Hey Angi - If you find that middle ground, can you please take me with you?? So hard to give yourself credit for all of your hard work....maybe you can take acclaim from the 3FC ladies & gents? I admire your long-term dedication to getting to your goal. I'm drawing some inspiration and strength from your persistence and success!
Okay, let's pretend that the road your travelling is the road to be on. I mean, look at all the advantages. If you were happy, you might not try as hard. If you were sad, you wouldn't appreciate what you've already accomplished. Let's say that this mind set allows you to keep on your jouney without getting comfortable and quitting and not getting frustrated and quitting. I don't know, that sounds like a middle road.
I think it's great that you can see your accomplishments already but still know there's room for improvement.
I am married to the most wonderful man on the continent, at least until he leaves all the dishes in the sink for a week, as though he doesn't know how to put them in the dishwasher.
We got married when we were 39 and 44. He is from Mississippi and I am from New York City. We live near Ann Arbor Michigan. Our friends joke that God had to work really hard to get us together, and that's why it took so long.
I have a gifted 13-yr-old daughter with ADD and learning disabilities. This means she;s doing 10th grade math (geometry) this fall, but she cannot spell. She can memorize a spelling list, get 100 on a test, and three days later cannot spell any of the words from that list. We have her in a private school that specializes in LD kids. She is the love of my life, although having a new teenager is an interesting experience. She has the strongest will of any human I have ever met, except some of her friends from school. But it's so wonderful to go to a parent-teacher meeting where the teacher says "I just love teaching gifted ADD kids," and there's no but at the end of the sentence.
Next week is her last week before school starts -- so she's upstairs catching up on her anime tapes.
I was laid off last spring from my job as a tech writer, and next week I'm doing one week of MilSpec formatting. I'm pretty nervous about getting my feet wet again. Keep your fingers crossed!
Well, I'm off to cook the meat loaf for dinner. I love my meat loaf -- I use low fat ground sirloin, and wheat germ for bread crumbs, along with lots of herbs and spices and Worchestershire sauce. The great thing is, if you slice it up into thin pieces, you can have lots of different meals over a month or so, depending on what you eat it with.
Angi - my favorite expression about the middle of the road is that I only pass through on my way to the opposite extreme. But this time I'm trying to make eating healthily and exercising a part of my life, because I want to see my grandchildren (hopefully, not for a few years).
Angi, I feel the same way. 50# gone, at least another 100# to go. Sometimes I feel like "What's the point, anyway?" Then I remember about my health & those grandchildren my mother wants so desperately. And I see that I'm actually making progress at the gym. *sigh*
This last month @ work has been nuts. The organization I work for is not authorizing overtime after 9-1, so I'm getting it now while it's available, but it makes for people barely seeing me, and no time to do housework.
I've retracted my previous beliefs on McDonald's new salads. I get them w/o the chicken & they are fine. I only use a smidge of the dressing, or my own. I get a meatless salad & a fruit & yogurt parfait & I'm good to go. I've got to stop w/the orange drink though. I swear they put crack in it!
SAPF, 50 pounds may not sound like a lot right now, but it is really a huge amount. I look at my son that weighs 50 pounds and imagine putting him on my back and walking around with him there all day and it would really be awful. Taking that 50 pounds off is a huge accomplishment and you should be really proud of yourself! You will reach your goals!
School started! School started! *doing a little dance around the room* It was so nice to be outside and on campus, away from the mean ol' work. I came into the office at 1PM and it looks like they're "testing" me (i.e. piling a bunch of work on me to see if I'll put more hours in, instead of going to school). But it won't sour my mood! I'm so much happier when I'm at school. 17 weeks of bliss (don't remind me of that statement come midterms, okay?).
I'm using these 17 weeks as a marker for food and exercise too. I'm taking measurements, planning out menus and I'm hoping that come Dec 20th, they'll be a marked improvement in my weight.
KristasMom Welcome! I'm a gifted ADD student myself (a 27 year-old college student). It's a interesting challenge. When I was in high school, I won the highest marks in the state of Ohio on a new essay test but got a 16 on the math ACT. I wouldn't trade it for the world though. I think it makes me more creative and gives me a passion that wouldn't be there otherwise. Now, of course, there's a lot of times that I'm in tears because it's not as easy for me than other people but I maintain a 4.0 despite it all. (PS I use spell check ALL the time).
Jessica -- You go, girl! Sometimes I wish I had waited to go to college. I think adults appreciate their educations, while I went to college because my parents expected me to. I've learned so much more from the classes I've taken since I got out of school.
Don't I wish spell checker worked for my daughter! Spelling is so bad that we're saving up for Dragon Naturally Speaking -- a voice recognition program. Like you, though, she is a gifted writer. On our vacation, she took a pad of paper, and she is now transcribing the 2 chapters she wrote while we were in Wisconsin. It's funny, I write computer manuals (when I'm employed), and I rarely write for pleasure, and she does it all the time.
Speaking of employment -- I got a 1 week contract, and so will have a little extra for the budget this week. This is my first job for this agency, and it means that my resume is in the door, and on their "employee" list. But I think I may go back to library school to refresh my MLA. I think this job might be more portable when DH and I retire (yeah, after we get the 13-year-old into college).
mthrgoos68 - you are so right about the weight thing. My knees are much happier with me now that I've lost 25 lbs. The other day I doing a bunch of reps with 4 lb weights, and I thought, my God, I was carrying around 5 of these things around my waist for several years! I deserve to take them off.
And I deserve to get more off too. It'll be interesting to see how I do with a one-week job -- I ate well today from my brown bag, but we are still unpacking, so I haven't been swimming since we got back. Sometimes, it seems like we get the greatest opportunities to take care of ourselves, if we are only willing to take the chance.
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Sue (Krista's Mom and Terry's Wife)
290/263.5/250/165
So far today is a great day, on the heels (pun intended) of some rather intimidating news. I went to the doctor yesterday, since I have this tendonitis in my left heel and I'm joining a health club in a few weeks. I'm going to be increasing the intensity of my exercise and wanted to be sure she knew about it and I knew how to do it safely. Well, the doctor checked my foot, and looked at the X-rays they did last fall, and said "It's an achilles spur." What? They told me tendonitis last year! Now granted, the X-ray technician had said that she saw a shadow on the plate and wanted to send it to someone else for a confirmation, but I didn't hear anything back so I had assumed the original diagnosis of tendonitis was correct. Now I need to go to a podiatrist to discuss "treatment options." Why is that always such a scary phrase? I'm just getting into this exercise thing on a regular basis. I REALLY don't want to be sidelined for a couple of months with surgery and a cast, before it becomes the normal, ingrained habit I am striving for. /pout
Well, no use worrying about it until I talk to the expert, right? On to other stuff. I was able to walk all five floors of my building (actually, floors 3-7, 'cause they're the only ones that connect all the way around) while hallwalking today. I kept up a good pace, and was even able to carry on a short conversation with a co-worker I met on the way. I had to add it as an entry to my Milestones log, because only a few weeks ago I had to stop between every floor to stretch out my calves, and my pace was SOoooo slow. Now it's a pretty good clip. It used to take me 10 minutes per floor. Now I do two floors in a little less than 15 minutes.
Synger - First, let me assure you that surgery is not the first option. And further more, neither are cortizone shots. Do your own research, there's a lot of it out there on the net.
In my own experience (with two heel spurs and achilles tendonitis), the only real help was physical therapy but it wasn't until I saw an orthopedic surgeon that I found out. My podiatrist was much happier just to give me cortizone shots until I complained they weren't working and then he fit me with orthopedics (for about $200).
There's a thread around here somewhere with some physical therapy exercises specifically for the feets.
Remember, it's not the actual spurs that are causing the pain, it's your tendons inflexibility to the new spur. Physical therapy encourages your tendons to become more flexible and adapt to the spur.
Well all today was the first day of classes for my little guy and me also. I had a good class and will find out when I get home from work how my little guys day was. Homework yuck I have to rearrange the schedule to fit in homework. I just have to change 2 days right now. I have gotten 5 days out of the last 7 days of exercise. I am so happy with myself for staying on schedule. I have a goal of a whole month of 5 days a week. I am going to do it. one week down and 3 to go. It will happen. The weight will follow with that. Take care all
So hard to give yourself credit for all of your hard work....maybe you can take acclaim from the 3FC ladies & gents? I admire your long-term dedication to getting to your goal. I'm drawing some inspiration and strength from your persistence and success!
