Little bit of news

Hi, all!

Not too much new here, but I thought I'd pop in and say hi. :-)

June 23rd was the home opener for the Everett Aquasox, and we were there for the extra inning, the win, and the fireworks. Kind of late on a work night, but I would have been sleepy anyway the way I've felt lately. Then Saturday night we were back at the ball park witnessing another win (but in a regulation game and no fireworks).

Sunday I got together with a couple of friends and got four pages scrapbooked. I now have my pages done for our wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. I should probably write some names on the pages for when I get senile and forget who my friends and family are in the pictures, though.

As I alluded to above, I've been really tired lately. I think I've been sleeping okay (I haven't been waking up and staying up or anything) and it seems no matter what time I get to bed, I'm still tired in the morning (and for most of the day). I hate to go back on the Diet Coke, but tea just isn't doing it (and it's been too hot at my desk for tea, especially today). Plus I have a bribe with myself that I'll drink two bottles of water before I have tea so I make an attempt at getting all my water in during the day that I'm supposed to, and that makes the morning pretty long because I'm just not in the mood to drink water today, thank you. There. I just drank 4 ounces of water. :-p Usually I'm okay drinking water - I'm just having a rebellion today for some reason. I don't want water, thank you! :-p Okay, I could have green tea, but then we have the hot liquid issue again. I guess I'll have a Diet Coke with lunch and see if that wakes me up. *sigh* I was doing so well, but now I've fallen back off the wagon this past week because of the sleepies.

I've still been working out my three times a week at Curves. My Wii Fit arrived last week (but I was busy every night) so maybe I'll have some time over the long weekend to unpack it and try it out. I hear from reviews that it's going to tell me I'm overweight. Hopefully it won't say "obese." ;-) I've heard mixed reviews and I got it for free using an "atta-girl" award I got from work (or a combination of awards, actually), so if I don't use it much, it's not like I spent a mint on it. But I think I'll use it. I hope. If I think it's going to work out well, there's a sports game out there that uses the balance board that comes with the Wii Fit that's gotten good reviews. But I want to wait and see how much I use this first. I think it'll be great for weekends or for in between workout days (assuming I don't have plans between workout days, which is pretty rare).

On the weight loss front, I've been flirting with 200 pounds now. I was 203 at last weigh-in, and I've lost a couple pounds in the last two weeks. I've had some bad eating days, though, so I don't know how much progress I would have made otherwise. Either way, I'm still hoping to be under 200 by my next weigh-in in a couple of weeks.

Tomorrow night I have one of those rare evenings where I get to go straight home and change into comfy clothes - I have nothing on the calendar. I love those evenings! They don't happen nearly enough. After that I have something going on every day and/or night until July 9. I don't know what I'll do with myself tomorrow night - I haven't felt much like sewing lately, so I don't know if that will work into the mix or not. I think a nap will probably be in order if I feel tomorrow anything like I feel today.

Well, that's the scoop! Have a great week, all!

Blessings,
Kristin

What's new in my zoo

Hi, all!

This blog post also serves as an experiment to see if my posts will feed onto Facebook. If you’re on Facebook and tempted to read, do so at your own risk (or if you’re having trouble sleeping). I don’t have that much excitement in my life. But that’s not an entirely bad thing. SOme kinds of excitement we can all do without. ;-)

Well, here I am, lunchtime at work after a self-proclaimed mental health day off yesterday. It was a good thing I had decided to take the day off, too - I didn’t go to bed until 1:30am. Bill and I had walked to our local bar for dinner Tuesday night, and their iced tea was really strong (someone had made it wrong). I was WIRED! After we got done there, we walked to the grocery store to pick up a couple things, and then walked back home. After Bill went to bed, I was playing games on the computer and doing nothing productive until 1am. I wasn’t even tired when I went to bed, but I didn’t want to pull an all-nighter, either. Life isn’t very exciting at 3am when you’re trying not to wake up someone who has to work in the morning (sucker!).

Wednesday morning I woke up when Bill got up for work, but had no trouble getting back to sleep. 8am rolled around and there was a cuddly kitty next to me, so I stayed in bed until about 8:30 and then started my day. I went to work out, and met the new manager of the club (she seems really nice) and so I talked to her for a few minutes (must have been the residual caffeine - I’m usually not that much of a chatter). When I got home, I played with my dumbbells a little and had the need to shower but not the energy. ;-) So I played on the computer for a bit and threw in a load of laundry. After the laundry was done in the washer, it was my turn to get washed.

Clean and refreshed, it was time to make some banana bread. Now I need to tell you that I honestly cannot remember the last time I had baked anything. I know it hasn’t been in the last 20 months. But, hey, that’s what recipes are for! I used to LOVE baking, and the bug bit me again. Too bad I’m concentrating on eating healthier (as are several people at work). I could see myself baking again sometime soon. Anyway, I tried out two banana bread recipes I found online that used part wheat flour and used applesauce instead of oil. One of them came out denser than the other, but they were both edible. ;-) The “winner” was good, but still was a little different than the bread I’m used to making. More banana might have helped. I had some in the freezer and some fresh, and I split that quantity between the two batches and don’t know how much I really had. Next time we’ll do more banana! (More cowbell! Never mind - inside joke. Laugh if you get it, though.) While the bread was baking, I was watching a video I got from the library that was due back today, and rescuing the laundry mentioned in paragraph three. I was so busy running between the computer, kitchen, and living room that I almost forgot to eat lunch. I know, what idiot forgets to eat lunch? But I didn’t forget altogether, so lunch happened in there somewhere during baking and video. All in all it was a good day off, and I want another one! PLEEZE?

Of all the things I did yesterday, one thing I didn’t have time to do was sew. I don’t know that I had the desire, either. Maybe some night during the next week or so. I missed my Girls Night Out sew night for June, so I didn’t have that time to work on my project, so I have to make up for it here somewhere. Speaking of sewing, last Saturday Mom and I went to an internet fabric store with a couple of our friends. Mom almost fell over! Shelves and shelves of fabric on two floors of a barn! I didn’t buy nearly as much as I wanted to but managed to find a few things. I stuck to my list pretty well, but Mom “made” me buy some panda fabric I didn’t have. ;-) She also bought a half yard of a fabric that looks fabulous with the panda fabrics I bought, but I didn’t notice it until we were home playing show and tell. So I’ll have to head to the website and get some of that once I decide how much I think I will need of a fabric that I have no idea how or when I’m going to use it. :-p I’m such a nut.

In other news, I’ve had a couple people mention recently that they’ve noticed I’ve lost weight, so that’s been nice. My weigh-in last Friday had me at 203 pounds (YAY!) for a 25 ound loss so far (YAY!) and by my August weigh-in I hope to be under 200 pounds. I know I was under 200 pounds in 2005, but I don’t know at what point I went above because I stopped weighing myself after I stopped working out back then. Main reason I didn’t weight myself? I didn’t have a battery for the scale to replace the battery that died because the scale used to be the cat’s favorite perch in the bathroom. :-p The scale is now in the hall closet and we go get it if we’re curious. I usually just weigh myself at the gym so the time of day, clothing, and scale are all consistent. I didn’t weigh yesterday since it was a different time of day, so I’ll probably weigh Friday and see if I’m making any progress this week. Monday I was still at the 203, but we’re not surprised because it was only 3 days from the last time I weighed and because I didn’t eat as well (or as little) as I could have over the weekend because we went to a brunch buffet on Sunday. Though I did pass up the pizza Saturday night because I wasn’t hungry, and we only had one other meal on Sunday night after going to the theatre. Baby steps. Oh, yeah, the theatre! We went to see Fiddler on the Roof. I had never seen it before, and I really enjoyed it (even if I did cry in public - something I hate doing). :-)

This weekend we’re headed north to Bellingham because there’s a tool tent sale that my stepfather wants to go to, so we’re going to spend Saturday night at a hotel casino. We’re also planning on stopping to shop on the way up and / or back since there are outlet malls and shopping malls along the way. AND, as if that weren’t all enough.... there are three other casinos on the way there, so we’re going to hit 4 casinos in 2 days (previous record is 3). We’ll probably hit two on the way back, so if you count the one where we stay, that will be three casinos in one day (which we have done before - a few weekends ago when we went north for Memorial Day weekend). Yep. We’re crazy.

I think that’s about all the news from here. Still awake? ;-)

Blessings,

Kristin

Weight Loss News and Goals

Hi, all!

I wanted to wait to update because I knew I was going to do my monthly weigh and measure this week. It was supposed to be Monday but the gal who usually does mine wasn’t in (out sick) so I was chomping at the bit since the scale when I took my weight had good news. I wanted that officially in my file. Then I was paranoid that I was going to weight more "for the record" than I had earlier in the week. And to have a good weight on Monday was something else, since weekends I tend not to be as structured and disciplined with my eating, and I don’t work out on the weekends. So yesterday I went in and she was with a new member, so I have to wait until Friday. Since I won’t be able to post this weekend, I’m just going to go with my unofficial weigh-in from last night, and if I gain a half pound or pound by Friday, I just won’t tell you. ;-)

I’ve officially lost a total of 23 pounds since I started at Curves in February, and that’s about 25% of what I want to lose overall. Sounds great, huh? Consistent loss and I’ll be at my goal weight by next Christmas (but how often is our weight loss consistent?). Unfortunately, the loss is also only 10% of my total body weight, so no one is noticing. Not even me. Okay, having my size 18 pants fall off me is noticeable, I’ll grant you that. I’ve bought some 16s and 14s (depending on the fit) over the last couple of weeks, and it’s kind of fun buying pants in the misses’ area of the store and not the womens’ area for the first time in a few years. It’ll be a while before I can do all my shopping on the misses’, but we’ve got a start. Okay, and Bill says he notices (I think he’s humoring me) and one of my friends said I’m easier to hug now. ;-)

Last Sunday I had an experience that made me pretty pleased with myself. I was having dinner with a great couple of gal friends of mine, and I discovered that at Denny’s they have an option of dippable veggies to go with your sandwich instead of fries for no extra charge. And I chose the veggies over the fries! Can you believe it? (I can’t!) I’ve started counting my calories and macronutrients (carbs, fat, protein) to the best of my ability, and carbs are SO HARD to avoid. It was nice that there was another option besides the fries to cut down on the carbs (and fat). If I hadn’t had a weigh-in on Monday, would I have still ordered the veggies? I hope so, but maybe not. ;-) I typically save about half the day’s calories for dinner, and eat about the same thing every day at work for breakfast and lunch, so that seems to work well... it’s the weekends that usually put me in a tailspin. I’ve just started counting weekend calories and such (I’ve been counting at work for a couple weeks now), and that’s been an eye-opener. Especially for breakfasts since cereal and toast / bagels / etc are so high in carbs. Save some carbs for the fat-free frozen yogurt! ;-)

A real eye-opener has been walking around at work and seeing how much free food is usually available. One day I passed up cake, cookies, and doughnuts, all in the same day! Usually I would have had at least two out of the three. It’s been astounding to see how much more I was eating before I made a conscious decision not to eat whatever was there just because I could. No wonder I’ve been gaining weight! (Though wouldn’t you think since I’m NOT eating all of that now that the weight should be coming off faster???)

I’ve also over the last few days started tracking my water consumption and getting my eight glasses of WATER a day. (Those are in caps because I’m a tea-drinker, and I have to get in the habit of making sure I still get all my water.) By lunchtime Monday I had consumed the equivalent to 6 glasses. It’s easier to do at work - at home and out and about it’s harder because I get distracted. At the gym I usually drink about 2-3 glasses worth, so that’s an easy one. Someone told me she heard of a gal that lost 100 pounds by drinking a gallon of water a day. One gallon a day. That’s 16 8-oz glasses a day, or eight of my water bottles (varies from 16oz to 20oz). We surmised that the loss probably came from the incessant trips to the bathroom. :-p

My Weight Loss goals:

205.5 pounds (25% of total loss goal) - ACHIEVED!

199 pounds (to be able to say that I’m under 200 pounds)

188 pounds (shift from "obese" to "overweight" on the BMI (Body Mass Index) charts)

183 pounds (50% of total loss goal)

160.5 pounds (75% of total loss goal)

158 pounds (shift from "overweight" to "normal weight" on the BMI (Body Mass Index) charts)

138 pounds (goal weight, 90 pounds lost)

My goal weight may end up changing, depending on how my body is feeling and looking when I get close. My "ideal" range is pretty wide (about 120 to 155 pounds) so I’ll need to listen to my body and see where it thinks my ideal weight is. I was 135 when I was in my mid-20’s... not sure that’s happening again, but you never know. ;-) I also have a goal where my waist is noticeably smaller than my hips. I’m not sure when that’s going to happen. My hips are probably at about 43" now (based on weight loss and weigh and measure history), and at 115 pounds they were at 35". So they’re going to be tapering off in loss here in not too long I’m guessing. My waist has plenty to lose, and I hope it does so quickly. I’ve seen too many middle-aged women with the shape I have now (even those that I work out with), and I hope I’m not doomed to this body shape (and associated wardrobe problems) for the rest of my life. I did read this week that fat come off last in the first place the body puts it. I think that’s my waist. Bummer.

On the non-weight front, my parents are coming up this weekend. Saturday morning we’re going to a quilt shop (by special appointment) and then doing what-not for the rest of the day. Sunday will be brunch, and then Bill and I are going to see Fiddler on the Roof. I’ve never seen it (not even the movie) so I’m pretty excited. The following weekend we’re going to Silver Reef Casino Hotel and Spa again. My stepfather has an event up near there that he wants to go to Saturday, so we’re going to spend Saturday night up there. I haven’t decided if I need another pedicure or not. After the last one, I just am going to have a hard time going back to the Vietnamese nail places that are on every corner. :-\ They tend to rip my feet apart when I go (they generally get out the trusty cheese slicer and attack my callouses - yes, I know, TMI), and it was nice to have someone not trim my cuticles so close that they bled. I’m spoiled now. ;-)

Now that you have far more information than you ever wanted or needed.....

Blessings!

Kristin