Getting Fit in 2008

So I’ve been MIA for a couple of weeks.  Let me get everyone caught up.

The week of July 14, our neighbor across the street went into the hospital at the beginning of the week, he was having problems breathing.  He was diagnosed with lung cancer about 4 months ago.  So on my way home from work, I would stop at the hospital and see him, and when I got home after his wife got home, I would take her over some dinner, just a plate of whatever we had.  He came home on the 18th, but he didn’t look good, they had found out that the tumor in his lung was getting bigger and starting to block his airway.  So when he was in the hospital, he was given radiation to try and shrink the tumor.  They thought they had when they sent him home.  Saturday the 19th, I weighed in, I had lost 3 pounds.  We did some shopping, came home to find out that the ambulance came and took him back to the hospital, he was still having problems breathing.  He died that afternoon.

The week of the 21st, I spent just hanging out with the family and trying to explain to Brianna why her Ernie wasn’t outside in the mornings now when we left for daycare.  The funeral was on that Thursday.  Their family from out of town was leaving on Saturday, so Friday night we made them a big ole dinner and took it over so that they didn’t have to cook at all, and could spend the time with their family.  That Saturday, I weighed in and I lost nothing, but I didn’t gain so that was okay.  I didn’t pay attention to my water, my food or my exercise.

This last week, the week of the 28th.  Work was crazy busy, I had 6 request for propsals going out the door that I was responsible for, I was working 12 hour days.  By the time I got home, it was all I could to do eat some dinner, and snuggle with Brianna, I fell asleep like that more times than I can count this last week.  But I just weighed in and I lost 4 pounds.

I’ve been really good this week about my water, watching what I was eating, and working out in the AM, but I didn’t do my Pilates in the PM.  I can tell a difference about the PM, so I’m starting that back up tonight.  I think the workouts in the AM really helped my stamina.

 Nate bought me the 10 Minute workouts off the infomercial, it was an early birthday present.  At first I thought, okay what is this really going to do for me.  Let me tell you, it was all I could do to get through the first 10 minutes, it really gives you a workout, so that’s what I’m going to do for the next month.  Brianna and I ar heading to the water park today, so I need to get moving, it’s going to be 100 degrees, the water will feel good.

I promise, I’m back and will be checking everyone’s blogs this evening.

It’s already Sunday, where did this weekend go?  I did great yesterday on my WW points, and am doing good today.  I need to get my Monday set for work tomorrow.  My SIL is watching Brianna all this week, which seems easier, but it throws both of us off of our routine.

 Not much going on today, laundry and housework, usually I do it on Saturday’s but it was too nice yesterday to be inside.

I’ve been really bad about coming here and posting lately.  I don’t know what is up with that, but I need to get back on track.  I gained 2 pounds this week.  I know why, I haven’t been careful with my food, right now, I’m in a mentality that I’m exercising, so that must mean that I can eat more.  I’m really upset about with myself for it.  I knew it was happening which is why I have kind of stayed away from here, I didn’t want to be accountable for it last week.

So this morning, I pulled out my WW stuff, and I’m going to start counting my points, yes I will get activity points, but they won’t add up to seconds or thirds at the dinner table!

Work has been busy and stressful, but more stressful than busy.  There is a chance that I might lose my job, if I do, I’ll be given 60 days notice.  But I work for an office supply company, who just got bought out by another office supply company, so together it will make the world’s biggest office supply company, but we received communication that no-ones jobs are guaranteed and that we would be given 60 days notice.

Thursday night we went swimming, it felt so good, since it was 100 degrees here, last night we took Brianna and my niece and nephew miniature golfing, they had a great time.  Today was errands, Nate is working his side job, and Brianna wanted to stay with Nana, so that was fine by me, I went and got my errands done, and am now just waiting for Nate to get home, if he gets home early enough, we might go swimming.

A couple of people have asked me about drinking so much water and how I do it.  So here is the deal.  I drink 24 ounces of water with every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner, then I drink at least 16 ounces if I have a snack.  That gets me to right around 100 ounces of water, so I just fill in the rest of the time.  But lately, my commute to and from work is about an hour, and I have been taking a bottle of water with me in the car when I leave, and so I generally get in the rest of my gallon of water that way.

Do I get tired of just water, YES!!!  So I found this stuff:

They also make it in orange, and it tastes just like you squirted a wedge of which ever into your water, it’s a refreshing change of pace. If you go to their website, they will send you some free packets to try.

I also have to have my water ice cold, or I won’t drink it. I found some ice cube trays which look like cylinders so that they will fit in water bottles, so in the evenings I fill them up, in the morning, I take them out and put them in a plastic bag, then fill them up again so that in the evening I can take them out and put them in a plastic bag. When I go somewhere I take water with me, but I fill the bottle up with ice first. Sometimes I will mix some of the lemon or lime in for the ice so that I have something different.

I used to drink water all the time, especially when I lived in Arizona, but then just got in the habit of drinking soda, now I’m trying to get back in the habit of water. I’m proud of myself, in the last month I have doubled what I was drinking, I started at 64 ounces, then made myself go up to 80 ounces, then 100 ounces, now 128 ounces (1 gallon).

I’m not sure where yesterday went, but it was gone much faster than I wanted it to be.

Yesterday, work was busy, being gone for a day and a half took it’s toll.  I spent all day yesterday catching up on last Wednesday and Thursday, so that I could spend today catching up on yesterday and keeping up with today.

Last night my new cell phone came, so I spent the evening getting everything transfered, when we were in Kansas, my old phone decided to start automatically shutting itself off everytime I would end a call, or just whenever the mood struck.  Most of my phone numbers transfered over, but not all.

I drank a gallon of water both yesterday and today, and I have made enough trips to the bathroom, I think I wore a path in the carpet at work. 

What a weekend, I’m glad it’s over, there was too much going on.

July 3, we did our volunteer work at the hospital.  It really makes me appreciate that I have a healthy child.  Spent the afternoon getting ready to get on the road, picked up my mom, found out my brother and sister in law were nowhere to be found, he hadn’t picked up all the balloons in his truck, wasn’t answering his cell phone.  Finally they showed up almost 2 hours later, my mom was livid.  If there had been an open grave at the cemetary, it would have been filled, and she would have used cement instead of dirt.  :)  So we ended up on the road 2 hours late and it was a 9 hour drive.

July 4, we finally got into town at 5:30 in the morning.  My brother, SIL and their kids were on the 1st floor, Nate, Brianna, my mom and I were on the 3rd floor, my niece and nephew and daughter of course woke up once we took them out of the car, so they came up to our room and were watching TV while we took a catnap.  My mom, who still hadn’t calmed down from the night before seemed to find any and every excuse to go knock on brother and SIL’s door just about the time they probaby were getting to sleep.  Can you say DRAMA!  Then everybody who was there for the reunion were finally waking up, and the drama in our immediate family kind of subsided for a while.  I will say though once my grandfather found out what they did, he talked to them, by the time he was done talking to them, they were apologetic to my mom.  Then it was off to the reunion, my mom’s cousin lives on some really nice acrage, and the kids had a ball running around, I think they explored every inch of the property and some of their neighbors.  It was a nice time, Nate came back to the room with 2 pets (ticks) that we needed to go find some matches for so that we could get them off of him.  We went out to dinner, then sat out in the parking lot of the hotel and watched the local fireworks.  Then off to bed.

July 5, the alarm went off at 3:00 am, we were on the road by 4:00 am.  The kids slept about half of the way home, which is why we left when we did, made it easier on them travel wise, well that, and it was going to be hot, by leaving when we did, we didn’t have to use the air conditioner until after we had stopped for breakfast.  We were home by mid afternoon, and I think we all crashed, it wasn’t so much the traveling as it was the heat hitting us when we finally got home.   I did do my pilates that night, and it really felt good after sitting in the car for so long over the last couple of days.

July 6, Today has been all about getting ready for the week ahead.  Doing the little bit of laundry that we had, getting Brianna’s stuff ready for day care, I needed to go out and get a card for my boss, because his birthday is tomorrow.  I went and got my nails done, it’s been a really relaxing day.

I didn’t exercise, or worry about what I was eating all weekend, which isn’t good, and I need to get back on track this next week, but I didn’t gain anything while gone, so I’m happy about that.  I did eat a hamburger at the reunion, but then I filled my plate with the veggies and fruit mostly, other bad stuff was thrown in there, but honestly, I only put a taste of something on my plate, it satisfied me wanting to try it, but didn’t let me over indulge.  There was more family drama today, but that’s over with, just made for an interesting morning.

I have a few minutes before my mom and I leave for Children’s hospital.  We are volunteering there in my dad’s honor this morning.  Then I have to get everything packed, the car loaded, the balloons filled for tonight.  I took the carseats that we bought to donate to the city over yesterday, that felt good.

I’m doing better, I was just overwhelmed yesterday, it just felt like everything was coming down on me.

I already bought a couple of gallons of water to take with in the car, almonds that I have already put in snack size bags, granola bars, and fruit that is already sectioned and put in bags so I can just grab and eat.  I tend to snack more when I am on long drives, so if I’m going to snack, at least it’s going to be a healthy one!

Thank you for your kind words last night, I needed them.  I won’t be on again until Sunday, so I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Remember one thing this weekend - Be good to yourself, because if you aren’t no-one else will think they have to be.

I’M DONE!!!!!!!  I don’t know how much more I can take.  Monday I had to deal with the headstone potential fiasco (although I still giggle every once in a while about it), Tuesday my Vice President of Sales told me he is leaving the company, his last day will be the 16th; today my direct manager told me she is staying with the company, but moving to a different position in a different office; tomorrow would have been my dad’s 67th birthday, and we will be going to the cemetary to let off balloons.  Then our weekend plans got changed.  We are now going to a family reunion in Kansas, leaving tomorrow night after we let off balloons, not getting into Kansas until about 3:00 in the morning; doing the reunion on Friday, then leaving again to head home after fireworks Friday night.  My Aunt and Uncle were supposed to go so they could bring my grandpa back, but they are sick with the flu, and I don’t want my mom to make the drive alone.

So, I’m done, I think I can handle change pretty well, but it’s just too much all at once, and not only is it just the changes, it’s just and emotional week for me.  I used to love the 4th of July, it was fireworks, BBQ, family getting together, and with my mom’s family in the mix, there is always close to 100 of us when we get together. 

But now, because my dad’s birthday is on the 3rd, I dread it coming around, I miss him so much.  After my manager talked to my manager, the first thing I wanted to do was call my dad, 2 years later and I still just want to call him.  I still have his cell phone number and work number in my cell phone, I can’t delete them.

I only worked a half a day today, and driving home I was so emotionally drained, the first thing I thought about was going out to dinner to our favorite Mexican restaurant (my comfort food), luckily we can’t haircuts tonight, because I don’t know if I could resist today.

Well this blog is a downer, sorry.  I’ll try and blog again tomorrow before we leave, otherwise I will talk to everyone on Sunday.

Yesterday was tough, working out on my Pilates machine helped me last night.  Working out this morning has helped too.  I haven’t taken any measurements, but I think I might have Nate help me measure this weekend, so that I can measure in August and see what kind of progress I have made.

Emotionally, yesterday was draining, it would have been so easy to give in to the cheeseburger, but I know that I am better than that, and I know that my dad wouldn’t have wanted me to.  I just have to get through Thursday emotionally, it would have been my dad’s birthday. 

Then Friday is the 4th of July already.  I know we are heading to our Cities fireworks event Friday night, but I’m not sure what we are doing the rest of the day.  I think we will probably just BBQ.

There is a lot going on at work, I think one of the executives that I support resigned, and I really see a couple more doing the same.  So honestly I probably have a couple of months of being on an emotional roller coaster, better to really start paying attention to why I want to eat instead of just eating.  That’s a goal for me for the next year, listen to why you want to each and only eat when you are hungry.

So they set my dad’s headstone this morning.  I’m glad I went out there, because we actually found out today, that my dad is buried in the wrong spot.  It’ sounds bad, and at first, emotionally it was like a punch in the gut, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds, my dad is buried in a small town cemetary about an hour away.   We have family plots that butt up against the North fence, there is no-one who can be burried to the North of us.  Well directly to the West of where my dad is burried is a “walkway” that runs the length of the cemetary, it is about 5 feet wide.  Well when we had my dad’s plot opened, they misread the map and put him in that walkway.  I never really thought anything of it, because I thought we had the plots that were in that area also, I didn’t know it was a walkway.  So when I got there, they had the ground all marked where to put the headstone, and if I hadn’t said anything, his headstone would have been right about his belly button.  Between that and just the emotions that came up from seeing his name written in stone, I was a mess, I needed to stop and get some lunch on my way back, so I pulled into Burger King, I really wanted to order a cheeseburger with everything, and an extra large water, but I didn’t, I ordered their grilled chicken salad, and a bottle of water.  I can tell you though I craved that cheeseburger all afternoon.

Brianna did her last tumbling class of this session tonight, I went over and watched, she is so proud of herself when she walks accross the balance beam, she gets off just beaming. When she was done, we went swimming, Nate had fed her and him before they went, when we got home, he took over shower duty and bedtime, and I heated up some grilled chicken, and steamed veggies.  Still not a cheeseburger, but it was good.