Last few days and some upcoming plans

I didn’t do too shabby the other night at my parents’ house.  My dad makes a pretty good sausage based sauce, but I just had one serving and a small amount of spaghetti to go along with it.  I also had a slice of garlic bread and a huge plate of salad with just one tablespoon of lite ranch dressing (it was that or fat free Italian and I much prefer ranch for a salad).  I guzzled down water, had some apple slices and caramel sauce to share with other people and overall focused on spending time with my family rather than stuffing my face with comfort food.

Wednesday morning I repeated Couch to 5K Week 1 Day 1 (I had done it Monday also) and my eating was not horrible.  I’m tracking with Weight Watchers and My Fitness Pal (more on that in a bit).  I had 44 points (My daily is 35) and earned 8 activity points.  Calorie wise I ate 1909 calories and burned 525 calories for a net of 1384 calories that day.  I made these awesome little egg dishes for dinner.  We had them on our anniversary trip in June at a bed and breakfast and they’re so ridiculously easy.  You put two slices of deli ham in a muffin cup, crack an egg into the cup that the ham has made, then I put half a slice of thinly sliced Sargento cheese (any flavor really) over top.  Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.  They’re just so tasty and EASY!  My little guy gobbles them up and so does my husband.

Thursday was okay, I was dealing with the shower drain before I was going to go to the gym and by the time I got done, it was too late to go, I knew I’d have about 15 minutes there before I’d have to head home since I had to take little guy to my parents’ house for the day (typically the husband does drop offs).  So I didn’t get in much activity at all and I had about 1900 calories / 46 points for the day.  Dinner was excellent, but I have to mess with the recipe and get the points/calories down.  I made a pretzel crusted chicken that I can’t wait to have seconds of for lunch today.  Here is the original recipe http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/honey-mustard-pretzel-chicken/

I’ve been contemplating the Fit Bit Flex wrist for awhile now but was scared based on the reviews.  I heard nothing but good about the Fit Bit One, and earlier this week someone slipped me some money and told me to do something nice for myself and so I bit the bullet and bought it yesterday.  I love it!  There’s so much cool stuff it tracks, my steps/miles each day, how many calories I’m burning in general, the amount of floors I’ve gone up, how many minutes I’ve been active, and then at night it tracks my sleep, which I NEED TO BE BETTER ABOUT!  I’ll tell husband I’m going to bed at 9:30 and be up until 11 just screwing around on my iPad and that has got to stop!  All it does is make my mornings miserable.  So I gave up my ActiveLink membership with Weight Watchers.  I just wasn’t crazy about it like this Fit Bit.  Plus, I went to Target (could have saved $5-10 ordering off of Amazon) and for some strange reason they were ringing up $30 off so I saved big bucks on it!

Today was my fourth day eating the same breakfast.  I am in love with the oats, raspberry preserves, cinnamon cream cheese mixture I’ve been making.  I’m going to attempt to feed it to the little one this weekend and see if he likes it.  My mom thinks he’s getting sick of his eggs and toast at her house each morning, so maybe a switch up is in order.

Tonight I’m driving to Pittsburgh to hang with some lovely ladies from my mom’s group and then I’m going to spend the night at one of their houses and I’ll be back home in the morning.  I’ll miss tomorrow’s swim lesson, but that’s fine, the husband needs to take a turn, he hasn’t gone in a few weeks, working weekends and all.  Then my step-son should be home in the afternoon.  He’s coming home because we’re doing our annual candy day this weekend.  So Sunday will be hard for me.  There’s non-stop munchies, which I’ve been good all week, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but munchies at these types of gatherings are bad for me and they’re especially bad the day before my weigh-in.  I’ll also have to watch the wine intake.  Whomp whomp ;-)

Stayed with it today!

Yesterday went well.  I weighed in at WW at 236.4.  I will only make that weight go down from here.

I earned 8 activity points according to my ActiveLink monitor and my final meal plan for the day was 42 points, using up 7 of my weekly points.

Here’s a rundown:

B:  Whole grain toast with a tsp of butter, an egg, a slice of ham and a slice of Muenster cheese (7)

B:  Coffee once I get to work (3)

L:  Pumpkin Sausage Pasta with Roasted Broccoli (10)

S:  ½ an apple (0)

S:  Sargento reduced fat Colby cheese stick (2)

D:  Italian wonderpot (bucatini pasta with tomatoes, spinach and feta) and skim milk (11)  *Added a Johnsonville Turkey Sausage to my meal for some protein (3)

S: ½ ounce of Tostitos Baked Scoop Chips and two small cookies (6)

Tonight we’re going to my parents’ for dinner and they’re serving spaghetti and meatballs with bread and salad.  I need to really control myself there, I can go overboard with my dad’s pasta.

I also made an amazing breakfast.  I got the idea from this pin but made it with just oats, a teaspoon of Sugar in the Raw, a wedge of Laughing Cow Cinnamon Cream Cheese and a tablespoon of the raspberry preserves.  It was so delicious my mouth is salivating, wanting more of it.  I’ve already put it in my tracker for tomorrow’s breakfast.  It was 6 points plus overall and so filling.

I also made it to the gym again today.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical because I wanted to watch the news and hear about the government shutdown, which just angers me, so not sure why I did it other than I like to stay informed.

Starting over

I've had a lot of stress in the last two months, financially, emotionally, and at first I dealt with it in a good way, working out every chance I got.  Then things started piling up and I had to get my family ready for vacation.  I stopped going to the gym, stopped doing evening walks, any extra time was spent with my ass planted on my couch, decompressing.  I was down about 15 pounds and feeling really good about myself before all this happened.

Well vacation is over and fall is upon us and those things I was stressing about?  They’re not real problems. There’s a someecards that reads, “I’ve got 99 problems and 86 of them are completely made up in my mind.”  Yup, that was me.  The husband and I discussed this last night, how I've been taking it all in the past few weeks and shutting everyone out.  He recognized it, but didn't know what to do, he wasn't stressed about it and couldn't understand why I was (that’s what I DO honey…).

It’s gotten to the point that about a week and a half ago the temperature dropped and I embraced getting to wear long sleeved shirts or sweaters (read: bulky) to work.  Last week I asked some friends who have been successful in the weight loss department what has given them their motivation.  I was hoping that something would spark me.  I got a lot of great answers, but nothing stood out to me and I knew that evening I’d be sitting on the couch drinking my umpteenth glass of Cherry Coke and sneaking a Reese’s peanut butter cup or Chips Ahoy chewy cookie and thinking about how depressed I was that my son will be 2 in November and I’m still wearing my maternity pants because they’re comfortable and don’t hurt my waist.  That STILL wasn't enough to motivate me, what is wrong with me?  Then as I’m sitting here at work, I typed a report of a woman who passed away.  She was in her 50’s and her husband found her unresponsive in their living room from the night before.  She was overweight, had heart problems and had fell asleep downstairs, where she passed away.  I NEVER want my husband or sons to find me that way and if I can do anything to prevent it, it’s getting my weight under control.  I had been looking for a sign and when I typed that report, I finally felt something.

I've been counting calories and points since Thursday and will be starting back to Weight Watchers meetings officially this afternoon.  My weight last Wednesday was 238, but I’ll have an official weight later today after my meeting and go with that from now on.

Here’s today’s meals and snacks:
B:  Whole grain toast with a tsp of butter, an egg, a slice of ham and a slice of Muenster cheese (7)

B:  Coffee once I get to work (3)

L:  Pumpkin Sausage Pasta with Roasted Broccoli (10)

S:  ½ an apple (0)

S:  Sargento reduced fat Colby cheese stick (2)

S:  Hard boiled egg (2)

D:  Italian wonderpot (bucatini pasta with tomatoes, spinach and feta) and skim milk (11)

I get 35 points per day and that equals 35 points.

I also worked out today, jogging and walking intervals for 30 minutes at the gym.
That’s all for now!

Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge - Day 4

Dealing with Infertility for three years gave me plenty of time to find resources all over the Internet.  People were always amazed by the amount of knowledge I had regarding Infertility but it definitely helped me.  It helped me to understand what was going on with my body, it gave me the power to tell my OB/GYN that I didn’t want to use them anymore, I wanted to be seen by a specialist who dealt with true Infertility and it gave me something to do.

I was pretty much attached to the IF Board on The Bump.  There’s so many acronyms, different hormones that could be affecting your fertility, medications to take, etc. that I learned a lot from these ladies.

Fertility Friend has a great tutorial that every woman who is struggling to get pregnant should read and help understand their bodies better.  I don’t think that as soon as a couple decides to have children that they should be charting and stress themselves out with all of this BUT if you’re curious about it, it explains everything and has an easy to use chart to chart your monthly cycle.

My RE has a Facebook page, which was great to see so many success stories and to commiserate with other women who were struggling.

There's so many places on the Internet to help those who are struggling with IF get support or learn more about what their options are.

Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge - Day 3

Wordless Wednesday

The moment I felt "healed"

Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge - Day 2

I suffer from Infertility.  Infertility is defined as not being able to get pregnant despite having frequent, unprotected sex for at least a year — or for at least six months if the woman is age 35 or older.

Specifically I suffer from amenorrhea, the absence of my period.  I get a period maybe every 6 months, if that.  Since I successfully had a pregnancy and birth, I've only had two spotty periods and they were induced with progesterone supplements.  I've done all testing for Infertility and there is no explanation for it.  My Fallopian tubes are clear, all my blood levels are normal, I have eggs in my ovaries, I just don't ovulate and get a period each month like other women.  I also needed some pretty strong drugs to achieve a strong enough ovulation and the RE had determined I needed a progesterone supplement to sustain a pregnancy for me to carry to full term.

1. Infertility is a common problem.  10% of women in the U.S. will experience problems with getting pregnant.
2. Infertility is not something to be ashamed of.  I felt best when I shared my struggles with others and had shoulders to cry on.  I could not have gotten through my two pregnancy losses and the failed medical cycles we went through for over 2 1/2 years without the help of friends and family.  There is no reason to fight it alone.
3. Go to a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE), don't just stay with your OB if you are struggling. An RE does much more monitoring for you.  I went through 7 cycles of Clomid with my OB before I moved onto the RE and realized the OB was not even monitoring me properly.  They were giving me doses of Clomid each month with no monitoring and I wasn't even ovulating on it.  Those were wasted months and took their toll on my body, my mental well-being and my marriage.
4. Yes, it will seem like everyone else is pregnant and most likely they are.  It sucks, there's no getting past that suck ass feeling either.  Wine helps.
5. Look into resources, there's the Compassionate Care program, I did NOT qualify, but know that others have.  I know my RE works with a foundation that donates money to families in need of money to help pay for treatments.  So don't just assume that you can't afford it.  I was lucky enough that my RE gave me medicine donated from other patients who no longer needed it.  I had over $2,000 in injections my cycle I got pregnant with Hayden and I didn't have to pay for any of the medicine that month, just treatments.

Some posts from the past:

http://wifeyadventures.blogspot.com/2011/01/plan-and-my-upcoming-weekend.html

http://wifeyadventures.blogspot.com/2011/01/blanket-thank-you.html

http://wifeyadventures.blogspot.com/2011/01/hello-again.html

http://wifeyadventures.blogspot.com/2010/09/latest-for-project-baby-making.html

Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge - Day 1

I'm going to try the Health Activist Writer's Challenge for 2013 again.  I didn't do so well last year but I'm trying to do more for myself and one of those things is writing, using a creative outlet.

I thought by engaging myself in the challenge, it would kick start my activity on the blog again and help me carve out a space of "me time" each day.

I've always struggled with my Infertility, even as a teenager when I didn't realize that I did have Infertility issues.  When Hubby and I first started dating my period would not show and I'd worry I was pregnant, silly me didn't realize at the time how hard it would be for me to get pregnant and I'd take tests all the time just in case.  I mean I'd been used to it in high school when my period was sporadic to say the least, but as an adult who was sexually active, it was more of a risk and as I gained more weight, my period became non-existent. I started researching IF online.  It became more important to figure this out when Hubby and I decided to marry.  I had joined The Knot to help plan our wedding and the next obvious step was to go to The Nest and The Bump so we could start trying for a baby.  From there I found lots of resources and blogs dedicated to other women suffering from IF.  Hopefully by sharing my stories about IF and using a specialist to finally achieve my dream of becoming a mother, I can educate other women about their bodies and answer questions for them.