valerie

I just spent about 15 min writing a long blog and when I went to submit it, I was logged out of buddyslim and blog is gone

I’ll just have to hit the highlights.

I am now 183.5 but since the ticker won’t take decimals I entered 184.  So I’ve lost 6.5 lbs in 5 weeks, a little over 1 lb a week and I’m happy with that.

Ladies, have any of you noticed that when you exercise more that TOM is not as regular as he once was?  One month he waits 35 days between visits and the next month only 25 days???  Am I the only one here?

I finished the Chasing Life book and am now reading Dr. Greene’s Best Life Diet.   I’ve learned to love Dr. Greene from the Oprah shows.

I am feeling great today, lots of energy.  Had a great breakfast…melon, mango, almonds and soy milk.  I am looking forward to putting a lot more miles on my pedometer this week.  I did very well last week and it is expected to be just as nice here this week.   That makes me very happy.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week and I hope I am able to blog and comment more this week than the last couple of weeks.

Live, Love & Laugh!!!

— Valerie

Good morning and happy Monday to all my fellow Buddyslimmers…

I’m still at 186 so that’s no loss for the past week.   I walked 3x but that’s the only exercise I got in.   I didn’t watch diet as closely as I had been and I know that is related to the fact that I was in a very poor frame of mind.   This proves that I need to work harder on making this a “lifestyle change” instead of a diet/fitness program.  Once you do that - you can live the rest of your life with little worry about weight gain.  I will get there.

I’m feeling a bit better this week and hope that I’m able to see more progress when I weigh-in next Monday.  I am reading Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s book Chasing Life.   If you enjoy reading about health related issues, I suggest it.  I’m about 3/4 of the way through it and I’ve learned a lot.

I’m glad that the weather is expected to be so warm this week.  That always makes it easier for the outdoor activities.  I should be able to get outside most every day.  

We have a leak under a sink in one of our bathrooms that will require some of my attention tonight but I still plan to find a way to get some activity in if at all possible.  Hopefully between the two of us we can get the problem fixed without too much of a hassle.

I will probably not have the time to read all the blogs I missed last week and I hate that. I’m a little behind at work.   

I hope everyone is having a great Monday so far and has a fantastic week also.   Please continue to keep all those impacted by the tragedy at VT in your prayers. 

—Valerie

I’m still so sad about this tragedy.   I grew up 5 miles from VT and attended college about 20 miles from VT.  So many people I love have been directly impacted by this incident and it’s hard for me to focus on much of anything else at this time.   I will return to blogging about weight and such once my ♥ is in it.  Please continue to pray for our community.

—Valerie

At Virginia Tech there was a shooting this morning, 31 lives lost and 20+ injured.   I have many friends who attend and work for VaTech and this is a very difficult time for our area.   

They are calling this the most fatal incident on any US campus ever.

—Valerie

So I’ve lost 4 lbs in 3 weeks, nothing spectacular but I’m happy with it.    I have had a slight drop each week since starting and that was my goal.  If I drop 5 lbs a month, it will only take me 10 months to reach my goal weight — not too bad. 

This week I hope to get in more activity and not allow the cold & rain to keep me from MOVING as it did last week.   I need to fit it in regardless of where or how.   I did well with my eating last week, except for Saturday, so another goal for this week is to be more careful on the weekend.  And again, I have to say that my water intake has not been adequate so that’s another goal. 

While watching TV, which I have limited recently, I have found various things to keep my hands busy and that seems to help me stay away from the TV snacking  

I am happy to be starting a new week and I expect some good results.   I hope that everyone is having a GREAT Monday morning and that you are all planning for ways to make lots of healthy choices this week.

—Valerie

Don’t have a whole lot to say today other than I’m feeling good and looking forward to the weekend, rain and all.   I am hoping that after I weigh in on Monday that I will be able to move my ticker again, any move at all would be GREAT.

Hope everyone has a fantastic Friday and weekend.  Thanks so much to all my buddies for your support.

—Valerie

I feel better today than yesterday, not as worried about hubby today and that’s good. 

I took the time this morning to enter many “custom foods” to my log so that I could start using the food and exercise journals.   I put in Mon-Wed food and activity and it’s hard to believe how much you can forget in just a day or 2.   It was a struggle for me to remember what I ate on Monday & Tuesday but I did the best I could.  I am excited to start this and it will be interesting to see if the scales read the same as what should happen based on the calorie deficit for the week.

At the rate I’m going, I should drop another pound this week.  We’ll see …  

Hope everyone is having a great day and making lots of healthy choices!

—Valerie

P.S.  It’s pretty warm here today (thank God) so I will be able to walk outside this evening.  That will only be the 2nd time this week though. 

After reading Jane’s blog this morning on the side effects of stress, I decided to use stress as the topic for my blog today.  Her blog provides even more data to prove how bad stress on our health.  It is very interesting that this was the first blog I read after getting bad news this morning.   Maybe it was a sign, a sign that I need to not worry about things that I have no control over…just put it in God’s hands and have faith that it will all work out in the end.   I struggle with this a lot.

I feel like I am the biggest worrier in the world.  Things that most other people would not stress over at all, drives me CRAZY.  

Example:  Last year my husband was diagnosed with Clarks level II melanoma (an early stage).  Luckily it has not spread and he was very fortunate that it was found early enough.   He had a “wide excision” procedure to remove the growth and surrounding tissue from his back and since there were no signs of it having spread (ran blood work, chest x-ray, dialated eye exam, etc) no treatment such as radiation or chemo was necessary.  

Until the results of all his tests were back, I actually made myself SICK thinking about it.   My tummy was upset, I couldn’t sleep, I’d break into tears for no reason, etc.  I worried that he’d have to go through a lot of treatments or even worse, die.   He is my rock in this world, it’s hard for me to put my love for him in to words.   I can not imagine my life without him.  We’ve been married for 10 1/2 wonderful years and partners for 14 years.  When this turned out ok I promised myself that I wouldn’t let myself get worked up over things I can’t control becuase it was becoming a pattern for me.  

A similar thing happend the year before with a suspicious breast exam.  Before being told that everything was ok, I went through 4 mammograms and a breast ultrasound - that was very upsetting also.   So anyway — a history of overworry was developing for me.  These are just 2 examples of things that took me down, there have been many others.

So this morning, hubby goes for his “full skin scan” at the dermatologist and boom - another suspicous looking mole had to be removed.  This makes a total of 9 he has had removed (only the one last year was melanoma).   Now here I am again thinking the worst — wondering if we will get that same upsetting phone call.   Cancer is sooooo scary.   My MIL is a survivor of breast cancer, my grandfather lost his life to lung cancer, and I’ve known many others to suffer a similar fate.  My hubby has a strong history of various cancers in his family and I know he has an increased risk because of that.   Worry, worry, worry……

Anyway, sorry to write a “book”.   I just thought that maybe getting all of these thoughts out of my brain and into a blog would help a bit.

Say a prayer for my hubby and try to learn from my mistakes — don’t let things get you down, especially those things you can’t control.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Good news — buddyslim is helping me with that second part, i.e. the courage to change the things I can.     I hope everyone has a great day and is free from stress.

—Valerie ♥

Are there any others out there?  

My father, from time to time, will wake up in the middle of the night, eat, go right back to bed and not really even remember doing it the next morning.   It’s almost like he is half asleep when he’s doing it.  My mom has talked about this for years.

Guess what … I’m now starting to do it too.  Not a lot, maybe once a month at the most and last night was one such time.   I remember what I ate, where I ate it but that’s it.  I don’t know why I ate because I shouldn’t have been hungry and I was in such a state that I couldn’t really tell myself not to - kind of like I wasn’t even really in control of my own actions.

I find this very odd  and wonder if any of you have experienced this yourself or know someone who has.  And if anyone knows what may be the cause behind it …. please share!   “The devil made me do it” just won’t work as an answer for me.

—Valerie

Lost one more pound so that puts me at a loss of 3.5 pounds for 2 weeks.  I have said from the start that a loss of even 1/2 a pound would be ok with me since that’s a move in the right direction so I’m pleased.  

At this rate, I could be the smallest size I have been since high school in just 9 more weeks.  For a 33 year old gal, that’s pretty exciting.   My friend’s wedding is in late May and it is possible that I could reach my “mini-goal” by that time. 

So it’s the start of a new week and I am feeling motivated.   It is expected to be very cold until Thursday so at the start of the week I will be using DVDs to work out.  I need to pay more attention to my water intake, I have not been doing well with this lately.

I hope everyone had a great Easter and that your week is off to a fantastic start. 

—Valerie