Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Day 239- Important Stuff Happens in November

First there's NaNoWriMo, which has very little to do with food. Then there's US Thanksgiving, which from what I can see, has very little to do with anything *but* food. And I'm going off budget for the whole month.

I'm doing it partly because of those first two- writing 50,000 words is a lot of work, and a girl needs brain food (chocolate, cookies, ice cream, chips, etc) to succeed. And family gatherings aren't as much fun when I can't bring tasty yummy desert for everyone and a big plate of other stuff that looks and tastes good because to do something yummy (to omni-types) means I'd have to use 2 weeks cash...

Mainly, though, I'm stopping the budget in November because I keep slipping, weight-wise. I'm hoping that with more convenience foods I'll get my weight to at least level off, if not go up a little. Losing weight can drop a girl into a rabbit hole, and I'm trying to keep my head away from that place.

Last time I purposely gained weight I did it in a super unhealthy way- I nommed every veggie food in sight, chugged sugary normal soda until I thought my head was gonna burst, and moved as little as possible. I'd have two *packages* of TimTams and a litre of Coke for breakfast, Indian take-away for 4 for lunch (with another 2L or so of coke) and a whole pizza and more coke for dinner. It still took me 8 months to put on 15 pounds.

This time I'm going to try putting on not just fat, but muscle too. It's the whole scrawny/ weak vs. flabby/ weak vs. fit/ strong thing.

So (and yeah, I know this isn't a common problem in the world right now, I watch Biggest Loser too...) has anyone else out there needed to *gain* weight? Did you do it (or are you doing it) in a healthy way? I don't want to turn into a human junk-food disposal system- it doesn't work well, and has possible health problems later in life I'd like to avoid. Halp?

Meanwhile, here at bedbug-ridden Casa de j., it's no carb left behind time. Yesterday I made (and totally nommed) a batch of bread stick/roll thingies. Swiped them through the EB instead of sauce for extra fatty goodness. Then lay on my back making full noises for about two hours.

But they were good.

10 comments:

  1. I get kind of uncomfortable when I get too close to the 110 mark. (I am about 5' 4" - small frame). A few years ago, I knew I was thin, and I hopped on with 107 popping up!! I don't know how purposeful I was about, but I stopped salad, and my weight came right back. A year ago I was around 125, which is a little uncomfortably high for me - and I didn't want to buy any more jeans ($$). Again, not very purposely, but I scaled back the fast food, and later picked up running - the running was more for "fun". Anyway, a few months ago I saw 111... !!! So I have allowed more fast food again, but I am trying to do it a somewhat "balanced manner". Ideally, I would weigh about 115 and be comprised of more muscle. However, I weigh like 113 and am not muscularly.

    I guess I find it uncomfortable to talk about how I worry about being too thin, while "what appears to be the general public" always worries about being too fat. I always get "I wish I could eat like you and look like that." This comment is of course baseless, as they really don't know what I eat like. Also, I mean I am confident about how I look, but I sorely lack curves... is this really the ideal?

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  2. I have the opposite problem...could I borrow your metabolism for a month? I can easily gain 5 lbs in one day and I don't even have to eat much. It's a curse!

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  3. Cyndee- I get that offer a lot... Dunno how well it'd work.

    Ruby- I'm sure there's some kind of scientific ratio of hip to waist for "ideal" curviness. Dunno what it is, though, or even how to achieve it.

    The problem I'm running into with the whole lose/ gain deal is that I lose fat *and* muscle, but only ever regain fat. If I didn't despise exercise I'm sure I could swing it in a slightly healthier direction. I'm just concerned that eventually I'll have lost all my muscle and won't ever get it back. Muscles is important stuff- they keep Bear from dragging me deep into the ocean!

    But yeah, it's weird to talk about it....

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  4. You're going to have to do some major math if you really want it to work. You have to make sure you're taking in more calories than you're burning (duh), and you have to make sure that most of your calories are from protein, or you won't be able to build muscle. And for exercise, you need to do muscle-building/resistance training rather than cardio. I bet you could google which muscle-building exercises burn the fewest calories.

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  5. math, pleh.

    Luckily I know all about food with protein in it. I just prefer food made of carbs (yummy, tasty carbs...) Also luckily, I'd be willing to bet that there are whack-a-doodle bodybuilding sites all over the interwebs with information all about muscle building exercise, and how much each one burns.

    Still hate math.

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  6. My Mom had your problem when she was young, so I am asking, even though it's awkward; have you been checked for parasites? Just in case they are eating all your food instead of you.

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  7. Lol, no problem. No parasites, either. It'd sure be an easy fix, though...

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  8. I don't have a weight gaining problem...quite the opposite after 3 kids! Have you ever won nanowrimo? I was in it the year before last and just couldn't finish with the kids. And last year I didn't even attempt it. But I have been thinking about giving it another go this year. Any stratagies you use? My biggest obstacle is balancing the kids and everything else! Good luck!

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  9. I haven't ever actually won, nope. I did it the last two years, but the first one I got sick, and gave up. Then last year I had a whole bunch of stuff happening in november, got behind and gave up.

    November's a crazy month anyway, but I was working in retail, so it was *a lot* crazier. Most of the tips I see are things like take the writing with you everywhere, so you can work whenever you get a chance- the daily words work out to about 3.5 pages of hand written story, filled front and back.

    I get a lot of writing done at night, in places with fewer distractions. I had good numbers at a university library, and better ones at a 24 hour restaurant across the street from my house. But the best numbers I got? When there was someone else there working too. Somehow the words just show up when there's more than one person and you can challenge each other and do word races and stuff.

    Oh, yeah, and I try to do NaNo writing on my laptop, out of the house, 'cause the screen is sporked, so I can't really do anything *but* write on it.

    I'm seeing lots of late nights a Denny's for me next month, so I probably better get back to work....

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  10. Omg, I totally forgot about NaNo. I haven't kept up with that for a few years but I liked the site and it's great for sharpening writing as a tool. I think I still have my first NaNo virtual sticker after completing a writing assignment.

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