Lazy ass blogger

*251* <---I am told being buff adds weight. LOL

  I am here! I am here! Lazy blogger, I admit it. Life and the damn N have gotten in my way. Forgive me.

   I am going to the gym today so that will make it three days in a row. My ass is sooo tired but I need to do this. I am discouraged that the scale has not moved much but I am not dumb. I know that it is because I have bee working on my core muscles and muscles add weight. So eventually, I will see a drop in the numbers. I am not gonna let it stop me.
 Revelation the other day. We had baked pesto pork chops for dinner and I had spinach and salad with it. Really good. I was not even halfway done with the meal and my liver started to protest. At first I said that I am going to become a vegetarian and this is a strong possiblity. But I am doing baby steps. I have given up pork and beef. They both hurt me so they had to go. I will stick with chicken and fish for now and see how that goes. I am having a pain issue someplace else in my gut and I have a bumped up appointment with the gastro on MLK jr birthday. It is at the point that all fat is hurting my liver and maybe he needs to go in there and look around. I do not want that but if this keeps up, I will be eating strictly rabbit food. But you know me, I gotta keep on keeping on. I think tummy issues will be my Lot in life.
 No more bacon. That is gonna be rough.

  I would highly recommend getting a Ninja blender if you can afford it and want to add juicing to your diet. All of us LOVE IT! And it is super easy to clean. I hate cleaning standard blenders so when I realized that the blender part comes right out, easy peasy to clean..I was completely sold on it. I also wanted to share a guilt free treat. You take 4 frozen bananas and put them in the food processor. Whiz until smooth. You could add a bit of peanut butter, Nutella or nothing at all. Instant ice cream! Hubs did not realize it was NOT ice cream until I told him.  Give it a try. It will give me something sweet to eat that is non dairy. Cause all dairy seems to hurt this bitch for some reason.
**I am trying to hurry up and get everything in cause I have to leave for the gym soon.**

 My birthday was good. I am still not liking 45 but I just put this coat on. It will take me a bit of time to get used to it. The cake was marble and yes I had some. Two pieces over the course of two days in fact. I was able to transition right back to eating healthy. Hubs and I were married 21 years this month and his birthday is at the end of this month. We are going to go out to dinner and celebrate all three the last weekend of the month. Eating out will be a challenge but I wont let that sway me.

 As for the new me not giving in...it is working. I am saying no more. Getting stank looks in return but this is a change for all of us. Right now it majorly sucks because we have the new yearly medical insurance deductible so we have to pay for everything!!! So it is easier to say no. I just do not have it to give.
 I really gotta go now. I PROMISE to post again today cause I have a recipe to share. It was sooo good!

Oh to sleep the sleep of the dead

*251*

  It is almost October. My most favorite month of the entire year. Yesterday I bought a couple pumpkins and some mums for the front porch. I think my days of decorating for trick or treaters is over but Fall decorating could take on a whole new thing for me. Kid number two turns 20 at the end of the month. That will be it. No more kids in my house. I know they were adults at 18 but something about not being a teenager anymore really seals it for me.

  I have been told that a couple people are patiently awaiting my jams. I have not done them yet. So this week I will get it done. I have to make a batch of strawberry and a batch of strawberry jalapeno. I have to start thinking towards the holidays too. Even though I am not eating it, I still like to make treats for others. I found these fancy looking cupcake tins called Tulips. I found out later that they are not very new but they are new to me. They were selling in the discount store. I bought a bunch for really cheap but I think I am going to go there later and grab a few more. $2.50 for a box of 12. I know that I could make them myself if I got it into me to do so. I eventually will but for now I like the colored ones that I found at the store. They are neat because they make your treats look fancy and they have the benefit of a corner to pick up your cupcake with so you do not mess up the frosting. Pretty handy.

  Except for one day where I punked out, I have been going to the gym on a regular basis. My friend A and I signed up about two weeks ago. I have been almost 3 times a week but shooting for four times. I want to do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Fridays. Give myself Thursdays and the weekends to relax. The trainer at the gym said four days is a perfect amount of time. You want to give your body at least three days of rest. I am trying the dreaded elliptical. That bitch hurts! I can only do like three minutes on it but I am going to do it every single day. I do the treadmill, the stair climber and the elliptical. Then I choose a muscle group to work on. I am there a little bit over an hour now. I started to lose my way with the eating. I was eating things that I shouldnt. I ate some greasy stuff that made me really sick and I had some other foods that shot my blood sugars through the roof. I have learned my lessons. I know that I cannot be perfect and there will come times where I will want to eat some things but definitely staying away from fried foods, whole milk dairy, and wheat. Since I started this, I noticed that whenever I eat wheat, I get this phlegm thing going on afterward. I sometimes start gagging, I am guessing a wheat sensitivity.  All is a learning process. So far I have lost 24 pounds.

  I think I told you all about the at home sleep study that I did for sleep apnea...? I am not going to go back and look so I will assume I have. Insurance wouldnt pay for full on sleep study in the hospital so I had to have a monitor to bring home. I went last week to find out the results. Girlfriend needs a C-pap. Most of the time those home tests do not show the full fledged severity of your apneas. Mine did OR mine are so bad that even the home shit picked it up. Doctor said that I stopped breathing 48 times an hour. That is like almost every fucking minute! My oxygen saturation is supposed to be 100% to the upper 90s. Mine would dip down into the 80s on more than a couple of times. So they sent me across the hall at that very moment and set me up with a machine. I have been using it since Wednesday. I have not kept it on the whole night yet but the longest so far is five hours. It will take some time getting used to. I wake up a little bit freaked out and take that shit off. One night I talked myself out of it in my half sleep, left the mask on and went back to sleep. I have the full face mask because I am a mouth breather. I am trying to overcome the feeling of being trapped as in claustrophobic. I have read that in time, it does go away. The full face mask is best for me because I move around alot in my sleep, I am a mouth breather, and I like to sleep on my side. So I need to overcome that shit.
  Lots of news and little links to click on. I have been busy with the yard this week, that is why I have not been around more. Once winter settles in, I will post more. You all know how I do things.
Enjoy the rest of your lovely September 2013.

Skinny! and the Lime green shirt

I wish!

*270*

End of being sad for now because of a Lime Green shirt!

   Two years ago I started on my saga of dressing better and hopefully I would lose weight. It was in the Summer that I found this long sleeved, light fabric shirt in lime green with medium sized crystals on the chest. I should take a pic cause the description makes it seem puka-licious. Believe me. It is a gorgeous shirt. It is size XL but I think it runs a tad larger. It fit me perfect. Maybe a little snug in some areas but it was perfect. Well, I wore it a couple times and then it was too hot to wear it so it was put away for summer. When Fall came around last year, I tried it on and it did not fit. It was snug everywhere and very unflattering. Most women would have tossed it in disgust. Not me. I put it away. I figured one day.

  Fast forward to now. I have been sorting all my clothing and putting summer stuff away and digging out winter. I have been trying stuff on to. Well I found the Lime green shirt. I did a quick try on and it fit me. I knew it probably would and I hung it up. I really did not TRY it on until yesterday.
Fred and I were going out to lunch yesterday. I wanted to wear my new winter clogs so I picked a pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans (they were in the pile too) and my Lime green shirt. Girl! Not only were the jeans loose but the shirt was BILLOWY! It flowed around me! I went from it being snug as shit all over last winter to having me float in it now!
WTF is going on!! I am so glad my Dr. took me off that Actos (diabetes drug). The weight just keeps melting off.
Look, I think my scale has been bad for awhile. Like by 10lbs. So it was saying 270...I was really 280-something. When I was 290-something..I was 300-something. Well, the scale at the gym said 270 on the dot. That means my scale at home would be saying 260 (if she could speak). So I lost 10 lbs somehow along the way!
  Natalie and I are going to the gym tomorrow. We want to keep it up and see if we can do it at least 3x a week. I want to lose another 10lbs. OMG! If I keep all this up, could weighing 200lb become a reality?
No wonder my boobs have been drowning in my bras lately..they are too big!! I know, I know. TMI!!

Okay, enough of this. Breakfast is cooking and I need to finish working on it.

Fish soup and ouchy abdominals

Ocean Beach NL, CT

*269*

I just got back from the gym and grocery store. My abs are going to be screaming tonight. That is for sure. We went to the beach yesterday to go swimming. Me being Natalie, Raymond and I. If you did not know all ready, Raymond is Natalie`s bestie..not her boyfriend. We had a good couple hours until the saw a jellyfish. I came in with the tide. None of the three of  us were stung. Then we went home and changed, picked up Chelsea, and had a nice late lunch at Ocean Pizza. We do a family style thing. Big Caesar salad, steak fries, and Pizza. We all share like it is home dinner. We have done it that way forever. I got a tiny bit of sunburn on my arms but I can now say that my farmer`s tan is history!
    Today, I am going to make fish soup for dinner. It needs a catchier name cause Fish Soup just sounds so wrong. Like something that was served to the orphans in Oliver Twist. Natalie loves it and requested it for dinner. I picked up some Italian bread to go with.
It is a really easy soup to make. You get either some veggie/seafood stock or use bouillon and water to make it. I do a half and half combo. I put diced potatoes, minced onions and garlic, frozen baby spinach, spices like garlic powder, a pinch of cayenne and maybe some basil. Then I throw in 4-6 intact Tilapia fillets. I let them cook in the soup like that. After about an hour, I break up the fish. I add in some macaroni and it is done. Simple and hearty throw together soup when I only had 3 fish left in the freezer. I was going to do the Jam today but it is too fucking humid. I turned on the air conditioner down here and it has not been on for like 2 weeks. So you know my ass is hot. I will clean the kitchen, make the soup, and prepare the jars for tomorrow. I will also take out the blackberries to defrost. I think I can get two batches of jam out of that bag. Plenty of Jam to go around.
We give Jam to my Mil and Fil. We give it to Fred`s godmother. My friend Ana. The groomer. The mailman gets one. Ummm. I have enough to pass out and still have plenty to last me the winter.
 So tomorrow will be Jam day. Today is fish soup, coloring the blonde mistake in the back of my head to chocolate brown, and resting my tired ass.

Oh my aching ass!

*272*

Natalie and I went to the gym this morning. We saw lots of people we knew that had never been to the gym at the same time. It is good when the place is not so empty. I do not want to fight for a machine but I like to people watch to pass the time so it was good.
My body is in pain. We did an entire hour of working out. I sat on the couch about 2 hours ago with the laptop (it works!!!!!) and I have not moved since. I really really need to take a shower but I do not think I can move. Do not worry, I did not overdo it in the sense that you think. I was able to up the weights on some of the machines that I do. It was getting too easy so I raised the weight. So I am back to walking around like Frankenstein. But this will be good in the long run. I will have a flatter stomach and less jello like upper arms! Yeah me!
 Okay..I am off to work on my Tumblr. I did not really know what it was all about until Natalie showed me what I could do. So I am off to fiddle with my Tumblr.
Jesus..Tumblr, Blogger, Facebook...I have a Twatter but I do not use that.

Have a good Monday all!

Progress!

*271*

I went to the gym with Natalie this morning. Afterward I decided I was going to weigh myself on their scale because supposedly, mine is all shades of wrong. Guess what?? It said 272.3! That means my scale is correct. Yes! Yes! Yes!
So I started thinking. I began this journey because my ass was fatty fatty two by four and could not get her fucking shoes on. I KNOW I weighed 300 lbs at one point but never saw it with my own two eyes. I was always in the 290s. So I am going to just assume that I WAS in the 300 range. That would mean that I have lost about 25-30lbs..give or take because I am really not sure.
30 fucking pounds! That just snuck up on my ass. It took me some trials and tribulations to lose that amount of weight but I have done it. Please believe me when I say this, I am no where near done.
I want to get to at least my goal of 210. So I have another 60 lbs to go. I think this has really motivated me to push harder.
We are not going to have a competition. She wants to lose weight to feel good about how she looks and I want to lose weight to get my diabetes in check. I told her that when we hit 200lbs, we are going to sign up for the local Cross Fit.  <--link there. It is a more highly contained exercise and you have people screaming at you that YOU CAN DO IT!
 And I think I will want a new tattoo with the weight loss too. I do not know what but something fitting for the occasion.
 I am psyched. I do not know why I never realized I had lost that much. I was paying attention to the numbers but not the totality. You know what I mean?
My ass is hurting from the gym so I am going to go and relax.

Off to the gym..dammit

*271*<-----the scale at Natalie`s dietitian says that our scale is 6 pounds off. Meaning I am really 277!

My stomach still feels like crap but I am being dragged kicking and screaming to the gym. Natalie wants to go and it is too far away to walk and she does not drive yet. (She will learn to drive when she gets her head on straight!)
So I have to fucking go. I hope I do not shit myself on the stair climber.
Still with the diarrhea,  heartburn, and stomach pain. It comes and goes. I also still get bouts of OMG! I am gonna puke!

Okay. Must go..She is waiting.

I was a member of Gloria Stevens!

*284*
   Does anyone else of a certain age remember the strip mall Gloria Stevens Exercise places? My sister and I joined it. She lost weight...I did not. Bitch! That place was a waste of money but they did teach me a valuable lesson. It was the lesson of stretching. Make sure you stretch before you exercise. That is all you did at Gloria Stevens. Stretching. And they hooked you up to one of those contraptions that jiggled your fat around with a black belt. Supposedly that was gonna make me svelte..like the chick, Red,  in the picture. I want to say right now that I do NOT want to look like that up there. Okay, maybe in my dreams but to look like that is lots of work, lots of work, and oh yeah..lots of work. And you have to maintain that work or it will go away. I came close to looking like that one summer but then winter came and I had to warm myself up with hot cocoa. LOL

  I did not take a walk yesterday like I had planned. Instead I raked and filled 12 yard waste bags for the curb..full of leaves. The bottom yard is done! WooHoo! And anyone that tries to say that yard work like that is not exercise is just plain mean. I can actually say that the spinal surgery worked for me. I only stopped once. That was to take the dogs inside cause their diva asses were getting cold and bored. (i will introduce you to them at another time). Today is different. Today Natalie and I are going to the gym. I am ready. I am dressed. I have to leave here in about 15 minutes to pick her up so we can go. I am not fucking around no more about this. Even with Christmas coming and all the food and goodies! I am going to show lots of restraint. I am also going to enjoy many of these yummy foods but I will continue the exercise. I must continue it. I want to be able to have dreams that I look like Red up in the picture.
Speaking of red, I have major rootage going on..I think I will color my hair today finally also. I am not ready to let my grays come forth and multiply. I will leave them alone eventually. I am only 41 (42 in January)...I want to have youngish hair still.  Okay, My time is up here. Got to get my sneaks on and move it move it move it!