Back at it...

The hard earned, albeit weeny, few pounds I lost since I started this endeavor has, for the most part, returned thanks to the carb fest that was Thanksgiving week. Food was awesome and horrible at the same time. Also, there was no cross fit other than Monday and, while I would love to say that I did my CF homework, I did not. What did I do instead? Well it seems I kept busy - just not on this challenge.

Soooo, in the meantime, my son J has swooped like the veritable Nike swoosh. He laid back for, oh, 4 weeks or so and then kicked it into gear this past week and has miraculously dropped almost 10 lbs in a week!!!! How is that right??? He is following what is called the Paleo diet - roughly based upon what our ancestors ate... essentially, as he puts it:

• Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds
• Some fruit, little starch and no sugar.
• Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

Anyway, worth a try - can't be any worse than it is.

Not really looking forward to Cross fit tomorrow night - eeek. I will do some of the warmup tonight just to get a head start.

average so far...

So my weigh in average so far this week is 166 which matches what I was last week. Still 4 lbs down but it is very hard to see me losing the 11 lbs I need to by 12/25 especially since we have el grande carbfesto Thanksgiving between now and then.

On Monday, I did thrusters -at the incredible weight of 33 lbs! No scoffing -this is heavy for me right now.

Since Crossfit is closed until next Monday - the homework today is...

Michael

run 800 meters

50 back extensions

50 situps

Today, R and I are going to Nyia's school for grandparent's (grandperson's) day. Afterward, Nyia and I are going to Artcentric so she can paint a statue for her other grandmother. Going to be one great day!!! Here are some fav pix of the Nypie.

quilts again....

These top three were quilts I made to donate to St Vincents which was the orphanage in which my dad and his two brothers grew up. It now has a number of group homes for young boys with abuse problems.

This is a poncho I made for Goldie. I am not sure she really ever wore it - maybe she should give it back and I will recycle it into a quilt. Always have to be careful about quilted wearable stuff - as fashion is in the eye and mind of the wearer. In my case, high fashion is anything that does not itch (Gilda Radner agrees).

Saturday with Lo and Goldie

I know, I know, it is Sunday and it is weigh in day. Well I DID weigh in and I decided, clearly because I was not pleased with the lack of results, that, before I post this new #, I would weigh in each day this week and take the average. It is not that I gained a lot, I did not, I just did not lose a lot, or a little, or any.

On a better note, Goldie had a field trip with her class to Half Moon Bay and, since it was one of the weekend's that I had the grands, she suggested we come with her. I have a friend there also, so it worked out very well. Ny had a hair appt so she did not come.

We played in a fun park, we visited with my friend, we had clam chowder with Goldie during her lunch break (a contributing factor to my displeasurable weigh in), we shopped in little shops. Weather was beautiful - I would love to live there!!! All in all, a great day. Pix below.....

Quillows and quilts

My daughter, O, played basketball all through high school. Each year, I would make quillows (quilt in a pillow - the quilt folded up inside of the pillow - pretty nifty) for each of the graduating seniors on the team. On the front of each quillow were pictures of the player, the team, the mascot, their name and jersey number. Her senior year, I think I made seven of them! I don't think I kept pictures of the other years. I finally made one for O - but it wasn't until she was in college. She gave me a hard time about that!!!

Below is the quilt I made for her coach, Mrs. Anderson - also at O's senior year. I got pictures of her when she was in high school and college from her father.

thanksgiving

is coming along... got the invite list in place (looks like an even dozen will be here)...got the menu divvied up. By then I will be soooooo ready and soooooooooo deserving of the carb fest that this holiday is.

I am in charge of taking the turkey from this....

to this.... and I can do it too!

Grumpy and the WOD

First - grumpy...

• woke up at 2am
• could not go back to sleep
• got up
• got on work email and did some work.
• So as not to give away that I was working in the wee hours, date stamped the delivery times to 8am
• only thing was, I used the wrong date!!!
• argghhhh
• tried to go back to sleep at 4am
• alarm at 5:30 sans sleep
• grumpy all day
• apologized to those receiving said grumpiness

Now the WOD

• even tho tired and grumpy
• I went
• warmups (if I did not post what they are, let me know as they are significant)
• Olympic weight lifting...impressive, I know
• Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
• Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
• Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps
• of course, I used weenee weights, just working on form - but I was doin this stuff

painting and panting

Painting - the grands and I went to Artcentric as our special place this Saturday. It is a place where you paint ceramic items and then they fire them for you. The girls picked out some statues - their respective personalities came out during the session... N loves projects and the whole time she kept saying.... Grandma, I am having soooo much fun!!! L can take projects or leave them so she quickly painted hers and then spent the rest of the time playing with all of the marbles and doo dads that were at the place.

I painted a bowl pictured below. I would post pix of what the Ni and the Lo did except they intend to give them as Christmas gifts to their moms and I would not want to give away more than the girls have already told them.

Panting - yesterday I did the Elizabeth which was 21, 15, 9 each of medicine ball lifts and dips. I did em all in less than 8 minutes :-)

biking in the park

My husband and I went biking yesterday in a park at Pt Richmond. This was the same place that my son J held a walkathon some years ago.

This is my brother Mike and, in the background, my other son, Mike. If you look closely, you might just see a grandaughter in the stroller.

Yikes - it was more years than I thought.

Sunday Sunday it was not all I hoped it would be

WEIGH IN

166.4

less by a fraction

not what I hoped

but not more than

last week

I think it is in my portions

my plates do not look like this

Listen to this one

I can't figure out how to embed videos so I am posting this link.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27650743/

It is of Keith Olbermann, Anchor of Countdown at MSNBC. It is his special comments on Prop 8. It is well done and expresses most of the opinions/feelings/perspective that I consider compelling on this issue.

burpees burpees and more burpees

50 burpees - took around 11 min - and I am whooped! One is supposed to say, burpees, YAY! I did, but I am not sure I meant it.

Jason...where are you????

I have never ever had any desire

whatsoever

to run.

Not me

no how.

I marvel at those folks who run so smoothly,

effortlessly and consistently.

I especially like to watch those who seem to be born to run

great form,

barely touching the ground,

hardly breathing,

with a serene look on their faces

certainly not sweating

...not like those who plod or

who seem to be running sideways, and

whose faces are contorted

like they are dying standing up

or with their mouth gaping open.

Based upon what I know of me

and of my capabilities

if I ever ran

I would definitely

be in the second group

no doubt.

Having said all of that....

As a Crossfitter

one does not get to choose

one's WOD.

Today's WOD

was

running

running 400 meters

resting 2 minutes

for time

then

doing it

again and

again and

again.

Joanne, who usually helps me, was there

when I came in.

She told me that she was not going to help me today,

instead it was going to be

Justin

and that, I should take my time, take it easy

only do what I could.

So after stretching, here is what I did....

the first 400 meters in 2min 55 sec

the second in 2:58

the third in 3:08 and

the fourth in 2:57

THAT'S RIGHT -

I actually did them ALL

and I ran the whole time

and I did not fall down

and I did them in less

than an hour each!!!

And, since it was in the dark,

and no on could really see me

I am here to tell you....

I was smooth.

burpees and a quilt

Burpees look easy

burpees are hard.

but I did some

quite a few, in fact

This is a quilt I made for Goldie. The pattern is called yellow brick road.

She uses the heck out of it.

My bike

Went for a ride today with R. About 7 1/2 mi. my bike looks like this....the second picture is my bike folded up. I have not yet to have an occasion to fold it up, but it is comforting to know it has that capability.

Sunday Sunday

166.8

Only down a bit more than 1/2 a lb, but down nonetheless. To review the week....

• Exercise - Went Monday and Thursday, but as it turned out, on Friday, R and I got last minute Warrior tickets so I ended up not going to Cross Fit. As I had to get to work early on a few days, I only walked 3 out of the 7 days.
  
• On the eating front this past week, I did ok - probably not perfect.

Goals this week....
1. Cross Fit Monday, Wed, Fri

2. Do something physical every day

3. Zone it up and journal it down

Names and such

For the grief my son gave me on his last comment... actually, she used a woman's name on what you are calling a wall ball - she said I did 1/2. I would have remembered wall ball! there is NO WAY I am gonna remember all of the women's names.

Having said that, I do vaguely recall the term medicine ball clean. This one was harder for me to get everything together than I thought it should but then I saw this clip: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_MBCleans.mov (I did not know how to insert the movie here) and, based upon all the instruction that this guy is giving, maybe I am not so remedial as I felt.

More importantly, a cross fitter goes cross fitting! That is it!

Fitness and Fabric Bowls

Fitness - so far this week.....

• Sunday - biked with R.
• Monday - walked in the am/ went to Cross Fit in the PM - worked on medicine ball squats/lifts (I think that is what they are called). It is where you squat, lift a medicine ball with straight arms, jump up, shrug shoulders, lift the medicine ball by releasing the ball, then bending arms, and then squat again once you are under it. Did 50.
• Tuesday - worked election - that was enough
• Wednesday - did not go to CrossFit - got home too late and was way too tired
• Thursday - CrossFit - went at around 6:30 - they had a different kind of class starting at 7 so I did a short warm up and then did squats with a medicine ball - stood up and threw it up against the wall above a certain line. Did 50 in around 2.5 minutes - they thought that was great and that I could have done 100. I, on the other hand, was really not so sure. It was a very short one, but intense.
• I will be going to CrossFit again tonight. I have officially signed up for the MWF 6:30 pm session.

Been very zoned in the eating - it is getting easy and I feel pretty good about that.

Sunday will tell the story, tho!!!!

Fabric Bowls -

I have been making fabric bowls for a while. When O started working at a school, she asked for one that was school themed (I don't have a picture of it, maybe O will oblige). I then made one for Halloween for both O and Goldie. Holidays and seasons change so now it is time for a T-giving theme. Finished them this am - pix below...

back to basics - some gifted quilts

Time for more quilt postings....

It may be a bit difficult to see, but this is a signature quilt for a friend who was getting married.

******

This is a very bright baby quilt - also for a friend. The blocks in the corner and on the top and bottom of the center have cute cartoony pix of animals.

**************

This is a wall hanging for a friend who was retiring. The flower centers are pictures - some that are 20-25 years ago.

The day after...

we are back to abnormal - but hopefully, we are on a way to a new and better normal. I did work the election as a Roving Inspector - it was fun, spirits were higher than I have ever seen, voting was higher than ever. Long day and one to remember.

One plea - our voting process needs more efficient, effective, competent folks to help out on election days. It is one day plus a few hours of training - but it is worthwhile work. Consider it.

Also - not apropos to the election at all or even to quilting or even to fitness (I have been doing well so far)... I went to the California Governors Womens Conference (I know I am missing some apostrophes there somewhere) and visited a vendor booth called Bead For Life. I bought some of their jewelry. The organization is a group of women from Africa who make beads from magazines. So interesting and a worthwhile cause. The site is http://www.beadforlifestore.org/. Here are some pix...check out their site.

HE WON AND....

therefore, we won!!!!

It's Heeerrrreeeee.................

Finally - election day is here. It just HAS to work out, just HAS TO!

Ya gotta VOTE!!!!!

Getting down to the end of a long election process. Just think how stressful and exhausting it is to interview for a job....what if it took 2 years???? You would be so tired, you would need a one hecka long vaca before you started.

The three that I REALLY want....

1. YES on Obama/Biden
2. NO on Prop 4
3. NO on Prop 8

thas it and thankyouverymuch.

Just think, when Obama gets elected - you can be telling your grandchildren that you were there and you clearly remember the time that.....

Sunday Reckoning

So to review the past week....

• Ate in the zone for the most part...with two exceptions - although I am not really sure that are all that notable. First - three times this week I had a 1 pt weight watchers ice cream bar and then on Friday, we had pizza but I had only one slice. I even ate out a few times and made good choices.


• Worked out at Cross Fit on Monday, Wednesday and Friday - got through the fundamentals training. It is all getting easier or at least better.


• Walked Mon, Tues, Wed so I did not hit my goal of doing something every day


• Weighed in today - at 167.4 so down 2.8 :-)!!! That could just be fluctuation - next week's weigh in will be more telling/significant!

Here is a picture of J and I at the Cross Fit gym....

This next week is going to be tough - with work and the election (I work it). So here is the plan...

• Eat in the zone - so far so good - doing fair with the blocks although I could probably do better with portions.
• Walk on Monday, Wednesday, Thurs, Fri
• Bike today if it is not raining
• Work out on Monday, Thurs, Fri and try to do the warm ups at home on the off days.
• Hope to get to 165 by next Sunday

Pillowcase Posse

I was fortunate enough to head up the members of our Quilt Guild in making pillowcases for an organization called Foster a Dream whose mission is "to provide programs and resources that build the hopes, dreams and futures of Bay Area foster children; and to be a guiding source for successful transition into the adult world." One of their programs is called "Pillow Pals" - which takes place during the holidays. They provide a pillow, a stuffed animal and a blanket to foster children which is designed to provide a little comfort when they are moved from home to home as well as a pillowcase for them to carry their belongings in during these moves. That is where we came in.

We kicked it off in August with an explanation, a demonstration (by me), a pattern that requires only 3 seams (if you want the pattern, let me know) and a challenge to see how many pillowcases we could make by our meeting in November. One Saturday in September, we held a relay as well.

This past Saturday, a representative from the organization came and spoke to our group and I am very proud to say that we were able to present a whopping 263 pillowcases to them!!! Below are some pictures. Their website is http://www.fosteradream.org/

Pillowcases everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!