Another update

It's been too long yet again, meaning I've left this blog alone for several months at a time when I should be updating it weekly at the very least. There have been a lot of changes since the last post, and I'm still not sure how this is going to end up affecting the whole weight loss journey thing.

Here's the long and short of it: in May, I started working freelance for a blogging company. There is really good money in it if you're going at it, after all. In June, I was offered full-time. A week later, we had issues and was told I would have to be part-time a bit longer. In mid-July, my roommate got a job offer to work in Tucker, Georgia; she accepted the job, and we agreed to have her there to start work by the first full week of August. In two furious weeks, we packed our entire house, drove up to the Atlanta area to spend an insane weekend looking for an apartment or duplex, found one we liked that also happened to be very centrally located for everything we needed, and got moved on 02 August.

Of course, in that huge rush, I was unable to get a truck large enough to meet our needs, so we had to make two 4.5 hour trips to get out stuff to our new location. AT&T wasn't able to get the internet I requested until almost 10 days after it was supposed to be connected, meaning I lost that many days of work. But now I'm back to work and raring to go. I'm also working from home, something I've been wanting for a long time, which is also good.

But our entire house is still in boxes. We just got pots and pans unpacked earlier this week. Cookbooks are still thrown about willy-nilly. All my canned vegetables are still in a box, as is my teapot... which should be a capital crime. For that matter, I have only located a grand total of two (out of easily 20 or 30) flavors of tea that I know I possess in this apartment somewhere. Exercise DVDs have been located, but the TV stand in my bedroom was broken in the move, so I can't put anything on it... plus there are boxes in my room all over the place. The living room is still a dystopia of boxes, usually with felines draped across them.

The apartment complex we moved into does include a fitness room and a pool, but since I've been arguing with AT&T and technicians and so on, I have not yet been able to take advantage of them. Now that school is back in, though, I suspect I might well start using that pool while the children are away from the day. The downside of the fitness room is that it's only open with the office is, which is 8:00-5:30 Monday to Friday and 10:00 to 5:00 on Saturdays. So I'm going to have to work on creating a schedule of some sort to get me exercising while I can until the boxes are done.

One other downside to all of this, though, is that I've lost my health insurance. For now, I have stockpiled my meds but we'll see how things go as time wears on here.

And now back to work.

Whoops

It occurs to me that I might be somewhat bad at this blogging thing. Well, that's only partially true. It's more that I can't remember to come over to Blogger and make a post, even though I'm on Google Mail all day, every day. And that's probably a bit sad. I'm going to be working on changing that.

Since my last post, it's been sort of one thing after another. My many and varied host of health issues was finally resolved as being fibromyalgia. I'm even on two medicines that keep me at a pretty even keel between being comfortable and being in constant pain. The downside is, somehwhat predictably, one of them makes me gain weight. In two or so months I've been on the medicine, my weight has ballooned out of control. 

So now I have to work twice as hard to get the weight back off, plus try to keep myself healthy, while being limited in the number of exercises I should do. My doctor actually recommended I hold off on running until I get at least twenty or thirty pounds off.

Basically, I'm starting from scratch. I weigh more right now than I ever have in my entire life. This is where I'm starting from:

*189.2 pounds

*5'7" 

A week's worth of food

So... Dear Roomie and I are switching back to using Happy Herbivore recipes for all our meals (except where we add oatmeal along with our smoothies at breakfast, due to how many pills I have to take every day). I'm working on doing the same thing I did at the beginning of the year when we were doing this: writing each meal for each day of the week down in my planner, along with what page of which cookbook the recipe is on. That's what works for me.

On the monthly pages of my planner, I'm writing down my weight per day in kilograms. Yes, I'm American, not in the military or medical fields, and I use the metric system. There are a couple very simple reasons for this: about a year ago, I applied for a job in Canada. It looked like I stood a decent chance of getting it. I decided to start learning the metric system. The second reason is more silly: many websites needed to calculate BMI and other measurements only let a person input their height as a full number, such as 5'7" or 5'8". I'm 5'7.5" inches tall... or 172 cm. Using the metric systems lets me put in my height more accurately. Silly, I know, but it makes sense to me.

So for this week, this is how our meals look:

MondayBreakfast: Oatmeal and Banana Frosty Smoothie
Lunch: Thai Tofu Noodle Soup (from Happy Herbivore Abroad)
Dinner: Greens Quiche (we flubbed this meal and had Jason's Deli since we were away from home at dinner time) (from Happy Herbivore Everyday)

Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal and Cinnamon Bun Smoothie
Lunch: Green Quiche
Dinner: Mock Chicken Noodle Soup (from Nava Atlas' Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews)

WednesdayBreakfast:  Oatmeal and Neapolitan Smoothie
Lunch: Mock Chicken Noodle Soup
Dinner: Taco Soup (also from Nava Atlas' Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews)

ThursdayBreakfast: Oatmeal and Pick-Me-Up Smoothie (from SkinnyMs.com)
Lunch: Taco Soup
Dinner: Class night, so Subway

FridayBreakfast: Oatmeal and Protein-Packed Green Smoothie (from Whole Foods.com, spinach subbed for collards)
Lunch: Tofu and Broccoli Satay (from Happy Herbivore Abroad)
Dinner: (Open)

I never try to plan for the weekend. It's either leftovers from the week or I'm out of town or pasta. Because I love me some pasta. I could eat it every night... if I wouldn't keep putting on weight.

So that's this week.

From the top

This is where I start shaming myself into losing weight and exercising more. The temptation may be huge to sit in my computer chair at home or at work--and cuddle my kitties--but I'm going to have to start making myself get up and get moving at least a few times a day.

ShopKick has been good for at least getting DR (Dear Roomie) and me out of the house every so often, but more often than not, I find myself reluctant to go to the gym. I feel like I should be glad that I'm at least getting out of that house; I've not always been good about doing that. (In fact, I've said more than once, if I could live life as a hermit, I might well do that.)

But now it's time to get my embarrassment on. It's time for the "where I'm starting from" pictures to go up. And why yes, I am dreading it.

Currently, I weight 74.7kg/164.6lbs. I'm 172 cm/5'7.5" tall. (My goal is 59kg/130lbs.) These photos were taken Wednesday, when I was at 75.2kg, but the measurement were taken today. I'll try my best to do both on the same day from here on out.

20 March 2013, 8pm
Waist: 81.5cm/32"
Hips: 104cm/41"
Thigh: 57cm/22.5"
Forearm: 22.5cm/9"
Wrist: 16cm/6.25"
Neck: 35cm/13.75"

This gives me the following stats:

• BMI: 25.25
• Body Fat Percentage: 27.08%
• Waist-to-Hip Ratio: 0.78

A starting point

I'm starting this blog to keep myself on task with eating right, exercising, and losing weight. I'm starting from scratch after losing and gaining earlier this year.

In January this year, I started following Happy Herbivore with a minimum of exercise. On January 2nd, when I first recorded for the year, I weight 74.5kg/164lbs. By the end of February, I was down to 73.5kg/162lbs. 1kg/2lbs in 2 months may not be fantastic, but it was steady weight coming off.

On March 1st, I started the McDougall's Maximum Weight Loss Plan, hoping to lose a bit more a bit faster. Instead, the opposite happened: during the 2 weeks I was on MWL, I gained enough weight to get up to 75.2kg/166lbs.

Apparently, MWL works for some people, but neither my roommate nor I are among them.

I'm going to be blogging on here various things: recipes I've tried from various websites and cookbooks, exercises I've done, and (horror of all horrors) photos of my progress.

And the title of the blog is from a song by my favorite musician. I'll let Google help you figure it out.