Today, after work, I get to drop by the grad fair at the local UofP campus to pick up my gown, cap, and tassel for graduation. Today I'll post two comments in the classroom and that should be it for school for a little while. I have to admit that I am looking forward to the break! I've started working on the sequel to The Citizens (I was going to write the sequel for Dhampiri first but the feedback I'm getting on The Citizens has changed my mind) and it's been making it really hard for me to focus on much of anything else.
It's funny because when I'm in "writing mode" Snackers has noticed that my eyes kind of glaze over and I stare blankly out into nothing and sometimes, if I'm working on dialogue between my characters, my lips will even move slightly like I'm talking to myself when, really, I'm just writing in my head. And when a story starts to develop to the point that the smallest experience can inspire ideas for it, I can go into writing mode anywhere: laying in bed at night, sitting at my computer, taking a bath, even while I'm standing outside smoking or doing chores around the house. The first few times that Snackers caught me writing dialogue he called me out on it - "What are you saying?" he would ask. And then I would get embarrassed and say "Nothing, I was scratching my lip with my teeth" or some other silly cover excuse.
Recently, however, I read a blog post from my favorite author of all-time, Kim Harrison, in which she talked about going into writing mode herself. As it turns out, I'm not alone and that is a comforting thought. (If you want to read her post you can find it here). I think it was Kim who also said that stories exist on their own and writers are just the vessel through which they manifest themselves (paraphrasing). In other words, The Citizens sequel(s) have the ability to take over as they develop and that's exactly what they've been doing to me lately. There are still fragments and pieces of concept throwing a rave inside of my head but the story is somehow writing itself and I will be helpless to hold it at bay. It's frustrating sometimes but I felt that way a lot as a teen which led me to write poetry and I realized that sometimes it's harder to keep it in than it is to just let it out so that I can move on with my life. Whether successful or not, I think that all writers feel this way. Sure, some people just try too hard to force a story but the majority of us, whether we ever make the NYT list or not, can't help but write just like cats with claws can't help but scratch and dogs with tails can't help but wag them.
Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 fruit bar
1 healthy choice lunch
3 tuna hand rolls
2 pieces tuna sashimi
------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1477
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 117
We left immediately after work for the grad fair to pick up my cap, gown, and tassel. The line went out the door and down the hall so we were there for over two hours (bleh). After that we dropped by the 24-hour post office inside a Shell gas station because I had a package that I needed to send out, and then headed to dinner. When we got home it was almost 9 and I sat down for a bit to let dinner settle, intending to get on the treadmill around 9:30 but ended up waking up at 11:30 and going to bed. lol
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Food Reviews
Let's talk about a few of the foods that have been on my menu lately.
Cevice: About a month or so ago I mentioned that Snackers discovered a little market that sells shrimp cevice, white fish cevice, and crab cevice. For those of you who've never had it before, cevice is basically pico de gallo with some kind of (usually cooked) seafood in it served cold. It contains tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapenos, lime juice, salt, and then the seafood. It's YUMMEH! But it does have some pro's and cons. One the one hand it's mostly veg so it's pretty healthy and very low in calories (except the crab cevice because crab is a high calorie seafood but I get the fish and/or shrimp). You get these little crunchy, flat tostada shells - spread a little cevice on one, sprinkle on some Frank's Red Hot, add a squirt of lime juice and some cracked pepper and enjoy. It's INSANELY easy to prep since you can just put everything on the table, grab a fork and build them as you go and it's absurdly inexpensive. We can get a bag of shells and 2 lbs of cevice for under $5. No kidding! So what's the downside you ask? Well for 3 of the tostada shells you're looking at 160 calories, a full cup (which is plenty for 3 tostadas) of shrimp cevice is 80 calories (the white fish is 70 per cup) and the Franks/lime is 0. The meal is light and refreshing and 3 tostadas is satisfying and feels like plenty of food but, in reality, you're only eating about 240 calories so an hour or so later you're hungry again. My intake for the entire day after dinner last night was 830 AND I'd completed a full workout on the treadmill where I burned an estimated 460 so I knew I needed to find something to snack on that wasn't crap.
Segway:
Trail Mix: The world is full of trail mix and you can buy it already mixed or mix your own. My favorite (flavor wise) is the Indulgent Trail by Great Value (WalMart) but it's also chocked full of milk chocolate, white chocolate, and butterscotch chips which makes it a big giant no-no (I used to be able to devour a half-bag in a single sitting of that stuff which is probably close to 1,000 calories or more). So I've been experimenting with other trail mixes and most recently decided to try one that has chunks of dried fruit in it. If you've known me for awhile, or even have been following this blog for awhile, you know that fruit is a problem for me. I love fresh fruit but it's expensive, a lot of work, messy, and the shelf-life sucks. I like making fruit shakes with fresh fruit but still ... it can be a lot of work to cut everything up so it's not something that I like to do often. I dislike canned fruit because it's mushy and overly sweet so when I saw this trail mix with dried fruit in it I thought "perfect!". Well kinda. Turns out it's not all just dried fruit, some of it is candied so I've been picking out the giant chunks of candied pineapple and papaya and giving them to Snackers. As-is the trail mix sits at around 140 calories for a 1/4 cup. WHOA! Now I do know that nuts, pretty much all of them, are high in calories but also high in proteins and other good things so last night when my intake was low I figured some trail mix was the perfect win-win. It's filling, good protein to help me recover from the workout, tasty, and a way to bring my intake up to where it should be and satisfy the hunger that I had an hour-or-so after the cevice dinner. But that makes me wonder - I'm sure that the health benefits of dried fruit aren't quite as good as those of fresh fruit but if I were to simply get a fruit dryer and dry my own and stock up on it ... is this at least a decent way to eat fruit. I know drying my own is going to be a LOT of work but I figure if I get some containers (I have over a dozen Folgers containers saved up) I could do a whole bunch of it at once on a Saturday or something and then stock up on it. It would be cheaper than buying it from the store and I could ensure that it's just dried and not candied. Do any of you have any prior knowledge re: dried fruit nutritional facts that you could share with me?
Food:
116 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
1/2 serving green bean fries
1 serving chicken marinara
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1387
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 45 minutes (Snackers is getting restless sitting around the house so he asked me to go for a walk with him instead of getting on the treadmill last night).
Sprints: 10 sprints @ 60 ft. each (On our walk we stopped by the softball field and took turns timing ourselves sprinting the bases with the stopwatch on my phone just for kicks)
----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 143
Cevice: About a month or so ago I mentioned that Snackers discovered a little market that sells shrimp cevice, white fish cevice, and crab cevice. For those of you who've never had it before, cevice is basically pico de gallo with some kind of (usually cooked) seafood in it served cold. It contains tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapenos, lime juice, salt, and then the seafood. It's YUMMEH! But it does have some pro's and cons. One the one hand it's mostly veg so it's pretty healthy and very low in calories (except the crab cevice because crab is a high calorie seafood but I get the fish and/or shrimp). You get these little crunchy, flat tostada shells - spread a little cevice on one, sprinkle on some Frank's Red Hot, add a squirt of lime juice and some cracked pepper and enjoy. It's INSANELY easy to prep since you can just put everything on the table, grab a fork and build them as you go and it's absurdly inexpensive. We can get a bag of shells and 2 lbs of cevice for under $5. No kidding! So what's the downside you ask? Well for 3 of the tostada shells you're looking at 160 calories, a full cup (which is plenty for 3 tostadas) of shrimp cevice is 80 calories (the white fish is 70 per cup) and the Franks/lime is 0. The meal is light and refreshing and 3 tostadas is satisfying and feels like plenty of food but, in reality, you're only eating about 240 calories so an hour or so later you're hungry again. My intake for the entire day after dinner last night was 830 AND I'd completed a full workout on the treadmill where I burned an estimated 460 so I knew I needed to find something to snack on that wasn't crap.
Segway:
Trail Mix: The world is full of trail mix and you can buy it already mixed or mix your own. My favorite (flavor wise) is the Indulgent Trail by Great Value (WalMart) but it's also chocked full of milk chocolate, white chocolate, and butterscotch chips which makes it a big giant no-no (I used to be able to devour a half-bag in a single sitting of that stuff which is probably close to 1,000 calories or more). So I've been experimenting with other trail mixes and most recently decided to try one that has chunks of dried fruit in it. If you've known me for awhile, or even have been following this blog for awhile, you know that fruit is a problem for me. I love fresh fruit but it's expensive, a lot of work, messy, and the shelf-life sucks. I like making fruit shakes with fresh fruit but still ... it can be a lot of work to cut everything up so it's not something that I like to do often. I dislike canned fruit because it's mushy and overly sweet so when I saw this trail mix with dried fruit in it I thought "perfect!". Well kinda. Turns out it's not all just dried fruit, some of it is candied so I've been picking out the giant chunks of candied pineapple and papaya and giving them to Snackers. As-is the trail mix sits at around 140 calories for a 1/4 cup. WHOA! Now I do know that nuts, pretty much all of them, are high in calories but also high in proteins and other good things so last night when my intake was low I figured some trail mix was the perfect win-win. It's filling, good protein to help me recover from the workout, tasty, and a way to bring my intake up to where it should be and satisfy the hunger that I had an hour-or-so after the cevice dinner. But that makes me wonder - I'm sure that the health benefits of dried fruit aren't quite as good as those of fresh fruit but if I were to simply get a fruit dryer and dry my own and stock up on it ... is this at least a decent way to eat fruit. I know drying my own is going to be a LOT of work but I figure if I get some containers (I have over a dozen Folgers containers saved up) I could do a whole bunch of it at once on a Saturday or something and then stock up on it. It would be cheaper than buying it from the store and I could ensure that it's just dried and not candied. Do any of you have any prior knowledge re: dried fruit nutritional facts that you could share with me?
Food:
116 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
1/2 serving green bean fries
1 serving chicken marinara
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1387
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 45 minutes (Snackers is getting restless sitting around the house so he asked me to go for a walk with him instead of getting on the treadmill last night).
Sprints: 10 sprints @ 60 ft. each (On our walk we stopped by the softball field and took turns timing ourselves sprinting the bases with the stopwatch on my phone just for kicks)
----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 143
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Building A Routine
Yay for yesterday being the second night in-a-row that I did my treadmill routine! I have a wedding coming up and even though I know that Snackers thinks I look hotter-than-ever, I know I can do better. I remember college: angel flights, hipster jeans, bikinis, and shorts. *sigh* My favorite outfit in those days (yes, I went to a lot of raves back then and I drank a lot but, believe it or not, I never did or even saw anyone else doing drugs back then) was black leather pants, a black halter top, black high-heeled combat boots, a black leather trench coat with faux fox fur around the neck and cuffs (I cut the fur off of a thrift store pea coat and added it to the trench myself), leopard print gloves and a high-and-tight Gwen Stefani style long blond pony tail.
I probably wouldn't start dressing like that again even if I got to that size (let's face it ... The Matrix isn't the trend-setting box office hit that it was then) but I was never afraid to march to my own drum and dress outside the box either. I don't know what it's called but lately I've been fascinated by style that is gradually increasing popularity though still very unique. Most of the time I see women with shiny black hair that have it up in freedom rolls or do-rags wearing bright red lipstick with corsets or cotton polka dot halter style dresses that feel reminiscent of the 1930's but carry a modern twist on them. I have neither the hair, not the figure for this style but every time I see someone flaunting it I wish I could join them. It's very ... strong and feminine at the same time and I really like it.
Mostly, when I've lost the weight that I want to lose, I will probably continue to shop at Walmart because I'm too much of a money miser to justify paying the prices asked by most other retailers but ... I might just splurge on a few fun items for my closet - who knows. Right now ... it's all about the dress and March 2013.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
3 cevice tostadas
1 cup trail mix
1 weight watchers ice cream bar
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1387
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 6 reps for 9 min @ 3 mph
Running: 6 reps for 1 min @ 5 mph
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 207
I probably wouldn't start dressing like that again even if I got to that size (let's face it ... The Matrix isn't the trend-setting box office hit that it was then) but I was never afraid to march to my own drum and dress outside the box either. I don't know what it's called but lately I've been fascinated by style that is gradually increasing popularity though still very unique. Most of the time I see women with shiny black hair that have it up in freedom rolls or do-rags wearing bright red lipstick with corsets or cotton polka dot halter style dresses that feel reminiscent of the 1930's but carry a modern twist on them. I have neither the hair, not the figure for this style but every time I see someone flaunting it I wish I could join them. It's very ... strong and feminine at the same time and I really like it.
Mostly, when I've lost the weight that I want to lose, I will probably continue to shop at Walmart because I'm too much of a money miser to justify paying the prices asked by most other retailers but ... I might just splurge on a few fun items for my closet - who knows. Right now ... it's all about the dress and March 2013.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
3 cevice tostadas
1 cup trail mix
1 weight watchers ice cream bar
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1387
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 6 reps for 9 min @ 3 mph
Running: 6 reps for 1 min @ 5 mph
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 207
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Good Night's Sleep
Wow did I sleep good last night. Snackers was tossing and turning and full of energy because he slept all day so he finally decided to sleep in the guest room because he was keeping me up and he took Vladdy with him. I haven't slept that good in such a long time! No nightmares, no Vladdy to worry about, no ceiling fan freezing me out, no waking up to steal back my covers, no zonked-out cast covered arm accidentally smacking me in the middle of the night as he rolled over. Don't get me wrong, I love sleeping in the same bed with Snackers but I guess, every once in a while, it doesn't hurt to have the bed to myself. Even the cats were more obsessed with the fact that Snackers was in the guest room (they hate closed doors, especially if there is someone on the other side) so they didn't bother me even once! I'm not sure if they spent the night bugging Snackers or not because he's still in bed but I slept like a baby and woke up feeling more refreshed than I have in a long time.
Weeeeee.
Food:
144 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 cup trail mix
1 healthy choice lunch
12 asparagus spears
2 cups pasta w/marinara sauce
2 servings raw baby carrots
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1472
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 6 reps of 9 min @ 3 mph
Running: 6 reps of 1 min @ 5 mph
-----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 207
Weeeeee.
Food:
144 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 cup trail mix
1 healthy choice lunch
12 asparagus spears
2 cups pasta w/marinara sauce
2 servings raw baby carrots
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1472
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 6 reps of 9 min @ 3 mph
Running: 6 reps of 1 min @ 5 mph
-----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 207
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
I Found It!
 |
| Snackers' Favorite |
So, that said. I'm a tom-boy. The last time that I shopped for/wore a formal dress was in college in 2001 when I was 150 lbs of blond adorable-ness and wore a size 6 so the prospect of dress shopping has been haunting the back of my mind since the moment Snackers proposed. I would honestly be perfectly happy wearing a nice floor-length sun dress but this is one area in which Snackers is a bit more traditional because he's always wanted to see me in a nice gown. He's seen my pictures from college and he wants to see it in person I guess so we knew we needed a happy medium. A white wedding dress with a train and taffeta is out of the question - but I knew that if we could find a nice pretty formal dress that was affordable I'd get all girly and enjoy the experience so we went looking.
 |
| Too much white |
As far as I was concerned that was it. I was going to get married in capri's and a tank-top if I had to but I was never going to set foot in another dress-shop again and the whole idea of having a wedding took on a very sour note and I wanted to just elope to one of the bazillion little white chapels that we have here (because I DO want to marry Snackers but I didn't want to even think about the hell of planning a wedding).
That night Snackers was rolling through channels and came across "Say Yes to the Dress" where women will clip you into a dress if they have to and they dote on you and they make you feel wonderful and special and beautiful until you find the dress that you love and he said "This is the wedding capital of the world! There has to be places like that here in Vegas, we just have to find them." Of course I argued that we'd never be able to afford a dress from a place like that but he argued so what. At least it would help me figure out size/style and have some fun with dress shopping so that I could look online or something to find the right dress in the right size.
Well Saturday morning dawned and I realized that I was being an over-emotional cow and that I needed to suck it up and stop being such a negative nancy so we took my size 8 prom dress out of the back of my closet and headed for a dress swap that we'd read about in the paper but when we got there we found out that it had been canceled. I won't lie - I was relieved. A dress swap isn't likely to be the best place to find a size 18-20 wedding dress but it was worth a shot. As it turns out we passed a dress shop on the way home and decided to swing in just to see what it was all about and, in my mind, I promised myself that I would try on at least 3 dresses to face my fears. Well the dress shop (Alfred Angelo) is one of those places where you make an appointment and they clip you into a dress if they have to and dote on you and work on commission. YAY! I didn't have an appointment of course but the woman didn't have anyone else in the shop and no appointments for the next hour-plus so she took me in on the spot anyway. She was a sweet older lady that reminded me of my mom so I kind of opened up and told her the truth about how I was feeling insecure and afraid and she is GREAT at her job because she changed all of that. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman as she asked me a few basic questions about what I was looking for (none of which included "my size") and then started pulling dresses off the rack for me to try on.
 |
| WINNER WINNER! |
This works out great because I can have them take my measurements and make the dress now and then hang it in my closet as motivation. She said I can bring it back 8 - 10 weeks before the wedding for the final tailoring so it's perfectly ok if I lose as much weight as possible between now and the wedding because they'll account for that in the final tailoring. YAY! And ... drum roll please, it was only $215!!! I can't even believe it! So I have an appointment for April 7th to go back and have my measurements taken to order and pay for the dress. I'm so excited!!!! Now if only finding a corset to go under it could be so easy.
Food:
108 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
12 oz gatorade
2 oatmeal bars
1 healthy choice lunch
1 weight watchers ice cream bar
8 oz skirt steak
12 asparagus spears
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1307
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 6 sets @ 3 mph for 9 min each
Running: 6 sets @ 5 mph for 1 min each
------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 207
Monday, March 26, 2012
Busy Day
I wrote a one-line post on Friday morning on account of the fact that it wasn't even work hours yet and my work phone was ringing like crazy so I had a feeling that it would be a busy day and it was ... in fact it was a busy weekend so here are the cliff-notes for the weekend.
Friday we got answers re: Snackers' surgery. His tendon was 98% cut so they had to do some serious surgery on him. The surgery took longer than planned due to the unexpected extent of the damage and the Dr. was already late getting into another pre-op so he didn't come talk to me because he was in a rush. The nurses were jerks to me because, and they actually admitted this, they lost his HIPPA form that gave them permission to talk to me and couldn't remember if I was on it or not so they took the side of caution. As it turns out the Dr. also switched Snackers' pain meds after the surgery because he knew that with the amount of work he had to do, the pain was going to be pretty bad and the new meds make him hyper (I'm like that with penacillin) so that's why he was bouncing off the walls. They also had to give him a muscle relaxer because his middle finger started having muscle spasms that were not only painful, but could have slowed his healing time.
When I got off work on Friday we had to run to the pharmacy to get the muscle relaxers and David's Bridal is in the same parking lot so we headed over there but it was a horrible, overwhelming, daunting experience for me and I ended up doing a once-through of the store without really looking at anything and then left, and broke into tears in the parking lot, then came home and ate a Klondike bar (yeah, I know ... totally counter productive and stupid but emotional moments lose all sense of rationalism).
Saturday there was supposed to be a dress-swap at the local rec center so we got up and headed over there with my old prom dress from 2001 only to discover that it had been canceled. On the way home, however, we passed another dress shop called Alfred Angelo and I decided that, at the very least, I needed to get over my fear of trying on dresses so we headed in and I vowed that I would try on at least 3 dresses, even if I didn't like them, just to face my fear. I'll post more details about this experience in today's post later but, suffice it to say, we found the dress!! YAY! From there we had breakfast, took the dogs to the dog park and then Snackers needed to rest so we came home and I weeded the back yard, took out the trash, watered the trees, and then browsed for a wedding corset for under the dress while he relaxed.
Sunday we got up and headed straight over to my long overdue visit with an eye doc, got a prescription and then went to Wal-Mart to look for frames. The op-shop wasn't open yet though so we browsed bottles for the sand ceremony and other wedding related stuff and made our grocery list while we waited. I found some frames and got my new glasses ordered (YAY! No more headaches!) and then we did our grocery shopping. Came home - put everything away and sat down to relax for a minute and ended up falling asleep for two hours. Woke up, made supper, took the dogs to the park, and then Snackers had me read to him until bed.
Friday Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 fish burrito
2 california rolls
4 pieces shrimp nigiri
1 klondike bar
--------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1402
Friday Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking/Browsing: 30 minutes
--------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 124
Saturday Food:
150 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 bagel, dry
1 serving corned beef hash
1 serving pico de gallo
1 chopped salad
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1375
Saturday Activity:
Walking/Shopping: 1hr 45 minutes
Walking/Sprints @ the dog park: 45 minutes
Yard/house work: 1 hr 30 minutes
---------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 61
Sunday Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
skipped breakfast entirely (oops, not intentional)
2 chicken tacos (the ol' CTNT recipe)
3 shrimp ceviche flats
2 weight watchers ice cream bars (bad I know)
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 872 (and yet still waaaaaay low due to skipping breakfast)
Sunday Activity:
Walking/Shopping: Costco - 30 minutes
Walking/Browsing: Wal-Mart 1 hr
Walking/Shopping: Groceries - 1 hr
Walking/Sprints: Dog park - 1 hr
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 53
Friday we got answers re: Snackers' surgery. His tendon was 98% cut so they had to do some serious surgery on him. The surgery took longer than planned due to the unexpected extent of the damage and the Dr. was already late getting into another pre-op so he didn't come talk to me because he was in a rush. The nurses were jerks to me because, and they actually admitted this, they lost his HIPPA form that gave them permission to talk to me and couldn't remember if I was on it or not so they took the side of caution. As it turns out the Dr. also switched Snackers' pain meds after the surgery because he knew that with the amount of work he had to do, the pain was going to be pretty bad and the new meds make him hyper (I'm like that with penacillin) so that's why he was bouncing off the walls. They also had to give him a muscle relaxer because his middle finger started having muscle spasms that were not only painful, but could have slowed his healing time.
When I got off work on Friday we had to run to the pharmacy to get the muscle relaxers and David's Bridal is in the same parking lot so we headed over there but it was a horrible, overwhelming, daunting experience for me and I ended up doing a once-through of the store without really looking at anything and then left, and broke into tears in the parking lot, then came home and ate a Klondike bar (yeah, I know ... totally counter productive and stupid but emotional moments lose all sense of rationalism).
Saturday there was supposed to be a dress-swap at the local rec center so we got up and headed over there with my old prom dress from 2001 only to discover that it had been canceled. On the way home, however, we passed another dress shop called Alfred Angelo and I decided that, at the very least, I needed to get over my fear of trying on dresses so we headed in and I vowed that I would try on at least 3 dresses, even if I didn't like them, just to face my fear. I'll post more details about this experience in today's post later but, suffice it to say, we found the dress!! YAY! From there we had breakfast, took the dogs to the dog park and then Snackers needed to rest so we came home and I weeded the back yard, took out the trash, watered the trees, and then browsed for a wedding corset for under the dress while he relaxed.
Sunday we got up and headed straight over to my long overdue visit with an eye doc, got a prescription and then went to Wal-Mart to look for frames. The op-shop wasn't open yet though so we browsed bottles for the sand ceremony and other wedding related stuff and made our grocery list while we waited. I found some frames and got my new glasses ordered (YAY! No more headaches!) and then we did our grocery shopping. Came home - put everything away and sat down to relax for a minute and ended up falling asleep for two hours. Woke up, made supper, took the dogs to the park, and then Snackers had me read to him until bed.
Friday Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 fish burrito
2 california rolls
4 pieces shrimp nigiri
1 klondike bar
--------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1402
Friday Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking/Browsing: 30 minutes
--------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 124
Saturday Food:
150 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 bagel, dry
1 serving corned beef hash
1 serving pico de gallo
1 chopped salad
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1375
Saturday Activity:
Walking/Shopping: 1hr 45 minutes
Walking/Sprints @ the dog park: 45 minutes
Yard/house work: 1 hr 30 minutes
---------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 61
Sunday Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
skipped breakfast entirely (oops, not intentional)
2 chicken tacos (the ol' CTNT recipe)
3 shrimp ceviche flats
2 weight watchers ice cream bars (bad I know)
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 872 (and yet still waaaaaay low due to skipping breakfast)
Sunday Activity:
Walking/Shopping: Costco - 30 minutes
Walking/Browsing: Wal-Mart 1 hr
Walking/Shopping: Groceries - 1 hr
Walking/Sprints: Dog park - 1 hr
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 53
Friday, March 23, 2012
Catching Up
Yesterday after surgery didn't go as I'd planned it but I didn't totally flake out either. Shortly after I got off work Snackers announced that our friends were coming over to visit him and, although the house really wasn't a mess at all (a little clutter here and there but not bad at all) he felt the need to start cleaning. Strange, I would have thought that after surgery he'd have wanted to come home, climb in bed, and rest all day but nope! He started by picking up the living room and my paperwork on the dining room table, then headed outside to sweep the back patio, clean the patio chairs, pick up the bits of trash the blew into the yard over the windy weekend, sweep out the track on the slider etc. etc.
I tried to convince him that he should be laying down but he wouldn't listen so I joined him in the hopes that it would get done faster and then he'd rest. After an hour or so of cleaning our friends arrived and we hung out and chatted with them but I still couldn't get Snackers to sit down and relax, he insisted on visiting with them while standing. So is it normal for surgery to make someone act like they're on speed afterward or what? Even after they left he stood next to the bed and was shifting back-and-forth from one foot to the other, wanted to groom the cats, and kept running back and forth between the bedroom and the kitchen to get snack after snack after snack. It was ODD! Then the sweating started.
He felt cold to touch but was sweating profusely and all of the color drained from his face but I had to literally take him by the good hand, walk him into the bathroom and make him look at his own reflection to see what I was seeing before he would finally lay down and relax. That lasted for about an hour, then he wanted to play games on the PS3 Move that he borrowed from his boss so we spent an hour doing that (sword fighting mostly) and I broke up a helluva good sweat before he finally decided that he was ready for bed. Surprise, surprise, when he finally laid down to rest he was in a world of hurt from his hand. DUH! *sigh* I wonder if they gave him some kind of stimulant to help him wake up from the anesthesia - if it took him 45 minutes to wake up after surgery I would imagine that's not normal and they would have done something to try to counter-act it right? He was DEFINITELY acting strange last night, that's for sure!
Yesterday Food:
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
1 chicken pita
1 medium fry
2 English muffins toasted w/provolone
1 skinny cow ice cream
-----------------------------
Intake: 1423
Yesterday Activity:
Cleaning
Motion Gaming: 1 hr
---------------------
Fitocracy points: 149
Today's Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
2 latkes w/roast beef (lean)
1 skinny cow ice cream
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1460
Today's Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 1 hour (around town with Shawn, he was restless)
----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 154
I tried to convince him that he should be laying down but he wouldn't listen so I joined him in the hopes that it would get done faster and then he'd rest. After an hour or so of cleaning our friends arrived and we hung out and chatted with them but I still couldn't get Snackers to sit down and relax, he insisted on visiting with them while standing. So is it normal for surgery to make someone act like they're on speed afterward or what? Even after they left he stood next to the bed and was shifting back-and-forth from one foot to the other, wanted to groom the cats, and kept running back and forth between the bedroom and the kitchen to get snack after snack after snack. It was ODD! Then the sweating started.
He felt cold to touch but was sweating profusely and all of the color drained from his face but I had to literally take him by the good hand, walk him into the bathroom and make him look at his own reflection to see what I was seeing before he would finally lay down and relax. That lasted for about an hour, then he wanted to play games on the PS3 Move that he borrowed from his boss so we spent an hour doing that (sword fighting mostly) and I broke up a helluva good sweat before he finally decided that he was ready for bed. Surprise, surprise, when he finally laid down to rest he was in a world of hurt from his hand. DUH! *sigh* I wonder if they gave him some kind of stimulant to help him wake up from the anesthesia - if it took him 45 minutes to wake up after surgery I would imagine that's not normal and they would have done something to try to counter-act it right? He was DEFINITELY acting strange last night, that's for sure!
Yesterday Food:
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
1 chicken pita
1 medium fry
2 English muffins toasted w/provolone
1 skinny cow ice cream
-----------------------------
Intake: 1423
Yesterday Activity:
Cleaning
Motion Gaming: 1 hr
---------------------
Fitocracy points: 149
Today's Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
2 latkes w/roast beef (lean)
1 skinny cow ice cream
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1460
Today's Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 1 hour (around town with Shawn, he was restless)
----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 154
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Surgery Update
Snackers' surgery was this morning. I wrote my participation posts for school last night and then saved them in a Word doc so that I could just copy and paste them into the classroom this morning before we left. I chugged my coffee and we were out the door.
We got home at 2 and I had a chicken pita and a water (first food of the day) and got right to work so this is just a quick update for the surgery. Plans for this evening include my new "usual" workout on the treadmill plus yoga sometime between work and dinner but we'll see how that goes. I'm going to cancel my Dr. appointment tonight because there's just too much other stuff going on (see below).
So we arrived at 8:30 a.m. and were one of the first patients to sign in for the day. They took him back for pre-op and had me sit with him hoping it would help him to calm down but when that didn't work they gave him a happy juice injection that made him Stoogy (as in "The three stooges"). They finally took him into the OR at 10:30, the surgery lasted an hour (probably not a good sign but since the Dr. didn't come out to talk to me at all after the surgery and he didn't stick around to talk to Snackers after either ... we don't really know how it went or what the final prognosis was ... nice huh? total bullshit if you ask me). I ambushed the anesthesiologist on her way to lunch around 11:30 and she told me that he was done and that someone would be out to talk to me in 10-20 minutes.
30 minutes later when no one had come I inquired at the front desk and she told me that they would come get me in 10-20 minutes to go back and sit with him. Another 20 minutes later I was literally the LAST PERSON still sitting in the waiting room when the door finally opened and they were wheeling him out in a wheelchair. I was PISSED! I mean I was happy to see him, glad he was ok and all but really mad that they didn't let me back there to help him put his clothes back on or sit with him or that they hadn't told me anything and then just "here he is, all done". He wasn't too happy about it either because he had a hell of a time trying to put his sweats back on one-handed and did NOT want the strange nurses helping him. Well duh! I was 10 feet away, why wouldn't they have just come and gotten me? They were calling everyone else from the waiting room back to sit with the respective patients but not me ... and for some reason I think that means something was wrong and they didn't want me to know.
He was so pale when they brought him out that he was almost green, it took him over 30 minutes to wake up from the anesthesia, and he started shaking uncontrollably in the car on the way home despite the fact that it's a lovely, sunny day outside (not bad but shivering and he couldn't stop it) but it must have been lunch time for the nursing staff because they put him in a wheelchair and sent him home anyway.
We stopped to get his new prescriptions filled and I got some food and apple juice in him while we were waiting which brought some color back to his cheeks and stopped the shaking but I am sooooo pissed at how that office handled his surgery. Oooooh pissed, you have no idea.
We got home at 2 and I had a chicken pita and a water (first food of the day) and got right to work so this is just a quick update for the surgery. Plans for this evening include my new "usual" workout on the treadmill plus yoga sometime between work and dinner but we'll see how that goes. I'm going to cancel my Dr. appointment tonight because there's just too much other stuff going on (see below).
So we arrived at 8:30 a.m. and were one of the first patients to sign in for the day. They took him back for pre-op and had me sit with him hoping it would help him to calm down but when that didn't work they gave him a happy juice injection that made him Stoogy (as in "The three stooges"). They finally took him into the OR at 10:30, the surgery lasted an hour (probably not a good sign but since the Dr. didn't come out to talk to me at all after the surgery and he didn't stick around to talk to Snackers after either ... we don't really know how it went or what the final prognosis was ... nice huh? total bullshit if you ask me). I ambushed the anesthesiologist on her way to lunch around 11:30 and she told me that he was done and that someone would be out to talk to me in 10-20 minutes.
30 minutes later when no one had come I inquired at the front desk and she told me that they would come get me in 10-20 minutes to go back and sit with him. Another 20 minutes later I was literally the LAST PERSON still sitting in the waiting room when the door finally opened and they were wheeling him out in a wheelchair. I was PISSED! I mean I was happy to see him, glad he was ok and all but really mad that they didn't let me back there to help him put his clothes back on or sit with him or that they hadn't told me anything and then just "here he is, all done". He wasn't too happy about it either because he had a hell of a time trying to put his sweats back on one-handed and did NOT want the strange nurses helping him. Well duh! I was 10 feet away, why wouldn't they have just come and gotten me? They were calling everyone else from the waiting room back to sit with the respective patients but not me ... and for some reason I think that means something was wrong and they didn't want me to know.
He was so pale when they brought him out that he was almost green, it took him over 30 minutes to wake up from the anesthesia, and he started shaking uncontrollably in the car on the way home despite the fact that it's a lovely, sunny day outside (not bad but shivering and he couldn't stop it) but it must have been lunch time for the nursing staff because they put him in a wheelchair and sent him home anyway.
We stopped to get his new prescriptions filled and I got some food and apple juice in him while we were waiting which brought some color back to his cheeks and stopped the shaking but I am sooooo pissed at how that office handled his surgery. Oooooh pissed, you have no idea.
Another Evaluation
I spent some time in contemplation yesterday about the best way to get my ass on the treadmill every single night without failure. I've realized that when I do get on the damn thing I'm over-doing it. When I climb off of it gasping for air and barely able to stand, sure it's a great workout but it's also a fast track to a burn-out. Lately I've been getting on the treadmill, working out for 20 minutes or so (which isn't nearly long enough to boost my metabolism) and then I'm wiped out and lazy for the next 24-hours or more. Not only that but when I did have a gym membership there was a chart hanging on the wall by the treadmills that showed various heart-rate brackets and the effects that each created. I remember that there was a "sweet spot" for weight loss and that it said if you get your heart-rate too high you're burning fuel too fast for the body to process fat so it starts eating muscle instead. I don't yet have a heart-rate monitor on my treadmill but I know that if I'm gasping for air and feeling weak and dizzy, my heart rate is too high.
So yesterday I scaled back a little bit on the intensity but increased the time. I broke a healthy sweat and was breathing heavy but not dying when I got done. I walked for 9 minutes at 3 mph and then ran for 1 minute at 5 mph. I did that 6 times for a total 60 minute work-out and, interestingly enough, my thigh muscles were burning more last night from that work-out than they have been after other work-outs. I've been exhausting myself before I can even really get a good burn going which seems kinda pointless. I liked last night's routine and I'm still planning on increasing intensity and working on my stamina but I have to do it a lot more gradually.
I have to remind myself that when I started this blog, walking 3 miles in an hour was EXHAUSTING in-and-of itself for me. The first time that I tried to walk 5 miles in one day I had to text my mom for the motivation and support to keep going long enough to get home. Just a few months ago I did 10 miles in a single day ... I wanted to die when it was over but I did it. I want to progress so much that I try too hard and it's really counter productive. A steady, healthy, daily routine is, I think, better than massive death-runs. Like the tortoise and the hare. I'll get there but I had to remind myself that my plan was to go back to what was working and that was never killing myself - it was pushing myself yes. Breaking a sweat and breathing heavy - yes. But not to the point where I had to collapse on the floor for 20 minutes just to keep from passing out. I'm sticking with the 9x1 routine for awhile. I think I'll re-evaluate it in a month or so when I've had a chance to rebuild the muscle I lost sitting on my ass all winter and, hopefully, lose the weight that I gained back.
p.s. Weighed this morning and am at 226.5. I will not let that get me down. It will become more motivation to be consistent in my routine and to get Snackers to understand that we need to go back to cooking more meals at home - injured hand or not.
Food:
120 oz of water
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
8 oz grilled skirt steak
4 oz garlic angel hair pasta
2 cups of popcorn
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1392
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 6 reps @ 3 mph for 9 min. each
Running: 6 reps @ 5 mph for 1 min each
-----------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 207
So yesterday I scaled back a little bit on the intensity but increased the time. I broke a healthy sweat and was breathing heavy but not dying when I got done. I walked for 9 minutes at 3 mph and then ran for 1 minute at 5 mph. I did that 6 times for a total 60 minute work-out and, interestingly enough, my thigh muscles were burning more last night from that work-out than they have been after other work-outs. I've been exhausting myself before I can even really get a good burn going which seems kinda pointless. I liked last night's routine and I'm still planning on increasing intensity and working on my stamina but I have to do it a lot more gradually.
I have to remind myself that when I started this blog, walking 3 miles in an hour was EXHAUSTING in-and-of itself for me. The first time that I tried to walk 5 miles in one day I had to text my mom for the motivation and support to keep going long enough to get home. Just a few months ago I did 10 miles in a single day ... I wanted to die when it was over but I did it. I want to progress so much that I try too hard and it's really counter productive. A steady, healthy, daily routine is, I think, better than massive death-runs. Like the tortoise and the hare. I'll get there but I had to remind myself that my plan was to go back to what was working and that was never killing myself - it was pushing myself yes. Breaking a sweat and breathing heavy - yes. But not to the point where I had to collapse on the floor for 20 minutes just to keep from passing out. I'm sticking with the 9x1 routine for awhile. I think I'll re-evaluate it in a month or so when I've had a chance to rebuild the muscle I lost sitting on my ass all winter and, hopefully, lose the weight that I gained back.
p.s. Weighed this morning and am at 226.5. I will not let that get me down. It will become more motivation to be consistent in my routine and to get Snackers to understand that we need to go back to cooking more meals at home - injured hand or not.
Food:
120 oz of water
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
8 oz grilled skirt steak
4 oz garlic angel hair pasta
2 cups of popcorn
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1392
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 6 reps @ 3 mph for 9 min. each
Running: 6 reps @ 5 mph for 1 min each
-----------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 207
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Wedding Planning
The wedding is almost still a full year away but Snackers can't stop talking about it and we spent most of our weekend planning it, from choosing our colors and browsing dresses/tuxs online to scheduling tours of local venues where we might want to have the ceremony. We've already made our lists of who we want to invite and have decided to keep it extremely small, topping out at around 25 people including ourselves and the officiator. We want to keep the entire thing as small and inexpensive as possible because we'll be footing the bill on our own and with having just bought a house last year and graduating this year, money is going to be very tight.
This week is finals week in CSS but I'm all but done since I've already turned in and received a grade on my final assignment, all I have to worry about this week is participation in the class discussion. That's good because Snackers has surgery on Wednesday and I have to go to planned parenthood for my follow-up on my IUD later that same night. Sunday I have a long over-due appointment with the optometrist and I guess I'm going to have to find a new family practice Dr. for my "complete" check-up since no one at the discount doc will return my calls to schedule an appointment.
Next week is finals in JavaScript and I'm thinking about possibly staying in school for another two years instead of getting a second job to pay off the loans as I had originally planned. I just don't know how I can swing paying student loans and saving up for a wedding but ... on the other hand, I really don't want to dig an even deeper debt hole for school than I'm already in. I just don't know what to do at this point. I'm kind of thinking that I can save more with the income from a second job, even while paying off student loans, than I could if I went for my BS in school instead. I just don't know.
Snackers wants to have the wedding by the water and we were originally looking at renting a houseboat on Lake Mead but it's just way too expensive and that early in the year the weather can still be very unpredictable etc. so we're looking at other options instead. We've found some nice venues in town that have lake-side options so we're going to try to schedule some appointments to go look at them. We spent yesterday at the resorts in Lake Las Vegas to see what they had to offer but they are just waaaaaaay out of our price range (something we realized pretty much the instant we drove into the community) so we're kinda back to square one.
Food:
116 oz of water
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 leftover chicken sandwich w/marinara
1 cup matzo ball soup
1 serving chicken dacha (boneless, skinless, cooked in chunks of tomato and capers)
1 skinny cow ice cream
--------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1424
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 6 reps of 9 min. @ 3.0 mph
Running: 6 reps of 1 min. @ 5.0 mph
--------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points:207
This week is finals week in CSS but I'm all but done since I've already turned in and received a grade on my final assignment, all I have to worry about this week is participation in the class discussion. That's good because Snackers has surgery on Wednesday and I have to go to planned parenthood for my follow-up on my IUD later that same night. Sunday I have a long over-due appointment with the optometrist and I guess I'm going to have to find a new family practice Dr. for my "complete" check-up since no one at the discount doc will return my calls to schedule an appointment.
Next week is finals in JavaScript and I'm thinking about possibly staying in school for another two years instead of getting a second job to pay off the loans as I had originally planned. I just don't know how I can swing paying student loans and saving up for a wedding but ... on the other hand, I really don't want to dig an even deeper debt hole for school than I'm already in. I just don't know what to do at this point. I'm kind of thinking that I can save more with the income from a second job, even while paying off student loans, than I could if I went for my BS in school instead. I just don't know.
Snackers wants to have the wedding by the water and we were originally looking at renting a houseboat on Lake Mead but it's just way too expensive and that early in the year the weather can still be very unpredictable etc. so we're looking at other options instead. We've found some nice venues in town that have lake-side options so we're going to try to schedule some appointments to go look at them. We spent yesterday at the resorts in Lake Las Vegas to see what they had to offer but they are just waaaaaaay out of our price range (something we realized pretty much the instant we drove into the community) so we're kinda back to square one.
Food:
116 oz of water
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 leftover chicken sandwich w/marinara
1 cup matzo ball soup
1 serving chicken dacha (boneless, skinless, cooked in chunks of tomato and capers)
1 skinny cow ice cream
--------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1424
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 6 reps of 9 min. @ 3.0 mph
Running: 6 reps of 1 min. @ 5.0 mph
--------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points:207
Monday, March 19, 2012
SURPRISE ENGAGEMENT
 |
| The far-away view |
When I pulled back the curtain to get out of the shower, however ... there was Snackers with a ring in his hand asking me to marry him. It's funny because we've been talking about getting married for a couple of years now. In fact he even had plans to propose two years ago at a family function but a little bird (named my sister) told me he was planning it and then he found out that she ruined the surprise so he decided not to go through with it and I've been waiting, wondering this whole time, if that was my one and only shot with him. I guess he had originally planned on asking on our anniversary (which was Wednesday the 14th, just three days ago) but then cut his hand at work and then had to go back to the Dr. on Monday and was on Keflex and pain killers and just wasn't feeling it. So last night he decided it would be fun to ambush me climbing out of the shower ... pretty damn cute actually. Definitely something I'll never forget.
 |
| The close-up |
In the pics the top ring is the "promise" ring I've been wearing since I moved to Vegas just to let everyone know "I'm not single" (though I still get the occasional block head who either doesn't notice the ring or just doesn't care) and the bottom ring is the engagement ring. I actually picked this ring out at the Renaissance fair two years ago and didn't know it but he bought it and has been holding onto it this whole time. It's a Claddagh - an Irish wedding ring. We've set the date for March 14, 2013, our five-year anniversary. That way we don't have to memorize a new anniversary date. :)
Saturday Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
2 slices leftover pizza (breakfast)
1 serving chicken and green beans (lunch)
1 serving beef w/broccoli (lunch)
1/2 serving veggie chow mein (lunch)
1 home made chicken sandwich (no cheese, light mayo w/evoo: dinner)
-------------------------------------
Intake: 1455
Saturday Activity:
Walking: 2 hours around town trying to entertain ourselves and back at the street fair
-------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 86
Sunday Food:
100 oz of water
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
1 cranberry muffin
1 serving corned beef (dry)
1 cup tomato salad
1 chicken sandwich (w/marinara)
1 small fry
-------------------------------------
Intake: 1347
Sunday Activity:
Walking: 1 hour (looking at ceremony locations for the wedding
Walking: 1hr 20 min (weekly shopping)
Sprints (@ the dog park w/vladdy) x 3
---------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points:105
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Doing It Again
I'm doing it again, just when the scale starts moving I either fill myself up with things to do that take away my work-out time or I find ways to justify sitting on my ass. I didn't feel good yesterday, at all ... but that's no excuse. With Snacker's Dr. rescheduling his surgery for the middle of next week, which also happens to be the start of finals for me in my last classes before graduation, I realized I needed to get my ass in gear and get ahead of the game on my assignments so I'm not rushing them last minute next week amidst the other chaos. I also have a Dr.'s appointment next week on the same day as Snackers except mine is in the evening. It's going to be a week from hell, I'm sure.
So I got off work last night and jumped right into my final project for my CSS class. Snackers made dinner (he's getting better) so I stopped long enough to eat it and then I was right back in here working on my assignments for my JavaScript class for next week. He came in and started complaining that he wanted to do something because he'd been sitting around the house all day doing nothing and he was bored (now he knows how I usually feel when he gets home from work on Saturday and wants to just kick it on the sofa after I've been here alone all day). So I explained to him that I HAVE to make sure these last two weeks of school go well in spite of everything else that is going on in our lives and the only way that I can do that is to get ahead before things get crazy. He got it ... but an hour later he was in here asking me to go to the dog park with him.
Well he can drive now but only if I shift for him and I had finished and submitted all of my assignments for this week, and next week in both classes and laid the foundation for my JavaScript final that's due on April 1st so I figured I was far enough ahead that I could afford to take a break. I still have to go over my JavaScript final with a fine-toothed comb to make sure everything is perfect and pretty before I submit it but it's all but done. Thank goodness.
So we hit the dog park, rolled in around 9 p.m. and he wanted me to read to him again. He borrowed a Playstation Move from his friend so hopefully he'll be able to spend some time on that today and won't be so bored tonight because, dammit, I need to exercise! I like watching the scale go down this week and I wanna keep it moving!!!
p.s. Well snap my buttons! I submitted my final, which isn't due until next week, for CSS last night. I just logged in to my student website after writing this post and my instructor has already given it 100%. That sure takes a big giant load off of my shoulders for next week. Whew!
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
1 serving corned beef & cabbage (meticulously trimmed all of the fat off)
5 boiled baby carrots
3 boiled new potatoes
------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1469
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 3 sets @ 3 mph for 5 min
Running: 3 sets @ 5 mph for 2 min (alternated w/walking)
Walking: 2 hrs at the St. Patties Day street fair in old-town
-----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 233
So I got off work last night and jumped right into my final project for my CSS class. Snackers made dinner (he's getting better) so I stopped long enough to eat it and then I was right back in here working on my assignments for my JavaScript class for next week. He came in and started complaining that he wanted to do something because he'd been sitting around the house all day doing nothing and he was bored (now he knows how I usually feel when he gets home from work on Saturday and wants to just kick it on the sofa after I've been here alone all day). So I explained to him that I HAVE to make sure these last two weeks of school go well in spite of everything else that is going on in our lives and the only way that I can do that is to get ahead before things get crazy. He got it ... but an hour later he was in here asking me to go to the dog park with him.
Well he can drive now but only if I shift for him and I had finished and submitted all of my assignments for this week, and next week in both classes and laid the foundation for my JavaScript final that's due on April 1st so I figured I was far enough ahead that I could afford to take a break. I still have to go over my JavaScript final with a fine-toothed comb to make sure everything is perfect and pretty before I submit it but it's all but done. Thank goodness.
So we hit the dog park, rolled in around 9 p.m. and he wanted me to read to him again. He borrowed a Playstation Move from his friend so hopefully he'll be able to spend some time on that today and won't be so bored tonight because, dammit, I need to exercise! I like watching the scale go down this week and I wanna keep it moving!!!
p.s. Well snap my buttons! I submitted my final, which isn't due until next week, for CSS last night. I just logged in to my student website after writing this post and my instructor has already given it 100%. That sure takes a big giant load off of my shoulders for next week. Whew!
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
1 serving corned beef & cabbage (meticulously trimmed all of the fat off)
5 boiled baby carrots
3 boiled new potatoes
------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1469
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 3 sets @ 3 mph for 5 min
Running: 3 sets @ 5 mph for 2 min (alternated w/walking)
Walking: 2 hrs at the St. Patties Day street fair in old-town
-----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 233
Friday, March 16, 2012
Happy Anniversary
Yesterday was mine and Snackers' four-year anniversary so we went for sushi because that's what we had for dinner on our first date and it's become kind of a tradition for us. After dinner we couldn't think of anything to do. Our original plan had been to paint pottery but with Snackers being one-handed we realized that wasn't going to work and there weren't any movies out that we wanted to see so we ended up heading for the nearest pet store. Snackers has been bummed about being hurt and playing with young, bumbling puppies always cheers him up. We had absolutely NO intention of buying anything, but we just picked one out and let them think we were interested so that they'd let us spend some time in one of the rooms with it. Snackers picked out a little female black lab ... she was sweet but I'm not a lab person generally so I just let him snuggle and play with her so that he'd feel a little bit better for the rest of the evening.
After that we headed over to the casino because he wanted to put $5 on the championship games for today so they'd be a little bit more interesting to sit around and watch all day and then we went to the book store to browse. It is soooo strange that a guy who doesn't like to read, at all, actually ENJOYS browsing the book store with me. I LOVE to browse book stores. Call me psycho but I could probably go to a book store two or three times a month just to look around, check out the covers and the titles, see which names are getting their own little displays, and which genres are being placed at the front of the store etc. I didn't ever think anyone in the world would find that fun but me but Snackers does. It's awesome!
So after an hour of that we came home and I jumped on the treadmill for 20 minutes because I was feeling guilty about the sushi (little did I know I'd actually come in UNDER calories for the day) and then Snackers asked me to read some more chapters from my book to him so we did that until we got tired and went to bed. All-in-all not a bad anniversary. Not exciting but we both kinda feel like we've had enough excitement for the month and needed some "chill time" plus we saved a ton of money by being indecisive. It's funny - I never liked to window shop (ok, Bookstores obviously) before I met Snackers but it seems like that's something that we do a lot together and we both enjoy. My brother and I went window shopping once when I was 15-16 and staying with him for a couple of weeks. We walked the entire mall finding odd trinkets and trying to take them apart and figure out how they work without getting kicked out of the stores and it was a blast. That's kind of what Snackers and I do. We find unusual things to look at, crack jokes about, and be just a little bit silly. It's good, inexpensive fun.
p.s. The Dr. called yesterday and rescheduled Snackers' surgery for next Wednesday. He's not happy.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 serving chicken raviolli
8 grilled asparagus spears
1 skinny cow ice cream
---------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1363
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Nothin. :(
After that we headed over to the casino because he wanted to put $5 on the championship games for today so they'd be a little bit more interesting to sit around and watch all day and then we went to the book store to browse. It is soooo strange that a guy who doesn't like to read, at all, actually ENJOYS browsing the book store with me. I LOVE to browse book stores. Call me psycho but I could probably go to a book store two or three times a month just to look around, check out the covers and the titles, see which names are getting their own little displays, and which genres are being placed at the front of the store etc. I didn't ever think anyone in the world would find that fun but me but Snackers does. It's awesome!
So after an hour of that we came home and I jumped on the treadmill for 20 minutes because I was feeling guilty about the sushi (little did I know I'd actually come in UNDER calories for the day) and then Snackers asked me to read some more chapters from my book to him so we did that until we got tired and went to bed. All-in-all not a bad anniversary. Not exciting but we both kinda feel like we've had enough excitement for the month and needed some "chill time" plus we saved a ton of money by being indecisive. It's funny - I never liked to window shop (ok, Bookstores obviously) before I met Snackers but it seems like that's something that we do a lot together and we both enjoy. My brother and I went window shopping once when I was 15-16 and staying with him for a couple of weeks. We walked the entire mall finding odd trinkets and trying to take them apart and figure out how they work without getting kicked out of the stores and it was a blast. That's kind of what Snackers and I do. We find unusual things to look at, crack jokes about, and be just a little bit silly. It's good, inexpensive fun.
p.s. The Dr. called yesterday and rescheduled Snackers' surgery for next Wednesday. He's not happy.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 serving chicken raviolli
8 grilled asparagus spears
1 skinny cow ice cream
---------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1363
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Nothin. :(
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Restless and Bored
Snackers can't drive, he can't play video games, he can't go to work ... hell he can't even make a sandwich. He's getting restless, bored, and angry with life. He came into my office while I was working yesterday about a dozen times looking for me to entertain him and then hovered around my door after work while I was trying to finish school. He tried to cook dinner and I heard crashing noises and cursing from the kitchen as he realized what a handicap having one hand can really be and it was pissing him off.
I helped him cook dinner instead of just doing it on my own because he needed to feel like he could accomplish something, then I cleaned up and he wanted to "snuggle". I said I'd give him 30 minutes and then I had to exercise but when the time came he held onto me and said "just 30 more minutes, read your book to me". Now I know he's bored. Snackers HATES reading. So I read to him and although we usually do 1-2 chapters at a time, he had me read 10 last night before I finally insisted that I was going to lose my damn voice if we didn't take a break.
I finally went out to get on the treadmill and Snackers followed me to the garage wanting to put Vladdy on the treadmill. He freaked out a little and we had to continually encourage him to keep walking but he got into a groove when we figured out the speed that was most comfortable for him. After five minutes we put Piper on it because she'd been watching him like she wanted a turn and I swear she thinks it's fun. I didn't even have to put a leash on her she just jumped on and went for a walk. When she jumped off we put Vladdy back on for another five, then I jumped on for a three minute run and Snackers stood there, trying to talk to me about college basketball while I was running ... which so doesn't work. Then he asked me to help him wrap his splint so that he could take a bath ... right in the middle of my work out. So I turned the treadmill off and came inside with him and then he changed his mind about taking a bath and wanted to snuggle some more. I thought I was going to have to handcuff him to the bedpost just to get away long enough to take a shower.
*sigh* I know it must be hard for him to not be able to do anything but stare at the TV all day and I'm sure he's bored and restless but with finals coming up next week and the week after he's going to have to learn to give me some "me-time" to handle my own responsibilities. And today is our anniversary so I don't know what to expect from him tonight.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I forgot to weigh on Monday because of the impromptu rush to the Dr.'s office so I weighed yesterday and was at 235.5. YAY! That's down another half-pound from Saturday and a 1.5 lb loss from my last "official" weigh-in so I'm posting it baby!
Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 fish burrito (breakfast)
1 healthy choice lunch
3 tuna rolls
1 mochi ball
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1281
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Running: 5 sets for 3 min @ 5 mph
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 152
I helped him cook dinner instead of just doing it on my own because he needed to feel like he could accomplish something, then I cleaned up and he wanted to "snuggle". I said I'd give him 30 minutes and then I had to exercise but when the time came he held onto me and said "just 30 more minutes, read your book to me". Now I know he's bored. Snackers HATES reading. So I read to him and although we usually do 1-2 chapters at a time, he had me read 10 last night before I finally insisted that I was going to lose my damn voice if we didn't take a break.
I finally went out to get on the treadmill and Snackers followed me to the garage wanting to put Vladdy on the treadmill. He freaked out a little and we had to continually encourage him to keep walking but he got into a groove when we figured out the speed that was most comfortable for him. After five minutes we put Piper on it because she'd been watching him like she wanted a turn and I swear she thinks it's fun. I didn't even have to put a leash on her she just jumped on and went for a walk. When she jumped off we put Vladdy back on for another five, then I jumped on for a three minute run and Snackers stood there, trying to talk to me about college basketball while I was running ... which so doesn't work. Then he asked me to help him wrap his splint so that he could take a bath ... right in the middle of my work out. So I turned the treadmill off and came inside with him and then he changed his mind about taking a bath and wanted to snuggle some more. I thought I was going to have to handcuff him to the bedpost just to get away long enough to take a shower.
*sigh* I know it must be hard for him to not be able to do anything but stare at the TV all day and I'm sure he's bored and restless but with finals coming up next week and the week after he's going to have to learn to give me some "me-time" to handle my own responsibilities. And today is our anniversary so I don't know what to expect from him tonight.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I forgot to weigh on Monday because of the impromptu rush to the Dr.'s office so I weighed yesterday and was at 235.5. YAY! That's down another half-pound from Saturday and a 1.5 lb loss from my last "official" weigh-in so I'm posting it baby!
Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 fish burrito (breakfast)
1 healthy choice lunch
3 tuna rolls
1 mochi ball
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1281
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Running: 5 sets for 3 min @ 5 mph
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 152
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Hijacked Again
So I called the hand specialist for Snackers first thing yesterday morning as soon as they opened expecting to make an appointment and what I got from them instead was "The Dr. wants you to come in right now, if you can". I talked to my boss and he told me to go without hesitation so we dropped everything, got dressed and headed out. We had to swing by the E.R. first to pick up his X-rays which turned out to be a completely pointless 45 minutes out of our way because we both forgot to grab Snackers' wallet with his ID in it. *growl*. He's still all foggy from Keflex and I'm having a hard time remembering everything for two people. So we got all the way to the E.R. and realized he didn't have his ID, turned around and came all the way back home to get it, then drove all the way back to the E.R. again to pick up his X-rays.
Then the hand Dr. was as far west as you can get in Las Vegas and we're about as far east as you can get so we drove across the whole damned valley to get there. They jumped us right into a room rather quickly, they took the splint off and the Dr. had Snackers do a tendon test, which he failed miserably. I could even tell he failed it before the Dr. said anything because as they were doing the test Snackers was watching his hand but the Dr. was watching Snackers' expression ... you can't bullshit a bullshitter - that test hurt like hell and the Doc knew it. Snackers REALLY didn't want surgery but he's getting it this Friday. *sigh*
They're going to put him under, cut his stitches out and "have a look inside". If the cut to the tendon is less than 50% they'll just stitch him back up and send him home. If it's more than 50% they'll operate right there to sew the tendon back together, then stitch his hand back up and put him in a cast and send him home. Prognosis is 4-8 weeks depending on the results of Friday's surgery. He's mui unhappy about it.
Up-side workman's comp is handling the medical bills since it happened at work and Snackers has Aflac so that's going to help out a lot too but it still sucks. He can't play video games or do much of anything so he's going to become very restless and bored very quickly. The Dr. gave Snackers a new prescription so we had to go back to the damn pharmacy at Coscto as soon as I got off work and spent an hour walking around there waiting for the little pager they gave us to go off. Then we took the dogs to the dog park and I ran around with Vladdy and chased him to get some exercise of my own but again, no yoga, no treadmill. By the time we got home it was 10:00 and I went straight to bed and I'm STILL exhausted and feeling under-rested this morning. I hope today is more normal. I thrive on routine.
I didn't weigh yesterday amidst the chaos and I'm feeling very bloated and constipated today so I'm kind of afraid to weigh today too but we'll see how the day goes. I think it's about that time of month for me...for the first time in 10 years.
p.s. I'm not counting it as exercise but it's been a long time since I've driven a stick for more than just a short trip here and there I guess because my left thigh is SORE from pushing the clutch over the last three days. lol I'm such a wimp.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 healthy choice lunch
8 oz grilled steak (home prepared)
8 grilled asparagus spears
2 cups popcorn
1 skinny cow ice cream
--------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1162
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Treadmill: 3 min at 5 mph (one set, details in today's post)
----------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 126
Then the hand Dr. was as far west as you can get in Las Vegas and we're about as far east as you can get so we drove across the whole damned valley to get there. They jumped us right into a room rather quickly, they took the splint off and the Dr. had Snackers do a tendon test, which he failed miserably. I could even tell he failed it before the Dr. said anything because as they were doing the test Snackers was watching his hand but the Dr. was watching Snackers' expression ... you can't bullshit a bullshitter - that test hurt like hell and the Doc knew it. Snackers REALLY didn't want surgery but he's getting it this Friday. *sigh*
They're going to put him under, cut his stitches out and "have a look inside". If the cut to the tendon is less than 50% they'll just stitch him back up and send him home. If it's more than 50% they'll operate right there to sew the tendon back together, then stitch his hand back up and put him in a cast and send him home. Prognosis is 4-8 weeks depending on the results of Friday's surgery. He's mui unhappy about it.
Up-side workman's comp is handling the medical bills since it happened at work and Snackers has Aflac so that's going to help out a lot too but it still sucks. He can't play video games or do much of anything so he's going to become very restless and bored very quickly. The Dr. gave Snackers a new prescription so we had to go back to the damn pharmacy at Coscto as soon as I got off work and spent an hour walking around there waiting for the little pager they gave us to go off. Then we took the dogs to the dog park and I ran around with Vladdy and chased him to get some exercise of my own but again, no yoga, no treadmill. By the time we got home it was 10:00 and I went straight to bed and I'm STILL exhausted and feeling under-rested this morning. I hope today is more normal. I thrive on routine.
I didn't weigh yesterday amidst the chaos and I'm feeling very bloated and constipated today so I'm kind of afraid to weigh today too but we'll see how the day goes. I think it's about that time of month for me...for the first time in 10 years.
p.s. I'm not counting it as exercise but it's been a long time since I've driven a stick for more than just a short trip here and there I guess because my left thigh is SORE from pushing the clutch over the last three days. lol I'm such a wimp.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 healthy choice lunch
8 oz grilled steak (home prepared)
8 grilled asparagus spears
2 cups popcorn
1 skinny cow ice cream
--------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1162
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Treadmill: 3 min at 5 mph (one set, details in today's post)
----------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 126
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Affordable TREES
I made a $10 donation to the Arbor Day Foundation a few months ago and they sent me 12 baby trees! They'd promised to send 10 but for whatever reason I got 2 bonus trees so YAY! The trees arrived last week in a plastic bag full of hydrating gelatin and the planting instructions said we could leave them that way for up-to five days so we put them in the garage and waited for the weekend.
If you want/need to buy trees and you're in the Vegas area, I'm only keeping 3 of the 12 trees and my dad wants 1 of them so that leaves me with 8 more to give away ... just let me know you want some. If you're not in the Vegas area and need/want trees, I HIGHLY recommend the arbor day foundation - they sent me a catalog and after browsing through it I can promise you that they have the absolute best prices you'll find anywhere ... we're talking $6 for a peach tree vs. $250 at Star Nursery. Yes, they're younger trees but they are also guaranteed to grow. If they don't survive the foundation will replace them no charge, no questions asked.
Yesterday we picked up some cheap planter pots and potting soil from the local nursery (8 cents a pot, $20 for the soil). With Snackers being one-handed I loaded everything into the car and he hated it. He's such an old-fashioned guy and I think it's cute and all but seriously, even if he weren't injured I would have wanted to load everything just like I always want to carry the dog food for the extra exercise ... hey, every little bit helps. Well the doc has him on Keflex (antibiotic) to prevent infection and it makes him tired (the one time I had to take it I zonked out too) so when we got home he laid down to take a nap. I got the baby trees soaking in water as directed and then tried to lay down to nap with him but I'd fall asleep for about 5 minutes and then wake up for no reason. My body was saying "get up lazy ass and do something productive!". I was exhausted from the stress of the previous day and with his owy Snackers didn't sleep well Saturday night so I was up with him helping him take the lid off his pain killers so he could take one and then waiting for it to kick in so we could go back to bed etc.
Well I got up anyway, took the trash out to the street, emptied all of the trash cans in the house re-organized the garage a little bit and then got to work planting the trees. I'm so proud of me!!! I'll be even more proud of me if I can keep them alive since I tend to kill everything that I try to grow but, for the time being, they look really good and I think that I did a great job all by myself! It took me almost 2 hours to plant them all in the buckets, move the buckets to the front porch, and clean up the mess but by the time I was done Snackers was awake and had to go back to work to fill out some paperwork on his accident so it worked out perfectly.
I have the following trees (Google pics of them, they're all beautiful!):
3 White Flowering Dogwood trees (I'm keeping one of these for my front yard)
3 Eastern Redbud trees (I'm either keeping 2 of these, or the Crapemyrtles)
4 Golden Raintrees (These are beautiful but I'm not keeping any of them)
2 Crapemyrtles (might be keeping these, not sure).
Food:
40 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 veggie sub
2 chicken soft tacos
1/2 serving leftover shepherd's pie
2 cups popcorn
-----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1390
Activity:
Walking: Costco (while waiting for pharmacy), dog park
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 86
If you want/need to buy trees and you're in the Vegas area, I'm only keeping 3 of the 12 trees and my dad wants 1 of them so that leaves me with 8 more to give away ... just let me know you want some. If you're not in the Vegas area and need/want trees, I HIGHLY recommend the arbor day foundation - they sent me a catalog and after browsing through it I can promise you that they have the absolute best prices you'll find anywhere ... we're talking $6 for a peach tree vs. $250 at Star Nursery. Yes, they're younger trees but they are also guaranteed to grow. If they don't survive the foundation will replace them no charge, no questions asked.
Yesterday we picked up some cheap planter pots and potting soil from the local nursery (8 cents a pot, $20 for the soil). With Snackers being one-handed I loaded everything into the car and he hated it. He's such an old-fashioned guy and I think it's cute and all but seriously, even if he weren't injured I would have wanted to load everything just like I always want to carry the dog food for the extra exercise ... hey, every little bit helps. Well the doc has him on Keflex (antibiotic) to prevent infection and it makes him tired (the one time I had to take it I zonked out too) so when we got home he laid down to take a nap. I got the baby trees soaking in water as directed and then tried to lay down to nap with him but I'd fall asleep for about 5 minutes and then wake up for no reason. My body was saying "get up lazy ass and do something productive!". I was exhausted from the stress of the previous day and with his owy Snackers didn't sleep well Saturday night so I was up with him helping him take the lid off his pain killers so he could take one and then waiting for it to kick in so we could go back to bed etc.
Well I got up anyway, took the trash out to the street, emptied all of the trash cans in the house re-organized the garage a little bit and then got to work planting the trees. I'm so proud of me!!! I'll be even more proud of me if I can keep them alive since I tend to kill everything that I try to grow but, for the time being, they look really good and I think that I did a great job all by myself! It took me almost 2 hours to plant them all in the buckets, move the buckets to the front porch, and clean up the mess but by the time I was done Snackers was awake and had to go back to work to fill out some paperwork on his accident so it worked out perfectly.
I have the following trees (Google pics of them, they're all beautiful!):
3 White Flowering Dogwood trees (I'm keeping one of these for my front yard)
3 Eastern Redbud trees (I'm either keeping 2 of these, or the Crapemyrtles)
4 Golden Raintrees (These are beautiful but I'm not keeping any of them)
2 Crapemyrtles (might be keeping these, not sure).
Food:
40 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 veggie sub
2 chicken soft tacos
1/2 serving leftover shepherd's pie
2 cups popcorn
-----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1390
Activity:
Walking: Costco (while waiting for pharmacy), dog park
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 86
Monday, March 12, 2012
Bad Weekend
I wrote a post on Saturday morning and then my bad weekend started with a phone call and I forgot all about it until this morning. I did my treadmill routine and was about to start yoga when my phone rang and Snackers said "Don't freak out, I need to tell you something" ... that's never good. Turns out he cut his hand open at work, bad, and was at the emergency room awaiting stitches. His boss's wife picked me up and took me to the hospital to sit with him - he cut a tendon in the back of his hand so the ER put 11 superficial stitches in it to keep the wound closed but he has to make an appointment today to see a specialist sometime this week to see if he's going to need surgery and they put a huge splint on his entire hand from mid-forearm to just past his fingertips.
After we left the ER we headed back to his work to drop off the paperwork for workman's comp. and then went to Costco to get his prescriptions filled. I didn't know this but Costco on Saturday afternoon is NUTS! Busy, busy, busy!!! We were there for over an hour waiting on his scrips and then we came home and I had to help him undress to take a bath because he's one-handed. I washed the blood out of his uniform by hand and then put it in the washing machine and there was a LOT of blood. Once he was clean we went to get dinner and then came home to let him rest.
Yesterday we woke up and went to breakfast, then went by the nursery to get some pots and potting soil and then when we came home he laid down to take a nap while I took the trash out to the curb, potted our 12 new trees from the arbor foundation, and then cleaned up the mess. By then he was awake again and had to go back over to his work to fill out some paperwork for the workman's comp claim, then we tried to grab dinner but it was 9 p.m. and everything was closed that we tried except Denny's. They were under-staffed so we were there for an hour just waiting to get our food, which was horrible, and then we went to do our grocery shopping and I fell into bed as soon as we got home. I feel for Snackers, poor dude - but in addition to his cut it seemed like everything in the universe was working against us this weekend.
p.s. I got on the treadmill pre-workout on Saturday and had another 1/2 lb loss. That was the "good news" that I had promised and then didn't get the chance to post.
Saturday Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 fruit shake
1 granola bar
1/2 serving shepherd's pie
1 skinny cow ice cream bar
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1203
Saturday Activity:
Treadmill: Walking @ 3 mph for 5 min x 6 sets
Treadmill: Running @ 5 mph for 2 min x 5 sets
Walking/Standing @ Costco x 1.5 hours
------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 131
Sunday Food:
100 oz of water
1 bagel, dry
1 cup corned beef
1 cup pico de gallo
1 cup popcorn
1 slice cheese pizza (at Snackers' work)
1 chicken sandwich w/fruit (denny's fit fare menu)
-------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1183
Sunday Activity:
Walking: 2.15 hours (throughout the day)
Lifting: 30 lb x 6 (loading, unloading, and moving the bags of potting soil)
Lifting: 5 lbs x 12 reps (moving the potted trees to the porch)
----------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 69
After we left the ER we headed back to his work to drop off the paperwork for workman's comp. and then went to Costco to get his prescriptions filled. I didn't know this but Costco on Saturday afternoon is NUTS! Busy, busy, busy!!! We were there for over an hour waiting on his scrips and then we came home and I had to help him undress to take a bath because he's one-handed. I washed the blood out of his uniform by hand and then put it in the washing machine and there was a LOT of blood. Once he was clean we went to get dinner and then came home to let him rest.
Yesterday we woke up and went to breakfast, then went by the nursery to get some pots and potting soil and then when we came home he laid down to take a nap while I took the trash out to the curb, potted our 12 new trees from the arbor foundation, and then cleaned up the mess. By then he was awake again and had to go back over to his work to fill out some paperwork for the workman's comp claim, then we tried to grab dinner but it was 9 p.m. and everything was closed that we tried except Denny's. They were under-staffed so we were there for an hour just waiting to get our food, which was horrible, and then we went to do our grocery shopping and I fell into bed as soon as we got home. I feel for Snackers, poor dude - but in addition to his cut it seemed like everything in the universe was working against us this weekend.
p.s. I got on the treadmill pre-workout on Saturday and had another 1/2 lb loss. That was the "good news" that I had promised and then didn't get the chance to post.
Saturday Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 fruit shake
1 granola bar
1/2 serving shepherd's pie
1 skinny cow ice cream bar
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1203
Saturday Activity:
Treadmill: Walking @ 3 mph for 5 min x 6 sets
Treadmill: Running @ 5 mph for 2 min x 5 sets
Walking/Standing @ Costco x 1.5 hours
------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 131
Sunday Food:
100 oz of water
1 bagel, dry
1 cup corned beef
1 cup pico de gallo
1 cup popcorn
1 slice cheese pizza (at Snackers' work)
1 chicken sandwich w/fruit (denny's fit fare menu)
-------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1183
Sunday Activity:
Walking: 2.15 hours (throughout the day)
Lifting: 30 lb x 6 (loading, unloading, and moving the bags of potting soil)
Lifting: 5 lbs x 12 reps (moving the potted trees to the porch)
----------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 69
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Mixed It Up
Vladdy finally slept through the night without waking us up. I guess leaving him outside all night the night before worked. It's strange, but even though I don't remember waking up even once during the night, I didn't feel rested at all when I woke up this morning. I also realized this morning that the night sweats are back. It was FREEZING last night and I woke up this morning in soaking wet sheets and pajamas ... that can only be night sweats. I found a doctor here in Vegas that will do a complete physical and full blood work for $150 so I think when I get my tax return I'm going to look into that. They'll even test my thyroid which is something I've been wanting to get done but I kept focusing on hormone level tests etc. with Planned Parenthood and it's getting me nowhere. I haven't actually been to a medical doctor (if we're not counting the shoddy half-assed service at Planned Parenthood) since ... 2001 maybe? And I've never had a "complete physical" if ya know what I mean. It's long overdue.
Today's shake: 1 apple, 2 nectarines, 1 cup of cranberry juice, 1 cup of water = 2 servings (12oz) & 132 calories per.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 healthy choice lunch
1 fruit shake
1 pastrami on rye (w/mustard)
1 small serving fries
1 cafe late
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1303
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking The District: 2 hours
----------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 203
Today's shake: 1 apple, 2 nectarines, 1 cup of cranberry juice, 1 cup of water = 2 servings (12oz) & 132 calories per.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 healthy choice lunch
1 fruit shake
1 pastrami on rye (w/mustard)
1 small serving fries
1 cafe late
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1303
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking The District: 2 hours
----------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 203
Friday, March 9, 2012
FASCINATING INFORMATION
Ok so my zealous (notice I said zealous and not over-zealous, because he's not) brother is a phenomenal researcher and probably the absolute smartest person that I know on the entire planet! He's also been the most supportive person since I've started trying to lose weight and ... hell he's been the most supportive in pretty much everything I've ever done. I owe a LOT to him - more than any of you, even him, could realize. He sends me articles every so often about various information that he finds regarding weight loss in his research because he believes, as do I, that education and knowledge are the solutions to ALL PROBLEMS! So far we have discussed the Caveman diet, intermittent fasting, daily fasting, wheat, carbs, fruits, raw food, whole food, five small meals vs. 3 squares, calorie counting, sugar vs. sugar alcohol, tricking the metabolism, caloric cycling, etc (over the course of many years). I should also include that, like you may have already noticed I am, he's a "discusser". We love to discuss just about any subject - engage us and it's hard to stop us once we get interested or fascinated by something and it is EASY to interest and fascinate us! You should see us at Thanksgiving ... my mom even accused me of "bogarting" him.
One of our recent discussions actually led me to look into something that I saw on a Discovery or NatGeo special about genetic obesity regarding a specific Native American tribe. It seems easy to believe that we're fat because it's in our genes and that's just how life is but, at the same time, that kind of thinking can completely DESTROY any chance for motivation or self-esteem. I used to think that before I started this blog, in fact. That "fat" just ran in my family, it's who I am, who I will always be, and there's nothing that I can do about it. And then one day I had a massive brain fart and realized that's just stupid. "If 266 can do it, I can too" became my new motto.
Well then I hit my wall and old worm-pudge started to whisper in my ear again telling me my mom has always struggled with her weight, my sister has always struggled with her weight, my oldest brother is a "big guy", so maybe that's just "life". My brother mentioned above, however, is not nor has he ever been overweight so his interest has mostly been for the benefit of my mom, sister, and myself ... and because he's just an info sponge that sucks up everything he can on any subject that presents itself to him ... which is also why he's the smartest person I've ever known.
Ok so back to my point. I tried to Google this tribe that I'd heard about and I remember the show saying that they were like 80% over weight and have been the basis for multiple scientific studies and genetic testing trying to figure out what it is about these people that makes them chronically obese. In my Googlings, however, I found something even MORE interesting than what I was looking for and I actually got goosebumps when I read it. The full article can be accessed here (and I do, highly recommend reading the whole thing, it's short but powerful, in my opinion) but I want to share the part that really jumped out and grabbed my ass the most below:
I want to be simple and direct here: The only way to reduce body fat and to keep it off is physical work. How much? More than you’re doing. Just get started. Stop looking for other ways to improve your overweight condition. The only way is work. Exercise—activity, movement, daily walking or running, progressive resistance training—is essential for body fat reduction."
~Brian Cole, (n.d), Personal Training Associates
I love it. Looking back over my blog between Nov. 2010 through Apr. 2011 and comparing my intake/activity to Jul. 2011 through now I see 2 major differences. 1) My caloric intake has DROPPED and 2) So has my activity (on average).
Problem? Not what I eat or how many calories (though my lower intake might be partially responsible for my lower energy levels and motivation to exercise). The problem is that I'm pussing out. Whether you like the verbiage or not there it is. On some level I told myself that if 1,500 and 3-5 miles a day = weight loss than maybe 800 and no activity would too. Bullshit.
Several recent readers of this blog tried to smack me up side the head with this very message but I'm a damned Scorpio and sometimes we have to hear things in just the right way while we are in just the right frame of mind before we open up our thick skulls and actually listen so to those readers - I'm sorry. You were right and I'm just a stubborn idiot.
And do you know the really pathetic part about this is? LIVING PROOF SLEEPS IN MY OWN DAMN BED!!! Snackers eats like a HOG most of the time. I'm not kidding. Coffee in the morning a couple of non-diet soda's throughout the day a couple of dollar menu cheeseburgers when he gets off work, whatever I'm having for supper but drowning in ranch or thousand island dressing so that he can stomach it, four or five Snack cakes and a few bags of chips and some glasses of sweet tea before bed, maybe even a fried egg sandwich is NORMAL for him. Yet he has mostly been the same weight since I've known him. He can drop 3-4 lbs in two days (he's already back down to 232 since Monday when he and I were both 236.5!!!). How? He goes to work every day and busts his ASS with physical labor for 4-6 hours a day.
I'm so blind. No wonder mom and dad called me hard headed and stubborn my whole life.
One of our recent discussions actually led me to look into something that I saw on a Discovery or NatGeo special about genetic obesity regarding a specific Native American tribe. It seems easy to believe that we're fat because it's in our genes and that's just how life is but, at the same time, that kind of thinking can completely DESTROY any chance for motivation or self-esteem. I used to think that before I started this blog, in fact. That "fat" just ran in my family, it's who I am, who I will always be, and there's nothing that I can do about it. And then one day I had a massive brain fart and realized that's just stupid. "If 266 can do it, I can too" became my new motto.
Well then I hit my wall and old worm-pudge started to whisper in my ear again telling me my mom has always struggled with her weight, my sister has always struggled with her weight, my oldest brother is a "big guy", so maybe that's just "life". My brother mentioned above, however, is not nor has he ever been overweight so his interest has mostly been for the benefit of my mom, sister, and myself ... and because he's just an info sponge that sucks up everything he can on any subject that presents itself to him ... which is also why he's the smartest person I've ever known.
Ok so back to my point. I tried to Google this tribe that I'd heard about and I remember the show saying that they were like 80% over weight and have been the basis for multiple scientific studies and genetic testing trying to figure out what it is about these people that makes them chronically obese. In my Googlings, however, I found something even MORE interesting than what I was looking for and I actually got goosebumps when I read it. The full article can be accessed here (and I do, highly recommend reading the whole thing, it's short but powerful, in my opinion) but I want to share the part that really jumped out and grabbed my ass the most below:
"...the message is clear: the starchy foods consumed by the thin Pima of Mexico won’t be the staple in even the most irresponsible diet in the wacky but profitable diet book world. What you eat does not equal fat loss. While how much you eat is relevant, what you eat and drink is about your arteries, your heart and your long-term health. ... But the dietary adjustments don’t work (pun intended).
~Brian Cole, (n.d), Personal Training Associates
I love it. Looking back over my blog between Nov. 2010 through Apr. 2011 and comparing my intake/activity to Jul. 2011 through now I see 2 major differences. 1) My caloric intake has DROPPED and 2) So has my activity (on average).
Problem? Not what I eat or how many calories (though my lower intake might be partially responsible for my lower energy levels and motivation to exercise). The problem is that I'm pussing out. Whether you like the verbiage or not there it is. On some level I told myself that if 1,500 and 3-5 miles a day = weight loss than maybe 800 and no activity would too. Bullshit.
Several recent readers of this blog tried to smack me up side the head with this very message but I'm a damned Scorpio and sometimes we have to hear things in just the right way while we are in just the right frame of mind before we open up our thick skulls and actually listen so to those readers - I'm sorry. You were right and I'm just a stubborn idiot.
And do you know the really pathetic part about this is? LIVING PROOF SLEEPS IN MY OWN DAMN BED!!! Snackers eats like a HOG most of the time. I'm not kidding. Coffee in the morning a couple of non-diet soda's throughout the day a couple of dollar menu cheeseburgers when he gets off work, whatever I'm having for supper but drowning in ranch or thousand island dressing so that he can stomach it, four or five Snack cakes and a few bags of chips and some glasses of sweet tea before bed, maybe even a fried egg sandwich is NORMAL for him. Yet he has mostly been the same weight since I've known him. He can drop 3-4 lbs in two days (he's already back down to 232 since Monday when he and I were both 236.5!!!). How? He goes to work every day and busts his ASS with physical labor for 4-6 hours a day.
I'm so blind. No wonder mom and dad called me hard headed and stubborn my whole life.
Much Better!
Yeah buddy! I woke up yesterday and got right into my work-out clothes before work so that, just like Monday, when I got off work I'd get straight on the treadmill and it worked! Snackers was bugging me to "make it quick" though because he got a tip at work yesterday and wanted to go out for dinner. *sigh*. I did a 5 minute warm-up walk and then ran for 2 minutes instead of just 1. Wow! I don't think I've ever run anywhere for 2 minutes straight before in my life! I then walked for 8 minutes because after 5 I was still huffing and puffing too hard from the previous run to do another one. I was planning on a 30 minute work out but when I got to the 30 minute marker I'd only run for 8 minutes all total and I wanted to do 10 like I'd done on Monday so I kept going. I finished off with a 5 minute cool down walk and then came into the house and collapsed on the nearest seat. I couldn't believe how tired I was!
And not just after the work out, I got my breath back but I felt physically drained and completely exhausted the whole rest of the night and ended up going to sleep at 8:30. I'm not sure if that was because of the work out or because of Vladdy waking me up every night this week - probably a little bit of both. He woke me up again this morning at 2:30 a.m. and I just put him outside and left him out there. The wind died down and it warmed up a little in the later part of the afternoon yesterday. It was still butt numbing cold but he has got to learn that he can't be waking me up every morning like this. His tummy troubles were over yesterday so now I think he's just gotten into the habit of realizing he can whine and we'll let him outside to play in the middle of the night and then bring him back in when he gets cold. Oh no. So he spent the entire night outside.
When I woke up this morning his ears were cold but he was in extremely high spirits and EXTREMELY happy to see me. He was bouncing all over the yard like he thought he'd been exorcised from the pack and wanted to prove that he was worthy to be back in. When I let him into the house he went straight to his kennel and waited, eagerly, for me to open the door - then laid right down and curled up. I guess maybe he learned to appreciate being inside at night. A lot of dogs don't have it this good so I'm glad he's realizing that the other side of the glass isn't fun when it's dark outside.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 can hearts of palm
1 healthy choice lunch
1 chicken pot pie
2 slices of garlic bread
------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1307
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Push-ups: 100 (5 sets of 20)
Bicep Curls: 150 (5 sets of 30 each arm)
-----------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 512
And not just after the work out, I got my breath back but I felt physically drained and completely exhausted the whole rest of the night and ended up going to sleep at 8:30. I'm not sure if that was because of the work out or because of Vladdy waking me up every night this week - probably a little bit of both. He woke me up again this morning at 2:30 a.m. and I just put him outside and left him out there. The wind died down and it warmed up a little in the later part of the afternoon yesterday. It was still butt numbing cold but he has got to learn that he can't be waking me up every morning like this. His tummy troubles were over yesterday so now I think he's just gotten into the habit of realizing he can whine and we'll let him outside to play in the middle of the night and then bring him back in when he gets cold. Oh no. So he spent the entire night outside.
When I woke up this morning his ears were cold but he was in extremely high spirits and EXTREMELY happy to see me. He was bouncing all over the yard like he thought he'd been exorcised from the pack and wanted to prove that he was worthy to be back in. When I let him into the house he went straight to his kennel and waited, eagerly, for me to open the door - then laid right down and curled up. I guess maybe he learned to appreciate being inside at night. A lot of dogs don't have it this good so I'm glad he's realizing that the other side of the glass isn't fun when it's dark outside.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 can hearts of palm
1 healthy choice lunch
1 chicken pot pie
2 slices of garlic bread
------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1307
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Push-ups: 100 (5 sets of 20)
Bicep Curls: 150 (5 sets of 30 each arm)
-----------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 512
Thursday, March 8, 2012
And then, Flop.
GROWL AT ME! I did so good on Monday!!! I ate good, I exercised really good, and I drank lots of water. Then yesterday it's like I just completely undid everything that I accomplished on Monday and I have no one to blame but myself. Sure, Snackers wanted me to go to Best Buy with him to get the new MLB The Show baseball game for PS3 because they needed my ID for the pre-order receipt so I didn't do lunch-break yoga but that's no excuse for the rest of the night after work!
I knew the moment that I woke up yesterday that my intake was going to be high because I was FAMISHED before I even got out of bed and I really don't think that the occasional 1300-1400 intake day is a bad thing but then to sit around on my ass all night re-proofing The Citizens and reading the latest from Kim Harrison was a mistake. I should have AT LEAST done some good upper body exercises or gone for a light walk on the treaddy. I went to bed frustrated with myself and I'm still feeling it this morning.
We're switching Vladdy off puppy food and it's not going well. He's now over a year old so we got him a bag of adult dog food and we're mixing half-and-half for his breakfast and then giving him his usual puppy+wet food dinner but it's upsetting his tummy bad. Last night was the third night in a row that he woke us up in the middle of the night, desperate to go outside. I hate when that happens but on the up-side, at least he's waking us up and not just being a naughty doggy in the house. It's too bad the weather turned here or I'd just leave him outside all night but it's been cold and windy.
Food:
128 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice Lunch
1 turkey burger w/pesto (no mayo)
1 serving baked fries
1/2 fresh fruit tart (I ate the fruit off the top and Snackers ate the tart)
1 chocolate covered strawberry
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1117
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Running: 5 sets for 2 minutes each @ 5.0 mph
Walking: 2 sets for 5 minutes each @ 3.0 mph
Walking: 4 sets for 8 minutes each @ 3.0 mph
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 198
I knew the moment that I woke up yesterday that my intake was going to be high because I was FAMISHED before I even got out of bed and I really don't think that the occasional 1300-1400 intake day is a bad thing but then to sit around on my ass all night re-proofing The Citizens and reading the latest from Kim Harrison was a mistake. I should have AT LEAST done some good upper body exercises or gone for a light walk on the treaddy. I went to bed frustrated with myself and I'm still feeling it this morning.
We're switching Vladdy off puppy food and it's not going well. He's now over a year old so we got him a bag of adult dog food and we're mixing half-and-half for his breakfast and then giving him his usual puppy+wet food dinner but it's upsetting his tummy bad. Last night was the third night in a row that he woke us up in the middle of the night, desperate to go outside. I hate when that happens but on the up-side, at least he's waking us up and not just being a naughty doggy in the house. It's too bad the weather turned here or I'd just leave him outside all night but it's been cold and windy.
Food:
128 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice Lunch
1 turkey burger w/pesto (no mayo)
1 serving baked fries
1/2 fresh fruit tart (I ate the fruit off the top and Snackers ate the tart)
1 chocolate covered strawberry
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1117
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Running: 5 sets for 2 minutes each @ 5.0 mph
Walking: 2 sets for 5 minutes each @ 3.0 mph
Walking: 4 sets for 8 minutes each @ 3.0 mph
--------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 198
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Quite The Workout
The instant that I got off of work last night I could tell Snackers wasn't going to be up for tennis or any other form of exercise so I jumped right onto the treadmill before I could talk myself out of it. I started out with a walk at 3.0 mph for 5 minutes and then jogged at 5.0 mph for 1 minute. I alternated these four more times and then did a sprint at my top speed of 5.5 mph. (Fresh I could probably go faster but after 30 minutes of walk/jog I was already pooped). I then went back to four more reps of walking and running at 3.0, did another sprint of 5.5 at the end and then walked for 5 more minutes as a cool-down for a total workout of 65 minutes. Felt pretty damned good. I think I'm going to try to stick with that program for awhile to build stamina, then increase it.
One thing about burning more calories than you eat in a day (I burned over 500 on the treadmill alone) is you wake up STARVING the next day so my intake is probably gonna be a little higher than usual today if my grumbly tumbly is any indication.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 can hearts of palm
1/2 serving leftover ravioli and marinara
1 slice garlic bread
2 chicken tamales
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1377
Activity:
No lunch-break yoga - Snackers commandeered me to run errands on my lunch break
Talked myself out of the treadmill on the premise that I was so tired from the night before.
Bad.
One thing about burning more calories than you eat in a day (I burned over 500 on the treadmill alone) is you wake up STARVING the next day so my intake is probably gonna be a little higher than usual today if my grumbly tumbly is any indication.
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 can hearts of palm
1/2 serving leftover ravioli and marinara
1 slice garlic bread
2 chicken tamales
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1377
Activity:
No lunch-break yoga - Snackers commandeered me to run errands on my lunch break
Talked myself out of the treadmill on the premise that I was so tired from the night before.
Bad.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
The Weekend
I had an exhausting yet fun and eclectic weekend. However, I have a lot of school work to do this week and I don't want to miss out exercising to get it done so today's post will be short and sweet.
From the very beginning of this weight-loss journey one unwritten milestone that I've had was to weigh less than Snackers. Today I have both good news and not-so-good news. The good news is that I weigh exactly the same as Snackers ... which isn't less but it means that if I really push hard I can take the lead over him. The bad news is that I also weigh exactly the same as I did last Monday ... which means he gained weight rather than me losing it. BUT I AM NOT GIVING UP!!!
Food:
100 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 healthy choice lunch
1 serving chicken ravioli w/marinara
1 slice garlic bread
6 grilled asparagus spears
1 skinny cow ice cream
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1182
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 11 reps for 5 min @ 3.0 mph
Jogging: 8 reps for 1 min @ 5.0 mph
Sprints: 2 reps for 1 min @ 5.5 mph
---------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 222
From the very beginning of this weight-loss journey one unwritten milestone that I've had was to weigh less than Snackers. Today I have both good news and not-so-good news. The good news is that I weigh exactly the same as Snackers ... which isn't less but it means that if I really push hard I can take the lead over him. The bad news is that I also weigh exactly the same as I did last Monday ... which means he gained weight rather than me losing it. BUT I AM NOT GIVING UP!!!
Food:
100 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 healthy choice lunch
1 serving chicken ravioli w/marinara
1 slice garlic bread
6 grilled asparagus spears
1 skinny cow ice cream
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1182
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 11 reps for 5 min @ 3.0 mph
Jogging: 8 reps for 1 min @ 5.0 mph
Sprints: 2 reps for 1 min @ 5.5 mph
---------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 222
Monday, March 5, 2012
More Than I Thought
WRITTEN ON FRIDAY: Wednesday night I knew that I was tired and sore but yesterday I thought I was feeling pretty good so I made the mental decision that I was going to get out and do something active, whatever it took. First Snackers wanted to take the dogs to the dog park but when we got there there weren't any other high-energy dogs for Vladdy to play with so I let him chase me a few times, until he bit me, and then I started chasing him around a few times. After the park we dropped the dogs off at home and headed for tennis. Snackers wanted to drive but the courts are just around the corner so I walked there, we played for 30 minutes only this time instead of working on volleys I practiced my overhand serve by hitting the balls horizontally across both courts at Snackers and then he started hitting them back to me and before we realized it we had two balls going back and forth at the same time, which was pretty cool. A lot more running around, again, than in normal tennis and we probably looked like total idiots to anyone who actually plays the game but it was a crap-load of fun!
The down side? We found out quickly that we were both a lot more tired and sore than we realized. The fronts of my thighs were threatening to seize up on me the entire time and because of our trip to the dog park we got a late jump on tennis and the lights kicked off on us after only 30 minutes. :( I didn't want to feel guilty again though so I jogged all the way home from the park without stopping and I was GASPING for air when I got here. Snackers was in the car and I jokingly said "race ya" before I set out so he decided that he'd wait until I was around the corner and out of sight as a head start.
I didn't know it but once he couldn't see me anymore he got in the car, put his seat belt on, started it up, took the parking break off, turned the headlights on, put it in gear, and started out fully thinking he could still beat me home ... I mean he is in car and it's only a block-and-a-half. About three houses away from home I heard him round the corner behind me and when he saw how close I was I actually heard the engine as he "gunned it" so that was when I realized that we were racing and I gunned it. He nearly burned my tires trying to beat me into the driveway but I won. He probably let me win ... but he did an awesome show of pretending that he was trying to beat me. lol
Friday Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 can hearts of palm
1 healthy choice lunch
1 fish burrito
4 thin mint cookies
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1161
Friday Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Sprints: 150 yards x 2
Sprints: 50 yards x 2
Walking: 1hr 15min cumulative.
-------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 186
Saturday Food:
100 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 bagel, dry
1 cup corned beef hash
1 cup pico de gallo
1 cup mac and cheese
1 chicken pita
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 927
Saturday Activity:
Walking: 50 yards x 2 (to the park and back)
Walking: 2.5 hrs @ freemont street
Softball (w/the kids for fun): 30 minutes
Tennis: (w/the kids for fun): 1hr 15 min
---------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 384
Sunday Food:
80 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 bagel, dry
1 cup corned beef hash
1 cup pico de gallo
1.5 hot dogs w/mustard and onions
-----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1268
Sunday Activity:
Walking: 1.5 hours
A much needed nap! (Did NOT get enough sleep over the weekend)
-------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 61
The down side? We found out quickly that we were both a lot more tired and sore than we realized. The fronts of my thighs were threatening to seize up on me the entire time and because of our trip to the dog park we got a late jump on tennis and the lights kicked off on us after only 30 minutes. :( I didn't want to feel guilty again though so I jogged all the way home from the park without stopping and I was GASPING for air when I got here. Snackers was in the car and I jokingly said "race ya" before I set out so he decided that he'd wait until I was around the corner and out of sight as a head start.
I didn't know it but once he couldn't see me anymore he got in the car, put his seat belt on, started it up, took the parking break off, turned the headlights on, put it in gear, and started out fully thinking he could still beat me home ... I mean he is in car and it's only a block-and-a-half. About three houses away from home I heard him round the corner behind me and when he saw how close I was I actually heard the engine as he "gunned it" so that was when I realized that we were racing and I gunned it. He nearly burned my tires trying to beat me into the driveway but I won. He probably let me win ... but he did an awesome show of pretending that he was trying to beat me. lol
Friday Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 can hearts of palm
1 healthy choice lunch
1 fish burrito
4 thin mint cookies
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1161
Friday Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Sprints: 150 yards x 2
Sprints: 50 yards x 2
Walking: 1hr 15min cumulative.
-------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 186
Saturday Food:
100 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 bagel, dry
1 cup corned beef hash
1 cup pico de gallo
1 cup mac and cheese
1 chicken pita
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 927
Saturday Activity:
Walking: 50 yards x 2 (to the park and back)
Walking: 2.5 hrs @ freemont street
Softball (w/the kids for fun): 30 minutes
Tennis: (w/the kids for fun): 1hr 15 min
---------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 384
Sunday Food:
80 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 bagel, dry
1 cup corned beef hash
1 cup pico de gallo
1.5 hot dogs w/mustard and onions
-----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1268
Sunday Activity:
Walking: 1.5 hours
A much needed nap! (Did NOT get enough sleep over the weekend)
-------------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 61
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Family in town
We have fam in town so not taking time to post but wanted to let you know I'm alive and will catch you up Monday. Went for two runs and a walk last night, tennis today, walking tonight. Splurging a little on food but basically being a good girl so far. See you Monday!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Guilty
It's amazing how guilty sitting on my ass for one day can make me feel after a week's worth of being active. In addition to my forearm everything pretty much seized up in protest during the final hours of work ... which is especially odd because I did yoga at lunch and felt better for about an hour but after sitting at my desk for that hour all hell broke loose, starting with a muscle between my shoulder blades just below the base of my neck that was threatening to pinch a nerve every time I moved my arms. I KNEW that if I got up and got my happy butt on the treadmill it would loosen everything up and I'd feel better but when push came to shove I just sat on my ass feeling sorry for myself. Snackers was no help, he was sore too and became the biggest proponent for sitting around doing nothing, even when I suggested more tennis or some basketball or taking the dogs to the dog park. Not that I'm saying it's ALL his fault because I easily could have gotten myself up without him but I didn't and I felt like shit about it all night.
Today is a brand new day though ... I just have to make sure that I don't make the same mistake twice in a row I guess. I am going to HIGHLY recommend tennis yet again for anyone looking for a new way to shake things up. It's fun, it's athletic, and if you can find someone who really doesn't care too much about "rules" it's something that ANYONE can do. If you set a goal for how many times in a row you want to hit the ball over the net and then focus on that goal (and increase it as you accomplish it), you don't realize you're ever exercising. When you're not very good and you really want to make it to a certain number you find yourself really hustling your butt all over the court to get that volley, even if the ball would be considered "out of play" in a normal game. It's very fun!
Book Update: For those of you counting with me (and I know for a fact that some of you are) the previously reported number of downloads on my books was only for amazon.com. I just realized this morning that I wasn't counting the downloads from amazon.uk so the current download total as of this (Thursday) morning is 957! I just might break 1,000 over-all! YAY!
Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
1 serving skirt steak (grilled)
1 serving roasted potatoes
1 mini-crescent roll
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1057
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Sprints @ the dog park x 2
Tennis: 30 minutes
Jogged home from tennis w/o stopping
-----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 207
Today is a brand new day though ... I just have to make sure that I don't make the same mistake twice in a row I guess. I am going to HIGHLY recommend tennis yet again for anyone looking for a new way to shake things up. It's fun, it's athletic, and if you can find someone who really doesn't care too much about "rules" it's something that ANYONE can do. If you set a goal for how many times in a row you want to hit the ball over the net and then focus on that goal (and increase it as you accomplish it), you don't realize you're ever exercising. When you're not very good and you really want to make it to a certain number you find yourself really hustling your butt all over the court to get that volley, even if the ball would be considered "out of play" in a normal game. It's very fun!
Book Update: For those of you counting with me (and I know for a fact that some of you are) the previously reported number of downloads on my books was only for amazon.com. I just realized this morning that I wasn't counting the downloads from amazon.uk so the current download total as of this (Thursday) morning is 957! I just might break 1,000 over-all! YAY!
Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
1 serving skirt steak (grilled)
1 serving roasted potatoes
1 mini-crescent roll
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1057
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Sprints @ the dog park x 2
Tennis: 30 minutes
Jogged home from tennis w/o stopping
-----------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 207
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Unexpected
Two unexpected events occurred recently. First, my books went on promotion and 9 hours into it when I checked the reports I'd already had over 500 downloads between the three of them. YAY! This morning they're at nearly 700 ... double YAY!
Second ... my right forearm HURTS!!! Who knew that of all the places I would have expected tennis to make me sore, my forearm was not one of them! OWWY! We played again last night but this time for only 45 minutes before Snackers started to complain that his feet were hurting. I intended to jump on the treadmill to compensate when we got home but we checked the mail on the way home and our brand new Costco card was in the mailbox so we headed straight there to get a much-needed and dirt-cheap pillow for Vladdy. It was dirt cheap but it's really nice, filled with cedar wood chips and covered in pretty brown and green upholstery material. We didn't really want to come home so we ended up walking through the entire store again like we did last time, looking at everything. Finally we realized that they were about to close and headed home with just the pillow in our basket. The guy at the register actually said "Just one item?" lol. That's probably unusual for that place I guess.
Anywho, as we were walking around the fronts of my thighs started to tighten up - presumably from running and then stopping fast to hit the ball during tennis. Here's the thing: I'm not good at tennis. Before Monday I'd never attempted to play in my life, so right now we're just focusing on hitting the ball and trying to get it over the net as many times in a row as we can. If it bounces five or six times before you hit it, that's ok. If it's way out of bounds or on the other court when you hit it, that's ok. If it bounces off the fence before you hit it ... that's ok with us. We just really wanted to accomplish Monday's goal of getting the ball back-and-forth across the net 10 times. Not only did we do that but actually even made it to exactly 20 before Snackers hit it into the net. We came close to 20 a few more times after that but with the way we play ... a ball isn't really "out of play" until it stops bouncing so that means no matter where it lands we're running our butts off to get to it. I think it might actually be a more active way to play the game than the traditional way. Sooner or later when we get better we'll worry about rules and keeping score but for now we're just having fun with it and getting a good work out in the process. My damn arm hurts today though!!
Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 fruit shake
1 healthy choice lunch
1 serving shrimp toast (appetizer)
1/2 serving banana crepes (shared w/Snackers)
------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1152
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
-------------------
Fitocracy Points: 117
Second ... my right forearm HURTS!!! Who knew that of all the places I would have expected tennis to make me sore, my forearm was not one of them! OWWY! We played again last night but this time for only 45 minutes before Snackers started to complain that his feet were hurting. I intended to jump on the treadmill to compensate when we got home but we checked the mail on the way home and our brand new Costco card was in the mailbox so we headed straight there to get a much-needed and dirt-cheap pillow for Vladdy. It was dirt cheap but it's really nice, filled with cedar wood chips and covered in pretty brown and green upholstery material. We didn't really want to come home so we ended up walking through the entire store again like we did last time, looking at everything. Finally we realized that they were about to close and headed home with just the pillow in our basket. The guy at the register actually said "Just one item?" lol. That's probably unusual for that place I guess.
Anywho, as we were walking around the fronts of my thighs started to tighten up - presumably from running and then stopping fast to hit the ball during tennis. Here's the thing: I'm not good at tennis. Before Monday I'd never attempted to play in my life, so right now we're just focusing on hitting the ball and trying to get it over the net as many times in a row as we can. If it bounces five or six times before you hit it, that's ok. If it's way out of bounds or on the other court when you hit it, that's ok. If it bounces off the fence before you hit it ... that's ok with us. We just really wanted to accomplish Monday's goal of getting the ball back-and-forth across the net 10 times. Not only did we do that but actually even made it to exactly 20 before Snackers hit it into the net. We came close to 20 a few more times after that but with the way we play ... a ball isn't really "out of play" until it stops bouncing so that means no matter where it lands we're running our butts off to get to it. I think it might actually be a more active way to play the game than the traditional way. Sooner or later when we get better we'll worry about rules and keeping score but for now we're just having fun with it and getting a good work out in the process. My damn arm hurts today though!!
Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 fruit shake
1 healthy choice lunch
1 serving shrimp toast (appetizer)
1/2 serving banana crepes (shared w/Snackers)
------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1152
Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
-------------------
Fitocracy Points: 117
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