somethingintellectual:

People can be so single-minded.

hes trying people, whether or not you like it he is trying.  The last guy in office did a lot of shit people didnt like to.  Give him a chance if you dont like him when its time to vote again then dont vote for him.

My boy Thor fell asleep in our bed while chewing on his favorite bone.  Isnt he the cutest dog ever

Happy Hump Day

Farewell PeanutButter and Jelly.  Starting tomorrow I cannot have you for a whole week.  Starting tomorrow I cannot eat carbs for a whole week.  That includes PB&J.  I have eaten PB&J everyday for lunch since Kindergarten.  I love the stuff.  It is so good and crunchy (or creamy).  But I am supporting the Wifey and going on a cleanse diet.  Basically you have a protein shake for breakfast and lunch.  If you snack you have to eat cottage cheese or tuna.  I hate both of those so I have to find a replacement.  Then for dinner you can have Chicken Breast, Cornish Hen, Extra lean Ground turkey, haddock or Cod (Baked), Shrimp, Orange Roughy, Scallops with a veggie - Green beans, asparagus, broccoli, red peppers, tomatoes, mixed green veggies, mixed peppers and another cup of Oolong Tea.  It is going to be a very rough week I think.  Hopefully I can shed some weight off and get my body on a healthy track.  Good Luck to me

Every Monday There is Yoga with Jennifer.  I don’t know how to explain her but if i tried i would say she is an unconventional instructor.  When I think Yoga instructor I think calm, smooth, fluid and relaxed.  Jennifer has her own style.  She makes weird noises moving in between poses.  Not your heard breathing in and out but just awkward noises.  She tends to forget the names of poses when explaining to us only to remember them 5 seconds later when we are in a different pose.  She laughs once in a while during a pose.  But I think that makes he stand out a little and switch it up a bit for me.  The other enjoyable part of class with her is actually the old man that attends the class.  Every Monday he calls her a different name and she goes along with it.  They laugh about it and then he will get other people involved and start calling her by it and they get confused because her name isn’t what he is calling her.  Kind of a fun way to start off my Monday morning.  Sorry no funny poses to describe today, it was pretty basic today.

bananza:

Join me on a trip down memory lane… my weight loss journey throughout the years. Some of these stories and pics may be shocking. All of them are real.

The year is 1994. Behold, 14 year old Anne. This picture was taken in France, where I felt like the largest 14 year old (and typical fat American) the French had ever seen.

1999: I am pictured below with my high school boyfriend, Don. Our high school experience was this: skip school, eat McDonalds, smoke weed, drink, party, repeat. I barely graduated.

2000: After graduation I pretty much did lots of partying. In this next pic I was probably high on something, and getting up at 5am at someone else’s house to go directly to my first shift job (which I eventually got fired from) on 2 hours sleep. I had some luck with weight loss for about 3 months, and then I forgot that I cared about that and gained it all back, plus some.

2002: Look mom! I’m so coooool. I drink beer and I have money that I spend on beer and drugs! Let’s party!

2003: Here’s a shocking one. All the partying kind of caught up with me. I was depressed and lazy and couldn’t find a decent job. I’m at my highest weight in this pic: 238 (and there’s more of me hidden behind that wall!). Thanks, fourth meal!

2003: I’m pretty big here but at the time I didn’t care too much at this point. I frequently ate two big macs in one sitting.

2004: I decided to do something about it after Don (the high school bf) drove off into the sunset with his new girlfriend. I began to diet and exercise. I joined Weight Watchers. Eventually I was successful. I’m pictured below at about 180, with my cousin Lindsay.

2004: I got down to 142! I was SO thrilled to have lost so much weight in about a year. I was living with my cousin Jesse (pictured) and she endured me crying time after time about how frustrated I was. I was struggling to hold on to 142 with all my might. I tried not eating, I tried puking, I tried Overeaters Anonymous, I wrote down every morsel, I went out with friends and didn’t order anything, I binged all the time, and somehow, she was always there to listen and support. Looking back on it, thank God for Jesse reminding me that I’m normal and what I was feeling was okay and that I’m beautiful and loved no matter what. <3

2004: Woops, started gaining back already. I was really super-obsessed with losing weight, so much so that I dumped Julian (pictured) to ‘focus on my diet’. Yeah, really.

2005: Then I lost and gained over the next few years… down

2006: (pic-me and Kim trying on ‘Grandma clothes at Walmart’)… up

2007: Gaining a bit, but not enough to be too worried about it… (down? up? I stopped weighing myself, so I have no idea what I weighed in these)

2008: And gained more and more! Are you exhausted? I am!

2008: I began dating Tom in 2004 and he witnessed much of this yoyoing. He has been a wonderful support to me through all of it, loving me no matter what I weigh. He’s an amazing guy.

2008: My friend Kate made this purple dress for me for our friends wedding. When I saw it on the hanger when she was finished, I was in awe of how beautiful it was…  but I realized: That’s a LOT of fabric. Surely I’m not THAT big. I had to do something about it… But all I was doing was drowning it in drugs and alcohol.

2009: I FINALLY decided enough is enough and I started again. Only this time it was different. I wasn’t in it to ‘get skinny’ (thought that would be nice). I just wanted to be happy, and fit, and maybe run again. I quit drinking. I got a personal trainer. I surrounded myself with support. And I ran a marathon.

2010: Twitter helped me turn my life around. With encouragement from friends on Twitter and Dailymile, I lost nearly 100 lbs. I’m honest with you and I’m honest with myself. How much do I weigh? I don’t know. I don’t weigh myself anymore. But you can tell from the pictures below, I am HAPPY.

With my sisters Beth and Kim! I can hardly believe I can borrow clothes from them now :)

Finally fit into that LBD! Tom and I on our 5 year anniversary.

Here I am with my Twitter friends (note: I’m tweeting at a tweetup!)

First Wednesday Yoga session with Jessica since I first started.  I have had other things come up on Wednesday mornings and I have not been able to go.  There was a one on one training session with Correen, a trip to doggy day care for the dogs and then I was sick all week.  I was so excited to get back to this class for one reason.  Jessica makes me sweat like crazy.  She has a very much faster pace than the other two instructors.

Within the first 20 minutes my yoga mat was covered in sweat drops.  It was about 75 degrees in there, i cant imagine what i would look like in a Bikram Yoga class.  We really didn’t do a lot of more advance positions today.  It was a lot of plank pose work where we would be balancing on one leg and pointing to the sky or just moving through different warrior poses after each full breath.

We eventually slowed down with about 20 minutes left in class and I worked on my shoulder stand.  Jessica did want me to try one pose.  It is called The Crow.  By this time though my shoulders were tired and my core was shaking like crazy.  What she wanted me to do was to get in a plank pose and then bring my right or left knee to my corresponding elbow.  Then slowly lean forward with elbow bent a little and try to balance.  If you cant imagine  please look at this link.  We only had one leg in the other was straight back.  I couldn’t come close to this position.  This is something I will be trying though in the near future. I cannot wait for next Wednesday.

Photo by: yoga.about.com

After being out a week do to the cold I could not wait to get into yoga an stretch it out. We did a lot of downward facing dog, a lot of plank work, and a lot of fluid motions between warrior poses. it was everything I wanted in my first day back. The rest of the week is as follows: Tuesday is a 3 mile run, Wednesday is more Yoga with Jessica, Thursday is a bike ride of some kind and Friday is a rest day. Saturday is the big race day at Lake Geneva. To end my post I would just like to extend my heart out to my trainer at the Wisconsin Athletic Club Correen as she lost her mom. She was only 49 and had plenty of life left. Please keep her and her family in your hearts.

you suck, please let me know when you have been revised and are on the verizon network

thank you

somethingintellectual:

(via letterstodeadpeople)

one of my most favorite sayings