I gain .00001 pound every few minutes

My dad once sent me a scientific study that proved it was possible to gain weight without eating anything. (And he wasn't reading the National Enquirer, either.) Apparently, merely smelling something delectable -- baked goods, cheese, even a fragrance as mild as jelly beans -- triggered a physical response in the body, and the chemicals it produced added a fraction of a pound each time these pleasure centers were activated. I filed this information in my "Why the Universe is Unfair" folder, but I thought of it again this morning while I was getting a coffee that I could nurse through a three-hour interview. I swear I could smell the baked goods at Caribou through the glass case. (OK, no more italics.) I must have been hallucinating. I have been staying away from such things for the last week, save for one chocolate croissant, and these were probably withdrawal symptoms. And while I know I would have to sniff about 100,000 croissants to gain a pound, there seems something perverse about this kind of cruel chemistry.

Calf-roping, sorta like

Ellyn Ritterskamp:

My calf muscles were so tight I was almost afraid to go to sleep. I wake up most nights with horrible cramps in my legs anyway (I know I need more potassium), and this seemed like a sure recipe for more.

And then I found some calf stretches to do against the wall, and now I'm not afraid to snooze.

Crazy easy, these internets.

Onward.

What's your go-to snack food?

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

I'm not sure I can eat another carrot.

There. I said it. I really needed to get that off my chest.

Is anyone else ready for all the fresh fruit and vegetables that come with spring and summer? I am. We've been eating a lot of soup, chili and vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli this winter.

I'm ready for strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, nectarines and tomatoes. I am craving snap beans, squash and okra - all those foods that are best eaten fresh from the ground.

In the meantime, I'm looking for healthy snack ideas, especially things that might travel well to and from work or that I could have ready to eat at my house after a long run.

I try not to snack much, but when hunger hits me it's nice to have a healthy option on hand.

Jews and Italians

Lawrence Toppman:

I realized over the weekend that my love of things bad for me comes partly from childhood, which I spent at the intersection of two of the most food-centric ethnic groups on Earth.

My father's family was Jewish, and my best friend's family was Italian. (My mother's family was mostly of English descent. The English are to fine cuisine what Paraguay is to Major League Baseball. Only in my 30s did I learn that my mother's dad was French, but he split too early to leave any culinary impression.)

Both of those cultures fight depression and settle problems by eating. Can't get a date? Ess, ess mein kind! Having difficulties in school? Eh, paisan, some fettucini carbonara! My house and my friend Nick's always smell of food in my memory, which translated to the smell of happiness.

I thought about that while the gloomy weekend dragged on. The gray skies seemed to say, "Wouldn't a pumpkin cookie cheer you up? Hey, those bananas are getting old: Find some vanilla wafers and make a pudding!" I covered my ears, psychologically speaking, and had navy bean soup instead. Result: Half a pound lost last week. Back down to 190.

The impossible dream

Lawrence Toppman:

Things that don't exist, never did and never will: El Dorado, Atlantis, world peace and (most importantly, now that I'm hungry again) the perfect food.

By this I mean something that 1) I could eat in reasonably large quantities with no harm to my waistline and 2) I can find easily and 3) tastes delicious and does not cloy the appetite. Really, I think such a thing is a chimera. Blueberries come closest for me, but -- no, not perfect.

One can eat 3-ounce portions of almost anything alluring, but I'm still hungry at the end, and my taste buds scream for more. I can stuff myself on things I like in small quantities (carrots, oatmeal, apples), but I get tired of those after a few days. I have bent my mind to this problem while walking the inescapable treadmill, but without success.

Why didn't God or Nature (or whatever force you'd name) make Brussels sprouts as delicious as chocolate mousse, or pumpkin scones as nutritious as broccoli? The day I learn the answer to that, I'll expect to find a leprechaun at the end of the rainbow in my back yard.

Dressing around the trouble spots

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I just read a book about how to dress around your trouble spots. It made me realize we can still buy nice clothes now, and not wait for the day down the road when everything is just right. Wearing baggy clothes just makes us look baggy.

So today, I am going to get a proper bra fitting (they say 80% of American women wear the wrong size, as we should be refitted every so often) and find some nice pants that fit. I will still lift weights and walk, but there's no reason to wait for weight loss to have clothes that look good.

We will give the guys a pass on the bra fitting. Most of them.

Onward.

Taking that first step is often the hardest part of working out

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

After a little time off, I had to get back to my running schedule last week. It was hard to get back into it after a few days off, but my legs seemed to remember how to run.

It just took me a while to get myself out there again. I spent much of last week feeling tired and a little under the weather. I'd come home from work and feel much more inclined to rest or nap than throw on my running gear and head outside.

Sometimes the hardest part of working out for me is taking that first step. It can be so hard to stay motivated and do what I know is good for me rather than do what I'm more inclined to do (which is curl up with a book or movie in my cozy living room). The internal debate process can be exhausting. Then, after I've thought through all the pros and cons, I'm worn out just from thinking about going for a workout.

I finally went to the gym for a short four-mile run on Wednesday. Then I didn't run again until the weekend, when I finally (FINALLY) made myself take this training seriously again.

And, of course, my 10-mile run wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared it would be. I started hurting a little around mile seven, but by then I only had three miles to go (I can do anything for the time it takes me to run three miles, I thought). I pushed through, went home, stretched and hydrated. And I feel ready to go for the week.

I'll be out of town again this weekend and out of my normal routine. I'm hoping to dive right back in when I return and not put it off for so long. I really don't have that much time to spare between now and race day.

My scale must be broken. That's it!

Lawrence Toppman:

I weighed 190.5 last Monday morning. I weighed 190.5 THIS Monday morning. This *&^%$#@! scale must not work right. Here, let me put my cat on it...See, I was right: 190.5! No wonder there's no change!

Oh. Wait a minute. It says 10.5 pounds. These digital scales can throw you off. Sorry for insulting you, Groucho, but I always weigh myself without my glasses -- saves that crucial two ounces, you see. I guess I simply have made no progress.

I slacked off and tried to let yard work stand in for exercise last week, though sweeping leaves off my porch roof didn't count as highly efficient fat-burning activity. (That's especially true if you stop and smell your neighbor's grill and study the tiny growths on a redbud and listen to woodpeckers drumming their secret rhythms on a silver maple.)

So now it's back to a week of treadmilling and snack monitoring with less daydreaming. Progress shall be made!

There's food too old to eat?

Lawrence Toppman:

I was reading my box of multi-bran cereal this morning -- isn't THAT a sad beginning to a day -- and it said "best before August 1." Bran cereal can decline in quality? Say what? (And rapidly, I see. I bought it last week.)

For a guy, especially one who was a bachelor for 52 years, food too old to eat is almost a foreign concept. Before I married, I had two rules for tossing food out: More then 50% was moldy (otherwise, you could cut off the bad parts), or I couldn't get it out of the container because it had solidified into a mass. I cracked an egg one Columbus Day, and it refused to drop out of the shell, so I knew it was inedible. I wasn't relying solely on the fact that the sell-by date was the previous Christmas.

I bring this up because a lot of Americans -- especially guys -- think they have to eat anything they've paid for. (My generation also heard the parental speech that starving Asian kids longed for our broccoli casseroles. I asked for their mailing addresses but never got any.) Men know we shouldn't waste food by buying more than we need, but if it's in the house, we feel compelled to finish it off. One more small reason we consume too much, I suspect.

Wait a minute -- I just realized there's an expiration date on my coffee ice cream! I'd better go see what it is.

Bone marrow donor inspires me

Ellyn Ritterskamp:

I find inspiration for being healthy in all kinds of places. Yesterday, it came from a new source.

I teach practical ethics part-time at UNC Charlotte. One of my students said he might miss class at some point because he is in the final stage of becoming a bone marrow donor for a leukemia patient. I admired his sacrifice. As he described the process of testing and consent forms and health histories, something clicked for me.

I'm also on the list of bone marrow potential donors, and I need to get in better shape, in case they ever call. It would be terrible to be a genetic match, but not to be ready out of simple fitness.

Onward.

I've been playing hooky

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

I must confess that I have been playing hooky from running the past few days.

I did a good job of getting in my runs last week, but then I went out of town over the weekend and missed my long run.

I had thought I'd squeeze it in Monday evening, but I was tired from traveling and still trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm hoping just one more day off won't hurt my progress too much.

How do you plan for times when you're out of your normal routine?

It was nice to take a short break, but I'm glad to get back to it tonight.

My dog ate my homework

Lawrence Toppman:

Though that's a legendary excuse, my dog actually did eat my homework once. When I was eight, we had a dachschund puppy named Max, whose teething spree involved my baseball glove, two shoes and a fourth-grade math workbook. When Mrs. Peters asked what had happened, I replied with the truth, unaware that saying this this to a teacher was like Eliot Spitzer telling his wife he'd be working late at the governor's office.

But I digress. I used that headline because I was fishing around for an excuse for my laziness over the last 10 days. I haven't been exercising, even though my cold is gone. I snuggled up to a huge brownie, and not the kind that cobbles your shoes if you leave them out overnight. I skipped a week of weighing myself, because I didn't want to get inevitable bad news.

Anyhow, I finally climbed on the scale this morning for the first time in two weeks, to find that I've backslid only one pound. I'm still four pounds ahead on the process and have sworn to mount Ye Olde Treadmille tomorrow morning, as usual. Unless the cats claw up the belt and render it unusable, of course. I saw one of them stretched out on it this morning....

Latte to the party

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I am giving up my several-times-a-week hazelnut lattes at Caribou Coffee. I will still go there on the way to work, but back to the regular coffee with a little sugar and cream rather than all those extra calories from the syrup and steamed milk. Three or four of those a week is enough calories to be worth considering.

I am not thinking I have a sugar addiction (I don't like cake much, or crave cookies, or like that), but this will be a good test. I did lose 12 pounds last fall when everything sweet tasted horrible due to a temporary crown with zinc in the adhesive.

So it can be done. I'd rather be moderate than prohibitive, though. What has worked for you, as far as small places to trim calories?

Thanks.

Journalism makes you fat

Lawrence Toppman:

The physical labor I do wouldn't tax an embryo. The little exercise I get in this profession, which now does most of its business by phone, benefits me only from the forearms on down. (Though I'd match wrists with Mike Tyson.)

I realize other sedentary professions create middle-aged spread. But journalism offers an astonishing number of opportunities to eat. People want you to interview them over lunch. Office parties abound. Opening nights of plays are often accompanied by free food before or after -- good food, too, home cooked or catered by restaurants who sponsor theater companies.

I covered a panel discussion at the Mint Museum of Art yesterday, and it ended in cheese plates and glasses of wine. (I skipped those, because I was on deadline -- and because this blog is usually somewhere in the back of my mind.)

I haven't been exercising this week, because I've been recovering from a cold, though this is probably the last day I can hang that tattered shred of an excuse on my conscience. So, of course, the free food beckons everywhere. Give me strength!

Let's get out there!

Ellyn Ritterskamp

Today's forecast: drizzly. Okay, that's not so exciting. But it IS good for running, if you have the right gear.

Thursday: High 63 but again with the rain. Hmm. Maybe that's an indoor weight-lifting day.

But look at the next three days: Friday 58, sat 67 and Sunday 65, all with no rain. We have got to get ourselves outside at least two of those!

There is just something different about being in the sun and real air, than staying home and doing yoga or weights or whatever in the living room. It is more like being a real athlete.

Onward.

You were right

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

After my terrible eight-mile long run, I wasn't sure how I would be able to add five more miles to reach my half marathon goal.

But you all talked me into keep going. In e-mails and comments, you shared stories of bad runs and how you got through them. You gave me advice on how to keep my energy up during long runs and encouraged me to keep going. Thank you, I needed that.

My runs last week were great (just like you said they'd be). A six-mile run on Tuesday felt like no big deal. My nine-mile long run on Saturday was still long but not so bad. I started to feel tired after about 6 1/2 miles and by 7 1/2 miles my legs were feeling tired, but not so tired that I couldn't keep going. I knew I would be able to finish; there was no question about it this week.

I think there were a couple of things that made a big difference. The weather was cooler and the sky was overcast, perfect running conditions (I'm already hoping for similar conditions on race day). I did a better job stretching throughout the week and kept my legs loose, which definitely paid off during my long run. I also knew you had my back and thought about your words of encouragement while I was out there. Knowing your stories helped put mine in perspective. Everyone has good runs and terrible runs. That's how it goes when you are training.

I'm expecting to have more hard runs as I increase miles. But now I'm within four miles of my goal, and I'm beginning to feel more confident that I can make it.

Good news -- I got sick!

I got a lucky break over the weekend: I caught a cold that was mild enough to let me lead a mostly normal life yet nose-clogging enough to diminish my senses of taste and smell. That means less food intake, and that probably means fewer calories. (Unless I start feeling sorry for myself and slurping down ice cream to "soothe my throat.")

I never realized how much one's daily life can revolve around food when one becomes weight-conscious. I slept late today to rest my body, and my first thought when I awoke was "No time to exercise. Not good." My next three dinners will be hot mushroom soup; that made me think, "This will help the diet." I've begun to drink more water to flush out the cold, which led to "That means bloat from water weight" but also "Water leaves the body quickly and has zero calories, no matter how much you drink."

My wife tells me I'm thinking about this too much, and I know she's right. It doesn't fill up my nights and days -- except maybe the days I weigh myself! -- but it tints the whole picture a bit, especially as I'm prone to mild OCD. Now I'm going off to settle my dry throat with a roll of Life Savers. Now, at 10 calories per piece....

Lawrence Toppman

Diet-be-gone

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I have been trying this Diet-to-go plan, and while it is convenient and tasty, it is far too expensive for more than an experiment.

I will instead stick with the Five-Factor plan, which is far simpler. Each meal and snack should include:

a protein
a fiber
a good carb
a nonsweet drink
a good fat or no fat

Since good carby foods are often rich in fiber (sweet potatoes, apples, like that), they tend to overlap. So a good snack can be a piece of string cheese and an apple.

I was not way impressed with the book in which the Five-factor plan was presented, but the formula itself, I like.

Tonight's Diet-to-go dinner: herb-encrusted whitefish, polenta, and broccoli (picture above). Last night's was a yummy turkey burrito, Mexican rice, and refried beans that they somehow made creamy. The first meal was a cioppino seafood medley. I grew up not eating most seafoods, so the fishier ones and the things that literally live on the bottom (except flounder) still don't suit me.

But at $9 a meal including shipping on dry ice, these ought to taste good. The other plans cost less per meal but I wanted the lowest total cost for this experiment.

Onward.

Oatmeal, my special friend

Lawrence Toppman

Is oatmeal the perfect food, or what? It sticks to the ribs but not the hips. It's good on hot days and cold. You can eat it with brown sugar or nuts or fruit, with butter or without. It's nutritious but also satisfying on a deeper, comforting level. I've enjoyed it in bowls, in bars, in cookies, sprinkled on top of other cereal. You can now even get it in coffee shops, where I had a bowl for breakfast today.

Trying to lose weight has given me a personal relationship with food. I no longer ask only "Does it taste good" or even "Is it good for me?" I also ask, "Will this food satisfy more than my taste buds and my belly?" Because a lot of the things that delighted one or the other, such as superfat ice cream or mass quantities of potatoes, are off the menu.

Not to get all zen on you, but every meal becomes an experience to be thought about and, ideally, savored. I eat more slowly now, when I have time. I notice flavors more. I think about the things that are slopping off my spoon. (I'm pretty messy.)

The strange thing is, I still tend to bolt down the (smaller) dessert portions I get. Donuts are roller-coaster rides. Oatmeal is a peaceful train trip through attractive country. I'm better off on that train.

G-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-A-L

Ellyn Ritterskamp

Some of you know I signed up for last December's Thunder Road Marathon. My friend Lynn Kelly got into the New York City marathon for her first one in November, and she raised over $13,000 for Alzheimer's research to get that entry. In solidarity, I pledged to train along with her.

Life threw some curves at me work-wise last fall, and I was unable to train properly. Also, I never got to where I could really run for very long. But I was ready to walk 26 miles that day. I did enjoy those 8 and 10-mile walks (my longest was 13).

Then on race day, just after mile 7, it began clear I was not going to be able to stay ahead of the guy picking up the mile markers. I had not raised any pledge money, so I didn't try to stay out there with an achy leg. I invented the quarter marathon, as it turned out.

This year I have set my sights on a more attainable goal: the half marathon - and Thunder Road has moved their date to early November so it's likely to be weather I like better.

Lynn ran her first marathon at age 55 and did it in under 5 hours. That still blows me away, four months later.

This year, I'll meet my goal.

Onward.

This was my hardest run so far

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

I hit a new wall over the weekend when I went for my eight-mile run. It was by far the hardest run I’ve been on so far during my half marathon training.

From the beginning, my legs did not want to move. I felt sluggish and tired, my muscles were achy and I was moving so slowly. After the first three miles, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to make it. It felt like I’d already been running for hours and I had to stop and walk a few paces a couple of times, something I’ve never had to do before.

I told myself I at least had to make it a few more miles. By mile six, the idea of running two more miles, a distance that normally doesn’t seem like much, felt impossible.

During the last two miles, I reminded myself that it would only be about 20 more minutes of running. I thought of this blog and how I needed to stay accountable and not give up. And I thought about how much harder my next big milestone would be if I didn't finish this one. Somehow I kept moving and pushed through. But it wasn’t pretty.

When I was back at home, my husband asked me how it had gone as I walked through the front door, and I burst into tears. The frustration of the bad run had gotten to me. I was wiped out and wondering how I’d ever be able to add five more miles by race day.

I’m still not certain about making it to 13 miles, but I’m going to get back out there this week and see how it goes. Tonight, I’ll start out with a six-mile run. I’m hoping it’s easier today and that all that pain from the weekend pays off.