BS Alarm

I always read before bed. Last night I went to open a library book, and discovered the first 25 pages of the paperback missing! I was discourage and went to bed with no reading. A fate worse than going to bed with no dinner.

I normally read during my lunch break as well. With out reading fodder today, I ate my lunch and then headed to the bookstore down the road for some “browsing.” I was hoping to find “Slow, Fat, Triathlete” but had no luck. I had about 10 minutes to kill, so I perused the magazine section. I picked up the newest SELF, mainly for the fact that Zoey Deschanel was on the cover. How gorgeous is she?
Anyhow, as I was skimming, I came upon a quiz. I stopped doing and being entertained by magazine quizzes in middle school, but the title caught my eye “How to tell if you are fat, or will be fat” or something like that. Hah. I thought, I am going to do this, because clearly the mirror doesn’t tell me if I am fat already or not (realize I am coming at this from a societally fat perspective).
The first question, 1) What is your BMI? You select the range your BMI is in, and receive the points associated with that. Well..I don’t know my BMI, wait let me Google it real quick. 38. Yep, obese. Good. So, for people with a BMI of 30 or over you start with 64 points. 64! Hot damn.
Ok, so I keep 64 in my mind, and continue with the quiz.
Some questions:
2) how often do you eat breakfast
3) how often do you exercise at least 30 minutes a day
4) how many hours of TV do you watch per week
5) how stressed are you

Etc etc.
So I start with a BMI that classifies me as obese. But, I live a healthy lifestyle, so I only have to add 1 or 2 points and sometimes I get to subtract some.
The Verdict?

I might end up overweight. Or maybe it said I already am over weight. I don’t remember how many categories there were, at least three. Normal, Overweight and Obese.
So, my lifestyle points are low enough to negate my obesity on the BMI scale? Or….are the makers of the quiz assuming that with a BMI of 38, I probably have a totally un-healthy lifestyle?

Or am I reading too much into this and really this is the editors of SELF realizing that while I might be obese I might also have a healthy lifestyle?

I hate the BMI, it’s such bullshit.

oh man...

It’s has been way tooo long. The last week of may and the first two weeks of June are always my most busy time of year, gearing up for all of our summer recreation programs.
So I’m going to do an update of sorts, in list form. I love list updates. Hooray.

1). 5k training. My 5K is next weekend!!!!! Eeeek! I’m so excited and nervous about it!. I’ve been following the Couch 2 5k training plan, and tomorrow will be my final run of week 8. It so happens that my last training workout co-incides with race day.
I injured my back two weeks into training, and it set me back a week. I was hoping to have an extra week before, but that is ok.

About a year ago I posted that one of my fitness goals was to run a mile…I can now proudly say that I can run 2 miles….Seriously, I don’t take the time to think about that often, and I often compare myself to marathoning bloggers, but…I should be proud of myself.

2). My husband and I joined a new gym last weekend. I joined Gold’s Gym almost two years ago when we first moved here, and am ready to let that membership go. We joined Anytime Fitness, a franchise near our house. It’s a small gym, but adequate enough, and it’s not super crowded and for the two of us we are only paying 20 bucks more per month then I paid for JUST ME at Gold’s.

Tied into number two, my husband and I have started working out together. He hasn’t been regularly exercising in along time….it’s so exciting to be getting healthier together. Our goal is to run a 5K together in the fall…I’m hoping that training with him for a 5K will make me a faster runner.

3)I’ve been working on cleaning up my eating. I just tried almond milk in my morning smoothie (green monster style) this morning. HOW COME NO ONE TOLD ME ALMOND MILK MAKES SMOOTHIES THE BEST THING EVER????

Happy New Year!

photo via:veer.com

Isnt' that a delightfully tacky new years crown?

I know it's a little early to talk about the New Year...but I've already been thinking about resolutions....

Is anyone good at keeping their New Year’s Resolutions? I’m not. In fact, I usually forget what they were by um…February. But, I always think about them…what would I like to do better, what would I like to accomplish, etc.

Well this year, I am giving myself 2 New Year’s resolutions.
1) Become as much of a locovore as possible. How do you even spell that word? Localvore? Locavore? Anyway. I would like to buy, eat, recreate, etc as locally as possible. Now, we all know the dilemma about fresh produce in the winter, and let’s face it, while I live in a hugely agricultural valley…we don’t really produce much in the winter. But California does….and hey, that is only two states over…so that is better than Mexico right? Anyway, this resolution also extends to patronizing small local businesses and restaurants, instead of chains. Now…this won’t always be possible, like when my Inlaws want to eat at Red Robin for my father-in-law’s bday. I’ve also been thinking about my gym membership, which has been sorely under utilized since I started doing morning walks with the dog, as well as using the employee workout room, but when my “contract” is up in July, not continuing and joining the small, locally owned gym that is 1 block from my subdivision. Then I could walk there! How much more local can you get? Plus….it’s 13 dollars a month cheaper!
2) The second is to read 3 books per month. This is actually quite easy for me. I am a voracious reader, but I let me self read fluff books. It’s not that I WANT to read text books or anything, but now that I’m out of school…I’ve decided that while I am going to read 3 books a month, 1 of them has to be non fiction.
3) Ok, I lied 3 resolutions. My third resolution is that I am going to make a mini set of resolutions each month. Little things that I want to accomplish or do. I got the idea from Kim over at www.elasticwaist.com and I actually started doing it in October.

I didn’t share about my mini resolutions, because…given my track record with resolutions, I didn’t want to fail miserably semi-publicly, on my blog. I would say that I’ve been about 60% successful with my monthly resolutions. I write them down on little index cards and keep them at my office.

Do you want to know what I’m working on this month? It was sort of a back to basics month for me.
1) read 2 non fiction books (Which is where I got the idea for my 2009 resolution)
2) Drink 2 nalgene bottles of water a day at work.( I was really good about this, but got in the bad habit of not drinking enough H20.)
3) Check blogs/internet at designated times throughout my work day. (for example 8am for 10 mins, 11 am for 10 mins, and 3pm for 10 mins. )
4) Do a lunchtime “sweat break” 4x a week. 2 cardio, 2 toning.

I’m doing really well on 1-3. As far as my “sweat break” I’ve done pretty well. Last week the weather was just too nice to not go outside on my lunch hour, so I took 30 minute walks that week…..

I’m going to wait to reveal my January resolutions till the new year….ooh the suspense...I can’t take it! J Stay warm.

Ogre Yogurt

I’m not sure why I chose that as my title….I was trying to find a play on words, it didn’t work out so well…

So, when I first started this blog, and started reading other healthy lifestyle blogs, it seemed like everyone was posting about greek yogurt. I searched high and low for greek yogurt and couldn’t find it in any of my local mainstream grocery stores. I finally found some at a Co-op, I think it was called “Greek God” I don’t know I posted about it, back in…February? Anyway, but still none to be found in places that I frequented normally. Such is the life when you don’t have a Whole Foods OR a Trader Joes around.
Finally this summer I found Fage. I did a happy dance in the dairy aisle, I could finally discover what everyone was raving about. And it was good..so smooth and creamy. But of course by this time, everyone else had moved on past Fageand were trying out Oikos and Chobani . Well….last week I finally happened upon Oikos! I decided upon the single serving vanilla and bought two.
The verdict? I was sorely disappointed. Maybe I had a bad batch, but the first one I tried had more of a ricotta cheese texture (I’m assuming that this was a result of being in and out of the fridge a few times before I actually ate it) and it also had a weird taste. The vanilla taste was subtle, which I like….but it has this weird fake after taste that I didn’t like. I tried it again yesterday, and while the texture was better….the taste still didn’t do it for me.
Bummer.

I would really love to try Chobani, but at the rate my state is going, it’s going to be another few months before anyone carries it.

To change the topic abruptly, I am heading down to the workout room again today. I know that if I can just stick to a whole week of this, then I will able to make it a habit. It is nice that it’s SO convenient. Now if I could just figure out a way to make my hair look good after a work out with out having to wash and blow dry again……