Weight-Loss Struggles

I think the hardest thing about trying to lose weight, and I think some of you will agree, is having a week when you don't actually lose any weight.  Or worse yet, a week when you gain weight.  It's weird because people who are "maintaining" their weight probably jump around within a 5-10 pound range depending on the time of year, how much water they drank, what their salt intake was, what time of day they work out.  But oddly, even though my overall weight is down, I am losing (slowly!), I panic when I gain a pound back, like I have accomplished nothing thus far. 

It's hard on me, because I have grown to have a sort of love/hate relationship with food.  I eat it to make me happy, and then I hate how it makes me feel.  And unfortunately, when I gain at my WW meeting, I have a strange urge to give up rather than try harder.  And a pound or even half of a pound makes me feel like I've failed.  Even if I did make smarter choices, and work out more, suddenly that number on the scale kills a good week.


Well, I think that's been the biggest struggle, but also the biggest lesson so far with my Weight Watchers journey.  I am learning to be determined to keep pushing through, to celebrate the little goals I reach and remember it's not just about losing weight, it's about being healthy all around.  Whether you're doing Weight Watchers or not, when you are trying to lose weight, or tone up, or eat organically, the best thing you can do is forgive yourself when you "cheat," "mess up," "get off track," or whatever other negative term we've decide to give to our indulgences, and just keep striving for your goal.  In the long run, gaining one or two pounds one week does not make you a failure, it makes you human.  If I have learned anything from my last seven weeks with Weight Watchers, its that there are so many other HUMANS struggling with the same things I have been.  I have learned to laugh off a "bad" week and get right on with my life, because I'm not going to enjoy much if I'm always feeling guilty about my choices, the number on the scale, or the day I watched TV instead of rode my bike.  My "struggles" are feeling less like tall hurdles I have to jump over and more like little hills I have to climb.  I can slowly work towards getting over the hill without falling flat on my face.


I am still always open to any advice or recipes or tips and of course, always willing to share any advice, recipes or tips of my own...just let me know! :)  Happy Tuesday!

Anniversary Celebration

Since Jenny's wedding was the same weekend as our anniversary and we had friends in town, we waited to celebrate until the next weekend.  Of course, since we got married in Dubuque, we thought that would be the perfect place to spend a day to celebrate.  We were just going to go up for the day, but then, as an anniversary gift, my wonderful parents got us a night at the Hotel Julien, a beautiful hotel in Dubuque.  So we went up last Saturday and got there just in time for lunch at Pickle Barrel (a sub place unique to Dubuque).  Then we went to the Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, per my request, and it was awesome!  They even had an Octopus there, which doesn't really belong in a river, but it was still really cool to see.

After the museum, we checked in to our hotel and then made trips to Wisconsin and Illinois to pick up some beers that you can't get in Iowa.  Oh, and of course we had to grab some Wisconsin cheese curds.

After one drink at the hotel, we walked to this Italian restaurant, Vinny Vannuchis, and it was to die for.  Seriously, they had the best garlic bread I've ever had!  Also, my entree could have fed a family of five, it was ridulously large, but very good.

Appetizer, fried ravioli...yumm

Eggplant Parmigiano

After I was done eating, so much leftover

Sorry the pics are a little dark, didn't want to keep the flash on.  But it was delicious, and I can't wait to go back and try something different next time.  After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and got in the hot tub for a little bit and then enjoyed some of our delicious drinks.  The next day, we got up and grabbed a newspaper.  While looking through the ads, we see there is a decent computer on sale, so of course, we go to Staples...and buy it.  But before we left Dubuque, we stopped at Taiko for lunch.  We both got the lunch box, just had different entrees in them.  Mine was Shrimp Tempura, Ryan got Chicken Terriyaki.  It was quite delicious, though the actual building was really strange, but that didn't matter, the food was very good.

Sorry...it's sideways

It was a wonderful celebration, we only wish the weather would have been as great as it was on our actual anniversary date, but we made it work!


SIDE NOTE: With or without glasses? I still can't decide!

Technology Fiasco

So it all started with my cell phone acting up every time I tried to send a text message.  When I used the keyboard, it would muultiiiippply almost every other letter in a word!  It was so frustrating.  I brought it into AT&T who were going to gladly replace my phone free of charge, but I couldn't get a hold of Ryan for his SSN# when I was in the store, so she gave me a number to call from home.  


I called from home, no problem, but when it came to having to restart my phone, because you have to try it all before they'll send you a new one, she told me I would lost everything, contacts, pictures, music, etc.  And I freaked, of course, because in the store, they totally would have backed all of that up for me.  So of course, I put it off some more, but in the meantime discovered that Ryan was eligible for an upgrade and he wants to wait a little longer before shelling out $300 for a new iPhone...and maybe wait until they have the iPhone 5.  So he agreed to let me use his upgrade!


Exciting right?!  TOTALLY! ATT&T has $49 iPhone's right now, so completely affordable.  The next night, we ran some errands and were going to go to AT&T and get me an iPhone, but it was getting late, we hadn't started dinner yet, and I begrudgingly agreed to go home and we'd go the next night.  Well...we get home that night (last Monday) and our computer is not working.  It'll turn on, but an error message keeps showing up and we can't get past it.  The next night, my Dad gives us a boot disc so we can determine if it's the hard drive. That doesn't work right either.


In the mean time, I am a little disappointed I have to keep waiting on my phone, so my mood was blah!  No decent phone to spend my time on while we don't have a usable computer.  So over the next few days, my dad takes our computer to work and all of his IT/programming department get a good laugh at our seven year old computer and come to the conclusion that we shouldn't put another dime into it.  OK, fine, but now we have to go drop a load of cash that we were trying to save to buy a new computer.


So this past Sunday, we found a decent computer on "sale," still expensive in my opinion, so we finally have a working computer with working iTunes so on Monday, we went to AT&T and I finally got to sing "Hallelujah" as I turned on my brand new iPhone, which only cost me $49!  So there's that, we're a little broke now, but now we have working technology, so it was worth it.

Jenny's Wedding

Last weekend, our dear little Jenny Flater became Jenny Gales!  It was such a beautiful and fun wedding.  It was so great to be a part of their special day.  They got married April 9th, the same weekend Ryan and I got married last year.  Of course we were the 10th.  We both had such beautiful days for our weddings, 70's and sunny!  So for future reference, anyone planning their wedding for next year, that weekend in April has a good track record :)


Of course, it was also awesome being able to hang out with our friends from out of town and have a great weekend, eating great food, staying up late, and catching up.  We took a bagillion pictures on Saturday, most of which I'm not posting anywhere!  But here are a few pics from the wedding night:

Finally Up and Running

Hello friends and family! I'm back!  Our computer died last weekend, and after exploring our options, we discovered on Friday that it was dead, for good, not coming back...so we had to cave and buy a new one, a little sooner than expected.


I don't have enough time right now to catch you all up one what we've been doing, but hopefully tonight!  Now, I need to go get ready for work and ready to cross the flooding Mississippi because today is the first day I work over at the Moline branch where I will be working every Monday and Tuesday going forward.


What I'll be telling you about tonight:
-Jenny Gales (Flater)'s wedding
-Hotel party
-The computer/iPhone fiasco
-Anniversary celebration this past weekend
-Own up to some weight-loss struggles


Tune in later :)

Day 24 - A picture of something you're excited about

These four friends are coming to town this weekend!!!!!!

I'm excited to get out to the driving range this year...maybe on Saturday!

My little and I are getting manicures on Sunday =D

It's our one year wedding anniversary on Sunday!! But we are celebrating next weekend up in Dubuque, since we got married up there!

There you go, a few things I'm currently excited about.  Just wish I had some more cleaning done and would have gotten some groceries before Andy and Ashley make it into town, but it's all good, I think they'll still love me! What are some things that you are excited about?

Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book

OK seriously. How could I possibly pick one favorite book?! Here are my top 5 (I think):

OK six favorites.

Yes, they all count as one! =D

Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at

It's true...I really am awful at painting my own nails and if I weren't, I'd probably paint them more often. Oh well :( Good excuse to get manicure right?! :)

Day 21 - A picture of where you were born

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel

Ummm.....everywhere! Right?!  But here is where I'd love to live if the opportunity comes up!

Germany

In the Rhine Valley...

OR Heildelberg...

OR Stuggart....

I'm pretty sure anywhere in Germany would be awesome! :) 

Day 19 - A picture of someone you would trade places with for a day.

Samantha Brown

I want to see the world and stay in awesome hotels like Samantha Brown!

Day 18 - A picture of your ideal day

A fall road trip

Making stops at places like apple orchards....

...and wineries

And ending the night around a crackling fire...

...before dipping into the hot tub I wish we had!

Yeah, that'd be a great day!

April Goals

The goals are set in March were definitely attainable and it feels great to have met them all!  Here's a look at March:

Spend more time with myself. I think some me-time is in store this month. YUP! But partially because Ryan has gone out of town on business trips.  But the time I've spent with myself has been wonderfull.

Join Weight Watchers CHECK! And still going :)

Spend less money I'm pretty cure we accomplished this though I haven't looked at the budget breakdown yet.  But I have not been shopping for random stuff lately.  I really need new jeans, so spending less money probably cannot be an April goal.

Volunteer at the Humane Society My Little and I did volunteer at the H.S. once this month.  It's been hard for her and I to get together since I was sick for awhile...but we loved it and we plan to go back again!

Here are some reasonable goals for April:

Meet my 10 Pound Goal I'm hoping to FINALLY get to my 5 pound goal today...slow process!

Read a new book Reading has just not sounded appealing lately...but once I start a book, I always want to keep going.  Any suggestions?!

Ride at least one 15 mile bike ride by the end of the month The RAGBRAI days we're riding start with a 57 mile day (easier), then a 75 mile day (wowza!), and ends with a 64 mile day...training for this is crucial, for me anyway!

Go to Church every Sunday Except when I'm in Ames/Des Moines, which is unfortunately Easter! Maybe I can find someone to go with me up there.  Hmm...

Happy April everyone! Be nice today, don't play any April Fool's Day jokes on people who don't appreciate them! =)