Ta-Da!!

Twelve pounds. Let me repeat myself...

TWELVE POUNDS!!!! It's about time!

This has been such slow going...but I'm jump starting it again this week. Can I tell you how busy I am?...which leads to how tired I am!! ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

Last week I just flat did not sleep very well. If I went to bed at 10 p.m., I would wake at 5 a.m. So....I would go to bed sometime between 11 and midnight. It worked pretty good for the week, but I did run out of steam over the weekend. Especially by Sunday. We had Sam's family reunion Saturday...we do the putting it together here in town. Then on Sunday Carol and I drove to Corinth...a three hour drive...for the baby shower.

Then...Monday night. LEG CRAMPS!!!! I had been asleep about 30 minutes or so when something woke me. I couldn't go back to sleep so sat up, played Mahjong on the computer, listened to an audio book. Got back in bed about 2:30 or 3 a.m. The next thing that I am aware of...charley horse in my right calf like you would NOT believe! Where's the rusty butcher knife? Cut the leg off at the knee! Anesthesia not necessary! Where's the potassium?!!! ALMOST OUT OF POTASSIUM...not only in my body evidently, but also the bottle. Then...the alarm went off at 6:45 a.m.

I was a zombie yesterday. A friend commented about how tired I looked. Ha-HA! I worked all day then went to the building where the community stew is going to be served and helped set up...Chamber of Commerce work for Daingerfield Days. The dinner is tonight...so another long day.

Needless to say, I won't be going to the gym any this week!

Reward

I have been so excited to lose the weight that I've lost. I am disappointed that it's taking so loooong to lose it...but it's still "Adios!" This was my first exercise suit. A pair of men's sweatshorts I purchased at Fred's and a Daingerfield Days t-shirt from 2006 - back when they were putting the year on the t-shirts. "We" don't do that now and can sell last year's t-shirts this year. ;o) Underneath is an exercise top (aka bra). Everything is an XL.

When I officially lost the first ten pounds. I celebrated by purchasing a so cute set of exercise clothes...LADIES size large. But...I was so shocked at how fat I look in that photo! Girlfriend Earlene said that mirrors distort us. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I would keep stretching the image, but my neck is starting to look like a giraffe.

There are worse things.

Gotta go find my hat and boots.

People are So Nice!

I don't know how many people have commented on my weight loss! They say that it's showing in my face. This morning I put on yet another pair of capris that will go in the giveaway pile. With the elastic waist, every time I bend over, I feel as though my rear looks like Bubba's. ;o) If this keeps up, I won't have anything to wear to work.

A shopping I will go! Cha-ching! (Just not too soon...I want to drop yet another size.)

Celebrate!

10

10

10

I have officially lost TEN BIG pounds!

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah!!

HALLELUJAH!!!

And maybe even 11. ;o)

Baptism Sunday

Meet the other brother. December 14, 1954. Billy when he was little. Billy Joe when he started school and there were two Billys in his class. Ooops! Where did this come from? Yes...there's a story. I think I've blogged about it before. BJ when his first child, a boy was born, and also named Billy. He was baptized today. I had my camera with me and didn't think about whupping it out in church. I hugged him afterwards and told him that it had been a long time since he'd made me cry. This time...it was a good cry. Mama, Sam and I went to his church today. Along with his friends, we filled two pews. Later, we went to Mt. Pleasant to eat.

I finished my newest purse after I got home this afternoon. You know, this dieting and exercising is just not dropping the pounds like I thought it would. BFF Earlene said that muscle weighs more than fat. Sigh. I'm into month #3 and can't for sure tell you that I've lost ten pounds yet. I thought I had. One day last week, after getting off the scales, I was grinning from ear to ear. Must've been a low water retention day because it hasn't happened again. MOF this morning I started to throw the scales out the bathroom window...and that would've been a tragedy, but they are double paned fixed windows. They do not raise or lower. Pffffftttt. And I guarantee it's not because of the chocolate. I bought this bar before the quilting retreat where the tree limb fell on my car. Finished the last square a few minutes ago. Here's something to make me feel better. I think it's working!! ;o)

Clarification

Lani commented on my beginning time on the elliptical machine. I'm telling ya! It's a killer! The 30 seconds is the truth and nothing but the truth. However, it was after 20 minutes on the treadmill, a series of arm weight machine exercises, and 20 minutes on the exercise bike. After 30 seconds, my legs were like jelly. I was trying to 'step up' the exercising. But not that way!

The elliptical is giving me more of a workout than the treadmill, so I've dropped the treadmill for the elliptical. (16 1/2 minutes yesterday!) Then I do the arm exercises...then the exercise bike (I take a book to read while on the bike).

I took a real age test yesterday.
http://www.sonnyradio.com/realage3.swf

I scored 13 years younger than I actually am. To top it off...my life expectancy is 91.1 years! I'm not sure I want to live to be that old. Perhaps I need start smoking. Naahh. I'll just go eat more chocolate! ;o)

Won A Blog Prize!!!

Yippee and thank you Kelly at I Have a Notion. http://ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/ I have won an autographed copy of Pat Sloan's Quilt the Seasons, Book 2. I am sooo excited. Isn't that a gorgeous quilt on the cover or what?
I realized that I didn't give an exercise/weight loss report yesterday. I meant to but got carried away with other things. Looks as if I've lost NINE pounds. I never dreamed that I would have exercised for six weeks and have not lost ten pounds yet. Sigh. But that's the way it is. I need to take a photo of my exercise outfit. You'll laugh. But waiting in the wings. Waiting for that "official" ten pound loss, I have a reward. I've purchased another outfit. Getting rid of those XL men's shorts and XL t-shirt. The new outfit is ONLY a large.

I have ditched the treadmill for the elliptical. Groan! Back in the dark ages when implements of torture were kept in the dungeon. Masks with spikes. The rack. Shudder. If you'd been there back then, between those two devices of horror was the horror of horrors. Yes. You guessed it. An elliptical exercise machine. Bwahahaha.

I have accomplished the miracle of miracles. Yes. I have worked up from 30 seconds to --- drum roll please --- FIFTEEN MINUTES.

Oh. How sweet. Y'all did the wave for me. Bless your little hearts.

Weekly Report

The last two times Jonathan has visited, he's been eyeballing the small covered crocks on the top of my wall cabinets. He wants one for his sourdough starter. I have nine-feet tall ceilings and a space above the cabinets. I REFUSED to cover the top of the wall cabinets with silk leaves and flowers or even baskets. Everything up there can be taken down and washed. And everything really, really needs to be taken down and washed...but that's for another day. ;o)

I found this at an antique/junk store in Longview. I think it's perfect! No one has to climb a ladder and then stand on my countertop either. What say ye, Jonathan?Guess what I did yesterday? Yep! LOL Got the car washed. After the gym, I watered some trees. I've got a crepe myrtle that's really heat distressed. I carried two buckets down to that tree three times...about 10-15 gallons. Then, I gathered pears. I felt something crawling on my left shin. I looked down. A RED WASP was crawling up my leg. ARRRGGGGHHHHH! What to do?! This is the second time a wasp has landed on me! First time was in a restaurant. Sam thumped it off my shoulder then stomped it.

This time? What to do? Nearly frozen, I looked around. Saaaammmmm. Where are you? Hmmm...In the shop. In my left hand, I held a bag filled with pears? Nope. A broken twig on the pear tree? Hmmm? I broke the end off the twig, took a deep breath, swiped the wasp off my shin. It landed on the ground. Hallelujah! I ground the wasp into the ground. And felt not one bit of remorse!

NOT Daddy Bashing...

...But... For a very long time I felt that I had been fat ALL MY LIFE! Granted. I was a little dumpling at 9 months.
Awww...look at those fat legs. (Brother BJ isn't all that little either is he?!)
...round face and chubby cheeks...
First grade photo with face not quite as round and those pretty Cherokee cheeks... (Don't look at the bangs - Mama said she cut them short so she didn't have to cut them as often - sheesh!)
WHAT?! My least favorite school photo. The 3rd grade with my hair pulled back in a ponytail and my head looking like a skinned onion.
One day, looking back at old photos...I realized...I WAS NOT FAT all my life. Not in those few school photos...not in 1966 at Garden of the Gods in Colorado.
Yes...my high school graduation in 1971 - and I was larger in 1970! I suppose it was during my high school weight battle that Daddy started calling me Crisco.

But look what happened to me in the mid-1970s!!
This was just a few months after Jonathan was born.
Then almost too skinny here.
1996 after Ron died...not bad...
Now...well...seven pounds and some odd ounces ago back in April.
What brought on this reminiscing about weight? I just finished reading Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed. No. No raunchy sex scenes.

Not much mirrored my life.

Then, on page 364 in the next to the last chapter, I started to cry. The main character's dad was cruel and mean. He actually poked his daughter with a tennis racket and told her that she was fat. "Men don't like fat women." My dad never did that, but he did call me Crisco. Is that the same thing?

I was the only girl with three brothers. I don't think Daddy really knew what to do with me. Sometimes he really didn't know what to do with his sons either...but that's their story.

His term of endearment for me...Crisco? A term that instills confidence in one's self??? I must've missed its intention.

Weiner's character writes a magazine article and states: "There were a thousand words that could have described me--smart, funny, kind, generous. But the word I picked--the word that I believed the world had picked for me--was fat." That's when I cried.

Then she writes: "The truth is this--I'm all right the way I am. I was all right all along."

I'm still on the exercise/diet program. For my health, I need to shed about 30 pounds. For me. No one else. Because...I am all right the way I am!

Too Busy!

Had a great weekend! Jonathan rode up on his motorcycle, a BMW, and spent the weekend with us. He didn't have to go to work until tonight so left this morning. But he did stop by the office so that I could see him one more time. I gave him a neck cooler made with those water absorbing polymer crystals. A short while back he called and had stopped for fuel for the bike and himself. He said that he got the best gas mileage ever...46 mpg! And that it was so hot that he really couldn't tell if the neck cooler made him feel any cooler and it kinda got in his way when he turned his head. I told him to loosen it a bit.

He rides with a padded jacket. But it is denim and even though it has air vents, I bet it gets hot! I know that I purchased a mesh jacket (with padding - they call it soft body armor) for summer riding...which I haven't done any this summer. Shoot. I haven't been on a bike since June a year ago!

I received a cute e-mail this morning. I changed part of it to suit me...

Where I work, I can name my own salary. I named it, Sean.

;o)

Oh...slowly...and slower even more. I've lost about seven pounds. July 28 was my first full month. So I wrote a check for another month. I skipped the gym Saturday to wash linens for Jonathan's bed (we had company the week before and I hadn't laundered the sheets) and to do my weekly wash so that I could spend my time visiting with my son when he got here. Then I also skipped exercising after work yesterday because he was still here. Today though...I'll be going to the gym..

Ta-da!

About 6 pounds. In three weeks. I don't have a digital scale so have to guestimate.

This blog is getting plumb boring! No photos. No quilting. No sewing. No flowers. No gossip or information about anything. Just talk talk talk about exercising and slow weight loss. blech!!

I was watering my plants Friday. Had my back turned when I heard something. Turned around. One of the fern pots had slipped out of the plastic clippy-type holders and fell right smack dab on top of the mother-in-law's tongue/snakeplant/sansaveria. And broke several blades. Sigh. I keep the two pots on the floor of the porch directly under the two hanging ferns so that the water dripping out of the fern pots drip into the others. No more. Now the ferns are on the porch floor until I can get a better hanging pot.

I had an e-mail from Jonathan first thing yesterday morning. "Happy got hitched day." My heart went to my throat. I thought he'd run off and got married! To who?! Or whom?! About the third or fourth read-through...I finally got it. Sam and I celebrated our 13th anniversary yesterday. ;o) That was our first acknowledgement. MOF The ONLY acknowledgement from anyone else.

Love you Jonathan. But don't you EVER startle me like that AGAIN! Remember...THE Will?!

The Gym Saga

When I left the other day, I told Carol - co-owner with her husband - that it was a good thing she had a gun in her desk to threaten me with or I would not be putting myself through the torture. Beats me if she has a gun...but as long as I feel the threat... ;o)

I'm walking 20 minutes on the treadmill...a bit over a mile. Then I do the arm weight machine exercises. Then on to the bike for 20 minutes. Then another round of the arm exercises. I tried the elliptical...did I mention that yet? One minute the first day...one and a half the second day. Pfffft on it the third day. ;o) Saturday I thought that I would cut the torture short and get outta there early...but I didn't. I completed my regimen. Still don't like it. Won't ever like it.

I've lowered my exercise pulse rate from 135 to about 118...in only two weeks. I am extremely proud about that. Weight? Did someone wonder how much weight I'm losing? Not good. I haven't figured it out. But Earlene, dear friend that she is, uses this logic...I am burning fat and making muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. So I am actually losing weight...just the scales aren't showing it.

HOWEVER!!! I pulled on a pair of denim capris yesterday...button and zipper not elastic waist. They are looser than before. So...perhaps...

Stormy Weather

I had to go to the store Saturday for hot dog buns. We did a last minute invite for hot dogs and pool on the Fourth of July. On my way to town, I saw the clouds rolling in from the south. I ran into Brookshires, grabbed the buns, paid for them, and ran back to the car. Hurry...hurry...hurry to get home before it hit. This was the view out our back door. We literally saw the clouds roll in. Guess what. We got just a few sprinkles. Go figure. However, it rained on the Fourth...we still had hot dogs but no pool time.

Monday morning, Sam had to do a pool rescue. I hollered, "WAIT! Let me get the camera." This was a first for us.

Oh...you expect an exercise/diet report? 20 minutes on the treadmill set on 3.5 (I assume mph), 20 minutes on the recumbent bike set on E A S Y. I'm building sets/repetitions on the weight machines. Yesterday I added the elliptical. LOL I don't remember if I made it one or two minutes so anything today is an improvement. Weight loss? I'm throwing my scales out the bathroom window! Oh...can't do that...my windows don't raise. I keep expecting to get on the scales and see 5-10 pound drop...magically...overnight. And I am dieting...not severely but I haven't had dark chocolate much less any milk chocolate in about 6 months now. Yeah...I do tend to exaggerate.

Hey!

I passed post #400! This is #403. WOWSER!

Penny, The older man came in yesterday, but I had only been on the treadmill for four minutes and didn't want to stop. He was gone before my 15 minutes were up. I'll be more diligent next time!

Two pounds! TWO!!! One - TWO! That's ALL that I've lost after four days in h*e* double l. I get home and the sports top under my XL t-shirt that looks like a sack on me covering my men's sweatshorts and green sports top and my spare tire...anyway...the sports top is soaked...as in WET with SWEAT! I do not like sweating! I even went to the gym this morning...on my day off from work! I was there at 7:20. Tomorrow the gym opens at 8 ... yeah...I'll be going again. But Sunday they are closed! YIPPEE!!!! and HALLELUJAH!!!

The worst part of all this is that I do not like not eating what I want! Breakfast yesterday for example...1/2 slice of toast no butter or jam (it was with homemade bread so probably thicker and denser than the store bought 'wasp nest' as Jonathan's dad called it) and ONE cup of chocolate 2% milk. Lunch was 80 calories worth of tuna...JUST tuna - not tuna salad...4 Triscuits, a handful of baby carrots marinated in lowfat or nofat Italian dressing I forget what I bought, and half a Roma tomato with a bit of dressing poured over it. Supper...FOUR tortilla chips (break 'em in half and you have EIGHT-pffffttt) with salsa and ONE avocado enchilada a la cart...no beans...no rice.

That's the way I've been eating ALL week. Except for... ;o) Today... I still had the half slice of toast...dry no butter or jam...and the cup of chocolate milk...Gotta get the chocolate fix someway somehow. (Went to the gym...blech.)

For lunch....the Bible verse at the bottom of the receipt was Matthew 28:18 "And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to me in Heaven and on Earth.' " That was one good fried chicken thigh, partial order of fried okra, one bite of coleslaw...it was too sweet for me. I coveted the ear of corn the lady at the next booth was eating. But, overall - I LOVE Chicken Express. sigh

Tonight? I opened a can of green beans, poured them in a saucepan, sprinkled with onion bits, and yes I admit it 1/2 teaspoon of bacon grease. Boiled all the liquid away and savored every bite.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

We've had 2 or 3 days with occasional rain showers. And it's raining again. Nothing dramatic, but the temperature has definitely been lower. How wonderful when it's in the late afternoon and evening. This morning it was only 72 degrees compared to the 77-79 that it has been running in the mornings about 7 o'clock.

Monday morning Sam suited up... ...and rode to participate in Harley Davidson's 5 Million Mile Monday. He visited with John and Erin. They met up after their trip to the doctor to find out whether the baby was going to be a boy or a girl. It's a boy! And they already have a tentative name picked out. It's such a good one with good reasons...if they change their mind I will be very surprised. No...sigh...they will not be naming him after me. ;o)

Me? Not nearly as sore as I thought I was going to be. But every time I moved anything today...even an empty file folder...my left shoulder (the muscles in and around it) ached. I didn't think I would be able to do the routine, but I did. Without any additional pain. I'm plumb proud of myself.

Penny, he hasn't been back...but I've been carrying my camera in with me.