Never gonna give you up

"There is a limit to enjoyment, throught he sources of wealth be boundless; And the choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation." - Martin Farquhar Tupper, Proverbial Philosophy (Taken from January 2012 Issue of Real Simple)

Yes, I'm just now getting around to reading this issue. And yes, page 7 is as far as I've gotten before I saw that quote and decided to grace the intrawebs with my online presence.

I thought that quote fitting since the season of Lent is among us. You may have heard many people talk about giving things up for lent: soda, candy, fast food, alcohol....I said that I would give up soda....then realized that it was on my list to cut back....even after going 3 days without it prior to my statement.

Sometimes it takes weeks, months or even years before something someone has said to me strikes me or actually registers.  This time it was a conversation with my doctor when she was inquiring about my soda drinking habits in an attempt to find foods/beverages I could cut out to help me lose weight.  Here where I work, they only serve soda in the 20 oz bottles. I told my doctor as much. She said that one of those 20 oz bottles of soda a day equates to 25 POUNDS of sugar a year (which I did the math....equates to about 12.5 pounds in a year.....forget about blaming breakups on weight gain in college...it was my 3 sometimes 4 a day mountain dew habit that did me in!!)  Not exactly sure when it was last week when this kicked in, but at some point I realized "I'd rather EAT my calories than drink them" and I can proudly say that I met my "1 soda a week" goal last week - Friday was the only day I had soda.  Sadly this revealation also made me take a look at my Starbucks habit - trips to the starbucks IN the hospital or on my way to work add up to more calories than a soda. So I also proudly admit that I only had Starbucks ONCE last week.  I also met my goal of eating out less than 3x (twice to be exact).  ALSO (I know, ANOTHER thing to admit?!) I kept a clear water bottle on my desk and drank one every day (that I was at work at least....I did however drink an entire nalgene bottle of water on Thursday) AND I walked 2 days last week for at least 30 minutes.

Whoever said some of the best things are in moderation was right. Too much candy and you get sick, too much and you don't appreciate the thing you craved so much. Maybe this is why I don't drink Mountain Dew anymore.  I got tired of it. 

Are you giving anything up for Lent? Is there something you overiindulged in that you no longer enjoy?

Catching up

Whew!! What a week! I've felt like I've gone non-stop for a solid week!! I worked Sunday-Wednesday, then Thursday morning got up and did the bible study and hung out with my sister, Friday was my doctors appt, yesterday (my birthday) I met my sister at La Madeliene for breakfast then went to this AMAZING spa for pedicures.  Then I went home, practiced, had lunch, drove to NRH where we had rehearsal for Onward and Upward from 2-5:30 then I came home, changed and we partied until 11:30 last night when I crashed.

So now it's time to get caught up on the other goals for the week and the photo of the day for the 2nd through the 5th.

First, an update on the goals. I had my doctor visit on Friday, so far so good, found out that what I thought was a panic attack a couple weeks ago was my scoliosis, she gave me some pain medication for when it gets really bad - its basically a pinched nerve.

Did better with the eating out and less soda. Speaking of which...my doctor said that 1 20oz bottle of soda a day equates to 25 pounds of sugar a year!!!!  And that's not including any other sugar!! I can tell you who is going to be better about dropping that bad habit!!

In terms of the reading, I finished 'the Little Prince' which I would HIGHLY recommend.(it's a super quick read) I grew up watching the movie and was always drawn to it, having read the book as an adult I know why.  It talks about keeping your childhood enthusiasm for life.  My roommate got me the last 2 Hunger Games books for my birthday (best roommate ever right?!!) so I will start on those at some point.

day 2: words

day 3: hands (mine)

                                                            day 4: stranger (it counts right?)

day 5: 10am (creative, I know)

Photo a day challenge

So one of my goals was to take more pictures - so I'm going to participate in the Febuary photo a day challenge.

1. Your view today: my view for the next 8 hours (my desk at work)

and yes, we do keep it dimly lit. Keeps the computers cooler. (plus I like to think it makes it more relaxed)

Recommended reading

While doing my daily reading on the blogs I follow, I came across this post on this blog I recently started following. It has a lot of merit, especially for me where I'm at in my weight loss journey.

Check it out here!!

Gosh, not much has happened this week that is blog worthy. (but I said I'd post once a week in an effort to revive this) I did do quite a bit of walking, kept up with my soda goal (trying to switch over to sweet tea instead then gradually make the switch to water full time) and did MUCH better with the fast food thing.

I haven't had my coffee yet so that probably explains why my brain is still kinda foggy.

There's always a silver lining....

Well....the good news is I went for a 30 minute walk this morning. (more like a power walk) The bad news....it was at 4:30 this morning during the middle of a really bad panic attack (that is just now subsiding).  Oh well.....

Don't Stop Believin'

I am happy to report that I did MUCH better on my goals this week. I did cut back significantly on fast food and only had sodas 3 days this past week.

I got a really encouraging email from my sister with regards to my last post - she made the comment about there always being excuses (and coincidentally the theme for the Biggest Loser this season is 'No Excuses').  And I will readily admit I can come up with 50 things I'd rather be doing (and in some cases not doing) than going for a walk. I did check out the rates for the 24 hour fitness just around the corner from my house.  And I still maintain that until I get regular with walking, no fitness center membership or classes will just automatically motivate me to go work out. 

She suggested that I focus on other things before getting into exercising full-force such as getting a doctor.

In terms of the rest of my 28 by 28, I finished my 2 books for this month. I read Courageous and book 1 of the Hunger Games (I was up until 4am reading the Hunger Games!). One of my friends lent me Mockingjay but I need to read Catching Fire first.  On my reading list this year:

Think and Grow Rich
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The Hunger Games books 2 and 3
The Help
The Vow
Pride and Prejudice
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abby
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Persuasion
The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks
The Great Gatsby
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (have loved this story since I was a kid, never read the book though)
The Catcher In the Rye
The Grapes of Wrath
Walden
Lord of the Flies
Atlas Shrugged
The Fountainhead
Atonement
Saturday
East of Eden

I could probably up my goal to 3 books a month (the whole purpose was to read more, watch TV less which I am doing, so mission accomplished so far right?).

The closets are still a work in progress, but are getting much closer to being done - my bedroom closet is almost completely done! (there's still my bathroom closet and the guest room closet...but I'm thinking since the guest room closet is shared, there's not much I can do)

The one thing I am finding is that there are so many smaller projects that encompass the large project - for instance - as part of cleaning out the closets that comes getting a sewing basket and organizing that, going through magazines and pulling out pages of recipes/things I like and want to try.

I suppose that's all for today, I can't really think of anything else inspiring me lately.