So, I’ve needed new jeans for about a month and a half. I’ve been rotating between THREE PAIR and trying to dress them up in different ways to not make it looks like I only had THREE PAIR and I was quickly beginning to think that the people at work assume I live out of the trunk of my car. Or a cardboard box. Either way.

The problem is that, we really don’t have the money for me to go and buy new jeans right now, especially since (HOPEFULLY) in another two months when I’m done with P90X, I’ll need MORE jeans. Then today I remembered a friend mentioning The Goodwill the other day and was like DUH! I’ve gotten jeans there before because, HELLO CHEAP! I totally rock The Goodwill jeans.

ANYWAY! I’ve been telling myself for at least a week now that I have a LOT OF JEANS, I just need to go through and try them on and for sure before I go and BUY anymore. But… there was a big part of me that KNEW I’d be disappointed at all the pairs I couldn’t fit into yet so I’ve been making excuses EVERY DAY.

Then today, when I got out of a bath after a pretty intense Plymometrics workout, I looked over at my THREE PAIR of jeans laying on the floor and went to pick them up to put them in the wash and was like FUCK THIS, I’M TIRED OF THESE JEANS. So I started pulling out pairs of jeans and tried EVERY SINGLE PAIR ON. Here is how it went.

8 pair – still too small
6 pair – FIT! But have holes or are inappropriate for work, but will make GREAT weekend/yard working jeans
3 pair – entirely too big
9 pair – FIT PERFECTLY!

NINE PAIR! I HAVE NINE PAIRS OF JEANS THAT FIT!

NINE!

So when Ben called to me for some reason I came bounding out of the room:

Me: GUESS WHAT!? ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!?
Ben: Yes, I am listening to you.
Me: So, I was totally going to go shopping for new jeans but told myself I HAD to try all my jeans on BEFORE I went so I did and GUESS WHAT?!
Ben: You have jeans that fit?
Me: (All in one breath) NINE PAIR! AND THREE ARE TOO BIG AND SIX FIT BUT HAVE HOLES AND EIGHT ARE TOO SMALL BUT NINE PAIR FIT!
Ben: You have 26 PAIRS OF JEANS?!
Me: Shit.
Ben: TWENTY SIX PAIRS. OF. JEANS!
Me: I’ll be down to watch Lost in a second! I LOVE YOU OKAY BYE!

Cardinal Rule of Wifehood: Never admit to the number of shoes, purses, eye shadows or jeans you own. The poor men just can’t handle it.

Seriously though, after he got past the initial shock, he congratulated me and told me how proud he was and really, I am so proud of MYSELF. Even though I’ve been doing P90X for two 15 days now, until today I hadn’t lost any weight. I know I’ve gained muscle because I can see it, so I know I’ve lost fat because I’m not GAINING weight but actual pounds had not come off yet. Then yesterday I mentioned it on my P90X blog and this morning, BAM!

THE POUND. The pound I’ve been waiting to see for two weeks so I can finally officially say: I have lost 40 pounds.

I feel SO GOOD. I feel STRONG. I feel FIT. I feel like my lungs are bigger, my heart is stronger and my endurance is sky high.

I owe huge, gigantic, TOTALLY BIG thank you’s to two very important people:

Ben. Who has supported and encouraged me every single step of the way. He has been tough on me when I needed it and sensitive when I really needed a break. There is no way that I could have done this without the constant support and encouragement from my husband. And I know how hard it is for him to sit there and WATCH but not be able to DO since he’s pretty much stuck on the couch till his back surgery on the 15th of this month. To be able to stay upbeat and positive and supportive while he’s been down is a BIG DEAL to me. Thank you, honey.

And!

Julie. Who’s own transformation is just… AMAZING. I’ve known Julie for a LONG time. I got to hold her 1st baby the day he was born, I was there to watch her walk down the isle, and even though I’m a hippy liberal SHE STILL LIKES ME! What she’s given to me in a healthy body, mind and spirit is more than I ever expected. She makes me laugh pretty much every day and keeps me motivated to PUSH PLAY and BRING IT! Thank you, Julie!

Women usually love what they buy, yet hate two-thirds of what is in their closets. is a post from: aflux.net

I know that some of you have been asking me WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU YOU!? And the answer is here: http://health.aflux.net/

I started P90X 11 days ago. The first day I threw up, a few days later I laid in the floor wondered WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING, then yesterday I wanted to punch a wall because this is HARD.

Also, it’s been pretty much the most awesome thing ever. I’m sleeping better, have more energy, I can SEE muscle growing which means fat MUST be disappearing because my weight has stayed the same!

So, no, I’m not abandoning aflux. And yes, I do still have a life outside of working out but time has become a precious commodity and once I have a better balance down I’ll be back here again. I miss blogging and all your comments and ALL OF YOU. Like OHMYGOSH so much.

*flex* is a post from: aflux.net

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile. A purge. Then things like the earthquake in Haiti happen, or you read a particularly moving piece about a homeless person, or you see a friend lose a beloved pet, or you see two friends lose them… and it makes even more sense.

I have all these things, these material things that sit unused on shelves, or tucked into little corners of the house or shoved under the seat in my car. Thousands of dollars worth of THINGS. Unused, uncared about, unnoticed and completely unnecessary. Last weekend, on a whim, I ransacked my closet and got rid of anything I couldn’t remember having worn in a year. There was a lot more I could have gotten rid of, but, baby steps. Then I made Cassidy do the same thing and she got rid of more than I did. Off to the Goodwill it all went. I always have Cassidy go with me when I donate stuff. I think it’s important that people she be a part of that. I did some searching the other day though and found a battered women’s shelter in a nearby town so this weekend, when I do another purge, that’s where we’ll be taking them all.

Then I’m going to move onto some of the big ticket items. I realized on a daily basis I carry around about $2300 worth or stuff between the purse, DSLR + accessories, Flip, iPhone, etc. It’s silly. But, unfortunately it’s all stuff I’d feel lost without. The spare iPhone that’s been sitting there unused for a year, the two Window’s smart phones, the HD mini camcorder… not so much! I don’t need five Coach purses, I don’t need 10 pairs of black strappy heels, I just don’t. So I’m going to start getting rid of these things. Sell some on Ebay, Craigslist, some of it I’ll just give away. We could use the money right now for sure, bit good karma can be just as important.

There is so much more though. The guest bedroom is full of boxes we haven’t unpacked since we moved a year and a half ago! THINGS! I haven’t used my desktop for anything other than data storage and a print server in over a year. THINGS! We have a cat house that the cat’s haven’t cared about just sitting there (although, moving it upstairs where they always are might help), extra dog crates, the list just goes on and on and on.

After The Purge, The Decorating will once again commence. Looking at Brittney’s pretty pictures of her house inspired me. The clean, uncluttered, pretties are what I want in a home. Keyword: UNCLUTTERED.

I can’t wait. And of course, I’ll take lots of pictures along the way.

Purge is a post from: aflux.net

I promised in a past post that I’d update you all on this weight loss thing and how it’s going. So here we go.

I’ve lost 31.5 pounds and 10% body fat. That’s a lot of fat. The last time I was at the gym I picked up a 30 pound weight just to see what it felt like and my body goaned and my heart skipped and my head exploded. 30 pounds is HEAVY!

A lot of people in real life always dance around The Question. The “What did you weight to start” question. I’ve never really understood that. Like, why is The Weight Question something that people are so reluctant to answer? It’s a number. It doesn’t define your self worth. It doesn’t MEAN anything to anybody but the person answering the question. I think that most women are scared to answer it, especailly when a skinnier person is asking, because women are SO OBSESSED with that number. It’s like a competition. It’s not. Women, seriously, stop it. I’d rather be 140 pounds of lean muscle mass than 105 pounds of weak emaciated limbs. The Number has a different meaning for evey person and using it to gain some kind of psychological upper hand is lame and catty and why 81% of the female population bugs the shit out of me.

Last September, a few days before my birthday, I got on the scale for the first time in MONTHS AND MONTHS and expected to weight MAYBE 200 pounds. I weighed 230. My body groaned and my heart skipped a beat and my head exploded. It’s a general theme. That wasn’t even the worst part. Ben and I made the collective decision to Get Healthy so we went to the gym and I ran for two minutes and had to stop because I felt like I was going to FUCKING DIE RIGHT THERE OMG. I couldn’t believe how out of shape I was. I was ashamed and sad and SCARED.

Today, four months later I weigh 197.6 which is progress! But still around 40 pounds from where I think a healthy weight is for me. I’ll never be 120 pounds again and, honestly, I don’t ever want to be that tiny. I want muscles. I want strong powerful legs and biceps and CURVES. I don’t think I’d make a good skinny girl.

I feel better, my clothes fit better, I’m stronger, I’m a better me. It hasn’t been easy. When the first pounds come off you feel GREAT. You are MOTIVATED and AWESOME and YEAH! Then you hit a wall. I haven’t lost any weight in the last two weeks and I have to keep reminding myself that I’m STRONGER. I have muscles now that I didn’t have before but it’s still easy to fall into that little lull that leads back to The Quitting. I set a challenge for myself this week to do intense cardio every day. For me this will be TurboJam kicking my ass.

One of the hardest parts of this entire journey so far has been what I see as a personal defeat: The Running. I LOVE to run. I love the sound of my feet hitting the ground, the feeling of air deep down in my lungs, the empty mind as I focus on breathing and getting to my next goal. It’s therapeutic and I love it. I’ve come leaps and bounds from that first two minute run. Cardiovascularly, I think I could run MILES but my shins start to ache after the first mile. Like, BAD ACHE. Like, have consistent pain for the week following. Like, actually limp up and down stairs for the next three days. I can’t begin to explain how frustrating this is to me. I feel like I have failed. My body is failing me.

So here’s my plan. My final effort. I’m going to give this one last try force my body with all my might to shape the fuck up. I’m ordring some shin compression wraps as soon as I’m done posting this and as soon as they get here my run will look like this.

1) Wear compression wraps
2) 10 minute FAST walk to warm my muscles up.
3) 1 mile run at 5.5 MPH (I can go faster but I want a baby step here)
4) IMMEDIATELY ice. Like, get off the treadmill, stretch, drive home, ICE.
5) Aspirin!
6) See how I am the next day.

This is pretty much my last ditch effort. I can’t tell you how bad I want this to work. I just can’t.

Till then, the rest of this week will look like this:

Wednesday: TurboJam Cardio Party
Thursday: Core training at home on the ball with the medicine ball & AbJam
Friday: Gym (cardio and upper body. Have I mentioned I’m addicted to my new bicep muscles?)
Saturday: TurboJam Cardio Party
Sunday: Core training at home on the ball with the medicine ball & AbJam
Monday: Gym (cardio and upper body)

We’ll see how that goes. I want my legs to be completely rested (from weight training at least) when I go for that first run.

AND! Now I’ve gone on a lot longer than I meant to.

Night!

PS – I might start doing some videos they way Julie is. I love watching them and I like the idea of being 1) accountable, and 2) able to look back later and see the change in body and attitude.

PSS – Talk me out of getting a fourth tattoo. Seriously. It’s been on my mind a lot lately.

Either you run the day or the day runs you. is a post from: aflux.net

I’m sure if you are reading this on the internet, or have been near a TV or a radio or a newspaper or another human being in the last 24 hours you’ve heard about what happened in Haiti. I just spent part of my lunch reading the devastating stories of bodies piled up in front of buildings, people dying on the streets because there is no room in the hospitals and people searching fearfully for their missing loved ones.

I saw this link posted a few times on twitter and wanted to share it:

Six ways you can help in Haiti.

The comments are full of even more links and phone numbers you can use to help. Do something, please. If you can’t afford to contribute, repost this to your own blog, tweet it, add it to your facebook status, emial it to a friend, just get the word out.

Help Haiti is a post from: aflux.net

Ingredients:
1 4-6 pound whole chicken.
1 can of beer (you can use whatever beer you want but we use Modelo Especial)
Seasoning that you like

My dad made this for us when we were visiting at Christmas and it was SO GOOD I’ve made it twice since then. He BBQ’d his but I baked mine. Either is good.

For the seasoning I use garlic powder, Garlic Dude Dust and pepper. Just clean the chicken then dry it, season it, open the can of beer and dump 1/4 out, place the can in a roasting pan, push the chicken down onto the can using the legs to support it, then bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4-2 hours or until your thermometer reads at least 160 degrees.

I’m not even kidding, guys, this is SO easy to make. It’s like five minutes of prep then let it be. When it’s done I let it rest for about 10 minutes then cut it up. Although it’s so tender that you only have to cut the breasts off, the rest of the chicken will just fall apart. I pull all the skin off and set it aside to use when making chicken stock (will post that recipe soon!) and since the chicken cooks upright all the fat drains off and you are left with lean, flavorful, tender and juicy breasts. *giggle*

My dad made leeks and green beans to go with it so that’s what I made too. I took green beans, leeks, a tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper and Garlic Dude Dust and sauteed it till the green beans were cooked but firm and BAM! Complete meal.

I haven’t gotten the nutritional facts together for this yet but the only fat you end up eating is from the tablespoon of olive oil in the green beans and I made enough for 8 servings so even that fat is a pretty small amount. It’s just protein and green veggies and SO GOOD.

If you make it, let me know what you think, what you did differently or what you’d do to make it better.

Enjoy!

Beer Can Chicken is a post from: aflux.net

LISTS! Because, why not?

• I’ve lost a little over 30 pounds. Believe me, I have A LOT MORE TO SAY ABOUT IT and that will come soon but for now, go check out The Curvy Girl Vlogs over on YouTube. It’s a little group I’ve joined where we vlog once a week. A kind of support group. You can watch my most recent video blow:

• I’m going to start posting recipes and knitting projects and stuff here. I keep thinking that people will find that stuff boring but then I remember that it’s my blog so NEENER NEENER! Also, how could you possible find ME boring. Pfft.
• Britt, please don’t kill me. I AM POSTING!
• Work has been INSANE lately which is a big part of why I haven’t been posting as much. I WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK and then I come home and the LAST thing I want to do is try and conform some kind of coherent sentence. Or try to be entertaining. Or even THINK.
• Extreme Home Makeover makes me cry EVERY SINGLE TIME.
• I finished The Good Wife the other day at work and it was actually pretty good. Probably one of the better new shows I’ve been trying to catch up on. I have pretty much the same taste in TV as Miss Zoot so I’m just going to link to her recent post and you just need to go over and pretend I wrote it.
• I really want a MacBook Pro and have spent an amount of time I’m not willing to admit refreshing the Apple Refurbished site checking out the deals.
• I also want a 4th tattoo.
• I also want to eat a Fudgesicle so I think it’s time to wrap up this list and do just that!

Also, I will leave you with what I think is probably the most awesome picture I have ever taken. Ever. This gorilla and I bonded, we share a soul.

OH HAI! is a post from: aflux.net

This moron who ran a red light and killed somebody:

Some communities began installing cool-burning LEDs more than a decade ago, and it wasn’t long before drivers started complaining about the problem.

Illinois authorities said that during a storm in April, 34-year-old Lisa Richter could see she had a green light and began making a left turn. A driver coming from the opposite direction did not realize the stoplight was obscured by snow and plowed into Richter’s vehicle, killing her.

“Would the accident have occurred if the lights had been clear? I would be willing to bet not,” Oswego police Detective Rob Sherwood said.
(Full to MSNBC article: here)

You didn’t REALIZE it was OBSCURED BY SNOW!? I mean common sense: you didn’t LOOK AT IT! It’s not the snow’s fault you’re a moron.

This entire article is WTF worthy. You can’t blame a stoplight not working for causing accidents. You STOP, LOOK, THEN GO when you’re clear to. Heaven forbid we all start taking responsibility for our own actions.

And this concludes my premenstrual rant for the day.

And The Lame Excuse of the Year Award Goes To: is a post from: aflux.net

Kumo: NOM!

Danica: Oh yeah?!

Danica: I’ll bit your tail!

Kumo: I’ll bite your face!


Danica: YOU’RE GOING DOWN!

Kumo: AND YOU’RE GOING TO FLY!

Danica: Wait, what time is it? Isn’t it naptime?
Kumo: We woke up 15 minutes ago.
Danica: We’re 5 minutes late for naptime!
Kumo: *already snoring*

In 10 minutes or less. is a post from: aflux.net

We got Kumo a sister. We’ve wanted to get him a playmate for awhile now and had been looking at puppies and dogs online and decided last Saturday to drive to the Salinas shelter where we got Kumo just to look and see if we could find a puppy. We tried two other dogs first, a 10 month old Mastif and a tiny lab mix puppy. The Mastif was SO CUTE and already as big as Kumo but when we brought him into the pen next to where we had Kumo, he was REALLY aggressively barking and growling at Kumo. Then we tried the puppy which was a COMPLETE SPAZ and spent 10 minutes chewing anything that came within 10 feet of his mouth. And peeing. And barking.

Then we tried Danica and she came in the pen and crawled in between Ben’s legs and put on her cute face. And we were hooked. We introduced her to Kumo and they did pretty well together. There were two moments, one in the pen and one in the room before we left, where she got a bit snippy with Kumo but I think it was just because Kumo was really excited and once he got a little too close to her neutering incision. But the girl has spunk for sure, that was clear right away. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she ends up being the alpha even though we have taken steps like feeding him first, allowing him to walk in front of her and out the doors before her. But I just figure they’ll work it all out eventually.

We weren’t prepared to be bringing a puppy home THAT DAY but we had pretty much everything we needed left over from Kumo anyway. Crates, toys, bowl… all we needed was a NAME. When we adopted Kumo we had to wait four days for him to be microchipped, fixed and the last of his shots and it took the entire four days to come up with his name.

So on the way home we started throwing out names. We knew just from meeting her that it would have to be a strong, sassy female name. Ben threw out Danica right away and I liked it but we didn’t want to jump at the first name.

Me: What about Seven of Nine!
Ben: Well we’d have to call her Seven, not Seven of Nine.
Me: What about Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One.
Ben: *sigh*
Me: What?! I’m just throwing stuff out there!

And then Cassidy’s head exploded from the geek overdose. What can I say, I love my Star Trek.

We ended up going with Danica because it fits our theme. Our cat Hans’ full name is Hans Devise Stuck after the Hans Device, a racing neck brace, and Hans Stuck, a famous German race car driver. Kumo is named after the Kumho brand of racing tires. We dropped the ‘h’ so it would be easier for the kids in his Kindergarten class to spell his name.

So Danica just made sense.

So, blog friends, welcome our newest family member Danica Hirsch:

Introducing Danica is a post from: aflux.net