Disassembled, rearranged

2004-01-15 - 12:21 p.m.

This morning I got up about fifteen minutes before my alarm went off and went for a jog. I'm getting worse instead of better. Ok, so for the last two days I haven't jogged at all so technically today I was better than those days, but still. I could only make myself jog for 20 minutes. Twenty lousy minutes. I had an idea that maybe I'm going about it incorrectly. Maybe what I should do is set out a long course, and then instead of worrying about whether or not I jog the whole thing, I can should let myself walk now and then. Maybe I'll feel more like jogging if I know it's ok to walk too. I have to do something to keep myself going!

Last week, the first week of my diet, I lost a lot more than I expected. Especially since it was my birthday week so I had lasagna and birthday cake for several days. Every day I would end up going over my target points, using up all my activity points, and then using flex points too. And that was while eating 1- and 2-point breakfasts and lunches. This week is different. Without the added 12 points per slice of homemade chocolate cake, I come in well under my target points every day. But part of the deal is that I'm supposed to eat all my target points so that I don't put my body into starvation mode and slow down my metabolism. Yesterday, at the end of the day I still had six points left. It was the end of the day, though, I didn't feel like eating anymore. So what did I do? I ate M&M's. I measured them out so that I only ate 5 points worth, but still, I'm sure that wasn't the wisest choice. But then I think it's probably not worse than the chocolate cake I was eating last week. And what would be a better choice? Sitting down and eating six apples? Maybe I just need to plan better. But since I'm not the one in charge of dinner around here, that's hard. I suppose I could always volunteer to take over the job, but I doubt my dad would be satisfied with my cooking. I think my cooking is edible, but I don't usually force it on other people. I don't know, I feel like I'm eating more this week than last week and that combined with my lack of energy for doing exercise (I've never completely skipped exercising, though, I've always gone on at least a 20-minute bike ride and a 2-mile walk), makes me feel like I must surely be gaining some of that weight back this week, even though I'm still on plan.

And sometimes I find myself trying to cheat the system a little. See, when food points are calculated they round to the nearest half point. So sometimes I can eat a small serving of something and have it be the same points value as a larger serving. So I find myself thinking things like, "Well, I can put a quarter cup of sauce on this for one point, or I can put a half cup of sauce on this and it's still just one point. Bring on the sauce!" When actually I would normally only put on a quarter cup. So in fact being on the diet is causing me to eat more than if I wasn't on it. I think I've fully realized this, though, and I'm avoiding the temptation to do it. The other thing I tend to do is cheat when I'm keeping track of things, again due to the rounding. For example, one cup of 1% milk is 2 points. Two cups, however, is 4.5 points. So if I count one cup of milk twice I use 4 points instead of counting two cups of milk and using 4.5 points. See what I mean? But I'm avoiding that too now. I'm a tricky little devil, I really have to keep my eye on me.

After jogging and then biking and showering this morning, I took my car down to the Jiffy Lube to have its oil changed. Last weekend it hit 85,000 miles. I hate the way when I just want my oil changed they always try to sell me a bunch of other stuff too. When I payed for it, I used my Amazon.com credit card. I know, I'm a dork, but why the heck would I pass up an opportunity for free stuff from Amazon? Anyway, the guy who had just changed my oil and was now ringing me up looked at the card and said, "Woah, you bought so much stuff there they sent you a credit card?" I just laughed and said, "Yeah." He examined the card for a while, while I was wondering when he was actually going to slide it through the machine and let me sign for it, and then asked, "So...how does that work?" I looked at him blankly. How does a credit card work? Surely he didn't mean that. He continued, "Do they like, just bring stuff to your house?" My goodness, the man was from the dark ages. I explained all about how Amazon works while he finished ringing me up.

Also, today my new and hopefully better fitting contact came in. I swung by the optometrist's office after Jiffy Lube to pick it up. I haven't tried it yet. I was thinking maybe I'd just wait until tomorrow. I made a follow-up appointment for next Thursday. And then I went to the grocery store and guess what! I made it through the self-checkout stand without having to have an employee come reset the computer for me. Of course I only bought three items, but still!

I got a call from Kevin a few days ago and he asked me to play volleyball with him again this season. I told him I would and he told me he'd call me back to let me know what time. He hasn't called me back yet, but our first game should be tonight.

Last night an old college friend IM'ed me and told me she's going to be in Sacramento Friday evening. So we set up a date to have dinner together that night. I'm excited, I haven't seen her in quite some time. I still remember the first time I met her. She was a freshman in my dorm when I was a sophomore. Flik and I were roommates that year and since we were sophomores (and therefore very cool) we knew all about how to set up a cool dorm room. On the day everyone moved in we had already set up all our furniture and air-conditioner and carpeting and we were sitting in our room chatting. Meanwhile all the freshman were moving into their rooms with cruddy dorm furniture, tile floors, and no A/C (a lack which in Stockton in August can make life pretty miserable). That's when this particular friend poked her head in and we invited her to come in and sit a while and she ooohed and aaawed over the coolness of our room as we tried to ease some of her freshman fears. Anyway, I'll see her again for dinner Friday night. It will be my first dinner out at a real restaurant since I started my diet. We'll see how I handle it.

And finally, I've been scheming with the Babe for us to drive down together to LA to visit Tigger. Hopefully I will be able to visit Feathers too while I'm down there, but she and her boyfriend are going to Las Vegas that weekend so it'll depend on how early we get there. We're thinking of going to Disneyland while we're there. I've never been to the California Adventures park, maybe we'll go there. I'm going to ask Feathers if she can lend me her and her boyfriend's season passes since they're going to be out of town anyway. I'm excited!