Dreams do come true. . .

I finally got to meet my man Vince Gill.  I've been in love with him for as long as I can remember.  I won a meet & greet through the fan club after the concert last night at River City Casino.  Totally a dream come true!

I'd never been there before.  It seems like a pretty cool place.  The concert is in the multi purpose event center.  It's very intimate.  But the seats are close together (connected actually), the floor is totally flat till the risers (with chairs, so not bleachers) in the back. . . I'd say there isn't a bad seat in the house though.  No cup holders on your seats. . . but still quite a fun place due to the intimacy. 

We had the first full row in the middle with only an aisle in front of us. I chose the seats, but never imagined they were this close based on what I saw on the seating chart.  Row 7, but felt like front row since no one was in front of us!

This was a 4 show run called Vince Gill & friends.  He shared the stage the whole time with Charlie Worsham, Ashley Monroe and his daughter Jenny Gill.   Vince has compared Charlie to himself in terms of all around talent: singing, songwriting and playing.  If you didn't know, Vince can *play* - he's highly respected across all genres.  He has played with and for many many people and he's amazing with a guitar.  I didn't realize that as a kid, I just loved him and his songs.  As an adult I'm in awe of his playing skills.  Comparing Charlie to himself is a huge compliment and I really like Charlie.  I'm his newest fan! 

I so loved the collaboration of talent.  The shared stage.  The lack of opening act and headliner.  Though it was clear it was Vince's show, it was really just a lot of fun to watch them share the stage together.  Vince sang my favorite song "When I Call Your Name" with just him and his guitar and no one else on stage.  It was great!  

Then we had to wait for the meet and greet, which I assumed was done backstage, but was done on the side of seating area. It was rushed, Vince seemed distracted and I think that I was a tad disappointed and I said stupid shit.  Oh well. 

I never thought I'd have a photo of myself with Vince!  :)   Sweetness!   I got an autograph.  Not my favorite album, but my favorite album has a grainy photo that is too dark to see a signature (the grain has to be due to crappy quality way back when right?)

I hate shirts with big photos on them. . . especially of people.  But I make an exception for Vince. 

It was a fantastic night! 

Busy!

Oh goodness I'm about to pull my hair out.  I'm so busy.  Work is so busy on top of it.  I don't think I've ever been as busy at my current job as I have been the last 3 weeks and this week specifically.  Yikes.  Sometimes it's nice for work to be a bit of a down time.

I'm busy packing. . . that takes me days.  Literally it takes me days to plan this.  And I keep weighing my suitcase.  And I don't want my work clothes to wrinkle, so I refuse to pack them yet.  It's insane.  Airlines need to allow more than 50lbs.  I'm not tiny. My clothes aren't tiny.  It's cold in the places I'm going. . . winter clothes aren't light.  Blah! 

So Tuesday was teeth day at the barn.  This is a major thing.  Horses are tranquilized, they are blindfolded, they get a big ole metal thing in their mouths to hold them open. . . Eli doesn't get blindfolded cause he likes to see me and know I'm there, but he can't see the vet - the blindfold is loosely put on to block the front view, but he sees me on the side. 

I'm *always* there for teeth day.  But this time I gave the ok for him to be done without me as I would be there, but maybe not in time.  I get texts that he can't be caught and might not be done.  I wouldn't let him be done while I'm in Europe so if the vet was pushing back some horses to that time, he'd have to come back yet again for Eli. And setting up for this for just one horse is a PITA for the vet.  So I'm actually pretty pissed about this.  It is *not* hard to catch a horse.  I know why he doesn't want to be caught.  It's his first day out in WEEKS due to weather.  But really - he can be tricked.  Just try.  I don't think anyone tried to trick him with food.  So I abandon my errand after work and race to the barn to catch him in time for the vet.  To say I'm upset is an understatement.  Then my vet (bless his heart - I love this man) tells me Eli was on his "must do" list so he was planning to do him.  I don't know what would have happened if the vet got to the time to do Eli and no one had caught him.  Vets do not catch horses.  So I don't know.  Just a lot of frustration on my end.  Eli got his teeth done, his vaccines and his weenie cleaned (done once a year with teeth).  I'm sure it's his least favorite day of the year!

I got a new water bottle this week.  I paid $40 for this bad boy. It's a Hydro Flask.  I'm not even sure how I found it but I read reviews and this baby keeps stuff cold for a long time!  Then I asked on FB if anyone had one and a friend gave it rave reviews.  So I bought one.

I'm beyond in love with this thing.  This might be the holy grail of water bottles for me.  My water stays ice cold.  The straw is amazing to drink out off (the straw cap costs extra - you can get just the bottle with a screw top cheaper).   I drink so much water I'm going to the bathroom all the time.  I really really want to take this on my trip but it's not light.  So. . . I will likely not take it and be very sad.  I kid you not - this bottle is attached to my body. I'm in LOVE!

Did I mention that tomorrow night is the VINCE GILL concert and I get to meet him after?!?!? Whoop!  Not sure when I will blog again since I leave Sat, but stay tuned. . . 

Down down baby . . .

Tell me that title doesn't make you wanna sing Country Grammar? 

I'm going down down baby, yo street in a Range Rover. . . . 
Boom boom baby, ready to let it go. 
Shimmy shimmy cocoa what? Listen to it pound. . . 

Ok maybe it's not the same thing as the scale going down, but when I got on the scale yesterday I started singing this song.  No joke. 

This morning the scale was exactly the same.  Whoop!

So I'm not making much progress on the fat percent.  I think when I return from Europe I may have to start some weight training.  Just more stuff to add to my to do list! 

That brings my total loss to 23.2 since Jan 7th when I started Advocare.  Of course most of the lost was during the 24 day challenge and the rest of the first month.  I'm pretty happy with this.  I was hoping to see 185 before I left for London, but that's not very likely.  I'm ok with that.  

My lowest adult weight (when I did HCG in 2011) was about 173-ish.  I didn't even remember that and went back to look.  178 really stuck out in my head and I think that I maintained at that range for a bit.  So that was really on my goal list this year.  To see 178 again.  I'm slowly getting there.  My highest adult weight (I think 2010-ish when my thryoid went whacky even though I had been on meds forever) was 250.   It's fun to think about how far I am from that again.  It's definitely motivation!

Another thing that motivates me are NSV's.  Like the fact that when I'm wearing most jeans I'm comfortably on my last belt hole.  I do have a pair of jeans that sit more below my waist and those babies put my belt on the second to last hole.   Also seeing my reflection in door/windows is very motivating.  I'm finally really seeing a difference in my hips in the reflection.  Makes me happy!

So I leave for London a week from tomorrow.  My to do list is a mile long and I'm a bit stressed.  Work is still super busy and that makes me exhausted when I get home at night. 

Oh one more thing - I finally read Gone Girl.  . . . can I get my time back?  what I could have done with the time it took me to read that in the evenings.  Ugh.  Great story line until the disappointing ending that ruined it all.  What a way to fizzle out. I wanted to see the movie and I chose to read the book first.  I will not be seeing the movie.  Lame. 

I hate shopping

I remember back in the day when I'd go with a girlfriend and hang all day shopping at the mall.  Now that makes me just want to poke my eyes out.  But nonetheless off I went.  Why? Cause I'm lacking in dress clothes.  A week work trip of business casual means I need clothes.  I have clothes, but I also have clothes that are both too big and too small.  I hate that.  I don't dress up at work so dress clothes are low on my list of needs and wants.  

My problem is that I need long pants and the stores never carry longs :(   I actually bought a pair of black pants today in regular length and they seem long enough but I'm not 100% sure.  I might go to a different store and try on longs (the internet tells me that store has them)

But what I was surprised by is that I easily fit into a 14 and they were not snug.  I tried on a few tops and texted photos to my mom and my husband.  I thought I liked this red top, but they didn't so much. 

I like how my waist looks.  I hate my saddle bags.  I can't get rid of them.  I don't know when or why I got them.  Hell I don't know when I got hips.  I can look back at college pics and I have no real hips.  I'm kind of straight.  Why do I have these hips?  I want them gone! 

This is the shirt I got. . . It's the same shirt. You can see the gathers along the seam of the arm as well as the side of the body.  I feel like it's pretty flattering in real life. 

As well as another shirt that is also blue.  Lots of blue in my closet.  Oh well.  

I'm still in the 180's so what does that mean?  Tonight is pizza night!  I cannot wait!  I didn't run today.  Yesterday my husband and I did 3 miles.  He had new shoes to break in.  We did a run/walk.  I wanted to run today but after the mall shopping. . . my back hurt, it was later than I wanted to be and I was exhausted.  So here I sit.   Oh well.   

I hate how travel makes me stress.  But onto the pizza!  Have a good night!

Some Victories

So I'm a number person.  I hate that weight fluctuates so much.  In  my last post I said I lost 20 lbs.  Then for the next 5 days my weight bounced up and down a tiny bit and never went back to that 20 pound mark till day 5.  BLAH!   I always hesitate to say that I lost a certain amount of weight cause it might not be the same the next day!  Once you lose something it should be gone.  Permanently.  Wouldn't that be nice?!

So yesterday was the day I finally saw 191.0 again on the scale.  Happy dance!  And I was so determined to be good.  There are girl scout cookies in my office and I've eaten a few every day since they arrived.  I think that was Monday.  I ate some yesterday  as well.  But I'm chose to.  I looked at the calories and Trefoils really aren't that bad.  You get a decent amount of cookies for the calories. Anyways, enough about cookies. I've been working longer hours this week to work on this project for our trip to London.  My coworker works 4- 9 hour days and 4 hours on Friday.  So in order to maximize our time together I stayed late every day this week.  I'm not today though, but I will get off 3 hours early on Friday. Knowing my luck my boss will let the whole company leave early and then my comp time wouldn't matter.   He randomly does that and I tend to have bad luck surrounding that. But I don't see that happening tomorrow I hope.

Since I've been working late I've been slacking on working out and riding Eli.  In this case Eli is more important cause he's stuck inside due to the weather.  He needs to move regularly as he's tied up in the past.  I went to the barn last night and there was a group jumping lesson.  No room to lunge Eli.  I knew he'd be full of himself and I was right.  Whew.  Talk about being forward.  I just let him trot, trot, trot.  We didn't get any real work done, but I guess the point was to use the energy.  It was so cold my back started hurting.  And while he was certainly moving I felt like he never really relaxed his back so I just didn't push him into much work.

---

So onto the victories. . . .

I saw the 180's this morning!!!!  Holy happy dance.  I got on the scale FOUR times.  Same weight each time!  Whoop whoop!!!  I told my husband once I saw the 180's that we could get pizza. I hate rewarding myself with food.  But we have been eating out once on the weekend usually.  And I was craving pizza, but in general we've made healthier choices when eating out.  Like BBQ for example.  Hunk of meat.  That haven't been covered in butter or fried.  So pizza is a lot of carbs.  I wanted it.  But I felt like I had to *earn* it.  How do you earn pizza?  So I said I needed to see the 180s.  Again I hate the food reward, but I also like goals.  So. . .  I haven't told my hubby yet about the scale.  Ha.  Cause I'm having second thoughts.  I also feel like this was a fluke.  So we'll see. 

Next up - I cut the tags off a pair of jeans this morning. I have no clue when I bought them.  They are from Maurice's.  They are the Taylor jeans in a size 13/14.  Taylor's run big though and they tell you that at the store.  I rarely wear a 14.  I guess at my thinnest I was in a 12, but that didn't last long.  These jeans tend to bag out on me as the day goes on.  I hate that.  And they were a tad lose (though not really in the waist) when I put them on.  So I wonder what they will look/feel like at lunch.  Anyone have a recommendation for jeans that keep their tightness?  

The final victory is that my belt wants to be on the last notch.  I haven't quite put it there cause I tend to like a more loose belt, but it wants to be there.  I might have to look into getting a new belt soon.  Woo hoo!  

I'm going to be honest, I'm still very stressed about the trip because of so many days of eating out.  I guess it's not possible to gain 20 pounds back in 2 weeks right?  I mean I'd have to seriously stuff my face and sit still.  But mentally I'm worried I'm going to return the states and be right back at 211.  I'm trying to keep this scale moving down down down till I leave. I want to have more of a buffer. . . a buffer to what?  I don't know.  That dreaded 200 I guess. I want to remain in onederland!   I like living here and I've been a resident before.  I'd like to not move out this time. :)