Monday, September 26, 2011

Mamavation Monday - Oh what a weekend...

I can't believe it's Monday. I haven't had a weekend so packed in such a long time that I'd forgotten what it feels like to go from that into a Monday.

As some of you might remember, Friday was my birthday. For the most part, it was an average day. I went into town, ran to Walmart, grabbed some lunch (got flirted with by the guy at Wendy's and rudely gestured at by a guy while I was waiting to turn into Wendy's), got the kids and then went back to Peter's. Then, it was on the road to Toledo for my first birthday party since I was a kid.

The party was nice. Quite a few people couldn't make it, but I loved hanging out with Chris, Lauren, Bree, Chris and even getting to see Drew for a bit. Once the guys ate some pizza and everyone had arrived, they took off for Chris' belated bachelor party. It was good for them to have a guys night, I think. Then, the girls (oops, I forgot to mention Lauren's friend Ali had come!) and I hung out and talked. It wasn't really festive conversation which bummed me a little but I think they all had things they needed to talk about with the girls. I think that was good for them too. Did I mention there were balloons? And a Phineas & Ferb cake? Plus, Lauren had made me this great box filled with bunches of fun goodies that she had made. Then, there was the surprise flowers and stuffed puppy that Justin had arranged to be delivered there. I seriously felt loved.

Saturday was tons of interesting. Lauren, Chris, Mike (Chris' friend) and I drove up to Detroit to the Detroit FanFare (I think that's what it was called.). It was a smallish comic con but since it was the first one for all of us, it was a good one to go to. Chris, Lauren and I all tried to give blood. Chris and Lauren were successful. I wasn't. It turns out my tattoo is too new so I'm wait listed until July of next year. Booo! Then, we went off to collect 50 comic books each for our attempts. That was nice. I picked up 50 pretty random ones but hopefully the boys and I will enjoy them.  The rest of the day was spent wandering from table to table, meeting comic book artists and writers. I know that Chris was in heaven and I had a pretty good time too. I just wish I'd had some cash on me so I could buy a few that I really liked. It was a bit tough watching them buy and me not being able to. Oh well, there's always Christmas and it gives me new things to add to my list.

Here's where I tell you about what was the hardest for me...I know Lauren might read this and I want to start out by saying that my feelings where none of her fault. I love Lauren. She's seriously one of my best friends and I know she'd never intentionally hurt me. The way I felt was a combination of me and men.

Do you see the picture that I used? The lovely lady in the middle is Lauren. She looked ..well..smokin' hot at the comic thing. She had dressed up as Snow White and in that costume and with those shoes, well the guys couldn't help but ogle. Ok, they could have helped it, but that's what they did. She had legs that went for miles and a smile that lit up the room. I lost count of the number of guys (and other folks) who stopped us so they could get a picture with her. Me? I was the invisible assistant. It was fun at first. Then, it started to bother me. I started to feel like the ugly stepsister. I think the worst part was going up to tables and the guys would talk to her and to Chris but ignore me like I wasn't standing right there with them. They'd offer them free things. I wasn't even spoken to. They would be handed comics to check out and I'd have to ask if I could see them too. One guy stopped Lauren to give her a sticker saying she was approved by the comic. He told me to pick up his business card so I could buy his product later. I won't ever buy his comic, no matter how good it is.

By the end of the show, I felt absolutely horrible about myself. I'd heard the jokes about maybe I should have dressed up like a dwarf. I'd watched and heard the guys lusting after Lauren. I felt fat and ugly and invisible. Nobody paid me any special attention. I was just another comic book geek (which Chris pointed out that I'm not which kinda made me feel lower..I've always been proud of my geek status) while Lauren was a goddess among men. I shouldn't have let it bother me, but it did. A lot. It still bothers me. It's been a long time since I've felt like this and I don't enjoy it. I left that show swearing that by next year, I might not be little like Lauren, but I'd be smaller and there wouldn't be any jokes about how Lauren got a sticker and I got a post it note. Next year, I won't be ignored.

Average Daily Water Intake: 40oz
Workouts: Nothing formal..though I walked over 3000 steps on Saturday.
Weight Change:278.4 (-5.0 pounds)
Overall Weight Change: -13.2 pounds
 

Sunday, September 25, 2011

2 week challenge

Ok, so time for me to get seriously serious about this. Starting tomorrow I'm going to be doing the 2 week challenge from mamavation. I know it's going to seriously kick my butt. I've seen some of the previous ones and they look just brutal. Katie likes to joke that she doesn't have a core, and I think I'm going to wish I didn't have one. I have a core and it's going to be so mad at me. They're going to post it on mamavation and if any of you would like to hurt awfully, you can do it with us! This is going to hurt, but it's really going to be a good thing. I'm getting too old to not take my weight more seriously and this is a good start. Thank you katie for pushing me on this. I love you for it and I'm going to show it by making you do it until you get a core as angry as my core!

Friday, September 23, 2011

It's that time again!

It has been a long week. Seriously long. On Tuesday, I had a back spasm, and ever since I have been walking around all stiff like Lerch from the Adams Family.

Sadly, I can't take my usual amounts of ibuprofen for this because of my other meds, so I am taking minuscule amounts of ibuprofen every day and it barely scratches the surface.

Yesterday was a great day for me. I was in good spirits, and felt very productive and got a lot of grading done at school. This is good, because with my depression issues, I had been falling behind on grading.

So I hopped on the scale, and this morning it said 278.2. If memory serves, that means no movement.

8^) Jim
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Monday, September 19, 2011

Mamvation Monday - Changes

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm sick as heck with an end of summer cold. Yesterday, I was feeling better and got all productive and then Wham! Bam! (batman sound effects anyone?), I was like oh shoot, maybe I shouldn't have done that. I spent the rest of the night curled up under a blanket fighting off hot and cold flashes. Today, I feel like my head is full of that stuff over to the left there. Ewwww! Yep, total grossness.

Let's see, other than that, last week was pretty good. My oldest son had his first school dance on Friday. I don't know how it's possible that either of us is old enough for that. What's different at his school is that they hold them right after school. The dances run from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. I like that but at the same time, I remember the fun I had at home primping and prettying myself up and the kids miss out on that.

Other than that, it was a pretty typical week around here. Ok, no it wasn't. What am I thinking? I think the snot monster stole my brain for a minute there. I almost forgot the drama of early last week when it took me 3 days to set the surgery appointment for my son. I finally got that sorted so keep us in your thoughts for December 13th. He's having hamstring lengthening surgery and any surgery scares this mama to death.

Then, there was the whole I'm going to repaint my bathroom fun. I know a lot of people think of me as Little Miss DIY (is there a t-shirt for that?) and I admit, I love playing with power tools and this kind of thing. In fact, I asked for a laser level for my birthday. I did. I haven't gotten very far in the process because there's a lot of prep work to do and silly me, I forgot to buy an extra small roller to do my stripes. I'm fixing that today, though.  Want to see what's done so far? Well give me a minute to offload my camera and I'll show you!




Sadly, these aren't the best of pictures due to the time of day that I was painting but hopefully they'll give you some idea of the icky peachy tan color it was before and the loveliness of the creamy white we're putting up now. 

Other than that, the only big thing happening with the family is our annual school fundraiser. I love this fundraiser because a) we don't have to sell anything for it and b) it promotes activity and movement. What I don't love? I can't seem to get anyone to sponsor my son for it. For the event, the kids move and groove their way through a multiple station obstacle course. There are a lot of laughs and a lot of fun movement involved. Roger has a goal this year of raising $500. So far, he has $0 and we only have until the 30th to raise the money. If anyone would like to help out, contact me and I can give you my paypal information.

Oooh, I suppose I ought to also say that Friday is my birthday and for the first time in years, I'm excited about it. I won't have made my weight loss goal but that's ok. This year has had some serious ups and downs but thanks to Mamavation and some very awesome friends and my amazing family, I'm actually happy to be here and looking forward to the coming year. I consider this my nonscale victory for this whole past year.

Now, for the numbers:
Average Daily Water Intake: 40oz
Workouts: Nothing formal.
Weight Change:278.4 (-5.0 pounds)
Overall Weight Change: -13.2 pounds
 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
How are you planning to change up your workout as summer ends?

Changing it? I need to find one again. I guess that's my big change. I didn't really have a workout over the summer and it's more than time that I find one again. If life allows and I find some determination, you'll be seeing that information by workouts changing soon.

This post is sponsored by Mamavation and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway hosted by Mamavation – a community dedicated to obesity prevention & weight loss for women

Friday, September 16, 2011

Back on track ...

So my last post talked about the fact that I have been gaining instead of losing.  I gave some reasons, but mostly because I have been in a deepening case of depression, and as I am want to do, I self-medicate with food, hence the weight gain.

Well, I am now actively treating the depression.  It is slowly working and I am starting to see the sunshine again, as it were.

I have been out hiking again, and the exercise is doing me well.  Last weekend we hiked nine miles on the Greenbush Segment of the Ice Age Trail, up and down many hills.  When we hike, we track our hike with a handheld GPS unit, and I found a way to display the vertical profile (read: hills) on our hike and thought that I would show it here:

I just thought it was cool.  If you want to check out my hiking website with maps of our hiking, go to http://mnjhiketheiat.net.

Well, on to the stats ... last week I was back up to 281.0.  This morning, I stepped on the scale and it had some GOOD news for me for once.  I showed that I was down almost three full pounds to 278.2 pounds.  Hopefully, next week has more good news.  Until then, happy losing!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Mamavation Monday - One Tired Mama

Holy heck, I'm tired. I don't even know how it could possibly be Monday again. I feel like I've done nothing but run, run, run....and gotten so little accomplished! Let's look back at the last couple of weeks...

It all started out 2 weeks ago'ish when we went to Roger's school for his openhouse. He got the teacher that we thought he would and he's happy about it. Then, it was off home to have some family movie time before we went to Detroit to get Justin. Except, dumb mom moment...I locked my keys in the van. I had to call Peter (their dad) and luckily, he still had a spare and was willing to drive the 22 miles out to unlock my van for me. Whew! Then, a late night drive to the airport meant an early morning arrival back at the house for sleep.

We spent Thursday - Sunday morning camping at the wonderful Hoeft State Park and then stopped in to see my grandma on the way home. She was doing pretty well and kept us entertained and enjoying her for a few hours before it was home again. Labor Day brought tons of errands and then taking the boys to their dad's house. Tuesday brought school and taking Justin back to the airport. Since then, it's been desperately trying to get into the swing of the new school schedule while fighting off a cold. I think I'm doing ok with the schedule, but not so much on the cold side of things.

Today has been crazy. I thought I had a few quick phone calls to make and here it is 12:33pm and I'm still working on getting all of that mess sorted out. It's just insane sometimes how difficult it can be to work with the medical community for the good of your child. Oh well. It will get done. With any luck, it will get done before today is done.

For now though, I leave you with two things....the first is something I came across while searching for today's blog graphic (by the way, I so do not consider myself to be a supermama) and all I could think was what the heck is this a graphic for?

I would love to hear your suggestions. Maybe it's to show some kind of exercise. It can't be a birthing position because she has pants on and no kid wants to get stuck in mom's pant leg on the way out. Any ideas?

Lastly, I leave you with a video...this could maybe, sorta, kinda, possibly be our application video....maybe....







Now, since silly Blogger refuses to let me re-align my text to the left, I leave you with this totally silly looking last paragraph. I've gained weight. I haven't lost weight. I'm not giving up. Today is another new week and a new week of change. I can do this. I can get back down to where I was and I can keep going from there. I will not let the stress of being a special needs mama slow me down or get in my way. I may not be a super mama but I am a kick ass woman and I can do this. I will do this. Starting right this very second. 

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