A Road to a Better Me

O my, where to start? So many things have happened over the last couple of months that it's hard to know where to start. Without going into too many details, let's just say that it has been rough in the relationship department. For a good month it looked as though a divorce was iminant.the good thing is I came to my senses and we decided that we were going to try and work things out. We have been going to marriage counciling and I feel that we are making good progress & that our lives seem to be returning to what I would consider normal, for us.
     Let me just say this much... COMMUNICATION!!! It is so so so important. I don't care if you are vanilla, kinky, or somewhere in between. A relationship in which you cannot have open lines of communication is doomed to fail. Simple as that. It is amazing to me, even now, how blown out of proportion something got, all because we didn't communicate effectively. Of course there were other factors at play in this situation that exponentially increased the perceived size of the problem, but the problem would have never occurred in the first place if we had both been better at having an open line of dialogue in that moment.  But,  that's not really the main goal of this post, I just felt that I had to get that out there. Too often we neglect to communicate our needs, or how we are feeling about certain things to our loved ones, and we need reminders that it matters. They are not mind readers.
Okay I'll get off my soap box now. Anywho...
    So in the middle of all of this going down, I had decided that I had gotten complacent about my health and my weight. It got to the point that I didn't recognize the person I saw in the mirror, I wasn't happy with how I felt and I defiantly wasn't happy with my body. 
     So I decided that it was time for something to change. I started going to the gym three days a week, making  better choices when I came to my food options, and drinking tons more water.
     At first it was hard to just make it to the gym. I was so tired and so unhappy that just getting out the door was a chore. However, after about a month solid of going three days a week, I have come to really look forward to that time I spend working on me.
      Last week I started lifting weights. I have started a program mostly centered around building my core strength,  and exercises to help tone my arms and legs.  My week has been looking something like this...
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Monday- Gym day: Core,  Arms, Cardio (Arc Trainer, 15 min)
Tuesday- Treadmill workout at home. 30-40 minutes
Wednesday - Gym day: Core, Legs, Cardio
Thursday - Treadmill workout at home
Friday- Gym day: Core, Arms, Cardio
Saturday- Gym Day: Core, Legs, Cardio
Sunday- Rest day
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Next week,  I up my number of reps by 5 and my number of minutes of Cardio by 5 as well. So on weights I'll be doing 3 sets of 17. Arms will go up to 40 lbs, Legs will go up to 100 lbs. Core will go up to 50 lbs.
I'm psyched to document my progress. Woot!

The photos are May 2013 @ 245 lbs.
Not a pretty sight!  Since then I had dropped to 217. So, a 28 lb loss so far.
My over all goal is 140. It'll be a long road to go but it'll be so worth it.

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

My friend John called me Thursday and told me about this documentary, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. It can be found on Netflix and Hulu. This film changed the way I look any food. It is the journey of an Australian man named Joe who seeks a new way of life to help him get healthy. I think this could become a revolution. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Joe's results are amazing but he takes another man under his wing and gives him the tools he needs to turn his life around. There are no words to describe his results. Total life change!
So inspiring nd motivating. I've been talking to Sir about allowing me to do this and help keep me motivated. If I do I will do daily updates and such. I hope he says yes!
Hope you have a great Sunday!
Go watch Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.

Kajira

Adventures in calorie counting.

Hello inter webs! :-)  I know I missed a couple of days but I just started using this app on my Android phone, MyFitnessPal. I have been having a lot of fun entering the foods I eat and the exercise I do, and making it come out under budget on my net calories for the day. Beware the foods you love may not be calorie friendly. I have pinpointed THIS as the reason for my unsuccessful weight loss. I figured if I'm not eating as much I'll loose weight. As logical as that sounds, eating only half of a 900 calorie sandwich is still 450 calories. On HALF OF A SANDWICH. This is when I decided that knowledge is power and to loose weight, I was going to have to know exactly what I was putting in my body! So for the last 3 days I have been logging every bite I eat and striving to make better choices. Today for example:
Breakfast- 1 cinnamon bagel-270 calories
                       4 tablespoons if creamy peanut butter 380 calories
Sir made my bagel, I wouldn't have put so much pb on it :-) but I'm not stupid. Don't complain about food you didn't have to make. *Grin*

Lunch- Salad bar at Jason's Deli, no cheese, low fat french dressing, a fruit cup w/o the dip, and an unsweetened black currant tea. Totaling 260 calories.

Dinner was 2 cups of Honey Bunches of oats and 1 cup of 1% milk. Totaling 420 calories.

My exercise for the day included walking @ 2mph for 45 minutes Shopping at Sam's. This burnt 200 calories.

Going for a brisk walk around the pond for 45 minutes will be burning 240 calories.
All of this will put me under budget on calories for the day by 310 calories! Woot!
No one ever said loosing weight could be fun. In the future I'll post before pictures and you all can help keep me motivated. Deal?
Talk to ya later.

Kajira

The Zoo

Hello World,

Today was a day at the zoo! Had a great time. Spent the day with a friend of mine, Mr. W. and Cousin E.
Mr. W and I covered half the zoo last week and this week our goal was to cover the other half. I got some good pictures. The tiger's name is Ivan, he's the only male tiger at out zoo. He was busy showing off for all the kids today.

The Meerkats were wrestling with eachother and being O so cute. I caught the picture of this one between tackels. LOL.

The Giant Aunteater was paceing the fence line.

Now I forget what this bird is called but he was located in the Jungle. I love his blue color and the crest on his head.

So After the day at the zoo, Mr.W and I went to Manna Wok for some dinner. I got some yummy stir fried seseme chicken, steamed rice, and a salad. I tired for healthy. Hehe. After dinner decided that i needed to come home and get my blog done. Sorry it isn't more intertaining today. I figured pictures could do the talking.

Have a good night!

kajira



Pinterest

Hello World,

It is still a grey and rainy day here in Wichita, KS. *Sigh* It's days like this that make me want to just curl up and nap all day. The hubby left a list of chores half a mile long today so this post is gonna be pretty short.
I had a friend tell me about this great new website called Pinterest. It is a place for people to post things they love on a virtual pin board. It is spectacular. If you decide to give it a shot and create an account, i'm gonna let you know that it takes a day or two to get your "acceptance" email. It's still relitivley new so be patient. I know that's like the pot calling the kettel black.
So on Pintrest, you can make as many boards as you like with different categorys and post pictures from around the web of the things that catch your eye. A couple of my boards are: Motivation, Places I want to go, For the Home, and My Style. I have already gone kinda crazy with the Pin It button. LOL.


What are you waiting for? Go check it out!
Have a wonderful and productive day,

kajira

Coupons and HTML

    
Hello World!

      I know I'm way way late on the blog today. I spent most of the afternoon trying to make it look pretty. I am technologically retarded. Me trying to learn HTML code on the fly and using copy paste backgrounds was entertaining to say the least.
      Today I did some research on couponing. I have watched several episodes of Extreme Couponing on TLC and I see the kinds of deals they get and that some of them even get PAID to take the merchandise out of the store! How crazy is that?! So I see that and think,"Man, life would be great if I could shop like that!" There's only one problem with that theory though. I live in a small one bedroom apartment with two kitties, a puppy, and a husband. Where on earth would I manage to put the kind of stashes that these people bring home? I have a feeling that the major couponing will have to wait until we get a house. Be that as it may, I think a coupon here and there may help. So I have decided to give it a shot. One place I have found some great reference material is at The Crazy Coupon Lady. She has some phenomenal tips and how-tos to help you get started. I highly recommend her site.
      This evening a friend of mine came to pick me up so we could go to Girl's Craft Night. This has stated being a weekly occurrence since fair is just a few short weeks away. Where did the time go? OMG. We made bracelets for a children's program, and flower and leaf favors to give away at the front gate. A great deal of fun and wonderful conversation was had.
     I came home and had to sit down to see if I could work out some of the kinks in the blog design and layout. That whole ordeal took much much longer than I had hoped. And then came the writing... WEEE! I love writing.
    So that was my day in a nutshell. I hope you all have a wonderful night and get peaceful sleep.

Kajira

Spring has Sprung

     I think out of all of the seasons, Spring has to be my favorite. There are several reasons for this. First of all my birthday is the 2nd of April. Although as I creep closer to thirty I don't look forward to it as much as I once did. Secondly, it is the revamp of life. For many animals it is mating season as well as the spring rains nurturing plants to grow and thrive. It brings back memories of growing up in the country. I remember that after a rain the air smelled so fresh. However, there were cow pastures on three sides of the house so also there was an underlying scent of wet cow and manure. I remember on the long road up to the main dirt road there were white and purple and dark blue iris grew along the side of the road. I used to pick them and take them home to my mother and tell her that I love her.

Okay, just a side note... getting this picture uploaded was a pain in my tocks. But I got it on there. Whew. An hour later....

So anywho....where was I? O yeah Spring. One of my favorite things about spring is that it is also the start of my renaissance faire season. Tons and tons to do. Garb to make, favors to make, schedules to prepare, new people to meet, and stuff to buy. AHHH I can hardly wait!

The one thing I could absolutely do without during spring is the blasted allergies.. Everything is blooming and pollen.... ugh. I am allergic to almost everything under the sun that is green and flowery and requires pollination. Time to renew my Allegra D prescription. LOL.
Well, I have a puppy that is begging to go outside and potty so I suppose I should wrap this up.
One thing I didn't take into account when I started this blog is that I have a horrible time coming up with stuff to write about, so please if you have any ideas. Throw em my way! Talk to you tomorrow.