Psychotomy

Well, THATS working poorly.

Partially we keep ending up picking up pasta or red robin burgers (although i do get them lettuce wrapped, but still, fries!) or such.  Partially we’re not really exercising.

So far in the 5 (?) weeks since my last post, I’ve lost up to 10 lbs.  I go back and forth between down 5 and down 10.  Currently I think it’s 7.  We’re moving on to phase 2, to at least expand the options some.

Some of my issue is that I keep getting snacks.  If I forget my eggs in the morning, or if I’m running late, I’ll grab a chocolate croissant and chocolate milk at the Au Bon Pain at the train station.  If I’m hungry leaving the office, I’ll get a pretzel.  Actually, this is more because I keep craving the salt I think, more than necessarily “hungry,” but I’m not sure really it’s hard to tell.

But for the first 3 weeks I was pretty good, with scrambled eggs w/ cheese for breakfast.  Salad for lunch.  And some form of SB Phase 1 fish dish at dinner.  And even though it’s basically what I eat ANWAY, I was soooo sick of fish and salads.  So the last two weeks have been all over the map :/

Aside from curbing my snacks (which are expensive, frankly, anyway), I think what I really need is to pick one or two days a week for DK and Pi o go to the day care at the gym, and I work out & exercise for an hour or two.  Possibly take some form of class.

Of course, I also need to go to the chiropractor, b/c my neck is freakin’ killing me, which would probably dampen my workout enthusiasm a bit :!

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The other night I pulled out the scale and weighed myself.

The following day I decided to go on a Diet.

As of Sunday we’ve started South Beach again.  This Friday is Kiir’s birthday, Saturday is a gaming session at a friend’s.  So that’s two days off the reservation.

Next weekend is DK’s birthday party/Easter.  Skidding away again.

The FOLLOWing saturday is probably our DnD session.

But, what I’m figuring is trying the phase 1 (2 week) portion for 4-6 weeks.  Especially since I’ll be hitting all these drop points to make up for.

Oh, and becaues I was 237 lbs, and that is waaaaaay too much!

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So, after the Disney trip I quit drinking caffeinated sodas.  Don’t get me wrong, that means I’ve been drinking 2 or 3 root beers a day, but that’s way down from 6-8 diet sodas.  One problem at a time.  Thanksgiving week was my third week off; I made sure to start early enough that I wasn’t in early withdrawal for the drive :o

At kiir’s grandmother’s xmas part, I had a headache, so i had my first caffeinated drink.  No one had excedrin, which is what I usually take, which has caffeine in it.  So aspirin and a coke, very similiar.

One day at the office I had tried my cherry coke zero, and discovered that I HATE cherry coke.  OMG.  put the rest of the pack (only about 4 cans) in the shared kitchen.  They vanished, so someone must’ve taken them.

Yesterday DK brought me a pair of diet dr peppers.  Which was always funny, and usually timely, when he used to do it occasionally.  This morning I had a headache again, so I opened one up.  It turns out I can’t stand aspartame.  Doesn’t just have a bad aftertaste, the actual taste was pretty foul.  At least, I presume it’s the aspartame.  Kindof a nuisance if I suddenly don’t like DrP anymore either :o

Vanilla Coke tasted a little funny, but I don’t know that wasn’t just the aftertaste from the diet doc.  It wasn’t so bad I couldn’t drink it, which was an improvement at any rate.

Apparently in my pursuit for constant caffeine, I drank things I really don’t like :o  At least I never stooped to coffee!

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So, it’s been two weeks, and I just did my test.  45 situps today, waaay up from 15!!!  This week I determined that I wasn’t doing them quite right, I think I was lifting myself too far and using the wrong muscle groups :/

Friday’s situps were also done with the assistance of DK and Pi.  She’d crawl around my legs and occasionally stand using my stomach or arms for support.  It gets hard to do situps when you have to keep your arms from moving :o  DK spent one iteration sitting on my upper chest.  In case I needed more resistance than my own body weight :o  He spent two others sitting on my stomach.  The first iteration he kept trying to help me up, since I was obviously having trouble with it :o

Haven’t been doing squats, having enough trouble remembering to keep the situps in the loop.  May do squats after situps, although i plan to try keeping situps in a regular routine.  They’ve almost gotta be good for my health, weight, back, or whatever :o

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So, still only 15 situps, but watching Kiir hammer out 45, I noticed her breathing.  I’m not sure I was breathing.  I’m pretty confident I wasn’t breathing PROPERLY :o

So I may try one more time tonight and start tomorrow without the 24-48 pause.  Of course, every two weeks they have a test, so I’m not sure how you do 3 days and a test with 24 between any two …

OTOH, I threw up 60 squats when I tried last night.  I think I could have done more, but I needed to do something else and had to stop :o

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OK, so, I’m back up to needing a 40 waist from a 38, and I seem to have tipped over 210 again :/

So, it’s time to start working on my weight again.    Bonus, Kiir’s family is doing a 5k next fall that Grandpa’s Rotary club is dedicating to his memory.

So I decided to look up the “couch to 5k” site.  Then I realized that i don’t really have the option of going out and running for half an hour to an hour each evening.

That led me back to the 100 pushups site that our guild had started working at (I believe we all dropped out by week 3 due to missing our workouts).  But that didn’t work last time, because DK climbs up on my back because we’re obviously doing rides.  K stands under my head to see what I’m looking at.  And I imagine Pi would now come over and use my legs to stand so that whenever I move she falls down :o

So I followed links from there to 200 situps and 200 squats.  And I decided that situps I can probably do.  DK will sit on my stomach, so my abs will get a bit more workout.  K will either stand by my head and watch or just ignore me completely since I’m just laying there.  And Pi will probably use my legs still, but now they aren’t moving.

Added bonus?  My stomach is the (duh) biggest weight issue AFAICT, so this will help work the right muscle group to hopefully tone it down some.

I might add the squats in on alternate days and do both things  They’re both 6-week “programs”, and they both suggest a day off between steps (MWF basically) to let the muscles rest.  But I believe squats and situps would be different muscle groups anyway :)

Currently, when I did the initial test, I can do 15 sit-ups in a row before my abs start hurting too much to pull another off.  Not so hot :/  Better than the 5 I was expecting though :o  Will try again Friday or Saturday, for a second data-point and to validate the initial.  And Monday, 7 Dec 2009, I’ll start working on the 6-weeks situps :o

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Yesterday I finally got around to finding a new Chiro.  I got tired of the revolving door at the practice I used to go to, since I had three (four?) different people last year.

Well, technically,. I found a new practice.  I found an old chiro.  Apparently the non-compete expired, because my original one is back in the area!  YAY!  So I made us appointments, they even fit Kiir in for last night :o

So when I got home, Pi had been denied her nap which she wanted to start about 10 minutes before I got home.  DK had been awoken from his nap early (although technically accidental, probably needed to be done), and we went out to the office.  Kiir filled out all the new patient forms, while I put Pi up for a nap and held DK.

Meanwhile, 90 minutes later, she finished with the paperwork, intros, eval and adjustment.  Last night, my back and neck were killing me again.  Apparently having Pi grab my hair and pull it down for a blankie while DK grabs my face and tries to put my head back up (nice of him, admittedly), is NOT good for my neck.

Who knew?

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Today we took DK to the gym for swimming (again). We only go 3 or 4 times a week. Tend to miss Thursday right now for Gymboree open gym, while our membership is still active, and then usually one of the weekend days when he goes to my parents for us to clean.

But we went earlier and dropped him off at the Children’s Center. had some awkward questions when I was trying to figure out what we needed to know about dropping him off, told them that as long as they don’t have a problem with it, then WE don’t have an issue with him going to the climbing structures and ball pit and hamster tunnel net maze thing. They said that as long as they’re not too busy he can go. He’ll love that ;)

So we dropped him off, I changed and went upstairs to work out some (side note: they have the back extender (seriously, I used it for 2 years at columbia assoc, and i found it today, and I don’t know the real name? wtf?) yay!) and just generally get an idea of whats up there. The major plan was to drop him off for about half an hour so we could try it out make sure he was OK.

He was kinda pissed when we came to pick him up. Because, half an hour? seriously? I am SOOOO not done here people!!! C’mon! lemme stay!! ooh swimming, Ok , we can go i guess!

Apparently I can work out now ;) The next issue will be to determine if he has an issue with going to play and NOT swimming after. Then I could take him the two evenings that the pool doesn’t have open swim in the evenings.

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So, it’s important to know that DK hates hates hates getting water on his head and down into his eyes. He is seriously opposed to it. When we go swimming we have to hold him forcefully while we rinse out his hair after.

And washing his hair has become an endurance battle, and frankly I’ve just accepted that washing his hair ends up with wet floors and me needing a new shirt. He’ll hang his head over the side of the tub so that, in order to pour water into his hair, you’re basically pouring it on the floor. Beyond that, he almost never raises his head, so there’s no chance of pouring it down the back to keep it out of his eyes. And if I make him stand, he’ll grab me and bury his head in my chest. Meaning I get soaked (and the floor still gets wet) in the process.

Anyway, today before swimming, we waited a bit and jumped in the shower before getting in the pool, because I can never remember if you’re supposed to do that or not because it was always rather hit or miss when I was a kid. Some places required it, some places didn’t care. Some places required it AND didn’t care. But I decided to hit it today, and he went BALLISTIC as soon as water started hitting him.

Then we played in the pool, yadda yadda yadda. Afterwards in the family dressing room, I turned on the shower so we could rinse off and he was standing off to the side when I started. Imagine my surprise when I turned it on and found out he was right in the spray :o It has a high/low slider, and it was all the way at the bottom, so it wasn’t spraying where he anticipated :o He actually didn’t get as upset as I thought, but I grabbed him pretty quickly and soothed him. I tried to get stuff ready and then carried him kicking and screaming into the shower, rinsed him off quickly and decided to forgo washing his hair, because I wasn’t sure I was up to fighting that fight. Turned it off, and while I started trying to dry off a bit, he went back and started pointing and crying … so I turned the shower back on …

He splashed and played and had a hell of a fun time while I dried and dressed. He threw a huge fit when I turned it off again and started trying to get him ready to go. Squirming, screaming, kicking, flailing … Apparently he likes the shower fine as long as he can come and go as he likes :o

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So, Wednesday evening we went to the Lifetime Fitness near us, to look around and see if we wanted to go with that or the Columbia Association. We’d been members of CA before, but didn’t use it much after the first year and had been stuck in a 3-yr term.

So, Lifetime is month-to-month, which is nice. So we went for a tour. Place looks nice, big pool (indoor and outdoor) as well as water slides during free swim !! Kid Center for DK to play in while we work out. Huge equipment room with a ridiculous number of elipticals, bikes and treadmills. Resistance machines in dozens of varieties.

Since our major impetus was for DK to get someplace to swim, the pools are EXCELLENT. The kidspace looked interesting, but we didn’t get to look too closely (kids were in there, so it makes sense). All-in-all it looked great.

CA is an older facility (Lifetime was built after we moved in, so it’s only 5 or so years old). And it looks it even after renovations and such. Maybe two dozen bikes/etc. A dozen, maybe 18, resistance machines. If we pay the extra for Plus membership again, it’s about 50% more stuff in a “private” room … with all the other people who payed extra for the private equipment … But OK. Kid area DK would be confined to the non-toilet-trained area with a couple tables and a play kitchen and some trains. Nothing to climb on, not much space to run around …

Prices however, WOW! Lifetime is ~450$ just to sign up. THEN it’s 130$ a month for the three of us !!! CA is 90$ a month, no signup, minimum 1-yr commitment. Plus is 110$. Frankly we’ve agreed that to compare we should compare Lifetime to Plus, at which point we’d definitely go with Lifetime. But since with CA we wouldn’t ACTUALLY get plus, because the features aren’t worth it to us, the extra 20$/mo is kindof … the hangup.

the member advisor showing us around at Lifetime suggested that they have a 30-day moneyback garauntee, so we could try it for a month and if by the end of that we didn’t like it we could get the money back and basically a month free trial. Probably minus some portion of the signup fee. And they seem to regularly run specials (possibly to compete with CA) wherein the signup fee is reduced to 75 or 100$ (75$ of the signup is the ‘administration fee’ which, frankly, I don’t see why that’s not just included in the membership fee). But the guy was a complete tool. Tractionless shiny loafers, nice pressed pants and a shirt with collar points. And dude pushed harder than the last car salesman we talked to. I kindof wonder if that 75$ fee is the commission that he’d've gotten if we signed up.

So we decided to think about it, but we’re kindof thinking we’re going to go with Lifetime. Gonna see if we can go back and get a better look at the kids area, since the tool kindof glossed over it. Walked through the door, said “This is the kid center” and then started to leave again. He just didn’t seem to get that the family who said their main impetus was a pool for the toddler, who dad was wearing in a carrier, had some interest in the kid area.

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