I Am Beautiful - Link Up

I wouldn’t say that I ever suffered from feeling ugly or fat as a teenager – the time where we all think is the hardest time for girls (and boys). I was in my own world with my group, I had no interest in being popular, I was happy where I was.

It’s been more evident as an adult that I have self-esteem issues that I should deal with.

Mine come not in the form of not being pretty or skinny enough (although I am trying to lose weight for my own good). It’s more so in what I say and do. I’ve always attributed to social anxiety – but many around me would argue that I don’t have that. They say I’m too friendly to have social anxiety.

Maybe I don’t, maybe it is just a self-esteem issue and calling it anxiety makes it sound better somehow?

Let me explain…

I am constantly worried about what others are thinking about me. Not about my looks, but about what I say and do. I feel that I am inadequate. I always say the wrong thing at the wrong time. I think it is founded in some cases, but in some I have to remind myself and they couldn’t care less about what I’m doing or saying.

It is definitely something that is a work in progress. Does anyone else have this “problem”?

Announcing Step Up Sunday Link-Up!

I am excited to announce that I am teaming up with Rebekah and Britt to bring you the Step Up Sunday Linkup!

It will be a weekly linkup where we can all share our progress in trying to lose weight while supporting one another. The linkup will also be a great way to accountable to your weight loss and health goals. It's like a Weight Watchers meeting without the actual meeting! Don't worry - no one will see or know your weight if you don't want them to! 

We will be posting our progress using "-3 lbs" or "+3 lbs" each week. Feel free to post even if you just go down an ounce or two - it all counts! The linkup will go live next Sunday January 25th and every Sunday after that, so be sure to log your current stats to track your progress for this week! 

I know for most of us, posting on Sunday is pretty foreign, but it seems like Sunday is a common weigh-in day for a lot of people and each post should be quick and easy! Below are the prompts for each week. Feel free to respond to whichever ones you like. If you don't feel comfortable sharing the number of pounds or inches lost, that is ok! And if you happen to gain, don't be embarrassed. It happens to all of us and we are here to support one another. Also, if you have a pedometer, you can set a weekly step goal for yourself and track your progress every week, or simply track your weekly exercise if you don't track your steps. 

1. How many pounds did you gain or lose? 

2. How many inches did you gain or lose? 

3. Your weekly exercise or step goal, and did you meet it? 

4. What was your biggest challenge this week? 

5. What is your favorite healthy snack or meal? 

6. Do you have any advice or tips for the rest of us?

Feel free to grab the button and link up with us next Sunday - January 25th! 

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November Musings: Being Thankful

I’m happy to be participating in this link up. I’m not sure why I haven’t participated in the past other than being an air head. But I think this is the perfect month to get started.

The topic for this month is what we’re grateful for.

I was actually just reading a post from Allie about the things that she should be grateful about but ends up complaining about and was thinking what a great post and wanted to do something like it. Well here we go, two posts in one.

Allie is right – I have a lot of to be grateful for but I sure do complain a lot. And most, if not all, of the things I complain about are 1^st World Problems.

/ / I hate it when my cell service is slow or nonexistent. It drives me mad. But I am so thankful that I have a cell phone that I can pay and that helps me stay in touch with my family here in the states but also in Argentina.

/ / Like many people I complain about getting up early to go to work. But as Allie said in her post, I’m blessed to have a job to get up to go to. Not to mention that it is a job that I like. I used to work in places that I dreaded to go to in the morning. Places where I was tempted to call out sick every day. The job I have now, I am so thankful to be at and to have amazing co-workers (even if not all of them).

/ / I have complained in the past about the high prices of gas. But I am thankful  that I have a new car that is safe and comfortable and that I can afford those prices. I am also thankful that those prices are coming down. They are under $3 in Los Angeles for the first time in a VERY long time.

/ / I am so so so grateful this month to have a great husband who loves and supports me (even if he teases me endlessly). I complain a lot of about that teasing, and it’s a work in progress to not feel offended by his teasing – which he does in his own good natured way. At the end of the day (or may in the morning) I do realize that I am lucky and blessed  to have him in my life and to call him mine.

/ / When Thomas and I were looking for a place to buy early this year there was the possibility that we would move somewhere that was far enough away from my family that I could go days without seeing them. I am so lucky to have them a block or two away. I get to see my mom daily, and my dad every couple of days. I am so blessed to be near my family and to have their love and support always.

/ / I do a lot of complaining about my rib pain. A lot. But I am so incredibly grateful that I am otherwise healthy. I don’t have any life threatening illnesses. I can walk, I can see, I can hear, I can breathe on my own.  I may be in a lot of pain, but it’s not the end of the world. I am healthy.

Which Restrictions Can You Not Stand?

I suppose I’ve been known to break a rule, or even two. I know rules are supposed to be there to “protect” us, but some are just plain dumb. Still, I was only able to come up with a few that really get to me.

For example…

1. Grocery bags. This is the most recent stupid law that has come into effect in Los Angeles. For those of you who are lucky enough to not be in an area that has such a law, you are lucky.  The idea is that plastic grocery bags are hazardous to the environment. That they get thrown away and are a waste. Well, I don’t know about you, but we NEVER threw a bag away unless it was completely ripped. They were always used as trash bags, lunch bags, transport this or that bags. Now we don’t have the luxury of the stores giving us bags (we have to pay 10 cents to get paper bags) so we have to buy our own trash bags, lunch bags, transfer things bags. Which sounds to me like a conspiracy between the stores and the government to get us to spend more money and for them to save money.  These bans also cause losses in manufacturing jobs when we’re still recovering from a recession. I’ve also read articles about the harm in reusable bags including the contamination that comes from them being placed on the floor and then on tables/couches/etc.
2. Drinking Age While this never affected me personally, I’d lower the drinking age to 18. I think this goes hand in hand with voting. Why, if we can serve in the military at 18, can’t we drink? We can smoke at 18! But a beer? Nah.
3. Traffic Lights Okay, so this isn’t a law but it’s something I think needs to be changed. Wherever there is a left turning arrow and U-Turns are not allow, there should be a right turning arrow. It would make many intersections work a lot more smoothly. I don’t know why it bothers me…
4. Permanent Markers I bet some of you didn’t know you had broken the law this way. Apparently many states have a law that states that you may not  carry permanent markers with you in public since they can be used for vandalism.

What can't you stand?

Blog Everyday In July

I've been wanting to do a blog-every-day-in-a-month thing for a while but with the wedding, buying a home, and the honeymoon I haven't been around for a whole month until July. 

When I saw Allie and then Juliette post about blogging in July and that they would provide prompts I knew I had to participate. But I will say this upfront: I might skip some prompts and post Link-Ups or post things just because I feel like it.

July 1st 2014 - Canada Day

Let me start by saying that I am not Canadian nor have I ever even been to Canada. I like the country, though. They've been pretty decent to the US. Here are the things I do know about Canada:

• I bought my car from a Canadian. 
• Canadians like the fact that they don't have an "accent" (or at least this is what the car salesman said)
• They have taken in US boys who were avoiding the draft. 
• It is to the north of where I live. 
• It gets very cold and snowy in the winter. 
• You have to drive through it in order to get to Alaska.
• My husband is sent to Ontario for work sometimes.  
• I don't know many people (0) from Canada. 
• My best friend was living just a few minutes from Canada until recently.
• I don't know a lot about Canada. 

My knowledge is not very good. So let me ask a few questions to Faith who is Canadian. Excuse me for my ignorance. 

1. Does Canada have an independence day? (I know that the Queen is still considered the head of Canada, correct?)
2. What is the school system like? Kinder through 12th grade? Are colleges free?
3. Besides hockey, what is Canada's favorite sport? 
4. How did you survive without Happy Hour? (Yes, I've read up on your blog).
5. Have you been to the States? What do you like or not like about it compared to Canada?

Tomorrow's topic is guilty pleasures, however I will have a post full of pictures from the wedding up in the morning! 

Sunday Scale Link-Up (June 29th)

I saw Madi from And So I Did do this link up several weeks ago and I knew I wanted to participate - but I was in the midst of my wedding and honeymoon so I couldn't do it then. Then I got back from Argentina and I couldn't get my head into losing weight/watching my food. 

This past week I did do a bit better. I stayed on track for most of the week. I had a bad day on Thursday so I did the bad thing and ate fries that night. Then my husband came home from being gone for 2 weeks on Friday and I made some pork with mashed potatoes. Actually, that was probably not too bad. I didn't eat all the potatoes, and the pork is low in calories. 

However I did make myself a fruit smoothie (only fruit, ice, and Spinach - no yogurt, milk, nothing else) which probably had more calories than I should be consuming. At least it's healthy, right? I did eat more than I should have snack-wise on Saturday as well. 

I was about to go get myself a big bowl of Lucky Charms during halftime of the MEX-NED game - but then I saw Madi's post and thought - instead of going to eat that, let me write a post and make a better choice as far as food goes. 

I weighed myself mid-last week and I was 2lbs down from when I returned from Argentina - but still about 8 pounds over from a few months ago. 

You can check out my WeightLoss page (link above) to see a history of how my weight has gone up and down over the past few years. I am currently WAY down from my highest weight of 196lbs  at only 157.8, but I am far from the lowest I've been - 144lbs. 

I had been able to stay between 145 and 150 for most of the time, but with worrying about my wedding and going to Argentina I went up. The websites say I should be 136 or less for my height (5'2"), but I think if I can stay at 145, or maybe 140 to 145 I will be fine. With that weight I fit easily into size 6 pants. 

Which is the current problem. After returning from Argentina I can't fit into my work slacks. 

I just took these pictures. No sucking in - laying it all out. 

I won't post pictures every week, maybe at each 5 pound mark or if I notice differences! 

Please check out Madi's link-up!

You will never find me...

I saw Two Martinis do this the other day and then I saw a link-up for today, so I thought I’d put in my own list.

You will never find me…

// Exercising. I just hate it. I don’t like to sweat and just about any type of exercise will require sweating. So no thank you. If I want to lose weight I much prefer cutting back what I eat than going for a run or to the gym. That’s not to say I haven’t tried it, because I have and I hate it.

// Eating fish. I will, on occasion eat shrimp, but not seafood and not lobster or crab. Again, I’ve tried them but the smell and the consistency grosses me out. Just no.

// Being Laid Back. Okay this one is one my fiancée would tell you. I don’t think it is completely true, but it has been during the past few months of house buying/wedding planning. I’ll work on it!

// Swimming in the ocean. The Pacific is way too cold for me and I’m not a fan of sand. I might go back into the Atlantic because of its warmness, but there is still that sand issue.

// Taking long to decide. I am the type of person who doesn’t need to mull over a decision for very long. Once I know, I know. This has been cause for disagreement between my fiancée and I as well. I need to learn to be more patient and not need answers RIGHT! NOW!

// Wearing yellow gold. I like the color yellow but not on jewelry. I will pick white gold/platinum/silver to yellow whatever always. Thomas likes yellow and his wedding band is a plain yellow gold band. I was annoyed at this simply because of what pictures will look like, but I know they’ll look great!

// Feeling comfortable taking things from others. This includes help. I’ve been offered a lot of help for my wedding by Thomas’ family, but my irrational fear of being asked for something in return. It’s actually not just that, but that when I know the people are not too well financially I hate for them to do things that cost money for me. I’m usually the one who is giving of my time, energy, and emotions.

// Wearing lots of jewelry. I only wear my engagement ring (and soon to be wedding ring) and a necklace that Thomas gave me for my birthday a year or two ago. I’m not one to switch jewelry to match my outfits. I’m not fashionable like that, which leads me to..

// Wearing the latest fashion. I don’t even know what fashion is really. My nieces all consider themselves Fashionistas. I’m more comfortable in jeans and t-shirts. I like dresses as well, but I get what is on sale, not what is “in” at the time. Which leads me to…

// Paying full price. I was raised to use coupons and shop sales. I will never ever buy something (non-food) that is not on sale, has an applicable coupon, or is being cleared out. I will sometimes buy food when it’s not on sale but only if I really have a craving for something or if I know it’s a good deal (ie: Target/Wal*Mart prices on some items).

// Dancing. Okay, you might find me dancing at my wedding, only because it’s a cash dance and people will be pinning money to my dress (actually I don’t think I’ll accept pins on my dress, they can stuff it down my bra instead). I’m also being forced into this. I really didn’t want dancing but I was vetoed. Other than that one night I will have to be VERY drunk in order for you to see me dancing.

// Giving up! I don’t have a very hard life. I’m pretty lucky in all aspects of my life, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have my own struggles. Emotionally I have many, but I can’t give up. I have to grow and learn and mature every day.

Linking up with...