So it's been a while since my last blog. Thought I would entertain you this morning with my antics about being healthy.
My whole life I struggled with my weight. As a kid I was fine until the teen years hit. As a teen though I had already gotten into the habit of not eating healthy and not exercising. My mom and dad never made me eat what I didn't want, which of course I loved but honestly, looking back wish they had made me try things. They never really emphasized working out either. Mom was always into some new exercise machine or something (the proof is in their basement where they could probably open up a gym if they dusted everything off and cleaned it up a bit) but never really stressed that we should work out, she didn't even exercise regularly. Dad was always overweight until several years ago when he was diagnosed with Diabetes and decided it was time to do something.
When I met my husband I was almost 200 pounds, and although I didn't look it, I was definitely overweight and I was busting out of my size 16s, refusing to go to the "women" sizes. He was a healthy eater and he worked out regularly, well, he was one of those people who would work out regularly and then stop working out for a while then get back into it, and so on. So, we went 3-5 days a week to the gym together and we counted calories together and ate a lot of meals together (which was easier when we moved in with each other).
I did well, I lost 75 pounds. I loved exercising and I really had trained myself to only eat so many calories a day. I got to the point where I couldn't eat more or I would feel awful. I ate the crappy things for me still, but I just ate in moderation. I didn't load up on veggies because I didn't like them, I found 100 calorie snack packs of things if I was hungry or I would eat half a candy bar. I was pretty happy. I even learned to eat chicken more often and have less red meat (if you know me, you know I don't really like chicken that much and I love a good burger or taco without veggies).
But then, I got pregnant. I have, for some reason always had a high heart rate while exercising. No doctor has ever said anything about it or seemed concerned (maybe I just haven't been to the right one). But I had to stop the cardio while pregnant because the Dr. didn't want my heart rate to go over 140. I also got morning sickness when I was on the exercise bike and was very cautious about weights since I had already lost one baby six months earlier. So, I stopped working out. Oh, we still walked but the winter was cold, and the spring was HOT. Here in Michigan that summer, there were 110 degree days. Although I gave birth in June, the air conditioning was on in April and May.
After having my daughter I was almost back up to my old weight (although I carried it differently and was now a size 12 instead). I tried working out but it was too hard to get away at first because she was difficult and I breastfed. We tried going to the gym together but it was really hard to go with her and they "daycare" there had limited hours, wouldn't change diapers and you had to pay extra after paying for a membership already! So excuses were easy. I ate more because I was breastfeeding and needed more calories. Well, I breastfed for almost 2 years, so I got away with it of that long.
I just never got back in the habit. I always had an excuse. I didn't have time. I couldn't afford a membership at the gym. I wanted to start running but wanted to get the shoes. I wanted to start running but didn't have the weather. It was always something.
It was always something with the food too. I don't like that food. Our daughter won't eat that food. I make a portion and my husband always wanted more. I wouldn't buy sweets and then my husband would ask "what's for dessert?" It's only one sweet.
Finally, and I know everyone who knows me has heard this before; finally, this is it. I need to stop making excuses. I am almost 36, I am much larger than I want to be and diabetes runs in my family. I am cranky and have backaches all the time. I haven't been to the dentist in who knows how long or the Dr. either (for lack of insurance). I just haven't been taking care of my body like I should be. I am setting a bad example for my kid, and I don't like that.
So yesterday I took step one, I stopped with the sweet snacking at work. I allowed myself one tiny candy bar that is probiotic and only 70 calories but the only other snack available in my office was a banana (an organic one to boot!). I have stopped mostly having desserts at home, which is a good thing as well, but I pay for it at work when I snack all the time.
This morning, I had a granola, oat cluster cereal with almond milk instead of regular milk (and cereal I measure out with a cereal scoop and I never eat the whole serving, I think my body gets tired of chewing).
Who knows if I can keep this up. But my granola was good and I can at least say I feel better this morning. Maybe this evening if I have time after work I will hop on our elliptical (and tonight I actually might not have time because hubby and I are going away for the weekend and I need to pack everything and make sure the house is in order for my parents to come and stay).
The plan is to start getting up even earlier than hubby (I know crazy if I can actually do that) and workout or go for a run (trust me I need my Couch 2 5K app). Let's see if I can do that!
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Elvis Jack
Recently, my husband started working full time outside of the home with a long commute. I have been working full time for a while now.
Our dog, Daisy is alone much of the time and we feel bad about it even though she doesn't play with toys or do much of anything anyway. When we leave, she doesn't eat and barely drinks anything. We discovered also that going on trips is harder with the dog because we don't have anyone to really care for her when we go. We do have local friends who can stop by once or sometimes twice a day to let her out when their work schedules allow and we are very grateful for that, but it isn't really enough. We can pay for a kennel but we would have to plan ahead and have the extra money for it (and of course research it well). My parents have a cat (one of my old cats) that pees on things when it gets territorial so we can't really leave our dog there when gone unless we build a kennel outside for it (but then it will be alone again).
After the death of one of my cats, we decided to make our daughter earn another pet. She was supposed to help me for three months cleaning up the dog poop outside, sweeping up while I cleaned the litter box and feeding the remaining cat and the dog.
One Saturday on a whim, my husband decided we should go to the local animal shelter to look at the dogs. They happened to have one dog only that was good with cats, other dogs and to their knowledge, children. This one dog came in as a stray they had no history on it, and estimated it to be about 7 or 8. The dog was called a Jack Russell mix, although we thought it was a pure bred that was docked. The name of the dog was Elvis. We felt this was kind of meant to be because our remaining cat's name is Elvis! He was great with our family in the meeting room. The next step was to do a meet and greet with Daisy and Elvis. After going home, we watched some Dogs 101 and there was a dog they were talking about named none other than Elvis! We really felt like this might be the dog.
Daisy and Elvis met and it was a great meet and greet. The woman at the shelter told us we could foster Elvis for the weekend if we wanted to we decided we would. A few days later when we went to get him, he actually had adoption papers ready, they didn't know it was just a foster, they even microchipped him! The girls at the front desk said that they heard it was the best meet and greet they'd ever had so far! We were excited to get this dog home and see if he was the right fit for us.
The first night, he pooped on the floor and threw up on our daughter's bed. But we felt that he was just excited and in a new place. We were happy he was sleeping in her bed. We thought he was adorable and just the sweetest thing. Of course, he didn't respond to his given name of Elvis, but that was okay because we were going to rename him anyhow because we have a cat named Elvis. I thought Jack was cute because he was a Jack Russell, and my husband agreed thinking of Jack Sparrow. We started calling him Jack and he immediately responded! We looked up some more information on Jack Russells and we figured he might be a Jack Russell Terrier and Rat Terrier mix, as he looked just like the pictures of the mixed breed.
The first morning, he peed on the floor by the couch, but we just figured there were ways we could fix this problem. The rest of the weekend was great but I noticed he was yelping when barely touched and bunny hopping down the stairs to go to the bathroom. Despite that, we took a vote to keep Jack or not.
My husband voted "no," my daughter voted "yes" so I was the deciding vote. I said "yes," and we planed to keep him. But that night something was tugging at me. I kept thinking about his yelping and his hopping down the stairs. I kept thinking about how our dog was already jealous with the cat getting attention. I text messaged my husband on Monday and told him I had changed my mind. That I would call the shelter and ask if they could look at him before the final decision but that I didn't want vet bills immediately after getting the dog. Jack had won him over, he said it was sad and admitted that Jack had grown on him.
I called the shelter and she said we could keep him until they could get him an appointment. That was short-lived as he got one for Wednesday so we had to take him back Tuesday. My heart broke as my daughter and I came home and my husband had taken him already, to hear her call for Jack and come out of her bedroom with a look on her face of hurt and ask "where's Jack?"
My husband re-told the story of taking Jack back starting with the trash all over the floor and the dog poop on the rug, followed with a long chase after Jack got out of his collar at the shelter before going inside. That was what really sealed it. No matter what the vet found out, my husband was against keeping this dog, our Jack.
Sadly, I talked to the woman at the shelter on Wednesday and nothing was wrong with Elvis (Jack) that they had found (of course they had not done x-rays just looked him over). I said I would talk to my husband and call her Thursday.
Today is Thursday. I talked to my husband and he said his vote was still "no," he had reconsidered but the chase turned him off totally. I called the shelter and said we couldn't take him even though we fell in love with Elvis (Jack). I told her if he didn't get adopted out in a decent amount of time to call us to see if we were interested. But I am sure he will find a good home soon. The shelter changed their policies and they only give to homes that are a fit (unlike how we got Daisy with a lottery on her "release date" because there were so many others interested in her as well).
As I sit home cleaning after taking a sick day because my kiddo has strep and needed to stay home and go to the doctor, I pick up the ball Jack played with (we gave him one of the toys he loved from our home when we gave him back) and I am sad. I miss Jack. My daughter says she "needs" him. It is kind of my fault, if I had not thought the worst about his yelping he never would have gone back and never would have run from my husband and we would have him.
This is a sad day and I miss Elvis Jack.
Jack is available at the Animal Shelter in Mt. Pleasant, MI. Link is below.
http://www.hatsweb.org
Our dog, Daisy is alone much of the time and we feel bad about it even though she doesn't play with toys or do much of anything anyway. When we leave, she doesn't eat and barely drinks anything. We discovered also that going on trips is harder with the dog because we don't have anyone to really care for her when we go. We do have local friends who can stop by once or sometimes twice a day to let her out when their work schedules allow and we are very grateful for that, but it isn't really enough. We can pay for a kennel but we would have to plan ahead and have the extra money for it (and of course research it well). My parents have a cat (one of my old cats) that pees on things when it gets territorial so we can't really leave our dog there when gone unless we build a kennel outside for it (but then it will be alone again).
After the death of one of my cats, we decided to make our daughter earn another pet. She was supposed to help me for three months cleaning up the dog poop outside, sweeping up while I cleaned the litter box and feeding the remaining cat and the dog.
One Saturday on a whim, my husband decided we should go to the local animal shelter to look at the dogs. They happened to have one dog only that was good with cats, other dogs and to their knowledge, children. This one dog came in as a stray they had no history on it, and estimated it to be about 7 or 8. The dog was called a Jack Russell mix, although we thought it was a pure bred that was docked. The name of the dog was Elvis. We felt this was kind of meant to be because our remaining cat's name is Elvis! He was great with our family in the meeting room. The next step was to do a meet and greet with Daisy and Elvis. After going home, we watched some Dogs 101 and there was a dog they were talking about named none other than Elvis! We really felt like this might be the dog.
Daisy and Elvis met and it was a great meet and greet. The woman at the shelter told us we could foster Elvis for the weekend if we wanted to we decided we would. A few days later when we went to get him, he actually had adoption papers ready, they didn't know it was just a foster, they even microchipped him! The girls at the front desk said that they heard it was the best meet and greet they'd ever had so far! We were excited to get this dog home and see if he was the right fit for us.
The first night, he pooped on the floor and threw up on our daughter's bed. But we felt that he was just excited and in a new place. We were happy he was sleeping in her bed. We thought he was adorable and just the sweetest thing. Of course, he didn't respond to his given name of Elvis, but that was okay because we were going to rename him anyhow because we have a cat named Elvis. I thought Jack was cute because he was a Jack Russell, and my husband agreed thinking of Jack Sparrow. We started calling him Jack and he immediately responded! We looked up some more information on Jack Russells and we figured he might be a Jack Russell Terrier and Rat Terrier mix, as he looked just like the pictures of the mixed breed.
The first morning, he peed on the floor by the couch, but we just figured there were ways we could fix this problem. The rest of the weekend was great but I noticed he was yelping when barely touched and bunny hopping down the stairs to go to the bathroom. Despite that, we took a vote to keep Jack or not.
My husband voted "no," my daughter voted "yes" so I was the deciding vote. I said "yes," and we planed to keep him. But that night something was tugging at me. I kept thinking about his yelping and his hopping down the stairs. I kept thinking about how our dog was already jealous with the cat getting attention. I text messaged my husband on Monday and told him I had changed my mind. That I would call the shelter and ask if they could look at him before the final decision but that I didn't want vet bills immediately after getting the dog. Jack had won him over, he said it was sad and admitted that Jack had grown on him.
I called the shelter and she said we could keep him until they could get him an appointment. That was short-lived as he got one for Wednesday so we had to take him back Tuesday. My heart broke as my daughter and I came home and my husband had taken him already, to hear her call for Jack and come out of her bedroom with a look on her face of hurt and ask "where's Jack?"
My husband re-told the story of taking Jack back starting with the trash all over the floor and the dog poop on the rug, followed with a long chase after Jack got out of his collar at the shelter before going inside. That was what really sealed it. No matter what the vet found out, my husband was against keeping this dog, our Jack.
Sadly, I talked to the woman at the shelter on Wednesday and nothing was wrong with Elvis (Jack) that they had found (of course they had not done x-rays just looked him over). I said I would talk to my husband and call her Thursday.
Today is Thursday. I talked to my husband and he said his vote was still "no," he had reconsidered but the chase turned him off totally. I called the shelter and said we couldn't take him even though we fell in love with Elvis (Jack). I told her if he didn't get adopted out in a decent amount of time to call us to see if we were interested. But I am sure he will find a good home soon. The shelter changed their policies and they only give to homes that are a fit (unlike how we got Daisy with a lottery on her "release date" because there were so many others interested in her as well).
As I sit home cleaning after taking a sick day because my kiddo has strep and needed to stay home and go to the doctor, I pick up the ball Jack played with (we gave him one of the toys he loved from our home when we gave him back) and I am sad. I miss Jack. My daughter says she "needs" him. It is kind of my fault, if I had not thought the worst about his yelping he never would have gone back and never would have run from my husband and we would have him.
This is a sad day and I miss Elvis Jack.
http://www.hatsweb.org
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