November 4, 2008
I did not have to wait in line to vote today. At 2:30 (thank you flexible work schedule), I walked in, took my ballot, filled in my bubbles and walked out.
Sub 5 minute voting experience.
Now that’s historical.
Ok, all tomfoolery aside, even though he wasn’t my candidate, this is an amazing day for our country and I hope God blesses him and he makes wise decisions for the future of our great country. I’m not a big politco, but am proud to be an American.
October 28, 2008
This has been a hard week at work. I won’t go into all the details, but suffice it to say my schedule has been changing in ways I would not have predicted a year ago. We added in a class to try and grab full time workers, so I now teach Tuesday mornings at 6:30 and 7:30 am, and do individual sessions starting at 6a on Thursday mornings. We also had some personnel changes, so for at least the next 2 months, I am going to be solely in charge of all the classes and individual sessions, whereas before I did about 2/3rds of the classes and half of the sessions. Both changes are good things in the long run, but they happened within two weeks of each other and in the adjustment period, I think I’ve been putting in about 10 hour day with 2-3 hours of work coming home each night. It is very, very dark when I get to work.
I feel whiny and tired and am drinking a lot of coffee.
It will get better. Sigh. More sleep needed, please.
October 26, 2008
This was one of those weekends where I had nothing (planned) to do yet ended up doing a fair amount of things anyways – mostly stuff I have wanted to do for awhile or needed to do. Nothing feels better than lots of check marks on my always present to do list.
Friday night, with our hubs out of town, Jamie and I made a big mess out of her kitchen table and both worked on scrapbooks that are about 3 years old (hers: wedding parties, 2005; mine: first year of dating, 2005.) This year I finally finished a scrapbook from my travel abroad to Spain (2002) and I’m nearly done with my wedding scrapbook (2007). I am declaring this the end of my scrapbooking career. I like the end result, but I just don’t find it as rewarding and relaxing as really hardcore scrappers do. Not to mention it’s absurdly expensive. I think I like the idea of this serving as my digital scrapbook going forward. I can’t put adorable stickers or vellum quotes on here, but I think I’m okay with that. (Truth be told, I can’t figure out how to use vellum anyways.)
Saturday morning I drove over to Greensboro to walk in the Arthritis Foundation’s 5k walk. Monica and I were scoping it out to determine whether or not our participants could do it next year and it was a really easy trail. Our walkers would dominate it. And then they’d be all over the Krispy Kreme donuts, much to my chagrin. Not really – I ate one too.
In the afternoon, I went over to a house that is being converted into a house of service by a friend of Emily’s. 5 of us sorted and folded donated clothing while chatting and the hours flew by. Afterwards, Jamie and I went and did a little clothes sorting of our own at Forever 21. I found an armful of clothing that I liked, but thankfully only two made it past the dressing room scrutinizing. Typical of 21. (And good for my wallet.) Saturday evening, I alternated between working on my scrapbook again, watching Celebrity Rehab and switching out my summer and winter clothes. When Matt called to check in, he found a perfectly content wife. What could be better than being crafty and super organizing projects simultaneously? Nada. Nada my friends.
Sunday I slept in sans alarm which was glorious, then scrubbed the house from top to bottom in preparation for the hubby’s return on Friday. I made a quick run to Target for my sistser’s birthday present (an LED flameless candle, which sounds super lame-o but is actually way neat) and came home to settle in for a dinner of pesto penne and chicken.
I loved having a weekend to be all projecty and organizing and cleany… but I am also so very ready for Matt to get home and hang out with me!
October 17, 2008
I’m not a big TV watcher but there are 3 things my DVR is set to catch regularly: Oprah, Red Sox games and the Biggest Loser. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge fan of the Biggest Loser. I am so inspired by the process of transformation that each contest goes through and the show’s multi-faceted approach to weight loss: exercise, nutrition and behavioral change. Almost every episode features a peek into someone’s emotional blue print, and with the help of Jillian, Bob or as featured last season – a clinical psychologist – the show helps demonstrate the weight loss is as much about our mental and emotional state as it is our physical state.
One of the things that has always bugged me about the Biggest Loser, however, is the big numbers that the contestants throw up each week. I know it’s a TV show and seeing someone lose a pound a week wouldn’t make for exciting ratings, but the numbers they put up have always sparked a great deal of conversation among my groups and clients as to what is realistic to expect for weight loss.
So, Tuesday night, while watching the black and blue team suffer through a 14 hour hike, I got out my calculator and did a little calorie math to see: just what is the story behind all those big numbers.
To start with, I’ll use the example of the women who generally lose less weight each week then the men.
Julie Hadden, a stay-at-home mom and runner up on Season 4, started the show at 218 lbs at 34 years old, 5 feet 2 inches. Her starting caloric needs would have been about 2,082 calories according to one of my
favorite calorie calculators. (I set it to use the Harris-Benedict equation.)
From what I gather from various references on the show, the contestants are given a calorie budget (woohoo!) based on their needs. Let’s say Julie was given a calorie budget of 1200-1400 calories/day, a pretty standard number for a female in her mid 30s. With changes in her nutrition alone, Julie would have had a 600-800 calorie deficit a day. Even without exercise, she would have averaged a pound of weight lost every four to six days.
Remember, it takes a deficit of 3,500 calories – achieved through nutrition or exercise – to lose one pound.
According to the
Biggest Loser Blog, the contestants work out for an average of four to six hours a day. (Whoa! Now here’s where we might argue the question of realistic expectations…. ) A 218 lb woman could
easily burn 2,000-3,000 calories with a combination of
cardio and resistance training for 4-6 hours. Right there, the contestants would create an average 0.5-1 lb/a day weight loss.
As their weight comes down, both the calories they burn during exercise and the difference between their caloric needs for maintenance and caloric needs for weight loss diminishes, thus slowing the rate of weight loss. However, lean body mass does require higher calories for basic metabolism than fat body mass, so they do experience a slight edge there with the high level of resistance training they endure.
So, is it realistic? Scientifically speaking, yes. The caloric deficits created through a typical 1200-1400 calorie diet and through 4-6 hours of exercise do translate into “big numbers” – contestants losing 5, 7, even 10 pounds in a week. Is it realistic as a far as lifestyle change goes? How likely is someone to devote nearly a quarter of their day to exercise? That, my friends, is a personal choice.
I personally don’t fault the Biggest Loser for creating unrealistic expectations about weight loss. I’ve never had the impression that they are trying to mislead the public about the intensity of physical activity that the participants endure and almost every episode includes information and references to proper nutrition. If anything, the Biggest Loser may be a source of inspiration and motivation to many people out there who may feel totally trapped in their bodies.
There’s no fooling yourself if you watch the show: the transformation process is grueling physically. But the impact of transforming one’s health is not limited to the physical results. The sense of self-confidence and empowerment that results transcends all aspects of one’s life. We can dismiss the Biggest Loser for fooling us each week by putting up big numbers or we can embrace them each week for living out big dreams. I, for one, am in the latter group.
Food for Thought: Who or what motivates you? Do you ever find yourself in the midst of “dreaming big” and interrupting yourself with the thought that “you could never do that”? For better or worse, reality TV is here to stay… but what we can learn from it is this: those are real people. They are no different from you and me, thought it may seem that they are doing the impossible. There may not be a $250,000 prize or a Larry King interview waiting for you, but who’s to stop YOU from putting up big numbers?
October 3, 2008
The interview invitations have started rolling in – four, so far. It is hard to believe just a mere 2 1/2 years ago I was summoning up my “here we go” courage to move back down to Winston… and now I’m sad at the possibility of leaving! But, the possibilities are extremely open right now and the prospect of being somewhere else for a few years holds taps into my adventure-y side. After all, July marked one year in the same residence. That’s a record I hadn’t tapped since 2002. Woohoo, stability.
Speaking of staying home… for the first time months (it feels like), we are staying home this weekend. Sigh, glorious sigh. There’s lemon square baking in the oven, our neighbors are coming up in 20 minutes for bbq chicken and Matt’s taking a nap while I blog. THIS is what a relaxing weekend is all about.
A proper blogging of all summer events would have been ideal (since I do imagine this to be my one day digital scrapbook*), but a quick list/recap will suffice. In backwards order until I tire out:
- 9/26-9/28: Rochester, NY for Fred & Michelle’s Wedding
- 9/19-9/20: Home but ran Salem Lake 10k & did a YMCA talk, Matt on call Saturday
- 9/12-9/14: Matt on call Friday, dinner party with med school gang and a baby shower for Wake co-worker
- 9/6-9/8: DC for Jen & Ryan’s Wedding
- 8/29-9/1: 3rd Year Party
- 8/22-8/23: Cinema Under the Stars
- 8/15-8/17: (Ok I lied. We took a breather this weekend.)
- 8/8-8/10: Out in Charlotte with sis, sis-in-law and boyfriend of sis; home to Lincolnton the next day for an anniversary dinner (ours!)
- 8/1-8/3: Erie, PA for Shelby & Brad’s wedding
- 7/25-7/27: Toronto, ON via Rochester, NY (where we stayed all week)
- 7/18-7/20: Matt on “mancation” at the beach, Jamie and I ran Beat the Heat 5k
- 7/11-7/13: Down to Lake Hickory to hang out with the Wards’ and fancypants 4th Year Dinner at Old Towne Country Club
- 7/4-7/6: 4th of July @ Warthogs Game
- 6/27-6/29: Another breather weekend. Probably reloading groceries!
- 6/20-6/22: up to mountain house with Zac & Jamie
- 6/13-6/15: NYC for Shelby’s Bachlorette Party
- 6/6-6/8: Cookout party @ our house
- 5/30-6/1: Raleigh, NC: Emily & Tim’s Wedding
- 5/23-5/25: Cherokee Lake, TN with Zac & Jamie
- 5/15-5/17: Mom visiting for Katie’s Masters’ graduation and my birthday
- 5/9-5/11: Saunders cookout
- 5/2-5/4: Race for the Cure and Forseys host Cuatro de Mayo party
- 4/25-4/27: Tampa, FL for Emily’s bachlorette party
- 4/17-4/19: Myrtle Beach, SC with fam and back to Lincolnton on Saturday for Adria’s wedding
- 4/11-4/13: Myrtle Beach, SC with fam
- 4/4-4/6: Washington, DC for ipec graduation weekend
Wow. And I wonder sometimes why it seems like it’s been weeks since I’ve done any laundry….
September 21, 2008
My Second Blog.
About Two People.
In their Second Year of marriage.
