Food Diary Blues

I didn't keep a food diary or weigh in during week 3 and 4, and I gained back the pounds lost in the first couple of weeks. Correlation doesn't prove causation, but I'm thinking there is probably a connection.

So I'm using the food/exercise diary again. I hate it for a number of reasons:

• Filling it out is tedious.
• Every time I eat something different I have look up the calories.
• If I don't exercise the empty space on the calendar stares blankly, rebuking me for my laziness.
• I'm already over target by nearly 700 calories in the first 2 days this week, which means I have to cut back a lot. Knowing this means I can't pretend I'm doing okay, which kind of sucks.

This weight loss project is giving me the blues!

Great Show

Saw a delightful Christmas show at Chicago's Goodman Theater this week. It was Congo Square's "The Nativity," a re-telling of the birth of Christ through singing and dancing. My son-in-law Casey Diers, designed the lighting, which was warm and elegant and highlighted the actors' movements and costumes beautifully. I thoroughly enjoyed the deeply emotional performances and rich voices of the ensemble.

Shoppercizing



Shoppercizing at the mall

 It's day 2 of week 3 of my weight loss effort. So far, so good. My calorie count was just under the target for last week. I weigh myself every other day or so; last week I was consistently 2 pounds lighter. Today, the scale says I've lost 3 pounds.

Tracking all food and drinks is tedious, so I stopped recording things that don't have measurable calories like black coffee, diet pop, and lettuce on sandwiches.

Still need to exercise more. But I'm consistently doing 15 minutes of something which is improvement. Last night I shopped at Gateway Mall for 5 hours. Never worked up a sweat or had to breathe hard, but I was really worn out at the end--does that count as exercise? Why not? Let's call it Shoppercizing!

Happy Birthday To Me

I celebrated my birthday by making cupcakes and giving them to our Frank & Simon's customers. Call me an attention whore if you like; it was fun.

Birthday Cupcakes!

Next day, the family went downtown for a swing dance lesson followed by some practice at the Del Ray Ballroom. Lots of slapstick comedy there!

Swing dancing with my son. In background, hubby is dancing with my mother.

Then we went to Dish for dinner, which was fabulous. We had the cheese platter for an appetizer, which everyone loved. My entree was grilled pork tenderloin with apples, sauteed spinach and butternut squash, and mashed potatoes. Drank water and skipped dessert, but I estimate that was 742, which is a lot. But it couldn't have tasted better, and at least we got some exercise!

French Fries & Donuts

It's day 2, week 2. Yesterday I went 400 calories over the target. Damn those fast food french fries! Looked it up on Runza's nutrition web page to log my food from last night, and discoved a medium order of fries has 410 calories. Okay, lesson learned. If I'm really craving their fries, a small order at 280 calories is the way to go.

Gordon may be trying to sabotage my diet. He delivered an order to Randy's Donuts this morning and brought back my favorite kind, a cake donut with chocolate icing. According to my Food Counts book, that's 130 calories. Yes I ate it--it's my favorite!

Family Ties

Thanksgiving weekend this year was just the way I like it...lots of time with extended family that we don't see often. I feel especially grateful to the relatives who travelled and those who hosted gatherings, giving us the opportunity to strengthen family ties.

Weight Loss Day 4 - Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful family dinner on Thanksgiving Day, and I estimate I consumed about 845 calories at that meal. So far this week, the calorie counts are okay. Exercise, not so much. I need to get moving!

Weight Loss Day 2

Using the Microsoft Food Diary template, I started to track my food consumption and exercise. Yesterday my calories totalled 1577, and I got 15 minutes of exercise walking the dog. According to the weight loss calculator at caloriecount.about.com, in order to lose 30 pounds by November 29, 2012 I should consume 1533 calories per day. So I wasn't too far off yesterday. If I had skipped the sprinkle of cheese on either my breakfast biscuit or lunch salad, I'd have hit the target.

I want to lose weight



Chubby Chris

In my younger days I never dreamed I could get this heavy. Guess that's what happens when you over-eat a lot and stop exercising! I'm almost 49 years old and don't want to lug around all these unneeded pounds in my 50's. Though I'm reluctant to change because eating and laying around on the couch are pleasurable, it's time to lighten the load.

My goal is to weigh 30 pounds less on my 50th birthday than I do now. I think that would be a comfortable weight that I could carry without putting undue stress on my aging body. Of course, I will enjoy looking more youthful and fitting easily into stylish clothes too.

Family and friends have lost weight successfully and healthfully with programs like Weight Watchers, TOPS, and Jenny Craig. If I need to I'll explore those options. But I want to do it using available resources, i.e. food from our restaurant and grocery stores, the free gym at my husband's workplace, and so on. So I'll try that first and see how it goes.

My doctor explained that every pound is 3,000 calories, so to lose a pound I have to reduce calorie intake a lot, and exercise much more. She also said when I eat less fat I'll feel hungry again sooner. So I need to eat more often, while resisting the temptation to fill up with heavy foods. To burn calories fast, she recommends running.

Starting today, I am officially on a self-regulated weight loss program. Here goes!

It must be Autumn because everybody's wearing red.

In Nebraska, this season has a color and that's Husker Red. Game Day is celebrated by the wearing of red, or sometimes "blackshirts" black. It's a statewide phenomenon, fans everywhere wear their team gear in droves. Parking lots and driveways are dotted with tents decorated in red and white. Smoke rising from thousands of grills perfumes the air with the smell of searing meat. Shortly before kick-off, the streets, restaurants and stores empty out. Just about everyone has gone to sports bars and TV rooms to watch the game. Here at Frank & Simon's, we provide a tailgate spot in the parking lot. We grill our Chicago hot dogs and bratwursts for hungry customers and entertain them with games of cornhole, the Husker pre-game show blaring from my 1978 boombox, and door prizes. Go Big Red!

State Fair

I love going to state and county fairs. Last year, the location of Nebraska's state fair was changed from Lincoln to Grand Island. It was controversial, but I understand why it was a good idea. Lincoln's state fair facilities were extremely run-down, and Grand Island is more convenient for most farming families.

This year Scott and I drove an hour and minutes minutes to Grand Island, then spent two more hours in the car creeping along in bumper-to-bumper traffick. At the end of that ordeal, our parking space was a one-mile walk on unpaved roadside from the fairgrounds. It was discouraging, to say the least!

After we finally made it into the fair, we had a nice time. I relished my annual corn dog and lemonade. The 4H project displays are our favorite part, and there was a lot to see from kids all over the state. The animals were beautiful, as were the many quilts. The commercial exhibits were out in force selling everything from vibrating weight-loss machines to waterless cookware. No outdoor concerts, which I missed. We didn't ride or play games, but the midway looked great. We lucked out with spectacular weather, which made all the difference. If I can figure out a better parking plan, I'll go again.

The Most Important Meal?

Frank & Simon's omelette

Because I wait until the last minute to get ready to leave the house, my go-to breakfast has always been a bowl of cold cereal. Better than nothing, but it doesn't give a body much to work with. Eating breakfast has become easier since we started serving it at Frank & Simon's. Fresh eggs, vegetables and fruits are so much better than sugary refined flour!

Drive-by Art

The World is Amazing and Beautiful and So Are You

I've been passing by this art installation in someone's front yard all summer, every time I go home from work. It caught my eye right away and made me smile a bit the first time I saw it, but I didn't have a strong reaction. With repeated viewings, I've become quite attached to it and appreciate the message more than I did at first. I find that I respond to it now, silently nodding and agreeing as I drive by. So yesterday I stopped and took pictures. Isn't it cool that someone took the time to entertain and enlighten passers-by with art?

Men Dressing Badly



Omaha, Nebr. Great looking dog but the guy needs a wardrobe makeover.



Years ago I sold menswear and really enjoyed it. It was fun to help men find clothing that fit well and made them look great. For a long time now, it seems like men's clothing gets worse every year. The low point, in my opinion, was sagging pants. Unfortunately, those are still a common sight in Lincoln. GQ.com published a slide show called "The 40 Worst-Dressed Cities in America". Sagging pants aside, most of my personal peeves are represented and some of the writing is clever. I wonder what it would take to get the majority of U.S. men back into clothes with decent tailoring that actually fit. It would be wonderful to see guys looking good again!

Cold Thoughts

We're having extremely hot weather this week, so today I am thinking about cold things. Things like ice cream (actually I did more than think about that one; ate a Dairy Queen banana split-flavored Mini Blizzard). Freezers, doctors' hands, mountain streams, the inside of my car on a winter morning...and snow. I took a few minutes to look at pictures of the awesome Christmas ski vacation our family enjoyed in Breckenridge, Colorado in 2007. Now that's cool!

My obsession with Mid-Century Modern

I have developed a passion for Mid-Century Modern design. Perhaps growing up with the beautiful buildings in Lincoln has something to do with it. One example is this building on South 16th Street. I love the pink granite and window layouts. The building next door to it also has a great modern vibe!

Retirement Reality Check

So many political arguments are being made about funding social security and medicare, it made me wonder. Is it possible for a middle income worker to save enough money to support him or herself in retirement for, say, 20 years? I decided to try to answer my own question.

The current individual median income for workers 25 and over is about $33,000. That means half of American workers earn more and half earn less. Also, that's exactly what my latest full-time annual salary was with an associate's degree and many years of working up from entry-level clerk to senior office associate. So it seems like a good number to use for representing a middle income.

I used the calculator at CalcXML to determine how much a 25 year old would have to save in order to achieve the equivalent of $33,000 annual income from age 70 through 89 (assuming 3% inflation per year). I assumed the retirement savings plan would earn 6% per year, which is roughly the historical average return for stock funds. Here's the result:

"To provide the inflation-adjusted retirement income you desire, you need to save $7,282 or $607 a month. The total amount needed for retirement...is $2,423,159."

Does anyone expect a young middle-class worker to sock away over $600 per month for retirement? I think that's highly unlikely, which raises more questions, especially this one: Are there other ways to fund one's own retirement?

Getting Ready to Grieve

Last April, on a typical busy day when no one was expecting anything out of the ordinary, my father died. Even Dad didn't suspect something was up. When it happened he was standing in the grocery checkout line, waiting to purchase eggs and tomatoes. He'd already gone for a swim at the YMCA, enjoyed a conversation with his wife, and started his volunteer shift at the Elks Club. He was picking up the groceries for the club. Just a nice, normal day, until suddenly it wasn't.

The family, especially his wife, were occupied for weeks with hundreds of (supposedly) necessary tasks and decisions. Dad's life was simple because he liked it that way. He had no debt, little property, and kids from just one marriage. Even so, there were a few loose ends, unanswerable questions, and difficult judgement calls. I can't imagine how hard the process would be for a family with complicated financial and family situations.

That's mostly over now. There's not much left to do but grieve.

I haven't really begun to go there yet. It feels kind of like standing at the edge of an unheated swimming pool, trying to work up the nerve up to jump in. Knowing the freezing cold water will be a shock, and I'll have to do a lot of moving to warm up. Wanting to do it, but dreading those first extremely uncomfortable minutes.

 I'm almost ready to grieve. Almost. Just give me another minute to get my nerve.



Dad & Me

Celebrating Wildflowers

I just discovered that this is Nebraska Wildflower Week. What a lovely thing to celebrate! Events across the state include tours, outdoor concerts, morning yoga, hikes, plant sales, fun runs, and photography seminars.

Starting Over After a Fire

Lincoln Fire and Rescue battles a fire at the Lincoln Public Schools Administration building, 5901 O St., late Monday night, May 30, 2011. This photo shows the west side and southwest corner of the building.
(TED KIRK / Lincoln Journal Star)

Our local school district administration building burned down this week. The fire spread at night, and the only employee in the building smelled smoke and called the fire department. So no one was hurt, thank God. But what a mess. I've been wondering since then, just as I did after the World Trade Center burned down, how do you get your business up and running again when all your stuff is gone? We all have off-site backups of our computer files...umm, right? Even if that is the case, the hours of work it would take to get all the new computers, configure them like they were before, and retrieve all those files, boggles my mind. Not to mention the logistics of replacing all the physical equipment and records that were assembled over decades. I just can't imagine it!

Retirement for US War Dogs

I knew the US military uses dogs. Our local Veterans Memorial Garden includes a K-9 Corps Memorial. What I didn't know is when their tour of duty is over the dogs aren't returned to their home station, and can be euthanized or abandoned in a foreign country. It wasn't even legal to adopt them until 2000.



Photo: http://lovingforaliving.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html



Fortunately, "...the military has made dramatic strides since then," according to an eye-opening article in the Military Times. Publicity about Cairo, a Navy Seal dog who participated in the raid on Osama Bin Laden's house, has increased the number of adoption applications so now there's a waiting list. I like Maj. Gen. Mary Kay Hertog's idea; she wants the dogs to be re-classified from "equipment" to canine veterans. "That would take an act of Congress, but it could also ensure that all dogs shipped out of the United States are brought back," says the Times. “Uncle Sam gave the dogs a ride over. He should give them a ride back,” says Kandoll.

 I couldn't agree more!

Rapture

Seems like all the news broadcasts are covering the story of Harold Camping's prediction that Rapture will occur tomorrow, May 21st, 2011. The Atlanta Journal reports, "According to the Pew Center for the People and the Press, 41 percent of Americans believe Jesus Christ will return to Earth by 2050."


The web site Rapture Ready is chock full of information those folks could find useful, including a timeline of events pertaining to significant armaggedon factors such as the European Union and Rock and Roll. Another web site, Rapture Assurance, has an interesting pitch: "Are you ready to be Raptured? The Rapture Card will assist you. Get a Rapture Card and get peace of mind." I had to click on that, just to see what the card does.


I grew up learning all about the Rapture, or as our chuch called it, the Second Coming. As a child, whenever I saw beautiful cloud formations I searched the skies for Jesus just in case he was coming through. That's because I Thessalonians says, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord." I didn't want to miss that!

If you're still around after May 21st, reading Tim LaHaye's books, especially the Left Behind series is another way to get a detailed perspective on these beliefs. By the way, a couple of months ago LaHaye said on Mike Huckabee's talk show that the Obama administration's policies are "bringing us closer to the apocalypse."

Predictions are a common as weeds. A local pastor, Gil Rugh, predicted Rapture would occur around the year 2000. Since then, he changed his mind. Rugh's pamphlet "The Rapture," published in 2010, says, "The next event for the church is the rapture. This has been true for the past 2000 years. No one knows when Christ will return because no one knows when the rapture will take place."

Though I find other people's end-times beliefs interesting, I don't feel anticipation or worry about any of that. I still love to watch our beautiful Nebraska skies and look forward to seeing Jesus some day, but for now my favorite version of "Rapture" is Blondie's!

Four-Legged Immigrant Coming to Omaha

A very unique therapy animal is coming to Omaha, all the way from Iraq! Smoke, a donkey who befriended a Marine unit while they were stationed in Iraq, will soon be part of Nebraska's Wounded Warrior Family Support program. Apparently, he's a charmer and really good with military personnel. Best of luck, Smoke!

Disposable Cup Lids

IMAGE: The Harpman/Specht lid collection, as featured in Cabinet. In: "The Evolution of Lids," Edible Geography http://www.ediblegeography.com/

When we were preparing to open our quick-service restaurant, Gordon and I spent a fair amount of time researching and discussing the pros and cons of disposable drinkwares. I hated the idea of using a petroleum product that's not quickly biodegradable. But we selected polystyrene foam because it's roughly 1/3 the price of the next cheapest product. Oh well, at least it's recyclable. Then we had to choose lids and straws to go with the cups. According to lid collector Phil Patton who apparently studies the subject, Americans use about a billion and a half plastic lids each year. For Frank and Simon's we chose a multifunctional straw/sip model which is a fairly recent innovation in the evolution of lids. Who knew?

Dancing With the Stars

I'm an on again, off again "Stars" watcher. After watching Monday night, I applaud Kirstie Alley's gumption and stamina. Her competitors are quite younger and fitter than she. Yet through perseverance and impressive toughness in rehearsals, she comes through with suberb dancing. At this point, I would love to see her win!

Pet Week

Eddie

I just found out that last week was National Pet Week. Guess it was overshadowed by Mother's Day (which is understandable, since that is a VERY important holiday). Our family is pet crazy. We even named our restaurant, Frank & Simon's, after our dog and cat. My husband and I adopted a two year old terrier mix from the local Humane Society a couple of months ago. We named him Eddie. Isn't he cute?

"Super"

Saw the movie "Super" last week. Fantastic acting by an all-star cast, interesting plot, and adult moral themes. But...it's very graphic and gruesome, too much for sensitive types and definitely NOT for kids or young teens.

Excitement of Business Startup

My son Gordon Miller and I started up a new business in our home town of Lincoln, Nebraska on February 14, 2011. Frank & Simon's is the name. Great food and friendly service is the product. Opening this business has been a great adventure for my family. CBS Signs designed our sign and we love it!