Computer Overhaul

My laptop is officially 2 years old and I am just as enamored with it as the day I bought it. However, it's not as awesome as it used to be. It's not as fast. It's bogged down with heaven knows what and I am finally going to do something about it.

I talked to a guy yesterday who said that a complete reload of your operating system is highly recommended for all computer once per year. Once a year? I had no idea! Especially because it's a huge PITA.

But I'm going to do it. I'm doing it. I'm nervous!

Taking the guy's advice, I installed all of my programs onto my external harddrive so that once Vista is re-installed on my laptop, I can just go through and reinstall all my important programs. Hopefully it won't take too long. I've only done this once before and it was a complete fiasco. It took like 4x longer than it was supposed to take and it was a lot of freakin' work. Plus, I had no children clamoring around me screaming at the top of their lungs for me to pick them up. Honestly, it's stressful enough without a child climbing your leg. But, it needs done.

So if I'm absent for a few days, you'll know why.

Here goes nothing...

Another Round With hCG & Maintenance with Phase 3

Ahhhh, the New Year is coming. I'm so happy! For so many reasons. But probably the first reason is that I've committed myself to one final round with hCG. And I'm very excited. I've been at my current weight now for two months and have become marginally dissatisfied with the way I look. I know I could lose a little more around my middle and feel that much better about myself. And while I know I look good at the weight I'm at right now, isn't it every girl's wish to lose their vanity pounds? Not just the extra baggage we're carrying around - but ALL of the weight. Get back to their high school weight just once? Okay maybe not every girl wants to do that but I do. Just to see if I feel healthy and know that I am back to square one: starting over. Giving myself another chance at keeping the weight off.

A little recap of what my weight's been doing for the past two months and a few tips to those of you out there who are struggling with maintenance at any Phase. Make sure you check out my post on maintaining from Phase 2 to Phase 3 as it has very specific information about that transition.

My weight pretty much settled out at 130 which was about 1 lb from my last hCG weight. If I worked out 4-5x a day for 15-25 minutes of running, I was able to stay there fairly easily. I did my first steak day about 3 weeks after taking my last hCG in preparation for adding carbs in.

Adding carbs back in proved to be stressful for me. My body seems to prefer a much higher protein percentage and when the protein would dip, I would gain. I had many days of "being careful": eating salads, very few carbs (like about 40grams) and having a straight meat/veggie for dinner. Honestly, while it was still much better than Phase 2 taking hCG, and still better than strict dieting, I didn't love that I had to be so very careful. And then I learned a few things over the next few weeks and into Christmas that will help you and me next time. They are:

1) Take your first 3 weeks of Phase 3 (the adding carbs back in phase) and only add in complex carbs like bread, potatoes, pasta etc. Let your body adjust to these things first.

2) As soon as you start into Phase 3, consider taking a protein supplement like replacing your morning meal, or a post-workout meal with a protein shake. Adding the extra protein will give your body a big protein advantage on the balancing act of protein vs. carbs. This helped me a lot during Christmas when I was eating a lot more sugar than I normally could eat and not gain.

3) After your body has adjusted to complex carbs, start slowly adding sugar in. I know by this point you may be really jonesing for it but take it slow and you won't be sorry.

4) Work out - there's just no two ways about it. You want to maintain a healthy and lean body, you need to work at it a little. Do a hard, fast workout in the morning and you will be able to relax for the rest of the day. I jump on the treadmill and have a quick run. And since my mind knows it only has to do it for less than 20 minutes, I get less resistance there.

There, so those are my tips for maintaining for Phase 3.

If any of you out there are still waffling about whether or not to do this, listen up. For the past two months, I open my closet and every single thing I pull out of there to put on makes me feel fabulous. There's nothing in my closet that makes me feel fat, is tight or makes me self conscious. I look in the mirror and like what I see. I never feel like my weight is the first thing people see about me. My weight issues are finally a thing of the past and it's like my life has started over. Do you realize how much of your crappy feelings and issued are wrapped up in your weight? Just get rid of it and find out who you really are!

Guess Who's Walking?

Tinkerpot is 9 months and 24 days old. And she's walking. She took her first very precarious steps today, in fact she took many. She gets the age old look on her face, "LOOK AT ME! I'M SO BIG!" as she weeble-wobbles toward my outstretched hands.

I knew she'd walk early since she rolled and then crawled early. Crawling, this little terror is into everything - so opposite of Bugs who couldn't have cared less about electrical sockets and what was behind the cupboard doors in the kitchen. Tink, on the other hand, has a curiosity that is never quenched.

I guess I know what I'll be doing from now on...chasing after this elfish little face as she runs from me. I've already been doing that plenty, only she crawls as fast as she can.

My Weirdest iPhone App

Last night I was browsing through iPhone apps - a frequent "zoning" activity for me. iPhone apps are exactly what my compartmentalization personality needs. Everything has its app - in a little box within easy reach. Like a little file cabinet in my pocket - an app for every possible thing you might need.

And last night I found the mother app of all apps. No, not really but I was quite taken. And even as I downloaded that little bit of bytes, I was really wondering why the heck I was doing it! Let me explain:

This totally awesome little app categorizes your wardrobe. Yes, I said it categorizes your wardrobe! You've got actual pictures of every single piece of your clothing and allows you to pick your outfits on the fly by touching a shirt, with a skirt, with some shoes etc. etc. How unfreaking believable is that? I mean, if that's not the epitome of anal retentive, then I don't know WHAT is! And I bought the bloody thing!

And as I was buying it, I was thinking, "Now I need to find time to lay out each piece of my clothing and take a picture of it, import it into my computer and load it into this app! Where am I going to get time like that?" That was the right side of my brain. The more logical side of my brain, might I add. The left side of my brain...the "I want, yeeeeees, me want!" side was just like - "what they hay! I'll find time somewhere because this is SUPER AWESOME!"

Trust me. I'm never going to find time to do this incredibly enormous task. Not like I have a huge ton of clothes - it's just that photographing each piece is tedious and extraneous. And for what? Really, for what?

And to be perfectly honest (and I've actually considered blogging about this before) I actually have incredibly boring taste in clothes. I own probably 3 articles that actually have a print on them. The rest are white, brown, black SOLID pieces. I own jeans, khaki's, black slacks and a pair of green cords. I own two khaki skirts, one black skirt - oh, and one skirt with a print on it. Several long sleeved tees of solid colors - couple whites, couple blacks, couple browns. One pink oooh - living the wild side. I have several sweaters of varying styles but all very conservative, very boring. Essentially I'm saying that to make outfits that match out of this boring wardrobe wouldn't take a 2 year more than about 10 seconds.

So what do I need this super awesome app for? I have no idea. I spent $2.99 because I like the idea. How dumb is that?