Bad blogger!

OK, time to catch up. Here's an updated photo.

Thanks to my hip continuing to cause problems, I have totally fallen off the exercise wagon and of course, seen a weight gain. My husband's company did NOT get the contract that would have him as program manager, so I didn't have to move to San Antonio. Hubby is working in TX for a year, though and then hopefully will be able to get back here with a position in management for the same company. He now has an apartment down there and the kids and I are staying here in CO.

I've been going to physical therapy for my hip and have seen some improvement, but it is still sore most of the time.

My son just recently played King John in a local production of Robin Hood, written by one of his directors. It was quite amazing! Another director set up an audition for several of the kids in this group with a representative agency in Denver and Kendall was signed! We're all very excited about it and hope it will lead to some awesome opportunities for him.


My daughter got a job as an executive assistant for a lawyer and is really enjoying the work.

Sooooooo, that's me. Guess I need to spend several hours getting caught up with everyone's blogs! :-D

Hanging...........

Feel like I'm being held over a cliff in midair, just waiting for the decision on what the future will be for us. It's a little annoying. I'm tired of it. My hip still hurts, so I've been resting it. Every time I do anything, go grocery shopping or take my son to the clinic, I'm sore again. So do I need to exercise it more, rest it more, am I developing arthritis in my "old age" or what? Grrrrrrrr And the way I'm craving cookies, pretty sure I'm PMSing big time.

Still am procrastinating on seeing the doctor about my hip. I'm just afraid I won't like what she has to say no matter what it is. :-P

If you are on Facebook, look me up - June Burnett. I tend to post there more frequently. :-D

Still here

Looks like we will not be moving to Texas after all. Everything is still complicated. Hubby's company did not get the contract, but his friend who got promoted to be the boss wants him to come down to SA to be his #2 man. Hubby says if he did, it would not be permanent. 6-12 months maybe. His other friend wants to create a position down there for him that WOULD be permanent. Plus he's getting offers from other companies. It all gives me a headache! :-P I just want to know what is going to happen. NOW! Patience is not my strong point.

While in Iowa I did physical therapy workouts with my sister in the pool and my hip was hurting after one day of swimming. (Those scissors underwater are killer!) Well, my hip is STILL hurting and it's been over a month. If I sit for a little while, it's really sore and stiff when I get up. We've done some dancing and that doesn't seem to help either. :-) I've been doing some gentle stretches on a physio ball, and the chiropractor does adjustments on it, but I think I might have to bite the bullet and call the doctor. If the doctor tells me "rest until it feels better" I'll have to scream! Dare I hope for PT referral for maybe some ultrasound therapy?

MUCH better

My 11 day vacation with family and friends in the land of my childhood (and a change in medication and supplements) has done me a world of good. Feeling much better. And after wanting to stay here in Colorado and let hubby get an apartment in TX, I'm back to wanting to go with him. Well, not really wanting to live in Texas, but I don't think Ken would survive without me. He was pathetic when I was gone not even 2 weeks! :-D Anyway, we're looking at houses again. Ken's friend got an offer on his house, so we won't be getting that one, but are looking into building in the same subdivision. So that is kind of exciting. Probably wouldn't be moving until October. So lots to do with getting my Colorado house ready to put on the market. :-P

Anyone know someone needing a house in PARADISE????

But this week is for scrapbooking with friends. :-D

Having a BLAST!

Enjoying time with family and old friends. Will post more details later, unless you do Facebook and want to look me up there. :-D In the meantime, wanted to post this photo my sister took of me at the lake earlier this evening.

Hanging in there

Thanks to all of you who are checking in on me. Went to the doctor this week and got my meds adjusted and some suggestions for supplements for perimenopause crap. Still struggling, but maintaining on the weight within a couple of pounds. Tomorrow I'm leaving for a road trip. Going to see my dad and my sisters, then heading to Iowa with Dad and older sister to visit some extended family.

Here's some good info on 30 "Healthy Foods" That Aren't

Hiatus

I need to take a break from blogging. Trying to dig myself out of a rather deep, dark depression.

HYC Check in - 179.8

181.2 I've been maintaining for the most part, which is good since I haven't been as active as I should and I've been doing some comfort eating. :-P

Edit on Tuesday - today's weight is down to 179.8. Woohoo! Let's see if I can keep it in the 70's and get a little lower.

A Giveaway

Cammy over at Tippy Toe Diet is having a giveaway! She has a signed copy of a Hungry Girl book. She got to meet the author and everything. Always fun! So go check it out!

HYC Check in - 181.4

Down 2.4lbs from last week and back down to the weight from 2 weeks ago. Whew!

Habits to shrink your middle

Here's a good article - 9 Habits that will shrink your middle

Within the article are several other links with additional info.

HYC Check in - 183.8

Weight is up with TOM. No biggie. Fighting sinus headaches with changing weather and storms. Got weight lifting and walking on the treadmill in yesterday. Might get out on my bike today if it doesn't rain again but it looks like we're in the spring pattern of daily thunderstorms! The hummingbirds are out in full force now that I have my feeders out! :-)

Here's a list from Women's Health for Best Supermarket Foods for Women. Not many gluten, corn and dairy free items for me, though. :-(

And The 13 Health Foods You Must Buy

Fatty foods can be HEALTHY

Check this out from Men's Health: 8 Fatty Foods With Health Benefits

HYC Check in - 181.4

Thankfully, the scale has continued to go down in small increments all week. Today's weight is 181.4. Yay! I haven't been getting enough exercise in, but today is the start of a new week, right? :-) Maybe I'll even get my bike out a few times this week, though I am hosting our scrapbooking week. If I get to bed early enough, maybe I can ride in the morning before anyone gets here if it isn't too cold. Our highs do not get out of the 50's this week and for Wed, 39 is the forecasted high! Looks like snow is likely starting Tuesday night and all the rest of the week. Not time for the shorts and flip flops just yet. All of the clothes I was wearing in Texas got put in the spare room closet!

Tuesday morning - the low clouds are moving down our mountain. Rain/Snow likely tonight and tomorrow.

Oh, and I didn't post about it here, but I got a wicked virus on my laptop right before we came back from Texas. My son's friend fixed it for me, but had to wipe my hard drive. One thing that really urks me is losing all of my pedometer data for the past year. Sigh. I had almost everything else backed up. Totally forgot about that. Did have to reenter 4 months of transactions in my Quicken accounts, too. What a PAIN!

Word of warning, if someone tells you there's a website where people can see your address, income level and other personal data and that you need to go and get yourself removed from that site, DON'T LISTEN! If they are nearby, punch them in the face!

HYC check-in - 184.6

Got back from San Antonio and with all the eating out, the damage wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. My body is still adjusting to the climate/altitude change. Time to get completely back into my routine. Did lots of walking in Texas, but very little weight lifting or abs work on the ball. I FELT like I'd gained a lot of weight and my rings were tight with bloating. Hate Texas.

Recommended by Women's Health! (Also HYC check in!)

Under the SWEETS heading of the 125 Best Food for Women, for the category of Dark Chocolate - DOVE! Personally, I like our chocolate covered, cinnamon dusted almonds even better. Soooooo addictive! And if they knew about the products available through Dove Chocolatiers like myself, I'm sure they'd recommend our dark chocolate covered fruit collection as well! ;-)

But the list is for the supermarket and you can't get that collection at the store, only through the chocolatiers.

HYC check in - I'm still bloated in the Texas heat so I'm not going to consider my weight valid until I get back to my mountain and the clean air of Colorado! ;-) I've still been doing LOTS of walking. Friday and Saturday we did Sea World again. Sunday I forgot to put on my pedometer when I went shopping. Today and yesterday did 60min on the treadmill in the hotel's fitness room. I've noticed my heart rate doesn't get quite so high here at the low altitude, so that's a good thing!

Blogging - not so much

I knew something would suffer if I joined Facebook and yeah, blog posts are now few and far between. Facebook is of the devil. Sigh.

Book recommendation and HYC check in

I got this promotional email from Prevention about one of the books I already have and REALLY like. It helped me with changing some habits for a healthier lifestyle. I still didn't lose weight very quickly until I did the Flat Belly Diet, but Robert Cooper's book has a lot of useful info in it. I know the links won't transfer, but go to Prevention.com to order the book or search your favorite online bookstores. :-) One other note on the book - the recipes are fantastic! This is where I got my tzatzkiki recipe and it tastes just like I remember it tasting in Greece. The stuff I've tasted in most Greek places in the states just doesn't cut it! :-)

And for a really cool video of my daughter with the dolphins at Sea World San Antonio, scroll down past this post! Visit my family blog to see a video of me playing with dolphins and one of my kitty chasing ice cubes. :-D

I'm off to the hotel treadmill and will weigh on their scale, then come back and log that. OK, I'm around 183 but it's a different scale and this humidity is definitely making me bloat up. Ugh. Walking LOTS! Logged over 5 miles on Friday and Sunday at Sea World. Saturday was too cold and rainy, so we didn't stay long and it wasn't great weather for walking. The other days, I did a 45 minute power walk as well as the walking we did from place to place. I also bought another stability ball to use here. They are just $9 at Walmart. Will see if one of my friends here needs one when we leave.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Online Reader,

Suppose, for a moment, that losing weight was as easy as...

Taking a few deep breaths...
Enjoying a beautiful sunset...
Calling an old friend on the phone...
Or standing on your tiptoes while you wait to check out at the supermarket...

"Well, of course," you might say. "If it were that easy, no one would be overweight. But it's never that easy. Losing weight is just hard work. There's NO way around it."

That's the conventional wisdom. Yet this conventional "wisdom" has resulted in a phenomenal failure rate. It's been estimated that more than 9 out of 10 diets FAIL in the long run. And I believe that conventional dieting has failed you for one simple reason...

You're Working Too Hard at Losing Weight!

Maybe, just maybe, there's a simpler, better way to lose ALL the weight you want. The better way I'm referring to is explained in a new blockbuster book— FLIP THE SWITCH: Proven Strategies to Fuel Your Metabolism and Burn Fat 24 Hours a Day, by Dr. Robert K. Cooper.

The revolutionary plan in FLIP THE SWITCH teaches you to light the secret fire inside your body, and "switch ON" your body's fat-burning processes inside, so fat melts away with every tick of the clock, 365 days a year.

Follow the simple secrets revealed in FLIP THE SWITCH and your body will have NO choice but to shed excess pounds. The great news for you? You'll get all these other life-enhancing benefits:

Your daily stress will seem to vanish
Your energy levels will soar
You'll enjoy deep, restful sleep every night
You'll awake refreshed and ready every day
Your mind will stay razor-sharp
Your mood will be uplifted

OK, decided I would just add a link since the promo on this book was SOOOOOO long! Click here to go to Prevention's link regarding Flip the Switch by Robert K. Cooper, PhD

Sea World

THIS is why we love Sea World. Quality time with our dolphins. They either remember us or like the way we play with them. I think they remember, they are SMART animals.



Thursday I walked on the treadmill in the fitness room at our hotel. Yesterday I put over 13,000 steps on my pedometer and walked about 5 3/4 miles throughout the day. Today is stormy with flash flood warnings so we are waiting before heading out again.

My laptop LIVES!

So happy! My son's friend took a look at my laptop and got rid of some stuff that was bogging it down. He's a genius! Found the source of an error message that was driving me nuts and cleaned it all out. Sounds like he worked on it for hours so I definitely owe him BIG!

It's been a busy week scrapbooking with a friend. Have finished around 40 pages so far. I stayed home on Wednesday and it sounds like it was a good thing. A tanker rolled over on the interstate, so both directions were closed for many hours. Everyone was taking the back way into and out of CS going north. My friend told me someone said it took them 4 hours to get home from work that day. Ugh.

Dove Chocolate party tonight, hubby gets home from TX tomorrow. On Wednesday we start driving back down to San Antonio. Will be spending quality time with our dolphins and looking at a few houses, plus a friend of mine will be hosting a Dove Chocolate party down there, too! Crazy month!

Period of Mourning

Well, I've had a rough week or two. Cried myself to sleep a few nights. It seems that my time in paradise is limited. My husband has been coerced into a job back in San Antonio. AUGH! Heat, humidity, BUGS, no SNOW! There are a couple of things that still need to happen, but it seems pretty inevitable. If everything falls into place, the final decision will be made in June, then the job starts in October. So once we get the word, we'll put our house on the market here. If it doesn't sell by October, I will stay in CO until it does. But as much as I LOVE Colorado and don't want to move back to the heat, I love my husband more and will follow him where'er he goeth. ;-) (But he will PAY! LOL)

I will confess to doing a little comfort eating, especially with TOM occurring, but it's not too bad. Still taking it slow with exercise because my knee does still twinge quite a bit after I walk or stand for very long. Weight is up a bit this week, but my lack of sleep contributes to that, too. Not sleeping well at ALL!

There are a few good things about moving. We do have lots of good friends there. We can afford more house in TX and I'm requiring a pool. :-) And in SA, they do have really NICE master suites and pretty big kitchens in most of the houses. One of Ken's friends/coworkers has a house with a pool on the market, so we may buy that if he is willing to wait that long to sell. The master bath has two vanities and two walk-in closets. SWEET! Tonight I talked with the realtor/friend who sold our house in SA before we moved here and he and his wife with our former pastor and his wife have been taking ballroom dance lessons, too. And they frequently go out dancing, so that's kind of fun! I had been looking online for a dance studio and didn't see much, but he says they take the lessons from a husband and wife who converted their garage into a studio.

And another good thing, I do have family in Texas. Two of my nephews live in/near Austin and my older sister lives near Houston. And my Dad and younger sister are closer to San Antonio than Colorado. And my younger nephews and niece in AR do enjoy spring break going to Sea World. They spent many a spring break with us when we lived in TX. And my daughter and I love spending time with the dolphins, too. I have missed that! We're going down there later this month while hubby is writing the proposal for this contract. So we'll connect with friends (and our dolphins!) and maybe look at a few houses. I've found 4 strong possibilities if they were to last that long.

Oh, and I'll have lots of work to do getting our house here ready to sell, too. Sigh. That's probably the big part of being unable to sleep! :-P

HYC check-in - 182.0

Back up, though down from last week. :-) TOM approaches.

Finally got some answers on my daughter's problems. CT showed a LARGE 5cm cyst sitting on top of her bladder off the right ovary. So the urologist recommended seeing the gyn doc. So yesterday she had an internal ultrasound and today a follow-up with the gyn doc. (Her regular one is out of town until Monday, so she saw an alternate.) The ultrasound showed the cyst reducing, so it ruptured, which explains her increasing pain the past few days. Doctor thinks it's possible she has IC and endometriosis.

Meeting a fellow blogger

How FUN! Today, I went and picked up Diana from Diana's Body Journey down in Colorado Springs and took her to a couple of the scrapbooking stores in the area. It was a very fun visit and we didn't lack for things to talk about. :-) She was probably glad to get back to her hubby's apartment after I talked her ear off for a few hours. :-D And I know her husband was glad I didn't take her up into the mountains and slit her throat! LOL (My husband has the same protective instinct when I meet friends from online in real life.)

My daughter had a ct scan on Monday, we went to her urologist on Wed and he showed us the CT and the 5cm cyst that is sitting on top of her bladder! Explains a lot of things about the pain she's been experiencing. She may still have a milder case of IC since she's been having some issues for years that would make sense if that's the case. But it would also probably mean that what she eats doesn't have the violent effect that affects some people. Next step is an internal ultrasound of the female parts. Looks like the cyst is off the right ovary, but it's waaaay bigger than the ovary and about half the size of her bladder. It was quite the impressive picture. :-P

Oh, and by the way, I did some dancing on my birthday. Hey, it's a big one. I'm the big FIVE-OH now. Yeah, I'm paying for it, but it was totally worth it. ;-)

Blah blah blah

Back up to 181.0 this week. Not surprising with the lack of activity after the knee problem. Went to my primary care doctor and she gave me some hamstring stretches to do. I was kind of hoping to go to physical therapy just so I don't injure it worse. She said "Take it easy" OK, what the HECK does that mean????? No walking, no dancing? Slow walking? For how long? Doctors truly piss me off.

My daughter may have an answer to all of the health problems she's been having and it's not a very good one. Interstitial Cystitis. No cure, it's a chronic thing. They've given her a list of foods to avoid that may make it worse and things that are OK. She thinks it may have been aggravated by the meds she was taking for her acne. She had quit taking that a couple weeks ago.

My laptop is having issues lately. It won't recognize our wireless connection. My hard drive was full, so I've deleted about 29GB of stuff, but it hasn't helped yet. Big thing was the amount of photos I still had stored on it. Put those on CDs and on an external hard drive. What a mess.

Let's meet for lattes!

Yeah, baby! Support your local Starbucks. And make sure to pack heat when you do.



Read this: Coffee, tea or don't tread on me

DON'T TREAD ON ME!

My "Creative Writing" results

OK, here's the skinny on my "creative writing" and the one truth.

1. I grew up in Iowa on a farm. - I did grow up in Iowa, but NOT on a farm.
2. I played basketball in high school. - I played basketball in junior high school, but NOT high school.
3. I lived in Greece for 3 years. - I lived in Greece for 16 months.
4. Once I went on a 3 day hike in Ireland. - Not yet, but I want to!
5. I once got a ticket from a cop wearing no shirt. - This is the true one. I was racing through town late at night and he left his house and came over on foot to where my car had stalled. Fought the ticket and won. ;-)
6. I spent two years living in Okinawa, Japan. - I lived in Misawa, Japan for 2 years but never Okinawa.
7. I still have all of my wisdom teeth. - Nope, all four were cut out.

HYC check in - 178.2

2.8lb loss....really???? Never fails, when I'm incapacitated, I lose weight. :-P I did go to the ER Friday morning. They took an xray, which showed no breaks or tears in my knee. Wrapped it in an ace bandage, gave me percocet and recommended elevating and icing the knee for 48 hours. So while I scrapbooked, I propped it up on my shaper ball and set my cell phone alarm for every 20 minutes to keep track of the time. I got a total of 60 pages done over the weekend, so I'm happy about that. But I'm afraid I won't be doing any ballroom dancing for a couple of weeks at least. :-( Waah. My knee felt pretty good all day Sunday, so I took no Percocet, but what I'd already taken really messed up my bladder so I had a very rough night last night. Ugh.

Award

A big thanks to Molly from Molly Marie Gets Healthy for nominating me. She's a wonderful young lady whose blog is amazing!

1. Thank the person who gave this to you
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog
3. Link to the person who nominated you
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth
5. Nominate seven “Creative Writers” who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

And I nominate the following bloggers:

1. Ro at Ro is getting FIT!
2. The Better Idiot at Bottomless
3. Diana at Diana's Journey Through Life
4. Cammy at The Tippy Toe Diet
5. Sunny at The Sunny Life
6. Lynn at Actual Scale
7. MargieAnne at Nothing Is Too Hard

Here are some lies and one truth. Can you guess what’s true?

1. I grew up in Iowa on a farm.
2. I played basketball in high school.
3. I lived in Greece for 3 years.
4. Once I went on a 3 day hike in Ireland.
5. I once got a ticket from a cop wearing no shirt.
6. I spent two years living in Okinawa, Japan
7. I still have all of my wisdom teeth.

Oh, SNAP!

Actually, it was more of a riiiiiip. My son couldn't get his car up our steep hill because we've had about 6 or more inches of snow in 3 hours. (He'd been in Denver.) After brushing off a thick, heavy layer of snow off the car, I took Ken's Edge to try to help him out. (Ken's car was behind my Journey in the garage.) Two young men in a Jeep slid into me on the way down the hill. Just a gentle bump, I doubt if there's any mark on our car. They stopped to check on me and said they'd be back in an hour if we were still stuck. I turned around and parked up hill from Kendall's car, walked down to his. Fell on my butt once. Got up, fell again and my leg doubled under me and I felt a ripping in my knee. Told Kendall - "OK, it's time to call Dad. Call Kisa and have her wake him up!"

I backed Kendall's car down the hill and turned around. Down at the intersection where we turn, there's a parking area for a trail, so I parked his car there and Ken and Kendall picked me up in the Edge. The Edge had no problem whatsoever getting up the hill. Not a single spin of the wheels. I could not believe how much snow had fallen since Ken and I got back home from ballroom dance lessons. Snow had barely started accumulating at 8:30!

Tomorrow morning Kisa has a doctor's app't at 10:45. I have a feeling a trip to the ER will be on my schedule. I'm icing my knee, but I can tell it's not going to be good. Kendall has no desire to drive in snow again and Kisa hasn't felt up to driving much either so we'll have to see what works out. I'm supposed to be scrapbooking all day (and all weekend.) WAAAH!

HYC check in - 181.0

Up 1.4 since last week, but since it's TOM, I'm OK with that. I definitely up the salt intake during this time, which my cardiologist wants me to do ALL the time. Still don't see much difference in my high heart rate, though. :-P (If you haven't seen it yet, scroll down and watch my workout video. :-D

Got this in my email today.

The Amazing Cucumber
>
>>
>>This information was in The New York Times several weeks ago as part of their "Spotlight on the Home" series that highlighted creative and fanciful ways to solve common problems.
>>
>>1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.
>>
>>2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.
>>
>>3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.
>>
>>4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.
>>
>>5. Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!
>>
>>6. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!!
>>
>>7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explorers for quick meals to thwart off starvation.
>>
>>8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.
>>
>>9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!
>>
>>10. Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber will react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown to reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams- AS WELL AS DIVAS!!!
>>
>>11. Just finished a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.
>>
>>12. Looking for a 'green' way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but it won't leave streaks and won't harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean.
>>
>>13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!
>>

Ultimate Abs ball

Here's a video of part of my workout where Nico is trying to get involved. (At the end you get a glimpse of my daughter's chinchilla, too.) When I do the crunches on the ball, he has jumped up on my lap before, too. We just haven't got that on tape. :-)

HYC check in - 179.6

Dropped the water weight from yesterday after my potato chip binge over the weekend. ;-)

!!!500!!!! - 181.6

This is the 500th post on my health blog, which I started in May of 2007. And still not yet at goal. That's OK. I'm happy to have made all of the healthy changes in my life.

So am I supposed to post 500 things about me on this one? Ha! Don't worry, I would NOT put you all through that! ;-)

Weights been hanging around 179-180 all week. I've had pretty strong salty craving, so I'm thinking it's PMS. So I wouldn't be surprised if I have an upswing this week.

We had a nice Valentine's dinner with some friends and our kids last night. So thankful our kids are grown. I wasn't allowed to take a photo of the kids. :-P

OK, my stupid browser shut down when I was updating the post with true confessions. So not fair!

Anyway, just wanted to admit that in that couple above, it is my husband who is the romantic. He's the one who remembers what I was wearing on different dates 24 years ago and what music we were listening to when. He's the one who organized a candlelight picnic on the beach when we lived in Japan. We've never really gone all out for Valentine's Day. It's just never been a big deal. On Saturday night he mentioned there was something he'd like "if I didn't get it for him." Yeah, I hadn't even picked up a card! So I said, "PLEASE TELL ME!" Thankfully, it was something I could do. He wanted a copy of a certain photo of me from an amateur "photo shoot" I did in April 07 when I was playing with my new digital camera after a snowstorm. I had an extra copy of the photo, so I cannibalized a frame I had on hand. :-) (This pic was about 30lbs ago!!)

Never mind

Never mind - voting is over. THANKS!

HYC check in - 178.6

Yeah, major loss but not in a good way! Got violently ill on Saturday night. Pretty sure it was food poisoning because I did not drink THAT much! :-) My weight last week spiked up all week long, and was up to 185.6, so the illness took away seven pounds. I'm sure it will come back up with normal eating. Will be taking it slow for today since my heart rate has gone up to 130 just by walking into the kitchen.

Had a busy weekend doing a chocolate party on Friday night and then Saturday for a brunch. Will be doing something similar this weekend so I should have good Dove Chocolate sales for this month after a slow January!

HYC check in - same as 2 weeks ago

Ugh - had a major uptick from last week and not sure why. I'm going to do an official weigh in tomorrow since I did have a cleansing bathroom break after breakfast. ;-)

Answers

To answer questions in the comments from my previous post:

A few years ago I had put on my blog that before I died, I wanted to learn to ballroom dance, so my hubby checked out studios in the area and found a great one. He basically got the lessons as a Christmas present for me and we started in January of 2006. Wow, can't believe it's been 4 years. There were long periods where we didn't go much. But we are now at the intermediate level. And I think it's one of the best things we've ever done for our marriage. It's a weekly date and then we go to a dance at the same studio the first Saturday evening of the month. They play all kinds of music. Our favorite dances are waltz, rumba, and cha-cha.

And getting cleaned out - I used no system, it just happened. Not sure why. May have been a bug since my hubby had digestive issues as well over the weekend last week. But it never felt like I was sick. I do take Miralax every day because I've had chronic issues with constipation. Maybe with the change in diet, my body is readjusting. Hard to say.

Had another scrapbooking weekend. Four of my friends and I are taking turns hosting once a month. I took my stuff to my friend's house on Thursday evening and worked for a while then. Went back Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and after church today until 5pm. I got 72 pages done! WOOHOO! I was very excited. And we had lots of fun chatting. Last night leaving her house, I came within SECONDS of being killed. When I left her house and got to the stop sign to turn onto the main road, I saw a faint red glow to the left and wasn't sure what it was, looked to the right and just then a car ZOOMED past me from the left - a car with NO HEADLIGHTS going 50 or 60mph! If I'd have left her house just a few seconds earlier, I'd have pulled out and been totally creamed. Not sure if it was kids goofing around or what, but I was NOT amused!!!

OK, everyone who commented on my last post is hearby nominated for the HAPPY 101 award. Ha ha! You are exempt if you've already got it before. ;-)

HYC check in - 180.6

I had a low this week of 179.2 and could scarcely believe my eyes! Had to get off the scale and get back on to double check. Without getting too terribly graphic, I will say that it's partly due to my body getting completely CLEANED OUT! :-) I'll amend the post if I'm back in the 70's tomorrow morning. But I'm pretty happy with a 3.2lb loss!!

Not too good about walking lately. I did do 3 ultimate abs ball workouts and weight lifting sessions last week. And I have all of my photos organized through 2009 on my computer and everything printed out for 2007-part of 2008 so I'm ready for another cropping weekend this weekend with my friends. (I got 740 prints done and need to print out around another 800 to get current.)

Thanks so much to Sophie at Tales of an ordinary life for the Happy 101 award!



The Rules
post 10 things that make you happy
try to do at least one of them today
and pass some lovins on to 10 other bloggers

1. Ballroom dancing with my hubby (will do it tomorrow)
2. Shooting pistols at the range (did it yesterday)
3. Scrapbooking (coming up this weekend)
4. Reading
5. Walking (will do it when I'm done with this!)
6. Taking a long hot bath (will do it after walking)
7. Laughing with my crazy adult children
8. Taking photographs of loved ones
9. Cuddling with my kitties
10. Watching old movies

No wonder I'm so happy! Will pass on the bloggy love after I get my workout done. I've already procrastinated too long!

HYC check in - 183.8

Same as last week, but since my period started Sunday, I'm definitely OK with that!

Got lots done scrapbooking last weekend and it motivated me to get more organized and get updated with printing out photos. It's really easy to let that slide with digital photography! My friends and I have scheduled weekend crops every month so we get more done. Looking forward to those times!

What I'm doing

OK, I have had some questions I haven't addressed yet, so decided to do so tonight.

The journal I got back in December has a page for each day. A block for each meal with a side box for "Trigger and Strategy to Change." I don't really use those since I eat roughly on a schedule, not emotionally. It also has little boxes for Hunger Level, Feelings, Alone or with others. The only thing I really do is record the time and what I ate. Then I record what exercise I've done. At the bottom of each page, it has some questions. Did you exercise today? What motivated you to exercise or prevented you from exercising? What reward did you give yourself today? What is your goal for tomorrow? And then at the end of each week it has a page where you look over the week and evaluate how you did that week. At the beginning of each week it also has a food planner, another thing I don't use, but probably should. :-D

As I have mentioned, I'm trying to give up dairy, wheat and corn. Not 100% successful, but definitely making lots of progress. Some of the substitutions I've found: oatmeal instead of Cream of Wheat, coconut milk yogurt instead of my favorite Greek style (sigh, really miss that!), Pamela's gluten free bread mix (made it in the bread machine) instead of the 15 grain I'd been eating. I'd already switched over to Almond Milk for use with smoothies and on cereal. One other treat I've discovered is frozen coconut milk - like ice cream, but maybe even BETTER! The chocolate is absolutely yummy.

I am still implementing the "rules" of the Flat Belly Diet, where I don't go more than 4 hours without eating, each meal or snack is 400 calories (4 per day) and a MUFA at every meal. For more info on this way of eating, visit Prevention.com's website.

I've been bad about catching up on everyone else's blogs, but am going to try to do better! Thanks to all of you who have faithfully visited mine!

HYC Check in Week 2 - 183.8

After swinging way up all week, glad to finish at up just .4! Getting back into the habit of exercising. The new way of eating has been challenging. Got some good recipes to try and made a run to the grocery store last night to pick up lots of great food.

I've been busy putting away Christmas decorations. Yeah, I'm slow. And I forgot about checking in earlier! Hope everyone has had a fabulous start to 2010!

Oh, and Anonymous who keeps posting stupid things that are just barely English? STAY AWAY! It's annoying having to keep deleting your stupid posts and I'd rather NOT enable word verification, but I will if I have to. :-P

I have a scrapbook weekend planned. YAY! I can't wait!

HYC check-in Week 1 - 183.4

OK, I've been happy to see the scale go down this week. I've been getting most of my exercise through dancing - on New Year's Eve and then Saturday night. I've been eating well and trying to cut out wheat, dairy and corn. It's challenging! I've got some Oikos yogurt in the fridge that I hate letting go to waste! ;-)

I'm going to start putting my weight in the subject line so I can track better without opening posts to check on my progress. My overall loss for 2009 was around 13 pounds. I'm up about 7lbs from my low for the year, so I don't have too much to make up. I'll get back to a record low before I know it!

More New Year's photos

Love this photo of my daughter and I! But doncha hate it when you've been to a special event and are looking all elegant, but afterwards you view the photos and realize that you should have stood a different way for photos????? After looking over everything, I was thinking that this dress just wasn't very flattering, but it was the way I stood with my arms crossed over my middle. It made me look boxy. I should have put my arms out or down so you could see the fitted silver band of the bodice. But I was so self-conscious about my arms and the sides, where the dress bowed out a little bit under the arms. DOH! I should have just relaxed more and not worried about it!

My favorite gingerbread houses.



I like the size of these photos much better. I made the other ones too little.

Happy New Year!

The Broadmoor certainly lived up to our expectations and was simply stunning with Christmas decorations. They had a display of gingerbread houses that was quite cute and they all had such detail! They were all at the foot of a large chocolate mountain. I took photos of each house, but will just post the bigger view.

The ballroom for the party was so beautiful! The chairs were covered with gold and had a bow of white or covered with white with gold bows. The table settings were very elegant, with centerpieces made of white roses and candles. The food was all amazing, too. Thankfully my husband asked about the meal earlier in the week and discovered that the entree was going to be beef, so ordered vegetarian for me. It's a good thing he did. There were three courses that had meat, so I got a substitution for each of those.


There was a live orchestra and they played lots of ballroom music, so we got some dancing in. Toward midnight and after, they switched to more modern stuff. :-P Kisa and Ken dance a Rumba.

The singers they had were all AWESOME! And "Frank Sinatra" was there! He was so cute and very funny and sang wonderfully.

One of the few photos that shows the silver on my dress! We were dancing a cha-cha at this point, I think.

My favorite photo of Ken and Kisa as we counted down to midnight. They showed the NYC ball dropping at midnight our time on big screens around the room. We were all on the dance floor and at midnight, balloons and confetti dropped from the ceiling. Except one of the bags didn't release! Fortunately, we were in an area where they did fall! :-)

Our first photo of 2010


One other thing, I'm pretty sure that David Warner was checking in at the same time we were. He looked so familiar and in a couple of hours, I realized that he was one of the actors in Titanic - the butler of the jerk.

I will be posting other photos on my family blog if you'd like to check that out.