To water ski or not to water ski.....that is the question

I love skiing. 

Snow skiing, water skiing, they are both the same to me.

Problem is, I haven't done it in YEARS.   Literally.  The last time I skied anything was in 2000.  12 years ago.

We are leaving for the lake on Wednesday evening after the huge regulatory audit we are having tomorrow and Wednesday.  A friend of ours, who I introduced in a different post, owns a house at Hyco Lake.  We are going to stay there and commute to work the rest of the week, going back in the evenings and going out on the boat or just hanging out.

Now me, I'm just going to work Thursday for a half a day, taking a friend for a birthday pedicure and lunch, then I will have all day Friday to myself there until they get back from work.  They being the hubby, David, Randy and Jeff.

Michael and I were talking last night.  For some weird reason, he really, really wants me to try skiing again.  He's adamant about it, actually.  He thinks that I have lost enough weight to try again.  Actually, I haven't tried to water ski since I first did it in 1992, between my pregenancy with my son and daughter.  I think I did try sometime after Megan was born, but I was so unfit that I couldn't get up and just gave up after that summer.  I mostly just hang out on the boat and act as spotter when others are skiing.

Sigh.

So, that is my delema.

Maybe I'll try.

We'll see.

I leave you with what we had for Dinner Saturday night......awesome kabobs!

My other hobby...or guilty pleasure

I have a hobby that I am not proud to admit most of the time.

I'm a gamer.

Nope, not PS3 or Wii or anything.

I play an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)

It's called Everquest 2.

Have I ever played World of Warcraft?  Maybe.....for like 5 minutes.   It's so immature - at least in my opintion - compared to EQ2.  Nice graphics, but not as deep a plot line.  And a lot of younguns play WoW.  Older people tend to drift towards EQ2.

I just got my 7 year veteran reward on one of my accounts.  I have 2 accounts and I "2 box".  What that means is I play 2 accounts at one time.  I do that when I am not in a group.  I don't raid a whole lot.  The politics of raiding annoy me.

I have made some WONDERFUL online friends through EQ2.  I have met a few in person.  My closest online freinds are Erreck and Shelita - otherwise known as Crusher and Dayhumper (yeah...Dayhumper :p).

Do I attribute this to my weight gain over the years?  In part, yes, I do.  Sitting in front of a computer every night when I get home from work was a huge part of my life.

It affected my weight.

It affected my relationship with my family.

But, it's still a hobby.

Just not so much now.

Now it's just more of a weekend only thing, and even then, only for a few hours.  After I workout or play tennis with the boy, or go play disk golf, or walk with my walking buddy.

It's taken a back burner, rather than being high on my proiority list.

Days used to be full of "What zones am I going to do tonight?, "How much plat did I make on the broker today?", "Who the hell invited that person to the guild?"

Now, it's full of run, work, go to gym, walk, cook dinner, sleep.  And very little EQ2 time.

Do I miss it? 

Sometimes.

But it's always still there waiting for me :)

This is Faldur.  His real name is Mike and he's been away from the game for a long time due to health issues.  We all miss him :(

This was a hysterical death picture.  We were in a zone called Guk and we somehow all got stuck in the side of this box, lol.

This is my dirge, Kaydance Silentsong

Mereyne, my necromancer, and Bigsmaug, one of Crusher's alts.

Group in Solusek Ro.  We were working on a heritage quest.

Camping a mob (named character needed for a quest) in the Crypt of Varsoon.

Soloing in the Fens of Nathsar, one of my favorite areas.

Random Group

 Closeup of Mereyne - I love her colors.  I've actually pondered getting her as a tattoo.

Mereyne standing in Freeport, her home city.  They've changed Freeport and you can't have characters start there anymore, though you can still have a house there.

Inside Mereyne's house

Nereyne, my illusionist.

Nereyne, my conjurer.  I deleted her :(

Weigh in and Friday Lyrics - The Wanted

Sooooooooooo....with my new R3 Program that I am using, my weigh ins are on Friday.

I was 1.4 down this week :) !!  I've lost 30 . 8 pounds and the weight is steady loss now since starting R3.  I've lost 8.1 since June 1st.  This makes me soooooooooo happy!!  And I'm eating a lot better and more than I was eating on WW.

Friday Lyrics....I blame my son for this one, because he made a facebook post about it yesterday and now it's stuck in my head....

"Glad You Came"
The Wanted

 

The sun goes down
The stars come out
And all that counts
Is here and now
My universe will never be the same
I'm glad you came

You cast a spell on me, spell on me
You hit me like the sky fell on me, fell on me
And I decided you look well on me, well on me
So let's go somewhere no one else can see, you and me

Turn the lights out now
Now I'll take you by the hand
Hand you another drink
Drink it if you can
Can you spend a little time,
Time is slipping away,
Away from us so stay,
Stay with me I can make,
Make you glad you came

The sun goes down
The stars come out
And all that counts
Is here and now
My universe will never be the same
I'm glad you came
I'm glad you came

You cast a spell on me, spell on me
You hit me like the sky fell on me, fell on me
And I decided you look well on me, well on me
So let's go somewhere no one else can see, you and me

Turn the lights out now
Now I'll take you by the hand
Hand you another drink
Drink it if you can
Can you spend a little time,
Time is slipping away,
Away from us so stay,
Stay with me I can make,
Make you glad you came

The sun goes down
The stars come out
And all that counts
Is here and now
My universe will never be the same
I'm glad you came
I'm glad you came

I'm glad you came
So glad you came
I'm glad you came
I'm glad you came

The sun goes down
The stars come out
And all that counts
Is here and now
My universe will never be the same
I'm glad you came
I'm glad you came

Wisdom from a cookie

So I went to the Chinese buffet for lunch today because I wanted sushi.

I had the sushi....and a few other things.....for a whopping 950 calories total.....and then I got my fortune cookie.  I usually don't read these things.  There was actually one time when a friend of mine and I had the EXACT SAME fortune when we opened our cookies.  But, this time, as I drove back to work, I ate said cookie and read the fortune.

What it says is rather ironic.

With all the working out that I am doing, I'm very determined to make it to my goal this time.

We have a huge regulatory audit next Tuesday and Wednesday....I'm determined we are going to pass.

I'm determined to finish all my Christmas sewing projects in October this year.

I'm determined that Michael and I are going to take at least 2 vacations by ourselves every year.....we never got to travel over the past 20 years because we had kids at home.  Now they are in college and we need "us" time.

I just found it rather ironic that my cookie told me what I basically already know.

Just like I'm determined that even though I ate a crap ton of calories for lunch, I am still doing Power, Core and Belly Dance tonight......I'll be at the gym from 5:30 to 8:15.

And I'll burn all those calories, I am sure.

Somtimes you have to eat a little more than you need to realize that you actually didn't need that extra spring roll or that extra spoon of coconut shrimp.

Blah.

Lol.

Smart cookie.

Wordless Wednesday - remembering my dad

Father's Day was this past Sunday.  With both my Dad and dear Father-in-Law having passed, I only have the hubby to celebrate it.  But I have awesome memories of both of them.  These 3 pictures were from a didgital photo frame my mom sent me for Christmas just after my dad passed.

My 1st birthday.

I shared my love of horses with my dad.  Here he is in his 20's.

Somewhere in North Carolina on vacation - somewhere around 1976 or 1977.

Love and miss you, Daddy.

David Eugene Morrison, Jr.

June 3, 1948 - December 9, 2008.

My review of the R3 Program

The R3 Program is a program that my gym uses to track nutritional info and weight loss for customers.  It's not a requirement - and it does add 10.00/month to your membership fee, but I was so frustrated with Weight Watchers that I thought I would give it a try.

The program was started by Dr. Oz.  I know I have heard about him (I think from Oprah?) but I have never really read anything by him.

The website is here - this is where anyone can sign up:
http://www.dotfit.com/

The other website where the logging is done at is:
http://www.sharecare.com/


So on the 1st, I met with Melissa, who is my Nutrition Coach.  She can look at my info in the R3 program at any time and see how I am doing (or not doing, whatever the case may be) and we can tweak it if I'm not eating enough, losing too fast/slow, whatever.

I really like it so far!  It has me eating 1800 calories a day.  On Weight Watchers, I was eating within my points, but I apparently was not eating enough.  I was only eating between 1300 and 1500 calories a day.  This was putting my body in starvation mode and I kept fighthing the same 4 pounds for about 2 months.  I knew I should be going down in weight, but the scale wasn't budging.

This picture shows the main screen.  It's where I see how many calories I'm supposed to eat, how many I should burn, and what my current weight is.  I actually have 280 from my run this morning I need to plug in there.  Typical daily burn for me is about 800 calories from exercise and the rest is from lifestyle.

This shot shows my weight...the black line is where I should be according to the program.  The little dots are my weekly weigh ins.  The filled area is just showing complete.  By September 18, I should be under 200lbs.  By March 8th of 2013, I should be at my goal weight.

This page shows all my workouts and the notes from them.

And this one shows my food diary.

There are TONS of other things on here I haven't really played with yet.  Menu creator, workout creator, there's a store that has all this nutritional food crap ( I stay away from processed stuff, so probably won't be using it unless I want to try their protein powder).

I really do like it - and I can cancel at any time, not like my gym membership ,where I am under contract.  This is like a supplement to it.

They do offer a free 30-day trial.

So if you are looking for a really good tracker, even though I know there are free ones out there, I would highly recommend this one.



.75 of a mile, New Running Shoes and Chia Seeds

Yesterday, my son and I got to talking about running.

2 years ago, I was walking/running 100 miles per week on average. I would do 5 miles in the morning and anywhere from another 3-5 miles in the afternoon. Every day, I would write this down on the calendar as to how far I had gone and how long it took.

Then I broke my tailbone.

We are running in a 5-mile race on the 14th of July. I HAVE to start running again, or I will be walking the whole stupid thing. I don't want to just walk - I want to run.

My walking buddy I walk with - there is no way in Hades she will/can/wants to run. I'm not going to bale on her just because of that.

So, my only other option is to start getting up in the morning before work and run.

This morning, I got up at 5:20, threw on my clothes, and hit the door. I managed to run 3/10ths of a mile, walked 1/10th, ran 3/10ths more, and then ran enough to equal .75 of a mile, walked the rest for a total of 1.5 miles. In 23 minutes. Not too bad, but not great either. It'll come back, I am sure. I will be able to run at least 3 miles of the 5-miler.

It'll just take time.

I'm doing the Outer Banks 1/2 Marathon in November and want to be able to run at least half of that, which would be 6.5 miles. I think I can build up to that by then. I just have to do it.

I LOVE my new Adidas Clima Cool Ride running shoes!! I got them and a pair of Saucony Grid Fiyas. While I am usually partial to Saucony, the Adidas are the bomb!!



I always keep 2 pair of shoes at a time - I like to alternate them and I always have 1 pair that is better for wearing in classes than the other. The Saucony will do better in the classes that I take at the gym.

In other news - I have started adding Chia seeds to my morning oatmeal....these little suckers have a good amount of protein in them and they also keep me fuller for a looooong time. I ate my oatmeal at 8am.....I usually eat lunch at 11am and I am just now starting to feel hungry and it's almost noon. They also have a good amount of fiber in them, which I needed some extra.

So, that's that for today.....Zumba and my walk with Jody tonight! And, possibly, tennis for 30 mins with the boy...we'll see how we feel by 8pm, lol.