Update / Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss

I'm sorry, I'm sorry...I'm awful at consistently blogging! But lucky for you..my life is fairly boring so it won't be hard to get you up to speed. On September twenty-seventh, "J" and I celebrated three years together! It's a weird, contradictory feeling....I feel like our first date was not that long ago, but at the same time it seems like I've been with him forever. In honor of the special day, we took a weekend trip to San Antonio! This is a really big deal for us because we've lived in Texas for well over a year and had never visited any city besides Houston.

Me & "J" - Picture from Oct 2010

San Antonio was aahhhhh-mazing! To be honest, we only took our "trip" there because of SeaWorld; Neither one of us thought we would fall in love with the city. We immediately noticed that it was a much different place than bustling Houston. Everyone is so much friendlier, it has a much nicer "vibe", and is actually really pretty. Unlike the bayou city, San Antonio actually has hills :o :o which makes for really pretty scenery! SeaWorld was a lot of fun (I got to feed and pet a dolphin), our hotel was awesome, and visiting the River Walk was really neat. As soon as we got home, we started looking at apartments and homes in SA. I think we are honestly going to move there as soon as I graduate.

Diet wise...I'll be honest, I haven't been making strides. The only thing I've been doing is taking Alli and trying to be slightly more conscious about what I'm eating. I've lost a couple of pounds, but it's been verrrryyy slow and nothing to be excited over. However, my doctor put me on prednisone last week and warned me that it can increase appetite and bloating. Perfect! Also, I don't think it'd be a good idea to take Alli with prednisone because it could decrease absorption. Lastly, my arthritis has been pretty bad recently and I don't see me being able to comfortably work out in the near future. For all of these reasons, I decided to get really serious about finding a weight loss plan that will work for me.

My sister told me about an intermittent fasting plan called the 5:2 diet. To put it simply, you choose two days out of the week that you will fast. On your "fasting days", you can eat up to 500 calories for women or 600 calories for men. On the other five days of the week, you can eat as your normally would. Weight loss from this diet plan is typically 1-3 lbs per week. It seemed like a really do-able plan for me because it is flexible and doesn't feel as "permanent" as a normal diet. What I mean by that is that you don't have to look at a cookie and think "Oh my God...I'll never be able to eat that on this diet". Instead, you can think "I can have that cookie tomorrow." Because of this, you're a lot less likely to cheat. I don't want what I just said to be misunderstood, so let me add this disclaimer...you are not supposed to binge on your regular days. Just eat your normal amount!

I've done one fasting day and one regular day so far. I ended up going over my calories slightly because I didn't plan appropriately. I ended up at 530 calories for the day. Although I was really disappointed in myself for going over, I was still insanely proud of myself that I could eat so little and still be fine. I've struggled to get down to 1200 calories a day for such a long time, so 530 calories is like a landslide victory!!! My next fast day is tomorrow and it should be a lot more successful since I've planned out exactly what to eat. Let me know if you guys are interested in this, and I'll keep you updated!

Flat Iron + Makeup = Friends

I've had a really hard time making friends as an adult. I've lived in Houston for over a year now and haven't made a single friend! As a woman, that's really depressing! I miss having a best friend who I can talk to about anything, go shopping with, try new restaurants with, etc. When Magic Mike came to theaters, I fully realized how badly I need/want a female friend. The only person I know here is my boyfriend! Although he is my best friend and loves me dearly, there is no way in hell he would pay $8.00 (or anything for that matter) to watch me and other women drool over Channing Tatum.

It got me thinking...why haven't I been able to meet friends here? It's not for a lack of trying. I've started convos with classmates only to receive a look as if they were thinking "why is this chick talking to me?" I joined a church group for college aged kids, and I just didn't "click" with anybody. Maybe I am too picky? I seriously try not to be. I'm willing to hang out with anybody who is nice and personable. I jut rarely run into anyone that is since I don't have a lot of outlets for meeting people; just my school (which is a commuter school), work (which is AT my school), or my church (which is huge).

I'm starting to think that my lack of friends is because of my image. I'm a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl, my hair is always up in a pony tail, and I wear the bare minimum amount of makeup. Maybe this is my negative self image speaking, but I think a lot of women would rather be friends with "pretty girls". It may sound stupid, but I really think it is true! My theory was sort of proven last weekend when I came to work with my hair and makeup done. As soon as I stepped in the office, everyone noticed and made a big deal about it. There's nothing really atypical about that considering they've probably only seen me with my hair done a handful of times. However, I started to notice that I was being treated differently by the women in the office as well.

Two of the girls in the office were at the front, separated from the rest of the workers. I would consider them to be the popular girls of the office. They are well liked and get a lot of attention from the guys who walk past the window. They are always nice to me, but on Saturday...they were especially nice. They asked me to come up to the front and sit with them. This is going to sound stupid, but that's sort of equivalent to being asked to sit with the Plastic's (Mean Girls) at lunch. Total exaggeration (lmao) and that sounds ridiculous, but I don't really know how to get my point across without making a juvenile association like that. I have to assume that it was because I looked pretty that day, but hey....correlation is not necessarily causation.

I am going to try to put more of an effort into my looks, but not to find friends. I honestly don't want to be friends with somebody who only wants to be around me because I dress nice and look pretty. I just want to look good for my boyfriend. Well, sort of for myself. When we first started dating, I was skinny, always did my hair, and felt gorgeous. Three years later, we live together and I always look frumpy. I want to feel "sexy" again and get stared at by men when we go out like I used to! My boyfriend thinks I am beautiful, which is validation enough, but getting hit on or stared at just makes you feel good about yourself sometimes. Ya know?