My year without pizza

March 7, 2010 marks the one year anniversary of the last time I ate a piece of pizza. Do I miss it? Sometimes - but my health has improved. Since March of 2009 I have lost 70 lbs. I have 20.6 lbs. to lose before I reach my goal. I have lost 23 inches, and 10 sizes.

Last year I reached the point where I couldn't stand to look at myself in the mirror and I hated seeing pictures of myself. So I made a new year's resolution to change it - and I have. I have so much more energy now. I truly believe that the changes I've made in how I eat, what I eat, and how much I eat have made a lasting impact on my mood and over-all health. I'm confident again - something I haven't had in a very long time. And that confidence helped me to write again as well - I defended my in house portfolio in October and will sit my out of house defense in January (February at the latest).

Since setting my mind to things has really paid off - I'm going to take it further this year. I am in debt up to my eyeballs. I'm in so much debt that there is no way I can get out of it at this point. My credit card payments (minimum) are more than I make in one pay period. I'm 30 years old and on occasion have to ask my parents for money. I'm done with it. I'm taking the steps to get financially stable now before it is too late. I won't bore you with how many credit cards I have or the amount of credit card debt. I never really learned how to handle money - and after my divorce my spending got worse - partly out of necessity and partly out of shopping therapy. So I'm paying the price now.

One thing that has helped me lose the weight is to think positive and celebrate small victories. I look at my weight loss in 5-10lb increments rather than thinking of the entire 90lbs at one time. I'm going to keep a positive attitude about my financial situation as well. I could feel sorry for myself that I might have to declare bankruptcy, but instead I look at it in the positive and count all the blessings I have in my life. And I will approach spending the same way I did the weight loss. If I am grocery shopping and I have an impulse to buy a bag of Cheetos, or chocolate, or what have you - I stop and ask myself if I am hungry? Why do I want that particular item? (usually it is a comfort food). And my favorite question - If I eat this, will I feel better? The answer is almost always no. I'm going to do the same thing with spending money. Now that my credit cards are out of the picture - I'll I have is my debit card or what cash I have on me. I used the credit cards as an excuse to spend. No more.

So here starts my year without credit cards.

Hey, look! I'm blogging again!

Busy year - nuf' said. Returned on Wednesday from the Bitch Barn Reunion in St. Louis and family visit. Miss my friends and family already. But thought I'd start off the blog again by leading with this information. I've hit my half way weight loss goal - 47lbs lost! Woo hoo! And while we were in the Burg, Scott asked my dad for permission to marry me (of course Dad said yes - kind of shocked I do believe) - anyway - Scott hasn't proposed - so don't think that this is that kind of announcement - but still, big step for the both of us!

The Weird Al Experience, corrected

I try to word my entries carefully, but apparently I was not careful enough with my last entry. I did not realize that the term "groupie" carried such a negative connotation. I find myself embarrassed and humbled by my irresponsible mistake. Thank you OE for bringing it to my attention. Without realizing it I was insulting a group of people that I really meant to praise. So here is the reworded paragraph.

"I made two discoveries (and in retrospect I really shouldn't have been surprised, but it must have been the shock in discovering other avid Weird Al fans). One, Weird Al attracts tour chasers , and they hung out in the parking lot after the show listening to the song he closed the show with "Albuquerque." And second, there were a large number of second generation nerds - the Weird Al fans and their kids...and the kids knew all of the words to all of the songs. I felt like I wasn't nerdy enough to be at the concert!"

The Weird Al Experience

On July 6th, Scott and I went to see Weird Al Yankovic in concert at the amphitheatre at the Toledo Zoo. It was worth the heat and the wait. When I got the tickets, I immediately called Scott and informed him we were going. He called me a geek. I quickly informed him that I wasn't a geek, that I was a nerd, there's a difference.

The concert didn't start until 45 minutes after it was scheduled to, but that gave us plenty of time to people watch. Scott turns to me and says, "These people make you look normal." There was a wide variety of individuals present - I felt like I had stepped back into Hosey and Houts Hall from my freshmen year of college.

He played a wide variety of his songs, mostly from the current album, Straight Outta of Lynnwood. He did play his parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" (You're Pitiful), which isn't on any albums. It was a thing of beauty. The ending for it, he appeared in a Spongebob Squarepants t-shirt, polka dot shorts and a pink tutu. The best part was his salute to Star Wars complete with Darth Vader and Storm Troopers. The Emperor was on keyboard for "The Saga Begins" (American Pie).

Even if you don't like Weird Al, you have to admire his stage presence and his theatricality in performance. Costume changes for the band came at key points in the show, which was multi-media - while they changed, "Al TV" episodes played. You can tell that he and his band have worked together for years - when a technical glitch appeared - only the trained eye could tell they had to cover.

There were a number of surprising revelations - there are Weird Al groupies, and they hung out in the parking lot after the show listening to the song he closed the show with "Albuquerque." Also, there were a large number of second generation nerds - the Weird Al fans and their kids...and the kids knew all of the words to all of the songs. I felt like I wasn't nerdy enough to be at the concert!

"White and Nerdy" from the Lynnwood album still makes me think of people I went to college with and lived in the honors college dorms. I must classify myself among the nerds - especially since while I'm writing this I'm listening to my Weird Al play list on my IPod.