And the weekly weight in says...

Down 0.6lbs, for a total of 24.6 lbs down. I officially set my final goal as 135. So even though I could shoot for another 10%, (21 lbs) I chose a slightly closer goal of 199 lbs. (13.6 lbs) I haven't seen under 200 lbs in over 25 years, and I think that is a goal worth celebrating.

I'll also be looking for a non WW goal of wearing a size 18... also a LONG time since I've seen clothes in that size! Shoot you can even find that size in many NON fat women shops! Now shopping in a regular clothes store is something I'm really looking forward to, that will be a reward all on it's own!

Swam for an hour today for 4 activity points. ( laps + play time) Yesterday was a day off.

Rain Rain go away...

It's spring in Oregon. That means it's raining. Our 10 day forecast says in the next 10 days we should get maybe 3 days of no rain. Today being one of them. Then again that's what they said yesterday ... before the rain and hail hit. Looking out side I'm not so sure today will be an improvement. The clouds aren't quite as black as yesterday. The ground is currently dry. So maybe there is some home of getting outside. Though seeing DH come home covered in mud to the eyebrows after the 200K he did Saturday... I'm not sure I want to risk it. I hear a mud bath is supposed to be good for the skin... Na, I guess I'm going to get back on the trainer today.

After last weeks big loss It's looking a bit flat this week but that's not a huge surprise I guess. I did take some measurements about a month ago and yesterday I remeasured. My waist is 2 inches smaller my ribs below the breast are about 4 inches smaller hips are 2 inches smaller my thigh is 1.5 inches smaller and my calf is 1 inch smaller. So in the last month I've done quite well over all. Tomorrow is weigh in so we will see if there was any actual weight progress this week. I'm afraid that after all the exercise I might have added a bit of muscle making it harder to tell weight wise if I've actually lost fat. Clothes wise I'm down form a snug size 24 to a normal fitting size 20. So over all progress. Yeah!

This week I'm going to go to a bit of a modified exercise pattern. I'll get my 5 points 4 days a week and the other 3 cut back. I'll try to up my exercise on the 4 days a few minutes every couple of days on the Trainer. The other days I'll work more on stretching and flexibility.

As for the diet...I'm having trouble wanting to eat. Or maybe it's more that I'm much pickier about what to eat. It needs to have a LOT of flavor or I'm just not to interested. I think I need a menu shake up. Maybe BBQ something(yes I BBQ in the rain, I live in Oregon, I even BBQ in the snow occasionally!) or something spicier than normal. Any suggestions?

One day early and the challenge prize is...

Tonight DH took me to REI to pick up my prize as he was pleased with how hard I've worked on the activity points challenge. (though I still have to do 6 points tomorrow.) What was the prize you ask?


http://www.burley.com/products/adventure/nomad.cfm

A Burley Nomad Trailer the first item purchased specifically for our bike tour. How cool is that? It was way more than anything I would have picked out for a prize for this challenge. He said I deserved it for all the hard work I did. He thought I needed a real piece of the trip as a reward. Now if the weather will cooperate maybe we can take it for a test trip to the grocery store. The weather report says maybe Sunday or Monday but heavy rain tomorrow. That's OK I don't need anything at the store tomorrow any way.

Today we did go to the pool but didn't get a lot of heavy swimming in. It's spring break here and the pool was so full that there was no way to do laps. I did get an hour of constant motion (part of it in the hot tub. LOL!) then I came home and rode the bike this evening. So I got in 6 points in but will need to do an extra point tomorrow to catch up. DH says no that I just need my 5 tomorrow but I want to do it any way. Actually I'm think I'm going to do Sunday and Monday too for 14 in a row. After that I think I will go to 5 days a week and have a couple of days of lower activity point days a week, Maybe the legs will forgive me and let me sleep for a change. they've not been horribly sore, just achy enough at night to wake me up now and then. Tuesday we will see if the exercise is still doing it's job.

My name is Kathy, I'm fat and it sucks.

Some days I don't feel fat at all. Some days I'm overwhelmed by being fat. It's not the appearance of being fat that bothers me, or the people that judge you because you are fat. It's the struggle to do day to day things. The struggle to not be obsessed with food, either the eating or the NOT eating food. The daily aches and pains of going up and down stairs. The not wanting to do something because I'm hauling around this whole extra person and that makes it so much harder to do things. The feeling sorry for my self because I'm not one of those naturally thin people.

Today I'm taking DD and her friend to the pool. I used to take them and just hang out in the corner of the pool. In the last few weeks I've started swimming laps and playing with the kids when I'm in the pool. Instead of half an hour we stay a couple of hours. It's an improvement. I've also started riding my bike on the trainer inside. When I started I was dripping sweat, in pain and couldn't go on after 18 minutes. Now I am dripping sweat, in pain and can't go on after 28 minutes. It's an improvement. (OK not huge, but huge for me!)

Most of the time I try not to get down or dwell on being fat. Right now with all this work on losing weight and getting in shape I'm kind of smacked upside the head with is all day long. The challenges seem unending. The fat seems to cling and my image of me is slow to change. I don't see myself as fat, I wasn't as a teen. But then I don't often look in the mirror. I looked for a picture of me to put on the blog... and didn't find one. Nothing more recent than several years ago.

I guess I need to bite the bullet and take some pictures. I'll hate them. I always do. But how will I see me change, How will I see progress, if I don't. I did take some measurements but not till I'd lost almost 20 lbs, before that I couldn't face it. Maybe soon you'll get to see the real me. Maybe someday I'll get back to the real me.

For today, I need to catch up. I only got 3 points yesterday so I need to get an extra 2 points today to make my goal of a 5 points a day average. I think can pick them up at the pool depending on how long we stay and how many laps I can do. If I can do laps for an hour and play with the girls for an hour that should get all 7 points. If not I'll need to ride on the trainer for for awhile to pick up another point. They should be able to keep themselves busy at the pool for an hour or so while I do laps. Maybe DH will go with us and spend some time in the gym and some in the pool.

If I knew someone with a magic wand that could grant my every wish I'd wish to be tall skinny and beautiful. Since I don't know anyone with a magic wand, I guess I'll just have to keep working on it. Maybe some day I'll get my wish to be if not skinny at least not fat. The tall and beautiful part I can't do much about but I wasn't tall, skinny and beautiful when DH married me so I guess thinner, healthier, and more energy will at least be a major improvement.

2010 bike tour thoughts and plans...

1 step closer. We've been talking about possible Bike tours for the family 2010 vacation. It's in California. It would start with an Amtrak ride from Portland Oregon to Davis California. Next from Davis to Napa, a lovely tour up the Napa Valley and over to the coast just short of Fort Bragg. Then down the coast to San Francisco north to Vallejo and a day at Marine world before heading back to Davis for the Amtrak Ride home. Expected time about 2 weeks. There is a map below and DH has wonderfully done a post for me at the family web site. http://www.napolitano.it/?p=270#more-270 an here is a map of the plan as it stands today.


http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Napa-Valley-and-Coast-Tour (interactive map at Bikely)

Sites to see on the tour... the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield CA (day 1)http://www.jellybelly.com/visit_jelly_belly/california_factory_index.aspx . Napa Valley (Day2)http://www.napavalley.com/ Probably a good night stop distance wise would be St Helena (day 3). http://www.napavalley.com/lodging/st_helena.html Then to Cloverdale. (Day 4)http://www.sonomacounty.worldweb.com/CloverdaleCA/WheretoStay/ The next leg would be a bit longer and tougher, but would either go up to Mendocino or down to Point Arena, unless we could find lodging in a smaller town between the two. (Day 5) The rest depends on what we find for day 5 and if we decide to go up to FT Bragg or go directly south toward San Francisco. about another 4-5 days with a reward day at Marine World in Vallejo ca, http://www.sixflags.com/discoveryKingdom/index.aspx (maybe we would do a quick stop by Manteca to visit the family)Then back to Davis and Home on Amtrak. Obviously this is still in the thinking stages, not in the finished plan stages, but a rough idea of what I'm thinking about.

End of week 10 weigh in...

And I'm down 4.4 lbs! 7 days with an average of 5 activity points per day did indeed break the plateau I was on. So I'm down a total of 24 lbs. 79.2 lbs left to lose. If you think 4.4 is a lot to lose in 1 week don't worry if you average it over the last 4 weeks I'm down just a bit over 1 lb a week.

So on with the 5 activity points a day challenge. I don't expect to lose 4.4 lbs next week. Just keeping going in the right direction will be fine.

My next interim goal will be 199 lbs. I haven't been under 200 lbs in over 25 years. So even though this is a relatively "close" goal, (only only 14.2 lbs out) it is a BIG goal for me. My next 10% goal is 194 lbs. Wow Just saying that is so strange. Anything under 200 has been so far away for so long it just sounds very strange to say it.

OK teacher...

I will not leave my homework until the last minute. I will not leave my homework until the last minute. I will not leave my homework until the last minute. I will not leave my homework until the last minute. I will not leave my homework until the last minute. I will not leave my homework until the last minute. I will not leave my homework until the last minute. I will not leave my homework until the last minute. I will not leave my homework until the last minute. I will not leave my homework until the last minute.

There 10 times. Ugh. I waited until after dinner to even consider doing my 5 points of exercise. OK not quite true. I started earlier but DH called me to come upstairs and check out something he needed to get done ASAP. Then we had to run errands to finish the urgent thing. Then it was time to cook dinner. Yeah.

On the Plus side... While using the trainer for exercise still hurts in new and different places, it is getting easier in that it is less stressful mentally. Physically I"m hoping not to have last nights calf muscle cramps. BUT 3 minutes no longer seems like forever, and I can think enough to play the game of if I been riding x amount of time I'm a certain percentage there and if I did that I can do x more.... etc. While I'm not really into math, anything that makes me not think about my thigh, calf and butt muscles is a good thing.

I went to K-mart today and bought some new pants and underwear in a size smaller because almost all of my pants are hard to keep up these days. K-mart because a) they carry "plus" sized clothes, b) They were clearing out the winter stuff at ridiculously cheap prices... $3.99 for a pair of pants that I only need to last a few months at the longest? You bet I'll buy them. I got 2 pair for $3.99 and 2 others a bit nicer for more "dressy" times for $16.99. They're not even ugly, not high fashion, but not ugly. Tan, black, and denim. They will do.

Here's hoping tomorrow's weigh-in will reflect all the exercise I've been doing this week. As of today 7 days in a row. (The challenge started 2 days later so for that I still have 5 to go.) Who knows maybe by next week I can up it to 6 points with out thinking I'm going to kill myself. (or wanting to!)

Day 4 of challenge, Exercise DVD,

I tried the WW get moving DVD for exercise. Blech. Not my style. The 10 min AB workout wasn't horrid. But then it was 10 minutes and not worth much points wise. The 20 minute Yoga/Pilate's segment was at best annoying, and also worth very few points. The annoying part is that woman never shuts up! Also my living room is small. While she's telling you to elegantly move around your chair I'm stopping and moving my chair so I can get on the correct side to do the next exercise. I finished and had trouble assigning points at all. I had to get on the trainer and ride for 12 minutes before I felt like I could declare myself 5 points and done. 42 minutes to earn what I can earn in 28 min. on the trainer. No thanks. While it may be good for toning It's not what I need for burning. Maybe I'll try one of the others on an odd day when I'm not trying to earn points.

I'm also going to vow to not leave exercise till 8PM again. Trying to get 5 points all at once when you are already tired. Yeah kind of like a kid leaving homework till 9 at night the night before it's due. Not the best choice.

10 day challenge, Bike trainer,

I finished day 2 of the 10 day challenge I had to split the bike ride into 2 sections to get it done though. Currently I can only survive 18 minutes on the darn thing. So this morning I did 18 minutes and after dinner I did another 11 minutes. I might have been able to do 18 this evening... but I didn't. Tomorrow I'll see if I can go a bit longer both morning and evening. I have to be able to do 28 minutes to get 5 points for my daily challenge.

I'm going to need to rethink /set up somethings for the bike trainer to work well for me. One I need a place I can reach to set my water bottle as I can't get the darn bottle out to drink without stopping. Yeah this wouldn't be a good bike for a tour. I also need to do something about my seat post. It is supposed to absorb shocks but it's started squeaking/clanking every time I shift my rear. Very annoying. I have trouble getting on and off as I'm short, I got hung up in the darn things this morning when I was trying to get off and fell. Thank goodness the carpeted floor isn't as bad as asphalt. I merely bounced a bit, but it wasn't fun. My shoulder is a bit sore tonight and I'm not sure if it's from riding, falling, just getting old or some combination of all three.

Any way you look at it the challenge has to be good. Either I get fitter,build muscle mass,get a little closer to my goal fo a bike tour, lose weight, win a prize or all the above. And I know I can do it, even if I don't enjoy it, I can do it. All it really will take is working at it.

Last night was rough

My left leg hurt off and on (mostly on) all night. It seems to be better after getting up today.

This is the muscle that hurts, but only on the left leg. The right leg is fine.
http://www.beginrunning.com/image/vastus-medialis.jpg The rest of my legs were not sore but felt like they had a bit of a work out. And that was after only 18 minutes hard riding on the trainer. To make it a work out worth 5 points I'm going to have to do 28 minutes a day. Boy does that sounds painful. But I can do it!

I am also trying to decide what to do about an upper body/back work out. I don't need to be able to lift major weight, but I will be lifting my bike/trike, trailer(?) bags, camping gear etc. from time to time. I'd guess the heaviest items would be about 40 lbs, and I'd like to do it without risk of hurting myself. Pain now to save pain later.

On the positive side, even with little sleep last night due to the leg, I feel more positive about the weight loss efforts. I have great hopes that we won't be repeating the last couple of weeks weigh-ins. I really want to pass that darn 20 lb mark this week!

Ouch...

Only 18 minutes on the trainer and all I can say is Ouch!

DH has offered a reward for 5 exercise points a day for the next 10 days, or total of 50 points in 10 days. it doesn't have to be exactly 5 a day. No results weight related results needed just the effort. Today's 18 minutes of high level riding was 4 points. Yesterday's 2 hours of swimming at low level 6 points. So my mark is set.

Swimming tomorrow. Maybe add some bike to it just to see if I survived today and can do it again tomorrow.

Hopefully my legs aren't as sore tomorrow as the cramps indicate they might be.

I've left the reward to him... Only thing is it can't be food related.

OK, So it could have been worse

or Why exercise is good for more than one thing.

After a couple of hours of swimming and playing in the water, and a few minutes in the hot tub I won't say all looks Rosy, but at least I'm not all teary about it. I have had some trouble eating today. I had about 1/3rd of my daily points left after dinner. I had a after dinner snack of salad followed by chocolate! I am also very tired for some reason. Maybe it's PMS week. At 49years old PMS week seems to be a bit less predictable than it used to be.

Any way I'm feeling better. I did some searching for BOB trailers vs Burley trailers. I have placed some links along side of the page. Most people on the discussions seemed to prefer Burley trailers for stability (2 wheels not one) and because they fold for shipping and storage. I saw another site from 2004 that said for trikes it matters less and that BOB's are less likely to be damaged by careless handling. (no nylon walls etc.) Other things that make some like them is one wheel follows better on a bike for missing potholes and glass. I guess you might be able to argue that it doesn't matter for trikes. Oddly most of the trip pictures I've seen using Trikes and trailers seem to have BOB trailers. I'm still wondering why discussions vs photos are so different. I'll keep looking for more info.

I brought my bike in and DH is going to put it on the trainer tonight. It looks like no rain for tomorrow so he's going on a ride. Length to be determined by the weather and weather the DayQuil does a good job of keeping his cough under control. I hope he gets a good ride in. He's had a hard time getting any good riding done between the virus and short rides that we could handle. he really needs some good training as his big ride (GRR) is in less than 4 months. You can see his mental prep for it on the family blog at http:www.napolitano.it I'm proud of all the thought and hard work he's putting into prepping for this ride.

Only so so news...

I lost the 0.4 lbs I gained last week. I'm still 0.4 lbs away form being 20 lbs down. This depresses me. Of course trying to find pants yesterday depressed me too. Target only have about 5 wracks of Women's clothes and 2 of those wracks were swimsuits, and 2 were tee shirt type blouses. The rest were baggy pedal pusher type jeans. Nothing I would wear. Certainly nothing that a short fat woman would look half way decent wearing. Oh well.

We are swimming today. Maybe a couple of hours of swimming will help both the weight and the depression. It can't hurt.

Reading about Touring, Looking for info on trailers,

I'm reading The Essential Touring Cyclist by Richard A Lovett.

He describes touring and the special needs of a bicycle tourist. He has a pretty good overview of things so far though there are some things I wish he'd covered in more detail. I'm only about half way through the book so maybe he'll answer things in more detail later.

Things I'm interested in finding more about are.... trailers. BOB vs Burley. Why would one be better than the other? The prices are close. Most of the trailers I see in pictures on touring reports seem to be BOB trailers. The recumbent store I've been too carries Burley but can order BOB's. They didn't give me any really good reason why one is better than another and are happy to order BOB's if you like. Burley says they will carry more weight (100 lbs vs 70 lbs) but I'm not too sure I want to carry a lot more weight! The guy at the store said he has a BOB but it's not stable if you put more than 40 lbs in it. Another site I saw said 50 lbs was the magic number for stability at his height ans weight. I haven't seen any reports on the Burley. Does it matter if you use a recumbent trike? More stable closer to the ground? Less? And what about a tandem does the combined weight of the tandem and riders make it more or less stable? Lots to figure out. I guess not a big deal as I have lots of time.

Weigh-in tomorrow. I'm hoping for good news.

Extra Short!

Yesterday we stopped at Coventry Cycle Works in Portland Oregon. http://www.coventrycycle.com/ They have Terra trikes, Cat trikes and Greenspeeds. (and Lots of other stuff too!) It was really nice talking to the person there about all the different trikes and the positives and negatives of them all. I also got to try out the direct vs linkage steering. Sit in them and get suggestions on set ups for touring etc. It was very exciting and cool. If you are in the Portland area and Want to check out recumbent or recumbent trikes Coventry is the place to go. It was raining and very muddy so I didn't go for a test ride but I think I would like to take DH,DD and I back for a test ride soon.

I also found out that my ex-seam is small enough that anything except an extra short is not a good choice for me. The short is adjustable but if you move to it's shortest position your steering is limited by the handle bars hitting the seat. So short just won't do.

My DH's concern is that he doesn't really want a trike and he's afraid that mixing the cycles in a group between a trike and a bicycle will make it harder to stay together on tours. If anyone has any input on that or a site that talks bout that let me know. My concern is that DD and I won't be able to keep up with him. His is that one will be faster on up hill and one faster on down hill and it won't even out and we will be spread out all over and someone will always be waiting for someone else. He keeps telling me we should be a triplet so we can all stay together. I'm not sure if he's joking or not. My problem with a triplet is that like a sled dog only the leader gets a view. (or any control over what's going on) I know from our Tandem that if you take the time to look around on the tandem you know even less whats going on and can get some very nasty surprises. I've nearly been bounced off a time or two. I don't know maybe our tandem just isn't set up well for me or I don't ride it enough to predict what's going on. Usually DD is on the back of the tandem. I also am more interested in the easier to balance, climbing, more comfortable aspects of the trike. Besides they are cool. Also the bike is my reward for losing 100 lbs. I don't think I should get a reward that I can only ride if 2 other people happen to have the same schedule and desire to ride that I do.

I don't know, I guess he has a year or so to convince me. Right now I'm not even close to convinced. I am however seeing a nice drop on the scales this week though, but we won't talk about that till Tuesday's weigh in!

Flat Out flatbread,,,

http://www.flatoutbread.com/

I was pretty sure this couldn't be good. It's only one point for a flat bread it had 8 grams of fiber only 2.5 gm of fat. I was betting it would have the texture of saw dust. Nope. Sure it does have texture to it but it's not dry at all. I'd say the texture is between a corn and a flour tortilla.

Here's what I do with it that is really great.

Lay out one flat bread. Spread with 1 point of WW cream cheese spread or one (0.5 pts) laughing cow wedge make sure you get it all the way to the edges. Less in the middle is OK. Layer 2/3's of the bottom (short side) with a healthy portion of lettuce leaves a few cherry tomatoes or tomato slices and 1 point of you favorite lunch meat. Drizzle with a tiny bit of your favorite salad dressing maybe a teaspoon or 2 max. Roll it up from the filled end and seal the edges and sides using the cheese as glue to hold it together and keep the tomatoes from falling out. You have a good sized roll up sandwich that tastes great.

My other favorite things to do with them is a snack pizza. Now this is actually more like a flavored cracker but has a great pizza taste.

Lay a flat bread out flat on a baking pan. Pop it in the oven to warm it a bit. Put a very thin layer of tomato sauce spread evenly over the flat bread. I use my home made, but any good quality tomato sauce or pizza sauce would work. (1-2 tablespoons) Sprinkle on some dried oregano. Use a sprinkle of reduced fat Mozzarella ( maybe 1/4 cup or so) and a light dusting of Parmesan cheese to top. Put back in the over till the cheese melts and the flat bread is slightly crispy. 3 to 4 points depending on how much cheese/what kind of cheese you use. Over all I decided It was well worth buying the big multi pack at Costco and DD loves it too.

http://www.flatoutbread.com/products/health_multi.html

Last Night...

I spent the night as an over night host at our church. We host an emergency weather shelter to get homeless people in out of the cold. We were open due to it being well below freezing. This winter has been below freezing much longer than it was last year. We were open about 3 times the number of nights as last year. After being up most of the night I got up at 5am to cook biscuits and gravy for breakfast. I came home and passed out for a few hours. Then I did some history with DD, and took her to swimming. (no I didn't swim this time, due to lack of organizational skills, I didn't have a clean swimsuit) Finaally I cooked for the homeless teen dinner we have every week. After serving about 20 homeless teens dinner I'm finally home and ready for bed. Well I'm ready for bed,but I have too much to do tonight, so I'll be up for a while yet.

Tomorrows plans are still up in the ai,r depending on how much I can get done tonight. We may go up to Mount Hood to check on hotels for a Randonnee route DH s planning for August 29th. http://www.orrandonneurs.org/brevets/2009_brevets.html If we do go, we may have enough time to play in the snow before coming home. If that doesn't work out I'll be home catching up on all the stuff I've not gotten done due to illness and/or working at or cooking for the homeless shelters at church. Some where along the way this weekend I'm hoping to get a bit of sleep and some riding done.

We went for a short ride yesterday, while it was sunny, it was very cold. We didn't ride nearly as far as I expected to. I'm not sure if DH was taking pity on me, or if everyone was just too cold to enjoy the ride. I didn't have a big problem with the ride except for that one hill... It is one I always struggle with. That said, I did manage the evil last hill just before home without having to get off and push. I as usual fell behind by about 2 blocks due to that hill, though I suspect that DH slowed way down ,because I pulled in at home not too far behind him. The last couple of blocks are down hill so I caught up a bit there.

Riding today.... weigh in yesterday

The sun is shining not a cloud in the sky but it's cold. I'm going for a ride today. I would like DH and DD to come on the tandem if possible. We will see.

Yesterday DD and I spent 2 hours at the pool swimming so I got some exercise yesterday. I borrowed some swim fins and did laps for a good portion of the 2 hours. We will do that again tomorrow.

But for the next couple of hours I need to get some work done around here so I can go on that bike ride.

Bad weigh in yesterday. Up .4 lbs. Oh well more exercise this week. It's gotta help. I wish I had a good guess why I'm up. I thought I was logging and doing well with the eating. So more exercise and keep food journaling.

I'm hoping that we can get 2 hours of swim in on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a good long ride at least 2 -3 times a week. though the ride might be harder as I'm so far behind on everything house related.

Very low point Vegetarian Chilli

This is a chili I started making when DH was vegetarian. Little did I know it was actually a good WW food.

Veggie Chili
1 package Yves veggie ground round
2 cups dried pinto beans ( though canned work fine and save lots of time)
1 large chopped onion
1/2 cup tomato sauce (or a can of Rotel if you like the taste)
1 large zucchini (you can add pretty much any 0 point or low calorie veggie that you like the more the better)

All seasonings to taste...
Ancho chili powder
Salt to taste
Oregano
Coriander

Cook the dried beans till tender with salt and onions.
(or cook onions till soft then add canned beans)
Add the veggie ground round, tomato and seasonings.
simmer for 15 to 20 minutes adjust seasonings.

This makes about 10 -12 cups (or more depending on how many 0 point veggies you add.)
it is about 1 point per cup. 2 cups makes a very filling meal, with loads of fiber and low fat protien. We top with about a point of shredded cheese. And add either a low point tortilla ( 1-2 points depending on the tortilla) or a "flat out" flat bread. (1 point) 2 hours later I'm both stuffed and satisfied.

Weather,spring, bike riding, and stuff to do...

I'm wondering if winter will ever end. OK I know it will and I know we don't have the worst of it. But SNOW in March in Hillsboro Oregon???? And the cold. We had hoped to close the emergency weather shelter in February. But here we are open again. The next 2 nights are supposed to be in the low 20's. Again not the worse weather around, but deadly if you are sleeping out side. The good news is that it's supposed to be in the 50's this weekend and mid 60's by the middle of next week. At least for the highs.

Spring is coming and that means I will get a chance to ride soon. We aren't even supposed to get much rain in the next 2 weeks. So riding should be really nice for the next week or 2. I talked with DH last night and he gave me a couple of good ideas for places to ride. I'm also planning to do some grocery shopping on the bike soon. Since DH works from home I should be able to set DD up with school work and leave them home alone and go riding during the week. Weekends are when DH does most of his rides so that is less likely to be a time when I'm doing any major riding because I will have DD with me. She's just not up to much road riding yet. I'm thinking she will be soon, just not yet.

The office is still a shambles. That is today's big chore. DD's room not quite as bad but still in need of significant work. Then we will have to switch closets too. That's going to be quite a chore. as the office loses storage space in the closet. So I will have to sort and figure out what to do with a lot of stuff.

DH is doing the Snooseville 100k this weekend. http://www.orrandonneurs.org/rba/2008/Snoozeville/2008_Snoozeville_Info.html It's his first official ride this year, and by his standards, a short one. Some day maybe I will think this is a "short" ride too.

Not satisfied...

Dinner was not very satisfying. Not even right after eating. So I decided I needed something that would satisfy me tonight, even though weigh-in is coming on Tuesday. So I put some peaches in the oven with a granola type topping made of oatmeal fiber one cereal sliced almonds a little butter Bisquick mix and a little brown sugar. It's baking now I hope it will fill the need so I won't want anything else before bed time. 2 points per peach half with topping.

I need to find a bike route near me that is fairly flat. I want to try getting on the bike and riding to see how far I can get. This requires a few things. One a route that is fairly flat. ( not so easy to find around here. Two some decent weather. This cold rain/snow thing we have going on right now isn't really terrific. Three a weekend where DH isn't already doing a ride so he and DD can support/rescue me if/when needed. I'll see what we can figure out tonight.

Yesterdays lack of posting was due to switching DD's bedroom and the office and the attendant computer shut down, not to mention all the time spent disassembling and reassembling both bedroom and office furniture. not of which would fit through the doors with out removing the doors and taking apart the furniture. Then there was the 3 large book cases full of course. You get the idea. It is still total chaos. I'm sitting on a step stool to type. Yeah. Not optimal.

I'm leaning toward making my reward for losing weight a cool bike (or trike) and a tour somewhere along the California coast. Not sure how to make that work logistically driving to one point isn't a problem... getting back to the car may be more of an issue. Loads of time to work out the details so I'm not going to stress about it today.

Mental wandering

I grew up in California in a small town in San Joaquin Valley. It is a very flat and dry place. It only rained in the winter and rarely very got cold, even in the winter. It was hot as the blazes in the summer time though. I remember blistering my feet on the pavement running bare foot across the street. This is where I called home for many years. I rarely left it. I saw mountains or the ocean maybe once a year. Even the foot hills were a rare treat. Snow was something you went to see. We might get a dusting every 5-7 years. My family pretty much stayed home, read books or watched TV. I rode my bicycle all over town, until my bicycle got stolen. Then I walked or stayed home till I was old enough to drive. There was no public transportation. As a teen and even older, big excitement was going to the mall and window shopping. We didn't have one where I lived and had to drive 20 - 30 minutes to get to a mall. I can remember going on 2 big vacations the whole time I was growing up. One to Yellowstone and one to Disneyland. There were a few camping trips. (in Grandpa's old trailer, Mom didn't do tents and sleeping bags.)

MY DH however grew up in Italy, Rome and Sicily and later Milan, were his to explore. Bicycles or public transportation were more common. His family traveled more and spent more time being active. (or hyperactive compared to the way I was raised.)

I guess that explains a lot about the differences in the way he and I see things. Especially physical activities, travel and vacations. His idea of a cool vacation is something that keeps you moving like going to France and doing the Paris-Brest-Paris ride. He's hoping to do that in 2011. My equivalent would be to go to Paris and visit Museums or drive around seeing the countryside. I've only been once, and with a 2 year old in toe, Museums were out of the question.

When we started talking about doing a bicycle tour as a reward for losing this extra 100 lbs I've been carrying around for more than 20 years, I was thinking something like a leisurely touring Ireland by bike. Seeing the old castles, meeting people and visiting a pub or two and taking a ton of pictures. Or maybe... I don't know there are loads of places where things like that are available to see and do. The thing is My DH isn't really interested in Ireland, castles or any place he's already seen. He's been there, he's seen that, so why not go some place else.

This leaves me kind of lost as to where I'd like to go. I want to go somewhere we will all enjoy. You have to remember, I've not been anywhere. I've never really expected to be able to go any where, so I've never really thought about where to go or what to do when I get there.

Someone commented about Switzerland being great for bike rides. They sure have tons of bike trails. Some countries don't have road systems as complete as Switzerland's bike trails, and it is beautiful there.

Then there's Italy, I have a built in translator in DH as he was raised there. I've heard that unless you are out of the more populated areas the drivers can be a big hazard, so that would restrict us to areas that had less services and would be harder to build our own tour so to speak. We would also have to spend extra time there beyond the tour as the relatives would never forgive us for traveling that far and not letting them spend time with DD. So the tour would have be more limited and to some extent more about what the relatives wanted us to do than what we wanted to do.

New Zealand is supposed to be beautiful as are many other places around the world. I just don't know enough about them to make a decision.

After considering a lot of places, I read a cool report about someone that lived in Germany that did the west coast tour from Alaska to Mexico. He mentioned that most US cyclists miss out on teh west coast ride because they travel out side the US for their longer rides. I've done the route but only in a car and it is indeed beautiful. I wonder if I woudl compare other locations against it and decide I would have rather ridden the west coast ride? We don't have the time to do a tour that long. (When you are self employed, if you don't work, you don't get paid. So paid vacations are not an option.) But we could train in Washington and Oregon and then tour for a week or so on the Northern California coast. Maybe the next year pick up where we left off and do the central to southern half of the state. My only concern is that I've driven highway 1. OK that doesn't really make sense unless you've driven highway 1 too. It's a narrow winding 2 lane road. It's awesomely beautiful. Today I can't see myself pedaling up those hills though. Maybe a year or so from now that will change. Hopefully in a year or so a lot of things will have changed.

Mostly I just want this to be a vacation that will be fun for the whole family, and I won't be dragging along behind, too fat and too tired, to keep up.

Swim time only today....

I made the mistake of commenting on DD's age when I was getting ready to pay at the center. They told us she has to be 13 years old to be in the gym area Even wiht parent present. I am so bummed. That totally kills the being able to work out after swim class for another 2.5 years. Maybe next week there will be a different person at the desk and she won't ask Anna's age.


Well at least we both got a good 1 hour in the pool. Now I have to decide if it is worth paying extra for more pool time or if we just leave it at one hour, try to sneak her in or try to find something else to do in addition to the hour in the pool.

Interestingly enough...

In spite of the Carl's Jr diet disaster yesterday, the 2 hours of exercise made the scales shift down .4 lbs today. I guess I'll have to do that more often... The exercise part not the high points food part. I was also craving salt last night and ate pickle chips. That is usually good for adding a couple of lbs of extra water weight. Since I didn't see that I'm guessing I needed the electrolytes.

Over all I expected to be pretty sore today after 2 hours of constant motion both in and out of the water. Instead I had a few minor aches that went away when I got up and moved around a bit. maybe I've found a good exercise plan for me. An hour in the pool followed by an hour on exercise machines in the gym. We will try it again on Thursday when DD has swim lessons again.

Weigh-in end week 7, What not to eat and todays exercise

Weigh-in... not as bad as expected. I lost 0.8 lbs this week. for a total loss of 19.6 lbs. I'm creeping in on my 10% loss goal of 23 lbs. Only 3.4 lbs to go to hit that goal. The next goal will be closer... after the 10% I only need to lose 15 more lbs to be at a 25+ year low of 199 lbs.

What not to eat... Anything from Carl's Jr. DD and I stopped for lunch today.I figured no brainer a Kid's meal should be reasonable.... NO IT ISN'T!!!! kids hamburger meal with small fries 23 points! I only get 25 for the day so that sucked. And of course I didn't check the nutrition facts till I got home on the computer. All of their burgers and such are very high cal/fat and low fiber. And it didn't even taste good. Not 23 points good for sure.

Exercise... while DD was at swim lessons, I spent an hour in the water in constant motion then another hour on the recumbent exercise bike and treadmill at the aquatic center. DD also did some time on both the bike and treadmill. though I think I spent more on the bike and she spent more time on the treadmill. She would have stayed longer but I was beat, so we came home.

So over all could have been worse, Could have been better with out the mental lapse that was the decision to go to Carl's Jr for lunch but over all a reasonable day.

Weigh-in, bike tour locations...

Weigh -in is tomorrow and I will be happy to have not gained. It was a very low activity week for me because of the nasty virus that has kept me down all week. Finally today I'm feeling a bit better, though still congested and coughing. At least I'm feeling more human with a little energy. Just in time for DH to come down with it.

I did stay pretty much on Plan this week. And yes I logged everything. But with the reduced activity... well we'll see.

I asked some on-line friends a question today. I'm hoping for some input. Where do you live and why would it be a great place to do a bike tour. Not many answers yet.

Where would you go for a bike tour in the US? And why? I know there are cool places all over the world. But the US is big enough to have a lot of pretty cool places in it too. Ignoring all my previous posts what makes a place a great place for a bike tour? The challenge? The scenery? The history? The people you tour with? Something totally different? What time of year is best? Spring? Summer? Fall? Camping or Hotel? What kind of equipment to take?

Maybe a better question is where to start making decisions. I'm hoping that I get some idea of what others would like to do as a jumping off point to make some decisions of my own. No one ever accused me of being decisive.

Bicycle saddle, pedals and weather etc....

DD needs a new bicycle saddle. Hers is a kids sized saddle and she just isn't a kid sized kid. At 10 years old is is 5 feet 1 inch. She's always been tall. 97% on all the charts from infant on up. So soon we will be going out to get her a new seat. She also needs pedals. She is still figuring out the whole riding, steering braking thing and when she gets near someone else she freaks out a bit and tends to lose control. when she does she ends up getting the bike pedal jammed into her leg. The pedals she has now have teeth on them for traction. good unless they are jammed into your leg... then a it's bit rough on the body.

Not that we've had much chance to ride lately. The rain is a bit of an issue. I guess I shouldn't complain though as it's been a pretty dry winter to date. Cold but dry. I'm hoping that this coming weekend we can work in a nice bike ride or two around some very necessary gardening. It's supposed to be sunny and nice, we can hope that the forecasters are right. I really need to get some time on the bike either outside or on the trainer but It's such a pain to switch bikes on and off the trainer and DH is training for the start of his bike season. I guess I could put the fenders on and ride in the rain but I don't have any rain gear so that's not real appealing either. It sounds like lots of excuses. Maybe when DD is at swimming lessons I can use the gym for a bit of exercise.

I must do something soon.

The flu seems not to want to leave our house. DD is feeling better I'm not quite as sick though I can't seem to get rid of the sinus headache from hell, but now DH has it too. I was hoping he'd skip it this year. Honestly, I was hoping we'd all skip it this year as we had our flu shots early in the year.

I'm having a serious attack of the munchies today. Not good. So far I'm staying on plan but I do believe I need to use a few weekly points today to stay sane. Maybe it's the grey yucky day. I'm not sure what I'm having for dinner tonight I'm making DH and DD pasta with butternut squash and kale for dinner but since I don't like squash or kale I'm not sure what I'm having. Maybe I'll nuke a lean cuisine for me.