Birds and weightlifting.

Weight: 164 pounds. Right outside my kitchen window, there is a male house finch leaping around a female, singing loudly. He has his head thrown back and he's kind of hopping back and forth with his head thrown back, singing the same song over and over. Probabl the bird equivalent of "hey, baby, don't you know I got something for you? I could make you happy!".
The female, of course, acts as I might: after a while of this she flies at him, pecking at his head, trying to drive him away.

I went to the gym this morning. I'm going to try a routine of Monday, Wednesday, Friday doing weights and swimming. Then Monday - Thursday (this part starts later this week) riding my bike into town to the counseling center, where I'm interning this summer.
So here's my routine, to get back into the swing of things:5 minutes warm-up, then stretches-bicep curls, alt. with tricep pull-downs-flies, alt. with rows-hamstring curls, alt. with lunges-leg lifts, alt. with oblique trist crunchesOf all the exercises, I hate the lunges and the leg lifts the most. Which means, of course, that I need to do them. I'm toying with the idea of trying to do a triathlon this fall. I hope to be in the Athena division. I'm proud of it - it's for larger women. It means I wouldn't be competing against 98-pound runners. I'll talk more about that later.

Metaconglomerate. I finally get to be a true geek.

Weight: 164 pounds Still steady
Mood: Peaceful. Music: Cheryl Crow
It's summer. I know this because I closed and packed up my classroom last week. And here's a funny, true, story. I've been teaching Algebra for nearly 6 years. In case you don't know, educational administrators are LOATHE to lose a math teacher. I'm a good one, too, I think. I get few complaints, and the kids seem to like me and say that I explain things well. However, I was trained as a science teacher, and promised a science position when one was available, and science is what I truly love. I've begged every single year since I got hired. Finally, at the end of 2004, I was told, "you're a math teacher, that's how we see you." and I stopped asking.
So here's the setting. It's my annual interview, the boss lady was checking off the usual check boxes, including those that said I'd done a GOOD job. Then, they had a new box to check. It was about being "highly qualified" to teach math. This is one of Geoge W.'s rules. I'm a good math teacher. But because there isn't anything on paper that says I've had oodles of math classes, as far as he is concerned, I'm not "highly qualified" to teach it.
Boss lady's boss, the principal of the school, sighs. "Okay, put her down for earth science next year".
Somewhere, a choir of angles were singling. I'm going through my geeky stuff, my rockhounding books, my rock collection, deciding what goes to the school and what stays. Of course, I reminded him that my ultimate goal was to become a counselor. In the meantime, however, I get to teach, which I love, and I get to teach a subject that I love. How cool is that?
Hay, it doesn't say GEEK GIRL on my license plate for nothing.

30 pounds down, and feeling Giddy.

Mood:: Giddy. Music: Liz Phair
Image Left: where do we get our fat from?
It's just 2-1/2 weeks now until finals (at work, that is) and finals are next week at school. I'm pretty happy, because it's been a long year. I sold my prep last week, meaning that now instead of a planning period I'm teaching another class - 8th-grade science. It makes for a long day, 7:10 to 2:45, with a 20-minute break in the middle. Also, I took 27 credits during 2004 and 15 this spring, and I'm just about done. This summer, I'll take a couple art classes at the rec center, but mostly I'm just going to work part-time at the counseling center, bike, and swim.
I'm crazy with impatience because my wrist is healing SO SSLLLOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLYY!!!!We joined a great gym, Riverpoint, and I'm going for one of my first personal trainer appointments soon. Brian, my husband, is training for a triatholon that he's going to be in next weekend. He's lost almost 30 pounds as well. Hey, how come since I turned 40 I have these weird bruises on my leg? Can anyone tell me that? I had an end of semester get-together and it was fun. Wine and munchies.

Weight: 167 pounds.
I like this picture. It's from one of my favorite moview, "Supersize me". If you haven't seen this, run, or waddle, over to get the DVD.

Mood: Restless. Music: Craig ChaquicoWe went to see Craig Chaquico last week. Right now I'm listening to "sacred ground". It's very nice stuffMy students (Gosh, I do have the best job in the world, I have to admit that) ask me, "Hey, Mrs. Pilgrim, what are you doing this summer?" Well, Virgina, there is a summer, and there is life outside of school.
I'm going to take one class on sand tray and art expressive therapy, and work p/t at the community counseling center downtown, seeing clients. I'll be taking on my third client this week. My goal is the ride the bike downtown as often as possible, after parking at the gym, and either lift or swim in the afternoon. I'm also hoping to get a counseling job this summer. I've become less concerned about how I look now and more concerned with strength and agility. I remember how strong I was when I lifted weights about 3 years ago. When I was doing leg lifts and squats I would bound up the stairs, and that's a pretty powerful feeling. I think lifting weights is something every woman out to do - it's very empowering. I'ts hard to feel like the "weaker" sex when you feel that strong. I'm pretty happy wearing a size 12 (I'm now a minority: More than half adult Americans are overweight, and of these, nearly a third are obese (that works out to nearly a fifth of all Americans who are at least 50% over their body weight.)At 169 pounds, I'm no longer obsese, just overweight. But I'm healthy. Most of my clothes are this size, and summer's a-comin'.

Like having my own wife.

I almost forgot, here's a recommendation: "The Vegetarian Slow-cooker" a cookbook by Robin Robertson. Run, don't walk, to the nearest bookstore and get it. I started using this last week, after not having used my crock pot since giving up meat in 2000.
Do you know, can you know, how fabulous it is to come home and have a slow-cooked juicy meal waiting for you and smelling up the house? It's like having a wife. Oops, I guess that's sexist. Okay, now I know what it's like for people who have partners who cook for them.

<-- GEEK ALERT: At left, see the chemical structure of fat.

Headline: Spring break kills woman's diet

Weight: 171 pounds.
I just got finished with spring break. Before going, I was actually at 168 pounds, but I gained a couple. I wasn't tracking my weight during break (went to San Antonio via several national parks) and ate too much.
Still, 3 pounds in one week isn't TOO bad, when you consider all the margaritas and mexican food that comprised it. I'm going to try the "drop" diet to make up for it. I'll let you know how it works. Here is what it looks like

Less fat but getting lazy.

Weight: 169 pounds - the halfway point. I got lazy. My birthday was last week, so I ate a lot. But at least I didn't gain any back. Hubby, meanwhile, has lost a total of 24 pounds now. I've lost 25, and still have 25 to go, but at this rate, I hope to be around 150 or so by the end of the semester. This picture is what I imagine I look like when I look in the mirror. Sure, I know it's a product of the insane images that society foists upon women, but there it is.

I went through the clothes in my closet, and packed away some of my fattest clothes (size 16 and 18). I'm into my "medium" (My medium, not everone else's) size 12's and some 14's. This is pretty cool, because a lot of my spring stuff is size 14.

I made up my own sugar-free sour mix in honor of my birthday (3 days ago), so that I could have whiskey sours (1 shot of Jim Beam is 67 calories) without using a lot of points. Pathetic, I know. Anyway, you take sugar-free lemonaid, and add fresh lime juice and splenda to taste. I imagine if you added a bit of orange you could make margaritas, as well.

It snowed here today, and school was canceled. I have one more day this week (tomorrow) and then Parent-teacher conferences, and then I'm off until the 28th, I think.