Day 2

First, a quick reminder for those new here - the Celtic bar is not there as mere decoration. It divides posts. The post comment link is at the bottom of each post, not the top. Today I changed the text to read "x comments on above post" instead of just "x comments." I also got rid of the thin line that was above the comment area, so that confusion is removed. I love comments, but please comment at the bottom of each post. Thanks. :)

Ok, on to diet stuff.

Up to 145 today. Well, 144.8 most likely. I had already taken my vitamins with a few swallows of protein shake before I remembered I needed to weigh myself and the scale fluctuated between 144.8 and 145 before settling on 145. I messed up day 1 of this diet by eating extra calories yesterday - two pieces of sugar free candy (with sugar alcohols) before bed when I had only planned on one. Sugar alcohols always make me show a gain the next day. I'm trying to do some calorie cycling, so since yesterday was high, today is lower.

I tried to stop the Metabolife pills yesterday and my appetite came back with a vengeance! I started them again today. It just makes things a little less painful to not feel hungry all the time. I can't afford anymore when the current box is gone, but it really has helped keep my appetite under control.

My pedometer came today! Yippee! Now I can track my steps. I think I will do a walk of known quantity on the treadmill tomorrow to make sure I have the stride length set right.

Speaking of which, I get to go back to the gym tomorrow. My one-week-during-which-you-can-only-walk is up! Yippee again! I've missed the gym and had a hard time sleeping in. I think there might be something to the theory about low-carbers needing less sleep.

My two cases of Atkins strawberry shakes also came today. I have to buy off e-bay because, even with shipping, it's still cheaper than in the store. Strawberry isn't my favorite, but it'll be a nice break. I'll drink ANY Atkins shake. They are all so good. :)

Walked to work from the BART station - 1.5 miles. FitDay says 78 calories. I took a break at the mini mall as I have each day this week. I decided to get a diet Coke at one of the other restaurants rather than coffee at Starbucks. I sat outside and did my study and then read my book. When I got up one of my eyes was watering. It hasn't completely stopped even now, hours later. Gotta love allergies. I'll probably be okay by tomorrow, but jeez. I won't be sitting outside again. I took couple Benedryl and am using coffee to counteract its sleep-inducing effects since I'm at work. Argh!

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More South Beach insanity

I'm constantly amazed at the need of Dr. Agatston to put down the Atkins diet. I bought the 2006 day-at-a-time calendar, which is basically little quotes and stories from Dr. Agatston's South Beach Diet book. He evidently feels Atkins is a threat to him and sometimes puts it down. :(

I came across another put down recently. Though not as serious as the one on March 10, it was still bad. A diet should be able to stand on its own. When an author has to put down another diet I start wondering why. If their diet is so good there should be no need to put down another.

Now understand that Dr. Atkins says people should give up caffeine because it can cause cravings and overeating of carbs and therefore stall weight loss.

Here's from the May 29th entry of the South Beach calendar:
Some diets prohibit coffee or tea because caffeine can intensify cravings somewhat. But you've got enough changes to contend with without having to give up your morning coffee, too.

Dr. Agatston is nothing if not a master at putting down Dr. Atkins without ever mentioning his name! I'm so sick of these put-downs. If the South Beach Diet is so good, it should have no need to disparage another diet. Perhaps that why I liked Dr. Atkins so much - he never puts anyone down, except for explaining why low-fat diets in general don't work.

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My first audioblog!

Day 1

I signed up for a weight loss challenge.

Starting stats:
Age: 35
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 144
BMI: 22.6
Body fat: 24%

My starting weight for this challenge is the same as yesterday. Body fat is 24% (as measured by a trainer at the gym). It was down to 22.5% at one time, but I gained some back. :( One quarter of my body is fat. Is that depressing or what? The scale at home (which does only the lower half of my body) says 27.4%!

I did do the 1.5 mile walk to work today in 25 minutes, stopping at Starbucks for a Chai tea sweetened with sugar free Vanilla syrup (only about 4 calories). I drank that as I worked on the Purpose Driven Life study for church, and then read The DaVinci Code. I finally broke halfway on that damn book today. We've finally met Sir Leigh Teabing, who I dislike already. Anyway, FitDay says 75 calories burned from the walking.

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My food and exercise journal is public and can be accessed here. I plan my menus ahead with approximations, then tweak them as needed.

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Calculating your BMR, and other life stuff

Why is losing weight such an impossible thing? :(

144 this morning. Two pounds over goal, which is good, ever if those 2 pounds are all fat. :(

I found a base metabolic rate (BMR) calculation.
The Harris Benedict Calorie Needs Formula for Women:
655 + (9.6 x weight in kilos) + (1.8 x height in centimeters) - (4.7 x age in yrs)

(If you don't know your weight in kilos, go to Google and type in, for example, "145 pounds in kilograms." It will tell you your weight in kilos. Then do the same for centimeters.)

Plugging my numbers into this I get:
655+(9.6 x 65.77)+(1.8 x 170)-(4.7 x 35)
655+631.39+306-164.5
=1428 BMR

That means that I need 1428 calories each day just to breath and keep my heart beating. This is different from my RMR (resting metabolic rate), which was tested last year at 1610.

I then multiply this by my activity level:
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days per week) multiply your BMR by 1.375

So 1.375 activity level times 1428 gives me 1949.

This is the number of calories I need each day to maintain my current weight. That seems high to me. I think 1800 might be closer.

Going by the "couch potato" 1.2 calculation I get 1713.6. I think my true number is between these and 1800 makes a lot of sense.

What if I have screwed up my metabolism from dropping my calories so low the last couple of months? If I have, how do I "up" my metabolism again so my body knows there is no famine? Anyone know? Post a comment if you do.

Slept in again today and walked the last leg to work. Stopped at Starbucks and got an iced coffee. I did my Purpose Driven Life study and then read The DaVinci Code for a while. I just want to finish the stupid book. I really don't see why it's so popular. Never mind the history and theology; the thing has plot holes big enough to drive a truck through! I won't be reading any more Dan Brown books after this! Bleh.

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The low-fat legacy

FRIDAY, May 26 (HealthDay News) -- The number of Americans diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has now topped 19 million, and a new study says a third of adults with the disease don't even know they have it.

The researchers found that another 26 percent of adults had "impaired fasting glucose," a precursor to diabetes.

Full story here.

This news story brought to you courtesy of the low-fat diet that has been touted for years. How blind we have been - and most of us still are! Could carbohydrates possibly play a role in the out of control diabetes epidemic? What do you think? There are no "essential carbohydrates" so why are we told to eat 300g a day?

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Sabbaths and Sundays, Common Proof Texts, #1

In this section I will deal with common proof texts that people use to prove that Sunday is the Sabbath. In order to avoid copyright issues, I will use the KJV most of the time since it is in public domain. (It is NOT my favorite translation.) I will occasionally use the New American Standard Bible (my personal favorite), the New International Version, and the Revised Standard Version. When I do I will put the copyright information at the bottom of the post.

Claim: In John 5:17 Jesus says it's okay to work on the Sabbath because He and His Father do.
And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. (John 5:16-17).

The real question in this passage is the definition of "work." What kind of work is Jesus and His Father engaged in? The Jews felt He was engaged in work that was not lawful on the Sabbath (v. 18), but we know Jesus was sinless, so He was not actually doing anything unlawful, and there is nothing in the Old Testament that mitigates against healing on the Sabbath, which is the charge the Jews leveled against Him. In fact, Jesus says, "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:12).

So what is the "work" Jesus and His Father were doing? I contend that, in keeping with the healing motif, the "work" in this passage is redemptive work - the work of healing the human condition and soul. This is work that God has been engaged in since the fall, and will be engaged in until Jesus comes back. This is work that is lawful on the Sabbath, for the same reason the priests worked harder on the Sabbath than any other day in the Temple, and yet were held guiltless.

Let me quote Samuele Bacchiocchi, since he is much more the scholar than I: "God ended on the Sabbath his act of creation, but not his action in general. Because of sin, he 'is working until now' to accomplish the salvation of the human race. Christ's act of healing represents a link in the great chain of God saving acts accomplished here on earth, and consequently it does not contradict but fulfills the spirit of the Sabbath. By linking his healing act to the saving Sabbath activity of the Father, Christ was actually saying to his adversaries: In accusing me, you are really reproaching the Legislator himself, since I only act in harmony with his precepts and example" (The Sabbath in the New Testament, pages 296-7).

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Sunday's Child

145 today, same as yesterday. Yippee on that. I usually way overeat on Saturday. I managed by having a sugar free protein shake for lunch, and by not snacking on peanuts or cheese crackers during the break time. I had only three Goldfish crackers and a very small amount of peanuts. Total calories yesterday - about 1900. Carbs were a bit high (73g), but considering that Saturdays are usually quite a bit higher, I'm okay with that.

Next week won't be as good. I'll be at church all day because Leona is planning a Pentacost feast. This means both lunch and dinner will be "out." I'll see what I can do and do my best.

No gym today because the trainer said to rest. I slept in until about 10:45. That felt good. Ever since I started working out sleep-in days are so rare.

Today I'm going to try dropping my calories. We'll see how it goes. My fat today is still too low, but I did work in an ounce of pork rinds since they are all fat and protein with no carbs.

I'm going to switch my weights and cardio and do cardio first so that my protein shake is right after my weight training. This is something I changed a couple months ago and I suspect is part of the problem - I *need* protein after working my muscles and was gaining muscle mass when the weights came last so that my protein shake directly followed the weight training.

I'm going to cut out the meal bars yet again and substitute eggs. I picked up another dozen on Friday and hard boiled them. That will give me enough eggs for the week.

I'm so fat. I hate my body. :(

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Weight loss and religion?!?

Do these things have anything in common? They sure do! The same way we grow in our Christian faith is the same way we lose weight.

From Day 23 of The Purpose Driven Life:

To change your life, you must change the way you think...you try to change your life with willpower: You say, "I'll force myself to eat less...exercise more..." Yes willpower can produce short-term change, but it creates constant internal stress because you haven't dealt with the root cause. The change doesn't feel natural, so eventually you give up, go off your diet, and quit exercising. You quickly revert to your old patterns (pgs. 181-182).

This is our autopilot and the only way to overcome this is to change our autopilot. No matter what happens from here on out with my diet, I'll never go back to eating the way I used to. I changed the way I think. This is no longer a diet; it's a lifestyle. The way I eat today is the way I will eat for the rest of my life. The fact that I feel healthier and have clearer skin is only further proof that I need to eat this way.

I've also changed the way I think about the foods I like but aren't allowed to eat. I may like their taste, but I know what they will do inside my body. Those foods don't love me back, so why should I continue to love them? They make my body unhappy and I want to make my body happy by giving it good food. My health is more important than fish sticks, potatoes, or brownies.

I've changed how I think about exercise. I know that it's good not just for burning calories and improving endurance, but it also raises HDL (good) cholesterol. In fact, I've been getting so into exercise that I've been overtraining and need to cut back! It's ingrained into my life.

And here's where diet and religion meet: Change always starts in your mind. The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel influences the way you act (PDL, pg. 182). Our faith should be as much a lifestyle change as our weight loss efforts. As Pastor Warren explains, all permanent change begins with changing the way you think.

Are you struggling with weight loss? Have you begun to change the way you think?

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Vote for me!

Click the below graphic and vote on how good my blog is on a scale of 1 (horrible) to 10 (fantabulous). The graphic can also be found near the bottom of the left column.

How Slutty Are You?

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I don't want to talk about it.

I just don't. I got horrible news at my body fat test today. Even though I'm stronger, the trainer said my body fat is UP and muscle mass is DOWN.

He said to lay off on the exercise for a week, so I shall. The only thing I'm allowed to do is the walk to work. No weight training or cardio at the gym. Of course, he recommended personal training, but I don't have the hundreds of dollars it would cost, so that's out.

He also said that I was working out too hard so I need to cut back. He said a half hour weights and a half hour cardio was okay, but a half hour weights and an hour of cardio is too much and may be compromising my muscle mass. So I'll cut back.

I probably also need to eat a little more. I may have messed with my metabolism by dropping my calories so much during the week. I also need to start counting calories seven days a week. "You bite it, you write it." That includes Saturday. So no more peanuts or Cheese-Its or any potluck food. I'll take a shake with me tomorrow for the potluck and eat when I get home that afternoon.

I'm going to cut out the meal bars yet again and substitute eggs. I picked up another dozen today and hard boiled them. That will give me enough eggs for the week.

And as counter-intuitive as it sounds, I may not be eating enough fat (fat does not cause us to store body fat; carbs do). I may have to force myself to have that tablespoon of mayonnaise I've cut out. Better yet, have some pork rinds. My fat is often barely above the recommended daily amount of 60g - way too little for a low-carb diet. I need to focus on getting at least 80g a day, minimum.

Here's a Weight Watchers poem slightly rewritten for low-carb diets and to make it scan better. :) It's based on this poem. Both are author unknown.

Don't Quit
When you've eaten too much and you can't write it down,
And you feel like the biggest failure in town.
When you want to give up just because you gave in,
And forgot all about being healthy and thin.
So what! You went over your carbs a bit,
It's your next move that counts...So don't you quit!
It's a moment of truth, it's an attitude change.
It's learning the skills to get back to your range.
It's telling yourself, "you've done great up till now.
You can take on this challenge and beat it somehow."
It's part of your journey toward reaching your goal.
You're still going make it, just stay in control.
To stumble and fall is not a disgrace,
If you summon the will to get back in the race.
But, often the strugglers, when losing their grip,
Just throw in the towel and continue to slip.
And learn too late when the damage is done,
That the race wasn't over and they still could have won.
Lifestyle change can be awkward and slow,
But facing each challenge will help you to grow.
Success is just failure turned inside out,
The silver tint in the cloud of doubt.
When you're pushed to the brink, just refuse to submit.
If you bite it, you write it... But don't you quit!

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Screenshot

Here's the screenshot of my Bay To Breakers results this year.


Click here for a full size picture. As you can see, I placed 7553 this year. :)

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Doing well

Did well with calories and carbs yesterday - 1564 calories and 39 carbs, not including one bite of homemade carrot cake muffin. :)

I walked a little extra today to try to burn a few more calories. I walked to work from the BART station, then dropped my backpack, collected my Purpose Drive Life study material and my wallet, and walked back to Starbucks to do my study and have some ice coffee. :) It took 36 minutes and FitDay says 108 calories burned.

My official weigh/measure/body fat test is tomorrow! I'm just afraid that no matter how well I do during the week I am sabotaging myself on the weekends and that my weight gain is partly fat. :( I must do better on weekends. I have been really strict since getting back on plan Monday. Hopefully the water weight I gained from the carbs last weekend will be gone at least.

Got paid today and bought a couple Bay To Breakers pictures. I chose this one:



Of course, they will give me a high res print. :)

I went on an online shopping spree to get some much needed stuff - I bought BBQ sauce, Big Train Drink Mix (for making the frozen treat I blogged about), Baja Bob's alcohol mixers (just add tequila or rum), and coconut oil for when I make Atkins brownies and such (the olive oil just doesn't cut it for baking sweets).

I noticed yesterday that the Omron pedometer I've had my eye on at Amazon was on sale, so I bought that today.

Yesterday I signed up for a year long Flickr pro account. This allowed me to have as many photo sets as I want. So now everything is all nice and neatly organized. Check them out!

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I'm rocking right along!

Woot! Doing well with the calories and carbs here. I need to lower calories on weekends, as I suspect that sabotages anything I do during the week.

Yesterday my calories were 1476 with only 38 carbs. That doesn't count the one gumdrop I had. :) Walking burned 84 calories, adding up to a small calorie deficit for the day.

Today I am still a little sore from Bay To Breakers race, but I did go to the gym today and was able to do a pretty hard workout. I did just over 35 minutes of weights, then 20 minutes of the pedal-type stairmaster, 30 on the elliptical (the crossramp without arms), and 10 minutes of walking to make it an even hour of cardio. FitDay says 342 calories.

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The Politics Test

You are a Social Conservative (38% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (21% permissive) You are best described as a: Totalitarian Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

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Back on track

Back on track as of yesterday and detoxing from all the carbs I ate. After probably eating 3500 calories Saturday and Sunday, I'm getting my calories back to a normal range again. I hope I didn't gain too much fat from the last two days. Curse a high carb, high fat diet for tasting so good! I have some cravings, but nothing I can't handle, and certainly a lot better than my first detox over two years ago. That was the worst!

Yesterday my calories were 1466 (yay me!), but no exercise. Carbs were only 43g. :) Today I did walk the last leg to work, even though walking is still painful. Tomorrow I hope to make it to the gym, even though I know I won't be able to work out 100%.

Slept in until almost noon today. I really needed a long, recuperative sleep to recover from the race. I feel better now.

I'm wondering about what I've heard about low-carbers needing less sleep. I used to feel my best on 9 hours when I ate the Standard American Diet (SAD). Now I routinely get along on 7 hours sleep with few sleep in days. Sometimes I sleep in until 11 on Fridays, and that's it (not this coming Friday, though!). Every other day I'm up at 9:30. That might seem late, but remember I work second shift, so I'm rarely in bed and asleep before 2 a.m. At any rate, I rarely get 9 hours of sleep anymore and don't feel I need it. I love living low-carb!

Recovering from intense physical activity (like running a race) will likely make sleep requirements higher for a day or two until you can get back to your diet plan and start feeding your body all the good stuff it needs. Even though I'm pretty well caught up on sleep I'm still dragging a bit from going from high-carb to low-carb. Once my body makes the switchover to fat burning I know I'll feel better and have more energy. For me, that usually take 4-5 days, instead of the 2-3 days it seems to take most people.

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Sabbaths and Sundays, Common Arguments, #7

Claim: Sunday worship was instituted by the apostles in the first century.
Christians began meeting on Sunday for several reasons: to set themselves apart from the Jews, the predominance of Gentile converts in the church in Rome, and Pagan sun worship, among other factors.

At first, the church is Jerusalem was the dominant church. After the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70 and the scattering of the Jerusalem Jews, including the Christian Jews, the church in Rome, comprised primarily of Gentiles, became the dominant church.

Sun worship also played a part. In order to help get more pagans to accept Christianity, it behooved the church to move services to a day when the Pagans were already used to worshipping - Sunday, the day of the sun.

Emperor Hadrian also played a part. He outlawed Sabbath keeping in 135, making it expedient to change the day of worship to avoid the persecution that the Jews were undergoing.

These reasons are covered in much more detail in Biblical Perspectives, Issue 64 (Seventh-day Adventist site), which is itself a short synopsis of the 350 page book From Sabbath To Sunday.

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Bay To Breakers, a little of my history

The Bay To Breakers website is a wealth of information for my times and placements in past races, going back 6 years to 2000. My first race was in the late 80s, but how many races I've run since then, or the exact year of my first race, are long since lost in the mists of time.

Here's my times and placements from 2000 to 2006:

2000
Time: 1:48:36
Place: 17,238 out of 52,356 total runners
6,243 out of 20,265 female runners
Bib #9342
Age: 29

2001
Time: 1:46:31
Place: 14,202
Bib #8323
Age: 30

2002
Time: 1:55:17
Place: 17,639
Bib #7870
Age: 31

2003
Time: 1:57:19
Place: 15,358
Bib #9702
Age: 32

2004
Time: 1:56:34(official), 1:54:41 (actual)
Place: 15,538
Bib #6644
Age: 33
This was my first race since I began working out and dieting. I did not "carb up," which is why there was no improvement over my time the year before.

2005
Time: 1:48:09 (official), 1:37:05 (actual)
Place: 13,576
Bib #4789
Age: 34
I "carbed up" this year and improved dramatically, even taking into account the 10 minutes it took to get across the start line.

2006
Time: 1:31:11 (official), 1:29:44 (actual)
Place: 7,553
Bib #2653
Age: 35
A huge improvement this year. The only major change I made was walking the last leg to work on days I couldn't make it to the gym. This is a fairly flat, easy 1.5 mile walk, but it has made a huge difference in my running ability. At the age of 35, I am in the best shape of my life, even better than about 15+ years ago when I ran my first race.

I'll add one other thing. At the 5 mile marker my watch timer read about 1:02, so I was doing about 5 mph. This includes the Hayes Steet Hill, which really slowed me down - that was a 1/2 mile I had to walk. So I was going along at what for me is a pretty good pace.

Today I am beginning my carb detox now that I don't need a massive number of carbs in my diet. Hopefully I can lose the excess water weight by my weigh and measure on Friday. I'm not even going near my jeans after pigging out on carbs for the last two days; I'm wearing loose skirts this week so I don't asphyxiate. :-p

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Bay To Breakers, follow-up

As you all know by now, I ran the Bay To Breakers race yesterday, in a new record time, shaving about 7 minutes off my previous best.

I tried to get ahold of a copy of the Examiner, but none were to be found, even though I was in San Francisco this morning. I pulled the paper up online, but there were two missing pages and the missing pages had, I suspect, the first 10,000 finishers listed. If anyone knows where I can get the list of names, please let me know because I really want it!

The winner was, of course, Kenyan, for the 16th year in a row. Looking through the San Francisco Chronicle I found that the winner was Gilbert Okari, who came in at 34:20. He overtook the leading woman, Tetyana Hladyr at the Great Highway, even though the elite women were given a 4 minute 40 second head start. Taking the head start into account, her time was 39:09.

The top four finishers were Kenyan. Fifth and sixth place went to Americans, followed by two more Kenyans, followed by two Americans.

There were 62,000 runners this year - 40,000 registered runners and 22,000 who crashed the party. Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would crash the party when they can be an official part of it for a nominal $33 registration fee. There were no serious injuries - just the usual cuts and bruises.

As for me...well I'm hecka sore. I didn't walk the last leg to work today. Every muscle in my body aches. The worst are my thighs and shins, which got the brunt of yesterday's "workout." I don't know if I will walk tomorrow. I'll see how I feel in the morning. Right now, walking is very painful.

How did I do officially? I pulled up the official Bay To Breakers site and lo and behold, results are already up. You can go to this page and plug in my runner number (2653) and my results will come up. It will give you my official time and place. My official time is 1:31:11 and I placed 7553! Oh my goodness, I am in the top 10,000! Now I really want that copy of the Examiner because my name will be in it!!!

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I set a new record!

Woohoo! I rock! I met and exceeded my personal best in the Bay To Breakers race today. Wow! What a run. :)

My previous best was 1:37, set back in my 20s. I met that time last year, but couldn't quite beat it. This year I not only beat it, but came in under 1:30. Not my official time, but under 1:30 on my stopwatch, which I hit when I crossed the start line. I am in better shape now in my 30s than I was in my 20s!

Are you ready for my new best time?!? 1:29:44! That's shaving off about 7 minutes from last year's time. Do I rock or what?! Since it took a couple minutes to cross the start line I don't think I made the 1:30 cutoff for 10,000 runners (the first 10,000 finishers get their name in the newspaper, and the 10,000th person usually finishes around 1:30). I guess I should buy an Examiner tomorrow and see how fast the winner was and how long it took for #10,000 to finish.

I felt really good until about 17 minutes in. I guess by then I had burned through my glycogen. I pushed through it and still felt pretty good at the bottom of the Hayes Street Hill. I had to walk up the hill and try to make up time in the park. I did! I felt so good that I only walked a few short jaunts.

As I rounded the corner and went into the final stretch, I was so tired. I wanted to slow down and walk a bit. I looked at my watch and it said 1:28. I used a mental trick I often use at the start of the race when I hit that first wall - I tell myself to run for X amount of time and then I can slow down. This time, I told myself to run until my watch read 1:30 and then I could slow down even if I wasn't at the finish line yet. I knew I was going to beat my old time, but I also wanted to beat 1:30.

So I pushed myself and ran and ran. That last two minutes lasted SO long and was very difficult. But I made it, and I crossed the finish line with only about 15 seconds to spare from 1:30! Whew! If I had walked I probably would not have made it.

The final stretch is always the hardest, longest part. You come around the corner and you can see the finish line, but it's so far off.

Oh...it didn't rain. Praise God! It certainly threatened to enough, and I was prepared, but all that fell were a few drops. It did rain after the race, but I'm glad it held off. :)

I have most of the photos I took up already. I'll add the Sport Photo pictures when I get them. For now, enjoy this mini photo journal of the race.

Technorati tagged: health, health and wellness, run, running, race, Bay To Breakers, exercise, San Francisco, party, b2b

Leaving for the race

I'm off to the race! *yawn* It's far too early. Wish me luck! I'll tell you all about it when I get back, and expect pictures as soon as I can get them uploaded onto my computer and sized down.

Wish me luck and pray it doesn't rain. I am taking a garbage bag with head and armholes cut in it just in case. Yesterday the chance of rain today was 60%; this morning it is 80%! High temp will be 63 F (17 C).

Love you all! Bye!

Technorati tagged: health, health and wellness, run, running, race, Bay To Breakers, exercise

Tomorrow morning!

Tomorrow morning is the Bay To Breakers race! Today was "eat anything" day, including all the carbs I want. Today carbs are good. Tomorrow they are good. Monday they will be bad again. ;)

Tonight I ate stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut with extra cheese, pepperoni, and black olives, and CinnaStix. Yum! Brad brought over some double chocolate muffins and gave me a massage to help my muscles be as ready as possible for the race. I am saving two slices of pizza for breakfast tomorrow.

I'm going to bed as soon as I finish my Purpose Driven Life lesson for today.

Nighty night and pray that it doesn't rain tomorrow (it's forecast to rain fairly heavy, at least in the morning).

G'night!

Technorati tagged: health, health and wellness, run, running, race, Bay To Breakers, exercise

Sabbaths and Sundays, Common Arguments, #6

Claim: Colossians 2:14 says the the whole of the Law has been nailed to the cross.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross (Colossians 2:13-14).

What was nailed to the cross in Col. 2:14? Was it the law? First, we have to realize that the word "law," so prominant in many of Paul's letters, does not appear at all in the entire book of Colossians. Therefore, the heresy that Paul writes against in this book is not Jewish legalism, but Gnostic teaching about how to get closer to God that has infiltrated Colosae.

Next, let's look specifically at that verse. Above I have used the King James version. Let's look at a couple other translations.

having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (NASB).

having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross (NIV).

But what does the Greek say? The Greek word here is cheirographon, which most commentators translate as a "certificate of indebtedness" or a "book containing the record of sin." In other words, God is not destoying the law, but the legal basis of our condemnation - the record of the sins we've committed. This, our sins, is what was nailed to the cross, just as Jesus was our sacrifice.

"What Paul is saying by this daring metaphor is that God has 'wiped out,' 'removed,' and 'nailed to the cross' through the body of Christ (which in a sesnse represents mankind's guilt), the cheirographon, the instrument for the remembrance of sin. The legal basis of this instrument was the 'binding statutes' (2:14), but what God destroyed on the cross was not the legal ground (law) for our entanglement into sin, but the written record of our sins. By destroying the record of sins, God removed the possibility of a charge ever being made again against those who have been forgiven." (Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, pg. 350.)

See also Colossians 2:13-17 for more information.

Technorati tagged: Bible, Bible study, God, Jesus, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Sunday, Sabbath

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

The "NIV" and "New International Version" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Fruit and the Atkins Diet

Many people claim that people on Atkins don't eat fruit. Wikipedia defines fruit this way:
In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary - together with seeds - of a flowering plant. In many species, the fruit incorporates the ripened ovary and surrounding tissues. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants disseminate seeds.

Here's a list of fruits that people on Atkins can eat that most people never consider because they think they are vegetables.

avocado
zucchini
tomato
eggplant
cucumber
squash
pumpkin
olives
red, green, orange and yellow peppers

Most, if not all, of these can be eaten right from day 1 of the diet.

So the next time someone tells you that people on Atkins don't eat any fruit, tell them you eat plenty. Something does not have to be sweet to be a fruit.

Technorati tagged: atkins, diet, atkins diet, low carb, weight loss, health, food and drink, food, fruit, vegetable, fruits, vegetables

Guess what?

The modem just started working again - out of the blue. I had tried restarting the computer and it did no good, but after the computer had been shut down for a while, the problem resolved itself.

I started up the computer this morning just to triple check before the computer guy came over, and dialed. It didn't connect, but I did get a dial tone, which is more than I had before. So I tried to connect again - and made it! So here I am. :)

Technorati tagged: computer, computers, technology, iMac, Macintosh, Mac, Apple, life, diary

Heading into a long weekend

Weight was 147.2 this morning, down from 148 yesterday, but still 5.2 over my goal. Calories eaten yesterday - 1797 (basically 1800), and burned - 2063. Not bad. Today isn't nearly so good due to the lack of exercise (less calories burned) and the eating out (more calories taken in). Accounting for how horribly I eat on Saturdays, and Friday and Saturday last weekend, I am taking in more than I'm burning. That means FAT gain. :( My jeans do seem tighter when I first put them on. Next Friday is the moment of truth!

Saw the doctor today. They kept me waiting 45 minutes - my appointment was at 11:30 and I saw the doctor at 12:15! He said Celexa can cause kidney and liver issues (news to me!) and ordered a comprehensive metabolic panel for me - okay, whatever - and I asked for another cholesterol test. I don't have to go back until fall and it hasn't been a year since my last tests, so I don't plan to do this for a couple months. I just wanted the paperwork in hand since I don't plan on seeing him again in the next two months. :)

I thought I wasn't going to make it to Denny's, but I made some good bus connections so I got my free entree and drink. :) I had the grilled chicken salad (would you believe they made it with iceberg lettuce? - how horrible!) with blue cheese dressing and a Diet Coke. It didn't fill me up at all so when I went to Subway to get my tuna salad for dinner, I just ate it as kind of a second lunch. Ouch!

The weather forecast for the race this weekend is rain!!! It just rained four years ago on race day; please dear God, don't let it rain this year. It's only supposed to happen about once every ten years. It takes all the fun out of the race when you are battling rain along with fatigue. I think I'll take a garbage bag with me, just in case.

Picked up the carbohydrate gel packets today. I got PowerBar brand PowerGel. Roughly 26 carbs with only 6g sugar. That should give me pretty sustained energy. I got one vanilla flavor and two strawberry banana. I hope they taste better than the horrible orange flavor I had to choke down last year - "choke" being the operative word. :-p

Alright, let's go out there and RUN! And THINK KENYAN! (That's kind of an inside joke. If you knew anything about the race's history, you'd understand.)

I'll see you all on the other side of this long (for me) weekend. Expect lots of long posts about everything when I get back to my work computer on Monday, and I'll let you know when I get back online from home.

Technorati tagged: atkins, diet, atkins diet, low carb, weight loss, health, health and wellness, obesity, obese, overweight, fat, exercise, fitness

40 Days of Purpose, Thoughts on Week 3

Week 3 is, of course, on Fellowship, as I stated in this post.

Day 19 was a little too close to home for me. One of the points made is that every church and every small group has a person who is "difficult." I can't help but feel that I am one of those people. I have eccentricities that just don't fit into the "Christian" mould, that make me stand out. Adult Christians just don't dye their hair blue, you know? Yet somehow my church has (thankfully) put up with me.

Today we reached exactly halfway through this 40 day journey with day 20 on restoring broken fellowship. If only I could restore every broken relationship! But K wants me to come back on her terms, and without admitting any wrongdoing. "No contest" might work as a plea in court, but it does not work in the realm of fellowship and reconciliation. She is fundamentally an unsafe person.

Day 20 gives several pointers on how to restore a broken relationship. Too bad none of them were done in my case. There was no sympathy, no confessing of their part in the debacle, no attacking of just the problem, no cooperation with me. The more I learn about the Bible, the more I realize how shabbily I was treated. I may have been formed for God's family, but some people are too unsafe. I won't allow myself to be a doormat.

The rest of this week has focused on the church family and small groups and/or Sabbath/Sunday school classes. I am very lucky to have such a supportive church of truly mature Christians around me.

I have to take back some of what I said earlier. This week's lessons aren't just about being plugged in at a local church, but about cultivating community - truly loving and caring for those in the church. This take honesty, authenticity, and basically giving people a safe environment to share and grow. Chapter 20 reminded me of the study we did on the DNA of Relationships. The pointers in this chapter sound a lot like what I read in that book.

If week 2 was about how to get along with God, week 3 is about how to get along with fellow Christians, primarily in the context of the local church and small groups.

I can't believe we're halfway through this and that I haven't missed or fallen behind a day yet! The last 20 days have gone quickly. Week 3 finishes up tomorrow with protecting the church against disunity. Not really a problem in my congregation. :)

If I can get something out of week 3 - me, the plugged-in person who goes to a healthy church - then anyone can.

Technorati tagged: Bible, Bible study, God, Jesus, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, 40 Days of Purpose, Saddleback Church

Weekend plans and today's stuff

Since I won't be around this weekend to update you, here's my plans. I'll let you know how it panned out when I get back. Expect a lot of writing from me Monday evening. :)

Friday I am staying home and cooking and packing lunches. I am also dying my hair blue so it will be nice and bright on race day. :) At 1 pm the computer guy is coming over to pick up my Mac to repair the modem and put in a new battery. I can't afford a new computer and need to keep this one working. The modem has been fine since the day I bought the computer several years ago. Today, while it was connected, it just dropped the connection and refused to reconnect.

(Along with this, my iPod Mini is acting up. It won't hold a full charge anymore and plays for less than an hour before dying and needing to be recharged. More money to spend as I need to send it in an have them replace the battery.)

Saturday is my carbing up day for the race Sunday. That means I can pretty much eat whatever I want at the lunch potluck. :) Saturday evening Brad is coming over. I'm ordering a large pizza (with cheese in the crust) with CinnaStix, and I asked him to bring some chocolate muffins (one of my favorite pig out foods). We will share these, saving a couple slices of pizza for my Sunday morning breakfast.

Sunday I have to be up sometime between 4:30 and 5 a.m. and be on the 6 a.m. bus to take BART into the City. The race starts at 8, but the earlier you get there the better starting position you get. After the race I'll walk back to the polo fields to get my t-shirt, then head to the 29 Sunset bus to a BART station, and take BART back home. When I get home I'll take a shower and probably change into jammies. Then I'll relax the rest of the day and eat any leftover high carb food. Monday I go back on Atkins again.

Yesterday my calories were okay. FitDay says 1791 eaten and 1806 burned. So about even. Today I made it to the gym. About 37 minutes of weights, 30 on the elliptical (the one with the moving arms), and 30 on the stationary bike. FitDay says 346 calories burned.

I bought a new toy today - Harbinger gloves for lifting weights. The weights are often uncomfortable to hold and I see people wearing these. Hopefully they will help with comfort. They look like this only they are gray and black. Oh - I was able to do 11 reps with the 15 pound dumbbells today. :) Yay! Go me!

I also ran into the personal trainer who's been doing my body composition tests and set up an appointment for next Friday. That will tell me if my weight gain is muscle, fat, or both. I'm looking forward to it with trepidation!

I had a headache last night and today. It could be stress, but my carbs have been near the range that I get headaches. At 40g I lose all cravings and gain near daily headaches. I need to stay above that. 40g is clearly not healthy for me if I'm getting headaches.

Today I received a gift from Terry Durst from General Conference. I have no idea why she sent it. It just arrived out of the blue with the note, "From your Sister in Christ." It was a book from my Amazon wish list - The Mormon Murders. I'll read it when I finish The DaVinci Code.

I can't believe we're nearly halfway through the 40 Days of Purpose. Today was day 19 and I have so many thoughts to share, but I don't want to exceed two entries here a day and this is #2. Perhaps one of these days I can go back and hit some of the highlights. I'm learning so much from this book. Except for it using way too many Bible paraphrases, I love it.

Technorati tagged: atkins, diet, atkins diet, low carb, weight loss, health, health and wellness, fat, obese, overweight, race, exercise, fitness

It's dead, Jim

Well, the modem on my computer died this morning. Dead as a doornail. The computer guy will come to pick it up Friday, it will probably be gone a week or more, and it will cost $100 plus the cost of the modem, which he wouldn't quote me a price on. My savings account stands at about $5. Whoopee. It also needs a new battery and this would be a good time to do that.

It has to be fixed, but I have no idea how I'm going to cover rent, food, and this repair. :-p

At any rate, after leaving work tomorrow you won't hear from me again until sometime Monday evening when I come back to work. (I'm off Sunday for the race.) So no posts Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Sorry. I do have a lot of stuff I want to post, but it won't be posted this weekend.

I'll also have pictures of the race on my digital camera that I won't be able to upload to my computer, much less get them online. Eventually I will put a page up. It'll just have to wait a couple weeks until I get the computer back and have the time to do all the work.

It also means no ability to fiddle with my foods at home, so I'll keep a paper journal and update anything I need to when I get back.

I so wanted to drop a message early Sunday morning before the race, but now I can't!

I'll miss posting here! See you all on the flipside.

Technorati tagged: computer, computers, technology, iMac, Macintosh, Mac, Apple, life, diary

Graphic courtesy the Mac Gallery.

Thursday's plan

Walked to work today from the BART station. FitDay says 81 calories. Woot! As long as I can walk and/or work out and keep my calories at 1800 or less, I should be okay. Yesterday FitDay says I ate 1806 calories and burned 1992.

I didn't have enough meat last week for five lunches, so I have nothing packed for this Thursday. This would make it a good day to use that Denny's VIP card I have for a free entree and drink.

I stopped at Denny's to make sure the card would work, and they said yes. So Thursday I will go to my doctor appointment, then pop over to GNC at Southshore Shopping Center and pick up three carbohydrate gel packets, continue on over to Denny's for lunch, then walk to work (about a 15 minute walk from Denny's). Dinner will be a tuna salad from Subway.

Denny's no longer has their low-carb menu, but I looked over their low-fat menu and there were a few low-carb items, so I'll get one of those.

Technorati tagged: atkins, diet, atkins diet, low carb, weight loss, health, health and wellness, obesity, obese, overweight, fat, exercise, fitness

A reminder about commenting

Originally posted December 7, 2005. I'm bumping to the top with more added.

For those who don't know, the comment section on Blogger is generally under the posts, not above. I've noticed quite a few people posting above the post they are commenting on, meaning their comment gets attached to a post on a totally different subject.

Please, try to be mindful of what post you are commenting on. Always scroll down. :)

Thank you.
-----
Due to continued use of the post above the one the person is reading to comment, I played with my template to insert a line between the comments on one post and the title of the next post. Hopefully this will help people be more mindful of which post they are commenting on.

Technorati tagged: blog, blogs, blogging, weblog, commenting, comments

40 Days of Purpose, Thoughts on Weeks 2 and 3

I've been doing some thinking about this 40 days we are going through at church right now. As we get further in I am beginning to see the bigger picture.

Week 1 is just introduction stuff, though there's lots of good stuff there to find. Week 2 I enjoyed the heck out of. It's on "worship," but I tell you, Pastor Warren has shown me a whole different way to think about worship. It's so much more than just singing or church. It's a 24/7 lifestyle that all Christians should be living. Worship can even be found in the daily mundane things we do each day.

Week 3 is harder for me to be interested in. "Fellowship" is more than hanging out with coffee and donuts after the service. Okay, no problem there. But much of it seems to be focused on really basic things - like belonging to and being involved with a local church. I'm finding that rather boring because I have no difficulty in this area - I am the church Webmaster, bulletin-maker, attendance-counter, and clerk. At my old church I was first in the choir and then in the sound booth. I'm plugged in.

And yet I understand the need for week 3. A lot of people feel they don't need the church and that they can be a "lone ranger" Christian. Week 3 makes a compelling case that this is not so, a conclusion I wholeheartedly agree with. Too many people love ideal people from a distance, rather than real people up close, in a local congregation. If this is you, then you need to read days 15-21 in The Purpose Driven Life. It will challenge you if you open to growing.

So...a necessary focus, but irrelevant to me. At least Week 2 on worship made me think about things differently. I found that week challenging. I helped me grow. Week 3 isn't really doing that for me, though it will for others.

Technorati tagged: Bible, Bible study, God, Jesus, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, 40 Days of Purpose, Saddleback Church

Today's junk

Did okay today. Made it to the gym, but sometimes your get up and go just got up and went and today it did. I think after yesterday's hard workout my body just couldn't give 100% today. Still, I did 22 minutes of weights, 30 on the elliptical (without arms) and 30 just walking on the treadmill at 3.5 mph. FitDay says 278 calories.

Then I took the bus out to Edgewater to Starbucks and ordered a Venti coffee. They were making the coffee at the time but didn't have it ready so they said it was on the house and they'd call me when it was ready. Cool! Free coffee! :) I had a short time to work on my Purpose Driven Life lesson for the day - on belonging to a local church - while I waited for my coffee and then waited for it to cool.

I bought some PowerAde today for the race on Sunday. I still need to buy the carbohydrate gel packs. Maybe on Thursday since there's a GNC in Alameda and I have to be in Alameda on Thursday for a doctor appointment and the GNC is a straight shot down on the bus.

I'm still bloated from Friday/Saturday. My size 10 shorts fit perfect. :( I'm right back where I was about 10 pounds above goal. I can't even get below 146 on a good day, never mind bad days like this where I'm afraid to get on the scale. I hope it's muscle, but how can that be when my clothes don't fit any better even on the best of days? How can I gain fat while watching carbs and calories? I've decided my body hates me and wants to be fat. Yesterday's calories were 1644 with 309 calories burned in exercise.

Tomorrow is groceries because Wednesday I'll be at the gym again and Thursday is the doctor. Friday I hope to dye my hair blue so it will be brightest during the race. I already bleached it.

Technorati tagged: atkins, diet, atkins diet, low carb, weight loss, health, health and wellness, obesity, obese, overweight, fat, exercise, fitness

How Abnormal Are You?

You Are 24% Abnormal

You are at low risk for being a psychopath. It is unlikely that you have no soul. You are at medium risk for having a borderline personality. It is somewhat likely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at low risk for having a social phobia. It is unlikely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

Failure

Well, I totally failed this weekend.

First, my Thursday totals as promised: 1978 calories and 360 calories burned in my workout.

I get my lunches packed on Thursday night so I figure I have some extra time on Friday and I'll be good and go to the gym. I take it easy, burning only 235 calories.

Then Brad takes me to Safeway to get heavy items like cat litter and diet cola that are hard to drag onto the bus. Instead of feeding him dinner in return, I suggest going out and he suggests Fuddrucker's and I say okay. I stay on plan for the meal, though I am famished. I have their low-carb burger (meat with no bun and a side salad). I'm still hungry so I get their salad. So far so good.

Then it went downhill. I just couldn't take it anymore. I had a huge chocolate brownie topped with walnuts and followed that with a scoop of coffee ice cream. Then I suggest Starbucks. On the way there we stop at this cute little shop and I get some kind of carby thing that I forget the name of, which I ate when I got home, and a piece of cheesecake made with Ricotta cheese that I ate the next day (it was DIVINE!). At Starbucks I get a chocolate chocolate chip Frappuccino and a chocolate and cream cheese muffin. I feel guilty, but my desire for sweets in general and chocolate in particular has been sated.

Sabbath isn't a whole lot better, but I stick with low-carb foods (except for the leftover cheesecake), and simply eat way too much of everything.

I'm now in the long process of detoxing, which will be undone next Sabbath as I carb up for the race.

I made it to the gym today. FitDay says 309 calories, but I sure did sweat like a pig, and I am SO tired - I ran 1 mile in 12 minutes, then set the incline to the max and walked 1/2 mile in 12 minutes. My workout towel was pretty damp at this point. I topped the workout off with 20 minutes on the recumbent bike. I managed to struggle through four reps of arm curls with the 20 pound dumbbell, but couldn't do more. I wonder if I'm really ready for that. I'm also really struggling with the 40 pound barbell, whereas the 30 pound one is much easier.

I've gained at least 5 pounds from my dietary indiscretions, but I'm not stepping on a scale for confirmation! My stomach is sticking way out - bloat from water from too many carbohydrates. Instead of my cute little tank top, I wore a large t-shirt to the gym to help cover my tummy. My "street clothes" today are a large skirt with an elastic waistband and a shirt large enough to hang below my waist.

In off-diet news I started The DaVinci Code today (well, actually, I read the first couple paragraphs in the "thank you" section before chapter 1 yesterday). I borrowed pastor's copy until the one I ordered arrives. So far I'm not terribly impressed.

Technorati tagged: atkins, diet, atkins diet, low carb, weight loss, health, health and wellness, food, obesity, obese, overweight, fat, exercise, fitness