Rest of my life

With less than two weeks until the big race day, it’s time to start tapering. In the context of sports, tapering refers to the practice of reducing exercise in the days just before an important competition (as defined by Wikipedia). However, in the context of Jane’s addictions, tapering is so much more.

 

First and foremost I will decrease my mileage over the next two weeks to less than 20 miles per week.

 

 

I will consume wholesome foods to fuel my body (rather than to please my mind, which I have a strong tendency to do). That means I will be eating lots of fruits, veggies, lean protein, and low-fat dairy. For complex carbs I prefer brown rice, oats, sweet potato and whole wheat pasta (but in moderation as it tends to make me feel bloated).

 

There will be no alcohol until after the race (I made an announcement to whole world, so now I have to keep it). Over the weekend, Eric and I finished the last bottle of red wine in the house (to make room for new & delicious zinfandels from our trip to Napa/Sonoma). Until then, my wine rack will remain bare to avoid any temptations even on a relaxing weekend night.

 

I will practice yoga and try to incorporate more classes over the next two weeks. My muscles can benefit from extra stretching and foam-rolling sessions.

 

 

I will rest. This is a hard one for me, as I am usually in the “go-go” mode, but this is where I need to listen to my body and provide it with well-deserved rest so it can recover.

 

 

To follow my own preaching, instead of joining my running buddies for our usual Saturday morning group run, I called in sick and spent the entire day in PJs on the coach recuperating. With 16 training weeks under my shoe and the February blues in full swing (the one sunny week was just a big tease), I was feeling completely drained. It’s been so long since Eric and I had a lazy day together. We started off with a late breakfast of blueberry pancakes, eggs and fresh fruit.

Between the two of us, we had no problem polishing off the entire pile of 9 blueberry Kodiak pancakes.

We then proceeded to the couch where we spent the next few many hours snuggled under blankets flipping between movies and the backlog of TV shoes in the Netflix queue. We took occasional stretch breaks and emerged from piles of blankets, pillows, furry paws and whiskers to replenish our snack supplies.

It was a fabulous rest day and exactly what I needed.

The next morning, I was itching to break a sweat and get my legs moving again. I ended up covering 11.6 miles on my own. Eric and I met for lunch at Gyro World where I had one of my favorites – chicken souvlaki plate. They were out of feta…

I can’t leave the place without a slice of Baklava. I figured from all the tempting desserts out there, this is probably the healthiest option (at least that’s what I keep telling myself with every delicious bite). Baklava is mostly made of nuts and honey, with a bit of pastry to hold it together.

Sometimes the best thing to do is do nothing, and I totally reaped the benefits of my rest day at my next yoga class. My hamstrings were not as tight in spite of the long run the day before. My hips were not aching for the first in a few weeks, and my mind was completely relaxed, eagerly awaiting each posture.

[Jane Asks]: When was the last time you had a rest day?

Turning Two

Marriage is like a good bottle of wine. It’s full bodied and aromatic filled with sweetness and spice. Every sip you take awakens different senses and it never tastes the same. At times you might find it to a bit acidic, but you leave it alone, let it breathe for a while and gradually it will warm up. Your taste buds learn to compensate and focus on pleasant sensations while ignoring others. It can be enjoyed in isolation or in good company, but best when shared between two people. If you wait too long to open it up, it might spoil or it might get better with time.

The best part of marriage is the intimacy you share with your partner as time goes on. (No more waking up in horror after an accidental gas incident in your sleep ). The way I see it, weddings are big parties for family and friends to celebrate the couple and the community coming together. What matters most is what happens afterwards and how you grow and nourish your union.

Eric and I are fortunate that we have not one but two anniversaries to commemorate our special union. See I never told you about our wedding. We got married in a beautiful island – Abaco, Bahamas. It was a very small and intimate ceremony with about 30 of our closest family and friends and it was one of our most favorite moments in life. We all got to hang out together for a week in oceanfront condos. It was our own private paradise. Since I am Canadian (known as a legal alien by the United States Government), to avoid even a slight chance that the Bahamian-issued marriage certification might not be considered legit in the eyes of the US Immigration we decided to play it safe. Two weeks before heading to Bahamas, we along with two friends went down to the city hall and got married by a Washington state judge (so there would be no question of our true commitment).

Now we celebrate – marriage day and wedding day. All that really means is we get to go out for two fancy dinners and reminisce about each event separately.

The marriage anniversary is on January 27th. We think of it as a rehearsal anniversary dinner. For our second marriage anniversary we headed to Seastar. Thanks to a very generous gift from Eric’s brother and sister-in-law, we enjoyed a fabulous dinner.

I started with Spicy Shrimp Thai soup.

I had swordfish in lemon, wine, and butter sauce with capers, mushrooms and grilled asparagus for my main course.

Stuffed, happy and still very much in love, we headed home for chocolate and wine dessert.

For our “real” (Wedding) anniversary on February 10 (purposely near but not on Valentine’s day), we went all out at Canlis, a restaurant on a north side of Lake Union near Queen Anne. I had actually never heard of this place until May 2011. I participated in my first and only 5K race. It was a very cold weekend and there was another competing race going on at the same time in Greenlake so participation was low. Somehow I magically ended up winning the 2nd female place (that’s the main reason I have not run any more 5ks. Not much room left at the top to raise the bar )

I would have been perfectly happy with the little winged running show trophy, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a $200 gift card to Canlis inside the purple prize bag. You’d think we could stretch $200 to two dinners, but not at a place like Canlis. Apparently it’s a top notch family-owned restaurant that’s been around for over 60 years.

We split the crab cake appetizer… Amazing!

I ordered filet mignon that came with a blended carrot-shallot sauce that looked and tasted out of this world.

We completed the meal by sharing chocolate fondant for dessert

Happy two to us! Many happy returns of the day

I love places that give you freebie dessert (in case you cheap out and don’t get a full one)

The peanut butter and jelly truffles were divine. The strawberry meringue cookies were ok. Eric bailed on his, so there was more for me to enjoy.

Happy Love Day to you all! Enjoy lots of special moments with your loved ones.

Beery 20 miles

Two weeks ago, when Seattle was covered with 8 inches of snow, I would have never guessed that I’d be doing my 20 mile long run in a tank top, worrying that I hadn’t put on sunblock. I secretly hoped that the weather would be good enough to run outside (the 18 miles on the treadmill that I did two weeks earlier were torturous), but I was not expecting clear skies, bright sunlight, a warm breeze, and 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the first week of February.

This was my first 20 miler. During my last training season, I had to cut the 20 miles short to 18 due to the heat (there seems to be a correlation between long runs and the sun). The plan was to run 3 miles to the gym (my usual route) where I met up with one of my running buddies and we did an 11 mile loop together, returning back to the gym at exactly 11am. There we picked up another friend who was looking for a shorter run of 6 miles at 9-9:30 min/mile. We headed back to the Sammamish River trail but this time in the opposite direction towards Woodinville. We ended 20 miles, sprinting the last 0.25 mile at 6:50 min/mile, right to the door step of  the Redhook Brewery. Coincidence or careful route mapping? I’ll let you ponder

20 miles in 3 hours. Not too shabby! If I play my cards right, I might just break a sub 4 in Napa.

Eric, my knight in shining dirty armor Corolla, was waiting in the parking lot to join us for lunch. Sweaty and thirsty we rolled into the brewery (good thing we had a booth all to ourselves away from the crowd )

One of the best recovery meals -  turkey burger on whole wheat bun, avocado, a side salad and a glass of Redhook’s Blonde Ale.

In case you ever doubt the runner’s high, here is a glowing picture of me to prove it

During lunch we shared stories of our past races and travel experiences for awhile, until hunger was contained and hot showers become the next priority. We piled into Eric’s car and headed back to the gym to drop off Eduard and Wendy. We had such a great time that we are doing it all over again but a bit shorter distance of 15-17 miles. Turns out while bragging about what an experienced runner I’ve become and how I no longer need to carefully plan my training schedule, I somehow missed a whole week of runs. My plan jumped straight from Jan-15 to Jan-29th. Now I have a week of improvising with a few distances before I begin to taper down.

On Sunday, I was surprised how good I felt. I was not starving (which is usually what happens the day after a long run). A larger recovery meal is definitely the way to go. After a quick breakfast of banana wrapped in a tortilla smeared with PB, I headed to the gym for an easy cross training session on the elliptical machine and straight to yoga for a long stretch.

With the workout out of the way, it was time to prepare for the big game. We were expecting a few friends over, so I prepped easy and as nutritious snacks as you can get away with on Super Bowl Sunday: corn cheese puffs, pistachios, honey pretzels, pita chips, veggie platter, and hummus.

Since the Super Bowl starts at3:30pm PST, we usually order sandwiches for a late lunch. This time we tried a sandwich platter from the Local Market which conveniently included free delivery.

The bread was a bit too dense for my liking, but I was impressed with the condiments platter – spicy Dijon mustard, dill pickles, and caramelized onions.

 

We are not big football fans. The Super Bowl is the one game we watch a year and that is mainly because of the funny commercials. The winner of this year’s funniest commercial goes to Dannon:

A couple of other good ones you might have missed if you were too focused on the game

[Jane asks]: What was your favorite commercial?

When you make it, fake it

Healthy eating in a nutshell is pretty simple – eat minimally processed natural clean foods, just like our ancestors used to do.

But there is only so much oatmeal, salad, chicken, steamed veggies and brown rice a girl can take. Once in a while Most of the time, I crave comfort foods – burger and fries, pizza, cheesecake, etc.

Instead of driving down to the nearest greasy joint to calm the “must have fatty food now” shakes, I say – make it yourself (with a healthy spin) to stay within your eating goals while satisfying the urge. I searched long and hard Thanks to Amazon reviews and recommendations, I found three cookbooks that got rave reviews for turning American classics into nutritious and sensible menu options.

Given that I’ve been on the Biggest Loser kick lately, it’s not surprise that the first book I purchased was the Biggest Loser Cookbook.

Amazon delivery is super-fast and in a day I had my cookbook waiting on the doorstep. I decided to start out with something easy and fun – BBQ chicken pizza.

Ingredients:

• 1 large whole wheat tortilla (my favorite is La Factory low carb tortilla. Only 80 calories, all natural and high in fiber and protein)
  
• 1-2 TBS BBQ sauce (The trick with BBQ sauce is that many brands overload it with sugar, but if you check the nutrition info you can find one that is less than 7g of sugar per serving.)

• 3oz Cooked chicken breast (I buy pre-packed grilled chicken breast strips from Trader Joe’s for my salads. They have no added preservatives and are low in sodium)
• ¼ of red onion sliced
• ¼ cup of shredded light Mozzarella cheese (Trader Joe’s has a great selection of low fat cheeses that are still full in flavor).

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• Place the tortilla on a baking sheet
• Spread BBQ sauce on the wheat tortilla
• Top off with chicken, red onion and ¼ cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
• Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cheese is melted

Cut up in 4 slices and serve with a side salad. Delicious and nutritious. The whole meal is under 350 calories!

The other book that I got was by Hungry Girl.

I’ve checked out thehungrygirl.com numerous times, and the crustless pumpkin pie I made in the fall was her idea. I have my eye set on the Cannoli Cones, so stay tuned how those turn out.

The last book I selected but have yet to purchase is by Rocco, a celebrity chef who made a couple of appearances on the Biggest Loser. He used to be overweight as I expect any chef with passion for delicious food should be (if you see a skinny chef, they’ve got to be fake or their food sucks). At some point Rocco had a revelation that he wanted to lose weight, so he revamped his cooking style to cut calories and fat but apparently not the taste.

[Jane Asks]: What are your favorite cookbooks?

The big hole in the ground

With the race completed, it was time for a mini-vacation (aka yummy food and sightseeing). It was only fair that we have dinner at PF Chang’s since they were sponsoring the race and there was a location 2-miles away from our hotel in downtown Tempe.

I don’t know whether food just tastes better away from home or it was the runner’s high from the race, but this dinner ranked high on my tasty and healthy list. We started with steamed chicken dumplings and shared Asian grilled salmon with asparagus, ginger chicken with broccoli and brown rice.

A while back I saw a recommendation in Runner’s World for PF Chang’s Grilled Salmon, Asparagus and brown rice as a pre-race dinner. I have to concur that brown rice is a much better carb option, at least for my digestive system. It’s filling and gives me lots of energy without making me feel heavy and bloated like when I eat pasta.

And then the weirdest thing happened… I am generally not superficial at all and often skip the horoscope section in magazines and newspapers. But check out my fortune:

Do you think the Arizona location just orders a bunch of custom ones with the word desert in them? BTW, I stopped eating the fortune cookies when I found out they are like 200 calories each– their size is totally deceiving.

Instead we stopped by a local frozen yogurt shop (Arizona just like California has frozen yogurt shops on every corner. Sometimes there are even two on the same corner. So jealous!)

Post-race we headed to a Jewish Deli where I indulged in my favorite sandwich – Chopped Liver on freshly baked rye, coleslaw and dill pickle.

We finished the meal with fruit, apricot Hammantashen and apple-cinnamon rugelach.

After lunch, we headed to Old Scottsdale which looked just like an old western movie set. I kept waiting for Clint Eastwood to pop out spinning his guns.

Later that evening, we headed to a local brewery which is one of the top-rated eateries in Tempe.

The Peach and the Hef were my two favorites. Both had a light summery taste which seemed weather-appropriate for the Russian Canadian since it was 65 degrees and we were sitting on an open patio. The chicken spinach salad was pretty average.

The following morning, we woke up early, packed up, had a quick continental breakfast where I mistook gravy (to be served with biscuits) for oatmeal. Thankfully Eric jumped in between me and the ladle as I, filled with excitement to have found a healthy option, was about to pour myself a large bowl. He must have read my mind.  The drive up to the Grand Canyon took about 4 hours but felt like we drove all across country as the  scenery changed from the red desert to snow brushed woods to golden brownish fields of hay back to rocky/sandy mountains.

We stayed at the Bright Eagle Lodge on the south rim of the Canyon. This lodge was one of the first hotels at the rim built in 1937. As soon as we arrived, equipped with a hot beverage and wind-resistant Lulu gear, we decided to venture for a 2 mile hike to face the wilderness of the Grand Canyon. Ok, I might be exaggerating a bit. We strolled along a nicely paved walkway looking at billion year old rocks and along with dozens of other tourists snapping hundreds of Canyon photos which all pretty much looked the same upon further examination.

There is just no way to capture one of world’s great wonders. It’s absolutely breathtaking, though they cheat a bit since the air is much thinner due to the elevation.

The next morning we bundled up in blankets and watched the sun rise over the Canyon while sipping our morning coffee.

The road trip to the frosty Canyon prepared us well for what to expect upon our return home. For the next three days, Eric and I were trapped in the house as Seattle and neighboring areas experienced one of the largest snow storms in years.

Racing Arizona

As soon as we landed in Phoenix, we headed to the Health and Fitness Expo at the  Phoenix Convention center.

The convention center is giant, with cool sand statues in the lobby. This was a much a better setup than the underground garage at the Sheraton hotel for the Portland Marathon.

The course map at the expo showed that the half marathon loop starts and ends in downtown Tempe stretching North a bit into Scottsdale. The full course spanned all three cities – starting in downtown Phoenix, heading West through Scottsdale, ending in downtown Tempe.

After I picked up my bib number and the goody bag I made the best decision– to switch to a faster corral. When I first registered, I underestimated my pace, and the last thing you want do when trying to PR is start in a slow corral as you’ll be blocked by slower runners and waste a lot of energy on passing.

We spent about an hour browsing through the expo and snacking on sampling free protein bars. There were dozens of sponsors from the big brand names like Cliff, Nuun, New Balance, Nike, Garmin, etc. to a small Texas-based bakery (whose name I can’t remember, but they make the best “healthy” coffee cake). The two products to catch my attention were the Marathon Snickers (and I don’t even like regular Snickers but their Chewy Peanut Chocolate bar is the tastiest and very filling 210-calorie snack) and a set of Bluetooth headphones that locks in your ears (although I doubt their usefulness as not every media player has built in bluetooth support). On the way out the door, we ran into the Biggest Loser contestants from season 5 (perfect timing, considering our latest challenge). I am still catching up, so I begged Jackie and Dan not to tell me whether they ended up winning. Can you believe that he used to be over 300lbs and she was in the high two hundreds?

After sorting out and marveling at my treasures from the expo, it was time for a good stretch/roll-out session and then bed.

The race was scheduled to begin at 7:30, but was delayed by 10-15 minutes due to the light rail schedule.

As with any long run day, I started January 15th with the usual toast, peanut butter, and banana breakfast, followed by the “world’s greatest” stretch.

Time for some photos (way more pleasant to pose before the race vs. after).

And we are off… Being in corral 2, I started off way faster than I planned. I had to keep slowing myself down to stay within 8 min/mile. I am pretty bad at pacing myself in the beginning, but so far it’s been working out fine as I’ve been able to keep up my starting pace for most runs.

Rock’n’Roll Phoenix is known for its flat course and over 40,000 runners all over the country participated in this year’s race, many hoping to use it to PR or to qualify for the Boston Marathon. There are not many turns and the scenery is pretty dull (but there were some funny signs along the way).

It’s a good course if you just want to go out there and run your fastest race, but it’s not a fun time. The Portland Full will forever be my special race. Like a high school sweetheart or a first love, it might have been awkward, clumsy, painful, and a bit naïve at times, but it’s my fondest memory and I will forever treasure it. 

My favorite moments in Arizona were when I high-fived the cheerleading squads and the little kiddies on the side of the road. So many folks are focused on their time that they kept ignoring the pouts and puppy eyes they were leaving behind. Every time I touched a little palm and saw a big smile light up a kid’s face, it gave my legs extra energy to push further.

I saw Eric at mile 12 and tossed him my empty water bottle. I caught my second wind then and sped up to 7:30 min/mile to the finish line. I crossed it with the 1:45 running group, shaving 3 min and 33 seconds from my previous half marathon result. I was hoping for 1:45, so being able to hit it made the finish just so much sweeter. Most importantly– no blisters, injuries or chafing, but my lungs were burning for a few minutes afterwards– not used to the dry desert air. Overall, not a bad way to wrap up my last age 25-29 half marathon (landing in the top 5% for my age group).

After about 20 minutes of stumbling around the family reunion area (amongst the thousands of finishers and their fans), Eric and I finally found each other.

We bummed around the finish area (the Arizona University Stadium field) for an hour stretching, chatting, checking out other runners, refueling with free beer and more Marathon Snickers bars.

The stink and the cold finally got to me before the B-52s had a change to get onstage, so we headed back to the hotel for a hot shower and a giant celebratory lunch.

Half-marathon: check! Next stop: The Napa full.

Small Diet Changes from SHAPE

Once in a while when I am at gym doing an elliptical workout, I’ll pick up a magazine to flip through. Last week I came across a SHAPE magazine that someone left behind. I tried subscribing to SHAPE and FITNESS magazines but I find that most of the time their article content is repetitive and they have more ads than content pages (they might as well make those magazines free considering all the ad revenue).

I much prefer looking for fitness articles online as you can pick and chose how deep you want to learn about a particular subject. Anyway, I came across these nutritional tips that I though I’d pass along (so you don’t completely die from boredom) while I am running around the desert.

http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/diet-tips/experts-reveal-15-small-diet-changes-weight-loss

I love the idea of adding lemon to water. I’ll have to start bringing a bottle of cold water with lemon to work. After I read up a bit on psyllium, I’ll definitely pick some up on my next trip to Whole Foods. This stuff seems even more powerful than Chia seeds. I often struggle with listening to my hunger level. I either eat too fast– where I sense fullness 20 minutes after I’ve already polished off the entire plate (or two) or I just drown out any natural signals and keep on eating as it tastes too good to stop. 

[Jane Asks]: Which of the suggested diet changes do you follow already? Which do you want to incorporate more?

Take me to the desert

Take me down to the Rock’N’Roll City where the girls are fast and the Grand Canyon’s pretty…

It’s almost race time! I have not raced since my full marathon in October so I am a bit anxious, a touch tired (from a long week at work), and a bulkload excited to head to Phoenix to complete my first Rock’N’Roll half marathon. I am trying to tell myself that racing is just for fun to avoid the pressure of a particular time goal, but secretly in my head I am hoping to beat my previous time (1h49m). With 6 months of rigorous training, a full marathon under my belt, a flatter course and stronger leg muscles,  I should expect to do better!? My runner friends have forewarned me that I should not get disappointed if I don’t PR as this particular RNR race is very popular and gets very crowded, which might lead to a slower start.

I will be heading to Phoenix on Saturday morning, which means I am spending my Friday night rushing around the house trying to locate all the necessary items. First thing first, got to wash my running clothes.

I am attempting to pack light as I usually tend to overpack and return with half the suitcase unworn (and I am cheap and don’t want to spend extra $25 each way to check luggage).

It’s a bittersweet moment as I pack my trusted and true NB890s. They will be retired after this race as the treads on the soles have completely worn out which means the cushioning is all gone.

I don’t do a good job keeping track of the mileage on the shoes. Ideally, running shoes should be replaced every 300 miles or once a year (whatever comes first). I know it has not been a year since I got these shoes (I can still remember how excited I was taking them out of the box). I guess I’ve hit over 300 miles already. Not to worry, I have two new pairs eagerly waiting to hit the road (I went with NB790 (model prior to 890) and NB759 for more stability).

I am a New Balance girl. A lot of their shoes are made in the USA (which is very uncommon these days) and they are tight yet roomy enough to accommodate the changes in my feet during the run. They have good arch support without leading to blisters and I often find a good deal on them. What else can this runner gal ask for?

I turn into a finicky eater on the day before the race. I strongly believe that what you eat the few days prior to the race has a major effect on how the race goes. I prep Overnight Oats to enjoy on the way to the airport; a sandwich (whole wheat bread, reduced sodium turkey, spinach, Jarlsburg), veggies and a couple of fruits, and nuts for snacks later. I will need to find a Chinese place in Tempe that serves brown rice, steamed veggies and chicken for dinner. Any suggestions? I am also bringing my usual (peanut butter, bananas, whole wheat bread) for Sunday morning.

Am I forgetting anything? Oh yes, the marathon stick and the Epson salts for sore muscles before and/or after race.

Now I am all set. Time to catch a breath and relax with my friend Joe before heading to bed.

[Jane Asks]: Are you a good packer? Do you have any tips for packing just the right amount of stuff?

My fitbit has been flipped

We love all types of gadgets in our household. We don’t discriminate. As long as it’s got some wires inside or out and pretends to solve a task which at some moment we felt was important enough and no longer manually worthwhile, we will buy it. Sadly many of these “pieces of genius” end up in our garage as memorabilia to show our grandchildren one day (or until we get around to dragging them to PC-Recycle) and only a few survive the usefulness test posed by the Lawrence clan to remain present in the house. An example of a good gadget I recently acquired is my Garmin 305 GPS device. I use it religiously on my long runs and it has traveled with me all over the world. An example of a poor purchase is the bodybugg. At first I was super excited about it– finally there was a solution (or so it seemed) to end calorie estimation and once and for all find out exactly how many calories I burn each day. I am a total sucker for items featured on TV and since bodybugg is used on my favorite show the Biggest Loser I had to have it. I was very quickly disappointed with my purchase:

• It leaves marks on my arm when I wear it for too long (more than 12 hours), and it makes annoying beeping sounds to indicate disconnect/reconnect sequence. Folks at work were giving me more than usual weird stares whenever I’d adjust the bodybugg location on my arm. 
• The software applications for it sucks. For starters, the webapp requires full Java installation, which took Eric and I about 15 minutes to figure out since it doesn’t actually tell you that. The app scores low on usability and reliability as it tends to crash a lot and is not intuitive to navigate.
• The biggest downside was that there is no way to get the data from the device without the app unless you buy a display watch for an extra $70. But the sucky app is not even free! You need a monthly subscription (more money into their BodyMedia hands) to keep your account active. Once your subscription expires and you don’t renew it, the device is unusable, so its square black body’s  been buried in the grave of useless inventions.

The search for a perfect fitness device continued until a few days ago. I’ve returned back to www.loseit.com to track my calories for the Biggest Loser Challenge and I noticed loseit showing an option to link a fitbit to my account. I was intrigued to learn more about fitbit. A few of my co-workers purchased it last year and it appeared to me that it was just a fancy pedometer with a flower to indicate how active you’ve been. Boy, was I wrong!

This thing is so much more than a pedometer (keep in mind that my bar was significantly lowered after the bodybugg broke my little heart).

1. First it’s smaller than any pedometer I’ve seen, so you can clip it on to your bra or belt loophole. The clip is secure enough that I don’t have to worry about it falling off when I bend down or go to the bathroom (I’ve fished my phone enough times out of toilets already. I don’t need another reason to stick my hand in there).
2. The installation was very easy. You install a driver from the website which basically is a service that runs in the background to seamlessly upload your data. The device comes with a base station so whenever you are near it and your computer is on, the data will automatically get uploaded to the web server. (Don’t forget to turn on Auto-proxy detection if you are using on a work network).
3. On one hand I am loving the wireless upload so I don’t have to keep reaching into my bra every few hours while sitting at my desk (enough folks think I am already weird as it is). On the other hand, you need to remember to dock your device every 3-4 days so it can actually charge. I wish the device supported standard USB cables, so I can easily charge it at home or at work without the need to carry the docking station back and forth.
4. So what does it actually track? After you configure your profile (account info, sex, age, weight, height), it tracks your steps, distance travelled, and stairs climbed. Based on your movement, it calculates the calories burned. They use some fancy algorithm making the numbers more accurate than your regular $10 pedometer. 
5. There is a free online service to access your data and cool charts.
   
   

   You can also see the information directly on the device by clicking the little button at the top.

6. The best part is the sleep tracker. Once you get into bed you can hold the top button to begin the stop watch. When you wake up, press the button again to stop the counter. Afterwards, you will get freaky cool sleep analysis report that will show exactly how many times you woke up during the night. Note, I have not once gotten out of bed whenever there is a red active marker, but I did wake up and looked at the clock.
   
7. Similar to loseit, fitbit has a built-in social network where you can share your results with other fitbitters. I particularly like the integration with loseit. I can track my calories in loseit since I already have all my favorite recipes and foods entered there, and the food automatically syncs to my fitbit account. Similarly, my activity gets adjusted based on fitbit results. For example, on Friday I actually hit 10,000 steps, so I got 153 extra calories in loseit since I spent more calories than the allocated default. I don’t wear it during exercise, although that would be a good stress test. Can it keep up on my runs?
   

To sum up, fitbit is cool, cute, accurate and very personable (can’t believe it’s not made by Apple ). It even displays motivational messages on its screen throughout the day with just the right brightness so that “Go, Jane, Go!” does not project through my sweater for everyone to see.

If you are in the market for a new pedometer, I strongly recommend you splurge (fitbit cost $99) and get your fitbit on!

[Jane Asks]: Any cool fitness gadgets you’ve tried lately?

Positive encounter

This morning I had an unexpectedly happy encounter with my scale. We are like two high school friends that used to be very close but with time drifted apart and for some reason don’t tend to like one another anymore but still keep up appearances most of the time whenever we have a run-in.

No matter how much I mentally prepare, I tend to dread weighing myself, as the number is never what I  desire expect it to be. Mondays are especially bad, as  I am coming off a weekend which often includes splitting at least one bottle of wine with my hubby (70% for me and 30% for him). I can’t even recall the last Monday where I did not have a gain … until today. Despite my usual wine indulgence and two dinner outings with friends last week, I still managed to lose 6lbs. I could not believe the number (so I made Eric weigh himself, to make sure our scale was still working right).

(In case you are wondering, last Friday was Rachel’s birthday and we surprised her with a shopping spree and a nice dinner out. Here are a couple of before and after pictures.)

I fully embrace my ability to gain/lose weight for challenges like the Biggest Loser which drives me crazy on regular days. It’s not uncommon for me to gain 5lbs-8lbs of “vacation” weight when away from home, and over the years I have learned the tricks to take those pounds off just as quickly after I am back. I definitely let myself indulge over the holidays and on January 2 (for the initial weigh-in) my weight was up in its usual high range.

(I had to make a second apple cake for just Eric and I after it was such a hit at the Chrismukkah party. Eric is counting the days to the next Chrismukkah already):

So how did I drop 6lbs?!

1. Track calories and monitor food intake. I used www.loseit.com to enter my calories and stuck mostly to power foods from the weight watchers handbook (lean protein, fruits, veggies, whole grains, nonfat dairy). I’d have pumpkin oatmeal or egg white omelets for breakfast. Turkey sandwiches and veggies or salad with chicken for lunch. For snacks, Greek yogurt + berries, apples + almonds, cheese string. Dinners mostly consisted of some lean protein (turkey, chicken) + good carb (sweet potato, brown rice) + green steamed veggie (green beans, broccoli).
2. Don’t overeat after dinner while watching TV. For me the evening meal is not complete until I have dessert, so this week I made lots of sugar free jell-o and puddings. They are actually pretty satisfying, especially when you add light whipped cream on top and a few berries. Afterwards, I chew a piece of gum to resist late night snacking.
3. Work out like a maniac. I burned 8300 calories last week. My body does not respond well to hunger, so I need to eat (for the sake of those around me). Since I like food so much, I need to compensate with extra workouts. 2 hour workouts are becoming a norm, which is not just goodness for weight loss but most importantly for my endurance training for my upcoming marathon.
      
   On average, I’ve been eating about 1400-1700 calories a day (so don’t think I was starving myself for the weight loss)
   
4. Calories are not equal. There’s been conflicting messages around calorie counting. Some say it does not matter what you eat as long as you eat fewer calories than you burn, you’ll lose weight (that was the old school approach). The new school of thought is that calories are not the same. Certain foods “burn” through your body faster and are less likely to get stored as fat vs. others. I can certainly attest to that. 150 calories apple, 150 glass of wine, 150 calorie cookie, each affect my body differently.  Apple is no biggie, wine is a watch out zone, because it leads to overeating the more I drink, but cookie is where the danger lies, as it instantly gets converted into chub – there is a cookie on a tray and there it is on Jane’s behind.  
5. Keep it lean and green. This one I picked up from Bob Harper. (Sometimes when I am in the gym I pretend that Bob is there with me just like in the real game show. Reading his book might have sparked my imagination.)
   
   Cutting out carbs at night (although very hard to do at any point of the day) seems to lean me out faster.
6. Resist the scale. As tempting as it is to monitor your progress in real life, I try to stay away from the scale on hourly daily basis and limit the weigh-ins to just twice a week. The number on the scale is very powerful and even when you do everything 100% right it can bring you down as it’s not going dropping fast enough or due to normal body fluctuations you might even be slightly up one day. I stick to my plan on www.loseit.com and wait until the weigh-in day to have an element of surprise (just like on the show ).

[Jane Asks]: How are your fitness and weight loss resolutions progressing?