First Post ~ Explanation

Ok, so here's the deal. I have a few different places that I post "blogs" onto; MySpace, the DreamTeam, and Kimkins. Of all these places, I have lost about half of the posts (more on the dreamteam) that I have posted; I have seen a girl on Kimkins lose more than half of her entire 4 month weight loss journal; I would be devastated if that was me. Then I remembered that she had a blog, maybe here, maybe somewhere else, and she probably was keeping track of everything THERE that she had posted elsewhere. So, I'm going to take a page out of that book, and do the same. It saddens me to lose a post that I've done; I've posted on the dreamteam since september, and I have nothing beyond February on there right now. So, this first post is sort of an explanation of the purpose of this blog; the first few posts will be transfers from the other blogs, and then I will get started on here. Whatever I post elsewhere, I will have posted here, as well. This is probably not going to be seen by anyone; I don't really care. This is for me; an online journal for me to keep track of. Hell, it might be better if its personal only; then I can actually say what I think, and what I want to say, without worrying about who's reading it, and who's going to take it the wrong way, and what secret did I just reveal to whoever. Oh well, all in good time.

To reiterate...

This is a reiteration to myself, of my hopes and dreams and goals, why I am doing this, why its important to me to stay on track, no matter the circumstances of life getting in the way. I can't and won't use that as an excuse to stop me, or prevent me from getting the workout done. Life will always be there, that's not going to change. What needs to change is me, and my thought processes, and ...something. I have done this roller-coaster before a million times; I'm pretty much to the point in my life where I know what works and what doesn't. I know that being on a reduced carb/high protein diet works for me. I also know that a single "cheat" a week doesn't set me back. I also know that if I don't have my plan in place, I will fail. Something unexpected will come up, and due to my lack of foresight and planning, I will be reduced to fast food for dinner, and that's what gets me. Doing that several days in a row. So, I know I need to work on that; more leftovers to easily reheat, or more "simple, easy" meals - something that's fast on days like that, where I have 30 minutes between the time I get off work, feed the kids, and get them across town to basketball practice, or the same thing, 30 mins between the time I get off work, and have to meet up with my husband for dinner, where I'm bringing him his food. Those times are too easy for me to fall back on fast food, but I can't fall back on that several times a week; its counterproductive to my goals.

I don't necessarily have a set "weight" goal, per se; I'm shooting for about 145-150, but I'm more interested in fat loss, and looks; I want to look like an athlete. I don't care if I weight 170 lbs if I look like Laila Ali. I want a nice, firm, muscular, strong body, a body that gets me through the hard days at my physical job, but allows me to come home and do the things at home that are required of me; whether its cleaning, cooking, working out, or being with the kids; I don't want to come home and crash out on the couch because I am too wore out from working that day; too wore out to cook so I stick to fast food or reheated chicken strips and mac and cheese. I want to be strong and fit, so that work doesn't take up all of my life. I want to feel like I can do something outside of work, not feel like I'm spending my time outside of work recuperating from the job.

So, yeah, I want to look like an athlete; I understand. That means I have to train like an athlete. And I'm willing to work up to that. I recognize I can't do that starting off, and I can't get frustrated with myself for what I can and can't do. I can only improve, at this point, as long as I keep at it. And I need to remind myself on those days when I come home from a hard long very stressful day and just want to crash, I have things to do, and a life to live, and that's not going to get done while I just sit there, too tired to move.

Another Crazy Dog Moment

Here's more crazy dog stuff for ya...

Ok, my big dog, Asher, has this thing about people outside the fence, I don't know why, it drives him crazy, and in return, he does this really high pitched almost screaming bark. It bugs me to no end. Well, yesterday, after a really long day and a long week of working, I just came home and crashed. The kids were playing outside, and he was doing that squealing bark, and I just couldn't stand it anymore, so I put him on a leash and wrapped him around a pole for the additional 45 minutes they were outside so I didn't have to hear him doing that....This is the result of that time.

Another crazy dog moment

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I am so tired this morning. I worked a 12-hour shift yesterday, and then, for the second night in a row, I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and ended up lying there for an hour and a half, trying to go back to sleep. Its very frustrating to not be able to sleep when you are already so tired.

So, I'm working early this morning, so I will do my TT workout when I get home from work; then cook dinner, then go do my running around. For yesterday, I had protein shake for breakie, chicken chili for lunch, and stuffed portabello mushroom for dinner. Yum. Today, I will have the chicken chili again for lunch, and then salmon with possibly asparagus or broccoli for dinner.

Note from the Universe this morning

Ok, this cracked me up so much, I just had to share.

I've been getting these "notes from the Universe" to my email for a while now; maybe 8 months or so? I dunno. On the website for these notes, you can customize what gets sent to you, based on what your top goal is, or whatever, you know? Well, I initially had it set to "owning a house", cause that was what I really wanted. Well, we got our house, about 5 months ago, so I decided, after a while of getting the ones saying how I will get a house, lol, that I needed to change that. So I changed it to a sexy body, lol, cause that's what I want right now. Here's my note from today.


I've been thinking about your sexy, beautiful body, Amanda. Actually, I've been thinking about it A LOT. Even considering how it will affect other aspects of your life in wonderful, unforeseen ways. Sometimes (daily, to be honest), I even imagine you already own it. I vividly see you enjoying it; your heart racing, your friends talking, and your neighbors gawking. I can literally hear their ouuuhs and ahhhhhs, I can feel the high-fives, and I can taste the thrill of success on your lips.

How about you?

Hubba, hubba -
The Universe

So, working late at the clinic today, which is weird for me. I usually open and leave by 3; today I didn't go in until 11 and stayed till close (7ish). I was able to get up, fix my dinner, my lunch, do my workout, take a shower, get ready and go! today was a little hectic, hubby had planned overtime, so I needed someone to take my daughter to dance, but my sister came through for me. Went over to that girl's house after work and sat and chatted for about an hour; it was nice. Tomorrow is going to be stressful, I can feel it.

I actually almost had a disaster for lunch today, though. I was planning on making tuna salad to wrap up in romaine leaves; I had the leaves all washed up and packed up, and the veggies cut up that I put in my tuna salad, and then I scoured the pantry; could not find any tuna!! WHAT?! So, I figure, its ok, I'll go next door to work and get some there, so I went ahead and put in the sauce and all that for the salad, and then when I went next door to get the tuna, they didn't have it! They had the "lunch to go" kits with the crackers and the relish and the mayo packets, but that wasn't enough tuna, and I just wouldn't be able to throw away the crackers, lol. So, I bought some lunch meat and cheese, and was walking out of the store, and the girl who broke her leg was sitting there in her car, waiting on me lol (I'm the one who helps her in and out of her car when she comes to work). Because the day was so dead, she wasn't staying, but she needed me to follow her home to help her get out of her car there, since her parents were already gone. SHE HAD SOME TUNA, lol, and gave me some for lunch. So it ended up working out, even though I didn't think it was going to.

BTW, its hard to think up something on the fly for lunch that's low carb!

Day 1, week 2

I did some yoga yesterday; am unBELIEVEably sore today. I made myself a calendar to visualize the 84 days of this challenge, am marking each day as it goes, and listing what exercises I did. Last week I did only 2 (counting Monday as the beginning of the week) so I did 1 weights workout and 1 yoga workout. I have got to crack down this week, at least get in 2 weight workouts until I'm not getting as sore, and keep up on the yoga, wanting to do it on the "rest" in between days. Saturday is my day of complete planned rest; only because its the only day I'm so busy, I won't even be at home much, lol.

Week 1 down

Sunday is my day for measuring and weighing and all that, so I thought I'd go ahead and post all that on here before I got started with my day.

Height: 69 inches
Weight: 178.4
Waist: 31.5
Hips: 41
Thighs (L/R): 25.5/25
Calves (L/R): 15/15
Ankles (L/R): 9/9
Wrists (L/R): 6.5/6.5
Biceps (L/R): 12/12
Neck: 13
Chest: 40
Fat %: 31 (based on this website http://www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html)