Microsoft is not your friend

Well, my plans to go to bed early yesterday were successfully thwarted by Microsoft's shitty customer service. I ended up hanging up after being on hold for 2.5 hours. Let me emphasize that a bit more: TWO AND A HALF HOURS. After I'd spent over 1.5 hours trying to go through a different tech support line. I was infuriated. And none of my problems had been solved. Fortunately, today we had a good almost 3 hours off this morning, so I was able to get my problem solved after an additional hour and 45 minutes on the phone. I will never, ever buy a Windows/Microsoft product in my life (except for Microsoft word given that it's a standard application). If their tech support is that awful, I refuse. I know apple products are infinitely more expensive, but it took less than an hour to have my hard drive replaced versus the almost 6 hours I spent on the phone to activate some software. Ridiculous.

Anywho, I had a good afternoon at the office and saw a good range of patients. After work, I came home for a snack because I was starving and then hit the gym after some digestion time. I did the elliptical for 45 minutes and ramped up the resistance. I burned almost 500 calories during that time, but it wasn't the most satisfying workout because one of the sites of my no-longer-present moles got all irritated. So that was a bummer. Plus I originally thought I was going to run a 5k, but decided against it. I'm sure I would've been more excited had I done a 5k.

Today's dinner was a PB&J sandwich and a crap ton of veggies. I dipped them in a yogurt-based salad dressing, but I bet they would've tasted better if I'd used a different dressing - the pairing was kinda weird - it was like a parmesan caesar dressing. 

Aaaaand for the big news of today: I think I might start doing morning workouts next week. This whole showering twice in a day and working out only a few hours before bed just doesn't seem to be the best schedule. I'm off at 3pm tomorrow, so I'll hit weights tomorrow night and just do an evening workout Thursday and then will probably try changing my sleeping schedule next week.

Dinner

Let's get real.

Okay. Let's get real for a bit. 

No, morning workouts did not happen. I know that I could do it if I really wanted to, but I'd really rather sleep. So, workouts will continue to be after work. It kind of sucks because it's hard to get room in the weights area when you go after work, but I can look intimidating enough to get a bench when I need to. That, and I can rearrange my workout if necessary as well. So, yeah. Not going to happen.

On Friday, I had two moles removed...from my groin. One of which was rather large, dark, and had irregular borders (which are, you know, all bad things...) and the other that was just bothersome. It was probably dumb to have them both done at once considering they were on opposite thighs so both thighs hurt, but I'm all about efficiency. I'm anxiously awaiting the pathology report because once upon a time, I went tanning, which has, you know, been linked to increased incidences of skin cancer like a bajillion times. YOLO...?

Also, let's keep being real since I'm all into this oversharing thing right now. Today I read this article on SparkPeople. It's all about how to placate your sweet tooth without overdoing it. Essentially, it suggests 12 sweet snacks. But since we're being real with each other right now, I've gotta say, this is just stupid. Is anyone going to stop at half a cup of ice cream? Do you even know how little half a cup of ice cream is? Like, children typically have portion sizes larger than that when it comes to ice cream. It's just not realistic. And, okay, let's say you have the willpower of a superhuman and you do eat just 1/2 cup of ice cream. Are you feeling full and satisfied? No. Why? Because all you ate was 1/2 cup of ice cream. Okay. Perhaps you chose the 1/2 cup of grapes and 1 oz of walnuts. Do you know how much food that is? Not very much. I mean at least the walnuts have some protein, but c'mon. None of these snacks would satisfy me or my sweet tooth. So, though I appreciate the sentiment, I think this article is silly.

And since we're on this topic, while waiting for my doctor's appointment on Friday, I sat and read some magazine article about losing like 10 pounds in 2 weeks or something like that. It gave both workouts as well as meal plans. You were supposed to work out twice a day for about two hours in total and your meals were typically something like this: breakfast - smoothie. Morning snack - half an apple and a tiny bit of fat-free yogurt. Lunch - salad. Afternoon snack - one ounce of nuts. Dinner - chicken or lean turkey with some kind of green. First of all: riiiiight. Like I'm going to work out twice in one day. Second of all: the most important meal of the day is breakfast and I'm just supposed to have a smoothie? That's supposed to last me 4 hours until I can have half an apple with like a spoonful of yogurt? Um, no. That's not going to work. And let's just say [again] that you have superhuman willpower and you follow this. Then when you go back and eat like a normal person, you've regained that 10 pounds in like 10 seconds. It's just dumb. You're supposed to do something that's sustainable. And maybe I'm the crazy one because I can't see how a meal plan and workout plan like that would work, but I doubt it.

Moving on to a different topic: in the family practice office I'm at, I've been working with a doctor who mentions weight and BMI with almost every single patient. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - I mean, it stops some patients from being blissfully ignorant when they're told flat out, "Your BMI puts you in the obese category," but it's a bit disheartening when the patients are like 30 pounds lighter than me (and okay, a few inches shorter too) and someone makes a comment about how their weight is out of control. Um, excuse me, but my BMI is higher than theirs. Is my weight out of control? I would have said no. And then we had a patient who gained 30 pounds and was taking a short-acting appetite suppressant to help lose weight. Granted, they were also watching what they ate and exercising, but that brought up all types of weird feelings. Like, I'm kind of against using a drug and putting something in your system when you could technically do without. But then I'm all, maybe I would get better results if I tried something like that. But then I'm all, WHAT ABOUT SIDE EFFECTS?! I'LL GET CANCER! Well, I'm not usually that bad, but I did meet someone years ago who lost like 250 pounds with diet pills and then got cancer because of them...which you know, also helped with the weight loss, but probably not in the way he was anticipating. He beat it, by the way...

Apparently, I've been very triggered by weight things recently. I just think that as a society, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as well as others when their weight isn't what it should be. We make judgements right off the bat when we see someone who's overweight or obese. I don't think we should be defined by a number. That being said, I understand how weight can cause all types of health problems, so I'm glad that some of the doctors I'm working with are counseling people on how to be healthier, but until you've lived it, I have a hard time listening to what they're saying.

Moving on...here are some pics of some recent eats. Not pictured is the stupid pizza I ate last night. I had a groupon that cost me $10 and allowed me to have $20 of pizza, which is a lot of pizza for one person, but I figured I could freeze it or save it for later. So, I ordered two medium pizzas and went to pick it up and was told my groupon was for dine-in only. I was like "Oh. I didn't realize that. Can you tell me where it says that?" The cashier said, "Well, the groupon says at, not from." Oh. Now that's crystal clear. Ughs. So, basically I ended up paying full price for pizza that I wouldn't have ordered had I known I was going to be paying for in total. Duuuumb. But anywho, I didn't take a picture of it and as it's in the freezer right now, you won't be getting a picture of it until I take it out to eat again.

My standard breakfast from last week

Tacos - such an easy meal. And I'm lazy. So I ate them like 3 times last week...

My go to breakfast when I want to sleep in for 15-20 minutes

Today's lunch after I botched making clam chowder...

Today's dinner: crab and dill shrimp (made by meijer, cooked by me) with some beans and potatoes

Fruit protein smoothie for dessert because dinner didn't fill me up

And for good measure, here's a picture of Bailers. He's 9 now. I'm not sure exactly when his birthday is since I adopted/inherited him when he was 6, but he got some wet cat food to celebrate. He has no idea why. It's mostly because it was on sale. And because occasionally I have a soft spot for the little guy.

So pensive

I'm doing a weigh-in tomorrow. My goal was 3 pounds this week. Not too sure I made it. But, we'll see!