Day 94 (Day 59 Revisited): The Good Daughter

My mom thinks I'm crazy: I worked out this morning (4 minutes x 4 sets) and then I worked out tonight (strength exercises). And today on our trip into Boulder, I bought two new tank tops to exercise in for another boost of motivation. But you worked out yesterday ...

So my Mom .... I love Mom. We aren't much alike but she allowed me to shine and be who I am. Her mother didn't allow that for her, and Mom's personality quirks could have followed suit but she didn't. It's a miracle I am hers. Haven't seen her in three years because of time and money on both our parts. She drove out to CO with my Kid Sister, who is 8, from Kentucky. They are visiting for a week; they leave Monday morning. Mom has always been the Dieter. As a kid, I remember the Dexatrim bottle on the counter. Then the various fad diets. Then the pans of brownies and cake that were gone quickly. The XXL tees she scored from the Dollar Store. Sometimes she was heavy; other times she was gaunt. As for exercise, she liked to walk; her timid, cautious and low-key personality prevented her from really trying anything beyond that. She's been into Curves the last year, but stopped going earlier this summer; her reasons were vague. She does, however, wear these Velcro sandals with curved soles which "help" you tone muscle as you walk (?!?!??). I just nod uh-hmmmmm!


Oh yah. This is them. Imagine them with white athletic socks. And sweatpants.

It makes me angry at these companies who sucker these women in; I also am frustrated with these women, including my dear and well-intentioned mother. Sure, she is trimmer than I have seen her in the past but I wouldn't say healthy. On the first day of her visit, we got into a debate because she believes that organic chocolate milk is healthier than regular chocolate milk, therefore she allows Kid Sister to have "only" two glasses of organic chocolate milk PER DAY. I walk downstairs, and Kid Sister starts the day off with 1. a glass of choc milk 2. a chocolate PopTart. Lunch is fries and a shake and a burger patty. Every day she has had a bowl of chocolate covered raisins. Every day so far there have been treats in addition to these "meals." Kid Sister got winded walking around the block with us! As a mother and a PCPer, I totally cringe. I mean, my kid gets the occasional Oreo or whatever but she also gets fruit, vegs and unbreaded protein every day. And Kid Sister prefers to sit on the couch than hit the playground or backyard to play with my Kid, much to Mini Me's dismay. But if I try to engage Mom about their exercise and food habits, she is vague, changes the subject, or shuts down completely. As a former newspaper reporter, I am used to pressing people for details or seeing through the smoke and mirrors to get to the goods. But handling my mom in this manner seems cruel so I have to stop the inquisition and highlighting the giant holes in her beliefs. But I don't want to give up on her.

Day Fifty-Three: Shaken, Not Stirred

So I'd like to get a consensus on how everyone deals with their protein powder. I've got a tub of CytoSport Cocoa Bean, which is tasty and mixes better than the previous one I used, something picked off the shelf at my local grocer's. Also tried a small canister of protein powder from Whole Foods. I'm happiest now with CytoSport but ... is a shaker better to avoid lumps? Or blender? Would love to hear how you serve it up, and if you use a shaker, which kind/brand (and where to get it!).

Day Eighteen: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good: Last night after softball, I hosted a cookout with the team at mi casa. It was lots of fun. I stuck with the PCP food plan and was able to resist multiple offers of macaroni salad, boozy beverages and, yes, even s'mores (that was REALLY hard, by the way). I had a burger loaded with vegs and a cucumber tomato salad with balsamic. Yum!

The Bad: While the food was cooking, I absent-mindedly ate some tortilla chips with queso as I chatted with a friend. After a few bites, it dawned on me it was totally not PCP. I also did not do my evening snack of fruit and milk (but I did eat a few raspberries, does that count?) Oops!

The Good: Yesterday, I scored some boxes of Near East Wheat Salad for greek tabouleh, which I think will fit in nicely with the PCP food plan, and some dates to try my hand at Shelby's recipe for PCP jam. I already had strawberries, and then someone brought garden raspberries to the cookout, so I snagged those, too, for some fruit spread goodness. Gonna try that tomorrow. Woot!

The Bad: "I got hurted," as my kid would say, playing softball last night. Took a wayward throw to the lower shin covering second base (it always seems like a heroic move to use your body to stop a bad throw, but then you wake up the next day and ummmmmmmmmmm it just seems stupid. Just sayin'). It's so tender and swollen I now have a cankle. It hurts to walk. It hurts to walk up and down stairs. It hurts to lie down. It hurts to wear pants. Suffice it to say I did NOT do my PCP exercises today. I plan to do Day 18 tomorrow in the a.m. and Day 19 in the p.m. Sorry ;(

Ugly: See cankle reference above. *sigh*

Day One, Vol. II: They're All Gonna Root For You

Just finished my first PCP workout in my new "gym" aka the backyard patio.

jumping rope
push-ups
sit-ups
squats

Nice but think I will definitely have to switch to a.m. workouts (the neighborhood is alive, noisy and busy in the afternoons, as it should be; neighbors and my kid wanted to know what was up with me and the jump rope, and I felt like my social hour in the suburbs was missed). I would have done PCP this a.m., but I'm still in the throes of my boot camp, session two, for the summer. I have two weeks left. Which means for the MWFs of the first two weeks of PCP, I will do boot camp in the a.m., and PCP workouts in the p.m. I kept telling myself It's only six days (five now), but truth be told today my body was already tired when I got home from work. Lucky for me, the PCP exercises align nicely with what we do in boot camp. On my non-boot camp days, I'm definitely going to start my day with PCP to ensure nothing at the end of the day gets in my way. Which is saying a lot, considering I'm a night owl.

The first week of PCP "diet" (oh how I loathe that word! I've never been a diet kind of person, and I don't believe PCP is anything even close to a diet. We need something better to call it. How about food solution? cuisine opportunity? fit fuel?): Just eat half. Whatever we normally would dish out for ourselves, eat half. Sounds easy. And it is easy to do ... until you're hungry an hour later. But I really stuck with it, and I realize today might be the easy day of it all.
Small bowl of cheerios instead of large. One morning coffee instead of two; one tsp of sugar instead of two. Five almonds instead of 10. Even half a nutrigrain bar when I was famished on the commute home (this PCP could really make the drive home dangerous for others if I continue to drive hungry). I noticed I really paid attention to my food so I wouldn't snarf it all down and that I could really enjoy the food. And that even with "half" portions, I felt satiated (but not stuffed) which snowballed into really looking forward to and appreciating the next time I got to eat.

Today I had a lot of people ask about PCP, and I was happy to share. Once I got over my embarassment and worry about revealing the blog, it was really awesome to see people outside the PCP are cheering us on, too. Viva la revolucion!