It's Been A While

  I realize I haven't posted in a little over a month, but I have been feeling bad about myself. After, joining that weight loss support group, I did well the first 2 weeks. I started going down hill after that, only because the admin of the group required us to post weekly pictures. Not only do I hate taking pictures, but I wasn't seeing any improvement. I didn't think posting a picture every week was helping me, in fact it was hurting me. If I couldn't see the difference when I am working my ass off, and sticking with in my calories, why do it at all, right? Finally, last week, I left that group. I have still been working out and eating well, well up until today. I weighed in and I had gained and not lost. I have been working out every day for 2 hours, and according to my fitness pal, I am burning almost 1,000 calories, and I am staying way below my calories for the day. I guess I am just a little depressed, and wondering if all of this is really worth it.

  While in that group, I went from doing 2 hours of Sweatin to the Oldies, to walking 4 miles a day. I thought I was burning more calories, but I wasn't. With walking 4 miles a day I was burning almost 500 calories a day, and with the aerobics (low impact), I am burning almost 1,000. I have went back to the aerobics. With the aerobics I can do it from the comfort of my house, where no one else can say rude nasty things to me.

  My pain and headaches have really gotten to me this weekend. I haven't had more than 4 hours of sleep in the last 2 days. I have also scrubbed my carpet, not with a shampooer, but with a scrub brush. I had a good workout doing that.

  My insurance is officially switched, but I haven't received the insurance card yet. As soon as I get it I will try to get back into Dr. C as soon as possible. I will go in for surgery as soon as possible also.

Check In

  I know it's been a week or so, but I haven't been slacking off at all. I have been either doing 2 hours of Sweatin to the Oldies or I have started walking again. The last 3 days I have walked any where from 2.5 to 3 miles. I just keep pushing myself. I will not let this disease or pain stop me!

  Since posting last, something has changed. I finally said yes to my bf's proposal. Now I have more motivation in losing all this weight. I figure if I can get down 1 to 2 more sizes, I would look so much better in my wedding dress. I am currently down to a size 16, and would hope to get at least to a size 14, but 12 would be much better.

 Now for some disappointment for me. I thought I was doing great with my weight loss, but then a trip to the doctor proved that wrong. Their scales said I weighed 220 still. That means by their scales I only lost 22 lbs not 32. That was a 10 lb difference. I cam home and cried. I got over it and set my scales for what their scales said. I have been working my but off, and now my scales say I weigh 211. It was a big disappointment, that took me a day or so to get over but I did. I will continue to workout and get through this.Just 3 more pounds until I am back to the 208 I was at a month ago, or so I thought. I did lose 3 lbs this week. I just have to find away to tell the ladies in my weight loss support group. I don't want to seem like I was cheating at all.

 Here is a pic of me now. I will try my hardest to remember to post a pic every week.

 Here is a pic of the scale this morning.

Slacking Off!!!

 A lot has been going on the last few weeks. My son graduated high school, that last 2 weeks was very busy! Then, my sister came for a visit, she was suppose to be here while I had surgery, but since it was cancelled she stayed for a week. Henry was off for vacation, he kept me very busy. We did something I really love, but wore me totally out. We went to watch a SF Giants game. We stayed in a town close to San Fran, then took the BART to San Fran, then had to walk about 30 minutes to AT&T Park, walked down a ton of stairs to get to our seats (they were great seats!!!), then back up the stairs, back to the BART station (the walk seemed much longer), then back to the truck, and a 3 hour ride home. That was Thursday, Friday we spent the day shopping, the Saturday we went to Henry's family reunion, it was a very nice day, but yet again on my feet a lot and long car rides. It took me days to get over this. Then, I got the bright idea that I needed to paint the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom. If I would have known how much a little painting would give me so much pain, I wouldn't have done it. I am still painting the bathroom, but will finish tonight or in the morning.

 I realize some of you may think I am making an excuse for not working out, but with everything I did I feel like I have worked out harder than normal. However, I haven't been eating all that great lately. So, now I have a new plan. It is getting way to hot here to be working out in the early evening and I am so worn out by the end of the night. I am going to start getting up at 7:30 am and will be working out by 8 am. I think this plan will workout for me much better, because I am having problems dealing with the heat.

 Overall, I have only gained 2 lbs. I know, I am shocked too...lol It could have been much worse! Tonight I joined a support group with a lot of lovely ladies with the same goal in mind, to lose weight and get healthier. I am glad there is more people willing to support me, unlike some people around me.

Steak, Potatoes, and Salad

 I know I haven't posted in a while, but we have been very busy and haven't really been cooking much. Last night I cooked some chicken, rice, and veggies. Tonight it was Jake's turn to cook. He decided on steak (we got it for $3.50 in the reduce for quick sale) it was a top sirloin, some red potatoes, and I made myself a salad.

 For the steak he used a dry rub, A-1 sweet mesquite, then he seared it in the cast iron skillet until it medium. In separate skillet he sauteed 1 medium sliced yellow onion, mushrooms, and garlic, in olive oil.

 For the potatoes he took some red potatoes, placed them in a medium sized pot, added oil, butter, sliced garlic, basil, oregano, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. He let those brown, then added some turkey stock. He then covered them, and let them steam. However he let them go to far, so they ended up like mashed potatoes with the skin, he added Parmesan cheese to them and stirred. They tasted great!

Rough Week

 Last Friday, my doctor started me on a new medication, diamox, to help my headaches. It was the worse thing I could have done. I had so many side effects from it. It caused me to drink a lot more water, 15+ bottles of water a day. The medication is used as a diuretic, so along with the drinking all that water I was running to the bathroom, that caused me to get dehydrated. It also caused a lack of appetite, I was eating maybe 500 calories a day, it also caused me to throw up every day, and be nauseous all day long. This caused my energy to go away. I was actually taking naps and laying on the couch a lot, probably because I was up half the night going to the bathroom. It also caused my blood sugar to go way up, higher than it had ever been, in fact before I started taking this medication I hadn't taken any blood sugar meds in a month. I couldn't concentrate at all. At work my student was explaining his word problems to me because I was having issues figuring them out. The worst thing is that I couldn't even follow the SF Giants play, or even read a book. One thing that really killed me was when I first tasted a diet pepsi after taking the medication, it tasted like dirt. I found out later that day that it was any carbonated drink. Each day I was feeling worse.

 I started the diamox on Thursday, I gave it a week. The following Thursday I decided to stop taking it. I just couldn't take the side effects any longer. That night I told my son what I had decided to do, he told me if I wouldn't have said that, he was going to tell me that I should stop it. I think that is pretty bad when your son notices what a medication is doing to you. It has been 3 days since I have stopped taking it and I am still not back to my "normal" self, whatever it may be. I am hoping that by tomorrow I will be back at working out and feeling better.

  As far as my weight it is the same as it was the last time I checked in, I hope to get back on track.

May 18th, Weigh In

   Let me start out with how disappointed my week started out. I received a call from the neurosurgeon's office that my surgery was cancelled because my insurance is now out of network. I was so looking forward to having surgery to help with all this pain I endure every single day. I sent a message to my insurance and they sent me this response. Dear Shannon,

 That is correct, Sutter Memorial Hospital and provider, Samuel Circillo are both out-of-network providers and require to obtain prior-authorization approval before rendering any services. Per our records you are currently active with California Health & Wellness. Your eligibility is determined by Department of Health Care Services for the Medi-Cal insurance program. You any changes in your eligibility. I am hoping that the doctor's office will file for a pre-authorization and I will get this done soon.

 I upped my workouts to both the Sweatin to the Oldies 2&3, and this week 3 times I completed both of them. There has been a few days where I hurt so much I just couldn't do it. Like last night, I woke up yesterday morning with a horrible headache. It just wouldn't go away. I tried working out, I did the complete #3, but just made it through 4 songs on #2. I always start with #3 because it's the harder one, then I do #2. Then, on Thursday we were busy until late, so I didn't do any of it. Lets just say some of my food choices were bad this week, but it was my son's b-day.

  After not losing anything last week I was determined to come back with losing more, but do to eating a few things I normally don't I was worried, and scared to step on the scale. I was so surprised when I did. Here is what it showed.

I am totally astonished that I lost 5 pounds this week. I didn't lose any inches around my hips or waist, but I did lose 2 inches from around my upper arms, and my thighs. That was enough to make me happy. Lets just hope next week is just as good to me.

May 10th

 I knew this would come, but I hope it wouldn't. This week I haven't lost any weight, so I guess it's time to adjust what I am doing. I have with my workouts, well sort of. On Monday I did the full sweatin to the oldies 3 and added 2 songs from #2, then Tuesday I did #3 and 4 songs from #2, then on Wednesday I did both workouts excluding 1 of the warm ups from 2. Thursday I didn't work out because I went to watch Jake perform in the talent show. Friday I had a very rough day, I am not sure why but I felt horrible all day. I only made it through 45 minutes of my workout. Then yesterday, after getting Jake off to prom, I did the full #3, but that's it. I will try to add to it tonight. The next few weeks are a little crazy for us, so I am not sure how much I will get done.