Like many people, I am trying to be careful with what I eat and trying to lose a few pounds. (In case you missed that in my last post - "A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" LOL). My biggest problem is that I live with family; my brother, his wife, and two teenage kids. Now for all that we eat pretty nutritious meals, I must confess there seems to be a steady supply of potato chips coming through this household. None of which at my expense. Mind you there was a time when I was on mat leave that I discovered a particularly tasty brand and flavor (side note: oooh the chips were thick cut, rarely a broken one in the bag, and generously seasoned). I have since broken myself of the habit and am now a recovering chipaholic. Seriously. If it's a bag I have purchased, I can not touch even one potato chip or I feel the urge to finish the entire bag. It drives me to the point of absolute distraction. If I know they are sitting on a shelf somewhere, half finished, well it's not long before I am in them again. I do, however, try to exercise more discretion when it is the family-shared bag. But not by much.
Sometimes I do wonder, though, if certain members aren't out to sabotage my efforts. The sheer quantity of potato chips that come through here makes it hard to resist. On one occasion, I was looking in the cereal cupboard, which is not usually where the chips are kept, but low and behold, there they were. And I was home alone too. Double whammy! No one around to see me pork out. Ooooh the salty, crunchy goodness. Sad thing is, I will stand there munching away, crumbs falling everywhere, reading the nutrition label and calculating fat and calories with every chip I eat. However, I figure the numbers only apply to the "whole sized" chip and not the broken ones so I can eat more of the broken ones. Only problem is, the bag was FULL of broken chips. Darn it anyways. In the end I eat way more than a serving, even with the broken chips and find myself guzzling water all day long to combat the salt intake. Then the guilt sets in and I wonder how many calories I really took in. It's usually at this point I wonder why they don't create those nutrition content labels to give you the total calories for the whole bag. Now THAT'S a serving! Wouldn't you say so?
Now we haven't even touched on chip dip. Potato chips on their own are glorious, golden wafers of yumminess, but when you factor in the dip, they suddenly take a back seat, and it becomes aaaallll about the dip. As good as the chip is, it is now a mere conveyance for the dip - provided you have a particularly good dip. When I find myself spooning the dip out with the chip by the heaps, I know it's game over. Forget counting calories and fat grams. I'm done. Finished. Bye bye. Forget the diet. I blew it. At least for today. Try again tomorrow.
Slowly but surely I am coming to terms with it. It's true though. I can not have even one. There are some things a person can enjoy in small quantities, like chocolate, or cheesecake, however potato chips (and dip) are not those things. I have to learn that there will always be chips in the house, and yes, I will happen upon them at times when I am alone. But they must be avoided at all cost. I must learn to be at peace living beside potato chips. It's kind of like an alcoholic working in a liquor store though, don't you think? Oh well, I shall persevere.
Those are my ramblings; the bits and pieces from my cupboards and drawers.
Happy (and healthy) snacking, till next time ...
~ M ~
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!
This is Part II of, "You Can't Shave with Scissors", a post I have removed due to much reconsideration (funny only to me) That posting centered on a training session I had with "dreamy boy" and some unwanted armpit hair. Now I'm about to regale you with the tale of my next training session with dreamy boy.
I have typically been of the opinion that there is no need to be embarrassed in front of a trainer. They are professionals, not unlike a doctor in some regards in that they are accustomed to seeing bodies in all shapes and sizes.
My trainer had emailed me a copy of the routine we were going to go through together and at the top of the list was "jump rope". A brief twinge of concern fluttered through me, but I brushed it off, as I figured, "Oh well, he's likely seen it all. So what. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and no one can fault me for that, no matter what my shape. "
Well that thinking is noble, isn't it?
I get to the gym and was pleased that it was relatively quiet and not too busy that day. I ask for dreamy boy at the front desk and out we go to the gym floor. We find our spot in the corner, and get all our equipment together. Then he says for me to jump rope for one minute straight. So I start doing it (in front of a mirror no less, oh yeaaah), and two things happen here. 1) My belly starts flopping up and down. Oh, I tried not to let it get to me, and to hold to my noble thinking: "I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. If I were skinny I wouldn't have to do this, so pooh on whoever is watching and snickering". Of course no one was but you know.. and 2) My britches were sliding off. Oh yes. I have managed to lose a bit of weight, just enough to make my workout pants slightly loose. They are fine for most activities, but something bouncy like jump rope or running, well they slide down pretty bad.
You can only imagine how embarassing this was. I mean, come on. Remember all the trouble I went through to remove armpit hair for this guy (unsuccessfully mind you). Now here I am in the middle of the gym, flab fluttering about, and my pants falling down. Sad thing is, I was doing really really well with the jump rope. It's not like I was tripping up a lot and could actually have a legitimate reason to stop. No. I had to stop in the middle of perfectly good jumping to pull up my pants.
What made it worse is we continued with our routine and when it came time to go through it a second time, he made a comment that we would just forget the jump rope until I get new pants. Oh nothing like rubbing it in. No, he couldn't have just passed it over and said nothing.
But that's not all. It's so weird with this guy. I have such a hard time watching him demonstrate the moves because you have to really examine his body and movement. Makes me uncomfortable. And then when he was having me do the walking lunges he would stand in front of me and walk backwards as I lunged towards him. Well he is fairly tall, and every time I would lunge forward, it would bring me face to face with ...yes, that. Oh talk about weird. I mean where am I supposed to look. So I just pretended to look right through him. Still made me uncomfortable. (Reminds me of my wall climbing experience, which I will have to share with you sometime.)
At the end of it all though, it was good. A good workout with a great trainer and he gave me another one of those half winks, showing off his adorable dimple.
Well those are my bits and pieces for now. A tad late, but there they are. Hope you got a giggle.
Till next time...
~M~
I have typically been of the opinion that there is no need to be embarrassed in front of a trainer. They are professionals, not unlike a doctor in some regards in that they are accustomed to seeing bodies in all shapes and sizes.
My trainer had emailed me a copy of the routine we were going to go through together and at the top of the list was "jump rope". A brief twinge of concern fluttered through me, but I brushed it off, as I figured, "Oh well, he's likely seen it all. So what. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and no one can fault me for that, no matter what my shape. "
Well that thinking is noble, isn't it?
I get to the gym and was pleased that it was relatively quiet and not too busy that day. I ask for dreamy boy at the front desk and out we go to the gym floor. We find our spot in the corner, and get all our equipment together. Then he says for me to jump rope for one minute straight. So I start doing it (in front of a mirror no less, oh yeaaah), and two things happen here. 1) My belly starts flopping up and down. Oh, I tried not to let it get to me, and to hold to my noble thinking: "I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. If I were skinny I wouldn't have to do this, so pooh on whoever is watching and snickering". Of course no one was but you know.. and 2) My britches were sliding off. Oh yes. I have managed to lose a bit of weight, just enough to make my workout pants slightly loose. They are fine for most activities, but something bouncy like jump rope or running, well they slide down pretty bad.
You can only imagine how embarassing this was. I mean, come on. Remember all the trouble I went through to remove armpit hair for this guy (unsuccessfully mind you). Now here I am in the middle of the gym, flab fluttering about, and my pants falling down. Sad thing is, I was doing really really well with the jump rope. It's not like I was tripping up a lot and could actually have a legitimate reason to stop. No. I had to stop in the middle of perfectly good jumping to pull up my pants.
What made it worse is we continued with our routine and when it came time to go through it a second time, he made a comment that we would just forget the jump rope until I get new pants. Oh nothing like rubbing it in. No, he couldn't have just passed it over and said nothing.
But that's not all. It's so weird with this guy. I have such a hard time watching him demonstrate the moves because you have to really examine his body and movement. Makes me uncomfortable. And then when he was having me do the walking lunges he would stand in front of me and walk backwards as I lunged towards him. Well he is fairly tall, and every time I would lunge forward, it would bring me face to face with ...yes, that. Oh talk about weird. I mean where am I supposed to look. So I just pretended to look right through him. Still made me uncomfortable. (Reminds me of my wall climbing experience, which I will have to share with you sometime.)
At the end of it all though, it was good. A good workout with a great trainer and he gave me another one of those half winks, showing off his adorable dimple.
Well those are my bits and pieces for now. A tad late, but there they are. Hope you got a giggle.
Till next time...
~M~
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