this is it, this is it...

Tomorrow, December 28th, is my last day of Body for Life! I'm super stoked to take a bit of time off, or at least not worry about sticking so closely to a regimen. I'm also really looking forward to training for this half marathon (from here on out will be referred to as "the halfie") for a bit of a shake-up on the diet and exercise stuff. Don't they say to switch things up to keep it interesting? ...I actually think they use that phrasing for several things. But, funny enough, the halfie program that I'm doing is also 12 weeks!

But anyway I'm really excited that tomorrow is my last day. Thank you to everyone for reading my blog and supporting me these 12 weeks. And an extra special thanks to The Bets for making authorized meals (whether she meant to or not) on the nights we got together to pig out and watch America's Next Top Model. A special no thanks to her parents for sending 4 tubs of cheese to her house on America's Next Top Model night. 

Keep checking in because in a few days I'll be posting my before and after pictures and my stats!! Also, I will obviously keep blogging about halfie trials and tribulations. That's 13.1 miles baby!

phew!

Well the holidays are over and I made it through alive. I managed to have about 4 free days in a row and not throw my last week of BFL completely out the window. I'm excited for Saturday to roll around, so I can get my fake tan on (it helps to accentuate tone and muscle) and take my after picture and send in my completed Challenge Packet. $50,000 here I come! ...I hope. Wouldn't that be cool? Dang dude, if I win $50K I will poop my pants. Well, I would pay off my student loans and then poop my pants.

In other news, my new adventure after Body For Life consists of me training for the St. Louis Half Marathon in April! Stay tuned as I combine BFL and marathon training!

what happened?

Healthy & desirable (1943):

Um... desirable? (2007):

What happened here? (That's Tara Reid, by the way.) What happened to looking healthy? What happened to the definition of "healthy"? What happened that made everyone want to be so skinny?

ugh, i hate the holidays!

Today we had our Christmas party at work. I tried my very best to not eat all the crap there, and I did pretty good, but I didn't do great. Last night our neighbor brought over two tins of cookies and fudge for Christmas. I have to eat at like a million houses between Christmas Eve and Day. This is what I hate, the beating up of myself. Why can't I just eat like a regular person? Oh right, because when I did I gained 10 pounds. But it's the holidays! I wish I could cut myself some freaking slack.

People ask what is life after BFL like? What do you do? My answer: round 2 baby. That's right. I'm so pleased with my results from this 12 week cycle that I fully plan on (taking a week off and then) starting over with week 1.

I'm kind of annoyed at myself for taking the results I've gotten so far for granted. I look at the weight I've lost or the tone and muscle I've gained and think, "Yeah, but it's not perfect" and that makes me sick. So what?! I look great compared to 10 weeks ago and I'm totally blowing off all my hard work and the changes I have made!

Ugh, I hate body and weight issues sometimes. I really do. I didn't like how I looked before, and I don't like how I look now. What the hell is that?

almost... there... can barely... reach it...

Thus begins week #11 of Body For Life. I can't believe it's almost over. It really, truthfully, has not been that hard as far as eating good foods and not eating bad ones.

It has, however, been a little hard to sustain. It all started when one week Skip and I stopped planning our meals on Sunday nights. We were able to eek through the week, still eating authorized, but it was much harder than before. We are now able to see why it was so easy for us to fall into such terrible eating habits- it's way easier to order a pizza than go to the store, pick something out, go home, and cook for 30 minutes. With school, a second job for Skip, business trips for me, church obligations, and final projects and exams (not to mention a little thing called the Christmas season), it became damn near impossible to keep up the planning and scheduling required for BFL.

This past week I was unable to work out. At all. I feel terrible about it, but I was able to keep up the eating, and I'm still looking good, so I guess I'm fine with it. Putting up such definite boundaries and guidelines makes it very hard to break or bend them, thus I feel like a failure. This has been a constant struggle for me: to not follow something to perfection and "turn over a new leaf" is really, reeeally hard for me.

But I'm looking forward to starting this week over and really kicking ass the next two weeks. Look for my before and after pictures to go up sometime around December 29th!

slacker.

In my defense, I weighed myself this morning and I now officially weigh as much as I did in college. In college! That is awesome. So please try not to give me too much crap about how I'm not eating as authorized as I should. I mean, I'm not eating cookies or chocolate shakes or anything blatantly unhealthy, I'm just not as strict as I was in, say, week 3.

Here's the thing people, BFL has shown me how I need to eat. I don't really crave unhealthy food anymore, so when I go out to eat, I make sure to order something with a lot of veggies and some kind of protein. Like today. We went out for Thai food at work for lunch. I rarely go out to eat with everyone because of BFL, and today I wanted to go so I let myself. I had chicken with veggies and some white rice. They also gave me this tiny little spring roll. That was fried. And I ate it. And I ate most of my white rice. Neither of which was authorized, but it was all about the portions.

I guess I just see now that it's not about what I don't eat, it's about what I do eat. And I do need to eat. BFL has made me understand that my body needs food. Eating is a good thing! It's what you eat that can make things go all wonky. My body needs food, so I eat happily, except I try to make sure that what I'm eating isn't total crap. I'm not afraid or worried about food anymore. It's a huge relief.

So I eat healthy 98% of the time now, and my "free days" are kind of spread out throughout the week. I'm still sticking to the workout and the eating portion, and I've lost 9 pounds to prove it! I'm just adjusting BFL for my life, so that I can eat healthy and stay in shape forever.

It's pretty awesome.

baby fever.

For those of you who don't know it, I have baby fever. Big time. I'm baby crazy, if you will. Baby fever has come and gone for me in the past, but this time it's stuck around for a good 4 or 5 months now.

Skip is not ready for babies. In fact, right before I got this baby craziness, we were both in agreeance that we kind of don't even want babies. Like, ever. So it was a big shock to him when I came down with the fever and it won't go away. I think he's starting to come around to the fact that, ok ok yes Kate wants to have babies for real now. But he's not yet to the point where he is also wanting to have babies at this second. Which is bad. For me.

But they are everywhere! Babies are everywhere. Some good friends of mine at work are either on maternity leave or thisclose to going on maternity leave. My cousin is due this month. One of my very best friends just told me she's pregnant. And you guys, I mean it, I've got it. I've got this fever. For example, last night I went out to eat with my brother, his fiancee, and their almost 3 year-old daughter. She was crazy. She was running around, squealing, didn't want to eat, ran into the kitchen, etc. Skip looked at me and I just said, "Yep, still want 'em!" I mean, she's 2! Of course she's crazy! And I blame the establishment: they didn't give her crayons or coloring stuff or anything. In all honesty, I was kind of bored.

How does this translate to BFL? Not to toot my own horn here, guys, but I'm looking pretty good. I'm pretty much back to my post-college figure and it feels great. I actually need to go shopping because none of my pants fit. It's awesome! But having a baby means that I'm going to gain a ton of weight, and have a hard time losing it (or so they tell me, I like to think I like working out too much to let myself keep all the baby weight).

So that's what I keep telling myself. "Don't have a baby now, you're looking so great and you've been working so hard. Don't lose momentum now. You've only got 3 more weeks!"

But it's haaard. I just want babies!