Steady As She Goes

The bar didn't get to move...yet...I'm like 1/2 a pound away.

I think I sweated it out in Spinderella's class today. She gave us another grueling workout and I love her for it. I'm never bored, she always plays good (fun) music, and the video distraction is really helpful when your quads are screaming in pain.

Today she treated us to a Rihanna concert video and more of the extreme skiers. Rihanna is beautiful. The skiers are NUTS...these are the kinds of guys that get droped on a mountain via helicopter and they ski down...and sometimes parachute. NUTS.

I'll take my adrenaline in easier doses, thankyouverymuch...

I didn't weigh myself all weekend. I did weigh myself yesterday and today and at least I was moving the little bar to the left. It is almost to the "0" (zero)! I can feel it...any day now I get to move the 50 pound increment bar...steady as she goes...

So I got to wondering what was giving me a little jump start on my losing again...and I think I figured it out.

For a moment there I was terrified that it was my wine and that I was going to have to tell Bacchus not make any more yummy suggestions and I was going to have to stop checking the cinderellawine.com website every day, but wine doesn't seem to be the culprit. I'm not drinking enough of it for it to affect me...at least not calorie-wise...and a glass (sometimes 2) isn't going to trip me up.

I think I wasn't...and this is wild to me...eating enough.

I was sending my body into starvation mode. I was not getting enough calories. "I" and "not enough calories" in the same sentence.

As horribly sluggish as my metabolism is, I was not helping it by under-consuming. I'm doing workouts burning a minimum of 600 calories and I sometimes hit a high of over 1000 in a workout. Some days I was barely eating 1200 calories and working out hard. Not enough fuel...

So I have played with it a bit over the last few days and I have been eating a bit more frequently...fueling myself a bit every few hours, but with healthy stuff. 3 small, good, balanced meals a day and 2 snacks...sometimes 3 if I eat an early dinner.

My snacks are either Greek-style yogurt (Fage 2% honey or blueberry), Oatmega bars (I like the blueberry one and the peanut butter one), fruit, an ounce of almonds, V8 (low sodium ONLY), or Fit Foods Black bean soup.

And I still have my glass of wine most (but not all) nights. Last night I opened a bottle of "Ball Buster" red blend---mostly Shiraz with some Cab and Merlot thrown in for fun---$13 at Costco---and it is not bad...but not as good as the Molly Dooker Boxer...but half the price...so...

And I think taking Sunday off from the gym helped too. I have found that when I give myself a day off I come back stronger and get a longer, harder workout. I have only skipped 6 days since March 27 so I am entitled and I need to not feel guilty about it.

I'm going to take Thursday off too. Because on Thursday I get to pick the Cutest Boy in the World up from Camp LaJunta. We may need an ark to get there. The camp is possibly going to have to alter closing if the rain keeps coming. We might have to have a drive-by closing. Thank you, "Alex" for literally raining on my parade...

We have had a drive-by closing before. A drive-by closing is a little like a drive-by shooting except that what they shoot into your car is something you want (your son). Not bullets.

I didn't mind the drive-by thing so much excpet that I didn't get to see my son win a big award that year. Every year as I sit and sweat to death and melt in the heat at closing (oh yes, and they have a FIRE going) I wonder if the trade-off is worth it...you can drive-by and pick up your kid but you don't see the awards or you can swelter and see your very excited child get an award. I'll take the heat and the excited kid...

But the drive-by does have its merits---you drive into the camp in your car and you stop along the way and turn in forms (for camp next year), pick up meds and awards, pay camp store bill, and then, in a moment that is just AMAZING they do the best thing ever---THEY LOAD THE TRUNK AND ALL THE CRAP INTO THE CAR FOR YOU RIGHT THEN AND THERE AND YOU NEVER LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE. And yes, you get your son too! I'm just kidding with you here...getting your boy is the best part but the loading the car without leaving the comfort of air conditioning is pretty sweet.

Regular camp closing is pretty well done at Camp LaJunta anyway. You line up in your cars and wait for a bit---all the while listening to the camp radio that is playing "boys like this" kind of music and the camp director keeps giving you time updates---and then you get let into the main part of the camp. You park your car near the big field near where a sign marks your son's cabin area. And there, on the field, are ALL of the camp trunks---neatly organized into rows, ready to be loaded. You get out of your car and point to your son's belongings and a cute boy counselor helps you load the stuff into your car, all the while telling you how great your kid is. Then you wait...and then they release the boys for the "charge from the cabins" and soon, as you anxiously look for the running boy that is your son, you see your precious boy running toward you to throw himself into your arms and allow himself to be covered in kisses. And then he turns back into a "cool" boy and steps away. And then you have to melt during the awards...but you get your kid back...and then you get the ride home with the most excited boy in the world telling you that camp is the best place. EVER.

Ke$ha Barbie used to go to Camp Mystic...for 8 years...she used to think it was the best place. EVER.

I must pause here to cry a bit because this year she decided to forgo camp in favor of going to concerts. So we told her she had to get a job...because we are mean, evil, terrible parents. And no, that job could NOT be working as a counselor at one of the country clubs for 3 weeks taking care of country club member's kids. So she can be found hostessing at Pappasitos on Wednesday and Friday nights and Sunday afternoons...

(sniff sniff)

Camp Mystic literally asks you to take your life into your hands when it comes to loading the trunks at closing. It's not so bad if you have a younger girl, but the "senior" girls live in cabins on the hill. The way up and down the hill is a very steep one-way "road" that you must ascertain that no one is coming the opposite way from you before you go up or down the hill. Once up the hill you have to play "chicken" with the other dads in suburbans to get to your daughter's cabin. Then you have to find a parking place (easier said than done) and then you have to drag your daughter's trunk and garbage (and girls have way more crap and garbage than boys do) out of the cabin and down some stone steps and then load into the car and then try and get down the hill without having a head-on collision.

I dont' remember much about my own camp closing other than the fact that seeing your parent's car was a depressing sight and we had all the trunks on the porch so we could drop them into the car trunks or slide them into the back of the station wagons. Our parents would then follow us around to watch us do our activities (we always had to chase some dad out of the cabin so we could change for swimming) and then we would have lunch (the best fried chicken ever...or was it BBQ?) and then we had awards. And then an hour of boo-hoo as we said goodbye.

The girls at Mystic have boo-hoo. The boys at LaJunta do not.

My parents had to deal with 3 crying girls and 3 nasty trunks...and then 4 once my brother joined us. One year my sister K kept throwing a wet bathing suit into her trunk and everything mildewed in it. She wore the same clothes for a week until one of the counselors discovered what was happening and made my sister N deal with it...and someone washed the clothes.

And as for those clothes...let's talk about THAT for a moment...because I say a little prayer before I open up that trunk and see what is lurking inside. It usually smells pretty bad...

One year my son informed me that I didn't need to wash his clothes because the CIT washed all of his laundry the day before. So all of his clothes and linens (he didn't use the word "linens" but you know what I mean) were clean. Because the CIT washed it...the CIT being the "counselor in training" who is 16 years old. I'm glad that the CIT's get those skills...way more useful than how to put cheetos and shaving cream into your hair for a cool hairdo.

I informed my son that there was "camp clean" and "mom clean" and that they were not the same thing.

I wash everything in the trunk...have the kids put their clothes away and then I put all the linens and non-clothes back into the trunk. And then I will wash it all again in May before camp. Because that is "mom clean". And I want my kids to have their first night in their camp bunk to be on sheets that still smell like the Downy I like to use.

So Thursday I will skip the gym and my exercise will be in patience as I ride in the car for 4 1/2 hours to go get my boy. It will be a great day...I get to have lunch with my beautiful sister-in-law and my precious niece and nephew (and they will come to camp with us and melt) and then we are having dinner with some dear friends that moved to the hill country and my son will get to spend the night at their house and spend some time with his best friend (they may have moved but my son still considers him his best friend. EVER.). And the next morning we will shop at the mercado in San Antonio (and lunch at Mi Ti's...heaven...) before heading back.

Camp closings are bittersweet...I remember the great times I had at Friday Mountain Girls Camp and the boo-hoo of seperation. (shout out to my FMGC cabin mates and the Buckaroos) Because camp was the best place. EVER.

And when I get home I will get on the scale and hopefully I will get to move the bar---or there might be an hour of boo-hoo...

But it will happen...steady as she goes...a tiny bit at a time...but at least it is moving...

Inspiration music: "Steady As She Goes" by The Raconteurs...because it was playing as I left the gym today after Spinderella set my legs on fire...

bye darlings...