Finally Home

Today I made the very long 7 hour drive home. 7 hours might not seem long to a lot of you but for me it means my head starts really killing me, pain in my neck, back, and legs. I am totally exhausted tonight!

I am hoping I will start my workouts again tomorrow. Back to my rides on my bike and some sort of sit ups/crunches.

I did however get on the scale tonight and it said I have lost another 3 lbs. I like that!!

Weigh in 7/27/13

It has been a very busy last few days. Preparing for my sister's wedding then the wedding yesterday. I don't think we actually ate much at all the last few day. She also rented a beautiful house for the wedding but it had too many stairs! I bet I climbed stairs 30 times a day, mostly chasing kids out of the upstairs bedrooms. They like to play in things and we didn't want them up there. Of course there are people out there that just do not watch their kids. Rant over...maybe!

There are no scales here and I can't find a tape measure. I am sure I haven't gained any weight because my clothes are still big on me. I will have to do all that on Wednesday when I get home.

All the stair climbing, being on my feet constantly, and not sleeping at all for 2 days have really killed my body. My legs are very weak, my back is killing me, and not to mention this horrible headache.

7/25/13

Today was a busy day helping getting things together and ready to move to the house the weeding will be at. My sister is going crazy and stressing she's forgetting things. I am trying to reassure everything will be fine. Starting tomorrow I probably won't be able to blog because of all the prep there is for her we and  the wedding is Saturday. Tomorrow will be filled with loading and unloading and prepping all grocery's. We also have to set up all the chairs and tables.

I am not looking forward to having my hair done. My head has been pounding for days now and just the thought of anyone pulling, tugging, and pining my hair up make it worse. I will suck it up and get it done.

Tonight I did do 20 sit ups, 10 crunches, and 10 leg lifts.

Day 16

So I have been at my sister's house since Monday. Of course all of you might know it's hard doing a weight loss thing when you are at someone else's house. I have controlled the amount of food I put in my mouth. I finished day 15 of my last challenge. I stopped it here because I realize there was no way I could have done all 30 days of it. I do plan on starting back at day 1 then maybe adding a day or two. Today was a rest day. It was impossible to do the bike since there isn't one here. I do plan on walking on the beach a time or two before I leave.

Having chiari and staying with someone can be bad. The tv is always too loud, and just a lot of other things I have no control over. My headaches have been really bad with the noise and overcast. I love the cooler weather but it hates my head. But of course I will just suck it up and do what I have to do, especially since I am the maid of honor.

Weigh in 7/21/13

Today is my 45th birthday and I woke up feeling 80. My sister and nephews gave me some wonderful gifts, and my son cooked a good dinner. I did eat some cake and ice cream tonight and now I am regretting it big time!

It has been a very hot last few days. I will tell you know that I have not road my bike yet, it is still 95 degrees in my house. If I road it right now I would be very sick to mu stomach. I did manage to do the 60 sit ups, 75 crunches, and 40 leg lifts. I have not did the planks yet.

So I really think my scale is broken. It still says I haven't lost any weight but I did loose another 2 inches off my waist and an inch off my hips. I measured it last night and showed Henry because I was in disbelief. My waist has went from 48 inches down to 38, that's 10 inches!!! All of my clothes are getting to big.

Day 12

Today was a rest day for the ab challenge. I am glad I only committed to 15 days of this one. Only 3 more days. I think I will restart this one and see if maybe I can add a day or two to it. Monday I will be leaving on vacation to my sister's in Oregon, for her wedding. I am sure I have already mentioned this but oh well.

I went and picked Jake up from the airport from camp. He had a wonderful time! I drove for to long today and I am already ready for bed. Driving exhaust me!

Day 11

I have had a horrible day today! Of course this headache is making me very nauseous. I can't seem to shake this headache at all. I eased it up by taking extra ultram. It was hard doing the bike tonight but I managed 21 minutes. Do they sell a quiet bike? Half way through my foot went flying off the pedal, then it came back up and hit the top of my foot. I should have a nice bruise in the morning. This heat isn't helping either. I can't wait for Monday to get here so I can go to my sister's in Oregon where it's cooler. She lives just blocks from the ocean.

I did everything in day 11 except the plank. My arms are just to wobbly today. I did manage the 55 sit ups, 65 crunches, and 38 leg lifts ( I read tat wrong because it says 33 not 38..oh well). Tomorrow is a rest day thank goodness. I have to pick Jake up from the airport so I will be driving a lot tomorrow. I can't wait until he comes home I miss him!

One thing I have learned in the last few days is that a lot of people with chiari have dental issues. It explains as to why I constantly clean and floss my teeth and they still fall apart. I hate going to the dentist because they always yell at me for not brushing and flossing, no matter how many times I tell them I do. I am glad I am not alone with this.

Day 10

Today I did my ab challenge of 50 sit ups, 50 crunches, 30 leg lifts, and I managed 25 second plank. I am not doing my bike tonight because my bf will be close to where I live and I am going to pick him up and go to dinner.


This morning I put on a pair of my comfortable capris and they were very big. They kept falling down all day. This shows me all of this work is actually paying off.

This morning I didn't think I would make it out of bed at all. I was very unbalanced and felt very nauseous. It was another night without any sleep. I bet everyone in the store today thought I was drunk. It was like my hip kept locking up and every time I tried to move I would almost fall. I have felt ill all day. But I managed to scrub the carpet with a scrub brush. My arms got a good workout. I finally went and bought some pepto to settle it. I am feeling somewhat better after that. I think if I would get some sleep I would get rid of some of this headache.

Day 9

This is really feeling like I am torturing myself. It is getting harder and harder to get through these this time. Although I can now do 40 situps without having to rest in between. I think the leg lifts and the planks are the hardest thing in this crazy challenge. I am so glad I only committed to 15 days of this one.

So today has been a crazy busy day. I finally went to sleep around 3 or 4 this morning, then was up and down, and finally gave up by 8 am. Went and fed the steer, took Troy to 7/11, he bought me a diet pepsi...I love my son! Then I cleaned Jake's room. OMG! It took me 2 hours to get it livable again, not enough to please the OCD in me but I had to stop. I almost didn't get up off the floor once I got down there to clean. The Troy took me to lunch at Mc Donald's, a place I hate to eat but he wanted to see his gf and he had coupons. He gave me one that all I had to buy was $1.00 drink and get a quarter pounder free. So yes I ate a habanero bacon ranch burger, but for dinner I had fish and veggies. Then it was off to Dakota's baseball game, taking Troy to the store then his gf house, off to my sister's for dinner, I cooked the Joe's crab shack microwave fish dinners. I got home right before 8.  I am actually surprised I made it through 22 minutes on the bike, 45 sit ups, 30 crunches, 30 leg lifts, and a 20 second plank(instead of the 30 second one, but I am improving).

One great thing about this whole bike riding and challenge things I have cut down on my metformin(blood sugar pills). I have steady out my blood sugar finally!

Day 8

Thank goodness today is a rest day! I have had a pretty bad headache today and no amount of ibuprofen or ultram is making it better. I have managed to accomplish a few things today. I cleaned the kitchen, finished the laundry, and swept and vacuumed the carpet getting it ready to shampoo. I  also canned some squash relish for my sister. I watched my nephews baseball game, and fed Jake's steer 2 times today.

Tonight I had a wonderful dinner with my oldest son Troy. He took me out to the casino's buffet. We both probably wasted his money because neither of us ate much food. I am proud of myself because I didn't go any where near the dessert section, but I did eat some good prime rib.

I will manage to get on my bike as soon as this headache calms down.

Day 7

I am so exhausted tonight but managed to get in my day 7 workout except for the plank. I am planning on doing it but at the time I had a horrible cramp in my right thigh. I also managed to get in 22 minutes on my bike before I even noticed. I was on facebook and playing candy crunch before I realized how long I had been going. The only thing that made me look at the time on the bike was due to the pain in my legs.

I spent most of my day in the car. Jake left for camp so I had to drive him to the airport which is 2 hours away from us. We left at 7 am and I got home at 2:20 pm. He landed in Seattle at 1:25 pm. Funny how he gets 2 states away before I drive the 2 hours home.

Last night I tried on the dress I am wearing in my sister's wedding. I zipped easier, but the only thing wrong was that now the straps are too big. I hope we can pin them or maybe cut them off. I didn't realize I was loosing weight to were the straps would be too big. But all in all it looks better on me. 1 1/2 weeks til the wedding and I am still working on my abs and hopefully my thighs, which I forgot to measure when I started this whole thing. I have noticed that the legs of my shorts/capris/pants are looser....Yay me!

Weigh In 7/14/13

So a long day of doing a bunch of nothing really. I did manage to make Troy(my oldest son) a peach cobbler. I ate some of the peaches I cut up and ended up getting blisters in my mouth and my stomach burning for hours.

My legs have been really hurting from these leg lifts I  have been doing. This challenge is really killing my abs and my ribs.

Here we go, According to my scales I didn't loose anything :-( but I did start this challenge late and I have eaten a few things I shouldn't this week. But I have lost another inch off my waist and my hips. My waist started out at an embarrassing 48 inches and is now at 41 inches. My hips started out at 56 inches and is down to 48 inches. I am so embarrassed with myself about how large I got to but I am trying to fix it. Another positive thing is my size 18 pants/shorts are getting too big and I can fit back into my 16. They are snug but the fit!

I was loosing weight at a good pace when my neuro told me to limit my activity level down to nothing. So I listened to him and where did that get me? Where I was last month.

Day 5

It has been 1 very long day. I woke up at 5:30 this morning( after falling to sleep around 3 am) and could not go back to sleep. The dog was begging me to go back to bed. Then I cleaned the kitchen and the front porch. I ended up wrestling with my 12 year old nephew who weighs around 140 lbs. Not by choice, something happened.

I helped Jake cook dinner and cleaned my sister's kitchen, I always clean after dinner, it's my OCD. Then out to the farm to feed the steer(we did that this morning to). Then I had to put gas in before I ran out, I always put it off until I have too, I will regret this one day.

I started off with my bike doing 20 minutes tonight, 4 miles, and 400 calories burnt. Hopefully that will take care of the little souffle my son made for dessert. I then finished day 5 of this new challenge, 30 situps, 12 crunches, and 12 leg lifts. It called for a 20 second plank but I can manage 5 seconds. Now I am exhausted!

Day 4

I woke up this morning and could barely move without hurting. This latest challenge is really working my abs!!! Thank goodness it's a rest day! I did manage 25 minutes, 5 miles, and 500 calories burnt tonight.

Ok, start off with my pet peeve on something that I have already complained about on my facebook. I really hate it when people who are suppose to love you make stupid comments. The one I hate the most is true beauty is on the inside, outside. Outer beauty doesn't count, or something like that. See your not as fat as that person. I love you no matter what you look like. I am sure there is a ton more but can't think of them right now.

Day 3

I had this whole thing in mind to post tonight but I am totally blank! That's another thing about chiari loosing your thoughts. It's been a long day. I didn't do much but could barely walk/move when I woke up, but there is no laying around for this mom. I did lay in bed until 10:30 this morning. I was awake at 7:30 but just laid there. I finally got up because I had to take Jake out to feed the steer. I then went out to the casino to spend some free money they put on our cards. Next it was watching the boys so my sister could go out and do the same thing. While the boys were here I tried getting them to do my ab challenge with me but they refused. So I showed them I could actually do that stuff. I then cooked dinner. Grilled chicken tacos.

After dinner we decided to go to the school and play a little baseball so the boys could get some practice in for their Jr. Giants teams. We were playing catch, I was throwing to Zach, 7 years old, he looked away after I threw the ball and it got him in the face right by his right eye. I feel so bad, I just hope he's not afraid to play any more. We did get him up to hit and run the bases. I hit every time I was up and ran the bases like 5 times. We played for about an hour and had a lot of fun.

I really hate my bladder though, and it hates me running. I understand having issues with your bladder can be caused from having chiari. I have had bladder issues since I can remember(not just yesterday..lol). I had the bladder sling done when Jake was 2 or 3, and I still take bladder meds for it.

I came home changed my clothes and it was off to the farm yet again to feed and work with the steer. When I got home I put in my 20 minutes on my bike.

I guess I did ok with all my workouts today. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Day 2 of New Challenge

Due to my lack of balance yesterday I ended up on my butt on the kitchen floor. This was not the first time this has happened. But , I am just fine. I have had this stupid headache for 3 days now and I don't see much relief in sight. I am also in need of some sleep. I may have gotten 8 hours of sleep in the last week, but would love one night of a straight 5 hours. Is that asking too much?

After watching my nephew playing baseball tonight Jake and I treated ourselves to a $5.00 pizza. We haven't done that in a long time, I have to say it tasted pretty darn good.

I did accomplish pushing myself to 25 minutes, 5 miles, and 500 calories burnt on my stationary bike.  I also did my 20 sit ups, 8 crunches, 8 leg lifts, and a 10 second plank. Speaking of which I thought the paper said 10 planks, but after printing it out(I have to do so I can mark off what day I have done) I noticed it said 10s. I looked it up further and it means second. You know how dumb I felt. Oh well I did it all!

New Challenge

I know I said I wouldn't start another 30 day challenge, but I must be pretty dumb. I found the new 30 day ab challenge, looked it over, the decided I would try it, but only do the first 15 days and not do all the planks. If I were to do the planks I would fall on my face. It's bad enough I have had problems with balance today so I had to hold on tight to the bike handles because I felt myself going to one side.

So today I got in my 20 minute bike ride with riding 4 miles and burning 400 calories. I am averaging 1 mile every 5 minutes I think that's not too bad,

With this challenge I did everything for day 1 except I could only manage 5 of the planks.

Sick!

I woke up yesterday with a bad headache, sore throat, and sneezing. Of you that have chiari knows that sneezing, coughing, and sometimes laughing makes our headaches even worse. I went through the day feeling worse. By 6 pm I was running a fever, and my head feeling like it was going to explode.

I tried riding my bike and got through 13 minutes when Troy needed a ride home from work. At that point I had enough of that noise anyway, so I didn't bother getting back on it. I have decided to do half of a 30 day challenge because I will admit there is no way I would be able to finish this one. But I figured I would do 15 days of it. So starting tomorrow(tonight since I am writing this a day late).

Weigh In 7/7/13

Today was finally the end to this whole crazy challenge. It has been one of the hardest things I have ever done but I stuck with it and did every painful crunch. Today on the last day was 150 of the things. I did do 20 minutes on my bike to today.

I just got off the scales and in the month I have been doing this I have lost 5 pounds, 6 inches off my waist and 6 inches off my hips!!! I am proud of myself and will not give up on this weight loss thing. I probably won't do another one of those 30 day challenges, but I will keep up with my bike and maybe some crunches and other forms of exercise.

Here is something I said and showed to Henry the other day, I said look I actually have a waist now, it's not even with my hips. It's the little things that make me happy I guess. The only thing I will have to figure out if I loose too much weight is how I am going to buy new clothes, but I guess I will figure it out some how.

Lack of Motivation

I so didn't want to crawl out of bed today. I got about a good 2 hours of sleep last so when I woke up at 6 am I thought I was going to scream! I finally crawled out of bed at 9 am. The only thing that helped me get moving was a txt from my sister. We were suppose to have a bbq with some new friend we met at the boys baseball game. My sister's AC went out so we moved the bbq to the park since it was going to be cooler and they were going swimming afterwards. I went over and helped her get everything ready to take to the park. We were there from about 10:30 to 1:00.

I kept putting off doing my crunches. I went on fb and took Jake out to the farm to work with his steer. While out there I cleaned his steer's pen and cleaned out the food trough. Then I went to my sister's house until about 6:30. After coming home I got back on fb, then was about to ride the bike when Henry called. I thought great I didn't want to do it anyway.

I finally got on my bike at 8 pm and finished by 8:20, after that I did my 145 crunches. Only 1 more day left!!!! Now I am enjoying a blended coffee made by Jake. He used coffee, ice, a little bit of creamer, and some cool whip, less fat than the ones you buy.

So, I find it funny when people find out your doing a challenge or trying to loose weight and they offer advise. Today I thought it was really funny when this lady told me a good way to loose weight and it had to do with eating the same diet but cut down on portions. I don't think I would have taken the advise as funny if she didn't weigh 200 pounds more than I did.

Back to Blogging

The last few days were great! On Wednesday I did both my insane amount of crunches 135, and 20 minutes on my bike. Thursday I did my 140 crunches but didn't do the bike. We went to watch the races and fireworks. I did climb some bleachers and walk around the fairgrounds in 106 degree weather. I think I probably sweated off a few pounds, and we didn't get home until almost midnight.

So I did wake up this morning barley being able to walk/move. I got up around 7 am to let the dog out took some ibuprofen and ultram and went back to bed. I woke back up around 9 feeling better. I am still dealing with some lower back pain from sitting on the bleachers for too long and the headache from the loud fireworks.

I got up and said goodbye to my love and got my day going. I ran to the store, made a great pasta salad for dinner, went to my sisters for dinner, I barbecued some chicken. Then out to the farm so Jake could work with his steer. While he did that I swept and raked in and around the stall. I came home and finished with 20 minutes on my bike. I am still feeling all the pain and exhaustion from yesterday and today but I have to keep going or I may never get out of bed.

Thank goodness I only have 2 more days left of this horrible challenge I started 28 days ago. Today was a rest day, tomorrow will be 145 crunches, and Sunday will be the last day with having to do 150.

Hot!!!

The temp outside was 114 degrees, as with many people that have chiari heat can make things a lot worse. I have a hard problem tolerating the heat, but I did do my workouts. I got in my 130 crunches for day 25 of this insane challenge. I am not a quitter!!! I also did my 20 minutes on my bike, while it was 90 degrees in my house. I truly don't think it's going to cool down. What helped with my bike ride is I was on fb while riding, it's a distraction on what I am putting my body through torture. 

I may not blog the next few day because my hunny is coming here for a few days and I haven't seen him for over a month. I will still do my workouts but just don't want to waste the time I will have with him on the computer.

Lazy Day

I woke up today barely able to move. My legs and knees are killing me among other issues today. I have almost fell a couple of times but managed to catch myself. So since it's a day off for my crunches I have decided that my whole body needed a rest. I have really been pushing myself a lot and now I am paying for it today. So I don't know if anyone sees this as lazy but I need a day off.