Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Things You Learn About Yourself

Adam has been traveling these last few weeks to a conference for school, so I have essentially living by myself.

It sucks.  A lot.  I miss him so much.  But! He's on his way home :D I pick him up tomorrow and I can. not. wait. !!!

But that is not what I wanted to write about, although it does factor in.

First, I find it much too easy to slide into unhealthy food choices when I am by myself.  Way too easy.  And I'm not going to lie, I slid down the slippery slope of bad-for-you food.  And I felt awful.  Not because of the guilt, although I am sure that was part of it, but I just felt sick to my stomach for days after I ate that crap.  Nauseous, yucky, uncomfortable. Blech.  Cooking healthy for one is definitely harder, but so worth it.  I never, EVER want to feel that way again.  If I indulge a little, like once in a blue moon, I don't think it will be like that.  I did have a few days pass after I had an indulgence and I felt fine.  It was when I indulged two, no I think it was three, days in a row for a meal each day, that I felt the worst for the next several days.

Blech. Blech. Blech.

But I also made another discovery over the last few months, and have an easy way to remedy the problem.

I like exercise and being active.  I enjoy playing sports and it's really fun to play team sports with friends.  I have many fond memories from my childhood of playing touch football on Saturdays with my family and neighbors.  And we (my Dad, brothers and now my hubby) still sometimes head to the local ballpark complex thing in my hometown to hit the ball around and play catch.  Invariably someone will pull a muscle or something.  But it's a lot of fun.  Family is super important to me and helping them stay healthy and be around as long as possible is a very big thing for me.

So, anyway, my biggest motivator it seems, is having some sort of 'event' breathing down my neck.

Which means I spent today looking up 5Ks in Michigan for me to run through out the winter.  (I don't do winter biking.  I am crazy, but not that crazy.)  I found one a month to run all the way through to the Capital City River Run event next year.  The first one up is the Turkeyman Trot on Thanksgiving morning.

You read that correctly.  I am hosting my first Thanksgiving this year, and I am running a 5K the morning of.  Yes sir/m'am.

Even though my work outs have been erratic since I started working, I want to have that extra push to keep it up.  Training for a 5K only takes 30 minutes, 3 days a week.  Am I tired when I get home from work? Yes.  I have been averaging 10,000 steps per day on days that I work, I'm on my feet, going from my desk to the copier, back to my desk, to the supply room and back, I'm everywhere baby!

But I know that I need to make my workouts more regular.  I have to.  The weight won't continue to come off if I don't get back on the regular exercise horse.

And stay away from the Pizza Rolls.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Just In Case You Don't Check....

I know I was slacking the last few weeks of weigh ins, not entering them on the page, and I promise it's not because I didn't want you to know, I've just been so busy!

Ok! So, I celebrated my 16th weigh-in early, because I am not sure if I will be at full time next week or not. If I am, I won't be able to go to my normal meeting and I wanted to celebrate with all of the awesome people there!  It also means I needed to get a new weight record. And I have to decide what to do with the old one. For now, it will live next to the new one in my pocket guide!  I am right on to celebrate my 16 weeks, if I hadn't missed that meeting while we were on vacation :(.


I am four pounds away from my 10% goal!  For those of you who aren't a part of Weight Watchers, when I hit my 10%, I get a key ring to put my Stay and Succeed charm (above) on and my 5K charm from this summer.


It's kind of lame that they don't try and get the chain ring to you first.  I'm trying so hard to not lose these by keeping them in the back pocket of my pocket guide, but I'm still afraid I'm going to lose them!  (Especially since we are moving)

I also re-measured myself tonight for the first time since the beginning of July. Wow!  I have lost an inch to an inch and a half EVERYWHERE! Lost an inch around my thighs, waist, hips and bust and an inch and a half around my upper arms.  I need to remember to take these more often, it's super awesome.  I know it won't always be that dramatic, if I do it once a month instead of once every three, but wow!

I am not paid by Weight Watchers at all, in fact, I pay them for the monthly pass.  But I do not regret it at all.  Even if I didn't receive neat (non-food!) rewards for my weight loss progress, the support there is wonderful.  The Facebook page is a great place to go if you have questions, your meeting leader is a wealth of information - as are the receptionists.  All employees at Weight Watchers have lost weight on Weight Watchers and are at their goal.  They live the plan every day, just like us.

I am really sad that soon I am not going to be able to attend my regular Thursday meeting.  The people are so wonderful and my meeting leader, Amy, is fantastic.  This is part of the reason why I celebrated 16 weeks early.  On the upside, Amy does do a meeting on Thursdays during lunch in my building at work, which, if they switch to the monthly pass, I will be more than happy to switch to!  Otherwise, I will probably be attending Saturday mornings.

If you found this post, doing research on Weight Watchers, do it.  I have had wonderful success and learned so much about my eating habits.  If you're looking for fast loss, like 50 pounds in a month, don't go into Weight Watchers expecting that - you'll only be disappointed.  The program only tells you to expect between .5-2lbs lost per week.  Sometimes it's less, sometimes more.  But, if it's slow to come off, the more likely it is to stay off.  It's a lifestyle change.  You have to want to make that change.

And it is so worth it!


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Guest Post at The Ex-Pat Bride

Oops! I thought I had this set to automatically go up yesterday, but I was wrong!

Well, yesterday I was featured on The Ex-Pat Bride's site as a guest blogger, go check it out!

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Today is the first time I will have done a guest post for another blogger!

Sarah at the Ex-Pat Bride is on her honeymoon, so I wrote about Adam's and my honeymoon at the Castle in the Country.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Michigan v. Michigan State

Tomorrow is the rivalry game of the season for these two schools, but both universities were able to put aside their differences tonight to raise money for Mott Children's Hospital at the 'Go Blue, Go Green, Go Kids!' Tailgate at the Lexus of Lansing tonight.

It was a pure fluke that I was able to attend.  A co-worker won them in a raffle that was to raise money for Michigan Harvest, a food pantry.  He couldn't go so he gave them to another co-worker who asked me to go with her.

It was a snazzy affair so I classily represented the Spartans in one of my favorite work outfits.  There were a lot of well known people there, but the real heroes were the kids who were there thanks to the top rate work of the pediatric doctors who work at Mott.  One of whom I met, and it was an honor to meet them.

Sparty was there to lend his 'voice' to the cause


As was Former Governor Engler and his wife.


Tom Izzo


and Lloyd Carr.



I know I'm a State Fan, but I was honored to meet such a legendary coach, even though he coached Michigan. :)  He was very nice and even said to tell my Dad hi.


I am so glad I had the opportunity to attend such a great event.  I hope I never need the services of Mott, but I know it's there if I do.

Oh, and Go Green!

Yes, I will be at the game tomorrow, and tailgating.

In conjunction with this, I will be hosting my first giveaway!!  If you are the first one to find me tomorrow at the tailgating or the game, I will give you your choice of apple jam, apple pie filling or applesauce. (Sorry Courtney, you and your hubby don't count for this one!)  I won't have it with me, but I will get it to you afterwards.

So, you find me first tomorrow, you win jam, applesauce or pie filling, all made from scratch with Michigan apples!  YUM!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Just a Little Preview...

...of Canning Adventures to Come!!


Tonight I made Apple Jam.  And, oh Flying Spaghetti Monster, YUM!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Whew!

Well, well, well, what do we have here?

A lot of things have happened in the last couple weeks!  And I mean A LOT!

We had some dark days leading up to this events of the last 2 weeks or so.  With my unemployment taking too long to end and my student loans coming due soon, we were hemorrhaging money despite trying so hard to spend absolutely nothing more than we needed.  We just were not in a good place.

But then things started to change.

I signed up with a temp agency and they found me a placement in about three days.  It's a part time job, which is fine for now.  I won't tell you what I'm doing or where, but I will tell you I absolutely love it.  I mean really love it.  This alone has saved us our sanity.  And our wallets. And there is a good chance I could end up there full time and permanently.

We are also moving! Part of our problems were that we were living in a place that was just way too expensive.  We hadn't been too happy here anyway.  Bad experiences from the start.  So we were able to negotiate out of our lease and find a house.  We are moving in a few weeks.

I also have been reading a book that has changed my life.  It's wonderful and I will write more about it after I finish it, but if the suspense is killing you, it's called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.



Read it, you will thank me. I guarantee it.

I also have started canning, which is an adventure I look forward to sharing with you.  I am bound to screw something up eventually that will give a great story!  I will share the recipes I try and like, and tell you which ones I think you should avoid!  I have already canned some apple pie filling.  Next up apple jelly, apple butter and applesauce.  Can you tell I have a lot of apples?  I also want to branch out and do some other things, but to do vegetables, you need a pressure canner and right now I am stuck in what I can do with water bath canning right now.  Until I can either buy my own PC or borrow my mom's.

I also had the weirdest interview ever yesterday and that definitely deserves its own post.


Alright. I have to get up very early to go to work, and even though I don't work every day, I'm trying to stay on the same schedule.  And I'm tired.

How've you been?