Wow, I didn't realize I hadn't posted since before I left for vacation. Three weeks off meant three tough runs when I got back. After that it was pretty much back to normal. Last week on Friday I inadvertently ran 4.5 miles. I was a little tired after that, but it wasn't hard. Today I probably did 4 and Tuesday was a 3.5 day. That's probably typical, but if I feel like it I do try to do a little extra on Friday since I don't have to teach.

The running is definitely the piece I needed to get into shape again. I would say that my spare tire is about 65-75% deflated and I'm delighted about that. My weight is about 143, which is at the high end of what I used to weigh, but I think I have shifted more to muscle so I am actually taking up less space. This is good and my clothes are comfortable and even loose again.

I got some new running pants for when it gets wet and a lightweight shell to wear. I also got some new socks. Who knew that padded balls and heels could make such a difference! When I go exchange Mitch's pants today I'm getting another pair. They are fabulous. Since I was wearing socks that I probably bought in the 90s it is not unexpected that they would have a better product. Surprisingly, there continues to be no real style or interest in activewear. Basically you can have cute stuff or functional and not a lot of crossover.

I'm cooled down, and I'm an hour behind already today, so off I go.

Running Update

I'm still running. I've not missed a day that I've committed to yet. I've changed days when necessary to get them in when I've been gone or otherwise scheduled. I'm kind of at the limits of my current routes in terms of distance. I can only get about 3.25 miles without doing some backtracking. I'm not really keen on going too much further from my current routes because of hills. I'm tackling about all I can right now hillwise! Today I did an extra half of the panhandle and I'll map it to see what I gained by doing that. I suppose I can always go twice around. Anyway, I have two more running days before we go to Spain, so I don't have to worry until later in the fall. I will not be running while I'm traveling--don't want to carry the shoes.

I have never been interested in exercise and mostly resist it because I find it so boring. But my body is clearly liking it. I sometimes wake up wanting to run when it isn't running day or otherwise find myself wondering if I should run. This is not normal, but like wanting children, may be something that your body does without your head. I don't really enjoy the running itself and it isn't easy, but clearly my physical self is enjoying it.

It is also adding to my Pilates prowess. I say that tongue in cheek because all physical things are a little slapstick for me. But I feel way stronger. And Pilates has freed my shoulders so except for when I'm struggling uphill, I run with shoulders square and head high. I can sometimes even feel my abs working to keep everything smooth.

I've cooled so off to the showers.

Milestones

I spent some time on Google Maps and now know that my running routes are approximately 3.1 to 3.5 miles. The extra is primarily when I have to backtrack or run extra blocks to cross with signals.

I've been running since August 4; I do it Tuesdays and Fridays and haven't missed yet, although I think I've run once on Thursday because I couldn't on Friday. August clocked 8 running days. This week due to some scheduling changes I ran Monday, Today and will run Thursday. I've already run 4 times in September! Next week I need to miss my Monday Pilates so will probably run Monday too. The good thing is that running is cheap! Although probably possible, I won't be running when I am in Europe.

This morning I saw a youngish guy with his little boy that I also saw yesterday. Today the dad lit up a cigarette, and it reminded me that I quit smoking on Labor Day 21 years ago. I have never, ever had another cigarette. The first year was awful; it took years to not think about smoking and it still sometimes flits through my brain.

Nothing else to report. I don't think I've actually lost any weight doing this. I do think that I am reducing my measurements some which is really all I want. I can pretty easily ignore the scale!

A year of wishful thinking . . .

Somehow that is my default for a problem I don't like the answer to. Wishful thinking that is. I didn't completely just do wishful thinking, but it seems like I could have figured this out sooner.

After I returned from Italy in 2008 I signed up for an extra Pilates class every week. I have done it every freaking week except when traveling and one time I forgot to sign up since November 2008. When I first started--after a couple of months--I really noticed an improvement in my figure, plus I was able to do more complicated Pilates stuff because I was doing it twice a week. So that was good. At the same time I tried not to eat as much and to be more sensible. It is easier to go to Pilates!

Then there was the period of unrelenting hot flashes and I probably slipped back into my old eating habits then and forgot, once I got the hot flashes controlled, that I was supposed to be sensible about what I ate. That is how I got the extra five pounds. Which as we all know, aren't that easy to get rid of any time, and even more difficult in midlife.

On August 5 I laced up my gym shoes and hit the streets. I mentally mapped out a route and started running. On August 5 I ran 3 miles. On August 7 I ran 3.5 miles (I think, I've got to really sit down and figure that out). And I'm running about 3.5 miles twice a week. The weird part is, I'm enjoying it. Well not the running uphill part or the leaving the house at 7:30 part, but I am liking the running. I don't recall enjoying the running when I ran before.

Things are looking up

Or down.  Actually, a month in Italy will help almost any problem!

I am pleased to say that I have lost a little weight, and that certainly improves how I look.  Okay, so I thought that bulge on my side was permanent, but it turns out that it wasn't.  Today I weight 138.5/142 and on September 1, I probably weighed 142/146 (the first number is what I weigh first thing in the morning and the second is what I likely actually weigh!) and those 3.5 pounds make a difference.  How did this happen?  In Italy?  I ate less.  Crap, what a simple solution--just eat less.  I'm not sure I technically "ate less", but I think I ate better.  It helps that the food tastes so great that you can actually be satisfied by having a small portion; it also helps that there were more options at a meal rather than my kind of "one dish" menus.  That side of salad or veggies can go a long way to filling you up!  I also never (well, almost never) took seconds.  At home I don't either, but I take extra on the first because I know I'm not getting more, so the secret is to not take that extra.  It isn't fun, but it is possible.  I did eat a fair number of desserts in Italy.  Hmmmmmmm.  Maybe I should get a dessert or two during each week to give me something to look forward to.  

I had decided before I left that I would quite eating three large (very large) olives with my martini on Friday.  I thought I would do zero olives, but that seems cruel--I'm doing one.  Again, I drank a lot of wine in Italy, so it isn't like I gave up those empty alcohol calories!  I'm looking for calories I can give up without too much pain.

I'm also weeding my wardrobe.  A month with the same clothes certainly tells you that you can do with less, especially if the less looks good on you.  Okay, I didn't think everything looked good on me, but I made mental notes about what did, and what didn't, and that's what the next couple of months are going to be about--finding what looks good and getting rid of all the excess that doesn't.

Obviously I have a tight relationship with my clothes, and looking good in my clothes.  I'm willing to give up looking hot if I can look good.  Oh, and my pants had suddenly gotten too short, but that also seems to be reversed by having a little more room in them higher up!

I have done nothing about the bike-in-trainer.  I still intend to (although it is rainy), but I'm enjoying a sinus infection so that doesn't make much sense right now.  

And I'm going to be positive.  This can be fixed!  Not the fix I might have thought of a few weeks ago, but it is possible to get fitter and lose the extra weight (I'm just talking the extra, not more than needed).  And that's a lot!  

We'll talk about those arms some other time.  

Today's Thoughts

This is what I look like today.   A great pair of pants, if you discount the fact that they wrinkle.  They are pretty high on the list of acceptable pants because they fit!  They are nicely made by Eli Tahari and I can't recall what I paid for them, but let's say $250.  The first day I wore them I got a smudge on the leg just below my knee from the car which doesn't come out.  Why did I buy light colored pants?  Perhaps I was thinking it would be like my fabulous boot-cut white Cambio jeans.  They were always getting dirty too, but looked so great.  Sadly, they were size 8 and there just came a moment where I couldn't pull that off anymore.  I don't really know which changed first--the jeans or me; okay it was me, but I went from hot to muffin top in an eye blink.  Thanks to long legs and Pilates I wore them past 50, so I can't really complain, but in the past year every single pair of real jeans I own has become unflattering.  I have a pair of "jeans" from Michael Kors which look great on me, but they aren't real jeans. So now if I am leaving the house I usually wear slacks or the faux jeans.  I look okay, but never do I feel like I look hot anymore.  Sometimes I forget and think I look hot, then I see myself and realize I was thinking of myself as I used to be.

Today I'm just going to lay it out.  That pooch on my right side--it's me, not the top.  I artfully arrange whatever I'm wearing to minimize this, but there it is.  And I'm in my best Pilates posture (not good, but the best I can do).  Clearly an answer might be to lose some weight, but I have to say that is less appealing than, say, breaking a bone.  I should be getting more exercise, but I have all the usual reasons not to do that too.  I have committed to putting my old hybrid bike in the trainer on the bedroom deck and trying to do that, but like everything else, it requires at least three major things besides just dragging the damn bike and equipment up to the top floor.

I'm using the Photo Booth on my Mac, so I have limited options, but I thought I would try getting a sense of what the rear view looks like by climbing up on a chair.  I'm not a good photographer, so perhaps the limitations of essentially being in a photo booth are a good thing.  Anyway, I am not sure I can comment.  I finally get a less-than shlumpy photo, but this isn't the rear-view I remember!  

I'm not sure how to rearrange the photos, so they are all kind of stacked up.  And the paragraph you just finished reading should have been at the top, but I can't figure out how to rearrange text either.