CAUTION: Woman In Progress

Okay, so maybe not skinny, but since I've started working so hard in the stacks and on this current microfilm project we've got going, I've lost seven pounds. I feel like death and am exhausted but...yay me! lol I don't have much else to report. My weekend review goes a little something like,  "Saturday: Grocery shopping, ate a peach for breakfast, nap, half the dishes washed, nap, laundry, nap, laundry, nap, nap, nap, movie, nap, bedtime. Sunday: bacon and scones for breakfast, nap, nap, finished washing dishes, laundry, nap, television, laundry, nap, tidying up the dining room table, nap, nap, movie, nap, nap, television, bedtime. I was a SLUG all weekend but it did make my foot feel better to rest it so much. And I watched a really good scary movie, which, let's face it--they don't really make a whole lot of actually good actually scary movies anymore. But this one was. And it was on Syfy of all things. Anyway, this week is hopping already. Hot, ti...

Took two walks today for a total of 1.97 miles logged. Of course, 1.03 miles included a stop at the union for some sweet tea to wet my whistle. But who cares! I walked! And it was GLORIOUS. And...I may have been semi-stalked by a shirtless hottie and his adorable dog. Kept (figuratively, unfortunately) running into him. Too bad I wasn't brave enough to sneak a photo of THAT. lol Also, I may have sent a car load of peeps to Timbuktu. They had the misfortune of stopping me to ask for directions. Eep! I am terrible at directions but I tried. Then after they drove off, I realized I'd sent them one street short of where they needed to be. Aaaaaannnd I may have given them the wrong building name. What. I can't be bothered to learn building and street names! I am not a stinkin' tour guide. ;-) I couldn't talk myself out of walking today, though.  I had to get out there today because, ya'll. The temps have been in the lower to mid 70's all day with a light br...

I don't know what, exactly, is up with me today. I've been hungry all dag-gum day. I ate a normal breakfast (a sausage egg and cheese Hot Pocket--I know. It sounds awful. BUT...only 180 calories.) Then, because I knew I'd be in meetings all morning, I ate a 100 calorie Special K crisp bar thing around 8:20am and took some iced coffee to my first (looooooooong) meeting at 8:30. About halfway through that 3 hour meeting, my tummy started growling. Ya'll. It is soooooo embarrassing to be sitting in a room full of faculty and have them all bear witness to your super loud hungry stomach. *facepalm* So in the thirty minutes between that meeting and the next, I scarfed another Special K crisp thing. Unbelievably was hungry AGAIN by the time I got out of THAT meeting 45 minutes later. So. I trekked across the drill field to the union's Chick-fil-A and got a chicken sandwich and some waffle fries. While I did actually bring my lunch, I was afraid that if I just ate the tu...

Okay, so here's the part where I tell you that I am completely backslidden and putting the goals on hold. I honestly, well and truly thought that setting clear goals would help me stick to something but...well, LIFE. It happens. I am still not recovered from whatever I did to my knee back in the spring/early summer. In fact, it's worse now than it was. Ice and Advil help, but only temporarily and not for very long at that. Standing. Sitting. Laying down. It all hurts after more than a few minutes. I'm constantly in some sort of pain from it and FORGET doing any form of formal exercise. May as well shoot me. And the lattes...oh! the lattes! I was doing SO WELL for so long and then...I'd blame my friends but they're just the instigators. Not as if they put guns to my head and force me to partake. But do you know how difficult it is to walk to Starbucks and walk out with nothing ?? Painfully impossible, that's how difficult it is. Unfortunately, it's not ju...

First of all, I know I probably say this each month, but...Where the fluff did July go? Seriously. Just yesterday it was still May and school had just gotten out and now it's fluffin' August? Well, tomorrow is fluffin' August, anyway. School--both K-12 and college--is about to start back up. K-12 starts next week and college a couple of weeks later. So yeah. Where the fluff did summer go? Anyway, you'll be happy to know that July has been kinder to me than June. Goals-wise, anyway. June was fun but it kicked my goals' butts. July, however, while slightly stressful, was mildly easier on my goals. Here's the breakdown: Health and Wellness : While I did not, in fact, get back to walking or exercising regularly (and how big of a bitch is it to spell "exercising"? A huge one with a capital B!) it was a step forward from June's utter abandonment. For one, I began dancing at home. I can't claim that my dancing is anything that would get me on an...

Ya'll, I've been putting this off because, well, June kicked my goals' butts and sent them cryin' to their mama. June was fun, but June was the month it all fell apart. Health and Wellness: While waiting for my knee to get back to pre-injury aerobic walking condition, I had taken to strolling around campus in the afternoons. In June, that habit bit the dust. It was too dang hot and just am not into sweating.  Because of this--and my stellar lack of self control--I regained every. stinking. pound. that it had taken me four months to lose. Yep, folks. I'm officially back to my January starting weight. Well, maybe three pounds away from it. I can't remember exactly what my starting weight was back in January but this is pretty close. I really let my hair down in June. I quit counting calories. I ceased all forms of exercise--I didn't even DANCE in June. What the fluff? And I basically just gave up, I think. Even though I told myself I hadn't, in rea...

Well, we're now entering the halfway mark of the year and I wish I could say the future is so bright I need shades. Unfortunately...grrr...May marked the beginning of some serious setbacks, health wise. As you know, my pesky knee knocked me out of my daily aerobic walks with Denise and Leslie. Worse, just when I thought I may be able to ease my way back into it next week, BAM! I sorta re-injured it. *sigh* I was *gasp!* walking outside yesterday afternoon with E and as we were walking the narrow sidewalk against the library, my left foot snagged hard on a raised portion of the sidewalk and while I didn't fall, the whole left side of my body was jarred pretty hard. How I managed to not fall flat on my face is only by the Grace of God, I assure you. But the knee? Well, it took the jarring pretty hard. I'm not quite back to hobbling, but it's sore and achy again and, well, I just don't want to rush putting any extra pressure on it. Just further confirms what I...

The win: Ya'll, it's terrible the things I have to do to keep myself on track. All the many ways I must trick myself away from all the crazy habits I fall into. I'm ashamed annoyed to admit that I'd developed this insane habit of traipsing across the street to the vending machines for a Coke and a snack. Yes, I would leave the library , cross the street to another building just to get to snacks because the library doesn't have vending machines and the bagel shop is closed for the month. For some reason, by mid-afternoon I develop this insatiable need for something salty and a Coke. I don't know why just that it is what it is. And some days the cravings are so bad that if I don't indulge I end up in a heck of a fowl mood. Like, you-don't-even-want-to-know-me fowl. Seriously. So to save myself and everyone around me, I've been spending two to three dollars a few times a week in vending machine snacks and Cokes. This is bad for two reasons. ...

April started out well and truly strong. I felt good. I was doing good. I made progress on a couple of fronts. It was going smoothly and happily along. Until... Dun, dun, dun... Last week. Last week I completely derailed from all my goals. I spent more. I ate more. I walked less. I skipped church. Granted, I was sick most of the week and we've already covered that it was a weird week. But why is it that when you feel bad (sick) you give yourself so much permission to behave badly? Exhibit A:  I drank no less than four lattes last week . Four. I justified them because my throat was sore from all the coughing and sinus drainage junk. But honestly, I have tea bags at work. And hot tea would have been just as soothing. But because I was siiiiiicckkk (that's me whining) I needed the comfort of a sweet, hot, high calorie and expensive latte.  Justified? Nope. But it happened so I'm owning it. No sense denying it or pretending it never happened.  And if four l...

Note: I've been working on this post since Thursday morning and just could never find the time to finish it. So the elation has somewhat faded. But I'll try to insert some of the euphoria I felt Wednesday night. ha ha Okay, ya'll. So this whole goals thing has ended up inspiring little mini-goals. None of them were formally stated but they have all been kept well and safe in my head. Mental mile markers, if you will. I think mini-goals within the broader goals is an important component to attaining goals in terms of motivation. If I say "goals" one more time do I win a prize? No. A beat down doesn't count as a "prize." Anyway, on to the big victory lap around the blog. I know I've mentioned before that on one of my Leslie Sansone DVD's she has a one mile "gentle walk" and a two mile "brisk" walk. The gentle walk has kicked my butt from day one but I've done it consistently enough that I can almost breath during...

Ya'll, I have sucked SO HARD this week. Well, actually, my friends suck and they drag me along with them. But I think the suckage actually started with me Saturday morning. Either way...suckage a'hoy! After I was all, "I'm going to work my belly off to look good in my Easter 'frock'." Yeah. Right. So. Yeah. I had told myself, "Self we're not going to venture down the Easter candy aisle. NOT going to do it. NOT ALLOWED. Absolutely not." Then, well, ya'll know. Self, being as rebellious and defiant as Sis1 was in her teens was all, "Who the heck are YOU to tell ME what to do?" Actually it was more like, "Well, you know. We should probably find the kids something for Easter." So of course I caved like a pair of panties confronted with Tatum Channing. That's how CADBERRY CHOCOLATE CREAM EGGS happened. Cause you see, I'm normally a bit of a Cadberry egg girl anyway but I can resist the regular and the car...

Another month gone from 2012. Three months gone and so far for the most part, things are going well(ish). At the moment I'm still a little excited about my goals. I think this is the first time in my life that I had goals with actual plans of action. Not some lofty, "lose 30 pounds." "Save more money." Maybe that's why I've not abandoned them or gotten really discouraged yet. I have clear cut, manageable goals this time around. I do hafta keep tellin' myself that I don't have to be in a rush. I've got MONTHS to play with. MONTHS to build towards my goals. I need to pace myself. In regards to my fitness goal of walking the fast three mile belly busting walk, I am a little frustrated. I thought I'd be a little further along with this by now. I still haven't yet conquered the two mile "brisk" walk and if I can't conquer that , there's no hope for the three mile belly buster. But I hafta remind myself. It's only ...

...I don't talk about my weight loss/dietary and activity goals with some people. You lucky ducks and sometimes Sis2 are it, as far as my blabbing about that goes. The reason? Mama has said several times lately (about her co-workers, not me), "I'm so sick of hearing about everyone's diet." You see, everyone in her office is on some sort of diet. Three are doing Weight Watchers, one is doing a fad diet I can't recall, and the other is just always on some diet or another. So me? I just don't talk about it. If I eat an extra cookie (or a Coke and a Mr. Goodbar like yesterday *facepalm*) I just pull up my (thankfully) baggy britches and get on with it. Maybe confess it here on my blog where anyone who doesn't want to know about it doesn't have to read it. As far as Mama knows I'm just being me.  I've mentioned that I'm walking with DVD's and I figure she can guess why but I just don't talk about it. For one, I don't want to ...

It's spring break around here. All the "kiddies" have fled for parts unknown leaving campus a ghost town. Even though the "kiddies" are obviously my bread and butter I do so rejoice when they are gone. I know. I'm terrible. Thank goodness I can cross the street without nearly getting run over. Much. ;-) There is a certain relief when campus is quiet and all the students are off having fun. (Or studying, as the case may be for many.) Campus is so calm and peaceful. Everyone who's left behind sort of breathes deeper and more relaxed. Not so much rushing from one thing to the next. Not slacking, but just not rushing either. It's a nice respite. It's difficult to fathom, though, that once everyone is back next week, there are only five weeks left of the semester! It seems we just got back from Christmas and already it's nearly time for summer sessions. I don't see how they keep up with that pace. I don't recall how I ever kept up w...

Two weird and majorly self-esteem building things happened to me this weekend. 1.) I weighed in and discovered I've lost another THREE POUNDS since my last weigh in a week ago. I do realize that some of that could have been water weight. But with my pants fitting so much better now and the fact that it made me feel majorly awesome...I'LL TAKE IT!! :-D I weighed just before dressing and heading to town for groceries so my insane confidence boost must have seriously still been glowing because ya'll... 2.) I totally got hit on in Wal-Mart. No, seriously. I was cruising the frozen veggie aisle all smug about my three pound loss (for a total of 8.6 since Jan. 4--hootie hoo!) when I made eye contact with this guy. He wasn't bad looking but sort of maybe a little bit on the thugish side. I'm a friendly gal so I smiled at him a bit and went back to debating whether or not my three pounds would justify my purchasing a bag of frozen french fries. Then he's standin...

So I finally got up the courage to ask off work for my birthday and the following Monday. I had originally wanted to take a week's vacation that week but I put off asking too long. I hate asking off even though we have built in personal days for just that thing. But me asking off involves asking other people to cover for me while I'm away. And I hate, loathe and despise asking people for favors. Last year I wanted to take off on my birthday but I waited until the week of and then no one could cover for me and I got all pissy about it. I'm still a little pissy about that. lol So this year I'd intended on asking back in February to give plenty of notice and get my plans in there first. But I kept chickening out. But today I just got sick of myself and went for it. Something I have to keep reminding myself of is: If you never ask for it, you can't be disappointed when you don't get it. Pastor was saying the same thing about prayer this past Sunday. You know, ...

I can't hardly fathom that today is the first of March. I'm still humming Christmas songs, for Pete's sake. And it's March ?? And yet, it seems as though February lasted three years. Weird how time drags its butt as it's flying by. So, February was the first full month of working on my 2012 goals. I know I've probably waxed rhapsodic about it enough that ya'll are tired of hearing about it already. But I need to get the numbers together and do a full check-up on the actual goals set forth. Fret not, young people. You've only got ten more months of this junk to look forward to. :-D Financial goals: *I made my very first $300 payment toward my credit cards and already the balance looks good to me. I can almost visualize the years of misspent borrowed funds disappearing before my very eyes. It's a good feeling. One thing that helps keep that $300 payment in perspective is to mentally recite all the things I can do with that money once it's all...

Or obsessed. Whichever. That's what's happening to me right now. I'm consumed by this whole "get fit" goal. I wish I were that obsessed about the saving money part of my goals but alas, it appears I can only deal with one obsession at a time. I wanted to wait until the end of the month to share my progress updates and blah, blah, but just like my vow to not step on a scale until the first of March, I just can't wait.  Not that I have a lot to report. It's pretty slow going. But I'm excited! I just can't help it! I feel better and stronger every day. I feel as though when people look at me they should see the difference in me already even though physically, there's not much of a difference yet. I sit up straighter. I suck in my gut more. I make excuses to get up and move. And don't even get me started on my walks. I just about obsessively need to get my walks in. I had decided to start taking Wednesdays off so that I wouldn't get ...

So, I suppose I should probably save some of this for my end of the month goals wrap up, but since it doesn't have a whole lot to do with my actual goals (I need to go back and read those!) I think it's okay to update ya'll on what's going on with me in the dietary area of my life. Because ya'll so wanna know that. Well, for one thing, I told myself at the beginning of the month that I wouldn't step on the scale for the month of February. My goals are more of the fitness type, right? And I'm not actively trying to lose weight. The scale is just makin' me feel bad. Right. Well, that's the story but you all know better than to think that I'm not in the back of my mind thinking, "Screw heart health. I just wanna get skinny!" So, I cheated twice this month and hopped (not literally) on the scale. No. Stinkin'. Change. (Or so I thought. According to the last recording of my weight, I actually lost 2 lbs over the past three weeks. B...

Hey, hey. I have survived. That's as far as I get into a parody of that song. You're welcome. What did I survive? The party, of course. Just barely, but I did survive. I was actually off work Friday because I had to work Saturday. Joy. So Friday I did all my Saturday things. Grocery shopping, laundry, kitchen clean-up. I actually finally got around to vacuuming all the carpetted rooms. Grody doesn't even begin to describe how they were starting to look. Two words: Dog. Hair. I also (finally) washed all the filters in my vacuum and rinsed the canisters and all that. They were pretty disgusting and clogged enough that the vacuum didn't pick up as much of the grody dog hair as it normally does. Now that all the filters are dry I need to re-vacuum. Eh. Next week month. Also swept the entire house. Haven't done that in a while either. Well, I've swept the kitchen and living room every weekend and sometimes mid-week (leaves/grass/dog hair demands it!) but...