I made a good decision because I wanted to!!!!!

Okay, I'm going to make this quick post about how proud of myself I am, then I'm going to do what I'm in the library to do: STUDY! :)

I had breakfast on my way to campus at 6:30 this morning.  Then after my first class, around 10, I was hungry.  I went to a little convenience type store that had snacks, and I purposely picked out a fruit cup and string cheese!!!!!  It wasn't even one of those decisions that I said to myself, "I really SHOULD ::groan:: get the fruit and cheese.  I simply wanted to eat that.  I WANT better!!  It was $5 but I don't care.  

I obviously worried about what school was going to do to my eating habits.  If I keep this up, I may actually do BETTER in school.  Imagine that.  Hm. 

Until next time,

:)

Would you like some grease with your pizza?

I remember in middle and high school seeing some of the girls use paper towels or napkins to pat the excess grease off pizza, and I remember thinking they were crazy.  Well refer to my follow the skinny people post, they were ALL thin.  Hmmm, I'm seeing a trend.  


This post actually formed in my head about a week ago.  I made a take and bake pizza.  I added some pepperoni.  When I pulled it out of the oven, there were puddles of grease sitting on the pizza.  I soaked 6 paper towels just to get the standing grease off, and then used a few more to get some of the rest off.  It was a little gross, but after I got all the excess off, the pizza was really good!


I had a really good runner-up post for this, but I just don't remember what it was.  


Until next time,
:)

Follow the skinny people.

I am going to first draw attention to what time it is.  Currently it is 3:50AM.  I have been awake for almost an hour.  I mentioned to my Doctor that this occasionally happens, and she said it was a very hypoglycemic tendency.  OH BOY.  That means at 3AM, my blood sugar gets so low, it wakes me up.  Yay.  Luckily this can be counter-acted by eating a high protein snack right before I go to bed that will keep me satisfied all night.  


So I'm laying in bed trying to sleep, and then I'm thinking about what time it is, and I'm already drafting this post in my head, so I finally say to heck with it, get up, I just ate some yogurt, and now I'm blogging, hopefully I'll be able to go right back to sleep afterwards.


Someone in my Weight Watchers group a few weeks ago gave a good tip.  When you go to a party, if you want to watch what you eat, follow the skinny people.  If you'll notice, they'll go to the buffet table (or wherever there's food) and look around, pick up something and WALK AWAY.  They don't stand near the table and graze.  Interesting thought.  And nifty strategy!  I'm going to try that at the next party I attend :)


I was just thinking that this is what Dave Ramsey teaches too, well not the skinny people trick.  He says to spend, invest, etc, like rich people do.  They got rich somehow, right?  Heh, very interesting parallel.  


I gained 1.8 this week, and I know exactly why.  I did not do well.  It's almost like I wanted to gain (I didn't really).  There are a couple of things (or trips through the drive-thru) that I look back at and wonder, WHY?  And what on earth possessed me to do that, order that, eat that?  It's stupid stuff too.  I go through the McDonald's drive-thru for breakfast.  I bought a whole box of lean pockets, in order to eat for breakfast!  Like really?  


When I went to see my doctor, she said I need to up the exercise, which is true.  So I have a  goal for this week.  I bought a new Pilates video.  I am going to try to do Pilates 3 mornings this week. I am also going to try to walk the majority of the evenings this week (that would be 4). TRY.  If I only get 1 or 2 in, that's better than before, and the next week, I'll aim to improve upon that.  I'm still going to aim for the 4, because if I only aim for 1 or 2, I'll hit it and go "okay, I'm done", which is counter-productive.


My other goal for this week is to track.  I'm like a broken record to myself on this one.  IT WORKS.  I can PROVE it.  Time after time after time after time.  


I don't remember if I mentioned this in a previous post, but I am going to aim to take some basic cooking classes, because as I have learned recently, I'm almost completely useless in the kitchen.  Yes, I can make a number of dishes, however, I'm very lacking in some of the basics, mostly because I wasn't interested in learning them before now.  Had I been, I might have retained more from the times I cooked, watched my parents cook when I was younger.


My doctor also told me that I need to be drinking half my body weight in water every day.  According to her scale, that would mean 100 ounces of water.  According to my scale, it's whatever half of 193 is, so I save a whopping 3.5 ounces.  When you drink 100, 3.5 pales in comparison.  I did drink 100 ounces on Wednesday, definitely.  I almost drowned!  Thursday is a maybe, and Friday, I probably got 90.  I know I didn't drink 100 ounces yesterday.  I'll do better tomorrow.  


Well, I'm going to try to go back to sleep, I'm yawning, so that's a good sign.  


Until next time,
:)

I'll take a weight fluctuation of 6 pounds in one day for 200, Alex

WAIT, no I won't.  Well, I will because it happens.  I weighed in at 194 last Saturday, then Tuesday afternoon, I went to the DR and weighed 200.  ::FREAK OUT:: Then Wednesday AM, I weighed myself, back down to 194.  ::WHEW::  I must have digested too much sodium or something.  Goodness.  They also took blood, like 10 vials or something (vampires!), so that may have accounted for some loss.  I was pathetic and puny feeling most of the afternoon and evening until I perked up a little.....around 9 of course :)


Generally, most people gain about 3 pounds during the day.  Just a fact of life, and why it's good to weigh at about the same time each time.  I always weigh myself in the morning, before I eat anything, and I usually don't weigh myself during the week.  


I know I haven't blogged in a bit, been busy, lots to tell, need to write it down because I forgot, and nothing witty's coming to me right now.  


Until next time,
:)

From smooth sailing to titanic (the ending) and back in 18 hours

I had fallen completely asleep, and suddenly, I'm jolted awake by a very loud crashing sound, from in my room.  There are two closets in my room and one of them still had the hanging bar and shelf hanging on the wall (the other has already had this tragedy).  It came crashing down, and brought everything with it, at 1:30 AM this morning.  Scared me just about to death.  I fell back asleep pretty quickly though :)


When I woke up, I promptly assisted in the emptying of that closet, and then after the scurry of a number of errands, we had a new shelf (that doesn't hang from the wall) and so I was able to re-assemble my room from the shambles of throwing stuff everywhere.  My room is now back in as much order as it will get.  It's neat and tidy.  


Somehow, I lost .6 this week, but I have NO idea how.  I am still trying to rack my brain.  The only thing I have thought of is that most of my indiscretions were at the beginning of the week, and after my massage (which released some toxins, which I washed out with book-oodles of water) that it could have undone some of the mess I made at the beginning of the week.  I have to have a really good week this week, and it started with some (if I say so myself) EXCELLENT planning on my errands.  I had 5 stops to make, and I went the furthest from home, and went in order back home.  How lucky was I that frozen food was part of only the last two stops? :)


I've figured out that almost everything I need can be found at Dollar Tree or Aldi, and I'm a FAN.  Good times.  


Last night, I was on the hunt for my mom for some good pictures of landscapes and flowers for her to paint.  I took almost a hundred pictures, and some were fuzzy because I was losing light, but my two favorites are here:


First up,my favorite landscape:

Then my favorite flower:

Both photos are courtesy of Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  Well courtesy to provide the subjects, I did take the pictures :)


I also took several flower pictures at the Public Library branch in Donelson, those will be up on my Facebook page soon.  


I'm now settling down with 3 fans (those wonderful things that blow cold air, not three people that like me :) ), my programming book, and a cold beer to enjoy the rest of my evening.  


Until next time,
:)

There's a reason I wear latex gloves when snaking the shower drain.

And may rich blessings pour out on the genius that invented latex gloves.  Let's just put it this way:  I have long hair.  'Nuff said.  


I'm in a cleaning out mood again, as noted a little in my last post.  I'm also a little on edge, and the appointment with the potential new Luda owner got moved back one more day, so I'm pins and needles right now.  I also ate WAY too much pizza tonight.  I stopped counting after 4 slices.  ::groan:: I'm still emotionally eating, and it's about various things.  Some Luda, some worry over final grades in calculus, some things I only blog about in my blog no one can see :)


I'll probably gain this week, and it's because I got lazy.  So here's the deal.  It works for me when I buy my food and eat my breakfast and lunch out of a box.  Set number of points, no way for me to go overboard, with vegetables....so I'm going to be more consistent with that, and stop going out to eat for the next few weeks.  And I had soda this week.  ::double groan::  so I'm going to give those up (again) too.  Those I'm trying to give up permanently.  I'm going grocery shopping after my Weight Watchers, when I'll be inspired NOT to buy the things I shouldn't, I've found it's the best time to go grocery shopping.  


I've also got a long list of errands to run, things to google (grin) and chores to accomplish this weekend, it's going to definitely be productive!  I'm in a clean-out mode, so watch out stuff!  It's trimming time again :)


I'm off to bed!  Have a fun weekend!


I just re-read this post and realized I've been incredibly repetitive.  Whoopsie Daisies.  :)


Until next time,
:)

Caring for self: I can get into this :)

I had a half day today, and I got a massage.  And enjoyed every second of it.  I feel so relaxed and stress-free, I might make it a regular occurrence.  I'm definitely a FAN.  


I've noticed I'm starting to devote a little more time, money, and energy to self care, and I'm definitely seeing benefits.  I'm also enjoying it.  I would not have enjoyed self care 5 years ago like I do now.  


I had a thought earlier that wondered if I'm being selfish.  Now, if I got weekly massages, nails and toes done every two weeks, etc, that MIGHT be selfish, but only getting my toes done every 4 weeks and only in the summer, granted nails get done every two weeks, getting massages monthly at most, and my weekly Weight Watchers meetings, I think I'm devoting an appropriate amount of time to myself.  I have to take care of myself before I can take care of anyone else, right?  Right.  


Part of my pride is evolved by my extensive movie collection.  I boast over 200 titles in said collection, and I'm very proud of that.  It was like back when I had 545 friends on Facebook. Finally, it got ridiculous, and I started trimming away the people I never talked to, people I didn't like, etc.  There were a few people I accidentally removed, and I've re-added since then, but I trimmed down to 40 friends.  Now I'm at a little over 100, but those are all people I keep up with at least, and talk to regularly for the most part.  Family is also in that :) I say all this to say this: I'm going to do the same with my movie collection, trim the movies I either don't watch, don't like anymore, or can get easily through Netflix, on demand, etc.  I'm going to take the rest and sell them to McKay's.  I got the idea from my mom and step-dad who are doing the same thing with their collection.  I probably won't get rid of my TV shows on DVD though.  I will probably get rid of most of my VHS too, unless I decided I like it enough to devote the time to turn it into a DVD via the converter we have.  


Well, I have a long list of things to get accomplished tonight and this weekend, so I'm off!  I'll probably blog once more tonight, but then I'll be checking list items off!  


Happy self-care!


Until next time,
:)