I had my quarterly evaluation at the gym this morning with excellent results. I lost about 4% in body fat percentage, an inch off my hips, an inch off my thighs and a little off my waist. I was relieved. I could tell the shape of my hips and thighs was different, but I haven't lost any weight on the scale, so I was feeling pretty frustrated.

I'm contemplating going off my meal plan and trying to go it alone. I wish it wasn't an all-or-nothing proposition. Maybe I could do meal plan every other week so I have a back up supply of meals. Then I can ease into the habit of going to the Farmer's Market twice a week for fresh fruits and veggies, and re-learning how to build a food plan based on the healthy eating habits the meal plan has taught me and to which my body has now been conditioned.

The meal plan I'm on now is portion-controlled to 1200 calories per day, which was perfect when I wasn't exercising on a regular basis. This past tax season, I was hungry all the time and snacking on the stuff brought into the office, which wasn't usually particularly healthy. Having lost the fat over that period shows me that I do need to be eating the extra calories, but I might get even better results if I do it in a smarter way.

So I think I'm going to start compiling recipes and learning more about calorie-counting so I can do this on my own.

Reunioning

KP was the first guy I liked that liked me back. Or maybe it was the other way around. He liked me, and I kinda liked him back. When you're 14, there's a difference. I was a freshman in high school, and still dealing with the transition. All the people, moving classrooms with the bell, more than one clique...a lot to deal with all at once, but I was doing all right, and learning I was book smart.

I met KP in band. I think the first time we talked was when we were both in the group that took advantage of free tickets to a Hawkeye football game for marching in the all-conference band during the U of I Homecoming parade. After the game, the group stopped by a McDonald's to eat, and he made me a ring out of a straw. I kept that ring for a long time, I thought I still had it, but I can't find it anywhere. :( He was a junior and very sweet and cute.

I was not allowed to date until I was 16. That really put a kabosh on hanging out outside of school. And I panicked over the thought of what dating entailed and how to deal with the social implications. In retrospect, I don't think I was mature enough to handle dating, so as much as I was upset at the time, my parents were probably right in forbidding it. So we never so much as kissed, and the phone calls eventually trailed off, and nothing ever came of it.

So when he friended me on Facebook, it was kind of a chance to clear the air. We had drinks after work on Monday and got caught up on each other's lives. I've often wondered "what if" with him, and now I know as much as I enjoyed hanging out with him, I'm all right with it not having gone anywhere. So I'm cultivating a friendship, because I like him, but I don't think I still "like him" like him. ;)

It's Alllliiiiiiivvvee!!!!!

Hopefully ya'll are using RSS feeds, because I don't know how otherwise I'll get my readership back.

We survived our first tax season on our own...it seems like we filed a lot more extensions this year, but I suppose that just means more work for the off-season. I'm not sure how we're going to fill time (especially me) without audits. Not that I'm complaining - I've been trying to get out of doing audits for years - but I should be paid for doing something.

But I'm glad to be done and get back to having a life. It's just the life I'm going back to is a little bit different this time. My social life has kinda frittered away to nothing, and I need to build it back up. Or I need to take a look at what activities I'm involved in and decide which ones I really want to still be doing, and what new things I want to be involved in. There are so many things I want to do, but haven't either had or taken the time to do them. I've kinda started the process by giving up a board position, and checking out a knitting group. But there might be some difficult choices ahead, like how involved I want to continue being in Tae Kwon Do and figuring out how to give up television.

I have a lot of thinking to do, so there are a lot of (possibly) interesting posts coming to help me lay out the thinking process. So this is basically just a "Hi, I'm Here!" post. And welcome back to you, too!