Future Me

Five years ago this month, I was picking up the pieces of my former life. The dust from the great Crash of July 05 had settled and I was gaining my footing in all the newness around me. New job, new apartment, new roommate, new boyfriend, new life...
On December 20th, 2005 I logged onto a website called FutureMe.org.
I wrote myself a letter, set it to email me in 2010 and promptly forgot all about it.

Imagine my surprise when I checked my email yesterday to discover and email titled "Blast From the Bast"

It read something like this:

Dear FutureMe,

2005 was intended to be the year where everything came together. You thought you would be engaged, you thought you would be planning a wedding, you thought you'd be in a successful GA position and you thought you had it all together. But instead, everything fell apart.

But there is so much to be learned from 2005. Look at how resilient you are, look at how far you've come. You picked yourself up, moved yourself on and have had fun with a life that isn't always so easy, even when you think you've got it all planned out.

Remember, life is what happens when you're busy making plans. But keep making those plans, keep setting those goals, keep dreaming big dreams. There is so much more to life then the simple things you think you know, the the complex things you never will.

Keep moving, that's what *MyFormer Last Name's * do- they move.

Did you get married yet? Did you find the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with? I hope you stayed skinny, got your MBA, traveled to places you've never been.

There's so much out there in this world of ours. Do something great, be someone greater!! 2005 was your first real chance at life? Did you take it?

Your biggest fan-

Yourself

I would like to thank my former myself for being so damn resilient. For motoring through some of the roughest times I ever knew.

I was so much more powerful and so much braver then I gave myself credit for.
In 2005 I climbed a huge mountain, but that won't be the only one. There are many, many more mountain a head, some seen, some unseen. I hope I handle then with as much grace and grit as I did before. Was I perfect? Heck no. I spent plenty of time lost in my own mistakes.
But I remained resilient and I kept going.
I hope I'm always that smart.

A Day in the Life of the Bergs

Last Night:
Mr Berg: What are you doing?
J-Berg: Taking a picture of Bob under the Christmas Tree
MB: (exasperated tone) Why?
JB: I think it would be cute on next year's Christmas card
MB: I wouldn't do that
JB: Why not?
MB: With any luck, he won't be here next year

Augh......

Also Last Night:

MB: We are probably going to get a Christmas card from Lori* this year
JB: Lori?
MB: You remember Lori, from my old job before we met
JB: You mean your ex-girlfriend?
MB: She's not my ex-girlfriend
JB: Well, you slept with her didn't you?
MB: {silence}
JB: So, yeah, I remember Lori
MB: It's not a big deal
JB: So, my ex "sleep over" buddy could send me a Christmas card and that would be okay?
MB: {silence}
JB: Yeah, I thought so
*name changed to protect the slutty

Today

JB: What did you have for lunch
MB: A cup of chicken corn soup
JB: That's it?
MB: And sausage gravy over hash browns and biscuits
JB: How is that a good idea?
MB: It was delicious
JB: Yeah, I'll remind you of that when your belly hurts tonight
MB: Are we still having left over pork chops for dinner
JB: Yeah, why?
MB: I've been thinking about those things all day, they were good.
JB:  :headdesk:

My Thoughts on P+

As of this morning, I've officially been doing WW's Points+ Plan for one week.
(for my sanity Points+ is now P+)

For the record, I jumped into the new program with both feet. I didn't grocery shop specifically for the plan, I didn't spend hours reading about it before starting. I just jumped in and got on with it.
As I went through the week, I did spend a good amount of time reading about the changes to the program, the new points calculations, the reasoning behind the changes, the research and science involved. I trust WW, their research, their studies and their program. If anything, I think their changes push more towards healthier eating and a healthier life style then it ever did before.

Overall:

• Fruit is Free- But that doesn't mean you need to go out an eat a watermelon, a pineapple and a bunch of bananas in one sitting. As Oprah once said "Eating too much of anything will eventually make you fat." And she's right. Fruit is full of good for you stuff, but it's also heavy in sugar. Thus, moderation people.
  For me, anywhere between 2-3 servings a day is about right.
• Healthier choices = healthier well being. Prior to P+ you had to make a decision to eat a 2pt package of 100 calorie cupcakes or a 2pt Bananas. What would you pick?
  I'd pick the cupcakes too. But guess what's going to fill you and keep you satisfied? Not the cupcakes, that I can assure you.
• Activity it still activity. There has been much debate on the message boards as to what equals an activity point. Guess what, it's different for everyone. Some people use heart rate monitors, some people use the activity calculator. Some people say 100 calories = 1 pt, others say 80 calories = 1pt.
  I don't have an answer, but I will say this: However you calculate, be it HRM, calculator, or smoke signals- consistency is key. Keep doing whatever way works best for you and the results should follow.
• Just because fruit is free, don't forget your veggies. Just don't, okay?
• And finally, if I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times. Put crap in, crap comes out. Put good in and good comes out. Put the system to work for good, don't use it for pudding cups and crappy miniature cupcakes.

Whew.....

Happy Thursday Peeps!

I was so not looking foward to stepping on the scale this morning. I even stayed in bed for a few extra minutes talking myself into getting on the scale.

It was not pretty. The whole time I was in the bathroom I kept giving the scale the side eye. I few times I tried to stand on it and chickened out.

Finally, I pulled up my figurative big girl panties and stood on the scale.

I shut my eyes.... total chicken shit, that's me

I was fully prepared to see 140 on the scale.... who am I kidding, I was prepared for worse then that.

Imagine the shock and awe when I opened by eyes to see 138.2 looking up at me.

How does someone who ate copious amounts of crap for 5 days only gain .2?
I'm not questioning it, I'm rolling with it.
The little voice inside my head told me it will probably catch up with me next week.

He's an ass, seriously.

In other news, I would like to sing the praises of WW Points+ plan. Now that I'm figuring it out I've been very pleased with my menus. I realized yesterday that I would have points left over after I tracked all of my meals. Thus, I was able to add extra brown rice to my lunch and had extra lean meat with dinner. All wonderful things, if you ask me.

I'm also loving the free fruit. Prior to points+ I would have to limit my fruit so I didn't run out of points for things like skim meal and chicken.

Now I can have fruit and a small piece of cheese for both my morning and afternoon snacks and stay full until meal times. AWESOME-SAUCE.

The new plan focuses more on making smarter food choices. This was my whole goal when I began WW. I knew I could eat crap and work it if I wanted to. But I chose to making smart decisions, even if it cost more points.
 I think as a whole, those involved in WW will find that healthier options will give them greater results.

I'm excited to see what this week brings. Over the next three weeks I have a lot of important events, chirstmas parties, a wedding, social functions. I'm glad to know I have a plan that's eaiser to work with and a few extra points to spare.

Bring it on!

A Better Day

A few minutes ago I wrote a very lovely post about redemption, eating your veggies and why today is a lot up in the air.

Then blogger ate it.

I wonder how many points are in a blog post?

The long and the short of it:
As promised, I stopped mentally abusing myself around lunch time. I got back on the horse, ate a healthy lunch and dinner, I had a great workout. I made cupcakes and didn't eat a single one. I did eat a few pieces of candy corn, but seriously 5 pieces won't kill me.

I decided the best solution to a less then stellar weekend is to get back on the horse and do better next time. So I did.

Today is a little up in the air. I may or may not have time to run home for a healthy lunch. If I can't, I'll be at Subway hoping for the best. Tonight I'll be at my volunteer program where the menu is pork bbq and the previously mentioned cupcakes. Not a veggie in sight. Which is kind of understandable seeing as we are feeding high school boys.

This morning I managed to piss off  both cats in the worst way.
Last night I went out to the garage around 7:30pm to get some ground turkey out of the deep freeze. I assume that is when Fat Cat followed me out. I never noticed.

This morning at 6:15am I opened by bedroom door anticipating to be greeted by my two furry, four legged friends. Instead, nothing.
I stuck my head in the guest room, Sophie is sleeping soundly on the accent pillows..... No fat cat in sight.

Sophie followed me down the steps, looking at me blankly as I asked about Fat Cats where abouts.

On the first floor there was no fat cat to be found. Sofas were clear and his bed was empty. I went to the basement and discovered no one on the sofas there and no one in the litter box room. I started to worry. Knowing Fat Cat's health issues and age I began to wonder if he had crawled under something and died.

Sophie remained unconcerned.

As I climbed up the basement steps I heard a faint mew. Then in dawned on me, the garage.

I opened the garage door to discover fat cat sitting on the steps with his fur puffed up in every direction. He had cobwebs draped over both ears and dirt stuck to his face. He was.... in a word.... PISSED.

Sophie, again, remained unconcerned.

Fat Cat quickly went to his food dish and started chowing down. Having gone almost 11 hours without food I'm sure his blood sugar was way out of whack (I say this is jest, Fat Cat could use a few hours without food).

Sophie sleathly smacked Fat Cat on the head and went to her food dish. I feel it's safe to assume she didn't miss him and was mad I found him.

Thus, neither cat is talking me at the moment.

I'll get over it :)

I Haz Plan

When it comes to working out, I am very willy nilly. Nine days out of ten if I say I'm going to work out, I do. It just depends on exactly what it is that I'm doing. Sometimes I take it easy, sometimes I go hardcore crazy person. Some weeks it's lots of cardio, some weeks it's all strength training and don't get my started on the yoga kick I was recently on.

And last year around this time I spent an entire week eating cookies and thinking about working out rather then actually doing it. But, I did put on my workout clothes and my tennis shoes... so I at least tried.

Effing soft batch, effing oreos....

Anyway.....
For a girl that craves structure, my work out habits are all over the map.

I decided that was a bad idea. Is it, really? I couldn't tell you.
But girlfriend has to have a plan, so I printed one out.

Yes, I got on the Firm website and printed out one of their workout rotations.
I picked one I liked best. Why do I like this one best?

1. Lots of Cardio (I think at this point cardio is what I need to focus most on)
{1.5 Don't worry, there is strength training in there too. I do care about my future bone density needs}
2. I don't have to work out on weekends.....  I probably will anyway, but the plan says I don't have to if I don't want to.
3. It's 5 weeks long, that takes me right up to Thanksgiving.

So basically, that's long enough to keep me motivated until Turkey Time and that's all I need for right now.
I really, really want to wear my skinny jeans to Thanksgiving. Remember my skinny jeans, the jeans I keep putting on and saying "well, they almost fit".

Almost fitting in my head means, they look great from behind but when I turn around you realize there's a muffin top where a muffin shouldn't be and the zipper doesn't exactly reach the top like it's supposed to. Instead you can see a pinky tip sized peak of my undies. Yup, totally sexy, right?!
Right?

Hello?

Anyway, between counting points and jumping around in my basement like a woman on a mission, my hope it to hop on the plane on November 23rd in my cutest of skinny jeans. Otherwise, I have to wear the pair with the hole in the crotch....

I don't want that for myself.

Neither should you.

Perhaps I Should've Stayed in Bed

So far today I:

• have spelled my name wrong 5 different times, all on important documents
• attemped to talk, read and sneeze at the same time. The result: I dropped my open water bottle, spraying water all over the floor and walls. It looks like someone's water broke in the hall way.
• brought breakfast to work, forgot a spoon
• tried to plan our October menu, realized all of Mr. Berg's vacation/work travel dates are at home
• attempted to write a thank you note, had to rewrite it three times

I might need floaties, a helmet and some bubble wrap to get me through the rest of today.


And it's only Wednesday?
I am screwed.