Resolutions Review

Year end goal review:

Okay so I made some resolutions on January 1st so now it's December 30th so lets review how well I did. Resolution 1: Take another Move it to Lose It course in the spring. Keep on getting in shape so that when I get pregnant I will be a healthy mom. Review: I didn't take another move it to lose it class but we personally trained with Ryan at least 3 times a month plus I took the woman's workout class that was amazing! With working out so much I was able to get off my blood pressure medication. As for losing weight for a potential pregnancy, I'm not too focused on that right now. Having too much fun...way too much fun....to buckle down just yet.

2. Make it to Colorado or Utah for a back packing trip Review: We did it! Hiked some challenging trails and had a blast.

3. Balance healthy work hours so that we have family time Review: Doing better, at least 75% better. It just depends on the time of year but my priority is Chris.

4. Have a spending freeze so we can have major $$$ in our savings Review: Yeah, we need to work on this.

5. Replace the remaining windows in our home, thin some of the trees in the back yard so we can have a pergola on our hill (that is a picture of a possible one at Costco. Review: Nope, didn't happen but we are schedule to get 5 new windows in February.

6. Maybe getting established in a church. Review: Nope. I don't know if we will do this either.

7. Reconnecting with old friends/Making new friends. Narrative: Reconnected with some old friends which was awesome. Got rid of some unhealthy friends too! Bye Bye emotionally exhausting people, there is no room in our lives for you. We are totally making some new friends, which is awesome. It's nice to have people in your life who are just good people. We're having a blast and our social life has increased by 100%. Infact, we're spending the new years when some new friends so it's going great in this area.

So overall, pretty darn good! Stay turned for next years resolutions!!!!

Getting back the motivation!

Okay, I was in denial for a while there...maybe even a couple of years but things are working again and the motivation is there to eat right again. The motivation has been there for the last year for the working out but eating healthy is the other key to success. No matter how much excercising you may do, eating like crap is not going to balance it out. My new motivation is like saying hello to an old friend and I'm welcoming it back with open arms. I'm feeling terrific on the new plan and it's fitting well into our lifestyle. We're both seeing some super results. That rocks!

So one thing that I always found motivating is posting a picture of an outfit that I want to fit into. Last year, I picked out a pair of shorts. Okay, so I didn't have a good plan last year but this year, it is crystal clear. I have the tools to do what I want and need right now. I'm doing well at creating my workouts in the morning. I'm doing a run/walk right now for the HIIT part of the workouts and I'm going to step it up a bit after the new years. So here's the new outfit, a size 10 patagonia capris and a tank. Watch out...I'm getting things in gear again. The eating well and working out will help a ton because we have a major trip planned next year for back packing and we want to be in the best shape ever. If I keep this motivation, we will be there!

It's working for me...

Down 5lbs from three weeks ago! Nice! I'm still holding strong with the new eating plan. There has only been a few times when I have been hungry but so far so good. I'm still attending WW meetings for the support though because I need to keep focused with my goals.

On a positive note, my dad is cancer free! That is the best wish that anyone in my family could ask for. His PSA test came back normal. Yeah for dad!

Took a snow day...

Snow days are terrific. Especially in December when the first snow hits. I'm just lounging today which is a terrific thing because I don't usually do that. I've been decorating the tree here and there today but mostly fooling around and doing nothing (yeah, that's terrific!). The carb cyclingis doing awesome! My body is really responding well to it. I'll keep you posted on the weight.

I'm back...

Fourth day in and I'm loving it. Eating every 3-4 hours is really working and the scale is heading down. The only bummer is that I don't get to weigh in on Saturday but I will have to wait a week because I can't attend the meeting :( things are back in a routine and it feels great. It also feels good to be losing again. Nothing is worse than being in denial about your weight. I've been in denial since May. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction.

Not tearing anyones head off...

Usually when I switch things up my body hollers @ me "like what are you doing to me?". It hasn't happened yet. I had a killer workout today too. I'm doing full body 3x per week w/ 15 minutes of cardio and the other days just cardio using the HIIT method where you are doing more of an interval training. The food is going good, I'm eating 5 small mini meals throughout the day. Tonight I made a killer turkey burger with spinach, feta, and red onion. It was delicious! Chris did great on the plan today because he had a big luncheon with some senators today and ge opted to ear healthy! Way to go Chris :) here's to another strong day.

Does this fall into the category of fad dieting?

We've been having so much fun lately that the weightloss side of me got pushed aside so it took a while to get back on plan. After a lot of thinking about switching things up, Chris and I decided to try out carb cycling. Our friends have been doing it for four weeks with a ton of success and it seems like it is up our alley. We are doing the workouts but the nutrition has been so sloppy lately that we are begginng for some structure nutrition wise in our life. So would this count as a fad diet? Looking back, I lost a lot of my weight when I was making the egg white omelets in the morning. I haven't done that in years so maybe this system will help. I'm open to new ideas at this point. We eat every 3 hours, this is the 1sy day, no hunger pains, and I'm not tearing anyone a new one yet...I'll let you know how it goes!

Schedule...

Okay, lately it seems like our structure is somewhat out the window lately and we are looking to firm it up. Getting to the gym earlier for my power/strength class is really wearing on me. Who would have thought adjusting my schedule by 45 minutes would make such a difference but it does. I'm still learning to adjust but man it's been a rough week. We're also having our schedules vary of when we get home. There are days that we are getting home on time and then there are days we are getting home late. So it's all about firming things up this week :) we can do it, we just need a plan. As for eating healthier we our new sets of friends, we did! We hit the symphony on Friday and went out for one drink afterward :) which is better than getting more to drink or ordering appetizers. Yup, we can make healthier choices around new friends.

How to be healthier when socializing???

So all of a sudden we are totally busy. We have been extremely social lately so the nutrition needs to really get firmed up. We are eating out a bit much and our old rule of eating out once per week has fallen by the wayside. So how do you create a balance? Any ideas especially when you are meeting new people? We need to work on this :)
With meeting new people I got hooked up with a new weightloss buddy too. It's kind of nice to have someone at the meeting you know that will be there so there's no excuse to skip. On another weightloss front, I joined a strength training class at the YMCA. I'll let you all know how it goes. The only downfall is that it starts at 5:00 am. Eek!

My old website is going...

I almost forgot that my old weightloss page is going offline in two days. When I started to write it was 1999. I was in my second year of grad school, poor, overweight, dating sluggy, miserable with some parts of myself, and determined to meet my goal. Look at me now, 10 years later, I got an awesome life. Great husband, my parents are stll alive, I have a job, and I'm healthier now more than ever plus I'm comfortable in my own skin. The web was exploding with journals and I thought what the heck why not put one out there myself. I lovEd that page. My enteries were inspiring, I really put my all into it. I got to meet cool people like my girl Anji who I hope to meet in real life one day, made amends with someone I did wrong in high school, and basic got awesome support from others. Though there were a few downfalls like a former client finding my page and eventually stalker but I learned some important lessons like "don't assume you are anonymous on the web" because people can find you and "don't put anything out there you wouldn't want your enemy to know out there". But it's been worth it. I hope oneday this page could but half as good as the old site. Geocities my hosting site is shutting down on the 26th of October. I hope I get time to back it up but if not at least it leaves me with some great memories and a sense of accomplishment on who I have become. So here's to the next 10 blogspot and I hope we are both around!

Now I understand why I didn't wear that sweater...

Have you ever had a top that you haven't worn in forever just to wear it to then get the aha moment of "so that's why I stopped wearing that"? That was me today. It's been about two years since wearing that top and it totally made me semigrumpy because I know that it wasn't the most flattering top. I've been encountering that a lot lately since bringing out the fall clothes. I started a small box of clothes that I need to drop off at goodwill or Salvation Army. The stuff needs to go! The old me would just hold onto the item but lately I have been somewhat mindful of getting the clutter out if my life. It feels good so goodbye icky sweater that makes look like a total pear :)

Did I mention how fab the IPhone is?

Okay, I cannot stress how much I love the weight watchers application. It is simply AMAZING! I logged my points all week so I had a super week last week. It's quick and easy. I should have had this phone a long time ago! Oh well, I have it now.

Chris and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. Chris is an amazing husband and our relationship keeps on growing. He's a terrific guy and I love him dearly. I'm very fortunate to have such a man in my life. So here's to many more years of happiness :) We went to Frankenmuth for the anniversary and it was terrific. We had a great room, hit a brewery, and then hit Zehnders for their "famous chicken dinner". They had free drinks at the hotel and I had two beers so it knocked me off my butt! I'm not a drinker, I usually eat my calories so I was surprised to see how smashed I got on 2 beers. Yeah, that was something. I'm a lightweight now. Then on Saturday we got together with our wild friends and hung out with them. We ended up going to a charity basketball with them which was awesome because some college kids were playing against all the local coaches. All I can say is that the college kids were amazing. We were supposed to go to a party with them but we got to the party and the house was all dark so we found out the get together was cancelled. The company is always good so that didn't matter.

My dad finished his radiation treatment last week so everyone send him some positive thoughts. He did well during the treatment so hopefully the cancer is gone. We'll find out more in January so we'll take it day by day. My dad is amazing man so hopefully everything will be good. I believe it will.

Felt spot on today...

So maybe I am getting back into the swing of things. Day 2 of logging all the food. One thing I've noticed about tracking is that it keeps me so accountable with what I put in my mouth. Like today I was so tempted to stop at Jimmy Johns to pick up a Turkey Tom sub but I weighed my pros/cons and opted for an apple, protein bar, and some butternut squash soup. That was a much better choice not only financially but health wise too.

I finally broke down and got my own iPhone. I love it! The weight watchers application is amazing. It's helped me a great deal this week so far. When I eat, I log...no excuses so far. What put ne over the edge about getting my own phone is that my favorite radio stations got switched over to sport talk radio and there's only so much NPR I can put up with because it tends to repeat itself in the morning and evening. Pandora is amazing. Goodbye regular radio!

Nice...

Awesome day today. Not only did I count all my points but my attitude is back in the weightloss mode. The icing on the cake today is that professionally I got asked to be the regional coach of the therapy technique that I specialize in. Which is totally awesome because it's a huge state thing! So I'm not a big fish in a little pond but a good sized fish in the big pond. I've been working really hard at being the best I can be in this therapy and it's really shown in my work. So here's to a good day! Let's keep them coming :)

Having trouble coming up with a snazzy title...

Very unoriginal, I know but I'm having trouble with coming up with a title. I think the running theme in my life for the past year is getting back on track. How do you do that when you go off slightly? It's like, how do you veer back over to get into the right path? My old friend noted that she thinks that I've been lost for a few years. Maybe I am...I don't know. But are you lost when you are happy with the majority of things in your life? I know it sounds strange but when one is lost, I tend to think that they are confused, unhappy, but I tend to think that I just don't have a path right now. Maybe I just don't know what I want with things. It's not like I am in limbo but my goals are unclear. I used to be a type of person that would have this type of goals like "I want to save money to pay off..." (did that), "I want to go back to the gym" (did that/doing that), and "I want to lose weight" (got partial of it off). But what are my goals now? I don't know. It seems lately my goals is "make it to the weekend" mentality. Trying to keep in the moment but looking forward to that down time so I can enjoy my husband, family, cats, home, and new friends. Having 3.5 hours a night before bed time just stinks. The other night, I got home at 5:15 and I thought it was the most wonderful thing. I got to cook from scratch, organize my pantry, and relax. I haven't done that in months. I want to do that more. Maybe that's a goal to have. Maybe I just need to target things more realistically, get specific but it's like I can't right now because I don't exactly know where to go. Things are good but they can be better but then there are always those forces that we can't control.

Things are going excellent for us. We did our yearly pilgrimage to Amana. It was awesome as usual where Chris and I rested and relaxed. We sprung for the condo and it was well worth the money. It was so nice to just chill out, sit on the couch, and hit the festival whenever we wanted. Our social life is continuing to pick up. It's nice to be hanging out with decent people again. We're hitting a museum today and lunch, then tonight we're going out to a barbecue with the other friends. We call our one friends our "Frasier friends" because they are highly intelligent, love to travel, and cultured. Then we have our "wild friends" and oh, are they wild. Which is awesome because I don't think I've ever hung out with people like them but they are a hoot. We're constantly laughing around them. So we're doing better in the social department. Now, we just have to tackle the personal goals...yeah, it will happen but I just need to get back on the right path. I'm patient.

Getting back on track...

I've always been a future orientated thinker but since my dad's dx of cancer, it's made me more focused on my present. I used to think/worry about tomorrow but now I'm just focusing on today. It also made me focus more on what I can control, which is nothing but by reactions to situations and being the most effective person that I can be. Lately, I've been pretty effective :) I've been getting back on track and I've needed to.

Weight wise, I'm staying put but not losing. I need to get back to tracking because it's just not budging. I know what I need to do. I let my emotions get me off track because of stressful situations so here I am again. The workouts continue to be strong though. We met up with Ryan our trainer last week for a tuneup and he made some helpful suggestions so that adds to the support. I'm planning on going back to weight watchers this morning after a 3 month hiatus...yeah, that is not good.

One goal I've had this is year was to meet more people. Chris and I have been extremely active socially lately which is good. Though, it doesn't always balance in with the healthy eating. We've met a few new friends and so far, it looks promising. We have a few couples that share similar interests and tastes and they appear to okay. It's hard to meet people when you are in your 30s with zero children and that don't have "issues" or an "agenda". One thing is that a couple of them are challenging our comfort zones, which is always good. We went out to a club with one couple and it was like at first "oh God, I'm too old for this" but at the end of the night it was like "wow, that's awesome". We'll see how it goes but it's nice to get out of the house and socialize with others.

My dad is doing well. The scary thing about parents is watching them go through health stuff. That just sucks but I believe that my dad will be healed. He's in awesome spirits. Now, I'm just worried about my mom and how she is handling the stress.

So my life is keeping me grounded...it's good to be back.

Getting back to our normal...

Things are finally settling down. I've been meaning to post our vacation pictures for a while but it just took forever to organize them. Overall, it was the best trip yet. I loved outwest and I can see why people are attracted to live out there. Eastern Colorado and the Mt. Zion National areas were two of my favorites. So enjoy the pictures.

Life is interesting...

I have to say that I have been blessed with an amazing life. Really, it is amazing. I am so thankful for everything that has been given to me especially for my parents. I just found out that my dad, who is 74 has prostate cancer. They've known for about a month and half and dad is undergoing radiation tx right now. So if you can, even you don't necessarily care for me, send out positive thoughts to my dad. He's a terrific man, hard working, honest, caring, and considerate. He is so positive right now. I'm truly amazed by his strength and character. He's the best.

Loving this..

We are having an AMAZING trip. We just got out of the backcountry in Rocky Mountain National Park. I burned 7000 calories in the past two days and I am not sore! Thank God for our trainers or we would have been dying. We made it up to Boulder Field below the Keyhole, which is a huge success.

We are loving the trip so far. Today we are hitting the breweries in Colorado. Chris is in heaven. We were able to hit Brekenridge and Tommyknocker. We were going to hit Flying Dog but they moved and another was closed. We have to get those calories back that we burned :)

Lots of fun!

Okay... No offense if I have any Nebraska readers but omg Nebraska is the worst state. Driving through it takes forever. We were trucking through there and I got pulled over fo doing 5 mph over. Luckily I got off with a warning. I was rush to get to my favorite store Sierra Trading Post before it closed. So I learned my lesson no speeding. We made it to Fort Collins, Colorado and what a town. It's an amazing town. Lots of fun...2 breweries and great night life. So far, this trip is wonderful. We're going to hit Rocky National State Park today and I can't wait until we get out on the trail!

Traveling and eating healthy...

One thing about travelling is the challenge of eating healthy. It's almost like you just want to go with the notion of " hey I'm on vacation who cares about eating?". Yeah, it's good to indulge some but you have to pay the price when you get home. Plus eating out gets really boring after a while. What we have been doing the last few years is that we pack breakfast, lunch is usually a sandwich and fruit, and dinner can be a stop at a grocery store or out but at least it's planned. Having a plan is good :)

Backpacking pizza and Pad Thai on the trail?

Who says that trail foods need to be boring? We practiced making backpacking pizza and Pad Thai tonight and it turned out terrific. Who says that trail food has to be nasty? Chris successfully dehydrated pizza sauce last night and he was able to whip up some pizza on the backpacking stove. Amazing! I never knew we could cook like this. He's just giving me trouble for making him eating oatmeal in the morning but I keep on telling him I'm going to jazz it up with some berries, cinnamon, milk, and some nuts.

I can't wait. I'm getting more and more excited. Today I looked at a coworkers map of the US and we are hitting a ton of states. I'm so ready for a vacation! Only a little while more. Thank goodness I have a hubby that likes to travel :)

My workouts have been strong and I've been working on the treadmill a ton to get ready. I'm at a 15 incline walking 3.0 right now (which is terrific for me). That will prepare us for the Narrows at Zion. Watch out...here I come :) Here are some sights on where we are doing some major hiking. Thank God we have been working out for a year now! Yup, it feels great to be active!

It's not a good idea to...

We're gearing up for our trip within the next month so we've been trying to dry our own food. Yeah, there's a bunch of commercially foods out there but they are loaded down with sodium so Chris had the idea of drying the food after doing some reading about it. Well, it's a great concept but man, it's difficult. In my attempt to make organic peach roll ups, they turned out horrible. Chris has been attempting to dry up some eggs so we can have scrambled eggs out in the back country but so far, no luck.

I'm getting so excited for our trip. It's going to be awesome. We got our bear canister in the mail on Friday so we will be safer. We are going into bear country so it didn't help matters that we watch Timothy Treadwells Grizzly Man last night. Yeah, that was great timing :(

We are this close to....

Vacation!!! Yup, just a while more but we are almost there! The count down is on :) It's going to be an awesome time. Chris booked a room at the Bellagio for one night while we are out west. He figured that we are going to be close to Vegas so why not go? It's an awesome feeling to know that a terrific vacation is going to happen soon :) The one thing I love about Chris is that he likes to get off his butt and explore. This vacation is going to be packed with exploring. We're tenting, backpacking, hiking, geocaching, and doing the things we love to do. Within the month, we will be out of here!

Cherry picking...

The one benefit of living in Michigan is the availability of fresh fruit. I'm loving the fresh cherries and blueberries that we are able to access. Chris and I went cherry picking last night and had a blast. I love this time of year!!!

Life is good. I've made it to the top of one climbing wall and almost to the top of the other. Weight is stagnant at this time but hopefully that is going to change. We still need to get back on track but we're almost there (that is, Chris and I). We just need to track our food. The workouts continue to be strong.

It's a hot one today...

Working out this morning, Chris and I wonder how in the heck do people run in this type of weather? There would be no way that I could or would do that. It's a hot 93 degrees today with some humidity going on. This type of weather reminds me when I lived in KY. I found that weather to be awful down there. It was like I couldn't even go outside in the summer when I lived there. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

I'm still doing some slopping eating. This accountability thing has got to get back on track because I've been sloppy. Last weekend was probably the worst eating I've done in a long time...I was throwing back a few drinks at a wedding we went to so it was like, "Geez, Kellie!". That's not like me either but I got hooked on Vernors and Captain Morgans. Vernors is a Michigan ginger ale that is an acquired taste but it is so good so I had about 3. Yeah, not a good choice there. I totally didn't care what I was doing in that moment. I had that "it's free booze so let's celebrate!" mode going on. I'm shaking my head at myself right now (I'm feeling like I'm confessing all my sins). I did manage to have some self control but I've got to get back into the groove. On a positive note, my clothes are fitting terrific on me. All my hard work at the gym is paying off and I'm still wearing clothes that I would not wear normally at this weight. I've got the gym under control, now I just need to stop the snacking. It's stalling me...

Trying to figure things out..

Ever go through a phase in life trying to figure things out? That's me right now. I'm seriously looking at what needs to change for the better. I got out of Weight Watchers last week after hearing about two members that started in January lost 30 pounds...I want that. I need to figure out why it's not there for me yet. What's my hang up? It seems like I'm always stuck between the committed and relapse phase. It's not that I relapse when it comes to exercise but not writing down what I eat is a major issue. I need to do that better. It's like I have a strong couple of days then bam, I get busy and fail to log things. I know what I am doing and I need to keep my goal in perspective, even when it feels so far away.

The other phase is people in my life. I just don't get people anymore. Maybe I never got them. Why are people so strange, not up front, or just simply not truthful? I have no place in my life for gossipers, liars, etc. Are there any good friends out there anymore? I'm so not blessed in this area. I'm okay with that but it truly sucks when a friend screws you over. Humm, that sucks. Do I have a bad friend magnet or what?

I've been coming this close to...

I've been coming this close to buying an iphone for myself. I love Chris's iphone and all the applications. Apple is offering the 8G Iphone for $79 refurbished. The only thing that has been keeping me from buying it is the data plan cost. Chris gets a discount from work for the phones but paying the additional money out a month is still keeping me from purchasing it. I love the WW mobile site and it's super convient. I've gone back to tracking my food carefully this week so hopefully I will see that scale move. Paper tracking hasn't been too good for me lately so I've gone back to tracking online again. I guess what ever works but I just need to track!

Nice weekend...

It's the summer time and we are getting busy! Between weekends at the boat on Lake Michigan and visiting with friends and family, we are running. It's a nice running though. I love the summer! Life is good. We're busy every weekend this month. We have a wedding, fathers day celebration, and a mini camping trip. You can't beat that.

Excercise is going good but I have to firm up on the nurtrion. I'll keep plugging away. I'm wearing clothes that I couldn't fit into 3 years ago, which is amazing. Everything is paying off!

Sleep is important...

I occasionally participate in the oncall rotation at work and this week has been a whopper. Not fun, I was up for 40 hours without sleep which is definitely, not good. Every time I would get snuggled in for a rest, the pager would go off. I never recognized how important sleep is until an experience like this.

I had a strong weigh in this week. 2.8 pounds down! Nice! I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm packing my lunch for work and that has been helping. I love those Arnold thins and I put some natural peanut butter on there from Koeze (which is local from Grand Rapids) and some low sugar jam that I found at Big Lots from somewhere in Europe. Then I pack a greek yogurt or Kefir from Costco, and have some fruit. I can eat on the go with no problems or worries about what I am going to eat. As usual the Weight Watcher meetings have been absolutely phenomenal this year. I look forward to going and get a lot out of the meetings. It's a nice reminder why I am doing this and sticking to my weight loss. It's slow but worth it. I love the feeling of putting on jeans that I haven't been able to wear in ages.

I've been struggling to get our garden put in this year. Last year, I was able to put it in around late April but this year it looks like it will go in some time this weekend. Hopefully, we'll be able to put it in today. We bought a ton of plants last weekend and I'm eager to get it going. I'm going to plant less lettuce this year and have more squash. We'll see how it turns out.

Life continues to be nice and smooth. I'm taking off a whole week in a few weeks to just relax and start my summer off nicely. I'm really looking forward to that.

Nice to see...

I only made it until 10 pm last night but it was great to see that Jerry won the at home Biggest Loser contest. He definetly showed America that he could lose the weight at age 64. Good for him! It was an interesting season and I'm looking forward to the next round of contestants. This show never gets old for me...yet.

Doing great here. We're taking a climbing class and it's amazing. I burn about 450 calories a class. Who knew that climbing a wall would burn so many calories!

Thanks!

Thanks for your support. I guess I need to look at my options about this with a clearer head. What it boils down to is that maybe I just need to stick to my boundaries and share some stuff but maybe omit the details of we are joining this group or we are going here....etc. A few of you have been with me ten years, that's a while. Why should I just give up? I guess I need to look at it as if stalker is going to be there, he is there but I can be smarter about it. So I think I am going to be back but just be a little bit more intelligent about it and not share some details. I guess everyone needs to have experience like this to learn an imporant lesson as in share some information but not everything.

It's a good day. I'm wearing a pair of capris that I haven't been able to fit in since 2005. Life is good. Thanks for being there and I have a clearer head. I'm on my way to my goals and nothing is going to stop me now because I am centered.

Goodbye, Farewell!

Dear Stalker

Thanks for making the right decision with my husband. That was very nice of you. I'm tired of your games. First you joined urbanplanet, then meetup, then the YMCA now the sushi group. If you were truly Chris's "friend" you would have respected him more by stopping the stalking of me. If you wanted to know what he was doing, you should have asked him instead of just coming on my site and peering into our life. So it's nice to know that you will be out of his life. A huge thank you to you! The appropriate people know about this and if anything slanderous was to occur, there would be appropriate action taken.


Dear readers

As you have seen, I do have a stalker. It used be a couple who Chris and I were close with but two years ago, I distanced myself from them due to certain behaviors. During the past year or more, the husband has been on my site frequently, in order to ensure that he is no longer taking tabs on my life, I'm done with the site. Thanks for your support. If you are an oldie, you know where to reach me.

Kellie

Everything always works out in the long run...

We were not able to go on the hike this weekend. Bolton got another UTI and we had to cancel because he is on antibotics. Poor kitty! We're going to switch his diet so hopefully that will help. We spent Tuesday night in the vet hospital and that was very interesting. There was one guy who had a beautiful lab that had blockage and he was losing weight because he ate something bad like a tennis ball and the dog was skin and bones because he was not eating. The guy was complaining because he didn't have the money for the procedure. I don't want to know what was going to happen to the dog. There was another couple in their with their cat and they spent about $2K on their cat saving his life because of blockage. Hopefully, we will not have to go that route with Bolton. It's funny that when you know something is going on with your animal. He said to cry again and we're like "oh no" so instead of waiting another day, we just took him in. So no trip. We'll get with them again in the future. There's always another trip.


Drum roll [please]...I'm down to 180 this week! So I'm on a good roll again. I talked with Ryan last week about my ups and downs and he encouraged me to look at my work out again and get that heart rate up. I've been getting on the treadmill the last week at 15 incline walking 2.9. That really gets my heart rate up. Then I did the kettle ball and that is a super workout. Chris noted that he was getting bored with the workouts so he's been following me. Hopefully, he will get out of the funk. I was able to fit into my size 14 shorts which is terrific. I need to get rid of my 16's because they are too big!

We were going to go out to Chris's cousins boat in Holland, off of Lake Michigan but the weather is not looking good today. Chris was going to help Mike put up the sail but with the 40mph wind gusts, they are like no way. I need to find some good support because when I saw our sushi picture on facebook, I thought "oh no I need some new bra's" because I have the tendency to lose weight in my chest first first. I have some gift certificate at Macy's so maybe I will be able to find some there. I really hate Macy's though. I loved Hudson's which turned into Marshall Fields. Macy's tends to be overpriced and carry expensive clothes that don't have the quality that I loved with Hudson's/Marshall Fields. Chris's parents are going to come up and check out the new doors so it will be nice to see them. Then we're off to the Polish Halls because it's halfway to Pulaski Day's...it's a Grand Rapids thing were all the polish halls are open. I love Polish food! We'll take care all-Kellie

PS. You are so funny stalker! Must you join everything that we do? Come on, now, this is really taking the cake on this one. Sushi? Since when did you like sushi? You're a meat and tators guy. Give it up...stop the stalking. Are you planning on hunting down which group we go backpacking with? Maybe you need to chat with someone about that because it's not nice to stalk people. So why are you still talking to Chris, huh? Show my husband a little more respect than just doing this.

So my computer decided to take a dump...

On Sunday, my computer took a dump. Argh! I had it for about six years and I loved it. It was a HP Media Center computer with a huge hard drive and it had a tv tuner which acted as a DVR. Luckily, we did not lose anything because everything was backed up on the new external HD that we bought around Christmas or I would have really freaked out. Once you lose pictures of family events, it's semi traumatic. When the drive took a dump about 3 years ago, we lost wedding shots so it was awful but we didn't back things up because I never had to until then. It was a good lesson to learn. We browsed the ads and decided to hit Costco, Sams, Best Buy, Office Depot, and Office Max. After some investigation, we found the perfect computer at Sams. It has everything on it and it was $200 cheaper at Sams than Best Buy. So we got it. This morning is the first morning that I get to play with it because I have the day off today :) So far, so good. I got a lot of use out of that old computer so hopefully, this one will last as long. The one thing I hate about buying new electronics from stores is the question, "Do you want a warranty with that?". Even at Sams it was this high pressure pitch about needing a warranty. All I have to say is that if it fails, it fails. Having a cashier pressuring me into a warranty and reminding the money we're spending on the product doesn't help either. Maybe if they had a softer sales pitch I would be more apt to buy it but once the pitch is given, I'm shuttering away. Even if it is a good option. I just don't trust people like that.

Things are going good here. We had a terrific weekend filled with a bunch of activities. Saturday we worked out with Ryan so that is all good. It's amazing how many calories you can burn with a trainer just doing strength work. Then we were off to a 5K at a local brewery benefiting the Special Olympics. We had a great time with a coworker and her crew. Then we were off to Home Depot to buy some paint. We need to paint the foyer so we picked out a new color. We're looking forward to painting that. Then Chris joined a Grand Rapids group on facebook so we met up with them and had a great time. It was great to meet some new people and they were different from our usual type of people we are used to hanging yet we fully enjoyed ourselves. We are looking forward to next months meet up. Then on Sunday we raced around town trying to find a computer. So overall, it was a great weekend. We are differently working on out goal of getting out and meeting other people. We both tend to be a tad shy on warming up to new people but it's always good to put yourself out of your comfort zone.

We have our trip to the North Country Trail coming up so we're looking forward for that. 21 miles of backpacking! Yikes, it's been a while since my pack has been on my back so hopefully I will not be killing myself :) We looking forward to the trip a great deal. I'll be sure to take some pictures of the experience. I hear it's an awesome trail. Chris has been fooling with our new camping stove to see what the water boiling times are to ensure that we have enough gas. We're going to attempt to cook on the trail with some fresh ingredients instead of boring old freeze dried food which is usually higher in price and not as tasty plus it's full of sodium. We checked out some books from the library on cooking for backpacking so hopefully I will find some good recipes.

One feeling I hate no matter what is the feeling of going into a weight watchers meeting knowing that a gain has occurred. I can spin it all want but I gained this week. It is my fault. My accountability continues to be on the poor side with tracking my foods. I've been totally sloppy. It continues to be my laziness that I have not been tracking. I know what I need to do and I need to get back there nutritional wise. My workouts are amazing. It's just been my lack of time with preparing meals ahead of time and not writing things down. I have to stop freaking out about it and do something about it because focusing on what I am not doing well is not going to help the problem, it's jut going to make things much worse. So with that, I am up a pound. Second week in a row. We've all been in this situation and once we come out of it, its amazing but it totally stinks. At least I know what I need to do. Now I just need to get to it. Take care all-Kellie

That was a super fast weekend..

I think we overdid ourselves this past weekend. It was amazing but it was so tiring. Chris wanted to buy some hiking boots for our big trip coming up in a few weeks so we went into East Lansing home of Michigan State University to pick up some boots at one of our favorite stores called Moosejaw. They fit him properly and he was able to pick up some sweet Scarpa boots for 30% off. He definitely needed a pair of boots because the last hike we went on, his big toe was getting smashed. This wouldn't be good if it happened on our trip. Since we were in Lansing, we decided that we were so close to Detroit, we should just hit it again. One of our favorite breweries called the Motor City Brewing Works had a blueberry mead on tap so we wanted to try it out and it was terrific. We also hit Ikea and Trader Joes. As much as I love Trader Joes, I'm sickened by the vast amounts of people that lack the manners in the store. This is the reoccurring theme in the stores. People stumbling over each other, bumping into others, cutting, etc. Argh, it gets me going. Then on Sunday, Chris made the lamb on the grill and we took it down to his folks in Kalamazoo. We spent the day there and came home late last night. We did too much because our sleep last night was rough!

Speaking of our trip, Chris has it planned. We're going to hit Utah, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona. We're going to attempt to climb Longs Peak so that is going to be a huge challenge. In order to get prepared for the trip, we're going to start taking local trips that push the intensity. It's kind of hard when you live amongst the flat land but it's doable. We're also going to take a rockclimbing course at the YMCA to burst my confidence level with climbing so that I will be able to make strategic decisions when I need to. It's something that I've always wanted to do but it's way out of my comfort zone.

Drum roll [please] I gained .6 this time. I was relaxed with journalling so I have to recommit to it. When we were at Chris's folks, I used the iphone so this helped with tracking foods. I just need to get over this slump. My clothes are fitting so much better. I was able to wear a pair of pants yesterday that couldn't get over my thighs six months ago. I'll take that! I just need to strengthen my accountability because I went over some. Yesterday I really did well at controlling myself with the snacks so I'm impressed. I focused on eating a few shrimp cocktails and leaving the yummy bread alone. I will be one with my journal this week :) Take care all-Kellie

The only thing about working out in the morning...

The only thing about working out in the morning is that every morning I am up at 5am! Body, could you at least sleep in once in a while? Today I was up at 5am all ready to start my day. Yikes!

Things are going great here. I spent the whole day organizing my kitchen and bathroom. I thought I would actually get more accomplished yesterday than I did but that's okay. I have 2 completely clean rooms now :) I started to organize the dormer but it got a little overwhelming so I'm going to need Chris's help. I need to get rid of some stuff and I need help taking it down. I've got a ton of old textbooks that need to go and I'm not too sure what I need to do with them. I'm keeping my favorites but what do I do with the rest? I don't want to toss them. I was thinking I could recycle them but I'm not sure if they will take old text books. Clothing is another area that I need to let go. I have that sentimental trait of, "Oh, I wore that when"...I know I need to let it go but man, why do I do this? I think this whole organizational task is definitely going to last more than 1 day. I think it's going to take a whole week to sort through the stuff properly :( it has to get done. Well, I got to hit WW. Take care all-Kellie

New doors!

They are simply amazing!! My 1930s Sears and Roebuck home is singing tonight because it's looking terrific. Now we just have to get the rest of the windows replaced and new siding. It just takes time and money but it's nice to see what a difference the new doors make :)

I love a four day week :)

I'm working four days this week. Two down, two more to go!!! Thank goodness we still get Good Friday off because it always comes at the perfect time of year. I'm going to spend my Friday cleaning out my dormer and getting stuff ready for a garage sale. Now, I'm not sure when I'm going to have the sale and where but it's going to happen. I'll donate the old clothing to the Salvation Army because the clothing never sells and it's not worth the effort. So hopefully, things will be looking nice come Friday :)

No chicken pox yet! Yippy, I have two more days and then I am safe. The only thing good about getting the chicken pox is not having to go hang out with Chris's sister on Sunday. I don't connect with her at all and I can say on my end, I have no desire to "get to know her any better". She doesn't strike me as someone I would like to hang with, we just have different ways of looking at things. She is so different from his mom and dad it makes me wonder how they spawned her. Okay, that was pretty petty but I just find her way to challenging for my taste. Blah!

Drum roll [please]...I am down a pound! Even though I wasn't expecting a loss, I got one. I'll take it! Over the last several days, it seems like I need to slow down with the food intake. I've had to take out two different clients for lunch so it's been screwing me up. I've eaten healthy but it's still the principal of eating out, which should be only one time a week, not 3. Chris and I decided that since Easter is this week, we'll forgo our dinner out so hopefully that will balance everything out. I hope!

I'm excited for tomorrow because we get our brand new doors installed. It's been almost two years that we have been in the house and the doors were needing to be replaced because there was a ton of heat loss from them. Chris is staying home tomorrow while they install them. I really excited for the old kitchen door to be replaced because the outside of the door actually has indoor kitchen trim boards on the outside. It will be so nice to have it gone and look right. I love home remodeling!

April seems like it's going to be a busy month. Chris and I have a lot of activities going on, which is awesome. In a few weeks, we're doing a 5K with one of my friends. I don't think we're going to be doing any running but it benefits the Special Olympics and it offers free beer, so why not? At the end of the month, we are going to do a 21 mile overnight hike up north on the North Country Trail with a backpacking group that we hooked up with. I don't know if I am in that kind of shape yet but we're going to try. Plus it will get us ready for our trip out west when we hit Utah and Colorado this summer. It's intimmidating but we can do it! Well, I'm off to see the biggest loser (at this time, I will actually see who will get the boot tonight). Take care all-Kellie

Oh it's Saturday...

Thank Goodness. We're going to have another lazy weekend this weekend. I'm very exhausted this weekend. I was oncall last weekend and it totally whipped me out. It was a very quiet weekend for oncall but I just don't sleep as well when I am on it. Though it was nice to see that extra money in my check last week! I was so tired yesterday that my eye started twitching. Now that is tired. Chris went out last night so I had the whole home to my self to relaxed and I loved every minute of it. It's a wonderful thing to be able to chill out in your own home and not have the desire to do anything but relax. Usually, I would be toying with something but yesterday I just crashed on the couch and didn't move for five hours and then I went to bed. Hopefully my battery will be replenished today :) I've got a Weight Watchers meeting at 8:30, then we're working out with Ryan, our trainer at 9:30 am. Then we might be doing dinner at a place we've been dying to hit for the past few months.

Another reason why I'm taking it easy is that was exposed to the chicken pox virus last week. I pray that I will not be getting it but it's freaking me out a little bit. I will know if I'm going to get it between next Tuesday - Friday. I guess this is one of the downfalls of working with children because you never know what you could get. When I was a kid, I never got the chicken pox. Heck, I never got sick even. When I was 24 I got the shot but after reading things on line, I'm not sure if the shot will protect me. Argh! That's what I get for being an encouraging therapist...send me positive thoughts here about not getting them because for the last week, I've been itching all over. It's amazing how your mind plays tricks on you!

I'm not too sure how weigh in is going to look today. I made good choices but my scale is not showing a loss. That happens! I'll keep heading towards my goal :) Take care all-Kellie

Lazy Sunday...

We are so relaxing today, which is terrific because we are usually on the go during the weekend. It's nice to kick back and relax once in a while. Chris is in heaven today. We picked up Guitar Hero Metallica for the Wii. I don't think I'm going to see him for the rest of the day :) I'm glad he is having fun. We even took a nap earlier today :) which is rare. I usually don't do this unless if I'm at the inlaws. I used to take naps all the time in college. I would get done with an afternoon class and fall asleep until 4:00ish. Now that was living...wait, no, that was laziness (in my case). Yup, pure laziness.

Yesterday we attacked the front and back yard to get the lawn racked and the leaves over to the dump. We had placed a compost mix on my garden area so we racked that area up and got things looking good. I can't wait until I get my garden going. I'm going to start planting in about 4-5 weeks. Can't wait! I'm going to grow some lettuce, onions, snap peas, pickles, and squash this year. I had a ton of lettuce last year so I'm going to cut back on how much I grow this year because I had too much. Gardens are pretty popular right and it's cheaper than buying it at the farmers market. I'll keep you posted about how it's going.

We were able to get with some friends last night to go out and it was fun. We checked out a restaurant that we were looking forward to going to and the food was crap. I hate that when it happens, it's a total let down. We all didn't comment about it because you just don't do that kind of thing when your with others but it was like, darn it. Funny thing is that they high the price doesn't mean it's a good place, it's just expensive. Some of the best restaurants are this tiny little mom and pop places. One of favorite restaurants of all time is a truckstop outside of Morris, IL called R's place. Yes, it's a truck stop but the food is AWESOME. They had a salmon with a raspberry reduction sauce, along with a rice, and some fresh asparagus for $9. Besides IKEA, where can you get salmon for under $10?

Last week, I did okay food wise. I still need to strengthen my accountability when it comes to logging and planning ahead. I tracked everything for 60% of my week. I just need to get it to 100% of the time. It irks me when I don't track. I know what I am doing but the excuses of "Oh, I will remember" is total bull crap. I need to work on this, especially on the weekends. Planning ahead has been a little challenge lately. I just need to have some ideas in my head and make it. Needless to say, this week, Drum Roll [please] I went up .6. That's okay because this is the time that I usually put that water weight on but that also means that the whole month I haven't lost anything. I really don't think I'm at a plateau, I'm just at middle point of contemplation/relapse. I wouldn't go so far to say it's a relapse but I am not doing exactly what I need to so that I can lose this weight. I've got the working out under control, just not the eating accountability. So my mini-goal of the week is to track, track, track.

When ever you get a gain, it's semi-natural to go into a "urgh mode" but instead of being there yesterday, I headed straight to the gym after the meeting. I stopped over at a YMCA near my weight watchers meeting and had a killer workout there. It was amazing how different the YMCA's are in the area. I usually go to the Downtown YMCA that is newer and more modern. This one was smaller, very family friendly, and actually gave it's members free coffee. That would never fly downtown. Though, no matter where you go, there's always a parent that "allows" their child to play with the equipment. Ah, come on folks, can you say accident waiting to happen. Please keep the kiddos off the gym equipment. They could get seriously hurt!

We've been in the buying mode lately and we got to get ourselves out of it. We're doing fine financially but it's amazing how much money flies out of the windows this time of year for us. Between paying city taxes, pet issues (teeth and UTI but they are worth it), car repairs, new doors for the house, paying off the windows, iphone, trips, etc. We've got to slow down. We were this close to buying a car last weekend because we could have saved cose to $10K but after looking at the month car payment stuff we were like, "Oh, we don't really want a car payment" plus it doesn't make since to have 3 cars because well, it doesn't. Maybe when Chris's Saturn dies will get a new one but hopefully, that is way off because his hitting 200K next month and we have a free oil change package on the car, as long as Saturn is around. At least we have his new car picked out...isn't it sweet? It was hard to say goodbye to it. It was a beauty.

I know this week is going to be stronger than the past month. I just got to get myself back on track, solid track that is. The good thing is that April

It's better to be in the drivers seat..

When you are busy, how do you not feel like things are not going out of control? Chris and I have been super busy the past two weeks and I don't know how we were making heads or tails out of things. I feel better when I'm organized not only emotionally but my home and refrigerator needs to be organized too. The last week was challenging because I feel like I didn't have my healthy foods surrounding me like I usually do. My sleep was off, as well as my workouts. So yesterday we spent part of the day organizing and getting things back into order. We picked up the necessities at Costco and when we got home from running our errands, we picked up the house. I have to say, that I feel so much better today than I have in two weeks. I feel like I'm getting back my priorities. It's funny how when you are totally busy, it feels like you lose sight of your goals.

I broke several rules last week. #1 We ate out twice last week. Last Wednesday night I stopped at Qdoba. Seven months ago, it used to be a weekly thing. In fact, the two workers at Qdoba asked where I have been lately and I told them about working out and not eating out. It's pretty bad when people recognize you at a fast food place (it's nice that they know me but it's bad to think how much we used to go there). #2 Not tracking...yes, my week sucked because I was not writing down what I was putting in my mouth. I thought "Oh, I'll just write that in later..." No, I need to write it in now! #3 I didn't meal plan this week. I just winged it, no planning so I often found myself starving at the end of the night. #4 We didn't get to the gym early enough. We need to get in there earlier.

I wonder if part of the week was off because we went out of town last weekend because I didn't have time to mentally prepare for the week or physically. For work, it was up in the air if I was going to go to a training because I didn't know if I was certified yet for my therapy technique that I learned. I found out Wednesday that I was (which is so awesome because I'm going to training to be a certified coach in the therapy at a state level which is absolutely huge) and then Thursday I had to get up super early to attend the conference in Bay City which is totally on the other side of the state. It doesn't help that I just got inundated with new cases at work so I feel so frazzled. Bolton my cat came down with a UTI so it just felt like the whole darn week was off! So how do I turn things around? I can control some things like my environment, how I react to stress, how I plan, etc. Doing this will set me up for a more successful week next week. I can do it!

Drum roll [please]...I stayed the same. After having such an off week, I'm so happy to report this. I feel like it's my get out of free jail card because I don't feel like I earned it this week. I'm happy but I really need to get my butt in gear this week. Here's to a more successful week all! Take care-Kellie

I need to get back to...

Ahahah! I need to get to a WW meeting today. Thank goodness there is one at 8:30 I can get to because I need a reality check today. I'm being accountable here so my week was horrible. Now, I didn't gorge myself or eat in a wild uncontrollable manner but my nutrition is off, way off. I haven't been eating many fruits or veggies all week. I went out to eat 3 times which is a big yikes because I didn't plan ahead for my lunches at work. After getting back from Chicago, I didn't set my environment up for success because there is no spinach in my fridge or other staples I like to have. So overall, it was not a good week nutrition wise. Concerning working out, we have been getting to the gym about 10 minutes later and I was not available to go one day this week so I feel like I'm behind. I've got to get back into the drivers seat!

St. Patty's Day Weekend Chicago

St. Patty's Day in Chicago was...

Awesome! Chris and I have been dying to go to Chicago for the St. Patty's day celebration for years so in January, we planned the trip. It was my whole "lucking forward to the spring trip". It was just my whole focus on how to get through the winter months here in Michigan. We decided to leave Friday morning and we started towards Benton Harbor. We wanted to stop at a microbrewery called The Livery. We stopped for an hour then we headed towards Chicago. We stopped at China town and got some Dim Sum. That was a pure treat. I got the best Wonton Soup that I ever had. My gosh, it was terrific. I wanted Chris to see Binny's Liquor Depot and he thought it was amazing. We saw a $40K scotch there...amazing, someone would spend that much money on a liquor but when you have that much money, who cares, right? Then we headed out to Schaumburg and met up with Chris's friend Noah who he used to work with until he moved to IL. We hung out with him and his fiancee for the night at an Irish Pub in Arlington Heights. It was neat, the place had character and Irish dancers. We spent the night chatting it up with them we went back to the hotel room and crashed. We grabbed breakfast early that morning and drove back into the city. We attempted to get a metered sport over by the aquarium but they were not available so we headed to The Drake where we were staying to see if they would hold our bags until check in. They would so when I was talking with the doorman, he encouraged me to go back in and see if we could get an early check in and we could so we dropped our bags in the room and headed towards the river dying. I've always heard that they dye the river green for St. Patty's day and they sure do. They dump an orange dye in the river and it turns a bright neon green. We then headed towards the parade and we got there in time to hear the bag pipers and we watched a little of it and decided to walk back towards town. We stopped for lunch at a sushi joint across from the art museum. We then journeyed around the town, stopping into some shops, and enjoyed the sights for the rest of the day. It was perfect people watching. We got back to the hotel around 5pm and crashed in the executive room. We went out around 8pm to see the night time sights and it was crazy! Chicago people must avoid the Rush Street area because it was crawling with drunk people. Overall, we walked about 15 miles according to my pedometer so we got some great exercise in. Overall, it was a fabulous trip. So it's got me aching for our summer vacation. We just need to figure out where we are going. Is it going to be California or Utah/Colorado? We don't know yet but it's got to involve backpacking :)

I ate pretty well for the most part. I forgot my journal so I estimated high on the points. Better off safe than sorry. The only major spurlge I had was a chocolate malt from Ed Debavicks and some of the mochachinos that were free at the lounge (I'm sure the cream killed me on those but they were so good. 10 times better than starbucks). Lets just say, I will be very cautious about what I eat this week :)

Ah, Biggest Loser night....

My predictions for tonight, Sione will get the boot because the kido was not able to lose the 10lbs. I could be wrong but that's the only reason why Filipe got mad at Jillian. I'm still ready for Ron to go home tonight. Let him go home and do well on the plan :) Because losing weight on the ranch isn't realy life. Get him back to the home to see if the changes were made :) I'm also ready for the show to bring back the contestants that got kicked off. I would love to see Carla back on too plus Dane. We'll see! It's good entertainment (at times) even if it's not realistic. This week is flying by and my Friday (which is Thursday) is almost here. I'm so ready for the weekend :) Take care all-Kellie

So I got out early today...

I had training today so I got out of work early today so on my way home, I stopped to run some errands. I had to pick up food for the cats so since I was near the mall, I decided to stop in. Wow, now the prices are completely right with clothing right now but I have to say that I must be in a complete time warp because I hate the clothes right now. Really, I do. I'm a very casual person so I don't really like dressing up. My style is more of the North Face, Patagonia, and Dockers circa 1998 without the Lycra stretch. So when I was in Sears, Eddie Bauer, Macy's, and the Gap I saw NOTHING that caught my eye.


I take that back, I did find some khaki's in Sears from Lands End but their pants always look funny on me but I tried them on for fun and yes, they still looked funny in my torso area so I passed. The clothing now is so bright, like out of this world bright, and the tops look like pregnancy tops. For example, the picture that I took in Boston is cute but it definitely makes me look pregnant so I'm avoiding tops like that. Yes, it's a cute top but it makes me look like I am expecting. That will be cool when I am but I'm not there yet :) I'll stick to my old clothes. Plus, it's like I am finding new clothes because this past weekend I got into my solid size 14 Eddie Bauer jeans and it felt terrific! I have old clothes so why need new ones? It's not like they look bad and they are classic styles so that can be worn anytime. Funny thing is that some of my old favorites are still decent now. I'll keep on telling myself that, maybe one day I will have a stylish wardrobe but until then, I will keep my clothing that had a life before me. I've bought the majority of my clothing at Goodwill/Salvation Army where I am a brand name hound. If it came from a low end store, I don't buy it because when I'm shopping at Goodwill, I'm looking for name brands. That's just me :) I think in the future, I will need to go back into regular stores for clothing because with the recession, I see that the thrift stores are getting shopped out and in years to come, the clothing now will be on the racks and I won't have anything to do with that so I will be stuck. Oh well...at least then we might be out of the recession...there's hope right? Take care all-Kellie

Good meeting...

I have to say the the meetings at Weight Watchers have been absolutely terrific lately. I've been going to meetings off and on since 1994 (when I was a sophomore in college) and the meetings that they are having now are AMAZING. It very well could be my leader but I'm so impressed by the content lately that if you haven't been to a meeting in a while, I would encourage you to go. This week it was on the stages of commitment to losing weight and it is so true. There are 5 stages and it discussed every stage and what they look like. It was pretty helpful because it's so true about commitment. They discussed relapse and how common it is. Losing weight is difficult but it helps identifying the patterns that you are in. In that commitment stage, no one can stop you but in the relapse stage, the self-doubt is strong and recognizing the patterns that get you into that phase is important. I remembered last year how gun ho I was on the program. I was so committed up until my visit to my in-laws where we ate out 3 times that weekend. I won't know if my current journey will be successful but I'm hoping that I am setting myself up for success now. I'm definitely doing it different this time around. I'm very focused on not eating out except one time per week, working out 5-6 times per week, and attending the meetings even if a gain is present. I am also eating like a regular person. If I want a beer (in my case a hard cider), I have one. If I want to eat a piece of desert, I eat it but I'm accountable and I don't do it everyday. To restrict myself now is not going to help me any when I reach my goal weight. I need to eat that food within moderation now. I don't think I will ever eat out as much as I had so the once per week is nice. It gives me something I have to look forward to without worrying about the calories/fat (but I am tracking it). Like today, Chris and I went to one of our favorite spots, this place called The Westsider Cafe. The place is amazing where they specialize in local fare. I got a tortilla with black beans, eggs, with a little chirzo plus fresh salsa. Chris got the Polish Combination plate and we shared a pear custard bar. It was terrific and well worth the points.

Drum roll [please]I gained .4 this week. I had a good strong week. I was within my points and the workouts were terrific so I'm going to stick with what I am doing. A gain is a gain and I look at it as a time for evaluation...like, did I do something wrong? Nope. I counted my points, exercised, at drank all my water. Gains happen :)

They cancelled the class. Unfortunately, not enough people signed up for the class. It looks like we are going to be able to transfer the money from the class to personal training so its all good.

It was a good weekend. We went to the Grand Rapids Home Show and it was great. It was finally good to go to an event that was worth the money. We got a ton of great ideas for the house and it just makes me excited about remodeling the home in the future. We're also going to get a quote on getting stone stairs for the backyard and we're going to get my tub refinished. Eventually, I would like to get some new siding like the Hardy siding or a vinyl product called Cedar Boards but that is a few years down the road. Then we went to a Geocaching event. Those are always entertaining because I love to people watch and there were a ton of things to see. Chris and I are pretty introverted when we go to those things so we just hang out and check things out. If people come up to chat, we talk but we are not the type to seek people out. Then Chris went down to Kalamazoo to help his dad with the garage because it was stuck. His dad a "fight" with the garage door spring and it won. A hospital visit with stitches on the inside of the nose and out plus a cat scan later, he learned that when he needs help he should call Chris. I went to a board meeting and it went good. An awkward event happened though. I had read on the facebook account that my friend had gotten married so I went "Mary, you're married...Congrats!" Well she started shaking her head and kind of shushed me so I'm like what's going on here? I tried to recover by saying "Oh, I just assumed. Sorry about that". I don't know why she didn't want me to say anything in front of the other people but that was totally strange. Humm, I want to know but it's one of those things that I can't ask. Then we totally relaxed today. I'm afraid that I'm not going to get a good nights sleep because of the time change. Take care all-Kellie

Noticing the little things...

I'm about six months into working out at the Y and it appears that just recently, I've been noticing little things. For instance, I'm performing my lunges so much better. When I first started, I didn't even want to attempt them because I was afraid that I would mess up my knee. But Carly noted that a lunge done the right way will never bother the knees so I started doing them slowly. I've been working on my balance with them and the other morning, I did a set perfectly. It felt so terrific! So if you haven't added working out to your program yet, I would recommend it. Before I used to say that we didn't have time to work out but you can always make time :)

I'm ready for the weekend! It's been a tiring week so I can't wait until tomorrow night so I can relax and do nothing :) Chris is going out with lurker (a friend of his that checks my page out which is creepy). So I get to stay home and chill. I love having the house to myself just to relax. It's nice to have that me time :)

Here's my take on the Biggest Loser this week. Too many tears. Man, there are a bunch of criers on there. I think Sione is going to get the boot because that why Filipe is blowing a gasket with Jillian because she spent way to much time toying with Laura this past week. I like Tara but Laura needs to get scooting. I read on a message board that when they were casting for the BL last year, Laura and Tara didn't even need to audition because their agent got them there. Nice, er? Now if everyone had an agent. The one thing I like about the show is the transformation to see what a difference losing the weight makes. It's nor realistic how much weight they are losing but to see how much it changes one's look is amazing. Take care all-Kellie

I know it's Biggest Loser night but...

I was kind of ticked off at Biggest Loser lately with the notion of "I can't make it without the ranch" mentality...is this bothering anyone else? I've been hearing that theme on the show forever but it's been irking me when I've been watching the show. It's like sorry folks, what do you think is going to happen when you leave the ranch? Real life is going to happen and the ranch is a fantasy land. I was especially disappointed when the brown team dad was kept on the show when Dane was given the boot. What was this team thinking? I guess I will find out more tonight.

This week is going by fast and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Not that we have any major plans, just a geocaching event, I have a board meeting, and we're getting together with some friends. We toying with going to a home show but we're not too sure about that. It seems like everytime we go to one of those shows, it's a waste of time and money. The last home show we went to in Kalamazoo was a joke. I've should have known this because the main presenter was the Michigan Paranormal Society...it's like, come on, it's a home show. We just put in our order for our two new doors and I'm exicted to get those. We're getting a new front door and a new kitchen door so we should get them in 5 weeks. Our current doors were put in wrong so it will be good to see them go. We're holding off on the french doors because we're waiting for our escrow money to come back from our crappy mortgage company. I'm just waiting for that bank to fail because they stink. They have about $4K too much in our account and this month, were supposed to be getting it back but you never know. After the doors, then come the rest of the windows in the fall and hopefully within 2 years, we can get new siding :) it all takes time and money! Yeah, I'm old now because I'm excited about house stuff.

The workouts are going great. It'm burning between 500-600 calories a day. We're working out 5 days a week now, waking up nice and early. I love working out in the morning because it's nice to get home at night at a decent time. It looks like we won't have a class because there were not enough people that signed up, which is a total bummer. I guess we'll find out on Friday if it's a go or not. If the class isn't a go, it looks like the Y will transfer the money to the personal training so that's a plus. Well, that's it for me tonight, take care all-Kellie

PS. Anji, did I tell you that you ROCK lately? Thanks for the kitty tips. Bolton was A LOT calmer with the meds your way. No longer is he a traumatized kitty!

It was a beautiful day...

It was a gorgeous day out yesterday. The sun was shining, hardly any clouds, and the temperature was about 24. It was nice to see this so I told Chris when I got home from Weight Watchers, we should do some geocaching. We set out and did some local caches then we headed out towards the Lakeshore and ended up at the PJ Hoffmaster State Park outside of Muskegon. There was some icy spots but the hike was awesome. I wore my HRM and burned about 500 calories in the time we were out there. I was surprised to see how many calories I burned from the hiking. The trail was getting too icy and we needed to go down the hill so I found a clear spot and just went down the side of the hill on my bottom, I've always wanted to do that! It was just a cool day and it was a nice change from the gym.

The past week was totally draining. I think I need a vacation from work because I'm just feeling a little burnt out. I'm closing a lot of cases, starting with new families and that can be draining. Establishing relationships in a therapeutic process takes a lot because you have to establish that trust quickly because usually the family is in crisis. I'm also getting anxious about hearing if I got certification for my therapy skill that I learned. We had to submit tapes and the state is viewing them. I was the second therapist in my cohort to put tapes in but I haven't heard anything yet. It's like, okay, you all can tell me at any time that I've passed or failed because I want to move on and I feel kind of stuck right now. I'm going to be out of the office two days next week so that could be what I'm needing. I'm looking forward to better weather because the commute this week was also a pain. The other morning we had freezing rain and a guy was on my butt for about 15 miles. I hit some black ice and slowed up a bit and I watched him spin out of control and hit a barrier. That was my "Thank you Jesus" moment that I had. It will be nice when the commute goes back to driving 55 without worrying about the slick roads. Oh, it will be nice soon, won't it?

I'm happy today is March 1st. That means spring is around the corner soon. Spring in Michigan is wonderful. Michigan has three great seasons around here and that's why I love living here (despite the poor economy, it's a wonderful state). When I lived in Louisville, I thought the spring and fall were terrific but the summer...oh my, that humidity was horrible. I'll take cold over humidity any day. Though, I do miss Louisville in the spring when all the magnolia trees come out. When I was going to U of L, the campus was laced with a ton of Magnolia trees and I couldn't believe how beautiful they were. Last spring I spotted a magnolia tree at a garden store and was interested in planting one but at $50, I doubted if it would take off. I'm getting excited to prep for my garden this year. I would like to plant some lettuce (not as much as last year though), some onions, radishes, beans, tomatoes, and other various veggies. I didn't have any luck with the corn so I think I will pass on planting that. I would like to plant some proper grass in the front because it looks horrible in the front. The neighbor said when the house was in foreclosure, no one took care of the leaves so it killed our grass. All we have is dirt/weeds up there. I need to do some researching on how to get it going properly. Last year, I just threw down some seed and that didn't work so we'll see.

Thanks for the advice Anji about the cat's teeth. I got Bolton crated the other day (it took me five minutes) and I took him to the vet to get his teeth cleaned and he had two extractions so it was worth it. We've had to give him antibiotics twice a day via oral syringe and that has been an utter pain and he totally hates me now because I'm the one giving it to him. He's one ticked off kitty but at least he has healthy teeth!

Drum roll {please} I am down 2.2 pounds!!! So I'm 179.8 now!! I'm done with the 180s, so good riddance to them! I had to stare at my book several times to believe the loss. In the two months of being at WW, I'm down 8 :) that's terrific! I'm not a fast loser and my losses are in consistent. I gain some weeks, lose the next but I'm going down and that's all that matters. So everyone, don't get down on yourself if you don't lose/gain, it will all work out in the long run, really! Don't give up! I really journalled hard this week. I wrote everything down so it did pay off. The meeting was about journaling/tracking. A new interesting fact about journalling is that people tend to slack off with doing it around week 6. Wow, they hit the nail on the head with knowing that. The workouts are going terrific and training with Ryan is making a huge difference. Chris and I are looking forward to the class again in a few weeks. That accountability is nice. I'm also challenging myself on the exercises. There's a couple that he's taught me that I can't do yet but I'm almost there...thank Goodness to modifications. I must be a hoot to look at when I'm at the gym but I'm getting it done and improving! My core exercising is doing better and I can actually balance myself on a balance ball for a minute...when I started doing this two months ago, I couldn't even hold myself up for four seconds, now I'm up to a minute :) That's success in my book. Take care all! Kellie

Did I say how much I love the weekend?

I really love the weekend. Its my time to relax and re-energizer and this is what Chris and I did this weekend. There were no major plans, just some errands this weekend. We took his car for the oil change at Saturn. Believe it our not, the place was busy and it was nice to see that. I saw the salespeople working their tails off too. They were calling customers to see how they were liking their new cars or wishing them happy birthday. Now that is service! I hope that Saturn will make it. It's a great car company and Chris's car has been kind to him. He's 3K away from having 200K. Who says American car companies are crap? They get a bad rap, really. I love my Jeep too. I have about 125K and it's been kind to me also. No major repairs at all. I'm just not attracted to foreign autos (well, okay, there is a soft spot for the mini cooper but that's it). There's no upmh with them for me but that's me :) After Saturn we hit Costco and did the usual $100 buying spree. That store is amazing but we really cannot walk out of there spending less than $100. We only got two impulse buys too. Some of my staples from there are the Odwalla Mango Tango, Spinach, nuts (I usually buy pecans but I bought some almonds this week), feta cheese, and stuffed grape leaves. We then travelled all over town looking for cat food then because we got out to our usual place to only find that they went out of business. After calling around to a few places, we found it at Pet Supplies Plus and they were so eager to help, excellent customer service! We then did our usual eating out Saturday and since we were not craving anything we used a gift card that my friend Teresa gave me for my birthday at Olive Garden. We haven't been there in about two years (at least) so we had so expectations (because I usually have low expectations for this place) and was pleasantly surprised that it was good. Every time I go to Olive Garden, I have those bad flashbacks to when I was 21 and dating Sluggy. We went to Olive Garden once and I wanted to buy a glass of wine and the girl looked at my drivers license and looked at my 230 lbs body noting that there was no way that girl in the photo was me. It was and I was so shocked and embarrassed by it, I walked out. That was sad because now looking back, I should have got up and said something to her but at least we didn't sit there and eat. Argh, I don't miss those days or that former life with Sluggy. Not once have I regretted dumping his lazy @ss. Anyways, back to the weekend. Then we came home and relaxed. We've only been out one other time this weekend and it was to work out with Ryan. He did some major work today and Chris burned 998 calories...amazing! I burned 678 calories so I bet I will be sore tomorrow.

The sleep issues are looking like they are in the past! Yippy! We have been sleeping nicely for the past few nights without waking up. It's amazing how sluggish one feels when they haven't gotten the proper amount of sleep. Plus, I was pretty grouchy last week so I'm feeling good again.

Drum roll {please} I stayed the same this week. I'm going to look at this as my TOM is soon approaching but I was also quite sloppy this week with tracking food. I could have done better with the accountablility peice this past week so the meeting was perfect on Saturday for me about what do I need to be successful. I got the working out piece fixed, now I just need to track the food better. For instance, I will grab some nuts here and there, not have my journal near and "forget". I really need to firm this up. There was a couple of days that I even left my journal home so I need to get back on track. Not having it around is making a huge difference. Here's to a good week all-Kellie

Zzzz...

Chris's sleeping patterns are completly off and they are beginning to impact me. It started two weeks ago. We think it's the matteress but we're not sure because that's when we flipped it last. It's a newer matteress because we bought it when we moved into the house. So tonight we're going to try to flip it back and see if it makes a difference but it's a rough go on 5 hours a sleep a night. He's waking up around 3:15ish and he's rolling around. I've asked him if he is stressing out and he claims he is not but this pattern has to stop, hopefully soon! It's making my head foggy and my concentration during the day is getting bad...which is not good because the majority of my visits with people occur in the afternoon :( I was so tired last night, I feel asleep during the biggest loser and have no idea who got the boot. Man, I need to look that up. Just did, Shannon, wow...I didn't see that coming. I heard she got into some trouble over Christmas because she threw a bag of flour at a roommate. Yeah, that's a little odd.

What's the crock cooking tonight? Nothing but yesterday, I whipped up a spicy black bean soup in the crockpot and it was delicious! The recipe is available @ allrecipes.com. I love it when I can get 3 days out of one dish. Plus it was super cheap to make. Try it out, you won't be disappointed. I paired it with some trader joes corn bread. We hit trader joes on the way back and it was a tad overwhelming because everyone was bumping into me, reaching over, etc. I was actually happy to get out of there because there was no space to browse. That's okay because we're going to Chicago within the month so I'll be able to browse there. I did pick up some new items for me. I got some potstickers, wontons, and an Indian spinach simmer sauce. I also got my favorites such as garlic naan bread, masala sauce, Greek yogurt, and orange chicken (my favorite). Well that's it for me, take care all-Kellie

I love Detroit!!

Okay, I love Detroit. It's an absolutely wonderful city. Really, it is. As a child, growing up in "Fashionable Ferndale" I learned to fear the city. The city was somewhere you didn't go because it wasn't safe. I can only recall a few times as a child, making a trip into the city. We went to Joe Louis arena for a Sesame Street show, Cobo Arena for the auto show and a winter festival, and went to Belle Isle a few times but that was it. I remember on our trips to my grandmothers house in West Virginia stopping by a gas station in Detroit to fill up and I was petrified that my dad was going to be killed. Yup, I had a wild imagination. So I never thought too much of the city. About four years ago, I went to a conference in Detroit with a few coworkers and one of them took us downtown and I was impressed. Maybe the city wasn't so bad? It was gorgeous but there were still a lot of building vacant. I've been battling with cabin fever the past few weeks so I thought we needed to get out of town but to where? Detroit! I thought we could go get some good Thai food and then come home. I did some researching and found that Detroit had a ton of microbreweries so that was the plan. After thinking about it, I decided maybe we should do an overnighter so when Chris got home on Friday, I got him to find us a place to stay in Detroit. He was hestiant at first but I'm like if you pick a fourstar in Detroit, it will be safe, really! He put a bid in for a fourstar hotel in Detroit and it gave us a reservation at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. I was excited because I heard awesome things about this hotel from my sister. She talked about it having this huge ballroom so I knew we were in for a treat. We get there and the place is absolutely gorgeorus. The inside was completely redone and modern. They remodeled the ballrooms and all I can say is wow! I was impressed. We spent the rest of the night peeping around and chilling out in the Motown Bar at the hotel.

We got up the next morning and I was dying to go to the Eastern Market. It's a farmers market and they sell everything. In the winter they don't have so much but the summer, the place is packed. Chris bought two of the largest pommengrates that I have ever seen. We got breakfast at a deli across from the market and it was super. Local, organic food with homemade breads and meats. Detroit can really cook. I got an omelet with homemade italian sausage, basil, red bell peppers, and asiago cheese. Chris got a ruben. It was terrific and the total bill was $15. Unbelieveable! because we would be paying more for organic, local, homemade food if it was in Grand Rapids. We then went to Belle Isle because I haven't been there since I was eight. On our drive into the park there were so many beautiful homes that were abandoned and boarded up. It was a sad sight to see. These once majestic homes now sitting vacant was heartbreaking. We get over to the island and it was pretty desolate. I had heard that they closed the acqurium and zoo so the only thing that was left open was the conservatory. It's over 105 years old. I had such vivid memories of the place as a child with all the plants so I was excited to see it. We pull up to the building and no one is in the parking lot. I sent Chris out to see if it was open and it was so we went into the building. We were told to sign in by a grumpy woman. I got in there and was overwhelmed. It just hit me that one of my favorite memories as a child was reduced to this. Belle Isle was awesome, what had happened to this place? Why was everything closed? It was sad. I don't know why I got so emotional about it but I did. I walked through the conservatory enjoying the trees but when I got out, I just started bawling. Chris just looked at me wondering what the heck? It's just one of those things that when you see something that was so grand in your mind and see the realties of it now is semi-shocking. I know, it's strange. We drove around the island and it was beautiful but what a waste to see all the vacant buildings at the zoo. Really, this island was amazing at one time. It was just sad to see. It was getting close to 11:00 so we headed off to Traffic Jam and Snug. They were closed so we went across the street to Motor City Brewing Works. I was the DD today no drinking for me today. He got a sampler. It was a cool building and the interior was awesome. Very rugged by artsy. We stayed there for an hour then we headed back over to the Traffic Jam and Snug. This place was cool. Chris got some more samplers and we bought some homemade bread there. Apparently, they use the wheat products from the beer to make the bread and it's amazing. We bought some spinach parmesan bread and some cheese bread. From there we headed out to the Detroit Beer Company. I was getting hungry so we got some soup and it was amazing! Chris sampled some more beers and then we hit Atwater Block Brewery. It was a cool brewery that was huge. We ran into some fellow microbrewery lovers and chatted for an hour. I loved this because I forgot how friendly Detroiters were. They really are. Every place (except the chick at Belle Isle) was so friendly. It was nice to see because you don't get this type of reaction in most places. Our last brewery stop was the Dragonmead Microbrewery. This was a pretty neat place and they had fresh made soda's so you could bring the kids there. I opted for a Lemondade Soday and it was terrific. So that was our brewery hop. I had a ton of fun and Chris enjoyed himself.

We then opted for some Thai food and we got take out. I got a Pad Pak with medium spice and it was terrific. Chris got a seafood combo hot and all I can say is that we didn't have enough milk in the house to calm down the taste buds. We stopped at Trader Joes on the way home and I think I got sensory overload there. With it being Valentines day, you would not have known it. The place was packed beyond belief. People bumping into you, reaching over you, etc. We got what we needed and left. It's usually a great buying experience but it was too much for me!

Needless to say, I didn't go to WW this week. According to my scale, I might be the same. Yeah! I'm debeating if I'm going to hit a Sunday meeting for ww. I might just wait until next week. We'll see. The workouts were good this week. Waking up early is good but I find myself turning in around 9:15 pm. They sent out an email for the graduate class so it looks like they are going to try to have a 5am class. Now that is going to be hard but we'll see! Take care all-Kellie