Renewed energy

It's amazing what a good colon flush will do. Oh...and in case you were worried and missed the news, colonoscopy was clear for polyps and cancer, but I have diverticulosis. When he told me this, my first thought was "Shit, that means no more Big Macs because of the seeds on the bun!" But I did some reading, and diverticulosis is just the pockets in the colon wall, and the newest treatments don't forbid nuts and seeds...just recommend a very high fiber diet. If it turns into diverticulitis (where it gets infected and inflamed), THEN I may have to give up the Big Macs, but only about 10-20% of people with diverticulosis develop diverticulitis.

Anyway. enough about my sparkly clean colon. Actually, this is about weight loss. And while I'm not going to start again until after the 1st, I *do* have renewed energy for that. Watching the Biggest Loser season finale has made me want to start a competition...so I am. Because I do what I want and no one can tell me otherwise. Hence my weight problem (actually, this is only part of the reason, but it IS part of it--more on that later).

Here's the challenge: Get a group of friends with no specific connections, but we all want to lose weight. Break into teams, and see who can lose the most! That's it. So far, there are about 6 of us, I think? I guess that means the teams are out...we skip right to individual competition. And I doubt we will do eliminations, because I'd rather all of us stick it out to the end and lose as much as possible. Unless we have an At-Home winner...which is pointless, because we are all "at-home" already. Oh...and we certainly won't have a quarter of a million dollar prize, because none of us are rich. In fact, right now, there is no prize. Anyone out there on the interwebs that cares to rectify that, let me know. Competing for bragging rights is nice. Competing for stuff is better. ;o)

And just so my competition knows what they are up against, I'm gonna lay out my plan, here and now. *insert determined face here*

-30 minutes a day of a work out DVD, EVERYDAY. Sorry, DH and furbabies, but unless you want to do it with me, this means I go in the guest room, close the door, and work out. You will just have to suffer without me.
-3 days a week, we will add a 3 mile walk to that. Again, sorry, DH, but stuff needs to change, and we can't live our life in front of the TV. Come with me if you want to spend time together.
-Follow WW points. I did 75 days straight, I can do it again. And again. And again. I already know I have a few challenging days in there (Disney trip), but I did it once, so it's possible.

Since it's a competition, and I want to be fair, I will forgo the alli. Not everyone is ABLE to take it, much less willing (though, really, I have never had any of the major "treatment effects" listed), so it wouldn't be right for me to do that. This contest is about weight loss, but it's also about doing it right...diet, exercise, and confronting demons.

Speaking of which, I mentioned that part of my problem was that I do what I want. This is something I learned about myself from reading IE. While I don't follow the principles much anymore, it was good for some self reflection. There are many times where my way of pushing back is to do the opposite of what someone tells me to do. So if someone says "You really should get some exercise," I tell myself "Fuck you. I'm not doing that because you want me to," even when in reality, I probably would have done at least SOMETHING. Same goes for food. "You should eat this apple," turns into "Screw that! I'm going to eat this whole package of cookies instead!" So yeah, I have issues. I recognize them. I just don't know how to change them. Which brings me to my last part of my plan: counseling. Actually, I'm still a little iffy about this part, but it has crossed my mind, and the time might be right to do it. Obviously, I've lost the weight before. The fact that I have regained it says that there is a problem somewhere that needs to be addressed.

I imagine there will be lots of tears over the next 5-6 months. Hopefully, at least a few are from my fellow competitors when I blow them out of the water. :o)

'Tis the season for colon cleansing and shopping.

Any medical procedure where you purposely give yourself diarrhea is stupid.Made even more so by the fact that all I can eat on Sunday will be jello, gatorade, sprite and broth. For anyone that knows me, when I don't eat, I'm a bitch. Well, I'm a bitch anyway, but take away my food, and it's worse.

I have come to that time in my life where I had to insist on a colonoscopy. Yes, I know I'm still considered young for getting one. Welcome to what I like to call my gene cess-pool. Both my grandfather and uncle were diagnosed with colon cancer at 33. One of my cousins had pre-cancerous polyps at 25-ish. So yeah, I'm not playing around. Monday, I go in for the test. I don't expect any issues or anything, but I wanted to get it done and over with. 90% of the people that I tell this to think I'm insane. I probably am. But when it comes to colon cancer, I don't play around.

That's really all that has been going on for the last week or so. We had Thanksgiving...where people don't know when it's time to leave, then I've been back at work and super busy. I have 2 more weeks before my Christmas break at work, then I'm heading to TX (I think...this *could* change based on some recent developments) for the first week of the break, and Disney for the 2nd week. Very excited, a little stressed.

All of my Oz Fundraiser donations have posted and I have 28% of my fundraising done! I was just given another donation yesterday that needs to be submitted as well. Plus, I'm about to submit all the Tastefully Simple orders (finally...no thanks to my consultant), which should give me about an extra $1 or 2. Honestly, I'm regretting that whole thing. The consultant has been less than interested, and I'm doing more work than I would have if I had just signed up as a consultant again myself. But, such is life and lesson learned. I'll close out the party this weekend and be done with it.

I did set up a "shopping club" account thing. I got the idea from another walker. It's not working quite like I thought it would, but if people are willing (and remember to go through there), it could make a few extra bucks toward my goal. And $5 here and there add up! Here are the deets:

Click here. Once you get to the site, create a free account. It should list me as the referrer (I think it assigns a number, so just leave whatever number is in there). Browse the list of stores, and when you find one, click on it. It will pop up a message, and then open a new tab/window for your store. Shop til you drop, and you will get the stated percentage back from your purchases...and my account will get half of that to be used as a donation! They have an actual "for Charities" account, but that one costs about $30, so while I'm considering setting it up, I haven't decided yet. We'll see how things go. But this is a great way to do the last of your Christmas shopping! It costs you nothing extra to set it up...and YOU will get cash back as well! It's really win-win.

With the craziness of the next few weeks, I'm not sure how much I'll be posting, but I'm sure I will a few times. In case you miss it, though...Merry Christmas and a Fantabulous New Year!