Good News and Bad News

Which do you want first?

Good News!!!

I got a new toy!!! : ) I'm really looking forward to using this...I hope I can figure it out. lol



We signed on our house today!!! FINALLY!!! But........we don't have the keys yet because the bank that owns the house is out of state and they won't give us the keys until they are wired their money...so that means it could be Monday before we get them. Our realtor moved the closing up from 1:00pm to 8:30am this morning so that they would have more time to try and get the money to the bank before the end of the day...we're keeping our fingers crossed!

A group of ladies and I are going to be starting a 12 week weight loss challenge. If you read my previous post about a challenge I did I'm sure your asking "Why Erin?" Most of these ladies were a part of that and were unhappy with how things went/ended up so we made our own group to help support each other in our weight loss journeys. We've all been struggling with motivation and accountability so we decided to start another challenge April 1st. It should be FUN this time around. I'll keep you posted on how its going for me. What's awesome is that Connie over at Moving the Mountain has joined our group and will be participating in the challenge as well...so if you follow her blog, be sure to keep up with her progress as well.

Now, for the BAD NEWS...

I'm pretty sure I have plantar fasciitis. I've been reading up on what could be causing such pain in my left foot and this comes up most frequently and sounds right on with what I'm feeling. I wanted to go to the doctor's to get it checked out, but they couldn't get me in for a couple weeks and my husband thinks it would be ridiculous to go to the urgent care (not the ER) for it. *I could say WAY more about what my husband "thinks"...but we'll keep this light. ; ) Anyways...I know that the doctor wouldn't be able to 'fix' it, he would just tell me what I could do to help it heal...so after researching it and asking friends and family it looks like I will suspend going for walks and continue with the recumbent bike for now, get some orthopedic inserts for my shoes, do some stretches, and cold compresses. It really irritates me that I would do this NOW!!! Right at the start of wanting to get in shape...and what was I thinking starting just before having to pack up and move??? Oh well, nothing I can do about it now...but take it as easy on the foot as possible. Which is a bummer too for my new Garmin Forerunner. : ( I still plan to use it to track heart rate and such while riding the bike, but I was looking forward to seeing how it worked with the GPS.

Oh, a little more good news...Hello to any new readers!!! Thanks to Katie at Runs for Cookies I have been seeing some increased traffic. Welcome to any newcomers...and I hope to hear from you about ANY advice you can give me on continuing on my weight loss journey.

My Left Foot...

...IS KILLING ME!!! As if it wasn't enough that my toe is infected, I must have pulled a tendon or something because the outer-bottom of my left foot has been killing me the last two days! I guess I went a little too hard for my first walk. Now, don't think that's going to stop me! I did plan to walk again tonight, but since my foot is in so much pain and I don't want to injure it anymore I decided to reinstate my gym membership that has been on hold since my MS attack last summer (I didn't know then that's what it was). When my husband gets home tonight from playing cards (providing he's not out till midnight) I am going to head up to my local Anytime Fitness and ride the recumbent bike for 30 minutes. : )

Eating still isn't going great...notice how I haven't been talking about what I'm eating? Yeah...ummm...its because I haven't really been eating right or keeping track. I really need to get back on track with that before it starts affecting my weight loss for the week.

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IN OTHER NEWS...

WE FINALLY HAVE A CLOSING DATE SET!!! We will be closing on our NEW house this Friday at 1:00pm!!! It's about damn time!!! *Excuse my French* I'm so relieved...for about a minute...now my mind is going a mile a minute thinking of all of the stuff we have to do! I've been making a list...and it just keeps growing. The first thing we'll be doing is having the whole house painted...I'll be sure to post before and after photos of that. : ) Then we have to go out and buy all of the major appliances. So EXCITING...but so stressful!

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We got our shirts in the mail for the March of Dimes walk! Now they are off to the printer to have Team BellaNater printed on the front and We March for Healthy Babies on the back! I'll share pictures of those too when I get them back. If you'd like to donate to our team and/or read about why I walk, check out this post.

[The] Night Moves [Me]

Is it just me or do any of you feel very optimistic and motivated at night? My mind is always going about how I can do this weight loss thing and that I'll be able to pick up this running thing no problem...but ONLY at night. When morning comes around so do my insecurities. I give in to cravings too much and lack any motivation. Does anyone else experience this? If so, why do you think this happens?

BTW...the song Night Moves by Bob Seger is one of my ALL TIME favorite songs! : ) LOVE IT!!!

Unexpected Walk

Went for a walk tonight...for 30:25:08...lol...I used the stop watch on my phone. I WILL be getting one of these soon though. ; ) My initial thought was to just walk once around our "block" and call it a start...but when I came back around near my house...I suddenly decided to cut across the road before ours and go back to the other side of the park before heading back up my road. Once I got back to my house again, I noticed I only had three minutes to go before reaching 30 minutes total so I walked back down to the stop sign, turned around, headed down the dead end next to our house and back. I even found our sons tee ball stand that blew away when we had the bad weather over a week ago. : ) According to my estimated path on Google Earth I walked 1.62 miles!

About 13 minutes in my feet started to go numb like they have done before when I was on a recumbent bike at the gym. That use to happen even before my 'attack' and subsequent diagnosis with MS this past December. I was worried about how the MS might effect my walking/running attempt. While it bothered me for a few minutes eventually the feeling started coming back. What surprised me was how much my back hurt! I have HORRIBLE posture and when I started walking tonight I made it a point to put my shoulders back and straighten up...it made walking easier, but my back started to ache.

I have a feeling that my toe on my left foot is going to hinder me until it is healed. I bought some shoes for my birthday from LL Bean and wore them for two days before sending them back because they were too small and my toes were killing me. It caused my toe nail on the toe next to the big toe to cut into the side of the toe itself. I made sure to cut the nail way down and have been putting peroxide and even alcohol on it...but its still VERY sore and red. I'm afraid I'm going to have to make a doctor's appointment to get it looked at. I'm pretty sure its infected. : (

I feel really GREAT about my accomplishment tonight! It wasn't planned...I just decided to do it! I'm hoping this urge to exercise continues.

Weigh In Day

I weighed in today and surprisingly I lost 3 pounds!!! So I am now down 15 lbs!!! I am super excited about this!!! Now to just keep the trend going! I really need to get back on track with my eating and I'm itching to start exercising...which is funny because I HATE exercising!!! : )

I also think I'd better reassess my 'mini' goals. Since I didn't meet my last one, all subsequent ones are thrown off. I can't expect to be 30 pounds down by April 8th now! That would be great, but its unrealistic. So I guess I'm pushing all of my mini goals back by 10 pounds. So I'm hoping to be 20 pounds down by April 8th, 30 lbs. down by May 8th...and so on until I've lost 100 pounds.

We're hoping to hear about closing on our house tomorrow! It had better be happening this week!!! We are getting really sick and tired of waiting!!! I'll keep you posted. ;)


By the way...do you like my blog's new look?

I Bit the Bullet!

I signed up for my first 5k RUN!!! I've done a couple 5k walks and I walk for the March of Dimes, which are 5 & 6 miles long, but this will be the first time I will attempt to RUN!!! I've already paid so that I can't back out (NO REFUNDS) and made sure I have plenty of time to train. The race is not until October 6th! That should be enough time...but my husband isn't so sure! He asked if I was planning on walking it or running it or both...and I said I hope to run the whole thing and he said "that's unlikely"!!! Granted, there have been many times I have said I am going to do something and never did it at all...or I started it, but never finished...but he shouldn't be discouraging me before I even start!!! I was debating even telling him that I signed up already because I knew what his reaction would be.

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Ok, so after I signed up for this race...figuring that it would be my FIRST...I saw that The Crim (a big time deal race in my area) was offering scholarships for their training program! The Crim is a 10 mile race (they also have an 8k and 5k race) that has become bigger and bigger every year it seems. They started a training program a few years ago and I saw that it was $140...which is too much for me to pay, what with buying a house and I knew my husband wouldn't let me pay that since I'm not good at follow through. However, I then saw that they were going to be giving out 20 scholarships for people with "financial need". You have to sign a sort of contract stating that, if given this scholarship, you are committing to completing the training and the race (which you are entered in at no extra charge). I really hope I'm selected...it would be nice to get REAL training, especially since being diagnosed with MS, I don't really know what, if any, limits I have. So I guess the "Get Out and Move" 5k will NOT be my first race if I am accepted for the scholarship...but it got me to make the commitment!

Do NOT Weigh

When I weighed in on Sunday I was at 235 lbs...so I stayed the same from last week. :( Better than gaining, right? I did have some 'difficult' days where I went over my calorie intake, but I also know that water retention and just normal fluctuation occurs so I'm trying not to dwell too much on it.

I've challenged myself to NOT weigh myself again until next Sunday, my 'official' weigh in day. I'm am very bad about weighing myself. I normally weigh myself EVERY morning...and most nights too! As I said above, I know that a person's weight can fluctuate up to two pounds on a day to day basis so I'm causing myself unneeded stress by weighing in so much. I hope I can stick with it...there have been a couple times that I wanted to do it and had to stop myself.

We are still waiting to close on our house...we're getting REALLY frustrated with those involved with making this sale happen. I won't get into boring details...but the stress just keeps piling up. We had someone out on Saturday to give us an estimate on fixing the cracks in the basement...$4,100...GASP!!! I told my husband that we need to play the lottery this week! It would be so wonderful to just say..."whatever needs to be fixed, here's the money...oh, and while your at it...finish the basement, redo the kitchen, replace the kitchen and dining room floors, and redo the bathrooms! Oh, and move us in too! ; )

Tornado

As if everything else wasn't enough...there was a tornado that touched down close to the house we're buying last night and very heavy rain. I'm going to head over there in a little bit so see what, if any, damage there is and pray that the power is still on so that the basement didn't flood! I'll update on that when I get back.

*WARNING MALE READERS...FEMALE THINGS MENTIONED*

Aunt Flow came to visit two days ago and last night I had a BAD snack attack!!! I did end up eating a bowl full of Cheez-Its and a bowl of rainbow sherbert. I'm a little bit bummed about this, but I realize that there are going to be times when I just WANT something MORE than my calorie target will allow, but as long as its not happening all day, every day it shouldn't set me back much. I have gained back 7 oz. but I also attribute that to water retention that Aunt Flow always brings when she visits. I'm still feeling pretty good about my weight loss and how I'm doing with staying on track with my diet. I really hope this continues...because the stresses of buying a house are really piling up!

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UPDATE: Went over to the new house and spoke with our new neighbor. She seems like a really nice lady, has a daughter the same age as my son Nathan, and is a stay-at-home mom too! : ) She said that they had not lost power at all during or after the storms and the only damage they had was to their vehicles from the hail. So I was optimistic walking into the house that the basement would be dry (relatively speaking...there is the crack that leaks). However, when I got to the bottom of the stairs I saw that the sump pump hole was completely overflowed and the whole corner of the basement in that area was covered in water. Also, in the part of the basement where the crack is, the drain in the middle of the floor there was backed up too with a large puddle around it. My husband is over there as I type this, with his father putting in a new sump pump because the other one quit working. Hopefully it will be an easy clean up....I'm praying for that!

Repairs

Seems like every time I get my mind running right something has to throw a wrench in it!!! We drove over to what WILL be our new house to get a quote on patching the ceiling crack and wall holes (just nail holes really) and painting ALL of the interior rooms, excluding the basement. The one 'finished' room (I use that term loosely) in the basement which would be the kids playroom, we were going to paint with the kids, letting them splatter bright primary colors on white walls and putting hand prints on them as well. Soooo...granted I have NO IDEA how much it costs to paint a house, I was not ready to hear the 4 digit number he (a guy who works with my husband...so this was a 'discounted' price) told us. He must have seen the shock on both of our faces because then he dropped the price by $400, but honestly, if he had given us that price to begin with we still would've had the shocked look on our faces! So its looking like we are going to have to find the time (and babysitters) to paint the WHOLE FREAKIN' house ourselves. I painted our first home, every room, so I know I can do it...but I don't WANT to do it, and back then I didn't have any kids to take care of, so I could head over and paint whenever I wanted and stay as late as I wanted. Plus, that house was HALF the size of this one.

Painting ourselves, obviously, is not going to be fun...but its not horrible. What David (my husband) showed me next though, is giving me anther ulcer as we speak. He said he needed to show me something down in the basement. Now, I know that there are some cracks in the basements walls, one of which leaks. We are planning to get those fixed ASAP. I guess, since I know that there is moisture down there I shouldn't have been surprised, but when David took me into the room that is suppose to be our kids play room and showed me the mold on the closet doors my heart sank. What my husband failed to notice (actually what we both failed to notice the dozen or so times we've been in that house), was that there was mold on the floor all around the walls of the room and even mold on the walls! We had thought it was just dirty. So now, we have to have someone who deals with mold cleanup come out and tell us what can be done, but as far as I'm concerned we have lost what little bit of the basement we could have used right after moving in.

A basement was a required feature when we were looking for a new house. We want the extra room for storage and to have a space dedicated to the kids toys where they can play. So I was already bummed when this house had an unfinished basement that needed some repairs, which means that we would have to wait longer to finish it.

With all of this going on I'm surprised I'm not stuffing my face!!! I know its not my "official" weigh in day, but this morning I weighed in at 233 lbs.!!! : ) I guess maybe, right now, the ONLY thing I can completely control is what I put in my mouth. So since everything else is going haywire I'm somehow able to keep my eating in check because I know that what I eat during the day is completely within my capability to change. That's my profound thought of the day. Here's hoping that I can keep the weight going down while the repair prices keep going up.

These next couple months are really going to test my self control with food! I already know its very fragile right now...and with so much coming up I'm going to be super stressed! We are (hopefully) in the home stretch to purchasing our new home!!! So there will be lots of major expenses (all MAJOR appliances, paint, some carpeting, and who knows how many other odds and ends), packing up our rental home (trailer) and making sure its SUPER clean so that we will for sure get all of our security deposit back, cleaning up the new house (we're keeping the carpeting for now so that will ALL have to be cleaned before we move), then UNPACKING! While all of this is going on, my oldest son will be turning 5 and having his first "friends" birthday party with family and some kids from his preschool class at some kind of kids play place (I have no idea where yet, so I obviously haven't been planning...oh did I mention his birthday is April 6th!!! Coming up fast) and just over a month after that my baby girl will be turning ONE!!! So I obviously need to plan that and we want to be able to have it at our new house...so the house will have to be in order by May 20th. Oh and I almost forgot that my niece's FIRST birthday is the DAY BEFORE Isabel's so actually, my house needs to be in order by the 19th because I'll be at her party. : ) Oh yeah, and my TWO March of Dimes walks (read about my preemies here) are the last weekend in April (did I mention that we have to be completely moved out of our rental by April 30th?).

Ugh...I want a half gallon of ice cream just thinking about all that...just kidding.

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I went to the movies last night to see The Vow with my good friend Kari. We had a lot of fun and I made sure to save calories so I could enjoy some popcorn, icee, and Reese's Pieces! Yum (BTW...I weighed myself this morning and lost another pound, even after indulging!) I'm feeling pretty good about losing the weight (right now)! I'm on a roll and I'm gonna keep this family size dough ball rolling (seriously, I weigh more than my ENTIRE family COMBINED...thanks to my husband for pointing this out!) until I'm a single serving! ; )

Before I go...I will bestow upon you a picture of the delicious Channing Tatum (he was in the movie I saw last night). : )

3 Pounds Down!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so happy when I stepped on that scale this morning!!! I was just hoping that I would still be the same weight I was last week. Thank you God for giving me the strength and self control to get back on track the last two days and that I will CONTINUE to be on track from here on out!

My sister came over yesterday with my beautiful niece...she's just 19 hours and 19 minutes older than my daughter Isabel (Isabel was 5 weeks premature) and is already walking!!! She can take several unassisted steps...I'm one proud Auntie!!!

Once all of the kiddies were in bed my sister and I got down to work...picking out paint colors for our new house, which we should be getting a closing date on SOON!!! I seem to be in a blue/green/brown phase. It took us FOREVER to figure it all out! Then, my husband gets home and says he doesn't like ANY of them!!! UGH However, when asked what colors he would pick he said "I have no idea, but probably cream and tan!" YUCK and BORING! lol I told him that I'm the one that will be in the house the most, its my home as well as my workplace. ; ) I'm pretty confident that I'll get my way.

Today is a good day, I feel really good about this journey and am hoping to be 15 pounds down by next Sunday! I may even be able to make up some of the second 10 lbs. I was suppose to lose in February! My next mini goal is to lose 30 lbs. by April 8th...I don't know if I'll be able to make that...I am still nursing so I can't cut calories drastically, but I'll hopefully be close. : ) Thanks everyone for your comments of encouragement and support on my last posts. I appreciate it more than you know!

Restart

I had a REALLY bad couple of days....like...almost quit this STUPID weight loss thing 'bad days'!!! But I know its not stupid and I know I'm not going to quit so today I TRY AGAIN! I am going to log E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G I eat today...so I apologize now to anyone who gets an e-mail update whenever I update. I will still weigh in on Sunday, my regular weigh in day, and I will be prepared that I probably won't lose any 'new' pounds...but I'm hopeful that I won't gain if I can get back on track.

I'm not even going to discuss what I've eaten over the last two days. I'm just going to accept that I've had one BAD day and one REALLY BAD day and MOVE ON!!! Today is a new day! : )

When I lost the 40 lbs. in 4 months I was eating breakfast within an hour after I woke up (more like within a half hour). That hasn't been happening this time around. I just haven't been wanting to eat at 6:30-7:00am! So this morning I just ate a yogurt with granola...so that I can jump start that metabolism but I don't feel very full. I'll probably eat my 'regular' breakfast in an hour or two.

Wish me luck! : )

Breakfast: Yoplait Light Yogurt w/ Granola - 190 cal
*Two Cheetos Puffs - 25 cal I was giving the kids some and ate two.
Lunch: Minute Brown Rice (150), Schwans Hot n' spicy chicken breast (150), Light Soy Sauce (20), 2 scallions, 6 sprays of I Can't Believe Its Not Butter - 320 cal
*Larabar Sample - 90 cal Went grocery shopping and they were handing out samples of the Cherry Pie...I'm not a fan of cherry pie or tart cherries...but I REALLY liked the bar!!! : ) Nice little snack...only 3 ingredients!!!
Dinner: Gingered Shrimp Wraps - 396 cal
Dessert: 2-Smart Ones Sundaes (Turtle & Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough) 300 cal I have never tried Smart Ones desserts (any Smart Ones actually). They were on sale when I went shopping today, so I thought I'd try them out...and since I was almost 500 calories under my daily allotment I went ahead and tried two different ones. ; )

Ok, so nighttime is definitely my weak spot! I WAS 179 calories UNDER my daily allotment. Not now, and I really don't want to share this...but I promised myself I would post EVERYTHING I ate today.

Smart Ones Sundae - 170 cal
Cheetos Puffs - 368 cal

Which puts me over by 358 calories! : ( I can accept this and just be more prepared tomorrow night when the snacking mood strikes.

My birthday weekend was great...though NOT diet friendly. I'm not a big cake fan, so my husband went out and got me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (a staple on my birthday).
My in-laws took me out to a pizza dinner. I had salad, two slices of pizza, and half a homemade cupcake.

On Saturday (my actual birthday), my husband and I went out to dinner at Red Robin where we met up with some very special people. ; ) I got my meal (burger and fries) for free, and was surprised (and embarrassed) by the wait staff bringing a cake to the table (make by one of those special people) and singing a birthday song to me!

While I know I didn't follow my diet over the weekend...I made sure I prepared myself for the aftermath so that I didn't get discouraged and start a cycle of making poor food choices.

I was up 3 lbs. on Sunday but am now just one pound over what I was pre-birthday. I'm not sure if that will still be the case if I weigh myself tomorrow...I took my grandfather to a doctor's appointment today and we were out of bread (I thought...found some in the freezer when I got home) so we got McDonald's. I was gone ALL DAY and missed dinner...seriously thought about getting MORE fast food for dinner...but I was able to resist and made some pasta with Italian diced tomatoes and some mozzarella cheese. : ) This may not sound like a great accomplishment...but I'm taking what I can get right now.

Early Weigh In

I weighed in Friday because I wanted to know how I was doing before my birthday festivities (dinner with the in-laws and most likely an ice cream cake from my husband) begin. 235 lbs.! Down two pounds from last week and I had two more days left before my "official" weekly weigh in. I know that I shouldn't plan to gain...but I feel that with the way I've been feeling (really hard on myself about any food "slip up") that I should just accept that I'm going to have foods for my birthday that I wouldn't normally have so hopefully I won't be so upset with myself if I do gain. Which would avoid the defeated feeling that inevitably leads to more bad food choices.

*I'll post again later...with three kids it's hard to blog sometimes. : )