Becoming plastic bubble mfr.

113.4  -- well ahead of my 114 goal for the weekend.  But I kind of cheated.  Brewed a big glass of Pleasant Peppermint last night and lost a pound of colon contents this morning.  But ya gotta love that light and fluffy feeling.  Anyway, I'm still trying to get back to about 108 and maintain it -- that way I can wear the skinny jeans without feeling like I'm about to burst out of them or muffin topping.  And I need to get rid of the flab on my arms and legs.  Wish I could walk in the beautiful weather.  Need large plastic bubble.  Googled it, and although lots of allergy sufferers out there seem to WANT a bubble, I was not able to locate any bubble vendor.  Something to think about for future career -- bubble-maker extraordinaire.  Closest thing I could find was the classic clear plastic bubble umbrella -- I had one as a pre-teen in the 70s and LOVED it.  Mine had white trim.  I think I might get one just for fun -- oh yeah, they still make em.  Try this:  http://www.umbrellasusa.com/subcategoryproducts.aspx?scid=38&cid=37&gclid=CODwiZDSrKECFRFYbQodchVuDw  Or just go to Amazon and search bubble umbrella.  I just put like 8 umbrellas and parasols in my cart.  

Am sore downtown, so I guess yesterday's Gilad was effective, and I'ma try to get to the upper body sometime today.  Will help if I can stop web shopping.  Got another pair of sweet boots today.  And some other stuff that seemed like a good idea at the time.  Will share if I think it's still a good idea upon receipt.  Did I mention I got Earth shoes for Earth Day?  They make some cute flops now -- not the ugly-ass things they used to make.  Who needs to plant a tree?  I've got Earth flops.  Will wear them in my bubble some day.

P.S.  Saw some performer (okay, I was watching Four Weddings and this was actually at a wedding reception -- weird) blow up and climb into his own giant translucent baloon.  Isn't this a bubble?  If he can do it, why can't I?  Where do I buy my own inflatable bubble?  And do I have to wear an all white spandex unitard?  Cuz that's kind of a deal breaker.

Lemons: good or evil?

Okay, the rash is less itchy, my face has gone from teeny blisters to one giant scab, and I've got the AC and air filters crankin'.  I am hermetically sealed and no longer have any excuse not to BRING IT.  And yet....  Well, the thing is I have to work back into working out every time I stop for even a few days.  And after a cookie-pie-rash weekend, I'm working back into my workouts pretty slowly.  But I'm getting there.  I did 20 minutes of yoga on Monday and on Tuesday and did a half hour of Gilad -- warm up + buns 'n thighs -- today.  So I'm not a TOTAL slug.  And I started adding lemon juice to my green tea (I'm a green-tea-aholic during daylight hours), because Jackie Warner said that you can burn an additional 100 calories a day just by drinking lemon water.  So, of course I'm all over it.  While Ena is bungee jumping in NZ and exploring Australia, I walked over to her yard full of citrus trees to steal some lemons and found them all plucked up to branches I couldn't reach.  And then I couldn't find the citrus plucker thingie, so I had to settle for only one enormous lemon for now.  (Can't wait until my own orchard comes to FRUITION -- get it?)   And, of course, I've got a bottle of ReaLemon, but that has sulfites, so I'ma have to remember to pick up some of the real deal.

So let's see if I've lost huge poundage by switching out the lemon cremes (okay, just mentioning them made my mouth water for another cookie -- darn Girl Scouts) for the lemon water.  Drum roll..........rim shot:  115.8.  But that's with some heavy tennis shoes.  So maybe 115.3?  That's better than 116-something.  I'll get back down to 114 by the weekend.  Sure I will.  All I have to do is keep checking out my dimply ass and thighs in the mirror and thinking of swim suit season (assuming I can go out of doors by then).  

Citrusy conclusion:  Good.  Unless you put them into cookies, then they're mostly bad, but it's not their fault.

"I'll take itchy rashes that prevent sleep for $200, Alex.'

Arrrrggghhh!  My arms and legs are covered again in a lovely itchy rash.  Oh, and did I mention my face is even covered in millions of tiny red blisters?  Not sure what did this, and have not identified the type of rash even, since Grover's/TAD can look a lot like atopic dermatitis.  I also might have been allergic to something in the oil I used on Saturday, before I spent an hour or so walking outside in the allergen-filled air, which by itself could have done this.  I usually get atopic dermatitis (allergic eczema) at this time of year, but this came on suddenly and in very large areas behind my knees, all over my arms, and on my face.  WTH?  I am clearly cursed.   I'm pretty sure that it's not bugs this time, so that's good.  But I spent another lovely night itching, scratching, turning to the left, itching, scratching, turning to the right, itching, scratching, switching pillows, itching scratching, switching from my back to my stomach, itching, scratching, and flinging the covers off, and then on again...you get the idea.

So, I'd BloGoogle how to tell the difference between Grover's and eczema, but I'm not sure it matters.  I'll continue taking the vitamin A and moisturizing my skin, and lock myself inside the house with my four air filters.  I mean, what else am I gonna do?  

To make my itchy imprisonment even more fun, the Girl Scouts and my complete lack of will power, forced me to eat a large piece of banana pie and like two boxes of cookies, over the weekend (I'm actually choking down another lemon creme right now), pushing me right back up to 116.6.  This diet and exercise/weight loss thing sucks.  But I think I've been down "This Sucks" Road before.   It leads smack up to "Whiny-Ass" Lane, and "I Can't Believe I Have to do this Forever" Boulevard.  Anyway, I'm sitting inside trying not to breathe any fresh air, and looking at my own fat ass while eating lemon creme GS cookies and wondering when and how I'll motivate to work out.

Food Inc.: lemme pimp it a moment.

So this morning I did 20 minutes of power yoga with Rodney Yee (LOVE the Yee), plus a 40-minute walk with Mary B (love the B as well, but she's not available in convenient DVD form yet).  (Am working on a bad rap song with "The T to The G with The Yee and The B...."  Yeah, not so much.)  So SWEET, I'm set for the day -- can eat 4 or, let's face it, 6 scones (King Arthur Flour cranberry orange -- fresh out the oven, oh yeah) and have a glass (+?) of wine while watching the Project Runway final finale tonight.  Did I mention SWEET?  Thank God I'm not too busy at work.

So Mary B was telling me about this great documentary, Food, Inc. that she watched last night.  I looked it up and it's by the author of Fast Food Nation.  Now Mary and I have had these chats before, and the more I find out, the more I really hate what large corporations have done to our food in this country in the last 50 years or so.  I've finally gotten to the point where I only shop the outside of the supermarket, and think that I'm really going to have to bite the bullet and only buy organic or local from now on.  I think you will too if you watch this video.  Mary said that she plans to expand her garden after watching the movie, and I'm sure I will too.  (I've actually still got food in my backyard to harvest -- will be using spinach and fennel from my garden this weekend.  Wish me luck.)

ANYhoo, here's the video trailer for Food, Inc., in case you're interested.

Now I can blame the Girl Scouts.

Opened my first of three GS cookie boxes today.  Not in Love with the berry cookies, but the Do-Si-Dos are a symphony of dry, yet seemingly moist, peanut butter.  How DO they do it?  I imagine it's all about some pretty great chemical preservatives.

So here I am, back at square 2 or 3 and hanging steady at 113 or 114 pounds.  Yes, it's better than 122 where I started.  But not nearly as great as the sickroom 105, or even the fabulous 110 I saw briefly back in January or February (who can remember -- it was so long ago).  I continue to be torn between porking out on cookies and large sandwiches I don't need (but it was kind of a salad wrapped in a pita, with only a LEETLE bit of bacon), and trying to get rid of the calories.  I walked last night (thanks to Mary B) and then got my butt outside for a 40 minute walk this morning (thanks to Fit TV and the National Fitness Challenge, which I watched last night).  But that clearly is not sufficient for anything but a really sad kind of almost-maintenance.  Why can't I Bring It?

For some reason, I lack the motivation to do much more than order craft crap I don't need from Amazon. I'm having trouble even working up a desire to do 20 minutes of yoga.  (But my new die cutter/embosser is super sweet and some cards MUST be made.)  I think some punishment motivation is in order, and I may have to leave Fit TV on all night tonight.  Unfortunately, I think the truth is that I need some help motivating and when Ena gets back from running her frickin' marathon (and making me feel like a really inadequate slug) and Australia and New Zealand, I'll make Ena Bring It with me.  Of course, that's in mid-late May, about the time I'm supposed to be going to France.  Hmmm. 

Well, I'll worry about that tomorrow.  I should probably work or something today.

Well, the good news is, I no longer have two pints of frozen yogurt in the freezer.

The bad news is I ate another pint.  Plus a cone at Ikea.  But that was low fat, so it doesn't count.  Need to work out, or at least walk, but I'm way behind again.  Haven't weighed myself since that last post.  Hang on.  Yep, holding steady at 114.4.  Hmmmmmm.  Maybe it's time for another Pleasant Peppermint cleansing?  What the heck, it's Friday!

Bless me father, for I ate the whole pudding ring cake by myself.

Yes, I must confess that I ate the whole darn Easter pudding ring alone.  And then I followed that up with two pints of frozen yogurt the next weekend.  I had counted on my friends to help me, but they abandoned me (really unfair, considering I'm always there for them when they come up with cookies and other desserts) and I was forced to consume pudding ring for a late night snack, breakfast, mid-morning snack, and dessert at every meal for like a day and a half until the last little delicious crumb was gone.  Sigh.  And that was on the heels of three bags of Easter candy -- two mini Reeses and one bag of Rolos -- it doesn't get much better than Reeses and Rolos.  Mmmmm.  Again, not my fault, because Target had them on sale three-bags-for-$8.  I mean, what're you gonna do?  You're gonna buy three bags, right?  Hell yes.  I'm lucky I didn't buy six.

So now I'm back up to, I don't know, I'm guessing 115 again?  Wait, I'll go weight myself.  Yeah.  As expected, 114.6 even without my slippers, pajama bottoms and watch.  Ouch, ouch, and more ouch.  I'm like back to square 3.

But the past is the past.  Pudding rings, Reeses and Rolos are all behind me (literally).  I've got two more pints of yogurt in the freezer though.  That's kind of bad.  Was going to Bring' It as much as possible within the bounds of my little world and my schedule, but just haven't been in the mood to work out really seriously for an hour a day for 6 days.  I mean, if I had that kind of motivation, I wouldn't need their program, now would I?  I've got craft projects, scrapbooking (way behind on Egypt), cleaning, TV shows, and assorted other priorities (like layin' on the couch with a glass of wine) that prevent Bringing It all the time, or even most of the time.  Well, so far, even part of the time.  But I'ma get there.  The house is looking better -- almost picked up from the whole illness thing and I'm on a mission to get stuff off my kitchen counters.  I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle here with all my stuff.  Might have to get crazy and stop ordering more shit from Amazon every day.  Naw.  Will just try to work out more.  Might start over again with a walk this morning.  Maybe.

P90X: Oh, yeah -- you CAN drink while BRINGIN' IT!

BRING IT!  (Thought I'd get that out of the way.)  Oh, we done brung it.  Fortunately, Ena, is a lot like me, and she was smart enough to BRING a bottle of liquid muscle relaxer to the P90X "How to Bring It" video screening.  Go Ena! 

So we're watching "How to Bring It" (great title, BTW), because we needed to get prepped and pumped to BRING IT, and it turns out to be "How to Buy Stuff You Didn't Know You Needed to Buy to Bring It."   Hmmmmm.  Well, maybe I will get a heart monitor.  But I don't think I need the Beach Body workout matt, bands, supplements, bars, yoga blocks, etc., etc., etc.  I think I got a lot of program for my money so far, but let us not go nuts with extra shit just yet.

After we watched the How to Buy More Stuff From Us video, I noticed that the How To video had some "bonus" workouts on it.  So I started the UML (upper, middle, lower?) video (well, accidentally started that, because I thought I was starting the interval cardio one, but, whatever).  And it looked pretty easy.  So I jumped up and started doing it.  And lo, it WAS easy.  Are they messing with me?  I couldn't stop doing the UML and pretty soon Ena had no choice and was up doing it with me.  It was only about 40 minutes and very doable -- easy to follow, not crazy fast, doable.  And it turns out that you can totally do the UML while drinking a glass of wine -- I mean they had drink breaks.  I don't think it's recommended -- they were drinking water.  But we managed to make it through with our wine.  So we got to drink AND workout and feel good about it -- fist bump, oh yeah.

We watched the Interval video with more wine, which was good, because that one looked a lot harder and was almost an hour.  But it was easy to ignore in the background and now I know what it is like.  Plus we totally planned a progressive Spa Day for the girls in our hood -- we have 5 homes on three blocks and we can totally do facials, mani-pedis, yoga, lunch, etc. at our different homes sometime in July when it's hotter than Hades out here and we need a break.  On the To Do list.

I'm thinking about jumpin' in and getting started with my 90 days of Bringin' It today.  I'm supposed to do either the chest and back workout plus the ab ripper X, or the Core Synergistics workout.   Will let you know if I get either one done.  Oh, and I'm supposed to take "Before" photos too.  Ouch, friggin', ouch.  But I like that they even tell you how to pose for your six before and six after photos.  That could be fun.

How to piss off an (almost) total stranger.

So I washed out of the Meet Up group.  Not really my fault, I think, but just the same, I'm not going any more, which means I'm on my own again, workout-wise.  I showed up for Booty Buster Friday at 8 am and waited around and ... nobody.  So I figured something happened and it got canceled -- not the first time a meeting has been canceled at the last minute by this group.  So as I'm walking the track by myself, I check my email (because I have the technology to do that, finally) and, yes, there was an email entitled "CANCELING BB FRIDAY" sent about 1 am.  So now I know why no one is there.  Turns out the assistant organizer, let's call her Laura, got food poisoning and couldn't make it.  Okay, totally understand the late notice.  But, as I'm walking around alone, having spent time getting ready to go there, driving there, and waiting around, I'm thinking, why cancel the whole deal?  The point of the group is just a bunch of motivated people meeting to work out, and Laura had already emailed the entire planned workout to everyone.  So we could've done it without her and I would probably have worked harder/longer with some company, yes?  Yes. 

So when I get home, before I forget, I email Laura and tell her that I hope she feels better (I mentioned this twice, so that she wouldn't think I was insensitive to her illness), and that I totally understand the late notice, but may I suggest that maybe she give people the option of showing up, instead of flat canceling the meet up when she cannot make it?  I don't think I was out of line in making this suggestion.  Then Saturday afternoon, I get a mega-bitchy email from Laura telling me how insensitive I am, that I'm the ONLY one who had an "issue" with her cancellation, that other people were more concerned with her well-being (whereas I didn't care about her and was only concerned about my own workout), that she didn't "formally" cancel the meet by removing it from the website calendar, so, as we're all adults, everyone should have known it wasn't really canceled (despite the email "canceling" the meet up in allcaps) and could have gone anyway.  [Huh?]  Plus, instead of suggesting that she not cancel a meet up she cannot make, she thinks I should have posted a comment on the website bulletin board (which I know I've never read) suggesting that members go ahead and attend canceled meet ups.  (Because that would work, wouldn't it?)   AND, what I may have considered a suggestion, she considered criticism, and SHE DIDN'T APPRECIATE IT! 

Wow.  I think maybe Laura has some issues.  Or maybe Laura just doesn't like me.  Who knows.  I'd like to think she was still violently ill (because now I really don't feel sorry for her cranky ass).  I didn't realize we were best buddies, or I was her mommy, so that I was supposed to wring my hands and offer her chicken soup and massive doses of sympathy -- I thought we were acquaintances in a group for the purpose of WORKING OUT and getting fit together and that she had taken on a leadership role.  Apparently not -- apparently she is using the group as her social support system or something.  Can you imagine if I'd sent her a truly critical email?  Whatever Laura's problem may be, I don't need the drama, so I'm skipping this Meet Up group in future.  I can work out alone anytime and avoid nasty Laura all the time.

So P90X (BRING IT!), here I come!!!