Kick me.. (ignore the sign)

I'm not wearing padding either....

I'm depressed right now. This is very unusual for me this time of year. I love Christmas. It's my favorite time of year. But this year I'm having a hard time getting into it. I've never had this problem before, so it's weird to feel this way.

I would venture to say part of it is exhaustion. This move took a lot out of me. It also took an awful lot out of our bank account, which is probably another reason I'm not feeling so festive. But I think the biggest part of the problems is that when I started preparing for the move, I got too busy to take care of myself. The result? In two short months I've regained about 10 lbs. No..that's incorrect. I've regained OVER 10 lbs. I was at 159 when I quit making progress. Now I'm at 171. That just royally stinks! It's depressing and frustrating. Anyway, I've changed my progress tickers to reflect the bad news.

My challenge now isn't to get back on track. The hardest part will be to overcome the emotions so I can get back on track. See, when I quit low-carbing, I slowly start having health issues. Most of them creep back on so slowly that I don't notice them until they are pretty bad. My depression issues are that way. I can manage without medications when I eat as I should. But when I start eating carbs they slowly edge back in. Then one morning I wake up, pull the covers back over my head and wish I could sleep forever. That's pretty much where I am now. I'm very frustrated with myself. I guess I should just be glad that I haven't gained it all back already. I think the only reason the damage is minor is because I did eat low-carb foods... just not all the time. There were way too many fast food places in my menu the last two months, and I didn't make good choices.

So, this is the start of a new day, right? I can get back on track and do my best to ignore my emotional roller coaster ride until I am well again. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself. Once again I'm going to use this blog to keep me on the up and up. I'll try to post daily if I can (except Sunday). Knowing that I need to check in may be just enough of a kick in the pants to help me get there.

So get your boots on and prepare for some exercise... my rear end is huge and you'll be kicking frequently.

Quick Update

I'm short on time, as has been the case a lot lately. I just wanted to give you all a quick update.

I'm feeling somewhat better today. I have been suffering from fibromyalgia symptoms all week. The stress of the last week has been a huge issue. It's starting to calm down I think. My eating is horrid right now. With FMS you tend to be very fatigued and fuzzy headed. I have no energy to cook so we've been eating not-so-healthy-but-easy-to-fix meals. I'm sure I've gained a little from it all. Hopefully I will be back to my old self soon.


Sadie is doing a bit better. She's actually eating again, although she only eats if I feed her. That's made things a bit rough, but eventually she'll start eating on her own again. Her meds are kicking in and she's a bit more active than before as well. All good signs. We've decided to skip the surgery. All the reports I've read say that it adds very little extra time to their lives and that the tumors just come back in a matter of months anyway. I'm not going to put her through the stress of all that just to deal with it again. We'll do our best to give her the best life possible as long as we can. If she starts suffering and we can't alleviate it, then it will be time to make the hardest decision a pet owner can make. But for now I'll focus on the present and enjoy what time we have left with her.

Here are a couple of pictures of my daughter feeding Sadie her Duck Soup (which she really seems to like now):




You all have a wonderful weekend. I'll see you Monday.

Experiment gone wrong...

Happy Thursday everyone!

I'm not reporting on my weight because I've decided to stay off of the scale until sometime next week. I just need a break, so I'm going to eat healthy and not think about it for a while.

I have learned something very valuable about myself in the last couple of weeks. I've learned that cutting out diet soda is detrimental to my weight loss efforts. It true! I've struggled, since getting back from vacation, to eat right and get back into ketosis. When we got back I declared a no "diet soda" zone in the house. That way I'd have to actually leave the house and buy one if I wanted some. This would ensure I'd drink more water. The result? I drank more water, less soda... and gained weight. Now the gain can't be blamed on more water or less soda. The gain is due to the fact that I munched a lot more.

I'm used to walking around with a diet rite in my hand. I tried that with a water bottle and it just wasn't the same. I found myself constantly looking for a snack. After looking things over I realized what I was doing and decided to make a conscious effort not to do that. For two days I struggled through not snacking, and failed. So yesterday I decided to add back diet soda, and it went wonderfully as usual. I had no cravings, no munchies. Just my regular meals, my water, and my diet rite. I was happy and satisfied.

I think the diet rite satisfies some kind of craving that I didn't even realize I had, until I'd cut it out. Whatever the reason, I've decided to bring diet sodas back into the house. It seems to be key in helping me eat right. And that's a good thing.

Something to think about as you near goal...

Big Daddy D has an excellent post on his blog today that I wanted to be sure you see. It's really very simple, and yet so very important.

How Did I Get To Be More Than 100 pounds Overweight?

I think this is something we all need to closely evaluate to help ourselves when it's time for maintenance. I'll be making a similar list for myself soon. I've worked too hard to gain it all back.

Aug. 16, 2006

Just a quick update. I'm down 2 lbs of the 5 I gained on vacation. I still feel pretty bloated, but hopefully that will go away soon. I'm drinking lots more water and have tried to cut back on my diet soda. I still have a lot to get done here at home so I probably won't have time to post again today.

Have a great day everyone!

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig..

We made it home last night around 6. Then changed clothes and went out again to grab a quick meal and get some groceries.

Our vacation was fantastic! The only 2 things that could have made it better were more money and less bad eating. I ate horrible while we were gone. Why? I'm an idiot. I have no excuses other than that. Anyhow, I'm up about 5 lbs. I'm not changing my progress stats or anything. I expect to have all 5 lbs off very soon.

So here's what we did:

Wednesday was spent driving mostly. Hubby had to work his sales route on the way so we sat in the truck and read or listened to the radio most of the time.

Thursday we did a bit more driving and then checked into our hotel room. We spent most of the day relaxing at the room. That night we went to see the Titanic Museum, which is amazing, and then spent the rest of the evening at Branson Landing. We shopped at Bass Pro, had dinner and just enjoyed looking around.

Friday we got up early and spent most of the day at Silver Dollar City. We had a great time. My son rode his first loop-de-loop roller coaster (Wildfire) with me! He loved it! I'm a huge ride nut and love stuff like that. My hubby hates heights. He's rode a couple of rollar coasters with me and thinks the ride itself is fun.. but he can't open his eyes during the ride due to the height issues. My daughter has those same issues. She freaks when she gets up high. She wanted to ride a big roller coaster with me (the PowderKeg) and I told her I wasn't sure. She said she was scared but wanted to try it. In short, she hated it. No high stuff for her. At all.
They have a new ride called The Giant Swing. This thing was awesome! Matt rode it with me, but he wasn't sure he liked it. Make sure you watch the video on the link to see exactly what this ride was like. My all time favorite ride in SDC is The Electro Spin. There is a video link you can watch here as well if you wanna see what it's about. That night we checked into the time-share (which I will refer to from now on as the "house") and enjoyed relaxing there. Hubby took full advantage of the whirlpool tub. :0)

Saturday we hung around the "house" while I did laundry. Around 5 pm we took the kids to Celebration City, which is another amusement park. It's also owned by Silver Dollar City and picks up where SDC leaves off. SDC closes at 7 and CC is open from 3pm to 10 pm. We rode a few rides and watched a Veggie Tales show, which is a family favorite of ours. At 9:30 we enjoyed their awesome laser light and fireworks show.

Sunday was spent sleeping and recuperating at the "house". We did leave once to drive the kids by Table Rock Lake and Dam.

Monday we packed up our things, said a sad goodbye to the "house", and left. We stopped for breakfast and then drove on to our next destination, Meramec Caves. We arrived around 1 p.m. and rented a raft for the 2 p.m. float trip. We had lunch and waited on the bus to pick us up. The driver then informs us that the river is running so slow that a raft my very well take us several hours longer than we expected. The canoes can make the 5 mile trip in about 3 hours, if you paddle constantly. The raft would normally take 5 hours (which would put us back at the truck by 7 p.m.), but the previous day they had someone who didn't make it back until 9. I was already a bit nervous about this, so the idea of floating back in the dark did not appeal to me at all. We changed our minds and took the canoe. We had a wonderful time, despite the fact that we almost got dumped into the river a couple of times and we got stuck on a log twice. Hubby and I both paddled most of the way, and let me tell you, my arms got a good workout! I'm feeling arm, back and shoulder muscles I forgot I had. I sadly don't have any photos to share of the canoe trip. I was too scared my camera would get dumped in the drink. I think it was a wise decision considering how many times we had close calls. We did stop in one shallow spot and wade around. The kids loved it. They kept lying on their backs, while in life vests, and letting the gentle current carry them a little ways. It really was a lot of fun.

So there you have it. What I did on my summer vacation...

Here are some pictures (you so knew these were coming..)


Matt (pointing at Dad), Rachel and I (in front of picture) on the Wildcat Roller Coaster in Celebration City. (Rachel liked this one)


Rachel and Matt on the kids coaster at Silver Dollar City. This was one of those pictures they sell you after the ride is over.



Matt and Rachel goofing off at Bass Pro. "I can squeeze your head with my fingers!"


I need to upload the rest to my flickr account. I'll let you know when I do so you can see more if you'd like. Ok.. lots to do to play catch-up around here. Later!