Another Slow Day

• What: Treadmill
• Distance: 0.8 miles
• Duration: 20 min
• Calories: 119

I want to go to bed. Have to take Julia to swim lessons early in the morning.  Did an easy walk on the treadmill and now off to shower and snooze.

Slow Day

• What: Treadmill
• Distance: 1.25 miles
• Duration: 30 min
• Calories: 180

Slept badly, ate so-so, exhausted from working the church thrift store and doing some shopping with Julia (clothes for her, groceries). I am feeling all out of sorts and PMS-y. But I kept up the food log and I actually wrote down the tiny walk I squished in while watching Paul play Guitar Hero. Yay me.

Waiting…

I am sitting here waiting for the delivery of our new dishwasher. (The old one finally died.)

I can’t remember the last time I had the time to just…. sit. It feels weird.

On the family front — we’ve endured this year’s flu thing for three weeks before everyone was well again. I’m still lingering.  Paul’s been really busy with his music. I’ve been really busy with fundraising. My committee life is rearranging too — I’m fading out as secretary on two committees and coming in as co-chair on another.  Julia turned four and is really busy with her friends, her playing, her artwork, and we’ve been shopping preschools for fall. She liked them both so much she wanted to stay right there and then.  I have to make arrangements for her shots and so on.

On the health and fitness front,  I have not been taking my Glucophage full strength and I’m feeling better. I was getting wiggy. I don’t know if maybe I’ve improved to where I don’t need it so strong? But I don’t have an actually appointment til April… so a drag to wait. Call it an unofficial adjustment of my meds then.

I’m down a few pounds though I’ve had to miss gym some while getting through the sick wave in my house. I plan to go tonight alone since I’m missing this morning to let the dishwasher in.

I’m wrapping up a nutrition study class that has been interesting but I’m not sure that I’d take again in this format.

On the growing front… I took a spring garden class as a refresher, I’m reading an organic lawn care book, and the tiny church garden I planted with the kids is sprouting:

The house garden has to get another bed planted over the weekend if I can get Paul to give me a hand. I gaev away a bunch of seedlings because I had too many and I still have a lot so I need that bed to put them in. Julia and I planted tomato, onion, sugar snaps peas, and eggplant already.   I want to get the rest out.

The strawberries started giving us fruit and she’s having a good time finding them. Here was the first of the season:

Updates…

Julia turned four this week and we celebrated with friends and family yesterday with a backyard party. It went well — we did about the same as last year with food, activities, guest list, etc.

My abs are sore from Friday’s workout — it was really good abs/shoulders day. Small problem with a hip flexor acting up. Julia has a cough this morning so I may end up having to go to gym on my own at an ungodly early hour so she and Paul can just carry on sleeping. (Sick kids aren’t allowed in gym daycare.)

Today I want to do some work on my garden… we plant soon.

Weekend

The weekend was just a blur.

Felt better Friday so I went in to see Emily — another trainer. I’m getting bored of all these “orientation” type workouts so I’m going to try to stick with her as much as possible. I don’t want to meet another trainer and then start the getting acquainted thing all over again! (There’s been some scheduling conflicts and people transferring around so hopefully that is settling down now.)

We did a 30 min. legs routine and I can’t remember now if I did any cardio after that.

Dropped Julia and my parents and we went out to dinner and the bookstore Friday night. It was cozy and we got a chance to talk. Paul had a Merlot with his dinner but I went off and had a martini for fun.

The next day Paul had work and then concert stuff to play in and do sound for. The concert was fun. After cleaning up we took him to dinner (not as fancy) and Julai babbled a mile a minute over why she was jealous Daddy played in the concert. She used to having him for herself on Saturdays and having him gone all day was bothering her.

He ran sound for church the next morning while I was helping with coffee hour so time got away from us. You can tell, because the house looks terribly messy. Just run home and rush back out for a few days with no time to put things back.

Just got home from gym — an hour long weights workout for backs and biceps. It was excellent — really felt like I was doing some work there. Probably will be sore later so I’m going to try to interst Julia in some kiddie yoga this afternoon to help stretch me out and then we have to scrub down the kitchen and living room. Have to get the mess back in order.

Sick Again!

When we last left our heroine, she was busy doing more trainer sessions (more plyometircs, whee!). She spent the weekend baking, hanging out with mom friends, and then running a church bake sale that pulled in over $250. Tired, she went home to nap. And when she awoke… the trouble began…

Headache, stuffy nose, cough, chest congestion, the works. UGGGGGHHHH!

I canceled tomorrow’s session with trainer but I haven’t yet canceled Friday’s. I’m sort of hoping this will go away by then but if not, I’m going to have to can that one and reschedule for later.

Saw doc today. Dr. B. seems to think it isn’t quite a sinus infection, though it could become one. He still thinks it is allergies. I don’t, because Paul had this nagging cold thing for almost two weeks and he’s well. At first I thought it was allergies too because Claritin helped clear it some and I had been cleaning the garage and figured it was from kicking up dust.

Anyway… I’m down and out.

Plyometric Workout

Life is busy. Don’t want to list it all but trust me… very busy. And with Julia’s birthday coming soon, we’re busy getting ready for that also.

Yesterday I went back to my trainer appointments. I’m still a bit sniffly, but I think that’s alelrgies now rather than sickness. Julia is well, so she can go back to gym daycare. So off we went.

I had a new guy — Marc. Nice enough but not as bubbly as Nora was. I get Emily next week, so we’ll see how she is.

MArc had me do a plyometrics workout.  The first was 10 reps on each side where I step up on an aerobics step with two risers while bringing a 4 lb medicine ball up and down.  I would hold it out in front of me and slightly raised, and when I stepped up, I had to bring it down to meet my knee.

After that it was curls with 5 lbs dumbbells and then shoulder presses. Still doing 10 reps per side while I kept stepping on and off the aerobics steps. In between exercies, go up and down the stairs.

It wasn’t too bad, but I’m completely out of shape and post-holiday — even worse.  I felt kind of gross for an hour afterwards and I’m out on my inhaler prescription. So I probably need to make an allergist appointment and get a check on the ol’ asthma. (Ugh. Hate going to allergist!)

Had a massage later that night — Carla told me my shoulders were tight.  No surprise there!

Updates

Some updates from my corner of the world?

1) We had friends over tonight to celebrate Paul’s bday in a low-key way. Pizza for dinner, sundaes, and the kids fooling around while we chatted. I really enjoyed it. I think Paul did too. I’m trying to include more friends on our holiday season to help bring more balance into it.

2) I’m -1 lb. And that’s after Thanksgiving, people. I’m rockin’ this holiday season! (I usually aim to maintain and end up adding 10 lbs with the holiday hoo has. To actually be maintaining is exciting!) Though I keep forgetting things. Water, iPod sleeve, heart rate monitor… every day at gym I find I left something at home. But I’m going. Typically gym visits fly out the window during holiday because things get wacky.

3) I put the raised beds in… mostly. I have to do some work levelling and getting in the last one before I go back to digging paths. I also found my friend Carla can donate cinderblocks, so we can put a new one in at church for the kiddies. So… pix of that one to come later.

4) Holidays.

Usually the not knowing drives me up the wall. I want to know what the game plan is as early as possible because there are other things I want to do too. Because I want to know, I end up being the organizer a lot of the time and the stress is sometimes like trying to herd cats.

Paul and I would argue about this. He thinks I do too much and take on extra stress. I ask him when he’s going to take some on to alleviate the stress then? Because til this year I had 3 people on my side. Now with Karen getting married, I’ve bumped up to 4. It is him with the other 33 people on his side! And it’s been me organizing the holiday calendar, the shopping, the mailing, the cooking, the cleaning, etc. for 10 years at least.

Since Julia was born he tries to take on more. It’s a big help.

This year I’ve been actively trying to get more sunlight, not miss workouts, and be more go with the flow. I don’t organize anyone but me. He’s been trying to get firm answers about gatherings from his family and as he endures the waffling back and forth he understands more of why I get grumpy.

Thanksgiving for us has evolved into my bringing my parents to my MILs and having a group thing. Except for last year. My mother reserved Thanksgiving in APRIL because my sister was announcing her enagement and bringing boyfriend to meet the family.

Christmas has been an ongoing problem since the baby was born. (It wasn’t great as an adult couple either with the lack of organization, but we sucked it up, figuring as an adult couple, we were able to take more travel foo foo than the ones with kids could so we’d work around the ones with kids and their needs.)

Now we have a sidekick too.

I happen to think kids shouldn’t be dragged all over, and I think that she’s best off at home. I spent all my childhood Christmases going to midnight mass and then opening presents at home and then lazing around Christmas day. We went around delivering presents before hand, and then the big family hoo ha was for my Uncle’s birthday because it fell on New Year’s Eve. The adults chipped in for food and had it semi-catered, stayed up playing mah-jong all night, and the kids played with their presents from Christmas that they would bring to show the other cousins. Then we’d have firecrackers in the street and go home.

Paul spent all his childhood ones at home also. So you’d think he’d be fine spending them at home now so Julia can have her childhood holidays at home. esp. since Christams is bookended by Thanksgiving and her birthday so it isn’t like we aren’t getting together in groups as it is.
He wants to be home, but he isn’t ready to act on it to make it happen.

I told him I was tired of arguing and I was going to start alternating. We had agreed to alternate when she was born, and last year was her 3rd Christmas already! So I told the grandparents and mine said they’d come see us then and my MIL started the phone campaign to get us to come. I politely but firmly declined any time she got me.

Paul got guilted in with the phone campaign and took the baby down and back in the same night. He dealt with the drive there, the time there, the drive back, and all the rest while I stayed home and had a quiet day to myself.

This year I travel. So I’ve already made sure that we are expected over there on the 24th. My side the 25th.

getting a grip

<>Lots of things going on in my house lately. We had a fantastic Halloween. Iz was a pink unicorn (a borrowed outfit). She was so into it this year, she wanted to hit all the houses twice. We went around with our neighbors who has 2 kids (2 and 4) and our friend who has a 1 year old. It was a great night, all the kids had loads of fun. We let Iz indulge in a couple of pieces of candy that night and have put the rest away. Luckily, she doesn’t remember it!

I had a couple of realizations about a week and a half ago – a moment of clarity if you will. First I realized I really didn’t want to gain all kinds of weight with this pregnancy. As much fun as eating whatever I want, whenever I want sounds, I remembered how hard it was to lose all those bowls of icecream after I had Iz. I also realized we were spending too much money on eating out. I want to stock away some extra funds in our liquid savings account so that I won’t feel any pressure to return to work sooner than I am comfortable. But looking at our overall budget, there was little extra money to save. Then I started looking at the budget breakdown and realized we were spending crazy amounts on eating out.

So I have been on a mission to solve both these problems – eat at home and eat healthier. Luckily, when we eat at home, we eat healthier by default so it isn’t that hard. I have been bringing my lunch every day (and what a lunch – soup, crackers, cheese, and apple, today I added a rice krispie treat that Iz and I made this weekend and a mini apple muffin left over from breakfast yesterday. It is a lot of variety, but not a lot in general. All the portions are small except for the soup.)

This week, I am going to a workshop on Thursday-Sunday with all meals provided. I am a little nervous about the food since I am fairly picky and dont’ want to be left hitting the vending machine if dinner doesn’t appeal to me. Hopefully they will have good vegetarian options.

There have been a couple other funny things I have wanted to talk about, but they will have to wait. I am 18 weeks today! The baby is about 5.5 inches long and weighs about half a pound. Crazy, huh? U/S a week from Friday!

Remission?

Earlier this week I had an endoc appointment. It’s been 6 mos since the last one. Guess what?
All my labs were normal! Including the testosterone! I had that feeling since my periods are coming more regularly and my previous appointment showed a sharp drop.

I’ve been assigned a new endoc that I will see in the next 6 mos, but the NP who went over my labs with me asked me if I was still taking the Glucophage and all that.  I said yes, and she said you wouldn’t be able to tell from my labs — they are so normal.

I’m to carry on, try to get the exercise up, and they will see me in 6 mos rather than 3 mos.  I really didn’t inquire at the time because I was distracted with Julia but I wonder if at next appointment I can cut back on my dosage then? Will I ever get to where I don’t have to have it at all? And what does that mean for my future and my Type II risk?And if my labs are “normal” with all my hormones behaving like they should, will I see better results weight loss wise now? I’ve felt like I’ve been treading water on that front for so long.

And let’s cut to the chase… are we talking remission here?

I guess if by the next appointment things look the same I can think about calling it “PCOS in remission” or “dormant” or similar. Because by then it will be a solid 12 mos of it being so, right?

God, let it be so!