Week One? All done.

I lost 3 pounds this week despite my falling off the core wagon a couple of times. I'm happy...but the true measure will be when I take my chub rub measurements next Sunday. Then all will be official.

I'm sorry that I haven't been around as much as I'd like...especially when it comes to reading all your blogs. I'm still reading, I'm just not commenting. Work has been a bear. I don't have my set schedule yet...but I'm getting closer with every moment. I've been pitching in extra at work to help out because I don't have the set schedule yet, so I have the flexibility to do so...and it's running me ragged. It's completely worthwhile because it helps keep the kids "in line" and my principal has told me more than once this week that he appreciates how much extra work I'm doing when times are tough. It's always good to make a positive impression on the new boss-man. I would have done it anyway...it keeps things calm!

Pigs in a Blanket...

are my kryptonite. Chris and I went to his bosses house for a little UFC...which was awesome because I forgot how much I like Forrest Griffin. He always seems like a nice guy...hardly trash talks, even though he wins most of the time. In his post match interview with Joe Rogan he said something along the lines of: The last match that I lost was motivating...I did go home and eat a lot of cookies, though. Totally endearing for a guy covered in blood. But hey...at least it was his own blood.

The main story here is that I went out and I only did so-so with food. There was bread and spinach dip, which I had in moderation (check!). I had diet coke instead of beer (check!). And then they came....the hostess brought out the pigs in a blanket. Yikes! It was after a ton of deliberation that she even made them. I, believe it or not, told her not to bother, and that there was plenty of food. The men, however, disagreed. Damn! So now I'm about negative 10 flex points left. My best bet is to just tone all my food down until weigh in. It's the only think I can do, right?

I heart Core!

I guess it might be just me, but Core is totally awesome. I forgot how good I feel when I'm right on track. the pic to the left is of my snack today. I made myself polenta chips and ate them them with salsa from Trader Joe's that has jicima and cucumber in it...yummers! I guess I'm becoming "hard core" so to speak.

I have 10 points left for the week (more when I start back at the gym on Monday...yay me!)...and I am fine with that. I had a great dinner out last night, and that's more important than the number of points I have left...right?

I also want to thank everyone for their ring suggestions. I'm still tossing around a few ideas. Once I make a decision, I'll let ya'll know. However, if anyone else wants to make a suggestion..please feel free.

Lastly. tomorrow is the day I'm going to take my measurements. I figure every other Sunday will be good enough for now. I don't want to upset myself...

It's all new!

Okay, so maybe it's not "all" new. I finally went back to Weight Watchers. I had not been to that meeting house in so long, that they no longer had my booklet. I had to start all over again. New folder, new books, new everything. Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better situation. There is nothing to remind me of past failures. It's a clean state. Joan, my WW leader (who is incredibly awesome) thought this was a great thing...a fresh new start. Just what I needed! So, I've been doing really well with Core today, and I hope it continues. We'll see if I survive happy hour tomorrow...

Also, I've decided not to pay too much attention to the scale. Sometimes, you can find a way to cheat the scale: no water, skipping lunch, etc...but you can't cheat THE TAPE MEASURE. In an effort to reduce my chub and how it rubs I am going to start measuring myself every 2 weeks. I think that will be the best medicine for defeating the chub rub.

And I think I've decided what my reminder will be. Let me start off by saying that I really wanted to find something that could be with me at all times. I believe I'm going to buy myself a ring. I found several nice ones on ETSY, I'm just waiting for the "right" one to show up (I'm not all that into jewelry). There is a woman who will customize a saying or a word on a simple ring, but I can't think of anything that would give me purpose without calling out "hey, I'm trying to loose the chunk". If I think of something, I might do that.

New Monkey!

My youngest brother, Ian, requested an evil sock monkey for his birthday. I finally finished the sucker. So here he is, done and done.

Here is a close up of his face. I enhanced his fangs with glow-in-the-dark thread for a little extra evil. Note the extra cool scar. This is one tough monkey!

And what evil animal could be complete without claws....they're made of floss, but they are claws all the same.

The Chub Rub

I was just commenting to Marta's blog The PudgeBudge when I realized 2 things....I haven't posted in about forever, and I hate that. Especially since my comment to Marta was that I missed her because she's been too busy to post in about 2 days...then I realized that I'm not the only one hangin' out here sometimes. Yikes! What if someone out there misses me? It may not be true, but then again, I have sitemeter, so I know someone is lookin' around for new stuff! So here I am.

The other thing (I've actually been thinking about for days) is: How I hate the chub rub! I am so tired of having my thighs touch to the extent that they do. When I was younger, and more athletic, and 124 pounds my thighs still touched...but it was more of a brush than a touch. I'm tired of not just the thighs, but there are other areas where chub rubs me the wrong way. I hate it and it stinks. I'm ready to start again. I've been sitting at the weight all summer and it needs to start coming off. I need to set up a better plan of action. I need to get out my crock pot and make some really yummy soup. I need to cook more than 97% fat free hot dogs. It's got to get better than this...especially the internal pity party.

I need to make myself something I can hold in my hand that could symbolize the chub rub for when I have weak moments. I'm not sure what this item is going to be, but I'm going to figure something out. I think I need some suggestions from you all...so what do you think my chub rub symbol should be?

I'm working at the library at the moment; it's my first Sunday since June, so I might be posting again as I sit here and agonize over what I'll be doing to start taking the chub rub away.

Can't Keep Up!

I can not wait to get completely back into the swing of things here at work. I'm struggling to get it all done. I know, I know, it's a working woman's cliche, but it's so true. I'm tired all the time because I'm not used to the sleep schedule yet. What's worse is that I went to VA over the weekend to visit with old family friends, but more on that later. I'm trying desperately to get back into the Core thing....I did pack lunch today and I've been good at keeping core foods in my work fridge. I'm hoping that it'll start to get easier at least some of the time instead of being hard all of the time. So I'm back to tracking my food. I'm trying to make use of my Komen Pink Ribbon pen as a physical reminder that by losing the weight again I reduce my chances of getting breast cancer, and that if I do get it, I'll be healthier and have a greater chance of kicking it. (I don't think I've ever mentioned it here, but my maternal grandmother died from breast cancer)

There are good bits to work. I now carpool with my baby brother, Ian, who got a job as a 1 to 1 teachers aid at another division of my school system. He's working with elementary school kids who have emotional disturbance. He started yesterday. Lucky for me, his school building is a block away from Starbucks, so I'm not really going out of my way at all!

Although I complained about the lack of sleep I got from going to VA this past weekend, it was wonderful to visit with old friends. They're a couple that my family used to go stay with every summer when I was a kid. Bill went through school with my dad and they were the best of friends. Bill met Sue when he was in college. They both have art degrees and are artisan leather workers. They things they make are amazing.

I'm also hopping on the band wagon when it comes to taking pictures of what I'm eating. I'll do it was much as I can and I'm not going to chastise myself if I don't get it done. It's a fun little project is all, and it could possibly help in the future when I can't decide what to eat...I can go back and look and perhaps psyched myself into eating something that's good for me...

Breakfast was fat free, plain Greek style yogurt with ground flax (I count that as core) and a FF latte from Starbucks.

For lunch I had whole wheat pasta with tomatoes, broccoli, red pepper flakes and a tsp of EVOO.

Oh, and the cleanse is a 2 week cleanse for those of you who asked.

First days of the school year

Only 10 more months until summer vacation! Yeah, it's that time of year again. Things have been pretty calm at work for the first 2 days of school. We have a good number of return students who understand how things are run, but we have a couple of new students who were big fish in little ponds last year...they just haven't realized yet that they are not the toughest kids at my school. This one particular young man was the "bad" and "tough" kid at his old school. He's been strutting around bragging "I got thrown out of my old school...your districts just decided to send you here" What he doesn't realize is that most of the kids have been thrown out of their own schools...it was just more than a year ago and they are continuing at this school because they are successful. I'm predicting one of two things will happen:

1. He'll stop the bragging once he hears some of the other kids stories, and/or sees that they are tons tougher than he is by how they carry themselves and ignore his bantering.


2. He'll say the wrong thing to the wrong kid and he'll get popped for it and lose all his "status" and be the low man on the totem pole until everyone forgets. Hopefully the kid who pops him won't be a girl because no one will forget that until June. Yup, the girls at my school are tougher than this kid (not that there is anything wrong or unnatural about being a strong woman!)

Other than that, not much is going on. I'm not following any specific plan, but I have reigned in my eating and I'm eating mostly core foods. I'm also in the middle of a digestive cleanse...I bought a kit at Trader Joe's last weekend. It was well priced (12.99). I like the idea of disposing of toxins. And frankly, it's keeping me from eating crap because I don't want to undo the cleanse before I even finish all the stupid pills!

It's been a while

I have been pretty busy for the past bunch of days. On Saturday, not only was it Marta's birthday, it was Reuben's. We got him a brand new dog bed that he fits on even if he sprawls out! He totally loves it. Its cover is made of denim so Reuben's OCD turning and scratching will not rip holes in it.


Reuben also had Una sleep over on his birthday. It wasn't' really a party because Una does nothing but harass poor Reuben. She loves him so very much, and does anything she can to get his attention. She would love nothing more than

for him to play with her or let her snuggle with him. As you can see in the pictures, she tries to get as close to him as possible without him noticing. At times, Reuben would be trying to sleep on my bed, and she would sneak up, stand on her hind legs and put her front paws on his head. Very amusing.

My best friend, Darth Bruce, had her birthday yesterday, so Happy Birthday Bruce!



Another Labor Day weekend thing is trying to cram as much fun stuff into three days as possible because school started today. No students, but I still had to go to work today. Blah!

And finally, I made my friend, Cathy, a sock monkey for her birthday. We have a sock themed birthday thing going for the last few years, so I thought this was appropriate. I gave it to her at work today, and he sat with her, in her chair, at her desk this morning as we got ready for out back to school meetings. I think she liked him. Another friend of mine, Collette, wants one for her 2 year old daughter, and I am happy to oblige.

Tomorrow is the big 8 for Reuben on Rye...I can't believe that he's that old (and still has that much energy). He will be having a sleep over with the famous Una tomorrow night, so I'm sure there will be many picture of dog to dog torture.

I made it through my first week back to work, but just barely. All I did was act as literacy consultant all week...not one student to be seen...and I came home exhausted each day. Wednesday I came home early, ate lunch and fell asleep on the couch for almost two hours...and still got to bed on time. Yikes!

It was also a bad week when it came to eating...mostly breakfast foods. Bagels from Panera. I'm happy to report, that as tasty as they are, I am sick of the cinnamon crunch bagels and reduced fat hazelnut cream cheese. At least I've got that in my corner. Soon, I'll be bringing my lunch to school and a supply of core snacks to leave in my fridge. My office is going to be a "safe" place. I also had a co-worker ask me if I would like to walk everyday at lunch to which I agreed.

Also: Happy Birthday, Marta!

Honey, I'm Killing Myself

I'm watching the ever entertaining "Honey, We're Killing the Kids" and I had that revelation...again: I know what I have to do to be successful and lose weight and yet, I'm not doing it. Ridiculous. My best weight loss is when I'm doing a variety of fun exercises and eating mostly core foods. It's just so strange that I know and understand the ins and outs of nutrition...but I can't get my emotions/motivation/self-esteem to actually get it done! WHY?

Update:

I got off my sorry ass and made a core dinner of lemon-pepper tilapia with quinoa

Kinesis

I was inspired by Marta, who just signed up to have her own personal trainer to ask what ya'll thought of:

Kinesis
Kinesis is a functional fitness strength training system done in small group sessions. It involves integrated movements of balance, core strength and burns 30% more calories than traditional equipment training. Thirty minute sessions include a circuit of 5 stations.

Yeah, it costs extra, but it sounds cool. The people I know who tried it are totally into it....so readers, tell me what you think!

Are you kidding me?

Hello...does that kid really say he plays with his poops in the toilet? Poops? In the toilet? And this is run during the day? Jeezie creezie, people. The first few times I saw this commercial I thought he said "boat" in the toilet. That was scary enough. Where are today's parents? Yikes!

Nothing special going on. I worked today. I'm thinking of telling them I can't come in on Friday, which would give me a 4 day weekend. Nice. Food is going so-so, but 5 o'clock is another hour, and tomorrow is day one of my WW week.

And Chai, no worries. At work I only blog complaints about my weight, and I don't care if they record that. I would blog about training if I were actually participating in any.....(sniffle, sob)

Busy-ness!

I am back to work as of today..just helping to organize the English curriculum, but it's back to work all the same. I had a fun day today with all the other high school Reading and English people, so I'm getting excited about the school year.

Next week is when I'll have my office set up with my office computer and I think I'll be able to blog more often.

I am exhausted, and not quite eight PM. Sheesh!

Hello from space!

I am feeling very motivated these days. I'm really tempted to plot my motivation cycle and compare it to my other cycle, if you catch my drift. It does feel like the planets are aligning for me these days, so I'm going to ride the wave while it lasts, and I hope it's a long ride....I'm rockin' Core hard and I'm enjoying it.


I have to send out a big "Thanks!" to Chai for having slide presentations on her site because that's where I got the inspiration for doing my photos that way. So, thanks Chai!

Summer is coming very quickly to a close, and although I'd like it to last a bit longer, I am getting excited about school. I get to make my own schedule this school year. My crazy coworker is going to be working out of another location, so I won't have to look at her. We have a new principal who, so far, is really awesome. I get to keep the office I had last year, so I don't have to move like I did the last 2 years. Nice!

Bronx Zoo

I spent mid day today at The Bronx Zoo with Mom and Ian. I'm estimating that all that walking earned me about 6 activity points, so double cool!

I might add more pics once I get the ones my mom took!

I'm feeling really motivated so far this week. I'm thinking it's going to last.

Farm Fun!

My mom, Ian (my baby brother) and I went to visit the animals at Muscoot Farm and had a blast. Ian hadn't been there since he was 9...he'll be 24 next month. We were the only adults there that didn't have toddlers with us....but who cares?

The Unkown Post

I have not one clue as to what to title this, so there you go. I think this post is going to wind up being an even bigger mish mosh of stuff than I usually stick in here, but what the hell?

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I decided to make a sock monkey's for Chris' boss' daughter's 1st birthday. I finally finished it. Here she is, all wrapped up. She actually has a couple of board books and a cloth book on her lap because I have to give books to babies as gifts. I'm a reading geek, after all.

The evil sock monkey will be sad to see the new one leave the house, but Evil Sock Monkey still has Reuben to snuggle with, and Reuben needs a ton of snuggling today because he's exhausted from swimming this morning.

And for no reason at all I decided to stick this picture in. It's the underside of an elephant ear leaf. I love those plants, and I never realized how beautiful the underside of those leaves are!

Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot Piiiiiiiieeeee!

It's a good thing that my goal for the week is to journal everything and not actually lose weight. You see, I love chicken pot pie*. Chris and I used to get a whole wheat double crusted one that was a measly 5 points. We haven't been able to find those in quite a while, and I've been craving one for about three weeks, so last night I was at the point of desperately needing one and it was cool enough to turn on the stove, so why the hell not? I ran out to the store and grabbed one that bragged of using only white meat, so I grabbed it and ran out. I ate it; it was delicious! I later figured out that it was 25 points. Twenty. Five. Points. I need to find those whole wheat ones....

In other news, I decided that I'm going to use the little purple cool notebook that I originally bought to use. Instead of taking a ruler to it for the points, I'm just putting a check at the end of the line for core, or the points number/flexies left. I had to get it into my head that nothing is going to be absolutely perfect, so why get frustrated.

I wrote recently about going to a tea room and to answer Marta's question: it's like a coffee house excepts it's all about tea, and tea traditions. It's very luxurious. You can have scones with creme fraiche and jam. You can have tea sandwiches that come on toasted bread with the crusts cut off. It's a very girly thing to do and definitely wonderful. We went to Silver Tips Tea Room in Tarrytown, NY. It is fabulous!

*Not as much as I love hotdogs, however.

Hanging in there

I had a rough start to the week, and I screwed up yesterday when I went with my mom and the local elementary school volunteer "grandma" to a tea room. It was wonderful! So I actually started logging in food today. I don't care if I wind up with negative flexies as long as I get it all down on paper. It's a start, right? One thing at a time, one thing at a time.