So last night after work I took the night off and it was nice. We got the keys to the new house on July 14th and have been cleaning, painting, packing, moving, and unpacking every single night since, actually we had even already started packing before that. So after deciding to go ahead and just shut off the power in the old place instead of busting my hump to make it more clean than it was when we got the keys to it I also decided that it was time for R&R. I microwaved some leftovers for supper, Snackers went to coach football practice and I snuggled in on the new sofa/chaise with my tablet and played mindless puzzle games while watching Star Trek Voyager reruns on Netflix.
Unfortunately I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked last night. I always have trouble sleeping in a new place for the first few months which sucks because right after a move is usually when you need a good night's sleep the most. I am also eager to get curtains for the bedroom, we found these silver ones at Anna's Linnens that we absolutely loved but we've spent our "remodeling budget" for the time being and I am unwilling to touch the savings because I vowed from day one that I would not do that, no matter what.
9:45 p.m. update: I spent last night doing mindless activities so that my brain could recover and I spent tonight pampering myself for my body's sake. After supper I cleaned up the kitchen. put a heating pad on the back of my neck and a bag of frozen spinach on my ankle/knee/wrists while I studied and completed an SQL Queries assignment for one class and an information management systems assignment for the other.
I then soaked in a nice hot bath for awhile, scrubbed my feet and hands with a pumice until I was afraid they were going to bleed, cut all of my tattered fingernails down to stumps and jammed the bristles of a toothbrush under them as far as I could reach, shaved, washed my hair, and scrubbed myself with a loofah until I turned bright pink all over. Then I slathered myself in my favorite lotion, combed out my hair, chapsticked my lips, and returned to the newly frozen bag of spinach. After 15 days of working with my hands and doing handy-man things it feels good to put a little bit of femininity back into my life.
Just to be clear it's not like I haven't showered in 15 days, I have. And I've cleaned under my fingernails and washed my hair but I've been so busy going and going that I haven't really taken the time to do the whole thorough kit-and-caboodle like I did tonight ... though I can still see black spray paint embedded in the pores on my fore arms that I can't get to without doing significant epidermal damage to them.
Speaking of my arms I noticed something while putting lotion on tonight: I have lost a LOT of weight in my arms. I'm not sure how much and I still have ample turkey jiggles under them but they are much more firm than they used to be and as I was rubbing the lotion in I realized that they are probably about 1/3 smaller than I remember them being normally. I think I'm in danger of becoming an elephant on chicken legs. I've always been pear shaped, even when I was only 20-30 lbs over weight but this time I seem to be losing everything off of my legs, arms, and hips and almost nothing off my upper abdominal area. If I don't find some way to get rid of the belly fat I am going to look like Tweedledee or Humpty Dumpty!!!!
Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
2 servings home-made shepherds pie
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,179
Activity:
Played in the yard with Vladdy during my lunch break today.
Cleaning: I cleaned and scrubbed myself. It's not really physical exertion but it was needed.
They say that belly-fat can be caused by toxins. That your body doesn't know what to do when exposed to too many toxins in your food, beauty products, cleaners, home construction, and the environment. That when overexposed to the point that your body starts having troubles filtering it all through normal processes, your body then just tries to protect you -- and does so by stuffing the toxins into your fat cells (the fat creates an insulator, a buffer of sorts around the toxin)... which in turn makes your fat cells larger. I'm not sure it's ever been proven, but it makes perfect sense and is inline with other facts of how the body works. For example, your body's fat cells DON'T grow in number... the number you have today is the same number you'll have tomorrow (unlike muscle cells) -- fat cells don't increase, but they DO grow larger. That is why most people have success with liposuction. Lipo sucks out a large number of fat cells and leaves you with less... sure, those can still grow larger but (from what I understand) an individual cell has a tendency to only grow to a certain size and then it gets tougher to grow larger. Suck out a bunch of fat cells and while what remains can still grow larger, they have less of a tendency to resist growing enough to make you obese again.
ReplyDeleteHere locally there is a morning DJ who used to be fairly overweight. He started eating better, exercising, lost a lot of weight. But couldn't ever get rid of his love handles. He went to see a weight-loss doc and the dr. told him (more or less) this same thing... said you can reach a point where you just can't lose that remainder. He got lipo (several years back) and I still hear him saying it was the best choice he ever made (aside from changing his lifestyle first so he wouldn't just head back down that path again).
I'm sure it's too early still for you... you should always try to lose as much as you can by lifestyle changes first... but you may want to consider setting lipo as a goal for you once you reach a certain point (if you feel you still need to). Just a thought.
On the other hand, they also say extreme cardio and extreme water-intake can actually create a mini-furnace in your body that will provide the means for your body to feel safe about releasing those toxins (and with them, the fat). But, keep in mind, we're talking pretty hardcore stuff from what I've read. 5 gallons of water every day. One hour (minimum) of pretty intense cardio every day. Neither easy to achieve. But, if it works, it's better for you than lipo (and cheaper!)
Just another thought.
(b)