Saturday, October 27, 2012

Dangerous Fishing

More good news:  down another pound, to 166.6.  A total of 11.8 pounds lost so far.  The good thing about weight watchers as opposed to being abstinent in OA is that most things are okay to eat and I don't have to be doctrinaire about sugar and white flour, which is very hard to do.  (I love the word doctrinaire and use it whenever I have a chance).  However, the things with white flour and sugar have a ton of points so I tend to avoid them anyway.  And I'm finding that I'm eating vegetables and fruit on a more regular basis as well.

Though, I've often wondered if I could actually eat the recommended "servings" of everything ww says I should eat every day and still stay within my point range.  The three dairy servings, the five fruit and vegetable servings, the three healthy oil servings--I always mean to sit down and actually figure it out but I never get around to it.  Maybe this weekend . . .

So I'm fortunate that I don't hate to exercise.  But I really don't like the gym.  I've only had a couple of gym memberships in my entire life (I have a $10 a month Planet Fitness membership right now but I gave the card to my daughter to use and they took her picture for the ID so I guess it's her membership now).   But in a non Planet Fitness style gym, I always feel awkward and ill at ease.  The machines are great, but having to drive there, change, wait your turn for a machine, adjust the weight settings, deal with grunting guys lifting weights, walk around a million mirrors, and pay for the privilege--it just seems extraneous and inefficient to me.  So I've always exercised either outside (walking, hiking, backpacking) or at my house.

Not enough room to exercise at home?  HA!, I say.  Sure, if you want a whole Nautilus machine set up at home there may not be enough room, but I manage to do my Bar Method DVDs at home in what I call my exercise slot, pictured here:

The Exercise Slot:  mat, barbells, ball, stretching strap, chair for leg work, and fan.



Other than the initial investment in barbells, mat, DVD and ball, it's free, and I don't have to rearrange the family room to do it other than shoving the coffee table a few inches over and getting a dining room chair from a few feet away.  It's efficient, I don't have to drive anywhere, I don't have to change into special exercise clothing if I don't want to, and I can do it at a moment's notice.  It's great.  And when I need more cardio, I fortunately live in a mild enough climate to where I can do that outside, in my neighborhood, a majority of the time.

Good news:  my youngest daughters birthday party is tomorrow (her actual 7th birthday is next week).  My dad is coming down for the party and we're going to go visit his brother, my uncle, in El Paso on Monday.  My husband made it home safely from his business trip.  Also, I'm really enjoying the new car.  I used the heated seats last night for the first time.  Sweet.

In the amusing news:  I never knew a kids fishing game could be hazardous.  Last night my youngest daughters school had their Fall Festival.  The kids dress up in costumes and each class hosts a game in their classroom for the kids to play--ring toss, pumpkin bowling, car racing, things like that.  Each game costs one ticket, or 25 cents, and the kids get candy or a novelty toy as a prize for playing.  Well, her class had a fishing game, which I agreed to work.  I sat behind a wooden barrier painted to look like the ocean with a huge box of candy and toys next to me, and kids would cast a "fishing pole" over the barrier to "fish" for prizes.  The fishing poles were wooden sticks tied with dangling string to which was attached a plastic clip, to which I was to attach a piece of candy.  Simple, right? 

The problem was, some of the kids were pretty zealous in their casting technique and the plastic clips were dangerous weapons as they whipped over the barrier and swung around madly.  I spent most of the evening cringing behind the barrier, trying to dodge the plastic clips (I took MANY direct hits to the head and shoulders), then scramble to attach candy before the pole was yanked violently upwards and over the barrier, creating yet another dangerous scenario as the now heavily-laden clip careened up and over the wall.  It was terrifying!  We had several broken strings, and one kid jerked the pole so hard the wooden dowel actually snapped in two.  Fortunately, we had an extra. 

We had so much candy and stuff that we had to put it in little bags, so we had many repeat customers as we were giving away a pretty good haul compared to the rest of the classrooms.  So we (my husband and I, and the couple of other parents who helped) worked steadily.  I ended up with a sore back, but at least it wasn't like last year when we worked pumpkin bowling, which was exhasting as we were running around madly retreiving errant pumpkins and setting up glow-in-the-dark bowling pins ad infinitum.  Still, it was fun, and it always feels good to volunteer at the school.  It's a nice community there, though everyone but us is RICH (huge exaggeration, there are plenty of "middle income" folks there, but no one is poor).

In the tired news:  youngest had a bad dream so she and I have been up since four.  I probably won't have the highest energy day today.  Oh well . . .

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