I am excited! As you know I'm here in Afghanistan but I'm excited because I'm almost home. What I mean is that this year in 2013, I will actually be going home to the states!! YAY ME!! We got here in 2012 and this is what we've all here been looking forward to (even if it's not happening anytime soon). 2013!!!

I'm REALLY excited because it means that I'll be able to take control of my finances instead of having my parents do it for me. It means that I will be able to get a debt pay off calendar in the works. It means that I'll be able to drive my own car. It means that I'll be able to wear jeans. It means that I'll be able to use a bathroom without having to get completely dressed in the middle of the night and having 5 "neighbors" right beside me. LOL!

It means that I can finally have a room by myself instead of three to twelve roommates. I can have my laundry room and have my clothes done in an hour or two. I can eat what I want instead of eating what's available. I can actually take control of a lot of things instead of relying on someone else to do it. I can actually be able to wear my hair down!

To all of you that haven't been deployed, you have no idea it is to be restricted in what you can and cannot do on a personal level. Everyday we work. There is no "off" time. It's 24/7 here. And it gets even harder if you get injured here which is the current position that I'm in. I had a previous injury that healed when I came here (fractured foot) and at the end of Nov I injured my knee. I've literally have not been injured for about one month (no pain and able to actually walk/run without any adverse effects).

I've been trying to lose weight since I've been here and have only managed to lose 6.4 lbs as of this past Saturday. Yes it's all about my diet mainly but it's almost virtually impossible to count calories or carbs here. It's about portion control and that's the reason that I was overweight in the first place (248 lbs at my heaviest before I joined the military).

Right now as long as I can pass tape I'm good to go. But I'm working on passing weight which might be something I may not be able to do. Why? Because after doing a body-fat percentage on myself, I have 143 lbs of lean muscle mass. For me to make weight I need to weigh 154 lbs. I need to actually LOSE muscle in order to make weight. So my plan would be to keep the muscle I need and lose the muscle I don't need (do you know how hard it is to do push-ups?!).

In fact I can't even do standard push-ups right now because my knee gives out when I put weight on it. Just kneeling on my knees is difficult. (I injured my knee when I fell of a trailer, I believe that I hyper-extended it at the time. Right now the P.A. believes that I don't need surgery and that the ligament was torn. So it'll be a slow recovery. I believe that I need physical therapy which I've asked for but I haven't received it as of yet). I will do push-ups on a stability ball so that I can at least keep up with it. My idea is muscle fatigue for push-ups then try doing them with a weight on my shoulders. I want to be able to do 50 standard push-ups with no issues.

At least I have no issues with doing sit-ups as long as no one is holding my feet. So I do 100 of them with a 6.6 lbs medicine ball and will work my way up 13.6 lbs. My goal is 80 sit-ups in two minutes (I currently do 61 because I keep stopping).

There is nothing I can do for the running right now. I will start walking/biking again next week as long as my knee doesn't swell up like a balloon again...

I just can't wait to get back into things in the states! I REALLY want a subway sandwich! HAHAHA!!

Appreciate the little things in life people, you never know when those will be taken from you. Then you'll realize how much you miss being able to call/visit your family whenever you want to. Or even go to the grocery store. You have no idea how much I want to just go to the grocery store just because I can. And I HATE to shop. LOL!

See ya when I see ya!!! =D