did the rest of the warm-up, then did:

Squat Jumps: 5, 5, 5, 5
Clean-grip Deadlift: 145t/6, 145t/6, 145t/6, 145t/6
Dumbbell Alternating Bench: 25e/6, 25e/6, 25e/6, 25e/6
Push Press: 65t/6, 65t/6, 65t/6, 65t/5 <--- couldn't make that last rep
Cable Woodchop: 10, 10, 10, 10
Four Point Plank: 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s

45 mins, 193 cals, Max HR: 137 (77%), Avg HR: 100 (57%)

It wasn't a bad workout. I'm so used to the longer workouts that it seemed kind of short. I'll have to see tomorrow what I can do about the warm-up. I don't know if I need to get the HR up though. The shoulder made a funny noise on the 3rd set (no pain) of the Push Press, and I just couldn't push through on the last rep of the 4th set. Yet it feels fine now.

Anyway, off to light the BBQ for dinner!

-----

Well, I got most of what I wanted to accomplish done this weekend, but I could have easily used an extra day. I'll definitely be making use of my free time at the school on Tuesday to start studying for the exams I have Thursday and Friday. I don't think that the piccalilli turned out that well, but we'll see. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it isn't what I expected. I was thinking relish and it's more like pickled vegetables in a brine. We put a jar in the fridge and I'll maybe drain off the liquid and try some with my hamburger on Wednesday.

Other than that, nothing really to add for the day. I made some pasta sauce (chicken, beef, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, etc.) and it's now freezing as we speak. The soup is all in the freezer (except for the stuff we'll have tomorrow) and I left out a serving of the pork tourtiere base so I'll make that with some potato for tomorrow.

Steps today ~8700

I wasn't sure if I was going to add any more calories for lifting, but decided to add a PWO shake with some protein powder and some fruit. Mainly I did this because I know that my protein levels aren't as high as they've been. Of course today I was late enough that I could have taken the shake instead of the afternoon snack (but I didn't).

Food for the day:

Total: 2006 calories (22% fat, 35% protein, 43% carbs) 1856 + shake

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, protein waffle with vanilla/peach syrup, half grapefruit (369)
AM Snack - none (0)
Lunch - turkey noodle soup, rolls, apple (440)
PWO: protein shake with frozen berries (150)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - sirloin steak, corn, butter, salad w/dressing (708)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

October 24th, 2009

2009-10-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

I had a busy day today. I got the meat veggie mixture cooked (and frozen) for the tourtiere shepherd's pie. I got a huge pot of beef barely mushroom soup made. I also did the prep work for a batch of piccalilli that will be made with green tomatoes, onions and peppers. It started because my mother couldn't bring herself to chuck out the tomatoes left on the plants outside. I stripped them off the vines but knew that most of them wouldn't ripen (even enough to make sauce) so the idea of doing something with them was born.

Oh well, why should tomorrow be any less busy than a normal Sunday? So at the moment I'm sitting in front of the fireplace (on the laptop) but I suppose I should get to bed so I can start working again in the morning. I got a good piece of the lab report done, but will need to finish it up tomorrow. I'd like to take a quick look at the Statics, but I can push it off until Monday after school if I need to. The test isn't until Thursday night, and the reality is that I need to review closer to the test date anyway.

~13400 steps today

Food for the day:

Total: 1700 calories (23% fat, 32% protein, 45% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, protein waffle with vanilla/peach syrup, half grapefruit (364)
AM Snack - chocolate zucchini cake (78)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, mustard, roasted chicken, lettuce, apple (418)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - mediterranean lemon chicken, mixed veg, salad w/dressing (502)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

That was a new recipe tonight - basically marinating the chicken overnight in a mix of lemon juice/zest, oil, wine, a touch of honey, seasonings and then roasting it in the oven. I boiled up the pan juices, tossed in a tsp of butter, and served it over the whole thing.

Weight and Identity

2009-10-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

I was reading something yesterday over on JP Fitness that got me thinking about weight and identity. Let me start by saying that I've never felt unwelcome over there. In fact, quite the opposite. It was some silly post by someone that didn't think before hitting the post button. However, it was basically a pretty obese-negative comment, from someone that had lost a hundred pounds over about 15 months and has maintained that loss over 6 years. Now, I'll point out that it was a guy who had posted this, and I don't know how long he had been obese before losing the weight.

It left me wondering when people lose their weight if they ever lose the identity that they formed while overweight and/or obese. I am, and have always been an obese adult. Yes, I've gone from being morbidly obese (BMI of 70) to simply obese (BMI now under 40, but just), but I'm still obese. I know that someone meeting me today on the street doesn't know where I've come from either. To them I'm just another obese person, who is often considered a less worthy member of society.

Now, I've personally never felt that I was a lesser person. However, I do know that it has shaped my views and attitudes as I became an adult carrying that excess weight already. In 30 or so pounds I'll definitely be lighter than I've ever been as an adult but I will still be obese. At the point where the weight is gone I wonder if I'll stop thinking of myself as an obese person, even if I'm not. I think part of me will always be that person. Partly because I know I'll have physical reminders of it, but also because I've been that person for so long. Even when I'm not obese anymore I feel that I'll still feel connected to what I was. Maybe I'm wrong though, perhaps I'll just become another fat-basher with the rest of them.

Nah, probably not. Just a thought though.

October 23rd, 2009

2009-10-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's like the perfect weekend to make soup. Cold, wet, and raining. It would have been nicer if it hadn't started bucketing down this afternoon when I was trying to shop. Anyway, on the list for the weekend (on top of studying and a lab report to do): beef barley mushroom soup, meat/tomato sauce (beef & chicken), the base for tourtierre shepherd's pie (going to make it with lean ground pork and chicken), and maybe some zucchini chocolate cake just because I don't think I'll be doing anything outside.

- - - - -

Boy it's a long day when you're awake at 4:30am and can't get back to sleep. That's kind of unusual for me, but luckily it doesn't happen often. CAD was good this morning (did lots of helping, as I didn't have much else to do) although I won't likely get a mark until next week (as they aren't due until then). It was just a weird day with me being completely unmotivated to do much work. We finished up early enough that we ended up at the pub for a while. Yep, my afternoon snack was beer. In my own defense, I only bought one of the two I drank. Okay, I could have said no (but didn't).

The in the rain/wind I came back to town and started to do the shopping. Five stores later (and lots more rain) I got home, put stuff away, and then it was time to make dinner. I had planned on doing some school work this evening, but it just didn't happen. Did a little research on the lab report due Tuesday and half watched an episode of Midsomer Murders.

Now I'll be off to bed and try working like a devil tomorrow so Sunday can be a little quieter. I've got my workout logs ready for Sunday and I'm quite looking forward to getting back to lifting.

~12500 steps today

Food for the day:

Total: 1938 calories (26% fat, 30% protein, 44% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, roll with jam, half grapefruit (283)
AM Snack - none (0)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, mustard, smoked pork, lettuce, apple (457)
PM Snack - beer (300)
Dinner - pasta with meat sauce and parmesan cheese, salad w/dressing (724)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

October 22nd, 2009

2009-10-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Nothing much exciting going on today. School was good, with the test in the afternoon being okay as well. I think I did well on it, but we'll see next week. I'm probably only a little vague on the short answer questions at the end (as I feel I BS'd my way through them). He also handed out another assignment which I'm not looking forward to. It's basically a position paper on some current event (with some notes on the process of preparing it).

Plans for the weekend include making some beef/mushroom/barley soup and working on a new version of an old recipe (tourtiere shepherd's pie). As well, I'll start lifting again on Sunday. For now I'm planning Sun/Mon then Wed/Thu but might end up just doing Sun-Wed instead depending on how I feel.

~11200 steps today

Food for the day:

Total: 1824 calories (26% fat, 30% protein, 44% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, protein waffle with vanilla/peach syrup, half grapefruit (365)
AM Snack - beef jerky (108)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, mustard, smoked pork, lettuce, apple (457)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - szchewan beef stir-fry, salad w/dressing (555)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

October 21st, 2009

2009-10-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

It was a weird day overall today. I got up and took my mother down to the hospital for her appointment, then headed to the lakeshore to walk. I parked and went down to the bridge/ship channel and decided to come back along the beach. It was supposed to be a decent morning, but all I can say is that it wasn't really cold. There's a section of the beach where you can't walk anymore so I climbed up to the pathway and kept walking. That's when I got some pain in my left heel. I hadn't put any extra padding and/or covering on it and yep, I've rubbed a big piece of skin right off. It's been a while since I've even blistered it so I'm a little surprised. It probably didn't help that at that point I was about 15 mins back to the car. I've got a band-aid on it at the moment but I'll take it off to sleep and hope that just a covering when at school with another one will help it to start to heal up.

So, after I pick my mother back up I find out that her appointment/test was a bone marrow biopsy. I'm not really sure how I feel about that at the moment. I already kind of knew that they were pretty much trying to rule out cancer, but that seems more serious than I first thought. Although I know some of this started with issues of anemia, so for the moment it's really just lots of tests and no answers. I'm actually quite happy that she's got a good set of doctors working on it. One is the GP who doesn't just tell her that her chronic tiredness lately is just her getting old. And the doctor doing the biopsy today is one that has known her over the years (and has her in a bone density study) was the one who originally flagged her blood tests as something to be looked into further.

Anyway, I should get off to my bed. I've got a test tomorrow (Active Citizenship) and enough work to keep me busy as I really only played with CAD today. I should do more homework on my Wed day off, but I don't seem to.

~13900 steps today

Food for the day:

Total: 1900 calories (27% fat, 28% protein, 45% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, roll with jam, half grapefruit (283)
AM Snack - chocolate zucchini cake (78)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, mustard, smoked pork, lettuce, apple (457)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - beef/turkey burgers, multi-grain sandwich thin, condiments, salad w/dressing (745)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

Oh, and my mother opened up the halloween box of chips today. Can I admit that I'm waiting for November so I can have a few as (perhaps) an afternoon snack?

October 20th, 2009

2009-10-20T19:44:00.001-07:00

I'm kind of getting used to the mix-and-match meal plan. Don't get me wrong, I don't plan to stop tracking... however, I didn't enter a thing in until a few minutes ago. It's kind of neat and almost like eating like a normal person. Okay, I still dropped the grapefruit on a scale this morning and I weigh my fruit salad at night. But still, it gives me hope that I'm on a good track at the moment.

ETA ~10300 steps today

The plan is to drop my mother at the hospital tomorrow (tests) and go down to the lakeshore and walk for about an hour, then see if she's done and give her a ride home.

Food for the day:

Total: 1827 calories (27% fat, 27% protein, 46% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, protein waffle with vanilla/peach syrup, half grapefruit (364)
AM Snack - beef jerky (108)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, mustard, smoked turkey, lettuce, apple (432)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - chicken & sausage gumbo, rice, salad w/dressing (585)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

October 19th, 2009

2009-10-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

I've pretty much decided to go back to Power Training, likely the strength training. I like the lower reps better. I just need to remind myself that I don't need to push the PRs when I get to the weeks with 1 or 2 reps for the last set. I'm also thinking of doing something that I haven't tried before - a 4-day push-pull schedule. I haven't quite nailed down the days (Sun-Wed straight or Sat/Sun, then Tue/Wed) or something along those lines. I'm tempted to try the first as then I can make sure that I leave Saturday for homework (ie. get it done between Friday night and Saturday so I don't need to worry about it on Sunday). This week is off as the weather has warmed up a bit and I'm going to do some yard work (clean up).

- - - - -

Not such a busy day. School was good, and it was nice to spend a little time outside in the afternoon. It would be really nice if the weather held for at least a couple of days. I mentioned in another log that I played 'mousie on a string' with Shadow for a little while. Although he went outside with me for about an hour I do notice that he's less active than he was with Gus around. He's got quite a killer instinct and I suspect I'll get bored with the game long before he does.

So I'm off to get some sleep. For whatever reason I was awake at 5am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I know you can't really catch up on sleep, but I'm going to give it a try. Wow, such an exciting day! I've got a test on Thursday (Active Citizenship) and two mid-terms next week so I'm going to try and get into study mode. I've offered to study with another student for the Active Cit test (her first language isn't English). I'm hoping that will motivate me to study for it a little as well.

Food for the day:

Total: 1837 calories (28% fat, 29% protein, 43% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white, salsa, roll with jam, half grapefruit (285)
AM Snack - chocolate zucchini cake (78)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, mustard, smoked turkey, lettuce, apple (432)
PM Snack - beef jerky (108)
Dinner - chicken fajita pizza, salad w/dressing (760)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

October 18th, 2009

2009-10-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

What I did today...

It was a quiet day around here today. I went back over my Statics assignment and I'm really not convinced that the answer I have for the first question is right. I emailed the only person whose judgment I trust in the class (a new student who has joined us this semester) and she's tried to convince me that I'm overthinking the problem - which is probably true. I'm not sure that the teacher will answer a question by email but I've sent one off anyway.

Other than the baking, I really don't think I did that much. Brought in a few more plants (we'd put some in the garage last week in case of frost that never came) and did some homework for Calculus and went over the lecture for CAD tomorrow. I do that mainly so I can ask him enough questions so I can start/finish the assignment before Friday morning's lab class.

I screwed around so much with the homework that I didn't leave myself enough time to do any walking in the late afternoon. Yes, I know that I could have used the treadmill, but I just wasn't in the mood. I ended the day at ~7500 steps, so not low movement, but not high movement either.

Food for the day:

Total: 1875 calories (23% fat, 28% protein, 49% carbs)

Breakfast - protein waffles, peach/vanilla syrup, half grapefruit (334)
AM Snack - roll with butter (111)
Lunch - turkey/noodle soup, rolls(2), apple (440)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - sirloin steak, corn, butter, salad w/dressing (652)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

October 17th, 2009

2009-10-17T20:11:00.000-07:00

What's really heartbreaking is that tonight Shadow has finally decided he wants to continue his late night outings. It's just that I know he's not as capable of protecting himself (and I know there's another cat around), and it's freakin' cold out. So, although he cried for a bit after dinner, he didn't get to go out. And considering he's never really been denied, his nose is out of joint about it. And when I say cried, I mean it. He's never been a meow-type cat, it's more like a sad little cry. Well, a sad loud little cry. He did go outside for a few minutes before dinner, but obviously that wasn't quite good enough for him.

I also brought some wood in and lit the fire tonight. It's not quite that cold out yet, but we've got lots of wood (from all our neighbours cutting down trees this summer) and it seemed a good night for it. It's probably the earliest we've lit it in years. I layered up again today before lunch and went out for a walk (just about 49 mins). It was marginally warmer today than yesterday, 43F instead of 41F (6C instead of 5C).

- - - - -

Well, I'm not caught up on logs and blogs, but I am getting closer. I was behind anyways, even before our Thanksgiving weekend. I think perhaps I've been forgiven for not letting Shadow out, or he just wanted some more petting. I'm not sure that he's comfortable yet with the fire, but he's over on the desk as I'm typing.

Food was good today, and I think I'll go back to the daily listing, just for the hell of it. To recap, going with basically this for the rest of the month:

Breakfast: ~350
AM Snack: ~100 (zucchini cake or beef jerky)
Lunch: ~450 (soup/rolls/apple, wrap/apple)
PM Snack: ~165 (hummus/flatbread or almonds)
Evening Snack: ~175 (zucchini cake & fruit)

Totals (without dinner): ~1240, let's call it 1250

Dinners: ~450 - 750

What that means is that some days I'll end up closer to 1700 and other days I'll end up closer to 2000.

Food for the day:

Total: 1739 calories (27% fat, 25% protein, 48% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg whites with salsa, roll w/jam, half grapefruit (288)
AM Snack - chocolate zucchini cake (78)
Lunch - turkey/noodle soup, rolls(2), apple (440)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (164)
Dinner - sun-dried tomato meatloaf, mixed veg, butter, salad w/dressing (594)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, fruit salad (174)

Yep, with the last of the peaches/nectarines and a few pears, I've gone into the home canned fruit (making fruit salad).

ETA: ~10900 steps - which is pretty sad considering at least 5000 of them came from my walk before lunch. I can definitely see the difference now that the outside work is on hold. Although if it warms up a bit next week I'll be trying to clean up some of the stuff before a hard frost.

Why I've been absent...

2009-10-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

(just catching up, regular posts will hopefully continue this weekend)

Oct 12th

I'm not going to be online for a couple of days. Tonight I let Gus and Shadow out (like usual) for their evening creep around the yard. 15 minutes later I looked out and there was another cat on the fence (it's been around before) and Shadow wasn't watching it. Gus had drowned in the pool (probably not watching while he ran at the other cat). Although I grabbed him and hoped for the best, even the urgent care facility (one minute away) couldn't revive him.

At the moment I'm a bit shattered, as they're out all the time, and know that the pool blanket can't support them. I'm also doing the coulda woulda shoulda stuff which I know never helps. So for the moment I'm just going to try and deal with it, not really knowing how to.

Oct 13th

I do know that he would not have been happy if kept inside. In fact his brother is crying to get out, but until the pool is closed on Thursday I can't bring myself to let him out. It wasn't so much the pool, but that he went under the blanket. I know for a while I'll still be sorry that I didn't check on them earlier, that I let them out, etc. However, in the end I know that's extremely counter-productive. His own desire to kill/attack what he saw as an intruder obviously left him vulnerable. I'd seen him go around the pool so often when chasing a squirrel (or a moth) that I really never considered the pool an issue. We've always had cats that went outside (and we've had pools before), so once they learned their lesson early on (and they both did) they give the pool a lot of respect.

My mother let little one (Shadow) out a bit this afternoon when she was working around the yard, but he seems really unconcerned that his brother isn't around. Although he's definitely the least social of the two, so I think he'll be okay. I think the worst thing is that he obviously saw the whole thing (but maybe that's better since on some level he'll know what happened). He's just hanging around, enjoying the petting he loves so much, which is a surprise. Usually any upset and he hides in the crawlspace for days.

An interesting thing is that I have zero appetite, which confirms my earlier thoughts that I'm not an emotional eater. I'm not going to worry about it for a couple of days, but eventually I'll make sure that I'm eating enough. I have zero desire to exercise, which I'm also going to give myself a pass on that also for a few days.

Oct 16th

I'm definitely not as upset as I was, but from time to time I still seem to be fighting back tears. Probably the worst thing was having to vacuum the pool on Wed (we had an appt for it to be closed on Thurs). The one I feel most sorry for is Shadow. I'm not sure how much animals understand, but I'm sure he knows Gus isn't coming back by now. He was outside with my mother when I came home on Tuesday and he came running in to see me. I wonder if he thought Gus would be coming home 'all better'. I hope not.

I'm kind of glad that he really hasn't been that interested in going out. At this time of the year it's too cold for him anyway. He's become much more attached to me than usual (no surprise though). I know that he'll adjust, but I'm sad that he has to.

- - - - - -

I'll go back to my usual logging tomorrow. A quick wrap-up for the week:

Mon - 1553 cals
Tue - 1465 cals
Wed - 1686 cals
Thu - 1812 cals
Fri - 1857 cals (with a beer in there as well)

Oh, and I found out that the battery on the pedometer lasts around 52 days. It stopped working on the long weekend. I'm sure this week was definitely lower steps. I finally got batteries for it yesterday and today's count was ~12700 steps. Only because I bundled up when I came home today (5C or 41F, with a bit of a wind but not too bad) and walked for an hour.

I looked back at the data for the 52 days of tracking and I averaged about 9900 steps each day. So that's definitely something to pay attention to as the weather gets colder.

I should have taken a picture today of me kitted out for walking. There was the sports knit tank (with built-in bra), a blue sports knit jacket, a pair of knit pants/leggings and a padded sleeveless vest. Oh, and the ugly black hat. Everything was warm enough except eventually my upper arms. Next time I'll add the silk long underwear top under the knit jacket. Or, eventually I'll put on the coat I usually wear over the vest.

Anyway, I'm off to my bed. I will try and catch up on some logs over the weekend, although I have some school work to do as well. School has been going well though - still hitting 100/100 on CAD assignments each Friday, and I managed to pull off a perfect calculus test last week (didn't get it back until today). Although I'm usually quite good in math courses, I invariably make a stupid mistake that loses me a couple of percentage points. I'm officially exempt from the Quality course (yay!) and have two midterms coming up Oct 28th/29th, as well as a test/quiz next week. The Active Citizenship teacher is (I think) behind where he should be. We've only had one assignment (10%) and this test is worth I think 15%. That means he's got to give us other assignments (and I think there are presentations) back to back to get the rest of the marks in. Either that or I'm hoping he'll run out of time and drop something. I know, wishful thinking.

I think that's it for now. I'm going to try and get to sleep soon. I think both my mother and I haven't been sleeping well, so will try and catch up a little this weekend if we can. Most of the plants are inside, but probably need to do some moving around of stuff in the crawlspace. I understand we're going to get a little warmer weather for a bit next week which might allow me to actually tidy up some of the pots for the winter. We haven't had a hard frost yet (and not much in the way of light ones... even though I saw snowflakes at school yesterday), so I'll leave some of the still nice pots. However, some are past the point of looking good, so I should tidy them a bit.

(that's about where I am right now)

October 11th, 2009

2009-10-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

Playing catch-up here, so let's start with workouts.

Day 4 of 31 (no equipment workouts)

It's basically 3-5 min warm-up, followed by circuits (4-12) of:

Squat Jumps: 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest

Time: 15 mins

I managed to do all 12 sets, however, the last few sets (it's all a blur) didn't have much in the way of jumping. I looked at the sample video and he was doing about 12 jumps in 30 seconds... definitely did not do that.

Day 5 of 31 (no equipment workouts)
(day off)

Day 6 of 31 (no equipment workouts)

It's basically 3-5 min warm-up, followed by circuits (5-7) of:

Lunges: 10 reps, each leg
Baby Burpees: 10 reps

Time: 15 mins (did 6 circuits)

Day 7 of 31 (no equipment workouts)

It's basically 3-5 min warm-up, followed by circuits (4-12) of:

Squat Jumps: 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest

Time: 15 mins

This last workout was supposed to be 10 mins of Squat Jumps, but there was no way I could do that length of time. So I subbed in the workout from day 4 instead.

- - - - -

Food has been mediocre to awful. I did okay on Friday night until I was still awake at 2am and starving. I managed to keep it in check, but for whatever reason Saturday was completely out of control. Today has been completely back to eating what I should be. I'm not entirely sure why, but I know I'm really struggling on the 1800 calories. So, the plan for the rest of the month will be:

Breakfast: ~350
AM Snack: ~100 (zucchini cake or beef jerky)
Lunch: ~450 (soup/rolls/apple, wrap/apple)
PM Snack: ~165 (hummus/flatbread or almonds)
Evening Snack: ~175 (zucchini cake & fruit)

Totals (without dinner): ~1240, let's call it 1250

Dinners: ~450 - 750

What that means is that some days I'll end up closer to 1700 and other days I'll end up closer to 2000. I think I can work with that. What I found was that on days with a higher calorie dinner that I would drop a snack somewhere to make up for it. That would just make me hungrier of course. Normally on days with a lower calorie dinner I would make up the calories somewhere in the other meals/snacks - which I'm not going to do. Obviously long-term I'm hoping to drop some of the higher calorie meals by a bit, so we'll see.

- - - - -

What else? Oh, yesterday I smoked another turkey and made a huge batch of stewed beef. Today I divided up the stew, but didn't get around to slicing up the turkey. I finished up the lab report for Measurement Systems and confused myself with Statics for a while, as well as pretty much finished up my CAD drawing for next week. It's a good thing that I have tomorrow off as well, isn't it?

October 7th, 2009

2009-10-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

I went for a walk on the lakeshore this morning (45 mins). I'm not sure if I cut it short because I didn't have enough energy, the cold weather, or simply because I got back to my car at 44m50s and decided that was enough. I'd originally planned to walk down to the bridge and back and then up to the pier and back. However, I wandered around at the bridge point, walked along the break wall, and came back along the beach. It was medium cold (about 10C / 50F) but really quite windy - enough so that even the slightly damp sand was drying off and blowing around a bit.

Day 3 of 31 (no equipment workouts)

Now, decided to do the workout shortly after I got home (why not, right)

It's basically 3-5 min warm-up, followed by circuits (4-8) of:

Lunges: 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15
Hop Scotch: 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s
Push-ups: 25, 25, 20, 20, 15, 10
Hop Scotch: 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s

(rest 30-60 secs in between each circuit if you really need it... I needed it)

Don't get excited by the 25 push-ups. My right shoulder is bugging me a bit so I did them against the desk instead of on the floor.

Time: 27 mins
Not going to bother with the calorie reports anymore. I'm only using the HR monitor to count the time and such. The calories are (so far) somewhere between 100-200 calories. Technically I burned more calories on my walk this morning. Although these workouts so far run about 8 cals/min. Only on my really long walks do I see that same rate of burn.

Oh, and a few pictures from the garden. First, the cleomes at the end of the pool. These all came from two sets last year (one 4-pack I bought, and reseeded pink ones from the year before... maybe two years before).

Oh, and these were the 'too small' seedlings that I left in the bed. I transplanted hardier ones out to pots and to give to my mother and one of the neighbours.

I took a picture of what has been the most successful pot this year. I've cut it completely back the verbena more than twice and here it is covered in blooms again.

- - - - -

I kept meaning to come back to the computer tonight, but only sat down for a couple of minutes. I'll try and play catch-up with logs on the weekend I suppose. It's our Thanksgiving weekend here and I don't think I'll have too much homework, so that's good. I'm already planning some cooking of course (smoking a turkey, making a roasting pan full of beef stew, etc.), no real surprise there. We'll also probably bring in more plants as it's getting more and more likely that we'll get a frost sometime in the next little while.

I'm going to see about getting an exemption from my Quality Assurance course. Partly to lighten my workload, but partly because I can't figure out the teacher. We've ran through about 200 powerpoint slides and he's not emphasized one slide over another. ie. they're all important. I don't want to spend tons of time on a test I can't judge what I'm supposed to study. I've already got one of those types of classes, I don't need another. I've sent for official transcripts of the courses I've taken, and made a copy of my certified quality engineer certificate... and will talk to him about it tomorrow. If it doesn't become official by the drop date (sometime in early Nov.) I'll drop it and worry about getting the credit for the course later. There's no way I shouldn't get exempt, I'm just not sure how long it takes from submission to confirmation. Hey, if nothing else it gets rid of one of my 8am mornings.

Food for the day:

Total: 1795 calories (27% fat, 33% protein, 40% carbs)

Breakfast - protein waffle with peach vanilla syrup, baked egg/egg white (316)
AM Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, orange (157)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, mustard, smoked turkey, lettuce, apple (432)
PM Snack - beef jerky (108)
Dinner - beef/turkey burgers(2), pear/sour cherry chutney, mixed veg, butter, salad w/dressing (609)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, pear (173)

October 6th, 2009

2009-10-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of 31 (no equipment workouts)

It's basically 3-5 min warm-up, followed by circuits (4-12) of:

Baby Burpees: 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest

Time: 15 mins
123 cals, Max HR: 167 (94%), Avg. HR: 140 (79%)

Although I managed to do all 12 sets, the last ones were really kind of sad with the jumping. Okay, they were all kind of sad, but they degraded. How come the guy in the video seems very fluid when doing them?

(Don't bother answering, I know.)

- - - - -

Just making a quick post as I'd planned on being in bed early. If the weather is decent (not counting on it) I'll be off for a walk. No matter though I need to clean up for my tutoring in the afternoon. Part of what we're covering is Quality as well so I had to spend a few minutes on it tonight (as well as the CAD stuff). So I just ran out of time.

Food for the day:

Total: 1798 calories (32% fat, 25% protein, 39% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white omelet with cheese (312)
AM Snack - orange (92)
Lunch - turkey noodle soup, egg roll, apple (356)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread, beef jerky (284)
Dinner - chicken & sausage gumbo, rice, salad w/dressing (585)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, pear (169)

October 5th, 2009

2009-10-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

Oh look, a workout!

Day 1 of 31 (no equipment workouts)

It's basically 3-5 min warm-up, followed by circuits (4-8) of:

Squats: 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25
Hop Scotch: 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s
Push-ups: 15, 15, 12, 12, 10, 8
Hop Scotch: 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s, 30s

(rest 30-60 secs in between each circuit if you really need it... I needed it)

I decided I'd let the push-ups determine when to stop. I didn't have a problem doing the 25 squats, the hop scotch was pathetic, but I muddled through. I decided when I couldn't get even 10 done (you're supposed to aim for 25) that I'd stop. So I finished off with 6 circuits.

Time: 27 mins
218 cals, Max HR: 160 (90%), Avg. HR: 145 (82%)

So, definitely a metabolic-type workout. Completely wiped at this point. This wouldn't have been so bad except I then dragged about a dozen plants in from outside, down the stairs, etc.

- - - - -

So nothing else really to add for the evening. I managed the lower calorie day and have planned tomorrow's day to give me lots of snacking stuff. I think for me that's kind of key to not being concerned about the overall calories. Monday's are usually rough, and I usually end up starving in the afternoon - even with the higher calories. I forgot to eat my orange for breakfast so I ended up slicing it up and taking it for my mid-morning break. I was originally concerned that the fruit might simply make me more hungry, but it didn't seem to.

Food for the day:

Total: 1804 calories (20% fat, 29% protein, 51% carbs)

Breakfast - protein waffle with peach/vanilla syrup, smoked turkey & chicken sausage (345)
AM Snack - orange (90)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, smoked pork, mustard, lettuce, apple (454)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread (231)
Dinner - chicken breast with pear/sour cherry chutney, mixed veg, butter, salad w/dressing (437)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, pears (247)

The chicken breast with the chutney was really quite nice. Just browned the chicken lightly, mixed 1/4 cup chutney with 1/2 cup chicken stock, then covered and poached at a lowered temperature for about 12 mins (big chicken breasts). Removed the chicken to a plate, covered with the lid, and then thickened the chutney back up. It was really quite tasty.

Oh, and still tracking the steps. Last week I was fairly slug-like and ended up with a daily total of ~7700 steps. My weeks usually start on Sunday, so for yesterday and today:

Sunday ~10900
Monday ~10000

(Yep, actually 10001, so I didn't even have to wander around to bring it up.)

October 4th, 2009

2009-10-04T19:24:00.000-07:00

I've been fairly quiet this week, feeling that I have nothing really to add. I gave up on tracking food about mid-way through Wednesday and I don't really even have a feeling about what my average intake was. I kind of felt that I needed a break from weighing and measuring as well.

No matter, as tomorrow it's back to keeping track of everything, and a slight change in exercise routines. I bookmarked a 31-day bodyweight routine a while back so I'm going to give that a shot for the next 31 days. For no other reason than I think the routines are going to pretty much kill me. I may or may not post the routines, but for example, day one:

3-5 mins jumping jacks or jogging in place (warm-up)

Then,

Squats: 25 reps or as many as possible before a rest is needed - which ever comes first.Hop Scotch: 30 seconds of max effort

Push-ups: 25 reps or as many as possible before a rest is needed - which ever comes first.

Hop Scotch: 30 seconds of max effort

(rest between 30-60 seconds if needed)

Repeat cycle 4 - 8 rounds

I suspect this might be a light workout for some, but I know that I'll struggle. However, why not, right? Seriously though, looking at the timing I'm guessing that these are going to be shorter timed workouts, which will be easier to fit in each day.

Oh yes, and I'm cutting a couple of hundred calories off my daily intake, just because I know that I'm not doing as much moving around as I have been. And, it's probably time. That's going to be the hardest part really.

September 30th, 2009

2009-09-30T18:39:00.001-07:00

Well, buying chocolates was definitely not a great idea. Good thing I only bought 10 pieces. It wouldn't have been so bad except that I bought a small amount of fruit slice candy at the same time, and pistachios when at the bulk store. I'm only about 10% more than I wanted, and tomorrow I'll finish the chocolate and stick about 10% under where I was aiming for. However, it shows me that I'm still not at the point where I can leave some things alone.

Ah well, better to learn with 10 pieces of chocolate. Good thing I talked myself out of getting even more. :)

September 29th, 2009

2009-09-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

So, I'm officially on a break. In my head I was thinking some time in October but I realized that in the last three or four days I'm:

- really not sleeping well
- random aches and pains (just sore)
- more hungry than usual
- completely unmotivated to do anything physical

Now, some of that may be temperature/season changes, but I looked back and last break was 13 weeks ago, so maybe it's time. I weighed myself on Sunday (for something on 3FC I signed up for) and looking at the last 12 weeks I've dropped 13.4 pounds (when adjusting for the diet break excess the week after). Although I'm not unhappy with that, I'm not happy. I'd pretty much decided that I need to drop the calories a bit... but keep the activity level up.

So, little to no planning or tracking until say Monday next week. No daily reporting, and I'm going to try and avoid junk food or getting calories in with protein shakes. I did that today adding probably way too much cheese, but it was unplanned until I was driving home today. I had a relatively early afternoon and all I was thinking is that I could go home and take a nap. I didn't end up napping, but put my feet up on the couch and watched a little television.

Oh, and just usually daily activities (some yard work if the weather clears). Last break I was doing 4-6 mile walks most days. Although if the weather is gorgeous (doesn't look it) I might still go out for a nice walk... without the HR monitor (to keep it low key). So, gathering energy for a bigger deficit in October.

Wish me luck!

- - - - -

Anyway, not much else too add tonight. Poor planning pretty much led to way too much food in the afternoon (mainly because I was quite low on cals coming home). Oddly enough I have to watch on maintenance weeks that I eat enough. With having fairly set evening meals, afternoon and evening snacks I sometimes find that I'm somewhere between where I normally eat and maintenance. I will probably track after the fact (just to keep an eye on that). After talking about it in Espi's log I might go buy 6-8 of the local handmade chocolate place.

So that's it for the day. I'm not sure what's on the plan for tomorrow. I have tutoring at 1pm, but I might try doing a little statics homework in the morning. I think it's the only outstanding homework, but I kind of have a question for her Thursday (or I could open the textbook and see if it answers my question).

September 28th, 2009

2009-09-28T19:04:00.001-07:00

I managed to finish up the lab report, do 2x30 mins on the treadmill, and did two of the three drawings for this week's CAD class (intersections of solid objects - hexagon/square, hexagon/triangle). We only have to submit two of them, so that's good enough for the moment (but I'll probably still look at the third one). Okay, I admit that I reproduced them in 3D in Solidworks to double-check the profile. Hey, I've got the software, why not use it?

I'm finding it really tough to get my steps in already this week. The weather just sucked yesterday so I didn't start off with my long walk which gives me a little breathing room. The work has piled up and I seem to be short of time most days. It seems easier to find 30 mins to get on the treadmill instead of 70-75 mins for lifting. I'm thinking that I need to find something else to do in the meantime. Or get myself better organized. :)

~11,200 steps

Food for the day:

Total: 1996 calories (29% fat, 26% protein, 44% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white omelet, salsa, protein waffles, mulberry cherry syrup, plums (455)
AM Snack - none (0)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, smoked pork, cheese, salsa, peach (520)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread, pisco sour (321)
Dinner - roasted tomatoes/onions/cauliflower with parmesan cheese, smoked chicken & turkey sausage, salad w/dressing (516)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, peach, plums (192)

I still haven't got a satisfactory Monday meal plan in place. Since I knew dinner would be lower calorie I increased the breakfast. I was still pretty hungry though when I came home (usual lunch time) so I'd have been better off packing a snack. I stopped taking lunch on a Monday as I'd end up eating it at 11am, then feel like another meal when I came home ~1:30

September 27th, 2009

2009-09-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

Progress today...

- statics (including an assignment) - couldn't finish last question, will see about help on Tues
- measurement systems (lab report) - done, except for the part I'm owed *
- math (including an assignment) - done
- active citizenship (assignment) - done

* getting a little pissy about this as I can't finish the report without the information this guy is supposed to forward. I knew I should have copied the information for him, not given him my sheet. If I had I'd have just finished up the whole report myself. Tomorrow I have to play the bad guy and point out that we'll get zero if I don't get either the chart he's supposed to do or my data back. I asked about it on Friday (planning on just doing it myself) but he didn't have it with him. I was promised it on the weekend... which is over. I might as well have just done the whole fucking thing myself as I'll probably end up doing it tomorrow night anyway. The difference is that it would have been done. There, venting over. I really HATE group work.

Also worked in 2x30 min sessions on the treadmill. Even with that I only hit ~11,600 steps total. The weather cleared up in the afternoon, but the morning wasn't decent enough to get outside. I'm still looking at iffy weather forecasts for Mon/Tues so we'll see how the walking goes. I'll eventually get used to using the treadmill again I suppose.

I got most of the soup frozen and bagged up today. I've got 8 more servings to bag up tomorrow. I ended up getting 30 x 14oz servings out of it (so 28 ended up in the freezer). I wavered between 12oz servings and 16oz servings so I split the difference. It's almost impossible with something like soup to figure out how much you've got when you start portioning it out. The portions ended up being 186 calories with 17g protein. I'm using up a few of the parmesan cheese rolls I baked a while back, but next weekend I'll bake a few more (still playing with the recipe but likely going to drop the cheese and maybe the protein powder).

Anyway, that's it for me, now I'm off to bed.

Food for the day:

Total: 1995 calories (36% fat, 35% protein, 29% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white omelet, salsa, smoked chicken & turkey sausage, plums (330)
AM Snack - none (0)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, smoked pork, lettuce, mustard, nectarine (403)
PM Snack - turkey noodle soup, parmesan cheese rolls (323)
Dinner - baked pork back ribs, cauliflower, butter, salad w/dressing (743)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, nectarine, plums (196)

September 26th, 2009

2009-09-26T19:17:00.001-07:00

What did I do today? Sometimes I wonder really. I did make a huge pot of turkey noodle soup (10 servings in the freezer already and more to do tomorrow). I also made the chocolate zucchini cake. I just didn't get as far on with the homework as I would have liked. From yesterday:

So, on the schedule for the weekend:

- math (including an assignment)
- statics (including an assignment) - homework done, half the assignment done
- quality (assignment) - completed
- active citizenship (assignment)
- measurement systems (lab report)

~7000 steps today and that's because I made a point to get up and move around a little.

So I'm going to take my own advice and prioritize. Tomorrow I'll:

So, on the schedule for the weekend:

- statics (including an assignment) - finish this first
- measurement systems (lab report) - do this next
- math (including an assignment) - do the homework, then the assignment
- active citizenship (assignment) - leave for last

The math assignment isn't due until the first test (Oct 5th), but I do need to know if I'm having any troubles before then. I can probably finish the active citizenship paper in an evening (not due until Thursday). So, we'll see how much I can get done tomorrow. The weather has turned (lots of rain until about Tues) so no long walk in the morning, but I think I'll try and get a little treadmill time in. It depends on if I get the lab report done (and info from one of my lab partners).

Food for the day:

Total: 2007 calories (29% fat, 34% protein, 37% carbs)

Breakfast - egg/egg white omelet, salsa, smoked chicken & turkey sausage, plums (351)
AM Snack - 1/2 serving turkey noodle soup (112)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, smoked turkey, cheese, salsa, nectarine (511)
PM Snack - hummus, flatbread, 1/2 serving turkey noodle soup (342)
Dinner - chicken breast with salsa & cheese, broccoli, butter, salad w/dressing (482)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, nectarine, plums (208)

I might be a little off on the numbers. I'm assuming that I get 25 servings of soup, but if I get fewer than the day's number will be a little higher (more would mean lower).

2009-09-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

The first 30 seconds or so is that part I'm talking about.

I'm not a Courtney Cox fan, and I'm not sure the writing in this is that good. However, I do think as an actress it was a brave opening scene to film. Of course, we could get into the whole negative body image thing, as I'd be happy to be at that stage myself. :)

September 25th, 2009

2009-09-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

I was watching Cougar Town tonight (don't judge me) and although I doubt I'll watch it on a serious basis I was really quite surprised by the opener. Courtney Cox steps out of the shower, drops her towel in front of a mirror and proceed to pinch loose skin on her elbow, jiggles her tummy, shows some movement on her thighs, etc. For a woman in Hollywood I thought that was pretty brave.

Oh wow, just watching the start of Bones. The body is being scavenged by feral cats. As they're standing around talking there are three cats that haven't been caught yet... watching the other people and licking their lips. One of mine is sleeping at the foot of the couch, but the food bowl is full.

Lots of stuff to do tomorrow and Sunday, so off to bed soon. I also realized that I need to bake a new pan of the zucchini chocolate cake (before my mother's lunch). That's the problem now with me taking it every night, and occasionally as a morning snack. Next week I'm going to make sure that there's beef jerky inside so I can grab one in the morning instead.

So, on the schedule for the weekend:

- math (including an assignment)
- statics (including an assignment)
- quality (assignment)
- active citizenship (assignment)
- measurement systems (lab report)

Sheesh - if I open up a CAD file that would be all courses. Oh, and speaking of CAD, another 100% mark today.

And... turkey noodle soup, chocolate cake, and water the plants (especially tomorrow morning as I didn't check them tonight). Oh, and ~7100 steps today.

Food for the day:

Total: 1998 calories (25% fat, 23% protein, 42% carbs, 10% alcohol)

Breakfast - baked egg/egg whites, protein waffle, mulberry/cherry syrup, peach (337)
AM Snack - none (0)
Lunch - multi-grain tortilla, lettuce, smoked turkey, mustard, plums (399)
PM Snack - beer (300)
Dinner - chicken fajita pizza (Costco), salad w/dressing (760)
Evening Snack - chocolate zucchini cake, nectarine, plums (203)

Just thinking...

2009-09-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

I love Google Reader. It makes it so easy to follow my favourite blogs. Even ones that I just skim.

So, although I wasn't going to make this a carbon copy of my log on JP Fitness I think I will likely start copying my posts over. I know there are a couple of people who subbed in here, and frankly at the moment I can't think of much else to write about. It seems a bit of a cop out, but who knows.

School is off to a pretty good start, and I'm at the point where I pretty much get up, go to school, do homework, go to sleep. Well, it's not that boring, but some days it feels like that. I'm enjoying the semester at the moment though, but this weekend I seem to have a ton of homework. Of course, here I am, hanging around online instead of starting at it. I just always have a tough time getting started on Friday night. I'm kind of half watching an episode of Lewis that I put on for my mother.

Anyway... more later.

Bored, busy and back to lifting

2009-08-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

I found this last year about August. At the time I thought it was just a little bit of laziness that kind of creeps into the end of summer. Of course last year it actually felt like we'd had a summer. Starting school was very new, and I was kind of looking forward to it. I assumed that this year I'd be working in the summer (didn't work out that way). Last summer I made a point to do any major tasks (building shelving in the garage, redoing the garden in the back). So this summer has been fairly quiet.

So, I'm a little bored. The nice long walks kind of helped for a while, but I'll admit that I really like exploring new places. So once I've say walked down to the lake it's not so interesting to do it a second time. With the eye of the round roasts on sale finally (at a price I wanted to pay) I now find myself a little busy. Nothing like making around 18 pounds of meat into beef jerky to keep you doing things. However, it has its moments when you're busy, but mainly you wait.

Back to bored I suppose.

In the next four weeks I'm hoping to accomplish the following:

- can 21 quarts of peaches
- make maybe 21 quarts of salsa, and perhaps another 7 quarts
- make jam (only probably have jars for one batch, freeze fruit for others)
- do at least one roast (in freezer) for lunch meat
- maybe smoke another pork loin (in freezer) for lunch meat
- get two pairs of pants shortened (someone else doing)
- alter at least a couple more tops to wear in fall
- register (Monday the 10th) for classes with a decent schedule
- visit college to get parking permit, student card, books
- get a backpack and a few clothing essentials (underwear mostly)

It's not the long of a list, and there's a lot of smaller tasks that I didn't bother putting on it, but some of it shows a 'push it off' kind of attitude with the exception of the two college related items which I can't actually do until next week anyway. The peaches and the tomatoes will depend on the date that they're available. I just don't feel all that motivated to do any of the list.

The good thing that happened this last week is that I went back to lifting. I feel a little like I'm weaker than I should be, but we'll see how that goes. I'm doing Power Training which is nice in that it prescribes the type of exercise you should do (ie. horizontal pull) and you pick the actual exercise (ie. bent-over row). I find kind of mediocre about the workouts but I think that's because of the general lassitude I seem to be affected with. It could be the weather, probably is. Today it's cool and likely to rain. Tomorrow the temperature will jump 10C (18F) and thunderstorms and tornado warnings are forecast. All I'd like is one hot, sunny week, even though it means I'll have to spend hours watering... I'll take it!

Smoking a Turkey

2009-07-31T10:30:00.001-07:00

Some people would argue that I'm grilling a turkey. However, I use indirect heat and a little smoker box I've had for a long time. Today's turkey was smoked using a combination of mesquite wood, jack daniels wood (old barrels) and a few extra pellets from jack daniels (something new from the store).

It's a fair amount of work, but the result is excellent. I started this one with a frozen 7.2 kg turkey which is just shy of 16 pounds. I left it in the outside fridge for 2 days to thaw. It was a tiny bit icy on the inside when I put it in the brine, but I wasn't worried about that. It gets about an hour in the brine for each pound, then it rests for a full day, uncovered in the fridge. So, this is not a 'hey let's have turkey for dinner' kind of thing. I also don't make it for dinner, although one of the ones we did around Christmas actually was part of our meal that night.

Brine recipe here
I used 1.5 times the recipe for my turkey. I usually use 1.5 times the recipe just to make sure that it's well covered.

General 'how to' instructions here
The only thing I really changed here is that I do the resting inside a cooler. I put the turkey upside-down in a dish, cover with foil, and rest for a while. I can't be more specific than a while. If you were going to serve it right away, then you would just do the half hour suggested. I'll likely leave this one today for three or four hours. When it's at a point I can work easily with it I'll slice off the breast in one piece (easier to do while warm) and cut the legs free, then pack it all away in the fridge outside until tomorrow morning when I'll cut it up. This turkey is destined to be sliced and divided into 3oz portions for lunches.

Mine cooked fast today. I was expecting it to take probably 8 hours, but it was ready in 5. The barbecue was at the 225F range when I started, but the day warmed up considerably and the sun probably pushed the temperature in the barbecue up. I admit that I considered carving it up for lunch today, but I'll hold off until tomorrow. Then I'll also be making... turkey stock!

Niagara trip

2009-07-29T07:54:00.001-07:00

After weeks of talking about it, the weather was finally nice enough that we headed off for the Niagara region on Monday. The original plan was to go to Niagara-on-the-Lake first, then to the Welland Canal, then to the falls. For whatever reason I decided to go to the canal first. I think my plan was to see the schedule for possible ships, then swing back later to catch one. Of course, later I found out that I could have called for a schedule.

Anyway, it was a good change as we saw four different ships over about a period of about an hour and a half. I walked a bit of the Greater Niagara Circle Route Trail, actually in two different spots. I'd loved to have done more but time didn't permit it and it was very warm. I sometimes forget my own physical abilities, and definitely underestimate my mother's abilities. For years she's been far more physically able to do things like walk for hours and such. A combination of her aging and my improving physical fitness has flipped things around. I'd have loved to park the car and walk between the locks, however, that just wasn't realistic.

I loved watching the ships coming through the locks. It definitely brought back memories of our freighter trip. I've been through the Panama Canal twice - once on a cruise ship and once on a freighter, and I'd pick the freighter any day. On the cruise ship we had chairs set out for us, cold drinks provided, all the creature comforts. And of course we had priority transit, daylight hours, all in one shot.

On the freighter we entered the first set of locks in the dark, before sunrise. I went up to the bridge, met the local pilot who would take us partway through, helped myself to some instant coffee and just hung around. Once the work was over and we were secured, the pilot wandered over and chatted with myself, my mother and the captain. We saw the sunrise over the jungle lining the way. The pilot even pointed out a couple of crocodiles (something I'd have missed). I grabbed a nap while we were anchored in Lake Gatun in the middle of the day and watched the sun setting as we made our way out of the final lock, into the Caribbean. Oh, and during the day I took pictures from the bridge, a couple of decks, including a lower deck where I got shots up at the wall when we were in the low position.

Kind of makes me sad, that the time has passed from the trip, and I may never be able to afford to do it again. Maybe (and that's a big maybe) when I retire, but who knows. Anyway, I did take some pictures, lots of them, on Monday - so here's a few. You can click on them if you want to see a larger version.

I also discovered that I'm not unhappy with my current fitness level. I'm still a little touchy climbing steps, not sure how I can really work on that (but we'll see). I could walk around all day, and could have done longer than I did. I lifted and carried the cooler filled with ice, food, plates, cherries, etc. without any problems. And after lunch had a little walk down a path that I definitely could have walked longer on (but my mother was waiting).

All told, it was a good day. When walking around Niagara-on-th-Lake we bought a single slice of fudge, so that was the treat for the day. Kind of sad though as I got talked into a flavour I wasn't enthusiastic about (amaretto with nuts) and it was so not worth the calories. Didn't get into it until we got home, so I weighed out the two pieces she cut for me. 1.5 oz that I logged as 186 calories. Definitely not worth it!

Next time, seriously, ice cream!

When did I become a compulsive eater?

2009-07-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

I've always eaten more than I need to survive, that's a given. To my mind it was hunger driven as somewhere in the back of my head there's always a little voice saying 'feed me'. I can usually ignore it, primarily by spacing foods at regular intervals, making sure my protein levels are high, and drinking plenty of water.

So, why did I find myself this morning eating the following:

- a few potato chips
- a piece of cheese
- the biscuit I should have put the cheese on (like a normal person)
- a few more potato chips

I'd had a filling breakfast, chock full of protein and fiber. As the weather sucked this morning, I hadn't walked or anything. I hadn't done a food plan for the day (not unusual lately, especially since I wasn't 100% sure of what was for dinner), and I kept thinking I'd just work it in. The only positive thing really is that I stopped it at about 400 calories. I'm just wondering where this behaviour is coming from. In the past a lot of my excess calories came in late afternoon and late evening. Both, reasonably came from hunger to some extent.

The eating today came out of something else. I just haven't figured out what. It's a new thing, which in itself is odd. However, as I continue to lose weight I suppose it's just another thing I'll have to watch out for.

Anyway, the food plan is set for the rest of the day. I feel reasonably in control, although a little tired from my walk. If I feel I must then I'll add a protein shake in later in the afternoon. Or, considering how crappy the weather is outside... maybe I'll take a nap.

To eat, or not to eat

2009-07-21T07:24:00.001-07:00

I have no literary pretensions with the title, but it really was how I was feeling this morning. It can be so easy to talk yourself into eating more when you're trying to eat less. I can understand how people start to exercise more and then convince themselves that they deserve a little extra. Yet, as someone whose been through the 'eat too much, exercise too little' bit before it's definitely something that I struggle with.

Listening to my body doesn't help much because it's pretty much always telling me to eat.

Basically it started with my morning walk. This started out a while back between 30 and 45 mins, depending on whether it was a lifting day or not. I've discovered that I like to explore new routes. After a few weeks of the same route every day I started planning for longer walks. I was aiming for an eventual walk down to the lake and back, about a 5 mile (8 km) walk. I planned and did that during my maintenance week, as long walks on plenty of calories seemed like a good idea. Now back to my deficit I know that I want to continue these long walks but the question is do I need to eat more to support them?

I really don't know.

Yesterday I started with a nice 90 min walk, going down a couple of different paths I hadn't gone down before. It was interesting and when I got back I took the information from the HR monitor:

Time: 90 mins, 702 cals, Max HR: 157 (89%), Avg HR: 136 (77%)

Today I wanted to head to the end of the bike path. I wasn't really sure what happened to it past the point where I usually turn around. It winds through a bit of a forest, then heads in two possible directions (one back into another portion of the forest). Looking down at my watch though I'm 58 mins into the walk, and I still need to get home. I took a slightly shorter route home (cut about 5 mins off) and took the following information from the HR monitor:

Time: 112 mins, 859 cals, Max HR: 152 (86%), Avg HR: 134 (76%)

I talked myself into a bigger breakfast, adding an egg and half an ounce of cheese to the omelet I made. However, I immediately came down to the computer and adjusted the rest of my day to keep the calories in line. See, what I mean about confusion?

I know this summer I'm not that active most days. There's some watering of the plants, a little weeding and trimming, and a swim in the afternoon. However, the major activities in the garden are done until fall. So, maybe the longer walks are just making up for lack of activity. Or am I fooling myself? I just don't know.

Thoughts anyone?

Thinking about food

2009-07-18T13:08:00.001-07:00

Okay, not in the normal way. On a diet board the question was asked:

"Let's pretend we're not eating healthy, and this is like a last supper. What would you have?"

These women answered with the worst possible food choices ever. I don't know why, but I found that kind of sad. One or two answered with things that they had every now and then as a treat. However, for the most part the answers were downright scary.

- fried Chicken, mashed potatoes, sourdough rolls, with birthday cake & cookies and cream ice cream for dessert
- cheesecake, ice cream, cheese bread, chilli, french fries, ice cream cakes, alfredo pasta, feijoada (a brazilian dish with back beans - delicious) and so many other things....
- endless shrimp from Red Lobster, wash it down with a few frapps from Starbucks, and end it with a cheesecake from the cheesecake factory-all kinds of cheesecake from peanut butter to mocha, to rasberry
- pizza, french fries, cheesey garlic bread, barbeque chicken wings (I'm a vegetarian, but this is my last meal, right?), eggplant parm sub, and nachos with cheese, sour cream, and salsa...and a chalupa

I felt that my answer was kind of boring.

- my usual Sunday dinner (sirloin steak, corn) with perhaps some mushrooms and a potato with lots of butter

The reality is that I'd want corn if it were in season, but the potato would be a second choice. During the winter, when we were eating canned corn, I actually did cook some mushrooms with it. So, wow, I had my favourite meal at least a few times during the winter. I realized when answering that I truly enjoy the food I eat. To me, that's important. It's not that I don't make trade-offs (lower cal, less fat, whatever) but I don't force myself to choke down food I don't like simply because it's good for me. Of course, I'm lucky, I like fruits, vegetables, and multi-grain products. I swear, I prefer them.

My only problem, which is a big one, is that I'd like to eat them to excess. :-)

A milestone, so to speak

2009-07-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

Last week, while taking a break from lifting, I decided to keep up the walking. Of course, eating at maintenance levels made it easy to do. Well, not easy, but not as hard as I thought. I ended that week having walked just a bit over 18 miles. This week, of course, I felt I had to do more. I tend to be that way, always wanting to push it a bit.

I just worked it out, and this week I did a little over 20-1/2 miles. Part of my little brain is already thinking about how much for next week. I'm trying to reign that part of me in a little as my knee is still aching a little at night when I lay down. The major canning work this week probably didn't help.

I'm thinking about what I need to accomplish in the next seven weeks (before school starts). There's no question that I need to start taking in some of my clothing. I'm quite capable of doing the alterations myself, but I'm just not into it. I'll also have to smoke a turkey, and might have to do one (or both) of the pork shoulders. What I'd like to do is find a few new recipes. It's not like I don't have a ton of them to look through. There's also the internet. It's motivation... just looking for some I suppose.

Tired

2009-07-15T18:12:00.001-07:00

Okay, it's from yesterday, but with the concept of a picture being worth a thousand words....

My, that kitchen looks nice and tidy. Well, at least that side of it!

Kitchen Adventures, pt 2

2009-07-13T14:09:00.001-07:00

That last picture was the start of mulberry/sour cherry jelly. What it turned out being was mulberry/sour cherry syrup. I couldn't get the pectin test to gel so I gave up at some point. I think the problem was starting with a cherry concentrate. I should have waited until later in the week and actually used some fresh cherries. By the time I realized the problem it was really to late to do much with it. If I'd figured it out early enough I could have probably added boysenberries to it as they have plenty of pectin. If I'd kept boiled it I suppose I could have made fudge or hard candies or something (was getting too high of a temperature). Oh well, lesson learned I suppose.

I put it in jars and I'll use it up with either protein pancakes, or later on with post workout shakes.

Kitchen Adventures

2009-07-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

After my walk this morning I decided that there really wasn't much to water outside. I thought of sitting on the patio, listening to my audiobook. Then I reminded myself although it feels like summer vacation it isn't supposed to be! I'd found a website with a number of protein powder recipes (some of which I've already made higher protein versions) and decided to try one. We've had a box of sugar-free / fat-free pudding mix in the cupboard since last summer. Can tell that we're not really pudding fans? It was bought when I was in my Amish Sweet Bread starter cult last year. :)

I had also bought 2% milk in case someone wanted milk with their coffee yesterday. They didn't, which left me with 2 cups of milk that would never be used. So, the protein fudge pops sounded like a good idea (original recipe here - http://www.biprousa.com/recipe.asp?id=95 ). I obviously swapped out the skim milk for the 2% and used my own chocolate flavoured ISO XP Whey. I have a wonderful friend whose son works for them, and I get a regular supply at a very good price. In fact, last night it was free (much better than a bottle of wine as a hostess gift)!

So I mixed the dry powder with my own protein powder (55g which gives me 210 cals, 50g protein, 2g carbs, and under 1g fat) then whisked in 2 cups of cold milk. Two mins later I poured it into 8 popsicle molds and a small dish, giving me 9 servings. I ate the extra just a few minutes ago as a morning snack, but it wasn't filling and being only pudding I could eat it too quickly. However, once frozen, the pudding pops will be 66 cals each (47% protein, 37% carbs, 16% fat) and I think they'll be pretty tasty.

Then I started working on the real project...

(more on this one later)

Thinking about the local sights...

2009-07-10T14:37:00.000-07:00

I was thinking this morning that I have a wonderful place to walk. I think this goes back to reading about someone else running into a snake (hey Etana) and that is something I've never seen. Well, back in public school I might have seen a grass snake or some such thing. I think one of our cats used to bring them home, hanging out of her mouth.

This morning on my walk, I saw:

That's ducks in the middle picture. They were more shy than the canada geese, and took off swimming when I came down the short path to the lake. Now I will admit that today was probably the nicest route I've taken in a while, however, I still haven't run into any snakes!

This section of the lake is quite rocky. Further along the shore, closer to the edge of town there is a bit of a sandy beach. It's just not a lake I'd ever swim in, although I understand it's a lot cleaner than it was years ago. Nope, sorry, give me my nice pool any day. I just thought I'd drop in a few pictures taken at one of the parks today, just for the hell of it.

A few garden shots

2009-07-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hi Etana!

The problem I have with a few garden shots is that once I start, I never quite know where to stop. So I started off today with a few of the one side of the patio (mainly because it's currently in the sun).

That long pot is turning out to be one of my favourites this year, even though every spring I consider taking the brackets off the fence and not planting it.

This is what I always think of as the junk side of the house. The bins at the end hold any left over potting mix that isn't used. As we planted less pots this year at least two of them are pretty full.

Then I decided to plant myself down on one of the chairs on the patio and take a shot of the view.

Then I went to the other chair (visible in the first shot and took the following (left to right):

See, way too easy to get carried away!

An introduction....

2009-07-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

First posts tend to set the tone for what is to follow. I've blogged about an amazing trip I've taken , weight loss , and exercise. All of these were easy to write about. I closed up the blog (without actually taking it down) on the weight loss site today and realize that I kind of like rambling to myself. However, lately it seems that everything is too simplistic in my life. At a point where I was fairly comfortable in my career (quality engineer) I up and quit. Partially to take a trip that I figured I'd never get a chance to take again, but also to get away from a job choice that I wasn't entirely happy with.

Well, it worked. I came back from that trip, unemployed and uninterested in returning to the same field. Kind of a good thing as nobody really wanted to hire me. That's too simplistic of a statement really. It was closer to not wanting what I was being offered, and not being offered what I wanted. Confused yet? Fast forward a bit and I'm back in college taking Mechanical Engineering and feeling a bit at loose ends. Over at least the last decade I've defined myself by my work (to some extent), and here I am not working.

Smart person that I can sometimes be, I turned my energies back to losing weight. I'm more than halfway done losing a shitload of weight. Seriously, I'm not another woman whining about losing 20 pounds. Let's put it this way, in about 35 pounds I'll be half the weight I was when I started and still almost 60 pounds from what would be considered the top range of healthy for my height. I'm not saying that I won't talk about weight loss here, but the plan isn't for it to be the focus. Of course, since I don't really have a plan, who knows.

Along the way I discovered that I like throwing heavy things around (we're talking weights here), and this week I think I've discovered that I enjoy taking long walks. With the intensity that can be a good thing, or a bad thing, I took a nice 5 mile (8 kilometer) walk this morning. Very possibly because I'm bored. I'm out of school for the summer, couldn't find any low paying temporary work, and although I do spend a fair amount of time in the garden... it doesn't need constant attention.

I started some boredom inspired purging of clothing this week. In a good way, nothing I own fits anymore. Since the no working part also means no shopping, I'll spend some time altering clothing for the fall. Of course, that's not particularly interesting either. Hence the desire to ramble madly into cyberspace. I thought of finally finishing my facebook account, but I'm not sure that I'm THAT sociable. Maybe a better idea would have been writing porn or something.

That's enough for now. I'm not sure where/if I'll link this. I'm not sure that I'll post every day. Almost certainly not as I really seriously doubt that I have that much to say.