Called Me OUT!

So in the spirit of friendly challenges, I recently called out my long-time friend Dani over at Living Outside The Stacks to participate in FatMumSlim's PhotoADay monthly challenge next month.  Dani is a spectacular photographer who has let her camera accumulate dust over the past month or so and I figured some good-natured public challenging would spur her to get that camera back into action...  Little did I know that it would spur ME back into action...  She gave my blog a shout out in her post today, which you can see here.

I thought, you know, if Dani's large blog following were to click on the link to my blog what would they find?  Um, a whole lot of sporadic blogging, not a lot on my quest to find fitness, which truth be told has taken a backseat to, um, er, uh.... well, nothing... I just haven't been questing to be fit... wer werr...  But that is a forthcoming post, so you'll have to wait for that.

Anyhow, I issued this challenge in the comments section on Dani's post today:

Speaking of "calling out,"  I should probably get back to regularly blogging...  Here is the deal... in August you will do the Photoaday challenge and I will blog!  Deal?  



So, here is what I need to do - Blog everyday.  Even if it is a short blurb. I mean, I cant have Dani photographing daily and not blog can I???


M.


PS  If you want to participate in the PhotoADay fun go here for the info! You can see all of my Photo A Day pic on Instagram - @Mylynka - on Twitter - @Mylynka - and I am thinking of doing a weekly dump here if I can figure out how to do a photogrid or some type of other thing (ideas welcome).

Roadtripping through Texas

I love road-tripping with my husband.  He likes to glance at a map, see where the little roads go and just meander.  We both love car trips and if we have no particular time to be anywhere we love to take the "long" way.  We got to do such a trip this weekend thanks to some friends thoughtfully getting married outside of Austin. :D

We live in the Dallas area and it is about a 3-4hr drive to Austin down I-35 depending on the traffic, road construction, and if you stop for lunch...  We took 9hrs to get to Austin on Saturday!!  It was great!

The wedding wasn't until 11am Sunday, so we slept in a little on Sat., went and picked up our rental car (a brand new Nissan Altima - not a bad ride), and left town around noon.  First stop - ITALY.  Or IT-lee, if you are a local. Then on to Hubbard for a lunch at Dairy Queen... where we got stares for being both out-of-towners AND an interracial couple.  IT IS 2012 PEOPLE!! I digress...

The drive took us through some neat little old towns and reminded me just how much I do love Texas and how beautiful it really is (just not where I live). We saw gorgeous old courthouses, rolling fields, ominous storm clouds, met-up with good friends, saw a lovely young couple begin their life together as husband and wife, ate burgers at a College Station institution, and drove through the pouring rain all while taking the item to talk to each other and just enjoy being together.  We have vowed to do a little more Texas road-tripping from now on. (I also need to figure out how to add photos in a collage...)

Italy, TX

A porch on a 1908 home in Hubbard, TX

Hubbard House - Catty-corner from the DQ

A beautiful tree just off the Cameron square, behind it a cemetery

The First Girls Tomato Club in Texas

Milam Co. Court House

8 - not great

So, I have gained 8# back. I have been eating shit-tons of junk and not drinking water and definitely not exercising (except those few days I did the yoga - oh 2 weeks ago, and my spare room/new office demolition day). 

I am sad, and honestly depressed about it all. This is a life long struggle and it SUCKS ASS. I seem to have a mental (?) block of some kind - all you armchair (and real) psychiatrists/psychologists/life coaches help a sister out here. 

I KNOW what I need to do, I KNOW what works for me, why am I not doing it???

This is a verbal vomit, brain purge, ramble, but I have to get it out. I am really sad about this. I keep quitting, and restarting is awful. I think a lot of this has to do with being overwhelmed with the dissertation and other responsibilities. I have just kind of shut down. I am just doing the bare minimum of anything - sounds scarily like depression to me, but I am not sure.  It may be more like "head in the sand and all will be fine" action.


Facebook, Pinterest, and food have been my refuge...

SO

Things I am doing this week get back on track:

Drinking lots of water
Not eating meat (keeps me out of the drive-thrus)
Participating in the 1000 Squat Challenge from I See Fit People

One day at a time, right?


M.

No, No, NO! :((

my number is moving in the wrong damn direction...  8lb gain = no bueno.  I seriously slacked off, ate crap, stopped exercising.  Me no likie.  Back to logging food, exercising, and making better choices.

That is all today.

Recommittment (again)!

OK I recommitted myself today. 

I weighed in - 259.4 (only a 4# gain, not 5 like I thoughts - I AM so happy I never popped back into the 260s!!) - and started tracking what I eat again on MyFitnessPal. I realize that without that accountability I just go crazy with the eating. 

And, I am going back to a mostly vegetarian lifestyle.  Slipping of the veg wagon sent me right back to Fast Food Hell...  :(

Tonight I am going back to the yoga class I have been saying for a month that I am going back to. (better check their June schedule...)

 Stay supportive peeps, you have been a HUGE help to me! 

An Inconvenient Truth

Scrolling through FB this morning, I saw the below reposted by my friend Jennifer Coulter.  It is exactly the thing I needed to see. It is very true.  I got REAL cocky with the 21lb weight loss and very confident that "I got this" and went back to my old habits, eating and sloth-wise, and well... i have regained 5lb, feel sluggish, bloated, and gross. I need to recommit. TODAY!!  

Metabolic Effect

3 hours ago

The inconvenient truth of body change is this: Once you attain fat loss you can NEVER return to your old way of eating PERIOD. This idea that you are going to go on a diet and then return to your old relationship and habits with food is simply false. It is the single most difficult mind shift people must make. Once you change you change for good, there is no going back. The fastest path to permanent body change is accepting this truth and embracing it. Its worth it.

Just like starting over. Starting OOOVAAAAH!

So instead of blogging all about my free-fall into a full-blown relapse of the highest order, which is what I came here today to do, i.e. have a super mopey, pity party for one bemoaning all the poor choices I have made in the last few weeks (resulting in a 5lb regain) I thought of a John Lennon song and found it on YouTube.  I listened to it for the first time in ages. I truly listened to the lyrics and decided it should be a love song to me from me and that I would post it here as a reminder that starting over isn't necessarily a bad/sad/depressing thing.  It can be exciting and giddy and a reminder of all the good things that can come from loving someone.

Now I am gonna make myself a healthy snack, groove to some more Lennon, take my #photoadayjune pic before I forget about it, then get back to some dissertation stuff.

M.