Lazy Weekend

I did nothing. And it was frustrating and wonderful at the same time. I'm totally not the type of person who enjoys sitting around all day doing nothing. I always feel guilty about it, like I should be using that time working out, or cleaning, or organizing. Something, anything! So this weekend was a rarity for me, and so needed.
Friday night I got home, poured myself a glass of wine and hung out with my sisters while Matt and my other sister cooked us dinner. Matt made curry noodles and my sister made black bean burgers. Both were equal parts delicious. It was a really nice night, very relaxing.

Saturday I dropped Matt off at work, went grocery shopping, and then came home. I wasn't feeling great (my stomach was off) so I lied up on the couch for a little bit and read). 3 hours later, I realized that I wasn't going to get much done today :-) But that's okay. I'm currently almost finished with The American Wife, for those of you who don't know much about the book, it's fiction loosely based on the life of Laura Bush (I looked up the facts of her life, and they pretty closely allign). It is such a fantastic book, and a really interesting read. It's also the first book I've read in awhile, so it feels good to get back on the reading wagon.

Saturday night Matt and I both didn't have any plans, and decided to just lay low, not drink a bunch (although I did have more wine, it was just so good!)  and watch some movies. We ended up watching a few episodes of Homeland, and the movie Beginners It was a good enough movie, not great In my opinion. The plot is really good, but I felt like the way it was made was a bit too artsy/trying to hard for my taste. I think it would have been a lot better of a movie if instead of flashing back the entire time, it was more linear. The flashbacks made it hard for me to follow, and made me a bit confused at times of what was currently happening and what was in the past. Christopher Plummer was great in it though.

Sunday was spent dealing with screaming children at babysitting, and then hanging out with family/more reading. I'm glad I went home, it was nice to spend some QT with my sister before she goes back to school, although the end of the visit wasn't so great, and left me in a sour mood. It's continued into today as well. I'm just so tired, all weekend my hip has been hurting, and I feel as though I need an actual break :-/, or at least for things to become less stressful and just a teeny bit easier. Is that too much to ask?

My Lazy Saturday. As if I needed more motivation, it was also raining outside :-)

Saturday night dinner






He's a pro at begging



Also made for a great pick me up :-)

cheesy chicken nuggets, roasted asparagus and homemade potato chips. I don't know what would have made for a better pick me up from the Sunday Blues Dinner :-)


have a great week everyone :)

To Review...

I had this big post typed up on Friday, but kept on getting busy at work. And then my computer froze, erasing everything. So the world may never know what I had to share :-)

But to recap:

1.Puppy Update!

Toby is doing ten times better! He hit a low on Tuesday where he wouldn't eat anything, and when he finally did (I think because he was just so hungry), he threw it up after we gave him his meds. It was so sad and I was so scared for him.

But Wednesday morning we didn't give him his antibiotic (because the side effect is nausea, so we assume that had something to do with it) and he was 10 times better. More alert, eating and drinking on his own (we had to pour water into his mouth with a syringe. it was messy. And he keeps on getting better every day, which is awesome. He even let me give him a bath yesterday



I mean, he didn't like it, but he let me do it haha


Just to give you some background, when we brought toby in, we saw 2 emergency vets since it was a Saturday. While they were trying to get us to fork up 6 grand, they told my mom that they spoke with his primary vet, and she agreed that we should leave him overnight with them.

So my mom calls the vet on Wednesday, and starts to talk to her. Her first words were "Toby was here this weekend?". she had no idea, I guess they called her, but just to ask about his medicine the last time, and even then they didn't follow it and gave him a different antibiotic. So that sort of justified us not leaving him there, because the woman was already a bit condescending in her tone (you could tell she didn't like the fact that my mom wasn't going to just go along with everything. Which I understand, but I think even doctors are a bit more understand about health costs than this girl was) and kept on repeating that this is how they regularly treat these types of things . His regular vet is awesome, and really helpful when it comes to cutting costs (she realizes how expensive pet care can be). She put in a script for amoxicillin, which he was on the last time. We checked in with her on Thursday, and told her how he was doing, and she told my mom that based on what we're telling her, she's confident he's going to be fine :-) We are even waiting a week to bring him in for more tests, just because he is visibly improved (his bruises are all but gone) , and because she wants him to be on the antibiotics for a full week.

So I'm 100% less stressed out and anxious today :-)

2. Relaxing Weekends
After my emotional turmoil filled week, and busy weekends for the past couple, I was well into the idea of having a lazy one this time around. Friday night M and I made steak and cheese sandwiches, watched the red sox game and Wedding Crashers, drink a little beer and wine, and just vegged out.

Saturday and Sunday were similar. We shopped, I went to the movies with my sister (andsawharrypotterfinallywhichwasincredibleandilovelovelovedit), watched movies, and tv shows, and primarily just relaxed. I was so tired from the past few weeks, I slept in till 12 which I haven't done in ages. It was nice to just relax, not be social, and enjoy me time :-)

3. Tracking

I can't explain what it is, but for the most part (give or take a few good weeks), I've been lackluster with my weight loss lately. I kind of get stressed out with tracking, and I go through the Don't wanna track all damage-feel guilty cycle. I've been letting myself make excuses for working out. Obviously caution hasn't been thrown to the wind, I've pretty much maintained my weight, and haven't stopped working out or anything.

It's just been different. I took that weekend off in June because I needed a break, and I hopped back on no problem, but I've found myself doing little things that (to me) show I'm getting lazy. Adding on a donut or snack from the drive through. Not tracking that cookie, or candy, etc. And I want to lose weight, I do, I don't know what has changed from all those months of success.

And after another week maintaining, I decided to compare my menu with calories eaten, and see what happens.

On the Weight watcher website, a bunch of boardies mention the website "My Fitness Pal". I had tried sparkpeople in the past, but just found the website to be too confusing/cluttered. So I gave My Fitness Pal a go. What I didn't expect was a clear format, with a very weight watcher esque landscape. And a database that includes brands, and tons of different types to help you pinpoint what you actually ate.

So over the weekend I double tracked what I ate in MFP and WW. I didn't find anything spectacularly awful with what I was eating (I also had a really good weekend), but I felt like MFP was so much...easier to handle than WW. I was easily able to enter the high point meal I had saturday afternoon, and the exact kind of salad I had on Saturday night. It was kind of fun to see the breakdown for calories/fat/carbs/protein, and not just have that spelt into a point value.

I am really thankful for all Weight Watchers has taught me, and I know I could have never lost 60+ pounds without it. I needed that structure and to have an easier way to think of the food I was eating. But for the first time in weeks I didn't feel stressed out with what I was eating, or guilty for having a few drinks to unwind. I didn't feel bad about tracking all I ate, or going into the red, because seeing I was 200 calories over was a lot easier to understand than seeing I had used 60-80 points that day, if that makes sense.  It also brought to my mind that here was a website I really liked, that I found easier to use/follow than weight watchers, and I would be saving the 16/month, which may not be much but could be very helpful for when I move out.

So I cancelled my 3 month membership, effective 9.7.11. I am going to test it out for the fall, at least. If I don't find myself having success with MFP, then I'll switch back. No biggie, weight watchers will always be there for me. But I like the idea of calorie tracking, and seeing if that will work better for me. So I will keep you updated :-) Nothing will be changing. I am still focusing on healthy eating, weighing in on Fridays, all that good stuff.

4. Running Success!
I've been meaning to write about this for days now, but I kept on forgetting!

Last wednesday I gave running a go. I did 10 minutes Abs, 10 minutes high intensity eliptical, and then went on the treadmill. I went back a few weeks in C25K, to the 10 minute run 3 minute walk 10 minute run.

And I'm proud to report that while I had some slight cramps, it wasn't anything I couldn't work through. I felt so strong and empowered while running, and ended up doing 3 minutes more than I planned on, finishing out my walk run at 2.5 miles! It was such a great feeling to have a good run finally, and I was so happy I could have burst right afterwards :-) I am going to try it out again tonight, but hopefully it'll be more of the same and I can put this little episode behind me :-)

Happy Monday!

Stressed

So this weekend was not a good one. At all.

On Thursday night we brought Toby to the park for a nice walk, since none of us felt like going to the gym, and M was having some pretty bad back pain (he has had it for about a week now, and is going to the doctors tonight. I think he has a muscle spasm, because his pain reminds me of my pain from that. Either way it sucks for him :-( ). The pup was acting totally normal, if anything just wicked excited to be going for a walk.



sad


I noticed a purplish lump on his back leg. In February 09 I got a call from my mom at about 7am, telling me that toby got sick, and he may not make it. He developed a blood disease that caused him to not be able to clot his blood, so he had bruises all over his stomach, and was bleeding internally.

They put him on medicine for it, and thankfully he responded well and within 6 months was back to normal, albeit 15 pounds heavier thanks to the steroids haha.

On Saturday the doctor's confirmed that he had relapsed, and had bruises all over his body, including his gums. He had zero plateletes in his blood smears, and they wanted to hospitalize him, to the tune of 6000 dollars, to start.

My family has had some issues as of late as far as working goes, and money has been tight. My mom has had 3 patients die in the past 3 months, and one move in with her son in CT. She hasn't been stable for awhile, and has suffered money wise as a result. They also just got a tenant into the apartment, after 6-7 months of not having any rent to supplement their income.

So my mom heard that number and flat out told them she didn't have 1000 to give to this, let alone 6. My sister made her out to be a bad guy, but I understand. My sisters, although old enough, don't really have a great understanding of the value of a dollar, and think a couple of grand is no biggie. They constantly take advantage of my parents, have them buy them clothing/silly things whenever they decide they want them. And my mom, who had no problem telling me no growing up, has this issue with putting her foot down with them. Which I don't understand, especially where they both work and make money, and have no real bills. But where I spend at least 60% of my paycheck on bills, that doesn't matter, because I obviously have more to burn than them. It drives me nuts. My sister are constantly blowing their money on expensive shoes, expensive waxes, getting their nails done, etc. I can't afford any type of real luxury (except my nights out and occasional weekends away), and have made it clear that I am trying to save up as much as I possibly can. And yet I'm constantly targeted.

Sorry, rant over with. Anyways so because of this, and because last time we didn't hospitalize him, my mom fought with the doctors to give us an at home plan. Especially where all they were going to do is test him to figure out what was wrong. They couldn't inject him with anything, or give an IV for fear he wouldn't be able to stop bleeding afterwards. It still ended up costing close to 600 bucks, but it's a lot better than the 6 grand.  It's just all very scary, especially where it hurts us to not be able to afford the best treatment possible, you know? It's a very hard thing to decide to do. Hopefully he is ok,  The medicine makes him very tired and moody. Almost lifeless. We've been checking his vitals, and feeding him water with a syringe (he is so tired he refuses to get out of bed, which happened last time with the meds), to keep him from being dehydrated.

It's just so scary to see him like this :-/ We brought him back to the vet yesterday and for another 90 dollars (now up to close to 600 total), they told us that nothing had changed, that he was exactly the same. And that the meds won't kick in right away so the fact that he isn't any worse is a good thing, it's all they could expect from him right now. I just hope he's ok, we've had him for 10 years, he is such a part of my family. It's killing us to see him like this, but I can't imagine what it would be like if he doesn't make it, I just can't :-(

As a result of this, my want to workout yesterday was completely gone. I took a nap with Toby, went to Target with M, and then just relaxed the rest of the night. All I've wanted to do since Saturday is mope and eat bad food. The fact that my stomach has been off and achey all weekend doesn't help either.

I am going to take tonight off working out. I'll only have 45 minutes before I have to take M to his doctor's appointment, and to be honest, my chest/stomach is in knots about this.

My eating thankfully hasn't been too awful. . Thankfully we were so busy carting the pup around I didn't have a lot of time to sit around and eat myself silly. Because I would have. And prior to the vet on Saturday, we went for a hike, and burnt around 730 calories, which felt good!.
My plan is to workout Tues Wednesday and maybe Thursday, depending on how things progress. Hopefully by then he will be starting to show signs of becoming better, and my next post will be a lot happier.

I can tell you what, it is taking every fiber of my being to not through caution to the wind and go crazy for lunch today.I may end up treating myself a bit though. I think i need something delicious.

Hazy Weather,a Loss, and an Island

 It is the worst, isn't it? We are currently experiencing a mini heat wave in the Boston area. It's the weirdest weather, like you can see the humidity in the air, it's very hazy outside!  Last night I didn't feel like doing my workout (for a number of reasons, my knee hurt, it was hot outside which meant the gym would be packed, I was really sore from my workout the day before, etc), so M and I walked my pup at Castle Island.

Castle Island, for those of you that aren't from the area is a small island (connected by a strip of land now) in South Boston, that in the center of it is Fort Independence. The Fort was built in the 1800's, and used during most big wars (Civil War, Spanish American, WW I and II). I grew up going to Castle Island. Seriously. When my aunt was dying, my other aunt used to take us down their daily for the day. We would walk around the fort, get food/ice cream from Sully's (the food stand there, which has some of the best burgers, and 30 cent hot dogs the opening weekend), and play on the awesome playground they have there. When I did chior, our picnic every year was at Castle Island. When my friends and I growing up neaded a place to hang out or joke around, we would normally walk around Castle Island.

Castle Island is also an awesome place to take the walk. The circle around the Fort itself is about a 1/2 mile long, but the Sugar bowl (a walkway around the bay) is a good 2 -2.5 miles, depending where you park :-)

But enough blabber, i hope I have expressed how much I love Castle Island. It is hands down one of my favorite places in Boston :-)

so to escape the heat, we brought Toby down there. I figured the sea breeze would be enough to keep us cool, and I brought a water bottle and bowl for the pup :-)

I don't understand how it could be that windy and so hot at the same  time.
Seriously. It was like gale force winds, which made everything pretty miserable. And my dog did not make it past the island. He was miserable, and hot (the water did nothing). We did a shorter walk than we normally do, and headed back to the car. About halfway there I noticed he was limping (this was after a half hour or so). So I ended up carrying him for about 5 minutes. He loved it, I was less pleased.

Either way, the walk was an epic fail, but hey, I still got 30 minutes of exercise in :-)

Weigh in today I was down .2, which I was ok with. I was slightly nervous from last week that I had a false loss, because all week I didn't see that number again. so to have it reaffirmed was ok with me :-)

I have small plans this weekend, which I am 100% ok with :-) Tonight M and I are meeting at the gym and having a short workout (40 minutes) then making Chicken Tikka Masala from skinnytaste.com (which I'm completely pumped about). After dinner I plan to hang out with my friend J (not one of the J's mentioned, I have a lot of friends with name's starting with J)  and make mojitos, which should be low key and nice :-)

Then tomorrow M, my sister and I plan on taking a hike in the afternoon, which should burn a ton of calories as it's supposed to be close to 95 tomorrow :-) We're bringing lots of water, but last weekend it was the same weather on our hike, but it felt about 10-15 degrees cooler up there, so I'm hoping for the same results :-)

Sunday is hopefully a beach day. I've noticed a trend this summer that when I go to the beach, I tend to grab food to bring with me that isn't exactly point friendly. So Sunday I am going to make an honest effort to NOT do this, and bring healthier food (fruit salad, turkey sandwich, etc) Just because it's a beach day doesn't mean I can give up on focus, right?

So To recap, this weekend I will:
1. Workout twice
2. Make good choices (and portion out the bad ones)
3. Limit drinking to one night.

Happy Friday everyone!

Sometimes You Need a 9pm Bedtime

That's how I felt last night, anyways!
I was supposed to go to a midnight showing of Harry Potter last night (actually it was a double feature of the first and 2nd, starting at nine), but I woke up yesterday morning feeling exhausted, sinusy, and sounding like a manly version of myself. So After some debate I decided to cancel and stay in, for my health. I know myself, and staying out late + only getting 4 hours of sleep would not have been a good combination for me. I could almost promise you I would wake up sick. I won't lie, I was kind of looking forward to a midnight showing, but I think I would have won the bad decision award if I had gone.

I was just so exhausted. So I said my goodnights and went to bed, where I promptly passed out, and didn't wake up till this morning.

Best Decision ever. I don't know what was making me feel so gross all week, but I can tell you my best solution for that pre-sick feeling is getting extra sleep. I will always standby my method sleeping extra. It really does make you feel instantly better :-)

A 1.4 loss doesn't hurt that "feeling better" feeling either, haha. I was really excited about this one, because I felt like this was my first truly OP week in awhile. I worked out 3X (4 if you count my dog walk yesterday). ate all my weeklies but not beyond that, and tracked everything. So It's nice to know that this method is working!

Speaking of my dog walk, while walking the little guy (my dog is a dauschund chiawawa mix, so he's pretty little -30lbs), we went to the park, and came across this giant dog. I'm not talking german shepard/bernese mountain dog big, I'm talking the dog's body came up past my waist big.

I have no idea what kind it was, but it was not leashed. Which bothered me, not because he was vicious or anything, but because he was not well trained. And followed us all around the park, which visibly bothered toby. And I'm sorry but especially with a dog that sized, if he won't listen to you calling him back, that makes me very nervous. Especially where he kept on trying to "play" with my dog (like pounce on him and such), which upset little Toby even more. I said something to the owner about it, telling her that no offense, but it made me a little nervous where he got so far away from her and her response was "oh he won't hurt you" Yea, well your dog is upsetting my dog, and is badgering us on our walk

This is a park with tons of little kids. We were right near the playground. I'm not questioning the nature of the dog, but with any dog really, if he isn't going to listen to your commands, you should leash him when he is around other people/dogs. Not let him run clear across the park (it took the owner 10 minutes to catch up with him because he ran so far away). Just my 2 cents. And for what it's worth, Toby is very well behaved (like he won't bite anyone), but has a tendency to wander off and get distracted very easily. So I never let him off his leash. I'll run with him, and play with him, but I know how he can get, and I would hate for him to wander up to someone or some dog that doesn't want to see him, and have him get hurt/someone get offended, you know?

<3

And for the record,  I love dogs of all sizes, this one situation just bothered me. I've had plenty of seemingly nice dogs growl at Toby, or other dogs take swipes at him. If this dog did that he would have seriously hurt him, with his size and everything.

moving on, I have a semi quiet weekend set up for myself. Tonight is date night. M got a groupon to this Cambodian-French restaurant in Cambridge, so we are heading over there after work. I'm excited, it is all very original food, nothing I've ever even heard of before. I'm looking forward to trying it!
http://www.elephantwalk.com/cambridge/index.html

Then we are heading over to this beer bar right down the street from the restaurant. We went once before in February, and loved it. They have an amazing beer selection, and the atmosphere is very relaxed and comfortable. I plan on getting a few beers and enjoying myself :-)

Tomorrow is a beach day, and Sunday I may go for a hike with the sisters/go see Harry Potter. Either way it's shaping up to be a good weekend!!