August 27

This has been a very big week, with Griff's school starting, Curtis gone 3 days, and his sister passing away on Tuesday. We have not made it out to exercise. But I did sign up with Weight Watchers online again and I've been counting points. For a lark I stepped on the scale this morning and I was down another 1.5 pounds. So curtis stepped on, and he's down some 4 pounds. And Griff was actually up a bit and came back down. So this week of not working out maybe was a good thing. I want to talk to the boys a bit out the points before we leave for the funeral in South Carolina on Saturday. They will be by themselves for 5 days under the care of friends. Usually I bought them frozen breakfasts, but this time they will just have cereal. The frozen biscuits with sausage and egg or the breakfast burritos are so very very full of calories. I think they'll have a good chance of being down more pounds next week even without the workouts. Tho Josh will still have his.

I talked with my doctor this morning, annual check up, and she was saying that this very morning is an article in the paper about more success with eating less than exercise. She also cited her experience with women who have gastric bypass who would loose mass amounts of weight from eating so much less, and not exercising at all.

Still, exercising is for my head and my head rules my body, so I will continue this path. It is indeed a good thing. Good habit for Griff and Josh.

Josh will be done with football come November, and he will benefit from going to the gym with Griff and I.

So all is well tho I don't know how much I'll write in the next week. Dr. also thought it was cool because "maybe it can become a book." :-)

August 23, weight in

Well, we must have needed another day! This week was a wash. Kind of surprising to me, but I guess that is the way it goes. We all stayed still. Hey, that's better than backwards.

Yesterday I took the kids to Great America, the final summer hurrah. I guess the food yesterday was pretty trashed. I did bring quite a few good snacks that we all ate---even apples.

This next week is sure to show more. I think Josh and Griff's faces are looking thinner this week, even compared to last.

August 21

Griff and I did 20 minutes on the treadmill and 30 on the bikes.

I don't know why but my heart rate seemed to be easily high yesterday. Is that a sign of being more fit? Of being too warm? I did wear a longer sleeved shirt...Or what?

The workout we did Tuesday was good and hard, I did the leg press--my legs were sore the next day--and the workout yesterday seemed easier than usual. I was able to run faster for longer. And the bike usually is an effort to get my heart rate up was simpler. Maybe I'm getting stronger?

I made a terrible dinner last night. Curtis wasn't home so I thought I'd do something I've been thinking about, and made a vegetarian meal. The boys wanted burritos, so I used the ww tortillas. These particular torillas, however, do indeed taste like sawdust. Curtis complains of many things tasting like sawdust that does NOT to me, but these actually do to even me. Then I put refried vegetarian beans and a tiny bit of cheese. They were dry and boring. Would have been bearable with good salsa and guacamole, I suppose! I made Griffy promise to me never let me make those again!

August 20

Griff worked out with Curtis at the gym yesterday. They did half hour of xtrainer, half hour of weights and 20 minutes on the bike.

I went for a half hour walk...very busy work day.

Tuesday we worked out at the together, very similar workout, Griff seems to be leading out in the machines of choice.

Photos

August 18

Yesterday was day off for walking.

I did a quick 20 minute anyway while waiting for my car to be smogged.

Josh's first day of school.

Lunch

Griff had a friend over so I fixed them their ramen noodles that they asked for along with grilled turkey and cheese. It is such a good trick, it takes such a tiny bit of butter to make it crispy and you can use less cheese in grilled cuz it melts. Also gave them bell pepper slices and carrot sticks.

Dinner

-My mac an cheese, which is any-kind-of-noodle tossed with just enough butter so it's not sticky, a bit of grated cheese, and sour cream with a dash of salt. The kids LOVE it and it's real food with minimal damage.

-My chicken nuggets, which is bite-sized chicken breast sauteed in garlic, salt and pepper. I didn't even add oil.

-steamed broccoli

-I have this thing about serving a legume at most any meal. The dark brown chili beans looked so pretty on the plate with the cream-colored noodles and green broccoli.

August 17, weigh in

We are down 20.5 pounds!!

Curtis down 1

Dea down 1.5

Josh down 6.5

Griff down 1.5

Josh finally showed the significant weight loss jump I expected from his training. He's down 11.5 pounds, which is almost exactly what I predicted. His Doctor said he was up 12 pounds from last year, so there you go.

Both Griff and I were soooo not in the mood to walk yesterday...but we managed a brisk 45 minute walk by the marina. It was warm but windy, actually pretty nice.

Lunch:

turkey sandwiches

Dinner

red bell pepper, ww sweet onions, asparagus sauteed with turkey sausages and rice. It was sooo pretty, even Josh "ohhh-ed".

August 15, re: energy

When I started jogging last November, three wonderful results showed up.

1st, the lower back pain I was experiencing cleared up fairly quickly, by month 2. In the first few weeks of jogging each run was an exercise in focus. Pain was everywhere. My training for the marathon as well as working out with a personal trainer for 1+ years taught me what kind of pain needs to be pushed through and which were indications of injury. So I jogged and focused on the pain, breathed into whereever it showed up. That is to say, I'd visualize my breath going to that area. And relax rather than tighten into that area. Most of the time by doing this the area would at least soften in it's intensity, if not disappear altogether. Then another body part would start to radiate and I'd have a new place to focus.

2nd, and it actually took much longer, my feet pain disappeared. Plantar fascists seemed to be the culprit. I had looked it up to make sure that running would not make it worse. It was a fabulous experience feeling that pain disappear 10 minutes into the run.....even tho it would reappear.

3rd, and this is really the point of my writing right now, my energy level increased. Oh yes, I love that one. Before, by 8:00 I'd be down for the night. Done, finished. I have to say there isn't anything quite so thrilling for a workaholic to be happily puttering around the house at 10 p.m., full of vim and vigor.

Oddly enough, I do not have that experience anymore. I mean, I'm awake enough, but I'm not physically energized.

Why is this? Is it mental or physical?

This is what I mean. Last winter I had very little work and very little activity. Life was very simple.

Since then, not only has the work piled in, but I've taken on my new "hobby" of illustration. So by evening I'm really craving to sit and work on my artwork. So is it mentally that I don't want to boogie around the house still because I'd rather be sitting at my computer or artboards? Or is something else pulling my energy down, because I do literally feel less energetic than I would like.

I want to experiment with this.

August 15

Griff wanted a friend over yesterday afternoon, and I said that would be fine but he'd need to come with us on our walk. We'd be doing our "deer" walk, as we refer to the North end of Sawyer Camp Trail since we saw 4 deer last time. Sweet boy opted to have the friend come over AFTER our walk. He wanted to be with just me. It was a warm day, I thought we might get quite hot, but after the first half-mile the trail goes into intense woods where it's almost all shaded at 4 in the afternoon. It was very pleasant. Time went fast. We saw two bunnies, one right on the trail just 10 feet from us. Sooo cute. And a little 1.5" lizard held real still for us to gawk at.

It was the last day of Josh's football camp, and he made a point to add the word "ever" when I picked him up. Last day ever. He's made it clear that football was a high school experience and he would not be continuing it. So this year will be all about "lasts." bittersweet.

I went to Costco and thought I'd see what kind of chocolaty-vitamin thingy they had...looking for healthy substitutes for my mid afternoon sweets craving. I got a bag of calcium chews, actually very good. The boys were very interested and I said they are vitamins and they are welcome to one a day.

Also got this FullBar thingy which is a rip off. Should have read the ingredients. Suppose to eat it half hour before a meal with a glass of water. I't just puffed wheat, sweetners and chocolate. Very expensive puffed wheat. They taste okay, but satisfaction value, pretty low. The foodbar that really does it for me is the tiger bar. It's wickedly chocolaty.

I just signed up with weight watchers online again because I love it's points system and it's points tracker. Damn, I just looked up the Tiger's Milk bar and it is 5 points! (I get 27 points a day) and a Butterfinger is 6 points! Heck, may as well have a butterfinger. Just kidding, the Tiger's milk actually has food value. So I get to look around for MY most satisfying and lowest points foodbar.

Lunch

-marinated pork loin chunks all morning in the mango teriyaki

strung on sticks with big pieces of the walla walla sweet onions

and barbequed

-wrapped green beans and baby carrots in foil and grilled them, too

-steamed rice

Dinner

Sandwiches of turkey, lettuce, tomato and fresh mozzarella

Okay, we went to the movies and had popcorn and sodas

August 14

Griff and Justin swam for 3 hours again. I enjoyed reading on the bike the other day so thought I'd try it again. This time I watched my heart-rate to make sure I was pushing hard enough. While I am not sore today, it did take a lot more breath to induce a 120 bpm than the treadmill--I was sweating up a storm. It needs to be a compelling story I'm reading to make it worth it! I'm sure I'd get use to it...but my feet fell asleep after a half-hour. I took a minute break and recomposed then went another 15. That was on the recumbent bike, thought I'd try the regular. oh gwad, I couldn't even make it through 15 minutes, my ars was killing me already.

Lunch

Josh only had one practice yesterday and Griff was at Labrados. I made Josh and I country potatoes with onions, spinach and prosciutto.

Dinner

Wanted to celebrate Friday with pizza, so got chicken thin crust pizzas from the freezer section of Safeway. I got a Louie Salad for me.

August 13

Griff and I had a fabulous workout at PrimeTime: half hour on the treadmill and half hour on weight machines. I jogged 3.5 mph for 10 minutes. That is bookin for me. I found my legs to be tight 10 minutes into the half-hour and remembered one time discovering that if I go too slow I actually have a harder time loosening up. So I did some 4 mph sprints and settled in. Of course Griff is WALKING beside me at 4 mph with some hill ta-boot.

I showed him how to use the LifeCircuit machines, which are the simplest because you don't have to set your weight, it does it for you. I showed him how to keep his body square with the machine, told him form was the most important thing in weights because it helps you 1) maximize your workout and 2)keep from injuring yourself. I showed him how to decrease the weight if the machine set it too heavy. At one point he was struggling and twisting body and face around to lift and I repeated, Form is everything. Drop the weight until you can do it in perfect form. "But I did the last set at this weight."

"You need to set your weights so you can do all three sets at that weight. Otherwise, it's too heavy, and the amount of weight is not what matters--FORM matters."

At which point he looked at me suspiciously and said, "how do YOU know all this stuff??"

"I worked out 2x/week with a personal trainer for almost 2 years," he seemed surprised to hear from me.

I worked out with Deanna Jones about 10+ years ago, a good friend and lovely woman. She taught me a lot about listening to body and exercise, how to hold the bars so you don't get injured, and she was a freak about going into and out of a machine or weight slowly and deliberately. She said actually more injuries happen from carelessly twisting while coming out of a weight set.

She had me up to 13 miles jogging. I was about 40 pounds lighter then. She taught me to "shuffle," what she called it, and it was her belief that the slow jog is really good for your holistic system, that the pumping motion helps your digestive and lymphatic systems et al. She's not a scientist, I have no idea where she got these ideas. All I know is that I feel more stress from fast walking that slow jogging.

Sadly, Curtis' day was too busy and he didn't get to do his hour. He did walk to Kinkos and back, he said.

Lunch

tuna salad sandwiches

nuts and apples

Dinner

Spaghetti and cru d te

can't find that on google, have no idea if I spelled it right.

August 12

Curtis described to Josh and I yesterday his experience of being on the treadmill next to Griffy when he did his 20 minute sprint. We were ROFL. Curtis chugging along at his 4mph walking pace and Griffy all spry trotting out at 5 mph. He also said that after doing 1/2 hour on the treadmill and 1/2 hour on the cross trainer that they did an additional 15 minutes on bikes!! Curtis must be feeling challenged! so cute. Griff did say he was a bit sore yesterday--which means he did work it on that jog!

Yesterday I finked out and only walked 1/2 hour with Griff. It was windy and I wasn't in the mood to be yanked around. But we had a good walk with good conversation.

I am...surprised and pleased at how this experiment is bringing our family closer. We have a common goal and we're exercising together and this causes conversation and golly it's actually magical.

I mentioned to Griff yesterday that he was welcome to bring home his friends after school, however they will need to work out with him/us. That I have to pick up Josh at 7:00 so we'd be leaving the house to go the the gym at 5:30. He said, "we are going to be doing this even after school starts?"

I said, "yes, we have 200 pounds to loose as a family." He seemed...unspokenly pleased.

I do miss roaming the mountains by myself. I miss my nature time. Even when I go with Griff there is the distraction of another person.

Went with Dee to watch a late showing of "Julie & Julia" last night....totally inspiring.

Lunch:

biscuits and gravy!

okay, it was more like beef stroganoff over biscuits.

home made whole wheat biscuits

served with peas and salad

sealed with our favorite 100 calorie fudge bar

Dinner:

build your own soft tacos

I forgot to grate the cheese--no one even noticed there was no cheese on the table!

beef chili beans; diced tomatoes and walla walla sweet onions; romaine lettuce; guacamole (smooshed avocados seasoned only with salt and lime).

August 11

I worked in-house at the clients yesterday. Curtis took Griff to PrimeTime. Griff proudly told me later that he jogged on the treadmill for 20 minutes--at 5 miles an hour! I'm thinking to require him to take a sport in high school...and maybe that will be track?

Justin and Griff were talking about Josh's football camp schedule and Justin declared he would NEVER take football and asked Griff if he would. "I don't know," was his reply. That is a good sign. Griff is actually very athletic. He would excel at any sport he put his mind to, if he would.

Josh did moan on the way to practice yesterday morning, "I like football, but this is a bit much." Well, today is Wednesday, the torture is almost over. I told him I was very proud of his commitment...I was remembering last year when his team lost the homecoming game because of a bad call of the ref in the last few seconds of the game. I was not prepared to see 6 foot tall men-childs crying, but they did. And now that I think of the hard work they put into it, well, I guess even NFL stars cry sometimes.

I did the hour Crocker Park loop in the evening. Jogged for about 10 minutes. I'm not loving that it's most convenient to exercise in the evenings. I'd rather in the morning. but I also want to make sure Griff gets his time in...so I'm willing.

Dinner

Everything is more exciting off the grill:

Popped the turkey sausages on whole.

Wrapped up a walla walla sweet onion and slow cooked it.

Corn on the cob

Accompanied by mashed potatoes (from the box this time...last minute...)

and a good canned bean medley that I've discovered, 4 kinds of legumes & salt.

August 10

Griff and Justin swam for 3+ hours at the gym again today. I rode the recumbent stationary bike and read a book. I actually felt more worked than I thought I would. The worst part was the sore butt. Still, I thought I was kind of copping out but this book had gripped me and I figured I'd be better off moving while reading. Maybe I'll go get the Twilight book afterall...2 hours a day on the bike?

The health club we belong to is a private club and in each of the respective locker rooms there is a spa with jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. Clothing optional. Griff had warned Justin the first time he came with us of this atrocity--nekked men--and they vowed to NOT enjoy the jacuzzi. They are, afterall, 13 and 14 years old. But yesterday they sucked it up and did enjoy the jacuzzi. They only stayed in 10 minutes, they said, the water was plenty hot. I was quietly amused.

Laura, Justin's mom, was having surgery again this evening. More complications from her breast cancer surgery a year ago last spring. He needed to be with us for the distraction, and as soon as we got home, his brother Jimmy came over. I made them dinner. I was a little shy on entree, so I plumped dinner with sides. Sounds a little weird together, but the flavors actually worked well.

Lunch:

chicken salad sandwiches made from the left-over fajita chicken--yum!

grapes

smoothies

Dinner:

chicken broccoli stir fry

steamed rice

canned collard greens, southern style (smoky flavor)

chili beans

August 9, weigh in

As a family we are down 10 pounds!!!

This week:

Griff: down 2.5

Dea: down 2

Josh: down 1.5

Curtis: down .5 from start

I'm down 2! I'm so freaking happy! I've worked my tail off for 2 weeks and I was feeling pissy about it not being enough. Having dinner so late is really tough. tho I've been making them lighter, and I do think that helps.

Friday Josh had a bad case of the runs so did not go to football practice. I remember the first time my body did bad things. He was embarrassed and a bit horrified. Called me in, sweat running down his face, he was shaky and weak he said. Poor love.

Steve said if it went through him in the same day, it was heat exhaustion and dehydration (he played sports in school, too). if it hung on for a couple of days, then it was food poisoning. It was pretty much through his system by mid afternoon. He guzzled gatorade and ate the bland food they say to eat.

Curtis came home that day, too. Griff he and I did the Crocker Park Trail walk, that is the name of the trail that goes around the business park in our city. It starts a half-mile from our front door. We did 3 miles. Curtis was laboring for the first 20 minutes. It worried me...but he did loosen up, was breathing easier and started talking and laughing. It is a slight grade uphill on the way over, as it was made on top of the old railroad tracks. You don't really realize you are walking uphill until you get to the top, turn around, and feel how much easier it is to walk back.

Curtis had a dinner that night and I went with him....the San Mateo Union Council Awards Dinner. CTA had purchased a table, so we were "AIC" guests: Ass in chair.

Josh had football practice yesterday and he did feel well enough to go.

Lunch

Grilled salmon

pasta tossed with sour cream, salt and pepper

green beans and carrots

Dinner

chicken fajitas

red and yellow peppers, walla walla sweet onions that curtis found at Costco, broccoli, and chicken.

I know you don't usually cook broccoli with fajitas, but I didn't have any green peppers and it needed the green and my boys like broccoli, so why not?

August 7

Griff and Justin came with me to Prime Time yesterday--they swam for 2.5 hours, good for them! I did a weight circuit..oh gwad, I could hardly move. I did a 10 minute warm up on the tread mill and did 3 sets on each one of the machines, plus a couple others, for a solid hour. Yup, if'ns I do that a couple times a week I'll be getting stronger!

lunch

Josh's coach told them to not eat turkey for lunch as it makes them sleepy and they would need everything they had for the afternoon's workout.

Steamed Rice

chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces sauteed with Julienne ham and mango teriyaki sauce

Plating: bed of rice topped with a ring of canned pineapple topped with the terikaki sautee; fresh cooked spinach on the side

Dinner

copped out and got Chipotle burritos

August 6

Took Griff and Justin with me to the health club (Prime Time by name) to do weights for 1/2 hour before picking up Josh. Made the mistake of assuming they knew how to do the machines and poor Justin almost got squished. I turned and saw the look of horror on the face of the man next to me as he could see Justin pinned. So I gave them the run down on how to set them up so you don't get killed by LifeTouch. Still I felt nervous that we were going to get kicked out. I think technically kids are not suppose to be in the weight room until they have training by the staff.

Two days of less than 1- hour workout....grrrr... Meanwhile Josh is walking around the house like a robot...stiff and sore.

Breakfast

Popeye Scramble: onions and fresh spinach sauteed with eggs. my favorite

Lunch

Steamed green beans and baby carrots,

roasted baby potato medly (red, purple and white)

pork loin "steaks" ... beings that I don't know the name of things, I just slice them about an inch thick and sautee them with salt, pepper and garlic.

Dinner

Grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches

grapes

chili beans

August 5

We took Griff's friend, Justin, walking with us on Monday. We did my two favorite short loops on San Bruno Mountain, the Eucalyptus trail and the Bog trail. It was a concise hour hike. What I liked is that Justin is adventurous and did exploring kinds of things with Griff which makes it so much more fun. What made me crazy is that they didn't hustle as much as I'd prefer. I'm still a little nervous about 2 boys being by themselves on the mountain so I tried to not get too far ahead of them. Also a little concerned that Griff isn't getting the cardio he needs, but then, anything is better than not being at the computer.

Yesterday was a full day so squeeezed in a half hour intense walk with Griff around the Crocker park trail. Another thing I missed when Justin walked with us is Griff's chatter. While it's a tad annoying sometimes, it really gives him the opportunity to chat, and he does open up to me and his love exudes. Had to pound on him to get him out of the house, but once we are in the car he is so glad to be out.

Dinner

Monday after the hike I cut up a pile of vegetables; plated turkey, roast beef and 2 kinds of cheese; toasted 2 kinds of flat bread and cut in wedges; whizzed up some hummus; added blueberries and grapes; served with Whole Wheat low-fat Triskets and rice cakes and a banana, mango, strawberry smoothie. The boys thought they were in heaven. The ultimate fingerfood dinner.

Tuesday Lunch

-Spaghetti with turkey/cheddar hot dogs sliced into the sauce

-fresh cooked spinach (which the boys ohhhhh-ed...I didn't realize they liked it so much...must serve it more often!)

-garbonzos (have served them garbonzos-as-fingerfood since they were little)

-the 100-calorie fudge bars for desert

Tuesday dinner

I went to a lecture, so pre-made the boys turkey sandwiches.

Josh had to take the train home and Dee picked him up at the train station; he didn't get home until 8:15 so he really needed something light.

I skyped Curtis finally. He asked how the boys were doing on their food and exercise. It is great to see everyone engaged in this project. He promised me that his daily activities at this conference he's at involves tons of walking so he felt okay missing out on his workouts. And he said he was ordering salads all the time. It will be curious to see his results...it is a teachable week.

August 2, weigh in

Curtis left for the week to LA so we weighed in today.

Curtis is down 5.5 pounds

Josh is down 3.5 pounds

Griff and I are the same.

While it doesn't surprise me that I'm not down, it does surprise me that Griff is. I my mind his change is the greatest, having gone from no activity to 1 hour every day; and having daily midnight snacks to nothing after 8. I almost wondering if he is fooling me, just to have more dramatic results next week......He is goofy that way.

I mean, I'm posting our photos and look at the pic he did. :-)

I'm really pleased for Curtis, I hope he will make serious attempts to work out while away. It will be his challenge. Josh will be in football camp for the next 2 weeks--working out 5 hours a day, 6 days a week. He'll drop.

I added one new thing to our list; drink 6-8 cups of water a day.

I am adding one thing for me: 50 crunches every day. My back is feeling stiff, so I need to strengthen some muscles.

I told the boys they could add something if they wanted. I'm really trying to not dictate but hope they make it there own. Whenever I talk about it, Griff gets dead still and listens attentively. I really think he's bluffing about the same weight.... He immediately filled a water bottle when I said the water stuff.

I asked how it was to not eat after 8, which I thought would be a real discomfort for them since they stay up so late, but they both said, no, it was cool. We had a big meal at 5 yesterday and I was starved again by 10, it was an effort for me to NOT make a piece of toast.

Dinner:

Taco salad with home made salsa