Pictures of Kristy

In November my older sister and I drove up to Seattle to see my younger sister who had a layover there on her way to Hawaii with friends. This post has been languishing in edit mode since then.

We left early to have some time to hang around before she arrived, but we spent a lot of time sitting in traffic so instead of getting a head start on shopping, we visited Gas Works Park. It's pretty cool. My dad lent me some of his lenses, his flash, and his tripod for the trip. His lenses won't auto focus with my camera, and I have absolutely no manual focus skill even with the little circle focus-assist thing, which my camera doesn't even have, so I quickly switched back to my own lens.

Kristy was a good subject, until our fingers felt like they were going to freeze off and we ran back to the car.

I didn't wait for her to finish her sentence

This one would have been good if her hair hadn't been in her eyes. I still need to get in the habit of taking as many shots as I can instead of taking just one and thinking I got it.

I obviously think she's beautiful.

Why I love Dax Moy

Dax Moy is awesome. He sends me motivational emails about once a week, maybe less. It's good to have a little kick in the pants every so often to remind me to keep working toward my goals.

He also has some great resources at his personal training site, like an elimination diet, a 9-day look great naked challenge, and workout videos. In addition to being a personal trainer, he has the magic hundred goal achievement program that I will buy once I figure out what it is that I want to achieve.

This is a message I got from Dax almost 2 months ago, but I've kept it in my inbox to keep reading and re-reading it until I absorb the message all the way:

When you think about it, there's nothing you have to be, nothing you have to do and nothing you have to have except what you're being, doing or having right now.

Everything else is a choice.

Everything else is something you WANT.

If you want it then why all the stress, frustration and unhappiness?

Go ahead, read it again. And then chill out and quit being so hard on yourself!

Encouragement

So, last night I was tired. This is not unusual. Yet I decided I was going to get all the way through my workout in a positive mood, so we could make dinner and go to the grocery store without it all feeling like endless chores. I try to make an effort to be in a good mood in the evenings since sometimes I feel like all I do is work and prepare for work.

It's amazing what a difference attitude makes, but I had help. And I don't mean Aaron's always-chipper attitude, or his actual help with the chin-ups*... I finally saw a little muscle in my arms while doing the chin-ups.

our chin-up bar

I've been whining and complaining about my lack of progress, despite the push-ups getting noticeably easier and despite our progress through the levels of our workouts. I want visual, physical results. I want to be hotter.

Since I'm still not sure how to appease my digestive system, I was extra focused on getting some definition in my arms. I "used to" have muscular arms**. After (6?) weeks of workouts, when I flex, there's the tiniest hint of a muscle, but when I was supporting myself on the chin-up bar yesterday, I happened to glance at my arm and there was some serious muscle showing! And that enabled me to get through the rest of the night in a great mood. Vanity has its upsides.

3 weeks left to Hawaii. I'm getting ready.

 ready for hawaii

*Aaron lifts me up and I lower myself very slowly for each rep. That way I can do 3 sets of 6 reps. He thinks I could probably now do a bunch unassisted, but I feel he is hopelessly optimistic.

**I have been trying to eliminate the phrase "used to", i.e., I used to be able to do 30 -real- push-ups, I used to fit into these pants. What I "used to" do or have is irrelevant and also counter-productive.

The bacon chip

In the process of making bacon guacamole cheeseburgers, we discovered something wonderful: crispy bacon makes a great chip. I can now dive in to Girl Gone Primal's Dip-de-dip-dips.