Sun and the Beach

I spent last week in California for work. Although I missed be away from home and had a lot of other things I needed to do to prepare for Austin it was nice to enjoy the warm weather of California.

For the last half of the week I was at the Seascape Resort in Aptos. This was the view from my room. It was awesome! I could hear the water in my room if I opened the patio doors.

Since I was there for work, they had all sorts of events and other things planned for our time. The best part was that we had dinner on the beach for the two nights we were there. The resort even set up bonfires and brought out supplies to make smores.

There is nothing more relaxing to me than watching the sunset and listening to the ocean.

All in all the trip was good. I did come home with a wicked sunburn though. My skin isn't used to the sun, since we haven't had very many warm sunny days yet this year.

I've been published...

well kind of. Maybe not really.

A few months back I had to travel to Memphis for work. While there my co-worker and I wandered around the city during our off time. I took a bunch of pictures and posted them to my flickr account. Well I was contacted by the people at Schmap!! and was told that they liked one of my pictures and wanted my authorization to possibly use the picture. My picture was then put in a pool of other pictures for them to choose from.

I just found out that they decided on my picture and it has been posted on their site. There is even photo credit given to me. Awesome!

The page can be found here.

Lovelies

Last year Penguin released a line of classics with the covers designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. I was so excited about them that I bought them from Canada and had them shipped to the states. I justified the purchase as a birthday present to myself. Although I still think I got the swine flu from the box these books came in I love them.

A few months ago Penguin release a 2nd line of more classics with more covers by Coralie Bickford-Smith. This time I wasn't fast enough to order them before they sold out in Canada. But Amazon just posted them for pre-sale, and with my birthday a few weeks away. I once again justified the purchase.

Now I just need a new house with a huge wall bookcase that I can put all of my beautiful books on.

Home

Folks, I am still alive. Just busy and not really feeling blog inspired.

Until my return. Here's one my new favorite songs.

Cardigans

Is it wrong to be in love in with cardigans & want them to be the only sweaters in your closet? I hope not... because I can't stop looking at them and wanting to buy them all.

Memphis

On Sunday I traveled to Memphis, TN for work. While there in my free time I was able to check out the surroundings. I wish I could have seen more and that it wasn't down pouring on Tuesday, when I had the whole day to explore.

The first night there I went to the B.B. King Blue club. There was an awesome live band.


Yeah, he was playing the guitar with his tongue. Crazy!

Beale street is awesome at night, with all of the neon signs.

I also wandered around the city and found some cool buildings.

I would love to go back and be able to explore the whole time, rather than in between work meetings. This city is so awesome and has an amazing history.

Sunshine?

Last week I had to fly to San Jose for work. It was a quick little trip, but I was able to spend some time with my colleges from another office and enjoy the warm and sunshine.

I do like being home - but as I was waiting for my car to warm up this morning so the ice on the window would melt (I couldn't find my ice scraper) I was nostalgic for the sun and warm for a few more weeks.

(View from my room)

(Santana Row)

Do you know..

how many foods in our life contain starch? It's insane! Really.

I know this, because for the next 3 weeks I am starch and sugar-free. Although that doesn't take away from my natural sweetness! ( ba dum!)

On Wednesday, I have to fly to San Jose for work, and felt that I should probably draw my diet to an early end. I stopped my shots on Saturday. The last week of the shot portion of the diet, was a struggle. My body seemed to be fighting me the whole way. That's another reason why I decided it was probably time to stop and move on to the next phase.

I ended with a total weight loss of 30 pounds (including the cleanse loss & diet). I am happy with it. Every little bit helps. Right now I just need to focus, make sure I follow the rules and keep the weight off.

I don't have a picture right now, but I'll get one up later.

Diet Week 4

Wow, it's been four weeks. I only have a little over a week to go until I am done with the shot. Sadly, I don't think I am going to meet my goal though. My goal was lofty, but I am very happy with what I have done so far.

Here are my updated tallies:

• Lost a total of 22.6 pounds (increase of 8 pounds since last week)
• Grand total lost of 27.4 pounds
  

Updated picture:

Something to Read

I can't seem to get into reading Jane Eyre (one of my favorite books). Maybe it's because I have read it before... who knows. I might just have some form of ADD that's undiagnosed. Either way, I am seeking everyone's thoughts on some really good books to read. Hopefully with a new book I can kick this ailment and enjoy reading a book again.

If I had more free time I would love to join a book club. How often to book clubs meet anyway? Anyone in a book club and like it?

Can you see that I am a mess? Help me, please.

writing on the walls
Originally uploaded by nardell

Diet week 3

I totally missed getting my Monday update up and even didn't get an updated picture. Ooops!

Well it's later but better than ever. As of Monday I had lost about 16.6 pounds. Then adding in my pre diet loss, it's a total of 21.6 pounds. Woo hoo!

October 2nd is the last day of taking shots, and then I have a 3 week adjustment period. By
October 2nd I am hoping to have lost a total amount of 41 pounds.

For those of you who have been following my diet and aren't aware of what I am doing, here's a little insight. I began by doing a liver/gallbladder cleanse. After that I went on the HCG diet, which is what I am currently on. Originally, I decided to do this diet because if done correctly it will reset your metabolism. Since I have hypothyroidism, my metabolism was messed up. I am currently on synthroid to correct the issue, but it doesn't set your metabolism back to normal. Once I did the cleanse and lost a little weight, I really got sucked into it and wanted to lose more in the hopes that I would feel more like myself. So far it seems to be helping.

On the HCG diet you are on a 500 calorie a day meal plan, while getting shots of HCG everyday. The HCG pulls from your fat storages and engorges your blood with between 1500 and 2000 calories a day. I know what you are thinking.. aren't you starving? Actually no. Since I have so many calories in my blood I am not starving. I do get hungry but I just eat one of the allowed meals and I am good. On this diet you can lose around a pound a day. You just have to make sure that you are drinking at least 2 quarts of fluid. Normally this isn't an issue for me, but lately I have started to feel water logged with all of the fluid, but I keep pushing on.

This diet may not be for everyone, but so far it seems to be working with me and I am happy with the results. It's also nice to find that I need new clothes because my old clothes aren't fitting anymore.

Diet week 2

I just finished the 2nd week of my diet. I am not finding it too hard, but there are moments when I long for the social aspect of dining out. Unfortunately, since the requirements are so strict dining out really isn't an option, unless you eat a plate of lettuce and have ice water to drink. True story.

I can't really feel too sorry for myself though, because I am loving the results that I am getting. I am finally feeling like my former self. After a couple of years struggling with weight gain caused by unknown causes it's nice to be on the other other end. Weight loss. Yay!

Here are my tallies so far:

• Dropped one pant size
• Lost a total of 14.6 pounds (increase of 5 pounds since last week)
• Grand total lost of 19.4 pounds
  

Updated picture:

Diet Update...

A week ago Sunday I began my new diet. Every morning I have to weigh myself to see my progress. Owning a scale is somewhat daunting to me. Scales and I have a checkered past and haven't always seen eye to eye. Currently this scale is my friend. Mostly because it keeps telling me I am losing weight (except this morning) and gaining more muscle. As of this morning I have lost 9.6 pounds. Bringing my cleanse and diet total to 14.4. I didn't do the best upkeep after the cleanse since I went on vacation the day after I finished.

Here's a picture from last night. Mind you it was taken at 10:30 and was a last minute type of thing so that I would have a picture of my progress for this post. Be gentle.

For the love of... BOOKS!

For my birthday in March I splurged and bought myself the whole set of these Penguin Books. They are the classics and have these fabulous covers.

I was just reading the design sponge blog and found out that Penguin Books is releasing 8 of these same titles in the US, but with different covers. Penguin how could you do this to me? You know I must get those books too. The covers are so fabulous!



Guess I need to save my pennies, and that wii purchase is back on the back burner.

Phase 2

Yesterday I started the next step in my weight loss adventure. Yes, adventure. I didn't plan ahead enough to get a before picture. I'll try and get Jon to take one tonight, so that it's not Myspace style in front of a mirror.

I'll post my weight loss progress next week.

***UPDATE***
I kind of slacked on the whole getting a before shot, so here is a picture that Jon took before I started the diet, but was mid cleanse. It's kinda embarrassing to see myself this way. Check out the other hot ladies in the pic though.

Cleanse & misc. housekeeping updates

I know I was going to post this on Saturday, but between everything going on at Craft Lake City and then leaving the next day for the saltflats it got looked over. Finally tally after 28 days is a weight loss of 10 pounds. Woo hoo!

I am going back to the wellness center in a little over a week and will see what will be the next step.

In other news.. thank you to everyone who came out to Craft Lake City and stopped by my booth and said hi. My apologies to those of you who came early while I was still having a minor stress out. Thanks to the fam who ran and got me a plug adapter. I never ended up getting the laptop hooked up to the wireless, but at least I am now set with an adapter if I ever need it again. Also, thanks to my mom and Chicka & hubby. Without them I never would have been set up in time.

I hope everyone had a good time and picked up some fabulous things from the vendors. I know I did!

Dilemma

For the past 20 days I have been minding my p's and q's when it comes to this cleanse I have been doing. I am feeling good and even have noticed a change in how my clothes fit. This has been awesome because I wasn't really expecting to see a change in my weight with this cleanse. As I mentioned in a prior post even others noticed a change without me mentioning to them I was doing this.

Well, that high came crashing down last night when I watched the dvr'd segment of my on the news yesterday morning.

I've always had a pretty good self esteem about myself, but the last couple of years that has all been put to the test with this unexplained weight gain. The gain has worn me down and frustrated me. I don't feel as though I have control over my own body and at some points don't even recognize the person that stares back at me in the mirror.

I have even noticed that I shy away from having my picture taken because the person that shows up in the picture as me, is not the person that lives in my head. I once again came face to face with this reality as I saw myself on tv. The person, "me", that was standing there talking was not me. I was even embarrassed and almost didn't want to finish watching myself.

Don't get me wrong... I know I am a great person and I know things will change. I am just really frustrated with my current state. But, I feel like I am in the right path in getting help to jump start some weight change. Here's to hoping it all works. After the 8th I will be down with the cleanse and will post my weight progress.

For those of you who missed the tv segment. Here are some pics Jon took with his phone. Please keep in mind I am being brave in posting these, since I am obviously not happy with who I am in them.

Busy Bee

The last little while I have been prepping for Craft Lake City. I have even put Jon to work asking for his assistance with painting. For my display I found some nice tables, but of course I had to make things difficult and insist that they be painted the colors I wanted.

I've been a mess the last few days trying to get everything accomplished that I want to. Here's a shot of my the current state of my craft room.

Part of my stress is due in part to the fact that I have to do a mock set up tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn for the Channel 2 News with Casey Scott. If you are up that early tune in and you might get to see a sneak peek of my both and maybe yours truely!

How I roll..

In an attempt to make my blog more interesting I am going to start a blog label titled "How I roll..". For these posts I am going to let you all in, a little more, on my crazy life. I imagine it will be pictures of crazy randomness that is my daily life.

Are you all ready?

Random Thoughts

I've been kinda MIA again... I have been busy and haven't exactly been inspired to write on my blog. I used to think that I wanted a blog that people would flock to and read everyday. Then I realized my blog really isn't that interesting. It's just random tidbits of my thoughts, ramblings and other stuff I throw up here on the good 'ol internet. Anyway... I still don't have much to say. This weekend I will try and post pictures from a recent mini adventure.

Side note: I started my medical cleanse as recommended by the Integrative Medicine Center that I have been going to. I didn't exactly love that every doctor I previously went to wanted to give me some prescription to "fix" my problem - so I decided to try a more Eastern approach. It's a 28 day cleanse and I am on day 10. I already notice a difference and others have noticed too. Only downside, I get an occasional craving for a food I can't have. We'll see what a difference has been made at the end of day 28.