Blah...

I'm going to keep this on the short side because it's not going to be very positive - sorry. Thursday ended in a food fail. Friday - repeat. Saturday I was doing great, but then dinner at Will and Rose's turned into the all-too-typical friend/food fest. And so today (Sunday), I am depressed. One time a long time ago I was watching "Say Yes to the Dress." This girl came in for her fitting and she had gained weight since she bought her dress. I was horrified. How could anyone ever gain weight leading up to their wedding???? Oh wait. Now I know how you can. It's all I seem to be able to do lately.

I'm sure you all have figured this out by now, but I'm totally obsessed with the number on the scale. After listening to Robert Lustig's audiobook "Fat Chance," I'm also pretty convinced I'm addicted to food, mainly sugar. I don't know what to do anymore. No starch? Follow Seetha? It worked for so long but now seems to fail (quickly) every time I try. Should I try Beachbody? Anna's been doing it and is so motivated and doing an awesome job. I want to do it too! But then I get nervous because it involves measuring food, a SERIOUS habit I worked hard to break… so do I really want to go back to that?? No, not at all. But I'm desperate. I even called REDO - Rochester Eating Disorder Organization - to try to join a support group. It's full, no room for new people. I guess I should feel glad that I'm not alone… but come on! I'm lost. I'm exhausted by this all. I just want to crawl in a hole and sleep. 

Actually… I think I will take a nap.

I'll leave you with some pictures. I did a workout video with Anna - 30 minutes of legs and 10 minutes of Abs. It was really fun to do together. My legs haven't been this sore since I ran the marathon. I'm dying today!!

Coach Anna with Cheerleader Poco!

Another thing that's not helping my mood is the snow storm that hit last night. Here's what we woke up to today. It's March 30th. No buds on the trees. 6 inches of new snow today. I am so fed up with this winter. It's been absolutely ridiculous.

GO AWAY WINTER

K - nap time. SUPER busy week next week. Ugh. I need a break.

Nailed It!

This morning I gave my presentation to the Board of Directors for Job #1. If you remember, this is the reason I bought a blazer last weekend. I stayed at work way late last night working on my speech and slides, and had to get up waaaay early this morning in order to get ready and be there on time. Was I a little nervous? Yes, of course. But I must pat myself on the back and say I did an excellent job! My presentation went over really well and I felt like I came across as professional, prepared, and polished. :-)

And even though I think these kinds of "selfies" are tacky, I took this picture of myself in the bathroom of Job #1 just so you could all see me in my "Board Meeting" outfit.

I had the jacket buttoned for my presentation

Feel free to also admire the awesome job Sheena Valentino did on my highlights, haha.

So... with the board meeting checked off the list I'm feeling a lot better about Job #1 (for the moment) but I will be honest and say I am still mentally struggling today. Since I had to get up extra early, I am tired. Strike one. I also realized I left my lunch bag at home. Strike two. Also the scale went up this morning. Strike three. Plus I did a good job this morning so I feel like I deserve a treat. Strike four. That's too many strikes!

I really don't want to screw up with food today. I am going to report back tomorrow with an honest account of how I did - hopefully that will help keep me on track.

Alright, seeing as how the day is young, I honestly don't have much else to write about... wish me luck with food today. Hope you're all having a good one!

Mid-Week Report

Look at that! I've only made you wait 2 days rather than 2 weeks for an update. Things are looking up! Here's what's going on...

Monday morning I did a quick and easy weight routine. It's nothing crazy, but I'm hoping that by making a small effort in the strength department I will have decent arms on my wedding day... actually, hopefully before my wedding day as I'd like to feel more comfortable wearing sleeveless shirts this summer than I did last summer. :-) As Anna texted me the other day, "Success is the sum of small efforts, day in and day out." I like that quote - it's a good one!

After Job #1 I went shopping! Since my birthday was this month, I got several birthday coupons that expire at the end of the month so... I went to DSW and got a pair of boots. The retail price was $179. DSW marked them down to $119. Then they were 40% off. Then I had a $20 off coupon. When all was said and done, I got $179 boots for $54! Sweet!!! Now I will admit, they're rather lesbian-ish (Rebecca and Jessica, you are not to be offended by this ok?). I'll try to take a picture of them soon. :-) I also bought a pair of slacks - originally $79, and I got them for.... $26! I felt like a super shopper.

Monday night was spent with Andy making a big pot of chili. Since Seetha has allowed me to have beans (the only exception to the no starch rule) I was excited to have it, especially since it's still been SO cold. I feel like "winter" has lasted forever...

Tuesday, as always, was my long day working both jobs. However, I did manage to squeeze in some time for other things. First - Physical Therapy.

Stims...

+ really cold ice...

= super red knee

My knee is feeling better though still not perfect. I think I may have reached my "New Normal" as far as my knee goes. I do hope it keeps getting better, but I'd say it's definitely not bad enough to warrant another surgery.

I also managed to meet Seetha during lunch. I've been doing great with food and meditation. I'm feeling mentally strong, but I still asked to meet with her to make sure I kept the momentum going! She read through my food journal and said everything looked good! I have a long way to go still (21.6 pounds to be exact) but I'm trying to take it one day at a time and be proud of the progress I've made so far. Spending time with Seetha always makes me feel energized - gotta keep that feeling going as I head into my super stressful time at Job #1 again!

Tuesday also brought a special surprise...

Pretty little box

New earrings!!

Now I know you're probably thinking, oh how nice, Andy surprised her with earrings... Nope! They were a surprise because I completely forgot I ordered them! Haha. There was a big Kate Spade sale awhile ago and I got them for myself. I've always admired Anna's Kate Spade earrings - now I have a pair of my own!

And now we're all brought up to speed. Did my little weight workout again this morning. Tonight I'm going to Anna's to do a workout video with her, which should be a lot of fun. The only thing that's not going well is that I haven't been to yoga in a bit and I really need to go... I'll make sure to do that asap!

Have a good one!

Good Week!

Hello and happy Monday! Last week was great, despite being sick for most of it. Work was quiet and I stuck to my Seetha rules. Woohoo! This week at Job #1 I'll be ramping up for two more super busy weeks (and weekends) at Job #1, and while I'm nervous I'll be sucked into the work/stress vortex again, I'm feeling more stable going into it, so hopefully that will help!

Highlights from the week...

Elizabeth and Sarah both had birthdays! Happy birthday lady friends!!! Anna and Bipul celebrated their one year anniversary! Happy anniversary Anna and Bips!!

Wednesday - woke up to a squirrel-free house. Thank goodness. Job #1. Worked out with Anna at the club, which was really fun. She showed me an ab workout that had my abs sore for 4 days after. Seriously.

Thursday - Job #1. Then got my nails done with Seetha! I went with a really pale pink - they look so clean!

Friday - took a sick day... but still went to my physical therapy appointment (I had to cancel the week before and my knee had not been feeling too good... I don't know what she does but it's already feeling better). Also got my hair highlighted (I look GORGEOUS, lol). Andy and I also went to the cheapo movie theater and saw Lone Survivor. It was good!

Saturday - Job #2. Then... Andy and I got our wedding rings!!!

Andy's band and my band :-)

I guess I shouldn't say we "got" them. More like we started paying for them, and they're getting sized. Andy picked his out in about 15 minutes. Once he decided, that was it. I on the other hand.... "Hi, I was here a few months ago and found the ring I want. I can't find the paper it's written on, but here is a picture of it." (Lady gets ring). "No that's not it." (I proceed to try on rings for two hours, freaking out to the point that the sales lady offers her champagne multiple times). "Ok I'll take this one." (Chooses original ring). :-) Andy was a good sport.

After ring shopping, Andy and I hit the mall. I got a stupid professional looking blazer because I have to give a presentation to the Board on Thursday (nervous...) so I want to look sharp. Seeing all the new spring clothes made me really wish we were having some warmer weather!

Sunday - RUNNERBABS IS BACK! I met Elizabeth at Midtown and we both ran 5 miles on the treadmill. So proud of us! Now, they were slow, not completely pain free (I got a blister and my bad knee started hurting immediately as soon as we stopped). But it still felt great. I iced my knee as soon as I got home... the good news is I'm in no more pain than usual. Woohoo! Then after a quick shower, Andy and I met Anna and Bipul for brunch. :-)

Yay for Anna and Bips! We love when he visits!!

The rest of Sunday was pretty much spent running errands and cleaning. I also managed to finish my book for Mind/Body Book Club - "Proof of Heaven." It's a true story about a neurosurgeon who went in a coma and had a near death experience. Interesting. At first I was super into this book, but the more I read, the more skeptical I felt.

Andy and I also made a Seetha-approved feast for dinner.

No starch. No dairy (because it was after 4pm).

There you have it! Time to make a plan for how to navigate life and Job #1 without going crazy. Hope your weekend was good! Stay tuned for more frequent updates - I promise!

INTRUDER

I am finally done with all of my crazy busy work business. Well, sort of... I still have a lot to do, and the first week of April is going to be another doozy, but at least for the next two weeks I am able to breathe a bit and get things done on a more lax schedule. I've earned it.

Of course I figured once all of the stressful events were over I'd get sick. Yep. I was right. It's not as bad as I thought it would be, but I've definitely had a bit of a sore throat and pressure in my head. Andy's sick too. Poor us.

Now for the story most of you have heard, but some haven't so here we go...

On Saturday I came home from Job #2... the lamp in the dining room was knocked crooked and a picture on the wall was also crooked... that's weird... I fixed it... then I turned and looked into the living room... both lamps were knocked on the floor. I bolted! It looked like we'd been robbed and there was no telling if the intruder was still in the house. I called Andy. Called the police. Andy came home right away and went storming through the house with a frying pan. No one was there. Nothing was missing. And there was no sign of a forced entry... all the doors and windows were locked... strange. Then we noticed little poops. Yes. Poops. Next to the lamp and another picture frame we found on the floor. They were small poops. After waiting for the police for a few hours (seriously...) we called and told them not to come. It was just a mouse. We notified our landlord and the plan was to get some traps the next day (at this point it was very late). We decided to name the mouse St. Patty Mouse since everyone was celebrating St. Patrick's Day.

The next day (Sunday) I get a text from Brittany (she lives in the other half of the house). The mouse is on her side now! It messed stuff up and ate through a box of her cereal. I felt bad for her, but glad the mouse was no longer on our side. :-)

Monday. I didn't go to work. I got home from the grocery store around 4:30pm. I'm standing in the dining room when... ZOOOOM!!!! A SQUIRREL comes racing through our living room, dining room, kitchen, and then down into the basement. ST. PATTY SQUIRREL!!! NOT ST. PATTY MOUSE!!!! I stood and screamed (obviously) and then shut the door that separates the basement from the rest of the house. Then I opened our back door in hopes it would go out and not invite more squirrel friends in. Now of course, time passes, and I have no idea whether or not the squirrel left or is still trapped in the basement.

Brilliant idea - squirrel snack. Andy and I took a piece of dried fruit (persimmon actually), dipped an edge of it in honey, put it on a paper plate, and left it on the floor of the basement. If the squirrel was down there still, surely he would eat it. Or at least move it. We checked at night before going to bed. No movement. We checked the next morning. Still no change. 12 hours had gone by and the squirrel had not touched our tasty squirrel snack. He's gone!

WRONG.

I came home Tuesday after Job #1 to change into my uniform for Job #2 and to grab my dinner. I came in the front door. There was mail scattered all over the floor, the apple in our hanging fruit basket was half eaten, and there were poops on the counter. St. Patty Squirrel strikes again!!!! I could hear him running around upstairs so I got out of there asap. I called Andy and told him he had until 9pm to get that thing out of there!!!!

8pm - the following occurs via text.
B: How's it going?
A: The squirrel is gone
B: How??
A: Dustin (our landlord) and I cornered it with brooms and caught it under a Tupperware bin
B: What?!?! I bet he was so scared!
A: The squirrel? Yes he was definitely scared.
B: Were you guys?
A: Not really (I'm not sure if I believe that... I would be terrified)
B: What else did he destroy?
A: Gonna have to wash the douvee in the guest bedroom
B: Eww! Poop? Pee?
A: Not sure. The battle went down in that room.Definitely a smear or two.

You get the gist.

So anyway, I have been living with a squirrel for the last 4 days. I hope this sore throat isn't a secret form of rabies that I've contracted. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of any of the destruction (add to the things mentioned above a broken wine glass, a plant getting destroyed, and more pictures being knocked over, not to mention claw marks in the WALLS) but every time I saw it I was too scared to stick around and take a picture.

Anyway, I've met with Seetha, my life is getting more back to normal, and I'm ready to get busy with wedding things again. But more on all of that next time. :-) And I promise now that the concerts are over and St. Patty Squirrel is enjoying his new home in a park far away, I will update my blog more regularly. :-)

Mercy

I'm exhausted.

I'm not sure I've ever worked so hard in my life as an adult. I worked very hard in school, juggling loads of homework, after school activities, practicing... you name it. But whether in high school or college, I had some one else to make my food (mom or college cafeteria), someone to do my laundry (mom or, well... mom), and someone to clean up after me (mom again). I need my mom. In my 31 years I have never appreciated more how much my mother made it possible for me to work so hard without going crazy. These last two weeks I've had to work super hard and still take care of myself. I'm wearing my second to last clean pair of underwear and so far today all I've eaten for breakfast and lunch are donuts. Clearly I'm barely hanging on.

Have you ever made a power point presentation? Last week I made 8. Totalling over 1,000 slides. Did I mention that I'm exhausted?

This week I got to see that hard work come to life...while still working incredibly hard on other things. This has been my view each morning at our education concerts:

My view from the Production Pit

I will admit, I was pretty stinkin' proud of how well everything turned out. I don't know if I would say all of the work and stress was worth it.... well... if I had been able to do all of that work over a longer period of time it would have been worth it. Let's leave it at that. One of the concerts even got featured in another blog! Read about it here.

Of course I'd be leaving a big part of the story out if I failed to mention one of the concerts was cancelled because... we had a blizzard. Before you look at this next picture I need to make it very clear. There was NO snow here the day before. None. You could see grass, pavement, and bushes.

Employee Entrance to Job #2

And just for fun - even though I wasn't there to witness it, this also happened at Job #2... this picture was even featured on the weather channel!

One of my fellow associates

Anyway, I have one more final lap to go. There is a family concert on Sunday that I have to get ready for. All of the concepts are in my head, which is a good place to start, but at this point I have less the 48 hours, no volunteers (they all backed out), and whole lot of work to do to make those concepts a reality by 1:00pm on Sunday. THEN I'll finally get to breathe (for about two weeks).

Until then... back to work.

BUSY

I AM SO BUSY AT JOB #1 RIGHT NOW. Honestly - I'm juggling so many things, I can literally feel my blood pressure rise the second I step foot in the office (and any time at home when I start to think of everything I have to accomplish in the next week or so).

With that said - I don't really have time to really update this at the moment. I'm sorry. :-( I miss my blog!

However, I must at least announce that my birthday was yesterday. Thank you everyone for wishing me a happy birthday and for all of the wonderful cards and presents! I feel very loved. :-)

To celebrate my birthday (a day early), Seetha took me to get manicures, coffee, and then to a bikram yoga class. Since I've talked about her SO much, I finally got a picture with her (post-bikram, so we're pretty sweaty and gross) - now you can all put a GORGEOUS face to the name I talk about so much.

With Seetha at Bikram!

Ok that's about all for now. Also know I've stopped weighing myself (big accomplishment) but am also shoving everything I can in my face while I work through a stressed frenzy. I'm sure once I do get back on the scale, it won't look good. I certainly don't feel good. Once this all passes, I hope to get back to my Seetha ways asap!