“After Tia defeated Jeshe, Grey City becomes a safe haven for escaping Muri slaves. But King Bastion is on a mission to stop them and has a secret weapon; his magic-wielding queen, Anasia, who is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure Grey City falls.”
This is a direct sequel so you need to read the first one to understand the second.
I weighed myself again today and I was 204.6 but I take that with(out) a grain of salt. That little tick downward was probably just water weight. Actually, if I think about it, all of what I’ve lost the last couple weeks is probably water weight. Hey, I’ll take it.
The big challenge is as of today, no more Saxenda. I’m probably going to be really grumpy… But I have plenty of coffee to act as a natural appetite suppressant.
This flavor was really good. I might try mixing this one with the cookies and cream one. I bet it’ll taste like pumpkin-flavored Oreos! But I’m a freak and I think chocolate and pumpkin taste good together. One of my favorite fall treats is the Trader Joe’s muffins baked with chocolate chips in them.
Maybe that will be the first thing I eat after NYCC is over.
I’m enjoying trying out the Dead Sled coffees I have around. This one is cookies and cream and even though I put too much cream in it, I like this one. It’s really satisfying.
Today was just the desk peddler since I had a lot of work to do at work and tonight I’m working on finalizing my new story to release on Friday. I just want to make sure things flow right and I catch as many typos as I can before the book releases.
My MyFitnessPal account is public if you want to friend me on there but as you can see, I have lost 2 more pounds. I’m 206.8 now after creeping back up to 211 when I took on this challenge to fit into the cosplay dress. There’s exactly a week before NYCC and maybe I can drop another 2, fingers crossed. I don’t feel any different; other than accomplished with what I’ve done so far. I’ve lost 25.4 pounds since I started the Saxenda. The real challenge now is to keep up the progress off of that medication. The side effects are NOT something I want to deal with while spending hours walking around in the city or Javitz Center with public bathrooms as my only option AND wearing a costume. Noooooooo thank you!
This is almost the last of the chicken and sweet potato I figure there’s one more meal’s worth out of those leftovers which is perfect because tomorrow I work late and have to bring two meals to eat instead of one. I plan on making my usual meat and bok choy to use in my electric lunch box. Misfits Market has been on point with the bok choy lately. They don’t always have it and I just can’t get broccoli from them anymore.
Ahh, spooky season is upon us and I finally cracked open my Elvira Deadsled coffee. I have some other kinds I’m going to try soon, too.
Since I had some meetings today, I used the peddler rather than just sit there. It’s easy to forget how long you’re peddling when there’s something else to pay attention to. It was a productive day; got a lot of work and side work done. My previous post was the cover to my current soon to be published work so I’m pretty happy about that.
Since it’s the upper body that’s not fitting in that dress, I’m still working that area. This week is my period so I am super nervous on trying on the dress to see if I made more progress. I tend to horde a lot of water weight and even though I logically know this, it’s still going to feel like crap if it fits even worse.
In terms of what I ate today, it was just a repeat of yesterday. If the food is good, I can eat the leftovers for days. Tomorrow will probably be the same unless I break and get a burger or something.
Ciro buys more than he bargained for when he purchases a slave capable of bypassing the brand on her magic. He drags her on a journey with him to learn her secrets, but his own may kill them both.
and I’m almost done editing! So, it’s time for a cover reveal. I’m still working on a blurb but I’m saving that for when the manuscript is ready to publish when it’s cleaner and passes the “does this make any sense’ test. That’s my project for the week so, expect more info on this book soon!
You could see earlier cover reveals on my Patreon!
Since I was off today, I was doing chores and didn’t do any cardio. I decided to keep up with the kettlebell workouts to build my muscles and strength. It’s only an 8 pound kettlebell but with all the reps I do, I can feel the pain.
As is my habit, I like to have a major cooking day at the beginning of the week if I have the day off. Today, I baked a whole chicken with sweet potatoes and onions. I brined the chicken overnight in saltwater and lemon pepper with some sage, thyme, and garlic powder. I dried the skin off, seasoned it inside and out with kosher salt and pepper, then put a slab of butter inside the bird while it cooked. I also put butter on the potatoes and everything turned out juicy and delicious. I portioned out some for lunches tomorrow (one for me, one for the kid) and there was still some left after I stripped the meat from the bones.
The temperatures are dropping and this was the perfect comfort dinner. It’s gonna need to cool off more before I have a pot simmering for hours making broth but this was just right. And it has plenty of protein and vitamins I’m lacking from my last blood tests. While this is more work than just nibbling on a gummy vitamin, this tasted much better.
Holy shit, I made it… I worked from last Sunday to this Sunday and I finally get a day off tomorrow. Man, I wish I could sleep all day but, there are chores to be done; including meal prep for the rest of the week.
Part of my life goals in general is to use up food that’s in the house and I had some sweet Italian sausage but no veggies in the house. I literally Googled the meat and saw whatever the most popular recipes were and bought some green and yellow squash before I went to work. I just sliced up some garlic and onion and this was a good meal! Even the kid liked it (who claims to hate squash) and I have some left over to eat tomorrow.
I was able to break 4k steps today and I just needed a fucking break from cardio so, it was kettlebell time. Now, the reason why I focused on shoulders and back is since I have been making some progress, I tried on the cosplay dress this morning. I was able to get it on better but not zip it up. I rummaged through my closet and found some shapewear that I bought and never used and when I managed to squeeze my fat ass into it, the zipper went just a bit higher. The problem? *sigh* My boobs. They are just too powerful for the dress…
I kid (mostly) it’s more like my back area just under and around my boobs. But I’ll tell ya, I have a completely different opinion on shapewear now. I decided on a lark to try on a dress that I bought years ago (and it was the same size as two other dresses in the same order but somehow was too small) and not only did I get into it but… I was kinda hot? Like, dangerous levels of confidence here.
This inspired me to work on the back fat and look into some shapewear that will also minimize my chest area to maybe finally get that zipper closed. Eda’s dress is pretty conforming to the body and other than my back, it looks amazing. Even with my big ass.
Before and after pics? Yeah, no thanks. If I fail, I don’t need this immortalized on the internet to taunt me even after my death. I have 10 more days of veggies, protein, and a lot of workouts to see if I can reach my goal. It’s going to be an adventure since I have some extra long days coming up where I won’t be home at my normal time to workout after work… This is why I want to meal prep on my day off so I don’t need to cook for a few days. I’ll probably drift into the house like I’m haunting it and fall into bed rather than cook anything. But we’ll see what I get done tomorrow.
I managed to squeeze this in on a day where we were short staffed and I ended up helping this very nice man with his Google Docs for over an hour. While darting about helping other people. Good news is I helped him out and learned that you can merge Google Docs with an app. That’s pretty cool.
This was dinner after having a gyro platter for lunch (no pic, I forgot). I get my gyro platters with no dairy so it’s less calories; basically, it’s a salad with some lamb meat on the side.
Yup. I broke. I walked into the house after work and faceplanted right into my bed. My brain is fried and my body is tired. I need a treat or I’m gonna fall down. It’s just one and I have my kettlebell workout to do later. I’ll burn it off.
I also got in a walk during my lunch break; a quick 20 minutes and later I’ll do the kettlebell workout for 15 minutes. I think I need an extra stretching session to wind down more and get ready for work tomorrow. I am mentally so exhausted. And I’ve still been writing every day. I think I deserved that one beer.
I did the bike and kettlebell today and man, my thighs were feeling it again.
Since my food was just a repeat of the previous day, I didn’t take any pictures. It was exactly the same meal and I didn’t make anything for dinner because I was still full from lunch.
Mostly, I am so tired from working so many days in a row. It’s almost done so I can finally have a day off soon. Then I can actually put two words together to make a longer post.
I felt the need for some muscle work today so I brought out the kettle bell and did some squats instead of all cardio all the time. Building muscle burns fat and also, repetition can get boring.
As it was my late night, I slept in through breakfast so I only managed to grab a grapefruit and some almonds for lunch and had a big dinner. My last blood tests said my iron was low so I put steak in the electric lunch box today. I had some bok choy from Misfits Market and some snow peas to use up. What I noticed is since I’m trying to slim down quickly and lowered how much salt I eat, the soy sauce I used to marinate the steak was overwhelming. And I’m the type to put salt on a salt bagel.
When I prepped my dinner for today, I made the same for lunch tomorrow. I’ll have to water down the sauce. I actually got a bit of a headache from all that salt. Luckily, I don’t have any problem drinking plenty of water to flush out my system.
