Are we in a tizzy of anticipation yet?

I definitely am. I'm sure you are all on the edge of you seats waiting to find out how my doctor's appointment went today. Well I ended up having two. First, I went to see the Rheumatologist, and he referred me to an Orthopedic Surgeon (like I thought) and said Orthopedic was able to get me in an hour and a half later. Boss' decision: stay where I was. I was only going to be at the office 30 minutes max before having to leave again. So I drive over to Calypso Cafe (1.5 minutes away) and had a veggie pita. Delicious! Then I hung out at the hospital until time for my appointment. Really nice people, have to tell you. Quick and courteous, efficient. Excellent. Should be to, because this whole thing is going to cost me a fortune. I describe my symptoms, and they prescribe x-rays. They have a machine in-house, so someone comes to get me from the exam room, takes me to get x-rays and brings me back to exam room. The x-rays come out pretty quickly and the Doctor comes in and talks to me. He does some tests for motion on my shoulder (of which I have very little at this point) and determines based upon symptoms and x-rays and tests that my pain could have two causes: 1. My acromion is hooked when it shouldn't be and 2. Possible injury to Labrum cartilage.

All this adds up to one solution: MRI scheduled for Monday. We're moving forward in the direction of healing! This is good, because I ran tonight and I aggravated it MORE, so now I'm in a new kind of PAIN!

I had to step on the scale today at the Doctor and I have gained a pound. Now this may be because I had just finished a large drink from Sonic, or because it's the middle of the day, or because I've gained a pound so far this week. Not good either way. So I'm buckling down and try for a good number on the scale this Saturday before going to a beer festival Saturday afternoon. The extra 35 points I get each week that start on Saturday? Gone by Saturday night. And I'm okay with that because, well it's allowed. I will stay within my points for the remainder of the week and all will be good.

It's also been requested that I move the TV shows out to the garage from the TV room so other people can record in there (and I record at least 6 shows weekly). This will be a good opportunity for me to WALK (no more serious running until the shoulder heals) while catching up. Six shows minus the commercials equals 4.5 hours per week and if I walk at a 20 minute pace (3 miles per hour), I will accomplish over 13 miles each week. That's more than I'm doing now. More than I was doing running every day. Fascinating. This is a minimum also; I normally spot-record a few extra shows as I find them. The 6 are regulars, and recorded weekly. :)

I'm going to go take a nice HOT shower and lay down and try to get comfortable.

Until next time,
:)

I'll take it!

I find myself in an interesting place. Confused, for one. I went to weigh in last week and thought for sure I was going to maintain/gain. I stepped on the scale, read the number, and said, oh good, I maintained. She said, no you lost (they take 2 pounds off for clothes and shoes). I lost 2 pounds. I am flabbergasted. I guess it's the same logic as I work harder than ever and gain. I'm a woman, I should stop being confused. So, YAY! I lost 2 pounds! Go me!

This week, well I don't know. I ran yesterday while waiting for AAA to come get the truck, and I ran a mile in a little over 9 minutes. It just about killed me and I never want to do that again. At least for now. This week, I feel like I would imagine pregnant women feel. I want to eat everything in sight. And out of sight. I'm trying to drink lots of water and Diet Dr Pepper to squash the craving.

I realized a few moments ago that I had not blogged in a week. *cringe* Right now, I have a lot on my mind that doesn't necessarily pertain to weight and I guess I didn't feel it was important enough to put in words. Maybe I wouldn't crave everything if I did.

I'm going to the doctor again tomorrow for my right shoulder (trip #3). I am now in constant pain. The next step is referral to Orthopedic Surgeon. See that last word? Scares me silly, I'm not going to lie. The best solution at this point is for them to go in and clean out my shoulder. Hopefully that will fix it. Otherwise, I'm going to have to have the big kahuna surgery, that will put me typing one handed for weeks. WEEKS. I would assume that also means no running *GASP*. My mind runs wild with possibilities. Everyone keeps telling me the cleaning will fix it, but this is me we're talking about. My body has not proven to be cooperative. I'm expecting the worst. That will allow me to be pleasantly surprised. The real kicker? My left shoulder is starting to ache when I sit still too long, or do certain tasks (that was the beginning of the right shoulder saga). Wonderful. It doesn't hurt nearly as bad as my right shoulder, so I barely notice it, but it's there.

I'm feeling a little trapped financially. I have goals I would like to meet, and I'm never going to meet them if things like expensive doctor visits keep appearing. I have already resigned to do something locally for vacation next year. No big trip. That is a defeating feeling. It'll just have to wait.

Another depressing moment this last week: My canoe trip for Saturday got cancelled *sniff sniff* because not enough people were interested. I'm planning on going hiking tomorrow, caving next Saturday, White Water Rafting the Saturday after that, and another canoe trip has been scheduled for Aug 28. All this will be ultra fun.

Something I'm loving right now? All the selection of fantastic TV Shows. One of my favorites right now is White Collar on USA. A very funny show. :)

Until next time,
:)

Life is like a box of chocolates

You never know what you're going to get. I love that quote, I really do. I have found that when I don't run regularly I am agitated and jumpy and generally disagreeable. I ran this morning and feel so much better! 10:59.66 thank you very much. I'm going to repeat this tomorrow, and the next day. On Saturday, I'm going cameoing. I've never been so it will be GREAT!

So for a background on the title. Another ill effect of the agitation caused by not running is the craving for things I haven't craved in a while. Like chocolate. Saturday I went to the grocery store to get a few things. I ended up with a box of chocolates and ate the whole thing in 36 hours. Ridiculous. I've been dreading about blogging because then it was real. Really real.

I'm trying to catch up on TV shows now and still maintain a normal bedtime.

Until next time,
:)

That's Need to Know

Last night was wonderful. I fully enjoy my own company. No boring conversation, no awkward pauses, etc. Now, if I was with someone who's company I truly enjoy, that might be different. I was watching TV yesterday afternoon and was running through the schedule for the rest of the night. I realized I would be dining along (internal sigh of happiness) and then realized that I had not accounted for someone here and that I would not be dining alone (external sigh of resign - not because of the person, but because I was really wanting to be completely alone). So, I thought about it, and it had been quite a while since I had dressed up and gone out to eat. Alone. A passion I quite enjoy. So I did. I put on a dress, twisted my hair up, put on very nice heels, and perfume and went to Olive Garden. And loved every minute of it!

The service was divine and the food was, as always, phenomenal. I had 2 bread sticks (2 points each), 2 glasses of peach tea (0 points), a glass of Riesling wine (2 points), and my dish was Venetian Apricot Chicken (7 points, but I only ate 1/4 of my plate, so that's 1.5 points). Total for dinner: 7.5 points. Total for the day: 23.5 points. Total daily points allowance: 25 points. WAHOO! A great victory for me! You know what was even better. This cost me $3. I had a gift card. :) Things just lined into good places last night. I didn't trip, or spill food on myself. It was fabulous.

I was so serenely happy I cried tears of pure joy on the way home. Then of course I learn my family has been having fun at my expense going into a tizzy over whether or not I was on a date and with whom. (lots and lots of outward sighs, groans, rages of frustration, and bad words on my part). This all stemmed from me telling my overly nosy sister "that's need to know" when she asked where and with whom I was going. I gave no details, tried to keep that part of my life private and it only fed gossip. ARE WE 12 YEARS OLD AGAIN? Then when I got home and confronted (not my style; I'm really more passive aggressive), they all told me they were having fun running the possibilities and not to spoil their fun, by being upset. They also told me that I looked/smelled good and so there had to be a date. HA! 1. Spoil their fun?!?!?! Okay, right. This is MY life! 2. It is not a crime and is recommended to dress up for ones self. If you don't like how you look, how can you expect any one else to? Ridiculous. Last time I tell them anything. Because they had so much fun with "that's need to know", that's all they're going to get from now on. Unfortunately most of the joy of the evening was lost when I came home. Sad, huh? I think so. Now I want a vacation alone. But the location/timing is TBD.

Back to the food. This would be one of those non-scale victories that I could use right now, since I didn't get an on the scale victory this week. Up 1 pound. Okay. Last week was an interesting week really, and to be honest, I was expecting a little worse. Working much later than scheduled Wednesday-Friday probably didn't help. This week will be better.

Until next time,
:)

Plaid or polka dots?

I have to be cute and clever :)

I have noticed a pattern. When I eat WAY too much (a 25 point meal, for example), my body thanks me by being sick; you know how the word was originally intended. Anyways, I've been dealing with THAT this week so I've been a little out of place. Same thing (different effects) that happened two weeks ago. Do you see the same pattern I do? Too bad it took two times being sick for me to see it, but at least I see it now and have a couple weeks to come up with a plan. At least I think I do. I had better come up with a plan quick so I do not get ambushed.

The only exercise was the 1.25 miles I ran on Saturday (in under 13 minutes by the way!). And of course to try and be nice, I have altered my eating to only eat kind things, which means I was not allowed to eat the raw, crisp, juicy bell pepper I wanted with my toast, no butter, and jelly dinner. BOO. Oh well, my dinner was 3 points, so who's complaining? :)

So I made a good decision today. I had to be at work earlier than scheduled and I was running late (story of my life I swear) this morning, so I browsed quickly on the WW site and found I could substitute my Super Sonic Breakfast Burrito for the Jr Breakfast Burrito and save 2 dollars and 5 points. 8 points was a lot for a little tiny burrito, but surprisingly, I wasn't starving around lunchtime. I was adequately hungry. I feel pretty good about getting outside of my comfort zone too. I got to work 4 minutes before I was supposed to be there today (30 minutes earlier than normal) and it all went off without a hitch! Problems were fixed before they were crises and nothing interfered! Wonderful when that happens. It doesn't often happen that way for me, so I was on cloud 9. :)

On another subject, this is post #20! 20; I cannot believe it!!! How cool. I'll have to celebrate by reading 20 extra pages, or maybe 20 extra minutes, wait, at the pace I read, it's one and the same. I will not, however, be celebrating with food. :)

Until next time,
:)

Is today Monday?

Yes, that's how the last 24 hours have gone. Right now, I want to go outside and let out a large, long scream. Or cry buckets of tears out of pure frustration. Last night, well good grief, I really went overboard. I ate lightly all day so I had 10.5 points left over for dinner since I knew I was getting together with friends. How many points did I consume last night? 25. UGH! Oh my goodness gracious. It's like I completely lose all knowledge of how to stop when I get around other people. It probably didn't help that I had NO idea what we were going to be eating. I guess I should remedy that for next time huh? GRR.

So then comes today. I was going to run this morning. What time did I get up? 7:45. Is that condusive to running? Absolutely NOT. Today was also the day that I had to take care of the dog and pick up my sister at the car repair place all before going to work. This all equals not enough time for breakfast at home, so I stopped by Sonic. 13 points for my Super Burrito. I worked out the rest of the day to not go over my points, but goodness, when I use half my daily points in one meal, it really limits my options. So after all this, I'm late to work. Fan-bloody-tastic.

Now from dealing with all this and dealing with work, I am very tired. I was going to stick in a movie, but I'm trying to adhere to going to bed at 9, reading for an hour, and then falling asleep by 10 (instead of going to bed at 11), and since all movies made now are 2 hours and I have been sitting sulking for almost an hour along with trying to catch up on e-mails and the like, I am going to find a TV show online and watch a bit and relax for the remainder of the evening and pretend to start the week over tomorrow. If only it really worked that way.

Until next time,
:)

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Some background on the title would be helpful. Have you heard of a game called Mille Bornes (pronounced Meal Born)? From Wikipedia:
"French for a thousand milestones, referring to the stone distance markers on many French roads"
In the game, you have cards with numbers of miles on them and the first player to 1000 miles wins. There are a lot of other parts of flair along with the basics, but the basics are all I need for the purposes of this post. When we play this game (or any game for that matter) with my dad, there are always hilarious sound effects to his plays. When he overcomes an obstacle and plays more mileage, we either get "Rollin', Rollin', Rollin" or "On the road again" (which is a song by Willie Nelson).

I have hit a major milestone today! I lost 3.4 pounds (yes, 3.4!!!), which brings me to a grand total of 40.2!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!

I've already been hard at work planning today. It looks as if I will be able to make my next goal on or around 8/14 (48 total pounds lost, 174.6) and the goal after that will be the GOAL goal. The big kahuna; the final milestone. How exciting! I can see it, smell it, feel it! The final goal is 157 (right now) and 65.6 total pounds lost. That means I have only 25.4 to go!!! 7.8 to my next mini-goal and 17.6 to the final goal after that. My goal for hitting my goal is no later than October 30. That will mark 1 week before 1 year on Weight Watchers (November 7). My aim is going to be to reach that goal by October 9, which is the Saturday before I go back to my Doctor for my annual check-up (this is the Doctor that gave me the kick in the seat of my pants). This is also the Saturday before my mom and I go on a day trip shopping to places exciting! October 9 is 13 weeks away and I would need to lose an average of 2 pounds per week each week. Now that I'm getting thinner, it's going to be difficult to pull such large numbers as we get closer to time. Getting to my goal on October 30 will require an average of 1.5 pounds per week, which may turn out to be a little more manageable. I am going to continue to measure, track, and run and let the numbers fall where they will. I know they will regardless.

Wish me luck: I get to practice eating in social situations today. Family is coming over. I have all the items we will eat, I'll be figuring out points this morning and inputting new recipes into the database so I will be prepared and can plan out my dinner with family and then work backwards to plan lunch/snacks so I won't be hungry when they get here. Then I'm going to stick to my plan and revel in my victorious week! Tomorrow afternoon, I am going to work in eating out at lunch one day this week. And I'm going to make good choices and not feel guilty. I have my weekly 35 (that I haven't hardly been using the past 3 weeks) that I can lean on if necessary.

Until next time,
:)