Stuff..................

I'm still alive and kickin'... haven't posted in a good minute! Doesn't mean I stopped having things to blog about at ALL though.. In fact my life has been more filled and busier than ever.

My grandmother passed away in early March. It was a very sad time for my family. I have missed her very, very much. I feel especially bad for my mother, who has spent the last few years taking care of her soooo much. We all miss her intensely. :(

 In other news, I am using the BodyBugg, an interesting little device that you could safely say is just a fancy pedometer, except there's a nice little system where you log in every day and it tells you how many calories you have burned, and how many calories you still have left to eat for the day. My plan is on creating a 1,000 calorie deficit every day, but so far I have not hit that target everyday (about half of the days, at least). Mine has the pink frame. I wear it on my left arm, at all times of the day, including when I sleep. I only take it off to shower.

So far, I have lost a total of 10 pounds. I've been using it for about a month now. Not so bad, right? Is that about an average of 2 pounds a week? Unfortunately, the more weight I lose, the harder it will be to lose more weight - so I've been thinking of ways to spice up my plan and make it more ambitious and vigorous. I've really been enjoying brisk walks around Boom Island here in Minneapolis. Now that it's summer, I think I'll take more outdoor strolls more often. And at work, I take the stairs instead of the elevator (what EVERY weight loss advice website tells you to do!).

I have been studying like crazy. I'm taking Math 0070 and Introduction to Biology this semester. Math and Science: the two hardest subjects for me. But I can proudly say I am actually really excelling at the math (and I've been aggressively avoiding it for years and years). I'm not only excelling at it, but enjoying it! It's suuuuuuuch a great feeling :)

Oh, the greatness!

I am so very happy, even though I am still sick with a terrible cold, isn't that wonderful that I can still be happy even under those circumstances? The reason is, I have been recieving countless benefits in so many forms in the last few months. Let me share a little about the biggest and most important ones to me.

So, I've been working for an absolutely FANTASTIC company for almost 4 years, my anniversary of four years falls on April 2nd, 2012 (coming up soon). Well, the company has had tremendous growth and this is the first year they will be offering PROFIT SHARING. What that means is that every employee who is full time and not still working through a temp agency will receive a "bonus", and we've all been excited in anticipation on it for awhile, but it's coming this friday!! I am so excited! Even if it's 10 bucks - it's not even the money that's important - it's being able to share in such a HUGE victory with my employer - the amazing success it has seen over the last few years (and its still a relatively young company, founded in 2004). I feel like there is no greater joy than knowing I helped contribute to the success, growth, and good fortune of how well we have all done there and we all continue to increase the yearly revenues with our diligent hard work and dedication. I feel SO amazingly lucky to be able to be a part of this huge success. It makes me proud and gives me tingly's.... just the most magical, wonderful, amazing feeling in the world. And I can't wait to see the company grow even MORE. We are doing so well!!!!!

Also, it's almost tax return time - I get to pay off my credit cards (or at least most of them)! I am so happy to know that within a year, my credit is going to be turned completely around - from the 540 I was sitting at about 5 years ago.... to hopefully the mid 700's! The reason this is so important to me is because there are things I will want to do in my near future that involve having a good score - such as buying a house. I still have to save the down payment, but having good credit is a first step toward that (first things first).

I've been keeping my account active on SparkPeople and it is helping me out a million. Tracking all my calories is making a world of difference - even if I go way over, at least I can learn and see the effects of how that makes me feel, etc. It's pretty different to consume 3,000 calories in a day and see it there on the screen like WOW i ate way too much! than it is to consume 3000 calories and not even realize it had gotten that high. I will continue to keep myself accountable on there. Also a great friend Chihaya and I are going to keep each other accountable every day by checking in with eachother about calorie intake and fitness minutes we've spent exercising. Everything is looking UP!

Reflections

Reflections.........

1 - that the above photo triggers in me a very emotional response.. in a good way! I love the sparkling water. which reminds me, maybe I should go and get a cup of water to drink... or 3 or 8...
2 - losing weight will not equal a problem free life for me - I should not be so hyper-focused on weight loss alone, but also the real causes for the anxiety that makes me feel like shoveling an entire aisle of food in my mouth.
3 - I don't have to look at where everyone else is at in their life and compare where I'm at in my life to theirs. It will only distract me from doing what it is that I'm on a mission to do.  I can, however, learn a great deal from others' experiences.
4 - I'm very talented and very capable!
5 - Sometimes, I'm overly sensitive. I shouldn't take everything to heart the way I tend to all the time. I would like to have better control over my emotions.

In other news...

Fitness goals aside, I managed to FINALLY set up an appointment to get my one year old kitten spayed (Rosie, the calico). She has been peeing on the couch, only one ONE section of it though.. the section we like to sit on the most. Then she pooped on my bedroom carpeting a few times in the last week, as well, and we've smelled cat pee on some of our clothes. Not only that, but also yowling and meowing non-stop all night and day, and putting her butt in the air. It's obvious she's in heat, and she's been in and out of heat for at least 6 months now, but we haven't been able to afford to get her spayed. I did some research and found out the peeing on furniture and clothing (any fabric, for that matter) is very common for female cats who are in heat, and it's some kind of way for them to release their frustration about being in pain. It makes total sense! I feel terrible for Rosie, so I am excited to bring her to Lyndale Animal Hospital in Uptown on Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. to get her spayed.

 The black kitty in the picture here is not Rosie, but it's an example to show what cats do while in heat. I think their butt hurts so they can get relief by sticking it up in the air! And the picture below (comic cartoon) is more of just something funny to lighten the mood a bit :)

She cannot eat food past 10pm the night before, which means my other cat, Hasu, will have to go on a one-nighter diet, too, since they share food and there is no way for me to hide the food from just Rosie alone. I'll be able to pick her back up in the same day sometime before 6pm.. We are very excited! She'll finally stop peeing (that's the hope!) and stop crying all hours of the day and driving us crazy. FINALLY!

Also! I just created a SparkPeople page. This is another tool I can use to help me track my weight loss progress. You can check out what I've done so far,  and also other people may want to create a profile on there as well! It has so many resources! I was blown away.

Happy New Year!

I'm sort of late - but thought it might still be appropriate to say Happy New Year, because it's only Jan. 2nd. :) I had a wonderful day at my mom and Kal's farm. We had a fire in the fireplace, lit a menorah, Molly and Kal sang a song in Hebrew (wish I could remember the name).  I've always loved the sounds of it when they sing that particular song, because Hebrew is such a beautiful language. My mom took some photos. Here's a picture of Noah and I:

You can clearly see the double chin I have, and believe me, it's terribly humiliating. But, that's why I've started this blog, and created a YouTube channel dedicated to updating my weight loss and fitness.

Molly dressed up SO cute for New Years Eve! Here she is: (my sister who's two years younger) -

So, overall, it was a blast. I'd post pictures of my mom and Kal, but I don't have their permission to do that - I'm sure it wouldn't be a huge problem, but for safetys' sake, ya know.

Anyways, I've been going to the gym pretty much every day. I don't think I've missed a single day for like 5 days straight now. I'm still following Jamie Easons' program, and in phase one (the first 6-8 weeks, something like that), I haven't really lost any weight but I am feeling way stronger, sturdy, muscles are feeling rock solid in my thighs and forearms in particular, and overall, I'm just healthier. I'll be doubling my weight lifting time in phase II, so this REALLY is just the beginning!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyones' holidays are happy and full of life, cheer, good times, and hopefully not too much alcohol! :) Mine so far has been great, minus the high calorie foods! Oh, don't get me wrong, I love the foods. It's the calories I don't like. But, it's okay! I have complete and utter faith that I will pull through after the holidays and burn off every single one of them. Made it to the gym the last couple of days and did mostly strength training just like Jamie Eason advises to do. I think I understand why now, too, it's because if you use up all of your energy and food calories on cardio, which would take those extra calories to use right away, then if you try to strength train after using the treadmill, it won't be as efficient and you wont as easily be able to build muscle. The problem with not building muscle, then, is that you wont get the benefit of having calories burned at all times of the day, such as during sleep and rest, and that is a benefit that you DONT really get with doing cardio. So, long story short, I've been refraining from doing cardiovascular exercises, namely the infamous treadmill (which as you know is like me favorite), and been just sticking with the free weights and other weight machines when I go to the gym.

Please check out my newest little videos I've uploaded on YouTube and subscribe to my channel because I have every intention of keeping active on there and staying involved with updates and progress reports and the like~ Here is my newest home video but there are several others there so far (I think I have 7 total, but I've listed some as private. I'll open them up to the public once I've reached my goal. :)

I don't know about everyone else, but I am going to have a Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo   kind of Christmas!   

Have a great day! XOXOXO ---Rickie

Exercise much?

SO~ I went to the gym tonight for 2 hours again, an hour and a half on the treadmill again. It was great. I wanted to keep going and everything was just fine, except for the development of blisters. I think I need to wear thicker socks, or tie my shoes tighter. When I got home, I cooked some salmon and had that with a tiny bit of tartar sauce. It was delicious.

I re-started up an account on  BodyBuilders.com and my username on there is Myoho22. :) I also think I might start actually keeping my YouTube Channel active. I started one video a year ago and then stopped because my old Toshiba lap top had a crappy webcam on it and the sound was all distorted and fuzzy. Now that I have my new Apple lap top, it seems to be working fine, and I found out by recording my first test video. This was a video I just made about a half hour ago and its' primary purpose it to check whether or not my new lap top would have a sufficient webcam in which to use on a regular basis for creating fitness, diet, and workout updates (among what ever else I may throw in there!). It seems like it worked, but please let me know if it doesn't on your computer. :)   My email address is ericajeanjohnson@comcast.net.