Hi.

So it's January and I'm sure a lot and not so much has happened since I last reported. 

I guess the big thing that's going on is for the past couple of months I've really been mindful of what I put in my mouth... at last check (about 2 weeks ago) I'd lost 15 pounds or so.  I'm hoping for a big loss next Monday because I've since added beaucoup exercise to my cause.  Yesterday I was on the elliptical for an hour!  Consequently, today my legs feel like they might burst out of their sockets.  I also began training for a 5k Wed night.  No worries, I'm not going to be all hardcore every day of the week like the past two... yesterday was a fluke.  At 30 minutes I felt like I could go forever.  At 40 I questioned my sanity.  At 50 I was unstoppable.  At 55 I wanted to kill myself, but I was way too close to an hour to stop so I did more of a cool down for the last 5 minutes and voila!  Originally I was on the fence about whether or not I was gonna go, then a friend of mine asked if I was going.  After texting her my uncertainty and saying i'd call her in a half hour she said "...K no pressure, just support. :)"  How could I say no to that?  It is so much easier to drag ass to the gym if someone else is dragging ass along with you.

November 1st I received my DIPLOMA in the mail! :D I am a Master, officially.  Huzzah!

My brother moved to California in August and I miss him like whoa.  I am planning a visit out there for April... hopefully I can afford it!

I developed a new strategy with work- any time I get angry or annoyed I fill out an application for something else.  I've submitted a loooooot of applications the past few months lol.  Still nothing.  Sucks.

That's all for now!

Slimmer This Summer Challenge Weeks 8 and 9

Sorry for my brief hiatus... I was crazy busy trying to finish up school. Last week I managed to lose 3 lbs and this week I gained 6!  Yes this past week has been my worst thus far, and I am going to make damn sure it's my last downfall... I don't have school as an excuse anymore... I now have the time I was devoting to my studies to reeeeally focus on my health.  That was painful today though at weigh-in... I felt like such a failure.  But I let that pass and now I am determined to turn my life around!

I also want to apologize... I have like 300 unread posts in my reader... I'll try to get to some soon and comment!  I'm actually busy at work for once and it's kind of nice.

oh yeah and btw, by "finish up school" I mean actually finish.  I can now say I have a Master's degree!! squee!

Slimmer This Summer Challenge Week 7

Ok a lot of things are winding down.  Sorry for the lack of a post.  Last week I lost 2 pounds, this week I gained 1.  I went away with the girls for a night and opted for candy and vodka rather than carrots and diet coke.  Since I weigh-in on Mondays there was no hope for me.  I had a nice work-out yesterday though.  I've incorporated the bike into my routine... my thighs were burning but it felt soooo good!  I'm back on track so I'm not even down on myself from this weekend because I had fun and I ate when I wanted to and tried not to stuff myself which is a good change I believe. 

On another note, tonight is my last class... next week is my final.  Soon, I'll be a Master!  Hahaha.  I can't believe it's gone by so fast. 

Keeping Motivated

I don't know that my title is grammatically correct, but whatever, you get what I mean.

After having soup with a sick friend last night it took all of my strength to not just go home and veg out.  It was getting late and I knew I wasn't going to make it to the gym, but my buddy had sent me a text motivating me to go (she was out of town) so that was in the back of my mind.  I made a compromise.  I called another friend and asked her to go for a walk with me, so we did!  It was a lovely walk... I have no idea how far it was, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was at least 2 miles.  It's going to start getting really hard again to go to the gym because I'm in a lot of pain from my herniated discs.  My hip/butt area kills.  This always seems to happen when I try to incorporate stretching and weight machines.  I think I'm just going to have to stick to the elliptical and occasionally treadmill, though that tends to bore me.

I have class tonight and I forgot my backpack at home!  Where's a mom when you need her? 

Wahoo!

Today was amazing.  I was in a good mood pretty much all day.  I ate pretty well and had an AWESOME work out.  It was really hard and I pushed myself a great deal, but in the end I felt great afterwards, well, great and starving haha.  I came home and made myself some tofu shirataki noodles and melted some laughing cow light cheese in them.  I also heated up a morningstar grilled chikn patty and steamed some snap peas.  I mixed that all together and it was delish! 

Class was alright last night.  We actually got out early... 9:15 instead of 9:40... I'll take it!  Tuesdays are so long.  Just six weeks left though and I'll have a master's degree! 

I appreciate all the support I've received thus far from StS challengers and other readers.  Does anyone know what I should do for my "bingo arms," i.e. the flabby mcflabsterness that's going on?

Oy, I'm tired.  Goodnight for now! 

STS Challenge Week 2...

Alright, instead of simply avoiding my blog like I have done in the past, I will own up to my setbacks.  I did not work out at all last week.  Not for lack of want, but for a lack of time.  I seriously never got home until late every night. I also for some reason was incessantly hungry and that trend is sort of carrying on through this week.  I weighed in yesterday and gained 2 pounds.  Not cute.

I did work out yesterday though.  I got on that elliptical and called it my biotch.  Luckily, I had some sweet man candy to ogle while I was at the gym :).  I totally nullified my working out though by eating two slices of pizza, two chicken tenders, a couple spoonfuls of crab dip, and curly fries.  You may be wondering if I'm really serious about this challenge?  Well, I'm not trying to make excuses for my poor decisions, but I really wanted a 3rd or maybe even a 4th slice of pizza.  There was also one lone chicken tender left in the basket that I was tempted to eat just because I didn't want it to go to waste... but I didn't.  I really kept thinking about how I had done enough damage already just by eating what I ate and how I don't want to be (pardon the expression) a fatass anymore.  I know we're not allowed to say the "f" word in WW, but that's what I feel like sometimes.  

Food-wise today has not been that stellar of a day... just pray the profs bring Subway again for dinner and not pizza tonight.  I will not get home until after 10 so I will not be working out today.  However, I will be there tomorrow for sure.  (Especially since I now have man candy motivation).

I did drink more water this past week, but not enough, especially not over this past weekend when it was near 100 degrees and I was outside in it.  Oh!  But it was my Goddaughter's 2nd birthday and she is SUCH a doll!  Her parents built her a playset for her birthday and she just had a blast all day on that thing.  She was climbing and sliding and swinging and everyone was doting on her.  It was a lot of fun.  We also had the traditional keg... lol... which we finished by midnight that night.  Note: no children were given beer, only juice boxes.. hahaha. 

Wish me luck on a better week!  And good luck to y'all StS challengers!

Panic! At the C-Store...

Yesterday I rounded off the day with a 6 inch sub from Subway, chips, cookie, and Diet Coke.  All of which was provided by my professors because they're beast.  My classmates, however, are annoying.  Maybe it's because I'm a senior amongst freshmen and sophomores?  Or perhaps I would like to be further along than page 6 of 16 after 3 hours!  Seriously people, send an email or something. 

However, today, is not going so well.  I had the incessant craving and NEEEEEED for Cool Ranch Doritos.  So instead of trying to eat around what I really wanted, I just bought the chips and ate the whole 2 and 1/8 oz bag.  And you know what?  I feel satisfied.  I feel slightly guilty, yes, but mostly satisfied.  I looked up the PPV (PointsPlus Values) and that bag just cost me 8.  That's cool though because while looking that up I recorded my weight finally and since March 21 I have lost 13.1 lbs!  That's a little over a pound per week... not bad I say.  That really just made me excited and not want to eat Cool Ranch Doritos for a while haha.

Keeping my eyes on the prize though.  The prize being the beach at the end of the summer.  Would LOVE to be slimmer for that!  

School Daze

So I originally started this blog to help me get through grad school while working full time and maintaining a social life.  I also started talking a lot about my weight loss journey that has been a long winding road of ups and downs, smiles, frowns, woohoos and boohoos.  Seeing as I am in my last semester of grad school, it's probably good that I start finding other things to discuss. 

The hardest part about this semester is going to be myself.  Staying motivated, focused, and doing what I need to do to get the grade I know I can get in this ONE class that I'm taking.  All that is asked of me is to read and show up (oh and take a 3.5 hour final at the end of it all).  I read for the first time today.  Class started two weeks ago.  Epic fail.  I really want an A, but I'm not exactly starting out on the A path.  Usually I'm all gung-ho at the beginning of a semester.  Now I fear that I've caught Senioritis.  I'm just so tired all of the time, reading will only make me fall asleep... right?

Now more than ever I need to push myself.  I need to finish up with the amazing grades I've maintained all along because this is my second chance at proving what I can do in school.  July 26th is just around the corner.  

Weekend (and beginning) in review

This past weekend was chock full of fun and excitement!

On Friday night I can't really remember what I did but it involved going to bed early because Saturday morning I was up at the buttcrack of dawn (otherwise known as 8 am).  We bought tix for Catherine (for her bday last month) to go on a tour around DC of all the different places movies have been filmed.  Cool, right?  Right, we thought so.  She loves movies and is always trying to go be an extra if she hears they are filming in the area.  Here is the tale of our (mis)adventure:
Picked up two of the three ladies around 8:45 and headed to Metro.
Platform said 11 minutes.
Waited 20-25 for said Metro.
Told third lady to hustle so she would make our Metro otherwise she may be screwed.
Third lady gets to platform in time to see the doors have closed.
Get to Union Station to meet up with tour.
Wait.
And wait.
And wait some more.
Third lady shows up, yay!
Tour guide finally shows up and tells everyone to go to the bathroom or get a drink or something and sorry he's late.  (I'm betting he was stuck somewhere on Metro).
Tour guide tells us about some movie things in the station and walks us outside to the bus.
Everyone piles on.
We drive maybe a mile (prob not even that far).
Turn around.
Street closed because of festival.
Also, DVD that is part of the tour experience won't work.
Back to Union Station.
Everybody off the bus.
Kbye.

So what to do?  It's a beautifully sunny day in the nation's capital.  Well, duh, go walk and see what that festival was that was blocking the road your bus couldn't drive on.  Turns out it was the Asian Heritage Festival.  Walked around there for a little bit then took a cab over to SE to Ted's Bulletin for adult milkshakes.  I highly recommend the tomato soup and grilled cheese with the mocha kahlua shake... delicioso!  The place is really cool too.

Then it was back home for a little rest and relaxation before I hung out with Lauren!  We grabbed dinner at Eggspectation and I turned her fears around with that place I think.  Then we saw Bridesmaids!  It was actually my second time seeing it, but I thought it was HI-larious both times so it was all good.  We ended the evening with a little nightcap in my kitchen then parted ways.

Sunday I slept in and did some tidying in my bedroom.  Then I met Cyndi up at the mall then went to Kelly's for a little feast and to watch Mean Girls.  T'was fun!  Thing I was most proud of?  Making it home from downtown DC in 22 minutes.  Not bad, not bad.

Monday I went to work and then worked out!

Tuesday class started up again.  Legal Aspects of Contracting.  I think it's going to be a good class, despite it being 4 hours every week.  After that I was starving so I raced to the pub to hang out and eat with everyone.  Catherine finished a comic that is AMAZING and HILARIOUS and debuted it last night.  A lot of people came out last night.  Special shout out to my girl Lucy who turned 21 at the stroke of midnight! <3

Today I have an appointment then I'm going to work out again... huzzah!  Oh btw, I weighed in and lost again this week!  HUZZAH!  Of course I just ate ice cream, mac n cheese, and an egg roll.... oops.

Allelujah! Praise Jesus!

Shit! I'm going to hell.  Just said the "A" word and Lent is still going strong.

Anyway-- I got some of the best news ever today.  My Tuesday night class, for one, has been canceled! AND he pushed back the due date for our 20 page papers to the 26th instead of the 19th!  So it will be nice to only have one 20+ page paper due that week... haha.

That was from a couple of weeks ago...

So today I figured I really need to update because it's been quite a while.  I weighed in this week and lost 2pointsomething lbs... go me!  In celebration, I went to the gym Monday evening because that class was canceled... I did and I didn't mind because well the obvious is... why am I paying for this?  However, Monday was BE-A-UTIFUL here in the DMV so it was nice to go home with my sunroof open and the radio playing.  Ahhhh.  That beautiful day was not an invitation though for mother nature to pour rain and clouds on us for the next two days, but the sun is back again today so I'll deal.

School-- I finished my thesis!  The best thing?  I finished my thesis a week and a half before it was actually due!  That being said I was able to email it to my prof, who will look it over and make sure all is well before I submit it to her next Friday for real for real.  I even finished my PowerPoint presentation and the abstract!  Go me! 
The fun part is now trying to figure out what I am going to write about for my 20 page paper that is due actually no later than 11:59 pm April 27!  I got a B on the 10 page paper I had due for this class last month, I'm kind of miffed actually because I honestly thought it was well-written.  He pretty much screwed everyone though, so I will just have to deal and work harder on this next one.  I am definitely going to hit up the school's writing center because I figure if I go there and I still get a mediocre grade, I can be like "what the hell do you want from me?" 

There are a couple dates this week that deserve mentioning.  Tomorrow, the 15th, is not only our nation's tax day, but also what would have been my sister's 29th birthday.  So weird to think of her as being almost 30.  What would she be doing now?  No one will ever know, but it's interesting to think about.  The day after that, the 16th, marks the fifth year anniversary of my mom's death.  I still think about her every day and wonder what she would be doing?  Would I be doing anything differently?  Would I have moved out already?  Would my mom still be working at Catholic and if so would she be doing what she really always wanted to do and be enrolled in classes?  All questions with no answers.  I find myself in that predicament quite frequently.  Oh well, I'll just keep on keeping on. 

One last shameless plug-- I am doing the race for hope in DC on Sunday May 1st!  I've almost reached my $1500 goal... so exciting!  If you would like to know more about the race and/or donate you can visit my team page, Team MFB, here!

Have an amazing end of the week and weekend!