23 1/2 hours a day

I saw this video months ago and I've thought about it various times since.  Lucky for you I have a terrible case of pregnancy insomnia and my youtube trolling let me find it again.




You have no idea at all how hopeful this makes someone whose weight passed up her husband's last week.

Bugged

I don't normally use this blog as a place to vent but today I just have to.

I went to the doctor today for my blood glucose test and my 29 week appointment.  Looking at my chart my doctor said, "you've gained 19 lbs so far.  I guess we're doing okay."

Okay?  Really?  I've gained 19lbs in 29 weeks (when the doctor's recommended weight gain is between 25 and 35 lbs) which makes me right on track to gain 30 lbs if I gain 1 lb a week for the last 11 weeks (which is average).

You better believe that I gave her absurdly tiny Asian body (which has never had kids) a really nasty look.

Then I came home and ate 3 Rice Krispy treats. 

He ain't heavy, he's my brother

Okay, in Claire's case he is actually heavy.
She's recently learned the word heavy and how the dramatic use of it gets a laugh from anyone who happens to be around. I think it all started when she was trying to bring a bucket of Legos into the living room.  They are actually kind of heavy and as she was straining along she let out a gasping, "heavy, heavy." I'm sure that I giggled and repeated what she said before I went over to help her (actually me telling her that she could push them across the floor while I sat on the couch sounds a little bit more like what I actually did).  Since then everything is a gasping, "heavy, heavy."  The diaper bag, a book, her plate of apple slices as she moves them from her little table to the big table.

Humm.  A penchant for dramatics and a propensity to overstate physical accomplishments.
Wonder where she got that?

******
Last year I read this incredible book about a women's organization to which I belong called the Relief Society and how the early members just did incredible things (like start their own nursing clinics and fight for rights for the disabled).  After reading it and talking in a book club about it we decided that we wanted to be women who were worth putting in the book.  You may remember our Christmas project to make care packages for babies who had to be in the NICU on Christmas.

Right after I read that book I signed up to be a volunteer for the local YMCA.  It's a good thing that I signed up then because the feeling of wanting to be book-worthy has sort of passed but I already agreed to it.  However, I do believe in being part of a community and I am incredibly lucky and blessed and I feel the desire to give back.  So here's to rekindling the book-worthy fire!

It's the Y's annual fundraiser.  Here's my volunteer page.  As you can see I still have a lot of work to do (and I only have to the end of the month--though I did get donations yesterday so it's not as grim as it looks).  Whoops.  The Y is an incredible organization that promotes community and fitness.  No one is turned away from the Y because they can't afford the dues.  No one.  As much as I love 24 Hour Fitness they just can't say that. That's why the hubbs and I have decided to provide swimming lessons for 3 children.

So if you can, please give back.  The Y is worthy of your support. How many swimming lessons can you provide?

Questions, Questions, Questions

I've been reading this book by Frances Kuffel.  She wrote a book a couple of years ago that I just loved called Passing for Thin.  Eating Ice Cream with my Dog is her second book and I didn't like it as well.  It was still interesting and I finished it.

Frances has lost more than half her body weight by going to overeaters anonymous (OA).  Her books talk about the physical aspects of losing weight and the emotional side too.  In a voyeuristic kind of way I am intrigued by the information given about OA.

Every night Frances answers the following questions to her sponsor.

"What did I eat today? What exercise did I have today? wheat did I do today that I like and respect myself for? (or how did I behave better than I felt?) What project was my priority for today and how much progress did I make on it? What do I plan to do next? What did I do for someone else today? What did I do for myself today? What happened today that I enjoyed and appreciated that had nothing to do with me? What boundaries did I honor? Where did I have problems today? What am proudest of today? On a scale of one to ten, how much close interaction did I have with people today? What made me feel feminine today? What made me feel loved and appreciated today? What will I eat tomorrow?"

Okay.  Now aside from the eating questions (what, you're saying you didn't eat an entire candy bar today?) and some of the ones about boundaries the idea of answering those questions is appealing to someone who spends her days looking after a toddler.

What project was my priority for today and  how much progress did I make on it?  I wanted to get the bedroom cleaned up and to take the goodwill pile to the goodwill.  I bagged it up and separated it out but didn't actually deliver it.  And I put away all of the laundry for good measure.

What happened today that I enjoyed and appreciated that had nothing to do with me?  Today Claire went to the beach without me.  I had a doctor's appointment so she went to the beach with her friends Maggie and Jane.  I hear she had a wonderful time.  I am so pleased that she had fun but there is a small part of my heart that is sad that she didn't need me at all.  I was reading on the couch looking out for her when she got back and when I saw her little pink tutu-ed body out the window as she got out the car my heart did a little leap inside.

I won't bore you with the answers to all of the questions (that would make for a very long blog post) but I did think that if I took the time each night to answer all of those questions it might be a little easier to remember that my life has great meaning.

What about you? What are you proudest of today? What made you feel loved and appreciated?

And the nice thing about these questions is that you don't have to fess up that you took a nap on the couch while your living room looked like this.

My name is Sallee and I.....

I don't know what it is but every time I see any kind of article that talks about health and diet I have to read it.  I'm the reason that yahoo headlines are littered with stories of people who lost lots of weight and why there is an article about the 10 best "insert food here" every time you turn you head.  Sorry. 

So last week at the dentist office when I saw the TIME magazine from Sept 12 with a cover of Dr Oz saying "What you should eat now" I latched onto it.  I started reading it as I was waiting for the receptionist and I carried it with me through the appointment and only finished while I was waiting for them to print up my bill. I did consider taking it with me but decided that would be dishonest.

TIME doesn't publish full articles online so here is a contraband link and here's a link to a good summary (do not read the comments--it turns into a vegetarian and vegan free for all).  The article didn't tell me anything new (they never do).

The main points are as follows.

• It’s not necessary to restrict ourselves to low-fat foods.
• It’s OK to eat eggs, whole milk, salt, fat, nuts, wine, chocolate and coffee — as long as we don’t overindulge.
• The only fat accepted as “bad” is trans-fat, and that has been stripped out of most foods.
• Dietary cholesterol is less important than we used to think and is irrelevant to some people who have good genes.
• Excess salt is dangerous mainly for the minority of people with salt-sensitive high blood pressure.
• Foods labeled “fat free” don’t taste as good, so manufacturers add more salt, sugar, and thickeners, and people tend to eat more calories.
• Fad diets work by restricting food choices: they result in fluid loss and decreased calorie intake, and the weight lost comes right back when people stop the diet.
• The low carb diets change nutritional balance in ways that may not be desirable (and they give you stinky breath)
• The paleo diet?  Maybe not ideal as it is tailored to people who only lived to 40.  But they did look good.
• Weight loss is hard. To maintain a healthy weight, calories consumed must equal calories burned.
• High fiber foods augment satiety.
• One study showed that the foods most associated with weight gain are French fries, potato chips, sugary drinks, meat, sweets and refined grains and the foods most associated with successful weight loss are yogurt, nuts, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
• There are no elusive “superfoods.”
• Exercise is important but it doesn't give make it so you can eat anything you want.

Wait.  Let me see if I've got this right. You're trying to tell me that people who eat French fries, potato chips, sugary drinks, meat, sweets and refined grains tend to gain weight and those that eat yogurt, nuts, whole grains, fruits and vegetables lose it?

Incredible.

I never would have guessed.

TIME magazine, you dedicated a cover story and 8 pages to that?  Didn't Michael Pollen sum it up a little more concisely when he said, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants?"

But here's the kicker.  I ate it up.  I hoarded that magazine and read the whole dang 8 pages.Why do I keep searching and scouring the internet for articles about what to eat and the caloric content of things? I already know the answer:

Eat food (not food like substances.  Pollen says that if your great-grandmother wouldn't reconginze what you're eating you shouldn't be eating it--twinkies I'm looking at you), not too much, mostly plants.

So what are your internet pitfalls?  What articles can you just not pass up?

Taking a hint

Last week I had to go to the doctor's office and run a couple of errands.  I dropped Claire off at babysitting co-op and was going about my business.  Before I went to the bank (where there is no bathroom) I stopped off at the gym (which is right next to the bank and does have a  bathroom).

I am the kind of a girl who goes to the gym to go to the gym.  I almost always go first thing in the morning and I hardly even brush my hair back into a ratty pony-tail before I'm out the door.  When I popped in to use the restroom I was actually dressed--jeans, a white button-down shirt, some cute ballet flats and I'd done my hair and make up.

You would have thought that I had grown a third eye.

Three or four people walked out from behind the desk to greet me, all cooing and telling me how great I looked.  The manager said, "Honestly, I would not have even recognized you!"  The response I got was beyond flattering and well into the realm of humiliating.  I wasn't even that dressed up and I didn't look that cute.  I had just been to a doctor's appointment for goodness sake.

So I guess that the ratty Hanes 3-to-a-pack men's t-shirts and ill-fitting shorts from Smiths' Marketplace aren't really cutting it.  Might be time to invest in some appropriate workout gear.

Suggestions?

*** And seriously--this image has to be altered right?....YIKES.  Cute clothes but she looks like a skeleton

When Riding Bikes

On Saturday we rode our bikes around the lake with some of our good friends.  They have two kids (aged 1.5 and 3).  We caravan-ed to the lake and as we were setting up our bikes and trailers the 3 year-old took out his own bike. I had just assumed that he would ride in the trailer but his good parents told him that he could ride his bike for as long as he wanted and then throw it in the trailer and ride back there when he got tired. 

He was an incredible little rider and likes people to call him Super Dog rather than his name.  He rode along at full speed, little legs pumping as fast as they could and then when he got tired he would go immediately from full speed pedaling to stopped, lying on the side of the road panting. After a couple of stops his parents told him that is was probably time to jump in the trailer.  To which he responded by singing his own super hero theme song at the top of his lungs and jumping back on his bike.  He made it the whole way around--5 miles.  On tiny legs. With a bike that weighs more than mine does. Singing his own super hero theme song.