Compass & Quill

OK, I lied – there is an order, but only because I was already set up with thoughts on paper.

I’m behind on origami (again) but I will finish this damn challenge, and what’s more, I will continue with my new hobby. I’ll probably only continue with the modular models, just because they’re absolutely fascinating and look cooler on the shelf when you’re done. Also, because The Man and I went to Michael’s today and he was an absolute gem of patience and fortitude as I went MAD with glee in the scrapbooking and origami sections!

I ended up buying a little tower of 300 3.5″ squares in a light card stock in a rainbow of colors, plus another 200 sheets of regular washi paper in 6″ squares, all in gorgeous little traditional geometric & floral print patterns, and a couple of 12″ squares of this cool retro kitchen print paper from the scrapbooking section. On top of all of those great finds, Michael’s was also having an awesome sale on paper storage boxes, made for holding 12″ squares but also just as good for smaller origami papers. It’s just a plastic briefcase kind of container that snaps shut, but at $3 it was the best buy of the day.

Also, in unrelated news, I’ve made a huge move towards getting this weight issue I’m always going on about off my plate for good. I’ve signed up for an online personal training program with Micah LaCerte & Diana Chaloux, the owners of HitchFit. I was putting together a new board on Pinterest to help visualize my physical fitness goals, and ran across this amazing before & after photo of a woman whose body was very similar to mine – not horribly out of shape, just round and soft and not awesome. The ‘after’ picture was so dramatic that I just had to click through and see what kind of gimmick was being sold.Only once I started reading the story, I realized that it wasn’t a gimmick – the program works, and has MANY before and after photos, with full testimonials.

After that, I was intrigued and spent about a week going through every inch of the website to see what the program was about. The owners of the gym are personal trainers and life coaches who also happen to be award-winning fitness models/competitors and as if that wasn’t enough, apparently they’re really nice people, too. They offer in-person training, but for online customers they’ll put together a personalized diet plan and exercise plan, with instructions and motivation to get you going, and weekly meetings online to help you keep reaching for your goal. The price was very reasonable, and for me the system was just what I was looking for – Diana’s already planned out my diet for the next 12 weeks, helpfully tailoring it to my request to go vegan. I was also given a ton of different materials, from a video that shows exactly how to do every exercise, to instructions on when, how, and how much to eat & exercise and a worksheet for defining personal motivation. If all goes well, I should be going from 31.03% body fat to 20% body fat in the next 12 weeks, which could translate into about 25 pounds.

I’ll pick up my groceries tomorrow morning to start the meal plan, and cook up meals for the week tomorrow night. Then it’s just up to me to keep my cardio up, strength train three times a week, and do my absolute best to work as hard as I can. If I can do that, in three months I’ll be where I’ve wanted to be for the last 10 years. And all I’ve got to do is follow directions – no independent thinking required, which should be such a relief considering how overloaded my brain has been lately. Wish me luck!