Boy, is it cold here.

 We've been having a very cold winter and this past week was quite low.  It was in the low fourties and I was working at a theater which tend to be cold, mostly based on cost saving measures and the fact that they are big empty spaces often made of concrete. So, I wore a lot of layers and including my big wool coat.  I was warm!  I went to WW today and because I am stubborn and want to have as accurate a weigh in as possible, I wore shorts and my wool coat.  I wear the same thing every week and remove any extra weight including my socks.  This is a picture of what I wore: shorts, tank top, sweater and wool coat.

I am happy (or not so happy?) to report that I am currently experience a plateau. Or as I like to call it I am practicing maintenance. I don't think I have ever been this consistent in terms of my maintenance.  I've been within +/- 0.2 or stayed the same for the past 4 weeks. Part of me wishes that I did have a gain so that it would shock me into doing what I need to do. I have been tracking and eating great but I have been having some exercise motivation problems.  I think a lot of that has to do with the cold and that I have been working and the sun goes down after dinner and I have no desire to go out in the dark to walk.

This is a good lesson.  How do I get motivation when I am maintaining? Maintenance is a huge positive for me, as I can loose weight, I just always find it again. Staying the same weight is awesome!  However, right now I want to loose more weight.  I am super proud of how far I have come and I am beginning to see where I can go.  I am stoked to be very close to being able to wear clothes that are in regular stores.  WHOO HOO! I am hoping that I can magically get some money soon to buy some new clothes and donate my old bigger ones. I am excited to be close (10 lbs or so) to how much I weighed when I joined WW in high school, (I lost 35 lbs). I am curious to see what that weight feels like as I didn't loose that much weight when I lost weight in 2008-2009 ( I lost 38.5 lbs).  The last time I weighed that much was when I was a junior in college and I lost 31 lbs.  Can you see a pattern here?  I am really good at loosing 30 lbs! This time I am going to be really good at loosing all the weight that I want to loose and then I am going to maintain it. 

WW did a request on Facebook about good slogans and I found this gem of an idea.  "I am looking forward to being an 80 year old lifetime member who has been at goal for 40 years."  I LOVE how the woman who posted this phrased this.  I can't wait to be a an old lady at the WW of the future.  Won't that be a trip!  I could even be alive for WW's 100 year anniversary.  2013 is the 50th anniversary of WW.

I was looking through the photos on my computer and I found a bunch of good ones that I have never shared so I figured I might as well feature a few.

Puffy Clouds at the BART Station

Sunset at the BART station.

 This week I committed to scheduling my exercise. I am going to walk and it is going to be cold but I will wear a cute scarf. I made some yummy soup with pesto in it and I am excited to eat it.  Then I go to Vegas for a Pirate wedding and I am going to walk like crazy and try very hard not to drink too much. Wish me luck!

New Year, New Room!

Hello 2013.  How are you doing? Guess what? I have a clean room and a workstation and it is amazing. I have made some projects on my new project table and I LOVE it.  This week I get to use it to do real work.

As many of you know I have a problem keeping my room clean.  This past month has led to the cleanest my room has been in let's say quite a few years. It's taken two friends who volunteered their time (THANK YOU SO MUCH!) and many months on my part of thinking, planning and actually doing things to get to this point. I'm not totally done but done enough to post a couple of photos so that you all can see (and prove to myself that it does look good and I can keep it this way.)

desks and wall decorations!

 A clean floor. nay MY clean floor.

These past two weeks have been busy. Before Christmas,  I got my family to go to a meeting in Hayward on our way to the mountains which was led by the leader that I went to when I lost 30 lbs in 2008-2009, which was nice and her meeting was fun. I managed to...drum roll please!  loose 0.2 lbs!! Whoo hooo! Then we went to the mountains and it was not very snowy till we arrived then it was very snowy.

Max, Sam and Jake on a walk.

But instead of getting stuck in the house we went for walks with the dogs . And thanks to the big empty lot next to my brother and sister in law's house, we made a luge run for the sleds and a path to walk up back up the hill.  My brother in law and I went up and down the hill maybe 20 times in a row.  It was so much fun.  I also volunteered to shovel snow. (Which is something I have never done before, growing up in a place with a lack of snow.) I also did a bunch of laps around the house upstairs and down and down the hallway to the way downstairs.  (My sister tried to do them with a cocktail and did the cocktail did not make it.)

Lots of Snow. It was very pretty.

When we got back to my parent's house I went straight to the airport to pick up my old roommate who was in town for work.  We got a day to hang out and it was so much fun! We walked all around the hood and saw the Hobbit. The next day, I took her to the airport and went to my old WW meeting on Sunday am. Then I drove to my friends house where we proceeded to play Star Trek settlers, regular settlers, and cards against humanity for 10 hours. SO FUN!

At my meeting I realized that what made the new meeting so fun was really the people (who were very vocal and had good things to share with everyone) and the leader.  I still like my Sunday leader, I think I just need to go to one of the earlier meetings where the people are more talkative.  I am very happy to report that after no computer and no phone (which led to not very much tracking) and quite a bit of drinking more than usual, I only gained 0.2 lbs. So between the last two weeks I am at even. That is amazing!!! I am so excited about that. I went out for dinner and to a bar last night and I maybe ate and drank too much (all my extra points in one day). But I tracked and continue to track and will exercise.  Hopefully, I will stay the same or maybe even loose a little.  That would be great.

2013 is going to have clean rooms, more games with friends, lots of laughs, walks, and not being afraid to do things that are scary. Wish me luck.

Happy New Years!