Day 70: A Long Time Coming

I had an interesting weekend. Over the past few days, Bryan and I went hiking at Cuivre River. Or at least attempted to. We went to this lakeside trail that looked interesting but it was overgrown and covered in bugs! We only made it around 0.2 miles before we gave up on the trail and went over to City Hall Park to play around. We had fun and even got to find a new trail there. My fiancé's friend decided to invite us to this hole-in-the-wall bar in Maryland Heights and we had a pretty good time. I can tell the BMR Bliss has sped up my metabolism because I had two Midori and sprites which would have made me crazy drunk before, but I was just fine. :-) I had a good time, even though I had more soda than I have had in a long time. :-)

Today I was mercifully free of caffeine withdrawal and all that jazz so I decided to go to church. It was the first time out of a handful of times that I have ever gone to church two Sundays in a row. I had fun and got to know some of the people from the church. I am starting to enjoy going to church, even though the church is huge. At first I was miffed because no one would talk to me, they were busy talking to their friends and I kind of got lost in the shuffle. Now I like the time to meditate and get close to God without everyone invading my personal space, lol!

I did some Chemistry homework and then I decided to go for a run. Or rather, I tried to go for a run, realized halfway there that I had forgotten my timer, went back for my timer, went back to the park and then discovered that there were about three different meetups going on in the park. There were even people who were at a whip meetup and were learning to crack whips. There were sailboats on the lake and the place was packed. I like my space when I run so this kind of stressed me out. But I laced up and went anyway.

It started nondescriptly. I ran for seven minutes, and just ran out of steam. But I decided that I was not going to let it get me down. I walked for five minutes, then ran another fourteen minutes before my foot started going numb and almost gave out on me, and I decided to stop and let it get feeling back. Then I thought, why not do a slow interval run? I did an additional 15 minutes for a total of 36 minutes, 2 miles, and about 1.7 of walking. :-)

An unusually mellow-looking post-run picture, lol!

 

I finally got to the two-mile mark, even though it was kind of a roundabout way to get there. :-) Either way, I left it all on the track and am feeling much better.

 

Hope everyone has an awesome day! Be blessed and enjoy the journey!

Day 63/64/65: Keeping it Real

I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. :-) I get busy some days, and then remember I haven't blogged at all. I will try to be more on top of things henceforth.

I have been injured for the past few days! I had problems with one of my knees, and I decided to take a rest day and go hang out with my fiancé. Well, after several games of basketball, air hockey, and other active games, my other knee started hurting! That one has been a little slower to heal for some reason, so although I have been running I have decided to take more rest days until the knee heals up properly, and then hopefully go back to my 6-day running regiment. But in the meantime, I am having a good time spending time with my family and enjoying myself!

In case you don't follow my Facebook page, here is a recap of some of the things that have happened in the past three days:

**I went to church for the first time in probably 3-4 months. I liked my previous church, but I needed a change of scenery as I felt sometimes that people were a little too intrusive and sometimes overtly rude to me. I went to a larger church over by my school and so far I am very impressed. Everyone seems so much more relaxed, more comfortable with their faith, and pray boldly. The minister is very interesting to listen to, he preaches loooooooong sermons, but I was able to concentrate on his message and not be bored. I will be going there next Sunday and attending a class getting more information about their church.

**I went for a sprint run after being out of commission for 2-3 days after injury. I had no idea how much harder it is to sprint than to do a long, steady run. My intervals were anywhere from 11:00/mi to 8:34/mi, though I generally stayed around 10:00/mi the entire time. I'd say after 8 weeks of C25K that isn't bad at all! Today I will be going to work out on the dreadmill at my gym just because it's slightly easier on my knees than running on pavement. I will try for 28 minutes again but we will see. I'd say after being injured for so long that any running is doing well! :-)

**I am at 200.4 after wandering around between 201 and 203 for the longest time. I have this weird habit of eating more when I get closer to a milestone or a goal, maybe some weird form of self-sabotage, but I will make sure to do better this time. I am so close to being in the 190s for the first time in three years! With any luck, I will be there tomorrow. I looked at myself and realized how much thinner I actually look! With the running and various other forms of toning I have noticed that I actually look thinner at 200 than I did at 186! That's why it is very important to work out while you are losing weight. :-)

**I had a good lunch at the Peruvian restaurant yesterday afternoon, and decided after a fairly big food baby that I was not going to eat at the basketball game. Well, I was true to my word. I got a bottle of water and enjoyed that while my uncle and my dad ate some food. Even with the yummy smells of food everywhere, I wasn't particularly tempted. I just enjoyed myself and ate a few almonds when I got home. And I still lost weight! :-)

I hope everyone has a fantastic day. Be blessed and enjoy the journey!

Day 57/58: Last Day of September and First Day of October

I seem to be getting into the habit of posting every other day. Nothing personal, just had other things come up and blogging kind of took a backseat. Still, I'm going to be updating whenever I can.

I walked/ran a total of 8.1 miles in the past two days. Yesterday I ran 1.68 miles and walked 2.74, and today I walked 3.7 miles. I got injured this morning though, a dull pain in my right knee when I straighten it all the way, so I've decided to take a few days off running and just work on my upper body. Today, however, will be a full rest day. Just chilling, putting a bag of frozen green beans on my knee for a little while (isn't that what we all do? I'm too cheap to buy a fancy ice packet, lol) and watching some good videos on YouTube.

Later this week, I am going to Career Services and looking into some job placement type of things, either using my previous degree or not. Either way, it would be a step in the right direction. I had some really bad experiences with jobs in the past and I needed some time to recover emotionally and mentally from that. I won't reiterate all the gruesome details, but it really sucked. I finally feel comfortable enough to be selective. I remember having similar issues with my relationships, just dating whomever came along first, until I got into a horrible relationship and realized that I could be selective. Two and a half years ago, I had my choice of three different guys. Two of them were D-bags, and one of them was super nice, and one of the most fun guys to be around. I decided to be selective, and two and a half years later, we're a year into being engaged and happy as can be. I chose my fiancé because he was the best choice. Now I will do the same for my job situation. Find the same equivalent and not choose a job because they were the first to offer. :-) It should guide me towards something amazing.

I am also considering going back to church, although a different one this time. It was nothing personal against my old church, I just didn't see eye-to-eye with them on a lot of different things, I thought it was a little too politically charged and a little too legalistic. But there were some great people there and I really liked them. However, it just wasn't the church for me. I have been listening to some sermons online from the church that I am considering going to, and I really like the minister who delivers them. Granted, I don't want to base the church solely on the minister or fancy lights or anything. I'm a little too cynical for that. I just want somewhere where people won't judge me or my disabilities, and just where I can grow as a Christian. That seems like a good place to start. :-)

I hope everyone has a good day. Be blessed and enjoy the journey!

Day 34: Exhausted My Witty Title Budget

Evening all, just a quick post before I go to bed.

My fiancé and I had a very packed day after running around like crazy people. We went lasertagging out in Belleville, and I placed fifteenth and Bryan placed fifth, but my team won. We had a very competitive team, I had two kids curse at me using kiddie curses because they had taken hits while invisible. Well, yeeeeah... invincible and invisible are not the same thing, kiddos. There is a certain amount of mortality involved in the latter. ;-) We then went home to get something to eat but my parents were keen on yelling at the fiancé and I because we had come home while they were cleaning. In my stuff, without asking me anything. They just went down there and started going through my stuff and throwing out what they didn't like. They also threw out my good pumpkin soap, so now I have no soap. :-( So the fiancé and I went to the galleria, and I walked around with my purse up around my chest because in addition to getting into all my stuff, they had started getting into my.... personal effects... and I couldn't find any of my bras. (TMI, I know.) I kept telling the fiancé that this was like the nightmare I have had where I'm walking around trying to find clothes.

Anyhoo, we went home and found that my parents had taken their leave after making a mess of the downstairs, so we watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I was determined I would make it through the end of the movie without covering my eyes and shaking at the very end of the movie (and those who have seen the end of any Indiana Jones movie know what I'm talking about!), and of course it was an epic fail. And Mom chewed me out for being scared and saying "OMG," so yeah, another night in my house. :-)

Tomorrow I am going for another run. I need it after all this drama with the family. But Bry and I have been making some rudimentary wedding plans like for dresses and music and stuff. I'm very non-traditional in that I HATE traditional wedding music with a passion. I think its cheesy and annoying, and I can remember way too many Sundays where I have had to sit through bad organ music. Our wedding will be light and fun and very non-traditional, and I want to have kind of a big shindig at the end of the ceremony. And I'm getting "Living Dead Girl," in there somewhere, by goodness. (My favorite Rob Zombie song) Anyhoo, it was fun doing some rudimentary planning.

Well, I gotta go to bed for now. I hope everyone has a good night.

Day 26.2: And On The Nineteenth Day, She Rested

I'm feeling a bit better thanks to getting some chemistry homework out of the way and it just being quiet around the house for a change. I'm enjoying sitting around reading everyone's blogs and leaving comments, and just doing things that don't hurt. After a huge welt on my... back end... from the 47 minutes of biking last night, and sore knees from running 15 days in a row, it feels good to take a rest day. And surprisingly, as I rest my weight goes down instead of up! I was expecting the weight to come creeping back on if I didn't exercise. But I guess that's more of a long term thing, which is good.

I have gotten back on my antidepressant, which I'm not sure if it is making me feel better or worse. I have not been on it for two weeks now, and the scrip just came back up for refill (I lost almost a full bottle in Illinois somewhere while I was at my best friend's party. I tried to refill it and received a snarky message that my insurance carrier was not going to pay out for a lost bottle and they would not refill it for another 14 days. No bueno.) Either way, we will see if they turn me into a blabbering emotional wreck^200 again. This particular antidepressant has not caused any problems with my weight loss, in fact it makes my weight drop off twice as fast when I'm exercising regularly. Go figure. :-P

Tomorrow my fiancé is coming over, yay! We will watch a movie from home on Saturday and do our annual apple picking outing on Sunday after church. Either way, it will be very HOT. The Honeycrisps came out earlier because of the unseasonably mild weather for most of the winter, and so we are picking them in very early September instead of late September. We will also go back for the pumpkin picking in October, which is another of our traditions. I don't think we have ever eaten much of our fruit bounty except while we're out there picking. (Though I've never eaten a pumpkin whilst picking another pumpkin. That just sounds hard to do. And messy! :-D)

My birthday is in 16 days. I will be turning 29, one year away from the big 3-0. That kind of frightens me a little, and a little sad that I've wasted my twenties just sitting around being depressed and stuffing my face. That's no fun at all! Hopefully my 30s will treat me a little better. :-)

Well, I am going to work on some more chem homework and shower, but not while doing the chemistry homework, lol. Be blessed all and have a great labor day weekend! :)

Day 24: Praise You While I'm Sore

My ankle is injured! No bueno. I don't exactly know what happened except that it is bruised, and does not respond well to walking. It does better when I run instead of walk (I guess cause I tend to land more on my heel when I walk and more on the ball of my foot when I run!) but I'm not going to be dumb and try to pound out a 24-minute run today. I ran for about 10 minutes, which is about half of what I'm used to running. I am going to do some cardio/strength combos tonight that don't directly involve my ankle so I'm going to do those at full strength. Today is legs/thighs/chest/butt day which really sucks when you're an active runner and biker! But I persist because I love the way my calves look! They are shapely and beautiful. :-)

I lost 2 lbs today, but the gym scale has been recalibrated to weight what my mom's scale does! It would normally weigh me at 210 because of the way it was calibrated yesterday but today it weighed me at the exact same weight! I was totally bummed out, but hopefully it will be at 20 lbs tomorrow. I am so ridiculously close it's crazy! I'm around 18-19 lbs lost, which is great but I can totally get past that! Because of my persistence I have shattered several plateaus and if I get down to 212.0 on my mom's scale I have completely obliterated the whole plateau and the 5-6 lb cycle I have been doing for weeks now. So I am hoping for another whoooooosh. :-)

I am so excited about how my life is going, despite the few minor setbacks I described above. I remember a few weeks ago pondering life as a Christian and wondering if Joyce Meyer was right, that God would give me a better life if I loved him. Looking back, saying YES to Jesus was one of the best decisions I have ever made! I am amazed at how my life continues to change for the positive.

I love being back at church and serving God in different ways. I'm going to help serve at a mission project which involves filling bags with rice, protein, and vegetables for those in need in Haiti. We are going to fill ~40,000 bags of rice mix and they will be shipped to Haiti! There is also this whole missions weekend and I am definitely going! Because of school and the way my schedule is set up it is very difficult for me to go overseas, but I hear there are some local projects that will be available. I love volunteer work of all sorts, so helping in this field sounds fantastic to me. I am also attending a class that the church is offering in September about the privileges of being a church member. I'm so excited about all of this.

I hope everyone has a fantastic day and knocks out some good exercise. If you're injured like me, be smart and take it easy. Never settle for getting hurt worse. Be blessed all!

Day 21: Lucky Treadmills and Blessed Sundays

I ran 21 minutes on what I have now figured out is my "unlucky" treadmill. I usually use the brand new treadmill that my gym has because it's my favorite. I can go 20 minutes plus at 3.2 mph. Today that treadmill was taken and there was an insane amount of people in the gym for it being a Sunday, so I decided to suck it up and go on the little-bitty treadmill adjacent to the door. It was a dinky thing and wouldn't have allowed me to stick my arms at my sides if I was any wider. And man... I couldn't even get above 3.0, was sweating profusely and grabbing the side bars some of the time (I hate doing that... it's wimpy running, lol!). Next time, I'm using my lucky treadmill and knocking out 22 minutes! :-)

I also went to church for the first time in six months to a year. Before, I am ashamed to say I had ulterior motives for going to church, but now I go cause I like the people there and totally enjoy the church's minister. He shouts a lot and is very interesting to listen to. Today he spoke on joy, and how we have joy through having a relationship with Christ and how sometimes things may be rough but Christ wins in the end, citing extensive passages from Revelation. I always thought Revelation was super cool, with Christ riding in on a white horse to save the world. I don't know how literal Revelation is but I think it would be super cool to see Jesus ride in on a white horse and banish Satan to the Lake of Fire. God sure does know how to write an awesome epic. :-D

Tonight I'm going to a potluck supper at the church. I don't have any food for it, but I am looking forward to fellowshipping and getting to know some of the people at my church. I know some of the people in my Sunday School classes, I know the people I sit with on the right side of the church, and I know the associate pastor and music minister, but potlucks are fun because you get to know a variety of people. I just have to, as my 11th grade Geometry teacher often said when we left, make good choices! Eat less and fellowship more. Should be interesting to put my social and eating skills to the test, lol.

Well, I've got to get back to chemistry homework, which was what I got online to do to begin with! :-D I hope everyone has a blessed day and I will see you guys tomorrow! :-)

Day 11: Cause I'm Awesome that Way.

Hi guys!

I appreciate your patronage! There have been 61 page views in two days! I am so happy that you are enjoying the site and I hope to see even more of you soon.

I have had a mixed bag of a day. On the positive side, I ran three consecutive miles without stopping. I haven't done that in my continuous running adventures, even when I was good at it. I ran a total of around 5-6 minutes, with 4 minutes of walking. Considering the circumstances, it's not a bad go of it. I'm planning on going back later on tonight if the gas in my car holds out for another day. :-) Also, I weighed in at 215.2 today, breaking the plateau at 217-219. When I compare side by side pictures I can truly tell a difference. Check out this bad boy:

 



I can really tell a difference! That is the same shirt too, and yes I bash on the Cubs and don't particularly like them or baseball in general but my parents keep on buying me shirts when they go to Chicago. My dad is a huge Cubs fan. And we're in St Louis. Awesome planning there, but my dad is from the UK so he has that excuse.

 

I have also had some not-so-good news in that someone I have trusted in the past has been lying to me constantly, and tries to pass the buck to me and say that I don't understand what's going on. And today I unearthed a huge honker of a lie that this person told me that could have cost me a ton of time, hassle, and kept me bound to them for the rest of my life. I won't get into the particulars, those who are close to me know exactly what I am talking about, but I am honestly shocked. I don't understand how someone who is supposed to be close to you lies to your face and then blames you for not understanding why they lied and how the whole schema works.

 

Anyhoo, I have also received a call from a college that may work with me to find a place to live and transfer some of my college credits at my current college to theirs. I didn't realize they had been calling me because they never left voicemails until today, and I had wondered where they had been all this time. Either way, I have not decided if I will switch my major at my current college or transfer to this college. It's a huge decision and I want to make sure I'm making the right one. :-)

 

Talk about a drama filled day, right?? I hope everyone else has a less drama-filled day and enjoys their day.

Day Seven: Down (Almost) Fifteen Pounds!

Yeah, I know it hasn't technically been seven days, but with work and the other blog I have been struggling to keep up with this blog as well. Still, I will definitely try to keep working on posts on this site whenever I can.

I can't believe that I am almost down 15 pounds since starting the BMR Bliss Pack. I am very glad to have some weight off, even though most of it has been just from not eating and working all day. I definitely love my job 99.99 percent of the time but sometimes it just gets on my nerves, lol. Last night was interesting because there were only two of us and my co-worker was off hiding somewhere and there was often a 5-or-6 customer line. Thankfully during the day the managers are around to catch the slackers but it happens, I suppose.

I found out today that someone has paid one of my restaurant bills. I took Bryan out to eat at a restaurant and paid for a delicious pizza and pretzels, and I found out that it has been struck from the record for one reason or another, freeing up some money for other things. This definitely must be a God thing, cause I was shocked to see my bank account at the number it was.

Yes, I have been corrupted and have been seeking God more. Normally my spiritual mind is like a 5-year-old on a playground, going from one thing to the next without being interested in any one thing in particular. Save the really hardcore conservative and nature religions, I've probably tried it at least once.

I still don't like churches. When I was in college I got kicked out of a college ministry for being a bit of a dingbat and I have never quite forgotten that yucky feeling. Besides, to me it seems like churches are hotbeds for cliques and exclusivity. Nevertheless, I have been enjoying praying and watching Joyce Meyer on TV, and I hope eventually something will come of it. But in the meantime I am living in the moment.

I hope everyone has a good day. Mine is off to a good start already. :)

-S