When Support is a Bad Thing . . .

Welcome to Friday! Yay!!

How did the Unearthing/Italian household start off their last day of the week?

A fight . . . well . . . an argument.

About what you ask?

My health, my weightloss.

Excuse me while I rant here for a second. But, LAY OFF! Let me do me. Let me lose my weight and live life at the same time! So I'm not dropping 5 lbs in a week. I'M NOT YOU!! 
I don't like my job. It's draining.
I don't wake up right away and am ready to tackle the world. I need time to wake up. I WAKE UP SLOWLY. I always have, I always will. HOWEVER! When I've been needed in the ungodly hours of the night (3am, 1am . . . ) I've been up, fully alert and attentive. I can rise to whatever challenge comes my way.
Have a little faith in me!

No, so I've not followed through on Every. Single. Thing. I've said I'd do. No, I didn't lose weight for our wedding. (I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and found a new job after being unemployed)
No, I didn't lose weight for my brother's wedding. (Correction, I didn't get below 200 lbs for my brother's wedding) I didn't gain weight either. Well, okay, I did gain weight but I lost it again and the weight lost revealed muscle and I slimmed down.
Sure, I'm still over 200 pounds, but I'm a slimmer, healthier 205, 206 (as of this morning) than I was at this weight when I was losing it faster!
I would MUCH rather be a healthy, strong fat girl. Than a weak, unhealthy skinny girl.

In fact, I'll put it out there. If I EVER fit into the skinny minny category, you have my permission to tie me down and truck me to what ever hospital/therapist/psychotherapist you deem suitable. I was not built to be skinny minny. I've got broad shoulders and large thighs (which I'm learning to love!) that were built for strength and muscle.

My thighs may always brush together, but I'm okay with that.

I'm learning . . . there is such thing as TOO much support. When that support is overwhelming, smothering and causes stress.

So my dear, wonderful, caring Italian husband dear. BACK. THE. HELL. OFF!


Thank you. #thatisall

A case of "2"s

I weighed myself this morning and I was down a pound . . . sorta. I've gotten in the bad habit of weighing myself most days. It's CRAZY how my weight fluctuates! But . . . Ya know what . . . the title of this blog post is WRONG! Somehow I thought that I had 2.2 pounds before I was down 20 pounds from my starting weight of 222.2 pounds.

*sigh*


Nope. 2.4 pounds.

Meh.

I can do that too.

For me? Really?

I've been totally happy dancing all over the place this week.


(Okay yeah, some of it is caffeine induced. Caffeine seems to have a euphoric effect on me recently. At least coffee caffeine. Coffee caffeine from my coffee maker at home. The stuff here at work is ick! And Starbuck's coffee has always tasted burnt to me. (Sacrilege!) Eh . . . I grew up with a coffee snob as a father. Sue me . . . wait. Don't do that. I don't have any money to give you!) <--- tangent anyone?

ANYWHO! (Yes, I know, some of you hate that . . . or wait . . . he doesn't read this. HA! Wow . . . I need to cut back on the caffeine. Or just not write every thought that crosses my happy little brain. Hee!)


I got a blogger award! (oh my gosh! oh my gosh! oh my gosh! *giggles* *grins* *happy dances*)

 EmilysInnerSkinny awarded this to me. (She is absolutely adorable by the way, and I'm not just saying that because she awarded this to me or because we share the same name! She really is!)

The Rules (because there are always rules.)

1. Thank the person who gave it to you.

Thank you FitTwitEmily! You have NO idea how totally this made my day when I found it! :-) 

2. Sum up your blog philosophy in five words.

(ooh . . . I hadn't thought about this one before  . . . Umm . . . ) Unearthing Myself from Life's Clutter (Yup, that's it.)

3. Pay it forward by nominating ten more awesome bloggers.

1. Kristen @ Unfit and Fat
2. Jane @ The Borrowed Abode
3. Hypo Girl  
4. One Frugal Foodie
5. SAL @ Secret Agent L
6. Jenn @ Jenn Cuisine
7. Emily @ The Front Burner
8. Just Running
9. Amy @ Simply Sugar & Gluten Free
10. Mrs. Grok @ Primal Kitchen

Yes, I like food. Why do you ask?

A Peek behind the curtain

This post started out as a study in how clothing can change how drastically a person looks. But then, I got carried away with the pictures and decided to introduce you to some of my family. Enjoy!

It's truly amazing what a change of dress can do to a person. Take Labor Day weekend and my brother's wedding.

Little Army Bro and I

The above picture is at the rehearsal. I look fantastic! I look skinny in fact. (If I do say so myself)

Lil Army Bro's Wife's  Cousin & Matron of Honor and Myself

This one is at the wedding. I look 20 pounds heavier! I didn't gain 20 pounds overnight. Frankly, Lil Army Bro's Wife's Cousin (I guess she's Little Army Sis now?) isn't as heavy as that picture portrays her. They were just awful dresses. (I'm really not miserable, I did have a MASSIVE migraine, but I was quite happy. I just look miserable.)

Just a word of advice if you're getting married, don't order you're bridesmaid's dresses online. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

OH! I told you Baby Bro and his girlfriend are now engaged right?

Baby Bro and his future bride

I'm gonna have to come up with a different name for her. She's my age!

Little Army Bro and his bride

For the record, both of my brothers are taller than I am. Their significant others . . . shorter. Though Baby Bro's fiance may be my height. I don't know. (And he STILL hasn't put up pictures of his proposal. I want pictures! ha!)

OH! 

My mom and I. Spooky huh? Guess who I'm going to look like when I grow up? (If only I can look as good as her when I'm her age!)

Scary People

 It's amazing how one little tweet can bring up a time of self-inspection.

Yup, that's the tweet.

For the record. I'm actually quite the outgoing, social butterfly. Until you put me in a giant room, with a hundreds of people who I don't know, far away from home. Yeah, then I shut down. Sensory overload? Yep. My introverted side kicks into high gear and it takes all I have not to run out the doors and sequester myself in the nearest coffee shop/bookstore.

To be honest? Even blogger meet-ups terrify me!

I say that having only been to one. It was a trip up to DC to meet with several healthy-living bloggers. It was also the weekend after the Cherry Blossom Festival, so I dragged my Italian up there to explore.

When Anne from FANNEtasticFood e-mailed out the invite, I responded with a resounding yes and said:

I'll be there! I'm totally excited (and completely nervous . . . silly!) about it!

 It was true, I was totally excited to meet all the bloggers. But I was terrified!

• What if they don't like me?
• I'm not even from DC, what if they hold that against me?
• What if they realize that I'm still striving to live healthy? That I'm really just trying to lose weight right now . . . Will they be okay with that?
• What if they're all absolutely gorgeous and skinny and snobby?

Anne assured me everyone was really nice. And they were! But honestly, if my Italian had not been with me, I think I very well may have completely shut down! Everyone was AB.SO.LOOT.LEE. Gorgeous (and skinny) but they were all very kind too.

Now I figured this was just a "me" issue. When I read what the illustrious, super-self confident MizFit tweeted about just going up to people and introducing yourself and explaining your by yourself and feeling awkward, I thought wow . . . that's pretty sage advice if you ask me. So I said so. When she replied with this:

 

I almost fell out of my chair! MizFit? Awkward? What?? **does not compute** 

At the same time, I realized something. These super-bloggers I greatly admire, are 

Just. Human. (What? Really? No . . . way!)

I've decided to woman up and maybe drag myself bribe myself into going pop up at a blogger conference. (I'm thinking either Chicago (as I know people there) or New York (as Bethlehem, PA isn't that far away) to attend.) 

All I ask is that if you see a brown-haired woman in the corner rocking and sucking her thumb, it's probably me. Have a little pity and smack me out of it.

Thanks!