Wednesday Weigh-In: 11/11/09 & Looking Back

Since I've been feeling perfectly healthy for several days, the "official" weigh-ins are back on. Scale tells me I'm at 145.6 lbs. That's a two-pounder loss since the last WI two weeks ago. While I am pleased, the scale numbers matter less and less. My body seems to have changed rapidly over the last 2 months or so. The tummy is most definitely flatter. Muscle tone is becoming visible everywhere...back, shoulders, thighs, abs. So weird. I've never looked like this before. It's like everything is settling in. One day in the near future I might be drunk brave enough to take and post pics. Right.

But even more than that, I feel good. Consistently. No, not the high and low extreme feelings from earlier in this process, but, well solid. I am more active even in passive activities, and it's effortless. For example, I take my dog on 20 minute walks twice a day. Years ago, I would have considered just one 20 minute or half-hour walk to count as exercise towards weight loss (Not surprisingly, the weight did not come off as expected, except for the typical 10-15 lbs of water weight that initially slides off whenever I began a diet/fitness plan). Now, it's just routine, a part of life in addition to my normal 60-90 minute workouts. I can shop forever. I usually don't buy anything, but I like to walk around and just look. And it doesn't wear me out. Even when I was sick, it only lasted about 3 days and I was still doing things. A far cry from what things were like 1 or 2 years ago.

In fact, there is an embedded normalcy to this. Often, I find little to talk about anymore on the weight loss front. What was a milestone before is now just "meh." Healthy eating is so everyday--so innocuous--that trying to sing praises about my meals seems forced. Right now, I'm lunching on an artichoke and spinach salad in a lemon dressing with a slice of roast lean meat. I could tell you how awesome and healthful it is. But, whatever.

Wait. It has kalamata olives. Now I AM excited.

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I'm Not Dead.

I'm getting better. I don't want to get on the cart. I feel fine. I think I'll go for a walk.

It was a cold. Not the flu...or worse. I'm quite better, actually. Just chillin' with Bobzilla (who caught my disease but is also recovering quite well). In fact, we just came back from taking Goji on a long walk in the leaves. We're a bit winded, but otherwise A-ok.

We may even go to Dave 'n Buster's tomorrow for some skee ball and trivia action. But not munchies. Their food pretty much blows.

Wednesday Weigh-In: 11/4/09 and PLAGUE!

I've been going back and forth between feeling really crappy and feeling like my body is winning the brawl with this bug. Headaches, sore throat, burny lungs and nose, discomfort and stomach cramps and digestion issues. OMG, the stomach cramps. What the hell. I'm getting upper and lower body action at the same time. No fever, though. That's positive.

Bob had to sleep with earplugs last night to drown my snoring, due to my mouth breathing from the congestion. I was a chronic snorer for years, but that disappeared with the weight loss. It was almost nostalgic to see those foam plugs sticking out of his head.

When it comes to sickness, I'm a big whiner and it shows here. I'll probably keep posting boo-hoo updates just in case a documentation of my slow death from the new plague will be of value in future medical research. Actually, it's just a morbid fascination. One of my favorite books is The Stand by Steven King. It's scary because it COULD happen! It's prophetic. Like Fahrenheit 451.

Workouts were toned down this week. No Jillian. No crazy lunges, walking planks, mountain climbers or burpies. Just my old school 60 minute bike rides and light weight lifting. Obviously, if this gets worse, my ass is staying in bed with the dog.

I've decided to skip an official weigh-in number this week because the reading is probably "false" anyway. Unofficially, I'm at 146.00 pounds but I don't trust that number given the circumstances. We'll see how the next week or two goes. And as I'm writing this, it seems I've grown unattached to the numbers lately and have been less concerned about registering a big loss every week.

In other news, Cleveland has the honor of having one of the worst serial killers ever. And we apparently are unable to draw a reasonable conclusion from a months-long foul odor at a sex offender's house. Yay us.

I'm such a pig

It started last night. Burning throat and nose. Then drips. I woke up at 5:00 this morning with raging sore throat and snot. I'm uncomfortable and irritable, but at least I don't think I have a fever.

And now I'm googling "H1N1 symptoms" and have become an armchair medical expert. I'm on pins and needles every time I feel something vaguely akin to death.

This is the first time I've been sicky in over a year. All this healthy eating and exercise and daily mega doses of Vitamin D are going to be put to the test. That, or I'm turning into a hypochondriac.

Probably caught this from the masquerade ball. Damn.

Every Day is Halloween

The only thing that would have made this Halloween perfect was carving a pumpkin. Our costumes turned out better than expected, although, per usual, no one except for a small handful of like-minded nerds "got" our costumes. It's lonely being an uber geek.

Bob did his own makeup and looked quite dapper as Orville. I think I like the man drag a bit too much.

Or perhaps it was the pants? I just didn't want to take them off. Ever.

This getup also had some unintentionally horrifying consequences. My beard and mustache, made with crepe hair, looked not unlike pubic hair. My "O" face? Disturbing. And certainly scarier than any Freddy Krueger or Angry Town Haller.

The masquerade ball was fun and crowded. So many good costumes. Lacey's Road Kill Skunk was adorable:


As was Mariah's marionette gone bad:

During the night, we rescued a poor hungry street kitty and took her to the vet this morning for blood screening and vaccines. She's disease-free, boostered up and de-flea'ed. She is also a non-stop love machine and more doglike in her mannerisms than a cat. In other words, she'll cling to you for life. Mariah is fostering her but she needs a permanent home:

After the partay, we wandered around the Day of the Dead display next door:

Trick or treating was a hoot. The halloween displays were fiercely competitive, and one of our neighbors even ran a cotton candy machine. Dayum. Swarms of kids came out in miserably cold weather, although they pooped out after an hour. In my day, we would trick or treat until folks ran out of candy and the bottoms fell out of our bags. Kids these days are sorry amateurs.

Sunday was a relaxing retreat spent mostly playing the new Ratchet and Clank. I also whipped up an awesome batch of quinoa salad for the week. Will post the recipe later. If I remember. Which I probably won't. So, real quick, it's 1 cup of quinoa cooked in 2 cups of boiling water, some toasted slivered almonds, sliced green onions, lots of grated carrot, chopped flat leaf parsley all tossed in a dressing made up of 1 & 1/2 TB canola oil, 2 TB low sodium Tamari, 2 tsp. cider vinegar, 1 tsp kosher salt and juice of 1 small lemon.

I only had two fun-sized candy bars. A Snickers and a Milky Way. They were good, but Mitchell's pumpkin ice cream beats them silly. I'm going to try...real hard...to make that pint half gallon last til Saturday at least.

Otherwise, still working out as usual. Still eating well, with the exception of drinking some calories on the weekends. *shrugs*

Wednesday Weigh-In: 10/28/09 & HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

147.6 lbs. Down again from the gain last week, and weighing little less than the week before if we're splitting hairs here.

Weight loss lately is like a series of loops slowly moving one way. There's a gain, some overlap, a loss, a slight gain, and then another loss again. Oh, I'm not complaining. Rather, it's interesting how things have developed lately. I look thinner and more toned since August . I recently added a pair of sweet retro size 8 Calvin Klein jeans to the wardrobe and must say that I look pretty damn good in them. Physically, I feel more balanced, strong and just *in control* of the body. It's a pretty neat feeling that I look forward to getting used to as part of my normal life.

But enough of that....

This weekend is THE bestest holiday of the year. It is also the first Halloween in 10+ years where I am not obese. But that does not mean I'm running to buy a "sexy" costume for this year. Um, no. Those skeezy, cheap costumes aren't nearly as good as quality lingerie and fetish wear that's out there in specialty shops and websites if the ladies (and gents) really wanted to get their freak on. And why be sexy just one night? It's like only giving to charity during Christmas.

Our Halloween tradition is to dress up as a couple from a B-movie. It's a fun challenge to hunt garage sales and thrift stores to find the right materials for a costume that no way in Hell would be mass marketed and sold at a Halloween USA.

Back in '07, Bob and I dressed up as Dr. Phibes and Vulnavia from The Abominable Dr. Phibes:


Last year, we went as doomed zombie motorcycle lovers from Psychomania:


And this year, we decided to push the definition of B-movie couple and will transform ourselves into Alan and Orville from one of my *favorite* zombie movies, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. I'm going to go drag as Alan, and Bob is my zombie bitch Orville. Here are some screen shots from my cherished DVD copy:



Not surprisingly, I couldn't find those tasty pants anywhere. Instead, I've spent the last two nights painting these stripes on a pair of white pants. The moustache wouldn't have been hard to pull off if I had just decided on this costume a month ago. No wax, no problem. Bob got his suit and makeup and all he needs is the bridal veil. We'll be coming out at the WCSB Halloween masquerade this Saturday. I. Cannot. Wait.

Happy Halloween!