I'm Such a Girl

Let me start by saying that there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a girl. It's just that I don't tend to lean in the direction of being a girly-girl. However, I did learn something about myself this weekend.

Me + dead animals = a bit of a hissy fit.

My Saturday was a pretty lazy day, but I did commit to pulling the weeds in my yard. It should have been a fairly harmless activity. I even had extra help because my roomie was determined to help me out. Wow, did he end up having to help me out in ways that I could not imagine.

If you recall, I had a bit of a rodent problem in my front yard several weeks ago. The pest control folks came out and put down a couple of contraptions that would catch/kill the little bugger. A couple of days after they put down the traps, I had noticed that one of them went missing. I considered plenty of possibilities and was going to call my pest control people to see if they came and picked it up, but I was lazy and never bothered - mostly because I noticed that the hole next to my house had not reappeared. Whatever the case, my rodent seemed to stop digging.

I can now most assuredly tell you that they did NOT come pick up the trap. I was pulling weeds in the front yard and was making my way around the corner to the side of the house. There it was - the trap. I was afraid to approach, but I had weeds to pull! I very quietly and nervously got close enough to look at the trap - I had a sick feeling in my stomach because how on earth could a trap make it from the front of the house to the side of the house without some kind of animal "moving" it? I didn't see any immediate signs of death, but there was something kinda sticking out. It almost looked like dead leaves, but I wasn't convinced. I finished pulling my weeds in the front, leaving the trap behind and running into the backyard to tell my roomie what I had discovered and that he had to go check it out. Right on cue, he laughed at me and told me I was being a baby. So what! I don't care! He checked it out and sure enough - a head! Only the head? What the h#&@! My roomie proceeded to pick the head up and threaten to chase me out into the street with it. I didn't have my running shoes on and I hadn't run in months, but I was prepared to run to Tucson if necessary! After my begging and pleading, he put the head in the garbage can. Damn, damn, damn! The garbage doesn't come until Friday - is it weird that I'm now afraid of my garbage can?

I eventually came down off the ledge to continue my weed pulling in the back yard. Actually, my roomie was doing the weed pulling and I was following behind with the Round-Up. So we're methodically making our way through the back yard and I turned around and almost stepped on a big lizard! Are you kidding me? The lizard didn't move an inch but I think I managed to jump four feet into the air and squeal like a little school girl. My roomie couldn't figure out what my problem was until I pointed and freaked out a little more. Yes, I live in the desert and should expect to find lizards every now and again but I wasn't prepared. I was still recuperating from the dead animal head found in the front yard.

My roomie proceeded to poke at the lizard. As it turns out, there's a reason the lizard didn't jump when I did. It was dead. Huh? My house is surrounded by death. Now, I had had a teeny tiny lizard in my garage when I first moved in - about 3 inches long maybe. This lizard was a foot long - no, not a $5 footlong (insert annoying Subway jingle here). What I wouldn't give for a turkey sandwich on whole wheat in my backyard! With my eyes wide open and my nerves completely shot, we completed the weed pulling and I happily went inside where I would be safe. My roomie said he would dispose of the lizard later in the afternoon. I'm not complaining, but it's still there. I'm fearful that my roomie thinks it decorative yard art now. I'm not so sure. I may have to get my shovel and dispose of him myself - the lizard, not the roomie. However, I think I'm going to wait until garbage day so the head and the lizard can be gone.

Exercise and food?

Friday - baseball game, chips & cheese/chili, chicken tenders, ice cream and beer.
Saturday - ate out for all three meals (yikes!), no exercise, plenty of trauma.
Sunday - went to the gym, healthy breakfast and lunch, dinner was hamburgers on the grill with a small side of baked fries and two Coronas.

Here's hoping for a good week!

Ouch!

So after all of my bragging about how much I accomplished at the gym this weekend, I'm still in pain. Surprisingly my shoulder doesn't hurt - you would think it would after patting myself on the back repeatedly. Instead, it's my inner thighs that are screaming for mercy. It turns out that just because I CAN do a fair amount of weight with the hip exercises, it doesn't meant that I should. For crying out loud, my inner thighs hurt while I was driving into work this morning (yes, I'm blogging from work, but I technically still have 30 minutes until the workday officially begins).

I'm hoping to go to the gym tonight, but it all depends on how late I have to work. I do have to say that I totally rocked it on the food yesterday. Here I go bragging again. There were absolutely no slip-ups in my eating yesterday. And it wasn't without temptation. I offered to pick up Jack in the Box for my friend/roommate on my way home from work. Normally, when I work late and am stressed I treat myself to some kind of fast food goodness. I resisted. Now, it's probably because I don't know the menu at JITB very well and I was too tired and lazy to figure it out. I ordered my friend's stuff and drove away. I actually feasted on a Smart Ones dinner with a side of brussel sprouts. I was very proud of myself. Eating anything more than that at that late hour would have been bad news.

I must go and continue to shuffle my way through work. I'm hoping my legs will return to full working order after some extra rest.

Ta-ta for now!

It's Nice to Know You're There

Wow, where have you been? This was the internal conversation I had with my calves this morning when I realized how much they hurt. Normally, I would find this annoying and complain about how it sucks to get older (I'm not that old, but it doesn't prevent me from complaining). However, I am happy to say that the soreness is a result of my workout yesterday at the gym. Yay! Oddly enough, my discomofort put a smile on my face and I continued my morning routine and got ready to go the gym AGAIN this morning.

This has never happened to me before, but I found myself actually interested in the various machines at the gym. Usually, I'm too intimidated to try some of them - too many moving parts. I got over it and actually felt like I was "playing" in the gym. Unfortunately, I know myself too well and know that this feeling will eventually wear off. I'll enjoy it while I can.

My toys of both yesterday and today included the elliptical (25-30 minutes), leg presses, shoulder presses, weird abdominal thingy-ma-bobbers, other upper arm exercises that I don't know the name of but they're good for your shoulders, triceps, back, etc. And my personal favorite, the hip abductors and adductors. Strangely, my hips are very strong. I can do a fair amount of weight when doing those suckers. They aren't the most ladylike exercises in the world, but I guess that is almost fitting for me. :)

I'm pretty pleased with my new gym - not too big or very busy, which makes it nice to just do your thing. Oh, and my gym has this body scan machine that measures weight, BMI, body fat %, blood pressure and pulse. If only it could tell me the winning lottery numbers! I have a feeling that I might get addicted to this machine. I don't love all of the stats it spit out yesterday, but that's why I'm in the gym, stupid! I think this machine will be my nemesis and I won't stop until it tells me what I want to see/hear.

I've been mostly better about the food issues. I've kept a food journal fairly religiously for the past week or so. It's pretty easy to spot the things that I can cut out. Even on my bad days it's not horrific. Progress.

Must go for now, but I'm contemplating signing up for a run in the next month or so. I haven't run in a while and it might be nice to do a 5k.

Ciao!

A Good Effort

Let me start off by saying that I really did try to be good this weekend and for the most part I was. (I can't say that for past weeks/weekends.) I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I was completely successful - that would leave me without anything to complain about.

Sadly, my hike that I was looking forward to on Saturday did not happen due to rain most of the day. Yes, it does rain in the desert. Go ahead and check it out for yourself - I'm not lying. Now, if I was really as sad as I claim about not hiking on Saturday, then why didn't I go for a hike on Sunday? It was a beautiful day and I don't think I really needed to watch every single moment of the Masters.

Following is a brief recap of my weekend. It's more for me than anyone else. Maybe I'll notice a pattern or be embarrassed enough about something that I'll make some changes.

Friday - not a bad day, despite the blue jelly bean. Oh wait, that's not quite true. Because of Good Friday I stopped at McDonald's for a Filet 'O Fish sandwich. I did have them hold both the cheese and the tartar sauce. Yes, I'm weird. Yes, I understand that those omissions did not miraculously make my lunch "healthy". Dinner was a simple and small pasta dish.

Saturday - my friend and current roommate decided that we should run out for breakfast. That was a subtle suggestion that I should go out and pick up breakfast for the both of us. Normally, I would say do it yourself, but all of the sudden an Egg McMuffin from McD's sounded good. Yes, two trips to McD's in two days - I'm not proud of this. Again, I had them hold the cheese on the sandwhich which made it less evil and I also asked for bottled water instead of the OJ that comes with it. The OJ wasn't a sacrifice as I don't really like the stuff (same can be said for the cheese). I should have, however, done without the combo meal completely because I didn't need the hashbrown. The wheels fell off around dinner - not so much by the menu itself but by the quantity. What I made was truthfully meant to be two servings but I ended up eating the whole thing - chicken sausages with brown rice and a side of brussel sprouts (I don't like melted cheese, but I love brussel sprouts - I get weirder, don't I?). It should have ended there, but my sweet tooth drove me crazy and I ended up at Cold Stone Creamery. That icky feeling that I do so love followed soon after. When do the psychological cues kick in? Don't dogs, rats, monkeys, etc. eventually learn to stay away from things that cause them discomfort? I'm officially dumber than a lab rat. Great.

Sunday - not so bad. Healthy breakfast, snacks and lunch. I tried a new recipe for dinner - grilled pork tenderloin with tomatillo salsa. I must say that I managed to grill it to perfection (thanks Mom!) and it was delicioso! I ate it with a couple of corn tortillas to make them tacos and I was completely impressed with myself. Unfortunately, I found myself hungry again later in the evening. I ate the leftovers of my Cold Stone ice cream and called it quits for the day. I was extremely tired come 8:30ish. Pretty sure that means that sugar isn't good for me that late in the day.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I finally joined a gym again. I cancelled my old gym membership when I moved. I decided it was time to start up again. I'm making my first trip this evening. I have my gym bag packed and in the car waiting for me so I can go directly to the gym and then home. If I go home first I'm in trouble. I'll find a million excuses not to go.

Time to get back to work.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Can a Jelly Bean Send a Person to H**L?

I sure hope not. I blame the Office Easter Bunny that planted an Easter egg in my office. I know it’s Good Friday but somehow I had a lapse in judgment that resulted in me eating one very small blue jelly bean. I’m supposed to be fasting. Can one jelly bean really be considered an infraction? I’m not exactly full because of it. Do I have to consider that to be lunch now? I hope not. I would have picked a bigger piece of candy if I knew what I was doing.

So I haven’t blogged in what seems like a very long time. To be honest, I haven’t had anything positive to share with anyone. I have had a better attitude, but I still suffer from bad choices that are triggered by stress. Too much work, not enough taking care of myself. It is very safe to say that I feel icky. I keep saying that today is the day that I do better – and I do in some respects. I always seem to stumble somewhere, though. Fast food, junk food, beer, lack of exercise, you name it. Why do I keep “rewarding” myself with terribly unhealthy food that I know will make me feel like doo-doo later? I’m a fairly smart person, but this concept has me stumped.

I’m going to enjoy my weekend and try to take baby steps in the right direction. Things I know for sure: I will go for a hike, I will watch the Masters, I will watch BU play in the finals of the Frozen Four on Saturday night (yay!).

Go BU!