#145 General (10/12/12)

Today was an excellent day for a walk.  I have been slacking on that for the past couple weeks because of not feeling too well, then this past week the weather was nippy, so I didn’t feel I wanted to; all excuses I know.  Even today I wasn’t planning on going, but as I stood up to go to the lunch room for utensils, my body and brain decided to go for a walk first. 

On another upside, last week I had lost 6 pounds, mostly due to illness.  I had expected to gain it all back, which 5 pounds had come back the next day, but it didn’t bother me because of the circumstances.  Weigh-in’s are usually saved for weekend mornings, but due to the extreme fluxuations last week I have been weighing in periodically this week to see what is happening.  So far I’m back down another 2.5 pounds.  All in all, if I don’t gain back all of the weight lost last week, I see that as a good thing.  I guess we will see tomorrow how much my ticker goes backwards.  If I can stay at the 15 pounds lost (currently 17), that would be great.

On a side note though, this past week has been a fairly nice rejuvenating one.  The downside, it was because my wife had a terrible head cold.  To keep her from getting worse, and keeping on the mend, we have been relaxing and mostly watching TV when we get home from work.  Then we’ve been drinking the wives’ tale drink for colds; grated ginger, about a tablespoon or two, with hot water, lemon juice and a bit of honey.  As far as logging food on MFP, I haven’t logged that drink, but I think any calories in the honey, is expended by the burn from the quantity of ginger.  So far I have kept from getting ______.  I don’t want to say it to jinx it.  My wife’s cold is finally easing up a bit. 

This weekend we are heading camping with Deb’s dad and step mom.  We are going for one night only, provided her cold doesn’t take a stride for the worse.  At least we are camping in partial luxury; in an RV, so if the weather gets bad, we can bunker in warmth.  We are on the debate to take one of our dogs, Tuffy.  He is un-socialized, which is our fault for not exposing him to much of anything.  This might be good exposure for him, however he might be vibrating with all the new things he NEEDS to bark at and investigate.  We’ll see how it goes.

#137 Walk for the sake of walking (09/27/12)

Well, I’m finally getting back into a groove, hopefully for a long period of time.  It seems though; my body is winning over whatever Amy is trying to tell it.  Part of me wanted to just sit and relax on my lunch because it will be my workout day tonight.  That half must have been Amy.  The other part of me was trying to come up with any excuse to go for a walk.  It is a beautiful day, just get some extra ninja steps in; the winning argument was I needed to go to Sobey’s after work for some cottage cheese and a melon. Koodos to my feet for learning to speak up.  So I decided to walk there on my lunch instead.  It was a little more of a walk that yesterday, and it was good.  I had a pretty good pace going too.  So I got in 1.5 miles on my lunch. 

Now if only my stomach can get on the same page and come up with excuses NOT to eat things.  Overall my wife and I are eating pretty well, it’s just the sweets/deserts are too fluent.  For the most part, I’m managing mostly to stay within calorie allotment for the day though.  Let’s hope the effort shows on the scales this weekend. 

 

#136 Music is good for the sole (09/26/12)

On my lunchtime walk today, I was listening to my random music list on my phone.  The jiving to the music made me want to walk further than I usually do, and at a steady quick pace.  Usually my walk is between .5 - .75 miles.  Today it was 1.25 miles.  The music just kept my feet going, I really didn’t care that I needed to get a few other things done on my break; I was just walking and loving it.  If I wouldn’t have HAD to get back to work, and the fact I was getting hungry, I think I would have walked a lot longer. 

Tonight we will be processing more apples, but maybe I will try and squeeze in some treadmill time too.  Last night’s workout was a good one, I did the Wii step for 30 minutes, and got 3100+ steps.  That is a record for me, before it was just over the 2900 mark.  Progress is being made, let’s hope the scale shows the changes. 

#134 My Feet Have a Mind of Their Own (09/25/12)

Today at lunch, I had mentally decided not to have a walk, I’m planning on working out tonight, so I figured, I don’t need to, I have a bunch of other things I want to get done on my lunch, pay bills, update spreadsheets (yes I’m a geek.), read some blogs, write a blurb on my blog today etc, plus actually eat lunch.  So, I went downstairs to the lunch room to grab some utensils, and then headed back to my office.  There is a point on that trip, where I can either turn and go upstairs, or walk out the door.  This is where my feet took control of my body.  In my head, I was already half way up the stairs, but before I knew it, I was outside.  Once again, I thought, I would make it just a quick walk around the building kind of thing, get to my to do list quickly.  But my feet just wouldn’t cooperate.  Instead of going right, to head back into the building, they turned left to go on my usual walk.  I didn’t quite walk the full length I might have, if planned, but it was a good 20 minute walk. 

I’m happy I have happy feet that have a mind of their own, even if that does cause me to trip a little more often than most people. 

#128 Timeline of IUI (09/11/12)

Well, it has been a fairly long journey to get to this point, and it is going to be a bit longer.  The trip started pretty much at the beginning of this year when my wife tried to quit smoking.  That took a few months, then testing for Rubella, and getting on the wait list for the fertility clinic.   It was about five months ago that we got the phone call about when we might get our first appointment.  After testing, purchasing sperm and more testing we now have a new timeline. 

The surgery to remove the polyp in my uterus is scheduled for mid November.  That is another two months away, then another cycle after that for our first attempt.  Late November would be my first ovulation after the surgery.  That is too early in my opinion, no healing time.  However the next ovulation would be over the Christmas/New Year period, which after reading a few other blogs, I’m not convinced our clinic will be open those days.  I’ve emailed the clinic to check. 

On the upside, that gives me more time to lose weight, on the downside, that is lessening the possibility of my Grandma flying over for the birth, even now that is a remote possibility.  My boss is happy of the delayed timeframe.  She is in slight denial that I would be leaving for maternity leave.    

As my other posts before this one, New Month, New Vigor or New Month, New Motivation, I need to kick up my weight loss again.  I don’t think I’m the only one that goes through this cycle of three steps forward and two steps backwards, or should I say three pounds lost, and two pounds gained.  As long as it doesn’t turn into two pounds lost and three gained, repeatedly it is still technically progress. 

So now I need to get rid of the cruise pounds, and continue on my weight loss lifestyle.  Going from full buffet for a week to normal is a hard transition.  I just had three cookies with Tea Tuesday.  Not a good diet choice.  Our vegetables haven’t been cut yet for our lunch salads either; Sunday had very good reasons, Monday medium good reason.  But tonight it is the night they have to get done.  I think my body is craving the veggies again. 

My current goal is to work out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, NO EXCUSES.  The closer I get to possible pregnancy the more worried I am that I will be put on bed rest because my body can’t support the weight of baby and pregnancy gain.  Well, today is Tuesday, and I have a million other things that need to be done, but I NEED to put working out in the top three. 

On the fertility goals, I have also put an email into our friend who is a Fertility Acupuncturist, who owns a clinic that focuses on Fertility, which also has massage, and chiropractic, along with a few other services. Currently I have three extended medical plans which has coverage for such things, and two of which have amounts that expire at the end of the year, thus, I might as well use them up.  So I am trying to be one relaxed cookie by the time I go for the first IUI treatment.  If only the plans also covered Manis/Pettis, that would be the ultimate relaxation day. 

#125 Common Courtesy (08/29/12)

Last night, I finally made time to workout.  It was mostly Wii Stepping, but the total workout was about 45 minutes.  But today, I’m hungry.  I had breakfast on the way to work, and as soon as I was done, I was still hungry.  I’ve been putting off starting to snack, but now I’m edging on Snicker Joe.   

At 11:00 I finally gave in and had my pretzels.  Snicker Joe is slowly leaving my head alone. 

The weather was pretty nice today at lunch, not too hot with a bit of cool wind, thus I was able to go for a fairly long walk at lunch.  On my lunch, I saw a store that sold gates, I swung over to have a look, but they aren’t officially open though.  Alas the point to this paragraph, on my way out of the parking lot, a lady driving by stopped to ask if I was lost.  I explained I was just stopping as a point of curiosity on my walk and away she went.  It is refreshing that someone saw that I might be lost, and took the time to stop and make sure I was ok.  It was a small act of kindness, but didn’t go unnoticed.  That kind of act used to be a common courtesy, but now a day’s not so much.  I think I will try and pay forward the favour. 

Side note:  Today I went to www.proudparenting.com it is a slightly aggressive gay parenting sight.  But the think I learned, Jillian Michaels from the Biggest Loser is gay.  Now I know, it makes sense, but the thought had never crossed my mind.  My gaydar for lesbians has always been on the fritz, makes it very difficult to be a lesbian.  It’s a blessing I now have my wife (originally met on line) and will never have to make that decision again. 

#119 Too Much (08/21/12)

Do you ever feel like there is just too much going on?  Like you are juggling and you start with one ball, then add another, and anther.  Three balls not too bad, but then more keep coming, you keep adding to the circle of balls you are juggling until you feel if anything else comes at you everything will come crashing down. 

Crohn’s is somewhat new to my life.  My mom lived with it from her 20’s and in the end died from a spinoff of the disease.  It is funny though, it never seemed to be a topic of discussion in our house growing up.  I knew she didn’t eat green vegetables as they hurt her stomach, and a few other things here and there.  She occasionally had to have Boost meal drinks on top of her meals to help boost her calories.  Over the years she had multiple surgeries to remove pieces of her intestine.  I’m pretty sure she was on prentizone to help manage the crohn’s.  Even though I lived with someone majorly affected by crohn’s all of my juvenile life, I don’t know much about the disease, probably more than the general population, but not much.  Now that I have it, (one juggle), my Virgo self needs to research it (two juggle). 

In the attempt to lose weight (three juggle) in order to get pregnant (four juggle) my wife and I are eating healthy, which is helping for the diet requirement for Crohn’s which was suggested, basically eat from the Canada Food Guide, and minimize animal fats. Originally I didn’t think that was much of an issue, but my wife brought up the question “Does that include dairy and eggs?”  In our house that is a major source of protein. Thus we may have possible major changes in diet (five juggle), but at the very lease tracking my diet through My Fitness Pal back to a higher degree of accuracy to get a better view of my macros, including the vitamins I take to make sure I’m getting the nutrients I need, especially for when I’m pregnant.

Also along the trying to get pregnant list, the polyp is the next issue (six juggle). Not a major thing (hopefully), but still something bugging my noodle. 

Then we have the general living category, learning to can fruit and deal with a mass harvest (seven juggle).  My job, thankfully isn’t that stressful, but does occupy a fair amount of my day (eight juggle), preparing the house for before I get pregnant (pre nesting), like personalizing the master bedroom (nine) organizing our storage (ten), clearing out non essentials to make room for baby stuff (eleven), preparing for the cruise (twelve).  That is a dozen things up in the air right now, some more stressful than others; the last one a good one, but we’ve never been on a cruise so I don’t know what to prep for. This is all stuff that is either a have to deal with or really want to deal with but I’m feeling very overwhelmed.  I just feel I could sleep for a week to let things settle in my head then have a game plan.  But for the most part, everything is happening as it happens.  As long as the dozen juggles doesn’t turn into a baker’s dozen before the cruise, I think the cruise will give me the much needed rest from the regular day to day to come back with Vim and Vigor to attack the next thing that needs to be dealt with.

#97 Life happens (07/24/12)

For weight loss, July seems to be a wash, I gained, I lost, I gained again.  End results will hopefully at least be a little bit of a loss.  With the house next door we had hoped all the exercise of moving and cleaning would burn more than enough calories to help us lose weight.  It didn’t seem to happen.  

Last week I gained back all lost the week before, but it seems to be partially TOM and T3 issues of digestion back up.  It has not been a good last week.  My teeth were hurting very badly, taking meds every two hours to keep back pain, along with Antibiotics, then a bad reaction to the antibiotics, so they were switched.  Plus I was still working on the house next door, so health went by the wayside it seems.

Fast forward to the root canal yesterday.  It didn’t go well; five freezing’s and still feeling pain.  At one point the dentist said “This is going to hurt, bear with me.”  It’s not like I had a choice.  The dentist said, we could stop and you could come back another time.  What good is that?  Delay the pain, have to go through the whole procedure again; no thank you.  I did a lot of crying after that traumatic dentist experience.  On the upside today my mouth is feeling better.  Still on some pain meds, but more realistic amounts every 4-6 hours.  I should be able to have no more T3’s so the digestion issues should clear themselves, literally.  I will probably help along with prunes to help clear the pipes. 

Low and behold this month, life just happened.  Losing weight took a back burner, but didn’t get forgotten all together.  There is a week left in July, we will still be working on the houses probably till August 1^st at least, to some degree or another.  But maybe I can get back to walking at lunch, and fitting in some minor Wii work outs, and with less stress on my teeth, my body might start to relax and continue with weight loss. 

With all the lifting and cleaning, maybe the scales aren’t showing anything because some of our sticks of butter got turned to steaks, ie fat to muscle.  As per measurements I’m down a bit more, so that is possible. 

Life happens, and there is a light at the end of this long tunnel of crazy busy.  We are getting closer to the end when we can refocus on us and family, and getting pregnant and losing weight to get pregnant. 

I get my HSG on Thursday.  I’m a little worried about that, but the cramps will be worth it to make sure my tubes are working for fertility.  My doctor told me not to Google that procedure, it would scare me.  I’m now getting nervous, now that it is scheduled. 

The heat wave that has been plaguing Calgary is ebbing.  Today I was finally able to go for my lunch time walk again.  It was a small one, but at least I did get out. 

On a side note, I would love to thank my wife for taking care of me when my dentist appointment took a turn for the worse; she made me a wonderful protein shake for lunch and dinner and made sure I was ok all night.  I love my wife.

#84 Ramblings to get my head straight (06/27/12)

The stress on the appointment yesterday was getting to me more than I realized.  I’ve been a bit of a basket case for the past week.  Partially PMS and partially waiting to see if I get accepted as a patient at the fertility clinic.

Well, PMS is over, and so is the first appointment.  So the next hurdle, a bunch of tests.  Mostly blood tests on certain days, an ultra sound, and HSG test.  My next follow up appointment to see how the tests went is August 8^th.  So that gives me 6 weeks to lose a bit more weight.  I’m hoping for another 10 pounds.  But any is a victory. 

Timing to go for first try looks like it would be at the end of September beginning of October.  That is 3 months away.  To get a total of 31 pounds off would be a 10% reduction of my weight.  This means an additional loss of 19.5 pounds in three months.  That is doable.  I’m going to strive for more, if I can get to 30-40 pounds that would be fantastic.  Then hopefully at my highest baby weight I won’t be more that 280 pounds.  Alas, that is getting ahead of myself. 

On my lunches, I’ve been walking about 20 minutes, just under a mile on most days.  That is good.  Evenings have been a hit or miss.  For the past little while, I’ve been in charge of cooking the meals for my wife, mother in law and father in law, while they were packing up the house for sale.  I would either bring the meal to them, or wait at home for them to come and eat.  This cut into my focus time that could be for exercising, and seeing I wasn’t helping pack/move/clean until after dinner, which a lot of the time would be about 9, there wasn’t much left for me to do to burn off calories helping.  The past few days we’ve had off from the move stress, as the house is finally up for sale. 

Next we are gearing up for possession of the new house, should be tomorrow or Friday.  The new house was a foreclosure and is a bit of disrepair and needs a good clean/de-clutter.  At least the house is next door, so dinners should be a quick deal.  I think I need to go on a casserole cooking spree to freeze a bunch to pop in the oven, we can be cleaning, and then pause for dinner, then back to cleaning or whatever. 

#80 Working out in the heat (06/21/12)

For the past little while, it has been raining in the morning, and a good temperature for me to walk at lunch, my head does get a bit damn from sweat, but not too bad.  Today is a hot day.  I took a small walk, but the heat was making my head sweat.  If I didn’t need to be at work, I would have continued to walk.  Alas, a short distance in my head was all ready beginning to be damp, so I turned around and back to the office.  I hate the fact my head is the first place I begin to sweat.  Arg.  Maybe I need to see if I can take a shorter lunch, then a 20 minute walk, just before I leave work.  Then it doesn’t matter if my head is damp, or drenched.  A point to ponder I guess. 

Now for this week, I had a goal of reaching 58,000 steps. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen.  I am going to struggle to even slightly beet last week’s count at 54,000.  In order to do that, I need to reach 10,000 today and tomorrow for a total of 20,000.  That is a lot of steps in two days.  But I am going to try and see if I can.  Today extra treadmill, tomorrow helping stage/clean a house.  Maybe this afternoon I can try and get a few extra Ninja steps in, and tomorrow work my but off. 

The slight reason I am behind this week in steps, is Saturday, a day that has been an average of 11,000 steps, I only got 5,500.  I was doing a lot of stationary cleaning, and keeping busy otherwise, but steps weren’t constant like they usually are on Saturdays.  I did make up for some on Sunday, but haven’t been able to recover this week, as I was in charge of cooking mostly, not moving my butt. 

Even if I can go over by 1 step, it is an increase, so I am going to work hard to get in the 10,000 steps a day.  Eek, that means I still need 6,400 steps today, three miles.  I’ve got my work cut out for me. 

#79 Skinny Nose? (06/20/12)

Today I looked in the mirror and saw my face without glasses.  I looked at my nose and specifically thought my nose looks smaller.  Is it possible to lose weight on your nose?  Or is it just because I don’t have my glasses on? 

At lunch I have been taking walks, but today I just didn’t want to go.  The start of cramps and bloat weren’t helping.  On MFP, I posted a status about needing some oomff getting going, and a couple of my pals egged me on (thank you). So I went.  And I’m glad I did.  I ended up walking a few minutes longer than usual and getting over the mile finally, to 1.19 mile walk.  Instead of going around the parking lot at the beginning/end of the walk, I just started walking.  I got to the bottle depot down the road and around the corner, then headed back, and the rain held off once again for the walk.  YAY.  I think the divine entities of this world are helping me with that.  Thank you. 

#76 Be thankful for the small things (06/15/12)

This morning it was raining fairly heavily, with a fair amount of rain.  Walking in the rain with an umbrella is a bit peaceful, however with wind, not so much.  Today, just before lunch, the rain cleared up, so my lunchtime walk was a nice one. 

#62 General thoughts (05/31/12)

One stress is down and out, one more to go.  As much as I try not to let stress affect me, I think it does a little.  The first place stress shows in my body is digestion.  When I’m stressing my stomach doesn’t work as well as it should.  I need to remember to drink more water when stressing.  That could be half the cause. 

Tomorrow is the biggie.  Damage control or all hands on deck to get moving.  It is going to be a weird day. 

We haven’t been on the Wii in the evenings to see if we are doing worse or better for the week so far.  I’m getting worried and curious.  We haven’t been sloths in the evenings, but have been doing other activities in general around the house.  Our late night snacking has been bad though, however it was to top up calories.  Let’s see which wins, bad snacking = weight gain or plateau or general activities countering to = weight loss. 

For the past week I’ve been walking at lunch around the parking lot.  Yesterday I was able to get my steps on that walk to over 1000.  It was actually closer to 1200.  I just thought, instead of just around the parking lot, maybe I should go down the block.  That should add about 200 steps.  It was actually 200 steps each way, so it added 400 steps.  Yay.  I think I will do that again today.  Weather permitting.  Rain clouds are looming overhead.  Even so, I may just grab an umbrella at the front door and nip out anyways.