Baby @ 9 weeks
I am pleased to announce that after two long years of trying, I get to now share the happy news that…. I’M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!! Over the life of this blog I have made subtle hints to the fact that we were actively trying for a child. Many of the tests and medications I have been put on through this time have been in relation to solving the fertility issues that go along with PCOS and Hashimotos. .
My wonderful readers, I am so very sorry for my inconsistent posting this past month. April has been a bit rough health wise and it has caused me to slack in other areas. I stared this blog as a way to be an encouragement to others and try to do my best to keep a positive outlook in my posts. However, this once I must ask your forgiveness if I come across as a bit negative and whiny, because today I just need a bit of time to vent.
I am tired of being tired. I am tired of medical issues and weight issues and fertility issues and pills and hormones. My issues with asthma and the steroids at the beginning of the month started a bit of a chain reaction. Aunt Flo went weird (yet again). Provera was needed. And now I am left with 7ish pounds of weight that I am going to have to re-loose!
Though as run down as I am, if I stop for a minute and listen it becomes obvious that God is trying to teach me something through all of this. And while this is something that I have known for years being able to step back and take peace in this knowledge is not all that easy.
It’s at times like these where I feel so run down and frustrated and find myself screaming out to God, “I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE!” It’s at these moments when I finally stop and really listen that I hear God gently whispering back to his reminder that I never could do it, nor was I ever supposed to, and as crappy as all this is to deal with, there is something unbelievably freeing at this reminder.
God is there watching over us and taking control over everything. When I stop and think about how easy it is to slip into the grind of the daily life and trudge through it all, it is these moments that cause us to break that really bring us closer to God. And as crappy as they might be to get through, as much as I would LOVE to push the fast forward button on life just to skip all of this, I wouldn’t trade a single piece of it because God has truly used it all to bring us closer to him.
So while I may have my moments of acting like an exhausted two year old, in the end its all good because God is in control and for that I am ever grateful!
So I’ll fess up now, I had a bit of a re-laps into laziness for a bit there. It was so bad I just completely brushed off my weekly updates. For that I am sorry. I think part of it was that I had a bit of a gain period and I hadn’t fully lost it last week. I don’t think I really wanted to face it. However I am proud do say that I was able to kick myself back into gear and I got a 30 minute workout done this week. Did pretty good to!
For those that don’t know, I use my Wii Fit to track my weight and to do my exercise. I like it because it keeps track of everything from your BMI (which is actually a bit more accurate then my Doctors office calculations), it also keeps track of my activity and how much time I spent actually moving. It then calculates out how many calories you burned. It makes exercising feel less like a chore and more like a fun game. My favorite activity as of late is the 30 minute free ride biking one. To move you step with your feet on the board just like you would when you are riding a bike. You work the same muscles but from the comfort of inside your own home which takes away all weather based excuses to avoid the workout. Not only that but it keeps score for you. It has become my challenge when I do it to do my best to match or beat my high score. This forces me to keep pushing myself and work myself harder and harder. I am also noticing that the more I do it the easier it is to go further. I almost always end with my legs like jelly and exhausted beyond belief but it amazes me that when I started out my high score was 4-5 miles. I was overjoyed when I finally hit seven miles. Now? Well I actually hit 11.4 miles this week. And on that ride I was shooting for 10.6 miles. Part of me wonders if I could actually pull that off on a real ride. It might be something I would have to try sometime.
Well I have to say that when I hopped onto the scale this morning I was not expecting much. It is a rare day indeed when I show any kind of loss the morning after Aunt Flo rolls in. It’s not uncommon at all for my weight to go stagnant throughout the period. I was overjoyed and immensely proud of myself when I saw the numbers for the week. It just goes to show myself that if you actually get off your butt and do the work the results will come. (Don’t you just hate it when logic comes back to rub it in your face?)
So on to the results for this week:
I am very much not ashamed to say that I did a bit of a happy dance around my living room when I saw that number.
So dear readers it’s your turn to update me! What is your favorite way to get in exercise? What do you do to kick your butt back into gear when the laziness attacks? How has your week gone?
In honor of FINALLY hitting the 30 pound down mark I thought I would take a chance to celebrate with what has become one of my favorite things about this blog. That’s right folks! It’s another round of what does the weight look like!
So what is thirty pounds?
1.
My new Sewing Machine! This baby rings in at whooping 33 pounds. It’s heavy enough that my family has made it a rule that I am not allowed to carry it on the stairs. The first time I tried to pick it up it took me 3 times because it wouldn’t even move the first few.
Just think and I have been carrying that around! Crazy!
2.
If we talk in terms of Butter we are looking at 120.5 sticks of butter! That’s more butter then even Paula Dean could cook with! Can you imagine walking around carrying 120.5 sticks of butter? I sure can’t! Yet, that is what I’ve been doing! I can’t believe it!
3.
If we calculated out into M&M’s that would be 150,000 M&Ms! Holy cow that’s a lot of chocolate!
So now it’s your turn dear readers! What objects can you come up with that are 30 pounds?
Well dear readers my week has been quiet interesting and busy. Due to my birthday on Monday I spent the weekend celebrating with Friends, family and loved ones. I refused to deprive myself and even caved and brought a few special treats to munch on throughout the week. I set my expectations low for the scale and relaxed and enjoyed myself knowing that this is a rare occurrence.
My birthday was wonderful! It was filled with my wonderful friends and family and some great food. The best part of it all was the beautiful sewing machine that my husband gave me! I have been wanting to learn to sew for the longest time. He conspired with my friends and family and I now have everything that I need to learn to sew. I am almost done with my first project!
But alas, it wouldn’t be my life without a few trips to different doctor’s offices and yet another referral. I had my physical on Tuesday. It was probably a mistake to go in for a physical the day after my birthday but I wasn’t thinking about that when I scheduled my appointment. So yet again I had all the fun of fasting and giving up 4 vials of blood to the Vampires to test. I was subjected to an EKG and a Breath Test due to my asthma. The EKG was good. The breath test however, came back with results showing I have the lungs of an 84 year old. It is possible that the test was not accurate however I am being referred to a pulmonologist just to be sure. Oh yeah we also get to tack on yet another medication to help with the asthma.
My blood work came back with a mixed bag of results. It would appear that my TSH levels (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) are perfect. Both my general practitioner (GP) and my gynecologist were happy with those numbers. However, apparently my cholesterol levels are still high.
My GP wants me to consider medication for it, but my gut tells me strongly not to. This gut feeling was re enforced when I went to the drug store to pick it up and the pharmacist explained some very likely complications this cholesterol medication would cause with my treatment plan for the PCOS. Needless to say I have declined the option for this medication.
It just goes to show you that when it comes to your medical issues, you can’t just sit back and assume everyone else knows what they are doing 100% of the time. You can’t relax. You have to stay on top of things. Sometimes that might mean you have to get annoying, others it might mean that you have to get stubborn. But always falls back on you to fix the issues of the day.
Needless to say, I have been busy this week. Which is frustrating, because it means I haven’t had nearly as much time with my new sewing (to me) machine as I would have liked. And while I could have easily have let all this negative news get me down I choose not to. I am choosing to focus on the good side of things. But enough with that. You probably are just sitting there anxious to see the damage all that celebrating did right? I know that I was when I stepped on the scale this morning. It took me a moment to actually peak at the screen and see my numbers for the week.
Imagine my absolute shock and surprise when I actually did take a look at the numbers!
The Results for the week are:
In all honesty, I think that is the best birthday present I could ever give myself! And it goes to show that you can indeed have your cake and lose weight to! I can’t describe how great it feels to finally break through the 30 pound wall. And in just 4-5 pounds more I will officially be out of the obese category! How great is that!
So dear readers now is the time I hear from you! How has your week gone? Anything exciting going on with you?
So here on my blog I have no problems sharing my view point and all that I have learned. This is especially true when it comes to High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). But recently I was watching some tv with one of the kids that I nanny and yet another of those stupid “Corn Sugar” adds came on. Well, this ad and my skeptical annoyance at it raised the curiosity of the teen and she decided to poke around and investigate further.
In her poking she found the following website that can be found HERE .
At first glance my alarm bells started going off. It is very apparent that this is a commercially produced blog like sight. Yet when we looked for a name to see who runs the site we found that it is run by some official looking agency called The Center for Consumer Freedom. Their website can be found HERE .
They raise interesting claims that all of the hype about HFCS is false. And on the Sweet Scam site under the Myths and Facts Section there are a lot of very broad statements about what is myth and very specific word bending with the counter point facts.
Still the sites do bring up the question, who in the end is right and how much of what they say is indeed true?
The big key for me is both sites repeated statements of any sweetener is fine moderation. But the big issue here is, HFCS has found its way into every food imaginable. It’s in so much that if you don’t do your very best to avoid it you quickly become inundated with this said harmless “Corn Sugar”. To avoid this junk all together you either have to spend a fortune buying expensive high end organics or you starve. And for someone on my kind of budget high end anything really just isn’t an option for daily life. You have to fight for moderation.
So dear readers, what are your thoughts on sites like these? In your opinion who is indeed the real “sweet scam”?
I for one will take the words of caution from my many doctors and my nutritionist as well as the many articles I have found myself, including an article done by Princeton. (If you missed that Blog post, you can find it HERE . The more I look into these new sites the more I see the falsity in them.
One of the first things that I learned when I started on this weight loss journey was to be weary of anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup (a.k.a. Corn Sugar). There are more and more studies that are finding strong addictive tendencies in this evil substance.
Princeton did a study on the substance and the results that they came up with were enough to raise eye brows. You can find the article that talks about this study here: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
It is definitely an article worth your read.
In the study, they found that the rats who were given High Fructose Corn Syrup laced water gained significantly more weight than the rats who were given table sugar. Not only that but they also found that the rats who had the High Fructose Corn Syrup ended up not just gaining more weight than the table sugar group but that the animals in the High fructose corn Syrup group ended up gaining 48 percent more weight!
When I stumbled across this information I started to try to do my best to avoid it, only to come to the realization that it is found in almost everything we eat.
It’s not practical to think that you can avoid ever eating it again. And the saying is always true, Everything in Moderation. The problem however, is getting that into moderate amounts of your diet.
So next time you decide to go pick up that soda can or candy bar think twice! Rid yourself of the constant craving for it and you will quickly find that things that are loaded with it are overly sweet.
After only a month I got to the point were most sodas and soft drinks are just revolting to me. Just try to go a while without the processed foods and then taste them again. They just aren’t as tasty as we thought.
But there will be days when you will miss that soda. And for those days, my husband and I have found a great compromise.
This bottle of coke isn’t any normal coke, and you more than likely are not going to find it on your regular soda aisle. No folks, this coke is Mexican coke! What makes it better than the normal stuff you ask? Let’s turn the bottle around and take a look.
The red box believe it or not is the ENTIRE ingredients list. That’s right there are only 6 ingredients in this bottle. And let me tell you, there is a huge difference in flavor alone to justify the extra cost.
All of that being said, you should be aware that there is a bit of the “Corn Sugar” that may find its way in here. I went on to coke’s website and found a Ingredients Glossary. According to their website Caramel Coloring is defined as:
Caramel Color
Caramel color is made by a process involving the heating of corn or cane sugar and other carbohydrates to achieve the desired color.
http://productnutrition.thecoca-colacompany.com/ingredients
Because they don’t clarify if its indeed Corn Sugar or the better option Cane Sugar you should still take caution and limit the amount you drink it. But if you are just looking for a special treat every now and then, I would have to say that is a great way to go.
So as you go about your day, be weary and warned. Keep your eyes out and pay attention you might just be amazed at just how much of the High Fructose Corn Syrup is making its way into your diet.
So this week my stomach bug has finally started to pass! Thank the Lord above! I have had a pretty good week work out wise. I was able to remember to weigh in 3 out of the 5 days this week. Not perfect, but certainly better then what it has been lately. I even got in 2 separate workouts in.
So with all this progress comes some results. However I am a tad frustrated, even though I know I don’t have much reason to be.
So what are my results for the week?
Its remarkable progress I know, but part of me is disappointed I couldn’t get that last 0.4 pounds off to make this week’s totals a rounded total of 30 pounds. I guess it just means I have to wait until next week to finally see that number. I just hope that this new round of Provera I start tomorrow won’t mess me up yet again.
I almost feel as if the 30 pound mark is a bit elusive. It has been dancing just outside my grasp since just before Christmas. I am getting anxious to surpass that point in my journey.
Anyways that is how my week has gone! How have you been my dear readers? Has anybody else ha victories in getting back into the swing of things?
First off I would like to apologize for being a day late for my weekly update. I had full intentions to get up yesterday and do my work out and weigh in and post my blog. Life however had other plans for me. I ended up having to go back to the doctor’s office to redo some blood work because the lab that it gets sent to spilt my original vial. Once I got home my energy levels crashed and I completely forgot to write my blog post.
I still haven’t been all that active this week. That stomach bug from last week is still hanging around and making me feel off. It has been getting somewhat better though so here is hoping that I can at least stave it off long enough to do some major cleaning. My husband and I have a goal to get at least the main rooms back into shape. Here is hoping that we can make that happen.
The results for the week:
The good news is even though this stomach bug has thrown off my healthy eating patterns I still have seemed to lose some weight this week. So all in all I call this week a success! Not to shabby for a girl that can’t hold down all her meals.
So my week has consisted of waves of nausea that come and go hampering much productivity. I haven’t had a chance to weigh in this week due to said nausea but will try to give it a go tomorrow and post it a day late. But for now, I have just been a little green around the gills and that has just really set me off my game.
I do however want to take a second and thank TheBettyLife for the wonderful acknowledgement and award. I will try to get a list of blogs to pass the award on to in the coming days. For now though, I will leave you guys with wishes for a good weekend and the hopes that by next week I will be a little less friendly with Ralf the porcelain king.
My dear readers, what is it that you eat when your stomach misbehaves like this? Anybody have some healthy options that are easy to eat for a picky stomach?
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The Graceful Skinny 