Thursday, June 19
I might be a bad person...
but this post cracked me up. I, too, have a hard time eating lamb if I even think about it for a moment.
Friday, June 13
Watch and Weight
Thoughts on weight loss:
It occured to me as I pondered whether I would be able to lose 10 pounds by the end of June and what I'd have to do that my approach to dieting is all wrong. I was considering jumping on another bandwagon - one that had worked for me in the past, such as the purification diet, Weight Watchers, carb addicts - while I munched on one of the 3 pack of Reese's peanut butter cups from the work vending machine. The thought of starving myself just seemed horrible. That's what these diets are: starvation of one sort or the other. I'm miserable and fixated on food until I reach my goal or the event for which I am starving myself arives. Then I start eating the way I was and gain the weight back.
Obviously, this doesn't work. And obviously that is pointed out in many magazines. What I realized, though, is that even if I can't lose the weight by the end of June I still want to lose the weight. (Oh, and by the way June was the new goal after the April Hawaii trip goal was missed.)
What I have now determined is that I need to make some small, permanent changes that will likely not allow me to lose the weight by the end of June, but should make it possible for me to lose the weight and not gain it again.
So, to start with, I've made two changes. Sam and I are now going to the gym. Hopefully I'll still go when he is out of town. I have found that I love walking on the treadmill at an incline. I can't run; it hurts my knees. I can't use the eliptical machines because they make my feet hurt after 10 minutes. But walking "uphill" on the treadmill gets my blood pumping and doesn't hurt anything.
The other change is planning for the afternoon munchies. At the new job, I am bored. I am often bored, and therefore often eat. The only thing that I can eat from these vending machines are unflavored potato chips and some candy bars due to my gluten intolerance. So I was eating a candy bar almost every day, within an hour after lunch. I wasn't hungry, but I needed to eat. I brought carrots, but I didn't want them. I discovered that kombucha tea kills that craving. So now I have carrots, an apple, and kombucha tea to keep me from the vending machine (at least on a regular basis). I have found that if I drink the tea when I start feeling the cravings (usually around 2:00) I am not hungry before 5:00. However, at 5:00 I am starving and will make bad decisions on eating before dinner. Therefore I make myself eat the apple and carrots around 4:00 so that I can make better decisions later.
My next challenge is going to be after dinner. Usually an hour after dinner I am bored and too tired to do anything constructive. Why don't I go to bed? Because it's still light out until 9:30! So I end up drinking, and drinking makes me eat, so I start eating. This is what I need to resolve next.
We'll see what happens. I am determined to make and keep these changes. When my mom was my age, she was probably about my size, and concerned about her weight. But with the amount of stress she was dealing with at that time and thereafter, she never did get her eating habits under control, or maintain an exercise program. I'm not worried about dying young like she did; that's genetic, and there is really very little one can do about that. But I'm worried about gaining the weight that she did and feeling as depressed as she did. I wish I could have helped her, but at least I can learn from her.
It occured to me as I pondered whether I would be able to lose 10 pounds by the end of June and what I'd have to do that my approach to dieting is all wrong. I was considering jumping on another bandwagon - one that had worked for me in the past, such as the purification diet, Weight Watchers, carb addicts - while I munched on one of the 3 pack of Reese's peanut butter cups from the work vending machine. The thought of starving myself just seemed horrible. That's what these diets are: starvation of one sort or the other. I'm miserable and fixated on food until I reach my goal or the event for which I am starving myself arives. Then I start eating the way I was and gain the weight back.
Obviously, this doesn't work. And obviously that is pointed out in many magazines. What I realized, though, is that even if I can't lose the weight by the end of June I still want to lose the weight. (Oh, and by the way June was the new goal after the April Hawaii trip goal was missed.)
What I have now determined is that I need to make some small, permanent changes that will likely not allow me to lose the weight by the end of June, but should make it possible for me to lose the weight and not gain it again.
So, to start with, I've made two changes. Sam and I are now going to the gym. Hopefully I'll still go when he is out of town. I have found that I love walking on the treadmill at an incline. I can't run; it hurts my knees. I can't use the eliptical machines because they make my feet hurt after 10 minutes. But walking "uphill" on the treadmill gets my blood pumping and doesn't hurt anything.
The other change is planning for the afternoon munchies. At the new job, I am bored. I am often bored, and therefore often eat. The only thing that I can eat from these vending machines are unflavored potato chips and some candy bars due to my gluten intolerance. So I was eating a candy bar almost every day, within an hour after lunch. I wasn't hungry, but I needed to eat. I brought carrots, but I didn't want them. I discovered that kombucha tea kills that craving. So now I have carrots, an apple, and kombucha tea to keep me from the vending machine (at least on a regular basis). I have found that if I drink the tea when I start feeling the cravings (usually around 2:00) I am not hungry before 5:00. However, at 5:00 I am starving and will make bad decisions on eating before dinner. Therefore I make myself eat the apple and carrots around 4:00 so that I can make better decisions later.
My next challenge is going to be after dinner. Usually an hour after dinner I am bored and too tired to do anything constructive. Why don't I go to bed? Because it's still light out until 9:30! So I end up drinking, and drinking makes me eat, so I start eating. This is what I need to resolve next.
We'll see what happens. I am determined to make and keep these changes. When my mom was my age, she was probably about my size, and concerned about her weight. But with the amount of stress she was dealing with at that time and thereafter, she never did get her eating habits under control, or maintain an exercise program. I'm not worried about dying young like she did; that's genetic, and there is really very little one can do about that. But I'm worried about gaining the weight that she did and feeling as depressed as she did. I wish I could have helped her, but at least I can learn from her.
More "wants"
I want this Clarisonic face scrubber, but at the price, it just ain't gonna happen. Unless someone buys it for me, which also ain't gonna happen. Made by the same people who make the Sonicare (Sonicare <-> Clarisonic? They need some original product naming), another product that I really want but refuse to pay for.
Wednesday, June 11
Flea prevention
This post recommends an eco-friendly, non-toxic flea control. Hm. I'm fully in favor, but wary of the efficacy. Who wants to be the guinea pig?
Tuesday, June 10
THIS! IS! MY! JOB!!!
5PM Outsource This!
Guy: Today, from 1:30 to 4:30 I played tic-tac-toe and hangman, and then at 4:30 I played board games and drank booze. I love my job.
Westport, Connecticut
via Overheard in the Office, May 8, 2008
Guy: Today, from 1:30 to 4:30 I played tic-tac-toe and hangman, and then at 4:30 I played board games and drank booze. I love my job.
Westport, Connecticut
via Overheard in the Office, May 8, 2008
We all know this guy
11AM But Without the Whiskey and Suicide Attempts
IT dork: It's like Christmas when you get to open a new server!
Berkeley Street
Boston, Massachusetts
via Overheard in the Office, Jun 2, 2008
IT dork: It's like Christmas when you get to open a new server!
Berkeley Street
Boston, Massachusetts
via Overheard in the Office, Jun 2, 2008
Monday, June 9
Where did your $600 go?
Based on my calculations, mine is going to Exxon. Or BP or Shell. For my car, avg. $12,000 per year, avg. 25 mpg, at $4 per gallon, I'll be sending $480 more this year (than last year at $3) to those wonderfully prosperous oil companies. That's if the price of gas doesn't go up any more this year, which it will, meaning that my whole tax credit will probably go to the oil companies. So many disgruntled thoughts are going through my mind.
Thursday, June 5
Road rage update
What are the chances that drivers on the road are going to drive well when the driving instructors don't know how to drive courteously? On my way home from work today, "Student Driver" car, with only one occupant so I will assume the instructor, in the middle lane, going 10 miles under the limit. Which obviously geeked up traffic. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
Safe v. Unsafe Plastic
This list from National Geographic was educational. There is a lot in the news about chemicals leaching from plastics; this is the facts, minus the panic. One interesing fact: the salad "clamshells" for the to-go salads at work are type 6, which is the same plastic used for styrofoam take out containers, and is NOT safe. It's designed to hold food!
Eggplant
Eggplant Stewed in Honey and Spices
Scroll down the posting for the recipe. Haven't tried it, but shall soon. Probably when Sam is out of town!
Scroll down the posting for the recipe. Haven't tried it, but shall soon. Probably when Sam is out of town!
Roadrage 1
For some reason, the drivers on the east side of the 275 loop around Cincinnati are the worst I've encountered so far. They all seem to be driving half asleep. Seriously, the number of times I've seen people jerk the wheel to get back in their lane is ridiculous.
I think most of those people are on their cell phones. It's a phenomenon (I'll spell check that word later) that crosses all class/age/race boundaries: no one can drive well and talk on a cell phone at the same time. NO ONE. This means you. This also means me. I know this and try to limit it. People speed up when they suddenly become aware that they are driving to slowly. They are made aware of this when others start to pass them. Apparently their ego can't take that, so they then speed up to make sure that no one can pass them. They then drift back into that half-aware-driver state and focus back in on their phone conversation and begin slowing back down to 60 mph in the far left lane. (Often conversations with other people in the same car have the same effect, especially among the teens and baby-boomer generation, for some reason.)
Smokers also seem to be very bad drivers. This is not only when they are scrambling to find a cigarette, find a lighting source, or brush the hot ashes from their thighs. I truly believe the studies that say that cigarette smokers go through their day high. Their driving certainly proves this.
My top driving peeves:
I think most of those people are on their cell phones. It's a phenomenon (I'll spell check that word later) that crosses all class/age/race boundaries: no one can drive well and talk on a cell phone at the same time. NO ONE. This means you. This also means me. I know this and try to limit it. People speed up when they suddenly become aware that they are driving to slowly. They are made aware of this when others start to pass them. Apparently their ego can't take that, so they then speed up to make sure that no one can pass them. They then drift back into that half-aware-driver state and focus back in on their phone conversation and begin slowing back down to 60 mph in the far left lane. (Often conversations with other people in the same car have the same effect, especially among the teens and baby-boomer generation, for some reason.)
Smokers also seem to be very bad drivers. This is not only when they are scrambling to find a cigarette, find a lighting source, or brush the hot ashes from their thighs. I truly believe the studies that say that cigarette smokers go through their day high. Their driving certainly proves this.
My top driving peeves:
- Not using cruise control. People seem to think that cruise control is only for when you are on vacation, driving for hours on the flat highways of Kansas. No. It is for anytime that you want to maintain a constant speed. Except in heavy traffic, slow speeds and mountainous areas that will kill your transmission, cruise control is appropriate. Your fellow drivers will thank you for not gradually slowing down in front of them.
- Not pressing the gas when the incline of the road dictates. (Using cruise control will prevent this.) If you keep steady pressure on the gas pedal and maintain an even speed on a flat road, you will slow down if you start going up hill. That is fine, as long as you GET OUT OF THE WAY! Move into the right lane if you want to save gas and your speed drops to 60 on a 65 mph speed limit highway. MOVE OVER!!!! Every single day there are massive backups on my way home because ONE person ignores this principle and the 50 cars stacked up behind him while his speed slows from 70...65...60...55... all in the far left passing lane.
- Not using turn signals/indicators properly. Read the manual: turn on the signal to INDICATE that you want to change direction. Turning on the signal WHILE making a lane change or a turn really does nothing. It does not reassure the people behind you that, yes, you really did mean to do that. The purpose is to let people behind you know that you are about to change your lane/direction before you do it so that they have time to react. Yes, some people are jerks and will speed up to cut you off. However, assuming that the person you are about to pull in front of at 65 mph is a jerk and NOT giving them fair warning is unkind and unthoughtful. Signaling after you start breaking for a turn is also unkind as it will make the person behind you wonder if you are breaking for something in the road, for a turn, or are just a really bad driver.
- Speeding up to prevent someone from changing lanes. WHY?
- Not paying attention and then expecting everyone on the road to let you cut across 5 lanes to make a right when you were in the far left lane passing everyone (or holding up traffic), or being in the far left lane when you really needed to make a right turn (or the opposite, of course). Or using clearly marked "no u-turn" areas on the highway instead of going up to the next exit. No excuse for this. It's illegal and dangerous.
I feel much better. I guarantee this list will grow.
Think before you cook
We should have read this article in NY Times (via shelterrific) before our first "all of Sam's mom's family gets together sometime around but never on Thanksgiving day" at our place. We made a recipe for stuffing that was enough to feed all of Cincinnati's homeless. Seriously, it filled two large turkey roasting pans; you know, the big, disposable aluminum type. There were 19 people, and we didn't even eat a quarter of one pan. We froze the leftovers, thinking we'd eat it later because it was really good chorizo and cornbread stuffing. Never happened.
Wednesday, June 4
HIGH gas prices - the fault of religion?
Comedic post on a blog had this fact:
"Fun fact #3: A Washington DC church group has launched a “Pray at the Pump” campaign to implore God to lower gas prices. Since they have started the national average for unleaded has gone up about $0.43."
"Fun fact #3: A Washington DC church group has launched a “Pray at the Pump” campaign to implore God to lower gas prices. Since they have started the national average for unleaded has gone up about $0.43."
Tuesday, June 3
My caffeine addiction
I'm not alone.
What I learned (well, I knew it but now I can prove it) from this article:
What I learned (well, I knew it but now I can prove it) from this article:
- Caffeine "slips effortlessly across the blood-brain barrier" and blocks "the adenosine telling us to go to sleep because we’re tired". However, small amounts throughout the day don't seem to impare sleep.
- Caffeine produces a high similar to cocaine, and like cocaine "the brain develops a tolerance to all of these drugs, ever-increasing quantities are required to achieve the same high." The good news is that caffeine has a "built-in restraining mechanism. Technically called caffeinism, it’s the state in which an overcaffeinated user hits the drug’s “dysphoric” range and is overcome by the shakes, anxiety, tension, and nausea... Too much cocaine makes you feel invincible; too much coffee makes you think you’re having a nervous breakdown." Oh, and I have been there! (With caffeine; no idea about the other.)
- Drinking coffee before breakfast is bad. "A study released in late May found that drinking coffee before breakfast could cause blood-glucose levels to rise sharply, which can be dangerous for people with type 2 diabetes. " Plus it gives me a stomach ache and my muscles get tense.
Breakfast advice
Not from me. I am a breakfast eater, and according to this study, I am eating the best breakfast of all!
Excerpt from last paragraph:
"So what, then, to eat? The path of bread crumbs—or cereal flakes—through the thicket of breakfast suggestions is this: Breakfast is not dessert. Most muffins and bagels are out, as are those breakfast bars with the creepy strip of ersatz milk, and the many cereals that claim to be “whole grain” but are in fact sugary and fiberless. Out too are my beloved toaster waffles, unless I find a version containing the recommended five grams of fiber per serving. What remains are the foods that we probably should have been eating all along: unprocessed, low-GI, fiber-rich foods like fruits, vegetables (in omelettes if nowhere else), oatmeal (slow-cooking or steel-cut rather than instant), whole-grain breads and cereals (that are also high in fiber and low in sugar), protein in the form of low-fat dairy, and eggs in moderation. "
Excerpt from last paragraph:
"So what, then, to eat? The path of bread crumbs—or cereal flakes—through the thicket of breakfast suggestions is this: Breakfast is not dessert. Most muffins and bagels are out, as are those breakfast bars with the creepy strip of ersatz milk, and the many cereals that claim to be “whole grain” but are in fact sugary and fiberless. Out too are my beloved toaster waffles, unless I find a version containing the recommended five grams of fiber per serving. What remains are the foods that we probably should have been eating all along: unprocessed, low-GI, fiber-rich foods like fruits, vegetables (in omelettes if nowhere else), oatmeal (slow-cooking or steel-cut rather than instant), whole-grain breads and cereals (that are also high in fiber and low in sugar), protein in the form of low-fat dairy, and eggs in moderation. "
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