Posts from — March 2010

photo by garry
This has nothing to do with my weekend. Unfortunately.

Hooray for Friday. (Do I say that every week? It’s because I really mean it.) Hope you’ve all had a great week so far. The Man and I are in a money-saving mood so tonight we’re making a home-cooked dinner instead of going out to eat. When you can’t really do much physically, eating out is about the only way to get out of the house. I know, thrilling.

I don’t know about you, but this weekend’s shaping up to be ho-hum. I’m going to do a little writing, probably clean, and most definitely organize. And if I don’t go to the gym both days, I’m blogging my address and asking anyone within a 50 mile radius to come over and beat me up. (All right, so I’m being a little dramatic.)

Most weekends I have big dreams but rarely get everything done I need to. (See last weekend’s failed gym attempts.) So here you go—my list of dreams and the unfortunate reality:

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photo by just luh.

You all had some great insight into yesterday’s discussion about kids’ chronic snacking. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, check it out here and leave your thoughts. I think going forward with the rising rates of obesity, the topic of emotional eating versus eating for hunger is going to continue being a big issue.

A couple people mentioned the fact that kids today are also moving less. That’s a whole other problem, but they go hand in hand, right? Well today I read about a study on our lack of movement. (Nope, this trial didn’t involve kids, but you can see how it could apply to the video game generation, too.)

I understand the irony of what I’m about to say seeing as I’m hooked on five—count ’em: five—TV shows. (If you’re curious, they’re Lost, 24, Fringe, Bones, and Heroes in that order.) Anyhow, turns out twenty- and thirtysomethings who watch more TV are more likely to develop risk factors for heart disease by the time they hit their 40s.

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photo by wynlok

So it seems the consensus is that The Man should get his butt to the personal training table and sign up for a couple sessions. That’s what he plans to do and, after that, he’ll decide whether he’s ready to go forth on his own or stick with a trainer until a list of exercises is burned into his brain. Or until we go broke. Thanks for all of your feedback. Did I ever tell you that you guys rock?

Today during lunch (at which time I ate a heavenly turkey bacon BLT and wondered why I don’t pack those more often) I read a great article on the New York Times Well blog. In it, the writer explained how over the past 30 years American kids are getting more and more calories from snacks. What she didn’t mean was that kids are eating six small, snack-like meals a day consisting of yogurt, fruit, nuts, veggies, and whole grains. What she did mean is that kids are supplementing three full meals with the kind of crap you find at 7-Eleven: chips, cookies, and sugary drinks, probably including those mysteriously bright-colored Slurpies. The kids are eating pretty much ’round the clock, according to research.

“My underlying fear is that we’re moving away from being hungry and eating for satiation to just eating,” said Barry M. Popkin, co-author of the study and director of nutrition epidemiology at the University of North Carolina. “Food is there, and we eat.”

What with the current obesity epidemic—thanks to which most kids will live shorter lives than their parents and end up with diseases like type 2 diabetes—the nonstop snacking sounds about right. I guess eating packaged foods will do that to you.

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photo by vu bui
Can a personal trainer get me to do this…more than once?

I used to be the kind of exerciser who bopped from machine to machine until I worked out on every last one. It helped that the gym labeled them. I’d start with No. 1 and pump my way down the line until I hit 30. Done!

Now that I’ve been through physical therapy, I have a set of leg-strengthening exercises to choose from each day. I have a bunch of abs moves I throw into the mix. And, yeah, I work my way down the arms machine line before picking up the free weights and lifting. What I’m trying to say is, over the years I’ve learned more than a few exercises I bust out at the gym.

The Man? Er, not so much.

The Man spent his formative years on one sports team or another, so he’s kind of lost all by himself in the gym. Sure, he’s mastered the treadmill, bike, and elliptical. But when it comes to lifting, he wanders the gym like a little puppy sniffing out a good place to bury its bone. He does the whole machine thing, working his way down the line. Then, the minute he walks out of the weight room he piddles around until I’m ready to head out.

Which is why he’s thinking about getting a personal trainer. Here’s the deal:

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photo by joe thorn
That’s not our new bookcase. I wish. Ours is a sliver of an Ikea one.

Welcome back to the workweek, all.

I had one of those weekends where I simultaneously felt like I got a lot done and did nothing at all. (With a little failure and guilt thrown in for a good measure.) Don’t ask me how that works.

We got a lot done…
While I plugged away at some editing for work, The Man put together a bookcase and two nightstands from Ikea. He’s pretty awesome at deciphering those instructions, which is a talent seeing as they’re drawn by 5-year-old Swedes.

Of course, buying new furniture never stops at construction. So I took a break from work to rearrange our bedroom. Sounds easy, right? Well, it would have been except one of our walls is slanted. (Someone must have thought, “Wouldn’t it be fancy and special if the far wall was tilted?” They were wrong. It’s just annoying.) Since I like symmetry and parallel walls, it took about forever to find a setup where I didn’t feel like all my furniture was askew.

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