Sorry I'm jumping in late everyone. Last week entirely got away from me ("busy" isn't even the word for it) and I'm fairly certain I'm going through a mild depression at the moment. I'm actually starting to suspect the BC pills I've been on for a few months... when I'm going through TOTM on them I get some bad symptoms (in white):

constant diarrhea
bad headaches
depression/anxiety spikes
very, very tired
moody

I actually suffer from panic attacks. I have consulted a doc about them before and they're usually fairly rare (maybe 1/2 per year -- not enough to consider me having Panic Disorder) but since I've been on these pills (for about 6 months now, maybe 7) I've had four of them. Almost always right around TOTM. Panic attacks are absolutely no fun and I'm not sure if the lower estrogen is worth it.

It's like PMS in reverse. I went on these pills a few months ago after losing weight because I needed to lower my estrogen dose (I had been on high-estrogen pills for my fat body, haha). When I am ON the pills I actually feel great, better than I had before, but those few days when I'm off are a nightmare. I haven't actually sat down and recorded the symptoms as always happening during the days off pills - it's just a hunch of mine, something I've noticed. I may start keeping a diary of it to see if my hunch is right. On top of it all, I'm still stressed about finding a job AND trying to keep my head in the game for my current workload. I know I can do it, I'm just having trouble finding motivation. I feel really lost.

The motivation is trickling into my weight loss regimen and I am being lackluster at best. I see old habits coming back (i.e. "sneaking" food) and I'm disappointing myself. I am unsure what will snap me out of this funk. Finding a job would sure help, as would me feeling like I just can't be good enough, no matter what I do (that's my depression talking, I know, but it's still there, darnit!). My weight has been hovering right around 160 for weeks now and it's frustrating.

I am going to try to keep up with goals this week. Here they are!

Weekly Goals

Food/Exercise/Lifestyle Goals

1) Calories between 1200-1500
2) Exercise 3 times this week, high intensity
3) Calorie deficit of 4,000-5,000
4) In bed by 11:30 every night
5) Protein between 25-30% on average for the week
6) 80 oz. of water daily
7) Take my multivitamin!!
8) Weigh in daily and post here T: 158.6

Other Goals

1) Turn in 5 job applications this week
2) Prepare for exam review by Thursday
3) Take some "me" time every day
4) Don't sweat the small stuff

Tori Thanks for sharing your pictures.

Luv Sorry to hear you are sick, get well soon.

Amy I hope your brother fully recovered how scary for you and your parents to have someone you love injured and far away. Sorry your middle dd is giving you grief in the morning you are making me want to phone my mom and say sorry:(. I am still not a morning person I don’t like it when my family talks to me before my coffee and I am certainly not hungry until at least an hour after I wake up. I went to school without breakfast a lot much to my mothers frustration but she always had an extra snack in my bag for recess :)and I was hungry by then so it probably didn’t hurt me to have breakfast at 10:30. I have no great advice because I don’t think my mom was ever able to have a wonderful morning with me but I am glad she held her ground and fought the fight because I get up and do what I need to on time everyday even though I dislike mornings.

Mern I am glad you are ok did your sinus headache pass?

Kim Thanks for the info, how long have you been diving?

Quinn Have a great day.

Mike Enjoy your day at mardi gras.

Lizzie Thanks!

Mea Your job does sound fun.

Terri Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time, have you been back to share these symptoms with your Dr?

I am off to hike. I hope you all have a great day.:)

Just flying by.

Thanks, y'all for the welcome back. :)

So much to do today. Blood test tomorrow--I had been thinking the test was Friday and haven't been drinking enough water so I'll have to suggest to them to try to try to take it out of the top of my hand again. It takes longer to fill the tube but they've always been able to get enough. After I pick up the kids I'll try to drink as much as possible for the rest of the day.

On older ladies and swearing: I love telling this story. In the 20+ years I knew my mother-in-law, I heard her swear only one time. She was almost 80 and father-in-law about 83. He was grumbling about one son who had recently gotten divorced. He said the trouble in that marriage was that the wife always told the HUSBAND what to do and the husband should be telling the WIFE what to do. I told him my DH NEVER has to tell ME what to do because I'm not STUPID. So I asked my mother-in-law right in front of him whether he tells HER what to do. She got a devilish grin on her face and said, "Oh yeah! He tells me what to do all the time--but then I turn around and do whatever I damned well please!" At that, my father-in-law left the room in a huff and mumbling to himself. LOL

Terri, I hope you get used to those pills or get some different ones and get rid of all those TOTM problems. Certainly is a load to carry! I was never on the pill and never took estrogen or any other hormones, so I'm sure I have no idea what you must be going through. Huge hugs to ya.

Darlene, yes, my headache finally and totally passed after 2 1/2 days of relief only when I was sleeping. Thanks. :) Luckily it was just a lingering headache from my allergy, and not a sinus infection.

I'll be back later--gotta run.

Sister, jump on the wagon there is always room for one more. I should warn you though that I'm going to give Mike a really hard time for at least a week if he can't keep up. And don't worry about stepping on my toes, the kids do that constantly and it never seems to get old, well to them it never gets old.

Bahahahaha, that's a good story, and an even better philosophy.

Tori, I knew a woman who went to NOLA and said I aint pulling up my shirt for no plastic beads. If they want to see me topless, they better be throwing down a Rolex or a diamond bracelet!!! Just saying.

That story about my brother was from 1999, he's fully recovered, except for one little section of his lower lip no longer has feeling in it. In spite of all the trauma to his head, he isn't any dumber than he was when he willingly jumped on the back of a wild bull with a cinch around it's junk. And to make matters worse, my already beautiful brother actually came out better looking in the end, it's soooo not fair. You see the surgeon had to fix his nose, which had been broken I don't know how many times prior to the rodeo accident, it was crooked and bent funny in at least 3 places, and it had a rather large lump in the middle of it (genetic). Anyway they only had a driver's license picture to work from, so the doc asked me if I had any opinions about what it should look like, did I have a favorite actor or some such. I should have said Barbara Striessand, but instead I said that I always thought Mel Gibson had a good looking nose. And I kid you not, the surgeon called me right after the procedure and said, "we couldn't give him the "Gibson", he didn't have the base for it, so we went with the "Costner, I hope that's okay".

I really wish you had better advice on raising a "non-morning-person" child. I've packed snacks for years, but it doesn't occur to her to eat them, so they just end up smashed in the bottom of her backpack. If she weren't such a meanie butt when she's low on calories I probably wouldn't worry about it, but HOLY COW she'd get herself kicked out of public school if I let her go to school like that every day.

And WHOOOO HOOOOO HOOOOO on the new job. You go girl!!!

Terri, I have no advice on the birth control front, I'm playing anti-baby pill roulette right along with you (they look sort of like a roulette wheel don't they, which has always struck me as just a bit ironic). I usually give myself 6 months to get used to them, because it does take time. I've had some really weird symptoms over the years too. Did your old ones bother you? If not you might just want to go back to them. Although I will caution that I did exactly that a while back and the old ones had a bunch of new symptoms that they never had before.

It all depends on whether or not you're a convert. Bahahaha!!! My relatives who were born into Catholic households give up something for Lent every year, but go right back to it Easter morning. My SIL who is a converted Catholic takes her commitments more seriously. She gives up the same all the same things she gave up last year, plus a new one (she says it helps her remember how long she's been Catholic), then she tries to go longer than 40 days. So now through Lent she doesn't:

eat sweets
eat chocolate
drink alcohol
buy anything frivolous
swear out loud
swear with sign language
take the Lord's name in vain
yell at her husband
fight with her husband
give her kids the evil eye
eat white flour
eat white sugar
skip working out

I don't know what she's adding this year, it's always interesting and funny, well watching my brother suffer through it is funny anyway. She makes him give up stuff too. Back in the olden days you were supposed to give up meat, wine and um, relations... I will die laughing if she gives up sex for Lent though. The funniest part is that in their house you have to put money in the rice bowl (church charity) for infractions and they keep it smack dab in the middle of the kitchen table as a reminder. One time during Lent she got really mad at my brother, but was trying not to say anything. So he says to her, just go get a dollar and get it over with. She came back with a $20, and unfurled it all over him.

You see that's the difficulty with sober statements like that. I can say it sober and mean it, but with alcohol in my system there's really no telling....

Very, very true.

hahahahahaha!! I know nothing of this.......:D:D

Food Porn
 

Shrimp Etouffee
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...etouffee-1.jpg
Crawfish Fettuccine
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...awfishfett.jpg

So much food. SO LITTLE TIME!!!

I really enjoy weight lifting, even more so than the cardio but the cardio is a necessary addition. For someone who had never weight lifted before a simple 3 x week program where you have one exercise for each of the major muscle groups is good. I am no expert so take my advice with a grain of salt. But for a newbie something like
Pec Deck/Flyes 3 x 10 reps (chest)
Lat pulldowns 3 x 10 reps (back)
Dumbbell curls 3 x 10 reps (biceps)
Leg extensions 3 x 10 reps (quadriceps)
Leg curls 3 x 10 reps (hamstrings)
The amount of weight should be enough to create resistance and fatigue but not so much that you have to sacrifice good form to complete the task. This hits each of the major muscle groups outside of calfs and abs. Calfs are hit in just about any cardio and abs should be worked almost daily with exercises like crunches, twists, knee ins. Weight training is a process of damaging the muscle and it repairing itself in a stronger state. Thus a muscles should be given 48 hours to recover before training them again. 3 x week does that. As you progress you may start to add additional exercises until you get to a point where you split the muscle groups up into different days. that is what I have done now. I have Legs(Quadriceps), Deltoids/triceps, chest/hamstrings, and Back/Biceps. I hit the muscle group of that day with multiple exercises and really fatigue it out to exhaustion. But hen it doesn't get hit again for at least four days sometimes 6.

Hope that helps. I'm not a professional so ymmv. ;)


I have been diving 8 years. I am pretty hardcore by most recreational divers standards. I do a lot of technical diving which means stuff like caves or decompression diving (deep stuff). I am hoping to go after a women's world record for depth on a rebreather ( a particular type of diving equipment) this May. That's the driving force behind my weight loss and cardiovascular training :D

Where was that from?

This is just cruel.

OMG my daughter started complaining she had to actually put her dirty dishes from the living room (where she is NOT supposed to eat) into the dishwasher and after a lot of "stuff" from her in general, I turned into Tony Soprano (um just the accent and the profanity, not the you know violence.) I am not proud of this lapse with the language. To punish me, she said she was no longer hungry (even tho I made dinner early because she was STARVING and had to get to concert choir.) So I said Good, now you have more time to do the dishes. NOW.

I am going to Hell (should I say "the bad place"? ) It is true. I gotta control my frigging temper and my trashy potty mouth. So yeah that goal for today: trashed. Thing is, I wasn't even that angry, just tired of hearing the kvetching. OY VEY stop the kvetching already and put the frigging dish in the frigging dishwasher. Is that asking too much, I ask you?

I love Amy's statement and your response.You guys are so funny, you make me laugh and feel better.

And Mern, welcome back where you belong!!!!

Just checking in. Another "in control" day. :) Other than being a miserably cold, wet, dreary day, everything else was wonderful. I am so ready for Spring! Foods not the cleanest, but calories are definitely under control... as long as I don't snack tonight. lol

1. Keep calories around 1200. 1289, 1069
2. Log whenever possible. Yes, Yes
3. Keep a water bottle with me at all times. Yes, could have been better
4. Get at least 2 long hikes in this week. 0, 0
5. Take multi-vitamin and supplements. Yes, Yes
6. Minimum of 3 fruits and veggies a day. Yes, Yes

My meeting went exceedingly well. All signs are good to have her back home for the weekend. :) The nursing staff is completely stunned by her recovery... maybe they will finally start to encourage others to get to a larger facility for the laparoscopic version of her surgery, cutting the recovery time from 8 weeks to 2. I'm so glad that we took a chance and transported her out of this podunk little town. Members of the medical staff actually come to her room just to look at the small incisions for such a major procedure. She feels like quite a celebrity. lol I'm so proud of all that we have accomplished. :) It just goes to show that you have to take control of your own medical decisions and look for your own answers when no one else will. If you are ever in a situation where doctors tell you that the situation is hopeless, always press on until you find the key to the door that will open new options.

Quinn, that is awesome news. I'm so glad to hear that she's doing better.

Ladies, Mardi Gras is over for me. I'm back home. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow, just going to relax for now.

ummm Copeland's?? It definitely looked better than it was.
You KNOW I had to share!!!
Well, I will do what I can to make you laugh. Laughter is always the best medicine.
Someone can't hang??

Quinn-glad things are coming together for you.


Our "gourmet" dinner....
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...th_dominos.jpg
and now I'm feeling a little sick....

Despite feeling like the walking dead, I didn't derail too horribly today. I kinda had to force myself to eat to keep up my energy. No foods sound appealing right now. I'm not craving any foods which is good but it is making the decision process of what to eat a little hard. The last few days I haven't eaten until I started to get clammy and shaky and it was obvious my blood sugar was dropping.

I did manage to get in 20 mins on my bike and 10 mins on free weights and crunches and got my water intake above 80oz. I've just felt so awful today. Hoping it's just a hormonal fluctuation that has my IBS acting up. Being a woman can be so grand....NOT!!!

Deborah

:)Says the person that had a hard time getting her head off the pillow (and never made it to Mardi Gras) to the guy that was up at 6:30am heading to NOLA?? :p

Oh, I was awake at 6am, but just didn't get motivated all day. But my toes are pretty!!:p

Speaking of being able to hang, Tori... are you up for a 10 miler before you leave?

ummmm a HOW MANY MILER???

Wow Lots of catching up to do. Darlene - congratulations on the job. Having a good week so far. Managed to go to Zumba tonight -- a new instructor I like better than the old. Eating well , lots of water -- 1000 calorie defecit. Bought myself 2 new exercise tops today and new curtains for my bedroom. Guess that counts as something nice for myself. Mary

ten!

at one time???

OMGoodness, I love some Zumba! Even though my instructor is thisbig and has more energy than the Energizer Bunny! I also love buying new things for myself. It always makes me feel better when I'm down.

The most productive thing I did today.....
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...th_toesdid.jpg
Gawd, I have ugly feet with little bitty sausage toes. But my toeNAILS look all shiny and pretty!!!

Yes, if you're scared just say it. :D

Aww, looks like little smokies dipped in BBQ sauce. Now that was good, admit it.

I have no problems admitting it LOL! I'm skeered!

AWWW :( I didn't make Baby Huey comments......(it was good though)

Okay, so I've moved back up to a large and pretty much everything is a medium. :(


My PITA is back with vengeance. Tonight I was also feeling it on my right side. If it continues I'll be going in for another MRI.

1) 6 glasses H2O daily. Come on, if I can't drink 48 ozs then I oughta cluck at a duck and sniff a truck (this is my imitation of Steven Tyler's odd {and more profane} sayings on American Idol, which I no longer watch.) 11 boo yah!; 8, maybe 9
2) protein is my friend - eat this - yes; yes till it's coming out my err ears
3) sugar is not - don't eat that -yes, yes
4) Oat bran is yummy. Tell myself that as I eat it once daily.- yes, yum; I made it into a kind of gruel even Oliver Twist woudln't eat and no one would say please sir I want more
5) 20 minutes or more of movement a day (I mean I'm not 90 fer goodness sakes and there ARE 90 year olds more active than me. In fact, I know at least 3.) half hour at least, no :(
6) be a stretchy mama - yes; yes - but no polyester!!!
7) write two hours minimum a day 5 days a week - yup at least; class today
8) stop being so pissed off at everyone which I'm telling you right now I failed Monday morning on a GRAND scale, an EPIC scale, hell, an OPERATIC scale, (chewed DH a new one, no, no, no two new ones while singing opera about "my rights") but will try for the rest of the day and the week. Yessir. - trying, EPIC FAIL
9) stop cleaning DD's room for her, you dirty (or clean?) little enabler you - Yup ansd I did not pick up after her, make a special dinner or let her skip chores and she cleaned out part of her room : woo hoo; T: no room cleaning on anyone's part

Hope, great job so far. That's a lot of water!

Tori, how many miles are you willing to commit to, at one time, while on vacation? I may be able to go Thursday evening... If you're game.

Hmmm that's a tough one. I can't really say, I never really commit to any set number at a given time. I always go with what my knees and asthma will allow me to put in all at once. But I'm game to push myself, a little (it is vacay after all:)) I'm pretty sure we don't have any set plans for Thursday yet. Tomorrow I'm booked all day though. I STILL haven't seen my cousin, and really really have to before we leave. I'll let you know though

Didn't log all my calories until after posting yesterday and was actuall quite high (1900). Today was better at 1400 so I still have to get 100 calories before Sunday.

I have to make sure that doesn't become obsessive as all the food I am eating is completely good.

I did have 10 grams of 70% chocolate as I had to whip that craving in the butt. I've had very few so that one surprised me a bit.

I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow.