:: travellingcari.com ::

So it turns out I wasn’t as back on track as I thought I was. Last night was Celebrate Naz, which I love. Being 350 miles from my undergrad, I don’t have many opportunities to connect with Naz. The NYC alumni chapter is extremely inactive, but I found out about this event last week and the location was perfect. I couldn’t not go. I was by far the youngest with the next youngest graduation class six years before I was born What I was fascinated by was a woman from the class of 1943. 1943. Active as ever, volunteering at the UN and Lincoln Center and remembering her Naz days. I hope to have that passion and involvement at that age.

The party was at Rosie O’Grady’s – never known for its high quality healthy food. Not a good excuse, I didn’t need to eat. I definitely didn’t need to keep eating. I didn’t need to eat wings to the point that I lost count how many, let alone tracking them. It was a good few days down the toilet, but I owned it even if I didn’t track it. This and last week’s Monday night football onion ring and beer fest taught me that while I’ve made (significant) progress in my eating, I still have a long ways to go especially when it comes to bar food and eating in bars.

An idea I borrowed from Jess, a Fat Girl Day. I too woke up “weighing more” than I did yesterday. I was frustrated even though I shouldn’t have been. No amount of water last night was going to undo the wings. I contemplated skipping WI but I missed it last week and didn’t really want to go/continue down that path. I’m glad I went. This week’s topic, about asking for and knowing when you need “Help” was perfectly timely. I took the gain, owned it, and began to think about what I can and should do differently. I also spent some time after the meeting with others talking about our “issues”. It reminds me how much I need the support. I’ve been busy the last couple weeks and not caught up here, Twitter or the WW boards and I think that’s why I’m having issues. Ultimately I know I need to be accountable to myself – but I don’t think there’s shame in needing the accountability to friends. It always helps to have a sounding board. I still haven’t solved the bar issue – but I at least know I”m not going to be in one this week so it should be a better week. I also don’t have any events on the calendar.

I was headed to the gym after the meeting when I called Mom to check in and she said she’d gotten some very bad news. A friend of hers had called their mutual friend to say he was having trouble breathing. By the time EMS got there, he was gone. He wasn’t in good health. 65 and obese, but it’s still surprising to know someone she’d talked to < 12 hours previously was dead. I’m losing weight for myself, but our family has a history of cancer and heart disease. His death reminds me of what I don’t want for myself. I want to be like the woman at Celebrate Naz. 88 and the energy of a vibrant 18 year old.

actually, I was back on track Monday and that was important. I had a pretty crap weekend, weight watchers wise. It was a combination of not tracking (either not bothering, or using the excuse that I didn’t know what it was) and poor food choices (hi, chocolate chip cookies for lunch). I said I was going to do better – but in reality I think I knew I wouldn’t. I think the holidays are going to be a challenge.

I got back on track with tracking when my plane landed on Monday afternoon and since then have been pretty good. Odd food choices and some imprecise tracking like at tonight;s event, but I did my best. It’s all I can do.

I’m totally a scale addict. My original home scale when I started WW online was my Wii but a couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted a home scale that didn’t require turning on the Wii. Since then, I’m pretty much a twice a day weigher. Seeing the fluctuations helps me and gives me an idea of where I’ll be come Saturday morning.

Scale needs to start heading in the right direction. I was up .2 the week after hitting 50 and I missed WI last week. It’s not a plateau and I know what’s causing it – it’s just time to fix it. I enjoy the scale moving down.

I seem to be one of the few people wholly unsurprised by the change from Kolb to Michael Vick.

In the week 1 loss to the Packers I mentioned (tweet 1, 2, 3 4and 5) that I didn’t see Kolb as the starting QB. A stopgap ala Leinart/Anderson, but not a franchise QB ala McNabb.

The concussion in week 1 helped Andy Reid, but I don’t think this was a move he didn’t plan to make. Reportedly, he liked the idea of coaching Vick right from the moment he was reinstated and I think that is the reason he traded McNabb. Not because any of McNabb’s issues were worse than they had been in recent years, but because he wanted Vick to start. McNabb ran the Eagles and he wasn’t going to let Vick take his starting job. With McNabb out of the way, Kolb is easier to move. He doesn’t have a strong claim on the starting slot.

Was Kolb as bad as he looked in week 1? I doubt it. He looked better than that when he stepped in for McNabb last year when Donvan was injured. Could he have improved in week 3+? Probably. Was Andy Reid going to trust a shaky QB in a messy division? Not a chance. As a Giants fan, I wish he’d have gone back to the inferior QB but Vick was brought to Philly to be a starter.

And really, Andy Reid is really just the next Nick Saban.

I cannot believe the volume of QB changes in week 2:
Clausen in and Moore out in Carolina
Trent Edwards out in Buffalo
Jason Campbell possibly out in Oakland
Vince Young benched in Tennessee

Still the most baffling to me was the number of people calling for Eli’s head. A) Coughlin wouldn’t do that to him in the Manning Bowl. B) Eli wasn’t the problem on Sunday. Didn’t fix it, but wasn’t the problem.

NFL really is Not For Long

…except when it is one.

and it has been one in the past too. It also tends to go back to its roots and turn into a travel blog, there may be more of that later.

Lots more photos of the trip. Public link should work – if you have any issues please let me know.

There were two things that made yesterday’s shellacking better. Not OK, but better:

* I vowed to have a good time no matter what happened. Life is too short to have a long weekend ruined by the game outcome. And I did. It was a fun and eye-opening first visit to the midwest.

* heresy, I know, but I did not expect the Giants to beat the Colts. Would have been nice if they did, but that would have been a surprise. Despite a w1 loss, colts are an elite team. As Ralph Vacchiano mentioned, it’s possible that the real Giants team might not emerge until week 3. I’m still in that school of thought.

* I don’t hate the Colts.

OK, I lied, that’s three.

Some thoughts on game/Giants:

All of that said, I expected a better showing from the Giants. Getting into a shoot out with Peyton is a mistake. You will not win that. However I didn’t expect the offense to entirely shut down. Watching live there are things you can’t see, but that wasn’t pretty. Seemed as if Eli was scrambling for his life more often than not and that’s sad. Don’t know how or why Diehl was getting beat, but it seemed to happen fairly often. On the other hand, Snee/O’Hara/Seubert seemed to be handling the interior OK. So there are some good things. (More on that below). Giants O needs to work on ball handling. Seriously. At least fewer tipped balls, but the strip sack/fumble and the one INT. Can’t make those mistakes against a solid team.

Also concerning was the D. Colts’ O Line has issues and while it isn’t as bad as Carolina’s, Tuck, Osi, Kiwi should have been able to harass Peyton and that wasn’t happening. Where was the fire from last week? Peyton in many ways is like McNabb. Give him time in the pocket and he will destroy you. Picking apart a D is what he does best. Don’t give him the chance. This was one of the biggest let downs of the game. However D showed up in the 2nd half..

There weren’t two halves, there were two games. Score at the end of the first half was 24-0 and that was really an abysmal 2Q. In the second half the Colts O got 1 TD and were forced to punt several times. Too little too late? Maybe, but it was an improvement. Giants could have laid down and died, but they didn’t. Sure, 1 TD was garbage time but it’s better than nothing. Recovered the fumble and then turned it into a score. I was glad to see that. I know Peyton/Colts took some shit for running up the score – if anything that was the last TD of the 1st half but I didn’t see it that way at all. If he’d done anything but the one run pass he needed to and then knelt down, it would have been – but he wouldn’t.

Special teams seemed to be improved. There were no colossal run backs and Dodge got good punting practice, if nothing else. My biggest fear going into the game was good field position for the Colts. Not that Peyton needs it, but it was a fear. I will count this as baby steps victory.

All of the above said, I’m not panicking. It’s week 2. Anyone remember how the Giants started the Super Bowl season? 0-2 and losing the 3rd. Anyone remember the game vs. Vikings in November? It wasn’t pretty. There are issues. Big issues. But I don’t see them as unfixable issues. Another conversation last night centered around criticism vs. giving up. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing a team. God knows I do it enough but I do not understand fans who have given up on the season in week 2.

I blame the media for feeding it as well. Jets had won the Super Bowl going into the season and after a w1 loss to a good team, it was all over. They were awful. Sanchez sucked. Giants w1win all the problems were solved and the D looked good. A bad loss to a good team and now we’re back to fire everyone. Give me a break. I can’t live and die with one game. Yes it’s a shorter season and one game is ~10 in MLB. It’s still not over. Optimistic? Maybe.

This is a non-conference game and as P. Manning said in the post game, Giants will help them by hopefully beating Titans next week and Colts will help the Giants against NFC East. It’s odd with the Giants playing the NFC East later in the season. I hope it will give them time to iron out any hiccups but I also worry about every game meaning the division. At the same time, that’s how it should be. Earn your slot.

Overall Thoughts:

on Lucas Oil Stadium/Indy: great new stadium. Like Citi Field and the Great Hall in the new Yankee Stadium, it is new but retains history. There’s also a lot about racing which went right over my head. Was funny to see the stadium all essentially one color despite the two teams. The city also has huge pride in its team complete with a building downtown whose lights changed to flash go Colts all Saturday night. Awesome to see that and more permanent than other cities do. Crowd was a lot of fun. Early on was pro Giants but then Colts fans came in and got loud. PA announcer feeds it too getting the crowds to call out each Colts 1st Down. Area where we were sitting was mixed Colts/Giants but all the roasting was good natured and fun. Probably one of the best “away” crowds and that might have had something to do with the game.

Colts:Manning is a gentleman and I don’t think that was because he brother was the opponent. If he threw the ball as much as he could have, the score would have been even less pretty. Heard Peyton’s interview as we left Lucas Oil and the man is just 100% pure gentleman. “I’m proud of him. I love him”. Not criticizing Giants at all. Kept turning game back to Houston. Houston fired up the Colts, they were going to come out strong and for 1Q, Giants contained it. 2nd Q, I don’t know what happened. In a way, I think 0-2 for the Colts would have been far worse than 1-1 for the Giants. I wanted a good game, I didn’t get that, but I can’t be that unhappy with Colts win. It could have been a lot better, it could have been a lot worse.

On changes:
A friend and I were chatting during the game and she thought we’d disagree on whether the O Line needed an upgrade. I get so much shit for defending the OLine that her take wasn’t surprising – but I think there’s a crucial difference between knowing a change needs to be made and making the first available change. That’s why I disagreed with the Beatty move this summer. I don’t think we saw anything to indicate that he was an upgrade over Diehl. I think continuity is too important to make a change if you don’t. Especially with Manning. I like Eli, but he needs continuity. Need to keep him safe, but if he has too many changes I think he regresses. Especially if he has to adapt to a new Center. Hoping O’Hara’s ankle holds out the season because that would be the most crushing blow.

I don’t think firing all coaches and releasing every player is going to fix anything. You think I’m kidding but among the most ridiculous things I heard last night was to start Rosenfels over Manning. Maybe it made “sense” given how many QB changes there seemed to be this week but really?! You’re going to give up on $100m franchise QB for someone Minnesota essentially gave away? Right, that makes sense. I crucify Clueless Joe (Girardi) quite a bit, but when it comes down to it it’s not Fewell out there not tackling. It’s not Flaherty not making holes for Bradshaw to get through. It’s not Coughlin losing the ball on strip sack. Players need to perform, and Giants didn’t last night.

Misc:
I haven’t watched the DVR yet, but I will. I’m sure I’ll have more to add. Not saying anything on the Brandon Jacobs thing as I have no idea what happened. Just eighth hand and twitter hand. Have basically not seen/read anything about the game other than what I saw with my eyes and twitter and pre game for the ESPN game.

So that’s my long .02 on the game.

Oh and let’s not forget all the times we wanted to shove crap food in our pie hole but instead reached for water and fruit while chanting to ourselves “The stomach doesn’t care what it eats, it just wants to digest. It’s the brain that wants to eat (insert food) and it will learn to love (insert food) instead”.

I read that this weekend in this post from 263 and counting and it really stuck with me. So much that I’m still thinking about it all these days later. It’s so true.

Starting about a week ago before the freezer went kaput I had a craving for cookie dough. I told myself I wasn’t buying ice cream because I had some of the weight watchers cookie dough ice cream in th freezer. I didn’t have high hopes for that when I first bought it, but it was actually good. And then I came home to find it all melted. Was pleasantly surprised to find chocolate cookie dough on offer at the local Tasti. A pretty good substitute but I didn’t want to keep spending money on food-or dessert in this case.

This weekend the craving for cookie dough continued and when I was shopping on Saturday morning, I thought about it. I looked at the NI for cookie dough and sorry. I’m not spending 44 points on a craving. Nope nope nope. Fast forward to Wednesday. I finally have a new freezer and despite having a not great week, Weight Watchers wise (hi beer and onion rings for Monday Night Football), I have not given in. I don’t need cookie dough and I know I’ll a) regret it and b) not stop if I give in. So, no cookie dough. Thats the brain (or taste buds) talking. Not my stomach.

Stomach has been pretty happy with its first smoothie in a week as well as lox, sushi and honey nut cheerios. No, not all together. I’m not that crazy

ETA:
here and here are what remains in my fridge/freezer. Condiments anyone?

Statue at the UN

What was that I said the other day about diminishing activity points?!

MONSTER day today w 1487 calories burned, good for 14 APs. The thing is? I totally could have gone longer.

It started after my Weight Watchers meeting this morning (up point 2, totally expected after some not great food choices this week and big losses the last two weeks). It was a gorgeous day and I was trying to stretch my errands out as long as possible, i.e. the furthest Modells and branch of the library*. I had moderate success with that as there were limits (I’d already tried the two Modells in Midtown West and Herald Square) and I wanted to avoid downtown with all the 9/11 stuff going on. After finishing errands I headed all the way East for a planned walk up the East River. Sadly where I wanted to walk is no longer accessible so I had to veer west toward the UN. That’s where the above statue is. Cool statue but a) walking by the UN on 9/11 wasn’t my brightest idea and b) the statue by the UN in Geneva** and the UN there in general is much nicer. I really was looking forward to walking most of the way home along the east river – bummed that I couldn’t. So much prettier than 1st/2nd Ave.

**this blog’s origins as a travel blog. I can’t believe some of those images are still up.

All in all the walk ended up a shade over 4 miles and then I went to the gym. By that point I was in a time crunch due to needing to pick up laundry before the wash and fold closed and get to the grocery store. So my usual Saturday 90m bike session was down to 60. Still good for 12 miles. The two totaled 14 APs and 1,487 calories burned. I was pretty happy with that. Going to need it this week to get through Monday Night Football and then Manning Bowl next week. Tomorrow will be less, probably 90m cardio but I’ll take what I can as it’s much better than what I was doing a year ago.

*Books checked out:
Jared, The Subway Guy – actually already almost done with this. Great, light read and while not eye-opening, had some interesting information. More detailed review to come.
Outwit Your Weight
Rethinking Thin – have now checked this out three times this summer. I have until 10/2 and a long layover next week. If I don’t get through it this time I’ll give up.

% Pounds Lost Date
10 20.9 4/27 WI
20 41.8 7/28 WI
25 52.25
30 62.7
33 68.97
40 83.6

When I first joined Weight Watchers I was curious how they set mini goals as percentages. I shouldn’t say I like absolutes as I still haven’t set a goal, but I really don’t like %s. They don’t mean as much to me when I have to do the math. I guess I prefer to think in decades. Still, I decided tonight to think about the percentages. I had no idea how close I was to 25% until I did the math.

Within the next couple of weigh ins, hopefully by October, I will have lost 25% of my body weight. WOW. 25%! I will be three quarters the person that I was on March 10th. Crazy. I say by October because my eating/tracking wasn’t very good this week and next week I go to Indy for Manning Bowl. It’s not that I’m planning to go off track, I’m just being realistic for myself. I know football season is going to be a huge challenge for me but one I can get through.

As I said, I have no affinity toward percentages, but my next mini goals are very close to 30/33 percent, respectively. Actually, my next mini goal is closer to 28.5%. That will get me below 150. WOW. 33% will bring me to ~140, a healthy weight for my height. WOW. WOW.

I topped the chart out at 40% because I really think that’s my max. Who knows what my goal is, maybe I’ll set one when I get down to a healthy weight. I still look at my body and have no idea what it will look like.

I really did.

In my rushing around to sort out the fridge/freezer situation this morning I forgot my lunch. Technically I could have made a second portion of my breakfast as lunch, but then I’d have to buy breakfast tomorrow. I also could have done with some of what I had – a little peanut butter on a bagel thin – but that’s not lunch. Odd because what I had planned for lunch, lox on a pita pocket, isn’t lunch either. Go figure on taste buds.

So a colleague and I went out for salad. Nope, not the cheapest option for lunch but I didn’t want Subway and I knew the salad would keep me fuller, longer. So ginormous salad it was and for the amount of food, I shouldn’t complain about the $8 price tag. Spinach, mushrooms, celery, cucumber, green peppers, spanish olives, apple, black olives, avocado, egg whites, red onions. carrots. I added in some turkey bacon that I keep from my breakfast. I wasn’t hungry at all until after my errands. Best of all? 6.5 points including dressing. My points are so off this week. WI going to be a crap shoot.

I don’t count the Arctic Zero as spending money. I had a gift certificate and I didn’t buy what I’d planned to at Modell’s so I’m still ahead of the game.

Some times got to look for the bright side. Hope I have a working freezer by tomorrow. I’m going through smoothie withdrawal.

because really, I’ve killed a ton of brain cells on that this week, with no reward as of yet I’m so glad it’s football season, I just wish it was year-round. On the plus side, my gym is getting Direct TV which means NFL Network. WooHOO! Just like this summer where I began spending more time at the gym for its AC, it seems as if I’ll be spending time there for their TV. So maybe football does translate to APs.

Like many trying to lose weight, I wear a heart rate monitor to track calories burned/APs while working out. I don’t have a fancy Polar or anything as I didn’t need it. I originally got a Sportsline META, which I really didn’t care for. I ended up putting it on eBay and buying a Bowflex Precision XT off buy.com. So far, I love it. I’ve never had any issues with its accuracy and it gives me a fairly consistent reading. I don’t currently eat my APs and don’t think I’m likely to on a regular basis, but I want to know what I’m burning to get an overall gauge of my activity. When I first started weight watchers I had delusions of far exceeding their suggested 28 APs/week. Oops

What I didn’t realize is how far APs would fall off as I lost weight and got presumably more fit. I miss my “easy” 8 AP days on the weekends, although I did pull off a 1003 calorie/10AP “last chance” workout the other week but that also included a 2.5 mile walk home. Especially with summer Fridays over, I very rarely have that kind of time to workout. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll happily take fewer APs in exchange for being 50 lbs lighter, but I wonder how on earth I’ll ever get 28 APs/week.

My main issue, especially during baseball season, is that I never get to the gym during the week. I’m either at the office until 8 or 9 pm or want to get home to unwind and watch a game. I’m not sure, even with Direct TV, whether that would get me to the gym on weeknights. It’s just my “me” time. I was very good about going to the gym daily before baseball started, so we’ll see what it’s like when the season ends. I like the gym for me time and always feel good once I’ve left, but I’m not sure I can get 4 APs in an hour anymore. I’ll have to re-evaluate my cardio I think. I asked a good question on MeFi when I first started working out. I think I need to revisit it.

Angry Fat Girls: 5 Women, 500 Pounds and a Year of Losing It…Again

I thought about just linking to my LT review, but then the review turned into far more of a blog than a book review, so here it is. And this is a lot more streamlined then it was, and then my brain was when I read this over this weekend. It’s given me a lot to think about, and I imagine I’ll be revisiting it
I like this book a lot better than I liked Kuffel’s first book, Passing for Thin. I found it flowed together a lot better, odd since it was a story of a number of women rather than Kuffel’s journey, which she told in passing. I believe Kuffel has grown significantly as a writer since her first book.

When I read Passing for Thin earlier this year and realized how dated it was, I found myseld wondering what Kuffel had done and whether or not she had kept the weight off. The appearance of AFG in my Amazon recommendations told me all that I need to know on that front, and I was glad to find this available at the library.

“But I’ve discovered that this Weight Thing is clearly easier to bear within a system of sisters”

While I cannot see myself participating in a twelve-step program for weight loss, I 100% agree with Kuffel in this point. When I first began Weight Watchers I was online only. I never thought I’d be one to attend meetings or to take anything from them. However my thoughts changed slowly and I decided to give them the same three-month “trial” that I did WW as a whole. My three months is “up” this week, but I can’t imagine not going to meetings. I don’t know about WW claims of meetings-goers losing more weight, but I know that I love the questions that come up from others. I get a lot of info from the message boards as well, but I can’t keep up there whereas I find myself taking a lot of notes at meetings and nodding in “Wow, I hadn’t thought of that” sense with questions/comments from others.

Although I’m a long way from goal/lifetime/maintenance, I find myself fearing what happened to Frances: one-hundred pounds in three years. I have lost weight in the past and I’ve gained it back. This time, I think it’s different. I’m older (30 vs. 18/19) and I want it. But I fear slipping. Sometimes I think it’s good that I’m a slave to the scale. I’ll catch the slip early, but then again I know the stories of others who have gained it back. What will keep me from being a statistic? I think that’s part of why I’m reading a lot on different aspects of diet/fitness/weight loss and nutrition. I want to know about the pitfalls before I fall into one.

I like how Kuffel worked the women’s stories into information on particular issues about weight, obesity, food and other issues. It’s part of what made the story cohesive and nicely wove narrative with important information. And yes, it sent Mt. TBR through the roof because I realize how much there is that I don’t know. At the same time, Kuffel left some stories unfinished and I found myself wanting to know how/why it ended with Katie and Ahmed. The reader was left hanging as to how the issues there sent her spiraling back to more than 400 lbs, but maybe it didn’t matter.

The women’s journeys intrigued me in many ways. They all came from different places, and were in different places in their lives, yet weight united them. Weight is not only a woman’s struggle but it’s something that unites women in a way that it doesn’t men. There are a couple of men in my WW meeting and I know there are men meetings, but dealing with weight in a group setting is very much female. Still, it was nice to see how Kuffel wrapped in the experience of some men, including Linday’s husband Jalen. Their experience with different weight loss programs also is a microcosm of women worldwide, who are always on one diet or another. A friend of mine said to me a couple of weeks ago when we were discussing the various diets “The only diet that works is the one you stick with”. So true. For me, that’s weight watchers. For others, it’s Atkins/South Beach/cabbage soup/etc. There is no perfect diet. We’re all different with different metabolisms, tastes and lifestyles and because of that, no one food plan or diet will work. I think they key to being successful with anything is to recognize your body/personality type and worth with it, not against it.

I was glad to see Kuffel tackle the issue of weight loss surgery and the issues that go with the surgery. Not being able to lap band one’s head is a key point. I know that many insurance programs/doctors require that patients lose ~10% of their weight before clearing them for surgery. I truly believe that if the person can lose the 10%, s/he will either be able to avoid the surgery or be more successful with it. Too many people see WLS as a fix, not really realizing that they’ll end up in the same bad place if they don’t adjust their eating habits following surgery. A good number of people who are overweight have emotional eating issues. I know I do myself. Mindful eating is something I’m working on. Sometimes I wish I could lap band my brain.

AFG is the book that got me back into wanting to blog, and I spent some time this weekend looking for the blog. It wasn’t until the epilogue that I found out that Kuffel and the AFGs had abandoned the blog. I was sorry to hear that. I still want to know more about Mimi, Wendy, Katie, Lindsay and Frances.