I've decided that my health should be a relatively high priority for me.  It's because of this that I've started working out more often.  I've had this book "Smart Girls Do Dumbbells" for several years, and I've used it off-and-on, but this time I really want to keep up with it.  I have been, for the most part.  I only took a break from it for a week or so because I managed to injure my left shoulder and I didn't want to make it worse.  In addition to the weight-lifting, I've also been playing DDR on a regular basis (aka Dance Dance Revolution).  I usually play for about an hour, which gives me a great aerobic workout without making me feel exhausted at the end.  Add on top of those two things the Wii Fit activities I do and I think I am pretty well-rounded.  I usually end up doing about 15-20 minutes of yoga, which always makes me feel absolutely wonderful.  I highly recommend yoga for anyone and everyone because it truly does help release the tension in your body and I promise you will feel great if you do the poses properly.

All this working out is how I justify the occasional brownie I eat at work, or the occasional cheating at meals (like the chicken tetrazini, pistachio cake and cheddar bay biscuits I had on Saturday and the stuffing, mashed potatoes, roll, and slice of coconut pie I had on Sunday).  Yeesh I had a lot of carbs this past weekend.  Needless to say I did not weigh myself this morning - I was too much of a chicken to do so.  BUT, I don't feel too horribly about eating poorly because I worked out both on Saturday and on Sunday.  I've found, so far, that if I do that then I still manage to lose some weight, just not as much as I would have if I'd worked out and not eaten too many carbs.  I do still work out when I don't cheat, so that helps counter-act it as well, I'm hoping.

I set a goal for Shaun and I that we would both lose 20lbs by our birthdays, which is 4 months away.  That means 5lbs a month, 1.25lbs a week.  I think that is definitely do-able, considering I tend to lose 0.7-0.9 per day when I'm behaving.  The trick, of course, is to lose it and keep it off.  Tricky indeed.

... I wrote this HUGE entry, it was way bigger than the 4000 character limit I have on my entries, and it all just got deleted.  Hooray for my smartness in copying and pasting the text into a notepad document.  *mwahahaha*  The post is saved!  Do read on:

Well hello there!  The experiment with updating the blog from my Blackberry worked, obviously, however my follow-through with that is a bit lacking (as usual, I know).  If you're tired of hearing the same old excuses let me say: so am I! It's been brought to my attention that I should update more... on Facebook, on here... to keep people up-to-date on things.  Perhaps I will do like my friend and post my blog entries as notes on Facebook... that might work.  We'll see.


So let's see... not a whole lot has changed (there I go saying the same things again!).  I lost all that weight and put the stupid weight back on again AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH.  If it were easier to lose it I wouldn't be having this issue, but I have issues with my willpower when it comes to party days at work and my boss's random sweets that she brings in (hot brownies fresh from the oven are FANTASTIC on a Friday morning!!!!).  My cubicle isn't right in front of where we keep the food anymore, so that helps, except for when I need to walk by it and it just looks so good and what if I just have one bite........ and then I'm gone.  I'm very proud of myself though because on Thursday my boss brought in this delicious pineapple coconut cake and I only had one piece.  I drank a lot of water to keep down the effects of the sugar/carbs on my system (cause it makes my head feel funny if I have too much), and I worked out that evening when I got home.  The next day I still had managed to lose 0.7 pounds - hoorah!  I can eat sweets and not go crazy and eat 20 pieces and still lose weight!  I just have to have that strong willpower to resist it.... *le sigh* Oh, and not do that every day either. ho hum.


Oh hey I forgot that we got a cat! <3 His name is Casper and he is a white/ginger colored cat. According to a friend who works at the animal shelter and an old couple who used to breed cats for show, Casper has some siamese in him based on the shape of his face and the fact that he talks a lot.  It also might explain why he has such a sweet temperment.  He doesn't bite or claw.... the worst he's done is hiss at us but that was because he was feeling cornered.  He was neutered when we got him, and he is very friendly.  He wandered into the library and we adopted him, initially just until the owner(s) claimed him, but since that never happened he has become part of our family.  I have pictures posted on Facebook... I may add some here at some point.


It's just ocurred to me that I talk about my weight a lot.  I feel slightly annoyed with myself by this.  I guess it's because I've always been annoyed with those people at work who go on and on and ON about Weight Watcher's points during the lunch hour.  GAH they annoy me.  No one cares how many points you had for dinner last night or how many points your salad today is or how many points blah blah yak yak.  Or maybe the problem is that I don't really like the person who is saying all of that stuff... so it's not that I am annoyed with the subject but rather that I'm annoyed with hearing her talk.  If you're annoyed by me, at least you can stop reading.  In the break room, I can't just stop listening.

(more in the next entry)

So the diet kind of faltered a bit around Christmas, then with all the house hunting, moving from our apartment to Shaun's mom's house, then moving into our new house, and all of the things that happened in-between all of that, the diet sort of never got completely back on track.  There was much cheating, and it was delicious.  A conversation with my boss about who had the highest score at hula-hooping on WiiFit got me to pull out the balance board and put in the game to see what the damage was.  I have to say, not too bad.  I managed to only gain back half of what I had lost... well, maybe a little more than half... I had lost around 30 lbs, and have gained 16 lbs.  So now it's hard-core back onto the diet again.  It's not particularly hard to do - I enjoy salads, for the most part - it's just getting into the right frame of mind that's difficult.  I am the type who can't really let herself have "just a little taste" of something that's non-diet-friendly; once I take that step, I'm done, I'll keep going back for "just one more little taste" until I've had way more than I should have and then I'm just being counter-productive.  And darn it all, my boss makes such delicous sweets!!  And she makes them a lot!  On top of that, the central location for storing said delicious sweets is right behind my desk.  I could literally roll my chair a foot or two and boom! there they are.  And when she makes brownies she bakes them just before she comes to work so when you take off the aluminum foil the whole area smells like freshly baked brownies..... and they're super-gooey with melty chocolate chips inside and every decadent bite slowly melts in your mouth... *drool*  It's so evil!  I'd be fine if I could just eat a tiny bite and then stop... but the problem is that cheating tastes good.

Something I ate this past weekend did not agree with me one bit.  At least, that's what I'm assuming it was.  I started feeling tired Sunday morning/afternoon, then I got a fever and was feeling crappy.  I took a small nap around 4pm; Shaun made yummy stir-fry for dinner, but I couldn't eat it.  I ended up eating some raspberry jell-o and drinking some diet ginger ale.  Went to bed at 9 with a fever of 101.2; took some Nyquil to try to help with that so I could sleep.  I ended up tossing and turning and getting little "naps" in, but not any real sleep.  My stomach was really hurting and the fever was making things difficult.  Finally, around 3 am, I ended up in the bathroom emptying my stomach.  Shaun has told me that Lime Gatorade is one of the best things - if there is a "best" thing - to vomit.  I have to say that raspberry jell-o isn't too bad either.  Oddly enough, once I threw up, I felt a lot better.  I thought for sure I'd be able to finally get some real sleep.  Turns out I was wrong, and I still felt crappy in the morning, so I've been home all day just resting.  Took about a 3 hour nap, then played video games all day.  I forced myself to nibble on something this morning, then forced myself to eat some soup around 4:30p.  So far, so good.  My fever was gone this morning and has not returned; now all I have is random stomach pains, but no queasiness thankfully.  So I guess it could have been the flu, or something I ate.  Who knows.  I look a little funny, though.  I managed to pop a lot of blood vessels around my eyes when I vomited, and two actually on my eye.  So basically I've got two bright red dots on my left eye, and it looks like I have lots of freckles around both of my eyes.  They don't hurt, really, although I can "feel" the bigger spot that's on my eye.  Hopefully they go away soon.

So yeah, it's been a month since I wrote anything here.... not surprising, really.  I tend to act this way; I get really excited about something that I decide I want to do, then I set out to begin it, then I either lose interest in it or just get distracted by the myriad of other things that I also want to do.  I have so many unfinished projects.... *le sigh*  Well, I can't complain too much, though.  I mean, if I really tried, I could stay relatively focused enough to complete a task.  I'm just always afraid that I'm missing out on something else that might be even more fun and exciting than what I'm working on!  "The grass is always greener...." as the saying goes.  So let's see what's been going on, shall we?

We've almost got our downpayment assistance from SHIP.  We've taken all the required classes, and our counseling session is scheduled for this coming Thursday afternoon.  That's where we have to turn in all kinds of fun paperwork, like 6 months worth of bank statements, any 401k or retirement plan paperwork, etc.  Then they send the stuff off to someone who reviews it and oks us for the $10k and then we get a piece of paper that says we have this money - woo hoo!  After our counseling session, we'll have the joy of trying to find a REALTOR whom we can work well with.  We'll see how that goes...

Antibiotics suck.  I had a doctor's appointment a couple weeks ago because it was necessary.  I don't really like going to the doctor.  They poke and prod my stomach and tell me I'm fat.  Although, my current doctor doesn't say that... but she still pokes and prods.  I guess they have to make sure that all my organs are there or somesuch as that.  But I actually went for my very first PAP smear.  I'm surprised it wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating.  It was a bit uncomfortable, but my doctor's office had the foresight to have a lovely poster on the ceiling for me to stare at to distract me from it, so that made it bearable.  But I had to take some antibiotics - lots, actually - to take care of an infection.  "May cause nauseau" is an understatement; I was miserable.  I have another appointment this coming Friday, so hopefully she will tell me that all is well and I don't need another dose of antibiotics.  *crosses fingers*

I talked to my mom the other day; first time since they were down here.  She says she still loves me even though I voted for Obama and I don't know what I've done.  She wasn't upset, she just sounded disappointed.  I shouldn't be surprised, considering most things I do don't get her stamp of approval.  It's nice to know that she still loves me anyway, though, despite my myriad of flaws.  *rolls eyes*

Uncle Jimmy is doing a lot better; much better than what was originally predicted.  He's definitely not 100%, but he is able to go back to work this week.  He's an assistant manager, so it's not as if he normally does any of the "grunt" work; as long as he doesn't do any lifting, etc., then he'll be ok.  So that's really good, and I'm happy.  I just hope he will be careful and that he can lose some weight, to help keep him healthy.

(continued in next entry)