New Focal: Local

I am currently reading (okay, fine, listening to a CD of) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kinsolver on my commute to work in the morning. It is a little preachy, but still very inspirational. It is all about her yearlong adventure in eating locally. Some interesting facts...for each 1 calorie of food produced, 11 calories (of energy) were used to produce it...the average trip for everything on your plate? 15oo miles...We use almost as much fossil fuels in our fridge (transport, fertilizer, etc) as we use in our car. Pretty crazy, right?

As a side point, buying organic is fabulous, but buying conventionally farmed local fare has less of an environmental impact since it didn't need to be refrigerated and shipped from far away. Obviously, buying local, organic produce is the best, but its not always possible.

I am a weekend gardener. I have a few vegetable plants in my backyard and a plot at the community garden. I recently planted a Fuji apple tree and a grapevine along my back fence. It is great for my health and sanity to be able to dig in the dirt on the weekends. I try to eat locally from my garden and from the Farmer's Market (find yours at http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/farmersmarkets), but sometimes I get lazy and I just want the easiest thing from the grocery store.

I want to take it more seriously this year. I want to eat locally and healthy throughout the winter. This means lots of prep work in the summer and fall. I will buy things when they are in season and can, freeze or dry them so they are available throughout the winter.

This is, of course, intricately tied with losing weight and staying healthy. I always do great in late spring, summer and early fall while fresh food and warm weather make me want to get outside and stay healthy. As the bitter Maryland cold sets in, my morning runs cease, the yummy fruits and veggies disappear and pizza delivery starts to look really good. If I have the remnants of summer available, I will be more likely to pull them out of the cupboard or the freezer and make a soup, chili or healthy homemade pizza...not to mention cut my reliance on fossil fuels and support local farmers. It's a win-win situation all around.

Compliments of Texas

Through a quick text exchange, Renee and I have decided that Kansas City is better for my health than my beloved Texas. How did we reach this conclusion?

Well, in Kansas City I don't eat BLTs, strawberry milkshakes, fried chicken sandwiches and fried eggs. ALL. IN. ONE. WEEK.

In my defense, when I ordered the chicken sandwich I truly thought it would be grilled. Silly Natalie. I'm not expecting any weight loss this week - compliments of the Texas lifestyle.

It's been a great visit, however. I now have three "new" suits and a "new" (reused!) iPhone. I'm going shoe shopping in the morning and to a wedding reception in my "new" (thrift store find!) Sarah Jessica Parker dress.

Also, seeing family has been great. I have been able to visit with my dad, his girlfriend, my brother, his wife, my nieces, my aunt and am fixin to see my best high school friend and my cousin and his new little girl.

Texas, while bad for my eating, is good for my self esteem. For each of these folks, my weight loss is new and they are full of compliments. In Kansas City, my friends see me on a regular basis and with a gradual weight loss like mine, it's not something easily noticeable. I'll admit, I've really been looking forward to seeing the people who haven't seen me in 20 pounds.

But you know what? I wasn't prepared for the questions from those who don't know about 50n50.

The hardest: "You've lost weight. What diet are you on?"

Honestly, how do you answer that without sounding snooty?

"No specific diet, I just eat right" sounds judgmental and hoity toity to me. I can't go around putting on airs. So I just say thank you and that I count everything that goes in my mouth. I need a better answer, though, because that makes it sound like something that is a pain and might discourage others from trying my method.

Still, the compliments of Texas have been wonderful. Even my 11-year-old niece, just this morning said, "You've gotten skinny!" And that fried chicken sandwich was damn good, too.

Thirty, flirty and thriving!

Weight a minute ...I forgot something when writing the previous serious-toned post ...

I'VE LOST 30 POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!

YIPPEE!!!! WOO HOO!!! (or, more appropriately:) YEEHAW!!!!!!

Emotional and nutritional challenges

I weighed myself this morning and am thrilled to say I am a grand total of 30 pounds lighter than at the start of this! Before I get too excited, I have to ground myself. I have the week off from school - my break between spring and summer semesters - and am at the start of a pretty difficult trip to Texas.

First, I am here to help my grandfather sort through my grandmother's belongings. Her death has had a big impact on me and I miss her every day. She died in January and I spent that week helping my grandfather get as settled as I could in his new routine. Today, I am heading to his house (which is why I weighed today - he doesn't own a scale) to help him decide what of hers to keep and what to donate to charities.

Of course this trip will be emotionally difficult, but it also holds a lot of nutritional difficulty. Texas is full of fat people. Yep, I'm fixin to say it: even my family struggles with weight A LOT. I know the culprit: restaurants. My dad eats out just about every meal - my grandfather too (though he eats like a chicken and doesn't weigh hardly anything anymore).

There is a silver lining, though. My grandmother, Bunna, had GREAT taste in clothes. She modeled for local stores until a year or so ago and was a perfect size 10. There will be many clothes coming my way.


So, this next week will hold a lot of challenges for me. Pray that I can make the right decisions and be helpful where it matters. Corsicana, Texas is hardly the health capital of anything. My grandfather eats breakfast at Roys Cafe everyday (and has for 40 years). His friends are there and I am grateful that he has a reason to wake up every day. However, Roys serves you grease with a side of eggs. Lord help me.

One month update...

It's now been exactly 1 month since I posted my last blog about starting to do early morning runs instead of running after work. I am so happy (and proud) to say that I am still doing my morning runs at least 4 times a week and I even look forward to them everyday! It is still hard to get out of bed, but no harder than it was before. After the run, I am wide awake and ready for the day...that was never the case before. I also have all this time in the afternoons that I never had before. To top it all off, I have lost around 6 lbs this month! It's a win win situation in every direction!

So now that I have this fabulous new work out routine, what do I do next? I want to vary it by doing something different on the weekends like yoga, a work-out video or weight training. I want to start taking a multi-vitamin everyday. I want to increase my daily mileage at least once, if not twice, a week. Fabulous...I think I will start these today...I'm feeling very confident these days...it's a nice feeling.

Whew.

Well, I didn't gain weight this week. Granted the last three days I've done a great job on my diet and working out, but this weekend I drank A LOT and ate food that wasn't spectacular. So the fact that I didn't actually gain anything is huge. Still the same weight. But am feeling and looking thinner.

My rib cage is showing again. Thank goodness. And my legs are getting muscular again. Praise Jesus.

Natalie and I had this big discussion yesterday about BMI and realistic expectations concerning size and weight. How women who are the same age (like Nat and I) can gain and carry weight in completely different ways and areas. And how we all need to go about weight loss and fitness in different ways.

The ideal body weight for my size was the weight I was when I started this (169) and anywhere from 40 lbs below that (129). I'd like to be around 155. That's 27 lbs from now. I think I can do it, it will just take time. I just have to be diligent. So here are some new revised goals since I haven't gained weight in two weeks:

Fitness Goals:
1. Run 3-4 days a week. Averaging around 15-20 miles a week. (That is until full training begins and I'm upwards of 30-35 miles a week.)
2. Yoga at least once a week. Class on Fridays. Try to do at least two more times on my own.
3. Start p90x today and see if I hate it and how sore I am.
4. By the end of the year run in two more half marathons and one full marathon.
5. Decrease my 5k time to around 27 minutes. (Yes, I'm slow, people...)
6. Improve my half marathon time by 15 minutes each race.

Nutrition Goals:
1. Cut out soda completely. Although I've already done this sometimes I slip and no frou-frou coffee drinks.
2. 64 oz of water a day. May increase my pee output, but that shall be good for me.
3. Take a multi-vitamin everyday.
4. Keep my caloric intake less than 1500 a day.
5. No more booze at promotions. Which means no more weekday drinking.
6. Eat vegetables at every meal. Have lean proteins at every meal.

Alright. Now I'm accountable for these things since I wrote them down for you all to read. So feel free to bust me on them. Off to do my first P90X workout. Thanks all!

Oh, and happy Cinco de Drinko!

Reflections on reflections

I have a huge picture window in my living room. Mainly, my dog uses it to survey the neighborhood - watching and waiting for anything amiss. On relaxing weekend mornings Kevin and I sit on the deck in front of the picture window and read, study or blog.

This morning, as I returned to my chair from refilling my coffee, I happened to catch my reflection in the window. I had to double take. Is that really me?

For more than 10 years I have been a size 16 (give or a take a bit) so seeing myself almost ten inches smaller in the waist, a couple of cup sizes smaller in the bust and leaner in the legs has taken some adjusting. Often, I focus on the problem areas - my huge calves, my round face, my large derriere. But sometimes, like today, I get caught off-guard and the insecurities take a moment to catch up to me. Other times, I just stare at my legs and marvel at the idea that they actually belong to me. They are so much thinner than I ever remember before!

Of course, the insecurities aren't far behind and I suddenly start thinking about how I really want to look. The tight abs, the cute, pert bust, the shapely, yet trim butt - and I wonder if I will ever be able to look as good in real life as I imagine in my dreams. But, on days like today, I'm able to focus on the progress I've made and see my body for how it really looks, not how the monsters in my mind twist things.