Tue. October 8

Time for a SUUUUUPER overdue update.

Where to begin? Well, I healed/am still healing from my eye surgery, but I'm on schedule with it. Vision is still pretty blah, but that's to be expected for a few months. I have an appointment tomorrow (4 weeks post-op) and I expect that to go well. And hopefully they'll tell me when I can think about getting my other eye done.

Next, my family vacation to Florida has been "postponed". And by that I mean, it's pretty much cancelled and we'll try again next year around this time. My dad crunched the numbers and between family things and paying for things for my nephew, it's just not in the cards right now. I'll admit, I'm kinda bummed. Even though I just had 2 weeks off from work, I was already looking forward to not having to be there for another few weeks. But I wasn't as excited as I usually am before a trip like this. And the surgery left me with a pretty decent amount of debt that I want to pay off ASAP. On top of that, I'm too fat to be going away right now.

I guess that'll bring me to my next update. I don't know that exact dates, but I pretty much didn't go to the gym for like a month (minus one little trip in the middle). I put on about 8-ish lbs in that time, so now I get to re-add that number to amount I still need to lose. And that little gain has put me back over one of the numbers I told myself I'd never see on the scale again (unless I was pregnant). I finally did get back to the gym last week. I went 4 times and I have plans to go another 4 times this week (already went once). But, of course, all the running and squatting in the world is not gonna make up for the fact that I still eat like crap.How many times do I tell myself I'll get a soup or salad when I go out, and then that pulled pork sandwich looks so good or I just really have a craving for pizza? I just... I don't even have a good excuse. Ya, I'll just leave this alone for now for fear of whining or turning this post into a novel.

So, anyway, that's it for now. Time to get working on my Halloween costume and pray for minimal back fat.

Laters


Got a few new tats, thought I'd share.

Abbey Dawn clothing company logo

For my mom's late parents, William and Henrietta Ewing

For my late Opa (my dad's father)

Fri. September 13

Hey all,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Just haven't had any good news to report. And not only do I not have good news, I have bad news. I'll keep it brief, but on Sept 3, my Oma (grandmother) had a stroke and ended up in the hospital. She's still there now, but she's getting better. And then, the next day, we found out that one of my aunts passed away. She'd been sick for a while and we knew it was coming, but it still sucks. So, ya, pretty sucky.

But anyway, on Sept 11th, I had laser eye surgery to stop the progression of my Keratoconus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratoconus) in my left eye. I won't bore you with the details, but it was about a 35 min process that involved 2 different treatments. So, I'm now wearing a bandage contact that will have to be worn for 7-10 days, on 3 different types on pain meds and have 4 different eye drops I need to use a very intervals. The morning of the day after was the worse by far; I was figuratively and literally irritated, but once I got on the proper med schedule, it was a lot more tolerable. At this point, I can't tell if my vision is any better, but it doesn't seem worse. Just gotta take this one day at a time and hope I recover quickly.

No weight loss to report, but I'm hoping to get to the gym next week and just slowly get back into the swing of things.

And, lastly, I got a new tattoo today. It's a cute cupcake on my right forearm. I really love the colours and can't wait to see it once it's healed.

TTFN - Ta ta for now

Pre-op

Right after. Took it like a champ.

The snazzy new shade they gave me to wear.

Morning after. I felt as good as I look. lol

My new tattoo

Wed. August 14

Time to stop putting this off and just blog.

I'd like to come at you with good news, but I have quite the opposite. I finally weighed myself after about a week of not stepping on the scale; partly out of fear and partly just couldn't be bothered. I knew I'd been bad cuz we'd had a few different types of cakes and goodies around the house for my sister's and nephew's BDays. So, of course, I indulged. I'd still be going to the gym and I didn't think it was too bad, but apparently, it was. I've put on like 6lbs. FML. Honestly though, I didn't notice a change in how my clothes fit before, but I feel like I do now. But anyway, what did I do after I weighed myself? I went to the gym and burned 1000 cals. And then after that? Had chicken fingers and poutine and went to a movie (where I got popcorn) and all kinds of wonderful healthy things. And then today, I was 95% ready to go to the gym, and then I just got lazy and decided not to go. But I didn't stay home and veg out in front of the TV. I cleaned my room a bit, watched my nephew, and just had water. But anyway, something needs to be done.

I'm really hoping that the time I take off of work for my eye surgery will help me get into some sort of routine and I'll come up with a meal plan for myself and all that good stuff. That being said, one thing that I was told was that I was going to have to take Gravol with my pain meds cuz they can do a number on your stomach. So, I may just end up eating crackers for several days. lol. But ya, all I can really do for now is try to be good, not skip work outs and keep reminding myself to take things one day at a time. And go through the "Thinspiration" folder on my computer a lot to help keep me going. Reading things like "think of your diet as a marriage; you can't cheat on it and expect things to be ok" or "even if it's not a great work out, it's still better than nothing". I'm also hoping I can kick things into overdrive and use Florida as motivation. Really, if I can just go like 10lbs lighter than I was last year, that'll be a victory for me. And that's actually pretty do-able in a healthy way.

Anywho, I'm just gonna go back to hating myself and trying not to binge on everything in sight. Later taters.

I'm giving this the old college try. I'm on day 2.

Tue. July 30

Story time! Gather 'round, children.

K, so you know how I started my last entry saying I thought I was gonna throw up? Well, I did. I'll save you all the yucky details, but I will say I don't think I've ever brought up so much in my life. I swear, every last ounce of anything in my stomach made an appearance. My best guess is that I got food poisoning from a plate of fish and chips from a restaurant I'll call Elsey's - Kay. lol. Anyway, thankfully it was a one and done kind of event, but it sorta messed up my Monday cuz I didn't want to work out too hard the next morning and risk messing up my stomach. However, that did give me time to make spinach ice cubes and turn (about) 6lbs of strawberries, 2 pints of blueberries, and a few bananas into like 4L+ of smoothie. So good. lol. And that brings us to today...

OMG, so much physical activity. I had work, walked home, walked to a local pool, swam, walked home, walked to the gym, worked out, walked home. I'm spent, but proud. Aaaaaand I was able to run at 5.8mph for 30 mins without stopping for a distance of 2.895 miles. : ) Go me!

And now, I'm lying in bed, typing this up, and trying to decide if I wanna go for a swim or a run before work tomorrow. If anything. Maybe I'll be too sore, but a swim would help with that. Hmm. Anyway, I'll see what I decide. Nighty night.

I can relate.

Sun. July 28

Except for the fact that I sorts feel like I'm gonna throw up, I'm in a pretty good mood right now.

So, I have a few pieces of good news to report...

- Firstly, I was finally able to run for a full 30 mins at 5.7mph. That was on Thursday. And then I was able to make it to the gym for a bit after work on Saturday and I did it again, but that time I was able to go from 5.8 to 6mph in the last 5 mins. And, honestly, if I hadn't been on a bit of a time crunch, I might've just continued on til I had gone a full 5K (approx. 3.1 miles). And that visit to the gym on Saturday meant that I went to the gym 5 times this week. : ) Also, I read a tip about picking a song and just doing squats for the whole duration. So, I did that today, as well as some crunches for another song duration and like 20 push ups just for fun. And some stretches. All in all, it took like 10 mins and is totally something I could/should do like every day.

- Strawberries and blueberries went on sale again. 3/$5. So, I picked up 6 thingies of strawberries and my dad picked up 3 pints of blueberries and said I could have 2. So, I'll be making a big batch of smoothies tomorrow. And a bunch of spinach ice cubes. Basically, you blend a bunch of spinach with a bit of water, pour the mixture into ice cube trays and then throw a couple into protein shakes or smoothies or whatever. I heard about that online and have wanted to try that for a while. I hope it works.

- And finally, I had a consult for laser eye surgery on Thursday. But it wasn't just for standard vision correction; it's because I have Keratoconus in my left eye. Feel free to Google it, but basically it means my cornea is thinning and distorting my vision pretty bad. I was diagnosed 5 years ago, but it's apparently gotten worse, so I decided to see if I was a candidate for having the surgery that would slow the progression and I found out that I am. I also found out that I'm starting to develop it in my right eye, but it's a much milder case. Anyway, now I just need to get the ball rolling and set a date for the surgery. I'm not too worried about it, but it's $2000/eye. At least I can claim it on my taxes.

Well, that's all for now. Really hoping to have another good week workout-wise and maybe even a little weight loss. Fingers crossed. : )

Tue. July 23

Had a pretty active day today, but more on that in a minute.

My weekend was garbage. I went swimming on Saturday, and that was it. Unfortunately, the overcrowding at Ribfest this weekend meant that the short trip I made on Thursday night was the only time I was able to go. </3 Otherwise, the 4 "proper" meals (see: lots of snacking) I had over Saturday and Sunday, 3 of them were various types of pizza. Ya, not good, and my digestive system was not happy with me either. But we move on...

So, I really wanted to try to "be good" for like a week and see if that would produce some decent results and then I could use that proof/motivation to continue eating well. So, I had stuff like a protein shake, toast, chicken salad, and stuff. I ended up having some chocolate covered almond, but not a lot. Now, I wasn't super up to date on what my weight is/was, but I think I dropped like 3lbs from a few days earlier. Not bad. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

As for workouts, I had yesterday and today off, so I had some decent time to get in a good workout. However, I tried to do my 30min run at 5.7mph and that did not happen. I ended up bouncing between 5.7 and 4.2. I gave it another shot today and ended up bouncing between 5.7 and 5.0. So, it's better, but it looks like this is where that 30min 5K time starts to get hard. I'm sure the pizza could've had something to do with it though. lol. Seriously though, it just felt like my heart couldn't take it, both times. Everything below the waist was fine (including my heel[s] cuz I had just bought insoles to deal with what I believe to be Plantar Fasciitis in my right heel), my lungs were alright-ish, but my heart just didn't seem like it could keep up. Maybe it just got lazy over the weekend. I also tried to do 15 mins on the stair climber today and could only complete 10 cuz I was feeling pretty exhausted and generally unwell. Anyway, on top of my workout, I went swimming in the evening and wore my heart rate monitor cuz I just found out I could. I only burned 395cals in an hour, but it's better than nothing.

And now, it's time for bed. I hope I have the determination to get in some time on the treadmill at home before work. *fingers crossed*

From Sat. Not great, but not too bad.

Wed. July 17

I don't really have any good news, but I don't have any bad new either.

My plan to go to the gym on Monday (since I had the day off) kinda fell through. Long story short, I fell asleep and woke up for extended periods of time twice and was just super tired and slept til 1pm. I probably still coulda gone, but I don't like being rushed in situations like that. So, I decided to clean the weights my friend gave me instead. I didn't know how many of each denomination I had, but after getting them all clean, I know that I have eight 2.5lbs, eight 5lbs, and ten 10lbs. I also have 3 short barbells and on long one. I still need to find out how much the long one weighs. But, anyway, I was able to go swimming, so I guess that's good.

And then yesterday, I could've used my treadmill before work, but again, I was just really tired and I had to do laundry and clean my room a bit. I did get to the gym after work though. I thought I'd try running at 5.6mph and see how long I could keep it up for. Well, looks like I was able to do it for the whole 30 mins and ran 2.79 miles in that time. : ) I feel like if I can just run 0.1mph quicker every week or so, I can totally run 5K in less than 30 mins in October. I really hope so.

That brings me to today. I woke up late again and was kinda thinking I'd just skip the gym again, but I don't have work til 8pm and I figured going and just doing a little something would be better than nothing. I also decided I could go to WalMart afterwards to pick up bananas and a few BDay gifts for my nephew. I used the stair climber for 30 mins as opposed to running and ended up staying at the gym for over an hour. And I'm considering just going for a leisurely jog around my complex after work, depending on how I'm feeling.

I guess that's it for now. Gonna go have a snack and get ready for work. Laterz.