I'm Just Trying to Be Happy

Glad the grooming went well! And you'll let us know how the recipes turn out, I really want to start cooking more now that I'm done with school. I need to invest in a low-calorie cookbook, too. Oh, and YOU should definitely invest in a food scale! It has changed my eating habits drastically, and I absolutely love it. I remember you asking about it when I first bought it (wayyyyyy back in the day). I wholeheartedly recommend it!
 
Laura F said:
Glad the grooming went well! And you'll let us know how the recipes turn out, I really want to start cooking more now that I'm done with school. I need to invest in a low-calorie cookbook, too. Oh, and YOU should definitely invest in a food scale! It has changed my eating habits drastically, and I absolutely love it. I remember you asking about it when I first bought it (wayyyyyy back in the day). I wholeheartedly recommend it!
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Sadly I still haven't cooked anything yet. I've been busy grooming doggies so the cooking has fallen off the back. But hopefully I will cook something tomorrow for dinner. I really do need a food scale. What brand is yours?
 
I have been covered in fur all week, lol. I groomed my mom's dog Heidi last Friday, then on Sunday I groomed my toy poodle Belle, and on Monday I groomed my other dog Hartley. Whew. Heidi and Hartley's haircuts are a breeze, but Hartley is so bad when I groom him that he takes an hour longer than Heidi. I can't really blame him though because he is still slightly traumatized from when I quicked his nail a couple of months ago. The way I get through his groom is to to give him a ton of treats. I give him a treat every time he stands still for a few minutes. He is the worst when I'm cutting his nails, but it had to be done because they were pretty long. I had to give him a treat after each nail that I clipped! Good thing he is still hyper or else he would probably be fat! And I spent 5 hours grooming Belle. I took so long because poodles are like the most complicated and I had only done her once before. Since I groomed her the first time I've learned so much more, so I wanted to try to give her the best groom possible this time around. I even painted her nails, though they came out pretty messy. But I'm very happy with how her haircut came out. I will have to post pictures.

My diet has not been good at all. I still haven't managed to track my foods regularly with WW, so today I decided to be proactive and log what foods I'm planning on eating. I think this will help me a lot because since they've had the new program I'm not used to how many points everything is anymore. This gave me an idea of what exactly I can eat in a day. I've found in the past that if I log my food before I eat it, I'm much more likely to stick by what I've tracked and not let anything extra sneak in.

I'm still 173.X. Ugh. I so would like to lose 10 lbs before parades start, and I don't have much time left. The first parade is Feb. 20th. I just keep thinking about how much I've slacked off since November. I could be so much smaller now if I hadn't "gave up". I know it's no good to think about that, because what's done is done, but it's hard not to.

Exercise has been non-existent. I have my elliptical, but I hate plodding away on that thing. I think I'd really enjoy some aerobic classes (i.e. Zumba) but tax season has just started and I'll have no time until after it is over. My only exercise is dance practice on Saturdays, and whenever I play Dance Central on Kinect. I think I will try to practice some of my dances today since practice is tomorrow. At least I'll burn some calories.

I will end my ranting and raving here. Sorry about my bad attitude. :)
 
My Latest Grooms!

So I wanted to share some pictures of my latest grooms. First is Belle, my toy poodle, then Hartley, my morkie (maltese/yorkie), and last is CJ, a yorkie and my 2nd "real" (other than family) customer!

On Hartley he just needed a trim because he wasn't too bad, but I decided to give him a shaved ear instead of the long bob style he has had forever. I think it makes him look more like a boy, and it brings out his yorkie side. What do y'all think?
 
I was very good this weekend! I actually tracked all my food two whole days in a row (shocking, I know!) and stayed within my points. And, I even went to the local farmer's market and bought some fresh fruits. I got grapes, bananas, oranges, and peaches. I definitely need more fruit and veggies in my diet. I also went to the grocery store and got some sliced rostisserie chicken and some yogurt (among other things). The sliced chicken is a nice change from my boring old turkey!

I never did cook anything this weekend....but I kinda have an excuse. After dance practice on Saturday I went to see my mom. She made enchiladas and gave me some to take home. Both of us cook them all the time and they are so good! They are low-calorie too. They are made with low-fat tortillas, fat-free refried beans, low fat cheese, and jennie-o ground turkey. Mmmm....
So since she gave me so many to take home I figured we could eat them for the next couple of days.

The scale still hasn't shown any change in a few days. I'm hoping for good news tomorrow!
 
Hi BB - you are a great groomer! Love all the photos.
My mate recently took her Boarder Collie to a new groomer and it came back with a mohawk! Dead set - my mate was devastated...

You're doing well keeping on track - and those enchiladas sound so tatsy :drool5:
Best of luck for the next weigh in :)
 
BikiniBound2011 said:
Sadly I still haven't cooked anything yet. I've been busy grooming doggies so the cooking has fallen off the back. But hopefully I will cook something tomorrow for dinner. I really do need a food scale. What brand is yours?
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It's an EatSmart Precision Pro. I paid $25 on Amazon and it was definitely worth it, especially if you're like me and refuse to stray away from a recipe, haha. I love measuring stuff like chocolate syrup with it, because then it also saves you from washing a measuring spoon! Or it keeps you from having to count out 55 goldfish crackers or annoying stuff like that.

So I love all of your pictures! The dogs all look great, I'm glad you're getting some experience with them. It's fun that I remember when you were waiting on your supplies!
 
healthyjess said:
Hi BB - you are a great groomer! Love all the photos.
My mate recently took her Boarder Collie to a new groomer and it came back with a mohawk! Dead set - my mate was devastated...

You're doing well keeping on track - and those enchiladas sound so tatsy :drool5:
Best of luck for the next weigh in :)
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Thanks Jess! I am taking classes right now. Hopefully one day grooming will be my full-time job.

OMG, a mohawk? I've actually seen pics of a Yorkie who got a mohawk (at his owner's request) and it was kinda cute. But i could definitely see why your friend would be upset about it if they didn't ask for it!

Unfortunately your luck didn't help me today....I'm still stuck at 173. Ugh. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow.


Laura F said:
It's an EatSmart Precision Pro. I paid $25 on Amazon and it was definitely worth it, especially if you're like me and refuse to stray away from a recipe, haha. I love measuring stuff like chocolate syrup with it, because then it also saves you from washing a measuring spoon! Or it keeps you from having to count out 55 goldfish crackers or annoying stuff like that.

So I love all of your pictures! The dogs all look great, I'm glad you're getting some experience with them. It's fun that I remember when you were waiting on your supplies!
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Thanks for the info. Actually, I was looking on amazon yesterday and saw that exact scale! It has a lot of good reviews. I'm going to have to get one soon. Counting out crackers is no fun at all...

Thanks for your compliments on the dogs. I have a lot to learn, but I feel like I do a little better each time. Hopefully I can find a job as a groomer somewhere after tax season.
 
Still 173!!!! Ugh, this is crazy.

I am tired of seeing 173. (Of course, I don't want to see 174 or higher either.) I got so exasperated that I made my husband get on the scale to see if it would say something besides 173, lol. (The funny thing is last time he weighed himself a couple of months ago he was 173 too. The irony.) So he got on the scale and weighed 169. He lost 4 pounds without even trying!

I'm wondering about this damn Points Plus program. The old program was baed on calories, fat, and fiber. The new one is based on fat, carbs, protein, and fiber. It doesn't take into account calories at all. It's supposed to be better because before an apple and a 100-calorie snack of cookies could be the same amount of points, so most people would say cool I could eat the cookies. (l would so do this! Naughty!) This is supposed to encourage healthy eating. So now fruits are 0 points, therefore I'm eating more fruit than I used to. :) I am just kind of concerned that you could still have too many calories on this program. They upped our # of points per day since most foods went up a couple of points with the new calculations. I'm thinking maybe I should also log my food in fitday or something and see how many calories I am eating. (Although I hate counting calories...). But I don't really know how many I should be eating anyway. Maybe I should just give it a few more days because I've only been faithfully logging my food on this new program since Saturday. But I've been eating very good and it's discouraging the scale hasn't changed one bit in three days. And no, I'm not on my period.

In other news I've been trying to figure out how we can afford my husband to go back to school. He's been unhappy with his job forever. He's been there for almost 4 years and things haven't realy improved. And he wants to work closer to home, but his current job is really only available in big cities and we live in a small town. (His job now is about 60 miles away.) He is thinking about going to school to be a medical sonographer (ultrasounds) and there is a community college that offers an accredited 16 month old program. It would probably be a couple of semesters longer than that though with having to take prerequisites. It's a fulltime program so he couldn't work.

But I work for my dad right now so I have no benefits, and we use his. When I look for a grooming job I'm hoping I can get benefits. But I'm still so worried about getting one to begin with, since I'm such a newbie. Also we would definitely need student loans and we already have too much debt. But when he gets out of school he would be making a lot more money than he is now. He gets paid about $1800 a month and we usually only have $200 leftover after he pays the household bills. (My money is for the car note, credit card bills, and then we use the rest for groceries, gas, etc.) So we really need that income. If only we had both figured out what we wanted to do when we were in college the first time! Anybody else went back to school and was able to survive? We don't have kids yet, so now would be his chance.
 
Finally!!!

The scale has moved! 172.2! After days and days of being 173.4, I'm down 1.2 lbs!!! It's amazing how good losing 1 lb can feel, lol. Now I am back to my lowest weight before I "took my leave of absence" from weightloss.

Having a McDonald's so close to my house is really hazardous to my health. I used to have to drive about 10 minutes from my house to get to any fastfood. Now I have one about 5 minutes away. They built it about a year ago. Since then I've noticed I go there a lot more than I used too. But mostly, it's for my nonfat, sugar free vanilla, iced latte, which is only 2 points. But every once in awhile my husband wants to get breakfast from there, and I love their pancakes.

So yesterday this is what happened, and I got the pancakes and my usual iced latte. On the old points program, it used to be 7 points for the pancakes and 0 for the latte. Now on the new program, the pancakes are 8 points and the latte is 2. Plus the butter packets are each 1. I'm weird and I don't usually have syrup on my pancakes, and just use a lot of butter. I use a butter packet on each pancake so that means three butters. So my total breakfast was 13 points! Almost half my total for the day (29). So I indulged, enjoyed it, and planned to be very good the rest of the day.

I'm still getting used to the new program and getting back to tracking again, so I was hoping I wouldn't be famished by the end of the day, but I ended up doing very well. Here was my day:

Breakfast

Mcdonalds pancakes: 8 points
Medium Sugar-free Vanilla Iced Latte: 2 points
3 butter packets for pancakes: 3 points

Lunch

Rostisserie Chicken (Sliced) Sandwich with cheese: 9 points
1 cup of grapes: 0 points

Dinner

Smart Ones Shrimp Marinara tv dinner: 4 points
Skinny Cow Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream (absolutely delicious): 4 points

Total:[/U]: 30 points (1 over)

But I stayed up late waiting for my husband to get home from work, and I ended up feeling hungry before going to bed. But I didn't want to ruin my good day, so what did I eat? Well ladies and gentleman, at 11:00 last night I was eating a can of spinach! lol. But it is 0 points, and I love spinach. I'm proud of myself for staying on track despite Mickey D's. And for losing 1.2 lbs! :party:
 
Shopped til I dropped today...

I got tons of new clothes. I got a bunch of dressy office type stuff since I'm starting taxes on Friday, and a lot of my clothes from last year are too big! I got a pair of really nice gray dress pants that I'm really excited about. Everything came from JCPenney. I love all their stuff and there are always huge sales. I also got a really nice black jacket that was originally $80 for $23! I love finding bargains!
 
BikiniBound2011 said:
I got tons of new clothes. I got a bunch of dressy office type stuff since I'm starting taxes on Friday, and a lot of my clothes from last year are too big! I got a pair of really nice gray dress pants that I'm really excited about. Everything came from JCPenney. I love all their stuff and there are always huge sales. I also got a really nice black jacket that was originally $80 for $23! I love finding bargains!
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Nice sounds like you are a good dresser! maybe i should be getting some fashion tips from you ladies!
 
I hope I am as successful as you were in buying new clothes. I still haven't worked up the nerve to go do it.

And all this talk of pancakes is making me hungry.
 
I laughed at your 11 pm spinach experience, haha! Veggies are good!! Glad you had a successful shopping trip, I've enjoyed buying dress shirts but NOT pants!! I hate dress pants with pockets, so I now pretty much wear the same pair in two different colors and two different sizes (so four pairs total) because I can never find any I like!

Hope you still have time to pop in during tax season!!
 
Tob said:
Nice sounds like you are a good dresser! maybe i should be getting some fashion tips from you ladies!
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Haha, Tob, maybe so. Thanks for stopping by!

bluebuckeye said:
I hope I am as successful as you were in buying new clothes. I still haven't worked up the nerve to go do it.

And all this talk of pancakes is making me hungry.
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I know you will be, whenever you decide you're ready! Sorry about all the pancake talk. If I could have them everyday for breakfast, I would.

Laura F said:
I laughed at your 11 pm spinach experience, haha! Veggies are good!! Glad you had a successful shopping trip, I've enjoyed buying dress shirts but NOT pants!! I hate dress pants with pockets, so I now pretty much wear the same pair in two different colors and two different sizes (so four pairs total) because I can never find any I like!

Hope you still have time to pop in during tax season!!
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Yeah, I felt silly eating spinach as a late night snack, but also I'm proud of myself for eating something healthy at least.

I usually am the same way about buying all pants in general. I have a big butt in proportion to the rest of me, so it's always hard to buy pants because they are usually not long enough in the "seat area" or they fit my butt fine, but are huge in the waist and I have a big gap going on in the back of the waist. I always try to look for ones with a wide waistband, which seems to counter the gap problem. I bought tons of shirts, but only found this one pair of pants. Too bad I couldn't buy them in other colors, because for some reason they made each color in another cut. But at least I have a different color (gray), because I all I wore last year were black pants.

I will definitely find time to visit and post, but it probably won't be as often. But I'm off on Sundays and get off earlier on Saturdays, so that is most likely when I'll be posting. Also Mardi Gras is coming up, and my first parade is on the 20th. So pretty soon I will be crazy busy! I can't wait for parades though, because besides the fact that they're fun, it should be a huge boost to my weightloss. Dancing for 6 or 7 miles multiple times a week should make it easy to drop the pounds, as long as I don't overeat from all the exercise.

Still holding strong at 171.8! I am desperate to be in the 160s!!! :willy_nilly:
 
Warning, rant ahead...

So yesterday was my first day back at work doing taxes for this year. My dad was nice enough to not schedule me until the schedule filled up a bit. He didn't want me to drive all the way in for just one or two clients. So my first day back was a full one. It actually went pretty well. But I am already so tired.

That's what I hate about working for my dad doing taxes. I know I shouldn't complain because I only have to work a few months out of the year. But the hours kill me. We take clients from 9-8. We do the taxes while the client is there, and most people take an hour. I get two hours of a break each day (one for lunch and one for dinner). Since my commute is 50+ miles one way, I start my day around 4 am. I leave for work around 6:45 am, in case I run into traffic. Then I drop off my dogs at my parent's house for around 8 am, and get to the office around 8:15/8:30. I usually leave the office around 8 pm, then drive to pick up the dogs, and then drive home. So I don't get home until around 9:30. If I go straight to bed I can get maybe five hours of sleep. This is Monday through Friday. I also work Saturdays 9 to 3. My one day off is Sunday and then I just want to sleep, and my poor house stays a mess because I am too tired to clean. I feel like I just "visit" my house, because I am hardly ever home except to sleep. Of course a lot of time my husband and I will spend the night at my parents house since he works out that way too. But I hate doing that because I have to pack up all my stuff i.e. clothes, toiletries, etc. and I just like sleeping in my own bed.

So even though my first day went well as far as the actual work, I am already depressed and counting down the days.

I am really hoping I can find a grooming job so this can be my last year doing taxes. But I can't afford to make any less than I am making now.

There really isn't any point to all of this. This has been my life for three years. Either I'm doing taxes or I'm spending the rest of the year dreading the next tax season. I just cannot handle getting five hours of sleep or less for 3 months straight. I become grumpy very quickly. Guess I just felt like ranting...

:rant:
 
There's nothing wrong with ranting and lack of sleep for days on end will make everyone grumpy! I can't imagine such a busy schedule so I hope days go by quickly for you :(
 
Your schedule right now sounds brutal. I was sleep deprived through university, and i never realized how miserable it made me. lol at least it's only for a bit. I hope the dog grooming thing works out for you. I'll drop by again later. :)
 
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