Whistle while you work

I'm freaking out. I have seven clients I regularly do work for (which I've assigned clever code names for blogging purposes) and Happy, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy, and Sleepy are all dumping work on me right now simultaneously. Dopey and Doc have projects scheduled to start next week.

I walked to yoga this morning (that was before I knew about Bashful and Sleepy), and it was good for the soul, if not for time management.

There's food, there's love, and then there's chocolate

My grandmother used to love to feed the ones she loved. A typical meal was hamburgers, corn on the cob, mushrooms, rice, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and the special favorite food of every single person coming to the table, be it grape Jell-O or liver and onions. And when I say "a typical meal," I mean pretty much every meal.

Not surprisingly, she was fat. Grandpa was fat. Their dogs were all fat. And, because Grandma babysat me, I was fat, at least as a toddler in Iowa. (Somehow my mom was thin. She must have been a rebellious teen.)

My dad always told us, "Grandma's problem is that she equates food with love." So I grew up thinking, "Silly Grandma. Food isn't the same as love."

But now I'm not so sure. When I get up early to make the kids hashbrowns for breakfast, aren't I saying, "I love you and want you to start your day with something that's at least one step up from Frosted Mini Wheats"?

When my husband brought me chocolate in a heart-shaped box, wasn't he saying, "I love you enough to give you exactly what you want"?

And when he brought me an absolutely delicious, 100% healthy, vegetable-packed dinner at my desk as I frantically pounded away at a deadline, wasn't he saying, "I love you enough to warn you right now, put down the chocolate and back slowly away from the heart-shaped box before you make us both miserable for the rest of the night"?

Don't tell me food doesn't equal love.

The most dangerous month?

It's been a sugar-fest around here for more than a week now, starting with the Super Bowl, continuing on through my three-day birthday extravaganza, and probably not finishing (if I'm honest) until after Valentine's Day. I'm starting to think February might be as dangerous as December, and I saw Cadbury Eggs in the grocery store the other day.

I've been thinking, though, even with the influx of junk food*, my diet is still probably better than it was last year at this time. I mean, I had about four cups of collard greens with breakfast, for crying out loud.

I've made some mild attempts to resist the sugar, mostly by making semi-Paleo treats to have instead. I just made some awesome cookies where the only "bad" ingredient was a quarter-cup of agave nectar, and my birthday cake was this chocolate walnut torte. Holy tasties.

* A note on the phrase "junk food": I read an interesting article somewhere recently about how the problem with American diets is that we consider sugar just empty calories, when instead we should think of it as actively harming us. Rice is junk food. Sugar is a whole nother beast. So we ought to think of a new phrase. "Devil food?"

Birthday fun starts…now!

It's funny I should have joked that I was never going to leave the house again, because right after I did, an avalanche of work poured onto my head, and I stayed at my desk for three days straight trying to dig out. ("Dig up, stupid!")

I did get to go outside today on the way to my son's band concert. Best of all, the concert was so good, and my birthday is so tomorrow, that we went out for ice cream afterward. We have all but stopped eating out, so this was some Big Deal fun.

Speaking of birthdays, I have one friend from college who never forgets a special occasion, and I got my card today right on schedule. Chances are it may be the only card I actually get in the mail, and although I'm not particularly sentimental about birthdays OR greeting cards, I have to admit it's really nice. So I started thinking that, for our 50th birthdays, I should send every single person I know an actual card in the actual mail.

Since most of my friends are about my age, that plan doesn't really go into effect for about nine years. But if you've got a 50th birthday coming up before then, let me know. Because I mean it. Turning 50 is a big deal.

Tiny circles and a post-Paleo party

It was a weekend of great swimming*, great climbing**, and great walking, even. My mom joined me on the tiny track at the pool, and we logged more than 11 miles Saturday and Sunday between swimming events—that's 121+ tiny laps. But time flies when you have a walking partner. I'll have to remember that.

I fell hard off the Paleo wagon at my parents' Super Bowl party, but I didn't feel too horrible afterward, which was surprising given the amount of sugar I inhaled. I'm not sure what to do about this tendency I have to dive headfirst into the nearest available bowl of Peanut M&Ms whenever it's any kind of special occasion, but I guess there's no point beating myself up about it now. I'll just carry on with eating well at home and try to never leave the house again as long as I live.

* Several more improved times (including a 1:17 100 free, for those who want to compare their own swimming ability).
** Second place in his age group and looking strong, plus won an orange shirt in the raffle. :)

Busy weekend

We have another swim meet this weekend, and a climbing comp, but both are in town, so we won't need to subsist on fruit and nuts.

(By the way, when I say "we," I'm talking about myself and my husband, who is still faithfully following all the Whole30 rules because he's lost so much weight on it. In fact, I spent several amusing minutes this afternoon watching him try on shorts, looking for a pair that will still stay up.)

Anyway, there was only one swimming event tonight, but the boy did us proud, dropping 45 seconds off his 1650 time, after already dropping nearly three minutes from it just two weeks ago. And during warm-ups, I went for a walk on the track around the basketball court—a whopping seven 0.09-mile loops. Better than nothing. Lots more swimming, climbing, and tiny loops to come tomorrow.

Stats you were just dying to hear

Okay. Time to add up the walking/running miles for January: 39.5. 39.5!? That is not the mileage number of someone who is on track to make it to 1,000. (I know, because my mother hit 90, which is that kind of number.) Well, my owwie is starting to feel better, so I guess it's not too late to step it up.

Wonder if I could do 90 in February? We do have that extra day this year.

Other stats:

• Words memorized: around 500-600 (goal: 10,000, but if I stay on track with my group, I will consider this a success)
• eBay items sold: 7 (goal: 100) 
• Pounds lost (from previous low of 169): 4 (goal: 10)
• Children's books written: 0 (goal: 1)