Challenge problems

Well, if my situation doesn't improve soon, Disastica will have an easy challenge.  I left work on Friday to drive to my house and mow the grass.  The grass has not been mowed since I bought the house (we closed on June 6th) but because of the drought the midwest has been having we haven't had to mow the grass since then.

So I go to the house, pick up the empty gas can, drive to the gas station and proceed to fill up the can.  Now, this is the first time I've ever done something like this, so I look on the side of the can to try and locate the size of the can I have.  (6 gallons if your wondering)  Since I was afraid of the gas spilling all over C's car, I decided to only fill up approximately 3 gallons worth.  Of course I decided this after I had already topped off C's car with gas and started pumping the gas into the can before I made a mental note of the start point, but still, approximately 3 gallons. $20 later (yeah, gas is really expensive considering I only put a gallon or 2 into C's car) I put the gas can into the trunk, and made sure it wouldn't tip over.

Wow... Gas REALLY smells strong!  I had all the windows open on the short drive home and I still felt like I was getting high off the fumes!  But anyway, I get back to the house and go to get the lawnmower.  Well, our contracts put a TON of debris in front of the lawn mower so I had 2 choices, either lift the lawnmower over all the garbage, or take the lawnmower through the house (We have an attached garage).  I chose the first option.

After a small battle (and later I found out a pulled muscle) I managed to get the lawnmower out of the garage.  I go to pour gas into the lawnmower and realize I probably should NOT have put so much gas in the can.  I don't know if its because I'm extremely weak or what, but I could not keep the can steady! I spilled so much gas on the side of the lawnmower that I was nervous it would catch on fire when I went to start it. But alas, I didn't start a fire.  :)

It took me approximately 1.5 hours to mow the entire lawn, and while I was mowing it I decided we have WAY too many obsticles and who in their right mind decides to plant 3 trees in the middle of the yard??  The good thing about the drought is one of the trees we hate has died.  C and I were planning to cut that tree down, it was a young tree and was not planted in a good spot.  So now we don't have to kill a healthy tree since its already dead! :)

Back the the lawn, The grass was so long in one spot that the lawnmower stalled twice.  Of course this spot was in the corner of my yard, and I would have to trek to the patio to try and start it again. I mean it would be way too convenient if something like that happened NEXT to the patio.

By the time I was done mowing the lawn (by the way it is not a self-propelled lawnmower...) I was sweating buckets.  In my mind I was cursing the sun as well as thinking of what to write in my blog about how I was going to kick Disastica's butt in this challenge.  I mean seriously, I probably burned like 400 calories during that whole time!  It wasn't until I was done mowing the lawn and on my way to pick up C from the airport that I realized I hurt myself.

I don't know what I did, but I think I pulled a muscle in my back.  It hurts... a lot.  At first it just hurt to move, but now there is a dull pain even when I stay still.  And then if I do move a gigantic shooting pain goes through my back.  Its to the point that I may go to the doctor.  So basically, I can't exercise which really makes this whole challenge well... challenging. 

Hopefully my back feels better tomorrow.  I've never pulled a muscle before, so I don't know if this is what it feels like.  But if it is... gross. 

Challenge Accepted.

Everyone pretty much knows my exercise/weight battle... Well, you all at least know about my exercise battle.  Basically I hate exercising and I love food.  I wouldn't say I'm fat, but I also think I could use to loose a few lbs. 

If I do say so myself, I was HOT in college.  I think it was the fact that I hated the dorm food so I pretty much only ate salads for lunch and dinner.  (The salad bar in my dorm was amazing)  It also helped that I walked EVERYWHERE in college.  I'm sure I walked a minimum of 5 miles a day.  I would frequently come home in between classes and my dorms were always pretty far from my classes.  So yeah... easily 5 miles.  In college I could eat whatever refrain from going to the gym and not gain a lb.

When I graduated college I continued to not go to the gym.  My only exercise consisted of walking to and from work.  For the first 3.5 years after graduation this amounted to 2.5 miles of walking a day.  So I still could refrain from going to the gym, but I quickly learned I couldn't eat what I wanted without seeing the results on my hips.  A little over 1.5 years ago, I moved from the suburbs (where I would take the Metra and walk a mile to and from the office - trust me I know this doesn't add up to 2.5 I did additional walking every day too) to the city, where I got dropped off either via bus or El practically outside my building.  My daily exercise consisted of walking up 2 flights of stairs whenever I took the dog out... Yeah... I know thats awful.  So over the past year, I have gained weight, and not been happy with the way I look. 

So - this morning my good friend DecidelyDisastica asked me if I would do a challenge with her.  She knows I've been trying to figure out motivation to loose weight and she needs motivation too, so we are going to try to help each other out.  The challenge is the first person to loose 10 lbs gets a mani/pedi bought by the other person.  This will happen a total of 3 times (since we would both LOVE to lose 30 lbs)  The next 10 lbs will get a facial.  And the final 10 lbs will be a massage. 

The official weigh in starts tomorrow.  And I have to say, part of me wants to slam an entire gallon of water before my weigh in so I can have a little extra help beating DecidelyDisastica, but the other part of me doesn't want to see that number on the scale with all that water weight.  So, its doubtful that I'll slam the water.

All I have to say is - DecidelyDisastica - you are going down! :)

Wish us luck all!