Weigh In

I finally did a weigh in (which I haven't done in a couple months) - I've lost 4 lbs, which I really wasn't prepared for. I was sure I was back up to my starting weight and would've started over on my weight loss ticker and weigh in tracker. Since I have lost weight I am going to not start over. I'm happy, really happy I haven't gained.

Pack Rat

Today I tried an "alternative" to a 30 minute standard workout. One of my "getting my life in order" projects is to get my house to an organized place it hasn't been two in over two years. What makes this task difficult is that I am a pack rat - close to hoarder, but luckily I haven't crossed that threshold yet.

I am ashamed to admit that the pile of clothes at the bottom of my stairs (to sort, clean and donate) should belong to a family of 4 and not to one person. I have filled this house to brim with all sorts of things - but I will probably have to donate a few more weekends to clean out all the crap that seeped into the crevices of my home.

I made huge strides today. Which included walking around my house most of the day and picking up stuff, going up and down the stairs and lifting various and as-sundry things. I definitely feel the workout, my legs are a little shaky and a couple of times I caught myself sweating. So, I didn't do 30 minutes but of the cumulation of cleaning (and taking a few breaks) since 8am this morning probably adds up to as many (if not more) calories I would've burned during that workout.

Of course I still have a lot more to do, so I will probably continue this workout plan through the weekend. My dream is to diligently go through every cupboard, shelf, drawer and closet and get rid of everything that I don't want/need/desire.

What are your favorite "alternative" exercises?

Blog you later,

Surprised I still have followers and I missed you all!

I admit it, I have slacked, completely and totally. I have fallen, jumped, flown, ran and lurched off the wagon. I am ashamed...but not really.

Sometimes life takes a detour and you have to focus on something else, not by choice (well maybe the not excercising was a little by choice).

Do I have a story to tell? Not really. I have been focusing on getting my house and job back in order. After two years of constantly being on the go both had kind of fallen off track. It has been nice to take the time to rest and organize, but it is time to get back on plan.

This week's goals:

• Start working out in the morning for 30 minutes everyday
• Stock the house with good food and start planning the weekly food on Sundays
• Start blogging again.

Simple enough, right? Anyways, really looking forward to catching up on the happenings of blogworld.

Day 9 - Something Witty

Have been racking my brain to think of something witty to say today...since I haven't said anything witty yet, I assume you have figured out that this has been a fruitless task for me.

Maybe I will just tell you something about myself...

7 Random Facts About Me:

1. I was accepted into Up With People right after high school. I was there for officially 2 days before feeling like I had not been told the truth of what my experience would be.

2. I have had more than 50 jobs in 15 years. One of my least favorite jobs? Snow shoveling.

3. I made my first move from California to Colorado when I was 3 weeks old.

4. I once drank three sailors under the table.

5. I name all my cars - so far there has been MacBeth (jinxed myself with that one, that car had a horrible death), Shrew Tempest and Rizzo.

6. I played the oboe in Jr High and High School.

7. One of my favorite songs is Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen - I love to sing at the top of my lungs to it. Google the Muppet's version - it is super cute. (photo link)

Hope you have a wittier day!

Day 8 - Did I Say Every Day?

Ok, so I didn't blog yesterday - but I did make it to the grocery store, so that is good. I got some chicken,  eggs, fruits, nuts and veggies. Nothing fancy, just some fresh food to get me through the rest of the week. Luckily, there is a salad bar at work, so I don't have to worry about lunches. It is Day 8 of working out 30 minutes everyday and I am feeling great. I feel like I am getting closer to where I felt before getting sick. I forgot to weigh in last weekend and update my stats, so I will do that over this weekend.

(photo link)

Do you have someone in your life that drives you nuts? Pisses you off for no good (or sometimes good) reasons? Be it boss, friend, co-worker, family member? I have a couple that I work with that just piss me off. Why? They're mean. They say mean things, but can't handle it if you say mean things back. I am trying to get better about my reaction to their comments, but last night I had a major setback. They said something rude and I snapped back (with something like "bite me" - I know, how very mature of me). I don't want to be like that, and I especially don't want to still be pissed about it the next day. I am trying to let go - it will be healthier for my body to let these things go and not stress about them. It is something I would like to acheive in my journey to become more well-rounded. I am repeating to myself "only I control how I feel" to try and regain my sanity before I have to see said person again tonight.

I think it is working...maybe...maybe not so much. One person's advice was to only surround oneself with positive people and maybe I should cut this person out of my life. Which I have done with bad friendships in the past. However, if I cut this person out, then I am leaving a part-time job I love - but maybe that will open up another opportunity? I'm not sure.

How do you deal with rude people in your life?

Struggling to let it go,

Day 6 - Something Completely Different

Thanks for all the nice comments on my last post! I am going to work on not putting anything off just because of my weight.

February was no where close to a perfect month with working out (only 11 workout days) - but it is what it is. It's March now and I am excited. I think it is going to be a perfect month for working out. My goal this month is going to be to blog everyday (to keep myself on track) and workout everyday. I think I can do it!

This week is going to be rough, I didn't get my grocery shopping done yesterday so I am going to have to pick up healthy food where I can. I have work each day and also go to rehearsal three hours each night for a show I am working on that opens next week.

Anywho, back to work - talk to you tomorrow and have a wonderful day.

Day 2 - The Brutal Truth

In order to start on this arduous journey of weight loss, one of things I think that everyone has to face is The Brutal Truth about oneself. As least, at first, in terms of eating habits and workout routines. Just before I started this journey, I really had no workout routine. Zero. None. Zilch. I also ate a lot of fast food, my remedy for my constant excuse of “no time to cook.” There was a part of me that had to see this reality before taking the plunge to change my lifestyle. Have I regressed the past couple weeks while sick? Yes, but not completely and now I am even more determined to live a healthy lifestyle that I can maintain for my lifetime.

A side effect to this journey, is that you start to think about all the other areas of your life that need improvement as well. From things like “I need to stop biting my nails” to “What am I doing with my life?” Now let me say that I have always over-analyzed, stressed and worried about most everything in my life. I can’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t always want to dissect every minuscule details. So, it is normal for me to questions where I am going in life. However, now that I am taking on the body issues, I feel like I am also starting to shed some of my excuses for why I haven’t accomplished certain things in my life. FAT is a really great excuse to not try something new. Do I want to go to Europe? Of course – when I lose some weight, I don’t want to be the FAT American. Do I want to change my career? Why yes I do – but I don’t want to interview for a new job until I lose weight – no one will want to hire the FAT girl. Do I want to find a boyfriend? Ummm, yea, its been almost *cough* years since I’ve had one, but no one is seeing this body naked.

Those excuses will hopefully be no more within this year – am I ready to start living the life I have been telling myself that I want? Am I ready to deal with the emotional, spiritual and mental issues that I have avoided for so long? Will those issues be easier to deal with when I am living a healthy life? I would like to say YES to all three. (Photo Link)

Time to move forward,

Day 1 - My Lotion Is Making Me FAT

Hi all - Decided to start at "Day 1" again - I haven't hopped on the scale yet, but I think it will be better for my sanity just to start over with counts as I am fairly sure I have gained most (if not all weight) back during my illness. I will make my tracker updates this weekend.

(Photo Image) Anywho, as to the title of the newbie post? Well, at work today one of my co-workers informed me of the hcg diet she is on. From what I can tell, hcg is a hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy and regulates your metabolism. She is taking this and only eating 500 calories a day for 23 DAYS. You are supposed to lose anywhere from .5 to 3 lbs PER DAY. This seems a little insane to me - of course you are going to lose weight when you are basically starving yourself and won't you gain all the weight back when you start eating normally (even if healthy) again? What brought on this topic was she had this really odd looking bottle of some kind of lotion on her desk. Why does she have this odd bottle? Well, allegedly any lotions you use with oils seeps into you body as fat and you are not allowed to have any fatty oils until towards the end of the diet. So, by that logic, the oil from greasy fries on my fingers is also to blame for my FAT. I am sure I was looking at her like she was a little crazy, so I thought it was funny when I was telling her about my lifestyle change of working out everyday (back on plan today, YEA!), portion control, avoiding processed foods and blogging - she was looking at me like I was crazy.

As mentioned, I did workout for 30 minutes this morning and I actually feel like myself again today (Hi ME, I MISSED you!). Excited to be back in the game!

On my "crazy" journey,

Do you ever really "catch up"?

Photo Link

OMG! So now that I am feeling like myself again, I feel like I need a vacation. The past few days have been nuts trying to get caught up with everything. I've decided to withdraw from school the rest of the quarter, there is no way I am going to get caught up in the next few weeks and I feel like even if I did I wouldn't get what I wanted out of my class. This, of course, is going to be a huge pain in the a**. As is trying to get paid for the time I was out - I basically have to use short-term disability and the paperwork and hoops are unbelievable. I figure I will be back on track by the 20th of March (isn't that the Ides of March or something? Oh no wait, just looked it up, that is the 15th).

Since I am feeling pretty good today, I think tomorrow will be Day 1 back on the workout regime. I am excited to start working out again. No I haven't lost my mind. I'm not actually looking forward to the workout, I am looking forward to be able to post about it again. I think tonight I will sift through my workout DVD/Wii and see what I want to start back on, since it has been a few weeks I may have to work up to the harder stuff again.

Still been eating like crap, but since I started back to work yesterday, my lunches are on track. We have a "bistro" at work and there is a salad bar that always has fresh vegetable goodness. I won't make it to the grocery store until Sunday so I am just going to have to do my best until then. Once my eating is back on track I think I will start posting my weekly menus. I know, I know you are really excited for that :)

Anywho, just wanted to put a quick post out there so you didn't think I forgot about my BlogLife.

Here is to playing catch up,

Woozy Wednesday

I'm still kind of a mess today, but I am definately getting better, so that is exciting.

On Day 30 I happily posted a picture of my calendar where I put two stickers for every day I worked out. I had hoped to have a perfect February, but that is not going to happen. I will still take a pic of February, it will be really good except for two weeks in the middle :) Maybe March will be perfect!

Anywho, I am running low on my sticker supplies so I went on the hunt a few weeks ago for a buttload of stickers and I found them at a this website. There was a lot of variety and I can't wait to start using them to give myself some sticker love!

It's hard to tell what they are from the photo, but basically there are bugs, smiley faces, sea creatures, snowmen, balloons, kids, stars, apples, dogs, cats, suns and ones that say things like "Top Notch." I know it is a silly thing, but it makes me feel really great to have a two sticker day!

Have a two sticker day,