Victory is Mine!

5:00 AM. 40 minutes. 10.1 miles today. Yes!

I managed that along with kicking over the dog's food, cleaning up same, shrieking because a freaking roach appeared behind my shoulder (ew, ew, EW!!!), killing same... you get the picture.

Oh, and one of the cats left a rather pungent gift for me this morning in the litter box. Better in than out, certainly; but still. It almost killed my appetite.

Almost.

One interesting effect of morning exercise appears to be that I am flat-out starved for the rest of the day, and I'm trying to mitigate that. My breakfast has been rather light (as in 1/2 cup egg whites plus 1 TBSP Parmesan "light"), so I added a little bowl of oatmeal. That didn't do much for me so I tossed in a banana yesterday. Still no luck, so this morning I upped my egg whites to a shade over 3/4 cup (because that's how much was left in the carton). We'll see how that works out. So far so good, at this point. I haven't eaten my Emergency Backup Banana yet, nor have I dipped into the This is Really Really an Emergency Peanut Butter Stash, which gives me hope that I may have hit on the right combination.

Tomorrow I'm just going to shoot for 10 miles again. 15 MPH sounds pretty good to me, but I need to watch my bike display to see what that is in RPM, then I'll have a better idea of where I am on the whole effective exercise continuum. I'm reading this article from Livestrong, and it's giving me some ideas... should be entertaining at least. Or give me something new to obsess over. Either way, it works.

This Does NOT Mean I'm a Morning Person

5:00 AM. Again. 40 minutes, made it 9.6 miles today. Maybe I'll hit 10 tomorrow?

But seriously, y'all, this kills me. Back in the dark ages when I wasn't known by the poly-syllabic "Mo-oooooom!!!!", I was a night person. The only time you'd see me up at 5 AM was when I hadn't been to bed yet. I'd teach all week, then pull two 12-hour overnight shifts at the police department (I was a member of the reserve, and was one of the few who never had trouble meeting the monthly mandatory minimum, go figure). Or I'd read endlessly. Or just stay up late talking with friends. Once I had children -- okay, children who slept through the night -- that ended. Sleep has become my holy grail, and it's rare I'll let anything get in the way of that from either end.

This is one of those times when I just have to suck it up, though. I hate waking up this early. I cannot begin to express to you just how much I freaking hate it. But I hate not being able to get in my exercise even more. I am a couch potato by nature; however, my good sense and a ton of reading tells me that I have to move a certain amount of time per day to be healthy. And because my family needs me, and because I'm rather fond of my body, that's what I'm doing, no matter what it takes.

I also know that if I don't move regularly I'll stop fitting into my clothes. One thing I did this fall when I got down in the 130's finally is I got rid of all my "fat" clothes. I literally have almost nothing I can wear in public if my weight gets past a certain point. It tends to keep me honest, and gives me a threshold I just can't cross. Maybe some people can afford to replace an entire wardrobe due to poundage creep, but I'm not one of them. I bought these clothes, they're the only ones I have, and as God is my witness they will (and do) fit, no matter what it takes.

So you're all going to hear from me every single day I get up and do this thing, even if it does mean I'm up before the birds. Because that, kids, is what it's going to take.

Oh-Dark-Hundred

Just a quickie to say that at 5:00 a.m. it is a) dark; and b) cold. Yes, even in Florida... in January at least.

40 minutes on the bike, 9.4 miles, not bad.

Day 2, Back in the Saddle

Hooray for recumbent stationary bikes! Today I went 45 minutes and got somewhere over 10 miles (I looked at my mileage but forgot it -- drat). After yesterday's weight lifting insanity my entire upper body is screaming at me. I was lifting 15 lb. dumbbells before Procedure Fest 2011-2012 kicked in, so I figured dropping to 10 pounds while jumping back in full-bore was a good idea. One day later, though, I'm thinking maybe 7-pounders might have been brighter. Oh well, too late! And the 10's weren't too heavy, so this is likely just the price I pay for being out of commission for so long.

My knees, however, are fine. I'm thrilled! Finally, consistent cardio without a limp. Well, without a joint-related limp. We'll see if my quads are more offended tomorrow. At the moment they're only mildly peeved with me, but as we all know that can easily change overnight.

Now the biggest trick: getting out of bed at 5 AM Monday to hop on that sucker for 30-40 minutes. I'm stating here and now that I will do it. So I'll report back tomorrow to confirm.... or hang my head in shame, which I'd prefer not to do.

I Haz a Bike!

I just had to chase the boys out of the room so I could type this brief entry. I told them they were very cute, but too talkative when I'm trying to get a blog post up. As they were departing, the Elder said, "I'm glad we could cause a disturbance in The Force."

Nerd like me. It'll do.

Anyway, we got the bike! Choreboy, saint that he is, was willing to turn his truck around right after he got home from work yesterday and pick it up, with the rest of us in tow. And although I don't think he was planning on assembling it last night (okay, I know he wasn't planning on it -- thank you anyway, dear!), he did it so I could get in some cardio today.

It. Was. Awesome. My knee, which is aggravated at me for hurling myself to the ground again, didn't even peep during the 40 minutes I was pedaling away. I'm still getting the gist of the programming options, but I sure can pedal at least! And after the cardio, I went ahead and lifted my weights and ran through the rest of my resistance routine.

Life is good. And now I'm off -- dinner at the parentals' tonight (we're filling in for a couple who couldn't make it for a dinner party-type thingie), so I have to scrape the muck off and spackle my face. Thankfully, rumor has it I clean up respectably. Whew.

Bike!

Okay, it's not an actual "has wheels and can go places" bike, but a recumbent exercise bicycle. That said, I'm psyched. As we all know (because I drone on and on and on about it), my knees functionality-wise are somewhere on a level lower than crap. Then that's added to the fact that I have all the gross motor coordination of a 10-month-old learning how to walk (and about the same ability) which means I fall a bunch and catch myself... on my knees.

Yippie.

Anyway, I damage myself a lot. And I needed something that was going to give me the ability to do my cardio workouts with less strain on my knee than my treadmill and elliptical. They're good at times, but when I've managed to body slam myself straight into my knee three times in one week? I need a better option.

So sometime this weekend, whenever we can get over to the store to pick it up, I'll have one. I already paid for it (Schwinn 220, if anyone is interested) because it's on sale and I'm not risking paying $150.00 more when the sale ends. It was either this or join a gym, and right now my life just doesn't have that kind of flexibility, so recumbent exercycle it is!

Now the catch will be where we're going to put this sucker. I'm thinking of moving the elliptical out of the computer room and putting the bike in its place. My only concern with that is I need to do my cardio in the mornings, because I can't count on an evening session due to the kids' homework needs. You might think the computer room should be fine for this, but due to a need for both of us to get some sleep*, Choreboy tends to end up out there more often than not. I tested the bike out at the store and it seems very quiet so it may be I can ride it without disturbing his slumber. We shall see.

If all else fails, I'll move it into our bedroom. At least that way I'll see it first thing and my commute to my exercise will be less than three feet.

---------------------------

My gums appear to be healing again, and I finally went nuts earlier this week and bought fish to eat. Apparently there's only so long I can go without actual animal protein, and since other meats can be more firm or get stringy and catch between my teeth, fish it is.

It was good. I like chewing.

In fact, this recent food restriction has had me getting a little more creative as far as my meals are concerned. I'm also cut off from broccoli (the little flowers can get caught, just like stringy meat) and had more than two weeks without any dark greens, so while I was buying my fish, I also picked up a bag of organic spinach. I washed it off when I got home and just stuffed the whole bag into a giant pot with a little (1-2 TBSP) olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and a few sun dried tomato pieces. I've eaten it over three days and it's really hit the spot, and also reminded me that switching things up a little (I tend to be an extreme creature of habit) can be a positive.

Have a great weekend, y'all! I'll be the one pedaling in the corner.

*He snores. I wake up. I rub his back and tell him he's snoring. He says "Yes, baby" and either a) falls back asleep, in which case, repeat previous scenario; or b) he gives up and moves to the computer room. It's not ideal. We're working on finding a better solution because I kind of like not having separate bedrooms :P

In Brief

There's a flattering picture for all of you! Yes, I had the left side of my mouth done today, so in addition to my usual left-eye-wandering joy, I also have left-side-of-mouth droopage because even though I got the Novocaine shots around 9:00 this morning, they're obviously pretty much in full force three hours later.

Also, I just noticed that I am much more blonde than I was almost a year ago. Remember this picture?

Yep, still arguably brunette there. Now, I'm pretty much indisputably blonde.

Oh,before I go (because theoretically this is "In Brief"), check this out! It's an article about making our cardio into a "virtual journey", so we actually have a destination in mind while we're racking up miles on the treadmill, elliptical, recumbent bicycle, or pounding pavement, etc. I'm thinking I'm going to give this a whirl in a couple of weeks when I'm back to normal(ish). Any ideas on where I should pick for my virtual destination?

Anyway, I'm off. It's too much of a hassle wiping the drool from the left corner of my mouth at the same time as I'm trying to type. For lunch I have a choice of Slim Fast or Slim Fast. For dinner I'm planning an peach-mango-banana smoothie. All in all? It could be worse.

So could the drool, but still.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Thlllllurrrrrrp!!!!!

See that *pointing up at the title*? That's the sound most of my meals are making at the moment. I just had gum surgery thanks to periodontal disease,* and for the next week I can basically eat anything I can suck through a straw. That's it. Needless to say, my dinner options are somewhat limited, and I'm fairly certain I can't liquefy a Reese's peanut butter cup so I'm in a bit of a quandary. I repeat this loveliness in two weeks for the left side of my mouth (right now only the right side has been assaulted).

Oh, and I can't have spicy foods either, which I didn't know beforehand, so now I get to return the bottle of Spicy V8 that was going to help me keep my sanity.

Adding insult to injury, I feel like I've been kicked in the jaw by an exceptionally angry horse.

On the plus side, I can have all the SlimFast I want! Uhm... yay? More like ick. But at least it keeps the calories going in. I see smoothies in my future.

---------------------

Charlotte the School Chicken is now housed inside the school office after everyone has left campus for the day. She was put in her coop one night and a raccoon almost got her (he did get a few of the feathers off once side of her head, the poor baby), and the school administration felt it was in her best interests to become an even more domesticated chicken than she was already.

She is also now laying eggs, much to the excitement of the students and the slight alarm of the staff (who I can only assume are envisioning small children finding random eggs and deciding to chuck said potential projectiles at other, much less alert small children).

---------------------

Other than that, not much is up at the moment. I'm on light activity right now, but I've downloaded some MP3s with Tabata intervals, and once I have the go ahead to start pounding pavement again I've already set up playlists with two rounds of Tabatas (4 minutes each) , so I'll be ready. That is, if my knees agree. We'll see how it goes.


*Usually I don't discuss my ex, but I will say that his theory on dentistry was "You're too sheltered. Nobody keeps all their teeth, don't be such a baby!" so dentist visits for any of us weren't high on his priority list -- it, uh, wasn't a good situation... to put it mildly.

When the Guitars Scream, I Don't Have To

I'm turning into quite the metal-head in my old age. Choreboy and I were hosing down the house the other week in preparation for the Gum Zombie's 9th birthday party, both jamming out to our MP3 players.

He? Was listening to Air Supply.

I? Was listening to Iron Maiden.

We're twisted, but it works for us.

I'm sick today, and when Choreboy came home there I was, resting in bed listening to Bullet for my Valentine's Scream, Aim, Fire album. Not something restful, no no no... no, an album labeled "Explicit" on iTunes.

I'm going to lose my Sainted Mother trophy. I just know it.

-------------------------

I had jury duty a couple of weeks ago, and of course it was the week that overlapped the 15th of the month, which is payday/ bill paying time at the office. Now if I died, they'd figure out a way to pay everyone, but as I'm not dead yet (I feel happy!!!), the plan was that if it came down to it I'd just come in the night of the 14th and run everything out for payday, then come in the night of the 15th and run out all the AP checks.

My group of jurors was slated for a felony trial. We were trapped up on one of the top floors of the courthouse for over 3 hours with no access to caffeine (speaking of cruel and unusual punishment), and right as we were about to be taken in for voir dire, the bailiff came out and said, "The trial has been continued. The judge said to tell you thank you for your service."

Most of our group agreed that this was, indeed, proof there is a Santa Claus.

-------------------------

Christmas was a frenzy of cooking, baking, and dining insanity. A week prior was the Gum Zombie's afore-mentioned birthday which included a Bakugan cake -- NOT made by me, thank goodness -- and a warm bacon blue cheese dip that was. Then we had the office Christmas party, then Christmas Eve at my house featuring Death By Lasagna and a cream cheese pound cake. The entire insanity-fest culminated at my parents' on Christmas day with more Bacon Blue Cheese dip, crazy amounts of cheese, beef tenderloin, Super Taters, and a triple-decker gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting studded with crystalized ginger.

My stomach hurts just typing all that.

-------------------------

Speaking of weight... I'm not speaking about it. Or maybe I am. Since the ablation I've been off-kilter. Cravings have been out of control, and adding to that I'm having severe bloating in my chest which isn't helping matters at all. I don't know what I weigh right now because I'm sick of getting on the scale even when I'm doing everything right and seeing it go up, and frankly, since I have not been doing everything right for the past couple of weeks or so, I shudder to think of what the results are now.

I'm getting back on that bad boy in mid-February and not a minute before. I'm picking that date because my GYN says I should know the final results of my ablation at that point, and I'm hoping that means the chestal insanity (I just went down a bra size, people -- and now I swear I'm up one! at least! and this is not a positive, kids) will have abated. Until then I'll eat and exercise as I should without the shriek-fest my recent weigh-ins have engendered.

Now all I need is for someone to start texting my lazy ass next week* at 5:00 AM ET so I'll haul my butt out of bed and knock out my cardio before I can come up with an excuse not to do it. Any volunteers, please hit me up in email and I'll shoot you the number.

Accountability is a good thing.

*I have a very bad cold on top of everything else right now, so this isn't an "I'll start in 2012" issue, so much as it is the "I can't breathe through my nose and it's dripping anyway" type.

Activity -- Huzzah!

I finally made it back onto the treadmill today. Hooray! It was the first day I actually didn't feel too gross to sweat (recovery from the ablation involves ****TMI ALERT**** discharge in varying quantities and NO tampons, which leaves me feeling like a huge pile of ick ****END TMI ALERT****), and it was good to actually move myself just for exercise sake again. I only did 30 minutes on the treadmill at a rather low 3.1 MPH, minimal incline, but bear in mind that on Friday I pitched myself over the dog gate yet again, resulting in two horribly bruised and otherwise damaged already-iffy knees.

Sad thing is, on Thursday I'd just been thinking how neither knee hurt finally! And wasn't that great? And that if I were smart and cautious, maybe I could start back to running...

Uh-huh. We all know where this is going. You know that old saw about "If you ever want to make God laugh, tell him your plans?" I always get hit by that one. Good grief.

So anyway, 30 minutes on the treadmill, hooray! Both knees were slightly displeased with me when I was done (they'd prefer I never walk again as I appear to be rather bad at it), but they've already gone back to their pre-walk distant throb, so it's all good there.

If I didn't know better I'd swear my orthopedist has set up a system to raise the dog gates at random intervals to help me trip a bit more frequently so I'll push up the arthroscopic procedure he has in mind for when I can't stand my right knee anymore. There's no one damaged structure, just general degradation of the joint and "debris," in his words. Chondromalacia patella is the actual diagnosis, which I believe is accurately translated as Damn you're old, and your knees sure know it!

Ahem.

Anyway, I can let him go in and "clean it up in there" if I want, and part of me does want, but the other part of me says "Six weeks of no weight-bearing? And this is on my right knee, which means no driving? Uhm... no. Thanks just the same." I get 2 weeks of sick leave per year which I use up by October at the outside thanks to the kids, so nothing is banked. And beyond that, the transportation issue is huge. Public transit isn't an option (it's non-existent for folks in my end of town -- we're outside the city limits and even inside it's iffy), and even though I know my family and Choreboy would pitch in where they could, there are also the boys to consider and again, SIX WEEKS. It's just not feasible.

------------------------

In other news, I made my first tart! This one was a browned butter tart topped with cranberries that I found at the Food & Wine website: linked here. Sucker took over 4 hours out of my life, but it was good.


The crust isn't gorgeous visually, although it was very tasty because I was careful not to overwork the dough and kept it chilled, but it was my first homemade crust, after all. Usually I figure the Publix refrigerated pie crust is sufficient. Practice is a marvelous thing, and I suspect this is a recipe that will have to be repeated.

Okay, enough! Must finish reading my book of the moment, Tim Dorsey's When Elves Attack. Any book with these opening lines:

"My name is Edith Grabowski. I'm ninety-three years old, and I've decided to stop having sex.

I guess you just reach a certain age,"

has my vote. Hee! Have a good one, y'all :)

Recovery Notes

What freaked me out most after the endometrial ablation wasn't anything I'd anticipated. The cramping has been minimal-to-nonexistent, all after-effects as far as bonding with absorbent devices is concerned has been minimal. All in all, it's been negligible... that is, except the weight gain. The first time I got on the scale post-procedure it was up near 145.

That's 8-10 pounds higher than it was pre-op. YIPES!! And yes, it was all fluid retention. Holy cow.

I guess because most of my recovery has been a non-issue, part of my brain has been thinking that the ablation was more or less a non-procedure. Nope, not true. My body at least recognizes that it's been traumatized, and from what I can figure it's been recognizing that by bloating like crazy. And not only was my abdomen bloated, but also my chest (I almost outgrew my bras -- eeek!), and additionally my lower back.

I think that last was the weirdest part. I'd put my hands on my hips, but sort of toward my back, and I realized it felt different. Fuller. I kept poking and poking at myself and wondering, "Huh... maybe I just didn't realize how much padding I have back here," even though I knew that something was off.

I should have trusted my gut. Because this morning, after having a weekend of having to run to the potty every hour or so, most of the bloat has vanished (including the majority of the back bloat) and put me at 137-ish.

Back bloat. Huh. Who knew?

Hooray, I'm Conscious!

Followed by School Chicken News

Hey there everyone :) Yes, I'm alive and well after the endometrial ablation yesterday. My procedure was scheduled for noon, but because my veins behaved in their historic fashion by running away thus requiring the services of the nurse who is, apparently, magic with IV insertion, I ended up going in after the person who was supposed to go after me, but I did eventually make it in. First I was in the OR, chatting with the nurses, and next thing I knew I was waking up on the recovery side of the center.

The only thing I felt was dizziness and nausea after I woke up -- no pain whatsoever. Everything went smoothly, with no surprises found during the hysteroscopy portion of the procedure. YES! Choreboy and I left the surgical center in late/mid afternoon and went to my parents' house to pick up the Gum Zombie (who's been sick, bless his heart) and to feed me a little bit of my mother's homemade macaroni and cheese. It was good, but the dryness in my mouth (I figure it was caused either by the anesthesia, the fact that my mouth was cranked open with a tube in it, lack of oral fluid intake, or a combination of factors?) made it kind of stick. Still, nothing a little Diet Coke couldn't cure.

As soon as we got home I fell into bed and crashed. I woke up about midnight, still a little wobbly and "ooky", but nothing remarkable, and by 2:30 AM the wobbliness and residual nausea had mostly gone away. I was back asleep around 4:30 AM, after eating my microwaved Quarter Pounder with Cheese, and woke up for good around 7:00 AM today.

For the record, about my doctor saying all I would need would be aspirin: she was right! I haven't even felt a twinge of a cramp. From purely anecdotal reports I've read online (like on this endometrial ablation discussion board), easier recoveries tend to be more the norm with the NovaSure procedure*, which is what I had. Not every woman has as easy a time as I'm having even with NovaSure, and I know I'm under 24 hours out so things could change, but I have to say that at this time I'm tickled pink.

*Disclaimer: this applies to my experience only, remember "anecdote" is not equivalent to "data", and that any decisions regarding your health care should not be based on my experience or that of any other layperson, but rather between you and your chosen medical professional. I received nothing from NovaSure for this statement (although if the fine people at Hologic® want to change that I'm open to compensation :P).

-------------------------------

Now what's that chicken stuff about in the subtitle? Well, here's my Facebook status from about a month ago:


I live in central Florida, and contrary to popular misconceptions the entire area isn't one giant theme park. I'm in one of the larger towns, but we still have our rural touches especially in the unincorporated areas:


Charlotte (no, not that Charlotte!) is now the Gum Zombie's elementary school's official pet chicken. Yes, they love her so much the entire school voted on her name. Hee :)

Near as we can figure out, she wandered over from the pasture next door (which also contains an assortment of goats and two donkeys), decided she likes it just fine where she is right now, thankyouverymuch, and is not leaving. It's really kind of fun, as you don't know where Charlotte is going to show up next! Kind of like "Where's Waldo," with bonus chicken droppings.

Only in my county, folks. Visit Legoland, and see Charlotte the School Chicken! Y'all come back now, y'hear?

Update

Hey everyone, just a quick heads-up to let you know I'm alive and all that happy stuff. Still 135-136 on weight, it's just so depressing that I'm not bothering to record it even though I weigh in every other day or so.

The last 5-ish pounds sucks.

I have the endometrial ablation in the morning (Friday) and I'm freaking out at the moment. I hate general anesthesia but, in spite of my insistence on deliberately birthing #2 son at home, I'm not hardcore to the point where I just want a local and a bullet to bite on.

So on the one hand, aspirin only?* Am I to take this seriously as a surgical-ish procedure? But on the other hand, general anesthesia. Riiiight...

Freaked out would definitely cover it. I'll update tomorrow after I get home. Or sometime this weekend. Here's hoping I'm like the women I've seen who've had the EA (Novasure is the exact procedure I'm having) who barely even cramped, rather than the ones who woke up in the middle of the night for pain meds to stay on top of it.

Nite, y'all. I hope someone sleeps tonight. It isn't going to be me. If the anxiety doesn't get me, the Cytotec will. Yippie.

*edited to add, this is what my doctor is recommending for post-operative pain relief. No prescription, which is fine, I'm just scared that she's too optimistic and I don't want to be curled up in the fetal position praying for death.

WW Weigh-In, Week 35

Weight: 135.75
Mood: weirdly relieved

Because it could have been worse.

And for the record, I did weigh myself yesterday and I even posted the weight in my sidebar. Unfortunately I ran out of time to get up a blog post. But the weight was entered.

Now I just need to stay on track as much as I can, and get my exercise in for the next two weeks because I'm going to be pretty sidelined after that for a bit. No, not forever, but I don't yet have word on how long I'll be out of commission for anything more than light walking (research tells me 2-6 weeks, depending on ablation type and physician preference). So best get it in while I'm able, and and afterward pay attention to what goes on in the kitchen because I'm not going to have much else to help me!

----------------------

In other aging news, today's whine is my current Facebook status:


One of my friends suggested coloring in the hair with an eyeliner pencil. Not that she's ever had to do this herself...

Have a great weekend, all!

Let's See if I Remember to Weigh In Tomorrow...

And why would I, a perfectly rational, sane adult forget to weigh in tomorrow?

For the exact same reason the Gum Zombie "forgot" his math book after I told him Tuesday morning that every night would be Math!Night here at Casa Justice. That is, until he nails multiplication/ division facts into his amazingly gyrating brain and tops it off with a heaping helping of fractions.

Poor kid. It took me until I was almost 30 to figure out that math is just another language. And I'd like for him to finish 3rd grade in well under twenty years.

So... yeah. Remembering to weigh in, and to put that number up here. Post-Reese's and post-vacation.

Ugh.

Oh, and just to cheer everyone up endlessly with more of Amanda's TMI-Fest, I finally have my ablation scheduled. Yay! It's set for November 18th, which means I'm both relieved and freaking out. My period or whatever it was this last time lasted 26 days. Sheesh, I should update my sidebar. So... yeah. I'm about done with that. We'll see how bad the recovery is. I have an appointment to get my roots touched up on the 19th, so I'd better be minimally functional the next day.

I am not missing that hair appointment, y'all. I had 3-month-long roots last time I went in for a touch-up and there will be no repeating of that travesty. Bad enough I'm feeling like some dried up useless husk of an aging female (and the kicker is that I know better than that! And I'm done having kids anyway, so what do I care that fertility is out the window? And... and... and... *headdesk*); I will NOT be some useless old husk of an aging female with multiple months of grey hair growth at her roots.

If I'm going to be a husk, at least I'll be a blonde one. Dammit.

So there.

Now I'm going to shuffle off and remind myself that chocolate* isn't going to solve this.

*Problem is, I'm pretty sure that the combination of chocolate and peanut butter might.

The Best Laid Plans

It's good to recover from vacation.

And I know the last entry was rather "blah". Seriously, though, after the events at the end of vacation (followed up, might I add, by the Elder wanting me to commit his Lego Wish List to memory -- EXCUSE me?) I think my brain finally fried.

All in all, we had a great time, the boys most especially. Choreboy and I plan to go back by ourselves to one of the parks (either Epcot or Hollywood Studios) and just enjoy rather than running willy-nilly from line to line. He's not into thrill rides too much anymore -- they're making his stomach leap about -- and I figure I can forego a rollercoaster or two in the spirit of marital cooperation :)

I'm having a bit of trouble getting back on track food-wise. I don't usually keep much tempting stuff at home, but with the holidays looming I've got it around every corner. It's even invading at work, and honestly it's driving me batshit crazy. I lost the vacation bloat pretty quickly, but I couldn't tell you how much I weigh right now because I'm totally avoiding the scale.

Until this coming Thursday, that is. November 3rd. I have a feeling -- okay, a certainty -- I won't make the 130-lb goal by then (official goal date was 11/2/11). But what I can do is eat well this weekend and in the upcoming days and be as close to it as I can. Exercise is good, but ultimately weight loss comes from the kitchen.

Speaking of exercise, I was right back on the ball with my Jillian Michaels circuit training. Yeah, see the past tense there? Yesterday morning I got distracted while stepping over the doggy gate into the kitchen, and managed to faceplant myself right on the extremely ugly, hard, mid-eighties vinyl floor. I was carrying my iPad and a Diet Coke at the time and am happy to report that they escaped without injury (I'm such a Diet Coke fiend that I manage to keep them upright when I fall). My right wrist and right knee -- the bad one -- are extremely unhappy, however. So it's back to just watching the food here, at least for a few days.

Big goal of the week? STEP AWAY FROM THE CANDY BOWL, AMANDA!

Vacation, Home From

Whew.

We went to Disney for a few days this week. Left home on Wednesday, and got back about half an hour ago. We visited four parks in two days and the boys had a blast. The highlight of their trip (outside of the resort's pool -- we stayed on the Disney site at Port Orleans - French Quarter) was getting to ride the Expedition Everest roller coaster at Animal Kingdom five times in a row during the "Extra Magic Hours" timeslot for resort guests and pass holders. Meanwhile I lost my new glasses and my sunglasses case, so I couldn't see after dark (because I was wearing the sunglasses but had the regular ones in the sunglass case). Then I was sick all day Saturday, which to be honest could have been worse -- at least we were done with the parks and were having a planned "rest at the resort" day. Then one of the children has a massive systems malfunction of the intestinal variety Saturday night...

So, more later. Right now, I'm definitely on the "I need a vacation from my vacation" train.

WW Weigh-In, Week 32

Subtitled: Really, you'd think this would be going better...

Weight: 135.25
Mood: "..."

I'm so frustrated.

[TMI-fest begins here... just so you're warned.]

On the plus side, I got the results of my ovarian cyst rescan and all is well. Well, the specifics are that the cyst on the right side, which was 3 cm diameter, has gone down to 1 cm. But now there are 3 cysts on the left ovary, two at 1 cm each, and one at 2 cm diameter. Entertaining, no? But from how it was explained to me, the fact that the cysts are flip-flopping sides and decreasing in size over time means this is just more of the hormonal hullabaloo that accompanies the perimenopausal shift.

We also did an endometrial biopsy, because as of yet my period has not started. Or maybe it has. I can't tell at this point. It's been 75 days... or so? I do know that I'm bloated as all get-out, and I'm really aggravated that I cleaned out my bra drawer last weekend. I tossed the larger cups, and right now I NEED THEM.

Oh, and I have a zit right below the right corner of my mouth. It wouldn't be so bad except it emphasizes where gravity is pulling down and is making me Google "face lift".

Anyway, I have an appointment for a week from Monday to review the results of the endometrial biopsy and figure out where we're going from there. Apparently the cystic madness changes things to a degree. Or maybe not. I'll worry about it later. I'm on vacation this week, so the heck with all of them :P

Of course, I'm going in to work today. I know, I'm on vacation. And it's Saturday. But some things just don't wait. It's all good, though, because at this point I need the extra hours to make up for all these blasted doctor's appointments.

Food-wise, I've had a rough time of it. It's not what I used to describe as a "bad time", and I catch and stop myself from making less than awesome choices -- sometimes I catch myself and kind of look the other way -- but I swear I feel like I'm losing my mind. Give me greasy food and give it to me NOW! Preferably super-sized. Thankfully, Ann wrote an awesome post over at Dr. Fat to Fit that really helped me get my mental mojo back. Lady seriously rocks. My goal for this next week is to NOT use vacation as an excuse to consume mass quantities. I plan to have fun, but I'm going to maintain my focus on whole foods and movement, and hope to come out of this with a decent weigh-in in a couple of weeks.

Have a good one y'all!

WW Weigh-In, Week 31

Weight: 134.75
Mood: I don't want to talk about it.

Okay, it's hormones. At my weight I can claim that and with the insanity my body is committing against me at the moment*, let's just say that if anyone dares to argue with me on this front at this time, they're going to get a big, whopping dose of Krayzee upside the head, mmmkay???

*TMI ALERT - skip to picture below second set of asterisks to avoid TMI!!
*
*
*
*
*
I've been spotting since Sunday, but only spotting and just barely. So tell me, does this count as a period? Or not? I can't tell to save my life. I'm fluid-y, in spite of being well-hydrated enough to withstand a month-long drought. I'm a teensy bit cranky... but it's not what I'm used to, considering that my usual state of affairs period-wise tends to be more "tsunami" than "meh". Yanno? If it's not a period, I'm at 67 days and counting. And I'm still waiting on the call back on my cyst rescan. It's been a week and no news tends to be good news. Dr. Google keeps calling, though. Damn his hide.
*
*
*
*
*
Okay, TMI-fest over. Now y'all know I love SparkPeople and almost everything about it, right? That said, check out this screen capture from my food log:

You know, there are some things I just assumed were a given. Apparently I was wrong.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Before & After

If you click through the slideshow you'll see a few familiar faces. If you get all the way to slides 17 and 18, you'll see mine.

http://www.more.com/amazing-weight-loss-transformations

What kills me is the Diet Coke in my "before" picture. Because that makes it all better, yanno? Sheesh :)