Friday Five

Five Totally Random Thoughts Swimming Around My Head Today…

1. The best pin I found on Pinterest this week:
2. This week I started watching Bunheads, a great new show by the creator of Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman-Palladino. It has the same rapid-fire dialogue that I loved on GG, and many of the actors are from that show, as well. The premise is that a Vegas showgirl marries a longtime admirer on a whim, and moves to the small town of Paradise, CA with him. Two interesting things about this are that I found out about the show after a FB post from Jen Lancaster, whom I love AND that one of my former colleagues-turned-FB-buddy actually lives in Paradise, CA. It’s an unusual setting for a tv show, but then again, Stars Hollow wasn’t exactly a big town either.
3. I’m in the middle of reading the latest from another of my favorite authors, Jen Lancaster’s Jeneration X. If you want to follow my reading list, become my friend on Goodreads. What are you reading?
4. Today my dad and I are headed to see The Dark Knight Rises, which I’m really looking forward to. I love this Batman trilogy and the dark portrayal of the story that Christopher Nolan has taken. Many are saying it’s the best move of the three, and I can’t wait to see it. (My heart goes out to those in Colorado who fell victim to a deranged man).
5. And finally, I’ll end with a photo of Sofi, who just got groomed yesterday. Seriously, have you ever seen anything cuter?  Looking at this face instantly puts me in a good mood. I’m really lucky to have Sofi.

Happy Friday, and I hope you have a fabulous weekend!!

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HYC Update – Great weekend, short week, and only 2 more weeks ’till summer!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Lots of fun stuff to discuss today.

I had a  great weekend!
My mom, sister, and I went up to San Francisco to go on our long-awaited birthday celebration for my mom.  (Her birthday was in February, but with the lousy weather this winter and then our busy schedules, this was the first weekend we could do it).  It was a perfect day!  We took BART to avoid the traffic and parking nightmare, and it was a really relaxing way to get up there.  Plus, my sister met us along the route, so we spent half the trip up there catching up and laughing.  A great way to start the day.  The weather in SF was absolutely gorgeous, which was amazing.  We’ve been having unseasonably cold and rainy weather here, and SF is usually even cooler, but on Saturday it was in the high 70s in the City, so it was a stellar day.  We went to the Ferry Building Farmers’ Market and shops and had so much fun.  I’d been to the shops at the Ferry Building before, but never to the farmers’ market, and my sister and mom had never been to either before, so it was a really fun experience.  It was packed, which is to be expected considering that it was Memorial Day Weekend, as well as a beautiful day in SF.  The farmers’ market was HUGE, but also really expensive.  I’m glad we went just to see the offerings, but we really didn’t buy that much.  I picked up a nice syrah from the French Mediterranean and some Rancho Gordo heirloom beans.  LC commented that I bought the beans more for the packaging than for anything else, and she is 100% right on that.  I mean, how could I not:

You guys know me, I love anything with that 50s retro feel, and these beans were absolutely beautiful (as much as beans can be 🙂  They’re a pretty brownish-purple and while color.  The vendor was trying to explain how to cook them, but I finally came clean and told him that I really just wanted to display them in my kitchen, and he laughed at me.  Other than that, though, the prices were too expensive.  For example, the cherries were selling for $7/lb, which is outrageous.  I went to my local grocery store and got some delicious cherries from central CA for $3.99/lb.  Farmers’ markets are great, but you do have to be careful about the prices sometimes.  Next time, I’d skip the farmers’ market and just hit the shops, which are a lot of fun to browse.  Plus, I have some really great, much more reasonable, farmers’ markets right in my own neighborhood, so why make the drive?

Sunday I caught up on housework, finished reading My Fair Lazy (which I highly recommend), did a Wii workout, and just lazed around a bit.  I was hoping to make it to the pool, but never got around to it.  Next weekend, for sure.

Today I woke up late, read the newspaper, did a bit of laundry and other household chores, got in another Wii workout,  and then went to my parents’ house for a bbq.  I’m so thankful that I have such a great family that I get along with so well, because they really make me feel so special.

All in all, it was a fantastic 3-day weekend.

Short Week

Because of the Memorial Day weekend, this work-week is going to be really short, which is wonderful.  These past two weeks at work have been really hectic and stressful, so I’m looking forward to having a somewhat lighter week ahead.  I have a few fun nights planned which also helps make the week more bearable: I’m taking my yearbook class out to dinner to celebrate a wonderful publication, I’m meeting a friend for a much-needed coffee catch-up, and then I’m going to see Sex & the City 2 with some girlfriends from work.  I also plan to continue on with the Scale Warfare’s EA Sports Active More Workouts Challenge, as well get back into some of my other workout DVDs.

I’m still avoiding the gym for my workouts for some reason.  I don’t really know why.  I like the gym, but if I have a choice, I much prefer taking my workout outside (walking, biking, or swimming) or doing the Wii or DVDs.  Once summer hits I want to make it a point to get to the gym more often, because I’ll be able to go during off hours when it will be less crowded.  Plus, I do need to use those personal training sessions that I bought.  I have enough to take me throughout the summer, so I might as well put them to good use.

2 More Weeks!

The countdown to summer vacation has officially begun.  That’s one of the great things about teaching – I get to have a long summer vacation, just like students do.  Although I’m not going on any big vacations, I still cannot wait for summer to get here.  I have lots of fun plans, including:

• Lulu!  My new puppy is set to arrive around June 18 and I am so excited for her to get here.  I’ve got all the goodies I’ll need for her (water and food bowls, food, treats, blanket for her crate, toys, etc).  I also found a vet that is literally 3 blocks from my house, as well as a great groomer that’s only 2 blocks away.  Now all I need is her!
• Going along with Lulu, I am going to enroll us in puppy training classes as soon as she arrives.  Well, I’ll give us a week to get to know each other first, but then it’s going to be twice a week training for both of us.  I think it will be a great way for us to bond, a good way for me to establish myself as the alpha of the house, and (I hope) a nice way to meet new people.
• Working out:  I cannot wait to get into Bella Bootcamp mode again.  Last summer I was able to spend hours working out in various ways, and I really liked it.  Swimming, biking, working out at the gym – I enjoyed moving my body and seeing my progression as I did.  Now I get to add two daily walks with Lulu into the mix, which is even better.
• Fresh fruits and veggies.  I love produce, and I really can’t wait to hit the farmers’ markets in my area on a weekly basis.  It’s going to be fun to keep my meal planning fluid so I can cook things that I find at the markets.  Improvisational cooking will be a fun experiment.
• Reading – the one item I’m asking for for my birthday (July 2) is a Kindle, and I cannot wait to get it and start reading books this way.  I’m sure you’d expect an English teacher to like the old-school paper books, which I do, but I’ve also realized in recent years that I have a limited amount of bookshelf space left.  I’ll still buy the books  that I really want to cherish, but for fun reads and books that I’m not so sure of, I’ll be able to download them much more inexpensively and bring them with me wherever I go.
• Netflix marathons – I love getting DVDs of tv shows from Netflix because it’s great being able to watch consecutive episodes without having to wait a week in between shows.  I know I’m going to watch West Wing (I somehow missed it when it was on), but I’d love to hear some suggestions of other shows you think are must-see.

There’s so much more I could write about what I plan to do this summer, but instead of dreaming about what I might do, I think I’m going to wait and see what I actually do and then write about that.

This week’s weight loss goals

I’ve been doing really well on my water and on the EA Sports Active Challenge, but what I’ve been slacking on is journaling my food.  I think that with the blood pressure scare I just needed to give myself a week or so off of it.  Not that I’ve been eating out of control, because I haven’t, but I haven’t been thinking as much about what I am going to eat.  I still plan my meals and eat a well-balanced diet, but I haven’t been counting points for a week or so.  I will get back to the journaling this week, for sure.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am going to go in for weekly blood pressure checks until my doctor returns from vacation.  I just want to make sure to record my blood pressure, to make sure that it’s not high.  I’m still getting those terrible headaches on an almost daily basis, and if they’re not caused by bp, I want to find out what the source is.

Another goal for this week is to catch up on my blog reading.  I’ve been really bad about it for the last couple of weeks because I haven’t had much spare time, but I’m going to try to make at least an hour a day so that I can offer as much support to all of you as you have been giving to me.  Plus, I always feel so much better after reading through your blogs.

Wow, this post ended up being a lot longer and I expected, but I hope it was worth reading.  Thanks for hanging in there through all 1600+ words, and I hope you have a great week.

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Such a Pretty Fat – thoughts and musings

I just finished reading Jen Lancaster’s Such a Pretty Fat, and I loved it! You should all go out and by your own copy today. And no, I’m not getting a portion of the book sales.

The book isn’t a tale about a fat girl who is now slim, but rather it’s a tale of a fat girl who thought she looked pretty good the way she was, until her doctor told her that it was time to do something about her weight for her health, and so she begrudgingly started leading a healthy lifestyle. The book chronicles her trial of several diets, and her successes and failures on each. Her writing is real, which is so refreshing. It’s also funny as hell, and will have you simultaneously laughing and crying because you’ve been there, too.

The thing that really struck me about Jen’s journey is that she isn’t at her goal weight yet, but she’s a lot healthier and happier now. She incorporated exercise into her weekly routine, and although she hated it at first, she now feels odd when she isn’t moving her body.

I had an “ah-ha” moment last night as I was reading the book because it dawned on me that the real reason she was having success in changing her lifestyle and losing weight was because she was working out. Now, this information wasn’t new to me, I’ve known this from my own first-hand experience. What hit me was the way that working out became part of her everyday life — little by little. At first she hated going to the gym and meeting with her trainer, but by the end she actually impressed herself with all she could do now.

The same thing is finally sinking in with me. Sure, the fast is really helping me drop weight quickly, but I know that the only way I’m going to be able to seriously sustain any sort of weight loss once I consume more than 500 calories/day again is to workout and workout hard. It has to become regular part of my life, and not just a fad that I jump on the bandwagon of for a few weeks and then quickly let slide.

I think losing 27 pounds so far has helped me realize that I CAN do this. It will be a struggle, and there will be times when I want to chuck the whole thing and eat something that I know I have no business eating, but I have realized that I am strong enough to do this. And that’s exciting.

Jen’s story helped me see that the details of her journey may have been a bit different from the one I’m on now, but the basics are still the same — change the way you think about food (it isn’t an all or nothing thing) and start pushing your body past its current limits and you will achieve success.

Success is different for everyone, but for me, getting to a weight with a “1” at the beginning of it is a start.

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Such a Funny Lady

Just a quick plug for you to go read this post on my life blog. I had a phenomenal time hearing Jen Lancaster read from her newest book, Such a Pretty Fat.

As soon as I finish the book, I’ll post a review of sorts.

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Such a Pretty Fat

As I was reading my usual blogs today and procrastinating on grading (you know, the usual), I came across a new blog that I quickly added to my blogroll on my main blog. It’s called Jennsylvania. It’s written by author Jen Lancaster, and it’s hilarious. I love her sarcastic wit, and her take on life.

In doing a bit of scoping on the site, it turns out that Jen has a new book coming out called Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer. How’s that for a title?

It also turns out that Jen is going to be doing a book signing in San Francisco in May! I’ve already marked it on my calendar and plan to be there, buy this book, and maybe her other two.

The thing I like about what I’ve read about this book is that Jen is a woman who is totally happy with the way she looks now, plus-sized or not. She decided to start working out and living a more healthy lifestyle because her doctor told her she had to. She’s embracing this new way of living with all of the sarcasm and kicking and screaming that you’d expect. She’s real. She complains, she laughs at herself, and she makes this whole weight loss thing a bit funnier. At least, that’s what I’m guessing.

I haven’t gone to a book signing in over 2 years, and I think it’s about time. I used to go all the time, but with grad school as my focus these last 2 years, I haven’t had very much extra time. Since I graduate on May 12, and the book signing is on May 21, it seems like perfect timing. It’s going to feel good to get back out and do the things I love to do, like attending book signings.

And who knows? Maybe now that I’ve helped her promote her book, she’ll send me a free copy. Doubtful, but you never know…

Here’s a little bit of Jen:

Jen Lancaster: Such a Pretty Fat

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