Day 12: Snowmageddon

People in Seattle love to pretend like the world is ending when snow is predicted and even more so when snow actually falls from the sky in this city.  I think it's great.  I love snow.  I grew up with snow and tons of it during the winter.  The city is different though, the chance of snow will shut the entire city down. Today it snowed, it's supposed to snow for the rest of the weekend.  I say, bring it on.

My tune this morning however was different.  No walk happened yesterday, I spent an hour with the plumber in the morning waiting for him to remove a knarly hairball so I could shower, the rest of the day at work and went to root on some of my awesome high school teens at their varsity basketball games last night.  I remembered one thing, I hated high school.  I am so happy to be past that point in life, I can look back and realize that I learned a lot from that experience and it made me a stronger person, but I would never go back.  But, I also realized how much I LOVE high schoolers, I love getting to be a part of their lives, it makes my heart soooo happy.  I had a great sense of pride last night in that gym seeing all the kids who are growing up and I've gotten to be a part of their lives.  After the game, my trusty workout partner Noelle and I decided we would change up the weekend schedule based on the weather predictions.  We decided to hike on Saturday and swim laps on Sunday because Monday the pool is closed for MLK day.  Upon awakening this morning is when my tune changed.  I could see that the weather in the mountains wasn't so great so we decided on a walk our favorite paved path around our local lake.  I decided to step my game up and walk to said lake.  So, I headed out on my urban hiking adventure to meet Noelle at the lake.  It was sprinkling rain this morning when I left.  I had my rain coat on, Pete had his coat on and we hit the streets.  After leaving my front door, the path is directly vertical.  So I huffed and puffed to the top of the hill and then descended down and on the flat road to the lake.  I think it's about 2.5 miles to the lake from my house.  When I got to the lake, I realized it wasn't just sprinkling anymore, it was raining.  I was already soaked and the wind was blowing, I was freezing.  I started the loop around the lake and Noelle was going to meet up with me along the way...and it wasn't getting warmer people.  It started raining slush.  Then as my teeth started to chatter and my legs seemed to turn into a solid icicle, my comic relief showed up.  "Alison, it's not raining, it's SNOWING."  She was right, it was full on snowing and we were about a third of the way around the lake.  No turning back though, we're hard core.  Today is one of those days where I wish we weren't so determined or hard core, if we were smart, we would have turned around then and gone back to her car.  Snow was spraying in my face as we hoofed it around the lake, probably the fastest time we've ever walked it because we wanted to desperately to be done.  At one point Noelle said, "you know, this must be what...." and then I chimed in with "armageddon feels like" and she proclaimed, "no, I was thinking Hell."  All we could do was laugh after that for fear of real emotion setting in and realizing how miserable we were, not to mention the dog.  My dog is great, I love me some Pete, but he's kind of a wuss.  He was cowering under any tree that looked dry and trying to go indoors anytime we passed a set of stairs or a business along the way.  Finally we made it, Noelle ran ahead to get the car and I kept plugging along towards the car.  We climbed into the car attempting to get warm and Noelle drove us through the blizzard to get me home :).

I immediately jumped in the shower, maybe not the best idea.  As the hot water hit me, my body turned into what looked like a 2nd degree burn, skin was glowing red and hot pink and I was itching like I had poison ivy.  I'm now wrapped in my warmest clothing, a blanket and have been drinking hot coffee like there's no tomorrow.  Every heater in the house in on and I'm still shivering.  I am so thankful that Noelle supports me in all things in life, though today wasn't one of our finer moments together.  If I would have had to walk back home, I for sure would have been found later today curled on the side of the road in a hypothermic state.

It's Saturday, that means weigh in day.  I have been anticipating this day all week, as I said on day 10, my clothes feel different and my body feels different this week.  In my mind I'm thinking, I'm sure to have lost another big number this week.  But the back of my mind was reminding me that last weeks weight loss was due to my cleanse and that I ate food everyday this week so I returned with hoping that I hadn't gained any of that 10 pounds back from last week.  I have "attempted to change my life" enough to know that after massive weight loss, your body reacts and readjusts itself.  My body definitely adjusted itself this week and moved my fat around so that my clothes would feel better.  I feel good about what I ate this week and wasn't going to be upset about that.  There were definite moments where sugar took over and I shouldn't have put those delicious bites in my mouth, but I did.  I still feel good about it.  I got out of the house and walked or swam 6 out of 7 days this week.  Yay me!  I want a routine, I want Pete to get into a routine, I want him to bite my ankles if I don't take him out for long walks everyday.  I want people to ask me where I walked today...so ask me!

So, drumroll......

Current Weight:  281.8
Weight Lost this week:  1.4 pounds
Total Weight Lost:  12 pounds

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad bit disappointed, but at the same time I feel relief because I lost the week after my cleanse and I didn't gain!  Have we talked about my goal weight?  I don't think so.  I more than anything want to be in what the Biggest Loser has coined, ONE-derland.  I haven't been under 200 pounds probably since middle school, possibly grade school.  I have NEVER been thin, though I have always been active.  I don't see my ideal body as being THIN either.  I see it as being healthy.  I love having muscular legs and a big booty and boobs.  I just want to say goodbye to my flag waiving under arms and my jiggle jiggle jiggle jiggle jiggle belly.  I know in the process I will loose some boob fat, which sucks, because as I said before, I love my boobs.  Too much?  Maybe.  But that's honesty for ya.  So, goal weight, somewhere around 175.  I'm 5"10 and I want a healthy amount of fat to still be hanging out on my body when this is over, so I may change my mind.  But I'd love to have a countdown of how many pounds to go as well, so I'm gonna say 175 for now.

So.....

Pounds to go:  106.8

That means when this is over in a year, two years, three years, however long it takes, I will have lost almost half my body...crazy.

On the docket for tomorrow is lap swim, a much warmer safer choice then venturing out into the now frozen arctic tundra to walk the pooch.  I'm not sure at this point he will even let me take him out.  He'll be defrosting in front of the heater for the next two days.

For today, I will be consuming warm foods only....