Wednesday, August 31, 2011

8-31-11 Food Photo Log

 Calories = 175 +60 calories for creamer

Calories = 400 

 Calories = 400

Which meant after dinner I was only at 1035 calories  . . . . so . . . 


Woohoo! Berries with coconut and powdered sugar (250 calories) I'm still on a sugar high.


Swirling orange sunset tonight was a second dessert.


And, dessert #3 was reading THIS

between the lines


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

8-30-11 Food Photo Log

 Calories = 375 (+40 creamer)
2 Slices of Whole Wheat French Toast made with 1 egg and 1 T of 2% milk plus 1T powdered sugar, 1/2 C blueberries, and 3 strawberries.

 Calories = 480
Mexican bean and green chili soup, 1 oz cheddar, 1 C cherry tomatoes, and 1/4 C jalapenos

Calories = 450
Beef cutlet in gravy (the biggest calorie crasher) with 1/2 C mashed potatoes, 1/2 C green beans, and 1/2 C cherry tomatoes

Total = 1345
(My "approved" range is 1250 to 1400)


an ordinary day


into the mystic


Monday, August 29, 2011

8-28-11 Night Vision

 Spent some time watching the sun set last night and the quiet pulse of the house in the available light.










8-29-11 Photo Food Log

 Calories: 175 (plus creamer in the coffee all morning = 60 more calories)

 Calories: 400

 Calories: 100 

Calories = 450 

Total for the Day: 1185 Calories

Baseline goal is 1250, which means I earned a cookie! (if only I HAD a cookie. . . ) One 40 calorie Dove Chocolate will do it.

I will say, this is a good strategy for me. I though about several things that I decided: 1) wouldn't look good in the picture and 2) would look like too much food. 

I was relieved that I started measuring the creamer I was putting in my coffee and wasn't loading in 200 calories a cup like I feared. I also broke the coffee into two pots -- one for Bob to take on the road and a second one where I add my beloved cinnamon, which somehow makes me less in need of creamer. I think the spice takes an edge off the bitterness of black coffee. 

And get this: Of the 9 "Bad" Foods That You Should Be Eating, over half of them were in today's meals.


8-29-11 one last fling


8-29-11 come on September!


Sunday, August 28, 2011

8-28-11 the un-gym report

Blech. Okay, now that the wailing and moaning over the gym is done . . .

Nick came home for the weekend and other than watching football and eating, here were the highlights:


LAUNDRY! And, at the bottom of the bag are the other supplies we'd neglected. Note: scissors, paper clips, staplers, etc will be missed the first week of class. (The groceries got loaded directly out of our car and into his.)


HOMEWORK: Nick and his $200 Art History Textbook, which I'm chomping to steal from him.


And more goodbyes, although having him so close makes it much easier. Yay for UNC!





8-28-11 The Gym Report

End of month 1 on the Gym Reboot and if you are looking for the Hallelujah Chorus and miracles, go elsewhere.

Newsflash: I HATE to run. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE it. (And that's still not enough AAAAs to really capture the howl with which I can scream this.)

And, newsflash, that's the best way to get the cardio I need to raise my heart rate consistently to turn on that metabolism that will melt away the chunk I now despise about my upper arms and thighs . . . . which brings us to self-loathing, also not a particularly useful motivator and one I've been employing far too regularly this past month.

The scale has not budged.

Now, the last time I took this on, nothing happened the first month that I could document, slightly firmer muscle tone, but mostly just a raging case of "this is never going to work because I'm a medical miracle that cannot lose weight."

Here's the honest truth: I have rationalized buying Dove Chocolates so that I can just eat two (84 calories) when I have a terrible chocolate craving. I then try not to notice that many days I have had "terrible chocolate cravings" three times a day -- because they are sitting here in a bag. So, month 2 means no more Dove Chocolate.

I go the gym, but I've yet to make it all five days in a row in one week. There is always a late night or a sick morning (just finished the latest round of antibiotics) that messes me up. And when I get there, it's all I can do to pull my sad carcass around that track, feeling like I have elephant legs, and watch all the runners pass me by again and again. Why are all runners small-chested? I mean, I can explain why they don't have thunder thighs -- that's why I'm out there -- but where are the curvy women to keep me company? Plus, I can't breathe right, feeling like I'm drowning, cotton-mouthed, unable to swallow when I try to take a drink of water. But I keep pulling myself around it and tomorrow I will try to get at least one more than I think I can do. Just one more -- that's the key.

I've also been admittedly fast and loose on the food tracking, apart from chocolate. I'm sure I underestimate how much of "a cup" of cheerios is going into my bowl, or how many crackers I have alongside my soup. I have to be more accountable, literally, to get this off of the ground. Since I'm such a photography hound, I think the best way for me to "see" things differently is to make a photo-food-log for myself. That starts tomorrow, too.

Definitely not the triumphant "I"m 8 pounds lighter and well on my way!" kind of news I'd like to have, but I'm hoping getting all of my whining out in the open where it can wither in the light of day will dust away some of the nonsense that has been dragging me down and help make month two the one where I run out of excuses. No promises on the whining, though. Did I mention I HAAAAAAAAATE the track? ;)











Saturday, August 27, 2011

8-27-11 Chicago Lakes = Tori's Bermuda Tri

FINALLY, I think, I'm going to get in my Chicago Lakes hike this summer.

Stop #1 is a muffin. Fuel is key for what should be about 6 hours of hiking.


Take in the amazing blue sky of Colorado. I  never get tired of it.


Evan is impatient to get there, too.


I finally get a picture of the tree I admire every time we pass it going up to Echo Lake.


And of the tree we park beside to set out on our hike.


It's 9:30, we're right on schedule to make it back before 4:00.



On the way up, Bob finds ways to add to the hike. He has dropped 30 pounds in 4 months and is now packing on muscle to be ready for his February trip.





Along the incline, as we're catching our breath, a lone hiker, Emily, double checks that this is really the Chicago Lakes trail. It's very hard to follow. I assure her, yes, you have to get to the top and then, when there's nowhere else to go, take a right.

The ground is very soft -- it appears they've gotten a lot of rain this past week. The red mushrooms are shiny in the morning sunlight.




 Evan is lying down a good bit as we get toward the top. It's a definite lung burner to start.




See? Doesn't really look like a trail anywhere.


 Evan laps up the water I drip him from the water pack. I think, within the hour we'll be down at the creek and he'll have his fill of water.


And we reach the top, like I have multiple times, no problem.



 



About the time we finish taking the above pictures of the panorama, Emily appears, still turned around. She asked if she could follow us a bit. This portion of the trail is really washed out, tons of trees fallen over, so many similar looking boulders. And somehow, for the first time, we don't hit the trail. We end up getting hopeless lost in the depths of the very steep inclines, somewhere, I'm sure, underneath the actual trail that we never hit. There are  no pictures of this hour of lostness. Between trying not to fall off the mountain, keeping Evan from falling off the side of the mountain, scrambling on all fours (holding a leash), pulling up sometimes with nothing but your upper body, I didn't quite find a good time to take pictures of the insanity. Poor Emily. You definitely hooked your horse to the wrong cart today.

The inclines were INSANE. Think rock climbing with no ropes. The muscle burn and heart rates were definitely a good workout, but I'd have preferred getting to the creek and playing in the water. So would Evan.


We FINALLY seem to get to the trail. The algae and mushrooms are brilliant colors. And, we think, so, it was a little detour, but we can still get to the creek soon.


This mushroom grew up and is pushing this rock off of it.


And then . . .

We get the surprise of the day.

We aren't anywhere close to where we think we are. We find ourselves at the side of the Mt. Evans road looking way down to Echo Lake far below.


We are on the wrong side of the mountain.

So, down to the road, and across, and towards the lake we go. Because going back the way we came is not an option. And making the hike to the lakes isn't happening today. It's already climbing toward noon now. (There's Emily, Evan, and Bob below)


So, yeah. The Chicago Lakes hike is my Bermuda Triangle. Something always happens. The first time with Courtney we only made it to the reservoir and didn't have time to finish. The second time I couldn't make it to the upper lake with Stephanie and Deana because I'd blown out my knee. The third time, Sammi couldn't make it past the upper crest because of her sunburn. Number four and I'm on the wrong side of the mountain. Maybe the fifth time's a charm.


So by 12:30  we were back to the lake and decided to just call it a day after our three hours wandering.




 We sat and relaxed and let Evan watch the ducks on the lake.




And then we drove home through the clouds.