Week Seven, Day ONE! I can hardly believe it!

You know the drill.  Here are the pictures:  The first four are letting it ALL hang out.

Why is my camera taking fuzzy pictures?!?

The next four are flexing/sucking it in pictures:

My hips are coming in!  So exciting.

My favorite pose!  Makes me look like I have a waist!

So.  It's Week Seven.  I really can't believe the path that I'm on.  It wasn't even hard to stay on track when I went home for my brother's baby shower.

That being said, I'll have to give a recap of the last few days since I haven't been able to blog.

For some weird reason this past week, I ended up working 12 hour days...and even though I had Monday off, and I only worked 4 hours on Friday, I just kept running myself ragged.  It was really hard for me to get to bed on time, and consequently, to get up on time, and because of that it was hard to put my food together.  It made every step I took a struggle.

Thank god I didn't have to deal with any kind of urge to go off my plan.  For me, it's so much less stressful to know what my next meal will be than to have to worry about it two or three times a day.  So, knowing when I should eat next, and having what I should eat available has all but eliminated cravings.  And, it may be that it's because I'm feeding my body well, but I really like the food I'm eating.  I even like my Hulk Shakes.  Hahaha, I drank two at the restaurant I wait tables at on Saturday night, and they called it that.  I thought it was cute, so I kept it.

For the record, a Hulk Shake is simply 3 or 4 leaves of kale, 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup raw broccoli and  5 or 6 grapes...or more if you need more sweet, all mixed with water until it's the consistency of water.  Tastes like drinking sweet broccoli, kinda.  And, I REALLY like them.  They power you up and make you feel a surge of energy and really beats any sugar craving that might have been lingering.

Anyway, so for the past couple of days, I've been going full steam.  For example.  On Saturday, I got up (on time!) ate my breakfast and went to a yoga class.  It was awesome, sweat poured off of me and I did more push-up/chataranga-up-dog stuff than I thought I was capable of.

Chatarunga Dandasana

Up dog

Down dog

So, we moved through those three positions quite a few times, but the trick is that you HOLD the position for quite awhile, each time.  Then, with power yoga, you start flowing through the positions more abruptly.  Of course, we did a lot more than those three moves, but the Chatarunga pose what is SO difficult for me.
The rest of the day was: shower, eat, view potential apartment (it's fantastic!), eat, shop for baby shower, buy groceries, buy kitty food, make meal #4 and #5, get to work on time, work 5pm-10pm, go to Wal-mart (I'm evil for going there, I know), buy more baby stuff, go home, go to bed.  Then Sunday, it was get up, eat, prepare other 4 meals, load car with everything, last-ditch stop at Micheals and Target, pick up balloons, get gas, go home, help Mom, have shower, drive back, bed.

Today...I was depleted.  Anyway you looked at me, I just couldn't do any more.  I was irritable, tired, a little raw, overstressed, and just on the edge of crying or telling someone off.

Clearly, I had a busy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  The baby shower was for was my brother's girlfriend.  It was great because I got to see most of my aunts, and I was hoping to draw out stories during the baby shower.  Games aren't really my thing unless they have me engaged emotionally, and so I tried to center the activities around things that would draw out stories.  It was really just great to see everybody, and I realized that I really have a hole in my life where I'm not connecting with my extended family. And I did hear stories, so that was a plus.

Anyway, after the few days I've had, on my way home, I arranged to stay at a friend's so that I could cuddle with him.  I really needed it.  I actually had a pretty rough time of it for the past few days and I knew I needed to take care of myself emotionally, so I did.

I spent most of today in bed.  I did get up for breakfast and my second meal, and during that time, I got some things taken care of.  But mostly, I just needed sleep and someone to talk to, someone to listen and curl up with me.

I definitely feel better now.

I'm glad I'm able to get my focus back in gear after a whirlwind week.  This week promises to be just as busy, as Arts Fest is happening this week.

OH!  And this week contains my cheat day, which is Friday the 15th!  I'd say I'm soooo excited, but I'm only a little bit excited.  Isn't that weird?  I don't really know if I'm going to want Five Guys after I have Waffle Shop.  But, I'm sticking with the plan Amy gave me, which is to NOT plan it, but to eat whatever your body is telling you it wants.

And, I must admit, I did do a couple of things that are totally not allowed.  On Sunday, I was so tired on the drive up that I had a few sips of coffee.  I did eat some marscapone cream cheese/honey/vanilla extract dip with my strawberries at the shower (but I didn't eat any cake!), and on the way home, I stopped at the ice cream place on your way out of Canton.

Get this: NOT because I wanted ice cream.  I really didn't even entertain the thought.  What I wanted was to run into someone else that I knew (I had just run into another aunt and uncle when I stopped at a convenience store).  I got so much out of seeing all those people that I didn't want to leave town without more of it.  So, I purchased a lemon sorbet, took a couple of licks...played with it more than anything (it was LOADED with sugar, as you might imagine) and waited around...nothing.  So I pitched it and left.

I was really tired for the drive back...I was ready to fall asleep.  I had some coffee then too...but I don't know why.  I didn't really even want it...it may have been more of a routine thing.  The thing with this diet is that I don't crash and burn like I used to.  So, even though I was tired, the coffee wasn't necessary to make sure I got home safely.  Maybe it did give me a little pick me up, but...all in all, I don't know why I did it.  And, it's over, and I don't see that happening again in the future.  If it's a routine thing, I'll just make my tea that I love so much.  Problem SOLVED!

So, here I am, blogging my way through the thoughts in my brain making sure my Tuesday will get off to a good start.

Life isn't helping.  My car started acting up, and the guy at the AutoZone store scared the pants off of me when I described what was happening in my car.  Wide-eyed and wired, he said, with his hands flashing like stars, "When the engine light FLASHES that means 'I'm about to DIE!'"  So, I had a mini panic attack wondering how I was going to drive the four miles home without killing myself and other people...then onto the pesky little problem of buying a new car when you're not done paying this one off.  Then onto, "oh my god, to do all that, I need another job!"  PANIC!  EVERYBODY PANIC!

Turns out I have a Cylinder 4 misfire.  I got to use (first time ever!) one of those diagnostic tools that you plug into your car and it reads the problem for you.  Fantastic little thing!  Here, I was making plans about how in the HELL I was going to manage to buy a new car, when all it really needs is a tune-up.  I have to say that I did appreciate that he gave me the worst-case scenario.  I am a worst-case scenario girl, and if he had said, "Eh, it's probably blah blah blah." I would have thought, "You don't know a damn thing."

Since I'm kinda broke, this isn't fun news, but I think I'm gonna be able to manage just fine.  I have enough food to make to my next paycheck, I just have to make sure I have enough chicken, turkey, fish, apples, and vegetables to get me through.  I'm good for tomorrow, and then I can pick up my tips and hopefully get started on some of these other looming projects...like moving and getting reunited with my baby girl Maybelle!

That's all for tonight.  Goodnight!