Small Slice

I'm taking this show on the road - BigSlice is BlogHer bound!  I'll be updating from the conference... if you're at BlogHer this year, give me a shout! 

Posted by Jenny at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been very busy this month...busy to the point where grocery shopping is not happening on a frequent basis.  I've neglected my meal planning, and really, I've thrown the calorie awareness to the wind.  I've been getting all judge-y and feeling guilty, when I dawned on me that despite my utter lack of a master plan, I've been sticking with fairly healthy choices, and I'm okay.

I'm just fine.  You know who isn't fine with all this busyness?  The kids.  They are sick of me working, sick of the back of my head and the tap-tap-tapping of the keyboard.  We've been cutting out of here for a few hours each day, swimming at the pool, playing in the park, seeing a movie or just doing errands, but we've been At Home for much of this month.  This isn't exactly how I pictured summer, but then again - I don't recall my parents planning fun-filled days of adult-led exploration and adventure.  No, they put us in swimsuits and terrycloth shorts-sets and sent us out into the backyard.  Or sent us to the pool with a pack of our friends. We rode our bikes and made up clubs and spent the summer with our siblings and our peers. 

These kids of mine are outside digging in the dirt as I speak, pretending to be archeologists digging up artifacts from long ago.  They are filthy.  I am biting back the urge to hose them down just yet - they are having fun, and I'm getting some much needed time to blog.

As I get ready for this weekend's Wii party (more on that next week) and next week's trip to BlogHer, I glance at the calendar and realize that summer is almost gone.  The kids are back in school in less than a month.  Why are the days slipping by so fast?

It is funny...every day while I do my DVD workout, I know it so well that I don't have to listen much anymore.  My brain wanders, and I find myself laughing about an earlier conversation, going over my list of tasks still undone, planning dinner.  As the sweat starts to drip down my back, I lose myself in the motion, and it becomes a meditation.  I've been very active, many times in my life, but I cannot ever recall finding it a peaceful experience, until now.

Even with the peppy music, and the speed of my limbs, I become very introspective as I plow through the workout.  It has become MY time.  An hour a day where I can get my heart-rate pumping, yes - but more than that, it is a time when the busyness stops.  It releases stress, and I feel fantastic when I hit the eject button at the end.  I've started to look forward to that hour, and I find that I will make the time, even when there are more pressing issues at hand.  What a trip, huh?

Even the kids respect "The Hour."  They will pop in and out, joining in for a few bursts of walking or quietly watching from the couch.  They know that once I get going, I'm going to be nicer, more patient, and generally happier.  It  has made a huge difference for all of us.

I wish I could say that I've been as affected by the desire to eat healthy foods.  I'm not.  I still crave things that I'm not supposed to crave, and eat portions larger than strictly necessary.  All in good time.

All in good time.

Posted by Jenny at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Why, hello!  The week is underway!  (Note to self:  post on Mondays.  Doh!)

It is a very bright and sunny 6:30 in the morning here at Big Slice headquarters, and I'm feeling great.  This is rather remarkable, because I pulled out my scale for the first time in about a month and hopped on it yesterday.  More on that in a minute.

My most recent 10-day challenge - daily stepped up exercise plus journaling was a 50% success.  Me and journaling, we just don't get along.  Me and the stepped up daily exercise, however - whoooo!  I'm absolutely loving how my body responds to the daily exercise, and I've found myself contemplating how to build up the intensity and push myself more.

Me!  Pushing myself!  More? 

"Who are you, and what have you done with Hermione Granger Jenny Lauck?"

With BlogHer a mere 10 days away, I've been noticing a lot of posts around the internet of women who are trying to lose a few pounds (or, you know, 30) before BlogHer.  I suspect there are a lot of crash diets, frantic exercise, and probably the purchase of a bunch of Spanx.  That was me last year.  Blown diet, an 11th hour attempt to sweat off a few pounds, and the futile attempt to encase myself in spandex, resulting in a sausage-like appearance.

This year, I'm proud of the progress I've made.  I went shopping this weekend, and picked up a couple of new dresses and tops, and discovered that I've lost a dress size since I scored the dress I wore to my friend's wedding.  It's a small victory, but a visible one.

Which is why when I stepped on the scale yesterday and saw 172 blinking at me, I couldn't care less.  It is muscle, baby.  ALL MUSCLE.  My waist is trimmer, my arms are thinner, my legs more shapely. 

How did you guys do?  Did you stick with the challenge? 

Posted by Jenny at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday, I only did some half-hearted arm, chest and back exercises.  Although I've covered over 72 miles marching along in my living room in the last 18 days, I'm curiously disappointed that I didn't manage to squeeze my daily walking DVD.  I missed it, and was reluctant to go to bed last night, even though I was physically spent.

Today, I tied on my shoes and got back to it.  I feel really great about it, too.

It seems that I'm spending a lot of time bragging about my exercising, but since that is all I've really got going on positive on the whole diet and exercise front, I'm going to keep tooting my own horn.

I've given up on the journaling before I even got cookin' over here.  I just can't seem to get into it, especially trying to track it online.  I think I need to take it offline, do it old skool on binder paper, and combine my efforts with some actual menu planning again, because I haven't been good about that.

But I'm exercising!  Yay me!  *toooooot*

Posted by Jenny at 7:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm writing down what I eat, when I can be bothered, and it isn't good news over here, people.  I'm eating way too much of the wrong kinds of foods.  I can't even bring myself to put it onto fitday - I know the visual of the inbalance in my nutrition will put me right over the edge into loserville.  And not the good kind of loser, either.

My exercise streak, however - I'm willing to brag about that.  I've really continued to do well, and I'm continuing to push myself just past my natural quitting point, and it is paying off.  I'm stronger, my stamina is much better, and I'm actually happy.

Now, if I could just stop rewarding myself for a good workout by eating something less-than-healthy.  I keep reading in these diet books that a great workout should make you want to eat less, or at least, choose something virtuous.  Me?  I have a good sweat and I start craving sweets.  Ice cold Coke, in particular.  I haven't had a Coke in eons - and it probably wouldn't taste good to me now, anyway.  But it is weird how I start immediately craving crap when I finish a workout. 

Watermelon just doesn't fill that void.

In other news, we've got some sort of virus in the house, and I've got an upset stomach, my son is throwing up, my husband and youngest are sound asleep with fevers.  My oldest daughter, however, is fine, if attitudinal.  She's into that hand on the hip, eye-rolling huffy stage already.

I'm off to drink more water  - whee!  And then I'm going to squeeze in my workout before I collapse in front of the television and hopefully get to bed early tonight.   

Posted by Jenny at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I've added my breakfast to my fitday account and it reminded me why I hate journaling in general.  Fitday is a brilliant resource, but it is those damn pie graphs that set me off.  I start panicking if they show too much fat, or too little carbs, or not enough protein, and while I know - I KNOW that it is the overall daily consumption that matters, not the individual meals, I just have this burning urge to eat perfectly balanced meals when I'm on the record.

And that isn't practical most of the time.

So, I'm going to have to work hard to let that angsty b.s. go so that I can just go through the motions of writing down the food and exercise I do.  That's all.  No judgments, no panic.  Just recording it and moving along.

When did I turn into such a ninny about this stuff?  I swear I'm getting more neurotic as the months pass and the scale stays stubbornly fixed.  I am beginning to suspect that this is a lot like wanting to be in love.

You know what I mean - when you are single and want to be in a relationship, you comb every crowd with your eyes looking for "the one."  You read books on successful dating, talk non-stop about your wish-list for a perfect mate, scrutinize your faults and spend equal amounts of time on optimism and pessimism. 
At some point, if "the one" doesn't materialize, you give up, and get back to living your life.  You realize that you are pretty great on your own anyway, and life is too short to spend waiting for "the one."  There you are, going on with your bad self, and along comes someone - maybe even "the one" you were pining for.  They are attracted to you because you're not busy beating yourself up - you're happy and independent.   You don't ooze that  smell of desperation.  You like yourself.

The best relationship advice I ever got:  Seek out someone who likes you as much as you like yourself. 

But all of that assumes that you like yourself, doesn't it? 

My scale broke... again.  This is the weight-loss gods telling me to stop obsessing, I think.  This is my big whollop on the head, telling me to stop looking for numbers, and to get back to doing what I know makes me feel good.  Eat well, if not perfectly balanced.  Exercise daily.  Play with my kids, cook favorite foods, swim and ride my bike and read some good fiction.  Maybe bury all the diet books in the yard. 

And maybe, I'll be happy and scale-free and going about my happy, healthy lifestyle, and I'll stumble across a scale that tells me what I want to hear.  I don't know if that is how it happens, but I'm going to give it a try.

Posted by Jenny at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been a pretty conscientious label-reader for years, and I base a lot of my packaged food purchases on the information displayed on the label.  I always assumed that this information was verified and an honest representation of what the package contained.

Then I read this article:

Nutrition-label cheating rampant

During the past decade, Hammock has become a label crusader. She monitors diet chat rooms to learn what low-calorie or low-carb products people are buzzing about.

Then she sends samples of the product to an independent lab for testing.

In one case, her co-workers were raving about Pirate's Booty, a cheese-flavored puffed-rice snack. The label boasted that one serving contained 120 calories and 2.5 grams of fat. Yet when Hammock tasted it, she knew better.

"It didn't taste like a low-fat, low-calorie snack. It tasted like Cheez Doodles," she says.

Indeed, the lab found that Pirate's Booty contained 147 calories and 8.5 grams of fat per serving -- 6 grams more than the label claimed.  (click on the header to read the entire article)

Seriously, what the hell?  This makes me so frustrated.  And it reaffirms my desire to stay the heck away from packaged foods.  There is no cheating a cucumber, or steamed rice.  An apple is an apple.  Did any of you guys ever suspect this kind of thing?  Et tu, Pirate's Booty?  Maybe I'm just naive.

Posted by Jenny at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I did my daily 4 mile walk/jog with no faltering and no excuses for the last 10 days!  Woo hoo!  Admittedly, I've already established the daily working out thing, but I really had to push myself to go that extra mile - and I'm so glad that I did. 

The scale hasn't budged, but my figure has changed.  My waist is smaller, my legs and butt are firm.  Firmer, I guess.  I don't know.  They look much better.  And my arms, too.  I have great energy, too.  I'm not tempted to collapse on the couch after working out...this is a huge improvement.

I also did this little number yesterday.  My side is a bit sore, and the area is tender to the touch.  I did my workout anyway - and mercifully, the bruised area isn't one that gets a lot of strain from the DVD. 

I'm feeling so victorious right now, you guys.  I feel like I really accomplished something good.  It is that darn Leslie "Feel Good" Sansone woman.  She's all positive and perky and motivating for me.  Whatever works, eh?

Fresh off of this 10 day challenge, I'm going to start again on a 10 day burst tomorrow...and this time, I'm going to journal my food on fitday.com faithfully.  I did a bunch of different online calculators, plus used my own brain, and realized that in order to really and truly lose this weight, I'm going to have to restrict my calories.  And until I REALLY get how much of certain foods I can eat without maxing out on calories for the month, I need to be sort of anal-retentive about it.

Have I mentioned that I hate counting calories?  Because I HATE IT.

Stay tuned - I'll be putting my foods in my public fitday journal starting tomorrow.  My target calorie consumption is between 1200 and 1400 calories.  10 days of accountability, plus 10 days of kicked up exercise routines. 

Who's in?  Shall we have a little contest with a prize for finishers?  Hmm?  Let's!

Track your food and your exercise minutes for the next 10 days.  You can use any of the online tools available, or jot it down on binder paper, whatever.  To be considered a finisher, you need to do at least 30 minutes of daily exercise, plus write down every bite you take.  I don't care if you actually figure out the calories. 

Our contest dates:  I'll be nice, and we'll start officially on Friday the 6th, to give everyone a chance to get set up to roll.  So, we'll go Friday the 6th to Sunday the 15th.  Leave a comment and let me know you are up for the challenge. 

Posted by Jenny at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm in day 9 of the 10 day exercise challenge I'm doing.  I'm surprised and pleased to report that while the first four days or so were very challenging and left me worn out, my workout today flew by, and I found that I actually enjoyed the jogging intervals.

Did you hear that?  I enjoyed JOGGING.

I mean, okay, it is for two minutes at a stretch, so come on, right?  But when I finished the end-of-DVD stretches today, I felt fantastic.  And it dawned on me that I've felt fantastic every day this last week.  Woo!  Endorphins!

On the food front, I'm not doing as well.  I sort of had a bender yesterday - breakfast out with eggs and hash browns in huge portions, not enough water, not enough fruits and veggies, brownies before bed...

You know what?  I refuse to even dwell on it.  So what.  I had a damn brownie.  It was a totally awesome treat, and I'm over it now.

This week, I'm going to focus on really getting my fresh fruits and veggies in.  With temperatures over 100 degrees expected every day this week, I'm looking forward to concocting fruit salads, cold veggie dishes, finger sandwiches... in short, anything I don't have to cook.  I'll make an exception for some of those awesome sweet potato recipes you guys gave me...I cannot wait to sink my fork into a bowl of those.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got an ice-cold watermelon calling my name. 

Posted by Jenny at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)