Starting off Right

So last night Vladdy spent the full night in his kennel for the first time since we got him.  I had to get up three times to silence him but each time he eventually laid down and went back to sleep.  No messes in the kennel when we got up this morning so I got dressed straight away, chugged a glass of water and took him for a nice long walk (1.8 miles) with a few sprints here and there to tire him out and reduce the chance of mischief.

Last night I found myself in a wrestling match with him because he was playing with Codee and got a little bit too worked up.  When Codee decided it was time to call it quits Vladdy wouldn't take a hint, then ran around mouthing everything in the house except the chew toys so I decided to put him on a time out.  I picked him up and held him on his back in my lap and he struggled and squirmed and fought for probably 20-30 minutes but I just wrestled with him until he gave in.  When he finally relaxed and I set him on the floor he laid down and went straight to sleep and I have to admit, I was pretty tired too ... he's a big, lunky, awkward pup!

Now I'm going to shower, fix a cup of coffee and write my paper for my geology class.  Then maybe we'll go for another walk this afternoon when it gets a little bit warmer and maybe another one with Snackers after he gets home from work.  All this walking is already showing a difference in Vladdy.  He's building a lot of muscle in his chest and haunches which is great because he needs it to support his ginormous heavy bones.  Oh ... it's having a good affect on me too ... this morning's weigh-in was 238.5!!!



Food:
8 glasses of water
1/2 serving pickles and pb
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 cup seafood soup
8 oz orange roughy
1 cup broccoli florets
2 pieces homemade baklava substitute
---------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 921




Activity:
Stairs: 6 flights
Walking/Jogging: 1.8 miles (morning walk) w/Vladdy
Walking/Jogging: 3.1 miles (evening walk) w/ Vladdy, Piper, and Snackers

Jogging w/the Pack

Snackers and I spent a lot of time yesterday playing with and starting training for the puppy, whom we named Vladimir, after Vladimir Guerrero, Snackers' favorite baseball player (I thought we picked it for Vlad the impaler but found out last night that I was, apparently, mistaken).  And Loki for a middle name, after the god-giant from Norse mythology.  First, I took him down to potty at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. yesterday and each time I carried him down the stairs because, on a ten minute break, I didn't have time to stand there and coax him into trying to walk down them himself.  On the way back up, however, I would put his front paws on a step, then his back paws on the one behind it, then do it all again.  Exhausting but it paid off because at some point last night he gained the confidence to give it a shot and now does stairs just fine.

Then we took Vladdy and Codee to the vet for their shots and we found out that at 13 weeks old he weighs over 20 lbs!  WHOA!  (Yeah yesterday I said he was 8 weeks but we had to call the people we got him from to get his exact DOB for the vet records and, turns out, he's older than we realized).  When we got home I made supper and then Snackers and I took Vladdy and Piper downstairs to potty and play.  We're trying to teach Vladdy to fetch because that is something Piper would never do.  He'll chase the ball, which is the first step, and he'll even pick it up so now we just need to work on teaching him to bring it back.  He's still awfully clumsy though because his feet are way too big for him right now.  His feet are actually about as big as you would expect a full grown Dobe to have so he kind of drags his front paws a little when he runs.

We tossed the ball around and then we'd jog with him to retrieve it and praise him when he would pick it up and praise him some more when we would take it out of his mouth.  Then we decided that he just needs to exercise his big legs and build muscle to help with coordination so we took turns jogging up and down the stretch of grass and encouraging him to jog along with us.  We were out there with them for about an hour or so and then Vladdy just flopped on the concrete as if to say 'that's it, I'm beat!' so we came inside.

Right before bed he woke up and started getting rambunctious so we decided to take him and Piper for a walk around the complex.  He's very dependent so he was staying really close, almost too close, to our feet and not out in front pulling which is awesome.  By the half-way point he'd gained some confidence and his tail was up and he was trotting along next to Piper, in front of us but still not pulling.  When we hit the stretch at the back of the complex where all the storage units are we decided to pick up the pace and really make sure he was tuckered out.  We jogged all the way from the beginning to the end and I was huffing and puffing, I'll admit, but aside from bad lung capacity my body could have gone longer.  I can't wait to do it again.  It was fun to jog together as a pack.

Today's Weight: 239.5





Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 cup seafood soup
1 slice of bread, dry
1 foot long chicken sub
>>the usual
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,069



Activity:
7 flights of stairs
Walking the dogs w/Snackers: 1.8 miles
Wrestling w/Vladdy (really, truly wrestling his big lunky ass)

Vladimir Loki

My weight this morning was 239.5 ... that is the FIRST time that I have seen anything lower than 240 so I am really happy with it.  At least now I know that I CAN get below 240 so I just have to work hard and keep it below 240 between now and the official weigh-in on Monday.  With the pup I'll likely be climbing the stairs four or five times a day though it's been about 12 hours and we've yet to have an accident *crosses fingers*.  I took him out last night and he went number 1 and 2 the instant he saw the grass, then wobbled back over to me wagging his tail knowing that he'd just done something good so I praised and loved on him and gave him a treat.  Could I really be that lucky?  An eight week old puppy who, so far, has only chewed on cat toys (with the exception of a brief interest in a pair of undies), slept almost through the night without waking me up, and potties outside?!  NO WAY!

Here comes the fun part!  We named him Vladimir Loki but call him Vladdy for short.  Vladimir, as you probably know, is the infamous war lord from Romania and is often associated with vampirism due to his nickname Vlad the Impaler.  Loki is a god from Norse mythology and he was a giant so we thought "big huge doberman pinscher, it's perfect"!  He has a very people-loving personality, follows us all over the house, and ran up to our neighbor's kids last night with his tail wagging ... clearly LOVES kids.

He was awesome with the cats which is wonderful.  Sniffed Casper and gave Codee a play bow but Codee puffed up and hissed at him so he kept his distance and gave the little kitten his space.  I can't believe how smart he is ... so far there hasn't been a single major problem except he whimpers a lot but I think he's having growing pains; I know they're common in big dogs at this age. 

After Supper Update: Ok ... I counted my chickens before they hatched.  There was an afternoon piddle when Snackers got home from work but I think that's because Snackers woke him up to play after a 2 hour nap and didn't think to take him out before he riled him up.  We took him and the kitten to the vet tonight for their shots and clean bills of health and at this very moment Snackers is giving him his very first bath.  He's really smart though!  If he decides to try chewing on something he shouldn't I say "NO!" very firmly and he stops right away.  Then I give him one of the MANY cat/chew toys that we've accumulated over the last two years and he takes it away to munch on instead.  He's tried to sample a few things that he shouldn't but no damage has been done yet *knock on wood* and he never goes back to try and chew on something that I've already told him not to chew on.  He's heavy though!  Only 13 weeks old and weighs 20.5 lbs.  That's more than Casper and Piper combined and only 1 lb shy of Casper, Piper, and Codee combined!!!  He's still not good at walking on a leash so I've carried him a lot today (up and down the stairs mostly, and into/around the vets office.  Then I came home and made supper and I am EXHAUSTED!!!



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 chicken veggie wrap
1 bowl seafood soup
2 slices garlic/herb toast
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,152





Activity:
4 flights of stairs (carrying a big ass puppy, no less)
Jogged around in the grass with the puppy after dinner and worked on teaching him how to play ball.
Took Piper and Vladdy for a walk with Snackers around the block right before bed to get him tired.  Jogged one full side of the block without stopping!  WoooHooo!

Hot Flashes

I woke up in the middle of the night on several occasions completely soaked in sweat and that, boys and girls, is called a hot flash.  My weigh in this morning was 241.5 and I am starting to see a pattern develop.  Up one, down one, up one, down one.  I think it's quite clear that I am going to have to just work out really hard for the rest of the week if I want to see my weight going anywhere at all because I am 100% convinced that, in spite of small movement here and there over the past few weeks, I'm stalled out big time.

We opted for a menu of mostly seafood this week and I think that will probably help as well because seafood has good fats and amino acids that are good for boosting the metabolism.  The grocery list cost about $20 more than usual but that's really not that bad.

Oh by the way, is that not just the cutest kitty cat picture you have ever seen?!  I had taken like three pictures before that one but there is such a delay on my phone between when you hit the button and when it actually takes the picture that I kept getting blurry pictures so I changed the snap shot sound on the camera phone to make it sound like a monkey.  Thankfully the sound happens about half a second before the shutter snaps the picture so I got the expression that you see above.  *melts*



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 chicken veggie wrap
1 serving pan seared scallops
>>w/o the chimmichurri
1 serving mac n cheese (from hungry girl cook book)
1 serving red wine
---------------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,038



Activity:
Busy day!  We went, after work, to look at puppies.  We weren't really planning on getting one until after we moved but we found a deal on craigslist that was just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and had to check it out.  We caved.  After that we took the pup over to our friend's house because they wanted to meet him, then we hit PetSmart to get some essentials, and then home to cook/eat dinner.  I am, admittedly, the better disciplinarian in this family so it fell on me to show the pup where to find food/water, where to sleep, introduce him to the cats, teach him what he can and cannot chew on, and take him potty every few hours.  I've done four very slow, very patient flights of stairs as I tried (with a lot of help from Piper) to show him how to climb them and actually even broke a sweat.  No kidding!  Not a big sweat ... but there were dribblets falling off my chin.  It's not quite the super activity that I had planned for today but the pup is going to need leash training before he gets too big to handle, and lots of exercise to prevent destruction so I've got my work cut out for me!  YES!!!  When Snackers gets back I get to help him haul the couch down the stairs to the dumpster (it's a piece that we picked up for free and never use because it's so uncomfortable so we're replacing it with a large crate for the pup) and that's going to be one hell of an awesome work out!!

More Information

I have decided to weigh myself every morning this week because I am hoping that doing so will give me some insight or information about what is happening come weigh-in time.  Last week I weighed on Wednesday (unofficially) and was at 240 but then come the official weigh-in yesterday morning I had actually gained half a pound.  But I didn't feel like I had done anything over the weekend to damage the loss I saw on Wednesday so I want to track myself this week and find out what's going on.  This morning I weighed in at 240.5 ... so go figure: I'm down a lb last Wednesday, then up half a pound yesterday for the official weigh-in and then I'm down a pound from yesterday come this morning.  I am going to get under 240 lbs this week if I have to amputate something to do it.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 stuffed pepper half
1 tomato & basil flatbread pizza
>>single serving
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,036



Activity:
2 flights of stairs
shopping

Weigh-In 24

GAAAAAAAAH!  And that is all that I have to say about today's weigh in.



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 stuffed pepper half
1 chicken veggie wrap
1 serving granola w/skim milk
-----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 875



Activity
2 flights of stairs
2 flights of bleachers
Walking: 1 mile

Happy Easter

The morning began with a champagne brunch at South Point followed by a few hours at the mini horse show and then 18 holes of golf.  Then we came home and I made dinner and now I'm completely exhausted.  I played the absolute worst game of golf that I have ever played in my life today.  The wind was blowing really bad but in all honesty I can't even claim that as an excuse ... I just sucked today!  I probably swung the club over 200 times and for some really odd reason I kept swinging right over the top of the ball stroke after stroke after stroke.  I am not a great golfer, I'm not even a good golfer actually, but I'm not usually THAT bad ... you can even ask my mom.  I may not always hit it far or straight but usually I can at least hit it on the first swing!

I was whiffing over the top of the ball a little bit the last time that we played so I figured that it was just because I wasn't wearing my glasses.  So today I wore them and played even worse ... like eight times worse!  We still had fun though because Snackers is a wonderful person to play golf with.  We never count strokes and we both just play to have fun so we can laugh at ourselves and tease back and forth and I don't have to feel embarrassed about how bad I did.  Right toward the end I actually had some pretty good hits ... go figure. 

Days like this always remind me why Snackers and I are so compatible: I am the kind of person who does not easily laugh at myself ... it is not easy for me to admit and be comfortable with my shortcomings.  But Snackers has a sincere, genuine, 'it doesn't matter' attitude and he allows me to feel comfortable laughing at myself instead of getting all pissed off when I'm not good at something.  Many men have tried to get me to go golfing before and it never worked because I always felt so stupid and ashamed of how not-great I was and that would just piss me off, but with Snackers I can just play and have fun and it doesn't matter if I have to hit the ball 8 times on a par 4.

I do feel pressed to note that I am an excellent putter.  Even the couple we played with last time repeatedly commented on how good I am at putting.  Not today though ... whoa was today bad! LOL  But we laughed A LOT today!!!



Food:
10 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
2 glasses of champagne
1 serving eggs benedict
1 serving sunflower seeds
1/2 stuffed green bell pepper
>>stuffed w/kidney beans, turkey, and onions
2 truffles
--------------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,293



Activity:
5 flights of stairs
18 holes of golf
cooked supper (Normally I don't count fixing supper as an activity but doing it immediately after 18 really strenuous holes of golf put a whole new dynamic on it today! lol)

Yet another Saturday

It's early Saturday morning as I write this and Snackers is off to work as I prepare to begin working on my math exam.  I've got my coffee, what's left of my pickle flavored sunflower seeds (about 1/4 of a serving) and my computer is all booted up and ready to go ... but I'm stalling.

This week has been really hard for me and I'm not really sure why.  I had gone so long without dealing with cravings or feeling like I was missing out and begrudging this whole lifestyle change and then it seems like the very day after I posted about my new found food epiphany (view post here) it was like I suddenly started all over again from a mental perspective.  I haven't been able to figure out what happened or why but reviewing my posts and my food lists around that time it is fairly obvious that for several weeks prior to that post I had been doing really good and the whole process had been getting easier (for most days).  Then within days after that post I started to really struggle.  Here's the thing, most of you might look at my food lists and say "ok so there are a few blips here and there but it doesn't look like you're struggling" but really it seems like I've spent the last two or three weeks just fighting my subconscious non-stop.  Even though my eating doesn't really show it very well, every single day is a struggle to keep myself out of the kitchen and away from the foods that I shouldn't be eating.

I made truffles last night from one of the new diet cook books, they're supposed to be 43 calories each but I made them too big and got half as many truffles as I should have so I guess they're 86 calories each.  They had to set-up in the fridge for two hours before I could even roll them into balls and then they had to set up even more for another two-hours after.  It was all I could do to not just take a spoon and eat the entire pot of truffle mixture before it had even cooled.  Fortunately the recipe called for a whisk, not a spoon, so I indulged myself with one lick of the whisk and that was that ... it went into the fridge.  But I couldn't stop thinking about it and when the timer finally went off the fight started anew as I'm rolling these balls of chocolate around in my hands and trying not to just shove them in my face.  I managed to roll them all up, put them in the fridge to harden and throw away the plastic wrap without even licking it clean but it was tough.  You might think that making truffles was just too much temptation but last night was not the beginning.  Pretty much every night this week I have found myself standing in the kitchen with the fridge open around 9:30-10:00 p.m. looking for junk food and not even really knowing what I want.  Sometimes I'm craving fried food, sometimes sweet food, sometimes both at the same time.  Each night I eventually chug a glass of water (because getting full on water helps with the cravings ... doesn't kill them but it does help for a little while) and walk away.  I did that FOUR TIMES on Tuesday night.  In the kitchen, out of the kitchen, in the kitchen, out of the kitchen.  As you all know I eventually lost the war and ended up eating two snack cakes.  Oh no!  Not one...two!  AAAaaaargh!

The 240's are killing me and from what some of you have said they were hard for you too.  It seems like it's taking me longer to lose the 10 lbs that are the 240's than it took me to lose the 37 lbs before them.  I'm not tired, I'm not sore, I'm not having trouble sleeping, I don't think I've over trained ... I'm just losing my mental fortitude and dedication and I don't understand it.  I'm amazed that I am even losing any weight at all right now because I am fighting myself so much that I feel like I'm failing.  In my logical brain I know that I need to just suck it up, shut up, and do it.  I know it's all in my head and that somewhere I have the power to control my thoughts as well as my actions ... yet lately all I want to do is watch TV, cross-stitch, and eat.  Growl.


Math Test(s) over: Pretty sure got 100% on the concept check.  Got a 97% on the quiz.  GPA finally in after A- in the last math class.  3.97 :( BOOOOOOOOO!




Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/4 serving seeds
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 meatball sub
3 truffles
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,172



Activity: Dusted the living room and three flights of stairs.  Notta whole lotta I know.

Weekend Again

I can't believe it's already Friday again.  It seems like this whole week has gone by so fast!  I got 100% on my math checkpoint last night for advanced algebra but I have a quiz to do for math tomorrow so, hopefully, I can do as well on that as I did on the checkpoint.

Casper and Codee had a break-through yesterday while I was working and I think Piper was the catalyst for it all.  About half-way through the day Piper and Casper started their usual play routine that they do several times a week.  Running around in the living room, taking turns chasing each other and tumbling over each other as they leap couches and wrestle.  Codee, of course, got involved and as they chased from room to room he would tumble in after them, always just a few seconds behind; but that was just the beginning.

After Snackers got home from work he witnessed Casper and Codee playing a game inside the box that the George Foreman Grill came in.  We gave the box to Casper after we bought the grill because he loves to play in boxes.  Apparently Casper was inside the box and Codee was bounding around the outside and they would play-swipe at each other whenever Codee got close to the opening.  I believe that the drama has ended and our three kids have accepted each other as one big happy family, finally.  Now there is only one more new member of the family to add ... we're still set on getting a Doberman puppy after we move, and then our family will be complete.




Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 serving of seeds
3" orchard chicken sub (Snackers' leftovers)
1 Meatball Sub
---------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 952

More Cute Codee

I thought it was time for a Codee/Casper update, plus I want to show off his new collar.  Cute huh?  So he has taken to terrorizing my office during the day while Snackers and I are working.  He has figured out how to use the shredder (which I unplugged) as a stepping stool to get in the window seat, from there he can jump to my leg provided he uses his claws to cling for dear life to my pants.  Once in my lap he can then use my keyboard to get on top of my desk and from that point the whole world is his oyster.  As cute as it is ... I was sorely tempted to lock his little tiny butt up yesterday.  He was walking on the keyboard, chewing on my bag of sunflower seeds, drinking out of my water glass, and decided that my cursor was the coolest toy ever as he batted at it on my monitor.  Every time I would pick him up and put him on the floor it would take less than a minute for him to be right back on my desk again.

Eventually he wore himself out, however, and once that happened the crash was almost immediate.  He landed in the windowsill and just kind of flopped down right where he was standing.  He kept making these little squeaking noises in his sleep which was just too cute for words and he was out pretty much until Snackers got home from work.  Impressive.  I'm so jealous.

This morning Snackers and I awoke to him mewing his head off right outside the bedroom door.  Snackers had gotten home from his night jobs really late last night so I rolled out of bed, an hour before the alarm would have gone off, and said "I got him".  I suddenly realized as I was pouring food into everyone's dish that parents with human babies probably have a dialog just like that one every day huh?

Well Casper is still more interested in Codee from a distance but every once in a blue moon he'll venture in for a close-up sniff.  He'll still hiss and occasionally yowl at Codee under circumstances that only he understands.  Piper, on the other hand, has become Codee's new favorite play toy and he follows her around the house batting at her tail almost endlessly.  Sometimes I think she wags it just because she knows it entertains him to chase it around and get smacked in the face by it.  He is a noisy little bugger though; he mews in his sleep, mews when he's hungry, mews when he wants some lovin' and mews when he's playing.  Most of all he's learning to mew when he wants to know where we are and then we say "Codee, Codee, Codee" and he comes running toward the sound of our voices.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 serving sunflower seeds
1 serving leftover stuffed chicken
1 beef sandwich
>>w/tomato, onion, pickles
-----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,140



Activity:
Line Dancing: I learned two things tonight not counting a few dances that I had to re-learn from youtube videos.  First, I learned that I can no longer do the original cotton eyed joe dance that I learned at the dance factory in St. George.  It's all hoppy and I just don't have the balance or leg strength for it ... and to think that I used to do that dance in HEELS!  The second thing that I learned is that, for some reason, there are over a dozen different versions of dances for the cotton eyed joe and none of the ones that I found on youtube are the version that I know.  In my version everyone links arm and arm in short lines of four or five people per line and then you form a big giant circle, like a windmill, around the dance floor with the lines.  So you're in a line facing the line in front of you, they're facing the line in front of them and so on.  Then you hop backward four times while kicking the foot that you're not hopping on out in front of you twice per each hop.  Then you quick-step forward eight times and start over hopping backward again.  The fun in the dance is that it's fast, hard to do, and you have to rely on the other people in your line to keep you on your feet while you're keeping them on their feet all while trying to avoid running over the people in the line behind you and being run over by the people in the line in front of you.  Trust me, it really is fun.  Complex but FUN!

2 Good 2 B Healthy

We tried our very first recipe from one of the new cookbooks that we got in the mail from one of you wonderful blog readers.  It was chicken breast halves stuffed with yogurt, cheese, pimentos, mushrooms, and chives.  We then painted a little bit more yogurt over the top and sprinkled it with bread crumbs and paprika.  The book is called Comfort Food Diet Cookbook and it is loaded with recipes that just look way too delicious to actually be healthy but when you really look at the ingredient list on these chicken breasts you have to admit ... there really isn't anything there except the cheese that's questionable; and even the cheese is part-skim mozzarella which is one of the better cheese choices you can make.  (Here's a tip, according to Cook This Not That, white cheeses like mozzarella, provolone, and swiss are usually better from a health perspective than orange/yellow cheeses!)  But seriously ... look at the gooey, yummy guts on the inside of this chicken breast. 

Doesn't that just look AMAZING?!  Well it was.  There was so much flavor in these things that it was just absurd!  Although I should mention that I used skim greek yogurt instead of the plain normal yogurt that it called for because it's actually cheaper, and because Snackers and I developed a taste for it after using it in previous recipes.  I really liked the subtle tang that it brought to the dish so if you decide to make this, keep that option in mind.



In other news ... snack cakes.  Snack cakes?  Freakin' snack cakes!!  *shakes head*  Green goddess on a cracker!  What was I thinking?  I was in my head screaming "don't do it!" and I just couldn't stop myself.  Then I sat around feeling guilty all night but couldn't, for the life of me, force my big a$$ off the couch to exercise.  Then, as I was falling asleep, I had the sudden urge to line dance ... no joke, line dance.  I saw a commercial for a new Wii game called country dance and it reminded me of all the fun I used to have at the line-dancing hall in Utah as a teen.  I don't think the game is line dancing though ... I dunno.






Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 cup milk
1 Healthy Choice lunch
2 chicken tacos
1 serving pickles and pb
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 879


Activity: Went to bed too late after line dancing last night and ended up falling asleep in the tub shortly after Snackers left for work.  Going to chug another glass of water and crash.

Codee Joe

Tell me that's not cute

Here he is, the newest little member of the family ... and though I didn't think it possible over Casper, he's also the mouthiest.  This little fart has done nothing but mew since Snackers brought him home yesterday but he's been a good boy and used his litter box so that's always nice.  I picked out the name Cody, Snackers picked out the spelling Codee and Joe just kind of followed naturally for a middle name.  He seems to be a momma's boy because he's more snuggly when I'm holding him than he is for Snackers.

Piper is absolutely thrilled by him and wants to watch everything he does and follow him everywhere he goes.  She's behaving with him just like she did with Casper ... like a mommy.

Wet hair, just showered

Casper, on the other hand, is cautiously pessimistic.  His first reaction was to yowl and growl and hiss his head off.  Then he walked away and decided that he'd be fine if he just stayed on the bed where Codee couldn't get to him.  After about four or five hours he decided to come out and lay in the corner of the living room, as far from Codee and still in the same room as possible.  As he watched his every move his posture was relaxed but his eyes were all aglow with thought and contemplation.  Last night we locked Codee in the bathroom with his food, some special kitten milk, and his own litter box and Casper sat sentinel outside the bathroom door all night long just like I knew he would.  I think it's too soon to call as to whether or not Casper will warm up to Codee or decide to ignore him completely.  I do think it's safe to say, however, that violence will not be an issue.



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 cup leftover rice
1 cup leftover steak
1 stuffed chicken breast (new cookbook)
2 snack cakes (grrrrr!)
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,077



Activity:
Nothing ... again.  Played with the kitten and watched DWTS.  I know, I'm feeling so guilty.

23rd Weigh-In

A horse big enough for me!

Well it's not what I was expecting but I guess it's better than nothing.  1.5 lb loss ... With as sore as I was and as much sweating as I did I really thought I was going to see something closer to 3.  Oh well ... I'm so close to finally being out of the stupid 240's so I guess I'll take any small progression that I can.  This week did come with a victory though.

Snackers and I find ourselves in stadium seating quite often, usually for concerts etc.  Usually I've become accustomed to my butt being just a smidge too wide for the narrow seats that they use in most stadiums here as they try to cram as many people in as possible so I've worked out a system of sliding into a seat horizontally and living with the pinching feeling of the seat's arm-rests on the tops of my hips.  However, about half-way through the event yesterday I realized that I was sitting quite comfortably in stadium seats.  No special way to ease in, no pinching.

It seems embarrassing now but it still feels like a victory none-the-less.  As promised here are some horsey pictures from the weekend.  Above is me with a bronze statue of Benny Binion, one of the early founders of Las Vegas and the man who brought equestrian events to the desert.


Above right: one of the horses in the event (we had awesome seats) as she awaits the results of the judging.  We had her pegged as the winner in her class and I just couldn't take my eyes off of her but I guess we're not Arabian experts because, as it turns out, she didn't even place.  She was easily one of the most beautiful horses I've ever seen in person, even if this isn't the best picture of her.  Below is another random horse from the competition.  They run these horses around a lot to show movement and speed so getting good pictures of any of them was surprisingly harder than you might think.




Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice lunch
2 panini sandwiches
1 serving pickles and pb
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,237



Activity: Nothing big.  Went to softball, watched the games, cheered, came home and played with the new kitten.  Today was my day off I suppose.

WHOOPED!!!

Holy crap am I tired.  So the day started at about 7 a.m. with a glass of water, a cup of coffee, and a tee time for 2:30 p.m.  We put some clothes in the dryer, took showers, and relaxed until around 9 a.m., then went to get Snackers a hair cut.  I love when he gets a fresh hair cut!  He's a sexy man anyway but with a brand new hair cut he puts me in a freakin' trance with his hotness.  Every time I looked at him today I just thought ... how in the hell did I catch me a guy this damn good looking?!!!!  He's actually a big source of my motivation for losing weight and getting in shape.  He treats me great and in no way makes me feel like I need to lose weight, but when I look at him I just think 'this guy deserves the very best me that I can be' ... it's like that corny Helen Hunt movie: he makes me want to be a better woman.

Ok back to my day *loving sigh*.  After the hair cut we hit a little bagel deli for breakfast and I had a toasted everything bagel with tomato, onion, and a slice of cheese (dry), with a glass of water.  Then we headed to the Arabian Breeders horse show (pictures will be posted tomorrow because I'm just too damn tired tonight to mess with them) and watched the show until it broke for lunch at noon.  The arena is recessed and we got KILLER seats front row right next to the gate where the horses came into the arena so when we left I climbed my first flight of stairs for the day.  We hopped in the car and headed over to the MGM to look at the lions ... they were sleeping.  We spent 10 minutes in the casino and 20 minutes people watching while waiting for the car at valet.  Then we went to boot barn because it was on the way back to the horse show and browsed around there for about an hour.  Then everyone we were going to go golfing with canceled on us so we decided to save our ducats, cancel the tee time and go back to the horse show.

It was around 2 p.m. when we got there and as we headed for the escalators to the arena I saw the giant two-story staircase looming and thought 'why the hell not'? so I took the stairs and tried to race Snackers as he WALKED up the escalator.  I lost but just barely; so that's flights two and three.  Shortly after we took our seats I started feeling really weak and crappy so Snackers grabbed a couple of hot dogs and some water from concession for us.  After that I wanted to smoke but you can't smoke in the arena so I climbed the stairs to go smoke; and that's 4.  When the show was over I climbed the stairs again to leave (5) and we grabbed some Subway and came home to make a grocery list around 7 p.m.  Our apartment is on the second floor so that makes a sixth flight of stairs.  After supper we went grocery shopping and as we wheeled around the store every ounce of life I had in me oozed out of my feet and into the polished Wal-Mart floor.  I could barely pick up my friggin' feet ... even Snackers noticed from how I was walking that I was having a really hard time staying on my feet.  We climbed the stairs to our apartment again, with groceries, so that makes seven total flights of stairs and heaven only knows how much walking.  So I didn't exactly break a sweat today ... but I know, without a doubt in my mind, that I am exhausted!



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/ creamer
1 bagel
>>w/ tomato, onion, cheese
1 hot dog
>>w/ mustard, jalapeno
1 foot long chicken sub on wheat
>>no cheese, mustard, vinegar
>>onion, tomato, olive, cucumber
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,241



Activity:
Stairs: 7 flights
Walking/Standing: all day long!

A Productive Day

So the first thing that I did this morning was chew Snackers out because he was listening to his ipod and had it so loud that, even with the buds in his ears, it woke me up from a room away.  It was a minor chewing and he took it gracefully so no major hoorahs.  Then I started on the kitchen, washed all the dishes, wiped all the counters and mopped the floor.  Then I made coffee and now I'm stopping in for a quick blog log and then off to do my last school assignment of the week which is a minerals chart for my geology class.

When that's done I'm going to take a book, and my coffee, and have a nice bath and get all clean and pretty for Snackers when he gets home from work.  Piper, our dog, has allergies again this year and they're really bad.  She just started having this problem last summer but she itches constantly to the point where I've had to put a cone on her to keep her from scratching her own eyes out.  Her eyes are also all puffy and watery so we're going to the vet after Snackers gets off work to get her a vetalog shot.  She doesn't know it yet but she's really looking forward to it.

I'm even more sore today than I was yesterday ... especially from the push-ups two nights ago.  There's no delicate way to say this so I'll just say it.  My boob muscles hurt! lol.  I don't know what I'm going to do for activity today; I broke a sweat cleaning the kitchen but I'm not satisfied with just that.  I want to do something fun but cash is tight this weekend because of the vet and Snackers wants to go golfing tomorrow.  I know that I do want to hit that horse show tonight if the cards fall right but I may have let Snackers talk me into getting a new kitten last week.  If we do get it, it will be ready to bring home today and, if that happens, we can't just go off and leave a brand new kitty cat at home on his first day.  I guess we'll see what happens.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 serving pickles and peanut butter
2 fish tacos
--------------------------------
daily caloric intake: 1,067



Activity:
Dishes/Kitchen: 1 hour
Bathtub/Shower: 30 minutes
Flights of stairs: 4

Steak Sandwiches

Steak sandwiches are another recipe from Cook This, Not That! that combines grilled onions and garlic, diced sirloin, A-1 steak sauce, provolone cheese, and tomatoes into a tasty toasted sandwich.  The recipe called for cibatta rolls but I had to buy sourdough for the panini's we'll be having tomorrow and the bread had fewer calories than the buns so I decided to just use it instead.  It also suggests putting them in the oven after they're assembled to melt the cheese but I put them in the Foreman grill and they got this lovely crust on them.  I think one of my all-time favorite things to cook in the foreman is sandwiches.  They always come out toasty and melty and delicious.  I added a squirt of mustard to my sammich, Snackers put mayo on his.  They were really good and fairly easy to make.

My whole body is sore today, to the point that I woke up almost every time I needed to roll over in bed last night because everything hurts so much.  My calves are hurting from the stepping I've been doing all week; my thighs are hurting from the leg crunches and lifts, my lower back is hurting from the toe touches (but in a good way, not in a 'I messed up my back kind of way'), my shoulders and arms hurt from the push-ups that I did last night, and my abs hurt from a combination of the crunches and backwards push-ups.  I'm thinking tonight, depending on how I feel, I may need to go back to walking so that I can heal up.  With this much muscle soreness I am probably carrying a crap load of fluid in my muscles right now and I want to try to get rid of that before Monday if I can so that I can get an accurate weigh-in.

Snackers found me a spot that I can do stadium steps which is something that I have always wanted to try.  You know how you see those super in shape people running up and down the steps, sweating buckets, and you think "wow ... that person is fit!" ... well I don't think you have to be super in shape to do stadium steps.  Maybe you have to be super in shape to do them as fast as those people do them but anyone can do them if they work at their own pace right?  I'm just trying to work up the nerve to try.  I'd like to do them when there isn't anyone around so I don't have to feel self-conscious about it.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
2/3 cup granola
>>w/ 1/3 cup milk
1 leftover steak sandwich
1 sirloin w/dry rub (not good)
1 peanut butter cookie
-----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,087




Activity:
Walking/Jogging: My legs are so sore that I really didn't know that I could sustain a full hour of walking but I wanted to make sure that I broke a sweat and didn't have to feel guilty.  I'm sick of hovering in the 240's and, dammit, this week I want to stick to my guns and make some real, quantifiable progress!  So here's what I did.  I put on a Celebrity Apprentice rerun and I walked during the show but then every time it went to commercial I would sprint in place as fast as I could until the commercial ended, then I'd walk and catch my breath.  I did that for about 40 minutes and I feel really good about it.  It was On Demand so there was only one commercial per commercial break so, admittedly, not a full "2 and 2" of sprinting but I broke a very healthy sweat, loosened up my sore legs and I feel good!

Picture Day

Home made steak tacos

Supper last night was home made steak tacos on little tiny corn tortillas.  They were delicious!  I mixed some of the pico that I made two nights ago into the guac so that I wouldn't have to dice up another onion and Snackers decided that we needed a little bit of low-fat feta sprinkled over the top.  I adjusted the calories in the book to account for the feta and ended up having 1.5 servings and still had a relatively low count for the day.  A reader of this blog (who, to my knowledge, wishes to remain nameless) was weeding through her books and had some prepped for donation and decided to send two of them to me.  They are cook books that list calories per serving with each recipe!  YAY!  We haven't even come close to exhausting all of the recipes in Cook This, Not That! but it will be great to have two new books to pull recipes from the next time we plan a shopping trip/menu.  We got a white board for the fridge so now I post the meals for the week on the white board so that I have that reminder to take the meat out of the freezer that I need for the coming meals and I put the page number of the recipes on the white board too so it's easier to find them when I'm ready to cook supper.


Last night was filled with really terrible dreams, mostly pertaining to my parent's house.  Their house is awesome, for the record, so I'm not really sure why my nightmares were focused there other than perhaps because their house is kind of big, like a maze if you're not used to it, and my nightmares almost always take place in a big house with lots of running around from room to room.  At the end of the nightmare my mom had turned into some kind of evil creature with pale skin and glowing yellow eyes and I had locked myself in a room with her because my dad and brother were also evil and were on the other side of the door trying to break in.  I guess I figured one monster would be easier to deal with than three. lol


Ok ... enough stalling.  Here are the pictures you're all waiting for, I'm sure.  Instead of just comparing my first pic with my most recent this month I wanted to also compare it with last month's pic so below you see three pictures.  The one on the left is from November, 2010 when I was almost at full weight, the one in the middle was taken today, and the one on the right is from last month.

Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 serving leftover steak taco stuff
>>minus the tortillas
1 steak sandwich
1 swallow of reisling
1 serving pickles and pb (needed the umph for workout)
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,160



Activity:
Wii Stepping: 30 minutes
Girl Push-ups: (front)100
Push-ups: (back) 100

Free Equestrian Events

I have always said that there are some major advantages to living in Henderson just outside of Vegas.  Of course everyone immediately refers to the shows that are downtown but, to be honest, shows aren't really my thing.  I think they're way too over priced, even with the local discount (two for one tickets).  But there are a lot of other great things to do in Vegas besides gamble and see the shows.  There are a ton of concerts and other events that are more up my alley and it just so happens that I have a found a new guilty pleasure that I plan to take full advantage of.

As it turns out, one of the smaller casinos near the strip has an arena for hosting equestrian events and their calendar is loaded with events that are FREE for the public.  Oh yeah baby ... my favorite word in the English language: free.  Starting tomorrow the 5th Annual Arabian Breeders World Cup will be going on through Sunday and it's free to the public.  Yep ... FREE!  I'm so excited.  I love horse shows and equestrian events of all kinds but usually they're quite expensive so I am shocked and thrilled that this one is free.  And it's not the only one!  There will be a free miniature horse show next weekend that is also free and a rodeo at the end of the month that is only $10 for a two-night pass.  Can you believe that?

So I've discussed it with Snackers and he is all for attending; he likes horses too.  I'm jazzed!  I'm going to have to find a place that can stretch and reshape my hat though ... I tried to put it on last weekend and it is all messed up.  In my horseback riding days that hat saw some serious adventure. LOL

I literally broke a sweat during my math test tonight so, technically, I suppose I could count that on this weeks activity goal but I'm not gonna.  Off I go to work out.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 serving leftover coffee steak
3 home made steak tacos
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 822



Activity:
Seated Leg Crunches: 50
Stomach crunches: 50
Standing leg lifts: 25 each leg
Toe touches: 25 each foot
Wii stepping: 30 minutes

Sweat: Mui!

Math Dreams

Ok so get this ... after work last night my new boss wanted to have a call to discuss a few things around 4:30 which gave me 30 minutes of free time between getting off work and the call.  So I started to do practice math problems to prep for my new math class that started yesterday ... advanced algebra.  I actually logged in to look at the calendar during my lunch break and was so overwhelmed and terrified of the class that I started to cry and couldn't stop until I went back to work and got my mind off of it.  But whenever I have a complete emotional breakdown over something like that it always ends up turning into determination.  First I freak out and cry, then I calm down, then an hour or so later I have this increased determination to kick ass and prove that I can do anything that I set my mind to ... such was my state of mind when I started the practice work last night.

By 5:30 my boss still hadn't called me so I called him, got that out of the way, Snackers and I went to dinner because it was too late for me to try to cook anything by the time I got off the phone, and then when we got home I went back to doing math while my food settled.  When Dancing With the Stars came on I put the math away and stretched and when it was over I went right back to working on math problems.  I'm starting to get the hang of the newest topic, polynomials, and apparently I'm getting so good at them that I can do them in my sleep ... literally.  All night long I had dreams about solving math problems and from what I can remember, they were pretty accurate, realistic dreams with actual problems in them and I was working them.  That's a good sign right?  Eventually I am going to have to have enough confidence in math that I can take the time to study for my geology class though.  I'm really excited about geology!

I am feeling Sunday's workout in my angel wings and calves today.  Seriously ... any of you in software development ... someone needs to invent a UFC training/motion game.  Put it on the to-do list.

p.s. I have a new snack.  So a package of shelled sunflower seeds averages around 165 - 180 calories PER OUNCE!  Holy cow batman!  BUT ... Spitz (brand name) makes a huge variety of different flavors of sunflower seeds still in their shell.  1 average sized bag is 6 oz of seeds still in the shell and each bag is 3 servings which makes for approx. 2 oz of seeds in their shells, per serving.  So if you take a pinch of seeds and place them in your mouth, then sort them out one by one with your tongue to crack and eat them you can spend LITERALLY HOURS eating just 2 oz of seeds.  (Note: bag size is oz in weight not liquid oz so if you're really worried about serving size get some plastic baggies and divide the original bag into 3 - or even 6 - equal portions.)  Purpose?  Many! 

1. Curing the "munchies"
2. Keeping your mouth entertained: if you're not good at it at first, like me, it becomes a challenge ... almost a kind of game.
3. Providing flavor but way healthier than sucking on hard candy (I went with pickle flavored)
4. Increased desire to drink water
5. You ~feel~ like you're eating all day but you're really not
6. Stress-relieving (no really, it is!)
7. I would dare say that the effort that goes into shelling and separating a single seed with your tongue probably burns more calories than you consume by actually eating the seed when you're done
8. Ladies: (This is my favorite reason) It gives us a perfectly good excuse to spit without shame!  
9. Probably a decent tool for smokers who are trying to quit
10. GREAT FOR SOFTBALL!

Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 serving sunflower seeds
1 serving pickles and peanut butter
1 Healthy Choice lunch
2 servings coffee steak (no side)
-----------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,135



Activity:
Wii Boxing: 30 minutes
Wii Yoga: 30 minutes

Twenty-Second Weigh-In

BOOM BABY!  242.5 and that means that I've lost back what I gained last week plus some!  The decision to break out the Wii and go old school last night was a wise one.  I actually had fun with it again and discovered a new boxing game on the Fit that I'd never noticed before.  I've unlocked pretty much all of the games just by walking so I now realize that I have a bunch of new games to go through and try out.  The boxing game was serious fun.  The first level was a little on the simple side but I only had to play it twice to unlock the second level and that gets a little bit more complicated.  After three rounds of that I was sweating so much Snackers refused to give my any luvin's until I took a shower.  SAWEET!

The thing I really liked about the boxing game is that I can feel it in my shoulders and arms, and even a little bit in my upper back, this morning.  I used to do Tai Bo when I was a teen and I freakin' loved it, and I also did Karate with a roomie in college and loved that so I really had fun doing the boxing game on the Wii.  I mean ... it's a little bit cheesy but it's not about the graphics it's about the moves and it incorporates the balance board and the nunchuck so some of the moves take some considerable coordination.  In order to score high you have to step off of the balance board in the correct direction, with the correct foot, while throwing punches with the correct arm at the correct time and then you have to hold the controller and the nunchuck together while you duck down and dodge to the right and left and if you don't do it right you get smacked around by the punching bag...I loved it.  UFC needs to stop putting out lame-hole games (trust me, we bought it and it SUCKED) and work on a motion activated UFC training game.  I would totally buy that!

The dog has to go to the vet this week for an allergy shot ... she's miserable, so I doubt I'll be able to do anything with this check but maybe with my next check I'll go pick up either Zoomba Fit or Just Dance.  I definitely can see the value in mixing things up and rotating out exercises so I don't get completely board with working out.  My brother was right, I burned myself out on walking and just needed to find something new and fun to do to keep moving.

Snackers got a good tip at work today and wanted to go to the buffet because they're running a killer deal.  I dished up small servings and I think that I picked extremely well.  I'm very pleased with myself today.



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 serving pickles and pb
1 Healthy choice lunch
3 oz roast beef
1/2 cup cole slaw
1 cup steamed veggies
1 cup peas and onions
4 cheese raviolis
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,013



Activity: Stretching (yes, I broke a sweat)

I used to stretch with a roomie of mine in college who was a dancer.  She could do splits like you wouldn't believe.  She told me that stretching burns a surprising amount of fat and tones because you have to use muscle to maintain a stretch (if you do it properly) and hold the muscles steady while stretching (similar concept to the bowflex).  We had this really intense stretching routine that she had created for me and I spent today trying to remember it / even come close to replicating it.  I was sore in a lot of different places from last night's Wii workout so I figure it would be a double bonus ... not too shabby if I do say so myself.

I'm A Leper!

I'm falling apart!  The burn is no longer sore and only a little bit itchy but the peeling has begun!  My face started peeling last Tuesday, my back started peeling yesterday, and I woke up this morning to my arms peeling.  Booo!  I honestly don't mind getting a burn, usually, because more often than not burns for me turn into tans within a day or two but apparently that's not the case this time because it's the first burn of the year, I suppose.  I'd like to shmear my back in lotion but I can't reach and Snackers refuses ... he hates lotion.

Snackers and I are looking into another round of golf today.  I wish my parents lived closer because I would really like to take them golfing with us.  It's always more fun to go golfing with them because we always crack each other up.  We're kind of getting bored with our usual course because it has a lot of par 3 holes but it's also the cheapest course in the area and we're trying to go cheap right now in everything we do.

On second thought Snackers looks like he's going back to bed so I might be grounded today. :(



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
2 servings pickles and pb (breakfast and lunch)
1 serving steak w/mushrooms
>>3 Tbsps A-1
8 oz red wine
---------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 932



Activity:
Wii Jogging: 1 mile in 12 minutes!!!! (2,038 steps IN TWELVE MINUTES!)
Wii Stepercising: 30 minutes
Wii Boxing: 20 minutes (super fun!)

What to do

BOOGER!  It's cold and cloudy and poopy outside.  No swimming and boating at the lake, no golfing.  Humbug!  It's even cold in my apartment and it's been awhile since it was so cold inside that I shivered.  Still, I refuse to turn on the heat.  I know Vegas and as soon as I turn on the heat it will be 120 degrees outside.  Of course, I want it to be 120 but I don't want to waste the money on the power bill by turning on the heat.  At least this year I wasn't stupid enough to turn on the A/C yet.  HA!  Take that Vegas, I'm on to your little games!

So now what to do...harumph.  Snackers is almost off work, I finished my stupid, absurd, insane paper on ethnicity for school, we have to run to the bank and go grocery shopping (WOW are we ever out of groceries!) and then after that who knows?  He'll probably want to play Bingo tonight but I'd just as soon not.  Bingo just means too much temptation to drink wine (because drinks are free at Bingo), it's a fast way to spend money and get nothing to show for it, and we always leave pissed because we never win.  Boooo!

We haven't walked the mall in awhile ... I wonder if he'd want to do that.  Doubt it.  We both hate window shopping and we're saving every penny we can so we sure as heck aren't going to want to actually buy anything.  Oh!  Maybe we can play golf on the Wii tonight ... that would be fun!  We could invite our friends over still and have a Wii party.  Is that lame?  Maybe that's lame and I shouldn't ask I dunno.

Whelp, guess I'd better go put together a shopping list.  I've got peanut butter, pickles, milk for Snackers, cereal, Healthy Choice lunches, and Sweet Baby Ray's (also for Snackers) so far.  Time to whip out the cookbook and put together some actual dinner ideas.  I'm thinking steaks this week ... lots and lots of red, practically raw meat, and maybe a tuna steak.  Groovy!



Food:
6 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
2 baggies airline peanuts
1 dinner salad
>>2 Tbsps Italian dressing
1 serving manicotti
2 slices garlic bread
1/2 serving tiramisu (split w/snack monkey)
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,219



Activity:
Shopping: 1.5 hours

Weekend Weather

Go figure ... last weekend our friends couldn't join us at the lake because they had to work so we made plans with them to hit the lake together tomorrow instead.  According to the weather man (and looking out the window) I'm starting to think that's not going to happen.  It's probably just as well because I am going to start my final for my math class today, I've combed the prep chapter like a 14 year old boy with a Hustler so I think I'm finally ready and I'm running out of time.  The test isn't timed so on the one hand I probably should have started on it on Monday so I had all week to work on it but, on the other hand, I'm really nervous and I wanted to make sure I spent lots of time studying and prepping for it.  It's time to open it up and see what it holds.  The good news is if I get to a spot that I don't remember from the book I can actually close the test and come back to it any time I want.

But I also have to write a 3,000 word final essay on ethnicity concerns in my community and I literally have no idea where to start with that.  I'm blind to race, really.  I don't have any racism in even small amounts anywhere in my entire body but this paper wants me to address issues of racism that are local to Las Vegas and, for the life of me, I can't think of any!  This is a very diverse city representing all cultures and walks of life and, to my knowledge, there haven't really been any breaking news stories regarding racism or prejudice here lately.  But I can't very well write a paper on how un-biased Vegas is right?  I think this class is stupid.  Every time I've ever had a class in the past that I thought was dumb I eventually ended up enjoying it by the end but this is the last week and I still think that this class is dumb.  It's not hard, I'm acing it all the way but it's still lame.

I will try to give a brief explanation of why it sucks without going into too much detail.  The world insists that humanity should be blind to race and treat people as individuals based on their own actions right?  And I agree with that 100,000%.  But every time these classes and studies on race come up it feels like someone is trying to remind society that people are different based on their race which is absurd.  Racial studies create racism and stereotypes I think.  Like the poverty study published in our textbook.  How does knowing which race has the highest poverty rate help solve that poverty rate?  I refuse to believe that any race of individuals has an inherent proclivity to being poor so saying "Purple people have the highest poverty rate" causes people to form prejudicial ideas about purple people.  Maybe purple people are lazy and that's why they're all so poor.  Horse hocky!  There are poor people in the world, full stop.  Now what can we (as a society, not a government) do about it?  Anyhow ... enough of my political ramblings.  I hope we do find life on other planets - maybe then Earth will become like it is in StarTrek and we'll realize just how much we're all the same instead of worrying about how we're different.


Math Final Exam: 53.5 / 56.0.  GROOVY BABY!  Not my final score for the whole class, just the final exam.  Won't know final grade probably until next week but this is definitely going to help bring up that A- ... though not sure if it will bring it up enough to make it an A








Food:
6 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
24 mini wheat biscuits
>>1/2 cup milk
1 serving leftover margarita chicken
>>no black beans though :(
1 healthy choice meal (supper)
1 Tbsp peanut butter
--------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 863

Inventing an Award

So awhile back when I had officially lost 25 lbs I created myself this award to celebrate.  I've got awards for larger weight loss goals that I am just dying to earn for myself too.  It occurred to me that, although there are a lot of nifty blog awards out there for everything from being stylish to being honest ... I've yet to see any awards for those of us using blogging to lose weight and find a community of like-minded individuals and supporters.

But we deserve awards more than most don't we?!  We're taking on one of the hardest challenges life can throw at most people.  So since there aren't any weight-loss specific blog awards I am going to share mine.

My original goal was to go through all of your blogs and officially give this award to those of you that have lost more than 25 lbs but I ran into a bit of a snag.  Some of you don't post a ticker or chart of some kind on your home page and with over 50 + followers, 30 blogs in the PR list, and a slew of you who read and comment on my posts but aren't officially following I realized that to go through each and every blog might be time consuming.  Then there are those of you who have your blogs set to be private or to not show up in your profile and I just don't want to miss anyone so ... this is an honor-system award.  You know whether or not you've lost 25 lbs so, if you have, take this award and display it on your blog if you so desire.  Feel free to pass it on like other awards but there are no rules other than whomever you pass it to has to have lost 25 lbs.or more.  Be sure to respond and let me know if you're claiming the award so we can all congratulate you and if you've lost more than 50 lbs stay tuned because I'll be sharing that award with everyone as soon as I earn it!

In other news, I think I'm addicted to peanut butter!  I'm out of pickles and yet I still find myself craving a spoonful of peanut butter almost daily.  My mom once told me that sometimes we have cravings because our bodies are deficient in a specific nutrient that is found in the food we're craving.  I'm not sure if that's true or not but I've never really been a big fan of peanut butter in the past; in fact just a month or so ago I went to use some peanut butter to make hummus and discovered that the jar we had in the cupboard had actually gone bad.  Who knew peanut butter goes bad?!  So this sudden new interest in it is surprising; I had thought it was just the combination of PB and pickles but now that I'm out of pickles and still craving pb that can't be it ... though it is a lot better with pickles than without I will admit.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 tsp peanut butter
1 serving leftover margarita chicken
1 foot long chicken sub
>>the usual, no cheese, no mayo etc.
1 cookie (I know, I know but it looked so good!)
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,245



Activity:
Wii Walking: 1 hour = 4.25 miles (8,500 + steps)

A Quick Update

Today's official post will come later tonight on schedule but I wanted to drop a quick update since, based on comments from yesterday's post, many of you seem concerned.  Last night Snackers had some night work cleaning restaurants after they close up for the night so he left around 9:30 pm. and got in around 1:45 am.  I took the opportunity to work-out and decided to just focus on time for now instead of miles.  I told myself I would do one hour at a pace I was comfortable with and however far I walked was how far I walked, no pressure no expectations.  I took a longer than usual break at the 30 minute mark (about 15 minutes) and completed the full hour.  Then I took a book, a cold glass of water with a squirt of lime juice in it (it's like drinking Sprite without the calories/carbonation/sodium/preservatives/etc. ... a refreshing occasional treat) and a big ol' pickle with a Tbsp of peanut butter on it and headed for a hot bath. 

I soaked, read, shaved, scrubbed, and pampered myself happy.  Then got out, lathered up with lotion (because the burn has started peeling), spritzed on a bit of aromatherapy body spray and went to bed earlier than usual.  I slept pretty bloomin good!  Woke up when Snackers got home thanks to the dog barking, woke up to potty once, woke up this morning to the cat meowing right in my face ... but other than that slept through the night. SHOCKER!  I feel pretty good today!  I'm a little sore from walking which isn't surprising considering how much time I've taken off consecutively but I feel hydrated and relaxed today so I just thought you'd all like to know that.  Snackers has to do another restaurant tonight and he'll be doing these things twice a month so this might be good for my sleep schedule I'm thinking. 

Call me strange but as much as I love Snackers I always sleep better when I'm alone in a big giant bed; I think that's just because I've become such a light sleeper.  Of course these night jobs might be really bad for Snackers' sleep schedule ... poor guy, but he wanted them and they pay really well.  So I think tonight I'm going to do a repeat of last night.  The burn is starting to heal, finally, but my shoulders and back are itchy which SUCKS! lol

Exercise Wagon

So the last two nights I've done no exercise at all.  I've been tired, sluggish, and stressed.  I've gotten off work, finish my daily studies for school, and wanted to do nothing other than kick back and relax.  I've used the sunburn as an excuse too telling myself that I didn't want to put a sports bra on over a bad burn.  Well I know they're excuses ... this is why I put "justifying bad behavior" as one of the challenges I have to overcome when I started this blog.  I find ways to talk myself into doing what I want to do instead of what I know I should do so that I don't have to feel bad about not doing it.  This has got to stop.  I may be eating ok but on the path I'm on now I won't get anywhere for yet another week.  I'm so fed up with myself right now.  I really need to kick myself in the ass and get moving.  But on that note I do have a question for everyone.

I was walking 3 miles a day and then I upped it spontaneously to wanting to do five miles a day.  Is it possible that I upped it too far too fast and that's partly responsible for why I'm getting nowhere?  Or am I just justifying again?  Should I maybe try to do four per day for awhile and see how it goes or should I just stop whining and do five?



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 leftover chicken cordon bleu
>>no ham
>>no honey mustard
1 serving chicken and black beans
2 Tbsps peanut butter
>>w/1 large pickle (ran out of baby ones)
----------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 917



Activity:
Wii Walking: 1 hour = 4.25 miles (8,500 + steps)

Yesterday Went Well

So work went well yesterday.  I stepped up to the plate and hit some nice little base hits (figuratively speaking) and I took the opportunity to explain some of my insecurities to my new boss in a way that let him know my top concern is for the health of the company, not just being a whiney little girl.  Basically, with the old boss we had someone who could be there if the server went down or if there were some other kind of major technical emergency.  I let him know that although I am in school to learn that stuff, I've only taken general education classes thus far and I don't have the experience or education for server maintenance.  I let him know that I am willing and even eager to learn how to manage the server but that it wasn't the kind of place where you put a novice and tell them to figure it out like I do with most other things because the server is the beating heart of the company and we needed to make sure we had a heart surgeon on call just in case.  He seemed to understand and appreciate my position and is going to try to mend fences with our old programmer (fences the previous owner burned) so that we can have that emergency contact that we need.  The new boss is a business guy, not a technology guy, so as it turns out he wasn't necessarily expecting me to know everything, he just didn't understand the various levels involved in running a tech company.  I feel a lot better now - I feel like there is a huge potential for growth in the company (and in my position here) again, pending my education and I feel like I actually have an employer who supports my education goals whereas before it felt like the other guy was threatened by them.  I am willing to dig in and do anything that I can for this company right now but I don't want to be the one who messes it up.  It's a delicate situation right now.  Clearly, I also need to speak with my educational counselor about including some server classes in my BS if possible.

In other news, the sunburn is still raging and it affected my sleep last night.  I kicked the dog out of the bed weeks ago but she has her basket right next to the bed and she gets restless in the middle of the night and just spins circles in it.  I wanted to lock her and the cat up last night but Snackers wouldn't let me.  Tonight I'm going to put my foot down.  I can't keep sleeping like this.  It's no wonder I feel like I don't have energy to exercise even though I ate well yesterday, sleep is so vitally important!

p.s. this might be TMI but I've experienced a miracle.  So I woke up at 4:30 am to pee, then went again when I woke up at 6:00, again about 6:45, again around 7:20, again at 8:00 right before Snackers left for work.  Then again at 9:00 and again at 10:20 and again at 11:00.  No joke ... it's 12:36 in the afternoon and I've peed 8 times already.  Even more amazing? I've only drank ONE glass of water and ONE cup of coffee.  So where is it all coming from right?!  Well I weighed when I woke up at 6:00 and was still 245 right on the nose.  Weighed again after the last potty break because I thought 'I haven't drank this much liquid today.  This has gotta be coming from somewhere' and sure as shit ... 233.5.  HOLY MACKEREL!  Let this be a lesson ... sun burn + wine + dehydration = water retention!




Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 serving greek chicken salad
1 chicken cordon bleu (food bible)
>>no ham, no honey mustard
1/4 cup rice mix
-----------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 987

Like a Lobster

Well the lake was fun.  We took the boat, inflated it, paddled around, I jumped out and swam around, we nibbled on PB&J and chicken salad, sipped some wine and spent pretty much the entire day out there.  We're both sunburned to a crisp which is fine with me because my sun burns usually turn into tans within 24-48 hours but Snackers is miserable.

I slept like crap last night!  We went to bed sometime around 9 and I woke up at 11:00 pm because Snackers was hogging the blanket and with a sun burn we were both freezing so I had to wake up to cover myself up.  Woke up again at midnight completely parched and needing water.  Woke up again around 2:30 because the dog was just spinning circles in her basket on the floor and the sound of it woke me up so I yelled at her to knock it off and went back to sleep.  Woke up again around 4:30 for the exact same reason so I got up to use the bathroom, locked the dog in her kennel in the living room, stole some of the blanket back from Snackers and went back to sleep.  Woke up again around 5:30 because I must have been dreaming that my new boss was calling me to work and I was pissed about it.  Instead of realizing it was a dream and going back to sleep I decided that I wasn't going to let him think he could call me whenever he wanted and went back to sleep thinking I was ignoring him.  Woke up at 6:30 because I was afraid I had overslept the alarm and was late for work, realized I was actually 15 minutes early and just decided 'to hell with it' and got up.  It was only then that I realized my boss hadn't called me at all and it was just a dream.

Gained back 1.5 lbs from last week's weigh in and if Tuesday's cheat weigh-in of a potential 2 lb loss can be trusted that means I may have actually gained 3.5 lbs in four days.  That feels like crap.  I'm irritated and frustrated with the way I've been acting lately.  I had this huge food epiphany and then fell into my old habits of thinking that success means a green light to screw up.  I don't know why I do this; it's a form of self-sabotage and I just don't understand the psychological reason behind it.  Clearly I have issues though.  Here's to hoping I can get my damn head in the right place and get back with the program.


Food:
6 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 serving greek chicken salad
1 healthy choice meal
2 Tbsps peanut butter
>>10 baby pickles
3 oz white wine
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 900 (wow, exact!)

Skipped Saturday

So I could spend this entire post pissing and moaning about how much this weekend sucked and why I didn't post anything but I think I've done enough whining and dwelling on Friday's events.  So instead I'll say this: I didn't eat well ... not at all.  Three sake bombs, three sushi rolls, and one very big involuntary purge led to an early bed time and an extremely nice night of sleep Saturday night.  Because of the purge I couldn't even begin to estimate yesterday's caloric intake and we spent today at the lake, all day long nibbling and sipping so no idea what my count was today either but to hell with it ... the weekend accomplished what I needed it to do - it cleared my head and got rid of the anxiety and whatever tomorrow's weigh-in (and work day) brings I will take my lashings and move on with life.

There you have it.  I'm going to expect the worst, hope for the best, and accept the reality.  Now I just have to find a way develop a new groove in life.  You see, I don't handle change well ... not at all and I never really have.  Change causes anxiety for me.  I would much rather wake up every day knowing what to expect and right now I can't do that - but change is part of life and every time I've ever had to deal with it in the past I've always found a new routine that was comfortable for me so I will do that again.  What choice do I have?

What a Day

Well I had an interesting day.  Woke up, drank water, poured coffee, started up my pc, smoked a cigarette, and started on school.  Started work, kissed Snack Monkey goodbye for the day and then I had a very interesting work-related call.  I can't go into the details and it's quite likely none of you would really want me to anyway but the short version is my new boss (yep, didn't see that coming!) wanted to come over and introduce himself.  I went frantic changing out of my jammies, pulling my hair back, cleaning up the living room and my office as best I could, picking up the cigarette butts on the balcony that had bounced off the rim of the ashtray instead of going in like they're supposed to and just generally picking up the average daily clutter.  It was a very long, informative meeting that I am feeling positive about but led to a MOUNTAIN of work that needs to be done to transition the company for new ownership and most, if not all, of it is falling on my shoulders.  There was so much to be done that it was 3 pm before I knew it and I'd had NOTHING but coffee and water so I snarfed the leftover panini from last night, cold, with one hand while still working at my computer with the other and gulped down some water.  No sooner did I finally wrap that up for the day (though I have some more things that need doing tomorrow) than the phone rang and it was my mortgage guy wanting to discuss how my savings account is looking and where we're at in that process; let me know what I'm pre-qualified for as well as what I could afford to pay for a home and still keep the payments where I want them.  I'm qualified for 100,000 but I want lower monthly payments so he thinks I should stick to 90,000 or less.  Snackers and I have been looking at houses that are 50,000 - 60,000 so that gives us lot's of wiggle room!  YAY!  I was waaaay too exhausted to cook so we went out and the meal was so much less good than so-so.  Just not impressed at all but whatev, at least I'm not hungry and all I care about right now I crashing.

All in all it was a positive day but highly adrenalin filled and now that the adrenalin is wearing off I am completely and unbelievably exhausted ... and I still have more school work that I have to get done tonight.  First I have to go through all my paperwork to find my student loan statements and fax them to my mortgage guy - then school.  Then there is no way in hell I'm exercising tonight; I am going to take a nice cold bath because it's hot as hell in this apartment but I refuse to turn on the A/C and ruin the string of beautifully low power bill's I've had lately, and then I'm going to curl up with a book and fall asleep before I finish the first chapter.




Food:
5 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 leftover panini
1 open faced veggie melt (bleh)
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913