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!

What am I, Crazy???

Wait. Don't answer that.

Every so often I get some wild hair up my backside to do something. Sometimes I go through with it, and sometimes I don't. When I do go through with it I get all gung-ho crazy and obsessed. A couple examples...

Several years ago I had been watching my diet and practicing yoga semi-regularly - I tried to make a class about once a week. By doing these two things, I started losing weight so I then started going to yoga more frequently, 2-3 times per week, and pilates occaisionally, maybe once every other week. Naturally, when I became more active I started to lose even more weight. Yeah, I started to get a little obsessed. I was considering becoming a yoga instructor at the urging of the owner of the studio I was going to, I was looking into yoga retreats as vacation options, half of my wardrobe was various yoga pants and tank tops.
I didn't limit my obsession with physical activity to just yoga though. Somewhere in the middle of all of this I read about the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure which is either a 25, 50 or 100 mile bike ride to raise funding for diabetes research. I was training for the 50 mile ride. In addition to yoga and pilates, I would go on bike rides throughout the week. I would take my bike to work on the back of my car, and on my way home I would stop off at the American River Bike trail and ride for about 5 miles before returning home. On weekends I would go on 15 mile rides around my town. In the evenings, or when weather would not allow biking, I would lift handweights. I walked around my house, and the grocery store or Target, with ankle weights. I was dead serious about my training.
About a month before the ride I got bronchitis. While the antibiotics did clear out the bronchitis, I still didn't feel like my usual self and my workouts were nowhere near as easy as they had been in the previous months. But, I kept pushing through it figuring that I just had to build myself back up to the level that I was at before I got sick. It never got any easier and then I started to develop this really weird stabbing pain in my ribcage whenever I did try to work out. Then that stabbing pain was there whenever I took a breath. I went back to the doctors and was diagnosed with pleurisy just a week before the Tour de Cure. I was out of the ride. I knew that with the pain I was in there was no possible way I would be able to come anywhere near doing a 50 mile bike ride.
At that point I was so disappointed that I stopped riding my bike, stopped going to yoga and pilates and slowly gained back all of the weight I had lost, plus an additional 40lbs.

Another time I got all gung ho about something was just a little over two years ago. for New Years Eve 2005. I was at home, sick, watching Sex and the City DVDs when I rang in 2006. Lying there, I decided that my resolution that year would be to go somewhere that required a passport. I briefly forgot about my resolution for a couple of months, then remembered it when I was preparing to do my taxes in late February. As soon as I found out how much my tax refund was going to be that year I went online and booked tickets to Ireland. The rest is history - I've been obsessed with travel ever since and have made it my personal goal to take at least one international trip each year and I aim to visit every continent except Antarctica during my lifetime.

Other ideas that have just been a flash in the pan...

A few years ago I got some random idea that I wanted to photograph all of the California Missions. I spent a couple days mapping out where all of the missions are, which ones could be done in short day or weekend trips, figuring out which ones were in the closest proximity to one another and would be feasible to visit two in the same day.
I also thought it would be cool to photograph California lighthouses and/or boardwalks.
However, have you seen or heard me speak of any photos of ANY of the missions, lighthouses, or boardwalks???

My latest idea? A walk for breast cancer research. This one has a bit of a surprise to it though. Its in October of next year (yep, 2009) and I would need to start training soon. I know what you're thinking "What? Train? For a WALK? Come on now Vanessa, you can't possibly be serious." But I am.
It is a 3-day, sixty mile, walk. Check it out.

So, am I crazy to consider this?

By the way, these are the glasses I ended up ordering

The trials of a new puppy

Ahhh.... puppyhood.

Friday morning I woke up, thankful that it was the last work day prior to a 3 day holiday weekend. I reached over to my nightstand for my glasses and they weren't there.

Fast forward through a good 20 minutes of me blindly stumbling throughout the entire house searching for my glasses. Where were they? With Coopers chewies and toys. And mangled pretty badly.

Without glasses, I can't see. Without glasses, the DMV won't allow me to operate a motor vehicle, and thats a good thing. Without glasses, I can't see worth a damn and knew that I wouldn't be able to go to work that day.
That was interesting phone call:

Me Yes, I don't know when I'll be able to make it in to work today.
Boss: You're sick? (with sound of suspicion since this is the Friday before the Labor Day weekend)
M: Not exactly. Puppy ate my glasses
B: BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Call me when you can see.

I figured that I'd go to Lens Crafters since they advertise "glasses in about an hour", or at least thats what I remember them always advertising.
In the meantime, I browse their website, looking at various frames so that I'll have an idea of what I want and can speed up the whole frame selection process.
I narrowed it down to 2 pairs that I thought were AWESOME. Theyre quirky, a little eclectic, definitely not glasses you see everyday. In fact, theyre even described as "sassy" on the Lens Crafters website. My younger cousins say I'm "sassy" and even have "Sassy" instead of my name programmed into their cell phones.
Just check them out for yourself...



Cute, huh?
If you look real close, and its not early, and your current glasses haven't been chewed on by a 15 week old puppy, you'll see that they're Bulgari's. Theyre also nearly $400. Thats when I had a mild freak out. Yes, theyre a designer name and have those cute crystal flower things on the sides, but still! $400???

So, I wait until Lens Crafters opens and guess what: my insurance won't recognize Lens Crafters. To be honest, with $400 frames I'm not sure that I blame them.

I called my optometrist, but wasnt able to get in for an appointment until 12:30. The dr fitted me for contacts to hold me over until my glasses come in and then spent a good 45 minutes trying on practically every frame in the shop. Also of note - it had been 3 years since my last eye exam so the dr dialated my eyes and I couldn't see a thing less than 3 feet away for next couple of hours and ended up taking the rest of the day off from work.

The contacts. Over the years people have seen me take off my glasses for photos, comment on my eyes, and ask why I don't wear contacts or have lasik surgery.

Well, a few years ago I did look into lasik surgery. I had a consultation and everything. The doctor told me that I have larger than normal pupils (great - my boobs, ass, and now my pupils. ALL larger than normal)and while they can do the surgery and correct my vision, I would see halos around lights (because of the whole pupil deal) and have less than perfect night vision. Initially I did schedule to have the procedure done, but as the date got closer I decided against it. I figure that the point of lasik surgery is to correct my vision - not correct it for half of the time while causing another vision problem the other half of the time. My thoughts on it are that if I give them a few more years, perhaps technology will advance to the point that they'll even be able to correct vision for the big-pupil-afflicted.

Contacts - I've worn them off and on over the years. However, I've never been able to get a proper fit, especially on my right eye. I guess my astigmatism is such that I can't get a good snug fit - I can feel the contacts move to the point that its annoying at times, and they get really dry and uncomfortable and when they get dry, everything gets kinda foggy and hazy. Like I've had a couple martinis, but without the soothing buzz.
These trial contacts that the dr gave me are working okay so far. I do like being able to wear cute sunglasses and can easily see myself purchasing way too many pairs from the "compare to *insert designer label here*" kiosk in the middle of the mall.

I'm thinking that I may spring for some prescription sunglasses though, and this is where I need your help. Do you like the green? Or the black?



of course, these are the ones I like just from looking online. Whenever I do actually go in and try them on, my preferences could very well change.

And yes, I'll probably end up buying a back up pair of my regular glasses in case anything happens to the new ones. Like Cooper wanting a midnight snack again.