Weekend Plans

Hey Humble Readers...

Have I ever told you about the month of May in our family?  With my side and my Beloved's, we have a total of 10 birthdays and 2 anniversaries.  Three of the birthdays are today, and another is tomorrow.  And several of these birthdays are milestones as well. 

This weekend we are celebrating my SIL's 50th and my MIL's 75th.  Thankfully, this family gathering is just a short jaunt south, and is relatively low-key.  Most of the family is camping at a small campground (we will go out Saturday morning and come home to sleep, then go back on Sunday).  Thankfully, the forecast is calling for only a small amount of rain over the next few days. 

Today of course, has been a day of preparation.  I've done my grocery shopping, made a big batch of potato salad and made a dozen devilled eggs, made sandwiches for our lunch tomorrow.  I'm trying to plan for my own snacking, while still having a few fun 'camping' treats for the wee-lings and my Beloved.  I've put together a small smores kit, and have sliced apples and carrots ready to go into the cooler tomorrow.  I am purposely not going to buy any wine coolers or beer, as I usually would for a weekend like this, because I know that will just undo all the work I've done this week.  It will be hard enough to get my water in while we're out there, I don't need to add completely useless calories and sugar into the mix. 

The car is mostly loaded now, except for the cooler.  It's ridiculous how much stuff we need to haul just for a day out of the house.  Laundry is done.  My kitchen is clean... ish.  It's been a long day, and I'm pooped.  Tomorrow morning brings a blood donation (hopefully, if my iron is good) and then we hit the road.  For now, I'm going to zone out in front of the tv a bit before going to bed. 

100 Day Challenge - Day 5

Starting Weight - 309lb (heaviest was 318lb in the fall of 2009, lowest was 234lb last October)
Weight at Beginning of Challenge - 267
Current Weight - 260.6
Total Weight Lost During Challenge - 6.4 lb

Exercise

• Walked (with poles) 5km
• arms & abs (10 min)
• stretching (5 min)
• grocery shopping
• total number of steps - 10500

Water

•  6 glasses water (4 litres)

Food

• Breakfast: Breakfast sandwich (skinny multigrain bagel, cheddar, egg, ham, sriracha)
• Lunch: Shredded chicken, sliced tomato, cottage cheese
• Dinner: Ranch Chicken Club Sandwiches (bacon, lettuce, ranch sauce Italian bun), Salad (lettuce, kale, tomato, cuke, BBQ dressing)
• Snacks: 1 devilled egg

A Meltdown and 100 Day Challenge Updates

Hey Humble Readers -

Rain rain, go away...

It's been raining for two days now.  Solid rain.  While it's great for our sprouting sunflowers, it's not so good for wee-lings who have gotten used to being able to go to the park on a regular basis.  It's also been a downer on my walking, as I don't enjoy exercising in the rain.  A nice romantic walk in the rain is great, but trying to work up a sweat for an hour while you're sopping wet is no fun. 

Yesterday was a challenging day all around, but mostly in the evening for me personally.  We ended up getting phone calls from both sides of our family, basically demanding to know if we were going to be traveling for a couple of different family events (to my mom's as we had originally planned, and to a family reunion/big birthday party on my Beloved's side) in June.  All of these people know our current situation, and we have said repeatedly that until my Beloved gets a job, we can't commit to anything. 

And they ask the most ridiculous questions... 'When do you think he'll be working again?' and 'Well, is he looking for work?'.  For pity's sake... I have no idea when the job opportunity is going to come.  Yes, he's looking for work... what do you think he's doing, sitting on his thumb while I slowly disintegrate under the stress?  And the constant, 'Any news?' question is driving me insane!  As soon as we have any information, I'll be shouting it from the rooftops, I swear. 

Throw in a rough night's sleep (Pippin had a bad night, and the little bit of sleep I did get was filled with nightmares), and today has been a bit of a washout... pun intended.  I dozed most of the morning, and haven't done much all day.  After dinner I made my sore butt get up off the couch and do some marching in place (with 2-2lb weights), and my arms and abs workout.  Didn't get the number of steps or distance that I would get walking outside, but it's better than nothing. 

*****
100 Day Challenge - Day 3

Starting Weight - 309lb (heaviest was 318lb in the fall of 2009, lowest was 234lb last October)
Weight at Beginning of Challenge - 267
Current Weight - 263.4
Total Weight Lost During Challenge - 3.6lb

Exercise

• next to nothing... crappy rainy day combined with poor sleep = no motivation
• total number of steps - 2300

Water

• 6 glasses water (4 litres)

Food

• Breakfast: Raisin Bran & Milk
• Lunch: 1 pc fried chicken, Ham & cheese sandwich, tomato
• Dinner: BBQ turkey burger w/ cheddar (bbq sauce, onion jam), 12 French fries (yes, I counted them), salad (lettuce, tomato, cuke), Italian dressing
• Snacks: 1/4 cup choc chips, ice cream

100 Day Challenge - Day 4

Starting Weight - 309lb (heaviest was 318lb in the fall of 2009, lowest was 234lb last October)
Weight at Beginning of Challenge - 267
Current Weight - 261
Total Weight Lost During Challenge - 6 lb (all water, I think)

Exercise

• Marching in place with 2 2lb weights (38 min)
• abs & arms (10 min)
• total number of steps - 6400

Water

•  6 glasses water (4 litres)

Food

• Breakfast: Breakfast sandwich (skinny multigrain bagel, cheddar, egg, ham, sriracha)
• Lunch: 2 ham & cheese sandwiches, sliced tomato
• Dinner: Greek Orzo and Shrimp Salad (tomato, cucumber, feta)
• Snacks: popcorn w/ butter, ice cream (the last of it!!!)

100 Day Challenge - Day 2

Hey Humble Readers...

I'm totally exhausted so I'm just going to post my notes on today for the 100 Day Challenge. 

100 Day Challenge - Day 2

Starting Weight - 309lb (heaviest was 318lb in the fall of 2009, lowest was 234lb last October)
Weight at Beginning of Challenge - 267
Current Weight - 263.6  (lots of water weight lost)
Total Weight Lost - 3.4lb

Exercise

• walked (with poles) 5 Km - 1 hour
• abs & arms (with 2 lb weights) - 10 min
• 25 squats - 5 min
• stretching - 10 min
• total number of steps - 8500

Water

• 6 glasses water (4 litres)

Food

• Breakfast: Breakfast sandwich (skinny multigrain bagel, butter, 1 egg, cheddar, ham, sriracha)
• Lunch: Slumgullion leftovers
• Dinner: Fried Chicken (homemade, 2.5 pieces), 1/2 cup Mashed Potatoes, Salad, Italian dressing
• Snacks: Ice cream

I know I shouldn't be having the ice cream.  I know.  Particularly after fried chicken (which is something I only make once or twice a year).  Once the ice cream is gone, I won't be buying any more. 

Updates and A 100 Day Challenge

Hey Humble Readers...

If anyone is still out there reading this, I owe you all some updates. 

So, here we are, a month later and still no job for my Beloved.  Honestly, I'm not handling this well.  My stress level is pretty well maxed out and my eyes have been twitching for weeks.  He has had a couple of interviews, but nothing has panned out.  He did get a couple of good prospects at the end of last week, so we'll see how those play out for us. 

We are at the point where I'm probably going to have to go back to work soon, at least temporarily. Thankfully, there is an option for me at my old store.  And we are also talking about the distinct possibility of having to start looking outside of the Shire for work for my Beloved.  We don't want to have to change cities.  I'm not at all excited about the prospect. 

Pippin had a follow up hearing test today, just to be sure that the results we got six months ago were accurate.  His speech is still very delayed, but he is showing some progress.  There are several words that he says regularly, even if they are really only decipherable by my Beloved and I.  Bubble, purple, ball, car, fly, shoe, cup, Mum, Da (dad), bless you, down, up, uh-oh, and bye-bye.  He's still teething his two year molars, and there are times when the poor kid will just grab his cheeks and scream.  Not fun.  We are still having to tape his diaper with packing tape at nap time and bed time.  His eczema has flared up again (I think tied to his teething), and is as bad as it ever was. 

Ginny is 3 and a half, going on 15.  She loves the park, the library, and our little garden on the balcony.  Honestly, I don't know what she's going to do when my Beloved goes back to work because we won't be able to go to the park as often as we have been.  She does a few lessons every day at ABCmouse.com and is doing really well with her letters and numbers.  I think she's feeling the stress in the hobbit-hole... she's regressed on her thumb-sucking.  She had cut it back to just when she was falling asleep a few months ago, but now it's sneaking back in during the day.  Oh, and she's become quite the little gear-head... she can recognize and name several different makes of cars and their logos. 

My weight-loss plateaued quite a while ago now, and started going the wrong way.  The size 16 jeans that I bought in January aren't comfortable at all now.  And a few months ago I got rid of all my capris from last summer because they were too big... Sadly, they would probably fit me fine right now AND I don't have any capris to wear now that the weather has warmed up. 

Because of my realization of my current weight situation, I have come up with an idea.  I am going to challenge myself to 100 days of change.  Starting today, and until September 2nd, I am planning on posting my daily progress and efforts toward getting myself back on track.  I'm very angry at myself for allowing the weight to come back, for the poor choices I've made.  I want to use that anger as a catalyst, and if posting here will keep me accountable in some small way, then that's what I have to do. 

And hopefully, I will get my bloggy poop in a group and strengthen my writing muscles again in the process. 

To that end, here is today's update. 

100 Day Challenge - Day 1

Starting Weight - 309lb (heaviest was 318lb in the fall of 2009, lowest was 234lb last October)
Current Weight - 267lb

Exercise

• walked (with poles) 5-ish Km - 1 hour (forgot my pedometer)
• abs & arms (with 2 lb weights) - 10 min
• 25 squats - 5 min
• stretching - 10 min

Water

• 6 glasses water (4 litres)

Food

• Breakfast: Breakfast sandwich (skinny multigrain bagel, butter, 1 egg, cheddar, ham, sriracha)
• Lunch: 2 peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwiches
• Dinner: Slumgullion (ground beef, tomato soup, sour cream, onion, garlic, peas, macaroni), salad (romaine, tomatoes, cucumber, Italian dressing)
• Snacks: popcorn w/ butter, ice cream

Overall, a good day in terms of getting my butt moving, but pretty bad with food choices.  I didn't snack in the morning, so I know that's why I ended up making some poor choices in the afternoon. 

No-Good-Very-Bad Month

Hey Humble Readers...

I'm sorry to have been absent for so long.  Things in the Shire have been challenging at best, and down-right awful at their worst. 

It started a month ago, when I tried a new workout and on my second time through the workout, I managed to hurt myself in a big way.  The workout wasn't anything big, a short and quick routine that involved doing leg lifts (both sides), squats, some tricep curls with light weights, 15 push ups (from my knees), and 30 crunches.  Pause for a minute, then repeat... do this three times.  Sounds pretty easy, right? 

Well, I managed to damage my left shoulder.  I thought I had just strained it and didn't seek out medical attention for a couple of days, until every breath was bringing tears to my eyes.  A trip to the ER, and low and behold, I had slightly torn my rotator cuff (or so the ER doc claimed).  I left the hospital with a Rx for naproxen and orders to do no heavy lifting for a week (ha ha... with a very large toddler in the house?  Not to mention an active preschooler?  I ended up having to have help for a couple of days to manage the kids). 

Here's the thing... apparently, I can't take naproxen.  I don't know if it was a reaction with my regular meds, which my pharmacist should have caught, or if I've developed some sort of sensitivity to it (used to take naproxen regularly for menstrual pain when I was a teen and young adult).  Whatever the cause, I was only able to take the meds for two days, because I ended up feeling like I was having a heart attack.  Breathing was still painful, my chest was super tight, shooting pains up my neck, tremendous headache, and I could feel my heart banging against my ribs it was pounding so hard.  I stopped taking the meds, and went to just extra strength ibupro.fen for a while.  I still wasn't feeling great, but it was better.  It wasn't until I went completely off the ibu about a week later that I began to feel better.  I can still feel it in my lungs occasionally, and it scared the tar out of me.  I will be getting my doc to make a note in my file that naproxen is a no-go for me from now on. 

I was just starting to feel better from all that mess when we woke up one morning to Pippin puking his guts out.  Grand.  The next day it was Ginny puking, and by that evening it was me.  Pip seemed to recover quickly, but then developed roseola (baby measles).  Ginny and I took a couple of days to get over the stomach flu.  And then, just as we were starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, when I thought I might be done cleaning up puke for the time being... my Beloved got slammed with it.  This is the man who never gets sick.

It's been a week now since we were all sick, and I was beginning to think we were coming to a bend in the road.  The weather has been improving, and spring is finally starting to emerge.  I have been able to get back out walking, and while I'm not up to the 6km I was doing last year, I'm feeling good about getting in 4km in 45 minutes. 

That bend in the road I was hoping for, well, it came today.  It turned out to be a blind corner that led us right off a cliff.  At 8:30 this morning my Beloved came home from work with a pink slip and a severance package.  He's been laid off. 

Needless to say, I've been hovering on the edge of panic for the last few hours.  His severance amounts to a little more than a month of his salary.  My Beloved has been, for the most part, taking this in his normal stride... nothing frazzles that man for very long.  He's been quiet and just focussed on playing with the wee-lings while I stomp around in anger and frustration. 

I am trying very hard to get to a place where I can be optimistic about all this... we weren't 100% happy with his job, but it was a good paying job and the company was paying for his CGA courses.  The benefits package wasn't sufficient for our family, either. I can only hope and pray that the right door will open, and will open quickly. 

In the mean time, I will likely be raiding our Christmas savings jar, and all vacation time we had planned for this year is out the window (oh my mom isn't going to be happy about that).  I'm really trying not to panic too much, but if he doesn't find a new job quickly, we could really be in a bad place financially.  If you pray, could you please remember our little hobbit clan?  I would appreciate it.