Remembering Gabe: A One-Time-Only Catblogging

It has been said that the Internet finds its ultimate purpose in disseminating pictures of cats.  Who am I to buck the trend?  So, here's a one-time-only blog about my cat.

Gabe, pictured here, was my lovely purebred American Shorthair.  Although "retired" by the time he lived with me, he had been a show cat and had earned Grand Championships both as a "whole cat" and as a neuter.

Gabe, also known by a multitude of nicknames such as "The Fat White Hope", was wonderfully affectionate.  He loved to be picked up and held, and usually met me at the door when I got home.  He was a big cat, making for a very satisfying armful.  His size also made him fun to "thump" - he loved this - and he also enjoyed an occasional wrassle.

A people cat, yes.  A cat cat, not so much.  With other cats, Gabe was a scrapper and a bully.  With very little notice, he would decide that some other cat's hash needed settling and immediately set about getting that accomplished.  This moved from being a nuisance to my sister (then his owner) to a real problem when they acquired a fourth cat, a Maine Coon of tremendous size but retiring temperament.  Gabe decided immediately that the new family member was Satan Cat, and his subsequent actions led to his exile to the nicely finished basement.

Not long after that, I finished graduate school and joined Gabe in my sister's basement while I sought professional employment.  (I should probably stress that this move, unlike Gabe's, was not only voluntary but very welcome.)  When I moved to Kansas City, Gabe came with me, an arrangement that pleased all of us.  (You may be assured it pleased the Maine Coon!)

Gabe had fabulously scrunchable fur and a tail so strong it seemed to have a whole other cat in there, as a friend once said.  Surprisingly, he had an angelic little voice: Gabe was short for Gabriel, an angel mentioned in the Bible.

Although I've missed him since his passing at a ripe age a number of years ago, I remember him not with grief but with love, and also with many chuckles for his unique and wonderful personality.

Listening to Our Bodies....Except When They Lie

One often hears folks interested in wellness speaking of "learning to listen to one's body".  There's a lot to it, I suspect - greater sensitivity to the feedback we get from our bodies is doubtless helpful in many ways.  As a very important example, studies have shown that many obese people such as myself lose track of what actual, physical hunger even feels like because we're so wrapped up in cues of other kinds.  I know this is true of me.

But the bodies of folks with diabetes seem to lie to them at times.  I have often read of people who are experiencing a low blood sugar or an impending low, and therefore must eat, but feel a strong aversion to eating at that moment.  At the other end, people with dangerously high sugars sometimes feel enormous hunger. 

I think the weeks after diagnosis had me in an analogous situation.  I was put on metformin, a drug commonly prescribed for Type 2s  (and some Type 1s) which acts by minimizing insulin resistant.  I was fortunate to tolerate it well, and from the very next day showed fasting readings within the target range.  However, I began feeling tremendously, ravenously, almost unsatisfiably hungry.  There's a theory that as my blood sugars dropped to desirable levels, they went way below what my body had come to "think of" as normal.  Therefore, my body was frantically trying to get me to eat my BGs back to the prediagnosis levels.

The result of this for me was near disastrous.  Although at diagnosis I was successfully losing weight through a nationally advertised program, the first few weeks following the beginning of treatment saw me gain ten to fifteen pounds.  Although I adjusted to the new blood levels in a few weeks, I want to stress that this had not been social eating, or emotional eating, or habitual eating, or giving into any of the other "false hungers" to which a person may be subject.  This was my body feeling in very real (although mistaken) need for immediate nourishment and plenty of it.  My body was lying to me.

So, for those of us with broken metabolisms, we need to learn to listen to our bodies.  Except when our bodies are wrong.

Small Victories

I was recently reading a post by Babs Campbell, and one phrase she used plugged into something I've been thinking a bit about.  In their first meeting, she wrote, her endo had said "You learn to eat right when you congratulate yourself on minor wins rather than attacking yourself for occasional misses."

As is true with many people, I'm much more proficient at the "attacking yourself" than I am at the "congratulating myself".  Sometimes, my efforts at healthy living feel like an unending Sahara Desert of failure.  The truth, of course, is much more complicated -- each day is a mix of good and less-than-good choices.  While I know in my head that I can't win by stressing the negative, taking credit for the victories and being gentle about the losses runs really counter to the way I handle things.

I'm going to work on taking a quick inventory of the small wins at the end of each day.  This may help turn around the sense of powerlessness I often feel over my own behavior in this area.

Easily Amused

Yes, I confess, I am overly introspective and occasionally moody.  It's true, I'm afraid, that a curmudgeonly streak sometimes has me grumbling over stuff that's perfectly harmless.  But, I also love to laugh (even when the laughter is mostly on the inside).  So, as Bill Murray's character (in Caddyshack, I think?) might have said, I've got that going for me, which is nice.  

I like to laugh at the vicissitudes of life.  I like to laugh at the quirks of human behavior, especially when discovered in myself.  In fact, I once knew a woman who claimed that I don't have a sense of humor at all, but rather a highly attuned sense of the askew.  There's something to that.

I love life's small ironies.  A few years ago, I found myself unable to find a computer file I had created that contained a record of changes made to a database, used to check those changes against the paperwork.  After a frustrating and slightly anxious half hour, I finally found it.  And the reason I had trouble was that, in naming the file, I had misspelled the word "proofreading".  I chuckled over that for days, and now and then pull it out of my memory to savor it, as a greedy collector might with an especially prized acquisition.

Not only to I love to laugh, I love to bring laughter out of others.  Those who follow me on Twitter know that I enjoy being something of a wise guy (though never, I hope, in a mean way).  I find fun in choosing to misinterpret a comment or ponder a misspelling.  Recently Sajabla mentioned her upcoming JDRF "wlak".  Of course I knew what she meant (and you should go donate to it right now), but first commented on it and then entertained myself for a few moments wondering just what a "wlak" might mean.  I finally decided that wlak is the latest Asian herbs quack are promoting as a diabetes cure.

Humor plays an important role for me.  It dissolves self-pity and aggravation.  A bit of laughter can deflate a little bit of self importance, and a really good laugh is sometimes sufficient to take the edge off a bad day.  And, of course, it's very helpful in dealing with diabetes.

I began this post with a couple of confessions.  If accused of being "easily amused", I'd have to plead guilty.  But what makes that a bad thing?!?

High Anxiety

I want to write about my experiences with high blood sugars.  I've been very reluctant to take on this topic for two reasons:

1. I certainly recognize that many other diabetics have frequent experiences that are far, far more unpleasant than those I've had.  
2. At my current disease state, a high level of blood sugar is almost certainly the result of a poor food choice rather than a miscalculation, a circumstance out of my immediate control, or just diabetes being difficult.  So, the whole topic brings me back to that whole diabetes guilt thing. 

That all being said, I think it's an important topic for what I want to do with this blog.  It is part of my experience with the disease.

My highest blood sugar numbers that I've known about have been in the low 300s.  I'm quite certain that I had higher numbers than that before diagnosis, based on what I know now.  There have also been a few occasions when I might have been higher but was too chicken to test.

The highest I usually see is in the mid-200s.  And though it's very unreliable to gauge BG by how one feels, I've come to recognize symptoms that often accompany such readings for me. These include a feeling of edginess, (more) difficulty in concentration, and impaired emotional control. (That is, my mood can swing like a Cirque de Soleil act.)  I often feel anxious as well. This all does not exactly constitute suffering, but it still bites.

When I do have this experience, I find that exercise brings me pretty down pretty rapidly.  If I'm in a circumstance such that I can, I go outside and walk as hard as I can for twenty minutes or so.  I also find that regular exercise tends to minimize how high the reading gets after a meal and how rapidly it comes down afterward.

So I guess I should be exercising more, huh?

Cheap Healthy Eats: The Basic Tradeoff

Earlier today, I read a post in Chris Stocker's blog "The Life of a Diabetic" entitled  "Eating Healthy for Diabetes Doesn't Have to be Expensive." In it, he describes the changes he's made in buying some materials to make his lunch instead of eating out every day, at a nice little savings.  I want to expand out on that a bit with some thoughts of my own.

Disclaimer: Nobody knows better than me that food is complicated.  None of the below should be seen even necessarily a description of what I do (unless I say so) let alone a sermon on what you should do.

Over the last several decades, our culture has sought ways to spend money to save time.  All sorts of goods and services have been developed to allow us to trade some money to save some time.  This is very true of the food industry.  Thus, one way to save some money on our food is to make that essential trade the other way -- spending a little more time to save some money.

Our grocery stores are rife with opportunities to do this: whole chickens are cheaper per serving than boneless skinless chicken breasts, stalk celery is cheaper per crunch than bags of precut, "regular" oatmeal is cheaper per breakfast than instant, and bulk spinach is cheaper than bags of prewashed. Generally, the closer you can get to the food as it exists in nature, the less you'll spend, because you're not paying somebody else to do the prep. 

There are exceptions to this: it's my understanding that baking bread, for example, doesn't become economical until it's pretty high quality bread that you're replacing.  There are other cases where the savings only manifest if you compare items of similar quality: it's pretty cheap to make your own frozen burritos, but it's not as cheap as the low-end burritos, at least some of which are wrapped in TWO tortillas. (That means there's what, two tablespoons of actual filling?)

I'm not a home economist, but it's my impression that part of what we mean when we say that "eating healthy is more expensive" is that we want our healthy food to be as ready to eat as the less healthy food we want to replace.  If we can invest some time, we might find that it works better at the cash register.

Additionally, it's worth remembering that some foods are very cheap indeed if we're willing to do more of the prep.  I'm not sure there's a better protein bargain in the whole store than dried beans, a bargain we can take advantage of with a little advance planning.   And many frozen vegetables are quite inexpensive if we're willing to throw them in a bowl with a little water and some plastic wrap in order to microwave them rather than buy the steamer packs. 

So, as we look to replace unhealthy foods with healthier ones, we might think about where we can work a little more food prep time into our schedules.  That might not only save us some money but help us consume fewer of the additives found in most more highly-processed foods.  Plus, doing more of our own prep allows us to add our own flavorful touches.

Again, I'm not a home economist.  I don't know how much of your own cooking you'd need to do to make a healthy diet cheaper than one based in convenience foods.  But I'm certain that spending a little more time in the kitchen can soften the blow considerably.

Out? Seriously?

Yesterday morning, I took the Myers-Briggs test in connection with a workshop I'm participating in.  I've taken it a couple of times before, but the last time was between twenty and thirty years ago.  If you're not familiar with it, this test gives you a series of statements and you're asked to assign a number for how like you that statement is.  Your results then place your preferences along four sets of contrasting pairs of qualities and results in a four-letter description.  (ENFJ, for example).  You can then look up a description of that personality type and get advice on all sorts of things, depending on what the particular version of the test was intended to accomplish.

One set of questions is intended to establish whether one tends towards extroversion or introversion.  I was startled as I answered the questions to realize that my responses were different than they would have been a few years ago.  I've always tended more towards introversion, but this tendency is much more pronounced than it once was. My belief is that this increased level of introversion results from things I've experienced in my life.  I do see diabetes as one of these things that's changed me in this way, but not in my case a major influence.

Do I see this change in me as a good thing?  Well, it's a mixed bag.  I'm more tolerant than I once was, which is good, and I see myself as more compassionate and considerate of the feelings of others. I'm more conflict-averse, which can be both good and bad. I'm also more risk-averse, which is more clearly regrettable.  It's pretty clear, though, that I really ought to get out more.  

In most ways, I don't mind being the way I am.  There's a very nice woman at work who arranges monthly birthday recognitions.  We have goodies, we sing, and she makes fun hats for the honorees.  She can't believe that I won't provide the date of my birthday, but I have NO desire to be sung to while wearing a fun hat. I'm perfectly comfortable with that stance. :)

I'm not entirely isolated, of course: I do have a few close friends that I get together with fairly regularly, and the diabetes online community helps me to feel connected.  But I suppose it wouldn't KILL me to get out once in a while.  :)

What We All Share

I'm a person that believes in mutual respect and understanding among people. (I  don't always manage to be entirely respectful or understanding, but I work on it.)  Humans have different beliefs on subjects such as politics and religion, and while those things are very important and involve real principles, I much prefer in most circumstances to focus on what we have in common.  I've had many meaningful experiences with people that differ from me in some important aspect of life or perspective.

Over at the diabetes community in which I've participated the most, there are occasional little flare-ups of resentment among folks with different types of diabetes.  While I understand that there's valid basis for some of this resentment, discussions along these lines always bring me anxiety, because I'm afraid of losing the many benefits I've received from participating in the unified community and the friendships I've developed with people experiencing different disease mechanisms.

(Manny Hernandez has a wonderful post/vlog on this subject over at TuDiabetes which is probably the best thing I've seen on this subject.  Cherise Shockley also recently addressed some churning resulting from the Oprah episode in her blog at Diabetes Daily.  Go watch/read these now -- I'll wait for you to get back.  Don't worry, I won't be bored.)

Yes, we ARE a diverse group -- although it seems to me that it is not so much the precise disease that makes the difference as much as treatment type and personal history.  T1s need insulin to stay alive -- but so do some T2s.  T1s have usually had their disease since they were quite young - and this is true of increasing numbers of T2s as well.  T2s have  faced the shock of diagnosis and lifestyle change as adults - as have our LADA folks.   T2s are often walking pharmacies due to having a number of conditions - as are many folks with other disease mechanisms.  Even among those of us who require insulin, the type of therapy used makes significant difference in how the disease impacts us.  So, is precise reason we struggle with blood sugar all that relevant to our daily lives?

So, in the spirit of my preference to focus on what unites us, here are some things to me that all of us share. (Well, most of us, anyway -- not every individual experiences all these things.)

• We all know our pharmacists better than we might wish.
• We all view food manufacturers' health claims with a jaundiced eye.
• We all face the same possible long-term complications if we're unable to maintain good control -- and maybe even if we are.  
• We all get sore fingers.
• We all need the support of people who understand.
• We can all have our moods improved or ruined by the numbers on our meters.
• We all wish vending machines offered wider choices.
• We'd all love to eat without planning or worry. 
• We all strive to make healthy choices that will help bring about a bright future.
• We all have relationships with food that are rather complicated.
• We all sometimes need to cry, to laugh, to hide, to hug.
• We all have the same loves, hopes, fears, and joys that all humans do.

Again, I really do understand that the ways diabetes is treated in the media and how diabetics are perceived by others causes some natural resentment.  But I feel to my core that the unity of our community is much, much more important than the differences among us. 

(Now, as to the bitter controversy between those who wipe and those who lick after a blood test?  That one may need the UN!)

Whine and Z's: Sleep and the D

There are a whole lot of other conditions that have a habit of hanging out with Type 2 diabetes.  Some of them are risk factors, others just sort of seem to be in the entourage.  Here's a bit about one, complete with footnotes.

I have a sleeping problem.  Actually, I have three sleeping problems.

First, I have sleep apnea.  Apnea and type 2 diabetes are old pals.(1)  Sleep apnea is a condition in which the breathing is interrupted during sleep, as often as multiple times a minute in some people.  This condition is dangerous in a number of respects, but the most immediately bothersome symptom is that it TRASHES sleep quiality.  For a number of years, I have slept with a CPAP machine, which keeps the air passages open with a constant stream of forced air.  It helps me a great deal.  

Second, I periodically struggle with the ability to sleep.  Sometimes I have trouble going to sleep.  Sometimes I'll go to sleep normally, but wake after a few minutes and be up until nearly dawn.  A few months ago, a doctor suggested I try over-the-counter melatonin: this has been pretty effective.

But the third problem is the most frustrating, because it's entirely my own fault: I have trouble choosing to sleep.

As long as I can remember, well back into childhood, I have delayed sleep as long as I could.  I'm somewhat better about this in my middle years.  But even now, well past the age of allegedly knowing better, an angsty sort of day often finds me up into the wee hours, just enjoying the peace and solitude.  PC games, crossword puzzles, or just hanging on Facebook can seem compelling for hours on end, hours during which I'd have been much better off in Dreamland.

All of the above result in my being chronically sleep deprived -- as are many Americans, diabetic or not.  The reason I'm discussing it is simple:  I'm seeing references to more and more research suggesting that chronic sleep deprivation is once of the risk factors for T2.  (2) 


I think I'm gonna go take a nap!


1. See http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/3423/sleep-connection for a bit on this.
2. For example: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080101093903.htm for link between sleep deprivation and the development of type 2.

What's Your Wanna?

Many diabetics, of whatever type, are struggling to make some sort of health-related personal change.  It might be weight loss, it might be optimizing our meals, it might be testing regularly enough, it might be something else.  All of it's hard.  If it was easy, we wouldn't have millions of fat Americans and Dr. Oz would have to hector us about something else.

In order to make any kind of change, we need tools -- knowledge, support structure, etc.  But, we also need motivation - the want-to or "wanna" that drives us and helps us over barriers and frustrations.. 

Some kinds of change can be accomplished in a short term of high motivation.  You might suddenly notice, for example, that your dress clothes are looking kind of bedraggled.  So, you think about what you need, you get the finances in order, and you go make the purchases.  And then, for the time being, you're done.

But health-related changes tend to be different.  The wanna, or perhaps the package of wannas, needs to be able to carry us through a long period of making the change and a much longer period of maintaining that change.  It needs to be strong enough to help us up from our inevitable stumbles and to reel us in when we wander off the path for days, weeks, or months.

Some folks, bless 'em, are able to make up their minds and just do it.  My dad lost probably forty pounds in the first few months after his diagnosis as a T2 and has more or less maintained it for more than twenty years.  I love and admire these people, even when they wonder aloud why everybody can't do it (although I don't love them so much just then). 

Some folks are able to motivate themselves through fear. Some are able to motivate themselves through a desire to maintain health.  Others may be focused on the benefits of feeling better or on being around for their loved ones. I'm sure there are many important motivations that I'm missing.

When we get down to it, though, many of us simply haven't been able to put together a set of wannas that does the job.  In the words of the State Farm ads, I'm so there.

So, we all have to discover for ourselves: what do we love, or want, or believe in strongly enough to produce exercise on the hot days and forbearance at the buffet?

What Would I Want in a Food Plan?

Having ranted for a couple of posts about food choices, and thinking about my upcoming appointment with a dietician, I thought it might be interesting to explore what an ideal food plan for me would be.  If I was just handed a pamphlet, what would I want in it?  If I can figure out what I really want, maybe I can find it or even produce it.

• Flexibility -- but not too much.  I don't want to be tied in to a regimented plan, but can also be frozen in the face of too little structure.  Maybe something on the lines of having a few choices for things to do at each meal.
• Basic recipes -- included recipes should be easy, and more aimed at demonstrating what to eat than proving it can be delicious.  I'm not a horrible cook, and even enjoy it from time to time, but I tend to get a bit freaked out by recipes.  Tell me how to get nutritious food on the table fast, and I can add the fancy touches.
• Guidance on how to cheat -- sometimes my body just doesn't feel like I've had enough to eat, and another serving of broccoli just won't cut it.  What can I do that would be less harmful than ordering a pizza?
• Easy recordkeeping -- I'm not especially good at keeping records, logs, diaries, etc -- but I've been known to do it when given the tools to do it quickly.
• As close as reasonable to "normal" eating -- I think I'd do best with an approach focused on good choices and portion control rather than a whole new way of living.  I suppose I could do the initial phase of the South Beach Diet to save my life....but I'm not sure I could. :)

Hmm.  This is interesting.  I'll have to think about it some more.

If you have any ideas about what your ideal food plan would be like, I'd love to see 'em in the comments.

Food -- It's Complicated

My last post was silly, but was born out of frustration and a serious point: food has become very complicated in our culture, and for diabetics it's just that much more so.

Our society has many, many different messages out there about what we should eat and how we should prepare it.  Even among those that honestly believe in their advice, there's incredible diversity.  Adding considerably to the confusion are the charlatans and snake oil salesmen looking for a slice of the billions of dollars spent in the pursuit of healthy eating.

One reason for the different messages is the differing motivations behind the recommendations.  People can choose what they eat on many different criteria.  Some of these are:

• Aesthetics -- concern centered on the culinary quality (taste, etc) of the food.  Some of the drive behind the "eat local" movement is centered in this concern.  Vegetables grown from legacy varieties and plucked from the local farm this morning are probably going to taste much better than veggies bred for shelf life that have spent a week or so in trucks and warehouses.  How much we enjoy our food is important to some degree to most of us, though -- not many of us can treat food strictly as fuel.
• Nutrition -- concern centered on what our food does for (and to) our bodies.  There's a tremendous amount of conflicting advice about what foods constitute the optimal fuel and even on how that food should be prepared.  If there's a medical goal such as treatment of obesity, diabetes, or other conditions, the individual faces choices that are that much more confusing.  My take is that we simply don't know all that much about human metabolism (as if PWD's need to be told that), and that the next decade or so may bring some clarity.
• Ethics -- concern centered on the effect on others of our food choices.  We can choose food based on the environmental impact of its production and shipping, on the economic effects of our choices, and on moral issues such as the eating of animals.
• Other considerations -- many other factors affect our food choices: product availability, what will fit comfortably within our budget, what can be prepared with our cooking skill sets, and what our families will put up with.

Of course, most of us make our choices from a mix of motivations.  We'd like food that will help our BGs relatively steady, isn't wrapped in too much unrecyclable material, can be on the table before Leno comes on, and which the kids won't feed to the dog (and have the dog refuse).  Seems reasonable, no?  But it can be devilishly hard to pull off.

In about a week, I'm due to have a phone consultation with a dietitian supplied by my insurance company.  I'm hoping to get some personalized recommendation on daily carbs and fat grams and some notion of how to meet those targets.  I know how to eat low carb, and I know how to eat low fat, but I don't know how to do both and get enough calories to keep me from yelling at strangers.

Food.  It's complicated.

A Simple Desultory Philippic, or How I was Michael Pollan'd Into Submission

Eat low fat.
Eat low cholesterol.
Eat high fiber.
Eat Omega-3s.
Eat low sodium.
Eat antioxidants.
Don't eat anything that has a face.
Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't have recognized as food.
Margarine is better than butter.
Butter is better than margarine.
Olive oil is better than butter or margarine.
No, canola oil is the best.
Eat local.
Eat organic.
Eat sustainably.
Eat with a low carbon footprint.
Only eat foods that are in season in your area.
Stick to complex carbs.
Eat whole grains.
Eat like a caveman.
Eat like a Frenchman.
Eat acai.
Acai is an expensive ruse.
Drink wine.
Part of this complete breakfast.
Read the label.
The USDA in in league with the big food producers.
Eat raw.
Cook with only the freshest ingredients.
Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store.
Avoid red meat.
Avoid the dark part of white meat.
Honey is better for you than table sugar.
No, it isn't.
Don't take vitamins: get your nutrition from food.
Take vitamins to cover your bases.
Eat fatty fish twice a week.
Unless you're young, nursing, or pregnant, in which case don't.

Forget it.  I'm gonna have a frozen burrito.

The Sports Radio Abyss

I listen to quite a bit of sports talk radio. I'm not a huge sports fan - I rarely watch/listen to actual games, let alone GO to games - but sports talk is company of a sort, and political talk (of whatever stripe) is bad for my blood pressure.  (During the day, the sports-themed podcasts I listen to are a key part of my effort not to yell at my coworkers for typing and other outrageously noisy activities.)

This is the week before the Superbowl, which one might think of as a fine time for sports radio.  It isn't - it's the sports radio abyss.  There's only the one football game to talk about, baseball hasn't cranked up yet, and pro basketball is in its dog days.  (At least there's some college hoops to discuss.)  Most programs will spend endless hours speculating about the football game to come, with most of the speculation being total nonsense.

Worse, though, many programs will be broadcasting from Radio Row at the Superbowl site.  This programming consists mostly of brief interviews with celebrities (coaches and noted former players) who make themselves available for a series of these interviews with stations from around the company.  The problem is that those who make themselves available do so because they have an agenda - a product to promote, a book to sell, or a cause to talk about.  Plus, local stations rarely know ahead of time who they've got coming up, so they don't even have a chance to prepare.

So, you've got segment after segment that run like this:
1.  Fawning introduction of sports celebrity.
2.  General sucking up to the celebrity.
3.  Three or four predictable questions with uninspired answers.
4.  The celebrity is given an opportunity to push their product/book/cause.
5.  Further sucking up as the celebrity departs.

Horrible.  (To be fair, a lot of folks enjoy hearing a bit of banter with famous folks.  I'm just not one of them.)

I'm just trying to hang in there: pitchers and catchers report for baseball's spring training in just a few weeks.  :)

Wii Are (Not) the Champions :)

Last week I received my Wii and my Wii Fit Plus game and got them successfully installed.  Thus far, with a couple of quibbles, my experience has been good.  I've really enjoyed a couple of the activities I've done.  In particular, I like a game where you're trying to "head" soccer balls while avoiding incoming shoes.  I'm really, truly, no good at this at all -- almost always, my score is in the bottom "Unbalanced" range.  (As if I needed a computer to tell me that I'm unbalanced.)  But, I do detect some progress.

My goal is to do *something* with it every day.  So far, so good.  Besides, I've read that it nags you if you skip days.  :)  

(For those of you who've met me: just picture me hula hooping.  Laughter for the whole family!)

I also enjoy the bowling game from the "Wii Sports" disk.  I'm actually decent at it, with scores mostly above 120 or so.  This game ain't exactly aerobic, but I figure it's better than that same amount of time watching TV.

I'm also hooked up to the Internet.  Perhaps this will give people in other states the opportunity to see me get hit repeatedly by tennis shoes.  :)