weight loss 4 Comments

Patting Myself on the Back

I’ve kept track of my weight in Excel ever since December of 2002. Yep, I’m in it for the long haul.

It does me good sometimes to remember how far I’ve come, and how good I’ve managed to stay, for the most part. I lost fifty, gained ten, and lost ten again.

Also: look where the big post-loss gains are. Christmas 2004 and Thanksgiving/Christmas 2005. Tell ya something? Tells me that I don’t work off that holiday hogging, and I let it get the best of me instead. I’m all for enjoying Christmas dinner with Aaron’s family, and even eating “evil” foods like stuffing and sweet potatoes and dessert (OMG sausage cake!). This year, though, I need to be all for ramping up the workouts the week afterward, too.

Just a quick pick-me-up pep talk, and a reminder that I don’t suck. Now I need to walk my talk.

randomness

New Weight Loss Program: Depression

Certain kinds of depression cause me to overeat. I just basically wear a path in the carpet between my chosen point of food consumption and the kitchen. Then I feel like an ass and get more depressed and eat more. Rinse and repeat.

Other kinds of depression cause me to not give a damn about eating, and to find that everything in life is basically a waste of my time. Had I discovered this interesting brand of depression back in high school, at least my perpetual depression would have had some practical purpose, or at least a more positive side-effect than weight GAIN.

As it is, I’m currently making some chicken salad because I know that today’s combined repast of a breakfast bar, an apple, a yogurt, and a string cheese will not get me through the evening. Eventually, if I don’t eat, something will snap, and I’ll find myself standing in front of a near-empty refrigerator, wondering what the hell happened.

pregnancy 3 Comments

Doctor’s Appointment

Visited the OB-GYN’s office today, for the first time since college. Don’t worry, I won’t give gory details — not that there are many gory details to give. Most of my time was spent waiting, either in the waiting room or in the examination room.

Let me say that I started out the day pretty stoked. I stepped on the scale, and it told me I weigh 201.5 lbs, which is continuing my downward trend, and is my lowest weight point since December 2004. When I got to the doctor’s office (over my lunch break) and the nurse was doing her pre-exam thing, the scale in the examination room also read 201. Rock! My scale’s not fubar!

Then, after a long several minutes of me chilling out on the examination table, the doctor came in.

One of the things I asked Dr. Okin was whether I should try to lose more weight before trying to conceive, or if I should just wait until after pregnancy to continue my weight loss. Predictably, she told me that a woman should be in her best physical shape before becoming pregnant. Sure, that makes sense. Then she continued to tell me things I already know: My BMI is 29, I should be around 21 to 23, and that means my ideal weight is around 160 lbs.

Right. So, considering the steady weight loss trend of .5667 pounds a week I’ve had since July (yes, I *do* have a weight-tracking Excel spreadsheet), and not discounting any lengthy plateaus, I should be in prime condition to conceive in… *does calculations* …April of 2008.

*sigh*

She must realize I’m not inclined to wait, though, because she prescribed me some prenatal vitamins.

(The entry continues in a rambling self-pitying fashion, should you care to read on…)
Continue reading →

crafty 1 Comment

In Over My Head?

I just got an e-mail from a friend of a co-worker, asking if I do parties.

?!?!

I had to reply that I don’t have enough candles made at one time to do a party, and that’s the truth. I’d be making candles every night for two weeks to have enough to give a candle party. I remember how those Partylite parties were, back in 1995. They had so many awesome fragrances, and neat candle holders, and overpriced doodads, and you *had* to order something! You just *had* to! I don’t know if I have that kind of draw yet.

For that matter, I don’t have a large enough bank of OMG-this-is-so-good fragrances yet, either. So far, it looks like this:

Favorites
* Amaretto
* Amaretto & Coke (my own special fragrance combination)
* Spiced Apple
* Drakkar
* Chocolate Java Beans (another special recipe)
* Cranberry (I’ll have to make a bigger candle to be sure, though)

Untested So Far:
* Balsam Sandalwood
* Chocolate Brownie
* Lilac
* Very Vanilla
* Patchouli (Essential Oil)
* Lavender (Essential Oil)
* Cinnamon (Essential Oil)

WTF Not Even Close:
* Basil
* Evergreen (smells like fake evergreen, according to one person)

Everything Else That’s Nothing Special:
* Banana (intended to use in making a Banana Cream Pie combo, along with the…)
* Coconut (which could also be good with pineapple for a pina colada candle)
* Chamomile
* Eggnog
* Coffee (excellent combined with the Hershey’s Chocolate scent, which I may or may not reorder)
* Hazelnut (not bad with the Eggnog, although I need to try some different eggnog scents)
* Pumpkin Spice
* Spearmint
* Toasted Marshmallow
* White Shoulders

As I said recently, I have more stuff on order from various places, so there are more possibilities in store in the coming days and weeks.

I guess I’m feeling kind of like I’m spinning my wheels; but even if I managed to get a bite (like, say, someone wanting a party, or someone wanting me to be their wholesale soy candle supplier — both things have happened), I’m not prepared for “success”. But I don’t want to stock up for something that’s never going to happen… and I don’t want this to be the next big idea I have that never comes to fruition… and I don’t want to overthink it, either. 🙂

I guess the thing is that I feel like I’m on the verge of a fun and creative supplemental income, and I don’t want to blow it by trying too hard and not being able to deliver, or not trying hard enough and missing the boat.

Jesus Christ, Diana, it’s just candles. Don’t sweat it. *rolls eyes*

crafty

Candle Speedbumps

I know it’s to be expected and all, but I can’t help but be frustrated when things don’t turn out right.

Tonight, I tested out my new Cranberry scent, and made five tealights and one teeny votive for myself. The scent seems to be OK, but the color is off. I made the “cranberry” color as vivid as I could, and it ended up coming out more pinkish than cranberry. Maybe next time I’ll try my “red berry” dye and see how that turns out.

Last night, I made up a super-quickie batch of Eggnog tealights. They smelled OK, if a bit weaker than I’d wanted. I totally screwed up the color, though. I’m not used to working with *that* small of a batch, and I’d thought that a little touch of caramel color would look good mixed with the “sunshine” dye in the eggnog candles. Nope — they all turned out looking like somebody left the eggnog on the stove to burn or something.

On top of that, I put five different fragrances of tealights in one container, and the scents overpowered one another overnight. The Coffee totally made the Eggnog smell like nothing, and the Coconut was just barely there. Maybe I should look into a little bitty shrink-wrap machine for the individual tealights in my tealight multi-packs? I dunno.

On Friday night, I tested my Evergreen fragrance. One votive for me, and nine tealights. Doesn’t smell like evergreen at all, and the hunter/moss green dye I used came out more on the mossy side than the hunter side.

At least Mark’s Amaretto and Coke candles came out pretty good. The color wasn’t exact, since I ran out of the french vanilla dye and had to make do with caramel instead, but the scent was just as I remembered it. I also made myself a votive of it, and burned that tonight, and the scent throw is awesome on that one. I lit it in the basement, and the smell came all the way up into the living room. Nice.

Note to self: Don’t advertise a fragrance on your candle site until you’ve thoroughly tested it, approve of the fragrance, and have the dye ratio figured out. I now have some people interested in Evergreen and Eggnog candles, and I’ll have to just hope they forget about them until I’ve come up with something better than what I’ve got right now.

Pine essential oil, anyone?