First of all, I got a new phone! It's fancy and really lovely and I'm excited about it. I'm messing around with taking photos on it, it takes pretty nice ones. Here's one of me lookin like a big dork in the kitchen at work. ;)



Beyond that, I don't necessarily feel like posting right now but it's been a few days so I might as well.

I'm tired today. We had friends over for debate-watching last night. Did a simple spread of baguette chunks, cheese, fruit, veggies, hummus, spinach dip, tortilla chips and salsa. Nothing special, but it was yummy. We had wine too, and then some raspberries and brownie bites as dessert. Very delicious. I ate WAY too much. I was pretty disappointed at the end of the night when I tallied up everything I'd eaten. It was my dinner and it certainly could have been a lot worse and I wasn't stuffed to the gills by any means but I did have PLENTY of bread, cheese, wine, and chips. Shame shame. Oh well.

I haven't gotten on the scale since Tuesday's weigh-in because I've decided I'm going to try to stop scale-hopping for a week. (Scale-hopping, for those of you who don't know the WW lingo, means getting on the scale every day, or almost every day, instead of just weighing yourself once a week.) I don't think that the scale-hopping has a particularly negative impact on me either way, necessarily. Sometimes I see a high number, sometimes I see a low number, but I haven't noticed a direct correlation between those numbers and how I behave in a day. I'm not less likely to workout if I see a low number (I might even be more likely to workout, to further encourage the number downward.), I'm not more likely eat more if I think I have some leeway, or the converse, which would be to eat more because I saw a high number and I'm bummed about it. After doing this for 6 solid years, I've become relatively immune to the scale fluctuations. It all evens out in the end, this is not a race, I do what I am capable of each day to be healthy, etc, etc.

But I thought perhaps I might just quit getting on that damn thing every morning and see how it makes me feel. It's nice so far because I'm not thinking about what it says at all, one less set of numbers to have running through my mind during the day. So we'll see how I feel. It's been a habit I've had at times during these 6 years and a habit I've avoided at times, never with any noticable effect either way, so whatever. Blah blah.

So I have a bit of a challenge ahead of me, which is that I'd like to try to stay within my points from now until Tuesday's weigh-in. This will be a bit tough because I go over my points every day. I use my AP's and my flex points and then I often will, in a week's time, consume points beyond that as well. I still lose weight, just at a snail's pace, and I'm okay with that.

But I've been working out a lot lately and I'm feeling really good and slim right now - getting compliments from people for the first time in ages ("You look like you've lost a little weight!") which is very nice. I haven't numerically lost much at all, but I know I'm a lot slimmer than I was in January. So I want to keep my momentum on that and I was really counting on this week to be a good one. And then last night struck and I ate my weight in baguette and now I have to do some cleanup. It won't be impossible and it might even be a nice jolt to my metabolism to eat less than I usually do for a few days. So I'm gonna do my best to avoid extra stuff during the days and allow myself a sweet or a treat in the evenings, but beyond that, I'm gonna spend lightly points-wise and keep the exercise comin' and see if I can keep it together this week.

We're entering challenging terrority season-wise too. The fall, which naturally makes one want to cuddle up with thick soups, hunks of bread, and hot cocoa, without a veggie or piece of lean protein to be seen. And also, October, which, at least in my world, is the month of birthdays. A lot of people I know have October and birthdays so there's celebrating to be done. Then it's Halloween, my own birthday a week later, Thanksgiving three weeks after that, Christmas a month later, and then January 1/my and Kevin's two-year anniversary. So. It's obviously nothing I haven't done before, but that doesn't mean it gets any easier to navigate the amazing sweets, the pies, the huge meals, the warm calorie-laden drinks, the celebrations-with-food.

My goal this year, as it has been for the last several, is to simply maintain my weight during this time. If October 31-January 1 can come and go and I can see the same number on the scale at the end as I did in the beginning, I will have conquered all. So it would be nice if I could slither out of another couple pounds BEFORE October 31 so I'm maintaining a weight that feels really good. We'll see!

The good news is that this year, probably more than ever before, my exercise and organic/whole food eating is completely incorporated into my lifestyle. I can't go a day skipping a workout without starting to feel really itchy and desperate to get moving in some capacity. And in terms of eating, nights like last night are the worst damage I'm capable of doing lately (unless I get really drunk ;)). I'm also making better choices at every meal than ever before since I'm more knowledgable than I've ever been about what kinds of foods to what to your body. So I know those are habits I'm going to be able to hang onto to help me navigate the Season.

But ooo! I'm excited it's fall! And my birthday soon! :)

I didn't get to workout yesterday because we had a fire at work! They evacuated the building (the fire was on the 8th floor, we're on the 5th) and we couldn't come back in for an hour and a half. So by the time I got back to my desk, ate some lunch, and got to work on the huge stack of stuff I needed to get done, the day was just slipping by so quickly, there was no sneaking out for a workout. And after work I went straight to TJ's to pick up debate munchies, went home to prep them, and then the debate began.

I was going to take today off but now I'll go on my lunch break and get some cardio done and I might go after work and either take a yoga class or do some other kind of lifting.

Kevin and I are getting massages tonight! Wahooo! The cheap/awesome place I went to on my WW anniversary on Saturday is calling my name. We planned to have a date night tonight but we didn't want to splurge (financially or calorically) on a huge meal and a movie out. So we thought we'd just spend half that and go get massages and make dinner at home. I cannot WAIT. My body is desperate. I have this ridiculous shoulder problem, an old weight-lifting injury, that I know is going to end up causing more trouble down the line. It's basically causing me constant pain lately, especially when I'm at work sitting at my torture chamber, I mean desk, which seriously makes my whole body ache and hurt. I get up and stretch multiple times each day but I think I've determined that nothing short of quitting the office-worker lifestyle is going to aleviate my pain. And the people who've worked here for a while (and, just to note, don't exercise or think about their posture or alignment the way I (obsessively) do) HAVE HUMP BACKS. Okay, not really. But YES! KINDA REALLY! And I can't stand it. They all have terrible posture and are constantly in pain. I gotta get out.

ANYWAY. We're getting massages tonight. Yesssssssss. And then maybe making tacos. We'll see.

Tomorrow: I'll do a long run in the early part of the day, probably some laundry and relaxing at home in the afternoon. Then I've got to go to rehearsal t 6pm, which I will then leave early from to meet up with Kevin and his parents for dinner (his dad's bday is on Monday, which is also my Mom's bday!). THEN we'll do the show at 9:30pm.

Sunday is NOTHING all day wahooooo! I'll do another long run, most likely, or some yoga, depending on how the ol' bod is feeling. And then I'm going to a 6pm screening of a tv show pilot that I have a small part in. A friend created/directed/produced it and we're all gonna get together and watch it on Sunday. I'll be leaving that event early to go to an HST business meeting from 8:30-10pm and then that's that. Should be a busy but enjoyable weekend.

Next weekend my cousin is coming to visit and I'm really excited about it.

Okay. There's the update. Gonna go workout and then eat some LUNCH.