I Was So Focused On The Weekly Numbers---

...that I just this morning realized that I am only 2.5 pounds away from hitting the 70lbs lost mark!!!

Sometimes I get wrapped up in "Did I lose this week or not?" and "How are all the ways I messed up today?", and I forget about the big picture.

• Like dropping 6 jeans sizes (I was a 32 when I was 384 lbs, now I'm a 26).
• Like barely being able to finish 1 taco at Rudy's (I used to be able to polish off TWO (huge) tacos AND three sodas)
• Like being able to play tennis for an hour and a half at a time (instead of the 20 minutes I barely made it through before).
• Like not complaining about walking all over a large department store such as Target or walking up the hill at one of the places we visit. (I used to refuse to get out of the car if I thought I'd be doing 'too much walking'.)

All these milestones that took place over the last couple of years, and most recently over the last 6 months...and some days I'm more concerned about where that one pound increase came from on the scale.

Time for some perspective.

Project 2, Mpls, Coffee, and Clutter

I finished the shrug I started for the September Stashbuster project. I used EuroBaby Maypole in colorway 18.
Knit Shrug.
I love the softness of the yarn and I love the colors. I do not love weaving in the ends or joining with this yarn. It is SO slippery and chunky that it doesn't stay put. I used a different yarn to seam the sides up, and weaving in the ends was miserable work.

I have no idea how other people do this with such slippery yarn. Oh well, the project is finished and I used all the yarn and then some called for in the pattern, so I "achievement unlocked".

In other news, Owen and I went to Minneapolis last week to see Paul Weller play at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown. The website for Dinkytown sort of sells it as a shopping district type area, but we discovered it is 98% restaurants and bars, and everything else there caters mainly to the students from the university as it is in that district. So we didn't do any shopping to speak of, and decided against looking for the yarn shop I found online. We are going to plan another trip up there and do a regular shopping day like we normally do.

The whole point of this trip was the concert, so nothing was lost really. And on the bright side, we did get to eat at a local place, rather than a mass franchise. At least I don't think it's a mass franchise lol. Didn't seem like one. Burrio Loco Seems Legit, Right? I had the wet burrito which was basically a burrito (a la pancheros or qdoba) and then smothered in delicious enchilada sauce and some cheese. Magnifique.

The hotel room was nice also. A bit swanky with a large bed, a huge desk and a sitting area, plus a full kitchenette. We didn't get to take advantage of the kitchenette since we were only there the one night. The most awesomest thing though at the hotel was the posh coffee machine in the lobby! It was FREEEEE for guests.
As Samuel L Jackson says in Pulp Fiction "This is some serious gourmet shit." Yeah it was that good.

This week's focus has been on uncluttering the house, bit by bit. I rearranged my magazine shelf and finally got around to buying a portable file box for all of our important papers like home owner's insurance...and mortgage documents...stuff that responsible adults should probably know the location of...

We also rearranged the kitchen so that it feels more open and less messy. The microwave has a new home and the island where we attempt to do food prep is finally free. The next item on my list is my office. I have boxes that haven't been touched since we moved in last year, so it's about time I do something with those.

Crafty-wise there isn't a ton to report. I will post some pictures of the shrug soon. I am sort of brainstorming ideas for my next project.  I am making a Trillian scarf using Madeline Tosh Sock yarn in Forestry colorway. I love their colors; they have texture and depth to them that is just unbelievable.
Link to the Project on Ravelry. It's a nice, repetitive pattern that I can do without a ton of thinking while I watch my tv shows or listen to music, etc.

For crochet, I found a book called Crochet One-Skein Wonders 101 Projects from Crocheters around the World. I am thinking about making the Quinby, the Montana, or the Peacock hats. Can't decide which one. I made the felted clutch but felted too much and now it's just a tiny, dense mess. Sigh. Thankfully I didn't pay much for the yarn.

The Montana Hat on someone's Ravelry Page
The Peacock hat from another Rav Page
Quinby Watchcap

So we'll see what inspires me, I guess.  Winter is coming, so I'll probably throw in some fingerless gloves for good measure.

And now, off to bed.

Have a great weekend everyone!

September Stashbuster Project 1 Complete

Closing out the first week back on SparkPeople; I weighed in this morning and discovered that I am exactly where I was on 9/1 when I went to the doctor. I'm not bummed, since it technically hasn't been a full week since my last weigh in, but I went ahead and did it anyway. My actual weekly weigh in is Monday mornings.

I decided, since I haven't been able to get out and play tennis and the treadmill didn't seem fun, that I would look at some spark videos instead. I found three that use the resistance band and are considered low impact and good for beginner level. So I did all of those, plus 5 minutes of stretching for flexibility.

I ended up with 38 minutes on my fitness tracker. It didn't feel like 38 minutes. The first videos were only 5 and 8 minutes long. The third one was closer to 20, but worked upper, core, and lower body.

I wish SP had some kind of favorites system so I could save videos on a list somewhere. I used my browser's book marking feature in stead, however which will work just as well.

It has been educational coming back. The site has had many improvements since I was here last, and I'm feeling a level of commitment I haven't felt before, between what I'm doing on my own and what I can supplement from the site.

In other news, I got my first of two projects done for the September Stashbuster Challenge finished.



I have some yarn left over from it, so in order to be really correct I will need to find some small thing to do with the left over yarn. Shouldn't be too hard though.

I'm planning to start my second project either tonight or tomorrow depending on how I feel.

Overall I feel really good about what I've done this week. I even picked up some more Greek yogurt to put into my morning shakes. From the produce section I got some apples called Ginger Gold and something called Cotton Candy Grapes. So without even really trying or thinking about it, I'm trying more new things.

Weigh Ins, First Week, Castle, and Cats

(Cross Posted 9/5/2014)

My first week back on Spark People is coming to a close. I'm weighing in tomorrow to see how I did. Overall I feel like I did well; I drank loads of water, tracked my calories, etc. I didn't get quite as much exercise as I would have liked, but Overtime at work and weather unfortunately played against me. 

I'm bought a Spark People workout DVD "Total Body Sculpting", that I want to try out.
I also plan to try a couple of the 10 minute resistance band workouts in the video section of the site.

 I'm making my way through my Castle DVDs in anticipation of the 6th season coming out on DVD soon. "Fool Me Once" from Season 2 is ending momentarily and then it will be off to bed for me. I have more overtime tomorrow morning. Thankfully not a full day, just a few hours.

I heart the Firefly references in this show, of course. Especially the "comic con" style episode. 

 
In one of my previous blogs from 9/1/2014 I talked about some behavior issues with my cats, and mentioned that I was going to get them some toys to see if the interaction helped at all. I got some catnip, a cardboard scratching thing (into which I stuffed some catnip), and some catnip filled toy mice. Oh yes, and the obligatory laser pointer.
I had an empty wrapping paper tube on hand, and some heavy duty yarn, so I attached the yarn to the tube and tied a mouse to that. They were fairly enthusiastic about them at first. Not quite so much now, but that could be because they are in their "down time" phase of the day. I should try and observe them more to see when their more active phases occur.

Over all I have been bugged a little less for attention by Avalon, and Osiris is slightly less of an A-hole. So all in all it was worth the money spent. I also alternate which toys I use on which days, because I don't want them to get tired of something. I don't know if cats/pets can get tired of things, or if that's something humans impose on them incorrectly, but what the heck. Nothing to lose.  

 After work tomorrow I will try and engage their interest again and see if they are more playful earlier in the day. I don't know anybody else who has cats (which is odd, because I think us Cat People tend to gravitate towards one another). So I can't really ask anyone else. 

 
My inlaws have a cat, BUT, that cat is basically a lump. She's kind of like a living teddy bear thing. She doesn't play, just lays there and lets you squish on her for hugs and such. Or she pretends to be a road block and refuses to move out of the way. lol.

Anywho, enough rambling out of me for one night. I will probably have a short post tomorrow (Saturday) after I weigh-in. It will either be joyous and ecstatic or annoyed and sadfaced.

Labor Day Tennis, Plateaus Broken, Cats & Craftacularness

We are watching the live stream at USOPEN.ORG. Tsonga and Murray are duking it out on the court.  Murray leads in the 1st set 3 to 2, but Tsonga is serving and if he holds, there will be a tie.

Some good tennis happened earlier between Djokovic and Kohlschreiber played before this match and it was pretty competitive. I always like watching Djokovic play.



 I weighed in this morning. After a three week plateau, which I didn't think would break, it finally broke! I'm down 4 pounds.  This makes me very happy, as I have a follow up with my doctor on Wednesday morning, and I was feeling a bit discouraged to think that I would be going in there with zero loss for the entire month. But, I know that plateaus are common, so I tried not to let it get to me too much, and hopefully it won't happen again for a long long time.

This week, I plan to kick it up a notch (bam), and get on the treadmill more than I have been. I am also going to buy a single serving blender so I can go back to making my shakes/smoothies, because those helped me cram alot of my fruit servings into my day. Little tweaks here and there keep me on track and get me back on the path.  

I checked out some of the articles on the Spark People site this morning also. I had NO idea there was such an extensive treasure trove of things to read about! I even found articles about pets which makes me happy, since I have 2 cats.

One (Osiris) is a bit of an a-hole; kind of aggressive, not overly friendly all the time. He tends to be nicer to guests though, so at least there's that. He has a bit of a deformity near his tail so anytime someone pets him anywhere near his back end he gets a bit rawr.
The other cat, Avalon, is a needy, needy, little thing. You would think nobody EVER pets her highness, or gives her any attention whatsoever.

Cats & Exercise
Indoor pets require engaging activities, which I knew, but didn't realize the full importance of the fact. I have some cat toys I use occasionally, but it's mainly when I have time, which I would say isn't often. But if I'm looking at all the things I spend my time on, I do, in fact, have plenty of time to set aside to play with them. So that's one of my goals now.

I'm going to invest in a couple of things like a laser pointer and a couple of things I can make a DIY cat toy with. Hopefully it will lessen her neediness and his aggressiveness.  We shall see!

Today is the first day of the September Stashbuster Challenge. I have two projects I am trying to complete this month (which I mentioned in the previous post here). Neither one should take a super long time to make, but for me, the objects of the exercise are

1. Use some of the mass quantities of yarn I own
2. Force myself to make time to just sit and focus and be in the present (mindfulness is one of my overall life goals). 

 

Stay Shiny and Keep Flying!