Halloween

I was a little worried about Halloween this year. With the not wanting to wear her Witch Dress at the birthday party about 2 weeks ago and working on "trick or treat" and saying thank you .... that is a lot! But, magically she wanted to wear her witch dress (that daddy fixed the itchy arms of) and she NAILED the trick or treat.  She went around our end of the street, Chris was also dressed up (in his Kendo gear) and I stayed home to dish out "treats".  They were gone for just about an hour (had to take puppy meeting breaks) and when they got back, she helped me hand out candy to the last 3 or 4 groups to hit the house. 

All our Trick or Treater's said trick or treat and they all also said thank you.  Which is huge as many people I have talked to the kids just stuck out their bags, not saying anything and then turning around and going.  The candy is OK - but the fun part is getting to say Trick or Treat!!  This is the first year since we had Freya that we participated in Trick or Treating, and we sure made up for lost time!

No Time to Sit Still! ~ a fragment

It is finally fall! The weather is chilly in the morning (46 degrees) and just a little warmer than I would like in the afternoons but still cooler that it has been! Woot Woot! We have a super busy couple of weekends coming up.  Next weekend we have Barbells for Boobs, Nocturnal Nature Walk, and our body fat dunk tank tests.  Sometime in there we want to go talk a little hike and see the fall foliage and get some Dutch Monkey donuts*.  The following weekend is Halloween and we have a party to go to! As well as taking Goosy our for the first time. Oh - and I'm starting school!  Whew. 

This past weekend Freya attended her first birthday party that wasn't for her.  It was a dress up party and she was all excited to wear her little punk witch costume.... well that lasted for all of 5 or 6 minutes then it was full on melt down and "I want it offffff" so (thanks to Grandma) we had a substitute Elmo dress up costume and she wore that instead.  She was so damn cute. We got there and we had a great time painting mini pumpkins, eating all the marshmallow's out of the snack mix and having cake with ice cream.  After what might have been the longest two hours of my life (we are full on potty training and are going without pull-ups these days) we made it home without having an accident took the shortest nap on record and then went out for dinner.

huh.

It is totally fascinating to me when I think about my self image.  Before I had Freya, I would have told you that I was "athletic".  I worked out, and I also drank A LOT of beer and wine, so while I had a flat stomach - I also had some pretty impressive fat pockets on my hips. Because I like numbers: I weighed 147 when I got pregnant, wearing a size 8/10.  I gained A LOT of weight when I was pregnant, I was 215 on their scale two days before I gave birth.  Almost a year later, I was holding at 164 and wearing a size 12.  I felt like shit.  To me - I was fat.  I had this huge saggy and distorted stomach and a huge ass.  And lets not forget the chins! So it was that in the summer of 2009 I did a fantastic Carb Cycling diet.  And I lost the weight.  I was 147 for like a day.  The problem with the Carb Cycling diet, was that I just didn't have the time to prepare food and have it ready to go for lunch at work.  I ended up eating so much chicken and steamed veggies that the second I hit my target weight, I went back to "normal"eating.  And, we can see where this is going can't we??? Well as well as going back to my bad eating habits, I also got a new job that had mandatory overtime.  So not only was I eating bad, but I was super stressed out as well. And: Hello 20 pounds! 

By now, I am back in my fat clothing, feeling miserable. I couldn't see going to the gym doing the treadmill at all at this point.  I was so tired, I missed my family.  I was doing a lot of complaining. Then, right around my birthday this year, I started to do Cross-Fit.   And along with Cross-Fit came the "Paleo Challenge". Now, I knew about Paleo already, had the book and everything.  But, we had never put it into place.  Just seemed to hard. Now, I was ready. And as of this past Saturday, the challenge end date: I am 145 pounds, and my body fat went from 32% to 26%.  I have about 6 more pounds of fat to get to my "optimum" range.  And I will get there because, as I have said here before, we are staying Paleo.  And I love Cross-Fit.  It really did save me (and my 6 am class means that I can still work out when the overtime kicks up again).

So, I am now "skinner" than I was before I got pregnant.  Except - the jeans that I have been wanting to get into - will never fit.  Becasue now I have muscles where I had fat.  And I am so much happier - I feel good and have an outlet for that aggression that is always just under the serface for me.

And in totally Piffle news - no hair cut yet.... will trim and change the color instead.  I have realized that I really love my hair long. Just without the split ends.

I Need New Hair

And it want it to look roughly like this:

The red will be a little darker (since I dye it anyway - I sorta get skeeved by the idea of dying it the same color as the husband and kid have naturally).  I am currently sporting a long, unshaped beast of chocolate brown that hangs in a knotted wad down around my shoulder blades.  Can you say "hair up in a knot on the top of my head!"?

This cut has the look of something that I can (gasp) blow dry and go. And one day, when I am a big girl, I will actually curl the ends.  You would think, as much time as I spend longing for pretty hair that I would actually, I don't know, DO SOMETHING with my hair.  Hmm.  Perhaps it is time to put on the big girl knickers and schedule an appointment, procure a curling iron and finally just get into the habit of doing my hair.  God lord.  After all - I can get out of bed at 5:15 AM to go to CrossFit and I changed my diet to Paleo, this is easy after that!

My Brain is Weird

There are certain songs that every time I hear them I link it to the book that I am reading at the time – and then it seems the two are forever linked in my brain. For example: I was reading the Sandman comic by Neil Gaiman, and the next morning as I was driving to work I was listening to Empires by VNV Nation – and now every time I hear a song from Empires, one of the story lines from the Sandman will pop into my head. Some of them are pretty intense like the Great Below by Nine Inch Nails will generate images similar to Simon floating out to sea from the Lord of the Flies. No idea how that linked up in my head as I haven’t read that book in ages – like High School? And Pioneer to the Fall’s by Interpol always makes me think of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter books.

It is actually sort of nice – when I get stuck in traffic (a daily occurrence in Atlanta) I can just select a song and let my mind wonder its own little story line. And then I’m not cursing a blue steak down I-85 because my mind is nicely occupied.

As and obligatory Paleo/Crossfit update: diet going well and today I did an unassisted Kipping Pull-Up. GO ME! And my clean has gone up 5 pounds from my one rep max so there you go. I can also do 55 sit-ups in 2 minuets, hold plank for 1:14 and I almost did a hand stand! Except that I got dizzy on the way up and went splat. The Challenge ends on our anniversary and I hope that they have the body fat emersion truck dude there on that same Saturday so that we can get our measurement done that day. Then we can enjoy our anniversary dinner without thought to the salt content and so on and so forth of the meal. Because I have a feeling that meal will be a doozey. I know I am planning on some wine and more that a little chocolate. But – oddly – I don’t want to break Paleo (too much) because with so much going well I don’t want to wake up the next morning with full on rosacea flushing and belly issues. What started as a we can go get Italian is slowly morphing into a Mexican feast.

And as for exciting plans for the weekend: Papa Jacks for breakfast (most likely on Sunday) and I’m gonna dye my hair Dark Chocolate Brown. There is also the possibility that we might swing out to watch Fight Gone Bad at the AFB in Smyrna, but I have a feeling that might not happen. As it will be hot as hell Saturday…. but things look like they will be cooling off and there should only be a high of like 75 on Monday.

In wardrobe news: I also got the zipper on a little size 8 brown cord skirt fixed and viola! I have the skirt to go with the sweater I got a couple weeks ago. And I am totally stoked that I can get my no longer such a fat ass in a size 8 skirt. I also scored a lovely gold nylon bag - which will make a lovely tote for weekends till someone is totally potty-trained and it will also be a great travel bag. Between that and our huge NRA backpack we shouldn’t need any other bags when we fly up for Oyster Festival this year. And that will be an oddity – because Freya is going to stay at home with Grandma. Hopefully she will go easy on Grandma! It will mark the second time since she was born that I have been away from her for more than a day. I am really looking forward to not having a bedtime fight and getting to sleep in! I am still looking for a long cardigan/sweater coat in a dark sage or brown (preferably) cashmere… there is on a the T.J. Maxx that I just might have to scoop up! It has a hood – but I can work with that. I think that I have shrunk enough that my fabulous red trench is going to need to be replaced. Sigh. I love that coat – but I can get two of me in there now so I think that it needs replacing….with a sweater coat! Ha!

Sick of the heat

I am so tired of 90+ days. Like pondering a move to the Arctic sick of it. It does have a plus side, I can still wear my flip's and tank tops. And I'm not cold all the time. But dammit! I am ready to wear sweaters, fall dresses, tights and my new kick ass boots! Waaa!
Perhaps - I'll do it anyway... the first day of Autumn is Thursday - I shall celebrate by dressing like it is Autumn and then sweating to death. But! I have gluten free beer now. Silver lining and all that.

Paleo/Crossfit Baby

Freya is doing the Paleo Challenge by default, as both her mother and father are eating Paleo these days. I just found a last lone hold out bag of Cheezits in the cupboard last night, which tossed out (read: stale). So far eating Paleo with the little one has been pretty easy she likes fruit and veggies and is getting a handle on meat. At this point, I am not packing her lunch for school because they make very good food for her at the daycare, but that will probably change come Kindergarten in 3 years. (eek!) Then it's: Hello Bento box! They are cute and interesting and super inexpensive and will hold all the food we eat very well. They also make a little press thingy that when you put a freshly boiled and peeled egg in it it will make it into a little cat face. Nothing says You need me! to a mother of a little girl than the ability to make her boiled eggs into a cat face.

Last week we had a Cross-Fit gym group picture with as many members of No Excuses as could get there. Freya loves to go to the gym because we let her play with the equipment after the folks there are done with their workouts. She was also cheering for the guys that were finishing up a particularly evil WOD. Nothing cuter than a little voice going WOOHOO! We were posed and our pictures taken - Freya was better behaved than some of the adults there. She sat still, and was totally awe struck by John and his freshly worked on tattoo.

After the posed picture we just sort of milled around, and some random candid pictures were taken including one of the Crossfit baby:

Flipping a tire. She actually did better than I did the first time I ever flipped a tire! (The picture in the middle also made it onto the gym web page for today's WOD.) Momma and Daddy are so proud.