Walking

I didn't exercise this morning, and so I needed to do something tonight. I leashed up Pip and off we went.

I did my normal "walk the dog" route. At the half-way point, I checked my cell phone and we had only walked for six minutes. Holy tennis shoes, Batman, not good enough for today's exercise. In the past, it took me a half hour to walk this normal route, so I've shaved that considerably...due to my fitness being better and my puppy healing much better.

So we walked and we walked and we walked. I started to freak out because what if my legs gave out, what would I do. I don't walk this far, ever. We walked some more and came upon some fog and it was absolutely gorgeous. It had just rained and everything was fresh, foggy, and cool. I could smell wood stoves burning, I could see my breath! (Yeah, it's cold here tonight.) And I forgot about getting in 30 minutes, I forgot about where I was going, I forgot to worry about my legs giving out. I enjoyed the walk. So did Pip.

When we came back into a neighborhood, I checked my phone and it was time to head back. My legs were feeling this walk, as it works different muscles than Richard's videos. I feared we wouldn't get in an entire half hour and would hit 20 minutes. Was I surprised when I walked in my door and we had been gone 31 minutes. Woot!

Lots of small hills and they really winded me. Walking on flat ground is easy, but those hills--it was embarrassing to huff and puff on those small hills.

I wonder what people thought on one street we were on. It was a quiet street with no traffic, so Pip and I practiced about turns and u-turns. Over and over and over. lol Hopefully people didn't think I was stalking them or staking out their houses! lol

To be very honest, I don't like to walk. I do, but I don't. I have no desire to ever run. I love to read about everyone's 5Ks, but I have no interest in them. After tonight's walk, though, I think I have a desire to go on long walks more often. It was good training for my pup, it was good training for my legs.

Now don't laugh. I logged our walk in, and we went 1.40 miles. In 30 minutes. That's really slow, isn't it? It doesn't matter, because we got out there and did it.

Boring Afternoon, But 2 Great NSVs

Today was my day to volunteer at the library book sale. I dreaded it, and my dread was correct. It was as boring as watching paint dry. It could have been fun but the gal who volunteered with me was one of those women who talk incessantly about themselves, leaving no room for an actual conversation.

Yawn.

She said "shit" many times in front of patrons, "Jesus" and "bitch" were used, too. Have some class, lady. (I say those things in the privacy of my home or with certain people, but I would never do that in public.)

Then the president of our group showed up. I tried to engage him in pleasant conversation. Every time we started talking, she'd interrupt and start blabbing on. I just tuned her out. So did he. She was going on and on about something and in mid-sentence, the man turned and walked away. That made me smile on the inside (because I'm evil.)

I was also very saddened to learn that a good portion of donations are put into recycle piles. We discovered the pile, and there must have been a couple thousand books. I was shocked because there were books I would have bought if my son were younger. There were some of my donations as well. I donated a few sets, textbooks, teachers manuals and workbooks that we didn't use. The textbooks were on the shelves, but the teacher manuals and workbooks were in the recycle. My donations were mint condition, too.

There was an entire box of Zane Grey books, in mint condition.

I didn't understand the logic: put the clean books out and if they don't sell, then put them in the recycling. I will be rethinking what I donate in the future.

I was also dumbfounded to learn that the money from these sales does not buy books like one would assume. The money buys the social things for our library: A coffee bar, a Wii and Wii games. My son has gone to three of the Wii parties for teens, and at two of them, he was the only one to show up.

They need some good leadership. Personally, I'd rather the money go for books!

There's my rant for the day. Now for the NSVs:

It was cold and windy today, but expected to be in the 60s. I wanted to wear a short sleeve shirt, but I didn't have a spring coat that fit well. I have a few that are too tight and too short.

WRONG. I put my favorite blue coat on, expecting to look like a sausage stuffed into its casing, when lo and behold, the coat was long, the sleeves went to my knuckles, and I could zip it up plus put something under if need be. lol

This NSV just shocked me, because I wasn't thinking about weight or fit or anything, just dreading wearing the too-small coat. Wow, what a pleasant surprise.

~~~

One of the volunteers this morning brought in two plates of brownies. Great big, beautiful chocolate brownies. They smelled divine. Another plate of cranberry and orange brownies. They didn't tempt me at all. lol I sat there with the brownies within my reach the entire afternoon and didn't even want one. I did enjoy the smell, but I just had no desire to eat one.

So a weird afternoon. I'm glad I volunteered, it's nice to be helpful. I prefer to be a recluse and not have to deal with self-absorbed yackers, but I had some pleasant moments with patrons. I got out of the house, which is always good. I didn't eat a brownie and my coat was too big.

Not bad at all!

Off Days

Ever have a day where you just feel off?

Yesterday was my day. I was just annoyed with everything, yesterday. Until dinner, that is.

I'm just about to go exercise, and I decided since I was being snitty yesterday, that I would do Dance Your Pants Off again. I won't woo with them, because I'm a quiet person and don't woo--but I do woo-hoo on comments!--and I'll enjoy the routine. Because it is good.

So my lesson learned is this: Don't do anything other than the Sweatin' 1-4 on days that I'm just annoyed. The other days I'm good. lol

The other lesson learned is this: Yesterday I was annoyed at MYSELF and projecting it on to everything else.

All day, until dinner. I was annoyed that I volunteered to help at the book sale at the library Saturday afternoon, because I'd rather not. I was annoyed that I am not doing my housework like I used to. I've gone from an immaculate home to a clean-but-messy-at-the- moment home. (Well, actually it needs its weekly cleaning, but...) I'm annoyed that my wound is still weeping. I'm annoyed that only Flex Band-Aids stick without adding medical tape, and I'm out of those because I was too lazy to go to the store. I'm annoyed that I cannot multi-task. I'm annoyed at myself for getting so unhealthy.

So I had my pouty, snitty day yesterday. Today I have taken action to give myself an attitude adjustment. I've been cleaning, I've been getting some things done that needed done. We're about done with school for the day. So it's better.

I'm not annoyed anymore.

I'm Goofy

I've got the giggles. I'm very tired, trying to relax a bit before heading off to bed. I was just reading TJ's blog, where she posted the picture of "that" and how creepy and scary it is. I so get that. When I first saw "that" I stared at it for about five minutes, blew it up as large as I could, trying to figure out what it was. I still don't know.

Then I got the giggles, and then they got loud. I woke up my son. That's how GOOFY I am. He came out and looked at the picture, rolled his eyes and said, "I know it looks like an alien, but MOM, it's photoshopped." Then he went back to bed.

He took all my tired fun away. I was really laughing about this. All because I read TJ's reaction to it, and I had the SAME reaction the first time I saw it, fearing it could sneak into my house or something.

I then left a stupid and goofy comment on her blog. TJ, congrats on reaching 100 posts. "That" is not your prize. I was just kidding. Forgive me for being tired and silly.

~~~~

In other goofy news, we had our dog obedience class tonight. The teacher didn't show, so the assistant taught the class. Um, no comment. lol Before class, I mentioned that there is an Olive Garden in this town, and since it's my favorite restaurant in the world, we could eat there tonight instead of Taco Bell and celebrate Mother's Day early. Everyone agreed.

After class, my husband pipes up and says: "We can't go to the Olive Garden, we just bought dog food, a new long-line leash, a new water dummy and I don't want to spend the money."

I didn't say a word.

I was driving. Guess--just guess where we ate dinner?

The great news? I ordered my favorite, Cheese Ravioli. I had a large salad with dressing on the side, one breadstick, and by the time I had eaten half the ravioli on my plate, I was STUFFED. I was floored. My stomach must be smaller. I had enough points to eat the whole thing, but I couldn't! This is an absolute first. I used to put away the entire ravioli, a salad, and tons of breadsticks.

I recognized I was full, I stopped eating and got a doggie bag to bring it home. So lunch or dinner tomorrow.

I told my husband after dinner that this is how skinny people live. (I assume.) They enjoy great food that they love from time to time, but they are not gluttons. This is how I want to live the rest of my life, not only recognizing when I'm full, but actually stop eating when I'm full. How cool is that!

Fishy

Last night we tried Talapia for the first time. I found it in the freezer section at Wal-mart, just as Jessica at Pudget blogged about.

I'm not a fish eater. Tuna, I love. Fish, well, it's fishy. Of course I used to love the deep-fat fried salmon patties Mom used to make when I was a kid, but that's a no-no now.

I was actually surprised by the Talapia. It didn't taste bad. It wasn't bad at all. I had 4 ounces, which was 100 calories. That surprised the heck out of me. It was 2 WW points. My hubby prepared the fish with lemon juice and butter-flavor Pam and pan fried them.

We need to learn how to cook it, though, because it was kind of bland. We both put too much salt on it at the table. I added ICBINB (only I use the Parkay brand) butter spray to mine as well.

The only bad thing was I was hungry, very hungry, an hour after dinner. We had the fish, rice and a salad.

(My son loved it, and he's as picky as I am.)

So I will definitely buy it again, search for different ways to prepare it, and enjoy the fact that there is a fish out there besides tuna that I will eat. I need to get creative with the meal, though, to bulk it up a bit so I stay full. That will be easy to figure out.

I don't know if Talapia is a heart-healthy fish or not. We'll eat it, though, to add variety.

Next time we have fish, it will be Salmon fillets, again found at Wal-mart.

So the moral of the story is: Yes, you can get a picky eater (me!) to try new foods and actually like them. Now to get that to work veggies. ;-)

Woo Woo

I just finished working out. I did Richard Simmons' Dance Your Pants Off today.

I didn't like it.

I remember now why I never did the tape on a regular basis.

It's not the routine, I love the routine. It's not the music, I love the music. It's not the set, it's a great set.

It's the wooing. Wooo. Wooo. Wooo. The exercisers in the video are always wooing. Loudly.

It drives me crazy.

I know why they woo, it's because they're working out and having fun. I know it's in the tape because it adds an energy, an element of fun. I get that.

To me, though, this is MY time. I want to escape into the music and only hear what Richard has to say--instruction wise. I don't want woos. I love to watch the people. I think it's inspirational. I just don't want to hear them.

How selfish of me, eh?

I have a child who makes a lot of noise. A lot. At times I can't take his weird little noises he makes just for the fun of it, and I ask him politely to stop. He does, for 30 seconds, then forgets and makes weird noises. Kids do that. He's a teenager, and I guess teenagers do that, too.

I have three dogs. That's a lot of noise.

We live next to senior citizens who have a poodle who walks on water--at least in their eyes. The dog barks all day long, every day. Yip yip yip yip yip. We can hear the dog barking in our house with the windows closed--even when he's in his house with the windows closed. I have lost all enjoyment of my back yard due to their dog, because I cannot stand the noise. The minute I step outside, the dog is in the window barking at me. That dog makes 90% more noise than all three of ours do put together. It makes more noise than all the dogs on the street.

They never tell him no.

I just don't do noise. I have too much of it in my life.

So I don't want woos. I just want to completely escape into the music. I want to watch with my eyes, sing along in my head, but I just don't want the woos.

I guess I'll stick to the Sweatin' to the Oldies series because I can escape when I'm doing that.

Obesity

I was just reading a new-to-me blog (Laurie at Laurie's Journey to Better Health) where she was talking about her goals. I share some of the same goals: getting to within a normal weight range. Don't we all! After reading her blog, I got to thinking about my goal chart, I don't think I put in obesity/overweight/normal weight range. I want to update that, because I just love reaching goals.

Right now, I am morbidly obese. It's hard to admit, and those are two very ugly words to me. I Googled to come up with a weight-range chart for morbid obesity, to find out when I will be obese and not morbidly obese.

I hit the Wikipedia site and learned something new.

Instead of underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese and morbid obesity, they have three stages of obesity. And to top that off, there are two stages of the third stage of obesity, which I didn't know.

Make sense?

If your BMI is:

< 18.5 you are underweight
18.5–24.9 you are within normal weight
25.0–29.9 you are overweight
30.0–34.9 Class I obesity
35.0–39.9 Class II obesity
> 40.0 Class III obesity

Any BMI > 40 is severe obesity
A BMI of 40.0–49.9 is morbid obesity
A BMI of >50 is super obese

Okay, so my BMI right now is 43.4 which puts me in the Class III/morbid obesity range still. I started out at a 47.

So now I get to update my goal chart to include the various stages of obesity as mini-goals. I never knew there were classes to that at all.

To get to a 39.9, CLASS II OBESITY, I will have to weigh 240.

To get to 34.9, CLASS I OBESITY, I will have to weigh 210.

To get to 29.9, OVERWEIGHT, I will have to weigh 179.

To get to 24.9, NORMAL, I will have to weigh 149.

Wow, that's less than my current goal of 162. I'll worry about that when I get there. It is still unimaginable to me to get that low. I try to picture it in my mind, I look at old photographs, but it's so long ago and so foreign to me. I'm really working at forming a picture of it in my mind, though.

These numbers are humbling and overwhelming. I don't think I could have made this chart when I started out, because it would have been too depressing. I'm thrilled to be reaching each 5-pound goal I have, and I'm coming up on a 25-pound goal, too. I have to think small otherwise it would just get me down. And I don't need down. I'm feeling so much better now, I don't want anything to spoil that!