Trouble with the Curvy

I haven't written since July. It is almost November and the last thing I spoke about was making it to 165lbs by my birthday. I did it a week early and then just kind of coasted right through the rest of the month and the next one too. Now I'm back to planning for winter and how not to gain it all back and I realized that I need the one tool that actually works: this blog. Of everything I've done this blog feels like the biggest change to my life because it keeps me accountable. I felt like I made a lot of progress this summer but looking back at this time last year I've only lost about 8lbs in the whole year. That feels like nothing when I see it "on paper" but it feels big and real in person. Those were the heaviest 8lbs I think I've ever encountered... Regardless about the stats, I'm feeling really great about this and I'm ready to make more headway this winter. I've reworked my goal from 155 to 145 because I had no idea where my target...

I haven't written a lot about weight loss or the endeavor thereof this week and truth be told I haven't really been paying much attention to it. I haven't been splurge eating and I have been walking so it isn't a slack week but I have been going through the motions while my mind lingers on other things. These things include but are not limited to planning a wedding, work, Stephen King, and how awesome Brutus has recovered from his accident. This week we walked every day. On Monday we took it slow and only did about two miles. Toward the end of it he seemed to be favoring the hurt leg so Tuesday we did the same route and he didn't have a problem. On Wednesday I asked Ben to come pick Brutus up when he got tired so I could still do our regular 5 mile route. We made it to 3 and a half miles though and he was still going strong so he didn't need the ride and we did the whole 5 miles. Yesterday we did about 4 miles. I don't want to push him too far too fast but...

For all the preaching I do about points systems and how awesome they work and blah blah blah I also do a fair amount of preaching how "fad" diets are a whole bunch of bullshit. Why are they bullshit? Because they are not sustainable. I'm finding that power weeks and points systems are also hard to sustain. When work and other things put demands on my time all of that extra time exercising just doesn't seem worth killing myself to do it. I'm not a very happy person when I'm stressed. I didn't know it then but that's why I struggled with a lot of things when I worked at my previous job. I loved the work and the people and but the stress and mismanagement of tasks and resources always had me on edge. So much so that I developed the phrase "embrace the chaos" and that was my mantra and it worked... for a while but I see now that stress is not something that makes me thrive. It flusters me and then I feel like a failure and then it all just goes d...

I grew up in a really small town and while I cherish the friendships I developed as a kid and as a teen there is something uniquely circumstantial about them. The things we had in common back then were age and proximity to one another. I think this is especially true when I was a kid and the things I liked were TLC, the Spice Girls, Hanson and rollerblading. When you're 10 in a small town, the world is simple because the choices are rarely overwhelming. The older I got the more that changed to a degree and I started friendships with the few people in town that were around my age that liked music, writing, and creativity. I think the first time this concept dawned on me was when I started to gravitate to the director Kevin Smith and his brand of comedy and storytelling. He released a DVD of a live Q&A he did and I invited all my friends over to watch it. My closest friend since Kindergarten made a comment in passing after it was over to the effect of "Please don't mak...

I guess when I say "Slacker Week" I friggin' mean it. Guess how many miles I walked last week.... If you guessed a big ol' goose egg then you'd be right! I am not even going to offer up any excuses. It simply wasn't a priority for me last week and that's why nothing happened. This week I'm longing for it and now Brutus can start coming out with me a little at a time! The kind of week I have when I have a power week is awesome but it feels like the burnout rate is pretty high. If that's all I do all the time I'm going to get bored. Having a week when its not the top of mind all the time was nice just for the sake of keeping things feeling fresh. I think my muscles and my body appreciates it too. If I plateau then all the effort is wasted anyway right?  Did I just descend into excuses? This week though I'm looking forward to getting out and logging some miles especially with Brutus. We have had him for almost a year and he has never chewe...

Two weeks ago I started my first "power week" where I walked on my lunch break, after work, and did a muscle building routine in the mornings. Almost every spare minute I had was used to do something that burned calories. This week is completely the opposite and I'm wondering what to call that. I can't call it a lazy week because that feels like giving myself permission to go rogue. Today I came to work armed with a smoothie in my belly, carrots and celery sticks for snacks and some string cheese and crackers to keep me from eating my arm off. All was well until lunchtime came and I just wanted a break. I went to do a little shopping for a little event I'm helping to plan for the weekend and treated myself to some lunch that didn't include many veggies... It also didn't include french fries so there is still hope for me yet... I am looking forward to a nice long walk tonight and pretty soon Brutus will be able to join me again! His splint came off yest...

You are never going to win all the days all the time. That is simply not a realistic expectation and if you try to achieve that you'll always just be frustrated at your own inability to meet your goals. It takes so much preparation to be on top of your weight loss game. Some days I just don't have it. Yesterday for example. I had the whole day and had big plans on what I was going to accomplish and then I got bogged down in doing a whole lot of relaxing and not much else. Days like that are good for me too though and I'm just not going to feel guilty about that. Today holds grocery shopping, laundry, and hopefully a walk this evening as well as this afternoon. I really don't feel very profound today and I think the moral of today's blog is that sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you... <3 Katie Y2D26 176lbs