What's that smell?

Depending on where your mind spends its time, your first thought on reading today's title could be interesting.  Not be too indelicate, but Annette says I don't smell so bad in some ways since I have been eating a more balanced, less greezy diet.

Diet.  A word I hate.

But today is so beautiful outside I will leave any hatin' for another day.  That is not exactly true.  I am gonna hate on my first month of tries at 'smoothies'.  I usually get motivated to make one because I am trying to jazz up a whey mixture that I dread.  I try and drink it after a hard work out just because a gym rat told me too.  I ended up buying a bucket of it at a local health food outlet.  The sales guy was priceless, telling me not to add yogurt or I would look bloated.  I asked him how much more bloated could I look?

Complaint number one is that it gets all foamy.  How do you mix up this blech without it getting frothy?  I've tried adding some fun stuff...bananas, strawberries, blueberries and some homemade pomegranate juice.  The taste improves, but the fluff is OUT OF CONTROL.  Then, this morning, I got the distinct smell of rotten eggs hitting my nose right before I gulped.  This version tastes the best so far, but the smell is a disincentive.  Well, I will just keep my mad scientist wig on and keep trying.

*****

189.  The 80's.  Jeffy is smiling.  Great run through the cherries Thursday.  Hamachi and Sake for dinner Friday night.  Circuit kicked my tail at the gym this morning.  And, I am writing this while listening to Catherine Russell, my current female singer crush.  Just puts me in a great place.

Survived and Thrived

I did not go to Ronald's house of fried flavor and poison.  Check
I ate several small, balanced meals.  Check
I looked forward to and enjoyed my circuit training.  Check
I crossed from the 90's into the 80's.  Check.

It is easier to enjoy the journey when you can check a few things off the list.

Jeffy vs. Ronald - The Rumble in the Tummy

Banana, yogurt w/walnuts and almonds, the perfect fugi, a power bar before pilates and some leftover Weight Watchers chili with a hand full of spinach tossed in.  I have been into spinach on/in everything lately.

Then, a 3 hour battle with the most insane need (not want) for a QPWC topped off with a FO'F.  Just typing it makes me jittery.  I think I win, because I expect to go to bed now.  But I have to walk past my keys.  I hope I pass this test.  If my only consequence for self-discipline is dreaming of hot tubbing with the HamBurglar, I count it a victory.

*****

I have been stuck around 191 for a while, but was rewarded with running out of holes in my belt on the opposite side of where I had to punch a couple of holes at the end of last year.  Yippee for me.  I hope someone hid my keys because a I want a QPWC NOW!!!!!!!!

Whole Lipstick

I cannot remember the first time I heard the word holistic.  It might have been when I started studying psychology.  There were two tracks at school and one of them was traditional and the other was holistic.  What I do remember is that I thought the person I was talking to said Whole Lipstick.  It took a second to get what he was saying.

Why is this important?  First, because I think it is funny.  But for the purposes of this blog, I wanted to comment on a most daunting task.  I find it almost impossible to dig my way through the mountain of information on what we eat.  Frankly, a lot of the confusion comes from the holistic side of things.  In a future post, I hope to tell you a bit about a book that feels clear to me.  For now...a short story about the way I experience a lot of the information in books and on the web and from people and friends interested in the same things.

The story:  I spent the weekend at a huge Boy Scout gathering commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Boy Scouts in the U.S.  All that youth, mostly boys, gathered for a good cause...no threat or fear of violence.  I found it remarkable.  I woke up on Saturday feeling sure I was coming down with the flu.  I took a couple of Advil and for fun I put a moleskin patch on my forehead.  In short order I felt fine.  I told several of the boys that the moleskin patch is all I use for headaches, hoping they would tell their parents or maybe try it themselves. :)

Except what exactly made me feel better?  If had left well enough alone would the funk have passed on by?  Did joking and laughing with the boys about something as absurd as a moleskin cure get me up and going?  Did focusing on a spot in my body help me control my pain response?  Or was it the cinnamon rolls?

Learning to understand and listen to my body is gonna take some time.  Learning to dig through all the advice and passion in the world might take longer.  I think I'll just lay on the couch and put on some lipstick...the whole thing.

*****

191 after a tough Saturday of camp snacks.  I did O.K. at first...Banana's and Power Bars, but at the end of the day I was finishing the kids left overs as we 'cleaned up'...fries, chips, muffins, etc.   The good news is that I think I logged 7-10 miles walking.   Today was a great day of apples, cheese, yogurt, nuts, salads, veggies and a great Weight Watchers chili we got from Jeanine Pells.  Annette and I watched the sun set on a beautiful afternoon while walking a couple of miles.

Honey Comb

I live in a very cool place. Mandarin and nectarine orchards to the West.  Cherries North and South.  Fallow to the East.  Sometimes when I run, I just run around the trees.  Today I was daydreaming about everything hitting my nose...citrus, new mown grass, fresh cut wood, rotting mandarins and a little rain.

Which brings me to the reason this is the most fascinating and worth while blog in the bloglag (I am trying to get a new word going to replace blogosphere that imparts some of my feelings that the internet can be as much a prison as a free space.  Get it.  Gulag.  Bloglag.  It doesn't flow but it is my first idea).

Which brings me to the reason...because you just don't know what is coming next.  I was smelling my way around the orchards when I ran right into some portable beehives, literally.  Only the buzzin' brought me out of my reverie.  I took off at a fair trot and the buzzing would not stop.  I have super bottle brush hair and a bee got stuck in my muck.  I think he wanted out.  I wanted him out.  But he finally gave up and stuck me.  Owiee.  A hit to the melon.

Beside that, it was a very good run today.  I felt good the whole way.

****

191.  I forgot breakfast, but had a nice lunch of bananas, yogurt, walnuts, spinach and lunch meat.  I roll up the meat and the spinach.  Tastes good to me.  I am off to a Scout Jamboree for the weekend.  I ate some left over pizza to get ready.  Jeez, my head is pulsing.

Distractions

For good reasons, I didn't do anything active today.  So why am I grumpy with myself?  I skipped a pilates class I like but thought I would make it up with a run.  How do good reasons pile up or become more important than something I considered 'most important' when I started my day?

You must have heard that story about how to get the most stuff in a jar...big rocks first, then smaller rocks, then sand.  Sometimes all the big rocks don't fit.  You can keep shoving, but eventually the jar breaks.

****

191 this morning.  Pho for lunch.  It tastes so I good there must be something killing me.  What do you think that plum sauce rolls up at?  Snuck a couple of meat balls in yummy sauce at the Dental office.  We got some pizza for visitors at the house tonight, but I only had two pieces where I usually eat, no kidding, a whole medium pizza.  Pepperoni and Bell Pepper...mmmmmm.

Then I tried a recipe I saw on the Barefoot Contessa.  That woman knows how to cook with everything forbidden (or as my friend Ty says...poison).  This seemed safe enough.  Fresh shrimp, a little olive oil, a little lime juice, a little garlic (ok, a lot of garlic) and some S&P.  Bake at 400 for 8-10.  Tasty.

I skipped the homemade Thousand Island she demonstrated...mayonnaise, add some mayonnaise, sprinkle some mayo, pickles, capers and lard...never mind.

The Shining

Yesterday was the first inkling of the shine coming off the rose.

I made my plans.  I read some new books.  I got my new running socks.  I tried some new foods.  I started my blog.  I have been at it since late January and a lot of the newness has been driving me and the newness ran out.  So I am very interested to see what happens next.  I wonder if I am going to keep going or repeat past patterns where I maintain for several months then make my first trip back to Jack in the Donald's and slather myself...for four years.

Stay tuned.

I was re-reading The God Father.  Never tell anyone outside the family what you are thinking again.  :)

****

194 and holding steady.  I had a great run yesterday...about a mile and half and felt good and strong the whole run.  Annette ran with me which is a miracle.  She doesn't like to run so I thought it was cool she came along.

I went to the gym tonight right after work.  Bosu push ups, squat rows, Bosu curls, squat one arm deadlifts, standing kickbacks and some funky lay-on-my-back hip lift whack-a-doodle.  I really liked the circuit but I just felt weak.  I remembered that I forgot to eat something before the workout.  I made that mistake a lot several years ago when I was working out early in the morning.  Hopefully, lesson learned.  Car can't go on an empty tank.

Feast or Famine II

Getting ready to write part two makes me nervous since it seems less amazing than when I set up the cliff hanger a few days ago.  So I will start with some good news, I found my old Ben Harper CD's and I am doing a BH marathon while I type/watch the Giants game.  Oppression you will not get me!

Here it is:  if you believe in the data/theory that severe calorie restriction sets your body's genetic memory against losing weight, then you might also believe that periodic high calorie meals remind your cells that there is plenty of food so they can stop hoarding.  My health guru at the gym told me this.  He admitted it was an undocumented piece of urban hearsay...but I liked it.  When I get around to really researching this, I will tell you what I find out.

In the mean time, I'm going to call unplanned high calorie meals "metabolism lifters".  It sounds very positive to me.

****

193 today, same as a week ago.  I cancelled some early morning tennis cuz it was blustery.  But I got a good run in around 3p.  Now, don't laugh, but it was only a mile.  Gym cardio and running seem to have nothing in common.  I was just happy to be outside, feeling the orchards pass by, talking to some birds and frogs.  Good times.

"You look like gold to me."  Ben Harper.

UFC

Many moons I ago I was visiting with a young couple from church in their home. We were just getting to know each other and I asked the young husband what his hobbies were and he busted out a tape of people beating the living day lights out of each other. He called it UFC, a form of mixed martial arts where the only thing that could stop a fight was unconsciousness or submitting by tapping out.

I forgot about it for a while until the last several years where it seems to be making a comeback. The format seems modified...they seem to stop things sooner. They probably needed to follow some rules to get more sponsors, etc. I am still not sure what UFC stands for, but I use it when I am abusing something to the point of destroying it. I use tapping or choking out interchangeably. So, when I say I am choking out my alarm clock, I am smashing it against the floor trying to get it to submit.

Or I might say I UFC'd some zucchini when I mean I was trying to lightly steam it but forgot about it while watching reruns of Family Feud with dead Richard Dawson and ended up making baby food style zucchini. You could say that the zucchini 'tapped out' or 'submitted'.

By the way...Feast or Famine II is postponed again, where I will reveal some ground breaking speculation on the subject.

****

193 this morning.  Great circuit work out last night.  Great adult pinewood derby.  Then a late night visit to Chili's.  My daughter is home from school and her cool boyfriend and my sister and her cool husband and my wife and her cool son went and and and I didn't want to miss the fun.  So I went.  Chili's will grill salmon and steam some yummy broccoli, so the plan was good.  But then I went off on the chips and salsa, the cheese fries and when my niece wasn't looking I was gulping her chocolate shake.

Spooky

Honest, I have attempted to publish every comment submitted but they are not all showing up. I must be doing something on the 'don't do it that way' list. Or I am a blogmoron? bloron? morgon? blogtard?

Business Travel...

...is irksome. I didn't get up early enough to get my yoga on. I UFC'd the alarm clock but being stuck on 4a doesn't seem like punishment enough. I forgot my breakfast banana. The best news is that I stopped when I was full at Benihana's. That has never happened before. I left a lot of awesome, perfect steak, veggies and fried rice. I know I am not all the way home in my mind because I keep thinking about leaving my little friends there. They were meant for me, and I was meant for them.

I got home in time to run down to the gym for a swim but I just didn't feel like it. Now I am grumpy with myself. It has been working pretty good to go do SOMETHING especially when I'm not feeling it.

But I left my meat friends on the plate, so I claim victory.

Part II of Feast or Famine tomorrow.

****

191 this morning. Yes! And I commit to some shoulder bumps before I go to bed.

Feast or Famine

Since I keep crappy notes, I have very slim ideas of where I get what passes for knowledge in my world. For example, when my daughter was young I shared a quote, "Well behaved women rarely make history." I told her that Eleanor Roosevelt said it. Nope. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich said it.

For a long time I have believed the idea that our bodies have a cellular or evolutionary memory of famine and if you want to achieve a healthy weight you won't fight gene power. In practical terms this means that starvation diets are rarely successful because the body recognizes the signs of famine and adjusts metabolism and fat storing mechanisms appropriately. As soon as the artificial famine is over, the body knows that famine is more likely, keeps the metabolism low and turns every calorie in sight to fat.

This ain't no research journal and I have no idea if this is true. I just know that when I have tried extreme calorie restrictions in the past I feel terrible and pork up like hippo even if I go back to moderate eating. I heard a new twist on this idea that seems to be coming true. Tune in tomorrow for the exciting finish.

****

191 today. I feel great. I had a tough interaction with a coworker and seemed to have more energy to let it go. No reason to get to sappy. Last time I thought I had let something go, I dreamt of going on 12th century crusade and chopping a lot of serfs up.

I had a great functional circuit training session last night. My favorite section was laying on an incline bench and pulling my legs up to my chest and back. Really cranked my abs. I was grunting like hog chasing gold plated truffles. And tonight Annette and I went to the free (yes!!!) mat pilates/yoga. Very energizing and the leader busted out a meditation at the end that I enjoyed.

I think I ate the Easter Bunny

Whew, Easter.

We spent a great day with friends eating everything good. Chicken-Cream Cheese-Hot Sauce thingy. Mango, Sour Cream, Brown sugar thingy. Perfect, and I mean perfect, tenderloin. Asparagus soaked in good stuff. Mandarin Orange salad. Chocolate Mousse with whipped cream. Chocolate Fondu. Did I mention some amazing Potatoes Au gratin. Mercy.

I am happy I didn't eat myself into a coma...but I ate some of everything and went back for more meat and potatoes.

****

Back up to 194 this morning. I got up later than I wanted and didn't have time for yoga/stretching. I skipped my Pilates reformer workout tonight. Annette and I have been doing that workout together for a while now. More on the reformer later, but the best part is doing something with Annette. We skipped tonight to go roller skating with some friends from work. I worked up a nice sweat skating for about an hour with only one rest. Turns out roller skating was Annette's whole life 6-8th grade. Couples skate, shoot the duck, redlight greenlight, finding the cool boys that could skate backwards, and first makeout sessions. I heard it all. Good times.

And in this corner, weighing...

Why am I posting my weight?

I know in my heart that my goal is to feel better, not to lose weight. I don't think I am struggling with body image issues. But that is probably a lie. I really hate wearing polo shirts when I weigh over about 170 because you can see where my belly button is buried from the indents in the shirt.

The cool thing about button up shirts is that you can pull some fabric out so it isn't so tight around the belly. So I probably mean that I don't want to be focused on how I look or how much I weigh. I just want to focus on feeling better, having more energy both in my body and mind.

Posting my weight mirrors what has been very successful for me in the past. I put a calendar up on the mirror in the bathroom and write my weight down everyday. I also write down what activities I did that day. Nothing fancy. I know when I stop writing my weight and activities down I have stopped trying to live healthier. It is really gratifying to see slow steady progress...I shoot to lose 1 to 2 lbs. a week while I am overweight. I appreciate my little weight log the most when I can see that I am not gaining even though my eating and exercise aren't where I want them to be.

****

Today is Sunday. I try and rest from all work out activities on Sunday. I weighed 192 this morning. I feel great about this because yesterday's Easter egg hunt left tons of my favorite candy laying around the house. I took a little walk in the orchard and saw some Jolly Rancher jelly beans on the ground. If you don't understand why I wanted to get on my hands and knees and Hoover those suckers, then you are probably reading the wrong blog.

The First Gift

When I sprinted off to college, my Dad gave me a nice gift. He encouraged me not to be in too big of a hurry. He said that, looking back on his life, he got to his future quick enough. 'Try and find something to study just for the joy of inquiry and knowledge. Worry about job training later."

How cool was that? Just about everything I like about my life came from following that advice. One of the first fruits of that gift was finding the College of Natural Resources at Berkeley and the study of Nutrition and Food Science. Maybe I'll write more about that experience later, but for my first blog post ever I wanted to mention what my first professor in my first class told us at the end of what I considered to be a rigorous review of biochemical pathways and processes, "just eat a balanced diet, for crying out loud...no matter what anyone ever tells you. And think about a little moderation every once in a while."

She was smoking what looked like a pack a day and seemed to be hauling around an extra person in her corduroy jeans, but I never forgot that moment. There were a few mother earth types standing there. They expressed shock and dismay at her lack of 80's cutting edge natural food worship. I just tucked the advice away and beat a quick path to McDonald's for a balanced meal...Big Mac, Large Fries and a Shamrock Shake...the three points of the Jeff Krey food pyramid.

This is a journal of my most recent efforts to try and follow her advice. I am imagining a little personal record keeping, books, articles, etc. that impress or annoy me, the state of my own health philosophy, old stories of success and failures, my state of mind and maybe a few recipes here and there.

The only thing that will not happen is an admission or description of any process that involves the phrase 'super colon blow'. I need to set some boundaries right up front.

*****

Today I felt great. I weighed 191 lbs. I am 5-8. I did O.K. (not great) with the awesome Easter potluck we had at our house today (big Easter egg hunt/cousin brawl). Even though I didn't want to I went over to my sisters house and we walked/jogged for 30 minutes. No matter how much I stretch, my upper back is screaming at the end of the day. I started using some over-the counter-orthotics to treat my self-diagnosed (mild) planter fasciitis. What a hassle.