Finally, a NSV!

Yaaaaay for Thursday!!!! I realize most of my post start with a reference to what day of the week it is. Does this mean I'm officially a grownup, concerned with the weekend getting here? In college I didn't give a shit about the weekends. I partied when I wanted, regardless of what day of the week it was. And, in turn, I didn't feel super lame staying in on a Saturday night cuddling with Winnie and watching Sweet Home Alabama like I do now.

I digress. I'm here because I finally feel like I have a non-scale victory to share!!! No, I wasn't super-awesome at resisting all the munchies placed on the buffet desk next to me yesterday, but overall this week I have been getting back on track, in general.

I've gone to the gym TWICE this week, everyone!!!


source

I know, I know. Not that big of a deal. But considering I've also been really good about cooking for myself this week, too, I'm chalking it up to a victory. No gym today, but I'm going to run when I get home. I have to get the house all ready for the boy to get here TOMORROW!!!! I'm supa excited.

Anyway. Back to the NSV. I'm just hoping that I can keep this up like I was so good about doing at the beginning of the year. Sorry you've been hearing the same things over and over again. I'm really trying. Promise.

Hope everyone is having a great week--hang in there, tomorrow's Friday! Hollaaaaa.

That's all I got. Peace out, fools!

Hey little tiger

Happy Friday!!!!


Wait...it's only Thursday!?!? Are you kidding me!??!! This week just can't go by fast enough.

This will be me tomorrow when I leave work:

thanks http://whatshouldwecallme.tumblr.com

Anyhoo. I was planning on not even linking up for NSV this week because I've just been running this week and I didn't want to sound like a broken record. But this morning something wonderful happened!!!!

I ran my fastest mile in as long as I can remember!

12:49/mile is probably really slow to a lot of people. But do I care? Hellll naw! It hurt, not gonna lie. And I'm going to try really hard to not be disappointed if I don't have the same or better average tomorrow. But Whatever. Happy NSV to me!

Oh, and someone just brought a pizza into the office, and I'm not having any of it. Boom. It really must be a cold day in hell, huh?

And now for the linkup I was planning on participating in all along...a letter to my 21 y/o (or college) self with Jake & Holly. I'm writing this to my college self because I was a baby and didn't turn 21 until the first semester of my senior year. Yeah, being underage almost your entire college career is super fun. So here it goes!



Dear Tiger Nicole,

OK. At this point you're probably thinking, what the heck do you mean "Tiger"? I'm a Husky! Wrong. In a year, you'll be a Tiger. You're going to do a lot of growing up, FAST, during your year at Northeastern. At first you'll hate it, then you'll make some amazing friends by joining Kappa Delta (by the way, quit being a chicken shit and go through rush), and you won't want to leave. But you're going to have to because the economy goes to shit in about a month and, well, you couldn't afford $48k a year before, so now you really won't be able to! Just go with it. It's all for the best.

You'll learn that transferring to a state school in California isn't going to be as simple as you thought it would be, and your only real option to stay in a University, not a JC, is to transfer to Tennessee, where your dad can get you in-state tuition. You'll visit a few different schools but get sold on Memphis, and I promise, you'll love it. Don't be nervous when you move into your sorority house knowing hardly any of your sisters there, they're YOUR SISTERS and they love you right away. There's some good girls there, so get out of your comfort zone and get to know them all. And don't worry, you'll stay in touch with your Northeastern sisters too, and your amazing roommate Sarah, because she transfers to Vandy and is now only 2 hours from you. Now listen...GO VISIT HER. Even though you don't have the gas money. Even though you want to stay on campus and go to a frat party. Go. To. Nashville. And. See. Sarah. She can't come see you without a car but she was the best thing that ever happened to you in Boston.

Really quick, get over the jackass who broke your heart after you graduated high school, and don't drive 5 hours to see him at his new army station. He's never going to change. Literally, ever. I'm writing this to you over 5 years later and he's still the same pathological liar he was before, just now with PTSD. Not a good combo. Stay away.

The next 3 years you're going to meet a guy you think is the one. Then go through what you *think* is a heartbreak and within a few months be dating another boy you think is the one. He's not. And he will hurt you harder than anyone ever has. But through a weird twist of fate he will stay in your life, and that's ok. You become grownups and move on. Then you'll really meet the guy you actually talk marriage with, and love enough to be in a relationship long distance with for over a year (verrrry lonnnnng distance). You'll make some major mistakes throughout that relationship, but you'll learn from them and move on. I wish I could tell you where that situation will end up going, but at this point it's lookin' like he ain't the one either, honey. So go with it and enjoy the ride I guess!

Now back to friendships. Don't risk your friendships because of stupid boys. They will never be worth it--at least throughout your college years. You're going to learn this lesson the hard way and it's going to suck really bad. Just remember what I told you about Sarah.

Another bit of advice: Start budgeting!!! It's no fun getting an email notification every single week (sometimes more than once a week) that your bank account has less than $25 in it. You come from broke parents. Just get over it. All I can really tell you is that yes, it's going to be hard at times in college. And you're going to have a lot of ups and downs. But just enjoy it while you can because it goes by SO FAST. And like Jake says, graduating in 4 years is like leaving a party at 9:00. So if you feel like going an extra year, go for it. All you're going to do after you graduate is move home and spend a year at a job you hate. And you could probably get the same great job you now have if you take another year to graduate :)

And a few random tips:

• Don't ever open a tab at a bar. You can't afford it.
• Colton is an ass hole and you're too pretty for him anyway. Listen to your friends and sisters and move on.
• John is actually a bigger ass hole than Colton, and they are fraternity brothers and you shouldn't even go there in the first place.
• Don't ever take 12 shots (of different types of alcohol) before your sorority formal, especially when your date's name is Rowdy. The outcome is not good.
• Be wise with your fake ID. It's from Tennessee, looks nothing like you, and says you should be 4 inches shorter than you really are. Don't try getting into a place in downtown San Diego with it. Oh, and it might be helpful if you learned what astrological sign you're supposed to be (hint: it's not Aries).
• Yes, the freshman VP of Standards and you hate each other, and the way she got that position is still questionable, but get over it. Be nice, smile, and behave yourself (at least in public). It will save you a whole heap of trouble.
• If you have a red solo cup full of box wine you don't want to dump out because you're going to drive around the corner to the next frat house, WALK. I'm going to tip you off here and tell you that you get extremely lucky when it comes to drinking and driving throughout college, but for god's sake, don't even tempt it!

Alright, you little Tiger, you, have fun and godspeed!

Sincerely,

1 year post-grad You

And I'm totally copying Holly and placing a fun little photo montage here. Luckily, being in a sorority doesn't allow you to post too many scandalous photos onto fb and get away with it. So this is about as silly as they got.

Reading this back to myself I'm happy to see a common idea that I wish the college-me could have understood: getting over shit and moving on. I have finally realized and been able to admit that I'm a major grudge-holder. I hold onto things and ways that people have hurt me and I just can't let them go. Well, I used to not be able to, anyway. At this point there are some things from the past that I still have a hard time letting go, but when new things happen I've gotten much better at just letting them roll off my back and moving on with my chin up. It's better for you in the long run either way, and that's what really matters.

Can't wait to read everyone else's letters and about their NSV's!

'Merica.

One more day until the glorious weekend! Hollaaaaaaaa.

First things first. My non-scale victory.

BTW, is Lex alive?

I think it's the same as last week (I'm just too lazy to look). But I've gone to the gym after work the last two days in a row. I know the only way to for sure 100% get me there is to change before I even leave, so I have no excuses. Today, I'm going to try to run in my neighborhood. I also have a kickball game so hopefully I don't overdo it on my toe, which still hurts.

To add to my money stresses I've realized that breaking my toe essentially has turned the $100+ that I spent on my nice running shoes a waste, as they no longer are comfortable due to my toe healing wrong (no doctor would reset a broken toe though, so there's nothing I could have done about it other than not run into the wall and break my toe in the first place). Eff my effing life. I'll probably have to invest in some new ones at some point in the near future. Anyone know what to do with my Mizunos which are in pretty good shape? Can you really sell used running shoes??

Moving on, I plan on going to Barre at my gym next Tuesday morning. Has anyone ever taken a Barre class!??! Please tell me this: What kind of shoes are you supposed to wear??? Just regular ole gym shoes??

Sorry for all the questions.

This is going to now be super random and have nothing to do with NSV. But it's my blog so I don't care :)

I'm currently obsessed with the new series North America on Discovery. Literally. Obsessed. I think it's awesome. And probably because of how stinkin' patriotic I am I love that it's a reminder to people of how beautiful our very own country/continent is and maybe it will result in people investing their money more into travelling INSIDE than pumping up other country's economies. Just a little side note :) Either way, I love watching it, and I've taken away some valuable lessons that I thought I'd share here, as they were such a big hit on my own personal facebook.

1. Don't mess with Mamas. Ever. They will protect their babies fiercely and sacrifice themselves if they can.
2. If you are unhappy with what you have, go out, work hard, and earn what you want. Moochers don't fare well in the Animal Kingdom, so why should they in the real world?
3. Ladies, please at least make men exert a BIT of energy before just giving it up! Make him do a fancy dance, sing you a song, or--I know this is a crazy thought--buy you dinner first!!!! Crazy concepts, I know.

Probably one of my favorite parts of the show so far.



This little fella learned real quick how to survive on a mountainside. Props, baby goat.



And my absolute favorite part so far...



I hear it....but where is it......



YAHTZEEEEE!

I also loved the prairie dog segment. Those little dudes are funny.

So now on my lifetime bucketlist (or maybe just the next few years) is go to Badlands National Park. I've been to Zion and it's beautiful, and the Grand Canyon, and I've seen swampland and all that fun stuff. But I want to go to Badlands.

Anyway, sorry for the super random sidetrip!

I can't wait to read about everyone else's NSV's this week! It's almost the weekend, so just hold on!

And, as always....God Bless America :)

Eff my effing life!!! And a non-scale victory.

OK. Where to begin.

How about from this morning? I had to be at work at 6. It's a 30-minute drive without traffic, so I woke up at 5. Wasn't gonna get super pretty or anything, just giving myself enough time to press snooze, get up, do the bare minimum and get out the door before 530. Wellllll seeeeeee I have this weird aversion to shoes. Any shoes. It's kind of ironic because I probably own over 40 pairs of them, but if i can go barefoot, I will. Therefore, every day after work the first thing I do when I get in my car is take off my work shoes and put them on the floor of the passenger's seat in my car. They stay there until I walk out to my car barefoot the next day, drive to work, and put them on when I get out to walk in. So this morning, in the dark, at 530, I rushed out of the house and jammed my foot against the doorjam. Specifically, my baby toe went one way around it, and the rest of my toes went the other way. It. Was. AWESOME.

My first thought was, of course, F&$*#&% S&@*#!!!!!!!! MOTHER F*$(@&!!!!! Typical toe-stubbing reaction, right? I'm a walk-it-off kinda girl, so that's what I did. Then I realized after driving for about 5 minutes that it was only getting worse. THEN I started panicking, as I do. I saw stars a few times on the commute, just freaking out that I had broken my toe. Welllllll I looked up pictures of a broken pinky toe and it's starting to resemble them, so....I'm pretty sure it's at least fractured. Ignore the chipping pedicure and tell me it's not broken!!! The bruising has shown up more since taking this picture. But my whole foot looks fat :(

This is just wonderful. Considering I still have 10 pounds to lose by the end of the month and one more pants size to drop. Looks like it's under 1200 calories a day for me until I can work out again. So, eff my effing life.

With how down I'm feeling I decided I need to celebrate soem kind of non-scale victory this week. I thought and I thought (it took a while since I've slacked off so much recently) and decided I can't count the hike on Saturday as a NSV because I already blogged about it. So here it goes.

On Sunday I attended a CAbi party. If you don't know what that is, google it. It's awesome. The clothes are amazing. I tried on a pair of white jeans, which I've been searching for for forever, and they were a size 10. I knew they weren't going to fit. BUT THEY DID! Now, they had a little bit of stretch to them and CAbi notoriously runs a little big, but I tried on a different pair of jeans in a 12 and they fit perfectly, so I know it wasn't a fluke. I fit in a 10!!!! I probably would be a tight squeeze in any other jeans, but it was validation that I'm still getting smaller. I chose not to buy them because they actually were a little loose in the crotch area (not attractive), and I'm having a CAbi party of my own at the end of the month. So hopefully (even though I can't work out) I'll be able to fit into an 8 in those jeans and not have a loosey-goosey crotch, and an 10 in regular jeans :)

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing a little better than me today! And congrats to everyone else's NSV's this week!

Non-scale victory and stuff

So. To be honest, I have been terrible at going to the gym before work when I go in at noon. Often times my feet still hurt from work the day before, and my diet with my schedule at work has been sucky which doesn't make it any easier to wake up in the morning--it really is amazing how important what you EAT is to how you FEEL in general. Anyhoo, this morning I decided to go for a run around my neighborhood instead of driving 15 minutes to the gym and another 15 back. It's been a while since I went on an outdoor run, and my neighborhood is all hills. Surprisingly I did a longer distance in a shorter time than I have been doing on the treadmill (technology can't be trusted with losing weight and getting in shape, btw) and I felt better about this run since it was constantly up and down. You can pretty much tell on the map of my run where the downhills and uphills are haha.

I'm kind of a fan of the Nike Run app!

So, my non-scale victory for the week was doing this outdoor run!

The biggest downside, however, to just running in my neighborhood is that I'm not super motivated to do anything else afterwards. But I took some small weights we had stashed in a closet (but I had to combine 5 lb and 3 lb ones in each hand to do 8 pounds when I've been using 10 lb weights at the gym) and did some of Mama Laughlin's arm workouts, some squats (which I think I was doing wrong) and a pathetic plank. Womp womp. Clearly I need to find a balance between gym workouts and running around my neighborhood, because in all honest I think I liked running in the hood better than running on the treadmill at the gym. I could keep my own pace and fluctuate it with my music and such much more than on a treadmill. 

Anyway, I'm still keeping my Operation Red Bikini goal of getting down to a size 10/170 lbs by May 31st. Good luck to everyone else in their ORB goals!

In other news, I won't be starting my new job until April 15th, which seems like a year away when you work 11.5 hour shifts (and have zero motivation to be there anymore....) but I'm an adult, and this is part of adult life, right? 

Being a big girl sure does stink sometimes. 

Alright, time to get ready for the dreaded work. Happy Thursday to the real world, it's my Tuesday. Woooooo. 

My first non-scale victory....

So today I don't have to go to work until 6--in exchange for going to work on my supposed-to-be-day-off, Tuesday, to open. I decided to make use of the extra time and head to the gym, where I experienced my first 'non-scale victory.' 

According to Lex from Life by Lex, "Non-Scale victories are those victories big and small that (as I see it) help you become a better person.  Whether it be physically, mentally, or in weight loss." Mine happened at the gym. Instead of running I chose to keep it fresh and get on the spin-style bike. We already know I originally thought of the stationary bikes as a cop-out workout, unless you crank up the intensity and actually sweat. Because of that, I only get on the bike for a minimum of 40 minutes--or the length of a TV episode on my iPhone. Today I watched an old episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (one of my guilty pleasures). When I got on, there was one other person around me on a bike. Then a few people joined me, and less than halfway through my workout, I was alone again. 

I know, I know, maaayyyybe I stunk or something and scared everyone off. But judging by how the people who did silly little 15 minute "workouts" on the stationary bikes continued to work out at the gym (yes, I watch people work out), I have a feeling that was actually their cardio for the day. I'm not judging them, I'm just proud of myself for out-working everyone else who got on the bikes at the same time as me, and pushing through even though my ass hurt, my thighs were chaffing (note to self: do NOT wear shorts on the bike!), and I got bored. Then I followed it up with some arm workouts--I'm now determined to change the shape of my arms--and my favorite vertical crunches. 

Happy non-scale victory to me! If you experience a non-scale victory, link up with Lex and share it!

After the gym I headed over to Target. I swear it's dangerous to have a Target so close to my house and my gym. I went a little grocery crazy.

Among the things I bought were

• Almond milk which I've never had but my friends swear by
• Both plain and vanilla non-fat greek yogurt
• Special K touch-of-honey granola
• Special K berries and chocolate cereal
• Kashi baked chocolate squares (see below)
• Fiber One chocolate chip bookie brownies
• Reduced fat cheezit packs

Can you tell I'm PMSing? OK sorry, TMI. But seriously, my sweet-tooth took over. Anyhoo, the Kashi baked chocolate squares are pretty tasty and only 4 WW points, but I have to say my first experience with one was...perplexing...

That^^^ is what was in my first, sealed pack. Half a square. WTF Kashi!? I could be one of those people that calls and complains and gets a free year-supply, but I won't. It was funny. And pretty tasty. I think I'll keep buying them. 

My main goal was to get snacks for work that are easy and quick, because with my new schedule I will have a 'lunch break' around 4 or 5 in the evening, leaving at least 6 hours left of my shift and that's early for dinner anyway. So I'll need to snack at least one more time during my shift before I come home and go to bed. 

But don't think I've forgotten Bob Harper's Skinny Rule #18, go to bed hungry. I plan on going to bed hungry from now on. I'm trying hard to follow these rules. Has anyone else followed these rules successfully? Or read the actual book? I'm thinking of buying it...

Alright time to relax before going in to work...boooooooo. 

Later, fools!