things i did on my "stay-cation"

1. read a book
2. camped by a pretty little creek
3. ate great food
4. drank delicious beer
5. went to the coast
6. caught up on some DVR
7. petted the cat
8. slept
9. hung out in our boat drinking beer
10. walked (a little)
11. went to an amazing concert
12. celebrated theboy's bday
13. got engaged!

i'll say it was a very successful time away from work making it even more difficult to come back.

things i plan to do on my "stay-cation"

1. read a book (or two)
2. catch up on my DVR'd tv
3. camp
4. pet my cat
5. sleep
6. sit in our little boat on the lake
7. drink good beer
8. eat good food
9. work-out or at least walk a bit
10. not check email
11. celebrate theboy's bday

i'll be back in a week.

i didn't mean to, honest....

i didn't mean to disappear after i'd finally gotten things up and running again. and i especially didn't mean to disappear after throwing out the question of how to exercise with theboy in my life and my eating diaries and all that. i promise.

it's just that since i wrote that all sorts of crazy happened. crazy like construction on my condo and a new car and my parents visiting. and then things like drains clogging and talks of buying a new house and tons of work crazies and suddenly i was having little to no time to blog.

i will tell you that operation "less fat girl, little pants" (lfglp) is going well over the past couple weeks. i've been hanging out with the doctor/trainer when our schedules allow but have also done a good job of reintroducing running into the mix.

it's been 5 years since i ran my first marathon (3 since my last) and at some point a couple years ago after my knee injury, my body just stopped wanting to run, so i let it. but then a couple weeks ago i was out for a walk and i suddenly had this urge to run. so i ran my normal 3 mile walk course and was amazed at how great i felt, how strong my body is and how unbelievable it is that our bodies can do that. another marathon's not on my list right now, but i'm pleased to be introducing the running back into the mix.

i've also been doing so well with my eating! even on my bad days, i'm still eating much smaller portions and lately have been extra enjoying my weekly organic fruit and vegetable box. (plus my work started a small farmer's market and i've been picking up some extra produce there from my co-workers gardens). last night i made dinner for theboy - a yummy whole wheat pasta with roasted tomatoes, zucchini, shallots, basil and olive oil (all but the oil from co-workers or organics). yum! and i'm excited to have leftovers for lunch today.

theboy and i are taking a stay-cation next week complete with a couple days of OR camping and whatnot, but i hope to get back on the regular update train soon.

in other news...

avocado watch 2009 is still on. i've eaten through my whole stash, but theboy just let me know that we have plenty more. (for those of you not following me elsewhere, we ended up with something like 26 ripe avocados so it's been all we've eaten morning, noon and night).

however, i did accidentally eat at mcdonald's two times while we were camping last weekend. well, not accidentally. that stuff is like crack to me and i try not to eat it, but twice (driving both ways) we ended up in a total bind and it was the easiest thing to shove down my hatch. (read: not exactly the best weight loss program).

the next few weeks are a bit chaotic for me with work travel and family visits and whatnot so i'm banking on the end of July and August to be the official kick-off to get yourself back together 2009. my biggest struggle is how to manage working out and being in a relationship. in the past (like when i was training for marathons or super fit or whatever), i was always in a relationship with healthy eating and working out. now, although theboy is super supportive, we have bowling league and family/friend engagements and the hope to just sometimes spend time together which makes the whole in a relationship with the gym bit more difficult. i've cut almost all drinking out of my diet, but man my ass needs to get on a treadmill and be introduced to the gym more often than the once a week when i pay for a friend and a workout. ugh! any thoughts on this one? and before you spout off telling me to get up earlier, let me just point out that i am not a morning person (just ask my mom - it's not even worth speaking to me before i'm awake much less asking me to get up earlier).

the upside is that i randomly found my silver matte dome ring previously thought to have been misplaced at the hilton hotel in bellevue, wa plus i got a couple other cute fun rings...

listy

in an effort to keep myself on track from a dietary perspective, i though i might sometimes share what i eat each day (this will also help me post regularly).

and, i'd like to mix these food lists with someone other random dribble.

for instance:

so far today, i have consumed:

• Breakfast:
• 2 TJ's banana waffles with syrup (mmmm, these taste like yum!)
• one handful of bing cherries secured at last thursday's local farmer's market
• 1/3 of my cup of decaf coffee with splenda and skim milk (mostly b/c whomever made the coffee today, made it so weak that it was like milk flavored water - ick!)

• AM Snack:
• 1 stick reduced fat string cheese
• one handful bing cherries (see above)
• 5 saltine crackers (free from work)

• Lunch:
• one whole wheat tortilla
• one can tuna
• some mayo
• copious amounts of spinach
• 1/3 of my water bottle, plus a can of sparkling water (free from work)

My bi-weekly delivery of organic fruits and vegetables arrives today so that will help dictate what i inhale for dinner. i also plan to attempt my old 3-mile running course plus do some home weight lifting in my living room. this may or may not be jillian michaels style (just kidding, i never make myself work out hard enough to puke).

in other related (or actually completely unrelated) randomness, last night we started our new summer bowling league and boy oh boy are we in for a treat. some of our old league friends are still playing along, but we have some interesting new characters including old bedazzler (a man who was wearing an eagle bedazzled on his t-shirt and a "503" baseball cap), hard core bowler (an 18-year old who has been bowling every saturday since he was 4) and everyone will hate me guy (the tatooed loud mouth who announced during our team meeting that everyone would either love or hate him by the end of the season).

can't wait to see who we play next week...

Loser

i seem to be losing things left and right lately, mostly accessories. In the past few weeks, I've lost all of the following:

• 2 of the 5 rings belonging to my stackable ring set - one fell into the deep wastebasket in the women's bathroom at work, the other i lost in the LA airport. for the record, i did dig through a portion of the wastebasket, but then go embarrassed and just let it go.
• my silver matte dome ring. i took it with me to seattle a couple weeks ago, i did not return home with it
• my fabulous silver flower ring, the last time i saw it was on my cruise

the good news is that none of these was expensive (thankfully), but they were some of my current favorite accessories, no more.

in other good news, today i'm wearing a button down shirt and the ladies aren't busting out of it so if that's not a good monday, i don't know what is.

Fatty McFatterson

i haven't been posting here b/c i haven't been feeling particularly inspired to share the sordid details of my weight gain with the world.

the boy and i recently took a cruise and then i came home and managed to binge on things like cheeseburgers and beer with no exercise until suddenly i realized about a week ago that i now weigh as much as i did when i moved to pdx 4 years ago (and was also very unhappy) and that i only have two pairs of pants to wear which is why i've actually been wearing dresses to work 2-4 days a week. not, as i previously thought, because i suddenly enjoyed how feminine they make me feel.

since i lost about 15 pounds 4 years ago, i've, for the most part, been really good about eating well and exercising and have managed to stay within about 3-4 pounds of that weight until recently. last week i realized that i've gone so far past the point of no return that i no longer have the motivation to fix this on my own and that i needed to go back to training with a professional to keep me on track.

enter last night:

last night i might have fibbed to my trainerfriend about how much i had been working out and also maybe told her i wanted to be sore today. so, as asked, she kicked my fat little ass and went all jillian michaels on me, to the point where i almost threw up on her gym floor. (thankfully, she suddenly realized i was white as a sheet and made me go lay down and do ab exercises lest i projectile vomit while lifting weights).

i'm pleased to say that today, i feel only moderately sore with what i'm sure is a complete freeze up of unused muscles coming tomorrow. my biggest discomfort today comes in the form of a pain between my two seemingly gigantic ass cheeks where they rubbed up the bicycle seat for far longer than they would've preferred. yep, you heard it here first, my ass cheeks are a whining.

anyway, since i can't regale you with dating stories since theboy is pretty much fantastic and even cooked me a healthy dinner last night for my post-workout nutritution, you now get to spend the next few months with me figuring out how to get back into my size 4 clothes and dealing with my body whining every time i deny it a beer and offer it a 12-lb weight.

cheers.

ps - i totally have a little girl crush on jillian michaels. her angry demeanor seems to work for people and her 30-day shred is a great quick workout when i don't have time for much else.

one

today marks one year to the day of the first date with the boy. so since i didn't get him a gift and we're bowling in our league tonight, i thought i'd share some thoughts with you, dear innernets.

thoughts about the boy, one year ago today:

• since i'd just come off my dating whirlwind, that he was another nice guy but that i wasn't sure it would last beyond the summer
• that he was wearing a watch that didn't work and that made no sense to me
• that it was good (and bad) that he lived just 8 blocks from me

thoughts about the boy today:

• he is my person
• one of his many adorable quirks is that he wears a watch that doesn't work
• i love that he lives 8 blocks from me as i never have to shower in his shower and can always run home and change (this, however, has slowed the progress of us taking next steps as it's not inconvenient enough for me to be anywhere willing to give up my own place)
• he's the most patient, caring man who will do just about anything once
• even when i'm at my worst, he still loves me like i'm the best
• i have a new appreciation for ponds and spend lots of time thinking about one
• we can go anywhere and still laugh
• everday i wake up amazed that it is possible to love him more this day than the previous

many, many more thoughts to be shared on many, many more anniversaries.

tight skin

one of the side effects of a year of bliss with TheBoy, is the recent tightness of my skin. as in, the wee bit of weight i've gained.

even though we drink much less than we did in our initial months of courtship, we now cook and eat dinner together 3-4 nights a week and occasionally splurge on celebratory dinners, bday dinners and other such nonsense.

while i love the opportunity to be able to have dinner with him (and damn is he a good cook), we can't really eat my skinny girl diet of veggies with a blip of protein. he's a meat and potatoes kind of guy and now i have a meat and potatoes kind of ass.

we're headed out on an adventure in a couple months and my goal is to at least not to feel all fat girl, little pants by then.

ah, bf bliss.

just a thought really

i know it's february 2nd and we were all pretty excited this morning to see if punxsutawney phil would see his shadow (and send us 6 more weeks of winter) or not.

and, i admittedly, was hoping he wouldn't see his shadow b/c i'm ready for the spring/summer and light nights and camping and outdoor goodness.

but, i'm also a realist, and it was 30 degrees outside my house today and i had to scrape some ice off my car.

so...i'm still wearing my winter clothes. and no sandals/ open-toed shoes to work...yet. so, WHY did you?! it's freezing!

side note, i know this thing is dying a slow death. the boy and the stable/non-datingness that is now my life has sort of, no really limited, the amount of fodder i have for this place. there's not much to share about things like cooking dinner together and then watching our favorite show on dvr or say, watching the super bowl with all our other married friends while eating pizza and buffalo wings or running errands for things like new car batteries and laundry detergent on a saturday. boring for the blog, but domestically blissful.

my most exciting news...we joined a bowling league and got new bowling balls and shoes!


see where i'm coming from here? i promise i'll sporadically update this thing if/when i have something to report. (like the open toed shoes in feb.!)