Tomorrow Is Another Day...

I'm Losing It: Week 1

Starting Weight: 126.4

Current Weight: 124.4

Total Weight Lost: 2 lbs

Starting Measurements: 27" waist, 36" hips, 22 3/4" thighs

Current Measurements: 26 3/4" waist, 35 1/4" hips, 22" thighs

Total Inches Lost: 1 3/4"

Goal Weight: 119

Well, with results like that, it's hard not to stay pretty motivated.  I managed to achieve my goal of working out five times this week, though for a couple of days I just did Level 3 of the 30 Day Shred, which is only about 30 minutes.  I also have had a couple of cheating moments, one on accident and one on purpose. 

I went to see Sex and the City on Thursday with a group of friends, and we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant before the movie.  I really did try to stick with the South Beach Diet, ordering a salad and eggplant parmesan, but I ate the croutons in the salad without even thinking about the fact that they were bread and then when the eggplant came it was fried.  Of course, it generally is in eggplant parmesan, I just didn't make the connection when I ordered.  Then, last night I made a cake to bring to a barbecue that we're going to today, and I ate MORE than my fair share of batter off of the spoons and out of the bowl.  That was the best damn cake batter I've ever tasted!  I'm also planning to cheat like a wild woman today, because who goes to a Memorial Day barbecue and just eats chicken and salad?!?  Not this girl.  You better believe I'm having some of that cake too.

Also, if I'm being entirely honest, I'm not 100% certain my measurements for this week are accurate as I couldn't remember where exactly I'd measured last week.  So, as a reminder to myself next week, I'm measuring my left thigh right at the little reddish freckle, hips are around the top of the hip bone, and waist is right above the belly button.

All in all though, South Beach is really a fairly pleasant experience.  The food I'm allowed to eat is pretty delicious, and the only time I really miss bread is when I catch a whiff of it or see someone else eating it.  But after this week, I can start incorporating breads and pasta back into my diet slowly.  I'm proud of my success this week, but now that I've set the bar this high, I'm a little nervous about what my results will be next week.

Sweet Dreams are Made of This

In our last house, the master bedroom was the last room to get a makeover--yes, even after the guest bathroom.  I just didn't really have any inspiration, and I figured we were only really in there when we were sleeping, so what did it matter what it looked like?  Therefore, I always felt pretty neutral about our bedroom, not like it was a comfy, cozy oasis in our house.

I'm turning over a new leaf in this house, before we buy our patio furniture, our new bookshelves for the office, paint the guestroom or figure out what on earth to do with that fourth bedroom, I am overhauling our bedroom. Now, while I'm terrified of birds in real life, I'm completely obsessed with them from a fashion/decorating standpoint.  Show me any home decor or clothing featuring a bird graphic, and I will fall head over heels.  So, the theme for our bedroom is little cheepers!

Walls: Valspar Midnight Fog
(Pay no attention to the bedding and furniture!)

West Elm Pin-Tuck Duvet Cover and Shams
 
Bed Bath & Beyond Tailored Bed Skirt

Grey Flying By Rectangle Pillow (Etsy seller, Joom)

Worldstock Tree of Life Wall Hanging (Haiti)

Anthropologie Bird Doorstop

I was also lucky enough to inherit a beautiful old hopechest from my grandmother when she passed away years ago.  The interior is in perfect condition, sadly, she used the chest as a plant stand, so the veneer and finish on the lid was destroyed.  I sanded it down years ago and painted it a cream color with gold accents, but it's been a bit damaged in the three moves it has endured since then, so it's time for an overhaul.  I'm thinking a little paint and a birdie decal will help it fit into the bedroom perfectly:

Valspar Autumn Fog

 

 Lewa's Designs Birdies and Branch Vinyl Wall Decal

It'll be a little while before everything comes together, but I can't wait to fall asleep in my peaceful, bird-bedecked bedroom!  Do you have any room makeovers in the works?

Domo Arigato

I have not obsessed nearly enough about the fact that I am going to Japan in ONE MONTH!!  Generally, I begin counting down to amazing trips abroad absolutely months in advance, and while Japan has certainly been on my mind lately, I've had so much else going on distracting me from my usual vacation fixation.  I seriously feel like I was just counting down to my New York trip, and that's already weeks in the past.

Also notable, is the fact that in one month I will be DONE with this stupid math class and will only have 8 weeks left in my masters program.  So, really, June 25 will be an all around red letter day.  Even the idea of spending seventeen hours strapped into an airplane can't dampen my excitement.

Plans are coming along nicely for Japan though.  Even though I haven't been ticking off every day in my calendar, I've been Skyping about once a week with my west coast travel buddy, Nicole, and we've got all of our accommodations booked, decided on which rail pass to buy, and have a pretty comprehensive list of things we want to do in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara.  All that's left is to do is work out a tentative itinerary and research karaoke bars!

Well, that and pre-vacation shopping, of course.  I've always found it well nigh impossible to go on vacation without at least one new shirt, and I'm going to try to talk Colby into letting me get a Barnes & Noble Nook so that I don't have to haul around tons of fun books in addition to my travel books.  Also on my list?

Tignanello 24" Expandable Wheeled Upright

I want to pack lightly as we'll be spending a lot of time hopping on and off trains and I won't have Colby around to help me haul my belongings, however, also because I won't have Colby to help me haul around my belongings, I want something slightly larger than the 22" carry on I already have.  Also a bonus, I could pack for the trip with the suitcase unexpanded and then as I accumulate souvenirs and gifts, expand as needed.

Sherpani Flora Minor or Sherpani Milli

I also need a sturdy, roomy, lightweight day bag.  These messenger style bags from Sherpani seem to fit the bill perfectly.  I'd like to go with the Milli as it's a little bit smaller and lighter, but I worry that I won't be able to fit everything that I'll want to have with me every day as well as a change of clothes for the airplane. (My nightmare is being stuck in an airport overnight without clean underwear and a toothbrush.)

 
Metropolitan Zippered Travel Wallet

This wallet seems perfect for storing all of the travel documents I'll need as well as just a couple of credit and ATM cards and a yen pocket!  I'd probably also toss a coin purse in my bag for any change I pick up along the way.

The next month isn't showing much sign of slowing down what with school, a possible long weekend in North Carolina, projects around the house and getting ready for Colby's four-month deployment, but I imagine there will be a little more Japan chat around these parts as the weeks dwindle.  In the meantime, I really need to learn at least one more Japanese phrase, and preferably one that doesn't require maximum effort not to finish off with "Mr. Roboto".

I'm Losing It: The Beginning

If I'm being totally honest with myself, I figure 1) no one cares a whole lot about whether or not I lose any weight and 2) no one really reads blogs on Sundays.  And so, I have decreed Sundays to be the optimal day for tracking my weight loss efforts.

Here's the thing, I'm not unhappy with my body just the way it is... well, aside from my flat chest, big nose, fat face, nonexistent chin, bubble butt, thunder thighs, short legs, thick ankles... as a whole, when I'm not zeroing in on OH MY GOD THE THINGS I HATE, I'm pretty okay with myself.  However, I'd like to get a little healthier, and yes, I'd like to lose just a little bit of the thunder in my thighs, the bubble in my butt, and the roundness in my face.

I know that as you get closer to your "normal" BMI, it gets more and more difficult to lose weight, and I really and truly don't want to look like a stick figure (as thought that's even possible).  So, keeping those factors in mind, I've tried to set the attainable goal of getting back down to my approximate college size.  Sadly (or not so sadly), I never really weighed myself in college, so that's why I'm going with approximate now.  I'm also using measurements, which I've never done before, because I'm specifically interested in reducing the size of my waist, thighs, and hips.  My weapons of choice are the South Beach Diet, Jillian Michaels workout videos, and on days when it's not unbearably hot outside, a 30-40 minute run.

Current Weight: 126.4

Current Measurements: 27" waist, 36" hips, 22 3/4" inch thighs

Goal Weight: 119

I'd like to get this done by the time I leave for Japan in just under 5 weeks, which means that my goal weight loss for each week will be 1.5 pounds.  My "normal weight" BMI range is 18.5 to 24.9, and at 5'6" and 119 pounds I would go from a current BMI of 20.5 to 19.2--still perfectly healthy.  I'll begin Phase 1 of South Beach over again tomorrow, in earnest this time, and my goal is to work out for at least 45 minutes 5 times a week. 

Well, y'all, we'll see how this goes!

Oh What A Week

Wel, last week was such a jam-packed crazy bunch of days, and now I find myself exactly back where I was last Saturday.  Colby finally got home from a three-week long trip last Saturday and on Sunday his parents came in town for a few days to see the Charleston sights and help us out with projects around the house.  We finally got around to installing a dog door on the porch, a microwave over the range, tore out some old ugly plants and put in some new lilies and dahlias, and generally ate our way around the city.

It's been a challenge teaching the dogs how to use the dog door.  Jack will go through it on his own about 50% of the time, but Ellie will only go through if she sees Jack do it first or if you lift the flap for her so that she can see through it.  I'm trying to step back and let them figure the door out on their own now that they've been in and out through it a number of times with assistance, but mostly they end up circling the porch unable to figure out how to get outside, or stuck out in the yard, staring at the screen door.  This is my entertainment.

I started the South Beach Diet a couple of weeks ago in an effort to improve my diet which had deteriorated to X-tra Cheddar Blast Goldfish for lunch and cereal for dinner and hopefully lose a couple of pounds of fat that are covering my super sweet Jillian Michaels muscles.  The diet went well for the first week and I lost about three pounds, all of which were returned to my butt as I totally fell off the wagon and ate every carb and high calorie item I came across while my inlaws were in town.

It was a fun week, but now things are back to "normal" as Colby is once more out of town on a trip, I'm restarting my diet, and instead of planning an itinerary of Charleston attractions, I'm working on a lesson plan about place value in math.

Hm, this post is so uninteresting, I just got distracted by the Weather Channel.  Here's hoping you're having a significantly more exciting weekend than I am!

New York. So... That Happened

I can feel myself slipping back into my old non-blogging ways--the lure of juicy season finales and the less thrilling pastime of homework have conspired to direct my attention far, far away from the blog world.  But I have vanquished those demons (or at least caught up on all of the most exciting episodes, oh my GOD, did you see The Vampire Diaries?!?  (Not that I watch that, because it's totally juvenile.)), and am back to tell you all about New York.

But first, an ever so slightly related aside--did you see the Betty White Saturday Night Live?  Because I did, and the part that made me laugh the hardest was when she was talking about Facebook and she mentioned how people use their profiles to share all of their vacation photos and in her day that was the highest form of punishment.  So, I don't know what you did wrong, but here in chronological order is six days worth of punishment.

I met my mom at LaGuardia on Tuesday and we headed to Chelsea to mooch off of the restaurant where my sister works while she finished her shift.  We gorged ourselves on various delicious Italian delights, drank far too much wine, and then headed back to our apartment in the Upper West Side to attempt to watch Lost.  I watched it again when I got home from my trip and it was literally like watching it for the first time.

The next day, Brittany had to work, but my mom and I mustered up all of our nerve and made our way to the train to attempt to figure it out on our own for the first time ever.  After a comedy of errors worthy of The Bard, we managed to make it uptown to The Cloisters, which was to become my all time favorite part of the trip (aside from hanging out with amazing loved ones, obvies!).  The Cloisters were built in the early 1900s, but they were cobbled together from bits of old European monasteries, cloisters, churches, palaces, etc ranging from around the 11th to the 15th centuries.  It was filled with priceless European art and statuary, and it truly felt like an oasis in the city (I would say even more so than Central Park) and like a little bit of European grandeur and history in America.  The architecture was breathtaking, and I was absolutely enamored with the Unicorn Tapestries.  I bought a mug depicting the tapestry pictured above and have dubbed my unicorn, The Right Most Honourable Sir Sparkles.

We eventually made our way to Brooklyn where we were treated to a heavenly four hour meal at The River Cafe, not to mention the dubious honor of being seated next to and accosted by the one and only Miss Liza Minnelli (the tiny blurry black-haired lady to the right of the flowers in the above photo).  We made good friends with our waiter which meant that on top of the delicious appetizer, entree and dessert that came with the prix fixe menu we also got a king's ransom worth of free cheese, dessert and drinks.  As to why Liza made a drunken attempt to scold us about some mysterious transgression, smacking my sister on the arm in the meantime, the world may never know.

Wednesday was a bit more relaxing as we spent a good portion of the day wandering through and camped out in various sections of Central Park.  The above statue is a memorial to the children of New York given in Frances Hodgson Burnett's name, but it's more famous in our family for being the statue that my sister copied from a magazine for an art contest when she was still in school.  She had no idea where the statue was until years later she saw it in a picture that a friend had taken while they were in New York and posted on Facebook.  Serendipity.  Or something.  The bottom is, of course, my adored Alice having a tea party with her Wonderland friends.  At first, I was irritated that I caught that little girl in my photo, but it's actually kind of charming, and she does bear rather a striking resemblance to Alice, doesn't she?  We also spent a couple of hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I swear, one day I will make it back there and do more than just the Egyptian section.

Friday we made our way back down to Chelsea where we visited the Chelsea Market (sorry, but the Pike Place Market beats its little butt) and High Line Park.  I can definitely see where the High Line has tons of potential for awesomeness.  It's an old elevated railroad track in Chelsea that has been converted to a park just within the past year or so.  But right now all of the plants are still saplings and young growth, and the views of the warehouse district and noisy streets just can't compete with Central Park.  I do look forward to going back over the years and seeing how it develops, though.  We finished our tour of Chelsea with a stop at Billy's Bakery, and I'd highly recommend the chocolate cheesecake over the cupcakes if you ever pop in!

Up until Saturday, the weather in the city was an absolutely ideal sunny upper 70s kind of perfection.  Of course, the day we had planned to go out on the harbor cruise and see the Statue of Liberty, the winds whipped into a frenzy and the temperatures plummeted into the 40s and 50s.  Instead of the cruise, we opted to photograph Lady Liberty from Battery Park, then headed toward the financial district to see Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange and did a quick tour of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.  After lunch, we went in search of cowboy boots to go with the Anthropologie dress I bought at the Chelsea Market to wear on Mother's Day.  Despite what Sex and the City would have you believe, New Yorkers appear to enjoy eating a hell of a lot more than shoe shopping as we canvassed block upon block without coming across a single shoe store.  We finally hit pay dirt on Broadway, and I found my dream pair at Steve Madden.  We had just enough energy to battle the wind and cold in order to make it to Sweet Revenge for yet another cupcake interlude (and oh my, they were HEAVENLY!), then headed back to the apartment for a marathon North & South viewing.

Eventually, our last full day in the city rolled around, and we started the day with a so-so brunch at Trestle on Tenth.  They'll feed you, but if you try to hang around until noon so you can order a bloody mary, you'll get the evil eye from the entire wait staff.  So, that was disappointing, but we just headed back to Brittany's restaurant and polished off a couple of bottles of wine and a cheese plate.  When I tell you that we ate everything in New York, it's really not hyperbole.  And I wish that I could tell you that I have a picture of the three of us together on Mother's Day, because we really did all look adorable and it really was a rare occurrence... alas... my photographer failed me.  But, despite the fact that there's no photographic record of the fact that any of us were there, we all greatly enjoyed Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta Jones in A Little Night Music.  It was a star-studded weekend.

Sadly, the next day mom and I departed after our morning ritual of Regis & Kelly and breakfast at The Muffin Cafe (inside joke here, but I totally tried to Google search that place with "Muffin Man New York", ha!).  It was a tearful goodbye all around, but I'm already making plans for my next trip to the Northeast later this year, and my lovely sissy will be taking Charleston by storm this summer.  I feel so lucky to have such an amazing family and to have the opportunity for such amazing travels.  It was a week in New York that I will always remember and treasure.

Home and Abroad

Thank you all so much for your supportive comments on my last post.  I know it was a whole lot of whining, but I felt loads better about the situation the second I hit the publish button.  I did eventually track down an actual human to speak to in the advising department, and she confirmed that I was enrolled in the correct class, but then she terrified me by bringing up yet another class requirement that would add another two months onto my graduating time line.  I questioned her on this and she said that she would get back to me by the end of the day, which... she did not.

However, I read my degree requirements for the one frillionth time, and the class she mentioned isn't listed anywhere in the degree change form that I signed and agreed to, so I will raise one hell of a fight if they try to push this on me.  And so, I refuse to get worked up about it right now, because in less than 24 hours I will be on VACATION!!

I spent the weekend being disgustingly responsible, finishing all of my homework for the weekend, getting the house in shape for my departure, and yes, I even began packing.  In fact, I started laying my clothes out on Saturday night, nearly 48 hours in advance of my usual packing schedule, which is typically around midnight on the night before I leave.  I'm even contemplating working ahead in my schoolwork for next week if I have any time left over after I run all of my errands and finish packing.

Today is ultrasound day, so I've been worrying all weekend about what one wears for an ultrasound.  And of course, I'm still incredibly worried about how I'm supposed to be able to drink 2 quarts of water 2 hours before my appointment and not have a very embarrassing bodily fluid related situation take place.  What I am not worried about is the outcome of the ultrasound.  You all did a fine job of making me feel so much better about my tipsy little lady organ, and quite frankly, I just don't have room in my head for more worrying.

Well, except for those commercials about HPV that start out of nice and optimistic talking about traveling and falling in love and then end in sadness and despair and chemo and infertility.  I am now I'm convinced that I have HPV and that is why I am going to be infertile.  This belief based on absolutely nothing, except for that really depressed girl in the commercial.  Thanks medical science, questionable marketing and unfounded paranoia!

But whatever, I just have to get through one more day of the bizarre monotony that is my life (who knew monotony could be bizarre?!) and then I'll be jetting off to the Big Apple to spend a week with my most wonderful momsie and sissy-bear.  I'll be back soon to regale you with stories of my time as a country mouse in the big city, and hopefully the air doesn't get too stale in here in the meantime.

So for now, my friends, as they say in New York City, bye, see you later!