The weather outside is frightful

There's snow on the ground. In Seattle. And it's still November. Crazy.

It took me almost an hour and a half to get home from work today. And I was actually in a different building, even closer to home than usual. I sat in the parking garage for an hour trying to get out. Then another half an hour to inch my way home the remaining mile.

I don't have a lot of experience driving in the snow, and many Microsofties don't have a lot of experience driving, period, so that made it quite a treacherous commute home. I was doing ok until I got to our street, a very steep hill. I made it up the first part (thank god for the antilock brakes/stability goo) and after all the sliding around, didn't want to attempt the 2nd hill. So I left poor Otto on the side of the road. I hope he'll forgive me for that. Fortunately it's stopped snowing.

And of course, during this painful commute, I got one of my awful sinus headaches accompanied by nausea. For nearly the entire drive home I fantasized about getting into my PJs and climbing into bed, and that's what kept me going. One Advil and a nice nap later, I'm doing much better.

TJ is at the Seahawks game tonight. And his cell phone isn't on. I hate that.

And here's a special shout out to the stupid neighborhood kids sledding down our street. Let's hope they can stop before a car runs them over. Duh.

All the good things and the bad things

I suck at this weight loss thing. In the past week I've slid down that slippery slope of laziness. I've been staying up late and then having problems getting up at a reasonable hour. And the wacky Seattle weather is giving me sinus headaches every day. Boo.

I'm beginning to think that I can't pursue this goal in a relatively pain-free way. I think it might be time to bring on the pain. The "structure and discipline", as TJ is fond of mentioning.

Exercise isn't (yet) something that just "happens" to me. I need to aggressively plan, schedule and prioritize it. I've flaked on my yoga class two weeks in a row. Not good, since next week I'll be in Tucson and can't attend. I've done minimal cardio in the past week.

A small victory is that I'm definitely eating at home more often, but still not enough. I thinks small changes aren't enough to jumpstart my slooow 31-year old metabolism.

So here's to tomorrow being a new day, and STRUCTURE AND DISCIPLINE. Here's to not just knowing what to do, but actually doing it.

Woo hoo!

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

OK, I've OD'd on Grey's Anatomy. I've seen 30+ episodes in the last week, thanks to the power of TV on DVD. TJ and I watched the entire first two seasons. Thanks to the Internet, I also know I've only missed a couple of Season 3 episodes, so I'm likely to catch up with reruns by spring. Woo hoo!

It's a well-done show about relationships. Not a lot of yucky medical stuff, but enough that I have to turn away from the TV occasionally, like I do with CSI. They're also surprisingly good at portraying emotions without veering into melodrama, and also inserting some humor right before things get too cheesy. I love it. Though they seem to have a bit of a formula, since every show seems to have its "weepy moment". The director is from Bellevue, which explains why all the Seattle-related stuff on the show is so authentic.

Tomorrow Oprah will be on the set of the show interviewing all the actors. And somewhere in Seattle, her buddy Gayle King will be hosting a fan party, which could be fun, or just filled with creepy people who wish Seattle Grace was a real hospital. I'm not that creepy. Yet.

And speaking of creepy, today's award goes to Creepy Beagle Breeder Man at Marymoor. Our conversation started out normally (for a dog park conversation). He told me Spike was an exceptionally good-looking beagle. Of course he is! Spike gets a lot of compliments, mostly because he's not fat like most beagles. And then Creepy Beagle Breeder Man asked if he was neutered, then was disappointed to find out he was, because he's got a girl beagle with similar markings and they'd make great puppies, blah blah blah. Like what we need in this world is more beagle puppies from some half-assed backyard breeder.

If you haven't figured it out, I'm a big fan of getting a dog from rescue organizations and shelters. And of spaying/neutering. There are just too many dogs out there that no one wants, and not enough room to shelter all of them. If it weren't for TJ being the voice of reason, I'd be Crazy Dog Lady with a houseful of dogs. Now I'm just Crazy Dog Lady with 2 dogs.

And that's my Public Service Announcement for the day.

Would you trade your words for freedom

I forgot to mention a few days ago that I voted. I was actually going to skip it because it was a busy day and I hadn't found the time to do the right research. But I felt guilty about that when I thought of people in other countries who can't vote, fought/died for the right to vote, or whose voting system is so corrupt it doesn't matter anyway. While our system has problems, we're not quite that bad yet.

I'm pretty apathetic when it comes to politics. There are only a handful of items I really care about:

--that our leaders are smart and maintain integrity
--a woman's right to choose
--equal treatment/civil rights/non-discrimination for *everyone*
--some degree of taxation to support the education system and those less fortunate
--separation of church and state

I left all of the judge elections blank since I didn't know anything about them.

For the House of Representatives, I voted for Darcy Burner, former Microsoft manager because she's a smart woman, not a career politician and not as icky as her opponent Dave Reichert. God forbid we should be able to find anything concrete about their views instead of empty rhetoric and blathering about lower taxes. Sadly, I don't think she's going to win - it's close and they're still counting but it doesn't look good. I am impressed that she made such a strong showing against an incumbent, with no political background.

I was also happy to see Jim Webb won in Virginia. His opponent George Allen is the kind of ass I ran into a lot growing up.

Other than that it was a fairly boring election. I guess the Democrats have taken over the Senate. Which is better than the alternative, but I wish we had less of this partisan crap and just more smart people running the country.

Like Martin Sheen, or at least his character on "The West Wing". I would love to see the day when an articulate Nobel Prize winner is our president.

Our current situation reminds me of this bumper sticker: "Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot" How can you not love that? And even more, how great is it that we live in a country where I can say that freely on my public blog? Woo hoo!

Where did I go wrong?

Cardio: 36 minutes (30 min @ 85%+ MHR dual action elliptical, 6 min regular elliptical)
Calories: Didn't track, ate out for lunch & dinner w/ friends but made decent choices

Another great day working part time! I worked out first thing in the morning. Well, first thing in my morning anyway, and then met with Tracy later in the day for our usual lifting workout. She made me do those supersets of weights, where you start with a light weight, then progress to 2 heavier weights for the same exercise, with no rest between sets. I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow, but in a good way. I definitely feel stronger and more muscle-y.

Also posted a bunch of stuff on Craigslist today, so hopefully I can get the excess furniture out of the exercise room so I can use it for exercise (and feel good about being in there!) again.

Tomorrow I'm going to talk to a personal chef to get some guidance on how to plan for, shop, and cook interesting healthy meals. I seem to do ok with one thing at a time, but can't seem to make a complete meal and figured out what to eat in the course of a week. Ideally this would be something TJ would eat too. I'll keep you posted on what I learn!

How to save a life

Cardio: 40 min (30 min elliptical, 10 min recumbent bike - HR~140)
Calories: ? (Sparkpeople site closed for maintenance).
Did not eat out today!

I cleaned out the fridge and did some abbreviated grocery shopping today. I am also happy I got my 40 min of cardio in - again, when I got there I wasn't really in the mood. I took it easy today (4th straight day of working out) so kept my HR lower than usual.

Today's not so great thing: ate a bunch of chips left over from Friday's poker game

But I did resist the call of Baja Fresh and ate at home today. Even made pancakes this morning for breakfast, with enough leftover for tomorrow. YAY.

Gearing up for the next 3 days of work. I am loving this schedule! Tomorrow's some sort of touchy-feely self-awareness seminar with all the Program Mgrs in our division so it shouldn't be too terribly stressful, and will make this week seem even shorter!

Everyone knows I'm in over my head

Cardio: 40 min (elliptical, stepmill, recumbent bike, treadmill - 10 min ea)
Calories: 1200-ish

I'm going to try to commit to writing just a little every day to account for my workouts and food intake so I can quickly glance over how I've done any given day.

I'm using Sparkpeople as a food and exercise journal. It's great, considering it's free. Lots of features, nice design, fairly easy to use. Yesterday I started tracking food again, since I haven't been since the first few weeks.

Which was apparent in my 6 week check-in. According to the bioelectrical impedance measurement, I've lost 3.5 lbs of body fat, which is great. However, I am actually up a pound from my starting weight. How sad is that? But no big surprise since I've been so freakin' lax about my diet. And boy, have I indulged in a *lot* of crap in the past 6 months or so.

So I've decided that my next focus would be to tackle eating right. I have a decent rhythm down for exercise. I won't go so far as to say I love it or look forward to doing it, but I definitely sense an increase in muscle tone in my arms, which are always the first to shape up. I'm also a lot less tired these days and able to get up around 7:30ish for work without an alarm. And I *always* feel good after I exercise.

I love food. But lately, I've been craving bland foods like bananas, oatmeal, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese with the uniformly cut frozen mixed vegetables, quesadillas, french toast, pancakes etc. I think it's the cold weather, and maybe some overload from having eaten out so much in the past few months. I just can't get used to eating fresh, healthy, simple foods like fruits and vegetables. I can't remember the last time I ate a piece of fresh fruit that wasn't a banana. Sad, I know. And steamed, plain vegetables? Probably months. I have had a few salads here and there when we go out to eat so I'm not totally starved for vitamins. So I'm in pretty bad shape with respect to eating right.

The thought of certain foods makes me nauseous for some reason. And no, I'm not pregnant so don't even think that's why! This would happen to me as a kid, too - I'd get grossed out by certain foods and would need to take some time "off" with them. I go through this with yogurt fairly frequently, as well as tuna. It also happened with American cheese slices, because there were these little bits that got caught in the wrapper edges that for some reason, really bothered me. Weird, I know.

I've also discovered that there are a lot of healthy foods, mostly protein, that I really don't like. Like chicken breasts, ground meat of any kind, tofu, and most cooked fish. I do love sushi and most shellfish, though so I'm not totally in trouble.

I was sad to find out from my dietitian that milk and yogurt have to count as a carbohydrate serving due to the high amounts of lactose. I'm having enough trouble keeping my carb servings in check *and* getting enough protein. But, since I'm trying to figure out how to eat right for the long run, I'm trying not to get too hung up on that.

Anyway, just a reminder - this blog is mostly for me to review my progress and document my program. So if you find this terribly boring, please find a more interesting blog. Or go watch Grey's Anatomy - Seasons 1 and 2 are on DVD. I've now seen the first half of Season 1, which filled in some holes for me. Can't wait to watch the rest!

On a more positive note, I've worked out the last 3 days, so this working part-time thing was a good idea. Woo hoo!

Baby, it's cold outside

Today I want to expound on some things I really, really like:

1. Origins "Ginger with a Twist" body wash - a great scent and perfect lather. Yum. Thanks, Leslie.

2. Grey's Anatomy - I held out for a long time, not wanting to watch another "ER" or god forbid, "Scrubs". Turns out it's neither. I *love* it. Now I've got to find out where I can rent the previous seasons.

3. Whole Foods Market - they opened a new one in Redmond. It's a beautiful thing. But don't go on weekends or the crowds will drive you batty. The only sad thing is that the Redmond store doesn't have the crepe stand like the Bellevue one.

4. Cupcake Bakeshop - gorgeous blog, amazing cupcakes. I don't even need to eat any - just reading this site makes me happy.

5. Holiday Snowflakes Stamps - even better once you know they are actual photographs taken by a Caltech physicist!

Just wanted to share some of the little things that make my day!