Before and After ...

before / after

Sorry to disappoint, I haven't reached my weight loss goal (not even CLOSE yet) so I'm not posting weight loss before and after pics. You may remember in a past blog I mentioned I was trying to grow my hair ... geez, I'm obsessed with changing my appearance, never happy with myself! Well, I gave up ... growing my hair, that is. I got it almost to "bob" status, growing it over my ears to where it was almost all the same length. But I hated it. It felt heavy, hot, icky ... I coloured it, hoping that would make me feel better ... well, it was a washout (sorry for the pun there). People said I looked "different" with my hair longer ... "you're changing your hair? It's looks really DIFFERENT" (no positive comments followed) ... my hubby told me it was too poofy (the longer my hair was getting, the thicker it got ... surprised the heck out of me, as I always thought I had thin hair ... DEFINITELY not true). I had a friend tell me I looked like I was wearing a wig ... that was the final straw for me. I called my hairstylist and booked the appointment to get it cut off. I am paranoid about my hair ... always have been. So that was it. I tried. Just not happy with it. So this past Tuesday it all came off. I'm back to the short pixie-type cut that I've had for a few years. It's pretty short, a bit shorter than I'd wanted, but it will grow. And it feels so much better. I feel like I've had a weight lifted off my shoulders (literally). As soon as my hairstylist cut it she said "now that's better we can see your pretty face". To which I laughed. To which she said, "you are so pretty, all that hair hid your pretty face, weighed you down ... made you look tired". BINGO. Tired looking. I totally agree. See for yourself ... I'm posting the before (longer hair ... at least long for me, you may think it's still short), and the new cut (back to the short me). Let me know what ya think. I'm planning on keeping it a bit longer than it's at right now in the pic, so I'll post one of those in a couple of weeks when it's a bit longer.

Thanks for reading!

A Shocker

Well, I was handed my new lifestyle today ... on 3 pages of paper. A real shocker. I have been seeing a Holistic Therapist, a dear friend, who is helping me manage my Fibromyalgia symptoms and fatigue. Recently, she did an energy treatment on me, and using skin and hair assessments and bodily symptoms, she has come up with a one month plan for me to detox my body. It's pretty drastic, but I think it's what I need. I have a list of everything that my body is either intolerant to or allergic to. Basically everything I've been eating my whole life I'm intolerant too ... with a very few exceptions. The biggies: wheat, corn, cured meats, vinegar, tomatoes, MSG, red dye. Next in line yeast, sugar, wine, artificial flavourings, coffee, tea, chocolate (NOOOOO, not CHOCOLATE!), peas, tuna, peanuts, bananas, grapefruit, raisins, grapes ... and the list goes on and on. Basically everything I either have in my fridge or pantry right now. Everything I like. So now I'm on a journey to start cutting out these culprits ... my first question ... "What the heck do I eat?". Basically, bread & cereals made from anything but wheat or corn. Rice, quinoa, rye, barley. Fish (other than tuna). Every kind of lettuce known to mankind. Most oils (I pretty much use olive exclusively anyway). Avoid tea and coffee (I'm still going to drink naturally decaf. herbal teas) and diet sodas. No more chocolate unless it's dark (I'm cool with that). Melon (any kind). All meats except lamb (which I don't eat anyway). No beer (nothing to cry about). No refined sugars ... now that will be a challenge. I have a major sweet tooth ... but that's what gotten me into the mess where I am today.
So difficult as it might be, I have to think of the end result ... a much healthier, thinner, feeling so much better ME. She has told me to give it a month ... just cutting out even some of these things she promises I will start to feel better. And I know she's right. This isn't going to be easy ... it will become an obsession, everything I put in my mouth. My food list will be at my side 24/7. My new BFF!

Thanks for reading!

A Hermit's Life for Me?

I had a blast this past weekend. Got to spend lots of time with my hunky hubby, even though our business is very busy we were able to do alot of errand running together which allowed us time to have some fun in the evenings. However, I also had a bad weekend ... with food. Friday night we went to a Rotary Ribfest ... NOTHING there was healthy ... well, maybe the chicken, which I did eat. The onion blossoms, potato chip rings, ribs and funnel cakes? BAD, BAD, BAD. I have to admit I did try them all ... sharing them of course with my hubby and our friends. So I was bad, but only 1/2 bad. Hee hee! Doesn't that count a bit??!
Saturday evening we went to a neighbour's pool party (don't worry, a bathing suit didn't even come NEAR my body) and I had 2 coolers. Yum, Yum. Hadn't drank in a long time, boy did I enjoy them. Again BAD, BAD, BAD. Came home, hubby and I had the munchies after drinking, went downtown and bought BAD, BAD snacks (yup, had my DORITOS fix). I was on a roll ... not a good roll ... I was adding to MY rolls.
Sunday came along, I cooked a healthy breakfast, determined to get back on track. Well, Sunday ended with dinner at a small local Chinese Food Buffet. Yup. I had one plate, watermelon and one piece of dessert, so I was proud of myself. Not bad. Not good, but not bad.

So this morning ... yup, you guessed it ... the scale was NOT nice to me. GEE, I WONDER WHY??!! It ain't rocket science people ... I ate enough bad food to give my WW leader a coronary when she looks at my meal tracker this week. I AM THE BAD EXAMPLE ... she'll probably make me stand at the front of the room while she reads my tracker to everyone ... "THIS IS HOW NOT TO EAT ON WEIGHT WATCHERS, LADIES" she'll say. Oh, the humiliation. Why do I do this to myself?? I don't know. I attend parties and go places that always jeopardize me ... I feel prepared, knowing what good choices to make, what not to shove in my mouth, but I ALWAYS end up eating the wrong things. No willpower. It's so hard when everyone else is eating and drinking, I want it too. Should I become a hermit? Maybe that's a good idea, at least until I'm thin. But then I'd have no social life. That's sad. I'd miss my weekends out with my hunky hubby and friends. Nope ... no hermit's life for me. I'd probably just eat myself into a closet anyways ... and would get stuck there. CALL 911 ... MOM'S EATEN HERSELF INTO THE PANTRY AND CAN'T GET OUT!!! Now there's a t.v. reality show I don't want to be the star of!
So I have to start exercising some control ... it's SOOO hard ... but beats living life as a hermit.

Thanks for reading!

Having a good laugh

Laughter is the best medicine. Live, laugh, love. We all feel better after a good laugh. I love to laugh! I can be having the worst day, and get a good joke by email or have a good conversation with a dear friend and it can turn the day around. I find it helps with my "battle", too. Gives me a renewed sense of confidence in myself. Keeps me smilin'! I just had a quick coffee with a great friend today (thanks, Debbie!) and we laughed and laughed over anything and everything ... mostly about our weight struggles! But it felt great. Feels great to share with someone your struggles and life story and have a good laugh ... clear out all the woes of the day and just let 'er all hang out (in more ways than one! LOL) and just enjoy! I make a point of laughing every day ... might be hard to believe after yesterday's "beeatchy" blog post LOL but I really do. I always make a point of having a laugh with my hubby. Life is way too short to dwell on the trivial stuff ... you just gotta laugh and move on with it! And boy, after a good laugh my face muscles and stomach muscles ache ... that's got to be exercise, right??!! LOL If I just keep laughing all day long I'll have that flat stomach I've been yearning for!!! And firm, flawless skin on my face!! No need for that $30 "gotta get rid of those dark age spots and sagging skin" face cream anymore!

Thanks for reading!

Tuesday Tidbits ... Somewhat Disturbing

So my Factual Fridays have turned into Tuesday Tidbits this week. I'm feeling very, very tired today and very weird (more than usual). Since I have absolutely no brainwaves of creativity today to say anything intelligent in my blog that will make my followers list double or conjure up thoughtful comments, I have decided to be blatently honest ... and probably somewhat disturbing to my readers! LOL

This is a side of me that may shock many of you (or not) ... yup, I have a Beeatchy side hiding in there, and it needs to come out NOW. I have the right to vent now and then ... I've been dieting on and off for 20 years! I'm frustrated!! LOL Who said all fat people are jolly? We get annoyed, too!

Today's tidbits are things that annoy the heck out of me ... TICK ME OFF ... Ya, I said it ... I'm makin' a list of that ... thought y'all might find it comical ... or disturbing ... you choose. Have a chuckle or two (or send the straight jacket over, whatever you feel is the right decision after reading this!)

#1 I'm ticked off at myself that I've let myself get this heavy and this out of shape. I could cry when I look at pictures of myself 20 years ago, when I thought I was fat but I really wasn't. I was slightly overweight but healthy. About 140 pounds. Now I'm not (thin or healthy that is).

#2 People tick me off that are waiting to make a turn as you're driving down the street, look right at your vehicle, then pull right out in front of you, like you're invisible ... like they have all kinds of time and tons of room ... so you have to hit the brakes to avoid smucking right into them. I'M DRIVING A HEAVY HALF TON TRUCK PEOPLE ... YOU CAN'T SEE ME?? Don't you realize that if I hit your Volkswagon with my 4x4 GMC Quad Cab big mother of a Sierra truck you probably won't survive?? I should invent a tazer for vehicles. Now that would be interesting ...

#3 People (or women in particular) tick me off when they say they're SO FAT but they're not. I'm talking about the 90-110 pound gals who worry about having love handles but don't even know what one looks like. They are terrified if they surpass the lower single digit size chart ... HEAVEN FORBID they would have to lose 3 pounds to get back into that size 2 before summer. I have an acquaintance like that. She's been trying to lose the same 5 pounds for the last 16 years. She looks fabulous, just perfect. And very pretty. Every time I see her, her weight comes into the conversation. "Oh it's such a struggle, I don't know how you do it, trying to lose so much weight!" Does she realize how that sounds? It's so pathetic. I can gain 5 pounds from eating a regular meal ... I don't want to hear about her 800 calorie-a-day intake with smoothies and soup and 10km walks every night gotta get that 5 pounds off diet. She's starving herself, and for what? If your neck bones are protroding further than your nose honey, you're NOT fat. You're anorexic. Your boobs are 30AAs because you don't eat. Try fruit, veggies, and a donut now and then. Rib cage outline is not attractive when you wear that bikini. (eww ... do I sound bitter here?) Show me a woman that has lost 100 pounds by eating PROPERLY, exercising, and just being herself, and is now wearing a bikini, and I'll be impressed BIG TIME. If you've been wearing a size 2 since you were 16 and you're now 44 and still wearing that size 2 and think you're fat, get away from me. FAR, FAR AWAY from me. The tazer comes to mind again ...

#4 Taxes tick me off. As I'm sure they do everybody. And now, starting July 1st, we will be paying much more ... 8% more to be exact ... on alot of the services that we only used to pay 5% on. I received an email the other day about Canadians and all the taxes we pay. The list was unreal. But it was all true! It's incredible once you sit and actually write down all the taxes we pay. It's mindblowing, the amount of money Canadians give to the taxman every year. Since my hunky hubby and I built our house 16 years ago, our property taxes have tripled. TRIPLED!! For what? We don't even have water and sewer privileges. Oh, we could have town water, if we wanted to pay $10,000 to have it brought into our house ... but that work would be taxed, too ... tax to the town on the hook up fee, tax on the excavating, tax on the piping to run the line into the house, tax on the water bills that will subsequently arrive quarterly ... it's endless and mind-blowing.

#5 I hate being hot. It ticks me off ... gets me all grumpy and stuff. It's 35 degress celcius in the sun today (95 degrees fahrenheit). Too hot for me. And our new $2800 central air conditioning unit has decided to quit (new in April, so not even broken in yet) so the house feels like 120 degrees. I have every fan accessible going to keep the air flowing so we don't all perish before the air con. gets fixed.

So I hope you all don't take this too seriously, I'm just having some fun venting some frustrations. We all need to do that, right?! You're not supposed to keep emotions bottled up inside you or they escalate. So mine are out there ... done ... I feel so much better! I know I'll probably get the anonymous "get a life ... quit eating and lose some weight" comments ... but seriously people, this is just my way of venting. I'm really not an angry person ...

I promise my next blog will be less disturbing ... I promise!

Thanks for reading!