Trials of a Long Haired Girl

So much has happened since I have posted last that I hardly know where to begin, but I celebrated my 45th birthday on Tuesday, the 29th and on Wednesday, the 30th, my mom was taken by ambulance to the emergency room for breathing difficulty and swelling in her legs.  She was diagnosed that Wednesday with congestive heart failure, which add to her previous diagnoses of C.O.P.D. and Diabetes.  To an extent, I walked this road before with my grandmother. We moved forward with her admission to the hospital.  On Thursday, we were told that she couldn't eat because she was having a procedure.  Hours later, we became aware that her procedure was being pushed to later in the day, so she was able to have liquids.  A few more hours passed and we were told that it was being moved to the following day, so she was finally able to eat late in the day.  On Friday, she was pulled down for her procedure.  When it was over, there were no stents placed but it was deter...

I have had a lot of stress going on of late and my food and workouts have been suffering, to say the least.  I had lost 2.2 lbs last week, but gained 3.4 lbs this week.  There is much going on, but I have to figure out how to handle this and move forward.  I do not want to go into 46 (45 is approaching too quickly for me to finish losing the weight before it arrives) being overweight and not happy in my own skin.   This is about me finding what works for me with my life now.  I figured out what worked for me 7+ years ago, but it is not the same now.  I was a single mother with family support and had workout buddies, etc.  Now, I have a husband and children and my mother to take care of and it isn’t always easy to make the schedule work.  I need to figure out how to juggle the schedule.  I am blessed to have a supportive and helpful husband and children, so I am not handling everything completely by myself.   I have made some big change...

I will apologize in advance for this lengthy post. Dear Weight: We’ve had our ups and down, literally.  I did not realize how bad things were for the longest time.  Or maybe I did and I just didn’t want to admit it.  You were my protection, my comfort and the bane of my existence.  However, I am ready to break up with you.  We've been together a long time, but I don't want to be "besties" anymore.  For my health and for my family, I need to move forward with removing you from my body.  You are doing bad things to me.  You increase my risk of heart disease, just to name one.  I want to be healthy and live to enjoy many, many years with my wonderful husband and my amazing family.  Here’s my backstory:  I started out as a chubby baby, but turned into a very thin child.  Until third grade when my school was closing and I had to change schools.  Then I gained weight, a lot of weight in a very short period bec...

Here’s my Friday update: I am down 0.8 lbs. this week.  While it may not be as much of a loss as some, it is still a loss AND the even more important thing for me this week is that I tracked every meal every day!  I am proud of that fact.  I am, however, pondering changing my strength training goals for the moment.  I was reminded this week that I need to have a little bit of wiggle room in the event of an emergency.  My DS15 ran into a car while riding his bike and that was a scary situation, but we wound up spending a fair bit of time in the ER and I had such a headache when it was over.  I do not want to set myself up for feeling like a failure.  At the present, I think I may adjust it for 2 times per week and continuing to hit my step goal, which is still changing from week to week.   I know I need to focus a little more on my food intake in the coming week.   At present, I am 7.6 pounds down from my highest weight.  ...

Hi friends!  I hope all is well!  I am excited to share that I successfully managed to track all weekend!  I was not always easy as DH and I had a date night and I had trouble trying to find a way to accurately track what I had, but I picked things that looked to be approximately the same amount of Smart Points.  My primary goal was to track and I did that.   So a question for all of you, how do you feel about meal planning/meal prep?  I believe I have changed my attitude regarding meal planning/meal prepping and it has definitely made a difference for me.  I may not have everything planned out for each day and I don't think I would ever be that girl, but I have snacks prepared and have an idea of what I am having each day and ideas about dinner.  This allows me to track what I am having and I can be prepared. Something else I feel good about so far in February, I have hit my step goal each day since Jan. 31st and got in some strength traini...

So much has been going on this week.  I have been reflecting over what I have done or need to do better.  I know I really need to get more consistent at tracking.  I started out well, but have gotten complacent.  I know what I need to do.  I really appreciate the fact that I am finally realizing that this is truly about my choices.  I think that I need to be more consistent with my meal prep as well.   I have probably done a little too much this week because my ankle has been consistently swelling at night.  I am still tracking my steps and giving myself a star sticker if I have successfully managed to hit my step goal.  I have been pretty consistent about that this week. As I stated the other day, I went way overboard with my food over the weekend.  I almost used my "no weigh in" pass last night but decided that I needed to face the scale at my Weight Watchers meeting.  I was shocked, but excited that I didn't gain.  I ...

I took yesterday to reflect over my weekend.  I was determined to do better with my tracking over the weekend.  While I didn’t track over the weekend, I went back in on Monday and tracked everything I could remember that I ate (note to self: the paper tracker doesn’t do you any good if you don’t use it).  I went blew through my Weekly Smart Points and every FitPoint that I had earned.  Finding that out yesterday, I had to change the way I was thinking about it.  I am really focusing on the fact that it is truly my choice.  I made each and every choice for each thing that I ate over the weekend.  I am proud of the fact that I tracked it.  I am also proud of the fact that I have had a Dr Pepper sitting on my desk for 2 weeks now and I haven’t been tempted to crack it open.  You are probably wondering why it’s on my desk and not in the fridge or put out of my sight…it seems to disappear when I put it in the fridge and it has been a test for m...