No more Laundry???

I am in need to vent!! (Caution, strong language )
I have never heard of or seen anything like this before. And I must say I am pretty P.O. for the simple reason that I have been busting my a$$ to get our bedroom finalized. Ok, it may be small stuff to others, but I pretty much had it. Just another thing on my "to do list" (making yet another trip out of town an hour each way, which I am sooo not in the mood for )
How about I start from the beginning. Most of you know by now that we have a new Ca. King size mattress which required me to buy everything new regarding the bedding as well. DH was so kind and picked up a new mattress pad after work this past weekend. Really nice Simmons Beauty Rest, 100% cotton 300 thread, Bla, bla bla!!
I am throwing it into a quickie wash to get the "new" out of it, into the dryer on medium heat and out comes a melted something. I almost lost it. WTF!! How did this happen? I checked all the settings, nope wasn't the washer or dryer. So what happened?
I am looking for the labels, can't find any washing instructions, mmmmhhh, but I do find the tag, you know the one the consumer only is allowed to rip off after purchase, saying something like "wipe clean only". Again, WTF??? Wipe clean only, a mattress pad, that can't be.
I inspect the packaging a little further, and read the 5 year warranty applies only if care instructions have been followed. You gotta be sh!tt!ng me??
I admit I didn't read the labels, but after 40+ years of sleeping on pads which are being washed when I change the sheets I have never had one melt on me. Hey doesn't it usually say 'wash before use"? !!

How come Simmons didn't print in big fat letters on the packaging that this pad can NOT be washed? Is it maybe because most people wash new items? And that mattress pads do need to be washed every now and then for various reasons, right?
So it would be safe to assume I can wash this one as well.Did Simmons do this for a reason?? I wonder!
Maybe because they know we don't think twice about washing such items, and woopsy now because we did, the warranty is no good anymore and Simmons just made a lot of money because of it? Oh, did I mention that I paid $69.99 + tax for this item!?!
I just hope they are not going to give me grief when I return this garbage! They better not, this could turn out to be very ugly!!

Just curious: Does anyone else here own a mattress pads that can't be washed? Only be wiped down? Maybe it's something new and improved and I need to come out of the stone ages? Maybe washing one's laundry is old news? Did I miss something? Please somebody tell me!!

September 16th

Walked around the mountain with my "she" neighbor. Takes about 10+ minutes more when I do it with her, and I get more steps in:), just not enough/continuously modertate to high impact. My HR only gets up when we hit the inclines, which are plenty, but not long enough to keep me in the zone. I thought about doing a 20m minute jog after, but it was already getting late and I was tired from getting up early & painting, again.

Tomorrow (Monday) we should be done with the floors. DH got more than 1/2 laid, so it's straight forward from now on. I think he was at it from 8am-6pm. He just doesn't stop! Also spending a chunk of time sorting through all the pictures I took this summer of this project so I can add them the home project site as soon as we are done. That in itself is a job and a half:)

Noticed: my H2O intake is going down a bit. I suspect it's not just because it isn't as warm anymore, but rather because I have been too busy/lazy to pre-fill my bottles, so they are ready when I need them. If it's ready I use it, if it's not and I have to bother I don't do it. Which means I should fill six 24oz bottles up tonight. Skipping on water can add body weight, which I don't want to happen. Especially important when I am in a time crunch or too tired to cook and either have take out or have semi homemade meals. The sodium most semi/ pre-made/ boxed foods contain needs to be flushed out asap!! Bottom line for me: The more H2O I have the better I do with my weight loss.

September 15th

Went to an evening wedding. Did some shopping before that. Got all my drapes and curtain rods for the new room. They were one panel short of what I needed (12). Have to pick one up at another store later.
My feet are killing me, did a lot of walking in the wrong shoes, blisters galore!! :). Not sure what the happy couple thought when they picked the wedding location with the parking availability being so far away. Hellllloooo! I am healthy, but you did have some handicapped guests on crutches and wheel chairs.
Same for the reception afterwards. We had to walk all the way back to the car and drive to another location. Really cramped place, didn't seem really suited for 150 people. Might I add, they got really screwed on the meals as well. This restaurant has wonderful dishes, but they are no good at "bulk" cooking.
Nevertheless the wedding was absolutely beautiful , a beautiful ceremony and the reception was all about undertstated elegance. I loved that! And lets' not forget a very gorious bride and a very handsome groom. And everyone seems to have had a good time. We didn't know anyone there and had a blast with the people we met and were seated with.

Unfortunatly all of the walking didn't add up to any real A. steps. The pedometer registered a 2+k, but I won't use them as such.

September 14th

Only had a little over 30 minutes today for some A.exercise. So,I chose to get the most out of it and run instead of jogging. Boy that felt good and I got all of my A.steps in that way. I am hurting now though, which was to be expected and it will go away. I really pushed, I needed to get something done other than painting today. This weekend may be slow, tomorrow is a wedding and Sun/Mon back to the home project (almost done!)I can not let this crazy schedule mess with my health. I need to keep it up and try to go at least a little something in

September 13th

Weight 174.5 this morning. Didn't think I would since I had tri tip and potatoes 2 nights in a row. I guess, all the walking yesterday paid off.
Taking a little break: I know sounds like an old record, but it's another day of painting. I am sooo done with it. It's all the detail work that takes up so much time, and I am so not a patient person :) If we had the $$ I would have someone do it for me, but then I am so picky and I have seen pretty sh!tty work form professionals, especially in this area, it could turn into another headache (remembering our house getting painted earlier this year, we still find areas that weren't done right and are fixing them).
Back to work, the caulking should be dry, need to go over some areas again to make the holes disappear for good before I continue painting.
6:15pm Took a break at 5pm and went for a walk around the mountain with my neighbor and his dog. Felt good. I needed to get out. My back is hurting a bit from all the low cabinet painting. So, a little upright movement should be good for it. Plus I got my A. steps taken care off.
Now it's back to painting again!

September 12th

I was out of town for 12 hours, and did 8 hours of power shopping.
Not much time to eat, had 3 huge apples throughout the day and had a salad while shopping at Trader Joe's.Lucky for me most store were in the some area. So, I parked at the very end and walked all across the out door mall to every store, lugged stuff back to the car and went to the next. Made a point of having as little stops as possible in between.
It being a Wednesday I didn't have to fight crowds and stand in line standing still for long:)

September 11th

Can you believe it!? I am up since 6 am, it's almost 10 am and I have only 201 steps in so far. Been infront of the lap top the entire time. That's certainly something that contributed to my weight gain.

4pm: Very proud, I am starving and wanted to eat cheese and crackers, but I chose a large red bell pepper instead. We are having tri tip and roasted potatoes (Yukon, purple, sweet, yams, red) for dinner. I think it's better not to load up with carbs beforehand. Already had a sandwich for lunch.; very rare that I eat bread these days. Hard to stop once I start, bread carbs seem to trigger other food cravings as well. It's going to be at least another 3 hours before dinner, hope I can tie myself over with healthy snack til then.
I ended up making another sandwich, dinner was too long to go 8:30pm. I wasn't going to last that long. I knew that when I had to go out run a quick errand and all I was thinking Taco Bell, Sushi, Food!!!! I didn't get any of that, but rather went home fast.
Still ended up a little more of a Cal. Day than I would have like to, especially since I made it my "day off".
Next two days will be crazy. All the painting finished on the cabinetry, frames, fireplace. So much woodwork to paint. But we want it all done before the floors go in. And they need to get in because the bed is going to arrive Thursday. I don't want to move the delivery again for another week. And I need to go out of town running tons of errands, including finding a wedding present for Saturday. I know I waited last minutes, but that's just how it is. :)

Update more later ....

have to go upstairs and help with the hardwood floors!!

September 9th

1:45pm no excercise yet, just household chores.
had the same veggie/pasta meal for lunch I had last night!Made logging things easy. Just copy/paste:)
Now I just need to add whatever I have the rest of the day.
Got all my A.steps in this evening went for a long walk/jog. It was really nice and cool. My neighbor joined me in the beginning by walking in front of the house, about 10 minutes, after she left I started jogging for 45 minutes, then walked some more (13 minutes or so).
I needed that, because I had 1/2 loaf of the fresh baked bread I made this afternoon for dinner. Oh, it was soooo good. If I have something else today, it will be a salad. We'll see how this affected my weight in the a.m.

Commitment:
I promise to perform regular abs exercises & and strength training, starting this week . I need to do either everything 3x week or split the activities up throughout the week. Either way, I need to do something!!Failure to do so will result in flabby abs and saggy underarms as well as other jiggles & wiggles in places we dare not to mention here. Signed: Heike

September 8th (Saturday)

1:45pm Talked with my sister on the phone for 104 minutes and managed to get 76 minutes and 7034 A.steps out of it. Ahh, the wonders of having a phone with a headset. That's one of the easiest ways to get steps into my day, talking and walking!! You can tell by the # of steps and the minutes that it was fairly easy walking though. I am still planning to get a moderate impact workout done as well. Probably some jogging to get my HR up.
Now it's off the hairdresser again, 3rd time is a charm, right?:)
My hair appointment went well. A different girl took me on to fix my haircut. From what I understand she volunteered to see whatâ??s up with my hair. I think the other one kind of blamed it on my hair being weirdJ. Oh well. If thatâ??s what it is, it must have turned weird in the last few weeks, because I never had that happening before. Sure there have been occasion that a stray hair had been forgotten or one side was a bit longer than the other, but it was never as bad as it was the past two days. And I am telling you, it was the hair dresser, not my hair. But itâ??s ok, the girl who did it today also trained others an I could tell she knew what she was doing right off the start. Now I am very happy and I think I will make my next appointment with this girl. I talked it over with everyone first, didnâ??t want to step on anyone's feet and they all are ok with it. I am paying $10 more, but that's definitely well worth it to me.

Added another 40 A.step minutes, 30 minutes were jogging. feels good!!:)

September 7th

30 minutes A.steps as of 4:40pm
OMG, it looks like I am making another trip to the hair dresser. Cut it yesterday, went back at 2pm to get some areas fixed, now I am home and it's still not done. It might be time to find a new one.

Got 30 minutes of jogging in before I went, so i am almost at my 7k A.step goal for the day. Will add some more later + extra to so I can get finally to my 7k average.Weight in at 176 this morning, but I won't get too excited.
With the weekend coming up who knows how much I will be by Monday.I think the little extra jogging and or putting in A.step time helps with the weight as well. There certainly is a difference in how intensly I work for my steps. It might just come down to one power workout versa a lot of steps. Will see which one wins!!

September 6th

3:30pm 4260 A.steps/37minutes so far

had our first luncheon after summer break at a local winery.Great food!! I had mostly veggies and fruit (enough for the next week lol:). No bread, a little bit of tri tip and a few grilled shrimp.Wondering if I will be able to walk later today outside.
The sky is still very smoggy looking. A fire started about 100 miles away yesterday morning and the wind has carried the suds all the way up into the Sierra.
Will see what the air quality is later and go from there.

9:30pm managed to get another 1h+ walk in this evening (A.steps 104 minutes total)That's good, had to make up for some of the other days I had no A.steps at all.Wondering if we get a day off during the competition, especially the ones with a high A.step count should be able to take a day rest.

August 31st

Weight in at 178 lbs! (it's not official Weigh In day for me, but I needed to for the August Challenge. I am the same I was two weeks ago, total loss 4 lbs this month. Which is kinda a joke, because I have been bouncing back and forth around the 180's for almost a couple of months now. (July 9th I was 183lbs), so not much accomplished just dancing around in circles).
Last day off a never-ending long lasting month, and I do feel a bit like a loser. It seems I have not accomplished much in getting closer to my weight loss goal. I did notice though that whenever I set "I want to lose xx in xx weeks" I fail. Setting those short term weightless goal don't work for my head. I wanted to lose so badly another ten and be only 5 away from goal by this upcoming wedding I pretty much lost none, but rather bounced back and forth. I found myself saying, every time after I blew it "tomorrow I still have so and so many weeks, I can accomplish that". Unfortunately I have been doing this for an entire month it seems. I know I should be grateful that I kept the weight in check and didn't gain by keeping up with everything else. But still the negative always seems to have the power over my overall outlook on things.
Well, I set goal for September and none of them are weightless goals, but rather better behavior goals. Of course I am hoping this will then result in weight loss, but I need to shift my focus on other things. Today and tomorrow I am on my own with home projects. I have a lot to do. First I have to paint all the crown molding so they dry before DH cuts them and we hangs them up and the entire room needs to get a coat of glaze over the paint we put on yesterday.

August 30th

I can barely move. My neck and shoulders are hurting like heck. Especially my left side. I can even feel those muscles in the front of my neck. I guess looking up while painting the high ceilings put a strain on them as well.
Kinda funny reminds me of the discomfort one feels after doing those neck exercises to eliminate the "turkey neck" LOL:)!!
DH let me sleep in and went out of town to get a floor nail gun and dog food. The hardwood floors are coming in soon and the boys need to eat:)Later: My day was rather unproductive since DH did the base paint with the sprayer. Tomorrow and the next couple of days will be my working days on the room. I guess I got the day off:)
Should have done some workouts, but it never happened. Instead, I went through magazine and online to research fire place mantels and a new bed. We are still going back and forth and what kind of bed we should get.
Well, since delivery will be around 4 weeks for anything we order, I think I will just wait and see what it feels like when we have the new size mattress on the box spring in the room. Maybe we get a better feel of what it is we like to have.

Calories consumed: 2044H2O: 15 glasses

August 29th

Anyone feels like painting? My back/neck and shoulders are killing me from texturing the walls for about 6 hours total.
And I thought I was getting out of doing overhead rolling by having DH spray paint the room. Guess, not! The texture had to be rolled on as well and then knocked down again.

My own fault, I chose the pattern:). I'll have it a bit easier today (Thurs). DH will paint the base and after that's dry I have to do all the glazing. That will take me at least a couple of days.

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

House project continues:
Figuring out wall colors, what a pain.
Selecting trying out next wall texture
Chinese food for dinner (semi-homemade), after that I have no idea how many calories it totaled up to.
I was too hungry and too lazy to measure things out. Bad idea!!
No walk or other exercises today:)
unless we count climbing up the ladder a gazillion times and sanding walls and ceilings overhead

August 22 - 26

22nd: Another low step day, kinda bummed about it. I have been busy all day long getting the house halfway cleaned up for company coming tomorrow. And it never got cool enough to go out for a walk/jog either. I know I could have done it inside, but that's where I spend most of my day and I was in no mood pacing around the table.
So, with it being fairly hot again the next few days and having people stay with us I will chalk this week off. But I am planning to keep the calories on the low side. Hope it will work out.
Might not be around over the next few days and/or couple of weeks either. Since we are busy with guests over the weekend, we have to make up time to get the bedroom done. DH wasn't really happy about me not helping him out today. Felt bad for him having to work on it by himself, but somebody had to do the piles of laundry, clean the house and make up the rooms for the overnight guests. And there is lots more to do tomorrow before they all get here.

Oh well, he'll get over it and I'll make up for it next week:)H2O: 15 cups for sure, it could have been 18, I don't know, somehow I lost track.

Friday, August 24th, 2007
The kids and I were up til midnight and the kids were up again at the crack of dawn and the dogs were all over them right away. So, I am a little short on sleep. But itâ??s ok, everybody ( four and two legged) is having fun.

26th:
My little guest are still here, but I am starting to get back in the swing of things. I took all of them and the dogs for a walk this morning. We did about 1/3 around the mountain and then went back. This accounted for about 35minutes.
Later:Did more aerobic exercises this evening, about 25 minutes jogging and a little walking which brought my day's total to 60 minutes. I need to do my other stuff as well, but doing some aerobics was the most important to me.
I have not kept a 100% record in my food journal these past few days either, but filled in the blanks as much as I could. Started tracking everything today though. Having a few days off schedule was fine, it never left my mind though, which is good. So starting out with a walk and some light jogging is a good start.
Tomorrow we'll be working on the room (that's the plan). Depending on how physically strenuous it will be I might add a walk to my day. I would also like to get some of my ab and other workouts in if possible.
7787 Aerobic steps / 60 minutes

August 19th

I am Very proud of myself. Even though I ended up dipping in the naughty foods and only had a little over 1200 steps by 8pm I made myself go out and jog and walk and jog and walk:).
Got over 12k just in aerobic steps in. And all of it was in a good HR zone. I took the day off from any strength training though. Like I said food was bad. Didn't eat much all day, was for 6 hours+ on the computer and just didn't get hungry. Well, I think 3 cups of coffee probably "helped".

Once I finally ate I wanted it all. I knew very well, if I would just stick with it I would see a decline on the scale tomorrow. I pretty much blew that one. But I am proud that I went out there after stuffing myself and did what I needed to do and NOT just chalked it off as "Oh well, tomorrow is another day" and sat on the couch.
That's when it can become tricky. One doesn't always need to be waiting to start anew tomorrow, right now will do just fine!!

12492 Aerobic steps /5.9miles/ 92 minutes