No pain no gain?

While I get sometimes think dieting is a bit of a chore, and especially difficult when I'm at home all day or in social situations, for the most part, I'm experiencing "pain-free" dieting. I eat what I used to eat, just a bit less. So I guess I feel the pain a bit there. But I'm feeling really guilty about not "exercising" (i.e. treadmill, pilates, etc.). Instead, I've been riding my bike instead of the bus, and working on my bathroom redo. I suppose when the bathroom is finished and its too cold to bike, I'll have to start my "exercise" again, but I'm feeling that I can't lose because this isn't horrible and painful yet. Do you ever feel like that?

Today: ate 32 (eeps, but worth it: grilled pesto butterflied chicken, herbed grilled bread, greens beans with pine nuts, delicious puffs filled with nutella and hazelnut gelato), "worked off" 5 (primed the wainscoting for the bathroom), flex left 14.

Progress

Well, here are my weekend progress pics. And no, unfortunately, I don't mean weight loss progress. That is slooow going.

This is the top I made with some old Amy Butler fabric I had in my fabric stash. It seems that the easiest clothes to make are ones that aren't fitted, so I feel like I look pregnant, again. Oh well. It's still a fun weekend shirt. I used this belle epoque tutorial, but had to take it in a LOT. It was pretty huge, even though I used my measurements.


Onto the real weekend progress - our full bathroom. We bought a cosmetic fixer upper - as you will see below. This picture does not due these tiles justice. The wall ceiling tiles (that's right, tiles on the ceiling) are beige with brown speckles, with some yellow-with-white-splotches tiles (aka the reverse popcorn jelly belly tiles) as "accents". Horrid. With a yelloweygreen toilet AND tub. Fabulous. Hubby wanted to leave it as is for a while, but I put my foot down. That was many moons ago, but we're picking up the pace again. Like that wallpaper?



Most of my calories burned this week have been slaving over these evil 2in white hex tiles. Eventually, I'll fill in with gray grout.

And the hardest task so far has been replacing the ceiling, which we did very badly. I spent two weeks working on correcting our bad installation with a ginormous (sp?) tub of joint compound. I had retiled the shower a few months ago - but I love the glass mosaic tiles we have running around. We have yet to put in the woodwork (molding around the ceiling and white beadboard with a chairrail on the walls to cover where the wall tiles had been).

Though messy, I'm actually having fun fixing up this old house. Especially since it earned me tons of activity points. YAY!

Today I did well, even under the "nomoreflexpoints" horror from yesterday. I ate 21 points, worked off 5, and have no flex for tomorrow.

weekend = weakened

When faced with food - I just cannot not put it in my mouth. I really need to get better about that during bbq's and social situations. I've eaten so much this weekend, that I need to report it now before I lose track of my points:

sat: ate 33, exercised 3, flex left 22
sun: ate 42, exercised 18, flex left 18

You read that right - I got a lot of exercise in today, so I think my eating fest is somewhat justified today. I really needed the food today, because I was working on our bathroom nonstrp (joining dry wall, sanding, painting, tiling). And it was really exhausing. Every muscle is my body is throbbing right now. I think I'll go to bed now. I'll post some pics later in the week of the bathroom and the shirt I made this weekend.

Dress, take 1

So it was horribly hot yesterday and we had a bunch of friends over so I made that summer dress that I'd been thinking about making. I was very happy to see that I didn't have to alter the pattern to make up for my pearyness - I'd read the direction wrong the first time - you add 20 inches to the chest measurement. My hips are not 20 inches wider than my chest. Not yet. Anyways, I was worried the dress wouldn't turn out well, so I used some spare fabric (actually, it is a "man" sarong from Thailand that my mom gave to my husband - he was happy to see it turned into something he'd never ever have to wear).

I followed the online directions, except for all of that pinning "preparation" stuff - I'm lazy. I also used 8 elastics not 6, and made the bottom elastic two inches shorter than the rest, to minimize the "isshepreggo?" look. I also made it smaller than the directions - I stitched the back a few times, b/c it was too big and billowy, probably shaving 3 inches or so off of the original. Anyways. It super comfy! and very cool for the these hot summer days out here. I'll probably make another, with fabric that I like more. Something flowery!

I spent the afternoon slaving over the drywall ceiling in our bathroom that we installed a while ago. It's in SIX pieces (that's a lot) and our joists were uneven...so my joining/skimming work is really hard to do. I've done a full sanding/skim on it, and its starting to look a lot better. Anyway, caloriesperhour says I burned 500 calories. And I believe it. It's hard work...the sanding and skimming and wiping...ouchers.

Today, I didn't do my pilates as planned, so I won't call it an SVD. But I ate 20, exercised 5, and have 14 flex remaining.

New Career

OK folks. I think I'm really on to something here. I need to quit my current (very low paying) "job" to become....

an inventor. a diet inventor.

Remember Meg's post about what to do about people in your life who eat whatever they want and don't gain weight? Well, I've just encountered the same problem out here.

Before I reveal my brilliant idea, let me back up.

My husband is really skinny (BMI 18.5). He likes to eat cookies. And I like to bake them for him (call me old fashioned, whatever). So I finally cave and bake in 75 cookies. They are very tasty (oatmeal, made with real butter, of course, chocolate chips, cranberries, pecans, and a dash of cinnamon). And the deal has always been that he is supposed to TAKE THEM AWAY FROM ME. You know, take them to work or hide them from me.

This time, he wasn't being very nice. He leaves them on the counter. When I asked him to hide them he says "why don't you just not eat them".

????? because I can't not eat them. Its impossible.

Then it occurred to me: I need to invent a discrete internal locking device for kitchen cabinets. That way, he can have his own kitchen cabinet filled with his cookies and other evils. And even if I really really really wanted one, and would somehow justify to myself how I should have one, I wouldn't be able to get to it.

I first envisioned some sort of bar/grate system with a lock. But that's no good, cause I'd open the bag by sticking my evil little fingers between the bars. Then I'd probably pull a "classic Bri": breaking off smallish bits of cookie over and over again and eating them - because surely, many bits of cookies is the same as actually eating a cookie, and is calorie-less.

So it'll have to be some sort of solid tungsten steel type panel covering a shelf with a lock in front. We wouldn't the company to see the lock, so the fantastic anti-cookie-locking-device needs to be hidden behind the cabinet door.

For the time being, maybe I should try this:(Um, I don't know why this image suddenly became blue, but you get the idea, right?)

FJ: ouchy. hosted dinner party tonight. the damage is pretty bad. plus that ^&*%&$ cookie. 36 points. 14 flex left. no exercise (it was brutally hot here today - "felt like 104" according to the weather lady. and we don't have a/c). I know I'm not supposed to make excuse for lack of exercise, but I think today I'm quite justified.

Kitchen makeover sneak peak

Here's the progress on our kitchen. The countertops went in today...though I'm still nervous about the color of the walls. I'll leave them this color (BM Wythe Blue) for a bit so see how I like it. Our faucet arrives tomorrow and I can't wait to have a sink again. It's the little luxuries, you know?

The worst part is the blank wall, so I'm trying to find something fun to put up there. I love this Marimekko pear, but hubby is protesting. This might be a war I'm willing to fight though. Mr. Bri, prepare for battle. I kinda pasted the pear onto this picture:

Today's journal: ate 23, exercised 3, flex left 21.

Sea greeny?

I'm so glad that you are reading skinnify, because it is really helping me keep on track thanks! We had our final "out" meal for dinner tonight, following by ice cream. So you know where this is going. Anyway, ZERO points of exercise (you read that right - no wonder Bri's not losing weight!) and 28 points eaten, leaving me 27 flex for the week.

Tomorrow, I plan to get some biking riding in. I need to paint the kitchen this weekend in preparation for new countertop installation on Monday, so I plan to ride up to Benjamin Moore and grab a few small cans for sample before I return for the gallon. We are keeping the applicances, greeny-tiles, and cabinets (might add oiled bronze knobs and pulls) but are getting new sink (stainless) and countertop. Do you have color suggestions for the paint? I'm thinking of a greenish blue color (the adjacent room is a nice red), so that we don't hightlight my ohso80s cabinetry. (And, I read today that blue colors are good for dieters - bonus!) Anyway, what do you think? I'm really limited by the floor, but I still need to choose brightness, coloriness, etc. I'm looking at homestead green...I couldn't find pictures except for this strange bathroom project, where they used the color as the base.

countertop