two dolla

10 percent and a bmr calculator

This morning, I hit the scale as I’m wont to do on Monday mornings and realized I’m down 29 pounds again. That’s over 10% of my body weight and the internet seems to think that’s a BFD. It can supposedly lower my cholesterol and reduce my blood pressure, along with lowering my risk for type 2 diabetes. (All this according to WeightWatchers.com.) For me, having lost over 10% of my original body weight has lead to healthier habits, like skipping a soda at lunch or feeling like I’d rather rake leaves than lay on the couch. That’s pretty impressive for me, because yard work can suck a dirty you-know-what. Not gonna lie. It’s taken 9 months, but now it’s done and keeps on going.

I’ve recently been very intrigued at how many calories I really need every day. This stems from me doing things like eating like crap and then wondering why I can’t finish 45 minutes on the elliptical. Food = fuel, as I’m learning, and mama needs the premium stuff! I found this BMR calculator and plugged in the appropriate numbers. My BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) is the number of calories I’d burn if I stayed in bed all day, which I am totally down for, by the way.

I can use a little formula to determine my daily calorie needs. Right now, I’m considering myself  ”moderately active”, which is considering doing a moderate exercise/sport 3-5 days a week. I’d take my BMR and multiply that by 1.55, which I’m pretty sure is just some random number that a really smart scientist made up. This tell me I need over 3000 per day to maintain my current weight. That seems like a ton of calories to me.

Here’s the scary part. I’ve been maintaining my old weight for a good three years, which means I was 1) lazy and 2) eating 3000 calories regularly! Thanks, Taco Bell, for always being there for me when I need it! Now, SparkPeople, which I’ve developed a slight obsession with lately, tells me to stay between 1600-2000 a day, which I generally do with great ease.

Watch how I wrap this whole thing up. Seeing myself lose 10% of my body weight through maintaining a healthier diet and exercising more has very convincingly showed me that the calories I do eat need to be worth something. This 170 calories of Mountain Dew I just poured down my throat, while tasting very delicious and giving me the much needed caffeine boost I needed to not fall asleep at my desk this afternoon, wasn’t very conducive to give my body some actual nutrients I’m gonna need to try that third day of the fourth week of the Couch-to-5K again.

spring weather brings neighborhood conversations

And, for me, they’re generally 100% unsolicited and 98% annoying. I know it’s good to know your neighbors, but I think I’m still scarred from growing up across the street from a guy who sat in his garage drinking beer 20 hours a day (I gave him some time for sleeping there). There were multiple occasions when I’d come home around 3am (after my closing shift at Taco Bell!) and have some type of a conversation with him. Dude, I have refried beans on my pants. I just want to go inside now.

Yesterday, I’m in the backyard trying to get Garcia and Riley to refrain from barking their fool heads off at the guy that lives directly behind us. And naturally that led into a 20 minute conversation that started with “How’d you guys do over the winter?” How the hell do you respond to that? Great. We did great. Luckily, we didn’t wake up from hibernation too soon and, when we did, we had plenty of supplies leftover. Better than last winter when we had to go foraging for squirrel carcases in our backyard!

I learned from our across-the-alley neighbor that he’s trying to move soon, because his house has decreased so much in value and he took out a crappy loan five years ago. The guy two houses down from him has to be out by May 2nd due to foreclosure. And it’s possible, according to across-the-alley neighbor, that there’s a drug dealer living across the street from us. (More on that later.) He went to California in February and hung out with our landlord for a couple of days; turns out she’s engaged now and they really love living in California. Bonus.

Two hours later, Riley and Garcia decide to open the front door and run across the street to visit the neighbor that’s outside there. (Bad pet owner, I know.) He says, “Hi, I’m Bill” and sticks his hand out to shake mine. I tell him I’m Wendy and he holds my hand a little longer than I’m comfortable with most strangers holding it. (There are exceptions.) It’s 11am and he’s holding a can of Budweiser in one hand. I tell him I like his breakfast choice. He says he’s been up since 3am, so it’s more like his lunch. His wife is talking to the dogs out the window. I finally pick Garcia up like a baby and The General drags Riley home by the collar. Bill tells us that if we ever need help with anything, just to let him know.

I’m hoping Bill, his cans of Budweiser and his agoraphobic wife are the drug dealing house. My second choice would be the house that’s called “Humpatorium” on Foursquare.

i feel good about this

Here’s how I know I’m not messing around anymore when it comes to this whole fitness business:

Three months ago, a normal Sunday morning would have included laying on the couch to watch TV and maybe thinking about leaving the house for the day.

This morning, I’m up by 8:30, dressed to go biking, and doing some research that includes:

• The best route for me to get in 10 quick miles before it rains today.
• Which heart rate monitor I want to get in the upcoming weeks, since I’m over halfway through C25K and I promised myself one.
• Whether or not I should get a new pair of workable running shoes now or wait a bit longer and get fitted for super nice ones.
• Finding out whether or not the electrical fault my car is having with some type of solenoid D pressure control is either something I can fix or something that was on recall.

But I’m done researching. The sun it out. I’m about to hit the road.

long overdue 101 things update

An long overdue update that puts me at 14 things done out of 101, with plenty still in progress. I love this list!

15. Make a list of 12 local restaurants I want to visit and make plans to try each of them. (7/12)
Cork’s Irish Pub: I’d won a Wild jersey from them a few months ago and noticed when was there, they had trivia during the week. We went there during a week of trivia and it’s a super cute place!

19. Go to a women’s sporting event that’s not the WNBA.
I bought a Groupon to go see the Minnesota Machine this summer, so I’ll tick this one off the list!

22. Bowl a 200.
222! I bowled a dang 222. The closest I’ve come since is 168. Probably a fluke, but a fluke I’ll take!

26. Take The Kid to play mini golf.
For my 33rd birthday, we went to the Mall of America and played there. Super cute course and he’s not too bad when he’s paying attention to what he’s doing!

30. Obtain a professional certificate of any kind.
I’m now a Certified Temporary Staffing Specialist, according to the very large certificate I have on my desk from the National Association of Personnel Services.

35. Go one week without eating any meat.
We have veggie burgers in the ‘fridge and have been eating a ton of black beans. With some advice from The General and Jenni, I think I’ll be able to do this one without dying.

42. Volunteer for something at The Kid’s school.
Who put together the spelling list for this year’s Spelling Bee? THIS GIRL.

44. Join a gym.
DONE. We’ve been going to the Brooklyn Center Community Center for about 7 weeks and I love it. Can’t imagine going a couple of days without dropping by and seeing my friends there.

45. Go without caffeine for 30 days.
F. I may have done this and not paid attention. However, I’m back on the caffeine wagon.

46. Lose 75 pounds. (25/75)
I’ve lost up to 30, but saw another 5 creep up on me when I started drinking pop quite a bit again.

48. Order new glasses.
Two pair of new glasses, even! I’m not quite used to wearing them all the time, but it’s nice to not have to squint when I’m looking at a spreadsheet in P&L meetings.

51. Complete the Couch to 5K program.
I’m almost halfway through this bad boy and surprise myself every day I do it.

83. Register for a school to finish at least an Associate’s Degree.
I’ve applied and been accepted into a community college. I’m waiting for them to look over my transcript from State Fair Community College (go, Roadrunners!) to find out what I have left to take.

here’s my contribution to the internet for the day

One of my favorite co-workers shared the above video with me earlier this week and it’s made the phrase “suck it” even more popular around the office than it normally is. Especially when it requires standing up to say it.

Charlie Daniels!

it’s the first of the month

April 1 means a few things.

1. One of my clients pranked me today. She called to tell me three of my employees didn’t come back from their lunch break. I’m not sure how I didn’t drop an f-bomb to her over the phone, but my employees were in on it, too. Sneaky bastards.

2. Today marks the start of 30 days of biking! I managed to take a quick 2.33 mile jaunt from our house, down the parkway, to the closest swimming pool and library and back before it got too dark. I can tell I’ve been hitting the gym for the past 6 weeks, because when I first hopped on a bike last fall, I thought I was going to fall down after one mile. I only wish I was kidding.

3. I’mma try this blogging every day for a month thing again. Don’t be surprised if you don’t see me blog again until the 19th of something.

4. We just finished a family game of Life, where I elected not to go to college and wound up as a police officer, only to get fired and then find a career as an “Entertainer” where the girl on the card was CLEARLY a stripper. The Kid won, because he’d chosen to go to college and became a doctor. And also sued my pants off twice. But now he thinks he won because he went to college. Oh, game of Life, you moral-teaching bastard.

let’s vote!

I made this on Monday, but then didn’t realize how to publish it.

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my work in progress

Here’s a line graph demonstrating what I’ve been busting my hump for… since July 2010:

Clearly it’s not going very fast. But then again, it wasn’t like I made just one trip through the drive thru line at Taco Bell and ended up gaining all of these 75 (for now) pounds I’m trying to lose, right?

The big spike as over the holidays; the awesome dip to -30 pounds was a couple of weeks ago. I’m pretty sure I can attribute to gains to things like forgetting to buy groceries for a while or eating out more than a couple of days in a row. I’ve really been struggling to get back down to that -30 point. I’m hoping a trip to the grocery store this week and continuing to work through the Couch to 5K program will be a good combination to get me back down there again.

Fact: It’s awesome when your pants start to fall down. It’s not awesome when that takes place in public.

i made another recipe

I had a recipe, but basically used it as a guideline and threw most of it out the window. It called for onions, but The General is allergic, so I had to find some other things to throw in the pico de gallo recipe for our housewarming/my birthday party.

5 tomatoes
2 tomatillos
1/2 poblano pepper (the other half of mine was gross looking)
2 cloves of garlic
1 red pepper
a handful of cilantro
8 ounces of black beans
juice from half a lime
salt

It could use some more kick, but I’ve also been eating it by the bowl for lunch the past two days, so it obviously can’t be all that bad. And it’s all vegetables and a little bit of protein, so it’s, oh, wait for it… HEALTHY.

a completely unsolicited fitness tip

I’m offering this tip up, because it’s worked for me for the past three weeks. I know that’s not a long time, but for me, someone who’s never been committed to working out for more than two days, that’s kinda huge.

I found a pair of tennis shoes that I love. They look awesome. They feel awesome. During the week, I change into gym shorts and put them on as soon as I get home. On the weekend, I put on my gym shorts and my tennis shoes before I do anything else. And then, you know what? I can’t use the excuse of “Oh, I don’t want to change clothes” or “I’m already dressed for the day” or any of those tiny, tiny excuses I’ve been known to use to get out of working out.

So now that I’m out of my pajamas, I’m into my sneakers, my man-pris (because when I buy my size in  men’s gym shorts, they come down to the middle of my calves, but that’s how I like to wear them anyway) and the only thing I need to head to the gym is the car keys.