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Luxuries

nashra85 — Wed, 11 May 2011 11:38:16 +0000

Ohh yes.. Leaving my home to go to the beauty school to get myself a nice hour of wrapping myself in

Blondie

nashra85 — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:24:01 +0000

Woke up in a very bad mood today. Felt like this was “one of those days”. Didn’t h

4 cm

nashra85 — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:58:29 +0000

This morning as I woke up. Well after a few rounds of battling a stomach that hates me. I suddenly f

I can has a cheezburger now? or, July Brain Dump

irandless — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:59:09 +0000

Lots of stuff going on, none of it being properly blogged. This month is testing my limits in ways I never even thought about.

I started my new job on July 1st. All is well there. I am learning the ropes and today I even got an engraved nameplate installed on my door. They can’t fire me now. Or something.

The first couple of weeks in Southwest Virginia were spent at hotels and motels and I finally could not inspect another room for cleanliness and watch the same 15 channels. So now I am staying at the lovely home of the boyfriend’s mom and step dad. They are super nice for letting me crash in their home. It’s clean, it smells normal (unlike the aforementioned hotels and motels) and I don’t have to do a room check for things that may creep me out in the middle of the night. This is a good thing because it is getting me used to the drive I will have to make when we move to Christiansburg. And the early wake up time, which, actually, is not going as bad as I thought it would. Granted this is me waking up alone and there’s no warm boyfriend to stay snuggled up with so, yeah, getting up in the morning is pretty easy right now. We’ll see how it goes come next month when we are reunited.

There was a vacation this month. Pictures can be found on Flickr. It was great and very needed. The boyfriend’s dad’s family has taken to renting a house in Chincoteague for a week in the summer. I was lucky enough to be invited this year. The house had a pink front door. Adorbs! There was surf and sand and the best ice cream ever and very little on the grid activities and shopping and horses and sun and mosquitoes and time with great people (something spending two weeks in hotels and motels seriously lacks) and quite, relaxing time and very little doing of the hair and bathing suits and sunscreen and Scrabble and reading of books and open sunroofs and really good beach bbq and pictures and sea breeze and fish catching and good times.

Sadly, there was also the passing of a grandparent. Dan got a call that his grandfather passed away. We left a day early so Dan could get some formal clothes together and head to N.C. for the funeral.

Now Dan is back in Richmond (packing up the apartment) and I am in Southwest Virginia (working and doing nothing). Hurry up and wait. That is my motto for the month.

I did get to spend a day with my mom after returning from vacation. That was really nice. We shopped, did some computer stuff and had dinner with my dad to celebrate her birthday. It was a nice dinner and the food was good. When is the food *not* good at Bonefish? Srsly. I enjoyed hanging out with the mother and the father. Probably won’t see them again for a few months. They have an RV now so there is talk of them coming out to Southwest Virginia in the fall.

Unfortunately, it all depends on a dog named Willow. Willow is the dog I picked out at the pound when I was 15 or 16 and declared ”of course I’ll take her with me when I move out!” Yeah, she stayed with the parents. Willow is about 13 years old. About 4 or 5 years ago she had melanomia in her gums. They operated and got it out and she was fine. A few months ago it was discovered that she had “a growth” in her bladder. The growth was getting pretty big, pretty quick so they operated. Turns out she had/has bladder cancer. Malignant bladder cancer. Mom is taking her to an oncologist for follow up. Poor Willow. She’s such a good dog and totally does not deserve this.

Dan has been great. He has taken care of most things involving the townhouse. His last day of work was July 13th so he has had more time to do such things. I did call and find out what the procedure is for getting water, sewage and trash service, so there’s that. Also, he bought us these salt and pepper shakers (probably because I went all girly on him when I saw them while in Chincoteague) and that totally erases all the bad stuff. Right?

And I want to see Despicable Me. In fact, the last three movies that I have wanted to see have been cartoons. Take what you will from that. I reprogrammed my car stereo with Southwest Virginia radio stations today. I have yet to memorize any zip codes out here. I know they start with 2. That’s about all I got. All our houseplants are sick and dying, all of a sudden. One that Dan picked out seriously just ate the dust in the matter of a few weeks. The stalk turned a dark brown/black, the leaves dried up and dropped off. I guess it just didn’t like us.

I’ve regained all the weight I lost last year, that’s been fun to deal with. It’s a combination of this and that and the other thing and snow (I honestly blame the snow, I was doing just fine until it snowed and there was bacon). Mostly it’s the too much intake, not enough outtake situation. I used to walk a couple miles a day and then it got cold. I’m a summer girl and hate being cold. Therefore, no couple of miles a day anymore. It’s like no one ever revoked my All You Can Eat/No Exercise Snow Pass and I’m trying to eat everything before someone remembers to take the pass back.

This month has also been the most expensive month of my life. Gas, food, hotels, repeat, more gas, clothes because last year’s summer wardrobe does not fit, and blahdy blahdy blah blah.

I think that might actually be everything. If you’ve made it this far, thank you and good night.

Lose Some, Gain Some (Pounds)

irandless — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:25:00 +0000

I don’t think I have ever talked about my weight loss journey on here so consider yourself warned that I’m talking about it now.

When I moved to Richmond I looked like this*:

Luckily my RVA employer participates in the Weight Watchers At Work program. So now I look like this:

In the past I went on diets and lost weight but it never stayed off for very long. My reasons for regaining the weight were: 1) I worked long hours and did not have time to pay attention to what I ate, 2) Taco Bell, and a lot of it, 3) eating late at night, 4) skipping breakfast, and sometimes lunch, because omigosh I’m so busy, and 5) maybe I’m just supposed to be fat. What I’ve come to find is that the reason was simple: I was in a bad relationship with food. There was a lot of miscommunication going on and the whole concept of eating balanced meals was a foreign concept. Thinking about the calories in what I was eating and drinking never even occurred to me. Joining WW was an eye opening experience. Food and I learned to talk to each and listen to what the other was saying.

I signed up for Weight Watchers and my first meeting was on June 3, 2008. In that 17-weeks, I lost 23.4 pounds. More importantly though I learned to be aware of the calories I consume and how to spread them out over the course of the day. After the 17-week session ended some co-workers and I decided to strike out on our own. We felt that now that we had this new found information that we could continue without the WW fee. We chipped in and bought a scale for the office and we weigh-in every Tuesday. We track our losses and our gains, we give each other pep talks and we talk each other down off the edge. Since going rogue, I’ve lost 19.4 pounds for a grand total of 42.8 pounds lost. One of my current mini-goals (because it’s important to have mini-goals so that reaching the main goal doesn’t seem so daunting) is to lose 10 pounds by the end of the year. September was a busy month and there were a lot of celebrations going on which means I ate a lot of cake and fancy dinners out and gained a bit more then I bargained for. All is well though, I am aware of the situation (and that’s one-fourth of the battle) and am refocusing on my end of the year goal.

I’m happy with where I am (especially when I look at that first picture, it just makes me think of this) but I know I have a lot farther to go. I know I’ll get there and I’m sure this past September will not be the only month when my feet hang off the back of the proverbial wagon. As long as my feet only dangle off the edge, I’m ok with whatever happens. Of course it would be preferable that they (my feet) put on a pair of sneakers and burn off some calories but that’s a whole other battle.

*Sorry, I don’t have full-body shots that document the loss; you’ll just have to trust the cheekbones.

Obesity and pregnancy a dangerous mix

matresearch — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:15:52 +0000

Obesity and pregnancy a dangerous mix Heavier women can deliver a healthy child with a minimal wei

About Me

yecca651 — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:30:00 +0000

So I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while, but just haven’t found the time. This is the post that gives you some background on how I got to where I am today…it wasn’t the healthiest path at first, but I’m still a work in progress.

When I was young (kid), I definitely had some baby fat. I didn’t realize this for a long time, until one day I saw a picture taken at Sea World and barely recognized myself. I didn’t try to diet or anything like that at the time, and around age 12, the weight came off on its own as I hit puberty. I remember the day I realized that the size I had been buying was now too big. I was in Gap, and the skirt I tried on fell right off. It was an exhilarating feeling.

When I was 15, I moved to Minnesota. From what I can recall, I was in the 105-108 range then, and dropped to 103-105 throughout most of high school. I ate basically what I wanted, but I know I was very observant of my weight. The scale in my bathroom was used daily. However, I do have a strong memory of eating more than I thought I should have one night, and trying to purge. It didn’t work (luckily!), and I berated myself for being so stupid. I became fairly rebellious and reckless as a teenager, but managed to hide it. Part of the reckless behaviors, like smoking, probably helped keep the weight off.

Now lets fast forward to closer to the time I moved to York. I was living on my own with three dogs and a cat. I still ate whatever I wanted, and never cooked for myself. I worked most days, so I either at ate the hospital I worked at or had fast food. I definitely did not make healthy food choices then. I had been diagnosed with ADD at this point and took medication for it, and I think thats the only reason my weight had remained the same. It definitely gave me a decreased appetite. Whats funny, is this is actually when my first interests in nutrition and healthy eating were peaked. It wasn’t for me though, it was for my pets! My dogs were on a raw food diet, and I spent more time on their meals than my own. Actually, I did prepare some food for myself. When I had time, I had no problem baking. It was always a box mix or cookie dough roll then! I was actually fairly active at this time. My job had me on my feet a lot, as well as having to walk my dogs several times a day, and then I would walk around the dog park with them. I actually have no idea how much I weighed at this point, but assume it was around my high school weight, but it may have been less.

When I was 22, I decided to move to York to be by my family after my grandmother passed. With this decision came some major changes in the lifestyle I had become accustomed to living and subsequently lead to what I estimate to be a 20-25 pound weight gain. First, I no longer had insurance or a doctor, so I stopped taking ADD medication (I still debate going back on them to help me concentrate). Second, I suddenly was getting home cooked meals, and while I lived with my family, there was always food around and it didn’t require me driving to get it (although I still got fast food a lot). Additionally, my parents told me I was too thin and needed to gain some weight, so I ate without thinking about it. When I finally was in my own place, I went back to my old habits of fast food and convenience meals. My new job was very sedentary, and I no longer had to walk my dogs with a fenced in yard. The friends I made only drank and ate when we got together. Before I knew it, I had gained the weight.

Early Spring 2006 (This is the only pic I could find)

It took me a while to realize it as well. One day I was walking at work and realized my butt was jiggling…I never had my butt jiggle before. I weighed myself that night, and was shocked to see 120 pounds again. This is what I weighed as a kid before I lost the weight, and swore I would never see that number again. Please keep in mind, I am only 5’2 and have a small frame. I became determined to get back down to 105, that seemed reasonable. The weight loss started very slowly. I cut out the fast food, but still wasn’t eating correctly. I never had breakfast before my job, because I was sent to dinner at 3 and got there at noon. I started to watch calories, but at the time, I really didn’t know what they meant. I was in that mindset of, if I save these, I can have ice cream or a cookie tonight. I didn’t exercise much, and it usually consisted of doing a Turbo Jam dvd (that lasted about a month) or walking. I started dieting in the summer of 2006, by the time I started my nursing assistant job in February 2007, I was around my goal weight…but I had started to become somewhat obsessive about what I ate, drank, and how many calories I was ingesting. It seemed easier to me to limit my intake, so I wouldn’t have to exercise. The new job was much more active and by the time I started my assigned shift of two 12′s and two 8′s on overnights, I was probably around 100 pounds. With the overnights, I would really just eat dinner and go into work. I wouldn’t let myself eat anything while I was there. I quit smoking and became even more obsessed about gaining weight. Then I switched to day shifts and worried that eating more meals would cause weight gain, and therefore became more restrictive. I would be so exhausted by the end of my shifts, I had no interest in preparing food, just sleeping. It didn’t occur to me it was because of depriving myself that this was occurring, I blamed it on the busy job.

August 2007

By August 2007, I was around 90 pounds (my lowest was 87). At this point it was like a game or challenge to myself, how low can you go? Luckily, one day I stumbled on Eat Like Me, and some things began to click in my head. Then I went to visit my older brother and his wife. I think staying with people and watching their eating habits helped me to also realize what I was doing to myself. After going through the pictures from the trip, I realized how thin I had gotten. On one hand I loved it: I loved being told how tiny I was, and being encouraged to eat more. On the other hand, I realized what I was doing to myself, and became scared that I was anorexic. I decided to try and be more healthy. Although I was still quite restrictive in my eating, I began to try to eat for food groups. I wasn’t necessarily trying to gain weight at first, just trying to be healthier. The weight slowly began to come back.

Finally, in the fall of 2007, I started college full-time, and cut my hours to 16 a week at my job. I think the combination of not as much activity, and being at home around food more helped me to start gaining back weight. I started cooking for myself more. By December 2007, I was back to 100 pounds. I didn’t want to gain any more, so I started going to the gym to maintain the weight. However, I’ve gained about 5-6 pounds more since that time. Some days I really can’t stand it and struggle with it, and other days, I love how healthy I feel. I love the fact that in December I got tired walking on the treadmill, and now I can run.

Fall 2007

I’ll be honest, I do still do running estimates in my head of calories, and I doubt I’ll ever fully escape that. I don’t regret anything I do though and believe everything happens for a reason. For me, the extreme weight loss and gain sparked an interest in food, nutrition, and exercise. It gave me the time to realize I really wanted to be a pastry chef after initially pushing away the idea for fear of gaining weight. I can’t wait to be trained to classically prepare cakes, pastries, and desserts, but then to also make healthier versions from these roots. Attempting to make healthier, lower calorie desserts while I was being restrictive is actually what resparked my interest in baking. I loved the enjoyment I would see when others enjoyed what I made even if I wouldn’t let myself enjoy it. I love that this journey has given me the insight to see food for what it can do for me.

May 2008