Anna likes for me to roll the windows down at the stoplight on the way to school in the mornings so she can call out and wave to the crossing guards. They love this too. I started doing it with her when she was a car seatscreamer as a distraction (oh many a blog post about those screaming 2 yr old car seat days).

Now she also wants to do this with construction workers or anyone close enough to hear her. If they don't see her she gets bummed.

She's still enjoying gymnastics.

I got her birthday party invitations out to her friends today. I made them up and printed right from the computer for zero cost. Go me! Party is March 5 at 1:00. Woo hoo! As for us, it's been one birthday party per week.
Everyone's growing up!

Mardi Gras marathon

Paul ran the Galveston Mardi GRAS half marathon today! He finished 20 minutes faster than when he runs with me. I didn't run; I haven't really run since the Disney half. No time with the cycling and boot camp. Go Paul!

Exercise update:

Still Spinning, 3 days per week! It’s been 4 weeks as of tomorrow. I still love it!

Still in boot camp, 3 days per week! That’s will be 3 weeks as of tomorrow.

6 days per week total exercise.

Thank goodness I am still thinking it’s fun! But I do miss running a bit.

 

My metabolism was tested by Paul’s little breath machine thing and it says at REST all day my metabolic rate is 1800 calories per day. That means if I did nothing but lay in bed all day, I’d burn 1800 calories to keep my normal body functions going. That’s pretty high, actually. Most women should be around 1400-1500 if they’re not exercising. I assume my high metabolic rate is due to the exercise 6 days per week. I eat around 1600 calories per day (up from 1400 the past few weeks). Each boot camp session burns around another 400 calories beyond that 1800 calories, per my heart rate monitor. Each spin class burns another 500.

 

Do the math, and the scale should be going down, down, down. In typical Tara-exercise fashion, it’s not. It’s going up, up, up. All the research points to the involvement of muscle work, glycogen’s use as energy for those muscles, and the fact that glycogen is hydrophilic (it likes water). Long story short, the gains are probably water. In fact I am technically 4lbs heavier than when I started all this exercise. And no, it’s not muscle gain (that takes more time).

 

And no, my clothes aren’t fitting looser.

 

There’s nothing like an rise in the scale numbers to serve as a de-motivator if you’re looking to actually LOSE weight. Incidentally, EVERY SINGLE TIME I’ve ever taken boot camp in the last 10 years I’ve lived here, the scale has always gone up, up, up. Completely freaking me out every single time. So this is nothing really new. Every time I’ve ever lost weight, it’s been based on diet ONLY. No exercise involved.

 

Paul swears if I stick to this another few weeks, the scale will start dramatically moving downward. What I can say about this is that really I only started spinning because I need to train for the MS150. Not to lose weight. I started boot camp because I need muscles (for increased metabolism) and strength. Definitely not to lose weight.

 

And look, it’s a good thing I didn’t set myself up mentally to lose weight. But let’s face it, I SHOULD BE LOSING WEIGHT. The big number conflicts in my mind between the metabolism, the 2800 calories burned per week in exercise, the calorie deficit in my diet, and what’s happening with the scale is just so damn perplexing. Really, weight loss should be a nice side effect of all of this work. Don’t you think?

 

It’s just weird. Calories in and calories out. Why all of this complication? I’m picking this to death and picking Paul’s brain to death.

 

Anyway, I just imagine that by April 16-17 (the weekend of the MS150), I’m going to kick ass on those hills thanks to Spin class, and just QUITE POSSIBLY look decent in those bike shorts (frankly, not many people look decent in those biking shorts). So I’ll just keep going. Plus, frankly, it’s fun!

 

Valentine's Day

Apparently Paul's still got it :)

MS150

We're counting down to the weekend of April 16-17 for the MS150, when we're riding our bikes from Houston to Austin to raise money for multiple sclerosis treatment. Please donate!

Paul and I each have to raise at least $450 for the ride. I've lost track of how many years we've ridden (we missed last year, too busy I think).

To donate to my page, click here.

To donate to Paul's page, click here.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which a person's own body attacks its myelin. Your neurons have myelin on them to make the signals pass faster, so your movements are purposeful and efficient. Without myelin, you'd take awhile to move a body part, if you could move it at all. So people with MS have difficulty with their movement, and it generally worsens over time. There's no cure yet but the money raised for these big events almost all goes towards the costs of cures and treatments. Very little goes to "overhead" associated with the events. So when you donate, you'll know it's for a good cause directly.

We ride because it gives us a personal challenge while donating to a good cause too. It's a win-win.

And this year because of that spin class, ain't no hill gonna take me down! HAHAHAHA!

One month till Four

Dear Anna,
Today I watched a cute little girl a the airport with her mommy and I realized she must be younger than you. It's getting harder for me to judge ages of kids as you get older because even though I know you're tall enough to ride the big kid rides I still see you as a little thing.

Maybe the little girl was an early Three. I guess smaller than you. These days I can't believe the size of your shirts when I hold them up to fold them. For real?

You have one more month to be Three. Three was the best year by far but I still loved Two and that was a long time ago. Seemingly. But not really. Now at Four you're truly getting to be a big kid. I am excited and torn and finally feeling what most moms feel when their babies turn One: oh no my baby is growing up! So I'm a few years late. When you were a screaming baby I would tell myself that the screaming baby wouldn't last forever and that some day you'd be Three and Four, and how much fun would that be? And here we are and I was right. And now it's blowing past. And when you're Ten and I see little girls in the airport I will miss your Three. And this is the kind of thing I hear makes moms sad. This must be why moms want to have another baby. Er, No, this does not make ME want to have another baby! It makes me see that soon I will miss and want the little Anna even as I enjoy the big kid Anna.

I realized early on that most of us have known most of our friends and adult family not from when they were babies and up, but almost in the same semi-adult-to-adult state our whole lives. No one ever says how much they miss the old mom, dad, whatever maybe because there's no such drastic change in knowing and loving a person as there is in starting out from birth. The little person you love changes with stages and you're loving a changed person over and over. So when your baby is Ten, you miss Three because she was such a different person at Three. Just different. Just as you become attached, there's a change. Who else do you know in life who has gone through so much change right before your eyes?

We love you baby girl. Enjoy your last month of Three. We will.

Holy Toledo!

OK, actually it's Cleveland, where I will be this week for work. Now THIS is cold. Paul will also be there for one night. Hopefully all goes smoothly with Anna-bear!

Photos from Anna's Disney Run

Well this looks like this will be the third year in a row Houston is going to get snow. It’s expected to head our way right about…well…now, and continue through until tomorrow morning. Paul and I are at work today, and Anna’s at school. As of now there’s no closures for any of the 3 of us, but JSC is officially closed tomorrow morning until noon, since the roads are expected to be crappy. Anna’s school will be closed all day tomorrow. So Anna and I will be sleeping in and coming up with inside activities. Maybe playing in snow will be one (outdoor albeit)? If not, maybe ice skating in the cul-de-sac?

 

Spin class and boot camp have been going great. This is the end of week 2 for spin and it’s been the first week of boot camp. Of course, boot camp is canceled tomorrow morning since JSC is closed. Bummer. One thing I’ve noticed about the spin class is that my heart rate actually reaches my Max Heart Rate for my age, if only for just a brief minute or so when I’m pushing extremely hard (hill climbing, etc). Otherwise I’m in a really high heart rate zone for the remainder of the class; much higher than when I was running. And here’s the thing: I think I’m addicted. I look forward to going to the class, and afterwards I am in the best mood and my energy is pretty high the rest of the day. It’s conflicting to me how I could push so hard during exercise and still have so much energy and be happy. Paul thinks this might be that endorphin release thing I’ve heard about (AKA: exercise gives you energy and makes you feel great!). We’ve all heard that exercise is supposed to make you feel great and happy and stuff but that’s NEVER been the case for me. I’ve always felt tired with exercise J Could it be I need to work in this particular heart rate zone to feel those effects? Weird I think, but anyway, it’s great! I don’t dread getting up to go in the morning (yet) and even when I’m sore I push through it. Plus think of how great I’m going to do on the MS150 at this rate! They actually added more classes so now it doesn’t conflict with boot camp at all. So it means I’m either at spinning class or boot camp class 6 days a week. So far so good. Let’s keep it up, even though I have travel planned for next week.

 

Speaking of travel, I’m taking a trip to NASA Glenn Research Center next week for work. Incidentally, Paul is going with me, and strangely enough, for HIS work (the exercise machine). He’s bringing it up to NASA’s exercise engineering group for some mechanical troubleshooting and maybe some testing. So if both of us are traveling to Cleveland, who’s watching the child? HA, our amazing friends will juggle their schedules and keep her safe and sound. Between TJ and LW, I think Anna will have a blast while we’re gone (Paul’s only going to be gone one night, me 3 nights) and Anna will sleep away from home for 2 nights. At this age I feel like Anna is independent enough to be less of a burden than ever on TJ and LL so I feel really comfortable about the whole thing. Plus she loves going over to play there anyway so this will be fun for her and I know she’s safe too. It’s really great to have such great options and friends.