I'm just your average, everyday, divorced 38 year old girl -- overweight, tragically unhip,
and trying to make a life for myself. I live with two furry beasts, Dave and Abby, whose
feline mission in life is to choke me with their fur. Nothing special.
Saturday night. OK, it's nearly time for me to go to bed (I've got a 5:30am departure from the hotel - ouch!), but I just wanted to check in to let you all know how much fun I'm still having. I walked around Charleston today for over two hours today. Two hours of continuous motion and I covered about four miles, which is not too shabby for sightseeing and 82 degrees. Add that to the two miles I did on the treadmill in the morning, and I'm feeling pretty darned good about the world.
Did I mention that they keep leaving complimentary Frito Lay potato chip products in my room? I think it's fabulous that they take such good care of their guests (they also leave bottles of water), but I wish they had Baked Lays instead of Cheetos, Doritos, and Lay's Classic. I haven't had any of them (they're sitting on the desk next to me), but I think it's a little cosmic joke on me or something: "let's see if she really means it this time." Guess what? I do!
On to Atlanta (via Augusta) in the morning and the vacation part of the trip will officially be over. Ahh, the relaxation has been fabulous, and I'm looking forward to taking my rediscovered serenity on the road.
Friday night. I don't remember if I ever mentioned that I was going on vacation and then on to Atlanta for my conference next week, but, that's exactly what I'm doing. I flew into Savannah, Georgia last night and drove to Charleston, South Carolina today. It feels so very good to be away and - because Mom had to stay home with Daddy - by myself. I'm out of my regular routine and it seems to be just the thing I needed to get myself back into The Zone. You know The Zone, it's when the losing weight thing seems easy, effortless, and you don't even want to do things that are bad for your health. It's been less than 24 hours now, but I can feel the Zoniness creeping in. I had a Glucerna bar and nonfat, decaf latte for breakfast, Subway for lunch, and a Glucerna shake for dinner. I also walked this morning in the gym at the hotel in Savannah - can you believe it? In any case, it's all good and I'm hoping that I can keep this up through my conference next week (one meal per day not Glucerna). We shall see.
So, for those who are following the Do It For (My) Daddy (DIFD) challenge, how are you doing? I will confess that, until today, I'd not been a shining example of health and taking proper care of yourself, so I hope that you're all doing much better than I. If you're not at a healthy weight, you'll be increasing your cardio time to 36 minutes this week, and that's no big deal because you're just adding 10% to what you've been doing. (If you're at a healthy weight, you can hang tough with 30 minutes.) Don't forget about your mental health/stress relief breaks at work. I've done really poorly with this one and must focus when I get back to the office. (I am, however, giving myself credit for taking four days of vacation around my business trip - very relaxing and stress reducing!) For this week's new challenge, we'll be looking at our diets. (Note that "diet" refers to what you eat, not necessarily that you're trying to lose weight.) Cholesterol, sodium, and fats are all possible mitigating factors in the development of heart disease so, this week you're going to take a look at what you've been eating and do some reevaluation. If your doctor's told you that you've got high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or that you might be at risk for one of these things, it's time to be a little more discriminating with what goes in your mouth. Just for a week (or just for a day), try to get more fruit and vegetables and cut back on the potato chips, french fries, and/or Chee-tos. I'm not saying you can never have them again, just that you need to seriously think about limiting them. (By the way, if you don't know what your cholesterol or blood pressure readings are, don't fret, because we'll be doing a challenge very soon that has you visiting your doctor for a little face time.)
Now, I think it's time for me to go and do something lazy. Have fun and be good, y'all!
Tuesday morning. I've been nominated for an award. The KaysBargains Blogette Award recognizes the best female-oriented blog/journal, and the voting runs through June 25th. Only one vote per person so, if you think my site is worthy, I'd be honored to have your vote.
Now that I've got that out of the way, I think I shall go and take a walk. It's an ugly admission, but I've sunk into a mini depression of late and have been eating terribly plus ignoring the DIFD Challenge. I feel horrible - both emotionally and physically - and am so very ready for a change. I can't believe I'm going to leave on this business trip in this kind of shape. Perhaps, if I'm feeling very brave after my walk (before breakfast), I'll step on the scales and see just how bad things have become. I know I'm up over 212 because that's where I was last week and I've eaten a lot since then. You know, it's really discouraging because I was down to 200.8 the morning I left for New Orleans in March. Two months and I've put on at least 12 pounds - pathetic.
Monday evening. Since Friday at noon, I've only had about five hours not allocated to something social. Friday afternoon it was our division's after busy season beach party. Saturday morning it was run out to Ralph's to get Alcott's birthday cake then run out to pick up Alcott and his older brother for a round of mini golf plus batting cages plus video games. We rounded the afternoon out with a drive through of the local In N Out burger joint, then the kids went home to get ready for basketball. Denise went home to get ready for the Junior League's Island DiVine spring fundraiser, which I worked check-in for. I was at the event until 8pm, after which two of my fellow provisionals and I went to Jimmy Love's in the Gaslamp Quarter for dinner and relaxation. I got home about 11:15pm. I got up at 5:30am in order to make lime bars for Alcott's birthday, put everything in the car (including the cake, the Spongebob plates, napkins, and cups, the candles, the card, and the gift card from Voices for Children), and get on the road for Alcott's siblings' home for his party. We had fun until 10:30 when the kids headed off to get ready for a visit with their dad and I hit the road for my parents' house. I got home about 5pm - exhausted. This morning it was up early and off to an all day offsite seminar and it's the same thing tomorrow. Yikes, when am I going to get this place tidied up, do laundry, and pack? Ah, well, that's what the night before (Wednesday) is for, right?
I did get to see Daddy while I was at the folks', and, while things are going pretty well, both Mom and Daddy are a little discouraged at the speed (or lack thereof) of his recovery. He's really tired much of the time and his surgeon's nurse's response is to tell him to push harder to get past the tiredness. I don't think this woman understands that he led an extremely sedentary life before the surgery, so it's going to take him a little longer than some patients to get up to doing a mile every day. In any case, I'd like to make a little request: would anyone who's willing to write an encouraging email to my dad please email me and ask for his address? Even if you just wrote to tell him to keep up the good work, that would be perfect. He's never read my website, so please no linking to anything here, but anything else you'd like to share would be really fabulous. I told him about the DIFD Challenge and he seemed pleased, so I think he'd really enjoy hearing from all of you wonderful people.
Don't forget to keep working on your challenge for the week. Have you been trying to get away from your desk for a while? Do you feel better afterwards? I hope this will help keep the stress (and surgeon) away. Next week's challenge will be focused on cholesterol, so stay tuned!
