back in the game!

Since I'm still not feeling 100%, I spoke to my primary doctor and he advised me to make an appointment with the surgeon. He wants the surgeon to check out the ER records and see whats up and then we'll take it from there. I have followed everyone's advice.. and I've been staying away from anything that is high in fat.. and I must say.. I've lost weight! Granted, I haven't been tracking my calories, but since my appetite isn't completely there, and I'm scared to eat certain things.. it's completely worked in my favor!

down 8 pounds since the attack! wohoooooooo!

Starting tomorrow I am going to head back to the gym. I don't have a major exercise plan.. just some light cardio to get myself back into the swing of things. (It is Zumba day at the gym.. but we'll see how things go :-)

I'm Alive!

Well, as alive as I can be.

Quick recap of what has gone on over the last 3 weeks..

• got a cold that kicked me on my ass
• got over cold
• went to Florida with Hubs
• spent almost every night of vacation with a weird nausea feeling (no, I am not preggo!)
• came back to NYC and went to a bachelorette party
  
• got violently ill and got into a cab immediately to go home to Hubs for some snuggles (nope, wasn't drunk)
• spent the entire next day in the ER with...

.
.
.
.
gallstones!!!!!!!!!!

so, who out there has ever had this?? Basically they did nothing for me in the hospital except pump me with fluids and send me home with a phone number for a surgeon. *sigh*

Since I am no fan of pain.. or hospitals.. or surgery.. I have yet to make an appointment to see him.. Unfortunately, I think the time has come. I just can't eat! Even when I eat low-fat foods, I feel sick. I just can't go on like this.

Anyways.. going to my primary doctor on Thursday and I'll see what he says.. but overall this sucks.

Sorry to all of you out there that look to my blog as some sort of weight loss tool... I haven't been doing too well in that department at all in the last month, but I promise, as soon as I feel a little better, I am back on track!

can you die from a cold?

What a week!

I've been batting the onset of a cold all week and today it finally won. I am as sick as a dog.. so sick that Hubs has decided to spend the entire day out of the house to avoid catching my germies. bummer. It's no fun being sick when there is no one around to complain to. haha.

Besides the cold.. I managed to slice the tip of my thumb off this week while preparing myself a salad. Therefore, Tuesday night was spent screaming and yelling.. then cleaning up the bloody mess (a/k/a my thumb). No fear bloggies, I didn't do as much damage as I originally thought.. but still .. pretty scary. I haven't had a salad since. LOL.

Hope everyone has had a good week.. I have to catch up with everyone..

Saturday-ness

What a crappy Saturday here in NYC. Warm. Humid. Muggy. and Cloudy. yuck.

Since this is my last weekend from between now and oh, the end of June- I had to take care of things around the house. This usually translates to food shopping and the weekly run to Target. boo. Now, normally I love spending my hub's hard-earned money on useless shit at Target, but today I just wasn't feeling it. I bought the essentials-- tissues, soap, etc. then I bolted. Upon my travels back to our teeny tiny apartment I decided to get off at the 'rich exit'. Please. What was I thinking? The houses here are HUGE. (JLo is rumored to be living in this area.. as she had her twins in the hospital an exit away). Seeing the size of those houses just depressed me b/c we really need to sell this place but the market sucks and no one wants a 500 square foot apartment. Kind of irritates me because Hubs and I should have never bought it, but we couldn't afford a house (at the time) and thought this was the best option. stupid.

Anyways, I'm rambling.

Then I headed to Whole Foods.. picked up coconut water (after seeing it on so many blogs) and some homemade raviolis for dinner.. go up to the register.. and I forgot my wallet in the car. UGH.

So I left there and went to a more reasonably priced supermarket and did our food shopping for the week. At this point it is 2pm and I'm getting weak.. all I ate was a banana. I knew I was going to be bad when I got home.. just how bad...?

Got home and scarfed down a plate of tortilla chips with melted cheese. MY FAAAAAAAAV!

then I cleaned the apartment..

then ate a big huge bowl of pasta.

now I'm on my second glass of wine. LOL.

Oh well, we all need a cheat day, right??

TGIF!!

Yes! It's finally Friday! Can I hear a "woohoooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

The rest of the week was long and boring. I've been a little pathetic and haven't worked out at all, but that is all changing as of tomorrow! Hubs was off the last few days.. and I dunno.. when he is off, I just can't drag myself to the gym and miss out on time with him. (that's bad, isn't it?) It's just.. we have such conflicting schedules and when either of us has some off time, we like to be together. Oh well, I guess it all works out.

We did have a very productive night yesterday!! I finaaaaaaaally got him to sit down and sort through the 1000+ wedding proofs! After 3 long hours of staring at ourselves, we narrowed them down to 75! YES! They are off to the photographer and we'll have our album in 6 months. WOHOOO!

As for the food.. I've been doing AMAZING. Today was the first day (since using Sparkpeople and tracking the food) that I've gone over my alotted calories. Of course I still can't figure out how to link it back here, but I was about 59 calories over today. The rest of the week I was in the right range.. so I guess I'm doing OK!

so far, I love Sparkpeople!

Is anyone else on there? If so, lets be friends! (Let me know so we can friend each other!)

The website is super easy, full of information and FREE! yay! I'm still learning some things on there, but I have mastered how to track my daily eats.. and found out that today I could have eaten a little more than I did (I may go have an apple.. or a popsicle). Over the years I had gotten so used to counting points or carbs that I have no clue how many calories things are. Total eye-opener.

Anyways, today I had 1180 calories, 144 carbs, 30 fat and 82 protein. I know.. I'm very low on calories, and I am even on the low end of the carbs and fat, so tomorrow I'm going to try to work on that. Then again, on Tuesday I ate over 2000 calories and over 100 grams of fat (!!!!!!!).

woohoooo

..I'm a little late..

But WTH, I am going to post my May goals:

Mind you, I will be vacationing for a week at the end of the month, so between now and May 20th, I plan on sticking to my goals :-)

• Track every single morsel of food (I started this today and it was an eye opener b/c I eat way too much!)
• Aim to burn at least 1600 calories between now and the 20th
  
• Try 3 new recipes
• Plan meals
  

So basically, I am still going to continue being low carb.. but I really need to watch the calories too. Today I ate almost 2000 calories! That's just insane! If I can figure out how to link my food from Sparkpeople.com onto this thing, I will. (someone please help me figure that out! haha)

Back to Biggest Loser! Let's go Mike! (he's such a cutie! hehe)

what a week!

TGIAF!

This week is draaaaagging. wow. Not sure if it's because it is just a blah kind of week at work, or what, but whoa, I can't wait to wake up and kiss Friday morning. hahaha.

The eats this week have been pretty good.. lots of salads :-)

and tonight I tried yoga for the first time. Not sure what my feelings are about it. It's hard! I may give it another go in a few weeks, but we'll see :-)

Hope everyone is having a quicker week then me!!

Cardio for the week

I want to start planning my cardio for the week and maybe that will help me stick to it and get myself there. So I'm thinking:

Monday: 30 mins elliptical, 15 min walk/jog on treadmill, abs and arms
Tuesday: 45 mins walk/jog on treadmill
Wednesday: Off. Spending time with the Hubs.
Thursday: Yoga (my first time!)
Friday: 30 mins elliptical, 15 min walk/jog on treadmill, legs
Saturday: Off. I have 2 communion parties and 1 engagement party to go to! (ahhhh!)
Sunday: Zumba!

Since I'm kinda new to this, and really new to strength training, I need to find some exercises to do for the various body parts. Arms and legs I know, but back, shoulders, chest and tush have me in the dark. Any websites out there that would help me?

Today was my cheat day

I had to do it.

Hubs took the day off as we had tickets to go to a Mets game at their new stadium :-) YAY!

We started the day off with bagels. YUM. I did 'scoop' mine out though ;-)

At the game, sheesh, just too many options. It started with a beer.. then onto chicken nachos (MY FAV!) then I had a nibble of Hubs' sausage hero. yikes!

Luckily I refocused myself and had a SB friendly dinner: steak and veggies

The only downside was that I didn't drink a lot of water.. so tomorrow I am going to drink a little more. :-)

Day 5 and I lost my willpower ..then found it again!

yes, it's true. work was stressful today and a co-worker asked if I wanted Taco Bell.

....


I said YES!

grrr

Luckily, this co-worker always seems to F up my orders, so I wound up with 2 tacos that I don't particularily like. (I know it's shocking that I actually don't like this type of taco, but it's true). Anyways, I ate one and threw the 2nd out. Does that count as a small victory??

Besides the minor lunch pitfall, I stuck to my plan the remainder of the day. BIG VICTORY!

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with salsa and black beans. (I need new breakfast ideas.. help!)
Snack: almonds
Lunch: Read above :-P
Snack: Apple
Dinner: I believe the Hubs and I are going to get some Chinese, so I plan on having chicken with string beans.. hold the rice.

No work out today b/c I sat in over an hour worth of traffic to get home. God I love NYC. haha.

Zumbaaa!

LOVE IT! I tried this a few weeks ago, and even though I had a blast then, tonight I truly had an amazing time, and an awesome workout (442 calories for 53 minutes, to be exact!) Maybe I liked it more tonight because I had seen some of the steps before, but whatever it was, I am in loooooove with this class! I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I have to say.. my hips have not rocked like that since I was dancing in competitions back in my high school days. whew.

Anyways, today was an ordinary Thursday.. boring and lame.. onto the eats:

Breakfast: scrambled eggies with salsa and black beans (yes, I know, I am addicted to black beans)
Snack: sugar free, fat free chocolate pudding
Lunch: turkey chili
Snack: peanuts
Dinner: homemade chicken souvlaki, hunky greek salad and 1/2 whole wheat pita (I just had to do it.. it looked way too yummy)

Happy Almost Friday!

I'm finally back in this thing!

and DAMN, does it feel good!

I have not eaten a 'bad' carb since Sunday. WOHOOOOOO!

*does happy dance*

On Tuesday I started the day off with some scrambled eggs with salsa, lunch was a leftover burger and some green beans, snack was a sliver of cheddar cheese and dinner was baked chicken with brussel sprouts.

yum-0!

As for today I had my usual 2 scrambled eggs (this time with salsa and some black beans) DOUBLE YUM! Lunch was chicken souvlaki and a greek salad, Snackie was an apple with some PB and dinner was a massive taco salad with black beans.

I think I have a black bean addiction. haha.

Tomorrow I am back at the gym! WOOHOOO! Zumbaaaaaaaaaaaa class at 5:30! can't wait!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous hump day!

Argh!

Hellooooooo bloggies! Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Our weekend getaway was a blast! We consumed way too many calories and a few too many rum and diet cokes, but it was totally worth it!

Anyways.. since I am still 'recovering' from Saturday night, I did really well today on my eating plan. I've decided to go 'south beach' style yet again. It just works for me and since I am a carb-whore, I need the structure of SB.

Today's eats were:
Breakfast: scrambled eggies with cheese
Lunch: Turkey Chili
Snack: apple
Dinner: burger (made with 93/7 chop meat) and a huuuuge salad full of veggies

I'm a little hungry now, but since I already brushed my teeth I will probably stay out of the kitchen. (Not to mention I 'shut the kitchen down'.. this is my little trick that I do when I need to stay out.. I clean the counters, etc. so I won't want to go in there and dirty it up.. it works for me!)

No cardio today.. it's raining like crazy and since I was away all weekend I didn't see the hubs, so we are spending some much needed time together.

Til tomorrow bloggies!

The results are in..

Thank you to everyone and their kind words! :-)

After 2 doctor's visit and giving up lots of blood this week.. Here is the outcome:

Tuesday's gyno visit went OK. I still had TOM but as soon as he started the procedure for the water sonogram, he noticed that I had a polyp on my cervix. The doc removed it and then checked for 'any other structural abnormalities'... in which I had none. (thank God!) So that visit turned into a happy one. :-)

Fast forward to Thursday.

I had a physical with a new doctor (my old doc didn't take the hubby's insurance *sigh*).

After a review of my family history, then a complete physical, we waited for the bloodwork to confirm what was going on with my body.

Friday afternoon the results were in! Hypothyroidism! (just as the doc thought considering my family history, my menstrual problems, my extreme weight gain, and my sleepiness)

Today is my first day on Synthroid (the hormone that the thyroid makes) and I truly hope that I start to feel more like myself soon! This weekend is our annual Mother/Daughter weekend (something that my Mom and I do every year since my Dad left our family), and we are off to Connecticut to do some gambling and hang out! Weather is supposed to be in the mid-70s, so I'm breaking out the flip flops and my new pair of capris for the occasion.

Sorry if this blog doesn't make complete sense.. I just woke up (it's 6:37am here) and I wanted to update everyone with what the doc said. As of Monday.. I am back on my diet/work out plan. WOOHOOOOOOOOOO!

i'm the worst blogger!

Since my last post I have been a mess. Not in an eating kind of way.. but my body is just on the fritz.

Here's a modified version of what is going on (and maybe someone out there has something insight into all of this because I am at my wits end):

Within the last 6 months I have gained 20 pounds(!!!!!!!!!). Some of that weight I can account for because it was cold and snowy and I spent all of my free time on the couch nibbling on garbage... but 20 pounds..??? come on, something is up... I just don't feel like ME. I'm tired and sluggish all the time which has left me being cranky and irritable. It's just not me.

Anyways..

Fast forward to my last post.. I was all geared up for this challenge with some other bloggies and I had everything set to go (meals planned.. gym dates scheduled..new music uploaded onto the ipod for my cardio) and since I had another week before the challenge was scheduled to begin, I started early. I started to watch what I was eating and killed it in the gym. A few days later I noticed that I just wasn't budging from the scale.. in fact, it was going up. WTF?? Now, I always get a little bit of TOM bloat but I felt (and still feel) horrible.

Then TOM came.. and he has never left. This has been a little over 2 weeks. The first week was just like every other TOM-week.. but last week was like "enough already! please stop!" So, I called the DR and made an appointment for this week because he doesn't want to change my BC pills until they do a sonogram. :sigh:

I also made an appointment for a physical with my primary doctor because I should really get some blood work done and see if there is an underlying issue that is attributing to my sudden and drastic weight gain. (thyroid issues run in my family and last time I went to the doctor he told me I was 'borderline' to having an issue) I go Thursday. If there isn't an issue (which I really hope there isn't) then I know what I have to do.

So that's whats up. I'm sorry to all my peeps out there that I was in the challenge with. I hope you all understand :-)

First day went FABULOUS!

Since I'm back on this thing, I spent last night laying out my meals/snacks for today. This was a super idea because I made healthy choices and didn't grab random things and run out the door.

Today turned out to be fairly ordinary.. work.. gym.. home. boring.

Anyways, the eats for today:

Breakfast: Oats with a serving of pure pumpkin (my first time trying them... kinda bland.. I need some suggestions on how to make them tastier): 2 points

that held me over until lunch.. YAY!

Lunch: turkey chili with some shredded cheddar: 7

Pre-gym snack: apple: 1

Dinner: Taco Salad (lettuce, tomatoes, 1 serving of black beans, a dollop of sour cream, and a teeny tiny spoonful of 93/7 chopped meat): 8

Total Points Used: 18/21 (allowed)

At the gym I did 30 mins on the elliptical and some abs. According to my heart rate monitor, I burned 287 calories! wohoooooo!

Thank all of you for your supportive comments from yesterday!

after taking a month long hiatus..

I am pleased to announce that starting tomorrow, I am back on point.

Over the weekend my sister told me that I look preggo.. and unfortunately, I am not. This has left me very upset and angry, so I have channeled that energy into hitting up the gym the last 2 nights. Since I had to go food shopping (went tonight!) I will be starting to eat 'cleaner' tomorrow.

It is bad enough that my own blood could say that, and embarrass me in front of others by pointing it out, but she was right. After hearing it, or admitting to myself that I let myself go, naturally I have been pretty upset and found myself crying today over it. How could someone say that? How could she pat my belly and laugh hysterically? How could she point it out to a family friend? I'm hurt, yet mad. Get me?

I'm back on track tomorrow. I love reading all of your blogs, and each of you are so inspirational, so I will be here cheering all of you on, and hopefully pick up some tips along the way. :-)

Thanks for listening to me...

This is gonna be rough, but I'm ready! FINALLY!!

I'm Carb Free!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 2 of no carbs and I feel SUPER. I will continue to do the no carb thing for the next 2 weeks, at which point I plan on heading over to Stage 2 of South Beach and graduate to more big girl foods. yay!

Luckily, I stumbled across a bunch of low-carb/south beach friendly recipes yesterday and it was a lifesaver! With the proper tools and food that isn't boring, I am on my way to eating right and getting rid of this weight!

Yesterday: Tuesday 2/24/09
Breakfast: greek yogurt with some granola
Lunch: Chopped salad with lots of veggies and some chicken
Snack: string cheese
Dinner: Mini Greek meatballs with a greek salad (all homemade!)

Today: Wednesday 2/25/09
Breakfast: eggs with cheese
Snack: SF hot chocolate
Lunch: leftover greek meatballs and greek salad
Snack: almonds
Dinner: Thai Chicken and some brussel sprouts. The recipe looks yummy.. I can only hope that it tastes as good as it sounds!

I'm happy to have found my motivation again! It feels wonderful to be back on track.

Survey!

Figured I would do a lil survey so everyone can get to know me a little better :-)

1. Can you cook? Not really, but I should get points for trying.

2. What was your dream growing up? To be a dancer on Broadway. Didn't quite make it there but won various awards and danced with famous choreographers.

3. What talent do you wish you had? to be a good cook.

4. Favorite place? Greece. That was the best. vacation. EVER.

5. Favorite vegetable? brussel sprouts. YUMMY!

6. What was the last book you read? I am currently reading "Eat Pray Love" but I just finished "New Moon".. gotta love the Twilight series!

7. What zodiac sign are you? Virgo.

8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? ears are pierced. 2 tats.

9. Worst Habit? I overanalyze everything.

10. Do we know each other outside of blogging? No.

11. What is your favorite sport? fooooootball.

12. Negative or Optimistic attitude? I'm pretty optimistic.

13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me? probably talk about the weather.. I'm obsessed.

14. Worst thing to ever happen to you? that's not important for my blog. sorry.

15. Tell me one weird fact about you? I love watching cartoons in my pj's.

16. Do you have any pets? no.

17. Do you know how to do the macarena? yep

18. What time is it where you are now? 1:19pm (EST)

19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary? annoying. haha.

20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be? straight hair with a toned body.

21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience? conscience. I'm a good girl.

22. What color eyes do you have? brown.

23. Ever been arrested? no.

24. Favorite fictional character of all time? Monica from friends.

25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it? save it for a house.

26. If you could have one superpower, what would it be? to fly. how cool would that be?!?

27. What’s your favorite hangout? My Mom's house. she's got the pool. hehe.

28. Do you believe in ghosts? not ghosts, spirits. :-)

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time? read, work out, shop.

30. Do you swear a lot? I'm trying to stop.

31. Biggest pet peeve? slow drivers..

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself? sweet.

33. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you? I just did, and I hope if your reading this you do too!