New Year's Resolutions

I don't usually make resolutions beyond "I really should work at loosing weight this year." Certainly nothing formal. But I think I shall resolve to work at eating healthily and incorporating exersize into my everyday life. I have a friend who's joined a nearby Curves, and she's pushing me to go (with my encouragment, I need pushes!). So she's going on Wednesday when the kids are back to school, and I think I will join her.

Read an interesting article today, can't remember the magazine, though. It was talking about how we really have three parts to our brains - the totally unconcious automatic controls (heartrate, breathing), the basic part we share with all other animals, and our "higher conciousness". She called the basic part the "bunny" brain, and said one of the reasons we so often fail at changing our behavior is that we scare the bunny. Habits are deeply ingrained in that part of the brain, so it takes real effort and slow steps to change that. That's why you can resolve to go jogging at 5am every morning, but when the alarm goes off, the animal part of your brain says, "it's cold, it's dark, I'm going back to sleep." So if we really want to change, we have to do it in ways that the bunny brain can accept.

Don't know if it's true, but it's an interesting idea. I guess it ties in with using positive reinforcement on ourselves. I'll try to find the article again and put in any useful suggestions she has.

Here goes...

Hope this works and doesn't slow anyone's computer down. I have a website too, but I still need to update the last few quilts. The website currently only shows my personal quilting projects (quilts I make all parts of). My business is just finishing the tops that other quilters make but don't want to put together. http://cavnet.dyndns.org/lisa/quilting.html

This is a beautiful black and red quilt that was brought to me by a friend. She made it for her grandson. She's not sure she's going to give it to him because she likes the quilting I did (very customized job), so I feel a bit bad since he's been wanting it. She's worried he won't take care of it as he's only 14 years old. I just freehanded designs in the quilt. The only pattern I marked was the outside border/large red strip.

Bits and Pieces

I'm very happy that I had a free day today. I managed to finish a quilt early (promised for after Christmas) and the customer it was for was so excited about the quilting I'd done she paid me extra. Always a big kudo when that happens! Plus she had to bring it to two different quilt groups to show them my work, so I'm glad that I spent so much time on it. Now I get to have some time to myself till Christmas. John is off work too so I'm sure we'll just hang out and I do have work to do, just at my own pace for now.

Plus, the other good news for me in the last two weeks was it turns out my cholesterol wasn't as bad as I thought. Part of it was I asked the Dr. how it compared to last year, and it turns out it had gone down. Still borderline high, but the whole meeting changed when she realized it had gone down. Kind of funny. Still, I should keep an eye on it of course.

I do hope everyone is looking forward to Christmas. I'm hoping to be bad and back some cookies tonight. Trying to get more into the spirit of things, and I have a potluck/staff party next week I thought I might give them out at as gifts. Hopefully I can get most in the freezer or given away so I don't eat toooo much.

Forced Exercise II

I am just catching up after not having Internet access for several days (or even time to go find some). I am getting lots of "forced" exercise. First it was moving stuff. Then it was working on removing old vinyl. We also now live in a house with steps. Right now a lot of stuff got unloaded into the basement so I am making many trips up and down the steps. My legs are sure feeling it.

cough cough

My asthma has kicked in, and I've been coughing for weeks. That's my excuse for not getting any appreciable amount of exercise for almost a month which means I'm completely out of shape for skiing (assuming I can stop coughing long enough to try to ski). Of course, getting enough sleep would be helpful. Or remembering to use the inhaler that I finally got.

But it's December and life is always a little bit crazy. I've been feeling like the Grinch, and everyone else at home is completely into Christmas. We got a 10 1/2 foot tree that looks great. Michael and they boys did a great job decorating. There are tons of presents under the tree already. We've opened some (that came in the mail unwrapped). We've even got most of Timothy's birthday presents under the tree, as well.

I shouldn't be too grumpy because I'm done with shopping. The gifts are all mailed. I'm not thinking about the holiday letter until we get past Christmas day. Still, I haven't finalized plans for Timothy's birthday party or sent out any invites. I haven't started packing, I don't know when my in-laws are arriving, and their room isn't ready.

I've started a second new project at work which is overwhelming. It's good news because it means I'll likely have enough work to go full time later in January (because Michael has requested a 12 month unpaid leave of absence). Hmm... I wonder why I'm stressed.

No matter how much things change, they stay the same.

Bad Habit

I wish I could stop doing this - I eat something I really like, and I feel hungry, i want more, so I have more and then I've had too much. Made pierogies for lunch today, and the first few I boiled, then fried in a little butter so they were crispy, and had low-fat sour cream on top. Not great, but not so very horrible. Until I made another batch, omitted the frying because I wanted them NOW and they were not nearly as good. And then I was uncomfortably full because I'd gobbled them down.

I'm slowly losing weight, but not if I eat like this! Bleah.

I hate cold rainy days

I didn't let William play outside today because we had more rain than snow. I am now paying the price because he is whiny and bored. We are going out to dinner with friends - their daughter just got admitted to MIT. William doesn't want to go, he doesn't want to try Thai food (even white rice) he wants someone to play with ....

Ok, i didn't get much done today, and I spent a long time on the couch with him watching TV - I understand that he's bored but leave me alone for 5 minutes!!!!

Arrgh - it is compounded by the fact that I offered him several different things to do this afternoon (making cookies with me, eg.) and he declined them all.

Forced exercise!

Well, I'm a little proud of myself. We got about 9 inches of snow. Steve's away. The only chance I have to clear it is when the kids are sleeping. So, having never used the snow blower before, I learned how and cleared the driveway. It's kind of a beast to meneuver and manage the direction of the snow while working on our hill of a driveway, but I did it! And then followed up with a good scraping with the shovel and salting (our driveway is steep and impossible to get up with any amount of snow or ice on it.) Yes, the house is still a disaster (and -- gross -- there's been cat barf on the carpet in my office for 2 days) but I'm glad to know that I can do the things I need to, even on my own.
Of course, I just found out that school for Owen is cancelled tomorrow morning, so it's less urgent that I be able to get out first thing, but I still have places to go! I wonder if Sierra's gymnastics is cancelled....

One load down! Many more to go

I got one load out of the storage unit. It at least made a difference in the storage unit. There are many more loads to go but I am counting it as exercise!

Just a little more than yesterday....

I'm alone with the kids this week, and sometimes I use that as an excuse to not get anything done. But this week I've resolved to go to bed each night with the house a little cleaner or at least a bit more done than when I woke up in the morning. Yesterday that wasn't hard, given that the house was a disaster when I woke up, but I did manage to clean all the old condiments out of the fridge and wipe down the downstairs bath before going to bed. Plus, the kids and I did manage to get the Christmas tree decorated! They were actually a big help! Now if I can at least get the candle lights in the windows the neighbors won't think we're the Grinch family. Anyway, I've got so much to do around the house, if I can keep up this goal of just a little more each day, even after Steve gets back, perhaps it will eventually all get done! And if my house cleaning and to-do's get under control, perhaps I can feel relaxed enough to stop and exercise once in a while!

Bummer

Went back to the surgeon's office today to get the steri-strips taken off my incision. Apparently I got it wet, or keeping it covered made it too moist, because the skin layer hasn't healed all the way yet. She said it looked good except for the outer layer, so I have to put Bacitracin on it twice a day and either leave it open or if I wear a sock I can put a gauze pad over it (held in place by the sock). Right now I'm wearing socks - its cold, and the hem of my pants was rubbing it.

It's cold and rainy and gray and matches my mood, I'm afraid. The incision is tender, probably because she broke the scab, and I'm feeling very sorry for myself. I'm tired of being "broken". I want to be able to do all the things I need/want to do, and right now I feel like I can't. And this is just the biopsy site, we haven't even gotten the results yet! Oh, yeah, there's a reason we mutilated my leg.

I don't know if I'm going to get presents out to family before Christmas - I bought them, but have not wrapped let alone shipped anything. I know, they'll understand and its hardly the first time, but I really want to get done on time. For once. And I need to clean up at least some because family is coming, and I'd like to bake cookies (another cookie exchange on Sunday, now), and the tree still has no ornaments.

Bleah. I know at least half my mood is the weather - I guess it's a good thing I don't live in Seattle, eh?

Well...

Should be an interesting week. I get to call and change my appointment with my Dr. My cholesterol results were high so they want to see me to talk about my results. I don't know what they are yet as they didn't say in the message they left. To top it off they keep leaving messages on the phone I've asked them not to leave messages on and never approved for messages. Rather annoying.

I've had higher cholesterol since getting married. I know I've also gained weight since marriage as I cook every night and eat full meals, vs when I was single I would sometimes have peanut butter and crackers and call it good. More fun to cook for two, but there are some drawbacks.

Hope everyone has a better week then it sounds like it was last week.

On the upswing

I'm really hoping that no more bad things happen, for at least a few days. It's been a really rough week. My leg, my teeth, my poor cat... that's three, right? I'm done for a while?

I'm actually feeling pretty good despite everything, and I've realized I've lost 12 lbs. since May without doing a whole lot on purpose. I'm trying to choose healthier foods and be mindful of when I'm eating for hunger vs. eating emotionally. I don't necessarily NOT eat just for therapy, but I'm trying to be aware of it and realize that's a choice I'm making.

Exercise is going to be a while away, I think. Walking isn't too bad, but when I step wrong it's like little electric shocks radiating into my foot. The incision doesn't hurt much, it's the nerve pain from the severed nerve that's getting me. Even pushing on the wrong place on my leg will trigger it. John was poking around trying to figure out where the numb patch is and hit a spot that just lit me up, and it wasn't particularly near the incision. The nurse says that will improve with time, but it's wierd now.

So today I let myself eat what I wanted (fish and chips for lunch, golden fried goodness!), but I also walked around the mall for quite a while and took the stairs between levels twice. If I can keep making the better choices most of the time, maybe I can make progress.

Progress

Yesterday I bought a new water bottle. I also finished off the last of the Coke so there is no more soda in the house that I am willing to drink (Jim and I have discrete tastes in soda for the most part).
I also found the address list finally. I knew it was somewhere in the RV and not just on the hard drive that is under the bed. So now I can actually get our Christmas letter out. I am also just about done shopping (the boys have been troopers).

I might have even managed to get a serving of fruits this morning as Andy was being "Mr. Host" and shoved a huge chunk of banana in my mouth before I could object. He told me "momma needs this."

Inspiring Article

Inspiring in the "every little bit helps" sense.

"Fitness trumps fatness"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071204/hl_nm/fitness_longevity_dc;_ylt=AuXTgmbT_QPRu1DH0pd5lwta24cA

Opps

SO I was doing great with my new water bottle... all 3 days I used it...and then it appears that I accidently managed to throw it away on Friday (long story). So at least it turns out that Jim bought it off the clearance table and it was only $2.
Now I just need to get my mind wrapped around everything I need to do which I can't seem to remember even long enough to get it written down. I am making progress even if a little inefficiently.

2 down, ? to go...

Ok, I'm through the root canal also. Gotta admit, i think I've had cavities that were more unpleasant (ok, could be that he gave me nitrous). I'm currently numb, including half my tongue, which is a little wierd. But I've got uberMotrin, which I will take with lunch when I can eat without hurting myself.

Have I been eating well, exercising, taking care of myself? No, no, and sort of. It's really hard to exercise at the moment, although my ankle is healing up nicely I think. Still sort of limiting my mobility. And it's really REALLY hard to be eating well right now - especially since I'm feeling sorry for myself. But all of these medical things are part of taking care of myself, so I am trying to be reasonable about portions and not beat myself up when I'm not.

Next week, I have a follow-up with the surgeon's nurse (just to inspect the wound), the results from my rheumatologist, and currently have the crown scheduled for Friday. Somewhere I have to actually do the Christmas shopping for which I've had the good idea, and I'm desperate to get cards out this year - we've missed two years, now, and I hate it.

Vidi Vini Visa

I came, I saw, I shopped

I am feeling a whole lot better about Christmas shopping. In high school and college I had the luxury of going around a bunch and window shopping until I found something that spoke to me. These days I am toting children and usually need a plan before I go. So Jim and I went to the outlet mall near my in-laws while they watched the kids, and we made a gigantic start on our shopping. I am actually feeling like it might get done, which is good because I know that this month is going to go very quickly.