Blog Fodder

Tidbits tonight, gang!

We are back from Amish country.  Nice little jaunt to see some stuff and buy me wine.  Yeah, my wine comes from two hours away and we buy a case at a time because it is a little journey to get it.  It's deliciously sweet and I adore it.  I have a bottle chilling in the freezer now so I can have a glass tonight!

I need someone to explain to me the purpose of women making decisions.  What I mean is that men, or at least, my men, don't like to make them; they always want someone else to do it.  The Brit gets very "Okay, someone decide what we're doing.  I got us here, I got the hotel, now someone decide what we are doing."  This translates into all three men sit in front of the television while the female, aka, me, surfs the net looking for something to do, though any suggestion is met with a disapproving grunt.  So finally, we just leave the hotel with no known destination and we find a few things to do and then we need to work out lunch.  Again, no one has any suggestions, so I make one, and my suggestion is met with annoyance (apparently it was no where near where we were, but I am directionally challenged in some places I don't often visit.  So then when the husband swings into a parking lot of a different restaurant, not only must it be okay, but it must be enthusiastically more than okay.  It's work, I tell ya!  Work! 

Once in the restaurant, the oldest child selects things like sushi based on the prices.  Meaning, he skims the price list before even looking at the items as for some reason he has it in his head that the most expensive things surely must taste the best.  I told him when he was old enough to get a job, his first check he was taking us out to dinner and we were going to order our meals based on the prices.  Work!

But all in all I love little weekend adventures, give or take a little moodiness or attitude.  I love just looking out the window as we are traveling and darting in little places I have never been inside of before.  I'm a really, really good shopper!  

Tomorrow, I am going to see this.  More details on it Sunday.  I know the gal who wrote the script and does the acting.  Huge surprise to me!

Q&A Friday

Thanks to Susan, we have a Q&A today.  We are getting ready to leave on an overnight trip to Lancaster, so I'm trying to do this quickly.

And very briefly, Kim's hubby, John, had his WLS yesterday and is doing great!  Check out her blog for pictures and details!

Susan asked:

Kim, We're you always very involved with your church even when you were young? You mentioned you moved a lot so I'm wondering if you had the time to meet and connect with church?

Susan, I grew up in California and went to a private Lutheran school and the accompanying church up until when we moved to Maryland in the 5th grade, so I have always been a Lutheran.  When we moved to Maryland, we church hopped for awhile, trying to find a fit, but nothing really felt right to me. 

In high school, I met a girl (PM if any of you remember that post from a few Christmases ago.  We aren't friends anymore) who urged me to come to her church, which was Lutheran.  So, I started walking to her church on Sundays and loved it.  Eventually, I joined their youth group and about a year later, my parents followed and joined.  We've been there ever since.  I had a period of maybe 8-10 years when I didn't attend at all, but after my father died, I returned and have been there ever since. 

That's all I have time for today as I need to go help load up the car.  Keep the questions coming!  Maybe I am too much of an open book and tell you all too much voluntarily as you have no questions!

Have a great weekend, peeps!

Tidbits from The Biggest Loser

By now ya'll know I am fairly well addicted to this show and that I have a total girl crush on Jillian Michaels (for those of you who do not lead youth groups, "girl crush" does not mean I swing both ways or any of that.  She is just my fitness hero). 

Tuesday night on the show, they had Sugar Ray Leonard on as a guest for some shadow boxing and he gave words to place with the word "Power" that has been a mantra running through my head ever since:

P ower
O overcome
W in
E very
R ound

I upped the resistance on the elliptical today and man, did I ever want to quit before the half hour was up!  I was sweating and tired and telling myself, "You can quit.  You had surgery a week and a half ago for crying out loud!"  Then the words "win every round" popped into my head and I doubled my effort and worked through the needing to stop.  Once I got over the hump, all was well.  I love stuff like that.

I also discovered yesterday that Jillian hosts a radio show for two hours every Sunday morning and you can download the past shows to your ipod or listen online.  I listened to one show today, and she packs a buttload of information on diet, exercise, food and fitness into that time slot and she also takes live calls.  The link for anyone interested is here.  Great stuff.

I also discovered today and joined The Biggest Loser League.  It's an online group where you join a team and keep your stats, food logs, etc and you have support from your team members.  They do challenges and the like and it's fwee (as the Geico gecko says).  Don't know yet if I will love it, but I like trying new things to keep things interesting in this weight loss/healthy new way of life.  It's all about experimenting. 

I'll share some of the tidbits from Jillian as I learn them.  I get so much more from her on this radio show than I get to see on the show, so check it out!

I need questions for tomorrow in order to do a Q&A, so if you have anything, sock it to me!

Cool News on the Exercise Front

I forgot to tell you all yesterday that when I was in Baltimore for my one week post-op check up, Pat was checking over my vitals that the nurse had taken when they first took me back.  She commented on my low heart rate, stating I had "the heart rate of a runner."  Assuming this is good, I was thrilled.  Though I am not running yet, my cardio has been a huge help in getting my fitness level more to where it should be.  I'm telling you all, exercise is not overrated.  Fun?  No, not really, but so incredibly beneficial in more ways than non-exercising people can probably imagine.  Not only is it good for the body, but it is great for stress release, mental health and energy level.  I'm telling you, if you aren't exercising, suck it up and get a move on.  No matter how much you hate the act itself, you will LOVE the benefits.  I promise.  You can hold me to it.

I did get to the gym today and did my 30 minutes on the elliptical, which kicked my butt after over two weeks away.  But, I did it.  I got through it.  A little bit lower than my normal intensity, but with having surgery just over a week ago, I was quite happy with being there and completing the half hour.

My friend, Tod, called me today.  Tod is the friend who had to have the emergency appendectomy in November and as his mom lives over an hour away, I helped care for him in his recovery.  He had told me right after Christmas that his mother had a gift for me (which I told him was totally unnecessary.  I don't need a gift for helping to take care of a friend) but I hadn't talked to him since the end of December as he has been in rehearsals for "The Mousetrap" at the Apollo.  Anyway, today he told me what he and his mom got for me:  an hour session with a personal trainer!  Woot!  As soon as my restrictions on lifting are lifted (ha!) I'm setting up a time to work with the trainer on what to best do to tone my upper arms and my abdomen.  I really don't want plastics at my age, so I want to be able to do the best with what I have.  It was a perfect gift and I am so grateful!

I've had a difficult food day today.  Not with food choices but with my pouch not being tolerant.  Don't know if any of it has to do with my gall bladder removal or not, but for both lunch and dinner, I was able to eat very little, ie, less than usual and then immediately felt like hell.  Hopefully tomorrow will be an improvement as all I've really managed to do okay with today are things of cracker substance, ie. carbs, which are not my first choice.  But sushi didn't go well and neither did a little seafood.

Tomorrow, Y again after work, then taking the oldest kid to therapy.  I'm hoping the elliptical and I will be friends again after tomorrow.

Post Op

So post operatively, I am healing well and my doctor seems to think my burping is because I am an "air swallower".  I have to Google this to find out about it and how to cure it is that is it.  I find it odd that there would be a sudden onset of this on January 3rd, but then again, I have been thinking about it.

I was really stressed out that day because I had to go someplace, that due to a situation, I did not want to go.  Though things wound up being fine, when I was at home, a few hours before having to leave, the burping started when I have having a glass of wine to try to calm my nerves.  Could I somehow have been breathing differently because I was under stress?  Not a clue.  I'll let you know what I find on the internet about my newest diagnosis.  Pat, the NP, stated that finding the gallstones were just a coincidence then as my symptom has not yet gone away, but I suppose my gall bladder would have had to go eventually anyway due to the stones.  i guess I would rather it go now when pain was not a symptom.

I have been crazy busy this week; I am behind on my blog reading and my email and my Facebook.  I still exist, I promise!  Once I am finished playing catch-up from last week, I should be able to get myself up to date. 

Oh and through the whole gall bladder thing, I lost another pound.  I don't care how it happened, but I'll take it!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming

Wow.  Feeling much better today.  Yesterday was kind of a blur.  Today I put in a normal day; work, library and cleaning up my neglected house and I still feel good...with the exception of one tiny problem.

I am still burping.

Yeah, you heard me right.  It has not stopped.  Is this just an RNY thing?  I've heard patients say they burp more after having this surgery.  Would that be A LOT more?  My post op appointment is tomorrow morning at 9:30 in Baltimore (which sucks as that means driving to the city in rush hour traffic) and I'm going to ask.  My incisions feel good and I was actually able to sleep on my right side last night.  My left side still has that weird distended thingy, so I need to ask if that is normal too.  Doesn't hurt.  Just looks freakin' weird.

I'm going to really try to get back to the gym on Wednesday.  It's been over two weeks now and I start to get nervous.  Gotta get back and kick obesities ass.  No lifting for several week, but cardio is a go.

The cold has settled in again here, which bites.  Mother Nature teased us a few weeks ago with a hint of Spring, and then yanked it back with a "nanny, nanny, boo boo", the ole hag.  I know it is only March, but the first day of Spring is in March, so it would be nice if the weather would at least start heading in that general direction.  I mean tonight, we have a low of 13 degrees for crying out loud!  But at least by Thursday, we are going to be in the fifties.  I keep hoping to see the first groundhog of the season, but no signs of them yet (I don't gauge Spring by Robins, but by Groundhogs.  I've seen Robins in the winter so they cheat). 

Have finished Twilight book numero dos.  Not as good as uno, but still enjoyable.  Now, I have to break before reading "Eclipse" because I have a book out from the library I have to read and one I borrowed from someone at church in January before she went to Florida for three months.  She comes back at the end of the month and how odd would it look that I had not read her book in three months?  So I need to get on it.  It's Nicolas Sparks and I like his stuff, so it should be an easy read.

Okay, not as right as I thought

Okay, put in a full day today; church, singing without pain meds=ouch with trying to breath in deeply, Sunday school, errands.  Now I'm feeling absolutely shattered (exhausted.  British term).

Sorry for the crap blog post.  I plan on having dinner, cleaning that up and then doing little more than lying on the couch the rest of the night.

More tomorrow.