SISTERS CHECKPOINT #2 

                 NOTE: This blog entry written from the
        other coast where it's 80-degrees & sunny
        today feels a bit ridiculous as the  
        storm-of-all-storms is about to rain 
        down on you and as Camille & Leslie have
        have had to evacuate. So, bloggers, you 
        may skip today's reading. Make-up reading 
        optional. 
                               Yours,
                               The Professor



On this dark and sunny deadline morning, I managed 20 modified push-ups! I made my goal! Just. Huzzah!

Clothes that I wore around climbing-Mt-Whitney time are fitting me again.

I continue to drink a minimum of 4 8-oz glasses of water a day. My Zerowater filter has been a fantastic purchase for me. In the past 2 months, I don't think I've had a single Diet Coke, or any sweetened drink, including the artificially sweetened.

I have a NutriBullet juice or smoothie daily -- alternating green drinks with high-protein smoothies made with fresh strawberries. 

Negligible pasta, negligible bread, even whole-grain breads.

I continue to have a morning cup of fresh-brewed green tea and, sometimes in the afternoon or evening, green tea with pomegranate or mango.

I continue yoga.

I continue with my skin, body, and dental care routines.


MY GOALS GOING FORWARD:
Continue all of the above.
Strengthen my modified push-up form; maintain 20, but add 2 more sets, even if I can only do a few reps per set.

Recommit to the 1-cup measuring cup tool.

Recommit to minimal sugar, or to put it positively, recommit to optimal nutrition in all things.

Walk. My blistered heels healed slowly, but it's time to put my great, new walking shoes on again.

Bike. Get on my high-tech exercise bike, get on my Bianchi, a hybrid road/dirt bike, and ride!

I will not, not, not yell at myself for how slowly it's taken me to recommence cardio.



NEXT CHECKPOINT

December 31, the last day of the year, is my proposed date for our next deadline. Leslie said yes. Camille, Colleen, Kim? Personally, our deadlines have kept me on my preferred path. So I very much need a new one.

New name? 
The Lighter Versions; Slim Sunny Cafe, Sunny Slim Cafe,    Seaside Slim Cafe, Slim Shiny Seaside Cafe; Physiques-in-Progress? Hell, I don't know. If enough of us give suggestions, we're bound to land on something.

A BIRTHDAY MESSAGE FROM FROGGY TO KIM

You know you've always been special to me, Sweetheart. So, from my lily pad to your Boston pad I say Happy Birthday!

    ABYAS

  ALWAYS BE YOUR AWESOME SELF

               

                 Love,
                 Froggy

REPLY TO LESLIE
Swish & Sway? Hey, wouldn't that be a venial sin?

GUYS DO IT AGAINST THE WALL TOO!

OCBMD
I need to submit a new disorder to the editors of the DSM, the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders":  Obsessive-Compulsive Body-Measuring Disorder. I can't be sure but I may have stumbled onto something important here. I may be the honest-to-goddess founder of this disorder. 

You may recall my three-part Professor series on the waist and also my earlier expressions of uncertainty about how exactly to measure it. Belly-button, above the belly-button. Suck-in, don't suck in. With or without sucking in, don't allow the tape measure to sink even a millimeter into any soft flesh, go ahead and allow a slight impression, or allow the measuring tape to embed itself as deeply into the marshmallow as it can go.

I mean, we're not made of marble, are we? If we were, this wouldn't be an issue -- for us OCBMDs anyway.

This is fresh on my mind again because I just attempted measuring my waist and hips. 

Remember Kim talking about facing reality being far better than not? It being an effective and motivating "tool" even?

So I got on board with measuring, to some extent, back in August at Colleen's place when Colleen, Camille and I took our measurements together. And wrote them down.

When I got back to Santa Monica, I bought my own measuring tape. (Hey, I was just kidding about one of y'all hiding it on me! And I was only pretending to be Capt. Queeg's daughter! I lost the tape myself!)

With October 28 looming, I pulled out my found tape last night and measured my waist -- at the belly button, above the belly button, subtly sucked in, no sucking in whatsoever, and so on. And then repeated this all over again. I measured myself into a bloody muddle and, exasperated, walked away from the bloody mirror.

CUT TO: This morning. I bucked up and went for it again, first noting down my August numbers:
              Waist 36.5"  (@bellybutton)
              Hips  39"
              (Waist-Hip ratio:  0.94)
New numbers:  Waist 32" (@bellybutton)
              Waist 30-31" (above bellybutton)
              Hips  38"
              (Waist-Hip ratio:  0.84)

So these results say I've lost 4.5" in my waist since August. How is that even possible. You see my problem?

I'm exhausted.

Love,
Me, aka the Professor, aka Ms. Queeg


PS: Maybe I have a resistance to good news?

Rule 6 - Eat apples and berries every single day, every, single day!

snacking on fruits: apples (sometimes by themselves, sometimes with a small piece of cheese or some peanut butter);strawberries and blueberries (maybe with some greek yogurt)

Apples and berries are rich in a class of natural molecules called phytochemicals.  In the human body, these are usually involved in some stage of metabolism.  The most important phytochemicals for our purposes are anthocyanins, usually concentrated in the skin of colorful fruits and vegetables.

Anthocyanins, along with other phytochemicals like quercitin and ellagitannins, seem to act as a powerful natural anti-inflammatories.

I AM ALL ABOUT ANTI INFLAMMATION -ME- LESLIE

solid fruit affects satiety more than pureed fruit or juice, and that eating fruit at the start of a meal can reduce energy intake

frozen berries of all kinds are just as good as fresh berries-as long as there are no added sugars (including juice) and they tend to cost less

PRAY FOR US THIS STORM PASSSES US BY AND TURNS WEST