Updates of All Sorts

Isn’t it about time for some knitting content?  I cast these on for the trip…toe up monkeys, 2 at a time on magic loop.  It’s been a while since I knit socks and it appears I may have lost some of my mojo along the way!  I went to do my standard short row heel and got holes!  Holes people…I thought I was way beyond that as an experienced sock knitter!  Ripped it out and started over.  Holes again.  Really?  I have no idea what my problem is.  Let them sit for a couple of weeks then ripped again and decided to revisit Maia’s Toe Up Gusseted Heel.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

Flash back to mid October…one week in Arizona turned into two, not that I am complaining!  The weather was fantastic the entire time and I was not looking forward to returning to the cold, rainy, Cincinnati fall.  The flooded kitchen project was supposed to have been completed by the 4th, then the 12th , but if you’ve ever dealt with any kind of home project like that you know that they are never on time.  It wasn’t Über behind though and we are thoroughly happy with the result.  It’ll be nice to have a kitchen again next time we are there although we still have to put everything back in the cabinets and do some dust and grime cleanup.

The main negative of no kitchen is having to eat every meal out, especially if you happen to be on a diet!  Despite that little wrinkle, I managed to lose 2.5 more pounds while I was gone.  I normally make good choices in restaurants anyway but keeping it down to that few calories a day was much more challenging.  I think I may have overestimated many meals because the lack of nutrition information at most restaurants makes it difficult to get an accurate total of what you’re really eating.  To recap the diet plan, I started on September 13 using Sparkpeople.com to count calories with a 1200-1500 calorie a day target, keeping my normal running schedule of 20 miles a week while gradually adding miles as I am training for the Phoenix marathon.  I also added in the 30 Day Shred DVD, but gave that up because it was causing too much stress on my knees.  Sunday the 18th was 5 weeks and I’ve lost 9.5 pounds so far.  I’m pretty happy with that but I think I could have done better if I had access to my kitchen the entire time!  Now here I am at the November 1 weigh in and down a total of 11 pounds in 7 weeks.  I had a little stall out week 6 and I’m starting to wonder if I should adjust my calories a bit?  Does my body think it’s not getting enough and starting to slow down my metabolism?  Maybe those of you a little more experienced with dieting can weigh in on that.  I know it can happen with too few calories and a lot of activity but I can’t believe I’m actually to that point yet.  The Biggest Losers don’t seem to have that problem and they’re working out way more than I do!