Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall...

My facebook status from this morning is what spurred today's entry.

I woke up this morning (20 minutes before my alarm), threw my new glasses on (and had temporary blindness by how clear everything is-- I'm still getting used to actually being able to see), and shuffled to the bathroom.

I grumbled to myself, because, to my dismay, the only pair of black stockings I could find were not my usual control-top, smash-everything-down-and-rearrange-my-organs-in-order-to-appear-thinner-while-not-being-comfortable-or-able-to-breathe-all-day stockings. These were a cute pair of patterned stockings that are decidedly not in control of anything in the way of stomach flattening or thigh smoothing. Begrudgingly, I put them on, and then my skirt, tank top, and over shirt. I hadn't worn the shirt in a while; in fact, it is a size medium. But it was the first thing I grabbed in the closet, and as long as I didn't look like a can of busted biscuits, I was wearing it.

When I looked at myself, now dressed, in the mirror, I did a double take.

I didn't see a Weeble staring back at me.

(This is a Weeble...more or less what I felt like I saw when I looked in the mirror).

For months, probably years, actually, I have looked in the mirror and seen a little round blob looking back.

Maybe the description "Weeble" isn't totally true- I am more top heavy than bottom heavy. An upside-down Weeble, perhaps? Anyway, I have longed for the day that I look in the mirror and see a person I'm not completely disgusted by looking back.

Today was that day.

Now, I don't know what caused this change of heart. Maybe it's because I'm having a good hair day (I am, actually, truly having a good hair day. I've gotten compliments all day). Maybe it's because I haven't worn this shirt in a while and I forgot how much I liked it. Maybe it's because my eyes are still adjusting to the way higher prescription in my new glasses, and they've decided to play a mean trick on me and make me feel slimmer (or maybe, alternatively, I am literally actually seeing what I really look like since I can see so much better).

Or, maybe it's because the steroids are out of my system so I no longer have the steroid bloat and can actually see what 7lbs of weight loss looks like.

Maybe...just maybe...my body image and perception of myself is changing, and I'm ready to be proud of my accomplishments. Seven pounds is nothing to scoff at, especially considering how sick I've been for the last two weeks. Seven pounds is 11% of the weight I want to lose-- GONE.

I looked in the mirror for a few minutes, trying to figure out how I looked so different. I definitely have less bloat- probably because I'm not on the steroids anymore and also because I have cut out sodas nearly entirely and am drinking around 124-132 oz of water a day. I feel like my stomach looks flatter, so I'm guessing most of the 7lbs was in belly fat/water retention (we'll see how true that is at the end of this month when I take my measurements again). My face looks a little thinner (probably also due to being off the steroids), too.

I'm very anxious to get back in the gym next week. I'm breathing a lot better but I still have some instances where I have coughing fits. I still am getting winded a little quicker, too, so I'm not totally over the bronchitis (but I'm far better than where I was two weeks ago). I'm planning on taking it slow next week and seeing how my lungs react to it and working myself back up.

Last night, I ordered the trifecta of top rated Jillian Michaels work-out DVDs. I scored a great deal on them with no tax and free shipping from Amazon. They'll be waiting on me probably Friday when I get home from work. I ordered 30 Day Shred, Banish Fat Boost Metabolism, and No More Trouble Zones. The plan with these is that I will start doing the 30 Day Shred in the mornings, before work, while L and JP are still asleep. I wanted to do something quick-ish (these are around 30 minutes) that was still challenging, and would help me start my day off by working up a sweat and getting my heart rate going. The other two DVDs are longer workouts (45-60 minutes) so I won't be doing them in the mornings (at least, not right away) but I will be popping them in on the weekends (when I typically don't go to the gym) and on days where I can't make it to the gym for whatever reason. The good thing about these, from what I read, is that they're really intense and high impact, but they don't require anything special at home (meaning, I don't have to go out and buy weights or straps or chin up bars, etc). Now that we have a tv in our bedroom and one in our living room, I can do the work-outs wherever it's convenient (the living room when L and JP are asleep, or the bedroom when they're awake so I don't cut into Kung-Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness time). I'm excited to try these out, and plan on giving some reviews of my own after I've done each for a little while.

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering how I fit this $20 into my budget...I had leftover Christmas money.

Maybe I'll look similar to this after doing those DVDs...we can hope/wish, right??

Speaking of using leftover Christmas money, we made two other purchases recently that will benefit our health.

If you're my friend on Facebook, you by now know I tried (and failed on an epic level) to make hummus a few days ago. I have no idea where I went wrong. Perhaps it was just a bad day in the kitchen. I don't know. But either way, I ruined the hummus, couldn't get my food processor to work, and burned up the motor in my blender. We drink a lot of fruit & veggie smoothies, so it was completely unacceptable to be without a blender.

So, my infomercial loving husband said "We need to get a Ninja." My non-infomercial loving self, did not concur until I A. read a ton of reviews praising the Ninja B. Looked up prices of blenders and juicers (and realized I would have to buy two separate pieces of counter-space hogging equipment to do the same thing that this one piece of equipment did) and C. Found it on sale for $20 cheaper at Wal-Mart.

And now we own a Ninja. And I admit, it is amazing.

It blends the smoothies much better than a regular blender. I don't know how, or why, but it does. I even made a Slim-Fast smoothie last night. I poured a bottle of my shake in there with a bunch of ice and it blended it to a frothy, milkshake like goodness. I'm a fan of the Ninja. We haven't used the juicing function yet, but I think we'll try it this weekend.

I'll be doing a recipe round-up blog in the next few days of some ah-may-zing smoothie recipes.

The second (smaller) purchase was a subscription to Clean Eating Magazine. I picked up the current issue at Kroger over the weekend to see what the fuss was about (and to find out how in depth the recipes were, and how wild the ingredients were). To my surprise, 95% of the recipes are 5 steps or less, very little difficulty to prepare, and require no "exotic" or hard to find ingredients. I have picked out five recipes (Chicken soup, Beef & Broccoli Rabe, Slow Cooker Roast with Risotto, Cincinnati Chili, and Pork Medallions with apples and barley) and made my shopping list. I'm really excited about making these dishes because they're healthy, full of awesome veggies, and make enough that we can eat on them all week for lunches and dinners. I can't wait.

I can't wait to report back to you all with those recipes (and pictures), too!!