Potty Emergency! (this post is not as gross as the title implies)

For most of my adult life, I’ve had what my doc likes to call “Idiopathic Peripheral Edema” – his way of saying, “I have no idea why your ankles swell up like that.”

He prescribed a diuretic a while back.  I rarely took it – I hate how it makes me feel.  A couple of years ago, he changed me over to Dyazide. It’s technically a blood pressure med, but it does the trick and is supposed to be easier on the system than the other pill he had me on (cannot remember the name to save my life).

I’m not a huge fan of taking this, either.  To give you an idea of how much I enjoy taking them… I just realized I’m almost out and thought I should call in a refill, just in case. Oh, look there… 12 refills available… until May of 2012.

So, basically, I’ve taken less than 30 pills in a year.

I’m not sure if it’s the exercising aggravating my joints or the gallon of water I’m drinking each day… but my ankles are giving me issues again.  Yesterday was an especially bad day – I had cankles by the time I got home. I gave in and took a pill.

Within a few hours, I was feeling so much better.

This morning, I was a little puffy again. I took another pill. My legs look awesome right now, I must say.  Unfortunately, I’ve been running to the bathroom every 45 minutes or so! 

Whenever I tell my doc that I don’t like taking the pill, he goes, “Just take the pill, Sara.  Do it.”  Yes, boss!

I need to try to eat more natural diuretics. I’ve been eating more fruits and vegetables…I need to stick to that.  Less bread, cheese, etc.  I love my eggs, chicken and tuna, but I need to get back to avoiding the packaged stuff as much as possible. It’s amazing to me how much salt is in packaged food. 

 

I gave the pedometer a rest yesterday and felt naked without it.  And even though I said I was going to “rest” yesterday, the swollen ankles and all that made me feel fat and so I did about 30 minutes of Wii Just Dance 3 (borrowed from our sitter) last night.  Fun fun fun.  I needed that!

Contemplating Zumba tonight… we’ll see.  Too hot to do much else with the kiddos, so I might go to the gym regardless of whether or not I catch a Zumba class!

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.

Zumba Zumba!

The Zumba classes at my gym fill up pretty quickly.  Usually, if I’m hoping to join in on a class, I’ll either reserve my spot in advance ($1/reservation) or I’ll show up early.

Yesterday, I didn’t do either.

We’d had some drama with the kids and I was contemplating not going whatsoever.  But I know I need to stop making excuses. I explained to our boys how important it was (for the millionth time) to behave at the Kids Club or they’d get da BOOT. (No, but, seriously – they’ll kick you out of the gym for the day if your kid gets out of control – it’s happened to us before. If it happens twice in a 6 week period – I think that was the timeframe – you’re suspended from the Kids Club for something like a month. Don’t want that to happen!!)

We walked in around 5:18pm and I half-jokingly asked if there were any spots still open for the 5:30pm Zumba class.

There were!

I hadn’t planned for that!  I had thoroughly expected to be stuck with a treadmill/elliptical/weights sorta routine and didn’t bring a bottle of water with me (because I could hit the fountain if in the main gym).  NO MORE EXCUSES – I drank as much water as I could stand and headed to class.

The woman that’s been teaching the class for a while left for the summer to spend time with family in Brazil.  I wasn’t sure who was teaching and didn’t really care – a new instructor might mean I’d look less lost than usual!

In walked Jason.  Ex-football pro (so he says! didn’t get a last name to check!), fit, lean.  He was ready to GO! 

Class was a blast.  A little less booty-shaking than usual, but a lot more toning (read: sooo many squats & lunges!). I didn’t sweat as much as I usually do (though I still sweat an awful lot!), so I didn’t miss my bottle of water as much as I was worried I would.  I am IN PAIN today, though!! A good pain!  That delicious sore muscle pain that tells you that you really worked it the day before.  My thighs are killin’ me!

I made quite a few bad food choices yesterday, but I’m not going to dwell on that. 

I discovered something delicious today!  Evol Burritos.  Have you ever seen these? Ever tried them? 

Photo credit: http://evolfoods.com

I’d seen them before, but avoided them because I considered them too pricy. ($3.80/burrito at Kroger)  Today, this one – the Cilantro Lime Chicken burrito – caught my eye.  I should never go shopping while hungry!

I read the package and decided I wanted to give it a whirl. No hormones, no preservatives, no fake JUNK in this food.  The burritos are a little high in carbs (due to, duhh, the tortilla), but one of these bad boys packs 16g of protein and 4g of fiber.  320 calories.  Not too bad for a burrito.  And I love that I can read the ingredients list and not once find myself saying, “What on earth IS that?” 

—

Yesterday I went to my stepdad’s mom’s funeral.  She died at 102 years old.  ONE HUNDRED AND TWO. That’s crazy.  She was born in 1910.  Just imagine all the changes she’s seen over the years.  Something they pointed out at the funeral yesterday was that in 1920, the average life expectancy for a woman was 51.  She doubled that.

My mom and stepdad married just 4 years ago, so I didn’t get much of a chance to know Grandma L.  She was 98 when I met her.  I got a feel for her personality and stubbornness, but I didn’t really learn her history.

Yesterday, the pastor shared some key notes from her life.  At the age of 96, her car was finally taken from her.  As old as 92, she was still known to disappear for weeks at a time to go on solo camping trips!  She would stay in state parks alone – she loved camping, loved nature, LOVED the water.  My stepdad (her son) runs circles around me at the age of 71, I can only guess she would have done the same.

I want to be that energetic when I’m older.  If I were to start where I am now – never getting stronger, leaner, healthier – and continue on the path I was on, I would likely not be able to get off the couch by age 71.  I don’t want that.  People like my stepdad and his mother encourage me to be better, do more.

My husband and I are going to Austin/San Antonio this summer for a few days (sans kiddos!) and I’ve been trying to think up some physical activities for us while we’re there.  Swimming, biking, maybe some kayaking? I don’t want to wear us out, but I don’t want to just drink and lounge around the whole time, either. I want to explore and enjoy things I’ve been skipping out on in the past.  I’m tempted to go on this cool-sounding bike tour, but I haven’t ridden a bike in years!  They say you never ride for stretches of more than 20 minutes at a time.  Wonder if we should take a chance!

19,314

That’s how many steps I took yesterday, according to my pedometer.

I was so excited, I took a picture before passing out…

I played with the kids, I walked a mile on the treadmill, I went to a Zumba class (that was 6k steps right there!), I did some housework and a lil’ Wii Fit before bed. 

19,314 steps. That’s just crazy.

Two weeks ago, I could barely get to the 10k step daily goal.  Now I feel like a slacker if I don’t get there!

I’m finally under 240, too.  Weighed in at 239.6 this morning!  (I feel almost sad that I’m excited about that!)

I’m looking forward to the 18th when I’ll measure and weigh in, etc.  I’m going to wait until I’m down 20lbs before I take another round of pictures.  I think I’ll post my “before” pictures along with my 20lb loss pictures and just go from there – posting a pic every 20lbs.  I thought about monthly pictures, but that might just depress me instead of motivate me.

I just got back from a walk on my lunch break – this heat is for the birds!! Not the most professional look to come back from lunch sweating your ass off!  But I don’t think I can give up my daytime walks altogether – they wake me up and cheer me up, even if I do wind up a mess.  I think the PM break walk will have to wait until cooler days come along, though – it’s only 90 out right now and I barely made it the 1/2 mile loop.  I’ll just stick with the 1/2 mile in the AM and 1/2-1mile (depending) at lunch and make up the rest of it once I’m home and can shower post-walk/Wii/etc.

So, as I mentioned, I went to Zumba yesterday.  Fun times!  I went to a class a few months ago and have wanted to get back into it, but kept making excuses.

NO MORE EXCUSES!

I went yesterday and dragged my guys along.  I was dripping sweat by the end.  Those classes amaze me because I feel like I’m going to die 15 minutes in. Then I tell myself I can make it at least halfway through!  Next thing I know, 40 minutes have passed.  Well it would just be silly to stop now, right? You can’t quit 2/3rds of the way in! 

The first class I took, I intentionally took a spot by the door – just in case I wanted to make a break for it. Yesterday, I went to the opposite side of the room.  If I was going to quit before it was over, it would take a lot of pride swallowing. By 45 minutes in, I was having a blast – my legs were burning and I felt silly as all, but I was having fun.  That’s why I like these classes – they’re FUN.  And it’s not all about doing everything exactly right – it’s about moving your body and having a good time.  Sometimes you need a break from the lunges and walking and weights. 

I went ahead and reserved a spot for today (Mon) and Wednesday at 7:30pm.  The classes are free with my gym membership, but they fill up fast, so if you want to reserve a spot in advance, it costs $1.  Not too bad.

I’m planning to go Sun at noon, and Monday and Wednesdays at 7:30pm each week. If I’m feelin’ froggy, I can add Tues and Thurs at 6:30pm, too.  We’ll see.

I also recently heard about http://bountifulbaskets.org – I’m going to try them out this week!  Check it out and see if they have one in your area. A friend of mine posted the picture of her haul recently and I was amazed!