Step Away From the Cake

2 eggs - 4 points Peppers, onions, garlic, salsa, clementines - 0 Oil - 2 points Total -6 points and incredibly filling Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Last night turned out to be pretty fun.  Some friends came over and we sat in the yard and watched the crazies all around us waste their money and pop fireworks.  There were lots and lots of illegal aerials and it was really cool to watch. I would love to know how much money when up in smoke last night.  Some of those illegals are really expensive.  Oh well, just glad it wasn't my money. The dogs were a little freaked out but they got through it okay.  The last 3 days of eating have been a little crazy. Wednesday there was beer and sausage with Tanya and Jerin.  Thursday we went out to the Oceanarium restaurant.  They had a crab buffet and it was awesome :)  Then last night we had soup and pizza before our friends came over.  So I was really high on my points all 3 days.  I had used all my Weekly points up on Thursday, luckily I had some activity points stored.  But I figured today was going to be pretty tough points wise.  ...

So I spent the morning trying to write this post that didn't sound too over the top or too ambitious or too much like a pipe dream.  After struggling with it for 2 hours I realized I was trying to write a post in a different voice, not mine. So I walked away from the post, went to workout and decided - bullshit!!!  I'm going to write what I'm thinking and feeling and screw how it sounds. So here goes.... For the past couple of years I have let things slide - things being me.  I stopped racing and training. I stopped working out for long stretches of time.  I stopped caring for myself. Well, this year I want to change all that.  So here are my goals.  The big ones: Get serious about running again Start racing/doing triathlons Lose some of this f(*$&%(*(#)$  weight I also want to change some things in other parts of my life. They are: Become more organized Stay on top of my work for school Keep on top of the bills and financial stuff Fi...

I was doing really well on WW. Logging everything and staying within my points. I was very proud of myself. Then yesterday some friends visiting from the mainland stopped by. We had beer and sausage. That in and of itself is not bad but I drank 3 beers (15 points) and ate about 4 oz of sausage (12 points) and then topped it off with some candy. Yikes!!! Luckily, under the new plan, I have a lot of weekly points, so even though I over indulged last night I still have 29 points for today, 12 weekly points, plus the 17 activity points I've earned so far. I should be okay for the rest of the week - which I haven't decided if it starts on Saturday or another day....hmmmm.... The problem I have is feeling backed into a corner. I hate the feeling that I have no options and that's what having only a few points feels like. I'll just have to workout to earn more activity points. But not today, I'm just the tiniest bit hungover. Today is going to be a fairly sedentar...

Is almost here. In 2 days the new year will arrive. I love new years, new months, new weeks, new starts. It's a great way to wipe away the old and start over. It's like getting a do over. I especially like new years because you have a whole year in front of you. It's like a blank page waiting to be written on. What will you do with that page? For me, the focus of a new year is usually personal. I can't control anyone else so I work on myself. And those things generally revolve around health and fitness. This year feels a little bit different to me. Not sure why exactly, but it does. I have been battling with my weight for all of my adult life. I began doing aerobics when I was 19 years old. In the intervening years I have done all kinds of workouts and yet I'm still overweight. Kind of crazy huh? But this year feels different to me. I have been thinking about what I want to accomplish and not necessarily what I want the scale to say. I want to be ...

So yesterday, my 1st day on WW, I was a rock star. I worked out, I ate right, I tracked, I did it. I ended the day feeling strong and thin and in control. Too bad today wasn't as good. Seriously though, day 2 is always hard for me. It's almost like my body is rebelling against the good stuff - and it may well be. I did not workout. I was hungrier than yesterday. I have a bit of a headache and I want to stuff things into my mouth. I firmly believe part of it is my kicking sugar. For about the last month or so I had been having sweets everyday, cookies, apple turnovers, chocolate, lemon bars, and ice cream. I've eaten well today so it can not be that I'm not eating enough. I think it's my body resisting change. If past experience is any indication, tomorrow should be better. I should start to feel better tomorrow. I just look up the symptoms of sugar withdrawal and they said it could last a week or two. I don't think so. I seem to remember that after ...

I knew my scale was not right. I bought it not too long ago and it worked fine in the beginning. Then the weight started creeping down. At first I thought I might actually be losing some weight, but then it got out of hand. For instance, this morning it said I weighed 166.8 lbs. Ummm....no!! If I weighed 166 I would not be busting out of my stretch shorts... But I kind of like the number and really, what is a number. Does 166 have any more meaning than 180??? Only because we give it meaning (read power). So basically I was going with the number I was getting, knowing it was wrong, but also knowing that it held pretty steady so I was probably maintaining. But joining WW yesterday made me realize I needed to know the real number. So this morning I went to a meeting and got weighed. It was worse than I thought. Much worse. I am at 191.8. Yikes!!! But that's okay. I will succeed and the only way to measure success is by having a true number to work with. So it begins. Th...

So I went ahead and bit the bullet this morning. I joined WW and got the monthly pass thingee they have. I get access to all the online tools plus can attend all the meetings I want in a month. I like that. But I went ahead and started the program today to see what it's like. In the old points program I was allowed 22 points per day and that was just not enough. I always went over or I ended up starving. It just did not work well for me. I think the main reason was that fruit counted as points. Veggies didn't but I like to eat a fruit with almost every meal and counting 2 points for an apple would just kill me. Anyway, under the new system fruit and veggies are zero points. I like that. And I'm allowed 29 points a day. Woo Hoo!!! Plus there are 49 extra points a week (7 a day) and you can still earn activity points. Awesome. Today I started with 29 points and I earned 6 activity points. I ate a total of 30 points, and that was only because I wanted a scoop of...

A couple of weeks ago I decided to just start signing up for races in order to actually get me moving. Prior to that I had been saying that once I started running again I would sign up for races. Well, that didn't work. So I switched it around and decided to sign up before I had started running. Guess what? That worked. I've been running fairly consistently and feeling pretty good about it. What I haven't been feeling really good about is the way I eat. I keep saying I'm going to eat right and track what I eat and I don't do it. So I decided to bite the bullet and join Weight Watchers. I keep saying that their plan promotes you eating junk because of the way the point system is calculated. Well, guess what? They changed the system. I like it from what I've seen and I decided to give it a try. The truth of the matter is, I was kidding myself. I used WW before and was wildly successful with it. It was what got me so low and started me running and doi...

So I've been thinking about my student who died and it's really, really sad.  I found myself thinking about her and eating an entire tin of cookies. I didn't even realize I was doing it.  Amazing the things you can do without knowing it.  Dealing with her death is going to be hard on everyone.  Meanwhile the organizing continues.  I spent the entire day getting my desk in order and straightening papers.  I keep newspapers for the birds and I had been throwing the entire papers into a box.  Well, I sat down and went through them and threw out the ads - can't use those - and separated them into different sizes for the different cages.  It took a while but cleaning the cages tonight was a breeze. That was nice. My laptop is starting to act up.  The keyboard is starting to not work right. It doesn't happen all the time, just intermittently, but it's not a good sign.  It might be time for a new laptop.  Maybe I'll look into a custom ...

That's what it was around here.   We were supposed to visit some people on Christmas Eve but it was raining so hard here we had a little flooding going on. Since the neighbors were all gone we hung around to make sure nothing got washed away. The neighbors front area did flood a little and their girls shorts got washed under the house. But that was the extent of the damage so that's good.  More rain is expected and I can hardly wait :)

It's been a pretty good year.  We accomplished a lot this year, the main item being buying this house.  For that I am very thankful and grateful.  I like to look back over the year but more important is that I like to look forward. I have spent this break so far getting things ready for the new year.  I've been working out, rearranging things, and working to get things set up for a fabulous 2011.  I have been working on trying to be more organized this year.  I have a terrible habit of not dealing with things right away and that's something I want to change in the new year.  Towards that end I've been looking for things to help me keep organized, like custom rubber stamps so I can mark things that come in, like paid, file, or whatever. Anyway, I'm working on it.

One of the students that I teach passed away last night. She was 16 years old.  She was having trouble breathing and it got bad enough that her parents took her to the ER.  The ER Doc wanted to do a scan of her throat and when she laid down on the table her esophagus collapsed and they could not revive her.  How unbelievably sad. To lose your child on Christmas.  OMG!! I can't even begin to imagine how her parents must be feeling. Talk about ruining Christmas.... It will forever be a sad time for them. Over the holidays things like this really seem to stand out. This is supposed to be a time of joy and sharing and then something like this happens. When children are little most parents understand the importance of child safety ,you look for things like child proof containers, car safety seats, child proof locks on doors and cabinets, things like that. But as children get older your safety concerns shift. Now you start thinking about the people they hang out with,...