Dilemma

I've been on Weight Watchers for about four months now.
I've had some success, not a tremendous amount but some.
In the meantime, I've been spending $40 per month for the Weight Watchers membership. With that $40 I can attend meetings whenever I want, and use all of the online resources - community message boards, online weight tracker, recipe builder, stuff like that.
Out of all of those resources, the only thing I do actually use is the weekly meetings... and I'm not too thrilled about those. The "leader" we have is nice, but I just don't find the meetings to be all that engaging. To be completely honest, half of the time the meetings thoroughly piss me off. Now, I understand that if you're going into a meeting with at least a dozen other people who are trying to lose weight, there are going to be people who have issues with their relationship towards food.
There will be people who may not overeat, but just don't make the wisest choices in regards to what types of food they put into their body. These will be the people who eat regular meals, but maybe those meals don't have a proper nutritional balance - they may be to carb or fat heavy and are lacking in lean protein, fiber, whole grains and vegetables. Those are the people who need to put more focus on the quality of their food as opposed to the quantity. Those are the people who may not have a problem with passing over food when they aren't truly hungry. I believe that this is the category that I fall into.
What I've benefited from Weight Watchers in the past four months is that I've been reminded of how to make healthier choices... to chose baked over fried, to increase the vegetables and lean protein in my diet, to chose healthier fats such as olive oil and skim milk. I'm not saying that I make these healthier choices all of the time, but I'm trying - undoing a lifetime of poor choices is not going to happen overnight, theres going to be a learning curve and a transition phase. However, I know the basics and am on my way there.

My dilemma at this point is that I really don't want to attend the meetings any longer. I am bored beyond belief during the 45 minutes that I'm there, counting down the minutes until I can leave, and getting angry when the meeting goes over the scheduled time. Since I know the basics at this point that I can continue with implementing them into my daily life on my own. I have the resources to make educated choices, and have the motivation (more in a moment...) to continue with the weight loss.

Also, theres other things I could do with that $40 each month. Like, join a gym.
I can get a discounted gym membership through my work to 24 Hour Fitness for less than $40 each month.

I've got motivation to continue losing weight, and motivation to start working out more.
The weight loss motivation is my cousin Carries wedding. At the end of August I'm going to be a bridesmaid in her wedding, and this is the dress I'll be wearing:


You see how I'm going to need to try to tone my arms up a bit for that?

The motivation to start exercising more is the 3-day, 60 mile, breast cancer walk I'm planning on participating in this fall. I've got a lot of training to do if I'm seriously going to complete this walk without killing myself.
I've also gotten the idea in my head that I NEED to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I think I got this idea when I found roundtrip airfare from San Francisco to Lima Peru for $409 this May. I don't want to go to Peru and NOT see Machu Picchu, but I also know that I am not in the physical shape that the hike would demand. While everything I've read says that the hike is not that challenging as far as the terrain is concerned, the altitude is what makes it demanding. In order to successfully complete the hike I would need to train for it physically, at high elevations as well as on a stair master. I would love to be able to go to Peru and complete this goal next April - thats the tail end of the "wet" season and right before the crowded tourist season begins.

So, what should I do?
Stick with Weight Watchers and go to the dreaded meetings each week, or drop it, continue the better eating habits on my own, and join a gym?
Historically, I have done better with weight loss when I've gone to the gym and worked out and am hoping that doing that again would help to boost my currently sluggish metabolism.
Let me know your opinion in the poll on the left.
Also, let me know what you think of the dress!

A Belated Happy New Year

2008 was a good year.

I was able to visit London for a week in April and then in August some friends and I went camping in Fort Bragg.
That was the extent of my travel for 2008. It may not have been as extensive as 2007 when I visited Oregon, Germany, France, Salt Lake City, and Italy, but it was just as enjoyable. My fair skin and curly hair agree with the misty climates of the British Isles and the Northern California coastal regions. My demeanor also agrees with pints of Guinness in an authentic pub and cocktails around campfires -- both with good friends, of course.

Now, for the big question... What are my New Years resolutions?
This is a tricky one. I was considering not doing any resolutions at all because a year can sometimes seem like a long time and I've got the attention span of an oh look! Something shiny!
Truth be told, typically at the beginning of the year I will come up with resolutions, and within just a couple of weeks I've completely forgotten what they were.
I've decided that this year I"m not going to come up with resolutions for the year. Instead, I am going to have an "action plan" (by the way, I hate that phrase -- SO corporate employee improvement oriented. If you can think of a better term, please let me know) for each week. I will have things to accomplish during the week that are aimed at more long term goals... baby steps towards the bigger picture.
This weeks baby steps:
1. Go for a walk - simple enough, right? I plan on doing the 3-day, 60 mile, breast cancer walk next fall. I'd better start working towards it. This Saturday is the perfect opportunity, some friends are part of a running/walking training group and they're getting up Saturday to go running/walking along the American River at the butt crack of dawn. Also known as 8:30 am. I typically sleep in until about 10, if not later, on the weekends. This will probably be physically painful for me.
2. Work on my ongoing computer issues - a temporary resolution may be right around the corner! Not the resolution I'd like, but possibly something to get me by for a bit.
3. Get back on track with Weight Watchers. Around Halloween at some point I stopped journaling and keeping track of points and everything but have continued to loosely (very loosely) follow the plan and have been up and down since then. Since I'm paying monthly fees for this program I should be using it properly, right?
4. Resurrect my travel blog. I started 2008 pretty well on that thing, at least for the first two months, then things just kind of petered off. I'm going to be getting it back on track for 2009 though. I've already uploaded some photos from my London trip.
5. Take 5 usable photographs. I'd like to elaborate on this.... but can't yet. Top secret project in the works.

Thats pretty much it on this weeks task list. I'll let you know how they work out.

On a side note:
OH. MY. GOD. I want this and I am not ashamed to admit it. Okay, maybe I am just a little bit ashamed. But only a little.

A Little Q & A Session....

Shananigans asks five questions...

1. You are quite crafty. What was your first craft obsession, and what was the best item you created ever?

Hmmm... this one is tougher than I'd thought it would be.
I think I was about 6, maybe 7, when my great-grandmother first taught me how to crochet. I wasn't that great at it and it didn't really offer much in the ways of instant gratification so it didn't hold my interest for too terribly long. Around the same age I had a brief obsession with beads and would make these friendship pin things with small seed beads and safety pins - my dad kept his on his corduroy blazer for a LONG time (hey, it was the 80's - give him a break about the corduroy blazer already. Geesh!)
I don't recall the little safety pin friendship beads obsession lasting too terribly long though.
After that it was cross stitch. It started with me wanting to make something for my grandmother in Oregon when I was about 10 or 11 and my mom got me to cross stitch some tea towels for her new kitchen. I THINK I made a set of 7, one for each day of the week. Last year, after my grandmother passed away, my family was going through some of mer memento boxes looking for photos to have up at the services and reception afterwards and I found this piece of one of the tea towels I'd made her nearly 20 years earlier

My grandpa said that she'd been wanting to have the piece matted and framed to hang in the house.
It was so touching to see that she'd kept this faded, tattered and worn piece of cross stitch that I'd made as a child. We found a lot of things that I'd made her over the years - hats, scarves, afghans, photographs, drawings, lots of things, but this piece touched me the most.

2. What are looking forward to most about becoming an auntie?

SO MUCH! Theyre mainly all selfish reasons though, like the benefits of essentially having a child vicariously through someone else. Watching her little personality develop, from the first time she coos to her learning to say my name, subverting her mothers authority (hehe!). When she's old enough I look forward to taking her for the day and going to the zoo or the park, her thinking I'm the coolest auntie ever, feeding her a huge sundae untile she's wired on the sugar and then handing her back over to her mother. All of this without having to push a human being out of my va-jay-jay.
Also, I have 2 aunts myself - Gloria was incredibly cool, more like an older sister. I could talk to her about ANYTHING while I was growing up - like boys, kissing, stuff like that. She was only 14 years older than me, so I grew up thinking that she was incredibly cool and hip. While she was in high school and immediately afterwards, she used me as a litmus test for the guys she was dating. If they thought nothing of taking me to the park as their afternoon date, they were okay as far as she was concerned. If they found it annoying to be hauling around a 3 year old on their date, they failed and she dumped them.
My other aunt, my cousin Erins mother, Marla, is more cultured and would take me to the symphony, ballet and opera. She is a high school french teacher and would take students on European tours every other summer, bring me back little souvenirs from everywhere she went and teaching me about the various cultures. When I was 6, and they'd returned from the first tour that Erin was allowed to go on (she was 7) she helped Erin teach me about the french cafe culture, setting up coffee service on their patio table and allowed me to have a teeny tiny glass of redn wine with a french dinner that she'd cooked. I thought it was amazing that she allowed me to participate in such adult activities and that it made me so elegant. She taught me french phrases and I would have to use those during the french dinner or cafe time.
Neither or my aunts ever treated me like a child, never spoke down to me, and always expected me to treat them with respect and they gave me the same in return.
Basically I want to do the same for my little niece that my aunts did for me. Share the cultures that I encounter, and introduce her to the whole world.

3. You’ve got the travel bug. I know you’ve traveled in Europe and have another trip to Italy coming up. Are there any off the beaten path trips you really want to take, like Antarctica or something?

One of my goals in life is to visit 6 of the 7 continents - all except Antartica. There is some controversy on the issue of Antartica though. My father says that I should visit Antartica, that he's heard how beautiful it is and that I should go just for the ability to say that I've seen all 7 continents. That is tempting but I'm not too sure. First of all, COLD COLD COLD! I don't care for the cold. Two - I read something lately where a person had done a cruise down to the Antartic and how beautiful it was and that in a sense they were tempted to tell all of their friends to go, but at the same time hesitant because it is the one continent that has had very little human influence and the more people see it the more you see evidence of that human influence. I feel as though I shouldn't contribute to the degradation of that environment.
There are some other trips I want to take though - after Italy, I'm hoping to make my way to a continent other than Europe. I would LOVE to go to South America, I just have a hard time deciding where. Argentina? Chile? Brazil? I would like to learn to tango in Buenos Aires. Climb to Macchu Picchu (sp?) to see the ruins. Stand at the foot of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil and feel small, even though I'm not overtly religious.
I would also like to go to Asia, but again can't decide where. Japan? China? Hong Kong? Laos? I would like to see the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Walk along the Great Wall of China. See the Cantonese Opera perform, then do a little shopping, and finish the day by watching the sunset over Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong. Go to Laos and feel at peace in a Buddhist Temple.
There are so many places I want to experience.

4. If you could quit your job and make up your own career (threat of financial instability notwithstanding) what would it be?

This one is easy - travel writer and photographer. If I could market myself as the female version of Rick Steves I would do it in a heartbeat. Offering travel guides and tips for the independent woman would make my soul sing.

5. You, like me, are a pub dweller on occasion. What’s your favorite from the tap?

That depends upon where I am.
Here in Sacramento my favorite is Newcastle Brown Ale. When I can find it I do prefer Amber Bock, but thats not easy to come by on tap.
In Ireland - Guinness, hands down. The flavor of Guinness over there is completely different than here, it has a sweeter, almost chocolate, taste to it.
In Germany, it would be Kolsch. I'd never heard of it before going there, and it is much much lighter than what I normally prefer but it was great. I've heard that Curve Ball by Pyramid Brewing Company is highly comparable to the Kolsch of Cologne Germany, where I had it, and we have a Pyramid Brewery here in Sacramento so I may be going there to try it soon.
In France, I only drank wine so I'm not really in the position to suggest anything from there.


If anyone else wants to answer 5 questions, let me know - the first 10 to respond will get 5 customized questions from ME!

Amazing!

I LOVE The Amazing Race.
Considering how much I love to travel and how much of the world I want to see, it is the perfect show for me - 28 days of racing around the world.
My lovely cousin Erin is a fan of the show as well, and for the past year or two she and I have jokingly said that we thought we'd make a great team. I'm a bit more practical, can navigate well, find the cheapest and quickest routes between locations, stuff like that. Erin is the one who would handle the cultural issues better, she's GREAT with languages, speaks German, a bit of French, and a smidge of Arabic. We would balance each other out fairly well.
We've been saying that we'd be this great team purely in jest, never with any intentions of ACTUALLY auditioning for it. I have my job, and she has school, it really would take some fancy footwork to coordinate our lives to match the filming schedule and all.
Tonight we were at the pub, talking about our trip to Germany and Paris next week.
Out of nowhere 3 or 4 of our friends say that they think we'd be a great team for The Amazing Race. I take this as a sign that we need to apply.
So, I just have to find out when the next round of auditions are - if the auditions are in person or via videotape.
Sooooo, any suggestions on how to make an audition that grabs the attention of the casting directors?

Erin and I on my 30th birthday... I think we'd make a killer team.

Greetings 2007

New Years Eve was a blast. I went out with Erin, Kelly & Stephanie for dinner at Tapa the World where we shared some tapas and had a couple rounds of Mojitos. Afterwards we adjourned to our favorite pub, Bonn Lair, where we rang in the new year. It was great, many drinks were consumed, and we all had a great time.

Now, some resolutions. first, I'd like to review my resolutions from last year:
1. QUIT SMOKING
Well, that didn't exactly work out. Back in early September I did give it a shot, but there was only one completely smoke free day.
2. LOSE WEIGHT
Yeah, didn't get that one done either.
3. COMPLETE THE AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION TOUR DE CURE BIKE RIDE
I'm 0 for 3 so far.
4. BLOG MORE FREQUENTLY
I did accomplish this one. I went from blogging once a week to about twice a week on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less (like the past couple of weeks).
5. TAKE A FABULOUS VACATION
Check! Ireland this past May was amazing. It was definitely one of the best things I've ever done and has inspired me to make travel a higher priority in my life.
6. START A ROTH IRA
Nope. Didn't do that either. Thankfully I do have other retirement investments.
7. PAY OFF MY DEBTS
I came so incredibly close. I was down to about $200 total debt when I bought my new car.
8. GET ORGANIZED
Nope.
9. BE MORE ACTIVE
Nope again.
10. GO SOMEPLACE I'VE NEVER BEEN BEFORE
Yep. Ireland, baby!
11. WORK ON MY "100 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE" LIST.
I crossed out an item or two, but am not sure whether or not I added anything to it.
12. KNIT SOMETHING OTHER THAN A SCARF.
Done. I've made more than a few purses, a couple of ponchos, a top for Janae, some hats, and I am still working on my Viveka sweater.
13. DATE.
Nope.
14. READ MORE.
I did read more in 2006 than in 2005, but still not as much as I would have liked.

So, I was only able to complete 6 out of 14 items. Not good. I'm hoping to do better in 2007....

1. BECOME MORE FINANCIALLY AWARE.
I will be the first to admit that I don't know where the hell most of my money goes. I know that I have a considerable amount taken out of each check for my 401k and other investments, but even after that my take home pay seems to disappear way too quickly. I should be able to account for it in some way, but I generally can't.
2. LOSE SOME WEIGHT
I'd like to lose 20 lbs before my trip to Germany.
3. TAKE A FABULOUS VACATION
I'm thinking this will be an annual resolution.
4. GET OUT MORE
Its so easy for me to stay in and be a homebody.
5. GET ORGANIZED
I need to give this one another shot.

In addition to these, I think I may have to implement some weekly and/or monthly goals.
My goal for this week, to launch my ETSY site.