The Devil Made Me Do It

I had been saving this photo to post on Halloween, but alas, I wasn't able to.
So, go grab a candy bar if that's what you need to get back in the Halloween spirit, and check out Mutt in all her Halloween glory. She has quite a "personality", so the lil' devil costume was fitting. Embrace your inner cat lady and enjoy!

Oh happy day!

Blogger has finally decided to play nice and allow me to upload some pictures! I apologize in advance for the photo overload you will be experiencing in the next few posts. From now on, my "progress pics" will look like this:

 



If I can remember to stand in the same spot and find the same skin tight tank in the mess that I call my closet, I think it will help me and you(if there are any "you's" out there reading) track my progress a bit better. I lost nearly 5 pounds last week. (4.4 to be exact) I feel like I am finally making a dent in the GIANT number that haunts me and that feels good! I am especially proud since I consumed quite a few hundred gummy bears and pixie sticks last week in honor of Halloween.

Now that I am looking at the above pictures, I actually think I might look bigger in the more recent one. Hmm... I'm going to choose to trust the scale today, though.
I told Steel that I'd like to lose the weight in my boobs and belly, but he seems to think he can't control where the weight loss happens. Damn. Yes, I know that you can firm/tone/lose small amounts of weight when you focus on a particular area of your body. However, let's be honest. I'm not even close to that aspect of weight loss yet. I do lots of strength training so that when all this weight does magically (And by magically, I mean by busting my ass) fall off, I will have less to deal with when it comes to loose skin and such.

Anyway, Halloween was a great time! I always have grand ideas for costumes. I really wanted to be a Smurfette a couple years ago, but that plan fell through when it turns out I look like a drag queen when I wear a bright yellow/blonde wig. That went from cute to tragic real quick, and so now I focus on just being comfortable and having fun. Don't get me wrong, one year I plan to totally slut it up on Halloween when I'm hot and skinny. And I think it's super awesome that some people of the not-so-skinny variety rock the skimpy costumes, but that's just not me.

So this year, my Halloween-hating friend and I went as hippies!

You may be wondering, who hates Halloween? And my answer is that I have no idea. I've told her that she should seek help and figure out what childhood trauma caused this "issue", but since she's getting her Masters in Psychology, I guess I should just let her handle it.

Hippies smoked a lot of pot, because making your own clothes is a little stressful. I tie-dyed(Really fun!), I made a cute headband(Still fun!), I made bell bottoms(Not fun!) BUT, they turned out pretty cute, so it was well worth the hot glue gun burns. Oh, you thought I sewed them? No way, dude. I managed three stitches before I threw out the thread and got out the hot glue gun. Our group of friends really puts on a show for Halloween and the host and hostess of our party this year really went above and beyond. It was so much fun and really a great way to kick off the holiday season with a bang!

Speaking of holiday fun, Kassie over at Southern Girl Gets Fit is hosting a swag swap. I was matched up with a girl after my own heart who loves camo and hot pink. I'm super excited to pick out some fun things for her. I'll be sure to post all of her goodies over here once I'm sure she has received her package. Ta-ta for now!

 

 

 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Never fear, my head is not burried in a bowl of cheese dip. (Ok, it is. But only from 11pm-7am aka in my dreams) My absence over the past week has been due to some "technical issues." Blogger hasn't been letting me upload pictures and I'm just not clever enough to fill up all this space with plain old words. I have plenty of posts ready to go that are just waiting to be finished up with some photos. Including, but not limited to; ME 4lbs lighter, pumpkin carving, food, yada yada yada...(If you're a Seinfeld fan, I do not actually have any yada yada yada pictures to post. Sickos. ha!)

Until then, here are a few things that have been on my brain this week:

-Steel drinks carb powder. CARB POWDER. Who the hell needs carbs in powder form?! I assured him I could direct him to the nearest pizza place, but apprently that's not the same...

-Before I go to bed at night I think about everything I would like to write on my blog if my face weren't on it. Then I think, maybe I'll just write it anyway. Then I hear my dad say, "Don't put anything on the internet that you wouldn't want to be a permanent representation of you." Then I decide not to publicly call anyone out for being a "see you next Tuesday".

-If I were going to do the above, it would be completely justified. If you're wondering why, it's because being crazy isn't cool. And I'm not talking fun, crazy. I'm talking crazy, crazy. If you're wondering what the difference is, you are the latter. Sorry.

-The gym I go to is very odd. (This will get its very own post at some point) But for now, you should just know that a man changed out of his wedding dress and into a speedo and high tops and galloped around the gym for far too long on Thursday. (What is an apporopriate length of time for that activity anyway?)

-If I care about a person, even if I am really, really angry with them for some reason, and something horrendously shitty happens in their lives, I will immediately try and help them pick up the pieces. I won't know if I care about the person enough to do this until the horrendously shitty thing happens, though. So, it's best to just stay in my good graces. ;)

-I thought I was crafty. Maybe I am. But I can't sew for shit. And I'm not all that good with a hot glue gun either. More on that later.

I hope everyone has a very festive Halloween themed weekend!

Go forth and VOTE

On November 6, we will choose the person who will be our President for at least the next 4 years. Like I have said before, I have a lot of opinions when it comes to politics but I won't bore you with the majority of them. I would, however, encourage everyone that has the privilege, to go out and vote. I vote in every, single election. Even the boring ones, where most of the positions being filled are incumbents, so it could be argued that there is no point. For me, the point is that I get to vote, so why not? I like the whole process, from filling out the form, to casting my ballot, to getting the little sticker that said I voted. Plus, during elections like these, when we are picking the leader of our whole freakin' nation, I find that my palms get a little sweaty before I click on "my" candidate. I double, triple, and quadruple check to make sure I didn't accidentally click the wrong box, and I walk out feeling that no matter the outcome, at least I did my part. Our system may not be perfect, but I do think it's pretty cool that with so many of our freedoms being taken away, we are still allowed this opportunity to express our opinion in such a big way.

As a reward for reading that, I leave you with some shots of Mutt. She felt that she was not accurately portrayed in previous posts, and wants everyone to know that she has many more interests other than just eating and drinking. Like:

squishing herself into drawers.

taking a bite out of her saviors face.

and just being precious, in that, "Wow, she's so unique!" kind of way.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend full of fall leaves and pumpkin spice everything!

If oatmeal and greek yogurt were bagels and biscuits, oh what a life that would be!

I've mentioned before that breakfast just isn't my thing. However, I do know that I've got to eat it. I need it to avoid overeating during lunch, and to jump start my metabolism in the a.m. When I signed up on Lose It, I wasn't eating breakfast daily. By dinner time I still had over a thousand calories to use, jackpot! Not. I knew that my calorie count was given to me assuming I would eat before noon!
Soon I decided to buckle down and do it right. Now I don't just stay within my daily calorie allotment, I also eat better, more often, and always have something within the first 2 hours of waking. As a kid, I can remember sitting on the kitchen counter eating cold, leftover spaghetti for breakfast with my dad. I wasn't overweight as a kid, wasn't a picky eater, and never shied away from trying new foods, so the battle over breakfast just never happened with my parents. If I could, I'd still eat cold spaghetti and pizza every morning. But, I can't. (Technically I could, but not if I want to LOSE THE WEIGHT!)
So, when I wake up from my pasta and french fry dreams, this is what I've been eating lately:

I think I have mentioned my love for these convenient and tasty bars before!

I eat the Luna bars 2-3 times a week. I love the Kind bars, but I don't eat them nearly

as much. They are seriously delicious, but don't have the same staying power as the Luna bars.

 

 



The return of the overnight oats! The ones above are pumpkin pie flavored. Yum.

You can read ALL about overnight oats in a couple different posts from earlier this month.

Regular oatmeal would have made the list, but I don't have a microwave, so these are much easier for me to prepare. P.S. I'm not one of those people that think microwaves are awful. Actually, mine just croaked a few months ago and I quickly realized how much less crap I was eating without it, so I've decided not to replace it for now.

 

Greek yogurt. I added pumpkin spice granola to the top of this cup. What can I say, it's Fall, and I'm lovin' all things pumpkin! :) Some people love greek yogurt, some people hate it. I'm kind of indifferent at this point regarding the taste, but the amount of protein can't be beat.

 



I've been on a tea kick lately. I usually have a cup of the ginger pear when I eat breakfast.

I also have a cup of the ginger tea after dinner, and a couple cups of the Honey Vanilla chamomile, too. Maybe I'm a little obsessed. I'm not partial to any of these teas, except the honey vanilla, so I'm sure I'll change up the flavors when I run out of a box.

 

I also get Starbucks a couple times a week. A skinny vanilla latte, half decaf, with only 1 pump of sugar-free vanilla syrup. This is actually one of my more simple orders. Don't judge me. That's a $5 cup of coffee!

 

There you have it! A non-breakfast eaters guide to breakfast. After a week or so, I got used to eating breakfast every day, and now it's just part of my routine. Simple enough.

 

tat-tat-tatted up

I'm linking up with Melanie for her Let's Talk Tattoos link up. Love 'em or hate 'em, head over there and read about some other peoples tattoo experiences and/or why they aren't a fan of ink at all.

I love my tattoo, which is very appropriate since it is a heart:

 

You may be wondering who that other wrist belongs to. It's my mom. Yep, you read that right. This past Mother's Day, I took my mom out to do the mani/pedi thing, go visit Mimi(my grandmother),and of course get the obligatory Mother's Day tattoo. Oh. That's not normal? Well, neither is my mom. And neither is her daughter. Anyway, it may not be normal, but it's very "us".

My mom originally wanted the whole family to get tattoos together around the same time that my brother got married. I guess the rest of the family just didn't have the balls time, so I decided while getting lovely pink polish on my toes that we should just do it. I told her of my idea, she looked shocked, we drove around aimlessly for awhile as she went back and forth about whether we should really do it. As you can see from the picture above, we did it!

 

 

We almost had to leave because we couldn't follow the tattoo shop rules, and cried the whole time. Just kidding! It really barely hurt at all, in my opinion. I know that some people think tattoos are trashy or unnecessary. That's why I won't make those people go get one.

Sidenote: My dad told me he couldn't wait for me to write a political post. I have a lot of opinions, but they all kind of boil down to the same theme, and that is, do whatever you want. Seriously, just Do. whatever. the. hell. you. want. While I would prefer that you not use heroin, if you choose to, just don't ask for my money to send you to rehab or bail you out of jail.

Ah, what does that little rant have to do with my tattoo? I chose to get it. I will never regret it. It is one of the best memories I have with my mom. If a man doesn't like me because of it, or I miss out on a job opportunity by forgetting to cover it up, or if my wrists get even fatter and the heart gets really stretched out and weird looking, I promise I will never ask for your money to have it removed. Life is all about choices, and this is one that I feel good about.

Do you. YOLO. And always remember, "Haters gonna hate". Now get on with your bad(tatted up) selves.

 

 







This & That

 

Weekly picture time. Not my favorite day of the week, but one day I'll be glad I did this, right!? From now on I plan to make an effort to take these pictures in the same shirt each time, so I can be sure I'm giving myself an accurate portrayal of what's goin' on with my bod. According to my last weigh in,(Saturday)I didn't lose anything last week! Boo. Anyway, I'm not happy that I didn't lose weight. Not happy at all. But, I didn't say fuck it and grab some french fries for dinner like I might have done in the past and I worked my butt off in the gym last night, so I'll just have to see what happens next week. Fat is weird.(And gross, unattractive, and jiggly) Some weeks it flies right off, and I lose 5 pounds, then the next week, nada. I'm stepping up the work outs this week, and on Tues/Thurs I'll be working out twice a day. Hopefully this will lead to a happy weigh in on Saturday morning.

 

As promised, here is a picture of the overnight oats that I had for breakfast this morning:

 

 

They were very chocolatey! I'm not a big fan of chocolate(Shocking, I know) and I especially don't like fruit and chocolate combined, but for some reason the combo of the cold oats, the cocoa powder, and the bananas worked for me. I've already made a batch for tomorrow using pumpkin, vanilla protein powder, and pomegranate greek yogurt. I'll add some kind of fruit on top tomorrow, too.

You really can add anything you want to these. I've seen chocolate chips, peanut butter, caramel, etc! Sounds more like a sundae, sometimes. Speaking of, watch the calories on this if you are trying to lose weight. Luckily, it is really filling, because the calorie content doesn't really allow me to have a late morning snack. The number of calories vary depending on your "add-ins", but just to give you an idea, the oats above rang in at a hefty 429. They are all good for you calories, so I try not to worry about it too much.