84 Days to Go: the past 20 or so in a nutshell (brace yourselves it's a long one)

Well hello strangers! How's it hangin? (and by it I mean all that loose skin that use to be filled with fat? Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about)

Boys and girls it has been a very eventful 24 days since we have last spoken! Can you believe it's been that long? For ease of reading lets use bullet points, shall we?

Where to start where to start... let's begin at the begining.

• I started work on my BFA this month and I think I've found a substitute for eating... oil paining. More expensive, completely absorbing, but much better for my waistline I must say. Last week I went to the studio after class and before I knew it 4 hours had gone by without so much as a trip to the nearby vending machine.

• I've also started packing my lunch, which has involved meal planning, which has lead to less hunger more and weight loss. Simple win.

• Antoine and I have discovered that our insurance covers Weight Watchers, provided we make progress and submit a monthly report. So we have joined for the second time (for him) and forth time (for me). I must say the Points Plus program is more awesome than I ever thought it would be, and 1,000 times better than the old system. It's more inline with what we were trying to adapt it to be for ourselves, but easier because there's a slew of people backing it up. I love the group support. Every time we have failed on weight watchers it was when we stopped going to the meetings, so that kind of group dynamic is really important to us.

• It's really great that our insurance (which is through Antoine) covers Weight Watchers right? Yeah we though so too. And then he got laid off. GASP. I know. On the bright side, he despised that job. So much so, that he had been actively looking for another one and had already set up an interview before he got laid off. So no worries. I frequently referred to that job as "sucking the life out of him" and these 111 days are all about getting our lives back, so little did they know, they did us a real favor. :)

• Now that my hubby is unemployed he has lots of time to work out and love on me and walk the puppy and it has made for a very lovely household. I'm going to enjoy this while we can and not go into panic stricken death mode because that's not really productive for anyone now is it?

• Babies are a funny thing. From the very day (and I do mean same day) you get married, people start asking you when you will have a baby. And you smile and nod and say "not just yet" to the first ten thousand or so people who ask you. And then you get defensive and start naming off all of the things you want to do and places you want to see before you have a baby, in the same fashion that you do when you've been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Then somewhere around three years of marriage (right when people start to think something must be wrong with you reproductively) you get to a comfortable state with each other and with your lives together and you think, "hey we could totally do this and not lose our selves in the process". Well that's where we are. So within the next year we would like to start trying to make some babies. Of course this realization hit us when we had a steady income and health insurance, but hey that's only temporary right?

• Keeping in line with my goals list, I have yet to join a group fitness class. However the other day the local Groupon (and if you don't Groupon you must) was $24 for 24 classes at a local yoga studio, a $285 value! I snapped up two and my friend Laura and I are off to our very first class tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

• In the spirit of increasing my activity level I have tried to make smarter choices since my schedule doesn't allow me to go the the gym as much as I'd like. At school, I park in a ridiculously far parking structure and (if I'm on the first 3 floors) I take the stairs. I try to take the stairs as much as possible in other buildings, I always take them down, but only take them up depending on what I'm carrying and how bitchy I am that day about my walk from the parking structure. :)

• I'm trying my best to be less connected with technology. I even ordered a new phone to ditch the Blackberry... it's been sitting on my night stand for 3 days. I'll let you know how that one plays out.

• I jogged/walked a mile in 17:42 today. I know I'm not setting any records here but considering I jogged about 14-15 minutes of that I am very proud of myself. Six months ago I couldn't jog for more than 30 seconds at a speed of 4.5 mph. So I'm patting myself on the back for that one.

That's all folks. I'm going to force my husband (through sex and dinner deprivation) to get his butt on here and tell you guys how he's doing and I will try my best to not be so distant.

Love and Skinny Jeans

xox Sandi