It's Giveaway Time Again!

As many of you know, I’ve been clearing out and giving away some of the “tools” I’ve used to get in shape over the last five years. Today I’m offering the chance to win one of two of my favorite books on women’s health and strength training.

While I used the Weight Watchers Points system to lose weight, I combined what I learned there with solid, science-backed information on weight loss and nutrition from other sources, such as “Body for Life for Women” by Pamela Peeke, M.D. and Joan Pagano’s “Strength Training for Women.”

Because I’m heading out the door soon to go on a (flat) hike and do some bird watching, I cut and pasted portions of the books’ reviews from Amazon.com so you get an idea what each book is about and decide which one you’d like to throw your name in the hat for (you can choose both!).

“Body for Life for Women”
“[Peeke’s] firm belief is, most women already know what they’re supposed to do: eat a balanced diet, ditch junk food, exercise, think positively. Peeke strives to show her “girlfriends” how to accomplish these tasks, customizing plans for young and old. Clients’ stories lend credence to Peeke's 12-week weight reduction plan; so do the wowsie before-and-after pictures.

“Gender-specific scientific evidence supports Peeke's premise that women's bodies require different care than men's. But she doesn't stop there. Peeke digs deeper for her audience, defining four hormonal milestones of a woman's life (menarche to beyond menopause) and customizing a physical and mental transformation plan to suit each.

“Easing off on strict calorie and weight guidelines, she focuses instead on serious fat reduction, muscle improvement, and practical suggestions for self-care. But for Peeke, weight reduction pales to bolstering a woman's self-worth through nurturing healthier habits.” (Review by Liane Thomas)

“Strength Training for Women”
From Publishers Weekly: “A personal trainer in NYC’s Upper East Side, Pagano has dedicated the past 16 years of her life to passing her knowledge and passion for fitness on to other women in the hopes of helping them improve their lives and prevent common diseases like osteoporosis.

“Like a good personal trainer should, she begins with a three-part fitness test and questionnaire to assess whether the reader should consult a doctor before beginning her program. For true beginners, she provides an anatomy chart that depicts the major muscle groups and the exercises that are best suited to them. She dispels fitness myths like ‘lifting weights will bulk you up’ and ‘you can spot reduce,’ and talks about the risk factors, exercise guidelines and restrictions of osteoporosis.

“Best of all for novices, many of Pagnano’s beginner exercises require no special equipment, relying instead on everyday fixtures like chairs, walls and kitchen countertops. (More advanced exercises use free weights, stretch bands and stability balls.)

“The color photos, diagrams and clear explanations make the exercises easy to follow, and Pagano provides full training programs for improving posture and strengthening the lower, upper and core muscles of the body. This book may be one of the best substitutes for pricey gym memberships and personal trainers.”

If you've read and used one or both of these books, I'd love to read your review, too.

If you haven't and would like to win one of them, throw your name in the hat! The only catch is if you win, you agree to give the book away when you’re done, or if you can’t part with it, you’ll donate a healthy food item to your local food shelf. That’s it! So leave a comment or send an email to lynnbering@verizon.net and let me know which book you’d like to win. I’ll draw the winners on Sunday evening (June 6).

Happy National Running Day!

Thanks to MizFit’s post today, I learned it is National Running Day. So in honor of all of you crazies (and I love you!) who run for fitness, including those of you training ala C25K and on your own, I confess my running prejudice and reformation.

It’s our nature that when we’re told we can’t do something, we either try to do it anyway, or we convince ourselves that whatever we’re not supposed to do is stupid and we hate it, even though secretly we’re angry that we can’t do it. That’s how it was (PAST tense) with me and running (and skiing).

Since my first knee surgery in 1977 (I was 14), I’ve been told repeatedly to not run or ski. Ergo, I began to consider each of them a waste of time.

Yet some of my best friends are runners. Heck, my husband’s been running for 30+ years. But I never understood their passion. To me, running was nothing more than sending your knees and feet to an early grave.

But I changed my mind on a quiet Sunday morning a few years ago. I started out with my typical Sunday workout intention: to ride my bike up to the track, walk a few miles, then ride home. Like oatmeal or white bread, Sunday workouts are bland but familiar.

I got to the track and walked the first quarter mile, same as I always do. Then I remembered the dream I had the night before – a recurring dream I had every few weeks in which I ran around an obscure track, being timed by a coach. I thought about how as a kid I loved to run just for the sake of running, and how long it had been since I’d run anywhere, and how if this was thousands of years ago and I was one of the early humans who fell out of the trees and stood erect and went hunting, I’d have been one of the first ones eaten.

But on that Sunday morning, with no one was around to critique me and no predators to eat me, I…well…kinda decided to run. Not far – a quarter to a half mile tops, and only in 100-yard spurts – but it was far enough to make me completely change my opinion of running and runners.

I used to think that since I could walk a 12-minute mile, it was close enough to running. Man, was I wrong. Running is so much more than walking. It’s child-like! It’s a rush! The wind feels different, the air smells different, and all your body mechanics are in hyper mode. In just a few hundred yards, I had a small sense of what runner’s mean by a “runner’s high.”

Back in reality, I know I’ll never actually BE a runner, but I’m glad I tried it again. I appreciate my running friends that much more, and as for that recurring dream, I never had it again. Next up may not be skiing, but I am going to try snowshoeing this winter.

So to all my runner friends and runner bloggers and my daughter Cassie who recently became addicted to 5Ks, happy National Running Day! I love your stamina and enthusiasm. Long live your knees, hips, toes and lungs!

A Request For Assistance From "Down Under"

Sandy from Queensland sent me an email last week asking if I had any ideas on how to eat healthy during her 3-week trip to the west coast. I gave her a little of my own advice, but I thought I’d throw this out to all of you, too, because I KNOW you'll have some good, solid advice.

Here’s what Sandy wrote: “My husband and I are travelling to the US from here in Australia at the end of August. I am starting to become really anxious (read “freaked out!”) about being able to eat well while enjoying a driving holiday down the west coast.

“We’ll be travelling for 3 weeks and I won’t have things like my esky (cooler) to help me out. I was thinking of perhaps buying a small one upon arrival along with some disposable plates and the like. I suppose my biggest problem is knowing where to buy things. I've heard of Trader Joes and have found their locations online and have also chased down some farmer’s markets as a source of fresh produce, but storing and preparation may be a problem. Can you let me know of the name of some stores where I can buy fresh fruit and veggies, and do you have any advice for me on how to eat well with no kitchen, refrigeration or 'home' for 3 weeks? I would be so immensely grateful for any advice you can give me - this situation is starting to screw with my head.”

Sandy also started a blog called Belladonna’s Garden that, even with just three entries, I’ve enjoyed very much. I hope you’ll check it out.

If you have ideas for Sandy on how to eat healthy on the road, particularly without a kitchen, please leave a comment here or on her blog, or send me an email at lynnbering@verizon.net and I’ll forward it to my new Australian friend.

Thanks for your help!

How Bad Do You Want It?

I hemmed. I hawed. I limped. I crawled. I negotiated. I meditated. But this dang knee isn’t healing itself, and it damn sure can’t take me biking and hiking like I want. So it is with some foot stomping that I will have surgery June 23.

In 20 years, my family doctor has not steered me wrong. When she said that the fancy “buff n’ shine” that my orthopedic surgeon proposed is my best option for extending the life of my original parts, I decided to heed her advice.

…stomp…

Accepting that surgery is my best option is a lot like when I accepted that losing weight was my best option. I’d tried to deny I was obese, but it’s hard to ignore 300 pounds, just as it’s hard to ignore a knee that’s constantly going out. Once I got honest with myself about my weight, I developed a plan, and life felt lighter even before I lost a pound.

I’m putting together a plan for this knee business, too. Six to 12 weeks recovery time seems like forever right now, but I’ll stick with it – moment by moment, just as I did with weight loss. I’ll do everything I can to recover in as short amount of time as possible.

What a change from my non-exercising days. Back then, if a doctor had said, “Lynn, you can’t work out for 6-12 weeks,” I’d have been ecstatic!

“Woohoo! I ‘can’t’ exercise! I have a doctor’s excuse and everything!”

But now – in this place of weight loss and changed mind and eagerness (yes, EAGERNESS) to exercise – I can’t wait to rehab so I can get back to doing what I love to do: hiking, biking, elipticizing. Heck, just walking without fear of falling will be fabulous!

I can’t deny that I’m a little scared that the moment the surgeon’s scalpel cuts my skin, 170 pounds will seep in along with those old excusive habits. This will be the biggest test in maintenance so far. Can I hang on to this weight? Well, as Don Henley asks, “How bad do you want it?” Answer: I’ve never wanted anything as badly than for this last time down the scale to BE the last time down the scale. I really want it bad enough.

So, I’ll keep on keepin’ on. I’ll eat well, move when I can, and ask for help (online and off) when I need it. No more scary silent worrying. I’m done with that. I have a plan. And looking on the bright side, for a few weeks after surgery, I’ll get to ride around WalMart in a scooter! Beep beep!

So my question to you is: how bad do you want it? And what are you doing to get it?

The "Giving" Chair

I bought this old rocking chair at a garage sale for $1 in the summer of 2004, the summer I weighed 300 pounds (give or take). Its seat was broad, like mine, and the arms had been removed so it fit me perfectly.

The old gal’s been on my porch through snow and rain, heat and cold, grandbabies, parties, and, of course, weight loss. When over the winter its seat developed a split down the middle seam, someone suggested I throw it away. It was only a dollar, she said.

But throwing away that old chair would be like throwing away my old black pants. My pants, I wrote back in March (see “Ode To My Size 28 Black Stretch Pants”), are my friend. They help me through those days when I wonder: Why am I doing this? Why do I journal my food? Why do I eat the way I do? Why do I (usually) say no to chocolate cake, mac n’ cheese, and half in half in my coffee? I love those things!

“Ah,” say the size 28 black stretch pants, “but you love yourself even more.”

The old rocker is that kind of friend, too. It’s my favorite place to sit when I’m having a “fat” day because I remember that garage sale and how I sat down on it before I bought it. My back and legs were sore from walking around. The air was warm and I was breathing heavy. My face was flushed. Sweat trickled down my back. I sat on that chair to rest and it welcomed me – all of me – and gave me comfort.

When I sit on that chair now, I feel the magnitude of 170 pounds gone. I feel small and bony and strong. I feel healthy and grateful. I feel welcomed and comforted. In a way, the chair is my “Giving Tree.” (“The Giving Tree” is a children’s book by Shel Silverstein.) Only unlike the boy in the book, I (or rather my husband) fixed her seat, and in the coming weeks, she’ll get a fresh coat of paint. I need her and want her to have a long life on my porch.

*******
Congratulations to Lynn’s Weigh Facebook “friend” Wendy, who won the Leslie Sansone “Walk & Firm” DVD giveaway! In a few days, my daughter Cassie will be back with a review and giveaway of a new yoga DVD. Stay tuned!

“Some Day” Always Comes (and another giveaway inside!)

Started out I was simply going to vacuum the mudroom. That’s all. A little warm-up before my workout. Four hours later, the hallway carpet was now the mudroom carpet, and my glutes were screaming at me (but in a good way).

I’ve been saying for years that “some day” I’d take up the carpet in the small hallway that links the front of our house with my office and downstairs bathroom and put it in the mudroom, and when I couldn’t bring myself to look at, let alone vacuum, the ugly brown and black speckled mudroom carpet one more time yesterday, I knew “some day” had arrived.

I grabbed a big box for the scraps, a pair of pliers, a screwdriver and a hammer. (I should have grabbed gloves, too) and went to work.

The aftermath

Ripping up carpet is like unwrapping a gift. You never know what you’re what you’re going to get. Yesterday I was hoping against hope I’d discover a nice wood floor, not the kind of flooring we discovered when we ripped up the carpet in the original part of the house in 2006:

Larry ripping up carpet and discovering 1930s newsprint sticking to the pine floors!

The hallway I uncovered yesterday is part of the “new” part of the house that was added in the 1940s. I ripped and tugged until I’d lifted out whole the 60- by 53-inch piece of berber. I peeked underneath and hello! 1940s speckled fiberboard!

I love antiques. God knows I do. But flooring like that should have been outlawed. Bad enough it’s speckled ugly, it’s cardboard ugly. And there was no getting that stuff up without professional help.

So I cleaned it up, painted it white, and laid down a braided rug until I decide what to do next.

Meanwhile, back in the mudroom, I removed the ugly brown and black carpet, wiped down the shelving, cleaned the dust off the ironing board (it doesn’t get used much), and relegated the dog toys to the outdoor storage bin. Larry and I cut the old hallway carpet to fit and we laid it down.

The berber in its new home

Bye, bye, ugly speckled carpet!

When I get a bee in my bonnet like that – when I just can’t stand how something looks or works or I just need a change – there’s no stopping me from starting. Before I lost weight this last time though, I plunged head first into a project not always knowing how or why, and I often lost interest and didn’t follow through. When in 2005 my “some day” came to lose weight (after soooo many “some days” over the years), that same strong desire for change was there, but this time I had a plan and the desire to not stop, even if it meant, to use my carpet story analogy, cutting up my hands or being disappointed in what was underneath.

It’s interesting how that shift in attitude about weight loss caused a shift in my attitude about most other projects I’ve undertaken in the last five years. I still get that overwhelming urge for change – I don’t think that will ever go away or be tempered – but I tend not to jump in without a plan or at least without first committing to seeing it all the way through.

Who knew losing a few pounds would do so much more than change one’s appearance?

As promised, it’s time for another giveaway from my box of weight-loss/weight-maintenance tools. This time, it’s the Leslie Sansone’s “Walk & Firm with Interval Training” DVD. (She’s the lady from the Walk Away The Pounds fame…some of my favorite workout DVDs ever.) I’m also throwing in one of my own Thera-Bands because I ripped in half the pink one that originally came with the DVD. Didn’t mean to. Just got too strong, I guess!

Anyway, you know the only stipulation I have is if you win this DVD, you either give it away when you’re done or keep it if you can’t part with it and donate an item to your local food shelf.

To throw your name in the hat, leave a comment or send me an email at lynnbering@verizon.net. And if you care to, tell me what’s changed in your life that isn’t weight related as you lose weight. I’ll draw a winner on Thursday, May 27.

Congrats to reader Garen (aka Quinta da Quilter) who won the Peter Walsh book in last week’s giveaway.

To those of you who haven’t won one of my giveaways yet, don’t be afraid to keep throwing your name in! I love hearing from you!

Chocolate Cake and Other Memories

Today at my grandson’s first birthday party, I saw my ex-husband for the first time in 11 years. I also ate a piece of chocolate cake made from a recipe that’s been in my family for more than 40 years. Both brought up a lot of emotions, but thankfully I didn’t eat the cake because I was in the presence of Ex.

Even though I had a knot the size of Fort Knox in my stomach both in anticipation of seeing Ex and actually seeing Ex, eating the cake was something I’d planned, and along with a little fruit and a small portion of bean burger from Claire’s plate, it was all I ate this afternoon.

Yet it was –

dare I say –

comforting?

Ex (husband #3 from 1990-1994) was at the party because he and my children recently reconnected. I’m cool with that. I supported it, actually. However, he and I will probably never be real chummy again and I’m learning to be OK with that. My kids are happy and that’s all that matters to me. Besides, it’s complicated and not a ball I want to add to the juggle I’ve got going right now with my knees and shoulders and book and what have you.

Bright spot: Ex’s wife is awesome. She was my friend before she was Ex’s wife. I introduced them, actually, and convinced him to ask her out. Seeing her today was a really nice blast from the past. She looks and sounds the same as ever, and it was like it was 11 days and not 11 years since I talked to her. She personifies all that was good between Ex and me while at the same time represents all the things we wanted in each other and couldn’t have.

OK, so back to the chocolate cake. Growing up, I blew out every year’s birthday candles on that cake, and it was the Baby Jesus cake of choice every Christmas (my daughters always insisted on throwing Baby Jesus a birthday party). It’s still the featured cake at my niece’s and nephews’ birthdays, and now my grandchildren’s.

It’s the frosting that sets it apart. While it tastes good in tandem with the cake, I always ate it separate from the cake, like the cake and frosting were individual foods. Today I ate a small sliver of cake, consuming both the frosting and cake together. But it just wasn’t the same. Sort of like Ex and me. We’re both good people. We are just best when enjoyed separately.

What is it about particular foods that anchor us? Remind us? Tether us to a memory? That chocolate cake kept me somewhat sane today. Just seeing it in the pan reminded me of my 30 years before Ex. The times when I was a little kid like Luca and Claire and enjoyed the hell out of my birthday. I didn’t even have to eat it to feel its significance.

Thanks for making it through this complicated maze of thoughts. I hope some of it made sense. I just needed this place to vent and start sorting out this newest layer of life stuff. I suspect we all need a jumping off place like that. I’m just glad I had a nice sliver of comforting chocolate cake to put it all in perspective.

Luca crushing his non-chocolate cake cupcake. Happy b-day, Luca Man!

Claire crushing carrots with reduced-fat ranch dip. That girl ate at least 25 carrots today.