My Vida Loca!

Welcome, one and all to Jim's what, two and a half, weeks in review? Hmm, with it being two and a half weeks, maybe I shoulda had Charlie Sheen guest-blog for me (FTW!). When last we talked, school had just let out, and I was getting ready to head out on a trip to Washington DC. I was still on the dark side of 270, and my Diabetes meds had been radically altered.

Today, we meet in the (shudder) food court of the only mall of consequence in the Milwaukee area these days. I just had Chicken Teriyaki from Little Tokyo, and I am typing this on a nice shiny(ish) Macbook that I managed to pick up used and non-functioning. One hard drive replacement later, lots of software installing and updating, and I have a fully functioning Macbook to tote around and use instead of my HUGE Acer.

Of course, nothing about that had anything to do with weight loss, and I guess I am avoiding the topic, so lets get into the details, shall we?

For the past couple months, I have had intermittent problems with my right knee hurting, locking and buckling. Having been through this a few years ago with my left knee, I knew the diagnosis before I even went into the MRI machine: torn meniscus. Thankfully, this one is not too bad, and I start physical therapy tomorrow in order to hopefully delay the need for surgery. With my left knee, I waited too long to get it checked out, so after a couple sessions, the physical therapist and my orthopedist agreed that surgery was the better option.

Now, that being said, I haven't gotten a whole lot of exercise lately, in DC we did a lot of walking, but that was largely offset by the richness of the meals. We went to some awesome places for meals as a part of our program, so the walking didn't accomplish much for me.

I haven't been hiking in months, because of my schedule and Mike, my hiking buddy being down with Plantar Fasciitis and heel spurs (we talked over the weekend and decided that come heck or high water, we would hike before the month was out.

Water intake has been ok, but it definitely needs to improve. I am drinking less soda these days and more iced tea (unsweetened). I have been getting my meals under control since returning, and have been having more and more veggies. I have developed a great liking for roasted veggies (toss your choice of veggies in olive oil and your choice of seasonings, place on a cookie sheet and roast in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, yum!) I make up a batch of the roasted veggies and they comprise the bulk of my meal. I also have learned to make Tempura and homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce (both are a lot easier than I had thought), so I will occasionally make may own Sweet and Sour Chicken or Sweet and Sour Veggies. I want to get some jumbo Shrimp and try making Sweet and Sour Shrimp one of these days.

OK, so to the numbers, shall we? When I got back from Washington DC, I tipped the scales at 280 (YIKES!). This morning I am back down to 276, and I am making it my goal to break through 270 by the end of July. My blood sugar has been hanging around 120, and my blood pressure has been great (112/70 last time I was checked).

So, what will I be doing differently? well, most of the changes I have already made. More veggies, and more water. Add to that the exercise from my Physical Therapy regimen, and I should start shedding pounds a little more rapidly.

So, hopefully, my next posting brings better news and smaller numbers. Until then, drink up my hardies! (Water, of course!)

Cheers!

Jim

Mamavation - Guest Post

Hello All… I am Megan or @NcCarterFamily and I am basically the Zoo Keeper for our family. I am a stay at home mom but rarely am I actually at home. I have 3 crazy boys, a husband and we live on the family property so my in laws are our neighbors. I blog at www.carterzoochronicles.blogspot.com and http://cartersautismdogadventures.blogspot.com

I started having kids very early in life and spent time being a mom and not really taking the best care of myself. When 2 of my children were diagnosised with Autism I jumped head first and lived everything that I needed to do or could think to do to dealing with their issues. Which meant a lot of emotional eating for me. Also a lot of quick meals and fast food while playing Taxi driver for the family. To add more to my plate I am also starting back to school this fall.

I’ve always put everyone else before me and have never really found out who Megan is. I know Megan is not who I am now. I am not this obese mother who is too tired, too fat, too lazy, too exhausted, too stressed out to be the mother my kids deserve. I want to be able to run after them scratch that I have to be able to run and catch them because of the autism. I want to be able to take them to the water park, or to ride the roller coasters with them. I want to be running around playing basketball, chase whatever it is they want to do I want to be able to join them and I WILL DO IT.

I know that signing my ass over to Leah and Daniel along with the other Coaches and Mentors and going through the Mamavation Mom boot camp will be a life changing opportunity for myself and my family. It will give me the tools that I HAVE to learn to make this LIFE STYLE CHANGE for my family. I don’t want my children to have to grow up and then learn a healthy lifestyle I want them to learn it from me. I also want to inspire the others in my family so that they can learn and see what I have done to change my life. I have been a Sista with www.Mamavation.com for 7 months and this is my 3 Campaign.

I hope you will take a moment and head over to the Mamavation Site and Vote for me NcCarterFamily… http://www.mamavation.com/2011/07/mamavation-finalists-campaign-9.html

**** Hi all! Katie, here. This is my good friend, Megan. She's in the running for something that could change not only her life, but that of her family. Please take a moment and go over and vote for her, please. Help this mama help another mama help her entire family. ****

Mamavation Monday - Holding Steady When Life Is a'Rockin!

Hello, my lovelies! Ok, why is my font so small? That's just weird...hang on....There. That's better. No wait, now it looks huge. Does it look huge to all of you? hang on again...How about this? Somewhere in the middle. No? Yes? Well, let's go with it for now. 


So, it's Monday and I'm home. Home is good. Honestly, the whole situation with my family had me going insane, not to mention getting physically ill from inhaling cigarette smoke. I sadly had to draw a line and just say I can't come back for a while. It was having a negative psychological effect on my kids and that's just not cool. Those guys have to come first and I'd be a rather poor mama if I didn't put them first.


Of course, this means, I came home and cleaned more in my own house. I'll admit that I wasn't all drill sergeant this past week. We still worked some every day and we're nearly caught up on laundry which is a blessed miracle in itself around here. Once that's done, we'll finish up my bedroom and get a start on the downstairs. I'm so excited about this! Why? Well, because I work and thrive more in an organized environment plus..drumroll please...I've decided to host the next round of Kzoocation at my house! 


But what is Kzoocation, I hear you all asking..Ok, it could be the voices in my head, but let's just play along, ok? It is only the most awesome thing ever! It started out when Laura (@LoCiaravino), Rachel (@RachHabs) and I realized that we'd all be in the same area at the same time. It ended this afternoon when I came home. It wasn't anything full of swag or expensive things. It was simply 3 totally awesome girls (if I say so myself and I totally do so don't argue!) who went out for dinner together, scared a guy at 7-11 together and had a million laughs together. We went in not all knowing each other..Ok, they knew each other and I was the newbie (at my age how often does that happen?) but they were totally awesome and we totally rocked it! We've already agreed that we have to do this again and I want to host the next round. It will probably move around and sometimes the people might change, but good support is something you just cannot have enough of and weekends like this are ...well, I'm making them mandatory.


Keep your eyes open because I'm adding them to this community. Since they both have weight loss blogs, they're going to be listed under the Friends of section. I totally expect all of you to love them as much as I do and to leave them lots of comment love. No excuses. Just do it. Now, I'm off to link this up and to think about my plan of attack for the week. 


Average Daily Water Intake: 40oz
Workouts: None
Weight Change: (current weight: 277.2)
Overall Weight Change: -14.6 pounds

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?

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.

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 .”

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!