benjerin.com Blog

Benjy spent the majority of the week working late.  I spent most of the week going to the gym.  Wednesday I tried to donate blood again, and my iron was too low again.  I might have to resort to eating chicken livers….ick!  Afterwards, I hooked up with Kasie, Kate and Emily for a “Girls’ Night”.  We had dinner at Five Star Day Cafe, then went to the movies to see Bride Wars.   The movie was entertaining, but I would not recommend that anyone go out of their way to see it.  It was great to have some girly-time though.  Really it is just not that often that a smaller group of us can hang out like that.  Thursday night I caught up with the newest episode of The Biggest Loser.  When the episode ended, I was so pissed off!  If you watch the show, there is no doubt that you’ll know why I was so upset.  Either I’ve lost faith in the players because they play dirty, or I’ve lost faith in the show because it is rigged for drama!  (breath Erin…..breath…)

Because of all the overtime earlier in the week, Benjy had Friday off of work.  It was also a pretty good day for me at work since I have the entire next week off.  Friday night we had our usual dinner and Battlestar Galactica date over at Laci and Alan’s house.  It was a good time as always, but we did manage to makes ourselves feel a little stupid by watching some Jeopardy.  Then we made ourselves feel a little bit better by watching some Cash Cab.  Then we made ourselves a little crazy by watching some Don’t Forget the Lyrics.

Saturday, I decided to take the day ”off”, and it was the laziest day I have had in a very long time.  I didn’t do any work: no workouts, no errands, no chores.  I didn’t even look at my to-do list.  It was great!  Last night we watched Pineapple Express.  Benjy and I weren’t quite sure what to think about all the action-packed scenes in this comedy.  It was definitely different.  Benjy thought it was good, but I’m not sure I’d watch it again.

Today I got back to work.  Did some chores in preparation for my trip to St. Louis and sweated my booty off at a Boot Camp class.  Benjy loaded up our Instant Netflix queue with Quantum Leap and Amazing Stories.  Tonight we’ve watched a couple episodes of each and we also watched the movie Superbad.  We both really enjoyed this movie.  Painfully funny.

Well, I’ve gotta go work some more on vacation preparation.  And Benjy’s gotta prepare for his week of bachelorhood.

I’m down 1.5 pounds this week.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

I survived Mexican night and stuck with my plan: no chips and salsa/cheese dip, one margarita and half of a veggie quesadilla.  It is such a nice feeling to walk away from the dinner table and not feel like I’m about to bust!  And not to have a food hangover the next day.

I also survived a United Way Loaned Executive luncheon.  It was a buffet and I loaded up on the veggies.  I got a couple of new side dish ideas too.  I’m looking forward to my first attempt at okra and tomatoes.

I broke two rules this week.  On Sunday, when we went to Atlanta, I consumed all sorts of naughty things.  For dinner I had nachos (fried food) and a coke (soda).  I only want to allow myself to break one rule a week, but it is hard to break the fried food rule or the fast food rule without also breaking the soda rule!  So, I didn’t beat myself up too much about it.  It is still way better than how I was eating before.

Some people may think I’m being too strict with my food rules.  But I have to be.  Like I said during my last weigh-in blog, junk food is my addiction.  And I really have to be cautious, because it is an extremely slippery slope.  If I’m not cautious I’ll be right back to my old habits, quicker than you can say “saturated fat”.  I’m not depriving myself really.  I’m still enjoying chocolate on occasion and I am finding the joy in new foods….fresher foods…nutritious foods.

I had a lot of success with counting calories last year.  It played a huge role in me losing the first 20 pounds!  But I think it is way too time-consuming for me now.  I’d rather spend that time in the gym, with my family, reading, sleeping, etc.  Also, a big downfall of counting calories is that it still allowed for me to make poor food choices, just as long as I was in my calorie range at the end of the day.  So I’m still really enjoying this new strategy.

Another healthy thing I’m trying to focus on now…getting better sleep.  Going to bed earlier and actually going to bed instead of falling asleep on the couch.  And on that note…..goodnight and sweet dreams!

This week’s assignment:

1. Buy a package of CFL (compact fluorescent lighbulbs) today.
2. Refer to the lumen or light output on the product packaging as your guide to determine correct wattage.
3. Replace at least 1 regular lightbulb with a CFL bulb.  The more bulbs you change, the better it is for the environment and your wallet.
4. Place qualified CFLs in the fixtures that you use most frequently.
5. Use qualified CFLs in the fixtures that are hard to reach such as ceiling fans, other ceiling fixtures, and enclosed outdoor fixtures.
6. Call your local waste management company to ask for proper disposal methods: CFL bulbs should not be thrown away in your home or office garbage can.  Many major retailers also offer take-back programs.

Benjy and I are already on the CFL bandwagon!  The only thing we have to complain about is that the bulbs are slightly longer than regular bulbs, so we have a few fixtures that cannot use these CFLs because the glass cover cannot be put back on over the longer bulb.  Now all we need to do is figure out how to do #6.

According to my EMM book, “The amount of pollution equivalent to the emissions of two million cars can be removed from the atmosphere if every household in America replaces one lightbulb with an ENERGY STAR-qualified CFL bulb.”

Bear with me folks.  It is late, I’m sleepy and I’m having a hard time typing and spelling. But I’ll soldier on because I am so commited to this weekly journal…AND because this really was a fantastic week!

Monday my company announced that business is still slow enough that we will need to shutdown during the last week in January.  Rumor has it that we’ll most likely be shutdown for another week in February and yet another week in March.  Monday evening, Benjy finally went running with me!  I found it a little unfair that I had a hard time keeping up with him despite the fact that I have been running for the past year and he hasn’t been running for at least seven years!  Oh well.  At least I have a new occasional running buddy.

Tuesday I bought a plane ticket to St. Louis.  I decided to take advantage of this upcoming week off of work to go see my parents (and extended family).  I’m so excited!  I think it has been over a year and a half since I’ve been there! Geez, time flies.  Tuesday evening, Benjy finally got his XBox 360 back from repairs.  We had sent it in before Christmas and Benjy was going through withdrawls.  He was so happy to have it back and to play Rock Band with our new drum set.  (Thanks Bill and Susan!)  I spent the evening playing with my new iPod Nano.  (Thanks again Bill and Susan!)  I had the idea to download some TV shows for my upcoming plane ride to St. Louis.

Wednesday after work I tried to donate blood.  They wouldn’t take my blood, however, because my iron was too low.  This was really frustrating to me because I had been making efforts to add extra iron to my diet.  I’m just going to try an iron supplement this next time.  Wednesday night we met several of our Athens buds for dinner and drinks at a Mexican restaurant, Agua Linda.  It was a lot of fun.  It makes me so happy that all of us can get together like that every now and then.  Usually we only get everyone together for birthdays.

Thursday was uneventful.

Friday, at work, Benjy received his annual review.  It was a good review and it came with a raise, so we were very happy about that.  (Especially considering I am not getting a raise this year…due to slow business.)  Friday night we were very excited to trek over to Laci and Alan’s for dinner and “Battlestar Galactica”.  We only have a few TV shows that we are hooked on, and it is especially nice when one serves as an excuse to see some friends on a weekly basis.

Saturday I officially got hooked on another TV show, “The Biggest Loser”.  I had caught a few episodes here and there in the past year and found them very enjoyable.  I decided to download this new season (two episodes so far) on iTunes and I’m LOVING it!  Every episode makes me cry, but I find it to be so inspirational and motivational.  After watching I was motivated to go out for a run.  I think I should treat each new episode as some sort of reward.  I’ve just got to decide what it will be a reward for…  Saturday night we went to Rob and Katie’s for Katie’s birthday party.  We had a great time.  There house is so cozy with a log cabin feel and a wonderful wood stove.  There are also a lot of doggies, kitties, and, of course, animal-lovers…so we were in good company.

Today we did a few chores around the house before driving to Atlanta with Kasie and Kevin.  We had a few drinks at a wine bar in Atlantic Station.  Then we went to see Cirque du Soleil’s “Kooza”.   The show was amazing as usual!  I am forever thankful to my parents for introducing me to Cirque du Soleil.  It is always such a magical and fun experience.  I really think it would be so much fun to be a part of one of their shows.  Maybe I’ll add that to my Bucket List.

I have lost 3 pounds in the last week.  This is the biggest loss I expect to see considering that this was my first week getting back into my regular workouts after a two week vacation.  It was also my first week trying my new food strategy.

1. All food I purchase at the grocery store should clearly fall into one of the 5 main food groups: meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables and grains. (For example, I cannot buy any frozen pizzas, frozen dinners, chips, cookies, hamburger helper, etc.)
2. Avoid all fried foods.
3. Avoid all soda.
4. Limit high fat and high sugar foods.
5. When eating out, avoid any establishment with a drive-thru.

I already allow for one slip-up a week.  After this week, I have decided to also allow for one chocolate treat each week.  Ideally it would just be some simple dark chocolate yumminess.

This past week I only broke rule #4 when I ate dinner at Trappeze Pub consisting of half of a BBQ pork sandwich and a side of macaroni and cheese.  Not that bad really compared to what I’ve eaten in the past.

After my first week of following these rules I feel fan-freaking-tastic!  No big surprise.  This happens every time I focus on eating healthy.  My body is just so happy that I’m feeding it with more nutritious food.  It is times like these when I remember how much my eating habits are like a drug addiction.  When I eat crappy junk food, it is only about instant gratification.  I usually end up feeling like crap later (physically and emotionally).  But that never stops me from eating the crappy junk food again and again and again.  Every now and then I “clean” myself up, remember what it feels like to have healthy fuel in my body and wonder why I was ever so hooked on the junk food.  I’ll never understand it.  And I’m sure I’ll battle with this addiction all of my life.

The two things that help the most so far:
1. Planning all of our dinners before we go to the grocery store, making sure to include at least one veggie with each dinner.
2. Only buying healthy food at the grocery store. Obviously it is so much easier to eat healthy, when it is the only food within reach.

Some highlights from this past week:
1. I cooked asparagus for the first time (and the second time) and it was yummy.
2. I started adding spinach and cucumber to my sandwiches. Green is good!
3. I cooked dinner three times this past week. That is some sort of record!
4. I made time to read my “Women’s Health” magazine before bed most nights. This kind of reading material is great motivation and inspiration for me.

Tonight, I’m meeting up with some friends for some Mexican food.  I’m a tad nervous.  Mexican is definitely one of my weaknesses, especially the cheese dip.  Once I start eating the chips and cheese dip, I can’t stop myself.  I practically lick the cheese dip bowl clean!  So I have decided ahead of time that I will not eat any chips, salsa or cheese dip.  I will make a point to find a low-cheese (low-fat) dish, ideally with lots of veggies.  If I can’t find someone to split the meal with, then I will make sure to ask for a to-go container when I order, so that I can go ahead and put half the dish away for later.  And IF margaritas are ordered (in our group, this is pretty much a sure thing), then I will allow myself ONE margarita. 

Wish me luck!

P.S.  Wow – I didn’t expect this entry to be so long.  I’m sure they won’t be this long in weeks to come.

It has been twelve weeks since my last EMM.  Oh well, better late than never.

This week’s assignment:

1. Create a password that has a combination of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols for unlocking your computer and for accessing Web sites.  Use a different password for each site.
2. Never use an automatic log-in feature that saves your username and password.
3. Always log off the internet or your computer when you’re finished.
4. Avoid storing financial information on your computer.
5. Use anti-virus software and a firewall.
6. Do not open e-mails sent to you buy strangers.
7. Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank, or organization impersonated in the phishing e-mail.

My attempt at the assignment:

1. My password does not meet all the suggestions listed, but it is a series of random letters (that don’t actually form a real word).  So I think it is a pretty good password.  I despise when websites force me to use numbers in my password.  And I most definitely use the same password or some variation of it for every site.  How on earth do you remember different passwords for every site you visit?!
2. I avoid automatic log-in features.
3. I always log off at work, but not at home.  From now on I will try to log off and shut down every night at home…at least to save some energy and give the computer a rest.
4. I store financial records such as how much money was spent where when I track my expenses on my computer.  I do not store financial records such as credit card numbers on my computer.
5. I no longer have anti-virus software on my computer, because I never go online with my computer.  Benjy’s current anti-virus subscription is good for at least another month.  I’m not sure I understand completely what a “firewall” is…any help?
6. I do not open e-mails from strangers.
7. I don’t think I have ever received a phishing email, but I’ll try to remember this information in the event that I do receive such an email.

This week’s assignment also states:

“The emotional impact of Internet identity fraud has been found to parallel that of victims of violent crime.  Remain cyber-safe by protecting your computer as if it were your wallet.  Practice safe surfing.”

Edited on Monday morning (1/12/09) because I forgot to mention one of my favorite parts about Saturday afternoon. 

We spent last week trying to re-adjust to our normal work routine after two weeks of vacation.  We have still yet to completely unpack.  Yikes!

Friday night we met Daniel and Karen at Terrapin Brewery for some live music and beer sampling.  When things were closing down there, we went downtown to Trappeze (an awesome gourmet beer bar in Athens).  We hadn’t been there since they started serving food so we decided to have dinner as well as try a few new beers.

Saturday afternoon we joined our friends Angela and Richard for a winery tour and wine tasting at Chateau Elan.  We learned a few things on the tour, but it wasn’t quite as in depth as we expected.  On to the tasting…that was a lot fun!  We tried five different samples: one white wine, two red wines, one muscadine wine and one port.  We bought the white wine (Belle 211) and one red (Founder’s Reserve Georgia Essence de Cabernet 2004).  [Begin Edit] After the wine tasting and wine buying, we visited with Richard and Angela in the Chateau Elan parking lot for almost an hour!  This was very enjoyable because we so rarely get to see them face-to-face and visit with them so personally (just the four of us).  This was probably my favorite part of Saturday!  [End Edit] On the way home from Chateau Elan we stopped at Five Points Bottle Shop (the best beer, wine and liquor store in Athens) and purchased a few new beers including Terrapin’s newest side project.

Saturday evening we had Daniel and Karen over for some grilling and, you guessed it, drinking.  We visited for a few hours while we worked on transferring our CD collection to our laptops.  After Daniel and Karen headed home, Benjy and I watched “Elf“.  We heard very good things about this movie when it came out over 5 years ago.  It was a cute and enjoyable movie, but it didn’t quite live up to all the hype I had heard.

Today it seems like the weekend has gone by way too fast!  I went to the gym, we did some chores around the house, made a trip to the grocery store, picked up some sushi, watched “Tropic Thunder” and drank some hot chocolate with Bailey’s.  We knew next-to-nothing about “Tropic Thunder” when we put it on our Netflix queue.  It was okay.  Some funny parts, some outrageous parts, some surprising big names and a pretty good soundtrack.

Now we’ll probably stay up way too late trying to avoid the beginning of yet another work week.

I lost another 14 pounds in the first half of 2008, bringing me to a total weight loss of 29 pounds!!! However, I fell off the wagon a little bit in the second half of 2008 and gained back 7 pounds by the end of the year.  I maintained a good activity level, but my eating habits were crap!

Even though it is so cliche and somewhat irrational, I can’t help but think of the new year as a new beginning. At least I’m not the only one! 

So with this new year I’m going to attempt to live by the following rules:
1. All food I purchase (grocery store, gas station, concession stand, etc.) should clearly fall into one of the 5 main food groups. (For example, I cannot buy any frozen pizzas, frozen dinners, hamburger helper, chips, cookies, etc.)
2. Avoid all fried foods.
3. Avoid all soda.
4. Limit high fat and high sugar foods.
5. When eating out, avoid any establishment with a drive-thru.
I think I will allow for one slip-up a week. I will not PLAN to break a rule each week, I will just allow for it without beating myself up if it happens.

As far as excercise goes, I will try to workout at least 4 days per week, aiming to burn 2000 calories a week.  I would like to run one 5K a month.  I’ve been doing this for a while, no big changes here.

I have also decided to change how I weigh myself. I will NOT weigh myself every morning like I used to. I think I will only weigh twice a week. My official weigh-in will be Wednesday. Maybe I’ll weigh myself once on the weekend too.

On Wednesdays I would also like to write a blog entry, reflecting on how I did with my health goals the previous week.  This may not be the most interesting stuff for you all to read, but this blog is my journal so it is perfect for this sort of thing.  Also, it might help me to know that someone out there might be holding me accountable.
That’s my plan for now…wish me luck!

Oh my, it has been a fabulous two weeks!  I’ll attempt a summary.

We left Athens on the evening of the 23rd, after Benjy got off of work.  Me, being the sweet wife that I am, drove the entire way to Benjy’s parents’ house in Radford, VA.  We arrived around 12:30 a.m.  Susan was still awake and Bill woke up from a nap.  We visited for a bit then decided to go ahead and exchange Christmas gifts.  They really do spoil us, and we were happy to see that they enjoyed our gifts too.  We were up until about 3 a.m. I think.  We slept in just a little the next day (Christmas Eve) before more visiting with Bill and Susan around the house.  Around 2 p.m., we were on the road to see Leah and Darren in Pittsburgh.

Fortunately for me, Benjy (being the sweet husband that he is) was willing to drive most of the way.  I was still really sleepy from the night before and there was terrible rain which I despise driving in.  Arriving in Pittsburgh was a neat experience.  The city really caught us by surprise as we drove out of a tunnel.  It had been hiding behind a mountain and was a really stunning contrast from what we had seen before driving into the tunnel.  I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was also surprised by the geography of Pittsburgh.  I love that it is surrounded by mountains and rivers.

We spent a little over three days with Leah and Darren.  They were fabulous hosts!  We played a lot of games, including table shuffleboard which is really hard to find in Athens.  And we learned a new game called Cornhole, which is awesome!  We might just have to acquire or make our own cornhole game set!  Benjy also got to try a lot of new beers and Erin got to try a lot of delicious food, including chicken shawarma and an excellent Christmas Dinner prepared by Leah.  Other highlights include a trip to Wheeling Island (Erin’s first time in a casino), Power Hour at Dave & Buster’s, gorgeous weather and a trip to Schenley Park. We are definitely looking forward to another visit to Pittsburgh.

Our friend Jessica flew into Pittsburgh to join us for out last day there.  Sunday, early afternoon, Jessica, Benjy and Erin drove to Washington, D.C.  Our friend Glen has lived there for about a year now.  We hadn’t seen Glen since our wedding (almost three years ago!) and Jessica had never been to D.C. so we thought this was a long overdue trip.  We all stayed at Glen’s house.  He has four other roomates in his house, so the four of us had a four-day slumber party in Glen’s room.  I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way!

Glen’s job in D.C. involves touring the city with youth groups, so he did a fantastic job of showing us around.  There is so much to do in D.C., but I think we managed to cover a lot of ground in three and a half days.  We visited one Smithsonian museum, four presidential monuments, three war memorials, at least five distinct D.C. “neighborhoods” and a number of other D.C. landmarks.  In addition to all the site-seeing the four of us had a ton of fun together; catching up on old times, playing games, drinking, dancing, eating and wandering around the city.

Jessica had to be back at work on Friday, so she flew home Thursday evening.  Benjy and I stayed one more day before starting our drive home on Friday evening.  We stopped to spend the night at a hotel outside of Durham, N.C.  It was kind of nice to just zone out in front of cable T.V. and sleep in a king size bed for one night.  We finished our drive on Saturday arriving home around 3:30 p.m.  We were so happy to find our house exactly as we had left it and to be reunited with happy and healthy puppies.  This is the longest we had ever been away from them…10 days!

I have spent most of our time since we arrived home playing with all the pictures I took…and man, did I take a lot of pictures! 

• Vacation Photos Part 1
• Vacation Photos Part 2
• Vacation Photos Part 3
• Vacation Photos Part 4

We have also watched three movies since we got home.  Last night we watched “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters“.  Leah recommended and raved about this documentary.  The movie is about two video game legends competing for the World Record score on Donkey Kong.  It was great!  One IMDB reviewer said it perfectly when he wrote that films like this ”remind us of how wonderfully weird we can be.”  Today we watched “Me and You and Everyone We Know“.  This movie was…interesting.  It had some beautiful moments, but it also had some uncomfortably bizarre moments.  Overall, it was a refreshing change to most movies that are made, and I must admit it left me wanting more.  I will also admit that I really like for movies to have nice, tidy endings, which “Me and You…” did not have.  It was a movie full of random moments, so there was really no need for an ending.  But since I needed more closure, I insisted that we watch another movie.  So we watched the third and final Netflix movie that was in our possession, “Why Did I Get Married?“.  This is another movie that I cannot recall adding to the queue.  This movie was nothing special, but it did have a very interesting plot line about the trials and tribulations of four married couples.  Even though we had to suffer through a few moments of awful writing and a few moments of awful acting, the movie certainly did deliver on the nice and tidy ending.

I am dreading my return to work after three weeks of vacation.  Also, I’m sure that Benjy and I will have a very challenging time adjusting after the last two weeks of staying up until 3 a.m. and sleeping in until at least 10:00 a.m.  But we were very grateful to have had this opportunity to do so much traveling and visiting with loved ones!