Hallelujah!

It's amazing what a good night's sleep can do for the old personality. I'm in such a better mood. After two nights of sleepless ickiness, last night I fell asleep 10:30ish and was able to arise this morning, 5am and get to the gym.

And, the blessed gym made my morning even merrier. Not only did I do a killer 50-minute treadmill interval workout including 2 12-grade hills and 8 sprints followed by 10 minutes of abs. But I tried the westside location of my gym for the first time on a weekday morning and was VERY PLEASED to discover how few people "get ready" there in the mornings. There was so much ROOM. Lots of counter tops and no worrying about snagging a spot before the 7am influx. Maybe it's just summer. Maybe it's Thursday laziness. But, still, the eastside location's locker room is always so full of women and sometimes it's downright impossible to get counter space for the hair dryer and curling iron. Some of the ladies get really cut throat, too. Or then there are the subtle ones who lay all their stuff out before then even go to the shower so a counter top is "claimed" even if no one is using it. That's the worst. At any rate, I was one of maybe three women getting ready at the gym this morning and loved every roomy-second of it.

And if the sleep, good workout and comfortable locker conditions weren't enough, there was the coffee shop no more than a BLOCK from the gym -- and my favorite one: STEEP-N-BREW. This is the first gym I've gone to within easy access of coffee -- and then for it to be my favorite brand. Well, I'm thinking you should just pinch me because this is all just too good to be true.

Now, if only I did have to drive to this hellhole I call work.

Oops. Sorry. Guess Happy Heather and her morning adventures still can't give her a good work attitude. That, and freeservers.com. Man! I'm still not getting this uploading crap they're having problems with. I tried multiple ways to upload this week's entries only to find freeservers.com doesn't read them as text and I DON'T KNOW WHY. Hopefully, I can work on THAT little problem later tonight. In the meantime, just hang in there. I know my site is screwy and some pages aren't showing up.

Wow. Was that all stream of concious, or what?

So. I'm back to food journaling which is going well. Of course, it always goes well for the FIRST week. It's the third, forth and so on that get difficult. I've also been very good about my snacking. I haven't had a soda in over four days and my last glass of wine was on Sunday evening. I'm eating lots of fresh veggies & fruit -- TONS OF FRUIT, actually. Thank you, Summer. And I have that healthy feeling you get when you get back on track.

This month's (or was it last month's?) issue of Shape had a good article featuring the girl they're following on her weight loss journey. For those of you who aren't following along, this woman lost quite a bit of weight -- went from like 200+ down to 170ish and then backtracked up into the higher 180s if I'm remembering it correctly. At any rate, her journal article this month was about getting back on track and "starting over." She talked about it taking 3 days to really get back in the groove. And she had goals for each of the three days. Day One is always the hardest and by Day Three, you're always feeling better if you've followed the plan. She says the goal is not to have to go back to Day One because we all know how difficult that Day One is. Well, I feel like I'm at Day Three and I DO NOT want to have to restart at Day One. I have to remember how good the "healthy feeling" is and use that to overcome the temptations that are sure to arise in the form of nasty foods, laziness and stress.

Of course, I write this with the knowledge that I'm very likely going to a bar this evening. But, like all the experts suggest, I've come up with a plan of attack. James and I are going tonight to a place called Ottos because in the summers on Thursday evenings they have Jazz out on the patio which is very lovely. And we haven't been yet this year. And given that today is a beautiful, not-humid 70 degree day, I really think this evening will be a perfect chance to enjoy the show and atmosphere. So... I'm allowing myself one cocktail: the Otto's special Martini which is excellent. The rest of the time I'll drink water. And *if* we do eat anything, it'll be the Mediterrean appetizer plate with Tabouli & Hummus. No munching on the sour dough bread w/olive oil. No drinking 3 glasses of wine. The martini will last longer and the Tabouli & Hummis are pretty healthy alternatives. So, that's my plan and I'm really excited about going.