This is my song for 2008 - It’s called A Drop Filled With Memories (how appropriate!) and it’s from the movie Paprika.  Feel free to listen to it while you read my long post.  (Megan, don’t listen, it’s that song you don’t like).

2008 was a crazy, crazy year.  Absolutely insane.  Let’s review all I’ve been through.

I rang in New Year’s 2008 at Destare.  I came back from medical leave early so I could work. It was a lot of fun, but I teared up at midnight cause Steve was home alone, and I couldn’t spend it with him.  He spent the night playing World of Warcraft.

January 2nd - I had surgery on December 17th, and went to get my results from the endocrinologist and found out that the tumor on my thyroid was cancerous.  Not only was it cancer, but it was follicular cancer, rather than the more common papillary thyroid cancer.  Follicular is a more extreme of cancer, and tends to spread throughout the body while papillary always stays in the neck.  The reason they couldn’t be 100% sure about the cancer from the needle biopsy was because it was follicular, and that one they can’t tell just from a biopsy.  I needed to have another surgery, and I was only two weeks post-op from the first. Seriously, I find out I have cancer on the second day of the year?  That’s not a good start.

March 3rd - Surgery number 2.  I wasn’t really worried about this one (cause I had already done it once), but this surgery was scheduled in the middle of school.  I had to miss only one class, I think because I was still in the hospital when class met (Surgery was always on Monday, and I stayed over night until Tuesday).  For this surgery, I got out, and they put me in the recovery room, but my room upstairs wasn’t ready, so I had to stay in the recovery room all afternoon.  I got out of the OR at 11, and didn’t go up to my room until 5.  I was on morphine which was awesome, but they wouldn’t give me any water, only ice chips.  People in recovery kept getting X-Rayed, so they kept throwing a lead vest on top of me.  I think it happened about 6 times.  If I didn’t have cancer before, I most definitely had it after that. My parents kept coming in and out of the room, but for privacy reasons, they couldn’t stay.  My mom brought me my book and I was reading.  I was most definitely ready to have my own room.  I finally got upstairs and I had my own private room!  I was also really alert and able to hang out with my parents cause I was doped up.  In the middle of the night when the morphine was worn off was when the pain finally hit. I was awake on and off all night, and Steve spent the night on the floor to keep me company.  He kept having to help me move or adjust, or go to the bathroom (I had an IV in, and had to work around that to go to the bathroom).  Notice the awesome pen marks on my ear and neck in the bottom picture.  That is to say “CUT HERE”  and “THIS SIDE.”

Sometime in March - I was really really stressed out and sad.  I broke up with Steve because I felt like I couldn’t deal with anything anymore.

May - Radioactive Girl!  I had to go on a crazy low iodine diet for three weeks, and then go into Boston and get a mini dose of radiation, and then two days later, a major dose of radiation!  It was mixed with strawberry Kool-Aid. Yum.  Any of you ever been tested with a Geiger counter before?

Senator Kennedy was at Mass General the same day that I had my radiation.  I had two appointments scheduled.  I got my whole body scan (me lying down) at 12, and then didn’t go get my radiation until 2pm.  Between those times, we came downstairs to the lobby of the Wang building at MGH (that’s where all my appointments were).  Senator Kennedy was being released just as we were in the lobby.  We got to see him walk out of the hospital, and everyone in the lobby stood and clapped for him.  Here’s my dad live on CNN that day, his twin brother happened to be watching it live on CNN in Ohio, and hit record on his Tivo.  Then, he called my dad, and said:

“Uh, are you at some hospital in Boston?”
“yeah, Robin has her radiation today.”
“Are you wearing jeans and a blue shirt?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“You were just live on CNN!!!”

My dad was also on the cover of the NY Times the next day.

The reason I was having such a hard time with the diet was because I was just picking at food and not eating real meals.  I finally was able to change that after a few days, but here is what I would have for lunch:

After receiving the radiation at the hospital, I had to then come immediately home and be isolated from my family for three whole days.  It was crazy!  I was having trouble sleeping because I was off my medicine, so I had to hang a blanket over my window so it would get completely dark in my room.  I also had my laptop, my pile of books, and my remotes!  Bill let me borrow 30 Rock, which was awesome because I had never seen it before.  This was the first day I was allowed to be off my diet, so I’m enjoying my first bowl of cereal in 3 weeks.  I was so excited about it, I had to take a picture (on timer mode, cause I had to be alone).

July 2 - Turned 24.  Pretty uneventful.  But I went out with friends! (Jeanne, Bill, and Paul)

July 6th - I went to the Boulder with Amy cause her friend Kyle was playing in the band.  It was the last night of the Longsjo, and I met Emiliano! (he’s the one in the yellow and green all the way to the left)

I was sitting on the curb with Amy (the band was playing in the blocked off street), and these guys come walking up to the bar.  One of the Lonsjo volunteers says “Oh, these are guys who raced today!  They’re on one of the best teams”.  I looked up, and I noticed one of the guys had bright yellow socks with weird red suns on them.  I recognized the socks as the state flag of New Mexico, because I used to live there.  I jumped up from my seat, and ran up to him and the convo went like this:

“I’m sorry… are your socks the state flag of New Mexico?”
“Yeah, that’s where our racing team is from!”
“I used to live there!”

“what part?”
“Santa Fe”
“That’s where I’m from!”
“No way!”
“Ok, I’m going to go grab a beer, and I’ll catch up with you later.”

So then I went to sit down, and the older gentlemen who were sitting near us said to me, “Wow, you don’t waste any time, huh?”  He found me later, and we hung out all night, and I just knew that he was this cool guy that I HAD to get a picture taken with, so I ran to my car and grabbed my camera to get some pictures before I left.  He had busted up his hand pretty badly in the race earlier in the day (notice the awesome wrap job).  Emiliano and I have become great friends, and he does my blog for me.  He doesn’t write it, but he does everything else.  Check out his awesome web design site, Pushing Buttons.  Go to him for all your web design needs!

July 25th - X-Files: I Want To Believe came out.  I had waited 6 years for this movie, and Bill and I went down to a midnight showing in Marlborough (a 45 minute drive). I brought my action figures with me.  I was so excited, that we kept having to re-take this picture because my smile was so big I looked like an idiot.

July 27th - Dad and I get caught in the rain while running.  We knew there was a huge storm coming, but I wanted to go for a run anyway.  We were almost done when it started down pouring.  I had my mom take the picture, because I think it shows our dedication.

July 28th - Megan and Mac came home to prepare for their wedding!  They didn’t do so much preparing, as much as they did lollygagging around and picking berries with me.  I love picking berries.

August 3rd -  Megan gets married! Mac and his parents fly in from England, and we have a great time!

At the wedding (and during the receptions) Sally and I went a little crazy, and took hundreds (literally, hundreds) of pictures of us goofing around.

August 13 - 26 - I fly out to New Mexico and hang out with Emiliano for two weeks.  We went hiking, hung out in Santa Fe, cooked a lot, took artsy photographs, watched a LOT of Weeds, and I got Strep throat, and had to go to the ER.  It was an all around great trip.  I got a little really homesick for Megan, and felt bad that she was in the US, but I wasn’t with her.  I think I got a little cranky and sad because of that, but Emiliano put up with me!  To apologize, I will include this picture (on the left), because it is his favorite, and it makes me look like an idiot.  He kept scratching this one spot on my back (scratching it in just one place, so the spot would get raw), and it was driving me insane.  I was still getting over being sick (I spent about 2 full days in bed), and I was very irritable.  This is him driving me insane on purpose so he could take a funny picture.  He looks very pleased with himself.  But seriously, Emiliano, tell them how sick I was!!!  I was incredibly sick.  His step mom was giving me Vicodin to make me feel better.  It rocked.

Emiliano was also kind enough to go on a horribly long car ride with me to Roswell, NM, home of the infamous 1946 UFO crash!  Everything was UFO themed, it was awesome.  We even went to the International UFO Museum and Research Center.  Pretty interesting stuff, definitely worth the 3 hour long ride.  This was also my very first blog post!!!  (I had backdated other cancer related stuff - but the Roswell post was the first, cause that’s when Emiliano set up my blog!)

August 27th - I flew back from New Mexico on the 26th, and the very next day, we flew out to England for Megan’s wedding party over there.  It wasn’t too bad, cause all my luggage was already packed!  I just had to grab fancy stuff for her party.  We had a lot of fun, but we weren’t there for long enough!

September- I got a pedometer, and went a little crazy.  Such as the time when I jogged in place for 2.5 miles to get to 10,000 steps.  I still wear it religiously every day, but I’m only at 4388 now (at 8:45pm), and there’s no way I’m jogging in place for 2.5 miles tonight.

October 1 - 31 - Buy Nothing Month!  It was awesome, and I’m going to do it again this month. (I bought a new laptop September 28th, only days before BNM started)

October 4th - I ran my first 5k!  (I haven’t seen that recycling shirt in a few months.  Uh oh.  That’s why I have to clean my room!!!)

October - I started picking up trash around Fitchburg.  I did this many more times, but I had to stop cause it’s too cold out and there’s snow everywhere.  Niles and I will commence in the spring.  I will try to get more people involved, and to expand the area where we work.  I think we should have T-Shirts made.  Here’s me and Niles celebrating our trash accomplishments:

November - Started to get fed up with Destare.  Started back at Macy*s for the holidays.  Thanksgiving with family friends.  I met with the Brew Year’s Eve crew twice a week to plan BYE.  We decided on our production company name, Beers For Good, and started our own website.  From August through November, I get sick for one week every single month.  It started with Strep in Santa Fe, and continued.  I am immuno-compromised.

December -  More planning of BYE.

Quit Destare.

Huge ice storm hit North Central Mass, and we lost power and heat for 11 days.

I got a 4.0 in my class this semester, leaving me with a cumulative GPA of 3.93.  I have only one class left.  w00t!  (this portion added for Megan).

Megan came home for Christmas.  We got walloped with two ice storms - 18 inches total in 72 hours.  She loved it.

Dec. 31st - Brew Year’s Eve!  It went great, and we had tons of fun.

That’s it.  2008 in a nutshell.

I clearly lost steam after October.  I figured that because I started blogging in September, I only needed to update peeps on the things that happened before then.  Plus, that’s when all the important stuff happened.  But if you want to learn more, read my friggen blog.

I am done.  This post took me 3 hours to write!  It was all the pictures that were slowing me down… but I think they’re great!

I realize this wasn’t a review.  It was a synopsis.  Here’s my review of 2008:  it sucked. Too many bad things happened.  Sure, there were good parts, but there were also not good parts, and I think the effect the bad parts had on me out weighs the good parts.  Disagree?  Too bad.

Questions?  Comments?  Leave ‘em.

We got our tree on Saturday.  Beautiful!  Also on Saturday, we went to the Armory for the Fitchburg Chowder Taste Off (or whatever it was called).  Then, we walked from the Armory to the Fitchburg Art Museum where they had their Holly Berry Craft Fair (also unsure of the name).  We bought some nice homemade presents for Christmas.  It was a very eventful day!

Monday night, I went over to Amy’s for a Lia Sphia jewelry party.  Cait and Alysha were also there.  We had wine galore and vegetables, chips, and M&Ms.  I ate too much.

Because I ate so much at Amy’s, I did a super hard hour long workout at the gym on Tuesday.  I watched two episodes of Californication.  It’s not a comedy, and sometimes it’s kind of depressing.  But it’s with David Duchovny, so that’s awesome.

I started watching True Blood this morning while I did strength training at home.  It’s going to be my new gym show (it’s about Vampires!  Like Twilight!).  I could still use suggestions, if you have them. I’ve already watched Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother, and Californication.  I need more suggestions.  At home, I watch (or have seen all of) House, Heroes, Medium, 30 Rock, X Files (duh!), Lost, Weeds, and probably more that I just can’t think of.  My mom suggested New Adventures of Old Christine.  I’m going to download it… I’ve heard good things.

I am babysitting this afternoon, and then tonight I have an interview with The Telegram’s FLASH at 5:30, and then we’re on FATV (Fitchburg Access Television) at 7.  I knew that I might not have time for cardio, so I wanted to get something in this morning before babysitting.  Also, when will I have time for dinner?  I didn’t know about the FLASH interview until Trevor called me a couple hours ago.  It was scheduled for 4:30, but I’m babysitting until 5!  Luckily, they were able to push it back.  I thought I’d have time to have dinner, but now with this interview, it doesn’t look like it.  We’re at the Armory for the first interview, so maybe we’ll have to run over to Espresso Pizza again for dinner (that’s what we had to do last Wednesday, too!  We had one meeting at 5:30, and another at 7:30).

I did end up going down to Destare to talk to the owner.  I told him I was giving my two weeks notice.  He seemed indifferent.  That’s another reason to leave.  I’ve been there  a year and a half, as long as the place has been open, and the guy doesn’t even care that I’m leaving.  Why would I want to work for a person like that?  That’s just not very nice.

Trevor said a nice thing about me leaving is that I’ll have plenty of time to work on Brew Year’s Eve.  I had to call him and Jenny from Macy*s on my way to Destare cause I was freaking out that much.  I said “I’m making the right decision, right??”  They both said yes.  When I told Jeanne today, she didn’t miss a beat when she said “Oh good, you shouldn’t work for such a jerk anyway!”

If any of you guys have any ideas for things I can do for extra money, let me know!  I’m going to sell the school books that I don’t need on half.com, and then I babysit.  If you need your kids/dogs/cats/house/plants watched, let me know!  I have great references.  What else can I do for spare money while looking for a job?

So, I’m freaked out about leaving and not having any money.  I’m thinking January is going to have to be another Buy Nothing Month.  I’ll also cut out other things that I don’t have money for.  Diet soda will probably be one of them.  It’s bad for me, and I shouldn’t waste my money.

On another note (I sure am jumping around a lot today!), I think that the reason why I’m always hungry is perhaps because I’m not getting enough water.  The Real Age doctors say that I should be getting half of my body weight in ounces of water every day.  I don’t get that much water at all!!!  I should be getting 65 ounces of water every day (to save you the math, I weigh about 130 - but I haven’t weighed myself in over a week…).  That’s 8.125 cups.  That’s 2.7 fill ups on my Camel Bak water bottle.  That’s a lot of freaking water.  After the gym, I usually do about 1.5 of them.  I should make a plan out where I will finish one by 11am, one by 4pm, and another one by 8pm.  Now that I think about it, maybe it’s actually not that much water.  I just started drinking one, and it’s almost gone!  Unfortunately, it’s 4pm, and I still have two more to drink.  Also unfortunately, I’m in Leominster, and Leominster water is pretty crappy.  It comes out brown, crappy.  They have a Polar water fountain thing… but I don’t think it’s that full.  Darnit!

Anyway, my point is that I think this is a challenge!  I’m challenging every to start drinking half your weight in water.  Starting tomorrow!   It’s a good thing for everyone to do, especially around the holidays when we’ll all probably be overeating anyway.  Then, our tummys will get full with water, not on cheese and pastries, and crackers.

But I really think that’s why I’m ALWAYS hungry. Seriously, I am hungry ALL the time.  That’s why I talk about food so much.  I eat, and then I’m still thinking “Mmm… what else can I eat?”

Oh, and this is most definitely a challenge for Shauna.  Shauna, you have to do this with me!!!

(long post!  Sorry if there are spelling or grammar mistakes, I haven’t had time to read through it yet)

On the news tonight, I heard that the Indiana Planned Parenthood is offering gift certificates for the holidays.  Some people are crapping their pants about it, and saying “Gift certificates for abortions!  That’s horrible!”  Planned Parenthood is saying “with the economy so bad, people are having to choose whether to eat, or heat their house.  We want people to have the option to go get their health screened for free.”  They also added that less than 5% of their services are abortions.  The crazy anti-PP lady said that it was crazy to offer free abortions on the day that celebrates Baby Jesus.

I believe that these gift certificates are a moderately good idea.  I honestly don’t know who you would give a PP gift to…. I don’t know how I would feel if I got one from my parents.  I’d honestly be a little confused, I think.

I do, however, absolutely love Planned Parenthood.  I would love to work for them (my mom feels the same way!).  I would love to do abortion counseling, or just counseling young women on their options for birth control, or even just other issues that women face.

In other news, because of the closure of my gym for holidays (cause it’s connected to the college, so it is going to be closed a lot during winter break - dammit) on Thanksgiving, and the Saturday after, the gym was closed, and I was forced to face the cold weather and run outside.   I  have a usual two mile route that I do, but I haven’t done it in a while since I’ve been at the gym.

Anyway, I headed out Rindge Road, and towards the end of the road, I started to notice all of the trash that had accumulated on the road again.  This made me very, very angry.  When I started picking up trash in the past, it was my daily running that made me realize how bad the trash was.  My very first clean up was on Rindge Road, back in mid October. I hadn’t been running in the street, so I didn’t notice the trash.

Rindge Road is a pretty long road, at one end is McKay school, and there aren’t any houses until the very other end of the road, about a mile down. (See photo for eye-popping graphics) Most of the trash that I noticed was up near the houses!  Not in their yard, but in close proximity to their house.  Close enough where if the inhabitants of the house ever went on a walk, they would be disgusted by the trash in their “neighborhood.”

So here’s what I was thinking.  I was thinking about doing a “Help Robin Pick Up Trash This Week,” and ask all of my friends, family, and anonymous blog readers to pick up trash.  You don’t have to live in Fitchburg, or do it every day.  But take a moment, and pick up a good amount of trash.  A whole bag, if you will.

I was thinking that I would make up posters to give to these people who live at the end of Rindge Road.  On this sheet, I would tell them who I am, a local college student who also lives nearby, and runs along their road.  I would explain my goal (cleaning up my town/neighborhood), and also provide them with pictures of the trash I’ve picked up in the past.  Then, I would ask them to please help me, and to go outside their homes (they don’t have to go that far, the trash is RIGHT THERE), and please help me with the task of picking up this trash.

What do you guys think?  How would you feel if a stranger left a flyer like that in your door?  Would you be annoyed?  Pleased? Thankful there are caring people in the world?

Would you help and pick up the trash?

Do you think it being holiday season has any effect on what you’d do?

If I DO do this, I would want to do it before it snows a lot.

Oh, and tomorrow, I would like to write about the quote “The best things in life aren’t things.”  Remind me!

17,624.

Challenge failed.

I work another five hours on Friday, and then a full eight hours on Sunday.  We’ll see how many steps I do in a full shift.  I’m pretty excited.  I know I’m going to break 20,000.  I’m thinking it’ll be about 23,000 total, with exercising. I do about 2,500 an hour at Macy’s.  During my exercising, I do about 5,500.  According to my math, I should do 20,000 exactly at Macy’s, and then with my exercising, I’ll be closer to 26,000!!!  Crazy.

We’ll see.

Oh, and I just found out that my favorite manager at Macy*s is leaving at the end of November.  Son of a!  How come my favorite co-workers keep leaving?  I’m just glad I’m only signed up for Macy*s for a short 7 weeks, and not “forever.”  I’d be bummed if I had to keep working there with Kaleena for a long time.  I can survive the month of December.

Happy November!!!!

Amazing, I can’t believe it’s November!  Holiday season is here, which is very, very exciting.  I like holidays because I love spending quality time with my family and friends.  Plus, I love the decorations and everyone being excited about things.  It’s a nice feeling. I wish that I had a large family to spend Thanksgiving with.  I was just reading someone’s blog, and they’re cooking for 25 people.  My Thanksgiving dinner usually consists of 9 or so people. Usually my family and family friends.  I want a big Thanksgiving.

With November here, Buy Nothing Month is over.

Here’s what I bought in October:

• Groceries (lots and lots of fruits and vegetables)
• Gas (ONCE!!!  $34, on October 8th. I still have a bit over 1/4 tank)
• One beer at the 2nd presidential debate.  $1 at the college pub, $2 after tip
• My thyroid medicine ($42 for two months worth!!!)
• Three bottles of Charles Shaw wine at Trader Joe’s ($3 a bottle)
• Vitamins (women’s daily multi - $8, BOGO free, so I got two)

But now, I’m a little worried.  Throughout October, I stayed away from all stores and malls  (except for in Florida, because the mall was a part of our hotel), because I didn’t want to be tempted.  I have Macy*s training on Monday down in Auburn (I’m going to be a Christmas manager).  Starting November 9th, I’ll be in a mall for about 30 hours a week.  I should continue on with Buy Nothing Month, so I won’t be tempted to buy crap I don’t need. It’s really hard when I see a cute sweater for $10, or something in the Home department for $3 (like a muffin tin, or Fiesta Ware).  I do think, however, that I will be more conscious about the things that I buy.  I also think it’s important to not waste my money when I don’t have to.  Instead of buying a bottle of soda at the mall, I’ll try to keep a pack of cans at Macy’s (they have a storage room I can probably use - they’d freeze in my car!).

I’ve decided it’s absolutely impossible for me to do “Buy no plastic month.”  But I am trying to cut back on my plastic. I no longer get a straw with my drink at work, and I’ll try not to out at dinner, either.  I’ll also try to bring tupperware with me when I go out to eat, so I can take my meal home with me and not use styrofoam.  Also, I am helping to plan a Brew Years Eve fundraiser for the library (Beers for Books!), and I’ve told everyone that I want absolutely no styrofoam to be used with the food.  I’m trying, but I can’t cut back completely, it’s just not feasible in Fitchburg.  Oh, and I’m still buying organic milk in a carton!

I’ve been having to eat dinner alone the last two nights, and I made whole grain penne with pesto, grilled chicken with garlic, and grilled zucchini and summer squash.  It was delicious.  I just found out that I have to eat alone tonight, as well.  It’s hard to think of good, healthy meals for only one person.  I don’t want to make an abundance of food.

I sure do love cereal, as this picture shows.  Honey Nut Tasteeos are much better than Honey Nut Cheerios.  Seriously.  Cereal diet is going great, cause I love cereal.

I went on a hike with Jeanne today, so I couldn’t have cereal for lunch, so I had another sensible lunch instead.  I made a whole can of tuna with two tablespoons of Miracle Whip, and had half on one half of an English muffin, and the other half on the other half of the English muffin (so it wasn’t really a sandwich, just a slice of bread with tuna on it).  I also had an apple, baby carrots, and water.  Yummy. I figure its more important for me to watch what I eat, rather than just eat certain things.  So that’s what I’m doing.  I’m eating healthy.  And tuna was great for protein!

Happy Halloween!  Yay for a candy Holiday!

I read something today that said “Merry Thanksgivoween!”  which run from Oct 31 - Jan 1st.

Seriously, we’re at holiday season already!!!! Crazy.

I’m starting my cereal diet tomorrow, and according to the Special K website, I can “consume fruits and vegetables for additional snacks.”  Yay!  I love fruits and vegetables.  After class tonight, I went to the store and got food to prepare for my two week cereal challenge.  I got my kettle corn 100 calorie bags (cause I ran out).  The last box lasted me over a month.  I usually air pop my popcorn, but sometimes I like kettle corn. I also bought another box of cereal.  I spent a long time in the cereal aisle, looking at the nutrition information on each box of cereal that I considered.  I looked at many different boxes.  Among them:
Multi Grain Cheerios
Bran Flakes (but then I realized that we have some at home already!)
Fiber-One Honey Clusters
Go Lean Crunch
Raisin Bran
Special K
Total
Basic 4

I was stuck between Go Lean Crunch (made by Kashi), and Fiber-One Honey Clusters.  I wanted a cereal high in protein and fiber.  Here are the nutritional information on both.

Ok, Fiber One obviously has more fiber (13g vs 8g), but Go Lean Crunch has more protein (9g vs 5g).  Go Lean Crunch has about 30 more calories, and LOTS more sugar (13g vs 6g), but if you look at the ingredients, they certainly look better in GLC.  It is made by Kashi, which is a healthy living and eating type company. The sugar comes from evaporated cane juice, brown rice syrup, and honey.  While Fiber One mentions the word “sugar” six times, and “corn syrup” twice.  It also contains honey.  (The ingredients got cut off on the picture.)

In the end, I ended up picking GLC, cause I’ve had it before, and I loved it.  Fiber One sounded a lot like HBOO, but with more fiber.  I will continue to have my HBOO for breakfast, and will switch off GLC, Bran Flakes (yeah, right), and High Fiber Trader Joe’s Os.

Megan left a comment on my last entry that said her day would consist of ALL cereal, even snacks!  Cause she just loves cereal so much.  I do, too.  Here’s her “day”:

Breakfast - cereal (and maybe toast if I’m still hungry)
Snack - cereal and/or fruit
Lunch - bagel? really big salad? soup and bread? something lunch-y
Snack - Cereal
Snack - cereal or bagel
snack - fruit
dinner - vegetarian yumminess (like what we cook now, but without the mess) plus ALWAYS homemade pie for dessert… that appears magically
snack - cereal

I like the looks of all that cereal, but why does she have THREE snacks in between lunch and dinner?  That’s a LOT of snacking.  Especially with a morning snack, and a night snack.  Crazy Megan.  But that’s a good point.  At around 200 calories (if its a full cup of cereal, and 1/2 cup milk), cereal might make a good snack.  Especially at night when it’s 9pm, and I’m starving, and want to just munch on stuff.

At 200 calories a bowl, I could eat 10 bowl of cereal if I ate or drank nothing else during the day to reach 2,000 calories.  Now that would definitely be a cereal diet.

Ok, on to the other food I bought!  I bought summer squash and zucchini to grill.  I usually add them to pasta, but I also like just snacking on them.  Yum!

Then, I bought a bunch of fruit to make a fruit salad.  Cantaloupe, pineapple, red grapes, and 1/4 watermelon.  It’s a LOT of fruit salad, but the diet said I can eat as much fruit as I want!  How long does fruit salad keep?  I think it will take me a long time to eat.

I think the key to me eating well is to not have crappy stuff in the house.  I came home from class, and while I was cooking my food, I sampled both fruits and veggies, and then was still hungry and had some chips and salsa.  That’s where a nice bowl of cereal will come in! But seriously, I just can’t have food around without eating it.  I love eating.  I wonder what I was doing back in June/July when I was at my thinnest?  I was eating pretty healthy, but what the crap?  I know for sure that I wasn’t this hungry all the time.  That happened around August, where I just started needing food ALL the time.  I’m looking forward to going back to work at Macy’s for Christmas time, so I won’t be home to just eat!  I’ll only be able to eat the food I bring with me.  I’m also looking forward to being on my feet all the time, and gaining lots of steps on my pedometer!  That will probably be the change in life that I need to drop these extra pounds.  (And yes, Megan, I feel that they are EXTRA pounds.  That appeared out of no where, and my pants don’t fit anymore.  I need to lose the weight.  I can’t buy all new pants.)

Ugh, why am I always so hungry? Stupid food.

I think I’m going to try a modified Special K Diet for two weeks.  I’ve recently given up Diet Coke for two weeks, so I have found that two weeks really isn’t that long of a time.

Here’s how how the diet works:  You eat cereal for breakfast with fruit and skim milk, and then again for lunch.  Then, you have a regular dinner.  The Special K diet says you can drink as you normally would, eat as many fruits and vegetables as you want, and have two Special K bars for snacks (roughly 100 calories each). They do all the work for you!  They give you all their food options, and you tell them which ones you’re interested in.  Of all their cereals, I was only interested in the original.  Here’s the plan they made for my first week:

Here’s what I’m going to do:  I’m NOT going to have Special K.  I like it, it’s a good cereal, but I like Honey Bunches of Oats SOOOO much more. It’s roughly the same in calories (but it has fewer protein. 7 vs 2)

For lunch, I will try a different cereal, one that is better with whole grains, fiber, and protein.  I was thinking about doing Raisin Bran, but it has about 15g of sugar!  HBOO only has 6 per serving.  I’ve heard that cereal should have 5 or less.  I figured with 6, I’m pretty dang close.  I have a Trader Joe’s cereal, High Fiber Joe’s O’s, which is 180 calories for 1.25 cups with 10 grams of fiber, 7 grams of protein, and 9 grams of sugar.  That might be a good cereal because it will keep me full with all the fiber.

Post cereals has a similar cereal diet, called Eat 2 Lose 10.  Here are the cereals they say are OK for their diet:

For snacks, I don’t think I’m going to do for their Special K snack bars.  I figure I can make my own snacks that are around 100 calories.  I’ve been eating a lot of air popped pop corn lately, and I don’t add anything to it.  One cup is a out 30 calories.  So I figure I can have about 4.  I’ve also been eating a lot of chips and salsa lately.  I’ve been piling up the salsa, and having few chips.  If I really want to, I’ll figure out the caloric amount per chip, and be very careful.  That’s usually my problem:  I pic at things, and those calories add up. Egg whites are another thing I would eat as a mid morning snack.  I eat 3/4 cup which is 90 calories, and then I add fresh spinach to make an omelet.  I would say the entire thing is under 130 calories.

I’m pretty good about eating fruits and vegetables, but I could use more vegetables to snack on.  I eat bananas and apples for my fruit, but could use some cantalope, or pineapple, or something else (what are some other good fruits??).  I was keeping washed grapes in the fridge in a bowl, but every time I would open the fridge for something, I’d pull out a couple grapes to eat.  I’ve decided it’s not smart to keep grapes in the fridge anymore.  They’re just too delicious.

I was thinking about the calories for this diet, and I’m not sure if it’s close to how many I need per day.  I might have to eat lots of calories from fruit and veggies.

HBOO (1 cup) - 158
1/2 cup skim milk - 40
one banana - 100
one glass of orange juice - 110

Snack - 130

Raisin Bran (or High Fiber Joe’s O’s) - 190
1/2 cup skim milk - 40
Snack - 130

Dinner - 600?  (I’m not sure how much my average dinner would be)

Before dinner, it is only 998 calories.  I have about 1,000 left over for dinner and various fruits and vegetables.

I’m actually not sure if this will work.  Usually for lunch, I have either my egg white omelet with spinach, or a spinach salad with a red pepper, walnuts, craisins and light dressing. I’m not really sure if I will be losing any extra calories.  I think for this to work with me, I would need to continue to eat my healthy lunch, and then skip dinner and replace it with cereal.  But lately, I’ve been cooking really good meals for my family.  I’ve made chicken parmesan, eggplant parmesan, a home made chicken pot pie, lemon honey salmon, and vegetable lasagna.  I don’t want to give up those good foods.

I think the trick is for me is to stop picking at things.  Dylan made brownies today, and of course, I’ve been picking at it.  Taking little slices here and there.  I’ve probably eaten 300 calories just from picking at it!

Oh, and people reading this may be wondering why I’m so concerned with health and calories and all that stuff.  Well, I’ve been eating really well lately (as seen by the egg whites, and the cups of spinach a day), and I’ve also been exercising more than I ever have in my entire life.  I am really quite proud of myself.  However, since the beginning of August, I have gained 10 pounds.  I went on vacation for three weeks to England and to New Mexico, and I thought it was just from being on vacation, and eating too much.  But I came home in the beginning of September, and I continued to put on another 5 pounds, even thought I have been regularly exercising.  I don’t understand how that is happening if I’m being so careful and exercising so much.  It could be 10 pounds of muscle, I understand that, but I do not look 10 pounds leaner and fit and trim than I did two months ago.

Tomorrow I am going to get my blood drawn for a thyroid test to see if my levels are ok (cause your thyroid regulates your metabolism, and I no longer have a thyroid).  Perhaps all my exercising requires a higher thyroid dose.  That’s what I’m hoping for.  Otherwise, I have no way to explain the weight gain, and it simply means that I need to start seriously looking at what I am eating.

Thus, the Special K two week challenge!  I am pretty good at challenges (the buy nothing month, and the no diet Coke, for instance).  So I figured if I said “Ok, only cereal, and specific snacks, blah blah blah,” that I would FORCE myself to follow along with it, simply because it’s a challenge.  I won’t snack on things that I shouldn’t be snacking on (like brownies!)

Megan recently wrote in her blog about the difference between her trying not to spend money, and me trying not to spend money.

As you all know, this is Buy Nothing Month. I’ve done VERY well.  I have absolutely nothing to show for my month (I haven’t bought any new clothes, bought any soda or coffee while out, haven’t bought any trinkets, or candy, or gum, or anything like that).  I haven’t even bought new sneakers, which I need to.  I think it’s because I don’t want to go out shopping.  I’m avoiding it.

I did, however, go to that movie, the Secret Life of Bees, last night with my mom.  It was good, and all three of us girls cried.  It was based on the novel of the same name, which we read for book club several years ago.  I think it’s also one of Sally’s favorite books.  It was only $5, and I paid with a $10 dollar bill, so I got a $5 back that I will save!

But Megan is right, I haven’t done as much fun things as she has.  But I have gone to Hooligans twice with friends, and to Destare  twice, once with friends, and once with my dad and friends during a planning meeting of the next beer fest. I also went to the most recent debate with friends.  But I haven’t been to any concerts or gigs or art museums.

And yes, I have a car.  I put $34 of gas into it two weeks ago today, and I’ve driven 111 miles, and still have half a tank left.  I had to drive to Worcester to get my brother which accounts for about 50 miles. I wish that I had taken one of my parents cars, cause that would be more representative of how much I actually use my car.  I also have been driving to the house where I babysit, and that’s in Leominster.  There’s no way I could walk there.  It takes me a full 20 minutes to drive there (sometimes a little more).  I live very close to Destare, and wish I could walk there, but I would be walking to (now with it getting dark so early) and home from work in the dark.  What I should do, is get some friends of mine from FSC to come in every night and stay until I leave, and then we can all walk home together.  But I don’t think that’s really a reasonable thing to have happen.  But Megan is right, if I could walk to work and the grocery store safely, I definitely would.  I walked to the grocery store yesterday after walking to the gym.  I bought milk (in cardboard!), some veggies, and some fruit.  So unless Megan thinks I should start walking home from a bar at 3 in the morning, I think I’m going to continue calling my car a necessity.  Plus, I don’t even think people from work would LET me walk home.  They’re crazy enough about watching us girls to make sure we get into our cars safely.  But I would totally love to live in a city where I can walk everywhere.  I would sell my car in a heartbeat!

Ohh… but I did give my dad $65 for my cell phone this month.  Eekkk…. that’s more than $2 a day!  That’s a lot of money.  But I was paying about $50 for my phone before I got my iPhone, so its really not too bad.  And I had to pay an extra $9 cause I went over on text messages…. by a lot.  But that will not happen this month!  (I have 200 texts for $5, the next up plan is 1500 texts for $15 — $10 more, so I went over $9, which is $1 less than if I had the more expensive plan.)

I think that the main difference between Megan and I, is that she does a lot more fun things than I do.  I don’t really have that many friends that I hang out with, plus, she has a husband that she does things with.  When I had a boyfriend who I hung out with all the time, I did fun things, too!  Lately, I’m trying to take note on when things are happening up at the college, and I’m trying to do them.  Tonight, there is a DJ at Hooligans (a DJ?  at Hooligans?  Why?), but it’d be something to do.  Wednesday is my night to try to do fun stuff.  I have a meeting tonight at the library about fundraising, but other than that, I have no plans.

So I think that Megan needs to weigh doing fun stuff, with spending the money on doing the fun stuff.  Unless you can find tons of stuff to do for free, you’re going to have a hard time trying to do both (fun stuff, and saving money).  Maybe it’s that Megan needs to not do so much, or do more things that don’t cost anything!

And that I need to do more fun things.

I did the most steps I have ever done, and this is amazing for two reasons:
I didn’t work today
I am sick with a cold

But here is the total (and I haven’t even gone upstairs and gotten ready for bed yet… so it’ll be at least 100 steps more than this number –  I’ll update it tomorrow with the REAL total)

18,686 steps. 9.43 miles. 15,700 aerobic steps.

update:  18,909. I had only 90 steps to go to make it 19,000…. but I was tired, and I’m not that crazy.