Compressed Posting

Too many topics running through my head.  Here are some compressed posts:

I have muscles.  I'm sure I had muscles when I did competitive gymnastics decades ago, but I was a child and I didn't care.  I've never had cool muscles as an adult.  I have a six pack, my forearms have clothes-wringing muscles and my calves are crazy firm even when at rest.  Exercise goes well with weigh loss—in fact, it's a strongly recommended companion to dieting—and I was hoping to get in better shape after two pregnancies, but I never thought I'd have really cool looking (and performing) muscles.

Why two is better than one.  If I like something and I know I'm going to continue to like it—meaning I'm sure it's not a phase—then I like to buy big.  Two bottles of conditioner, two boxes of coffee and two pair of sneakers.  The conditioner and the coffee I'm betting you can see.  But two pairs of shoes?  The exact same shoes?  Same color and everything?  And your current pair is less than a month old?  But I love these shoes.  I've done this before with shoes—loved a pair and thought I'd be able to re-buy them later to find the entire line discontinued when I went back to the store—so this time I went ahead and got a second pair.  They fit so nicely.  And they're orange and lilac.  You heard right, orange and lilac.  I love the colors and I'd bet far odds they're not going to be in stores that long with a color scheme like that.

Calorie Count Comfort:  For months, the way I knew I was on track for the day and not eating too much was to keep track of how many calories I'd eaten since the beginning of the day.  I learned there are far more calories in food than I'd thought.  I learned that a bite here and there, when factored in for a whole day, can ruin an otherwise good day of dieting.  And I learned the body doesn't need nearly the quantity of food I thought it did to maintain a specific weight.  So, weight loss target reached, but I didn't have confidence that I would stay there.  So I kept counting calories.  More calories each day as I didn't need to cut calories off from my base metabolic needs.  Even more calories to add back in from the increasing exercise I'd been doing.  But I didn't trust myself yet.  Finally I have a good feel for my intake and I can happily say that while I'm aware of what and how much I'm eating, I trust that I won't overeat.  Or if I do overeat, I'll make up for it the next day or with exercise.

The case of the phone without the case:  I've always had a case on my iPhone.  It's a costly piece of hardware and I don't want to drop it and break it.  But it didn't fit into my running arm band easily.  So I made a decision and took off the case. The outer glass on the iPhone is made from the same glass that helicopter windshields are made from—surely that's strong enough for whatever I might throw at it?   And so far, I haven't missed the case while enjoying a smaller phone by dimensions in my pocket all day.  The case is staying off.  We're all hoping we never see a, "I sure wish I'd kept that case on" post here in the future, right?

The case of the missing watch: Still going without a watch.  There are times every day I look at my watch, I mean my wrist, to find there is no time readout there.  But on the whole, I'm glad I took the leap to stop wearing a watch.  I feel less focused on smaller time increments without a watch.

Tired muscles aren't the same thing as sore muscles:  I was thinking about how tired I was this morning after running.  Yes, I'd been running for over an hour-and-a-half, and yes, I was quite tired.  But I wasn't sore.  I'm usually tired shortly after a run, but not usually sore later that day or the next day.  I'm hoping that means I'm not overdoing it.  I am not interested in over-exercising and injuring myself.

I can't remember how hard it was.  I've been trying to beat my Four on the 4th race time from the fourth of July.  I ran faster than I've ever run that day, as races encourage you better than any casual run will.  The new heart rate monitor is helping me keep up a better cardiovascular pace.  And I've gotten thirteen seconds from beating my best four mile time.  The good news is I'm not exhausted or nearly as tired as I was on the fourth and yet I'm still close to that race time.  So I have gotten in better shape since the run.  What strikes me though is I can't remember how hard or how tiring it is when I'm not running.  I always remember when I'm in the middle of a run and am panting and thinking what a fool I was for taking up this hobby, but once it's over, I can't recapture the feeling.  So I go out the next time and try again.  Hopefully I'll beat my record next time.  Forgetting how tiring running is is not unlike forgetting how hard labor is after you have that cute baby.  So much so that women keep having babies. 

The Big Boy Update:  "Buh bye eat."  We tell him he's going to go eat as we're taking him to the high chair or out to a meal.  He knows the word and even uses the ASL sign for "eat" when you ask him if he wants to go eat.  Yesterday morning as he got down from his high chair after breakfast, he turned around, waved at the chair and said, "Buh bye eat."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She really gets it—the "uh oh."  She says it all the time when she drops something like a book or a cracker.  She drops the item, looks where it dropped and then says, "uh oh" in the cutest little baby girl voice.  I'm trying to get a video of it.

Fitness Update:  Eight miles today with my neighbor.  She and I are debating when and how we're going to fit in our long runs (10+ miles) each week as we get closer to the race.  We're losing morning daylight—this morning it was dark when we started running the neighborhood so we couldn't enter the shaded park at first—and school starts in less than a week.  With the start of school, our children will have to get up earlier and we'll have more to do each morning.  But we'll find a way.