Me and Grandson #1 at lunch at Comic Con.  (and my snazzy new glasses that have Transition lens!)

We had an absolute blast.  The entire 4 day “weekend” was chock full of activities and eating.  Frankly, I threw all caution to the wind when my nephew and BIL showed up with about 3-4 dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies from my MIL.  I ate what I wanted to all weekend, but at least at one lunch, I had no bun.  That’s about the only sacrifice I made though.  Sooooooooooo, it’s time to hop back into the saddle.  I’ve got nuthin’ but packed weekends from now until the end of August; I can’t keep eating this way.

I also need to get back to exercising, although, 3 out of 4 days were 8-10 hours a day of walking, so I don’t feel THAT bad about it.  Tomorrow the dancing begins anew.  I still want to lose 10-20 lbs.  I still fit in all of my new small-medium clothes, but a few items (not all) are getting snug, so it’s time to stop farting around with this.  I’m facing the fact that I just can’t eat everything my lil ole heart and soul still want to eat.  I’m a small woman, and I have to accept the fact that that, coupled with a post-menopausal metabolism, means I have to eat more like a bird than I really want to.  But accepting it, I am/will.  To stay or become the size I want to live the rest of my life at, it simply must be accepted AND accomplished.  No more putzing around, trying to cheat my way around the cold, hard facts.

Hope you are all doing well.  Bee, sorry we never got around to arranging to meet up.  Looks like you had a blast at The Con™ too. 

Take care everyone, and stay true to your goals!

Had out-of-state relatives since Wed.

Thursday-spent entire day at Disneyland

Friday-spent entire day at (the International) Comic Con in San Diego

Saturday-I collapsed when the boys went to the beach.  All went out to dinner that night

Sunday-spent the entire day at Comic Con, and didn’t get home until 10:30 pm

Will get caught up (everywhere, including here!) in the next day or two.

:: collapses ::

Have a great day, and stay true to your goals! 

That’s our new comforter I just ordered today!  After I returned a new bedspread that took me three hours to iron 3 rows of ruffles, only to discover it AND the pillow shams didn’t fit/were too small.  I don’t think I’ve ironed a total of 3 hours in the past ten years!  LOL

Yep, my love of purple has returned.  It took a brief hiatus this spring; clearly back in full force.

Other than that, ain’t got nuthin’.  Been cleaning the house like a mad woman, because I have a brother in law and nephew arriving tomorrow from Chicago to visit until Monday.   I’m off Th. and Fri.  Besides Comic Con on Fri. and Sunday (Sunday will include my oldest grandson), we’ll be going to Disneyland, and eating out much.  Not sure how much time I’ll be here.

Anyhow, that’s all that’s happening on my front.

Hope you all are doing well, and staying true to your goals! 

So I got a blood pressure monitor.  And when I got home from work on Friday, I tried it.  It registered pretty much what it did at the doctor’s office.  That was good news/bad news.  The good news was that it wasn’t higher at the doctor’s office than at home.  The bad news was that it was still elevated.  I sat there, depressed all over again.  Prepared to start taking the new dosage.  Then my husband came home, and I was crying in his arms about it, and it suddenly dawned on me:  I was less than 2 hours away from the next dose.  Same as when I went to the doctor.  This is take it twice a day medicine, so I take it every 12 hours, roughly.  7:30 and 7:30.  My doctor’s appointment was at 4:30.  My testing at home was 5-5:30.  Close to the new dosage time.  At the end of a work day.  Hmmmm, could the dosage be wearing off in my system?

So I waited, and took the pill at 7:30, with dinner, as usual.  Within a half hour my blood pressure was normal.  Throughout the rest of the night, it averaged about 115/74.  Guess what boys and girls,  that’s below normal.  Come Sat. morning, I waited a tad past 12 hours.  My blood pressure was about 130/85′ish.  Slightly elevated.  Apparently in the morning, the end of dosage wasn’t as big a deal as at the end of the day.  I took my morning pill….same as the night before.  Back under normal.  I even did my 30 minutes dance, and 3 times, would come over, sit down, and quickly take my pressure, and it never rose above 132/87.  WHILE EXERCISING.  Clearly, I’m ok.  Clearly, my present dosage is ok.  (although I will continue to monitor it.)  I am not upping my dosage at this time.  My new pills will be double the dose; I’ll just become expert at cutting them in half.  And monitoring my pressure.

AND, I’ll make sure that my next trip to the doctor is in the morning (hang worrying about missing some work), and a good hour after my morning dose.  And I will inform the doctor of my findings, and take in my monitor with all the details records recorded within it.

Ladies (I don’t think any men read this LOL)….I’m fine.  I think I’ve figured it out.  I will keep checking, but I think my current dosage is just fine!  YAY!

And, if I work my butt off and lose the final 20 lbs. or so I want, who knows?  Maybe I can come off the meds altogether.  But even if not, I will continue to monitor, and just treat the meds like another vitamin.  The important thing is that I do this to extend my life just like everything else I have incorporated in the past 15 months to improve my life and longevity.  Because really, that’s the name of the game.  I love my life, and want to continue to enjoy it, better and longer, than I dared hope for 16 months ago!

Have a great rest of the weekend!  Stay true to YOUR goals! 

The good thing about screwing up on your diet and allowing sugar back in….is that in four days of abstinence, the desire for sugar disappears again.  The bad thing is….it takes four days.

So here I am, on Day One.  I spent the past 30 hours feeding my anger/frustration/depression about the high blood pressure despite losing 70′ish pounds….with too.much.sugar.

I KNEW BETTER.  I just didn’t care.  It was a “well fark you!” middle-finger salute to the realization that all my great health efforts didn’t affect the one thing they were designed to do; drop my blood pressure.  I was/am angry and I wasn’t going to take it.  For a brief period in time.

Problem is, sugar sure ain’t gonna fix anything.  Sure, the half a slice of chocolate cake after dinner Wednesday night made me feel temporarily better.  Sure, the 2 extra Hershey’s minis this afternoon eased the frustration…temporarily.  Yeah, the Heath bar tonight tasted good.  BUT, it didn’t solve my problem.  It didn’t erase the frustration (except for a minute or two, each.)  After the extra, empty calories were consumed….my blood pressure is still high.  And now, I’ve added guilt to the mix.  And, I knew I would, but at the time, I just didn’t really care.  That’s how pissed I am about the blood pressure thing.

So, I went out this afternoon, and got a good, albiet cheap new bp monitor.  But dammit, I’m not hooking it up until Saturday.  I just want to not have to hop back on that ‘constantly monitoring my health and heart’ treadmill that I thought, with all the diet and exercise, I’d jumped off of.  I cannot express how frustrated I am.  Seriously.

But, I can’t keep up eating the crap.  I don’t want guilt on top of everything else.  If I have to live with a higher dose of bp meds, well, then, fuck it, I WILL.  Sorry for the potty mouth.  But it’s a non-sugar way to deal with this situation.  If it offends you, well….too bad so sad.  I’m entitled.  :: sticks tongue out.  ::

I’ll get over this, because, well, it’s just one more hurtle in life I have to get over.  But dammit, I thought things were improving.  I lose all that weight, then my vision goes suddenly south.  Now, the blood pressure I thought all my efforts had gotten under control, ends up it didn’t.  I’m not living the more charmed life I thought all these months/over a year I’d put in would bring me.  So dammit.  Dammit to hell.  I’m NOT A HAPPY CAMPER.  Yeah, this isn’t the sunny side of life right now.  Blip on the radar and all.  Because I have some great activities coming starting in about a week, and I WILL enjoy them fully.  Right now, I’m still wallowing in a temporary pity party.

Thing is, the sugar crap stops NOW.  Guilt will no longer factor in, on top of the pity.  That ain’t no way to live life, sistah.  OK, I can’t control my health just by eating healthy and getting regular exercise.  Sucks, but let’s face it, less than 2 months from 59, shit IS gonna happen.  It’s just a fact of life.  And I COULD have it so, so much worse.

I’ll get over this little zit in my road.  (as compared to a bump.)  (ok, I’m smiling over that.  I can still crack myself up.)

So, the sugar chapter of this pity party is OVER.  I know way, way better than to start to go back down this ‘eat to soothe’ road.  30 hours ain’t a deal breaker.  So it ends NOW.

Thanks for listening to this ‘ought to go to bed’ rant.

Have a RADIANT Friday, my friends!  Stay true to your goals! 

So, I’m back.  I’m back because this is where I belong and need to be.

I’ve put some of the weight back on; about 10 pounds or so.  Nothing major.  But it’s a trend I need to nip in the bud right now.  But worse than that…I had my first doctor’s visit today since October, and my blood pressure is still/back to being high.  Despite my weight loss and continuing daily exercising.  Here I was hoping I’d get off the meds today for good.  Not so.  in fact, she wants to double me back up.  I accepted the prescription, BUT I need a new home bp monitoring kit, because I DO have “white coat syndrome”, and before I start upping my meds, I want to make sure I truly need to.  I don’t want to overdose on bp pills. 

To same I’m really bummed about this is a major understatement!  I thought all the weight loss and the exercise and the zero alcohol would rid me of my blood pressure problems.  I’m very discouraged that it has not.  I know I feel and look better-amazingly better-and I am.  But why won’t my heart register that?  My doctor told me not to be discouraged; she says she has lots of skinny patients who exercise regularly who still have high blood pressure.  I don’t like being one of them. 

And my vision never improved.  I’m still learning to live with that.  I see my eye doctor tomorrow/Th. after work, and I want a new pair of glasses; biofocals with transition lens.  So I don’t have to carry so many pairs of glasses with me.

Beyond that, not much going on.  Job is still wonderful.  Marriage is wonderful.  Family is wonderful.

Yes, I’ve gained a good ten pounds back.  I’ve indulged too much because of the depression regarding my vision.  I know I have to step away from the starches I had begun to reintroduce into my life, and I have.  I’ll be better.  Actually, I want to lose 20 lbs.  So, I start now!

I’m sorry I pulled away completely.  I had come to feel like my whole life revolved around my weight and everyone else’s, and I needed to take/make a break from that and prove I was more than just a weight loss story.  But I shouldn’t have deserted all of you, too, in the process.  I promise to be better.

Have a great day, and stay true to your goals!

Please come and stay in touch with me there:

http://s1.zetaboards.com/Tuscany_Sunset/index/

Hope you are doing well! 

ETA:  I’m closing comments to this post, too.  Seems no matter what I try to do around here, the spam comments are overflowing.  Let’s face it, at least for now, I’ve pretty well given up this blog.  If you want to interact with me regularly, please apply to join this message board.  I’m there every day.  Love you all, my friends! 

OK, without a doubt, looking at THAT MAN was the best part of the movie.  LOL

1. actually, the length wasn’t killing me. Which, given my overall feel for the movie, is kinda shocking. It isn’t the length of the movie that kills this.

2. Miranda is still the only female of the four I give a rat’s ass about or would want to spend an afternoon (or evening) hanging out with. She’s the only one that isn’t a ridiculous caricature that seems created by some misogynistic asshole. (male or female.) None of the fun (of their personalities) remains. NONE.

3. Carrie has become gone from being totally neurotic to a narcissistic bitch. HATE HER PERSONALITY.

4. Charlotte? Once a vapid twit, apparently always a vapid twit. Too stupid to hang out with.

5. Samantha remains totally one-dimensional, that being a slut. Only now, a decaying slut. Her body might still be rockin, but esoterically, WHAT she is twasn’t pretty.

Lesson learned: only will see future SITC movies via Netflix. It’s become like some family holiday get togethers when certain relatives attend from out-of-state; you can’t stand most of them, but you gotta go, if for nothing else than morbid curiosity to see what they’ve been up to/become.

And I’d still do Corbett in a New York minute.

ETA:  I’ve closed this to comments due to extraordinary amounts of spam. 

I’m gonna own my (current) evil:

I’m been going nuts, buying stuff.  And getting addicted to the brand that I’ve been buying.  That purse above is a Donna Sharp purse.  HOWEVER, that’s not my new addiction.  VERA BRADLEY is.  Oh Lordy, how I’m hooked.  The above was bought, also, simply because I couldn’t find a black/white pattern at Vera Bradley that I love.  But I’ve gotten hooked on Bradley, and when I use that purse above, in the winter, (it has a hot pink solid interior), it will be filled with VB accessories.

Here’s the pattern I have and love and will wear all summer:

It’s a sickness, I tell you!  A sickness!  LOL

Hope you are all doing well!  Sorry I haven’t been around much; between reading on my Kindle, shopping in store and online, and exercising, not a whole lot of time for blogging in the evening!  Miss you all, though!

Have a great day, and stay true to your goals!

WARNING:  If you haven’t watched Survivor, Fringe, or Private Practice’s last night episodes, stop right here, and have a nice weekend.  LOL

SURVIVOR:

My heart wants to believe Colby is just playing a “fly below the radar” game, and withholding his strength until he can run the table.  Please please please let that be it.  (if it is, erm, Colby, the time would be starting NOW).  In any case, I appreciate Parvati keeping him around for eye candy (although she’s never indicated that, come ON!  She’s not blind. LOL)  That said, Russell’s ego and paranoia is getting the best of him.  YAY!  It’s just a matter of time until his little Utopia comes crashing down on him, because of his own stupidity.  LOVE.IT.  And yes, Russell, Parvati is outplaying you by a good-ole-boy country mile.

FRINGE:

I’m not normally a beard-loving kinda gal, but Peter does NOT look good clean shaven.  That aside, what’s not to love about him?  Mysterious, warm, funny, insightful…and damned easy on the eyes.  The perfect guy (not that there isn’t a hint of a quasi-sordid past…)

 I swear, this is THE best night on TV, and part of that is because, in consecutive hours, I get to stare at Colby Donaldson, Joshua Jackson, and Taye Diggs.  HOLY COW HUBBA  HUBBA!!!

It’s going to be interesting next week, watching him go to the Alternative Universe and meet his real family, and the other Olivia.  LOVE.THIS.SHOW.

Private Practice:

Equal time to the ever lucious Taye Diggs.  He’s like, in my opinion, after the wonderful Tom Selleck, the most.beautiful.man.ever.

OK, need one more of HIM:

:: drools ::

OK, I LOVE Sam!  Stupid, stupid Addison!  Not stupid for wanting Pete, but stupid for staying with Pete when you know all along he’s in love with Violet and always will be.  And OMG OMG…what the hell is going to happen to Naomi and Sam and Del if Naomi and Sam’s daughter dies or is crippled or loses the baby from the accident!  And is Charlotte like one of the best characters ever?  I LOVE her!  I’m glad Violet isn’t being psychotic/needy any more.  From Day One of this series, after loving Amy Branigan in Judging Amy, I hated seeing her have a wussy, neurotic character on Private Practice.  Seems they’ve turned that role over to Addison.  :: sigh ::

Anyhow, that’s it.  So glad Friday is here.  Will be going over to my youngest daughter’s house on Sunday to celebrate Mother’s Day and my oldest grandson’s 13th birthday (a week early.)  My ex will be there.  No problem with that…it’s just that bitch woman he’s (still) with.  Oh well.  Won’t let her ruin my day.  LOL

Have a GREAT day, a great weekend, and stay true to your goals!