Heather Shrinks in Houston!

[Houston Heather]

I got up fairly early today.

I hate the depressions more than anything. It affects everything in my life, from my food choices to my performance at work. Ron can always tell when I'm having a bad depression day; it makes him almost frantic to help. I hate knowing that my illness is hurting him, too.

When I was depressed today I tried to soldier on through, but it was bad enough that I took an extra pill today. It helped, but not as much as I would have liked.

I had been playing with the idea of getting some supplements, so after work, I did. I don't have my Dr Atkins Vita-Nutrient Solution but I was certain that all of these would help with the depression AND the weight loss, too.
B-50 complex - that always seems to help with the depressions
Co-Q10, 50 milligrams - I don't know why I thought it would help, but I was sure I needed it
400 Mg Acetyl L-Carnitine with 200 mg Alpha Lipoic Acid

I also got some Antioxidants and a generic brand "Women's" Multivitamin. I took the first three after I was done shopping. It's horrible to be depressed at Walmart. Absolutely horrible.

I ate a small meal (2 small hamburger patties, cheese stick, bacon) and took the supplements. Ron and I went outside and waited for our ride, which arrived about 10 minutes later. By the time we got home (another 10 minutes), I felt absolutely fine. I felt 100% my normal, happy self.

I've tried caffeine and depression - bad combo. I've done over the counter diet pills and caffeine, bad combo. Even the Lithium and the depression - well, the Lithium keeps the "Wanting to hurt myself" at bay but I still feel miserable.

But THIS. Wow. It was literally miraculous. I am thrilled. The only thing that makes me happier than knowing my experiment worked is the fact that I have at least 29 more of each capsule! They were very affordable at Walmart, I spent $30 for everything, including some heavy whipping cream for me, and canned cat food.

Ron noticed almost as quickly as I did. He was so happy. He hates watching me suffer.

Thank God. I found something that can help me even more.

Why suffer if I don't have to?

I ate clean today, I've got the energy to do more book-keeping when he gets home from Starbucks, and I bet I sleep great tonight. I know I read about all of them in Dr Atkins Vitanutrient solution, I just can't find the book.

I like to think God gives him a "Heads up" even now everytime he helps someone down here on Earth. "Hey, Doc, Heather's depression went away after she took the Vita-nutrients you advised in your book."

[Houston Heather]

Huh. Dr A says that the Carnitine I took is good for people over 40, for senior moments type things? It works great anyway.

Today's a good example of how an eating plan can go right or wrong. Yesterday we lost a receipt for the monthly report. DH was furious and had me tearing up every scrap of paper he could find, searching and re-searching everything. Then he wanted to talk for a couple of hours about how it would never, ever happen again.

I was really frazzled, angry at him, and tired. I started to head for the kitchen, but I didn't. I went out into the garage and did some arm weights instead.

I came in the house. DH was still at it. I told him "I have an hour before I need to go to bed. I have to shower, eat, take my pills and try to prepare something for tomorrow. Can you put this on hold until I'm done?" He stopped. I didn't have time to fix myself breakfast, but I got the rest done.

I slept terribly. When I woke up, I was a pound heavier. I figured, well, not enough sleep, probably dehydrated, I did have some whipped cream. Let's focus on today. All my measurements were the same.

So, there I am at 3 AM. As soon as I got dressed, I went in the kitchen and cooked myself sausage, fried 2 eggs, and loaded up my lunchpail with legal snacks. I took my supplements first thing.

Normally, when I'm sleep deprived, I have a really bad day. I will either be manic and running at 10000 miles an hour, depressed, both at the same time, seeing-hearing-thinking things that aren't there/tru, or a combination. I didn't have any trouble with that. Let's hear it for the supplements.

About the only thing I did "BAD" today was not drink enough water. Our ride was early, I ended up eating a sausage patty and a cheese stick on the way to work because I hadn't had time to eat anything. We had to pick up 2 dialysis patients before they dropped us at work. I was glad I had my lunchpail and was doing Atkins.

We got to work and DH was still stressed out. It was not a happy time. We snapped at each other in the stockroom. I'm surrounded by chocolate gooeys. Here comes my buddy with the cheese danishes. I realized I was still hungry in addition to being stressed and I ate my fried eggs.

I was fine after that. DH finally got it all out of his system and we filled up the machines. Snacks are pretty quiet, everyone's feeling the pinch with times the way they are, so junk food is first to go. Our deliveryman was 3 hours late. Nice guy.

I got the food, it was all OK. We had a big business meeting. I can't tell you how much I dread these things. DH was dreading it too. It was fine.

I was happy to be interrupted by a favorite customer, and it gave me a nice break. I thanked him.

We finally left, went to Wendy's, and I had my usual bunless small hamburger and a ceasar side salad. When we got home, I took a nap. I feel great now, albeit tired.

I'm giving myself the day off working out. If I run/lift this tired I'm liable to hurt myself. I can do my run at least and maybe some powerlifting tomorrow.

I may or may not have problems eating peanuts. I plan to eat an Atkins bar - a new flavor - peanut butter chocolate granola I think - after I'm done posting this. If I get a migraine tomorrow, it's no big loss (except for losing a day off) - it's not like I have to work. If I don't, then Yay! I can eat it and buy myself a box tomorrow when I'm at Walmart.

My body, the science experiment.

[Houston Heather]

I was still tired when we woke up. I ate a peanut low carb bar as an experiment yesterday. I could afford to lose the day to a migraine if nuts are a migraine trigger. I suspected they were, but I wasn't certain.

I was fine. I did develop a headache later on, but that's from cutting back on the soda. I had to drink a small amount to make the headache go away.

We went to Walmart and I'm a little annoyed - I forgot my cream cheese and more lettuce. Agggh. I found a very nice "I won't pop open and ruin the contents of your purse like that other water bottle, Heather" water bottle so I got it. The last water bottle drowned my poor Bible. It was less than $10 with a fake leather cover. Once it dried out I decided to keep using it. it's readable, it's just odd turning pages. I figure God would rather I have a beat up Bible that I'm carrying with me and actually reading, as opposed to a dusty Bible on a shelf (which I've had in my day).

Anyway, enough about my religious life. I woke up about the same old 206. Envision a long-drawn-out-scream of frustration. It was so bad when I got up a while ago to have a bowel movement I thought I should weigh myself before and after, figure out the weight of the product, and subtract it from today's weight.

No. I'm happy to announce I didn't.

I am tapering back on the sodas again, hence the headache I got a while ago. I've been drinking plenty of water out of my bottle and I have high hopes.

I had an interesting workout today. We got up, went to Walmart. I was feeling lazy, so I got scrambled eggs by themselves (about 1 cup). I ate half, and took my pills. Did my shopping, ate the other half. We came home.

I designated today a run day, then I would do powerlifting in the garage. I can be kind of rigid at times so I'm glad I take my medications and supplements. They make me more mellow.

The first 10 minutes of my run were awful. No endurance. No joy. Just grumbling to myself, waddling around the track, giving the hairy eyeball to that group of kids smoking by the playground.

Grumpy. I felt very out of shape, fat, and grumpy. As the run progressed my mood got better and better. I do interval training, I run as far as I can, when I sound like a dying whale I scale back to walking, get my breath back, repeat. I didn't even care when DH called in the middle of my last, awesome interval to ask me if I had my keys. I had told him yes, but I was fine. So what, he's a nice guy. I did get a couple of nice long intervals at the end to give me hope that Wednesday's performance wasn't a fluke.

I walked home, changed into my lifting shoes (a cheaper pair of sneakers), and went into the garage. The powerlifting was incredibly frustrating. I did about 15 deadlifts with the barbell - they were far too easy. I tried to do some squats and I almost fell over on the fourth rep. I could hear a wasp buzzing around in the garage.

I decided, OK, powerlifts are not working today, we're going to turn it into leg weights. I have a bench with the leg extension attachment. I put a 25 pound plate on it and started doing leg extensions (for the front of the thigh). It went great. I did 3 sets.

I put a 10 pound plate (only 10 pounds) on the attachment so I could do hamstring curls. Too easy. I untangled myself from the bench and threw on another 5 pound plate (DH'S gift of a plate tree came in handy). I inserted myself into the apparatus. One, two... I did 3 sets and got a good burn in my hamstrings. My exercise books say runners should work on the hamstrings anyway so I'm glad I did it. The leg muscles are a big group, plenty of potential there. Muscle burns fat.

I may not have done what I had planned but I had a lot of fun adapting my workout to my abilities at the time. Huh. That's a good metaphor for my life: I may not do what I want, but I have fun adapting to my abilities.

Tomorrow, I may do back weights - isolating them with some Good Mornings, bent-over rows, lateral pulldowns, and such. It wouldn't be a bad idea to throw in a little time on the exercise bike. We're going to work for a few hours and coming home so that would be a good workout.

I'll see.

[Houston Heather]

Today I woke up with a hideous headache one step short of a full-out migraine. I took my aspirin and it helped a little, so I went to work.

Working helped it, too. I decided, instead of saying "I'm going to cut out the sodas" , to say "I'm going to document all the sodas." I already know I need to cut back, yet I'm addicted to the caffeine so I need to do it carefully. Every drop I drank today went into fitday. Except for the 2 bottles of flavored water, which I'll need to add if I can.

After work we went to Walmart, it was a straight trip. I got my shopping done at Walmart and we had to wait an hour, in the sun, to be picked up. I got pretty sick. I don't know if it was the cutting back on the soda, I've been urinating a lot today so maybe I'm losing some weight, I had just taken my double-dose of lithium, but oooooh. I felt awful, very fatigued and ill.

When the driver came the van was nicely air conditioned. He had to fill out paperwork for a few minutes and I drank some more water (my bottle works perfectly, btw). By the time we left I felt better, but as soon as I put up my groceries I crawled into bed for a few hours. I feel better but very groggy.

I'm going to love myself and be as kind to myself as I would anyone else who felt this way. The most intense thing I've got planned today, if I feel up to it, is cleaning out the fridge.

[Houston Heather]

Today we went into work for a couple hours. Sales are dead, so we came home. We had planned to go to Wendy's later (I really like their side salads) but the torrential rain said that would be a bad idea.

I'm very proud of the fact that I only had 2 cans of soda. If I get a bad headache, I may drink one later, but I've already had over a quart of water too. I've eaten clean and smart!

I'll post again after my workout which should be fun. It will involve weightlifting and an exercise bike.

[Houston Heather]

I had a blast doing my workout and actually went over my time limit. First of all, I did powerlifting, a couple different deadlifts and I actually did 3 sets of squats. Since I don't have a spotter I tend to give less than 100% on the squats, but I still get decent results. Then it was on to the chest - flyes and presses with a "Big girl" barbell. I even had enough energy to play with a few straight legged deadlifts before I went after the exercise bike.

I started on the bike (purchased for less than $200 over a year ago by DH - if I had a gym membership it would have already bought the bike) at the 60% heart rate program. BOOORNING. I nearly fell asleep. I changed programs to 70%. Whoo. That was a little too exciting the first couple minutes, but then it was fun. I felt like I was getting a good workout.

I'm sure tomorrow I'll be crying "My butt hurts!" . My thighs are already a little ouchy.

I drank nearly 3 quarts of water today, and I'm not missing the soda. I'll have 2 flavored waters a day if I need them, in addition to my regular water.

When I put my dinner into fitday I noticed that I've eaten a lot fewer calories than "usual". Hm. Sounds like those anti-aspartame people are right - it makes me eat more.

I fried up a bunch of eggs (over a dozen), ate a couple for dinner, and cooked some bacon. Tomorrow, or whenever, I can just grab the eggs and bacon and eat them in a few minutes.

[Houston Heather]

I keep giving away my flavored waters to the Metrolift drivers. Today's driver loved it and was drinking it all the way to Walmart. I'm glad, I just need to pack more for me.

Today we went in to work but I didn't need to do anything other than the milk - which was a total screw-up. It wasn't even on the truck. We did fix a "down" vending machine. Other than that, dead.

After work we went to Walmart because DH wanted the 10x13 envelopes. I got some more cat food, tried to get more bacon (they were out of the "good" brand), more flavored waters for me, more celery (I'll eat celery every day and it's on the induction list), and more eggs.

One thing I did last night was fry up a dozen eggs, one after the other, and put them into plastic containers in the fridge. It's an easy meal. I've been really proud of the awesome bag lunches I take with me when we go out. I generally have 2 cheese sticks, 2 bottles of flavored water, a 3 ounce package of cream cheese, a few strips of bacon, a sausage patty, a couple of cold packs, one cup cut up celery, and maybe a salad too. I'm never very hungry in the morning so I like to have some snacks for later.

I've been pretty fatigued the last couple days. It's just part of taking my medicines. I take my nap every day and try to spend my time wisely. I don't have a lot of good time, so I make it count. Part of it may be going off the soda - if so, I hope it passes quickly. I'm cutting down pretty hard and fast. Today I had 40 ounces because it was crazy.

Something wierd happened today. I passed a yellow stool. What the heck? I feel fine otherwise so I'm not going to obsess on it the way I might otherwise.

I was pretty beat today, and pretty sore from yesterday's workout, so no run. I will do it tomorrow morning. We have tomorrow off.

When I can, I need to do some housework. Hopefully tomorrow, maybe even tonight. We'll see.

My measurements are all the same and my weight has dropped a tad down to 205 (two days in a row). I'm happy it isn't going up, and hopeful that it will come off soon. I will be hitting PMS soon and that will make me bloat. ACK. Yup, just about 5 days 'till then.

Knowing my onery body, it will drop all the weight in the middle of my PMS bloat.

[Houston Heather]

Today is my day off. I decided to take my run first and get it over with, get a nice energy boost for the whole day.

When I got up, I remeasured everything today from the top down. I mentioned I would do this every week or so.

I lost 1.5 inches off my chest (I'm OK with that), and THREE! inches off the belly flab. You know, that disgusting sack that just sits there jiggling away and making it impossible to fit into the cute clothes. YES! Gone!

When I weighed this morning, I was 204 again. Finally.

THEN I went for my run. I had even more endurance and the weather was nice and mild (it's going to be humid, sunny, 90's later - not a good run). I had the whole park to myself and I had a great time. I notice I have even more stamina for the short runs, a brief sprint across the street - that would normally have me winded. I'm going to keep running.

When I got home I ate and took my pills. I have to take my pills with food. Once I started eating, I felt hungry. Personally, I do a lot better running on an empty stomach, so I will.

It's shower time.

[Snowman]

Heather ~ Just stopping by to say I enjoy reading your journal!!

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!

I like the peach flavored water at Wal-Mart, something different.

[Houston Heather]

Yup, yummy!

DH gave me a couple of flavored waters out of the inventory today. It was HOT waiting outside.

YAY! I lost another inch of belly flab overnight! I couldn't believe it. AAAAAND I'm down to 203. I was getting so sick of 204-206. While a lot lighter than I have been, it's a lot more than my goal.

My body is agreeing to let go of some weight. Just in time, I'll be premenstrual in about a week. I've been eating really "good" today but I have been hungrier than usual.

Am I about to lose more?

It'll be fun finding out tomorrow. I need to eat, take my pills, take my nap, and do some weights later on today. Do some cooking... and accounting for the business.

I'll be eating clean, that's for sure. It's amazing how cutting back on my sodas really seemed to free my body up to lose weight.

[meeha]

Hi Heather,
Love the journal, congrats on your weightloss and the inches!! You are doing a great job!

[Houston Heather]

Thanks!

When I got up from my nap, the last thing I wanted to do was weights. DH came home and I told him, around 5, that I was going to do my weights. I went into the bathroom. When I came out, he had rolled up the garage door and placed a fan out in the garage. It got up into the 90's - I really appreciated it.

The following workout went GREAT and I didn't overheat. It took just 45 minutes. I thought it might be fun to share what I'm doing. I have some weight equipment, but this can all be done with a flat bench of any sort, dumbells, and a barbell. You don't even need the barbell, you can just use 2 dumbells for the chest press.

I make sure that the weight is "challenging" - that I can only do it for about 8-15 repetitions. I do as many repetitions as I can. When I can't do any more, that's one "set". I rest about 30-45 seconds, and do it again. I write it all down in a book. I do 3 "sets" of each.

Chest flys
Chest press - I use a barbell but you don't have to. Dumbells work fine.
Lateral pulldown (you need gym equipment for this) - the first set was too easy, so I did 3 more sets in a more challenging weight range.
Bent over rows (I use dumbells and work each side seperately with no rest, left, right, left etc)
Lateral raise - I was WEAK on this. I had to use 2 pound dumbells at the end.
Overhead press - I used a 3 pound dumbells.

That was it! All done. I'm feeling a little "action" in my back, vague warmth, twinginess, so I know I did a good workout. I'm going to take some ginger root for inflammation - it's excellent after a tough workout.

Because the muscles tend to swell after exercise, they can retain water. I may not lose any scale weight tomorrow but I'm improving my health. I'm gonna get there.

[Houston Heather]

This is going to be pretty short for me.

I slept horribly last night. My cats brought in an insect through the cat door and spent all night chasing it and making loud noises. It's a good thing I love them.

I got up and weighed. 202.5. I'm down half a pound!

Everything I exercised yesterday feels great, a little worked but no pain. I only drank the 2 cans of Diet RC - it has splenda instead of aspartame - like I've been doing through this experiment.

I will definitely cut down to 1 can a day next week, and then a can every other day the week after that. I can always drink some iced tea if I feel I need caffeine.

We went to Wendy's a few days ago, and I had iced tea with my meal. No problems. Today, we went to Cracker Barrel - again, no problems with the iced tea during my meal. I don't add sweetener.

While picking up candy bars for the business this morning at Sam's Club, DH offered to buy me something "In the $10 range". I got some 1 ounce packets of Philly cream cheese - 50 to be precise. I already ate one today at a hectic moment when I was hungry. It kept me satisfied for hours while I stocked the evil candy into the vending machines.

Nap time, then I will get up and do the exercise bike for a while. It's far too hot, humid, and sunny to run. I have a run planned for tomorrow, though.

[Houston Heather]

I was pretty pissed this morning:
DH made a lot of racket for hours after I told him I was going to bed.
My cat brought in a frog through the cat door and chased it around the house, making loud crashing and meow-ling noises. If I didn't love him, I'd have killed him.
I forgot to set my alarm.
I had horrible dreams.

So, when I woke up at 6:45 - only 15 minutes past my alarm, I was bound and determined to try to run, even on less than 6 hours sleep. I got dressed, drank some ice water, headed out.

It was oppressively humid. I couldn't run like I did just the other day, but I was happy considering (no sleep, hot and humid). I had a great run, saw some nice people out walking. The older lady thought I was just the cutest thing in my little red running outfit and matching terrycloth headband.

DH made me a sausage patty while I was running, it was ready when I got home. When I got home, I found out the heat index was 86. No wonder my run was challenging!

I took a quick shower, ate, took my pills. Now I'm just waiting on Metrolift to take us to Walmart. When we get home, we're done for the day.

I've worked out the last 5 days in a row so tomorrow is an off day.

Oh, and even though my whole sleep was totally screwed up, and nighttime is when we lose weight, I was only 203 this morning. Not bad. I just need to remember to drink extra water today.

[Houston Heather]

I bought some CLA and Borage oil (GLA) at Walmart. It was a better deal than my favorite internet place. I already took some. Who knows, maybe it will help. I already set up my pill organizer with the good stuff, CoQ10, Carnitine, etc. Now I have some new things to add.

I've taken CLA before, when I was eating a lot of low-carb processed food. It didn't affect me in any negative way.

Now that I'm eating clean and working out regularly, I'm sure it will help.

The GLA is supposed to help with weight loss and PMS. After I get paid, I plan to buy some more Esiak tea (it helps the liver and kidneys, and it's good for water retention). I like it. I've noticed drinking it every day helps with water retention.

I was going to buy something from a manufacturer I like. It's a fake Hydroxycut. I was reading the list of ingredients when I got to Uva Ursi. Uva Ursi is something I used to drink when I had bladder infections. It makes the urine alkaline.

It also cancels out Lithium in the bloodstream, so I'm buying another pill instead. I'm going to go take my nap so I don't get hostile later on. Oh, the fun of this illness.

I almost forgot, my cat brought home a frog last night. As I was showering, it jumped out at me. Not good. I screeched so loudly I woke up the neighbor's dog. Poor old Barky fired up the bark, trying to protect me from the lizard.

[Houston Heather]

I didn't sleep well last night, either. Hm...don't know why exactly.

I didn't have high hopes when I weighed this morning, but I dropped a half pound down to 202. Awesome.

To phrase delicately - my abdomen was a bit distended so I think I need to get some pysilium husk powder. I can get it cheap from my favorite online nutrition store without the artificial stuff. I'm not wild about it but it works. I hate the bloating more.

I'm not working out today; I worked out the last 5 days in a row and I need a day off - I feel fine but I don't want to end up overtraining and getting sick or injured.

We went to work and went to Wendy's. I got my side salad and bunless burger. They were very matter-of-fact about preparing a bunless burger. [sigh of relief] It's nice to be treated normally and to have my food choices respected. I get tired of the freak treatment.

Naptime. I already took my lithium.

Have a good one!

[Houston Heather]

I'm very pleased with myself.

I ate my dinner and I opened up a cabinet. I was still somewhat hungry. I saw my box of Atkins Chocolate chip granola bars. I thought "That's a nice idea".

I deliberated for a moment, was I willing to spend the carbs to eat it? Yes.
Why did I want it? Because it looked good and I wanted it.

OK, I ate it. It's probably the first time in a long time that I've "indulged" myself in something sweet without excuses or justification. I have no desire to eat another one, I just wanted one, then.

It was good. Regardless of my weight tomorrow, I won't hate myself in the morning. I'm on a journey and I want to enjoy it - not flagellating myself over perfectly legal food choices. I choose to avoid processed foods, but it doesn't mean I'm "bad" if I do eat one.

I have to go evict a reptile (not DH ) from the shower shortly.

UGH.

[Houston Heather]

The reptile roundup went about as expected. It kept jumping all over the shower, jumping at me, on me, away from the open window... but I finally got him outside. UGH.

I slept pretty well last night but I woke up slightly manic. Yak, yak yak... all day long I couldn't shut up. Well, I could but I really had to work at it (overall I think I did alright). This afternoon I got totally exhausted and crashed.

I slept for hours and woke up slightly depressed. YUCK. I hate mixed episodes (manic and depressed at the same time). I'm going to take all the B-vitamins out of my daily pill case in a little bit. I think they're revving me up too much. Of course I'm going to take all my bipolar meds too.

From what I've heard from other people, it's a trade off with any bipolar drug. I can live with the fatigue and occasional, mild mixed episode as long as I don't have any horrible side effects.

I was too tired to run. Now that's sad. I plan to run and maybe do some weights tomorrow. I'm not going to gain 5 pounds because I didn't run today and my body needs an occasional "weekend" (2 days off in a row). I'd rather run a little less and not get hurt.

I did go up a pound and a half after eating the low carb granola bar. Because of it? I don't know. Probably, partially. I'm not beating myself up over it and I'm not going after anything laxative either. I don't want to go down that road.

I had problems with exercise bullimia (working out 2 hours and binging on carbs) before. I'm not doing that again. That's also where I learned about overtraining and injuries - nothing major but enough to make me stop the awfullness.

I plan to just drink my water, drink my Esiak tea, and eat a decent dinner. Oh, speaking of decent meals, I trotted out something from my last time on Atkins. I heated 2 precooked microwave sausage patties. I spread 1 ounce of cream cheese between them and made a "sandwich". It was an awesome breakfast. I was pleasantly full for hours.

Tomorrow I get paid early, and then we go to Walmart. That'll be fun. Hopefully my whole mood disorder thing will be dormant again by then.

[Houston Heather]

It's funny. I keep thinking "Get on the exercise bike". I watched TV. I played here. "Get on the exercise bike".

OK already. It sure won't hurt my mood.

[Snowman]

Heather ~ YIKES, glad I don't have to do "reptile roundup" here!!

I crashed after work too and you won't believe where!! DH & I work at the same place so we drive to work together. DH pulled the car in the garage after work and I was sleeping and continued to take a 45 min. nap!!

I'm off to the gym now.

GET ON THAT EXERICISE BIKE, it should make you feel good.

[Houston Heather]

Yup, I did. 40 minutes total.

I'm feeling very blissed right now.

I need to tattoo this on my brain: WHEN HAVING MOOD ISSUES, EXERCISE!

Tomorrow will be a run or weights, depending on when we get home.

Now I need to eat some dinner.

Night all!

[Houston Heather]

I told Ron today "This is going to be the kind of day where I plan to do A, B, C and I end up doing D, E, F."

I had planned to get up a little before 6 AM and go for a run, come home and shower, and go to work. I woke up at 5:50, looked outside. DARK. Set my snooze... DARK DARK DARK everytime the alarm went off.

I'm not running in the DARK for safety reasons. I didn't check the sunrise last night, obviously.

Oh, well. I wonder what I'll do when I get home. Run, bike (we have an exercise bike), or weights? Maybe some of each? Who knows. We have a 50% chance of rain so it may be weights in the garage. I just did the bike yesterday.

Oh, and I lost that 1.5 pounds that were doggin' me. I'm back down to 202 today. I've got my lunch kit packed and ready to go. After I get paid today we are going to Walmart. I want to get some nice tasty meats.

My cat Bubba loves my cube steaks as much as I do. I always give him a bite. (The vet said it was OK).

[Houston Heather]

17,318

The funny thing is, I was a little slow putting my pedometer on this morning. And yet, with all the running around and absolute insanity - I logged over 17 thousand steps. I don't feel bad for missing my run today.

I am totally beat. More after my nap.

[Houston Heather]

Still very tired, I'll be going to bed in less than an hour. DH says we will get picked up around 6:20, so I figure get up at 4, do some weights, shower (I need to wash my hair anyway), shoot, I just remembered I forgot the razors at Walmart.

Anyway, get up early, do weights, shower, dress, get ready for work. Sounds do-able. One thing today taught me is that I can't count on getting in a workout later.

I also realized when I was at McDonald's I should have bought a couple extra plain hamburgers. I could have eaten them for dinner. As it is, I have pounds and pounds of raw meat, nothing cooked, only choices were whipped cream, protein shake, or an Atkins Bar. I figured the whipped cream & protein was lower carb and it would keep my stomach from getting irritated by the lithium. You can check it in my Fitday. So, next time buy some hamburgers (plain) to go. I could have heated the patties and eaten them.

I hope the whipped cream doesn't screw me up. Not getting my rest in the early afternoon just totally destroyed my energy level.

I still need to do food prep for tomorrow's food. I don't have any snacks packed, I ate them all yesterday. I think I'll do half now and half tomorrow morning.

Oh, GNC had some Dandelion root tea on clearance. That's awesome for water retention, and my period is due in about 11 days. I'm going to drink some every day until then.

[Houston Heather]

First of all, I lost half a pound! 201.5!

If I were a liar, I'd tell you the alarm didn't go off.

I'm not a liar. I slept poorly, and when the alarm went off the last thing I wanted to do were weights. I hit the snooze. I did need to shower, so I took care of that and did my food prep for today. We had some wild trips today and a lot of waiting so I'm glad I did it.

When we got home it was pouring = no run. I asked DH to schedule tomorrow's outing to work so I could run and shower first. He was delighted to help. It was supposed to be a day off, today was supposed to be a day off, but the trainees are back and they're buying. We want to make it easy for them.

When I got home I took a good nap. When I started having odd dreams I woke up.

In a minute, when I'm done here, I'm going to do my weights. Then it's shower time and fun time - I'm saving some internet shopping for AFTER my workout.

Then, dinner and yet more food prep for tomorrow. Tomorrow, I get a run and maybe something to eat while we're out. It depends on the venue. From what I recall, they weren't exactly low-carb, but I could be wrong.

[Houston Heather]

Today, the alarm didn't go off!

Yesterday, as promised, I went and did an intensive weight workout in my garage. I planned to run this morning.

I woke up in the middle of the night to severe thunderstorms. Would they affect my run? The severe weather knocked out the power long enough to kill my alarm clock (which doesn't have battery backup). I woke up on my own, with a toothache, about 10 minutes ago.

Very depressing, when I weighed I was up a pound and a half. When I measured, I'm retaining water. That helps explain it (period is due in about 10 days) but it doesn't mean I like it.

I took some asprin for my toothache. I will go running in about 20 minutes.

Edit: I just went to the bathroom. It wasn't retaining water Now I'm back down to 201.5.

[Houston Heather]

I went for my run. 10 minutes walking to and from the park, 21 minutes running.

I felt good enough to try some faster sprints during my run. It was fun. No matter what happens today, I did my workout.

It's supposed to be miserably rainy today, but it was dry when I ran.

[Houston Heather]

It stayed dry pretty much all day. We went to work, filled 'em up, and went to Target.

Ron got a mocha while I shopped. He's an incredibly good sport about waiting while I shop, and he said I was a big help at work. I love to hear that.

I got myself a cute workout outfit. I am a size L now in workout tops. Awesome.

After I took my nap, I cooked up my cube steaks. Sure as the sunrise, Bubba cat appeared. I gave him a bite. I was still hungry and decided to make my whipped cream thing. Yummy. It hit the spot.

I'm trying not to get too stressed out by the raw egg fads on the board. I took a food safety course, my parents got violently ill from Salmonella when I was 10, and I almost died of Salmonella back in 2004. I was so ill I couldn't even tell my husband to take my to a hospital. I couldn't eat dairy for years as a result.

When I hear people saying raw eggs are safe, that salmonella is "not a big deal - very mild" and that I'm just an old silly for caution it freaks me out. I'd sooner eat raw beef than a raw egg. But people have to make their own choices. I will beg God to not allow anyone to feed raw egg concoctions to their children or anyone elderly.

If you're an adult of average intelligence, you eat raw eggs, and you get salmonella you got what you paid for.

[Houston Heather]

I'm staying away from the egg threads. I get too upset - I can just see a fine little family falling ill and getting sick, getting hospitalized, kids on life support...etc. Ugh. Too traumatic for me. I'll leave that up to God to protect them from the evils of the uncooked egg.

This morning, I was up a pound, but my breasts are sore and puffy from water retention. I am not impressed with the GLA. I thought it was supposed to PREVENT this. I would have done better to drink some dandelion root tea last night. This is actually a pretty bad case of PMS for me, my breasts are hurting on their own not just if I poke 'em. It's a good thing I know I'm not pregnant. DH is fixed.

My other measurements are the same, fine. Good. I've been fighting a little bit of a sore throat (I'm sure the protein shakes with glutamine helped - glutamine is great at fighting off infections), so maybe that was a factor. The sore throat is gone today but the fatigue is here to stay.

A couple possibilities:
1. I'm still stiff from my powerlifting workout the other day. Hamstrings and back especially. Maybe I'm tired because my body is repairing itself?

2. We have had a very stressful week with regards to transportation. A ride that arrives over an hour late (while I wait outside) has become the norm). Then we've had to ride with challenging other clients - the other day, a violent autistic guy was beating up our cab. Today, Ron accidentally bumped another client and the guy got hysterical, screaming and slapping at him. Ay yi yi. That would wear anyone out.

3. Mood disorder. Last week I was depressed but for my supplements. Maybe I still have some low-grade depression.

4. Pills. My medications make me very tired.

5. We worked 6 days straight in a row.

However, I ate clean today. I had to take my lunchtime lithium with my "In case of emergency" 3 ounce block of cream cheese while I waited on my ride. It worked. I didn't get sick from taking my pills and I wasn't hungry, either. I did eat more than the 4 ounces allotted cheese on induction but I figure, it was a rough day, everything I ate was legal and low carb. I'm going to call that a win.

Nice things I did for myself:
I did buy myself a fitness magazine this morning, and I read the whole thing while waiting.
I wore my pedometer and did a little walking back and forth near our pick up location. I logged over 11,000 steps just doing that.
I also did some lunges and quadriceps stretches while waiting.
I ate a nice, low carb meal at Cracker Barrel when we finally got there.
I drank all my water early, so everything I drink now is "fun".
I only drank 4 cans of soda, not much, considering.
I have tomorrow off, with maybe a little lawnmowing planned but that's it.
I also have a trip to walmart planned. Always fun for me, even if we get stuck there for hours waiting to go home.
I'm about to drink some Dandelion root tea and see if I can't whack this bloat.

Have a good one!

[Houston Heather]

I meant to discuss this earlier: while I was paging through my fitness magazine, I redefined what I want.

I don't want to look like the "girls" in the fitness magazines. I don't want to be deeply cut, with minimal bodyfat. I don't like it. I don't want to look like Cathe Freidrich. I want to give her a piece of cake and add on a little body fat to soften her up.

I want to be feminine, yet healthy. Tell you what, when I'm 90% happy with how I look I'll get a photo taken in a bathing suit. A bikini even. I'll post it here.

I have a vision in my head now, which I never had before. Softly curved, yet lean and powerful. A modest amount of bodyfat to soften my curves. Besides, I go down to like a AAA when I get below 130. I do want breasts.

Even the girls in the magazines have a little bulk (for them, it's muscle) where the thigh meets the hip. It's nice to know. I may have to deal with that on my own.

Healthy is the goal. Healthy. And strong. But I don't want to spend more than 2 hours a week lifting, tops. I want to have a life and fatigue is always an issue.

Oh, I got myself some yummy whey proteins. I can eat whey, I got a big jar on clearance a week ago, I've been eating it, and I haven't stalled or anything. I used to have digestive issues thanks to the salmonella I got back in 2004. I couldn't touch any dairy. I'm glad my body repaired itself.

Anyway, 16 different flavors, by Optimum Nutrition. The price was very reasonable. Very low carb. No wierd things in it, except the flavorings, I'm sure. They have added glutamine which is great for immunity and muscle recovery after a workout.

In fact, I'm going to go make myself a whey/egg protein shake with a little dab of whipped cream. I'm not super hungry but I need to take my lithium.

(DH always says, please take it! )