Feeling Fat Friday...

It was with a huge amount of trepidation that I approached the scale this morning for my weekly weigh in. I was feeling fat! You see I know I wasn’t good this week at all. I basically took Sunday and Monday off from being aware of what I was eating. I completely ate what I felt like and what I wanted with no regard for consequences. Oh boy!

Tuesday came and I watched what I ate but still went over my allotted calories for the day. But that night I purposely worked out harder at the gym. I ran 3.1miles on the treadmill and did 25 minutes on the elliptical machine. The sweat was just pouring off me towards the end of the workout.



Then, Wednesday arrived and I had a left over white chocolate macadamia nut cookie that one of my co-workers left in the lunch room. Then for dinner, I ate at a restaurant near where my watercolor painting class takes place. I ate half a sandwich, a cup of my favorite Fire Roasted Tomato soup, and a cookie at Paradise Bakery & Café. It doesn’t sound like a bad meal but the half sandwich was the Chicken Walnut Salad which comes on honey wheat bread and I should not have had the oatmeal raisin cookie (which of course, comes for free with the half sandwich & cup of soup combo). Course, I guess it’s better than fries.  I did not have time to work out that night.

The french fries came on Thursday.  I had with a burger and beer yesterday when I went for lunch with a co-worker. Talk about calories galore! BUT I will say I worked extra hard at the gym last night. I ran 2.6 miles and then did 35 minutes on the elliptical, hoping to make up for some of what I ate for lunch that day.


So, that was the state I was in as I stepped on to the scale this morning. I was terribly worried and I must admit that I was feeling fat because I knew I hadn’t been good during the week. When I got on the scale, it wavered between the same weight as last week and being one more pound up. It bounced between the two numbers.  It's neon red light not wanting to choose either one.  So, I’m figuring that I’m up half a pound more overall. This wasn’t as bad as I thought. But I did swing by the grocery store on the way into work and picked up my planned meals/snacks for today. I avoided the Friday donuts that were brought into work, and stuck to the plan. Now, to stay back on the plan and start working on losing the rest of these 21.5 lbs.

5th Annual Black Widows Valentine's Day Dinner...

The Widow's-- Laura, Madame Mary, Mrs. Goodbar, and Mrs. Vader.

Happy Valentine's Day!  This used to be the one commercial holiday that I used to hate.  But each year with the Black Widows Valentine's Dinner Party; it seems that this holiday gets better and better every year.  For those of you who wonder about this whole event, let me explain it in a small nutshell.  It's an annual Valentine's dinner party in which some of myself and some single girlfriends get together, dress up like widows, and make up stories & obits about pretend deceased husbands.What FUN we had this last Saturday night. It always amazes me what all of the gals come up with for this night.

Here’s Laura explaining a Ferris Wheel accident in which her deceased husband Sky went disappearing off into the great blue yonder sky.

Madame Mary showing us ballet position #1 while talking about her talented former hubby.

Next, was Madame Mary trying to recruit some ladies into her household. She explained how her late hubby who was a very talented Giant Short Faced Kangaroo perished doing the loop de loops through hoops while on fire at a circus entertainment.

Mrs. GOODBAR talked of her SNICKERS.

Then, the Ever Humble Mrs. GOODBAR told her story of her NUTRAGEOUS-ly funny Hubby with the first name SNICKERS who inherited 100 GRAND from BABE RUTH and disappeared to HERSHEY Pennsylvania for another woman’s HUG & Kisses. She wished him dead!

Mrs. Darth Vader telling her saga.

Mrs. Em Vader talked about her former hubby Darth and showed us with a whirling flash light his story. She quite often would break into that deep husky voice. But she has switched over because she revealed to us that now she’s dating Yoda. This really shocked quite a few of this.

Mrs. Vader wearing the photo badge of her new boyfriend.  SHOCKING!

Mrs. Mad Hatter at front left.

Then, there was myself, Mrs. Mad Hatter who was out for a short evening pass from the Prison of “It’s a Small, Small World” situated in Disneyland. I had been quickly accused by the Red Queen of murdering the Mad Hatter and “THEE” Alice; but no one would believe me that when I told them that it had been the Jabberwocky. The Cheshire Cat had conspired with the Red Queen and I was given the choice of “Off with my head” or “Off with me”….and thus, I’m going MAD while serving time in “It’s a Small, Small World” Prison.

Enough to Turn You Off Breakfast...

Or How Many Jars of Peanut Butter Does 1 Person Need?

I’m one of four women that work in office full of men; most of whom have Mechanical Engineering degrees. They are brilliant men but a few of them have their “quirks”. One of them has a "quirk" of some very interesting food choices.

Each morning, I watch this male co-worker put together a breakfast that makes my stomach want to gag. This breakfast consists of oatmeal (or granola) combined with frozen berries, nonfat sugar-free vanilla ice cream, and egg beaters. He mixes and stirs all these ingredients in a bowl. Then pops the bowl in the microwave until the egg beaters is of scrambled egg consistency. My stomach turns as he takes it out because it rather reminds me of a chicken egg experiment gone bad. But I guess the good thing of this experience is that it suppresses my appetite for breakfast most mornings.  Of course, it probably doesn't help that I've never been too fond of eggs to begin with.


Peanut butter seems to be the other food thing he’s been doing lately. He’s been on this organic peanut butter kick. The company kitchen now has four jars of organic peanut butter sitting on top of the refrigerator; one of which is organic Almond butter. Four jars?! How many jars of peanut butter does one person need? I was teasing another co-worker that there was a potential meeting for peanut butter anonymous group. “Hello! I’m a peanut butter junkie!”

Oh, and did I mention that he has a jar rotation process for the Almond butter. Every other day the jar is upside down on its lid. I guess this is to help with the oils circulating in the jar to help maintain the Almond butter correct consistency; a bit anal if you ask me.


He’s mostly been putting this peanut butter on celery stalks. I call them stalks because he doesn’t cut the celery into short pieces. He just tears a couple stalks off the bunch of celery. The other day he was putting the Almond butter on to a celery stalk and it wasn’t pretty. To me it looked like diarrhea on stalk. EWwwwh! Be still my stomach! Gee, I might be swearing off breakfast and peanut butter.

Weighing In & Questions....

Me being silly during this last Sunday's snow hike.

Bad news!  I got on the scale this morning and discovered I'm up 2 lbs. WHAT!?!  I'm not sure why...a whole lot of questions come to mind---

Could it be the one night I took off from the gym to go see about art supplies for my watercolor painting class?  Or could it be the mile swim instead of the 4 mile run on Saturday morning?  But I went for a bike ride later in the day?  Is there too much salt in my diet that I'm retaining water?  Or is it that my body is forming more muscle and we all know that muscle weighs more than fat?  AND this could go on forever and ever and ever...

BUT a look on the positive...
Overall, I'm still down 7 lbs.  I've managed to get rid of most of that upper inner thigh flab.  My stomach is starting to look flatter.  My waistline is starting to work its way in, and I can now run .75 mile before the sweat starts trying to blind me.  I've been having fun doing the "Stevie Wonder" on the elliptical when no one else is in the gym room.  Did I mention that a guy's been showing up and I haven't been able to do the "Stevie Wonder" as much as I would like to?  Ooooo, could that be possibly why I gained?  I'm not burning as many calories per minute on the elliptical because I haven't been doing the "Stevie Wonder"? Hmmmm...oh honey, if it was only that easy! 

But maybe I need to mix things up a little or is my body readjusting and clenching on to some of those fat cells a little harder than I thought it would.  But I'll hang in there and work through it as much as I can.  And it looks as though I'm going to be swimming one more time in my old baggy swimsuit... So if you hear about the Bag Lady at the pool-- It's me!

Happy Ground Hog Day & January’s Progress…

Happy Ground Hog Day! Good news! It looks like an early Spring this year. I guess that the famous Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow. Of course, my co-workers and I were wondering if he couldn’t see his shadow due to a HUGE blizzard that hit the Northeast. I can imagine the man with the hat had to bribe Phil BIG time to even come out to take a look around. I imagine Phil would much rather be warm and driving around in that truck with Billy Murray in the 1993 movie version of Ground Hog Day. That was one of my favorite scenes where Bill’s character says, “Now don’t drive mad!” Sorry, I get a kick out of the idea of Road Raged Ground Hog.




It’s kind of hard to believe that January is over. I’ve managed some progress on my New Year’s Goals within the month’s time. I’m on track for my saving money so far but one month is only a bit of wading into the 2011 year. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to see a good tax return and add to the savings. Of course, I need to get my act together, sit down and do the tax return before I can coup any kind of gain.


I’m down 9 lbs. in weight as of last Friday and I’m working hard on this goal. I’ve put in a total of 4 hours 7 minutes on the elliptical for the month; as well as 29.10 miles running on the treadmill. I’ve been out for a couple of 3 mile snow hikes and even swam a mile. And there was enough sunny and low-40’s temperatures this last Saturday that I got an 8 mile bike ride in. That felt really good! I’m watching what I eat but I will admit that I’m still struggling just a bit with my evening snacking. There’s something I need to work on.

I'm progressing along with using my Nook.  I've read 3 books this month.  Two of those books were 600 plus pages; which means I'll read more books (shorter) books this month.  I know this wasn't really one of my goals but I thought I would throw something in here just to mix it up a little.


Tonight, I’ll get a good start in my watercolor painting class on #15 porch of the Salt Lake City Porches Art Project. Check out my Allgood Art Blog if you get the chance. I added a whole page where you can view the porches from the beginning. It’s rather interesting watching the progression of the porches. I think the project is helping my skills as a painter.


I’ve been working on getting rid of the clutter in my life. Right now, I’ve got a pile that’s in my living room that needs to go to the good will. Earlier this month when I was putting away my Christmas décor I took what I didn’t use and started the pile. Then, found some odds and ends in the front closet that I haven’t used in probably two years. It was all just sitting in there taking up room in a corner of the closet. Then, this last week I read a Better Homes & Garden on-line newsletter that talked about getting rid of clutter in the kitchen by going through the utensil drawer. Yep! I went through my utensil drawer and added to the pile. Now, I just need to get the pile of clutter out of my living room!

And the Punch Line Is...

"And BOY are my arms tired!" 

I swam a mile this morning and OMG are my arms ever feeling it!  First off, I was amazed that I could still swim; and to manage that far out of the gate? Well, that was stupendous!  But in hind sight it might have just been plain stupid.  My arms started feeling it when I got home and started to make some breakfast.  You see, I met Diane at 6AM up at the pool and I was just barely awake enough to find where I laid out items from the night before.  No time for breakfast and besides I was taught never to eat before the pool.  Drowning just is not appealing.

So, I reach up to the cupboard door and pain strikes!  These muscles obviously haven't been used in while and they were DEFINITELY letting me know.  I managed through making a bowl of cream of wheat for breakfast but I had a full on grimace face when I put the bowl in the microwave which is above the refrig. in my apartment.  I was especially glad that I had canisters on the kitchen counter with sugar; a much more manageable level.  But later on, I found myself wishing I had mind control to turn off light switches.  Oh, to just think that the light switch is on or off in a thought; today it sounds pretty good to me.

During my swim, I discovered that it was time for a new swimsuit.  I had this suit for two years but age and chlorine had caught up with it.  It felt like I was swimming with a sack on.  The whole time I was concerned that it would stay on or some of those folks that wear goggles were going to get an eyeful.  Yes, I'm still not wearing goggles when I'm swimming. 

I tried one of Diane's new water toys out.  It's a set of paddles that you strap on to your hands.  Well, I should say I tried them but I didn't put them on correctly.  I found out later from Diane that they should be strapped so that the paddle is against your palm; not the back of your hand the way I had them.  That would explain why they didn't seem to work right for me; and also, explain the puzzled looks the life guards were giving me. (Though, it always seems like they keep a close eye on me-- I think it's the "Most Likely to Drown" sign I have on my forehead.)  I did, however, manage one lap in my warped kind of way with the paddles on.  Live and learn, I guess!  So anyway, for those of you that may have been like me, here's a photo of how to properly have the paddles on...

The proper way to wear the paddles.

Homework to do before next week's swim?  Get a new swimsuit.  Swimming in a sack is not easy.  And I need to do a bit more upper arm working out.

Weighing In & Choices...

This morning when I hopped on the scale, I was surprised to see that I was down 4 lbs. for the week. Not that I was disappointed; quite the contrary. Most of the week I had been hitting a plateau of a 1 lb. loss for the week; but BAMM! This morning, I was down another 3 lbs.! This started my Friday morning off at a pleasant place, and I felt good. I’m down a total of 9 lbs. so far and that feels good!




I will tell you though that I’ve rather been working my tail off for those 3 lbs this last week. I worked out 4 different times at the gym (all at a 60 minute minimum) and even went on a 3 mile snow hike. I’ve pretty much stuck with the 1200 calories per day plan. I did have a cleansing day this last Saturday and that was the day I lost the first pound this last week. Go figure! I did have a couple of days where I forgot to eat a meal. I got too busy and forgot to eat. This happens to me. Sometimes, I get to going 90mph and I don’t feel like stopping in to the pit stop.



What’s been the hardest thing for me recently has been making the correct healthy low cal choices. 1200 calories per day can quickly be eaten up by fattening high calorie foods, and then you can be looking at an empty plate or end up skipping a meal which is not a good thing.  It’s hard when you are eating the low cal tuna salad sandwich in the lunch room and one of the guys sits down next to you with a big juicy cheeseburger with potato skin fries. It especially doesn’t help when they offer you some of the fries and you’re still hungry after consuming the tuna salad.   Eating out seems to be especially hard and some of the salads out there are not as low cal as you would be led to believe.  I've gone to the always ordering the salad dressing off to the side.  But overall, I'm discovering that I'm best off when I plan my meals ahead of time.  This has been a bit of a challenge because I'm a "do-er" and not too much of a "plan-er", but I guess that's something I'll need to learn.



I’ve been sticking as much as I can to the healthy low cal choices, and it’s starting to show. The other day, I stood nude in front of the mirror and took a hard appraisal of what I saw. I know I’ll never have my 20 year old body back and that I need to do some work here. But I think that with a bit of work I can gain my “legs of steel” back. If I start doing some sit ups on a regular basis, I could get back my flat stomach. (No, there’s no chance of a 6 pack here—except if it’s for alcohol consumption.)  But overall, there's some possibilities to see myself looking not too bad in a bikini this summer.  I just need to get working on it.



To these means, I’m planning on doing some sit ups on a more regular basis. I’m also thinking of getting some more upper body work outs. Tomorrow morning I’m meeting Diane for a swim, which often turns into an excellent upper body workout. Now to keep up on everything and keep on track; after all there’s only 23 lbs to go….

Sunday Snow Hiking Fun!

Kym, Susan, & Diane-- Them Posers!

Sunday late morning, I went with friends snow hiking up a small local canyon.  Neff's Canyon is kind of tucked in above the mid eastern bench area of the Salt Lake Valley.  It is a pretty little canyon where locals go snow hiking, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, or just take the dogs out for a bit of a hike.  Quite often on the way down (if the valley air is clear) you can see over the entire Salt Lake Valley.  It's an amazing view! 

Myself & Susan

We had met at a local bagel/coffee place and decided where to go for our hike.  It was going to be about 3 mile round trip; up and back hike.  It started out fairly cold and I put an extra layer on when we arrived at the parking lot.  There was just a nice dusting of new snow from the day before so we passed on the snowshoes and I took my Yaktrax along just in case it was icy.  We got about a third of the way up, and two of us(Susan & I) paused in the hike to let the other two catch up. 

It was here that I had some problems. I discovered that my fingers were really freezing.  They were so cold that they felt like they were burning.  I Susan's gloves on but no change.  Then, the two that were now caught up arrived.  Kym had mittens with outside mini pockets and I put them on.  Then had her open my packages of hand warmers, which I had brought along (just in case) and she put into the mini pockets.  Awwww... warmth! 

Treat break! Kym, Susan, & Diane.

But then, I bonked!  My head felt like it was swimming and my eye sight started to get that fuzzy TV screen effect.  I felt a wave of nausea.  I laid down in the snow quick; standing was just too much.  Susan had some animal cookies, and had me eat one.  Then, they helped me stand up.  I was ready to go back down, but they said no that I needed to get a little better before we attempted to go back down. 

Diane talked me into continuing on but taking it slower.  Susan and I had really pushed it that first bit.  It proved to be a little bit too much for me.  Of course, it probably wasn't smart of me to be doing this kind of activity so soon after a day of cleansing my system.  I didn't have any of the reserve like I usually would have.  Cleansing?  Well, my version constincts of a day where I have water and herbal tea for most of the day and then have a dinner with vegetables and whole wheat bread.  I try to do it at least once a month of kind of reset my body.

Me at the top with a bit of attitude-- where's the flag?  I've conquered!

As we continued on going slower up the canyon, I felt better.  We stopped a couple of more times before reaching the top.  Diane shared with us little goodies that she had brought along.  One stop, she shared a yummy chocolate chip cream cheese cup cake; and the stop at the top she had a bag of fruit & nut mix.  When I got to the top I finally felt like myself and it's always seems easier to hike down hill than up.  It was as we went down that we saw some of the cutest little dogs coming up.  They were like a little fur ball with tiny feet working their way up the canyon.  Hey, if a little fur ball could make it that far; what was I complaining about?

The "Stevie Wonder" & Weighing in...

The gym at my apartment’s clubhouse is nothing snazzy but it does have a newer treadmill and elliptical machine. So I am managing to workout there three times a week; a couple of week nights and then once on the weekend. I often arrive and the lights are off and I end up turning the machines on. I feel as though I have my own personal gym.

Last night the endorphins were kicking in pretty good after the treadmill workout (running 2.4 miles in 30 min). I started in on the elliptical. I guess you could say the endorphins went to the head because I just decided to get silly, and besides no one was around. So as I was on the elliptical I started to do the Stevie Wonder. Now some of you may be wondering… the Stevie Wonder? But some of you may have heard me mention the guy that Diane & I used to see at the gym. I nicknamed him the Stevie Wonder. He would be going along on the elliptical too with his eyes closed and his head wagging about.



So for 45 min., I was doing the Stevie Wonder, only with my eyes open. I was also finding that it was easier to do it with certain tunes on my mp3 player. “Funky Town” worked real well and “Don’t Worry Be Happy” was a good tune for it too. Now I’m a bit curious if it burns more calories and yes, I did look terribly silly in the mirrors as I went along. But it was only me, and actually it was rather fun! Who knows maybe I’ll do it more often?


Weighing in…
I thought that I would do updates on Friday as to my progress on my weight loss. That way I can hold myself (or try to) accountable for what I do during the weekend.  This week I’m down 5 lbs. YES!  Not too bad for a starting week. I managed to work out three times this week. Twice I worked out for about 45 min of cardio and once for 75 min. I still need to do a bit of the weight training thing.  I stayed under 1200 calories per day for most of the week.  I did have one day I went over by a couple hundred but I've been really trying to be conscious of what I am eating and the calories involved.