Back on Track

I am so pleased; I have been to the gym the last two nights. I have only been doing cardio and abs, but that's mostly because it is still early enough in the year for the weight machines to be too crowded. Well getting some cardio in is better than nothing, right?

I have started keeping track of weight watchers points again. I don't follow it completely, but it is helpful to know what foods are "worth", if you will. My co-worker brought back these chocolate caramel macadamia bits of heaven, and I calculated that one candy is worth 2 ww points. So I ate one with my coffee, but I plan to exercise some restraint. 2 points is okay, as long as it doesn't become 2+2+2+etc.

We went to the California Pizza Kitchen last night. I had a cup of the tortilla soup and a half waldorf salad. I think it is my most favorite salad ever. It was a reasonably healthy meal, especially since I went to the gym afterwards.

I have a real problem though, and that is that I HATE to cook. I really do hate it. I know we eat out way too much; it's much easier to justify now that DH and I both work full time. Neither of us want to cook when we get home at the end of the day. I know we need to force ourselves; I'm trying to plan meals ahead of time but just haven't gotten the hang of it. DH is no help with this. I am really good about making healthy choices when I eat out; I could probably lose weight just as easily that way, but we waste so much money by going out. Ugh. I am going to *try* to go to the store at lunch so we can start eating in again.

I guess that's about it here; nothing too exciting is going on right now. Work is much improved lately; some things are finally starting to work, which is wonderful. I may do a 5K MS walk with some friends in April; I just need to find out if DH can watch Luke so I won't have to find a sitter or something. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Diet and Exercise

We are back from our trip to Mammoth and (mostly) in one piece. Jay ran into me (ouch!!) and then proceeded to run into a tree, I was very sore, and Luke still won't ski. But it was still a pretty good trip. There was soooo much snow; I have never seen so much snow. I am determined to get in shape this year so I can successfully ski down blue runs next year. I do well on the green runs; I can even do parallel turns now. Something happens when I get on a blue run though; I just freak out about going fast. There is a place here in San Diego that does indoor lessons on a carpeted slope, so we'll try those as next season gets closer.

I have made a dismal discovery now that I have a reliable scale again: I have gained back 6.5 pounds of what I lost last year. The reading yesterday morning was 145.5. In January of 2004 I decided it was time to lose the 30 extra pounds I still had from my pregnancy (literally eating for two, and therefore gaining 60 pounds whilst pregnant, is baaaadddd). I was starting at a depressing 160. Bear in mind I am 5'3"; 160 was a lot for my height.

Well, I started going to the gym again and exercising about 5 times a week, in addition to eating healthier. I mainly cut out refined/processed foods and simple carbs. By the end of last year I was down to 139 and over 2/3 of the way to my initial goal of 130. Since then I have been lazy and started eating poorly again, and the weight is creeping back on. My ten year high school reunion is next year and I am NOT going to be overweight!! I bought a lot of new clothes last year and my size 8 jeans are awfully tight today and I am NOT okay with that.

So starting today, I am back on track. My eating thus far has not been great, but neither has it been terrible. I will get to the grocery store in the next day or two and start bringing healthy snacks to work and planning healthier meals again. I hate to cut into my stitching time, but I have to return to my regular exercise schedule. I may decide at 130 that another 5-10 pounds would be doable.

I know that my weight is in my power to control at this point; I am in decent health and just need to develop some willpower. Wish me luck...

A Quick Post

I keep meaning to blog but the days keep flying by. We leave today to go to Mammoth; they've gotten 62 inches of snow in the last five days so we picked a good weekend to go. I'm not looking forward to the long drive, but it will be worth it.

I am ticked off at my husband; he was an idiot last night and it brought back memories from an ugly time. I realized one thing that surprised me; I do not trust him. Oh I trust him around his female friends, it's not like that, I just don't trust him regarding another subject. I'm not getting into it here because this is the internet and anyone could happen across this blog. Also I don't want to dwell on it. He's lucky that nothing bad happened last night though and he's and idiot. Enough said.

As I was in bed last night trying to fall asleep I composed a blog entry in my head and now I can't remember what it was about. It was good though. Oh well. I'll try to write more regularly when I get back. I had a lovely weekend with Terri and her delightful homemade pumpkin bread, and several hourse of stitching while Luke was at a friend's house. We should do that more often. :)

Being a Female Engineer

Well I thought I would have more time to blog while I was in San Francisco, but it ended up being a really busy trip. Tuesday I was at the conference for about 12 hours, and then went back to my hotel to shower, watch The Amazing Race, and stitch. Wednesday I spent all day at the conference again with a brief break to go up to Fisherman's Wharf and Ghiradelli Square to get some gifts for DH and DS. I never even went back online after Monday night; I was so busy or worn out. Wednesday night was really fun, but I'll get to that in a bit.

I made some observations during the conference. Despite the 1 female to every 10 males in my engineering classes in college, the ratio at the conference was more like 1:50. I actually felt out of place at first. No one talked to me and I was treated differently at the vendor booths than my male counterparts. Well okay, not at *all* of the vendor booths, but at many of them. On the upside, there was never a line in the restroom.

I am not used to being ignored; I've always gotten along well with male engineers (since I spend so much time around them IRL) so it was strange to feel left out. That changed Wednesday morning when, out of loneliness and boredome, I started talking to two guys behind me at one of the training courses before the class started. They were talking about cell phones and maybe switching to Cingular, and I have Cingular, so I butted in and we started chatting. It turned out they were from the Sacramento area; one of them lives near my Grandmother actually. They both were married with kids (the one has two boys, 2 and 4, and my son is 4) and it was nice to have someone to talk to. Later in the day I ran into him on the exhibit floor and he invited me along to dinner with the rest of his co-workers so I wouldn't have to be all alone. So I went out to dinner with 5 other engineers and then three of us went to a bar afterwards where we talked about our kids, spouses, church, and neat technology. The one with the two kids is coming to San Diego with his family in a couple months to go to Legoland so we're going to try to go then too and meet up so the kids can play together.

It was interesting going out to drink with them; it was so much more fun than the stress of going out when you're single. We all took turns to go outside and call home, say goodnight to the kids, etc. It was so comfortable and I was so happy to meet other people that really had a lot in common with me. It also made me realize how happy I am to be married and done with the whole trying to hook up with someone thing. We were laughing at some of the other people at the bar, all glad that those days were behind us! I don't mean laughing in a malicious sense, more in a "been there, done that" sense.

Well, it was a wonderful trip overall. I am now back home and working on Alpine Garden Seasons. My kit came while I was gone and I'd been anxiously waiting for it!! It is my favorite Chatelaine design to date and I'm so excited that it's finally started.

I finished Something!

I am writing tonight from the Crown Plaza Hotel in downtown San Francisco. I'm here this week for the Embedded System Conference. The next three days will be filled with training classes and the exhibition. It's the first time I've gone somewhere leaving Luke with Jay. They did go to North Carolina a week early one year but they were with Jay's parents so they weren't alone. On the one hand of course I miss my boy; I am hardly ever away from him except during the work day, and I really hope that he is okay with this! On the other hand, the thought of three nights in a hotel room all to myself is really exciting. I will get to eat my meals while they're still hot/fresh and I will be able to sleep undisturbed (barring some sort of natural disaster, of course!).

So that's what I'm up to this week. I'll probably have more time to blog than I usually do. Anyway, I have finished something!! I finished Mirabilia's Cottage Garden Fairy on Sunday morning. I'm so excited!! I am not yet sure how to add a picture directly, but here is the link anyway:
http://www.stitchers-gallery.com/jill/index.php?RollID=fin&FrameID=cgf_fin
I stitched this on 32 count belfast Sun Dappled Glade from Sugar Maple Fabrics. I tried to use the specified Mill Hill beads, but they did not fit on the 32 count hand-dyed so I gave up and converted the beads to Delicas. Unfortunately I did it using bead images online and didn't wait until my sample cards arrived, so some of the colors could have had better matches. Oh well; I am happy with it overall and am definitely going to be converting to Delicas from now on.

Well, I think I'm going to enjoy a little stitching time and then try to get to bed early. Tomorrow is a busy day!