Fat Nerd Fit

With the holidays upon us, life for us all is getting hectic.   Whether you are hosting, traveling, or just existing in America right now there is a hustle to the world that is hard to shut out. At our house, for Thanksgiving, we caught a stomach bug.   My husband felt ill for one night, went to Thanksgiving dinner, ate all the pie and went about his life.   I made it through Black Friday at the bookstore (it’s even the busiest shopping day of the year for us at a little local bookstore) and CRASHED. I went to bed Friday night after work and proceeded to sleep through Saturday, getting up Sunday and going to work. I can’t remember the last time I got that kind of sick. I haven’t so much as gotten a cold in years, but I crashed hard.   This morning, Wednesday was the first morning I didn’t feel blah when I woke up.   I actually ate something more substantial than oatmeal or toast today.   I had originally planned on making mulled wine and doing Christmas...

Aright, 2018 is officially here and we're all knee deep in our resolutions. To help me get a jump start on my healthy journey I have decided to take the AdvoCare One80 Challenge . (I should take a quick second to say that I am not an AdvoCare distributor, employee, or affiliated in any way other than participating in the challenge.) It's an 80-day program with the end goal of helping you make healthy lifestyle changes that you can maintain. Right now, I am just over half way through the 11 days cleanse. The purpose of this step is to help prepare your body to more effectively absorb nutrition. I've done this part before about a year ago. I loved it then and I'm really liking it now. Their website can put it much more eloquently than I can. But in my terms, in TMI terms, it makes you poop. Regularly. The good news is, it's not a stimulant that makes you cramp. It's a fiber powder that you put in your drink in the morning. I like to use it with my Sp...

This week has been a whirlwhind of the good kind of busy. It was a 50 hour work week, plus my side hustle. Then there's a house to run and oh, yeah! I have a husband that I didn't see for five days straight even though we live in a tiny one bedroom apartment. My alarm went off this morning and I jumped out of bed ready to go... only to realize that it's my day off! My new job is at an amazing and HUGE bookstore. This was week two and I got assigned my sections. Apparently I have already cemented my reputation as the nerd among nerds. I am in charge of the Manga, Graphic Novels, and RPG Guides. My knowledge from ThinkGeek has already come in handy. I found some back-stocked mangas and put them out on the floor and the set sold in less than four hours. I would have never known about Death Note if I hadn't worked at ThinkGeek. Now I know about the anime and that the live action version is about to come out. Every copy of Naturo that we had in the back I put on the f...

I know it's been over a month since my last post. I have been running around like crazy... and I have nothing to show for it. I've gone through the interview process at two new companies, made it to the final round, and not gotten the job. I have another interview at a third company on Thursday. This new place is somewhere I've wanted to work since my college days. I'm not holding my breath, I've been burned too many times, but I am hopeful. The location is a bit far from where I live now, but it's not bad. I leave an hour before shift at ThinkGeek and always end up early, and I think my hour early routine would serve me well at this place, too. But, we'll have to see. There's no point in getting my hopes up any more. I feel really defeated when it comes to employment. I've always sort of fallen into jobs. ThinkGeek is the first job I got by going after it on my own. I have nearly 10 years office experience (in only two companies, I...

So, I've become a mealprep kind of gal. With my schedule at the store plus a household to run it's become necessary and helpful. When left to my own devices, I'll run to the store for a frozen pizza or even make my own from scratch if I have all I need. Pizza is a downfall for me and I can't tell you what is is about it that makes it a weakness for me. Because I work a random smattering of weeknights and my husband works Sunday-Wednesday nights there's not a whole lot of reason to cook. When it's just me I have that "no one will know" cushion and on the rare day both me and hubby are off we tend to get in as much "us" time as possible and not cook, but head out to eat and do something. Because husband works nights and has an unpredictable meal time (he's a CSI with the local police department) I've been making his dinners for months, now. I'll make him an entree and he'll pack some snack-like sides and be on his way. He...

We've well established that I've been hanging out next to the wagon, talking about getting on but not quite able to bring myself to do it. This week, I had the best of intentions. I planned ahead and when I went to the store I stuck to my list, didn't splurge, and kept it clean. I even went to the farmer's market for fresh veggies. I meal prepped. I have a fridge full of salads, hummus (homemade) and sliced veggies. Fruit, pealed and ready to eat. Fresh brewed Green Tea. I've been eating pizza all week. I started my period on Monday morning. Usually my period is a total non-issue for me. Make sure I have some tampons on hand and maybe a single dose of Midol at the start and I'm business as usual. Not this week. My back cramped, my stomach cramped, I'm bloated, I'm craving meat (I've been a vegetarian for almost six years), I'm exhausted. It's so strange. I've been handling my period every month for over twenty years no...

Things have not gotten any better for me emotionally. I got the official "we're going another direction" from one place where I did three interviews and am just past a week of no word from another place where I've done four interviews. I've still been getting some decent hours at the store, but full time minimum wage doesn't go far. We've resorted to carrying a balance on our credit card, for essentials only- groceries, gas, vet bills for the pup. I've thrown myself into to-do lists and trying to keep everything as perfect as possible, even if the money isn't there. I've had a 30-40 hour work week, plus repeat vet visits for the pup's heartworm treatments, and on top of that have been trying to tackle everything hearth and home on my own. When I was working once or twice a week I told my husband (who works 40+ hours a week in law enforcement) that I would take care of the apartment since I was home with plenty of time on my hands. ...

One of the terms that comes up over and over again in the From Fat to Finish Line Facebook group is "NSV" or Non Scale Victory. I hadn't really taken this side of the journey into consideration until I starting seeing other people's victories. When working on weight-loss and health it is so easy to just look at the scale as the only tool of measurement. When I confessed my weight to the group at the New Year one of the first comments I got was to only weigh once a month and not focus solely on the number as there is so much more to take into consideration. Yes, we celebrate everyone's weight loss numbers but there is also just as much support and excitement for the NSVs in the group. Yesterday I posted that it was my fourth day with no cream or sugar in my coffee. Over 120 people as of this writing have showed their support for my achievement. From a huge group of people who have either been there, done that, or are struggling themselves, or just starting...

I done did it, y'all. I got my scale out this morning. I can't say that I'm surprised, but I can say that I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Two hundred and freaking forty six pounds. It was a bit of a gut punch. I'm not happy. I know that I have lost weight since our move. I can see it in the mirror. I can tell by the way my clothes fit. But, as it stands this morning I have an official number. 246 Gross. Have I been heavier? Yes. Earlier this year. Have I (as an adult) been lighter? Yes... also earlier this year. Was I heavier when I got my ass in gear a few months ago? Yes. Can I do better? Also, yes. Am I going to be better? HELL YES!!! It's easy to pick a start date that is "later." You screw up on your new diet on Wednesday and decide to start over on Monday, or the first of the month, or the first of the year. Well, guess what? The first of the year is tomorrow. I'm not giving myself "one last night...