Note to Self: Do NOT weigh in the morning after wing night!!
That is all.
Project Rebuild: Day ??
17 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in Diet, Renewal, Uncategorized
I’m gonna say this is Day 17 of Project Rebuild, since I think I mentally kicked off on July 1. Let’s go with that, anyway. 🙂
Progress, people, progress is being made. I’m sticking with my workouts and am rebuilding a walk/run base. Still focusing on the #wycwyc method of doing what I can when I can and not beating myself up for slip-ups. The calorie monitoring is where I’m slipping up – well mot the monitoring, actually, but the staying within – too many cookies, cakes and candies at the office!!
Today’s challenge is to stay away from the cookies, cakes and candies!!
But, on the upside, it’s nice to have an office these days, even if I have gained 10 lbs since starting there. 🙂 Working is good for my soul and my mental state, that’s for sure. I can actually say I’m happy and it’s been a long time since that was possible. Yes, it’s contract work, but it’s work and it’s coming up on one year since I started contract work at this place and that’s amazing and gratifying!
So for those of you keeping track who’ve been with me awhile – be not confused by the tracker on the right. It actually is up 10, maybe 11, pounds from where it had been. That’s the cookies and cakes for ya! We’ll be stopping that now so keep your eyes on that tracker!! 😉
Let’s Do This!
14 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
How about instead of just imagining, let’s DO THIS! And so a new chapter and new re-start of the journey begins…
One week is already under my loosening belt with 5 lbs down, and I am looking forward to a second week getting back to the run/walk program that has been the base of my fitness routine desires for a while now.
I’m feeling good about this re-start and believe that this will stick. I plan on it sticking! It will stick! It has stuck!!
The Plan:
- Walk/Run x 3 each week
- #wycwyc alternating 10 squats/pushups when I visit the loo at the office
- Drinking 2L of water daily
- Calorie management targeting 1000 / day
- No self-flagellation or doubt. Just do it, because I can do it. Yes, I can!
(Aside: Can you believe it’s been 26 years since the Just Do It campaign was launched by Nike?? Loved that campaign!)
Today, I slept in so the walk/run will be after work but dinner has been prepped so I’ve no excuses to not get it done as soon as I get home and get lazy. I’m excited as I type this, and can’t wait ’til 4:30 when I can get home and move into week 2 feeling strong.
Here we go!
Catching Up
22 May 2014 1 Comment
I just finished a long overdue call with a very best friend who lives very far away. It was fabulous. It was like we were in the same room together. We reconnected like we needed to do long before. We’ve missed one another. I’m so glad we had this time.
What it leads me to, is it suspect that I’m not alone. That we all may need to take the time to reconnect with someone with whom we have lost touch. Reconnection with someone who has been a significant part of our lives always provides you with perspective and an opportunity to reflect. Perspective on where you were, and where you may be, and where you may need to go. I enjoyed just such an opportunity tonight.
One might think that it is never good to look back. One might be mistaken. I see the looking back as a chance to learn and grow, and always respect to where I have come.
The joy is in the journey.
Been a while
22 Oct 2013 1 Comment
in Job Search
Well, I guess it’s been awhile as I look at the date of my last post – July – lots and yet nothing have happened since then so I’ll catch you up quickly.
July and August went by rather uneventfully until the end of August, when I was contacted to work a 1 month temporary placement at a local university. As some of you may know, I have been looking for decent work for a good while now and this chance at the university was the result of a good deal of work and networking within a network. It came about as a result of an interview that I had over a year ago, when I made a good impression on the Director, and my continued nagging and emailing to a certain HR Advisor within the university. You never know. Apparently, the impression I made in the interviews and meetings was good. 🙂
So I had a good solid month of work at a reasonable salary and one that I would be happy to earn for a living should my luck hold. As someone who has been unemployed and/or underemployed for what seems like a very long time, this chance to work in an administrative position for awhile was like heaven. I loved knowing what to do and how to do it I enjoyed understanding the politics of the situation and staying out of them. I loved earning a good living for a job that didn’t stress me out beyond belief and compromise my personal convictions. In short, I thoroughly enjoyed the month of September while I worked full time in an administrative job.
I gotta say, they seem to have loved me as I got roses, a luncheon, cake, cookies, chocolates and many hugs when I left. I hope it means they loved me, and not that they hope never to see me again! I’m looking on the bright side, as I choose to do regularly.
I hope to stay more connected in the future!
Time to Face the Music
26 Jul 2013 Leave a comment
in Diet, Renewal Tags: MyFitnessPal, The Body Reset
The time has come, it seems, to face the reality and update my numbers on MyFitnessPal to reflect the current status of my weight loss (or in this case, gain) journey. Evidently, it’s much easier to ignore the reality when it isn’t glaring out at you in big red script from the side of one’s blog page. So, here we are and what had been 18 pounds lost is now a mere 12 pounds lost – Wait… What??! 12 Pounds Lost?! That’s great!! That’s better than 12 pounds gained!! Time for a head shake on that and appreciate where I’ve gotten to so far in the journey instead of bemoaning a temporary (yes, you heard me! I said ‘temporary‘) five pound gain. 🙂
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (since it’s kinda the theme of this blog…), it’s time to renew my commitment to myself and my journey towards becoming the person I know I can be. Or, if you prefer a much more graphic description we will turn to “The Sister” who says she doesn’t want ‘Swamp Ass‘ so has to lose enough weight that her butt cheeks don’t rub together!! There’s a mental smell-o-vision I really didn’t need to have!! And yet, somehow effective in it’s message….?!
So today brings a grocery store run to stock up on healthy food options, including lots of fruits and veggies and low GI carbs cause, yeah, that’s how I roll. I find the low carb/low GI route works for me when I actually commit to it. It’s the fact that ‘forever‘ is a very long time and that’s where the problem (and regain) comes in. But it’s a place to start and see that next 10 pound barrier kicked to the curb. And, btw, even with the 5 pound gain, I still haven’t gone back to that old 10 pound barrier so I’m still happy with the 2nd digit of the 3. See? All has not been lost (or gained??) Lol
Off to make myself a breakfast smoothie to get this show on the road!!
Life
18 Jul 2013 Leave a comment
in Diet, Fitness, Job Search
Well, the Progress has definitely taken a slide of late – a victim of too many summer BBQ’s and get-togethers with friends and family. But what is life without too many summer BBQ’s and get-togethers with friends and family?? Never say ‘No’ to those because life can, sadly, be too short and you don’t want to miss it!! Did I love being the fat chick sitting beside the pool while everyone else was swimming and enjoying cool water? No, but at least I was there and enjoying being there to share the day. And I wore a 1 size smaller skort than I wore a month ago so Yay!! And it was 50% off so Double Yay!!
But it is time to get back to my commitment to The Body Reset and get back to those delicious smoothies again for awhile – so good and so filling with the added bonus of being cool on a brutally hot summer day! They are easy, portable and so yummy that I’ll have them anytime – running out to work for an evening, after a busy day, whatever.
Also got another tool in the battle of the bulge – another Gaiam product as the sale is ongoing at the store! Got myself the Reformer to target those pesky core muscles that have gone flabby and do something about getting my taught tummy back someday!! So I have the tools, now I need the commitment and will and I think I have those. I think I do.
In the meantime, the job hunt continues at a snail’s pace. Seeing some light there but not wanting to jinx anything, I’ll leave it at that for now.
Progress
09 Jul 2013 1 Comment
in Fitness
Well, what do I see here?? A 17 pound loss??!! Pour moi?? Is that, dare I say, Progress?! Huh. Who woulda thought that actually having a plan and a goal might pay off? :p
Full Disclosure – I started something new and completely off of my plan. I started doing a beginner Zumba video that I found on YouTube and that seems to be helping both in getting me moving and sweating, and also just plain old having fun. Sure, the instructor is Scandinavian and I can’t understand what she’s saying and, sure the music is primarily in spanish and I can’t understand what they are saying but heck, I can follow along in my living room and it doesn’t cost me a thing. And it’s fun. Did I mention that it’s fun??
Weird coincidence – I followed a car into my work’s parking lot and the license plate had a Zumba reference on it and it got me to thinking – I like to dance, I need to get fit… Hmmmm. Cut to 45 mins later and that car’s driver is at my cash so I asked her about it. She gave me a website and a name and, after checking that out and realizing that there would be expenses involved, I figured I’d look on YouTube. YouTube has everything, after all.
Also a good development – We are having a SALE!! Lots of Gaiam Yoga stuff on sale at 50% off. Add that with my employee discount (God, how I love my employee discount) and Voila! I now own a Gaiam Toning Ball and Workout DVD set for $13. Yes, $13. Plan to use it, too. (Read that I haven’t yet, but I will. Yes, I will). And there’s a shortened video for that on YouTube, too!!
Progress, people!!
That’s a smile on my face. Can you see it??!!!
And Again…
28 Jun 2013 Leave a comment
Well, there has been no joy in Mudville on the job-hunt front of late but all is not gloomy.
I’ve lost some lbs and I do so enjoy when that happens!! Yeah, I gained some back again, but I’ve lost it now and things are looking up and forward on the weight-loss path if not the job-hunt path. And now the weightloss tracker at MyFitnessPal is working again, so that’s always encouraging to see the numbers increasing in this case!!
So despite all of my optimism and happy intentions from my last post, motivation has wanned and needs to be re-booted (as does my butt, frankly). Time to give myself a deadline and target – I think I’ve heard of that before…. I think it’s called a goal?? Yeah, yeah, a Goal, that’s the ticket!! So let’s do that!! Hmm… what’s a good goal??
I know I was VERY excited when I cracked the last 10 pound barrier that had been teasing me for several months, so how about setting my new goal as cracking the 10 pound number that I’m facing now? Now, don’t get me wrong – that’s not a 10 pound loss, I just mean getting through to the next 10 number on the scale (going from 95 to 87, or 63 to 58, for example – breaking the 10 pound mark). I think that’s a reasonable goal – I’ll set that for the goal for the next month – getting to and into the next 10 mark! And the timeline? Ok, more specific. How about before the pool party (Yikes!!) in mid-July? I think that’s gonna work. Break the 10 by mid-July, Yes!! (Yeah, I know you want it more specific, and in my head it is I’m just not writing the numbers and dates 🙂 ) At the very least, having written this down and posting it, I’m thinking it will make me somewhat accountable to myself.
So there it is. A goal and a plan (remember the plan from the last post? That plan!) Here goes!
Didn’t see that coming!
05 Jun 2013 Leave a comment
in Job Search
Today is looking like a very positive day. I’ve received two emails with job leads and am working my way through some resume/cover letter writing to apply for some new positions. And the sun is shining and the laundry is underway, and the cats are sleeping contentedly, and, even more importantly, I just paid off my Visa card!! Yay!!!! Hadn’t seen that one coming!
After about 17 months of underemployment and unemployment, I now qualify for EI payments to supplement the income I receive from my part-time retail job and bring me to a point of near survival.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As a result of the payment I received this week, I have been able to pay off the Visa card that, while admittedly wasn’t a HUGE amount, was daunting for me on my minimum wage part-time income. So that beast is now off of my burdens and the world is a hopeful place. 🙂
So it’s on to the next challenge with one less worry. Now, let’s not all just jump up and dance – I do still have debt, I just don’t have huge interest incurring debt that is sucking the very life blood out of me.
But, what the hell, let’s dance a little anyway, shall we? Let’s take every chance to dance that we can get, frankly.
Yay, Me!!
OnceAndAgainAnew 