Rainy day

It's fairly yucky out this morning, and as the Queen of wearing weather-inappropriate footwear my feet are pretty much wet and nearly soggy. Lovely.

On the bright side, my pants are awesome. They're dark purple with a black scroll-work pattern. Best part about them? I got them for like $13 at Target.

In other news, I lost the weight I gained back last weekend after Superbowl and various food celebrations, so that means I'm down seven pounds this month. Not too shabby. If I keep this rate going by May I should be like 30 pounds lighter.

I've been making time to go to the gym after work and maintaining focus on my diet (for the most part), so I feel pretty good about where I'm at right now.

The Boyfriend and I have decided to make a bet with each other to see who will reach their goal weight first, but we haven't decided on the terms yet. Once decided upon, there will be a new post to be on the lookout for.

But for now the basics are this:
He wants to lose 100 pounds, I want to lose 50. He's already lost around 20 pounds and I've lost seven.

The difference in weight loss between us doesn't discourage me really because I know that as a man, he will lose weight faster than I will, which will just make it that much more gratifying when I beat him in the long run. :)

Either way, win or lose we'll both be healthier, happier and fitter versions of ourselves and that's fine by me.

Seltzer has become my new best friend

I remember the first time I ever tried seltzer water. I was under the age of 10 and at some meeting with my mom. I was thirsty and saw the clear, fizzy liquid on a table with other refreshments and went at it.

Obviously, I was expecting this clear and bubbly bottle to be Sprite. It was not, I was sorely mistaken and disappointed and probably disgusted.

Now that I'm older, I love the stuff. I don't know what happened, but now, and especially with the dieting, I reach for zero-calorie flavored varieties just for the illusion of drinking a soda.

Kudos to me for making wise decisions during my day!

It's the small victories that add up to the big ones.

In other news, I went to the gym yesterday and fully intend on going again today after work which are both fantastic steps in the right direction.

Paleo-a-go-go

With every new year comes new year's resolutions and my resolutions for 2013 are probably the same as 99.9% of Americans -- lose weight, be financially responsible, be a better person, etc.

The Boyfriend and I have made it a point to lose weight this year, we both feel like we've put on too much "happy fat" and needless to say, it's not making either one of us happy.

We've both been on diets before separately and together. Counting calories, counting carbs, low-fat, low-cal, fat-free and taste-free have been staples in our vocabularies for varying amount of unsuccessful tries.

This time around we're doing it caveman style.

We're both doing the Paleo Diet or at least doing our best with it.

For the past three-ish weeks we've been eating nothing but lean proteins, veggies, fruits, nuts, berries and twigs (just kidding. there have been no twigs).

Giving up bread hasn't been as horrible as it was the last few times that I tried a low-carb diet and I haven't figured out why and I don't know that I care enough to figure it out. What I do know is that it's been working for us and this diet is one that we've actually been able to stick to for the longest amount of time.

Many of the other low-carb diets restrict fruits for either a certain amount of time or just don't allow fruits at all which just always seemed strange to me. Yes I understand that fruits have sugars in them which are carbs, but fruits are also full of so many redeeming qualities that I find it hard to stick to a diet that doesn't encourage eating them.

Granted, many of the paleo websites, blogs and books say that if you're trying to lose weight stray away from too much fruit and nut intake.

So anyway, after the first couple weeks I lost about seven pounds. YAY!

And then this past weekend happened. I wrote an article about a restaurant (which obviously required some research), dinner for The Boyfriend's mother Saturday night and then Super Bowl Sunday. OH THE FRIED, STARCHY, CARBY FOODS... and wings. There were wings too. 

I just about gained any weight back over the weekend and have been kind of slow-rolling getting fully back on track. 

The Boyfriend and I have started a bet with one another. Whoever reaches their goal weight first wins. What they win, we haven't decided yet, but they'll win. He's looking to lose 100 pounds and I'm staring down 50... well 55 including those five I just gained back. 

It's a long road ahead, but I'm going to give it my best and be satisfied in the fact that I'll we'll inevitably be healthier in the end. 

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

So I'm pretty much the worst blogger ever-- or wannabe blogger for that matter. 

I swore up and down to myself that I would keep this up, that I'd lose 10 lbs before my birthday and probably some other stuff. I haven't accomplished any of it and feel totally guilty about it.

One of the upsides is that I haven't gained any weight which is probably not really an upside, but I'm trying to find the "good."

I started my internship about a month ago, and that's been going pretty well thus far. I wake up just before 5 a.m. Monday through Friday, and get to work just before 7 a.m. which isn't as bad as I thought it would be, it just really makes me cherish my days off that much more (which are now weekends, by the way).

For my big 2-5, I was in California with The Boyfriend, visiting my sister which was awesome, except for the fact that it was nearly 100 degrees the entire time we were there, and I got a really bad cold for the last half of the week. Nonetheless, I was on a vacation, a bonafide vacation that didn't involve me driving more than two hours to get to my vacation.

Hopefully, this little update will get me back on some kind of track now. 

"Are you going to be able to pay for dinners now?"

After months and months of worry that I'd be destined to a life of working in retail, I got a new internship! Thanks to a professor who got the ball rolling and helped with my resume and to a friend already working there putting in a good word or two about me in the mean time, I interviewed last week and got the position!

Finally. Things are turning around and are "as they should be." I only say "as they should be" in the sense that I've graduated college and am not wasting my degree at a dead-end job.

No more weekends. No more late nights. No more customer service problems and trainings.No more fighting for commissions. I. CANNOT. WAIT.

This new position does seem daunting, but if they didn't feel I was qualified, they wouldn't hire me, right?

I'll be making just about the same amount of money as I'm making now, which is fine with me. I'd rather be making less money using my degree than more money working retail.

Of course this means that I will be working early morning, full-time, commuting and driving and sitting at a desk all day, but I don't care. I'm just too excited to actually have a "real job."

When I told "The Boyfriend" about my new job, the first question was, "Are you going to be able to pay for dinners now?" Obviously not. He'll deal.

The position is a 9-month internship at a local newspaper where I'm sure I'll have amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience by the end of it and can find my dream job come June.

In other news, my birthday is coming up and I will hopefully be in California visiting my sister and her fiance the week of my birthday. I hope that we can find an affordable ticket so The Boyfriend can join me, making it a nice dual-birthday vacation for us, since his birthday follows pretty close after mine.

I'm very excited and cannot wait to start working, I'm not delusional, I know it's going to be hard getting used to actually working and acting like an adult, but we all adjust and evolve. It's in our nature.

Day trip to Washington D.C.

This summer has been filled mostly with work, a little school and the occasional romp through Fun Town.

Last Monday I was with my friend Linda at A.C. Moore and she was saying that she hasn't been anywhere this entire summer and that since she's about to start grad school, she deserves to go somewhere. So we decided to take a day trip to Washington D.C. on my next day off, Thursday.

We woke up super early, left my house around 8:00 a.m. and hopped on the NJ Turnpike and got to the nation's capitol in about four hours. We didn't have an exact address to input into Linda's GPS which she's named "Susan," so as a destination we entered in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Susan was more than happy to oblige.

A few hundred miles and a pit stop later, we parked in the nearest parking garage and ate our packed lunches.

Our first stop was at the National Air and Space Museum:

It was pretty rad to see how far we've come in terms of flight and such, and to know that I won't have to fly cross-country in something like this anymore.

After that we went to the National Archives, where I couldn't help but feel like Nicolas Cage in the "National Treasure" movies.

"No flash photography of any kind," was the motto of this particular building, so I lack awesome photos of really old papers like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

The steps outside of the Archives building were surprisingly conducive to taking "Congressional/Law & Order" pictures of my friends Linda and Alisha, so we did.

After the Archives building, we went to Ford's Theater where Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. No awesome reenactment, but there was plenty of air conditioning and some displays and such in the basement including a statue of Honest Abe reading a book.


 Across the street from the theater is the house where he actually died, with original furniture and memorabilia from the time.














The last museum that we went to was the National American History Museum. We went specifically for the First Lady exhibit, to look at all the inaugural dresses and the place settings.

Barbara Bush

Our favorites were Barbara Bush's ensemble, Hilary Rodham Clinton's lacy blue number and Michelle Obama's large Jimmy Choo's.

Hilary Rodham Clinton

Michelle Obama

Slowly but surely, our energy started to dwindle so we didn't make it to the monuments like we wanted and planned to but we were nonetheless satisfied with our trip.

I promised I'd keep this up.

So after my last post I swore to myself that the 25-year-old Ana was going to be a better version than all the others that came before. (Dramatic, I know).

I'm starting this big change with my health and fitness. I'm not one of the disillusioned fat girls that think it's wonderful to be big and that in the state my body is in will lead to lifelong health, but I am comfortable with myself, my body and think everyone is beautiful at every size.. but enough pontificating and let me get back to my point.


I'm pretty much obese. And I can't blame anyone but myself for it. I've been perfectly able to feed myself for quite a while now and its my own fault for feeding myself junk and then being lazy and not doing anything when the needle on the scale started tilting in the wrong direction. I can make excuses all I want, "school is too stressful, there's only fast food in the mall where I work, I'm too tired to go to the store." But let's be serious, its really not that hard to pick up a little cup of yogurt instead of a bag or chips.


So that's my plan: better choices. I don't plan on restricting myself from entire food groups like some diets tell you, I fail instantly if there's any kind of restriction. I've tried it all, low-fat, low-carb, no-carb, no-meat, no-dairy - whatever the diet flavor of the month is I've done it or at least tried it.


I'm also trying to make exercise part of my routine and so far I've been doing ok. Since last Thursday, July 26 I've gone to the gym or worked out in some way, shape or form five out of six days.


I'm on a mission.


I started the Couch to 5K program, and its not too bad. I feel pretty accomplished after each session and do about a mile each time and then if I'm at the gym I'll finagle with the weights and try to do some work on my incredibly noddle-y arms. These 12-inch "guns" are gonna be lean and mean one day, no flabby wings here.


My immediate weight-loss goal is to lose 10 pounds by my birthday which is September 14 and fast approaching. Once I reach my goal I will continue with small incriments that are far less daunting then the overall goal.


My plan is to make realistic goals and take realistic steps toward them. I won't throw out any hard work because I slipped up along the way, I will be level-headed and healthy and if it takes me six months, a year or even 10 years to get to my goal then so be it.
Hopefully you'll be align for the ride. :)