Eye on…what?

Oh, hey. It’s me again.  Anyone still around??

I haven’t posted in almost two weeks.  That’s bad.  I think it’s been akin to not wanting to get on the scale at the doctor’s office because I don’t want to get berated for not doing what I should. 

On Monday, July 9th, I threw out my back.  I’d had a nice, vigorous workout the day before at the gym, and then somehow I threw out my back by drying off after my shower.  Yeah.  I didn’t believe it at first, either.  I tried to fight it.  After about 2 minutes, I just had to lie on the bed and wait for my husband.  Oh my gosh, I was in so much pain. 

Halfway through the day, I thought I’d suck it up and get up – the naproxen I’d taken was helping and I thought, “oh, I’m being a wimp. Gotta get my wimp ass out of bed and go help the sitter with the boys.”

I literally couldn’t carry their food from the freezer in the garage back into the house.  I had to call uncle and hand the pizza to the sitter.  I tried to sit on the couch for a bit, but that was too painful, so I went back to bed.

I spent most of Mon in bed.  Then I went to work for 1/2 a day on Tues…came home around 1pm and slept through most of Wed.  Literally.  From Tuesday afternoon until Wednesday night, I’d slept roughly 18 hours. 

By Thursday, I was feeling MUCH better, but still taking it easy.  Thursday night, I played around on the Wii a little bit.  My step counts were horrible for the week and I was trying to do anything to not completely backslide again.

Saturday, we went to the pool and played around at home.  I got in 10,314 steps that day, so I felt pretty dang good. (I also killed one of my pedometers by walking right into the dang pool with it on! Thankfully they gave us two!)

Yesterday, we went to a local fair of sorts – a “Taste of” deal where restaurants and food vendors sell you samples and give out freebies.  We came home with about a dozen small bottles of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (yum!) and drank more Yakult and McDonald’s smoothie samples than anyone ever should (but it was HOT and those were FREE!!). I also raked in a total of 13,608 steps yesterday.  Finally.

My scale numbers, however, have me completely confused. I know I’m having issues with bloating off and on and that’s not helping.  One day the scale says I’m back up to 241lbs, the next it says I’m back down around 237.

The bottom line?  I’m sick of bouncing around in the same area – a set of numbers not that far below my original weight of 245lbs.

I need to get it together.  I need to get back to counting calories, hitting the gym more, etc.  Yes, I need to be careful with my back, but I don’t want to stall out.

 

My husband and I are going on vacation next week. I’m crazy excited!  A whole week WITHOUT ANY CHILDREN. 🙂  Yes, I love my kids, but we both need a break.  Our oldest is headed to camp and the younger two are each going to a grandma’s for the week. 

Last time Rick and I went on vacation together was our honeymoon last year.  We went to Jamaica – all-inclusive, Sandals resort.  We ate and drank and slept and lounged and ate some more.  I left for that trip at my lowest weight in years – 214lbs.  We came back and just got lax and lazy.  We didn’t go to the gym as often, we had gotten accustomed to eating whatever and drinking more than we normally did.  I gained over 30lbs in the past year.  Not good.

In an attempt to not let this vacation turn into a repeat of last year (because, honestly, I can’t afford that, physically!!), I’ve tried to plan some ACTIVE “activities”.

We’re hitting a concert Sunday night locally.  Monday, I have to work – dangit.  I used more days this year than I’d planned and still have a couple I need to use in the future, so I’m just taking off 4 days from work.

Tuesday morning, we have some appointments in town…then we’re headed to San Antonio.  Our hotel is walking distance to just about everything – we will do lots of walking!  Wednesday, we’ll wake up, have breakfast and head up to New Braunfels to go tubing.  Not exactly strenuous, but there’s a decent walk back to return the tube.  Our Keens will come in handy for the water/hike combo!

Wednesday night, we’re meeting up with an old friend of mine from childhood. I can’t wait!  Yes, I’d rather not look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy when I arrive, but it doesn’t matter. I haven’t seen him in about 16 years. We recently reconnected and I’m just looking forward to having a few drinks and a few laughs.

Thursday morning, we’re going on a 2 hour bike tour!  I love my husband for agreeing to these crazy things.  I’ve been keeping an eye on Groupon and Living Social for the past month or so, looking for deals we can use on our trip. I found the tubing deal and this bike tour deal.  2 hours on “beach cruisers”, so it won’t be killer, but it will be a great way to see Austin.

And hopefully we’ll burn enough calories that I won’t feel guilty with the drinking we will likely do Thurs night.

Friday, more hiking/tubing with my brother and his wife – they’re taking off for the day and I can’t wait to spend the day with them!  They’re both very active and I usually worry about keeping up, but I think Rick and I are both doing better than we have in a while.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to drive back on Friday night because our oldest has to be picked up from camp bright and early on Saturday!  Back to reality… *sigh*

I’m excited about our little trip – I feel like I’ve injected enough physical fun to keep it from being a complete lounge/drink/eat vacation. 

 

Once again, I’m rambling. 

I want to get motivated again.  I think I’m feeling stuck in a rut and hopefully a vacation will invigorate me.

Also?  Why the heck is it so hard to find a bathing suit in JULY!??!  I was so bummed when I found the perfect one-piece bathing suit at Torrid only to find out they were completely out of my size both in store and online.  The back up options I’d chosen were also sold out.  So were the suits I liked at Lane Bryant!  grrrr.

I was really hoping for a cute one piece.  Looks like I’ll be rockin’ the tankini down the river and praying to God I don’t fall out of my tube and lose my draws!  🙂

Personal Best & Yummy Food

The GCC challenge for this past weekend was to beat your previous Personal Best step count in one day.  My previous PB was 19,314 (or something like that).  And guess what?  I SMOKED it!

Tada!

It wasn’t easy!  I thought I had a plan in place that would knock it out by dinner, but boy was I wrong!  I played some Wii Just Dance with my kiddo in the AM, I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes, I took an hour long Zumba class, I walked to/from the pool after lunch, I even walked in place at the laundromat (long story – washer temporarily broken!) and played some more Just Dance that night.  By the time the boys were in bed, I was exhausted.  And I’d hit 18k steps. 

Rick told me to come lay down with him so I could rest for a bit. I said no.  I told him if I laid down, I’d fall asleep…and I’d be SO MAD at myself if I got THIS CLOSE only to pass out!!  No no… a rest on the couch while he rubbed my feet (because he’s the best husband ever!) was enough. I didn’t want to lose what little steam I had left.

He went to work and I went to do my usual Wii Fit/Just Dance stuff. I wasn’t feeling it.  Never mind the fact that the stupid Wii Fit said I was up 1.2lbs and wanted to know why (screw you, Wii Fit!! I’m full of water and I’m dog tired!!), my feet were sore,  my legs were tired… I just wanted to get it over with!

So, instead, I watched some mindless TV and walked/jogged in place.

Before I knew it, I was at 20,025 steps!  I sat down for a bit to rest.

And then something got into me… I wanted to hit 21k. I didn’t need to, I just wanted to.  No one was pushing me – I was just pushing myself.  I got up and did some high steps for the rest of the show – decided to just stop when the show was over.  10pm came and – voila! – 21,032. I went to bed feeling pretty damn proud of myself.

Funny thing is, no one else on my team set a new PB.  In fact, of my friends at work that I’ve spoken to, none of them have, either.  Everyone’s had some excuse or stopped short or whatever.  This makes me even more proud of myself and my determination. And I’m thankful that my husband supported me in this mini-challenge rather than talking me into quitting!

 

Meanwhile, I’ve had a pretty good food weekend.  We had date night Saturday night, so there were some less-than-stellar food choices made, but I still ate my veggies and tried to be “good”!

Yesterday was a food-tastic day.  Saturday AM I volunteered at Bountiful Baskets (juggling produce can be quite a work out!) and when I was done, I came home with my crazy-good haul.  Tomatoes, celery, onions, cherries, mangos, nectarines, lettuce, cantaloupe, blueberries, potatoes!  So much goodness!  And this time around, I ordered their Organic 9-grain bread.  OMG, so delicious. And only 65 calories/slice – not too shabby.

I also bought some raspberries and kiwi at the store on Friday… plus we still had some plums & apricots leftover from last week’s basket.  Our fridge is full of whole-food goodness.  It may sound dumb, but it makes me so happy!  And I love it when my kids beg for fruit for dessert – that puts a big smile on my face.  I want SO badly for our children to grow up making better food choices than I was making in my younger days. 

Rick and I had some berri-licious smoothies before the gym yesterday.  After the gym, I had a sandwich (roasted chicken, spinach, cheddar and bbq sauce grilled on 9-grain bread) and fruit.  Then a yogurt (I was starving!).  Had some fruit for a snack later in the afternoon. 

For dinner, I made hamburgers.  I threw about 1/3 of an onion, 3 mushrooms and a few basil leaves into my mini food processor (gotta hide the veggies from the kids sometimes! haha) and then mixed them into some 93/7 ground beef.  Added some Mrs. Dash, breadcrumbs and an egg… mix mix mix… then I let that all rest for a bit while I tried my hand at a fruit tart.

I didn’t use a recipe and I can’t even really recall exactly what I did, but it didn’t hold together all that well, so I’ll just post my picture and tell you it was delicious!  Messy, but so good!  I made it with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.  Oatmeal/brown sugar topping. Nom nom nom.

Back to dinner!  After the tart/pie thing was done cooking and sitting out to cool, I put the oven on broil and turned my bowl o’ meat into 6 patties (4 for me and the kids, 1 for Rick to have at work overnight and 1 for me to have lunch today!).  These were less than 1/4lb, but I smashed ’em out thin and they were delicious.

My kids make fun of me when I’m taking pictures of my food…

Once again, the bread from BB made an appearance.  Topped with cheese, tomato, spinach, mustard and ketchup… this burger was probably one of the best I’ve had in a while.  Can’t wait for lunch!

This morning’s breakfast was also a winner.  Scrambled eggs with spinach, tomatoes and swiss. 

I’m having fun with food. I’m enjoying the good stuff so much more. Today, I packed myself another burger and nectarine for lunch, cucumber salad and a string cheese for one snack, yogurt and almonds for the other snack.  Just looking at those foods makes me happy.  I don’t care how silly that sounds! 🙂

 

This morning, I got on the scale and proceeded to try really hard to NOT mentally beat myself up. I’ve been doing SO well, I don’t care if the number on the scale doesn’t always reflect it. 

To prove to myself that I’m making progress, I bust out the measuring tape.  There’s already a difference just since last week.  I’m not recording my measurements more than once/month, but it was such a boost to see that I am slimming down, even if the numbers on the scale don’t always say so.

I want to go for my physical later this year and have the doc go, “Wow, that Lap Band has really helped” and then just smile and tell him I did it on my own.

Two of my favorite “motivational” posters