the words don't mean enough

It has been crazy CRAZY here at work, because it's the end of the fiscal year so everyone is scrambling to get shit stuff done before the 30th. I am taking  amoment to breathe, because after lunch I feel like all hell is going to break loose and there will be people physically running invoices around. We're obviously super prepared for this! Hah.

Nate and I went to the gym last night to have our free personal training sessions for the month. He was training with a guy named Charles, but since he got a new 8-5 desk job (which he is increasingly more excited about every day he goes) and Charles only works until 4:30, he was in need of a new trainer. So we decided to do a buddy session with my trainer, Dawn. I was a little skeptical, but it turned out to be awesome! We worked mostly arms, legs and cardio, with a little core (which is fine by me.) We also did measurements, and discovered that -- despite my week in Boston eating every type of barfood imaginable and not working out for a week and a half -- what I have been doing is paying off. I haven't lost a whole lot of fat (see: copious amounts of nachos/ice cream/rich wedding food,) but I have gained 1.5% muscle, which is awesome. My arms are now even (apparently before one was 9.5" and one was 10.5"...so I gained .5" in one and lost it in the other. Hoorah for symmetry?) Unfortunately everything else is the same or a little higher, but I'm not surprised by that fact. Now that we're back in the swing of things, that should (hopefully) change.

Ok, back to numbers and numbers and numbers. Have I mentioned I'm not really a numbers person? Oh well.

TGIF and all the goodness

I'm so glad this was a short week because I. Am. Beat.

I had my first two free personal training sessions at the gym. The girl was very cute and nice and I hurt all over. We did arms for 45 minutes on Tuesday and legs for an hour on Thursday. I'MSOTIRED. Working out is hard and stuff. But now at least I know how to use the machines and don't feel as awkward about it. Holla. My trainer is also trying to get classes for the evening to happen at this gym location, which I am all for. Some people live downtown and only have one gym membership. Hmph.

I'm also crazy excited about the fact that next week this time I will be in BOSTON! Granted, I don't get to spend much of my time in the New England actually in Boston -- I'll be in Maine Friday night/Saturday and in New Hampshire on Sunday -- but that doesn't make it any less exciting. I am returning to the land of Dunkin Donuts and Chik-fil-a. It's a dream come true.

You guys, I'm looking forward to fast food chains. This is my sad, sad reality.

Not that I don't love Seattle, especially right now. It's beautiful here, being able to live right on the water without paying exhorbitant prices is pretty freakin' cool (cooler if we could see the water from our apartment,) and the whole Pike Place/Space Needle area of downtown is really, really nifty. But I am affected by sunshine, or lack thereof, and I just can't handle it being 45 and drizzly most of the year. If it's going to rain, I'd rather have crazy thunderstorms that last for an hour or two than constantly being spit upon by the overcast sky. Personally.

Did you know Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks and UPS? Nathan discovered UPS's Waterfall Garden right downtown near my work today.

It's also the birthplace of grunge.

You know what Boston is the birthplace of? Awesome.

But seriously, I'm glad to be here for the time being. I am embracing the newness of it all, even 8 months later.

(also, I got a new follower! Helllloooo, new follower! =)

things can be broken down

Now, I know that there are many things that can influence your weight on any given day: time, water/food intake, bowel movements (ahem,) lady times, etc, etc, etc. But, for the most part, I have been stable between 140 and 145 since we got to Seattle. The only time I lost weight at all was when I had a momentary/imaginary stomach illness that caused me to be nauseous for about a week and not eat much. Then, I dropped about five pounds in a week and weighed in at 135 (isn't it fun what not eating can do for you? =P)

In any case, I've been going to the gym a bit and using the MyFitnessPal app to keep track of calorie intake and burning, and just being more aware of what I'm putting into and doing with my body in general. We joined the gym about a week and a half ago. I've been a couple times since then, usually for about 30 minutes to an hour each time. I also walked around a couple days at lunch when I wasn't feeling up to going to the gym.

I weighed myself using WiiFit yesterday, (I usually use our scale here at work, because it looks fancy and accurate and digital,) and I had to re-do it three times because I didn't believe the number. I went from weighing 146.2 to 142 in less than two weeks! I'm excited and motivated.

And now I'm off to the gym for my half-hour lunchtime workout. The good thing about not sweating much is that in the walk from my gym back to the office, I cool off and dry off enough to change back into my work clothes and not feel too stinky. Wipe my forehead and neck with a cleansing cloth and I'm good to go! The bad thing about not sweating much is I overheat and dehydrate easily. I am all about the balancing acts.

How have your weight-loss/get healthy goals been going lately?

pretty pretty please

You guys, I don't even know what to do with myself.

I saw all the cries of Blogger being down, but since I haven't done anything except 1) use the full-body motion machine at the gym (awesome!), 2) eat, 3) work and 4) sleep, I wasn't really all that put-out by the fact that it was down.

My life is real boring and I am not ashamed.

But seriously. I was feeling slightly under the weather for the past couple days, so last night was the first time I'd been to the gym since we signed up. I used one of the full-body motion machines instead of the treadmill and y'all -- I am NEVER going back. I'm not really a runner anyway, but this machine can transition from stair stepping to elliptical just by how you move. It's fantastic. I burned 300 calories in 30 minutes. Then I had a big dinner and went to bed because I was pooped. I'm still pooped today. Just shows me I need to go to the gym. And maybe drink more water.

Today it is freaking gorgeous and outside, which is awesome except that I'm inside and the weekend is supposed to be crap weather-wise. I think Seattle should make their weekends revolve around the weather. No, hear me out: if there are two days of sunshine next to eachother, that's your weekend. So our weekend would have been Thursday and Friday of this week, and we'd work Saturday and Sunday. I don't really care what two days I have off, just as long as they are two days right next to eachother. It can be our flex week. And it only comes into effect when the weekend does not have at least one not-rainy day. I'll start a petition.

Hah.

In any case, I walked around for half of my lunch today just so I could get out in the sunshine. I'm also going to walk downtown to meet Nate after work (shh, don't tell him) and try and convince him to let us get sushi, since we got paid today. Well, I got paid today, I'm not sure if he did. I love getting paid every week =)

I have a headache which is either from dehydration or the fact that my ponytail is too tight. Or possibly from the fact that my TMJ is mildly acting up. I think that's my cue to stop chewing buckets of ice a day. Funny how it's my jaw, not my teeth, that started complaining first. Take that, dentist-man!

we've already won

Get ready for the cutest little thing you've ever seen EVER.

{via}

The most adorable booboo you've ever seen and she's in Seattle, at the Woodland Park Zoo. Now I want to go see her. Actually, I just want her. Givehertomenow!

In other news, I went to the gym! There's a gym that's equidistant from the house and my work (about a ten minute walk) and when I was walking past the other week, they gave me a free 2-week pass. So I made Nate go down and get a pass too, so we can go together. It's relatively cheap for the monthly fees, but there are "joining fees" so we're trying to see if we can get those waived/sorted out so we can either not pay them or fit them into our limited budget. We'll see.

The gym itself is really cool. It's in a super-old building that was a bank from 1917 to 1981, and the door leading into the locker rooms is the huge bank vault. Also, they have a hot tub w/ a waterfall, steam room, sauna...tanning beds (not that I use those) and lots of machines. Plus, they aren't crowded on the weekends because they're downtown, so a lot of their patronage is only there during the work-week. We went at lunch today and there were plenty of machines open, which is awesome. They have a limited class schedule, but I'm ok with not necessarily going to classes and just hanging out in on the hot tub treadmill or elliptical. I think we get a couple personal trainer sessions for free with our membership, too. Exciting! My plan is to go during lunch and run/walk/jog/crawl for half an hour because -- let's face it -- 30 minutes is better than nothing. I'm blessed not to sweat very much, so I can get away with just changing and some deoderant, but I'll probably get some facial cleanser wipes just to get the band of perspiration around my hairline all squared away.

In anycase, I am one thirsty mofo. But I need to pace myself, cause I can only fit so much water in my belly at once before I start feeling like a water balloon.

Lastly, my booboo made me this awesome signature that will (eventually and hopefully) one day tie into a theme that he will make for me. But that's a story for another day. Check it out!

an aside

it is more money to go to YMCA every month than it is to go to a private, downtown "health club" (aka gym.)

WHATISHAPPENINGTOTHEWORLD?

but me and you were meant to last forever

I'm looking for a pool in Seattle, because I hate working out, but I LOVE swimming and I love how quickly it made me look and feel fit only swimming for about 45 minutes two days a week for the last couple semesters of college. Problem is -- it's cold here and gyms are expensive. And I am afraid of people.

I have issues with anxiety. Most of the time they are nothing I can't handle, but when it comes to going places (especially for the first time) by myself and imposing myself on other peoples' time/energy/space, it is somewhat crippling. So the thought of going to a public, indoor pool is terrifying. Y'all gotta understand, it's hard for me to go shopping by myself, and it makes me uncomfortable to have someone helping me in a clothing store. Going to a class in college for the first time, especially if I didn't know where it was? Bad. Being 15+ minutes late to class? Worse. I usually just wouldn't go. Anywho...I digress.

In any case, I was looking up gyms in Seattle, because it frightens me slightly less than a city pool, mainly because there are usually less people there and I wouldn't have to steel myself to share a lane with someone and possibly be in the way. I found some nice looking gyms, and there was even one that said it had a "young professionals" monthly discount, for people between 18 and 29 who are either in college or just starting their careers, because they're on a budget. Do you know what that price was? $65 a month. With a, like, $200 initiation fee. Sixty-five dollars a month?! I considered $40 a month too much to spend in Boston. Then again I was making less in Boston than I am in Seattle, and Boston is more expensive than Seattle...but still.

Now, I suppose it isn't really that much, if I think about what I make compared to what we pay for the apartment...but there are two of us living off of my salary, and me spending $65 a month to go to the pool would make me a horrible, selfish person.

When in my life do I start thinking $65 a month is acceptable for a non-essential service?

when i was younger i would say...

Other things I forgot in this morning's post:

1) i need to drink more water. in general. less coffe/juice/soda...more water. unfortunately, the water at home tastes gross (and i am not one to judge tap water,) so hopefully we'll be able to get a filter for the tap soon. we have a filtered water machine at work, and it is delish =)
2) all of these facts will make me hungry for the next week or so (and consequently, angry.) so...hangry.

i slowly gained weight between junior year of college and the beginning of this year.
   -graduated high school at 120
   -stayed that weight first two years of college
   -gained 10lbs while working at a breakfast restaurant (and battling depression, which i was in denial of at the  time)
   -basically lost those 10lbs taking swimming as a class for the last couple semesters of college. kept them off for the remainder of college until I moved to Boston
   -survived winter in Boston, but gained back about 10lbs.
   -hung out around 130lbs until the next Winter
   -gained another 10lbs during the Winter
   -freaked out at the beginning of 2010 and started doing Wii Fit
   -stopped doing Wii Fit b/c we were selling everything so we could drive across the country and move to Hawaii
   -somewhere between then and the end of April gained another 10lbs.
   -freaked out while staying at Nate's parents, started counting calories and exercising regularly by walking or playing Badminton
   -managed to lose 10lbs between then and getting to Seattle. partially this was the calorie counting in the beginning and partially I think this was basically not allowing ourselves to snack constantly while we were in the car. oh yeah, and the massive amounts of dehydration that happened in the desert in the summer with no AC. I'm pretty sure I sweat off a lot of it.

Here I am today: 140lbs. I was sick for about a week and a half, during which time I dropped about 5lbs, simply because I wasn't eating. I gained it all right back, though, when I started eating. So I'm back at 140lbs. The scale likes it there. Imma neeeeeed to convince it otherwise.

The end!

i'm into something good

So this is it.

Old attitude out, new attitude in.

I feel like I am resting. On my laurels. More like on my butt. I took a five month hiatus from working (save making targets for my father -- not real work, mostly watching TV while waiting for spray adhesive to dry) and took a road trip. We went from Boston, to Florida, to Louisiana, to Minnesota, to Colorado, to Southern California, to Seattle (see --> http://www.adventuresunday.com/.) I spent a lot of time sitting and thinking in the car. Or sitting and singing. Or sitting and wishing the air conditioning worked.

Now that we're settled in Seattle, I find myself complaining, more often than not. Inside my head, but complaining, none the less. Every little thing annoys me: Getting up in the morning. Not having money to spend on the things I want. Not having a larger work wardrobe (completely my own fault, by the way. To be fair, I've never had a job that required business-wear, so I've ignored that part of the clothing world for as long as possible.) The ten-straight days of rain on the Weather forecast (it's, of course, currently sunny and beautiful outside.)

Really, I have very little to complain about. I have this awesome job, where the recruiter contacted ME to come in for an interview. I love the people I work with. Our apartment is in a prime location, and it takes me less than twenty minutes to walk to work (and the only reason it takes that long is the HUGE hill that our building sits on top of makes it hard to walk quickly up or down for first/last five minutes.) We are not completely broke. We can afford food, rent and some extra things to make our life comfortable.

And the one thing I do have to complain about, our landlord is fixing, and making it as difficult as possible to actually have any complaints. We discovered, after the last couple weeks of constant rain and snow and general dampness, the five windows in our little corner apartment are completely covered in black mold. Like, they're fuzzy, and the one in the kitchen even has mold gel growing near the lock in the middle. Ewwwww. Luckily, there's an apartment on the third floor in our building that was recently vacated. It's larger, but our rent will stay the same for as long as we want to live in that apartment. The hardest thing we had to do was move all of our stuff down two floors and call the cable rep to come switch where our cable is coming to. Our landlord is even switching our electricity for us. They're going to replace the windows upstairs, and then we can either stay in the new apartment, or move back to our old one.

It's fortunate and unfortunate in some ways, and I wish we could combine my favorite features of the two apartments, but we'll probably wind up staying in the new apartment simply so we don't have to move again. We've been in Seattle for a little over two months, and considering all the bitching and moaning we were doing while we were carting things downstairs yesterday, we won't want to move again.

Old Apartment Pros/Cons:
+ hallway closet at the entrance for coats/shoes/outdoor things.
- small living space (we had a hard time fitting two oversized chairs in the space so that we could walk and see the tv)
+ awesome enormous pass-through to the kitchen w/ large breakfast bar that we could get cool barstools for
- bathroom exited directly into living area
+ double sink in the kitchen, plus it has a built-in cutting board.
- less than ample cabinet space...and the one large one we did have was strangely shaped)
+ long shelf w/ bar installed in the closet
- (free) bed (from craigslist) too large for the bedroom, so with the closet doors open, you couldn't walk on that side of the bed. (also means no nightstands, but we had space-saving ideas for such a problem we just hadn't gotten around to yet...)
+ cable/internet ready in both living and bedroom

New Apartment Pros/Cons:
+ larger square footage in general, both in the living room and bedroom
- smaller pass through, w/ smaller breakfast bar. it feels more like a drive-through window. and the bar is right next to the front door, so any stools we could get to eat there would have to fit under the bar
+ larger closet for shoes/coats/outdoor things
- closet is in the back of the apartment, so you have to take your shoes off and carry them there. or risk tracking whatever is on them through the whole apartment.
+ larger closet in the bedroom
- there are no studs in the closet in the bedroom to hold our awesome shelf w/ bar that we brought down from our other apartment, so it keeps ripping out of the wall. we're having the landlord look at it, b/c the closetmaid shelving that was in there just isn't gonna cut it
+ bathroom exits into a small hallway that leads, first past the kitchen and then into the living space. i think this is awesome. Nate didn't seem so impressed, but this is my list, not his.
- kitchen is smaller. like a hallway, with stuff on either side. i think there might be less counter space than in the other apartment, however...
+ kitchen has WAY more cabinet space. for some reason, they like to make the top shelves super high, to the point where you can't use them. but there's only one cabinet like this in the new kitchen, whereas ALL the cabinet were like this in the old apartment. so now we only lose 2 shelves out of 17, instead of  4 out of 11. A much better ratio.
- there is one cable hookup. next to the door, in a horrid spot in the living room. nothing in the bedroom. I believe Nate is trying to make the cable rep drill a hole through to the bedroom for another cable as we speak.
+ bigger bedroom = more space around the bed. and the closet doors don't open out anymore, they slide to the side, so there is ample walking space on either side of the bed. we might even get nightstands in the not too distant future. exciting!
- the guy who lived there painted the walls orange. and the blinds...and the baseboards, and some of the tile on the breakfast bar. he did a lousy job, so there are orange splatters in various places. stupid. orange is stupid.
+ FREE COUCH. the guy who was living there just left it. so...awesome.

I personally think the new apartment is the winner, but I will miss the awesome pass-through and breakfast bar from the old apartment.

In any case, the purpose of this blog is to keep my whining in check. Hopefully someone besides me will read it, and tell me to quit my bitching and moaning. If I start to ramble on about how bad things are, just smack me. Well, virtually, anyhow.

The other thing I'm going to track is my weight. We're getting Wii Fit Plus this weekend (one of our Christmas gifts to ourselves, since our original Wii Fit seems to have disappeared in the move,) plus I'm going to actually start keeping track of my weight (and weigh myself in the morning, when I get up, before I stuff my face for the day, and count my calories consumed/expended with my awesome Lose It app for my iPhone. I am by no means fat, but I don't like the way I look. And unfortunately, this means I've been having a really awful time letting Nate like the way I look, so I'd like to remedy that. Also unfortunately, I put a heaping amount of sugar in my coffee this morning (which has just got to stop -- it's no wonder I crash by lunchtime,) on top of the sweetened creamer I add. I'm just gonna have to get used to my coffee not tasting like ice cream. Sad day.

Fortunately, I am down about 10-12lbs from where I was when we "started" our trip (ie: stayed with Nate's parents in New Hampshire for five weeks while the seized engine in our car was replaced,) just by counting calories and measuring out portions, so I feel like another 10lbs is very achievable in the next couples months. I am blessed with a fast metabolism, but since I stopped dancing/working out basically every day, the amount/type of food that I like to eat has caught up with me. Mostly losing weight means the following things:

1) one coffee or one half-sized coke a day. not both. not a giant coke from the vending machine at work. not a coffee from starbucks when Brian/Charli offers. (and less sugar/creamer in the coffe i do drink)
2) knowing my calorie count for the day and measuring out snacks apparopriately.
3) not drinking multiple nights after work. i need my beauty sleep, anyway.
4) measuring DINNER portions. this is a big one, b/c this is where I tend to eat the most food.
5) not thinking that going over my calorie count is by just a "little bit" is ok.
6) working off what i do go over.

I love that the Lose It app has so many activities included in its "exercise" category. Like typing. Or "household" walking (which is mostly what i do around the office.) I need to also just start walking around the office more. But my personal heater at my desk is so nice and toasty, and it's so cold everywhere else. Le sigh.

-C