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Well, no Wonder My Jeans Don’t Fit Right: the beginning of a weight-loss blog

Jan20

Okay, so, my original goal (when I thought the scale was going to say 166 or so when I stepped on it) was to get to 140 by my father’s birthday, July 15.

My current goal is to get to 150 by July 15 and to 140 by October 1st. (Data point: I’m a broad-shouldered five foot eight woman.)

So, I’d been noticing for the last week that my jeans were uncomfortably tight, and finally stepped on the scale – 176.6 lbs. Um. That’s a bit higher than I’d been expecting. That’s a bit higher than it was last year at this time. 🙁

I’m not going to panic, however. I am NOT going to panic.

What I am going to do is try to go at this like I did when I had over 50 lbs to lose.

I’m going to track everything. Everything. I know I’ve been mindlessly snacking on pretzels at work, and I’m going to count them now.

Exercise: I joined the gym again last week. 2x a week in the gym, 3x if I can wrangle the time, and something physical at total of at least 6x a week.

I am not going to panic.

I’m still pondering /what/ weight-loss/food tracking system to use. Using Weight Watchers worked for me; using Weight Watchers new-system with someone else figuring the points didn’t work nearly as well. So do I go back to old system? Do I buy a membership? Do I try something free?

Food tracking is only half of it; I’ve discovered that I need concrete numbers and limits. And, of course, I need to remember to stay active.

Here we go. 26(ish) weeks, 26(.6) lbs. Let’s go.

Note: Please do not suggest or tell me 1) I don’t want to get down to xx weight, 2) xx is not a healthy weight, 3) anything else suggesting I don’t know what weight I might want to get to/look good having reached.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/640138.html. You can comment here or there.

Speaking Of Projects…

Jan8

(as I did here)…

Yesterday, I started and completed (honesty compels me to add: although I will do a few touch-ups today Thursday) a project, which is a little bit of a Big Deal for me (T. pointed out: and I did so within a week of buying the material. Within 4 days, actually!).

Our house is not exactly insulated. I created and hung a curtain on the back door (to be fair, T. had already hung the rod this time) to go along with the one I made last year for the front door (here). All in one evening!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/632076.html. You can comment here or there.

Preliminary Project List

Jan8

I am trying The January Cure; the first step (which I’m late in getting to) is to make a project list

These are NOT the main house-projects (things like “insulate the attic” and “raise the ceiling by 1 foot and a half” and “drop the floor in the card room to be level.” These are one-weekend or less projects I can do, mostly in the cold.

Card Room
Cloth-covered panels for wall
Art on back wall
Carpet on floor
inbox/tidying solution

Living room
DUST
Organization system for the fire pile
fire extinguisher bracket/hang system

Dining Room
Organize/put away bags
Tidy/put away things on standing desk.

Bedroom
under-clothes storage?
Hooks!
Hang mirror

Bathroom
Shelving unit
Cloth panel to cover horrible
New medicine cabinet/light bar
Some sort of system for cat/medicine cabinet

Kitchen
New home for chest
Consistent organized storage for tools.
New home for Stand Mixer
Carpet for walkway
Plants made prettified
fire extinguisher bracket/hang system

Foyer
Everything
Overhead bin framed in
Hooks hung
Door molding installed
Baseboard molding installed
Door possibly installed

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/631935.html. You can comment here or there.

Pondering

Jan1

Gamification of life, specifically of self-rewards vs. things I want to get in the habit of doing regularly.

Anyone have a system they use and enjoy? Suggestions? 

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/626343.html. You can comment here or there.

A Gentle Reminder on Lyn Boundaries

Nov16

I know I’ve covered this before, but…

Phrasing is really, really important when dealing with a Lyn, especially a stressed/sick/tired one. (Which all of the above I am, right now).

Thus: should is a bad word. Unless you are directly trying to instill a sense of obligation in me (there are situations in which this is okay), please do not use it. It will stress me the fuck out, because I do not have room for that many more obligations right now. Why don’t you… is almost as bad.

I would like it if is a nice phrasing. That’s a gentle one, that doesn’t make me feel battered upon.

Have you considered/thought about… is nice, too.

This will make it easier for me to deal with you, and cause me less stress in the long run.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/602049.html. You can comment here or there.

Looking for Recipes

Nov5

Including:
* Butternut Squash
* Applesauce
* Whole apples

What’s your favorite one? We have an apple cake we like a lot, which I can’t find at the moment online, sigh, and this butternut soup recipe, which we make all the time.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/596205.html. You can comment here or there.

My-Hobbies-Ran-Into-Each-Other-And-I-Blew-My-Gas-Money-Budget Emergency Fundraiser

Nov4

So, it went like this:

I’m doing NanoWrimo (I think you’ve noticed 😉

While I live in the Ithaca region, the ML (Municipal Liaison, like a regional coordinator & cheerleader) of NY: Elsewhere (i.e., everywhere not covered by a region or without an ML of their own) lives in my attic (long story.)

We do Live-Action Roleplaying twice a month in Elmira (about 30 miles away).

So when I saw that Elmira’s region was without an ML, I said to said atticker, “Hey, we should go to write-ins in Elmira before game.”

Great idea, right, combine two hobbies?

Cue last night, where we got up, had waffles, made pie for game, wrote some words, did some other stuff, packed the car, and went off to the write-in.

Leaving – as I would discover only hours later – my costume for the Live-action game at home.

Not just for any live-action event, but for the fancy dress ball of the year.

Which led to me driving an extra 60 miles, back and forth from Elmira to home.

/Facepalm/

(I might note: I live in New York, where gas prices are among the highest in the country. Sigh).

Which leads to me, in the middle of nano, offering $2- $3- and $5-commissions for microfic.

Any topic!

Even blowing up Addergoole (though I won’t make that canon, probably).

Maybe even the story of Cynara meeting her mother that I wrote out loud on the way to game.

Maybe even when Junie finds out what she really is.

Anything.

I will take a total of 10 commissions, and write one/day after my nano wordcount is done for the next 10 days, in the order sent to me.

Gas Money Words
150 words $2.00 USD
250 words $3.00 USD
450 words $5.00 USD

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/595157.html. You can comment here or there.

Apples!

Oct31

It’s October (still); that means there have been things I’ve been doing other that writing.

I’ve been raking leaves and cutting deadwood out of trees.

I’ve been sneaking in that last bit of painting when the rain stops.

I’ve been picking things out of my garden, peeling, cutting, cooking.

I’ve been picking apples.

I’ve been picking apples.

I’ve been picking apples.

We had, when we moved in, one super-productive apple tree that had been overgrown, so made a lot of tiny tart apples.

Over the last two years (last year was a horrid apple season in this corner of the world; we got a warm bunch of days in March, followed by a cold snap and a day of 6″ of snow), T has been trimming the tree, getting into proper apple shape. At the end of this year, it really looks properly like an orchard tree.

But then, when he was cleaning out the hedgerow (he’s been cutting grapevines out of everything for two years now; they choke out anything they touch), he looked up.

And realized that those green round leaves… were apples.

We’d known we had one apple tree in the hedgerow.

(note: this is what Wikipedia thinks a hedgerow is. Around here, it’s a lot more haphazard. Think of ten feet wide, length of your property long of planted trees allowed to go wild, underbrush, thorns, and trouble. But it slows the wind right down!)

And that apple tree turned out to be two, hung with so many small apples that it looks like an interior designer’s idea of “apple fronds” or something.

But it turns out we have FOUR.

We gave a 55-gallon barrel of apples to a friend for cider. We’ve been giving away copy-paper boxes of apples to anyone we can get to take them.

And we’ve been cutting, coring, cooking down, saucing, and canning apples.

And canning apples.

and canning apples.

Send help?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/594039.html. You can comment here or there.

Self-Care

Oct21

I am feeling particularly touchy right now about

your protagonists are evil and your setting is evil and this story is evil.

For the next 24 to 48 hours, I will block with impunity people who want to engage in that conversation with me.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/585776.html. You can comment here or there.

Weekend!

Sep3

This weekend, I:

Went to the NY State Faire with Rion, where we ate red velvet funnel cake, looked at bunnies, cows, and other creatures, and walked, a lot. It was a blast!

(We also took Addergoole characters there, because that’s what happens).

Then we went to the vampire LARP (Live-action rp game) we play in, where our fictional characters broke 25 prisoners out of super-max with only social challenges and a bit of mind control. Then we stormed a castle (Rion’s character and others stormed the castle. Mine sat on a bluff a mile away and threw social challenges).

SUNDAY

I sanded the walls and the woodwork in the foyer, primed it (with help from T)… canned peaches (had an exploding can), helped T put up some bracing in our shedroof behind the garage, cleaned up the back wall of the utility room, filled the holes, and sanded that so that T. could prime it.

Then I fell over.

MONDAY

I was going to go into work for a couple hours but the rain was so intense at 6:30, I decided to go back to bed instead.

My parents had been going to visit to help paint the foyer, but with the rain and the humidity, I ended up suggesting they stay home, since painting wasn’t going to happen. I sanded some more, played with the trim, chopped up wood for the winter, and… I’m not sure. Monday is a bit of a blur.

And now back to work!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/568543.html. You can comment here or there.