Saturday, January 31, 2009

Here I Am...

...



I call this beautiful work of art:
"Holly in Fuzzy Slippers Holding A Coffee Cup"

I call it that because... well... Its me, I'm wearing my scruffy old fuzzy slippers and I am holding my coffee cup. The very first one of the day, as I recall. Mornings are difficult for me. Even if I go to bed early the night before, and even if I get 8 hours of sleep... I still have trouble getting up in the morning. Of course those situations rarely obtain, but... sometimes they do...

I will be having a surprise to tell you all of soon. In the next day or two, God willing. Until then... enjoy yourselves and please check back later.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I'm Wearing My Brand New Shoes...

"Hey I put some new shoes on
and suddenly everything is right
"


Thank you Paolo Nutini.


So... I bought some new shoes a few weeks ago. The other day when I took my walk I got a huge ugly blister on my left heel. I was not amused. I have been taking short walks in my house shoes ever since. Because I didn't want to give up my walks but I couldn't use my walking shoes. Today I went to Academy Sports and purchased a new new pair of walking shoes.



New Balance, of course. And you know what the problem was? I've worn a size 8.5 sneaker for years, decades... today I purchased a size 7.5 sneaker. Weird! I dropped a whole shoe size! Cool, eh? Would be better if it had been a dress size. But I'll take what I can get.

I did walk for 20 minutes today in my new shoes, but my blister is not fully healed yet and I nearly tore the skin, so I stopped. Bummer. But I'm sure I will be back to my usual walks soon.

Oh! I also got a set of hand weights to use with my Gilad DVDs. The set included: a set of 1 pound weights; a set of 3 pound weights; and a set of 5 pound weights.


My sugar is still sort of high but not as high as it was. I have been a little bit busy lately and haven't had the time or energy to concentrate on a routine. Tomorrow and Friday will be better. I hope.

I know... this post doesn't have a picture of me in it... that's cause I am using the laptop and I don't have many pictures saved on here. Let me see what I can find...

Nothing. Sorry. I'll post something tomorrow.
Bye for now.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

See! She Can Smile!



This was taken on the 20th.


Today (the 22nd) my sugar was high, 242. That, I believe, is because I haven't exercised in 2-3 days. Also... I forgot to take my meds last night. Bad girl! I must try harder to do that correctly. When I'm supposed to. And to top that off, I had a soda yesterday because when I got home from my running around I didn't have any tea made up so I grabbed a 7-Up and drank that. I was soooo thirsty! Which is a sign that all is not well, for a diabetic, and which I should listen more closely too.

I have been an excuse making, lazy, careless girl the past few days. Must get back to the grind. Must, must, MUST! Hopefully, I will have a better report on myself a few days from now.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Well, here I am...

...
You lookin' at me?

Well, okay, I invited you to, didn't I?



Why don't she smile more often?

Because she only just last year got her teeth fixed and she is so used to not smiling or just not showing her teeth, that she usually forgets that she has nice, straight, pearly whites to show off now. I shall have to try harder to remember, eh? Perhaps I should incorporate that into my "wellness" programme? Yes, I think so.




Look! I'm wearing pink. No it isn't. I'm sorry... the store called this color "Sangria". Bwahahaha... its pink. PINK I TELL YOU!!! Never mind me, I feel a tad silly tonight.


Have you looked over there to the right? I have begun showing my "progress" over there in two sections called: "My Exercise Habits" and "My Sugar". I will briefly note what, if any exercise I did each day, and what my sugar numbers are for the day. I take it at different times each day, sometimes morning, sometimes afternoon, sometimes evening. Once right before I eat and again two hours after I finish eating. Sometimes I do one right when I wake up, too.


I will tell you all that I had an episode on Tuesday, the 13th. I looked back in my sugar notebook and I put the note "I feel good" on the page that day. That was right before I got extremely ill.

See, it happened like this: I was feeling fine, great, and then all of a sudden, I felt dizzy, nauseous, weak, shaky. After emptying my stomach of every meal I've ever eaten, I cleaned up, fixed the coffee pot and set out some leftovers for Pete and Thomas' supper and then I took my pills and crawled off to bed at about 6pm. Nothing strange in that, eh? Nothing at all. Except that about 5:30am the next morning, Pete woke me up and told me that he was leaving for work and that I should get up and go to the bed. And I thought I was in the bed! For a few moments anyway... then I realized that I was laying on the sofa, fully dressed, with my shoes on even! And no memory of having gotten up during the night and dressing or going to the living room.

Later on that morning I got up and started my day. Thomas came down and he asked if I was okay. I said yeah, just tired feeling, and I went on and started my day. As I went thru the sun room to the back door to feed the cats I noticed that the plants had all been rearranged and the floor cleaned. I didn't think anything of it, tho. Perhaps Pete had had a little extra time before leaving for work and had done it for me. During the day Thomas told me that I had been up the night before and that he had had to help me walk and had to hold me up and that I was talking funny and stuff. He told me that I had got up after Pete went to bed and gone to the kitchen and cooked and packed Pete's breakfast and lunch and then heated food for us and watched a show on TV with him before he went to bed and that I was still on the sofa when he went upstairs. Only problem is... I don't remember any of it! Not one minute of it!

Then when Pete got home from work I thanked him for moving the plants for me. He looked at me really funny and said, "I didn't do that." So I asked Thomas if he did it and he said, "yeah, I helped you do it Mom, don't you remember? We did it last night." So... and so... and so....

Apparently I got up and did all that stuff and I don't have any recollection of it whatsoever. I don't know. Maybe it was related to my diabetes. Or maybe it was a reaction to one of the meds. But I've been taking them for months, over a year, for most of them. And I've never done this before. That I know anyway... maybe I have and just don't know it. Maybe the other times no one was up to see me. I don't know. Got a date with the doc this coming Tuesday. I believe I will tell him about it and see what he thinks. I hope he has a good explanation for it.

I had not yet exercised the day I took sick, and I didn't exercise the day after or yesterday. But I have been eating sparingly and trying to not snack on anything that isn't healthy, low-fat and sugar-free. Thank God for baby carrots and cherries. :) Today I walked for half an hour and went 1 mile. My legs felt very weak, but I persevered. I wished I could go further and might have if it wasn't so close to bed-time for Pete. My treadmill is in the bedroom, so can't do it after 8pm or so. I need to get my lazy butt up the stairs and clean out that extra room up there so I can make that my "woman cave" and put my treadmill there and my sewing chair and table.. my stuff... but it seems like such a hassle. If I cleaned it out Pete would just say he wanted to use it for this or that. I can't have any little bit of the house for myself. He horns in on everything I try to do or spot I try to make my own. Jeez. I sound grumpy tonight. I better go to bed. Maybe I'm still a bit "out of sorts".

Thanks so much everyone for all your kind words of support. You are all such a big help to me. Hugs to everyone!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Me, Pausing to catch what's on the TV






This was taken the evening of Jan. 9, 2009.





You can see how chapped and red my nose is from all the sneezing and blowing. Will be happy when the winter is over and I can turn this heater off. Seems like Pete is even more cold natured than ever this year! Doesn't seem like the heater ever goes off when he's here. I dread to see the next gas bill... oh well. I turn it off when he's at work, but as soon as he gets home, it goes right back on.


Don't know what just happened, but half my post just disappeared. Oh well, I shall begin anew....



I was saying: I hadn't been doing any walking or exercises since the days just after Thanksgiving. 2008 was not a good year in this regard. I gained back all the weight I had lost in 2007. I didn't feel well nearly the entire year... But I refuse to feel like a failure. I did what I could. Maybe it wasn't enough, but it was what I could do. And now that the New Year has come, I'm beginning again on a walking and exercise routine. Or as much routine as anything ever gets around here.


Anyway... so we got an mp3 player for Christmas. And I finally got around to putting some of my music on it yesterday. When I went for my walk I grabbed it and took it with me to the treadmill. I was having so much fun listening to my music without having anyone tell me to turn it down... before I knew it I had gone two miles! That's great, since the last time I did any walking I could not do two miles.


Then today, I didn't walk. Rather, I did some exercises. I did some crunches, some leg lifts and such and then I did some arm exercises with the one pound weights. Um... I'm not real savvy on the exercise 'speak' but I did 5 different exercises, arm curls, etc., and I did them 10 times x 3 times each. Does that make sense? I did each exercise 3 times and each time I did one, I did it 10 times. What the hell do you call that anyway? Smart exercisers out there wanna let me in on the lingo?


So did that plus lots of stretches and did some pampering and "girlie" stuff today. Painted the fingernails. Massaged, inspected, and moisturized the feet. Let Pete cook the supper... Sometimes it's good to be a girl, eh?



I am beautiful, even if you can't see it.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

This is me 2009 Edition

Okay.


I'm going to be strong.


I'm going to do this.



This?



Yes, this.




THIS this is:


.

.

.



A photo journal/diary of myself for one year. I will be trying to capture at least one picture a week of myself and posting it here, perhaps blogging a little bit about what I was doing/thinking/feeling at the time the picture was taken. Or maybe blogging about how the picture makes me feel after the fact.

So... without further ado:
This is me!
Sunday
January 4, 2009





My hubby took this picture of me. He was lying down on the sofa and I was standing about 6 feet away from him. Anyway... this is NOT what I saw when I looked at myself in the mirror. These pants I could not fit into two weeks ago. Now, or at least for today, they are just right. I didn't even have to lay down on the bed to fasten them. High fives for me!

I felt like I looked pretty cute in this outfit, but I'm not happy with this picture. But if this is how the world sees me... so be it. All I can do is try to live better, healthier. This is the whole purpose of this blog, remember???

Well, there I am.



Today.