When I logged in to start writing this post today I realized that the last weigh in I tried to do didn’t actually get posted. I’m not sure where the post went but the title at least tracks the progress I’d made.

Granted, it was still from two weeks ago, but there’s a very good reason I missed last week and my monthly measurements. I was gallivanting in Texas with my best friend. Of course I gained weight.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, right?

Including this!

Mmm… Margarita goodness…

The trip was mostly about connecting and hanging out so the details of what we did really aren’t that interesting. I won’t bother trying to make them interesting, don’t worry. Though, I will show off these babies.

The lady at the store totally judged me for buying children’s boots. Just thought I’d share.

Upon arriving back in Seattle, though, I finally took the time to organize all of the thoughts, ideas, and goals I had started to form on the trip. There’s something about getting away that gives you a lot more perspective on things. I’m rethinking a lot about how I’m going about life, including how I eat, drink, socialize, date, make money, study, and how I arrange my appearance.

Because my friend is in grad school, I had some time to think while I was there.

Clearly.

I wondered what it would be like to build friendships based off of shared strengths and values rather than off of shared struggles. I thought about what it means to really connect with people and what it takes to trust them. I looked at the patterns of when I struggle to eat and drink in a healthy way. I came up with a lot of questions and almost as many answers. Those take a little longer, I guess.

I decided that for the month of October I was going to cut back to only eating the foods that I know don’t negatively affect my stomach. I’ve been having pretty severe stomach issues lately. Three days in, I’m doing really well and my stomach feels much better.

I’m going to completely cut out dairy, and all the other things I “don’t eat” this month just to see what happens. I’ve cut out a lot of things in the past but never dairy. I’d like to see if it makes any difference. Hopefully it won’t and I’ll be back to thoroughly enjoying cheese and lattes again soon.

Of course, cutting out dairy means cutting out coffee, there’s no way I’m drinking it without a healthy serving of cream. Not. A. Chance.

So, let’s talk goals.

This Week’s Goals

1. Walk up the hill – So, I live just on the edge of a hill. Actually I live a little ways up the hill but somehow I never realized that my apartment building was on a hill. I hate hills. Long ago I vowed to never live on a hill after spending several years living at a camp that was basically one big hill. But, a few years ago I started working at a theatre downtown and was forced to park up the hill from it. I learned to walk the fucker without feeling like my lungs were going to pop. It was ridiculously exciting. Because I’m having such a hard time getting myself back into exercise, I thought that maybe walking up my hill, just once at first, might be a good transition back into physical exertion. It’s quick, sweaty, and might perk up my ass a bit. Win.

2. Get enough sleep – I know, I KNOW, I make this goal all the time but after being on vacation and staying up way too late talking about things like waxing, racism, what marriage means to a feminist agnostic, developmental psychology, and other random topics, it’s hard to get myself to bed at the correct time again. Plus my “go to sleep” cell phone alarm seems to have decided to fail. Maybe it’s time to replace my broken hinged, old ass cell phone. This week, though, I’m going to focus on getting into bed, not on affording a better phone.

3. Get through the week without failing at the elimination diet – Confession, I’m totally using diet coke as a crutch for this and I don’t feel good about the carbonated liquid cancer but unless I have something I can feel guilty about eating or drinking, this is not going to work. Obviously I have a really healthy relationship with food. Let’s chalk it up to knowing my limitations. Besides the diet soda, I’m going to try to be as much as a Paleo-ish purist as possible. I say Paleo-ish because I never finished the book so I can’t say for sure that I’m following all the guidelines.

4. Drink lots of water – I got really dehydrated in Texas, which could have contributed to my stomach issues, so I want to make it a priority to drink as much water as possible.

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So, there we have it, getting back on track and pining over cheese, that’s what’s going down this week.