The good news just keeps piling on!

Woah doggie, the news just keeps getting better!

Last week I had blood work done. I hadn't heard anything back from them...so I called today. They pulled up my report. She was like, "yep, everything came back clean" Well, I had to ask a few questions. You see....I suffer from high cholesterol....my total cholesterol has always hovered around 250....even after I lost 50 pounds my cholesterol was still at 250. In general, anything over 200 is high.....anything from 180-200 is borderline. WELLLLLLLLLL.....my cholesterol is now...are you ready.......am I building suspense??? Anyway, my total cholesterol is now 162! That is almost one hundred points lower!! My HDL levels (the good cholesterol did go up a few points) but the bad LDL level dropped drastically!

I actually slept in this morning....didn't wake up until 6:30. How wonderful is that! I've been waking up at 5 or 5:30 for the last few weeks! I think what happened this morning....at 4 or 4:30 (can't remember which) I woke up to a cat coughing up a hairball (more on that incident a little later). I cleaned it up and crawled back in bed. I laid there for about a half hour or so...just day-dreaming, groggy...but not quite awake enough to get out of bed. Well...I fell back asleep. Woo hooo! I wasn't too worried about my bike ride though...because we are planning on going to the gym today. We'll see if it happens. I hope so! (that is the rainy weather plan.....I was going to push mow for umpteen hours...but it's a bit damp and wet out).

Hairball. I woke up to that ohh so terrible sound....Todd woke up at the same time. We both flipped on the lights on our nightstands and we both rose to a sitting position. I was apparently a second behind Todd in my movements. And as he threw the covers off, his hand flew out and whack...hit me square on the nose! OUCH! He's rather upset about it....I keep telling him that things like that happen and not to worry!

My weight this morning...home scale weight... 177.6!

And apparently I was the big loser this

past week in the Blog world summer biggest loser!

A reminder of how far I've come

Thought I would put a reminder on to show where I have come from! BLEECHHHH I never want to go back there!!!

weigh in results

Above is a picture of my 64 ounce water jug. I actually have two of these. This one and a blue tinted one that is more clear. I carry one of these jugs around with me pretty much everywhere. In fact, it is becoming my 'trademark'. One day I was working at the drive through but happened to step away from my desk. One of my co-workers greeted the customer. Well, when I walked back and talked to the customer this person was like, "I wondered where you were...I saw your mug but you weren't here" OH my......I'm known for my water jug!

A picture of me in my size TEN dress. WOo hooo!!! Size ten. I am still in shock that me, the girl that at my highest weighed in at about 315 pounds is wearing a size ten!!!!

Well, enough on that. I was so super nervous when I stepped onto the scale at my meeting tonight. I lost a whopping 8.2 pounds! 8.2 pounds in ONE week! Oh my word! How in the heck-er-oonie did I do that? That puts me at 179...which is under the doctor set goal weight for myself! So, I officially made it to my weight watchers goal! 6 weeks of maintaining that weight (or under) and I'll be at lifetime! Woo hooo! I"ll have to see if I can get a picture of my goal charm thingy that I got tonight!!!

Beauty

I was actually not standing between two trees....but ON one tree that formed a big "V"! (Todd didn't get that part in the picture)

The other picture is one of Lockhouse and lock 37. It's from the east, looking west with obviously the lock in the foreground and the lockhouse in the distance.

Ohhh, what a beautiful morning, ohhh what a beautiful day! Ok, I'll stop singing now....not because I don't' want to scare you...but because I don't know the rest of the words to that song! Tee hee hee.

My morning. Woke up as usual (darn...I wish I my body would let me sleep in) at around 5AM. I laid in bed for a bit and then decided to push myself and exercise. Got a ride in and was feelin' good! I had breakfast, put some dishes away and had checked my email by the time Todd rolled out here. He asked if I wanted to go for a walk. OF course! We went down to lock 3 on the C & O Canal (Chesapeake and Ohio) . What a grand day for walking. Todd was comfortable in shorts. Me, the one that is always cold felt great in jeans, a tee shirt and a sweatshirt! Got to play a bit with my camera...nothing spectacular. But fun none-the-less.....and we are always adding to our collection of canal pics so it was all good.

My weight this morning. OHhh yes....my weight. I dropped another one. Yep, I'm down to 178.6. Now this is SERIOUSLY the lowest I have ever been as an adult!!! I remember once in school (either 8th grade or my freshman year of high school) being weighed and being 178! WOO HOOOO! SOOOO it's looking good for my weigh in tonight! I may just make it to goal!

Hello arthritis

Dear Mr. Arthur-itis,



Thank you for visiting me today to remind me what I used to deal with on a regular basis. I have been wondering where you went. I was honestly hoping that you had moved on to your next victim. However, I realize that that is not how you operate and that I will have to suffer through your occasional visits. I am happy to realize how much I was able to negate the devastating effects that you had on my body simply by losing weight and adding physical fitness into my life. I'm sure you remember how I used to sit and rub my knees during the day, or how I would cry in bed at try to move so that the constant ache was eased. Ohhhh the sound of my knees creaking and popping......all but a distant memory, except for these little reminders. I hear people talk about how their doctors told them to exercise in order to ease arthritis they in turn and say, "that's crazy, because moving hurts". Oh my how sad that makes me. You see, the doctors are dead on correct....it doesn't eliminate, but it sure help! I can now go months with no issues, where as before pain was a daily occurrence.



Please Mr. Arther-itis, please feel free to leave and not come back! I won't miss you at all.



MaryFran

More weight gone!

179.6! What is up? Nope, I'll take the drop in weight anyway I can get it! It's just so odd. TO about 4-5 days ago to be sitting staring 187.8 in the face....and now to be looking at 179.6!!! AMAZING! I'm working to try to keep my weight under that 180 mark! I'm nervous about it. BUT I refuse to mess it up by doing something stupid...not if I can help it! :-)

A friend and I were talking this morning via email. She remarked on my exercise. (I had mentioned that I had gotten a ride out of the way early this morning....this morning twas a shorter ride at 7.47 miles...yesterday was longer..and she was commenting on both). She was like, 100 pounds ago would you have ever thought you would be doing this. I had to answer and say, "yes, I was still somewhat active" (thank goodness I never let myself go that far). BUT the difference was that a 5 mile ride would have knocked me flat for the rest of the day. I'd be exhausted and just worn out. NOW, I get up and ride double, and triple that (sometimes even quadruple), I get off the bike and I'm rarin' to go. Today I was cleaning the house and listening to music...and literally dancing around. ME...jumping and dancing???? It is a testament to my physical health. Amazing!

a few more pics

A new picture of me from today. AND this is absolutely my favorite tree at the Antietam battlefield.....hell it may be my favorite tree anywhere! :-)

Sunday Surprise

Here are some pictures from Todd's mysterious surprise. OH yes, and my new camera. I had a blast with it. Still playing with it....so things are not perfect...but it's fun.

Weigh in this morning....... 182.8 That's another holy moley 2 pounds gone! Yeah, yeah yeah..I'll be the first to admit that some of the poundage that I've lost in the last few days is the water retention weight that creeps on each month during the ick.

Scared stiff though. Because I've gotten to 180 pounds before and seem to pop right back up. For some reason getting past 180 just seems to not happen. Well this time, when I hit 180 I'll also be celebrating reaching my weight watchers (doctor approved) goal. SO I'll be celebrating. It's bad enough to get there and then pop right back up. BUT, to celebrate reaching goal and then mess that up...that would be 10 times worse! That scares me! Yeah, I know that knowing this will hopefully make me be super religious and don't do ANYTHING to mess it up. Exercise religiously and all that. (I did that last time too...but lets not thing about that!). I just want to get below the goal and put some pounds between me and that goal....a safety net!!! And then power through to lower numbers!!!!

I woke up at 5:30 or so. I laid in bed until 6 and then hit that exercise bike. Did 14.2 miles. Todd did tell me that we would be doing some walking today......and to take the cameras. (batteries are all charged and ready to go) SO I'll get some more exercise in there also! :-) Well, I've breakfasted, and answered my emails. I think I'm gonna go lay in bed with my snoozin' husband and read a while! Sounds like a good plan to me!

Well, I saved this as a draft this morning...and here I am...it's now more than 12 hours later! WOO HOOO! I did go back to bed this morning for a bit. I didn't sleep, I did my favorite thing....READ! Todd woke up and I rolled out of bed. We talked about the plans for the day. We decided to skip church (bad bad bad, I know) and go straight to this mysterious event. He told me it started at 10AM. That bugger, he wouldn't give me ONE SINGLE SOLITARY HINT! Not even on the drive there. He would laugh and pretend he was going to turn...I'd start guessing something in that direction and he wouldn't turn...or turned around. He was utterly mean! HE actually didn't tell me until we pulled up at the place. He took me to this architecture museum in Frederick......it's a historical thing. They had a colonial America (actually Colonial Maryland) living history exhibit. I love history. It was very cool. I've honestly never really delved into colonial history. My passion is a bit later in history...but I was very intrigued and enjoyed myself immensely.

I've done REALLY good eating wise today. Todd and I were like soo close to going out to eat. However as Todd put it, we would have a much more difficult time eating healthy and resisting temptation at a restaurant versus at home. PLUS we had corn on the cob and and chicken shish-kabobs at home! Yeah, they would have waited..but they were mighty tempting. And yes, they were mighty good also!

Just playin' around tonight

A picture of my baby Ethel!
Is this what smells so wonderful in my yard? I was out there sniffing trying to track it down!
A corn planter that is half buried by weeds on the edge of our property.

I've had a good day. Like I said previously, I exercised early this morning. BUT to add to that, I've thus far been able to keep my eating totally under control. As long as I can stay away from the kitchen tonight I'll be a-ok!!!!

My day.....well, we went shopping. I drug Todd back and forth across town. Well...I wanted to make sure that I was getting the best deal on things! And then we ended up going back to the first place....best salesman....and locally owned and operated business. GOTTA go with the locals if at all possible! We ran into Sam's Club....Todd actually picked out a pair of shorts. Shorts that I saw and LOVED for him...but I thought that there would be no way in H E Double hockey sticks that he would wear. He saw them and wanted them! Hot diggity...SOLD! Lets see...and DVD's for the business. OH yeah, exciting stuff. Then we went to the grocery store. More excitement. tee hee hee ANd of course the liquor store on the way home. NOT for me. I don't drink my points. First of all I HATE beer....but most importantly, I don't want to ante up the points for alcohol!

What I did ante up the points for......the new Weight Watchers chocolate Chip cookies. They weren't all that bad. Yeah, I'd prefer my homemade ones (or mom's...but that's the same as mine). BUT, then I end up with a big bowl of cookie dough staring me in the face...and then a whole batch of cookies to contend with. These are individually wrapped and it wasn't all that bad. I won't mind working on that box.....managed carefully and eaten over the next few weeks!

We were so busy with our shopping and mundane errands that we didn't go to the movies. OH well....if we get rained out of my mysterious surprise tomorrow maybe we'll end up at the movies. tee hee hee Oh yeah...one more clue. I asked Todd if I should be taking my camera....at first he was like, "yeah, I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea". This evening he was like, "definitely". HMMMMM

Woo hooo. Yesterday I was 187.2. I was a good girl yesterday....I did splurge and eat something that I really didn't need last night. I mean, seriously...did I need that toast 30 minutes after dinner? No...I probably didn't! HOWEVER, I had the points for it! SOOOO you may be wondering what the scales said this morning???? 184.8. WHAT??? What kind of drop is that? I'm not complaining though!

I woke up this morning at around 5AM (5:02 to be exact). I didn't want to move! SO, I just laid in bed, snuggling under the covers until about 5:40. Felt good to be a bum! Side note of funniness. As I was laying there I moved a little bit. Todd was laying next to me (obviously) and he rolled over practically on top of me and held me down and whispered "Do not fidget or move". Well, I couldn't because he was holding me down. I just lay there and he relaxed after a few.......I didn't fidget for a while...lol. I have no clue what he was dreaming about...but I received my instructions. Anyway, at around 5:40 I got out of bed, went to the bathroom (that's when I weighed myself...woo hooo), grabbed my headphones off my desk and onto the exercise bike I hopped. I rode for about 30 minute......yep, watched the next episode of my the biggest loser while riding. I was off the bike, in and out of the shower and ready for work at 7AM. I was productive with that time. I did a few dishes (I had forgotten my containers from my lunch box last night when I did dishes....and I cleaned a few things out of the refridge), I updated my coupon book, finished my grocery list, and organized some files of recipes. Oh yeah, exciting morning. Now here I am at work.

Todd's plans for today did get cancelled. I think we are going to go see the new Indiana Jones movie. I've heard conflicting things about it....that it's neat to see the characters from the previous movies...but the plot is a little lame. Hmmm who knows. I think we'll see it regardless. I want to walk through the mall and go into the camera store. I've been pondering a new camera for a while....I'm thinking I'm gonna go for it! (Todd's given his ok). And I'll probably get my groceries while in town. I want to run into Sam's Club also.

Candy and bad for me stuff at the movies. The popcorn I can resist from buying. The hard part will be if Todd wants it. Because if he is sitting beside me nibbling.....eii yii yii...that is when I'll find it hard to resist! BUT I will. I do not want to undo my great weight from this morning! If I can hold that weight, it will put me 4.8 pounds from being at goal at my meetings! Woah...I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I may get to lifetime SOON!

Uhhh yeah, I guess the camera will be my goal/lifetime reward. :-)

Heart Rate Information

I've spent a lot of time looking at heart rates and figuring out where mine should be. It seems as if most of the calculations are based on simply age. Every once in a while you find something that is based off of your resting heart rate. I thought to talk to my doctor about my resting heart rate. (yeah me...he gave me two thumbs up....because mine is in the 40's...which he said is the heart rate of an athlete....HA, that's not me...but at least my ticker is in shape. He said marathon runners actually can actually get their resting heart rates down into the 30's. Uhhh yeah, that's probably not gonna happen for me!)

So, I found this today...and blatantly stole it from a friend, Thanks Tom if you read this!

Maximum Heart Rate
The simple formula and one most commonly used is:

220 - your age = MHR

In may case that would be:220 - 35 = 185

However, the scientific community uses your weight and some other unknowns to get a more accurate MHR. Let's see how close the two are.

Formula: 210 - 1/2 age - (0.11 Xs personal weight + 4) = MHR

Using the same guinea pig again (me)

210 - 17.5 - (0.11 X 185 + 4) = MHR

192.5 - (20.35 + 4) = MHR

192.5 - 24.35 = MHR

168.15 = MHR

Hmmmm.........that is actually close to what my 85% goal is when I calculate and figure out the zone that I should be working using age and resting heart rate.

Which to use???? Which to use???? I don't' like decisions!

OK, one last thing that I'm going to add here...something else I have ripped off from Tom....these question and answer segments! They just about made me roll! Funny because that kinda parallel the thinking that made me fat in the first place! Anything to rationalize my weight and why I was doing such unhealthy things to my body! Regardless...read and enjoy the way out there thinking!

Maybe I should call these (not so) Healthy Tips!

Question: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?

Answer: You must understand logical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay & corn. And these are? That's right, vegetables! So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetables). And pork chop can give you 100% of your RDA of vegetable products.

Question: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?

Answer: Your heart is only good for so many beats and that's it...don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap!

Woo hoooo it's Friday!

The library.

The living room.

Me in the kitchen.

Here are some current pictures of our place. For those of you who haven't been following this saga. We own a property that a family member was living in. The family member trashed the place. I spent a YEAR cleaning and redoing pretty much everything. If it stayed, it was bleached, then primed with Kilz (that stuff is wonderful) and the painted! We installed new toilets, sinks, tubs, floors....everything. You name it! NOTHING, but nothing stayed untouched! Here are some pictures of the fruits of our labor! We moved in a few months ago. We are now working on the outside. I'll be happy when this project is complete and we are simply doing normal common upkeep!

Ok, this morning my home weight was at 187.2. I know that I get depressed if it goes up. However, I need to keep track of it. Not knowing is worse. Because if I feel or perceive that I did bad and I think that the weight is up, then my eating reflects those thoughts. Meaning I feel fatalistic. I think it would be better to know. That said, for the last 3 weeks or so I haven't' been weighing daily. My weight has gone up...and it's not going down. I've come to the conclusion that staying away from the scales does not work for me. Thus, I'm going to start weighing once a day again. Nope, I may not put my weight on here...unless it totally shocks me. But I will know! :-)

Last night I was simply exhausted. It's been this way for the last week or so. I'm just so utterly tired that I can barely function! It's absolutely crazy! I ended up going to bed at about 8:30 or 8:45. And when I say went to bed. I don't mean went to the bedroom and read, or talked to my husband or anything else that you think I may have done. I was ASLEEP...SOUNDLY by that time! I don't' remember ANYTHING at all until around 5:15 this morning when I heard a cat. Oh yeah, the cat woke me up....and once I cleaned up the hairball I was wide awake. (What is it about hairballs that wakes one up?) SOOOO I did what any questionably sane person would do. I got on the exercise bike. I rode for an hour or so! Felt good. I'm tickled that it's out of the way! :-)

With my exercise done, I decided to just continue on in the healthy vein of thought. After putting the dishes away from last night (hey, they had to totally dry didn't they?) I made myself a sandwich. The sandwich was lite bread, egg beaters (1/4 cup....to equal one egg) and a slice of fat free cheese (man, the fat free cheese has improved in recent months/years....it actually melts now!!!!). I filled my water jug (yep, I also remembered to bring it to work today...almost forgot but remembered as I was locking my house door so I was able to run back in and grab it), took my multi vitamin and I was feeling GREAT with myself. :-)

The weekend is almost upon me! Just work today and a few hours tomorrow morning and I'll be FREE! :-) Todd was supposed to be away tomorrow...but it's contingent on the weather, and the weather is not cooperating with him. SO I don't know what we are going to do! On Sunday, he has some sort of surprise activity that he is taking me to. I have utterly NO clue! He says it's outdoors. In the afternoon. We should eat a light lunch before we go (previously he had mentioned that there is no food involved, but we would go out to eat in conjunction with this activity). Uhhhhhmmmm what other clues. I think he said that it may be a county or two away. He's driving. He said I should dress casually. He thinks its funny because I told him that i think he's taking me to some beer brewery or wine tasting. And I'll admit, that I don't' like beer.....and honestly I don't' like wine much either. (yeah yeah yeah I know...no class at all......lol). I've been tempted to look in the papers and online to see what activities are happening locally this weekend...but I haven't yet. Admittedly it's killing me to not know!!!

Thursday and a headache..what a day

I've been tagged by Debbie : Here ya' go.

The rules:1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names, linking to them.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

I"m not going to tag anyone, but if you are reading this and want to participate, your more then welcome!

Five Things About Me:

1. I have four cats. Lucy, Ethel, Desi and Jody (Jody was already named when I got her, I refer to her as Jod-i-fred to keep the I Love Lucy theme)

2. I tend to jump from job to job. I get bored with what I'm doing and that means it's time to change 'careers'. (Right now I'm a bank teller.....far cry from my college degree in elementary education.)

3. I'm a city girl that is slowly becoming accustomed to the life as a country girl. Amazingly, I"m finding that I love certain aspects.

4. I'm really really really afraid of mice and bats. (and other creepy crawlies)

5. I love to cook and try new recipes!


Well, there you have it.

I'm really really struggling tonight. I just can't seem to get enough food into my body! What's up with this. I want to keep eating. I know that there is no way that I can truely be hungry, yet I want to continue eating. I've eaten pretzels and some almonds! OH yeah and a piece of chocolate......just a little piece. It makes no sense. I just got good news that puts me REALLY close to making goal with weight watchers. YOu'd think that that would totally cause me to jump up and down with excitement and buckle down to get there! It's having the opposite affect. I just want to eat more! This is NOT good!!!!! I'm refusing to eat any more tonight!!!!! I'm just not going to do it!!!

So what's up with this? Is there any rhyme or reason to this? Am I afraid of reaching that magical goal? WHAT WHAT WHAT???

Todd had the bikes our and ready when I got home. I walked in the door and he was like, "lets go." I asked him how he felt......he said he was still feeling pretty bad but he wanted to go. SO go we did. WELL, after we were out on the bikes, he admitted that he didn't eat lunch....because he was afraid it would make him sick and he then wouldn't be able to ride. So not only was he feeling sick to his stomach...but he was weak from not eating! OK, I love my husband but wherein the world was his mind?????? He made it about 2.5 miles before we had to turn around. SO I got in about 5 miles. I came home and set about to ride the exercise bike to make up the difference. Well, as I've mentioned, I utilize the laptop to watch videos on Youtube while I ride. FOr some reason the interenet was really sluggish....or youtube was sluggish...somthing was sluggish. I couldn't watch my video. Well, that just blew my mind and I ended up going about 2 miles more before quiting. It is neat to see how motivated I am to watch that show...motivated to ride like a demon while I'm watching.

Exercise and onion rings?

Well, I woke up early to exercise. But my husband got up at the same time. That normally doesn't stop me from exercising. What stopped me was his idea. I get off at 3PM today. He will be home at around 2PM. He was like, "lets go for a bike ride together this afternoon". I jumped at it! I would MUCh rather be outside being active. No contest there. However, after I had putzed around and pretty much wasted that alloted time, he starts talking about how miserable he feels and how sick he is. Wait a cotton pickin' minute. How are you going to go on a ride with me if you are sick? This happens often. I'll forgo exercise in the morning (when I KNOW it will get done) to wait to exercise with him. (which I do enjoy when it happens). And then when the time comes to exercise together something comes up and we dont' do it. At that point, the newly freed time then gets sucked up leaving me with no exercise. This is not cool! So I flat out told him...."if you dont' go, I've still got to exercise...so don't plan anything else for that time". It's not that I don't want to be with him.....but I have to take care of me!



Got my water all ready this morning. (Took my vitamins also) and what did I do? I walked out the door without it! I'm like totally lost without my water jug! Yeah, I'll be able to continue using it when I get home. HOWEVER, here at work, I'm forced to use the styrofoam cups that we have beside the water cooler. At least we have them....BUT, I like my water jug?



Ok, I'm done whining about the water now! I'll move on to my weight. Well, wait, I didn't step on the scales this morning, so nothing to say about that.



And a recipe for those of you out there that loves to try new things......Baked Onion Rings.



One big sweet vidalia onion

flour

egg white (or egg substitute)

seasoned bread crumbs



Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and preheat oven to 400 degrees.



Place the flour, egg whites and bread crumbs in three separate bowls. Peel and slice the onion, separating the slices into individual rings. Dip each ring first in the flour, then the egg mixture and finally the bread crumbs. Making sure to coat it thoroughly. Place breaded ring flat on the baking sheet. Repeat with each ring. Bake 20 minutes or until onion rings are crispy and cooked through.



I usually do one onion for my husband and I. It gives us plenty with some left over. The amounts of flour, egg white and bread crumbs varies with the size of the onion. I usually just start with what I think looks good...and add to as I need. :-)

A gain

No surprise there! I showed an 'official' gain of 7.4 pounds. THat puts me BACK at 187.2 pounds. 7.2 pounds away from my new weight watchers goal. THEN I can focus on going lower and meeting some of my own personal goals).

I have been doing really good with my healthy habit challenge of remembering my multi-vitamin. I was a bit worried because I"ve been trying to take it as soon as I wake up in the morning....however today I waited until I came home from having my bloodwork done. BUT, I remembered! :-)

I've been busy today. I woke up at around 5:30. I started cleaning the house. At maybe 7 or so I was almost done so I sat down and answered a few emails and such. At 8 I headed off to get my bloodwork done. BY nine I was back home. I changed my clothes and headed outside. Or technically out to the screened in porch. I painted until about 1 or 2 (stopping for lunch of course). I then took the garbage from inside OUT. Pulled the garbage from the cans, put new bags in the cans, gathered some construction garbage and bagged it up...and drug the bags to the roadside. I came back in from that and Todd looked at me and was like, "Your a machine". hopped on the exercise bike and logged some mileage/time on there before finally heading to the shower. :-) Todd and I then relaxed and played a little xbox together. LIke I said..busy day. Pretty soon I have to start breading onions for some baked onion rings. Mom and dad are coming to dinner tonight. I'm having grilled chicken (it's been marinating since last night), baked onion rings, and corn. MOm is bringing a salad and some fruit. A nice healthy meal.

Last night I was a bit bothered. I was chit chatting with the receptionist at my meeting and she was fine. AND then I gave her my doctors note. OH my word....she turned cool and snippy. What the heck? THey dont' get paid on commision do they? LOL Oh well..I don't really care.

A new goal to work towards!

Ok...here is where I'm at. After my mamothly busy day yesterday I was anxious to step on the scales. I ate healthy...I worked hard. Things were gonna be ok. Maybe not as low as i wanted them to be...but ok. I saw the number on the scale and totally started to cry! WHAT THE HECK? 190.6 pounds! WHY WHY WHY! This is so totally outrageous. Ironically enough, last night my husband and I had been talking and making lists of things that we would like to get done soon. On the immediate attention list was "make a doctors appointment for MF". During this 'stuck in the 180's thing (Since last September) I've had numerous people advise me to go see the doctor. I've been told that it is possible when you lose a lot of weight to through your body systems out of whack. So this morning at 8AM i called the doctor. They gave me an appointment for TODAY. I went at 10:45 this morning. Well, I learned a few things today.

Number one: after visiting the doctor the ick arrived. A week early, uninvited..but oh well. So that will account for a few of those ten pounds that's I've gained in the last 2 weeks...ok maybe 2 of them.

Number two: I am having the bloodwork done. I'll be going tomorrow mornign first thing as this is a fasting type of bloodwork. So I won't have the results from that for a few. I'm having my cholesterol checked, my thyroid checked, something called a metabolic panel..and one other test that escapes my memory. I'll go tomorrow to have the blood work taken.

Number 3: When I told the doctor that I was frustrated about working to reach a goal..and not moving, The doctor asked me what my goal was. I looked at him and was like, "I have no clue" I've never been this weight as an adult...so I'm just working toward the recommended goal for weight watchers (which is based off of the BMI) I told him "I was wondering what you recommend as I have never been on the thin side as an adult" He did some kind of calculations on the paper and looked at me and said, "As a 35 year old female, being 5'8" tall you should weigh..." Are you ready? Betweeen 160 and 180! I looked at him in shock. Because as I've mentioned on mroe than one occaision, 160 is pretty much the high end for my height...NOT the low end. I told him that. His words were,"and not to be rude, but you are not 20 years old anymore" He did say that it woudln't be impossible for me to get under that mark...but realistically I should be aiming for between 160 and 180. HOLY crapola! I told him what weight watchers was having me shoot for. He shook his head in amazement. YES...he wrote me a note to give to weight watchers so that i can to adjust my goals to match my doctors recommendation.

I will still have to get myself past that 180 barrier. But hopefully just knowing I'm right there....next to the 'goal' will ease the tension and maybe I'll pop through that barrier. And yes, between you and me, I still think it woudl be a total lark to make it to 150. :-)

The doctor, who is a big guy himself (and whom I actually haven't seen for a while, since I don't go to the doctor all that often, and the last two times I've had to see someone else in the office) just sat there in amazement...kept asking me all sorts of questions about how I did it. Actually told me that I dont' have much of a saggy skin problem. I laughed and told him that I 'hid' it well! LOL

Todd had gone with me....and the doctor noticed Todd's weight loss also.

On the way home Todd looked at me and was like, "I will do whatever needs to be done to help you get there". He went on to say that he would be doing it because it would benefit me...but it would also really be benefiting him...to help kick start him to lose more. So hopefully things will start to work. :-)

Tired and burnt!!!!!!

Well....I started mowing at 8:30 with the stupid push mower. 6 hours of mowing later and I was done. 6 freakin' hours of plodding along, pushign a mower. IN the swealtering sun! And if that wasn't enough, I capped it off with a few hours of painting.

Uhhh needless to say, I didn't get my bike ride in today.

What did I get in today? I got in my vitamins! WOO HOOOO!

Something else I got today....a sunburn! My face is quite pink.....and my shoulders are really red! In fact, I'm wearing a sweatshirt (yeah, I"m always cold....) and the weight of the sweatshirt against my burnt skin is hurting me! Eii yii yiii. NOT good. I so need to watch the sun!

After the painting, I came in and made dinner. I had prepared some stuff in order to make a sorbet to go with dinner. OH my word, was that stuff GOOD. I've gotta look up the points....it can't be all that bad. IT's mostly fruit...with a little sugar, lemon juice and water. Put into the ice cream maker. YUMMY! I made a raspberry sorbet. Tasty tasty tasty!

Meanwhile, I'm utterly wiped out!

Emotions raging

I've got some serious emotional eating stuff going on! I know it....and I just seem powerless to stop it. Let me back up. A few weeks ago I faced up to some of my eating problems. It was liberating and felt good. However, by facing up to the problem and taking my 'crutch' or excuse away....it has now thrown me into a tailspin. Because now I have to face the situation head on and deal with it in stead of saying, "Oh, it'sbecause I'm fat." The excuse is gone, and I still totally understand taht I'm not at all at fault. HOWEVER, the situation is still looming in my life and I need to figure out how I'm goign to deal with it. I've been really down about it lately. And of course it didn't help my emotional state to see my weight rise for no reason.

Saturday was a crazy day. I was up early, my eating patterns were all screwed up. I was on the go from sunup to sun down and then some. Just crazy. And my eating got a little whacked out from all that....and maybe a bit of emotions. Then yesterday I was determined to be sooo strong. I did good through breakfast, and lunch and even dinner. But after dinner I went to the sofa to lay down. (I waas utterly exhausted yesterday. I went to my mom's in the afternoonand I could barely put a string of words together to make a coherent sentence.....it was bad enough that she called to make sure I was ok later that evening). Well, I laid on that sofa and the emotions kicked in......and before I knew it I had started eating! Dang stupid move I know! If it's any 'consolation', I'm paying for it this morning with a stomach ache.

Todd has to work a few days. He booked it, not even paying attention to the fact that it was to be memorial day. It's not a big deal to me. I am goign to get out there with the push mower and mow away. I did it all last year as the old riding mower was/is out of commission and we just never got around to getting a new riding mower until this spring when we actually moved over here. It will be four hours of pushign that beaast around the yard. (did I mention that my mower is old.....dad gave it to me....he hated it because it is like really heavy. I love it....it was FREE....music to my ears). Todd gets off around 2. The plan is to go for a bike ride together somewhere on the canal this afternoon. I can't wait! It should be fun. I'm just hoping that my stomach clears up so i can do all this. (If I have any extra time....I'll work on the painting on the screened in porch)

On to a good note. I have remembered my healthy habit for the challenge every day thus far. I almost didn't get it on one day....but thank you for the reminder!!!!!!

I fell apart!

Yes, I totally fell apart last night. I had made my plans for dinner and everything was carefully calculated. Well, it was all fine and good until I SMELLED the sausage I was cooking for my husband. It smelled so dang good, which initself is pretty amazing becuase I'm not a big fan of sausage. So I planned to have a bit. Well that's not all that bad becuase heck, I had enough points. BUT the extra two pieces of toast (they were weight watcher bread...so not as bad as it COULD have been) and then the extra half piece of Todd's toast......full fat version. ARRGGh. And I chased it all down with a weight watchers 1 point chocolate mousse ice cream bar thingy. Way too much. Then this morning, Todd and i were up and ready to go like an hour early. What did I do? Why I offered to make chipped beef gravy for breakfast! And the offer was accepted. I feel so bloated and yucky right now! I will say in defense of myself. I won't be eating much of a lunch. I work until noon...and we are then going to be picked up at sometime between noon and 12:15 to go get in the line up for the parade. I'll be in the parade until probably about 2:30 or so. The earliest I'll get home will be 3. Therefore a big breakfast was actually probably a good thing. I did pack a bag of cherries to nibble on at some point through my day. Todd and I usually do the parade thing and it's kinda a tradition for us to then go to the carnival the next town/burg over that same evening. It's my plan to eat before we go over there....so that I am not tempted with the yummy foods at a carnival. :-) I WILL pull it together again. ANd I WILL LOSE THIS WEIGHT!

Ok....healthy habit challenge. Forgot to take my multi-vitamins this morning. I will do that when I get home. Gotta remember...gotta remember...gotta remember. Vitamin, vitamin, vitamin, vitamin vitamin, vitamin. They say if you repeat something over and over, it will stick.......vitamin, vitamin, vitamin. Heck, I don't think that's working. I give up. I'll just have to hope to remember it at home! :-)

I woke up at 5:15 this morning. I laid in bed for a few...and realized taht i was awake...wide awake. I SHOULD have gotten out of bed and exercised. The thought to actualy do it did cross my mind. HOWEVER, I laid in bed and read through an old journal of mine. Not exactly conducive to my health.

WEll......maybe more conducive then I had previously mentioned. I kow that I'm struggling with some emotional eating things. I've bene a bit down lately...and I just want to eat away the issues. I intrinsically know that eating is not the solution....but it's so much easier to fall into that old comforting routine. The reason I'm going back and rereading the journals......trying to get a handle on some of these emotions and feelings that are causing me to feel down...which causes me to eat...which causes me to feel more down. It's a vicious cycle.

I'm also wondering if the stress of these emotions are not negatively affecting my weight loss efforts. They say that cortisol is a hormone that is stress related...which negatively affects a persons metabolism and all that! Just a thought.

Oh interesting. The bag pipe group that is in the parade every year is setting up right outside my window. They said that last year that they actually practised in our parking lot.....under our drive through canopy. How interesting. I'll have 'tunes' to work by! :-)

Crazy day!

I managed to avoid the scales again today. I didn't avoid the bathroom like I did yesterday. I will admit, I was sorely tempted though. BUT talked myself out of it. :-)

I woke up early this morning, and rode my bike this morning. Knocked 9.71 miles out. Felt good! Then here at work, I took a half hour break and walked about a mile and a half all around town. So I feel pretty good about that.

Lunch. Well, yes, they ordered it for us as a treat. And yes, I actually did order 'regular' food. I got a turkey and cheese pannini. It was scrumptious! I'll admit it. I used to always order sandwhiches when we went out to eat. I so rarely do anymore. A sandwhich out uses ups sooo many points....breaks the bank so to speak. So it was an absolute treat. I didn't eat the chips that came with it. OK, I'll admit, I did have a taste. But you know what....they weren't all that great....so I wasn't even tempted. I had brought along grapes and cherries today, so I had my cherries with my sandwich. I'll have my grapes as a snack sometime mid-afternoon. I've already planned out my evening food....and I've got it all under control!

Tomorrow is the day of our local parade. My branch (job) is riding in the parade. Should be interesting....lol The guy that is driving us down the parade route is plannign on having a cooler with water for us to drink. So what does dumb me say? "oh my...maybe I should bake something so that we have something to nibble on also!" What in the world? Am I insane???? Because not only do I not NEED something to nibble on while we ride in the parade.....I do NOT need to have the tempation of the baking in my house! Oh well....I may bake something and just chew my gum the whole time so that the unconcious action of putting food into my mouth will not derail me!

It's been a crazy day of highs and lows for me. Things were good when I got off the bike. They took a huge nose dive during a serious conversation with Todd. I got myself under control at work. And then things went belly up crazy. I had two customers at the drive through BEFORE we even opened....not to mention the rush I had right after we opened. We had 3 classes of first graders come in for a tour. They came in and have been working on removing some old lock boxes out of our vault (takes a while to do apparently as they have been doing here now for at least three hours.). Oh yes, and our downstairs bathroom here at work has been acting funny. The plumber has been here since about 9AM...it's 1:39 right now. He's been snaking it, they have had the sanitation department here snakign it past the pump into the city sewer lines. It's absolutely nutty. We are having to go next door to ask to use the restroom. Crazy. Everyone here is in a decent mood...so we've been laughing and carrying on about the 'poop' issues that we are having. I didn't know they could snake the lines for so long!!! I'm ready for some peace and quiet! My time at work is "MaryFran's" personal time. LOL It's my time to write my blog, read a book and all this stuff (between customers of course). This noise is infringing upon my peace. LOL My...what a rough job I have...tee hee hee