Goals

Goals are important to have. One thing I have really been struggling with is my mysterious and then not so mysterious weight gain since september. I really need to get on the exercise wagon. So...I have set a goal that works out to 45 minutes every other day over the next ten weeks. I hope to beat that but I won't settle for anything less than meeting it.

And the Results are....

Yes, I did get up off of the couch when I said I would yesterday. I had decided that I would at least go to the gym but I didn't get there until 2.5 hours or so later. Before the gym, both of our dressers got cleaned out of clothes that don't fit or that really needed to be tossed. I cleaned out the closet also and went through the pile of dry cleaning. I unpacked a box (yes, we have lived here for four years and still have boxes that need to be unpacked) and found a home for the bag of lightbulbs that was just sitting around waiting to be put away. Laundry got finished. On the way to the gym we dropped off the drycleaning. Now, I remember why I used to drop it off an outfit at a time--OUCH!.

Workout was pretty good but I got on the elliptical and went too fast, too soon. But, I lasted 10 minutes, which is the most I have been able to do. I did two intervals of 30 seconds each in reverse mode so that is an improvement-though my sore knee doesn't really like it. It only ended up as a 30 minute workout but better than nothing. Besides now there are only 36 more visits between the two of us before the membership is paid for!!

We came home and puttered around the house and started some more laundry. It amazes me that 2 people can create so much laundry. I don't have the biggest machines out there but I do have a larger than typical capacity machine and I still can do 7 loads a week with laundry left in the hampers at the end. Anyways...

DH was hounding me to get ready to go out...not to eat mind you, but to go shopping. He has been jonesing for a new tv and let me tell you...tv viewing is an expensive habit these days. Especially if you want HD. So we took the plunge and spent more on a tv than we did on a stove and I have to say that we have a very nice stove! Now we have to find furniture to fit the new tv. It's okay...we had planned to get rid or move at least our too large for the room tv cabinets.

So I am off to go furniture shopping which I loathe but we are going to the Sauder store first to see if they have the pieces that we want. It is right in the major shopping corridor so if they don't have something than off to one of the million other retailers within the mile radius.

Have a happy sunday!

Wasting the day away

Boy, I don't ever learn do I. We are once again, wasting away a Saturday. I did clean up some stuff, cleaned out some cleaning supplies and posted them on freecycle, started a list of books read in 2007, and I made a spreadsheet to track exercise minutes for a friendly wager I have with a family member. I finally ate but it was cereal and not the best choice I'm guessing but I ate. Blah! So, as soon as Six Feet Under is over (I have seen all the episodes all ready), I vow to get up off the couch and accomplish something else for the day. What that will be--- your guess is as good as mine!

Have a good day!

PS: Google spreadsheets is really cool. It works almost like excel and umm...better yet it is free!

Why Do you Blog

Click on the title of the post, take a short survey, and get a chance to win some prizes!

The survey took less than 5 minutes for me. So help someone out and maybe win a prize.

State of the Union

Is it just me or does the State of the Union sound like a repeat every year?

It is quite interesting to watch Madame Speaker try to figure out when she should stand or not. I'm surprised she is not wearing red like the majority of the women in the audience.

When did Hilary get the June cleaver hairstyle? Or is this her dressy look? She does look better tonight than she did the last time I saw her...she looked awful. I have to believe though that they will be keeping an eye on the bags under her eyes for the next 2 years at least. It may make a difference to some people in the election.

So we are balancing the budget, reducing the deficit, and spending more money...hmmm---how does that work exactly? Bah... but ooo medical liability reform--that sounds interesting. Aww man...on to the temporary worker program again, another repeat.

One final note, I really wish that the same rules that apply in graduation ceremonies would apply to the State of the Union. These clapping breaks are always the most annoying part of this process.

"HPV vaccine FAQ's"

Kristi and I were both wondering why there is the age limit cutoff for the vaccine. I found this list of FAQ's that explains that the testing up to this point has been limited to women under the age of 26. They are currently testing men/boys and older women to find out the effectiveness.

Note: Click on the post title to go to the FAQ's as I was having issues getting the link to show up in the post body.

Weekend Excitement

So this weekend was the CUBS convention. My dh had bought 4 tickets with the assumption that the other couple who was interested was going to follow through and buy the tickets but in the end they bailed. They gave us plenty of notice and my dh instead of offering the tickets to another couple, invited one of his single friends. Okay no biggie, we will just sell the other two tickets and it can be a guy thing. No such luck. There were lots of passes for sale all over the Internet and everyone else that we know either had plans, doesn't like the Cubs, or wanted the money for football tickets. So, I ended up going for Saturday and the part of Sunday that we stayed for. The guys went down on Friday and didn't get into much by the time they got there. It turned into a nice weekend. Although I have to say that the mood was dampened by...

Saints Fans...oh my gosh. Maybe it is the difference between football and baseball but we have travelled to other cities to attend Cubs games and have never seen Cubs fans act that like. Even the drunk 21 year olds know to respect the other city and their fans. I have to say that there were lots of Saints fans in town. They overtook Harry Carey's on Saturday night which was unfortunate since on a normal Saturday we would have been willing to wait 1.5 hours to sit but not when there are obnoxious fans everywhere. The women were just as boisterous as the men and sometimes worse.

Believe, I appreciate the effort to follow the home team on the road. But, well, I'm just going to attribute it to the difference between baseball and football...however, there are a lot of Cubs fans that are also Bears fans and they still weren't as obnoxious in their own hometown as these folks. If I never hear the phrase "Who Der" again...I will be happy. Blah...and btw, I am not a football fan. I don't get why someone wants to watch a bunch of people run each other over. Basketball...baseball...soccer--those sports I get. Rugby and football--nope.

I did end up home to watch the 4th quarter of the game. I was surprised that they dumped the jug on Lovie before the 2 minute warning. I was also surprised on how the focus became celebration before the clock was over. Again, while I am not a football fan, I do understand that things can change on a dime...look at how the Saints came back from 16 to 0 already. 25 points was a big spread but not impossible to surmount with over 4 minutes left on the clock. I have to say that an 88 yard touchdown was an awesome achievement and it is too bad that effort will be overshadowed by the lack of accomplishment in the rest of the game. So, anyways...now I am down. yay, the bears are in the Superbowl. I doubt we will be attending any party. Im sure that Superbowl Sunday will either be spent at the movies or home with some netflix picks. sure, we will check the score every once in awhile and watch some commericals but focus on the game? Doubtful.

Anywho...

I better get to work!

Make the Commitment

January is National Cervical Cancer Awareness month.

Merck & Company is pledging $100,000 to cancer research by donation $1.00 for every person that signs up to Make the Commitment to talk to their physician about Cervical Cancer and HPV this month. By signing up you get your shot at a free bead kit (while supplies last) and an entry into a sweepstakes for a necklace. Mind you, the freebies are not what it is about.

HPV and cervical cancer effect young women everyday. In High School, 14 years ago, I knew someone who had cervical cancer. A few years later, one of my friends was diagnosed with HPV. This was long before it was a household word and the connection to cancer was just being discovered. It can be very scary to deal with this type of situation at any age. Now, they have the vaccine. I only hope that my family members will allow their young daughters to get the HPV vaccine since even if you are not promiscuous you are still at risk if your partner is a carrier.

Take the time to Make the Commitment today!

Stress Eating and other coping skills

Stress eating is a very destructive behavior. Not eating just because you are stressed is just as destructive in my opinion but you know the old adage...the grass is always greener---

I wish that I could go back in time and figure out where I started stress eating. I know that it started in childhood. I remember distinctively stealing quarters from the laundry money so that I could go and buy junk food. I also remember being alone-- a lot. Probably more than a child of 12 should be home alone but there wasn't anything to be done about it. I stayed at friend's houses when I could. I hung out as long as possible when it was light out but it always seemed ironic that I had a curfew that was before my mother would be home from work most days.

Lately I have been very stressed and worried about my husband's health. It seemed pretty obvious to us that his gallbladder is not working right but all of the tests have come back normal. Thursday he goes under sedation for a endoscopy. He has never been under sedation before and he takes medication on a regular basis that may impact his reaction to the sedatives. So, I have been freaking out. Add some home issues and some work craziness to make a recipe for diet disaster. Lately my binge food of choice has been chips and cheddar cheese dip or sweet items. Today I did a good thing...I sent the rest of the brownies I bought yesterday to work with my husband. But, I did not send the chips with him. Instead of coming home and making soup for lunch as planned--I dug out a hidden bag of chips and can of dip. Do I feel better for it? Nope, I feel worse. Now I have the extra calories and have gone off plan for the oooo 14th time this year alone :(

One of these years I will conquer the food monster that is in me...but when--only time will tell.

Bah Humbug...

Ah--darn it, too late for that phrase. Blah. That is all I can say. It has turned crazy again at work. Not that I am complaining, it is just hard to get everything done when all I feel like I should be doing is working. In order to get house stuff done, work suffers and vice versa. I wish there was an answer but working from home sometimes is the pits. Mostly, when work is extraordinarily busy for the time of year, like right now.

It sure doesn't help that dh has a medical test on Thursday that I have to take all afternoon off for since he will be knocked out for it. Of course, the main worry, is him being knocked out since he never has been under sedation before. I am sure that that underlying worry is just adding to the emotional factor on everything else.

ON a lighter note, Mark Harmon is eating some disgusting Hawaiian bowl mixture of rice, hamburger patty, brown gravy, and fried egg. Uh...it is the egg that makes it sound totally unappetizing to me...blech, I can see the yolk!

Better get back to work!

"Sideways" and other netflix rentals

I have a netflix gift membership that we are working our way through right now.

Last Week we watched Click with Adam Sandler. Now mind you, I have not enjoyed all of Adam Sandler's movies (Happy Gilmore comes to mind) but some of his movies are on my favorites list. Click, well it won't be going on the favorites list but it wasn't a complete dud either. I had heard that it wasn't as funny as people thought it would be so I was prepared for that but at some points it was just down right sad for me and for my husband. Not that it was a bad thing...just not what we were hoping for out of that movie watching experience. I probably would watch it again but only if it was free.

The other movie that I had out last week was The Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. The storyline was not what I had expected, perhaps a bit over the top, but it was a well done movie. I liked the characters and only noted a one point in the movie that Keanu was not as swift minded as his character should have been. I don't know...there is just something about him that always leads me to think about Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure when I watch him in anything other than the Matrix trilogy. Anyways, it was a nice little break on a low key Sunday. I don't think this one will make the favorites list either but it made me laugh, cry, and think so not at all bad for a romance movie. If you can get past the time space warp part of the plotline than it is worth it if you like romantic comedies.

On to this weekend's picks:

Sideways was uh...not as good as anticipated. Why on earth was there so much hype about this movie? Because they actually show people have sex that is not missionary position? What was the cause for all of the accolades? I thought it was a good movie but it did not live up to the hype at all. It was definitely a movie that is not for every audience. I would definitely watch it again only because I think that I probably missed things during the first viewing that may impact the way that I feel about the story as a whole but overall I was disappointed. The movie is slow moving at times but I did laugh out loud enough and hard enough at times to wake my sleeping husband who thought the movie was incredibly dull. He did end up missing all of the good parts though. If you are into slow moving, thought provoking, movies about people in midlife crisis or close to it...you would enjoy this movie, but please understand that it is not the laugh a minute movie that it was hyped to be.

Next up is The Pacifier. Something tells me at least if the movie isn't what I think it will be that Vin Diesel is enough eye candy to make it worth it to the end.

"Not'hing to Lose" by Ale.x Flin.n

Okay, so this is a young adult fiction book, not an adult fiction book. But as some of the book bloggers that I have been reading lately point out...we were all young adults once. Plus, sometimes, topics can be processed easier if they are handled on a lower reading level.

This book is about domestic violence. If you get triggered by violence--do not read this book. It was well written and I feel that it covered the topic admirably. I wasn't planning on reading this book, it just kind of showed up in my pile as I was wandering around the library one day. I was actually looking for another type of book all together but found myself in the young adult stacks and starting looking for another title when I landed on this. "Nothing to Lose" kept my interest. I found myself trying to find reasons to pick it up throughout the day even when I was only about 20 short pages into it. Definitely not fluff reading and I would recommend it to anyone who is willing to read on the topic. I think that it would be a good book to introduce the topic of domestic violence to preteens and teens as it is not too violent and also brings up other topics such as drinking and drug use. It also tackles the runaway issue as the main character ends up running away to join a traveling carnival in order to escape the violence in his household. The step father character shows mainly classic signs of being an abuser--pretending that things are fine, being overly picky about the way things are supposed to be completed, high stress career, etc. The mother wasn't ever really developed beyond appearing to be a typical battered woman. She didn't really show any fight only that she was trying to make things work to protect and better her son.

Overall, I am pleased that I found this book in my pile and may go back to find something else by this author in the future.

Freaks and Geeks!

I have to say that my favorite Christmas present this year was finally receiving The Complete Series Freaks and Geeks DVD. I still don't understand why this show was cancelled almost 7 years ago. Yes, 7 years ago and people like me still love this show and remember it. I didn't think that I saw all of the episodes because they were showing a bunch of the last ones about 2 weeks before our wedding and I was a bit busy but apparently I either recorded them or sat down in front of the tv for the evening since I remembered parts of every episode. That was in July of 2000 but the last episode didn't air until October for some reason. But, again, I must have made time for it since I remember the episode well.

I cannot explain why this show speaks to me. I identify with both the geeks and the Freaks. I would have to say that I dressed like a Freak but really was a geek. My high school life was pretty uncatgorizable. I was in choir, theater, and academic bowl. I was in color guard, SADD, and Key club. At the same time I was in a bible study and active in more than one church group. I went to see Warrant and Poison in concert. I also saw Queensryche and Petra in the same month. Who was I? I don't even know. I just didn't really fit into any one thing. I was the new kid for more than one year. Some groups never thought I belonged while others wondered why I had ever gone to school somewhere else.

High School was all at once a great time and the worst time of my life. I went from knowing just about everyone Freshman year to being the new kid with a huge new family. This doesn't do much for one's self esteem when it is already fragile. But, in the end, I came out okay. I was probably flirting on the edge of trouble with the kids I was hanging out with Freshman year but at the same time, I still found similar trouble at my new school...it just didn't become my only area of socialization. To this day though...I feel like I don't really belong anywhere. I haven't found my perfect fit with any particular group and to be honest, I am horrible at parties and making friends. So Freak or Geek or Fregeek...deep down, I still feel that way.

YOU, The Owner's Manual

I finally finished this book. It really didn't have too much information in it that shocked me. I thought that a lot of the information was available already, but I was suprised to read about all of the benefits of folic acid. I had always thought it was just necessary for women who were trying to get pregnant or who were already. Not true, folic acid is very important for complete health and cancer prevention. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for general health information. The recipes in the back of the book look yummy but I haven't tried any of them yet. I am excited to read the next book YOU, On a Diet because the information in this book leads me to believe that the diet plan that they offer is very moderate and nutritious. The final chapter in this book goes over the basics, has a food plan, and has sample recipes.

There are several different topics that are covered in this book. There is a chapter on every organ system and additional topics. Most of the recommendations end up being repeated throughout the book for health in every area.

Worth a read, even if you think you know it all about health and wellness, if only for the humor throughout the book.

YOU + Owner's Manual

Lazy day and other thoughts

So, today has been a lazy day. I'm okay with that. We had too many crazy weeks/weekends in a row so now to have two low key weekends in a row is okay by me.
We did have to do a bunch of errands yesterday and accomplished most of what we wanted for the day.

We didn't get to Sam's to return some sweatpants I bought. I bought 2xl but I am pretty sure that the Unisex pants are really crafted more towards men. They are huge on me. Not a bad thing, but when you can pull out 10 inches of drawstring and they are barely tight...they are too big.

We did renew our gym membership yesterday. This year we need to get all of our money's worth as I think we went a combined total of 10 times last year. We have to go a combined total of at least 40 times in order to make it worth buying the family plan instead of paying by day. I'm sure we can do that.

We also got to babysit the screaming monsters yesterday. I love those kids but OH MY WORD were they hyper yesterday. Funny thing was when they finally tried to go to sleep, they were out within 5 minutes. Their mother agreed with us that they were extraordinarily wound up yesterday, even after ice skating in the afternoon.

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I haven't weighed in a few days. Been on too much of a junk food binge to allow myself the pain of the truth. Hopefully it will be a slight detour that is over now with no real damage.

Off to do laundry and make this week's breakfasts!

The one that I remind myself...

that just because someone's actions can make me feel worthless, I'm not. It really is annoying that people think that their over reactions shouldn't effect someone so much. But you know what...people influence people every day. Unfortunately, when it is someone very close to us, it makes it 100 times worse.

Almonds and Free Stuff!

Almonds: I have to admit, I didn't really like them as a kid. I liked them well enough cooked in food but that was a rare occurrence. Now, as an adult, I know that they are healthy for me. I keep a pack of dry roasted or raw almonds (unsalted of course) in my fridge most of the time. 24 almonds is a serving in most cases but I limit myself to 12 since I tend to eat other nuts throughout the day.

Why the speech about almonds? Look what a cool box you can get for free...

www.AlmondsAreIn.com/tin

I found the link posted on one of the webmd weight loss boards. I already signed up but then according to my dh, I always get stuff just because it is free!

Anyways....
Back to work! :)

Hmmm...

One of the things that I have neglected to get really excited about is biographies. I know that there are a lot of great people in the history of the world and that there are some wonderful biographies out there that are not biased.

Gerald Ford is one of the people that I know very little about. He became President when I was 6 months old and was pretty much out of the public eye by the time I knew what a President was. I always assumed that he was part of the Henry Ford family but apparently that is not the case. I may just have to find a good biography about the man that seems to have been down to earth and a calming force for our nation after major upheavel.

Oh yea...and the Senior George Bush just tried to imitate Dana Carvey...ummm...I don't know what to say about that.

Happy 2007!!

Wow, I can't believe that another year has gone by. It was an even year too and usually those are pretty good to me. No such luck this year. Right now my wonderful DH is going through some medical testing and it is boggling my mind why they can't find anything. On top of that we went through some pretty cruddy stuff this year and well, I'm glad it is over.

On to bigger and better things, though, I hope that one of the bigger things is not me. I only lost a total of 9 pounds this year but of course, It was more than that at one point. Well...such is life and I can't change it now right?

Anyways... Welcome to 2007! May it be a banner year for everyone!




today's weight: 254