Living My Life: 101 in 1,001

If you’ve ever seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you of course remember the character Clementine Kruczynski. Clementine was a free-spirited young woman who did whatever she could to live life to the fullest, because she didn’t want life to just pass her by.

After watching Eternal Sunshine for the first time in high school, I wanted to be Clementine. I wanted to live my life fearlessly. I wanted to be free-spirited and fun-loving the way she was, seizing every moment of every day so that when the day came for me to move on to whatever comes after this life, I could say that I had truly lived.

Well, I’m not saying it’s too late for me by any means, but I have to admit– sitting in a cubicle for 40 hours a week isn’t exactly as romantic as my 16-year-old mind had envisioned my life at 23 being. Sure, I’m pretty successful for my age… I have a good job at a good company, I own my own photography business and I live on my own. I have a phone, a car, a beautiful dog and a wonderful boyfriend. But outside of that, I spend most of my nights vegged out in front of a computer screen or the TV.

So, in an effort to spice things up and try new things, and inspired by several people I know working on a similar project, I typed up a list of 101 things I plan to accomplish in the next 1,001 days. In the next 2.75 years, I plan on doing my best to check off each and every task on my list. The items range from being as simple as going for a walk in the rain or purchasing my first lottery ticket to traveling to other countries, getting married and purchasing my first home. You can view my list at the top of this blog by clicking on “The 101.”

I plan on blogging every step of the way and taking pictures of each task that I complete. This blog will not only be about my weight loss journey (since my weight loss is one of my goals on my 101, it works!) but also about living life. I have decided that my first goal to work on will be #46- to make homemade dog treats for Clara. I’ll post the recipe I used and whether or not they were a hit after I make them this weekend! 🙂

A New Realization: Obsessed with Numbers

So as a few of you already know, after I came home from Ireland I quickly began a two-week food-party that lead to my gaining nearly 9 pounds. Woohoo, right? After seeing the number on the scale go back up to 207.8, I was pretty depressed. This past week I managed to lose 6.2 of those pounds back, placing me back down at 201.4. I’m happy with that number for now, but all the fluctuation has gotten me thinking.

I’ve become completely and utterly obsessed with the number I see on the scale. All my successes, no matter how big or small are trumped by whatever number shows up on the digital screen. So what if I can finally fit into a dress I haven’t worn in years? If I’m up .6, I can’t and won’t let myself enjoy that little victory.

A week or so ago, my friend Anna dragged me into Fitness 19. I’ve always known that I needed to establish a workout plan, I’ve just been too lazy to commit to one. So after deciding that I liked the gym (and knowing it fits wonderfully into my budget at $17/month with no yearly contract!) I signed up. And I also hired a personal trainer, Brittany. I met with Brittany for the first time about a week ago now, and she really, really kicked my butt. In a good way, of course. But in talking to her about my goals and what I wanted, I realized something. I don’t give a crap about the number on the scale. What I do care about is what I see in the mirror. I just want to love my reflection. On my goals in her log, it even states now that I’m not aiming for a goal weight, I’m just aiming to get fit, get to a healthy body fat percentage, and love what I see in the mirror.

So with that realization, I have decided to quit going to Weight Watchers meetings. For now, I need to focus on getting into a healthier mindset. I’m going to keep using the Weight Watchers E-Tools to track my food and exercise, but I’m going to do my own weigh-ins on Saturday on the scale I have at home. No more pressure to lose weight. No more pressure to impress someone else who’s looking at that scale. This weight loss journey is about what’s best for me, and taking as long as I need.

So here’s to finally making losing weight about doing things at my own pace, and about finally getting into a good work out routine. I plan to meet with Brittany for strength training twice a week (Mondays and Fridays), and to pick back up with the C25K program on M/W/F. I plan to run in the Thoroughbred Classic 5K on Thanksgiving morning. These are my goals for now. 🙂

What’s in your fridge?

So I believe that a fridge full of good foods is critical to weight loss success. After seeing a post on Julia’s blog about what was in her fridge, I decided to do a post on what I keep in mine. I’d be curious to see what everyone else has, too! If you do a similar post, let me know!

Fridge:

Freezer:

Returning to the Motherland: Trip to Ireland

So I know I’ve been MIA for a little while now, but I promise I’m not dead. I just took a vacation to Ireland! My mom’s side of the family is Irish, so it was really neat to go back and see where that side of my family came from, I suppose. 🙂

It’s a seriously beautiful country, and I’m still working on going through all of the photos. I went there to shoot pictures for my cousin’s wedding (see some of the photos from her wedding here) at Sheen Falls in Kenmare, Ireland. It was absolutely breathtaking. While I was there I didn’t count points or anything like that, but I did take photos of some of my finds that you might find interesting!

First of all, I found WW products that we don’t have here in the states (or at least, that we don’t have here in Kentucky!).

Now, I didn’t have space in my suitcase to lug all of these different boxes around (even though I DEFINITELY wanted to…), so I just purchased the Cranberry & Orange cookies. 2 cookies are 1.5 points, and they really weren’t bad!

I bought the chocolate biscuits you see here, and I really, really liked them. I wish I’d purchased a few more packages of them, actually. They’re more of a bittersweet chocolate than what we would have here, but I found them really enjoyable.

This is me in Dingle, holding up a giant anchor. We ate fish and chips at the white building on the left. They were pretty good… and fresh since the bay is about twenty feet to the right in this photo:

Well, back to the food…

This was the first thing I ate after I landed. We went to a small cafe in Kinsale, where I got this mixed berry scone and a glass of milk. The biggest thing you need to know about food in Ireland is that they very, very rarely use preservatives. Everything you eat is fresh. That said, that is organic whole milk, and it might be the best milk I’ve had in my life. The scone didn’t require the butter or jelly provided, so I ate it plain.

This burger was amaaaazing. Their beef isn’t corn-fed like ours is here. So since these cows eat grass (like all cows should…), the meat is completely different both in taste and texture. I have to say, I prefer it this way.

Mmmmm… BURGER.

This was one of my mom’s favorite finds. This is a creamy vegetable soup, and it was great. Ireland is a little bit colder than here in KY (meaning it’s right around 65 degrees right now) so soup was warmly welcomed (har har har). With the soup I got a chicken-and-stuffing sandwich:

Which I’d never heard of before, but this might be one of my favorite sandwiches ever. I need to make these for myself sometime. Mmmm… I’m getting hungry just sitting here thinking about all of this wonderful food.

Now a trip to Ireland would probably not be complete without some good old Shepherd’s Pie. This might have been the best food I ate while I was over there:

Since that was the best, I guess I should post the worst:

Now this I didn’t like. This was a sort of apple-pie-like pastry, and I wasn’t a big fan. The reason? A lot of sweets in Ireland (and maybe Europe?) just aren’t as sweet as what we have here. To me, this just needed more sugar. I ate about as much as you see missing here. I just didn’t like it and I figured it was probably high in points… and therefore not worth it.

Now, on to alcohol (because we are talking about the Irish, right?)…

You know what’s a big bummer in Ireland? Not liking beer. 😦 This was a pint my cousin ordered at a pub in Kenmare. I tried a sip of it, but as some of you know I hate carbonation… and beer is carbonated. Bummer. 😦 So instead I ordered a vodka & cranberry, and apparently these are DIY in Ireland.

So anyway, I’m just about done with this picture-overload of a post. I hope you all enjoyed it. My last photo is of a candy bar I found amusing. I still have one in my bag… I haven’t tried it yet. But like it says… it’s not for girls, right? 😉