Kristabella: Full of Snark Since 1977

Posted By Kristabella on January 31, 2012

Hey, so it is the beginning of a new year and that means that everyone and their mother vows to work out more and spend more time at the gym and lose some damn weight already.

I am no different. And really, it is about time. I couldn’t even start back working out in the gym come the first of the year. It took me until the 24th of this month to actually step foot in there. But, since then, I have been 5 times. (I couldn’t go tonight since I had a late dentist appointment.) (That’s what the kids these days are calling it.) (I wish.)

See, working out has never been fun. I’ve never really enjoyed it. It’s always been a chore for me, never a habit. Yes, I am aware of the benefits. Yes, I feel amazing after I work out. But that is not enough to MAKE me go to the gym. I need more. I need extra motivation.

This year I’m taking part in the Biggest Blogging Loser again that Jennie is doing. That is giving me a bit extra motivation, since there is money and prizes involved. But that alone isn’t going to get me to the gym because shit, I pay for the gym every month and that isn’t even motivation to go. Plus, while I have quite a bit to lose, I’m also 34 damn years old and my metabolism ain’t what it used to be. Weight comes off slowly for me.

I needed some other sort of reward system.

Regan and I are both trying to lose weight and we banter about it daily on gchat and text messages and chastise each other when we eat entire pizzas in one sitting. Recently, she was telling me about this Fitbit thing she got. It’s like a pedometer on crack. It sounded interesting, but eh. Who really cares how many steps you take in a day? It gets old quick, AM I RITE?

Wrong.

She loves it. In addition to steps, it does stairs, which is helpful since I take a lot of stairs in a day. And it also helps track calories burned and your sleep habits. A few minutes on the website and I was sold! I wanted one!

So I decided to turn that into my reward. And instead of rewarding myself for just losing pounds, this reward is based on me actually going to the gym and working out.

My goal is to go to the gym 20 days between January 24 and February 29. That takes into the fact that we have the Super Bowl this weekend and that I’ll be in Arizona on vacation from the 15th-19th.

Apparently this is what I needed. I am going to get this damn Fitbit! I’m going to make the gym my bitch!

Also helpful is that I signed up to run an 8k at the end of March.

Let’s do this!

Category: A Dash of the Crazy, A Day in the Life of Me, Healthy Living, Run Forrest, Up In The Gym, Working On My Fitness | 14 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on January 30, 2012

My Auntie Debbie reads my blog. I have no problem with this. (Also, yes I’m 34 years old and still call my aunts “auntie”. ) But since I have been falling off the writing bandwagon in the last year or two, she always mentions how I never post anymore. And then I feel bad and feel like I should write something. But then I never do. Because then I turn on the TV and my mind becomes mush.

Lately I have just had no desire to write here. Usually it is just laziness and deciding to watch TV or go to bed at an obscenely early time that leads to no posts. But for the last few weeks, I’ve had thoughts and post ideas and have written these down! I’ve even started like three or four posts only to give up halfway through and then just shut the computer down. The desire, I no has it.*

I think that’s normal. It’s life. It all ebbs and flows. And as much as the whole NaBloPoMo thing helped me kind of get back in the habit, sometimes there is just nothing to write about. I swear, I can talk for days, but lately I’ve had nothing remotely interesting or funny or exciting to talk about.

Plus, even the thought of opening the laptop at home lately has made me stabby with rage. I just don’t want to do it. I’m on the computer all day and on my phone when I’m not, so when I get home, I just want to relax and watch crappy television.

I’ve hardly been on Twitter, in fact I usually ignore it for a majority of the day, unless I’m bored on the bus or train on my commute. I don’t go on Facebook, but that isn’t really any different since I never go on FB. Only to wish people a happy birthday.

I still will play my Words with Friends games and IM with people on gchat, but that has been about it. I’ve been technologied out. And that’s fine. Because I’m a bit too dependent on it as it is.

So, all that to say, I’m feeling less ragey about actually blogging this week. And I might even finish those posts I have recently started. And that I just wrote a whole post about not wanting to blog nor be on the computer, just to…post on my blog from my computer. /meta

And I’ll leave you with a question – where do I find some cheap t-shirts to work out in? I haven’t bought a t-shirt since college, I think. All of my current shirts are from previous jobs and I got them all for free. So needless to say, they are starting to show quite a bit of wear and tear. And I don’t appreciate paying for shirts, especially more than a couple of bucks, so I need your help. Kthanxbai.**

*I like to put in lolcats speak because she loves it so, so much!

**Hi Ali!

Category: A Dash of the Crazy, A Day in the Life of Me, All Things Blogging, The Lazies, Writing | 10 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on January 12, 2012

I love bad music. If it is a pop song in the Top 40, odds are I’m going to love it and belt it out at the top of my lungs at any chance I get. I do not apologize for this. I realize I have shitty taste in music.

Anyway, so one of Rihanna’s new songs out now is called “We Fell in Love in aHopeless Place” and I just love it. It’s got a good beat. But as I was listening to it the other morning while getting ready for work, I thought “what exactly qualifies as a hopeless place?”

So I decided to list all the hopeless places I could think of to fall in love.

• Crack house
• Denny’s
• Bomb shelter
• The Superdome after Katrina
• POW camp
• Crashing plane
• Jail
• War time
• Republican National Convention
• Antarctica
• Sinking ship
• Mars
• Bathroom stall
• Rehab
• Homeless shelter
• Deserted island
• Port-a-potty

Now it’s your turn! Add to the list!

Category: A Dash of the Crazy, Land of Random | 21 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on January 10, 2012

I’m a city girl. I think I always have been. Even though I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, I’ve always been drawn to big cities.

When I moved back to Illinois in 2005, I made a promise to myself that I would live in the city. I didn’t care where I ended up working or where I had to commute to, I was going to have a city apartment in Chicago proper.

And I love it. I love the neighborhood I’m in. I love the public transit options. I love that I can walk to most anything. (I also love that I have an assigned parking space so I can drive to anything I want to as well. Don’t forget I am the Queen of Lazy.)

Tonight as I was walking home from the train after work, I was thinking to myself that I really needed to email my friends and make some plans for this upcoming weekend. Nothing extravagant, just something more than grocery shopping to force me out of the house and out of my pajamas.

As I made a mental note to send an email tomorrow, I was walking past a restaurant on Lincoln. I looked in the windows and saw my friend Melissa’s boyfriend Matt who was having dinner with Melissa. I went in to say hello and they invited me to join them. It was totally impromptu and I loved it. We had some wine, dinner, lots of laughs and it was a great time.

When I think about moving away from a big city, these are the things that I don’t think I can give up. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s so worth it.

So what about you, are you a country or a city mouse?

Category: A Day in the Life of Me, Chi-town, Gotta Have Friends, Land of Random | 16 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on January 9, 2012

We have had a mild winter in Chicago. And that is putting it mildly. (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?) Seriously, we have had almost no measurable snow, it hasn’t been bitter cold and over the weekend I had my windows open! In my house! In Chicago! In January! The sun was so warm and it was 74 in my house without the heat on. It is the end of days, people. THE END OF DAYS!

After our warm weekend, it was supposed to be almost 50 today. After last Friday when I was sweating bullets on the bus and train in my scarf and down coat, I thought I’d be smarter today. So I opted for a lighter wool coat and went sans hat. I traded the fake Uggs for tennis shoes. Fifty degrees in January, UR DOIN IT RITE!

Except, dumbass, it’s January. In Chicago. Yes, it is mild, but it is still January in Chicago. Which means it is still butt-ass cold in the mornings. And still hat weather. And down coat weather. And not thin sweater weather. (Seriously self. A thin, 3/4 sleeve sweater in January? What the fuck were you thinking?)

Guess who was freezing at the bus stop this morning? Go on, guess!

I figured by the time 5 PM rolled around, we would have some warmer weather and some nice-for-January temps. This was especially important because I had to work outside for two hours after work handing out information to commuters. I figured I was just properly dressed enough for 50 degrees in January so I wouldn’t be too hot or too cold.

Oh boy how wrong I was.

I’ve been home for like an hour and I still can’t feel my toes. This post has taken me an hour to write because my fingertips are still numb, so if I try to type at a normal speed, it comes out like this – nvr0[vd ak jr3i vd;hgri0e[o.

I’m not complaining. It could be so much worse. I am pissed at my stupidity. I know better. I’m a Chicagoan! Once you bring out the down coat, it really needs to stay out. Better to be too hot in this weather than too cold. Trust me. (HEAR THAT, SELF??!?)

The problem with this mild winter is that my body is not used to the cold. It hasn’t gotten a chance to acclimate. Yeah, we’ve had a day or two of some cold temps (i.e. normal for this time of year), but nothing like it could be. So when those days come, so few and far between, it knocks me on my ass. I want to eat all the things and then sleep for days. And then I don’t get a chance to toughen up and get used to it because then tomorrow? A high of 52. No. REALLY.

Again, not complaining. Except if it means it will be 60 and cloudy in July. Then we’re taking this outside, Mother Nature. Mano y mano.

Category: A Dash of the Crazy, A Day in the Life of Me, Chi-town, Rants & Rants, Weather dot com | 3 Comments »
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