running, being cold, and yarn

fingers...so...cold....

woke up this morning at 6:30 to go running with Adam. We went to the park so the dog could go crazy. We have the best dog. Running was hard for me this morning - something about how cold the air was, or how asleep I still was - made it incredibly hard for me to breathe. But I am glad I went. It makes me feel like no matter what else happens, this day was a success.

I am still tracking my points and still doing good! I need to encorporate more crunches, but other than that I am doing just fine. This morning I had enough time after we got back from running that I made the Hungry Girl broccoli cheese soup in my new blender, AND a smoothie for breakfast. I am so looking forward to lunch - I brought some chicken I grilled the day before yesterday, soup, some fruit and string cheese to snack on all day. I figure for lunch it'll be 3 pts for the soup, 3 pts for the chicken, I ate 3 pts for breakfast...that's only 9 points, which leaves me 13 pts to play with for the rest of the day. Woohoo!


So I have a question to pose to you - does anyone else out here suffer from the same thing? I feel like I am really, really easy to buy presents for: GET ME YARN. It's not that hard, right? I would truly, deeply, seriously, really love every skein of yarn ever given to me as a present. I can NEVER HAVE ENOUGH yarn! I don't have the money to buy all the yarn I want! I want yarn for every gift! But...do people ever get me yarn? Not really. In my 24 years of life I have received 3 gift certificates to yarn stores. But I am thinking - yarn is cheap! (at least, some yarn is) it'd be a great present - just a bag o' yarn. And yet people complain that I am hard to shop for. They buy me other, random things just to buy something, when if they spent 10 bucks at Alamitos Bay, I'd be through the roof. Anyways - I don't understand it. I have told people this time and time again "just buy me yarn" "I love yarn" "what do I want for christmas? Yarn!" but still - no one believes me. yeesh.

Oh - I have an amendment. I do have to say, when Adam and I first got together, his very first gift for me (which was for no special occasion, just random) was a beautiful, beautiful skein of green (expensive!!) cashmere. That was a good present.

But more people should give me yarn.

That's the moral of this story. :)

PS We at Roya inc. would like to say that our official stance is one of gratitude no matter what gift is given. Your presence is present enough, etc. Thank you and goodnight.

food woes

I don't know how much I have talked about my eating issues/exercising/weight loss/etc. on here - but it's a decently large focus of my life so it deserves some air time. About 4 years ago I stepped on a scale and weighed 201 pounds. I about died right there. That was the day I decided to start losing weight. I proceeded to, without the help of any "diet" - just by eating right, cutting out soda, and exercising - to lose 50 pounds. It wasn't easy, but it was FUN. I actually enjoyed the process. My boyfriend at the time helped me a lot - I asked him to never comment on what I was eating, except at the beginning of each meal to ask me to think about what I wanted to eat before I ate it. He also helped me develop my own personal exercise grid. I had so much fun every night checking off the little boxes for "50 crunches, 30 leg lifts.." etc. I would exercise while I watched West Wing every night.

At some point I realized I wasn't going to lose weight unless I started running. So every day after work I would drive to Cypress College track and go 8 times around - running the straights and walking the curves. I hated it with a passion. But there was always something to fixate on - a little old asian man who walked with his head down and didn't look at anyone but was there every single time. A tall black woman with this incredibly bright gold jacket who was there a lot, etc.
I worked at a daycare, so I was outside a lot with the kids. At one point I realized how much more I wanted to be active, and it was so fun to be able to actually play kickball and handball and tag and stuff with them.

When I started working here, I knew that going from working at a daycare (and I worked part time at a nature center where I walked all day long giving tours) to working at a desk in an office would be difficult for me to stay active. So that's when I joined weight watchers. My mom had lost about 85 pounds and was very invested in that program, my aunts were doing it, it seemed like a good option for me to maintain being healthy. So I started going to meetings and tracking my points.

I really love the weight watcher's program and their focus on the healthy living habits. I no longer go to the meetings (if I could afford it, I would) but I still track my points. I go through phases, though - and it's SO OBVIOUS how much better I feel when I do track and when I exercise.

I made my own tracking form and keep the points calculator in my purse. I use a lot of the online resources you can find just by googling. I started hardcore tracking my points on October 28th, and the only gap I have had since then was three days over Thanksgiving. However, I am not doing so well with the healthy eating things. Here is how I am going to fix it:
1. Water - I need to drink 6-8 cups of water a day. I have been totally slacking on this. I will make sure I have a water bottle with me all the time! No more ordering diet soda for a while either, I will drink water!
2. Fruits and veggies - I need to go shopping. It's as simple as that. I am out of fresh produce.
3. Dairy - need to buy non fat milk and yogurt.
4. Oils - this is hard for me. I never know how to get in oil except for salad dressing. So I guess I'll try to make more salad.
5. Vitamin - About half the days I forget. I will just have to make it a more consistent part of my morning routine.
6. Grazing - I do better when I eat small amounts of food all day long, rather than one or two big meals. Having more fruit and veggies to snack on will help with this. Also ordering less food when I go out. For example - although it's a good deal, I will not be buying the foot long veggie subway anymore, because that makes me want to eat it! Instead, I will buy the 6 inch, with the knowledge that if I am still hungry afterwards, I can always go buy another one.
7. Exercise - I miss running. I actually do. I am charging my ipod right now, I have my gym clothes in the car. I will change at work, and head to the gym or to Seal Beach to run. Tomorrow I will do the same thing. Friday I have an A2A event so I probably won't have time - unless I ask my supervisor for a long lunch and do it then. Or even if I just take a walk on the river trail for lunch. That would at least keep me thinking active and not break my streak.
7a. Crunches - I had a weekly challenge with a coworker of mine to do a certain number of crunches a day. We haven't done it for months. Today is the day we reactive that!

Okay. That's all from me. Sometimes writing down your intentions is the key to making them actually happen. I am using all of you as witnesses to help keep me accountable. Thanks!