Have I given up on my blog? No, I haven't!

But okay, it's fair to say that I really have abandoned it a bit.

I've been busy, but I am not particularly sure with what exactly. I suppose when you add up the regular, everyday stuff, there is not all that much spare time left? Work devours over nine hours a day (I keep trying to get rid of my useless lunch break, but nobody seems to care!), then there's cooking, a bit of cleaning here and there, school, as in one long class a week, and the gym. And that's it. It's midnight before I even know it. I still don't sleep as much as I should, either, but if I've made it so far in life, I suppose I'll keep surviving. I guess I will sleep when I am dead, even though I guess that's a lie, too, because you don't really sleep when you're gone. Ha.

The gym is still my friend. Most of the new faces that showed up around New Year's are now gone, which is pretty good, even though my favourite equipment still gets taken. Hmph. The other day, I wanted to pretty much nuke a woman who sat down (yes, sat down) on my favourite elliptical and watched some vampire show, while snacking on some bars and sipping from a huge beverage container. Seriously, wtf, woman! She annoys me greatly on a regular basis, though, because she keeps hogging any and all ellipticals with an incline, yet she never uses that feature at all. Too bad she doesn't seem to be one of the quitters.

I'm down 26 pounds, according to my FitnessPal friend, which in reality translates to 11.8 kilograms. I'm okay with that, especially since I'm now pretty much safely within the 2nd third of what I decided to lose. It's like my second trimester. Lolz.

Because of the missing pounds, I need new clothes. Well, okay, new bottoms, as my tops are all pretty much still okay. So far, I haven't really been able to find any - my legs are too short, no matter what, yet they're too long for those petite/short/ankle styles. At the same time, my waist is either too wide or too narrow for whatever is considered to be a size I'd normally fit in. Or should fit in. Or, well, do fit in, but partially. All in all, I am mostly just stuck with oversized pants and it annoys me greatly, even though, at the same time, it does feel good, too. Maybe I'll find something that fits me when we fly to Croatia.

Speaking of which, we're getting ready for the big trip again. We've purchased our plane tickets and my vacations days have been sorted out... for the most part. I've not yet seen the final approval for the unpaid bits, but oh well? It's done now, right? I have the tickets and all. We'll be in Croatia for Easter and I'm looking forward to it. I'll get to see my family and friends, but, man, there'll be food, too. Like - real food!

Easter eggs will be yellow on the inside, not pale greenish! And we'll eat bread and pizza and even horrible little hotdog sausages in buns from horrible little bakeries. I'm so totally looking forward to it all, even the Croatian-junk-food-fix that I am bound to get. Then there'll be fish and octopus and squid and all other things I've yet to see in the US. Okay, I have to admit that I have seen some things that tried to go under those names, but in reality they were disgusting rubber-like substances.

As far as the people go, I hope there will be enough time to see everyone and to do things. Whatever things; it's not like we have a ton in mind right now. We'll be the ones on vacation, while everyone else will still need to work. I guess I am partially prepared to be a double alien - there will be too many things I won't have a clue about and too many things to, overall, just catch up on. Then, once I'm back to our little middle-of-nowhere town, I'll jump right back into my regular alien suit.

I wish I could stay a lot longer than just three weeks, but I need to work with what I manage to scrape up. It really is a decent vacation, in terms of length, but if you try to organize a little field trip here and there, it just doesn't seem to be enough. I'll be okay with staying in Zagreb pretty much all the time, but Derek would love  to see more of Europe, or even more of Croatia, yet it likely won't happen. I suppose we'll need to retire first, like any good American does before they are able to travel. Hmph. No matter what, we'll really miss our spoiled kitty, who is staying at home with a babysitter. Catsitter. Someone she knows, of course. While I'd love to take her with me, there's just no way she would appreciate it. She'll miss us, too, but she'll be better off at home, in her own surroundings, than in a small carrier for over 16 hours, as well as at my parents' apartment, which is on the 7th floor of a building, without screens on the windows.

Another new thing is my haircut. I understand haircuts are not a big deal, but when your favourite hairdresser runs off to Ireland and you're left off with random people you just don't trust... finding someone nice and reliable really is a big thing. So last Thursday we went to JDH and had Jeremy fix the stack of hay on my head (as well as Derek's). I am very pleased with the result and getting that stuff cut off took nearly a pound off my total. Ha. What a nice way to add to my weightloss. I don't really have anything to show off in this post, so here's a picture of me, haha.

And that's about it. Nothing else is new. We still live kind of in the middle of nowhere, at least when it comes to any entertainment and/or social life. I still kill time at the gym or wandering the stores, pretty much by myself. Someone once suggested meetup.com as a good source of interesting things to do and I really did browse the website some weeks ago. It was very informational and overall interesting but, guess what? Nothing on it was pretty much in any way related to our little town. It just seems life is not happening where we live, or if it does, then I guess nobody either informs us of it, or we just really don't care for the things that are offered. According to that site, and many other sources I often look at, there are things in Minneapolis I would love to see or participate in, but with a full time job with a shitty, fixed schedule, those are pretty much out of reach.

Maybe I should turn this blog post into some sort of advertisement, huh? So, uh, yeah. If you happen to live somewhere close and are up for some interesting things, let me know, huh? I like to go out and walk, I go to the gym, we watch movies (yes, okay, I admit, most of them are not Hollywood blockbusters), we watch shows, but not really reality-style (while I do admit that I've been watching this last season of The Biggest Loser). I read books, I cook a lot, we enjoy food, I love biking, we love going places, but we don't care for bars and/or movie theaters, for instance. We play board games and own a ton of them. I like to paint, draw, create things out of nothing(s). Etc.

Anyone?

P.S. Just ignore any and all typos. I'm too lazy to go fix them and this little window usually messes up about one third of what I write.

Az-ICK-i Beans

I decided to cook something with azuki beans tonight and I wanted it to be a meal different than, say, chili or some other bean stew or soup. After exploring some of my options (google, of course), I decided to go with Heidi Swanson's Azuki and Butternut Squash Soup recipe. We love beans, we love butternut squash... so how could things even go wrong, right?

Oh, they sure could. And they did.

I didn't have that chipotle whatever that the recipe called for, so I replaced it with some crushed peppers, as well as some crushed chili. I prepared my coriander and other spices in a mortar (btw. don't mortar and pestle remind you of some kickass British detectives, such as, say, Dalziel and Pascoe?), chopped the onions, warmed up the oil and started cooking.

Everything was kind of good up until the point where the cinnamon started smelling of dessert. Wroooooong. This is my main course, not some cake, yet the whole house smelled of cinnamony... onions. Ick. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Garlic didn't help either. I added the butternut squash, then the tomatoes, too and at that point I realized that the smell of this whole blend made me, kind of, gag. Ick. I tasted the thing, too, and found the flavour to be extremely repulsive. 

The pot is now at our doorstep, in the snow, cooling down. Once it gets to some reasonable temperature, I'll flush it down the toilet. I feel bad about throwing food away, but I don't think anyone I know would eat this. Even moreso because I never added the beans - I decided to save them and cook something edible on Wednesday.

Ick, ick, ick.

But at least I took a nice photo? 

The only issue I have now is tomorrow's lunch: I'll be out and about all day and I have pretty much no healthy options, other than chewing on some grass again.  Ohwell. Better luck next time, I suppose.

To run, or not to run?

Actually, it's not that big a dilemma. If exercising on an elliptical machine is running, even a tiny bit, then I have been running for over two months. If it isn't, then I haven't been doing it, but I sure am considering it as a possibility. Treadmills still make me feel really weird, kind of like bordering on dizzy, so I guess I either need to start running in circles (I'm not even joking - our local Y has some weird indoors walkway that can be used for running) or I'll have to wait for some better weather. Hm. Tough one, I guess, especially since I think running is boring. But it's good for me and I've already been through just about any and all other options in our little town.

I bought a pair of sneakers yesterday, trail-running kind, and now I'm not sure if I should keep them. Okay, I wasn't sure if I should buy them in the first place, but:

a) I liked them - I was drawn to them immediately because of their color and shape

b) they were very reasonably (under)priced

c) I tried them on and they fit nicely

d) I don't have a pair of actual running shoes that fit nicely at all

But, there's also an e), I suppose, too: I don't run. Yet, at least.

Derrrrrp.

Okay, so what do I do? I own a pair of really good Nike sneakers which I love for my elliptical/AMT workouts, but they are not good for running, or just about anything with a lot of impact. Or any impact at all, as they have just about no cushioning. What's really nice about them is that they weigh almost nothing. Then I have a pair of supposedly-running Nike sneakers, but they are running a bit too small if I run or overall move too fast. Or maybe not small per se, but they're not particularly comfortable either. I bought them a long time ago, on some sale, and they seemed to fit okay (because I didn't know any better). I still use them at the gym here and there. My third pair was something really cheap, I don't' even know the brand. These should probably get donated because I've never fallen in love with them. No chemistry between us, I suppose.

So I brought this new pair home last night and now they're sitting in a box, waiting for me to figure out what I want done with them. They fit nicely, like I said, but I am still pretty unsure about their size. I know you should wear a size bigger shoes for running, yet this are pretty much half a size smaller than what I'd normally buy. I usually wear 8.5, sometimes 8, and these Adidas thingies ended up being a full 8. And they fit nicely, even with some extra room all over. They didn't have any other sizes in that style, but I tried a pair of very similar ones and 8.5 seemed weird, loose and uncomfortable.

Aaaaaaaa. How do I figure this out, without keeping a pair of shoes that'll just end up being a nice accessory or a random pair of something to wear to the grocery store, or when I go biking, or whatever? (They are pretty damn cool, but I don't need another pair of random something, especially since I bought two other things on sale just a week ago. Uh. Less than a week ago. Okay, nevermind, now I'm just revealing my shoe-buying addiction.)

Anyway, here are the shoes:

Keep? Return? Run? Not run? Btw, wouldn't you keep something that goes by the name of Galaxy Incision?

Aaaaaaaa. Headexplode.

Yes, I fully realize I have nothing better to do, other than to think about a pair of sneakers so much that they end up on my (pointless) blog. But one's gotta do what they gotta do. If it kills time, why not, right?

I fail at updating this blog!

I absolutely do, but when I think about it, there's not all that much to talk about. Or sometimes I actually could say a lot, but then choose not to, for this or that reason. Usually it's something about privacy - there sure are various things going on that I could discuss (err, rant about, probably all by myself), but I kind of think they don't really belong on the Internet, out in the open like this. So maybe someday I'll go back and talk about old news and nobody will care and everything will be just fine, as usual! 

I've been a little bit angry lately because I feel like I don't have enough time for anything. It just feels a lot harder to synchronize a full-time job, part-time school, gym and all the everyday house-related chores. I've done similar things before, but it was back home in Croatia and it all seemed easier. Work eats at least nine hours of my poor day which, despite my constant demands (huh, who do I actually send them to?), still lasts only 24 hours. I wish I could trade my lunch hour in and either leave early or come in late because, as it is right now, this is just a waste of my time, as well as my gas money. Sure, I could sit at work, but that's just too depressing. Walking around in this cold for an hour is kind of ridiculous, but even in summer I feel a little bit awkward when I go for a walk because pretty much nobody else ever does. Downtown, at least. I don't know if there are some weird trails or other places designated for something as simple as walking. 

Cooking and grocery shopping are (also) my fault, but I am not willing to change those. I could always cut down on cooked meals and start eating various boxes, but I simply refuse to. Same with grocery shopping - with the type of foods we eat, I usually need to go to the store at least twice a week and, on top of that, I need to visit multiple locations because I can't get all my stuff at the same spot. Grrr. But again, I guess, this is my choice. I keep telling myself that this is for the better so, whatever, I get angry and then try to shrug it off. 

School. Well. School seems to be for kids and/or unemployed only. This is my fifth semester at MSU, or so I think, yet I've been only through a handful of classes. I sure do hope that the degree I'll get when I turn, say, 70, will be of some use! I wish I could take more classes, even moreso because I find school to be extremely easy (and quite often boring), but it just doesn't work with a full-time job schedule. Or any schedule that doesn't leave you free as a bird at odd hours, such as 1 or 3 pm. Every once in a while, there's something available in the evenings, too, so I try my best to get into those classes, at least. This semester, I'm taking Desktop Publishing and, oddly enough, I love it. This is probably because the professor is really, really awesome.

Hmm. What else is new, or just random enough to be mentioned here? The gym's fine. It's been busier than before this whole New Year's thing, but it's doable. It was horrible for a few days right after the holidays, but even two weeks into the new year, most of the supposedly-enthusiastic newcomers can hardly ever be seen. Good. For me, not so much for them. It looks like most people don't particularly care for my favourite elliptical either, so I'm usually good to go. I am now over 1/4 (and a bit!) of the way to my final weightloss goal and it's been (only) two months and nine days. Way to go, me. I mean, way to go, bitch, and yes, you can do better. Rawr! We'll think about all the Samsonite material later, ok? I'll be handing out some coin pouches when I'm done for good. 

I think I'll go to Ikea tomorrow because I haven't been there since... hmm, some months ago. I think it was mid September last time I gave the Swedish people some money. I need one bowl, yes, exactly one bowl - I dropped one of them a few weeks back while doing the dishes with a pair of icky rubber gloves on my wounded hands. Isn't it worth the trip? C'mon, who wouldn't drive some odd 130-ish kilometers (one way!) to get a couple dollars worth of a bowl... along with all those other things that just randomly fall into your cart and somehow leave the store with you, once you leave half your paycheck at the checkout? But, yeah, I need stuff. I have a huge project in mind, too, but it's way too early for that one. So for now, I need to just hold my horses. 

I also need an easel, but I have no clue which one to buy. It needs to be really sturdy and heavy, too, because I want to work on a few huge formats. I suppose I need to research some art-supply companies from this side of the world and find something that fits my budget, as well as my studio-craft room. I've been horribly lazy and I haven't produced anything in forever. Oops. This also reminds me of The Sketchbook Project, which I need to start working on, too. My notebook arrived some time ago and I've not yet used it. Oops, again. Actually, I haven't even picked my theme yet either. 

Bad, bad, bad. But I'll get better, I promise.

As far as the easels go, I'd like something like this (shitty picture, but I have to admit I got lazy looking for another one):

New Year's Resolutions? None, sorry. But I can talk about fat instead... and my muscle. Let's not forget my gorgeous muscle.

I don't have any. I actually can't remember if I've ever made any as I kind of find them to be pretty ridiculous. I do make plans and decisions, though, but they happen randomly, regardless of what day or date it actually is.

So I really don't have much of anything to share here. I plan to do what I've been doing and I'll try to improve at all those things. (Yeah, ok, I'm a big megalomaniac at times.)

I've looked at a few blogs where people talk about healthy living and I can't, over and over again, but stare at them blankly. While it's really nice that they've achived their goals or at least worked hard towards them (and I admire them for that!), I just can't figure out the healthy living part. But then again, I'm slowly getting used to being different when it comes to foods we eat at home and what we consider good and healthy. Low fat? Sweeteners instead of sugars? Diet products? Those don't live in our home. So far, I've only done a good job avoiding them and my doctor reports agree with what I believe (and practice). So whatever. Luckily, there's pretty much always enough room for shrugging it all off.

I had a fitness assessment appointment tonight at the Y and I have to admit that I am pretty (pleasantly) surprised. I am actually decently fit, especially for someone of my size. I already knew my blood pressure and resting heart rate would be normal, but I also got average, normal results when they took the pressure after my three-minute-killing-me-not-so-softly stepping session. I thought the stepping part was going to be fine... and, well, I was wrong in the end, of course. Derrrp. 

Then they had some smartass scale calculate all kinds of fun and not so fun stuff. My body fat percentage is pretty damn high, but that didn't surprise me at all. My bone mass rang at 6.6 somethings and that, apparently puts me into a really healthy bone-bracket, whee. No osteoporosis threats for me, at least for now!  My muscles weigh 55.8 kilograms (123 lbs), so that made me kind of giggle. My muscle alone weighs as much as an average woman. From South Korea, not, say, the US. Rawr. I guess it's kind of hilarious to blame one's bones for their obesity, huh?

However, my upper body strength is - nonexistent. They made me lift 13.6 kilos (30 lbs) while lying on something (Derek said this torture machine was called bench press) and I failed to do more than four lifts. Thne I laughed. Then the guy said I shouldn't, because it's pretty obvious that my magical muscles actually live in the bottom half of my body. Then he prescribed some strength training and then I sighed and moved on. I mean, yes, I understand it needs to be done. Do I like it? Hell no!

The magic scale also said that my body water was only 41%, or something like that. Oops. I guess I was wrong, thinking I was well hydrated. This is the most important thing I need to work on, said my tonight's guru. How? I have no clue, because I really kept thinking, all this time, that  drink enough. I suppose I should randomly down a couple more bottles of water a day, then. This needs to go up at least 10 - 15% and then it will, at the same time, mean that my body fat is decreasing and that my muscles are growing and that the world, as a whole, will all be rainbows and butterflies. Yup. Just you wait.

Hmm. What else did I leaarn today? Aha, I can lean and reach and whatnot a bit more than some random woman would. Ok. This actually isn't new - I've known all along about my uber-ultra-awesome-flexibility. Physical flexibility, of course. Otherwise I'm a tough cookie.

Finally, the trainer taught me how to monitor my heart rate and what to do with my elliptical friend. It turned out I had been running too fast and pushing my heart rate to some reasonable, yet too-much-cardio planes of existence. He said I should focus more on burning my fat through exercise, instead of my carbs. Hmmm. I might need to look into this one a bit further before I completely change my routine. And then I heard more about cross training and my other archnemesis - treadmill. Ok, I said, I will try to somehow make friends with that one, too. Le sigh and all that jazz. I don't have all these reports on me, so all of this is actually pulled out of my awesome memory. They'll give me the paperwork later, after two more sessions, at least. So that'll be about 16 weeks out, total.

All in all, I am not as bad as one would expect. Whee. Actually, I am pretty damn proud of my ass these days. Today will be the 2nd month anniversary of my renewed friendship with the gym and I am down 6.8 kilograms (15 pounds) and 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) around my waist. 

There are some suitcases to be sewn. Ohyes.

And, uh, what else is new? Hmm. Not much, I guess. I suppose I am very proud of my long elaborate post on gym, exercise and body fat-like substances. I mean, after all, that's what one does in the US right after New Year's. 

I was going to rant a bit about the New Year's celebrations here (not our particular one, but in general), but I guess I'll leave that for some other day. It's kind of getting close to bedtime now, yup.

Quick Show Off

Cookies!

Last year, as much as I remember, I baked none. We moved into our home a week before Christmas and there was no time to do anything other than unpack some boxes, buy a tree and decorate it. This year, however, I decided to bake some. Originally, I wasn't going to do it either, but...

I guess I just had to? I started out with my favourit, traditional honey cookies. The recipe is from a forum I frequent and I've been making these for years. Or, well, my own version of it: wholegrain flour and no sugar at all. Derek says they are not food. I say he is not someone to listen to. He eats only creamy desserts, for the most part, and high-end chocolates. So who cares about him. They're only 70 calories a piece so I can indulge. Every once in a while, at least.

Here are my babies (okay, Grandma Ana's babies):

Then I tried something new. These guys are pretty damn famous and everyone and their uncle and aunt and mother makes them. I had to try it out, too, I suppose.  Man, did the house smell good as they were cracking up in the oven! Yup, they crack up, literally: before you bake them, all you've got are white fuzzy balls. No big adjustments made, here, other than swapping white flour for 100% wholegrain. At 63 calories a piece, these are, for now, the winners. I haven't tried any yet, though, because it's pretty late and I am very scared of coffee. (Yes, I am just that weird.)

Another experiment were marble-cookies, found on a famous Croatian recipe site and recommended by a friend of mine. They looked cool and easy to make so I baked them, too. These little guys are fatty and high-calorie: about 110 a piece and they are by far the smallest! Ouch. I have to admit that I followed the recipe, except when I poured in some insanely good orange extract and (surprising, huh?) swapped some white flour with wholegrain. The majority of it is still white. Somehow.

And, finally, here's my epic fail. I've been working on these for years and every single time I make them, I fail. Miserably. First I ca't roll the dough because it's too sticky. Then I add flour, likely way too much of it, and the whole thing crumbles into dust. Then I bitch an swear a lot and hate the whole world for at least a while. Eventually I beat them into submission and cut the shapes. Somehow. They break. I still bake them. Whatever wasn't broken before the oven, crumbles when taken out. The remaining pieces shatter as I put marmelade between them. I eat a few. Throw out a few. Hate the world.

...and then start all over again about a year later.

So here they are. My epic fail, which I promise I will master... someday. Yup.

With two of these baked Sunday afternoon and the other two tonight (after work AND a gym session, too!), I still have enough time for a few more experiments. Woohoo. Considering my calorie restricted diet, I sure am getting a lot of kick out of something I pretty much won't even eat. But that's fine. I've always been slightly masochistic, anyway.

P.S. That's not dirt. It's cocoa, stuck under my nails.

So, what's new?

Ooops.

I've been slacking, as it's been a couple weeks since my last post on here. I just haven't had time. With the end of the semester, regular work hours, Derek's annoying cold, almost-every-day-gym and house-related chores, I just haven't had time to sit down and talk about something random. Or less random, for that matter.

So, yeah, what's new? Well, we have a new christmas tree and, [un]fortunately, it is a fake one. I know I am a horrible person when it comes to poor trees, but there is those real ones really do have something. They really do. Except when they're dry and pretty much dead even before you buy them, which is exactly what they looked like when I went tree-hunting to the local stores. Finally, I caved in and bought a fake one. It's actually pretty nice, 7 feet tall (around 213cm) and pretty damn wide, too. It even looks remotely real, except for the smell: there is, of course, none of that. It took almost a week to assemble, fluff it up and, finally, load with ornaments. The rest of the tree story... is yet to come, at a later date.

We also had snow at some point. Within a matter of one day, or something like that, everything turned white. It was really pretty while it lasted. Again, I took a bunch of pictures which, I suppose, I could stuff in here. There are more, but, like I said, I have been busy. For now, they'll just keep sleeping on my computer. Oops, again. (This is, of course, in case someone actually cares about our street, our house or some random decorations!)

Just about everyone on our street had the icicle lights. Okay.

Then there's Windsor - a really cool half-siamese furry guy. No, no, not a furry; this one is really a furry cat and I have not yet encountered anything [ab]normal about his sexual life. My mother-in-law and I drove all the way to a shelter in St Paul a few weeks back, in search of a new cat for their home. Poor ol' Dude had to be put down after a long struggle with kidney cancer and their other cat, a feral named Izzy, needed a new friend. We went up to pick up some kitten from a pet store, but we actually came back with a seven year old crosseyed aristocrat. Not a bad deal, especially because I fell in love with his slightly ridiculous face. Too bad Kittica is neither sociable nor friendly. Pffft. Ohwell, she gets to live alone, for the time being, at least.

Aren't I purrrty?

Hm. What else? Aha. I had a doctor's appointment a few weeks back, too and I came back perfectly normal. Actually, not just normal, but very healthy. It was a regular checkup with my brand new (err, not new, but actually first) general physician ever. In the US, of course. Oddly enough, I liked the lady. It's pretty odd because I am not your favourite patient/customer/client. I ask questions and demand to have them answered. I also dislike being treated like a child who doesn't understand a thing. I also like to hear the truth and all the details that come with it, regardless of how good or bad it actually is. So this lady here somehow managed to meet my expectations. She also agreed to refer me to the lab with a whole list of things I wanted checked, and this particular thing earned her a few more brownie points in my book. 

I'm still waiting for my full report to be mailed to my address, but I did find out how great I did in 2010. I am no longer anemic (woot!) and my red blood cells count is, pretty much for the first time since I remember, within the range of normal. I have no clue what made the thing skyrocket in the first place, but nobody ever worried about it and, therefore, I didn't particularly care either. It was funny to be suited to live in some high altitudes, that's for sure (does the 7th floor count as one of those?!). My cholesterol was nicely low (woot!) and my triglycerides finally got down to where I want them to be. Take that, bread! You've not been a part of my diet for a few months now and, well, I've been doing fine. We'll meet again on some special occasion. 

One more thing that came back normal was my thyroid (or, well, it was only the TSH hormone that they checked). Damn. Now I can't blame the gland for my fat ass or for, hm, all the bad in the world, or something. Ohwell. What's important is that I'm doing fine and that it will likely get only better.

Yup, that elliptical is still my bitch. We meet almost on a daily basis and I have gotten to the point where our sessions last from 40 minutes to a full hour. It took a while to figure out how to adjust it to some setting which keeps my heart rate up, yet doesn't kill me within seconds, but we've overall been doing fine. I've been steadily increasing both my pace and the machine's incline and resistance and now I average 3.2 to 4 miles of.... spinning the weird wheel, or whatever belts it hides in its butt. Not bad, but there's a lot of room for improvement. The results? Already visible, which is good. I do wish my weight would shed faster, but I knew what I signed up for: I've always had a hard time dropping actual numbers on a scale. It probably happens because I am pretty active for someone this big and I carry, as well as produce, a lot of muscle. I've been strictly monitoring my intake, as well as gym visits and other activities and over the course of 38 days, I've lost 6 centimeters (2.4 inches, for the metric-challenged) in my waist area. Good enough, even though there's a ton to shed. (Yes, please do send me money for a cosmetic surgery that will turn all my loose skin into a set of nice suitcases.)

At the end of the day, my biggest problem is time-management. I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. Life would be a lot easier if I started eating regular, everyday American food, premade, boxed, frozen, dehydrated... highly processed and easy to cook. But I won't. I guess I'll just keep struggling to squeeze homemade (by which I mean really cooked, from scratch) meals into my hectic schedule. Without them, I could probably say goodbye to my goals.

Guten Nacht. It's getting really close to my bedtime. (Hm. I should probably improve in the sleeping department, too. Oops. Yeah, I know it's very hard to be perfect. :insert_non_supported_smiley: )

P.S. Food for thought: out of boredom and lack of new exercise ideas, I'm actually contemplating running a 5k... whenever there is one in the area. Uhoh.