Monday surprise

It truly amazes me when I start a day off with one perspective and see it come to an end in an entirely different light. After spending such a great, relaxing, work-free weekend, I was dreading 8:45am this morning when I'd have to leave for work. Lately things have been so stressful and tense there, and every time my boss crosses the threshold you can cut the atmosphere with a knife. This past Friday, as has been the case for several weeks now, the work week ended with yet another huge argument between my boss and Cristina, his main secretary. Thankfully I had our pastor's surprise party to distract my thoughts when I left the office, but even still I was really overwhelmed when I left work that day, desperate to find a way out.
This morning, almost immediately after coming into work the two of them went at it again, only this time Cristina cut the argument short by getting up and walking out for good, leaving behind a sea of unfinished work to be sorted out and deciphered. However, the chaos that I was expecting would result from her abrupt departure miraculously never came. Granted, the rest of us had to work double to try to start getting things organized again, but in the midst of it all there was a sense of calm and, dare I say, unity between the three of us to get things done. I actually stayed a half hour later to finish up some extra work because I wanted to and not because I begrudgingly felt compelled to hang around.

I got along well with Cristina, and I find it very unfortunate that she and the boss were'nt able to work out their differences in a more amicable way. However, whether she wanted to be or not, I think that Cristina was actually a part of the problem in the office. With her absence, a new leaf has been turned over there and I think we'll all end up being a lot happier.

Regardless of all that though, I'm still aggressively looking for a new job!

I spent a quiet, relaxing birthday with my husband and his family yesterday and had a great time. I got some very nice gifts and Chechu and I also went out to dinner at one of my favorite American restaurants here in Almeria. Before dinner we went to play a couple rounds of pool-- I'm starting to get good at it! I made some shots that actually surprised me!

Chechu's best friend Angel is in town for the week and tomorrrow he'll be coming over for lunch with us. Some soul food requests have been made, hehe, but I plan to do my best to keep everything low-fat and healthy. Today I stuck with protein and vegetables for my main meal, and I made myself a low-fat banana smoothie for dinner. Amazing. I'm still reading up on the SBD since I wasn't able to get through it all over the weekend. It definitely looks like it could be a good fit. Some of the foods and recipes I'll have to tweak a little bit since some products are different here in Spain. But for the most part we should be able to do it without a problem.

Looking forward to working out tomorrow morning!

Saturday In The Park..

.. what a great summer song that is. Could I be anymore nostalgic at this point? Hehe..

The birthday party last night was indeed a lot of fun. I focused more on enjoying everyone's company than eyeing the food and, all things considered, I behaved myself very well-- I had only a couple pieces of barbecue and a teeny-tiny slice of cake which, in all honesty, wasn't all that. Cakes here in Europe are a lot different than what I'm used to. I mean, they're great and all, but they definitely lack the thick, sugar-laden icing goodness that I love.. When my sister and I would get together with one of our cousins during our college years we would go out to the grocery store and buy birthday cakes from the bakery just to have for dessert. Ah, the memories!

For most of the day today I'll be hanging out here at the apartment by myself. Chechu left out super early this morning to go up to Granada for another worship team rehearsal at the church and won't be back until later this afternoon sometime. My original plan was to stay up when he left out this morning, but at 6:45am on a Saturday I was physically unable to get out of bed. Instead I got up around 9 and I've been working ever since. I stumbled across an article last night on cnn.com about how to make more use of your time, and one of the suggestions it offered was to prioritize your to-do list, separating what you have to get done and what you'd like to finish on a particular day. I'm all about making lists and I feel so much more productive outlining on paper the specific tasks that I have to do, but it's frustrating when I'm not able to cross off every single item at the end of the day. So today I've started to put this new priority method into practice and I think it'll be helpful in eliminating stress in a lot of ways.

Tomorrow is my birthday! I think Chechu's got a few surprises planned for me :) We have church in the morning and afterward we'll be going over to his grandmother's house for lunch since tomorrow happens to be her birthday too! All in all, I'm looking forward to spending time with everyone. I definitely wish my sister were here, but we've already made plans to spend our 29th and definitely our 30th together! :)

I'm going to start reading the South Beach Diet today. I think this could definitely be a good option for Chechu and me to get started with.

It's crazy to see how fast this summer is flying by-- this is the last weekend of July! This time last year Chechu and I were running around getting all of our documents in order for the wedding and now we're just about two months shy of our one-year anniversary. Crazy how fast the time goes when you're having fun :)

I hope to get a more detailed post in tomorrow since I'll have practically the entire day to myself. As for the rest of today I'm looking forward to getting through these last four hours of work that await me after my break, and then we have a birthday party to go to tonight which should be fun. >:)

Winds of change..

Part One: The Truth

As I've alluded to in previous posts, I've been ignoring practically everything diet-related for the past, oh, two months or so give or take the few days that I managed to work out and stay on track while my husband was away on business. I've avoided the scale at all costs because, frankly, I've been too scared to come face to face with reality. Instead, I've been eating what I want when I want and not bothering to do any form of exercise. This has got to stop. I definitely feel as though I've come to a crossroad in this journey and as of today, July 19th at 8:45PM, I'm making the commitment to get back on track. Period.

222.6. (+5lbs since last official weigh in)

According to my scale, that is what I weigh at this very moment. After mustering up the courage to finally step on, I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised to see such a "low" number considering all the crap I've been eating lately, including today. I haven't been taking care of me, and I am putting an end to this carelessness effective immediately. I'm determined to win this battle.

Part Two: The Purpose

I hate being fat. I hate constantly comparing myself to other women and being painfully aware that within my circle of friends I'm the only one with a weight problem. For as easy as it is to remind others of the contrary, I hate the constant struggle of feeling like my weight is what determines my self-worth. I hate all the undue stress (physical and mental) that being overweight is causing me. I want to be free from all of this, and ironically enough, that is a decision that starts with me.

This has been another rough week all around. Work, up until the other day, has been nothing short of a circus, I got another scathing you-don't-call-home-enough email from my Mom yesterday, diet and exercise have been CRAP all week long, I'm in sore need of a vacation and my incessant irritability tells me that my faithful friend PMS has decided to drop by for a visit. Nevertheless, tomorrow is Friday and I'm looking forward the mini break.

I'm turning 28 in one week and three days. I really wish I could spend this time with my twin sister-- it's hard to believe that we haven't hung out together to celebrate our birthday since our 25th, and even then I think we were too stressed out about starting grad school to really enjoy ourselves. I'm praying that this time next year either she and her future husband will be able to come out here or that we'll be able to make the trip out there to celebrate.
Chechu wanted to throw me another birthday party this year, but I think we'll just plan to have a more intimate celebration instead since everyone at the church is planning a surprise party for one of the pastors whose birthday falls two days before mine. I'm not trying to steal anyone's thunder, and besides, I'd much rather have a romantic dinner with Chechu anyway.

Rainy days and Mondays...

The skies have since cleared up from this morning when I left out for work in the middle of a thunderstorm. I was kind of hoping the weather would stay that way today-- theres's something about summer storms that I find ironically peaceful. Nevertheless, at this point the sun has fully come out and there's no cloud in sight. I suppose I can put up with another sunny day ;)

Things at work are going okay today. The Friday from hell had us all running away from the office last week, and I think I can speak for all of us in saying that no one was exactly looking forward to seeing each other's faces at 9am this morning. I sure as hell wasn't. But, thankfully, the morning shift has quickly come and gone without to many hassles. I've got four more hours to look forward to this afternoon that will hopefully go by just as fast and problem-free.

The weekend was good- short as always but we had fun. On Friday night we went to the movies to see The Happenning which I thought was ok. Some things didn't tie together in the end, but all in all it wasn't horrible. At some point this week we plan to go see The Chronicles of Narnia which I'm looking forward to. Saturday we spent almost the whole day with an ex-coworker of Chechu's who came over with his girlfriend to have lunch with us. We ended up hanging out for the entire afternoon and had a great time. At their request I made pork ribs and cheddar-bacon potatoes. Rave reviews on that :) Yesterday was church in the morning and Granada in the afternoon.

I'm hoping this week goes by fast.

So much for the breather..

It's just about 1pm here and I suppose I could be stressed out about all the unexpected crap that has come up this morning at my hugely dysfunctional and disorganized job. However, it's Friday and I'm already in weekend mode. Obviously with everything going on today it's not very likely that we'll get out of the office early, but I do know that come 8PM, sí o sí, I'm done for the day!

I worked out this morning! YES!! 40 minutes of sweat-pouring cardio. :)

Finally a breather

This morning at the office is actually going by very smoothly. The past few days have been long and intense, and thankfully the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to shine through. I can finally see my weekend blank canvas coming into view!

I'm feeling really good this morning. I spoke briefly with my MIL before leaving the house, which was really nice. She's been concerned about me spending these four days by myself, and she's called me every day to check on me and make sure I'm all right. What a sweetheart. :) I definitely feel very blessed to get along so well with my husband's family and to really feel like I belong with them. Lord knows there are plenty of insufferable inlaws out there.

Chechu gets home in less than two hours!! Yay!!

In other unrelated news, I've been feeling some baby pressure as of late. Everyone, and I mean everyone from our church is constantly asking about when we're going to start having kids. To a certain degree I don't mind the questions because, frankly, we'll have children when God decides to give them to us. But it can get somewhat tiresome when the baby questions come up in every conversation. As of lately there have been a lot of newlywed couples who've gotten pregnant and apparently my BIL's wife and I are the ones everyone is looking to next. I definitely want to have children, but right now my focus is on getting healthy for me so that I can be a healthy mom to our children when that time comes.

Anyone else out there thinking of starting a family soon?

Mission Accomplished

So tomorrow marks the end of my Chechu-less four days--I'm pleasantly suprised that this week has gone by so fast. He'll be home tomorrow by the time I finish my morning shift at work, and I'm definitely looking forward to coming back to a complete house. From what he's said over the phone, the conference has been a great experience for him and he was able to make some contacts with other religious education teachers from other parts of Spain as well. So, all in all, what initially seemed like it was going to be a real drag has turned out to be a worthwhile investment-- we're already talking about making plans to attend next year's conference together.

Diet-wise things have continued to go very well this week. Unfortunately I missed my workout this morning-- I woke up on time but was waay too sore to think about working out. Surely my body is getting accustomed to exercise again since after nearly two months of not exercising my muscles are a wee bit rusty. As for my food intake, I purposely have consumed a lower amount of calories than normal this week so as to jumpstart my getting-back-on-the-wagon plan. As of tomorrow I'll be getting back into my normal routine but continuing to focus on smaller portions and getting in enough fruit and vegetables to fill me up.

Él es mi paz
Se ha llevado todos mis temores
Él es mi paz, Él es mi paz

Echo toda mi ansiedad sobre Él
Pues Él se cuida de mí
Él es mi paz, Él es mi paz

Totally emotional over this song right now and how true it is and has been in every moment of my life. God is so amazing.

Mid-week is fast approaching, thank goodness. The past few days have been quite long at work, and, according to the plan, we're putting in extra time at the start of the week so that by Friday we can have a minimal workload and get out of the office early. Here's hoping that actually happens!

I'm actually getting through my alone time better than I thought I would. Last night after prayer I ended up hanging out with my MIL- we went to dinner (we split a salad and a piece of strawberry cheesecake) and since we stayed out kind of late she slept over and headed back out to Almería this morning. Tonight I plan to talk with my mama and then get a few house cleaning chores done before bed, so I've definitely got my time occupied.

My exercise challenge thus far has been going very well. I worked out yesterday and today for 45 minutes. Tomorrow I'd like to get in a morning workout before heading out to the office and the same goes for Thursday morning. I've been filling up on fruits and vegetables over the past couple of days as well. Overall I'm really please with how I've been sticking to my goals, and I'm confident that this week will be the jump-start I need to finally get back into the swing of things.

Exercise challenge

So this upcoming week has been the one that I've least looked forward to this entire summer. My husband left this evening for a teacher's conference near Madrid and won't be back until Thursday.. Poo. Initially the plan was for him to get up early tomorrow morning and leave out by 7am to make sure he was at the conference by the 11am start, but we later decided that the better option would be to head up this evening and spend the night at his grandmother's house, located fairly close to where the conference is being held. The activities conclude Wednesday evening, but rather than making the long drive back home that night he'll be staying over at his gram's again and leave out Thursday morning.

Although we've had a great weekend together, knowing he was going to be leaving tonight kind of put a damper on my mood. The two of us have grown more attached to each other than we've ever been since we got married last year, and when he's not here there's a part of me that's missing too. I seriously started to cry as I watched him pull away!

Nevertheless, I intend to make the most of the four days ahead of me. I've got some summer cleaning projects I want to finish up and, more importantly, I really want to jump-start my exercise plan. My goal is to journal and exercise every day this week, keeping track of my eating and exercise.

Here's to the start of a new week!