The world has a way of waking me up....

Last week the Man and I were down in Eugene at his folks house for the night. I decided to step on the scale. YIKES! Married life is good to me...Cheese is not as good to me. I made the (really stupid) decision to calculate my BMI and was horrified to find that the CDC thinks I should weigh about 90lbs less than I do! First off Fuck you CDC! I would need BONES removed to weigh under 150lbs! Anyway, as insane as I thought the CDC BMI info was I really had to stop and think about where I was. Was this the way I wanted to treat my body? My one and only body? Was this the body I wanted to be setting as an example for my kids? Was this the body I wanted to grow little people in? The answer was no. This was not the "Me" I wanted. And so....My loving husband signed me up for Weight Watchers here-to-for known as WW.

It has been a week and it is pretty easy. It is almost enjoyable to have a structure to use to control my frankly, out of control eating habits. I found an iPhone application for the point tracker and I am all over planning my meals and snacks and staying within my points for the day. It also helps that I am running distances again which allow me many more activity points that are mine to eat or not eat as I wish. For right now, as long as I am not HUUUUNGRY I am trying not to eat the "extra, extra" points. That's how I think of my activity points. My daily points are 35 my weekly points (first extra in extra, extra) are 35 and that ought to be enough unless I am running mad distance and even then, there are enough filling yummy foods out there that don't cost a zillion points. I think for the first month I am really going to try to stay within the first extra. We will see how it goes and how running a 1/2 marathon in 3 weeks goes along with that.

I realized I have not written much since I started running again. It all started with my sister-in-law running the Portland Marathon 3+weeks ago. The Man and I were all signed to run the full 26.2 until our lives fuggin exploded! I am not even kidding! My internship, his picking up a silly amount of OT to cover our expenses, wedding planning (for a wedding 5 weeks away!), and then our rental agreement was terminated so that the owner could sell it. Sidebar: The house still has not gone up on the market and the owner's car is there all the time now...hmmmm. Serves her right for offering to sell it to us at a leotarded price of 300K+ she is HIIIIIGH! Anyway, this would have been our second move (third rental) in a year. No thanks! We decided to look into buying and thanks to the amazing help and generosity of our families we were able to buy and are now in love with our little 1929 bungalo in the hood! You may be able to see how this was a total and utter train wreck for our marathon training. Well the sister soldiered on and laced up her kicks that rainy bleak morning. It was literally raining swimming pools that morning. I had offered to join her for part of the run and was already cold by the time I met up with her around mile 13. We chatted and ran and she blew me away with her high spirits and glowing zen runner-ness that day. I was having so much fun and was feeling so inspired that my original plan for a 7mile run morphed into a 13 mile run and before I knew it I was hugging her and stepping onto the sidewalk at the 26mile sign. It was a great day and despite being suuuper sore the next day I was suuuper inspired. I started scheming. I ran two days later and then the day after that. The next weekend I volunteered to help with medical assistance at the "Girlfriends Half Marathon" in Vancouver. It was even more inspiring! It was an all women's race and there were women from ALL walks of life. I teared up repeatedly as groups of women clad in pink crossed the finish line hugging, holding hands and weeping tears of accomplishment, pride, joy and pain. It was very moving. At one point I was standing at the finish line keeping an eye peeled for any runners who may not be doing so well when a woman sort of staggered over to the shoe station and started crying as the man cut her timer tag off of her shoe. I could read her name on her race bib and asked "*Janet*, how are you doing?" She turned and looked at me and choked out "I did it! I did the whole thing!". I teared up and as she hugged me I said "Yes you did my friend, yes you did". It has been a while since I ran a race I was truly uncertain I would complete. But I remember those runs. I remember being 17 and being terrified as I laced up my sneakers that this 10 mile, this 17 mile this whole fuggin marathon would be too much for me. For better or worse, I no longer have that groundless doubt anymore. I know pretty well that even if I am crawling, I will make it to the finish line. The difference now is how will I feel about that finish line? Will I feel like I gave it everything in training and then left all I had out there on the course? Will I feel like I half-assed the training and now I am just phoning in the race? Will I feel embarrassed and woefully unprepared? Will I PR and know that my efforts and smarts paid off? Well, this is my journey right now. As the whole house wife thing is a little irritating I am focusing on running and shaving pounds and time off of my running. I have the most wonderful support team from the Man to the women I have been fortunate enough to stumble upon. I have the motivation and the drive to get out there and run...now it is just a matter of putting all of the pieces together. As it was back in the Outward Bound days, first it is about learning the basics of the skill, the hand eye coordination, then it becomes about the craftsmanship...

Secret Soup....

I have decided to start a little underground soup operation. I am making homemade soups and taking them in to my work peeps who will pay me for the yummy creations. It is a gigantic government nightmare I am sure. No oversight of my kitchen, no current food handler's card, no inspections or taxes?! That's right folks I am a renegade soup chef here in the hood! Delivering healthy, delicious, simple food to those who stay up all night to watch over us all. I am such a rebel. Instead of Bob Marley's "Soul Rebel" I am a Soup Rebel....with a cause! Anyway, I made the previously mentioned veggie stock and then got crackin' on my two soups for the night. The first is a roasted butternut, potato, broccoli soup. All vegetarian with a little condensed milk and about a 1/5 stick of butter to saute the veggies and roast the squash. This soup is brought to you by the letter B for BLENDER!!!! We received a new blender for the wedding and it has become a very frequent player on my soup making team. The next soup is the omnivore's dish. Fisherman's chowder. A family recipe passed on to me over the generations and over the iphone from my mother's partner .... It is a very traditional Maine Haddock chowder with one twist...Seasonings! God bless New England but damn! Their chowders are so friggen' bland! This one is NOT. This one passed the picky man fish test. I am pretty proud of it. Corn, potato, onion, celery, carrot, white fish, condensed milk, seasonings, bay leaves, olive oil and again, a little butter maybe 1/4 stick for the veggies. Anyway, giant steaming pots of soup! I am proud. We will have to see how people like it. We will have to see how far I get. Wish me luck on the eve of Secret Soup: The journey of a soup rebel....
-Anna

Veggie Stock Tutorial

I have a little underground soup business I am starting up. I will be delivering late night soup to my buddies at the ED for dirty cheap in hopes of earning enough cash to cover my running habit or my Weight Watchers membership....either way : ) I did a lot of reading about making cheap stock as I will be spending waaaay too much $$ on stock otherwise. Today I decided to take a crack at veggie stock. Here is what I did....

1. Buy a soup sock. This is a meshy thing that expands and is safe to boil.
2. Round up all the shit you haven't used from your farmshare that is starting to turn unsightly.
Eggplant, carrot, broccoli, onion, celery tops, Swiss chard, garlic, you get the point...
3. Wash and cut up above items and shove them into the sock sprinkle salt, pepper and several bay leaves in the pot.
4. Cover with hot tap water and place on stove. Achieve rolling boil then reduce heat to a simmer for 2-3hrs. DO NOT STIR!!!! If you stir this stuff the broth will cloud. Just fight the urge and leave it be.
5. Gently remove sock and strain broth. Boil with lid off for 20-60min to reduce the water content and concentrate the stock for more compact storage.
6. MAKE SOUP!

Enjoy!
-Anna

Back to Basics... Step 1 tie your shoes...

I have been a "runner" for 10 years on and off. I watched my big brother run a full marathon the fall I was 16 and started training for my own the very next day. I trained all winter and completed my own 26.2 mile journey the following spring at 17. I finished last. Very very very last. I was chubby, stubborn and optimistic. I am still proud of myself. I finished in 5:30:something...

I have been back to running on and off for the last 2 years. It waxes and wanes depending upon the weight of the other plates spinning. I was registered to run the PDX marathon two weeks ago but with internship(4 days a week of 7p-7a), buying a house, moving, taking my national board exams and planning my wedding all within a month....my running sort of fell apart in August. My sister-in-law kept on running and completed her first full 26.2 miles with grace and good humor. I had the honor of running the last half with her and on that stretch somewhere between the St John's Bridge and the western banks of the river downtown I reclaimed my motivation. I sort of realized how close I had come. It was motivating, energizing and a little sad to see how close I was to making it.

It has been about 2 weeks since the race and I am running again. I am running consistently and with great enthusiasm. I am competing in a 13.1mile race in December and will soon register for a full Marathon in Eugene for May 2011. I am back to basics. I have new goals and new inspiration, even a cute new running skirt but I am back to square one.

The hardest part is that I am at my highest body weight ever. I have maxed out way past my comfort zone and I think it is taking a toll on my mind and my joints. I KNOW it is taking a toll on my pace. I have never been small. I am a very strong, stocky, "built like a small refrigerator", corn-fed, cheese loving, Midwestern farm girl. I have never been very good at calorie counting or restriction. Obviously. I always feel like I am punishing myself. Food is love and fun and family and comfort and celebration to me. I hate the idea of having to restrict but I think it is time. Beyond that I think my body is telling me it is time. My joints ache after my runs and I don't think I should feel this sore. I'm pretty sure its because of the weight I am lugging around. It is time for my relationship with food to change. Damn! It feels a little like getting ready to break up with someone. God! I sound like one of those women on one of those scary reality shows. Ick! Anyway, I have done WW before and I think the point system will work for me. It will allow me to have my beer on a high activity day and to keep track of what I have "earned" and what I have not yet earned...I think it is part of the next step in my running development. I will not get faster until I get lighter. For now, my aching joints are my reminder that I weigh too much for what I am asking my body to do on runs. It is frustrating and depressing and inspiring all at the same time....Well, the Man has returned from the salt mines cranky, hungry and cold....I must cut this blog post short for now to tend to him (Because I love him not because I am obligated). More on this later....
-Anna

Quick Tip For Hardwood Floors...

I have worked on boats for years. It was my previous life....Ahh it was so much simpler no? Anyway, when I worked on those boats we used to have very specific cleaning practices to ensure the wooden decks (fancy boat word for outdoor floor) and the soles (fancy boat word for indoor floors) were clean yet preserved the best possible for as long as possible. For the decks we would haul up buckets of sea water, sploosh them over the decks and then scrub them down with hard bristle brushes. The salt in the sea water along with the oil we used to seal the decks throughout the season, worked to preserve the wood. Fresh water was the devil. It would break down the oil and cause the wood to rot. It was a rarity to wash the deck with fresh water. Down below we used Murphy's Oil Soap and fresh water. The sole was varnished and sealed with clear coat. What does any of this have to do with the hardwood floors in my house? Well, I wish I could wash them with sea water. I would oil them three or four times a year and then slosh buckets of sea water over them daily.

As it stands now my floors are old old old wood floors. They are hungry for a refinishing. I am in constant search to find the perfect cleaning routine to combat the dogs dirt, dog hair, garden dirt, street dirt and general grubbiness of an active family of three (plus 2). Right now I sweep several times a week and once a week I use Bona Floor cleaning system. They have some very attractive refinishing system that claims to be dustless and damn! That looks nice! Anyway, I love the bona system. I am just still trying to find the perfect system for actual mop up the super gross shit that the dogs drag in to the kitchen. I have long been a Murphy's oil soap girl. I even get nostalgic at the smell of it! I thought Murphy's was the way to go until my mother pointed out that it is a soap based cleaner that will leave a dulling residue. She gave me the tip to rinse with very diluted white vinegar after I am done moping with the Murphy's it seems to be a good method. It doesn't leave any yucky smell or dull film on the floor. So, for now, until I can pay a zillion dollars to have the Bona guys come a refinish my floors (or more likely, option B: Next summer when our friends come help us refinish the floors) I will keep using the bona wet mop and dust mop and on the rare disgusting occasion that the dogs drag crap through the house or pillage the trash can, I will use the Murphy's/vinegar method. So there you have it. The homestead stance on cleaning the hardwoods.

He Who Shall Learn To Be Handy....

Now that the wedding dust has settled the Man and I have found our selves at the beginning and ends of about a zillion projects. We have been trying to sort out some sort of priority for these projects and then put it into a list some place where we can see them and cross them off when we are done. We are both HUGE nerds and find the crossing off of things on a list extremely satisfying. We put our heads together and decided that our giant white board which served us so well in the wedding planning/house buying/camping trip planning process in the past, would be perfect. I would have a picture inserted here but my computer is acting up so you will have to use your imagination.

We divided up the areas of the house and then wrote out priorities for the next 2 months worth of projects. The priority level was determined by several factors. 1. How much money will said project cost? 2. How much time will said project take? 3. How crazy is it making me that said project is not done?(Also, how much better will life be with said project completed) 4. How weather dependent is said project. We live in the rain forest so how much time do we have/need before the monsoons arrive? You get the point. All of those things went into deciding that the gutters needed to be cleaned out in Oct not Nov and that the wood shed should be built in Oct not Nov but that sorting out camping gear and setting up a craft area could wait until Nov.

The dogs have infiltrated our compost compound in the yard. They have figured out how to get over the fence and dig under the barrel to inflict the maximum amount of damage to the pile. This has resulted in multiple baths, a new collar for Gwen and a great deal of frustration which lead to inspiration on the part of The Man. He got all fired up and decided it was time to build one of those fancy rotating drum composters. He drew out plans, he measured things, he re purposed lumber from the yard and learned how to use new tools. He built a freaking awesome rotating drum composter. He knocked my socks off.

My husband is not one of those guys who was born handy. He was born nerdy. He was born curious and creative but with the attention span of a kindergartner. If you need to intubate someone on the side of a mountain while suspended over a cliff in a harness he is your guy. If you need chapter and verse quotations from any number of wilderness medical protocols or research studies on prehospital EMS he is your guy. If you need an "adult" to supervise a rowdy group of teens in the wilderness again, he is all over it. He is also a wealth of information on Battle star Galactica, Firefly and I suspect a host of other sci-fi hits. My point is that he did not spend his childhood building things in the physical world. He has not, until now, been handy.

This weekend however, he blew me away! He busted out the Dremmel tool, he learned to use a chop saw he built a pretty rad rotating compost bin and in doing so learned a little more about being handy. He has asked if he can provide guest posts to the stream about his projects and I was more than happy to oblige. So COMING SOON! The Man posts about his quest to become handy! Up next, Wood Shed!