Wait loss.

Every year around new years at my gym, which is pretty much only 3 now, i dread the slew of people who flood the machines in hopes of finally losing those stubborn pounds they've had since... Well, last new years. It sounds awful, because it is. I feel bad when people have awesome goals they had the nerve to work towards, then a few weeks later, I never see them again. About a month later the gym is back to empty, and I gladly and sadly have my machines back at my disposal.

Now, let's set the records straight here. I haven't been "skinny" since I was 21. I've been "normal" and "average" but not skinny. It's not that big of a deal to me, because I spent most of my life underweight, getting in trouble at work for not dressing professionally because it was my fault they don't make women's business clothes in something lower than size 0. It was such a frustrating time in my life, and I welcomed the 20 pounds I amassed when I moved into a home with a gentleman who cooked bomb home cooked meals. Who would have thought fast food kept me skinny and home cooked got me fat? Well, whatever the case, I gained weight. 20 lbs sounds like a lot, but I went from 89 to 109. I decided to try to lose some fat and tone down in december of 08.

I kept eating until I was full, drinking soda, and chomping on junk all day long. I worked out, I had definition and strength, but I also had fat on top of it. Here's the kicker: I work at a health lab. I got my results, and they still didn't scare me into changing completely, though it was a start. The kicker was winning that xbox kinect. And seeing my fat rolls on the infrared looking picture dancing/laughing back at me. Really, that's all it took.

I cut out soda, chocolate, bread, most cheese some dairy, and stuck to a strict vegetable, fruit, nut and tuna diet. On the first day I lost 3 pounds. Over the next two weeks, I was down 10. I eventually plateaued, and have held steady since. I know this isn't what I normally post about, but I feel so much healthier now, and I've been more active as a result. Which does pertain to the blog, because thats what i've spent all my time working on! I decided to take a break to meet my goal. Which wasn't an actual pound goal, but a feel better goal.

I don't own scales, so I made a deal with myself that I had to go to the gym in order to weigh myself, and it actually worked! In order to see my progress, I have to go make more. I'm happy to report after all that hard work, I got updated test results. I went from mostly yellows and reds in my cholesterol and particle areas to all green! My doctors and specialists at work were so impressed, which was the cherry on top. Well, mostly. The comments I get from people who noticed how good I look after just a month are the best. I haven't been as perfect sticking to it as I was at the beginning, but it's still steady. Right now I'm actually home sick, which sucks major, but I'm trying to stay good even though all I want is warm comfort food.

Maybe one day I'll get the nerve to post the difference in how I look. The highest I got was 120, which wasn't that bad. But it was still a huge difference from the 110 I am now. But hey, it's Thursday, thriftiness should be ensuing... So guess what? Eating healthier is way cheaper than not! It only costs about $125 a month to eat natural foods! No high fructose corn syrup, only slightly processed, or not at all, healthy goodness. I just wish I could encourage more people to follow suit. I used to think it was deprivation to eat only healthy. Now I know I was depriving myself by not eating healthy. Here is what my lunch looks like now:



It's so simple.



Lettuce, 1 strawberry, mandarin oranges, black olives, fat free raspberry vinaigrette, and a dash of those planters nut-trition things with dried cranberries, walnuts and dark chocolate covered peanuts. It took 5 minutes to prepare, and cost about a buck to make. I just rotate ingredients around in each salad. Sometimes I dump more fruit, sometimes I keep it simple with just oranges and walnuts. Rarely, I keep it all veggies. I'm just a big fruity person.

So i hope you feel encouraged to try a healthier lifestyle. Maybe I'll post more about it to show what else I learn to live simpler and healthier :) it won't happen overnight, but it's a fun journey.

My air is being centered.

Big things are happening guys. Namely, we've spent the last couple weeks getting quotes and debating on getting central air. Can you believe we have lived in this house almost 4 years with nothing more than ONE window ac unit and ONE floor furnace? Yeah, us either. So yesterday we hired a company through home depot, and they got started installing central air.

See, like many in this market, we lost value. We've always been undervalued because we didn't have central air, but not enough to devalue us the cost to actually install it. It may sound silly, but we only need it about 4 to 5 months out of the year. It's only 800 sf, so it stays a pretty stable temperature most of the year. Except winter, when it's 16 degrees out at night, and amerigas decides to be cute and NOT SHOW UP, leaving us without propane, thus no heat, or hot water. Yes, it is 2011, and there have been days we didn't have heat. It took days of Hussy calling them to get them to come, and when they finally did, they left cute notes on our empty tank to "next time, please call when it's at 20%." except we did, but it was actually at 60% when we called for them to come. Real cute.

So we had enough embarrassment, namely from rumor of us not having heat getting all the way up to my CEO, who offered the company sofas instead of sleeping in our cold house. It was time to suck it up and install central air. Conveniently, at the very moment we made that call, the value of our house went from $160,000 to $100,000. I get it, it's a sucky market. That's fine, but to be honest, I can't understand why the values fell from foreclosures in our neighborhood! We had several that foreclosed at 80000. If you can't afford $500 in a city where rent isn't even that cheap, where else is there to go? I felt bad for them, then I felt bad for me. Needless to say, we got lucky. Lucky because it encouraged us to keep the cheap mortgage and not buy a more expensive home in the country, yet. But when we do, rental homes in our neighborhood are going for $1,000 a month. We would make more money off rent than we would selling!

Plus, we have a fully updated inside and out house, with central air. Next to the rental house beside us, we look hot! But the best part about all of this is that having central air vents actually makes it feel more like a home. Is that weird? Maybe because it feels current and not straight out of the 50s. We actually don't want to move now. It was more of a blessing in disguise. So all those honest thoughts I just shared with you seem completely irrelevant. Our value will stabilize eventually, we'll be able to rent if we need to, but were finally content.

And just look at these beautiful vents!




Though, none of this will make us truly happy until amerigas removes the tank off our property. We have never had such poor customer service from ANY company before. Luckily weather crafters has been one of the best experiences we've had so far!