I didn't want to but I did

We had a late dinner tonight. I went grocery shopping this evening and didn't get dinner started until late. By the time we were done it was already after 8. I don't like to eat late because it makes me have a rough night sleeping because of acid reflux. After dinner I didn't want to work out either because I figured then I wouldn't have any play time or time to myself. I psyched myself up by reminding myself of how I felt earlier at work. I was walking along and felt that my legs were feeling stronger from my recent workouts. I told myself wow I am getting stronger and stronger. With strength comes power to live a more active life. Fat has overpowered me for my whole life. Tonight I worked out the whole time thinking I am going to get this weight off one workout at a time. All of my thoughts centered around personal strength and the power to change this life. Each step on the treadmill and each pedal on the bike was about taking my power back. It helped and I hope it stays on the forefront of my mind at least until the next burst of inspiration comes along.

Rule your mind or it will rule you ~ Horace

Health and fitness update

It recently got harder to keep up on blogging daily so I decided to try and play catch up tonight. What have I been up to since my last post?

Saturday we went to game night with our friends. We had a Christmas in summer time theme. We all brought summer food and a white elephant gift. I tried to find something bizarre to take and found some old squirrel statues. I hope they are doing well in their new home with the Stein's. So at game nights I usually eat from the minute I get there until the time I leave. This time I succeeded in avoiding any candy or sweets. Although Beth's Twinkie cake was calling, actually SCREAMING my name. I was proud I kept my strength. Ironically I won the jar full of M&M's by guessing the correct weight of it. When I got home, my son and his buddies were quite pleased when I handed the unopened jar to them and said it's all theirs.

Sunday morning I weighed in. I am down 4 pounds from last Sunday. I was quite pleased considering I have worked out here and there but I haven't given myself a good beating in the gym yet. I have started walking on my morning break at work and have continued to stay away from most sweets. I have been making nice dinners at home and the family seems to be pleased with them as well.

Mondays are always rough for me in the evening because it's early to work day. Since I get up earlier I am usually tired by the time I get home and don't want to work out so I didn't. I decided that Monday evening would be my relaxation/mental health night. I sat down and finished a book I was reading and called it a night.

Tonight was the Biggest Loser Finale. Nothing like a finale to get me motivated! After dinner I unfolded the Gazelle and sat it in front of the TV and worked out for awhile. I took a break and got back on for a little while later after I watched the show some more. These people are really motivating. I think we need all the help we can get to stay motivated. Sometimes our thoughts get stale and we forget what we are doing this for. Watching this show helps keep me motivated.

Settling

I had a fantastic evening in class with Marisol and our wonderful Photoshop teacher, Mr. Rigg. We created some scrapbook pages and printed them on my new printer. They are sweet! So many ideas and so little time!

I didn't work out today which makes it two days in a row. Tomorrow I am hitting the treadmill like it or not. I did drink lots of water. Didn't eat too bad today except for the 3 pieces of frozen pizza I had tonight. Still no coffee or sugar. Tried to eat some sweetened yogurt this morning and it made me ill. I think God finally answered my prayer when I asked for me to dislike sugary things so that I could lose weight. Thanks Big G.

I am really tired so I am "settling" with this as my post for the night.

OMH

Oh my head! Today is day three of leaving the coffee behind. Caffeine withdrawal is not cool at all. I have given up the caffeine and sugar fixes. I feel like a total zombie. Or like I want a zombie to come and eat my brains so they won't hurt anymore. My husbands Jonathan Coulton obsession is really starting to affect me.

I only did a few minutes on the treadmill today because as my heart rate increased my head throbbed more. I decided I would take the night off. Not a total waste of a day though. I have still increased my water, avoided the vending machine at work, and ate pretty healthy all day today. I still have some cleaning to do tonight so I won't be a total couch potato either.

Punctuation

When it comes to "punctuation" I still get a little confused. I started thinking about the episode of Friends when Joey and Ross got into a fight. Instead of boring you with whatever I would have written about punctuation, I decided to entertain you by finding a clip of that episode on youtube. So here it is. Sorry for the subtitles.

So I dusted off the treadmill

Last night I was determined to do something on the treadmill even though I was super tired. I actually made it on for about 20 minutes. I figured it was better than nothing. Considering I had only 5 hours asleep the night before and worked a 10 hour day, the 20 mins. was an accomplishment.

Tonight I came home and worked 2 more hours on work stuff. I was getting tired but was determined to workout again. I beat last nights workout by going 30 on the treadmill and another 10 at high speed on the bike. I have increased my water and have actually smacked my own hand when reaching for sugar. I think the sugar thing is more out of habit. I often feel like my butt is dragging because I am tired all the time. I turn to sugar to give me a boost but then I crash later and go on my sugar hunt again. It's a vicious cycle that I must get out of.

What I did on my summer vacation...

I laughed when I first read the topic for today. It reminds me of the Sister Mary Elephant song, lol.

The majority of my summer was spent working on my class reunion that we had back in August. I participated way more than I would have ever liked to but felt a personal obligation to complete my duties. In the end it was a nice reunion weekend and the hard work paid off.

After the reunion hubby and I decided we needed a vacation badly! We didn't have a whole lot of funds to do this so we thought about taking our annual road trip to Ludington, Michigan and just staying there for a few days. After a visit from Michael's sister we got to talking about going to Myrtle Beach for a week. We were able to take some time off in September. Michael never flew before so I started looking into airfare. Long story short we found cheap tickets and booked our flight. We let his sister and brother-in-law know we were coming and they planned the rest. As Amanda says, Michael popped his flying cherry on September 23rd which happened to be our actual 3rd wedding anniversary. We got there in about an hour and a half and enjoyed some nice weather almost the entire time we were there. His sis and her hubby spoiled us rotten. They made scrumptious meals at home and took us out for some too. We went and did some sight seeing and spent a couple days out at the beach. Other than hubby's sunburn on his legs and feet, everything was perfect. We really can't wait to go back again.

Then I spent the rest of my summer hanging out in front of the drugstore. Well everything is true except the drugstore part.

NaBloPoMo Topic: the color blue & its potential contributions to world peace

First I have to start off by saying that yesterday's blog was written out of character for me so I changed it. I still feel the same way about said neighbor but I didn't feel very good about posting it for the world to see. It's quite difficult to go from bashing a neighbor to talking about world peace. So I needed to take a few steps back in order to move forward again.

In my search for the relation of blue and world peace I found this cool video on youtube and thought I would take the easy way out and use it for my post today.



I am also incorporating my daily health and fitness progress into this blog. Some of my fellow bloggers and I have decided to keep the momentum we had from blogging in November and using it to help better ourselves in the fitness area of our lives.

I haven't gotten on my treadmill in quite some time. I go through spurts of being good and then I lose my motivation. I am hoping the blog will help keep me focused. Hubby and I watch the Biggest Loser every season. I sit and watch these people totally transform their lives yet I still lack the motivation I need. I admire the guts they have to go on national tv and leave their home life behind. I relate to their fears and embarrassment about their weight and I also cry along with them when they overcome all of it and become the person they want to be. I adore Jillian Michaels and have mentioned her in a recent post. She motivates me. Some people say she is too tough. That's what some people need though. I have (literally) done enough sugar coating.

So anyway I was thinking of setting my first goal of losing at least 10 pounds by Christmas. I thought it was a fair amount to set for myself because it will mean that I have to steer clear from most of the holiday sweets but I am not restricted from enjoying some of it. This is also the busiest time for me at work so I work longer days and it's harder to have good dinners and good workouts. So 10 pounds it is. Game on!