Halloweenie

Lawrence Toppman:

When you're losing weight, you're faced with a dilemma: Do you buy a sack of Halloween candy you hate, so you won't be tempted to eat pots of it if nobody comes to the front door? (That happens to us every year: We live on a safe, walkable street in a quiet, well-kept urban neighborhood. And I bet we don't get a dozen trick-or-treaters a year. What's happened to America?)

Or do you buy really good candy to impress your neighbors and, when few of them ask for it, stare at the bucket of uneaten chocolates until you drool or bring it to work? We solved the problem this year by purchasing trash only a middle-schooler would consume -- and, let's be honest, I would have consumed in middle school -- with the idea that my wife's students will be the beneficiaries of corn syrup-filled leftovers.

On the other hand, I did grab a homemade chocolate cupcake at the office today and tucked it into Tupperware to take home, so I'd have one small but delicious indulgence. Hmmm...I wonder if it's big enough for two? Nah, I guess not. Sure hope my wife doesn't see this.

Going the distance

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I did complete my nine-mile walk/run Wednesday. The first seven miles went awesome, and then the final two kind of sucked. I made it up a long mild hill because the right song showed up on my iPod: the totally cheesy "Go the Distance" by Michael Bolton (from the movie "Hercules").

Several years ago, my mom completed the Disney 15K called "Women Run the World," an event for women only. She got a medal the size of a saucer. While she was training, I made her a playlist of running songs like the Pointer Sister's "Jump," some fun stuff from the 60s, and I included that insidious Bolton song.

She said when she was doing the event, she didn't remember most of the words except, "I can go the distance," and the trumpets that go with it. And that got her through it.

Wednesday when I saw that hill and that song came on, I felt connected to her, and it became easy. There's even a line about an uphill slope that made me smile, because I was ON it.

I see now why people run for causes, to raise money for issues to help people they know. It makes it mean more than just movement.

I know every mile will be worth my while.

Half a &^%$#@! ounce?

Lawrence Toppman

I made Pumpkin Pie for Dummies yesterday, using a can of pre-spiced pumpkin pie filling and a pie shell too battered to be reassembled for a quiche. I wanted to disguise this culinary Quasimodo before presenting it to my wife, so I stopped by the supermarket for whipping cream.

The label on the half-pint said it should be good for 16 servings. This meant that, after whipping it into froth, I was supposed to spread the eight ounces over 16 pieces of pie. Say what?

Who would eat these minuscule segments, mice? Nursing infants? Now that I think of it, the can of pumpkin pie filling suggested a round, 9-inch pie pan should supply either 10 or 12 servings, I forget which. I guess those would be four pieces for adult humans and six or eight for the brownies who clean my house while I'm asleep.

Maybe that's why so many of us get careless about calories: We see that a "serving" of whipped cream has only 100 calories, think a half-pint yields 6 or 8 servings, then gasp when we get on the scale. I know the responsibility for vigilance (and basic math) lies with the eater, but couldn't labels could be more realistic?

The ice bath, adapted

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I had forgotten from last year's try at the Thunder Road marathon, that the book I used recommended sitting in ice after a long run (mine are walks, but still).

I tried it last week after a long walk, and I'm going to compromise. My feet love the ice, but sitting in it is a bit much. So I dump the ice in the tub with cold water about 4 inches deep, and sit on the edge for as long as I can stand that. Then I get in the shower and do the hot water all over and keep my feet in the ice until it melts, which is longer than I thought it would be.

The ice and ibuprofen treatment immediately on returning home seems to prevent the worst of the whining the next day.

Today is 10 miles, tomorrow 4. Next week is 11 and 5, then 12 and 6, and then the half-marathon on Nov. 12. They moved it up a month from early December, which makes me way happy.

Onward.

Fat vegetarians

Lawrence Toppman:

A reader intimated this weekend that a vegetarian shouldn't have much of a problem keeping weight off: After all, we eat nothing but salads and fruit, right?

I wish! (Actually, I don't wish, as that would be the full menu of the Hades Cafeteria and Grill.) But US Airways used to have the same misconception: Whenever I ordered a vegetarian meal -- not vegan, which was in a separate category -- I used to get a limp salad without dressing, carrot sticks for dessert and a box of raisins. What gave the dietitians the idea that sugar and fats were anathema to vegetarians?

We like starches. We eat ethnic foods where the base materials are rice, pasta and potatoes. (In fact, we eat more of those than the average person.) We like cakes and pies and muffins and ice cream and pudding. And we're likely to feel, after a meal of rabbit food, that we deserve those desserts as compensation!

Vegetarians don't experience the thousand natural shocks the flesh-eaters are heir to, to paraphrase "Hamlet." But we have no trouble sinning with self-indulgence in our own patch.

A successful but idiotic experiment

Lawrence Toppman

I felt the first big shameless lapse of the year coming on -- there had to be one, right? -- so I decided to give in completely as an experiment.

What would happen if I slacked off in every way? If I didn't exercise regularly for at least a week? (Let's be honest, more like 10 days.) If I ate whatever I wanted? If I decided that zucchini bread didn't really count as a dessert and topped it with a couple of cookies?

Would my theoretically retrained body (and/or conscience) refuse to let me make a fool of myself? Would I gain weight right away and notice a change?

Sadly, the answers were no and yes, respectively. I put back 2.5 pounds and felt just a little snugger fit when I tightened my belt. Man, the penalty for sinning comes quickly.

Well, now I know. I have 72 more days to the end of the year -- seven weeks -- and I'm at 184.5, five pounds heavier than I want to be on New Year's Eve. So I have to lose half a pound every week. Even a slacker like myself can do that.

Plugging away almost as good as pounding away

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I am not pounding away, as I have gotten one of this year's two scheduled colds. I used to get one a year until I had my tonsils out, now two.

But I am plugging away, still counting calories, and losing very small amounts each weigh-in (about 2 per week). Today: 248.4, from January's starting point of 257. It's all happened in the past 9 weeks on the My Fitness Pal website, in which I enter everything I eat and stop when I get to 2000 calories. At some point we will lower that target.

So, likely no long walk today, with the sniffles, but just a short one. Saving my strength for the half-marathon in a few weeks.

Onward.

Workout DVD getting me back on track

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

Now that I've gotten through a second cold this season, I'm working on getting my workouts back on track - and staying healthy for more than a week or two in a row.

I had to stop working out for a few days when I got sick, just as I was starting to make some progress. Then we had company come into town, so I really got off track.

This morning I got back to work. I started week three of my Jillian Michael's workout DVD this morning.

The week two workout was definitely more challenging than week one. I found myself feeling very happy when I knew the workout was almost over, which is always a good sign that I'm working hard. The second workout involves a lot of plank holds with movement and pushups. Both are exercises that are challenging for me.

The week three workout I started this morning was also challenging but in different ways. It paired strength with balance moves and seemed to focus a little more on lower body muscles.

What was great about my workout this morning was how good I felt afterward. I have really missed feeling healthy enough to workout and have probably been missing the positive endorphins and stress-relief I get each time I exercise.

Tonight, I'm planning on going for a long run. It feels good to be back.

A chubby guy's mind at work

Lawrence Toppman

I saw a man my age, maybe a little older (perhaps 60) in Harris-Teeter Sunday. He was wearing a muscle-T and tight pants and looked trim and hearty, though grizzled. If you have never been overweight, perhaps you'd be curious to know the thoughts that run through the brain of someone who has. They go like this:

"Man, if I were 60, I'd dress my age. Even if I were fit, I wouldn't flaunt it."

"Hmmm...he keeps in shape physically. But does he do the same mentally? Hey, skinny dude, come over here and talk to me about metaphysics."

"Who knows? He's probably miserable in some other way. Maybe his wife doesn't love him any more."

And lastly, "Better not buy any of those individual servings of ice cream this week."

Yes, I went through the shades of envy from denial to competitiveness to false rationalization to the only healthy outcome: a desire to improve myself. Not pretty, but there it is. Mental changes have to accompany the physical ones, and they'll undoubtedly take longer.

Key West eats

Ellyn Ritterskamp

Vacation eating is a study in contrasts: we eat more expensive (and in theory, better quality) food, but less of it. I do, anyway. I just spent four days in Key West. We ate two real meals a day, with a snack, and it all seems to have worked out calorie-wise.

We made an effort to visit several very nice restaurants, but only two a day instead of three.

La Trattatoria - lasagna bolognese
Cafe Marquesa - vegetarian feast
Pepe's - omelette with mild chiles and Jack cheese
Sloppy Joe's - OK, this is not on the Fine Dining list, but it's a major landmark. We had some kind of nice cornmeal sandwiches with salsa.

How did it work to only eat twice a day? Naps. If I could build a nap into every day, I could manage with fewer meals, for sure. Must work on this.

Onward.

Regularity (no, the other kind)

Lawrence Toppman

One thing I have learned while writing this blog is that habits matter. I can lose weight and keep it off as long as I have a regular pattern of eating and exercise (and self-denial, but that's another story).

Right now, with Opera Carolina's "Il Trovatore" opening tonight, my schedule has been thrown into chaos: I come home buzzed and excited, have to take my second shower of the day (because the costumes feel like they were last cleaned during the Spanish-American War) and sit around the house waiting to relax enough to go to sleep. Then I sleep late, get up and go straight to work without exercising.

I may not be gaining weight, partly because I sweat so much every night under the layers of wool that make up this oppressive series of rags on my back. (And fleas probably suck out a few milliliters of blood, too.) But I'm not exercising, and I may pay a price for that change the next time I step on the scale.

I'm waiting to do that until normal conditions get restored next week and I can get back on the treadmill. And to speak frankly, the OTHER kind of regularity is -- oops, I'm out of space this week.

Food porn

Lawrence Toppman:

What I think we really need is a fantasy blog about weight loss, a vicarious pleasure for people who dream of eating coma-inducing amounts of sugar and fat but dare not do so, especially if they're trying to lose weight.

It would have pictures of multi-layered cakes, pies with fruit spilling over a sugared crust, cookies the size of the wheels on a 2006 Toyota Prius. Nothing healthy, nothing in moderation, nothing whose ingestion would result in longevity or improve fitness.

It would also have photos of guys with six-pack abs and lissome women, to accompany essays about indulging in gluttony every day. (This would fulfill the average person's fantasy that we can gobble anything we want without consequences.) No hymns to the glory of asparagus or the benefits of broccoli, just paeans to pork rinds.

Maybe a technocrat could figure out a way to release the scent of the desired objects as soon as we clicked on photos of them. I predict well-earned riches for anyone who makes such a breakthrough, and I'll be the first to subscribe to his pay site.

Cheat Days don't always work out

Ellyn Ritterskamp

It's been a revelation that when I stay below a reasonable calorie intake each day, on the occasional day when I go over by a lot, my body rebels. I knew this in my head, that once we have adjusted the cravings/addictions/tendencies toward overeating/sugars/whatever, our bodies don't want those overages anymore.

I've been on 2000 calories a day for eight weeks, which is very doable, but often means I don't eat certain things anymore. Some plans allow one cheat day a week when you can eat anything, but folks say that after six days of eating things that are good for them, they don't want to go crazy with foods that are more toxic.

I ate one slice too many of cheese pizza the other night, on top of very good spaghetti earlier in the day. That was an eye-opening overload about which I'll be more careful from now on.

Even the cheat day idea has limitations. Onward.

No-news news

Lawrence Toppman

I have realized, nine months after starting this blog, that it's simply not possible to have news about my diet twice a week. Yet it's been...er...suggested (by a boss, and you know what kind of suggestion THAT is) that I don't miss a Monday or Thursday, unless I'm on vacation or in the hospital.

Now, a columnist with a massive ego would consider that every food-related event, every stale saltine with brownish cheddar cheese on top (snarfed down to clean out the fridge) would be worthy of an essay about American eating habits. My ego's big enough, but it's not the size of Lake Michigan.

So today we have no news. I proceed cautiously, I do at least 30 minutes each weekday on the treadmill (no matter how much my 57-year-old legs beg me to shower without exercising); I parcel out the Greek cookies I love so much. And so I move slowly toward the 36-inch waist that's my true goal, much more than actual lost poundage.

I promise to come up with something stimulating Monday....

Feeling funny about a flu shot

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I will be getting a flu shot tomorrow, even though I don't want to. It's not a fear of needles or anything like that. I read a couple of years ago about how the pharmaceutical companies had made too much vaccine, and they got the CDC to convince everyone they should get a shot, so they could use up all the product. That was a big turnoff.

Also, I've never had the flu. I did have strep throat once, and would go a long way to avoid THAT again.

I finally got a flu shot last year when someone convinced me it was a good idea since I interact with lots of students at UNCC, to help keep them safe.

I still wonder if some of it is about profit and product, though. The vaccines are tailored each year to the most common strains of that season, but there have got to be other strains still out there.

It is minimal inconvenience (a little reaction to the shot) for potentially good reward, so I'll do it. But it still feels funny.

Onward.

Getting through a plateau takes extra effort

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

One week into my new workout routine and I've finally lost a little bit of weight (about 1.4 pounds) after a couple weeks of making no progress.

I must say it feels good to see that number go down ever so slightly. It also feels good to feel more sore than usual by the end of the week and know that I'm building muscle. That was one of my goals for this year, after all.

It took extra effort to make this progress. That's something I'll have to remember. I'm not always good about pushing myself to work harder, and that's an important part of becoming at better athlete.

I'm going to start week two of my workout DVD this week and keep to my usual running schedule. Paired with eating right and cutting down on carbs, I hope to see more success next week.

How to lose 10 ugly pounds right away!

Lawrence Toppman:

The answer, as third-graders across America know: Cut off your head. (Although that really only results in the loss of six pounds or so, I'm told. And life.)

I thought of that joke this weekend, when I leafed through weight-loss ads in our own paper and glossy magazines. They all promised to knock weight off fast Fast FAST! None advertised gradual, long-lasting results, the kind that might stay with you.

We're an impatient society, we Americans. We think in days or weeks at most. When we don't reach goals promptly -- preferably, without much sacrifice -- we decide they're not worth pursuing. That's why so many people quit diets so quickly. (It may also be why they don't want to believe in global warming or the depletion of fossil fuels; those problems can't be solved quickly and conveniently.)

Weight loss doesn't work that way. I've dropped another pound since Thursday: I'm at 181.5, 13 pounds below my starting weight. But I'll go up again from time to time, and I'm inching toward my goal. I may reach it slowly, but even glaciers get where they're going at last.