Trouble with the Curvy

I fancy myself as somewhat of a photographer. I love being behind a lens and shooting. I love looking at the pictures but I really suck at sharing them. Honestly it is because I'm a little lazy. The fun part for me is taking them and when that's over I'm more focused on what I can photograph next instead of doing anything at all with the ones I've just taken. I want to be better about that so when we got home from our DC extravaganza I took some time to go through and print some of my favorite shots out. In the process I remembered I really liked some of the shots from my trip to Texas last October so I went through those too and came across this one. It was taken on the "compound" at the Wizard Academy in Austin. The big yellow thing next to me is t he hot air balloon from "Lost" where they find Henry Gale who we later find out is Benjamin Linus. The guy next to me is Roy Williams who runs the Academy.  I couldn't believe how I look in thi

My first blog (on Myspace.... #throwback...) didn't show many how many people read my posts. Blogs have come a long way since then (and hopefully so have I....) but now I can see just how many eyeballs land on the words I put on here. It fills my heart and makes me feel nothing but grateful. I was just reviewing the number of views for each post and noticed a funny pattern. When the title of the post is "edgier" there are more views. Specifically using "!@#$%^" and keywords like "wedgie" really seem to get readers fired up. Clearly you like me angry... :) Sadly, if you want angry you'll have to visit a Fox News blog because this girl runs out of piss and vinegar pretty quickly. Last night I receive a host of really nice messages of encouragement and "don't feel lonely I love you and I'm here with you!" messages. See there? It is you, my amazing beloved reader that snaps the angst right out of me and replaces it with warm and fuz

I couldn't decide weather to call this post "Piss and Vinegar" or "I Don't Care." Either way the sentiment is the same. I wish I could say the "after vacation funk" has subsided but it really hasn't. I don't want to put the energy into it and therefore I could easily slip back into old habits that made me fat. I really feel, quite literally like I am full of Piss and Vinegar. I want to care again though so P&V it is. I'm hovering around that 180lbs mark and I know it is because when I feel like I've had success it kills my drive. When I am feeling good like I've accomplished something I just don't care if I break the rules. If I could scream at myself without looking like a crazy person yelling at themselves I'd drill some sense into me. Instead I am just quietly fading off into chubby oblivion. I couldn't even motivate myself to go to the grocery store. All I want to do is shut myself off to the world and pi

The past two days have been kind of a blur. Yesterday was our work outing on the Corey's sailboat. It was a blast but a long day that left me kind of drained. To be fair Tuesday is the day that the energy drain actually began. Katie Cone and Walter Tuesday was the Day's and Darlings Ice Cream Truck for a Cause Tour at Day's in Auburn, So. Portland, and Brunswick. My day started early with a brain intensive project then I drove to Auburn where I underwent the transformation and became "Katie Cone." I spent the rest of the day dressed as an Ice Cream Sundae and dancing myself silly to attract people to the truck. The Darlings Ice Cream Truck for a Cause goes around the state of Maine handing out free ice cream and collection voluntary donations for their host's cause. Tuesday Day's was the host and the Day's Jewelers for Children $100k Challenge was the cause supported. By the end of the day I felt pretty loopy and pretty tired from all my sweet d

This blog keeps teaching me things about myself that I never knew. I always thought I was someone who was motivated by success. Last week made me realize, however, that I am actually someone who is made lazy by success. When I started this blog I was 212lbs. I didn't necessarily have a poor body image of myself but I knew I didn't feel good in clothes I liked and I always felt tired. At the start of last week I was 178lbs. I am considerably happier and when I go to my closet I am excited to find something to put on. I'm excited that I've worked so hard to shed the pounds and I kept the mentality while I was on vacation that I'd earned the fun I was having and earned straying from my routine.  Last week I should have been back in full force but I just couldn't find the gumption. I didn't want to leave my house. Every project at work seemed to just keep bashing my head into a wall, and by the time I got home I just couldn't bring myself to do anything b

I wish losing weight was more like an addictive drug and less like a friend who makes you feel guilty when you don't want to hang out. I'm having another one of those weeks where I can't seem to get out of my own way. My body still thinks it is on vacation... as a result I can't seem to get my ass out of bed in the morning to go play with the sunshine on my walk route. I can't seem to stay motivated and I can't seem to stay hydrated. Before this past excursion, I hadn't been on vacation since 2009. Having a week off was really awesome but it broke the habits in my head. I thought going to an awesome Zumba class would make me crave it again Wednesday but it really didn't. I don't know what my problem is this week. That being said it wasn't a complete failure of a week. I had a great Zumba session, walked Tuesday and Wednesday nights and I hope to get a good walk in tonight with Nancy before we commence out card playing. I also passed on cake T

I'm kind of obsessed with  "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me"... The NPR News Quiz. A couple weeks ago they invited Rick Schwartz from the San Diego Zoo to play their game called "Not my Job." They asked him about Zoooooomba (they invite notable people on the show to answer questions on a topic they probably don't know much about). The last question was this: SAGAL: One of the most successful Zumba teachers ever was Alexis Wright of Maine. She made over $150,000 in one year. How did she bring in all that cash? A - she taught self-defense Zumba, which taught people to disable attackers with their hips. B - she happens to be a dead ringer for actress Scarlett Johansson so her classes were known as Sco-Jumba, or C - she was a prostitute. If you're from Maine you have undoubtedly heard of Alexis Wright's modified Zumba technique. She got caught because there were so many people... Men... that frequented her "Zumba Studio." This made sense to

 Last week I was sooooooo excited to report that I LOST weight on vacation. Who does that? To be clear that was NOT the goal but when I weighed in after vacation I was almost flabbergasted to realize that I was a pound lighter than the last entry before vacation. Subconsciously all of that excitement lit a fuse to several calorie bombs I would ingest over the next week.  Success had a numbing effect on my hyper awareness of the choices I make every day that have helped me to lose 34 total pounds in the past year. On vacation the only thing I did was try to keep my choices reasonable. If I knew dinner was a big event one night then I modified my day meals so I wasn't overdoing it. It felt more like habit than anything. I've trained myself to be mindful of what I eat and how many calories I am burning throughout the day and it worked! Last week all of that went out the window. There was booze, cheeseburgers, fast food, more booze, and then there was the S'more cake... S'

I remember complaining about how I couldn't walk because there was snow and danger and how it would all be better in the summer time. At the time, I failed to remember how hot it gets. That's easy to do when you live in the moment... I haven't been to Zumba in about a month due to vacation mode and doing other exercise activities in it's place. The Zumba studio gets extremely hot even when it isn't 90degrees outside so I haven't been real excited to try it out when the weather is sweltering. This week was the week to get back into though and I've been itching to start losing again instead of just maintaining. Tonight will be night two of "Walking with Nancy." Bigelow Hill has a couple of really challenging hills and the work out is extraordinary and it feels so good to be outside, even in the heat. The best part? Afterward we can jump in the pool and cool off properly. We would probably do races and stuff in the pool for a workout but being the f