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