Starting Monday…a journey to the finish…

Well, here we are. December 26th, 2007. I’m sitting in my basement at the computer…day after Christmas. I’m sick…and completely overstuffed on cookies, brownies…you know, the typical holiday sweets and other sugar laden crap. Nothing new for me. Willpower around Christmas? Please. That’s something that’s simply not comprehended in my mind. But alas, what can I do about that now? What’s done is done.

So here we are on the verge of 2008. I’m sure if you were to take a gander back at my last posts of 2005 and 2006, you’d see that I listed my resolutions, as I usually do at this time of year. Did any of them come true? Nope. Not one. Have I lost weight this year? Yeah…up and down the same 5-10lbs all year. After the past week, I’m sure I’m back up to 260. But…I’m not going to step on the scale…not today. I’ll step on January 1st. Just to see. I need a starting point.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the past few days…about weight loss. (No shit? Yeah, I know.) One of the key factors with weight loss I hear about all the time is this: you must change your lifestyle. And for the longest time, I always thought I did. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I never truly did. Despite the fact that I would get up early and workout every morning…I still work a desk job where I sit on my ass for 8hrs a day…which I have no choice about. I still lead a sedentary lifestyle…especially when it comes to the weekends. I find ways to cheat with my healthy eating and exercise, and still expect to see miracles when it comes time to step on the scale. Well of course you won’t see them, genius. If you eat healthy all week, and the gorge on beer and burgers on the weekends, you’ll break even at best. And that’s not what I’m working towards. I’m working towards healthy, and happy. I’m working towards 150…hell, at this point, 175 would be fantastic. Anyhoo, back to the lifestyle changes.

Yesterday on the ride out to Christmas with the fam, I had a talk with Jonah (the bf). I told him all about my need to change my lifestyle, and told him that since he basically IS my weekend life, that I need his full support..not only emotionally..but I need him to do these things with me. I told him that we can’t go to the bars every weekend and drink ourselves into a stupor…..then wake up Sunday morning, and go to the nearest fast food venue and stuff outselves until we pop. I told him that we were going to be more active in 2008…actually get out of the house and do things that require some physical exertion. (He told me that he wants to lose weight too..so what better time, ya know?) It’s time for us to quit our “Dan and Roseanne” lifestyle…and be more like…well hell…name a happy healthy TV couple. Can you think of one? I certainly can’t.

I’ve been sitting here calculating #’s…and as much as I hate to look at numbers as a goal, they really do give you something to work towards. So here they are…both in realistic 2lbs a week goals, as well as my semi-far fetched 10lbs a month goals. It certainly puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

REALISTIC (2LBS./WEEK) FAR-FETCHED (10LBS./MONTH)

Jan. 31st— 252      Jan. 31st— 250
Feb. 29th— 244     Feb. 29th— 240
Mar. 31st— 236     Mar. 31st— 230
Apr. 30th— 228     Apr. 30th— 220
May 31st— 220     May 31st— 210
Jun. 30th— 212     Jun. 30th— 200
Jul. 31st— 204       Jul. 31st— 190
Aug. 31st— 196     Aug. 31st— 180
Sep. 30th— 188     Sep. 30th— 170
Oct. 31st— 180      Oct. 31st— 160
Nov. 30th— 172     Nov. 30th— 150
Dec. 31st— 164       Dec. 31st— AT GOAL

Now as we can see, the first column certainly seems much more attainable than the second column…but hell…crazier things have happened, you know?

As far as my diet and exercise program go, I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to follow, but I’m playing around with ideas. I think I’m still going to stick with my recently out of business LA Weight Loss plan…it worked for me the first time around…and if I stick with it in 08, I don’t see why that won’t work again. As for exercise…

I’m still not sure. I told myself that I’m going to use the Power 90 DVD’s I have…but for the love of pete…I hate them. They get soooo boring. Seriously, so boring. After 2 weeks I just can’t tolerate them anymore. As much as those infomercials are completely convincing…I just can’t do them. When I first started this whole adventure almost 4 years ago (yeah, 4 years ago, I know…)I was going to Curves 3x a week…and that was it. Sadly, the Curves by my house has gone out of business…so I’m playing around with some possible substitutions. I’ve found that when I go at it alone, I don’t get much accomplished. But when I have a set rotation to work through (ie, circuit training) I get the job done, and I know I’ve done it correctly.
I think I’ll take a drive by the place called Figures (a Curves ripoff, but still in business nonetheless) after I go for my adjustment today.

Speaking of the chiropractor and other health related issues, my other biggest goal is quitting smoking. Yeah, I’m gonna do it this time. I mean it. In fact, I’m looking forward to it. I’m 26, and it’s scary to think that I’ve been smoking for 10 years now. Crazy, isn’t it? Anyhoo, I’m tired of feeling like shit…and wasting the money. In fact, I think I’ll start putting $12.00 a week into my piggy bank (at least what I’d spend on cigarettes in a week) and see how quickly that adds up. The state of Illinois goes non-smoking Jauary 1st, and thus, so will I. It’ll be tough…especially on my ride home from work…but I’m going to do it this time. Damnit.

My only other goal for 2008, and this seems silly after all of these big changes…but it’s still one I’m going to do…I’m going to read a book a month. Yeah, I know..it sounds so lame in comparison…but I’m going to do it.

Well folks, I think that’s it. I’m sure I’ll think of more as I go through my day, but those are the big ones…the ones that I’m going to need help with the most. If anybody out there in the viewing audience wants to check in with me every so often to keep me in check, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Here we are, to a great 2008!

It’s time for a revolution, Baby!

So here’s a funny story, which I’m still laughing at today. Oh boy.

So, I go in for my weigh in yesterday morning at TEP. As I walk in, I look for the sign-in clipboard which is usually sitting on the front counter. It’s nowhere to be seen, so I ask the rather frazzled looking girl working at the center where it is…

…to which she replies…

“The company is going out of business.”

Fabulous.

Just when I start over again…things are going well…the damn place goes under. And not just my location…throughout the entire United States. The funny thing is, I had a hunch something like that was going to happen. When I got that call a month ago, I knew their offer was too good to be true…and it was just a last ditch effort to get as many people in there as they could, and then break the news to us. Just my luck.

So…I’m going to continue doing what I’ve been doing…eat the remaining bars I have left, and find some sort of substitution along the way.

And as for the accountability factor…the entire reason I went back there in the first place…I’ve enlisted my skinniest friend. I told her that she must call me every Saturday morning at 10am, and she will be my official weigh in “coach,” if you will. I told her that I would be honest with her and tell her what the scale says, since she’ll obviously be at home, and so will I. She made me swear on her life that I’ll be honest with her.

I did.

So, we begin this on my own now. At 254, we begin.

Here goes nothing.

Down an additional 3.6lbs, bringing me to a total of 5 for the week.  I definitely CANNOT complain about that.  Yay!

The smoking thing…it’s a slow process, but I’m getting there.  I’m now at about 5 a day…this is down from close to a pack a day.  (For all you non-smokers, there are 20 in a pack.  Believe it or not, there are honestly people in the world who don’t know that.  I thought it was a birthright…)

Other than weight stuff…I’ve been having some weird arm pain in my left arm for the past 2 weeks…it’s my left arm, so of course, I think the worst.  I made myself an appt. with my doc for this upcoming Tues..but it was really getting on my nerves this afternoon, so I went to the immediate care center by my house.  (Not quite the ER, but you still get to see a doc when you can’t get into your own doc’s office right away.)  They ran some tests, did an EKG and a chest xray…and of course, the whole time I’m convinced it’s a heart attack (yeah, a 2 week long heart attack, I know…) or something heart related.  You can’t help but think that you’ll inevitably inherit your parent’s health problems…and I’ve always been worried about my heart.  Well, my heart is fine.  In fact (I mentioned to the doc that my mother had an enlarged heart, reason being she needed the heart transplant) the doc told me that my heart was small for someone of my size.  Is that a good thing?

So…

We deciphered that I am WAY TO FUCKING STRESSED OUT (imagine that) and he prescriped me Xanax.  I’ve taken one so far.  It chilled me out.  But it’s not something I really want to become dependant on.  Luckily, I’m not an addictive personality like that.  Except for chocolate.  But that can’t kill you.  Ok, I guess in a really long term, deranged sort of way it can…but you know what I mean.

So…we’ll see if that helps.  I still think something else is wrong…like a pinched nerve, so we’ll see when I go see my PCP, (isn’t it funny how the acronym for a general dr. is the same as a street drug?  Odd…), and see what see has to say.

Well folks, it’s off to finish my housework and put up my Christmas window stickies.  It’s a shitty day here in good ol Chicago…f*ing freezing out and complete with a lovely ice/snow storm.  Gotta love the mid-west!

Have a great rest of the weekend people!  =)