Balancing Act

Look! I was "perfectly centered!" I only got this result once in over three months of taking the balance test on my Wii Fit Plus. I'm usually hanging back, slightly to the left.

There is no doubt in my mind that losing weight is a balancing act. Up/down, give/take, yin/yang, black/white, thin/fat, tall/short, rich/poor, high/low ... you know, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I'm learning that I don't need to go to the extreme of being "ON" or "OFF" plan to lose weight. I just need to make sure my actions are the right ones to give me the reaction I want. Eating healthy and working out will result in weight loss if I'm consistent. If I eat right and work out five days a week and go hog wild on the weekend I'm just making things harder on myself.

I've got it pretty easy right now since I'm not spending over 8 hours a day at a desk job but I'm going to have to learn how to balance work and a healthy lifestyle (unless I hit the lottery before my unemployment benefits run out).

How do you find balance in your life?

Muscle Soreness or Injury?

How do you tell the difference between muscle soreness and a more serious injury? Is it just the intensity of the pain?

I've been suffering with some lower back pain over the past week which I thought was due to my intense 60 minute workouts on the elliptical. I have been stretching before and after but thought maybe I wasn't doing enough or maybe I was just working muscles that haven't been used this much in a long time.

I've never been this consistent with my workouts and initially thought that the pain was just soreness from all the activity but I'm starting to think it may be something more serious. I had a massage over the weekend and was feeling better but then last night I kept waking up every time I tried to roll over. I put some ice on the area and plan on taking a long hot bath soon to see if that helps.

Do you have any advice on how to tell whether you're just sore or whether you need to call the doctor?

Who let the dogs out?

*Warning* *Rant Ahead*

Why are cheating men making network news headlines? There have to be stories more important than the latest sleaze ball dog stepping out on the woman he promised to love and cherish above all others until death parts them.

If I want to know how many mistresses a pro golfer had, how many people helped cover up for a politician screwing around on his sick wife or how many tattoos the bombshell who screwed the "happily" married to a famous actress biker had I can watch the entertainment news shows or read the celebrity blogs and rag mags.

Is it really the "greatest comeback ever" for the golfer. He never really left, did he? It's not like he lost a limb, was in an accident, had a disease or broke his bones and struggled to get back to the game. He went to rehab for having too much sex with too many woman behind his wife's back. Why is that considered a great comeback in the sports world? I don't understand.

It breaks my heart that the Oscar winning actress who gushed about being in love with a man who finally had her back. He was someone she could trust and be herself with. He was someone who made her work better because she knew she had someone at home who made her feel safe and protected. This dog of hers was smiling and supporting her while he was simultaneously lying and screwing some tattoo covered skank in her home.

Most men are dogs who think with the head between their legs instead of the head on their shoulders. Why don't these cheaters delete the text messages and voice mails? Are they really that stupid or do they want to get caught?

It makes me sick that woman allow men to take advantage of them and get away with this type of behavior. I don't think any woman should put up with a dog unless it walks on four legs, gets lead around on a leash, wags its tail, is always excited to see you, warms your bed and gives you nothing but unconditional love.


Why do these men bother getting married if they don't have any intention of keeping their vows? I don't think I'll ever understand why these cheating dogs are headline news.

*My apologies to all the good guys out there (all 3 of you).

Frustrated

Back in January 2008 I worked up the courage to divulge my weight here on this blog. I've been tempted to delete that post ever since but forced myself to keep it on there so I could look back and see how far I had come once I got to my weight loss goal. Even though I ranted and raved about how much I wanted and needed to lose weight I ended up gaining an additional 16 pounds to reach my highest weight ever in November 2009. Talk about frustration.

Every other time I lost a significant amount of weight I did it by severely changing my diet and hardly doing any regular exercise. I've always been active even at my highest weight but playing on the weekends didn't make up for sitting at a desk for 40+ hours, lazing around and stuffing my face all week.

In the 80's I spent almost a year eating nothing but JC food out of a box to lose 50+ pounds. I couldn't continue to live on that stuff although I've heard that the JC food out of a box has gotten much better since then. I wanted to be able to eat what everyone else was eating and didn't want to live on cardboard boxed food forever.

In the 90's I lost over 60 pounds by avoiding all "white" foods. I still can't believe I was able to do this for so long. I love all those white foods which are so bad for me and give me nothing in return but more fat on my a$$. I amazed myself by staying away from the white bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, flour and sugar but I couldn't keep it up forever. I stayed on my own modified version of Atkins/South Beach and the weight melted off but I couldn't live a life without bread and pasta. I knew my Italian Grandma must have been doing flips in her grave. Life is not worth living if you can never eat a piece of bread or pasta again. This wasn't something I could sustain for a lifetime. It worked until I accidentally ate a crouton and blew right back up like a balloon hooked up to a bottle of helium.

By the time I got laid off from my daily dose of high stress in November 2009 I was bursting at my pant seams at my highest weight ever. I was so miserable and depressed about my work situation it was hard to stay focused on anything else. I binged and grazed all day long to keep my emotions and frustrations inside instead of lashing out and telling those abusers how I really felt because I thought keeping my job was more important. I paid the price in pounds.

I've been away from the corporate hell hole for almost 4 months now and have lost an average of 5 pounds a month. Five measly pounds a month is far from rapid weight loss and I wish it were falling off quicker but I'm happy it's coming off consistently.

I have been religiously attending the gym and getting my sweat on like a good little bunny. I've been rocking that elliptical machine in 60 minute intervals an average of 5 days a week and recently started throwing some weights around. I've been playing on my Wii and wearing a pedometer and striving to get those 10,000+ steps a day. It's not coming off fast but it is coming off.

I'd like to pick up this turtle pace so I'm going to tackle my diet in addition to cranking it up at the gym. There's a novel idea, huh? Combine diet and regular exercise to get results. I think I've heard a few people say that's the key to the weight loss mystery. I don't know why it has always been one or the other for me.

I haven't had any severe binge episodes since I escaped the stressful work situation but I haven't really gotten super strict with my diet either. I've basically been eating what I want in moderation but if I want to speed up the process I'm going to have to sacrifice a little and learn to stop eating at night, cut down the weekend snacking and turn down the fattening foods in social situations where I tend to get in trouble.

I'm not discouraged but I am frustrated that I'm not losing at least 2 pounds a week. It's time for me to put the two pieces of the puzzle together and get this game on the fast(er) track.

Hit and Run

What is wrong with people? Sometimes I really hate living in the city.

Tuesday night we were home watching the Biggest Loser and we heard a big bang. B asked "what was that?" I said "it sounds like a big truck fell into a sink hole." Last week we had a big sink hole open up down the street so that was the first thing I thought of. B looked out the window but didn't see anything unusual.

The next morning our neighbor called to tell us someone hit our truck last night. We were lucky our neighbor got the plate number. I'm sure the driver of the hit and run vehicle was drunk because he didn't go very far. You could follow the plastic parts and scrape marks around the corner to find a vehicle that was severely damaged. My truck was smashed from the rear bumper to the front bumper but the other guy's vehicle was destroyed. His airbag went off, his front right tire was twisted sideways and there was a big dent and scrape marks all up the passenger's side.

We met with the local police who towed the vehicle and then he went to talk with the registered owners who live about a mile away. The officer said they would probably say the vehicle was stolen but apparently they fessed up (through an interpreter) that they hit a vehicle the night before but didn't stop and tell anyone about it. My guess is they decided it was better to get fined for leaving the scene of an accident than getting a DUI.

I spent the rest of the week dealing with the insurance company, the body shop and the car rental place. The worst part about it is we won't have our truck for the weekend and we need it to be able to trailer the snowmobiles so we can go riding. None of the rental places rent trucks with trailer hitches so we need to figure out how to get the sleds to the snow. It may be the last time we get to ride since we seem to be having the same strange weather as Vancouver and the temperatures are supposed to really warm up.

I used to get really upset when my vehicle got scratched or damaged but after it happened so many times I'm kind of numb to it now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the body shop does good work and the idiot who hit us stays off the road when he's drunk.

Paying the Price

I'm having Winter Olympic withdrawals. I loved watching the games and hate that I have to wait 4 years to see them again. Where will we be in 4 years? Will we have reached our goals? What are we doing to make it happen?

Sandrelle at Keeping Off the Pounds recently posted an article by Dr. Denis Waitley called The Winner's Circle.

The article really hit me hard and made me think about how much effort I am putting in to reach my goals. Is it enough? Am I willing to put in the effort to get the results I want?

Dr. Waitley writes:

Everyone wants to win, but few are willing to invest the time and effort. Paying the price means focusing on developing the skills and training regimen of champions—observation, imitation, repetition and the internalization of knowledge into habits; also, learning why and how to go the extra mile and seeing success as a marathon, not a dash. Champions view failures as temporary inconveniences and learning experiences.

Are you willing to pay the price to go for the gold?

The Nuts

"The Nuts" is the absolute best possible hand in any given hand of poker. It's the unbeatable, unbreakable hand. Having "the Nuts" is a very good thing but eating the nuts all night long is not.

I love playing poker but I haven't figured out how to do it without stuffing my poker face full of snacks. I always have fun getting together with friends and taking their money but I hate taking away all the extra calories along with the cash. I'm happy I came in 1st place last night but I'm not happy about all the crap I ate.

I had a decent dinner before heading out so I wouldn't be tempted by the snack food but it didn't work out so well. I ate baked tortilla chips, nuts (pistachios, cashews and walnuts) and then it got really bad when some leftover fun sized Halloween candy got broken out. I had a few Butterfingers and a few Health bars before I pulled in the reins and stopped myself from a full fledged binge. I felt so gross and disgusted with myself. I didn't want to eat that crap but I did it anyway. When will I learn?

I need to be able to resist the temptation to eat just because it's there and everyone else is eating it. I need to figure out how to have a social life and stay on my healthy eating plan.

I can't even use alcohol as an excuse because I gave that up for Lent so I was only drinking water. Maybe I should have given up chocolate for 40 days instead of vodka.

It looks like I'll be spending my time at the gym this this week working the chocolate off my poker face.

Winter Games

I'm addicted to the winter games. I especially love the alpine skiing, snowboarding, snow cross, speed skating, nordic combined, figure skating, biathlon ... I love it all. I have watched almost all of the competitions except for curling. For some reason I just can't seem to get on board with that "sport" (is sweeping really a sport?) but everything else has me glued to the tv.

I get so impatient listening to all the commentators drone on and on about the same few athletes. I'm not crazy about NBC's coverage because they are too focused on just the American Olympians. I'm proud of my fellow countrymen but the Olympics are about all countries competing not just the USA and Canada. I have been recording the day's events and then watching them back the next day while trudging along on the dreadmill. It definitely takes some of the dread out of it.

I've been thinking of changing the focus of my workouts to training instead of merely exercising to lose weight. I think it's important to have something more than just weight loss to focus on whether it's beating your last time, increasing the amount of weight you can lift, or just getting more balanced and flexible. I need something beside the scale to measure my progress and keep me motivated.

I haven't been skiing or snowboarding in a couple of years but I'm going to dust off my gear and get out on the mountains to play before the season is over. Let's hope Mother Nature pulls through and dumps some snow here in the northeast.

What is your favorite Olympic sport to watch? It's time to get out and play!

Facial Expressions

I never realized how many facial expressions I use when talking until I smashed my face. It hurts a bit every time I raise my eyebrows and I can't seem to stop myself from doing it. Maybe this is a good excuse to look into botox. As much as I would love to get rid of the wrinkles I don't think I'd want to permanently give up my expressions.

Would you or have you had or considered botox?

LOOK OUT! DANGER! SMASH!

Is there a support group out there for klutzes? I could really use one.

It's pretty comical that my mother worries about me when I'm out snowmobiling, ATVing, hiking, bungee jumping or playing other potentially dangerous sports because I generally only get injured doing every day things, you know, like when I broke my foot walking down my driveway or the klutzy move I made yesterday.

B and I were carrying a marble counter top into the camp yesterday morning when I slipped on the ice and snow and smashed my head on the marble. OWWWW! OMG! Pain! Blood! OOOOOUCH!!! It was awful. My sunglasses broke and there was blood everywhere. I have a cut above my eyebrow and my eyelid is swollen and looks like I have dark purple eye shadow on. I guess I'm lucky I didn't make contact with the marble an inch one way (eyeball) or the other (temple) because I expect that could have been much worse.

I gave myself a day off from the gym due to my injury. I've been keeping my eye on ice and feel ok but I didn't think it would be a good idea to go to the gym and get the blood pumping.

I called my primary doctor's office and the eye doctor to ask if they think it's necessary for me to have it checked out. I didn't black out, I'm not having any problems with my vision or any headaches so my doctor didn't think I needed to come in unless it gets worse. I spoke to the eye doctor too and she said I could come in the office if I wanted but she thinks it will be fine.

UGHHH! It seems like these things only happen to me. It's a miracle I can get through the day without injuring myself. It's a good thing I signed up for COBRA coverage so I still have health insurance. A person like me should never be without it.

I don't usually post photos of myself on here but thought you'd like to see my big puffy black/blue swollen eye. Please ignore the fact that I am long overdue to have my brows waxed. It doesn't look like I'll be getting them waxed anytime soon.

If anyone asks me what happened I'm just going to say "oh, this is nothing, you should see the other guy."

Not only did I mess up my face and look like I went a few rounds in the ring with Rocky but I broke my new funky sunglasses ;(

So, do you like my pretty purple eyeshadow?

Hero or Villain?

Last night was the first episode of the new season of Survivor - Heroes vs. Villains. There's no more Outwit, Outplay, Outlast - this season it is Return, Revenge, Redemption!

Even though I've watched every single season there were a couple of contestants I don't even remember (Candice? Danielle?). I've been watching Survivor ever since Richard Hatch bared his pasty white a$$ for the world to see (ewwww). It certainly wasn't pretty but it was good reality tv (is that an oxymoron?).

I definitely enjoyed some seasons more than others and cheered for some villains (hello Boston Rob) and couldn't stand others (Coach and Tyson) and was happy to see their torches snuffed out.

I think this season is going to be like no other. In the first challenge they had two pretty serious injuries. The competition was fierce. Stephanie had her shoulder dislocated and popped back into place and Rudy broke his toe in a couple of places. These people are out for blood and it should be exciting to watch.

One of my favorite castaways of all time is Stephanie who was the only member left after her entire tribe was wiped out and she was left all alone at her camp. Some people thought she was whiny and irritating but I didn't care, I was in awe of her smokin' body and amazing arms. She is tone and fit but not a skinny skeleton. Her arms don't look as defined as they were in her past seasons but she still looks fantastic.

Will the villains continue their evil ways? Will the heroes take off their capes and turn to the dark side? In a game all about outwitting, outlasting and outplaying people, would you rather be considered a hero or villain?

Snow Way!

Snow emergencies were called, kids got out of going to school, businesses shut down and we ended up with a grand total of 1.5" of snow. Yes, that is INCHES not feet. I didn't even have to pick up a shovel. What's going on here? Mother Nature is apparently lost and needs to get a new map or a good GPS.

We desperately need snow up in the mountains of Vermont so I can go snowmobiling this weekend. I'm so jealous of everyone in NJ, PA, MD, DC, NY, CT and R.I.

The winter Olympics in Vancouver start next week and they are scrambling to get the mountains covered since they haven't had nearly enough snow. They shouldn't have to build ski slopes out of cardboard and hay bales.

I think Mother Nature is screwing with us. If you see her, please give her directions to the mountains up north.

Who Dat?

Every time I hear "who dat?" I think of Janet Jackson's song Nasty.

"Hey! Who's that thinkin' nasty thoughts?
Nasty boys!
Who's that in that nasty car?
Nasty boys!
Who's that eatin' that nasty fruit?
Nasty boys!
Who's jammin' to my nasty groove?
Nasty boys!
Ladies? Nasty boys don't mean a thing
Oh you nasty boys"

After this past weekend I started hearing "who dat eatin' that nasty food?" I hate to admit it but it was me.

Congrats to the Saints for winning the SuperBowl for the first time in franchise history. The Saints certainly had an amazing season and I can't think of any other city that is more deserving and in need of some extra attention and financial assistance than New Orleans.

My apologies to the Saints and the Colts but I didn't really care who won the SuperBowl this year. It was an exciting game and I'm glad the Saints won but my football season ended when the Patriots got knocked out. How did Drew Brees get all pumped up to play after having a beautiful baby boy and Tom Brady seemed anxious to end the season as early as possible? Oh
well, spring training will be starting soon enough. Go Sox!

I also have to admit I spent more time playing poker and eating all sorts of salty sugary snacks all afternoon than I did watching the game or the lame commercials. I should have been fully
satiated after eating a big bowl of beef stew with fresh hot wheat bread but I couldn't stop myself. I started snacking on chips and dip, crackers, carrot cake, garlic bread sticks and whatever else was on the table. UGGH! Does it ever get easier to resist?

I've been on a roll working out hard at the gym and eating healthy reasonably sized portions but one weekend of mindless social eating sends me right back down the slippery slope of regaining any weight I so painstakingly lost. The scale says I'm up over 5 pounds but that doesn't seem possible. Apparently my body doesn't know about the mathematical equation that says I'd have to have eaten over 16,000 extra calories to have gained 5 pounds in two days. How can it take a month to lose 5 pounds and two days to gain it right back? It really isn't fair, is it?

I'm going to need to put in some serious extra hours at the gym this week just to get back to my pre-weekend weight. It shouldn't even be possible for me to gain 5 pounds in a weekend but the scale does not lie. Let's hope some of it is from all the salty snacks I inhaled and it won't take a month for me to lose it again.

Drew Brees and the Saints get to go to Disney World and I'm going to be spending even more time at Planet Fitness.

Who Dat gettin' right back on the healthy living bandwagon? ME!

Thematic Photographic 86 - Water in any form

ICE, ICE Baby.

Water is such a powerful element that has the ability to sustain us or destroy us. We need water to survive and at the same time we can be destroyed by droughts, floods and powerful rain, ice and snow storms. Our daily lives can be turned upside down because of ice.

My favorite form of water is obviously snow but considering the fact that I was kept off the snowmobile trails this past weekend because of all the rain that promptly turned the trails to ice I decided to enter this week's Thematic Photographic with an icy picture.

To participate in Written Inc.'s latest Thematic Photographic theme, "Water in any form," please click here.

Greed and Gluttony

Ahhhh...sinners have so much more fun, don't they? We covered at least three of the 7 deadly sins today - envy, greed and gluttony.

B and I decided to stay home this weekend instead of going up north since the snowmobile trails are either closed, barely covered or iced over from the warm temperatures and tons of rain. I hope we get some good snow soon so we can salvage the riding season. Too bad all that snow slamming the south couldn't make it's way up to the mountains of Vermont.

To cheer ourselves up we decided to pay some restitution to the Native Americans and make a deposit down at Foxwoods. It must have been the full moon messing with my mind for me to think it was a good idea to throw some money away. I'm still not even getting my unemployment checks but why should that stop me from donating some money to the Indians. We went down hard and fast at the blackjack table but we had a good time and didn't lose too much.

Our friend came down and met us at the casino and after trying a few pulls on the slot machines we headed to Mystic Pizza for a big greasy lunch. I got a turkey sandwich but had some very greasy onion rings, a small sliver of pizza, and french fries. I overdid it for sure.

We hadn't seen our friend since the end of November so we got to exchange Christmas presents which is always fun no matter what the date on the calendar. My friend makes us the most delicious homemade Christmas cookies every year and she had a big batch waiting in the deep freeze for us for over a month. It didn't matter that the cookies have been frozen though because they were just as good as if they were freshly baked. I'm so stuffed but keep breaking off a little piece of cookie here and a little piece there. It really is a sickness when you can't stop eating when you are bursting.

I feel pretty gross right now and almost wish I could make myself throw up. I think lots of people who have a binge eating disorder wish they could be bulimic, at least we'd be able to get rid of that full, bloated feeling and not have so much evidence of our binges hanging off our bodies. I had way too much junk today and feel absolutely disgusting. My stomach is ready to explode and I have a slight headache from all the sugar.

It's funny how quickly our bodies get used to eating healthy foods and when we slip up and go back to eating crap we feel disgusting but we still tend to crave the junk food no matter how gross it makes us feel. Why is that?

I'm going to have to do double time at the gym this week to make up for this one day of excess but it was worth it.

Say What?

UGGHH! I had to go to the unemployment office first thing this morning to try and find out why I haven't gotten paid. Apparently my former torturers didn't respond to unemployment timely so my benefits were suspended. Those miserable b*st*rds are still screwing me and I haven't worked there in over 2 months. I was stressed out just thinking about those jerks and how they still have the power to piss me off and stress me out. Luckily there's little chance my in-laws will throw us out on the street for paying the rent late but I have bills to pay. Let's hope they show me the money soon.

Anyway, moving on to the point of my post. After wasting time at the unemployment office I went right to the gym and called B on my way in to tell him what happened. He said "knowing you, you're probably at the gym." I said "who are you talking to?" "since when am I the person that's probably at the gym?"

After I kicked my own a$$ sweating out 35 minutes on the elliptical, a 20 minute weight circuit, 40 minutes back on the elliptical and 40 minutes on the treadmill (a record amount of time at the gym today), I was walking out and the girl behind the counter said "see you tomorrow." I guess that means I'm a regular now that the gym staff expects to see me there every day.

Who would have thought I'd be hearing people say such things?

Thematic Photographic 85 - I'm Hungry

This week's Thematic Photographic theme is "I'm Hungry."

I took this picture over three years ago but I'm not sure if I even felt true hunger back then because I was constantly eating. I never gave my body time to get hungry because I was constantly stuffing fattening food down my throat. I was so disgusted just looking at the evidence in the trash so I took this picture to remind myself how awful I felt after eating that crap. That day I vowed to stop the out of control eating and get healthy, lose the weight and (FINALLY) keep it off.

Over the past 20 years I've been on almost every diet out there except for the really crazy no food diets because that's just not possible for me. The biggest lesson I've learned from all those diets is that you can lose weight with any diet but if you don't learn how to eat right you will have an endless ride on the weight loss roller coaster. I know women who go to WW but instead of learning how to eat right they starve themselves all day so they can drink beer at night. How crazy is that?

I'm learning to feel hunger again and know that I will not starve to death before my next meal. I'm hungry for a healthy life. What are you hungry for?

Carmi at Written Inc. is our Thematic Photographic leader. If you want to learn how to play along, click here for the details.

Well Read?

Everyone keeps asking me whether I have/want one of those electronic book readers like the Kindle or Sony reader because I'm always reading something and can spend hours in the bookstore but I have absolutely no desire for one of those electronic things. I love getting a new book, cracking the spine and turning the pages the old fashion way. Would you want an electronic book reader?

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions: Copy this list and bold or put an ‘X’ after those you have read and then leave a link in the comments.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen X
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien X*
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte X
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller X
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger X
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger X
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot X*
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell X
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma-Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hossein X
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden X
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez X
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving X
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel X
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen X
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon X
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold X
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac X
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding X
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker X
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert X*
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom X
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

*never finished

I am an avid reader so I thought I would do better than 39 out of the 100. It's more than the 6 average but not as good as I expected. Some of these books I have absolutely no interest in reading and others I'm going to make a special trip to the bookstore to find out what I've been missing. I'm always looking for a good book to sink my teeth into.

I'm surprised a couple of my favorites didn't make the list so I thought I would add a few more bonus books of my own:

101 Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand X
102 The Book Thief - Markus Zusak X
103 East of Eden - John Steinbeck X
104 Crimson Petal and the White - Michael Faber X

You can check out my complete bookshelf here.

How many of the 100 books have you read? More than 6? Did your favorite book make the list?

Get Moving

Just in case you haven't already read the most recent post over at *Bitch Cakes*about how exercising and being active changed her life, I wanted to tell you to get moving and go read it here.

Excellent post, huh? I especially love these words:

"...people may assume it's the weight loss that has changed my life, I give the activity far more credit for the new person I have become. My changes are less about "the number on the scale" or the size of my clothes, they are about how *I* changed - from the inside out. I finally feel GREAT. I finally realize that I'm pretty awesome. I am finally HAPPY. And that's all because of exercise...You'll see results when you see results...life is forever...being healthy should be your focus forever. So who cares how long it takes?"

Brilliant, right?

Of course I'd like to be thin and healthy right now (actually yesterday, no, twenty years ago) but I'm learning to just trust the process and not be so hung up on the numbers on the scale. One day it may be up and the next day it may be down but the trick is to be consistent with the exercise and healthy eating.

Could this be the missing link I've been looking for? I'm doing my best to keep my focus on being active and eating healthy. It's time I stop agonizing over how slow and how much weight I need to lose and trust the process. It WILL happen.

It's not a race, it's life. Live it to the fullest and get moving.

Biggest Loser Interrupted

I am so upset with my local NBC station right now. I realize Ted Kennedy's replacement will have a big impact on the future of the nation but if I wanted to watch Ayla Brown sing and listen to political drivel I would tune in to CNN or some other all news all the time broadcast.

I missed a good 15 minutes of the Biggest Loser before they finally cut back to the show and then they cut in again with "Breaking News" before I got to see what the eliminated contestant looked like. What the !@#$%^? I hate when they do sh*t like that. They had the ticker running down at the bottom of the screen showing the results so why did they feel the need to interrupt the scheduled program with "Breaking News?"

I've never had much faith in the political leaders of our country and I don't like to talk politics or push my political views on anyone so I will only say that no matter what side of the political fence you are on, the voters have decided to continue the trend they started with Obama and voted for a change. It looks like Massachusetts will have a Republican in the Senate seat for the first time in nearly half a century. I have never seen anyone other than Ted Kennedy sit in that seat and push the Democrat agenda. Scott Brown may single-handedly be able to block the president's health care legislation and the rest of his agenda. Democrats pushed hard for Martha Coakley to win to be able to thwart Republican filibusters and now they must be scrambling to figure out how to push things through quickly before Brown is able to vote it down. I have a feeling things are going to get even uglier in Washington.

I wish there was a way to run a country without politicians. There has got to be a better way but we haven't found one yet. I'm happy I won't have to watch or listen to negative political campaign commercials every five seconds but I'm not sure how I feel about the health of our nation.

One thing is for sure, the times they are a changin' ...

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.