Weigh In, Race, Upgrade!

Walking to the 5k

It's been a little over a week since I last updated... that's not too bad, right?:)

On Saturday the 19th, I went out drinking with Charlie, my brothers and sister in-law. We first went to the Looney's in Maple Lawn. I had a crab pretzel when I was there, which is so delicious! Then we went over to the Looney's in College Park. It was a BLAST! I had so much fun! I danced all night and the next day I had bruises on my knees from bumping them on the stage over and over again lol!

The thing that made me happiest from that night was the bouncer at the College Park Looney's. When I showed him my ID, he looked at it and did a double take. He said "There's no way that's you! It doesn't look like you at all!" that definitely brought a smile to my face and made me so proud:) He also said other things like "We could all learn from you! We all need to lose weight!" lol... thanks guy!

I had weighed in that Saturday with no loss or gain. Boo! But for some reason I decided to weigh in the next morning, after going out drinking. I was expecting to see a huge gain from all the food and alcohol, but this is what I got!

Previous Weight - 158.2

Current Weight - 156.4

Weight Lost - 1.8 Pounds

Total Weight Lost - 75 Pounds!!!

Wow! I was shocked I actually had a loss. And I can't believe I only have 6.4 more pounds to go till I reach my goal!!! What!!!!:) Although once I hit 150, I'm still going to keep eating the way I do and exercising. I just might work more on toning, rather than cardio:)

I don't remember which day it was, but we went and ordered our new iPhone's! Charlie decided to come onto my Verizon plan. Even though it's a little more expensive, the service is way better than his AT&T! You get what you pay for! Unfortunately, they were back ordered until December 9th!:( Luckily, mine ended up coming on the 23rd!! Yay! I was so happy. Poor Charlie, his still hasn't come yet! lol:)

So far I love it! It's so much faster!!! Things download really fast and Youtube doesn't skip like it did on my DROID. Finally!:) So much better!

So Thanksgiving morning I had a 5k Turkey Trot! I was super excited because it started on Main Street which is walking distance from my house! The course went on all the streets that I run on anyways! So it was perfect for me:) Since it was a smaller race, in my running area, I decided to try my hardest to go fast and get in the top 100, at least!

I started off strong and fast! It was pretty easy, but there were a few small inclines that made me get outta breath. Luckily there were some downhill parts too! That helped.

I crossed the finish line at 26:40! A new personal record!!! I was so happy:) My pace was 8:36/mile and I placed 171 out of 551 people! Not in the top 100, but close!! I was still happy with those results:)

Another great part about that race was the fact that Charlie came with me! He has never been to any of my races before, so that made me really happy to have his support and to have him see me in action! He said he had a good time and that it was actually pretty cool:) Yay!

I didn't really get a good nights sleep that night, so when I got home I took a short nap. I was exhausted! I had to get up at noon though, to start cooking my Thanksgiving meals! I decided to do a sweet potato casserole and a green bean casserole. I had to do the gluten free version of both, so it was kind of experimental!

We headed over to my parents house at around 3:30. It was just our immediate family, which I like:) There was so much food and it was all amazing!! Unfortunately my green beans didn't cook all the way and they were really hard:( But my sweet potato casserole turned out amazing!! Everyone loved it! It really was delicious!!

I pretty much just had this plate which was turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, gluten free mac n cheese, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, yuca bread, and some meat my brother made lol. I think I got seconds of sweet potato casserole and mac n cheese. I was so full though!!

Right after I ate, I sat down on the couch and passed out lol. I finally woke up when I realized people were starting to get pie! Mmm, my favorite!!

I had 1 piece of apple pie, 2 pieces of pumpkin pie, and a bite of pecan pie. Sooo good!! Pumpkin pie is my favorite of all time!! I love it:) Now I wish I had some more!!:(

Overall it was a very good Thanksgiving and I had a blast. I love spending time with my family. We always have so much fun!!

I was supposed to do another 5k on Saturday morning, but Friday night I started feeling kind of sick. My throat really hurt so when I woke up in the morning and still felt crappy, I decided to just skip it:(
I ended up going back to sleep all day till I had to come into work tonight:( I'm feeling a little bit better at least.

I'm excited for next weekend. It's the Hot Chocolate 15k!!! I'm doing it with a bunch of girls from work, so it should be fun!:) Hopefully it's not freezing cold out!! At least we get hot chocolate and fondue afterwards!:) Yay!! Can't wait!!

Ok, I'm sure there's more I could talk about, but I don't really feel like it. Hopefully my next post will be more interesting!

Bye!

Anna

Catching Up

Hello everyone! Hope you all have been doing great:)

It's been a little crazy around my way this past week, so I haven't been able to update lately. I was too busy with Charlie's surgery and all! He did really well for the procedure. Recovery has been pretty tough for him. Having to go home with a catheter is no fun:( But he's handling it really well and I'm very proud of him. I can't wait for him to be back to his normal self though!:)

In other news, this past Sunday was the Veteran's Day 10k! It was a really great race! Definitely one of the bigger ones I've attended. The weather was great! Nice and cool, with the sun shining down on us. The place we ran at was great; West Potomac Park in Washington DC. It was beautiful. Most of the run was along the Potomac River.

This was my first 10k race, and despite being hungover, I actually did pretty well! Yes, you heard me right... hungover! I did not intend to drink the night before, but things happen! I had went to my parents house for my Dad's birthday, and my sister in-law and I ended up finishing a big bottle of Moscato between the two of us! It sure was yummy.

I was planning to go home after that, but some last minute plans with Alicia popped up and I ended up swinging by her place to pick her up! We went out to Adam's Morgan, which I had never been before! It was a blast! First we went to Madam's Organ which was a really cool, old, creepy building. It was 3 floors I think, with like 5 bars. We went all the way to the top and had a few drinks:)

After that, we went to Sutra which was also pretty cool. It was like a lounge/club type place. It was kind of empty though, so we left and attempted to go to another place, Bravo! Bravo! But, that plan failed because we couldn't find ANY parking! Ugh... lame. Anyways, I didn't end up getting home till 3am! I had to be up for the race at 6am....! Yikes! Bad me... lol

I felt crappy when I woke up, but I took two ibuprofen and chewed a couple of tums and I was good to go! Once I got to the race, I felt pretty decent. I was running a little late, so I even ended up running from where I parked, to the race, which was about 1 mile! lol:)

I started off running with Amy and Jenn, two co-workers from my job, and we were going at a pretty comfortable pace. I really wanted to run a little faster, so I ended up going off on my own:)

I felt really good the whole time! Never got too out of breath and kept a decent pace the whole time. It's nice running a race on a path that you don't know. It keeps you surprised as to how long you've been running! Although they did have a few mile markers!

Towards the end of the race, I noticed that I was at a pretty good time. I decided to kick my pace up a notch! Once I could actually see the clock at the finish time, and noticed that I was still under an hour, I really floored it! I was so excited to be able to finish a 10k in under 1 hour!!!

Gun Time - 59:12
Net Time - 58:17
Pace - 9:23
Place - 474 out of 1139 (Women's Division)
Age Group 20-24 - 95 out of 157

I'm pretty proud of that!:) Running with all those amazing runners really inspires me and motivates me to run more. It really makes me want to run faster too. When I first started running, it was purely for fitness and losing weight. Now... running has become a passion and a hobby of mine. I truly enjoy it. Especially when you add competition to the equation... that really gets me going! Although I doubt I will ever come in top 3 or anything like that, my goal is to at least come in a top 10 of a SMALL 5k lol:)

I was VERY proud of myself the other day. The day before Charlie's surgery, he wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse. Kind of as his "last meal" before surgery lol. I told myself "Screw it... just eat whatever you want and who cares about logging it!"

Well, even when I tell myself that, I still usually end up logging it anyways, just to see how much I went over my limit. Once I did that, I was overcome with guilt! I just couldn't believe I had eaten so many calories during one meal! I promised myself that I WOULD burn all of those calories off that night!

I got on the treadmill with the intent of running until I burned off the amount of calories from that meal. Which was about 1,300... which is A LOT of running! Once I got to around 8 miles and saw that I STILL needed to burn more calories, I decided to just go for 10 miles straight!

I couldn't believe that I ran TEN MILES!! OMG! And on a treadmill?? Wow! It was during that moment that I realized something. I can definitely do a half marathon and I WILL sign up for one! Right now I'm undecided. There's the Ocean City Half Marathon on April 28th and then there's the Iron Girl Columbia Half Marathon on April 29th. I definitely can't do both, but I wish I could! The OC one is $55 and the Columbia one is $85. But I think it'd be easier to do a half around here, rather than driving to Ocean City. I dunno! I'll wait a little bit longer to decide.

I decided I'm going to weigh in every other week now, closer to the end of the week. It all depends on when I work. I don't like to weigh in after a night of working. Especially because I eat at 4:00am, so I feel like I would have extra food in my stomach! lol. I'm going to try and weigh on days that I don't work the night before, and hopefully I'll see something good!

I got my boots!! The ones I showed a picture of in my previous blog. I love them so much!! They are great and go with lots of outfits! So happy I got them:)

Well, I don't have much else to say. Writing this is making me really sleepy, so I'll write again after the next time I weigh in!!

Thanks for reading!!

Anna

1 Month Weigh In

Greetings my dedicated readers! How are you all doing?:)

I'm excited to write this blog for a few reasons. First off, it's my weigh in after going a whole month without weighing myself! Second, I have lots of exciting stuff going on!:) Well... not that much, but anyways. I will start you off with the weigh in!

Previous Weight (10/5) - 161.6

Current Weight (11/5) - 158.2

Weight Lost - 3.4 Pounds

Total Weight Lost - 73.2 Pounds

I did it! Hit my 70 pound mark!:) Who knows how soon I actually hit that mark, considering I was at 69.8 pounds lost on my last weigh in. Probably hit it sometime in October;)

I was kind of hoping for a bigger loss, but I can't complain! That's pretty decent, considering my losses have slowed down a lot since I've gotten closer to my goal weight. I'm really hoping to get to my goal weight of 150 by January 9th, 2012! That's my original start date of the Biggest Loser. I really want to get a new tattoo then!:)

The picture above is me at Bobby and Laura's Halloween party! It was a blast! Charlie and I dressed up as Military Zombie's! I like that picture because I think my legs look so skinny!! It's sweet:)

So since I hit my 70 pound mark, I need a reward! Charlie and I went to Arundel Mills the other day and I found a pair of boots I REALLY wanted, but I was going to get them as a Christmas present. I really don't want to wait that long, so I asked Charlie if that could be my reward and he said yes!:) Yay!

<-- These are the boots. Unity by Carlos Santana "Hayden" I love them!! So cute!:) Now I will have a pair of Gray, Black and Tan boots!:) The good thing about boots is my shoe size won't ever change;) Although the boots I had from last year fit me SO much better around the calves now!! It's great!:) I think I will get these on Monday!

So last night, Friday night, I slept in at the firehouse. It was a relatively quiet night. We got one call. But on the way back we encountered something crazy. I can't say much, but in short... Guy standing in the middle of the road, pants around his ankles, staring at us. Cops were called and he was arrested. lol! Was not expecting that!

Things are going really well with PGFD. I got called on Monday for my Psych Evaluation. I go on Monday the 14th! So that's good... things are moving forward:) I really hope things work out!

In other news... lots of good little things have been happening to me lately. We call them "NSV's" on myfitnesspal, which stands for Non-Scale Victories!

I'm a solid size 11 in jeans. Bought a few pairs at TJMaxx:)
I'm definitely a size Medium, in lots of things!
People keep asking if me and Roch are twins!! I love it!:)
The guys at the firehouse call me Rochelle... sometimes I can't tell if they are serious or joking! Either way:)
I got a long sleeve size SMALL shirt at the firehouse! Granted, it's a men's shirt, but still!!
People at work constantly say I'm so skinny! Even though I don't agree, it's still cool to hear! Never considered myself skinny... ever in my life!!

So yup... good stuff! And... I have so many fun events coming up!!

Thursday... going to spin with Sam and Caitlin and then possibly out? Fat Daddy's?? Who knows!

Sunday the 13th... Veteran's Day 10k in DC!

Monday... my psych eval then JUNK FOOD PARTY at Sam's!! I know, such a bad idea... but genius at the same time! Seriously... we deserve to splurge every once in awhile!! Just think pizza, McDonald's and Popeye's... mmm!!

Thursday - Twilight! Sushi King apparently? I don't know all the details:)

Thursday the 24th... running a 5k on Main Street! My stomping grounds! Then THANKSGIVING! My favorite holiday! Can't wait to stuff my face:)

Saturday the 26th... another 5k in Laurel! Possibly with Jo, my sister in-law? If her foot is healed enough:)

I think that's it?? I dunno. Sam and I have been discussing pretty much our whole next YEAR so I kinda get confused:)

The only thing coming up which isn't so fun is Charlie's surgery. He's having an outpatient surgery on Tuesday at John Hopkins. Nervous for him, but he's so tough:) I know he'll be ok! Please send good thoughts his way!:)

Sooo. It's daylight savings time. Which means I just now get to relive 1am, yet again! Yahoo.... Hey, maybe I should be thankful for getting more time to live. Oh, and 1 extra hour on my paycheck! Yay!:)

Anyways... I guess that's all my news. I know it was such random stuff. Trying to decide when I should do my weigh ins now. I was thinking every other week possibly? Or maybe just back to every week. What do you all think?

Ok, well, time to go back to work! Thanks for reading people:) Happy DST!

Anna

Still Going Strong

Hi guys. Just writing a blog because I felt like it. Not quite sure what to talk about, but I'll figure something out. I feel like there's something I need to say... but don't know how to get it out!

Remember how I said I wasn't going to weigh myself for a month? Still haven't! The scale is there in the basement, out there for me to see and everything, but I have NOT stepped on it at all, promise! It hasn't been too bad, honestly. Although as soon as I made that decision, I did feel myself ease up on my diet right away. I was a little more lenient, but that was just the first week. Now I'm being more strict. I haven't let up on my exercise though, that's for sure. I would like to do one whole week of exercising straight. No rest days! Maybe this week? We'll see!

I'm so excited to weigh in though. It's going to be so suspenseful! Anything could happen... gain, loss, stay the same. Who knows! But I really, really hope it's a good loss! That will assure me that I can do this on my own, without the motivation of The Biggest Loser helping me out!

So lately I've been noticing that when I'm sitting down for a while, really relaxed, maybe even with my feet up, that when I go to stand up, I get really lightheaded and sometimes see little stars. It's not a cool feeling. I've taken my pulse and blood pressure a few times recently and they are both pretty low. My pulse is usually 40-50 and my blood pressure is around 115/60ish. I like that my heart rate is so slow now, it's cool. But I wonder if that's causing me to feel lightheaded when I stand up. It's only slow because I work out so much now! Hmm... oh well, hopefully my body adjusts to and overcomes these new changes.

Halloween is coming up. It's officially on Monday, but we're doing the celebrating this Saturday. I love Halloween. Of course I liked it more when I was younger, because of the candy! I used to look forward to it so much. I loved dressing up and going out around the neighborhood. I wish I could still trick-or-treat. I really miss being a kid!

This year has probably made me feel the most grown up so far. I've done a lot of new things, and time has just been flying by so fast that it really makes me realize how quick I am going to grow old! It's really sad. I don't like to think about getting old, but it's inevitable! I'm starting to run out of things to look forward to. It used to be holidays, birthdays, turning 16 so I could drive, turning 18 so that I was an adult, turning 21 so I could drink, getting engaged, getting married... Now all that's left... having a baby! I see now why people have babies soon after getting married. Because you crave that new feeling. The excitement you get from having something to look forward to. But it all gets old eventually. I know that's kind of a crappy attitude to have on life, but it's just how I feel. I know that once I have kids, all I will look forward to is their milestones and living my life vicariously through them! *Sigh*

Speaking of kids... and don't get any thoughts (Rayna and Roch) but I'm just not ready for them! I used to think I wanted to have a baby RIGHT after getting married. Now I realized a few things.

1. We're not financially stable enough to afford a kid. My mom would say otherwise, because somehow she raised 5 kids and a million pets on only my Dad's income. I have no clue how, but I don't want to attempt it! Just trying to live off of our income's with roommates and 1 dog is hard enough! It's truly a scary feeling when you're not sure if you will be able to pay a certain bill each month! Adding a baby to the mix would not help!

2. I'm not ready. I know, I know... typical answer. But I honestly don't feel ready yet. I'm only 23. I know that's old compared to how young people used to be in the old days when they had kids, but to me, that's still young! There's just a lot of things I still want to do and experience before having kids. Nothing super amazing, like travelling or anything like that. But just the simple, little things in life that most of us take for granted. Sleeping in, staying up late, going out drinking, short notice trips, spur of the moment outings, grocery shopping, watching a movie, going to dinner, exercising (!!!!), running errands. Anything! Just being carefree is what I will miss and I don't want to feel like I'm missing out on things because of a baby. I don't want to regret my baby! Simple as that. Once you have a kid, the rest of your life is spent thinking about your kid, taking care of it, planning ahead for it, loving it... You're not just thinking of yourself anymore, and that's scary!

3. Probably something that seems greedy... but my body. Since I was fat for the majority of my childhood, teenage years and early adult life, I really felt held back. I rarely felt pretty. I never really experienced things the way I wanted to. It was like having a huge weight on my shoulders, literally. When you're fat, you just feel like an outcast. You get categorized, and treated differently than "normal" sized people. It's pretty unfair, but you just have to deal with it. The only benefit you get from being fat is getting to eat whatever you want.

While that is enjoyable, it's not worth it! Having to shop at specific stores... that sucks! I couldn't find cute boots because none would zip past my calves. Putting on boots in general was hard, putting on socks was hard, tying shoes, painting my toes, hard and hard! Walking up a flight of stairs, getting in and out of a car, going on amusement rides, going to the beach, sitting at a booth, anything! Doing any of those simple things is difficult when you're fat! And it sucks! But it didn't have to be that way, so I changed it. And being able to go from FAT to in shape, healthy, and a decent size is an amazing feeling! I couldn't be happier with myself and I never want to go back to that old me.

So back to my point. I'm REALLY enjoying my new body. Shopping at normal stores is awesome!! Not feeling self conscious is such a great feeling. So if I were to get pregnant now, I would feel that I didn't get enough time to enjoy all the benefits of my hard work and dedication. I would also be scared that I would gain a lot of weight and go back to my old habits. I would hope not! But I don't know for sure. When I DO get pregnant, I'm going to try my HARDEST to still eat right and keep exercising throughout my pregnancy. FOR SURE!

Somehow my blog just turned into me talking about why I don't want kids. Sorry, not sure how that happened. But now you know! I think I would like to have my first one by the time I'm 25 though... so we'll see!

Time to get back to work I suppose. So happy it's my last night, and I'm off for 4 days! Yay! Really excited to celebrate Halloween this weekend:) I hope you all have a fun and safe weekend! Thank you for reading... it encourages me a lot to keep doing what I'm doing!

<3Happy Halloween<3

Anna

Anniversary Weekend

Doesn't that look delicious? It was! It's stuffed french toast with whipped cream and strawberries from Founding Farmer's in Washington, DC. That's how we started off our Anniversary on Saturday morning. I really liked the place! Charlie got fried chicken with eggs and waffles, also very good! Another great thing was the mimosas! Wow! This was my first time having one... I loved them! So easy to drink:)

After our wonderful breakfast, we drove over to the National Crime and Punishment Museum. It was pretty cool! I read quite a bit, even though I said I didn't like the reading parts lol. There was some cool stuff to look at, like weapons and what not. My favorite part was the prison art work. One prisoner made an owl out of soap... loved it!! Some of the paintings were so awesome! They really have talent:)

We probably stayed at the museum for almost 3 hours, then headed over to Chinatown gallery place. I didn't know it was actually a mall, kind of. There's not too much in it, but it was neat. We decided to go to "Bar Louie" which was a nice place! It was pretty empty, which I liked. We ordered some appetizers and drinks. I got sangria, my favorite:) We hung out there for a little while, then headed to the hotel to check in!

We stayed at the "Washington Courts" hotel. It was really nice! When we booked the room, we made a comment that it was our anniversary, and they definitely acknowledged that! They wished us a happy anniversary and gave us a room with an amazing view of the Capitol! It was really cool:)

Once we got settled into the room, we decided to go back out to Union Station. It was really pretty in there! Lots of shops and stuff, but nothing that I really wanted to go to. After walking around there for a little while, I started to feel sick. I definitely attribute it to the fact that I ate so much terrible food and also had a few drinks! Once I took some Tum's, I felt 100% better! Thank goodness. I did NOT want to ruin our anniversary!

When we left Union Station, we stopped by "The Dublinger" bar and "Kelly's Irish Times" bar. They were kinda small and beat though, so we didn't stay long lol. They seemed really "local." We walked back to the hotel and got ready for dinner!

We had reservations for 8pm at "District ChopHouse and Brewery" Mmm! It was really good! They serve you cornbread at the beginning of the meal. We ordered spinach and artichoke dip for an appetizer. It was fantastic!! I got the 8 ounce filet mignon with cheddar mashed potatoes. Delish!! My steak was awesome!

When we left there, we were SO stuffed and tired!! We thought about going out to a bar, but we were just being so old and decided to stay at the hotel, watch some TV, and eat our wedding cake! It was a great ending to a perfect day:)

The cake didn't hold up too great in the freezer, color wise. But the actual cake itself tasted great!! It was still moist and delicious:) It was really nice to get an actual piece, considering I didn't even get a real piece at the wedding! lol. It was really good:)

I slept surprisingly well that night and woke up feeling great. We had to check out by noon, so we took showers and packed up:) Another anniversary perk was that they waived the $43 parking fee!! Thank goodness!! That's so expensive!

On our way home, I decided to be a little bad and get a McDonald's 4 piece nugget and a large fry! Bad me! Oh well... I decided to turn it into an anniversary weekend, rather than a day!! lol

It was such a nice day out, so I decided to invite my sisters over to come trail running with me! Rayna brought her dog, Chase, and I brought Chief. First we took them in the water to play... well, tried. Chase loves the water and was all in it! Chief on the other hand, not a huge fan of it! He never really got in, but him and Chase ran around together a whole bunch. It was really cute and I think they had fun!

After that, me and Roch ran together for the rest of the trail. Rayna and Charlie walked the dogs behind us:) It was good. We went the opposite way around the trail this time, so I think the hills were a lot harder this way! It sucked!! But I burned a pretty good amount of calories. Too bad I ruined that later!

My parent's 32nd wedding anniversary was October 6th, and ours being on the 22nd, we decided to go out to dinner together. Roch and Rayna also tagged along:) We went to Hunan Treasure, a Chinese restaurant by my parents house. It was good... but definitely not as good as our Chinese place, Mandarin House. That place is seriously the best!! Nothing can compare!!!

We had a nice time though, and I enjoyed having quality family time. I definitely don't see my family as much as I used to, now that I don't live at home... obviously. We're not that far, but I guess I can just be lazy sometimes. But hey, cars work both ways!! lol... if that even made sense. I wish we had an actual dinning room so that I could make dinner and invite my family over, but alas, I don't!

All in all it was a really good weekend. I had such a fun time with my husband and we really loved DC! I definitely want to go out in DC again with friends or something. There's so many bars and restaurants to go to! It will take a couple trips to cover them all.

I can't believe a year has already passed since we got married. It's crazy. I do want to have kids soon, but first I have to work on my job situation. If I can get the job as a paid firefighter/EMT, do that for a year or so until I feel settled, then maybe we'll start trying for kids. But for now, I'm just enjoying being carefree and having the freedom to do whatever I want. Not only that, but enjoying my new found hot body!! I love it, and I don't want to get fat again any time soon!!

Oh, on Friday, I got this tattoo as a surprise anniversary present to Charlie. I revealed it to him by saying "I have this rash on my side, can you look at it?" Then I showed him and he was shocked! He asked if it was real and then stared at it in shock for about 5 minutes straight! lol Too funny...

I love you Charlie LaGrave!!!!<3<3<3

Goodbye Ass

Just wanted to write a quick, entertaining blog. It's quite sad actually. But I guess it's still an accomplishment...

I tried on a pair of old jeans today (size 16, currently size 11/13). They were more like jeggings. They fit snug on my thighs and legs, but my butt? Yeah... not so much. *cries* Gahhhh!!! I had to really hike them up there to make them fit, too! lol! Oh well... I can't be picky about where I lose weight. Guess I need to start gettin on those squats!

Yes, this looks pretty retarded. It's loose in the back!!!

Think I could make a new style? The "rolled down" look? Maybe...?

I think it's pretty trendy!:) Ignore the line on my stomach, it's from the compression shorts I was wearing! Dang, can't believe that's my stomach! What what!;-)

Ok, that's all! Hope I made someone laugh.......!! Hehehe:) Have a great day!!

Anna

I Can Do This On My Own

I think this will be my first blog without a picture. I just can't think of anything good. And I don't have much motivation to look for one, sorry.

Ok, so let's recap on what's been happening. It's been a pretty eventful past week! Thursday was Fat Daddy's with Sam, Friday was McVey's farewell party, Saturday was the CPAT, Sunday morning I did Kickboxing and the elliptical with Caitlin, then worked that night. At work, my right shoulder was really sore, and I was kinda confused why. I really didn't feel like I strained it during kickboxing. The class was mostly light punching and light weights. I thought it could've been from the CPAT too. That vest will seriously make you sore!

Monday morning I got home from work and was feeling ok, went to sleep cuz I had to work that night, and then woke up at 3:00pm to workout. When I got up, I did not feel good. My whole body was sore, my throat was sore, and I just felt weird. I decided I was not going to workout and went back to sleep till 4:45pm. When I woke up again, I still felt the same. I ate, took a shower and got ready for work. I really didn't even think I was getting sick. Just thought I was super sore.

On my way in to work, I gradually just felt worse and worse. I was hot, tired, light headed, just miserable!!! I knew I wouldn't last long at work! I got there and immediately sat down. I sat there just thinking how long I could tough it out. Not long! I went to talk to Allison and she made me take my temperature lol. It was 100.8! Ughhh. I showed the Charge Nurse and she said "Go home." lol. So I left work... at 8:15pm.

Fast forward to today, and I'm still sick!! My temp has been between 99.5 and 101.1. I've been waking up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, but then I get too cold when I take the covers off. It sucks!! I thought I was starting to feel a little better today, but when I went to heat up my soup, I almost threw up. I felt so nauseous! I dunno what happened, but my face turned completely pale and I just felt so sick. It sucked.

Anyways, enough about me being sick! In other news, I've decided on a new challenge. Since I'm not doing the biggest loser again, I decided to not weigh myself for a month. Yes, a whole month! It's gonna be really tough, but I think it will be good for me! That way I'm not constantly worrying about what I weigh. It's good for me to have that there, to keep me disciplined, but I need to learn how to live this lifestyle on my own, without certain things keeping me in check. Plus, it'll be exciting if I see a really big loss!

Ugh... I'm having a hot flash as we speak. This sucks:( I don't wanna go through menopause if this is what it feels like!

So the next weigh in you'll get from me will be on 11/5/11! That doesn't mean I won't update in between now and then, in case you were wondering:) Unless I'm really busy or something. Which could be true actually, I have a lot of stuff to do this month! Fun things though!!:)

I know everyone says you can't get the flu from the flu shot, but I'm still skeptical. What do you all think? I got it one week, then got sick the next week. Could it really just be a coincidence? Hmmm...

Alrighty... time to lay on the couch and sulk the rest of the day. I really hope I feel better soon! It's so hard not being able to work out!! I feel so guilty when I don't exercise:( *cries*

Thanks for reading:)

Anna