Posts by on_point

I know this is going to sound dismissive, but you'll quit when you are ready to quit and no trick is going to work.

I smoked for 19 years, about a pack a day, when drinking a lot more and one day I had enough.  I had the flu, was sick as a dog and stood on my front porch in a robe and a jacket in the freezing cold to smoke a cigarette and the sheer pathetic-ness of the situation was my trigger to quit.  So I put them down and decided I needed to give my lungs something to do and I started the couch to 5K program and started running.  That was March 2010.

I didn't gain any weight, but my weight loss stalled for about 6 months.  It was so worth it.  I smell better, look better, feel better.  Just do it.  Start watching other people smoke and think about what they look like.  Is that what you want to be?  Notice how much time in your day is spent smoking, planning to smoke, making sure you have the right smoking supplies on hand, spraying yourself down with body spray so you don't reek when you enter a room.

Stay active, watch your food intake, and think long and hard about what you want to be.  I decided that I didn't want to be a smoker and I don't regret that decision one bit.  When you are ready to quit, it's not that hard.  

Congrats on your weight loss!  

Two thoughts:

1) My husband has never been even slightly over weight and he has stretch marks on his back from growing so fast.  Because of your age, yours will likely go away in a few years.  Just eat nutritionally sound and drink plenty of water.  And if you really want to, put some vitamin E on them.  

2)  When was the last time you asked a girl out?  All of the above advice is great (especially the first, wordsmithmkuk), but no advice in the world will work until you start asking people who interest you out.  And if you get turned down, ask someone else.  Ask often and go out lots.  The great thing about being 17 is there (should be) is no pressure to settle or settle down.  Go play and enjoy your new body.  You've earned it.

I second (or third?) the soda water.  I always order a rocks glass of soda water, no ice with either a beer or a cocktail.  And don't be afraid to refill it often. 

Checking in-

I'm still tracking; this is day 13, I think.  I've already lost 2 pounds...I knew this would work.

Sucks about the ankle sprain; probably did no favors to your time, huh?  But didn't you say that was your first 10K?  Awesome!

I started running again this morning with only a few little pangs in my knee.  I'm glad I took the time off and let it heal.  I am going to go ahead and start stage 7 next week.  It's different than the rest, set up into 8 (or 6, I can't remember at the moment) different workouts.  I had been planning to just start the NR over again when I completed the final phase, so I don't think there's any hesitation on that front.  Stage 6 is so upper body intensive and I'm so not, I kind of feel like I've been in training wheel pattern for the whole phase, especially since I've taken so long to complete it.  

Good luck with the interviews.  I just found another academic position that I'm pulling together my application materials for...despite the fact that the last University interview was such a disaster.  This one's an art school...maybe more my speed?  And I didn't mean to ignore your question about tennant up-fits from a few wees ago.  The reality is in a town this small, all of those types of jobs are tightly in the hands of the larger firms in town.  One of my contracts is with a larger design firm and I do that sort of work for them, that and a lot of health care (assisted living and medical office buildings, mainly) - which is what I've been teaching adjunct at the university.

Have a good weekend!  I've got lots of yard work to do.  A large pile of mulch was dumped in my side yard and needs to be distributed amongst the beds.  Yay!  How's that for an upper body workout?

Liz

Darn that 8 ball!  Sorry about that.  I'm beginning the process of trying to find work; your updates aren't giving me a lot of confidence.  I hate hunting clients; at times I think it would be easier to go work for someone else and let them do the scrounging, but there aren't many office jobs in design right now, at least not where I live.

Crazy about the canal rescue; good thing you two arrived so quickly.  I can't imagine jumping my bike into a body of water unintentionally.  pretty terrifying.  Our little pub is having a big Tour de France whoop-de-do and we've been up there the last few days  watching and socializing (and drinking) with the local biking contingent.  There have been a few entertaining spills and lots of stories of falls or almost falls off these mountains.  The good (?) thing about tearing up my knee is that I've been cycling more than usual the last two weeks and I really enjoy it.  Much cooler form of exercise in the summer.  I thought about posting a pix (its the one I sent my ER nurse mom to see if I needed to go to the ER) but it's really really gross.  

I'm glad your back is responding well to....treatment?  Good luck with your continued success with that.  And good luck with the 10K!  That's great.  There's a 10K trail run, over the river and through the woods, so to speak, in September that I'm eyeing.  We'll see how the money and training goes leading up to then.

We have a kayak and a canoe that we trade back and forth.  The white dog (Raika a Lab/Golden cross) is 14 y/o and can't keep up swimming anymore, so she rides in the canoe, and Zidi (Setter/Lab cross) swims along side wearing PFD.  

I am tracking again (as of today)...let see if I can maintain this for more than 48 hours.  OK...wait...reboot.  I will do this for at least one week. 

Good luck with the job hunt.  6 months on another continent seems daunting.  I've shied away from hunting in other cities 200 miles away.

Liz

The book sounds interesting...and a little scary.  I am fortunate to not know much about back pain so I'll trust your judgement on this one.  I'd still be careful with heavy lifting, though.  But in general, I'm all about the least invasive way to make your body better and I gotta be honest, taking a head only approach to a body problem is about as non-invasive as it gets.  Good luck!

We're getting ready to leave on another camping/paddling excursion this afternoon.  Hopefully there will be fewer thunderstorms this trip.  The last one we had to make a quick break for shore and huddle under the canoe for an hour and a half while a nasty storm passed.  I posted a pix of us huddled after the worst had passed for your entertainment, as well as one each of the dogs and their chosen activity during a thunderstorm.  Neither would hang out under the boat with us. The white dog didn't like the slope of the land, the black dog is just too young and playful to sit still, even in the rain.  Plus, we'd heard a coyote howl just before the bottom fell out and she was having none of that (the white dog is deaf, so had no concerns about wild animals:).  In any case we spent some time last night researching what you should do if you're caught out on the water in a thunderstorm.  Short answer: don't be out on the water.

Tracking is going poorly, eating is going well.  I lost a pound!  I am still four over what I was when we met.  But if I were to quantify the amount of alcohol and sugar in those 6 months...well lets just say 4 pounds is a blessing :) 

I hope you are well and have a lovely weekend!

liz

Checking in.  I started logging (again) this morning.  I tried Monday, but lost my way when, while walking my dogs downtown, I was stopped by a neighbor offering wine.  It kinda went down hill from there, but I made a new friend and potential running partner.  So I'm back on it.  I'm headed to the beach in 2 weeks for my sister's wedding shower and my plan was to log every day between now and then.  I figure I can do this for two weeks, I logged almost all of 2009...I guess 15 pounds is less of a motivator than 50.

We went for a run this morning.  I'm trying to increase my overall mileage to about 20 miles a week from around 10.  So far so good.  We mix up the trail, city, and park runs.  I live in a much much smaller town than London (population 3500...HA!) and the "city" runs are easy.  I live in town and we have two parks in my neighborhood so I can get to either park in under a mile.  One has a lake with a trail around it, the other a mountain stream with wooded hills and trails.  It's really quite nice to live in a tourist town, if you can handle the cold.  Plus I'm only a few miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail, so that's where we go hardcore off-roading :)

Sorry about the heat wave, sounds miserable in the city.  It is a gorgeous day here today (79 and sunny), but I've a ton of work to do in the office, so I'm glad I got in the run this morning.  I'm meeting a client for drinks at 5 today.  I will be a good little monkey and only drink 2.  Promise.

Hope your job interview went well!

liz

ed to add: I was a good little monkey.  Four interior designers met for drinks and we split one...ONE...bottle of Malbec.  Unheard of.  Ha!  Bathing suit season's a beech.

Hello!

I'm going to try to post more, too. 

I started journaling last night again for the first time in months.  It felt good.  One of the things I decided was that I needed to begin my morning meditations again.  I stopped for several reasons about two months ago, none of them important, so I sat for a while this morning.  I think I need a little focus at this time and that always seems to help me.  Plus I'm far less likely to skip my morning yoga and generally more mindful of what goes into my body when I'm practicing regularly.  I haven't been so mindful lately. 

At least I'm active (didn't you say something like that to me a while ago, Franc?).  It's nice to have the hubs on board, isn't it?  Mine has decided that our running is helpful, but not nearly disciplined enough for the ultimate goal: a half marathon.  So we've been working out a training schedule to get us more in line with those types of distances.  It basically means we need to be adding a long run to our weekend.

We had our 9th anniversary last week (yay us!).  I've officially been married longer to my husband than my mother was to any of hers, LOfreakingL. We went camping and paddling and generally had a good time. 

I've got an easy few weeks and I'm going to be refocusing my efforts on getting myself back together (HA!)  Not that I am falling apart, but it helps to keep close tabs on those things when you are me :)

Take care Ladies!

liz

Franc:  I have really strong legs and the squats do get to me, but I find I can build with regularity.  My dad was telling me the other day that when he was in peak lifting form (in his early 50's) that he was leg pressing 700# ("10 reps, no problem") and dead lifting #400 (OMFG!) so I've got those genes under a little extra :).  He's not prone to bragging or exaggeration, but he's a big guy, tho.

 The squats aren't my problem, but I don't have back problems and I don't think you should be pressing with that one either.  Back injuries take so long to recover from, if you ever really do.  I have to think that I'd just have to accept that as one of my limitations and not screw around with it. Just my 2 cents.

Hi guys!

    I'm back from "the event," LOL.  I chickened out and didn't wear the white dress at all.  We were staying with my sister and she said that it looked good on me, but that I didn't look comfortable.  And I wasn't; I was stiff and sucking everything in.  So she lent me a really cute dress (that you can't see at all in the image I posted in my gallery, but it's the only one I have from the night).  What you can get from that image, however is why I have to be diligent with my food intake and my exercise.  Shown in that picture is me and my husband, my mother, uncle, and two cousins.  They are indicative of that side of my family (my dad's side is much much more fit, thankfully). 

    I also uploaded a picture from recital night with my hair and make-up all done up.  My hair looks red, but it's not so much.  Cell phone cameras lie sometimes...

   We are going for a trail run later today; I need the exercise.  My shoulders are all tense from three days with family.  I also visited my friend who lost her child earlier this year (you may recall).  Wow.  That was hard, just to go out to dinner.  I can't imagine....it's bad.  Really really bad.

    tfarnell:  I can't believe you were doing both phases at once!  That made me laugh out loud and my quads ache for you in sympathy.  Ouch! BTW, congrats on all that progress!  I know you feel and look so much better!

   The chin ups are actually "negative chin ups," where you start at the top of the bar and lower yourself slowly.  My version of slowly comes in at around 6 seconds, so there's definitely some work to do (he says if you can do it for 20 seconds, add weight to a backpack).  Not there yet. 

    Hope you guys are doing well!

liz

Yay for playing the Waiting Game!  That's frustrating.  After I applied for the academic job last year, I was strung along from November to May before I finally just called up the dean and said, "Look, I need to know one way or the other, because I either need to market my business for fall, or stop marketing my business altogether."  I don't necessarily recommend that approach, but I feel your pain.  One more clue that I'm not cut out for the tediousness of university life :)

I haven't decided on the dress yet.  I got the lighter ribbon and truthfully, I don't like either.  Both visually cut me off at the middle, making me look more short waisted that I actually am.  I'll post pictures shortly, but I almost think it looks better with no ribbon at all.

We're traveling to the capitol this weekend to see a favorite artist's exhibit at the museum and I guess a shopping trip.  We don't get there very often and it is the closest Trader Joe's and Ikea, and I've got shopping lists for both.

Have fun and don't get into too much trouble!