Sunshine + 70 degrees + bike = happy girl

I just finished the perfect bike ride. The weather is spectacular, slight breeze, 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. It was on my normal trail, which is only ten miles round-trip, with several good hills, but it was just a gorgeous ride today. I stopped in at the gym for a 45-minute upper body strength workout, then I rode home.

I can't believe how much the trail has changed in just two weeks since my last ride. Daisies, peonies, sweet peas, Dianthus, lavender, and roses all growing wild and all were all in bloom along the trail. I didn't take many pictures since I was sort of in a hurry, trying to keep my heart rate up.

At one point when I was trying to keep up with a couple of skinny guys on bikes, both wearing identical racing gear (like they were a team), the bikes had skinny tires like racing bikes. As I was pedaling my heart out to keep up with them my heart rate was at 161 (my resting pulse is 50, so 161 is high for me). They passed me going up a steep hill but then I caught up to them and stayed behind them for about three miles until I decided to back off. I didn't want them to think I was stalking them or something, and it was wearing me out!
Two hours and fifteen minutes, bike ride and gym, I burned 700 calories according to my Polar F6. I can't imagine an easier or more fun way to burn calories.

When I got home I grabbed a bowl of cherries out of the fridge. I counted out 35 cherries and enjoyed them, savoring each sweet, icy cold cherry, for 3.5 Points. So good! I can still eat fruit, I just have to count the Points.

I feel so much better after my bike ride. I'm still a little upset by the six-pound gain, but I know I can pull it off quickly. It's not here to stay.

Vacation next week at my sister's house won't be a foodfest either. My sister is notorious for not eating. She's always eaten like a bird, but since my brother-in-law (her husband) passed away last fall she's lost all interest in food. She even asked me yesterday what she should buy for me to eat, I told her I'd just eat whatever she eat. That's a guaranteed weight loss right there.

I've decided I'm here to stay in blogland. I had thoughts this past week to stop reading blogs and stop writing. It seems that lately a lot of people are abandoning their blogs. Sort of sad. I really believe my blog has helped me stay on track for three years. Even if no one reads it and even if it doesn't really help anyone, it helps me. Therefore, I'm here to stay.

Peonies there were growing wild along my bike trail, right among the blackberry bushes. Check out the sky. Remember, this is Seattle. Land of the eternal monsoon season. Summer is finally here and it took it's sweet time getting here!

Some sort of flower, growing wild.

A picture my husband took at the Gorge last weekend. It looks better than the ones I took.

Danger, Will Robinson!

“Danger, Will Robinson!” is a catch phrase from the 1960s’ American television series Lost in Space spoken by voice actor Dick Tufeld. The Robot, acting as a surrogate guardian, says this to young Will Robinson when the boy is unaware of an impending threat. In everyday use, the phrase warns someone that they are about to make a mistake or that they are overlooking something.

I'm not about to make a mistake, I already made it. I stepped on the scales this morning, the first time in three weeks. Talk about burying my head in the sand. I was sort of pretending if I didn't know how much I weighed then it must be okay. It's not okay. I weigh 168.2, up six pounds from three weeks ago.

My downfall has been fresh fruit. Yes, you can gain weight from eating too much fruit. I love fruit and had been limiting myself to two to three servings a day. Then summer came, with cherries (Vans and Rainiers), nectarines, raspberry pluots, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, watermelon, and piel de sapo (like a honeydew melon but better) all came into season at the same time.

I've been like a kid in a candy store. I love them all and have been eating large amounts of fruit these last few weeks. I completely stopped counting Points. I was using the logic that since it's just fruit and it's only in season for a few months, I should eat as much as I want because it'll be out of season soon.

That line of thinking has led me to a six-pound gain. Even though my eating is healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken and fish, very little processed foods (I'm still eating Frantz whole wheat sandwich thins - I just can't give them up), I still gained weight. Basically, a calorie is a calorie, whether it's sugar cookies or a pound of cherries. Too many calories will lead to a weight gain. This isn't any big revelation, but it just amazes me the crazy logic I can use to allow myself to overindulge.

Today I'm back to counting Points and limiting my fruit intake. It brings a tear to my eye, but it's just the way it has to be. I can't eat with abandon, even if it is "just" fruit.

The exercise
I'm still going to the gym, doing one to one and a half hour workouts. I'm just not loving it too much these days. I'm doing it more because I have to than because I want to. I've added the treadmill back into my routine and have been doing a little bit of jogging along with 4mph walking. My knees have been holding up well and haven't hurt at all. I'm mainly doing it just to do something different. I'm bored.

Strength training is still my favorite part of working out. I sort of hate cardio and only do it because it's required. My cardio routine is a minimum of 35 minutes, yesterday it was 53 minutes of treadmill, elliptical and crosstrainer (I was really bored so did different cardio equipment for 15 to 20 minutes each). My StairMaster is still broken which makes me sad. I love it, but it's been broken for about six weeks. I suspect it's not repairable.

I completed the workout with a 45-minute strength training, lower body. Also not my favorite. Working out my quads, glutes, hamstrings hurts the most. Upper body workouts seem easier and more "fun". Again, I do it because I have to.

Biking outside has been put on hold for now. The temps here have been running in the high 80's and low 90's. Too hot for a bike ride.

The Lilith Fair
I suppose I should mention last weekend's trip to The Gorge at George. It was okay. The day was perfect, 80 degrees, sunshine. The scenery at the Gorge is beautiful. The music was good, especially Sheryl Crow, Sugarland and Sarah McLachlan.

Sitting on a 45-degree grassy knoll on a blanket with girls making out in front of us got kind of old after about six hours (we were there eight hours), not fun. Plus our blanket kept sliding down the hill. If I ever go again I'm taking stakes and pounding them into the corner of the blanket. About every hour we'd slide down a foot and have to pull the blanket back up.

The place was packed with hundreds of people. They weren't all lesbians, I'd say about 1/3 were straight women, 1/3 were lesbians, and 1/3 were guy/girl couples. It was interesting. :)

A beer was $9. I walked around and looked at all the food. It was typical fair food. Elephant ears, a Margarita line that was never less than 30 people in line, hamburgers, gyros, philly steak standwiches. Honestly, none of it appealed to me. We had a cooler full of healthy food and we each had one beer. I didn't feel deprived, nor was there really anything there I wanted to eat. One thing I noticed, almost every person I saw carrying around an elephant ear (deep-fried dough covered with sugwas ar and cinnamon), was very overweight. That alone made them less than desirable.

At about 9pm the sun went down and the wind started blowing. Even though I was wrapped in a blanket I thought I was going to freeze to death. It had gone from 80 degrees to proably about 55 degrees with wind. Not fun. We left in the middle of Sarah singing because it was so cold. Walking to our car about a mile away we could hear her beautiful singing. That woman has the most incredible voice.

Even though it was kind of fun, it was a long day. When we got to our hotel in the little town of Ephrata at 11pm and it was closed. The owner finally showed up at 11:30pm and gave us our key to the room, which turned out to be one of the nastiest hotels I've ever stayed in. In my youth I stayed in a lot of fleabag hotels during my travels. This one ranked right down there with the lowest of the low. It was old, dirty and I suspect that our room had been used as a meth lab at one time. Not exactly a romantic getaway.

Vacation
Sorry this whole post is kind of a downer. On a more positive note I have a two-week vacation starting this Thursday and I'll be heading to Fairbanks (husband staying home). I'm really looking forward to seeing my sister and her family and my brother. My brother has a big adventure planned for me, taking out to the middle of no where on his new track vehicle he just bought. I just look at it as any day away from work is a good day. :)

The Gorge, general admission. The grass was nice, but too far from the stage.

The sky at The Gorge. I was fascinated by the sun because I had seen it for months in Western Washington. Of course, last week made up for it with temps in the 90's.

Me with the wind in my hair

Dry Falls (somewhere in Eastern Washington)

Jack and me at Grand Coulee Dam

Dear Abby misses it again - as usual when it comes to fat

I just had to take Dear Abby to task today over advice she gave to a woman who wrote asking what to tell a patient who asked if she was "happy with the way I have let myself go." Letter-writer had been dealing with her mother's cancer over the period of 2 years and her mother had recently died. LW works in a medical office, and sees patients as often as every 3 months or as seldom as once a year.
Naturally, dealing with the stress of her mother's illness and death, her weight has fluctuated in that time. She asked Abby how to deal with the comments about her weight.
Abby's advice?

I see no reason why, if someone is so insensitive as to mention your weight, you shouldn't let the person have the truth with both barrels. If that doesn't shame him or her into an apology, nothing will. However, because you prefer to conceal it, try this response: "You know, I gained this weight the old-fashioned way -- one bite at a time, and that's the way it'll have to come off."

No, no, and hell, no!!! My response to Abby follows (yeah, I wrote her a letter):

Dear Abby,
This is about Impatient with My Patients In Rhode Island from July 10, 2010, who gained weight when her mother was sick and dying/died of cancer. Your answer - that she should tell people who commented on her weight gain that the weight would come off just like it came on - one bite at a time - is less than stellar. Since when is it anyone's business whether Impatient is happy with her weight or not? Your answer perpetuates the myth that others have the right to comment on anyone's body, which is definitely not so (her body, her business).
How she gained the weight is no one's business, and whether she intends to lose it or not is no one's business. A much better reply would have been for her to say "Why do you want to know?" accompanied by a cold stare. That puts the onus back on the asker, and usually makes them feel like a fool for asking a question that is none of their business (which they rightly should feel).
You're also assuming that Impatient gained the weight by overeating, which may not necessarily be so. If she was under a great deal of stress dealing with her mother's illness and death, that can wreak havoc with one's metabolism, which can cause fluctuations in weight without a change in eating habits (so you perpetuated a stereotype, thanks a lot....NOT).
You really need to educate yourself about Health At Every Size and Fat/Size Acceptance if you're going to give advice to fat people. Perpetuating stereotypes and body-shaming is not the way to help fat people deal with a fat-phobic world (and even those who are not-so-fat but have put on few pounds for whatever reason).
Sincerely,
Fat and Proud in MN