A Brand New Day: I'm just sayin'.....

I had a bit of a challenge remembering how to get to my blog it's been so long. Well I thought I would quickly do a blog to share with all the people who take the time to read my little blog to know what's been up with me.

I have been super busy with work....learning the ropes of a new position. I have been in Clinical IT for 3 years and supporting electronic medical records as a Clinical Lead for 3 of our System's 11 hospitals. Then in May, I got reassigned to another clinical application...The application that support our Cancer Center's in our System and my role kept evolving to the point that now I am the Application Owner the application. New job, new responsibilities, and the only experience I had was all my years of leadership in Nursing positions...and the clinical IT lead role. But this job was altogether DIFFERENT. I went from dealing with clinicians (something that I am very familiar with and comfortable doing) to the technical aspects of IT. I had no clue about the infrastructure that made our clinical applications work. So, I had a humongous learning curve and had to network with a bunch of tech guys and vendors to keep my application running smoothly. There's the citrix guys, server guys, interface guys, network engineers, database guys, storage guys...and it goes on. And my application requires all of them to function optimally. So I had to learn really quick how to problem solve when my application requires support. Is it a citrix issue, server problem, SQL issue....on and on. I QUICKLY made friends with some key people in each role and Google and YouTube became my best friend.

After several months I have learned a ton...lol. I have an admiration for all the tech geeks (I say that affectionately) out there...and I am a geek wannabe now :). I love my job and I have made some great geek tech friends. It took some time to earn the trust of some of them...especially after I made a few bad calls. I used to blame all evil on our citrix environment....poor guys, but now I see things better. The citrix guys rock....my favs.

Well, while I was filling my head with all this tech knowledge, I was also filling my mouth with all the free catered food that came in as I was learning the application through leading a new physician office start up with the application. Long hours, mental fatigue, long drive, and all kinds of sweets caused me to add 15 pounds of fat on my body. I continued to train, but despite that, calories in far exceeded calories out and I just kept getting more curvy as time passed. Ha...I like the term curvy versus fat lol. Whenever I have boobies....I am way overweight. After all of that hard work I went to New Orleans and on a cruise....and gained 7 more pounds. When it was all said and done the scale said it all. 174 pounds!!!!! Yikes.

169 pounds here with my mom and sis

New Orleans with my bro, mom, sis-in-law and hubby

So on January 2nd, I started eating right and acting like I have some sense and I have lost over 15 pounds and am down in my 150's. I am still heavy as my ideal weight is around 145....but I look presentable. Believe it or not I did not have to buy new clothes, but I looked like shit in my clothes....muffin top and some back fat and some of my sweaters...well I could not button them all they way up. But, I refused to buy new clothes. I fit them much better now, but still have a ways to go. I am finally to the point that if I suck it in I can wear a 2 piece bathing suit without gagging when I look in the mirror. But I still have to suck it in to look somewhat presentable.

I will post pictures this month sometime....promise. Markus has been so awesome. As I continued to get more curvy, he never made me feel bad about it. Always encouraging and helpful, he continues to be my dude. (That means my coach......in Annette speak). I don't want his wife hunting me down...lol.

I am training in the morning and my diet is simple....very simple. Protein oatmeal, a couple pieces of fruit, a protein shake here or there if I don't eat enough protein in chicken, fish, or occasional beef. I eat a ton of green veggies and only do 1 cheat MEAL a week. I can't wait til I can go back to my cheat DAY.

For the girls in my audience...my skin is looking great. I have been taking great care of it...a goal I had made for myself last year. I am using Paula Choice products and what has made the biggest change in my complexion is adding a 20% Vitamin C + E Ferulic Acid serum from a brand called Timeless Skin Care. This product has brightened my complexion and has given me an overall more youthful appearance. I don't think I look 50 years old. This stuff has taken at least 10 years off of my appearance. I have been blessed with good genetics in regards to minimal wrinkles, but I did suffer from hyperpigmentation which can make me look older.

And I am still in love with makeup. I love it, buy too much of it and it just makes me giddy. Little makes me more excited then seeing the UPS or Fedex guy dropping off a package of makeup goodies that I have ordered.....hahaha!!!!