Friend Making Monday

                                          

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/2011/11/friend-makin-mondays-dating/www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Online Dating

1. Have you ever tried online dating? I think I'm on one right now
2. If you’ve done it, what did you like about it? What did you dislike?  I liked the fact that people were hitting me up and wanting to get to know me. I love getting the little emails saying that someone was interested. What I didn't like is the whole corresponding over email for long periods of time. If we haven't transitioned to phone calls or set up a meet within 2 weeks. I lose interest with prolonged conversations with people I don't know.
3. If you haven’t done it, would you? If you have done it, would you do it again? Why or why not?  Yea I would do it again...We spend most of our lives on the internet now a days, why not find my future husband while doing it!
4. What precautions would you take before going out with someone that you met online? We would have to talk on the phone first and I would give someone information about the date, so at least someone knows where I am.  
5. Do you have a favorite dating site?  If so, what is it?  No not really. I've been on match.com and blackpeoplemeet.com. They definitely both have their pros and cons.
6. What questions would you ask before agreeing to a date?  I’d ask about their career, hobbies, education, ambitions, their thoughts on kids, etc
7. How long would you correspond with someone online before meeting them?  If he lived in town, the longest I would do is 2 weeks, unless schedules are just crazy and we can't meet up sooner.
8.  In your opinion, what are the pros to meeting someone online? You can put your wants and expectations out there and they can take it or leave it. 
9. In your opinion, what are the cons of online dating? Anybody can be who you want them to be before you actually meet and then you meet and the vibe isn't there.
10. Share a funny or embarrassing online dating experience with us if you have one. Hmmm, kind of a long one...I remember I was chatting with someone and he was saying that he wanted to have drinks for our meet up. So in getting to know him he told me he had a roommate and that he had his own living room area, so I'm thinking he lives in a townhouse. Well in talking about meeting up, he said his cousin has his car and he couldn't drive...basically I would have to pick him up (first red flag). Ok so I decide to go pick him up. I get to his place and I was surprised it was a 1-story house, b/c I was thinking townhouse. Anywho I ring the door bell and he comes to the door. I look inside and I see family pictures on the wall. (2nd red flag) Hmmm kind of weird to have family pictures on your wall by the entry when you have a 'roommate.' Well I look past him and I see a lady in the chair. It was his mother. News flash...you can't be roommates with your mother! So then he proceeds to ask me what I like to drink. I tell him Crown and Coke. Well we get in my car and he gives me directions. We end up a liquor store. He goes in and comes back out to the car with a bag. He then gave me directions that took me back to his house. Do you know this fool bought a half liter of coke and small bottle of Crown and we were suppose to drink it at his house???? WTF?? So you already know mentally I had already checked out of the date, but I said let me finish out the night. So we go back to his room and I sit on the couch (the living area he said he had). Keep in mind his mother was still there. Then he said he had a movie that his friend had made while he was in Brazil. I said yea let's watch it...It was a fucking sex video. Are you fucking serious? I told him I didn't want to watch it and I was about to leave. At the door he said, "I don't think I'm going to hear from you again." I just smiled and walked off...You damn right you were never going to hear from me again! Can you believe it! These stories really do happen!

Happy Monday!!

The ITT strikes again..

Yes, I am referring to the dreaded Inner Thigh Trap!

I have a hellafied inner thigh trap along with my thunder thighs. I have always had both, but it's so funny b/c with working out I have noticed my thighs getting smaller and my ITT getting bigger or appears bigger anyways. Unless I am wearing leggings or jegging or something with a lot of give, my pants can't get pulled up all the way to my lady part. There is always space between my cooch and the crotch of my pants, even in my scrubs. When I sit down and don't adjust my pants it looks like a bad camel toe. Don't you love the visual...Anywho so of course I love giving out random TMI. So how does the ITT work for and against you?? Well a time or two or three or four (you get the drift) I have had a make out session where some heavy petting was involved and when he got to the goods, the ITT intervened. Poor fellas, they really thought they were touching on the good stuff but it was really the camel toe thighs. And of course me being the one who doesn't like to make things awkward, I let them think that, while I'm thinking 'I hope he doesn't realize that he is aggressively rubbing my thighs...' O_o...Maybe it's divine intervention to keep me a good girl, b/c I tell you there is nothing that turns you off more than knowing your soft ITT in jeans also feels like a vajajay. Does anybody else have the ITT???

Back to regularly scheduled programming...

I am tired as shit, I have been working a lot and working out. I don't know if I'm not eating enough carbs or protein, but by mid afternoon I am seriously dragging. That energy they say you get from working out...I'm beginning to think it is a lie. Maybe I need to get rid of more fat, but energy is missing me right now. As far as the meal plan has been going I have been doing great with water, but I think I have succumbed a little too much to my sweets craving. I have had something sweet everyday, which is not good. I'll have good meals and then get a brownie or have half a cookie. I know better and will do better. Other than that, I think I have been doing pretty well.

What do you all have planned for the weekend? Are you going to succumb to the green beer, making out with random people and then passing out in vomit b/c it's St. Patrick's Day?? Me neither...I just can't believe that this holiday has been sensationalized as pretty much a drunk holiday. Maybe if I was younger I would partake, but at the tender age of 31, I'm over it. I work Saturday and Sunday, no surprise, and then I plan to clean and do some grocery shopping. Maybe get some ITT action...


TGIF!!!!

Hump Day!

What's up peeps! I've missed you! I have been working like a mad woman lately! I have worked 2 weeks straight without a day off and don't get one until the 24th. No pity party for me though, I have a million trips to go on and I have to pay for them somehow. Anywho let's wrap up last week. I was only able to make it to the gym 3 times vs. my 5x/week goal, but I did lose 3 lbs. In real life it's a good thing, but in challenger life, not the best, especially when people are losing up to 12 lbs a week. Much props to them, but I will catch up! I can honestly say that my water intake definitely got less as the week progressed and I got busier at work. Working in a hospital, no food or drinks in patient care areas. My office happens to be a patient care area and I usually hide the bottle and drink between patients, but last week I did a lot of bedside care so no bringing water bottles in patients rooms. But why would I want to anyways, that's kind of grotty. As far as the weekend, I stayed on it with the exception to my visit to Chuy's Mexican restaurant where even with limited chips and a vegetarian meal, sodium intake got the best of me.

How has this week been different so far?? Definitely been good with the water intake, but I need to work on how late I eat dinner. I can't do the 7p cut off time b/c sometimes I'm still at work or at the gym. So meals have been around 9:30-10. Granted with eating healthier, I don't feel stuffed and am often hungry about an hour later, sometimes sooner. Hell sometimes my stomach is growling while I'm eating as to say,  "Really, this is what's for dinner??" I've been to the gym once, but I plan on getting my 5 days in.

How are you guys doing? It's the middle of the week. Are you still plugging away? I am hoping to put up some big numbers this week. Are you?

Let's talk about Sh$t!

No seriously let's talk about shit. Since I have been on my healthy quest this year I have definitely noticed a change in my shit. The consistency, the frequency all that good stuff. I used to be one of those people who could never take a dump in public places not even at work in our private bathrooms. I just couldn't do it. I was a 2 shit a day person, when I wake up and in the evening. I could be at work and around 2p think, "Hmmm I need to take a shit, I'll just wait until I get home." That time would be around 6p. I would wait 4 hours to get home and take a dump in the comfort of my own home. Not anymore...I usually have to do the doo about 3 times a day sometimes 4. So I have to go while I'm at work and b/c I usually go straight to the gym from work, I make sure I do the doo before I leave. It definitely makes a world of difference.
So here comes the tmi lol...I have noticed that when I clean up after myself after the deed is done, there is hardly anything on the toilet tissue, I mean literally sometimes there is nothing on there. Now when I wasn't eating healthy...I won't even describe the clean up. O_o There also isn't much of a smell. I think one of the reasons I didn't like taking a shit in public places was b/c I was afraid of people coming behind me and smelling the damage I just caused. Now, no smell or at least its so faint the bathroom deodorizer can eat up the smell. As far as what it looks like, if I have been eating a lot of salad it's usually green. It looks soft and comes out pretty easily. The funny thing is that sometimes I can sit on the toilet and it feels like hardly anything came out and then I look in the toilet and, 'Dayum!!!! When did all that come out???' Then there are times when I feel like something should have come out, but nothing really did. Overall I think my bowel movements have gotten a lot healthier.

Have you guys noticed a change in your bowel movements?

As for the regular shit...I have been counting my calories and getting my water in (160 oz) and I have been to the gym twice this week. I still need to do better getting my water in before it gets too late, so I'm not in the bathroom all night. I think I tweeked my back doing something so I may have to slow down tonight. All in all a pretty decent week.

TGIAF!!!

Super Tuesday...my version of it anyway!

Happy Tuesday peeps!! I hope everyone had a good weekend! It was a good Monday. Had happy hour with the co-workers, where I skipped out on the drinks and had some hummus and cucumber slices. Pretty boring happy hour on my end food wise b/c I had to meet up with my trainer after, but it's still always good to hang out with coworkers after work, let your hair down I guess. I've been getting the water in and to my relief, the urgency to go to the bathroom isn't as strong as it was last week. Don't get me wrong, I go often, but not like Thursday and Friday of last week.

So here is my time to let you give you a little background on what I do and a PSA. :)

Speech pathologists work with individuals whose oral motor, swallowing, cognitive-linguistic, speech, or language skills have been affected by a neurological event/disease, head/neck cancer, or possibly debilitation related to an underlying medical disease process. 

If you happened to look at my mini profile I stated I am a Speech Pathologist. I work at two hospitals, 1 full time and the other prn (about 10-15 hours/week). I work a lot. Anyways, both of them are level 1 trauma hospitals and my full time hospital is a Stroke Center of Excellence and the other one just had had a state of the art Neuro ICU renovation. Both of my hospitals are the major hospitals here in Atlanta and both get a large indigent population. One more so than the other. All this to say I see a variety of patients from laryngectomees to head injuries from falls to STROKES.

This is a definition of strokes I got from Wilkipedia:

A stroke, also known as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), is the rapid loss of brain function(s) due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia (lack of blood flow) caused by blockage (thrombosis, arterial embolism), or a hemorrhage (leakage of blood).As a result, the affected area of the brain cannot function, which might result in an inability to move one or more limbs on one side of the body, inability to understand or formulate speech, or an inability to see one side of the visual field.
A stroke is a medical emergency and can cause permanent neurological damage, complications, and death. It is the leading cause of adult disability in the United States and Europe and the second leading cause of death worldwide.Risk factors for stroke include old age, hypertension (high blood pressure), previous stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), diabetes, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking and atrial fibrillation. High blood pressure is the most important modifiable risk factor of stroke.

I underlined the last sentence of the definition for stroke from Wilkipedia. Do not get me wrong strokes can happen for a variety of reasons. I see strokes secondary to drugs (coke strokes) and blood clots as a result of birth control pills or broken bones, but by and large a lot of my stroke patients have a diagnosis of hypertension (high blood pressure). Hypertension is something that a lot of people can change. Hypertension is not designated to just overweight/obese people. Hypertension affects all types of people. Environmental and lifestyle factors can influence hypertension. (Genetics can also influence hypertension, but I am not knowledgeable on that.)  I am saying all of this b/c on a daily basis I see people who have had strokes and honestly I don't want to be one. I don't want it to happen to any of you. I have to get my shit together, like yesterday. I am fortunate that I don't have hypertension or any other overt medical risk factors, but with getting older and rocking a 300+ lb body, it's only a matter of time. So I'm grabbing hold of it now. Now if you are eating right, exercising and living a pretty healthy lifestyle, then I give you much props. But also remember that stress can also be a trigger for hypertension. Make sure to manage the stressors in your life!  

A stroke is an EMERGENCY! Every minute counts! ACT F.A.S.T (Face Arms Speech Time). Some telltale signs of stroke are when one side of the face begins to droop, one arm becomes weak or numb and speech becomes slurred or person becomes nonverbal. I've also heard from patients that they have a huge headache and then nausea and vomitting prior to the stroke. If you notice these symptoms on yourself or anyone get to to the hospital ASAP. Even if you have the symptoms (facial droop, arm weakness, slurred speech) for a short peiod of time go to the hospital. You could have had a TIA (mini stroke) and want to make everything is ok.

*****Public Service Anouncement is over. Back to regularly scheduled programming! :)******

Disclaimer: I am NOT a doctor, I am a speech pathologist. If you are looking for more in depth information or you have had some of these symptoms happen to you, speak to your doctor.

Alright peeps it's the beginning of the week. Are you starting off strong?? If not, get it together! If you are, keep it up!

Who would've thought..

...counting calories actually works! I am a definitely a believer now! So with the challenge I'm in I had to send in my weigh in results and drum roll please...down 4.4 lbs since I started the challenge (on Thursday, I think) and 5.2 for the whole week and not even a whole week, b/c my weigh ins are on Tuesday. It's kind of empowering counting the calories you eat, no crazy or binge weekend, b/c I had to account for my calories. I'm still trying to work out the kinks, getting in more protein (gave up red meat for Lent) spacing out my snacks so I don't hit that lull at the end of the day, packing snacks, but overall a very good start. So far 121 lbs have been lost on the challenge and I'm pretty sure some people have posted some pretty big numbers. I just have to make sure I stay on it, b/c like I said the prize is sweet. Made it to the gym 5 times this week and since the theme for March is Beast Mode I made sure all of them counted. Yep I'm on my way to some big things this year.
How did I do with my weekend goals, you ask?? Well I'm 2 out 4 for now. I think I can say I safely avoided the binge over the weekend and I limited myself to just one shot with the girls last night, which is mos def a win for me! If you don't know I can sometimes be a weekend warrior with drinks. I don't need to have a glass of wine with dinner or to put me to sleep during the week, honestly I don't even care for wine, but come the weekend and I'm hanging out, I can get it in. I love to have drinks with my friends and maybe b/c of the extra sexiness I can drink my fair share and not get drunk b/c that's not cute at all. But this weekend, I had just one and a good time was had by all. So maybe I might keep it up b/c 1. I'd rather eat my calories than drink them 2. It'll help my wallet out a little.

So how's everyone's weekend been? I hope good!

Happy Friday!

And I'm not talking about basketball. I'm talking about weight loss March Madness style. Yesterday was my first official day of doing Allan's "Eat at your goal weight" challenge. Can I say I killed it. Granted it was only my first day, but I did good. I.counted.calories! If you didn't hear me I.Counted.Calories! This is a big deal for me b/c I have never counted calories. I always felt that I if I made better choices and worked out the weight will melt off. Now don't get me wrong, with that mindset I have lost weight but I haven't been able to keep it off. I mean how can I when I have never really looked at the calories I have taken in. Yea I may not be eating the burger from Five Guys, but are my homemade cheesy enchiladas that much better calorie wise? Hell I don't know, b/c I never figured the calories. Serving size and not knowing the calories I think have been my downfall. I never joined weight watchers b/c I didn't want to count points and I never figured the calories I should eat to lose weight. So here I am at 300+ lbs counting calories for the first time.  I won't lie one of the reasons I never figured out calories b/c I figured it would be so hard to figure out calories in prepared meals, but insert Sparkpeople.  You can go on their site put in the ingredients and the number of servings and bam you have the calories! So this weekend I will be looking up calories for the regular things like veggies and fruits b/c unfortunately I don't know them. Oh well we all have to start somewhere.

I got all my 160 oz of water in which isn't that bad when you have a 32 oz bottle and can refill it at work easily. So I have to drink 5 bottles. I was able to get 3 in by 1p and then I was drinking the last 2 up until 10p. So needless to say I was in the bathroom 3 times last night. My goal is to finish water by 9p.  I think I went to the bathroom about 8-10 times total. Definitely an increase. I used to try to drink 3 bottles a day prior to the challenge and I think I went about 5 times a day. Already done with 2 bottles!

I don't know if you all go to Yum Yucky's blog, but she is hilarious. Anywho her theme for March is Beast Mode! I figured hell, I need to go Beast Mode too! Yesterday I did my two workouts one with Kim my trainer at the studio and then I went to the gym to do cardio. Now I almost didn't do the cardio session b/c I sat in the gym parking lot for 50 minutes talking to my sister. When we got off the phone, I looked at the time and I was like, "Girl just go home, at least you did upper body today." Then I thought about Yum Yucky's theme, Beast Mode, and I got my ass out of the car. I did intervals on the elliptical and on the treadmill and went home. Beast Mode baby!

Weekend goals:

1. Count all calories and avoid the binge
2. No more than 2 shots of Vodka when dancing tomorrow night with my girls (calories to be counted)
3. Do my hair
4. Clean up some

What about you all? Do you count calories? What are your weekend plans