Checking In

It's been a while so I thought I would post an update on my life.

I have referred to 2009 as the year of spending frivolously. I spent a bunch of money last year, way too much. So, I decided 2010 was going to be the year of saving. I also decided that 2010 was going to be the first year of the rest of the years I have to be healthy. So, at midnight on New Year's Eve, I was on my pilates machine, holding a piggy bank and depositing money into that bank. I believe that whatever you do when the New Year starts is what you'll do all year long so hopefully I have started the year on the right note. I started 2009 buying my pilates machine from QVC and I bought from QVC all year long.

And on a positive note, since December 30th, I've lost 9.5 pounds. So, it seems to be working out pretty well. I've also been eating more wisely. I don't ban foods as a rule, but I did have to exclude doughnuts and the deli pizzas that the local grocery stores offer. I don't eat junk food at work anymore either. I've been following the 4 Rules promoted by Paul McKenna: Eat when you're hungry; eat what you want, not what you think you should eat; eat consciously and enjoy every bite; and stop when you think you're full. Doing this, I estimate I probably eat around 1100 to 1300 calories a day without being hungry and without depriving myself. Today was the first day that I actually put leftovers back in the fridge to save for later. I usually just prepare small quantities and eat the whole serving when I'm hungry. By putting food back in the fridge, I feel like I've hit a milestone, although I'm not quite ready to test myself with buying a large pizza.

We've had some snow this winter and I've quickly renewed my intense dislike of that particular weather phenomenon. Can't wait for winter to be over.

One of my QVC purchases was a Wii. I got it right before Christmas. I don't play video games so it's now one of those things where I say, "Turn it on and play it since you spent that money on it." I did get the Wii Fit plus to go along with it and I use it to track my weight. The little Mii will yawn and fall asleep since I don't actually play games too often.

Winnie, PJ, Parker, Lapcat and Neighborcat are all well. Lapcat spent quite a bit of time in the house when it was cold. But I make her stay outside now.

Work sucks right now. I came very close to calling an upper level manager stupid in an email to that person. I exercised quite a bit of restraint in that email. The same day I also sent an email to my boss telling her exactly how I feel about another unit within the business. It was polite and contained no naughty language, but those sentiments had been bottled up for 10 years and you just know that at some point they were going to come out.

I had a couple of days of discomfort last week when my laptop's internal modem crashed. Luckily I had mom's old desktop here at the house and could still get online. But I really wanted my laptop back so I ordered an external modem from Walmart.com and paid extra for one day shipping so I could get it fast. The local walmart doesn't carry these. They only have cable modems and since I have dial-up, that one wouldn't have worked. I'm pretty hard on modems. The one on my old desktop crashed before too. I guess I connect and disconnect so many times that they just wear out.

Mom's been in and out of the hospital several times in 2009. We're all hoping that she's finally on the road back to good health now.

I'll try to post more often, but in the meantime, you can always follow me on Twitter and Facebook. The links are in the sidebar. And you can catch up with my thoughts on golf on my blog Even Par Round, the link to that one is also over in the sidebar.