Now every week, I get fresh organic, local produce and other health food products that I order online. I have what is called a standing order (things I want every x-delivery (where x is week 1-4) and a specified quantity of produce is randomly selected. This is my base order, which I can completely change if I want. Instead of writing a shopping list, I just add to my order when I remember something that I want. The food is delivered in a way that will keep until I get home at the end of the day. It is just that easy.

In addition to getting things that I want with greater ease, I get to know the distance the food traveled to get to their local warehouse. They sell lots of food in addition to the produce. I even think they sell things like clothing. Anyways, the invoice tells me exactly how far each product travelled. I think it is really great to be able to know where my things come from. I love farmers markets, but unless it is summer, I almost never make it to one, so this is a fantastic replacement.

After complaining and complaining about my sleep, I have finally decided to really try to figure out what my problem is. Earlier this evening I had my consultation at the Sleep Disorder Center.

A few things were ruled out and I was again told I have insomnia (like I did not know that). Anyways, I am now scheduled for an actual sleep study. I am kind of excited and kind of nervous/paranoid. The excitement is formed from the anticipation of getting to the root of my problem. Then there is the fact that I will have to sleep with 18 wires attached to me and strangers watching me through an infrared camera. Mostly, it is just creepy, but I have to admit I have watched the CSI where the sleep clinic guy goes crazy and kills some of the patients ... let's just forget that part.

The crazy thing is that I will actually be medicated. It was a surprise to find out that they give people a sleeping pill on the night of the exam. Isn't the point to see the person wake up? Well, apparently the causes for awakening which are physical issues can all still be measured. The reason for this is that sleeping pills do not stop your body from doing whatever wakes you up, it just makes it so you don't realize these things. Common things they look for are apneas, restless legs and twitches. They monitor eye movements, muscle activity, brain waves, heart rate, airflow, repertory effort, and oxygen levels.

The progress is slow (sometimes very slow), but in 3 or 4 months I have lost 20 lbs. and 9% of my body fat. More importantly I am in better shape. From my first physical assessment I improved 25%. I have also dropped 2 pant-sizes (so close to the third). I am still not where I want to be, but I am more than halfway – and that feels really good. I’d like to lose another 12lbs. which will put me back at my normal weight from before I got sick 4 years ago. I am guessing that it will be a lot harder to lose the last of it that what I just lost, but I am not in a big hurry.

Oh and having the ability to run for 30+ min straight and not die is a bonus.

I am starting my 4th week. This means that I have less than 7 weeks left of the intensive part and still another 12 weeks of maintenance. I have to say I am feeling much healthier and generally better than before I started. My sleeping habits still aren’t great, so I still get a little tired, but I have had more energy. I think I have also been happier.

Here’s a little breakdown of the different parts:

Food:

I started with Lean meat, berries, protein shakes, and a few extra servings of fat/protein (like almonds or peanut butter). Week 2 I got to add in veggies (except for starches); then yogurt; and this week they added in 1oz servings of low-fat cheese. It really hasn’t been very hard for me to stick to eating these things. Don’t get me wrong I am really looking forward to getting to eat Thai food or sushi. At the same time I know that each week I will add something else new, and by the time I know it I will have all of those things back in my diet.

The hard part is portion control and planning. I thought it would be hard to eat smaller portions; that hasn’t been the problem. I actually haven’t been eating as much as I am supposed to (I am working on that). The real hard part for me is measuring and tracking the exact amounts that I eat. Being a person that usually cooks without measuring a single thing, this is difficult. It is also hard to get the right amount of each type of food at the right time.

Exercise:

The requirement is that I have a cardio workout 5 days a week. Three of the days are with my trainer. I really like him because he talks to me about interesting things while I workout. The whole time though he watches closely to make sure that I don’t drop below my target heart rate. I can work out longer if I am being distracted. It is also nice since my workouts are right after work. This allows me to have completely non-work related conversations for about an hour to let my mind leave work at work.

I mentioned before that yoga doesn’t count as one of my 5 days. I figured there would be no way I was going to work out extra. Well, I am as surprised as you are to know that I have been working out extra. In fact, I can’t work out today, because I have worked out the last 9 days in a row. I had 4 days with my trainer last week (we made up a session since I was in Portland for business the week before) and again once this week, 2 days on an elliptical (one with Abigail), and 2 times I did hot yoga.

Hot Yoga … wow. I have to digress for a moment here. It is just like it sounds: yoga in room heated to 105 degrees. I had no idea that I could sweat so much. There is this place right near my house. Anyways, it was one of the hardest workouts I have ever had, but it left me more relaxed than anything ever has as well.

Drs & group meetings:

Not much here yet to talk about. I see the doctor for the program in another week or two and I have my first group meeting tomorrow. I am looking forward to it. I might make some friends and it will be nice to hear what other people are doing.

Time management:

This sure does take some time. Between workouts and planning meetings it is a lot of time, not to mention the special meetings throughout. So far I am coping. My stress levels have dropped a bit (I owe that to working out after work every day), but I don’t get to see Dan quite as much. I am sure things will level out and my schedule will be easier.

Last but not least, the Results:

I feel more in shape — I can run more. I also feel like I have more muscle. I wish I were losing weight a little faster, but I was told that I am losing at the right rate. So far I have just about lost 10lbs. If I stay losing at the same rate, then I will hit my target right on time. My concern is that I plateau and then lose a whole lot less. Oh well, I am just going to keep following the rules and hope for the best.

Let me back up a moment. I have fantastic insurance & benefits. One of my benefits is a gym member ship to the proclub. It really is quite an exquisite place. At the proclub they have this program called 20/20. It is an all inclusive deal.

There are four pillars to the program and an expert for each: Dietitian (diet & nutrition), Doctor (health and injury safety), physical trainer (workouts & more workouts), Therapist (runs group support meetings). Workouts are 3 times a week with the trainer for 75 minutes, and 2 days on your own. The diet is almost nothing and then slowly adds back in food groups. It is a 10 week program with a 12 week maintenance program to follow (same, but 1/2 the time with the trainer ...). Yes, it is a lot! Oh and did I mention, no alcohol for the whole program?

This program is not just to get a bit more in shape. The goal here is to drastically lose weight and change your health.

Sure I could have just made myself go to the gym (yea, that seems to have been happening), but I choose to do this. The main reason — my insurance coverst80% of the program. That means that for what I would pay for the physical trainer for about 1/4 of the time that I get one now, I get this whole program — accountability and all.

Like I said at the very beginning, I started just under 2 weeks ago. I am glad that I have the accountability - I need it. I am not at the point yet where I am self motivated to go to the gym. I have however lost 6lbs already.

I expect the first 15 to come off quickly, but after that, it will probably be pretty hard.

Even though it was much more of a workout than I had expected, it was quite enjoyable and relaxing. I am really glad that it is more active and still has the calming sense. I started the classes to help with my stress levels and openly except any other beneficial factors. It is nice that I can count it as a workout too. I can't say that one part of my body is particularly sore &mdahs; my body is just informing me that every single part of my body has a little muscle that worked yesterday.

Oh yes, and forget not being bendy ... I have no balance.

I don't actually wear much makeup. The only thing I try to always wear is mascara. I had no idea if organic mascara even existed. With much joy I can report that they do. Aveda even has two different kinds. I have only tried one, but I plan to try the other next.

I know it sounds weird but this makes me so happy. I have gotten to a point that anything that I put on or in my body that isn't good for me, just makes me feel terrible. I'd like to leave my meeting with the gross chemicals for my ventures out in my day to day life where I have no control over the products.

The bad part: We had to get up super early and get to the place (about 20 minutes away) by around 7:15 in the morning. Really that was the only bad part about it.

The good parts: In general I like things like this anyway. The very best thing though was that we got to bring some fun hardware. Dan and I brought our tablets, but we got to bring to SideShow laptops. If you follow the link, we had the exact machine in the picture except it was in white. The other one we had was even neater, but was just an in-house prototype. Here are two other links about it. My team created SideShow which is the platform, enabled by Vista, which enables devices like that to be created. The convenience and the power saving is truly amazing. Anyways, the kids loved them. Surely, I have already blown my budget for the year even if I could get one of those.

Really, you should just go there and check it out. This screen shot really sucks.

Umm, no, not really.

On the flight to NM I had a stop in Las Vegas. I didn't actually have to change planes, but there was a stop. All but three of us got off. The last of the people to leave the plane was a family with three boys. They said they were making a documentary of the trip. They then asked if they could take a picture of the cockpit. The pilot kindly let each boy get a picture.

Watching this I made a side comment that my boyfriend would be jealous if he were there. With that he offered that I take a picture in the cockpit. So here is my picture that the pilot took of me.

Tonight, near the end of our meal we got Rich to try something new. Keep in mind we usually see it, but we have never seen anyone actually eat ... the herring roe. It took a bit of convincing.

... but as you can see he at it. With the only comment being: it is crunchy.

He only ate one of the two pieces. It was well worth it to watch, but the lesson has been learned and none of us will ever again reach for the crunchy stick of roe.

The apartment has a garage on the ground level and then 2 stories of living space. Everything just seemed to fit what we were looking for. The only questionable part was the location. With the exception of the first couple of weeks Dan was living in WA, we haven't really spent any time there.

Last night we timed the drive from our current location to the other location. It is about 20 minutes. So that means a 20+ minute drive to work in the morning. If we were to move farther into Redmond or Bellevue we would likely end up with the same commute time.

It isn't a sure deal until we move in, but I am really excited at the moment.

Anyways, today I realized that I would like to save those old posts as a keepsake. So as I saved them all locally today I realized that I started posting to a journal for the first time February 13th 2005. Here is a copy of my actual first post. There is no way I would have remembered without looking. In all reality, the date would normally mean very little.

If Dan had not written a post commemorating his year anniversary (February 11th 2005), I would never have known that we started posting only 2 days apart. How weird.