Saturday, January 30, 2010

Scaling Back

Man, have I had a week of it... The shining beacon though, is I managed to stay (mostly) on plan and the scale is down—not a lot, but after the huge loss last week, I am okay with any loss and my two pounds down make me happy.

The Challenges

My husband went to the emergency room at 3 a.m. Tuesday. He'd been sick and the doctor on Monday said if he woke up unable to breath, to not screw around... just GET TO THE HOSPITAL. They admitted him and he spent 36 hours there, the first twelve under quarantine before they ruled out Swine Flu (felt like I was in a Michael Crichton book!--I love those viral stories...)

Where that left me was as single mom who still held a full time job, plus had to run things to my husband at the hospital and visit a little (my daughter thought it was not NEARLY enough—she may occasionally be a pill, but she is FULL of empathy... “Poor dad. I feel so bad leaving him there alone.”) She visited with me (illegally, as she is 14 and the rules during this epidemic are no visitors under 16—you know the deal on me and rules though...)

Probably don't even need to TELL you that I didn't get up to exercise at 5 a.m. after being up in the middle of the night... And because I called in sick, I also didn't walk to and from work. To add to that, ALL WEEK I failed to do my strengthening/flexibility stuff.

But I DID do my other days of eliptical and all but one other walk (it was only 0 on Friday morning, so Bob gave me a ride—exercise is good, freezing is NOT.



What I Managed

Amazingly, I ate in point range all week. It was the top of my range, and there were times it was REALLY hard because I was sort of flying by the seat of my pantslessness to pull everything together, but I managed.

What helped? Having a few freebies around for when I had to munch (bought peppers, which I love, and cucumbers and tomatoes—kids and I like those as a salad with a little feta. Allowing myself a couple 'allowed' but not normally indulged in splurges (I had 3 Diet Cokes this week, when normally we don't BUY individual soda servings—in fact usually the only soda I have is if I can fit in a mixed drink and have a rum and lemonade—the Sunkist lemonade is carbonated.

I guess it all comes back to planning and making it easy. A new week starts today and I can get back to my check list of kinds of exercises besides just the calorie burning ones. I survived a hell week, on plan and with a small loss... (even lost two inches off my hip bone line! Yay! That was the one that hadn't moved at the 2 week mark, but now at 4 weeks it did—it is the one that means though I am not in my next size down of jeans, I can only wear my fat jeans once before I have to wash them or they get too stretched out to really wear... PROGRESS!

4 comments:

Cruella Collett said...

*snort* Shining bacon! (I'm sorry, that wass really insensitive. Until you think about it - I was referring to an old joke I know will make you laugh, and a laugh is what you need when having stress, no? So in reality, it was really sensitive.

Hart Johnson said...

*snort* I can live with shining bacon. It is only aromatic bacon I have trouble with. And I am totally giggling...

*tickles sensitive Mari under the chin with a feather* I've missed you.

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Now this is amazing. You've accomplished a ton toward your goal when you really had no time at all.

FOOD is what I forgot about on my post today on energy and how we can get more of it. Your healthy food mention reminded me. I'd do well to cut up some veggies and have them with a Ranch dip...probably give me some more energy. Good ideas.

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder

Hart Johnson said...

Thank you, Elizabeth! I feel proud, but actually there is a long way to go... I am maybe 20% there, and I KNOW how much it slows down from here... then again, once I start shrinking out of fat clothes, it is easier on the attitude, so not long...

DEFINITELY on the healthy snacks. I love ranch, but find hummous is as good and has some nutrition to it (protein calories instead of fat)--if you can find a red pepper hummous, all the better! And fruit is one of the quickest energy sources there is because it is a sugar that is in its most usable form...