I think Hallmark can see inside my house

A few days ago I got this card in the mail from my friend that I used to go to the gym with when I lived in Southern California. She lives in Japan now, and ergo carries the title of My Only Friend That is Usually Awake at the Same Time That I Am. Because of this, we chat on Skype a few times a week. Every once and awhile we talk about how little we like exercise compared to how much we like to eat. See why we're friends? Food = awesome, exercise = necessary evil.

Anyway, I don't really have a point to this, I just really liked the card and wanted to share it with you.

WonderTread

I exercised today. Guilt made me do it...or gratitude--you pick. Last night my niece Annie was here and she was bemoaning (great word, bemoaning) her injured knee and the way it keeps her from her beloved exercise. (Annie lost a boatload of weight in 2007 and has kept it off for a year.)

So today, when I was (yet again) contemplating not exercising, I decided in honor of Annie I'd better stop being a whiner and be grateful that I can exercise. Sure, I'm as out-of-shape as a reject loaf at the Wonder Bread factory* (that's my favorite bad analogy EVER!), but at least my body has working joints and muscles. So I did rejoice exceedingly as I treadmilled this morning: hurray for knees! hurray for ankles! huzzah for hips! 

*Touring the Wonder Bread Factory was my favorite elementary school field trip of all time. Paper hat with Wonder Bread circles? Check. Tiny load of Wonder Bread for each of us? Check. 

But I don't think I've purchased a load of Wonder Bread in my entire life, so their advertising ploy didn't work. 

You should know how dedicated I am

Tonight our power went out. It happens a lot, so it's no big deal, but tonight it happened just as my husband and I were going to watch our nightly disc of Lost. I was also going to ride the bike while we watched, because I haven't gotten any formal exercise done yet today (I traipsed around some pyramids for awhile and hauled 10 bags of groceries up and down 5 flights of stairs, but can't quite get myself to count those as my day's exercise).

I don't like exercising to nothing, as I get bored easily, and I wasn't interested in using my iPod tonight, so what I did was strap on a headlamp and fish out a magazine I've been reading.

As I am also easily entertained, I thought it was so funny I had dh take a picture of me. As I also have very little shame, I'm posting it here for you.
The power came on about a minute later. Makes the story way less funny. Oh well. It probably wasn't that funny to begin with (see also: doesn't take much to amuse me).

Please don't hate me...

...but I'm going on a trip with my husband. For a week. With no children. And we're going far enough away that we have to fly there. This is the first time I will have ever been on a plane with him with no kids. This is also the longest we've ever gone away together (breaking our previous record of 4 days, which broke our previous record of 24 hours. What can I say? We don't get out much).

I am really excited about this trip, but there's something about traveling that I really hate: the unknown. I mean, I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself when I have a whole week without having to break up any Polly Pocket-related fights or get excited about anybody's excrement (did I mention that Sam is potty training?), and I'm really afraid that I'm going to sleep all morning every day. Oh, I'm just kidding (mostly), the unknown that I hate is all the stuff that goes with trying to lose weight. I don't know what kind of food I'm going to have access to, don't know when or where I'm going to exercise, don't know how much water I can drink and when (since I don't know when I'll find a bathroom)(or what condition it will be in, for that matter).

So all I can do is plan the best I can. I'm bringing along some portable snacks, exercise clothes, running shoes, and an exercise tube. In my favor is the fact that I never have to talk my husband into exercising (in fact, usually I have to talk him into leaving me alone about exercising already), and with the shoes and the tubing, I'll be able to get walks and modified strength training in, with bodyweight cardio moves to use in case other forms of exercise aren't feasible. I'm also going to try to get some fruit and water to keep in the rental car so that along with the snack I bring, we'll have healthy options available. As for the bathroom thing, I'm thinking I'm just going to have to hope for the best :)

What about you? What do you do when you're traveling? How do you make sure you get your exercise in and have access to healthy food you can eat? Is anybody traveling for the holidays and needs some help formulating a plan to get you through it with your goals in tact? Give me your best healthy-living-whilst-not-at-home tip! Also, do me a favor and try to work the word "whilst" into conversation today.

Some times weight loss means playing tricks on myself

Things that are bugging me today:
1. My next-door neighbors have been doing some sort of renovations in their apartment--I assume bathroom-related because of all the clanging--for over a week now, and the noise, while audible everywhere in our apartment, is concentrated in my bedroom. Ergo, even though for two Saturdays in a row now my teenager has taken all the other kids to the closest-thing-we-have-to-a-park while the 2-year old naps, AND I’ve actually wanted to take a nap (me napping by choice and Haley’s Comet are on equal footing in terms of frequency), I can’t sleep.
2. My kids are after me to set up the Christmas tree, which I’m all about, but the movers were supposed to pack up our little tree and instead sent the big one, which is a pain in the patootie to assemble. Usually I let dh do it, but he’s off camping with our older son and the Boy Scouts. While I could just add this to the already really long list of Ways In Which I Have Disappointed My Children Time and Again, I’ll probably do it tonight after they go to bed. It’s bad enough actually doing it; I certainly don’t want them watching me do it (and by “watching me” I mean “asking me every 90 seconds if I’m done yet”).
3. My thighs really hurt. I mean really really. My husband forced me to exercise with him on Thursday and forced me to do squats and other squat-like things and now I can barely walk, let alone sit or get up from sitting. I’m finding myself hobbling around telling myself “Walk normally” but then I can’t remember how to do that, because the pain has erased all memory of ever having done it. I think I’ve stepped gingerly my entire life. And don’t talk to me about going to the bathroom. Also don’t talk to me about how great church was yesterday with my wiggly toddler and his bony little bum on my lap for an hour. I can only thank my years of worship service etiquette training for keeping me from yelping and/or cursing loudly several times.
4. There’s this character on Bob the Builder that has what I believe is the official Worst Voice Ever. I think she’s the wife of the town building inspector. I don’t know for sure, because I can’t bring myself to pay close enough attention to it to find out. My lands this woman is awful! I thought for sure this title belonged permanently to Henry the Octopus, but she makes him sound like Sting or Bono or any other smooth-talking smooth talker you can think of.
5. My toddler watches Bob the Builder 7,483 times a day.
6. We don’t have real television, only DVDs.
7. Sam's favorite Bob the Builder DVD has Mrs. Building Inspector in every. stinking. episode.
8. Cupcakes aren’t calorie-free.
9. My daughter’s birthday was 2 days ago, and nobody has eaten all the cupcakes yet. That means that besides the clanging and that horrible horrible woman’s voice, I’ve also had to listen to cupcakes chattering at me non-stop. I truthfully can’t decide which one is the worst.
10. I’m having a really hard time making myself exercise today.

Lest you think I’m in a bad mood (Hee, I originally typed that “bod mood.” I think that would either be a time when I’m really excited about working out or how Arnold Schwarzenegger expresses crankiness.), I also have plenty of things that are counteracting all of the above (except for the thigh pain; nothing makes that better). These things include but are not limited to: the Christmas signs and decorations my girls have plastered all over the house (especially the snowflakes that my 6-year old just learned how to make), I spelled “Schwarzenegger” correctly without having to look it up, and no one has eaten all the cupcakes yet.

As for the exercise, I’m going to have to trick myself into it. Usually this involves plying myself with magazines, but I’m all out. So I’m going to post this and then go ride my stationary bike while I watch a show on my computer. Really I am. Really really really.

But this also got me to wondering: how do you get yourself to exercise when you don’t want to? And if the answer is, “I just don’t,” (I think that’s the opposite of WWND--What Would Nike Do), why is that? What keeps you from exercising?

Maybe I should invent an exercise machine that plays Mrs. B.I.’s voice loudly unless you’re working in your target heart rate zone. I’d be skinny in no time!

UPDATE: 40 minutes on the bike. My legs still hurt. Oh well. Also, what is up with Dandrew? How are they possibly still in the race?!

Making Holly's Dreams Come True

(Did you think that because November is over we dropped off the face of the blogsphere?)

(Odds would have been in your favor, you know.)

Did you know that reputable scientific study after reputable scientific study says that when you're sick you should rest, read, and eat copious amounts of friend cheese and chocolate?

Sweet.

Oh, wait...dang. Sorry, Hol. The general rule is that if the illness is from the neck up, go ahead and exercise (gently, yes, but you can still do it), but if it's below the neck, rest your bootay. This is Holly's situation, see. Poor sick Holly.

Unfortunately when you've significantly reduced your physical activity that also means you need to reduce your caloric intake. I'm no expert (though I should be for the amount of magazines I read), but I think that "reduced caloric intake" means the opposite of chocolate and fried cheese (unless you go with the low/no fat/calorie/taste chocolate/fried cheese)(and if you do, two questions: 1. Why? and 2. Why are we friends...?). Old wives will tell you that you need to feed a cold, but then please consider that they'll also tell you that you shouldn't read in dim lighting, and that's just plain crazy. (Please, like anything other than pitch black is too dim to read. And even then there's a good chance you can find a cell phone or iPod to use for illumination.)

Eat good, healthy food, and drink lots of water. Oh, and call me.

Love, Mom

P.S. Here is the IM conversation that precipitated this post (also from which I stole all the jokes in it):

H: that article said
H: gentle exercise is fine when you have a head cold
H: but to avoid strenuous stuff
S: what I've read is if the sickness is from the neck up, so ahead and exercise gently, but if it's below the neck just rest
S: go, not so
H: but you'll likely prolong your illness by exercising if you have bronchitis or anything goopy in your lungs
H hey
H: same thing!
H: I might try pilates in a few days
H: but
S: rest
H: I'm afraid even that would wind me
S: and eat well!
H: I'm so out of shape!
H: lol
H: crap
S: neener neener
H: you caught me
S: sorry the articles don't say anything bout feeding the cold
H: lol
H: with fried cheese and chocolate!
S: I could write one for you
H: but then at the end I'd have to add "NOT!"
H: there you go
H: your next blog entry

I have a feeling Holly's never going to IM with me again.

Yeah...sorry...I got nothin'...

I've been trying all day to think of something to blog about, and I think I thought of some things, but they got lost. In my brain. Which means they are irretrievable.

I'm pleading the fact that as of today my husband's been gone for 5 weeks, and there's still another week before he gets home. I have officially turned into a wuss of a Marine wife. Last time he was gone for longer than a scout campout (which is pretty much the longest he's been gone since he got home from his last deployment 3 1/2 years ago), it took me until Month 5 out of 6 before I hit this level of No Rational Thought In Here. Plus my 2-year old was on a rampage today. Let me rephrase: my potty-training 2-year old was on a rampage today. There was so much pee to clean up today.

So really all I have for you is that I exercised twice today, both at home, because I had errands to run this morning and wasn't able to get to the gym. I spent an hour walking the length of my apartment after I got home from the errands and then tonight I rode my stationary bike for 40 minutes while I watched a TV show on my computer. I also drank all my water and recorded all my food. Most importantly, I did not eat all of the cookies I made for my Kindergartener's Thanksgiving party. That was probably the hardest part of the day.

I apologize for the lameness of this post. Probably what I should do instead of whining about the wolves that are chasing me (luckily I dn't have a hangnail; that would just be the last straw) is point you toward the comment of this post so that you can see how awesome Wendi is. You probably won't believe that I have an opinion about this, but I believe that real change comes through making small changes and then being consistent. Her trip to the store on foot for her very heavy appples (sorry, Wendi, couldn't resist) and not buying caramels for said heavy appples is what it's about. Go, Wendi!

Want to feel like a wuss while lifting 3 pounds?

Hi, I'm Sara, and I'm a magazine junkie. If it's geared towards women, chances are good that I'll read it. Well, that's not entirely true. I don't like the fashion magazines, and I can do without the pseudo-fashion/how-to-be-a-sex-object ones, and I stay away from the ones that loudly profess on their covers things like "Lose 40 Pounds by Blinking!" So I guess to make that a more accurate statement I should say, "Hi, I'm Sara, and I'm a magazines-that-I-like junkie."

It just so happens that most of the magazines that I like are diet/health/fitness related. Big surprise I know. I'll give you a minute to recover from the shock. Feel better now? Good.

In this month's Self magazine, there is an arms workout that hurts me. It's by Madonna's and Gwyneth's trainer, Tracy Anderson. We don't get real TV here, so I didn't see Gwyneth on Oprah, but I did read some blog analyses of the interview, more specifically her trainer's assertion that no woman should lift a weight heavier than 3 pounds. Like most of the discussions of it that I read, I basically thought the woman was, er, wrong. But then I saw this workout in Self and decided to give it a try (think what you will about Madonna, Gwyneth, and/or their trainer, you can't deny they all have great arms).

Here it is:

Sculpt A-list Arms Fast!

It says to use 3-pound weights, but all I have at home are 2.5 (they're weight plates for dh's barbells; the smallest hand weights I have are 8-pounders)(yes, I am just that tough)(no, really)(stop laughing, Holly) and the gym's weights are in kilograms, so I can either go with 1 kg (which is 2.20462262 pounds) or 2 kg (which is 4.40924524 pounds). I've used the 2.5 lbs at home and the 2 kgs at the gym and the take on both is this: Ow.

This is a good workout, especially for your shoulders. I don't think it works my triceps all that well, so I've been doing extra sets of tricep exercises as well, and by the end of both, my arms are spent. If I were more concerned with building my biceps more, I might add in some exercises specifically targeting those, too, but right now I'm not.

I'm interested to see what the rest of her workout would be like, considering I was, er, wrong about the arms portion of it. Too bad I'm cheap. I can't bring myself to pay $30 for her DVD.

Go try the workout, and tell me what you think. Be sure to watch the accompanying video, because a couple of the exercises made no sense at all to me until I did.

If you fail to plan, you plan to gain 50 or 60 pounds

I promised the world a plan by tomorrow night. For once I'm true to my word. In fact, I'm early. I'm never early. I live across the street from my church and yet I'm consistently 2-3 minutes late for services. But I digress. I have a diet and exercise plan. Or, rather, I will be making one up as I compose this post. But by the time you read this (all 3 of you), I will have a plan. Confused yet? I am.

Plan, the:

Exercise:

I don't exercise much nowadays. That's not good. My joints ache, I don't sleep well, and things are lumpy. I feel that exercise may change these things.

(Always go with your feelings--just ask teenage girls.)

Fortunately, I also know that exercise will change those things (aches, bad sleep, and lumps--not teenage girls and their feelings).

• Exercise 6 times/week (Monday-Saturday) for at least 20 minutes.
• Plan type and time of exercise the night before.
• Keep track of it all on a chart. I love charts. So does Sara.
• Buy stickers for chart, preferably scratch and sniff (Bubble gum and green apple, please)

That's a pretty basic plan. For now, I'm not going to focus on what type of exercise--just doing something that benefits my body cardiovascularly or gives me muscles and/or less lumpiness. As I see it, developing the exercise habit is much more important right now than fine-tuning a fitness program. That'll come later, I'm sure, when I'm all skinny and decide I need abs of steel.

Food:

Mmmm...food.

• Make sure I eat breakfast before 9am. I used to be really good at this, but lately I forget to eat until 11 or so.
• Track my food and Weight Watchers points. Joel found a great app for my iPhone, so I don't even need to use a pen and paper like some crazy Luddite! (Joel can't believe I still read actual books made of paper.)
• AND (this is crucial), track everything I eat. Everything. Even on days when everything I eat is coated in cheese powder.

Again, I'm starting with the basics. I'm not setting calorie or point goals yet (though that should come soon.) I just want to raise awareness...of consumption of cheese powder.

Sleep:

• Get more of it
• Go to bed before midnight

Again with the baby steps and manageable goals.

Tomorrow night I'll post a wee analysis of my first day on the plan.

EDIT: I just noticed something on my "plan" picture. Under "exercise" I thought I wrote "boogie down." But it appears I wrote "boggie down" instead. Even better.

(See why I need more sleep?)

Turns out Gravity hates me

This morning I had the bright idea that instead of going to the gym to do my workout, I would go to my kids' school and use the track there to do it. Today The Schedule dictates that I do 20 minutes of running. 20 minutes. Of running. 20 minutes straight running. Yikes.

But I really want to do this, so I made a new playlist for my iPod, charged that bad mamba jamba up, and headed out the door. I knew it would be hard, but I was willing to give it a try.

When I got to the school, I realized that there were soccer games going on on the field the track circles. Goody! My favorite! People! People to watch me! People on bleachers! I should have brought them all popcorn to help make the show complete. It honestly took everything I had not to just turn around and head home. If I had brought my purse with me I would have hopped a cab to the gym right then. But I was there, I had my music, I decided to just go for it.

Yeah.

Running outside = not the same as on a treadmill.

I barely made it one lap. And I really wanted to just go home. Again. Some more!

But instead I alternated running a lap with walking a lap. I was going to keep track of how many times I did it, but, well, I'm distracted easily. Especially when my lungs are on fire.

So I'll try the 20 minutes straight at the gym later this week and see how it goes. I've read that setting a treadmill's incline to 1 better approximates what it's like to run outside, so I'll probably try that.

I'm also thinking I need to figure out a way to work outside runs into my workout schedule. I'm doing this because I want to be good at running, not just good at running on a treadmill.

And you were so scared...

I'm feeling a little like Grover right now. (Quick! Name the book!)

Today's run was actually pretty darn good. It would have been pretty darn gooder if my gym's A/C had been on, but whatevs. The schedule (which I totally meant to link to in the last post and then totally forgot) called for me to run 5 minutes, walk 3, run 5, walk 3, and then run 5 more. The first 5 actually weren't all that bad. From the get-go, though, I used my towel to cover up the clock on the treadmill and just focused on the music on my iPod. The next 5 minutes was fine, too, but the last 5 was more of a struggle. About 2 minutes in I realized that no way in heck was the song that was on going to carry me for the rest of the time, so I quickly scrolled through my workout playlist (no easy feat when you're dealing with an armband whilst running, I might add), and found one of my go-to songs and made it through the rest of the run alive.

What song was it, you ask? Well, I'll tell you, I answer. It's called Is This the Way to Amarillo? Is that a country song, you ask? Why no, it's not, I answer. It's a song from the 70's, written by Neil Sedaka and sung by Tony Christie (though until I googled it, I would have sworn it was Tom Jones). Why, on earth, is this a song you even know of, let alone use as a power song while working out, you ask? Because of the greatest. reason. ever. (I answer.)

My husband forwarded me this 3 years ago, and ever since it has been a constant source of happiness to me. And because I like you so much, I hope you like it as much as I do:


Warning: contains a couple quick shots of some bums (of the naked kind, not homeless), so maybe don't watch if your mother-in-law's in the room (assuming she's anything like my mil, that is)

Ok, this time the crazy's just coming from me

I know it's nighttime in America, but here in Egypt it's morning. Specifically, it's time for me to leave to go to the gym. And--here comes the crazy--I'm a little scared. Because there are monsters at the gym. Ok, not really (I'm sure I had you going there for a minute there, didn' t I?). Because I have to run. I guess I don't have to, but I'm going to. I've been doing the Couch-to-5K running plan for the last 6 weeks, and today I start week 5 (pay no attention to the fuzzy math; I'm slow).

Week 5 means that never again on the schedule will I see a running interval shorter than 5 minutes. 5 minutes at a time is the longest I have run in my life. As far as I know, 5 minutes is my max.

Things aren't usually as bad as you anticipate them to be though, right? Well, at least gym-related things aren't anyway; I'm sure there are many things that are, but I'm not going there right now. Right now I'm going to the gym. Sigh. I'll let you know how it goes.

Something Else I Have in Common with a Kindergartener

Besides a short attention span and a love of snack time, that is.

I wish I could remember the website I found this idea on, but I can't, and so I totally thought of it on my own! Totally. I am very smart.

One of my biggest problems with getting and keeping weight off has always been consistency. More specifically, my lack thereof. Whether its exercising or eating well, I tend to start off strong and then peter out with a vengeance. See also: August. But about seven weeks ago, I found, er, thought up this really great idea--its called "Don't Break the Chain." It was originally intended as a motivational tool to help kids get their chores done, but I'm finding it's working almost embarrassingly well to keep me exercising. Well, it originally started with exercise and then when that worked so well, I branched out to food tracking (I just added water consumption, too, and I'm hopeful this will work, too).

So here's the dope: I downloaded a 12-week calendar from here. Then, each day that I've exercised, I've X-ed out the day. The idea is to create a "chain" of X's over time, and thus the motivation lies in not wanting to mess up this chain by missing a day. I also like to write in the box what it was I did for exercise that day, just cuz it makes me happy.

Helpful example here:
Don't I look lovely? That's thanks to last night's (when I took the picture) workout, which reads "80 min. walk."
Here's a close-up:
I am now six weeks into the 12 weeks covered by the calendar and feelin' pretty darn good about it. I do take a rest day every week, but I let myself earn an X for it if I use that day to plan out the upcoming week's exercise. So far so good.

About three weeks in, I started keeping track of days that I track my food, too. I use a thin pink (my favorite color) pen and make another X over the day (notice that I didn't say I have to be perfect with my food; I just have to write it down to earn the X). Yesterday I started in with water (if I meet the ounces goal I set, I get me another X), and for that I use a thin blue (cuz that's what color water is, duh) pen. I'm sure I could get quite the rainbow going, but I'm going to stick with those three for the time being, as those are the things I need to be the most consistent about in order to control my weight.

Like I said, I'm almost embarrassed by how well this has motivated me. What's next? Gold stars? Getting to be Line Leader? But as Paul Simon so wisely said, who am I to blow against the wind. It's working, so I'm just going with it.

Please feel free to steal, er, think this idea up entirely on you're own. I hear you are very smart.

Lesson Not Learned

My husband occasionally will sing for the kids a song he learned when he was young called "Animal Square Dance" or something like that (feel free to pipe in here, Holly, to correct me)(what you don't know about Holly, see, is that she knows every song ever written, no matter how obscure)(in fact, the obscurer the better)(and especially if it invoves animals of some kind; she knows all of those). There's a part of it that goes, "Then the tiger killed a gazelle, then the tiger killed another gazelle, then the gazelles finally wised up and killed the tiger," and something something something...big finish.

It often feels like no matter how many times I think I've finally wised up and killed the tiger, it comes back to life. Case in point: time of DVD workout today was 11:10. In the PM. So much for not putting it of, eh? But the victory is that I did it. My brain was even composing a "Sorry folks, didn't happen today" post, but then I channeled my inner Nike advertising executive (didn't know I had one of those, did you?), and just did it.

So I made it 6 days in a row. Tomorrow's my rest day, and I'm afraid I'm going to lose my momentum. My goal tomorrow is to plan out all my workouts for next week and try to set myself up for success. As much as I love me my rest day (woo! the one day a week I don't have to feel guilty that I'm not exercising!), at times I can be the embodiment of the definition of inertia, mostly the "tends to stay at rest" part. I want to see changes in my body though, and that's only going to come from work and consistency. Not exactly my strong suits. More tigers I need to kill. It'll come.

One last thought before I go collapse into bed, courtesy of my kids' school newsletter (the thought, not the collapsing into bed; that's Jillian's fault)(oh yeah, and my procrastination's):

We do not suddenly become what we do not participate in becoming.
William J. Bennett

Believe me, no one is more shocked than me

Not only did I do a DVD today, but I did it early. As in before noon. That's almost 12 hours ahead of my usual time.

It was nice to get it out of the way early. And extra nice now at 9:30pm when it's all I can do to stay awake.

Please don't tell my teenaged self how happy it makes me to get to go to bed before 10. She would die from the shame.

I blame Andrea

Hi! I hurt. Oh, and guess what (chicken butt)(sorry, couldn't resist; deep down I'm still 9-years old)! I did a DVD today! Today = 11pm. Hence, the pain.

I had it niggling (yes, that's a word; if I said it then it's a word) in the back of my head today that I needed to do it, but didn't quite get to it. I went hiking with my family this morning, and I rode my stationary bike this afternoon, and I went swimming this evening, but still no DVD. Honestly, by the time we got back from swimming, I had completely forgotten. But then when I was talking online with my mom, my inbox dinged and like the Pavlovian dog that I am, I checked my e-mail. It was Andrea's comment from my last post telling me that she had done a DVD and that I darn well better have had, too! Ok, was much nicer about it (and funnier), but that was the gist.

So here I am. It's almost midnight, I'm drenched in sweat, and I hurt. But I did what I said I was going to do, so I feel great.

I guess what I meant by the title of this post was, "Thanks, Andrea."

Technical Difficulties

I got this e-mail forward a few years ago that was entitled something like "What Men Say vs. What They Really Mean," and it had a long list of "translations" of things men say. I remember chuckling a little at a few of them, but only one made me laugh out loud. It was also, conveniently, the only one I remember (clearly, if you want me to remember something, it darn well better be funny!). It said: "What He Says: 'I can't find it.' What He Really Means: 'It didn't fall into my outstretched hand, so I'm stumped."

So when I say "Technical difficulties," what I really mean is, "The DVDs aren't falling into our outstretched DVD players and forcing us to exercise to them, so we're not so much stumped as still sitting on the couch."

Sadly, Holly and I have a long and storied history of inability to motivate each other. I was hoping that This Time Would Be Different, as I always do. But I've decided (and I've decided for Holly, too)(because I'm nice like that)(and also bossy), that instead of just letting this totally fade away like we usually do, we are trying a novel new approach called "TRYING AGAIN." What we aren't going for here is to exemplify Homer Simpson quote, "Well, son, you've tried and failed miserably; the lesson here is: Never Try."

Tomorrow (Friday) is the Sabbath here in Egypt, and that's my rest day, and Holly is traveling out of state for a family funeral this weekend, but come Saturday for me and Monday for Holly, we'll be in front of our TVs, DVDin' our little hearts out. Right, Holly?

Another Day, Another DVD

For some reason today, it was really hard to make myself exercise. Well, I guess that reason has something to do with the fact that exercise is hard, and I don't really like hard things. But other than that, I have no idea why it was hard. I frittered away my morning and the next thing I knew it was getting close to time for our family to go meet some friends at the pool. But I knew that if I didn't exercise before we went, it just wouldn't happen. So I found my shortest cardio workout and did that. I still had to send the fam on without me, but I joined them shortly thereafter. Honestly, it was this challenge that was the only thing that made me do it today. I can't exactly get all "Crazy King George" on Holly and then poop out on my end, now can I?

I saw a quotation today that I really like. "Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit." --Vince Lombardi

That has been my M.O. for a lot of things my entire life--do it until it gets "too hard" and then find a good enough reason to quit. This is especially true with exercise and diet plans. I'm not going to get all "This time is different" because I don't know if that's true. But I do feel good about where I am and how I'm doing. I need to put some more work into my food, but I'm feeling things coming together in my brain and in my life that gives me hope that I can make some positive change.

Of course, this also calls to mind another quotation I'm rather fond of. Of which I am rather fond, I mean. Never know where Holly's dad and his grammar lessons may be lurking. It can be found here.

The Things I Do

Behold the trials I endure in order to exercise:

You want a tyrant? Check out the giant toddler who thinks the TV is only for his personal use for viewing The Little Einsteins. (Though you should know that I'm only indulging him because we are still waiting for our household goods to get here, and the boy has little-to-no toys.) Yes, that is a toy cat in between his toes. He's a kooky tyrant.
These are what I have to use as handweights. They are also useful for hydrating post-workout (if I did it during then I'd throw off the balance, see).
So because the TV is dominated by children's programming, I have to drag this big ol' transformer (seriously, the things weighs probably 20 pounds) into my room so that I can plug in...
...the portable DVD player so that I can workout to a little Tamilee Webb in my bedroom. I did one session of I Want Those Arms and one of I Want Those Abs. I'm quite certain that things like lifting feathers or inhaling are going to be quite impossible tomorrow.
And this has nothing to do with anything; I just think it's cool. This is where I was tonight:
Yeah, that's the sunset on the Nile.

When Legs Attack

Pilates again today, but this time the lower body workout. So between that and yesterday's "running" (really, that's such an exaggeration; even calling it jogging would be kind), I'm likely not going to be able to walk very soon.

Note to self: stretch! My calves are not my friends today.