Less of Josephine.

Happy Halloween from your favorite Florida tourists. Have a Boo-licious day!

Weight: 139.2 (Whew, I dropped the vacation and flying water weight — I was freaking out there for a bit!)
Mood: Spooky!
Misc: Nobody looks attractive chewing gum. It’s a fact.

No, I didn’t shoot anything (or anyone). No, my husband didn’t kidney punch me right after this photo was snapped. No, I have no idea what he was doing in this picture — my guess is a traditional jig. Yes, this is what you do for fun in the Maine woods.

Weight: ? I avoided the scale this morning, but I’ll be back on it tomorrow.
Mood: Pleasantly tired.
Misc: I can’t stop saying Baaaahhhh Hahhhbaaaah (Maine speak for “Bar Harbor”) to all and sundry.

As some of my friends know, I eat black bean burritos almost every day. I’m like an addict or something (more like incredibly lazy). BUT LOOK mi amigas, yesterday I had —- drum roll, please —- portobello mushroom burritos instead!

And that’s waaaaaay different, right? Right?!?!

So, I’m busy packing for our trip and then as soon as the darling husband gets home from work we need to go shop Halloween costumes for the party we are going to while in Maine. Hubby is being difficult and has put the kibosh on all of my suggestions, so only the Great Pumpkin knows what we’ll be going as. If it is particularly offensive, revealing, or foolish, rest assured I will be providing photos.

Talk to you guys when I get back!

Today’s Weight: 139.4.
Mood: Anticipatory.
Miscellaneous: Jo sings: My country tis of thee, from my porch I can see, Russia and such…!

I was up at 5 am for another over-10-mile-run this morning (yippee!) and I think I can finally say I’m getting used to this distance. I have a great route that includes running over a big bridge twice, to emulate the half-mary I’ll be doing in February, and is visually interesting so it keeps my attention the whole way (and distracts me from how damn far I’m running!).

Someone doesn’t like to get up at 5 a.m.!

And I’m hoping that since it was in the upper 60s this morning I won’t get the horrible heat rash on my face that I suffered with after my long run last week. I took some great suggestions from friends about how to avoid the rash and this morning I used a gentle wet-nap at the halfway point, rinsed my face several times during the run, and put Calamine lotion on after my shower. My face is showing minor irritation, but nothing like last time, so we’ll see how it is in the morning. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I won’t look like a plague victim again.

I leave for Maine (again) on Thursday and I’m looking forward to a couple of cold weather runs just to mix things up. I also plan on turning 41 while hiking in Acadia on Saturday, so that should be a fun way to celebrate my older age. Too bad we aren’t going to be close to the Maine portion of the trail-that-should-not-be-discussed because it would have been cool to hike even a small bit of it since I’m still (secretly & quietly) obsessed. But I will settle for the coastal beauty of Acadia for this trip.

Today’s Weight: 139.
Mood: Excited.
Miscellaneous: I want someone to pack for me. Volunteers?

The thought police (my husband) chastised me for all my recent mooning over the Appalachian Trail (which doesn’t figure into my future any time real soon) when in March/April we are planning to spend 2 weeks in Italy. I’m supposed to be planning our itinerary and so far I’ve done pretty much nothing.

So, va bene, it’s all about Italy now. We’ll most likely be flying from JFK direct to Pisa (or Pizza, as my husband likes to call it) and spending a few days in that area (which I think is Tuscany) with a friend. And then…. I have absolutely no idea.

I better go to the library, molto rapido! <— probably not real Italian.

So my new obsession is the Appalachian Trail. So far I’ve read several books and scads of stuff online. I’m currently reading two more books on the subject (I often read more than one book at a time, I don’t know why), including one about a blind dude who thru-hikes the trail with his guide dog (can you say WOW?). So, yeah, I want to thru-hike the trail (which means hike the whole 2100 mile stretch from George to Maine all at one time).

Unfortunately, nobody I know wants to do it and everyone I know thinks it is dangerous and kooky. My mom physically shudders when I dare speaketh of the trail-that-shouldn’t-be-named. She’s sure I’d be raped, trampled by a moose, struck by lightning, bitten by a snake, tossed off a cliff, and eaten by a bear. Her fears aren’t total unwarranted, as whackjob Gary Hilton killed Meredith Emerson after meeting her on the trail, and the story is about as horrifying as it gets. There have been other deaths on the trail, some women, some men, and not all caused by whackjob killers. Mother Nature can be deadly and hypothermia, lightning, rattlesnakes, bears, etc. are all a threat. But from what I’ve found only about 8 people have died on the trail, though many more in the woods surrounding the trail so I think saying only 8 is probably putting too fine a point on it.

I would never hike it alone, that’s for certain — even though it totally pisses me off to say that. If I were a man I’d have no such worries about hiking alone, which is so unfair. But that’s reality. My husband would hike it with me (he’s hiked for months in the Himalayas of Nepal, the AT probably wouldn’t even be as much of a challenge) but it isn’t practical for him to take off four months from work when he is our breadwinner. Maybe when we are both retired it will be something we can tackle, if our knees are still good by then!

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing with my time. Reading and running, running and reading. And painting hurricane shutters (blech).

Today’s Weight: 140.2.
Mood: Pensive.
Miscellaneous: Why must the frogs crap all over my glass door, huh? They sure do have some nasty crap.

Now that I’m sitting here at my goal, I realize that I still have weight I’d like to lose. So I’ve decided to set my sights on 130 and see how I look when I get there. According to the CDC, 130 would put me at the lower end of a normal BMI range for my height, which I think is probably right for me. Yes, I am tall, but I have a very small frame — though for years I told myself I was “big-boned”. I remember being at a doctor appointment once and trying to excuse my extra weight with the “big-boned” theory and the doctor actually laughing and saying, “you are by no means ‘big-boned’, in fact, you’re tiny — but you are significantly overweight.” He was right, of course, if rather painfully blunt.

I’d like to run here some day… For more gorgeous runs, check out Runner’s World Rave Runs!

Also, I would really like to be as absolutely light as possible for the sake of running. I have my father as a role model in this respect. He keeps his body weight very low in order to maximize his running efficiency — and he regularly wins his age group at local races. And while I’m probably never going to be as gifted a runner as he is, I can certainly improve (and I have the rest of my life to try!). And being lighter would definitely be helpful.

So my plan: well, I’m not going to change anything about my calorie intake yet (maintenance usually involves upping calories slowly until you are no longer losing) and just see where my weight settles with my current routine. Since I lost over 1/2 pound last week, I think I can continue slowly losing for a while with no changes.

Today’s Weight: 139.2.
Mood: Silly.
Miscellaneous: Can a person survive eating just green beans? Hmmmm.

Apparently, when you want to run over 10 miles, as I did this morning, you need to make sure you’ve been eating properly. I had a pretty light food weekend, perhaps because I’ve had a little bug or something. So my calories had been pretty low. And this morning, when I got to the end of mile 8, I suddenly felt very, VERY bad. My entire body felt as if it weighed 1000 pounds and I became chilled and light-headed.

Then I barfed on my shoes. Twice.

I did manage to finish those final 2.11 miles (what choice did I have, I needed to get home after all) — though at a slow trot, and once home a boatload of water and a frozen banana with peanut butter (heaven!) brought me back to life. But I have no desire to run another 10 miler like that one. Today was a painful lesson about my body’s limitations and needs.

Today is traditionally my weekly weigh-in post, but I’ve decided that I’m not going to do formal weekly weigh-in posts any more, though I’ll continue to track each week on my Progress page. Instead I’ll just make a note at the end of every post about my current weight and whatnot. Something like this:

Weight: 139 even-steven.
Mood: Chipper, even though I need to steam clean my shoes.
Miscellaneous: I couldn’t  help myself (see below).

A family emergency is taking me out of town, I’ll be away (or spotty) for a while.

Everybody keep on keeping on!

Never mind, I’m not going out of town, somebody changed their minds. Trip out of town, FAIL.