The Universe Conspires Against Me

I swear I have not been neglecting you on purpose.
Really.
I mean that.

In fact, I have been thinking about you a lot these past few days, oh ye people of bloggerdom internetness. (That's an authentic technical term by the way.  As a person getting her Master's in Technology, I should know.  It's Webalicious.)

But though I have had the best intentions of blogging, the universe in it's cosmic sense of sardonic humor, has had other plans.

So let's do a quick recap of the past few days, lest any of you cast the first stone and call me a whiner.

Saturday:
AM - Went to Weight Watchers.  Didn't lose weight.  Didn't gain weight.  I was okay with breaking even.  I intended on going to the gym after WW, so I was looking forward to working hard and hopefully seeing a good loss this week.

On my way to the gym I stopped by Hy-Vee to pick up some groceries in the organic food market that I can't find anywhere else.  Oh, a bottle of water, too, for the gym.  Got my sunglasses out of my purse, then my keys....my keys.....Where are my keys?  Crap!  Where are my &$#@(&)ing keys?!  Run to the car, and there dangling from the ignition are my keys.  Wait 30 minutes for Koichi to come with the extra set, and my gym time is out the door.

Go to Sweet Tomatoes salad bar restaurant with my little family.  The intention was to have a big salad, lots of broth-based soup, and maybe a muffin (or 2).  Instead, ate a big salad, a bowl of clam chowder, and 5 pieces of focaccia bread and muffins.  Good thing salad bars are so healthy.

PM - Planned on dropping Lily off with my parents around 1:00 so that I could do some work at home preparing for the craft & bake sale happening at church on Mother's Day weekend.  However, I get home around 5:00, and get a few less hours than I expected.  Only enough time to clean off my craft table and prep a few things for painting.  I'm sure I'll have time to paint this week though....


Sunday:
AM - Church. Errands.  (Crap, forgot to take the comforter to the cleaners...got to do that.)  Starving....so quick run through Sonic.  Niece-in-law's birthday party/ice cream social.  (Yes, in my family we have niece & nephew in laws, and cousin in laws, because our extended family members are that rockin' awesome.  You'd want them in your family too.  But you can't have them, because they're mine.  Dibs.)

PM- Oh crap, my assignment for class is due tonight at 11:45.  Better get started on that!


Man, am I craving Pizza Hut.  A personal pan pizza won't be that bad, will it?  But I need cheese sticks too, of course.


11:44 PM - Alright!  Assignment done just in the nick of time!!  Wait, there were 2 assignments due tonight?!  D'oh!!!




Monday:
AM - Work.  Worry about assignment #2 that was due the night before that I STILL HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED.

PM - Cancel chiropractor appointment for neck that still is sore.  Rush home for meeting with future landlord of house we're moving into this summer.  Too late to cook dinner.  Too late to care.  Mmmm...Panda Express can't be too high in points if I get veggies instead of rice, right?  What!?  24 points for one meal!!!???

11:44 PM - Click "submit" on class website.  Send apology letter to instructor.  Hope that she was kidding in the syllabus about the 10% grade reduction for late assignments.


Tuesday:
AM - Work.  Feeling a little less stressed today.  Hey, maybe I'll even get to blog tonight.  Oh wait, the 2nd graders have their presentation at an assembly this week.  Our presentation needs just one more little thing to give it some "oomph."  I know, how about creating ANOTHER video, sort of as an introduction.  I'm sure I can whip that out tonight in an hour or so.

PM - Chiropractor visit.  "Quick" errand to buy materials for my students for Mother's Day gifts.  Starving again....Hmmm....Wendy's isn't that bad for me if I buy a chicken sandwich, right?  But how can you go to Wendy's and not get a frosty?  Why even fight it?  Stop by sister-in-law's to see if can e-mail iMovie file from her iMac to my iMac.  Give up after an hour of trying.  Get home at 7:30.  Start making video.

10:00 PM - Stupid video.  Be more easy to make!!

11:44 PM - Done.  And it looks really good.  Boy, won't the kids be impressed tomorrow when they see it.  Now, I have some time to blog....but so soooooo sleepy....


Wednesday:
AM - Work.  But feeling even less stressed now that video is made (and the kids LOVED it by the way).

PM - Rush to chiropractor visit.  Rush to get Lily from babysitter.  Rush home to make dinner.  Sit in front of TV with last 5 episodes of The Office Season 2.  I deserve some down time after the past few days, after all.

Koichi wakes up and wants me to look at some job prospects.
Spend next hour sending resume and cover letters for him.
Get Lily to bed.
Get Lily some water.
Get Lily's Barbie.
Get Lily some new diapers.
Get whiny, crying, pouting Lily onto the naughty seat for 3 minutes.
Get Lily back to bed.

10:00 PM - Ahhhh!  Quickly check Facebook and then it's time to blog.  RING! RING! (Like phones even do that anymore.)  Talk to best friend for hour and 20 minutes.

11:30 PM - I promised that I would be in bed before midnight....but really want to blog....bed....blog....bed....blog....

THE BLOG WON!


So, now that you have run through the last few days with me, it's time for a POP QUIZ!

1.  How many times did Dorian go to the chiropractor since Saturday?

2.  How many times did Dorian eat out since Saturday?

3.  How many times did Dorian exercise since Saturday?

4.  How much motivation does Dorian have at the moment?

5.  How many excuses can Dorian come up with for not doing what she knows will work: eating healthy and exercising?





Answers:
1.  2
2.  5
3. 0
4. 0
5. About a gazillion.

Saturday Morning Trepidation

Here I am waiting for the last episodes of the third season of Heroes to download onto my iPod before I hop down the road to Weight Watchers.

Saturday mornings I always have the jitters.

Did I do enough?
Did I track honestly enough?
Did I exercise enough?

I'm not sure this week.
I tracked about 97% of my food.
But I only exercised a piddling 2 times this week because of the neck injury.
And I ate ice cream for dinner last night.

I should have labeled this post "Saturday Morning Confession."

Okay, it's almost done downloading.
Time to face the music and see how I did this week.

Randomness

Okay, I'm just going to be upfront about this blog entry tonight, because you need to be warned.

There is no topic.
No controlling thought.
No Hey, I got a great idea for a blog post!  I'll talk about poop, how I hate exercise, weird gym people, hating exercise, my new shoes, hating exercise, tracking points, hating exercise, weighing naked, and hating exercise.

Oh no, my friends, there is none of that tonight.  No thesis statement.  No main idea.  Possibly, I might even lack any semblance of logic this evening.

Just wanted to make sure you knew what you where in for in case this blog post ends up being crap.

Okay, I know what I'll do!
I'll interview myself!  That might be amusing.

Ahem....
Good evening ladies and gentlemen.  Thank you for joining us on One Hundred Pounds of Fat.  Tonight we're going to be interviewing the senior writer, who is actually the ONLY writer for this hit new blog, Dorian "my pants are falling down" Tsukioka.  Dorian, thank you for joining us, and welcome to the program.


Well thank you for having me here.  I'm quite honored actually.


Tell us, Dorian, why did you begin writing One Hundred Pounds of Fat, the blog (not to be confused with One Hundred Pounds of Fat the released directly to DVD movie).

I guess I just wanted to do something different this time.  Every year I make a New Year's commitment to really lose weight, and this year, I suppose I was a little more serious about it.  Also, somewhat less admirable, is that I watched that movie, "Julie and Julia" and I thought, 'I could do that!'  But the whole cooking your way through Julia Child's cookbook had been done.  So then I thought, 'I can write a blog!'  which actually makes more sense now that I think about it, than trying to complete an entire French cuisine cookbook in a year.  So I decided to try to lose 100 pounds in a year, and blog about it.

Ok then.  


Let's talk about losing weight, then.  How's it going so far?
Not bad.  I have better weeks than others.  I started off really well, but then lost a little steam for awhile, but I think I'm back on track now.

Why do you think you ran out of steam?
I tend to screw up really badly after I reach a goal.  I'm not sure where this comes from, but when I reach a goal it's like I say to myself, 'Whew!  I made it!  I'm done.' and then I stop doing what was working.  I guess that happened to me in March when I made it to a 20 pound loss before my birthday.

So, you talk out loud to yourself quite often then?
Ummmmm......

Let's move on.  
What has been the best part of losing weight so far.
Oh without a doubt it has to be all the exercise.

*crickets chirping*

BWAH HA HA!!!!!
Oh man.  I tried.  I really tried to say that with a straight face, but I just couldn't.  Oh man....oh....my sides hurt.

Ok.
Ok.  I'm alright now.

The best part of losing weight is probably seeing my clothing size get smaller and being able to go shopping in my closet.  Yesterday I found 3 new items of clothing that haven't seen the light of day for 3 years.  That was pretty exciting.


So, you're obviously not too concerned with the latest fashion trends then.
Well, I guess...wait, what are you saying?

Moving right along!
Do you have any advice for those trying to lose weight?  Any golden nuggets of wisdom you would like to share?
Were you saying that my clothes look dated?
Do I look bad?

No, no, of course not.  Really.
Some looks transcend styles...and good looks.
Really, darling, you look marvelous.  
Let's continue, shall we?
Ok....if you say so.

Ummm....advice?  I really don't feel qualified to give any advice.   I guess I'd say, lots of programs will probably work for weight loss.  The only magic key is sticking with whatever fits your lifestyle and giving that program a chance to work for you by honestly giving it your all for a few weeks.  If you're succeeding, then keep on keeping on.

That's all, I think.

Did you get that?

Hello?

Excuse me?

Hey, are you texting while I'm talking to you?
Hey, wait a minute!  Are you texting ABOUT ME?
This Dorian is a cheese head?  What!?

That's all the time we have for today!  Catch us on the next blog posting of One Hundred Pounds of Fat.  Good night, and good riddance!




Geeze....this interview stunk.
Where's my complimentary fruit basket?

New Toys!

Yesterday, before the whole pinched nerve, day of pain, Koichi, Lily and I went to one of our favorite places: Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Now, if you've never been to NFM, you are missing out on the Mecca of consumerism, capitalism, and retail.  It is probably the size of 3 football fields (at least) and filled with every imaginable item of furniture and electronics that you could possibly want to buy.  It's a shopper's paradise.

We spent the better part of 3 hours there, talking to a guy at their version of an Apple store about their computers.  And then, when we left, we drove away with a NEW iMac!

I have no idea how this is connected to weight loss.  I'm just very excited.  If I think hard enough, I'm sure I'll find a connection somewhere.

Lily sure is enjoying watching movies on it so far.

What a pain in the neck!

Quite literally.

I have this huge stabbing pain in my neck and along my back.  I went to a chiropractor this morning and after X-rays, therapy, and an adjustment....it still hurts.  But, I've been to the chiropractor before.  I know that sometimes it actually will hurt worse before it starts to feel better, so I'll hang on to hope that I'll be feeling better tomorrow just in time to take my class on a field trip.

So today I'm playing hooky from school.  Well, I guess not technically, because when you play hooky, you're not actually sick, and I'm in a butt-load of pain, so it's all very up-and-up.  The worst part of taking sick days as a teacher though, is writing sub plans.  I never know who I'm going to get because I'm too lazy to request a sub that I've had before, so I just play the substitute lottery and get whoever.  That means that I have to assume they know nothing of teaching, and my lesson plans are pages and pages long.  So that's what I was doing this morning at 5:30.  Writing sub plans in the dark, hunched over my keyboard into a position that was the least uncomfortable, looking not unlike Quasimodo on a bad day.

But now I'm home, and I get to do chores that didn't get done yesterday rest.  The upside is that I'm in too much pain to exercise at the gym.  The downside is that I don't get to play on my new Wii Fit.  Oh, curse you, you pain in the neck!!

So today, well at least so far, and it's not quite noon yet, I'm trying to be very conscious of how many points I'm eating and tracking everything religiously, since I don't know how long it will be until I can really exercise again.  Hopefully I'll be feeling better in a few days, and then I will be able to drag my sorry ass to the gym again excitedly participate in all things gym-y and elliptical.  Whee!

Avacados have HOW MUCH FAT??

Okay, so even though avacados are a fruit, they have a huge amount of fat in them, folks.  Just FYI, because you never know who needs this information.  We went to Chipotle today for lunch, and like usual, I got guacamole.  12g of fat, my friends, 12 grams!!  In one little serving!  I was floored.  Of course, I didn't know that until this evening when I was finally tracking everything that I'd scarfed down during the day.  Oh my beloved guacamole, how could you do this to me!?  Madre Dios, help me, por favor!!

Okay, enough with the overdramatization...

In other earth-shattering news, I have hit a huge change in Weight Watchers.  It's not an unexpected change.  I knew it was going to be coming, but I just didn't know it was going to be coming so soon.

My points totals have changed from 32 points per day to 30. 

GASP!!!

I know, I know, I about fell out of my chair when I saw that, too.  In fact, I took the Anakin-Skywalker-becomes-Darth-Vader-and-has-been-told-that-he's-just-killed-his-wife pose, with both fists raised defiantly to the heavens and shouting, "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" with a single pale beam of light shining down on me and my utter disbelief that this was truly happening.

Oh, sorry.  Evidently I'm not done with being a drama queen.  My apologies.

I know it may seem like a little thing to you, but 2 points is huge!  That about 120 less calories of chocolate candy ice cream nutriciously-sound foods that I get to eat in a day.  And I'm a little sad to say goodbye.

But, like I said, I knew this day was coming, and it's a good thing.  It means that I'm losing weight and to continue to lose more weight I need to start eating a little less everyday. 

So, senor guacamole, your 12 grams of fat were absolutly no help today!  No gracias for you!!  In fact, you helped me eat all of 45 points today.  (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the chips, burrito bowl, chow mein, walnut shrimp, or sweet & spicy chicken breast that I had as well.) 

Thankfully, I've exercised, and though I've already consumed all of my weekly points (isn't that what the weekend is for, though?!), I still have 4 activity points left over!

For chips and guac!

D'oh!!

I went. I weighed. I lost.

4.6 pounds this week, baby!  Oh yeah!!  Who's your daddy now?  You know it's me!!

Oh, I can not tell you how good it felt to see that on my weight tracker this morning at Weight Watchers.  4.6 pounds!  Woo Hoo!

But equally exciting is this:  I am now OFFICIALLY closer to 200 pounds than 300 pounds, my friends.  Yes, I am!

I am at 249 lbs.  I have finally tipped the scales....well, tipped them down I guess...into the next smaller tens' place.  Yea for the changing digit in the tens' place!

Let me reminisce for a minute and think about the last time I was 249 pounds....
It must have been sometime in the summer of 2006, right before I got pregnant with Lily.  Wow, 4 years!  I haven't been this size for 4 freaking years.  That's amazing.  Sad, yes.  But also amazing.

And today I also realized that I need some new clothes.  All of my pants are now "baggy assed" and look somewhat ridiculous on me.  I got a gift card to Kohl's for my birthday (thank you, Tash!), and I think it's about time that I go and use it.  Maybe I can get a couple of things that I can't slide off without unbuttoning.  And then maybe Lily will stop de-pantsing me on accident, because that can be embarrassing in the middle of Wal-Mart.....er...not that I would know.

And other good news...

I have a real-life-honest-to-goodness-save-a-seat-for-me Weight Watcher buddy!  For 2 1/2 years I've gone to these meetings, and though I might get a smile from someone I recognize, I've never really gotten to know anyone personally there.  You may not believe it, but I really am painfully shy and it takes a long time for me to come out of my shell.  I'm a timid turtle, I guess.  Ooh, that sounds like it should be a children's book:  Timmy, the Timid Turtle.  Don't steal that...dibs!

Last week I saw someone I actually KNEW at Weight Watchers.  She worked at my dentist's office, and was my favorite dental assistant (and I'm not just saying that because she may be reading this...she really was my fave, and I would get pretty upset if I got stuck with another girl during my visits.  No lie.).

Lo and behold, there Julie was last week with her hubby, and I was SO very excited to see a face that I recognized.  And then BONUS!  Today I get to Weight Watchers and she has saved a seat for me.  That could not have been an easy task because the meeting I go to is super-duper crowded.  People even sit on the floor sometimes because there aren't enough chairs. 

In my head I am imagining that she had to fight people off, and stood with the chair above her head saying, "I claim this chair in the name of France!  And my friend, Dorian.  So back off, sucka!" 

That probably didn't happen though.

Yeah....probably not.
But I felt that excited when I got there and saw a seat just for me!  It was a good feeling.

And then the meeting was awesome, too, so double score for me this morning.

Becky, the most rockingest (according to spell check I just made that word up...I guess that means I'll have to use it more often and lobby for it to get into Webster's....anyway, I digress)...Becky is the most rockingest Weight Watchers leader ever.  She's really funny, and she has the best facial expressions.  She amuses me, and apparently, everyone else since people are even sitting on the floor to be in her meetings.

Usually, she's very happy-go-lucky, laid-back, I-hear-what-your-problem-is-and-I-support-you-ish...
But every once in awhile, it's like she gets tired of all the moaning, groaning, complaining and excuse making that we Weight Watchers do, and she gets very honest with us.

Painfully honest.

She said something this morning that really struck me.

She was talking about tracking what we eat, and how that is the #1 most important thing for weight loss in any program, and that research proves that people who track what they eat honestly and consistently will lose weight.

And then she said, "If you know this is the #1 most important thing for you to be doing to lose weight, then WHY AREN'T YOU DOING IT?"  That was pretty forceful for Becky.  But then she went on to say, "If you aren't committed to doing this one thing that you know will work, then you are just wasting your time."

And you know what?  She's darn right.

So this week's goal is to track everything.  Even if I have to lie guesstimate...I will write it down.  Even if I'm not proud of it....I will write it down.  Even if all my points for that day and the next...I will write it down.

And next Saturday I'm going to have it printed out, and I'm going to hand it to my Weight Watcher buddy and say, "I did it."  I may even get a high-five.  :O)

Pressure Cooker

This has been one hell of a week, let me tell you.

No, really.  Sit back and I will tell you.

So there was the problem with my computer not doing what I needed it to do to make my music video for my class.  That was way stressful because the 1st draft was due Wednesday night so that other classmates could watch it, give their opinions, and the final version needs to be done by Sunday evening. 

But by Wednesday morning my computer was STILL not working for me.  I spent 2 nights in a row staying up until the wee hours of the night, and I was not a happy, nurturing person by Wednesday.

In fact, before I got to school that morning I'd already cried in the car.  Twice.  When I get tired I get emotional easily, and when I get frustrated, my emotions are very raw and just under the surface.  So, what happened next on Wednesday morning was like cranking the heat up to high under the pressure cooker that was my life at that moment in time.

I get to work and there's a video email from the superintendent.  Hmmm....I wonder what this is?  Dear Teachers, sorry, but some of you are not going to be re-hired for the upcoming school year.  What!?  WHAT!?

This was not what I wanted to hear 5 minutes before 24 second graders walked in my door.  Luckily that day my planning period started right after the pledge of allegiance, so I was able to sit down with my head between my knees and breathe. 

I'm not tenured!
I've only been here a couple of years!
Wait, what criteria are they using, anyway?  He didn't say!!
Is it going by seniority?  Cause then I'm possibly screwed.
Or by job performance?  Because then I may have snowed enough people to actually have a chance.  :O)
Oh.  Crap.I

I cried again.
And again.

It was just too much for me to deal with that day.

But I made it. 
With a lot of help from my 2nd grade teammate, who is awesome.

And at the end of the day the principal came around....

And said....

That I still had a job next year.
And so does every single one of the awesome teachers at our school.

WHEW!!! 

I cried again. 
In relief this time.

I can't help wondering about those people that were let go though.  I can't imagine what they're going through.  Let's pray for them, and teachers everywhere whose jobs are being cut because of the economy.

And other good news as well:
My sister-in-law, Jen, let me come over and use her iMac and I was able to make my music video that night and the next.  And now it's done, and fabulous, and I may switch jobs to become a video editor.  Okay, maybe not, but it sure was fun.

Tonight I plan on getting to bed before midnight, which will be only the second time this week.  Hopefully I won't have to endure this kind of week again for awhile.

However, something positive this week, is that I did not let stress and frustration become an excuse for overeating, or eating crap.  I crave chocolate when I get stressed, and I did this week, too, of course, but I took charge of my cravings by bringing Weight Watcher friendly chocolate cakies and Vitatops (muffin tops) with me.  And thankfully, they did the job.

I may not have tracked everything perfectly this week, but I am pretty sure that I stayed within my points.

And then to top it off and make today a glorious day, my Wii Fit Plus came in the mail and I got to set it up and try it out tonight.  It was a lot of fun.  I think I'm a born Hula Hooper!

So, for good reason, I wasn't able to blog over the past couple of days.  But, I've been doing good, and now that things are settling down a little bit I will hopefully be back to blogging daily.  I need my daily hit of bloggerdom to get me through the day.  :O)

Arrrrgh!

Today was a frustrating day.  I'm so angry at my computer right now, I almost can't talk about it.

Almost.

Here's the what:

I'm making a movie, well, a music video to be more precise, for my Digital Media class that I'm taking for my Master's in Technology in Schools.  I spent three hours yesterday editing, remixing, editing some more, until I was happy with the final product.  Then, I went to convert it to a movie format to save to my computer, or a DVD, and.....NOTHING!  It wouldn't convert. 

Today I spent the last 5 hours trying to fix this problem, and I'm still not sure what is going on.  I'm so freaking frustrated right now.  Grr!  Grr!  Arrghhh!!!

Okay, take a deep breath.

Take another.

Maybe one more.

Now count to ten.

Slowly......

You WILL figure this out.  You WILL fix this problem.  And you WILL have a kickin' music video when it's all done.  So chill out a little.  Take a look at the big picture.  There's no need to freak out.  You don't need a candy bar.  Or ice cream.  Hey!  Put that Hershey's bar down, I saw that!! 

Okay, I think I'm feeling a little bit better.

But I still feel like this....

Whee for Wii!!!

I'm so excited.  It's 1:00 in the morning and instead of finishing my Digital Media project for my class and then heading straight to bed, I decided to go ahead and order a Wii Fit Plus game and board from Amazon.com.  Yiii!  I'm so excited!! I've been wanting this for a long time, and I finally told Koichi the other day that I wanted it, and he said I've done so well with my weight loss and going to the gym this year that I could splurge and get it.

So it's on its way!
And it will be in my grubby little hands in 5-9 days!!
Woo-hoo!

Gym Heroes

So you all know that my favorite gym past time, other than making fun of no-neck gym guys and the check-out-my-teeny-tiny-body-in-too-tight-gym-shorts-and-a-sports-bra gym chicks, is watching Heroes episodes on my I-Pod.

Thank you, Lord, for creating the I-Pod.  Amen.

Never hurts to thank the Big Guy, folks.

Anywho, I admit I'm a big, nerdy Heroes fan.  But, I've recently discovered some real-life Heroes who attend the various 24-Hour Fitness locations that I frequent.

I'm not being facetious here, I really have found some people who deserve the title of Hero, because they are freaking awesome.  Now, I don't know any of their names, so I have to give them each a pseudonym here.

First, we have the Zumba Queen.
The first time I walked into a Zumba class I was really nervous.
If  you've never seen Zumba, imagine Latin dancing....on steroids...with a little speed mixed in there for good measure.  It's awesome.
But when I first attended, I was not really sure what I was getting in to.  That's when I saw the Zumba Queen.

She's probably about 5'2", and likely weighs close to 400 pounds.  I'm not sure of course, but that would be my guess.  Everyone else in the class was either very fit, or only somewhat pudgy.  Other than the Zumba Queen, I was the only other "big girl" in the class.  I stood next to her, and I'm glad I did.  I watched her the whole time to learn the moves, and let me tell you, she was rockin' it!  She was very inspiring.

Even though I'm not able to go to the Zumba class anymore because of time constraints, I see her every once in awhile at the gym.  Tonight I saw her on the treadmill and I couldn't help but think, "You go girl!"

The Blind Leading the Way
My next gym hero is a guy that I've only seen once at the gym, but he made such an impression on me, that I look for him every time I go.

He is blind.
And when I was there, he was alone.  Doing the weight machine circuit.
It was pretty neat to see him.  He obviously knew what he was doing and was very comfortable there, because he was booking it right along. 

He's a gym hero in my book.

Stair Stepping Superman
I wasn't sure what to think when I first saw this guy.  Just like the blind guy, I've only had the privilege of seeing this guy once at the gym. That day I was feeling kinda huffy because the type of elliptical machines that I usually use were all full, so I had to move down the gym to what I consider the second-rate elliptical machines.

So, I got on, turned on my I-Pod, and in my peripheral vision saw a man nearly fall off his stair step machine in the row in front of me.  He didn't actually fall off though.  It was like he caught himself just in time, and he continued to exercise, so I thought it was just a fluke.  I returned my eyes to my episode of Heroes when I saw him do again.  This time he had my rapt, undivided attention.

I paused my show while I watched this guy go through these sporadic moments of coordination loss where he would take a few steps, and then it was like he was melting as he fell down the machine, but not completely off.  He'd be squatting on the pedals, and then would exert an incredible amount of effort to step his way back up to a standing position.  He'd adjust his pants, and continue this cycle over and over again.

I don't know exactly what was going on with this guy.  I don't know if he has Multiple Sclerosis, or some other type of neurological disease, but it was exhausting watching him work out.  He obviously was working way harder than I was, and not because he was on a pain-inducing stair stepper, and I was on a wussy elliptical.  Sweat was just pouring off this guy, and I tried not to stare, but I was simply amazed at his dedication and the incredible amount of effort he was putting into his workout.


So, with Heroes like these wandering through the gym, what excuse could I possibly have for not giving my all and trying my hardest to be the best possible me that I can be?

Guesstimation

Today, nay, in fact, all this weekend, has been about guesstimation. 

"Will I be able to make it to church with the gas needle resting on E?  Hmm....perhaps."

"How many sippy cups of juice/milk/water can Lily drink before nap time and still not wet the bed?...I guess about 1/2."

"What is the approximate Weight Watcher's point value for this meal?  32?  24?  17?  Who knows."

It took me a long time to be okay with guessing how many WW points are in food.  I used to either run away from foods that I couldn't figure out the points for, or I'd completely ignore what I ate and stop tracking for the day.  Neither solution worked very well.  It was only a couple months ago when I realized that I was allowed, even encouraged, by Weight Watchers to give my best guess about foods that are difficult to count. 

For example, today...
Lunch at church is always tasty, yet difficult to count points.  I don't have measuring cups, so I have to eyeball everything.  Also, I sometimes have no ideas what the Greek and Serbian blue hairs are cooking.  Today was a tasty example of some sort of buttery, rice, spinach and lemon side dish that I have no idea how to count.  I had what I'm guessing was about a half cup portion, so I'm going to guess that was about 3-4 points.  Then there was BBQ'd pulled pork (courtesy of Yours Truly), fluffy gelatin salad, Lazarus bread twists, coffee cake, and glazed donuts.  I estimated about 18 points in all for this meal.  I know that's a lot, but it was brunch after all.

So, my guesstimation puts me at having 9 weekly points left, in addition to the 9 activity points that I earned yesterday at the gym. 

Boo-yah!  That's pretty good.  I guess.

Science Experiment

Hypothesis: I think I still can lose weight if I don't blog about it quite so often anymore, so let's give that a try. Oh wait, this is supposed to be an if/then statement, isn't it? Okay, let's make it official:

If I become so lazy that I stop blogging about my weight loss efforts as often, Then I will suffer no ill-effects and continue to lose weight as before.

Independent Variable: the number of times I blog will be decreased

Dependent Variable: the amount of weight I lose (will probably remain constant)

Constant Variables: continue to exercise 4-6 times per week, continue to track what I eat daily, continue to increase intake of H2O, continue to run far, far away from all things chocolaty and/or baked

Data Collection:  
Day 1 - Didn't blog, but continued to make good choices and track eating.
Day 2 - No blogging, but tracked eating for breakfast and lunch.  Decided not to exercise.  Am certain that I will be back to normal tomorrow, and should not be concerned about weight loss.
Day 3 - Highly scientific experiment continues.  No blogging.  Tracked breakfast.  Ate out for lunch and dinner.  Didn't feel like tracking those terrible choices that I made.  Too tired to exercise.
Day 4 - Day 14  No blogging.  No tracking.  No exercise.  Am somewhat worried about the Saturday weigh-ins.

Results:
After conducting this highly scientific experiment, I can say without a doubt that blogging my weight loss efforts on a daily basis simply isn't necessary.  IT'S FREAKING CRUCIAL AND I'M AN IDIOT FOR TRYING TO GO WITHOUT IT!!  Ahem.  After two weeks, I have yet to actually track a full-day's worth of food.  I have only just begun to start exercising again, and it's incredibly hard and painful, and lastly, I've gained back 3 pounds.

Conclusion:
Sharing my weight loss with the world has made a great big difference for me, and I NEED to do it everyday.  So here I am.  I'm back.  I'm going to figure out a way to blog even when I'm tired and cranky, because I need it.  It is the air to my balloon, the sunshine to my Vitamin D, the fertilizer to my roots.  Or something like that. 

Thank you to my friends who let me know they missed me and were wondering where I had gone.  You are the wind beneath my hairy armpits that I haven't shaved in 3 months wings.