Here’s that flexibility thing coming in handy…

Here’s an example of why taking the “pay cut” to work from home is worth it for me. If this was a day in the corporate world, I’d be getting glares from co-workers and a boss – but instead I can take care of what my highest priority is: my kids.

This morning, as usual, before I could grab breakfast or even a cup of coffee, we raced out of the house so I could get my daughter to her camp, and then I brought my son in for his swim class (this has been extremely important as just a few weeks ago he was terrified of the water. Now he absolutely loves swimming – more on that in another up-coming post), then I drop him off at preschool – no sooner do I get home, make coffee, pour some cereal – before I’ve even had a bite – the phone rings. My daughter isn’t feeling well, I need to come get her. Send emails to clients explaining responses today might be delayed. Back in the car – run and meet the camp at a nearby park – arrange for a visit to the doctor’s office. Get home – try to prioritize what will really need to be completed today – hand off whatever projects I can to other people I work with. It’s now 11am. I have 0 billable hours. And in fact – because we’ll be racing out the door in a few minutes to get to the doctor’s, I don’t expect to have any billable hours until later this afternoon. If I manage to put in 3 hours this afternoon – that will be amazing.

Make no mistake – I am definitely doing two jobs, but only one of them I get paid for. ;P This certainly explains why I’m only getting half the salary I was before.

I was talking to a friend of mine last night and she was telling me how she wishes she could go back to work. Her daughter is old enough now that it would be nice to get out, be able to make some money to help make ends meet. But of course, most jobs don’t have the kind of flexibility a mom needs. I’m not sure how, but I wish that could change. I know I’m lucky, but I shouldn’t be. Getting this kind of flexibility on the job shouldn’t be so hard. Job sharing, or simple understanding when things come up… It’s a shame these things aren’t more widely available.

What changes need to be made to make it work for both employer and employee?

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: Movie Review

I had the pleasure and honor of seeing the latest Harry Potter movie the day before it was released thanks to DigiCert. They sell SSL certificates. If you’re a web developer that handles that end of things, you should definitely check them out!

Before I tell you about the movie, I have to state up front that I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I’ve seen every movie, most of them a few times. It would be hard to disappoint me. However, I am also coming from the standpoint that I have not read any of the books. (I know I really should). So with that said, here’s what I thought of the movie (no spoilers I promise!)

I definitely liked the movie – in fact I liked it a lot. I’m not sure if I could categorize it as my favorite in the series, but I still enjoyed it. In all the movies, there always felt like there were parts of the story that had been left out of the movie. This has been more and more noticeable as the series has gone on. The Half Blood Prince is probably the one where I noticed it the most. At the same time, I’m coming in to the movie, knowing that it’s based off a book, one that I have not read – and I sort of accept the fact that there will be far more in the book than they could ever squeeze into the movie. I was able to follow the story along just fine without the missing pieces, and if I wanted to know more about some of the details that appeared to be left out, I should pick up a copy of the book and read it. I’m not sure everyone in the world would be able to accept that. It’s possible that maybe you do have to be a Harry Potter fan in order to accept that.

As in the books (or so I’m told), the story gets darker and darker with each in the series. There are some scenes that would be scary and hard to accept for a younger audience. Depending on the kid, 11 or 12 is probably the youngest I would bring to the movie. (Take that with a grain of salt. My (almost) 9 year old is very skittish about movies – so I’m basing it on the fact that I probably wouldn’t bring her to see the movie unless she were a few years older. Another kid her same age might do just fine.)

I love the world that J.K.Rowling created – so any invitation to visit it and see the characters again is a treat. If you’re not a Harry Potter fan, but have liked the movies in the past, I think you’ll still enjoy this one. If you are a Harry Potter fan, this movie won’t disappoint.

Diet is a four letter word

Growing up, I was never really aware of my weight. I guess I was always active enough (doing what, though, I’m not sure) and probably kept my calories down to a reasonable level or my metabolism handled things for me for a long time. Ah, Youth!

I am 5’4″ and have a medium to large build. I’m basing the “large build” on guides that have you measure your wrist circumference. Mine is 6″. According to BMI measurements – I should weigh between 108 and 145lbs. But this doesn’t take into consideration my build – it only bases that on height. If you just base it on build, the range is 134 – 151lbs. These two really do not add up. Especially if you’re just looking at the low end: 108lbs vs 134lbs. That’s a HUGE difference!

I think when I was in high school – I was probably about 125 pounds. College got me up to 130-135 which is where I stayed for a good long time. Then… I got pregnant with my first kid. I used the pregnancy as an excuse to over indulge and after it was all said and done – I was at 145 (which really isn’t TOO bad). As the years crept by, I think that great metabolism I used to have went away. Soon enough I was at 150lbs, then 160lbs. 160 was definitely the wake-up call. I did the South Beach diet, and got myself very briefly down to just under 150. It didn’t last. Then I got pregnant again, and after all was said and done on that one – I was at 155lbs. This of course, slowly crept up to 160 – which I was almost willing to accept. But when I saw it going OVER 160 – I realized it would never end. If I didn’t make a change, I would just continue to gain weight.

I tried to do South Beach, but just couldn’t be that rigid again. I tried a couple of other “fad” diets – of course, these do not work. So I tried Jenny Craig. This did work for a while. I was on Jenny Craig for about 3-4 months. I ate the food out of the boxes – it wasn’t bad. I had a lot of crazy-hungry days, but I just dealt with it. I did everything online – and instead of going in to see them, a consultant called me once a week. When I got my weight down below 150 – she cheered and said “SAY GOOD BYE TO THE 150’s!!” I was happy, but didn’t really feel the excitement. I had been down there before. I wasn’t convinced I could stay there. After all, I didn’t want to live on Jenny Craig food forever.

I ultimately got down to 145lbs. It felt like I was there for just a day. By this time I was sick of Jenny Craig and desperately wanted to eat normal food again. I had been exercising at Curves, but was SO bored with it. I was in over my head with work – and every minute I couldn’t put in trying to finish the project I was doing at the time, made me crazy. So I quit everything.

Just a few months later I was back up to 155lbs. I’d lost 15lbs on Jenny Craig and immediately gained 10 of it back. Not good. I needed a new plan.

The first thing I did was join 24 Hour Fitness. I thought that if I just “ate less” and exercised regularly, I could lose weight.

Well, that was partially true. In the end that didn’t work. I lost maybe a pound – maybe two – over the course of two months. WTH? So I signed up with a personal trainer and my first complaint to her was the weight loss. “I’m eating less – I’m working out – THIS ISN”T WORKING!!!!” She told me she wanted me to write down everything I ate. Just one potato chip? Write it down. EVERYTHING that went into my stomach. And if possible, include calorie, protein and carb information. I was to bring my food log for the week the next time I met with her.

This was a turning point. Since I do everything online, I went looking for a way to log all my food through a website or something. I found a number of free tools (fitday.com, livestrong/the daily plate) but I wasn’t thrilled with the features or interface. After a number of Google searches, I found MyFoodDiary.com. THIS had everything I needed. I liked the interface and while it wasn’t free, it wasn’t expensive either. I figured, I’d try it – and just cancel after awhile. Now? I think I’m hooked on that site for life. (Well, at least it isn’t like living on Jenny Craig food forever!)

With MFD (MyFoodDiary.com) I can track my weight, my food. I can build recipes, enter custom labels for foods that aren’t in their database (although they have a pretty extensive database). I also read the forums – there’s a lot of good information I’ve found there.

I never thought I’d be willing to “Calorie Count” – it always seemed like a “chore.” But I feel very strongly now, this is the only way I’m going to be able to do this.

The first day, and almost every day since, has been an eye-opener. While I thought I was eating less, I really wasn’t. When you broke it down meal for meal, calorie for calorie, I was actually taking in WAY more calories then I realized. All the diets that can promise results, whether they’re low-carb, low-fat, in a box, in a shake – they all come down to one simple fact: it’s basically a math equation.

Calories out > calories in = weight loss.

This is true for everyone, except where medical issues make it not the case. (There is a fantastic post in the forums on MFD by a guy named Charles who lost 300 something lbs this way. He said basically the same thing.)

Once I started counting the calories, I started to lose weight.

That’s not to say I didn’t hit plateau’s. I have. And each time, I learned something new – and had to adjust my thinking. The first plateau I hit, again, went back to the personal trainer and had measurments taken. While I hadn’t seen numbers dip on the scale, due to the amount of exercise, I was gaining muscle at almost an equal proportion to fat I was losing. Another plateau I realized that what I considered to be a portion as specified from a label – wasn’t what I was actually eating. I started weighing and carefully measuring out my food so I would know exactly what I was eating.

Now – I am currently sitting at about 136lbs. And I’ve been here for a few weeks – so it’s definitely not like the “day” I was at 145. I’m certainly within my healthy range and my obsession to LOSE weight is waning. I can still see some fat that has settled on my belly and love-handles. I would love to see it gone. But I know now that I’m this close, it’s going to go extremely slowly. Figure – probably .5 lbs every two weeks or so. So instead, I’m focusing on getting in shape. I want to build up some endurance and be able to run for longer periods (I feel like a wimp saying running for 2mins makes me tired. I know I can do better than that!) and I want to build some definition to my arms and shoulders. (=sigh= resistance training)

I don’t consider what I’m doing a “diet”. Diet’s come and go. You go on them. You go off them. You gain the weight back. What I have tried to do is change my lifestyle. I am making myself extremely aware of what I eat. For me, it’s the only way I know I’m going to keep the weight off. I am a mindless eater. If I see it, if it’s on the counter – I’ll eat it. If there’s a bag of chips by the computer, they’ll be gone and I’ll barely have the recollection of eating the entire thing. By making myself accountable for everything I eat – I know I can take control.

Learn to run: Week 2 – Session 1

This week it’s running 2 mins, then walking 2 mins. Session 1 is doing that 11 times. (44 minutes total)

The short version: BRUTAL. Simply brutal.

The long version:
Running for one minute at a time was a stretch last week. (Stop laughing – yes, I know I need to get into better shape!) This week – two minutes at a time – wow. During the first lap, I looked at the timer about half way through the two min run and I just didn’t see how I was going to get through the whole 44 minutes of it all. During the running part, my heart rate got up to the high 160’s – and 170’s. During the 2 min walk, I was getting my heart rate back down to the 140’s. But towards the end, when my heart rate was still in the 160’s at the end of the two min walk – that’s when it REALLY hard.

To keep pushing myself to the end of  the two min run – I would focus on my breathing. Most of the time I’m panting – breathing all through my mouth. I just can’t help it. When I try to inhale through my nose, it doesn’t feel like I get enough air in. (Is that just me?) Either way, I tried to just take huge breaths in through my nose – exhale through my mouth – a few panting breaths – then big inhale through my nose again. Not sure if that’s the right way to do it – but it helped get me to the end. I also would try focusing on other muscles in my body – specifically my stomach muscles (which need help anyway). I would tighten them up and focus on that – trying to forget about how much I really just wanted to drop to my knees and gasp for air. LOL!

The other thing helping me through it – just repeating over and over in my head “You can do this. You can DO THIS.” I know it seems silly – but if you have an inner voice and it starts trying to convince you to quit – chances are you ARE going to quit. Make that inner voice your cheerleader and make it louder than any other negative energy. YOU CAN DO THIS!

So some lessons learned: Session 1 is always a push session. It’s the hardest session of the week. DO NOT EAT DINNER RIGHT BEFORE THIS SESSION. Probably can swing that on the other nights – but not this one.

So this asks the question – if I’m running at 7/8pm – I need to eat SOMETHING before I run – as eating dinner when I get back home at 9ish is just too late. I think on nights I exercise, I have to redefine what “dinner” is. I think the idea of a big meal at dinner time needs to go away – and save those for non-exercise nights. (Of which there may only be two or three at the most in a given week). And as healthy as I think eating a smaller – spaced out dinner is – it still presents other issues – specifically the kids. I have been a big believer in having dinner together. It’s the one meal we always have together – it may be the one time in the whole night that we’re all in the same room for a given period of time. So I still don’t have all the details worked out.

My love hate relationship with exercise

I have never been a gym-rat – nor have I even remotely liked exercise. Whenever I “feel the burn,” my instinct is to cry and quit and run home. However, I did want to live healthier – and you really can’t do that without fitting some level of exercise into the equation.

Last year, when I got serious, I joined Curves. That was fine for about 2 months. But it quickly got old. Yes, at least I was changing machines every 30 seconds or whatever it is – but it still got old. I tried bringing my own music or books on tape to listen to from my iPod. Didn’t help. At the time, I was doing Jenny Craig. I started Curves in April 2008, I started Jenny Craig in May. By September, I’d lost 15lbs. I was sick of Jenny Craig and couldn’t wait to get off the diet. Curves was boring me to tears. My work had gotten insanely busy – so it seemed like a good excuse at the time to just stop everything.

Of course I had intended to go back to Curves (and I thought I was “eating less”). By January, I hadn’t exercised again, and I’d gained 10 of the 15lbs I’d lost. (Well that was money (not) well spent on Jenny Craig!)

Don’t get me wrong – I think Jenny Craig is great and it does work. The problem isn’t the program. The problem is what do you do AFTER the program. Jenny Craig really didn’t teach me how to eat better. It taught me that if my meals came in a box, and I ate what they told me, I’d lose weight and keep it off.

Anyway – the diet is for another post.

So since January we’ve been members of 24 Hour Fitness. What I have learned since starting there:

1) While I liked how I looked when I was using the weights 2x a week – I really don’t enjoy it.
I think resistance training is important though. I haven’t done it in almost two months now and I’m feeling guilty about that fact. So we’re going to try, one day a week, that Sam and I use the weights together. Hopefully this will at least make it a little more interesting.

2) Exercise machines at the gym make me feel like a gerbil on a wheel.
So I try to use them as little as possible. I outright can not run on a treadmill. The bike machines makes my butt hurt. I’ve used the stair master a few times, but it’s not my favorite. The one machine I can somewhat tolerate (so long as it’s not more than 1x, MAX 2x, a week) is the elliptical machine. So what do I do at the gym? I’m trying to do classes. At the moment, my favorite so far has been the Zumba class. I love that class so much, I think I could do it everyday without getting bored. Unfortunately, it’s only offered a few times a week, and only one of those times works for me. I’m also going to try the Aqua class at some point.

3) Above all – in order for exercise to work – you have to find something you like or can tolerate.
This is the biggest thing, and it’s the reason I keep changing things up. Curves didn’t work, time for a change. I tried a bunch of machines at the gym until I found one I didn’t mind as much. Classes are fun and help on the “something different” front. There were a few I tried and didn’t care for – but the key is to keep trying different things.

Along that same line – I had never really tried running. But on a diet-related forum, a lot of people had been talking about their runs – so I thought I’d give it a try. That has turned out to be one of the things I’ve liked the most. I’m just beginning, so I can’t run for very long, so I’ve been switching off running and walking. And trying to work up to longer stretches. My goal right now with this is to work up to being able to run a 5k. I will say, though, that I’m kind of picky about running. Like I said before, I can’t run on a treadmill. (I feel like I’m going to go flying off the back of it) – so it has to be outside. But it can’t be too hot, or too cold. So this really limits how long I’ll be able to run. Right now, in the summer, I’ve been running a few times a week, in the evening, just before sundown – it’s cooled off by then and the temperature is perfect. We’ll have to see how long I can keep this up. By September/October, I may need to try the treadmill again if I want to keep the running going.

So my routine has been running 3x a week, Zumba class 1x a week, and if I need to fit in another day of exercise, I’ll add in an extra running day or I’ll use the elliptical machine. This extra day I’m going to try and swap out for an aqua class. My average calorie burn is about 300 calories. Zumba class usually has me burning between 400-500 calories.

I think one problem a lot of people have when trying to lose weight – is overestimating how many calories they’re burning when working out. If you’re using a machine and you go by the machine’s readout – you’re more than likely overestimating. This is the reason why I use a heart rate monitor. The one I use is this one: Polar F7

So these are a few things I’ve been doing and have learned. It’s all a journey.