Amber's Get Healthy Journal (Comments Welcome)

[Foxfiregrrl]

Thanks Linda! I do think I understand what you mean about the stair machine, but this one isn't that kind of stair machine. It is like an escalator where the actual stairs rotate and you pick your feet up and climb the stairs. I thought the other kind was bad enough

It was coming down slowly and I was climbing about the pace I would normally climb a lot of stairs. I kept hitting my toes on the next step, which is why my family said I should make it go faster. It said I was doing 53 steps a minute and at about the 2 minute mark I had done 7 flights of stairs I don't know if that is a lot or not, but I know if I climb 7 flights of stairs I'm usually out of breath. I will keep working at it some. I will do it as an add on to the eliptical or the treadmill until I can build up some time on it

Today is gonna be a no exercise day We are getting together at Dh's mom's house w/ a big group of friends. We will play board and card games and grill out this evening. Dh & I have to go this morning and get the food etc.

Tomorrow we are going to a family reunion in North Georgia. We will drive up and back in the same day It is in a beautiful state park, Vogel, in the mountains. Most years we walk around the lake there and some times we rent paddle boats. If I can do one or both of those activities this year then I might get some exercise tomorrow otherwise it is looking bad for my challenge this month

Well, have a GREAT Holiday weekend everyone!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Hello everyone! Hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day!

Saturday-
lunch - chicken & cheese panini & potato chips
Dinner - hamburger, hotdog, baked beans, potato chips

We spent the day playing games and chillin out. It was a lot of fun and we had a Big group. There were 13 of us for dinner so we made lots of burgers and dogs and they were ALL gone quickly!

Sunday - We left at 7:30am and didn't get home til 10:30pm We had a really good time at the reunion and it was a beautiful day. We had a different pavillion this year and it was closer to the lake, which meant it had a better view and a great breeze! The food was plentiful and Delicious! I ate Way too much of course. I am not even gonna attempt to figure out what all I had. For breakfast I had an egg & cheese biscuit from BK.

On the way home we stopped and had dinner at On the Border. We really like that place I did ok at first. I order this huge meal that had 5 different things on it. I ate the empanada & taco and boxed the other 3 things up to bring home. Well, my parents shared a meal, so they decided they should get dessert (actually my dad since mom is diabetic). I thought he was gonna get something to share, but NO he got some apple thing when I was wanting the chocolate items. So I ordered chocolate turtle empanadas and shared them w/ Dh and sis. It was SO YUMMY!

The bad part is I had chocolate cake at lunch and some chocolate silk pie shortly thereafter. So not a good day calorie wise, but a good day food taste wise I enjoyed every morsel too. I figure if I'm gonna be bad I might as well enjoy it!

I did get in some exercise yesterday though We walked around the lake at Vogel. It is a mile loop and we did it in our usual 20 minutes. Later in the day we rode the paddle boats. Boy is that exhausting! We paddled across the lake and back and it was 30 minutes. Dh kept wanting to rest & I did too, but I wanted to keep going more so it would be better exercise So I managed to get in 50 minutes yesterday.

I think that brings me to 915 w/ only 3 days left to go and a committment to do 1150 I'm gonna give it my best shot, but I am just not sure if I can make it. I will come close though.

Have a wonderful day!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Ok, so I have completely fallen off of the wagon when it comes to recording exactly what I ate and how Very bad for me it was. And I am not going to quite make it to my challenge goal for this month. I vow to do better in the near future.

Joining the gym was an awesome idea! I am so stoked. We went today for the first time. I got on the treadmill & so did Dh and Mom. Dad did the bike some then the weight machines. Dh moved onto the weights as well after about 25 minutes. I wanted to do my jog/walk routine so I stayed at the treadmill. I ROCKED the treadmill today!

I set the incline at 3% and walked at 3.6 & 3.7 during the walk portions, during my jog portions I went 4.7 mph. I warmed up for 5 minutes then started my intervals. I did 1.5 minutes of jogging w/ 3 minutes of walking in between. I did that for 6 intervals. By that time I was starting to struggle with going the whole 1.5 minutes. So I decided to switch to 1 minute of jogging and 2 minutes of walking. I did that for the rest of the 45 minutes that I had programed. Then I did the 2 minutes that it allowed for cool down and turned it back on for 3 more cool down minutes. I was So excited to see my mileage times! first mile 15:30, second mile 15:30, third mile 14:30 Is that possible?? I was really pushing to try to hit 3 miles in 45 minutes. I kept thinking that I had done 2- 15 minute miles and that would make 3- 15 minute miles, but I was forgeting the extra half minute on each of the first 2 miles. Anyway, I did the 3 in 45.5 and was Super happy!

I have set a new goal that I think I am ready to make official now. I want to run the half marathon next year. But my plan is to run the half marathon that is held during our local Cherry Blossom Festival in March. This will give me a little more time to train and then all my family and friends can come and cheer me on. That is also a great timeline for me because I want to start trying to get pregnant late spring next year. This will allow me to get into GREAT shape and accomplish something that I never thought possible while keeping my mind off of wanting to be pregnant NOW. We get 3 personal training sessions as part of our membership and I plan to use mine to work out a schedule of jogging, weights, and crosstraining. Marathon here I come!!

On food, I promise to do better. It is silly for me to work so hard on my workouts and then blow it all by eating all of this bad food. I know that I splurged over the weekend. I didn't care then. I am not gonna worry about it now. We had some of the leftovers today for dinner and I am planning to have the leftover mexican for dinner tomorrow because I have to work late. I would like to say that after tomorrow we will get on track and stay that way. But I know that we are going to Six Flags Friday and the Renaissance Festival on Saturday, then Sunday I leave for my last week of training. So what I will promise is that I will try to do my best while eating away from home and be thoughtful about my selections. Then upon my return June 10th I will recommit to eating a low-calorie, low-fat diet high in fruits, vegetables, & whole grains! I am going to try to change my calorie limit to 1300 calories a day to boost my weight loss potential w/ the possibility of one splurge day a week where I can have about 1500 or so calories.

So that is my plan. I feel this renewed energy toward the whole diet & exercise idea. I was talking to one of our friends over the weekend and he has recently been diagnosed w/ type 2 diabetes. I was telling him about diet & exercise tips and I realized just how much a part of my life this stuff is now and how glad I am that it is! The diet portion is still a struggle for me, but I am excited about my exercise program and I want to do better w/ my diet. I have never been so positive about diet and exercise before. I was always just forcing myself to do it and couldn't wait until I could quit. Now I feel it is part of my life and a good part too.

Ok, enough rambling on. Can you tell I'm hyper tonight. I am on a post exercise high.... Oh, yeah, I almost forgot to put down my food for today.

B- kashi crunch w/ milk, coffee
S- applesauce
L- HC dinner
S- cracker jacks
D- hamburger, potato salad, broccoli & cauliflower salad

Well, I think that is it. Have a Wonderful night everyone!!

 

[lindalinda]

All I can say is WOW! Splendiferous! Fantabulous! I want a treadmill too!
You Rock!

 

[ScoJo15]

Amber - WAY TO GO!! What an awesome workout you had on the treadmill!!! That is so great!! And you can TOTALLY do the half marathon!!! It's soo cool to see you make a commitment like that...I know you will do awesome! Looks like you've caught the bug!!!

Way to go!! have a good day!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Thanks guys! I am really excited about being able to work out with my family but go at my own pace and do what I want to do.

I have been kind of busy and slack on writing the last couple of days.

Wed - Worked late but still made it to the gym. I did the elliptical machine and a few minutes on the bike. I ended up w/ 35 minutes for the day. Food wasn't great.

Thursday - I had my first personal training session. It was ok. He weighed me and measured my arms, waist, hips, thighs, & calves. My weight was 193.5 I am not counting that though because it was a different scale that I usually use. I will have to compare them sometime.

He put me on the treadmill and had me bring my heart rate up to 150. He said I should aim to keep my heart rate between 150 & 155. He set my speed at 3.8 and the incline adjusted between 6% and 10% back and forth to keep my heart rate in range. I think that will work to burn calories & fat, but I want to keep working on my jogging. I think I am going to keep doing the intervals, but watch my heart rate and not let it drop below 150. I will see how that works for me.

He showed me how to use some of the weight machines, but not all of them. He said that we will finish the circuit next session. I had hoped to get more personalized info in this session, but it was "free" so whatever. I will just use the info he gives me to add to what I already knew and was working on. I want to set myself up on a schedule to jog some days, do step classes some days, etc. I want to strength train some also, probably I will do a little each day.

Today - We went to Six Flags this morning. It was much better today! It wasn't crowded or hot. We rode Goliath first, it Rocked! Then we Finally got to ride Deja Vu. It was really fun, but the backward part really got to me and Dh. Then we went on Superman. That was the end of me. I think I had not recovered from Deja Vu when we got on and when it flipped I knew I was done. Dh was not feeling very good either at that point. We ate lunch and let our stomachs calm. However, we both decided that was enough thrill rides for one day. We decided to head over to White Water to finish out our day.

We got to White Water at 3pm and it was perfect! No crowds and just the right temp. We rode just about every ride and then started re-riding some. About 5 though my body decided that even though White Water is Way gentler it was still too much. It was starting to make me a little woosy just riding the tube rides. So we decided it was time to go.

We knew it was 5pm on Friday and we were in Atlanta so there wasn't much point in trying to go home. We headed over to Dave & Buster's instead. We had dinner and played a few video games. We really love D&B and I hate that we live so far away now. After a few games we figured it was safe to head home. Traffic was much better.

So we had a Very full day, but LOTS of fun! I think I can safely count 2 hours of exercise for today. We walked all over SixFlags and White Water and climbed Tons of stairs (I counted 300 on 3 rides alone!)

Food today -
B - bagel w/ cream cheese, fruit smoothie
L - hamburger, fries, sprite
D - cheese fries, parmesan crusted chicken w/ alfredo linguini
So we started out the day trying to do better. We didn't do fast food breakfast. At SixFlags our options were limited. By the time I got to dinner though I figured that I had burned lots of calories today and I Love the parmesan chicken and Alfredo. I used to ALWAYS get Alfredo sauce and now I almost never do, so I decided to go for it. Remember the diet thing starts next week.

Well, gotta run. I promise to get over to read some journals tomorrow! Good Night!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

WOW, I didn't realize how far behind I had gotten on everyone's journals! I am starting to get caught up now though finally.

WARNING: Very Offtopic Rambling ahead

I should have realized that I was that far behind on journals cause I was that far behind on I have just been busy recently and it seems like I should have time to get things done, but yet they still don't get done I have been doing this evening while catching up on journals. I have to get it done so I can pack to go back out of town tomorrow. I will be so glad when I am done w/ this week cause then I will have NO more trainings! (for awhile at least )

We went to the Ren Fest today. It was a beautiful day for it! We go almost every year and really enjoy it. Dh has a costume, but I have yet to buy one. Every year I look and say I want one but they are SO expensive. This year I decided I want one, so I started looking on Ebay and they have some really nice stuff for Way Cheaper than at the Fest. But then I wasn't sure exactly what style I wanted. So today we went to Every clothing booth and I tried on a bunch of different outfits. I still haven't decided exactly what I want. What I Love are the Royalty outfits (I always have had expensive tastes ) but I also like the fact that the peasant outfits are more versitile and mix and match better. Dh REALLY liked the corset that I tried on as part of the Royal outfit(it made me look Really skinny too ). The only problem w/ that is that the corset alone costs $275 and the whole outfit was $550 I haven't found anything quite like it online, but the royal outfits w/ bodices (as opposed to corsets) are like $160 for the whole outfit, which is a BIG difference! I knew that I would most likely just look at the festival and then come home and order one online, but I kind of wanted to support the vendors there. But I just couldn't pay their prices when the prices are SO much better online. Now I just have to sort through all of the Awesome things on Ebay, etc to figure out what I want. Poor me I have shopping to do

So, as far as diet and exercise today.... We walked all over the Ren Fest and it is a pretty good sized place. We were there for 5 hours and I know we walked at least 2 miles. I will count 1 hour for today.

Food was not so good. We had the same breakfast as yesterday cause the bagels were awesome. Then we had lunch at the Fest. I had a meatball wrap. I also had an ice cream sundae For dinner Dh wanted sushi so we went out. I ordered "Oyaki Don" It said chicken w/ egg & vegetables over rice. The only vegetable was onion which I am only mildly tolerant of and the whole meal was drowned in a sauce that was just so-so. It was just not tasty to me. I picked at it a bit, then put it in a to go box for Dh to eat later. We ended up stopping at Taco Bell & getting me a Crunchwrap supreme. It was yummy, very fattening, but yummy. So all in all not a great day eating-wise. I start out trying to be healthy, but then in the face of all that yummy bad for me food I just totally Cave. That is me scarfing down food (I love the new smilies!)

We have a somewhat laid back day planned for tomorrow. We are going to go to the gym, then have lunch w/ the family, then Dh's dad & his wife are coming over to see where our house is going to be. They still haven't been over to see it yet. Then I have to pack and drive to Columbus for training. So, it won't really be much of a laid back day after all. I have been saying a lot lately that I really like to stay busy, but we may have been keeping ourselves a bit too busy over the last couple of weeks. It is ok though, I actually find being out of town kind of relaxing. I don't have to cook or clean or tend to anyone but myself

Well, I better get ready for bed. Thanks for sticking w/ me through this long and rambling post! Have a Great week everyone! I will do my best to check in!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

BTW, I just added up my final minutes for the March exercise challenge. I ended up w/ 1000 of 1150 completed. I promise to do better this month.

I am going to set my goal at 1150 this month.

 

[goldcupmom]

Love your half marathon plan and the 'baby' plan.

I use that kind of stair machine, too, and it is tough. I think the stairs are a bit higher than a normal stair and that might be why you hit your toe some. It took some getting used to.

Have a great week!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

I hate this computer!! I was almost through typing up my whole day and it just flipped out and erased everything! ARGH!

Here is the part I had saved that I was gonna post yesterday that I couldn't post because the connection was down:

I have just been flat out refusing to log my food for the last week or so.... I will try to to better this week.

I am now in Columbus at the Holiday Inn. I have to say I am not impressed. I thought that Holiday Inns were supposed to be pretty high class. This place is only slightly better than the Best Western and not nearly as nice as the Comfort Suites that I had been staying in. I am disappointed too because I thought I was going to have a fridge and microwave, but I don't. The accounting office at work changed my reservation so that could be why I don't. That made me a bit ill... they got a better discount on the room, but now I don't get breakfast and no fridge. That suucks too because I brought my leftover D&B food and wanted to heat it up & now I can't. I will probably end up trashing it. That could be good for my waistline, but my tastebuds will be sad.

We did not end up going to the gym today because we stayed up really late last night and therefore slept late today. Oh, well I needed a bit of a rest today. Also my father in law didn't come today. That was a relief to both Dh and I. We took it easy and cleaned up some before I had to leave to come here.

I had a salad w/ chicken from Logan's tonight for dinner. Lunch was pork tenderloin, zucchini & egg casserole, salad, rice & gravy, & carrots.

-----
Gonna post this and do a new post w/ today's stuff.

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

K, back to today....

B- DD coffee & wheat bagel w/ veggie cream cheese
L- McAllister's chicken ceasar salad wrap & potato soup
D- Ruby Tuesday's salad bar (huge salad w/ lots of toppings) & buffalo chicken tenders
So I tried to do better for most of the day, but the chicken tenders got me in the end

I got on the treadmill here at the hotel today. It was kind of old. I warmed up and then started to jog. I was going to do 2 minute jogging intervals w/ 3 minutes of walking in between. Well, early on my feet were hurting on the bottoms pretty bad. Then my left knee decided to hurt. It wasn't much pain and it went away if I slowed to walking 3.5 but I didn't do any faster walking or jogging after that. I think I did 4 minutes of jogging before the knee started up. I was feeling pretty fatigued in general during my workout. I thought that I would stop at the 30 minute mark, but by then I wasn't feeling quite as bad so I kept going. I ended up doing 2.4 miles in 40 minutes. I actually did my first mile in 15.5 minutes before the knee set in on me. I spent a lot of time cooling down at the end which is why my time is so bad for the last 1.4 miles. (I think it was partly because of the old not very good treadmill that I was hurting today)

Gonna work on visiting journals now. Have a wonderful night!

 

[ScoJo15]

Amber - 15.5! nice mile there!! And yeah, the treadmills can be pretty abusive on your body (especially the old not so good ones)..take care of that knee. Do you do some stretching before and most importantly after your workouts?? That may help the knee out a little.

Have a great day!!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Hey, Scott Thanks! Hitting the 15.5 miles w/out feeling that I pushed my hardest is a Wonderful feeling!! I do stretch before I workout and most of the time I stop and stretch some more at some point between 5 and 15 minutes. Then I spend a good bit of time stretching afterwards. I even sit down and stretch some afterwards. I almost never have any lingering pain, just pains while I'm exercising.

Today was not a good exercise day either... The girls from class wanted to go out to dinner and then go see The Omen afterwards. I agreed to go but I wanted to workout first. They said to meet at 5:45 for dinner which only gave me 75 minutes to workout and get my shower and meet back. I went to the local gym that I have access to through my hotel. I got on the treadmill and was all eager to get in a good fast workout. Maybe too eager After warming up for 4 minutes I started jogging. Well, my shins? starting burning really quickly. I brought it back to a walk and then when they kept on then I stopped to stretch. That didn't really help. I kept going but at a slower pace. The pain lessened and I tried to jog again but that did last long. I ended up just walking for a total of 15 minutes. The burning and pain stopped, but I just felt like it was stressing my legs. I got off and stretched. Then I got on the elliptical and did it at an easy pace for 17 minutes. That didn't hurt at all. I don't think that I got my heart rate up good on the elliptical though. I just didn't want to overdo it, but I was still determined to get some exercise done. I'm stubborn I know.

Tomorrow I am going to go to the gym and get in a good workout. I will listen to my body and take it easy. I am considering doing the kickboxing class that is offered, but it will depend on how I am feeling. I will most likely just do the treadmill and maybe some elliptical. I think that if I don't do the class then I will just walk and try to do the heart rate routine that the personal trainer had me doing.

Food today-
b - gas station cappucino, snickers marathon bar (accidently passed the DD and didn't have time to go back )
l - Wendy's Freshatta turkey & pesto sandwich, ceasar side salad w/ light ranch, coke
s - dd iced mocha latte
d - Mikato's teryaki chicken w/fried rice and veggies

I didn't end up seeing the movie tonight cause when we got there they were sold out. Some of the other girls went to see it at 9:40 but that was just too late for me.

Well, I'm gonna try to get in bed earlier tonight. I haven't been sleeping well lately. Have a great day!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Yesterday -

B- dd coffee, choc. chip muffin
L- subway turkey breast sandwich w/ cheese, but no mayo, baked doritos, tea
D- chinese buffett... I think that I did pretty well at controlling myself. I got 2 plates of food, but didn't eat all of either plate. I tried to stay away from the fried foods and I did fairly good. I ate a couple of different kinds of chicken and some shrimp. I also ate steamed rice instead of fried rice. I didn't have "dessert", I got a cheese wonton to eat as dessert but only ate about half of it.
S - 44 oz of margaritas.

I went out w/ the girls again last night. We started at the chinese buffet and then after dinner decided to go to a Mexican resteraunt and have margaritas. The restaurant that we found had Margarita Night on Wednesday nights so they were half off. We sat and drank and laughed and had a really great time. One of the girls stated that hanging out like this has renewed her faith in having girlfriends. I agree. I really haven't taken the time to make friends very much lately. I just hang out w/ my hubby and chat w/ you guys online and that is about it. But I have really enjoyed these evenings w/ the girls. We all live in different counties, but we talked about trying to get together every so often. I am going to try to make sure that happens. I think that it will really be good for me.

I did get my exercise in yesterday before we went out. I went to the gym and got on the treadmill. I did not do any jogging. I did my warmup for 9 minutes and then tried to jog. I did that for about 30 seconds and new that it wasn't going to happen. So I decided to just do the heart rate thing. I didn't do it just like the trainer had said. What I did was just keep my speed between 3.7 and 3.9 and my incline at 2.5. Once i got my heart rate up I just walked hard and pumped my arms a lot to keep my heart rate up. I did 3 miles in 48 minutes exactly. I thought that was pretty good considering I was just walking and some of that was my warm up and cool down.

Last night I didn't sleep well at all!! I kept waking up every couple of hours and had a really hard time getting back to sleep.

Today -
B- DD coffee, Bagel w/ cream cheese
L- applebee's confetti chicken w/ mashed potatoes, & broccoli.... but I didn't really eat my broccoli
D- Cheddar's chicken pot pie, salad w/ light ranch, croisssant and.... Oreo cookie Ice cream cake... That thing was Huge & Delicious!

We all got together again tonight, even the teacher came along. We had a good time, but it was really loud in there and hard to hold good conversation. I was being tempted by the Ben & Jerry's next door when we went into the restaurant. But when we got in there 2 other girls were saying that they were getting the Oreo cookie thing. Oreos are one of my favorite cookies and I knew that I would be Really sad if they were eating it and not me, so I went ahead and got it. It was SO good! I did get one of the other girls to help me eat some of it. I seriously over indulged though.... I think it was worth it.

Exercise-
7 minutes on bike to warm up
10 minutes on eliptical, but I just wasn't feeling it today and it said I was only going 1.8 mph
46 minutes on treadmill. Kind of took it easy and only did 3.8 mph for a short period, mostly 3.6 and 3.7 HR was in the 140s mostly tried to keep it in the high 140s. I just couldn't maintain the higher HR and I wanted to just try to get some time in. I could be wrong, but I feel like sometimes going for longer has to be better than going all out for shorter periods.

I don't think that I will exercise tomorrow. Dh & I are planning to hit the gym first thing Saturday morning though. I am hoping that with the rest day I will be able to get back to my jogging routine.

Well, Have a good weekend everyone!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Friday-
No exercise.
b- Krystal scrambler (grits, egg, cheese, sausage), milk, coffee
l- Olive garden soup & salad
d- Cracker Barrell country fried steak, dumplins, hashbrown casserole, corn, biscuit.... Yes, I was very bad

Saturday -

Woke up w/ a terrible headache and neckache. Took asprin and hoped it would ease off, but it didn't. Had a sandwich for lunch and was feeling a bit nauseated before and after that. Took more asprin. Finally like 3 or 4 hours later it eased up and I felt mostly normal again. So we didn't end up going to the gym yesterday. And to make matters worse, once I felt better we ended up going to Stevie B's for dinner I did do a little better this time though. I got a salad first thing and ate it before eating anything else. Then I had 5 pieces of pizza and a small desert cinamon thing. So I could have done better, but I also could have done worse.

After dinner we went to the farm that my sister works at to get a kitten. They had 3 litters of kittens (one was newborns though). They were all scaredy cats, but we managed to pick most of them up to pet. I think there were 6 kittens that were big enough to adopt. We couldn't decide on one and my sis said that the ones that don't get adopted are going to the pound next wednesday. So we got 2 We got a dark grey shorter haired one from the oldest litter (we think about 8 or 9 weeks) and a light colored fluffy one from the younger litter (she said they are about a week younger). The grey one kept trying to get away but the fluffy one just sat there terrified to move. Sis said that they had fleas pretty bad and we would have to bathe them. Little did we know what an ordeal that would be We bought some cat flea shampoo, but it said not to use it on kittens under 12 weeks. Well, they were crawling w/ fleas esp. the small one, so we used it anyway. That only got some of the fleas and I remembered that I had some foam for my last cat. It said it was good for kittens 2 weeks and up. So we put that on them and started rubbing it in. It seemed to be working a bit better, BUT a bunch of the fleas just moved onto their faces where we couldn't put the flea stuff! They were everywhere in their ears, nose, eyes, mouth. I was having a hard time cause I didn't know what to do. Then, the little one licked his foot and started foaming at his mouth! That is when I started to panic! Dh took him and said call the vet. Well, it is like 7pm on a Saturday, that isn't too easy to do. So, while I looked in the phone book I called my mom and asked her to come and help. I called the emergency vet and they said it was probably a reaction to the flea stuff and if we bring him in they Might could help. But if we take him it will be $186 for calling the vet in, $56 for the office visit, & then how ever much the treatment costs I said, thanks, but I guess we'll wait and see if he gets better or worse (she said it might go away on its own). Well, a couple of minutes later he stopped foaming, Thank God! Then we just had to deal w/ the rest of the fleas. Mom and I took over and ran water over the kitten's face and then the fleas would surface and we would grab them. We worked at picking off the fleas (tried not to dunk the poor kitties any more than necessary) for like probably an hour! The little kitten didn't like it but he didn't put up much of a fight. However the older grey kitten pitched a fit! He/she scratched and clawed and tried to get away the whole time. I was worn out by the time we were done! I am afraid that we did not get every last flea, but we did get most of them. We are going to treat them again next weekend and treat the carpets and couches etc then also. It makes us pretty that they let those poor kittens get SO infested w/ fleas!

Anyway, they are still pretty young and we tried to see if they are boys or girls We couldn't tell, which to me would indicate they are girls, but they say it is hard to tell when they are little. We want to name them, but wanted to be a little more sure of their gender first. I told Dh we could name them gender neutral names like "Pat" and he said No Way

We tried to set up a blocked off portion of the room last night to keep them near their food and litter box. I got up and checked on them at 4am and they were in there just fine. Then at 7am I woke up and one was meowing. I went to check and one was laying behind its bed and the older one had climbed up into the chair and was chillin. I put him back and layed back down. 5 minutes later the meowing starts again and it sounds upset. I go back and the older one has climbed out. I put him back and then they both proceed to climb out. So at that point I just decided to get up and let them out on the floor. They explored and then started playing with each other a lot. They are SO cute! The older one doesn't mind me picking him up and will even play w/ me, but the little one is still Very afraid. He runs if I come toward him. He goes and hides where I can't get to him and then he will sit there and Meow his little head off as if he wants me to help him. Then, if I go toward him again he runs further under stuff Silly cat! I figured out that he is crying for the other kitten to come and get him. They are both all pooped out now and sleeping. The older one is on my computer desk w/ me and the other is in his hiding spot (the older one ignored him and he finally passed out from crying). It is funny how much like children they really are!

So, back to the diet and exercise thing... I have had oatmeal w/ peanut butter this morning and some coffee. I am hoping Dh will get up in a little bit and we can go to the gym. I don't know if I would hold my breath on that one though I tried to get him up at 8 to play w/ the cats, but he just said that I was crazy!

Well, guess that is it for now. Enjoy your Sunday!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Sunday –
B- oatmeal, milk, coffee
L- strip steak in crockpot, rice, peas, cornbread, fruit salad
D- chicken curry, lentils

Exercise – 28 minutes on the treadmill. Didn't do a major high
intensity workout. Kind of tried to take it easy since I had been
feeling a bit icky the day before.

Later in the afternoon my shoulder on the other side was hurting and
gave me a headache again. It didn't last as long this time though.

Monday – We decided not to workout at the gym because we wanted to
come home and spend time w/ the kittens. They had a bit of a rough
day on Sunday. The little one didn't want to come out and be around
us for most of the day. But they did much better last night. The
older one really helps a lot, because he will come up and get on my
lap and then the little one will follow him. Usually once he figures
out where he is though he runs off. He did let us pet him some last
night though and that was good.

B- mini wheats
L – chili, ruffles
S- piece of cake from work
D- broccoli rice chicken casserole, lentils

Today –
B- mini wheats
S- cinnamon toast crunch milk and cereal bar
L- broccoli rice chicken casserole, part of an apple, small handful of ruffles.
S- triscuits, cheese & turkey pepperoni (needed something to tide me over til we were done at the gym)
D- leftover broccoli rice chicken casserole and lentils

Exercise- went to the gym and did the treadmill. I warmed up for 5 minutes then stopped to stretch. When I do that it starts my time over so then I started my routine from zero. I wanted to push for my jogging, but not over do it. I did 1.5 minute intervals at first then a couple of one minute intervals, then for my last one I pushed on to 2 minutes. I didn't count the intervals I would say maybe 6 or 7. When I finished my first mile it wasn't showing the distance and time together. I am pretty sure it was right at the 15 minute mark Pretty good considering I didn' jog last week. Then my second mile I was starting to wear out towards the end but I pushed on. I hit the end of mile 2 at 14:30 i was really excited about that! I think the reason that I did so good today is that I am pushing myself to walk faster during the walk times and start jogging again once my heart rate comes down to 150 (when I can) which is usually before my walk interval is officially over. I knew that I wasn't going to jog anymore after that, but had planned to do an extended cool down. However, Dh finished his workout and was ready to go. I made him wait a few more minutes so I could do at least some of my cool down though. Including my warmup and cooldown I did 42 minutes and 2.7 miles.

Have a good night! Gonna go play w/ my kitties now

 

[ScoJo15]

14:30!! You're doing awesome!! I find the treadmill to be hard to run on but you are doing so well on it! Way to go!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Wow. I've been busy and gone awhile I will try to recap what has been going on.

Wednesday -
Went out to dinner w/ my parents and some of their friends from high school. No exercise.

Thursday -
My family has been passing a virus around and it finally hit Dh and me. I wasn't nearly as bad as everyone else, but it made me pretty weak. I made dinner and couldn't even eat any. I just wasn't hungry and the thought of eating made me feel sick. Everyone else was having diarrhea & some were also vomitting. I was not excited about the prospect. I had breakfast and lunch but nothing else to eat all day. It is VERY unusual for me not to be hungry. Dh had to go to Atlanta for his work and on the way home he threw up twice (thank goodness he carpools ) My grandmother had it first over the weekend and then my grandfather. He is in the hospital now because he just can't seem to shake it. He is 84 and doesn't really take good care of himself, so it hit him hard. He is having some complications now and they will keep him until at least Monday. It amazes me how differently elderly people's bodies respond to illness. The things that barely affect younger people can be debilitating to an older person. I think he will pull through this ok though.

Friday - After my weak showing and very iffy stomach from Thursday night I decided to just take a sick day from work. I didn't want to risk being 30 miles from home and having either of the symptoms I thought were coming. Luckily for me I never had either problem. I was Very weak though all day. Simple things like walking up the stairs really wore me out. I didn't end up eating anything until about 12, so that was about 24 hours that I had gone w/out eating. That probably didn't help w/ the weakness thing. I had oatmeal and then chicken noodle soup later in the day. My stomach never did feel normal, but no major problems either. Dh went to work but probably should have stayed home. He was having some issues, but he barely gets any sick days and he guards them very carefully.
Well, I was at home to care for myself, but I ended up spending all of my time taking care of the kitties. We gave them names, btw, the oldest is Ravenclaw, "Raven", and the youngest is Hufflepuff, "Puff". So Puff in particular Refuses to use the litter box AND she was having diarrhea (this is becoming a theme ) She kept me on my toes. I had to keep a Really good eye on her and put her in the litter box any time I even thought she might have to go. Both kittens are really friendly now and love to be petted and cuddled. I decided that we really needed to confine them better so I put them in the bathroom. Well, little did I know the panelling on one wall is broken at the bottom and they pushed through it and escaped! After that they were Really cuddling up as if asking "please don't put us back". They even used the litter box properly.

Today -
Well, we had been trying to wait until Tuesday to take the kittens to the Vet cause Petsmarts Wellness plan is going to be lowered in price on that day and w/ 2 cats every little bit helps. However, I kept reading that worms could cause the litter box issues. So we decided to take them first thing this morning. We set up this dog pen that my grandmother had that is like 2x4 to put them in when we got home. I have heard that deworming is messy. Dh had plans to game w/ his friends today so after the Vet appt I would be alone all day dealing w/ the kittens. The vet gave them the worm medicine, eye ointment for the yuck in their eyes, butt ointment for Puff's raw tush, and antibiotics for the diarrhea and their eyes. I put them in the cage and they HATED it. They slept for a little while, but any time they were awake the cried and tried to get out. I finally put a board across the bad spot in the bathroom and moved them in there. I can sit w/ them that way and they seem a lot more content in there. The only thing is we can't see each other without me being in the bathroom w/ them. Each time I have gone in there they have been curled up sleeping, so that is good.

I took advantage of having them out of the living area and cleaned up today. I vaccuumed everything which was Seriously needed. I spot cleaned the poopy spots w/ an enzyme cleaner made for cat mistakes. I did 2 loads of clothes, got one left to do. I also did a load of dishes. My mom called to see if I wanted to go to the grocery store and I said No way I've done enough today.

I want to say that after the last couple of days I totally Hats off to All the Mothers and Fathers out there who hold it together day after day you manage to take care of all of your families needs and still try to find time to take care of yourself!! You are out there exercising and eating right and haven't moved into LaLa Land!! These kittens have given me a little taste of the hard parts of being a parent. I know that there are LOADS of great rewarding parts and that somehow they out weigh all the bad stuff, but boy is it tiring being a parent (even if it is only to kittens )

So needless to say no exercise for me today. I didn't eat too well either. There is always next week

Our plans for tomorrow were to take my mother and father to White Water for Father's day. But dad is back to being sick again today, so those plans are cancelled. That Really sucks too cause that was the only present that I had planned. I think we will just go another time. I am ok with not going tomorrow cause I think we all need a day to just chill after all the yuckiness going around. Maybe I will make it to the gym tomorrow.

Well, sorry so long, lots to ramble about Have a great weekend!

 

[goldcupmom]

Wow, Amber, Busy, busy, busy with the kitties! Welcome to Motherhood!!

If they get fleas again you can buy a teeny tiny flea comb to do their faces. makes it a bit easier to catch the escapees.

Hope you're having a great weekend and are feeling better!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Julie, busy, busy, busy is SO right! I don't know how you keep up the energy day after day!

It seems like everyday I have more stuff to do! I think it might start getting better soon though.

Sunday- got up at 10am cause my mom called to say that my dad felt better and they were willing to go to White Water after all. Dh had stayed up late Sat. thinking we weren't going. We have all been sick too remember. So we ended up putting it off until next Sunday. Spent the morning playing w/ the kittens. Visited my grandpa in the hospital. Played w/ the kittens some more. Then the day was magically gone! No exercise, no record of food although it was average.

Monday - I had a chiropractor appt at 5:15. I got there at 5:00 hoping they would take me early. WRONG! They didn't get to me until like 5:45 and I didn't get out of there until 6:30! It has Never taken that long before! Of course, the whole time all I could think about was how my kittens are locked in the bathroom and haven't had any human contact since 8am
I did get home and loved on my kitties then we cooked dinner and went to the grocery store. Then we spent like 30 minutes playing w/ the kittens. Then it was 11 pm! Jeez! Where does the day go? No exercise, average food.

Today - came home and cooked, went to gym, ate dinner, played w/ kittens, showered, 10pm
b- cereal, milk, juice
l- HC tv dinner, grapes, potato chips
d- paella w/ chicken & shrimp

exercise - 9 minutes on bike, 34 minutes on treadmill. Started out taking it easy with a Long warmup walk, then decided to jog. Did one minute intervals 2 minutes apart to start w/. As I got further along I started to really struggle w/ my heartrate being too high, so then I made my walks longer. Even w/ all the walking warmup I did 2 miles in 30 minutes! I was happy and worn out

Here's to having nothing on the schedule for tomorrow! Still need to go to the gym and play w/ the kittens though, so I might shouldn't celebrate just yet.

Good night!