Flashiness

My new clotheshorse tendencies occasionally make me as much of The Other in my crowd as I was when I was obese.

That's only because I hang out with homeschoolers. We're frugal and semi-frumpy by nature. (Although some of us aim to fight that natural tendency in ourselves, I was frugal and frumpy enough for a dozen or so women for way too long.)

There's even a stereotype of the homeschooling mom dressed in a denim jumper. L.A. homeschoolers don't generally wear those, at least the ones I come in contact with, but I've known plenty of homeschoolers rocking the denim jumper look when I've lived in other locations.

At the same time, all I need to do to feel almost dowdy again is to go outside my little group of home-educating parents. Or go to Mass.

Today was my 8-year-old's First Communion, and there was no shortage of cleavage. I thought for a minute Boobquake had been extended. But no, it was just the relatives of the First Communicants.

Who succeeded in making me feel much less flashy.

One of my friends once told me that when she was a teenager it was the Catholic girls who would go and steal all the other girls' boyfriends. I'd never heard that, and, of course, that wasn't exactly my thing. But today, I could almost, maybe, sort of see it.

Clarification on this post: I do judge people for how they dress. (I'm human!) But I don't really judge them -- if that makes any sense. People are more to me than the sum of their clothes. I don't expect homeschoolers to dress up -- most of us have young children and we spend a lot of time at the park or are otherwise on the go. I also don't mind a little cleavage at church. (Heck, I'll wear too-high heels or a too-short skirt.) You have to understand -- I a) looked and b) dressed really badly for most of my 30s. But that kind of stuff wasn't and isn't the most important thing. Even though I do write/think about it more than I used to. It's probably time for me to run more!

The fantasy of weight loss

Here's an interesting article on people who lose weight and then end up disappointed.

Their disappointment stems from their expectations.

They start out with an idea that when they're thin, their lives will be perfect. It has to be worse for people who have never been thin.

For me, although I was usually heavy, I was within the "high-normal" range. I was at my absolute thinnest for a short period in college and then a few years after graduation. My weight bounced around about 25 pounds once I left home. (I was heavy in high school, which was a stressful period, and I dropped 40 pounds -- not-so-healthily -- in the summer between high school graduation and college.)

But, because my weight has varied so much and I've been at least semi-thin, I don't think I had particularly high expectations about weight loss affecting my life too much. In some ways, it has affected things a lot more than I expected. I'm not going to pretend I didn't go through somewhat of an identity crisis (and that minor crisis was one reason I started the blog), but it wasn't particularly prolonged.

High-maintenance, Part 2,847

Here's yet another newly fussy thing I do:

I need to have milk, not nondairy creamer, for my coffee.

When I was heavy, I'd use whatever was put in front of me. I didn't want to trouble for people, and I liked it just as well -- even thought it's absolute garbage, filled with chemicals and hydrogenated oil.

Paul is still getting used to my newly difficult nature.

"High maintenance," he mutters, joking.

Exercise: I didn't run today, but I took the car in and then did errands on foot. I had only one child with me, so the exercise was much better than it would've been with all four of them.

What to drink?

Today, I'm not going to get into the whys of not drinking alcohol or diet soda when trying to lose weight. I will soon.

For now, I'm just going to mention things to drink instead.

There's water, of course, but that can seem boring.

Here are great things to drink instead:

Tea. Hot or iced. When it comes to restaurants, unsweetened black iced tea is available almost everywhere. Lots of places have tea bags as well.

When it's cool (for L.A.) like today, I'll have a few cups of hot tea. Otherwise, I'll brew up some to ice.

Sparkling water. Nicer restaurants will have Pellegrino or Perrier. Most bars have some kind of sparkling water.

I can almost always find Crystal Geyser or Arrowhead sparkling water on sale at the grocery store. Pellegrino is on sale relatively frequently as well. I don't drink this all the time, as I'm not always in the mood -- sometimes I miss the bubbles from Diet Coke. Now, though, sparkling water is my champagne.

Son's knee update: He does have Osgood-Schatter's. He'll just have to ice it after activity, but he should grow out of it.

In control

As much as I don't like playing Mother-May-I with Tiffany, I have to say I'm liking being back on plan in a hardcore way. I'm keeping food simple, which helps with the measuring.

I'm also experimenting with some of the principals of the Paleo Diet, which isn't all that different from eYou. If anything, it's even more hardcore. I'm not willing to give up my yogurt, though. Or my salt.


Running partner update: My 14-year-old is having some knee issues. Osgood Schlatter's Disease is Dr. Kathleen's diagnosis. (Paul calls me Dr. Kathleen to mock my penchant for health research.) Osgood Schlatter's is common in young teen boys who are active and in the middle of a big growth spurt.

A new running partner and a 30-minute jog

I herded the kids out of the house this morning to get some exercise in. We walked over to the park/trail near us, and then I got ready to (finally!) try a jog again.

My 14-year-old wanted to come with me. He has never run distances, just little sprints, but I was only planning on going for a slow 30 minutes, and he was game.

I felt great again. I don't need a nap now. I think I finally beat the nasty cold.

The boy did fine as well. I told him he'd have no trouble doing longer races if he can roll out of bed and jog for 30 minutes right now. It took me two months of building up to it before I could.

He said the last 10 minutes were killing him, but when I said we should sprint at the end, he left me in the dust, as I expected. We did about 2.5 intentionally slow miles.

A weekend on the treadmill

I haven't set foot on a literal treadmill in months.

This weekend, though, was a big grind. It was a fun grind -- don't get me wrong -- but a number of our activities coalesced into one big commitment-filled weekend.

Diet decision: I'm recommitting to following the eYou plan. I have not been off the plan, as I have not eaten sugar, wheat or flour -- but I've been much more casual about portion size, particularly when I was training for the marathon.

I'm going 100 percent back to the formal program and that means communicating with Tiffany daily about what I'm going to eat. I committed to my food (and NOT ONE BITE MORE) when I first went on the plan, but getting weaned from the need to do that is also part of the plan.

I'm feeling the need to commit to my food again. I don't really want the hassle of concentrating so much on what I eat when I feel so much better and look so much better. My health concerns are so much less than they were. At the same time, I still have health reasons to lose fat, particularly belly fat, so I'm going to have to get really serious. I'm at the point where I really can't lose weight without giving it the focus.