Hamster Town!

We got out new car today - a Kia Soul - you know the one with the hamsters rockin out.  I posted the video separately because frankly.......I don't know how to do it any other way!!

It has some really neat options:
     Bluetooth - Handsfree  Once you have your cell phone paired with it, it recognizes it as soon as you get in the car and everything is hands free!!!  LOVE IT.
     Sun/Moon Roof   Had this before in another car and really liked it.  It just makes the inside brighter!
     Sirius Satellite Radio  FREE for 3 months so I cancelled my current service and will start it up again when the introductory period is over!  Siruis radio is the way to go for me.  I don't listen to a ton of channels but really enjoy Hits1, The Pulse, NPR (my husband can't stand that!).  Holiday channels were fun over Christmas time.
     And many more small things that makes driving more enjoyable.
Loving the color name.....Java! 

Other GREAT things about this transaction.......
     $100+ dollars LESS of a car payment!
     30+ miles to the gallon so approx $500 savings for the year in gas. Woo Hoo!
How maybe I can stay on sabbatical alittle longer!

Food Talk:

Breakfast:
     1/3 c oatmeal with the usual fixins
Lunch:
     McDonalds Fruit and Yogurt Parfait
Snack:
     Several Reduced Fat Wheat Thins

Didn't get in a good lunch because it took sooooo long at the dealership.  Mainly because our bluetooth 'lady' in the car spoke French and as much as I would love to know French it wasn't going to work so that stumped them for a while on how to change it back to English.....about 45 minutes!  Didn't get a chance to eat lunch till about 2:30 and hubbie wanted to eat something before heading back to work so stopped at McDonald's and since I don't eat meat and am trying not to eat fried stuff, I had the parfait to take the hunger off.  It worked.
   

2010 Kia Soul Hamster Commercial | Black Sheep Kia Hamsters Video

Two Days in a row!

I ran for 60 minutes again today!!  Once again, didn't really want to but tried my hardest and once I got thru those first 10 minutes or so it was much better.

Let's talk food:
Breakfast:
     1/3 c oatmeal with some add-ins - PB, oat squares, almond slivers

Lunch:
     Small wrap with delicious Sabra Humus! and romaine lettuce.

Snack:
     Reduced fat Wheat Thins

Dinner:
     PB and J on a sandwich thin and 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese

I had planned to have something more nutricious for dinner but we ended up leaving as soon as hubby got home to go look at a car so by the time we got home I was starving so I just went for something quick.

Speaking of said car.......we bought it.  Pick it up tomorrow.  We were wanting to get better gas mileage (hubby, who buys gas for his work says it's going to start going up) and we got 10+ more miles to the gallon and a lower payment which will now be about $90 less per month than we currently pay.  It's a smaller car, yes, and not as good a ride but it's still a nice car.  We got lots of extras on it.....sunroof (didn't have it on the current car) it has Sirius (have it now but I think this is going to be free for a few months so I will cancel mine and not start it again until it runs out with this new car).  It's a cool color called Java......love that!!

I'll post some pics tomorrow when I get it.  I need to start adding some more photos.......it's boring to just look at writing!!

When your dress pants won't fit!

When your dress pants won't comfortable fit you freak out.  Yesterday morning when I was getting dressed for church I put on a pair of dress pants and the were so tight!  I just felt this so overwhelming anxiety.  I feel like I have been trying so what can I do if that doesn't even work????? 
But here is what I decided:
1.  I'm not really trying....no, I'm not.  I'm exercising but still eating too much food.  This is my nemisis.....too much food.
2.  I wear stretchy pants all the time and have no clue what my pants are really fitting like.  When I worked I had to put them on everyday so I was able to keep it in check.
3.  Being vegetarian is making it even harder to eat out.  Need to work that out.
4.  It's my responsibility ALONE....I need to accept this.  There is a part of me that wants to blame this on someone else or something else.
5.  It's hard work......I like easy and I KNOW it's a lot of work but for some reason I keep thinking it could magically be easy.

So once again I start to try and fix my eating. Here's what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast:
     Oatmeal (1/3c)  with add-in's of PB, oat squares, almonds, chia seeds
Lunch:
     Didn't eat anything, not hungry - I know, I know......bad idea but I wasn't hungry.  I need to only eat when I am hungry.  Later in the afternoon I was hungry so had some wheat thins.
Dinner:
     2 eggs scrambled with 2 pieces of 45 calorie bread

Exercise:
     Ran on the treadmill 5.2 miles for 60 minutes.  Didn't really want to get on there but after the tight pants crisis I had to do something so just got on there and decided I would listen to my music and NOT look at the time or distance till the play list was over so I did it......then the last song is Firework by Katie Perry which I love so I just kept playing it over and over, getting lost in the song and before I knew it, I was at 50 minutes and just finished out the other 10 minutes.

Welcome 2011

That's going to take a while to get used to writing! 

Do I have resolutions?  I'm kind of like some people who think they are worthless and are just waiting to be broken.  My problem most of the time is that I FORGET about them.  I forget that I wanted to lose 30 lbs (that's pretty significant! LOL), that I was going to read more books than I read last year, that I wanted to find a new job, that I wanted to be more organized, that I wanted to take a photo a day for the entire year (that one actually lasted till March!).

So maybe this year I will just try to have 'priorities'
Contentment - my goal for this year or priority is to work toward being happy where I am, in the moment.  I will turn 50 this year (can not believe it) and I have lived well more than half my life and I need to stop waiting for life to become more perfect 'tomorrow'.  What a waste of my life - constantly thinking a time in the future will be better than now. It's never true.  Live now, enjoy now, don't have regrets about the past....it's done over with and you can't change it so let it go......Don't be scared about the future and what being 50 will hold, embrace what you have and enjoy every second. 

Do things that put me out of my comfort zone.  You grow when this happens, even if it's tough.

Run Faster - I started running this summer and enjoy it but get frustrated with my speed or LACK of!  Today it dawned on me that all the people I know that are faster are way thinner than I am.  If I want to gain speed and run a 2:00 half marathon I need to lose about 30 lbs.  I need to lose those pounds for health reasons too but I think I would be stunned how much faster I could run if I wasn't lugging all this extra poundage around.  If I think about it......I would be exhausted if I carried a 30 lb sack with me when I was running and how much lighter I would feel if I dropped it!  So I will try to be healthier in my food choices and refine my portions.

Here's to a wonderful 2011 focusing on enjoying it more rather than looking for the next day to bring more happiness.

One Little Word

For 2011 I want to focus on 'Contentment'.  I spend too much time wanting what I don't have or wishing things were different.  I need to be in the moment and appreciate what I have.

I will stop looking back with regret....or looking forward with fear.....and give the best I have today!

I need to review this frequently.

CRAP!

I just typed all this stuff out and ended up deleting the entire thing accidentally!!!!  CRAP!!  Don't know if I want to recreate that or not.

Let's surfice it to say, I was in a funk for the last 2 days and need a Christmas attitude adjustment!  I won't go into all the stuff I said but the gest is I'm tired of trying to find the perfect gift for people when they don't seem to be that concerned about it in return.  I think I should just tell people I'm not buying gifts because I'm trying to get back to the real meaning of Christmas!  And I hate feeling this way because I always appreciate the fact that people give me something and don't expect a gift........

What I really wanted to post (ramble) about today was why I sabatoge myself when I have an event or something special I want to lose weight for.  For instance, my 30 year reunion was in October and I wanted to look great but what do I do instead is eat everything in site.  Is it the stress or the goal?  Is it the stress of feeling like I will fail?  We have a trip to the Dominican Republic in February where I will want to don a swimsuit.  I should have been working on this since I found out in October but NOOOOOO I'm eating everything in site.  I'm running and exercising but not watching what I eat.  And in my funk the last couple days, I could feel it coming on - the lack of ability to get serious about my goal.  Why do I have a goal?  Because I know when it gets here I will feel like crap because I will look like crap!!!

So this morning I really didn't want to go down on the treadmill and run so I told myself, just go down there and walk, don't run.  Well, by the time I got down there I ran.....2 miles.  So I was in the mood and did Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred.  So just getting going, was the key.  Today I plan on eating NO sugar because I have OD's on sugar the last couple days and need to break that cycle!  And I will start writing everything down that I eat too.

Breakfast after workout:
Arnold Bagel Thin with one egg (fried) and 2% piece of cheese.  Approx 200 calories.

Now it's off to walk downtown to the post office and bank.  Need to mail my Thank You notes.  There is a new book out they talked about on NPR regarding Thank You notes. 

Purses I made for people in my family.