Aw, I don't have a good post title. For shame, self.

Hello my loves!

Hope you’re doing well this fine Saturday morning (or afternoon, or evening, or whenever you are depending on your location)

I am beyond happy it’s Saturday. Had a stressful week at work, I definitely need a few days off to recharge. Plus I’ve been sick since Monday, but choosing to ignore it as much as possible. But I can’t ignore a sore-throat and maybe a bit of a fever away, unfortunately. Meh. Oh well, it didn’t stop me from anything this week!

So I said I went to the gym Wednesday morning, right? Well guess who had two thumbs and did it again Thursday morning!?!!?

Yep. (Please don't judge the room...I know, it's such a mess. And yes, there's a teddy bear back there. It's from Harrod's! That's a legit reason for keeping it, right??)

I even got up and got there Friday morning, but I forgot that my gym doesn’t open until 8 on Fridays. GRR! Oh also, I think I might have found a gym I might want to switch to – Fitness First. They have locations in DC, Arlington, Alexandria, my town, and a few others, so I feel like I can still go there no matter where I end up living or working, and they’re also open at 5am everyday, AND open on Sundays, which my gym is not. And I think they’re around the same cost as mine.

Now I’m just dragging my heels on actually going in to my current gym to quit it, b/c I feel like I hear so many stories about extra fees and all this crap gyms tack on to scare you out of leaving…ugh. I’ll probably wait on this a few weeks until I can work up the courage :-P

*In other news, I got some bananas yeserday, and LOOK:

Are any of you familiar with the Wii game SuperMonkeyBall? My friends and I are kind of obsessed with it, we always play when we’re all together (usually at the holidays). I saw/bought these yesterday at Trader Joe’s…and I literally called like four of my friends to tell them about it.

…I called my friends on a Friday night to tell them about bananas I had purchased. YEP.

Speaking of food, my eating has been really really good! Lots of good food happening over here: greek yogurt, fruit, vitatops, turkey breast sandwiches with hummus, spinach and alfalfa sprouts, Luna Bars (I would seriously do terrible things to mankind to keep my supply of Lemon Zest Luna Bars up), cottage cheese, almond milk, veggies, and of course Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala and Paneer Tikka Masala. I don't know if you'd consider those last two healthy, but they are just seriously so. fucking. good. That's right, so good I have to curse. That good.

*You should go over to Low Fat Kat and read this most recent post of hers, it’s about men and chocolate! We were talking about it yesterday (in that it was *her* idea and she was telling me about it - I'm not that smart) and it’s a really good post. So go see it. We may or may not have gchatted for like 4 hours yesterday. Why can’t she be a dude and I can date her?! We haven’t met in real life, but when we do, it’ll look something like this:

Additions to my earlier post slash Laura v. Technology

Trying out this whole auto-publish thing. I can't tell the future, but I'm guessing this is what my 2:30 in the afternoon will sound like:

"Oh my goddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd is this day over yettttttttttttttttttttttttttttt???????"

Something like that.

Anyway, two things to add on to this morning's post:

1: I WENT TO THE GYM THIS MORNING! And better than that, I think I actually liked it! If this is your reaction, don't worry, it's mine too:



It was really good. I had to get down to business because I only had a little over 30 minutes to be there, and it's done and out of the way! I walked for 3 minutes, then ran at 5.0mph for 10:30. Then I did like 2.5 weight machines (all leg) and then had to go. I feel great about it! (my inner cynic says: "too much cheer this early in the morning, I don't even know who you are anymore...") I also enjoy that it already puts my water intake at like 30oz before my day really even starts!

I don't even mind that I had to get up at 5am, which, by the way, I also did Monday and Tuesday. I don't leave my house for work until 7:15am but I like having time to sit around, blog, and eat breakfast and pack my lunch with some thought put into it. You could tell me that I could make my lunch ahead of time, but you would be underestimating my lack of motivation to do ANYTHING after work :-P

2: I just realized I have 150 followers! What a lovely number. :-D Thank you guys! And for all your comments, too - I would be better at responding but I can't directly reply to a lot of the comments, I guess b/c you either need a gmail account for me to reply directly from my email where I get comment alerts? I don't know. My dream one day is to have my own domain, and sort of combine it with my real life blog, so I can bring my two worlds together. I don't like having parts of my life hidden from others - I want it to be one big narcissistic house of LAURA! Plus I think you guys would like my real life friends, and they'd like you a whole bunch too.

AW LOVE FEST. BARF.

oops! part deux (and...welcome to my neurosis)

Okay, I'll give you one more hint about those "creative truths" - there are three facts/truths, and a sort of half-truth. So three and a half truths, and the rest are lies! MUAHAHAHAHA..hahaha...ha....guys? You still there?

I was SO sore yesterday from doing the Shred on Monday, especially my legs. I felt like I was maybe even limping a little! That's what I get for basically not exercising for three weeks! :-P

The good news is that I ate good things yesterday.

Breakfast:

*bread-free egg sandwich: We have one of those little egg cooker things that makes a nice little round egg, so I made 2 with egg subst. and put a piece of canadian bacon, most of a LCL wedge, and some ketchup in the middle. The egg was the bread! Good times.

Snack:

*Toasted Nuts 'n Cranberry Luna Bar

Lunch:

*salad: spinach, romaine lettuce, 1/4 cup feta cheese, 1/3 cup craisins, 1/3 cup chicken breast, 1 tbsp chia seeds.

Snack:

*1 serving of Wheat Thin Fiber Selects (in Garden Vegetable) crackers
*handful of Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal

Dinner:

*Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala meal

***

Okay, this is probably premature to be writing about - but there is this EH guy that's popped up recently, and we have been emailing and gchatting, and it is fun. I noticed that my stomach was getting that knotty feeling during/after talking to him...like in a good way.

Here's where I get nervous - in his questions to me (one of the last EH steps...such a weird process) one of the pre-made questions he opted to ask me was "During a typical week, what sort of physical activities do you enjoy?" and....that got me paranoid. I have two reasons for this:

1: Everytime I see a guy on EH describe themselves as "physically fit" or mentions anything about being "physically active", I immediately think "He's putting that out there because he wants someone that's thin/skinny/also physically fit" - it's a nice way of saying No Fat Chicks.

2: This other guy about a month or two ago went through the whole process with me only to tell me that I looked slender in some of my pictures and bigger in others - he went through the whole process to ask me if the "bigger" pictures were older and not really what I looked like - otherwise, bye. So now I'm really concerned that everyone thinks this. I put up full-body pictures of me to ensure that anyone who contacted me got the point that I was overweight (I sort of hint that I'm working on it though, in my profile) and I don't want to be one of those people that misrepresents themselves. I already have the "dealbreaker" of living at home still - yes, a perceived dealbreaker, to me - and now I might have to add that "Images may be bigger than they appear" to it?!

So now there's this guy that I actually might like, and we totally click when we're talking I might sound really neurotic, but...I'm already assuming it won't work out. He won't like me because I'm overweight. I've spent my whole life experiencing "Guys that I like never like me back" and I've never known anything different. I know it's a whole other can of raging self-esteem issues worms, I guess I just need to get this out there. 

He invited me to hang out tonight but I said I had other plans. In my head I'm like "How long can I put off meeting him so I have time to lose as much weight as I can??!" and then the rational part of me says "That's a terrible idea". And then my crazy side doesn't respond because it's too busy drooling and gnawing on a doorknob.

oops!

I ended up going home early yesterday - I was running a little bit of a fever and felt really sick. Bleh. So I seriously went to bed at 6pm and was too tired to blog :-P Apologies! Because I know you were sitting there refreshing every 4 seconds waiting for my Awards post. Don't deny it.

First up!

Okay, basically the only one that requires me to write anything is the "Creative Writer" Award, and it will have me come up with at least six outrageous lies and a few truths, and you have to figure out which! I'll never tell.

1. I've gotten hit by a car.
2. Somewhere in Japan, in someone's tourist/trip scrapbooks, there are pictures of me.
3. I've eaten alligator meat.
4. I accidentally burned part of a house down.
5. I've been in a physical fight more than once.
6. I had a three week fling with a Scottish dude.
7. I used to work for the circus.
8. I eat tomatoes like apples.
9. I'm in love with someone.
10. I was on TV during last year's Inauguration.

The other two I don't have to do anything but nominate people (and for one of them, say why they're so great!), so I'm gonna combine all three and nominate the following people for them - you can choose to accept all or some of the awards if you want!

1. Kat at Low Fat Kat. Because she's an amazing writer, hilarious, we're basically the same person, and our iPods are best friends.

2. Jessica at  Living in the Gym, Kitchen and Mall She has been through a lot health-wise, and is so self-aware and really takes care of herself. And her food is SO healthy and delicious, and I love her pictures. She was my secret bloggie valentine and got me hooked on Luna Bars and Amazing Grass SuperFood powders :-)

3. Kaitlin at Everyday Grace I love how honest she is. And I really like the name of her blog! She's lost almost 50 pounds and she really is doing it with grace, I think.

4. Megan at Megan Loses We're very similar - 20somethings in DC working on weight loss. I just found her recently but she has a lot of great, relatable posts. We've got to meet in real life! :-)

5. Kat at Kat's Adventures in Dietland Her tweets are hilarious and her posts are so honest and she has lost 50 pounds! So inspiring and funny and great.

I should really do more than 5 because if you look at my blogroll..come on now. I read like 8 million. But I have to get ready for work! I should probably, you know, put in a full day there. It's a crazy idea, I know.


***Before I go, I would like to point out that after blogging yesterday morning, I did the 30 Day Shred video. Level 1, of course. And also of course, I am sore today. Good times***

That's the Weigh Love Goes

Ha, well, Taylor was not as kind to me this morning. I'd go as far as saying she was HARSH.

215.6!

Up 4.6 from last week? Wow. Yikes. It sucks, and I'm disappointed because it's like I have to drop those 4 pounds all over again...and it would have been nice to get to a 50 pound loss...but at the same time, considering my weekend, I feel like some of it might be a last minute reaction from the scale in terms of my water intake (or lack of, in my case) and such. So I'm just gonna try and make this week better!

Ha, you'll notice whenever I gain, I'm like "It's just the scale!" and whenever I lose a bunch, "It's my hard work and dedication reflected accurately in the scale!" Iiiiinteresting.

***

In other news, I'm toying with the idea of switching gyms. As I read all of your blogs, and read about all the things that yours offers, I'm getting a little envious. Mine is great for the price ($30 a month), it's right by my house, and it's all women so I'm not intimidated...but it doesn't offer much. There aren't any good classes (and when there are they often get cancelled), there is one shower and I've never seen anyone use it (shady), and there aren't any other locations (like in the city, so I could go before/after/during work) I can go to. I want a gym I can be excited about, that I can really, I dunno, sink my teeth into, if you will. I could probably come up with a better metaphor/visual for that, but, you get what I mean, right?!

I don't want to pay too much more than I already do, but I would be willing to invest a little more to get back a little more, ya know? Where do you go? If you have any advice about good deals in my area (DC/Northern Virginia) email me or get in touch! I'm easily persuaded :-)

***

A biiiiiiig thank you to 266 and Scuttleboose for giving me awards! I have to skedaddle to get ready for work, but I will surely do the required steps later this evening :-)

weekend wrap up

I had such a great weekend! Friday night I watched Monsters vs. Aliens – have you seen it?! I thought it was so hilarious. I love cartoon movies, I really do. Emperor’s New Groove, Up, The Incredibles…some of my faves.

Anyway, Saturday was great. I was sad to miss FitBloggin and I definitely want to go next year – but my day made up for it! I went down to Richmond (VA) to see a bunch of my friends again. I had lunch with one of my best friends – he’s my best guy friend and we’ve been friends since we were 13 years old. He was my senior prom date! He’s in med school and just got matched this week, so we had a celebratory lunch!

After lunch he came with me to my old college roommate’s birthday party, and we had cold drinks and played games in the sunshine. It was so nice. Have you ever played Ladder Golf? Looks like this:

You set them at opposite ends of a yard or whatever and toss the ball/string things and they have to hang on to the different rings to get points. It’s so fun. And if you’re immature like my friends and me, there are an infinite number of ball jokes to be made.

After the cookout I went over to the house of another friend from college – for a St. Patrick’s Day party! I had such a good time, and I had a little NSV too!  My friend told me that I looked really good - she hadn't seen me since September, which was the last time I was down at their house! In fact, my first picture on the side there, the one in which I'm wearing my Orange VT shirt, I took that right before I left to see them.

And now today…just resting. I got a book from the library and I’m gonna start in on that.

Can I tell you what’s a total bummer? Fear. Kat had a great post about it recently, which I totally identify with, but in this particular instance, I’m speaking of a different kind of fear…the “of your life” kind.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031501859.html

If you don’t feel like reading this, basically there’s a guy named The East Coast Rapist and he’s been getting away with, you guessed it, rapes, for the past 13 years. From Northern Virginia all the way to Connecticut. And the other week there was a notice of a similar person in the town where I live. AWESOME.

This guy apparently preys on women after learning their routines and habits, knowing when they'll be alone and unguarded - near their homes, or sometimes at gas stations and such. And I'm in my house by myself. It’s so nice out now and I’m literally too afraid to go out to walk/run by myself. This sucks. It sucks that someone like this exists, and that it makes me live in fear. I’m already cautious about this sort of thing anyway, I always lock doors and pay attention to my surroundings, but I don’t like being fearful about it.

I don't want to be overly dramatic, but I also want to take it seriously. If you were me, what would you do?

Anyway, just in case anyone in the DC area that reads this blog hadn’t heard about this guy…be careful please! I don’t want to sensationalize, I just think everyone should be aware.

(Moving to a different kind of terror, I don’t think I will have lost any weight this week. I ate healthfully, but I think I ate more than I did the week previous, plus my "day off" yesterday, which included lots of delicious beer and three pieces of pizza!)