Today, they chop off my arm.

Kidding.

Mostly.

This morning, at 10am, I get to go see my plastic surgeon. Let me tell you. The fact that I have a plastic surgeon tickles me.

She’s not going to chop off my arm.* It’s a quick, 20 minute procedure to remove a lipoma (basically a fat tumor**) from my right forearm. I could have ignored it, and I have for the last…8? years. The problem is, it’s in that annoying spot where it rakes across the edge of my desk when I’m working. And that, friends, is a painful annoyance I could do without.

So this morning, I’ll be headed to the Mayo Clinic to sit down, have my arm numbed up, and watch*** as my surgeon cuts a tiny slice in my arm, avoiding the vein this thing sits right underneath, and pulls the thing out. 4 stitches and I’ll be outta there. I’ve even been told I could drive myself away from the procedure. I’m not going to, but it’s nice to know I’ll be lucid enough to operate heavy machinery.

*Unless something goes terribly wrong.

**It’s benign and hereditary; mom had one in pretty much the exact same spot.

*** Who am I kidding? I don’t even like watching the needle hit me for the first 5 minutes of getting tattooed; I’m not going to watch a scalpel slice me open!

Update: surgery went fine. Pulled three little nuggets out and sent them to pathology. 3 hours later and I'm just now starting to feel a hint of soreness.

Where the heck did March go? I swear it was February two days ago.

And joy of joys, the weather in phoenix is being moody. One day sunny and ridiculously warm, the next windy as all get out with a chill in each gust. Part of me is almost excited for the dead, dry heat of June. At least it’s not snowing here (looking at you in Denver, Natalie).

Life is pretty much life. The most exciting thing that we’ve done in the last few weeks is probably rearranging the apartment. We just needed a change. I’ll share some pictures next week or sometime in April.

I want to promise that this isn’t going to turn into a blog where I drone on and on about my medical concerns and what not. However….

I had a doctor’s appointment on Monday.

Everything’s fine. Main take away: they want me to exercise more and cut a few things from my diet.

Mostly, I just needed to have a doctor who wouldn’t throw out colon cancer as THE answer to something with no tests pointing to that and a perfectly good explanation there for him to see.  Severe anemia in the middle of the mother of all periods… not actually surprising. Telling me that I have colon cancer is just asinine.

My new GP is at the Mayo Clinic and she is absolutely lovely. She’s given me some resources to help with my anxiety and panic attacks, set me up for a consult to have my lipoma taken out of my arm, and is referring me to a physical therapist who will hopefully help sort out  all of my knee issues.

The only downside of the appointment was the needles. I was due for a tetanus shot, and then got a blood draw… twice. I now know the name of my second phlebotomist and will ask for her by name ANY time I need to go back and visit the vampires again. The first one poked me three times, the third one, she dug, and left me with a dark spot that covers half of the back of my hand. You couldn’t even see the second one’s puncture mark after I pulled the gauze off.

Upside? I’m within the normal RBC range. No anemia this time!

Today, I get to see a plastic surgeon (for the lipoma). It is my hope, that because it is a pretty simple procedure, she’ll be able to take it out right then and there. I’ve got my neurology follow up in May and who knows about the physical therapy schedule.

Again, lots of doctor’s appointments on the horizon… this time though, I’m not so upset about it.

Full Disclosure Friday

The world is a scary place when you feel like you’re going crazy. Especially for someone like me who spends so much time wading through fictional worlds, getting to know fictional people and altering timelines and events that once held significant meaning… but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Initial Problem:

On July twentieth, I had a grand mal seizure.

It may have been the first one I’ve had, it might not. That is still unclear. Either way, Earl woke up at 4:40 to a great gasp from me and then witnessed both tonic and clonic phases of my seizure.

I slept through it.

So when I woke up with blood on my face  (from taking a decent sized chunk out of my tongue) and Earl looking like he was ready to have a panic attack, it was strange that my initial thoughts centered around why it felt like I’d been hit by a bus.

I still went to work that day—a testament to my own lack of self-preservation. But I called a doctor’s office and got an appointment the next day because I’m pretty sure Earl would have dragged me to one if I hadn’t done it myself.

My Problem with doctors:

I have a lot of situational anxiety. I don’t like unknown environments and bad experiences tend to taint other experiences that are similar. So I didn’t have a normal GP when I set about finding a doctor to deal with the fact that I’d had a seizure. And unfortunately, the most convenient option I had for the appointment was a male doctor—which I tend to loathe.

My pediatrician was a man and he was great, but since turning eighteen, I’ve had a ridiculous time with doctors. Every male GP I’ve seen has dismissed me out of hand.  One went so far as to tell me I’m a hypochondriac (which couldn’t be further from the truth—I can be the queen of denial if I want to be). So having to go see this guy was less than exciting.

Once in the patient room, it only got worse.

There are people out there who I can only define as smarmy, and this guy was the epitome. He asked why I was there, and I had Earl explain what happened, since I wasn’t conscious, and then he asked again, what had happened, as if what Earl had told him was a cliff notes version that was obviously lacking.

It took the entirety of the appointment to get the guy to even admit that something was wrong with me and then he reluctantly wrote in my chart to refer me to a neurologist. He ordered lab work and sent us on our way. Overall, we left feeling unsatisfied.

That evening we discussed the possibility that he didn’t want to alarm us… or that he thought we were there in an attempt to get a medical marijuana card. We didn’t know either way, and just had to go with the general flow.

Down Hill from there:

I did the lab work and I got a call back the very next day telling me that I was severely anemic, needed to go back in for a second set of blood work (just to be sure), start taking iron, come back for a follow up and also to go immediately to the hospital if I passed out for any reason. Yay anemia!

Fast forward to the follow up appointment: If the initial appointment had been frustrating because the guy wouldn’t acknowledge my seizure, the follow up was even worse. Now he was gas lighting me. One minute, I’d never had a seizure, the next he was asking if symptoms had been present before the seizure (that I didn’t have) or if they had become an issue afterward.  The lab work came back with hemoglobin levels of 8.2 and apparently if you get into the 7s, you’ll need a transfusion.  He was freaked out by it and after I answered a handful of questions about other/related symptoms, he decided that I had colon cancer.

And there went my theory that his earlier denials of my seizures were an attempt to keep me from getting overly worried.

At this point, I was pretty sure the guy was a quack. I declined his insistence that I have a colonoscopy, and in appeasement agreed to up my iron dosage and come back for follow up lab work to see if the iron took care of my low hemoglobin levels. After that, I knew I was done with the quack.

A Neurological Lifeline:

So I went to my neurology appointment and the neurologist listened to what had happened, agreed that I had had a seizure, and informed me of something I hadn’t thought of…

If you recall, for some time I’ve been experiencing what I referred to as my 27s (if you don’t remember that, or weren’t around for it, follow the link and then come back once you’re caught up). It turns out, those things I couldn’t explain were partial seizures.

She didn’t give me any possibilities as to why I’d been having seizures, but it was a relief to have her believe me at all. With the memory issues I’d been having, I was starting to feel a little crazy. She put me on anti-convulsants, scheduled me for an MRI and an EEG and I felt like we were moving toward a solution.

When Life Takes Away Your Lemons:

 

I went through the process of getting the MRI and the EEG. 

I had my head locked in a cage and stuck in an enormous, noisy plastic donut after having the one ear piercing I can’t remove on my own taken out. I had a contrast injection that left me looking like I’d decked someone (he tried putting the IV in my wrist first, so I had some ugly bruises there too).

Earl drove me 18 miles (each way) to get diodes glued to my head and lights flashed in my eyes before I got to hyperventilate on command.

I set my follow up appointment and went to the last blood draw and final appointment with my quack of a GP. (It went as well as you can expect, I had managed to get in a normal hemoglobin range, but as soon as I mentioned that I was still constantly tired—a side effect of the anti-convulsants—he declared that I was obese and needed to see the on-site nutritionist. Anyway, he’s done, I’m never seeing him again.)

A Second Event:

Three days before my follow up with the neurologist, I woke up feeling exactly like I had on the twentieth. Earl was at work at the time, so I didn’t have any witnesses (Lucy wasn’t talking), but based on how I felt and the fact that my brain seemed to be stuck on slow-motion the rest of the day, I was pretty sure I’d had another seizure.

The follow up with the neurologist was… underwhelming.

While she agreed that I had, indeed had a second seizure, she didn’t have any other answers for me. She didn’t show me the results from the MRI or the EEG, She just told me that the EEG was inconclusive and that the MRI showed overall cerebral atrophy.

My brain was shrinking.

Again, I’m not the sort of person who flies at extremes, so the declaration my brain was shrinking was met by my own skepticism. I didn’t quite get how seeing one MRI of my brain could tell her that it had decreased in size.

The only concrete thing I walked away from that day was that she was upping my Anti-convulsant dosage.

I relayed all the information to my family as I had after every appointment and it was clear that the whole “shrinking brain” thing was of utmost concern. Between the strong worry of my family members and the general lack of information I was getting, it was time for a change. I called the Mayo Clinic and scheduled an appointment with their Neurology department… and then it was just a matter of waiting for my appointment to come around.

I’ve got an Insanity Defense:  

There are two weeks between when I start taking my higher dose of this particular anti-convulsant and my appointment at the Mayo Clinic. And after the first day on 2000mg/day I’m pretty sure I’d rather be having seizures.

When I don’t want to collapse into a heap from pure exhaustion, I get these awful waves of crushing sadness and incontrollable paranoia (which is not helped by the fact I’m forgetting things). I honestly felt like I was schizophrenic. The only thing keeping me from locking myself in a closet was the fact that I knew, logically that it was linked to the medication. If I hadn’t had that cemented firmly in my mind, I’m pretty sure I stood a chance of actually going crazy.

If you do a search for “Keppra Side Effects” it becomes pretty clear that this is ridiculously common.

I hate crying, so being on a drug that will cause me to spontaneously burst into tears is super frustrating. Add to that the fact that it messes with my ability to focus and makes me super scatter brained which has been affecting my ability to get things done on schedule…. Well, if I had another seizure while taking this higher dose, I knew there was no way I was going to be okay with going to the next higher dose. If medication works, I can suffer through some weird side effects… the ones that come along with this one, just don’t seem worth it.

It also made me so dizzy I don’t feel safe driving anymore, and drinking is not a possibility. One glass of wine and I lose my ability to stay upright (I’m still here mentally, but motor skills and equilibrium go fast)

Cutting to the Chase:

On Monday, during a 2 hour appointment with a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic, I received a clinical diagnosis of Epilepsy. Finally, someone was willing to put a name on it.

I also learned that my preconceived notion that epilepsy meant you had lesions on your brain was a complete fallacy, so the fact that my MRI had come back generally normal did not rule out the condition as my other neurologist had sort of hinted at.

To date, I know that I have had sixteen partial seizures and two grand mal seizures. It is possible there have been others. That, the general symptoms I’ve had surrounding the events and an in person evaluation, he was ready to diagnose me with Epilepsy.

We spent a lot of time talking through what I’d been going through and then we spent a lot of time talking about treatment options and also the things he wasn’t going to do (like run me through a bunch of tests that would cost me a bunch of money but likely show us nothing new). And then we spent a lot of time talking through a medication change. So I’ve started the long process of switching off the Keppra. And in 7 weeks, I might be off it. It depends on if the new medication produces an allergic reaction or not.

TLDR:

After a seizure in July, I’ve finally been diagnosed with epilepsy and am working toward a medication schedule that doesn’t turn me into a lunatic.

 

27s

Have you ever stood up too fast and gotten that lovely “I’m about to pass out” head rush?

Imagine getting that… but while you’re sitting down, and its accompanied by a weird flashback of a memory that you have a hard time remembering afterwards.

That is what I’ve been dealing with for the last several months.

I’m still trying to figure out what is causing them - I’ve been keeping notes. And I’m also trying to remember what happens in the weird flash back.

So far, I know that it somehow involves kindergarten, but in this false memory, my kindergarten classroom is the set from Under the Umbrella Tree. And there’s some specific sentence that I think each time when it triggers… I recognize it each time it happens and know it’s the same thing as last time… but I can’t remember what the sentence is.

I’ve yet to notice a pattern of why it triggers, I’ve been writing, reading, having a conversation, just waking up in the morning, sitting in the car on the way to Earl’s mom’s house (thankfully not driving).

They happen twice a month… once before the fifteenth, on any random day. And then, for the past five months, one always happens on the 27th. But never at a regular time of day (mornings, afternoons, and nights are all possible).

So, I’m not sure what’s going on with that…

My Daily Routine

I'm pretty sure I've been over the fact I don't wear makeup.

I stopped sometime in high school, and have never gotten around to wearing it since - with the rare exception of things like friend's weddings and other big shindigs.

On a daily basis, I choose to sleep in the extra fifteen minutes rather than bother with putting my face on.

In case you're wondering what that looks like in the way of "products," here's my morning routine:

And here's my night routine. 

I also use a homemade whipped coconut body butter on my arms (especially the tattoo) but that's not with any particular regularity.

Bath Fizzies

So, I made bath fizzies for the first time a little while ago. (From this how-to off Pinterest)
They turned out... interesting.

They did not turn out as purple as I hoped.

And because I want them to smell pretty, I got this.  Any Guesses?

It's not a jewelery case. Though it totally looks like one. It's my new set of essential oils, and I do really love that they look like they're in  a jewelry case.

Randomness on a Saturday Morning

I got an order in from ThinkGeek this past weekend (you already saw the hoodie from that), but the real reason for the order was that an item I’d been waiting on had come back into stock. (I could have bought it elsewhere, but it would have cost me $30 more, and I felt that was silly.) The new pretty is my Converge Docking Station for my iPad and iPhone. I’m totally in love with it.

Occasionally, I find myself realizing I was doing something in a rather idiotic manner. For instance, while using my sewing machine I was annoyed by a pin that kept hitting my thumb as I tried to guide fabric past the needle. Then I realized it was a simple fact of me holding the excess fabric to the wrong side (Do they make left handed sewing machines?) Or, when I needed to pull the unique part numbers from a spreadsheet from work, and in a mental lapse I totally spaced that I could sort the part numbers, and remove all duplicates to get down to the required numbers…. instead of going through each grouping and checking to see if I’d already gotten that number. Does that ever happen to you? Simple things you stupidly over complicate? I assume it can’t be just me…. but you never know.

Sometime in 2010 (I think) I stopped using the face wash I’d come to love. I’m not sure why. But At some point I stepped away from it in favor of something else and though that something else never really worked as well, it’s taken me this long to go back. As a result, I’m  working on a small project – probably only for myself, maybe I’ll share it on here – to see the difference this makes. In case you’re wondering, I went back to Aveeno Positively Radiant (and I’m betting somewhere along the line I thought it was silly to pay as much as I do for the face wash/moisturizer combined.)

This morning, I’m doing dishes, I’m doing laundry, I’m CLEANING ALL THE THINGS!!! (And of course I’m dusting because…. well, if you’ve never lived in a desert, you wouldn’t understand, but OMG THE DUST!) It’s a never ending cycle, isn’t it? I think the dishes are my least favorite. What’s yours?

Nailed it....

My hair and my nails both grow rather quickly. It’s something I’ve been blessed and cursed with since I was younger. (Well, I was a nail biter until I got braces and that broke my habit really quick!)

So this is where I get to after about two weeks of nothing but a quick file here and there:

It may not look like that much, but when it gets to that point, I find myself stabbing myself at odd intervals, and that is no good. And then there’s the fact that I am not exactly “delicate” when it comes to doing things… so they get to this point and suddenly my pointer finger tears of… or I jam my ring finger into the car door on accident and have a wicked break.

The problem is, I never remember to cut them until its way too late and all together painful.

Am I the only one who has this problem?

Wednesday Weigh-in

Okay! Getting back into the swing of things with blogging is taking a bit longer than I anticipated! Anyway, here I am, back to tell you all about what I did this week to continue forward on my weight loss goal.

Food:

Using the CSA has been great fun, and is definitely getting us into a habit of using more veggies in our everyday cooking. It also doesn’t hurt that I have a strong and strange love of prunes. For most of the week I’m sticking with salads – easy to do, because we get a big bag of spinach every week. And most of the food we’re preparing these days is leaning toward Asian – because a lot of the veggies we’re getting are things like Bok Choy and Mizuna (a Japanese mustard green).

Fitness:

We’ve been doing really well with getting in at least 40 min of exercise a day. On really good days, we manage to get in the 30 day shred and two 20 min Yoga routines. On the decent days, we at least do the Yoga.

We’re in love with a yoga series by Sara Ivanhoe. It’s 5 20 minute workouts and a bonus Yoga with Swiss ball routine. We’ve done four of the six so far (we only have one swiss ball atm and the weights we have are too heavy for the “Power sculpt with weights”) and our favorite has to be the cardio one – it’s made me love bicycle crunches!

Hurdles:

In a word… Bacon. It is evil. Tasty, tasty evil. The recipe we made on Monday, Shrimp with Bacon and Collards (Recipe and a picture on Saturday), called for 4 slices of bacon. And so we made those four… and then the rest of the package. Luckily, all I did was snack on the bits meant to be sprinkled over the dish – and didn’t scarf down the whole broiler pan waiting to be put away – but I did think about it.Bacon.

Today’s Weigh-in: 147.8

Wednesday Weigh-in: Seeing Progress

Food:

Because of the lifestyle change we undertook, you may have noticed the large amount of fruits and veggies in my Monday post. Five meals a day, limiting my intake of carbs – mostly sugar related carbs – and paying attention to the nutrients in food, has made me feel so much better. This past Monday was probably the best Monday I’ve had in years. I felt fantastic. I wasn’t super tired, I felt a little sore, but not in pain and that has been awesome – it’s lasted the entire week so far!

Fitness:

We’ve gotten back into Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred, and are actually sticking to it.  Along with that, we’re trying to get down to the gym once a week for an hour (this has been difficult in the mornings, because it is COLD) and then we’re doing Yoga before bed each night, which is super helpful for relaxing.

Hurdles:

Remember my knee and it’s annoying pain? Back when I was in physical therapy for it, the one thing that really stuck with me was that the trainers always told me to work through the pain. So, that’s what I’ve been doing… and guess what? My knee feels amazing! So that’s fantastic.

My slip up this week was when we went to a Christmas party… where, as one is wont to do at Christmas parties, I had two sugar cookies and some hard cider. It wasn’t aweful, by any means, but my self control did  wane. I’m interested to see what eles tries to trip me up this holiday season.

Today’s Weigh-in: 152.0!

(I'm not sure what was up with yesterday's drop - but I didn't get any exercise in, so I'm not too supprised that it hopped back up again.)

Couponing: Without Coupons and for a Healthy Lifestyle

Okay, so we’re starting a new lifestyle – one that focuses on health – we also had a pretty tight budget this week, so here’s what we got, using practically no coupons, but shopping around for the best deals.

Fresh & Easy

6 ct - Paper Towels - $4.99 ($6.99 @ Fry’s)

5 – Honey Flavored Greek Yogurt - $0.79ea ($1.00ea @ Safeway)

3 – garden tomatoes – $0.33ea ($0.50 @ Basha’s)

3lbs – Snacking Apples - $0.66/lb ($0.88/lb @ Sprouts)

3lbs – Harvest pears - $0.66/lb (0.88/lb @ Sprouts)

***Rewards program: $5 savings***

Total if bought elsewhere: $18.77

Final Price Paid: $9.54

Total Savings: $9.23 (49%)

Bashas

3.15 lbs – Chicken Breast - $1.57/lb ($2.99, Store sale $1.57/lb)

Total @ Full Price: $9.52

Final Amount Paid: $5.05

Total Savings: $4.47 (47%)

Sprouts

2 – 6oz containers Blackberries - $0.77ea ($1.50 @ Safeway)

2 – bunches Spinach - $1.19ea (3.99 @ Safeway)

3 – Navel Oranges (1.53lbs) - $0.77/lb (Safeway requires 8lbs to be bought for $0.49/lb)

1 – Red Bell Pepper - $0.33 ($1.99ea @ Fresh and Easy)

Total if bought elsewhere: $9.73

Final Amount Paid: $5.55

Savings: $4.18 (43%)

Fry’s

2 dozen Large eggs - $0.99/dozen ($2.19, store Sale $0.99)

Used coupon for $1 off next fry’s purchase

Total @ Full Price: $4.42

Final Amount Paid: $1.02

Total Savings: $3.40 (77%)

Safeway

1 gal skim milk - $1.57 ($2.69, Store sale $1.57)

4 Kiwi Fruit - $0.33ea ($0.50ea, Store sale 3/$1)

3 Avocados - $0.50ea ($1.19ea, Store sale 2/$1)

Red Seedless grapes - $0.99/lb ($2.49/lb, Store sale $0.99/lb)

Total @ Full Price: $13.69

Final Amount Paid: $6.63

Total Savings: $7.06 (52%)

So, in total, we paid $31.77 for items that should have cost us $56.88. And that's without any real coupons! 

Thanks on Thanksgiving

We aren’t doing much today. We’ll be heading to Earl’s Grandmother’s house in a few hours, and probably stop by his mother’s house, but other than that I think we’re going to try to take these next few days and just chill and work through the last of the stuff that needs to get sorted in the apartment.

But, because today’s thanksgiving, I thought I’d tell you some of the things I’m thankful for this year:

My family – The vast majority of my family lives rather far away – my stepbrother and his family are the only ones who don’t live two states away – and sometimes that makes life hectic. A lot of that is my fault. I forget to call when I mean to, and let’s face it. Getting up to see them for any substantial length of time is difficult to schedule with work and is seemingly more costly every month.  And while parts of my family don’t necessarily always agree with certain life choices (read: Tattoos, living with Earl), they love me enough to look past that.  I love them all dearly and am so thankful they’re in my life.

My friends – I’ll be honest. I’m not a big people person. I have a few really close friends (who I at least talk to on an extremely regular basis) and a lot of friends I see once in a blue moon, and that’s okay.  I’m thankful for them all.  I’m thankful for the ones who get me through rough work days on g-chat, the ones who come over almost weekly for game nights, the one that I rarely get the chance to talk to, but when I do, it feels like there’s been no break at all between “now” and the time we last spoke. I’m thankful for the ones we drive 40 minutes– and then are jumped on by boxers – to see, and the ones who had a four hour layover when they came to visit. I’m thankful for the ones who make us scrumptious food and have found me wines I love, and for the ones that join me for tea. I’m thankful for every person who’s touched our lives and whom we can call friends.

Moving – This might sound strange, but as much as I hate moving, I’m thankful that we were able to move as quickly and as easily as we did. I’m thankful for those who helped us move and for the apartment office for being utterly fantastic about getting us out of one place and into the other. I’m thankful to Mr. Clean and Kaboom – because I’m not sure we would have gotten our full deposit back, were it not for them. I’m thankful that we work in a place that has carts we were able to borrow – or else I never would have been able to move half of the stuff I did on Friday, with or without Earl’s mom helping!

Health – With the exception of this year’s bought of eczema a small case of laryngitis, and the occasional sniffles.  I’ve had a pretty good year, health wise. I do have to find a new doctor, but those things happen. I’m thankful for the marginal amount of weight I’ve been able to loose and I’m thankful for all of the health resources I’ve found online and through friends. I can only hope that 2012 will be an even better, even healthier year than this one!

The Cutest Dog in the World – While her perpetual “paw you to wake up if you’re not up by 7am” can be a little irritating, Lucy’s cuteness knocks the pants off any complaints I could ever truly have about her and sends them running into the bathroom red-faced with embarrassment. My little ball of gray fluff provides so many smiles and laughs I can’t help but be thankful for her. She is the best.

Budgeting – I know I have the DTAMP and frankly, I’ve come very close to breaking that, because in August we finally had a “come to Jesus” moment with our finances and I will forever be grateful for that day – though I was not pleased about it when I was living it. That fateful day got us on a path with a budget that has been more helpful than I could ever express. Budgeting is why we could move into a new (Bigger and better) apartment and buy a sectional in the same month. We’ve never been reliant on credit cards, but we’ve also never really worried about savings accounts. And now, we are doing the latter and it is an incredible feeling – when you’re on the low end of the middle class – to be able to look at your accounts and realize that you’re no longer living paycheck to paycheck, and yes, that second account is real. Couponing fits into this bullet point. Couponing allows us to save about $440 a month that we were spending before. When you’re in that lower middle class bracket… that’s a life saver.

And, last but certainly not Least, Earl – But you’ll have to come back tomorrow for the dish on that ;)

Working out is Hard to Do

The actual act of working out is not so much the point of that title, but rather the motivation to get off one’s ass and do something to reduce the size of said ass.

From the hearty recommendation of my biggest fan, I have since purchased and begun using this:

Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred.

OMG is it fantastic.

A) I can do it in the comfort of my own home.

B) It only takes 20 minutes (But Jesus does it feel longer than that)

C) I don’t have to wear pants, or shoes.

D) I feel so good afterwards it’s not even funny.

Seriously. After the first day I knew this was the workout for me. I love it. And I don’t care what you say, Katie, outside the blogging world, I’m telling people I discovered it on my own! Muahaha – okay, not really.

Has anyone else tried this? What’s your experience been?

Workout Woes

I am so not a morning person. Getting up an hour and a half early so that I can go to the gym (especially when it’s cold outside) is not my typical idea of a party.


I love sleep. Snuggling between the covers, head resting on the soft comfort of my pillow, with my dog curled up against me is one of my favorite pastimes. And then that annoying little buzzer goes off and implores me to get up! Needless to say, I did not get up in time to make it down to the gym this morning.

On a side note, I can’t set my alarm clock to go off with music or even just the radio. I won’t wake up after day two or so. My subconscious likes its control, so it tricks my brain into thinking that whatever sort of music I’m hearing is part of my dream and thereby I mentally ignore it. Fun times.

So I didn’t go to the gym. And that’s no good, because if I don’t go to the gym I won’t lose the weight, and I need to lose the weight because I need to fit into a dress by April. Earl’s mom is getting married and I don’t want to have to buy a new dress. I hate dress shopping.

So I think I’ve convinced Earl to try a night-time workout strategy (hopefully) because I really don’t think that waking up early is going to work. Ever.

So we’ll probably try for at least the Monday, Wednesday, Friday thing… I’d like to try for Thursday nights too. (Tuesdays are out because of Game night with our friends in the building.)

So I’ve got a schedule down (sort of) but one of my biggest difficulties in working out is cardio. I used to run a lot (even though I hated it), Katie and Birdy can back me up on that (high school aerobics class anyone?) but in 2006-ish, or maybe it was ’07, I fell off a curb and landed smack on my left knee. No I wasn’t drinking, it’s called I was tired, in heels and I don’t walk well to begin with. I ended up in physical therapy over it, having bruised the cartilage under my knee cap.

But even after months on end of physical therapy, my knee is still nowhere near where it once was and thusly, running on a treadmill is far from a pleasant experience. Another small setback for Cardio is the fact that I cannot use an Elliptical trainer. My hip joints are all messed up after I had a run-in with some penicillin when I was about two – not only did I blow up and turn bright red like a tomato, I ended up with joint issues, wonderful, no?

So I try to use the treadmill as long as I can anymore, because I really do feel better after I’ve run, but mostly I’m relegated to the stationary bike – joy of joys – and let me tell you, they really should make those seats more comfortable.

One of my biggest problems with the bike is that I’m short. I never really thought I was short, until I realized that most exercise equipment seems to be made for men of an average height. I am obviously neither a man, nor am I average height. So everything has to go to the bottom peg if it’s adjustable. The Bike is no exception.

Well, now that you’re done listening to my workout woes, feel free to voice any of your own.

I Make No Promises That This Will Matter to You at All

A quick contest update:

Check out my other blog, if you haven’t yet, and follow it (and then follow the rules) to be entered to win a copy of my novel! Four are potentially up for grabs! It only takes 30 more followers to get to the drawing!

So, an update on the stove (if you cared):

Friday I received an email from the office asking me if maintenance had permission to enter on Monday. I replied, telling them, yes, they had PTE for MONDAY. I got home Friday night to a note shoved in my door saying they’d tried to get in to replace the face plate, but the dog wasn’t put away, so they needed to reschedule… I looked at Earl and begged him to tell me that we hadn’t fallen into some weird time spiral and that it was in fact Friday, not Monday.

Monday, Earl had the day off and was at home all day. No one showed up. I emailed them – trying to remain level headed, annoyed though I was – and informed them that they had PTE on Tuesday, but that Earl would be home all day (again), so they shouldn’t need to worry about the dog.

Tuesday, Maintenance finally showed up around 11am and replaced the face on the stove – Huzzah! And at approximately 1pm… the disposal stopped working… again.

I have to go down stairs tonight to sign some paper work so that the friends who lived in the building before we did can get their referral moolah (another process they turn into a total pain.) And so I’ll mention that the disposal is broken for the 3^rd time since we moved in. ( I looked in there with a flashlight and poked around with a chopstick. I have no idea what’s wrong… also, I don’t know why there are sunflower seeds in the disposal… I hate sunflower seeds.)

The healthier living thing:

Earl and I are not good at getting up in the mornings…. Sad, but true. So aside from Monday we’ve been seriously slacking on the whole cardio front.

We’ve been doing really well with the eating portion thanks to being cognizant of what we’re shoving down our gullets. It’s also helpful that we’ve found sparkrecipies.com which has provided us with some wonderful options in the range of healthy eating (I seriously recommend the Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken).

And that’s pretty much all I have for today. What’s going on with you?

Day 1 - Operation Get-Rid-O-The-Excess

Before I go into this morning’s post I’d like to say that my thoughts are with those who were affected by the tragic shooting in Tucson Saturday morning when several people were injured and six people died in what appears to have been an attempt to assassinate US Representative Gabrielle Giffords.



This morning I did something that was incredibly difficult on my part. I woke up at 5:25 and was in the gym at 5:30. For those of you who know me, that will make sense. For those of you who don’t, I can only say that saying I wasn’t a “morning person” would be one of the biggest understatements you’d ever make.

The fact that it’s cold here only makes things worse. I’m not a “cold” person either. So hauling my butt out of my cozy bed where my radiator dog is curled up next to me at an ungodly hour of the morning to go down to the gym and sweat and feel my legs go dead is not my idea of a party.

But I need to lose the 10 pounds I gained back when I was trying to be vague, and then, I’d be happy if I could lose the 20 pounds I’ve gained since High school. So to the Gym I must make my pilgrimage.

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I gave Earl implicit instructions to not let me roll over and say “10 more minutes” because, before you know it my entire work out would consist of sleeper-cise. Maybe I should make some strange contraption that can be sold at one in the morning to the unsuspecting insomniacs…

Needless to say, I did get up and put on my gym clothes, and then I got in the elevator and went to the bottom floor of the building where the gym is located. And there, I jogged. It was not fun. But I felt better for it afterward.



Also on the list of things to do is to change my eating habits.

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I cut out soda last week, and with the exception of yesterday – when at the movie theater, my mind entirely spaced the no soda rule – I haven’t had a drop.

I’m paying strict attention to what I eat, so that a) I eat enough. I have a horrible habit of forgetting to eat – yesterday was a good example of that.

We went to the movie and I having forgotten to eat breakfast, substituted a small popcorn (not the best choice… but it was that or a box of bunch-a-crunch. I think I made the better choice.).

When we got home from the movie we immediately headed out to do a smidge of shopping (The anchor blue in one of the many Malls here is going out of business and I scored on some pretty inexpensive jeans.) On our way home from the final store (the grocery store) I realized I’d not yet eaten Lunch – evident by the mild headache that was slowly blossoming throughout my grey matter – It was 3:00pm. Our friends in the building brought up Bavarian Pretzels and Borscht they’d made and that ended up being my lunch.

At 8pm we finally got around to eating dinner. A homemade BBQ Pizza (the only thing I ate yesterday that was portion controlled.)

And this is why I need to schedule my eating… It’s no good.

Today I’ve done better so far:

Breakfast consisted of: A whole wheat Bagel with a smidge of strawberry preserves. A cup of Cottage Cheese (oddly made with 1 & 1/2 % milk) and a glass of orange juice.

Lunch is left over BBQ Pizza

And for dinner, since Earl didn’t have to work today, he’s making me a low fat version of Lasagna that’s done on the stove top. This should be interesting!

Anyone else changing up their work out schedule/eating routine this year?