Changed My Outfit

I recently noticed that my previous theme would only scroll through the posts while the links in the side bar remained static. This meant that no one could see all the links. I found this new theme and switched. I’m happier.

Love,
czg

Chickens, Progress and A Lovely View

I believe we’ll be filling our freezer with chicken soon.  Rooster, to be more specific.  They’re getting nasty, to us and to each other.  There are two out there right now fighting for their spot in the pecking order.  It’s all part of their natural way of living, but it’s not fun to watch and there’s nothing I can do about it.  Oh, and if we don’t take care of them, they’ll “force themselves” on the hens until the hens are bald on their backs.  We may keep one for a while, but more than one rooster in a flock just seems like a bad idea to me.

All that being said, would you like to see pictures of our flock?  I took several the other day.

The Whole Flock

The Duke

Penny

King C and The Rev

They really are a lovely flock, in my humble opinion.  We definitely want more than 4 hens, but I think it would be good to see what sort of results we have with this group before adding more.

I’ve also recently taken some pictures while out walking in the neighborhood.  I wanted to share with you some of the views I am blessed to enjoy.

The first three are from the walk I took on Wednesday morning this week.  The last two are from today’s walk.  It was a gray day and the colors aren’t as brilliant as they have been in past years, but the beauty of this area still moves me.  These pictures don’t do it justice.

My favorite view of fog hanging in the valley

Looking across a lot on the corner of my street

The opposite corner

I really love where I live.  This morning I opened the blinds across the sliding glass doors that look out onto our side yard and even though the day was cloudy, the golden colors of the changing leaves filled the house with a glow.

If you’re the praying kind, please pray that I find a wonderful job very soon that is the perfect next step for me (and if you want to throw in a request that it be from home, that would be appreciated, too).

On the fitness front, I measured my waist and hips this morning and I’ve lost 1.75″ from my waist and 1″ from my hips so far.  YAY!  I’m a pear-shaped girl, so I’m not surprised that the weight is coming off my middle more quickly than my lower half.  I prefer it that way as I’m happy being a pear (even if it means it’s hard to find jeans that don’t gap at the back).

I think that’s all I’ve got for today.  I need to do some quick clean up in the kitchen and thaw out some chicken.  Farm Boy is on his way home and I’d like to get that done and do some job searching and resume work.

Love,
czg

Important Life Lessons

Today I want to share some things that have occurred to me on more than one occasion.

1. Never weigh the morning after eating pizza.  It doesn’t matter if you have three slices or one, your weight will be higher.  At least mine is.  Every time.  And what do I do?  I flip the scale the bird.  Sometimes I even make a face like  this.  Real mature, I know.  This morning I even considered giving up pizza for good.  It sounds drastic, but I’m not sure I feel like pizza is worth it.  Frito Pie, on the other hand, is worth it.  Pizza, however, I went without touching for YEARS after working at Pizza Rut during college.  I was totally pizza’d out.  I could live without pizza and be happy, I think.
2. Be in the moment with your weight loss.  I have to remind myself of this all the time.  I often forget that on the path from fat to fit are many happy little milestones and that there will be many things that will encourage me to keep going on this path.  I get stuck in the loop of, “it’s going to take forever,” which makes me think of that old cartoon “The Adventures of Gulliver” and the Lilliputian, Glum, who would always say in his woeful voice, “We’ll never maaaake it.”  Sometimes, though, I see the evidence of progress and am able to recall it when the voice of Glum starts up in my head.  For example, in the shower this morning I noticed my bicep muscles.  When I got dressed this morning, I put on a pair of pants that I bought about two or three weeks ago and they’re loose already.  I can wear tops I haven’t worn in months because they used to cling to my “muffin top”, but now they don’t because that muffin top is shrinking.  So while it will be at least another seven months for me to reach my goal weight, I’m seeing positive, encouraging changes right now and I’m celebrating them!
3. Being loving – celebrating and really feeling loving about the simple things around you – will open you to more good in your life.  Being negative keeps you stuck.  I have witnessed this work in my life over and over again – BOTH sides of it.  I’ve been immersed in being negative, complaining & frustrated and stayed stuck in that mode for months.  I’ve also turned that around, while in the very same circumstances, and focused on what I love – flowers, the color of the sky, the feel of the breeze, my loving relationships with friends and family – and then practically tripped over opportunities for positive change very soon after shifting my focus.  Did that mean I had sunshine shooting out of my arse 24/7?  Nope.  I still had those frustrations, but I found that when I stopped mid-complaint (or if it was really bad and crying was involved, AFTER the peak of frustration had passed) and gave thanks for little things – like a good pen or the kindness of a coworker – that I felt better much more quickly and it balanced out the negativity.
4. Do it now.  This one’s tough for me, but I find that if I take care of the things that I’m most dreading – paying bills, looking for a new job *cough cough*, cleaning off the dining table – sooner rather than later, that I feel much better much sooner and often wonder why I put them off at all.  I know that once I find a new job close to home (or, my dream situation, working FROM home) that I’ll marvel that it took me over two years to make the switch.

I don’t know if you’ll find those helpful, but when I keep these things in mind, I find I’m much happier.

On another note, I had said that the ab exercises in 30DS were not a challenge for me.  I can’t say that any longer.  Level 3 was HARD.  I must be some sort of masochist, though, because I still liked it and was proud of myself when I was done.

Love,
czg

30 Day Shred Update

Well, I finally looked at my little progress sheet and updated it.  I had originally planned to be finished with 30DS by the end of this week, but due to many days/evenings of being too busy/tired and skipping it, I’m projected to finish – IF I don’t skip any more days – on October  25th, which is next Thursday.  That means I’ll need to do nine straight workouts.  The most I’ve done is seven, but nine is doable, barring any unforeseen circumstances.  At this point, I really just want to be done.  Don’t get me wrong – I do like that I’m getting stronger and losing weight.  I can see muscles in my arms when I flex, too.  I’m really impressed that the ab exercises are not hard for me at all.  Apparently the past 5 or so years I’ve spent sucking in my gut have paid off in ab strength.  I even like the workouts.  They’re high intensity, strength building, heart revving workouts that last a whopping 27 minutes from, “Hi I’m Jillian and these are my buddies helping out,” to, “That was amazing, we’ll see you tomorrow.”  I just feel like I want to complete the program so I can say I’ve done it and have that sense of accomplishment, then start incorporating other workouts into my routine.

I want to start running again and training for a 5K.  I’ll still do 30DS for a great full-body workout that I can do at home, but I’ll also do some of the Jackie Warner and Bob Harper DVDs that I have.  I like to change it up!

Oh, and if I didn’t say so, I’ve scrapped the whole “work my way through my workout programs” plan.  It was a fun idea, but as I’m sure you can tell, I don’t have the patience for it.  I want to change things up.  That plan was completely motivated by a deep-seated desire to see some positive changes in my body.  I thought, “If I drink the kool-aid for all of these programs back to back, major improvement is bound to take place.”  Well, it so happens that partnering with my cousins to do regular check-ins & keep up with them daily on My Fitness Pal as well as buying a Fitbit all motivates me to get regular exercise and eat better, which is having some wonderful effects on my weight loss and fitness level, so even though the methods have changed, the mission is still being accomplished.

I call that a win.

Love,
czg

P.S. Today I’m going to give workout 3 a shot.  Workout 2 is still challenging and I’m still doing the modified versions of a lot of the exercises that incorporate my shoulders (I REALLY want to improve the strength in my shoulders!), but I’m ready for something new and I want to say I’ve done all three workouts on this DVD.

Tuesday Grab Bag

I don’t have any one thing I want to talk about, so you’re getting a random assortment of stuff.

Reverend Buffington: I still don’t have any pictures, but The Rev seems to be doing fine in his crate within the coop.  It’s one of those metal things and when Farm Boy went out to check on him yesterday evening, his food and water were knocked over.  That’s par for the course for him – I get now why most feeders and waterers hang and it’s because fowl will walk or stand on them and knock them over otherwise.  Farm Boy righted them and pushed them both to the corner farthest from the flock, though, because they could reach through enough to get at his food and water and they have PLENTY of their own.  Greedy buggers.  FB said The Rev was also really ready to come OUT of the crate and kept trying to go around FB to do so.  Bless his heart.  I may try letting them all out together when I’m off in the afternoon tomorrow and see how things go.  In the morning I’m thinking of letting the ramp down so the rest of the flock can have access to the space beneath the coop, but let The Rev outside the coop so he can stretch his legs.  I know he’ll want to stay close to the flock and so will hang out right around the coop, which is what he did on Sunday, but if I let the whole flock out in the morning, it’ll be hell to try to (a) keep them from wandering into the neighbors’ yard and (b) get them BACK into the coop when I’m ready to go to my appointment.

Massage: Tomorrow is massage day!  YAY!  (I thought that warranted repeating.)

Rupert: Back to animals briefly – when Rupert doesn’t get to go out during the day (when FB and I are both working) he gets brazen and will go out in the evening and not return until the morning.  This drives me bats.  Thankfully, being off tomorrow, I will keep him in all night no matter how much he whines and he can go out in the morning.  I love the little snot and don’t want anything bad to happen to him, but I also believe in letting them out for a while each day if for no other reason than to give us a little peace.

Food & Fitness: I found another podcast I like.  It’s called Phedippidations (feh-dip-ih-DAY-shuns) by Steve Runner  that’s been ongoing since 2005.  I can only subscribe back to 2009, as far as I can tell, but I think I’ll load some of the original episodes into iTunes and check them out.

While listening to Phedippidations, I heard that the Fitbit Ultra doesn’t sync wirelessly.  I could’ve sworn that I read that it does when I bought it, so I did some research.  Turns out it does and it doesn’t.  The pic below is from the website.

Not Quite Wireless

So basically, it’ll upload wirelessly as long as the dock is plugged into the computer you’re using.  This is why I get so bummed when I leave my dock at home…like I did today.  Ah Well.  As I told my cousin, it just means I’ll get a big boost all at once when I get home and sync.  By the way, that’s not much consolation for an immediate gratification junkie.

Speaking of immediate gratification, all the work I put into menu planning and cooking is paying off in more ways than one!  First, there have been small drops in my weight for the past two days, so even though I gained 0.8 this past week, I’m now 0.4 below where I was on the 7th and this is great news!  Second, making lunches are so much easier.  Both of these are highly encouraging to me and my plan to stay on track!

I’d say that today’s mood is a complete 180 from yesterday’s.  HUZZAH!

Love,
czg

 

Downside/Upside

It’s Monday.

This weekend was incredibly productive, but that meant no down time.  I spent Saturday morning rearranging some of my kitchen cabinets, then several more hours planning menus for the week.  At 4:00 I went grocery shopping.  After I got home I did 30DS and was glad I did.  Sunday I was on my feet all day, except for lunch and dinner.  I even ate breakfast and my snacks standing up.  I cooked, moved the injured rooster back outside, cleaned, (Farm Boy has an upper respiratory infection and mostly stayed on the couch, but still helped here and there), did laundry, called my dear friend of 29 years to wish her a happy birthday (she’s battling cancer), gathered and took out the trash and recycling and got in a good walk for exercise.  I was exhausted by the end of the day and had mixed feelings – felt good about all I’d gotten done, but was disappointed that I wasn’t able to get anything done on the job search or resume revamp.

That brings me back to Monday.  I told my supervisor that I was planning to see if I could get an appointment for my annual exam for this Wednesday and if so, I’d take the day off for that and to use a massage gift certificate that Farm Boy bought for me.  I have to use the GC – meant to be a Christmas gift – this month because the massage therapist is moving and only practicing locally through the end of this month.  Anyway, then I got hit with the Open House being this Saturday and they’ll owe me a day, so wouldn’t that work out nice for Wednesday.

Now wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute!  We had discussed that since I live so far away, I’d only be asked to come to every other Open House.  I thought this was a fair deal, but my supervisor didn’t remember that.  I was at the spring Open House without her because she had to work at main campus (a measly hour from her home) all that week prior.  I was at the Community Day a few weeks ago.  Now I’m told I’m expected to be at the Open House this Saturday?  THANKFULLY, my supervisor is a kind woman and when I told her about our understanding, she said not to worry about it, that I didn’t have to come.  I bargained with her.  I said that if I was able to get an appointment with my doc for this Wednesday (my other preferred massage/doc appointment option was next Wednesday), I’d go ahead and work this Open House.  She said that sounded great.  Turns out, I have to wait until November to see my doc because insurance red tape is complete and utter (EXPLETIVE).  I about flipped my lid over this frustration.  Not that it’s really a huge deal, it just involves some extra steps on my part and I KNOW the doc’s office is looking out for me because they don’t want me getting charged needlessly, but I was still upset.  Like, I wanted to cry in frustration.

The level of frustration I felt led me to make this decision, which was supported by my supervisor and I’m thankful.  I’m going to go ahead and take off Wednesday and work the Open House.  I clearly need a Me Day and a massage because I’m worn thin.  Wednesday will be in exchange for Saturday, which is nice, since even though the traffic is thousands better on Saturdays, it eats half of my weekend.  I’m also going to take off Friday because I feel so cheated when I get a one day weekend.  This way I won’t have to wrestle with the truly wretched Friday evening commute, I’ll get another day off and it will likely be much easier to be pleasant at the Open House.  Plus I’ll save money on gas this week.

So, because I don’t like to be a Negative Nelly for all the frustrations and exhaustion, here’s the upside:

• I have YUMMY menus for the week – easy to fix meals, too.
• The grocery shopping is done
• The laundry is done (except for one load)
• The Rev is back out in the coop and we have our downstairs bathroom back
• This morning I saw that I re-lost the 0.8 lbs I gained this week – all from eating better and exercising this weekend!
• I had something to wear today that’s comfortable and cute, even though I didn’t have time to iron
• I got to talk to Heather on her birthday
• I’ll have Wednesday, Friday and Sunday off!
• Massage Wednesday
• Save $$ on gas

*nods*  This is good stuff.  Far more good than bad.

Love,
czg

 

P.S. A Bondi Band Review

Love it!  I did 30DS, sweat my usual amount (measured in buckets) and rather than having sweat running down my face to drip off of my chin, there were some beads of it on my cheeks (it’s a Bondi BAND, not a Bondi Mask), but the bulk of it was soaked up by the Bondi Band.  In fact, my beloved band is cooling on my forehead as I type because while I’m in desperate need of a shower, I couldn’t wait to tell y’all about it (and to log my workout on My Fitness Pal).

Off to log, then shower.

Love,
czg