One week(!) one week(!) one week!!!
I am almost done. I am almost to the point where my paperwork gets submitted. I am almost to the point where I can stop stressing about losing/not losing weight - and I can start stressing about will I/won't I get approved(?),
I can't wait!
I am going to play with the pre-op diet that my surgeon requires next week and see what it does for me. Just Mon-Thurs, though. I'd love to start this weekend...but since I don't have to...and we are going to Austin to visit to MIL and S-FIL, I'm going to be selfish and be "normal". I have asked, though, that we not eat out as we (I) don't want to spend any money.
I have a head cold right now. It's rather painful. I haven't had such a painful thing in quite awhile. My head feels like it wants to burst and no amount of sinus relief meds or decongestants is helping...so I'm about ready to let it pop and call it good. Whatever happens to the gray matter inside will be someone else's mess to clean up....
Last night was interesting. We'd had dinner - Italian Wedding Soup. I love that stuff! It's so yum and it's so easy to make. I like brothy soups, not creamy soups, and it is that. So I'm quite happy with the stuff! And after dinner...somewhere around 8, I wanted something little, something light, and something that would satisfy a sweet tooth. I had two options. Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. Or. About a 1/4 cup of yogurt with about an 1/8 of a cup of granola. The Thin Mint cookies...I opened this bag/tube thing last week when the cookies came home. I have about six of them left...and I don't foresee opening the other bag/tube thing for quite awhile. So that they don't go stale, I want these cookies to go away. With that said, I could not convince myself to eat the cookies. I didn't want them. I wanted the yogurt! I find that interesting.
So I still have six cookies sitting kinda open. You know how it is opening those bag/tube things. No matter what, the foil wrap stuff rips and then while they are closed up, they aren't sealed as well as they could be. I need to get them gone...but...they may very well go stale before that happens...which means they'd get thrown away. Yeah...I could put them in a baggie and preserve them...but that's not my style. I told my sweet hubby what I'd just done and he said...knowing that this is what I've done in the past...so that other tube/bag thing is going to get put up, huh? Yep, I said. And he says to that...so they are going to be in our pantry a year from now, eh? Yep. That's what happens to 'em. I satisfied the Thin Mint tooth. I love 'em. But I've never been one to just eat and eat and eat them. I'll order a new box next year and the same thing will happen.
Well...not that this is a short blog by any means...but I want to try my hand at not creating a really long blog. So in that line of thinking, I shall say adieu here. I don't expect much blogging tomorrow...and will be busy over the weekend. So have a good weekend y'all and stay warm, dry and safe!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
02/23/10: Water
So I'm here to talk about water today. I drink water. I drink lots of water. I love water. Sometimes I feel the need for flavor and I drink SF Kool-Aid in some cases and in other cases, I just add lemon. But, primarily, I drink water. Iced tea is good sometimes, too. But water is what you will find beside me most of the time.
I read on Amy W.'s blog about this cool water bottle she found at Target. I had read just before that of her using a regular ol' throw away bottle and ticking it off with a marker as she refilled it. She tried to achieve six ticks a day on a 20 oz bottle. And then she found this bottle at Target. On the rim of the cap there is a bezel that rotates to how many bottles you've had a day. It has 6 ticks and the bottle holds 26 oz. I loved the idea. So I mentioned it to my sweet hubby this weekend and he went and got a 2-pack. He is using one himself. (Sorry for the pic clarity, these pics were taken with my phone which somehow is super sensitive to the natural quiver of my hand.)
That was 78 oz's I drank. I will be happy when 78 oz's (or less) is proper for me!
I read on Amy W.'s blog about this cool water bottle she found at Target. I had read just before that of her using a regular ol' throw away bottle and ticking it off with a marker as she refilled it. She tried to achieve six ticks a day on a 20 oz bottle. And then she found this bottle at Target. On the rim of the cap there is a bezel that rotates to how many bottles you've had a day. It has 6 ticks and the bottle holds 26 oz. I loved the idea. So I mentioned it to my sweet hubby this weekend and he went and got a 2-pack. He is using one himself. (Sorry for the pic clarity, these pics were taken with my phone which somehow is super sensitive to the natural quiver of my hand.)So, based on my current weight, I should be striving for 127 oz's of water a day. That means I should be filling/refilling the thing a total of 5 times.
Yeah. Can't do it! I drank 3 yesterday. I was peeing water by 6pm last night. And I knew, just knew, that if I kept going and drank anymore I would not sleep through the night. I was not about to give up the beauty rest (it doesn't work, but I'm hopeful even after all these years that it might start) to pee all night long!
So I drank the 3 and said...it's ok. If I was still peeing out anything that even remotely looked yellow I might have continued. But it was clear as clear could be. I still sipped a bit through the rest of the evening, but I gave up trying to drink 2 more refills. And I'm glad I did. From 6-9 I peed five more times. And the last time...it was still clear as clear could be.
That was 78 oz's I drank. I will be happy when 78 oz's (or less) is proper for me!
Monday, February 22, 2010
02/22/10: Random Thoughts
1) I want to remind myself (all y'all can help with this, and have fun doing it) that this six month unweightloss program sucked and bandster hell can't be nearly as bad as this has been. That's what I think because...while bandster hell is a finite period of time - you don't really know how long it's going to last. However, during bandster hell I do not have to try to not lose weight. So even though I can eat whatever and have to use will power not to...I can also be trying to lose weight via exercise and will power. And I've got will power. You don't make it through boot camp without the stuff. This "unweightloss" program has actually helped me get it back.
2) I was starting to lose my will power. I had the will to do what I thought I had to do - go to work, cook dinner, play sporadically....but the will to be Lori was just not there. I still wanted to swim...but I didn't. I still wanted to workout in the gym...but I didn't. My lack of will power disappointed me. They say that veterans are some of the most motivated people...disciplined, self-starters...I could go on with the list. And what's funny...people I work with still say that about me. But I'm not living up to my potential. And oddly..this much hated "unweightloss" program is bringing "me" back. I'm fixing me.
3) The Beautiful Blogger Awards were depressing me. Not that I have many followers and not that I contribute much outside of whining...but I wanted to feel like this blog helps someone. I was about to post a blog about how depressing I found them, how I'd gotten to the point where I just don't pay any nevermind to them...when Tessie Rose gave me a nomination. THANK YOU Tessie Rose! (And obviously, I was paying nevermind to them or else I wouldn't have read hers, eh?)
4) Sometimes I feel like "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, think I'll eat some worms". Not sure if my friends like me or if they just tolerate me because they like my husband. I usually think the latter, hence my song for the day...
5) I still miss my mom more than words can ever say...she was my best friend in so many ways. Meeting my husband, though, made me realize that no one can or should be my best friend like he is. I'm so thankful for him! Back to my mom, though, I had the realization about three months ago that she doesn't really know who I am anymore. She doesn't know that I became a "geophysicist". She doesn't know that my friends call me a gourmet cook. I'm not...but they love my cooking so I'll take the flattery. She doesn't know that I got married nor does she know the man I married. She doesn't know that I am this fat. She doesn't know who I am anymore. Now...at the core of me...she still knows all that. It's daily details that she no longer knows. And maybe she's out there somewhere still keeping her eye on me and maybe she does know all this. But I don't know she knows all this. So, somehow, this loss that is almost six years old, has just hit a new level of loss. And, as it will always do, it makes me sad. I think my mom would like me today. I'm independent, self-sufficient and I'm putting to use all that my parents taught me and instilled in me. I just wish they were still here for me to start pampering them back, like they did with me through the years. Yes, I was spoiled. And no matter how spoiled I was...I always looked forward to the day when I could start paying it back...with interest. :)
6) I have the best husband I ever could have hoped for! At the baby shower this weekend, two of my sisters 'n-law, a cousin (the mother to be) and I were standing around talking after the cake had been served. The SIL's made the comment to the cousin that she was lucky, she'd take all the loot home and her DH would put everything away demanding that she put her feet up as he handed her an ice cold glass of whatever. She beamed and said yeah. The SIL standing beside her said.."my guy wouldn't do that" and everyone nodded their heads. The next SIL standing beside her said "my guy wouldn't do that. He'd say 'you wanted the baby, now deal with it'" and everyone nodded their heads. And then it got to me. And I just beamed. And everyone said "yeah, your husband would, too!" And he would. He spoils me rotten! I love being spoiled but here lately, sometimes he has no choice because my feet are just killing me that bad. I spoil him whenever I can and I try to do as much as I can but I feel like it's lopsided. I can't wait until I start losing weight and I no longer need the pampering and can pay it all back a zillion times over...with interest.
But I do spoil him. Don't think I don't...he is a spoiled man and he says so himself.
And that's enough for today! I hope everyone has a fantastic week. I hope to...that's for sure!
2) I was starting to lose my will power. I had the will to do what I thought I had to do - go to work, cook dinner, play sporadically....but the will to be Lori was just not there. I still wanted to swim...but I didn't. I still wanted to workout in the gym...but I didn't. My lack of will power disappointed me. They say that veterans are some of the most motivated people...disciplined, self-starters...I could go on with the list. And what's funny...people I work with still say that about me. But I'm not living up to my potential. And oddly..this much hated "unweightloss" program is bringing "me" back. I'm fixing me.
3) The Beautiful Blogger Awards were depressing me. Not that I have many followers and not that I contribute much outside of whining...but I wanted to feel like this blog helps someone. I was about to post a blog about how depressing I found them, how I'd gotten to the point where I just don't pay any nevermind to them...when Tessie Rose gave me a nomination. THANK YOU Tessie Rose! (And obviously, I was paying nevermind to them or else I wouldn't have read hers, eh?)
4) Sometimes I feel like "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, think I'll eat some worms". Not sure if my friends like me or if they just tolerate me because they like my husband. I usually think the latter, hence my song for the day...
5) I still miss my mom more than words can ever say...she was my best friend in so many ways. Meeting my husband, though, made me realize that no one can or should be my best friend like he is. I'm so thankful for him! Back to my mom, though, I had the realization about three months ago that she doesn't really know who I am anymore. She doesn't know that I became a "geophysicist". She doesn't know that my friends call me a gourmet cook. I'm not...but they love my cooking so I'll take the flattery. She doesn't know that I got married nor does she know the man I married. She doesn't know that I am this fat. She doesn't know who I am anymore. Now...at the core of me...she still knows all that. It's daily details that she no longer knows. And maybe she's out there somewhere still keeping her eye on me and maybe she does know all this. But I don't know she knows all this. So, somehow, this loss that is almost six years old, has just hit a new level of loss. And, as it will always do, it makes me sad. I think my mom would like me today. I'm independent, self-sufficient and I'm putting to use all that my parents taught me and instilled in me. I just wish they were still here for me to start pampering them back, like they did with me through the years. Yes, I was spoiled. And no matter how spoiled I was...I always looked forward to the day when I could start paying it back...with interest. :)
6) I have the best husband I ever could have hoped for! At the baby shower this weekend, two of my sisters 'n-law, a cousin (the mother to be) and I were standing around talking after the cake had been served. The SIL's made the comment to the cousin that she was lucky, she'd take all the loot home and her DH would put everything away demanding that she put her feet up as he handed her an ice cold glass of whatever. She beamed and said yeah. The SIL standing beside her said.."my guy wouldn't do that" and everyone nodded their heads. The next SIL standing beside her said "my guy wouldn't do that. He'd say 'you wanted the baby, now deal with it'" and everyone nodded their heads. And then it got to me. And I just beamed. And everyone said "yeah, your husband would, too!" And he would. He spoils me rotten! I love being spoiled but here lately, sometimes he has no choice because my feet are just killing me that bad. I spoil him whenever I can and I try to do as much as I can but I feel like it's lopsided. I can't wait until I start losing weight and I no longer need the pampering and can pay it all back a zillion times over...with interest.
But I do spoil him. Don't think I don't...he is a spoiled man and he says so himself.
And that's enough for today! I hope everyone has a fantastic week. I hope to...that's for sure!
Beautiful Blogger Awards
Beautiful Blogger Awards
Tessie Rose, author of, Band me Baby!, nominated me for an award, thank-you Tessie Rose! She is in a similar situation to my own, waiting for insurance games to end. Thank you, Tessie Rose!
Here are the instructions:
• Thank the person who nominated you for this award
• Copy the award and post it in your blog
• Link to the blog of the person who nominated you
• Tell seven interesting things about yourself
• Nominate seven bloggers
• Post links to the blogs of your nominees
Seven things about me
1) My name is Loranne but I go by "Lori". I love my first name. My mom claimed that she made it up. She loved "Lori", she loved "Anne" but she didn't love "LoriAnne" so she took the "I" out. People always pronounce it "Lorainne" which has resulted in me seriously despising that name, as it's not mine. I don't hate people named Loraine (alternative spelling on purpose), I just hate the name. :) My name is pronounced Lor-Anne. I'm not sure how I ended up being stuck with the nickname but in efforts to switch, it's never lasted...so Lori I am.
2) My parents died young. My mom was 55 - I was 28. My dad was 61 - I was 31. My step-dad was 68 - I was 32. I am an only child. I have aunts and uncles and a grandmother but I no longer have my own immediate family and I think that's very sad. I met my husband at a great time, scared as I was, because I think without him, I would have sunk into a pretty severe depression. He is my rock!
3) I love to learn. All through college I averaged 21 credit hours a semester. My "lightest" load was 19 hours and my heaviest load was one semester of nothing but science...and I was taking 24 hours. When I was done with my degrees, undergrad only, I had 210 credit hours. (You usually only need ~140 to graduate.) I ended up with two BS/BA degrees and 6 minors. BS = Oceanography; BA = Geology; minors in Math, Chemistry, Sociology, Psychology, English, Physics.
4) I hated science and math in jr. high and high school. I never went to school in those years, either. Passed math classes by showing up only on the test days. My mom didn't have any clue about how much I "ditched" but I had my tricks to make sure she didn't find out. When I told her later of my delinquencies, she thought it was a sad mark on our education system that I still passed everything. I do, too. I had to "grow up" and so went off to the Navy to do so. My parents knew they didn't have to worry about me when I did that. I was fixing myself...which meant I'd figured out I was going wrong.
5) Boot camp was a joke! Yeah...you get to do push-ups and sit-ups and all sorts of calisthenics until you are blue in the face. Yeah, you get to run and swim miles a day...and then march for hours afterwards. And, in the Navy, we sat through 4-5 hours a day of classes learning about the Navy, too. Our CC's (Company Commanders) would get in our faces yelling louder than you've ever heard but you knew they wanted to laugh, too. Boot camp, to me, was learning how not to laugh no matter how funny it was. That's self-control. At the end, when we were "off comp" and our CC's could be our friends, it was incredibly cool to just hang out with them.
6) I was in the first female company to go through boot camp in Great Lakes, IL. That simulaneously made it harder and easier. Prior to 1994, women went to Florida. Starting in the summer of 1994, women went to Great Lakes. Half of the male CC's were scared of us and would cross the street instead of "dropping us" if we were not looking perfect. Half of the female CC's were not scared of us, and, in fact, wanted to prove how capable we were. If we were looking perfect...they'd "drop" us anyway. I still smile when I think about the double-standards.
7) I love to travel and by the age of 29, I'd been to 54 different countries. My parents started me as a travel bug. They'd take 4-6 weeks off every summer and we'd pile in the car and drive. I've been to all but 5 of the US states - and the missing ones are all in the northeast. Around about the time I was 9, we started branching into Canada. I've been all over Canada. My grandmother had a house in Mexico and we went down there once a month until I was about 13, when she sold it. I went to Europe (France and England) for the first time when I was 15 - without my parents. At 16, I took my mom along with me on my second trip (Germany, Switzerland and Austria). In the Navy, I got myself to Singapore, Hong Kong (was there one month after it reverted to China), Australia, Guam, and many places in the middle east. After the Navy, I've been back to all but Guam...I've completely circumnavigated Australia, visited New Zealand, Iceland (one of my faves), Japan, Taiwan, Phillipines, Spain, Italy, Turkey Jordan, Oman, Egypt...I could go on. I love to travel and a life goal is to visit and explore every country. My sweet hubby fully endorses this goal and has signed on for the fun, himself.
So seven blogs that have really spoken to me...and please know, I'm still trying to catch up on all those that I follow...so if you ask me this in a week, it might change again. This is hard to do, of course, but these have influenced me deeply and are great reference points, as well!
1) Band_Groupie - hers was the first blog I read over on LBT. Her directness, research and perspective on life are profound to me. She can take the craziest of topics that would get anyone sad and make it humorous, or she can take the driest material and make it interesting. She even got me over here to blogger which has exposed me to many more wonderful bloggers. Even my hubby appreciates BG, as she always knows exactly what to say to perk up my day (and therefore his, too)!
2) Bonnie - she, like me, is in the intial stages, still. Her blog is light and fluffy, if you will. It's just a fun blog to read!
3) Linda - she calls it like it is and has a unique perspective that is refreshing.
4) Tessie Rose - another fun blog to read. She has a vivacious personality and seems to always be upbeat. I'd be frustrated in her shoes, and my blog would show it - but she is up and thinking positively while waiting out the insurance games.
5) Amy W. - another fun blog to read, another blogger who calls it like it is, another blogger that is direct and full of amazingly positive perspective. She also asks great questions and, to me, gets people thinking outside of the box. All the while she is particularly perky and bouncy! Fun fun! And she makes me want to move to Florida and go play on the white sand beaches ALL THE TIME!
6) Jordan - this blogger happens to be a man so the change in perspective is quite refreshing! That and the humor make it a pleasure to read!
7) MandaPanda - she is another that is also in the initial stages, jumping through the hoops to get insurance approval. Her DH is also doing this with her and while this blog isn't about him, it's her blog, there is that added aspect that gets touched on. Another blog I always look forward to reading!
I will say, most all of these bloggers have already been nominated and I think a few of them don't even follow me, so may never know I put their names out there. But these blogs are some of my faves to read...although I'm still reading...so like I said...check back in a week and I may have more. :) Happy Reading!
Finally, I'd like to end with a big heartfelt thank you to Tessie Rose for nominating me. It really made me feel good and I was starting to be sad that no one liked my blog "enough" - pathetic, but true. I, like Tessie Rose, can't wait to be banded and join the ranks. This is such an amazing community and I'm grateful to Band_Groupie that she moved over here...exposing me to this wonderful world!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
02/20/10: It's the weekend
I'm up early. For a Saturday. For me. I hate to get up early. But I wanted to today. I am babysitting "the baby" from across the street, one of my closest friends' youngest. I say "the baby" because she's already 1. I remember the first time I saw her, though, and babysitting her as a weeee little one...unlike her brothers and sister, I will know this young lady ALL of her life. So she, in some ways, will always be "the baby". It's such a special thing, I think, when you get to say you've known someone since they were 4 hours old. Anyway, I'm excited.
I thought I'd share some stories today. I could pontificate on some of the finer points of eating healthy and treating your body well...but we all know that stuff. I could articulate some deep seeded thoughts on what this means for me, or how this affects me...but...I'm just not going to. Not the mood today. Not the mood, usually, so why start now? Don't worry...I will. Once this six months is over and I see this process move forward...the tone of this blog will change. I'm excited about that, really...but that's not the mood today, either.
Nope...I want to talk stories.
Story number 1. Why it's on my mind: it's the end of February and spring is beckoning. I am itching to get back outdoors and I can't wait to start swimming again. I really want back in the water! The story...
I learned to swim before I learned to walk. Yes. I was six months old when I learned to swim. I think, more accurately, I was six months old when I showed that I could swim. But I tell the story as my mom told it...and it was one of her faves as it was so uniquely me. So here's her story.
I was crawling and moving around on my own quite well when my mom took me to the YMCA for mommy and me classes. She was not quite in the mindset that I could self-propel and when she saw the other kids sitting together by the side of the pool, she didn't think twice about putting me down with them. As a newly crawling kid will do, I wandered off to explore what I was most curious about. And that was the big body of water in my vicinity. And I put my hand in it. I'm assuming it felt neato, so I stuck my arm in it. And that probably felt neato, too. So I rolled over into it. My mom saw this and was close enough that she could just jump right in, if needed, but something told her that I was fine. So she moved closer but let me be. I dunked under water and then moved my arms and legs and "swam" to the surface to take a breath. Once at the surface, I "swam" again to the side and reached out to hold onto it. Once I knew that the side of the pool was real and safe, I let go and dunked myself again. And I swam up again. And I grabbed the side of the pool again. And my mom declared me a swimmer.
All the while, the lifeguard and the "teacher" were standing by the side of the pool freaking out about this baby in the water. My mom actually had to tell them, look, she's ok, she's taking care of herself, and all I have to do is reach out and I can grab her. So chill.
Those are my words. But that's the story. I learned to swim before I learned to walk.
This, of course, could never happen today. And that's kind of sad. It seems to me that there are more kids scared of the water than there ever have been. But I don't know that for sure, it's just a feeling. I taught swim lessons over the summer in my pool last year. I taught six days a week for either 2 hours or 4 hours a day, depending on the day. The parents of the kids I taught were so scared of their kids learning to swim and, of course, this fear DOES get transferred to the kids. Once I teach them to be safe and take care of themselves, the rest of it is fun...and then technique can develop.
Story number 2. Why it's on my mind: swimming, and the pool, are calling me!
My mom continued with the swim lessons for me every year. I did those mommy and me classes and had no fear of the water. Please don't take 'had no fear of the water' for meaning I did not respect the water. I did, I do, I will always. Water will win in any fight. I have learned, over the years, to use it to my advantage, that's all. I did lessons and learned to swim proficiently by the age of 3. At the age of 4, I joined my first swim team. I stayed on a swim team through high school. I LOVE SWIMMING! I always have.
I was, and still am, a good swimmer. When I dove off the block, they'd know whether or not I was swimming for real or not. If I was swimming for real, no one could keep up with me. I generally swam against older age groups because of that. If I wasn't swimming for real, I'd dive in...and then play around. By the age of 7, I had that out of my system as we put a pool in and I had plenty of play time at home. I'd swim at practice for 3-4 days a week and then go home and swim some more. I LOVE SWIMMING!
So there's the stories I'm sharing today. Other things pertinent to water and swimming that I do...just to share...
I am a certified WSI instructor. I no longer have a current life guard certification, but I was certified for over 10 years and I was employed as a lifeguard for 3 years in college and 1 year in high school. That lifeguarding translated into becoming a swimming coach. I helped every single one of my students that I trained lose weight. The lowest weight loss, following my program...was 5 pounds. She was already skinny. The others lost, on average, 15 pounds. I am a diver. I got my open water certification in the Navy once I got to my ship, which was stationed in Pearl Harbor. After the Navy, I went further with that. Now...I have my advanced, master diver, nitrox, cave diver, rescue diver, rebreather certified and I am a scientific diver. I teach swim lessons in my pool, I mentioned this above. This year...I have people calling me to get on what they have declared I must have...my waitlist. People actually want me. Odd! It's just odd, I tell you, odd! I wasn't going to teach lessons this summer, I was going to focus on me and my routine that I want to have, and can't do that and teach lessons and work and drive to work and eat dinner and sleep and pay the bills (even if it's only once a week)...you get the point.
Enough about swimming. Just know that I really want to be swimming right now!
I started this blog this morning but "the baby" had other intentions for use of my time, as babies will do. So the blog did not get finished nor did it get published, obviously. So it's late. Oh well.
I had to go to a baby shower today. I enjoyed it. I'm weird. I enjoy showers. I have a wedding shower to attend in three weeks and I'm looking forward to that. I'm weird. I enjoy showers. This shower and the next were/are for family members from my husbands family. I like these people. They are funny, nice, smart, just good people. I like that I belong to this family. It's all good...except..now I really want a baby! Between babysitting and the shower...I WANT A BABY! (my sweet hubby can only laugh at me.)
It will come, I hope, it will come. I hope.
When I got home from the shower, my sweet hubby was holding "the baby". She acted so happy to see me. It just melted my heart. I want my own baby to come home to. I WANT A BABY! And I WANT TO SWIM!
Sorry. I'm yelling. But I want these "things".
So we were going out to dinner with our friend/neighbor who had the stroke this week. I don't want to post all her info on my blog...so just so you know, she had a stroke, kinda. She has a very rare condition that creates extra vessels in her brain. One of those extra vessels burst which caused the stroke-like symptoms. She has to have the rest of those vessels removed. She will schedule the surgery as soon as possible, but it's not scheduled yet. She makes the call to get things started on Monday. In the meantime, she is fine. You wouldn't know she'd just been through anything as she has no impairments or residual issues. It's an odd condition that affects 1% of the world's population and only 1% of the affected people will ever have issues because of it. The risk of the issue happening again will only continue to compound each year.
We'd made these dinner reservations last weekend when everything was fine. When everything happened. we canceled the reservations. When she got home, on Thurs, she said "we're still going to dinner, right?" Ummm...yeah. So we quickly called back and remade the reservations, although the time ended up being half an hour later.
So now it's today and we are going to dinner. The restaurant is Killen's Steakhouse which is located in Pearland Texas. Pearland is a little suburb on the southwest side of Houston. You could call it the south side or the southwest side...it's in the southwest quadrant but is considered the south side of town. Anywho...I got home, my sweet hubby was dressed and ready so we took "the baby" home. She's so cute. Her brothers and sisters are so cute. They were so happy to see her!
On our way to the restaurant we made a stop to visit some friends. And we thought we'd be there longer than we were so we ended up getting to the restaurant about half an hour early.
This restaurant is TINY! There's a sign that says they can have 160 people in there...but if they have tables for 50, I'd be surprised. It ended up being reservations only tonight so I'm glad we were able to get our reservation remade this week.
And now I'll cut to the chase. That was by far, the best steak I have ever eaten. My sweet hubby said the same thing. My neighbor said the same thing. She's 63...so probably a few more steaks consumed in her life...therefore, probably a more creditable statement. Her mother said the same thing. She's 84. So even more creditability.
My neighbor and sweet hubby both had Kobe beef rib eyes. My neighbor's mom had a wet aged center cut, aka a filet mignon. I had a dry aged rib eye. We ordered family style sides of haricot verts, potatoes au gratin and onion rings. And the table split a "bread pudding creme brulee" for desert. I don't like sweet things and I don't like sweet heavy things for desert so I tried a smidge of a taste...proved I didn't like it, and drank my coffee. I just don't like desert. There are some things...a true creme brulee, for example, or French silk pie (my homemade pie... not a box or store bought pie)...but I am finicky at best...and it's got to feel light to me...and not overly sweet.
Ok...so the Kobe beef rib eyes. Self-explanatory. I will say these are wet-aged. See the next item for a brief description of that process.
The wet aged center cut...so they take the meat, a half a head of cattle, for example, and vacuum seal that which will contain all the juices. Aging takes just a few days and you end up with as much meat as you started with. It's the typical way to get a piece of meat at the grocery store, the butcher, and most steakhouses.
The dry aged rib eye...so they take the meat, same half a head of cattle, for example, and hang it to dry in a freezer or refrigerator that is almost freezing. This takes 15-28 days and you end up losing about 1/3 of the meat you started with. It's the old-fashioned way of aging steaks and you will not find this at the grocery store, at the average butcher, or at the average steakhouse.
This restaurant does their own dry aging. They start with the best quality meat and then let them sit for x-amount of days to come up with the most amazing steak I've ever had.
We all agreed at that table that my dry aged steak was the best steak on the table. It beat the Kobe beef hands down. And everything beat the wet aged center cut steak. The Kobe beef did have a buttery taste that was phenomenal. But as far as tenderness, that dry aged steak was the most tender. And for beef flavor? Yep. Dry aged. Check out wikipedia for some more specific information on dry aging vs. wet aging. But what I will say is OMG, dude!
I do not like the idea of never being able to eat steak. Don't know that it will be a reality, but it's a sad thought. I don't eat much steak and I'd be happy to say I'll only eat one a year...but I don't like the idea of never again. I don't eat much steak. But I can see now, how to go about trying to do this. The steaks in this restaurant ranged from $35-$92. Yeah. $92 for a steak. It was a 32oz bone in dry-aged Kobe beef rib eye. I think, now, I'd love to try it. Before we ate...I thought it was just ridiculous. But say my sweet hubby and I only go in there once a year, say on our anniversary. I will get a sliver of his steak. We generally like the same cuts and the same done-ness. So I'll take what would be 4 bites normally of his steak. And I'll make those 4 bites into like 20, or something ridiculous like that. TINY bites.
You can't reheat a steak anyway! So why would you get a $92 steak...and take leftovers home? So we should split, ANYWAY! Although, between the two of us, even right now, we couldn't finish a 32oz steak...
And that's the story of the best steak ever and how I'll try to eat it after the band.
And before I forget, this restaurant is one of the 10 best steakhouses in Texas. And that bread pudding creme brulee? It's won awards since it was created by the chef/owner of this restaurant and is considered one of the 5 best deserts in the nation. And this inky dink looking restaurant is in my backyard, figuratively speaking, of course. WOW!
I thought I'd share some stories today. I could pontificate on some of the finer points of eating healthy and treating your body well...but we all know that stuff. I could articulate some deep seeded thoughts on what this means for me, or how this affects me...but...I'm just not going to. Not the mood today. Not the mood, usually, so why start now? Don't worry...I will. Once this six months is over and I see this process move forward...the tone of this blog will change. I'm excited about that, really...but that's not the mood today, either.
Nope...I want to talk stories.
Story number 1. Why it's on my mind: it's the end of February and spring is beckoning. I am itching to get back outdoors and I can't wait to start swimming again. I really want back in the water! The story...
I learned to swim before I learned to walk. Yes. I was six months old when I learned to swim. I think, more accurately, I was six months old when I showed that I could swim. But I tell the story as my mom told it...and it was one of her faves as it was so uniquely me. So here's her story.
I was crawling and moving around on my own quite well when my mom took me to the YMCA for mommy and me classes. She was not quite in the mindset that I could self-propel and when she saw the other kids sitting together by the side of the pool, she didn't think twice about putting me down with them. As a newly crawling kid will do, I wandered off to explore what I was most curious about. And that was the big body of water in my vicinity. And I put my hand in it. I'm assuming it felt neato, so I stuck my arm in it. And that probably felt neato, too. So I rolled over into it. My mom saw this and was close enough that she could just jump right in, if needed, but something told her that I was fine. So she moved closer but let me be. I dunked under water and then moved my arms and legs and "swam" to the surface to take a breath. Once at the surface, I "swam" again to the side and reached out to hold onto it. Once I knew that the side of the pool was real and safe, I let go and dunked myself again. And I swam up again. And I grabbed the side of the pool again. And my mom declared me a swimmer.
All the while, the lifeguard and the "teacher" were standing by the side of the pool freaking out about this baby in the water. My mom actually had to tell them, look, she's ok, she's taking care of herself, and all I have to do is reach out and I can grab her. So chill.
Those are my words. But that's the story. I learned to swim before I learned to walk.
This, of course, could never happen today. And that's kind of sad. It seems to me that there are more kids scared of the water than there ever have been. But I don't know that for sure, it's just a feeling. I taught swim lessons over the summer in my pool last year. I taught six days a week for either 2 hours or 4 hours a day, depending on the day. The parents of the kids I taught were so scared of their kids learning to swim and, of course, this fear DOES get transferred to the kids. Once I teach them to be safe and take care of themselves, the rest of it is fun...and then technique can develop.
Story number 2. Why it's on my mind: swimming, and the pool, are calling me!
My mom continued with the swim lessons for me every year. I did those mommy and me classes and had no fear of the water. Please don't take 'had no fear of the water' for meaning I did not respect the water. I did, I do, I will always. Water will win in any fight. I have learned, over the years, to use it to my advantage, that's all. I did lessons and learned to swim proficiently by the age of 3. At the age of 4, I joined my first swim team. I stayed on a swim team through high school. I LOVE SWIMMING! I always have.
I was, and still am, a good swimmer. When I dove off the block, they'd know whether or not I was swimming for real or not. If I was swimming for real, no one could keep up with me. I generally swam against older age groups because of that. If I wasn't swimming for real, I'd dive in...and then play around. By the age of 7, I had that out of my system as we put a pool in and I had plenty of play time at home. I'd swim at practice for 3-4 days a week and then go home and swim some more. I LOVE SWIMMING!
So there's the stories I'm sharing today. Other things pertinent to water and swimming that I do...just to share...
I am a certified WSI instructor. I no longer have a current life guard certification, but I was certified for over 10 years and I was employed as a lifeguard for 3 years in college and 1 year in high school. That lifeguarding translated into becoming a swimming coach. I helped every single one of my students that I trained lose weight. The lowest weight loss, following my program...was 5 pounds. She was already skinny. The others lost, on average, 15 pounds. I am a diver. I got my open water certification in the Navy once I got to my ship, which was stationed in Pearl Harbor. After the Navy, I went further with that. Now...I have my advanced, master diver, nitrox, cave diver, rescue diver, rebreather certified and I am a scientific diver. I teach swim lessons in my pool, I mentioned this above. This year...I have people calling me to get on what they have declared I must have...my waitlist. People actually want me. Odd! It's just odd, I tell you, odd! I wasn't going to teach lessons this summer, I was going to focus on me and my routine that I want to have, and can't do that and teach lessons and work and drive to work and eat dinner and sleep and pay the bills (even if it's only once a week)...you get the point.
Enough about swimming. Just know that I really want to be swimming right now!
I started this blog this morning but "the baby" had other intentions for use of my time, as babies will do. So the blog did not get finished nor did it get published, obviously. So it's late. Oh well.
I had to go to a baby shower today. I enjoyed it. I'm weird. I enjoy showers. I have a wedding shower to attend in three weeks and I'm looking forward to that. I'm weird. I enjoy showers. This shower and the next were/are for family members from my husbands family. I like these people. They are funny, nice, smart, just good people. I like that I belong to this family. It's all good...except..now I really want a baby! Between babysitting and the shower...I WANT A BABY! (my sweet hubby can only laugh at me.)
It will come, I hope, it will come. I hope.
When I got home from the shower, my sweet hubby was holding "the baby". She acted so happy to see me. It just melted my heart. I want my own baby to come home to. I WANT A BABY! And I WANT TO SWIM!
Sorry. I'm yelling. But I want these "things".
So we were going out to dinner with our friend/neighbor who had the stroke this week. I don't want to post all her info on my blog...so just so you know, she had a stroke, kinda. She has a very rare condition that creates extra vessels in her brain. One of those extra vessels burst which caused the stroke-like symptoms. She has to have the rest of those vessels removed. She will schedule the surgery as soon as possible, but it's not scheduled yet. She makes the call to get things started on Monday. In the meantime, she is fine. You wouldn't know she'd just been through anything as she has no impairments or residual issues. It's an odd condition that affects 1% of the world's population and only 1% of the affected people will ever have issues because of it. The risk of the issue happening again will only continue to compound each year.
We'd made these dinner reservations last weekend when everything was fine. When everything happened. we canceled the reservations. When she got home, on Thurs, she said "we're still going to dinner, right?" Ummm...yeah. So we quickly called back and remade the reservations, although the time ended up being half an hour later.
So now it's today and we are going to dinner. The restaurant is Killen's Steakhouse which is located in Pearland Texas. Pearland is a little suburb on the southwest side of Houston. You could call it the south side or the southwest side...it's in the southwest quadrant but is considered the south side of town. Anywho...I got home, my sweet hubby was dressed and ready so we took "the baby" home. She's so cute. Her brothers and sisters are so cute. They were so happy to see her!
On our way to the restaurant we made a stop to visit some friends. And we thought we'd be there longer than we were so we ended up getting to the restaurant about half an hour early.
This restaurant is TINY! There's a sign that says they can have 160 people in there...but if they have tables for 50, I'd be surprised. It ended up being reservations only tonight so I'm glad we were able to get our reservation remade this week.
And now I'll cut to the chase. That was by far, the best steak I have ever eaten. My sweet hubby said the same thing. My neighbor said the same thing. She's 63...so probably a few more steaks consumed in her life...therefore, probably a more creditable statement. Her mother said the same thing. She's 84. So even more creditability.
My neighbor and sweet hubby both had Kobe beef rib eyes. My neighbor's mom had a wet aged center cut, aka a filet mignon. I had a dry aged rib eye. We ordered family style sides of haricot verts, potatoes au gratin and onion rings. And the table split a "bread pudding creme brulee" for desert. I don't like sweet things and I don't like sweet heavy things for desert so I tried a smidge of a taste...proved I didn't like it, and drank my coffee. I just don't like desert. There are some things...a true creme brulee, for example, or French silk pie (my homemade pie... not a box or store bought pie)...but I am finicky at best...and it's got to feel light to me...and not overly sweet.
Ok...so the Kobe beef rib eyes. Self-explanatory. I will say these are wet-aged. See the next item for a brief description of that process.
The wet aged center cut...so they take the meat, a half a head of cattle, for example, and vacuum seal that which will contain all the juices. Aging takes just a few days and you end up with as much meat as you started with. It's the typical way to get a piece of meat at the grocery store, the butcher, and most steakhouses.
The dry aged rib eye...so they take the meat, same half a head of cattle, for example, and hang it to dry in a freezer or refrigerator that is almost freezing. This takes 15-28 days and you end up losing about 1/3 of the meat you started with. It's the old-fashioned way of aging steaks and you will not find this at the grocery store, at the average butcher, or at the average steakhouse.
This restaurant does their own dry aging. They start with the best quality meat and then let them sit for x-amount of days to come up with the most amazing steak I've ever had.
We all agreed at that table that my dry aged steak was the best steak on the table. It beat the Kobe beef hands down. And everything beat the wet aged center cut steak. The Kobe beef did have a buttery taste that was phenomenal. But as far as tenderness, that dry aged steak was the most tender. And for beef flavor? Yep. Dry aged. Check out wikipedia for some more specific information on dry aging vs. wet aging. But what I will say is OMG, dude!
I do not like the idea of never being able to eat steak. Don't know that it will be a reality, but it's a sad thought. I don't eat much steak and I'd be happy to say I'll only eat one a year...but I don't like the idea of never again. I don't eat much steak. But I can see now, how to go about trying to do this. The steaks in this restaurant ranged from $35-$92. Yeah. $92 for a steak. It was a 32oz bone in dry-aged Kobe beef rib eye. I think, now, I'd love to try it. Before we ate...I thought it was just ridiculous. But say my sweet hubby and I only go in there once a year, say on our anniversary. I will get a sliver of his steak. We generally like the same cuts and the same done-ness. So I'll take what would be 4 bites normally of his steak. And I'll make those 4 bites into like 20, or something ridiculous like that. TINY bites.
You can't reheat a steak anyway! So why would you get a $92 steak...and take leftovers home? So we should split, ANYWAY! Although, between the two of us, even right now, we couldn't finish a 32oz steak...
And that's the story of the best steak ever and how I'll try to eat it after the band.
And before I forget, this restaurant is one of the 10 best steakhouses in Texas. And that bread pudding creme brulee? It's won awards since it was created by the chef/owner of this restaurant and is considered one of the 5 best deserts in the nation. And this inky dink looking restaurant is in my backyard, figuratively speaking, of course. WOW!
Friday, February 19, 2010
02/19/10: How cool is that?
I had no idea this was going to happen this way. My employer is doing a weightloss challenge. It will last for exactly a year and while right now is the registration period, the start date is at the end of March. And get this. For every pound I lose....I will earn $10.00. That's not insignificant, I don't think. If I lose all that I want to lose in one year's time...that will be $1100 bucks they are paying me! (If only I could have gotten the last 13 pounds counted, too!)
I am not planning on losing 110 pounds in 365 days. I am planning on losing the weight slow and steady, for once and for all. If it happens to happen in 365 days, though, I'll take the money. :)
I have less than 2 weeks to go. I have less than 2 weeks to go. This just pleases me. So...let's just hit the fast forward button and skip ahead...where the insurance has been approved and I am picking my date for surgery.
Have you noticed, since we started switching to DVR's that you want to fast forward and/or rewind everything? For example, periodically my sweet hubby will catch one of our dogs or cats doing the cutest thing ever. But I'll have a knife in my hand as I'm chopping veggies, or something, and so will have to miss it. I'll just say to myself, 'finish doing what you are doing safely and then back it up to watch it over'. And then that is followed by 'crap, this is real life'. And so I miss it.
My sweet hubby does it, too. We don't watch anything on live tv anymore. At least very rarely. We'll let the DVR pick it up so that we can fast forward through the commercials - and watch whatever it is at our convenience.
Anywho...there ya go...a minute in the brain of ldswims. This brain is always bouncing from thing to thing to thing. I try not to bore you with the random-ness and absurd-ness...but sometimes it just happens.
I am not planning on losing 110 pounds in 365 days. I am planning on losing the weight slow and steady, for once and for all. If it happens to happen in 365 days, though, I'll take the money. :)
I have less than 2 weeks to go. I have less than 2 weeks to go. This just pleases me. So...let's just hit the fast forward button and skip ahead...where the insurance has been approved and I am picking my date for surgery.
Have you noticed, since we started switching to DVR's that you want to fast forward and/or rewind everything? For example, periodically my sweet hubby will catch one of our dogs or cats doing the cutest thing ever. But I'll have a knife in my hand as I'm chopping veggies, or something, and so will have to miss it. I'll just say to myself, 'finish doing what you are doing safely and then back it up to watch it over'. And then that is followed by 'crap, this is real life'. And so I miss it.
My sweet hubby does it, too. We don't watch anything on live tv anymore. At least very rarely. We'll let the DVR pick it up so that we can fast forward through the commercials - and watch whatever it is at our convenience.
Anywho...there ya go...a minute in the brain of ldswims. This brain is always bouncing from thing to thing to thing. I try not to bore you with the random-ness and absurd-ness...but sometimes it just happens.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
02/18/10: 2 weeks
Yes. As of today...I have two weeks left until my last "unweightloss" appt. Enough said...
In other news...our most favoritest, sweetest, bestest friend and neighbor who had the stroke Tues night...well there's been a great turn of events.
It appears as though our friend will not need surgery and may even get to go home today! We visited her last night for a little while and I thought she looked good for someone who'd just had a stroke. She still has all motor coordination and strength, so that's a major major plus! We took her a bromeliad and some balloons to give her a splash of color without inundating her with fragrant flowers.
Eventually, we wandered off and got ourselves some dinner. We ate at a restaurant in the midtown area of Houston that was just on Diners Drive-ins and Dives last Friday. The place was called Red Lion. Does anyone watch that show? My sweet hubby loves it. Guy and the crews were here in June trying out some great spots and we've been trying to get a meal or two in at these places, if we didn't already know about them. Anyway, this place is owned by an ex-pat Brit who moved over here and missed his fish & chips. So he opened up a restaurant making English food. English food is heavily influenced by Indian food, he says, so he also has quite a few Indian choices. And then there are a few new things he's created that are Tex-Mex with Indian or English twists to them - like a tandoori chicken quesadilla made on n'aan. That was amazing!
After that, we checked back in with our friend to see if she wanted us to bring her dinner. She wasn't hungry when we left so we said we'd check back. She wasn't hungry then, either, so we headed home.
We checked in with our other beloved neighbor and helped her figure out how she can get up to the hospital tonight for a visit...she has 5 kids all between 1 and 9 and so it's not so easy for her to take off for a few hours...especially since her DH is getting a new gym off the ground, along side his chiropractic practice...but all this is contingent upon if our friend is even still in the hospital. If she is, I will babysit the five kids and if not, well...I'm sure we will all be visiting her anyway.
So we eventually wandered home and took care of some things looming over our heads. Finally crawled into bed around 11:30 and lights out...heads hit the pillow...we were both out faster than you can say "sleep".
This morning came too early. Nothing unusual there! But at 7, I hear my sweet hubby's phone buzzing on the night stand. He answers it and it's our friend's mother. She does not need a ride to the hospital. Our friend is coming home today!
The repeat cat scan showed that the bleeding is stopping on it's own and the mass of a clot that's sitting there in her brain is disintegrating, as it should, courtesy of the drugs. Her headache is almost completely gone and OT/PT cleared her as having full coordination and mobility.
There is still a final check needed by the attending physician...but things appear to be shaping up. No surgery is needed and that's just tremendously great news!
So I called our other neighbor and we both bawled our eyes out at the great news. We shall see how the day unfolds...but it sure feels better than yesterday!
Yesterday afternoon I had my annual review with my boss. It was great! It was especially great when you consider how last year went for me. I won't go into how it went for me right now...but the review was fantastic, considering! My boss gave me the biggest compliment I ever could have hoped to hear from him and what he said was: "I don't have to worry about you. You'll get it done and you'll get it done right and you'll get it done on time." Given last year...that's just huge. Maybe I'll talk about that story someday...but things actually feel right now...here in this office. I will say that last year I moved from working offshore into this office and this group. And the transition was not smooth. Or easy. I was giving up my dream job to save my marriage and there were personal and professional demons that had to be dealt with. The entire first half of the year was incredibly rocky and I was scared to death about whether or not I'd keep this job with this company that I love.
And re: the TOM issue...well...it's still there. But 3 pounds of the 6 decided they didn't need to hang around any longer...so...while I feel better...I will feel much better this time next week!
And that's all I've got!
YAY!!!
In other news...our most favoritest, sweetest, bestest friend and neighbor who had the stroke Tues night...well there's been a great turn of events.
It appears as though our friend will not need surgery and may even get to go home today! We visited her last night for a little while and I thought she looked good for someone who'd just had a stroke. She still has all motor coordination and strength, so that's a major major plus! We took her a bromeliad and some balloons to give her a splash of color without inundating her with fragrant flowers.
Eventually, we wandered off and got ourselves some dinner. We ate at a restaurant in the midtown area of Houston that was just on Diners Drive-ins and Dives last Friday. The place was called Red Lion. Does anyone watch that show? My sweet hubby loves it. Guy and the crews were here in June trying out some great spots and we've been trying to get a meal or two in at these places, if we didn't already know about them. Anyway, this place is owned by an ex-pat Brit who moved over here and missed his fish & chips. So he opened up a restaurant making English food. English food is heavily influenced by Indian food, he says, so he also has quite a few Indian choices. And then there are a few new things he's created that are Tex-Mex with Indian or English twists to them - like a tandoori chicken quesadilla made on n'aan. That was amazing!
After that, we checked back in with our friend to see if she wanted us to bring her dinner. She wasn't hungry when we left so we said we'd check back. She wasn't hungry then, either, so we headed home.
We checked in with our other beloved neighbor and helped her figure out how she can get up to the hospital tonight for a visit...she has 5 kids all between 1 and 9 and so it's not so easy for her to take off for a few hours...especially since her DH is getting a new gym off the ground, along side his chiropractic practice...but all this is contingent upon if our friend is even still in the hospital. If she is, I will babysit the five kids and if not, well...I'm sure we will all be visiting her anyway.
So we eventually wandered home and took care of some things looming over our heads. Finally crawled into bed around 11:30 and lights out...heads hit the pillow...we were both out faster than you can say "sleep".
This morning came too early. Nothing unusual there! But at 7, I hear my sweet hubby's phone buzzing on the night stand. He answers it and it's our friend's mother. She does not need a ride to the hospital. Our friend is coming home today!
The repeat cat scan showed that the bleeding is stopping on it's own and the mass of a clot that's sitting there in her brain is disintegrating, as it should, courtesy of the drugs. Her headache is almost completely gone and OT/PT cleared her as having full coordination and mobility.
There is still a final check needed by the attending physician...but things appear to be shaping up. No surgery is needed and that's just tremendously great news!
So I called our other neighbor and we both bawled our eyes out at the great news. We shall see how the day unfolds...but it sure feels better than yesterday!
Yesterday afternoon I had my annual review with my boss. It was great! It was especially great when you consider how last year went for me. I won't go into how it went for me right now...but the review was fantastic, considering! My boss gave me the biggest compliment I ever could have hoped to hear from him and what he said was: "I don't have to worry about you. You'll get it done and you'll get it done right and you'll get it done on time." Given last year...that's just huge. Maybe I'll talk about that story someday...but things actually feel right now...here in this office. I will say that last year I moved from working offshore into this office and this group. And the transition was not smooth. Or easy. I was giving up my dream job to save my marriage and there were personal and professional demons that had to be dealt with. The entire first half of the year was incredibly rocky and I was scared to death about whether or not I'd keep this job with this company that I love.
And re: the TOM issue...well...it's still there. But 3 pounds of the 6 decided they didn't need to hang around any longer...so...while I feel better...I will feel much better this time next week!
And that's all I've got!
YAY!!!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
02/17/10: Almost Hump Hour of Hump Day
Life. Life is what happens to you when you are making all those other plans.
My sweet hubby and I got a call last night at 4am. 4am calls are never good. One of our most favoritest, sweetest, most beloved neighbors had a stroke. We don't know how bad it was, but it doesn't sound good. (Can a stroke ever sound good?) She's in ICU and we will go visit her this evening. We are planning to leave work early so that we can get there during the visiting hours that end at 5:30pm.
Then I log into my family's private blog site. I haven't been on there for about three weeks because I've been consumed with reading up on this site. And my uncle had a severe hematosis and had to have surgery to remove it. The infection, worst of all, made it to his blood stream. He just had a torn aorta in December and if this infection makes it to the tube they inserted to fix the aorta, there can be disaster looming. So he's been in ICU for about two weeks now.
I love my family...but when does it become ok to have the sole source of news and contact be a friggin website? For an entire family? I hate that. I shouldn't get penalized if I go missing for three weeks. To make it worse, I did acutally talk to an aunt this weekend and another aunt two weekends ago...and neither said a word. I'm just so frustrated.
Sigh. On with life, I suppose.
Grrr. And all of this on top of what turned out to be a crappy day yesterday. So I already wasn't in a great mindset for being able to just say...ok, what can I do?
I am, of course, saying that. But I have to vent somewhere. So this is how I'm feeling - although I'm trying to not let those affected by the above life events know, at all!
It's that TOM where I can either be pretty crabby no matter how hard I try not to. I am bloated beyond all get-out. I'm talking about a 6 pound gain in the past 36 hours. All this water just sitting there does not feel good! However, this too, shall pass.
Well, it's almost the appointed time of the blog, for me, anyway. I hope everyone else is having a better week than me!
I'd also like to give a shout out to the new followers which have now put me at 23. 23 is an interesting number. Have you ever noticed that it shows up everywhere? I can't say...just look at this and that and you'll see it. But if you look for 23...you'll find it everywhere. Enigmatically, it's the most used number in existence; or so it seems...
My sweet hubby and I got a call last night at 4am. 4am calls are never good. One of our most favoritest, sweetest, most beloved neighbors had a stroke. We don't know how bad it was, but it doesn't sound good. (Can a stroke ever sound good?) She's in ICU and we will go visit her this evening. We are planning to leave work early so that we can get there during the visiting hours that end at 5:30pm.
Then I log into my family's private blog site. I haven't been on there for about three weeks because I've been consumed with reading up on this site. And my uncle had a severe hematosis and had to have surgery to remove it. The infection, worst of all, made it to his blood stream. He just had a torn aorta in December and if this infection makes it to the tube they inserted to fix the aorta, there can be disaster looming. So he's been in ICU for about two weeks now.
I love my family...but when does it become ok to have the sole source of news and contact be a friggin website? For an entire family? I hate that. I shouldn't get penalized if I go missing for three weeks. To make it worse, I did acutally talk to an aunt this weekend and another aunt two weekends ago...and neither said a word. I'm just so frustrated.
Sigh. On with life, I suppose.
Grrr. And all of this on top of what turned out to be a crappy day yesterday. So I already wasn't in a great mindset for being able to just say...ok, what can I do?
I am, of course, saying that. But I have to vent somewhere. So this is how I'm feeling - although I'm trying to not let those affected by the above life events know, at all!
It's that TOM where I can either be pretty crabby no matter how hard I try not to. I am bloated beyond all get-out. I'm talking about a 6 pound gain in the past 36 hours. All this water just sitting there does not feel good! However, this too, shall pass.
Well, it's almost the appointed time of the blog, for me, anyway. I hope everyone else is having a better week than me!
I'd also like to give a shout out to the new followers which have now put me at 23. 23 is an interesting number. Have you ever noticed that it shows up everywhere? I can't say...just look at this and that and you'll see it. But if you look for 23...you'll find it everywhere. Enigmatically, it's the most used number in existence; or so it seems...
Monday, February 15, 2010
02/15/10: A Whole Lotta Nothin
I had an extended weekend this weekend. Today was a holiday for my sweet hubby today so I took it off as a vacation day. You'd think we'd have used the three day weekend as an excuse to go somewhere and do something. But we didn't. Instead, we used it as an excuse to be lazy and to just chill out.
It was rather spectacular, really. Sometimes nothing is exactly what one needs to do. I do have this sorta feeling like 'did I really just do nothing for three days?' But the answer is yes and I feel good about that. We did get up early on Saturday to take our two dogs and two cats in for their annual checkup. But other than that... Friday night we ended up in bed and asleep by 9:30 pm. That is soooo not like us...so apparently a weekend like this was in order. It didn't help that my sweet hubby wasn't feeling fantastic, although not sick, I think he was making sure he could have a do nothing weekend. I had no qualms with that, anyway, so it would have worked out no matter how Friday night played out.
Friday night, on the way home from work, we stopped at the airport to pick up a neighbor. We were going to go out to eat, her treat as she was just returning from Vegas and had quite the winning streak while there, at a restaurant touted as one of the best steak houses in Texas. But when we got there it was reservations only as the overflow from Sunday night reservations had spilled into Saturday AND Friday booking the place up completely. So, instead, we found a new sushi bar. OMG that place was to die for! I have never seen such selection. Easily 500 different types of rolls. It took us about 20 minutes to read through everything and we ended up with some new twists that were just phenomenal. OMG! We will be going back - although luckily, not that often. The place is over 15 miles away and only city streets to get there...we'll really have to want it.
So we got home and then the sweet hubby was down. And that, my friends, was how the weekend played out. We ran a couple of minor errands Saturday morning and came home and lit the fireplace up. The rest of Saturday entailed me trying to work through a few blogs. I am trying to catch up with all that I am following...but catching up on years and half years worth is taking time. Tons of valuable information, though, and I love to see (or at least read about) the band coming to life. It is so varied for everyone but you can also see that it really makes people do what they have to do to change their specific situation. Some people - makes 'em get off the couch (that will probably be my story). Other people - makes 'em eat less. And even other people - makes 'em eat better. Just so interesting and I keep wondering how it will pertain to me...but I can't and won't know that until I'm there.
I know that my sweet hubby and I have agreed to change something that we have to change.
Right now...we eat at our neighbors houses every Tuesday and Thursday.
Pro - I don't have to cook or clean on those evenings.
Con - I don't get to control what I'm eating and I end up not having time for the exercise routine that I prefer. And another con is that I don't get to cook or clean on those evenings.
So the pro that's also a con. I love to cook. It's part of how I decompress from the day. I also love to clean. Especially when it comes to my kitchen. One of my favorite things to do is wash the dishes. I have my odd reasons for that...but it's true. I'm weird.
One of the biggest issues, though, is that my husband and I drive over an hour and a half each way to work. We get to carpool and that helps. However, it's time taken away from our evenings. It means getting up earlier than our colleagues to get there later in the morning. So if I want to work out, I have a relatively small window in which to do so. Especially when you factor in cooking and then eating and then cleaning. Add to that my love for baths or dips in the hot tub...and well...if we go to a neighbors house for dinner, there just is not enough time in the evening to do what we need to do and want to as well. I know that when the "unweightloss" program is over I will start my official what I want to do each night routine. Mon-Weds-Fri I will be lifting weights. Tues-Thurs I will swim. This time of year it will be at a local indoor mostly heated pool. Once it is nicer I will switch to my own pool. We have a swim jet in our pool just for me and my love of swimming and so I can swim endless laps right here at home.
But I can't do my wonderful routine if I'm not home to do so. And I do have to make this time about me. I can see getting to maintenance weight and then backing off the weights which could free up particular evenings. But I also see that by then we might have wee little ones running around the house. And I'm all about routine...I don't think wee little ones do well if they can't predict, even internally, what is about to happen. If bedtime changes every night, for example, it makes it hard to get them to bed.
So the evening meals at our neighbors homes...and the lingering until well after what should be our very own bedtimes, is going to have to stop. Right now...I can't exercise as I wish to anyway. So it's ok. But in two weeks and three days I can start. And by making that change, I feel like I will also be able to better control what I can eat. I can cook fish and chicken almost exclusively.
Now there's an interesting topic. I noticed something about myself. I have not had a beef or pork dish in over three weeks. I don't even miss it. And we used to eat, almost exclusively, beef. I always said to myself I should switch to predominantly chicken and fish but never thought I could. And now without thinking about it or really even trying to, I've made the switch. When it comes to dinner time now, and I start thinking about what to pull out of the freezer, I flat out do not even want to pull out beef. Interesting. Odd. Yay me! That's a switch I've wanted to make for years!
So back to the lazy weekend. You'd think in all this nothing-ness we might have wanted to do something for Valentine's Day. And we thought we were going to...but in the end...we just didn't really want to. I woke up early and created a breakfast in bed situation for my sweet hubby. He is always doing breakfast in bed for me and I wanted to spoil him for once. So I did. Other than that...there wasn't much of anything done. We exchanged cards...yes, plural, cardS and he gave me my fave flowers - tulips, while I gave him some truffles that he loves. But other than that, we didn't go anywhere and we didn't do much else of anything besides just enjoy being together.
Our hot tub has been out of commission as I think after all the freezes we've had this winter, one of the actuators on our pool equipment that controls whether we are returning water to the pool or to the hot tub froze and then busted. We've had a request in for warranty work for over two weeks now and they finally called today to say it would get fixed this week. However, yesterday it occurred to me that we can take that actuator off and control the hot tub/pool return manually. So we were able to crawl in the hot tub last night for the first time in over a month. And it was a chilly night so it was perfect. Towards the end of our dip it started to rain...it was heaven. I love sitting in a hot hot tub with cold rain falling all around. It was one of those 'this is the life' moments!
And today has been equally as lazy. We actually both slept in today...and once we got up, we just crawled out to the couch. I continued reading blogs while my sweet hubby worked a puzzle. It was just a nice day.
The next bunches of weekends won't be nearly as lazy. Next weekend I have a baby shower to attend and we are getting dressed to the nines to go out to dinner with our neighbor. Before we left that one-of-the-best-in-Texas restaurant, we did make reservations for this coming weekend. The following weekend we are headed to Austin. I believe the weekend after that will be around the homestead but I'm sure I'll be itching for some spring cleaning activities by then. March promises more trips back to Austin as my grandmother will be visiting from California. I can't wait to see her and it's always great to see my aunt and uncle that live there in Austin! And hopefully, something will be happening for me in March, too!
I'm tellin you...A whole lotta nothin. It was nice!
And I mentioned this in my previous blog...here are some pics of me through time...
Me at 19 just about two weeks before I went in the Navy. Notice that I am a bit more muscular here than I appear in some of my uniformed photos. I was swimming 6 hours a day Mon-Fri at this time and lifting weights for an additional 2. Three days a week I would also run for an hour. I wasn't "physically fit" or anything...I weighted about 140 here.
This was taken at my boot camp graduation. My physical activiy decreased in boot camp. Which is not to say that boot camp was easy. It was certainly...umm..life changing. But it was not conducive to keeping my muscle content....(and there are a couple reasons behind that other than that we were always running or doing drills or being punished...) I weighed about 130 here
This photo was taken about midway through boot camp. I haven't quite lost all the muscle I would lose yet...but we did spend more time in the pool in the first half of boot camp than we did in the second half. The second half really focused on marching and learning how to be in unison ALL THE TIME. I have no idea what I weighed here...we had no access to a scale in boot camp.
Me at 21 years old. I had been in training for over a year and finally made it out to my ship. I came home to meet my best friend's new baby. (I was stationed in Hawaii and my best friend was and is still in Cali). Once I got to my ship, we went into dry dock for about three months and I was able to pick my swimming back up. I also had managed to get back to swimming and weight lifting while in training, once out of boot camp. When I arrived on my ship, the guys later told me, they couldn't keep their eyes off me. I had no idea... I weighed about 135 here.
At 22. I was definitely curvy. I took those curves as meaning I was fat...I weighed about 145 here.
I was 22 here. This picture was taken in Australia just outside of Melbourne. This was just before my life was changed pretty drastically by a guy who thought he needed to control me...I weighed about 150 here. Lots of beer was consumed on deployment. :)
At 24. I was working on "making myself ugly" but it was a pretty slow process. At least that's how it felt at the time. I weighed somewhere between 160 and 170 here. I was back to swimming A LOT, though. I lifeguarded and coached 5 days a week for 2 hours a day then swam for at least 2. I also lifeguarded for a disabled student class which was VERY hands on.
At 26 I was finally winning. I started to get a good layer between me and the world. I was about 210 here. This picture was taken at one of my favorite locations in Texas...just outside of Kyle Field in College Station.
Again in Iceland. Not so bad. But I knew it and I slacked off not making it to my targeted weight loss. And that slacking off just got worse.
It was rather spectacular, really. Sometimes nothing is exactly what one needs to do. I do have this sorta feeling like 'did I really just do nothing for three days?' But the answer is yes and I feel good about that. We did get up early on Saturday to take our two dogs and two cats in for their annual checkup. But other than that... Friday night we ended up in bed and asleep by 9:30 pm. That is soooo not like us...so apparently a weekend like this was in order. It didn't help that my sweet hubby wasn't feeling fantastic, although not sick, I think he was making sure he could have a do nothing weekend. I had no qualms with that, anyway, so it would have worked out no matter how Friday night played out.
Friday night, on the way home from work, we stopped at the airport to pick up a neighbor. We were going to go out to eat, her treat as she was just returning from Vegas and had quite the winning streak while there, at a restaurant touted as one of the best steak houses in Texas. But when we got there it was reservations only as the overflow from Sunday night reservations had spilled into Saturday AND Friday booking the place up completely. So, instead, we found a new sushi bar. OMG that place was to die for! I have never seen such selection. Easily 500 different types of rolls. It took us about 20 minutes to read through everything and we ended up with some new twists that were just phenomenal. OMG! We will be going back - although luckily, not that often. The place is over 15 miles away and only city streets to get there...we'll really have to want it.
So we got home and then the sweet hubby was down. And that, my friends, was how the weekend played out. We ran a couple of minor errands Saturday morning and came home and lit the fireplace up. The rest of Saturday entailed me trying to work through a few blogs. I am trying to catch up with all that I am following...but catching up on years and half years worth is taking time. Tons of valuable information, though, and I love to see (or at least read about) the band coming to life. It is so varied for everyone but you can also see that it really makes people do what they have to do to change their specific situation. Some people - makes 'em get off the couch (that will probably be my story). Other people - makes 'em eat less. And even other people - makes 'em eat better. Just so interesting and I keep wondering how it will pertain to me...but I can't and won't know that until I'm there.
I know that my sweet hubby and I have agreed to change something that we have to change.
Right now...we eat at our neighbors houses every Tuesday and Thursday.
Pro - I don't have to cook or clean on those evenings.
Con - I don't get to control what I'm eating and I end up not having time for the exercise routine that I prefer. And another con is that I don't get to cook or clean on those evenings.
So the pro that's also a con. I love to cook. It's part of how I decompress from the day. I also love to clean. Especially when it comes to my kitchen. One of my favorite things to do is wash the dishes. I have my odd reasons for that...but it's true. I'm weird.
One of the biggest issues, though, is that my husband and I drive over an hour and a half each way to work. We get to carpool and that helps. However, it's time taken away from our evenings. It means getting up earlier than our colleagues to get there later in the morning. So if I want to work out, I have a relatively small window in which to do so. Especially when you factor in cooking and then eating and then cleaning. Add to that my love for baths or dips in the hot tub...and well...if we go to a neighbors house for dinner, there just is not enough time in the evening to do what we need to do and want to as well. I know that when the "unweightloss" program is over I will start my official what I want to do each night routine. Mon-Weds-Fri I will be lifting weights. Tues-Thurs I will swim. This time of year it will be at a local indoor mostly heated pool. Once it is nicer I will switch to my own pool. We have a swim jet in our pool just for me and my love of swimming and so I can swim endless laps right here at home.
But I can't do my wonderful routine if I'm not home to do so. And I do have to make this time about me. I can see getting to maintenance weight and then backing off the weights which could free up particular evenings. But I also see that by then we might have wee little ones running around the house. And I'm all about routine...I don't think wee little ones do well if they can't predict, even internally, what is about to happen. If bedtime changes every night, for example, it makes it hard to get them to bed.
So the evening meals at our neighbors homes...and the lingering until well after what should be our very own bedtimes, is going to have to stop. Right now...I can't exercise as I wish to anyway. So it's ok. But in two weeks and three days I can start. And by making that change, I feel like I will also be able to better control what I can eat. I can cook fish and chicken almost exclusively.
Now there's an interesting topic. I noticed something about myself. I have not had a beef or pork dish in over three weeks. I don't even miss it. And we used to eat, almost exclusively, beef. I always said to myself I should switch to predominantly chicken and fish but never thought I could. And now without thinking about it or really even trying to, I've made the switch. When it comes to dinner time now, and I start thinking about what to pull out of the freezer, I flat out do not even want to pull out beef. Interesting. Odd. Yay me! That's a switch I've wanted to make for years!
So back to the lazy weekend. You'd think in all this nothing-ness we might have wanted to do something for Valentine's Day. And we thought we were going to...but in the end...we just didn't really want to. I woke up early and created a breakfast in bed situation for my sweet hubby. He is always doing breakfast in bed for me and I wanted to spoil him for once. So I did. Other than that...there wasn't much of anything done. We exchanged cards...yes, plural, cardS and he gave me my fave flowers - tulips, while I gave him some truffles that he loves. But other than that, we didn't go anywhere and we didn't do much else of anything besides just enjoy being together.
Our hot tub has been out of commission as I think after all the freezes we've had this winter, one of the actuators on our pool equipment that controls whether we are returning water to the pool or to the hot tub froze and then busted. We've had a request in for warranty work for over two weeks now and they finally called today to say it would get fixed this week. However, yesterday it occurred to me that we can take that actuator off and control the hot tub/pool return manually. So we were able to crawl in the hot tub last night for the first time in over a month. And it was a chilly night so it was perfect. Towards the end of our dip it started to rain...it was heaven. I love sitting in a hot hot tub with cold rain falling all around. It was one of those 'this is the life' moments!
And today has been equally as lazy. We actually both slept in today...and once we got up, we just crawled out to the couch. I continued reading blogs while my sweet hubby worked a puzzle. It was just a nice day.
The next bunches of weekends won't be nearly as lazy. Next weekend I have a baby shower to attend and we are getting dressed to the nines to go out to dinner with our neighbor. Before we left that one-of-the-best-in-Texas restaurant, we did make reservations for this coming weekend. The following weekend we are headed to Austin. I believe the weekend after that will be around the homestead but I'm sure I'll be itching for some spring cleaning activities by then. March promises more trips back to Austin as my grandmother will be visiting from California. I can't wait to see her and it's always great to see my aunt and uncle that live there in Austin! And hopefully, something will be happening for me in March, too!
I'm tellin you...A whole lotta nothin. It was nice!
And I mentioned this in my previous blog...here are some pics of me through time...
This photo was taken about midway through boot camp. I haven't quite lost all the muscle I would lose yet...but we did spend more time in the pool in the first half of boot camp than we did in the second half. The second half really focused on marching and learning how to be in unison ALL THE TIME. I have no idea what I weighed here...we had no access to a scale in boot camp.
Me at 21 years old. I had been in training for over a year and finally made it out to my ship. I came home to meet my best friend's new baby. (I was stationed in Hawaii and my best friend was and is still in Cali). Once I got to my ship, we went into dry dock for about three months and I was able to pick my swimming back up. I also had managed to get back to swimming and weight lifting while in training, once out of boot camp. When I arrived on my ship, the guys later told me, they couldn't keep their eyes off me. I had no idea... I weighed about 135 here.
At 22. I was definitely curvy. I took those curves as meaning I was fat...I weighed about 145 here.
I was 22 here. This picture was taken in Australia just outside of Melbourne. This was just before my life was changed pretty drastically by a guy who thought he needed to control me...I weighed about 150 here. Lots of beer was consumed on deployment. :)
Just after getting out of the Navy. I had just turned 23. What I went through had already happened and I was in the process of "making the decision to get fat". Yes, I got fat on purpose. I wanted to deflect any and all attention - hence the hideous hair. (My step-dad asked me if I was a lesbian...this was growing out a shaved head...) I weighed about 160 here...and it was the last time I weighed that...
(It was this shirt I was wearing when I met my husband. Not quite so loose when I met him...but still pretty baggy. My mom and grandmother hated that shirt - said I'd never meet a guy as long as I dressed like that. That was the goal!)
At 24. I was working on "making myself ugly" but it was a pretty slow process. At least that's how it felt at the time. I weighed somewhere between 160 and 170 here. I was back to swimming A LOT, though. I lifeguarded and coached 5 days a week for 2 hours a day then swam for at least 2. I also lifeguarded for a disabled student class which was VERY hands on.
At 26 I was finally winning. I started to get a good layer between me and the world. I was about 210 here. This picture was taken at one of my favorite locations in Texas...just outside of Kyle Field in College Station.
Here I am at 28. I just like this picture. I'm so bundled up it's hard to tell anything one way or another. This picture was taken in Iceland. What a gorgeous country! I can say I was about 180 here. I had forgiven and moved on. I lost weight easily once that happened, however, the yo-yo-ing kicked in and this was about a year before my weight started to run away.
Again in Iceland. Not so bad. But I knew it and I slacked off not making it to my targeted weight loss. And that slacking off just got worse.
In Japan at 29. I went on a four month world cruise, quit my job to do so, after my mom died. My step-dad and I went together in her honor and to decompress from what we'd just been through caring for her in her final months. I was 180 when I left on that luxurious and rich food-filled cruise and I was 180 when I got home four months later.
In Sri Lanka towards the end of the cruise.
At 31, this was about a month after I met the man who became my husband (yes, that's him). I was about 215 here.
At 32. Yes, this is NYC. We went to visit one of my hubby's best friend's from high school. I was about 220 here.
One of our 500+ engagement photos. Our photographer said she loved us. If the amount of pictures she took is any indication, we had over 2000 from the wedding, over 400 from our rehearsal dinner and over 500 from the engagement photo session. (Most of her clients had in the ballpark of 1000 total, even when they had the same package we chose.) We love her, too! She was fun and has a great eye. I wish we had a digital copy of the photo hanging over our fireplace...anyway...still 220 here.
My wedding day. I was about 230 for that beautiful day. I wish I could have been less...but my weight problem was still running away from me...and it felt like no matter what I did...it just kept getting worse. 32 years old here.
Again with the wedding day...
In Sri Lanka towards the end of the cruise.
At 31, this was about a month after I met the man who became my husband (yes, that's him). I was about 215 here.
Still 31 but almost 32. This was the night we got engaged. That story will get told in a future blog, closer to the anniversary of that event. I was still at 220 here.
One of our 500+ engagement photos. Our photographer said she loved us. If the amount of pictures she took is any indication, we had over 2000 from the wedding, over 400 from our rehearsal dinner and over 500 from the engagement photo session. (Most of her clients had in the ballpark of 1000 total, even when they had the same package we chose.) We love her, too! She was fun and has a great eye. I wish we had a digital copy of the photo hanging over our fireplace...anyway...still 220 here.This photo was taken in Galveston, TX (pre-Ike). Galveston was the first topic of conversation that we ever had. My hubby was 32 here...I was 31. Our birthdays are only two weeks apart, though...
My wedding day. I was about 230 for that beautiful day. I wish I could have been less...but my weight problem was still running away from me...and it felt like no matter what I did...it just kept getting worse. 32 years old here.
One of my favorite wedding photos. I love our photographer! She did all kinds of things like this!
Again with the wedding day...
It must be love...a Texas A&M Aggie wearing Raider Red? ARGH!!! But as much as I bleed maroon...I love my hubby more! We were in Lubbock for a game and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be spotted. :) I was about 240 and 33 years old here.
And this was this past Christmas. 34 years old. And while I wasn't my heaviest ever, that happened in April and I stayed at that weight through the summer and into October when I started the "unweightloss" program. Highest weight ever was 265. In this photo I was 255. This was the photo that got printed as a Christmas card and most people do not know that it was their "before" photo of me.
And that's a photo history of me, my weight, and my ever-changing hair length.
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