Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Let's hear it for HGTV!

I have been an avid HGTV viewer for years and it paid off! I've been so bored with my kitchen since we moved into this house. Cream walls. Cream appliances. Cream floor. Cream counter. It's like a sensory deprivation tank. So I decided to spiff it up by doing something to the back splash.

I put tile behind the stove and the sink and then painted the rest a deep red. We liked the tile so much that we took it up and around the kitchen window too. I've been watching the folks on HGTV lay tile a million times, so I decided to give it a try. And, you know what? It IS easy. It really turned out great and my kitchen is no longer blah.

I also went shopping for clothes and, it's official, I'm a size 12! I couldn't stop smiling. I even found a couple of pair of shorts in a size 10, but I know that's not real. They were cut a little large. I am a 12 not a 10, but that's soooooo much better than an 18 or a 16 that's cut large. My only worry is that I achieved this as a result of a lot of physical activity which is easy to do in the summer. It's hard to maintain that activity level in the winter. So I need to not let my snacking bad habits return. Just because I can get away with it now, doesn't mean that I'll be able to that this winter.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Ahhhh Football Season begins

Well, last night was the first pre-season game and we decided to stay home and watch it rather than go out. We haven't gotten the pre-season games since we moved out to the eastern shore -- something that has bothered us both enormously. But every year we try and this year, lo and behold, we're able to watch the game at home! Yay!

We were very curious to watch our Redskins to see if all the changes (AGAIN) paid off THIS TIME. I know pre-season games aren't really much more than exhibitions for the coaches to pick the starting line-up, but you know, we haven't had a fun football game in a LONG time, pre-season or otherwise, and last night was fun! They were actually playing football! They were passing and catching and tackling and blocking! It was awesome! It gives me hope for the regular season. I know you don't get to the Super Bowl in one season after changing things as much as the Redskins have, but I'm hopeful that I won't be embarrassed to be a Redskins fan this year. Just don't humiliate me boys. That's all I ask. For now, I'm actually looking forward to next week's game.

I'm still sticking to my new routine and it's great. I'm feeling really good. Even my golf game has improved -- probably because my belly isn't in the way. Like I've said before. I'll never be tiny, but I'm smaller and it feels good. And my blood pressure has been awesome. My doctor had added a third medication to control it this past winter and my asthma caused us to drop one of them, but it doesn't matter now because my numbers are better than they were before on just 2 meds, so I'm good! And, my weight is still trickling down. I'm almost down to 160 lbs. I haven't gone shopping for clothes, but I might be close to a size 12 which would be wonderful. I will definitely need slacks for work this winter. I think I only have 3 pair of pants that fit right now. It's so much fun to get back into clothes that I haven't been able to get into for years. I don't even know why I kept them, but I did, and it's just plain fun to put them on. It makes me smile every time.

And, for me, it's all about exercise. No one can really loose weight with just diet. And I definitely can't. First of all, it's boring to eat the way you have to eat when you do it via food alone. But it's also about the metabolism, and the only way to rev up your metabolism is to build more muscle -- can't do that through diet alone. I am way more toned than I've been in a really long time, maybe ever, actually. As a runner, I burned a lot of calories, but running doesn't tone you. I think the exercise videos that I have that combine light weights with exercise, have been incredibly effective for me. And, as a result, I don't have to eat like I live in a refugee camp. I really do eat. My body is just using it.

Who knows. Maybe I could be a size 6 if I also ate less, but I'm not that interested in being a size 6. I just didn't want to feel like a blob -- and I don't anymore. :-)