Catch Up time

Hello :)

Yes I know other than my challenge blog posts (well done to all the participants) I've been AWOL - apologies.

Life has been busy, I moved house and have had lots of visitors staying. My mother in law has been here for the last two weeks and flew home today, so I will be resuming normal service again shortly :)

So what have I been upto...

We took my mother in law to South Lake Tahoe for her 60th birthday and had lots of fun, we got there on the Friday afternoon and it was 99 degrees, when we left on the Monday it was 55 degrees, heavy rain and there was snow showers expected. Such strange weather. We had the heat the whole weekend we were there, which made it even nicer, we went to a Renaissance fair which was awesome, although not sure Dave was too impressed, as I got them to arrest him for walking off and abandoning me (they have lots of people in character walking around the event acting things out) and they put him in jail and he ended up getting drenched in the water barrel - those of you who are my friends on Facebook can see the photos from the event.

The biggest news for the last few weeks, which I'm sure that most of you would have read on twitter on Facebook, was that Dave and I became permanent residents of the US. We now have our green cards, so you are stuck with us for at least the next 10 years :) and it also means I'm now allowed to go and get a job (which is a scary thought after not working for almost 3 years). Although first I have the fun job of going to the social security office to get issued with a social security number - for those of you in the US - you know what a mundane task this is (much like a trip to the DMV!!). 

As most of you will know I signed up to do the Susan G Komen 3 day, 60 mile walk this September, which I was really looking forward to and had just started the official training (until the day I fell off the treadmill!!). Well unfortunately I am longer going to be taking part :( For those of you who didnt know, I have two herniated discs in my lower spine, I recently had an epidural injection to help with the pain, which worked great, but the last few weeks I have been in some pain again :( I went to see my spine doctor last week and he has said that he thinks I will need a second epidural injection soon, but there is no guarantee it will work, and there is still a good chance I will need surgery on my spine/discs, which can have a long recovery period. I discussed the walk with him, and he advised me against doing it with my back in it's current condition, as he said it would put too much pressure on my discs and possibly do more damage :( So I am no longer taking part. A special thanks again to everyone who did donate to such a great cause. I am still planning to do the two 5k walks next month, which my doctor said shouldn't be an issue as long as I stretch plenty and take it easy. So I will be doing the Do Life walk on July10th and The Color Run on July 14th.

I'm still busy sending and receiving postcards through Postcrossing, I have sent a total of o 20 cards and have received 16 so far, I look forward to the mailman coming each day now in case he has a postcard for me :) It's interesting hearing from people all over the world. I plan to make some kind of collage out of them when I get 20. Not sure exactly what or how, but there will be photos.

Weight watchers - erm........ well...... I haven't pointed in weeks :( and as a result I have gained a total of 5lbs in the last three weeks, taking my total weight loss since the beginning of the year to a measly 6.8lbs. So I now have no excuse to get back on track, I have no more visitors planned until October, and nothing else planned that I can use as an excuse to not track. Plus I joined my local gym yesterday and plan to start swimming again and attending aqua aerobics classes. Feel free to harass me on twitter and Facebook, and any other ways to keep me on track - it will be much appreciated.

Oh and I booked tickets to see The Lion King in SF for my birthday in November :)

If you have made it to the end of my lengthy blog post - pat yourself on the back you deserve it :)

Catching up plus week 18

Life has been crazy here for the last few weeks. 

We moved house, then three days after moving in my sister and her husband came to visit, and then last weekend I was in Vegas - which was awesome (and very very hot!).

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and chill out and start getting organized, and also planning for our next visitor (my mother in law) who arrives in 11 days and a trip to Tahoe :)

Last week's weigh in was a big surprise to me, as I wasn't expecting a huge gain, and wasn't sure why, I put it down to a few things, new medication, possibly eating more and scales on a new floor. The scales theory I kind of ruled out almost immediately as it showed the same weight on various places in the house. Last weekend I was in Vegas and I walked loads, I wore my fitbit the whole time and one day I walked 23,000 steps! I drank lots of water whilst there, and whilst I did eat unhealthy things I didn't eat loads. So I was surprised to have another gain this week of 3.8lbs, so a total of 10.8lbs in 2 weeks. I stopped my medication on Tuesday and weighed myself this morning and I am down 2.8lbs so far, so I'm thinking it must have been from the medication, plus I had really swollen ankles after returning from Vegas. So hopefully now the medication is out of my system the scales will be going the right way.

So onwards and upwards or should I say downwards as I don't plan on another gain. I have a plan of action too. I have been organizing my new gym/office room in our new house. 

 

 As you can see I have a treadmill, bike, exercise ball, jump rope, dumbells, stretch bands and a bodyblade. So lots of things to keep me busy, plus all the steps in my house! Plus near to my house there is a HUGE staircase, twice this week I have tackled part of it, each time I climbed 75 steps, the first time felt OK, but I was out of breath at the top, the second time seemed a lot harder. One day I hope to walk the full set, which I guess is probably around 160, haven't counted them yet.

It is also only 16 weeks until my 3 day, 60 mile walk, so think it is time to do some training, each week they send me an email with a training plan, so I have written it out on the board in my gym room and plan to mark off each day I complete it - I will be reporting back next week :) This should also give me weight loss a boost. I also need to work on my fundraising as I have to raise $2300 in order to be allowed to take part, I've raised $1,295 so far, so am over half way there :) Thanks to everyone who has donated already.

I am still pain free since my epidural injection (yay!), and restarted physiotherapy on Friday, I have been referred for 8 sessions and this week I am focusing on stretching as my muscles are very tight. They also put me on a traction machine, which was a very strange experience.

We are coming to the end of the first week of my summer challenge, so I will be posting about that tomorrow. The challenge for this week was to drink 100oz of water each day. I have been drinking loads but must confess I haven't been keeping track of the actual amount, but am hoping it has been 100oz, I must measure my cup sometime, it helps that we have a fridge with a water dispenser on the front, so every time I am in the kitchen I have a glass of water.

I am in the process of transferring my gym membership, I just need to go into the new location to activate it, which I plan on doing next week. Then I hope to get back to my water running classes as well. Maybe I should stop using the words hope and hopefully and be more positive!!

I mentioned a few weeks back about a website called Postcrossing, well I received my first postcard this week which came from Germany.

I have mailed a total of 11 now, so should be receiving more in the mail very soon. I have also this week discovered foodie penpals, which sounds like an awesome idea, where you send food packages to people each month, so am thinking of signing up for that also.

Well done if you made it to the end of my blog post. Have a great week xxx

Week 12

I'm back from my two week vacation to England, where I had lots and lots of fun, it was great to spend time with friends and family. It's strange as when I'm there it doesn't feel like I live so far away, but now I'm back home it does feel like a long way away :(

Well, I planned to try and be good and not eat loads, BUT.... once I was there, there were so many yummy English foods that I can't get here that I ended up eating pretty much everything and anything!! As a result I gained 4.2lbs, which to be honest is a lot less than I was expecting - I was expecting at least 7lbs gain. I did do a lot of walking and cycling so I guessed that helped, plus I didn't track at all, but did try and make some healthier choices and drink lots of water. This now brings my total loss to 7lbs, which I guess is still a loss.

I went shopping this morning and my fridge is full of lots of healthy fruit and veg, hubby will be shocked when he gets home and goes to find a snack! I have just finished the course of steroids for my slipped disc (not that they helped this time), so I'm hoping that will help with the cravings, as I seemed to be constantly hungry when I was taking them. I have physio tomorrow and will discuss the best exercises to do, but am hoping to go back to water running classes next week, or at least some swimming. 

Its just under 23 weeks until I take part in the Susan G Komen 3 day 60 mile walk. So far I have raised $1295 towards my $2300 target. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, and if you would like to donate here is the link to my fundraising page. 

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2012/General?px=6463345&pg=personal&fr_id=1768
I guess I should think about starting some training plan soon!!

I'm not sure if I mentioned it previously but I have signed up for The Color Run in San Francisco on July 14th at Candlestick Park. I am so looking forward to it, I'm taking part with a group of friends including Marisol There will be lots of photos taken at the event for sure.

I have decided I am going to buy the fitbit not the Nike Fuel Band, but I still need to hit that 275 goal first. 10.2lbs to go. I'm hoping that I can lose most of my vacation gain this week and get straight back on track. Watch this space ....

Week 4

Week four weigh in today and a gain of 1.4lbs this week, taking my total loss to 7.8lbs.

Last week I thought I wasn't eating enough as I was exercising loads, so I went into this week with the wrong frame of mind, and made the mistake of not tracking and guessing point values, and as the week progressed I just carried on eating. I do tend to get into the habit of having a few good weeks, then blowing it for a week, so need to work on breaking that habit.

Anyway today is the start of a fresh week, I started today by going to my water running class, I am really enjoying these classes and always leave the pool feeling really refreshed. Ive just had a very yummy lunch of egg taco muffins and spinach salad, courtesy of Danica's Blog, which were really really yummy.

I am going out tonight with a friend to play pool and we are going to Heidi's pies for dinner. I have 26 points left for today, so plan on having a salad and then a slice of pie. So my 26 points should cover me. I have two trips to the movies planned this week, going to see Big Miracle (I'm a huge Drew Barrymore fan) and Woman in Black and have decided to take a bottle of water with me and save some money and points by not having popcorn.

I've been going through my pile of magazines and have four weight watchers magazines I havent yet read, so plan to go through those to get some recipe ideas.

I also wanted to thank all of my new ww buddies on twitter - you all know who you are :) You have shared some great recipes and ideas, and I have no excuse for not trying new things. Talking of new things, I finally found spaghetti squash in the store, so plan to make a dish with that this week. So I have no excuses not to have a great week and a great loss next Wednesday.

Nearly forgot to mention my fundraising efforts!

I have now raised $625 towards my $2300 goal, thank you to everyone who has donated and plans to donate. Here is the link if anyone else would like to donate.

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2012/General?px=6463345&pg=personal&fr_id=1768

Week 3

Week 3 weigh in this morning and I lost 0.6lbs taking my total to 9.2lbs so far. (Still a long long way to go!!)

I must admit I was expecting a bigger loss this week after all my hard work at the gym, but Ive just been looking at my points figures for last week,

and I think I maybe need to eat more. I didn't use any of my weekly points and only used 19 of my 61 activity points I earned this week. There was also three days I didn't eat my full daily allowance. I was a bit better with my water intake but still need to try and up that as some days I don't drink anything till the afternoon.

I tried two new activities this week, water running and water zumba, both of which I loved and will be doing again. Haven't done a lot of walking this week so need to get back out there and start walking some more again.

Thanks to everyone who donated to my fundraising page this week, and thanks to everyone who has said they will donate also.

 http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2012/General?px=6463345&pg=personal&fr_id=1768

I've raised $490 towards my $2300 goal so far :)