Weight Loss Diary

Dear Diary:

Today I am in the middle of week three of my diet. Yuck. Breakfast was 1 cup of Cheerios with 1/4 cup of low fat milk. No skim here. (I don't like white water and that is what skim milk tastes like to me.) 1 cup of OJ. Snack time was a chocolate chip muffin snack bar made by Slim Fast. Yummy for the tummy. ( not really....trying to psych myself out)

I have been craving a chicken salad with ranch dressing. So for lunch I had brought just that. I made the salad the night before, cooked the chicken in the GF grill, used a old tiny Tupperware container for the ranch dressing and wrapped a small red potato in plastic to cook in the microwave at work. I also brought along one of those 100 calorie snack thingies.

Then the drug reps brought in lunch. Panera sandwiches, some salads, kettle cooked chips and 4 boxes of cookies. I was brave, very brave. I walk into the kitchen cooked my potato and walked right back out. Good for me. I walked back down to my desk and sat there eating my salad and potato like a good girl. Go me.

I had to go back to the kitchen to wash my fork. I was done washing the fork and in walk one of my teammates.....she was eating a Chocolate chips cookie. How dare she. I walked up to her, took the cookie out of her hand and walked right out of the kitchen with it in my hand. Right in the trash it went. We are going to win this stupid little challenge that is going on at work if it kills me.

Afternoon came and went. So did my 100 calorie snack. Those things don't last long. It seemed I just opened it and pesto, gone. Oh well, maybe next time I will dream that it is a piece of chocolate cake.

I went to the gym after work and had a good workout. I really thing that I should go back to curves. I really enjoyed that but since I signed on at this gym for a year I thing I am stuck there until my contract is up.

Got home and was kind of hungry so I made myself a turkey sandwich. That was good. Hit the spot.

Then I had a 100 calorie Jello pudding. Now that was really good. Yummy.

The good thing about today was I step on the scale this morning before breakfast and I lost another pound. So total poundage lost 4. Not to bad for eating all that food.

Going to the gym again tomorrow. That makes 3 times this week. Which is my goal. Always have a goal to meet each week.

I will have to think of another one for next week.


Linda

PS dieting sucks

ALL RIGHT, ALL READY!!!

Geez Louise. Every time Eric checks the "blogs" he says, "it would be great if yours had some new content." Well, here it is. Not only am I posting, I changed the template. I was really tired of the pink.

Eric has been home for a WHOLE week. Seven days in a row. Holy cow! The only draw back is that I had to work. It was great having him home. Sargeant was happy, the fish were happy and I was very, very happy. The only thing that was bad....I had started a diet about a week before he got home. With Eric being home I kind of lost track of the diet. I didn't do to bad but it wasn't easy. Especially when we went to eat out. He orders the best looking chocolate cake I have seen in a lonnnnng time. With TWO forks. It was absolutely, completely not on my diet.

Wiping the drool from the corner of my mouth, started to reach for "my" fork. That is when the "good Linda" appeared. You shouldn't eat that, you lost 3 pounds since last Friday. You will gain that weight back. The team is depending on you. At this point I should explain about the team. At my work there are a lot of co-workers who are using the gym next door and are their way to losing weight. The management decided that we should have our own "Biggest Loser" contest. With teams of four, we were all weighed and the team with the biggest percentage of weight loss wins a year membership at the gym (with a friend) or a $150 gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods each.

The "Bad Linda" pops up and says, "Eric is leaving soon, you'll have 3 weeks to lose the weight again before the next weight-in." Decisions, Decisions. What is a girl to do? WWSAD? Actually, I know what Sheepish Annie would do. Eat the damn cake and pay for it later. So I am paying for it. I worked out at the gym an extra 10 minutes this week and will work out another 15 minutes next week. Was it worth the extra pain and suffering that I would have to endure? HELL YEAH. It was a 4 layer of chocolaty goodness and half of it was mine. All mine to do with as I please. It was very good. Of course when I went to work the next day, I had to see how much that cake cost me. Only one, yes just one pound was gained back. I rock. Now, it will be all business. My goal is to lose 5 pounds in the next 3 weeks. Not a big goal but I believe it is an attainable goal.

Eric leaves tomorrow. Just as I was getting used to sharing the bed with him again, he's gone. He was gone for 40 days this last time out and that was 38 days too long if you ask me.

It is now time to say good night as it is almost 10 pm and Eric has to be up early to go to Rumford (make sure you say that in a Maine accent) for a load of paper to take to somewhere not in Maine.

Good night.

Flash Back

January 3, 2007 As you know my daughter was home for a week during the holiday's along with my brother from GA. This is the day that they leave to go home. This is how the morning went.

My brother calls and says that they can't leave today because Kelley is sick. But the rental still had to be at the airport by 11:00 am. I needed to drive to Windham to pick up my father, have my nephew follow me with the rental to the airport. Samantha is to drive cousins car to airport so we don't have to drive him back to Windham. While I was waiting in the pick up lot at the airport, a red van pulls in beside us.

A man get outs of the van and starts to scrape stuff off of it. BTW it is below the freezing mark at this point. As I watch this guy scrape the van off I was thinking and kinda laughing to myself. This guy didn't take his van through a car wash? I said to my dad, "look at that van, that guy put it through a car wash and all the water and soap suds had frozen to the van." Now I am laughing. What an idiot. My dad didn't think that's what was on the van until the guys friend came to the van and I over heard him say he took the van to the car wash. I thought that everyone knew that the freezing point was 32 degrees. At least that is what I learn in science class. Maybe I was wrong. Then I took another look at the van. Nope, not wrong. I was trying to keep a straight face but couldn't do it. Even as I write this, I still chuckle and shake my head, "what were you thinking?"

So the rental is returned, Samantha gets into the car and off we head to the Turnpike. We or should I say "I" (since I was driving) headed to the closest exit to head south to go to Logan airport to drop Samantha off for her trip home. (I was on autopilot which sometimes we all do when we know the area so well.) I knew I had to take a left onto the "on ramp" to head south. So I came to the first on ramp and took a left. After merging into traffic I realized I was headed north. Oh crap. OK let me point out to you that there were two others in the car with me, my dad who was in the front seat and Samantha do you think one of them would have noticed I took the wrong on ramp? Nope. I had to go to the next on ramp to head south. What an idiot I was. Headed to the next exist and turned around. So we get to the next exist and Samantha says "Why don't you pull a u-turn here?" I stated that there was a no u-turn sign. As I said that there was a green van with Turnpike Authority plates on it in front of me stopped at the light. When the light turned green the van made a u-turn right there in plain sight. Damn, well if he can do it so can I and I did. Now we are headed in the right direction.

So for making fun of the guy who washed his van in freezing weather, I was made to take the wrong on ramp.

Is that Karma? Maybe, maybe not.

Head Cold Part Deux

My daughter Samantha just called me. "Mom, did I wake you?" "No, I have a cold." I said. Samantha says "you sound like crap." I said, "Geez thanks."

If anyone could hear me now, they would agree with Samantha. I think I did pretty well today. I got up this morning, took a shower, got dressed and went to work. I must have stood in the shower for at least 10 minutes before making a move to get clean. Slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch, (sorry mind wanderings something to do with a 3 stooges skit) now I know I am sick. Remembering things from my childhood. Delirious from the fever. OK, OK.....so I got to work. Monday's, Tuesday's and Thursday's I answer the phones, schedule appts and do faxes, receptionist work. Wednesday's and Friday's I work as a Medical Assistant to the nurse practitioner.

As soon as the phone were taken off service, my head exploded. I couldn't think to save my life. "Maine Centers for Healthcare, how my I direct your call?" This usually tells people that you just answer the phone and that they need to speak with someone else. WELL, today was different. All I wanted to do was get the patients off my line and onto someone who can help. But NOOOOOO. I had to hear about the toilet bowl filled with blood because someone was stupid enough to wait 5 hours to call their doctors office instead of going to the EMERGENCY ROOM. Go to the ER you dumb ass. (Having a cold makes me a tad evil) Thats what I was thinking but what I said was (in my MA voice), "you really should have gone to the ER. They are better equipped at taking care of something like this than we are."
"Really, do you think I should have gone to the ER?"
"yes" was all that I could say.
"OK I will go to the ER."
Thank You Jesus. I think a little praying is good every now and then.

The phones rang and rang and before I knew it, it was lunch time. Yeah I get to go eat my tomato soup. No phones to answer. Wrong. The nurse practitioner was on the phone and wanted to talk to me. Great. Not bad though, only a 10 minute phone conversation. Now soup.

I know I took some DayQuil but I can't remember what time that was. Oh well. If I can find some NyQuil I will be one happy sick person. Will dig through every drawer in this house, if I don't find anything oh well too sick to care.

I might have to invest in a sick slave. One that only comes around when I am sick, picks up all the snotty tissues and things. Will have to talk to Eric about that one. Hey, a girl can wish can't she?

Speaking of Eric, he is very thoughtful in what he says and does. I admire him for all the work that he has done with raising money for MDA, giving blood when he can and even giving the last $2.00 that he has in his pocket to someone he has never met. He makes me what to be a better person. That is one of the reason why I love him. He also has a great sense of humor which makes us a great team. We are laughing all the time. What an amazing man. Love him buckets and pails.

Dog is bugging me to play, so off I go. But before I go I have some sad news.......the 2 foot Bobo didn't make it. After a week of tugging and pulling, the squeaker is gone along with a lot of stuffing that is still on the floor as I am ,you know, too sick to clean. ::cough, cough:: But on a positive note, the quacker (duck side) is still intact. Once again it is with great sadness...OK who I am kidding, I was sick of hearing the squeak, I am glad its gone....hee hee. Any hoo. Time to bid adieu.

Adios.

Holiday Blues?!?

I really haven't been in a good mood the last few days with Eric making a very short appearance at Christmas and Samantha leaving, I thought I was having the Holiday Blues.

Well, some of you might have heard about Postpartum Blues, well the HB is the same but without the labor pains and pushing out a head the size of a cantalope from somewhere something that big should never come out of. Ahh, the sweet sound of women screaming from giving birth. Memories.

I was back in bed trying to catch up on some extra R&R when the Future Mr called. The conversation went something like this: (I think)

Future Mr.: "You sleeping"
Future Mrs.: "I was."
Future Mr.: "I updated my blog."
Future Mrs.: " Oh really? What is it about?"
F-Mr.: "Well, if I told you that would ruin the surprise."
F-Mrs: "So that means I need to get up and go read it. Is it going to make me cry?"
F-Mr: "I hope so."
F-Mrs.: "Great."

So being the good fiancee that I am, I dragged my butt out of bed, turned on the computer, went to the Future Mr.'s blog: Roadside Manners. The first thing I saw as a picture of me. I said "OMG, what an ugly picture." "Oh, no" says F-Mr. "That is a good picture." "It's the 'your going to be home when?' look." Once I got past the picture, I started to read.

I really don't know when this happened but I am know an emotional basketcase everytime I read something heartfelt or see a romance movie, I cry. I don't seem to recall when that happened. I just turned in a big, huge bowl of mush. I used to be the strong one. Not letting a mushy story or movie get to me. I wonder if there is a support group out there for people like me. If not, I will have to start one. It would be called STRONG GONE WRONG. Ok, not a good name but its a start.

As I started to read, I started to cry. Not the big boo hoo's but the watery eye one that makes it hard to read. Now that the eyes were watering, the nose starts to run. Great. Grabbed a tissue, blew my nose and continued to read.

When Eric said that he wanted to drive truck for a living, I was behind him 100%. After the training that he had, he had to sign a contract for a year to work for the company that had trained him. Ok, it's only a year. I can do this. We decided that if he was going to make any money doing this he would have to be gone 3 weeks at a time and then be home for 5 days.

I know at times that I have not been the happiest of people and I know that puts extra stress on Eric when he is suppose to be home and is not. So that is why he said what he said in his blog. Don't get me wrong he says that stuff to me all the time. The holiday's have been difficult with him not here. We both understood that this was going to be difficult but I didn't realize how hard it was going to be.

So, that is why I thought I had the holiday blues. Yes, thats right "thought." I had a hard time with my contacts yesterday, couldn't see. I kept having to clean them. I didn't know what the problem was until I woke up this morning. I have a head cold. My sinus are full even though my nose is running which makes my eyes watery and hence the contact cleaning frenzy of Jan '08. So, as I write this my head is spinning telling me I need to lay down. Off I go to my nice soft and fluffly down comforter to snuggle my head cold away. I might even take some cold medicine.

If I can find some.

Home Alone

Today I will be bring Samantha to Boston so that she can fly home to CA. It has been nice to have her here but busy. Between birthday's and holiday's I am looking forward to having some R&R. I haven't even taken down the Christmas tree yet. Just been too busy. The plan is to take the tree down on Sunday so that on Monday the trash man can take the tree to it's new home. Yeah.

My brother who has been visiting from GA is flying back today. He is taking the "Killer Poodle" Rosie with him. Thank God. I had gone over to my parents on New Year's Day with Sargeant and Samantha. Once again the dog from hell wanted to make Sargeant part of a dog sandwich. Rosie kept on nipping at Sargeant and he wasn't d0ing anything. I have never seen a dog (Sargeant) ignore another dog (Rosie). Every time Rosie came near Sargeant, you can actually see Sargeant roll his eyes and walk away. Good boy.

You would think that since both Samantha and my brother are going home today that they would fly out of the same airport. Nope. My brother is flying out of Portland and as I had mentioned above Samantha is flying out of Boston. Oh well, another trip to Boston at least I don't have to drive back by myself. I am meeting my brother at the Jetport and picking up my father and we are taking Samantha to Boston.

The only thing that I forgot about was my CPR refresher course that is scheduled for tonight. Just one more thing. But this I need since my certification expires in May and this is the only time my office is offering it for free. So, do I go to the free course or do I pay for it at another time? No brainer, take the free course. After I get back to Maine I have to let the dog out to pee, feed him, take my dad home, go get something to eat and then go the learn how to save someones life. Busy day.

After all this is done, I might even start to think about planning the wedding again. Maybe I will
take a few days off first. That sounds like a fabulous idea.

I haven't been able to talk to Eric for more than 20 minutes the last couple of days. Looking forward to having a long conversation with him.

Happy New Year !!

I think the celebrating is finally over for a while. At least it better be. This morning both Samantha and I got ready to go over to my parents house so that Grammy H could buy Samantha some clothes for her birthday which is January 9th. Having her birthday 2 weeks after Christmas is a hard thing and since she is leaving on January 3rd to go back to California, I decided that we should celebrate her birthday today. Ice cream cake with the number 20 on it was served after a nice spaghetti dinner.

So Samantha, Grammy H and cousin Nicole went off to the mall. I went to Kohl's as my wonderful honey gave me a gift certificate to get me some new sneakers. There was so many choices to make. Do I get the Avias? Do I get the Reebok's? Do I get the Sketcher's? So many, How do I make a decision? After trying on various types of sneaker, I decided that I would go with the old stand by......Nike.

They fit perfect. I love a good fitting sneaker. Now, I can do the sneaking without any squeaking. Oh, did I mention that I got socks too. Yep, they are Nikes. Love the Nikes

Yucky picture of my new socks but hey I am not the professional in the family. You should have seen the picture I took with the socks on a WHITE background. Yup, thats right I can hear the gasps as I write this. Note to self: Do not take a picture of something white on a white background. Look, I just learned something new and it's almost 10:00 pm. Good for me.

Anyway, I only have one more day with Samantha. She is leaving on Thursday to go back to California. Won't see her again until after Jarrid is born. Which brings me to another subject. I am too young to be called Grammy. Grammy is my mother, Samantha's grandmother. I had thought that I would be called Meme. Thats French for grandmother, but there was a HUGE debate on that one with my family. I went on the good ole internet to find nicknames for grandmother. Nonna, Nona, Nanny, etc. I thought I could find one some what related to our Irish background. I looked at the name and decided that if I can't pronounce my own nickname, how would Jarrid. Then Mimi can into view. That had a certain ring to it. Maybe that would be it. Samantha was talking to Jackson's (baby's father) and his nieces. They came up with Gma. I might like the sound of that, just as long was Jarrid can pronounce it. We will see. He might come up with his own nickname for me. That would be nice. Time will tell.

Hope everyone has a Great and Happy New Year.