FYI: Martial Arts Are Not Fat-Friendly!

I went to my first "self-defense" class tonight. It's actually Hapkido. I'm taking it because it's 1 credit which is what I needed to retain my full-time student status. I thought hey, I'll get in shape while earning my credit...both things I need to do right? Well what I didn't count on were 3 things: 1. There are 4 other people in my class, all of them are skinny jock girls about 18. (I'm 27 going on 28 by the way) 2. When you are a chub like me, you can't do the splits. Apparently doing the splits is necessary to the warm-up. 3. That I would get paired up with the super hottie guy to do "sparring" or practicing what we learned. Luckily Mr. Hottie was full of patience and didn't hate me by the end of class. My teacher who is a little on the butterball side himself pointed out every time I wasn't doing a warm up exercise right. Well hello buddy, have you noticed that I'm a big girl? I CAN'T touch my nose to my toes. My pouch o' baby fat is in the way. Now don't get me wrong, I'm proud of the fact that I carried 2 beautiful children in my tummy pouch. My fat sustained those 2 sweeties during pregnancy and hey, it's not all bad. But the pouch prevents toe-touching fun. So I come home looking for some comfort (and maybe some cheese fries) but apparently my hubby just doesn't get it. Clearly he has no clue what it's like to be the fat girl in a high school gym class (that's so what I felt like tonight all over again). He had told me when I signed up for this martial arts nightmare that I would LOVE this class so much that I would, get this, choose to do it again. Pfft! I'm trying oh so hard to try and keep a positive attitude about this. I'm sure it'll get better right? The lesson learned here is next time I need a 1 credit class, I'll pick like anything else.

Another crabbie goes to the big beach in the sky

Tonight when I went to give the crabbies a bath, Josh noticed that Marie-Antoinette had expired. I'm so sad because this is two crabbies in about a month. Pinchy is still doing great except that he longs for the perfect roommate.

I'll bet you didn't know....

...that to go to Atlanta from Chicago, you need to go to Salt Lake City first. No, I'm not kidding. Josh and I just returned from a funeral for Josh's Memaw. We had to fly at the last minute to Atlanta and didn't have a lot of choices for airfare. Out of five of our flights, only one was on time. First we started out in Chicago where we were delayed 2 hours. We missed our connection in Minneapolis and after ALOT of fighting with the airline wound up flying to Salt Lake City. It was the last flight out for the night and enabled us to catch to a red eye to Atlanta. After landing at 5am, we were back on an outgoing flight at 6pm. I love to fly, but that was too many plans in 24 hours.

Although we are heartbroken about our loss, I know that Memaw would have gotten a good laugh out of the way we got to Georgia. Knowing that sheds a different light on the experience.

Don't tell ma, I smoked a hookah!

Josh and I were lucky enough to have a date on Saturday and we had such a good time! We went to the zoo and rented a swan shaped paddle boat. It was so pretty peddling around the little pond that I almost forgot we were in downtown Chicago. Unfortunately I decided to wear my "cute sandals" and got on heck of a blister on the bottom of my foot. I'm still paying the price for that decision. Oh the cost of looking pretty!

After our boat ride we went to The Sphinx Cafe in Niles for some middle eastern grub. (Check it out at http://www.sphinxcafe.com/index.html ) We got there just in time for the belly dancer. The food was really good and the prices were even better. After dinner we ordered up a hookah with strawberry flavored tobacco. I wasn't sure what to expect but I knew I had to try it since the opportunity was there. It was nothing like smoking a cigarette, rather it tasted like strawberry licorice. It was pretty cool, but don't tell my mama.

Downsizing my fluff...

Monday I embarked on another weight-loss journey. This time I expect to be succesful. I am doing the Weight Watcher's at home program. I am on Day 5 and it's gotten easier each day. I was super hungry the first two days and I felt kinda mean because of it. But then I learned how to space out my points for the day so it works for me better. I'm rarely hungry until about noon, so I eat a small breakfast (which uses little points) and then eat more points at lunch and dinner. I also find drinking alot of water or Crystal Light helps. I am constantly amazed at all the things I can still eat.

I'm doing more than eating less though. I'm changing the way that I think about things. Losing weight means more to me than fitting into the gorgeous black dress that I bought to wear to my high school reunion. This is about accepting myself. Let's face it, I'm not going to be a size 8...ever. That's just not how I'm built. But I would be super happy with a 12 or a 14. It's funny how much our body image can control our lives. I'm learning to take back that control. I might not be a supermodel, but I'm okay.

I'm reading Wendy Shanker's "Fat Girls' Guide to Life". It's really insightful and funny. It's nice to hear somebody else say the things that the rest of us "fat girls" think but are afraid to say. Reading her book is really boosting my thoughts that I'm just too hard on myself.

Another thing that really helps is working out. I try to work out every day in my garage with the heavy bag. It is nice to go punch and kick that big for 15-20 minutes and get out the day's frustrations.

My sister and I started a belly dancing class a few weeks ago too. It's so much fun that you don't even notice you are excercising for that hour. I love the fact that the emphasis is on your hips, tush and bust. One thing I've learned is that the things I wanted to hide for so long are beautiful when you are belly dancing. My hips might be wide, but they swing beautifully. I might have a lot of junk in my trunk, but I can shake my booty alot better than a skinny girl any day.



There's hope for downsizing my fluff and keeping my sparkle after all!

Wish I could do this!

I woke up this morning to find Pinchy in a tree. Well not so much in a tree as on top of it. He doesn't want to come down either. He's sleeping up there. I wonder if Marie-Antoinette made him mad...

Crabbies!!!

Sometimes we all feel a little crabby. These guys feel crabby all the time because, well they are crabs. Meet my little hermit crabs...
This one is Marie-Antoinette:



And this one is Pinchy:

I am feeling pretty darn crabby lately myself. I just started Weight Watchers and since I hardly to get eat anything anymore, I'm feelin' really mean. To add to that, school starts next week for 3 out of 4 people in my family. I was really hoping that this would be a nice relaxing week before the craziness begins, but it's so not turning out that way. Josh has to work alot between tech support and the Kepples. And he's having the world's worst time at work lately, which means he doesn't feel like doing anything when he's home. Grr! If I have to clean the kitchen one more time....

I need some sparkles and/or fluff in my day right about now. I would prefer some Ben and Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk but sadly I can't. Throw some pixie dust my way!