The first trip to the gym….

Got up this morning and grabbed my keys and headed for the gym (got dressed of course but that’s a given) .  I pulled in the parking lot and it wasn’t very crowed which for me is a good thing.  I sign in at the desk and walk down the hallway thinking I can do this…the hall way seemed longer and longer. Maybe out of fear.  Fear that I don’t want this to be a passing phase.  I have support this time around and I have will power and I AM going to do this.  I walk thru the door and there are 2 people on treadmills already plugging away.  I get my coat off and head over to the scale.  THIS IS IT.  THE MOMENT OF DREAD.  I kick my shoes off and I think OK back toward the end of Oct I was weighing in at 244. So I set the scale there. I took a deep breath in closed my eyes and stepped on the scale and let my breath out.  When I opened them I got a surprise.  I needed to move the bar.  I moved it a bit more and had to move it again.  It went down 14 pounds.  I know I had a busy holiday season and work was crazy but it looks like watching my portions was a really good thing.

So, the Official weigh in is 230 lbs.  I’m sure if anyone was watching they got a kick out of the surprise on my face.

With this good thought in mind I headed to the treadmill.  I unroll the earphone to see that part of it is missing.  The part that plugs into iPod.  So no music for me today :0(  What do you do when you have no music you count your steps…yes I was bored but was determined to stay on that thing for 20 minutes and a 2 minute cool down.  216 steps a minute for 4320 steps in that 20 minutes.  I walked at 2.9 miles an hour I’ll get that up.  burning 116.5 calories.  1 mile  YEAH ME!  Then I worked my core a bit with some weight training.  I didn’t over do it because I want to continue and not peter out like before.

I feel good about my workout today and will be back there on Friday.

Added walk…went to campus and got my books and decided to walk campus while I was there as well…extra cardio…and its FN cold here :0)

Telling the Vending Machine Who is Boss

I walked into the break room at work today and this was what greeted me.  I stood there a minute and thought hmm, this is one of my problems.  I stood there in front of the machine and told  it I would no longer be needing its services.  Tapped it on the glass and walked out of the break room.  It felt good!  Made me feel in-powered.

I did better with my eating and didn’t feel hungry today.  I will call this a win day :0)

I got to welcome to the world by best friends Grandbaby today.  A beautiful baby girl.

Tomorrow starts the gym.  I have decided that I will be starting out 2xs a week and will add more when I can.  Going to walk on the treadmill in the morning and do a few weights.  At least that’s the game plan.  I’ll let ya know how that goes.

Wish you all a healthier you!

On the second day of change….

Wow day two and lets just say it was a tough one for me.  It started out really well.  Oat meal for breakfast. a 100 calorie pack for a snack, a salad with walnuts and blackberries for lunch, a couple little rice cakes, and then at 5 I was so hungry I could have chewed my arm off.  I grabbed some gum and that calmed the stomach till I got home at 730.  I gotta figure out a happy medium here for me.  I still have calories and I should have planned lunch different.  Any other day I can have like subway at 2 and not even be hungry really when I get home.

The weather didn’t help either.  It is snowing here so I don’t want to be out and what do I do, I don’t take the highway so I have to drive by like 20 Pizza places on the way home.  I was a good girl….I didnt want to be.  Fail on lunch but pass on driving by the Pizza places.

I still feel good about today I just need to find my happy medium.

On another note I may have a name for the tapeworm.  “Tippo.”  Tippo half tapeworm half hippo! Lol does that make him a hungry hungry hippo?

Till next time….

Day 1

Pretty productive day today. Went to the grocery and got stuff for lunch this week and got healthy snacks. got the laundry done and drank a lot of water today. I got on dads scale that only works half the time so I look forward to going to the gym and using their scale.
I fell good today had around 1100 calories…a little less but close to there. I didn’t feel very hungry today, that is a good thing.
I dug out the lunch box so I can pack tomorrow being I am working all day.
made veggie pasta for dinner. Added some garlic lemon chicken broccoli, cauliflower and carrots,k cooked with a little virgin olive oil. I’m not much of a veggie eater but it was pretty good.
I have decided not to carry anymore then a dollar with me in cash. That way I can’t use the vending machine.
SO mind wise I was good today. I even sat at my dads where the evil fudge brownies live and all the cookies that are still there from Christmas.
I did measure my body this morning. There is a whole lot of opportunity there for me to tone and lose weight. I tend to lose inches more so than weight and I am ok with that as well.
One day at a time and I must say day 1 went pretty well.
Gonna chill out and get ready for my first day back to work for 2012.

Till Next Time….

I am me

I Am Me
-Virginia Satir

In all of the world there is no one else exactly like me.
Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine Because I alone choose it.
I own everything about me, My body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all of my actions, Whether they be to others or to myself.
I own my fantasies, my dreams, My hopes, my fears. I own all my triumphs and successes, all my Failures and mistakes, because I own all of me.
I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know, but as long As I am friendly and loving to myself I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and for ways to find out more about me.
However I look and sound, whatever I say and do and what ever I think and feel at any given moment in time is authentically ME.
If later some parts of how I looked sounded, thought, or felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which was unfitting, keep the rest and invent something new for that which I discarded.
I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do.
I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, to make since and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, therefore I can engineer me. I am me and I am ok.

This is one of my favorite poems. It helped me during the awkward teen years. Hope you enjoy it.

Till next time…

Walking a path

SO today I want to talk a bit about paths…..Everyone walks a different path…Some walk hand and hand…Some walk alone…Some ask for help and others well…we offer yet they seem to never catch on. God never promised for the path to be straight and there never to be a bump in the road. It seems these days with everything that is going on we seem to see more bumps in the road then we see the silver lining. My path may not be what most people would consider to be the right path but it is the right path for me…I am thankful for the people that I have chosen to walk this path with me. The people that have become my chosen family..Don’t get me wrong I love my family but some things they just will never understand, Nor do I think I ever really want them to.

In 2012 I want to make some changes that will help me be better to me and the chosen family reminds me of this everyday. So thank you Chosen family for your love and support and for believing in me! Your support already in my changes that are coming have been great. Together we are going to make 2012 a great year.

We are only as good strong as our weakest one, so together we are unstoppable.

Till next time…

A step in the right direction

Today I stopped at the neighborhood rec center and signed up to use their fitness center.  I think that is a pretty good investment for my Christmas cash.  I got the skinny (yes I said skinny) on the times it is open and am sitting down tomorrow to write out my game plan.

I have been scanning several blogs and have gotten a lot of ideas of where I want my blog to go. Hope I don’t offend anyone by stealing an idea here or there.  Please feel free to do the same.

Here is a list of what I want to see happen in 2012:

  1. loose 75 pounds (0/75)
  2. stay between 1200 and 1300 calories for 365  days (0/365)
  3. blog at least 3 x’s a week (0/156)
  4. take a photo everyday (0/365)
  5. focus on my creative expression 1 time a week (0/52)
  6. take time for me everyday (0/365)
  7. send at least one letter to someone in the mail 1 time a month (0/12)
  8. go to the gym 2 times a week (0/104)
  9. do body measurements once a week (0/52)

Those are the target goals.

What else would I like to see happen:

  1. I want to sell a picture or two in a magazine and be published.
  2. I want to sell some of my cards in a few shops around here
  3. When spring comes I want to dust off the bike and ride the bike path
  4. I want to walk a 5k
  5. I want to do well in school (went back to school after 20+ years) 27 credit hours to go!
  6. cut down on my pop intake and drink more water
  7. I want to be able to shop at any store and buy clothes from anywhere in a med or large.
  8. When I lose the weight I’m gonna jump out of a plane!

Check back with me…This is just a short list of manageable things.  I can always use a word of encouragement, a new blog idea, what you think about a question I may ask.  My only rule is if you ask me a question make sure that you really want to know the answer.

I plan to post a pic as well so I can keep track of my progress visually.  Here’s to a healthy 2012!

A joke in my circle of friends is that some have swallowed a tapeworm to eat their fat, so as this journey begins I will swallow mine at midnight tomorrow.  Stay tuned for pics of him as he grows.  Here is what he looks like before I swallow him.  I still need to name him.

Till next time…

What would I do if I wasn’t afraid….

As I was talking with a co worker today about things I want to see change in 2012 she asked me a very interesting question……….What would you do if you weren’t afraid? I had no answer at the time but have been thinking about it since then. So here are a few of my thoughts on this:

-If I weren’t afraid of what people thought of me I would let people see the real me.
-if I weren’t afraid of failing I would already have my own studio and be doing what I love to do for myself.
-if I weren’t afraid to share my feelings with people they might actually know me better
-if I weren’t afraid of getting my heart broken I would let people closer to me
-if I weren’t afraid of the unknown I would be able to let go and not always have to know what will happen next.
-if I weren’t afraid of death I could accept the fact that I’m not going to be around forever and start telling people in my life what they mean to me(I have been working on this one)
-if I weren’t afraid of going places by myself I would get to see more things, ex. art museums, parks
-If I weren’t afraid of change I would have already finished school, stuck with my weight loss goals, being big I just kinda blend in stay out of the spot light. So now that I have a plan I’m going to change this :0)

There this is a good start to this list. At least all I’ll bore you with tonight ;0)

Till next time…….

The game plan….

The New Year is just around the corner and I am getting my things together to make the transition for change to take place.  I did really good last year for 2 months and then I fell off the wagon.  Not gonna happen this year.  I am determined to make this happen.

So with this being said…I am going to journal my food intake and stay under 1200 calories.  Adding more veggies to my diet.  That is tough for me.  I hate veggies.  Gonna start eating breakfast….PROTEIN!  I also wanna incorporate eating more than 2 times a day.  That is a must.

I start back to school on the 9th and they have a workout facility there so I am going to be checking that out.  I want to walk the treadmill a few times a week.  If the school doesn’t work I am going to use the gym down the street.  I am going to do this.

I will be posting my progress and a pic or two here and there.  I am looking forward to this journey.  THanks for stopping in.

Till next time…..

Photography Quotes

Here is just a small list of quotes that I enjoy on or about photography…..

1.“Seeing is not enough; you have to feel what you photograph” – Andre Kertesz
2.“ You don’t take a photograph, you make it. – Ansel Adams
3.“ Nothing happens when you sit at home. I always make it a point to carry a camera with me at all times…I just shoot at what interests me at that moment. – Elliott Erwitt
4.“Be yourself. I much prefer seeing something, even it is clumsy, that doesn’t look like somebody else’s work.” – William Klein
5.“If your photos aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough” – Robert Capa
6.”Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever. . . it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything” – Aaron Sussman
7. “Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still” – Dorothea Lange
8. “I like photographs which leave something to the imagination” – Fay Godwin
9. “No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.” ~ Robert Adams
10. “Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph”. – Matt Hardy
11.You don’t take a photograph, you make it. – Ansel Adams
12.Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph. – Matt Hardy
13. A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.” – Edward Steichen
14. “Notebook. No photographer should be without one!” -Ansel Adams
15. “It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.” – Paul Caponigro
16. “I shutter to think how many people are underexposed and lacking depth in this field.” – Rick Steves,
17.Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.” – Ansel Adams
18. “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” -Robert Capa
19. “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” -Ansel Adams
20. “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
21. “Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.” – Imogen Cunningham
22. “For me the printing process is part of the magic of photography. It’s that magic that can be exciting, disappointing, rewarding and frustrating all in the same few moments in the darkroom.” – John Sexton
23. When you photograph people in color you photograph their clothes.  But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!  ~Ted Grant
24. A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into.  ~Ansel Adams
25. There are always two people in every picture:  the photographer and the viewer.  ~Ansel Adams
26. The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.  ~W. Eugene Smith
27. I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because it makes you see the world rather than just look at it.  ~Author Unknown
28. A good snapshot stops a moment from running away.  ~Eudora Welty
29. The camera can photograph thought.  ~Dirk Bogarde
30. I think the best pictures are often on the edges of any situation, I don’t find photographing the situation nearly as interesting as photographing the edges.  ~William Albert Allard, “The Photographic Essay”
31. There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.  ~Ansel Adams
32. No photographer is as good as the simplest camera.  ~Edward Steichen
33. There will be times when you will be in the field without a camera.  And, you will see the most glorious sunset or the most beautiful scene that you have ever witnessed.  Don’t be bitter because you can’t record it.  Sit down, drink it in, and enjoy it for what it is!  ~DeGriff

These are just a few of the photography quotes that I enjoy.  Please feel free to add more.