Month: January 2012

2 year weight loss kick off anniversary

January 11, 2010

I dove into blogging privately on blogspot to track my weight loss. 2010 – in my mind it was now or never. I never intended any of this to be public, but in April I learned about the Fitblr Community from Mr365 and TracyTakesOn (or whatever name she is using these days!) I migrated over in May and never looked back.

I just looked through all my facebook tagged photos and it’s really amazing to see what losing 45 pounds, gaining confidence and having a passion (in running) ignited looks like in photos. 

I want to always remember the woman who wrote these words two years ago. I never want to go back, but I am so thankful she started the journey of taking back control of her life! I hope I can honor her this year by finally hitting my UGW and getting those radio head lyrics tattooed on my ribs!

How Do You Measure a Year?

I knew in 2010 I wanted to make big life changes. Aftering a conversation with a friend during a long roadtrip I took the challenge to measure my year in “cups of coffee” as per the song seasons of love in RENT.

For the past 2 weeks I have been tracking my coffee intake and it got me thinking about tracking other things as well. This blog will be my living journal as I track these aspects of my life:

My weight
How often I go to the gym
What I did at the gym
How many miles I run on a tredmill
How many calories I burned at the gym
If I have not eaten after 9pm
How many times a day I wake up early to take a long walk with my dog

I’m committed to changing my diet and lifestyle this year.
I have been on a half ass diet for most of my adult life, that has yielded limited or temporary results.

I’d say the last time I really felt good about myself was my sophomore year of college/beginning of junior year. Looking back I really looked pretty great. Strangely enough I have no idea how much I weighed then either, therefore I don’t have how far off I am from getting there again.
I’d say I was also in decent shape my last semester of grad school. I even have TONS of great clothes from that period that I would love to wear again.

Well I’m dedicated this year. I’m testing my self, my mind, my body and my soul.
If I’m not successful in OH-TEN than I think I’m going to commit to being fat.

My dad struggled most of his life with weight and yo-yoing. He was heavy for most of my youth and then in high school he lost 100 pounds with slimfast, diet, and exercise. He even kept it off for 6-8years. It was when he retired that he started putting on weight again and obviously defeated he let him self gain nearly all of that weight back. His unhappiness with his body ultimately led him to get gastric bypass surgery which killed him.

I want to love my body, whichever body I am supposed to have and maintain. So if things don’t work out for me this year (which is a trial run, which if successful I plan to keep up for the rest of my life) than I want to stop trying to reach for something that is impossible and just learn to love myself where ever I’m at.

Now don’t get me wrong I will always want to stay healthy…I want stay active and try and eat right, but I think this is a test of my state of mind, body and soul.

Seriously, why halfway diet if you get no results. My body tends to like where it’s at regardless of what I eat or don’t eat, exercise or don’t exercise. So in 2011 if big changes haven’t happened I think I’m going to be content with how I look, but I can’t be content unless I try my darnedest within reason.

I have no plans to act like a biggest loser contestant, but I do plan on monitoring my sugar intake (my mom did that and transformed her body and her life),I also want to eliminate late night eating (only liquids after 9pm), in addition to going to the gym at least 4 times a week (I would like to try and get to a 10 minute mile on the treadmill), I want to walk more (morning walks with Freddie before work to get my blood pumping, parking farther at work, etc).

Ideally I’d like to lose 5 lbs a month (which means 40 pounds by my birthday which would be magical). I am only going to weigh myself on Fridays, instead of obsessively weighing myself. I’m on a kick of writing lots of things down (thanks in part to my coffee count) I have made a nightly checklist so to speak to keep my self accountable. I also think writing all this in blog form also makes me accountable. I not only said it, but I WROTE it for the whole world to see (not like the whole world reads this), so it’s pressure, but good pressure.

My mantra may come from a weird place, but it has been speaking to me nearly a year now:

I don’t care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul

It’s from Radiohead’s song “Creep”, but the lyrics really stood out to me when David Cook covered it in his old band Axium. Obviously I’m not looking to fit popculture’s definition of perfection, but rather the best version of myself.

If I meet my goal, I would also like to get those lyrics tattooed on my side/ribs. Recently I been to writing the lyrics everywhere to serve as a reminder of the task at hand.

I think this is all truly attainable. The only way I could fail is if I LET MYSELF FAIL.

I encourage you all to ask me how I’m doing and to keep me in your thoughts and prayers on my journey this year

My Life is a Rom Com

So today I emailed Lucas (aka Mr. Airplane Date) back before lunch. I didn’t want to come across too eager, but still reply in a timely fashion.

In the afternoon he emailed me back and included his number along with an invitation to call or text him. I texted him after work and we exchanged a few texts before I had to go run. Let me tell you I kicked those 4 miles ass.

We ended up talking on the phone just now for an hour! Casual, yet flirty. We have so much it common it’s crazy. I’m trying to just enjoy all this insanity in the moment and not get too ahead of myself. 

I believe in work, hard work

Aside from all the boy excitement (which I’m still reeling from and just emailed him back) my job interview went really well. I felt so confident. I made it a point to talk about my running and marathon training at appropriate times. I referenced how much discipline and focus it has given me in addition to becoming better at goal setting. I really feel like running has changed my life for the best and I enjoyed getting to have mini conversations with people at the interview who are also runners (like my perspective supervisor). 

I hope to hear about the job before the end of the month. Please cross your fingers and toes for me!

HE EMAILED ME!

To top off a fantastic interview day today I just came home and found an email from Lucas.

“Hey, This is Lucas the guy you met on the plane. Hope your interview went well. I wanted to tell you I had a really good time talking with you yesterday. Also, hope you made it home safe and in time to watch the game. Well I am about to watch the game. Hope to hear from you soon and maybe you will get the job up here.”

Stop. I. Cannot. Breath.

Now I REALLY need to get this job!

Meet Cute

Do you guys remember in The Holiday when the old guy tells Kate Winslet about the “meet cute” of two characters in a movie? A cute random happenstance type meeting is THE DREAM. In the world of on-line dating there are no meet cutes.

Well…

Shortly after my previous post I spot a cute guy (not wearing a ring, because yes I look) sitting at my gate AND he’s wearing an Auburn hat. It’s custom to say “war eagle” (it’s a long story) to someone wearing the Auburn logo. I secretly hoped he would sit next to me (obvi), but I planned to say war eagle to him as we boarded, but boarding the plane got crazy.

I get to my aisle seat and then a lady claims her window seat. Then I spot the AU guy and he’s on the aisle a row ahead and across from me. After he gets settled I say war eagle and we get to talking. The plane wasn’t full so the flight attendant tells people they can move. Well he moves back a row so we are across the aisle and…

WE TALK THE WHOLE 2 HOUR FLIGHT. (Much to the dismay of the people around us).

He’s 27, from the town I live in, but moving to VA for work. He was flying up to apartment hunt for the job he starts in 2 weeks. We had so much to talk about, including our height! He’s 6’2 – swoon. He reminded to a lot of Jason Segel.

After talking for like 1.5 hours (and me already have fallen in heart with him) he asks me my name and then I ask his. He replies “Lucas” and I almost died.

There is a running joke in my office how I need to date/marry a Luke because my male coworker is named Mark and my 2 female coworkers are married to a Matt and John. AKA names of the Gospel writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

I knew through our conversation that he was single and I alluded to it as well. Once we landed I rifled through my wallet for a business card to give him. I had to. I said something about how if I get this job and move up here we’ll have to start an “Auburn Club.” He gladly took it and said how he didn’t have his new ones yet for his new job.

We deplaned and walked to baggage claim/ground transportation together before it was time to go our separate ways. We shook hands and said goodbye.

It was like the best first date ever.

Praise the Lord I looked cute-ish for the flight. So we’ll see. Even if that one 2+ hour conversation is all it ends up being it was still freakin’ awesome!

Now I’m at the hotel and need to get back to interview prep since I didn’t get to do ANY on the plane, but it was well worth it!

Random Compliments

I am at the gate waiting for my flight to DC and had to share this. I hand the TSA agent at the security check point my license and boarding pass. He does a double take looking at my license and then at me. I said that picture was 50 pounds ago. He said “Well you look marvelous, keep it up!” Love it!

PS – the random coffee date meet up yesterday was blah, but it was fun to do something so spur of the moment.

Weekend In Review (Thus Far)

  • Had a date last night with the Army guy I’ve been casually seeing for a few weeks. We’re not exclusive, but we have some established rules so to speak. 
  • Ran 15 miles at my EXACT marathon-goal pace in nearly 60 degree perfect weather.
  • Worked/ing on a presentation for a job interview I have on Monday in the DC area.
  • Briefly logged into OKC for the first time in a few days and stumbled across a cute guy who I’d never seen before in my “search results” he messages me and we end up talking on OKC for an hour (turns out he just moved here last week from Nashville). Then we talked on the phone briefly and now made plans to get coffee with him in 2 hours  – because I’m “so beautiful/hot he can’t stand the thought of waiting any longer to meet me” (should I be flattered or scared? however he’s 6’5 and very cute, so I’m going with flattered).
  • After coffee date I need to go to Khols to buy a shirt for my interview, but the rest of my interview suit is perfection. 
  • Still need to work on my presentation because I’m flying to DC tomorrow afternoon for the interview that is Monday.

So yeah, there’s that. WHO AM I??????????

(Answer: I don’t care, but I love her)