Wednesday, August 10, 2005

(Not) Another Challenge

I belong to an online list called "Triathletes of the Dead Runners Society " aka TRI DRS. I joined it in 1995 , the year that I raced my first triathlon. I wanted to talk to people that had actually done triathlons and get more information for myself on what the heck I was doing. For any of you out there that participate in triathlons or are contemplating doing so, join us! So this week they started a weight loss challenge. At first I wasn't going to join, but then I went here to check out my Body Fat and it gave me a 29% reading! Hmmff! I think it's the wide hips compared to the bird-like wrists facto that gives me such an off reading (wrist = 6.5 inches, hips = 41 inches). In any case, I decided to join them in yet another desperate attempt to blast off my last pounds. I used to HATE the challenges that people would launch when I was on the WW lists. So dull, so boring...but this one has MONEY riding on it. Twenty bucks per participant, winner takes all. I already know that I'm not going to win because I just don't have that much weight to lose, but it does make it a bit more interesting. You can check out the Challenge Page to see how it goes. By the way, if any of you are overweight and putting off exercise until you lose enough, a few of the people on this list have quite a few pounds to lose and yet have no problem in participating in Ironman distance races. Like they say: just do it!

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Hot in oh so many ways...


Garden
Originally uploaded by juliainitaly.
Yesterday one of my neighbors stopped me while I was taking out the garbage. She lives two stories above us and has a terrace that overlooks our garden. She stopped me to tell me that we have the most beautiful garden in all the condominium and that it was a joy to look at. That made me so happy! I just wanted to make it even prettier for everybody to enjoy. It's not even close to how I want it to be, but do y'all remember those seeds that I planted? All the flowers blossomed and I have a ton of tomatoes and lettuce coming up every day. Goes to show you, anybody can have a green thumb.

It's now confirmed that I'm in the middle of a very early menopause. I know because now I'm having hot flashes. When they first started in the middle of June I wasn't feeling them as much because it was already a hundred degrees out anyway. But when we went up to Switzerland in July, THEN I could really feel them. It starts out with a heat that radiates from my chest and spreads out to my arms and face. I start taking off any excess clothing I have on instantly and try to get cool. The peak only lasts for about twenty seconds but the hot feeling stays for at least five more minutes. Yesterday during the day I counted ten of them. At night it's the worst 'cause it wakes me up, plus I tend to sweat a lot and I'm having to change the sheets more often. I looked up some literature on it to see how long this will go on: up to ten years! Oh, the joy of being a woman...