Thursday, February 3, 2011

A Diet, a Birthday, and Some Humor

* Note: I started this post last week and it then sat in "drafts" until I remembered about it today, so it isn't exactly current. I have been just a little busy dealing with two huge boxes of mangos before they all went bad. I now have a quart of mango syrup, twenty five quarts of sliced mangos in the freezer, and 8 half pint jars of mango jam in the pantry. I sent a bunch home with the gardener, and a bunch ended up on the compost heap because they got squished at the bottom of the boxes. I am done done done with mangos until next mango season!

This week marks the start of Malawi Meltdown 2011. I have been weighed, and my BMI calculated. No, I am not going to post my weight, but I would like to loose about 15 pounds this year. My BMI is in the healthy range, but just barely. I am officially on a diet. Okay, not so much a diet, more working on changing bad habits and making better choices. To start with I am keeping a food log and writing down every little thing I eat or drink. Nothing takes the fun out of eating quite like having to stop and write it down. I also need to start exercising again. My original plan was to start with the 30 day Shred but my knee isn't cooperating. Last time I tried the Shred I had to abandon it around day 19 because my knee started hurting too much. Instead I am doing about 30 minutes of yoga each morning. I get up way too early and tune into to AFN for Nameste Yoga while David takes care of the morning routine getting the kids fed, dressed, and loaded on the bus . I'm not exactly working up a sweat but it is a starting point I suppose.

This week also marks the end of my annual torment by David. There are only two months difference in our ages. I am the older one. Every year from the last week of November until last week of January David takes great pleasure in telling everyone that he married an older woman and that I am a year older than him since I was born in '67 and he was born in '68. His usual line goes something like "Shannon is already 43 but I'm still 42. I won't be 43 until next year." We have an agreement, he can be a jerk for two months then I better not hear a word about it for the other 10 months of the year. To celebrate the end of the torment for another year I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. For presents Dave received a brand new tripod for his camera and some special gifts the boys made just for him.

Sorry David holding the cake upside down does NOT make you 34.


And now for a little humor. I may have mentioned that we have guards at our house. The guards take their job very seriously and we are thankful to have them. The one thing that cracks me up is the saluting. Every time we go through or even near the gate, or sometimes if I am sitting out by the pond drinking my morning coffee (note to self: no more drinking coffee outside in pj's) the guards will salute. Basically the thought of anyone saluting me on a regular basis cracks me up, I'm a civilian through and through. However that isn't what is funny. When we arrived most of the guards just snapped a basic salute as you drove past, but there was this one who would do this foot stomp thing as he snapped to attention. Now it seems that all of the guards are doing some sort of fancy foot stomping salute, some stomp once, some stomp twice, some seem to specialize with the straight leg stomp or the high knee lift stomp. So far I have managed to refrain from bursting into laughter in front of the guards, but it is a close thing sometimes.

Update: Since I wrote this last week I have dragged myself out of bed at a quarter of six everyday to do yoga. How I managed to get dressed and functioning well enough to exercise prior to coffee I am not sure. One morning I had a hard time figuring out how to put on my exercise shirt. David came in looked at me struggling and after he finished laughing, he told me I had it on backwards. If you are a girl and you can't figure out that you have racer back exercise shirt on backwards you probably need one or more of the following: 1. Serious psychiatric help 2. More sleep or 3. COFFEE!

I was feeling stronger and more flexible until I managed to loose my balance yesterday doing triangle pose. Somehow in the process of falling on my butt I managed to pull a muscle in my thigh. Today's workout was all based around the warrior poses. If you are not familiar with yoga the warrior poses use the thigh muscles, A LOT! OUCHIE! Hopefully tomorrow's workout will be based around down dog, or cobra, or really anything but warrior. My personal choice would be child''s pose, but I suppose that wouldn't be much of a workout, more of a nap.

It has been a week so I got on the scale today and found I had lost 3 pounds in a week. YAY! Twelve more pounds to go. WooHoo!

10 comments:

Becky said...

You rock! Go you on the meltdown.

(I am 4 months older than my husband. My kids always make a big deal about it but he doesn't.)

Your guard story had me laughing. I love it!

Unknown said...

The T goes in the back my dear! ;) I'm barely on the "normal" range of the damn Wii Fit's BMI thingy myself ... I know the feeling! Keep up those yoga poses!

Kate said...

The Warrior pose kills MY bad knee. I'd rather downward dog any day. Or eat potato chips.

Daniela Swider said...

Yey for you for getting your Yoga on! I was going to a prenatal Yoga class once a week but lately I have been feeling so big and uncomfortable that I decided to quit the class and see what I can do at home. Lame, I know because Yoga is good for me but most of the poses are practically an impossibility at 34 weeks. My personal favorite is corps pose.

Sara said...

OK...I'm checking out prenatal yoga videos right now. Hopefully they'll be nice to me!

Shannon said...

Thanks for all the support guys!

Jae I hate the wiifit talking scale that tells me I weigh too much and that I should really get my BMI down to 22. Drives me nuts, almost as bad as when it inflated my cute skinny little mii, who wants to see a fat animated version of yourself on TV?

Kate -there is a great little book called Yoga For Healthy Knees that has really helped me with knee pain, all those stairs in Frankfurt did a number on my right knee. The exercises in the book helped a lot, it would probably help more if I would do them regularly instead of only when my knee starts hurting. As for warrior I try not to go so far down and make sure my knee doesn't go beyond my ankle.

Daniela and Sara - I had to give up yoga by midway through the second trimester every time, I just couldn't do any of the poses, not even corpse, laying on my back HURT! I would join the water aerobics class for older folks at my gym. I talked to the instructor and the class and they were happy to have a mamma-to-be join their class. The gentler exercises and the support of the water worked great for me.

Connie said...

Congrats on the weight loss, and even more on the new routine. Go you! :) Happy Birthday to David too! And you're right, upside down 43 does not make you 34...but looking at the cake it might make him Canadian... Eh?

Kate Husband said...

So proud of you!!!! I had just gotten down to the top of the "normal" BMI range before Thanksgiving. I haven't seen it since!! I'd like to lose 15 this year too, but I am starting with the exercise. I kept the food journal for 5 months -- it really works. Once my running is truly regular, I will start the damn book again; just not ready yet.

Monica said...

this one had me laughing, girl. especially the racer back. THAT is a hoot. you are a DANGEROUS girl without coffee. i know because 1. i am one too and 2. i have experienced you without coffee firsthand. ;o) and YAY for the weight loss. i lost mine, but it found me again. ;o)

Jill said...

Oh I'm just so impressed that you get up early and work out!!

And putting clothes on backwards lately? Um... yesterday on the plane home, I realized that my turtleneck was on backwards ALL day ... Or worse? About 3 weeks ago I actually walked around for about 2 hours wondering why my underwear felt funny. Because I put my thong on backwards. The fact that it took me almost 2 hours is the part that still disturbs me ...

Happy belated birthday Dave!!

P.S. loved the chamelions on the laptop!!!