Help, I’m trapped inside a country music song!

The last couple of days have been a string of unfortunate events. I made the mistake of walking yesterday, and left the office in excruciating pain. I asked for some data, finally got it, and it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to get some info to my boss by Friday and I was very upset about that. He isn’t, but I sure was. Son’s dog faced puffer died this morning. Computer wouldn’t work when I got to the office. The IBM help desk does not work like the one in the commercial, and you know I had a binge when I got home last night.

Whew. Okay, pick myself up, dust myself off, and start where I am, right? I have reconciled myself to the fact that my ankle is sprained and I need to elevate, ice, use ibuprofen, and stay off it for a few days! So, no exercise for the Neca. Not the end of the world, but I was really fired up about getting back into it. Sigh. Other than last night, my eating habits are coming along fine. I think it kinda scared me though, I guess I thought maybe the stress eating was over, and last night reminded me that its not gone, just “in remission.”

Good stuff includes son’s birthday party this weekend, the nice weather outside, and a family that loves me. I mean, how many husbands would lovingly wipe the asphalt out of a crying wife’s gouged up hand? Or double bag the fish so he could be saved for a weekend funeral? Life’s pretty good, even though it can get frustrating.

Face, meet pavement

I woke up this morning at 5 with a song in my heart and a spring in my step. It was a nice 38 degrees outside, and I quickly dressed to go outside for a little jog. I made it 2 houses down the street when I tripped on the side of the pavement, wrenching my left ankle, giving myself road rash on both hands and one knee, and eating dirt. Lovely.

I limped home (crying) for my husband to doctor me up. My ankle is swollen but not discolored under the ace bandage. My right hand is sporting a combination of bandaids and that Nu-skin liquid bandage. So, no walk this morning, no walk at lunch. Hopefully with the aid of lifting gloves I will be able to lift weights this afternoon.

On the food front, things are going quite well. I had a healthy dinner of home made lentil soup and corn bread after sticking with my prepped food during the day. I have another good dinner planned tonight – roasted chicken, rice, and steamed broccoli – cauliflower - carrot medley. If I can get the food and the exercise to both come together, I’ll really feel on track. Giving up beer has been surprisingly easy.

I ordered a “Magic Bullet” off e-Bay this morning. It has blender and juicer attachments. I am tired of having to hand wash the blender every morning so I can make myself a protein smoothie. I am excited – I’m not much of one for kitchen gadgets, but this is one I’ve wanted ever since I first saw them on the infomercial.

I hope you have a good day!

A very long weekend

There was a lot of stuff crammed into this weekend for me, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

One very nice thing was going to the spa with my mom and using her retirement gift gift certificate. We each got massages, sea salt body scrubs, & lunch. Very luxurious! I also got my nails done and they are looking good. Those little luxuries were nice. Another good thing was a fast 35 minute walk Saturday morning before the winter weather started. I really enjoyed being outside, and the weather was nice until about 10, when it cooled down quickly & began to snow. It didn’t stick, but was pretty coming down.

Ginger’s funeral was of course a bit sad. Since she had been declining for months and had begun to suffer, it wasn’t that horrid shock unexpected kind of death that can be so hard. The service was lovely. A large group of us went out after and visited & reminisced.

One unfortunate thing about the weekend was the number of times I ate out – every meal yesterday, dinner Friday, lunch and dinner Saturday. That was insane! Some times the choices were decent, other times not, but the overall result was I ate too much! But I never totally pigged out or over-ate, so that is a good thing.

I also managed to get the house cleaned and the groceries purchased, but it was hard to shove in around all the commitments. The funeral was in Wilmington, so we were gone from the house all day – 9 am to midnight. Ouch. My crazy week at work is looking relaxing! :-O

My food for the week is planned, purchased, and healthy. The menu looks like this:

B: protein shake
S: cottage cheese & berries w/ crushed macadamia nuts
L: turkey & cheese with tomato & spinach on rye, and a pear
S: lowfat string cheese and 100 calorie bag of microwave popcorn
D: various
S: pudding or shredded chicken quesadilla

I came in late last Friday and didn’t weigh, but I will do that this Friday.

Hope you all have a great day.

Chunky Monkey has a plan!

Rather than focusing on the scale right now, I am focusing on good behaviors. Beer has been out for 2 weeks. Next week begins in phase-out of what is threatening to become a major diet Pepsi habit. Next week also marks the return of morning walks/runs, winter be damned. I will continue this week's focus on limiting post-dinner snacks. Meals are planned and shopping with hopefully be done tonight.

It's 69 outside, but they are calling for wintry mix in the morning. How bizarre is that? I am slowly feeling my energy return - whatever crap I've had has been a real bear to shake!

Have a great weekend!

It’s always something

Things in my little corner of the world are bumbling along. We are headed to Wilmington Sunday for Ginger’s funeral, so I am planning to take a half day off tomorrow so I’m not trying to cram too many chores into too little time this weekend.

One the food front: I’ve been beer-free for about 2 weeks now. That has to be a good thing. I am working on my emotional eating and nighttime snacking, both of which are improving. Next week I plan to continue to work on the snacking and also look to cut back on diet soda. I am hoping that by cleaning up my food intake, the weight will eventually follow.

Exercise? Not so much. I may still have a sinus infection or something hanging on because I just still feel really low energy. To make matters worse, my schedule got a bit off track while I was sick and I’m not getting up early enough to jog in the mornings. I need to re-align my schedule this weekend. I have to see my doctor in a couple of weeks – if I’m still feeling draggy then I’ll talk to her.

House: We are talking about using part of my bonus money next month to remodel our hall bathroom, which is stuck in the 80s. It’s better than when I bought the house – the horrid linoleum is gone and I covered the mauve velvet roses wall paper, but it’s a little nondescript beige box. My son first proposed the idea, and hub and I agreed it would be a good investment in the home. But of course our vacuum died this morning, and with loads of carpet + 3 dogs, a good vacuum is a necessity. I am not willing to spend money I don’t have, especially since this is a nice to do, but not a necessity given that we don’t plan to sell for several years.

Overall, I give myself a “B”. Trying not to get discouraged by the stuck scale, and take pride in the accomplishments I am making.

Mid-week check-in

I had a nice day yesterday, although I did eat the chocolates the boss gave each of us. Thankfully there were only 4.

My friend Ginger passed away yesterday afternoon. The funeral is this Sunday. I’m glad it didn’t drag out a long time. I don’t know what else to say.

There’s plenty of stuff I could write about our 2nd bath remodel, exercise, my food plan for next week, but I’m afraid my heart isn’t in it today.

I’ll be back tomorrow.

Wow.

First off, thanks for your generous comments about Friday's post. I'd never seriously considered doing one of the events before - frankly fundraising isn't my strong suit. But after reading all the supportive comments, I feel about ready to take the plunge. I'll keep you all posted!

Ginger can't hear or speak - they are using a white board to communicate with her. The end is close, but she seems to be okay with that. She struggled through breast cancer, brain cancer, the treatment etc etc. She was a nurse at Duke and I know she got very good care - sometimes there is no "Lance Armstrong" ending.

Hub is sick with what I had last week, so we wound up staying home this weekend. We cleaned the house, prepped food for the week, had our moms over for a Valentine's dinner last night, and watched some tv.

Here is the intersting thing - I have been on this medicine since last Sunday, so just over a week. I know I have been sick, but I was okay this weekend. I haven't had a binge since I started it. Nope, not over the weekend. I ate some foods that aren't normally in my rotation - I bought a pint of lowfat ice cream and ate about a third of it - spread out over 3 days and 3 servings. I dunno - I just never had that panicky "I gotta soothe myself" feeling. I've lived with that so long that NOT feeling that way seems strange.

We went to the gym Saturday morning - I did one lower weight exercise for each body part - only 1 set. And 15 minutes on a treadmill. I was tired when I was done, so I was obviously still recovering this weekend.

We got some very pretty snow - just enough to make the grass white and its gone today. That's my kind of snow storm! :-)

Hope you all have a groovy day.

Stopped Cold

I got on the scale this morning and was up a pound. I was already formulating the rant in my head as I logged on my computer. A really good one all about how I have saved my size 8 jeans and if I had to choose between running a marathon and wearing those jeans, I’d pick the jeans. Then I checked my e-mail.

My friend Ginger was moved to Hospice yesterday. If you’ve been reading for over a year, you may remember that last January I attended the funeral of my friend Michelle who died of breast cancer. Looks like this February I’ll be attending another funeral, for another friend lost to breast cancer.

Suddenly the jeans don’t seem so important, and the $1800 I would have to raise to participate in the Avon 2 day walk this October doesn’t seem insurmountable.

Return of the living dead

I am back at the office today for the first time all week. Oh, I lasted 3.5 hours on Monday before slinking home. I have had what I can only describe as a "super cold" - cold symptoms plus fever, chills, & exhaustion. If I never eat Campbell's chicken noodle soup again, it'll be too soon.

Why didn’t I stock up on Sudafed?

Did you know that when the major retailers threatened to put Sudafed etc behind the pharmacy counter, Sudafed reacted by changing its formulation? Makes sense if you are trying to sell medicine, but the new stuff sure don’t work like the old. I should know. I am sick!

This is the first cold I’ve had in a while, but its been a doozy. The weekend started off good – Chinese take-out & beer while watching Stargate Friday night. Yes, that was our date. We agreed that from now on, we leave the house for dates. But still, it was fun.

Saturday I went to the store early since K0hl’s was having a bid early bird sale & I desperately needed some new bras. I came home & hub was going great guns on the housework. I pitched in & the house was clean when he left at 10. (It was his D&D weekend.) After that, I piddled around – ran a couple of errands, got my nails done etc. Dinner was a grilled chicken salad from McDs. I colored my hair, gave myself a pedicure, and watched Sci-Fi.

Sunday I got up early to do the shopping. I had felt a little tired on Saturday and Sunday I knew the cause – I had a cold. :-( I paced myself and took plenty of breaks, but thanks to getting the shopping done so early (I was home by 8:30), I had the pre-cooking for the week done by 1. I had eaten a Lean Cuisine pizza for breakfast, had a can of chicken soup at 11, and had another can at 2. After 1, I spent the day on the sofa. Luckily my mom brought over a quiche & the hub grilled shrimp & veggies to go with it. I wasn’t up to cooking by last night – that’s for sure!

I came in to the office to check email & pick up some work, and I plan to spend the rest of the day working from home. I am coughing a lot (despite the Robitussin), so I’m pretty tired. Plus I doubt my co-workers want my funk. I doubt I’ll make the gym today given that I feel pretty craptacular.

I made a great breakfast casserole this week! I had wanted to make the chile relleno casserole out of “Eating for Life”, but a) I couldn’t find whole canned chiles at W-M, b) it seemed like a lot of work, and c) it seemed not super healthy.

Here’s my version of chile relleno casserole:

3 cans diced green chiles
1 c cottage cheese (I know – but its useful!)
4 eggs
4 egg whites
4 oz. shredded lowfat monterey jack cheese (I used the kind with jalepenos)
2 chopped green onions.

Mix well. Bake in a Pam-ed baking dish at 350 for about 45 minutes, or until solid in the middle.

This was great! I had a side of grits since it needed a carb – the portion was really big!

My mommie is the best, and another use for cottage cheese!

I started having nasty cramps with a vengence yesterday, so the only exercise that happened was my lunchtime walk. Ugh. And we had mexican take-out yesterday. I had a cheeseless burrito meade with steak - not the best choice, but not the worst. But no beer! Still feeling craptacular today, but I'm gonna try to hit the gym this afternoon.

My mom retired last month and last week they gave her a retirement party (which she really didn't want). When they asked her what sort of gift she wanted, she told them a massage. (You'd want one too if you'd taught 8th grade for 30 years!). They gave her a $200 gift certificate to a local day spa! So she invited me to go with her! We are each getting a 45 minute massage, a body scrub, and lunch. Woo hoo! I can't wait! See how nice she is - she could have shared it with anyone, but she chose to share with me. :-)

Here's another cottage cheese idea for people who hate cottage cheese: when mixing up ranch dressing mix, use pureed cottage cheese in place of the mayo. What's in ff mayo anyway? CC has to healthier - and you don't even taste it. I'm impressed, both with the recipe and my own creativity! I gotta figure out a new snack though - cottage cheese & berries is getting old. Maybe a tuna patty?

Hanging in there!

Another decent food day yesterday. I had some pretzels and a faux beer after dinner, which would have been okay except I'd already had a fudgecicle... Right now I am too easily tempted to have trigger foods in the house. I plan to send the pretzels to the D&D game with hub if there are any left.

I went to the gym yesterday. I finished about 2/3 of my lower body workout - my legs are sore! I knew it had been long enough that I would regret doing the whole thing, so I didn't. I also walked at lunch. Today is walk at lunch plus intervals on the elliptical after work.

Hub will be gone to his D&D game this weekend. I often use this time to eat without being observed (A glutton in her native habitat as it were). Yeah. I WILL NOT DO THAT THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!