Boo Ya.

152.5 today.

Focus

154 today. I'll get to 152.5 by Sunday, I know I will.

So, recently I've figured out that when you've got something really interesting occupying your mind, you don't think so much about food. I've been busy trying to set up a new business I'm starting (I'm not supposed to advertise it on a personal website, but I don't think I'll get in trouble for linking to it), and I've been working on it yesterday and today, and while I've been working on that, I've barely even remembered to eat! I guess you can't get boredom cravings if you're not bored!

I ordered Jennette Fulda's book, Half-Assed: a Weight-Loss Memoir on Friday, and it just got here! I'm so excited, I can't wait to read it! I feel like I know her from reading her blog, and it's going to be awesome reading her story! I have to finish Bridget Jones first, but that shouldn't take me too long.

Oh! I almost forgot! I got a new job! I'll be doing customer service for a company called Kentek, which is a company that makes lasers and laser safety equipment. My job will mostly be taking orders and answering phones, no tech support obviously because I'm not exactly qualified in the matter of lasers. They're based in New Hampshire, and that office closes at 5 pm EST, which is 3 pm here, so they need someone to help handle the overflow of calls between 3 pm and 5 pm. I'll be working Monday thru Friday (weekends and holidays off! yes!), 1 pm to 5 pm, and then when school starts I'll get there right after school (around 2:30) and leave still at 5. It's going to be awesome, because I'll have weekends off, and the whole evening after work, to study! I'm so excited!

UPDATE 4/29/08 8:00 PM: I just opened up my Google reader to be greeted by 36 new items. Did you hear me? 36 NEW ITEMS! I swear I just checked this 2 days ago! This is going to take a looooong time.

Cheat Day

I decided to take a "Cheat Day" yesterday, and I don't think I did too bad! I had a Slim-Fast (190 cal.) and a banana (85 cal.) for breakfast, a Starbucks DoubleShot Light around 5 (70 cal.), we went to Twister's for lunch and I had a breakfast burrito with egg, potatoes, cheese, and bacon (no idea), and some tortilla chips (no idea), and Scott got a raspberry filled churro that he didn't really like so I ate about half of it (again, no clue). Then, I was so full from lunch that for the rest of the day all I had was about 1/3 cup of Pirate Booty (probably about 130 cal.), a bag of Cheetos (460 cal.) and a Hershey's Cookies 'n' Cream bar (220 cal.). So that's about 1155 calories that I can count for sure, plus lunch. Definitely not as bad as my normal binge days! I haven't stepped on the scale yet, so I don't know yet how it's looking today, but I have 6 on track days before I (officially) weigh in again, so this should be another good week! If it goes well by Sunday, I might start implementing the Cheat Day regularly, without going crazy.

On the exercise front, this week I'm going to be doing a full 20 minutes at 3.5, which I'm a little nervous about, but a bit excited too. Should be fun!

UPDATE 4/28/08 10:57 AM: 154.5 today. Not too bad, I guess. Plus I have 6 days on track before Sunday. And hopefully that's mostly sodium. It should be better by tomorrow. As long as I see 152.5 on Sunday....

The Rubbing of the Thighs

When I first started working out on my treadmill back in December, I used to wear shorts to walk. But after a while, I started noticing that after I had been walking really hard, I would get all sweaty, and my inner thighs would sort of rub, but sort of stick together, and they would start chaffing. So I started wearing jogging pants, but they were saggy, so the crotch would hang a little low, and my thighs would still rub. Recently I started hiking my pants up and rolling the tops down so that they stay between my legs and not allow the rubbing, but it's starting to get hot. Especially in the part of the house where my treadmill is, there is no ceiling fan, and our air conditioner has not been turned on yet. So the other day, I wore shorts to work out again, and I hiked them up the way I do with my jogging pants. But, because they're so short, the fabric would ride up, and my thighs still rubbed! I am so jealous of people with skinny little legs whose thighs don't touch! And this is something you have to experience to understand. If you've always been a person who has space between her legs, you don't understand the agony of the rubbing of the thighs! Hopefully, one day, I'll be rid of the dreaded rubbing too.

Am I the only person with this agonizingly embarrassing problem, or have I just put myself out there to be pointed and laughed at?

P.S. Scroll down for the weekly weigh in!

Weigh In Day... How Did I Do That?

153.5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was down 2.5 pounds this week! Holy crap! I have no idea how I did that, but I am certainly not complaining! And, at this rate, I should be at goal by October 12, which is the day before my 2nd wedding anniversary! I'm thinking if I really do make it, Scott and I will have to go get some pictures taken, so that we can have some nice pictures of us where I actually look good. But I am so excited! I've lost 36.5 pounds! Strangely enough, though, I still haven't gotten many comments from people noticing the loss. And I don't think it's my clothes anymore, because I've finally stopped wearing sweatpants everywhere I go. I can't figure out why people don't notice. Oh well. I guess they'll have to eventually!

11-25-07: 190
12-2-07: 185.5
12-9-07: 182
12-16-07: 180
12-23-07: 179.5
12-30-07: 178.5
1-6-08: 174
1-13-08: 176.5
1-20-08: 173.5
1-27-08: 176
2-3-08: 175
2-10-08: 172.5
2-17-08: 170
2-24-08: 169
3-2-08: 166
3-9-08: 164.5
3-16-08: 163
3-23-08: 162
3-30-08: 159.5
4-6-08: 158
4-13-08: 156.5
4-20-08: 156
4-27-08: 153.5

One More Sleep Till Weigh In

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, my computer has been on the fritz again so I had to set up my old laptop in the exercise room. We're taking it back to get looked at again tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be up and running again soon!

Anyway, today I was down to 154 again, so hopefully I'll stay there for tomorrow's weigh in! That will be 2 pounds for the week, and it would be awesome! I've been continuing to do good, I've been on track since Tuesday like I said I would be, that's probably why my weight looked so good today - I got rid of the water I'd been retaining from my 3 day splurge! Although I've been so stressed out about my computer today, it's been hard to stay on track. But I've done it, yay! I just need to go eat dinner, take a shower, and go to bed, and I'll have another week under my belt. Alright, guys, I'm off, I have to get out of this part of the house!

Quick Update

1. I was down to 154.5 today (that's -2 lbs since yesterday)!
2. New Grey's Anatomy tomorrow!
3. Brooke White is still on American Idol!
4. I don't have to get up till 11 tomorrow!
5. The rest of this week will be spectacular, as far as my eating and exercising will go!
6. I'm 41.5% of the way to Amarillo, TX!
7. I'm 6.2% of the way to New York, NY!
8. And now I'm off to bed with Bridget Jones!

Back On Track Today!

I am so ready to get back on track today! I spent three days "off plan," and miraculously this morning I was only up half a pound from Sunday! So the rest of this week might actually go pretty well, as far as "damage control" goes. Also, like I'd mentioned, I'm upping my cardio some more this week - last week my treadmill said I had burned 154 calories in each workout, and that I had walked 1.636 miles in each, so this week should be even more calories per walk and even farther distance! It's pretty awesome, and I can't wait to hit that 2 mile mark! I'm feeling a lot better, food wise, so I think I should do good being back on track for the rest of the week.

Off the Wagon

So I have been off the wagon since Saturday. BUT I will get back on tomorrow! I know I should just get back on today, but I don't think I have the mental capability today. Tomorrow, though, for sure. And tomorrow I'm stepping up my cardio a notch again... going from 3 minutes at 3.5 to 4 minutes. Should be good!

So it turns out my computer's hard drive failed, and when my friend was fixing it, he tried to clone my drive onto the new one, and it turns out there are a lot of defective sectors on the drive. So I might lose a lot of my files. I'm very sad about this. Should have it back by tomorrow, though, hopefully. In the meantime, I'm using the husband's computer, even though I'm convinced there's ghosts in his office. Well, I'm off to catch up on my blogs, lovelies! See you later!

UPDATE 4/21/08 2:03 PM: Update on the job situation - I talked to the girl at Smith's today, she looked over my application, asked me some questions about my schedule flexibility, and she said she'd talk to her manager and get back to me later this week. I hope I get this, because I really need to get rid of my job.

Weigh In Day... Seriously Stressed Out.

My computer decided to take a giant crap (my hard drive failed) so I'm posting from my parents house. I somehow managed to be down to 156 today even after my binge yesterday.... but quite honestly, I can't guarantee there won't be another binge today. Those old emotional eating habits are rearing their ugly head because of all of the stress that I have going on right now, and I don't think I'll be able to get a grip on them. I've felt on the verge of tears all day - I think I'm having a nervous breakdown. And I won't be able to update for another couple days, until I get my computer back. I can't even check my email! I feel so lost!

11-25-07: 190
12-2-07: 185.5
12-9-07: 182
12-16-07: 180
12-23-07: 179.5
12-30-07: 178.5
1-6-08: 174
1-13-08: 176.5
1-20-08: 173.5
1-27-08: 176
2-3-08: 175
2-10-08: 172.5
2-17-08: 170
2-24-08: 169
3-2-08: 166
3-9-08: 164.5
3-16-08: 163
3-23-08: 162
3-30-08: 159.5
4-6-08: 158
4-13-08: 156.5
4-20-08: 156

Forget Regret, Or Life Is Yours to Miss

I was so unbelievably tired today after my orientation, that I didn't cook dinner. We got Carl's Jr. instead. Then I took a nap. Now I'm awake, and seriously wishing I had just sucked it up and cooked my veggie pizza. What was I thinking? Tomorrow is weigh in day! And I was SO CLOSE to my 35 pound milestone! Now it's probably going to take me another week to get there! The only hope I have is thinking about that time a month and a half ago when I got a bacon cheeseburger from Chili's and the next day I ended up being down a pound. Maybe the same thing will happen this time. You know, the whole boosted metabolism thing.

Orientation was ok, a little stressful but I got it done. One thing I was proud of was the fact that they took us on a campus tour, and we walked pretty much around the whole campus, and I actually didn't get winded! We kept up a pretty good pace, and it felt like a nice little walk! Now I'm going to go get on the treadmill to try and make up for the fact that I ate THREE THOUSAND calories today.

Shoot me.

Way Too Early

It is 5:24 AM. On a Saturday. And by 7:30 AM, I will be on campus for my transfer orientation. I seriously feel like I took a nap, not an actual "sleep." Which I sort of did, because I just was not tired last night, and laid down to try to go to sleep around 11:30, but I'm not sure what time I actually fell asleep. The only good thing about this is that I'll be able to go to bed early tonight (because I'll be so tired!) and get plenty of sleep before work (and weigh in) tomorrow. Today I was at 155.5, same as yesterday, but the day before I was at 155. I hope that's where I am tomorrow, because that'll mean I'll have hit my 35 pound milestone! Ok, I need to go finish getting ready for my orientation. I can already feel a sleep deprivation headache coming on....

Farewell, Good Buddies

Today I had a shock when I went to check my Google Reader, and I learned that Katieo and Molly will no longer be posting at Sister Skinny! I won't give anything away, so you'll have to check out the blog to see what's up, but I'm very sad! It's one of my favorite blogs! I'm hoping Katie will change her mind and continue to post, so maybe with enough outpouring of affection, she'll decide she can't stop! She also posted a video, to explain why... and I cried! I thought maybe my hormones were just out of whack, but after I read the comments from the post I realized a lot of people cried. We'll definitely miss the blog!

This is a little melodramatic, I know, but I love this song!

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

-Greenday, "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)"

Girl Power!

Finally! For the first time in history, we have a female Biggest Loser! Ali, a 32 year old hair stylist from Mesa, AZ, lost 112 pounds to beat Roger and become our first female Biggest Loser! I am so proud of her! From the very beginning, she knew she could do it, and even when she was eliminated in week 4, she told everyone, "I will be the next biggest loser!" Then she worked her butt off for it, and she actually did it! She looks amazing, and she is one of the most inspiring contestants I've seen. She showed everyone that if you put your mind to it, anything is possible! Go Ali!

Inspiration!

I was reading Scale Junkie yesterday, and she had posted about going to a brunch with some friends. She talked about how one of the friends at the brunch had lost a lot of weight since the last time they'd seen each other, and while she was happy to see her friend getting healthy, she felt a little bit frustrated because she herself has not seemed to have made as much progress as the friend. So she told her husband about her frustrations, and her husband told her not to think that way, because she was going to end up with a defeatist attitude and give up. He reminded her of a time when she planted a clementine seed, watered it and took care of it for two weeks, and nothing happened so she gave up on it and put it outside on the porch. Her husband, on the other hand, did not give up on it, kept watering it, and soon after, it had a sprout. He used this as an analogy for her weight loss -- even though on the surface it appears nothing is going on, nothing is changing, beneath the surface, good things are happening! I think that is true of all of us who are trying to lose weight and become healthier, even when it appears no progress is being made, good things are happening just beneath the surface! After reading that blog post yesterday, I was so inspired, so I wanted to share the story with anyone who might need a little inspiration of their own!

UPDATE 4/15/08 8:31 PM: Today is the 27th day in a row that I have stayed within my calorie range!

Weigh In Day... So Close!

Down another pound and a half this week! I think it probably would have been more, but it's TOM, so that's still a good loss! Oh, and my waist is now 31", and my hips are 39.5", so I'm definitely shrinking, considering I started at 37.5" on my waist and 46.5" on my hips! I'm making progress, and I've never been so confident that I can actually do this!

This month I've been adding little bursts of 3.5 mph walking to my treadmill walks. The first week in April I did 2 minutes at 2.5, 2 minutes at 2.8, 1 minute at 3.3, and then I would do 4 minutes at 3.3 and 1 at 3.5, 4 times, and then back to 3.3 for 1 minute, 2.8 for 2 minutes, and ended with 2 minutes of 2.5. This week, I changed the 1 minute segments at 3.5 to 2 minutes, and I took the 4 minute segments at 3.3 down to 3 minutes. And this coming week I'll change it to 2 minutes at 3.3 and 3 at 3.5. I got the idea for the whole interval thing while I was looking at the Couch to 5k plan, I figured it'd be a good way to work myself up to faster speeds, until I'm eventually running. I'm still confident I'll be a runner before the year is over!

The night before last I had the naked dream. Y'all remember the naked dream? When you were in high school, and you were naked, walking down the halls, and the whole school was there? Yeah, I had that dream. Except, instead of being all embarrassed and trying to cover myself up, I just totally pretended that I had no idea I was naked, and I carried on with my business as usual. At some point in the dream, I acquired clothing, but by that point it didn't really matter. Wonder what that means? Could it mean I'm actually becoming more confident in myself? Hmm...

P.S. I took progress pictures this morning, I'll post them when I get home tonight.

UPDATE 4/13/08 11:22 PM: Progress Pictures have been updated!

11-25-07: 190
12-2-07: 185.5
12-9-07: 182
12-16-07: 180
12-23-07: 179.5
12-30-07: 178.5
1-6-08: 174
1-13-08: 176.5
1-20-08: 173.5
1-27-08: 176
2-3-08: 175
2-10-08: 172.5
2-17-08: 170
2-24-08: 169
3-2-08: 166
3-9-08: 164.5
3-16-08: 163
3-23-08: 162
3-30-08: 159.5
4-6-08: 158
4-13-08: 156.5

New Job Possibility

I applied at the Smith's about 2 miles from my house on Thursday, and then I called yesterday to see if they had gotten the application yet (it goes to their corporate office before the store gets it) and the person in charge of hiring told me she had it. She looked over it while she was on the phone with me, and she told me that have 2 openings, courtesy clerk and service desk, not sure what the difference is. She also said they won't be able to match what I'm making at Sitel, but I told her that's fine. She said she was leaving for the weekend when I talked to her, but she said she'd call me on Monday to try and set up and interview. So yay, I might have a new job soon! That will definitely cut down on my stress level!

You Mean I'm Not Big-Boned?

Remember back in November, when I discovered I had a large frame? Well, today I was reading a new blog I just found, Chocolate Cake for the Soul, and I don't remember what she wrote but something she said made me remember my large frame post, so I looked back through my archives and found it again. I had included a link to the website I used to determine my frame size, so I went back to the site, just to see if anything had changed. I measured my wrist again (15.5 cm, or 6 inches) and input it on the site, along with my height, and now it says I have a medium frame! What the crap? Is it because I've lost so much weight that I actually lost some fat off my wrists? Maybe I never really did have a large frame, but I just had extra fat on my wrists? I mean, at the time they felt like they couldn't get any smaller, but could they have? I went and looked up the old post again, and at that time my wrists were 16 cm, so apparently I've lost half a centimeter on my wrists. So then I input 16 cm on the website, instead of 15.5, to see what it would come up with, and this time it said large! I never really thought my wrist size could change that much, but apparently it can, and apparently I'm not "big-boned" after all. Which means my ideal weight range is 104.5-141 lbs, instead of 115-155, like it would be if I really did have a large frame. Not that it matters, because my goal weight is 130 anyway, but it's just an interesting thing to discover.

Yum-O!

Ok, I might need to nix the whole vegetarian idea. My chicken tonight was DELICIOUS! The kind I bought was packed in these little marinating packs, and they were lemon butter flavor, and they were sooo lemony and good! The breasts themselves were like 10 oz. each, so on Tuesday after the store I cut them into 4 oz. portions, bagged them and stuck them in the freezer so I could just thaw one at a time. And 4 oz. of this lemony goodness was only 110 calories! Then I had my brown rice, which I found in the store in little single serving microwave cups - it was kinda funny, we were in the rice aisle and I said, "I wish they made brown rice in single servings," and I walked a little farther down the aisle and there they were - and I put the vegetable medley on top of that, and the chicken on top of that. So good!

Chicken Again

I'm still thinking about the whole vegetarian thing, but I had already planned on having chicken over brown rice for dinner this week, so I bought chicken breast, and I'm not about to throw it away, it was expensive! So at least for this week, I'm still a meat eater. Amy suggested that I just try to buy only meat that comes from humane resources, which I think would be a good idea. But then I read something in my vegetarian SparkTeam, or I read something on PeTA's website, and I think again. It's a hard decision to make. And how easy would it be to find humanely treated meat, anyway? I tried to do some research on the internet last night, but I didn't really find anything helpful. I'll need to keep thinking about it all, and decide what I really want to do. But for this week, chicken it is. I'm planning on having it over a bed of brown rice, with a side of a garden vegetable medley I found, made of sugar snap peas, roasted potatoes and red peppers. I hope it's good.

To Go Veg?

I'm very seriously considering going vegetarian. It's healthy, and I am very much against animal cruelty. The only problem, and the only thing keeping me from going for it the past couple of years is the fact that I LOVE bacon cheeseburgers and pepperoni pizza, and I'm not sure if I'd want to give those up. But then I think about the fact that pigs and cows have to DIE for me to have those meals, and it makes me think again. Then, there are other things that have made me almost make the change. For one, I watched the move Fast Food Nation. DON'T ever watch this movie if you want to continue looking at beef the same way. And then, today I was looking at this 30 Reasons to Go Vegetarian website, part of the PeTA website, and it gave me some more information that makes me feel like it's what I should do. And I think if I do, the cravings for those foods will leave eventually. I might sign their pledge to go veg for 30 days, and then see how I feel after that.

UPDATE 4/9/08 6:02 PM: I just can't decide what I should do! I think it will be really hard to go veg, and it will make eating out harder, but I just don't know if I can continue to eat things that were once living creatures! I got a reply in one of my SparkTeams about this, and this is what it was:

Welcome to the group, pleased to meet you. Once your mind takes on board the reality that you are eating something that was once a living creature that had feelings and probably died in abject terror, you will look at the food you now crave in a completely different way. You wont think about what it tastes like, you will think of what you are actually putting into your mouth. You will not have any more cravings for flesh food. Look at the food, see the animal, think about that animal and its life. Animals are not stupid. They know love and fear just like us. They have families like us. They mourn their dead just like us. Cannibals probably think we taste good. Does that mean we eat each other? All life is sacred. God gave us so much to eat. Fruit vegetables grains. Pure food that helps to elevate our souls.

So if I look at it that way, how can I eat meat? Please, I need help here!

April 10: ASPCA Day!

Thursday, April 10, 2008 is ASPCA Day, and I, for one, will be wearing my orange ASPCA shirt to show my support! All of you animal lovers out there, please wear orange to show your support!

THE BIGGEST LOSER!!

Oh my god, did you see that?? I'm so thrilled for Ali and Kelly! I serioulsy, literally, started crying when Kelly weighed in! I already went and voted for Mark, to get rid of the biggest threat, Roger! Everyone needs to go vote RIGHT NOW and vote for Mark so that a woman can win the Biggest Loser for the first time ever!

My 15 Minutes of Fame!

Today I got an email from my mom. She had been trying to find my blog, I guess the link in her favorites wasn't working, so she googled it. And I know that when you google "the Pursuit of Healthyness," a lot of results come up, but one of them was of particular interest to my mom, so she sent me the link. Turns out, back in December when I talked about "walking" to Manhattan (later changed to walking Route 66, then back to NY), the New York Times blog City Room mentioned me! By name! How crazy is that? So I called my mom as soon as I read her email and the blog, and she told me "You better make sure whatever you're writing is good, because the New York Times is reading it!" I'm a little bit in shock! I'm going to have to start googling my blog more often, just to see what comes up!

P.S. Down to 156.5 today! I know it probably won't stay there, but it still felt good to see that number!

P.P.S. Today is the 20th day in a row that I haven't gone over my calorie range!

P.P.P.S. Go read Leslie's pap smear post! Hilarious!

Water Water Everywhere... And Not a Bathroom Break In Sight!

I'm sure as most people who are trying to lose weight do, I drink a lot of water every day. In fact, I drink at least a gallon of water every day. I drink about 1 liter every 2 hours during work, and maybe one more when I get home from work. As one can imagine, that's a lot of liquid running through the system. Now I have a large bladder, but even so, I am only allowed 2 15 minute breaks and a 1 hour lunch while I am at work. Being that I have such a large bladder, this isn't a huge problem for me, but if it were up to me, I'd be allowed to get up to use the restroom as often as I see fit. And sometimes I do. But is it reasonable to expect your employees to only need to relieve themselves 3 times during the work day? 5, if you count before and after work? That might be reasonable for those who don't concentrate on their water intake so much, but for those of us trying to live healthy lifestyles despite our working environments, it does seem a little unreasonable to me. All of this makes me think of my mother, who I swear must have the smallest bladder the world has ever known. If my mother were constricted to her desk for 2 solid hours at a time, she would either explode, or be forced into dehydration because she would not be able to drink as much water as she's used to. It's almost like those of us who choose to stay hydrated throughout the day are singled out, at least where I work, because if I take an extra break during the day to go to the restroom, I get in trouble for going over on my break times. Anyone else have this sort of issue at work?

Weigh In Day... Movin' On Down

I lost a pound and a half this week, yay! My stupid body is still fluctuating though, yesterday I was at 157.5 so I was sure that's where I'd be for today's weigh in, and then this morning it was back up to 158. It's still a good loss, so I'm not complaining, but it would have been nice to have lost 2 pounds. And I think I was at like 164 or something this time last year, so I'm even doing better than I was then! If I stay on track with losing a pound a week, I'll be down to 150 by my birthday, which would be awesome.

I've been struggling to get all my fiber in this week, I think it's because I've been eating chicken for dinner and not whole grain pasta or veggie pizza on a whole grain wrap, or you know, something whole grain. Plus, this is the first in three weeks that I've eaten meat during the week, last week and the week before I didn't have any meat. That might have something to do with it.

On a blogging front, I've started using Google Reader to keep up with all the blogs I read, and I love it! It's so much easier to just see the blogs that have been updated, instead of going through each blog to see if it's been updated. It saves me so much time now to read all my blogs!

11-25-07: 190
12-2-07: 185.5
12-9-07: 182
12-16-07: 180
12-23-07: 179.5
12-30-07: 178.5
1-6-08: 174
1-13-08: 176.5
1-20-08: 173.5
1-27-08: 176
2-3-08: 175
2-10-08: 172.5
2-17-08: 170
2-24-08: 169
3-2-08: 166
3-9-08: 164.5
3-16-08: 163
3-23-08: 162
3-30-08: 159.5
4-6-08: 158

Oh Yeah, This Is a Weight Loss Blog!

The human body is such a strange thing. Sunday I was at 159.5, for my official weigh in. Monday, I stayed at 159.5, Tuesday I was down to 158.5, Wednesday I weighed in at 157 (!!), and then today I was at 158.5 again. Why do we fluctuate so much from day to day? I don't know, but I'm still down from Sunday so that's good enough for me, considering I've still got 3 days before I weigh in again.

Oh, UNM...

So I think I can relax about all this school stuff finally! Scott and I went down to campus yesterday and I met with my pre-major advisor, and she lifted my 2 advisement holds, and she also told me about a "Transfer Day" they're doing on April 19th, which is free and will take care of the orientation hold I have. She also said students who attend Transfer Day get to register for classes before the rest of the whole school, so I don't need to worry about my classes filling up! I think I can even register for the fall on that day. I'm so relieved that I'm going to have all of this taken care of so soon! So as soon as we got home yesterday, I went online to reserve my spot, and then today I made sure to ask for the time off from work for that day, and half of the day before, since I'll have to be on campus at 7:30 am on Transfer Day, so I'll need to go to bed early. I'm so relieved, though!

Stronger Woman

Enjoy! I'm going to see Jewel in June, I can't wait!

What a Nightmare!

This post is completely unrelated to weight loss, but it IS related to stress! This whole process of going back to school has just been such a nightmare! I applied in January, didn't hear anything for like 2 weeks, which is weird because it doesn't take that long to get readmitted, so I called to find out what the deal was. They looked me up in the system, and turns out even though I submitted my application on my end, it got stuck in the system and never came through on their end, complicated by the fact that I used to be a student at UNM, so they still had my original application on file. So, I had to do another application, and then I still hadn't heard from them about 2 weeks later! So I called again, and it turned out they needed my transcripts from CNM. How the frig was I supposed to know that? So I called CNM and had them send my transcripts over, and the NEXT DAY I get a letter requesting the transcripts.

I finally got my acceptance letter on February 12, so I was finally able to relax a bit. Then, after we filed our taxes, I went ahead and filed my FAFSA for financial aid. A couple days after that I get a postcard from UNM saying that my financial aid application can't be completed because I've not yet been fully admitted to UNM. What the frig? So I call the admissions office to clarify that I was admitted when I got that letter, and they say yes, I was. Then I call the financial aid office to let them know that I HAVE been admitted, and they tell me I was admitted in one system but not the other, so they're going to get in contact with admissions to make sure everything is straight. They tell me to call back in a week to make sure, which I do. They tell me my file is complete and everything is fine, and I'm relieved.

Then, a couple weeks later, I'm trying to log in to LoboWeb, which is the system you use to check your financial status, add or drop classes, etc. I had made my net ID for school back in February, so I didn't expect any problems logging in. Yet, I can't get into the system! So I called last Tuesday, and told the guy what was going on, and he discovered that I had duplicate IDs in the system, as a result of being a former student, so they needed to give my new ID access. He says they usually fix those types of problems on the same day, so I should have been able to log in by 5 pm. And I trusted I would be able to. So I keep trying to log in, getting denied, every day until Friday, and I still can't get in! So I call the office again, and the agent I speak with tells me he's going to up the severity on my case so that someone will be paged to fix it immediately. They finally got me fixed, and I was able to log in FINALLY yesterday.

So I'm looking around the system, checking things out, and I decide to check my financial aid status, to make sure everything is good. It says it's still pending my admittance to the school! So today I logged on to live chat with a financial aid agent, tell him the situation, and he tells me that he was finally able to get the system cleared up, and now my file is actually complete. I checked it on my side to make sure, and it really was this time.

Then, I decided to check if there were any holds on my account, just to see, and it turns out I have 3 holds! 2 are from the University College, and 1 is from the Dean of Students. The one from the Dean's office says I have to take an orientation, and the ones from the University College say "Sophomore" and "Pre-major Advisement." I tried calling the University College to see what I need to do, but I couldn't get through all day and just ended up leaving a voicemail, which was never returned. When I called the Dean's office, they told me that even though I went to freshman orientation in June of 2004, I have to do another one because this year they decided all transfer or readmit students have to take one. They said I'm a candidate for online orientation, since I've already gone to UNM, but they aren't opening up the online orientation until April 30. Guess when I'm supposed to register for my summer classes? Yeah, May 1.

So if for some reason I don't end up taking the orientation on April 30, I won't be able to register on time, and I'm already paranoid that my classes are going to fill up before I can register, since I can't register at the same time as existing students. And, I can't register for the fall until May 5, which worries me even more because one of the classes I'm taking (Human Sexuality) only has 1 scheduled time, so if a ton of people decide to take it, it will fill up! Of course, it's being held in a big lecture hall so there should be plenty of room, but I'm still going to worry until I'm actually registered. Ah! This has all been so stressful! I really wish I had just stayed at UNM 2 years ago, and I'd be almost done by now!

March Recap

Amy did her "good, bad, and ugly," so I'm going to do mine!

Good:
-I logged 541 minutes on the treadmill
-I lost 9.5 pounds
-I tracked my food every single day
-I upped my walking by .3 mph on the treadmill
-I didn't eat any Easter candy

Bad:
-I was sick for 3 days, and missed 3 days of exercise because of it
-I didn't reach my goal of 600 treadmill minutes because of said sickness

Ugly:
-I ate over 2,500 calories on 2 separate occasions. Blech.

All in all, March wasn't a bad month! Except for the binge on the 19th... I did go over on the 4th, also, but that was only in the form of a burger and fries, which I think is better than going over because I had to eat all kinds of different crap. And since I plan on having one "high calorie" day every month, the one on the 4th was the planned one.

My goals for April? Basically just keep up the food tracking, keep up the exercising, keep up the blogging, and up my walking by another .2 mph. I will be a runner in the next couple months, dammit!