Love Filled Shoes

The clock will strike 2008 in 14 more hours. We will say a happy farewell to 2007 and welcome in a new year of new possibilities. For me this will be my year of “One day at a time.”

Sure I have lots of plans for weight loss, career, education, community, and art in 2008 but I plan to take it one day at a time. I plan to take it one step at a time and at times I’m going to have to take it one meal at a time.

I’m excited about 2008. I’m excited about what the next 365 days will hold. I know that there will be some days that I can’t wait to get out of bed and I know that there will be some days where I want to stay there.

Plans for 2008 include:

Education

I actually hope to return to school in 2009. This year I will spend learning Spanish and organizing the finances that I will need to obtain an Associate Degree.

Career

For many years I’ve chased after a career. I really don’t know if I want to do it anymore. I really think I would be comfortable in a job that allows me to work on my own. I always like to encourage people, so perhaps teaching or ministry might be the answer.

Weight Loss

I’m tired of beating myself up for the way that I look and thinking about all the things that I should have done. My goal is to lose 52+ pounds this year but if it doesn’t happen then I’m not going to cry about it.

In this arena, all I can do is try to eat healthy and get some physical activity in my life.

Community

I’d like to give more to my community this year. We currently don’t have a lot of money to give but I could at least give one day a week to a local charity or organization.

MSNBC is telling us “Don’t over think your diet” We all know that this is an easy thing to do. Some people get so frustrated with the planning and counting calories that they completely give up.

To not over think the world of diet MSNBC gave 9 simple weight loss strategies. The top strategies that help people lose the most weight were:

Skip All Soda

By switching to water or carbonated seltzer people were able to lose an average of 4 pounds. I recently did calculations about soda and realized that if I cut out soda, I could lose nearly 50 pounds in 2008.

http://www.about-sanjoseca.com/2008-resolution-healthy-weight-loss/

Eat Breakfast

I know that we are all worried about adding calories but we still have to wake up our metabolism from 5+ hours of sleep mode. People who started eating breakfast on average lost 5 pound during the experiment time frame.

Dine Out Less Often

Let’s face it when we dine out, we usually make poor choices. Or we end up going to a place that gives us twice the amount of food than we normally would. Restaurants still believe that giving big portions instead of healthy portions is the norm for the price we pay.

Sometimes I wish that I could just shop like restaurants do. To be able to get the low prices but large amounts. People who cut down on eating out were able to see a loss of 1-8 pounds on the scale.

I know everyone has his or her own tips on losing weight. What works for you?

If you don’t, these people might. AnswersTV offers HD information about all aspects of health. Currently there is info on GERD and Rheumatoid Arthritis. I’m sure there is more to come because it’s in Beta mode.

I really like the food section. I don’t think we could ever have enough healthy and appetizing recipes.

What do you think of AnswersTV?

It was off to the market today. I did get some strange looks from people but what do they expect me to do? You know those strange looks right? The stare politely covers your whole body and begins to widen with each second. The stare where some people may comment or shake their head.

 I will not lock myself behind a door because other people don’t like how I look. I’m doing something about my life and I should be able to live my life. I honestly think people should be careful how they judge people. Life can do a complete 360 very quickly and I might be the thin one next time.

Anyways, I looked up Mike and my stats for eating on ‘My Pyramid’. Mike should have these amounts each day:
8 oz of whole grain
3 cups of vegetables
2 cups of fruit
3 cups of milk/dairy
6 oz of meat or beans.

I should have the same. The only difference is that he can have 300 extra calories and I should have 150.

Now how about looking fierce. That’s going to take some time. I have hair to color, teeth to repair, clothing to buy. I find myself checking out clothing styles lately though. Can larger people be as fashionable as our size 12 fashionista brother’s and sisters.

All I can say is make the investment in yourself. Take the time to find out what looks good on your body. Play up your assets and yes we all have them. Don’t be afraid of the full length mirrors!

I’m feeling much better today. I’m not as sore as I was yesterday. Most of the day was spent settling back into joining the rat race. I put on my best looking monkey suit (blouse, skirt, stockings, and shoes) and filled out several applications.

Eating
I don’t know why I’m not losing weight on a daily basis. For the past two days I have been way under the fuel amount I should be giving my body. Today I had:
Coffee and an Italian Baggette
Salad with two tbsp of dressing
2 servings of claim jumpers beef stew

Total calories - no more than 1600

Exercise
I got about an hour of slow walking today. I tried going down to the local animal kennel and tell them that I would work for free but they wouldn’t go for it. If I’m not walking to actually get something accomplished or if I don’t do an activity that has a goal then it’s kinda worthless to me.

I’m just going to have to remind myself that for every step that I’m accomplishing a healthy life.

I spent an hour watching Animal Planet with tears running down my face. They had the ASPCA on the air talking about the animals that they rescued. I just don’t understand the world. The world decided to give horses to a man who didn’t want to take care of them. Here I sit willing to give tons of love to animals and people. Yet, I don’t have the money to help people out financially.

I just don’t understand the world. Hopefully doors will open for me to obtain a job where my honey and I can get an apartment that allows pets. That we’ll have enough money to feed ourselves and feed our pets more than one meal a day.

I also hope that doors will open where I can work with people in changing their lives or working with animals. So if you live in San Jose, California and belong to a business or organization that changes the lives of either, I’m willing to work long hard hours.

It’s the end of the day and I feel completely wiped out. I had a thought of walking around my block in the sunset but the thought went as quickly as the sun did. I did notice that our lighting in this area of the city starts to fade around 4:15. So that’s when I’m going to plan my walks.

Exercise
The exercise for today was sweeping, mopping, moving furniture, and general cleaning. How many calories did I burn per hour? The chart says 544 calories for one hour based on my weight.

Eating
Not the healthiest thing today for sure. Right now my honey and I are just eating what we have in the house. so it was

Coffee and french baggette for breakfast
2 cups of spaghetti for lunch
1 serving of macaroni and cheese, 4 ounces of ground beef, 1 cup of romaine lettuce, dressing.

Total calories 1307
Maximum calories 2000

Not the best type of eating but things will get better once Mike and I are able to go grocery shopping. I’m going to head over to my food pyramid and plan our meals around that.

Though I really want to lose this weight and I need to for my health. Another ultimate goal is to have low cost healthy food in our home.

I want to be mad at my honey but it’s my own dang fault. What I was thinking when I thought I could get him to help me around the house.

I asked to clean the shower a week ago and it didn’t get done. I asked him to keep his corner clean but I find coffee stains all over the floor.

“Take a deep breath, slowly let it out, another deep breath”

I should honestly not expect organization out of the man. He never had to do it as a child, I don’t think he wants to do it now. I on the other hand had to have my room in prestine condition. After four years, I still haven’t found a happy medium.

I better get use to doing the house cleaning myself. Find a way to work around my body size to get the shower clean because I hate mildew. Our bathroom is prone to mildew if you don’t have the window wide open, yes even in the dead of winter.

Who knows maybe all this weekly cleaning will help me lose a couple of pounds a week. The one thing that I have learned is that you can lead by example but you can’t make them follow.

Oh the choice of free will.

Maybe one day my honey will learn to help me keep the house organized, maybe he won’t but that is the good thing about free will. I don’t have to live that way.

TPTB will just have to give me extra determination and focus to keep the house clean, cook, study, and be fierce.

Fierce - notably excellent or of superior quality.

For twenty-six years I have been living for other people. I have loved other people but I haven’t lived for myself and loved myself. That is why I am changing my life, my way of thinking, and my blog.

It’s time for me to start living a fierce life. No I don’t think that I’m better than anyone else, I just want the most out of my life and more than what I have now.

So I hope that you enjoy my journey to fierceness in 2008. Just like any life it’s going to be crazy but probably fun.

Now this fierce city goddess has a home to clean up. There is no way that I’ll be able to invite success, health, happiness, and peace into this home without a major organization and clean up job.

So that indeed is my exercise for the day!

I’m ready to dust my resume off and look for work. In the past I didn’t even try because I thought the administration would look at me and decide that I couldn’t perform the job functions.

This is definately not the case. Just like any other person I have a set of skills to offer a company. I’ve been told by several that they could see me opening my own business one day. I’m able and willing to work long hours and have a flexible schedule.

So what I’m planning to do is to tell people my size in a professional manner. I still have to think about the wording but what I do know is if they are going to base their judgement by the size of my body, then we shouldn’t waste each others time.

I’d like to hear what you would do? How would you bring up the subject in your cover letter? Do you think I should wait till 200 pounds are gone and I only have 100 pounds to lose?

The presents have been unwrapped and the Christmas tree looks bare. Hopefully all the holiday treats will be fair.

Actually I did really good this holiday season. I wasn’t 100% perfect but I didn’t pig out like have done in previous years. Though I do now have a bag of Doritos, Movie popcorn, Hershey Bar, and Snickers Bar to burn off. No it wasn’t eaten in one sitting.

So somewhere in the world it’s December 26, 2007. Time to set out the goals and steps to acheive them.

• Learn Fluent Spanish 
• Obtain a full-time job
• Get into the routine of eating six small meals a day
• Be 52+ pounds lighter
• Gain some muscle

Will I be the Biggest Loser in 2008. Even though I probably would not do the show, I have the time to work out like they do on the show. Hopefully I can find a county doctor that will work with me since we don’t have enough for a private doctor.

One thing for sure, I’m not going to wake up on December 25, 2008 with the scales tipping at 460.