Who Knew?

So, I'm trying this new-fangled thing--it's not a fad diet, I swear--where I go to bed in time to get at least seven hours of sleep, and, also, you have to exercise a few times per week. I've only been doing it for a few days now, but it's really working already! I only had one cup of coffee today and it never even occurred to me to sleep during the Papoose's nap. It's after 7 and I've picked up the house and helped the Husband put the Papoose to bed. And my brain is functioning at a level that allows it to string words together to form, you know, a thought.

Science is crazy, I tell ya.

Breaking News

I said I was going to update you as I did that Body & Soul Challenge from the Martha Steward people. Obviously, I haven't. The experiment went a little off-track and I didn't want to go public with my plan until I was sure what that would be. I may get a lot of slack for this, because I know many people do, but here it is:

I'm going to try becoming a vegan.

Ish. That is, I'm going to try out a mostly vegan lifestyle, but I'm not going to be super-strict about it. I am doing it for both health and weight-loss reasons. It feels more health-motivated at a gut level, but I also don't think there's much chance I'll stick with it if it doesn't also result in some significant weight loss, so I'm not sure what that says about the impetus.

I don't much like meat. Never have. Sure, I enjoy a good burger once in a while, but not like other people do. I barely like steak at all. I do like turkey at Thanksgiving, but would be fine without it as long as I made an exception for gravy. I'll miss bacon, but I rarely ate that anyway, so maybe I won't miss it much after all. Cheese is a slight issue. If it's in front of me, I'm going to want it. But on a normal, daily basis, no biggie.

What will be a biggie for me has nothing to do with veganism at all. I plan to attempt to severely limit refined carbohydrates.

I've come to the conclusion, after a lifetime of struggling with weight issues and eating problems, that I think I have an honest-to-goodness addiction to sugar. I don't use that word lightly. Addictions are real, nasty things and it's not a term to throw around. Alcohol, drug, gambling...these addictions ruin lives. My life is not in ruin. Nowhere near. But how else do you explain a near pathological (maybe not near, maybe actual) tendency to binge on one kind of food: refined carbs, especially sugars. I can't guess at the number of times I've eaten a whole carton of ice cream, box of cookies, pan of brownies in one sitting. I know, most people have done that at times, and will again. But it's not normal how often I do this. How overwhelming the urge is. I used to think I just had weak will power, but anyone who knew me as an athlete knows that's not it. I crave sugar on a level that seems different from other people's. This was the main reason I did that detox week through the Body & Soul program.

And you know what? I kicked the sugar addiction. And it was easy. I just never knew how to do it before. I just ate a bunch of veggies, oatmeal, fruit, legumes, and brown rice. I was never hungry. Not too bored either.

Now I'm reading Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, MD. I won't try to review the book here. Head to Amazon if you're interested. The gist of it is nothing new: Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much. Limit your animal proteins. Make salads the main meal. Get educated about nutrition.

So tomorrow I start the six-week plan, which is a much stricter version of what the book ultimately advises you to do long-term. I think the point of the initial rigidity is just to jump start the weight loss, keep you motivated, keep things simple while you get the hang of new food prep habits. I'll be attempting to subsist on a ton of veggies, lots of fruit, some beans, legumes, tofu, and limited amounts of grains, starchy veggies, nuts. No animal proteins. No dairy. No juice or dried fruit. Obviously no refined carbs.

Wish me luck! We'll see how it goes. If I hate it, I'll quit. But it's not so different from what I've been doing, with very little effort, so I think I've got a good shot at sucess. I'll keep you posted...

Week 1-ish

The update on the Body & Soul Challenge detox is...that I need to try again next week. I'm just not into the massive overhauls. I don't stick to changes made drastically. In fact, I'm more likely to fight them. So what the Body & Soul people are recommending I do in one week, I'll instead spread over two or three weeks.

I drank a shocking amount of coffee while at Toddler Tamer's house for the holidays. Even though the Papoose was giving us more sleep that week (she slept past seven almost every day! And now we're back to 5:00 am wake-up wails, alas), and even though she and J are entertaining as all get-out to watch and play with, they are EXHAUSTING together, and we were all so busy, I just couldn't get enough caffeine in me.

But the past two days I've had only one cup throughout each entire day and really haven't missed the rest at all. I've been starting each day with a cup of warm water with lemon and I'm learning that a lot of my coffee habit is just the desire to hold and drink something warm. Ouiser and I have discussed before that a lot of coffee-drinking for us revolves more around the ritual than the actual coffee.

But, unsurprisingly, I've also felt really, really lazy this week. All I want to do is curl up and read. Forever (currently, The Other Boleyn Girl, which is great so far and totally making me want to rent the movie). But it's not at all that feeling that smacks of depression. I don't feel apathetic or uninterested or even especially tired, really. I have several theories: (1) lack of caffeine, (2) lack of exercise, (3) winter hibernation mode, (4) it's too darn cold, (5) recovering from holidays, (6) cabin fever (we've been in the house a lot since New Year's as the Papoose had a cold and now may be teething and it's been super-rainy, etc.), (7) some combination of the above.

I have a gazillion craft ideas (as I always do), but zero desire to get off my lazy butt and execute any. I did make it to the gym today, and that felt good. And the Papoose was happy to get out of the house and play with some new-to-her toys, I think.

So, I think through this weekend I will continue with the laying off of the caffeine, the getting of my butt to the gym, the going to bed at 9:00, and the media diet. Next week I will tackle this crazy detox food diet they suggest, whereby I am expected to be vegan for a week. Ugh. We'll see if I still have a husband by the end of that week. Wish me luck!

Detox Day 1

I've fallen woefully out of many healthy habits that I'd maintained for years: regular exercise, drinking lots of water, limited tv viewing, little to no caffeine... I'm trying to get back on track and under the premise that trying anything (within reason) is better than nothing, I'm going to have a go at Martha's Body & Soul Challenge. I figure that if I report to you all here on my progress, it gives me some accountability, which may help. If tails of my caffeine addiction and attempts to sneak beans and rice past the Husband bore you, I hope to get back to more interesting fare in the future.

Week 1 is all about detox, so I am scaling back the coffee intake to a strict two-cup limit. This is not much of a decrease from my normal intake, but it's something, and I don't want to launch into caffeine withdrawal on the first day.

Tomorrow I start a bit of media detox, meaning I'll only be responding to urgent emails; otherwise no Internet except to blog and to keep up with previously scheduled events with my mommy group; no tv (thank goodness for Tivo!); no Wii. I'm a little scared about this.

Let you know how it goes!

Love Hurts

My blog is going to start sounding like Scarlet's.

I had my first regular PT session today. I got the good ol' e-stim, learned some new exercises, then massage, and ultrasound. I was feeling pretty good about all that, until I realized what time it was and that she'd gone an hour past the time I told Ouiser (who was keeping the Papoosekin) I was sure we'd be done by. Nuts (excuse the kindergarten-speak, we're trying to cut the foul language around here as Baby S is coming up with about 17,000 new words per day, and we all know how malleable children's language is. Just ask Toddler Tamer--sorry again, TT! The Husband's a little out of control. Holy tangent.). So I owe Ouiser. I'm actually going to owe her a whole bunch because she's keeping the Papoosekin twice a week for a while so I can go to PT sessions. We don't really know how long "a while" is because I don't know how long the PT will go on for. No one really knows because it depends how my body progresses. I know my insurance only covers 30 visits, but I'd be shocked if I had to go that many times. Well, if it started to look like that may happen, I'd certainly look into day care. Of the non-taking-advantage-of-my-friends kind. Ouiser and I are tight, but I fear her southern hospitality may not extend to three months worth of free babysitting!

Anyway, today I learned all about my transverse abdominal muscles. Well, that's not true. I learned all about all the abdominal muscles during my first semester of graduate school, but I learned to isolate these particular muscles today. These are the very muscles that Pilates focuses on, which is why I suspect I'm heading into Scarlet territory. These are muscles that we all apparently should be engaging at almost all times for postural support, but many of us don't use at all. In fact, my therapist told me about a study where they did EMG on 40 NFL players with back problems and found that only 2 of them used these particular muscles during any given activity under which they were tested. The rest relied on their power muscles but completely ignored these. These transverse muscles are the ones that run laterally across your abdomen. They're the deepest of the abdominal muscles and can be tough to isolate. They're also almost non-existent after having a baby. Thank goodness for my athletic background because they are tough suckers to isolate.

In Babyland, gates are up, which means Baby S can finally play at our house without being subjected to innumerable death traps. We still have more to put up on the stairs, both indoors and on the deck, but we at least have the living room and dining room quartered off from the rest of the house as baby-safe zones.

Ouiser and I are trying to get all our ducks in a row before heading off to NY for Scarlet's shower and bachelorette party this weekend. Our little ones will be with their papas all weekend. Should be interesting for all involved. I'm trying to make peace with the fact that I'm convinced the Papoosekin will start crawling while I'm gone. Sad for me, if she does, but it may be the only "first" her papa would be around for because he works, so it's only fair. It's going to be so weird being away from her. I'm torn between being really, really excited to have time to myself to do something fun and really anxious about being away from her. It will be good for me, but it's going to hurt, too.

You, Me, and the Bottle Makes Three

I woke up this morning to the realization that all three of my pants were in the laundry. Not wanting, particularly, to wear sweatpants to Lily's first appointment with her new pediatrician, I decided it was time for another try with the pre-pregnancy clothes. Hallelujah, all my jeans fit! There are still some khakis that don't, but at least I have some more choices again. Good ol' breastfeeding, I have you to thank. You may give me neverending stress that the supply is too low, you may leave me trapped under a four-month old on the couch for hours at a time, and you may be disfiguring some parts of my body, but you allow me to continue to eat like a linebacker while still losing weight. Miraculous.

Which is not to suggest that I have my old body back. There is still an alarming lack of muscle in the abdominal region. Nothing like feeling that there's nothing between your fat and organs like resting your hand on your abdomen post-delivery to make you realize that they really ain't kidding when they say pregnancy literally tears apart your abs. Tears. Apart. But I made it to the gym for the first time two days ago, so hopefully some time there over the coming months will help the profile and the back problems. It was a challenge, though, to drop off the Liliputian in the germ factory they call a day care with all the five-year-old petry dishes running around. I had one eye on the day care door as I kept the other eye on the elliptical machine (level 1 isn't what it used to be). But I'm sure that's just an artifact of leaving her with a stranger for the very first time ever. I picked her up after 40 minutes and it seemed to be just in time as she was in the early stages of fuss. Next time I'll bring a bottle.

We didn't get to meet the aforementioned new pediatrician after all. Although the Husband's new insurance kicked in on the first, we don't have cards or a number yet, making the insurance virtually useless. So I had to reschedule to avoid paying the $900 in immunizations she would have otherwise gotten today. Hopefully it will all be straightened out by next week, when we're rescheduled to reappear.

What's Cookin'?

I know, I know, it's been two weeks. A new low. But I was out of town for a dear friend's wedding last weekend and it's been impossible to blog on weeknights lately.

The wedding was in Philly and it was lovely. We had a big ol' 'Gate reunion after over a year of not seeing my dozen or so closest friends (and spouses/SOs) from college, and my best friend from high school, who is an adopted member of the group. And old and precious friends from Philly. And did I mention two of the above people are also my B- and SIL? We all partied like it was 1999 and it was fabulous. Tragically, Ouiser could not be there, as she is busy with a bun in the oven, who should be showing her face any day now. We're hoping to see them both in April at another 'Gate wedding.

Upon my return, I launched headlong into spinning and water aerobics classes every morning and cooking (yes, cooking! Moi!) dinner every night. I ditched the old, within-walking-distance-but-without-classes gym and joined LA Fitness after all. I don't know what I was thinking before when that seemed like such a bad idea. It's actually slightly cheaper, I get to have classes, which are my favorite workout strategy, and I have an hour to kill by the time I've showered and dressed for work before I have to show up at the hospital. So the new routine is to head to Starbucks for breakfast, where I spend the zillions of dollars in Starbucks giftcards I have*, and sit and read for an hour. This has turned out to be very treasured, valuable me-time that actually helps get my butt out of bed at 5 am for the gym.

I think my hesitancy with them stems from having been burned by Bally's (who don't deserve a link) in the past. The big corporate gyms make me wrinkle up my nose. But everyone at this gym is very friendly. In fact, the old ladies in my water aerobics class (because those are the only people who take water aerobics, really: old ladies and chumps with busted up knees) have tried to become my new best friends and invite me to breakfast with them and want me on their e-mailing list so we can all share birthday wishes and sing to each other in the pool. It's a bit much, but sweet.

As for the cooking, I've already tried three new recipes, two of which we'll keep. All from Weight Watchers, so they're so not gourmet, but I find they're actually quick enough for me to manage before I starve to death upon getting home from work. And the husband and I have agreed that it's nice to be eating real food for once. He, until now, has mostly lived on quesadillas and I on crackers and peanut butter or Costco chicken meatballs. It's been a sad existence, so anything requiring actual ingredients is an improvement.

On the crafting front, I've made very little progress. I decided I needed some cotton twill tape to tie Chewy's mat to his crate, to hold it in place. Why don't they sell that stuff in the big fabric chain stores? I had to order it online. So I've cut the fabric to make the binding and ordered the ties. And that's about it. But I also finally hung the bulletin board above my sewing machine. The next patterned project I tackle will be made easier, I hope, by hanging the instructions right in front of my face. Then I'll have no excuses.

Everyone send healthy, speedy, easy birth thoughts Ouiser's way!

*I don't quite have a zillion dollars to spend at Starbucks. But I do have a couple hundred. The husband's company holiday party this year was a casino night at the boss's house, where a blackjack dealer tutored me all night and helped me turn $500 worth of chips into $6,000. These were then cashed in for raffle tickets with gift cards to various restaurants/stores as prizes. I won all the Starbucks ones. And then got more from friends for my Birthmas (that's SIL-speak for birthday/Christmas, as those with December birthdays will understand). Anyway, I have a lot of money to spend at Starbucks.