Moving Right Along

So since starting the 30 Day Shred, I've made decent progress so far.  I'm down 4.5 pounds in less in about 10 days.  I'm pretty happy with those results.  I signed up for Jillian Michaels website for 30 days for free.  It suggested that I lose 20 pounds, I decided 15 pounds seemed more reasonable.  So that will be the goal before my trip to Mexico in May. I've got loads of time to get that accomplished.

All Because of a Dress

Last Sunday, (1/23), K called to tell me he'd made reservations for Valentine's Day on the 11th.  He'll be out of town for work from February 13-25 in Texas. Since he gets to fly out early on Sunday morning, Friday night seemed logical.  K was also sweet enough earlier that day to ask if there was anywhere in town that I'd been wanting to try.  We play the, "Places in Town to Check Out" game frequently - mostly because he's only lived here since late spring 2010.  I threw out the name of steak place that I've always wanted to try.  I didn't logically put it together that he'd make reservations there, I can be a bit clueless at times. 

So last night I went to try on the dress that I planned to wear in 11 days - it fits, but it doesn't exactly look superfabulous.  EEEK.  So I've got two options. Buy a new dress OR workout and lose a couple pounds/tone up a bit.  More so on the toning up.  At this time, I'm opting for the second option.  Obviously, the brownies that I made today will be a wonderful help toward the goal.  Bring on the 30 Day Shred!  I signed up for a trial of Jillian Michael's website too.

Progress

I'm about six weeks into the 30 day shred. I will admit that I have not been doing it every day because my knee and I do not agree about doing it every day. But I've still managed to make progress. I'm down 3 pounds. Which I'm happy with, it puts me back into a healthy BMI range. Still two more pounds to go there. And, I've lost 14.5 inches. And a good chunk of that has come off of my waist which apparently is a good thing according to Dr. Oz. (I DVR Oprah.) Apparently the measurement around your belly button should be less than half your height. I have about three inches to go there. But I'm much closer than the original 7.5 inches that I was trying to lose there. I'm also starting to get to the point where I'm between sizes. It doesn't make a ton of sense to me - but I bought a pair of jeans yesterday and they're almost too big. So I'm probably going to need to get them altered. Or try to shrink them in the dryer. I think I'd rather get them altered as option B doesn't always end well.

And I tried sushi for the first time last night. I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. It was there. It's one of those things that if people say, "We're going for sushi, do you want to come?" I'll go, but I'm probably not going to get it to go on my own. Our waiter was hilarious and the mai-tai martinis were great.

Lent 2010

So Lent starts tomorrow.  I have never claimed to be a "good Catholic," nor will I be winning any awards for my churchgoing habits anytime soon. But every year I give something up for Lent. Last year I gave up chocolate. If you know me well, you'd know that chocolate used to be a food group for me. I survived the entire Lent without chocolate, even during Barstool Open when everyone returned rom the bar to Eric's house and was chomping down on Girl Scout cookies - I ate a few Lemonade cookies. These are kind of gross, by the way. And I like lemon flavored things - well I like lemons. But nowadays, I don't keep a constant stash of chocolate candy in my house, which is good.

Which brings me to Lent 2010. What am I giving up this year? Coffee, lattes and all associated drinks. Yup. I know the first few days will be hell. The caffiene headaches are never fun, but I figure I'll do what I did when I gave up drinking pop four and a half years ago, replace it with water. Luckily, when I was drinking pop it was some insane amount like 50 ounces a day. I drink 16 ounces of coffee related beverages a day. Much easier to replace with water. Thank goodness since I live in my car.

Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks.

I am so excited that my vacation is coming up in two weeks. Work is stressing me out lately. I feel like winter is neverending. The daily snowfall isn't helping. It's cold and I have a stupid sinus infection. Okay, enough complaining....

I leave for vacation on Tuesday, February 23rd. We're going to spend two days in Disney World at the Polynesian Resort and then we're off for a three day cruise to the Bahamas!! Half of the meals are included in the cost of the trip. I did volunteer work, so I get into Disney World for free. Woot! Warm weather!!! Sunshine! Temps in Orlando should at least be in the upper 60s. And in the Bahamas it should be in the 70s. Can't. Wait.

As if that wasn't awesome enough, it gets better.

Today, I went to the orthodontist and had my permanent bottom retainer put it. It attaches to my lower canine teeth on the inside. Clearly, I'm nearing the finish line. I get my braces off on Monday, February 22nd!! Just in time for vacation.  I am beyond thrilled.

It's all in my head

I'm starting to get yet another sinus infection. This is the sixth one in about 14 months. I have lucked out that I've been on break from the sinus infections since about October. I'm really hoping to get rid of this one sooner rather than later and am starting to give more thought sinus surgery. I'm not real thrilled about the idea of surgery, but continuosly getting sick is getting nuts too. Before I moved here, I'd get sick once or twice a year. Might need to talk to my doctor about my options.

Food Inc

Over the weekend, I rented Food, Inc. I found the movie interesting and it gave me something to think about regarding where my food comes from and my involvement in the process. After sleeping on it and giving it some more thought - I'm sad and disappointed in myself. Why? The way that I participate currently and the way that I was raised don't exactly match.

Let me explain.  Growing up my dad brought our milk home and I don't mean from the store, yes, I know this is not common. Up until I was about 2 and a half, he worked on a farm and just brought the milk home from the farm. After that he hauled milk for the almost 25 years and brought home almost every dairy product imaginable. The benefit? I knew where my dairy products were coming from, who was producing them, what their farms looked like, and how the process happened. I'd been on the farms when I'd traveled with my dad, met farmers, even been offered pets and I'd seen the processing plant. I also remember how often my dad tested this milk for bacteria and other issues - daily. So while I wasn't directly involved in the process, I imagine my parents felt comfortable about the start to finish of the dairy I consumed. And given the opportunity, I still will jump on the chance to get the products from them because I think the quality is better than anything I can find in the store. I'm also well aware that a lot of milk comes from the happy cows of California. Easily the number one producer of dairy in the country. Nowadays, when I go to the store, I have no clue how my milk gets there. None. It magically arrives on the shelf, I buy it and drink it. And repeat. I've switched to organic milk since the kind that I drink is local (by that I mean it's only a few hours away, and chances are good I could actually drive by their operation). I was encouraged to find out that Wal-Mart is no longer selling milk with rBST. While I don't shop at Wal-Mart, I can only imagine that other retailers will follow suit.

I could go on for days about different things from the movie that I'm concerned about - ammonia being used to "clean" or "purify" 70% of our meat from e coli and mad cow disease. Which after driving by some of the feed lots that I do, I somewhat understand. The entire segment on the larger chicken manufacturers/producers made me ill, but I feel pretty good about where my chicken comes from: http://www.smartchicken.com/ My reason for feeling good about this type of chicken is because Market to Market (Iowa produced PBS show) did a piece about this Nebraska based business a few years back and the owners gave the producers free access to anywhere in the factory from production line to kill floor. Nothing was off limits. That tells me that they are comfortable with their operation. I was so dismayed when I moved to MI a few years back and Smart Chicken wasn't available there. I looked yesterday and they now sell at the local Meijer's. I was also quite surprised to learn that the majority of soybeans come from only one manufacturer. How can that be legal? Wouldn't that be a monopoly?

One of the things that really frustrated me was seeing this overweight family saying they could not afford to eat healthy food. It's cheaper to do the dollar menu at the local fast food place. Come on. Give me a break. Heck it'd be cheaper to make a box of mac and cheese. (Healthier, no.) Or buy a loaf of bread and some lunch meat when you average the cost out over a few meals - amazingly, I can do math. I didn't exactly grow up in a weathly family as a kid, but my parents were smart enough to figure out how to plant a garden.  A packet of seeds doesn't cost that much and could yield quite a bit.  Also, call me crazy, but if you don't want tons and tons of something, maybe you and a friend could split a package of seeds? Or if you're like me and don't have the space to plant a garden, try container gardening. Here's a quick list of some of the stuff I remember us growing over the years: grapes (annual), raspberries (annual), tomatoes (annual), rhubarb (annual), plums, peppers (annual), corn, potatoes, watermelons, carrots, radishes, green beans, peas, cucumbers, and lettuce. And then there's two crazy processes called canning and freezing. OMG! Also, eating out when I was growing up was a luxury and was pretty rare.

p.s. Do you like the photo? It's from a local place called Brewburgers that was on the Food Network. And no I didn't eat all that cheese.

WebMD

So I've been coming down with a little bit of a cold, or seasonal allergies since Monday morning and I went out to WebMD to plug in my symptoms. If you've never used the symptom checker thing you plug in a bunch of symptoms and it returns your potential diagnosis. So I plugged in sore throat, coughing, headache, little tired/rundown, runny nose - 20 things came back - most of them were things like a cold, or allergies or things along that line and I figured it was just a run of the mill cold. But, the best one - I could just be nearsighted. Huh? I didn't put anything in about my eyes. PLUS, I'm already nearsighted. I'm freaking blind as a bat. I keep a pair of old glasses in my car in case I'm a couple hours away from home and rip a contact.
Thanks WebMD! I realize that using the internet to diagnose my illnesses is not the best idea, but I figured I should start somewhere.