Hi everyone. :) *Me from the future* Since this ended up being a long post, I'm going to try sectioning it off, to see if that helps at all...
DRIVING
First off, I finally started taking driving lessons (well, my first was Monday and my second and third are tomorrow and Saturday) and even though driving is quite intimidating here in NYC, I'm excited to eventually be able to drive on my own! It was scary at first but I got used to the fact that I was behind the wheel within a few turns, and I'm eager to see how quickly I progress over the next few lessons.
SICK THIS PAST WEEKEND :(
Secondly, I'm sorry for not posting anything for over a week! I was thrilled to take new pictures for reviews last week and then, literally a few hours after I got home from work on Thursday (before my first back-to-back 2-day weekend), I started sniffling and knew some type of cold was coming on...only to end up with a fever from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning due to a sinus infection. -_- I went to the doctor on Saturday morning and got a five-day course of antibiotics, yesterday being the fifth day. So I'm feeling way better now, although I continue to cough more than usual. Still, it was AWFUL - I actually had to call out from work on Sunday and, since I was off Monday, I ended up being off 4 days straight. Ironically, I've accomplished more on evenings after work than all four days combined, but I guess that's how being sick works out.
WEIGHT LOSS PROGRESS
On the bright side, I was weighed at the doctor's office on a functioning scale and found out that I'm roughly 128 lbs! That means I lost 12~14 lbs (I like to give my current weight some space, so I think of myself as being 128~130 lbs) since the end of September (when I was 142 lbs), and I didn't even have to go on one of those strict no-happiness diets to do it. I've come to follow a kind of dietary routine in the past two or so months, and it works like this:
Breakfast: Cereal (usually something like Cheerios)
Lunch (at home): Fruit/Smoothie, bread with some kind of topping, tea
Lunch (at work): Dole Apple & Cream (cup of fruit) & S'Mores Oatmeal bar
Dinner: Whatever was made for dinner that day!
Snack after dinner: Tea [almost daily], some type of sweet (such as a cookie) [whenever I'm craving it]
Overall, I have a strict breakfast and lunch, but I do so because I like having filling dinners and even a small snack afterwards without feeling guilty.
Now, what I mean by not having a 'no-happiness' diet is that once a week, if not every other week, I buy a 500 calorie cupcake from Crumbs Bakery in Manhattan. And even less often than that, I go out with my mom for Cold Stone ice cream.
The fruit and oatmeal bars serve to satisfy my cravings (and give me energy at work), since I used to eat sugar all the time when I was younger. Additionally, I eat a square of dark chocolate every night, which I find does wonders for those same cravings. But if they're particularly strong on a certain day, or dinner is on the small side, I'll sneak in that extra sweet.
Which brings us to the other half of the equation: exercise. It would probably be way harder to have those delicious, fattening cupcakes and continue losing weight if I didn't exercise. I don't know if I ever wrote about this before, but between the end of September and the end of November (when I started working), I walked roughly 2 miles a day, 5-6 days a week. Since work started, I try to walk for at least an hour on the weekdays that I'm off. Otherwise, work is my exercise, because I'm literally pacing back and forth in the store for 7.5 hours. In fact, it was probably my job that melted off at least 5 lbs.
I'm sure it'll be hard to maintain this weight once I'm done with this job, but I'm going to do my best, because my self-confidence has been doing so much better since I've nearly reached my initial weight from before the first hit (Summer 2011: 145 lbs returning from my semester in the Netherlands). And it's not just the weight I'm losing - I also feel stronger. After all the surgeries for my pilonidal cyst, I found myself running out of breath from simply going up the flight of stairs between the first and second floors of my house. That in itself was extremely discouraging because not only was I looking out of shape, but I was feeling it too. But I really do feel so much better now, mentally and physically.
ABOUT FUTURE POSTS
About future posts on this blog: because of financial reasons (blah, blah, BLAH), I will not be able to keep on top of all the new product releases as I initially wanted to. I still have quite a few new products to review, but I have as much, if not more, permanent-line products as well, so I'll probably be mixing the two together.
Additionally, my boyfriend got a camera that he may send me at some point. What this means is two things: (1) pictures on this blog should be of better quality and (2) I may be able to start making videos! If I do, I'm not sure which approach I will take - the behind-the-camera talker or the in-front-of-the-camera-presenter. I've never directly been in any kind of video before, so I'll have to see which works better for my purpose. BUT, I can say now with certainty that they will be very condensed versions of my typed reviews, for those who don't see the beauty in reading (haha oh the pun), aaaand because I know my reviews tend to be on the longer side...
I will also be starting a 'series' of sorts called TL;DR, which, as implied by the title, will be lengthier posts (kind of like this one...) that deal with topics that are of deep thought to me. Big examples are PCOS and my experience with pilonidal cysts. The purpose of these posts is to give those affected by the same issues/thoughts my opinions and experiences, and perhaps even encouragement to get past the difficulties that come with many of these topics. And for those who aren't affected by these issues, well, I'd still like to spread awareness. I know I personally had no idea that there was such a thing as a pilonidal cyst, for example, until I was in panic about the excruciating pain in my tailbone.
Anyway, that's it! Sorry for the long post, again. Ugh. :( But, if anything, I hope the last section about future posts has you excited about what's to come! 'Til next time! ('<>')>
~nikki
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