Tasia's December 2006 Eviction Journal

4 December 2006, Monday

This past weekend I have been at a contra dance weekend here in town called Winter Warm Up. Winter Warm Up was fantastic! I danced for hours and hours with lots of people doing dances I have never done before. The callers were great. The bands were great. The sheer number of dancers all dancing at once was utter magic. For some of the dance we had five lines of dances going at once filling a gymnasium. Some of the dances had the different lines interacting with each other. This was incredibly fun.

I also took some classes this weekend. One was on calling dances. I did not realize how much work goes into calling a dance. Some day I could be the person directing all those dancers. The other real nifty class I took was a writing workshop. The group that took the class actually wrote a new contra dance! I am really looking forward to seeing this danced at a future contra dance. I should be getting a copy of the completed dance in e-mail. I think they used the name for the dance I suggested, Butterfly Swarm.

I was able to attend this dance weekend due to getting a scholarship. I worked part of the weekend. This meant I did not get to dance all the time, but I had fun working registration and the café. I also only paid half the pre-registration price for the weekend, which was much more within my budget.

I grabbed fliers from other dances and am hoping to get to attend other full weekend dances. There is one, the Ann Arbor Dawn Dance Weekend March 2-4, that list on the flyer “Free admission is available in exchange for part-time work during the weekend – inquire early!” Needless to say, I called and left a message so I can sign up to work and go to the dance.

5 December 2006, Tuesday

Well, I made it back to the gym for the first time since November. There was no sense in attempting to go the weekend of the contra dance. I was moving and exercising and sweating like crazy at the dance. Monday I needed the day for my body to rest since I have been dancing from Friday evening through 3 in the afternoon on Sunday. Now, I did not dance every hour of every day, but I did at least two solid hours of dancing at a time multiple times throughout the weekend. I even learned some new waltz steps.

At the gym today I did something I have not done ever at the gym. I RAN! I set the hill climbing machine for the second part of the highest program and did not limit the maximum speed. This was an incredibly challenging fifteen minutes. I had to slow the speed at times as it wanted to do five miles an hour and I was not ready for that fast. However, I did run, and more than once during that fifteen minutes. I was well warmed up and my upper body weight lifting went well.

I had timed things perfectly so I finished my weight lifting in time to change and attend the aqua aerobics class at 6. I really pushed myself in the pool. I was moving in the water faster than I ever have before. I did power jumping jacks. Heck, I was keeping up with the instructor! I was really glad I had already done my upper body weight lifting as there was no way I could have done it after that intense class. The butterflies Jenny has us do are always a challenge. Plus, we did water weights at the end of the class. My arms felt like noodles.

7 December 2006, Thursday

There are just some days when I want to wave a magic wand or climb into a technological wonder and be instantly at my goal. I know this is not going to happen, but today I oh, so dearly, wanted it to be. My alien seems to be aggravating me more than usual today.

I think that the motivation of wanting this alien gone helped me push myself on the elliptical machine. I did the maximum time it would let me set it for: sixty-one minutes! I also did this on the hill climbing setting. I pushed my self on the more difficult periods and slowed down and drank water on the easy potions. It was a lot easier to keep track of the cycles with the hill climber setting than the manual setting.

My lower body weight lifting went great. I think I might want to increase the weights on at least some of these. I put all the lifts they had upstairs under the step. It was hard, but I could do it and I did.

8 December 2006, Friday

My time at the gym started pretty impressively. I did the first section of the highest program on the Trek Mill. I did not slow it down at all. Heck, at points I actually increased the speed. Ok, those were spots when it was going excessively slow. However, I ran at five miles an hour! I had done 6.19 miles on the elliptical machine yesterday in 61 minutes. This means that I was actually going faster on the elliptical that I was on the hill climber. However, the elliptical machine does not give you the full impact of your weight when you are running. I really felt it a lot harder on my knees, ankles, hips and my back. This might also have been due to the fact that this program had several sections of downhill. With all the down I did it was only .033 miles up at the end of the program, while it was .823 miles forward. I have not really done much downhill and that is a very different walking motion than hiking uphill. I had fifteen minutes in on cardio at this point and planned on doing forty-five more minutes after I did my weight lifting.

I am definitely not ready to increase the weights on much of my upper body workout. On the butterfly machine I could just barely finish my third set of ten at thirty pounds. I had to readjust the machines downstairs as the attachments were not what I needed on them. I actually did the first set of the triceps extensions with the lower attachment instead of the upper attachment. When I went to do biceps curls I realized that apparently somehow the entire machine had been turned around. My second set of triceps extensions felt correct. Last time I had done upper body I had been running out of time and had skipped these two so this was actually the second time of doing these exercise on these machines. I forgave myself for not knowing how to set the machine up correctly.

I still needed to get in another forty-five minutes of cardio activity. There was a class going on downstairs just a few feet from where I had finished lifting weights so I joined in. This was dance class in front of all those oh, so hated mirrors. The class was interesting, but I just did not like how I looked in the mirror. I bugged out after ten minutes, maybe less.

Back upstairs I wanted to get some more cardio in. I climbed on the elliptical trainer and set the time for thirty-one minutes as the gym would close then. I started going strong. I did the warm up and could see the hills coming. I thought something was wrong with the machine, the hills appeared to be multiple minutes long or maybe not hills. I stopped the machine and started over setting the machine up for thirty minutes of hills. I did the warm up section again and again the hills appeared to be of longer time length than when it was set for sixty-one minutes. I stopped it again. The third time I started it up I paid attention to how long it was between lines as the course advance. When I did the sixty-one minute hills it took twenty seconds to move to the next line on the program, this time it was changing every ten seconds. I decided that I really did not want to do this machine any more and stopped it for the third time.

OK, so I really did not want to do the elliptical machine today. I decided to climb on an upright bike. The one I got on had a fitness test and heart rate monitor. I set it for a level one fitness test. This took only five minutes, but it was actually hard. I have only used the recumbent bikes at the gym. I did keep it at 80 revolutions per minutes most of the time. However, when the five minutes were up my heart was pounding at 150 beats per minute. According to the chart on the machine I’m not actually fit. Feeling rather glum I decided to head home, besides they were going to close in just a few minutes.

9 December 2006, Saturday

Tonight was a perfect journal worthy moment. At dinner I asked for a second salad and Brian said, “No, you have to eat your meat first. At least you have to eat some meat.” I am so much the opposite of the classic child. I love vegetables and right now I am seriously in veggie mode. If I don’t pay attention to what I am eating I will totally skip protein.

This morning I finished off my chicken from last night’s dinner with some yogurt for breakfast. Hey, I did finish my chicken. Ok, it took two meals for me to eat one small chicken breast. I had the last of a can of mandarin oranges for a snack. I think the can was opened about two weeks ago, the last time Brian made me a salad. I keep forgetting I have nifty things to add to my salads.

Brian finally pushed lunch down my throat around two in the afternoon. I say pushed, as he had to remind me several times to eat the food. When I am writing I get rather focused and since I rarely get hungry I forget to eat. Today was a perfect example of how this happens. Brian knew I had not even thought of lunch and made sure I actually stopped writing long enough to eat. Lunch was two pieces of the breakfast square I made earlier this week. The batch had six servings with only five eggs in it plus three ounces of cream cheese and asparagus. Not all that much protein.

I forgot to eat an afternoon snack. With eating lunch so late I did not even think of it. I got back to writing and did not make it to ceramics until an hour and a half after it started. I did not grab a piece of fruit like I should have. Nope, I just went off to ceramics and then on to the gym. I finally came home because they made me leave as the gym was closing. This is the second night in a row I have been there until they kicked me out. I did call home before I left the gym as Brian had told me to let him know and he would start dinner. When I got home he ended up telling me to come to dinner multiple times, because I was lured back into writing.

If Brian had not kept track of what I was, or in this case was not, eating I would not have eaten much today. I’m really falling into my bad habit of under eating again. It is a darn good thing that I like leftovers. I seem to have tons of them, as I often don’t finish off normal serving sizes.

13 December 2006, Wednesday

For the last two days I had whatever Brian had last week. I took an aspirin and went back to bed. I really needed the extra sleep. I am feeling much better.

This evening I will be leaving for Michigan. In the mean time, I have been living on the phone with various contractors. The October 4th hailstorm severely damaged our house and our fantastic insurance company, Allstate, has approved our claim! Allstate is having us completely replace the entire roof on the house and the garage. This means I have been spending a lot of time for the past several weeks getting quotes scheduled with roofers and plaster workers. The water damage was so bad that the ceilings in the bedrooms upstairs have to be replaces as well as the roof. In the garage you can see daylight and poke fingers through the roof.

14 December 2006, Thursday

Today I am doing exceptionally well. I feel great and I have been working outside for hours and hours. I am really seeing that the weight lifting I have done at the gym has made a difference. On my last trip up here I was moving a wheelbarrow with 30 full shovels of gravel as my maximum load. Today, the thirty-shovel load felt like I could have done more. Tomorrow I think I will try a thirty-five full shovel load.

Also, I have been running up and down stairs with utterly no effort. I guess the elliptical machine has made a difference. I am just really feeling very physically fit.

I also have been great about food today. Since I knew I was traveling out of town I precooked food for this trip. I made a batch of Florentine breakfast squares dived into two pans. One set of four squares I took with me. The other is in my refrigerator at home. This was my breakfast today and will be for the next three days. A full serving of the square and two clementines made a breakfast that lasted from 7:15 this morning until I desperately had to eat at lunch at 12:30. This is hours longer than I have been lasting between meals.

For lunch I had microwaved stuffed heads, aka green peppers filled with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and tomato sauce with ground beef. A nice yogurt cup completed lunch. I have enough heads and yogurt for the next two days. For an afternoon snack I had a small microwave popcorn bag and the last clementine.

My dinner will be a wonderful piece of salmon with milk, a touch of butter and herbs along with baked cauliflower with garlic and capers and a home mixed salad. The salad has spinach, romaine, pine nuts, tomatoes, and dried cranberries and Newman’s Raspberry & Walnut dressing. I have enough supplies to have this dinner again on Saturday. Friday night I am going out to dinner and on Sunday I will be heading home a bit after noon. Thus, I can have lunch on the road and be home in time for dinner with Brian.

I really think I need to start preplanning my meals at home. I am eating much more delicious and nutritious meals on this trip than I usually do at home. Since I love leftovers so much, I think I will just start making sure I have tons of them at home and will be able to put together a good meal quickly. The only problem I will still have is remembering to eat, but then again that is what I have my wonderful Brian for. Plus, he cooks all the pre-made meals. I didn’t really cook all the stuff I brought. Brian helped me, a lot, especially with pulling things out of the oven before they became crispy critters, or charcoal. My cooking can best be described as: "I treat my guests like Gods, they get burnt offerings."

18 December 2006, Monday

Originally I was weighing myself on Fridays. Now I’m doing it when I think about doing it. This morning I was home from working in Michigan and thought of weighing myself before I got dressed. I stepped on the scale and let out a scream. Brian came running to see what was wrong. I pointed to the digital readout. I have finally achieved my next goal of 265. Heck, I am below it. I am at a new all time low in years, 263.0. Since January 21st when I began the Evict My Alien Love Child project I have lost almost thirty pounds! This is while I am at the PMS stage. I am definitely bloated and yet I am lighter than I have been in years.

I went to get dressed and pulled out an outfit I had purchased in October. The pair of jeans I had been so delighted that fit are now big on me. I was exuberantly giddy and danced about the bedroom giggling with glee. This has been an amazingly fantastic morning.

Brian took this photo of Gadget playing Ms. Innocent while I was in Michigan.

20 December 2006, Wednesday

Brian and I are heading out the door to hike the two miles plus to the car repair shop. My truck ate its alternator and battery yesterday afternoon. I am so glad I have AAA as the tow truck came to the bank where it died and took us all off to the repair shop. The delightful shop manager gave Brian, myself, and our client’s order of 260 books home. Our client picked up the books at 4:30 that afternoon. Now it is time to fetch our vehicle home. We could take the bus, however, it is delightfully sunny out and we have decided to take a nice long walk, with a stop at the library on the way.

My truck dying had cancelled my gym time for yesterday. I didn’t have it to get there and I didn’t want to take the city bus. If I went to the gym in the evening I would want to stay until the gym closed, by which time the busses would only be running every half an hour. Standing out at a bus stop after dark in the winter is not an ideal post workout activity. Nope, I had to make do with working out at home. I danced around the house and did some internet exercise research. I joined the Biggest Losers Club online yesterday as I am hoping that speeds up my weight loss. The exercise looks really doable. However, so far the meal plans are another matter. I have not been able to follow them as given. They want me to eat wheat, which I am allergic to. I’ve sent a message to their help and nutrition people and am eagerly awaiting a reply. This is day two on this program and I cannot do the food program that is suggested. I cannot eat rolls, cereal, bread or any other wheat. I’m looking at the food plan and seeing what I can do on it and making swaps all over the place. I am hoping to hear from someone on this site soon.

21 December 2006, Thursday

I’m sore and I ache. Today, Brian and I moved one of my client’s offices from her basement to a second story bedroom. She had two very full, heavy four-drawer filing cabinets and several bookshelves, which needed to be emptied and lugged up. Brian did most of the heavy lifting as there was not room to use the furniture dolly and he was the only one with long enough arms to carry the filing cabinet drawers. I used a plastic bin to lug load after load of books and binders. Each filing cabinet with no drawers in it took both Brian and me to carry up the two flights of stairs.

Even with all the exercise I did this morning I am seriously thinking about going to the gym this evening. My truck is back, so there are no bus issues. I did a heavy lifting workout for two hours moving her office, but I could just do aerobic. I could go play on the elliptical machine and do the suggested workout from the Biggest Loser Club. Plus, there are two water aerobic classes I could take.

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21 December 2006, Thursday pm

What delusional planet do I come from?

A little after six I was down in Brian’s office and said to him, “What time is it? I never got my nap that I was going to take at 3. If I hurry up and get dressed I could make the 6:30 water aerobics class.” Brian pointed out that I said all of this right after stifling a huge yawn. Yes, I really said this. I am still tired, sore and my back aches from moving furniture up two flights of stairs. I am not going to the gym today.

Once I accepted reality I went back upstairs. I put out some Cat-Sip for the kittens in Polgara’s memorial bowl. This is the first time my kittens have been able to use both of these memorial bowls as I brought home the bowls today. I grabbed my camera and shot a few pictures before they finished off their first taste of this cat treat. They obviously like it. Even in a small dish Gadget is not letting her brother keep her pushed out of the dish. They were licking as fast as they could.

The pants I am wearing today are an absolute sign that I am shrinking. My father bought these for me for my birthday in August. They fit very nicely then. At my client’s this morning I had to get safety pins to make them safe for all of that furniture moving. Today, after removing the safety pins I can slide them off my hips without undoing the zipper! I don’t care that the scale says I have only lost five to eight pounds since I got these. I am definitely shrinking. Besides, muscle weighs more than fat. I moved those filing cabinets with Brian without trouble yesterday morning. I’m definitely stronger.

22 December 2006, Friday

Well I did not make it to the gym again today. However, I did the Biggest Loser workout at home!

I used my stairs as a stair-climbing machine and I marched in place. These both worked for the cardio portion of the workout. To make it more intense I either ran up and down the stairs or I lifted my knees as I high as I could each step or while marching. This way I was able to do interval training at home.

The strength workout was all things I could easily do at home since I have a set of free weights. Well, not all of the exercises were actually easy. The push-ups I had problems with. If I did them with my knees on the floor my alien flopped into the floor completely each time I went down. On my toes I am not strong enough to do more than just a few push ups, while yet again my alien flopped onto the floor when I was down. The squats, bicep curls, shoulder presses, both kinds of lunges, dumbbell rows and the crunches were all very easy. However, the chair dips were another place where I can definitely see I need more upper body strength.

The food side of this program is strange. I am eating more grains than I normally do. Heck, I feel like I am having grains at nearly every meal. Plus, they want me to eat more grains than I actually want to at each meal. Only the snacks are grain free. However, I am giving this plan a serious try and following it with only changing the wheat items for things I am not allergic to. I figured out how to swap items on the food plan and have tweaked things to stuff I can actually eat.

23 December 2006, Saturday

I’ve done the Biggest Loser workout at the gym. It really did not feel as intense as what I have been doing on my own. I also did nowhere near as much distance on the elliptical machine. Yet, I did run on the machine for much longer time periods. I also did longer slower portions as well. However, I am following the workout as structured and will be following this plan for a full week before I decide if it is for me or not.

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26 December 2006, Tuesday

I am so proud of myself. I woke up early Christmas morning and instead of rattling around in Brian’s parents’ house I went for a walk. I hiked all around the town. Since they moved to town, which has streetlights, I can go hiking before the sun is up. First I went all the way to the town square and back by another route. Then, since it was only about six fifteen, I went for another walk out to the city limits and then to the high school. When I got back the second time people were up and I didn’t feel like I would rouse the whole house by being so awake and perky.

In the afternoon Brian and I drove his Uncle Dave home. I had planned on doing puzzles with his sister and going for a walk with her, but his uncle really wanted to go home. As one of the few people who drive and also was not cooking I was volunteered by Brian for the four-hour trip. We got back to his parents an hour before Christmas dinner.

29 December 2006, Friday

OK, I have given the Biggest Loser program an honest try for a full week. I have followed the exercise plan. I have done my best to follow the food plan with many substitutions due to needing to be gluten free. Christmas dinner was an exception, but it was one meal.

I weighed myself as the program was prompting me to do this today. I stepped on the scale and was welcomed to the land of weight induced depression. I normally do not weigh myself when I am on my period. I really wish I had skipped weighing in. However, I was following the program and it is Friday. I stepped on the scale. Shock! Horror! 274!

I have never, ever gained eleven pounds in one week. Now, on previous periods I have swelled up with up to eight pounds of water weight gain, which left the next week. However, this is beyond water weight gain. I do not think this program is working for me what so ever.

Instead of being a Biggest Loser program it is feeling like a Biggest Gainer program for me. One week into this program and I am up eleven pounds. Not down anything, not the same weight, but up over ten pounds in one week. I have never gained weight like this before. Not even when I was taking those evil little pills. They only had me gain a pound a day, not eleven in one week. Just before joining this club I had hit a new low weight. Now I’m back up above my weight in August.

The exercise program was different, but I don’t feel that it burned as many calories as the program I had put together for myself and was doing before. I posted a question on my second day on the nutrition board, which still has not gotten any expert answer. I am doing my best to substitute gluten free item from their list. I am not feeling like this program is working at all for me.

I attempted to call in and cancel my membership for the second time today. I had decided to cancel because the workout was not feeling as intense as what I had been doing on my own. On my first attempt to cancel I called just after they closed. Today I did not succeed again even though I called when they should have been open. I have to wait until the office is open again in January to be able to actually quit as they are closed for the holidays.

Really thinking about it I should have realized that this program was not going to work for me. It is based highly on grains, which I do best when I eat very little of. I am going to go back to what I have been doing and again succeed in losing weight. I just wish I had not attempted this program and taken a five month step backward in my weight loss. Yes, it would be nice to lose the weight faster. However, slow and steady has been my successful method for evicting my alien love child.

Now that I think about it I think the alien was watching the Biggest Loser TV show with me and hatched this plan to save itself. Nope, I’m not going to let the alien live. Die you rotten alien, die. I will evict you. I will!

30 December 2006, Saturday

Until I am back down to where I was before the alien tricked me into a different program I am going to weigh myself every morning. This way I will keep track of how long it takes me to get back to 263.

This morning was a nice beginning. I’m at 271.5 pounds. This is three and a half pounds down from yesterday. My period has not actually ended. I am still bloated. I can see the bloat in my face in the mirror.

Yet, I am down a significant part of the weight I gained on the Biggest Losers plan. I ditched some of the pounds that plan put on me by reverting to what has worked for me all of this past year. I ate what I wanted to eat, did not push myself to eat as much in one meal as that plan said to and enjoyed real food like cream yesterday. I am shocked that I could zap so much of the upswing of weight just by going back to doing things my way.

Hey, I forgot to mention that I am getting a scholarship to the Ann Arbor Dawn Dance Weekend. This means I definitely get to attend and will be working in the kitchen part of the weekend. The rest of the time I shall be out on the dance floor dancing off my alien.

31 December 2006, Sunday

This morning I’m down another of those gained pounds. 270.5 pounds is not quite to my goal that was reached in August, but I think I’ll be below it for the start of 2007.