All Good Things Must Come to an End

Matt's back at work today, and I start back tomorrow. After the past two weeks, I think we've confirmed that being home together all day does not have the effect of a) making us need our space from each other or b) getting boring. On the contrary. While we didn't do anything especially outstanding by anybody else's standards, we loved seeing our families and then thoroughly enjoyed each other's company (our longest break together since our honeymoon!) and had all kinds of fun just living our lives. We took lots of walks, did plenty of cooking (including making pesto with our much-beloved new Cuisinart hand blender, and experimenting with a wonderful new pizza crust recipe), watched several movies (more on that later), and ran errands. It was a blast, and now I miss him!

Tomorrow I work 6:45 am to 7:15pm. Matt and I have had our body clocks in training this week (what a guy, since his job doesn't start until 9am!), trying to compensate for losing an hour when we came back from the midwest and also dialing back our bedtimes and wake-up times to 10pm and 6am, respectively. I'm actually surprised at how well it's going--while the few moments after the alarm clock goes off are somewhat miserable, we've enjoyed the increased productivity of early rising and I think we have been sleeping better at night. (That is, except for the cement-footed neighbor who has most unfortunately just moved in upstairs and seems to literally walk laps around his apartment all night, every night...more on that later, I'm sure.)

Otherwise, I walked Matt to work and then back this morning, which made for a solid 60 minutes of exercise today. Goal accomplished, and then some! My other ally in the quest to firm up a little bit is The Daily Plate. It's a great (free--don't bother with the Gold membership) way to track your eating and exercise habits, and you can set weight loss goals based on how much you'd like to lose and how fast. You can search for just about any food (including restaurant foods) and get nutrition information, which is really handy. One caveat is that some of it is user-submitted so you can end up with wide variations in calorie counts for the same food. It helps to know, for example, how many calories per slice are in the bread you use, and then you can just choose a comparable one from the list. You can also compile meals you eat frequently (in my case, things like smoothies, Mexican casserole, and coffee with cream and sugar) so you don't have to enter separate ingredients every time. The thing I've found most helpful about it is to plug in what I know I'm going to eat that day (say, our usual breakfast of smoothies or eggs, and then what we have planned for dinner) which gives me a good idea of how much leeway I have for lunch and for snacks that day. If you wait until the end of the day to total it up, you're more likely to find out that you've already gone over, or that you've gotten so close that it's inevitable.

My only other real news is that I am officially coming to Iowa at the end of the month! It all started because I've been itching to see The Business of Being Born for a long time, but for whatever reason couldn't find a screening within 100 miles of here. While back in Iowa City, Matt and I saw a flier for one--at what's known as the Conscious Birth Summit, an apparently annual event there. Upon closer inspection we realized it was being co-hosted by chiropractor Ron Robinson, whom we absolutely fell in love with while in Iowa City. I had enough AirTran Rewards for a one-way ticket from Dulles to Moline, and since it only cost $97 for the other way, we figured it was too good to pass up. I'm sad that Matt won't be joining me, but hope to see plenty of family and friends from January 23rd-26th. Give me a call if you'd like to get together!