My Next Adventure?

Perhaps November will be my next adventure. I am thinking of doing the mud run with best bud (of course). It is so military and it is 10K. If it were 1 mile I would not think twice, but 10K? Really? Have I lost my marbles? If you click on the link (the words "mud run") it will take you to a video from the spring run. Check it out and tell me what you would do. I am sure I can walk instead of run but it is the obstacles that make me nervous. Could I haul my fat ass over a wall? Not to mention doing it while covered in mud. I do not see any fatties in the video attempting this.

Just so you know, this was my crazy-ass idea. Best bud said she would try anything with me once (at least we could get some funny pictures, right?). Did I ever tell you she is the best? Hence the name best bud.

So for real, check it out and tell me what you think.

Dare to compare

Here are more 5K pics. The top pic was from the 2008 walk, the bottom pic is from yesterday. Today was a nice day. I went to a farmers market and bought awesome veggies and fruit. It is inspiring. Perhaps I will cook something new someday but today I made a fabulous taco salad with TONS of veggies. I just love salads. I also tried something new. A nectarine. Pretty good. Tastes alot like a peach but without the fuzz. I shall buy them again.

Day for the Record Books

I awoke early this morning (I did sleep in a little.....got up at 5). I plan out my time in the morning and do not leave time to mess around. Well....this morning was a little messy. As I crept through the house I heard my husband's voice rise up from a chair in the living room "I made a mess in the sink." I turned on the light and HOLY COW was there a mess. Let's just say he has the flu and I was trying my best not to gag as I cleaned, scrubbed and sanitized. We decided it would be best if he did not attend the 5K today (which is still fine because his registration was paid in advance).

I however, did participate and it was a lovely day (as you can see in the pics). I did feel super bad for one of the twins as she was sick but she still did awesome!! Both of the girls did fantastic. The first pic is me and best bud (I am number 816). We wore our numbers on the front because best bud organized an entire team and had t-shirts made for all of us sponsored by her restaurant - Lazy Bones (BEST chicken wrap ever). She is amazing! She spends all her time doing for others (including me - she spends Friday nights working on MY teaching crap).

I gotta say looking at this pic - those are some ugly ass sun glasses (pictures are so telling) - time to shop for new ones. The second pic is me and best bud's brother pulling the twins' stroller. We pulled (and by we, I mean mostly him and best bud) instead of pushed to keep that sunshine out of their faces. We were not going for speed as I believe we finished behind almost every elderly person in the race.

I awoke to something else today. A new number on the scale. Say hello to my little friend 188.6. Awww, yeah! That makes my total loss 101.2 pounds!!! I am soooooo happy I must use many exclamation points!!!! I am in the 180's people!!!! Did you read that?!?!?!? 180s!!!!!!! Sorry, I will stop now.

After the race, we got to go to Lazy Bones (best bud and hubby's restaurant) and eat a delicious breakfast. Everything you can imagine - biscuits and gravy, pancakes (blueberry and plain), eggs, breakfast burritos, bacon, potatoes, fruit, etc. I stuck to things with no nutritional value that could swim in syrup. I totally gorged myself (as it was cheat meal for the week) and it was so worth the sugary, empty calories. Needless to say I will not weigh in tomorrow.

If you are still reading this, wow - you have a great attention span. This afternoon I went to a clothing swap. I kept my really nice, larger sized clothes from the last time I cleaned out the closet. I was going to take them to a resale shop but the truth is, I am lazy. So when best bud sent me an email about a clothing swap, I thought "what the hell?" It was kinda fun. I had never heard of one or done one before. I did come out with 5 decent items. People snatched up my stuff pretty quick. I may post more about this adventure later (it was interesting).

My records for the record books - most puke I have cleaned up (coming from someone other than me), more weight lost than I ever thought possible, first clothing swap and probably most calories consumed in syrup in a single day.

Can you top that?

Words of Wisdom?

It is NOT a brilliant idea to bandage a healing toe wound with a waterproof band aid and then put it in a sock and running shoe.

Furthermore, it is a plain bad idea to run on said toe twice in one day (even if it is not for very long periods of time) while bandaged.

Said toe will leave you feeling disgusted when finally revealed in it's naked glory at the end of the day.

Remedy? Clean, allow air, Advil (that makes everything better, right?) and avert your eyes.

Weigh-In to 100 pounds, take two

Was this the week? Um, no. But close. I weigh-in at 190.4. That puts my total loss at 99.4 pounds. I will weigh again tomorrow and see. Sooooo close. I want to hit that number by Thursday. I am not disappointed in my loss, especially since I missed a workout due to the toe issue and had to eat cake.

Yup, another birthday on my team. There is another one Oct. 9th too. Okay, so I guess "had to" is a strong statement but I kinda did. It was good. It was small. But oh so full of tasty fat and sugar. Is it weird I am eating more cake now than ever before? Damn all these people celebrating the day of their birth.

I think that makes my weight loss this week....1.6 pounds. I'll take it. Also, did you see how close I am to the 180s? That would be totally sweet to hit those numbers before I surprise my mother.

I will actually weigh myself everyday this week til I see those numbers. Then I will stop so it doesn't get ruined for me. I shall turn into Hadley for the week. Hopefully I will see what I want at some point.

Tomorrow is the big 5K for Ovarian Cancer. I will try to get some pics to post over the weekend. Enjoy your day!

My Poor Doctor...

I make an appointment for one thing but I go with a long list of crap for her to look at or fix.

I have been trying to get an ingrown (that spelling looks totally bizarre) toe nail removed for two weeks. I have tried the after hours clinic but they consider it a minor surgery/procedure so it has to be done during regular hours. Being a teacher, I had to wait for a day when I could get the last appointment of the day. That day was today. Turns out she was already super busy seeing a bunch of people with the swine flu. Yup, it is here people.

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS TMI....YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ:

I had this toenail problem in June (that was the first toenail problem I ever had) and when I had it removed she was quite surprised by how large it was. This time the doc and her new assistant were there and I chose to lay down rather than watch. Even though I was numbed 3 times, I could still feel her cut a little and the pulling. Lots of pulling. And then I heard them both say, "that is huge!" So I had to sit up and inspect it. It was twice the size this time. She gave me the option of seeing if it happened again (uh, no thanks) or killing part of the nail bed. I went right for the kill. Get rid of this problem because it is getting in the way of my workouts (no kick boxing tonight, too numb still and my toe is so wrapped up it looks like a light bulb) and it is painful.

So while she is "fixing" my toe I pulled out my sticky note of problems I needed to address.
Such as: my awesome new disease - ringworm, my new 21 day cycle with extreme pain for which I requested pain meds, this new weird spot on my left arm, this big callus on my right big toe, checking my thyroid (which is slowly dying) because it has been a year and I am supposed to check it every 6 months (oops), etc.

She addressed all my issues, fixed my toe, gave me a prescription, asked about my weight loss and goals and discussed a time table for when I want to have a baby. I was out in an hour and that included the time I had to wait for her to finish up other patients. Not bad.

I feel slightly bad doing that to her as her last patient of the day and I know she is running late for getting home to her family (she has 2 YOUNG kids) but I really want to get my $20 co-pay's worth out of my visit. Does anyone else do this? Just curious.

Hope you are having a healthy day.....I am off to watch Biggest Loser.

Look Out Shakira!

Today was interesting. It was an "open house" at the gym. That means they screwed up my schedule which pisses me off (I am like a 5 year old like that). Normally I workout for an hour on my own (weights and cardio machines) and then do an hour of turbo kickboxing (Saturdays are my only double workout days, they are also cheat meal days, so it all evens out). However, for open houses they do 30 minute classes back-to-back of a whole lot of stuff (read crap I don't like). I was definitely going to do my 30 minutes of turbo, so I decided I would take another 30 minute class that backed up to it. What did I take? Belly dancing. Oh yes, they are going to add it to the class schedule next month. It was actually kind of fun.

I did learn something. Big weight loss does not equal sexy. I have seen larger people who are sexy, I was not one of them. I try to make my hips move like they do but I look like a tard. I must say I am proud of myself because there were probably 25 to 30 people in there and I just gave it my all (I wanted some calories burned). If I had video, I would share, it was that entertaining. One older lady fell and the whole class stopped - except for me. I kept trying to swivel my hips. I think I looked like I was having a muscle spasm. I did step outside of my box, even if it was for only 30 minutes. By the way, that lady was fine, I just didn't want to embarrass her by drawing more attention to her.

Turbo today - we burned over 400 calories in 34 minutes. Man that class is awesome. Zumba is good and dance like but it seems to be more toning. You move your hips there but it is more abs. Belly dancing is in another class. An exotic one. I am not exotic. I am sarcastic.

Oh and the people sitting in there trying to sell us crap. For real dude, I do not want your powdered meal substitute that probably tastes like my dog's ass but enjoy watching me sweat. And there were trays of subs from a sub shop in the same plaza that smelled so good but I know they were not low calorie. That is like selling girl scout cookies outside of a weight watchers meeting except these were free. I did not partake, I just enjoyed the free smells.

So open house days are crowded (someone ran into me in each class, we were that close together), filled with people selling crap and they try to sabotage your calorie count. It was still fun but I am glad it only happens once a quarter.

Oh yeah, I am diseased. I have my first ever case of ringworm. Please don't think I am dirty (like someone from peopleofwalmart.com), I am far from it. I am pretty sure I got it at school somehow. It does not itch or bother me, however it is located on the inside of my elbow which is not a great place to put a bandage, especially when it rips out your arm hair. The medicine says to apply for 4 weeks. I am supposed to keep it covered. I no longer own any long sleeved shirts (except my nice new sweaters and I do not want to chance getting any fungus on them). Tomorrow I will be shopping again.

Hope your weekend is well. Maybe you should shake it Shakira style.

Did I Hit 100?

Of course not. I was within 2 pounds of that milestone. And today? A gain.....+.2 pounds. Not a lot, I know, but how disappointing. That number does not change how I feel when I put on my new, smaller clothes but it is still a little sucky. Overall, I am not too bothered because this was the week of lady troubles and it notoriously slows down my journey at least one week per month, if not two.

I would like to hit 100 before October 1st (just about two weeks). Why? Because I am going home to visit. I have not been home since Christmas (that was 40 pounds lost) which is when I started this blog. I am from Michigan and have lived in Texas for the past 9 years. I see my family/mother twice a year at most. I am going to surprise my mother. My friends and some other relatives are aware I am coming. My mom is having some kind of hand surgery today and will be off work for 3 to 6 weeks. She will be bored. She has been dying to see me and does not think she will see me until after Christmas.

I am so excited!!!! I cannot wait. I hope she craps her pants. Well, not literally. Now I am trying to decide how to surprise her. I want to do it in public somewhere but not sure how yet. We will see. My grandfather almost ruined the surprise already so I hope it just stays a surprise.

So a slight gain. I brush it off. I used to go over everything from my week in my head to see what I need to do differently. The truth is, I work my ass off. I stick to my calories pretty well (except for cheat meal). Even if I ate a few extra baked chips or sprinkled a little too much cheese, I more than make up for it in exercise. I workout everyday. In fact yesterday I did an hour of turbo, a 15 minutes hardcore abs class (which I never tried before because I thought I could not do it.....I was rockin' it - impressed myself a little because man, do I have belly rolls) and did the Cha-Cha slide 3 consecutive times with my class. That is a 6 minute song, so by my count that is an extra 18 minutes of cardio (every little bit helps). At least this year when I did the song and I went all the way to the floor, I could pop right back up. Weight loss helps us in more ways than we realize.

I do hope you all had a better loss this week than I did. Looking forward to the weekend!

Quick Question

Work is busy as hell. Damn, I hate the beginning of the year. It is trying to interfere with my working out but I am trying to keep that to a minimum.

Here is my quick question....was everyone inspired by the new season of Biggest Loser last night? I ask because last night, there were a ton of ladies signing up for new gym memberships (one of my gyms just opened in a new location and it has been upgraded) and today's Zumba class at the other location was packed. The Wednesday 4:30 Zumba is not usually too popular. I like my classes smaller, although I must say good to those who are exercising.

Did you all see it? I just love weight loss stories, everyone's - including yours. I liked the show but what is with that gay youth pastor? Okay, I know he is married with children but I think he just doesn't know he's gay yet.....or perhaps he does.....

21 Days? Seriously?

Last night I started to get a familiar feeling. Effing lady trouble feelings. Sure enough, I was right and loaded myself up with drugs so I could get a few hours sleep before waking up for a double workout. While working out this morning, I thought....I was just bitching on my blog about lady troubles, when was that? That was August 21st.

How can this be? Do you realize that is 21 days? What evil, horrible force is at work to make me endure these awful pains every 21 days?

My mother is a nurse for OB-GYNs. I asked her if you can have a cycle shorter than 28 days. Oh, sure you can. Anything between 21 and 31 days is considered normal. I consider 21 days heinous!!

When I was super fat, I only had this issue every 3 months or so. I know fat and hormones plays a part in that. For a few months it was about every 35 days. Then down to about 28. But now, every 21?? Lord have mercy on me. Has anyone else had this issue (sorry about this post gentlemen)?

Well I must now research how to pay my ticket online before they issue a warrant for my arrest on Monday. Oh, and the asshats that work for the city of Arlington also gave us a city code violation for dangerous weeds. I was irate. Now to be clear, I never do yard work - ever. I probably never will. Not because I am lazy as much as my husband takes care of everything. He finds things to take care of that I would never notice. He is an engineer and completely anal retentive when it comes to our yard. The code violation we received was about weeds behind the back fence (which my husband mowed like 2 days ago - he always mows it for us and a neighbor). We are the only ones that have ours mowed. The lazy asshat wrote violations for everyone on our street and stuck them to our doors without even looking behind the fence. I wanted to take that violation and go down to the offices, wipe my ass with it and hand it back to the jerk-off who wrote it with pictures of my lawn. My husband disagreed. He sent a nice email instead. I think my response had a little more pizazz, but whatever.

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. If it ever stops raining, I might get to enjoy it more.

I remember this day

8 years ago. I will never forget where I was and who I was with. I was in utter shock for over a week at the atrocity a human spirit could bring. Then I was pissed. I remember power walking my apartment complex every night for a few weeks. I also remember weighing about 20 pounds more than I do now. I was on a roll (losing a few pounds) and then, my pissiness faded, life took over and pounds came on with a vengeance.

Not this September 11th. Never again. This week finds me down 2.6 pounds. Yeah for me since I had to miss one workout due to a parent night school meeting (I was slightly pissed), had to do EA Sports Active on Monday since both gyms were closed and ate a small piece of cake (another damn birthday - I work on a team of 8 people and 2 birthdays in 3 weeks). According to original scale, I am down 98 pounds (I know, stop doing that!!). I am creeping up on that century mark. I am also creeping down closer to a "normal" weight range.

That is my update for now. Hopefully you all are well. I will be thinking today of how fortunate we are to be where here, living well (even if it is not exactly where we want to be).

On a serious note....

So just to be clear, in the first two pictures, I am the fat one. The first pic I have no recollection of, therefor I cannot give you a date. I assume about 2 years ago. I love the second pic only because I look like I am about to eat one of the babies. The third pic I took today at work.

I feel I maybe boring you all with my photo stroll down memory lane. I think I will stop posting pictures for now (although there are more....and more).

Silliness aside, here is the serious part of my post. I know you all are into exercise. One of the best exercises you can do is walking. Lots of you do admirable walks for charity. My mom braved the 60 mile walk for breast cancer research a few years ago. My sister-in-law works for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training and my mother-in-law completed a 10K on Mother's Day for the cause. What do I do?

Well, funny you should ask. Each year I participate in a charity walk that used to be called Walk for the Whisper. Someone soooooo dear to me lost a loved one WAY too young to ovarian cancer because it went misdiagnosed for so long. This person brought to my attention how much research still needs to be done about this disease. Please don't think that we are saying people should not support the breast cancer research walks. But this was called walk for the whisper because it is a silent killer. More needs to be known about it so more can be done to help prevent it (just like has happened with breast cancer research). The NOCC does the walk every year here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Click here to visit the website. I encourage you to please look in your area to see if there is a walk you can do to support this cause. Every little bit helps (just like with our weight loss). Thanks for letting me be serious for a moment (and you know this is serious to me when I am willing to miss a turbo kickboxing class in order to participate).

I hope you all find yourselves in good health and have a happy day!

We call this one baby hippo

Flattering, I know. Can you see why we call this baby hippo? These are from last summer. I do not have any fair comparison pics so I am only posting old pics today. Oh, there are more. So many more. I will post old and new tomorrow. The hideousness just keeps on coming.

The Mother Load

Ask and ye shall receive. Best bud sent me LOTS of hideous pics (and some more recent ones). So here is the next photo installment. The first picture is October 2006. It was best bud's bachelorette party in NYC and we were taking a carriage ride. The second picture is from Saturday night at the park with the two cutest, sweetest girls ever! Stay tuned for more pics this week. Oh yes, they get worse, much worse.

Bitch Fest

I love photos on your blogs so I thought I would share some more with you. The first picture is me in December 2007 but it looks more like the Stay Puffed Marshmallowman. The second picture is form the end of July 2009. I know it is not a true comparison shot but it does have one of the cutest girls (and one of my FAVORITE people on the planet) in it. I do not have children. She belongs to best bud and is one of my god daughters. Hopefully I will be lucky enough to have a kid this sweet and cute (my other god daughter is quite a prize too). Love them!!!

Today I realized something. I weigh 55 pounds less than the day I got married. So, I tried on the dress again. What a tent! Can I get a do over? My wedding was a blast but I would make a much prettier bride now. I also realized that I am the same weight as when I moved here 9 years ago. The difference is the last time I was 194, I was a size 16. This time I am a size 12. Man, what a difference exercise makes.

I am having fun posting hideous pics of myself. I will search my files and see if I can find more to post for entertainment purposes (mine and yours). Best bud probably has a ton. I know for sure there are some bathing suit photos that would make you (and me) cringe.

Okay on to my bitch fest! I am (for the most part) a law abiding, upstanding citizen. Back on August 14th, after a long day of teaching 1st graders, I left work and headed to the gym. I got a little excited at the end of the street and gunned it from a stop sign. It may (or may not have) been slightly less than a complete stop. Of course, a cop follows me, pulls me over and tickets me. I say nothing to try and get out of it because (a) I am pissed that I will now be late for my workout and may say something sarcastic to get me in more trouble and (b) how much can this ticket actually be? $60? I also think I may have been pulled over due to my race. Enough said.

You have 30 days to pay the ticket or fight it. So I began to think the other day, man I should find out how much that is and see what I need to do to fight it. How much? $235!!! Stupid asshats!! Do they have any idea how many books I could have bought for my poor kids in my classroom with that money all because I was a little excited to get to the gym? To fight it, I would have to take off work (which would cost money), make sub plans (HUGE pain in the ass) and if you lose, you have to pay for the ticket and court costs.

Seriously? Can't the popo find real crimes to solve? So now I am just pissed and waiting til the last minute to pay it.

Alright. I feel better. If you are a police officer, sorry some asshats are giving your profession a bad name. Ta-ta for now.

Who wants a quickie?

Oh my. Yesterday I got my new work badge. We took the picture two weeks ago. At first, I thought I got the wrong badge. I hardly recognize myself. I saved last year's just to compare. Oh my! I like this year's much better. My husband even said it was a good picture. I do not take pictures well - it usually looks like a mug shot. Maybe this year I will actually wear it instead of just using it for teacher discounts.

Down to the real business of it all. Today was weigh-in day. Down 2 pounds (and this on the new scale). So happy with that. I feel good, real good. I can do so much in my workout classes and the clothes! My god, the clothes!! I love it. I love the clothes so much I want to wear them all at once. I never thought I would say that.

A little new scale love - it has the BMI on it. My BMI this morning matches the BMI on my ticker at the top, so I feel legit with that number now. Also, my body fat went down and muscle mass went up. Not bad.

Hope you all have a great long weekend!! I plan to blog again, I have a little bitching to do (don't worry, it is NOT about you). Big hugs my friends.

This Post is About You...

I have been reading your blogs. SIGH. I have one thing to say to you all. GET A GRIP!

I have never read so much negative self-talk. Not even after the holidays when many of us went up in weight. It is like a depression has settled in among us.

I do not know what has happened to you in your life to make you think it is okay for anyone (including yourself) to talk to you that way. Would you let someone talk to your friends or children that way?

I know losing weight is hard and at times it really sucks. Been there, live it. But I embrace it now. I feel like I have to. Getting up at 4am and running with the dogs (especially when one of the dogs does not even want to get up) is not my favorite thing when I first start out, but once I get going it is fun to see how fast and far I can go before someone (my dogs are kinda fat) needs to walk. But you know what I do love? The way my thigh muscles (or quads) are looking. Reminds me a little of an actual runner's leg. Totally neato.

It also sucks to be strict with your caloric intake and give 110% while working out 7 days a week and not see the scale move (or maybe in the wrong direction). Know what doesn't suck? The way my ass looks in my new jeans because I spent all that time in kickboxing.

It sucks to use your own body weight against yourself. For instance, say that you do push ups (the hard way) everyday because they are one of the best full body exercises you can do. They burn, they are tough, they make you feel like you weigh a TON. Know what doesn't suck? My new guns. They are getting quite shapely. And showing my fat arms was a huge phobia for me in the past. So look at that bonus - conquering phobias.

Sometimes we just have to push through. Don't get depressed. Stop being mean to yourself. You can bitch all you want on your blog. I quite enjoy reading your profound thoughts - I don't care if whining is included. We can all relate. But the self-hate has to stop. That does you no good. That just makes your journey more difficult.

You need to take your negative thought and look at it from the other side of the coin. Not easy, I know. My husband and best bud have had to endure my negative crap for a long time. They never complain or tell me to shut it (and I have said it to myself a time or two). I am just starting to see things from the other side. It makes the journey a lot more enjoyable. Just try it. If you cannot think of anything good about you, email me or leave a comment and I will find something. Don't be your own worst enemy. If you are not nice to you, why should anybody else?

God, sometimes I am such a teacher. Just picture me in my denim jumper and necklace with wooden beads. Sorry about this post, but for real. Get a grip.