| Weirdness, Workout & Diet Stuff, More (Weather) Weirdness |
[Aug. 18th, 2008|07:26 pm] |
When I just tried to open www.livejournal.com a few moments ago, I got nothing but someone's icon with a really ugly female Sim and the text, "This is my happy face, bitch." I have no idea what that was about. When I hit refresh, LJ came up.
Happy news: I made it through 5 minutes on the stairmaster tonight. I thought I was going to die at one point, but I did it. Also, I figured out something to make tuna salad work. I was a fan of the kind with mayo (I know, I know, gross!) and I'm okay with a little vinaigrette, but tonight I used tzatziki sauce and it is perfect! I have that and a spinach, arugula and baby greens (plus some microgreens) salad and a little of the spinach & artichoke hummus and spelt flatbread I had yesterday for dinner. Yum! D Kitty's happy cause he got some tuna.
It is raining and 76 degrees in north Texas in mid-August. I haven't seen any pigs go flying by yet, but maybe the cooler temperatures are because Hell froze over???
Oh -- and I got some new pants today that are the exact same favorite pants I took to my sister's wedding in April, only they are 4 sizes smaller. And they fit! |
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| Horoscopes, Fannish 5, Berries/Berry Recipes |
[Aug. 15th, 2008|11:54 am] |
Is today a bit gray, ELIZABETH? It is very likely. You won't be able to see how you can get out of your current situation. You may have some financial or physical problems at the moment. If this is the case, it is because you don't rely enough on your own abilities and good sense to pull you through. Of course, it is possible that you don't take care of your body as well as you should, but that's easily remediable.
No, astrologer, it is because it is raining.
It's hard to see where your life is leading these days, yet you believe that you would be happier if you knew for sure. Your thoughts are weighted down by responsibilities, so it's difficult to imagine a solution to your current blues. Paradoxically, accepting the truth as it is -- even if it's less than your ideal -- can put an end to your moodiness.
No, other astrologer, not really. I am not blue, or feeling weighted down. But it is raining.
![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) thefridayfive is a set of music questions that I can’t answer, because I don’t really deal with music or relate to it in a way that works with the questions. And that sounds really weird, but I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s just to personal to me to be able to answer questions about it.
Today’s fannish5 is:
Name 5 books with the most compelling first chapters.
I’m just going to put down the 5 books with first paragraphs that I can remember off the top of my head. I don’t think that makes them great, necessarily, but if I can remember them that easily, they must be compelling to me.
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
2. The Haunting of Hill House
3. The Bible
4. Pride & Prejudice
5. Macbeth*
*Probably technically cheating since it’s a play, but I read the play before seeing it performed, so I’m counting it.
Since berry season is coming to a close, I’d like to buy extras this weekend and make some things I can store frozen that include them. I’m also considering making a blueberry clafouti. I would like to make a blackberry or blueberry sauce that is not a dessert sauce, but I’m not sure what to serve it on. The first thing that came to mind was venison, but I doubt I’ll have any in the near future. Panna cotta is another idea and I can make it and the sauce with splenda and have a low carb dessert. Any other ideas, flist?
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| Clothes Shopping, Weight, Movie, HGTV Design Star, Next Food Network Star |
[Jul. 14th, 2008|02:31 pm] |
I partly got over my clothes-shopping phobia on Friday. One of my co-workers was going to Avenue and I asked if I could tag along. I hadn’t planned on buying much of anything – maybe one of my usual baggy tops, but I wanted to try on some different sizes of pants and/or skirts to see if I could determine what size I am now. That sort of worked and sort of didn’t. I ended up buying a navy blue top, a pair of khaki bermuda shorts and a pair of red capri pants, and a dress. The sizing thing, though, didn’t work so well. Their sizes run super big to the point of ridiculousness, so I still have no idea what size I would wear at another store.
By way of explanation ... I started out at the beginning of the year wearing mostly a size 28/4x. (Yes, I had gotten that fat! Ugh!) After 7 months, I have been wearing mostly 24s, but those are too big for me (and the 26s I still sometimes wear are so big they are falling off me). I am wearing size 22 jeans today. But the bermuda shorts I bought at Avenue were size 22 and they are a good bit too big. The capris were a size 18 and they are just a little tight. 18!!! There is no way I am a size 18 or even approaching that. So I have concluded that I am probably a size 22 but working towards a 20 and that since I still like my tops really baggy (I can’t stand to have fabric touching me in certain places), I am a size whatever in tops. I can probably stand wearing a 24/2x for now. Mostly I wear things much larger and they are huge on me.
But, at least I got some shopping done and I didn’t feel like everyone was staring at me and thinking I’m too fat to even deserve clothes at all. *sigh*
I haven’t weighed myself in over a month. I took a couple of weeks off, got sick with some kind of awful stomach virus, then injured myself. That was 2 1 /2 - 3 weeks of being out of my routine. I’ve been back into it for a couple of weeks and I think I’m losing again and have successfully “jump started” my metabolism, but I’m scared to weigh myself. I’m just afraid taking time off made me gain a ton of weight, which is ridiculous and my clothes say otherwise, but I can’t help being paranoid about it. Not good. :(
On a happier note, other than the 5 days or so that I had an injured knee, my workouts have been going really well. I’ve progressed both in terms of range of motion and in the weight I can lift and I feel like my cardio workout are going well also. I only have a trainer once a week, so I’m doing one session with weights on my own. In a week or two I’ll add in another session on my own. I also have a couple of dvds I keep meaning to try – pilates and tai chi – but I haven’t gotten to them yet.
Movies
No weekend Netflix movies this weekend - I was too busy. But the same co-worker I went shopping with and I went to see ( War, Inc., and it was not as bad as I’d been led to believe it was... )
Then on Sunday night I watched ( HGTV Design Star )
( And then I watched Next Food Network Star )
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| Diet, Next Food Network Star, Design Star, So You Think You Can Dance |
[Jun. 10th, 2008|02:24 pm] |
Sorry I disappeared! Partly due to hormones I felt like retreating inward for a bit. It wasn’t anything bad or unhappy – just some quiet time.
I lost another 1.6 pounds last week. Since I didn’t weigh myself back at the beginning, I don’t know exactly how much total weight I’ve lost. I would guess 30 - 40 pounds, since I’ve lost exactly 20 since mid-April.
Things seem to be slowing down a bit, even though I’m still doing the same thing. Actually, I think it is probably because I am doing the same thing. I’ve been dieting since the second week in January, which makes it six months as of Monday. (I can’t believe it’s been that long!) I think my body, mind and spirit are ready for a break. Thus, starting this Saturday, I’m going to switch to eating maintenance calories for three weeks, which will cover both Father’s Day and the 4t h of July, so that works out nicely. I’ll still be working out and eating mostly healthy, just eating more and not worrying about whether or not I’ve lost weight for 3 weeks.
On to fannish things...
( Next Food Network Star )
( Design Star )
( So You Think You Can Dance )
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| Weekend, Meditation and Motivation |
[Jun. 2nd, 2008|01:35 pm] |
I didn’t watch any movies or TV at all this weekend. I don’t know why. Just wasn’t in the mood, I guess. I did finish re-watching Sports Night and wanting more, of course.
I did do a lot of laundry and on Sunday I tried on old clothes I’d shoved in the back of my closet and most of them fit or were too big, so that was kind of nice. I also did some extra walking on Saturday afternoon/evening. Not a lot - just 30 minutes or so - but every little bit helps, right? And on Sunday I slept in and then I spent the afternoon cooking my lunches for the week.
I also briefly read the SPN wank over in Fandom Secrets and then got horribly bored with it. I catch up on F!S about once a week and I always thought about 90% of the secrets were fake, anyway. *shrug* Anyway, the people whining about how boring the wank is are at least as amusing to me as the wank itself.
My sister keeps encouraging me to try meditation, and I’ve never been very successful at doing it in any sort of structure way, especially not when I’m remaining still (I do sort of get there when I’m walking, though). So, I decided to look for some guided meditation mp3s on amazon.com, found a couple and tried one yesterday evening. It was interesting. I did end up very relaxed from it.
Today is my weigh-in day, which is always nerve-wracking for me. This one is more so than usual since it’s been 2 weeks since I weighed instead of 1 and my last time didn’t have as much loss as I’m used to. But I had more inches lost last week so I probably shouldn’t be so worried.
( It’s Monday. I’m supposed to come up with some Motivational-type things... )
Thank you, wildmagelet for the virtual gift! It’s perfect!
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| Diet, Fitness, Clothes, Hell's Kitchen |
[May. 28th, 2008|11:11 am] |
I hope you all had a great holiday weekend!
My left eye is itchy, dry and red. I suspect allergies but boy is it bugging me. It’s better than it was half an hour or so ago, so maybe whatever got in it is clearing out now.
My workout schedule this week has gotten all turned around. I think that is a good thing. Shaking things up every once in a while can actually help. I have been trying the elliptical a time or two every week and last night it finally felt right rather than weird and off. I was able to get my heart rate exactly where I wanted it and keep it there the whole time I was on it, so yay!
Our lunchroom has 5 full boxes of donuts and kolaches in it. You can smell the sugar when you walk by. :(
Clothing Buying Woes:
I have developed a clothes buying phobia. I cannot bring myself to actually go shopping and try on clothes in a store. I can get myself to order some things online, but only after a lot of working at psyching myself up to do it. I’m afraid that if I order clothes in a smaller size, they’ll be too small and I’ll get frustrated and give up. And this is after I’ve ordered clothes in a smaller size and they were loose on me when I got them. Part of the problem is that my measurements, when translated to sizes using various company’s size guides, don’t actually reflect what fits me. The size guides tell me I should be wearing clothes at least a size larger than what I’m actually wearing, but what I’m actually wearing is almost too big for me. It’s confusing and upsetting. To make matters worse, the size guides also tell me that my top is 2 sizes smaller than my bottom. And yeah, I’m a bit pear-shaped, but not quite to that extent, IMO. And I haven’t been buying smaller tops because I don’t care if my tops are too big. Honestly, I sometimes get so angry with American clothing retailers and their weird sizing! I am at a point where I don’t have any clue what “size” I am.
( Hell’s Kitchen )
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| What Day Is It? Clothes, Diet, American Idol |
[May. 21st, 2008|02:49 pm] |
I cannot get my brain to acknowledge that today is Wednesday. It has insisted all day long that it is actually Thursday.
Okay, this is kind of an embarrassing admission combined with major YAY!: I am wearing some new pants from J. Jill. It’s the first time I’ve been able to fit into any of their pants in ... ever. And these are not even their biggest size, plus they are loose on me. Yay!! That’s kind of bad in a way because I like them and they were not cheap. I think I may have them taken in instead of replacing them.
( My Prediction for Tonight’s AI )
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| Weigh-in Update |
[May. 19th, 2008|07:24 pm] |
I only have a 1.2 lb. loss to record this week, and I was kind of disappointed, but then I got home and ( Girly TMI )
So now I am posting this, actually laughing at myself and eating a steak and spinach salad. Yum!
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| Diet & Fitness, Weird Dream, American Gladiators |
[May. 13th, 2008|10:48 am] |
I had another good Monday yesterday. I lost another 3 lbs. this week for a total of 14 since April 14. And I also took measurements again last night. Over the last two weeks I’ve lost an inch in my waist, my hips and my bust and 1/ 2 inch in my upper arm. My thighs, on the other hand, are either too stubborn to get smaller or I’m measuring them wrong. One little annoyance is that my upper body is about a size and a half smaller than my lower body. That makes shopping somewhat challenging. But not enough to make me anything other than delighted with my progress.
I ordered some new clothes yesterday. I bought them a size smaller than I’ve been wearing and I know it was the right thing to do because my current clothes are kind of falling off me, but it was hard to force myself to do it.
My workout buddy is sick today. She was supposed to have a session with my trainer after me tonight, and I’m not sure if she’s called him or is expecting me to say something. I kind of think it’s the latter.
I had a dream last night that I was in a Greek Orthodox Church at Easter and helping out with the flowers. After we finished, someone tempted me with some sort of special donut. I ate one bite of it and it was awful. I was struggling not to spit it out. Then I had to run off because I was late for something else and the woman I was helping with the flowers was kind of put out with me.
( I watched most of the American Gladiators premiere last night )
Tonight is Hell’s Kitchen and I may watch at least some of AI. I’m rooting for David Cook for the win. But I fear TCO Archbot may win. :(
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| Last Week's Friday Five, Good Things!, Movies |
[May. 12th, 2008|11:36 am] |
(This is a combination of what I was going to post on Friday but ran out of time for and today’s post.)
My horoscope on Friday was trying to warn me away from this:
There is a fanciful frenzy that is trying to lure you in to its madness. ... If it doesn't have real meaning for you, don't waste your time.
I don’t know, horoscope. That sounds like a fun time to me, especially since it’s Friday and fanciful frenzies can have a great deal of meaning for me. I think my horoscope writer is anti-Discordian.
( My Friday Five Answers were kind of long )
Today is my weekly weigh-in and I always feel nervous and stressed out before it, because what if I haven’t lost any weight, or have lost less than I feel I should have. I know that’s not a good way of thinking and that some weeks I won’t see the number on the scale go down, even though I’ve done all the right things. So to help me stay motivated and not stress out over the numbers, I’m going to try doing something new on Mondays. In addition to weighing, I’m going to remind myself of how my life is better this week since I started eating healthier food and getting some exercise.
( Good Things )
Weekend Movies
( The Laws of Attraction )
( Chak De! India )
I hope everyone who celebrates it had a lovely Mother’s Day.
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| Diet/Fitness |
[May. 5th, 2008|07:28 pm] |
It's weigh-in day. I lost 3.2 lbs. this week, so that's 11 lbs. total since 04/14/08.
I celebrated with a nice hard workout.
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| Diet, Movies, Kindle |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|09:50 am] |
Whee! Yesterday I wore a skirt I haven’t been able to wear in over a year! It was my weigh-in day and I lost another 3.4 pounds last week. So I did manage to slow things down a little, but not enough. I need to try to get it closer to 2.5 this coming week.
Weekend Movies
( The Interpreter )
( Billy Elliott )
I also tried to watch Wimbledon, but my dvd player kept saying, “no disk,” so I took it out and looked at it and there was a big ol’ crack down the back of it, so back to Netflix it goes. I asked them to send a replacement.
Kindle
Do any of you know anything about this device? Have any of you tried it? Is it the wave of the future amazon.com claims it is or a $400+ waste of money or something in between?
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| Sort of Random Stuff |
[Apr. 22nd, 2008|01:53 pm] |
I can't find my MP3 player. I'm hoping I just put it down in a different place at home because I don't really have a new routine yet.
I can’t believe I missed this live blogging chat yesterday! *sob* At least the transcript is still up.
I cannot wait to see this movie, even though I will have to wait. *sigh* He mentions both Angelika and Landmark theaters and we have both here, so I think the chances are pretty good it’ll end up here before long, especially since Grace is Gone really packed ‘em in here.
I may be dieting, but I still love good food and this dinner sounds fabulous.
As a counter to the last link, and since I need to add some calories to my diet to slow things down, I went looking for nutrient-dense foods online and found this link: World’s Healthiest Foods.
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| More Diet/Exercise Stuff |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|06:58 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | diet | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | Amped | ] |
w00t! I lost 4.40 lbs. last week. That's actually a little too much, so I'll have to figure out how to slow it down a bit. But I'm going to be happy and excited about it tonight anyway. w00t!!! |
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| Diet & Exercise, Dessert, My Boy Jack |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|11:18 am] |
I’m a little nervous today because I’m planning on weighing tonight and it’ll be my first opportunity to see if there’s been any change over a week. I keep telling myself that it’s okay if I didn’t lose 2 pounds because at least I ate healthier food and was more active and that can’t be a bad thing, and if it happens again next week I’ll just tweak what I’m doing and move forward, but still some positive feedback from the scale would be awfully nice. And boy, was that a poorly constructed sentence! Ha!
On Saturday one of the trainers approached me at the front desk while I was checking in, and I felt a little more comfortable with him than I have with the other two I’ve talked to, so I set up an appointment for Thursday night for a free evaluation/getting started session. Hopefully my workout buddy will be okay with that, but if not I’ll just change it.
Now for something more fun ... I had two diet desserts this weekend:
1) A Breyer’s No Sugar Added Creamy Vanilla Bar (150 cals, 9 g fat, 18 g carbs 6 g. sugar) which was not very good because, while the chocolate coating is fine, the ice cream inside it is very grainy; and
2) A Mrs. Smith’s Heavenly 100 Chocolate Mousse (100 cals, 3 g fat, 17 g carbs, 11 g sugar) which truly was heavenly and creamy and chocolatey and YUM!
The chocolate mousse was a lot of sugar in a fairly small package, but as an occasional treat it was worth it and it was so good it felt like I was eating a lot.
Computer Guy came and looked at my computer and did some things to it, but it still rebooted itself while I was playing Sims 2. Maybe that is something that is just not fixable? It is pretty irritating, though.
No movies this weekend. Not much TV, either. I mostly was out on Saturday and did a lot of housekeeping and finished unpacking. And on Sunday I slept a lot. I am used to getting part of my make-up sleep on Saturday and didn’t this week, so I guess that is why I was so dead tired on Sunday.
However, I did watch ( Dan Radcliffe in My Boy Jack )
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| Diet & Exercise, Top Chef, Question about Gossip Girl |
[Apr. 18th, 2008|12:58 pm] |
I haven’t posted much this week, mostly because I haven’t had much to post about. I’ve been to the gym two more times and my knee feels even better and that’s about all my big news. I can probably come up with a few more things to say if I try, though. Let’s see...
I upgraded my Daily Plate membership to gold, mainly so I could have the cute little graph of how much weight I lose and so that I could see how much magnesium I get on a daily basis. So far today it’s 20% of my RDA [/geekiness]. I would still love to have a fandom group there if anyone’s interested. Joining is free.
Otherwise, I have felt good and energized most of the week, except today I feel a little tired. I have been going to sleep earlier, which I think is because I’ve been working out and feel better, but I’m still tired today. Friday always does this to me. I will catch up a little on my sleep this weekend, but I can’t do it tomorrow because my computer guy is coming by to try to figure out why my computer keeps arbitrarily rebooting itself (he thinks it has to do with the new memory he installed not synching up) and after he’s gone I’m going to go work out. Maybe I can work in a nap or just go to bed a little early and then sleep in on Sunday. But Sunday is supposed to be pretty and warm so I kind of don’t want to waste it sleeping.
I think my talk about exercise and diet is probably very boring to most of you, and I apologize for how much of it I’ve been doing, but it’s important to me that I memorialize it, so I plan to keep doing it – and hoping it’s not bothering y’all too much!
Let’s see ... I already posted about Hell’s Kitchen and I didn’t watch Step It Up and Dance.
Oh! And I did watch ( Top Chef )
One more thing – A question for people who watch Gossip Girl – Is it just flat out softcore porn and nothing else? Because that’s what the commercials for it lead me to believe.
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| Diet, Exercise, Hell's Kitchen |
[Apr. 16th, 2008|11:55 am] |
Yesterday I went to the gym for the first time in many years. I rode a recumbent stationary bike for 20 minutes. Today my knees hurt less and I’m getting around so much better and I feel about 2000% better in general. I even slept better last night. I am really looking forward to going back tonight.
I am going to Trophy Fitness Club, which is very convenient to me, not crowded, has TVs on each bike/treadmill/stairmaster/elliptical, plenty of free weights and machines, free classes, and really nice locker rooms + a “water house” with rain shower and steam cave in addition to the whirlpool . Plus it is next door to and affiliated with a spa, which makes it easier for me to use facials, manicures, etc. as rewards instead of food.
One funny thing - the trainer who showed me around was a little ... on something, I think. He was sort of bouncing off the walls. And when asked what the monthly fee is, he said it is $47.63. Somehow I don’t think that’s right!
My plan is to keep biking and maybe walking on the treadmill a little for the next two weeks until I have my knee strengthened and loosened up a little, then have one session with a trainer to get a good cardio & light weights circuit set up that I can alternate with the bike and treadmill. I would also like to take the yoga and pilates classes, but I think I need limbering up before I do that, as well, so that’s another thing to start in a couple of weeks. I think this should be a big boost to losing weight as well as finally getting rid of at least some of my knee and back pain.
The only TV I watched last night was ( Hell’s Kitchen )
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| Sleeping, Food & Diet, Sims 2 |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|11:49 am] |
Good Stuff:
- I got some much-needed rest this weekend. I didn’t sleep as much as I should have, but I slept a lot more than I did the past three or four weekends and I do feel better.
- I have healthy food in my home, cooked healthy food this weekend which I brought to work today and I am back on my diet as of this morning.
- I tried playing Sims 2 again this weekend and had a better time with it than I did the last time I played:
( Cut for fairly long Sims 2 blah blah blah... )
The one little embarrassing bad thing: I seem to have injured my right hand and/or had an arthritis flair up from playing The Sims. It’s much better today, but yeah, embarrassing.
And that was my weekend – a little cooking and a lot of sleep and Sims 2. No movies, no TV, no getting up early, not even any laundry. It was lovely!
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| Stress, Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef, Step It Up and Dance |
[Apr. 10th, 2008|11:32 am] |
My left eye is twitching. It hasn’t done that in a long time. It usually happens when I’m really stressed, and I can’t figure out what I could be stressed about right now. Other than needing to get my taxes filed (which should take 5 minutes and result in me getting money), I don’t have much of anything to do over the next few days. This is making me worry that perhaps I am stressed by the lack of stress in my life? I think that is probably not a good thing.
I have managed to make it to Thursday without going to the grocery store. I should be okay for tonight and tomorrow morning and I’ll go to the store tomorrow night and buy the right things to get me back on my diet.
I did not watch any American Idol this week.
I did watch ( Hell’s Kitchen )
And ( Top Chef )
Oh, and I caught the first episode of ( Step It Up and Dance )
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