Nothing to do with anything

I just came across this video and wanted to share it. It's kinda wild and entertaining.

Challenging gravity (it's harder than it looks)

A sledding hill doubles as a track for cardio work, for those inclined (hahaha).

3 weeks from today: the 1st competition (I'm fine)

I picked up my posing suit today and here it is! I'm really happy with how it looks. Someday, when I'm 80something, I'll pull it out of storage and say, hahaha, I wore this! In public! On stage! I would have posed in it for a photo here but...I have an unsightly problem. I was practicing my posing moves in a bikini earlier this week in my backyard where there's a patio with wonderfully reflecting sliding glass doors leading outside. I didn't feel it at the time, but my rear was attacked by a gang of mosquitoes, or maybe it was one particularly militant one (target practice on June's ass!). Anyway, I have at least half a dozen bites on my butt. And they itch something awful! 'Nuf said.

OK, I finally decided to make water consumption a high priority, now that my time is running out on this critical element of my preparation. I've been trying to get the prescribed gallon down, but I haven't come close. I actually hate this part of my diet, but I understand that it's a necessity. At best, all I've done in the last few weeks is half a gallon (64 ounces). Yesterday, I made 100 ounces happen, and I know I can keep that up. 128 ounces = one gallon, but Glenn said that drinking my body weight in ounces of water should be enough.

My weigh today is 105 exactly. I'm hoping that tomorrow, I'll bust into the 104s.

I never did run up and down a hill with Glenn earlier this week (scheduling conflicts), but we have a plan to do that Sunday.

In the coming week, I'm having my hair cut shorter and I'm having it colored. I'll also stop at the M.A.C. make-up counter for a little experimentation to see how we can punch things up a little for the stage. So maybe by the end of next week, once my bites have healed and with my new look, I'll slap on the posing suit and take a picture to post here.

As for the posing itself, the back pose is my greatest challenge. My back faces the judges and the issue lies with making my upper back on the right (bad) side line up evenly with the left. The unsteadiness is most of the problem. The musculature is there, but it's hard to present it properly. Glenn suggested steadying my right arm by letting my right hand rest on my right hip instead of letting in hang freely. I think I'm going to go with that and hopefully, the judges won't say anything.

In the meantime, I continue to lift heavy and hard (i.e. yesterday - walking lunges across the length of a fitness studio carrying 20 lb. dumbbells in each hand. 3 times there and back. And the end of each lap, I held the lunge position and dipped down 10 times, left leg first, next lap, right leg.)

Latest numbers

This time trainer Glenn did a body mass assessment on me not at my request but of his own volition. I submitted because I guess a part of me is still curious while also realizing that these numbers tend to be not favorable. As the day wore on, I kept guessing what the percentage of body fat would be (the number I'm most hung up on), to test myself on how I would feel about each potential outcome. Finally, at 5:15, he texted me the results. I was surprised. I would like the the body fat percentage to be lower, but I feel pretty good about where it stands. It marks a big decrease from last time. However, I've lost a pound of muscle which probably can be expected at this point and that figure could always be worse, like 2 pounds of lost muscle. The results, as compared to those taken on July 29, are:

16.1% body fat (down from 19%)
16.9 lbs. fat (down from 20.8)
88.1 lbs. lean body mass (down from 89.8)

And why not compare today's results with those from March, the first time we took measurements:

26.75% body fat
30 lbs. fat
83.5 lean body mass

Big changes!

If I can get down to 14% body fat, I'll be satisfied. At the beginning of this process, I thought I might reach 12%, but I'm realizing that's not going to happen. I can accept that. Hopefully, in these final 3 weeks, I'll lose a few more pounds of fat and if I'm lucky, I'll retain all my muscle.

The Cleveland show

This past weekend, there was a big bodybuilding show held in Cleveland. I thought I'd post the top 3 winners in my category (figure) and my class (the shortest) for the sake of...I don't know what. But here they are, first place starting at the top left, going clockwise.

Time out/Wiped out

I took a big time out yesterday. I was wiped out. I also was sore from Friday's deadlifts - 3 sets of 20 reps with a 40 lb. barbell. Having hamstrings that hurt is really annoying, every time you take a step. I should have run a mile last night, but no way. Plus, after my 1,500 calories for the day was reached with dinner, I was still hungry later in the evening. This has happened before and it's a matter of degree. Sometimes I eat something innocuous like sauteed mushrooms or carrots at 10 p.m. Last night I went for the hummus. Probably not the greatest idea but I didn't care. This morning the scale said 105.2 so it didn't do any harm. I'll probably break into the 104s very soon.

Speaking of wipe outs, I've watched 2 terrific surfing documentaries this weekend and I highly recommend them. Both are 90 minutes long and shot all over the world. "Step into Liquid" was the first and it was technically amazing. The things these guys and a few women can do on a board are bold, daring and fascinating. Really spellbinding. They're very competitive with each other which pushed them to be even crazier. The height and strength of the waves suggest the very real possibility of death or injury, too. In one case, it was the latter. One guy made a habit of facing the open water rather than the beach when he surfed. OK...

The other movie is a classic from 1964, "The Endless Summer," a reference to 2 guys traveling around the globe to find waves and summer in Africa, New Zealand and Tahiti, to name a few of the many beach locations to which they dragged their boards. This movie is very much a product of its time period with 1960's cars, hair/clothing styles and the cheesy background music found in everything filmed from that age. One wild discovery made in Tahiti was a cove where the waves broke heading away from shore, so they surfed them in the reverse direction. On the cape of S. Africa where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean, they learned that there is a 20 degree temperature difference in the water within a short distance. In Durban, on the southeast coast, they needed to surf some enormous sand dunes to get to the beach. In Ghana, way up north nearly on the equator, they met up with conditions where the air was about 100 degrees, there was tremendous humidity and the water was 90 degrees. Insane!

Weight/Wait

It looks like I'll need to wait a little longer until I see a change on the scale. My weight is holding at 105.6. I blew through 106 easily, but 105 isn't coming off so fast. I haven't been doing anything wrong, so I'm not sure what's up, but I'm also not making any changes right now. I'll see what next week brings. I'm hoping to lose 2-3 more pounds by the week before the first competition on Oct. 2 which is four weeks from today. If I don't succeed, I know Michelle has methods that will strip away the fat, but they're not fun. I haven't asked for details, but I think it involves carb depletion and severe calorie restriction, like in the neighborhood of 900. Sounds highly unpleasant. Fortunately, we haven't needed to resort to anything drastic yet. That was one of my gravest fears surrounding this activity: an extended period, maybe 6-8 weeks before the competition, when I imagined I'd feel like crap, have no energy and suffer from persistent headaches for which I'd pop tylenol like candy from a pez dispenser. I believe that my trainers have guided me well so that I've managed to avoid this conceivable scenario. I actually feel fine, except by the end of the week, my muscles are definitely drained and Saturday, my day off, brings tremendous relief.

Buffalo

The second competition I'm signed up for is Oct. 23 in Buffalo. I just booked my hotel, filled out the application form and - check this out - scheduled my lie detector test! Yes, they make every competitor submit to a test where they'll ask about any drug usage. I will happily oblige. Anything to ensure that "natural" means natural. No anabolic steroids, growth hormone, prescription diuretics, depressant drugs, narcotics, muscle implants (??) and clenbuterol, all banned. The sponsor of this show takes the matter very seriously and I have loads of respect for him. It's only fair for apples to compete with apples and not rotten cores.

Round up

Well, it looks like I will not be attending the North American Bodybuilding Championships in Cleveland this weekend. The figure competitors (my category) are judged at 8:30 a.m. on Sat. and that's a wee bit too early. Of course, if I REALLY wanted to go, I'd get up at 6:30, be out the door by 7:30 and in my seat by 8:30. But the truth is, I'd rather not extend myself at that hour. Plus, I have a feeling that the show would seriously mess with my head. Some of the women who are competing have taken drugs and the difference is apparent, and I'd wind up spending the whole time there wondering who's natural and who's not. That's annoying. Of course, I'll be wondering the same thing during the show I'm competing in, but hey, whatever. It's worth recalling though that the judging criteria is not based on size but definition, symmetry and proportion. And muscles built naturally stay with you after the show, whereas muscles that are "juiced" deflate after the show, assuming the drugs are curtailed to avoid dire consequences.

*

As it turns out, last night was my last swim in the backyard pool. The heat has evaporated enough water where the level is lower than it needs to be and I don't want to fill it up with a hose for the purpose of 1 or 2 more swims, only to drain the whole thing in 10 more days for the paint job. So trainer Glenn has stepped up and offered another method of torture: hills. He plans to join me at a sledding hill to scale it with weight somehow attached to me. I haven't bothered to gain a full understanding of what he has in mind cuz it would instill fear and trepidation. I prefer blissful ignorance, for as long as it can last. Our first session will be Wed. "But what if it rains?" I asked Glenn. "So?" was his reply. I guess I can count on participating in this activity no matter what. It will only take about 10 or 20 minutes, he said, depending on how much rest I require.

This exercise fits Glenn's "minimal cardio" approach to fitness. It's based on the principle that dedicated cardio beyond roughly 20 minutes can lead to catabolism where muscle is burned for fuel instead of fat. Of course, cardio (or an elevated heart rate) is a direct part of solid weight training, especially where super sets are involved (a set of say 12 reps with one exercise or machine, then a set of 12 with another exercise or machine, repeated in rotation say 3 times). This builds muscle while burning fat. What's considered by many fitness professionals to be a superior form of cardio is the HIIT approach (high intensity interval training) where the heart rate spikes through challenging work for say a minute, then drops for a minute, then spikes, then drops over maybe 8-10 minutes. Weight training can achieve this pattern. So can hill climbing. Gravity will be very punishing.

*

This holiday weekend will be the final challenge to my meal-time mettle. I'm going to be surrounded by lots of food and alcohol and those things will not be easy to resist. My only coping mechanism is to try to ensure that I'm never hungry when I'm around the things I can't eat. This method makes it a little easier to control myself. But it's still hard. Really hard. I know, however, that the time period for which I need to behave is shrinking, and there's sugar on the horizon! I think about this a lot, too. I try to imagine a gradual reintroduction, rather than a massive binge. Except we just booked an 8 day cruise for winter break. If I manage to not go crazy up until then, I don't know how well I'll succeed on vacation. I guess there's always my food scale, measuring cups and calorie restriction for when I return.

The costs

With the competition rapidly approaching, it's time to start paying some fees, including $110 to compete in the Oct. 2 show, $90 to become a member of the NPC (National Physique Committee) which sponsors the show, $160 for my hotel, in addition to the $250 spent on the posing suit, $35 for posing shoes that I'll only wear for this activity and unmentionable training fees for a 6 month period. I'm not complaining, just reporting.

Also, the competition training has taken from me about 12 lbs., hahaha. Now I weight 105.8.

The other competitors

I've been wondering a lot lately about what the rest of the competition is doing right now. Are they suffering as they try to drop weight? Are they working harder than ever before? Are they feeling confident, possibly justifiably so?

Fortunately, I'm feeling secure enough in my diet and workout regimen that these issues don't rattle me too much, but I can't help being curious. I know I'm doing everything I can do achieve my goals ON TIME. My diet is exactly right and there's only so much exercise a person can do before diminishing return or counter productivity sets in.

I do know, however, that as soon as I see everyone looking their best on the day of the competition, I'm going to feel very unsettled and insecure. I'm trying to prepare myself for that which means going through a script in my head where I remind myself that I did everything I could, I trained hard and this is the best I could do. There will be no thoughts surrounding I-should-have, I-could-have.

The wild card with my preparation though is still my arm. I cannot predict how well I'll control it. It's all a matter of degree. I can't hold it perfectly still, but how close can I come? To address the issue, I have my single best strategy in place. It involves working my right arm to exhaustion before I go onstage. This helps minimize the shaking under normal circumstances and what makes it shake more than usual is nervousness. So I'm in a bit of a bind. But Michelle will be with me up until nearly the time I line up backstage, and she will work with me using bands or dumbbells. Over and over. All I need is about 5 minutes of recovery to have enough strength and energy left to flex, although there is the pumped up factor that will enhance the look, too.

Needless to say, this is all a grand experiment.

Salt is my new sugar

When I need a blast of flavor, time to bring on the kosher salt which is much lower in sodium than regular salt (280 mg. of sodium vs. 590 mg in 1/4 tsp.). Everything tastes better with salt. This is not to say I'm dumping it all over everything. More like I'm liberally applying it when needed.

I've been strictly adhering to a diet of 1,500 calories and it's working. In fact, this week has been a textbook case in weight loss. It's been dropping by .2 lbs. daily which works out to be the pound loss in one week for which I'm aiming. I weigh 106.8 now. If I continue at this pace, I'll get down to 102 which is a ridiculous number, but that's the week before the competition, and the following week I'll start bringing it back up which raises an interesting question.

What do I want my weight to return to? Since I feel like I'm in complete control of this issue, all I need to do is pick the number and make it happen by finding the amount of calories per day which will maintain it, along with the level of exercise that will support the number. I realize that's more easily said than done, but I think I have the skills now to mastermind it. At the very least, it's worth a try. I think I like the look of 106.

Bikini shot #6

Misc. updates

I'm looking forward to attending a professional body building show Sept. 4 in downtown Cleveland. What makes the show "professional" is the fact that all of the competitors have won at other shows. It should be an outstanding display of...what's possible, I guess. The show is supposed to be drug free, but Michelle tells me that, from her past observation, plenty of people clearly have juiced themselves. She's attending with me and I'm sure she'll offer some informative commentary.

I'm holding off on the highlights for my hair. I think it makes more sense to take care of that closer to the first show so that it isn't all grown out when I want it to look nice.

I'll post a new bikini shot on Wednesday. Michelle is going to take the picture after we finish posing practice. Think neon pink.

Starting Sept. 1, further adjustments will be made to my diet, like banishing any dairy, but the only dairy I'm eating right now is the occasional Chobani yogurt. I'm not sure whether the 2% milk in my tea will be eliminated, but I hope not. However, I'm reminding myself that these changes will be very temporary.

I recently took a tally of which family members will be attending the first show, and right now, it looks like it will be only my husband. My older son wants to be as far away as he can get because he doesn't really approve of this activity and even thinks it's gross. My other son is just interested in the results, not in sitting through it. My mother refuses to bear witness to anything, including reading this blog, because the posing suits make her "uncomfortable." I don't exactly understand this but I also don't care to pursue it. There are many elements of style and taste over which we don't agree. However, I think this should be more about me and less about what she thinks is appropriate. Since she's not coming, I haven't even bothered to ask what my dad's plans are but I'm certain he won't be present.

Over the past month, I've been swimming in my backyard pool for my cardio workouts since it's been so insanely hot. But 3 weeks from now, the swimming needs to end because the pool will be drained so it can be painted. I intentionally chose this year as the time to have the work done because it's definitely necessary but also, I'm very happy to end my pool responsibilities early. It's a 2-week job, between draining, painting, drying and refilling, and when it's complete, it will be closed up for the season which is fine because fall is a demanding time to maintain a pool with the leaves dropping as well as the temperatures at night. And at the end of Sept., just before the competitions, the last thing I want to deal with is the pool. There's no one around here ready and willing to take over in my absence either. Ordinarily, I close it during the 2nd week in Oct. which makes ending my swimming in the middle of Sept. feel very early. But I'll switch gears and pick up with running, biking or using an elliptical machine. Glenn also has ideas for high intensity intervals that I might try. His methods don't take long, but they're extremely tough.

I still haven't been drinking the right amount of water. I'm consuming about half a gallon at most each day which is not enough. I'm continuing to work on that.

Progress report

I have 5 weeks left to diet and train, then I hit the week before the competition when I don't work out and my trainers manipulate my diet daily based on how I look. I'll make no plans for that week and completely submit myself to the process. But right now, my goal is to drop a pound a week and I think I'll be able to do it. If I succeed, I should be exactly where I need to be with respect to fat loss without subtracting too much muscle.

I weigh 107.4 lbs. today. When I started training on March 1, I weighed 116, the most I've weighed in my entire adult life. The scale was creeping up by roughly a pound a year, and despite my best efforts to stop the escalation, including working out 6 days a week, composed of 3 cardio days of 30 - 45 minutes and 3 weight training days, I couldn't stop it. So this bodybuilding process has demonstrated that what I thought was impossible - to lose a single pound, let alone 10! - is possible. Actually, I've lost more than 10 pounds when the muscle gain is factored in. The key to the success has been the incremental changes in my diet, with different items gradually dropping out. Juice was one of the first things to go. Unnecessary calories.

Since I've made it this far, I'm feeling very motivated (ok, and very hungry at times, especially when I wake up in the morning. In fact, I have no trouble getting up by 7:15 just so I can eat). So I'll suffer what I must to lose the final 5 lbs. because it's not too much longer. Plus, I'm very curious to see what my legs look like with hardly any fat.

The purple posing suit

Last night, I paid a visit to the lady who is sewing my posing suit. She had it laying on her couch when I walked in and it caught me by surprise because I had forgotten exactly what it looks like. I recalled the great shade of purple, but I didn't remember the fabric's sparkliness. It looks awesome. Her living room was strewn with other suits in progress which was quite a sight. She has clients from all over the country, many of whom are very accomplished bodybuilders and require ultra glam work. She definitely delivers. It's obvious that her glue gun gets heavy use from all the rhinestone decorations. I went into her bathroom and slipped on the suit, this time wearing the bottom properly, unlike last time when I had it backwards, not that there's much difference between the front and back. She had slipped some pads into the top, so I get a little help in that department. When I came out, she attached the strings from the top to some hooks on each side of the bottom which is the single styling difference between a bikini and a posing suit. The bottom is extremely hiked up to meet the strings which is part of the look. In other words, it's about all the exposure that's legally allowed. I'm becoming okay with that. After I changed out of the suit, I gave it back to her so that she can add the rhinestones since we confirmed that the sizing is fine, even though I'll be losing more weight. I have another appointment on Sept. 11 to pick up the finished work. Then I can practice in it and post a picture here. I have to say that I felt semi comfortable in it, but I'll feel better once I shed some more pounds.

Here's how it's going to be

I had a long talk with Glenn today about how thrown off track I've been feeling. I covered my frustration surrounding the body fat percentage not budging, although I did hit 107 lbs. on Sat. and I got scared because that's a really low number, so I ate some fries and ice cream later that day, very intentionally. I was 109 lbs. Mon. morning. I also told him that if so many other competitors train 5-6 days per week with 3 days of cardio thrown in the mix, then that's what I believe I should be doing.

He listened very patiently - it was a long monologue, the above is highly condensed - and he told me, no, I don't need to train like that. "Look, you can get to Florida 2 ways. You can drive or you can fly. Which would you rather do? Both ways WILL get you there." Glenn believes his method is to fly. The way you fly is to go hard and heavy 4 times a week and to not devote each workout to only a few select body parts. Also, two days of cardio that's brief and high intensity is all that's needed, which is not to minimize those two workouts, it's just clarifying what's required. Too much cardio can catabolize muscle which would be extremely counter-productive.

This is a highly unpopular approach. Glenn knows it and I've been in the gym long enough to know it, too. But here's why Glenn is qualified to throw complete confidence behind the outcome of this method. He was a competitor himself for 5 years. He did split body workouts, 6 days a week, along with 5 days of cardio per week. He knows what that is and he won many competitions that way. He later learned of the other approach: hard and heavy, then home. He knows of people who used this method and won The Arnold competition, the Indy 500 of bodybuilding competitions. He now trains exclusively that way and the results are undeniable (he's ripped and recently won a strongman competition).

Since March 1 when I started training for the competitions, I've been following both the more popular method with Ed and Michelle which has been effective. But I've also seen the results of Glenn's technique. And when I'm in the gym by myself, I'd say I fall somewhere between the two. Sometimes I do more reps with lower weight, and some days I do lower reps with higher weight.

At this point, I am fully convinced that if I keep the weights high (tonight, I took some of the machines up to between 70 and 90 lbs.), and max myself out each time (8 - 10 reps for 3 sets), I will achieve the look I seek. Highly sculpted and lean. The weight is coming off without much effort, too, as long as I eat "clean." Glenn said that he expects I will fall below 100 lbs. which is something I'm mentally adjusting to because, um, that takes me back to middle school. Mind you, I'm not going to stay at that weight for very long, it's strictly a competition-based goal/necessity.

Under the especially favorable lights at the gym tonight, I could see that my definition is absolutely there, both on the top and bottom. I had a lot of guys checking me out, too. I've seen those looks before, but not with the prevalence I did tonight. So I'll take some measure of confidence from what was likely their approval.

I feel like I'm back to center, I'm balanced and I know how the next 6 weeks are going to play out. My motivation continues to remain high and the fighter in me is eager for the final battle. In fact, I look forward to the challenges ahead. They no longer seem insurmountable.

Not the news I was hoping for

21.7%. That's the body fat percentage the Bod Pod measured me at. I'm disgusted to the point where I'm giving up on the measurement. I'm not doing it anymore. It's not like I'm slacking. it's not like I'm going off the diet, aside from a mental breakdown here and there. So that's the end of that. The day before the show, maybe I'll take a measurement, just to see what my end result is, but that's it.

I trained with Vonda today and that was about as tough as I expected. But I liked it. She has a very calm, reassuring energy. She speaks softly but firmly and she didn't let me get away with crap like...asking her questions about random, unrelated things. The former reporter in me can't help but be inquisitive and I got her to reveal that she grew up spending time on her grandparents' farm where they had livestock and crops. "What kind of crops?" I asked. "I'm not falling for that, the ask-questions-and-delay-the-task trick. Think about the exercise." Drat. I only ask questions to distract myself from the pain and muscle drain. I feel like when I'm thinking too much about what I'm doing sometimes (though not always), I'm more likely to fail. Keeping my head outta the mix can be my best policy. In fact, I don't always like to know how much weight a trainer is making me lift because it will intimidate me and psyche me out. Ignorance is bliss. But I know that Vonda would dispute this point. Anyway, I let her do the counting today, particularly when she had me do 100 step ups on each side. Her motivational tactic? "You're the one that has to get up on that stage." I heard that about 3 or 4 times this morning. She also mentioned that some people collapse and hit the floor on that exercise. The worst I felt throughout the hour-long lower body workout was fatigue to the point of uselessness. "Your legs feeling like jello?" she asked with a devilish grin. Yes, that basically described it.

Toward the end of the workout, she asked me about my training regimen. After I told her I was working out 4 days a week, she looked at me in total disbelief with her big, pale blue eyes and without hesitating, she told me that's not enough. "You take 3 days off? Most people who are training for a competition are in the gym 6 days a week, combining that with 3 days of cardio, working 30 to 45 minutes."

I'm the one who must get up on that stage. I'm also the one who doesn't need to be told that my look is certainly not competition ready. Then again, it shouldn't be just yet (peaking too early would be a problem though it's definitely not my problem), but it sounds like my program may not get me there in time either. She did toss me a figurative bone and said that the first time you compete is a huge learning experience. You discover what your body responds to and what it requires to get you where you need to be. So it's very easy to get things wrong. The thing is, I'm not exactly taking any comfort in my ignorance. In fact, I'm very uncomfortable with it.

It sounds like I'm going to be adding another 2 days to my workout week and bumping up the cardio. Like a total amateur, I've stuck with my nearly complete body workouts each time I go to the gym, or a better way to describe them would be to say I fill in the remaining body parts not worked hard by my trainers the day before. That's going to need to change. I'm going to need to do more targeted workouts, like chest and back one day. Legs another day. Arms another day. Shoulders and core next. Then I don't know what, but I'll figure it out. I'm not sure that I have enough exercises in my repertoire to fill out each of these days, but I'll need to figure that out, too. I only have 6 more weeks to commit myself to the work, and I think that's all I have in me.

The BOD POD

Monday morning, I'm going to have my body composition measured by the most accurate method available. The device being used is called a Bod Pod (pictured), something professional athletes frequently use. Basically, the pod measures the volume of space you consume within the chamber, then a technician is able to breakdown how much of your space is composed of fat and lean mass. I have no idea how that's done, but I will soon find out. All that's required of me is to sit in the chamber for about 30 seconds. I also need to wear tight clothing (workout wear will suffice) and I'll be provided with a tight cap to compress my hair because it takes up space that we don't want to measure.

The reason I'm doing this is because I'm a little obsessed with these numbers. Why? I guess because they are a quantifiable measure of my progress. I'm also not so sure that the caliper method is 100% reliable. This seems like a quick, harmless and easy way to get a very accurate result. It costs $25 and the service is offered at a gym not far away. As of last Thursday, Glenn's measurement had me at 19% body fat. So I'm very curious to see where the pod places me. I'll report the results here Monday afternoon.

Food Finds

Recently, I discovered a new food (pictured) that I'm excited about and plan to incorporate into my diet on a long-term basis. It's known as farro or spelt, and it's an ancient grain with a nutty flavor. That being said, its consistency is more like risotto, the thick Italian rice. It's sold in regular grocery stores, though not every one will necessarily carry it. One cup has 246 calories which is probably average for a carb using that volume, but it has 11 grams of protein which is highly attractive. Recipes can be found on the package or online.

here's another piece of food info. that I recently learned and want to share: strawberries have half the calories of other fruit of the variety one might consider throwing in her cereal or oatmeal like blueberries or raspberries. In my world, this kind of difference is big. A cup of strawberries has 46 calories/11 carbs as compared to blueberries which have 81 calories/21 carbs. Of course, blueberries have lots of other nutritional properties that I wouldn't want to miss so I'll continue to eat them, but I'm going to put strawberries into the rotation more frequently. I customarily avoided them because - dare I say it - they're a little more work than the other berries with the cutting that's required. I can be really lazy like that. But I just cut a whole bunch into quarters and put them in a container in the fridge, so I'm set for a little while.