September 2009Monthly Archives

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009

I have a potluck lunch today with a group of my stitching friends. My goal is to try and avoid all the goodies and focus on the veggies. I’m taking a Trader Joe’s southwest salad for myself in case there aren’t really any healthy options available.

Breakfast:

Yogurt – 2
Iced coffee – 2

Lunch:

TJ’s reduced fat southwest salad – 3
Tortilla chips – 2
Roasted red pepper & eggplant dip – 1
Lentil salad – 2

Snack:

Fresh fruit – 1

Dinner:

Veggie burger – 2
Sauteed veggies in 2 tsp olive oil – 2
Mashed potatoes – 4
Grape tomatoes – 0
Pudding – 2

Snack:

Nonfat milk – 3.5
Snack bar – 4

Total Points: 30.5
Exercise: None
WPA Balance: 34
AP Balance: 4
Water: 128 oz

12 September 2009

Uncategorized

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Food Journal

Remembering 9/11

I’m in southern California, so it was just before 6am here that Tuesday morning as everything started happening in New York. I was on the freeway driving to my job which is co-located on an Air Force Base. I was listening to KNX which is one of the local news/traffic/weather radio stations here. I distinctly remember being on the transition from the 5 North onto the 91 West when they came on and said they were receiving reports of a small plane apparently crashing into the WTC. The completely surreal details just kept unfolding as I was driving in to the office and I was in complete shock.

When I got to work, I stopped in the main corporate cafeteria and was watching CNN on the TV along with dozens of other employees. As we were watching, the second tower was hit. I will never forgot the huge gasp of shock that went through the crowd which was followed by an eerily quiet nothingness as we all just stood there staring at the screen in disbelief.

My office at the time (I have subsequently moved to a different building) was right down the hallway from the main cafeteria, so I headed there to tell my immediate coworkers what had happened. They already had a radio going and were listening to the breaking news there as well. Our manager at the time came into our area and we all got into a circle, clasped hands, and prayed. Prayer in the workplace is not something I would typically approve of, but on this day, at this time, it seemed the right thing to do.

None of us were at work very long before we were all sent home. The base was on total lock-down for the next two days. Even after we were allowed to return to work on Friday of that week, all of the main signage at the base was covered with black plastic sheeting for several weeks. Every time I would drive by and see that over the coming weeks, it reminded me that things had changed for our country.

Another thing I will also never forget from that day was just how bizarre it seemed driving home and not seeing any planes in the sky. I work very close to LAX which is one of the world’s busiest airports. As I drive home each day, there is always a constant stream of planes on approach to land. It was just so odd not seeing that as I was headed home.

After I got home, I called my parents back in Tennessee to check in with them. I think a lot of us who live away from our families were probably doing that on that day. When I called, I found out that my Mom had a heart attack that morning about an hour or so before the first attack. She had been transferred from their small community hospital to one in Nashville where she ultimately ended up having quadruple bypass surgery a couple of days later. Ironically enough, Sept. 11 is also my mother’s birthday. What a birthday present, eh?

Yeah, Sept. 11, 2001 is definitely a day I will never forget.

11 September 2009

Misc.

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Hello? Is this thing on?

No, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth or anything like that. I’ve been down with some sort of flu-like bug for the past few days. Today is my first day feeling semi-human again.

Unfortunately, due to being sick, this means I’ve gotten off track with my EA Sports Active 30-day challenge. Even though I’m starting to feel a bit better, I’m still not up to working out again just quite yet. My plan is to give myself another couple of days to recuperate and get back to my challenge workouts on Sunday. This will mean I’ll finish a few days behind the rest of my challenge cohorts over at The Sisterhood, but I figure it’s better to finish a few days late than not finish at all.

Speaking of The Sisterhood, I found out on Wednesday that I was the winner of the Baker’s cookies drawing. Woo Hoo! I never win anything, so this made me happy happy. Of course, assuming I wasn’t going to win anyway, I had just placed an order on the Baker’s website for some of there minis. I guess I won’t have any shortage of cookies for a while.

Erin – I saw your question about the heart rate monitor in my previous post. Yes, this is the type with a chest strap that feeds data to the watch display. The model I have is the Polar F4. There are generally available at most sporting goods and/or running stores (Sports Authority, Road Runner Sports, etc.). I actually got mine at Amazon.

While I really like my F4, I think if I were doing it again that I would get a different model. When I purchased this one, I was pretty much only working out with the treadmill, elliptical, doing exercise DVD’s, etc. All I was interested in was monitoring my heart rate and seeing how many calories I was burning. Since then, I have started doing 5k races. So, if I were buying one now, I would get a model that would also let me keep track of lap/pace times.

I also have an older Garmin Forerunner 305 that does all of that for me. Since it’s GPS-based, it’s definitely a lot bulkier than the Polar HRM. It would be really nice to just have a somewhat compact all-in-one unit that would do everything. The newer Garmin Forerunner 405 would likely do that, but I just can’t justify spending the money on that since I have the other two devices already.

I’m also not quite sure how I feel about having to attach a foot pod to my shoe when using the Garmin indoors. It seems like a bit of a clunky solution to me. So, for now, I use the Polar for indoor training even though I don’t get the lap functionality, and I use the Garmin for outdoor training.

I’m not going to bother going back and posting my food journals for the past few days when I was sick. I didn’t hit my target a single day, and there was mostly just a lot of soup and juice involved.

Here’s my food journal for today:

Breakfast:

Yogurt – 2

Lunch:

Hot dogs – 3
Baked potato – 3
Light butter – 2
Light sour cream – 2
Grape tomatoes – 0

Snack:

Cottage cheese – 2
Peach – 1

Dinner:

Grilled chicken – 3
Bulgur – 4
Big salad – 0
Olive oil & balsamic vinegar dressing – 2
Pudding – 2

Snack:

Nonfat milk – 2
Snack bar – 4

Total Points: 32
Exercise: None – still sick
WPA Balance: 34
AP Balance: 4
Water: 64 oz

11 September 2009

Challenges, Thoughts

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Food Journal

End of a Long Weekend

I love long weekends. The only bad thing about a long weekend is when it ends. Oh well, at least I have another one coming up this next weekend, so I only have to work three days this week.

I managed to put together a bundle this weekend for the Iraqi Bundles of Love project that I posted about on Friday. If I had more time to gather stuff up, I could easily have filled far more than one box, but this was what I was able to assemble on such short notice.

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Since it’s already bundled up, you can’t see the contents, but it has a variety of eight quilting fat quarters, 10 balls of matching yarn (can’t remember the brand now), five balls of novelty scarf yarn, two skeins of Lion Brand Homespun yarn, knitting needles, and crochet hooks. It’s then all wrapped up in a half yard of Moda sampler fabric. I also included a handmade greeting card thanking Major La Flamme and the other volunteers for coordinating this project.

In other stitching news, I was surprised at the end of last week with a gift certificate to my LNS from my friend Nicole in Chicago. I headed over to the shop on Friday to pick it up and, naturally, had no trouble putting it right to use. Here are the goodies I picked up:

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The charts are “Pumpkins 4-Sale” from Little House Needleworks and “An Apple a Day” from Plum Pudding Needleart. The fibers are for the new “Romantic Rose Garden Mandala” design from Chatelaine Designs that appears on the cover of the September issue of The Gift of Stitching digital magazine. I have no clue when I’ll ever get around to stitching it, but it’s definitely one I want to stitch at some point, so I figured I might as well go on and kit up the fibers. Here’s a partial pic of it from the cover:

After I left my LNS, I headed over to Joann to buy the ribbon to tie up my bundle for IBOL. While I was there, I stumbled across a little bundle of fat quarters of Halloween fabric that was on sale for $1 off. As much Halloween stitching as I do, I grabbed it for finishing. Here are a couple of pics. The first shows the whole bundle, and then the second one shows a better view of one of them since it was a large print.

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Lastly, I put in some stitching on Hagatha’s Slipper. It’s amazing how much longer it takes to put in that purple background stitching than you would think. I’m really trying not to focus on the fact that I have to do this all over again for the other side when I finish this piece. I’m really hoping this doesn’t turn out to be like so many single socks I’ve knitted over the years.

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Ok, that’s it for now. I really need to be in bed! Until next time …

8 September 2009

Misc., Stitching

8 comments

canvas, Chatelaine, Cross Stitch, Fabric, IBOL

EA Sports Active Challenge – Day 8

Here is my recap of today’s workout:

Click to enlarge

I decided to wear my heart rate monitor today to see how the calories burned according to it compare to what the Wii says I have burned. It’s quite a bit higher on my HRM! This makes me very happy.

Click to enlarge

Here’s my food journal for today:

Breakfast:

Yogurt – 2
Fresh strawberries – 1

Lunch:

Turkey smoked sausage – 6
Green beans – 0
Baby carrots – 0
Fudge bar – 1

Snack:

Apple – 1
String cheese – 2

Dinner:

Salisbury steak – 5
Squash, onions, & mushrooms sauteed in 2 tsp. olive oil – 2
Whole wheat bread – 1
Fresh strawberries – 1

Snack:

Nonfat milk – 3.5
Protein bar – 4

Total Points: 29.5 (oops! Fell a little short today)
Exercise: EA Sports Active – 2 APs
WPA Balance: 34
AP Balance: 4
Water: 64 oz

Apparently I'm a Carb Queen

Today is Sunday, so that means weigh in for me at Weight Watchers. After last week’s 0.2 pound (90 gram) gain, even though I had been OP, I was hoping for a nice loss this week. Alas, it was not to be. I was only down 0.4 pounds (181 grams), and I was extremely disappointed. It’s very frustrating to be sticking with my plan, yet not seeing much in the way of results on the scale. As far as I still have to go on my journey, it will take FOREVER if I keep losing at this rate.

After the meeting, my leader asked me to stick around so she could look over my journal to see if we can figure out what’s happening. As she was looking it over, her first response was, “Wow, someone likes carbs!” She said that even though I was right on track with my points this week, I definitely could have done a better job on meeting the Healthy Guidelines. Her recommendation was fewer refined carbs, more whole grains, and more lean protein. So, that’s my plan of attack for this upcoming week.

Since it’s the weekend, I was able to get in my next workout toward my 30 Day Challenge completed this morning. I really enjoyed getting it out of the way early. I might actually try doing that more often.

This workout was again a combination of both lower body and upper body exercises. There were a couple of sets of side and rear lunges for the lower body, and a couple of sets each of a bicep curl/shoulder press combo and tricep kickbacks for the upper body. There were also a couple of sets of boxing-inspired exercises which I really enjoyed! I enjoyed it so much, I went back and repeated those sections again.

The teaser for the next workout indicated that there’ll be some basketball involved. I haven’t played basketball in any form, video game or otherwise, since probably my freshman year of high school. So, this should be interesting.

Here is my recap of today’s workout (which doesn’t include the extra boxing I did after finishing the regular workout):

Click to enlarge