Eviction Journal of Tasia
January 2007
for the Evict My Alien Love Child project

January 1, 2, 3, 3pm, 4, 4pm, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 19pm, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 26pm, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 31pm

Thank you to those who have already made donations.

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1 January 2007, Monday – Happy New Year!

This morning I started the year by reclaiming a goal that I hit in August.  I have crossed the 270 line.  I stood on my scale this morning with not a stitch on and saw 269.0!   By the end of January I am hoping to be below where I was on December 18^th.  This will put me back below the 265 line.  I have been breaking my weight loss down to five pounds increments.  Five pounds at a time is definitely doable.

Now for my New Year’s Resolutions: 

1 - I resolve not to be tempted by diet plans and programs this year.  I am going to stick to what has been working for me and keep to my plan.  I will resist all fads and gimics. 2 - I resolve to have more fun with Brian.  I will do more active things with him and make time every week to do things we enjoy.  What is the use in having this wonderful person in my life if I don’t do things with him?  Those walks we took in October were the first time we had done anything like that in a long time.  We both enjoyed it.  We should do things like this a lot more! 3 - I resolve to do at least one physical event.  I don’t know if I’m going to do a half marathon, a mini triathlon or just a 5K event.  I will have to see what event sounds most interesting to me.

I think I will stop at three.  These three resolutions are doable.  This is keeping with a previous year’s resolution I had made to set achievable goals.

I am also thinking of specific weight loss goals I would like to make for 2007. 
I want to be under 265 by the end of January. 
I want to be under 250 by my birthday in August. 
Actually, I want to be a heck of a lot lower than 250 by then, however, I am setting a goal that I am certain that I can reach even if my weight loss crawls this year.

I’m well on my way to reaching these goals.  I did three hours or cardio activity with Brian on New Year’s Eve.  That fits in with resolution 1 and 2, plus helps me achieve January’s weight goal.

 

2 January 2007, Tuesday

This morning I put on my glasses and they felt wrong.  What the heck did I do to these things?  How did I do this?  They are bent like crazy.  These are truly mangled as the nose-piece is bent so the lenses form a V on my face. I can still see through them, but they are giving me headaches and hurt my nose.

My morning weight is continuing to move nicely downwards.  I’m at 268.5 and dropping!  I must remember to call in and cancel my membership to the Biggest Loser Club today.

Yesterday I had a great workout at the gym.  I did the elliptical machine using my interval method.  I like to set the machine to the hill course and every time it goes up I push myself to go fast and get my heart rate up.  When it comes down I slow down to lower my heart rate.  I maxed out the time setting at 61 minutes and did 6.38 miles for 738 calories deliberately burned.

 

3 January 2007, Wednesday

The alien is clinging in there for all it is worth.  My morning weight is up over the 270 mark.  I’m at 270.5, however, I think this is due to salty food. 

I had caramel corn after supper last night.  I actually ate more of it than I was planning.  I kind of fell into my old “if I don’t get my fair share now I won’t get it” habit.  I have not really done this since I used to live in Michigan. This is a habit I thought I had kicked.

The reason this happened is there is a mouse is in our house and it ripped open the bag and helped itself.  So… I finished off what was left in the bag.  I have a heck of a mess on the stovetop to clean up that the mouse made.  My last bag of caramel corn lasted a long time.  This bag is gone quick due to the mouse making me feel that my food was threatened.  I sure hope the cats get this mouse soon.

Normally, my biggest weight loss problem is I rarely get hungry.  Thus, I tend to eat by the clock.  No matter if I’m hungry or not I eat breakfast within an hour of getting up.  Then every two, to no more than four, hours I eat.  It is a rare day that I flunk food by eating more than I intended.  Well, I guess that yesterday’s caramel corn was one of those very rare days. 

Just two days ago I had nearly flunked food in my usual direction.  I had made some lovely hummus and celery, which I realized I had left in the kitchen nearly an hour after I had made it.  Luckily I ate it before Brian came up and found it in the kitchen.

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3 January 2007, Wednesday evening

Dead mouse, dead mouse, we have a lovely dead mouse.  The cats are enjoying some Cat-Sip and I am dancing around singing Dead Mouse.  Yeah kitties!

 

4 January 2007, Thursday

Today is yet another beautiful morning. I woke up feeling tons better than yesterday.  I never made it to the gym yesterday.  I had planned on going, but I was feeling terribly.  Brian and I walked to lunch at Wendy’s and I was so tired I fell asleep at the table.  The walk back home was the end of my energy and I went back to bed until nine in the evening.  My ears don’t hurt this morning.  I think I’ll go weigh myself...

 I’m back and I’m bouncing!  Today I am half way to reclaiming my next goal - 267.5!

I feel so great about things that I’m going to make certain I finish updating my journal on the website.  I can’t share my happiness unless others actually can know about it.  I write my journal on my laptop, and then post it when I remember. 

I need to add one more resolution to 2007:

Oh, and when I added more romaine to my mango salad today it now serves at the right ratios.

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10 January 2007, Wednesday

Today is getting a rather late start.  I have a big weekend coming up and, of course, this is the perfect time to come down with something.  I slept in until noon to apply the “get enough rest” theory to banish illness.  However, I still feel yuckie.

Yesterday I had a really great day.  I went to the gym and played gym rat for hours and hours.  I started this great time with forgetting my full bottle of water at home, again.  This is a much too frequent occurrence.  I have left my freshly filled water bottle at home multiple times.  I keep telling myself that I will take it with me and don’t realize it was left back at the house until I am actually looking for it as I am getting out of the truck.  This meant that I don’t get to do as long a continuous cardio workout.  Instead, after twenty minutes or so I have to go to the drinking fountain.  Most of the cardio machines shut down before I can get back. 

Thus, yesterday I did the Trek Mill for a while, then a regular treadmill even though the Trek Mill did hold my time.  I wanted to switch to the treadmill that was near the wall and away from the breeze that happened every time someone came into the gym.  When I reached the point on the treadmill when I absolutely had to have some water it shut down before I returned.  Thus, I finished off my cardio workout with spending some time on the elliptical trainer.  Again, I had to quit earlier than I really wanted to due to desperately needing a drink.  Since I had no interest in redoing the ten minute warm up to be able to get back to my hill climbing program I called it quits on cardio.

I was not ready to go home, but I did not feel like starting on another cadio machine.  Instead I visited the inhalation room for an extended time and got my sinuses to open up.  I had missed my appointment with a trainer yesterday morning.  I did not have my old workout card, but I did feel like doing some weight lifting.  I had an inspiration and decided to do the Nautilus wall.  I did each of the different Nautilus machines that are all along the wall with the drinking fountain.  This gave me a planned amount to do, and some of these machines I have not done in months.  I started all the upper body lifting at fifty pounds and the lower body at eighty.  If the first set of ten was easy I increased the weight on the second and sometimes the third set.  I really liked this weight workout.  I still made an appointment to work with a trainer next Tuesday, but I will do this lifting line again.

I know at least one of the reasons I’m feeling so terrible today is the weather.  One heck of a pressure change has come through, or is still coming through, and my sinuses are certainly letting me know all about it.  It also could be that yesterday I might have overdone it just a little at the gym.

 

11 January 2007, Thursday

Hooray, I am not going to be sick this weekend!  It is now two in the afternoon I am feeling tremendously better.  This is a really good thing as my friend Stephe is coming in from Connecticut to go to a science fiction convention with me.  Besides, I have two tables in the dealer’s room to sell buttons and things.  I have been working for the last two weeks getting ready for the convention.  I am going to go pack extra sinus pills, just in case the weather shifts again.

I know that Wednesday’s yuckie feeling was more than just the weather.  Brian appears to have whatever I had today. This morning I was instead gifted with a really sour stomach.  Happily, it is now gone and the weekend is definitely a go.

 

16 January 2007. Tuesday

This past weekend all my working out at the gym has really paid off.  I had a real life fitness test and I passed with flying colors.

Sunday, there was a fire alarm at the hotel that did not sound like an actual alarm. Instead it sounded like the alarm was being tested.  This alarm went off for a few seconds and then stopped.  It repeated at several minute intervals.  We all thought the alarms was being tested as a real alarm should be continuous as to be so annoying that you want to leave the building.  This was just mildly irritating.  It was irritating enough that the front desk was contacted on the second chirp.  After about twenty minutes, it was determined this was a real alarm for an unknown reason.  We needed to evacuate immediately.  Everyone poured out of the function space and began the slow flow down the stairs.  Going down six flights of stairs was challenging for me as I was wearing heels.   

Hey, I climbed down six flights of stairs in heels and was not out of breath!  Brian and I went away from the building.  A lot of people were standing just outside the door as it was raining.  The smokers were puffing away under the awning, so if the building was actually on fire you wouldn’t be able to tell as there was so much cigarette smoke. 

Winter does not appear to be scheduled for Columbus this year.  Instead it seems we are going to be having ninety days of March.  We have rain, mud and cold, but where is my snow?  Winter is my favorite season and we don’t appear to be getting it.  We have had a dusting of snow previously, yet nothing significant or that stayed. Plus, we have had temperatures over fifty this weekend.  This is January; we should have snow!

Climbing back up after the all clear was given the first flight was a bit hard, so I took my shoes off.  There was no way I could climb all that way in heels.  I was easily able to climb the stairs in my socks.  I was a bit out of breath and did a little huffing and puffing after climbing the six flights.  After the fire alarm stair trek I decided that I might want to look into stair climbing machines at the gym.  I know I used to be able to run up flights of stairs.  Back when I was in college I used to run up the multiple flights to my dorm room lugging a heavy backpack.  When I have done stair climbing as an exercise at home I never got any where near this out of breath.  Then again, at home I can’t do continuous stairs up.  I can either walk through the house to the next staircase, thus getting a rest between flights, or I can go back down the flight I just went up, again getting a rest between flights. Either way there is only a limited number of stairs available at home and a rest between every flight.

I tried a new cardio machine today – an actual stair climbing machine.  This is actually an old machine the gym has had the entire time I have been a member, however, it is new as today was the very first time I used it.  Golly gee is it ever an amazing workout.  On the elliptical trainer I can get in about ten calories toasted per minutes if I work at it.  On this machine ten per minutes is darn right easy.  I think I might focus on the stair climber for a while and see what kind of weight loss it can help me achieve.  It is much more convenient to climb stairs on a machine than it was at the hotel on Sunday.

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17 January 2007, Wednesday

Yeah kitties!  Mouse number four is at this moment being carried down the basement steps in Gizmo’s mouth.  I am so aggravated by these mice.  I am repeatedly cleaning up mouse droppings off my cleaned kitchen counters.  This means that I don’t have a sanitary kitchen as there are filthy little mice wandering all over the place.  I want the kitties to keep hunting until all the mice are gone!

 

18 January 2007, Thursday

Well, it is not Friday, but I did remember to step on the scale before eating breakfast.  I don’t understand why I am not thinking to do this.  I did not do it last week.  This morning I am at 267.0, which is back down to where I was on the fifth.  The upswing on the seventh is gone.

It has been two weeks and my weight is basically the same.  I am going to look at this positively. I went to a convention.  I ate food I did not prepare, which means it had a lot more salt in it than I would normally use.  I have not been to the gym anywhere as much as I would like to be.  Actually, this week I have been to the gym only once.  I had a fantastic workout, but I have been working and have not made it back to the gym this week.  So… having my weight be the same as it was two weeks ago is maintaining my progress.  I may have not made any more progress, but I have not gone backward either. 

Next week I am hoping to see a change to a lower number.  However, I am not going to start living on the scale, by the scale or for the scale.  Nope, I’m going to keep living my life for me.

 

19 January 2007, Friday

Yippie!  We have snow, actual snow, here, in Columbus, Ohio.  I am talking more than just a dusting.  Real, actual snow covering the ground, or at least half way up the oh-so-green grass stems.  They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Well, the whiney girl finally got her snow!

 

19 January 2007, Friday evening

I received a very nice surprise in the mail today.  A letter came with a cash donation.  Here is the beginning of the letter:

“I’ve read through your website over the weekend – very inspiring.  Anyway, after all that reading I thought I’d make a donation.  I’m sending you $100.  I’d like to suggest that you use it to allow Amy to come to visit you again.  It’s been a year since you started your challenge and I think that the two of you should get together to celebrate, swap stories, and update the photo on the website.”

Thank-you for your donation to have my best friend Amy to come visit. I will definitely update the photos on the website just as soon as I get her here.

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20 January 2007, Saturday

This morning I started the day with my version of a nice bowl of cereal.  I put about a third of cup of gluten free frosted flakes in a bowl and then I poured about half a cup of orange juice over it.  I know this sounds strange, but it is really tasty.

I discovered that I like some cereals with orange juice on them instead of milk back in 2005 when I was on a camping trip.  Oatmeal was the only option available for breakfast.  However, there was no milk and the oatmeal was rather thick.  By thick I mean as in nearly solid.  I decided to just pour the orange juice I was going to eat with my oatmeal on it to soften it up.  Wow!  What an amazing taste discovery.

Now, when I have the other gluten free cereal I like I put milk on it.  Peanut butter is not a flavor that I have ever even considered combining in the bowl with orange juice.  Obviously, oatmeal does work with orange juice on it.  It also tastes pretty good with cranberry juice.  Heck, oatmeal might work with almost any juice.

Last evening I went to see the Trinity Irish Dance Company at the Palace Theatre. However, my geographic sense was completely off.  I knew it was at the Palace Theatre, yet I parked at the Riffe Center as for some crazy reason I thought the Palace Theatre was in that building.  It was not until I had paid to park, parked the car and gone into the building that I realized my mistake.  I had planned to park in a garage connected to the theatre I was going to.  Instead I ended up getting to walk, with no coat, a block down a windy alley to get to the show.  I did make it in time to see the entire performance, which was really fantastic.  After the show there was a DVD of the group available in the lobby.  Unfortunately, they only accepted cash, so I was not able to get one.  I am hoping that they will offer it on their website soon.

This evening I discovered that yet another pair of pants I had purchased this year is seriously big on me.  The jeans that fit me perfectly are to the stage that every time I wear them I end up having to tug them back up as they feel like they are falling off.  Well, tonight when I was in the bathroom I discovered just how much they actually are falling off.  Instead of unbuttoning and unzipping I was able to just push them down.  I shrieked in glee and laughed so hard.  My weight is the same as two weeks ago.  However, I am not the same size as two weeks ago!  I was also able to pull my blue jeans back up without undoing them.  I absolutely need to either take these in or get a belt to wear with them.

 

21 January 2007, Sunday – Snow Day!

Yes, today is the first sticking snow of winter.  When I woke up this morning it was cold, as in 25 degrees Fahrenheit.  There was not any snow on the ground, but the weather forecast was calling for two inches! 

By eleven we had over an inch, probably nearly the two I was promised.  I decided we had enough snow that I could actually shovel the walk.  I know it is kind of crazy, but I really love to shovel show.  You get a great workout and you get visible results.  Plus, the postal carrier really appreciates that it has been done. 

Here are a few pictures Brian took of me having fun in the snow today.  Brian came out and took a picture of me playing with my snow shovel.  I did not even know he had done this.  I was just joyfully shoveling snow.

The final picture Brian took at home was of the artistically inverted stump in the front yard. I think it nicely shows off the depth of today's snow.

Once I had the car all cleared off we were off to the park. Originally we were thinking of going to Highbanks. However, the roads were terrible.  High Street was a mess and I actually put the truck in four-wheel drive.  We decided that a closer park would be a good idea. This has been such a great winter day.  Shoveling snow and now sloppy roads.

When we got to Whetstone park there were people sledding.  Rats, I didn’t even think of pulling my sled out.  Oh well, I know that I’ll be back to a park later this week if the snow lasts. 

Brian and I walked over the pond bridge and down the trail.  Brian, as usual, had his camera with him and stopped to take some pictures.  I kept going and then came back. Since Brian was still taking pictures of that tree I decided to try to make a snowball. I say try as this was very cold formed snow that did not pack well.  It was the frozen powder kind of snow.  I did get it to form a ball, but it did not hold together well.  When I threw it I completely missed the tree I was aiming at.  I made another and tried again, and again until I did hit that tree.  From that point on I was eyeing the trees and looking for appropriate targets for my powdered snowballs.

I tried throwing snowballs with my left hand.  I’m oh, so, not good at throwing, these powdery snowballs, even when I do it right handed.  Left-handed I missed.  I kept trying until I actually hit a tree.  To finally hit a big tree left-handed I did need to be only four feet away. 

Brian analyzed what I was doing and said it was because I had my jacket on that I couldn’t throw decently.  That plus the fact my snowballs kept coming apart in mid air.  Brian explained to me my sleeve was catching and messing up my shot.  I tried shooting a snowball like a basketball and was easily able to hit the next two trees I tried to tag with a snowball.

I kept leaving snowball tags on trees, poles and even the bridges.  Hey, if you want to tag something, snowballs are the tag to use.  They make a neat splatty mark and completely melt away. Brian took one nice before and after I hit the tree set of photos. I snuck up on the tree he was already taking pictures of and splatted it with a snowball that mostly stuck together.

The final fun winter thing we did today was kick off our first tire tumors.  Tire Tummors are the snow that gather in the wheel wells.

Of course, since today is Sunday, I will need to redo clearing the walk tomorrow as more snow fell after I was done.  He, he, he… I will get to shovel snow again.  Not to mention that I believe Columbus will get more snow tomorrow.  I just saw that Franklin County is under a Winter Weather Advisory until 6 AM.  Wahoo!  We are going to get more snow.

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22 January 2007, Monday

It has been a full year since the Evict My Alien Love Child project started.  Of course, my period has started today and I am bloated.  However, I still decided to take a new weight picture.

I am twenty-two pounds down from where I started this in January last year.  I would much prefer to have lost more weight, but I did loose weight this year.  Beyond the numbers on the scale, I have achieved quite a few of my signs of success that I chose for myself when the project began.

Not needing to open the car door to fasten the seatbelt.  By the end of last March I no longer needed to do this at all.  This winter I have not done it even once!

Be able to bend over with feet together and put hands on the floor (without legs spread due to tummy in the way).  I am to the point where I can put my feet together and touch the floor with my hands together.  I can’t quite put my hand flat on the floor yet.  So far I’m only to the point of my fingers touching all the way.  My palms can’t reach yet because the alien is in the way.  I think that will need to be a goal for 2007.

Clothing noticeably fitting differently.  There have been so many times this past year that I have noticed this.  I have unpacked clothing that I could not wear for years that fit.  I am taking in clothing by inches.  The first big sign of this I had was with my favorite plaid shirt back on the twenty-second of February.  This same skirt is to the point of having to be taken in now.  There is a great picture of me wearing it on the October hike Brian and I did at Highbanks.

Regular size bath towel wraps around me. Well, even today I am not completely at this goal.  I can wrap a regular size bath towel around me on the top, however, below the waist the towel gaps.  I’m getting closer to this goal and believe I will achieve it in 2007.

My weight fully dressed with shoes on is the same as my starting naked weight. By 4 February 2006 I was down to 286.5, even with heavy shoes on fully clothed I was under 290.  This was a full pound below my starting naked weight.

Dressed weight after breakfast and a quart of water less than starting naked weight.  Well, with my weight under 290 fully clothed, this also means that I even after drinking a quart of water I was only a pound away from hitting this sign.  It was on the sixth of March that I finally dropped to the point where even after breakfast and a quart of water my weight was lower after breakfast than when I started naked.

I am planning on taking some time and thinking of what specific new signs of success I will be looking for this next year.  I am looking at my weight loss in achievable five pound goals.  Currently, I’m still recovering from the Biggest Gainer fiasco.

Since I am currently having my monthly bloat, I’ll wait to take pictures of me and do new measurements until after the blood festival is done.  I am also waiting to see how I am doing on undoing the alien’s latest effort to save itself until the end of January when I should be finished with the festival.

 

 

24 January 2007, Wednesday

Last week and this week have not been get to the gym often weeks.  Instead I have been getting hours and hours of exercise at home and outside.  I love winter.  Now that it actually feels like winter I have been getting so much done. 

I am playing outside in the snow and going for walks outside.  I think it is really funny that I like going for walks in the wonderful snow even more than going for walks in the summer.  Yeah, I do have to bundle up and my nose feels frozen at times, but it is fantastically beautiful and the air tastes wonderful.

Some people seem to really do a lot of their house cleaning in the spring.   Brian and I seem to be doing more of it in the winter.  Yesterday we did constructive destruction.  I took apart part of a storage shelving unit Brian had made to make space for our new upright freezer.

 

26 January 2007, Friday

Yesterday I actually went to the gym for the first time since Tuesday last week.  I had a fantastic workout and I believe I set a new record.  However, I had again forgotten a water bottle.  This time it was because I never even thought to fill one before I left the house.  Without having a water bottle with me I was thinking I might not get a continuous cardio workout. I decided that I was going to set a cardio machine for the maximum time and just see if I could make it without needing to stop for water. 

I tried a new program on the elliptical trainer at a new level.  I set the machine for random at level 4.  I have never done more than level 2 in the past, but yesterday level 4 sounded like a good idea.  My thought was if this is too hard I could ease it down.  Not that I really have any idea how to change the level once a program is stared other than when it is set on manual.  Besides, if I got too hot and tired I would be getting off to go to the water fountain and could always set it at a lower level when I started again.

Anyway, I had my book on CD from the library and I wanted to hear the next disc.  I am not allowing myself to listen to this very interesting book anywhere but at the gym.  It has twenty-six discs and yesterday I finished off disc seven.  By limiting where I will let myself listen I motivate myself in another way to go to the gym.  I want to hear what happens next in the story.

Since I was listening to a book on CD, I was doing the elliptical trainer with my eyes shut.  This way I could concentrate on the story while I moved at a steady pace.  The machine varied the difficulty, but I just kept going at the same speed.  When I peeked my eyes opened to check how I was doing I saw that I was going at over 50 rpm.  My time to calories toasted ration was nice and high, well over ten per minute.  I shut my eyes and kept going. 

When the program on the elliptical trainer finished I had deliberately toasts a very impressive 877 calories.  Eight hundred seventy-seven!  That is over fourteen calories a minute.  I will most definitely do this program again!

Since I had not had any water in the past hour of exercising the next activity was a nice long drink at the water fountain.  I don’t understand why so many people only drink bottled water.  Bottled water is basically just city water that has been filtered an extra time.  Since the gym is near my house it is on the exact same reservoir so the water is the same.

Yesterday I also realized that not even once have I gone to swim laps last year.  I love to swim laps, yet I never made it enough of priority to make certain that I went.  Well, this morning I am going!   The Columbus Aquatics Center has a morning adult swim on Friday from 10 until noon.  I am planning on getting there when they open, with my swimsuit on under my clothing.  I’ll get into the pool as quick as possible so that I can swim as long as I can. 

When they kick me out because the pool is closing I’ll go home, have lunch and work a bit.  In the afternoon I have an appointment at Victory to get the lower body portion of my new workout.  The trainer helped me put together a new upper body workout last Tuesday.  I did that workout yesterday after my record setting elliptical hour. 

You might have noticed that my journal entries are getting a bit longer.  I think this is due to my writing on my laptop more.  This morning I am sitting at the table in our kitchen. I have just finished a lovely breakfast of steel cut Irish oats with blueberries and two tablespoons of cream.  I’m working my way through a quart of water while I type.  The oats are actually leftovers from yesterday’s breakfast.  This is a good time of day for me to plan the day ahead, think of what I achieved yesterday, and write up my journal.

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26 January 2007, Friday evening

Oh my golly what a day I have had. 

The pool was very much how I remembered it.  I paid my 50¢ even though I could have gotten in without paying.  The turnstile no longer blocks the entrance and I could easily have just breezed past it.  I deposited my two quarters and turned the turnstile anyways.  I had trouble with the gym lockers.  Locker number 221 ate my quarters without locking properly.  It finally engaged when the door was open and the key would not pull out.  Thankfully I could extract my stuff and try locker 222 which did behave.

The pool’s temperature was warmer than I remembered.  This was a very pleasant surprise.  I was expecting it to feel cold and instead it was warm.  The pool had just a few adults in it as the water aerobic class had ended and this was an adult only swim time.  I did not get one of the two lap lanes, but next to a lane with markers was good enough.

When I first started swimming my eyes immediately started burning.  I did not have any goggles with me.  I closed my eyes with each stroke when my head went underwater.  I had to verify with the lifeguard that it is thirty-six laps to a mile.

I also did not have my little lap counting ring.  Instead I would have to count in my head.  Great, the girl who loses count lifting weights counting laps.  This was a real challenge.

For the first six laps I did a breast stroke.  I was really enjoying the sensation of my body moving through the water.  My eyes were still burning even when they were not in the water.  Oh well, I wanted to swim a mile and kept going.  I switched to the back stroke for a while, and then went back to the breast stroke.

Around lap thirteen I got out of the pool to get a kickboard.  I say around lap thirteen as by this point I was not certain if the next lap was going to be lap fourteen or fifteen.  I did a full lap, down and back, just kicking.  My legs informed me that they now hated me so I went back to the breast stroke.

I alternated doing breast stoke for multiple laps and then a lap or two of back stroke.  When I thought I was about to do lap thirty-two I decided it was time to torture my legs again.  This time I placed the kickboard behind me and did the kicks on my back.  I finally made it the full length of the pool and had to put the kickboard down.  My legs were cramping and ready to riot.  I slowly swam back to the other end of the pool. 

By this time I had been swimming for over an hour.  I was only three and a half laps short of swimming a full mile.  Of course, I kept swimming. 

When I got back down to the end of the pool where I had left the kickboard I picked it back up.  I took pity on my body and did the kicks on my stomach.  It took me well over five minutes to make it back to the other end of the pool.  I now just needed two more laps to have at least a mile.  I might have already been over a mile, but I wanted to do at least a mile.  Thus, each time I was uncertain of my count I went with the lower number.

I did two more laps of breast stoke and declared to myself that I had definitely swum a mile.  I moved over near to the steps and did some stretching.  I decided to do just one more lap.  I wanted to see if I could do a lap of front crawl.  By the time I reached the end of the pool I was done for the day.  I walked back to the steps.  This was really fun.  When I started on my way back I could not touch the bottom.  I was making giant slow motion running motions.  When I could touch the bottom I took as big a step as I could until I was all the way back to the steps. 

They have diving boards at the Aquatics Center and I decided that since I still had a bit of time before the adult swim was over I would try that.  I dove off the lower board.  Oh my, is that board springy.  It was way springier than I liked. Once was more than enough.  I climbed the ladder out of the pool, collected my bag and headed back to the locker room.

I was bathed and just started to get dressed when a heard of little girls came charging in.  There were at least twenty bouncy first graders who had arrived for swimming lessons.  It was time to flee.

The drive home was challenging as my eyes were burning and watering from the pool.  I had been swimming for an hour and a half without wearing goggles.  My eyes most certainly did not like it and were now telling me what a complete fool I had been not to take goggles with me. I thought they would ease up after a bit.

I was wrong.  My eyes were burning more and getting very painful when I was home. This is what they looked like when I did finally make it home.

I ate some lunch and was in tears. Something had to be done.  I called the pool and asked what to do.  They said to rinse in cold water.  This just made them hurt worse!

Brian went to the store to fetch some distilled water to rinse my eyes with while I sat on the couch petting cats.  I called the optician and she referred me to call the doctor.  I called the doctor and the receptionist said she would have the nurse call me back.

When Brian returned from the store we went upstairs, wrapped my head in a towel and poured distilled water in my eye.  Well, we tried to.  I wanted to just take the jug and pour it in my eye.  Brian insisted we use just a capful at a time.  This was a good idea as the first several caps full of water went more in my face than in my eye.  Actually, part of one cap went into my nose.  Once I finally successfully put water in my left eye it immediately felt a lot better.  My right eye took several does before the pain lessened.  This was the eye I had put water from the tap in.  Brian commented that there is chlorine in drinking water and that is why it had not helped.

Currently it is 8pm and my right eye is still burning from the pool water.  The nurse just called a few minutes ago and Brian and I are going to go out to get what she recommended.  If my eye still hurts tomorrow I am to go see the doctor.

I did not make it to my appointment with the trainer for the lower body portion of my new workout.  Actually, I had called and rescheduled for 5 pm.  However, I decided around 4:30 that since my eye was still hurting adding sweat to it would not be a good idea.  I called in and rescheduled again.  My appointment with the trainer is going to wait until Monday.  Besides, my legs really did not want to go lift weights today after two laps with the kickboard.

27 January 2007, Saturday

When I woke up this morning I was thrilled to notice that my eyes no longer have the burning sensation I had yesterday since swimming.  This means I do not have to go see a doctor. Yeah!  Instead of spending a fortune on a doctor’s visit, or worse yet the emergency room, a bit of patience, a few phone calls and $5 worth of over the counter supplies has successfully treated my dried out pool eyes.

I have been meaning to mention a change I noticed in my body at the gym the past few times I was there.  I can see hallows above my collarbone.  I am also seeing some definition near my breastbone.  This is a sign that I am loosing the weight that I had not even thought to look for.  This morning in the bathroom I again noticed these hallows and said to myself I have to put this in my journal.  Lookie, I finally did it!

Since I look at myself while I am working out I have gotten to know pretty well what I really look like.  Hey, since the gym is wallpapered with mirrors that I cannot really avoid unless I close my eyes I might as well use these.  When lifting weights I tend to stare into my own eyes, or watch the muscles of my body that are moving the weights.  I slowly and deliberately move my muscles, looking at how much they contract.  I watch my form and concentrate on what I am doing.  I feel that I get more benefit from slow, deliberate, thoughtful motion than when I rush through my lifting workout.

I am starting to be able to really feel me and not just the alien.  When I put my hands on my hips I now feel my muscles and ribs between the rolls of alien clinging to my body.  I have a really fantastic little body hiding under this alien.  Each time I find more evidence like this I know I can evict the alien.  The me I want to be does exist.  I am working to distill my body down to just me, with no more alien.

Another sign I have noticed is when Brian puts his hand on my back when we are going through a store.  He places a thumb on my spine and his fingers curl around my little waist as he steers me down the aisle.  I have such a small waist that his hand actually wraps around the side.  The way Brian grasps my waist feels like he is holding me.  The alien is not being held at all.

 

28 January 2007, Sunday

A few days ago Brian and I made a really wonderful dish.  I love leftovers so we tend to make a good amount of something so that I can enjoy the wonderful meal several times with very little additional effort.  I have been enjoying soup and salad for lunch several days this week now. 

Last week we purchased a ham.  We looked through the bins at the store until Brian discovered one that was not too large for us.  We wanted some ham, not a commitment to eat ham for the next six months straight.  However, we also wanted a ham that did have a bone to make a soup with and also not super loaded with salt.  Why is it that ham seems to always have more salt in it than I ever want?  Then again, I don’t tend to add salt to anything unless it is needed for a specific chemical reaction.

Once we had the ham home Brian and I processed it by slicing and packaging it to enough ham for one meal for the both of us.  That ham yielded eleven meals tucked away in the freezer plus a nice bone to be boiled.

The next day we went out and purchased a bag of lentils and a bag of split green peas for our soup.  I sliced all the ham off the bone while Brian pulled pre-sliced onions and celery from the freezer.  Everything was put in a large pot with the water from boiling the bone and cooked.  Once I tasted it I added some heavy cream and a bit of black pepper and the soup was good.  This yielded sixteen servings of soup, which I froze all but two.

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29 January 2007, Monday

Pinky, the Brain, went with me to the gym for the first time.  Pinky is my new MP3 player.  I named it Pinky based on its lovely color.  It is anodized hot pink stainless steel. 

Brian has copied the current disk of the book on CD that I have checked out from the library to a MP3 file so I can listen to it instead of on my CD player.  This way I don’t have to carry the large CD player that skips tracks.  I also have a great set of headphones, which are actually big and clunky.  However, they are actually stereo headphones.  My CD player, in addition to skipping tracks, had headphones that only played in one ear.  This was really annoying as it made me have to concentrate very hard to keep track of the storyline with the background noise of the gym.  My new headphones fit mostly over my ears instead of sticking in my ears and block out the gym noise nicely.

Pinky does have annoying habits.  I cannot jump to a specific track easily.  I have to listen to a track for a second or two before I can move on to the next one.  Then again, my CD player did not track forward easily either.  The other slight annoyance is that Pinky will not hold pause for long periods of time.  My old CD player would hold pause for as long as I left it on.  Pinky shuts itself down in a few minutes.  This means if I want to continue where I left off I have to track forward to where I left off, listening to a second or two of each track.  Oh well, I definitely like Pinky much better.

I worked with a trainer today and have a new lower body workout.  I have actually done my new upper body workout twice as I could not get an appointment until today that fit my schedule.

 

30 January 2007, Tuesday

This has been a very rescheduled day. 

I started the day with an appointment with the trainer at Victory scheduled for 10am.  This was for the abdominal portion of my new workout.  Brian and I were talking at breakfast and decided that I should reschedule my gym time so we could do the running around town we needed to do in the morning.  Besides, Brian had a client he was scheduled to see in the early afternoon.  I called the gym and was able to reschedule my time with the trainer for 4pm.  Yippie, I was going to get to see a trainer today.  Brian and I loaded up the truck and we were off.

At 3:30 in the afternoon we were still at his client’s.  We had one more errand to do before we would be back home. I called the gym again.  Amazingly I was able to get another appointment with a trainer.  My appointment was now at 7:30 in the evening.

Once we were done at his client’s we went to drop off metal recycling.  We had aluminum cans, computer cases and chairs stripped down to just the metal parts.  We took all this metal to Citizen’s for Humane Action as they fund part of their work with funds from the sale of scrap metal.  The circuit boards from the dead computers are still in a bag in the car waiting to go to the technology recycling facility.

Brian and I got home in time for me to have a lovely dinner before I dashed off to the gym.  I had watermelon and my lentil soup.  Brian had a bowl of cereal.

I made it to the gym by 6:40, which meant I had time for a good cardio workout before my appointment. I hopped on the elliptical trainer, turned on Pinky, and listened to disc 10 of my book.  I did not equal my 877 calories in an hour with the same settings.  Instead I only did 874 calories.  I think a workout within three calories is actually darn right amazing!

When I climbed off the elliptical machine the trainer was talking to new gym member.  I sat down for a while and worked on catching my breath.  I finally ended up starting working with another trainer that I had never met before.  We went downstairs and I learned to use one of the balls to do crunches.  I am still not certain why I am doing them on the ball, but they feel very effective. 

We came back upstairs and I ended up being handed off to another trainer.  Now I was working with Amanda.  She finished off my abdominal workout and we talked quite a bit afterward.  We went over what I should do on each day at the gym.  She explained why I could do abdominal exercises every day safely based on physiology.  I feel that Amanda knows quite a bit more than some of the other trainers I have worked with at Victory.

I am so glad I was handed off to Amanda.  I really liked working with her.  I liked working with her so much I have modified my training card to list her as my trainer.  This means that I’m not assigned to whomever is available.  Instead, I will only be making appointments with Amanda.  I also decided to sign up for Amanda’s team for the new contest that starts in February at Victory.

I actually was the last person to leave the gym tonight.  I went into the inhalation room to open up my sinuses and then the sauna to warm up.  Winter has arrived with a cold vengeance and is very much making up for the overly warm weather in December and early January.

 

31 January 2007, Wednesday

A different team of Allstate adjusters came to our house today.  They measured everything again and went over all of the damage, including the damage to the house that has happened since the previous insurance inspectors were here.   Plus, the damage we did not realize had been done.  I had not known that fiberglass insulation needs to be replaced once it gets wet.  Well, my attic office is another area of the house that will need some repairs.

We have selected who we want to fix the roof – Demarco roofing.  I am hoping that we will get the roof repaired soon.  Not having a lot of snow this winter might just be a really good thing.  This way they can fix my roof in the near future.  I’m eagerly awaiting a call from Demarco with the final numbers.  Then I can call Allstate back, get the final approval, and sign the contracts to get the roof fixed.

We have also turned in the paperwork for who we want to repair the plaster indoors – George F. Neff & Co.  Brian is the one who made the decision on who to hire for this.  Of course, the plasterwork will wait until the roof is done.  I’m dreaming that the plaster might be done by end of March.  However, there is a ten-week waiting period to get the slate to fix the roof once the contact is signed.  Great, this means that it will be April before the roof is started. 

Now, all I have to determine is who I want to hire to do the painting.  None of the people who came out to do estimates for the plaster and lathe work actually paint.

 

31 January 2007, Wednesday evening

My clay class ended early.  The instructor had to leave early so I went off to the gym.  I made it there with just a little over thirty minutes until they closed.  I did not have time to do a full workout.  However, I wondered if I could get in my full upper body workout in?

I pulled my exercise card and headed over to the dumbbells and started lifting.  I did three sets of ten of my two dumbbell exercises, deltoid raises and bicep curls.  I switched to the machine for my sets of flies.  When I finished those I glanced at the clock and smiled.  I was going to be able to finish off the entire upper body lifting before they kicked me out.  I had only four more exercises and over fifteen minutes.

They were actually beginning to close things down as I moved to my last machine.  The staff let me finish off all three sets and only locked up a minute late.  This makes two nights in a row I have shut the gym down.