Tuesday, September 6th

As I get into this farther, hopefully I'll get more creative about naming posts!

I'll get to the headline right away - 259.6 pounds this morning!  Woo hoo!  That's 2.6 pounds lost since yesterday, which must be water.  I need to stay on track so I can build on this small success and keep it going.  It was helped by the fact that I didn't have much to do yesterday.

My original plan for Labor Day weekend was to do Saturday firefighter drill, go to the Schagticoke Fair, clean up and get manure for the east side of the house and then go to Bill and Grace's to get plants (iris, peony and lovage) to put there.  However - it was in the mid-80s and HUMID and rainy, so I didn't want to do any exerting.  And Saturday and Monday drill were cancelled.  And then it rained more and I didn't feel like going to the fair.  Which left the whole weekend open with nothing really to do, and too much time to think.

So I piddled.  Started a 4-gallon batch of hard cider, using 4 different yeasts in (4) 1-gallon containers.  I'm glad I had the time to plan it out because this took 2 trips to Hennessy homebrew and a trip to the orchard.  Made myself healthy dinners.  Took care of the sewing buttons back on pants pile.  Made a batch of yogurt.  Took 2 of the air conditioners out and put the windows back in.  Glad I had the time to piddle with this as I'd wanted this done for 6 months but was scared to try it myself and unsure of how to find a handyman to hire.  When I finally started (and had to finish because it was threatening to rain), I found out that aside from being unwieldy, it was totally do-able.  Surprised and pleased that twice this weekend I opened a closet and found something I thought didn't exist (a window and a screen in one closet and another screen in another closet).  I'm really very lucky.

I worked out Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday was C25K week 1 day 1, Sunday was 10 min elliptical and 10 min treadmill walking and some weights.  (Wanted to workout this morning, but didn't manage to make myself get out of bed.  I'll try going to the gym here at work at lunchtime and see how it goes.  It'll be my first time there, and I generally don't like to be sweaty with people I work with.  But the gym is available and fits into my schedule better than morning or evening workouts.  I'd be dumb not to take advantage of it. Hm.  Maybe I can go at 1 instead of noon, or something like that.)

And I cataloged my exercise DVDs!  Every time I've started a new diet push, it's involved buying things, like exercise equipment, DVDs, etc. All of it unused.  (The first thing I do when I want to start working out is buy a pair of new sneakers!  As if consumption were the key to everything)  So I've got a bunch of DVDs I've never seen.  I've got a stability ball and bands.  I've got a weight bench in a spare bedroom.  And I've still managed to ignore all of it.

I'm glad I had nothing to do yesterday, because I watched a few of the exercise DVDs and tried some new stability ball moves to fill up time.  (I'm one of those folks that find it very difficult to do nothing.)  Boy are my abs and thighs sore today!

The only problem with the weekend?  I spent it alone.  I'm more comfortable with tasks than relationships, but I really, really don't want to be the person who's piddling alone at 65 (like both my mother and father are at 70+ and 75).  If I want to be with another person, or people, it's not going to magically happen while I'm at home.  I need to get out and be with people.  I get so worn down during the week that I enjoy spending weekends alone at home.  Something I need to work on. Finding people things that don't drain my energy.

Edit:  I did it! I went to the work gym at lunchtime and did C25K week 1 day 2 and then messed around with the machines and the free weights to use up most of an hour.  It bothers me that the machines isolate specific muscles in specific ways that have nothing to do with how the muscles would be used in real life, say to carry a firehose, or raise a full Scott pack onto the truck.  But that's OK.  I don't have to use the machines.  I think I can do exercises with free weights that mimic firehouse moves.  Think more twisting and complex moves. 

It wasn't too crowded.  There are 5 treadmills and only 2 of them were full, and with women at that, and I knew both of them.  I think I can do this lunchtime gym thing!  (Now, if I could only figure out how to look semi-professional in my work clothes while my face and the rest of me is sweaty.)

Also - I'm getting more psyched about the Xmas Dress Challenge (that I'm not even IN yet - I'm a possible).  To help with my "candidacy," I think I'll make this blog public for a bit, so folks in this community can read it.  I started this blog to be accountable to finally lose (and for good), the extra 80 pounds I carry around, but I don't want the readers of my other blog (about homesteading, and more recently about my midcentury house in the 'burbs) to read this one.  The best reason I can think of is that my public persona to my family and friends is that my weight isn't a problem, and I want to be able to be completely honest - meaning (to me at least), that I need to not have my family and readers of the other blog reading this blog.

Also - many times when I was completely honest and open in my other blog, I ended up regretting it.  Example, I wrote a few times about being solo and looking for a life partner.  As I met people thru online dating, sending them the link to my blog ALWAYS ended up badly.  They would read blog entries and think that they knew everything there was to know about me, and either love me or hate me, even before we'd met!  Those of us who have been writing blogs for a while know that they can contain only a small part of one's life, and even further, that a bloggy persona develops that can be a barrier to honesty.  I'm not together enough to have 2 separate Blogger profiles, so my plan is to keep this blog open only to the weight loss peeps.  (Can't figure out an easy way to do this, other than adding everyone's email addresses to an OK list - are there any easier ways?)  If I get into the Xmas Dress challenge, I'll de-publicify this blog and add other challenge members to the OK list.

Anyway - for the moment, I'm going to open this blog up, because I really want to be in the Christmas Dress Challenge!