Gertie:

There is an interesting article/blog post today in the NY Times about the usefulness of exercise when it comes to losing weight.

While I’m often limit my comment reading on major forums like the Times because it can make you hate the internet, if not all of humanity, the comments on this particular article are rather fascinating.  There are a lot of familiar voices from people who have struggled for years with diet and exercise, as well as others discussing the health benefits of staying active and fit beyond numbers on a scale.

What do you all think?

Gertie Stein:

Kate- I hear you.

Its been rough lately! How come some weeks can feel so empowered and living a healthier lifestyle seems like an inevitable future, and then others are a  crap shoot?

I got on the scale this morning and was not totally horrified by what I saw. Not great….but not as many steps back as I had feared given my life lately. As I went through my morning, I kept thinking of that number in my head every time I made a choice about what I would or wouldn’t eat (Halloween candy! Be damned!). It helped some….

I think I am a ‘weigh every day’ kind of girl. For now anyhow. I know a lot of sources discourage you from this–and I can definitely see how it could become an obsession if your not careful– but I find that it is a nice reminder every day why I am doing this….

Goals for this week:
- Make some healthy homemade soups to stock my fridge and freezer for the coming winter

- Pay attention to how much money I am spending on junk or fast food when I have alternatives at home (i.e. Starbucks, diet cokes, Subway….)

- Walk my dog every day that it is sunny. This is Chicago, after all, and I hear the dark, freezing whisper of winter already….

Gertie:

Folks, its been a whirlwind of a couple weeks. I’ve been caught in an endless mobius strip as the kids I work with began to get sick, then I got sick, then they got re-sick….and so on and so forth. Truth be told, none of us have actually come down with the dreaded H1N1, but we have had a heavy dose of runny noses, ugly coughs, and sore throats.

While being sick usually doesn’t make me want to eat much, being home with sick kids all day most certainly does. At home (at least, the work home, which has a fully stocked fridge and lots of kid foods that are packed with carbohydrates and other such danger zones), it is far too easy to take a bite of this here, a bite of that there, until you realized you were actually full three hours ago and you have conspicuous chocolate stains smeared across your cheek.

Not to mention, when my routine gets thrown off, I get thrown wayyyyy off and its often hard getting back in the swing of things. Things like going to the gym, sleeping, and making healthy food have to be factored into my daily plan and I have to be able to keep that plan going non-stop, otherwise I am far too talented at convincing myself to stray.

This week finally, Finally, FINALLY, all three kids seem to be healthy (enough) and are going to school. Please, for my sanity, cross your fingers and pray they stay there.

And I, in turn, promise to fill you in on all my gossip and non-sequiturs that have been missed in my absence…

SIDENOTE:
speaking of non-sequiturs…this is the example given by Wikipedia and I totally giggle every time I read it…..

Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Fish.

gertie:

Frankly, its been a week. One of those weeks.

After two weeks of pretty good eating and really good exercising, I have definitely snagged and now I’m stuck, starving and exhausted.

A scheduling change at work means I’m waking up SUPER early and dragging ass for the rest of the day. And frankly, when I’m tired everything else goes out the window. I turn into FrankenBitch and manage to stress over anything and everything.

Here are my goals to survive the last half of this awful week:

- Instead of just stressing about money, I’m going to take steps to actually put myself in control like eliminating extraneous expenses and selling off things I no longer need like old textbooks. It won’t make my debts go away, but maybe it’ll make me a little less despondent about them.

- Focus on eating 3 meals on a somewhat regular schedule for the next couple days. Normally, I’m not the biggest proponent of the traditional Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner set-up because my body is often sending me different signals.  BUT, sticking to that for a couple of days should give me enough structure to get past my desire to just stress-eat 24/7.

- Drink more. I know, i know, empty calories, alcohol is bad, blah, blah, blah BUT a drink or two with friends goes a long way to making me more human. I need that!

No Olympics For Chicago

Gertie Stein:

So, after a gazillion years of posters, commercials, debates, and speeches by the likes of Mayor Daley, President Obama, and Her Highness Oprah Winfrey, it was formally announced last Friday that the 2016 summer Olympics are headed to…..Rio.

Chicago was a little bamboozled by this news. I think everyone was so caught up in the debate as to whether the city should be spending all that money on the games, they never stopped to take into consideration that the Olympic committee might not think we’re as much hot shit as we think we are!

I was sort of down the middle on the issue…my opinions changing as often as my taste in men. On Monday the Olympics were swarthy, brave and ready to sweep me off my feet, but by Tuesday they were more like the greasy bad boy who looked vaguely attractive until the ugly lights came on.

As someone who is daily trying to motivate myself to exercise, though, I have to say I will miss the posters and banners lining Lake Shore Drive. Those rainbow colored sprinters and swimmers were supposed to make me feel patriotic, I suppose, but they often made me feel laaaaaazy and, subsequently, eager to get off my butt.

sigh.

Chicago 2016 Poster

Gertie Stein:

I’m basically a mom with no kids.  Or, as my brother puts it more crudely, I do a lot of the work to run a family, without the love that usually comes along with the job.

Six months ago, I transitioned from a life primarily occupied by theatre and the arts to a new job as assistant/nanny/cook/jack of all trades for a family in Chicago.  I took the job because I was down-right desperate for one after the touring Broadway show Kate and I had been working on closed.  I kept it because I found that, surprisingly, this was something I was actually good at.  Somehow, I found a patience inside myself that I didn’t know I had and discovered that the chaotic schedule, in which every day is different, made the weeks and months fly by.

This is all fine and dandy but after a few months of Chuckie Cheese playdates and cooking for kids who refuse to eat anything that isn’t beige (and eating the leftovers…), my mind AND thighs are suffering.  I need a change!

I guess I’ve always looked at myself as b.i.g.  Even when I was a young girl, I was acutely aware that ‘delicate’ was a good trait when it came to women and girls and I was anything but delicate.  With feet that were always a few sizes bigger than my friends’ and a whole lot of curves, I never really fit into that mold.  Because I was convinced that I was a fat kid, even when I wasn’t, I gave into many of the unhealthy habits and the lifestyle that goes along with the stereotype.

Now, I tend to be a lot more confident about who I am on the outside (especially when it comes to the curves….I’ve discovered their benefits )  I’m not looking to become one of the skinny girls I envied in high school.  But, as I get older, I’m discovering that healthy eating and exercise isn’t just about being littler.  

I need to do better so that I function better, so that my mind is clearer, so I sleep better, so I can walk my dog without suffering for it, so I can breathe without coughing, so I am happier!

I’ve come close enough in the past to know it is possible, and that even 5 lbs can make a major difference in the quality of my life.  Its not what other people are thinking about me that is motivating me, its the understanding that I need something to work towards in my life and that my goals for a healthier, happier life are attainable.  Ack. I’m over-Oprah-fying.

My goals:

• Lose 35 lbs
• Walk my dog the long way whenever I can
• Look more people in the eye and smile
• Take advantage of all Chicago has to offer
• Get drunk every once in a while because I can
• Don’t do anything stupid while drunk 

Is that too much to ask?