Another good start

I hung those sconces all by myself, see how level and
evenly spaced?  I rock, I know. :)

Today I woke up to the sound of Vladdy whining to go out and the discovery that it had been raining all night. I poured my coffee and sat down to get some school work done only to get interrupted by Vladdy whining to come in so I went out to yell at him to shut up only to see that it was raining again and my back patio was flooding . . . Good boy! It probably wouldn't have come into the house but the shovel was sitting right there so I did the responsible home owner thing and started digging a shallow drainage trench along the house to the front yard where gravity took over and sent the water downhill to the gutters. Drenched with as much sweat as rain and panting I thought I would come back in and go back to school but my big soggy dog had other ideas.

The rain had stopped and it was quite clear that he was just plain bored so I took him for a two mile walk. By the time we got home he was dry so I put him in his kennel to nap and went back to finish my SQL assignment for school. It is now 2:30 in the afternoon and I have had only a cup of coffee and some water, not as much water as I should have for this time of day either. But at least I've been active and am quite proud of myself. Now I think I will go unpack the bathroom and clean the bedroom.




Food:
6 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 can Arizona iced tea
1 pork verde burrito
1/2 slushy
1 tuna sandwich
>>w/ olive oil mayo
--------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 950




Activity:
Digging: Dug a shallow drainage trench about 13 feet long
Walking: Walked 2 miles w/Vladdy to explore the new hood
Shopping: Hit a few stores w/Snackers just to browse and get some ideas for when we have a new home-spending fund built back up.  We didn't buy anything, except a new pillow for Snackers because his WalMart $5 special is on its last leg.
Unpacking: Finally unpacked the master bedroom/bathroom and put everything away.

Back at it

Well today was a busy and productive day for me. Before even enjoying my morning cup of coffee I had already painted the bedroom curtain rods, filled a hole, swept the back patio, rearranged the living room, and made the bed. After that I went over to the old apartment and painted a wall, cleaned the oven, stove, fridge, blinds, walls, ceilings, washer and dryer, bathroom, counters, fire place, and ceiling fan. Then I helped Snackers clean the carpets and linoleum, wind the hoses, and took out the trash.

We picked up a pizza and delivered it to our friends' kid because he was home alone for the weekend (he's a teenager now) so we just grabbed one for ourselves as well and called it supper. After a nice hot bath and a short chat with my mom I filled another hole in the back yard, swept the patio again, unloaded the car, and helped snackers hang some blinds and now I'm done for the night. Yet another calorie torching day!




Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 an omlette
1 can raspberry ice tea
2.5 slices of pizza
------------------------
daily caloric intake: 1,181




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Read this post, no point in repeating it all

Where to go from here

Well I have now somewhat scared myself into cleaning up the apartment after all because I am afraid that if I don't the complex will not only eat my entire deposit, which I was expecting, but will also try to send me a bill for whatever is not covered by the deposit.  But I am still not going to kill myself doing it, I'll gather up the last of the trash, clean the fridge and oven out, spot clean the walls, wash off the balcony and front porch, clean the other bathroom and have Snackers do the carpet.  From there I am going to cross my fingers and hope for the best.

But the question is, where do I go from here.  I still have to finish unpacking the house but with all of the boxes from the new furniture filling up the hallways until trash day it is very hard to move around or get much of anything done but I am also tired of living in a construction zone.  I am ready to get done what we can get done and put everything away so that it feels like a house, and so that we can invite people over. 

But then there is another part of me that is thinking about the coming weigh-in.  All of the truly hard work is pretty much done.  Sure, unpacking can be a bitch but it's not strenuously similar to, say, washing walls and ripping up carpet either.  I swore on day one of this whole adventure that I was not going to let this move drive me totally off track and so far I think I've done pretty good at at least attempting to retain some semblance of my weight loss plans by blogging and counting, even though we were eating fast food or take out pretty much every night there for awhile.  It felt AMAZING to cook dinner in my new kitchen last night and I LOVE having a gas stove again!  But my living room here is not as conducive to exercise as the old one was, it is very small and quite crowded right now with boxes that need to be unpacked.

We have this beautiful park literally less than a block from our house with this huge grassy area and I have been thinking about putting an ad on CraigsList to see if I can rustle up p.m. yoga group there or something.  I always see these groups that get together and do yoga in places like central park and I've thought it looked like fun but I don't really know yoga so I would need to find someone willing to lead a group first.  It certainly could be good though if I could pull it off right?




Food:
5 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/ creamer
1 Healthy Choice bar
1 serving leftover shepherds pie
1 fish burrito
-------------------------------
Daily caloric intake: 1,065




Activity:
Ran around the yard with vladdy on my lunch break and did some light shopping with snackers after work

The Night Off

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
-------------------------------------
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.

Walking Away

So when I moved into the old apartment two and a half years ago I put down a deposit of $350.  When we decided to move I told myself I was going to do everything in my power to get that money back.  In speaking with the office staff yesterday, however, I learned that only $50 of that deposit was refundable!  $200 was a non-refundable pet deposit and $100 was a non-refundable security deposit.  This has to be the first time I've ever rented a place that required a non-refundable deposit of that size ... where is my incentive to clean the place up when I leave with that kind of policy?

I am still going to go back and do a surface cleaning, throw out the trash, Snackers will still do the carpets ... but there is no way I am going to bother to wash walls, cupboards, and blinds for $50.  Especially because the apartment was a disgusting mess when we moved into it and we've been through 2.5 years of problem after problem in that place - many of the items that we requested repair on were never fixed the entire time that we lived there and I have a feeling that they would just find a way to bilk that $50 away from me anyway so I am going to just walk away from it.

I have too much work to do here at home anyway and now Snackers is sick, probably from all the dust and grime that we've already cleaned coupled with a lack of sleep.  I would much rather put my efforts into getting our new house comfortable and adjusted for us.




Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 fiber one bar
1 Healthy Choice Lunch
1/2 serving leftover crepe
1 serving pickles and peanut butter
-------------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 947




Activity:
Nothing, and it felt awesome.  Mentioned in a comment on a previous post but I've been so sore lately that I can't even roll over in my sleep without the aches and pains in my muscles waking me up.  My hands and feet are still so swollen that I can't put my ring back on (I put it in my jewelry box for safe keeping when we first started packing/painting).  I counted 16 different bruises on my left leg alone and 8 on my right arm.  I didn't bother to count the other arm/leg and figured I could probably call it even.  I've lost every single fingernail either to having it ripped off by something during the move or by having to cut it because it was torn or peeling.  I have four cuts from razor blades on my right hand, one from the bottom of the headboard on my left foot, one from a shopping cart where Snackers ran me over at Ross Dress for Less on the back of my right ankle, and a big one that I'm not even sure how I got just above my right knee cap.  I also have a puffy lower lip (thanks Vladdy!) and a bruised right cheek.  I so was not kidding when I said I looked like an accident victim and my body is SCREAMING for recovery time.

Still So Much To Do

Every day I have been working and getting stuff done and every morning I wake up thinking I can't possibly hurt any more than I already do and every night I go to bed realizing how wrong I was.  Yet there is still so much left to do!  I have four days left to clean the apartment so that I can get my security deposit back, the bed still needs to be tightened down and I HAVE to do that today because the squeaking drove me crazy last night!  The entire house still needs to be put away, there are boxes everywhere, I still need to do a change of address with ... well everyone, and the hedges out front need to be trimmed because I want to make a good first impression on the HOA.

Does it get easier?  At some point home owners do get to just relax and enjoy some semblance of a normal life right?  Something tells me that when it comes to the weekend "Hunny-Do" list, I will probably be the hunny with the doing instead of the other way around.  I'm ok with that, I was a daddy's girl so I followed him everywhere and helped him with his Hunny-Do's when I was little so I am relatively handy.  We inherited a pile of lumber in the back yard that is in excellent condition so I think I'm going to see about building Vladdy a custom dog house once the rest of my projects and chores are done.

In all fairness to Snackers though, when we went to the apartment last night I told him he didn't have to help because he had a very hard day at work yesterday.  We had some items that we didn't want to haul down the stairs to the dumpster, like the old love seat, dresser, a desk, etc. so I listed them "for free, you haul" on craigslist and, sure enough, there were four people waiting for us when we got to the apartment last night.  So I wanted Snackers there to protect me because ya just never know in an empty apartment right?  But other than that I had promised him that he could just relax and listen to music while I cleaned for an hour and a half.  But no, he bagged up trash, cleaned out the tub in one bathroom and did the mirrors in both bathrooms and did the slider window on the balcony.  He's a good guy - he just works too hard and then I feel bad because for work I sit at a desk all day, then get off work and can bust my butt but he busts his butt all day at work and then gets off work and busts it some more at home.




Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
4 sugar-free coffee flavored candies
1/2 serving leftover pastacinni
1 small dinner salad w/vinaigrette
1 cup vegetable soup
1 serving chicken crepe
-------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,180




Activity:
Unpacked and assembled the new living room: the sofa came in three boxes so I had to take it out and put it together; and the tables came in one box so I assembled them also.
Unpacked and put away most of the kitchen, it finally LOOKS like a kitchen!!!

Weigh-In #37

Weight: 227.5!!!

So I have actually been dying to share a story with all of you about the move over the weekend.  I may have mentioned it already but I can't remember so I am going to share it again.  On Saturday we rented a U-Haul and officially moved everything that we hadn't already brought to the new house with the car during our multiple trips over the last week and we had some help from some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We're not members of the church but I know them to be generally good people who help others just for the sake of helping others and we needed it because I knew that there wasn't any way that I was going to be able to help Snackers move my 7 foot iron bed down a flight of stairs.

Prior to the scheduled arrival of our helpers Snackers and I did everything that we could to prepare, we washed the last load of laundry, the last sink full of dishes, and packed literally everything into the living room in a "move" pile and a "good will" pile.  As soon as the first few gentlemen arrived a moving frenzy ensued and I began taking smaller boxes and items that I could carry by myself as the guys paired up to carry the big stuff in teams.  There were so many people going up and down the stairs that when I would go up with my arms empty I would worry about being in the middle of the stairwell when someone started trying to come down with a big heavy load so I ran up the stairs each time so that I would be out of the way.

The first time that I ran up the stairs I got to the top and thought 'I wonder how many times I'll be able to do that before I fall over and die'.  The second time I ran up them I thought 'Wow, I still feel pretty good!  I want to do that again!'.  I honestly lost count of how many times I ran up the stairs after carrying something down them but I know it was more than 12 because that was the last number that I remember counting before someone asked me a question and I lost my train of thought.  I didn't get super short of breath even once; well ok, I was breathing a little hard but not huffing and puffing and gasping for air like I was when Snackers and I moved IN to the apartment.  My face didn't turn all red and I didn't sit down on the sofa in helpless exhaustion wondering how I was going to make it up another flight of stairs.  I just did it, and before I knew it, it was over and I felt pretty freakin' awesome!  That has to be the most rewarding perk of losing weight that I have experienced thus far!  It felt GREAT!!!



Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 leftover half-sandwich
1 serving greek salad
1 serving pastacinni
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 914




Activity:
2 flights of stairs
Cleaning: Went over to the apartment last night and washed walls, shelves, and blinds in my old office, also cleaned the bathroom/walls/etc, and did the outside of the fridge, inside and outside of the cupboards, and walls in the kitchen and sprayed the oven down to let it soak for tonight.
Shopping: Snackers needed a special tool to hang the blinds in the new house and then we ended up at Best Buy watching him drool over the flat screen tv wall for three hours.

Pictures, the Easy way Out

I am, once again, too tired to come up with a post so here are some of the pictures that I've been promising.  I have more on Snackers' phone and I will take more as we get everything cleaned up, put away, and decorated.  The "new" bed is especially lovely but I'm too tired to get up and snap a shot so you'll just have to wait.  Maybe I'll take pictures of all of my cuts, scrapes, and bruises too.  I look like an accident victim ... have I already mentioned that?  I can't remember, I'm too tired.

Master Bedroom to Master Bath

Master Bedroom / Partially Moved

Master Bedroom / Vladdy's Spot

Kitchen / Close up-ish

Kitchen / From Entry

Dining Room / From Entry

Entry / From Dining Room

Living Room / From Entry (the colors are way off in this pic)

Fireplace Mantle / Casper's and Kody's "spot"

Office / Before we finished the floor

Snackers' "Hookem Horns" (not really Texas fans, just irony)

Office / After we did the floor

Office / After we did the floor

Our first home-cooked meal: Grilled Ahi for me

And BBQ spare ribs for Snackers

And this is how I found Snackers and "his boys" last night after a hard, hard day of moving.

Food:
13 glasses of water
1 monster coffee
1 leftover doughnut
1 pineapple/orange juice
1 ahi tuna steak
1 serving grilled asparagus
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 837




Activity:
2 flights of stairs
Helped Snackers touch up the paint on the bed
Leveled/Hung pictures and cork board in the office
Unpacked several boxes of  misc. items
Disassembled the bed, moved it, then reassembled it and put the box spring/mattress in place
Made up the bed nice and pretty
Grocery shopping (finally!!!)
RESTED / DOWN TIME!!!!!!

Still much to be done but it was nice to have a few hours off tonight to relax.

Too Tired to Breathe

It's 1:30 a.m. on Sunday morning and I am just now finishing up Saturday and prepping for bed so this is going to be brief ... really brief.  I'm tired and I still need a shower before I climb into my nice new bargain-shopper sheets.




Food:
13 glasses/bottles of water (nope ...totally not kidding)
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
1 doughnut
1 cheeseburger
1/2 italian sub
1 whole pickle
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,101
(ok so I KNOW my food choices sucked today but lets face it, I burned more calories today than I normally burn in a week AND I was running from 5 a.m. until 1:30 a.m. the next morning so a sit-down healthy meal just wasn't an option even a little bit - it won't become a habit).




Activity:
Totally lost count of how many times I climbed the stairs today.  As we were loading up the U-Haul I would carry something down the stairs and then literally run back up them.  I would get to the top, not winded, not feeling like I was going to die, not about to cry, and I would think "wow that was awesome!  I want to do that again!" So I would grab something else, head down, and literally run back up them.  I don't even know how many times but even Snackers was like "wow babe ... just wow.  What a difference!"

Did some quick shopping in the a.m. to pick up some last minute little must-haves for the house (like a shower curtain!  Doh!)
Picked up the U-Haul, took it to the apt. and started loading.  Did the last of the dishes and packed up the last of the boxes and loaded everything in the U-Haul.
Brought the U-Haul to the house and unloaded everything.
Unpacked my office right away, rearranged the furniture 15 times until I got it where I wanted it, then set up my computer and all the various bobs and cables that go with it.
Spray painted the bed frame, then had to wash paint off the soles of my feet in the tub, then had to clean the tub.
Finished putting the new hardware on the dresser sets.
Rearranged and put the dining room table/benches together (a BITCH to do I might add!)
Set up the TV/Cable/Playstation for Snackers (he's not a fan of setting up technology, just using it).
Worked with Snackers to assemble and install a ceiling fan in the living room.
Unpacked various misc. boxes but far from being done.
Another quick trip to the store to get more misc. items that we forgot the first time (like an el-cheapo floor lamp for my office because it doesn't have any overhead lighting options, a new keyboard because I broke mine (yay me), and shower curtain rings because I am an idiot and bought the curtain and rod but forgot rings.

I'M SO TIRED!  And beat all to hell, I might add.  There are bruises EVERYWHERE and where there aren't bruises there are cuts and scrapes and, in most cases, both!  I look like an accident victim!!!

G'night.

Exhausted

So in addition to buying, painting, and moving into a house I am also still going to school full time.  I've not been studying this week the way I should be but I did manage to stay up super late last night and complete/submit the two assignments that are due by midnight tonight.  I am now up at 5:00 a.m. this morning so that I can get the assignment that is due Sunday done as well so that I don't have to worry about it.

Work was super busy yesterday because we decided to move our servers to a new, better data center.  That means that our IP address is going to change which means our 1,300 customers have to update their domain names.  For those of you who have no idea what any of that means, it's like a change of address form but you have to change your address 1,300 times (or more since most of our clients have multiple website addresses).  We sent out an email at the beginning of the week letter our customers know about the move and asking them to make the change or to email me their domain login info so that I can make it for them and the first calls and emails started to come in Wednesday night so I was inundated with work yesterday and I anticipate today being just as busy.

I can't wait until next weekend.  Tonight we're cleaning the floors because Snackers didn't get them done yesterday as planned, and we're moving our bedroom furniture into the house and unpacked the clothes I've taken over there so far so that we can reuse the boxes.  Tomorrow we're getting the U-Haul and moving all of the big stuff which means we'll be painting the bed, finally, before reassembling it and then on Sunday I'll be cleaning the apartment from top-to-bottom so that I can get my security deposit back.  All of next week we'll probably still be unpacking our stuff at the house but hopefully by next weekend life will be back to normal.

p.s. Snackers bought me a new pair of stretchy pants because I got paint all over a pair I had over the last week and they are a ... drum-roll please ... SIZE 16!  Booyah baby!  I look good in them too!  So I'm going to start wearing them for my monthly pictures now since the other ones are just too big to even be comfortable anymore, they're like wearing a tent now.




Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 pastrami melt
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,132




Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Packing/Boxing: Packed up the entire apartment and moved everything but the bed into the living room
Cleaned the kitchen at the new house, cupboards, drawers, fridge, you name it.
Replaced all the knobs in the kitchen and on the new bedroom furniture.
Changed the door locks and hauled all the trash out of the new house/garage.

The Homestretch

Well we're almost there!  Painting is done, the trash and tarps and buckets of paint have all been cleaned up and we've started filling up the car with stuff to take to the house on every trip that we make over there.  Today Snackers is going to swing by the house with his cleaning van after work and clean all of the floors, tile and carpet alike.  Then tonight we'll move our bedroom furniture into the house, unpack all of our boxes and put stuff away so that we can bring the boxes back here and load them back up again, and I'll try, if I have time, to get the kitchen cleaned thoroughly top-to-bottom.

I ended up having to clean the oven THREE TIMES with SimpleGreen oven cleaner because the people who owned that house before us were just that filthy!  SimpleGreen, for those of you who have never used it, is the ultimate degreaser - this is the first time I have ever seen anything so dirty that it couldn't be cleaned in a swipe with that stuff.  Even my mom was astonished when I told her.

It is easy to say on my blog that I am exhausted and sore from cleaning and I am sure that it is easy, as a reader, to think 'it's just cleaning, it can't be that bad' but you would have to see it to believe it.  BUT ... that was to our benefit I think because most people would have walked into that house and said "Oh it's a disaster, we don't want to buy this" but Snackers and I walked in and said "It can be cleaned".  We truly got an awesome deal and all we had to do was put a little bit of sweat and hard work into it and it is now a beautiful house!  I can't wait to take pictures for you once the carpets are cleaned and I am so bummed that I didn't get before pic because you would not believe the transformation!  As tired as we are I have to confess that we are feeling very proud of ourselves right now.

Last night after we cleaned the last of the painting supplies out it started to finally feel like our house.  My sister asked me when she was here last week if it had "sunk in" yet and I said no, definitely not.  Every night we would go over there and it would feel like we were cleaning and painting someone else's house ... I just couldn't wrap my head around knowing that it is ours but last night it finally started to hit me.  We stood between the living room and the dining room and just hugged each other as we looked around and all that we have accomplished in such a short amount of time.  I can't wait until we can officially move our things in on Saturday and then spend our first night there.  It still feels a little bit surreal.

Survey time!:  So we bought a five gallon bucket of red paint because we actually thought that we would use it all in the bedroom (the paint company's projections on square foot coverage were SO WRONG!) and we now have about 3 gallons left.  The guest bedroom is lavender and we haven't painted it yet because we don't really know what we want to do with it.  We thought we might as well just use the leftover red paint on it but since it is a guest room my mom was against the idea because she thought some guests might not want to stay in a red room.  What do you all think?





Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 fiber one bar
1 tbsp peanut butter (no pickles)
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 steak burrito
1 weight watchers ice cream bar
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,069




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Packing/Loading the car
Unpacking the car
Unpacking boxes/putting some stuff away
Laundry
Cleaned blinds in the kitchen
Washing/Hanging wall plates

Roberto's

I never thought that I would say this but I am actually getting sick of eating out.  We've packed up all of our pots and pans and we're in such a rush after work to get right to the house that we've just been grabbing whatever we can along the way and I haven't cooked a meal since the 4th of July.  I actually miss it!

I've decided that when we're all moved in I would like to look into putting together a little garden in the back yard where the second and third level are.  Vladdy LOVES to run through there though so I am going to have to try to figure out a way to keep him from destroying it.  I would like to have a little mix of veggies and herbs like cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, garlic, dill, cilantro, parsley and I would even love a little dwarf lime tree too.  I'm not even sure of all of those things will grow well in Vegas and I know I SUCK at keeping plants alive but it would be nice to step out into the back yard every time I need lime juice and just pick a lime off my own tree.

I have to admit though, out of all of the crappy foods that we have been consuming on the run lately, our visit to Roberto's Taco Shop last night surprised me.  I've never been there but there is one right by the new house and we've been driving past it for a week so we decided to try it out.  I had the shrimp burrito which is HUGE for only 412 calories.  The flavor profile of it gets a little bit boring after the first half or so but for only $6.50 they really do stuff that baby full of big ol' shrimps.  I was relatively impressed.




Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 chicken snack wrap
1 chicken sandwich
1 small fry
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,267




Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Packing/Cleaning at the apartment
Cleaned the oven racks at the new house
Pulled the last of the tape from the walls/baseboards
Cleaned blinds in kitchen
Shopping: Basic supplies
Loaded and unloaded the car
Hung doors x 2
Cleaned up all painting supplies and got floors cleared so Snackers can clean them today

Still So Much To Do

I'm sure that many of you are already getting sick of hearing about all the work that we've been doing at the new house.  It is already Tuesday, we have helpers lined up and a U-Haul reserved for this coming Saturday and there is still so much to do.  I still need to paint a few little spots along the baseboards in the master bedroom, paint the closet in my office, touch up paint spills around the trim in the hallway, paint the trim around the front door, clean the kitchen, hang the blinds, and clean the guest bedroom and I have to do it all soon because Snackers needs to bring his truck in and clean all of the floors before we start moving furniture in.

We are so exhausted that we move around the house like zombies, joints creaking and popping as we go.  Snackers has today off of work because his boss is an awesome guy who had the foresight to realize in advance that we weren't going to get as much done this week as we thought we were going to get done and knew we would need extra time due to having such a late closing on the mortgage.  I wish I could get the day off too but there is literally no one to cover for me and I promised my boss that I wouldn't let buying a house affect my work performance.  I feel like I'm already kind of breaking that promise because I am so tired that I have been missing little things or forgetting to do little assignments that he's asked me to do.  He's a great guy too so he's been really understanding and compassionate about it and I am sure he would gladly give me some time off if there were someone that could fill the gap but I'm all they've got right now.

I had to take my ring off last night and put it in a safe place because my hands are so swollen that it was starting to turn my finger purple.  Thank goodness for butter.  I've also had to resort to wearing flip-flops because my feet are too swollen for my grubby tennis shoes and I really don't want to wear my shape-ups over to the house until we're done painting.




Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 breakfast sandwich
1 healthy choice lunch
1 shrimp burrito
------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,159




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Sanded and painted two doors
Painted the last of the baseboards in the master bedroom
Cleaned/de-greased the oven TWICE
Pulled up all the tape in the master bedroom, kitchen, living room, and dining room.
Did two loads of laundry
Packed up a load of stuff to move during my lunch break
Unloaded the car at the house

This is just the stuff that I did, Snackers had his own giant list of accomplishments yesterday!

Weigh-in #36

Well I had been weighing during the week and watching the numbers drop consistently all week long.  It got down to 228.5 on Saturday morning but today I am at 231.5.  That does not bother me though because my hands and feet are visibly swollen and I am muscle-sore in every single part of my body from my neck to my toes.  I know, confidently, that I BUSTED MY BUTT this weekend and burned a crap load of calories.  I won't be able to trust my weigh-ins until this whole move is well over with and I am back on a normal schedule.

So Thursday night I was at the house from 4:00 p.m. until about 10:30 p.m. working, straight.  Snackers was there too but from 6:30 p.m. until about 9 p.m. he left to help coach a youth football practice so I was on my own for the most part.  I must have burned a TON of calories because in spite of eating more than half of my panda express dinner I suddenly became violently hungry around 8:30 followed shortly by extremely weak and shaky so I ended up finishing the rest of the meal so that I would have the energy to keep working.

Friday night I was there from 4:00 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. working and, again, Snackers was there but made a trip to the hardware store for supplies and was gone for about an hour-ish.  I woke up Friday morning feeling like I was completely STARVING which is extremely unusual for me.

Saturday we were there from 10:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. working and this time Snackers went on three supply runs but I was there the entire time working non-stop but for a few minutes to grab a smoke or inhale some food.  I  must have been burning insane amounts of calories all weekend because I wouldn't just get a little hungry I would be fine and then suddenly BAM, I felt famished and shaky like I had low blood sugar.

Yesterday we were there from 8:00 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.  Around noon we realized we still had so much to do that we weren't going to get it done in time for our planned moving date of this coming Saturday so we gave in and put an ad on CraigsList for helpers.  We got three guys, two were REALLY GOOD, one was lazy and did really shoddy crappy work and we practically had to redo everything that he did but we got it done.  All major painting is DONE.  All that is left is touch up and trim.  Around 3-ish my mom and sister showed up, totally unannounced and my mom got right to work cleaning bathrooms and she cleaned out my fridge for me.  She wanted to do the whole kitchen but couldn't because we had painters everywhere.  In spite of having help Snackers and I still kept working with them and by the time everyone left and it was just Snacker, mom, sis, and I we were completely exhausted!

We provided pizza and drinks for everyone but my mom and sis wanted to go to dinner so we ended up at TGI Friday's at 10:00 p.m. ordering appetizers.  I gave in and ordered a couple of glasses of wine because it was happy hour and it felt really good to unwind instead of just falling into bed as we had been doing for the previous four nights.  After that we played the 11:00 p.m. session of Bingo (my mom and sister are now addicted to Bingo and wanted to play another session but 11:00 p.m. is the last one of the night) and then we parted ways and came home to bed.

I woke up completely parched this morning (thanks to the wine) but also swollen (also thanks to the wine and the MASSIVE water intake from yesterday) and ... you guessed it, STARVING!  That's why my weigh-in doesn't bother me.  I don't care what the scale says, I know that my caloric intake-to-burn ratio was massively in favor of weight-loss.  We will be back at it first thing after work tonight so this might not get posted until tomorrow morning.



Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
2 hot dogs w/mustard and sauerkraut
1 pastrami sandwich
7 fries
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,256




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Cleaning: cleaned up from yesterday's work and re-washed baseboards in the master bedroom and living room
Taping: Taped off baseboards in master bedroom and living room, pulled tape from the entry and dining room
Patching: Patched holes in two of the doors with a door patch kit
Painting: Painted baseboards around the living room and master bedroom and around the door frames

Sunday's Post

I promised that I would get caught up from the weekend today and I am.  So, here are the before and after pics that I promised for the office and master bedroom.

THE OFFICE BEFORE

This window looks out at the front yard

Shawn has his painting hat on, ready to work

So in the picture on the left I am standing in the doorway taking a picture of the main window that looks out over the front yard.  In the picture on the right I am standing with my back to the window from the first picture, taking a picture of the neat little box windows and niche for a bookshelf that are opposite the door.  Shawn has already removed the disgusting carpet from this room and we've scraped the floors by the time that I took this pic so we were just preparing to tape off the baseboards and windows.

THE OFFICE AFTER

The floor still isn't done yet, will take another when last coat is on

And here is the bright, sunny, beautiful orange that we picked for my office.  If you went to a pumpkin patch and picked out the ideal pumpkin ... that's the color of my walls.  In this picture we haven't done the floor yet but I am standing in the doorway capturing both the big window and the three little windows from the two pictures above.

THE MASTER BEDROOM BEFORE

Looking into the master bathroom

Standing in the doorway looking in

Ok so in the first picture I am standing inside the master bedroom looking into the master bathroom.  We have taped for paint (that's the blue).  In the second picture I am standing in the doorway to the master bedroom, the doorway to the master bathroom would be to my right (out of the picture completely) and the window that you see on the left is the same window that I was standing in front of in the first picture.  And there's Snackers, setting up his ladder to tape off the ceilings.  I should note that I did most of the taping because Snackers did a lot of different prep jobs like taking down light fixtures, wall plates, blinds, filling holes in the walls, laying drop cloths etc.  However, super props to him because I am TERRIFIED OF LADDERS so I did what I could reach from the step ladder you see in the second pic, but anything higher than the second step was all him and we have 12 foot ceilings in some places so ... THANKS HUNNY BEAR!!!

THE MASTER BEDROOM AFTER

Looking into the master bathroom

 

Standing in the doorway again

These pictures are kind of deceiving, I know.  The paint in the master bedroom is not as pink as it looks in the first picture, nor are they are orange as they look in the second picture.  Light play ... hopefully I can get a better picture when the blinds are back in place to filer the light.  They are a dark red - if you want to Google it the pain is by Glidden and it is called Candy Apple.  We haven't done the trim yet so yes, it is still green in these pictures and no, it is not going to stay that color.  I'll be painting trim in the evenings all this week - white semi-gloss throughout the entire house to tie the rooms and colors together.  We replaced the ugly ceiling fan you see in the 'before' pic with a much prettier brushed nickle finish fan from the guest bedroom and we will hang the ugly fan in there for the time being.  The brushed nickle will go perfectly with our bedroom furniture so we really lucked out that it came with the house and we just had to swap it from one room to the other.

AND FINALLY, FOR NOW

Vladdy is a VERY happy dog!

He has hated the fact that he's had to either be locked up in the guest room or outside all day every day this weekend because we've been painting but he does love having a yard, finally, where he can run around.  He loves the different levels at the back of the yard where he can jump up and down as he runs in big circles all the way around the yard.  (Perspective notes: I took this pic from the back corner of the yard looking toward the other back corner so there is still quite a bit of yard behind me from this picture).

I apologize but I totally forgot to take before and after pics of the living room, dining room, hallway, kitchen and entry.  I can still take after pics tonight but it's too late for before pics.  Suffice it to say, aside from the master bedroom, the office, and the guest room, every single wall in the house was this dark mauve-ish brown color and it was depressing and boring and oppressive.



Food:
Lost track of water but it was A LOT
1 Breakfast burrito
2 slices of leftover pizza
1 chicken quesadilla
2 glasses of reisling
----------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,588




Activity: ... Heeere we go!
2 flights of stairs
Cleaning: Washed walls, light fixtures, counters, baseboards, and cupboards in the kitchen, dining room, coffee bar, and hallway.
Taping: Taped off trim, counters, cabinets, and windows in the kitchen, dining room, coffee bar, and hallway.
Painting: Put second coat of paint on the living room, put coats 1 and 2 of paint on the kitchen, coffee bar, dining room, and hallway (more info on how we got this much done in tonight's post)
More Cleaning: cleaned up brushes, trash, rollers, paint cans, drop cloth's etc. after painting.

Saturday's Post

So last night we picked up 2 5 gallon buckets of paint and opted to go with a concrete stain in the room that will be my office instead of spending four times more on pergot flooring.  I went to work right away taping off all of the trim and the windows in the room while Snackers pulled up the tack strips from the carpet, then we swept and wiped everything down again, really well and got to work painting.  I took the brush and did detail work in the corners and around the windows and outlets while Snackers took the roller and went to work on the big stuff.

Today we're going to put a second coat of paint on the walls in some places where it needs it, then pull the tape and start on the master bedroom while it dries.  When we're done with that we're going to go back and do all of the trim in my office and then stain the floor which will put one room totally done.  If we get an early enough start and work fast enough we should be able to put a second coat on the bedroom today and maybe even finish the stain.  We're considering just camping out over there tonight since neither of us has to work today so maybe we can work later into the night and then get up and get right to it in the morning.  I don't know though - with as sore as we both are I think both of us like the idea of coming home to our nice comfy bed rather than sleeping in our inflatable boat on the floor.

Snackers messed up his hand pretty bad pulling up tack strips.  It involves this little crow-bar like tool that you jam under the tack strip and then smack with a hammer until the concrete nails come up.  The part that you hit with a hammer is really small and slanted (like a crow bar) so the hammer kept slipping off and clipping his hand.  He had some severe bruising and swelling on the back of his hand between his thumb and forefinger last night before bed and I am pretty worried that he might have chipped or even broken a bone.  I guess we'll see how it looks this morning when he wakes up.  I'm already up, brewing coffee, and more or less ready to go.

P.s. I remembered to take a before pic of the office last night, I'll post it with the after pic when we get it all done.





Food:
11 glasses of water
1 coffee flavored energy drink
1 breakfast sadnwich
2 slices of pizza
2 cheesy bread sticks
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,360




Activity:
2 flights of stairs
Cleaning: Cleaned all ceiling fans; cleaned blinds, face plates, walls, and baseboards in the living room and entry
Taping: taped off the master bedroom, living room and entry for paint
Painting: Painted a second coat on the walls in the office and a first and second coat one the walls in the master bedroom as well as a first coat  on the walls in the living room and entry.  Also put down Killz on the floor and around the baseboards in the office and helped Snackers re-hang a ceiling fan.

Quick Update

Stopped work on the new house last night at midnight, went straight to bed.  Woke up this morning, took a hot bath and we're headed back to work so no time to count and post but I will fill you in on the full weekend intake/activities tomorrow.  Sweat equity ... aptly named.

The New House Day 1

Well we got our keys yesterday as promised!  There is a LOT of work to be done and very little time in which to do it which means we're going to be breaking our asses to get it done.  Yesterday Snackers ripped out the carpet in the room that will be my office and I am SO GLAD he did!  Let me tell you, it looked a whole lot worse underneath than I thought it did on top.  Years of pet urine stains piled stain on top of stain on top of stain.  In some places it was so bad that the padding had degraded and stuck to the concrete from urine alone.  One benefit of being in love with a carpet and flooring specialist is free labor but another benefit is that he let me work with him and taught me as we went.  He showed me how to use a scraper tool and I went through the room scraping glue and bits of padding off the floor ... that's not easy!!!  After that we swept the whole room out really good so he can put this special sealant on the concrete that will disinfect it and protect our new flooring from whatever might have soaked into it.

After that I swept the walls in the room from top to bottom and cleaned the vent.  Then I mixed up a bucket of pinesol and washed the walls from top to bottom, up and down a step ladder at least a few dozen times.  Went around the room on my knees to do the base boards, did the blinds, and the windows, vacuumed out the window tracks and swept the window screens from outside.  Then turned him loose in there to take down blinds, remove electrical covers, and take down the light fixtures while I went to work on the master bedroom.  Again swept the walls, washed the blinds, washed the walls, swept the vents, did the base boards, and windows, and cleaned the ceiling fan (as well as the one in the living room).  By the time I was done with that he had the light fixtures from the office down so I washed those in the sink and we called it a night.

We took the dogs with us and Vladdy LOVES the back yard!  I went out to take a quick water break and watched him run circles around the yard over and over again just because he can.  I wanted to get before/after pics of the rooms but forgot.  I'll try to remember to take some today so that you can see the difference when we finish painting and installing the flooring.  Snackers' boss came by last night as we were cleaning to drop off a few items that he is letting us borrow so we don't have to blow our whole budget on tools and he feels very strongly that the carpet in the living room is going to have to be replaced before we move in as well.  He said that the smell will never come out and that it can even permeate our new sofa because it is in such bad shape so we're going to see if we can get big enough remnants from a flooring store to save money.    He signed off on the carpet in the master and spare rooms though so we're going to leave them for now and maybe replace them down the line because they do have some burn marks in them but at least they don't appear to be filled with pet stains.  I'm exhausted and we've only scratched the surface!  The next week is going to be a LOT of work!




Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 capriotti's turkey sub
1 kona coffee
-------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,127




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
shopping: bought paint and tools for painting
Taping/Painting: Last night I taped off all the trim and windows in what will be my office, then we painted the first coat on the entire room.  Up and down the step-ladder a lot, again.  I can't believe how sore I am and we've barely scratched the surface of the work to be done.

Things Falling and Keys

Where to start, where to start.  I suppose the scale would be as good a place as any.  Yep, the numbers are dropping.  I must have had a WHOLE LOTTA water retention going on.  I've done basically no physical activity for the last 48 - 72 hours and yet the numbers have been progressively dropping.  Yesterday they were at 232 and today they are at 230.  That just shows I wasn't overstating how sore I was because that is a LOT of fluid retention!

Next ... my pants.  You know, the ones I take pictures in every month?  I think it's about time for new ones.  They are now so baggy on me that they drag the ground when I walk so the hems are starting to fray and frazzle and the other day I even got them stuck over the heel of my shoe, didn't realize it at first, and walked a hole in them.  I could just cut the length up a bit to compensate but they're baggy around the hips and waist too.  I used to be able to tie the draw string at a comfortable size and then use the elastic to pull them on/off without untying them but I have now become too small for the elastic.  I have to tie them so tight that there is no longer any stretch which means I either tie them loose enough to pull them on/off without untying them but then I feel the need to hold them up when I try to put my cell phone in my pocket, or I have to untie and retie them a dozen or so times a day.  It is becoming tiresome.  It is awesome news, of course, but I hate buying new clothes ... hate it.  Even if they are smaller than the ones I had before.  You can see in this month's pic what I mean ... my feet are practically drowning in pant leg, all you can see are my toesies.

November, 2010 (start)

July, 2011 (present)

So I'm holding my arms weird in this picture because my bra is now also too big and the underwires dig into my armpits.  Lovely huh?  P.s. I'm posting this in the right margin with a weight of 229.0 since we know that Monday's weigh-in was an annoying fluke.

And finally, keys: Yep ... that's right.  Finally, 14 days late, we are closing on the house and getting keys TODAY!  I am a somewhat jaded individual so there is this part of me that thinks 'I'll believe it when I see it' ... like some horrible bomb is going to drop out of the sky and blow up my house right before I get the keys or something.  But the president of my lending agency called to congratulate me yesterday along with the Lender, the Processor, and the Appraiser so I guess that's a pretty good sign that it's official.  I'm on pins and needles just waiting to hear from the Realtor today.  We have all of our cleaning supplies boxed up and ready to go and first thing after work tonight we're going to go over and start scrubbing the place down from top-to-bottom so that we can paint.  We've scheduled utilities to be transferred on July 23rd and are going to get a U-Haul and some scouts to come help us move everything in one fell swoop.  Don't worry, I'll be sure to take before and after pics for the blog! :)




Food:
11 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 serving sunflower seeds
1 Healthy choice lunch
1 serving veggie chow mein
1 serving beef w/broccoli
1 serving garlic chicken
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,114




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Shopping: Ran through Home Depot grabbing cleaning supplies
Cleaning: Washed four sets of blinds, three A/C vents, two ceiling fans, two light fixtures, seven windows, and all walls from top to bottom in two rooms including base boards (up and down off a step ladder a lot!).
Demolition: Snackers ripped out the carpet in what will be my office and then I used a scraper to get the glue and old padding off the concrete and swept the room.

The Elusive Nap

Snackers thought he had the day off yesterday but around mid-afternoon he got called in to work after all to do a couple of small jobs (YAY! we need the dough!) so he was still gone when I got off work and I decided it would be an opportune time for a nap!  Wouldn't you know it, almost just before my head hit the pillow my phone went off with a text message from my mom.  I told her I was laying down for a nap and would talk later and she was cool with it.  No sooner did I get settled in then Vladdy started to bark for no apparent reason so I had to shut him up.  No sooner did I lay back down and just start to nod off than Snackers came home and that was that.  Snackers does his best to facilitate napping for me but he's not very good at it.  It is not entirely his fault because I have become an EXTREMELY light sleeper but still ... I knew the moment I heard him coming up the stairs that sleep was out of the question.

We picked through to-go boxes from the fridge for dinner and then headed out to grab just a few quick grocery items (like coffee) to supplement us for the week.  When we got home I sat down in my recliner and started to study but quickly realized I was going to lose the sleep war so I laid down on the floor with a pillow, afraid that if I expended enough energy to get up and go in to the bed that I would wake myself up too much and wouldn't be able to sleep.

It seems like almost immediately Vladdy started a high pitched whining sound which means 'I need to go potty' so Snackers took him outside but in his excitement on the way out the door he stepped on my head.  I moved to the sofa to protect myself but when he got outside he started to bark at the neighbors BBQ grill and that was the end of the nap take two.

Somehow, however, I did manage to stumble to bed sometime around 9 p.m. and remained asleep until Kody woke me up around 5:30 this morning.  But at least I got caught up!

Oh by the way: I picked up a box of weight watchers dark chocolate and raspberry ice cream bars from Wal-Mart last night.  80 calories per ice cream and really pretty good!



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 serving leftover shepherds pie
1/2 serving sunflower seeds
1 foot long chicken sub
>>the usual
1 weight-watchers ice cream
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,297




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Errands
Studied all evening after work, packed up cleaning supplies and went to bed early again.

Karaoke

So yesterday after work Snackers' brother announced that he wanted to take everyone out to dinner, his treat, because he'd done well at the casino's the night before so we all headed to Outback.  I ordered smart with an ahi appetizer and a dinner salad with vinaigrette dressing but I did eat two slices of the bread that they bring out before a meal and then felt guilty about it.

After that we decided to go swimming so we headed home to change into our suits then met back at their hotel and played around in the pool/hot tub for an hour or so.  After that we grown-ups all got cleaned up and went to a local spot for karaoke because it is kind of a tradition for Snackers' brother and I to hit a karaoke club whenever we hang out.  I did the following songs:

Rolling in the Deep - Adele
Chasm - Flyleaf
You Oughta Know - Alanis Morisette
Safe in the Arms of Love - Martina McBride
Fever - Acapella (Elvis' version)

By then it was getting late so Snackers and I bounced and I crashed the second I walked in the door, which is why yesterday's post got published this morning.  I need a nap.

Update: Sorry, I fell asleep before posting again last night so this one is getting out late also but I think I might have finally caught up a bit on my sleep.  YAY!





Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 serving sunflower seeds
1 serving leftover shepherd's pie
1/2 serving leftover breakfast hash
>>eggs, chorizo, potato cubes, and tortilla strips
>>w/franks on top
1 weight watchers ice cream bar (not shabby!)
---------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 932




Activity:
3 flights of stairs
Shopping: Extremely Light difficulty
Sleeping:  I am counting the fact that I finally got caught up on my sleep as part of my activity for yesterday because I definitely needed sleep more than exercise for my health.  I was falling waaay too far behind on sleep and feeling the effects of it in many ways.  Besides, several studies have shown that sleep deprivation can effect weight loss including one recent study posted just a few days ago on Yahoo! news.

Weigh-In #35

A most confusing experience this morning ...

I will admit that I cheated and stepped on the scale on Thursday morning just for fun and it read 231.5.  I swallowed the panic and accepted that with as sore as I've been this week the gain is more than likely fluid retention from muscle damage.

This morning I stepped on the scale and was 233.5!  *GASP!*  Ok ... fluid from muscle damage, repeat the mantra.  Everything will be ooooootay.  It's just fluid from muscle damage ... right?

Then after a second potty-break I stepped on the scale again hoping to see AT LEAST a small loss since waste out means less weight in right?  234.0!!!  WTH is going on?!  Ok wait I drank a glass of water and a cup of coffee so maybe the fluid that I drank just weighed more than what I eliminated.  IT WILL GO BACK DOWN!  It will, won't it?

And finally ... I guess just because I like to torture myself I looked under the scale after another potty break and discovered a big piece of wicker from the cat's basket so I thought "Ooooh there's the culprit".  Cleared the floor, put it down, let it zero out, stepped on and ... 234.5!!!  WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!?!?!  I didn't drink anything between weigh-in 2 and weigh-in 3 so how have I GAINED 1.5 lbs in 2 hours when all I've put into my body is one glass of water and one cup of coffee but I've gone #1 four times and #2 twice?!  This completely defies the laws of physics.  I cannot possibly get heavier if I am eliminating more than I am taking in ... it just doesn't make sense!

I don't think my scale is broken but I can't find any other explanation.  I mean let's face it, even with water retention and muscle damage we're talking a 5.5 lb GAIN in 7 days?!  No way!  I'm still getting crap from some of you for not eating ENOUGH calories for the amount of physical activity that I've been doing and 3,500 calories = 1 lb so there is NO POSSIBLE WAY that I ate 19,250 calories more than I burned this week when I've been on 1,400 or less every single day.  Hell 1,400 times 7 is ONLY 9,800!!!  Stress?  Can stress make you gain weight from thin air?  I am stressed out right now, no doubts about that but THAT IS ABSURD!

I'm going to explode ... I need to go do something before I rupture something.
P.s. sorry this didn't get posted until this morning.  I got home last night and went straight to bed.





Food:
10 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 serving sunflower seeds
1 serving leftover veggie fried rice
1 dinner salad with vinaigrette
2 slices pumpernickel bread w/butter
1 serving seared ahi tuna steak
---------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,249





Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Swimming: Snackers' family is still in town so we went swimming with them over at their hotel pool.
Stressing: I had a TON of nightmares Sunday night about the house and spent all of yesterday feeling like I was on the verge of having a panic attack, though one never did actually come.

Feeling A Bit Better

I'm glad I took yesterday off because I am feeling a little bit better today.  We did some walking yesterday but nothing major, just a quick trip through the mall and a tiny stint in a casino.  I'd like to do something more today like take the dogs to the park (I wanted to go first thing this a.m. but Snackers thought it was already too hot).  The power is now on in the new house so we're going to meet our realtor there to check on all of the appliances and get some measurements so that we can estimate how much it will cost to paint.  Normally I would want to wait to paint until we had built up our savings again after paying closing costs but whoever painted last in that place did a terrible job.  There is paint on every outlet cover, all over the base boards and even some on one of the bedroom doors.  It kind of looks like someone just gave an 8 year old a roller and said "go for it".  The master bedroom is this AWFUL teal color with mauve carpet and our bed is so hard to move that we definitely want to, at the very least, paint the bedroom before we move the bed so that we won't have to move it twice.

As it turns out Snackers' brother and his kids came to town with their sister and her daughter and a family friend so we had an extremely eventful day.  We hit the bank, the dog park, the house, and did some running around with the family entourage.  They'll be in town for the next two days too so we'll probably be hanging out with them again before they leave.


I WANT KEYS!  I am sooooo ready for this house buying process to be over!!!



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 egg
1 serving fruit crepes
4 oz beef sirloin
1 cup cole slaw
1 cup steamed veggies
1 cup crab salad
1 glass white wine
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,174




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Walking: Not tracked, not significant.

Never So Exhausted

They say that buying a home is one of the top 10 most stressful things a person will ever do in their entire life ... I concur.  Ever since we exited the "house shopping" phase and entered negotiations and the lending process I've been experiencing some disturbing physical oddities.  My already frustrating trouble with falling asleep, staying asleep, and sleeping deeply has only gotten worse - some mornings I wake up with the alarm wondering if I ever really went to sleep at all.

I've developed acute benign muscular spasms directly blow my left eye where it pulsates every few minutes, lifting up into my peripheral vision and the only way I've been able to make it stop is by pressing gently on it with my fingertips.  According to an article I found on an optometrist website it is believed to be caused by either lack of sleep, too much caffeine, or stress.  Well, two out of three isn't great but what can yah do right?

I've also noticed that I've been bruising with extreme ease.  I've counted 15 little bruises all up and down my legs ranging in diameter from a dime to a quarter.  There are 8 on my arms, one which is relatively large.  The inside of the knuckle on my left index finger bruised somehow so it's all purple and swollen and I honestly don't remember how or when I got ANY of them.  Even more weird is that they are all kind of a yellowish color (with the exception of my finger), like old bruises, but they were never standard purplish bruises to begin with eliminating purpura as the possible reason.  My mom has always bruised extremely easily but I usually have to take a pretty significant hit to get a bruise.

I thought for sure that I would sleep better last night, after singing papers, than I had ever slept in my life but nope ... didn't happen.  Maybe it will be easier after we've fully and officially moved.



Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 serving shepherds pie (leftovers)
1 serving onion soup
1 small salad
3 hibachi shrimp
1 serving hibachi veggies
1 serving tuna steak
5 oz white zinfandel
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,215




Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Not much else.  I waaaaay over-trained the last few days.  My muscles in every part of my body hurt to an almost debilitating degree, especially my quads.

Mighty Push-Ups

I happen to know that I am not alone, as a woman, in my desire to eventually do a "real" push-up.  I know several women who wish they had the upper body strength to do push-ups the right way and I know that many women resent "girl push-ups", including the fact that they're called "girl push-ups".  But sometimes, especially as a woman, it seems like doing a real push-up is an impossible goal that can never be reached because "women just aren't built that way".  Well that's CRAP!  All it takes is some training, some determination, and gradual increase of difficulty.

When I first started doing push-ups eight months ago I laid down on the floor, on my tummy, all stretch out and tried to lift myself up to a standard push-up position.  I didn't even have the upper body strength to get my chest off the floor while keeping my back straight.  I could get my chest off the floor if I left my hips on the floor in a yoga pose called "The Cobra" (I think) but there was no way I was going to lift my hips up and be in a standard push-up position ... so I started doing girl push-ups from my hands and knees.

Now three weeks ago when I first started the three-week plan I learned a few things very quickly (within the first day or two).  1) It is very easy, when doing girl push-ups, to place too much of your weigh on your hips and then, as you go up and down, you're actually using your back muscles rather than your arms for lift.  Avoid making this mistake, there are healthier ways to work-out your back muscles and it will do nothing for your arms.  So, from hands and knees be sure to shift your weight forward over your arms so that they are doing the lifting and lowering.  The first week I really didn't think I was going to make it through 100 push-ups in a single day.  Even breaking them up into smaller groupings was hard and my arms would feel weak and noodely for hours after each set.

But I persevered and they started to get easier.  When I realized I could breeze through 50 with only minor muscle fatigue I started to increase intensity by making small adjustments.  I started to cross my ankles which slightly compromised balance, forcing my arms to compensate so that I didn't fall over.  Then I started to lift my feet up off the floor behind me so that my knees and hands became my only contact with the floor.  Last night I was curious because I've been doing 200 push-ups a week for three weeks and I wanted to see what kind of results I could get from them so I laid down on the floor in standard push-up pose again and tried to lift like I did eight months ago.  Lo and behold ... I DID IT!!!  To my chagrin I still can't lower myself back down to the floor yet but there I was doing a single, very slow push-up from the floor, back straight, butt tucked in, toes and hands on the floor and everything else suspended like a board.  Yeah baby!  Push-ups used to really hurt my wrists most of all but they've gotten stronger too so they don't hurt anymore unless I place my hands too far apart on accident.

So I still can't do standard push-ups but what I did end up doing was increased the distance between my hands and my knees so that I was stretched out a lot more than usual and even more of my body weight was placed on my arms.  I could literally only make it through 50 of them because the increase in intensity was significant BUT ... eight months ago I couldn't even lift myself off the floor and now I can.  That tells me two things: 1) Measurable, quantifiable, legitimate progress has been made!  2) Some day, if I keep at it, I WILL be able to do a "real" push-up.  I just have to keep increasing my upper body strength and decreasing my total body weight.  You can do it ladies, baby steps!

10:30 pm update: Holy mother of pearl I hurt ... I hurt everywhere.  Legs, abs, arms, shoulder, even my back.  I over trained, I give, I submit, white flag, white flag!!!  Someone save me from the pain!





Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 chicken sub
>>the usual fare
1 serving grilled calamari
1 serving grilled veggies
1 serving fried rice
1 dinner salad with asian dressing
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,243




Activity:
Signing: Today I signed the loan docs on my house ... yeppers.  From about 1:00 pm until 4:30 pm when we were done my adrenaline levels were HIGH!  I was shaking, having trouble breathing, experiencing severe heart palpitations, and even felt like I was going to pass out and throw up at the same time.  It has to have been the single most stressful and physically exhausting experience of my life.  When the adrenaline started to finally come down I started to feel severely weak, exhausted, and still extremely nauseated.
Walking: After the signing we hit yet another furniture store and then the mall before going to dinner at a new Japanese restaurant in town to celebrate / unwind.  I cannot believe how exhausted I am.  I feel like I could easily sleep standing up right now if I needed to, I am THAT TIRED!