The Allegra has done wonders. And thanks for mentioning about the Cipro.
I felt awful when I woke up this morning but after I got to work and got warm I was good. Very little drainage. And of all thing my co-worker was coughing deep this morning. Maybe she will be better tonight.
Dee
Wish you were closer also. Are you said about seeing the puppies leave? We have cold air in place but no snow.
Happy
I've noticed that when the weather changes to extreme cold, my lower back where the arthritis is, is very painful. Hope the pain subsides.
Susie
I've never been to a chiropractor. Congrats on the new car!
Terra
Ouch on the weight gain, but I know you will take it off pronto. With all the exercise you could be gaining muscle.
Michelle
My week end was short. I'm ready for my long break in March. Never been to Houston.
Yesterdays dinner is attached. Even no. 2 son thought it was pretty good. And his mate loved it. Took less than 20 minutes to cook, and about the same time to prepare. Can't whinge about that.
Tonights dinner is not worth taking a photo of. I went to the dining room here at the motel and figured I might like a steak. It wasn't the cheapest meal in town. I ordered an eye fillet steak medium rare. It was as tough as old boots. If that was an eye fillet, the cow died of old age. The brocollini that went with it was bad news as well. So when they asked how it was, I thought I would let them know. So I did. They managed to reduce the price by $15 which was good. But I won't be getting much else from there again - unless it is soup. Surely they can't dry that out.
Okay, not even going to attempt personals tonight. I'm just about dead on my feet and I am getting a headache. So I will be back tomorrow with some more scintillating conversion.
Ceejay ~ Yeah I shouldnt be shocked about my 8 pound weight gain, You'll have out why if you finish reading my post
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I woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning. Its 4:50 a.m. right now. Today my plans are to clean the bathroom, Do my 40 min. morning chair exercises, my 30 min. walking dvd and my 40 min. evening chair exercises. I also need to clean my room as well.
I have to come clean about my dieting and exercising. I havent been serious about my dieting and exercise for a couple of months now but I know I need to get serious about it if I ever want to reach my goal of 150 pounds. I just had to come clean and tell the truth. I'm sorry everyone for agreeing with everyone when they said I was doing good with my work outs , I hope everyone can forgive me.
Woke with a stuffed up head and nose. Trying to decide if I need to call the doc about the surgery tomorrow or just go do it and get it over with. Sneezing is the only thing that clears out my head. I am rather on the tired side and should of taken my temp as my eyes want to close and go to sleep. See that is what happens when my doc takes me off all my vits, minerals and herbs for the surgery. Two weeks without has thrown me into a head frenzy. Altho the grandbabes have been quite congested. hmmmmm.
The weekend was ok. Sissy and I went shopping, lunch and more shopping on Saturday. (Grocery, hair supply place, pet store, etc) She also colored my hair that morning before the day really began. We had a really nice time.
Yesterday was church and football. Sorry SUSIE, Colts beat the Bengals, altho Bengals put up a great fight. No worries, Peyton's Broncos will kick the Colts arse next weekend for sure. Also want to watch the Packers game CHELLE, next weekend. It should be a good one and I think the Packers will win.
We are due 3-6 inches of snow beginning tonight around 9pm. I am hoping it misses us but it doesn't look like it will. Great, will have to leave for the hospital around 8 to be there by 10. lol. It is only a 20-25 minute normal ride to the hospital. haha
Thank you everyone for the prayers for me, my brother and my family. We appreciate them immensely.
SUSIE...congrats on the new car. Whew who and 2015, you are living right sister. It is always fun to get a new car, however that first ding always hurts, lol.
CHELLE...you sure are doing a lot for being post op, you really need to get your rest before you wear yourself down and get sick. When is your next check up? I took monthly pictures of progression of myself and have those to look back on, you might want to do that too.
HAPPY...oh the washer whoas, how is that coming? Hopefully the part will come and you will be back in business. I shouldn't of watched DA in bed as I fell asleep 15 minutes into it. Dang it. I will just have to buy the season's dvd when it is released on the 27th of this month. I really remember requesting that you keep all the snow and cold up your way and now here we are going to get a storm blast tonight. lol
SHADDIE...your meals look and sound delish. Wish I was there to enjoy them with you. I am still eating on the cabbage/ham/potatos from NY day. We didn't end up having it for dinner that night, so leftovers it is. I don't mind cause I love cabbage.
CEEG...would you please get to the doc and find out what is going on? Don't make me come down there and whop you with the MELLIE's rolling pin. Take it easy, eat lightly till you find out what is going on. Did you get my snail mail?
TERRA...you sleeping hours sound much better. Good for you. Get back on the wagon and lose the lbs you gained.
DEE...fun times with the grandbabes, nothing like it. Glad you get to enjoy them like you do. We are due some of that nasty white stuff starting tonight. Not happy about that.
LAURA...your NYE party sounded quite nice and really peaceful. Now back to the work routine, bleh as you say. lol. Wish we had a thrift store nearby that we could frequent. All I can find is Goodwill and that place does nothing for their employees, I don't even donate to them anymore. I donate to St. Vincent DePaul or AmVets. Sounds like you have the head stoppage and ear fluid as I do, wow, we need a warm weather vacation. Are you ready?
Guess I better get busy and work for my pay here today. New year, new day. Make it a good one. I will report back in either Tuesday evening or Wednesday, my internet at home is out so I may just text LAURA/CHELLE and they can post for me.
Location: A beautiful and peaceful place in the woods
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Morning all,
Minus 19 this morning. Brrrrr. It's back to the gym day - not looking forward to getting in a cold car - will be like driving the refrigerator down the street. Since the gym is only 4 miles away, the car will just start to warm up as we are pulling back into the driveway on the round trip home. I told DH I wanted to get a remote starter on the new car but he didn't see the reason for it. We'd have to go outside and pull the car out of the garage anyway in order to start it so I guess I will reluctantly agree with him. Many people up here have remote starts simply to warm the car up in the winter. I didn't really do much of anything yesterday except some cooking and a bit of clean up. Watched the last episode of last season's Downton Abbey just to remember what was going on and then watched the new episode. They had a 30 minute bonus feature with one of the experts talking about how precise everything had to be in English aristocracy - clothing, postures, mannerisms. I'm sure if reincarnation is true - I was more the scullery maid in a prior life rather than an aristocrat.
Today is back to the gym day. I'm going to try for that new yoga class too. Part of me is whining and tired but the other part says I am tired because I have been away from things for 2 weeks and that's what happens when you stop. Takes great strides to make progress and you lose it fairly quickly. So press on girl and do something hard today.
Annie - good luck with your surgery tomorrow. Sending you good wishes that all goes well. As for the sniffles - you know yourself better than anyone - is this the start of the rampant flu or just as you say how you feel when you are taken off of everything prior to surgery? I guess it won't hurt to make a quick call to the office and ask because of the anesthesia. To your question - according to Sears I am to get the new washer agitator today and tomorrow the new control board. So we are set for the technician to install them on Thursday. I hope the bits won't freeze on their way here. Or the bottles of hand soap I ordered that are due today or tomorrow. Black Cherry Merlot from Bath and Body Works. Oh that smells so good!!!! I wish they made it in a body wash. As for the snow we drove north to Duluth and they had no snow and my sister said it was raining in Chicago the other day. It's all white out here so I'd have to say I held up my part of the bargain about keeping the snow up here. As for the cold - at minus 19 there is only so much we can contain here - I have to share lest it be - 60 here
Terra - ok you fessed up - that's a start. Now get back on the wagon again. Holidays are over, we are all starting back clean again.
Shad - quite frightful about the steak dinner and if they took $15 off - that had to be a rather pricey entrée. The curry looking dish looked quite nice. Pity you can't do much cooking for yourself while in Melbourne. Hope you got a good rest and are feeling better later on.
Ceejay - sometimes we feel a bit better when we get up and move around a bit. I think things sometimes get stuffed up and clogged when we are sleeping. I have never been to Houston either although my niece lives there currently. Supposed to be quite pretty. Definitely warmer on the winters there. You should have a good time in March.
Susie - I always thought a personal chef made sense when you are both working and have busy schedules. It's really not that much more when you can double up on the meals - no waste on the groceries, good nutrition and portion control!
Michelle - looks like having a dog keeps you quite busy with moving and social friends And you are not even trying to walk the beach and pick up the opposite sex like guys would Glad things are going well for you and I totally agree with your yoga teacher's comments about motion lotion.
Hello to the others. I should get going and eat something and pack my gym bag. Probably would be better if I changed out of my pajamas too Have a good day everyone.
HAPPY....I ordered a new yoga tape by bodywisdom. Yoga for 50 and over. I have not added it to my collection yet but is on my night stand. lol. Hopefully I will get motivated to try it. Ease into your gym routine, it is just like starting over when you have missed a few weeks. I guess my cold is not of an issue as the doc office has not called me back.
I ordered a food steamer off of Amazon today. Got it for 2.03 by opening a prime account. I am sold on crab legs and shrimp steamed. So yummy. Cannot wait to use it. Also like the idea of fresh steamed veggies. This should help with weight loss. Here's to hoping.
Annie – I hope your surgery is still a go for tomorrow – you need it, best to just get it over with. My thoughts and prayers are with you sister. And your brother as well. I dvr’d Downton Abbey because I knew bf would be watching football. He’s been dvr’g the games so he doesn’t have to sit through all the commercials and timeouts, lol. I could’ve watched DA on the bedroom tv, but it’s a sure bet that I’d fall asleep 10 minutes in. Hahaha. If I’m not ready for a tropical vacation today, I likely will be by tomorrow. We’re getting the same snow that you are tonight, and it’ll be even colder tomorrow than it is right now, which is 4 degrees F. Brrrr!
Susie – Congrats on your new car! Enjoy that new car smell!! Good that your chiro is giving you exercises to stretch the trouble spots – otherwise it’ll just happen again at some point.
Shad – I imagine you’re back in Melbourne today. Forgot to comment when you mentioned it a while back about cleaning the microwave. I gave ours a cleaning before our NYE guests came over – it needed it. Good thing I did!! One guest brought something to be heated up and she wanted to use the microwave! We always cover everything that goes in there, yet it still gets dirty!
Terra – Ouch re the weight gain! I put weight back on over the course of the last year starting about March/April, so it’s back to work for both of us! Good to ‘fess up and just lay it on the table. I updated my ticker a week or two ago, and it’s time to get back on track. If I don’t post about exercise, I’m not doing all that much! Feel free to call me on it, LOL.
Happy – Hope you weren’t too cold on your trip to/from the gym today. We had remote start on a previous car, but not on our current one. It was a nice thing to have! But keeping the car in the garage sure helps. We had rain on Saturday that was really slushy on the pavement, but more snow-like on the grass. It was not fun walking the dog in that! Then we had snowfall yesterday, but just an inch or two.
Ceejay – It’s nice to have a fun event to look forward to like you do in March. I hope your sinus troubles have eased up. Good job on the pushups! I haven’t started my challenge yet. I have my challenge sheet on the computer here at work, so I’ll print it today and bring it home. I like to mark off the days as I complete them.
Michelle – I hope your first day back at work isn’t too tiring for you. It might actually be the break you need from all the activities you were doing while you were off work!!! No, I haven’t seen “Wild” yet, nor have I read the book. I probably won’t venture out in the cold this week to go to movie night. I’m a weasel that way, lol.
Dee – How’s it going with the puppies? Will you miss them when they’ve all gone to their new homes?
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My weekend was fine, but mostly lazy, though I did so some laundry on Saturday, did the usual dogwalks both days, and yesterday I made some split pea soup. I took down all the Christmas decorations except the tree.
My cookbook shelf was a major mess, so I set that to rights. I even ended up putting 3 or 4 cookbooks in the donation bag. The vast majority of my cookbooks have been ones that my mother bought at garage sales and passed along to me. A lot of them are real oldies and I like them more for the retro vibe – the photography and the types of recipes. There are so many in which I’m almost 100% certain to never make any of the recipes in them that I should just get rid of them. There’s some that I’ll keep – I have an old Scholastic Books “Peanuts” cookbook that’s cute. I also have a pretty old version of a Weight Watchers cookbook – it’s funny to look through it to see the foods and recipes that fit into the old WW plan. I think this was in the era when liver was a required food, hahaha. I bought several shrink-to-fit clear plastic book covers on clearance a while back. I finally put one of those on one of my newer cookbooks and will probably cover a few others. The real issue Is trying to keep the pages inside clean while using them! I have a clear acrylic cookbook holder that is handy and I use it frequently. I used a recipe from my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook the other day and I was annoyed that the recipe fell onto a 2nd page and I didn’t use the cookbook holder because I kept flipping the page back and forth.
I still haven’t set up my Fitbit! But I have been exercising! I’ve done a workout each day for the past 4 days – two “Classical Stretch” workouts, then a Body Electric workout and yesterday was the Suzanne Deason Pilates dvd. The Pilates dvd reminded me how much I like the Pilates classes I’ve taken at the park district, however, I can’t see myself doing that dvd over and over. It would be too monotonous. I will, however, keep the dvd until it comes due because it not only has a combined workout (three levels of difficulty shown during one workout), but it also has two separate workouts showing the two different levels of modified workouts individually. I’ll do those as well. I’ll print my easy pushup challenge sheet and start that as well.
I misplaced my pedometer for a few days, but I finally came across it on Saturday. Today’s steps so far are 4,177.
I’ll probably take a break from exercise tonight and set up my Fitbit (finally). And watch Downton Abbey!
Okay, lunch time is done, better post and get back to work! TTFN.
I've been in a funk for the last couple days...and I have no idea why. Perhaps I need to win the lottery so that I can stay at home with D and Santa.
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Terra - A lot of people say this...but in the last year, I have proven it's true for me. Exercise is important to keep the metabolism going...but there aren't enough exercise hours in the day to make up for high calorie eating. I would recommend trying MyFitnessPal or SparkPeople to track your food. Many of us are on MyFitnessPal. It's great for accountability, especially when you become aware of what actual portion sizes are as compared to what we eat. You can track calories, carbs, sugars or whatever you want to limit. Once I saw what I was actually eating, I was able to make better choices to get the most protein/nutrients per calories. For example, I love Greek yogurt. Dannon Lite and Fit Greek has only 80 calories and lots of protein, it helps keep me full longer (even before I had surgery a Greek yogurt or Egg Beaters for breakfast). I also like low-fat string cheese...only 50 calories and lots of protein. Prior to surgery, I limited my carbs to approximately 19 grams per meal. Now I have A LOT less than that because I've had to eliminate pasta, rice, potatoes, sugary food, bread and cereals from my diet. So basically my suggestion to you to lose the 8 pounds and more would be to keep up with the exercise AND track your food....honestly....I used to "guesstimate" portion sizes and wonder why I didn't lose. I started to lose weight when I started getting honest about what I was eating...every bite, lick and taste (BLT). Chipotle has some good healthy options, and if you go to Panda Express for Chinese food, choose the steamed veggies instead of rice or chow mein, and avoid the deep fried entrees. Before surgery, I used to get a bowl of steamed veggies with broccoli beef on top and I was amazed how few calories that was compared to the other menu items. As for fessing up about your eating and exercise, I'm really proud of you for coming clean. You've got to be honest with yourself most of all.
Ceejay - I've never been to any part of Texas. So nice that you're going to get to spend time with your sister.
Shad - That would tick me off if I paid for a nice filet and got shoe leather. Ugh.
Susie - A personal chef sounds great! When I was married, I would cook a lot of "make-ahead meals" on the weekends that just had to be reheated and paired with a salad. Dang, your gas is under $2 per gallon? Ours in CA is around $2.50, which is a big improvement from what it was. Glad that you were able to rework your budget for the new car payment.
Annie - So glad you had a nice day with your daughter. I hope your head congestion clears up and you don't have to postpone your surgery. Sending prayers your way, dear sister...and to your brother too. Sending you lots of hugs. My next post-op is at 3 months, so about 5 weeks from now. My trainer has been taking monthly progress photos. I'll take a couple not in workout clothes pretty soon. Nice that you got the food steamer! I found a great recipe for shrimp scampi over Zuccini "strips"...it looks so delicious and is bariatric friendly! I just adore recipes that don't contain starchy stuff.
Happy - 19 below! Have a good workout! I'm wondering if my blue mood is due to not working out every day.
Shrimp Scampi Zoodles for Two
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 2 • Size: 6 shrimp, 1 zucchini • Old Pts: 3 • Weight Watcher Points+: 4 pt
Calories: 161 • Fat: 8 g • Carb: 13 g • Fiber: 4 g • Protein: 11 g • Sugar: 4 g
Sodium: 76 mg • Cholest: 72 mg
Ingredients:
2 medium zucchini, about 8 oz each
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil. divided
4 minced garlic cloves, divided
12 large peeled and deveined shrimp (about 6.5 oz)
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 tsp fresh grated lemon zest
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
1/8 tsp hot red pepper flakes
Directions:
Use a mandolin fitted with a julienne blade or a spiralizer to cut the zucchini into noodles. Cut the strips into 6 to 8-inch strips.
In a large nonstick pan, melt the butter and 1 teaspoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the shrimp, kosher salt, and the pepper and saute until the shrimp have just turned pink, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Set aside.
Add the remaining oil and garlic to the skillet, cook 30 seconds then add the zucchini noodles, kosher salt and pepper. Cook 2 minutes, stirring.
Remove from the heat, add the shrimp, parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes. Toss well to combine and serve immediately.
Makes two servings: 6 shrimp each, 1/2 the zoodles
Laura - you were posting above me. I'm still on 4-day work weeks for the rest of January...then going to 5 day. I do not miss the bitter cold. I'm impressed that you have nearly 5,000 steps and it's only 1 pm! Well done on all your exercising. I'm still trying to find what fitness tracker would work best for me since I mostly exercise on a stationary bike. What's the URL for the easy pushup challenge?
Just got word from the doc that the surgery is on tomorrow unless I have fever or BP is up. Right now neiter exist. Fingers crossed.
CHELLE...the recipe sounds wonderful. I cannot wait to make it. Maybe this weekend or Friday night. The down mood is part of the RNY side effects. Lets face it you have lost your best friend - FOOD. It plays on your mind even when you don't know it. Hugs. You're beautiful!!
LAURA...like you, I have two shelves full of cookbooks. I did, a few months ago give several to Sam. I gave her one of my momma's and she cried. We are such sappy people. lol. I will probably just buy the Downton Abbey Season 5, I like to marathon watch it. Then my hair dresser watches it, then Sissy watches it. Money well spent. I will text you and/or CHELLE with results of surgery tomorrow some time. Probably after I get home. Have to be at hospital at 10 then surgery is 11 EST. I am looking at maybe 3 pm EST home arrival...I think.
Annie & Happy ~ Yes I do have better sleeping hours now. Yes I am going to jump back on the wagon and get these 8 pounds off of me.
Laura ~ I'm glad I have you to relate too on gaining weight.
Michelle ~ I already have a myfitnesspal account but thanks for telling me about it. I defintely need to up my exercise and start cutting back on my eating again and watch what I'm eating as well. I'm ready for the challenge
And of all thing my co-worker was coughing deep this morning. Maybe she will be better tonight. 
, I hope everyone can forgive me.
Glad things are going well for you and I totally agree with your yoga teacher's comments about motion lotion. 
Have a good workout! I'm wondering if my blue mood is due to not working out every day. 
