GOAL!... kinda

Today is my birthday (Happy Birthday to me!!) and the date I gave myself to fit into the jeans I had ordered off EBay in with a big bunch of jeans for my older girls. I tried them on in dismay months ago unable to button them.  No pictures were taken, I was too horrified at the extra "fluff" hanging out making it so I couldn't button my jeans, forget about zipping them fully.

That day I vowed to whip my ass into shape.  Yes, I know round is A Shape but I want to be in a healthy, sexier shape.  After 2 trips through the 30 day shred (not fully completed one of those times)  I have noticed changes.  I definitely feel a change in my ability to keep up with my energetic children.  I will continue to have that evil woman Jillian Michaels kick my ass and keep me motivated to keep kicking back.  I haven't been the only one enjoying the changes in my body.  My husband has noticed the changes in places I couldn't see without a mirror or a silly dance.

With a family history heavy in heart disease and diabetes I didn't want my life to be affected so negatively by my weight.  I started out this weight loss journey at a size 16 (and getting disturbingly tight)  When I woke up this morning I was apprehensive that I would even fit in the jeans.  My thoughts were filled with a replay of my fall off the healthy wagon recently and straight into a big pile of cookies and sweets.  I had stayed and wallowed a while in those sweets and my lack of weight loss results recently shows it.

This morning I just stood there glaring at those jeans for a good five minutes before attempting to plunge in.  I was pleasantly surprised it only required a small wiggle to get them up over my overly ample hips, no full blown hopping or dancing around needed.  ::mini victory dance::   As I buttoned them and slid the zipper up into place I almost began to cry.  They actually fit. I did it, kinda.  Sure I do have a mini muffin top. In all fairness it's more like a corn bread muffin top and no longer a Starbucks mega muffin top.

Pardon the bragging post but I am very proud of myself for achieving my goal (kinda) and during the holiday season no less. (the season of weakness for me)   I wont be stopping here though.  I'll stop wanting to lose weight once my Wii fit stops calling me fat or groaning when I step on it.  That would be around 30 more lbs to lose.  OK so it doesn't straight out call me fat but I don't like the weigh in and watching my Mii plump up to match my plumper proportions.

What is one of your favorite exercise routines to use?  Healthy snack ideas?  My favorite craving buster is any bar of really good dark chocolate.  Dark Chocolate has been proven to be an appetite suppressant.  Even stranger you don't even have to eat it. Smelling the dark chocolate is not enough for me though.  I prefer ingesting my chocolate to just smelling it.  My willpower isn't strong enough to bring chocolate so close to my mouth and not sample even just a small morsel.

Wistful for the White Stuff (Snow!?)

Recently I caught myself watching yet another Lifetime movie even though I swore to kick that addiction. (I usually end up a blubbering mess by the second commercial break)  In this current hormone fix the scene they depicted was of a beautiful snowfall.  I was lost in the moment and found myself yearning for that exhilarating yet almost dizzying feeling of standing in the snow as it falls around you.  Reaching out to catch a big fluffy snowflake in my hand and coming up short remembering it is just a tv show.  (I think I need to get out of the house more often.)

Before you snowbound fellows jump on me, know that I have experienced living with snow on a day to day basis. I am not one of those loonies that says how much they love snow but has never had to shovel a path for your too short wiener dog to go to the bathroom, or clear the porch roof of snow or experience a personal avalanche or the much worse collapsed roof, or remember to salt the walkway and steps so you don't end up spliting the crack on your hind quarters further.  I didn't always live in the dry desert that is Las Vegas.  (Where you have a better chance of winning big on slots than getting snow in the Las Vegas valley around Christmas)  I lived in Northern Utah for the first 10 years of my life and another 3 years of my adult life in Northwest Tennessee.

 

I love the versatility of snow.  With snow all you need is some imagination and you have a day of fun.  Snow is like ready made natures dough.  Form it into whatever you want.  Build a fort and have an intense snowball fight.  Create a snowman or a whole family of them.  Build an igloo and have a winter picnic inside the outdoors.  It's not just the standard fun snow activities I enjoy.  I loved shoveling snow as well. I don't know what it is but there is something about that chore that leaves me feeling self satisfied.  (I enjoy mowing the grass and raking leaves too)

I will always fondly remember the year we spent the entire day building an igloo only to come back inside and find out our pipes were frozen.  The igloo was still worth it. I had such a blast building it with my husband and sitting inside it with my two oldest girl (they were only 2 and 3yrs old at the time)  We had used old wipes containers and packed them tightly with snow to make snow bricks.  Then we got a little obsessive compulsive and used a spray bottle filled with water and a few drops of blue and green food die to make them look like ice blocks.   I wish we would have had a camera with film at the time.  (I don't know how I ever lived without all my current gadgets.. ::shudder:: just barbaric)

What are some of your favorite snow activities?  My favorite thing about snow is the crunch sound of fresh snow beneath your boots.   I love huge snow drifts with the ability to hide a car or just those little piles of snow that pile up around the window sills.

Get the Duct Tape!!

I have been a bad blogger recently.  Not by choice though.  As I was editing my newest blog post my screen suddenly shuttered to black and the PC restarts.  Only this time it doesn't want to start into windows.  ::panic::  I quickly go and google my problem id number and attempt to repair it with my windows CD. 

This is when it got REALLY ugly.  After doing a quick format I go to partition the drive off again and suddenly it doesn't recognize me as having a hard drive at all.  The only work around I have found involve hooking a floppy drive to my PC.  (who has those dinosaurs hanging around unless they are deserving a spot on hoarding buried alive?)  There was another workaround involving nlite but I couldn't get my stupid drives on it either. This poor dinosaur laptop I am currently stuck with for use can't unzip the stupid file for my drivers so I can load them onto a disc and force my PC to recognize it's own hard drive.  Problem still not solved, but I couldn't go another day without blogging.  Blogging has become like an addiction.  Just ask my dear sweet understanding husband.

I'm sorry for those people that have no freaking clue what I just said.  I really wish I was still one of those blissfully unaware of the little magical things that go on inside my computer to make it do all the fun things I ask.  ::clicks heels with eyes tightly shut::