Send Prayers and......randomness and..... Cute bear pics........

Lots going on in my world today. My godmother has her surgery for breast cancer this morning. Stressful and I wish I could be there, but I have to work. I called and talked to her this morning and the kids did, too. I sent her a card and this awesome breast cancer T-shirt I got for her (and me). It's really cute. I'll take a pic and post later.  Please send thoughts and prayers her way and for me because it's very hard to focus for me today. PLUS it's end of month and I HAVE to stay on task and get my work done.

Speakingof work. I have put up a new blog for my practice. Medical stuff. If you are ineterested in following my other blog you can here.  It will be more about medical issues and my life as an md and less about my weight loss and that adventure although I'm sure I'll discuss it there some as well.

Grief is a funny thing. Today as I was driving to work I was thinking that I need to send my BFF an email and see how her first week of school is going. She's a high school biology teacher. My cousin(who was like a brother to me) that died in March taught the same subject across town at the other high school in my home town. So I'm driving and thinking about my BFF and it's like for a minute I forgot he was gone. I thought, "I should check on William"........and then I realized he was gone. Feel so guilty, so bad, so sad........I miss him. But, that is the nature of grief, isn't it? It is the random and the day to day things that can really bother you. I always liked checking in with him the first week of school to see how he was liking his classes and such and now........

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Reason 1569 why shouldn't weigh everyday:  I was up 3 pounds today. Why why why why?  Truth is it doesn't matter. I know I haven't really gained 3 pounds. When will I learn not to do this to myself?? Sigh. Whatever........I'll not let this bother me. Onward! Today I will be going to the gym. C25K again. I'm determined to finish it this time! Lunch and snacks are packed. I'm on track with food. 

I miss my fitbit. It got washed. It is dead. Dead. dead. dead.  Bummer. NOw what? Do I get another one or do I try some other toy? Do any of you have a toy? Bodybugg? Or other? Do you like it? I'm thinking about it.

And finally........More vacay pics. Gotta get all these posted before my trip to Orlando in just 9 days. It's for family fun AND business as I'll be attending the American Academy of Family Physicians meeting and doing stuff for my board certification. So here's some more ......hope I'm not boring all of you with this.
We sent to this animal reserve called Bear Country USA just outside Rushmore. The best part was the bear cubs. We stood and watched them for nearly an hour. They were adorable. A bunch of them climbed into this tree and were fighting over the top. So so so cute. Just have to smile.

The little one at the bottom climbed all the way to the top and then was tired so went back down and fell asleep while the rest continued to wrestle their way to the top. That's the way we should be. Do our thing and ignore the chaos around us.

Hi! Wanna play?

So tired.....

MINE!

WHAT are you buying?

Today has been a good day. Busy, but good. After I got the kids off to school I headed off to do a couple of errands. Do they ever stop? Seems like there is always something on the grocery list or what not. Anyway...as I was shopping at Wal-Mart I noticed two ladies, obviously mother and daughter. Both of them in scooters. Both of them quite obese. I happened to glance into their scooter baskets and then......well......I confess I became judgemental. In Mom's basket was white bread, Pepsi, powdered donuts, Doritos and bananas. In the daughter's there was a 6 pack of snapple, velveeta cheese, Milk (whole milk), oreos.... and that's all I saw as they rolled past me.

Inside I was soooo.....frustrated.  I mean, come on. These ladies are hurting themselves. They are not even trying to eat healthy and to top it off they are ROLLING through the store while buying this stuff so they aren't even moving. I just hate to see people do this.  It's like the patient I had recently that told me he was watching his diet since now he only has one package of donuts in the morning instead of the two he was eating. AHHH! I just want to smack them and say WHAT?

When is the last time these people had food that was NOT in a package? When was the last time that they actually ate something the way it was grown? Like an apple without caramel sauce or peanut butter or dips of any kinds? Don't they know that these foods will kill them?  All those calories in the snapple and pepsi and..... VELVEETA?! What IS that stuff?

And THEN I want to scream WALK!  You know that riding around in a freaking scooter is just making your problems WORSE. You have to move or die. MOVE OR DIE. If you cannot go to the store to get your snapple and donuts and oreos and pepsi without using a scooter because you are too obese to walk around the store and pick that crap up, perhaps it is time to STOP BUYING THAT CRAP!

Then I felt guilty. I mean, you don't know. Maybe they always eat healthy and are just getting that crap this one time. But then......they are both in a scooter. They don't look like they move much at all.  I know that I shouldn't judge, but I just wanted to walk over to them and rip that shit out of their baskets and tell them to stop it. Of course I didn't. I just went on my way.

Then I got mad because this image is what other people have in their minds of obesity. They think all fat people eat like that all the time and we don't. I DON'T.   I don't want people to see that shit in my basket EVER. EVER EVER EVER. I am done with that kind of crap. Today I bought bananas, onions, cantaloupe and peaches. That's it. I hate that some people see me and think that's the shit I eat all day. Of course they would be judging me the way I am now judging..........sigh.

Anyhoo.....At lunch I headed to the gym. Did 35 minutes on the elliptical, some crunches, leg lifts and I reviewed my TKD forms and kicking drills. There are no TKD classes this week because they are on vacation. I miss it. I won't lie. But, it was a good workout. After, I headed to Pet Smart to pick up a new light for the turtle and then to Target to return some stuff. Got behind the lady with 5,000 coupons.......of course.

Today I've been hungry, but I'm managing. Luckily I packed my lunch and snacks because the office had BBQ and I could have taken a dive right into that yummy stuff-brisket, sausage, ribs, baked beans, peach cobbler. I didn't have any. Instead I had my Atkins shake, my cherries, my carrots with hummus and my strawberries for snack. More water and I'll make it home without touching the left overs. Salad for dinner and something veggie. Hopefully some protein. I think fish of some sort.

My godmother has her surgery tomorrow for her breast cancer. I am not worried, but concerned. She seems ready and hopefully all will be well with her.  Kids are in school and we are so busy. September will probably fly by. We have a trip to Oklahoma for the football game on Saturday. Oh how I love my college football!

Do you ever get judgy when you see people engaging in very obvious self-destructive behaviors?  How are you doing holding to your eating plan this week?  What is your "go to" snack for hungry days?

Weekend wrap-up post and yet MORE vacation pics.

Monday morning and I have several reasons to smile. FIRST, it is raining. Actual water from the sky kind of raining. The temps have dropped and for that I am very thankful. Second, I spent the weekend working hard around the house. I didn't work out, but it was a lot of work. I hardly sat down at all. That means I didn't have time to eat much. I tracked all weekend. This morning when I weighed I am finally back to 190! After gaining and losing the same five pounds for the last month or two I am back on my way down the scale.

THIRD, I am just 11 days away from our Orland trip. Smile. I'm headed to Orlando for the American Academy of Family Physicians meeting. Hubbie and the kids are coming along. We'll be doing Disney AND Harry Potter. I'm very excited about that one as we'll have one evening there when it's just people from the convention. When we've been at these events before it is very fun with very few crowds! Can't wait. (Yes. I'm a Harry Potter freak. Yes, I've read all the books and seen all the movies like 200 times. Except the last one where I cried through the whole thing. Can you say "sap"?)

More Vacation........
At Custer State Park in South Dakota, we drove the Needles Highway which is basically an old winding highway through a lot of rock. It was really cool.

After that, We went to Mount Rushmore. I was surprised how much the kids LOVED this stop.

Not crazy about this pic of me, but it reminds me to stay on track. Still a ways to goal!

Then on to Crazy Horse

Some more pics of the drive

I love this T-shirt!

This is what we saw EVERYWHERE we went!

I love the fog coming off the lake in this one.

And so today I got the kids to school and got into the office early to finish up work from last week. Very busy day here. I had a nice compliment from a patient that had moved away, and came back to me today. So nice for a patient to remember me enough to be sure I'm their doctor again.  I went to the gym at lunch and did C25K. As it turns out I had to reload my iphone (stupid itunes stupid backup problems stupid stupid). Anyway, that means I lost all my old C25K data. I had restart the program last Friday so I just did day one AGAIN. Day 2 is planned for Wednesday. I'm drinking water and eating on plan. I'm hoping to see 180-something very very soon. That will be my lowest weight yet!

How are you doing lately with exercise? Doing anything new or different? Are you a morning or evening exerciser? Gym or at home? What is your favorite exercise? Least favorite?

Hang in there! Stay on track. Keep going.................

Thunder?........And......Vacation Post #2

Today I was shook awake by the sound of loud rolling thunder at before 5am. In my sleepy haze, I wondered to myself what the hell the kids were doing upstairs and why were they up so early. That's how long it's been since we had a thunderstorm. Once I realized that it was a storm, I bounded out of bed only to discover that there was no rain. For the next hour I tried to go back to sleep unsuccessfully. All of that for not one drop of rain. Are you kidding me? Plus it is just as hot today as it has been. What? On my way to work I drove through the car wash. Maybe that will help. If not, at least it's a big screw you to the unproductive sleep interrupting clouds.

More on the vacation......

We arrived at Custer State Park in South Dakota. I have to say that I was surprised by how pretty it is there. The best part was the weather was fabulous.  We wore shorts most of the time, but often needed a light jacket. Such a welcome break from the hot nastiness still lingering here in Texas.  We took the drive around the park and saw tons of animals- both 4 legged and 2. Bikers and motorcycles everywhere! One night we went to a chuckwagon dinner where we had a hay ride out to a valley and they cooked dinner for us with Cowboy music and everything. The kids loved this!  I'm so glad we did it.

We got lucky and drove up on the huge herd of buffalo just as they were crossing the road. Lots of babies!

Prairie dogs all over. Huge towns of them. Squeak, squeak, squeak

Wild Burros roam the park. They walk right up so you can pet them and feed them. The kids loved feeding them carrots and apples which were given to them by some nice bikers who'd obviously been there before so they knew to bring them. So nice of them!

I just love this pic!

Today was a very busy day, but then what else is new?  Like I said I woke up too early and on top of that I had a migraine from the storm.  I got the boy off to football by 6:30am. Girls ready for school. Then to the car wash and then to work. I did some extra work to catch up this morning. At lunch I had an appointment  with my trainer. I'll admit I dreaded it considering it had been 2 week since I worked out at all. He kicked my butt. It needed it mind you, but it was a whippin'.

I did 30 chest presses with 17.5lbs on the balance ball. Then 20 crunches with the ball and 20 leg lifts. Then lat pull downs, 20 pounds 30 reps. THEN I did 15 pullups and 15 triceps dips on the machine. Then 15 bicep curls, 25pounds. THEN cable rows with 20 lbs. AND THEN I did up-downs with 25lb weights. AND THEN........I did all that a second time.  All that after 15min on the elliptical. Yep. I'll be sore.  I really wanted to quit on those last pullups. But then I got this image of Ann H. from Carb Tripper

After that workout, I headed back to work. After work, I headed to TKD. It was my first class since my blue belt. It was fun, but I've missed some classes so I am behind on the material.  Food today was great. I had 1057calories. For dinner I had this wonderful salmon with pesto and a little feta cheese. I burned over 1200calories today just in my workouts. I'm hoping for being back to below my pre-vacation and pre-steroid weight this weekend. 

Tomorrow is Friday. Thank goodness. I need the weekend and so do the kids. Lots to do, as usual. I'll be in touch tomorrow.  Good night!

Vacation Post....FINALLY ...AND some Pics!

Well I'm finally making a little time to get some stuff posted about my vacation. I'll probably have to do this in a couple of different posts since I have so many pics.

My vacation began with me getting my blue belt.  It was hard. One of the hardest things I've ever done. The test was nearly 4 hours long. I was working most of that time. I sparred twice, one with a red-black belt and another with an adult black belt. The teenager red-black belt hit me with a crescent kick to the face (not allowed at my level), but it didn't stop me. I just kept fighting. I broke my board with a round house kick, first try. It was about 2 inches thick!  I won't say it didn't hurt a bit. My big toe was bruised and hurting  for all the next day.

If you can see it, that shadow of purple-black on my left chin is the bruise from the kick to the face

This weird angle is me trying to get all of me in the pic.

After my test, my son tested and got his red-black belt. He's just one step from black now and we are so proud of him. He worked super hard to get it. His test was nearly 6 hours long!  Immediately after his test we ran home, showered, locked up the house and headed to Oklahoma to pick up my BFF and her kids for the trip. We rented a Suburban so all 8 of us could ride together and share the driving.  From there we drove all the way to Kearney, Nebraska where we stopped at the Great Platte River Archway which is sort of a museum all about the Oregon Trail and the Transcontinental Railroad. The kids enjoyed it and after all that time we needed a break.

From there we drove over to Paxton, Nebraska which is a tiny town. There they have a famous steak house called Ole's Steak House. It was started by a big game hunter in the 1930s. He had a huge taxidermy collection and it is now displayed there. They had all kinds of animals. Our table was near a giraffe. There was an elephant and even a polar bear.  The food was good. Of course I had steak.

From there we drove to Chimney Rock.

And then to Car Henge. The kids LOVED this stop. They ran around climbed on all the cars and we took a ton of silly pictures.

Finally, we drove to Custer State Park in South Dakota. We rented a Cabin there and the surroundings were lovely.  As it turns out, we were there the same week as the annual Sturgis Bike Ralley. That's right.  We shared the road with thousands and thousands of bikes. It was amazing. I've never seen so many in my life. Luckily we didn't run into any problems and the bikers we interacted with were super nice.  Tomorrow I'll post some pics from inside the park. There's so much more.........

Back to this week....
So far I am doing well. I'm super tired and still trying to keep my head above water with work, kids and back to school stuff. Today I went to the gym before work. It was a very pleasant way to start the day. I needed to work out SO badly. I did 35min on the elliptical. Tomorrow I meet with my trainer. Pretty sure it's gonna hurt. Then I'll do my first (finally) blue belt class at TKD.

Food wise I've been spot on. Today I had an Atkins shake for breakfast followed by an apple for snack. For lunch I packed a wrap sandwich on the Flat Out wrap with ham, lettuce, cheese and mustard. I had some carrots and 2tbs hummus for snack. Then in the afternoon a peach. For dinner I had a salad with tuna and green beans and watermelon. My calories for today are at 1187. I have to say I was very hungry today, especially in the mid-morning. I didn't eat enough breakfast and not enough protein for my workout. The office lunch was enchiladas, queso and chips and other tasty forbidden fruits. I did not partake, but I did enjoy sniffing it. I wanted to. Really did. But, I know better. PLUS the sodium!

We're half way through the first week of school!  Hanging on and staying on track. How are you this week?  Had to avoid any temptations lately? Hang in there and stay focused. In the words of Dori: Just Keep Swimming!

Treading Water!

I am finally sitting down late tonight to do a post. I feel so hurried and hectic lately! The past 2 weeks have been an extremely busy time. I swear, I can't wait for the weekend where maybe I can get a few things off my ever growing to-do list!

I have not exercised yet this week! I am extremely irritated and increasingly frustrated by that. I just plain have not had time. I had to get that flat tire fixed yesterday at lunch. Today I HAD to get my hair done as I'd already changed the dang appointment twice. It's hard for me to have time to get that done, so I try to go at lunch. Tomorrow I have a meeting at lunch about the new software for the office. Sigh. I have an appointment with the trainer on Thursday and I am planning a TKD class that evening.  My only reservation is that after 2 weeks of no workouts I'll probably die. No pain, no gain, correct?

The kids are settling in to the new school routine. Boy has to be at football at 6:30am. I drop off the girls a little before 8am. Today I had the realization that now that both girls are in school earlier, I would actually have time to hit the gym in the mornings!  This is exciting to me as I've never had that opportunity. Now to just figure out which days. I have my bag packed and I am going to try it out tomorrow. This morning I had to make another Target trip to get yet another binder for my son. Why can't these teachers tell us everything we need at one time?

Food has been great this week. I'm doing well and tracking. Today I finally remembered to retrieve my fitbit from my briefcase where it's been since vacation. I was greatly amused by the fact that it recorded 23 steps for me last week and even posted it to facebook as usual. Too funny. Truth is I'm doing my best to get everything done, but it's pretty hard.

Today I spent a lot of time on my practice website trying to update it with the new pictures. They turned out well as far as pictures go. Tomorrow I'll try to get it posted here as my new pic. I also finally got a facebook page up for the practice. It takes so much time to do this stuff, but I feel like it will be good marketing and a good way to get patients information.

Anyway, I'm treading water and as always I'm not giving up. I haven't read many blogs today. I'll get caught up tomorrow. Right now I need only one thing.....sleep! Good night, All!

CRAZY CATCHUP post.

I've had quite a week and it has been CRAZY so this post will serve as catch up and I'll get my vacation stuff posted later. Last week I spent most of the week half sick, but working anyway. Finally I called my ENT on Wednesday and he started the steroids again.  I hate hate hate taking those, but I like breathing. So, I'm now on a 2 week course of them and antibiotics, which I also hate having to take. But, I do feel a lot better.

I didn't work out all last week. I ate well and I lost nearly all the few pounds I gained. I feel like all I've done lately is gain and lose the same 5 pounds over and over. Well, that's because that is exactly what I've done. I am determined to get back on track and head down the scale again. I'm frustrated because I still haven't been able to go to my new TKD blue belt class. But, I just couldn't with my breathing so bad and the office in chaos.

Last week was crazy in the office. There's been a lot of office drama which I could do without ever having. Why can't people just do their jobs, gets along and then go home? I don't know. I don't see how that added stress helps anyone. Patients were difficult. I think this heat has gotten everyone grumpy. I had one patient die. I had another leave the office by ambulance and I ended up on the phone with authorities, police, medical examiner, more than once last week. Not fun, to say the least.

At home, I have felt bad so I didn't do much all week. The pool is still in need of repair and we had a swim party on for Saturday. Luckily, the pool is swimable so the kids got the opportunity. Hopefully the pool will be fixed this next week. HOPEFULLY.  Friday night, my cousins came to visit for my daughter's birthday. Her party was the pool fun for the weekend.  A few minutes before our guests arrived from Oklahoma, we discovered a leak in the kitchen sink. Fabulous. Now I have a house full of people, wet floor, mess everywhere, and no way to do dishes. Sigh. Luckily I quickly shut off the water before too much damage was done. Tomorrow a call to the plumber and a trip to Lowe's today and our new faucet is waiting to be installed. On top of that, with a house full of guests, one of the upstairs toilets decided to stop working. Seriously. Luckily that was an easy fix for my husband so no one had to wait too long to potty.

Saturday I went to the store to get a few groceries and pick up the cake for the party. One hour before the party I learn that they have lost my order, and that means no cake. Sigh. Luckily they were able to fix one for me quick and it was just fine. I got myself, the groceries, the cake and the balloons to the car only to discover a flat tire. Crap. I drove over to the gas station and pumped it up and back home in time for the party. Now instead of working out with my trainer tomorrow, I have to get the tire fixed. (they aren't open on Sundays but at least I have a warranty on the tires. Double sigh)

I arrived home and unloaded, finished decorating and then discovered I'd forgotten the bag of ice that I delayed getting while waiting on the cake. Too freaking bad, we'll make do.  But, my sweet 7 year old girl had a great party. It was a Luau theme (all her idea). We had a house full of little girls in grass skirts and flowers around their necks, hula dancing and doing the limbo in the living room. Adorable. They enjoyed the pinata and the coloring activity. Then there was the pool time. Great time for all at the end of the day.

There are worse things in the world than a small plumping problem or two and a flat tire. We enjoyed our weekend anyway, though it went by too fast. The kids start school tomorrow so the boy has football practice a 6:30am sharp. My baby is in eighth grade and I am a little sad about it. My middle quiet child and newly 7 year old will be in second grade.  My youngest baby girl starts kindergarten tomorrow and I am a little sad there two, but I love seeing them grow up. Each phase is a new adventure and just plain wonderful.

A little more hard news last week. We found out my mom's best friend and my second mom (godmother?) has breast cancer. Luckily it seems to be localized and caught early enough although we won't know for sure of course until the surgery which is scheduled for the 31st. Then she'll need radiation at least, but hopefully no chemo will be necessary.   Luckily a trip to Oklahoma was already scheduled for that weekend for the season opening of the Sooners so we'll be in town to check on her. I've spent some extra time this week on the phone and web reviewing reports and answering questions for her, mainly interpreting the medical speak.  She seems to be taking it well so far without too many jitters and has a really good attitude. She's a very strong and otherwise healthy lady so I know she'll pull through this illness just fine.

And so I'm still around, my super crazy life just has not permitted one single minute of time and freedom to get on here to blog, but here I am, desperate to get back to normal. Not looking forward to the coming adjustment to the new school routine, but hey...that's life, right? Sitting here finishing up work that was backed up from last week due to the craziness and watching pre-season football. Oh how I love my football. Even when the Boys look soooooo bad. Sigh. It's still the game I love.

I'm back on track and ignoring carb cravings from the steroids and determined not to let life stand in the way of my living mine. Take care and I hope you are avoiding this crazy weirdness and stress I've been dealing with. Can't wait to catch up with all of you. Let me know what you're up to!

I'm back! and I need some hot tea.........

Hello Everyone!
I've missed you all so much. I had a great vacation and I will be preparing a post or two to tell you all about it, but until then I just wanted to drop in and let you know I'm back. We had a fabulous time and great memories were made with the kids. I unfortunately came back sick. I have a sore throat and fever, but of course I'm at work anyway. Tonight I'm going home to rest. I'm thinking I caught a little bug and the little sleep and bad food on the trip probably didn't help my health situation. We hiked and walked and played all week. I was really active despite all the time in the car. My weight was up a few pounds this morning, but not surprised. I was no saint this week with the food, but I was much better than in years past. I have learned a few things in the past year about healthy eating after all. Last year I managed to maintain and even lose a bit on the trip, but we had a kitchen and prepared most of our meals and snacks. It's much harder when you spend most of the time on the road, but I'm back and right back on track today.

I didn't feel like eating much with the sore throat. I postponed my workout with the trainer until next week and went home at lunch for a quick nap and some chicken soup. It's so hard to get the brain going again after a week off! But, I'll be back to my workout schedule tomorrow and my new BLUE BELT class tomorrow, assuming I feel ok tomorrow. My inbox runneth over with the blogs I need to catch up on. I admit I didn't read any while I was gone. Some of the time we were in the mountains and had no internet anyway. I had like 2000 in my google reader this morning!!! So I am reading what I can. I tuned right in to my favs, you know who you are, and I was surprised how much I missed reading and hearing from all of you my internet friends. Amazing to me that people I've never met are so much a part of my day and routine! So keep posting and know that I'm here and reading.

Take care and be healthy!

UPs and Downs.

What a week I've had. There have been several ups and downs.

UP:  Preparing for my vacation which will begin end of business today. We'll leave tomorrow after my TKD test and my sons test. He got his invitation to test last night and he is so proud, so am I. He has worked so hard over the last few months and especially this month. This week he's been to 2 classes everyday and teaching extra classes. That's a lot of dedication for a 13year old. He's testing for his red-black belt, next stop=black!

DOWN:  We had reserved a large SUV to drive on the trip. My BFF and her kids will be joining us as usual. Neither of us has a car that seats 8. Believe me next vehicle I buy will!  Anyway, husband went to pick up said vehicle and of course they didn't have one. I HATE car rental places. In my experience they never have what you originally reserve. They always switch it on you or don't have it. My husband spoke to the district manager and we're hoping they'll find one for us today.  We have a guaranteed contract, which we paid extra for. I won't name the company because they seem to be trying to fix the problem.

UP:  I've been on call all week and the pager has been quiet. Thank you pager gods. As of lunch today, no more call this week.

DOWN:  Our pool was majorly screwed up all week. GREEN city. Ewww! The heat is making the chemistry hard to control. And then we realized our salt pump that generates the chlorine is not working. Two days prior to vacation. Sigh. Luckily we were able to get an appointment with the repair guy this afternoon. Hopefully they can fix it. After dumping all kinds of chemicals in, the pool was clear last night, for now. But, I've been to the pool store nearly every day trying to get it straight. I'm so thankful for having the pool, but it is a lot of work and expense.

UP:  I've stuck to the daily exercise and tracking. Yesterday I went to two TKD classes in preparation for the test. I've worked out hard and I'm ready for it. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous about the sparring and board breaking. But, at least we practiced sparring yesterday.  My calories on Wednesday ended at 1087. Yesterday was 988. I should have eaten more, but I wasn't hungry for a change. For breakfast I had my shake and coffee. At lunch I had a salad and hummus with celery on the side. For dinner we had roast and I had 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes. Man it's been forever since I had those. It was very good and I was full. I'm looking for a good loss on the scale this week. Scale! I'm talking to you!

Down: One of my employees had a young child in their family killed yesterday in a car accident. Just tragic. My BFF had a distant cousin killed in Afghanistan  by an IED.  It really brings the war close to home for me.  There have been multiple deaths from the heat here in Texas. One was a football coach this week.  

UP:  I received my OU season football tickets yesterday. Can't wait for the first game on Sept. 3rd. OU is ranked #1 in pre-season polls. Looks to be a good year. Of course I never like to be ranked #1 so early. No where to go but down, but that's just my inner Eeyore speaking.

Down:  I'm been completely unimpressed with what the Cowboys have done so far. Nothing exciting in free agency this year and the dreaded and hated satan called the Eagles (love you Alan) have done a lot. But, what scares me the most is the Patriots acquiring Chad Johnson and Haynesworth. What? The evil that is Belichick getting 2 more hall of fame level players (in theory should they both live up to their potential).  Plus, our corner Newman got hurt yesterday and he was important to our defense, such as it is anyways.  Another down was the d-tackle from the Eagles who collapsed in practice with a seizure and has an AVM(arterio-venous malformation) which is a collection of blood vessels in the brain which can bleed and swell and cause lots of problems. It may mean no more football for him. Hate to see that for any player no matter what team.

UP:  It's Friday. Finally. And although I still have a lot to do including errands to run on my lunch hour today, I am excited with anticipation. I read recently that the boost in happiness one gets from a vacation is mostly from the anticipation of the vacation and not from the actual vacation itself. (that got my inner Eeyore going as well) So for now I'll enjoy it all. Still have to finish packing. Go to the bank. Pool store. Print the hotel confirmations. Blah blah blah. PLUS finish all my work before I go. No one likes a doctor that leaves patients hanging. (Now that just doesn't sound right. Ha ha) I'll be trying to post if I can, but I'm not sure of our internet situation. Until you hear from me again, keep going and posting, I'll be reading I'm sure. Stay on track, one day, one minute, one choice at a time! We can do this! Achieving our healthy goals is within our grasp!

Too Damn Hot and Tracking is KEY!

I am having a whilrwind of a week. I have so much to do before I can be off on my vacation next week. I sat in front of the computer for a while yesterday trying to come up with something to post and didn't post anything because I just couldn't. There are days I just don't have much to say. I have a lot on my mind, but it just won't budge out of there.

I was thinking about why last month was so unsuccessful with weight loss and I was getting really frustrated. I have a tendency to place blame everywhere but where it belongs. Truth is when I went back and looked I realized that there were many days I didn't track all my food. Now I know I wasn't out of control with my eating, but tracking makes a huge difference. When I went back and looked at July a year ago I tracked every single day. A week of that was on vacation. I lost about 7 pounds that month even with vacation.

This year in July I exercised way more, but tracked my food way less. I burned over 13,000cal this month with exercise. That should equal loss. I have to conclude that I've been eating more than I thought. Of course I had the steroid thing and my thyroid issue, but none of that excuses the fact that I haven't been tracking with the same dedication I had in the past.

So I am rededicating myself to tracking every bite, every morsel, good or bad, this month. We are 3 days in and I have done well with this. I am eating right and still exercising. I have a challenge ahead with vacation next week, but I will be tracking. I know I can do this on vacation as I have done it before. I am going to try to ignore the scale as it is frustrating me. If I focus on tracking, eating right and exercise, the scale has to respond, right? So that's my plan.

In June we did the June Boom challenge to exercise every day. I'm going to try to keep that going again this month, but I'm adding to that the challenge of tracking every bite, snack, pinch, and nibble for the next month. Do you track your food? Do you measure or eyeball it? I generally measure although sometimes I can eyeball pretty well. This month, it's back to basics on measuring and tracking for me. I even weighed the nuts I had for snack yesterday, 1 ounce exactly!

I am so super sore today. My back is hurting from the massive core workout my trainer put me through on Monday. We did sit ups, push ups, planks, squats, jumping and a bunch more I can't remember. Sheesh. It was again a tiring and challenging workout. I'm so impressed with myself every time. I can't believe the things I can do now. In addition to training I did 40 min on the elliptical, cardio intervals. I can get up to level 24 now, at least for a few minutes.

Yesterday I went to TKD class. It's the last week before testing so the classes are busy and hard in order to review material for the test. I struggled a bit yesterday as I was tired from not sleeping well the night before AND sore from the workout on Monday. Plus, they were resurfacing the floor in the gym so there were fumes that really got my asthma going. I took it slow and had to rest a time or two when I generally wouldn't, but I made it through class. I feel like I'm ready for Saturday. I'll be attending class twice more this week as well.

So today, I decided to rest and not workout, other than scrubbing the pool and packing/housework tonight.  I need to let my soreness improve because I need my strength for the test on Saturday. Our belt tests are about 3-3.5 hours long and they are spent moving the whole time. We have to demonstrate many skills-kicks, kicking drills, forms, breaking holds, one-steps, breaking boards and sparring. I want to be ready, but the last thing I need is to go into the test exhausted and sore. PLUS we're leaving Saturday evening after the test.

Food this week so far has been great. Monday I had 1400 calories. I ended up with an extra snack in the afternoon because I was STARVED after the hard workout. I burned 1384 calories in exercise that day. Yesterday I had 1187 calories and burned 1197 with exercise. For dinner I had some yummy frozen tilapia, parmesan crusted. It's 230 calories for 4 ounces and man it's good. Cooks in 15minutes and we get it at Sam's. We also had some new melon, a lemon drop melon which is a cantaloupe with a lemon flavor. It's pretty good and light for summer. Tastes like you took lemon and squeezed it over cantaloupe. Try it for a change of pace! We got ours at Sam's.

The rest of today will be spent with errands at lunch to prepare for the trip. Considering this heat from hell, 110 yesterday our 32nd straight day over 100, just getting out of the car ought to count for a workout. It is super hot and super dangerous. This evening I will be packing or at least starting to pack. I hate packing. Sigh. BUT, on the bright side, I love vacations!

So are you faithful with tracking your food intake? Does it make a difference in your efforts with weight loss? If you are maintaining, do you still have to track your food? Do you still measure?

Ready or not here it comes!

Another Monday! And I can't believe it is already August. So exciting and this will be a very busy month for me.  In a few days we'll be headed out for a family vacation. Looking forward just to get out of town for a few days. We are traveling as usual with my BFF and her 2 kids. Long road trip again this year, but always a ton of fun. I love the family road trip as it is a great way to spend time together as a family. So traveling with 5 kids 15, 13, 13, 6, 5 is always an adventure.

I'm feeling mildly nervous as I always have some amount of aprehension with travel. I know it's posisble to travel and not gain weight, even lose, if you're very careful. Again we'll have a very active trip planned so that will help. It's amazing the kids of things we enjoy doing (at least I do) compared to a year ago. This year we were looking for somewhere different to trek and easy on the budget so we'll be driving up to South Dakota: Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Badlands and then to Omaha to visit the in-laws. The Omaha Zoo is top notch and I'm looking forward to that as we haven't been there in many years.

We lived in Omaha for 3 years while I did my residency at Creighton University. We like the town and the people, but the winters were for shit, so we high tailed it back south as soon as we could. PLUS this way we're closer to OU home games!  Anyway, we'll be visiting all the neato things to do in Omaha, and there are a few. There's the zoo and a couple of good museums there the kids should enjoy. The SAC museum is great with lots of aircraft and there is a train museum with old trains the kids can explore.

We've never been to Mount Rushmore and that area I am really looking forward to it. I love seeing new places and anywhere the kids can climb on rocks and dig in dirt they will be happy. It will be a super long drive, but that's OK. Soon our older kids will be too busy and way to cool to vacay with mom and dad or Aunt and Uncle so we will relish all of it. Yes, even the: Stop touching your sister, stop making that noise and NO we're not there yet parts.

This week I'll start packing. Packing for a family of 5 to travel is always a bummer, but it's better now that we don't have the baby gear any more. Much more simple. We've rented a big SUV so we won't have to take 2 cars this year. Next vehicle I buy will be an 8 seater something so we can avoid this. The down side is that all riding together means we have to be conservative on the packing. The technology has helped so much in keeping kids busy in the car. SOOOO much better than when I was a kid. Between movies and iphones and gameboys and such, there really is no reason for kids to get bored. Of course they DO so I've got some new coloring books and movies in waiting.


The big news this week is also that I'm testing for my blue belt in TKD on Saturday. SO excited as I realized this morning that after Saturday, I'll be 1/2 way to black!  My son will be testing for his red-black which is one belt from black. I'm so proud of him as he has worked so hard learning all the TONS of material.  I'm excited and nervous. I know all the material. I'm still perfecting a few of the new kicks. I just have to remember to slow down and use good technique. I'm kind of nervous about the sparring, but that's just mainly because of my breathing issues. I'm not scared, but It is rigorous cardio!

The weekend went well with my food. I ate a little above my usual budget, but not terrible, 1500 calories on Saturday.  I did a lot of housework and yard work. Saturday I weighed in down another pound and now I am almost back to my pre-steroid weight.  I have a meeting with my trainer today and I'm going to try to find time to get in a few extra TKD classes to review before the test. So a busy busy week ahead for me. Hope you all had a good weekend, I'm working to catch up on my reading and commenting. I just do not have time on the weekends!  Anyhoo...have a great and healthy day!