CAUTION: Woman In Progress

Okay, so here's the part where I tell you that I am completely backslidden and putting the goals on hold. I honestly, well and truly thought that setting clear goals would help me stick to something but...well, LIFE. It happens. I am still not recovered from whatever I did to my knee back in the spring/early summer. In fact, it's worse now than it was. Ice and Advil help, but only temporarily and not for very long at that. Standing. Sitting. Laying down. It all hurts after more than a few minutes. I'm constantly in some sort of pain from it and FORGET doing any form of formal exercise. May as well shoot me. And the lattes...oh! the lattes! I was doing SO WELL for so long and then...I'd blame my friends but they're just the instigators. Not as if they put guns to my head and force me to partake. But do you know how difficult it is to walk to Starbucks and walk out with nothing ?? Painfully impossible, that's how difficult it is. Unfortunately, it's not ju...

First of all, I know I probably say this each month, but...Where the fluff did July go? Seriously. Just yesterday it was still May and school had just gotten out and now it's fluffin' August? Well, tomorrow is fluffin' August, anyway. School--both K-12 and college--is about to start back up. K-12 starts next week and college a couple of weeks later. So yeah. Where the fluff did summer go? Anyway, you'll be happy to know that July has been kinder to me than June. Goals-wise, anyway. June was fun but it kicked my goals' butts. July, however, while slightly stressful, was mildly easier on my goals. Here's the breakdown: Health and Wellness : While I did not, in fact, get back to walking or exercising regularly (and how big of a bitch is it to spell "exercising"? A huge one with a capital B!) it was a step forward from June's utter abandonment. For one, I began dancing at home. I can't claim that my dancing is anything that would get me on an...

Ya'll, I've been putting this off because, well, June kicked my goals' butts and sent them cryin' to their mama. June was fun, but June was the month it all fell apart. Health and Wellness: While waiting for my knee to get back to pre-injury aerobic walking condition, I had taken to strolling around campus in the afternoons. In June, that habit bit the dust. It was too dang hot and just am not into sweating.  Because of this--and my stellar lack of self control--I regained every. stinking. pound. that it had taken me four months to lose. Yep, folks. I'm officially back to my January starting weight. Well, maybe three pounds away from it. I can't remember exactly what my starting weight was back in January but this is pretty close. I really let my hair down in June. I quit counting calories. I ceased all forms of exercise--I didn't even DANCE in June. What the fluff? And I basically just gave up, I think. Even though I told myself I hadn't, in rea...

Well, we're now entering the halfway mark of the year and I wish I could say the future is so bright I need shades. Unfortunately...grrr...May marked the beginning of some serious setbacks, health wise. As you know, my pesky knee knocked me out of my daily aerobic walks with Denise and Leslie. Worse, just when I thought I may be able to ease my way back into it next week, BAM! I sorta re-injured it. *sigh* I was *gasp!* walking outside yesterday afternoon with E and as we were walking the narrow sidewalk against the library, my left foot snagged hard on a raised portion of the sidewalk and while I didn't fall, the whole left side of my body was jarred pretty hard. How I managed to not fall flat on my face is only by the Grace of God, I assure you. But the knee? Well, it took the jarring pretty hard. I'm not quite back to hobbling, but it's sore and achy again and, well, I just don't want to rush putting any extra pressure on it. Just further confirms what I...

April started out well and truly strong. I felt good. I was doing good. I made progress on a couple of fronts. It was going smoothly and happily along. Until... Dun, dun, dun... Last week. Last week I completely derailed from all my goals. I spent more. I ate more. I walked less. I skipped church. Granted, I was sick most of the week and we've already covered that it was a weird week. But why is it that when you feel bad (sick) you give yourself so much permission to behave badly? Exhibit A:  I drank no less than four lattes last week . Four. I justified them because my throat was sore from all the coughing and sinus drainage junk. But honestly, I have tea bags at work. And hot tea would have been just as soothing. But because I was siiiiiicckkk (that's me whining) I needed the comfort of a sweet, hot, high calorie and expensive latte.  Justified? Nope. But it happened so I'm owning it. No sense denying it or pretending it never happened.  And if four l...

Note: I've been working on this post since Thursday morning and just could never find the time to finish it. So the elation has somewhat faded. But I'll try to insert some of the euphoria I felt Wednesday night. ha ha Okay, ya'll. So this whole goals thing has ended up inspiring little mini-goals. None of them were formally stated but they have all been kept well and safe in my head. Mental mile markers, if you will. I think mini-goals within the broader goals is an important component to attaining goals in terms of motivation. If I say "goals" one more time do I win a prize? No. A beat down doesn't count as a "prize." Anyway, on to the big victory lap around the blog. I know I've mentioned before that on one of my Leslie Sansone DVD's she has a one mile "gentle walk" and a two mile "brisk" walk. The gentle walk has kicked my butt from day one but I've done it consistently enough that I can almost breath during...

I reached a financial victory today that warrants me sharing a little mid-month check in.  Unfortunately this victory has nothing to do with scales or fitness miles. HOWEVER, being that there are other equally important goals at play here, I feel the need to celebrate those, too. Just to sort of explain things a bit first, I know I'm weird but my monthly budget actually starts on the 15th of each month because I am paid on the 15th and the 30th of each month--or if those dates fall on a weekend, we get paid on the Friday before. Meaning, of course, that today is payday and starts a new fiscal month. I know I'm weird because everyone else I know thinks of the 30th paycheck as the first of the month paycheck. For me it's easier to keep up with my bills the way I do, making THIS the first paycheck of the month. My brain just doesn't work like everyone else's, I guess. Whatever. So long as it works, right? ANYWAY, point being, yesterday finished out the March/April ...

Another month gone from 2012. Three months gone and so far for the most part, things are going well(ish). At the moment I'm still a little excited about my goals. I think this is the first time in my life that I had goals with actual plans of action. Not some lofty, "lose 30 pounds." "Save more money." Maybe that's why I've not abandoned them or gotten really discouraged yet. I have clear cut, manageable goals this time around. I do hafta keep tellin' myself that I don't have to be in a rush. I've got MONTHS to play with. MONTHS to build towards my goals. I need to pace myself. In regards to my fitness goal of walking the fast three mile belly busting walk, I am a little frustrated. I thought I'd be a little further along with this by now. I still haven't yet conquered the two mile "brisk" walk and if I can't conquer that , there's no hope for the three mile belly buster. But I hafta remind myself. It's only ...

...I don't talk about my weight loss/dietary and activity goals with some people. You lucky ducks and sometimes Sis2 are it, as far as my blabbing about that goes. The reason? Mama has said several times lately (about her co-workers, not me), "I'm so sick of hearing about everyone's diet." You see, everyone in her office is on some sort of diet. Three are doing Weight Watchers, one is doing a fad diet I can't recall, and the other is just always on some diet or another. So me? I just don't talk about it. If I eat an extra cookie (or a Coke and a Mr. Goodbar like yesterday *facepalm*) I just pull up my (thankfully) baggy britches and get on with it. Maybe confess it here on my blog where anyone who doesn't want to know about it doesn't have to read it. As far as Mama knows I'm just being me.  I've mentioned that I'm walking with DVD's and I figure she can guess why but I just don't talk about it. For one, I don't want to ...

It's spring break around here. All the "kiddies" have fled for parts unknown leaving campus a ghost town. Even though the "kiddies" are obviously my bread and butter I do so rejoice when they are gone. I know. I'm terrible. Thank goodness I can cross the street without nearly getting run over. Much. ;-) There is a certain relief when campus is quiet and all the students are off having fun. (Or studying, as the case may be for many.) Campus is so calm and peaceful. Everyone who's left behind sort of breathes deeper and more relaxed. Not so much rushing from one thing to the next. Not slacking, but just not rushing either. It's a nice respite. It's difficult to fathom, though, that once everyone is back next week, there are only five weeks left of the semester! It seems we just got back from Christmas and already it's nearly time for summer sessions. I don't see how they keep up with that pace. I don't recall how I ever kept up w...

Two weird and majorly self-esteem building things happened to me this weekend. 1.) I weighed in and discovered I've lost another THREE POUNDS since my last weigh in a week ago. I do realize that some of that could have been water weight. But with my pants fitting so much better now and the fact that it made me feel majorly awesome...I'LL TAKE IT!! :-D I weighed just before dressing and heading to town for groceries so my insane confidence boost must have seriously still been glowing because ya'll... 2.) I totally got hit on in Wal-Mart. No, seriously. I was cruising the frozen veggie aisle all smug about my three pound loss (for a total of 8.6 since Jan. 4--hootie hoo!) when I made eye contact with this guy. He wasn't bad looking but sort of maybe a little bit on the thugish side. I'm a friendly gal so I smiled at him a bit and went back to debating whether or not my three pounds would justify my purchasing a bag of frozen french fries. Then he's standin...

Because I have nothing interesting to blog about and because I am silly enough to photograph my night time lunch packing work... First assemble all the players in this drama. It's 9:30 and dragging all the junk out onto the counter will save you time and keep you organized.  Deli sliced pepperocini, parmesan cheese, wish bone reduced fat ranch salad dressing, bag of romain salad mix, various containers, Borden pepperjack sliced cheese, measuring spoons, container of roasted chicken breast and a sandwhich box with one slice of bread.   Also make sure your counter is as cluttered with appliances as it can possibly be. Also, show off your bananas and your motivational Valentine's Day card. (Thanks, Trixie!) First, slice up some of the roasted chicken breast and pack it in a small container. But don't take a picture of it because apparently this part isn't crucial. Then measure out your parm and bacon bits (real, please!) into a small container of thei...

So I finally got up the courage to ask off work for my birthday and the following Monday. I had originally wanted to take a week's vacation that week but I put off asking too long. I hate asking off even though we have built in personal days for just that thing. But me asking off involves asking other people to cover for me while I'm away. And I hate, loathe and despise asking people for favors. Last year I wanted to take off on my birthday but I waited until the week of and then no one could cover for me and I got all pissy about it. I'm still a little pissy about that. lol So this year I'd intended on asking back in February to give plenty of notice and get my plans in there first. But I kept chickening out. But today I just got sick of myself and went for it. Something I have to keep reminding myself of is: If you never ask for it, you can't be disappointed when you don't get it. Pastor was saying the same thing about prayer this past Sunday. You know, ...

I can't hardly fathom that today is the first of March. I'm still humming Christmas songs, for Pete's sake. And it's March ?? And yet, it seems as though February lasted three years. Weird how time drags its butt as it's flying by. So, February was the first full month of working on my 2012 goals. I know I've probably waxed rhapsodic about it enough that ya'll are tired of hearing about it already. But I need to get the numbers together and do a full check-up on the actual goals set forth. Fret not, young people. You've only got ten more months of this junk to look forward to. :-D Financial goals: *I made my very first $300 payment toward my credit cards and already the balance looks good to me. I can almost visualize the years of misspent borrowed funds disappearing before my very eyes. It's a good feeling. One thing that helps keep that $300 payment in perspective is to mentally recite all the things I can do with that money once it's all...

Or obsessed. Whichever. That's what's happening to me right now. I'm consumed by this whole "get fit" goal. I wish I were that obsessed about the saving money part of my goals but alas, it appears I can only deal with one obsession at a time. I wanted to wait until the end of the month to share my progress updates and blah, blah, but just like my vow to not step on a scale until the first of March, I just can't wait.  Not that I have a lot to report. It's pretty slow going. But I'm excited! I just can't help it! I feel better and stronger every day. I feel as though when people look at me they should see the difference in me already even though physically, there's not much of a difference yet. I sit up straighter. I suck in my gut more. I make excuses to get up and move. And don't even get me started on my walks. I just about obsessively need to get my walks in. I had decided to start taking Wednesdays off so that I wouldn't get ...

It's the end of the first month of 2012. How in heck...? Anyway, since it's still early enough that I'm excited about my goals, here's the check-in for this month. Financial goals : *The transfer of Mastercard was successful and I begin making my low intro APR payments in February. *I did make two small charges on my Visa. *cringe* I'm still working on that whole frivilous spending thing. One perchase was a set of photobooks--two of which were gifts. The other charge was a peacock wall sculpture I found on clearance at Tuesday Mornings. I could have totally lived without the peacock but at the time I was like, "YES! This is exactly what I've been looking for for that one wall!" *sigh* *Deposited $50 into savings after the first paycheck and so far, have not had to borrow it back to cover expenses. Health/Fitness goals : Days walked: 10. Four of those days were twice a day. :) I know I took a week (and some days) off  but that was pre-goal...

It's almost cliche now to say that one doesn't make resolutions. Just about every blogger I read has said that and just about everyone I know has said it. Heck, I've said it in past years. But always in the back of my mind was something that I wanted to change about myself in each new year. Usually to do with weight loss and finances. But then, those too seem to be cliched responses to the New Year's resolution question. I thought about the whole resolution thing for a while leading up to and a while after New Year's but it just seemed so silly to me. I, like nearly everyone else in the world, never keep my resolutions.  But for 2012 I thought maybe a short list of goals might be a better way to keep my "Progress" progressing. I've already put most of these in motion and have a PLAN to git-r-done. So here they are, for better or worse. Warning : I get very wordy verbose after the underlined portions of the list. So if this post puts you to slee...