Hi, guys! Thanks to everyone for your good wishes. I hope all of you had a lovely holiday.
My DD, Tara, and I went to NC to see my parents and other family members. Unfortunately, Stacie and Matt were in MD visiting some of our cousins, so we didnt get to see them but they will be around when we have our next visit (in mid-January after her 5K race at WDW) and I am sure we will have lots to talk about face-to-face by then! We had an uneventful drive there and back, for which I was very grateful (on the way home, we saw someone ahead of us hit a deer and that was not a fun thing to watch so glad it wasnt us!!), and we got to see the new baby in the family (which I was able to hold, coo over and hand back to his mother another thing for which I am very grateful!!) Tara got to change his diaper, something she has never done before, so that was an educational experience for her!! Larry had to work the day after Thanksgiving, so he wasnt able to make the trip. I missed him a lot!! He hated being home alone with only the dogs for company, so I think he was really glad to see us when we got home Sunday afternoon!
My parents worked really hard to make sure Tara and I had gluten-free food throughout our visit and they were successful! Neither of us ever got sick while we were there, which was a true blessing! Tara has decided to go dairy-free when I do (which will be soon probably in the next two or three weeks), so that will be another level of challenge for our diet. But I think it will be worth it I am hoping for great improvement in my energy level after getting rid of the dairy foods. Well see.
I told my parents about the race in May and invited them to go with us to see Stacie and I race together. My mom was so happy!! She literally bounced up and down with joy when she realized that they could go with us to WDW again - I think they had a good time on the two trips they have taken with us there so far!! So it looks like there will be six of us: my parents, Stacie and Matt, and Larry and I. Tara has to work so she cant go with us and our brother wont be home to go on the trip with us (he does missionary work in Mexico and comes home to see our parents and us about twice a year). It will be odd to have a family trip without the two of them, but I think the six of us will still have a good time. Matt and Stacie will celebrate their anniversary while we are there it will be seven years of wedded bliss for them! And heres the big news: our mom has agreed to run the 5K with us! If you knew our mom, you would understand what I am about to say more easily: She is going to blow by the rest of us without any problems!! She is a small, petite bundle of energy. She exercises practically every day and is already accustomed to working out 45 minutes to an hour at a time, so she will have no problem completing this race. In fact, I told her that she will probably finish it, go back to the room, take a shower, get dressed and come back to the race just about the time I cross the finish line (of course, that is probably true of most of the people who will be there, come to think of it) she just laughed and said she didnt think it would be that easy, but she is excited about doing it! Larry and my dad will probably just be cheering us on, although Larry insists that he is going to help me train for the race, so who knows? Maybe he will run it, too!
My chiropractor says that I can start doing short walks to my tolerance, so I did that over the holiday weekend. Right now, I can walk about 10-15 minutes before my back begins to ache to the point that I am ready to rest it. It is actually easier for me to do regular walking than it is to do household stuff (cook, wash dishes, etc.) maybe standing in one place is harder on my back than moving is? I dont know, but Larry asked me yesterday if I was ready to start training for the race. I printed off the C25K program and it looks like it starts with about 20 minutes of walking/jogging, so I think I am going to give it a try on Saturday and see how I do (I have to get to the store for gloves, a hat and a stopwatch before I try to do this outdoors!) if I dont have any major pain (that isnt made better by icing and rest), then I will keep going with it! I am SO EXCITED that I might actually be able to start with this, I cant stand it! I do think it will take a bit longer to reach the point that I can comfortably do all the grocery shopping/cooking needed to get the weight loss going well again, but that will come. For now, I am just REALLY happy that I feel I am about ready to get started with the 5K training WISH ME LUCK!!
On a completely different note: I watched a show on Discovery Health last week about a facility called Brookhaven Obesity Clinic it is for people who are so heavy they cant be accommodated in a regular hospital. They are there because they need medical procedures that cant be done until they lose weight, or because they have medical conditions caused by their weight which require care in a facility. During the course of watching the stories of these people, it became apparent that many of them had been cared for by their children until some event happened that required they be transferred to the clinic. One woman only weighed about 50-60 pounds more than I do now she had always been heavy, but was doing okay until she injured her back and couldnt go to work or move around much. She became so heavy that she couldnt get out of her house (she couldnt manage the stairs) and even had to ask her two grown sons to help her with personal hygiene when she used the toilet! They told her not to be embarrassed that she had done this for them when they needed help (when they were small) and now they would help her, but you could tell she was mortified and eventually she had to go to the clinic because they could no longer care for her on their own. She did very well with the program 1200 calories a day and working out at a specially modified gym and lost about 80 pounds or so. But I wonder when she went home, what happened then? I hope she was able to maintain that lifestyle change, but I am sure it was terribly difficult. Anyway, it made me think that could be me one day. Tara is an only child, and my biggest fear is becoming a burden to her through illness or old age. Since she would have no siblings to help her, it would be especially difficult and I cringe at the thought that she might have to give up so much of her time and energy to care for me. It never occurred to me that I might create that situation through obesity until I saw someone else who was living that nightmare. I dont EVER want to find myself there, and meditating on that has given me even more resolve to fight this battle as best I can no matter what obstacles come up. It made me realize that my weight affects more than just me it affects the people I love, too.
Well, thats it for now. Ill try to get to some of the other journals as soon as I can. Hope everybody has a great evening!
Susan
Susan,
Just don't push yourself too hard right now! Please be careful!
It's such a wonderful goal Susan!
all weekend (where is the puking smiley when you need it??) - didn't even get out of bed until Sunday afternoon, and then only long enough to go to our Bible study meeting. Came home, went back to bed and didn't get in to work this morning until 10:00. Still feel really 
. I hope you are feeling better by now!!!!!! And maybe you'll get the opportunity to get out and walk a bit. The sickness you DID NOT NEED!!!!!!! 
I was trying to tell mom about the race-walking and told her to tell him to look it up online and maybe this is something he should try. So, as they are doing the C25K instead of jogging he could race-walk. If you find any good info on that, pass it along. He really needs to keep to his walking plan. Not to do the 5K in May, but just to stay healthy.
Keep it up! You can do this!!!
