Monday, June 20, 2011

Mamavation Monday - Life Revisited

Happy Monday, world! Yep, somehow it's Monday again. Honestly, if someone hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known. The past week has been beyond insane. Let me give you the short version.

My grandmother is in a home for rehabilitation after being beyond sick. It turns out that one of my sister's boyfriends brought roaches into the house. The house must be prepped for fumigation (combine hoarder style grandmother with combining two houses). My family wants me to do this. I go over and with the help of my mother, niece and my two awesome boys, after 42 hours (low end estimate) and 5 days, we get all but 1/2 of the upstairs hallway, my sister's room and a small smidge of my nephews' room done. We hauled out something like 30 bags (30 gallon) of trash and probably close to that in 13 gallon bags for donation. My parents were supposed to finish it by now so we could fumigate but there seems to be a snaffu there. I'm trying not to let that get my blood pressure up. It will get done today or I'll be going over on Wednesday to do it myself. I don't want to do it myself. They're grownups.

So, I've been home since Wednesday because Peter (the ex-husband type person) took the boys up to Mackinac for the weekend. How awesome is that for them? They spent the week busting their tails with me and got to have a fun weekend up north. I'm so glad that he does that sort of thing with them. I think it's good for all of them. As for me, I've been sick. I don't want to imagine what I inhaled at my grandmother's house. Combine that with the smoke inhalation from my parents' house and my lungs are crying. Even today I feel as if I'm breathing through water. It sucks. I have to press through though.

I haven't been eating, drinking or exercising the way that I should. I've mostly  been trying to find energy. Starting today though, I'm getting back to drinking. Water is good for me and will help me heal faster. I know this. I don't know why I wasn't doing it but I'm going to do it now. As for weight loss, well I don't know. I was down 3 pounds after coming home but since being home, I might have put them back on. I didn't weigh in today because ...umm....well, because I didn't want to.

In all seriousness, I need a fresh start and with my family in turmoil/insanity, I'm just trying to survive right now.  I'm not going to do proper weigh ins until some of that has settled down. More pressure on me right now won't help things.  I am planning on doing the Gruntstyle challenge come the 11th. It scares me, but I'm going to give it a shot. Now, if Leah could only tell me how to tie my boobs down so mountain climbers and jumping about doesn't give me a concussion. I suggested ace bandages and she laughed at me, so perhaps that's not it. Suggestions anyone?

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Jim's Week in Review: Saturday Special.

So, life is rather interesting for me right now. It is the end of the school year, which is always a busy time for me because in the final month we have a concert, a play and two or three graduations which all require stage services, and I am the stage manager in my school. Add to that the fact that I teach a full load of classes (actually a full load plus 1 extra class), and I have to write and administer exams for 180-some odd students. Needless to say it is a busy time, lots of stress and I really don't eat right during this time of the year.

Add to that the physical aspects of the past couple months, plus getting used to cooking different because I am in a relationship with someone who has severe food allergies, and my life has definitely changed. My girlfriend is allergic to products made of corn, and my favorite sweetner, Splenda(TM) is a corn product, so it is either NutraSweet(TM) or regular sugar. Sheesh! From time to time as I find/create recipes that are compatible with both her allergies and my diabetes and weight loss goals, I will post them.
Anyways, my weigh in this week held a shock for me. so much so that I actually got back on the scale twice to confirm what I saw this morning. Last week, I was 274.2. This week, I am at 271.8, for a loss of 2.4 pounds (go me!). Well, I really need to start my day, so happy weekend one and all!
Oh! Shameless self-promotion: I have another blog about one of the greatest TV Shows ever (and the longest-running non game or news show in the science fiction category), Doctor Who. It is a running commentary as I watch new episodes and discuss all things Who (and maybe discuss older episodes that are part of my DVD collection during production breaks). Feel free to check it out at http://watchdrwho.blogspot.com.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Mamavation Monday - Wow, Life Got Me

Where do I start? Life is...I don't even know what word to use to define it right now. Stressful. Let's review the past few weeks, shall we? We shall because I'm going to write them for us.

My grandmother, who raised me, got very sick and ended up in the hospital. She had pneumonia, bladder (I think it was..or maybe uti) infection, as well as seriously high fevers and realllllllly bad infections in both of her legs. Thankfully, she's better and has been moved into a nursing home for rehabilitation purposes. No word quite yet on when she's going to get out but we went up to see her a few days ago and other than weak, she's doing so much better.

Sadly, this has opened up a whole new set of dramas. My sister, during this, decided that she was going to move in with her boyfriend. Ok, I can understand that. It's beyond time that she moves out on her own. However, she pulled her 10 year old daughter from school two months early which means she's now going to have to repeat yet another grade.  On top of that, she left her two teenagers behind with friends. Then, my parents went and got them and so now they're living there. Now, most of you are like ok, that's not so bad, right? Well, you'd have to know my family to understand that I'm not happy with this whole arrangement. I'm seriously considering the possibility of them coming to live with me.

Then, there's the fact that my family doesn't think that my grandma should be living on her own once she goes home. My parents think they might move in with her but I talked to Grandma about it and she doesn't want them moving in with her. This is leading me to think about the possibility of the boys and I going over there for the summer to clean up the house and to help her once she gets out.

Did I mention that I lost half my income in about 2 months and while I had a part time online job in the works, I haven't heard from them in a couple of weeks so I don't know if that's going to pan out and even if it does, it won't bring in enough income to fill that gap.

So, stress. That's the only way to sum things up for me lately. The more stressed I got, the less I took care of myself. Things aren't any less stressful but I'm working on babystepping my way back. I'm setting myself a daily average water goal of 64oz. Once I master that, I'll be working on adding other things back in as I can.

So, welcome back me and I hope all of you stuck with me through that long post. Hugs!

PS Applications for Mamavation Mom are now being accepted. I saw that they're open until the 29th. I should know by then what's happening with my family. If it's possible for me to participate, do you think I ought to apply? I need to know if I'd have the support needed.

What gaps in your nutrition knowledge do you want to fill?
I don't really know, to be honest. I guess I would just love some healthy alternatives to things like pasta (like is whole grain pasta really better?) or snacks. Right now, I'm just focusing on the babystep of water.
Please include, “This post is sponsored by Omron Healthcare and I’m writing this to be entered into a Omron Go Smart Pedometer giveaway hosted by Mamavation .

Friday, June 3, 2011

Stress, Stress, Stress = Yo Yoing

Welcome to crazy Jimville! My life has been a crazy roller coaster of stress and sickness. We have finally established that the most likely cause of my gastrointestinal distress over the past month has been the Byetta. I tolerated the starter dose well, but the full dose was just too much for my system, I guess. I am off of that, and seeing how things go taking just Metformin for the summer. Why? because being off the Byetta for a couple weeks while sick, my blood sugar stayed close to normal (120-135 range) and my A1C, which is a long-term indicator of healthy blood sugar was 6.0 (top end of normal range is 6.1).


I am a stress eater, and there has been plenty of stress in my life lately. the school year is rapidly coming to a close, and I am nowhere near ready, either educationally or financially. Also, I am in a new relationship which is going well, but that adds a whole different set of stressors. Add to that I haven't been sleeping well, and I am up to 274.2. Of course, thanks to hiking, I do most of my losing during the summer anyways, so I am looking forward to that number changing over the next few months.

Well, that teensy tiny update is all I have time for right now. Happy losing out there!

Welcoming Weight Loss   © 2008. Template Recipes by Emporium Digital

TOP