So much to talk about, I almost don't know where to start!

Another blog Drazil answers questions regularly on Fridays. I probably won’t be getting into the habit of it, but I really like the idea, so I thought I’d take the idea over here and answer them myself, just for fun. You know those surveys that started going (when email first came out) or on myspace and you’d sit there for 30 minutes answering questions about yourself? I loved those things! I even did some and then deleted them, knowing they exposed a whole new side of me that no one really knew. Lots of fun I tell ya! My husband always says I am easily entertained, and boy is that true.

1. Favorite outside activity: I absolutely love to be in the water. Swimming, floating, tanning, I don’t care. I just find it the most relaxing thing I can possibly do. We have a lake about 5 miles from our house that we used to go to when we had hot summers (haven’t been there in 3 years because the summers lately haven’t gotten hot at all) and we’d swim, then park ourselves on the beach with a beer and tan. Then go back in and swim when we got too hot and then tan again. Those days are the most relaxing I ever had. I miss that. I really hope the weather shapes up soon, so that we can go to the lake and the beach for the hot weather.
2. Favorite movies: Pride and Prejudice, Boondock Saints and Super Troopers. I know, it’s rude and crude and my husband thinks Super Troopers is stupid (which is really saying something) but I love it! He’ll watch the dumbest shows that it actually hurts to watch so I’ll read a book instead. But one of the few dumb movies that I really like, he can’t stand. LOL, it’s so funny watching his face when it’s on.

3. Plateaus: I’ve been very lucky that I haven't hit any plateaus so far, only small bumps. When I’m not applying myself as much, my weight goes up and down (with a downward progression). But I find that when I read blogs of people who have amazing success stories, it helps get me going again.

4. Tattoos: No tattoos, though my hubby and I keep both talking about getting on. Highly looked down upon by my mother which is probably a large part of the very reason I will get one someday. When I do, it'll be the latin word "Veritas" which means Truth, somewhere on my back where it could be covered up or exposed when I want to. (Also it's my favorite word!)

5. Favorite blog: My favorite blog is Lyn at Escape from Obesity who has done an amazing job losing weight and changing her lifestyle to be a healthy one. I really admire what she has done for herself!

I’m doing alright on the exercising. I’ve exercised 2 times this week so far, and will again this weekend. We’re leaving for the other side of the state on Sunday, so I’ll be officially on vacation which I’m totally stoked for. Right now, I have 7 and three-quarters hours left before I’m on vacation!!! Oh my gosh, this week has been dragging so bad that I feel like I’ll go crazy if I don’t get off soon.

I applied for a new job yesterday, with a referral from a friend of the family who’s fairly high up in their business. I’m really praying that I’ll get it. It’s got more responsibility, more to do throughout the day and the opportunity to advance, of which there is none at my current job. Literally, there is no place to move up from where I’m at. That’s probably part of why I’m going so crazy. The other departments got it into their heads that since I’m not as active as they are, they can bring their work projects up and have me do them for them. It’s like doing someone’s work, and then they get paid for it. I feel a little used and taken advantage of. Either way, if I can find a new position that’s better, I’ll grab at it with both hands and never let go.

As a nice highlight to the end of my blog, we had the most amazingly brilliant sunset this week, it looked like there was fire in the clouds, and my roommate got a picture of it. I have to share it because it’s incredible. I actually set it as my desktop background so I get to look at it every time I minimize a screen and feel like I’m home. That’s because this view is from our deck, looking west. Enjoy!

Weigh-in, vacation and exercise!

I had my weigh-in last night and am neither up or down. There’s something comforting about remaining the same weight, especially considering that I didn’t track what I ate. I did (thanks Jennifer) exercise four times last week, and did my strength exercises when I got home last night.

I think I’m seeing a pattern. At the beginning of May, I was doing strength exercises every other day religiously, and cardio 3-4 times per week. For all of the weigh-ins since that, I have had a loss. Now, I haven’t done strength in I don’t know how long, and my weight stays even. I have a feeling that if I don’t get back on the exercising train better this week, and tracking my food, I will have a gain next week. And I am determined to not let that happen. I have been doing too well to let myself slip now.

As of 5 o’clock on Friday, I am on vacation. I am so looking forward to this, as it’s been a whole 4 months of a job that has lately been driving me crazy. We’re driving 5 ½ hours to the other side of the state to see my in-laws, who I love! We haven’t seen them since Christmas and this visit is long overdue. Not to mention that I desperately need a break, and some time to relax and breathe. I’ve already made my packing list, which includes my weights, exercise videos, and strength training list. And, since we’re going to be out of town until next Thursday, I already looked up locations of weight watchers meetings, so I don’t miss it. When our leader mentioned it last night, it sounded like something I wanted to know, so I’d really like to be there to hear about it.

Tonight I’m going to my water aerobics class, so here’s to day 2 of exercising.

Busy week

I’ve been pretty sick for several days last week, hence no blog. However, it’s gone now and I’m back to my normal self. I did well eating the rest of last week. On Friday, I had the annual girl appointment, where their scale said I weigh 276 lbs. We’ll see, but I think I’m definitely making progress. Anyways, my totally awesome doctor and I decided I should do an HSG test (if you want to know, you’ll google it), as part of my fertility work-up, to see what’s up. I’m kind of nervous about this, as it makes the whole infertility thing seem more real. And again brings back the thought of “I never thought I’d have to deal with this”. I’ve definitely been doing better, not feeling quite so down when I’m surrounded by babies, and not thinking about how unlucky I am, but for some reason, last night it hit me harder than a mac truck. Poor Jeff.

I went shopping again on Saturday, and picked up lots of goodies, (read: healthy food), and am back on track. I’ve been slacking a lot on the lifestyle change. I haven’t packed my lunch intentionally for about 2 months. I’d just grab a couple of things out of the fridge on my run out the door. So last night, I pulled out my little menu and packed my lunch. Who deserves a pat on the back?

And I discovered a new yogurt, that’s even better than the old one. The old one was a store brand, $0.39 for 6 ounces, 150 calories and 3 ww points. A little higher than I really wanted, but I’m very picky about my yogurt, and the other cheap one with lower carbs and higher fiber was really thick and kind of nasty. So Jeff got to finish those. The new yogurt is $0.49 each, with 80 calories and 2 ww points, and it tastes just like the old yogurt. The texture is so perfect, and they have some really cool and unusual flavors, like Lemon Chiffon, Pineapple coconut, etc. (Oh, and it’s called Dannon Light & Fit). I love that it lowers my calories and points a little bit.

Last week, Jennifer challenged me. She noticed that I’d been slacking on my exercising, and challenged me to exercise for 30 minutes 4 times in one week. In the last week, I did water aerobics, walked for 45 minutes, mowed the lawn for an hour (we only have a push mower, and some serious hills so it’s a huge workout) and tonight I’m doing water aerobics again. There’s four. Let’s see how my weight is doing tomorrow!

And for Father's Day yesterday, my sister and I decided we'd have dinner for him with all the sibs. I made my amazing pasta and tomato sauce with meatballs, and we had the garlic bread and salad, etc. Oh, and cake. It was different for me; unintentionally, I ate my beans, salad and meatballs first, then I picked at my pasta and ate about half of it before I was really stuffed. So I stopped! What a victory! I love it when you eat and you obey what your body is telling you. It makes things so much easier. (And bonus, my Mom sees all that's left on my plate and thinks I'm REALLY REALLY DIETING. Points for me).

MIA? No, not me!

Wow, I’ve been MIA. This might be a long one.

To shorten it up, I did quite well eating-wise, although I was lazy and didn’t track everything. I paid close attention to everything that went into my mouth, and kept a sort of mental tally of my points and calories. On Friday night, I spent about 5 hours making a totally awesome cake for my nephews (and Godson) second birthday. They were having a party for him on Saturday at 5pm. And on Thursday, we found out that our other godson was getting a birthday party at noon on Saturday for his 1st birthday. Their birthdays are 1 day apart, so I can see this happening for the next 18 years. LOL.

Anyways, on Saturday morning, I got up early to mow the lawn but it was raining, so that didn’t happen. So I ate a piece of leftover pizza for breakfast (I know, not healthy, but since I only do that once or twice a year, I wasn’t going to make a big stink about it). Then we went to the first birthday party, and what do they have?!?!? Pizza and cake! So I had 2 pieces of pizza, and 1 bite of Jeff’s cake and made do with that. Then we got home for a couple of hours and went to the second birthday party, and what do they have?!?!? Pizza and cake. So I had 2 pieces, a salad and a piece of cake (since I made it). Over all, definitely not a very healthy day, but I think within my calorie limit.

On Monday, I spent the day with an awful pain, felt like it was behind my ribcage and all the way down behind my stomach. Kind of a dull throbbing ache. I thought maybe I had eaten something I shouldn’t have, but at one point, it got so bad I considered going to the urgent care to be looked at, which for me never happens. I so rarely go to the doctor, for me to even think of the urgent care is pretty bad. I ended up not going, but should have.

Later that day, Jeff called me and told me he had the flu. Vomiting and the other all day long. I realized that I too had the flu, though it wasn’t as awful. When I got home, however, I took my temperature and it was 102 degrees! Then I got really miserable. I didn’t go to work yesterday because of it. So I’m back today, as my temperature is back to normal and hoping that these hot cold flashes and headache are nothing. I don’t want to spread the flu around, especially where I work, but I cannot afford to stay home too much, so hopefully I am better.

Anyways, I did go to my weight watchers meeting last night. I had been looking forward to it for the last week, and I really felt like I needed the support, and friendly faces. I made sure to not get too close to anyone though. According to their scale, I’ve lost another pound. I’m down to 277.8!!! And I realized I’m only 7.4 pounds away from my 10% with weight watchers!

Official update

Yesterday I did well all day eating-wise. I didn’t end up exercising, I’ve kind of been slacking, but I have water aerobics tonight which I missed on Monday due to my foot, so I’ll definitely be going tonight. AND, I remembered my swimsuit!

I also had my weight watchers meeting last night. I am down 1.8 pounds with an official BMI of 45! Down 5.8 points total. And my official weight is 278.8!!! Finally in the 270’s, and it somehow took less than a month. I was adding up my losses since May 18th, and have lost 10.6 pounds in that time. It’s so strange for me to lose that much, especially since it’s only been about 20 or so days total. But I’m not being unhealthy, and I know I’m not pushing it very hard, so I’m not going to try to justify my loss, or tell myself to slow down. I’m at a good pace right now that I’m very comfortable with, and that’s the key to me.

I also discovered that the walk-it challenge Was on Sunday from 10-2PM. What happened was the woman who comes in on Sundays at 7:30 didn’t know she was supposed to stay later to accommodate the walkers, and stayed until 11:30, then she left. I got there at 11:45. I’m still kind of kicking myself, since I did wake up at 10. I just went back to sleep. LOL. Either way, I did go home and walk the miles for a 5k, and my leader is going to give me a certificate next week, which is kind of cool.

I was excited for a friend last night, who came into the meeting, and as she was leaving before it, she said “I have to quit right now. I’ll see you all in 9 months.” LOL, it took the whole group about 5 seconds before it clicked. It was really cute. Everyone was so happy for her. It’s mostly a group of women, so a lot of moms and grandma’s and they were all really proud.

As I was saying before, I’ve been kind of slacking on my exercising. For the month of May, I exercised 21 days out of 31. So far this month, I’m about 3 out of 9, which doesn’t bode well for the rest of the month, but I’m working on getting back on it. I’m feeling a little frustrated because last week, I was at the point of exercising nearly daily, and noticing that if I didn’t exercise, I kind of missed it. I was also a bit more in shape, but that wasn’t noticeable until Sunday when I did my 5k at home, and really struggled with it, although I’ve done the same amount numerous times without a problem. On Sunday, I was really dragging, and I got out of breath faster, which was unusual. Just goes to show that I was more in shape than I originally thought!

The good and the bad.. and the painful

Over the weekend, I intentionally didn’t track my food, kind of a test to see how I’m doing on my own, and while I ate a little more than I normally do when I’m absolutely doing healthy, I didn’t do badly! So I don’t know my exact calorie counts, but I can guess they were probably around 18-1900-ish.

On Sunday morning, weight watchers has been toting their “walk-it challenge” which is basically a walking 5k. Their aim is to get people moving. I was planning on it because while I know I can go a 5k just fin (I do it all the time for evening exercise), I wanted the certificate that you get, kind of proof that I did it and another mission accomplished through weight watchers. At my meeting last week, our leader said it was from 10-2 at the Beaverton Center, which is kind of a weight watchers multiplex.

On Saturday we went to a friend’s wedding at a beautiful Cathedral in Portland. The building was a true statement of the glory given to God. What a great statement!

Anyways, I got a great new dress and shoes for the wedding. After it was over, we went to the reception where the only parking spot was about 4 blocks away, and in walking I discovered a raw spot on the side of my foot where my cute new shoes were rubbing. It was quite painful, and by the time we left, I took my shoes off because it was less painful to walk on concrete barefoot than to wear those shoes. Oh well, at least I looked cute.

So I’m having a sucky shoe week. Due to my raw spot which decided to become inflamed and infected, I have been trying out several different shoes in the morning to find a pair that hurts the least because they all seem to push right on that spot. Yesterday’s shoes were strangely too big and because they were heels, every step I took made them bend down in the middle. And they were ugly. What I was thinking when I bought them years ago, I do not know, but I do remember why they’ve been sitting on my closet floor all these years. Time to get rid of them. Today’s shoes had to be hot glued this morning in a hurry to make one of them wearable. It works for now, but it’s probably time to get rid of them too.

On Sunday morning, at 10 am, I woke up and decided to go back to sleep. I finally got up at 11 and as I’m slowly getting dressed and pulling on my shoes, my internal self is telling me that “I don’t want to go exercise on a Sunday morning. I mean who does that?!?!?!? You should just go back to bed so that this hung-over feeling goes away (I wasn’t actually hung-over), and then you could just snuggle with Jeff and stay in bed until all hours of the day”. I ignored that voice, and actually got my shoes on, found my hat (it was drizzling), got my sweatshirt and my freshly prepared Ipod (I had Jeff load a bunch of songs on it for me the night before) and was out the door. I drove 35 minutes, to get there at 11:40 AM and discover that the center. Was. Closed! There was no one there, or anywhere around, and no signs up, and it was weight watchers walk-it challenge day! I am so confused as to what happened. It’s possible they cancelled it due to the weather, but really?!? I mean I really dislike the wet weather, and I especially dislike being out in it, but I was there. Didn’t that say something? Anyways, I gave up and went home where I instead did 2 miles with Leslie. That was a real bummer, but I wasn’t going to go out in the rain if I wasn’t going to get a certificate for it.

On Monday, I did well, watched my points and calories just for fun, and stayed below 1600! YAY! And when I got home last night, I made a rub for a chicken and shoved it all under the skin. It always makes me feel so housewifely when I do this. Like I’m a culinary whiz. Which I’m not. I’m a good cook, but not a whiz. Anyways, I threw the chicken into the crockpot on high until 11:30 and then snacked on it for 5 minutes until Jeff took away my spoon. (It was truly delicious, and it was possible, like he said, that I could eat the whole chicken and he wouldn’t get any). But he saved it just in time and we’ll be having “baked” chicken for dinner tonight. I’m really looking forward to it.

I amaze me

Yesterday, I went slightly over on my calories. I messed up at lunch, but got home and made a cheese quesadilla and cooked zucchini and spinach. I didn’t feel like working out at all, and put it off quite awhile, but finally picked up the weights at 10:00 and lifted for about 20 minutes. With my mood, it was as good as it was going to get.

I also measured myself again, just to see how I’ve done. The first time I measured myself was in January of 2009 when we got an exercise program to do. Then I found those measurements in March of this year, and measured again, to see how I had been doing. In those 14 months, I had lost a little bit over 26 inches on my body, mostly from my thighs. So awesome, that even though I’m not fitting into any different size, there is a difference. My pants are definitely baggier around the thighs than they used to be.

A week ago, I was lamenting to my sister that I’d lost 26 inches and 35 pounds, I haven’t gone down one single size in anything, and I was a little frustrated about it, but she made an excellent point. As overweight as I am, I’m losing inches and fat from everywhere, not just a couple of specific places, and it’s going to take awhile because I have to lose more from everywhere before there’s a big enough difference to get new clothes. It’s actually a comfort, her putting it like that.

And on to other happy news, I measured myself again last night, to see how I’ve done in the last 2 and a half months since March. I discovered I am down another 6 ½ inches! That’s a total of 32 inches in the last year and a half. It is so cool to me that I’m doing it. I’m losing weight and gaining muscle, and literally shrinking, even though it’s not too visible yet. I’m doing what I never thought (and never even tried) I could do. Amazing!

I discovered I like yoga.

Yesterday, I forgot food for a lunch, so I ended up eating in the cafeteria, and I really shouldn’t do that. Without the planning, I just don’t pay attention to what’s healthy or not, etc. So I ate more than I should have (and it wasn’t even that good), and added up the calories immediately. Then I spent the afternoon planning my dinner, so that it would fit in. I was totally stoked to make a “greek” omelet, with feta, etc. Unfortunately, when I got home, the feta had gone bad. So I instead used Monterey jack cheese, 2 ¾ C. spinach, 1 C. sliced baby zucchini, onion and garlic and had a pretty darn delicious and actually healthy omelet. I was pretty much filled up for the rest of the evening which was great.

For exercise, I had my water aerobics which was great, except for the 2 new ladies who were really irritating. It’s always kind of hard to hear the teacher in the pool, but these women were talking and squealing and giggling, etc, and it made it really hard to hear. Then they kept on floating into my space when we were doing an exercise, and instead of scooting back, so I could actually do the exercise, they just kept on going. I had to move out of their way several times because they weren’t paying attention.

Anyways, after that, I went home to try out some yoga. I got a book from the library (I really like it!!!) called Mega Yoga, by Megan Garcia. She’s a larger girl, and adapts all of the moves for a larger person. The first ¾ of the book goes over the moves, breathing and proper positioning. And the last ¼ is basically a picture workout. Just do each picture for the amount of time you feel comfortable. I did them all, and then did a couple of them again, because I wanted to do it for a half hour. All in all, I really liked it, and the book was really perfect for any beginners. Jeff didn’t like it quite so much, since I asked him to turn the TV off so I could relax and not get distracted. I’m not into the meditation part, but I can definitely be quiet and relax, so that’s what I did.

My calories for yesterday were 1733. At the top of my range, but still in it.

Successful again!

This weekend I did pretty well. While I did eat more than I normally would, due to a BBQ, I didn’t eat a huge amount more. We actually threw the BBQ, so I was able to make most of the food and knew the nutritional counts on most of it.

We had been watching the weather channel every day and they had said that Sunday was going to be a nice day, but Monday not so much, so we scheduled the BBQ for Sunday with high hopes. Unfortunately, I think they got it backwards because on Sunday, it started raining at 6pm, so we set up two awnings in the yard and still had our BBQ. Everyone ate under the awnings, so it wasn’t too horrible. The only problem really was that the kids were running around playing, and getting wet.

Then on Monday, the weather was sunny and clear and warm, the entire day! So Jeff and I cut some flowers from the yard and went to the cemetery to honor the dead. I always leave flowers at my uncle’s grave, those of my cousins who died young, a couple of veterans who have no flowers left at theirs, and one grave in particular. It’s a small grave, and all it says on it is “Six Theo Krieger Babies”. It always makes me tear up, thinking that some mother in the early 1900’s lost six babies. I imagine they weren’t all babies, but children of different ages who perished through a fire or something like that. What a heartbreaking event to go through. It still makes me tear up, thinking about it.

I don’t have my calorie counts on me, of the weekend, but Monday was 1825. A little over my limit, but no huge deal. Tuesday was another story, but let me just say I went a good amount over and leave it at that. I had my weigh in last night at weight watchers, and I am down another 2.4 pounds! My weight is now 280.6! I am so close to the 270’s, I can taste it!I just know if I exercise this week and watch what I eat and track, I’m finally gonna be there next week! Last night officially puts me at 35 pounds lost, since I started! I’m really proud that I haven’t gained any of it back. It’s been a very slow, but very steady decrease, which is fine with me. I’d like to go faster, but I’d have to buckle down a bit more, and I have a feeling if I did that, I’d end up sabotaging myself and not helping my progress at all. So I’ll just keep going the way I am. I’ve been consistently losing 4-5 pounds per month. I can accept that!

I’m really excited to go to my water aerobics class tonight. They didn’t have it on Monday because of Memorial day, so I miss it.

I hope you had a nice Memorial day, and remembered, at some point, the reason for the day and honored those who gave their lives for us.