Oh, dear God, just shoot me

Monday, March 29, 2010

Dropped another pound as of yesterday, then busted my ass cleaning the living room, rearranging furniture, then cleaning the library and dining room. "Cleaning" sounds so simple -- it doesn't encompass putting away the sheer amount of shit that gets strewn around this place, dusting every flat surface (including two ceiling fans), running to the store twice to get picture frames and cushions for the futon so that I could put on the buff cover and make it coordinate with the couch and ottoman, trying to get the treadmill through the hallway into the library (which no longer works now that we have a DVD rack there), vacuuming and then mopping the library/entranceway/dining room floor with Murphy's Oil soap, running all of the upstairs bedding through the machines, and then collapsing in an aching pile before dragging myself off to bed.

Didn't weigh myself this morning, but I don't really care -- I'm too damn tired.

Still cranky, but...

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Down another two pounds. Granted, I can see the bones in my feet again and can't press half-inch divots along my shinbone anymore so the bulk of that is water, but hey, getting rid of that much water is a GOOD thing.

Breakfast: a cup of low carb yogurt. Got to think about lunch. Shit I will be doing today because my sister and her kids are arriving on Wednesday and this place looks like Metallica has been camping out here:

  • Clean out the downstairs bathroom (vacuum and scrub floor, clean sink and mirror, scrub shower enclosure, empty and scrub out litter tray (with a different scrubber))
  • Clean kitchen (bag and bin the 15 million pounds of recyclables we have, sort out all the crap on the countertops and put it all away or throw it out, put clean dishes away, put dirty dishes in dishwasher, scrub down countertops, dust chair rail and window frames, tell Lyndon to shift his damn leather sewing machine somewhere else an clean up puddle of spilled oil underneath it, vacuum and mop/scrub floor)
  • Clean living room (sort and put away various craft projects, put away DVD boxes, move cat tree to better location, dust everything, wash sofa and futon covers, vacuum La-Z-Boy, vacuum carpet, spot-clean places where cats have hurled on the rug)

If I have time and energy after that, I may work on the side flowerbed and get that weeded. If not, I will put together the tax paperwork for delivery to the accountants on Monday.

Post-Cold, Pre-Vacation

Friday, March 26, 2010

As I have gained five pounds of water weight for reasons that mystify me (I know it's water weight because I can press divots along my shinbones from my ankles to mid-leg. Oh, and it mysteriously appeared in one day, which is physiologically impossible with anything but water), plus I'm finally getting over the cold that sandbagged me last weekend, plus many other people including my best friend are losing weight all around me, I'm officially fed up. Fed up with feeling fat and unattractive, fed up with not fitting into clothes I like, fed up with not being able to sleep comfortably, fed up with having to bring an air mattress on trips so that I can get any sleep at all, fed up with the heart hiccups and wondering if I'm flirting with a failing valve (yes, I've been to the doctor. The EKG says everything's fine, but I have to wonder) -- I'm just fucking fed up.

And so, this is day two of modified Atkins for me (modified because eating strict Atkins for lunch is impossible unless I prepare and bring my meals, and with my insane schedule these days I can't count on having time to do that). Breakfast yesterday was bacon and eggs, lunch was a chicken caesar wrap and small cup of cottage cheese, dinner was a steak, emerald kale and a strawberry smoothie made of strawberries, soy milk, cottage cheese and Splenda, plus I walked for 15 minutes last night on the treadmill. Breakfast today was a cup of low-carb yogurt with one square of exotic chocolate because I needed something to keep me from killing people on the way into work, lunch was a chicken caesar wrap and small cup of cottage cheese, and I'm thinking of a chicken stir-fry for dinner tonight as well as an upper body weight workout at the gym. I need to add more food to the schedule, but I haven't really been all that hungry as I can't TASTE anything at the moment due to the lingering effects of the cold. Oh, and my mood is in the crapper as it always is for the first week when I do this, but hey, I'm down two pounds already.

Why Atkins? Because for me it works. It doesn't for other people, and I've read the research that says low-carb and low-fat diets cause pretty much the same amount of weight loss, but carb restriction seems to work best for my already fucked up metabolism (PCOS and a low-functioning thyroid). Okay, my mood is incredibly foul (dear Lord, I had some ANGRY dreams last night, including one where Lyndon and I had to move in with my father -- he was making some really nasty cracks about Lyndon, and I just wanted to brain him), but that's a side effect of me adjusting to a lower carb intake. Once that happens, I should be golden.

In the meantime, I will probably be venting here, so you have been warned. Speaking of venting, I have so frigging much to do and so little time in which to do it. I have to clean the house this weekend before Stacy and the kids get here next Wednesday, plus get the tax paperwork done before Monday for the accountant, I still have to weed out that side flower bed, I've have not one but TWO arborists flake on me and I still need to get the frigging crepe myrtles topped, the lawn service hasn't shown up yet this year and I think I need to find someone new, and oh yeah, I'm supposed to be finishing a book right about now. Ha. Ha ha ha.

*puts head on desk and cries just a little bit*

The pool is open!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Oh, yeaaaaaaaaahhhhh. I just took the first swim of the year, and the water was goooooooorgeous. Did twenty laps, which was enough to warm up everything nicely without completely wearing me out, and the Black and White Cat sat in the window watching me splash back and forth. The only downer was that I'd forgotten to take my watch off, but it's a Timex Indiglo, and I think those are water-resistant.

Now I just have to fix the chained power outlet so that I can turn on the pool lights, and life is a good and happy place once more!