Relieved....just a bit

We are coming to the end of the week and what a crazy week it has been!   Vacation, breakdowns, return to work, new toys, weight gain and healing just to make a few!  Seriously, this week was nuts! 

We grudgingly came back from vacation on Sunday night.  We could have extended that vacation a few more days and been so happy!  But alas, life responsibilities called.  So back home we came.   Mertz was happy to see us!  The fish too!  (Yes the fish was excited....the hermit crabs didn’t even notice we were gone!).  Ok the fish was probably just hungry!  Mertz really missed our company I think!  Poor lonely kitty cat!  I wrote about the mini vacation in my last post here   But at the end of this post I will include some links to a few videos that I posted about the vacation.  There is one that gives a brief overview of the whole vacation and three other videos that really show in depth some of the places hat we visited.

On Monday, I weighed myself. I had gained 10 pounds in 4 days!  Crazy!   I had hoped that it was water retention!  I am happy to say that my weight has dropped...and right now I am sitting about 3-4 pounds up.  That is still too much and doesn’t make me happy, but it is easier to accept 3-4 pounds versus 10!!!   I am still hopeful that my weight will continue to drop a bit as water weight drops off since I am still on prednisone and will be through Monday.   

My leg that had some poison/bug bite that got infected is doing well.  I have completed the full course of antibiotics and the wound area looks really good.  

What a difference!!!

On Monday my old laptop died.  I knew it was coming for a while and been fighting the laptop for a while.  It was slow...sluggish and crashed a lot.  I was limping along.  I had actually almost purchased a new one a few months ago, so I had already done research and it didn’t take me long this week to hit the buy button when the old one went belly up.  I also purchased what I hoped would be a temporary fix for the old laptop so that I could extract my files.  Both the fix and the new computer arrived on my doorstep on Wednesday evening.   The fix worked!  (Thank heavens) and the new computer is a dream!  I also bought a lot of new software...my software was old old old.  So I upgraded to a newer version of photoshop and I decided to switch from my old video editing software to adobe premiere.  So I am learning a new software.  Should be interesting!  My videos may be a bit rough for a bit as I figure it out. But I can already definitely see a huge difference in the quality output!   See if you can tell which two were created with the new software/computer and which two were on the old software/computer from the links below!

In the midst of all of that, Jason was called back to work after being furloughed for three months. He went back on Wednesday of this past week.   Yes, it was just about three months to the day that he was off of work due to this virus.  So we are trying to adjust to a new routine.  It is a routine of me working from home and Jason going to work.  It is also a routine where he won’t know always be able to walk with me after work.  I’m on my own and responsible for my own motivation to get out there and walk!  (Yikes...I’m not good at that!)   Mertz was so upset the first day he went back to work.  She literally followed me around.  If I went to the bathroom she walked with me.  She was my shadow and was never more than a foot or two away from me. It has been an adjustment.  Even though I have been working at home, Jason and I have been in very close proximity for almost 24-7 for the last few months.   We were happy and had absolutely no problem being near each other almost constantly....but man it’s weird not being together now.

I have walked a wee bit after work...a few days at least.  But I’ve been so caught up in the computer woes (I also tried a fix on the old computer on Tuesday..that didn’t work). So between the death...the attempt to fix...the actual temporary fix.....getting my files safe and sound....waiting for the new computer delivery....setting up and learning the new computer...well, I let my fitness goals I had set for the week fall aside.   There are no ifs ands or buts,  I am hitting it hard for this next upcoming week!  

It was just a crazy week all around!  But craziness is a way of life! We are surviving and moving forward.  We are happy for the weekend.  We have no real set in stone plans, other that get groceries. Who knows what the weekend will bring!!!!  Crazy or relaxing...we are ready!!!

The video for the weekend in its entirety

A video about the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

A short video on the Museum of American Glass

A video about our visit to an abandoned town

Oh heavens: A set back

Well....let me preface this post by saying that just when I feel as if I am getting things under control, something blows up!   

I was determined to start running and my plantar fasciitis kicked in and I had to almost immediately step back for a bit....I wrote about that about two or three posts ago in this post. 

In the last post I wrote I mentioned how I was getting back on track with my eating.   And I actually was starting to see some very early positive results.  Ok in 4 days I saw my weight drop by 3 pounds.  That’s positive!!!   In that same post I also mentioned a bit of poison ivy.

Yeah, about that.  

One of the places of poison (and there may have been a bug bite in that same area) somehow got infected.  This prompted a trip to an Urgent Care because the poison was raging strong and driving me crazy and I had an oozing wound in one of the scratching itchy areas of my leg. 

So...off to urgent care I went.  I came home with instructions to keep the wound wrapped and covered,  a prescription for antibiotics, a prescription for prednisone and instructions to take a picture each time I changed the dressing on my leg so that if it didn’t get better that the doctors would be able to see the rate of spread. (I guess in case it was some flesh eating bacteria!). Oh and absolutely no swimming in pools, rivers or lakes.  

I won’t disgust you with a picture of my infection at its earliest stage when it was still oozing and nasty looking ..but rather after I had been on antibiotics for about 5 days. (Please excuse the legs that desperately need shaved...but shaving over poison ivy and an infection doesn’t sound appealing!)

This happened right as we headed for a little mini vacation  and I was a bit bummed about the no swimming edict but we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves greatly! (Pictures and a recap coming soon). 

So let’s talk about the bad.   We missed some lunches and then would hit dinner starving after a busy day of exploring.  So I overate!   We indulged in dessert every night.  I tracked NOTHING!

I gained 10 pounds in 4 days!   Yes I said 10!

Now this is not an excuse....but rather a hopeful paragraph that HOPEFULLY explains some of this gain.  There  is the female hormonal cycle water retention thing going on. So that could account for a few pounds.    I AM on medication, one of them prednisone which is known to cause weight gain/water retention.   So that could also be part of it. I hope and pray that when I’m off the medication and the monthly ick is behind me once again that some of that weight will drop away naturally. Added to those two water retention problems, we can add in this.... It was also hot hot hot and while I tried to drink a lot, I was going for long periods without the need to pee.  So I know I wasn’t drinking enough.  The first day I went 18 hours...which scared me to death when I realized that it was the next morning and I hadn’t peed since the previous day when we arrived at Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum at noon!   I really worked to drink as much as possible the rest of the trip, (and I never went even half as long without the need to pee  as that first day for  the rest of the time away)  but it was hot....we were outside...we were hiking (mountains) and walking and moving which makes it difficult enough to stay hydrated, but I was also trying to recoup from my first day blunder!  But looking back I know that the 4-8 hours I would go between bathroom trips, while nice while traveling, exploring and hiking  was too far between...and yes that was after that first day and I was very cognizant to make sure that I WAS drinking!

But that said, I know that my eating while we were exploring our world did come to haunt me on the scales!  I’m not going to cry about it...we had a fabulous time and I’m not going to beat myself up!  

I just know that I’m going to work to clean up my eating....drink lots of water (lots!!)....and I’m going to move on!  Let’s hope for an easy recoup but even if it doesn’t drop off, I’m not giving up!  Slight setbacks are part of a weight loss journey!!!