5 days of burpees and counting

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

I have finally made it to the last few days of the 100-day burpee challenge.

The last few weeks have been tough, and I'm looking forward to getting through these last few days.

This challenge hasn't always been fun, but it has made me work hard and use muscles I wasn't regularly working out. After all these weeks, my core is saying thank you.

I'll let you know how day 100 feels next week. It falls on my birthday, so I know it will be memorable.

Bad news/good news

Lawrence Toppman

The bad news: My treadmill's broken. The walking belt became misaligned and started to run into the left-hand side of the machine, making it grind to a stop. A preliminary look suggested I MIGHT be able to fix it, although I have the mechanical skills of a baby mandrill.

I could call a repairman for a 10-year-old piece of machinery at, I would guess, $75 an hour to make the repair if I cannot. I could buy another treadmill -- probably a simpler one, as I'll never have a complex exercise regimen -- for $600 or so. Or I could try exercise of a different sort: walking in the fresh air, bicycling, going to a gym (all of which are anathema to a lazy misanthrope such as myself).

So this is a test. Do I redouble my efforts to eat well and content myself with morning sit-ups on a mat to save money, or do I make the financial investment in another piece of equipment if this can't be fixed? I'll ponder this over a lazy, exercise-free weekend while I try to put the old warhorse back together.

The good news: I lost a few ounces cursing it, kicking at it, cutting my hand while taking it apart and sweating through a preliminary repair session that got nowhere this morning. That has to count for something.

Just a fruit, not a fruitcake

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I finally committed, and made an appointment with a dietician. I'd seen one four years ago when I was diagnosed with diabetes, but it's time for a reboot.

One of you lovely readers gave me the name of her specialist. I'll report in a few weeks when we get together (I'm off this week to Minneapolis to see a Twins game - only six more teams to go after that).

Like many people, I struggle with scheduling exercise and making it happen. For now, I'm mostly looking for guidance on food choices and calorie goals. I kind of know what to do with exercise; with food, a little less so.

My favorite food groups is fruit, and it's sometimes hard to know which fruits are still OK (though I do like the guideline that if it has the peel still on, it's better than not).

More as it develops.

Taking time to make good choices

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

One thing I'd like to work on over the next few months is making better choices about what I eat.

I've worked hard this year to make time for workouts. My running has improved and I've pushed myself to work harder than I ever have before. I've taken on new challenges and tried new ways of working out (something I'd like to do more of in the coming months).

But I know in order for all that hard work to pay off, I need to do a little better about what I eat (in fact, this was one of my goals when I started blogging in January. Time to keep myself accountable).

Like many people, my pitfall usually occurs over the weekend. I'm pretty good about eating fruits and vegetables during the week and not snacking or splurging. But during the weekend, I'm visiting friends and family or going out of town or just looking to kick back - and not really paying attention to what I eat. Some of the problem is being in situations where I'm not planning the meals I eat. Some of it is just wanting to enjoy the weekend.

I've been keeping track a little better the last couple of weeks, and it's making a difference. I've lost two pounds and hope to lose more. I also want to be in the habit of eating well all the time and to have a plan when there aren't a lot of healthy options. I need to learn to find balance (any tips out there?).

One thing I've been enjoying a lot of lately is summer fruit. I've been slicing nectarines and adding berries. I've enjoyed watermelon, cherries and plums. This time of year, when so many fruits and vegetables are abundant, it's easy to choose well.

Few fat French folks

Lawrence Toppman: 

I hope you celebrated Bastille Day Thursday. I forgot to take the baguette I'd bought out of the freezer, but I had French fries that afternoon. (That's a joke -- I say, that's a joke, son. I realize the Belgians lay claim to pommes frites.)

But I did recall how few overweight French people my wife and I saw on two trips to Paris and surrounding towns. We met little old ladies scurrying up the hills of Montmartre with freshly bought sacks of vegetables and bread, and we always wondered why so few were stout. After all, the French do not skimp on butter, cheese and chocolate in their recipes.

Part of the calorie containment may be related to exercise. I saw residents of Paris walking everywhere, especially up those steep hills. But the main reason is that the French consume rich food and know when to stop consuming it.

At Berthillion, the greatest ice cream shop in the world, American tourists ate three or four boules (as the golf ball-sized scoops are called); the French stopped at two. Americans ate a crepe and a small green salad for lunch and wondered what came next; the French knew that what came next were a glass of wine and a long chat. They don't take food home from restaurants, because restaurants serve smaller portions, and people don't stuff themselves.

Eat well, eat slowly, eat in moderation. Taste the food, savor the beauty, keep the waistline down. How seldom we think about that over here.

How to feel like an astronaut

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I started using the Airborne tablets a few years ago, anytime I get a tickle in my throat, or, as with this time, the nodes next to my jaw puff up at all (only a tiny bit, right now).

Airborne is essentially a superdose of Vitamin A and suchlike, created by a 2nd-grade teacher to boost our immune systems when we fly. There is so much crud swirling in planes that we can't get away from, is why we get sick more frequently when we fly. Also we tend to not be as vigilant about drinking lots of water then, which is the only way to keep those tissues moist so the crud doesn't lodge in there.

So. Airborne + the Keurig single-serve coffee machine. Yes, indeedy. These tablets are orange flavored and you dissolve them in water. Hot water or cold. So I thought I'd try the hot, and it's way yummier than the cold, for me. Like hot Tang. Like I am an astronaut.

Also, when you put it in the Keurig and let the hot water go in there, it fizzles in a truly cool way. I am very easily impressed.

What are your secrets to not getting sick, or holding it off a day or two when it's coming?

Onward.

Worms

Lawrence Toppman:

A reader e-mailed me to say we in America are too obsessed with body image -- I can't argue with that -- and our national mania for weight loss has become unhealthy, which is certainly true at some level. (The anorexia and bulimia level, if not before.)

He went on to say there's little point in fretting about a few pounds -- even 20, in my case -- when we "are all going to be eaten by worms." I assume he wrote metaphorically, rather than suggesting that giant night crawlers from a B-grade science fiction movie will devour us all.

Eat (copiously), drink and be merry, for tomorrow we take a dirt nap. I've heard that used to justify bad behavior from drug addiction to philandering, though rarely as a reason to double up on potato chips. But if we all felt like that, why would we do anything positive at all?

I'm changing for my own sake, not others'. I didn't much care what people thought about my weight (possibly excepting my physician) before January, and I don't fret about it now. If portion control staves off the ravening vermicelli for a few extra years, I can spend those years listening to Beethoven and reading Agatha Christie and looking out my kitchen window at robins in my back yard -- who are eating worms right this minute.