B&A trials and tribulations

We had a fantastic weekend: delicious food, time with friends, Revenge-watching, and gym time all abounded. Which means that basically I'm too tired and sore for it to be Monday already. Blargh.

Last night was the Super Bowl, which I'm sure you had no idea about. Although I really couldn't care any less about the game itself, I'm always happy to watch it (and eat snacks) with friends. Especially when the friends make up an exciting Bingo game to play while the game is on!

I highly recommend that all of you less than sports-enthusiastic folks start incorporating Bingo into your future sport-watching-events. Even if you don't know what half of the football-related squares mean, you can keep yourself busy trying to spot celebrities in the crowd and looking for talking animals during commercials. I played three Bingo cards (the other two are in the name of my pets, if you can't see) because I'm extra-dedicated like that.

I also recommend Super Bowl food. But you probably already knew that. Dips, pigs in blankets, and brownies for dinner? Don't mind if I do.

Relatedly, the abundance of awesome snack food this weekend meant that we spent a fair share of time at the gym. And riding our bikes! It warmed up really nicely on Saturday (mid-60s) and we decided to hit the road on our bikes for the first time since...probably...August or so. It was great, although my 'bike legs' are definitely a little weaker than they used to be! It was nice to just enjoy a leisurely ride and check up on our little town.

So I've been facing a true conundrum...maybe you can help. Or relate, at least.

Obviously I'm not slaving away at the gym six days a week just because it's fun and I like my workout clothes (although both are true to a certain extent). I like seeing results. But since I'm a little terrified of scales, I like to celebrate the NSVs when I can (if you know what that means, it means that you've hung out on the My Fitness Pal message boards and/or fitness blogs!) (I'll decode for the rest of you: NSVs = Non-Scale Victories). A pair of pants that fits a little better than it did a few weeks ago? Catching a glimpse in the mirror of a slightly defined muscle in my arm? I love those things!! And I also love before-and-after pictures. NOTHING is as motivating as seeing the positive differences in your body in a side-by-side comparison. I love when other people have before and afters, and I definitely want them for myself. The only problem is actually getting them.

I actually managed to take a few pictures the day we joined the new gym, a little over a month ago. I wasn't really being intentional and thinking "oh, this will be my 'before' picture!"...I was just being silly. And I haven't shared those pictures anywhere because they are awful. But oh well. Turns out they'll be my 'before' pictures, so if I ever have a good 'after,' maybe you'll see them after all. But for the last week I've been wanting to take a progress monitoring picture. You know. To see what I accomplished in a month, if anything. But getting a picture of this nature at the gym is hard!!

I want to take it at the gym (and not at home) because the floor-to-ceiling mirror situation is SO much infinitely better than trying to get a picture in my tiny little full-length mirror at home. So in theory, this makes getting a gym picture really easy. The only problem is that THERE ARE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE AT THE GYM. And people have eyes. Judgey eyes. And when you try to take full-length selfies in the mirror...they turn those judgey eyes your way and it hurts, people. It hurts my heart to have them judge me. I feel the need to justify why I'm doing this. To over-explain. I feel like if they knew that the pictures are for before-and-after purposes, and not just because I think I'm a super sexy beast, they wouldn't judge so harshly...but like...there's just not enough time to track down all 50 judgey people and explain the situation to each of them. 

So I've been stuck. I've been stalking all of the mirrors, looking for my opportunity to find one with no other people around it so I can stealth-snap a picture...but I've been pretty unsuccessful. At this rate I'm not going to get a one-month picture until it's been two months...

On Friday I was almost successful. I found a mirror in the locker room and there was no one around and THIS IS MY CHANCE!!!!!, I thought. I whipped out my phone, rushed over to the mirror, and got ready to snap a picture.

And then someone came in. And I got startled and jumped as I took the picture, AND I didn't have the phone on silent and so the camera made the tell-tale CLICK!! sound, which drew the attention of the girl entering the room, and I was sooooo embarrassed. At this rate I'm going to have to leave my gym. Everyone thinks I'm the lamest person on earth. BUT I JUST WANT A STUPID BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURE! 

 So here we have it. After one month of Super Gym Dedication, I look blurry like Bigfoot. Oh well. It's something.

So feel free to give me your professional tips on getting great (I'd even settle for decent) before-and-after pictures and/or managing the judgmental eyes of fellow gym people.

I've got a busy week-- we leave for a little Texas mini-vacay later this week! That means my brain is 75% consumed with my packing list and 25% consumed with thinking about the fastest possible route from the Houston airport to the nearest place that sells kolaches. You wanna know the real reason I've been going to the gym 6 days a week? IMPENDING KOLACHES. Anyone wanna see some before-and-afters of my Texas trip, aka Kolache Tour 2014?

Yeah, didn't think so. Ha.