Week 2 Results

I know I'm a few days behind on reporting this, but better late than never, right? Week 2 I started to add more cardio to my life. I have been starting off slowly as my back still isn't 100% (maybe slipping on ice every couple of days has something to do with it). Anyway, twice I biked for 20 minutes followed by a 20 minute ab workout. This is in addition to weekly volleyball and M-F walks. I have also kept up with my small changes that I made in week 1.

For my weight tracking, I have been using an average for the week. It probably makes more sense to do a moving average, but for now, this is how I am tracking my progress.

Results: I am down about a pound. :)

Zoey and the Owl

On this morning's walk, we heard an owl. This wasn't too surprising since we walk along a nature preserve on the east end of our development. In a way I was kind of surprised that I hadn't heard one before. Zoey is not a huge fan of hooting owls. She picked up her pace and wasn't doing her usual stop every 5 seconds to sniff. She really didn't like it when we turned up the street and the hoots started to echo off the houses. Such a brave doggie.

Recipes

This weekend has gone by way too quickly. We didn't have any particularly exciting plans, but here we are on Sunday night and I wonder where the time went.

Tonight we had my parents over for dinner. We were supposed to do some Wii bowling too, but we ran out of time. We haven't been with my parents for a long time, so there were a lot of things to catch up on. For dinner I made "Sizzling Hot Fajita Salad." I got the recipe from Karen. I thought it was pretty good. And aside from all the slicing I did beforehand, it was on the table in about 10 minutes.

The other day I was thinking about my new recipe resolution. Would anyone like to see me post my recipes that I have been trying online? I know there are a few sites out there where I can create and share a recipe box. But I'm not sure if anyone cares. I mark up my recipe books, so I don't need an online version, but thought I would see if anyone else wants my recipes. Thoughts?

Week 1 Results

It has been over a week since I have decided to be proactive about my health. And it's a good thing too. I got my lab results back and my cholesterol is high. I'm not too surprised since last year it was high too, but I am surprised because it doesn't make sense to me: no family history, I'm at a healthy weight, I don't smoke, I am somewhat active. But my HDL (the good stuff) is at a great level, so for now my doctor isn't worried about it and we will continue to monitor it.

This past week my back has been not happy, so I haven't hit the cardio like I planned. It is feeling a lot better, so today I will start with the exercise. Since I was somewhat immobile, this week I started making small changes to my life. For example, it is pretty much guaranteed that by 10 am I am hungry. Usually I grab a few small candies from the candy dish at work. This week I brought a container of dried apricots to munch on instead. I know that I'm not "saving" calories by doing this, but apricots provide better nutrition than refined sugar (shocking!). At night I have been known to have a bowl of ice cream. This week I have been having pudding instead. This is saving some calories and it is also a better source of calcium. And the final change is that I have gotten into the habit of having pop with dinner. This week I have been purposefully choosing water some of the time instead.

Results: No weight loss yet. No inches lost yet. But that is what I expected.

The Greatest Thing

We tried to get creative with Valentine's Day, but didn't really succeed. But we did have a wonderful day. Ben slept in (he didn't get home until 2:30 from poker). We had lunch (leftover Cheese and Bean Burritos - new recipe from Rachael Ray). We took a nap. Then we decided to get off our lazy bums and go to the grocery store. We had decided that instead of going out for dinner, we would make dinner. We actually have done this for the past several V Day's. It's a nice tradition. We didn't do anything that required too much work. We went to Byerly's and picked up some pre-made crab cakes and beef kabobs. While the crab cakes were baking, I dipped some strawberries in chocolate. Yum!

After dinner it was movie of my choice. I picked Moulin Rouge. Ben thought it was interesting that I picked a tragedy, but I love the movie and haven't watched it in ages.

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

One Pound at a Time

Shortly after starting at GMI I ran into a friend, Mike, in the cafeteria. He was giving me a hard time about my burger and fries, and I was giving him a hard time about his salad. He then told me of a friend of his that is extremely overweight. When Mike asked how it had happened, the friend replied, "One pound at a time." So while I don't need to lose any weight (I'm in the healthy range and my clothes still fit) I do want to stop the upward trend. I know that I have been blessed with a great metabolism. I also know that as I get older that will slow down. I want to establish a healthy eating and exercise routine now before instead of losing 7 pounds I need to lose 70.

Global Warming in MN

Minnesota has finally caught up with the rest of the world with this whole "Global Warming" thing - It is currently 38 degrees ABOVE zero. That's right. After what I think has got to be a record-breaking cold winter, we are above freezing. Yesterday it even rained. Yippee!

Yesterday I "got" to meet my new doctor. She was very nice. I'm hoping she stays around awhile. I hate changing doctors. If mine would just stop leaving... Anyway, while I was there I "got" to go on the scale. Turns out my home scale is pretty accurate. That sucks. (Although, as Ben has pointed out, the numbers may not have been right, but the fact that the number has been increasing means that I have been gaining weight). As a result, I decided to get out of denial and do something about it. I'll keep you posted as to what I'm doing and the results.

Not What I Expected

Well, all-in-all this weekend wasn't anything like I expected it would be. Friday I was supposed to go to a party at a friend's house who is joining the FBI. Mid-way through my volunteer thing on Friday afternoon, I started to get a migraine. And it came on fast. And hard. I took some Advil on the way home. Got home took some more and went to bed. Ben woke me up when it was time to leave. I felt OK so figured I would go. By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, my head was pounding. So I sent Ben off alone. He had a good time though. I slept and watched some TV.

Saturday I was supposed to go to another friend's house for a game decathlon. But I still had a lingering headache, so I didn't really feel like socializing for 10 hours. So I stayed home.

I did make dinner last night. I tried a new recipe: Beef Stuffed Bread from the 2001 Taste of Home Cookbook. It was OK. It wasn't bad, but it was kind of blah. If I were to make it again, I would use Pepper jack Cheese Soup instead of plain Cheddar. (Maybe it was blah because I actually followed the recipe??!! I'm going to use that as an excuse to always play with the recipe).

Today is the only day that has gone as expected.

Dependent

Last week our flight to Texas was early in the morning (7 am). So Ben dropped Zoey off at my parent's house the night before. While they were gone I was home alone. I kept expecting to see Zoey, but of course she wasn't there. It didn't take too long for me to realize how dependent I had gotten to her being my "guard" dog while I was home alone. (Guard in quotes since usually I'm the one telling her it's ok). Suddenly house noises were making me jump and I was a little paranoid. I have to admit, I was happy when Ben got home.

Our trip to Texas was very nice. Sara wrote a nice recap, saving me the trouble. But since she wasn't involved with the wedding, I'll write some on that. After lunch with the Texas Roy's, I drove to Granbury (an hour + away). When I got there Cassie was a little frazzled... her matron-of-honor, Carrie, had just gone to the doctor's and got diagnosed with pink eye, ear infection and sinus infection; her mother-in-law was driving her nuts; the church wasn't set up like it was supposed to be... So along with her mom, we left the chaos and went and got manicures and pedicures. By the time we got back to the church, all the setup was done (great timing). Cory's sister did an awesome job. The rehearsal was a rehearsal - nothing too exciting. Then it was dinner.

Cory's family was hosting the dinner. They had invited everyone that was in town for the wedding to come, so there was about 60 of us. They rented a big tent for the back yard and we had home made fajitas and all the trimmings. I can't imagine how much work everything was. The tables were all decorated with Texas things too. After dinner there was a game to see who knew the bride, groom, and couple the best. It came as no surprise that Carrie and I knew the bride and couple the best. I felt a little bad winning until I saw the prize... a Christmas tree bobble-head thing made of little cowboy boots. Seriously. (Watch out for those who will attend the next white elephant party with us). After helping with clean-up we headed out to the house that was rented for us. I was asleep in no time flat.

Next day was an early morning. Hair appointments were at 8 and were 1/2 hour away. Getting our hair was a lot of fun. We kept teasing the hairdresser and reminding her not to give us "Texas Poofs" in our hair. The end result was nice. Then Cassie and Cory were off for some formal wedding shots. We met up with her again for lunch. We were able to relax and enjoy each other's company for a while before it was time for us to get ready. Pictures, ceremony and reception went very well. I changed then Ben and I headed back to Dallas for John's birthday.