Friday, January 27, 2012

Redecorating by Houdini, and Other Stuff

This morning, I was putting my makeup on and heard this awful noise. I wasn't like...worried...really. It sounded like Houdini was just into something. He'd only been out of my site for a few seconds. (I put on my makeup downstairs so he can trot around, eat breakfast, play with his toys and have company for a bit before going to the hall for most of the day.)

I got up and started for the kitchen, and here he comes! Happy, wagging his little tail, all shiny-eyed and ecstatic because...

he's carrying a giant plank of wood. Wood that looks suspiciously like our floor. Our floor that covers half of our main level. And he's toting it by one end, and bashing the other against the kitchen furniture, stove and cabinets...

What the ???

It's our threshhold divider from the bathroom door...you know, where wood transitions into tile? That thingy that goes over it? He has removed it and brought it to me!!! WHY????

This is a new thing with Houdini. He has been with us for 9 months now. Things he has never bothered before (like pinecones in baskets, decorative twig balls and...threshhold dividers, apparently) are now fascinating and delicious.

He has never paid a lick of attention to the divider, but this morning it was simply irresistable.

The twig balls have been a bit of a grudge match all week long. Monday, he discovered them, though they've been there all along. Steinvic had the basket on the table when I got home from work Monday night. I put them back and we chased him away from them all evening. Tuesday night, he was after them. I distracted him with toys. Wednesday, I doused them in soapy water - which I even first tasted myself to make sure it was horrifyingly nasty tasting (it was) - to deter him from stealing them. No. Still yummy.

Since the basket of twig balls is safely on the table, threshhold dividers are the new preferred snack.

What to do with a pooch who doesn't understand the word "no."

Decorating by Houdini...it's a good thing he's cute!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Boot

So, as part of my experiment to reduce calories (beyond the norm) and increase exercise (beyond the norm), I joined http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ anonymously. It's a great site full of great people, all working to get healthy.

And I commented somewhere on the site, and as a result, was invited to join a group of women who were going to support each other.

When you join a group, there is a "newsfeed" on your homepage, that looks a lot like the dreaded facebook, where when others in your group post something (be it exercise, logging in under calorie alottment for the day, or posting in the forum) it shows up and you can comment.

I would give my daily "attagirls" and high fives when I'd log in, and so I was very surprised to get a personal message on the site asking why I wasn't participating or weighing in. Apparently, there was a required Friday weigh in for the group.

I have been down this weightloss road before...I know me. I had a scale and would weigh myself up to three obsessive times per day. Until Steinvic accidentally kicked it and broke it and I think it was one of the (mentally) healthiest things that ever happened to me. So, for me, this time, I have decided that I'm making a lot of deliberate choices for me...and one is not weighing in until I feel like it.

I will weigh on days where I feel light and pretty and confident. I did WW and it didn't work for me like it worked for everyone else...I had to walk excessively to acheive weightloss, while my friends followed "The Plan" and kicked butt. We're all different...whatever works for you, right? But for me, the weekly weigh ins and the "What did you do wrong?!?!?" exclaimations from a douchey group leader didn't do it for me. (I don't think most group leaders are so annoying.)

I weighed in after 12 days on my own unique plan and found myself down 5 pounds. YAY! But since I didn't weigh in on Friday, I got the email asking what my problem was.

Long story short, they booted me from the group because I explained that weigh ins without progress made me feel crappy. From a motivational standpoint, I need to do it when I feel like it's going to be good news. That if it wasn't good news, I wouldn't feel like eating a carton of donuts (never has been my issue) but I would feel bad and I want to feel good. "Accountability" from other people doesn't motivate me...I'm plenty hard on myself. So...no.

When I posted a "Farewell" on my newsfeed so that other group members wouldn't think I was rude, the group host went off on me! And I was unfriended by the entire group, save for two ladies...one who had my back and another who thinks I'm nice.

At the end of it all, I am amazed at the immaturity of "grown ups." This is why I'm not on facebook. I hear about this crap all the time!

I feel like the buck-toothed kid who no one wanted to play with all over again, but now...I don't give a damn. But how funny...I mean, really...To get ousted by a bunch of mean girls. I'm freaking forty. I don't have time!

So me and the four "friends" I have left on the site will carry on...It's still a great tool to log calories, but not such a great place to belong to a "group."

Me, myself and my calorie counts...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Whoosh Week

Fastest week ever...

Things at work are still insane, but should be leveling out soon. I worked yesterday (Saturday) for a few hours. We have a rotating schedule for Saturdays and yesterday was my turn...so 8-12 and I woke up in the night last night not knowing whether it was Saturday, Sunday or Monday!

I've been sewing like mad...Houdini now has a couple new harnesses to choose from and I'm pretty proud of them all. I've made two denim ones and one St. Patrick's Day one. All that's missing is the velcro so I'm gonna have to make it to a real fabric store (our Michael's doesn't have many notions...just basics for embroidery) to stock up. The velcro is the hardest part...it's thick - I'm using industrial strength so that Houdini is secure - and very hard to put a needle through over and over. Mom said, "Use the sewing machine!!!" but I just can't. I like doing everything by hand.

But it's costing me. My right hand, especially, has been going bad over the last year, and recently, my middle finger and ring finger have become especially close. Literally. I can move them apart, but when my hands are relaxed, those two fingers are buddies. I have pain - it's not excruciating - and after all the reading this week, I really believe it's "just" tendonitis of some sort and not the dreaded carpal tunnel, which is what everyone around me says I have. But I am certain I don't...I don't have tingling or numbness. The pain is raditating differently than what every website says. I will go to a doctor, but I honestly think that 11 years of retail keying (before UPC scanners were popular), 13 years of editing at a keyboard, and a lifetime of crafty crafting are the cause, and this is just how it's gonna be.

I am still on it on it on it with the bike and the 1200 cal experiment. And while I don't think anyone else sees a difference, I'm looking for it and I'm seeing it in my face and how I feel (still less jiggly). And yesterday, the big victory...the jeans I bought in December that were snug? I pulled them off without unbuttoning or unzipping them! So, I still haven't weighed, but I think it's working. I would like to see how I'm doing at the end of next month, when we take our family trip...I hope that this will alllllllllll be worth it. Because I'll be honest...it's 95% vanity for me...

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Twelve Hundred Calories and More

So, it's Day Four of the little experiment I'm doing and so far, it's not too bad. I'm not freaking out if I go a little over the 1200 cals, which I'm sure last night I did - we stuck to our Friday Going Out and Bringing Home Pizza routine - because I'm in it for the long haul. I just honestly count those calories, and I'd saved lots during the day to use that evening. I haven't weighed myself yet, and I don't plan to until I feel a difference in how my workpants fit. But I know what I weighed when I went to the doctor in late November, so I'm going to go from that number. So, that's that...

I've been super busy at work, which has made the last three months go quickly there, and one of my team members suffered an injury and surgery that will keep them out of the office for a while. This is going to make things even busier for me for a while, but healing time is so important, and we'll work it out.

At home, I've been sewing and sewing and trying new things with that, and it's exciting. My Mom and I are talking about doing a craft show or two next year, and that would really be something...so I've got time to build up inventory.

Have you seen the Casey Anthony videos that have recently surfaced online? I'm not surprised that she's poking her head out to see what the reaction will be...this is someone who appeared to thrive on attention, and I can't imagine that the months of seclusion as she serves her probation have been easy for her. So...the only thing that will completely annoy me at this point is if she ends up getting some kind of reality show. That would be sickening...wouldn't it?

That's it from here...I'm off to do laundry, make coffee and get a little sewing in before Steinvic awakes...one of us had to get up with a tiny puppy who wanted to start his day... :)