sujihime's Journal

Thumbs DOWN (but it's ok)
Jan 02 2009 08:27

Ah well.  I stopped dieting in October.  I was tired of it and getting burned out.  I dieted from April 15th to about October 15th and lost 33 lbs.  That was great but that's also a really long time.  6 months!  Well, now I'm back up to 180. (I was down to 168ish).  I'm not actually disappointed or surprised. 

I switched my birth control from hormonal to um...not hormonal?  I have no idea.   My gynocologist got upset that I never told him that I had migraines.  Apparently, hormonal BC leads to migraines and for people who already get them, it leads to stroke.  Oops.  So he switched me to Camila.  Ah, research says that it's still hormonal, it's just not full of estrogen.  Apparently, estrogen causes the headaches/migraines.   Anyways, one of my nifty side effects is that I eat all the time.  Now, part of this is because I went off diet and have been naughty.  But part of it is the pill, I believe.  Also, I just read that it can make your period disappear and if you are having a regular period, it means that you are ovulating like normal.  Stupid pill.   I guess the doctor was right that I won't like it as much.  Stupid headaches.

Anyways, somewhere I started to digress.  Oh, that's one of the reason for the weight gain.  ANother is that after abouta month or two or maintenance, I completely abandoned any sort of "maintenance" pretense.  Shame on me.  Also, exercise.  It became hard to get out of bed in the morning.  I am going to try to get up and at least do some sit ups.  I don't think I can go back to my hour of exercise in the morning.  Not in the winter.   But if I can get my carcass out of bed at 7=6:25, then I can do some sit ups or something.  Without exercise I have way too much time in the morning and I end up going to the bus stop around 7:25 which is dumb.

Anyways...I decided to get back on track today.  Friday seems like a dumb day to go back on track, but whatever.  I have to start sometime.

THIS IS NOT A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION!!  I had every intention or restarting after my birthday (the 8th).  I will probably just monitor my eating for the next few days, but the 12th will be time to get serious.  I have one, maybe two weddings to go to and I want to look GOOD. 

Look out world!  Susie is BACK ON TRACK!  No sweat!

Happy Anniversary!
Oct 07 2008 08:36

3 years ago today, Chris and I walked into the Izumo City Office and got married. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. My went to the Board of Education Office to grab our supervisor/translator to act as a witness and she wasn't there! So we had two other people who spoke terrible English to come help us. We filled out the hugest form ever (seriously, the piece of paper was comically GIANT) and it is covered in crossed out things and corrections. Heh. Oops. We were having troubles with names and which order to put them in.

Anyways, we hustled down to the City Office something or other department and turned in our sheet with two people I didn't know (the head of the BoE being one of them!!) to witness for us. Chris signed and stamped the form and 5 minutes and 400 yen later, we were married. That was it. There wasn't any ceremony at all. Just Chris stamping a paper and handing over some yens.

Very surreal. And simple! After that we went home and giggled out the whole Mr. and Mrs. Rogers thing and husband and wife. Then we ate sushi. Yum!

It's weird to tell the story because it sounds like a very underwhelming way to get married. But...it works for us. I don't miss having a wedding at all. Sometimes, I miss having had a beautiful wedding gown, but that's about it. I figure we will do some sort of ceremony on our 5 or 10 year anniversary, but whatever. You see, the minute I thunked down the steps from the train station and into Chris' arm, the commitment was made. I always thought God was watching and blessed us and our marriage that day (September 1st!!). We just didn't get it legalized until October 7th which is the official day.

And it was a lovely and sweet day and 3 years ago.

Happy anniversary to my hubby! We are going to sushi for dinner (it's tradition!) and exchanging cards. Then we are going to buy snacks and head to a friend's house to watch the debates (how rude to schedule a debate on our anniversary!).

Hooray for 3 years. They have been love filled years and our love and bond only grows stronger and deeper as each day passes. I look forward to 75 more with him by my side and in my arms.

Hooray!

Oh what a night...
Oct 03 2008 08:42

I had a lovely evening last night!

Work was annoying and I had to bike home while cranky.  So normally, that would mean an irritable night but it totally wasn't.  I got home and Chris excitedly showed me a flyer.  For $15.84 you could get a large on- topping pizza, an order of breadsticks, 2 sodas, AND a free t-shirt.  I said..."diet, what diet?" and we ordered a chicken pizza with alfredo sauce and wheat crust.  It was delicious!  My shirt is cute.  It has a drawing of a pizza, a heart, and a smiley face.  Geddit?  Pizza Love Happiness.  Cute!  It's red and large because I am a Large lady, not an extra-large lady.  I love free things!

We watched Mission: Impossible while we dined (I had three pieces of pizza, three breadsticks, AND used the garlic butter dipping sauce...diet...what diet?).  I love me some Mission: Impossible (TV no the movie).  Barney Collier is the coolest cat around!  He totally snatched plutonium from that bomb.  Woo.  Then we settled down and watched two episodes of Pyske!, which is a new favorite show of ours.  I was getting sleepy and suddenly Chris reminded me that it was 9:00!  Debates!

We found a live feed on msnbc.com.  Hooray for you, MSNBC.  Not ONLY do you have Keith Olberman who I loooooooover and Brian Williams who is cheeky and intelligent, you live streamed the broadcast of the debates!  Woo!  I'm glad I watched the debates.  They were enlightening.  Much better than the presidential debate last week.  Chris and I discussed the debate afterwards and then I went to bed.

So...that doesn't sound exciting, but it was so relaxing and just a lovely evening with my husband.  Both of us were completely relaxed (except for a few times during the Debate) and just enjoying each other's company.  That's a nice feeling. 

I'm not even upset today that I went off my diet so badly last night.  The pizza was delicious and fun.  Ok, not super fun, but yummy and stuff.  I weigh more than I did yesterday, but whatever.  I have been bouncing between 168 and 171 for 3 weeks now.  I can't get depressed every time it hits 171 an excited every time it hits 168.  It's too exhausting.  Eventually I will get back on track.  Maybe even today! 

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.  I know I will!

Back on track?
Sep 29 2008 08:34

These past few weeks have not been good dieting weeks for me.  You would think it started last weekend when Mom and Laura came, but honestly, I've been doing poorly on my diet since the semester started.  I think I'm back on track...we'll see.

This weekend was nice.  On Saturday, we had the EALC picnic, which was fun.  Several professors came and a lot of grad students.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and people liked my brownies.   The Chinese grad students seemed intrigued by the idea of brownie mix.  I may have to show them how to make brownies sometime.  After the picnic, Chris and Scarlett (her name isn't really Scarlett, it's Chinese and I can't spell it so I shall use her English name, even though we call her by her Chinese name in real life) went shopping for a desk.  Scarlett doesn't have a car, so she hadn't been able to buy a desk because she had no way to bring it back to her apartment.  Chris volunteered.  Also, being the wonderful person he is, he assembled it for her.  That's totally a guy chore, though.  Also, since she's a non-native English speaker, it probably would have been difficult for her to read the directions by herself or something.  I dunno.  But that did mean that I got to spend some time by myself (i.e. napping).

Sunday was lovely, too.  We went to Greenwood, IN to Half-Price Books to sell the books Mom and Laura brought me.  We made $71!  It's depressing if I think about how much I spent on all those books, but I wasn't going to read them again, so I might as well get some measure of money back...even if it's just a fraction of the cost.  Chris bought a book in Barnes & Noble because we had a gift card and then we came home and watched the hell out of Scrubs season 6 (we get 1 free rental each month from Blockbuster and we use it on old TV seasons).

So, it wasn't a super-special weekend...but it was nice.  It's nice to hang out with people and then just chill out the next day.  My diet is going well.  It's taken me long enough to get back on track.  I hope I can keep it up.

30lb to go!

What a lovely weekend!
Sep 22 2008 08:17

Mom and Laura came to visit and it was a lot of fun.  I miss getting to play with my family in person.

They arrived at around 4:40 on Friday.  Of course, two minutes before they pulled up in the parking lot, Chris has called me to be picked up from school (I had taken the entire day off!!). So I quickly hugged them, pointed them at the bathroom and then ran out to get Chris.  For dinner, we all went to Upland Bar and Grill.  This is the restaurant with the excellent buffalo burgers.  Yum!  We got pretzel bites as an appetizer.  They were really tasty.  Friday was a good visiting day.

On Saturday, we got a little bit of a late start, but that was ok and gave Chris time to work on some homework so he could play with us on campus.  Chris and I gave Laura and Mom and sort of guided campus tour and I showed off my office.  After that we ate at the Greek Restaurant and then dropped Chris off so the girls could all go shopping.  We didn't buy a whole lot, but it was nice to spend time together.  That night, we went for Mom's birthday dinner at Mikado the really fancy and tasty Japanese restaurant.  You definitely don't leave there hungry!

On Sunday, Mom and Laura came over around 10:00 and we played a few games of Rummikub (which is my favorite game ever!).  Then we went to TGIFridays for a lighter lunch.  We all rolled out of TGIFridays (yum, fried mac and cheese!) and headed downtown to walk around and visit the little shops.  Around 3:00 we headed back to the apartment and while Chris napped and did homework, we played more Rummikub.  I won, of course.  Later that night I fixed up some delicious curry (if I do say so myself!) and entertained all.  Of course we had to go get ice cream after that from Coldstone Creamery and it was delicious.  Laura treated everyone, which was really nice.  Then we came back and played Super Scrabble, which Laura won. 

Fun was had by all!  It was a very nice and busy weekend.  Now I'm going to need the following week to recover...woooosh!  All in all, the diet-break didn't go badly.  I exercised on Saturday and we walked around a lot on both days.  I didn't lose any weight, but I didn't gain any, either.  So that's lovely.  I also found out that in about 6-8 months, I will possibly weigh less than my sister.  Not that she's heavy or that it will mean I'm better than her...but it's a powerful motivator.  I've ALWAYS been the heavy one.  Wouldn't it be lovely to weigh the same as Laura, or even a little bit less.  Just for once?  Then I could be the skinny sister.

Amazing! 

I hope everyone else had an excellent weekend!

We missed you, Katie!

Happy Friday!
Sep 18 2008 07:57

Ok, I know it's not Friday, but it might as well be for me.  I have the day off tomorrow!  I am taking the day off so I can put the apartment in order and run some errands that Chris and I have put off for awhile (oil change, salvation army run, wash the car, etc.).  I'm really pumped about it.  Not only do I have a day off, but Chris will be at school from 9:30 until I pick him up at 5:00.  Laura and Mom don't get in until 4:00 so I basically have the whole day to myself.  I haven't had one since I started working almost a year ago.  It will be lovely.

I just have to make it through today!  Yesterday I started off really pumped but slowly my stupid, boring job ate away at my good mood that I ended up very grumpy.  I had 8 hours of just sitting around wishing someone would bring me something to do.  Well, I did help a work study with a project but even that didn't take very long.  I ended up making 2 cranes, 6 flowers (3 tulips and 3 lilies with stems), and a few other things out of paper.  It was a very long day.  Hopefully, today will be better but...probably not. 

I'm trying to find online books but it seems that the only thing that is free online are the old classics on Project Gutenburg.  It would be fine, but I would prefer to read romance novels or bad fantasy books.  I would even be willing to buy the eBooks but they are just as expensive as real books!  I can't quite justify spending $12 on a PDF of a book that I could run to the store and buy for the same price.  It sucks because I'm not really allowed to read.  If anyone knows of a good site with books, free or pay, then please let me know.  I'm dying of boredom!

Wow, that was really melodramatic, eh?  Oh well.  Happy Birthday, Mom!  I hope you have a wonderful day!

The Best Compliments!
Sep 17 2008 07:49

I just got the best compliment today.  I was be-bopping back to my office, listening to my iPod and in a pretty excellent mood (I biked to work so I'm assuming I was under the influence of endorphins).  One of my coworkers, Kathy, was walking down the hall to her office and said, "You have been looking so fit recently.  I keep meaning to tell you." 

I like that compliment.  She didn't notice just the weight loss, but that I've been getting fit.  That's lovely to hear!  *flex*  And a little confidence boosting.  *preen*  I've decided that with this diet it's important that I be proud and confident in myself.  It's completely changed the tenor of my usual diets.  It's not fun, never that...but it's definitely easier when I keep telling myself how unbelievably awesome I am.  And pretty.  And svelt, thin, skinny, or a waif.  And now...fit!  Woo!  It's important. 

Be proud of your weightloss.  Katie with her yet-to-be-officially-announced awesome job.  I'm proud of the effort Katie has put in.  We all stumble and mess up, but it's important to pick yourself up and try again.  Katie does this and it's showing!

Mom with her holding strong at 170.  170 isn't bad, and she has been holding strong instead of gaining.  I'm super proud of mom with her walking and sometimes jogging a little.  That's awesome.  Maybe she hasn't lost that many pounds, but she's definitely refilled her lovely-self with muscles and vigor! 

Be proud.  Be confident.  Be strong.

WOO!

Score!
Sep 14 2008 10:36

I had an excellent Saturday.  Normally, Chris and I spend the weekend doing low-key (i.e. boring) things and just relax, but yesterday was different.  We were having company!!

I woke up at 9:30 (on purpose!) and immediately weighed myself(170.4, thank you ) and then rushed to the grocery store.  Discounts were surprisingly sparse for a Saturday.  Then I got home around 10:15 so I put everthing away and then exercised until 11:30 when I woke Chris up.  Then I cleaned the kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom (ok, yes, that IS the entire apartment...) and made a fruit salad. 

At 1:00, our friend Beth came over to pick me up and we went out to lunch.  We went to applebee's.  I had the quesadillia burger with a grilled chicken breast instead of beef and no ranch sauce.  I also subbed applesauce for my fries.  Yum!  After that, we went shopping!  Beth has a job interview coming up in DC so she needed a blouse and accessories.  She managed to find awesome deals.  After she found everything, we wandered through the Macy's clearance racks.  Oh my gosh!

I ended up walking out of Macy's with 4 shirts, a skirt, and a dress for $50.  The dress was $16 down from $80 and the skirt was like $30 down from $75.  The shirts, however, were my real steal!  I got these modal cotton blouses that have lovely bright colors.  I picked up two (one to match my skirt and a blue one (of course)) and when I was checking up, the lady informed me that they were now $5.50 from $16 AND buy one get one free.  I immediately went back to the rack and picked up two more!  Score!  That completely replaces my clothes that are to big AND it was a great bargain!  Hooray!

Then I came home at 5:00 and vacuumed the apartment and cleaned the kitchen floor.  I actually used a sponge to 'spot clean' as well.  At 5:45 I hunkered down and started chopping veggies for the curry.  This took me a lot longer than I thought and I chopped (without cutting myself once, btw!) until 6:15 when our guests arrived!

Beth came back with Yang Guang and Lio Yu in tow.  We call them Guang and Yu, in Asia, the family name comes first.  Guang is a gradstudent friend from last year and Yu is a new one.  Guang was merciful and brought her rice cooker with her, because mine was too smal for 5 people.  I set also had her make the rice so now I know how to measure.  Apparently, I am pretty much a goofball for measuring to the last gram.  Heh.  I set to work making the curry.

It took about 30 minutes to get everything ready.  Then, we feasted!  People loved my curry.  They actually looked at me and asked for more!  I have never had someone ask for seconds before!  Woo!  Unfortunately, we were out of rice so we took a break while we cooked up some more.  My rice suppy is definitely depleated.  Heh.  After dinner we giggled and talked for awhile.  Beth and I did a fashion show while Chris strummed on his guitar.  Guang and Yu helped me clean up and that was lovely.  Then, I pulled out my fruit salad from earlier and while I thought I had too much, everyone completely ate it up.  Woo!  No leftovers!

Everyone left around 10:30 and then Chris and I sat on the sofa and relaxed to some TV on DVD.  Heh.  What a busy and lovely day.  It's nice hanging out with friends.  Chris was also able to work on his homework without me underfoot which really helps I think.

Today is starting off well.  I weighed in and I am down to 168.4!  Tada!  I have officially hit my 30 lbs, 15% mark!  Also, I am halfway to my goal.  I am tentatively giving myself 2 months to lose 9.4 pounds.  If I do that, I will be in the "normal" weight range.  Not bad for starting in obese in April!  Yee haw!  wish me luck!

That is a big drop from yesterday, but I am on the last couple of days of my period and all the water I was retaining has "released" and I also had two large movements yesterday which helps shave off the pounds.  Ewww!  Gross, Susie!  It's likely that I will hop up a pound tomorrow, but I am going to eat healthy and cleanly today and exercise to motivate my body to keep off those pounds.  I like being in the 160s!  The day I hit 160 is the day I will reach my lowest weight in my adult life.  Woo!  Also, I will look smashing!  ^_^

Have a happy weekend!

Journal Shmournal!
Sep 11 2008 12:37

I can never think of clever titles for my journal.  Nothing super new is going on.  Chris is impressed with my curry (despite not trying it himself, but because I raved and raved and RAVED about it) so he wants to have people over so I can make more.  He's talking about having like 3 or 4 people over.  Eep!  It's fine, but I will need to clean, clean, clean before that can happen.  Also, one of his Chinese buddies will need to bring a rice-cooker because mine is only big enough for about 3 servings of rice.  We will definitely need a lot more than that!  It should be fun, though.  Plus, I want to encourage him to make friends with EALC people who aren't in his year.  I think it will help him destress. 

There is an EALC picnic in two weeks from Saturday.  I am really excited about that.  Chris wants to go (which is great, normally he's apathetic about things like this) and I really want to go to meet the EALC people.  I'm also hoping to meet his teachers.  I'm sure they will brag about his awesomeness.  Well...I think he's awesome, so I'm sure they will too.  Sometimes I think it's weird how proud I am of my husband.  Almost like I'm his mom or something.  I just like being the wife of a very smart person.  I guess it's because he's sooo smart and handsome, yet he chose ME out of all the lovely ladies in the world.  *preen preen*  I'm such a weirdo.  Still, I'm super pumped about the picnic and trying to come up with something yummy to bring (though I have brownie mix on standby).

Diet diet diet.  Nothing notable has been happening.  My weight is still ping-ponging up and down.  It is going in a downward trend, but it's annoying.  I wish I could just lop off that extra pound and a half and get to 170.  I feel like once I hit that mark, things will go back to normal and I will start losing again at about 1.5 a week.  Hell, even 1 a week would be nice right now.  So far my graph looks like -5, +4, -4, +3, -2.5, +2, -1.7, + 1, -.9, +.8 and so on.  It's going down, but it's not as smooth as it was a few weeks ago.  It really is because I am not being so strict on my diet or exercise.  I think once I get used to the  new schedule of Chris being in classes and having homework, I will get better again.  I've also been snacking after dinner more than normal.  That needs to stop, too!

So thats, that.  I am feeling super chatty this week but I never seem to have someone to talk to.  Sad!

CurryCurryCurryCurry! Yay!
Sep 10 2008 09:52

Finally, after a year of craving and not having any, I had Japanese curry!  We bought a rice maker a couple of months ago because I have just been so hard up for rice.  I usually eat rice and egg about once a week.  On Saturday I took Chris to the Asian grocery store and we picked up curry mix.  WE got two boxes, one of sweet curry (chris doesn't like spicy) and one with hot curry (I LOVE spicy).  Well, last night was the night to experiment.

I chopped up carrots, potato, left-over chicken, and green and red bell peppers.  I stir fried them for 3 minutes and then tossed in 2 cups of water and boiled it all for 15 minutes.  After that, I added the curry cubes (like bullion, but curry instead!).  I stirred that until the cubes had melted and then simmered the concoction for 5 more minutes.  Then, serve over rice.

Yum!  It was so good!  I just need to add more water (kinda thick!) and use fresh meat instead of leftover chicken.  The chicken was fine, it just wasn't as tender as it would have been if I cooked it fresh.  So yummy!  I cooked the spicy kind last night but Chris wants to have some sweet curry this weekend.  He also wants to invite friends.  We may have a big house party!  Eep!  We shall see.

Not super diet friendly, the curry, but I definitely saved up some calories and rode my bike to work to "earn" it. 

Yum!