Weight Loss

Weight loss has always been a problem for me. As a lot of other Americans. You know...why are we the country that struggles the most with eating and taking care of ourselves? Before I delve deeper into my own problems let me reflect on my experience last September in London.

First, I lost 5lbs in a week on my vacation. This is mostly from walking, yes, but oh my gosh was the food amazing. I'm not talking about the actual taste or look or anything. I'm talking about portion control and quality. Quality vs. Quantity is what I brought back to use in my own life here in the US. The markets there are markets, not big box grocery stores. Here in America you only get a discount for buying bulk...but I don't need bulk, but I also don't want to pay double for half the item. So what happens? Half of it goes in the trash or it goes bad. When we were in London, I spent the same amount I would spend on a pound of grapes for half a pound. They were the best grapes I have had in awhile and every single grape was edible and delicious. So worth the money and I didn't waste any of them. If that were the same situation here, besides the fact of buying too many, I would have picked through to pick out the good ones. What is wrong with this picture? I feel bad throwing some of the produce away, but I also want to try and treat my body well by putting good food in my body. It has skewed my view of grocery shopping. instead of doing a trip once a week and buy for the month or whatever, i often go every day after work for dinner that night to ensure the freshness. This is tedious and annoying, but I often feel satisfied with using the things i buy just hours later instead of having to smell something before I use it a week later.

I digress...

Back to struggling with weight loss. I have always been off and on diets since High School, but I've never stuck to something and I have never had an addiction or disorder. So I conclude that in the end I'm OK with how I look and feel and if I'm not I go on a quick healthy eating kick until I feel better. Is this good for me? Who knows. I did Weight Watchers for 3 months (through the Holidays!) and lost 15lbs...just by changing how I ate. PORTION CONTROL! Thats it. I didn't even workout that much. Since then, which I stopped in January, I have plateaued , but I haven't been following anything it taught me either. I would love to lose another 20lbs, so what am I going to do? Go back to weight watchers. We will see what happens.

BUT I HATE EXERCISING!

Absolutely hate it. I need help. I need a system. I need a motivator. Exercising is not fun for me and its a chore to go and do it. People say I just need to get into a habit and I will learn to love it. No. I still hate it, its still not fun. So what do I do!?

Man, this is really disorganized. I apologize.

So all in all I need a system and routine. Its hard. I work all day in an office and then I come home to take care of a puppy and cook dinner for my Husband and I. We relax a bit and the last thing I want to do it work out, I want to go to bed more. Haha.

Weight Watchers starts Monday. I will keep you posted how the progress goes. I would love to look better than my Husband someday.

Dealing with a Newborn...puppy

To the left you will see Charlie and I. As I try to do a little research on some upcoming house projects, he insists on being at my side at all time. He is not very nice to my Macbook so I replaced it with his chew toy. He loves that chew toy...but only when he can't find anything else he's not supposed to chew on.

Let me rewind to a few months ago.
Husband - and from now on I will use his name, Ed: "Hunny, lets get a puppy!"
Me: "not until our 1 year anniversary (in May)"
Ed: Ok sounds good.

In the meantime, I do some research on what kind of dog we should get. We own a home, but we have terrible landscaping and it would be a horrible yard for a dog, like a Lab or say a German Shepherd to run around in. We have 2 cats, VERY  SOCIAL dominating cats, so we are going to need a "chill" dog. Anyone watch Modern Family? Stella, the French Bulldog is adorable! Lets get one of those. *research, research, research* Holy crap they are not easy to find and damn they are not cheap! They have gas issues?!

So I mention my findings to Ed. He falls in love with the idea. We finally find a breeder and after an undisclosed amount of money, and a 6 hour drive, BAM we have a new puppy. Clearly well before May.

How hard could taking care of a 10 week old puppy be? I'm not a parent but I could imagine this is like taking care of a human newborn. Up 2-3 times a night, crying, peeing and pooping everywhere, no alone time, scheduled feedings, chewing on everything they find to put in their mouths. Yeah, I have friends with kids and this sounds really similar.

So its been about a month and I will admit, he is getting a millions times better. He is 90% potty trained and crate trained, he gets along with the cats and enjoys playing fetch. He still has an issue with chewing...things and people and he hates when he has to entertain himself. Overall, he's a good puppy. Ed takes care of him most of the time, but for some reason he is attached to me by the hip. He will wait patiently outside the bathroom door for me and needs to be touching me at all times if I'm sitting or standing still. Its adorably annoying but I love him and I can't wait to see how he grows up. I just wish he would leave me alone for one minute!

Introducing...

So...here I am. My husband, bless his heart, has suggested I start a blog. Kind of like a story of our life together where someday maybe someone (in our family) in the future will want to read and hear about all the crazy things we did. Now, this prompted from my Father's letters we found in my Grandparents house after they passed away. They had kept every letter he sent when he was away in college. They're fascinating, hilarious, thought provoking...and most of all, I see a lot of myself in them.

So let this first post be an introduction:

This handsome (if I do say so myself) man is my husband. This was taken from our Honeymoon last September. Since then he has lost 45lbs. Use your imagination to what he looks like now...yes, you're correct, like a skeleton.

This is Aston "Martin", he's our 3 year old cat. We got him with his brother, Ecko as kittens for free. Ecko has since passed away from cancer at a very young age. Aston or "grumpy" as we now call him, is our Alpha Male, weighing in at 20lbs...shown above in his favorite pose. He's not shy and may smother you if you get too close.

This is Barney "Stinson". He just turned 1. We adopted him for my Husband's birthday last year. He is our needy baby and will cry at you for attention. He also has a very strong love for style scarves. 

Finally...our newest addition, Charlie "Chaplin". He's our 3 1/2 month old French Bulldog. He  is now the attention hog of the house. He's a pain, he's fun, he's a handful. He's lucky he is adorable. 

So those are my boys. We also currently have a friend living in our basement, but I'll get to that another day. I started this too late, I need to get to bed. More to come tomorrow.