Tale of the Scale: 7/31

Weight this morning: 125#. Unchanged from last week.

Damn! Considering that for 4 days I ate what was served me and the only exercise I got was walking, I'm considering this a successful week.

I'm still taking things easy because of this cough/cold thing I have. Last week I cancelled my session with Guido, but did get in for one personal workout. It felt so good to get those muscles working. But after today's session, Guido told me to stay tomorrow and continue to rest and heal. Imagine a trainer telling you to NOT workout.

So my weekly plan is a bit up in the air:

Wednesday: no gym. Walk the dogs and gently do some floor exercises at home. Take lots of vitamin C and think about making some chicken soup.

Thursday: workout with Guido. If I'm still feeling less-than 100%, it will be a lighter workout; if I'm feeling healed, he's going to push me.

Friday: cardio and atability.

Saturday: rest.

Sunday: hopefully get back on schedule.

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Second Season...

You can tell that it's the second half of the baseball season. Well, you can tell if you're a baseball fan.

Not only do you look at the scores for your favorite team (Go Tribe!!), but also any team that they are competing with for a place in the play-offs (Curse You, Tigers!)

And I become also stalkerly about visiting Babes Love Baseball.

Tale of the Scale: 7/18

Weight: down another pound in weight.

I gotta admit, when I look in the mirror, I wonder where this weight is coming from. I STILL have a way-too-thick-middle-layer of fat. It's frustrating because I have finally have muscles under that layer and nobody can see it!

I'm getting to that end-of-patience place again. I really want to see something rewarding for all my work. Ah, well, that is not the way of life.

Had a great personal work out on Sunday. Did 30 minutes of cardio, some abs and core, then major upper body weight work. I finished up the way I have been lately: 10 more minutes of cardio to wrap it up. About five minutes into that final sweat-fest (using the elliptical with both arm and legs going...) my upper body suddenly said:

OH MY GOD! YOU MADE ME PUSH WEIGHTS NOW YOU WANT ME TO MOVE??!!!

The best reward for hard work.

Tuesday workout emphasized a lot of balance work (and I need that) plus an easy full-body workout. Today I did cardio, triceps, abs, and core. Tomorrow's plan is only in Guido's notebook, but it will be a challenge.

And joy of joys! There are a number of us BlogHers who write about working out. We are all going to get together have a major BlogHer Gym Experience (watch out Chicaco!) at some point while we're attending the conference next week. I'm looking forward to learning some new tricks!!
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Tale of the Scale

Don't blame me for this silliness. It's all Pam Beancounter's fault!! And, look!! I'm worth more than she is!!


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Good luck at trying to cash that sum in, though!

Windy Wednesday..

Realizing that my blogs show a lack of local "color" (I haven't been taking photos every day).. I went out Wednesday to correct that situation.

Took photos of the one baby pom growing on my bush.

Took photos of the lillies blooming by my door.

Took photos of the flower garden as a whole.

But, you know.. when the wind is gusting to 25 MPH there is no way that a camera can keep a moving object in the tight focus needed.

I got fuzzy poms, out of frame lillies, and a garden blowing away from me.

Ya'll will just have to wait for a slightly calmer day.

Tale of the Scale: 7/10

Weight is about 127-128# at my home scale. When I head into the gym, several hours later, it's up to 136#. Let's just say, it makes nobody happy. I'd love to see one of "weights and measures" tests done with the weight I see in the morning. Heck, I'd love to see myself lean up some more. My weight is good for frame but you can look at me and know that there is still fat to burn.

We are all confused.

I'm having a small set back at the moment. In June, for no good reason I can determine, my left thigh started tightening up when doing my cardio. And not relaxing even after stretching. I wore a neoprene sleeve for several days and it felt better; then we went on our cruise.

This last week or so it's beginning again. So I'm having to back down on the intensity of my cardio or risk not being able to continue with other exercises. It's not my blood chemistry; just got the test back, and that's fine. It's not that I'm stretching. It's not the machine; I'm using the elliptical is is really the gentlest on joints and muscles and such.

At this point, I'm beginning to think it's shoes. That my left shoe is allowing too much wiggle movement and throwing everything off. I can't do balance moves with them on; I seem completely unable to plant my weight down stably on my foot. It wobbles and rolls.

Maybe tomorrow I'll head to the mall (shudder) and see if there is a solution there.

Summer Family Fun, A Review

The following is a sponsored post.

The Resources Center is a new website that offers easy solutions and tips to help all of us manage the different parts of our life from health to investments. Among some of the most challenging things to manage are family activities during the summertime. I was asked to read and review the offerings there.

The first two articles were in anticipation of the Fourth of July: suggestions for preparing a bicycle for a parade, and a personal fireworks poster. I found the recommendations written here to be much too basic to be helpful. This instruction is a prime example:

How To Steps For Turning A Bike Into a Personal Float

Your Activity Steps

1.Decorate your bike with the different colors of streamers.
2.Use the tape to attach each streamer and the scissors to cut the streamers.
3.You can sometimes create streamers by pushing a bit of streamers in the handle bar grip end where there is a hole. These streamers will float when you ride your bike.

Perhaps if the author had instructed the reader to weave the streamers through the bike's spokes, even providing an appropriate photo, it might have been worth reading. As it stands, these articles were too spare to spend much time on.

Projects become a bit more interesting in the next post: Five Summer Activities for Kids and Parents. This post offers: a memory stepping stone, a memory box (same idea, different medium), a shiny family journal (beginning bookmaking), decorating a mailbox, and a photo memory pillowcase. The writing is still amateurish, but the ideas are solid crafty stand-bys that former summer-campers would remember and could use without much instruction. A good thing as the instructions are again not very helpful.

The next post suffers from formatting irregularities and continues with the poor writing. This is a pity because Safety Tips for a Fun Day at the Beach or Pool is an article that many parents could use if there was more in depth information provided. The unidentified author suggests:

Before you head out to the beach or pool, research the area and the facility.Things to look for are:

* Are there restrooms or changing rooms?
* Are lifeguards on duty?
* Is there a concession stand or restaurant in the area?

However, there are no suggestions about how a parent is supposed to do this research. Can it always be done by an internet search, and should this be trusted? Is it better to call and speak to the proprietor? Rely on recommendations of friends? These necessary extentions to the written suggestion are all lacking and would turn a so-so post into an article to which others might regularly refer.

The rest of the articles under this "Summer Family Fun" section follow much the same pattern. The suggestions all read as ideas I could find at a number of other parenting websites with better instruction and writing. I wanted to find something encouraging at this newish website but I honestly couldn't.

Debra Roby blogs her art at A Stitch in Time and all bloggy things arts and crafts at BlogHer .

Tale of the Scale: July

Weight:128#. Looks like I'm down about another pound.

I recovered fairly quickly from last week's little misadventure. We are both thinking that the 30 minutes of cardio before the interval training was just a bit too much. It might also because I was still adjusting to returning from the trip. Especially since Guido has clients older and less in shape than I who can do the intervals for 20 minutes.

I still hate the machine. I feel like I'm falling off it all the time. But I shall persist because my Germanic nature (pure stubbornness) means I will not quit. Well, unless it makes me dizzy all the time.

Since it's hot here now, I'm heading back to the gym 5 days a week. Might as well let my monthly fee give me a couple hours of AC that's not on my electric bill; and let them pay for my shower, too. The days that I don't work out with Guido, I'm doing the cardio/interval thing (darn!) and lots of stability/core moves. I may even choose to take a class or two!! Got to start weaning myself off this trainer addiction. I come home feeling all tightened up and happy.

Speaking of which (feeling tight and happy...), there is a new weight loss drug OTC: Alli. Catherine Morgan wrote about it for BlogHer.. the comments are hysterical! This is another drug that blocks fat absorption in the gut, leaving the taker with some distasteful side effects. According to the wiki:

Because orlistat's main effect is to prevent dietary fat from being absorbed, the fat is excreted unchanged in the feces and so the stool may become oily or loose (steatorrhea). Increased flatulence is also common. Bowel movements may become frequent or urgent, and rare occurrences of fecal incontinence

Now granted, this is a take a pill and (hopefully) lose weight in a "take a pill" society. But in 8 months of exercising and weight training I've had one "episode" --last week. And all I was was dizzy and overheated. It was nothing like "fecal incontinence!" Granted, it takes more time and requires more committment, but why would anyone choose oily flatulence over a feeling of being tightened up and happy??

I don't understand.
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On a completely different vein (and to cleanse your mental palette before you travel on to other blogposts...), Guido asked me what it meant when his computer "keeps putting up this blue screen??" because he knows I am a geeky-grrl. It takes him 5-6 restarts to get his computer to boot at all. He was hoping I was tell him he had a nasty virus and tell him how to fix it.

We all know what's really happening: his computer is probably dying. And I had to deliver the bad news. (well, I did say: have you cleared cache, emptied your trash, done a defrag?)...