A South Carolina State of Mind - - Stories from Vacation

This week has been a complete break from routine as the Nerd and I have spent the past week in South Carolina, enjoying a family reunion of the Pitt descendants.  Well, various Pitt descendants, anyways.  The nice ones.

© OpenStreetMap contributors, Licensed CC-BY-SA

The family rented two nearly adjacent houses on Fisher Knob at Lake Jocassee, South Carolina (indicated by the red "X" in the map, above).

Lake Jocassee has an interesting heritage, as it used to be a valley with a number of houses in it until the mid-1970s, when the local power concern built a series of dams and flooded the valley.  The new lake runs 250 - 600 feet deep in some places, and fishing maps show the old roads and old rivers that used to run through the valleys between the local hills, along with the old houses, lodges and campgrounds that still lie at the bottom of the lake.

The lake is a popular place for fishing, boating, kayaking, swimming, and hiking.  The local terrain is quite hilly, being situated in the Appalachian mountains, and local roads are very steep with many switchbacks.  Even though it has rained literally every day that we have been here, the rain has not interfered with our various recreational pursuits.  Plus the rain has kept the temperatures in the mid-70s, which is perfect for those of us who hate heat. 

I have been eating my face off this week with all the delicious meals served up every evening.  Each family group has taken turns cooking, and so far we have enjoyed Indian curry (courtesy of the Nerd), meatballs, pasta and seven layer Magic bars (a southern dessert), enchiladas, chicken Marsala and Jello pudding shooters and baklava, barbecue chicken, roasted corn and tomatoes, and pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream, salad bar, corn bread, rosemary bread, baked potatoes, spice cake and prune cake, and jerk chicken and jerk pork sliders with twice baked potatoes.   Among many other amazing foods that I am forgetting.   Along with the food has come a super-abundance of drinking, and I have done my share of polishing off a large bottle of Crown Royal rye whisky.

In a (likely vain) attempt to stave off massive weight gain I have made a point of trying to do something active every day that I have been here.  I have gone swimming for the first time in decades, which was a humbling experience.  My technique is something between "random bobbing" and "modified breast stroke", and apparently I am prone to making alarming noises that frighten small children.  No matter - - the water was warm every day but one, and I had a fun time.

Less fun was the occasional walk that the Nerd and I took along Fisher Knob Road.  I mentioned the whole "Appalachian mountains" thing, right?  Well that leads to roads that are entirely too hilly, in a state that enjoys 85% humidity.  Let it not ever be said that I look glamorous after one of our grim death marches - - by the time we got back to the cabin I was uniformly drenched with sweat.  Sexy time indeed!

Most fun of all for me was kayaking.  I have always wanted to kayak, and I got my first chance to do so this week.  I was able to take the kayak out 4 times this week and I really enjoyed every time.   My various trips are indicated by the blue track in the above map.  The first trip I stayed relatively close to the cabin, but the other three times I went exploring and discovered two beautiful waterfalls and a numerous herons.  I also almost had a tree fall on me - - fortunately it was pointing in the other direction when I was paddling by - - but overall I suffered no ill effects from my little adventures.  Apparently kayaking uses all the muscles in the body, especially the core and shoulders, but I mainly feel it in my shoulders alone.  I'm not sure I even have a core, frankly.

The water levels on the lake are apparently 25 feet higher than usual, and the little island in the above photo is usually not an island at all.  The high water levels also explain the unusually high amount of toppled trees that have fallen into the lake  (including the one that almost crushed yours truly) - - the action of waves on the local red clay soil undercuts the land and undermines trees' roots, leading them to fall over into the water - - usually in spectacular fashion.

Certainly I am not getting the cardio workout of my usual elliptical/elliptical + weights workouts, but I am hoping that the combination of hill training (aka grim death marches), swimming (aka bobbing), and kayaking (aka paddling) will have kept my metabolism from completely going dormant.

I have been very lucky so far this week and have not been bitten to death by insects, nor have I gotten terribly sunburned.  As you can see from the photo of my legs, above, I may even be paler than when I left Canada, if that is at all possible.   You will be pleased to know that in a comparison of various arms, the South Carolina natives are the darkest, followed by the Cincinnati resident, followed by yours truly.  Yes, in a shocking twist, the Canadian was the palest person at the reunion. 

Tomorrow we head back to Columbus for the first leg of our trip home, which should be a 9 hour drive.  I am already dreading coming back to the office.  For now, however, there is food to be eaten and drinks to be consumed.  Back to routine in a couple of days.

End of an era - - the clothing archive is no more

This morning was the end of an era.  Today I opened up the last of my clothing archive - - the treasure trove of clothes that I had outgrown years ago, bundled in sizes 14-22.  That's right, the size 14 bag was finally opened, and this is one of the dresses I found inside.  I am delighted to report that fits perfectly. 

I have had a lot of luck with my archive over the past year.  Some of my particular finds include:

14 - red wool blazer, little black dress, formal black dress
16 - olive green suit and several chino skirts in various colours
18 - navy suit, burgundy suit, lilac suit, various skirts, shorts and jeans
20 - the pink and black suit and the black and white suit
22 - the green tweed blazer

Each one has been a delightful surprise.  My memory is so bad, and some of these clothes were worn so seldom, that I had forgotten that I owned most of them.   In most cases I got too big for the clothes too quickly to wear them more than once or twice, so they made little impression.  Opening each new size bag of clothes was like Christmas morning. 

The clothing archive has been a huge help to me as I have lost weight over the past year.  It has saved me from having to buy multiple suits, since I have for the most part been able to rely on my old clothes from the archive to tide me over.  Recently I discovered my old blue jeans archive, which has provided me with several pairs of shorts and jeans in sizes 12, 14, 16 and 18, just when my old size 20s were turning into clown pants.  Score! 

The Nerd and I are packing up some of said shorts tonight in preparation for our trip to his family reunion in South Carolina, or as I like to call it, "Humidity Country" (there is 89% humidity where we are going as I write this - gack!).  We are both really looking forward to the trip, and we both have lots of clothes that fit to show off.  I ended up picking up 3 new swimsuits (1 piece suits, let's not go crazy) and t-shirts to wear with the chino shorts I found in my old clothing archive, so I am ready to go!  More importantly, we are both fit and feeling fine, which is what you want before meeting large groups of family. 

I have made arrangements to unlock my iPhone so that I will have roaming data/voice service whilst I am visiting our neighbours to the south, but I believe that cell phone service around where we will be going ("Hello, Lake Jocassee!") is somewhat spotty.  We will see how I do over the next week without my usual plethora of technological crutches. 

This upcoming week will have lots of family, lots of new experiences (for example, I have only been to South Carolina once before, and never to this part of the state, Go Tigers!), and lots of breaks from routine.  We'll see how this affects my weight loss plan, but really, that's not my primary concern.  My main objective is to relax and enjoy my time away from the office.  I am going to try and do something active every day, whether it's going for walks or swimming or something else I can't think of right now, but I'm not going to obsess about it.  Vacation is a time to go with the flow, and not be so programmed.  My regular weeks are adequately programmed after all - - I can cut loose sometime. And that time is this coming week.   

Week 73, 129+ pounds down

I think my body is finally adjusting to taking the rest day.  Over the first two weeks that I started taking a rest day, my weight jumped up after my weigh in day and it took me until the following Saturday weigh in to make any additional downward progress.

This week, for the first time, I was actually below my previous week's weigh in by Friday, the day before my Saturday weigh in.  It feels like I am actually starting to physically get used to the new schedule. 

This week I managed to lose another 1.3 pounds for a total of 129.2 pounds down to date, or 76% of my target.  I am now down to 204.7 pounds, which officially puts me at light-heavyweight.  Not yet overweight, but that's only a matter of a couple of pounds now, and I know it is only a matter of time. 

 

I am still on track to hit my 165 pound weight target sometime between the end of November, 2013 and the end of January, 2014.  If I hit my final goal in January, that would mean that it has will have taken me 2 years to lose 168 pounds, which would work out to an average loss of 1.6 pounds a week.  That feels slow, but it also feels like a nice, sustainable weight loss.  One I hope that I would be able to maintain. 

I have had some great fasting blood sugar figures this week, with all normal readings, and 3 readings even below 5.0 mmol/L (where the upper limit for normal blood sugar is 5.5 mmol/L).  May was a watershed month in terms of my blood sugar readings, and now each month is more normal than the last.  I am so happy to see these readings each morning, because avoiding the Type II diabetes that riddles my family is one of the main reasons I was workout out.  That, and being able to sit on chairs without breaking them, of course.

For Father's Day I sent the Patriarch a Withings wifi scale that records weight, body fat and BMI, as well as my favourite fitness apps like TactioHealth, Glucose Companion, and Full Fitness HD.  The Patriarch is tracking his food and exercise using MyNetDiary, which I personally do not find as user friendly or flexible as MyFitnessPal, but to each his own.  The Patriarch was only recently diagnosed with Type II diabetes, and he is working to develop better eating habits and to increase his activity levels.  It's kind of strange how I am the more experienced person when it comes to lifestyle change; I am the one giving him advice based on my longer experience with nutrition and exercise - - after all, I am a year and half ahead of him.  He still weighs less than me - - but only slightly - - but I am far fitter.  And at the rate I have been going, I will be lighter than him pretty soon.  It's a real role reversal between father and daughter, though, and it feels a bit odd.

This week I had a funny thing happen at discoveries.  We were at the court reporter's office, and I had one of our assistant's bring over some printing from the office.  When I went out at the break to pick up the printing, the receptionist handed it to me before I even introduced myself.  I asked her how she knew the printing was for me, and the receptionist told me that she had looked me up on my firm's website to see what I looked like.  I must have winced (it's a photo taken before I began working out), because the receptionist said "You need to get a new photo!".  Love it.

Just so you can see what she was speaking about, here's the (terrible) photo in question, compared to how I look now:

So where do I stand in relation to my goals?  Pretty good, actually:

I reached my "light heavyweight" goal this week, so that's another goal down.  Next up is reaching overweight status, which is only a couple of pounds away.  I should (hopefully) reach that in a couple of weeks or so.  Next up is to break the 200 pound barrier. 

The Nerd and I are going to South Carolina in a couple of weeks for his family reunion, and I am a little worried about (a) food, and in particular, healthy food; and (b) exercise.  The cabins at which we are staying are right on a lake, and there are apparently kayaks and boats available, which is good.  On the bad side, there is no internet access at all, which may cause me to have seizures - - I am such an internet junkie, I don't know how easily I will be able to go cold turkey like that.  It will be like traveling back in time to the 1980s, except without the snazzy fashion sense and danceable music. 

This week will be another challenging week, albeit for nice reasons.  My sister's birthday is this coming Saturday, so Friday night the family is going out to North 44 (a nice Mark McEwan restaurant in midtown Toronto).  That's all well and delicious, but my new weigh in day is Saturday. 
Given the typical sodium levels in restaurant food, even trying to eat manageable portions will make it tough to lose weight this week.  But I keep reminding myself that this is a long term lifestyle change, not a sprint, so one week off the reservation should not be too bad for me in the big picture.