I will be leaving next Friday for a Vegas girls' weekend with a good friend, and I'm super excited.

I've decided to use it as some motivation to give my routine a MUCH NEEDED shake-down.

I've been heading down the dangerous road of "just this once" and "just one wont hurt," and even had one day this week of "I'm sick and already blew my calories today so...."

NO!
Bad Lulu!
Stop it!!

I know so much better than that!!!

So, even though I've been telling myself for about 3 weeks now that I will put my foot down about it, I'm seriously putting my foot down RIGHT NOW.

No really, look, right there, that's my foot and it is DOWN.

My friends are awesome and it's great that they want to eat out with us all the time. But, them being awesome, they are also super supportive of my efforts at weight loss and celebrate my success just as much if not more than I do. Time to get real honest with my good friends and just say "please don't invite me out."

In fact....

There

I just texted them!! As in right now, this very minute. No "I'm going to"s for me anymore! I told them I love them and want to hang out lots still, but have to stop eating out so much.

See?
That wasn't so hard!
They live right up the street, so it's not like this has to put a damper on our hanging out or anything.

Also, time to use this stupid flu that just wont budge to my advantage. You know what's great about having a sore throat all the time? I drink copious amounts of super cold water to soothe it. Like, averaging FOUR full 32oz nalgenes just at work per day this week. That's awesome. But I can promise you that if I ever found the 10 minutes to run over to the store and replenish my diet cola supply that it wouldnt be happening. I'd be chugging down that sweet carbonation and caffeine like it was going out of style.

Nay nay! I say!!
No diet cola replenishing.
And stupid Blobby McFlabface can stuff it. He keeps trying to tell me that having a mini-fridge in my office is pretty stupid if I'm not going to put canned sodas in the little canned soda receptacle in the door.
Shove it Blobby. I have lots of stuff in there.... okay, lots at the moment mostly meaning several plain greek yogurts, a bag of frozen cherries, and like 3 different water bottles... but so what? There's stuff in there. It's getting used. I don't need you to validate my mini-fridge!


So, now that I've basically had a long, weird conversation with my own brain, let me get back to my point.
(no really, I have one!)

I'm making some unusually strict rules for myself for the next week. I can do ANYTHING for just one week, and this seems like a great one.
What better motivation than to feel fantastic when we go out dancing in Vegas next weekend?

I WILL stick to the Food Addicts Anonymous eating plan that my dr. recommended for me. When I stuck to it just 80% of the time for 2 weeks the pounds literally FELL off of me. It wasn't hard. I felt so much BETTER eating that way physically, mentally, and emotionally. I like feeling awesome.
Bring on the awesome.
As a footnote to that, I WILL go to the grocery store after the gym tonight and buy freggies and fixins for at least 2 dinners that meet those oh-so-easy FAA guidelines.

I am making myself a work out schedule that does not include the words "sometime on ___day" to incorporate more workouts than just my classes at the gym. 'cause you know when sometime on ___day rolls around? Never. That is not a time. That is a hypothetical maybe situation that even I don't believe when I say it to myself.

Exercise ACTUAL PLANS:
Thursday: Zumba followed by a swim/ soak in the hot tub

Friday: Swim AT LUNCH. Pack food. If I put it off for after work I wont go, so don't set myself up for failure.

Saturday: Nice weather = walk/jog to and around the lake park (I've been wanting to try out running again, see if my knees are ready to hang).
Not so nice weather = go to the damn gym for an hour. Frankly, I don't care what I do once I get there, once I'm there the only hard part is staying for an hour, so stay and work hard. Swim, elliptical, jog on the treadmill, do a ton of strength training, I don't care, just GO TO THE DAMN GYM.
LEAVE THE HOUSE to go do whichever of these I'm going to do BY 11am!! That's plenty of time to sleep in, have a light breakfast, and take my time getting dressed. No one needs to sleep until noon on Saturdays, DON'T BE A LUMP.

Sunday: rest day, but don't take that as permission to sit on the couch all day. DON'T BE A LUMP.

Monday: Turbo Jam
Tuesday: RIPPED
Wednesday: Turbo Sculpt
Thursday: Zumba

Friday: Vegas!! GO DANCING!!!!
Saturday: Walking and dancing!!!
Sunday: Walking and dancing!!!


Food game-plan for Vegas:
I'm going with my skinny minnie friend. Just eat more like she eats. Is that so difficult? She can order whatever looks good and just eat enough of it, there is no reason you can't do that too. There is no rule about cleaning your plate. No one cares. Try whatever you want but eat mindfully and in moderation. Fregibles are your friend.

The stupid in hotel gym costs money every day (bastards) to use, but that is NOT AN EXCUSE. If you go for even a TEN MINUTE walk that is intended as an 'exercise' walk, as in in your exercise pants and shoes, it just sets up your brain for success. So do it!!! Or fenagle your way into that gym for free! You can fenagle with the best of them, why not put all those finagling skills to good use?


So those are the plans for the next week and for Vegas.

BRING ON THE AWESOME!!!