Big Pain, Big Gain

Sorry I've been inactive the last few days. An old shoulder injury raised its ugly head over the weekend, causing a great amount of pain. It got so bad on Sunday night that I only got 4 hours of sleep. Luckily, I have an awesome chiropractor and he was able to get it back into place yesterday. I'm still sore from the deep muscle manipulation he had to do (feels like the pec and trap muscles should be black and blue), but I can raise my are above my head, and actually do things like type, wash my hair, etc.

While this has been going on, my motivation has decided to take a mini-vacation. I haven't been to the gym in about 10 days, and the scale is showing it. I've also not been on plan, although I've been back on it since Monday. I probably won't get into the gym today, but I'm hoping to do a 2 1/2 mile walk when I get home. I'm curious how long it will take me and if I can do this route before I go to work.

I spent most of the weekend catching up on my reading. I love to read, and will read almost anything. I usually have a stack of books that I need to read, because there is nothing worse than wanting to read and not having anything to read -- although that's usually not an issue because I never part with a book, so I can always re-read something. This weekend I read Veronika Decides to Die, The Drift and Practical Demonkeeping. Talk about 3 different books! All were pretty short -- under 250 pages. I would recommend them all, although you need a pretty twisted sense of humor to read "Practical Demonkeeping" by Christopher Moore. He is one author that can make me laugh out loud.

After today, I will have 15 days before my week in Santa Barbara! I am so excited. I'm actually only working part day on Friday, July 16 so I can use the rest of the day to pack and run errands. I've also arranged it that I will only be working part day on Monday, July 26. I've found that after a week off, it takes me about 3 hours just to slog through the e-mails. This way, I can come in when I get up on Monday, work my e-mails and go home to do laundry and finish unpacking.

After a nice, sunny weekend, we're back to June gloom. I can only hope that with the start of July, we'll start feeling like it's summer.

I Got Nothing.....

It seems like life has just been work, work and more work. I guess the good news is that the new leader in the office and I are enjoying a wonderful honeymoon where we seem to be in step and working as a team. That's so different that it has been, so that is a great change.

I can also tell my boss is busy trying to make sure I have a lot on my plate so anyone who is looking to do more reorganization will have to think, "We can't live without Shannin!" That's a little stressful -- two groups (one 60 and one 150 people), several projects, a lot of tasks around the office to help my new counterpart get acclimated, etc.

At least the sun is actually trying to make an appearance before 3:00 PM. I'm really hoping for a nice 4th of July weekend. Don will actually have Saturday and Sunday off (woo-hoo, two days in a row) and I really want it to be sunny so we can get some deck time together. Of course, what I am really waiting for is July 16 -- the start of my vacation.

Here's a funny thing. I just called Don to check in with him and I could hear the dog's barking in the background because the mail was coming. Don says to the dogs, "Hey, stop barking! I'm on the phone." Like the dogs know what a phone is. So, I'm laughing, and Don says to me, "It's important you talk to them, even if they don't know what you're saying." I use that philosophy with my staff sometimes.

I'm meeting with my nutritionist after work. My current food plan is just not working. It's very discouraging to eat nothing but a salad all day and still gain weight. It seems like a plan will work for a week or two and then my body adjusts and it stops working. This is kind of what happened when I tried Atkins. My fantasy has become winning enough money to hire a full-time chef and personal trainers (weight coach, yoga instructor, etc.). Nothing wrong with dreaming....

On a side note, Dean, my dad's partner of 14 years, had two of his songs recognized on the AFI's List of 100 Best Movie Songs. He had "Footloose" at #96 and "Fame" at #51. I only caught the last 45 minutes of the show last night, but I love any type of list. I can't really disagree with "Over the Rainbow" as #1, although the #2 song, "As Time Goes By" is one of my all-time personal favorites. We've kind of been debating the list all morning, and several people have weighed in with their own favorite. It keeps the day moving....

Monday Blues

I'm not sure if it's because it's Monday or if the weather has anything to do with it, but I wish I was curled up on my couch with a good book. It's definitely June Gloom here in Southern California. Lately, we don't even get to see the sun until late afternoon. Normally I wouldn't say the weather affects my emotions, but I think because overcast skies this time of year are so unexpected. I mean, it's the first day of summer for goodness sake. Where is the sun??

I guess the one good thing about the gloom is instead of lounging on a beach chair all of Saturday, Don and I did some much needed yard work. We only tackled the back yard, but we had to leave the front for another weekend as our trimmings can was full to the brim with deadheaded roses and cut jasmine vines. I love the look of a well-tended garden, I just don't have the patience to weed and trim to maintain one. Our yard is going for the "natural" look.

Don and I did have a wonderful dinner at McCormick & Schmick's to celebrate Father's Day. I had tilapia encrusted with cashews and a rum butter sauce. It was so good. I didn't eat much of the rice (only about 1/4 of what was served), but I probably could have skipped the cup of soup and even dessert. I ended up feeling stuffed, something I hadn't felt for a very long time. I did well at dinner last night with my Dad. We ordered Thai food in and I was totally on plan -- even with the portions.

Anyway, off to finish out my day. I am getting my toes & nails done this afternoon -- maybe that will add some sunshine into my life!

Story Time

With nothing exiting to report, I've decided to make today's post a bit of a humorous story about Baja & Jager.

We have an enclosed dog run behind our garage where we usually leave the dogs when we are at work. At the time, both Don and I worked close enough to home to come home for lunch and let the dogs out of their run for a bit of a romp. It was my turn, and everything seem pretty normal -- Jager shot out of the run, but Baja was just sitting in the back. I noticed something dangling from his mouth. I called him out and discovered that they were Jager's tags from her collar. I called Jager over to get her collar off so I could reattach the tags, and, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, realized she didn't have her collar on. I searched high and low in the run, lifting up the Dog-gloo, the water dish, etc. I came up with part of the plastic buckle and about 1/2 inch of nylon collar.

I called Don, and he rushed home so we could take the dogs to the vet. We figured that Baja, during one of their wrestling matches, had gotten Jager's collar off. They took X-rays and saw some of the plastic in Baja's digestive tract. Nylon wouldn't show up, so we had to give each of them a high fiber diet (yummy) and poke through their poop to recover as much of the collar as we could. Most of it did come out of Baja with a little of it out of Jager. We ended up recovering 23 inches out of 24. To this day, the vet staff recognizes us as the parents of the dog who ate the collar.

In the end, it wasn't too horrible. I was more worried that we would have to open him up (I watch too much Emergency Vets) and I was not ready for that. I can laugh about it now, but that sick feeling I got when I first realized Jager didn't have her collar on is not one I want to repeat. (Although I almost did this weekend -- Don had said he left his beach towel on the chair outside, and I had seen it earlier, but when I went to bring it inside it was gone -- and I immediately thought, "Oh, God, the dogs at the towel!" Actually, Don had brought it inside.)

So, for all of those who have pets or kids who do silly things, this one's for you!

Keeping Temptation at Bay

I have learned how to beat temptation! Just keep your house bare of food. Worked for me last night.

Seriously, I really wanted to binge, but I had no "binge" food in the house. Sure, I could pig out on all the fresh fruit and veggies I wanted, but where is the fun in that? I think, more than ever, it became clear last night that a lot of my snacking is out of boredom. I can see why people smoke -- it's just something to do.

I was also tempted this morning to cram more unhealthy food down my throat when my world fell apart at 8:20. I knew that we were going to have 3 people out today -- one had a grandson graduating, two had a son graduating. Also, one was going to leave for about 2 1/2 hours to watch her niece perform in a play. We have 1 person out on vacation and 1 person covering for her. Needless to say, we were already running pretty lean and mean. And then.....2 people called out sick. These two knew that we were already down several people, and despite that, they called in "not feeling well." That kind of crap really ticks me off. I know I've called in sick when I could have gone in, but I also do it when I know we are fully staffed. I would have to be on my death bed to call in sick when I was fully aware of other people out. Grrrrrrrr.....

To add more grief......due to a paperwork error (not on my part), we are going to have to write off close to $125,000.00. We can eventually recover it, but it's still going to go down as a write off and then the paperwork to recover it is a pain. I actually have 9 minutes to get something in writing from the vendor to avoid this, but it's dicey that I'll actually get it in time. And, yes, this could have been prevented if my suggestion had been taken back in September. Ahhh, well....Incompetence at the highest levels really only affects those of us at the bottom.

Despite all of this drama, I have stuck to the plan. My only variance has been a cup of coffee this morning, but I took it black with no cream or Equal. Since I'm not restricting caffeine, I figured this would be OK.

I just have to be strong to get through the day.....

Nothing New

We had a nice and quiet weekend. Got the house cleaned and some bouganvilla planted in the back yard. We BBQ'd last night, and I overate but I was on plan the rest of the weekend, so I'm not feeling that bad.

I only got one day of exercise in. For some reason, I just couldn't get motivated yesterday. It was such a nice day out, I just wanted to hang out on the deck with the dogs and Don and get some reading done. Every once in awhile, I think it's probably OK to spend the day completely relaxing.

This week should be pretty mellow as well. I only have a few conference calls and it seems like my meeting demands have diminished -- probably because the "upper levels" of management are still working on the whole reorganization. This actually gives me a chance to get some older tasks off my To Do list. Plus, because of scheduling, I will actually be working 9 AM - 6 PM all week and I can get a good long walk in before I come into the office. Plus, I'm in countdown mode to our Santa Barbara vacation -- 5 weeks.

The thing I want to accomplish this week is cleaning out the clutter in my bathrooms and linen closet. FlyLady is having a Super Fling. For those with clutter, this gives you some great motivation to tackle at least part of your house. Tonight, I'm going to do the small bathroom, which should be a breeze. Tomorrow will be the big bathroom and might take a day or two....

So far, I'm on plan for the day. I'm feeling good and energized and ready to take on the week!

Furry Friday

Thanks to Furry Friday for these questions:

Pet Disasters!

1: What's the worst pet you've ever had? What earned it that title? I never really had a bad pet. I would have to say fish -- I wanted a dog and my parents got us a fish tank. Like you can teach Nemo to fetch....

2: What's the worst thing one of your pets has ever done? Baja ate Jager's collar and we had to give him a high fiber diet and sift through his poop to make sure all the piece passed.

3: My personal worst pet experience was a Rottweiler puppy with an appetite for everything!! In honor of her use the letters: B-R-O-W-N-I-E (her name) to describe a pet of yours!
Brave
Rambunctious
Outgoing
Warm-hearted
Needy
Individual
Expert

More Recent Photos

I am going to have to show Don how to use the digital camera so I can actually get in some of these photos.....

Baja telling Don it's time to play.....



Baja looking playful....



Jager being daring (this was taken in Santa Barbara in April)....



Jager sunning herself in her fort....



As you can see, my dogs are the subjects of about 99% of my photos. It's just that they can look so darn cute.

I, for one, am ready for the weekend. Nothing major planned, but the first week back from vacation always seems the worst. I want to get into the gym both days and check out Curves. Other than that, my calendar is wide open -- just what I need after a week like this.

A Few Photos

Here are a few older photos of Baja & Jager.

This is Baja after playing in the mud....



This is Baja at the Dog Park....



This is Jager in bed....



And the look Jager gave me & I knew I had to adopt her....

To Hell With The Best Laid Plans.....

I got home last night and was really hungry. I had missed my last two lemon drinks because I was in with my boss. We were going to walk the dogs, but all I wanted to do was eat, and what I wanted to eat was Mexican. We ended up going over to Paco's Tacos, definitely the bane of my diet plans. In fact, I had planned on putting this on my June goals -- NO PACO'S -- but I figured I'd never be able to meet that goal. Having said that, I am going to add it. It's not like I made horrible choices. I did get the carnitas and didn't eat it all, but I did eat until I was uncomfortably full. Coupled with the missed walk, probably not my most shining moment in the past 2 weeks.

However, I did rebound this morning and got up and took the dogs and my husband for a 45 minute walk (about 1 1/2 miles). I had forgotten how invigorating morning exercise is. To top it all off, when I got on the scale, I was actually down, despite my Paco's feast. Lesson learned however -- I cannot jeopardize my progress by eating at Paco's once a week. Once a month, however, is allowed.

Some may have guffawed at my post yesterday when I said we had to spell certain words in front of the dogs. Well, this today from CNN. And if you need further proof, let me tell you about this morning. Jager is our "little brunch girl." She would stay curled up in bed until 9:00 AM at least if it wasn't for Baja's frantic breakfast act. This morning, at 6:55 AM, when I rolled over and asked the sleepy dogs if they wanted to go on a walk, you would have thought I just offered them a 40 ounce steak. Jager and Baja both started whining and whimpering and licking my face. Of course, both dogs had to "help" us get dressed which involved them sitting on my shoes as I was trying to tie them and trying to grab socks out of Don's hands.

I do have pictures to post this afternoon when I get home. I was having fun last night with my digital camera and there are some really cute ones, although nothing can capture their excitement when I mention W-A-L-K or D-O-G P-A-R-K.

Here is to a better day of food choices. I have the exercise part down, now it's just up to me to make the right meal decisions.

This Week's Sign

I'm amazed at what technology offers us. I can even say, "I remember when movies came out on Beta!" Now, with the advent of DVDs and Amazon, you, too, can own the first season of the award-winning sitcom"Who's the Boss" for a mere $32.76 (suggested retail, $39.99). I mean, who is buying this crap?

OK, off my soap box.....

I've added two new reads to my blog. Annie is writing from California and Stefani is writing from Ontario, Canada. Go check them out!

I believe the end of TTOM is almost at an end. I got on the scale and it's down to 316, so I'm sure by the weekend I'll be back to the 314/313 range. Eating was on plan yesterday. I didn't exercise because of my work schedule, but since I'm getting off early and Don is off, we have a plan to walk the dogs this afternoon. The funny thing is, we can't even say the word WALK, we have to spell it out, otherwise the dogs go nuts. It's the same with TREAT, DINNER, BREAKFAST, and BUBBLES.

A funny thing happened on my lunch errand to the grocery store yesterday. The store I usually go to just had a facelift, going from a regular Ralph's to a Ralph's Fresh Selection (which means changing everything around so the Pam is now in the aisle that used to house the cleaning products -- very frustrating when I only have 60 minutes to grab everything I need) and they are in the middle of their "Grand Re-Opening." I guess I was there at the right time because I won a free bag of groceries. When I got to my car, I took a peek and noticed right away that some of the items were going to be problematic -- a big bag of Tositos chips and Chips Ahoy cookies. When I got back to work, I took them right in to the employee lounge. Yeah, me!

Off to work on this 1.5 liters of water so it's finished before lunch.

June Goals

I know we are now 8 days in to June, but I did want to lay out my goals for the rest of the month.

Eat on plan given to me by nutritionist Phil.

Exercise 4 times a week.

Drink 100 ounces of water per day.

No drinking alcohol alone.

Spend 30 minutes a day reading.

Spend 15 minutes a day doing either house cleaning or maintenence.

Limit eating out for dinner to 1 time a week.

I think the exercise part will be my hardest goal, but I have to remember that even walking around my work complex or taking the dogs for a walk should be considered exercise. Plus, a Curves just opened 1/2 block from my house (I can see it from my front porch) so I am going to try and check that out this week. Some of this will get easier once my schedule returns to normal on 6/21 and I can go back to 8a - 5p.

I did forget to mention one thing in yesterday's post. I had won a free brunch for 2 at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey. Don and I went on Sunday and had a great time. The coupon included champange and tip, so all we had to do was pay for parking ($5). Talk about a spread -- cold seafood, caviar, made-to-order omlettes and waffles, prime rib, dim sum, sushi, Parma ham, bacon and sausage, salads (pasta, green, fruit), a variety of hot dishes and a huge table of desserts. I did pretty well with my food choices. I stuck mostly to the fish and stayed away from the bacon and eggs. I did have dessert -- some creme burlee and a chocolate tart that was to die for. Out of curiosity, I called the hotel later that day to see what the brunch costs -- $57.00 not including tax, tip and parking. I nearly died. There is no way I could ever see paying $57.00 per person for brunch -- no matter how much champange I drank. Anyway, despite my amazement over the price, it was damn good and I would go again (if someone else way paying -- LOL).

All Good Things Must Come to an End

After 9 wonderful days of doing very little, I am back at work. Once again, I was faced with almost 300 e-mails, most of which have nothing to do with me. Nothing new on the whole reorganization front. I know there are a lot of questions still. I'm torn between wanting to stay in my current position or wait for a package and find another job with another company. It's scary out there right now, and I'm afraid of what will happen if I don't find a job with the same salary and compensation, but sometimes a major upheaval is what we need to move forward. Right now, because of the house, I'd say I was leaning towards trying to hang on here, even if it's for another year or so. I'd really like to reach my 10 year anniversary, which would be 1/22/06.

As far as the cleanse went, I thought I was going to be very happy with the results. Going into Saturday, it looked like I would end up at 313, which is what I weighed in at on Wednesday. I even sneaked a peek on Saturday afternoon, and the scale read 315. I got up early on Sunday and got on the scale, only to be greeted by 318 -- the exact same weight I started at! Later in the day, the reason for the higher that expected numbers became clear -- TTOTM. Grrrrr. I was really disappointed in not seeing the results, although I am feeling the results -- my clothes are fitting better, I do have more energy (although not at the moment), my wedding ring seems looser. I still wanted the validation from the scale.

So, how did I do with my goals for May?

1. Eat according to plan set forth by Nutritionist Phil I ate about 75% on plan

2. Exercise on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday I consistantly exercised on Saturday and Sunday, but DID NOT accomplish Tuesday and Thursday

3. Purchase/install front blinds DONE

4. Week of Spring Cleaning (week of 5/29 - 6/6) 90% DONE -- the office still needs work

5. Drink 100 oz. of water per day DONE

6. No drinking alcohol alone I did drink alone, but only about times last month.

7. Attend at least one social event DONE - Mom's Birthday Party (w/o Don)

8. Reach out to friends at least once a week DONE

9. Take time to read at least 30 minutes per day I didn't get to read every day, but probably read 30 out of 31 days.

10. No eating out of the vending machines DONE -- OK, a caveat here....our vending machines were broken, but I'm still counting it!

11. No fast food (exception: El Pollo Loco)DONE -- I even went to a drive through twice -- once to get my boss something to eat and once to get myself a Diet Coke. No food though!

I need to come up with my June goals, but the areas I need to work on continue to be 1)Eating on plan, 2)Getting exercise, and 3)Not drinking alone. I think I'm getting better at #3 and with my current plan of doing the cleanse morning and afternoon with dinner in the evening, I think I can do better at #1 as well. My hardest task will be #2. I cannot continue losing weight by only exercising twice a week, no matter how much I change my food plan.

Well, back to my overflowing in box!

Four Days In

So I am officially past the half way point in the 7-Day Cleanse, and you might wonder how I'm doing.

Good, and not-so-good.

I did have a mini meltdown late last night. I confirmed with my doctor that I was going to have to come in for my 10:00 AM appointment fasting for 12 hours and no water after midnight. I knew there was no way I could possibly go from 10:00 PM to 10:00 AM with just a swig of lemon juice as my last meal. I thought long and hard about it, and finally decided I would have chicken and veggie stir fry with noodles (Trader Joe's frozen section). There was only about 5 ounces of chicken and about 1 1/2 cups of veggies, so even though the package suggested 3 portions (of minute proportions, I might add), I ate the entire bag. Calorie-wise, that was only about 800 calories, but I still kind of freaked out because I had "gone off plan." Also, because I didn't really have a container to put my lemonade concoction into for after the doctor's, I took a small grapefruit juice (70 calories) this morning.

Having said that, I am back on plan now, although I did grab a Diet Coke a little while ago. Also, according to my scale, I am now at 313.0, which is about a 5 1/2 pound drop from Sunday morning. As a little ego boost, my doctor's scale read 310 (actually, the first nurse who weighed me put me down at 304). I told my doctor that most people complain about their doctors' scales, but I was very happy when I saw her's. She even put 310 in my chart since that way we will always be comparing apples to apples when I see her.

My doctor's visit went well. She had done up some blood work about 2 weeks ago and my numbers seemed way off. Instead of saying, "Well, that's just how it is," she made sure to re-do it and send it to another lab. She also explained that I am "metobolic resistant" and there is nothing more that I can change (diet and exercise) because this is just how my body operates naturally. Even if I did reach the ideal weight, I would probably always have problems processing food and nutrients, which means I will have to continue to take meds to combat this. The good news is that my blood pressure was good -- still borderline high at 132/84 (she wants 130/80) -- but she thought this was a big improvement. She is happy with my food and exercise plan, although instead of cardio of 4 times a week for 60 minutes, I should try 5 times a week for 45 minutes. I have a hard enough time getting into the gym 4 times, but it's something to strive for,

As far as the cleanse, I had to seriously look at how it's affecting me. Last night was hard, and I did feel like a failure. However, I do think that if I can stick with it for another few days and get the scale to read 309, it will be worth it. Also, even though I was really hungry and looking for any excuse to put solid food in my mouth, I didn't cave in and "reward" myself by going to Paco's Tacos for a #9. I made a healthier choice by eating something with veggies and protein, and even though I went over the recommended portion, I don't think I harmed myself too badly. I mean, 800 calories in 3 days is nothing! I am feeling much better because of the cleanse, and while I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone, it is pretty powerful if you need do drop water weight for a special event in a short amount of time. I understand that Howard Stern's sidekick, Robin Quivers, has lost 60 pounds while drinking the lemonade for breakfast and lunch and then having a healthy dinner. I can't say I could ever do that, but I could stick with this for another week or so if I got to eat at least 1 meal a day.

Off to check in with my nutritionist. His scale weighs me more than my own scale, so I have to remind myself not to let those numbers affect me in a negative way,