Shortest Challenge EVER!

So the ten week weight loss challenge that I have been telling you about, is no more.

I suggested that it be dissolved prematurely and the suggested was eagerly adopted.

One of the participants has been recently told she will need to take a prescription medication for the foreseeable future and one of the side effects of the meds is weight gain. Poor thing.

She would have continued to go along with the challenge but after hearing about it I had to suggest that we call it a day. She agreed. It would have been just too big a burden for her to contend with trying to lose weight while on her meds.

We decided that we won’t be giving up on supporting each other to live healthier, but we won’t be holding each other monetarily accountable anymore.

Oh well.

The good news I feel like I am back in the swing of things and I am very pleased.

Last Monday thinking the challenge was starting I hunkered down and started another weight loss journey. I was doing well with the eating but my activity level was severely curtailed. I was just so exhausted all week, so I rested.

Saturday morning I trekked down to the pool and had a great swim. In fact I felt better than I had all week so I was very happy. Sunday same thing. I had a great swim and except for my continued sinus congestion, I felt pretty good.

I was a little nervous on Sunday because I wasn’t sure how I would approach it food-wise. For months now I had been using Sunday as my “free day”, eating whatever I wanted. That strategy has worked well for me maintaining my weight, but as we all know; weight loss and maintenance are two entirely different animals.

But I needn’t to have worried. My workout went great, I felt great, and hunger was a complete non-issue. YAY!

I got on the scale this morning and was very pleased with what I saw: down 8.4 pounds for the week! Off to a great start. I am very happy to have a week of dieting already behind me. It is making the next 9 weeks look doable.

I’d be happier if this 8.4 pounds came off of my lowest weight but I had been pretty lax in my eating habits for a few weeks before starting the challenge….so I still have about 18 pounds of my 20 pound challenge to go.

But challenge or no, I am thrilled to be on my way again with the scale moving in the right direction. Dropping this “last 20” never seemed so attainable before.

So Owen is at it again, is he?

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Ooo ooo That Smell … (Part 2)

I have recently been exploring the works of the fragrance house “Thierry Mugler” and have been looking for bargains. Some of the fragrances by Mugler are pretty popular (Angel and A*Men for example) and can be pretty pricey even at discounters. Enter Ebay. Besides selling everything, if you have enough patience you can still find bargains there. You also need to shop defensively. There are people just selling off stuff they have, people trying to run legitimate small businesses and people just trying to make a buck.

I had purchased several fragrances over the years through Ebay and have had no problems. In fact I’d been quite happy with the things I’ve gotten but I have read horror stories; cheap knockoffs being the main concern.

Last week I bid on several Mugler fragrances from two different sellers. At the time I thought they were pretty good deals. From one I got Angel and from another I got A*Men (aka Angel Men).

Receiving these packages was the exact opposite experience of the euphoria I felt when I received my first parcel from Catherine. (see Part 1 of this blog)

From the outside, Angel looked great. The inside told the sad tale. Angel itself is supposed to be light blue. Quite eye catching through the clear bottle. This Angel was dirty green and worse yet, smelled dirty green.

In case you aren’t familiar with it, Angel is a very controversial fragrance. Once of those love it or hate it kind. It is known for being very sweet but has a very prominent blast of patchouli, with chocolate, vanilla, and fruits thrown into the mix. I think there may even be melons and coffee in it. It is very distinctive and very rich smelling and I happen to love it. What I had in the bottle before me, however, was vaguely rosey smelling dreck. It eventually dried down to have a somewhat Angel-esque vibe to it but it wasn’t Angel. Comparing it to two known genuine examples of Angel it wasn’t even in the same ballpark.

What a gip.

I contacted the seller who offers a guarantee. They of course are shocked, SHOCKED that I should say the fragrance is a counterfeit. No one has ever said that word about the fragrances they sell.

Well they are now pal.

I’ve been promised a full refund after I return the bottles. We shall see.

As for the A*Men. Sigh.

The best I can say about it is the fragrance is genuine. But the juice, the liquid inside the bottle, falls about a half inch below the top of the bottle. Meaning my “brand new sealed” bottle of A*Men has either been used or is that factory second known as a “low fill”. Either way that is not what I paid for. But I am too tired to fight about it. Sometimes you just have to chose your battles. I’ll leave the seller lousy feedback and call it a day.

One of my many mantras in life is the old chestnut, “Never pay retail”.

The thieves and charlatans out there may just be driving me to recant that.

Yes I still will feel ripped off paying the high markups at Sephora or Neiman Marcus but at least I know I’ll be getting what I’ve paid for.

Do you shop Ebay or have you avoided it like the plague?

Ooo ooo That Smell… (Part 1)

Two things that I love are mail order and fragrances. Put them together and I am in hog heaven.

I have no idea why I like mail order so much but I always have. Since I was a kid. I think moving to Hawaii oh so many years ago just exacerbated that addiction. Back then Hawaii really was the back of beyond. TV shows were shown a week after they were shown to the rest of the country. Even our evening national news was shown a day late. And besides Sears, Penneys, and Woolworth I don’t think we had anything in the way of “national retailers”. This inevitably led to lots of catalog shopping and once it came around, internet shopping.

It has been a hit or miss proposition for sure. You learn to hone your skills and read between the lines. It can be fun and frustrating and expensive, but I still can’t get enough.

I’ll never forget back in the early 1990’s I read an ad or an article that mentioned a shop in Paris that was the “secret” place that those “in the know” used for all of the fragrance and cosmetic needs when in the City of Lights. The shop was called Catherine and was located on the Rue de Catiglione (that’s Castiglione Street to you and me!) and they did mail order! Oooo La La!

There was no email back then so dealing with them was an exercise in patience but I obtained their price list as quickly as I could and placed an order. After much waiting my package arrived and I was bowled over by the experience.

At the time my fragrance of choice was Chanel’s Antaeus. A masterwork of perfumery if you asked me. But it wasn’t until I opened that box from Paris and took of whiff of the juice in the black bottle that I realized how amazing a scent it really was. I quickly learned that fragrances from Paris smelled so much better than the fragrances purchased domestically. They were deeper, richer, longer lasting.

There are many opinions as to whether this is a fact or not. My research at the time said it may be due to the kind of alcohol that was used in European manufacture versus American. No matter. I knew it to be true.

My mail order relationship with Catherine lasted a while. I was able to get many products and scents not available anywhere else. But eventually we lost touch. Chanel was cracking down on distribution of their products and Catherine was no longer able to send them to the USA. I got tired of sending off an order for something and waiting forever only to receive a letter that once again they cannot ship such and such or no longer carry such and such.

I read online that Catherine finally shut its doors a few years ago. One day on my long planned trip to Paris I had hope to stroll down the Rue de Catiglione and through the doors of Catherine but that dream is no more.

Today with the internet there is no need to buy fragrances from Paris unless you really want to. Pretty much everything is available from scores of retailers and the devil’s minion known as Ebay.

 

TO BE CONTINUED….

It’s What’s For Dinner

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Gratuitous Puppy Picture

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Rolling With the Punches

I got together with my fellow losers of our weight loss challenge.

It seems I was the only one who remembered we were starting the challenge. Well, apparently they DID remember but after their long lunch at California Pizza Kitchen!

Oh well. At least I started.

We did decide that the winner will get a $50 gift certificate of his or her choice.

The two of us losing 20 pounds were trying to come up with ways to handicap the participant who only wants to lose 10 pounds. And we decided sabotage would be the best way. Is that wrong? HA! Heck there is real money at stake now people.

We were laughing about just bringing in some high calorie goodie a few times a week and leaving it for her. If she is committed to the challenge she can just ignore it. Of course we don’t think she will ignore it.

We’ve seen her scarf down a cheeseburger deluxe with an order of onion rings and within 10 minutes start complaining that she is hungry. When our friend orders salad she always orders “extra dressing” at the same time. If a bite of meat can’t be accompanied by a bite of fat, she won’t eat it. And lest you think I am telling you this to ridicule her, au contrare. I’m not judging! In fact this is one of the reason we love her. She has no pretense. What you see is what you get. I kind of admire her freedom of expression.

All of this and she is not even fat. Nowhere near it. But she feels fat and as we all know sometimes that is all that matters.

So yeah we have just begun and the sabotage card has been broached. I don’t know if we would ever actually do that but it sure is fun to think about. We may be in a challenge but they are my friends and I hope they can be successful in meeting their weight loss goals.

As for me I am on to day three of my recommital to the Medifast 5+1 and I feel like I am on day three of my recommital to the Medifast 5+1. My butt is dragging but I do taste that “ketosis taste”. It hit me late yesterday really. All day yesterday I had my typical day 2 feelings of an on and off headache, some light headedness, general yuck…but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. By 2 or 3 in the afternoon I really started feeling tired and achey too. Mind you I still feel like I am recovering from my sinus infection so I’m kind of used to feeling lousy at this point.

I was getting a little anxious because I really wanted to workout but I wasn’t sure if I was up to it. Being sick disrupted my 6 day a week workout schedule and I am very eager to resume it. I had done my Pilates on Thursday, Friday and Monday and I swam on Saturday and Sunday….so yesterday was to be a swimming day. I just wasn’t sure I had it in me.

After work we had to do some food shopping but there was an accident on the way home and traffic was backed up forever. That is when the burden of 2 days on Medifast started to hit and hit hard. I was getting really irritated, hungry, and tired. And oh yes, I HAD TO PEE.

Getting through the traffic seemed to take forever, as did driving to the store and doing the shopping. By the time we got home and put the food away, it was pretty late for me. If I worked out it would probably be around 8pm before I got to my L&G. So I graciously decided to take the day off. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.

I had a nice dinner although it was not exactly Medifast legal. I had roasted chicken breast and the off plan Brussels Sprouts as my “green”. Shoot me. I love Brussels Sprouts and these were fresh and delicious. I was hungry and of the mind that if 1.5 cups of fresh Brussels Sprouts makes (or keeps) me fat, than things are just too messed up anyway.

You can rationalize anything away!

Today I did bring a little more food because I really want to workout and not have to cut back because of Medifast. I’m having a ham & swiss wrap for lunch along with a peach, and as one of my mid-meals I’m having fresh figs and hummus.

Only my Sunday weigh in will tell if this strategy is leading to weight loss.

This is gonna be a long 10 weeks!

Not Your Mama’s Tots

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Up For a Challenge

“Challenges” are quite popular over in Medifast-land.

I never participated in one myself but the way I understand it is people use them to keep themselves motivated.

A group of people gets together and decide on a set goal like “lose 20 pounds in two months.” They then report to each other their progress and help keep each other motivated. I don’t know what the winner gets besides the joy of winning, but people seem to love them.

I never participated mainly because I didn’t think it would be motivational for me at all. It just didn’t seem like my “thing”. I tend to put enough pressure on myself and stayed pretty much 100% on plan without having to account to anyone else.

But after the crazy lax days of August, I am feeling the particular need for some discipline to come back in my eating regime. Heck I’d like to get through just one week without a “special event” begging me to (over)indulge.

I still have that “last 20” to lose and figure that there is no time like the present.

I’ve satisfied myself that I can maintain my weight, now I need to buckle down and get the goal I have always had in mind. Following the adage of “go with what you know” I simply began today as if I was back on the 5 +1 Medifast plan. I just feel the need for a little detox and nothing I know does that better for me than the low calorie, low carb discipline of the Medifast 5+1 plan. I don’t plan on getting back into the full 5+1 at this point in time. At least not for more than a few days. I have no desire to cut back or eliminate some of my physical activity and the 5+1 plan just does not afford me enough calories to continue with my regimen. Once my body gets acclimated to this restrictive way of eating, I’ll step up to the 4+2 plan to see what kind of weight loss that brings.

To help me get my act together and shed my poundage, I will be participating in a “challenge”. I have two friends at work who, like me, feel they have a few pounds to lose. We enjoy each others company and we often go out to eat at lunch so I thought why not see if the three of us could form our own little challenge group.

They thought it sounded like fun so I proposed the following: lose 20 pounds by Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was chosen as it is the next big landmark holiday that revolves around eating and it is approximately 10 weeks away. I’d like to approach the holiday period from Thanksgiving through New Years as a “diet free zone”, meaning I don’t want to make myself a nervous wreck about indulging or not at that festive time of year and being at my long sought goal weight will be a nice way to start celebrating.

The weight loss goals were also kind of arbitrary. Only two of could stand to lose 20 pounds, the slimmer of our trio only wants to lose 10. We can use whatever method we want but two of us would have to strive to lose two pounds a week and one of us would have to lose one.

Unfair you say? Well you haven’t seen Miss Skinny eat. Discipline does not come easy to her so dropping 10 pounds in 10 weeks will not be a walk in the park.

So we’ll see what happens.

I don’t see them until tomorrow so I haven’t checked in with my two other participants but I’m not waiting.

We haven’t even decided on what the prize will be but for me being 20 pounds lighter will be one heck of a reward.

So I am already through three Medifast meals in my 5+1 day. That familiar feeling of starting again is upon me. My body knows the drill and will hopefully snap to rather quickly but only time will tell. I have two more bars to round up my last two meals at work and then for dinner I have a large lettuce and tomato salad planned with some sesame tofu from Whole Foods as my protein. I also have 35 minutes of Pilates planned and I am looking forward to that.

Let the games begin!

Back From The Brink!

Ok. Maybe not the brink. But “Back from somewhere far from the brink” just doesn’t sound that great.

In my ongoing battle with the sinus infection that wouldn’t quit, I have been pretty sidelined this week. I knew it was coming. Heck the darned thing never really left from its last flare up. But if it isn’t bacterial it has got to be viral and the only way to deal with a virus is to ride it out, right?

I was pretty sure the infection wasn’t bacterial as the last round of antibiotics I was given to deal with it back in July, did nothing. Gone are the wonder days of when you were a kid and deathly ill and within a few hours of getting a shot or taking your first pill, you were well on your way to what seemed to be a miraculous recovery. Do they even give shots anymore??

So I felt better eventually in July but I really think it was more due to time and not meds. Over the following weeks it was a real battle of wills. Would I win or would the virus. Besides making me congested the darn thing would just generally make me feel like crap. I can’t be any more specific than that. It just randomly made me feel like crap. It also sucked the energy out of me. And it made the room spin sometimes. And it made me see stars occasionally from the pressure. It was a nasty cur of an infection.

It would ebb and flow. Feel lousy for a day, feel okay for two. But it was getting the better of me and hit full on last weekend. Lots of pressure, feeling dizzy, not wanting to move. I did not care about anything. I just felt lousy and the world would have to spin without any interaction from me for a while. I gave it a few days and nothing I tried helped so I went back to the doctor who once again gave me another round of meds. This time we tried a different antibiotic that actually seemed to help. Slowly but surely. I still was out of work for an entire week. It has been years since I lost an entire week of work and that was when I had one heck of a flu.

And so I was home feeling miserable and doped up on cold meds…and I had to eat. I did ok for the first few days but then misery got the better of me. I wanted some form of comfort. Anything to make me feel better. So I turned to me old pal food.

Another symptom I was suffering was that nothing tasted the way it should. Everything tasted off, and some things didn’t taste at all. I also lost my sense of smell for a while. But wouldn’t you know it, I could taste salt and that is what I craved. In other words, junk. I’m not proud of it but I did allow myself quite a free for all food wise. I also had to take a small break from working out so it really was one heck of an unhealthy week.

But here it is Sunday evening and I must return to the grind tomorrow. While I feel that my sinuses continue to get better, I am still having issues with energy. I don’t have any. I’ve managed to resume my workout routines but afterwards I just want to sleep.

I have to say I am not looking forward to getting back to my disciplined ways tomorrow. That’s mainly due to the fact starting up on my low carb routine also means the lousy feelings that go along with that. Here I am just started to feel better and I am not looking forward to intentionally inducing feeling lousy again…if only for a few days. But I need to get back in the swing.

Wish me luck!