Muffin Top

I had one of those horrifying lightbulb moments this weekend. And by one of those moments, I mean several. Starting with eating that second plate of almost exclusively carbs on Thanksgiving and ending with buying jeans in what is an unholy size yesterday. The new jeans were primarily because I looked in the mirror on Saturday night while putting on makeup and since I wasn't doing the "traditional full-length mirror pose" of sucking in to look good, I saw it. I had/have a HUGE MUFFIN TOP! and I was in jeans that I thought fit me pretty well when I was in one of my fatter phases about 2 years ago. As much as I'd like to attempt to justify this, I don't really believe that jeans slowly shrink over time of washing and drying them. I think, in fact, that I have actually been expanding over time. OH and I broke the belt loop on another pair of jeans on Friday when I was yanking them over my slightly larger bum (maybe because of all those muscles?) and the new muffin top. I'm having some wardrobe malfunctions that are just not acceptable, ok?

Generally, I try to eat healthy but I know my portion sizes need work. Well, portion sizes and the fact that I routinely eat a couple (or few) meals a week at bars. And while bar food may be the most wonderful food taste-wise, it's generally fried and has little to no nutritional value. Ug. Luckily, I like a few vegtables and currently have a mega-obsession with Subway's veggie delite. I know that if I make a few swaps, I can work on this muffin top problem. The problem is that I feel like I am constantly fighting this battle with myself of about 15 flex pounds that are constantly creeping back on. My biggest problem is that the easiest way for me to lose weight is to never work out and just not eat very much which is an unhealthy and not very successful for the long term way to lose weight. SO... I blogged about it weeks ago and after seeing myself in that mirror I realize that I must take action and that action is going to be Weight Watchers.

It sucks but I feel like I need a way to better control my weight. I enjoy going to the gym and working out, I just don't enjoy the way that I constantly feel starvation when I do. And it's unhealthy to yo-yo about with 15 lbs. I would like to lose them and begin to believe that they are gone forever. So, here's your chance to hold me to it. I want to do this and I want to feel like I gave it a good effort and really enjoy looking back at the upcoming onslaught of wedding year photos. And I got a new digital camera as an early birthday present so I'd like to feel really good about the way I look in the new pictures.

Things I'm Thankful For

*My dad and brother are here to celebrate the holiday with me
*That this year has turned out better than I ever could have imagined
*Getting to marry my favorite person in the world in 2010
*That God blessed me with a body that can run 26.2 miles
*How many supporters (both family and friends) I have in life even if they are all over the country and not as close as I would like
*I'm thankful that even though I am more than 1,000 miles from them, I feel closer to my mom, dad and brother all the time
*All the opportunities that I had in 2009 to see different parts of the country and world
*That Adam and I have the means to live the kind of life we want to


I could probably go on forever but I want to enjoy this day and especially the food. I think if I had to pick, Thanksgiving would be my favorite holiday. Not only is it the "kickoff to Christmas", the message of taking time with family and friends to celebrate the good things we have in life is very meaningful to me. Enjoy your day and be thankful!

Manana...

My Thanksgiving officially starts tomorrow. I will wake up and start on the pumpkin pie and Oreo cheesecake I have planned, pull the turkey out of the freezer and plot what I'm going to do to season the bird, and make a few other goodies for snacking. My dad and brother are due to arrive in Chicago in the late morning and Adam is off of work so I'm sure he'll be enjoying time on the couch and playing his dorky video games. I'm so excited.

The only thing that puts a damper on my holidays is that my family isn't all together anymore since my parents are divorced. Even though this is either our fifth or sixth (lost count) holidays doing this, I'm not sure that I'll ever fully get used to it. Don't get me wrong, I think that I have a much closer relationship with each member of my nuclear family since the divorce but there is just something about this time of year that always brings me just the tiniest pang of sadness. Mom, I will really miss you this Thanksgiving.

Luckily, in my world, Christmas is easier (sorry, must pause for a moment to wipe tears from writing the last paragraph) to "divide" our time because Christmas Eve has always been a huge day for us. I AM SO GLAD that we'll be in San Antonio for Christmas Eve, it's been way too long since I got to be there for it. But anyway, last year, my dad came up for Thanksgiving which was hilarious because it was the first time he got to meet Adam. Just thinking about that makes me laugh inside because we had some serious adventures that weekend.

Thanksgiving in the city

I may be completely wrong here in my theory but I love Thanksgiving week in Chicago! I would deign to say that most of the people that live in our general neighborhood and the surrounding areas are similar to us (i.e. mid-twenties, young professionals, no kids, parents are either in the suburbs or somewhere else). What does that have to do with anything? Well, most of them leave! In our closer group of friends, the vast majority are going to be out of town for the week/weekend. And it sure seems like everyone else does the same thing! The city clears out! Traffic is next to nothing. Obviously, this theory does not apply to downtown, like Michigan Ave, which will be mad packed all weekend. But here, a couple of miles north, our neighborhood is at it's calmest all year. I LOVE IT!

Just to illustrate my point, there are only a couple of Targets in our near vicinity. And there is only one Wal-Mart in the city limits and it's in the mad ghetto so Target is usually insanely packed. On weekends, it's a nightmare to find parking (and I'm not even going to talk about Costco, that's a whole 'nother ball game of insanity) and the place is a sea of red carts and crazy shoppers. And that is YEAR ROUND every weekend. Frankly, I can't remember a random Monday afternoon or Thursday evening that the place isn't obscenely packed. So last year, my dad was in town and after our Thanksgiving meal, he decided that I needed a few kitchen items (mainly knifes so we don't kill ourselves carving meat this year) so we headed over to Target. On Black Friday. How was it? Quite manageable if you ask me. I didn't even realize it was Black Friday that's how emptied out the city gets! When you have the kind of lifestyle that we live and being in a huge crowd of people is the norm, it's so nice to have some respite from that. I have a feeling that we'll probably be celebrating Thanksgiving here in Chicago for as long as we live here. Plus, at least last year, it was really the last nice weekend we had before Old Man Winter came to attempt to kill us.

So, I'm going to enjoy the next couple of days as every time I walk down the street, I'll see other young city dwellers, lugging their suitcases and hailing cabs to the airport. Happy travels everyone and do I have any takers to hit up the Target sale at 5 a.m. on Friday? No? Ok.






(and I'm sorry for the utter lack of pictures lately. Dang this place is boring! I'm just totally over my crappy camera and hoping for a new one for the b-day (SO SOON!) or Christmas)

I don't really get this whole vampire thing!

Two posts in one day? Done and done.

Currently watching NBC Nightly News, which I could write an entire post about, why do I torture myself by watching the world's problems for 30 minutes everyday? It's depressing! But I digress, they are doing a story on the "New Moon" phenomenon. It made a cool $26 million in only the midnight showings last night that people waited in line for. When I was flying, tons of co-workers were reading the Twilight series. More recently, lots of my friends have picked it up as evidenced by the constant discussion over Facebook statuses. The Twilight kids are all over every tabloid. And that series is really just scratching the surface. I feel like every book and TV show that has come out lately has something to do with vampires (with the exception of Going Rogue by Sarah Palin, although I haven't read it so there may actually be vampires involved, she's crazy).

Am I alone here or are there others that just don't get it? Those teeth are NOT HOT! And all the waify kids in the Twilight movies are just not that attractive. I'm so sick of seeing them that I almost wish that Octomom would have another 10 kids (almost, but not quite, I can't stand her).

No I didn't fall off the face of the earth...

I've just been in Save the Date hell all week! Doing anything 100 times sucks, especially when it involves addressing, stamping, cutting, printing, folding, stuffing and sealing. It was a bigger project than I anticipated but they were mailed yesterday! GLORIOUS!

Spotted on the train...

I think I need to start talking about the hilarious things that I see sometimes on my daily train and bus excursions.

Today during the morning rush hour this man was wearing these phenomenal suede camel-colored cowboy boots. The real deal cowboy boots. They even made clip clop sounds like women's high heels. He was taking casual Friday to a whole new level. I loved it.

On a slightly sadder note, two seats across the aisle from me this afternoon had been splattered with white paint. Some people are SUCH JERKS!!!