Watch Me Get Beaten Up by a Dog

Today I trimmed Daisy's nails. She absolutely hated it. Lucky for you, Chris was watching on Skype and took pictures as she flailed like I was trying to kill her. Dad and Mom make appearances.

Eventually, we got all of her nails, and we only have to do this again in another month or so. Send help.

Looking Back on My Weight Loss

When I started losing weight for this blog, I'd already lost some weight. At my heaviest, I was 212 pounds. I lost a dozen pounds and then participated in a Biggest Loser-style fitness competition with some friends, then lost 15 more. My weight went up a bit and down a bit and then I found huge huge success through a combination of three things: weekly weigh ins, tracking my calories, and increased physical activity.

After a few weeks of this, I settled into a rhythm and have lost more weight more consistently and with less effort than I expected. Oh, there's effort, but it's less than I thought there'd be, especially after a few months, when I knew the basics and just had to stick to them.

The fact is that counting my calories allows me to see exactly what I'm eating, and has opened my eyes to what foods break the bank and what foods are calorie bargains. Even if I stopped counting calories today (which I won't!), I'd be better prepared to cook for myself and go to restaurants because I have a much more accurate picture of just what I'm consuming.

As for this blog, while I haven't always been as diligent as I'd like in updating every week, it has been a persistent reminder. I publicly committed to losing weight and checking in every week until I reach my deadline or my goal, and it pops into my head every day.

When it comes to being more active, that's something I've tackled intermittently and without the routine or dedication I've given logging my food or even updating this blog. It's something I've gotten away with neglecting, but I suspect these last ten pounds I want to lose won't come off without increased physical activity on my part. Yes, I walk around at work, but I really want to incorporate in some strength and more intense cardio. Also I really liked yoga. Between my personal tendency toward spontaneity and my irregular work schedule, I haven't had a lot of success nailing down an exercise routine. This week I hope to improve that.

So that's my not very secret secret. Food, exercise, goal setting, goal sharing, and record keeping. I've got a ways to go, but I've come so far. I'm really, really proud of my success and hope for anyone who wants to accomplish this to actually do it. Certain parts are easier than I expected, like tracking my food (a food scale and measuring cups sure help!) and certain parts are harder (like making myself work out). It's all attainable, though, and you do get partial credit, so don't think you have to be perfect from the get go. I wasn't and I'm still not, and look what I've accomplished!

Weigh-In: Week #19

Hey look, a weigh-in!

AND I'M IN THE 150'S! Solidly in the 150's, even! This week I'm weighing in at 155.2, which is 5.6 pounds less than my weight three weeks ago and 31.2 pounds down from when I started this challenge back in January. That works out to a loss of 1.6 pounds a week, which is right on the target I set for myself back when I started. Only 9.2 pounds left until I hit my goal!

It's too much to calculate just how many calories I've eaten/burned these three weeks, so I'll just say that I'm eating a few more restaurant calories than I'd hoped from work but that I've been good at only drinking water when on the job. I am going to make an effort to get back into the gym this week since I haven't seen if in a few weeks and I have a pretty light work schedule.

Look out for another post today about fitness, but it's more about the whole journey than just these few weeks, so I decided to separate the two for ease of reading.

My Fascinating Friends #1

It's probably not surprising that, having met a large part of my close friends online, they tend to have an online presence. What might be a little more of a shock is just how fascinating and enjoyable these endeavors are, even to people not lucky enough to be buddies with these folks themselves.

Over the next week or so, I'd like to share a handful of the creative projects of my friends whom I met over at the mc chris forums. Since then many of us have quit that board, but we've remained friends through a new forum, Twitter, and Facebook. Except I don't have Facebook. Everyone else does, though. The point is that we keep in touch, and I'm so thankful for that.

This week, I'm going to introduce you to my friend Jesse Kline through his gorgeous photography website and his much more extensive Flickr acount. He has some images of very different subject matter in his two sites, but I think what really shines are his nature photos. This is probably because animals, weather, and vegetation are his passion even when he's not holding a camera.

Hopefully you'll check out Jesse's work and stick around for the next time I turn the spotlight on other talented, interesting, an funny people I'm lucky enough to call my buddies.

The Newest Member of the Family

A week ago, I came home from work to find we had suddenly, erm, acquired a new pet. While at recess, a parakeet had flown down to the monkey bars near the kids and hung around while they played. Eventually, Mom got the kids to sit in a circle and the bird flew into the middle of it, walking to and from the different kids. Clearly it had some experience with humans and it was probably hungry, so Mom decided to steal it.

Okay, she'd argue that she "rescued" the bird, but she accomplished that by throwing a jacket on top of it and then taking it home in a basket, which sounds more like abduction than aid. Then again, I'd better watch what I say or I'll find out how she rescued me from a park one day, and surely my real mother wasn't any good or she would have kept a better eye on me.

The bird doesn't have a real name yet, though Mom and Dad insist on calling him Pretty Bird. So cliche, guys.

That evening, Mom and I picked up all kinds of bird stuff from Pet Supermarket, from this snazzy cage to food, millet, and bizarre bird-specific minerals. Since then we've been enjoying him daily as he sings along to the horn section on our Joe Cocker CDs, squawks whenever he hears rustling paper or running water, and the occasionally launches into a poorly planned flight around the house. Apparently you have to train them to trust you and jump on your finger before you let them take off. That was my mistake. At least we turned off the ceiling fans!

We rescued him...and then put him behind bars.

All in all, he's surprisingly enjoyable. I never thought I wanted a bird of any sort, but this little fella isn't overly loud and is actually very cute. We're working on spending time with our hands in the cage to encourage him to relax around us and eventually step on our fingers like a perch like we read on this super helpful website. Then we'll try letting him fly around the house again, confident that he'll actually come back.

Letting Go of Guilt

So I have this thing that's been a problem for me for just about forever, and it's happening again. First, I fall off the wagon with something I'm gung-ho about, or maybe forget to do something that was important. I don't call for someone's birthday or thank someone for a lovely Valentine's Day card or I kind of slip out of blogging. Then I realize that the window for gracefully doing these things is kind of past me. It's a week later and I really should have called or emailed or blogged and I just haven't. The longer I wait, the worse I feel and it just spirals into something that's self-sustaining and horrible.

I've got to get over this. It's caused too many problems for too long, and it gives me all the negative affects (people think I'm a jerk, I don't get things done) as if I was really careless about this stuff while caring, really caring, the whole darn time.

So let's do this.

Ashleigh, I'm sorry I haven't been a better friend. I had a lot going on when I first got to Jacksonville and I didn't make a priority of hanging out with you when I should have. You're a great friend and I want to be a better one to you.

Kristen, thanks for the Valentine's card. It was super sweet, had an awesome squirrel on it, and I should have thanked you right away but didn't. I'm sorry about that. We kept it on the kitchen table for a few weeks, though, because Chris and I both really liked it.

Readers of this blog, I'm sorry. I let other things get in the way and then every time I wanted to post I'd tell myself it wasn't interesting or I didn't have enough time, and then suddenly I've only posted four times in May! Ahh! So I'm going to try to be better. I'm going to make more of an effort to choose cool things that are going on in my life and share them with you, and if I don't have anything cool going on, maybe I'll take that as a sign to be more interesting.

I'm going to forgive myself for the weigh-ins I've missed, not telling you about the newest member of the Hansen household, and something I've accomplished that I'm really proud of, and hopefully this week I can get back on the wagon of being a dedicated blogger and share all that and more with you. Thanks for your understanding and taking the time to read this. I appreciate it.

#Winning

This week, I won two free tickets to go see Bridesmaids! How cool is that? The great thing is that it was so easy. All I did was google "Jacksonville radio stations," open all the stations' web sites in different tabs in my web browser, check out each station's "win" or "contests" page, and fill out a few forms. It probably took me less than ten minutes, and I won the same day I entered. I've never done this kind of thing before, but I'm kind of hooked and now I'm looking for new ways to win stuff with minimal effort. I don't want to be one of those crazy people who spends hours a day doing sweepstakes for waffle irons they don't even want, but some cute prizes might be fun. We'll see.

You can't win if you don't play, right?

Weigh-In #16

Sorry for the late post. I typed up the WHOLE thing and then Blogger stopped working. I left the tab with my post up in Firefox, but the whole post was lost when Microsoft automatically updated overnight.

The short of it, because I'm not typing everything up again:

• Sorry I missed last weigh in!
• I'm down 3.4 pounds in two weeks
• That's a total of 25.8 pounds lost, or 1.6 pounds a week
• I've got  35.5% of my goal left to complete and 55% of the total time of my goal left in which to complete it. This is awesome.
• I haven't been working out too much but I have been walking and running around while at work
• Food's been alright, a little wonky but mostly near my daily calorie goals.

That's it! I wish I could share my original post with you, but Blogger and Windows didn't want that to happen and are both horrible. That will in no way keep me from continue using their products, I just may complain about them.

Work

Today I return to the world of the employed after a blissful three day weekend. I'm only five days into it, and I'm still technically in training, but I thought I'd share a little bit about my new job.

Me in my work outfit.

First of all, I was hired at a Mexican restaurant. We have 50 indoor tables that seat from two to six guests, a small patio with a handful of four-tops (tables that seat four people), and a bar with about a dozen seats. It's somewhat upscale, not expensive on its own but more than I'm used to paying for Mexican food. The entrees hover at the $12-$16 mark for dinner, though you could do it cheaper off the a la carte menu or just by ordering an appetizer for a meal.

The restaurant is owned and staffed in part by one family. I was counting family members who are employees and I know of eight members of staff who are related, though they're primarly the managers and supervisors. A lot of the kitchen staff speaks limited English, and all the servers speak fluent or very good English, so there's always someone available to help me interact with the Spanish speakers if I need it. 

Our guests are of course all over the map, but everyone I've served has been on a scale from okay to great. No one too insufferable has made it to my sections yet, though I'm sure my day will come.

My job is to greet the guest, serve them their drinks, answer any questions they might have about the menu, get their food orders to the kitchen, keep their drinks full, make sure they have what they need to enjoy their meal, clear plates that are no longer needed, and process their payment for the meal. We have food runners who bring out the guests' meals, bartenders who pour the beer, wine, and mixed drinks, and bussers who clear tables and bring guests chips and salsa. I also keep an eye on the server's station from which I'm working and restock cups, ice, and tea if needed. At the end of my shift, I thoroughly wipe down my tables and chairs (and booths and benches), fill the salt, pepper, and sugars, sweep, and roll silverware.

When my sidework is done, I print out my server report and calculate 3% of my total food sales and 6% of my total alcohol sales and pay that amount out of my tips earned to the bussers and bartenders respectively. I have whatever server is closing the restaurant look over my section to make sure I've done everything I need to, have them sign my server report, then get the cash for whatever tips I made on credit cards. This is also the time to declare cash tips, something I understand is generally wildly under-reported by servers. Then I clock out and get my employee meal if I'm getting one that day.

Then I go home and roll around in stacks of one dollar bills.

Agree to Disagree

I thought for a while there that I had lost a friend for disliking something he liked. Turned out he'd lost a friend whereas I'd only lost someone who didn't really like me that much anyway. It still hurts, but I'm learning to let it go.