Visiting Dignitaries

This week we've had a number of friends visiting. Yesterday, Monsieur's parents' friends came to spend the day (and night) before catching their flight out this morning. And, overlapping, some old friends from the Great White North are in town all this week. As a result, there have been quite a few social gatherings and meals eaten out. And, to top it off, on Friday we are having some other friends over for dinner, to celebrate their birthdays. Phew!

It feels a bit more difficult to stay the (French) course when you're out eating with friends, at least for me.  Sometimes, I get so distracted by conversation and menu options and that sort of thing, that I find it hard to hear my inner French guide reminding me about portion control or finding a treat balance. It's easy to slip into a non-French vacation mode and go back to thinking, "Oh, well, this is a special occasion so of course I will order dessert, even though I am not hungry at all because I already had appetizers and a good meal."

I'm not sure how to undo years of bad habits and retrain myself to think like a French person.

I guess that is one good thing about keeping this blog. It's an opportunity to recollect and think about what I'm doing so that I'm a more conscious eater and don't behave like a robot.

Rising Early

I'm not sure why, but Monsieur has been getting up extra early since we returned from Chicago. I never really thought of him as the type to get jet lag--he's never gotten it before. But for the past two days he's been up at 6:30 a.m. (Yikes!)

Today, I suggested that he go to work early and come home early, and he took my advice. He left at 7:30 and by 7:45 I was out the door, too. First I went to Starbucks for some coffee. Then, I went to Trader Joe's and to the supermarket to do my grocery shopping. Two major errands were checked off before 9 a.m.

Back home, I put away what I bought, did some laundry, tidied up the house, and performed some pool maintenance.  10 a.m. Then, my maman came over and I helped her run a few errands since she's having some work done on her house. We had some lunch, did a couple more errands, and by 2 p.m. I was back home.

By that time, I must admit I was feeling a bit pooped because I'd been going nonstop since rather early. Unlike monsieur, my natural wake up time was not 6:30 a.m.

Now it's 4:30 p.m. and all I want to do is take a nap!

Luckily, I already planned dinner and it's one of my easiest and favorite menus.  Roasted chicken wings, rice, and a salad. Once I've prepped the chicken and gotten the rice going in my rice cooker, all I have to do is make the salad, and that's usually pretty quick.

I could get used to this early schedule, but I'm not sure monsieur will like it. The (theoretical) advantage of going to work early was supposed to be getting home early, and there's still no sign of him, so...

But in either way, at least I felt super productive today!

Weight Math

After yesterday's disappointing weigh-in, I remembered (vaguely) that statistic about how many calories you need to cut to lose 1 lb. So, I turned to my friend The Google and did a little research.

There seems to be some debate over the precise number of calories you'd need to reduce or burn through exercise in order to lose 1 lb of fat in one week, but the general consensus was that 3,500 calories = 1 lb of 'weight'. Breaking that down into more manageable daily pieces, you'd need to cut back about 500 calories per day to lose 1 lb, or 250 calories per day to lose 1/2 a lb. Roughly.

Now, part of the reason the French Diet appeals to me so much is that I have never counted calories. The whole idea is anathema to me. I just hate it! I have enough things I need to juggle in my mind that I really don't want to add calorie counting to the list. First of all, I'd need to memorize the calories in  everything I eat, and then I'd have to try to calculate how much the portion of food X that I just ate contained. I just patently refuse to add this task to my daily to-do's.

Of course, with the advent of the iPhone and all the health/diet related apps that are available, you might say that all I need to do is find the right app and let it do the work. And, that might be true. But I still just don't want to do it.

So instead I asked The Google about exercise and how many calories each type of exercise (roughly) burns. Here's what I found, according to the Mayo Clinic:

For a 160 lb. person:

1 hour of...                    =              calories burned

  aerobics, high impact                          533
  aerobics, low impact                           365
  cycling < 10 mph                                292
  weight training                                    365
  swimming laps                                    423
  walking, 2 mph                                   204
  walking, 3.5 mph                                314

So yesterday, I went for a brisk walk in the morning. My iPhone app WalkTracker (I'm not opposed to using technology to help with health and fitness, it's just calorie counting that I despise) informed me that I had walked approximately 2.7 miles over 50 minutes at an average speed of 3.26 mph. According to my app, that represented 270 calories. Later that same day, I ended up walking another 1.5 miles when I found myself taking the train back home after visiting my parents. So, all in all, I had a pretty good day, exercise-wise.

My goal is to do some moderate amount of aerobic activity for 30-60 minutes each day, I probably would be able to take care of 1/2 a pound a week. The rest (if I want to make 1 lb a week my goal) should come from appropriate application of the French diet, especially from portion control.

Scheduling exercise?

Over the weekend I was thinking that I should try to establish an exercise schedule to support starting good habits. Mondays and Wednesdays, I mused, I could focus on some sort of aerobic activity. Then, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I could go cycling, since it's definitely harder to go for a ride if you've waited a while since your last rise. Fridays, I figured, I could either do aerobics again or I could focus on stretching or flexibility or calisthenics. Finally, on the weekend I could do something with Monsieur, like go for a swim or play some tennis. 

All these thoughts, however, remain good intentions. Yesterday, I spent the day helping mes parents and I felt way too tired by the time I got home to do anything. 

Today, I've also been busy with my family, accompanying them to some doctor appointments. So, unless I can rally when I get home, it will be another day that I have not exercised. 

The French way, of course, is to incorporate exercise into your everyday routine. I think that's a little easier said than done when you live in an American suburb and everything is at least a mile away. 

So, I am not sure what to do. Perhaps I should approach this as an experiment (like my blog is so aptly named) and I should say, "For the next X number of days I'm going to follow his exercise schedule and then see what happens."

Otherwise, it's not really reasonable to expect things to change magically in their own. 

I'll keep you posted!