After 2020 broke a winning streak, Maude tries to kick weight management back into gear, and meets a couple old friends. The 2020 Twenty: Entry Two.
February 5, 2021
Hard Seltzers and Counting Carbs
Last week, as promised, I got my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. It was not easy to find, it was not easy to snag the appointment, and I had to drive to another town forty-five minutes away to get it, but I found it to be cause for celebration. So after I got my injection and passed my fifteen minutes’ observation, I stopped to get gas, and I grabbed a couple hard seltzers–a White Claw and a Truly.
I had just remembered earlier in the day that they were a thing–a thing I drank frequently while I was losing weight, and into the summer before I decided they were too expensive. After my shot I found two old favorite flavors and took them home. And while they’re still a little pricey for my current financial situation, I will honor them as a worthy occasional splurge (grabbed a six-pack of a new flavor a few nights later).
Hard seltzers and counting carbs. They’re a fun thing for people who haven’t quite aged out of being cool to poke fun at, I know. But for those of us who are on doctors’ orders to watch the numbers, but still enjoy a drink, they’re a bit of a godsend. (I’m sure drinking “the good stuff” will continue to improve their health. Cheers!) Some people aren’t crazy about the dry flavor, and I’m a sugar hound, so I get it. At times, I’ll add just a splash of juice or fruit, or nectar, something else to accentuate it, but even I don’t feel the need. I’m glad I remembered.
I was doing a decent job on the carbs and calories, and wanted to get back to strength training. So the next day I jumped on the scale and found I’d miraculously lost seven pounds in two days. So it’s quite possible my scale had an issue the day I hit the big twenty. However, when I weighed in today, I was just under the twenty mark, back to eighteen–still twenty-two pounds away from my original goal.
This is probably because I have not done an awesome job at exercising. I’ve let everything from cold weather to housework get in the way of even a thirty-minute walk around the neighborhood. There’s also the fact that I don’t love walking around my neighborhood. I don’t live in the most pedestrian-friendly area (I almost got hit two different times recently by drivers staring at their phones), and that limits my ability to mix up my routes, on top of the safety issue. I’d much rather drive to one of the local trails and just walk four or five miles, with good scenery and no worry of cars. But it’s just not always an option. Last weekend though, I bought a bike!
Happy Birthday to Me
A little recent history on me and bikes: Until a few years ago, I hadn’t ridden regularly since I was a kid, and nothing complicated then. Then I dated an avid cyclist, and getting back on became inevitable. My first outing, a trail ride on one of his 21-speeds, was a little bit of a trial by fire, but I came out of it with only one bruised shoulder (which I was actually proud of, as I watched it color-morph for the next few days). After a few rides on the loaner, he selected a secondhand for me: a blue one I named Azu. I got a rack so I could sling it onto the back of my Honda and take it to the trails accompanied or alone, and I got into the hang of riding again. Then we broke up.
I later moved into an apartment just off the highway on the edge of town, not the safest place to ride, and not terribly close to many trails. I also went in pursuit of a very time-consuming career goal. So I stopped riding, and my bike sat under a shelter on the outer edge of the complex. And it sat, and sat, and sat. By the time I got it to my hometown, where it is safe to ride (ish–as long as drivers watch the road), I had a rusty, flat, weathered bike, a fix-it job beyond my talents. But I started itching to ride again.
For Christmas, I bought a mountain bike for my daughter, who’d outgrown hers. And I’ve been coveting it for over a month. And my birthday is coming up. So now I have a new mountain bike too, a green one, yet unnamed. And I have to figure out how to operate a 21-speed again. I’m learning it; it’s learning me. I’m not ready to go screaming down the trail just yet. But I’m so happy to have it, and this weekend I hope to get in a decent amount of cardio, wherever I am.
Today, I did some squats and reintroduced myself to my old planks, in loving memory of RBG.
In loving memory of Azu, and our trail days, I will be looking for a bike doctor. Maybe I’ll just end up with two.
What do you think? I would like to hear from you, but you won’t find the typical Comments section here. If you have given the issue some thought or have an experience to share, please enter it here, or send your response to Maude@mauvereport.com. I would love to hear how the rest of America is doing with this in 2021.