kwikloses

AHH I am doing it! I made my mini-goal. I officially reached a steady weight under 150 lbs. Very exciting! Time is going quickly until my wedding and I am taking it all in stride! 21 days till I leave here and 29 till I get married! Back to work!

~K

For the past 48 hours, a world of stress unloaded on me here. Thursday My leadership had told me to “stay flexible”… like I just planned to run to the court house real quick… no turkey heads, I have been planning this wedding for almost 12 months now and you’re telling me to be flexible? Come up with a back up plan? Holy-hell. I was informed Friday that I would not be able to go home on leave in time for my wedding on June 7^th… That day I was devastated. Cried for countless hours, and hit a real rock bottom low. Didn’t fall asleep till way late and was up all too early. The following morning I woke up and decided I was going to do what ever I could to get my wedding back. I sent a few emails, and started pushing buttons. Probably opened my mouth more than I should have about what was going on, griping to those who needed to know, those who could talk to the right people. And by 3pm, I was informed that they were able to find a slot for myself AND my better half to fly home in time for our wedding… pshew… Never have I been so relieved.  Now I need to get my rear in gear and go to the gym… Big sand storm hit today. Ick! Take care all!!

~K

So here we are, approaching the final 60 days prior to my wedding and boy oh boy are things getting exciting……………….and stressful………………….and interesting, to say the least. I think we (my mom, mostly) has everything under control, but I can’t help but get stressed out too. I’m still trying to find a balance between work, wedding planning, gym, studying, etc etc etc. Ouch, my head hurts.

I hope to be able to take a new hold of the phrase, “let go, let God.” But I can be such a dang control freak… ha! Oh, the joy of admitting it. I hadn’t been sleeping well for the past 2 ish weeks, so I took a week off from the gym and stuck just to going for a run after work to give myself more time to sleep. It seems to have gotten better and I think I will start at the gym again, tonight. I haven’t done a weigh in in a bit and I am nervous about that too…

Then the big stressor… Today I came to the realization that I might not make it home for my wedding… Depending on weather, days/flights available, etc, my wedding could be a challenge. I have been laughing off this theory for the past 6 months, and now suddenly it has hit me upside the back of the head. And it hurts… All I can do is hope everything lines up accordingly for me. But on a lighter note, I bought the book, Tuesdays with Morrie. WOW. I LOVED it. very interesting, thought provoking, and passionate book. Can’t stop thinking about how good it was. I strongly recommend it to all.Have a wonderful day, friends.~K 

AHHH! So it’s not even summer yet and the heat here in
Iraq is kicking my butt! But on the brighter side of things; yesterday at the gym, I dared to step on the scale since I missed out of Fridays weigh in… and I weighed in at 150!!! Ahhh! I cannot wait for the day when I no longer have to go to the 150 mark!!! SO EXCITING! So motivating! I am seeing muscles in my body that I haven’t seen in a long time! I am really making myself proud… J

Have a great Thursday everyone!

~K

So! This past week has been nice and slow at work. A female from my unit informed me of a country dance night on Mondays… My fiancé has always refused to dance… but with some pleading and such, and reminding him that we HAVE to dance at our wedding, he finally agreed. Usually he works nights but he had the past two Mondays off and he’s started going with me (2 in a row, what a feat!).

The first night, he started off and WOW was THAT entertaining… but with a little practice he showed massive improvement. On week 2, he came out of nowhere and decided to learn how to spin me. With the help of an experienced male dancer, he was able to learn how to spin me, and managed to look good doing it! I was really proud! Along with that, I have been going to Latin dance night on Fridays and been taking Latin dance lessons. I’ve been considering that medium cardio and legs of those two days… (I guess it could count!)

I have been really (surprisingly) good about going to the gym FIVE times a week (sometimes twice a day!!). Very exciting! I am seeing change in my stomach and the way my pants fit. I am trying very hard to max my sit ups and run on my pt test in early April, but it’s going to be close.

**A and I had a little tiff last week. I think a lot of it rode on the stress level around here. We are doing well now. She is down like 30 pounds now. This leaves her only 8ish pounds more than me.,. I am finding it really hard to stay positive about that, but am keeping that on the inside. I am having a personal debate with some of the ways she is losing the weight, but all I can do as her leader is continue to promote the “RIGHT” way to eat and exercise. I am excited in the sense of accomplishment she is feeling and the progress I see in her body, though. I can only continue to support her and motivate myself to keep up.

Trying to find the right way for myself,

~K

So, today I had the day off of work and I took the bus to the main gym here on the Base. I had never been there before and I was very surprised to see the quality of the facility! I ended up running 2 mi then doing legs at the weight room and back to the treadmill for almost another mile.  But the best part came from a flier at the gym.

Some group here is hosting a 5 mile relay race for woman’s history or something like that… I found this urge to get a team together for it. They have 2 categories, all female team or mixed. Half of the mixed team members must be females. Based off how well I am doing with my cardio I think I would do really well as a part of the relay. Now I have to find at least one other female to compose a team with me! The race is the last Saturday of the month, so not much time…

There is also a body building/fitness competition in mid April. I wish I was in shape for that but one month is NOT enough time for me to prep for it. Despite that, I really want to go watch, maybe catch a bit of the motivation fever…? J

Hope everyone is staying motivated! Have a great week!

~K

I haven’t written in a few days and I apologize for that. Things here have become really busy and at times hectic. Not only that but I am constantly unable to use the internet due to cruddy connections with the satalite etc…

Yesterday, I had the m-16 range. It had been a while (like too long) since I shot a weapon, so I was pretty nervous. BUT, surprisingly enough, I was able to fire a 38 out of 40 and qualify expert! This is really great because I will be able to turn my score in for more promotion points (yey)! I am taking a pt test in the first week of April. I hope to do really well on that, and be able to get some points for that also.

I am also trying to pull last min details together for the wedding in June! Two days ago, we hit the 3 months remaining mark. Very hectic at times to get stuff together! So exciting! I had my weigh in friday, wasnt too thrilled. lost about 1.5 pounds… oh well, one foot, than the other, right?

 Hope everyone had a good weekend. (it’s Sunday night for me!)

Off to the gym!

~K

So I think I found a solution to my “issue” with myself feeling competitive towards my soldier, *A*. Tonight I had her take an hour off of her shift to come to the gym with me. I loved it. We had a blast on the cardio machines (of course avoiding that dang elliptical!). I challenged myself to run a bit longer than I originally intended to, and challenged her to stay on the elliptical longer than she intended. Then she taught me a few core workouts and abdominal work outs that I could benefit from, and I helped her work her calves. It was very motivating for both of us and no tension at all. I really wish I could have kept her on day shift with me and we could go together regularly… Weigh in and a longer blog with some alternative perspectives will come tomorrow. Yey for Fridays… (HAHA… like that makes a difference here!).Is home. ~K

I like to think I have always had a knack for cardio. Even when I don’t train rigorously for it, I can generally keep up with the rest of my guys on a typical run.  When I recently started hitting the gym, I have been biking. Not my favorite task but I found it to be entertaining enough to do it for more than 20 mins… Now I have this history of what I call self diagnosed ADD… I get really board with the same stuff every day, so my challenge lies in keeping myself amused. After 3 rounds of biking in 5 days, I decided I should try something else. That’s when I decided to give the elliptical a go. So after I finished the bike, I set the elliptical time for 25 mins and I start “peddling” away. As soon as I thought I had the whole motion down and got side tracked with shiny objects, I lost my senses and somehow “forgot which foot goes next”. It’s then when I proceeded to get semi-tossed from the elliptical. With both hands struggling to find a solid grip for stability, I am attempting to figure out how to put my left foot BACK down and stand on the elliptical that was winding down from a full speed venture. To those around me it had to look as though I was attempting to do a line of hop scotch… I have never in my life felt SO inept.  

So needless to say, I am sticking to the bike and treadmill from here on out… Lesson learned. 

This Friday will conclude two weeks of my attempt to become a new me. I will do my weekly weigh in and next Friday, I will do body pics again and consider posting the beginning pics and the week 3 pics. Very nerve wracking, but I think it will do good in motivating me.~Kps I gave in and ate a cookie this week, no excuses, shame on me. pss I apologize for the lack of writing this week, crappy weather and sand storms around here weaken our internet connections.

For those who have taken the time to not only comment me, but thank me, I would like to say “thank you”. But part of me wants to say there is truly no reason to thank me. Being here, on deployment to
Iraq is a well known and (for me was) an accepted part of my job. I chose to do this for several different reasons, and none of which were to be a hero to others.

Really, this place isn’t all that terrible. I really have it lucky in comparison to those who served before me and those with more difficult jobs. I can only be thankful to them for getting us where we are today. As I march on out here, I continue to count down the time till I come home.

I appreciate all your support and such in both my weight loss ventures and my service. I really hope I can surprise my family with the amount of change I hope to achieve. Luckily, we have ample opportunity available to head to the gym and whatnot. Make the best out of a bad situation, right?

Take care, and Happy Friday to you all.

~K