On Pregnancy

I'm pregnant! Took us a while, but pretty much happened immediately following the happy occasion of my TSH dropping (briefly) below 1.0. Sadly, we had a miscarriage shortly later, but were thrilled to find out that all our bits and pieces were provisionally working!

My TSH slipped a bit afterwards and my nails started breaking and I started sleeping more. I knew I needed an increase, but was being stubborn and waiting for my next scheduled TSH test. The test showed my TSH had slipped up into the 1.5 range iirc, so I argued for a dose increase, got it, and promptly felt much better. TSH dropped down to the 0.8 range again, and within two months of that, I got pregnant again!

At that time, we promptly had to up my dose again -very common in pregnancy-, and I'm currently taking 137 mcg/day and my TSH is right around 0.52. I'm thrilled! Am hoping to keep it that low (or lower) post-partum.  The goiter doesn't seem much reduced at all, though Mum and Dad say it seems smaller to them.  At least it's not bigger.

Coincidence? I don't think so!  I'm also pleased that yet again, I insisted on treatment.  To have been told that my thyroid is fine, then to end up with a nearly full-replacement dose is a nice acknowledgement that I was right - thyroid *is* wonky.

Oh, and we're due in late May. :)

Filed under "Everything You Know is Wrong"

First things first, after 50 squats this morning, am having serious trouble staying in control of my legs.  Kinda fun.  Kinda annoying.

So Slashdot tells us that stretching before exercise may weaken your muscles.  I haven't read the original report yet, but this is really interesting.  I've always been a bit of a lazy stretcher.  I've got moderate flexibility and at times I've stretched a huge amount, and at times not so much.  Through it all I've maintained moderate flexibility.  Now, I may not feel so guilty!

It looks like the recommendation is to go with dynamic stretches (described in the article).  They look pretty cool.

From Slashdot today:

Posted by kdawson on Friday November 07, @09:40AM

from the everything-you-know-is-wrong dept.

Khemisty writes"Back in grade school you were probably taught the importance of warm-up exercises, and it's likely you've continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes' warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but are actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg's muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements."

Wooo hooo!

10 pounds down!  This is the first time I've lost weight since my metabolism blew in '02. 

I can't tell you what a relief this is.

I won't tell you all the numbers involved, but I will tell you this.  I've lost just over 4% of my body weight.  I've lost approximately 11% of my goal loss.

How'd it happen?  Well, I think two things came together:

1.  Strict low carbing.  What can I say?  It works.  I've been a lazy low-carber for years now, so it was easy to drop down to strict low carbing.  Since I've been lazy low-carb for years (since 2000) also means that I'm not missing any comfort foods, but I'm also a lucky person in that I'm not an emotional eater and I don't eat for comfort.  I've been averaging 20 to 40 carbs per day and usually around 1200 to 1400 calories, with a couple of planned lapses for social commitments.  This also means that a good bit of this loss was/is water weight as de-carbing dramatically de-bloats a person, but I'm not complaining.  Last time I tried strict low-carbing was before my wedding in '04, and I didn't even drop a pound of water weight, so that brings us to point two.

2.  88 mcg/day of levothyroxine.  I still don't think I've got a normal metabolism, let alone a fast one, but I think I do have a metabolism now.  Life is so much better than a year ago, and I'm coming up on a year of treatment now.  My chronic headaches are all but gone, I sleep better, I nap much much less, I get hungry for meals almost every day, my skin has cleared up, I sass my husband more (the poor thing), my energy is better, I'm less sensitive to comments, my nails are growing, my hair is growing faster (meaning I have to change the style to save money at the hairdresser's!), and even before the weight loss I'd lost my permanenent myxoedemic bloat.  Looking at pictures from a year or two ago, I barely recognize the tiny-eyed, round-faced person there.

It's certainly worth a pill a day.  Next checkup in a week!  I am hoping for another increase.

At the moment, I'm not crediting exercise for the weight loss.  I'm at the moment an intermittent Crossfitter - I absolutely adore it.  I had intended, since I was one month into this newest venture, to restart Crossfitting this week after a three week lapse, then my pesky husband went and sprained his ankle*.  I'll try for next week.

I'm concerned about this weekend - we're going away with friends for a couple of nights and I've got to sacrifice a little bit of control over my food.  I'm seriously considering bringing a bag of cheese along so I can opt out of meals.

* Softball injury, yes they won the game.  He's fine - can even get his own coffee now and is down to one crutch.  He's a bit uncomfortable, and the ankle is impressively swollen, but improving.  Thanks for asking :)

Up the dosage!

In a nutshell, TSH has gone up (2.6) so the doc upped my dosage. Up to 88 mcg qd.

Bah. Why? Bad luck? My one swim in a chlorine pool? Shingles? Do my thyroid levels bounce around like this all the time? Did we really just happen to catch my thyroid on the brink of catastrophic failure a year ago?

Also, am grumpy that my weight is up a bit - 5lbs. Might be muscle since I've been lifting a lot lately, but it might also be the result of the month spent gingerly on my bum with shingles. Pants aren't any tighter, so that at least is good.

In the So-What-Isn't-Bad-For-Your-Thyroid-These-Days department: http://thyroid.about.com/od/newscontroversies/a/sunscreen.htm

According to research being presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Glasgow, Scotland, there is evidence from animal studies that the chemicals used in sunscreens and some anti-aging products may disturb thyroid function. The chemical studied was 4MBC, which absorbs ultraviolet radiation, along with benzophenone 2 (BP2). The animal studies treated rats with 4MBC for 5 days, which significantly increased levelsof thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), with unchanged T3 and slightly lower T4. These are changes that are "typical of the early stages of hypothyroidism," according to the study's leader Professor Josef Köhrle. The weight of the thyroid glands also increased significantly, another sign of thyroid dysfunction. Interestingly, the thyroid results were prevented if there was adequate iodine in the mixture.

So, um... get plenty of iodine in your diet!

A Case of the Squats

Disgusting! I know! Heeee...

Today was Back Squats 5-5-5-5-5

My previous PR was a paltry 95#, so I figured I'd start at 45#, add ten for each round, and see where I end up.

So I ended up with 5 each of 45#, 55#, 65#, 75#, 85#

It went excellently. Good deep squats on all of them, and I just started to go wobbly towards the end. I felt like I could have started higher and would have had a successful workout, so next time I shall start at 55# or 65#.

That having been said, I did walk out to the car with particularly floaty feeling legs. Margaritas on the neighbor's deck when I got home only added to the effect ;)

How to get a number

Lift heavy stuff. Add weights together. This is your number.

Crossfit Total. Check the CF site for the gnarly details.

Shoulder Press, Back Squat, Dead Lift. Oy.

Last time it was SP 65, BS 95, DL 205 for a Crossfit Total of 365

Today, I doubt I got that for my deadlift last time... couldn't do it today. Either I miscounted or I lost strength. Either way it sucks.

However, my shoulder press and back squat both improved markedly. I'm still figuring out where my limits are, and could probably have lifted these last time if only I had known to try.

Thus, today's effort was:

SP 80, BS 115, DL 190 for a Crossfit Total of 385 (up 20)

Step Away From The Corn Flakes

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/3/229

ABSTRACT
Background Trials comparing the effectiveness and safety of weight-loss diets are frequently limited by short follow-up times and high dropout rates.

Methods: In this 2-year trial, we randomly assigned 322 moderately obese subjects (mean age, 52 years; mean body-mass index [the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters], 31; male sex, 86%) to one of three diets: low-fat, restricted-calorie; Mediterranean, restricted-calorie; or low-carbohydrate, non–restricted-calorie.

Results: The rate of adherence to a study diet was 95.4% at 1 year and 84.6% at 2 years. The Mediterranean-diet group consumed the largest amounts of dietary fiber and had the highest ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fat (P<0.05 p="0.01).">

Conclusions: Mediterranean and low-carbohydrate diets may be effective alternatives to low-fat diets. The more favorable effects on lipids (with the low-carbohydrate diet) and on glycemic control (with the Mediterranean diet) suggest that personal preferences and metabolic considerations might inform individualized tailoring of dietary interventions. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00160108 [ClinicalTrials.gov].)

Pushover

Push Jerks 3-3-3-3-3

Figured I'd start at my last known heft - 65 lb. 45 lb bar with ten extra on either end. Won't say it is easy, but quite manageable. Definitely have to jump under the bar to do it.

Then I formulate the plan. Go up 5 pounds at a time, so I start with 65, go up to 70, 75, 80, and finish up at 85.

So off I toddle. First three done (65 lb) quite nicely. Pop 5 more pounds on either end of the bar for my 70 pounder, lift (grimace), done.

Phew. Okay. Five more pounds on either side, 75 lbs. Lift, grimace, swear, done. Wow, this is harder than I thought it would be.

Then the old brain, however briefly, surfaces for just a moment.

65 plus 5 pounds on either side is 75 not 70. Then, if you follow me, 75 pounds plus 5 pounds on either side is 85.

Duh.

Also, ouch.

Okay... regroup, think again. Add 2.5 lb on either side for the next lift of 90 lbs. Very very hard. Wobbled quite a bit. You really can't get away with dropping the bar at the YMCA so even though I had the safety railings up, I couldn't trust that I wouldn't have to dump it if I went higher, so I did my fourth three, removed the 2 2.5 lb plates and for my final three re-lifted the 85 lbs. That had been my goal anywho.

So to finish we have Push Jerks 3-3-3-3-3 with weights of 65 - 75 - 85 - 90 - 85

In continuing themes: I seemed to be the only person sweating. I grimaced, but didn't grunt. The whole endeavor was *not* assisted by the three fratheads taking turns doing bicep curls behind me. I was uncharacteristically self-conscious. I think I was afeared of letting rip with a ginormous fart (Crossfart?) at an inopportune moment, or some such. Ah... feminine vanity.

Puppycup??

Row, row, row your boat,
Briskly 'cross the drink,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Crossfit makes me stink.

alt.

Row, row, row your boat,
Briskly to the shore,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Crossfit makes me sore.

As a puppy/buttercup I only had to row 1000 m yesterday. It's intended to be a sprint, but I don't sprint until I've got a fairly good idea of how knackered I'm going to be at a more normal pace. First, run your mile, then learn to sprint it.

Well, I expected to really suck at rowing - not so! Maybe all those years of swimming have finally amounted to something, because they sure as heck didn't tone me up, slim me down, or really do anything other than empty my head and keep me sane. I had the crank on the rowing machine on 10. I don't know if 10 is easy, or 10 is hard. (Edit: I just checked online, 10 is hard. Wow.)

However, I was feeling good, so I did the big dawg workout - 2000 m. This makes me feel better for not having truly sprinted, but rather hurried through the whole thing. I was pleasantly knackered at the end, and kind of wanted to keep going. I messed up my watch, but I think it took me about 10.5 minutes.

Grimace

Today's workout was great. It was deadlifts. I love deadlifts. I'm good at deadlifts.

Well, comparatively. Let's put it this way. I don't completely suck at deadlifts in quite the spectacular manner that I suck at the rest of Crossfit. It fits with my image of myself as a 'big strong girl'. Raar.

So the workout was stunning in its simplicity. Deadlifts 5-5-5-5-5. Whee. Five sets of five!

I started with 135#. Really easy weight for me. Then I went up 10 by 10 until I got up to 175#. This isn't anywhere near my PR, but I also only had to hoist the PR up once. The final few resulted in me pulling comic faces at myself in the mirror - bared teeth and grimace.

Oh no... that means I'm the face-puller. Ah well. We had a moaner in the gym today. This fella was bicep curling huge dumbells and moaning fit to star in an x-rated movie. Totally intimidated the lady next to him who was on her first workout with a personal trainer - he had her doing a series of arm-wavings-about with a 5# weight. She was working hard, but made some comments about how she felt so inadequate next to Mr. Moaner. I piped up and told her that she was doing just fine, and she'll get there too and I had this moment of clarity and understood a bit better how my brother encourages me when we work out together. Hmmm.

Anyway... I'm still totally embarrassed about the grimacing, but at least I'm not a moaner. In the gym, I mean.

For James

PR

Deadlift 205#, 7/8/2008

:)

I thought my intestines were going to fly across the room.

About time...

To quote my brother, "When doesn't this suck?".

Saturday was evil. Evil nasty. Evil nasty bad. Evil nasty bad painful. Crossfit Games workout, hard even at the buttercup level. So, I woke up, cleaned the bathroom, kissed my husband, packed the car, and then set off for a weekend of fun. Husband was on call, so he got left at home. First stop, the gym to do some thrusters with the squooshy bar. I was also supposed to do some pullups, but I only had 10 minutes to spare at the gym since I was late for a lunch date, and I misread the instructions. Since I didn't even attempt them, I got a penalty workout that night! Aiee! Not as bad as the usual penalty workout (50 burpees or 200 meters of walking lunges), but still...

I arrive at the Family Compound, slam down a cup of tea, then get dragged off to the gym with my brother to do the second part of the workout. OW. Owie ow ow. Deadlifts and burpees. I don't like burpees and my legs are still sore. Still, I buttercupped it through - super slow on the burpees and respectably fast on the deadlifts. We even upped my deadlifts weight because even though I have zero metabolic conditioning, I am strong.

Back home, nice dinner and chatting, then part three of the workout. Strictly speaking I didn't have to do it as my instructions had told me to pick two of three options. However, I had to do a penalty round for skipping half of the first workout. Oopsie. Thus, I found myself at dusk dragging an American Bulldog out for a fast walk while my brother went for a run.

I've made the command decision not to run until my weight drops a bit - I have no problem walking fast enough to get a good puffy sweat on and I'm worried that at my current prodigious weight that I'll crush my knees. I think I'll try running when I've dropped 20 pounds.

Of course, the next day I got dragged again off to the gym for even less fun. I am going to call this particular incarnation of evil the deadlift-squat-jumpingjack-with-barbell. Aiee. My legs were so stiff that I couldn't get down into a proper squat, but I was getting better at doing the push jerk at the end when James made me put more weight on. More weight = better form. Weird.

So, this morning I was debating whether or not to check out the WOD over at Crossfit. Do I want to know? Sometimes I psych myself out so much for it that the anticipation is much worse than the actual workout. However, it would be helpful to know if I should do it before work, rather than afterwards - plus it might be a fun one! I'm thinking dumbell swings and deadlifts - fun fun fun!!!

So I checked, and was absolutely thrilled to pieces that it was a surprise rest day! Wheee!

So to answer James' question: When doesn't this suck? When you get a surprise rest day, that's when.

Dearth of Pullups

Today's workout brought to you by the Marquis de Sade and his good buddy the Marquis de Masochism.

Officially titled "Death by Pullup", this workout strikes especial fear into the hearts and minds of those of us who, to put it mildly, suck at pullups. Suck badly. Aiee. What to do?

Well, I warmed up as usual, sans pullups of course. I'm not the stupid one. The pushups required a bit of dancing about as the half-bouncy-ball I use as a foot rest decided mid-up to slide jauntily away from the railing I was using. This nearly resulted in a bonked nose, but quick thinking and a subvocal "ohhhhh...noooooo" got us through quite nicely. I'm using the half-bouncy ball to raise my feet slightly because that's easier than sawing down the railing - I'm alternating doing my pushups old-school off the floor (for improved realiness) and doing them off the railing to improve speed, depth, and body control.

The instructions for Death by Pullup are as follows. In the first minute do one pullup, in the second minute do two pullups, in the third minute do three pullups, extrapolate until you vomit.

Now I can't do a pullup, and can barely do them on the assist machine, so I failed in minute three. I can actually keep going doing pullups, but I average two a minute - three kills me. So, for minutes four, five, and six I did controlled and slow dropdowns. Here's hoping that helps me build the strength to do this properly one day.

*sigh*

Sweaty is good, right?

Scaled Crossfit WOD from BrandX

Buttercups:
Three rounds for time of:
10-15 pound Deadlift, 15 reps 10-15 pound
Hang power clean, 12 reps 10-15 pound
Front Squat, 9 reps 10-15 pound
Push Jerk, 6 reps

Hm. Ran into a minor logistical issue here - I didn't have access to a 15 lb bar. I knew I could probably survive the darned thing with a 45 lb bar based on my experiences yesterday and knowing that I'm a strong deadlifter and squatter (comparatively). However, I've done some reading and I knew that there was a key piece of information in the instructions.

"for time"

This means that this is, in addition to strength training, also a metabolic conditioning workout. The weight is meant to be low enough to give you the ability to hustle and get the heart rate up. Compare this to yesterday which, when you're really doing it (rather than playing with an empty bar like I was) you really try to get as much weight on the bar as possible, and if it takes you a bit longer to get through it, well then that's fine.

So, I found a heavy squooshy bar and used that. I hoisted it up next to a 45 lb bar, and it seemed lighter, so I think I did the workout today with about a 30 lb weight? So much for following instructions. First round was about 2:30, second round I forgot to set my watch going again but I estimate a 2:10 (I know it was my shortest round), third round was 2:14. I think I was a bit tentative on the first round because I didn't have a good sense of whether or not this was going to kick my ass, or just tickle it. Turns out it was somewhere in between.

So I hustled. This means I also sweated. I also got bit red faced. I'm red faced sweater - add in the obesity, and this makes me a pathetic looking gym rat. However, I had my hustle on, knew I was doing some good for myself, and considered it a point of pride that I did this while I was still sore from my previous three workouts - though the sorenesses are all melding together a bit now. Plus, my arms looked totally muscly and huge - always a plus!

Much like at my old gym, nobody else in the weights area was red faced, pink in the face, or sweating. We didn't even have a grunter. There were probably five or six other people there. C'mon... there's got to be at least one grunter in the bunch.

Oh wait... maybe that was me? Note to self - check for grunting next time. Also, try not to flick sweat on mirror. That's a touch pathetic.

Ow

Ow ow owie ow.

After a scintillating month of shingles (pretty much all better now, thanks!) I'm back in the gym.

Ow!

Two days ago was working on my pushups and pullups, and am still really really sore from that. Today was shoulder press work:

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps (5-5-2-3-5 actual)

I did it all with just the 45 lb bar. This was an interesting lesson for me. I was struggling with the last shoulder press and didn't see how I was going to do basically the same thing 40 more times. No way, no how.

However, I'd done my homework - watched the videos, and realized that this is designed really well. I couldn't have done many more shoulder presses, but the bit of heave-ho that you give yourself with the push press makes it possible. Yeah! For the push jerk, I really had to use my legs and jump under the bar to get it up over my head - at this point my arms were blown, so it was a good lesson.

Hm. Maybe they do know what they're talking about. In the meantime I'm considering drinking my coffee through a straw. Less arm movement that way.

Ow.

Campus in the Springtime

I'm working on campus four days a week for a couple of months, and if you ever get the opportunity to do so in the springtime, I highly recommend it.

Every day at lunchtime, I set off for a walk from the College of Design, through the mall, over the Mississippi and back. Usually, I pick up a bit of lunch on the way to eat at my desk when I return. Combining this with parking at-distance from the U, it means I get about three miles of walking in a day. Not much, but when you're battling having no metabolism at all, every little bit counts.

Today was classic Spring. No preachers on the mall, but instead there was a pretty big rally and march protesting China and the Olympics in Beijing on behalf of Tibet. The milling throngs had mainly three parts:

1. Tibetan Sympathisers - among them, perhaps even some Tibetans. They are walking around with t-shirts, banners, symbolic torches, and having themselves a nice and orderly demonstration. Well, apart from the two shouting matches I saw. You can spot these guys from a distance by their air of moral superiority and the smugness of doing-something-about-a-bad-thing.

My favorite poster said "Chinese students are brainwashed". As if we all aren't, in some way or another.

2. Bewhildered and Hurt Chinese students, staff, and faculty. Some get angry and shout, some make reasoned arguments ("separate Chinese government from Chinese people" being chief among these.) Some hustle by, looking sad.

3. Jaded passers by. Many people, insulated by their white earbuds, sunglasses, and businesslike gait, just march on by. Spend enough time at the U and you'll see enough protests, marches, and rallies to choke a horse.

I don't know all the nitty gritty details of the Tibet situation, but it does seem a sad one. However, today, the people I felt badly for were the Chinese students standing in sad huddles, and walking with their heads down.

Zimbabwe? Really?

With a combination of colds, travel, coughs, and a soupcon of laziness, I've sort of fallen off the exercise bandwagon. I'm running after it - went for a lovely long walk yesterday and didn't cough once! In fact, I only coughed three times yesterday, and that's awesome news. I've got my workout gear with me, and have scheduled a visit to the gym after work.

Something else I'm doing is tracking my daily consumption on DailyPlate.com. I've learned a few things.

I eat more carby stuff than I should, but still way less than the average American.

According to DailyPlate, I'm allowed about 1800 calories per day for my weight and activity level, if I want to lose 2 lbs a week.

According to them I generally do eat 1800 calories per day naturally. Awesome! I'm not losing weight much, but we all know that there are various other things at play here including basal metabolic rate. Actually, I often eat quite a bit less.

When I have a bad day, my calories can go as high as 2400. That's really really high for me, and happens every couple of weeks or so.

So, it was no small measure of amusement that I came across this today: http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2006/12/27/do_americans_eat_3790_calories_per_day.php

So it seems that the average American from 2000 to 2002 ate 3790 calories per day. WOW.

I'd love to eat that much. Mmm.

Apparently in 1979-1981 the average American ate 3180 calories - a difference from today of 610 calories. Approximately the calories in a McDonald's Super Sized French Fries.

A sobering note. Zimbabwe (according to the link above) in 2000-2002 showed a daily consumption of 2,020 calories. That's still more than I eat.

Finally, check this out : http://www.calorierestriction.org/

There is research showing that restricting calorie consumption can lengthen lifespan. I can't really comment since I haven't read the research yet. They steer clear of making daily caloric intake recommendations (very smart, imho) on that site. More information here, including a pretty compelling discussion of the risks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction

Why do I bring this up? Well, the New York Times has an interesting article here: http://nymag.com/news/features/23169/

Dude tried the calorie restriction diet. He ate 1800 calories per day. Granted, he's 5'11" and I'm barely 5'9", but still... that's interesting.

Back on the horse that bit ya...

Well, something like that.

The last two weeks have been an assorted plague of illnesses - backache/headache (me), flu (loved ones), heart attacks (yup, loved ones - doing okay now though), followed by a monster cold (me *cof*).

Guess what my wod was today?

Walk from the car into work. At the end of the day, repeat in reverse. (To be fair, it's about .8 mile, nice little leg stretcher)

Whee. Feel the burn.

Plan for tomorrow is much the same. I'm wiped. Luckily we've got some beautiful spring weather right now. Minnesota might get brutal winters, but we get great light. The coldest days have this brilliant blue and clear sky - simply lovely. We get similar skies in the early warm spring days. Really puts a bounce in your step and a wheeze in your lungs.

Crossing fingers, I'll be up for a half-speed buttercup wod on Friday. In the meantime, I'll be sleeping with Prince Robitussin.

The Cookies. I did not toss them.

That's good, right? Oh, metabolic conditioning, how you hate me.

Scaled WOD. Yesterday's since I'm off schedule.

Four rounds for time of: Run 200 meters 15 Squats 10 Back Extensions. Looks easy, huh?

Paltry performance. A month ago I'd have made it easily. Darn that laziness!

Came in at about 3:45 per. I'm such a wuss that I walked the last two so as not to toss the cookies, and my time improved.

The good news is that I'm really hungry now. Yay exercise and levothyroxine!

The bad news is that my hair is falling out. Went to get the hair done today and every time they combed my hair, tons came out. When I commented on it the gal said cheerily "Oh, I've seen worse!". Hmm. At least it's a decent cut and color now. This is a well known side effect of both Hashimoto's, and the treatment, so it's yet another thing to add to the list.

I also had a grumpy moment in the locker room. I saw my reflection from afar and was dismayed to see that my cheeks had puffed back out. Darned thyroid, darned puffiness. Sulky moment. Then I looked again. The shadow I'd taken to be puffiness along my cheek was actually cheekbone. Ah, I rescind my sulky moment. Yay for cheekbones! I haven't seen them in about five years now! Yay! I had dinner with a dear old friend last week and she told me quite cheerily "You look great! Better than you have in years!" she then added "You *are* still fat though!".

Heh. She really *is* a very good friend, and as such is allowed to say such things. She edited to clarify that she basically wanted me to know that she wasn't blowing sunshine up my bum ... that I really do look better. *grin*

Well that's impressive.

On Friday, I went to go workout and it was one of those evil ones that have that word "max" in them.

CFWU minus pushups and pullups,

3 rounds:
max pushups
max pullups

Well, I didn't do well. I hadn't eaten, and I was still really really sore from the previous workout. So, I did my best, got changed, and went home.

Once I got home, I realized that the entire workout had been less than a typical CFWU. D'oh!

When I do the CFWU, I take as long as I need to to get in 10 of everything. On Friday I was working hard at doing things continually, with no blood sugar, and massive full-body creakiness.

Note to self: Eat.

On a personal side note, some of y'all may be interested to know that my parents are posting about their adventuring over here: http://nikonvict.blogspot.com Go leave 'em a comment, would ya? There's nothing quite like seeing your comments explode as a welcome to the blogosphere. Plus, if you comment, then they'll post more often and it'll be easier to keep an eye on them. I might even save some minutes on my cellphone ;)