My Provincial Life

I feel like Belle in Beauty in the Beast. I've said it before, but I'm feeling it again.

Listen to these lyrics, and tell me it's not my little small town life:

Little town, it's a quiet village.
Every day like the one before.
Little town full of little people.

Every morning just the same,
Since the morning that we came
To this poor provincial town.

Look, there she goes.
The girl is strange, no question.
Dazed and distracted, can't you tell?
Never part of any crowd,
'cause her head's up on some cloud.
No denying she's a funny girl, that Belle.

She's nothing like the rest of us,
Yes, different from the rest of us is Belle.

There must be more than this provincial life!

(Side note: Bryan is thinking about looking at jobs outside of this poor, provincial town. I'm trying not to get too excited because jobs for next fall aren't up yet. Also, Oklahoma may try to keep us here longer. The Beast.)

A Few of My Favorite Things

With the freedom to eat anything I like again, I've gone a little crazy. That's what happens when you deprive yourself of something you really want: you create an unsatiable (irrational) desire. That said, I had a delicious weekend.

Homemade Pizza
We already had the ingredients on hand: Jiffy Pizza Dough (delicious - just add water), spaghetti sauce, feta cheese, green peppers, red onion and garlic. Ours was so delicious that we ate it up before taking a picture.

ChipsOh, boy, I love my chips. We went to dinner with friends at a Mexican restaurant and enjoyed chips and salsa. For lunch, I made myself a peanut butter sandwich with Baked Lay's as a side. We went to Target and bought up our favorite "specialty" chips: Archer Farms Sweet & Spicy Thai-Style Chili.

(I did take that picture.)

Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby
This treat is extra funny now that my husband has been working out so hard to keep himself from being a chubby hubby and me being as-big-as-a-house spouse.


That's really it. We don't ask for much, and I think our new challenge of doing Jillian Michaels' workouts twice and menu-planning for healthy eating with a few allowances for treats like pizza, chips or ice cream is going to work great for us. We are trying to work healthy living into our lifestyle, and it's just not possible through deprivation. Even if it is, that's not the life I want.

There is no love sincerer than the love of food. ~George Bernard Shaw

Before and After

After the winter season, I weighed a health weight. This is May. Size 6-8.


After a month of running, I dropped two pounds. Size 4-6.


After a month of Jillian Michaels, I dropped 5 pounds. Solid size 4 with some being too big.


In total, this summer, I've dropped almost ten pounds. I am six pounds from my ultimate goal weight. Thanks to Jillian Michaels, I have lost ONE INCH in my bust (sad face), THREE INCHES in my waist and FOUR INCHES in my hips. I feel great; my clothes are looking great, my legs look incredible and I'm fitter than when I got married. I'm pretty proud of myself, and I know that I will reach my goal weight. I'm looking forward to shopping for size 2 clothes!!

Why I Quit Jillian Michaels

I have a confession. Last night, I quit the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Making the Cut diet. To be fair, my husband and I analyzed it and talked about it and weighed it and thought about it for almost a full day before we came to the decision.

First, right before we did the workout yesterday, we realized we're supposed to do each workout twice. Whoops. Second, we have both plateued. And with only 7 days remaining, did we think we would be THAT much better with the diet than without? Third, we are both craving foods like pizza, chocolate, soda, beer and Chickfila majorly. And if you know us, we're really bad at encouraging each other. So we knew that if one of us broke, the other would, too.

So, we decided (and shook on it) to continue Jillian Michaels' workouts for the rest of the 7 days and...

IN EXCHANGE for the diets, we would (after a week off) try the 30 Day Workouts again - and do them twice from the beginning for another month.

I have to say, it's a pretty fair conclusion. Especially if we're thinking about being healthy long term. Why deny should we deny ourselves things if we'll only want them more? So, we're off the diet. We'll keep working out, be conscious of our food decisions but will allow treats like chocolate and beer and Chickfila when we crave it.

So, yeah. We quit. Who cares? We don't. We're adults. We can do what we want.

Comedy and Love

I love all sorts of things, but my absolute favorite things in this whole wide silly world are Bryan, improv and chocolate.

Two outta three aint bad. Only 10 more days until I can have chocolate again.

Comedy Show!

My hilarious husband and I are bringing back our show to Tahlequah. This Saturday!

We decided that we wanted to do our duo show at festivals - and we've fallen in love with the Ghostlight Theatre in OKC, and we love to do shows there. It's tough because there isn't a comedy scene in our small town, and we really want the college team to be successful, so we schedule them 8 shows a year (4 a semester, following Bryan's genius ideas from MTS).

BUT we get to do a show. It's great to be able to perform for friends, coworkers and random people we meet on campus. It's fun to show the college kids that we actually are good at what we teach. It's awesome to be known as the comedians in town. And, well, I like not having to travel to do my gig (but actually, I do love going to Philly, Carborro, Orlando, Clemson, Chicago, NYC...); it's only two minutes from our house.

The University President will be there (you know, cuz we're buds) with his wife, and I'm planning to pull him onstage for Puppets. Fun but low pressure - and I know he won't put us into anything too compromising. I'm hoping that it will sell out, and I'm hoping the video footage is great, so we can upload it for my mom, Bryan's mom and all our friends to see.

Thursday Pep Talk, Yo

In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours.
-Ayn Rand

What a Week!

Realizations of the week:
This Jillian Michaels 30 Day Challenge is more a test of my self control and willpower. Doing what feels like 100s of squats and sprints and lunges. I have to keep telling myself that I can do it, and you know what, I can. It's painful, and it burns and it feels like I can't, but I can.

Not eating junk food isn't so hard. I don't care really about the cookies or the chips (although I would LOVE some chips). I am sad that we can't go out to eat. Every meal must be made at home.

I love watermelon. I slice up a watermelon on Tuesday, and I've eaten half of it already. It's delicious, and I keep eating it because it's sweet and it's easy.

My job is tough. When I agreed to the position, I thought it would be fun and challenging. Well, it's both. With more challenge than I thought. I feel a little underqualified for this position, but I'm hoping that I can grow into it. So much to do, so much thought, so many meetings!

Bryan and I are doing a comedy show next Saturday. And I dropped off 2 comps with the University President (and now friendly colleague of mine) yesterday. He just sent me an email saying Thanks for the tickets, can't wait for the show. He and his wife will be there. FREAK OUT!!! Now the pressure is REALLY on for the show.

Run.

Life and Jillian Michaels

I called my parents and talked to them for awhile. I missed my mom when she was in Africa with my Dad for an African mission trip. I love calling her on my (five minute) drive home from work, and I like to talk to her while I wash dishes or fold laundry or sort the mail. It makes me feel like I'm home. I haven't seen much of them this year, and I miss them. We'll spend Thanksgiving with them, and that's pretty awesome.

One of my friends announced their pregnancy privately to us, and I talked to my mom about shopping for baby gifts. Immediately, my Dad got excited. I told them hold on. I have to give my sisters a chance to catch up, I say. When really, all I want to do is hold onto my freedom a little bit longer. I want to be able to sleep in as late as I want, go away on improv weekends, randomly take road trips, spend money on silly purchases and cook dinner when I'm hungry. I'm excited for my friends, and I'm actually really looking forward to how I will feel about the baby and parenting after seeing it so close to my heart instead of on the internet or in movies or via facebook.


Jillian Michaels is killing me and Bryan. We woke up at 5:45 this morning to get our workout on since we're having a guest tonight. I thought it might be a bit presumptious to think that he would want to join us in an hour long 200-lunge workout. And now we're resting. Resting until Wednesday's Day 8 workout which I am SURE will be even worse. I shouldn't be looking at the scale, but I've dropped 3.5 pounds. (tiny dance party)

I'm aching for the fall semester to begin. It's only a week away, but it feels like forever. Let's get some students on this campus, and let me get to Vietnam! I want to do my first year of recruiting!

Also, I relived our show in Oklahoma City for the festival when I uploaded the pictures to facebook. Gosh, that was so much fun. We've got a show in Tahlequah in two weeks. Last year, we sold out and people didn't know us. I'm hoping to kill it even harder this year.