Fashion Spree- 251.5

I know I've been MIA for a week. To be honest with you I took a vacation from just about everything this week (including working out *gasp*) I just felt so overwhelmed by the monotony of my life (get up, work, come home, go to the gym, eat dinner, watch TV, bed) in and out every day-- I felt like my life was so boring and routine I just decided to take a vacation from that routine to re-energize and re-focus. I am officially off vacation today (worked out this morning on the eliptical for 35 minutes :o))

What have I been doing? Well... SHOPPING! Z Gallerie is going out of business (so I've been there 3 times this week to pick up on the now 50% off sale). I did some clothes and shoe shopping.

I must say I was really disappointed with Lane Bryant when I got a flyer/ coupon booklet and then when I went online and to the store I found out that the more colorful cool things I was aiming to get had all sold out (including online and warehouse) the SAME DAY the flyer came out. To be honest this really pisses me off. Lane Bryant went against the hum drum drain of plaid shirts (see previous post) but only carry a select number of the more fashion forward items! BOO! This upsets me, especially considering the alternative. Bravo to them for taking a step forward on the correct foot-- boo to them for being conservative in their numbers. Note to self: make a mad dash for the website as soon as I get the next booklet.

Indicently has anyone noticed the color scheme for this season is navy, yellow, green, white and purple-- it's kind of refreshing. Makes me feel like I should be on a sail boat sippin a mojeto.

I have to give some major Kudos to Lane Bryant for thier new approach to taking fashionable shots and hiring a stylist-- look how "WOW" this looks...
On the other hand-- I found a major gap in this on the website. Look on the same page we have the "stylized" model and the one that "did it herself" in the obviously cheaper rendition to the right (and you bet that's the shirt we get). Overall massive improvement-- but we have a way to go before we win the race tortise.Now here are the shoes I bought! Unfortunately the teal and white shoes from French Sole run about 1/2 size too small (and being a size 11 already rules out any hope of my step sister sized feet squeezing into this Cinderella's slipper :o() But on a positive note the other too pairs (brought to us by Me Too and Jessica Bennett Kurt) fit GREAT! GO TEAM!

That's a Whole Lot of Ugly -250

To go with my previous post about being "Thin Enough for Fashion" -- I was browsing a plus sized part of a website only to be smacked in the face by a whole lot of ugly. What is the point of having so many plaid shirts-- not only that but UGLY plaid shirts? Did Al Borland have a garage sale (I don't think so, Tim)? Has Paris Hilton been showing up in the back 9 barn making hoe downs all the rage? YUCK!Plus sized department: I'm embarrassed enough for you! STOP THE INSANITY! Ask any woman of any age or size if this is the ideal outfit-- something that makes her feel sexy-- and I'd venture to say every single woman could find something that would make her feel sexier.

Especially in a time like this where the economy is not so great and people are holding on to their money-- don't pitch trash-- and don't buy into the trash! Every piece of clothing I buy makes me feel sexy and like a woman (as much as possible). Literally every piece of clothing I have I feel like I could wear on a date and feel like a complete woman (t-shirts included). -- If it's not helping your cause it's hurting it.

I'm not trying to pick on this store-- because the problem is much larger than that-- it's a bias against larger women. Think how great a fashion forward plus sized store would do? Think how much happier women would be about their bodies if they could wear just as cute clothes as the next girl.

Woot Woot! 250.5

This past week I've been seriously kickin butt and takin names (mainly my own name and booty!). I've only taken one day off since--gosh I think the previous week? They've upped the time limit from 30 minutes @ the gym to 50 minutes on a lot of the machines even though it still says 30 minute limit so I've been doing the max the machine would allow me all this past week-- meaning 50 or 60 minutes (+the 5 minute cool down) -- yesterday I ended up burning 690 calories in 65 minutes RAWK ON! :o)

I'm so excited about 250.5!!! Just 1.5 more lbs and I will be down 40lbs from my highest weight-- and that's exciting for someone wants to lose about 100lbs. YAY! GO TEAM HIGH FIVE!

I want to be Thin Enough for Fashion 254

For those of you who have never been overweight.. you probably don't realize how difficult it is for overweight girls to get any nods from the fashion industry. It's amazing how many stores do not carry plus sized clothing at all-- or maybe just on their websites. If you're lucky enough to find a store that actually carries plus sized dresses-- they normally have a very small collection that tend air on the extremely matronly side of things. If you don't believe me, walk into any department store to the women's section. What you will find is a couple of suits (these skirt suits will undoubtedly have an elastic waist band). You will also find a dress or two that is really more of a smock (cut the same from breast to ankle) that will be in white and one in beige completely covered in sequence. There will also be an array of black sheath dresses, and one or two large flower print dresses with a short sleeved sweater over the top.

It's always angered me that the world seems to think if I'm a little heavier I shouldn't have the desire to be feminine (or worse yet that if I'm overweight I can't be feminine-- or what would be the point of being feminine because no one would care to look at me?) Since I've always been overweight I've always thought that the mindset of the fashion world should change-- but since I'm in this process of losing weight (and *gasp* conforming to the image of beauty) I have to tell you that I can not wait til I get to the point where I can shop for little summer dresses that I can pair with pumps, large belts and chunky necklaces. LOL I have a "feminine itch" I need to scratch and NO not THAT KIND of Feminine itch lol.I want to wear skirts and be fashionable and throw in my own retro kick to it. I want to be able to walk around without feeling like I need to "correct my curves" with spanks. I want to be cute, and kitchy and above all feeling like I am the girl I always wanted to be. It's going to be amazing and I can't wait.

I'm Losing It! 254.5

For Christmas I got an iphone! It's one of those gadgets (much like Tivo) that once you have it you have no idea how you ever lived without it! About a week ago I was browsing the "free apps" and found a program called "Lose it". I absolutely LOVE this program. Basically you input your height, weight, age--- how much weight you'd like to lose per week and your goal weight. Lose it calculates how many calories/ day you should consume to achieve your goal for the week (ie 1 lbs / week etc). -- it even projects at your current criteria when you should hit your "goal weight"-- (it told me OCT for me)

But wait! It gets better! You record your calories by searching for the foods in a database-- you can then choose your portion size and it show you the nutritional breakdown. You can have it record fat, carbs, calories, protein and a bunch of other stuff-- it then subtracts this from your daily budget of calories. What's even better it saves your "foods" -- for instance pretty much every day I have a spinach salad for lunch-- so I can go into "my foods" and locate that meal so I can use it over and over again (or even slightly modify it) etc. It compiles all of this info into a daily and weekly journal so you can see how much (on average) you consume daily or weekly in carbs, fat, calories etc.

I know you thought I was done... you can ALSO include your work outs--- it has a HUGE array of activities including (and this one made me giggle) "sexual activity" which you can put intensity level-- I was interested to find out you can kiss for over an hour and still burn 0 calories according to the program :o)

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL (thanks so much Ron Popeil) you can also record your daily weight and it will chart it for you on a graph.

I know I sound like a salesman (well I did used to be one) but honestly this is a free application for iphone and I'm extatic about it! I've been using it for about a week.. and I'm still trying to figure out how accurate it is-- it tells me I can eat 1800 calories a day and I will lose 2 lbs a week-- to me that seems a little high but I'm going to test it out and let you know when my results are conclusive (but that's another great feature about this program-- I can adjust my "daily" calorie budget if I'm not getting the results it calculates I should. All in all it's a great tool-- and I love recording it all so I can track progress and look back on how things change. I'm nerdy like that :o)

I worked out every day this week (well I'm counting the day I only worked out for 5 minutes and then sustained an injury :o( ) and tonight is no exception--- I'm headed there now!

Am I Out for the Season Coach? 253.5

Well after that last post about how everything seems to keep getting in my way I have to share what happened to me yesterday.

On Sunday I tried a new machine at the gym (trying to spice it up)-- it's an arc trainer-- basically has the same motion of an elliptical-- but you're in more a squat the whole time. I felt like this gave my legs and butt a great workout (and afterwards I hopped on the treadmill for 35 minutes)-- I loved the workout so much I decided to try it out again last night.

About 5 minutes into the work out on the arc trainer I got a severe pain in my left inner thigh (remember how I said I felt like I had a slight sprain in my groin). Well this pain was just bellow that and it felt like the tendon in my inner thigh popped out-- it kept burning and I was just trying to work through the pain and decided after a minute that I was probably doing more harm than good. I had the idea of hopping on the treadmill and walking it off-- well I limped all the way to the treadmill and put the speed on 2.0 and still had trouble working through it and keeping up with the speed-- after about 3 minutes of that I decided I better just go home :o(.

I am glad to report though that today I still feel a little tinge in my inner thigh/ groin-- but was able to walk on the treadmill for 35 minutes at 3.5 miles per hour-- slower than usual and I was only able to burn about 290 calories in that time (vs about 380 @ 4.0 speed) but I am pleased I was able to get that done.

I plan on taking it easy the next couple of days but still working out!

Pinky and the Brain - 254.5

I'm sorry for the lack of posting this week. It seems as of late that all of the forces of nature have been plotting against my desire to loose weight. I must say I worked out on Monday and then on Tuesday we had yet another snow storm. I was scheduled to work until 6 (as usual) but I could see from my desk that 71 was a standstill. Everyone was trying to find out why and it was a combination of a jack knifed semi and 275 beings shut down. I decided to try and wait it out and just work late and leave earlier one day later that week. Well I ended up staying until about 8pm and decided I couldn't stand being at work anymore and although 71 was still @ a standstill I was going to take the "back way" home. What a HUGE mistake that turned out to be. I live 23 miles from work and normally take 71 straight home (which takes about 30 minutes depending on traffic). Imagine how annoyed I was when I kept watching the time tick by in the car knowing the YMCA closed @ 10pm. At 10:00 I was actually sitting in traffic on the "back road" only 5 miles from work. I didn't end up getting home until after 11:30pm.

I was able to make it to the gym on Wed and Thursday-- and Sat-- but I can't help but feel annoyed at how many obstacles I've been coming across in trying to work out. Actually on Thursday when I worked out I decided to put in 45 minutes on the treadmill instead of the 35 I have been doing here lately-- and I ended up with a blister on the bottom and side of my foot -- in addition to continually fighting what feels like a slightly pulled groin. (Hence why I didn't work out on Friday) but you will be happy to know that I did pull a full hour on the treadmill on Sat (and plan to do an intense work out a little later today).

But back to being annoyed-- I've been fighting through emotions, about 4 or 5 illnesses (I've lost count at this point)-- and weather. All I want to do is work out and get this weight off-- that's it! Seems simple enough! This made me think of one of my favorite cartoons, Pinky and the Brain. For those of you who aren't familiar it's a cartoon about two lab rats, one names Pinky (who runs on very very low wattage) and the other Brain (who is literally and figuratively the brain of the operation).

The intro is my favorite "Dah Brain what are we going to do tonight" and Brain replies "Same thing we try to do every night Pinky, try to take over the world" -- I've attached a copy of the opening in this post-- please watch! Anyway-- this is what I feel like sometimes. "What are we going to do tonight Ana?" "Same thing we attempt to do every night-- work out and lose weight"-- something stupid seems to keep getting in the way of my weight loss grandeur. Regardless I'm trying to keep up with it-- and not let it get me down-- keep myself motivated despite obstacles (because God knows how much more easy it is to give up when you're facing resistance head on).

I'm going to try and be better about posting this week!!

"You Haven't Registered for Your Wedding" 256

Those of you who follow regularly know that my fiance and I broke up around Oct. Well-- I went to a wedding expo say mid July-- and we hadn't officially set a date but we knew it was going to be in the spring. How depressing is it that I keep getting voicemails from various stores I indicated I would like to register at. Normally I'll get a call while I'm at work on my cell phone (so I don't pick it up) and the message goes something like this... "Hi Anastasia-- I hope the planning for your wedding is going well. We still have yet to have you and Devin register for your May wedding-- please stop by anytime and we'd be happy to register you!"

lol THANKS for that-- I haven't registered because I'm NO LONGER ENGAGED lol--Anyway-- interestingly enough I have been looking at some wedding stuff (ie flowers and bridesmaid dresses) at this point who knows if I'll ever have the opportunity to exercise these decisions-- but I thought I'd share some inspirational images anyway.

My original colors were going to be orange and fuchsia (I know it sounds gross but I promise it's not) -- my new color scheme is purple, orange and green-- I think it will be superb -- I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

OH YES and I DID work out today :o)