Wednesday Miscellany

First off, please go and enter my giveaway for free vouchers from Michael Angelo's gourmet frozen Italian food.  As I type this, there are only 5 entries, so your chances of winning are really, really good! 

(Also if you go to that post you can see pictures of me in my youth, when I was thinner but my eyebrows were much, much thicker.)

So ... hmm.  It's Wednesday.  As I mentioned Sunday, I asked Trainer Jill to do three sessions with me this week, and to give the sessions a bit more of a cardio slant.  Whew.  Woman is kicking my ass.  The thing about Trainer Jill is, the exhaustion sneaks up on you.  This is true both while you're working out, but also later in the day, too.  Like, she'll have you doing something that feels so simple, some light little weight-lifting exercise or something, but after like the 12th rep you want to die.  Yesterday she had me doing five minutes on the stair-climber.  Not the Stairmaster, mind you, but this big old contraption that is actually composed of a few stairs.  It's sort of like a mini escalator, where the stairs keep moving.  You know what?  Here's a picture:

Also apparently it's technically called a stepmill.

Anyway, that thing was going at a slow pace and it seemed really easy, and when Trainer Jill said, "Let's see if you can do five minutes today," I was like pshaw, five minutes, I do that in my sleep.  And then by the time four minutes came along, I was begging for mercy. 

She's a sneaky one, that Trainer Jill.  And her sneakiness doesn't stop when the session is over, because then at some point during the rest of the day the hard-core exhaustion hits you and you just want to lie in your bed and whimper. 

But, you know, I have things to do.  Like yesterday?  We had to go and buy Nathan's soccer gear! 

That's right, the little boy is playing soccer this fall.  It seems like such a huge rite of passage.  Like, as big a rite of passage as when he started preschool, but maybe not quite as big as when he starts kindergarten.  Still, soccer feels big.  It's like, How can that little tiny baby be big enough to play soccer?

Predictably, he was pumped to purchase soccer gear.  The thing is, Nathan does not get pumped about very many things.  He's never the kid who loves anything.  He enters every activity grumbling, and although he usually ends up enjoying it, he never gushes about it.  (Hmm, sounds a little like me.  I'm a terrible gusher.) 

So, we went to Dick's Sporting Goods, and since I spent two summers in college working at a sporting goods store, I kind of knew how to purchase soccer gear.  We walked out of there with shoes, shin guards, socks, and a soccer ball.  I promised Nathan we could put it all on and practice the second we got home. 

And you guys?  The impossibly tiny little soccer shoes and the socks that practically go up to his neck?!  I could just. die.  (Wow, that was actually kind of a gush there.)  Photos to come when we get the real uniform and all that. 

Oh, and BTW, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I don't altogether suck as a soccer coach.  (Not that I am the team's official coach or anything.  I just mean I can pinch-hit as a coach for supplemental at-home practice with my own kid.  And yes, I know pinch hit is a metaphor relating to a totally different sport.)  But I do know all about how you have to kick the ball with your sweet spot, and I know about ... umm?  Dribbling and stuff? 

Nathan seemed to enjoy kicking the ball around, but he became exhausted quickly, and flustered that he couldn't use his hands, so he just sat down on the field and started picking grass.  Which, by the way, is exactly what my little brother Brian spent half his youth soccer games doing. 

Anyway, at least the soccer tired him out, and he went to bed last night at 6:30.  All it took was three days straight of sleep deprivation (self-imposed, since I didn't ask him to get up at the crack of dawn every day) and a whole lot of athletic activity.  So, it was 6:30 and I seriously didn't know what to do with myself.  I ate a bowl of my new favorite ice cream, which I mention because you have to try this stuff, you guys.  It's Edy's (known in some states as Breyer's) yogurt blends in the Key Lime flavor.  It's a tart lime yogurt with little bits of graham cracker crust swirled in.  It's 3 points on Weight Watchers for half a cup, which I admit is not a fantastic deal, but none of the dessert things ever are on Weight Watchers.  And 3 points seems to be about the going rate for the light ice creams.  And it has those little bits of crust in it!  This is not some kind of paid endorsement.  I have no relationship whatsoever with this company.  I just really like their ice cream. 

Also last night I read a little bit more of my book, Dreams of Joy.  It's the sequel to Shanghai Girls, which I really liked.  But Dreams of Joy?  I have had it for 2 weeks from the library and I'm only on page 100.  And since it's a "Hot Copy," it's due today, and I have to get it in Kindle form just to finish it.  LIBRARY USE FAIL.  It really isn't a bad book, it's just that with this freelance project I don't always have the time or the inclination to read at night, and a book is just never as good when you parcel it out into minuscule chunks and you can't remember what happened earlier in the book.  And also apparently I am not a fast enough reader to use the library anymore.  I might be going all digital, baby.  Or else maybe I have to downgrade to really fluffy books that don't require that much concentration.  Or magazines. 

In completely unrelated news, I broke down and bought a new Keurig.  This would be the latest in a long line of purchases that indicate that I'm maybe not the smartest consumer.  I can think of at least three examples where I get some kind of gadget, and I love the ease and convenience of it, but then it breaks quickly and I think, Wow, what a crappy product.  But then, the ease and convenience!  I miss it!  I cannot live without it!  So I go and buy the same crappy product again. 

Also I've been enjoying the Dunkin' Donuts K-cups with my new Keurig.  You have to go into the Dunkin' Donuts store to buy them, which makes Nathan happy. 

Donuts may be the one food that isn't really a weakness for me.  But that brings me to a discussion of Weight Watchers, which ... bah, I'm trying.  Does anybody else think the new Points Plus system is so hard?  My main problem is that you just can't eat very much bread, crackers, or other delicious carbohydrate-based items.  And that's all I want to eat.  All the time.  Many people say that you can get to a point where you stop eating breads for so long that you no longer crave them, but I wouldn't know.  I can't last that long. 

But, I keep plugging away.  With many, many derailments along the way.  (Was that, like, a mixed metaphor or something?)  I'm starting to wonder if maybe my problems with weight loss are rooted in some sort of deep psychological issue, like I don't think I'm worth it or something.  And then I say, No, shut up, Shannon, your problems with weight loss are rooted in the fact that you like to eat too much.  Still, I wish I could get to a point where I develop such a strong inner resolve that I could be standing in front of a platter of delicious food and will myself not to eat, for the purpose of achieving some greater good.  

Well, anyway, I'm gonna go and get on with my day.  I'm planning on swimming laps at the gym for the first time in forever, because I'm too sore for anything else.  And later I have a delivery window for Peapod, which is a grocery delivery service.  I've decided I can get better produce from them than I can at the store, which is important because fruit is really all you can enjoy on the new Weight Watchers.  And also, who doesn't enjoy having their groceries delivered?