Make a Hot Date for Tonight!

Today is National Cheesecake Day! It may very well be a bunch of marketing hoo-haw from The Cheesecake Factory, but it gets me 1/2 off of any slice of cheesecake when you dine in. So I made a hot date with my husband.

I think I will try the new red velvet...the company is actually donating 25 cents from every slice sold (of this variety) to the charity Feeding America. I wanted to bring awareness to their cause and this was totally YUM-O.

Body Non-Fat

Okay, so maybe my last post gave some of my wonderful readers the wrong impression. It's not what the scale says to me, but how my clothes fit...and really how great I look with or without them. In addition this all goes back to my first meeting with the trainer when I said I want to just "be healthy."

I am proud to update you that my original pinch and measure tests at the gym started me off at 37% body fat. Yikes! After 3 months of the gym and the accuracy of an electronic pulse being sent through my body, the digital reading comes back 25.7% --now doesn't that sound much healthier?!?

Karate Chop to the Lung

3 hours after my session with the personal trainer my lung is still confused. Just one lung. Yes, the one that was deflated from my scoliosis surgery so long ago that is should no longer be an excuse, yes the left one. It is less of a "runner's high" and more of a runner's hi-YAH! ...like a strategically healthy move that has left my body confused.

That same hour containing; treadmill jog/run, squats, push up, sit-up, lunges with weights, agility, and proving my lack of coordination circuit training. [whew] I must have been scowling at him the whole time, cause he kept asking me if I hated him. Nope, nothing personal...just as you kicking my arse is something I am asking you to do. (Dumb ass me).

I really think my issue with today was that the NutriMirror program (after only 2 weeks) said that with the way I have been eating that I should be 142 lbs...and well, I'm NOT. Hm, have I ever divulged numbers here before? Well, here's the reality in HS I was all of 110, in college 120, before marriage 127, and with 25-30 lbs/5-years later I hit the brakes. I got to a gym at about 156, started eating right again and hit a wall at 152--hence monitoring my food. I am down to 149, but this dumb online thing is saying I should have dropped 10lbs! That's not healthy in such a short amount of time. So like with every piece of advice someone gives you (ahem me recommending NutriMirror comes to mind), take it as a guideline and not what has to be. I will continue to evaluate what I eat until before Thanksgiving and then I don't think I will continue to catalog my food, it will just be nutrients consumed on a daily basis again.

Boxes

When you move you stress and look for boxes. My co-worker let me know how freaked out she was about moving from an apartment to a house in 2 weeks and I could give her this advice from my college days when I moved every year for a better lease rate. I am not a seasoned mover as evidenced in the current pack rat nature of my home closets and I didn't have the heart to tell her this is the 2nd easiest move of her life. The first is leaving for college when you have nothing and the next chapter of hard knocks is when you leave a house/change states (and I have no clue the turmoil of doing it with children--applause to those of you who have!).

From our email:

I would recommend packing clothes like you are on a 2 week vacation (and if you put it in that frame of mind, it makes it kinda fun). Plan all your clothes out for that time, swim suit included and only keep the sundries out you need. For the hanging clothes, cut a slit in black plastic trash bags (like a dry cleaner’s jumbo bag) and put that over the hangars. Then when it is time to move the clothes you can tie off the bag ends, rubber band the tops and it makes for an easy move-in also.

Kitchen: box the kitchen plates, cups, etc and live off of paper/plastics (hooray for no dishes!). Then, with the cupboard’s dry food/cans, pack it in the last 2-3 days and don’t tape up the boxes till before you move them into the vehicles. While looking at the dry goods, check expiration dates an purge anything past its prime. Try to eat yourself out of house and home, no new grocery trips. If possible eat all of your frozen foods and get/borrow ice chests for the remaining cold goods—after all it is Phoenix and in August no doubt! Everything else besides the computers can be boxed up for the week and you can go without. Make sure to cover monitors with blankets, etc so the LDC screens don't get bump spots.

AND LABEL YOUR BOXES ACCORDING TO ROOMS…that way you can let the boxes move in almost any order and when people carry them in, then they can go to that general location in the new digs. I would also recommend labeling boxes; open first, with quick cheat lists of what is inside, this side up, etc. Now is also a great time to sort/purge/trash – have boxes set up for donate/give away, sort later -which can be a huge time sink while packing, keep boxed (winter clothes) and a trash bag for everything else that needs to be purged.

This weekend I have aspirations to purge/condense things in my home. Paperwork is festering on my desk and I need to re-evaluate the "keepers" in our house.

Music from our ERA

XM is playing 90's on 9 and while I am rocking out on the way to work. What song should come on?

All right!
Stop whatcha doin'
'cause I'm about to ruin
the image and the style that ya used to.

...My name is Humpty, pronounced with a Umpty.
I'm spunky. I like my oatmeal lumpy.

Now I also hope that tune is in your head and keeps your booty boppin' all day.
[raaar-ARah....raaaaaraaarah]

What is it with 28?!?

Yes, that's how old I am as of May. There has been a lot of change, but all good from what I can tell. Hubby has the job, I have one in this economy, the dog is near perfect for us, our home hasn't burnt to the ground (even though it is worth much less in this market's value), we are making new friends...and there has been a lot of luxuries afforded to us.

Yet, I just feel "off" and for the first time am really having it settle in my head that I am getting OLD. Maybe it is because I am suffering through the early stages of a migraine while the barometric pressure goes haywire outside in 110 degree+ weather. Or because my knee is catching, clicking and popping out of place to the point where it makes me falter in my step...and that I now try to counterbalance age with a slew of vitamins. Trips to the gym are mandatory to keep the rest of my body from going south or getting so plump that my jeans have "muffin top." Plus I cut my hair off and I have to ask what was up with that?!? I want change, but damn normally the hair is reserved for extreme circumstances with me. Again, older.

Then there is the random trip out where I get called "mam" at the grocery store [cringe], my ID is not checked near as often when I buy a cocktail, happy hours consist of the newly 21-year-olds and I can't stand to listen to their party/binge stories. They start bragging in an oh-so-chipper voice about how excited they were to puke in a plant this weekend. Uh-oh...it happens, involuntarily my eyes roll back into my head and I drift away from that conversation...blah, blah, black.

The next thing you know I will be asking people to turn the music down and yelling at kids to get off my lawn! Okay, you caught me...I already do those things too. Happy 28th to all who share my pain.

On a Red VW Bug

This morning on the way to work wasn't even aggravating with traffic. My car makes it awesome, comfort and has the added surprise of XM radio. ...Secretly, I still miss my MALI-BUUUUUU!!!!

And then a little red bug zips in front of me and a contrasting yellow bumper sticker reads: "Voldermont Votes Republican" with a little wizard/wand silhouette. HA!

Pinch Me.

Did this weekend really just happen?!?!

The sad: I sadly missed a dear friend's birthday bashes/4th of July celebration in Colorado.

The totally rad: We ended up having a fun, impromptu party at our house. Then, the Great White Sharkey (the Malibu) left the family and was conveniently adopted by the dealer because I got a new 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe of my very own!

I am giddy.

NutriMirror

Hello all, I wanted to get back to giving a quick tip to help in life. I have recently been turned onto a website called NutriMirror. It is a free calorie/nutrition tracker that doesn't give you a diet, it shows you what your current diet is doing to you.

For me this is very informational...or reflective on why I have stayed the same weight. I have set goals on the site and am throwing my full effort into keeping up with this electronic food journal. I have looked at other sites, even though they have a larger catalog of foods...I have just fallen in love with this format. I have been adding my favorite foods and really reading labels now.

I know, I hate to treat my food as a thing--but it is the fuel that drives me. And if you put bad gas in a car, well then weight for that to backfire.
[Did I warn you I am punny?!?]

Reflection

So I didn't make it to my 10-year high school reunion this weekend. Bitter-sweet. I am sure there are people there that I would have liked to seen/catch up with, etc. I really can't think of one particular person that I haven't kept in touch with and knew that they would be there in K-town again. It seems like I would be going there to re-live the past. Which wasn't bad by any stretch, just non-monumental in the present day me.

Perhaps I should promise myself that I will attend the 25-year (if there is one)...imagine all the changes in our lives by that point! Oi!

Now I have built new relationships and networks from college, work, the gym, plus enriched friendships with old friends and then add in Curtis' connections too. I like this here-and-now life and was spending it in the Phoenix area, living that to the fullest. Also, now that there are the social networks of facebook, myspace, blogs, etc...I feel adequately connected to the world around me.