Florida Fall Begins! Kind of...

Floridians are funny creatures when it comes to the changing "seasons" and I use quotation marks with that because let's face it...we don't really have seasons here. It's either hot, insanely hot, or cool enough to warrant wearing pants and long sleeved shirts with our flip-flops. Still, when the temperatures dip below 70 degrees for the first time after summer we all go digging in our closets for our winter clothes.

I'm going to take a moment to brag on my awesome Mom skills. I just went to the closet and pulled out some bags of clothes I bought from Old Navy for the kids when they were clearancing out last years winter items. I got a bunch of shirts and pants for $1-$2 each in the next size up. They are now all hung up in the kids closets and I'm so glad I did that. Hopefully Hannah actually likes hers, but if not...too bad! I'm glad I didn't buy many tops for myself though, because I'm excited to announce that NONE OF THEM FIT! Luckily they're comfy tops, so they will make great sleep shirts. Totally great feeling though, pulling out those shirts and realizing I'm not an XL anymore.

Mild morning chill aside, I'm still not quite ready to give up on the kiddie pools and summer stuff. I figure we have at least a few more good pool weekends left, and maybe now that it's not a million degrees outside, a beach weekend finally. I'm definitely happy to see the cooler weather creeping in, and there's something about it that is motivational for me. Maybe Hailey and I can start taking walks again!

Anyhow, just as I predicted I totally cheated all weekend on my plans to eat properly. So now I only have myself to blame if I never get my hands on a copy of Mists of Pandaria, but let's be honest here...it's not like I actually have time to play it anyway. Not really much of a loss right now, but I do intend to go to the gym today if they will let me put Hailey in the gym day care. She is sounding a bit stuffed up and sniffly, but her nose isn't quite running yet. I think if I get out of the house this morning and get in there I should be ok. Although now that I stop and think of it, I feel like I might be starting to get sniffly too. I am so not in the mood for a change of weather sinus cold right now.

Ok, I got my daily blog in there. Now it's time to get to work, knock out my school stuff and get to finding awesome podcast topics for tonight's recording of The Mommy Gamers!

I'm a Cheater, So What?

You'd think I could have made it through at least a day, but nope. At this rate I may never get my hands on Mists of Pandaria. Friday started out great, I was motivated, I ate great for breakfast and lunch, even went to the gym and worked out for almost an hour. My fatal flaw was forgetting that I had a Thirty-One party that night.  Well, I remembered the party, I just didn't remember to not pig out on the amazing flatbread pizzas the hostess made and might have over indulged in the pinot grigio and martinis. For the record, wine and martinis combined make for an awful headache the next day. Never mix them!

Saturday I woke up with that all too familiar pounding head and wanted to retreat back into my bed and stay there for the rest of my life. Not really an option with a herd of children, so I begged my father to bring doughnuts when he came to visit for the day. I was proud of myself when I ignored the doughnuts and made some sausage and eggs. I mowed the front and back yard, so I figured that burnt like...a million calories?

 However, the day quickly downward spiraled from there. I vaguely recall tortilla chips and black bean salsa, some of the most beautiful t-bone steaks I've ever seen, loaded baked potato, and to finish the night off some spaghetti with sausage crumbles, onions, and mushrooms...and garlic bread.

I wish I'd never discovered these sausage crumbles.

I went to bed when the kids did, feeling like a bloated pig and forgetting to blog the entire day. So there goes that goal too. So, I'm a cheater...what is it about starting to want to eat well that makes you eat worse?

Today is Sunday and I've already cheated, chowing down on a breakfast pastry instead of grabbing one of the many healthy options in the house. We've got some family coming over for the day so I grabbed lunchmeats, chips, some awesome fresh baked sliced italian bread, and I'm about to toss some chili in the crock pot. Oh well, tomorrow is another day right?

Also, since we're gearing up for Halloween, if you want to be a Blood Elf this year you've still got time to pick up your ears lol.

No More Fat Panda

I don't think I was bold enough to post my starting weight for 2012. I will say that I was creeping uncomfortably close to the 190's and at 5'8 which is not in the "healthy weight range" at all. I got off to a pretty good start, hitting the gym, eating better, getting random exercise like Dance Central 2 and mowing the lawn instead of paying someone to do it, but I've definitely slacked off. My excuses of "oh the kids are here for the summer and they hate the gym" (you'll remember that from Episode 9 of my podcast) and "I'll wait until school starts and we get into a routine", or "I'm too depressed to go" are all lame excuses and it's time to get back on track.

So, how do I get motivated to go to get back in gear? First of all I'm trying to be pretty positive. I've lost TWENTY pounds this year which is fantastic! Sure, I wanted to have lost way more than that by now, but with what I've been juggling this year I'm just happy I can still say I lost anything. I used to use a system of goals and rewards, and that worked out pretty good. My rewards were things like new gym clothes, a heart rate monitor (which I never even use), etc. Those just won't fly anymore so I had to go more hard core.

I'm not letting myself buy the new Mists of Pandaria expansion for WOW until I get back on track.

Now, I know some of you are wondering why this is blog worthy. Well, I figure if I put it out there into the magical interwebs, at least a few of you that read this play WOW with me and will know if I cheated. So this is my strange way of holding myself accountable.

What is on track? I actually sat down with my weight loss journal and calculated how much I would have to lose to get to my goal by the end of the year, then I tacked on an extra five pounds of weight loss just because I was feeling bad ass that day. I'm kind of regretting that now, because had I not written that down, I wouldn't be so far off, but it's there in INK and there it shall remain. Basically I only needed to drop one pound a week from the time I started calculating. So right now, I'm only behind by 2 pounds...but Mists of Pandaria comes out in 4 days.

And just to push myself a little bit further, if I can actually post to this blog every day while I'm trying to reach this goal, I'm going to reward myself with the collector's edition!

Here's to hoping this works, and pushes me to reach my goals, if not I guess I'll be a sad panda...just not in the World of Warcraft.

Free Doughnuts for Pirates

Want to be the most amazing person in your office today? Stop by Krispy Kreme on your way into work in full pirate attire and land yourself the best booty of them all (no not my booty) an entire DOZEN warm sugary doughnuts for FREE*. You don't have to wave your sword around, mostly because weapons are not allowed in the stores (party poopers). Not brave enough to dress like a pirate? Well if you can muster up a pirate accent and belt out a couple "shiver me timbers" or "ARGs" you will get one delicious treat for your efforts.

Another fun activity today is the Pirate Generator at StupidStuff.org that not only gives you a great pirate name, but a story to go along with it. Stories range from lame to perverse and are all amusing. I almost hesitated to post mine on my facebook page, and if you're not following me on there I'll also share it here, keep in mind all of the good "cannonball" jokes have already been made:

Your Pirate name is Screaming Samantha - Arrrr, you were born to sail the high seas and fly the Jolly Roger. Unfortunately you don't have a ship, crew, cannons, or even a parrot, so you sit in the bathtub and wash your boobies over and over whilst screaming "Surrender or die, surrender or die!"

Enjoy pirate day in any way you see fit, but make sure to participate in some way!

For more pirate fun, make sure to visit the official Talk Like a Pirate Day Site.

*Fine Print: Offer good for one free doughnut per customer who wears an eye patch or talks like a pirate to a Krispy Kreme team member at a participating shop. One free dozen Original Glazed doughnuts per customer who wears a full pirate costume into a participating Krispy Kreme location. Redeemable on September 19, 2012 only at participating Krispy Kreme US locations.