Tasia's November 2006 Eviction Journal

1 November 2006, Wednesday

I’m making a goal of going to the gym every day they are open that I am in town this month. I think I only went to the gym a few times last month. I still was very physically active in October. I went hiking at the park twice. This was the first time in ages that we had taken the time to do that. Brian and I also had the major moving project. Plus, I had all the physical work I do up in Michigan.

Today was a great start on working out at the gym. I set a new personal length of time record for the Trek Mill. I hiked up hill at 15 to 25% grade for 52 minutes and 49 seconds. I hiked just over 2 miles horizontally and up an amazing .263 miles while burning 381 calories on this machine.

I also saw people I had not seen in a while who I knew. They said they missed me. It is nice to have friendly faces you know at the gym. This really encourages me to keep on working on evicting my alien love child.

3 November 2006, Friday

Today I felt like I have become a wimp. I did thirty minutes on the Trek Mill and then did my upper body workout with dumbbells. The same workout that was easy in September is not anymore! In October all I did was work and go for walks. These are obviously not the same as lifting weights. I am seeing what not working out at the gym has done to me.

Yesterday I took the Pilates class at gym since I, yet again, missed the 3:30 Pilates class at Tuttle. I am not signing up for afternoon classes again. I just don’t make it to them.

4 November 2006, Saturday

They had a health fair at Victory today. One of the booths had a body fat machine and I got a reading. I am cautiously impressed with the results. According to the readout they gave me I am at 35% body fat, which is lower than the last time I had a body fat measurement done. However, I say only cautiously impressed, as I don’t really believe in the skin resistance method of measuring body fat. I think moisture on your skin can change the results. They also said my ideal weight based on the muscle I currently have is about 222. This is crazy in my mind. Either I have so much muscle that I’m going to have to loose some to reach my goal or the calculations are really off.

I redeemed myself in my own eyes today. I did the hill climber for a full hour today. I am not a wimp. I have discovered that the Trek Mill will record hours, as in multiple hours. Some day I could climb all day. Hey, I could do a mile up in one day. Now all I need to be able to be a gym rat. Please, make a donation so I can climb a mile in one day.

Today I did .398 miles up. That means I will probably need to climb for over three hours to do an entire mile up in one day. I was doing up to 25% grade, but mostly 15%. However, I did push the speed up to 2.5 for a good portion of the time. I also tried some new machines for lower body lifting after all the hill climbing.

Donate Top of Page

5 November 2006, Sunday

Last night I had a fantastic time. I went to a Big Scioty Barndance for the first time in months. There were lots of people I knew from the last time I was there. I didn’t get to dance every dance, but I had a really great time. I am going to make it a point to get to more dances.

8 November 2006, Wednesday

I am utterly amazed at what I did on the hill climber today. I decided to try the programmed trail. Since I was feeling like challenging myself I set it for the start of the high program. It started out slow and not very difficult at all. Suddenly the speed increased. I had to hit the slower key a few times to keep it from running away on me. The slope kept changing and the speed varied. After a while the machine slowed to a stop. I had done the first section of this program.

I did not really feel ready to stop so I hit start again and did the next section of the program. Again, it accelerated to a bit too fast for me at times. However, I could always hit the 3.1 speed button and it would limit itself to something I could do at a fast walk. When the second section of the program was done I decided that I wanted to see how much I could do in one day. I started the next section this time limiting the maximum speed to 3.1 miles per hour. I kept doing this all the way to the final section. I did not actually finish the last section of the program as I did not have a water bottle with me and desperately needed a drink of water. I was a bit over ten minutes into the final steep section and I had to stop. When I got back from the drinking fountain the silly machine had reset to the start of the section. I was really tired and did not feel like continuing today. Tomorrow I can do that final section of the high program.

Since I had changed the maximum speed to a lower setting the distance the machine said each section would be was actually less. I also could not actually read what the height I had climbed for each section. I scrolled through the menu for the high program and wrote down the information it would give me at the start of the program.

Hey, I did this for nearly two hours! I have no idea how high I climbed today, but I climbed a lot. At times I was doing a 50% grade. For brief portions I was running at the start of some of the sections. I would change it back to 3.1 when it started to go faster than I was feeling like attempting. Just because I like this treadmill does not mean I want to risk falling on the treadmill.

Donate Top of Page

9 November 2006, Thursday

I did the top section of the high program on the Trek Mill today. It was not easy even when it was the only section I did. In 27 minutes I did 1.454 miles horizontally and about .15 miles up. I said about as the program does not give you a vertical distance at the end of the section. This is a little frustrating.

9 November 2006, Thursday pm

Today was quite a day. In addition to going to Victory this morning I have been to Riverside Hospital to donate blood. Brian and I have been getting calls from the vampires of the Red Cross, as the blood supply is low. Since the major moving project is done with when they called yesterday I said we would donate. To keep up my goal of going to the gym every day they are open in November, I went to the gym in the morning, as exercising after donating blood is not recommended. I remember when I was in college and I donated blood with a friend and then we went and played racquetball. I am not that young or crazy any more.

Next, Brian and I hunted down all of the overdue library books we had around the house. In the future, when I have clients out of town I plan on taking all the library books I have checked out back before I leave, except for the ones I take with me.

I went to clay class this evening and finished glazing Polgara’s memorial bowl. I had asked the instructor if I could come in on the Thursday class on Tuesday. I had nearly finished glazing and it was time for the center to close. This way I was able to actually finish my project before the session ends this Saturday.

After I returned home from clay I put up artwork over my sewing desk. It is not really all hung as some of it is just taped up with blue painter’s tape. However, I took a picture of where I want the various pieces hung and will be able to make frames and hang them in the next few weeks.

This is a project that I have wanted to do for a long time. Today I finally decided to just hang what I could and figure out where I wanted to hang the others. I have been so focused on my client’s projects that I have let my projects just get pushed aside. I am going to work on finishing off project for myself this winter.

10 November 2006, Friday

Well I know one thing I learned new today. I learned that the gym closes at 8pm on Friday. I thought it was open until 10 so I was not in a great hurry to get to the gym. When I walked in this evening I discovered the gym was going to close in just minutes. Yikes! I jumped on a recumbent bike and started a twelve-minute bike program. Luckily, the employee let me finish the last thirty-seconds of my ride, even though the gym was technically closed. I squeaked in a short workout and managed to keep my attendance goal going.

Donate Top of Page

11 November 2006, Saturday

I have been working on a project for the Evict My Alien Love Child Project. I have designed a stencil so I can paint a shirt to wear while working out. After Pilates this morning I came back home and finished cutting out the stencil. This way I can make several shirts since working out tends to make my clothing rather sweaty. The first one I am going to paint will be long sleeve as it is kind of cold right now. Plus, I like to wear long sleeve shirts to the gym.

13 November 2006, Monday

My first side of my first eviction shirt is done. It is not perfect – I guess the alien is trying it’s best to keep hanging in there. I’m putting it on and going to the gym.

13 November 2006, Monday pm

My shirt was great. I definitely want to do the stencil on the backside. However, I don’t think I’ll put the “Help Me” at the top of it. Every time I looked in the mirror at the gym as I was working out I had the reminder of what I am trying to achieve at the gym. I also had a lady tell me that I was inspirational on the Vertical Crunch machine. I do the machines slowly and deliberately. Controlled movement through the full range of motion achieves the most benefit from the exercises.

On the Vertical Crunch machine I can just barely do a full ten in a set. This is also only if I have the machine adjusted as short as possible and stand on my toes. This machine is not made for short people. After ten I climb off the machine and do my second set of five standing squats. Then I climb back on and push myself through another set. Back off for the final set of squats. I made it through all three sets of ten V Crunches today. To celebrate I plopped down on the Abdominal Bench and did 100 slow crunches in each of three positions because I really want to evict this alien love child.

Donate Top of Page

16 November 2006, Thursday

Today I reached the point of frustration with Brian. I had asked him, months ago, to move the grinder out of the front room. He brought it home from his parent’s house when they moved months ago. I have asked him several times and he still has not moved it. Today, I decided that he was not going to do it so I would.

Unfortunately, while moving it I had a cramp or something in my back. I had to set the heavy thing down on the couch and desperately try to stretch my back out. I did find a position that did not hurt. While I was face down on the floor attempting to stretch out my lower back Brian took the grinder the rest of the way out to the garage.

After a while I was able to get up. My back really hurts. However, I have things I want to do that I am going to get done.

17 November 2006, Friday

Yesterday I did manage to get the front room partially redone. I have moved the table by the front door that just seems to always be piled with junk. Now it is nicely placed between the love seat and the chair Brian’s parents gave us. We actually can use this nice furniture as furniture instead of a dumping location.

I did make it to the gym yesterday and actually worked out. I was not certain that I was going to be able to do that. Luckily the gym has a nice warm pool and I did water aerobics for an hour and a half on my own. Then I dashed downstairs and took the Pilates class. There were quite a few moves that I normally love that were impossible due to pain. I did find one move that really felt good on my back and whenever the class was doing something that would hurt I just modified it or substituted a move that did not hurt.

After Pilates I went back to the whirlpool and sauna to make certain my back was completely heated up and relaxed before I went home.

Today my back is not in total agony. It still hurts, however, I was able to ride the bike at the gym for twenty-four minutes. I am going through my jar of Icy Hot on a pretty steady basis.

18 November 2006, Saturday

This morning I have been to the gym. I have now been to the gym and worked out for six days in a row two weeks in a row. This is definitely a record for me. Today, I did the Saturday water aerobics class and discovered that the swimsuit I wore is too small. This suit will definitely be going back in the smaller bag. I need to find a suit that fits my current size. My old one falls off me and this one climbs me to give a wedge of death.

The other big thing in my life right now is that the hailstorm attacked our house. We did not realize it until we had five inches of rain at the beginning of this month. We have had insurance adjusters here and will be waiting to see the results of filing a claim.

Donate Top of Page

18 November 2006, Saturday pm

Well the “Big Game” was today. I’m talking about the insanity known as OSU vs. Michigan. I volunteer to park cars for Tuttle Park, where I take ceramics classes, at OSU home games. I have parked cars at most of the games. This time it was a zoo. We did not sell out the lot because there were so many inebriated people blocking the streets. Plus, the radio was saying there was no parking near the stadium, thus people were not looking in our area any more.

It was a fun time hanging out at the parking lot gate. I did not get to see the game, but I could hear the crowd and knew when plays were made. The crowd was really nice, although a lot of people were rather wobbly. The few Michigan fans I saw were having just as much fun as the mob of OSU fans.

I think that our park was one of the few places that was not trashed by littering. I know that I kept reminding people to put the trash in the bag, not next to it. I did this by asking people if they were a nice person or a very nice person. If they said they were a nice person I said that means they would put their cup, or whatever they were holding, in one of the trash bags I pointed out t them. We had these tied up all over the entrance area of the park. If they said they were a very nice person I asked them to please pick up some of the trash that others had not put in the trash bags. I also restocked trash bags and picked up trash as needed. When I was relieved the park looked good as Joe had come back early and wandered the park picking up trash. When Brian showed up to walked me home I was so ready to go home. My back was not happy with my having been outside for hours in the wind.

On the walk home Brian and I found a man passed out on the side of the bike path. He was lying in the mud and did not wake up. Neither one of us had a cell phone on us. I knew that Joe, back at the parking lot, didn’t have one either. Thus, we headed up to the park building and reported finding him. By the time the squad arrived the man must have woken up and wandered off because we could not find him. It was cold and dark when we finally walked home.

21 November 2006, Tuesday

I have been up for over half an hour! This is a major accomplishment versus yesterday. I had been doing great on my goal of going to the gym every day they are open and I am in town in November until yesterday. Brian says I was not in town – I was in the Land of Nod. I literally woke up three times because I needed to go to the bathroom and decided I was hungry. I dragged myself down to the kitchen, ate a small amount of food and was back in bed and unconscious in less than half an hour each time.

For a dead person I did a pretty good job of eating nutritiously. The first time I microwaved the stuffed green pepper I had thawed in the refrigerator. The second time I zapped some wonderful rice with pistachios, almonds, dried cherries and apricots that were left over from Red Dragon. I think I had milk the third time I was up, I’m not certain, as I was not completely conscious.

I am going to get some work done and then, provided I stay conscious, I will head out to the gym. I am feeling a lot better today. I really think that getting my back so cold on Saturday is what caused me to miss most of the last two days. I also have my first day of the new session of ceramics tonight. I am hoping that my memorial bowls were fired so I can bring them home.

Donate Top of Page

21 November 2006, Tuesday pm

Today will be the second day in November that I do not make it to the gym. I have been working on updating this website and lost all track of time. I can either go to my ceramics class or go to the gym. Since ceramics is only once a week I’m going to class.

Gadget voluntarily went to bed tonight. Normally, she has to be found at bedtime. Tonight she was doing the “Is it bedtime yet?” dance at the top of the stairs with Gizmo. I decided to calmly walk down to their cage and see if she went in. If, and only if, she went in I was going to feed the cats and put them to bed. Needless to say, Gadget jumped right in. This is the second time she has done this. However, the last time was over a month ago. Hopefully the next time will be sooner.

23 November 2006, Thursday – Thanksgiving Morning

I woke up at 5:55 feeling perky. My first thought was the gym will open in five minutes. My next thought was stupid holiday! The gym is closed today. My third thought was, this is a journal entry. I pulled out my laptop and started writing before I even got out of bed this morning.

The gym being closed is so not fair. The first day that I really wake up feeling well with my back not hurting and I am denied my favorite hill climbing machine. I guess I’ll have to think of some nice fun exercise I can do in the cold. However, I don’t want to get my back cold. Hmm…

I’m hungry right now. I think I will start turkey day with the last of my current breakfast custard. Then I’ll see what physical things we need to do in the house. I think it is way too cold outside for an early morning walk unless I pull out some seriously more winter type clothing.

24 November 2006, Friday

Thanksgiving was very enjoyable at Brian’s parents’ house. I really like not having to host this holiday. It is so wonderful to get to be guests. I also like that his parents live close enough for us to drive up in the afternoon and get back home the same evening.

I had a specific plan for Thanksgiving with both food and exercise in mind. I did eat a bit more than usual. However, this is due to the wonderful cooking of Brian’s mom. I also did not stuff myself. I stuck to my plan of stopping as soon as the next bite did not taste as wonderful as the last bite. I did eat things I don’t normally eat, but this is a holiday. My exercise plans called for going for a walk after the big dinner. Brian and I both went for the walk. While his uncle, sister and parents watched football, Brian and I took a mini walking tour of the neighborhood they moved to this summer. Actually, we only walked up and down the street they live on, which is why I call it a mini tour.

Today I had planned on going to the Columbus Aquatics Center and going swimming. This did not happen as I overslept. Instead I went to Victory this evening and did water aerobics on my own. There was no class due to the holiday. I stayed in the pool working out until an employee came and said I had to get out as they were closing in fifteen minutes. It was fun doing my own thing. I don’t know if the workout was as intense as the class as I tended to do the moves I like more than the ones I don’t find as fun.

I scheduled a session with one of the trainers to change my workout as I am not really seeing all that much weight loss lately. I am smaller. I pulled a bunch of winter clothing out that I could not wear last winter and it fits me! However, the scale is not my friend. I have been avoiding it a lot. Now that I am thinking about it I am starting my monthly cycle and, of course, I am bloating with water weight.

Donate Top of Page

25 November 2006, Saturday

Ok, I have a new program for the gym. I talked with Sara and she has completely changed my workout. I am focusing a lot more on cardio. I am also to work on doing it like interval training. I’m to warm up and then push my heart rate up and then let it back down, repeatedly.

Monday Sara will have my new weight lifting program all figured out. This way she has plenty of time to think about what she wants me to do to achieve my goals of loosing lots of weight while increasing upper body strength.

Like always, my new program starts with weight and measuring me. Yep, I’m getting weighted and measured at Victory when I’m feeling like a blimp. This will lead to false cheering about weight loss when next I get weighed at Victory unless I wait until my next period.

For this first workout I tried the elliptical machine again. I hated it the first time I tried it months ago. Now, I’m not sure, however, it is doable. I think it helped that this time I actually had a trainer show me how to use the machine. Before when I had tried it briefly I had just climbed on and started pushing buttons. Sara is having me start with the manual setting and working up to doing it for an hour. Today I only did thirty minutes on it. But hey, this is so much more than I did when I first tried it.

Part of the reason I only did thirty minutes on the elliptical trainer is that I wanted to go to the water aerobics class at 10 and then the Pilates class at 11. Jenny was teaching aqua aerobics and she is my favorite instructor. After the class was over I dashed off to the basement and did the Pilates class, in my wet bathing suit, on my damp towel. I think I had better time things and not do this so wet again. It would be much nicer to be a little late to the Pilates class and be changed into dry clothing. Besides, I almost never wear shorts at the gym due to all the fans making me too cold. Pilates in a swimsuit was not a warm decision.

27 November 2006, Monday

Ok, I’ve done the elliptical trainer as long as I could. I lasted forty minutes this morning. That warmed me up really well and I was ready for my new weight lifting program.

Today was lower body and core. The technique Sara is having me lift is very different from what I have done before. She had me lifting as a countdown. I did ten reps on a machine. Then I took a ten second break. The next set was nine reps followed by a nine second break. This continued on down to a two second break before the last single lift. I did this countdown on the inner thigh, outer thigh and the leg press. However, before and after the leg press she inflicted steps on me.

I hate step aerobics. Sara is only having me climb up and down on the step. I climb up and down leading with the same leg fifteen times on each side. I don’t have to do any silly class. The bad thing with it is that the step is in front of a mirror. I’m concentrating on looking my self in the eye and not seeing the alien. Mirrors are why I highly prefer aqua aerobics. You can’t see your flab underwater.

The first part of the core weight lifting was on a grown up sit and spin machine, at least that is what I think of it as. I have used this machine before, but I don’t think I was lifting this much weight. Crunches on the abdominal bench finished off the weightlifting. However, I had not put in a full hour of cardio… so I ended the workout with a good thirty-two minutes on the treadmill. Unfortunately the hill climber was in use, so I had to use a flatter one. I used the hill setting that Sara recommended instead of the fat burning setting. This way I was able to get my heart rate up and back down several times during the workout.

Donate Top of Page

28 November 2006, Tuesday

I can’t believe that I have not recorded my weight. This is not to say that I have not stepped on the scale. Just to say that I keep forgetting what it said when I am out of the bathroom. I guess I shall take this as a positive sign that I am not dwelling on my weight. I think my weight most recently was somewhere about 272 while in the throws of major PMS and bloating. Hey, this is not bad. Even at my most bloated time of the month I am a good twenty pounds lighter than I was when I started this project. Die, alien love child, die!

Tonight I’m off to the gym to work on evicting the alien and get the second half of my new weight lifting program.

29 November 2006, Wednesday

This morning I pulled a tasty treat out of the freezer for breakfast. I had rice with almonds, pistachios, dried apricots and dried cherries. This is actually more of the left overs from Red Dragon back on September 30th. Since I was on the clean up crew I took some of the vast quantities of left over rice home. Warmed up in the microwave it is just as wonderful as when the head cook first made it. That, plus a grapefruit, fueled me up and I’m ready for a great day.

Oh, for those who want to know what the second half of my new weight lifting program is I did upper body. I’m back to using machines instead of dumbbells. I’m using some of the machines I first used at Victory and some down in the basement. Before I did all that, however, I stared with playing on my favorite machine, the Hill Trek.

I took Sara’s advice to heart and worked this hill climber like an interval training tool. I would increase the slope to make it harder or increase my speed up the slope I was doing. To recover my heart rate all I had to do was either hit the 1.9 mpr button or lower the grade. Toward the end of my half-hour on this I was doing both to recover. I was utterly dripping with sweat when I climbed off it.

Since I only survived half an hour on the hill climber and there was a water aerobics class currently started I dashed off to the pool. I only caught the last thirty-five minutes of the class, but I pushed myself in it.

29 November 2006, Wednesday pm

Yet again, forty minutes seems to be the maximum I can do on the elliptical machine. I was soaked with sweat and feeling wiped out when I started my lower body and core workout for the second time. It was harder keeping track of the countdown sets by myself than when I had the trainer counting. Not that I have not had trouble with counting previously. Nope, I have a definite history of not being about to count to five at times.

After completing my workout I noticed the time was just perfect for going to Jenny’s aqua aerobics class before I needed to be at my Raku class at Tuttle. It was a bit of a tight rush time wise. I didn’t have time to really shower off after the pool. Luckily I had a swim cap on and did not actually have clorine in my hair. However, it was still on my skin. I don’t think I will attempt to do this class before Raku again. I can do water aerobics twice a week and not have to attempt to rush from the gym to Tuttle.

Oh, and Allstate has approved our hailstorm claim. The great contractor quest begins. We need to find who we want to hire to repair our home.

Section	Time	Max Grade	Max Speed	My Max Speed	Distance per program
1	14:00	40%	5.0	3.1	.734
2	15:00	43%	5.0	3.1	.823
3	15:00	50%	5.0	3.1	.823
4	27:00	20%	5.0	3.1	1.707
5	27:00	25%	5.0	3.1	1.536
6	27:00	25%	4.0	3.1	1.454