I’ve lost a total of 17.6 lbs. That 4 lb weight gain I had overnight never disappeared overnight. Nevertheless, I lost it in August, slowly. Despite that, the jeans that I moved down to now need a belt. I can’t yet take them off without unbuttoning them, but I can pull them down onto my hips. I searched my closet, and I have a stack of 6 pairs of pants in my target size, I have no pants at all in the next size up, which will be the size I’ll need soon. I have no idea why I don’t have any. Where did they go? I’m going to hit Kohl’s Labor Day sale, both for my kids and to at least grab me a couple pairs of pants. If weight loss stalls, I’ll get more. They also have exercise clothes on sale, and after picking up running again, I’ve learned the value of having clothes that wick the moisture away as opposed to cotton. I’m going to need some smaller of these as well.

In running news, I can run for 29 minutes straight. I’m confident that I can run for longer, but the program I’m doing has me running for 25, and then I pick up speed to push my heart rate up for as long as I can stand it. My program has switched to 28 minutes starting today for the next three runs. Then I have to run for 30 minutes for three days. Then I’ve completed the program. My last heart rate test, I hit my max heart rate at 180-181. When I started this program in July, I had the max heart rate of a 55 year old. The max heart rate for my age is around 185. I pace myself for my long runs around 171 without any pain. It took from July 2nd to get where I am.

My future plans for running are to do a Week 10 and run 33 minutes for three days. Then I was going to go back to Week 1^**, running at my max heart rate. Then I’m just going to run a 5K every time I run.

*We already have a sushi date for Sept. 14th, so I’d rather save my cheat for then.

**Week One is this: Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. This was difficult and I thought it was never going to end when I started in July.

I made it to the grocery, being out of vegetables. Again. Mac requested vegetable soup, so I picked up stuff for that, including two items that the checker did not know what they were: fennel and leeks. I’m sure they are not two that he checks out often, and it seems that the teenage boys are easy to stump when it comes to vegetables not in a bag with their name on it. Not their fault though is the POS system that doesn’t allow substring matches. You can’t put in “fennel” and have it come up. It has to be an exact match, and the name that is in their POS system is “anise/fennel.” The same goes for endive. You have to have them put in belgian endive, or they will never find it. The best part was the person who came to help find fennel in the system before I suggested they look up anise started talking about how items are in strange places, like zucchini being listed under squashes, and I got to say, “It is a squash.”

Still, it isn’t as bad as the checker who did not know what broccoli was. How can you not know what broccoli looks like?

Jay went to preschool yesterday, so Ada and I spent the entire day together. Her first choice of activity was Harry Potter Legos. We finished the 4th year. Now we need to go back through the game on free play to collect all the missing items. Her other activity of choice was swimming. The pool opens at 3:30, so that’s what we did until it was time to pick up Jay. While she needed help getting into position, she succeeded in her first unsupported back float yesterday. It has been difficult for She Of Very Little Body Fat to master floating. I think it finally happened because she’s confident enough in the water to swim, she’s relaxing more to float. She can do a face float now too, all by herself. She attempted to do a flip under water many times. She did about as well as an uncoordinated 5 year old would, but she didn’t hesitate to keep trying.

As for swimming for me, my swim suit, at least the bottoms^**, are too big. Yesterday was the last day that I’m going to wear them before I tempt an embarrassing moment at the pool. I can get my smaller suit combo on, but it is really tight. We might have to give up swimming for a bit until my other suit is more comfortable on me.

*Rather good lunches, too. I did volunteer packing alternative food for her on days where there is high dairy content, but the kitchen has been doing a great job at providing her with alternatives. She even got coconut milk ice cream for their last day of summer school treat.

**Buying separates is the best way to get a suit to fit my disproportional frame.

We hit the trail head in Overlook at the playground, so we spent some time swinging before coming home, mostly due to thirst. We drank what we brought during our rests in the trail.

After we came home, we hit the shower to get the sweat, dirt and green ban off of us. Then we changed into suits and went swimming for two hours. We did convince Mac and Jay to join us for that, but Jay isn’t too thrilled with the water. He clung to Mac, they stayed in the zero-entry, wading end mostly, and eventually they got out and spent some time at the snack bar while Ada and I swam.

Ada plunged herself right into the deepest part she could still touch while bouncing on her tip-toes. She was able to dive down a couple of times and touch the bottom with her hands. Then we went out to the part where she couldn’t touch, and she swam for as long as she could while I walked in front of her for something to grab onto when she needed to stop. The last time we went swimming, she wouldn’t let go of me once. She even took my hands and said, “Let’s go under water together!”

She is going swimming tomorrow for a friend’s birthday party. I told her we would try to go swimming on Tuesday^* during our second Girl’s Day since she is out of school, but Jay has preschool. I’m going to try to schedule swimming at least once per week thereafter. My only problem is that I’m almost in between swim suits. My smaller one doesn’t fit yet, but my current one is getting too big. I’m going to have to order one online, or take some time off from swimming until I can fit into the one that I have.

*It is amazing how many of my Tuesday/Thursday free time has not been free because I’ve had to take care of a child.

She made dinner tonight–a salad, she exclaimed! She said she wanted to make a coconut salad. Fine with me. She remembered my formula when she assembled it, although leaving out cheese. Her salad was mixed baby greens, slivered almonds, dried cherries and coconut. It was actually not bad at all. Here is Ada’s review:

This salad is so yummy! I never want to stop eating it! Do you think someday we’ll go into a restaurant and they will be making this salad?

She’s not lacking confidence about her salad skills at least.

Mac was in the kitchen to help her reach bowls and only guided her what to not put in it. He talked her out of slices almonds, which doesn’t surprise me she wanted those because that’s the nut we choose last time. He talked her out of hazelnuts, which is too bad because they would have been good, but they also needed to be chopped. He also talked her out of vinaigrette, which was too bad because it needed some. A little moisture and some vinegar to tame the bitterness of the greens just a tad. If it had a little of that and the nuts would have been toasted, the salad would have been very good. However, I do understand Mac’s reasoning. He couldn’t think what vinaigrette would go good with this and thought that it needed something sweet, and since we don’t have vinaigrette in a bottle because I make it every time I make salad, he just didn’t know what would work.

For her next salad, I’m going to have her write out a recipe. We will decide together what type of vinaigrette would go good with it ahead of time.

The water this morning was freezing. All the kids got in this morning, but it wasn’t a quick task. I brought a magazine with me to read, but I ended up watching most of the lesson. A couple of months ago Ada didn’t want to try anything, and every single lesson ended up with her crying. I spent this lesson watching her swim. That’s right. Ada can put her head in the water, push off the bottom and do a front stroke for about 3-4 ft, without the need to hold her nose. A couple of times, she completely submerged herself and swam forward. She did that for most of the lesson, pausing only to follow directions when it was her turn to perform another skill. She did an assisted back stroke as well.

They play the alligator game at the end of lessons, the goal of it is to get beginning swimmers to walk away from the wall. One kid acts as the alligator and goes out and faces the other group of kids. Then the kids ask the alligator, “What time is it, alligator?” The alligator kid then says a time on the hour, like “7:00″ and the kids have to take seven steps toward the alligator. This repeats until the alligator decides to “eat” the kids by chasing them until one is tagged and then becomes the alligator. It’s Ada’s turn to be the alligator, and when the kids ask, “What time is it alligator?” Ada says, “6:42!”

When we got into the car this morning, I told Ada that it was time to go out into the world and do some awesome. She certainly did today.

After the initial WTF wore off, I went to three of our neighbors, none of which answered the door despite cars being home. Fine. I was able to drive on our grass around the dirt pile and avoid hitting our neighbor’s truck to get out to pick up Ada. I had planned a trip to the park, and I wasn’t in the mood to cancel it to deal with dirt. I figured I’d try the neighbors again, and if none of them were the intended owners of the dirt, I knew exactly where I was going to go second. Our twin house.

There is a house in Lawrence with the same house number and same street name and same zip code and one of the occupants has the same last name, spelled the same, as my maiden/middle name. The only difference between us is the street suffix. We get their mail, almost daily. We get their UPS packages. We have gotten their brand new window delivery. They have probably gotten our mail. They have gotten our food delivery, at least twice that I know about.

I was at the park with the kids when Mac sent me a text. He got home, and besides a dusty spot at the bottom of the drive, the dirt pile was gone. All of it. Not even one single little clot of dirt remained behind. On a whim, I drove by our twin house. They have a giant dirt pile in their driveway. Yeah.

Today, I needed to take time out and clean the kitchen. I thought it would be a good idea to do my re-org where I also delve into cabinets and organize so things fit better, and keep my eye out for any possible expired items, which honestly, rarely happens now that I don’t use many pre-packaged items.

I also thought this was a good time to completely empty out to cabinets and move the contents within. The corner one between my stove and sink that holds all my stove top and oven pans and what becomes the big wadded mess of baking pans. Then the bottom cabinet between my fridge and dishwasher. It holds some bigger items of which half I use somewhat regularly and half I don’t even touch except when I have to move them out to get to things that I do use. This system is extremely inefficient.

I took all of my baking pans and placed them on my table. Then I picked out my mostly used items from the dishwasher cabinet that I’m sick of digging for and put them where the baking pans were: the crock pot, the VitaMix and my knife sharpener. Plus I left the roasting pan, casserole pans and some bread pans down there because I also use the bread pans for meatloaf. Everything down there is now easy to get to, I don’t have that comical moment when I try to get a pan that has become tangled with a cooling rack and end up rolling around on the floor juggling this big entrapment of bars and pans.

All of my baking pans are now between the dishwasher and the stove. It has become the cabinet that I doubt I will get into very often. The only item that I did put in there that I may use are my baking sheets. They come in handy for some roasting, but they don’t fit standing up in any cabinet, not do they fit well in the bottom oven, so they end up on the bottom of a stack of pans, in this case all my baking dishes. I’ll see how easy they are to slide out and back under, and if it irritates me, I’ll think of some other solution at that time.

I also managed to cull a few baking items. I have two pie pans, one non-stick and one nice glass one. How many times have I made pie? Probably not once in the last two years. I set aside the non-stick to see if I could make some sort of DIY reflector out of it, and kept the glass for the day I may need to make a pie. I got rid of one baking sheet. I use the two that I kept the most, and only use that third if the others are dirty or I can’t get to them. I’ll just wash one of the other two. I got rid of an aluminum pizza pan. I owned that before my baking stone. Now I make pizza on my baking stone. Always. I removed my non-stick bundt pan. I have not used it since my mother was here, and during one of my recent trips to Branson, my grandmother passed on one of her Pampered Chef stoneware bundt pans. I’d rather keep that one. I tossed a non-stick cupcake pan that was starting to rust. I have two that size. And I have a silicon one. How many times do I make that many cupcakes? Very, very rarely. I don’t need two. I also tossed one rectangular non-stick cake pan that was also starting to slightly rust. I only used it to hold water on the bottom of my oven to create steam when I bake bread, which I’m not doing right now. If I ever want to again, I could use two of my round cake pans for the same purpose. I also set aside a package of three disposable aluminum pie pans. I guess I was planning on making pie to take somewhere, but never did. That pretty much sums up my pie making. Those will be come some sort of craft for the kids.

Writing this out was my break from the kitchen which I’m going to go back in. I have one more counter top to wipe down, then the appliances, then I’m going to set the Scooba lose in there to mop.

Jay put himself down for a nap. I was talking to him, and was finally getting no feedback. In one of those “If they are quiet, then they are into something” moments, I checked on him, and he was asleep.

Anyhow, Jay wants to be Mario. All Jay talks about is Mario. Mario this. Mario that. Mario, Mario, Mario. Well, Janelle can pity me at least.

It is a little sad though. I was hoping I could convince him to to be Bat Boy.

Running wasn’t something I ever really liked doing. Until I graduated high school. I spent some time in Hutchinson living with my grandparents before I started college, mainly for money reasons. They lived on two acres, and a big bunch of it wasn’t really used except to collect a pile of sticks. There were stables back there, so at one time I guess an owner had horses, but not them. The only thing in their stable were lawn mowers and if I’m remembering correctly, firewood. The place behind the stables, where I’m sure the horses got their exercise was just a place that had to be mowed and where I dreamed one day I’d collect enough people to start a game of mowlo with riding lawn mowers and my grandparent’s croquet set. I used to run back there. With a Walkman. The cassette type. Yeah, let me age myself.

I went to college, and I didn’t run really while I was in the dorms, but I did walk. The hills of KU were new to me. The best bet for a hill where I grew up was a ditch. Then I moved out of the dorms. I started exercising again a little bit, but since I had to pick up work a little more, I didn’t much until I had gained some weight from my late nights at The Bottleneck or The Granada and then the trips through Burger King on the way home at 2:00 am.

Then I found a good path around the apartment where I lived. I started walking at first, and then picked up running. I was running around 50 – 70 minutes. Yes, all at the same time. It was such a stress relief at the time. I felt like I could go forever. It made me feel wonderful. I could not wait to go again.

Then I stopped again, and really didn’t for over a year. I picked it back up, once again prompted by a weight gain. I used to get up around 6:30 or so and found a good path. I started walking again, and then added in some interval running. I didn’t pick it back up as much, but I did add in some bike riding when Veatch, who had stopped using his bike, let me borrow it.

I kept this up regularly until about 2000. It slowed to where I did it occasionally, but I mostly just kept to power walking. And by this time, I had even graduated to an mp3 player! Heh.

However, I once again stopped a little before the Summer of Fun. There was Lots of Fun with Lots of Friends and Lots of Drinks and Lots of Food. There was not Lots of Exercise except for the Lots of Dancing. Then the fun stopped. Why? Mac and I got pregnant with Ada. The result of that pregnancy left me almost 60lbs heavier. Really.

I was so out of shape after that, even regular walking took a lot out of me. It was out of breath just trying to go 2.8mph on my treadmill. It was terrible. I kept it up. I got a little better. Then guess what? I got pregnant with Jay.

During both of my pregnancies, my back and hips were in so much pain starting at about 9 weeks, that it was hurt to just walk to get from point A to point B, let alone walk for exercise. By the end, I could not even lie down due to the pain, and spent months sleeping sitting up in a recliner propped up on a tower of pillows. So, no exercise.

After I had Jay, work had a contest that I referred to The Cash Monies Diet. That’s because there was a cash prize. And the winner would end up with over $1000. Darn right I entered. I plowed through that with power walking. My 2.8mph on the treadmill that left me out of breath ended up being 4.1mph with the incline up to a 10. I ended up getting third and only a pat on the back, but I lost a lot. Plus, I got back into shape enough that doing things like walking up hills or walking an entire day at the Kansas City Zoo did not take anything out of me. Easy.

Now, we are at current time. I gained some of the weight back during my year off, and exercise has not been my priority. I’ve just feel tired and worn out all the time. I’ve thought and planned to get myself back into running condition. I tried once at the end of January, and I failed. There were too many emotional issues at the time and I couldn’t get myself to snap out of it. I had started the C25K and got to week 3 and then quit.

I did some reading, and decided that I was going to try again. I bought myself a heart rate monitor and Garmin watch for tracking time, distance, elevation and heart data. After I was going to outgrow my fat pants, I finally stepped on the scale July 3rd and had my wake up call beaming at me in big green numbers.

I started the C25K again on July 5th. This time, I am getting back into running condition using my heart rate and time to guide me rather than speed or distance. I found that I was having that chest pain and completely out of breath feeling and OMG, can I just die now feeling when my heart rate hit about 169-170 or higher. I found a heart rate chart for my age, and I ran to keep my heart rate in the upper part of my target range, about 164. I had to run a lot slower than I thought I needed to. I felt like I was crawling. It worked though. I didn’t have anything before that really showed how out of shape I am. The heart rate worked wonders. I had numbers other than weight that clearly showed that I was not in that great of shape.

I am now on Week 7, Day 1. I have ran them all without failing and without repeating. They have not been easy. It has never gotten easier. The point of the program is to keep pushing you until you can run a 5K. My speed has gotten slightly faster, and I did a test today to see when I got that painful chest, I’m dying for lack of oxygen feeling. Now that happens when my heart rate hits 178-179.

Today, I ran for 27 minutes without stopping. I still feel slow, but I’m slightly faster than when I started. I have quite a way to go before I can hit 50 minutes again, but in July, I thought 3 minutes was going to kill me. Now I ran for 27, and I liked it. I’m completely looking forward to my Saturday run.

My next challenge I am considering taking up is the 100 push up challenge. It is another thing that I thought I could never do. It would be great for my rest days from running. I’m going to take the same approach that has been successful for running. I’m not in pristine shape, so I’m going to go through this doing knee push ups. Once I can do 100 of those, I’ll prop myself up on my feet and go through the program to do 100 regular push ups.