Shuffle | Corrine Kenner's Tarot Blog

A Well-Balanced Life

Today is the equinox, one of the days in which light and dark are essentially balanced in length.

Balance is something I struggle with, every day of the year. It's way too easy for me to get involved in one project at a time, to get obsessive about it, and let everything else fall by the wayside.

I'm not much for multi-tasking. Instead, I cluster. I fritter around with my writing projects, but do most of the work when a deadline draws close. I let all of my laundry pile up, and then spend days and days in ritual subservience to our washer and dryer. I wait until our cupboards are empty and my children are begging for rice in the streets, and then I do the grocery shopping.

It's a hard way to live.

For the last few months, I've been trying to institute a few changes. Ive been demanding more from my teenage daughters, for example. I've made it their responsibility to come up with menus and grocery lists, and to do the regular laundry, dishes, and daily chores around the house. So far, the process has only aged me about five years.

I also hired a personal trainer who comes to the house twice a week, in an effort to stave off my perpetual cycle of gaining and losing weight. She's got experience in cardiac rehab, too, for my husband's sake -- that's our real "excuse" for getting the extra help.

Dan and I are also dieting, spending some time on the Seattle Sutton plan. Talk about balance. Everything is pre-measured and pre-cooked -- kind of like Nutrisystem, but made locally, so it's fresh. It's a lot less food than we're used to eating, but it meets all of those odd-looking nutritional guidelines you see on the side of the cereal box.

So far, the changes have helped. As I write this, my house is only partially trashed. I've got six loads of laundry piled up, not 20. (If you have kids, you know that's nothing.) Dan and I walked -- briskly -- for almost an hour last night; overall, I'm down five pounds. And my sister has even agreed to step in and help me catch up with my email. If you've written to me lately, I'm hoping to write back to you soon!

I'm optimistic about the new spring season. I hope I can get my act cleaned up, and keep it that way.

Illustration credit: The Temperance card from the Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marcetti

Watch and Weight

I've heard that writing a book is a lot like giving birth to a child ... and for me, that's true.

Especially when it comes to my weight. For every child I've given birth to, and every manuscript I've finished, I've put on a good 15 to 20 pounds.

Obviously, I lose some of the weight in between, or I'd be hovering around 600 pounds. What astounds me, though, is that I fall into the same trap, over and over again. You'd think I'd know better by now, but no.

I finished two draft manuscripts this winter, and I'm embarassed to say that I really packed on the pounds. It surprises me, because last spring and summer I was losing weight steadily and looking pretty good.

Ah, well. Fatter but wiser, I guess. And since I really learned last year how to lose weight -- through hard-fought trial and error -- I'm back on the wagon. The weight is coming off again, much faster than it did the first time around.

The key is exercise. Oddly enough, the only exercise I like is working out on an elliptical machine. I like the feeling of power I get as I pound my way through a 20- or 30-minute program and count down the last 30 seconds until the machine beeps my release. I try to get on the machine two or three times a day, and since I work from home, it's not too hard to fit in.

I also cut my calories down to less than 1100 a day, spread out throughout the day in a series of small meals. That's not as easy to do, especially since Dan and I really like to eat out. We love Chipotle. We love TGIFridays. We love Timber Lodge Steakhouse. I admit it: We're not particularly sophisticated. We love chain restaurants.

Which is why I'm really happy that Applebee's has a Weight Watchers menu.

It's a pretty slim menu. (Maybe that's a metaphor.) They've got two appetizers, a half-dozen entrees, and two desserts. But it's enough to feel like we can still go out, even when we're dieting. (Because I'm the cook in the family, Dan gains weight when I do, and he loses weight when I go on a diet, too.)

Everything we've tried there has been good. The teriaki steak and shrimp skewers are great. The tilapia is great. The confetti chicken is okay, but neither one of us goes wild for chicken anyway, so we're probably not the best poultry judges. Their salad is ... well, it's salad. You know what you're going to get when you order a salad. I also like the onion soup, and the chocolate cake.

It's all good, as a matter of fact! I'd recommend it to anyone -- even my skinny little kids.

But now I'm hungry again, thinking about it.

A Minor Setback

Okay, maybe it wasn't so minor.

A year and a half ago, my husband Dan had a quadruple bypass. On Tuesday, he went in for a routine physical, mostly to get established with a new doctor now that we're back in Minneapolis.  The doctor suggested a stress test -- and Dan didn't do so well, apparently. In fact, the results were said to be "abnormal." I hate abnormal test results.

Yesterday, Dan went into the hospital for an angiogram, which showed some blockages in his bypassed arteries. A cardiologist propped two of his bypasses open with stents, and he cleaned out two other arteries with angioplasty. Dan spent the night in the hospital and came home at lunchtime today.

I was able to sleep at home last night, which was kind of nice. The last time we went through this, we were still living in North Dakota, so I was camped out on a hospital cot for a week.

If anything, yesterday was just a long, boring day. Stressful, but boring. We waited for five hours for the angiogram to start, and then the procedure took two hours. Dan and I had supper afterward, and then he started nodding off at 8 p.m. I can take a hint: I just left. On the way out, I told the nurse, "He's falling asleep for the night, so I'm going home."

"Oh, good," she said. "That will help." I assumed she was talking about letting him sleep, and not my leaving.

Today Dan is feeling fine. The doctors say they caught the problem -- and fixed it -- before any damage was done. But they do want us to crack down a little harder with diet and exercise.

Tonight we had pasta with soy-meat spaghetti sauce, if you're wondering. And next week we start a cardio rehab program at the YMCA.

Tragedy ...

My elliptical machine is broken.

Last night, a screw popped off as I was doing my workout. Handyman Dan studied it carefully this morning and decided the screw wasn't important. But tonight, the machine went "clunk" and stopped sliding back and forth.

Handyman Dan is currently re-assessing the situation. He looks adorable, in his baseball cap, armed with a screwdriver.

I will update later as events warrant.

UPDATE #1: Dan had to go get a tray full of tools from his toolbox. This may be a bigger job than it first appeared.

UPDATE #2: Dan is saying "Ouch," under his breath.

UPDATE #3: Dan is muttering something about needing more grease.

UPDATE #4: Dan is bent over next to the machine, which has prompted him to pass some gas.

UPDATE #5: Dan threatens retribution if I tell anyone. Oops. Too late.

UPDATE #6: Dan is dis-assembling the machine. I hope he'll have it fixed and put back together by the time "American Idol" starts.

UPDATE #7: I'm being dispatched to find and deliver some Windex and paper towels.

UPDATE #8: Dan has taken parts of the elliptical downstairs, into the garage, for intensive care.

UPDATE #9: I'm watching "American Idol" from the La-Z-Boy. I feel myself growing fat and lethargic.

UPDATE #10: Hooray! It took more than an hour (and, I'm told, three coat hangers) but the elliptical machine is back up and running. In fact, it's running better than ever. It's so smooooth now.

My husband is my hero.

Baby ' s got her blue jeans on

"Hmmm," you may be thinking to yourself. "I wonder how Corrine's diet and exercise program is coming along."

If that's the case, I give you ... Exhibit A:

I'm wearing these designer-label jeans even as we speak.

Yep. Size 12. I'm down 43 pounds, and into a size 12.

That elliptical machine really works.

What ' s for lunch?

Here's another in a series of diet and exercise tips from your friend Corrine. (And really, who is better qualified to give advice than someone who's overweight?)

Skip this post if you're skinny.

Since I've been dieting constantly for the last few months, I've lost 35 pounds.

I totally rely on pre-packaged foods. I had tried NutriSystem after my youngest daughter was born, but I really didn't care for the food. Most of it had a funny texture -- probably because it was vacuum sealed and stored at room temperature. Plus, it was expensive. NutriSystem charges a lot of money for a daily meal plan that includes a tiny box of cereal or a packet of instant oatmeal. I figured I could create my own pre-packaged diet, for a lot less money, at the grocery store. (I also hate salads -- gag, ack, puke! -- and NutriSystem seemed to think I should eat a salad at every meal.)

I usually eat two Lean Cuisine meals a day, for lunch and dinner. I sometimes sneak a third one in, for breakfast. Mmmm ... meatloaf at 8 a.m. What can I say? I eat the meal I'm in the mood for.

I will often microwave half a bag of frozen broccoli or some other green vegetable along with the Lean Cuisine and stir it all together, so I'm still eating a lot of food ... but a bag of broccoli has very few calories, so I think of it as a "freebie."

And I do count calories. I try to stay between 1000 and 1200 calories a day. I write everything down, dutifully, like a sad little calorie-counting freak. (That's another reason I like the pre-packaged foods. The calorie count is right on the label. I don't have to do any math.)

I supplement my three main meals with in-between snacks. I like the 100-calorie packs of party mix and peanut butter cookies from Nabisco. When I throw in a Diet Coke or a bottle of water, I feel like I'm still my old self.

I also like the 10-calorie cups of sugar-free Jell-O. They're good just before I exercise, because they leave a pleasantly sweet taste in my mouth and they trick me into thinking I've got a little bit of a sugar rush going. Ten calories! That's hardly more than a stick of gum!

When I truly crave something bad, I like the new Light Ruffles potato chips. They're made with Olean -- fake fat -- so portion control is built right in. (After all, no one wants to deal with the digestive after-affects of too much Olean.) They're especially good with homemade spinach dip: I mix non-fat sour cream with a package of non-fat Ranch seasoning and a pound of frozen spinach. Mmmm. It's practically a meal.

Every now and then, I break down and order a hamburger from McDonalds ... But just a hamburger. No fries, no shakes, no delicious little apple pies ... And then I exercise extra hard.

And the exercise, more than the changes in my diet, has probably made the most difference. I'm doing 60 to 90 minutes a day on the elliptical and stationary bike.

But that's for another post.

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Share your diet tips with me! Leave a comment below.

Happy St. Patrick ' s Day!

I just heard on TV that a glass of Guinness only has 125 calories.

Whoo hoo!

In other news, my mom is making corned beef I can eat on my diet ... She's refrigerating it, so she can skim the fat. Of course, I love cabbage, too, which has got to count as a totally "free" food.

Dinner is at 5:30. I'll bring the beer!

Music to melt pounds

I'm a little stinky as I write this, because I've been sweating it out on the elliptical for the last 20 minutes. I've been trying -- no, I've been succeeding -- at working out for an hour or more every day.

It's really hard -- but it's also kind of fun, because all that exercise is finally, finally starting to show. I've lost 35 pounds since Christmas. It sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Sadly, it's not as impressive as it seems, since I'm still 45 pounds from my "ideal" weight. Sigh.

At any rate, I thought I'd start posting about some of the exercise CDs and videos that have helped me lose weight so far.

The first is one of the CDs I listen to, on high volume, as I fight the NordicTrack in the corner of our family room: Cardio Workout. Believe it or not, I found it in the cheesy New Age music section at Wal-Mart, near the scented candles. You've probably seen a similar display at your local discount store: it's got buttons you can push to hear samples of all the "ocean sound" and "Celtic lullaby" CDs. I usually can't pull my kids away from the thing.

The CD is okay. It reminds me a little of those old Ronco recordings they used to sell on TV, where some anonymous cover group tried to recreate the latest pop hits. (In this case, the songs are performed by "K2 Groove." Yes, that K2 Groove. They must be famous somewhere, right?)

It's not something I'd want to listen to every day, or play at a party. But for exercising, it works just fine. The music is fast paced, and the beat carries over from song to song, so there are no gaps between selections.

Here's the playlist: Children, Boogie Oogie Oogie, Hit Me with Your Best Shot, I Feel the Earth Move, I Will Survive, Physical, Sweet Dreams, Total Eclipse of the Heart, You Spin Me Round, You're So Vain, American Pie, Believe, Flashdance, and What a Feeling.

You can even hear a sample, here.

And now, I think I'll go for another 20 minutes of fat-burning fun.