Noticing RV's - what catches your eye?

A week ago we were driving home from Florida. We passed quite a few of RV's while driving in the southern states. Normally I don't notice RV's but now that my Florida parents have one (and I'm dreaming of having a nice camper), I've been looking at them. I wonder what part pops out to make it bigger and how much room they have inside.

Last Sunday I started noticing something else about those RV's. I'll post a few pics and you tell me what you notice...

Well, yes, they're all heading South. It's just easier to take pictures of RV's coming towards you, especially with the sun shining on them. But no, that's not what I'm getting at. Here's a few more...

Are you noticing the colors? What about the designs? Those are some crazy curves! Who designs those things? Does someone actually get PAID to come up with those??? (Design school students - really, do they have jobs out there for this?)

What's the point of those curves? Those colors? Do they help camouflage your RV in the woods? Or maybe help you find your RV in the woods??? Do the curves mean something? Are they like art and they're supposed to make you *feel* something? Like you're a warrior on the road? (Am I asking too many questions?) ;)

Here's some older RV's...

 

Straight lines! I'm wondering when they decided that straight lines on RV's were "old" or boring and decided to make them more exciting and turning them into crazy curves. 

Here's a photo with both a newer RV with the curvy designs and an older RV with the straight lines...

 

I got so excited when I got this picture. (Win!!) Yeah, 18 hour car trips can be pretty boring. I told Jason I was taking pictures of RV's for a future blog. I had already gone on and on about the weird designs on the RV's so he wasn't too surprised. He just looked at me like I'm crazy (I get that from him a lot).

But I think boredom kicked in for him too (he was driving) and he started pointing out RV's for me when I wasn't paying attention. It kinda turned into a game - trying to take a picture at just the right moment through the left side of the front windshield. And of course the RV's were usually in the slow lane, so I had to wait for cars to finish passing before taking a picture. After awhile I'd review my photos and delete my failed attempts and get excited about a clear shot. Yeah, those 18 hours car trips are pretty boring.

(I actually took over 100 pictures and limited it down to 40 good ones. The ones posted here were just whatever grabbed me while blogging. My apologies if this has been an especially boring blog. I think I'm just trying to hold onto our trip to Florida for as long as possible. Next blog will be about the different kinds of palm trees and my favorite ones. No, just kidding.) ;)

Feel free to post your opinion about those curves and colors. If I happen to find a job listing for RV exterior design, I'll let you know. (Ha.)

Confessions of a Die-Hard Dieter

As you may know, Jason and I recently lost 40+ pounds each. On that journey to lose weight we had to turn our backs on all fried food, all sugary food, and basically anything unhealthy. Gone were the days of pizzas, cheeseburgers, fries, ice cream, mac&cheese, and fast food.

Our eating habits changed, but we still loved eating out with friends. This was a challenge because we had to watch our friends eat the fried food we used to love eating while we ate chicken breasts and salads. We even had friends who said they've always been able to get their friends to cheat on their diets but no, not us. They were impressed. And obviously the determination paid off.

You know what happens to that determination when Christmas hits? Yeah, you guessed it. Down the tube. It was a gradual downfall. First just a bite of cookie, just one chocolate covered pretzel, then a sliver of pie. Ugh. By Christmas day I was eating seconds of stuffing (my mother-in-law's stuffing is amazing!) smothered in gravy. Followed by several cut-out cookies and a couple of buckeyes. Oh what did I do!

The week after Christmas we traveled to Florida to visit my mom and step-dad. We tried to eat healthy, but when you're on the road and don't want to stop for more than 10-15 minutes, fast food is what you have to deal with. Did you know that Burger King has a grilled chicken sandwich on a whole grain ciabatta bun? (I believe 470 calories.) I also got the Chick-fil-a chicken salad sandwich on wheat bread with the fruit cup. Not too bad.

Thankfully my mom is trying to eat healthy and this really helped us get on track. Of course we did more snacking than we should have. Then the last night in Florida we went to a seafood restaurant and I got my usual, garlic butter shrimp and hush puppies. (Oh yummers!!) And I finished dinner with the biggest slice of key lime pie I have ever seen. (No, I didn't finish it.)

I tried to off-set the excess calories with some running in the warm weather. I only ran twice though but I pushed myself more than usual. (I may have gotten a little lost in my mom's neighborhood and went a little further than I intended. In my defense, all the houses look the same down there.) Thankfully my family knows to come looking for me when I've been gone over an hour.

And then I did the unthinkable. On our way back up to Ohio we stopped south of Atlanta in an area with only fast food restaurants. We decided to get Domino's pizza. My first pizza since last July when we started our diets. We got thin crust (less calories) and lots of veggies, does that count for anything? Wow, that pizza tasted SO good. Unfortunately I had stomach issues the rest of the night. (Jason was so glad for that king sized bed.) ;)

So Tuesday morning I decided to step on the scale. I slowly slid the scale out from under the dresser. Checked (twice) to make sure that little pointer was on zero. (Okay, maybe a hair less than zero.) And then I stepped on and waited for the pointer to stop. And then I squinted and bent over, sending the pointer moving again, and waited again.

Holy. Freakin. Cow.

I only gained one pound.

ONE pound.

There's only two things that can happen after an experience like this. You either continue over-eating, snacking, and indulging and it WILL catch up to you. Or you thank God for the chance to indulge a little and jump right back onto the healthy eating.

I'm trying my best to get back on track, but I've got that sweet tooth back and I hate that. I know I have to avoid all sugar for at least two weeks before all the cravings are gone again. That's going to be a rough two weeks. But I've done it before, I can do it again.

You know what kills me though. If I had stayed true to my diet and ran a little more, would I have lost weight over Christmas? Probably. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow? That's right, I'm going running. :)

(Side note, I started typing this an hour ago. I took a break in the middle to surf channels and ended up on Forrest Gump. When I run I think of Forrest saying "I was ruh-ning." So funny that I'd end this blog with Forrest running on the TV. I think that's my motivation right there!) ;)

Happiest Place on Earth - the Dog Beach!

Last week, while we were in Florida, we took our little dog, Izzy, to a dog beach. It's on the gulf coast near Fort Myers. It wasn't the easiest place to find and once we got there all we saw were some cars - no people, no dogs. We found some signs giving us directions about doggie doo, so we knew we were in the right place. We walked out to the beach and looked to the right and saw a sand bar with about 20 dogs and lots of humans.

(Click on photos to see a larger size.)

We left Izzy on her leash at first, unsure if she'd feel safe with all the other dogs. In no time she was wanting to run around with the other dogs, so we took her leash off. We were still a bit nervous about the big dogs running up to her, but she just had a great time sniffing and running around.

We ended up spending about an hour watching Izzy interact with the other dogs. We were wondering if she'd go into the water and at first she had no interest in getting her feet wet. But then her desire to play with doggies on another sand bar got to be too much and in she went!

Here's a quick movie of Izzy running through the water. She was having so much fun!

(Click on the video to see regular size on youtube.com)

And then she met a couple of dachshunds. Watching her run around with those two little dogs really made me realize how much doxie she has in her!

The rest of the pictures are just a few more pictures I wanted to share with you. The day was cloudy and a bit chilly but then sun really wanted to come out.

 

We tried to leave a couple of times but she'd go running back to play with a group of dogs. Finally she started to walk with us and she seemed okay with leaving.

Needless to say, when we got home little Izzy got a quick bath and I think she slept really great that night. No doubt she dreamed of running up and down that beach with all those new friends.

What would I do without the internet?

I think I'm pretty young, but I remember life before the internet. I remember writing letters to friends, getting information from the newspaper, and finding out about the weather from the evening news. I remember looking up information in an encyclopedia and going to the library and looking up books using the Dewey Decimal System on cards.

Not that I miss those days when finding information took so much more time. Actually, I think most of the time I just did without getting answers to my wondering.

Now I look up information on all sorts of things I wonder about. (I'm a googler.) What day of the week is my birthday this year? (Friday! Sweet!) Who keeps calling from that 866 number? (5/3) How long does it take to get from Dayton, OH to Logan, OH? (Just over 2 hours.) Can we find a Tommy Bahama leather bomber jacket for Jason for less than $249? (So far, no.)

But I don't just find information online, I keep information online. Jason and I have a google calendar that we both update. It's the only way we keep track of our crazy schedules. I do all my banking online, including paying bills and transferring money between banks. I have face-painting ideas bookmarked, cake recipes bookmarked, and even future vacation locations bookmarked. I store most of my photos online - just in case I ever lose another computer.

I do most of my shopping online. (Jason never knows what's going to show up on our front porch next.) I keep in touch with friends online. I track the weather online. I purchase memberships online. Have I convinced you yet? I'd be completely lost if my internet was suddenly taken away.

I'll confess two things that are a bit unusual. The two searches I do the most online? Google image searches and imdb.com. I guess the image search makes sense - a picture is worth a thousand words. Yesterday's image searches were "trash the dress" and "Arthur Rebecca Sedille." (Why did I search these things? Well, I've got this wedding dress I'm never going to wear again... and I was curious to see what a 50-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man, a married couple, would look like together.)

And what about imdb.com? This is the international movie database. If google is my #1 go-to website, then imdb.com is my #2. Ever start a movie and don't want to watch the end? Look it up on imdb.com and it'll tell you the ending. Wondering who that actress is in that Kevin Bacon movie? imdb.com will not only tell you who she is, but all the other movies she's been in. (Click on those links and you can see all the other actors she's been in movies with. Thus you have the cheat-sheet for Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.)

I combine my two favorite websites when I hear "based on a true story." I look up the movie on imdb.com, find out the background, then google it to get the REAL story. It's amazing I get anything done at home. :)

So back to my original point, what would I do without the internet? I might get a lot more done, but my brain would constantly be wondering things. Great many things that might seem like useless information to others but it's definitely brain candy to me.

(I've decided to add links to many of the things I've referenced, just in case you're now wondering about them. Feel free to click on them and get some brain candy. See, wasn't that fun?) ;)

A bad sign in Florida

While in Florida last week I went running a few times. I encountered the most curious thing while running - my feet were crunching things while I was running on the sidewalks.

 

Do you know what kind of tree that is? I've seen them all over the area where my mom lives but just assumed it was some Florida-ish tree. And then I noticed what I was stepping on...

Can you see them? I'll blow the picture up a bit...

 

Acorns!! I had NO idea those trees were oak trees! I've been visiting my mom in Florida for 12 years and I don't remember ever seeing an acorn. This year they're everywhere!

 

So why is this so undesirable in Florida? Because when the oak trees in Florida drop this many acorns, it means they're in for a pretty cold winter. (Gotta fatten up the little critters and get an extra layer of warmth on them.)

And so far those trees have done a great job at predicting the weather. Florida has had colder than usual temperatures for the last few weeks - and winter has just begun. Of course this means that the rest of the south can expect cold weather. (Maybe Ohio too? We've had colder than usual temps too.) 

I'm starting to begin to understand how the Farmer's Almanac can predict weather for an entire winter. Crunching on acorns means don't expect to get a tan while you're vacationing in Florida this winter!

Reasons not to blog...

I haven't blogged (other than the New Years Eve post) since October. Has nothing happened? Oh yes, much as happened, but for some reason I wasn't feeling the motivation to put it in a blog. It's not because I don't want to blog anymore (quite contrary, I want to blog more often) but I guess I have these hang-ups with blogging. So I guess in order to get over them, I'll blog about them. (Is this like handling a spider if you're trying to get over being afraid of them? Does that even work?)

1) My brain seems more focused on the negative than on the positive lately. And really who wants to hear about the negative - you've got your own stuff (crap) to deal with. You don't want to deal with mine, right? So I guess I need to change my focus and work on finding the positive, and fun, things that are going on in our lives.

2) My creativity has dried up. I think this is tied into the above reason - negativity definitely hurts my creativity. I think I need to focus on the positive AND my creativity. I've heard "if you don't use it, you lose it" and I'm not sure this is true. But I do believe that creativity is like a muscle and if you stop using it, it atrophies. And if you haven't used it for awhile, it might take quite a bit of exercising before it's flexible again. (So I'm exercising... right now in fact!)

3) Does anyone care? Well, I guess the 6 people who follow my blog care. (And thank you to those 6 people!) I guess I'm blogging to a larger audience - assuming that anyone with the internet could read this blog. But there's such a huge amount of blogs out there, why would anyone want to read mine? Well, I guess I'm hoping that my blog brings some amusement to those who read it - a quick break in a stressful day. (Which is the reason I read several blogs on a daily basis.) So I have to try and if I get more readers, great! And if not, then I guess I'll know my audience a little better.

4) I'm not very good at blogging. Wait, what makes a good blog? I guess there's the entertainment value (see above) but as far as rules for blogging I'm pretty sure there aren't any. Of course, there are some guidelines to keeping and gaining readers and I'm studying these. (http://bestbloggingtipsonline.com)

5) Really great blogs have really great photographs and I don't have really great photographs. I have a camera and I take lots of pictures, but I wish my photography skills were better. And this requires a better camera than what I have (one where I can change the aperture), and Adobe Photoshop, which I don't have and can't afford right now. So I'll just have to make the best of the amateur photos I take - for now. (Yes, I've been thinking about taking a Photoshop class at Sinclair Community College.)

So there you have it, my (lame) reasons for not blogging for the last two months. Thank you for eaves-dropping on my little pep-talk here, I think it's done the trick. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, criticisms, feel free to leave them below in the comments section. (Criticism left by anonymous people will be answered, but not taken completely serious.) ;)

2010 in review

Looking back at 2010, I'd really like to just post the happy things that happened, but they're so intertwined with the sad things that happened, that it wouldn't make sense to post the good without the bad.

So I'll do a quick wrap-up of 2010 (with links to blog posts and/or pictures), and then post some New Years resolutions.

January - Jason was laid off and then we got a surprise of a positive pregnancy test, after 2 years of trying. However, four days later we miscarried; what an emotional roller-coaster. The encouraging thing was that we finally got a positive pregnancy test!

February - Jason ended up going back to his old job for a few weeks and the extra money was very welcomed. We celebrated 2 years of marriage in Pittsburgh at a wonderful little Bed & Breakfast. Right before we went on our trip we found out we were pregnant again!

March - Then Jason got a 2-week assignment with the Census Bureau. After his project was over, they failed to find more work from him, so we started budgeting around his unemployment. About 9 weeks along in the pregnancy we found out we had lost the baby. It was an emotional time with Easter right around the corner.

April - The recovery from the loss of the baby took some time and we started thinking about going to Honduras with our church in June. (My 5th trip, Jason's 2nd.) Also, my work put me on a project that took me to Cincinnati 3-4 days a week for several months. I hated being away from Jason, but the extra money was welcomed.

May - We started fund raising for Honduras (mostly cakes and Jason doing odd jobs). We also went to visit Mom & Gary at the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina over Memorial Day weekend. They were volunteering at the  Cradle of Forestry for 13 weeks. We tented on their RV site and survived 3 days of rain.

June - With more than enough money raised (a miracle!) we had a great week in Honduras. We got another surprise right before we went - another positive pregnancy test. We prayed about it and talked to the doctor and he gave us the go-ahead to go on the trip. However, all the blood tests showed levels that were too low and when we got back from the trip we went in for an ultrasound and our worst fears were confirmed, we were going to lose the pregnancy. However we got another shock - I was pregnant with twins!

July - This was a turning point in our lives. I turned 38 in July and decided that I needed to make some changes. We weren't going to try to get pregnant again for awhile but I thought maybe we could try to increase our chances by losing weight. We started Take Shape For Life (using the Medifast diet plan) with the hopes of losing 40 pounds each.

August - Things were definitely starting to turn around for us. Our weight loss was well underway, we were making plans to redo our kitchen (and stay in Dayton for another 3 years at least). We also started helping with a new Vineyard church plant in Huber Heights, Crossroads Church. Also, Jason decided to go back to school to get his BSN (Nursing) and then get his masters to be a nurse practitioner.

September - I decided to take a couple of classes I had always wanted to take: voice lessons, and clown classes! The voice lessons at Sinclair came to about $12/lesson (if you want info on this, let me know) and the volunteer clown classes were through Kettering Medical Center. There was sadness at the end of the month - we had to put my precious kitty, Kinzie, to sleep. I had a wonderful 14 years with her and still miss her. We also traveled to Seattle to visit my brother and his wife. (The trip ended badly with me making the decision to not contact my brother again for awhile.)

October - We had a wonderful little addition to our family, Izzy. She's a rescue dog that is probably part dachshund and part... rat terrier? She's been a great addition to our family (though the cats may disagree). We also started wrapping up our weight loss. At the end of our 4 months on the diet, Jason lost 45 pounds and I lost 40 pounds!

November - I graduated from Kettering Medical Center's Clown School! I'm only volunteering at this point but I'm hopeful to start doing some professional gigs and joining a clown alley. Thanksgiving was a wonderful time with my dad, step-mom and that side of the family, and then we traveled to Kentucky to do Thanksgiving with Jason's family.

December - Jason decided to have abdominoplasty after losing 260 pounds over 5 years. He had a long recovery with a lot of pain but he's almost done with the process and only has to deal with swelling at this point. Much of December was preparing for Christmas celebrations and helping Jason. We were able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Jason's family and then travel to Florida to stay with Mom and Gary for the rest of the week.

I'm now finishing up this blog preparing to bring in the new year watching a Hallmark movie with Mom and Gary while Jason is packing (or maybe sleeping) in our room. We leave in the morning and start a new adventure called 2011.

Plans for 2011: 

Jason starts nursing assistant classes on Monday. These run for 3 weeks and then he'll get his certification and hopefully quickly find a job. He's also taking two other classes while he prepares to start his BSN at Wright State in the fall. I'm so excited for this direction he's taking!

It's sorta difficult making resolutions for the new year when what I'm really hoping for is to get pregnant again. I'd love to lose another 10-15 pounds, but getting pregnant means gaining weight, not losing it. I'd also like to run a 5k but this isn't really recommended during the first trimester. (Or the last too I guess.) I just have to take these things one day at a time and not put off what needs to be done today.

So here are my New Years Resolutions:

1) I want to blog at least once a week, and hopefully more often.

2) I want to start doing yoga to become more flexible and tone my muscles.

3) I want to do a study of the life of Jesus and how the four gospels are intertwined. (Something I've been wanting to do for awhile.)

4) I want to finish my sitting room/guest room. This requires a futon mattress and getting the room organized. (I'm already overwhelmed.)

5) I want to do coffee with all my girl friends who I don't see as often as I'd like to. (Please contact me and let me know when you'd like to do coffee.) ;)

I have 19 minutes left in 2010, and 37 minutes left on my battery on my laptop. However my brain is starting to check out and the resolutions running around in my head are getting more and more ridiculous. It's time to sign off and finish packing. More blogging tomorrow perhaps. Hopefully. :)

Happy New Year!! May this next year be the best yet.

Reliving an awesome concert

** Note these are unauthorized videos from the concert last night. ** (I feel I have to post that since there was a warning on the door that photos and videos from the concert last night were not authorized. For this reason, I'll post the videos here, instead of facebook or youtube - where they'd probably be removed.)

I went to the Make a Difference Tour last night with a friend, Cindy Biggs. Josh Gray opened, Toby Mac and his band, Diverse City came on next, then Michael W. Smith and Mac Powell (from Third Day) sang from a stage in the middle of the floor. Toby Mac and Max Lucado joined them. After this Third Day performed, followed by a World Vision intermission and then Michael W. Smith finished things up with Max Lucado closing everything out with all the artists singing at the end. It. Was. Awesome. :)

Anyway, here are a few of my favorite videos I captured last night. (My apologies that they're so short, they seem so much longer when you have your arms above your head trying to hold really still.)

Jason Gray getting one of his songs set up.

Toby Mac and Diverse City singing "I'm For You"

Toby Mac singing "Gone"

(one of my favorites of his)

Michael W. Smith, Toby Mac and Mac Powell singing
"Be In The Light" (by Charlie Peacock)

 Third Day singing "Gone"

(different "Gone" from Toby Mac video above) ;)

  Michael W. Smith singing "Mighty to Save"

Michael W. Smith, Toby Mac, Mac Powell, and Jason Gray
singing "City On Our Knees" and then the
end of "God Of This City" (by Chris Tomlin)

The thing under my nose...

aka "it's not a booger," aka "the unfortunate-looking pimple thing."

No, I don't know what it is yet. Friends who have seen it think it's a hematoma or something. The doctor at the Urgent Care in Beavercreek had no idea what it is and told me I should see a dermatologist and that it should be biopsied. So I have an appointment Friday at 9:00 am. I'll update my blog after I hear what this "thing" is.

So here's photos of this thing... (my apologies for the extreme close-up shots and the goofy looking faces)

10/7 - just a small red bump under my nose

10/13 - a bit bigger, it's starts bleeding after I sneeze or wipe my nose

10/16 - Larger and regularly getting on my nerves.

10/16 - It wouldn't stop bleeding after an hour and a half, so went to Urgent Care and had it cauterized. It turned black, including the area next to it. This is when friends suggested I tell people "it's not a booger."

10/22 - black area has fallen off and now it just looks like an unfortunate pimple under my nose.

10/26 - the bump has gotten larger and the top part has scabbed over I guess. It's just disgusting and embarrassing. Really hoping the dermatologist can get rid of it once and for all!

I realize that in a couple of weeks it'll be gone and completely forgotten about. At least I hope so. Though it's embarrassing now, once it's gone I doubt anyone will ever think about it again. I just have to get through a few more days with this icky thing below my nose.

Losing It

Back in July I decided I was fed up with how much weight I've gained over the past few years and frustrated that I couldn't stop gaining weight, no matter what I did. I started running last summer and after a sprained ankle (from wearing strappy high-heeled sandals, NOT running), I only continued to run once in awhile. So I'd say I was running 2-3 times a month. I tried reducing the amount of food I ate, eating smaller portions. I also started only eating half of some of my splurge foods - donuts, cookies, etc. I don't drink sugar pop and do a lot of walking just by nature of where I work and where I park. I followed a lot of these "rules" and didn't shed a pound - in fact, gained a few pounds. Very frustrating!

Haven't we heard that if you decrease what you eat and increase your activity level that the weight would come off? That formula works, I guess, but when you're only reducing 200 calories and burning an extra 200 calories and you're taking in 3,000-4,000 calories, you're still NOT going to lose weight. I had the right idea, but not enough effort. I think a lot of us fall into this category.

3,000-4,000 calories a day? You betcha. I could list all the articles that show that if you eat out, most meals are around 1,000, if not more. Tasty - yes. Fresh foods - yes. Drenched in butter, creamy sauces, or fried - yes. And there's those calories that you weren't expecting. I'm not just talking about ice cream and cake, I'm talking about your vegetables and lean meats! Yes you're getting your nutrition but getting so much more.

So Jason and I decided to try Take Shape For Life (TSFL) which uses the Medifast food. We had to sign up with TSFL and then order our Medifast food. The food costs about $300/person/month. This might seem a lot but our food spending each month was at least $800 between groceries and eating out. It hasn't exactly saved us money, but we're definitely not spending any money on fast food or empty calories any more.

A friend from Ohio University is a TSFL Health Coach and got us going and followed-up regularly to make sure we were doing okay. With this diet you go down to 800-1,000 calories per day. At first we were a little grumpy and craving everything we couldn't eat anymore and we had some energy loss and headaches. But after a day or two the headaches were gone and the positive attitude started to kick in. Each Monday we'd get on the scale and each Monday we had lost weight. It took discipline to stay on the diet and not cheat when we were out with friends, but it got easier every week.

After a few weeks we weren't craving pizza and cheeseburgers anymore. In fact, the idea of fried food seems disgusting now and I worry about what it would do to my digestive system after not eating it for so long. I worry about not getting enough nutrition or over-eating if we filled up on empty calories. We've notice that family and friends eat healthier around us and we've heard "your food looks better than mine" a few times. We learned that there ARE healthy choices at almost every restaurant, you just have to know how to find them. (We didn't know how to before.)

I must say that we discovered the most difficult food to eat healthy when eating out is vegetables. If you get a salad, trying to get a low-fat, low-calorie dressing is near impossible. We went to a Subway in another city and they didn't have any "diet" dressings at all. We couldn't believe it. So we would try to choose broccoli, green beans or asparagus, but we'd have to ask how they're prepared and served. With butter or a creamy sauce a lot of times. A few places said they're steamed or cooked in olive oil, thankfully. It seemed easier to get grilled chicken and then eat a vegetable when we got home.

So now we've been on the TSFL program for three months. I've lost 32 pounds and Jason has lost 40 pounds. We've back to the weights we were before we met. (My wedding dress would be too big at this point.) ;)

I've had friends ask what our secret is. Of course we could tell you that our secret is the Take Shape For Life program. Though I've had friends lose 40+ pounds without signing up for TSFL, Weight Watchers or any of the others. What's the secret? I'll tell you what I think...

• Pick a plan and stick with it. Don't just think "I'll eat less" or "I'll walk more." That's not a weight loss plan. Do research and find a plan with structure and accountability that works for you.
• NO CHEATING! If you cheat, you go back to day 1 and start all over again. And if you do cheat, pick yourself up and don't give up!
• Drink lots of water! The weeks that I'd lose only a pound were the weeks where I didn't drink enough water.
• Don't give up if you haven't lost the weight you were hoping for after the first few weeks. Stick with it! (This is where I failed so many times in the past. I had a lot of success with TSFL after the first couple of weeks, so I finally found a plan I wasn't going to give up on.)

I think the hardest part of being on a diet was going to public places where you eat whenever you feel like it - an amusement park, a ball game, vacation, etc. I'd look around at all I would see is the fattening food that wasn't on our diet (nachos, pizzas, burgers, hot dogs, ice cream, etc.). I found something that works for me. I look at the person eating the above mentioned foods and I would think "I want to be thinner than the person who is eating that food." With a large percentage of the population being overweight, this worked every single time. (The phrase "consider the source" comes to mind.)

Lastly I have to thank Jason for doing this diet with me. Without him being part of this I would never have stuck with the diet. I appreciate all the cooking he's done and Medifast meal preparations. I appreciate his willingness to try new recipes and doctor the Medifast meals into something I would prefer to eat. Thank you hon, I love you. :)

How texting ruins relationships...

This past weekend Jason and I flew out to Seattle to visit my brother and sister-in-law. We stayed in a hotel and got a rental car, so we wouldn't have to be dependent on D&J (brother and sis-in-law). Saturday evening my brother picked Jason and I up from downtown to go see a sunset, one of the things I really wanted to do while there. Afterwards D was taking us back downtown to drop us off and we asked him to stop at a Wendy's so we could go to the bathroom. We offered to get him something (thinking a Coke or a frosty) and he asked us to get him a meal - and he waited in the car.

While inside the following texts were sent to me:

D: She didn't stop talking
D: Jason hasn't said 3 sentences
(I figured out he thought he was sending the texts to Jenn - maybe answering a question she asked?)
C: You dork I'm buying your dinner.
D. Oh ;)


I got back in the car and he tried to laugh it off. I was angry (I've been an emotional mess for the last week so a lot of raw emotions were right there at the surface and I just couldn't let it go.) I chewed him out for bad-mouthing me to his wife, and also for saying *I* didn't stop talking. He asked me one question (about what we did) and while trying to answer him he kept cutting me off and telling me useless trivial facts about buildings I don't really care about.

Jason was sitting in the back and if you know Jason, he's not usually one to join a conversation unless he has knowledge that no one else does. So I told him that was the pot calling the kettle black. I then reminded him that we could have used our free airline ticket and 3 free hotel nights anywhere in the country and we chose to use them to visit him. But by then I was wondering why I bothered. He said nothing. No apology, no defense, just dropped us off downtown. I thanked him for taking us to the sunset, said goodbye and slammed the door.

(I hate to say it but it messed up the rest of the evening and ruined mine and Jason's date night.)

The next day we were supposed to go shopping with them and then dinner, but I had such little sleep by then that I had no patience to real deal with anything. In fact, I just wanted to get the first flight out of Seattle and head home. So Jason and I went shopping by ourselves. Here's the texts that followed. I believe they'll tell the rest of the story. (And for the record, these are ALL the texts back and forth, I have not deleted or changed any of the exchange. D is the brother, J is the sis-in-law, and C is me. Jason was not part of this exchange.)

J: Are we going to see you before you leave, or shall we cancel the dinner reservations?
C (to J): Cancel the reservation.
D: Consider dinner canceled. Bye

D: We need the nice measuring cup and measuring spoon back before you guys leave tonight. Where do we meet you?
J: Please return my kitchen things to me. I need those back. The Tb is from the set that my parents got me.
C (to D): You can pick them up at the hotel after 9 tonight. Jason will bring it out to you. I won't bother you an Jenn any further.

J: btw, do u feel even a tiny bit bad about pitching in only $20 toward our $143 trip Fri?
(They asked us if they could take us on a road trip. We had no idea it was 2 hours from Seattle or how much it would cost, but they did. And for the record, we contributed more than $40 and didn't even include food.)
C (to J): You want me to feel bad? I wanted to go downtown Friday and do things on our list. If we would have known how expensive it was we would never have gone. Btw Jason gave David what he could.
J: You're a class act.
J: Didn't see u pinching pennies abt going to fancy restaurants. (We went to one seafood restaurant because we wanted local seafood. The other restaurant we ate at was a pub style and not "fancy.") 

C (to D): Shuttle is taking us to the airport. Your stuff is in a white bag at the front desk.
D: Thank you, Jenn got 'em from her dad, so these means a lot. While I do value your opinions and thoughts, I hoped to hear Jason's also in a 4 way conversation. 
(Still not sure what this means. Jason sat up with D both Thursday & Friday. I finally got a chance to talk to my brother Saturday and this is when he says he wants Jason's opinion in a 4 way conversation - when there were only 3 of us in the car.) 
C (to D): You married a mean controlling woman and you'll end up just like Nick. Don't expect to hear from me again.  
(J's mom's husband who is now a widower and quite a mess without his wife. Yes, this was harsh, but if I got to say one last thing to my brother - this is it. He defends his wife to the end, but his family knows he became a completely different person after he married her. And most of us don't talk to him anymore because of it.)

J: Thanks for the visit and for blocking us from yr FB. The favor has been returned. Look up Narcissistic Personality Disorder when u can and discover why u cannot sustain REAL relationships And also why counseling will never work for u. U have a good man with a lot of kindness and patience. Hope this one works out and tht u don't crush his soul too.
(I didn't block them from facebook, I kept them as friends but just prevented them from being able to post on my page. Also, FYI... previous husband remarried months after our divorce was final - to the woman he and I agreed he should have been with from the beginning. Yeah, I really "crushed his soul.")

J: BTW next time u want to talk at GREAT length abt your myriad upcoming pregnancy plans, make sure the listener hasn't JUST HAD TO HAVE A HYSTERECTOMY, you pathologically insensitive twit.
(Her hysterectomy was last year and they never tried to have children. Also, the pregnancy plans were about coming out to see them - which they begged me to do. Oh, and I also got chewed out by my brother when they weren't one of the first to know I was pregnant. And btw, I had had 2 miscarriages at that point and didn't see telling people if there wasn't much hope of getting past the 1st trimester.)

Some family members suspect that J has been trying to alienate D from his family. I'd say if that was her goal, she's done a great job. As if the physical distance wasn't enough (it was her idea to move to Seattle, she's from PA), there's now a pretty hefty emotional distance too. Sadly enough David complained about not having any friends in Seattle. They've been out there 8 years and he has no friends. This just breaks my heart. I made suggestions on how they could find meet people and hopefully make friends, however my suggestions were probably offensive to J and she informed me that it just doesn't work that way out there in Seattle.

If D loses his one last friend, J, I really don't know what he would do. He's burned too many bridges with family for him to return as the prodigal son. I have no idea what to do at this point or how to feel. I just know I need to stay away from them, physically and emotionally.