Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

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Five Random Things

I don’t have another coherent post in me today, and I realized that what I was going to post today was much more appropriate for Friday, so welcome to the return of 5 random things.

1.  Somehow, I’m not sure why – but an easy 5k has now dropped to about 28 minutes (so 9 minute miles) – just in the last week or 2.  Is it that the shred strengthening muscles I didn’t know I needed stronger?  I’d say is it the shred warming me up, but it even happened yesterday when I shredded in the morning and ran at night.  Is it the new music I have?  Is it the cooler weather (it’s odd – I wear a sweater and a jacket when I’m out in it to go to work, and then I go running in just a tank and I’m fine)?  Is it that I can run at night again?  I don’t know, but I’ll take it.  Now, just as I’m hitting my short distance stride, I’m about to change it up and start distance training next month.  25 minute 5k, maybe next year…. I’m going to do one more probably next month but I haven’t been training for it so I don’t have high hopes.

2.  I’m playing EverQuest again.  Yes, this game that I spent years and years in front of a computer playing, eating delivery pizza and drinking bourbon.  The fun thing is – we’ve been able to get on and play for an hour or 2 a night in place of just sitting in front of the TV and me dorking on the net and Zliten playing bejeweled for hours.  It’s kinda fun to reconnect with some people we used to play with and relearn how to maneuver our characters again.  It’s always good for the soul to get into a game again.  It’s also reminding me that I do have that chunk of time from about 9-11pm each weekday night to get things accomplished instead of zoning out EVERY night and watching TV.

3.  Speaking of finding time in my day – I’m contemplating NaNoWriMo.  I’ve even got an idea for it.  The only problem is I’m pretty sure the blog will suffer.  Maybe not, but it’s possible.  All I have to say is that wanting to pursue multiple interests sucks when you also are required to get 7-8 hours sleep at night and work full time.  When I’m working out as intensely as I am, having a weekday 4-5 hour night to get caught up is just not an option.  And then when I do it on the weekends it just makes Monday soooo hard.  I figure though – worst case, I come up with the idea, start on it, and even if I don’t finish in November, I’ll can certainly tick one more thing off the 2009 to do list – something creative!

4.  I’ve realized that 30 means being more concerned about fitting in my workouts around a lab appointment to draw blood to check my numbers tomorrow than the needle itself.  Fun fact about Quix: I HATE NEEDLES.  I especially hate needles around where they draw blood (the inside of my arms… I don’t even like people touching me there).  However, I have to watch the entire process, like I’m guiding the nurse’s stabby stabby procedure with my eyes.  I love the idea of tattoos and piercings and would probably have some ink and be pierced a LOT more than 8 times (three in each ear, one in my cartelige, once in my tongue – though the tongue and one in my ear closed up so I only have 6 now) if I could get over that.

5.  We’ve been eating at home a lot more.  We have a constant lunch date on Fridays with a group to eat pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), we typically end up having a meal or two out on the weekends, but that’s about it now.  We come home for lunch just about every weekday and cook dinner every night.  Last year this time, we ate lunch out every day, and most weekend meals out, and generally cooked dinner about 4 days a week and that was it (if we weren’t crunching and getting dinners provided at work).  We are eating a lot healthier (maybe not lower calorie, I got good at that, but definitely more good stuff), it’s saving money, but bugger if the dishes don’t have dish babies in the sink!  I don’t usually make a production out of dinner, it involves maybe a pan, a tupperware, a salad bowl, two plates, and two utensils – but somehow the sink is full every day.  It takes me a long time to notice it’s an issue (if it’s not overflowing then who cares is my motto) and it annoys Zliten to no end.   In fact, he was the one who suggested this topic for my fifth random thing.  We badly need a kitchen fairy that can do dishes for us every night.  Like the gal above.  =)

There is my random stuff.  Tomorrow I forsee work kicking my arse, plus I have aforementioned doctor appointment and a shred and a 5 mile run to do, so I’ll be back Friday for the mysterious post I did not write today.  Ciao, internet!

Shredhead, Coming Back to Earth

Few things to talk about today so it’s sort of a scatterbrain Tuesday!  Get ready for the smorgasbord!

Yesterday:

*Ok, squeamish boys, you might just want to skip this section – go on then.*

So yesterday, my post kinda reeked of melodrama.  I wasn’t sure what the heck was going on in my brain.  Sure, that number on the scale was enough to floor me but then little things at work were affecting me more than I should and I was just feeling awfully ill.  I went to empty and fill (my bladder and my water glass, respectively) and started freaking out because I thought something was wrong with me.

After a few minutes of puzzling out what day it was – it’s the first time I’ve been early for TOM in… years probably.  But only a few days so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.  I am under so much less stress this month than I have been in about a year maybe (taking it easier on the workouts, wedding stuff done), that my 33-ish day stress induced cycle is off.  Once I realized that’s what it was, it made so much sense.  THAT is where probably half of the bloat came from (the other half salt).  THAT is why I was really feeling ill.  THAT is why people at work were making me emotional.

I came home, took pain killers, and curled up on the couch.  Yes, I even skipped my workout.  I’ll make it up later this week.  I needed it.  I’m down 2.1 of the 7 lbs today and I expect they will fall off this week as it progresses.

Occam’s razor – most often, the simplest explanation is the right one.

Shredding:

So I’ve been doing the 30 day shred, and it’s been interesting to say the least.  I always discount short workouts a bit – I can do anything for 20 minutes, right?  Well, Jillian definitely pushes that theory to the limits.

The videos have you doing her 3-2-1 system – 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs.  During the strength portion you do one sort of isolating arm move for 30 seconds, then arms and legs for 1 minute, and then repeat.  During the cardio section you do one exercise for 30 seconds, then a different one for 30 seconds, and then repeat.  During abs, you do abs.  For example, one circuit is chest flys for 30 seconds, then side lunges with anterior raises for 1 minute (then repeat) for the strength portion, then jumping jacks for 30 secs and punches in a squat for 30 secs (then repeat) for cardio, and then bicycle crunches for 1 minute for abs.

So Day 1 I had no respect.  I was like, ok, this is cake, and went for a 5k immediately after.  The next day, I was kinda sore.  Which isn’t too hard to believe – I worked different muscles than normal.  Then I realized I had to do it again.  The second day – that was tough.  The third day?  I decided it was a shred and yoga instead of the additional cardio I had planned because I was so incredibly sore.  Day 4 I felt better because of my little rest and ran again after, and that made me sore as hell for Day 5, where I blew off the rest of my cardio.  I was pretty sore through the weekend, but I think that was also attributed to being on my feet most of the day on Saturday and then dancing my hiney off at the party.

By yesterday morning (Day 6) I was feeling better and though I blew off additional cardio it wasn’t because I was sore.  This morning I moved on to level 2 and I have 2 words for you – SQUAT THRUSTS.  Ugh.  Some of it was easier (the ab workout was pretty weak in comparison I thought but we’ll see what’s sore later), some of it was harder (hiya, cardio, you actually felt like a workout), and I can tell different muscles are sore.  The plan is to stay with this another 6-7 days, and then move on to level 3 and finish the 4 weeks out there.

My impressions after a week-

The Good:

-It is a kick ass workout if you only have 30 minutes to spare from start to cooldown/stretch.  Even a 5k takes me longer and that’s typically my shortest workout.

-You will most likely find some new awesome moves.  Lunges + bicep curls?  Painfully awesome!

-I haven’t been this sore and also felt this much improvement in the strength side of things in a while.

The Bad:

-While I definitely feel an intensity to it, I don’t think it’s enough time.  I need some running, DDR, and yoga in there. 6 mins of cardio bursts per day doesn’t feel like it’s doing my running any service.

-The first week of almost utter and complete soreness made it really tough to WANT to do anything else.  I had the best success going for runs immediately after shredding because I was warm (and might continue that trend on short and fast runs), but splitting workouts into morning and afternoon is NOT optimal with this as I cool down, get sore, and then have to get back into something else 9 hours later just as my body is starting to repair.

-It is rough on your body.  I trained for a half marathon with very few aches and pains and this short workout gave me minor knee and ankle aches.  I question whether doing it every day (ok, 5 days a week for me as I just don’t do a week with no rest days) or even consecutive days is good for you.  As Jillian says it helps you adapt quickly, but at what cost?

-It’s boooooring doing the same things every day.  I’m trying to follow instructions for now but I think I’d rather rotate between the levels during the week.

The verdict:

Gonna stick with it for the next 4 weeks, 5-6 days a week.  After that – I think it gets thrown into the strength training rotation.  I expect to look a little firmer once it’s done but I don’t expect miracles unless I really put a little more effort into my consumption.  I think this would also be the PERFECT workout for crunch time at work when 30 mins is about what I’ve got and just do it every day before work.

I am going to make doing the shred my first priority.  That is, if all I can do in a day is shred, that’s ok.  I have 2 yogas, 2 DDRs, and 2 runs planned as well, but I have to listen to my body.  If I’m going to die, I need to rest.  I have 2 weeks post-shred before a 5 mile race, and then that week I start half training.  I don’t want to come out of this weaker than I was.  That being said, I cannot forsee doing this more than 2-3 times per week max if I want to also continue running.

Zliten also tried it yesterday.  He has been complaining ever since. ::grin::  I don’t think he’s going to do the every day shredding, but it’s an option for him on days he doesn’t want to leave the house.

So, my dear internetians… I leave this in your hands to continue the discussion?  Ever had TOM just completely sneak up on you and you thought you were going crazy?  What’s everyone else think of the shred?  What’s going on with your Tuesday?

Pictures from nataliedee.com… because they are adorable.

Where Everything Falls Apart

So my big thing is no guilt.  No regrets.  But it’s hard not to regret and rib yourself a bit if you treated yourself so poorly over the weekend that you are feeling physically ill about it.  And by “you”, I mean me.  Consider yourselves my proverbial priests, while I give you a full confessional.  I’ll give you a play by play of the carnage.

My first mistake was going out Friday night.  I knew I had a party lined up the next night, yet I couldn’t wait.  I didn’t go too crazy and I ate well (I was a good girl and ordered chipotle tacos with meat, lettuce, salsa, and that’s it, and that was the worst thing food-wise I had all day), but there was definitely whiskey involved.  And I was up until almost 5am.  And I skipped the DDR part of my workout.  Mostly because I was sore and wanted to die, but partly because I didn’t have time – friends were already over and food was sitting on the counter after Jillian kicked my butt.

My second mistake was sleeping in Saturday, lazing around, and then having to run all over town getting things for my costume.  I missed my sixth day of Shred.  Six days is more than I usually do, but considering 2 of those days were only 20 min shred workouts, I still owed myself a workout.  And I didn’t do it.

My third mistake was following my advice for parties – I had a very small and what I thought was filling snack before I headed out, but I guess a gardenburger wasn’t enough.  I was so seriously hungry I downed an OBSCENE amount of junk food there because I was STARVING.  On top of that, I could only obtain a one liter of diet soda and had to move on after that to sugared punch and soda.  Ugh.

My fourth mistake was lunch on Sunday.  It wasn’t that it was so unhealthy – it was just so BAD.  We went to try out what we thought was a new soup and salad bar, but it ended up being more of a straight buffet, and probably the worst one in town we’ve had thus far.  Everything was fatty and greasy and bleh (except that salad, that was alright- but the topping bar was pretty small).

My fifth mistake?  Not making up my skipped workout on Sunday.  I had convinced myself somehow that I should rest today so I didn’t tire myself out, but I think it was more about the hangover.  I usually punish myself by working through hangovers but not so much yesterday.

My sixth and final nail in the coffin was dinner.  Calorie-wise, I was a freaking saint.  We got chinese takeout and I had wonton soup, veggie delight, and one bite of orange chicken.  And about half a cup of rice.  The problem is – I ended up with a gigantic portion of the wonton soup + broth and it was especially salty, so I am Bloaty McBalloonperson today.

I will say some good things about this weekend though:

1.  I didn’t partake of the late night fast food runs either night.  I had a few fries off Zliten’s plate Friday but that’s it.

2.  I did dance my ass of for a while at the party Saturday.  Plus I was shopping for 3 hours – shopping is cardio, right?

3.  I made good food choices with what I had to work with Sunday.  I went for non fried stuff (minus one small taste of fried fish which was honestly the best thing on the buffet :P) and loaded up on veggies and non-sauce covered protein.  Chinese, I ate probably just about the lowest calorie foods on the menu and was actually pretty satisfied with what I got instead of feeling diet-punished.

However, the truth is today the scale is saying unthinkable things that I am going to throw out as a mulligan.  I’ll give myself a day or 2 being healthy to detox and I should be back in business.  The problem: I have just about the same weekend to face next weekend.  I have high hopes going into each weekend and then it all falls apart.  It’s one hundred percent my fault.  While I’d love to get persnickety about people around me not being the best influences and yadda yadda yadda, I am the one making the choices.  I am the one who controls my destiny.

I am the one who had to have her heart jump out of her chest practically today because of what she saw on the scale.  Yeah, it was that ridiculous.  Who gains seven lbs in 2 days?  That would be me, people.  I am really going to have to get it together if I want to accomplish project: the last effing 20 lbs.

But really, all I can do is analyze, figure out how to be better next time, and move on.  So that I will.  This week, I will stop letting those close to me be enablers.  If I choose to go out drinking and find myself hungry because of it, fuck it.  Being hungry is not the worst thing in the world.  If I have the strength to run a half marathon, and the capability to come up with a training plan – I can figure this out.  I’m not a dumb bunny, but I sure played one this weekend.

So, I guess here is last week by the numbers:

Monday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 30 mins DDR 5k run (had an itch to run, so I ran instead)

Tuesday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 5k run 30 mins DDR (switched from Monday, and at lower intensity than normal because – um, sore!)

Wednesday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Level 1, 30 mins DDR yoga (was about to die from soreness so I yoga’d out)

Thursday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Level 1, 5 mile run 5k run (just didn’t have a 5 miler in me)

Friday: under 1500 1700 calories, Shred Level 1

Saturday: healthy eating until the Halloween party, Shred Level 1

Sunday: under 1500 calories (who knows), rest

So this week is:

Monday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 30 mins DDR

Tuesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 2, 5 mile run

Wednesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 2, yoga

Thursday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 2, 5k run

Friday: under 1500 calories, Shred Level 2, 30 mins DDR

Saturday: under 2000 calories, Shred Level 2, yoga

Sunday: under 1500 calories, rest

So yes, pretty much a do-over of last week, and moving up to level 2 of the Shred.  Since this post is already looking to be like a novel, I’ll talk more about the shred and other random stuff tomorrow.

How was your weekend?  Anyone else want to pull up a chair to the confessional?  If you had a saintly weekend, wanna give me some tips? 🙂

Fantasy…

First, read this.  Totally ripped the idea from there…

I loved this post and wanted to share my own.  I often dream about what I’d do if I won the lottery, but it’s fun to just confine it to things that would make me able to live a healthy lifestyle better (some of them are a stretch…but…).  Let the opulence begin with a day in the life!

I wake up whenever my body tells me to – however, since I don’t have any worries or things to do to keep me up at night, I probably naturally arise around 9am.  I reluctantly leave my bed, because it is made to the exact firmness for me (and Zliten’s side for Zliten) and feels pretty much like sleeping on a cloud.  I plod into my perfectly clean bathroom that the maid just tidied up for me yesterday and get ready to start my day.

I head to the kitchen where a chef is waiting for me.  He asks me what I want to eat for breakfast, and I jokingly say a waffle with ice cream, chocolate syrup, and some homefries.  He says that he would oblige, but it’s not on the nutritionist’s list for me and it’s not a splurge day.  Instead, he whips me up some delicious whole grain homemade toast and a fruit salad, as he knows I’ll be doing a long run that day and need something to fuel it.

I eat my breakfast while catching up on the internet/blogs/etc.  After the food settles, I go into my workout clothes closet which are organized by temperature and sport, and select an outfit for 60-70 degrees, running.  Since I have all the time in the world, I get my driver (please, if I ever get rich I will NEVER drive again) to Town Lake for a change of scenery, and run a nice, easy 10 mile jaunt – as I’m gearing up for a half marathon and that’s what my trainer has prescribed today.  When not training for a race, I might have someone come in and teach a different class each week so I can try everything.  After the car takes me home, I stretch out, and the chef has a smoothie waiting for me.  At first I object because I’m feeling fine and not hungry, but after his insistence, I drink it and feel even better.  He lets me know that lunch will be served in about an hour.

I see that Zliten is now up and swimming in the pool.  It’s too cold for the roof to be retracted, but it’s still nice to see the sun shining and get in the perfectly heated water.   I begrudgingly take a cold bath first for my legs, but then jump into the water and splash around with him for a while.  I look longingly at the hot tub, but figure that wouldn’t be the greatest on my just ice-bathed legs, so tomorrow it is.  On another day I’d make use of the diving board and be thankful for the life guard under our employ, but after a long run, I’m just happy to be in the water.  Before we know it, the chef lets us know that lunch is ready.

We dry off and put on our super cushy robes and eat lunch outside.  Today, mine is a gigantic turkey sandwich made on the same delicious homemade toast I had that morning, a salad, and some assorted veggies and pita slices with hummus.  Zliten is munching on the same thing, but a kobe beef burger instead of turkey.

After lunch, since we have some free time, we walk down to the theatre and decide to take in a movie.  The movie runs a little longer than we thought, so we have to call the car to have them pick us up and bring us a change of clothes and a snack (homemade protein bars and fruit) or we’d be late.  It’s time for a yoga class and then after, an hour massage.  It’s such a relaxing afternoon we both fall asleep during our sessions, and pretty much float back to the car.

On the way home, we decide that we want to hang out with our friends, and invite them over for dinner, after checking our schedules (easy workout tomorrow for Zliten, day off for me, check!).  After having a delicious dinner of shrimp cocktail, light caesar salad, petite filet mignon, and assorted veggies, we decide that we must hit the town.  The car takes us out to a new spot we’ve been wanting to try, and after we’ve had enough, it drops our friends off and takes us home.  Almost instantly, we fall into bed after the eventful day and drift off to sleep.

Instead – it’s get up reluctantly after the alarm has been buzzing for about an hour (snooze, snooze, snooze).  Squeeze in half of a workout.  Get ready really, really quickly and grab a promax bar on the way out the door.  Get to work just in time.  Head home for lunch, cook up something easy, finish up the day, come home and finish up my workout, cook/eat dinner, and have about 2 hours to relax/knock off anything on the to-do list, and then it’s time to get ready for bed.

While I crave a little stress and excitement, I think I could surely live with that sort of lifestyle for at least a little while.  How about you?  Tell me about your wildest fitness fantasies?

Super awesome pretty pictures from wallpaperpimper.com.

Quix’s Guide to Surviving The Holidays

So, I always hear that the holidays are the hardest part of the year to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  And by holidays, I mean the last quarter of the year being Hallo-anksgiv-mas.  Which might as well just be Christmas, since ALL THE FREAKING STORES have their Christmas decorations up already.  Some were up in August.  Does that just piss anyone else right the fuck off?  Christmas is a holiday on December 25th.  Christmas season is from black Friday to Jan 1.  I DO NOT WANT TO SEE CHRISTMAS SHIT IN OCTOBER!

Ok, grinchy rant over.  Anyhoo, I so don’t agree – I think summer is the hardest for me and I regularly LOSE weight during the holidays.  The first year, I took off 15 lbs between Thanksgiving and NYE.  Last year I took off 7.  I’m hoping to continue the trend although my track record hasn’t been that great this year.  Honestly, the holidays are only as big of a deal as you make it.  Here are how I’ve gotten through them.  As always, your mileage may vary.

Healthy Lifestyle Problem #1: There will be candy, cookies, and other random non-healthy eatings around in abundance.  Yes, it would be nice if we gave out protein bars for Halloween and made Christmas Salad for santa, but sadly, it’s not the case.  There will be food all around that is not necessarily good and healthy for you.  It might even infiltrate your house via significant others picking up some sale Halloween candy or neighbors bringing over Christmas cookies (yes, people in our neighborhood still do that, isn’t it cute?).  How do you deal with sweets being shoved in your face 24/7 for the greater part of 3 whole months?

Tips:

  • Allow yourself an occasional treat.  Sure, Snickers aren’t the epitome of good healthy eating, but if see it and want it, you’ll go nuts about it if you’re like me.  If I see something like that, I’ll grab it and stick it in my desk drawer at work until I can work it in my calorie count for the day.  I still have a reese’s peanut butter egg from easter in there somewhere.
  • For baked goods others are offering, I have a guideline – if it’s from a store, skip it.  If it’s homemade, at least have a taste.  If someone took the time to make homemade cookies from scratch and is offering them directly to me, I’ll find the smallest one and eat half.
  • If something gets in your house, really think long and hard if you can be trusted around it.  If not, take it to work for others to enjoy, ask your significant other to keep it somewhere besides the house, or failing everything, just throw it away.  It is not the end of the world to put something you don’t want to eat in the garbage.  It is not doing the starving kids in China ANY GOOD to pad your own hips more.  This is probably the most freeing thing I learned during deporkifying.
  • If you find you can’t escape a situation, lie.  If your coworker Jeannie McPushypants is INSISTING you eat one of her storebought cookies because they are JUST SO CUTE, tell her you have a mild allergy to flour so you don’t indulge very often because it makes you feel ill (which is not TOO far from the truth, if you ate every cookie offered, you’d indeed feel ill).  For some reason, people seem to respect allergies where they don’t respect trying to be healthy.  Go figure.

Healthy Lifestyle Problem #2: Parties, parties, parties.  First there is the “let’s all get together and hit the haunted house and go out” this weekend and then the halloween party proper next weekend, and then the actual halloween weekend will have more parties.  Candy and sweets and witches brew in various forms (adult or not).  Let’s not even mention the multiple thanksgivings that most people have (work, friends, family, other family) as well as Christmas parties (again – work, friends, family, etc).  How do you cope with the “awww, we’re all celebrating – loosen up a little” being thrust in your face every freaking week?

  • Don’t participate.  It’s not an option I invoke very often (I like parties!) but if the party isn’t meaningful to you and is just going to set you off, find something else fun to do (so you don’t feel deprived).  Or if it’s a work potluck, just have some last minute lunch plans during that time you can’t cancel.
  • Some people say to eat a healthy meal before, but if you’re like me, I eat a healthy meal before, then munch and drink at the party too.  I compromise and make sure I eat a super healthy filling lo cal snack, but leave some room to taste the best of the best yummies.
  • My plan already allows for 1 or 2 higher calorie days on the weekend with lower calorie days during the week – I just make those the party days.  In that vein, if you make sure and be pretty much saintly the day before and after said party, you shouldn’t have problems.
  • Get an extra workout in or go extra hard to burn some extra calories.  Gonna have a few glasses of wine tonight?  Run a few miles.  Too much turkey?  Say hi to the elliptical.  Just make sure you’re not overtraining if you’re already on a pretty rigorous workout schedule.  I’m signing up for a race on Thanksgiving morning and already have half marathon training runs scheduled Christmas Eve Morning and the 26th.
  • If it’s the holiday proper, enjoy yourself and don’t think too hard.  Eat a nice, filling, healthy breakfast and then sit at the table enjoying the company instead of obsessing over how many calories each slice of turkey has, please.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are generally days where a lot of love and tradition goes into the preparation of a big meal – one day is not going to kill you.  Just make sure it’s that ONE day.  Again, if you’re saintly the day before and after, it’s not going to kill you.

Above all, my biggest tip would be…

YOU ARE GOING TO SCREW UP.  Yes, even you Ms. Perfect over there who is convinced your willpower will keep you on celery and hummus through the WHOLE holiday season.  Ok, maybe not this guy, but still.  Most of us mere mortals will have a day or two where we eat and drink more than we should.  Know this…

IT IS OK.  I promise.  You are not kicked out of the healthy lifestyle club for falling facefirst onto a stack of cupcakes or having a big two three helpings of mom’s famous mashed potatoes rife with butter and gravy at Thanksgiving, or having 6 glasses of wine at the company Christmas party instead of the 2 you had planned on.  Just don’t blame me if you get fired, tee hee.  You enjoy your moment of indulgence, wake up the next morning (or next meal or next moment or whatnot), and go back to the healthy living you know and love.  This means…

NO GUILT.  NONE.  No feeling bad because you screwed up so you’re going to mope around and you feel worthless so you might as well just eat a cookie because you’re never going to lose any weight with your lack of self control anyway.  Well, since they’re there, you might as well finish the bag so you can start again tomorrow… sound familiar?

The best aha moment I ever had was recognizing this (I still succumb to it but not nearly as often) and telling myself, “Self, we had a good time last night!  Those sweets sure were divine and it was certainly fun to get a little tipsy, huh?  Let’s make sure to be extra good today so it doesn’t put a damper in our week, right? Right.”  And be done with it. And dear fluffy lord – if you’re NOT enjoying the cookie or the wine SPIT IT OUT (preferably not on anyone nearby) and throw it away.

What are your tips for surviving the holidays?  Does anyone else think I’m crazy for thinking the holidays are easier than the summer?

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