July 31

Griff played sports from kindergarten until 5th grade. He was good at everything he tried. Maybe not the best, but certainly a valuable player. Soccer, baseball, mostly, but a bit of basketball and football, too.

It became a sincere hassle in 5th grade to get him to go to practice, so I let him quit. Mistake. Sometimes a parent needs to force the issue...it's hard to tell when one should. This is one that I should have. I had no idea. Almost immediately he gained weight. Until about 3rd grade he was a skinny little kid. By 5th he was no longer skinny, but not fat, either. After quitting sports, oh, dear.

So this is a big deal for Griff to be exercising every day.

Another bit...I read an article online yesterday that MSG is found to cause overweight. Startling...about the time Griff quit playing sports is also when he started helping himself to food. I kept the pantry stocked with ramen noodles and cup-a-noodles and they ate them by the case. Packed with MSG. Plumped up my little boys! By now, gratefully, they are really tired of them and rarely eat them. But I have to throw what I do have away! And see if I can find some without MSG.

Yesterday after we dropped Josh off at football practice, we drove over to Sawyer Camp Trail. For me, this week has whipped my ass...I haven't worked out every day for several weeks and I'm TIRED!! So I didn't even want to go yesterday but had to be the example....so thought we'd do a fun walk that wouldn't feel so much like torture.

I thought I had been to this end of the trail. The foot of the trail starts down off 92 and is fairly level, a beautiful walk by the water. But the head of the trail (6 miles apart) is a pitch downhill and I actually feared the walk back! At about .75 miles you actually cross to the other side at the foot of the San Andreas reservoir. From there it's wooded...I'm looking at the map, it looks like nearly half way before you reach the head of Crystal Springs Reservoir.

Anyway, Griff and I throughly enjoyed the walk, the time sped by especially joyfully with the siting of a mother deer and her 2 spotted fawns. When we got back I did feel worked but not whipped. I wonder if he gets a good enough workout walking with me, he could certainly go faster. But I guess out for an hour at a slow pace is better than none. We'll go to the gym, too, where he does push himself.

Lunch

I was sooooo not in the mood for sandwiches. I tolerate sandwiches; rarely crave them. So I made:

mac and cheese

baked beans

sliced cucumbers and broccoli.

Dinner

rice

chicken sauteed with onion and broccoli, garlic is my secret ingredient.

Getting home with Josh at 7:00 really makes it hard to have dinner at a reasonable time. It wasn't until 7:40 that we sat down to eat. The boys were very concerned that they'd have enough time for ice cream. Sweet boys. I love it that they are taking this so seriously.

My poor dear husband's flight was very late, I got to the airport about 11:45 to pick him up. As soon as I got off the freeway, the road was stopped with traffic. I got the silly idea to go to international and he could easily walk up and I'd pick him up there because there was no traffic going there.

Only I wasn't sure how to tell him to get to international and he ended up walking the full circle in the opposite direction and he walked for a good 20+ minutes to find me. Poor dear. But he did get his workout afterall!

July 30

Josh has football practice 5 days a week for 2-3 hours, so he is getting plenty of exercise. The next 2 weeks are football camp where he'll have 2 practices a day. good grief. Besides that he looses 10 pounds in 2 weeks, it's a logistical nightmare. Most of his mates live right there near the school so it's easy for them to take the 4 hour break between practices. Curtis will be gone all next week so that leaves it to me to do the shuttling. Last year he took the train a lot. Got him passes. It's 3 blocks to the station from the field, a 10 minute train ride, then 2 miles from the station to home. After already working out 6 hours a day, it seems cruel.

Wednesday Curtis flew to LA at 2:00 and I had meetings in the late afternoon, so Josh kindly went to football practice in the morning. Griff went with me at 8:30 to take Josh, then we worked out at Prime Time for an hour. He did the tread mill with me for half hour, I was so impressed, he did it steady, put the incline up to 10, sweat pouring down his face. Then he rode the recumbent stationary bike for the other half hour while I completed my hour.

I had worked up to jogging 5 miles this spring. Put "jogging" in quotes because I do the motion of jogging, but it's very slow, more like trotting. I like the feel of the muscles being used in that motion better than walking...I guess I'm still addicted from the 20+ years ago when i ran the marathon. Summer schedule got me off habit so now I'm working my time back up. This week I've been jogging about 1/2 hour and walking the other. I am pleased at how good it feels, and really pleased that there is no pain. When I started jogging back in November, I had a lot of lower back pain and feet pain. Both are gone now. "feeling strong now."

Breakfast:

grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches with banana

a trick I learned from Steve...rather than putting butter or mayo on the inside of a sandwich, even light butter on the outside crunchy grilled tastes really good, treat-like

Lunch

smoothy: banana, mango, little bit of strawberry, gob of leftover watermelon, tad bit of powedered milk.....refreshing!

bean burritos with sliced tomato and onions and mozzarella

Dinner

they were on their own, Trader Joes frozen meals; I had meetings.

After lunch the boys decided they would like their "ice cream time" to be after lunch instead of after dinner, which I concurred with them that it was indeed a better time. I made us all cones--which is considerably less ice cream than a bowl.

July 29

Tuesday Griff walked with me at the Marina, he took his scooter. He jabbered constantly, which I do enjoy. It's little boy kid jabber, but I love to see him fresh and open.

Lunch:

roast beef sandwiches and chicken soup (from the roasted chicken)

Dinner.

Grilled turkey burgers and potatoes

After dinner I mentioned to Griff he had a half-hour to eat his ice cream. He said to me, "I'm going to skip it. I'm not hungry." I was surprised and pleased. He is indeed taking this seriously. Around 10 that evening Josh complained loudly that no one told HIM that ice cream was available. But he did not push the issue to have some then.

July 28

We all weighed in, Griffy in particular seems happy about this. He willingly worked out with Curtis at PrimeTime, did a full hour on the machines. He did not argue when I said no food after 8, even better after 7. He seemed pleased to be on a program. Sweet boy.

I did cook more carefully.

breakfast:

eggs and toast with banana, no cheese

lunch:

make your own pita bread sandwiches, piled the plate with vegies to put in as well as turkey and half slices of cheese. They ate everything. And I made a crisp, just apples and blueberries for the filling; the topping was 3 packets of the apple cinnamon oatmeal, flour and butter crumble, no added sugar. They devoured it. I'll have to make it more often, it's really easy, really healthy, and they love it.

dinner:

chili rellenos for Curtis. Tiquitos for the boys. Only I stuffed them with rice and beans with just a bit of cheese and chicken. They were reeeeaaalllly good. Then a reasonable pile of ice cream squeeked in before 7:00.

July 27

Today is the first day of one of our great trips. We are loosing weight as a family. I weighed in, and indeed I have put on 5 pounds this summer.

We will start with just two new rules: everyone moves at least one hour six days a week, and the kitchen closes at 8:00 p.m. I know that sounds like a late time for the kitchen to close, but we tend to have a late schedule in the summer. Bedtime is between midnight-2a.m....they are teenage boys afterall. I told them if they are hungry at midnight, it's probably time to go to bed anyway. They have been eating anytime they want, so this represents a significant change.

If they want to do more, they can google weight loss ideas and tips, for them to come up with recipes they'd like to try and things they'd like to do. I want them to own this.

Meanwhile, I'm going to sign up with WeightWatchers online for me again. I will photograph each of us and post the photos and post nearly-daily progress and thoughts.

Yesterday I bought mats for a backyard gym. I did go and stretch last night, it felt good, but I'm so not in the habit of stretching! I think I'll see if I can find some posters to put back there. Posters of stretching and of light weight lifting.

I'm not ready to put in a public place our weights....I'll post them later when we've had some successes.