Kristabella: Full of Snark Since 1977

Posted By Kristabella on March 20, 2012

I’m pretty sure my cat Simba is trying to kill me.

He looks innocent enough and he’s a very loving cat and I’ve never met one person who doesn’t immediately fall in love with this cat. He LOVES people. And if you pet him and let him sit on your lap? You’ll be his friend forever.

I, on the other hand, am not his favorite. Yes, I feed him and pet him and give him treats, but I hate having him on my lap. Because he doesn’t sit on your lap, he has to lay on your whole person. And well, it’s annoying.

So he retaliates. In cat-like fashion. He pukes on my pillow or in my shoe. Or most recently, on my library book. He scratches the shit out of things. He drags is poopy ass on the carpet. He gives me the evil eye.

And now? Now he’s trying to kill me.

In the morning right before I’m getting ready to leave, I sit on the edge of the bed and put my commuting shoes on. Usually it’s my tennis shoes, since we haven’t had much of a winter and I wore my new snow boots twice.

It’s become part of our routine where I tie the shoes and fling the laces and he chases them and then attacks my shoes.

Usually I’m too quick on the draw and tie them before he can really play. But apparently one day, I wasn’t paying enough attention and he thought he’d show me who was boss.

After our little game, I got my stuff and got set to leave the house. As far as I knew, since I had just put them on, my shoes were tied tight. They were set to make my daily commute to the office.

So I put on my coat, locked the front door and headed down the stairs in the building to the outside. As I was jogging down the stairs, since I was late for the bus as per usual, I tripped and almost tumbled down the whole flight. Thank you, railing, for allowing me to catch myself and not land on my face.

(I know I’m clumsy, but I can usually make it down two flights of stairs in the morning without any mishaps.)

I looked down at my shoe – UNTIED! The damn cat put his claw into the lace and loosened it just enough so that I would trip down the stairs. This is no way to treat the human that feeds you!

It’s a good thing he’s cute.

Category: A Dash of the Crazy, A Day in the Life of Me, Crazy Cat Lady, Spinsterville Here I Come | 3 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on March 19, 2012

I’ve always been a supporter of Weight Watchers. It’s an excellent plan that teaches you how to eat healthy and eat the right amount and make good decisions. I lost a lot of weight on the program back in 2003. And I kept it off for a good 3 years.

Since that time, they’ve tweaked the program. The most recent change was a good one. It made the focus on healthy choices, as opposed to processed foods. Fruits and veggies were zero points! Yay!

I did OK on this new program. I lost about 12 pounds in like four months. Not too shabby. I realized that my metabolism had slowed down and I needed to be much better about working out.

When I got back on the healthy eating/exercising more train this year, I went back to Weight Watchers. It was my stand by. It worked before, it would work again.

But it wasn’t. I mean, I was losing some weight here and there, but nothing big. This was fine because my clothes were looser and I knew I was losing inches. And I know it can take a while for the scale to just start being your BFF.

That’s when you’re being vigilant. And I don’t think I can on WW anymore. I can easily cheat and I’ll guesstimate with measuring. And I never counted fruits or vegetables. And you know what? Those things, especially fruits, have a boatload of calories.

Then I got my Fitbit. And it works with some calorie tracking apps, FREE calorie tracking apps. And it all syncs together so nicely, the calorie tracking website talks to the Fitbit website and it’s just so smooth.

So last week I decided to quit WW and its monthly fee. I feel like the calorie counting thing makes sense. Especially when my activity and calories burned for the day are automatically synched with the food tracking site. Easy peasy!

I feel like there’s less room for me to fudge with calorie counting. There are no 49 flex points each week. Nothing is free. There is no being able to literally binge one day and not worry about it. This is making me more accountable for everything I eat because I know there isn’t a pile of points sitting there, begging for me to drink a whole bottle of wine.

(Also, my bank account likes being fatter with the extra $15 a month it has now.)

And on the other hand, you can have extra food/drinks when you’re tracking calories. But you have to earn them. You have to exercise and burn calories to be able to treat yourself to a few glasses of wine or a slice of pizza. That’s how the WW of old was, you banked those points from working out. It gave you an incentive to work out and earn those extra points to be able to have fun on the weekends!

Regardless of how I’m tracking, I’m moving more and eating less. The Fitbit makes me want to be more active. I HAVE to get to my goal of 10,000 steps each day. So if that means I pace the house while I brush my teeth, or I get off a stop earlier on the train, so be it.

Eating less and moving more – what they’ve been preaching since the dawn of time. Probably because it works. Imagine that!

Category: Healthy Living, Mmmm Food, Working On My Fitness, WW | 10 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on March 1, 2012

Did you guys know I go to the gym regularly now? Did you also know I’m running? Well, I should say “running”. I am currently almost at the end of Week 5 in the Couch to 5k program. Only three weeks left! And then I’ll be able to run 30 minutes straight without stopping!

I’m skeptical, but we’ll see.

I have an 8k, which is almost 5 miles, on Sunday, March 25. I’m hoping to do as well as I did the last time I ran it in 2007. That time I walked through the water station and for another block or so. That was it. I ran the whole rest of the race.

This year a bunch of other Chicago bloggers are running it too. And I convinced them all to buy this shirt so we can all run together:

I’m looking forward to it!

I’m still running indoors on the treadmill at this point. This is good for me to force me into a steady pace and not run too fast. The problem is the treadmill is SO BORING.

I’ve tried music. I’ve tried every type of music. I’ve tried pop, hip hop, dance, 80s, you name it. But I have adult onset ADD. (Thanks Twitter!) I can listen to something for about 30 seconds before I’m bored and all I’m focusing on is the clock and “how do I still have four whole minutes of running? I HAVE BEEN RUNNING FOREVER!”

TV would be a good solution, but I can’t do Netflix and the running app at the same time. And live TV has commercials. And you know what, when you know a commercial is 30 seconds long, that doesn’t help the whole “make the clock move faster” thing any better.

This week I tried a new approach – podcasts. I downloaded one of the Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me podcasts from NPR. That seemed to help. (It also helped that as I was listening to it, Gossip Girl was on the TV and Blair and Dan KISSED! SQUEEEEEEE!)

But I’m looking for more suggestions for podcasts. There are so many out there and I don’t know where to start. I know Ricky Gervais has some, and I’ll definitely be checking those out. But what other entertaining podcasts are out there? And by entertaining, I mean DISTRACTING. FROM THE RUNNING.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Category: A Day in the Life of Me, All Things Blogging, Chi-town, Healthy Living, Run Forrest, Up In The Gym, Working On My Fitness | 18 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on February 29, 2012

Guess what? Tonight was workout #20 and I got it in just under the wire! I p0wned my goal and I have a lovely Fitbit on the way to show for it. (I cheated and ordered it on Monday because I wanted to have it by this weekend so I could play with it.) (And even after ordering it, I still worked out three times this week so far. Yay me!)

I’m so happy I made this goal. I think I’ve finally gotten into the habit of going to the gym. And not hating it. AND! It’s starting to finally show on the scale, which is nice. Nothing major, but I actually lost weight this week, as opposed to staying the same or gaining, like I have been the last month or so.

And! I took measurements and I’m down at least an inch in all the areas. My pants are fitting better and I’m feeling less and less like a stuffed sausage these days. So YAY!

I decided that the prize when I complete my next goal is going to be someone to come in and clean my house. Because that’s a TREAT! And I’ll have to clean it before they come, which will also be a treat for my poor house that is filthy. (I can keep up on dishes, laundry and keeping the cats alive. I seem to draw the line at vacuuming.)

Other than that, the reason I haven’t posted here lately is partly because it would be all about my working out, which who cares?, and also because I have no time. Working out takes up a lot of time, yo. Who knew? It explains why I could easily decide not to go to the gym in the past. Also? My couch is still comfy.

Back this time last year when I was working out rather regularly, or more than no times a week, it was when I had my old job. That old job was a 30 minute commute. And I had to drive past the gym on the way home. It was a win-win.

Now I take the bus and the train. I don’t mind not sitting in traffic, but it also takes me an hour-plus to get to and from work. So by the time I get home in the evenings, it’s close to 7. I come home, drop off my work bag, feed the cats, change and then leave for the gym.

By the time I get to the gym, do my workout and stretch and all that good stuff, I’m not usually home until after 8. And then I have to get dinner ready, get my breathing back to normal, etc. And lately that means finishing dinner at 9 PM. Which isn’t the best thing, especially if I’m super tired and would like to get to bed before 11 PM. Which doesn’t happen anymore.

So, in the hour or so I have to myself in the evening, I’m watching TV or doing dishes or just other random things. And these things do not include being on the computer. I just can’t. It feels like my only time during the day that I have to unwind and just veg out.

I would like to post more. I’m thinking of typing up notes for a post on my phone, or using my lunch break to write something. Then all I have to do when I get home is post it. That still leaves plenty of TV watching and couch sitting for the evenings then.

But we’ll see how that goes. TV always wins. Which isn’t surprising since the title of this post comes from a kid’s cartoon.

Category: A Day in the Life of Me, Healthy Living, Up In The Gym, Working On My Fitness | 9 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on February 9, 2012

So, I want to write something new and I just have no ideas. My life is so extremely boring that I’m almost hoping for some weirdoes on the train to give me some blog fodder. Almost.

I’m still going to the gym. Tonight was day 10 out of 20. I’m halfway there. I have to say that people telling me how awesome the Fitbit is is like 100 percent of the reason I end up going most days. I do not want to fail this goal.

I need to figure out something to make as a goal once February is over.

I’m on Week 3 of the Couch to 5k. Last night I ran three minutes in a row. Without stopping. And did it twice in the workout! And I didn’t die! I still don’t foresee being able to run an hour straight for an 8k, but we will see. I have until the end of March for the race.

I’m eating healthy and tracking my WW points too. Even if I overindulge on beer or pizza, I write it all down. I’m taking this losing weight business seriously this time. Too bad the scale is not really cooperating. But I’m focusing on the fact that my clothes are considerably looser and I don’t look like a stuffed sausage all the time. So there’s that.

I know the scale will eventually show off all my hard work. But, it’s still frustrating to be so good and then nothing. I’m really trying not to get discouraged. I am very thankful for my Fitbit goal, because otherwise I might give up and say fuck the gym.

You know what else is good for the gym? Netflix instant streaming. Particularly, Friday Night Lights. If you have seen this show and have seen the very first episode, you can imagine how good of a show it is to work out to! I mean, most episodes end with football games that are very intense! Just what I need to get through the last 10 minutes of a workout. It’s perfect!

If only I could get it to work with the Couch to 5k app and maybe I could watch and run. Three minutes of running straight would probably be a bit easier.

I got a parking ticket on Super Bowl Sunday. I was over at this lovely lady’s house and knew my meter expired at 7:30. But I just forgot to get out there in time to add more money. I got a ticket three minutes after the meter expired. I’m contesting it because I’ve been told there is some five-minute grace period on meters. We shall see.

When I turned 21, my friends Sharma and Amber got me a keychain bottle opened (that I still carry with me every day) and a giant Budweiser bottle bank. Thirteen years later, the bank was about 3/4 full and I decided to go to the bank and cash it in this past weekend.

The bag was HEAVY. I didn’t know how much was in there, but judging by how heavy it was and my tendency to exaggerate, I was guessing a million dollars!

Turns out it was $238, which is still a shit-ton of change. Cha-ching indeed!

Tomorrow I’ll write about the one time I found a pirate’s chest full of gold! No, not really. But man that would be nice for my bank account and for a blog story.

Category: A Day in the Life of Me, All Things Blogging, Land of Random, Run Forrest, Working On My Fitness | 6 Comments »
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