weight loss

Diet & Fitness Update, Week Ending 9/2/06

I didn’t write a diet update last week, mainly because I gained a pound and a half from that damn Chinese buffet right before I wrote my last update, and didn’t manage to lose it right away. In fact, I was solidly stuck at 206.5 for… *checking Excel chart* …exactly a week. Then I dropped half a pound and stayed at 206 even until this morning, when I dropped another half pound. My official week-ending weight is 206, though.

Someday I’ll reach my five-pound mini-goal, and I’ll get to buy myself some new autumn clothes. *sigh* It bothers me that I still fit into last year’s new autumn clothes, though. I’d planned on being so much less fat by now. At least I’m not more fat, I guess.

I’ve been better at doing cardio for these past two weeks, although I’m still doing much less than I should. The Kickboxing I workout from PUSH is excellent, focusing on proper form and working up through the 30-minute workout to a final sequence of moves. I also enjoy the trainer’s positive attitude, which is pleasant and upbeat without making me want to strangle myself.

I’ve also been doing much better on weekends. Usually, I gain anywhere between half a pound and a pound and a half over a weekend. For the past two weekends, I’ve stayed completely steady after the weekend, and I attribute that to being more reasonable at restaurants. We’ve stayed away from my mortal weight-loss enemy, the Happy Rose Buffet, and I’ve employed lots of standard diet tactics, like putting half of an entree into a to-go container right off the bat or ordering from the appetizer section of the menu.

For this week, I’m planning to add another day of exercise to the fray. For the last two weeks, I’ve been doing kickboxing one day of the week, and that’s it. Not including my daily walk, of course. I’m planning to add a day of PUSH strength training back into the mix, and hopefully build up to where I should be. I also need to suspend my PUSH account temporarily, because I’m nearly three months behind on my DVDs.

It’s frustrating to be losing so slowly, but I *am* losing. I’ve learned my lesson about bingeing on weekends, and I know that continued exercise will help me keep losing weight. I may not reach the weight goal I wanted to reach by Thanksgiving, but I’ll keep going, anyway.

randomness

Tired and Disjointed

I hate it when I get to this slightly tired state, where my brain is getting a little disjointed and my body is starting to shut down, but my creativity is begging me to DO SOMETHING. If I were to start something now, though, I’d get sidetracked or frustrated that it wasn’t turning out right. I have a list so long that I could choose from, though.

This is usually the same mood where I see all the things I didn’t do today, either on web pages or around the house, and get frustrated because my brain wants them to just — poof — be done. My body, however, would much rather slouch in my desk chair or stretch out on the couch and read a book or play solitaire or watch cable.

Meanwhile, the part of my brain that never grew up and is never actually awake until 10am says, “Dude. 9:45pm is NOT late enough for you to be this tired.”

P.S. – Along with the whole sidetracked and disjointed brain concept, let me just mention this (which I probably shouldn’t, but I will anyway): If you’re ever going to be out of social situations for a day or an evening, be a little daring. Give your pits a rest, and don’t wear deodorant. I got a rash under one armpit, and am going deodorantless while it heals, and it’s actually quite liberating. Sure, I still washed, and I put baby powder under my one pit… but by this evening, I started experiencing my own natural odor for the first time in years.

Honestly… without anyone to make fun of me about the odor (a la middle school), it’s really not that unpleasant. Still, I’m looking forward to receiving my Kiss My Face natural deodorant on Tuesday.

genealogy 2 Comments

Hooray For My Tax Dollars At Work

I’d just like to say that I am an incredible dork for not having signed up for a Lucas County library card sooner.

You know how I’ve been subscribing to the Ancestry.com U.S. Census collection for, like, $70 a year or something? Well… it turns out that HeritageQuest Online, available from the Toledo-Lucas County Libraries website, also has census images available. HeritageQuest also offers a search of PERSI, the PERiodical Source Index; books; Revolutionary War pensions and records, and others.

Apart from HeritageQuest, the library also subscribes to America’s Obituaries & Death Notices, various biography collections, several newspaper archives, Sanborn Maps (holy crap! sweet!), and WorldCat, of course.

*facepalm*

I totally need to cancel my Ancestry.com subscription. And go look for that Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Chipley, Florida in the 1930’s Sanborn maps from cities in the state of Ohio.

ruminations 2 Comments

Baking a Cake for my Pity Party

So, I got called out by a few people on my woe-is-me post the other day. Some comments were more along the lines of “I’m right with ya,” but others were fine attempts to bring me out of this funk. I also got an e-mail from my friend Kris, who suggested I start by writing a Gratitude List.

I thought that was a fine idea, and decided to make my Gratitude List public. Here goes:

  1. I am healthy. I take no prescription meds, I am ambulatory, I am able to take an hour-long brisk walk (or longer), I have full use of all my limbs and all my senses. I can even choose to have a 30-minute kickboxing workout if I so desire, like today.
  2. I have a husband who loves me. Aaron and I really are like peas and carrots, and that makes us luckier — and happier — than a lot of spouses. We enjoy many of the same things, like music, and anime, and sci-fi, and computers. He tolerates my negative points, and I can sometimes identify his. 😉
  3. We own a home. Our house, although mortgaged, is ours. The roof is only a few years old, the interior stays temperate without excessive A/C, and it’s plenty big for the two of us… and when we finally have a third.
  4. I am educated. I have a bachelor’s degree, I can proofread, I know random facts and have even been known to do some computer programming on occasion. I am one of the first members of my family to obtain a college degree (beaten by only a couple of years by my cousin, Misty Dawn, whom I’ve never met).
  5. My job is interesting. Somehow, I managed to stumble into database development and administration from my job as a loan flunky. Despite how much I may complain about the speed of bureaucracy in getting me my new title and potential raise, I still enjoy what I do. Hard-core problem-solving is much more fulfilling to me than simple keystrokes to waive a late fee or extend the maturity date of a loan.
  6. I have engaging hobbies. Granted, sometimes I have too many hobbies… but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. My mother says I’m a good photographer (which I’m inclined to believe, since she is a portrait photographer by trade). I enjoy researching my ancestry and my family. I design web pages. I podcast. I have many other talents that I should rediscover, as well, like drawing and singing and writing and other creative things.
  7. I do have friends. Aaron is my best friend. Through him, I’ve gained other friends, like Kris Fries and Kris Heath and Mark and Garza. Some of my co-workers have nearly become friends, like Heather and James… even though we don’t really hang out. I also have college friends, like Amy (my best friend apart from my husband) and Sheryl and Mary and Beth and Donna and so many others. My high school friends have drifted away, as friends sometimes will, and some old friends have become acquaintances. But I know that there are people out there who care about me and are interested in my life and my well-being, even if I don’t speak to them or see them very often.

Some of these things may seem like pretty standard Count Your Blessings fare. There’s a reason for that, though, and it’s that we should all be grateful for the small things.

After the kickboxing workout I had today, I’m going to be particularly grateful for the shower I’m going to take in about an hour.

randomness 1 Comment

Turning A Shitty Mood Around

Woke up this morning to discover that my alarm clock was set for 7:30am, not 7:10am as I had thought.

Drove through my ‘hood to get to work, and had to make a minor detour to get around the garbage truck that likes to drive down the middle of the street. Instead, I got caught by a school bus. Those things, along with random stupid drivers, made me late to work.

Ate two Little Debbie Double Decker Oatmeal Cream Pies to counteract the pissy mood I’d developed. Knew it was a poor idea, and did it anyway.

Heard two co-workers across the way say that, as a habit, they never read the long explanatory e-mails we send them about the changes THEY REQUESTED to the database. This after they asked how to do something in the database, not realizing that a new feature had been added, per their request. Got so mad that I: 1.) thrust my head into my clenched, clawed hands; 2.) swung my mouse around like a bullroar; 3.) put my hands down below the cube wall, out of sight, and gave the co-workers the double-bird, along with a hearty silent FUCK YOU several times over. And don’t forget the varied thrusting hand motions, both vertical and lateral.

Didn’t eat lunch. Took a 45-minute walk instead. Ate a South Beach Cereal Bar (originally intended for breakfast) as a late lunch / early afternoon snack.

To calm down after work? Civilization IV: Warlords. Couldn’t even get *that* right — the first game I started got me almost annihilated in the first few turns, so I restarted; the second game crashed and had to force quit; and the third game also got me close to annihilated, but I stuck it out and managed to survive with my three little cities until the end.

I think I feel better now, though.