Summer hibernation

Well, as per usual, in the midst of summer I just kind of try to hide at home and avoid the heat. It's been brutal lately with several days of triple digits. One day I felt pretty good, so we went to visit with friends at their new home and sat outside for a few hours that evening. It was pleasant enough, but I paid for it dearly for the next two days with sinus and head pressure. So I'm just kind of laying low and waiting for fall. Haven't had the healthiest eating habits lately and definitely got out of the habit of any kind of exercise. :-P

The first part of July my daughter ended up in the hospital for 3 days with a ruptured ovarian cyst. Major pain and internal bleeding. So I was in mamabear-nurse mode.

She hadn't been home two weeks when my son ended up in the hospital for a week. He'd started a job and was working way too many hours, and when he asked for a reduction in his hours, the employer refused (even though he'd been hired through a program for the disabled!) He finally had to quit and go into the hospital to try to get healthy again. Argh. We're going to consult with a lawyer who has CF and is head of the CF Foundation in Houston.

So it's been a little crazy. Hopefully things will slow down a bit now.

Moderation begun

Wow, what a bunch of annoying comments by Anonymous. My blog is "rife with spelling errors" and if I clean it up you'll be sure to return? Really???? Please, don't bother. So I've changed my settings to get rid of the random anonymous commenters pushing their agenda or crap websites. Get a life, jerks.

Sigh. MIA - and up another 7lbs

It's been a frustrating time as I've struggled with the heat. Ugh. I really hate summer in south Texas. Have been a little out of control with eating. I think it's partly hormonal and this perimenopause nonsense. Weight is up and I've slacked off on the cardio. My waterproof heart rate monitor is on the fritz. Every time it does pick up my heart rate, it says it's over 200. And it's not. So I'm back to wearing my old uncomfortable one that is not waterproof, so I can't use it in the pool. Finally got into that when family visited. Need to get out every day to get that kind of workout in. Definitely felt it in the muscles, especially when I was lifting and playing with my 25+lb great-niece. Now THAT is a fun upper body workout! :-)

Had another gall bladder attack after walking around Sea World on Wednesday. I know it's because I've been eating some junk I shouldn't have. So I'm going to focus more on that and just getting out and MOVING! Or just dragging out the mini-trampoline when I'm watching TV. Had a fun time with my dad, sister and niece here for a visit. We went to the zoo while they were here, too.

My niece, Lydia and I got matching shirts at the zoo and wore them to Sea World. And we got soaked by the dolphins! She later got soaked by Shamu as she was selected to participate in the show. Such a fun day!

App't with cardiologist

I was dreading the cardio appt, but it went VERY well. Since the thyroid tests proved it's not my thyroid and the thyrostim is not drastically affecting those numbers, (I TOLD ya, doc!) we're back to looking at the heart. He's suggested 2 fish oil caps twice a day and a workout routine designed to strengthen the heart and get me down to a lower resting heart rate. The workout is 5min cardio followed by 10min cool down (not resting, just lower impact). Next week 10min cardio, 10min cool down and building up the cardio each week.

He said it can take 3-6 months to work, so he wants to see me again in 6 months. I can do the workout more than once a day, as much as I can tolerate. He said he had good results doing this with another patient who was actually passing out a lot - which I have not done. I'm just happy he didn't try to push meds on me. He did say that the one test was a possible indicator of heart disease so he also asked if I wanted to do a CT to check for calcification in the arteries and I'm willing to do that as well. Scheduled for Apr 30.

Hot baths - BAD!

I love my baths too much to give them up. They definitely don't like me, though. BP of 97/49, pulse of 173 when I got out of the bath a little bit ago. Sigh. Drinking water to try to cool off.

Wednesday Weigh in - 177.4

Spring in Texas is NOT my friend. Got over a cold, but the tree pollen has been VERY high for the past few weeks and it's kicking my butt pretty bad. Sleep is off, eating is off, walking when I can. Got blood work results (NO, autocorrect, I did NOT want to type bloodworm!) ordered by the cardiologist and thyroid levels were FINE, but another test which I didn't KNOW he'd ordered was twice the normal level.

The interesting part, it was something Kendall's doctors in Denver told Ken & I to get checked, but my senile doctor at the Academy didn't know what I was talking about. Hmmmmm, looking forward to asking him why he ordered that test and what it means. Research on WebMD showed that it's tied to high cholesterol, which I've NEVER had so it's a little weird. Wondering if it's related to the macrocytosis that has my family doc puzzled. I look forward to talking with her about it. (It was tied in with the clotting issues my son had, so I'm really curious about it. I asked his CF doctor today and she wasn't sure either, but said she would look into it and ask the cardiologist about it.)

Checkin' in

Weight has stayed the same. Being sick is getting old and I think it's moved from a cold to allergy problems and weather changes. Just feeling crappy is not fun. I've had migraines threatening and developed a couple times, but my meds worked eventually. Picked up my blood work results from the base and dropped the papers off at my civilian doc's office so hope to hear from her soon.

Moment of truth - Weigh in - 178.4

Sheesh, this is ridiculous. So I'm going to bite the bullet and put the number out there so I can move on from here. This is actually down 3 pounds since yesterday. After 3 weeks of PMSing (yeah, so not fun!) my period finally started. Happy Birthday to me! :-P First day - I usually have major salt craving so I feel like sitting down with a bag of Fritos and a can of bean dip. But I won't! :-) Tonight we're going out to Coco's Chocolate Lounge for my birthday dinner, so my indulgence will be there.

I went to get my blood drawn for the follow-up Thyroid panel with the cardiologist and I am BACK on my Thyrostim. I'm sure that my body was completely off balance and out of whack because I haven't taken that for 2 months, so I was DONE! Started taking it again on Tuesday. Coincidence with the weight drop? Due to the time of the month, it could be anything.

Tomorrow morning hair app't, then we'll be leaving for a wedding in Louisiana this weekend, so I'm sure my exercise pattern will be off for the next few days. Will get back to it on Monday. :-) Hopefully the spring break crowds will be gone at Sea World and I can enjoy walking there again. (Although I think some schools have next week as SB, too, so it might still be bad.)

Walking every day!

I have been doing great at walking and getting 10,000 steps in. Sea World is open every day in March, not just the week of Spring Break. It has been great walking with no crowds to maneuver around. It's almost been like a ghost town! Today I went on the roller coaster and was one of two people riding! :-) Here's a pic of the Great White:
Alligators chillin', the Steel Eel coaster

Atlantis water rideGhost town Sea WorldOne of my dolphin friends

Getting back on track

I am back into good habits. Last week was weird and I had a huge bump up in weight. So I'm giving my body time to adjust and figure out what it's doing. I did have some extra eating, but not seven pounds worth! :-) I feel like I'm trying to come down with something or maybe it's just allergies with the ever-changing weather at this time of year. Hitting it with essential oils and supplements. Actually, I was out of a few supplements for about a week, maybe that's what messed up my body.

Healthy Heart Weekend challenge MET!

Did 10,000+ steps, total of 97 minutes aerobic walking at Sea World today. It was a BEAUTIFUL Texas day with sunshine and low humidity! I took breaks to interact with the bottlenose dolphins a couple of times, too.
Nonfat froyo was my reward.

Back to 173.2

Lyrics from the song The Incredible Shrinking Woman:
Lifting weights, squats and crunches, I’ve made myself quite buff
Stronger than a locomotive, now I’m powerful and tough
The Incredible Shrinking Woman, that's what my friends call me
Each day a little smaller, it's a miracle to see

This pic was from May 2008 and I was 191 lbs. Down almost another 18 from then! Woohoo! Got this shirt and a Skinny Songs CD from Heidi Roisen. She used to have a website with all kinds of fun shirts with the titles from the CD, but the website is no longer there.

Just for fun - my sweet Nico!

Crazy fluctuating weight!

Must be that time of the month. I'll be up one day and down 4lbs the next. Not gonna even record my weight this week, going to let it sort itself out and pray the number is down when it all settles out! :-) Mostly doing the right thing, with occasional cravings. Blood pressure continues to be normal! WOOHOO!

Another pound gone - 173.2

HOOAH! Let's keep up this trend, please! :-)

Last night my husband and I walked to our subdivision's gate and back - 2mi walk. While heading back toward the house (it had gotten dark) I felt something furry between my legs and jumped a mile! (We have skunks, wild hogs, coyotes, all kinds of wildlife around here, our backyard is like a small jungle - we have about 2 acres.) It was an adorable orange tabby kitty. I reached down to pet it, then went to keep walking. All of a sudden, he was in front of my feet again, so I had to jump over him. We kept telling him to go back home! Got back to the house and had dinner with the kids, son took the garbage out into the garage and came back saying "All right, who kidnapped the kitty?" Orange tabby was shut IN OUR GARAGE! The kids went out and fell in love, very affectionate kitty, they got him out of the garage and shut the door, then daughter went around to come in the front door and he followed her. The other cats were at the door freaking out, hissing and growling. My son said if we didn't already have 3 cats, he'd definitely bring it in. When he stopped petting it, it tried to climb his legs! Definitely a cutie! No collar but it looked well cared for, so we figured he has a home somewhere! No sign of him when I went out this afternoon, so hopefully he's back with his family. It was funny that he followed us home and got shut up in the garage!

Today's weight 174.2

That's a little better. :-)

Wednesday weigh-in - 176.0

Back up to 176.0, so up 3 from the cruise, which isn't that bad! What has me cautiously optimistic is that my blood pressure has been NORMAL for the last several days. And this morning, while doing the bike and mini-tramp, my max heart rate was 125, not 140-150 as it has been in the past. I had tapered down my two medicines my doctor wanted me to, and have been off those for a few days. So I'm encouraged! As long as the migraines don't come back, I'll be VERY happy!

These two guys were our favorite bartenders on the cruise. Gennady (on right) was Ukrainian and would make me "special" drinks that weren't on the menu. They were always delicious! Sasa was Croatian and getting ready for his first vacation in 9 months (and they don't have days off!)

Tequila!

Had to add this photo, too. :-D The free Tequila Tour taught me all about how tequila is made from the blue agave. The many tastings taught me that I LOVE tequila made from the blue agave! :-D And the next day - I felt great! Not even a sign of a headache. Yeah, we bought a few bottles. Some of the flavored, too. Yummmmm.

Here are the bottles we bought. Found out we should have stocked up, when this tequila is available to order here in the states, the price is twice as much as we paid!!!!

Back home! What a WEEK!

This is my favorite photo of the whole week. It turned out so much better than the pro one taken on the ship. :-)

SUCH a great cruise on Carnival Magic for a whole week. This is us and the friends who went with us. We did the Catamaran Sail in Montego Bay, Jamaica and it was such a blast! So many stories and we laughed so much! We stayed VERY active, used the stairs more than the elevators, walked regularly around the deck and danced every night except the last night when my ankles were badly swollen and I just hurt all over. I was adventurous with my eating, trying new things, and kept pretty good eating habits. Right now I'm up about 1.5lb from before we left, but I'm giving myself until Wed. to adjust for an official weigh-in.

This place had all of the pieces to perfectly capture the Corona commercial vacation photo. :-)

2005 - Fat Photo

Here's the photo that got me started. I finally said "NO, this is NOT ME! I do NOT want to live like this anymore." I was at least 230lbs, probably more, but that was the highest I saw on the scale and I think I gained more after that. I started by walking almost every day. Then I started eating healthier foods. I started my health blog in May of 2007 and weighed 209 at that point. Got down to 176 summer of 2009, back up to 199 in 2011, but am back down to 173 now. Hubby lost a lot, too!
THEN

NOW

And for something fun, here's a video from 2010 of my cat Nico helping me with my Ultimate Abs ball workout. :-)

Wednesday Weigh-in - 173.0

Weight is up a bit, but that's OK. I was not eating well, and I am doing BETTER at that and that's what's important. Focusing on the health of my body more than the number on the scale right now.

On Sunday I got up and my right hip was REALLY sore. I went through a horrible time in 2010 when I hurt my hip. I even did physical therapy for several months but it still hurt almost all the time. So I was having flashbacks and thinking the worst. But thankfully, I had a chiropractor appt AND a 90 minute massage scheduled for Monday. I LOVE my chiro, he is just amazing. He would do a few things, then have me check it, it was still hurting, so he adjusted some more. A couple of times I felt like he was using my leg as a wishbone! Putting constant pressure on a couple of points was not pleasant at the time, but it felt so much better when I walked out of there. Then the massage! She did some great deep tissue on the hip, too. When I got up yesterday, I barely felt a twinge and I couldn't help but marvel at the difference between this time and back in 2010. So, again, I'm really, really, REALLY thankful for the best chiropractor EVER!

Last night I did 30 minutes on the stationary bike and no pain in the hip. Yay! About to do the bike again for my exercise today. Will do my yoga stretching, too. The DVD I've been doing has the same stretch for the hip that I did in physical therapy.

Heart Healthy Weekend Feb 15-17

I'm going to commit to participate in the Heart Healthy Weekend hosted by Lori at Finding Radiance. It will be in Feb, so Sea World will be open on weekends. I commit to doing a walk and getting in at least 10,000 steps at Sea World, with maybe a break to play with my dolphins! Anyone want to join me?

Cardiologist visit

I've been mulling over what the cardiologist said yesterday. I left annoyed, as I fully expected. Got the usual "There's no evidence supplements do anything good" lecture. I told him I trust my naturopath and chiropractor more than I do any MDs or specialists and that the cardiologist in CO pissed me off. Didn't seem to phase him any.

He suspects it's my thyroid. In the military health system computer he found a blood test from 2011 that showed my thyroid levels as a little off. Of course none of the current blood tests my doctor did were in that system since she's a civilian doctor. He wants me to stop taking Thyrostim for 3 months and redo the blood work he ordered yesterday. He thinks that is aggravating my tacchycardia, I think he's full of it. He also mentioned that the Topamax might have made it worse, and that I totally believe. That's why my primary doc wrote me a lower dose to wean off that one.

The weird thing was when I was checking in, my bp was 140/90!!! I said WHAT??? The gal said, "That's unusual for you?" Uh, yeah, it's been 90s/60's a few days this past week! So they redid it on the other arm and it was 120/80. Smack dab normal. Weird. I wore my gun sweater and got a few compliments on it. :-)

Anyway, every day this week I did get my 30 minutes of exercise, so I'm glad of that!

Breast cysts aspirated

Successful aspirations today. 20cc of fluid out of cyst in right breast, 16cc out of one in left. Yeah, I grow them big! Ugh. The doctor was asking if I realized that doing this didn't mean they wouldn't come back. Yeah, get that. Been dealing with them for years. I don't do this just for the fun of it, doc. I only go in and ask for the aspiration when they are so big that they really bug me and are painful. These have stuck around for months and would get really sore right before my period. The funny thing was, my hubby who was supposed to be there for moral support was at the military hospital across town. (Shaking head.)

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a cardiologist. Sigh. Not looking forward to it. I didn't have a very good experience with the one I saw in Colorado. I just hope I can get my records sent from CO and not have to redo all the testing that was done there.

My weight was up a little this week, but since I'm eating better as the doctor ordered, I guess I'm not going to worry about it. And since I had a second period in 3 weeks, that affected my weight, I'm sure. I was glad I got my 30min on the bike done before I went to my appointment today. I was pretty sore by the time I got home and ended up taking a nap.

A new week

OK, off to a good start. Did the Ultimate Abs ball, my short weight lifting routine, 30min on mini tramp and 20 min on bike. My blood pressure was up in the normal range this morning. Yay! Wonder if that means I can cancel my app't with the cardiologist? :-)

We're leaving on a cruise on the 27th, so I have plenty of incentive to keep up the activity. I've been checking out the availability of everything on board and if nothing else, plan to use the "jogging track" for walks. Looking forward to getting away for 7 days in the Caribbean! We're going with two of my hubby's friends and their girlfriends.

My body gave me a bit of a surprise on Saturday morning with another period just 19 days after the last one started. O_O Not fun, but if it means I WON'T have one during the cruise, that would be nice! If my body decides to just go ahead and have another one that week, I might have to shoot it! :-P Isn't it supposed to get further apart when menopause approaches?????? Blech. But that did kind of explain the shooting pains in my breasts that were a little off on the timing.

Got new glasses on Saturday. Hooray for being able to see! :-)

My Gym

OK, committing to exercising every day, so I figured I would post pics of my gym. I'm better doing it at home. And I have a large master bedroom, so that is where it's set up.

This used to be where the treadmill was, but we finally killed it. Waiting for the funds to get a new one. (The door goes outside to the deck in the back of the house.)

Mini-tramps are really a nice thing to have around. It's great while watching a movie or TV, just bouncing in place or a jog in place kind of thing. It doesn't take much at all to get my heart rate up. It had workout bands attached, but they weren't exactly made for a woman almost 6 ft tall. They didn't last long. :-P The blue Ultimate Abs ball is actually a really great abs workout. It's by Danskin and I found it at Walmart. The tube is what I lay on to stretch out my back and keep from getting the dowager hump (recommended by my chiro). You put it along your spine, then put your arms in the goalpost position, like you are signaling a touchdown and let them fall back. If you are young and flexible, your arms will probably touch the ground. Mine are almost getting there! :-) Purple weights are 5lbs each. I also have a regular shaper ball in the bathroom I sit on at the vanity to put my makeup on, will also use it in workouts.

During the summer, this is my gym. That is my pool boy. ;-) Also known as the hubby.

Quest for answers goes on - Wt 169.2 and SPARKS

Had another doctor visit on Monday morning. I'm going to start tapering down the med which I call my stupid pills - the one that makes me forget words, gives me perception difficulties and shakiness that was to prevent migraines.

Still not doing well at eating. Not even eating two good meals a day. :-/ I don't know why. Just don't get hungry, nothing sounds good and I have no appetite. I try to have a handful of salty nuts to try to get my blood pressure up.

There was one weird high result on my blood work my doctor said she didn't understand, so she took a little more blood to try to figure it out. She still wants to work on getting my adrenals pumped up. I'm out of several of my supplements, so that is not helping, I'm sure. And I've got some huge cysts in the boobs that are quite painful. Got an order for an ultrasound and have that scheduled for next Wed with an immediate appt afterward for needle aspiration afterward. Fun times. It's actually been an issue since the biopsy in July. :-P

Editing this post to add another note on a SPARK to fuel the fire of blogger support and community. I've missed what I had before and found a link through my friend Hanlie's blog. I'm reading the blogs of others who are posting about what sparked them to get started and will be reaching out to encourage and support them as well. I started my health blog in May 2007 and found the Online Weight Loss community so important for a long time. I joined Facebook in 2009 and kind of lost my blogging mojo after that. There are too many people who see my stuff on FB, so I'm not as open there about my body issues! :-) Struggling with some health things (long story!), so it's back to blogging for me. Short story - started this year 20lbs heavier so I have lost weight this year, but lately it's not been in a good way. The past year has been one mired in depression, recurring migraines and general crappy health. But I have a new doctor whom I LOVE and we're working on it with getting me OFF meds and focusing on natural stuff. That's my kind of doctor!

This topic reminds me of a song on the TranSiberian Orchestra CD Night Castle. :-) SPARKS! It's a good song.

Happy New Year!

Another New Year, and another birthday celebration for my daughter at the Magic Time Machine! I was going for the glamorous Hollywood look from Gilda. Those of you who are film noir fans will recognize the name, I would hope. My heathen family members did not. Sigh. I've lost a lot of weight since I made this dress for the 2007 gala of my husband's former company. I altered it once, needs to be taken in again really.

My daughter once again donned her self-designed costume of GLaDOS from the videogame of PORTAL. Light years apart. But we had fun as always. :-)