Amber's Best Life Journal

[Foxfiregrrl]

We really enjoy the Renaissance Festival. DH sometimes fantasizes about working the festival some time, but it is an hour away and would be way too much w/ our day jobs Maybe that is something we can consider in our retirement

It is frustrating to go backward, but I can't really say that I have done anything right over the last month, so I can't really expect to be moving forward However, I have kind of been maintaining in the same 23 or 4 pound range lately. I am not really sure when I went from 180 back to above 190.... I know that I started this year out at 202 So, I have improved this year, but I get really sick of losing the same 20 pounds OVER and OVER! I'm sure we all get sick of it... so I'll end that rant now.

I didn't make it to the gym Monday because I had to take an unexpected 4 hour round trip drive to visit one of my foster kids. I ended up coming home late. I did not eat well that day either because the "on the road munchies" got the better of me.

I did manage to force myself to go to the gym yesterday even though I really didn't want to. I started on my run/walk program, but only did 10 minutes of the actual run/walk portion. I was not in the right state of mind and mostly the balls of my feet were hurting because I have the wrong kind of shoes and still have not bought myself new ones When will I learn. I ended up getting on the elliptical for a little bit. I think my total gym time was about 25 minutes. Food yesterday was on track. Alcohol was not.

Today I went to water aerobics. I was debating this idea about 4:45, but ended up staying at work until 6. That always helps because class is at 6:30 and I can go straight from work (I've had my swimsuit in the car for over a week now ) If I go home first I really lose a lot of motivation. Plus if I go home early then I don't want to wait until 6:30 for class, which makes it easy to talk myself out of going at all.

Food today:
b- kashi, milk, coffee
l- chicken fingers in hot sauce, fries, Lots of ranch dressing (the hot sauce was REALLY hot and that's how I cool it down) sweet tea
d- chicken curry
I have not had anything to drink tonight and it is after 9pm so too late to start
So, even though I ate kind o bad at lunch I think I'm a little more on track today.

I know that a big reason that I'm not really losing right now is that I've been drinking more and it is a lot of calories. I'm kind of ok with that for now. I'm trying to get back on track with the eating and exercise and the alcohol will fall into balance with that. One thing is that when I don't get home from the gym until 8, then shower, then eat dinner I am less inclined to drink because it is late. Not sure why that works but it does.

Oh, yeah, I told both my workout buddies that they have not been good gym buddies lately. We have all been slacking a good bit, but I keep trying to get them going again, if for no other reason than it helps me A LOT. But it has been a crazy month at work. I'm cutting them some slack, but I'm gonna kick there butts back in gear soon!

Anyway, enough rambling for me for tonight. I'm gonna go watch some TV now

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Hello. I'm not sure what happened to the last few days as far as posting goes.

Things have been going fine here. No exercise to speak of, but food hasn't been out of control.

I've been really enjoying my weekend. I'm glad we have Monday, but I really feel that I could use a WHOLE week like Right Now!

I have my annual physical scheduled for Thursday. I'm a few months overdue, but better late than never. I plan to ask her at that time for advice regarding trying to get pregnant and finding a doctor/midwife. Actually I kind of think I have that covered already. I looked the other day and there is ONE certified nurse midwife that is covered by my insurance (last time I looked there were none) I looked her up and she has been a CNM for like 8 or 10 years and she is in a practice with 5 OB/GYNs. So, unless I go to her and we just seriously clash, I think I know who I will use I'm just thrilled to be able to possibly use a CNM, because I had not been able to find one when looking before.... apparently they don't advertise very well around here

Oh, we went yesterday and looked all over at patio furniture and then went back and bought some today We got a nice table w/ 6 chairs. We also bought an umbrella to go with it. Then while we were there we picked up 6 planting pots and a couple of plants. DH planted a tomato, a jalepeno, a habanero, and 2 red bell peppers. Then I replanted the herbs that I planted about a month ago and spread out my flowers some. The flowers that I put in their own pots are thriving, but the ones that I put in the window basket w/ the herbs were suffocating (I guess ). So hopefully everything has enough room now and will grow
Here is a picture of the patio set we bought:

It will be delivered next Saturday. We were really hoping to get it sooner, but we have to be there when they bring it.

Tomorrow we are grilling out for lunch w/ my parents and grandparents. We didn't have lunch with them today because we will be hanging out tomorrow.

Other than that I am taking it easy. I am in the thinking stages about really getting serious again about my diet and exercise. I really need to get a good jump start soon because I need to be eating WAY better than I am currently before I actually start trying to get pregnant. I am taking my vitamins though

Hope everyone is having a Wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!!

 

[kmp1191]

Nice patio set!! I miss mine! (Gave it away when we moved to Alabama!!)
Anyway, I know how ya feel about getting serious about the diet/exercise plan. I feel the same way.

I just have to get off my butt and get moving!


marie

 

[lindalinda]

I like the patio furniture Amber! I have those type chairs and they are comfy and easy to clean too.

And window baskets have to be watered every day pretty much. They drain really quickly. If you do that they will be fine.

I am still trying to get myself going. I'm a bit hit or miss. I have been doing stuff for my co-worker who is having a baby soon. Since I work with mostly guys I have to take care of it myself. I collected money from our team and ot her a group gift (pack n play) and I am having a little baby shower for her on thursday for the "girl" controllers. It will be small cuz theres only 8 of us, but it will be nice I think. I bought her a bunch of stuff.

Hope everything goes well for your physical and they give you the on operation babymakin'.

nite

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Hey guys! I can't wait for our patio furniture to get here! I have been spending a good bit of time in my lounge chair outside in the evenings reading lately. Also, DH and I would love to be able to sit out there and eat dinner. We have not turned the A/C on and it gets pretty hot upstairs in the afternoon. We usually eat outside or downstairs and then spend time downstairs until it cools off a bit. Usually by 8:30 or 9 we are able to go upstairs and watch tv (or I am anyway, dh would much rather stay at his computer.

Other than reading I have not been doing much this week. Work has been a touch hectic because we are changing computer systems. Monday is the "go Live" date and everyone is on edge. We'll see how that turns out.

I'm going to try to eat healthier next week and TRY to drag myself to the gym at least twice.

Went to the doctor on Thursday. My blood pressure must have been average because she didn't say anything when she took it I will get the results of my bloodwork, etc soon, but she said I should be fine to start baby making. She just said take an over the counter prenatal vitamin, which I'm already doing. She looked at my bloodwork from last year and said my cholesterol was excellent! So that is good. The only thing that was slightly out of whack last year was my blood sugar. I think it was 102 and they like it to be under 99 (if I remember correctly), but that is not considered high yet... does that make sense? Anyway, I'm hoping that number is a little better this year.

Well, guess that is it for now. I'm gonna work hard this weekend at planning ways to get more fruits and veggies into my weekly menus. That is one thing that I could definitely do better on. Also, I need to focus on eating at home and not wanting to eat out as much. I know that the food we eat at home is more nutritional, lower cal and fat, tastier, and way cheaper... BUT I still want to eat out way more than I should. Maybe I need to watch "Super Size Me" again. That kept me away from fast food for a Long time, and I still eat it WAY less often than I used to. (BTW, he has a series called "30 days" on TV now that you should watch if you get a chance! It is really cool)

Good Night guys! I may write more tomorrow.

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Well, we got the patio furniture at 9:15am which was Way too early. We ended up cooking breakfast and then putting it together. It is So nice! I Love it! Saturday ended up being SUPER hot though and the guys were here so we finally broke down and turned the A/C on. We were trying to hold out a little longer and actually turned it off again since it rained today and cooled off some. Anyway, since the air was on and it was SO hot outside I was not very inclined to sit out there and enjoy it. I'm sure that I will be enjoying it a Lot this summer though!

The computer conversion at work is going well so far and the validation part that I have to do for my cases has been going more smoothly than I had expected. I would have gotten over half of mine done today, but.... one of my coworkers was having numbness in her arm and her blood pressure was Really high. So she ended up going to the ER and another coworker and I went to sit with her for moral support because none of her family could be there with her. She is ok now (I guess) the doctor said that the numbness is probably a pinched nerve and to just monitor the blood pressure. weird, though.

So, I am hopeful that the conversion will continue to go smoothly. We are competing with the other units to finish first and the unit that finishes first wins a pizza party. I'm mostly concerned with winning We'll see.

Over the weekend I took it easy and read a lot of my backlog of magazines that I've been trying to get through. I also watched "the Wedding Date". It was cute and I enjoyed it.

I didn't really put together a plan like I said I would, but I am going to try to be more conscious of my food intake. I am also trying to cut out the alcohol intake. I had said that June 1st would be my cut off date and that I would go at least 30 days without any alcohol. But... I didn't drink what I bought for Saturday so it was/is lingering around the house. I drank some yesterday because we were hanging around. I still have some left and it is tempting me (it is not nearly as bad if there isn't anything here to drink ) Anyway, I have told myself that I cannot drink during the week this week and then on the weekend I can finish off what is left and then I have to finish out the rest of the month of June. Ok, so you guys hold me to that PLEASE!

I didn't make it to the gym today. I had talked to my coworker about going to the water aerobics tonight, but we were both at the ER w/ the other coworker (not one of our gym buddies). So, I might go tomorrow, but I will definitely go Wednesday.

Not sure how this week is going to play out though. I found out this afternoon that my grandmother's sister passed away. She had cancer and we knew she didn't have much time. I wasn't really close to her so it is not as upsetting to me. We will have a lot of family things going on though. My cousin from Texas is flying in on Thursday and staying until Tuesday. The funeral is on Saturday and I'm pretty sure the gathering afterwards is going to be at my grandma's house. So, I need to help her out some. My cousin, who is also named Amber, is my age, so I know she will want to hang out while she is here. It just always happens that when she comes into town my work is Super hectic and I cannot be flexible at all. I hate that, but there isn't much I can do about it.

So, I'm going to try to get as much as I can done at work tomorrow and Wednesday so that I can go into the last part of the week with as little stress as possible.

BTW, even though Tony and I had said that we would start officially trying to get pregnant on vacation at the end of the month, we have already gotten a jump start It is exciting, but weird too. I spent a lot of time thinking about getting started and what I wanted to eat and how much I wanted to weigh, etc. but now that it is here and we ARE trying it's just weird. I know that I need to eat better and continue to exercise. I know that I want to feed my baby all the right foods and that should be motivation. But on the exercise and weight control thing I keep feeling like, "well, this is it - the weight I'm stuck with so there is no point in working hard" because you aren't supposed to lose while you are pregnant. Then there is the REALITY, and that is that I'm not pregnant yet and it could take a LONG while. So then I should be eating well and exercising with the goal of losing weight and getting into better health/fitness. ARGH! I know what the right thing is and what I need to do, but I've just been too lazy to do it.

I think it is frustrating too that I have spent all this time and really gotten no where because I haven't been working as hard as I should have been. I do better at a lot of things under pressure and with a deadline. I just think that my deadline was too vague for me and now it is kind of here. And I just got Lazy

I will not stop trying!! I bought new running shoes so I MUST run in them at least a few times! I have to keep telling myself this and not get discouraged! And to be honest, if I cut out the alcohol, cut down on the excess junky food, and actually exercised a few days a week... then I would probably lose 5 or 10 pounds fairly easily. I just have to actually do it!

K, so that is the plan!
NO BOOZE!
Way Less Junky/Snacky Foods
Max of One Lunch Out Per Week
Max of One Dinner Out Per Week
Exercise a Minimum of Three Days Per Week

There it is in black and white. Please hold me accountable!! ::cop:
Thanks!

 

[lindalinda]

BTW, even though Tony and I had said that we would start officially trying to get pregnant on vacation at the end of the month, we have already gotten a jump start It is exciting, but weird too.

Well now that banana looks dirty!

Your plan looks great, dont stress overdo. I mean the running. It might be too much since you havent really run much before. I think I would stick with walking.



seriously, look at that banana.

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Linda! That is too funny!! I didn't even think about that when I put it there

I'm going to let my body guide me on the running. I'm gonna take it easy though.

I did get up and go to the gym this morning. I warmed up and then started to jog. I haven't really worked out in about two weeks so it was a bit rough. By the third jog I decided that I would only do half the routine. Then I walked for a bit. I did a total of 22 minutes on the treadmill.

So far no booze Although I could really go for some tonight! I can wait until the weekend.

The junk food has been a BIG BIG issue today. I'm not usually a snacky person that much. But they gave us these goodie bags with chocolate and sweetarts and nerds, etc. I was so hungry today too, so I just kept snacking. I ended up popping some popcorn and that held me off for awhile, but it was bad today. AND I'm still starving!! I'm cooking rice and we will have leftover chicken curry for dinner.

I didn't eat out today and we are planning to all bring a lunch tomorrow, so I am good so far on the eating out thing!

Well, that's it for now, better go check on the rice!

 

[DisDee]

Amber, I'm with you on the accountability issue! You're so right...we all know what to do, it's just the matter of doing it. I've spent almost 2 years on the Dis journals,and I'm really not at a much different place than I was when I started journaling. (Even with my life-altering experience) S0, with that said, I'll be here for you if you do the same for me! We all need as much help as we can get.

Make it a great day!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Thanks, Dee. I agree that we all need each other's support. I'll do my best to check in and be accountable and offer support!

Well this week has really gotten away from me. Work was really busy and it seemed to get more and more hectic as the week went on.

I ended up going out to dinner and drinking with some coworkers on Wednesday. However, I have not had anything since then and probably will not at all this weekend.

I am just now, at 8pm, getting home from the funeral and family gathering afterward. We were at the funeral home at 1:30 and the actual funeral wasn't over until almost 5pm. We had a huge group of family at my grandmother's house for dinner. It was all potluck and there was a ton of good food. I didn't even consider healthy eating, I just dug in It was good to see everyone and visit, but I am Totally exhausted.

Tomorrow I'm going with my coworker, M, to Brunswick, Ga. Her parents live there and we have three foster kids down there. We will go to the beach tomorrow and spend the night with her parents. Then Monday morning we will pick up two of the foster kids because they are moving to new places. It is almost a 4 hour drive one way from Macon, so spliting the drive is going to be VERY helpful. Plus I get to hit the beach for a bit

Hopefully this week will be a tiny bit better, but I'm not sure how it is going to shape up either. I had been helping one of my coworkers get some of her work done and that was great, but I feel like I let myself get behind in the process. I have vacation at the end of the month, so I cannot afford to get behind. It is all good though, because I'm sure I can get myself caught back up.

Well, I'm gonna go pass out now

 

[lindalinda]

Hey Amber, Just checking in. I hope you had a good time at the beach. Its too hot to be anywhere else!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

We got to spend an hour at the beach on Sunday before we had to get back to M's parent's house for dinner. It was nice though and I don't really like to stay on the beach for long periods of time... just short spurts over several days is preferable

Monday was NOT FUN! Here is my day in as small a nutshell as it would fit:
4.5 hours of driving in a car w/ the A/C only halfway working
3+ hours of discharge and intake paperwork for the kid I moved
Finally get back to town and DH says I may have to drive another 1+
hours round trip to pick him up from work because his BF's wife is
sick. Instead I insisted that I go pick up their kids from daycare
and take them home. (BF was gonna drive home to pick them up leaving
DH stranded at work) That only took 45 minutes total. (Oh, yeah get this... she supposedly has "explosive diarrhea" but when I go to pick up the car seats, she offers to ride with me no thanks my car is a poop-free zone!)
THEN I was supposed to have met up w/ my cousin about 4pm and it was
already after 5 before I was able to get in touch w/ her. So she
says, I'll be at your house between 6:30 and 7. DH and I wait to
eat dinner so that we can go out when she gets there. She Finally
shows up at 7:30 and says she stopped to get fast food on her way to
our house!!!
SO... we went to dinner anyway and had her drive. She had dessert,
and I got to drink some wine and relax a bit

Oh, and I had been out of the office all day and knew I had a ton of stuff to do on Tuesday, because I still had a lot of things from Friday left to do. My cousin proceeds to ask me if I can take Tuesday off and hang out with her until she leaves for the airport! I laughed and said NO WAY!

It has been a busy week since then, but not as bad as Monday at least. I hope to relax some this weekend though. Then next Friday we leave to go to the beach for a week I can't wait!!

We will be staying at my parent's house that is about 10 miles from the beach and we pretty much go there at least once a year. So that means there is no pressure about what to do or anything. We will eat, sleep, hit the beach, watch TV, and read. That's about it Maybe throw in a touch of shopping too, but there aren't that many stores in this tiny beach town.

EVEN more exciting..... I'm gonna keep you in suspense because it needs it's own thread.......

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

We're going Back to DISNEY WORLD!!!

AND for my BIRTHDAY too!!

I was lamenting how much I wanted to go back one day last week. DH said, me too, but we are going to DragonCon. I said, well it won't hurt my feelings to skip DragonCon and I'm sure we can sell our tickets that we already bought.

He gave me a few more excuses which I proceeded to eliminate and the next day I booked the trip!!

We will be there from August 31 to September 6 at All Star Sports with Free Dining and Park Hoppers.

We would have preferred any of the value resorts other than Sports, but that was all they had available at the time. I may call and check for cancellations, but I'm not really worried about it. We just aren't sports fans so a different theme would be cooler.

We are actually staying 7 days/ 6 nights this time where we had stayed 6 days/ 5 nights before. It just looked nice on the calendar and the price was still good so I never quoted DH any shorter stay and he went for it

My birthday actually falls on Labor Day this year and we normally wouldn't have booked that week either, but it was the only week that we could still get a value hotel on the dining plan. So we went for it. I'm super excited that we will actually be there on my birthday!!

I went ahead and booked the dining ressies on Thursday of last week too because DH was worried that we would get stuck with really bad times. We actually got our choice of times on most nights which is a lot better than when we booked last year. I don't have the times with me now so I will post those later.

So that is the exciting news for now I told DH that I was going to go to Sunday dinner last Sunday and stand up and say, "I have an announcement to make" and then when everyone thought I was gonna say I was pregnant say "We're Going to Disney World!!" I thought it would be too funny since my grandma and cousin are always asking me or thinking that is what I have to say. DH said that would be way too mean. I said that my grandmother would Officially give up on us EVER having kids if I did that So, I didn't.... but mostly only because I didn't get to go to Sunday dinner last weekend

Ok, enough from me tonight.

Happy Friday!!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Ok, so here are our dining plans to date:

8/31 - Crystal Palace @ 8:20pm
9/1 - Chefs De France @ 6:20pm (my birthday dinner)
9/2 - Mama Melrose @ 6:20pm
9/3 - Raglan Road @ 6:15pm
9/4 - Ohana @ 9:10pm
9/5 - Restaurant Marrakesh @ 6:30pm

We have been to all of these except Raglan Road. I had thought we would try new places, but we really liked each of these and nothing else really appealed that much more to us. I don't think that Chefs de France is my favorite restaurant of the trip, but I don't really care because I'm just excited to be going at all!

Our first day there we will be at MK and they are open until midnight, THEN they have EMH so we plan to stay as late as we can.

Day 2 we will be at Epcot, but I think after dinner we may hop over to MGM for their EMH which will keep them open until midnight or 1am I'm hoping that the EMHs won't be too crowded due to the fact that they are so late... Hopefully... we'll see.

Been taking it easy today and reading Disboards for any new park info that I may have missed over the last 3 years Gonna go watch a movie soon.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!!

 

[lindalinda]

Hey Amber, you lucky girl! Sounds like a great plan you already started! I didnt care for the chefs of france, but that was several years ago so its probably different now. The rest sound awesome. I dont know what raglan road is though. What type of food is that? Anyway, I am very excited for you guys. Is this a family trip again or just you and DH this time?


later

linda

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

We went last year to Chefs De France. I don't really remember what I got. I remember that I liked it ok, but it wasn't my favorite place that we ate. I am considering getting the beef tenderloin this time because it looks pretty decent.

Before I read your post I was looking at one of the food porn threads and asked DH if he wanted to try Biergarten instead. We haven't eaten there yet and it looks kind of neat plus they have entertainment & DH was born in Germany (his dad was in the military). He said that he liked Chefs de France and it seems nicer than Biergarten for a birthday dinner. I told him that I am going to be so excited that we are there the week of my birthday that I don't really care what place we eat on my actual birthday.

Anyway, so I'm a little bit undecided. We'll stick w/ Chefs for now... but may switch.

It will just be DH & I this time We don't really want to take anymore "family" vacations for awhile. They are just a little bit too stressful.

We do have a family reunion in North Georgia in Late July and we will camp w/ the family for a night or two... but that is about the longest we want to do anything like that right now I love my family but we just have different traveling styles.

We went to DH's dad's house for Father's day today. Then we came home and visited my dad for a little bit. I felt a little bit bad for my dad today. We have the Sunday dinner tradition weekly, but this weekend NONE of his kids were there. My middle sister is at Bonnaroo and my youngest sister had to work. I had to go w/ Dh because we rarely see his dad. I don't think my dad minds Too much, but it was just weird that on Father's day none of us were there. My youngest sister was at the house when DH & I went by this afternoon though. We didn't have a gift, but my sis had an idea and we told him it is on it's way. Yes, I know we are slackers

Tonight for dinner Dh made boneless pork chops, corn on the cob and a zucchini & artichoke dish w/ fresh zucchini from my parents garden. They have all kinds of things planted and will even have some corn soon. DH and I can't wait. I told him that we need to actually go over and help pick some times so that we can share in the bounty

Man, I can't believe it is Sunday evening already and I have to go back to work tomorrow already I just hope that this week will be a tad calmer and I can get everything done... I leave for Florida on Friday evening regardless

Have a great week!

 

[DisDee]

Amber, How exciting for you to be taking the trip in Sept! We did the free dining a couple of years ago. What a deal!

You leave for Florida on Friday? Did I miss something? Have yourself a great week!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Hey, Dee! Nah, you probably didn't miss anything, I just haven't been talking a lot about our trip this coming week.

I am excited about getting away, but it is kind of old hat to me because we go there so often. We will go to Mexico Beach where I've gone on vacation for most of my life. It will be a chance to just relax and hang out, so I am definitely looking forward to it! We have not decided yet, but we may come home on Wednesday or Thursday and spend some time at the house doing those house chores that never get done for lack of time, like organizing the spare bedroom or more yard work. We'll see though.

 

[kmp1191]

I'm so jealous!! WDW for your birthday!! I told DH that I wanted to go to WDW for my 40th, but I don't think it's gonna be possible. We'll see though!

Have fun at the beach!

ree~ree

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

You never know Marie! 40 is a special birthday, I think it is definitely worth a special trip!!

Well, I left work early today because I just couldn't focus on doing ANYTHING. I went and ran some pre-trip errands like gas, bank, oil change that I Really should have done before today. I'm straightening up a bit and doing the last of the packing while I wait for DH to get off of work. We will head out of town about 7:30

I'm ready to be at the beach RIGHT NOW

Ok, well, Ya'll be good now! I'll see ya when I get back!