Daniel Plan, part deux-Day 2

Day 2 was hard, I’m not gonna lie. I woke up with a headache and not feeling like I slept enough. But I had a plan for the day: Work, dishes/laundry, salsa chicken, work on Sandra’s flyer and print out Band minutes, band meeting, home.

So the day pretty much went like that except I didn’t feel like unloading the dishes, so that didn’t get done. And the printer decided it was going to be offline no matter what I did, so I had to leave earlier than I’d planned to go by the church to print out the Band minutes, which meant I had to finish Sandra’s flyer later. I also didn’t get to eat dinner since I ran out of time. The Band meeting was kind of irritating because all the stuff we went over, I’d already heard in the planning meeting and the budget meeting. So when we started over for the people who didn’t realize that the meeting started at 6:30 instead of 7, well, I was on edge.

I got home and took the dogs on a walk out to the front of the subdivision (1 mile…go me), I really need to remember to put their harnesses on since they have no idea how to walk well on a leash and I don’t have the time to teach them.

I did sit down and finish Sandra’s flyer and looked over my lesson for tonight before I went to sleep.

I didn’t eat dinner because by the time I got settled after the meeting, it was almost 9. I wasn’t hungry and I didn’t want to eat that late…so I didn’t.

Oh, and I looked it up and Ezekial bread does have wheat and gluten, now it’s organic gluten and sprouted wheat so if you’re gonna screw up with your gluten, that’s the way to go. But I still beat myself up a little for not eating right the VERY FIRST DAY!!! And the second time I did this!!! Ack!

Today’s meals: Strawberry/banana smoothie with almond milk and chia seeds for breakfast, organic raw cashews and spinach/kale chips (checked…gluten free) for snack at work, quinoa salad for lunch, hummus and carrots for snack at home, and 96 oz of water. I made “Salsa chicken” (chicken breasts baked with homemade taco season and salsa) for dinner but didn’t eat it.

Starting weight: 184.8

Day 2 weight: 184.4

 

Disappointing, but with the thyroid issue and just having ate right and walked one mile for one day, guess I might be expecting too much? I have to say that emails to my hubby, friends and Daniel Plan peeps have turned my frown upside down!

Daniel Plan...Day 13

So glad that we started on the 1st. It makes it MUCH easier to remember what day I'm on!

It's one of those "blah" days, which followed a "blah-er" day. My get up and go is so far away, I'm not sure how it will ever come back.

As for Daniel Plan, we're off the detox part (no gluten, no caffeine, no sugars, no dairy). I'm still trying to be careful and only eat gluten in one meal and not going overboard on the dairy. Now, while I'm enjoying (surprisingly) trying new things, I gotta say that everything takes such a long time! Meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, clean up...they all require a heck of a lot more work than I usually put in and that just does not gel with my lifestyle. Anyhow, time to look back at the meals I've had:

Day 10's dinner was beef chunks in the balsamic vinaigrette we like to make now. Didn't turn out so good. I don't think I picked the right kind of beef as it was super tough. Guess I need to do some research on that. We also sliced the zucchini into coins instead of spears...and that didn't go over too good. I really think my oven is whackadoodle. I need to get that looked at now that we are cooking more.

Day 11 I made the regular blueberry/banana/flax smoothie for breakfast, had celery with peanut butter/apple/and something else but I can't remember for lunch. I grocery shopped after school and got my beloved wheat bread (hooray). Jo had her first home lacrosse game so after putting groceries up, I headed to the high school and for a treat since 1) it was her first home lacrosse game and 2) it got over at 7 and there was no time between getting home and leaving to make dinner, we went to Wendy's. I got my favorite apple, chicken, pecan salad. Meg did, too, but she didn't like it. Poor baby. She was so looking forward to getting off the detox. Jo went totally rogue and ate off Plan and relished it.

Day 12, again my regular smoothie for breakfast. For lunch I mixed Greek yogurt with tuna and stuffed it and romaine lettuce in a small oat/flax/wheat pita pocket. I had carrots and brought an apple which I didn't eat. Dinner was chicken that I'd put in the crockpot with salsa and left on low all day. I made the gluten-free corn tortilla crisps from the book (not bad) and had some corn with it. I put a dollop of Greek yogurt on it in place of my normal sour cream. We failed in that we didn't include a non-starchy vegetable. :(

Today I finally made Dr. Hyman's whole food smoothie, with one exception...I didn't have pumpkin seeds. It's a combo of blueberries, banana, a little almond milk and some water with chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, brazil nuts, almond butter and pumpkin seeds. It blended up okay but the recipe said that it served 3. It didn't make much more than the amount I normally drink for my breakfast smoothie. I should have listened. That drink is dense. It's also...earthy. The blueberries and banana don't do much to add any flavor, that's for sure. It's also, well, chewy. BUT, I drank about a third of the cup and couldn't handle anymore...I was full and satisfied. It's 9:30 and I'm still okay and not doing what I usually do, looking at the clock to see how long it will be until lunch! I'll make this again...but this time only take a third so I don't waste it. Lunch is natural peanut butter (9 g protein in 2 tbs of sugarless peanut butter) on one slice of whole wheat bread, carrots and a banana. Dinner tonight is supposed to be spaghtetti squash, turkey meatballs and the sauce I make from tomato paste that's so nummy, steamed fresh green beans and sliced apples. Tomorrow night we are making turkey burgers and Paula Deen's healthier macaroni and cheese from the recipe she put together for Dr. Oz. So excited about "real" comfort food!

Oh, and weight-wise, on day 11, it went down .2 lbs, day 12 stayed the same and this morning I was down .8 lbs. I also told my Bible study buddies that I was going to try to be more active this week and wanted them to hold me accountable. Monday I did 6 EMS laps (450 steps each) and a mile in the neighborhood, Tuesday nothing, yesterday I only got in 2 EMS laps but did a mile in the neighborhood in the blustering wind (seriously, I was being bounced around out there). I'm planning to get in a mile when I get home today, too. Go me! I'm definitely exceeding what I did last week...which was NOTHING!!!

Daniel Plan...Day 7

Still the hardest thing for me with this is the lunches. I keep thinking I’m making enough to feed everyone and have leftovers for lunch, but the gentlemen in my life are watching their portion control, so there’s usually nothing left. You can only have romaine and turkey wraps so many times. So far, I’ve had them once. And that was enough.

Wait, I think actually the hardest part is having to shop all the time. I feel like all I do is plan to go to the store. I have to be better at menu planning, I’m thinking.

So the last time I blogged about DP (oooo…makes me miss my Dr. Pepper’s), it was Day 5 and I had no idea what to make for dinner. I fell back on my failsafe and made broiled chicken with brown rice and green beans.



Nummy, non-roasted,
non-salted trail mix.
But the cranberries
have sugar. :(

Yesterday, I made a banana, blueberry, and flax seed smoothie for breakfast. I found this awesome, super, fantastic trail mix that I thought was going to work out for snacking at work between meals.
But I was wrong. It is lovely, but I didn’t follow my own rules and read the ingredients. There’s cane sugar with the cranberries. I can eat it moderately once I’m off the detox part, but not now. So sad.

Any ways, lunch was natural peanut butter with carrot sticks and an apple. Kind went skimpy on that one. Dinner was nummy. It was rainy, cold, and windy yesterday afternoon. Nothing hits the spot when it’s rainy, cold, and windy like beef stew. The recipe from the DP book is for the crockpot so I just tweaked it for the stove. They call for red-skinned or purple potatoes. I found a bag of “celebration potatoes” that had red-skinned, white-skinned and purple potatoes. Those purple potatoes are purple all the way through. But when they are stewed, they lose the pretty purple and just kinda look rotten so I had to be sure to give a disclaimer as the family was scooping their portions.

Jo is enjoying the air-popped popcorn. Think she’d enjoy it more with a bit of butter. J Last night she asked me if I’d cheated on the Detox yet and, since I found out about the cane sugar TODAY, I said that I hadn’t and she changed the subject. Now that I know about the cane sugar, I’m a cheater. And so sad.

This morning I weighed myself and I am .2 lbs from being down 6 lbs so far. “.2 lbs” you say? Yep, I’ve got a scale that measure in .2 lbs increments so I take or leave them as the case may be. Big Kenny’s already dropped 5 lbs and he’s not even doing the Detox, he’s just trying to make better food choices.

Today’s breakfast was the Quinoa Breakfast Bake from the DP book's recipes. I had such high hopes because after making the quinoa, you add a couple eggs and some cinnamon and get to put some nut butter (I chose almond butter) on top. It wasn't very tasty. I thought being able to chew on something after all the mornings of glugging smoothies was going to make a big difference, but it didn't. The best part of the deal was the almond butter! Lunch is leftover chicken breast, spinach salad, balsamic dressing, and an apple. Tonight I’m making the “Chicken Walnut Pesto” from the DP book. I’m wracking my brain to find a different word than “pesto” cuz there ain’t no way my man is eating “pesto.” That’s a fact!

Still not doing so hot on the exercise front. I’ve only taken one lap here at school today. I’ve got to get myself together and get my rear in gear!! I’ve done it before, I need to do it again!

It's....going

Today was our first official check-in for our weight with my sisters on our SparkPeople Team. I’m up. I should be up. I don’t exercise and I’ve only managed to keep my calories within SP parameters once over this past weekend and couple of days. But I’m not beating myself up about it. I’m tracking my food and thinking about my food, doing something about what I’m putting in my mouth will come next. I lost over 20 lbs between January and April-ish in 2012. I know I can do it again. In the meantime, I’m working on my sleep issues (I don’t sleep well at night) by joining a 4-week better sleep challenge on SP. This week’s assignment was to track things for a sleep diary and I’ve done so every day so far!

But my weight isn’t the only thing I’m working on! I’m also taking college classes, I’m the official (no more interim) Children’s Director at church, and I’m trying to get my house organized.

The new semester started Monday. I’m taking three classes this semester. I’ve downloaded the syllabi for my classes, finished the assignment for one, emailed my professor about a question about her assignment and scheduled in my calendar when I’m working on the other courses assignment.

At church, I’ve studied the lesson I’ve got to teach tonight, found someone to mail the lessons to the little kids’ classes each month, have a Nursery Renovation Committee meeting scheduled for Sunday (and have started working on that agenda), contacted the youth minister about a group I want to start for my 4^th and 5^th graders that involved him and have contacted the leadership about an accountability program for me.

With the house I’ve made progress as I’ve decluttered the kitchen cabinets and drawers and made good headway on my office. I actually sat in my office and worked in there last night! I decluttered two of the bins in the office.

With tonight being a church night, my focus needs to be on my lesson tonight. I don’t want to lose my organizing/decluttering mojo though so I hope to declutter another bin before I sit down to study my lesson again.

So while things aren’t all peachy keen, they are…going. And that’s better than being stuck in a rut any day!

SparkPeople

I've been a member of SparkPeople.com on and off since 2008. I'm back on. If you want to friend me, my SparkPeople userame is Tootlyb. Just be sure to mention that you read my blog so I don't think you are a stalker, okay?!
SparkPeople page

Weighing in Jan 2014

Oh crap! I'm really not wanting to do this. But I do know that what you put down on paper (or on a blog) provides the accountability that is necessary to push ya over the edge. At least I hope so!

So...the numbers from this morning:
Weight: 182.6 lbs
Chest: 34 in
Bust: 38 in
Waist: 35.5 in
Hip: 45 in (ouch!)
Butt: 47 in (double ouch!

And here are the pictures from yesterday...triple ouch!

I'm thinking that I need to get the girls to take the photos since I'm a little fuzzy. I also need to work on better jeans. Yikes! And last, these don't make me look as big as I actually think I am but I am not about to take pictures of myself in my bathing suit, or some such, and post it.

So for breakfast I had a thing of yogurt to combat the antibiotic I'm taking for my sinus infection. I also had two pieces of toasted white bread with margarine. Sorry, gotta eat what I got, people.

For lunch I made roast beef "sandwiches" where I took roast beef deli meat and swiss cheese and wrapped it in a croissant and baked it. I used some French onion soup as the au jus. I warmed up some leftover corn and had some chips. Don't judge. I'm going to eat normally (for me) until the kids go back to college because 1) I need to have normal food in the house for them and if it's in the house I'll eat it and 2) I have a buttload of food that I bought with them being home and I'm not about to throw it away.

I have been pretty active (for me) this morning. I took the dogs on their walk and have done 2 loads of laundry plus I decluttered all the drawers in the kitchen and half the cabinets (okay, so two drawers and two cabinets were already done. What's the point of lying on my own blog?)

I really want to finish the cabinets in the kitchen and desperately need to scrub the cabinet fronts because, frankly, they are really disgusting. I also need to work on my office because I've put our new insurance cards and the new Medflex card in a "safe place" i.e. my office, and I need to use them to get my birth control pills from Walgreens. Plus, the office is really disgusting!

I also thought I would go and get the girls Christmas checks cashed but it's raining outside, so...no.

Okay, so I don't forget it, here's what the character Amy said on The Big Bang Theory episode I'm watching, "Whenever I'm around Sheldon I feel like my loins are on fire. In the good way, not the urinary tract infection way." Bahahaha!

Throwing down the gauntlet

My older sister threw down the gauntlet today, which ticks me off because I should be the gauntlet-thrower, thank you very much. She texted my younger sister and I and told us her goals of losing 25 lbs by her birthday (12/22) next year, decluttering 15 minutes a day, and starting her Couch-to-5K plan (I guess to run a 5K this year?). She's going to check in monthly with her weight and measurements with us.

So I can't, CAN'T, let my big sister get one up on me so I'm going to go BOLD and do it in public (that's right, Annie, I'm going PUBLIC with my fat butt!). I took a front and side photo of myself today and will post them tomorrow along with my weight (gulp) and measurements (double gulp). On the first of each month I will post an new set of pictures and numbers.

I'm also signed up to read the Bible through chronologically and I've encouraged my kids to do it with me. Hoping they will. I need some accountability there.

I don't want to commit to declutter for 15 minutes a day because my days are so whackadoodle in the first place and I'm not sure what Jo's soccer schedule will be adding to my schedule for the second place. I'm going to set goals on decluttering certain areas of my home during certain months. I really wanted to get into my laundry room over the break but that's not happening. However, I've done pretty ding-dong-dang well decluttering the cabinets in the kitchen. I've only done one drawer and a couple cabinets so far, but that's further than I've gotten in the laundry room, so I'm going to stick with the kitchen for January. Besides, I really need to get that kitchen under control.

I do like Nony from A Slob Comes Clean's way of decluttering and reorganizing things. She asks two questions: 1) If I needed this item, where would I look for it? and 2) If I needed this item, would it even occur to me that I had this item? I have so many weird and whacky things that I'm keeping  for "just in case" that I really should just get rid of. Luckily, I have the children's ministry resource closet to donate the plethora of stickers, stamps, and other crafty things to.

The other thing that I've pulled from Nony is "delusions of craftiness." That I totally understand. I keep thinking that I'll make something (darn you, Pinterest!) but most of my craft projects end up looking like a 3 year old made it so it's a little bizarre that I have so much craft crap in my house. Yes, there are certain craft items I need to have on hand so the kids can do basic stuff for school projects and for their own craft projects (my sister, Lori's, genes must have jumped sideways on the family tree), but the reality is that I would more likely than not go out and buy the stuff they need instead of thinking that I actually have it on hand. I need to use the craft drawers I have to container-ize (a la Nony...by the way, you can find her at www.aslobcomesclean.com and on Twitter and Facebook)  those craft items and donate the rest. And I probably should make a list of what I actually do have once I've containerized what I'm going to keep so maybe I can check the list before going to buy something? That might be more organized than I could ever hope to be.

But I digress, so tomorrow I need to weigh, measure and post (blech, that already makes me a little nauseated). I guess I need to decide whether I'll do the Daniel Plan or not. I certainly don't eat that way and not sure if I could get the household to go in on it with me. I think it would be too difficult to do it on my own. But that could be an excuse, too. I'm good at excuses. Maybe THAT needs to be my 2014 major goal: no more excuses!

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Getting squished

Got my mammogram today. Not because it's October-Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It just happened. :) But I got a pink compact mirror out of the deal. :) And squishy. The girls got their second Gardisil (HPV) vaccine...now I've got to make sure to schedule the last one in four months. I think it ended up taking two years to get Lorie all the way done. I'm such a schmuck.

Hot Potato took the day off and played with cars (all but the Equinox need work) and we got the doggies groomed. Boy does Lindy look nice. She's almost a decent looking dog now, poor thing. Now he's cleaning the doggie pee laden carpets in the living room and our bedroom. I did remember to weigh and measure this morning. Not wonderful, because I was expecting miracles. But good. One more week to go and then I have to figure out if I want to try another month of this stuff.

                   9/17 (start)    9/24        10/1            10/8          10/15 (end)       diff.
Weight     181.0 lbs      178.4         175.8          175.4                                  -5.6
Bust          37.5 in         37               37               36.5                                   -1
Chest        32 in            32               32                32                                       0
Waist        34.25           33.5           34                33                                     -1.25
Hips          44.5             43             44                 43                                      -1.5
Butt           47                46.5          46                 45                                      -2

Disappointment times 2

This week's Plexus Slim numbers come to you with a little disappointment. My weight continues to drop a bit...but it was down a half a pound more over the weekend. And I've put back on inches, which disappoints. Overall, I'm still down both in weight and inches which is good, but I seem to be see-sawing, which is bad.

                   9/17 (start)    9/24        10/1            10/8          10/15 (end)       diff.
Weight     181.0 lbs      178.4         175.8                                                     -5.2
Bust          37.5 in         37               37                                                           -.5
Chest        32 in            32               32                                                            0
Waist        34.25           33.5           34                                                          -.25
Hips          44.5             43             44                                                             -.5
Butt           47                46.5          46                                                             -1

My other level of disappointment comes from the fact that I finished my book. So sad. I've been re-reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series in anticipation of the next installment in the series' release in March 2014. But I didn't time it right and I've managed to finish all 7 with 6 months to spare. I have no idea how I managed to do that! Especially with the fact that I have gone weeks without reading because for some reason I <gasp> didn't feel like it. So now I'm stuck. Six Months To Go! I'm so very, very sad. I guess I could start over again ... but that seems a bit freakish to me. Well, more freakish than my normal freakish patterns.

What to do, what to do...

My Plexus Slim journey

Okay, so a lady I know started using a product called Plexus Slim about 5 months ago. She is almost unrecognizable now. I had seen photos of her from high school and thought she had changed a lot. Now that she's lost some weight (and to be perfectly honest, I didn't think she ever looked overweight to begin with (although she said her doctor told her she needed to lose 15 lbs to get in her healthy weight range) but now? She looks just like an older version of her high school photo. So I thought I'd give it a month's try. AND since I'm the only one who reads my blog (I'm so freakin' popular), I'm going to be as blunt and as open as I wanna be. One of the perks of obscurity, I guess.

So I'm a week in. I'm going to guess at a couple of my numbers because I don't have them in front of me. Last Monday night I took a picture of myself in tight clothes from the front and side to document my before (and almost cried). Tuesday morning I weighed and measured. My weight was 181 lbs. I measured my chest (32 in), bust (37.5 in) waist (35 in) hips (45 in) and butt (47.5). This morning I weighed 178.4 lbs. My chest was the same, but was 37, so I lost a half inch there, darn it. I can't remember what the measurements were for the final three...guess I was traumatized by losing the breast fat. I was such a flat-chested thing until I had babies that Flatty here is going to not like losing breast inches even though I know that's stuff that goes. Would really prefer the saddlebags to go bye-bye instead but apparently I don't get to choose. When I get home I'll update. In fact, in the idea of DietGirl, I'll come back and edit in at the end of the blog and try to do that each week.

I am doing the one Accelerator pill and one Plexus Slim pink drink in the morning and taking two of the Priobotic at night (for the first week, I'll take one starting Friday). I didn't start taking the Priobiotic until Friday. My spit test (first thing in the morning, spit into a glass of room temperature filtered water. Wait 30 minutes and see if you have tentacles and how much it's spread out. Still in one glob on top? You are good. Tentacles and spreadage=yeast overgrowth. Lisa (my friend) had some information on her Facebook page about all the symptoms and stuff that yeast overgrowth does. I figured I'd give it a whirl.

The first day, I had an emotional weepy day. Not sure why and neither is Lisa. Could be that I was just emotional and it had nothing to do with PS. I tried taking two Accelerators on Friday because I hadn't slept well on Thursday and because Friday was going to be a long day, but I don't like the way it made me feel. Kinda like I'd had a drink, but not so much fun.

What I've noticed since being on PS a week: I have a bowel movement about 30 minutes after taking the Accelerator and PS in the morning. I am sleeping solid! (woo-hoo), I'm not energized as in Energizer Bunny, but in the aspect that I feel like I can actually get through my day. I'm not as drained at the end of the day. I hope that I see some significant shrinkage in the butt and waist area (and, please, please, please, in my saddlebags) and would love to drop a pant size by the end of the month. It wasn't cheap: $115 for the Accelerator and Pink Drink and another $39.95 for the Priobotic. If I continue, it really needs to work WELL.

                9/17 (start)    9/24        10/1            10/8          10/15 (end)       diff.
Weight     181.0 lbs      178.4                                                                     -2.6
Bust          37.5 in         37                                                                          -.5
Chest        32 in            32                                                                           0
Waist        34.25           33.5                                                                        -.75
Hips          44.5             43                                                                          -1.5
Butt           47                46.5                                                                       -.5

A totally Tracy kind of day

Okay, so it's been a Tracy day. It's only 1:28 p.m., but I'm ready to shout "stick a fork in me...I'm done!"

First, the day started with my alarm going off. Normally I wake up at 4:30 a.m. and spend the next 55 minutes in that half sleep thing until about 5 minutes before my alarm rings. I turn off the alarm so I don't have to hear it buzz and then spend the next 5-15 minutes (depending on my mood) fighting with myself that I need to get up and no, I can't take a sick day just because it's morning. So when I sleep until my alarm wakes me...I wake exhausted and confused and that's just not the way to start a day.

Next I had to face a Weight Reality. Now there are two types of Weight Reality. The first is the reality that sets in when you see the number on the scale. I face that every morning of my life. I am now 183.8 lbs. That's over my top weight from last January. The weight that forced me to join my school's Biggest Loser program and helped me to lose 20 pounds (course, it seems I've found it again). But at that weight --which is lighter than I am now-- I was wearing size 18 pants. Right now I'm 183.8 lbs and still in 14s (although the fit and camel-toe of it all should be convincing me to buy some 16s...but I digress). Today the other Weight Reality came to light. I grabbed a sleeveless blouse and broomstick skirt thinking that it would be good for work and the traveling I'm doing after work. Shower taken, undergarments on and shirt goes over my head and clings to my NOT-so-lovely-lady-lumps. Hmmm...not good. Then I attempt to put the skirt on, but that waist is just not gonna stretch to go over my saddlebags and hips. Not today, my friends. And I can't put it on over my head because it gets stuck on my midriff on the way down. So because time is of the essence and my clothing selection is limited because of what had to be packed for my trip this weekend and what is clean...I have on a stained, brown pair of slacks that need desperately to be size bigger with a different colored brown top...cuz brown is a neutral and goes with everything, right? Even a different colored brown. Okay, not really, but it got me out of the closet...so to speak.

So off to school I go. It's proctor time. I'm with the class where the chucker is. This child is so desperate for attention that he sniffles and coughs, clears his throat and blows his nose, turns around in his seat and counts out loud and, yes, he makes himself throw up for attention. He did it yesterday and was gearing up for it this morning. I talked him down today...but he doesn't like me anymore.

Fast forward to after lunch and I'm on the verge of a big project that affects funding for the school

and just need an answer from a bigwig at the County Office level before I get moving on it. I can’t get started on any of the other things on my plate because once you start on those, you gotta finish them, so I decide to do some office sprucing. I cleaned out some files, put some equipment and cables away in the Tech Closet and wiped down everything I could wipe down. And then it hit me. The perfect project.

 

Currently my desk sits in the middle of my office so when you come in you can see all the power cords hanging from my computer down the back of the desk and into the surge protector under my desk. My desk has those holes in it to string the power cords through so you don’t have the ugly cord mess. Well, I do have that ugly cord mess and it has bothered me all year but I didn’t want to take time away from my other duties to do anything about it. See what I mean? It was the perfect project to tackle. Quick and easy (oh, those words haunt me)… today was the day. And that’s where my story took a lefthand turn. In trying to “help” feed the power cords through the hole, into the pocket and then out through the other hole in the kneehole in my desk, I realized that my hand really shouldn’t have been shoved in quite as far as I shoved it, because it wasn’t coming out. So there I stood, in the middle of my office, bent over slightly with my hand stuck in my desk, frantically trying to yank it out. I have my tennis bracelet on that hand which didn’t help matters and the power cord was in there taking up space as well. As I got more and more frantic that I’d have to call someone to help me, it dawned on me that with a good stretch and just slight damage to my hand, I could touch the toolbox. I was able to finagle a screwdriver out of the toolbox and ever so slightly broke my desk to give me the ¼” that I needed to unjam my hand.

 So now I sit at my desk with a nice and neat deskfront, cords neatly tucked through my desk to the surge protector below. I was able to cover up the damage to my desk (until the next person tries to feed their power cords). My hand –and tennis bracelet—are intact with just slight scratches to attest to the panic-filled yanking they bore, and I am able to cover up with coughing most of the uncontrollable laughter that bursts forth when I imagine what my face must have looked like when I realized I was trapped.

 

I'm NOT still trapped in my desk (good); no one walked in on me while I was trapped in my desk (better); and I didn't have to have someone come rescue me (best). Plus, I got a good story out of it...

The hole in question...and yes, if I'd been able to reach my phone,
 I'd have taken a picture of my hand stuck in there!
Thank you very much!

But all in all...it's just a totally Tracy kind of day.

Eating for two...

No. I am not pregnant. But my friend is. And she glows around food. Honestly! She tends to glow in general because she's just one of those good-hearted, genuine people. But add pregnancy and the glow wattage ups about 50%. Add food to the mix? And you could probably see her in complete darkness!

This last week was Spring Break. My goal was to 1) stop drinking soda, 2) start exercising, and 3) make better food choices. I did not accomplish a single one of those goals. Darn it. But this weekend? Oh my...I think I may have hit a new number on the scale. I'm already heavier than I've ever been (including day before giving birth weights) so you would think that going not once, not twice, but out to eat for dinner three times in a row might ding something in my head. But no. I did okay the first time we went out...but that was because I had a stomachache. I still managed to put away a dish consisting of two crepes, fruit, yogurt and granola. The next night I was HUNGRY! A BLT was calling my name but all they had was a double BLT. Which I ordered. And ate. One of the other diners in our group had ordered a banana/caramel pancake creation that look really nummy. Wouldn't you know the waitress carried one over to our table. It had been sent out to the floor accidentally and the table that they tried to deliver it to didn't want it. So it ended up in front of me. And I ate it. Every single bite. I did offer it to the others, but they somehow handled temptation. MMmmm, it was gooood. So the next night I'm already home and have made dinner when Kenny calls and says the group is going out. So I pop in the car and head out. I managed to eat almost an entire order of Skillet Queso at Chili's by myself. Then I ate about half my Big Mouth Bites. Talk about roll out the barrel!

I'm back on the wagon, though. I had a protein bar and an Ensure Clear Nutritional Drink for breakfast. Got me 18 g of protein and almost 500 calories (eek!). I brought a Lean Cuisine meal for lunch and have drank 32 oz of water. About to go fill up my water bottle and get my lunch cooking. Hope I can stay away from the vending machine!

I refuse to end up looking as large as my friend will. Because she? Will pop out a baby and soon be back to her pre-pregnancy weight. Me? Not so much!

To be healthy or not to be...

Okay, so I have managed to gain back all 20 lbs I lost last year…and then some. So I tell myself that I’m going to buckle down and get back on the Get Healthy Bandwagon over Spring Break, which is next week. Then I realized how waiting until last week is just so very silly. Why can’t I start now? So I bring my little Lean Cuisine meal with me to work and I healthily eat that with my Diet Dr. Pepper (getting off caffeine is on the to-do list, but not a top priority). Then I realize that I’m still a wee bit hungry so what do I do? I go to the snack machine and grab not only a bag of Chex Mix but a Snicker bar and chow down!

 

Seriously?! I’m my own worst enemy!!

Well, I tried

What is about blogging that demands so much discipline? How hard can it be to simply write down your thoughts periodically? Apparently, it takes a lot of discipline as most of my blogs are apologies for the big blocks of time between blogs!

What's new? I actually did something. I didn't just think about, mull it over and then whoops! deadline passed...I did something. The school offered a Biggest Loser competition and I joined it. Not with any hope of actually winning, especially once I found out that the winner was based on poundage lost, not percentage of body weight lost. I wanted to get something started that I obviously couldn't do for myself. I've joined gyms in the past...and then not gone. I have all sorts of exercise DVDs that I don't use and even have a stationary bike which has been moved to Lorie's room, where I don't think it's getting anymore use than it did when it was in my room. I figured joining the B.L. would give me the motivation to actually do something since if I didn't show up for workouts (twice a week), someone was going to want to know what was going on. If I had a cruddy lunch, I would have to explain myself to someone. And since we weigh in every week...total accountability! So far I've lost 5 lbs...but call foul on this last week's weighin. My scale at home has been about 2 lbs off of the school's scale this entire time. This week it showed that I lost 4 lbs but the school scale said I didn't lose anything! Add to the confusion that I went to the doctor that same day and my weight was 4 lbs less than the school's scale! I'm trying to suck it up (obviously not very well since it's the next day and I'm still whining about it) and move on knowing that once this 8 week B.L. thing is over...I get to use MY scale! :)

Celebrity Watch 2009

How is it that my last blog was in April? How sad that I'm still on the same woe-is-my-weight train since my last blog was whining about how big I'd become, too. It's just a little irritating that at the start of January 2009, I am almost back up to my January 2008 weight. Now, granted, it's not like I've been working out and watching what I eat (as I sit here scarfing down pizza and a Mountain Dew...the dinner of champions). But still, well, anything I say is going to sound stupid so I may as well leave that one right there, finish eating my pizza and move on.

I had a wee "oh my gosh" moment this afternoon and couldn't get the satisfaction of getting a "oh, wow, you're so lucky" kind of response, so all I'm left with is being able to type it here and see it in print.

Are you ready to "squee" a little? I was actually, truly and honestly, driving behind the General Lee today!!! That's right, the actual General Lee from the old Dukes of Hazzard show! And yes, I know there was more than one General Lee, and this is probably an imitation one, but barring those minor details...the General Lee, people!!

So, okay, that's not too terribly exciting. But heck, I live in Loganville, Ga...it don't get much better than that! Anyway, as the story goes, I'm in my car with Meg on my way to my friend who lives in Covington to close her Premier show. I'm at the entrance to the subdivision looking for a break in oncoming traffic when I see coming down the highway an old-timey looking cop car. So I tell Meg, check out that cop car! That's the way they used to look. And she nicely said, oh, wow. (She's my favorite) Then right behind the cop car drove the General Lee! Now big Kenny has this fascination for the dude that played Bo Duke (whose name escapes me at the moment). John Schneider. There we go, caught up. Anyhow, Mr.Schneider was apparently a celebrity honorary coach for his kiddie baseball team and he has pictures of the game that Mr. Schneider showed up at that he likes to show off. It's one of his Major Moments from his childhood. Well, dang it, I'm driving down the highway behind the General Lee! So I call my man and all I get for my troubles is, oh yeah, that's nice. Come ON!!! Seriously??!!

Anyhow, after THAT disappointing response I had Meg dig out my camera from the Black Hole (my pocketbook) and take a couple photos. I obviously need to have the kid get more practice with the camera because when they turned left and I told her to take a picture so we could see the 01 on the side, she got the cop car and not the side of the General Lee. They turned into Wendy's and instead of taking the picture like I told her spent the time chattering at me and by the time she remembered that in order to take a picture, you had to do something with a camera, it was too late. So all I have to show for my 10 minutes of being close to something vaguely famous is the back of the General Lee and my dashboard. Well, and a nifty picture of the stupid cop car. And when I figure out where she put my camera I'm posting it here, baby, for all (well the two who sometimes mosey over here to read this blather) to see!

The weight of it all.

I'm kind of getting tired of my weight. Well, more I'm tired of what my butt and thighs look like. I'm especially irked because the lady I work with has a brother who is a plastic surgeon who says that there is NO way to get the saddlebags gone except to get them sucked out. Come on! That just can't be possible!

Don't get me wrong. I know what to eat and I know I should exercise, but I want to be the first person in history to get a modelesque body without the work. I know, I know, it's a long shot at best. But a girl's gotta have goals!!