FMS Photo a Day - Days 10-16 - and a busy, busy day!

I am finally back on a laptop and able to do things that I wanted to do all week.  First up - an update of all my awesome pictures for the FMS Photo a Day.

10. Black and White

11. Hero

12. Together

13. Table

14. Favorite 

15. First Thing You See

16. Strange

This challenge has been a blast for me! Some of the prompts I've REALLLLY had to think about to come up with something that wasn't just another cat picture.  

I'm excited to be back up and running with a new laptop to get stuff done on.  It's not the spiffy, bad ass, super expensive MacBook Pro that I wanted but this little Toshiba has some serious get up and go.  Not a bad way to spend 300$.  The piece of mind alone was worth it, I think.

Today is also a day for getting stuff accomplished.  Last night I started a crock pot bean and veggie stew and this morning I got up and started a crock pot steak and potato stew.  The bean and veggie will be lunch and the steak and potato stew is for dinner.  Left overs will be what I nom on for the three days I'm at work this week.

For the next few hours, I'm putting together stuff for Zumbatomic this afternoon, working on marketing for ZA classes and general Zumba and making sure I have my ducks in a row for Fitbloggin this week!  

I'm pondering things for an upcoming Zumbathon and working on new choreography. Also, checking my work email. Also, also, finishing up the debloating and securing of my new system.  I was able to repurpose the hard drive out of my old computer and toss it in to an enclosure to be my backup hard drive.  Score!

After ZA and my regular Zumba class today, I'm coming home to chill and watch football!

I've been up since 8am... on a Sunday... the apocalypse may be coming.  Just saying.

Zumbatomic, bad decisions, FMS Photos!

First off - today was THE DAY - I taught my first Zumbatomic class. It was SOOOOOOO fun! It was me and 5 little ladies.  We danced.  We laughed.  They showed me their mad dancing and tumbling skills. I was overjoyed.  The parental performance went SO well! They were a joy.  It was a joy. 

Thursday and Friday were, however, days of bad decisions. And yet, still full of good things.

Thursday I didn't eat nearly enough.  Then I went and taught about 2.5 hours of Zumba.  I paid for this on Friday. Migraine, dehydrated, exhausted, fuzzy headed.  I still managed to get a ton done at work but in doing so I didn't eat nearly enough during the work day and then ate a HUGE dinner.  I finally normalized on Saturday and today was a great day for nutrition.

I will be more careful in the future.

Friday night I got to dance with Mrs.Fatass at the First Friday event here in town.  We did 3 Zumba songs and talked to perspective students.  It was a blast.

Saturday I vegged after class with Sarah and then went hog wild on movies from Redbox.  On the menu?

We Need to Talk About Kevin -  chilling.  haunting.  beautiful. utterly depressing but I'm glad I watched it.
Man on a Ledge - very fun.  I like the review that called it Oceans 11 meets Mission Impossible.  Pretty apt.
Silent House - pretty much your standard cabin in the woods thriller.  I loved some of the cinematography though.  Very cool choices.

Still to watch? Intruders and Identical. I have a problem... I love these weird horror/thriller/suspense films.  They're so good even when they're bad!!

Next weekend I'll try to watch something not so dark. Maybe something animated and involving cute anthropomorphic animals!

Now for my Fat Mum Slim Photo a Day pics. I'm having so much fun with this!!

6. Every day

7. Natural

8. Night

9.  Something you do most weekends

Pictures. Nutritionist. Celebration.

3. Far Away

4. In your mailbox

5. Bright

Today I saw my nutritionist and I've lost 23 pounds since I last saw her.  I'm still 4 pounds shy of being able to say 200 pounds.  SOOOOOOON!

I'm just gleeful that I'm really seeing results - even if they're slow.

I'm so glad I gave my scale away.  I need to hop on it maybe once a month to check my body fat % and muscle mass but otherwise I think I'm only going to weigh in at the doctors. 

So many good things going on this week.  I can't wait to have time to write about it more in depth. 

I'm working on editing a post for submission to the amazing Girl Body Pride blog.  It's been taking a lot of my thought time lately.  Trying to get my message in to 500 words or less.  Woof!

Father - bah humbug.

2. Father

Every other idea I had for today was too depressing to capture. 

So here's my "father" submission.  My beloved Robin snuggled up to me, demanding attention and trying to nurse on my tummy.  Robin is my baby, he think I'm both his mother and his father.  I bottle fed him when he was small enough to fit in my hand.  Now he weighs 30+ pounds and still comes to me for comfort and love. Cats are the best.

I fully admit that I still have daddy issues.  It took a long time, quite a bit of therapy, and years of healing to be able to talk about my biological father without being angry or sad to the point of tears.

The fact is, not all of us are lucky enough to have a father figure worth applauding.

Mine was a drunk who liked to tell me how worthless I was and made me feel like trash no matter what awesome things I accomplished.  He's the one who picked his drinking and his mistress over me, my brother and my sister.  He's the one who decided we weren't worth fighting for.  And now, he's the one who is trying, after 15+ years of being absent, to "keep in touch" via Facebook.

I accidentally did accept his friend request and immediately removed it.  He messaged me and said he heard I was doing well with my career.  Too bad I don't need his approval now... when I was 13 I did but now I could care less if he's proud of me or not.

It feels bad to be so cold about it.  I know there are many people who love to have their fathers back in their lives and think I'm a fool for not taking this chance to reconnect.  I've had to think about it a lot lately and I know I'm making the right decision. 

I am choosing to hold close to me the family I've chosen rather than those who are tied to me only by genetics.  I'm choosing the people who have been there for me in the good times and the bad.  I'm choosing love over duty. 

Now that I've been all serious... here's another cute cat picture for the happy thoughts.

September Challenges

So, first things first - September Photo a Day Challenge.  Mrs. Fatass is doing it and I'm a follower so I'm doing it too. 

1. You, now

Other challenges for the month?  Continue on my streak of packing lunch at least 4 days a week.  I am trying REALLY hard to stick to this.  Partly for the financial reasons and partly for the health reasons. 

Also do one designated upper body exercise every day.  Pushups.  Tricep dips.  Tricep kicks.  Bicep curls. Flys. Bench presses.  Something.  I have a little over a month until Sentao training and I want to be able to do at least SOME of the upper body moves in the class.  It's going to be a struggle but I'll push it.

Tomorrow I will FINALLY stop putting it off and do my measurements.  I gave Matt my scale and haven't weighed myself in a little over 2 weeks.  I see the nutritionist on Wednesday so I'll know my weight then.  So nervous!