My 100th Post to end the year!!

Happy New Year's Eve. How fun that my very last post of 2009 is the 100th post. TV shows go all out for the 100th episode...how can I go all out here? Hmmm...

I am now in possession of 2 LIVE lobsters that I will murder later tonight. How's that for exciting?

I weighed today before spin class (even though I said I wasn't going to until New Years) and it was 263.8. This means by some miracle I did not gain any weight during the chow fest that was the last month! Miracle!

I have a fat lip. While choosing the lobsters to murder, my daughter got so excited she jumped up and down, succesfully hitting her head into my chin which caused my teeth to go through my lip. Blood happened and I ended up walking around the grocery store with a bag of ice on my lips. Thankfully it didn't bleed too much! The swelling went down, but what a mishap!!

So there is my 100th post - Murder, Miracles and Mishaps! That's pretty darn exciting!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy beginning to 20-10!

New Years Resolutions

I always make 'em and I always break 'em. Maybe my 1st resolution should be to KEEP my resolutions!

Okay, here are some, in no particular order:

Read 20 pages of an actual, honest to goodness, hardback/paperback book every day.

Stay within our newly established budget.

Workout 5 days per week with 3 weeks of vacation. (Hey, why not treat it like a job!)

Eat less fruit. (okay - really it's eat less bananas).

To be in "one"derland on 1/1/11. (appropriate - don't you think?)


All are doable. All require strong resolve. I'm optimistic...or will be until next holiday season rolls around. Maybe that needs to be a resolution too...learn to deal with holiday stress and depression better....

I have 31 followers now! This is truly amazing to me. Thank you for reading and commenting and helping to keep me motivated! Happy New Year. I'm looking forward to reading others resolutions for 2010!

The Fitness Craze(iness)

So it seems that everyone in our town has decided to shed some holiday pounds. The fitness center has been packed the last few days. I know part of it is due to school vacation and people being home, but seriously it has been nuts. 9:15 spin class yesterday they had to kick someone out because they hadn't signed up for a ticket. There are only so many bikes. The lucky person who had a ticket that had to bring it to the instructors attention - ME! I felt kind of bad but kind of good too. I'm a rule follower, so if you don't follow the rules/laws, you should be disqualified.

Today there were at least 28 people in Body Pump (including 5 guys!) I've never seen that. Feeling good today, tired after work out...having the munchies, but not giving in. Going to cut up an apple with peanut butter in a few minutes. Second good day in a row. Yay me.

A Christmas Picture

I normally hate pictures of myself. But I love this one.

On a funny note, the woman who cleans the locker room at the fitness center saw me today and said "I haven't seen you in two weeks!" Funny how people notice us. She's dead on...but I have shoveled my driveway 4-5 times in those two weeks, so there was some exercise!

So Long Holidays!!

Whew! It's over! 90% of the Christmas stuff is packed away and I can start reliving life. There are no more cookies around, no more chocolate..

Seriously, I feel 900 million times better than I have since Thanksgiving. I went to the fitness center for the 9:15 Power Cycle class. I HATE this class. Well, I HATE that I'm huffing and puffing after about 10 minutes. The instructor is really nice. I left the class after 40 minutes (which is the class I usually take) and the instructor actually got off her bike to come down and tell me I did really well in the class. It was nice. Now she doesn't know that I've been working out since August and so it came off as a little condescending, but if it HAD been my first time and I'd only made it through part of the class it would have been very encouraging.

I have a brand new gym bag that I love from my hubby. It's just the right size to fit in the small lockers at the fitness center. It comes with a bag you can hang in the shower stall for your toiletries. It has lots of pockets. It is awesome.

I also received a tennis racket and some free weights (8 lb) for Christmas so I have quite a few gifts to help remotivate me!

My eating today is on target. It's a little bit hard after eating anything I wanted for the last month to think about it. One day at a time, one step at a time, one hour at a time, one minute at a time...

Happy New Year!

Is it January Yet?

I'm ready to be done with this year...this holiday season. My spirit is tired. We have not had a wonderful christmas day. Or I should say *I* have not had a wonderful day. Maybe my expectations are just too high. Maybe I just need to accept that no matter how much thought I put into things I can't make other people thoughtful. I just need to stop thinking.

The No Weigh Challenge!!

I am challenging myself NOT to step on the scale until January 1st. I figure that is just going to do more damage then good to my psyche during the holidays. Anyone want to join me?

I went to Body Pump yesterday morning and I am SORE in my chest and arms. SORE!

My psychological thoughts these days..."when did I become so ungenerous?". Ok...truth be told, I am still very generous with my time and always help a friend out when they need it..but I used to LOVE getting gifts for people. If I knew you, you probably got a little trinket of something for Christmas because I like to think about people and what would make them happy. Somewhere along the line I became cynical about it though figuring noone cared one way or the other about getting a gift. Now I abhor buying for people that are not closely connected to our family, including nieces and nephews. That must sound heartless, but really it's not. Here are the annual conversations that happen in our family:

Me to sis-in-law: What could the kids use/like for Christmas?
Sis-in-law: Oh, just get them gift cards from Walmart.

I wouldn't mind gift cards so much if we saw our nieces and nephews more than once a year. And I don't want to be known as that aunt that send $20 every birthday and christmas.

and then there is this:

Me to brother: What should I get the kids for Christmas?
Brother: Whatever, just don't spend a lot because it's going to be light Christmas this year.

Again, not a bad thing, except I've heard this every year from my brother since I was about 15 years old, and there hasn't been a "light" Christmas for people he WANTED to buy for. It's kind of a "don't spend a lot on us, so we don't have to spend a lot on you" attitude.

So Christmas really has become in a lot of ways the season of meaningless gifts. That's why we have instituted a tradition between hubby and I for gift giving. We can tell each other what we would like, but one gift under the tree has to be something we haven't asked for. Something that requires a bit of thought.

Yesterday, the other mom in my girl's swim class brought the swim instructor a gift. AND she brought S & C some candy treats. I never even thought of bringing a gift to the teacher or to the little friend. So it got me thinking. I can't pinpoint the exact point when I stopped caring about getting gifts for so many people. I even attack Christmas cards this way. Do we *have* to send that person a card. Maybe relationships just became so superficial and meaningless that I became indifferent to it. Who knows? It takes some joy out of Christmas for sure.

I'm rambling...it's just what's going through my head....