Curse you, Utah, for legalizing aerials. Please tell me tonight is the last night of this five week constant booming!
Also, curse you, three-hour nap, for preventing me from sleeping now.
Oh, and curse you, bundt cakes, for ruining my resolve!
Curse you Perry the Platypus!
More cursing later.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Simple blessings
So I have been feeling slightly sorry for myself because I no longer have the jordan river parkway right outside my door. "You mean I have to drive in order to walk?! Outrageous!" But I just tried to walk past my old apartment and found the parkway covered by high flood waters on both sides of the part of the path that intersects with the apartment complex. So if I was still living there, then not only would I have to drive anyway, i might have flooding problems at home. I'm not grumbling about the drive anymore.
Monday, July 11, 2011
236, 1.67% total weight loss, 4.7% of goal!
Man, I think this blog thing is working where nothing else has for several years. I absolutely love giving good results, more than I love eating. And the exercising is giving me a natural high, which is also fantastic. Life is looking good.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
What to do?!
I have a horrible conundrum to report. Last night, right before I went to bed, there were clouds building in the south. I thought to myself that if it rained, I'd need to close my windows, but until then, I'd keep them open to cool off the house, since it desperately needs it while I'm on my gungho green kick and not using my AC. So I went to sleep a happy homeowner. I woke up around three when I heard this huge CCCCRRRAACCKKKKKKKKKK! BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM! CCRAASSSSSHHHHHHH! I found out that if I'm really really really tired, I can sleep through a thunderstorm going on two feet from my ear, but that I cannot sleep through a bolt of lightning splitting my walnut tree and depositing half of it directly through my office room's roof! So I got to try to pull as much as I could out of the room to keep it from becoming soaked, and putting it away while avoiding the Other Soaked Places in my house, as a testament to open windows. Hopefully church today can calm my troubled heart. Forecast today: thunderstorms.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Ahhhhhh......
Nice. Happy. Quiet. Reflective. This walk is turning into my favorite part of the day!
In other news, Happy to see that my clothes are already fitting better. Hurray!
In other news, Happy to see that my clothes are already fitting better. Hurray!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Path reflections
Okay, so officially a full week of exercising, hurray! (Sunday's exercise is church ;) I can feel the new muscles that are becoming good and strong.
Sure interesting how much better your outlook is when you've properly exercised. The troubles with the house recede into the background. What's more important is watching the family of ducks swimming past!
Sure interesting how much better your outlook is when you've properly exercised. The troubles with the house recede into the background. What's more important is watching the family of ducks swimming past!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
baseball caps
I thought I'd take a break from what is turning into a weight blog, and expound on the virtues of baseball caps, which I'll be missing dearly tonight in the stadium when the sun's taking it out on my eyes.
Back in prehistoria, you know, my childhood, I didn't like caps. They seemed so "just for boys" that I couldn't bring myself to use them. I wasn't a tomboy. I was the library geek, and proud of it, so I had to maintain my image!
Now don't ask me when the change occurred, (I think it was that bright bright day on 6/5/2003, at 9:17 in the morning, right after my cereal of Golden Grahams and grapefruit) but suddenly I loved them! I couldn't get enough. I was going up to strangers on the street and asking them, "Did you know that you can wear these things and they'll keep the sun out of your eyes?!" I would go into grocery stores and tell the cashiers, "They prevent a lot of sunburns! Though you do still need to watch out for long hot days." I couldn't wait to go to the bank managers and proclaim, "Sometimes you don't even need sunglasses!" The parking lot attendants were tired of me repeating the claim, "It's even okay for ponytails, just stick it through the hole in the back!" Don't even get me started on the glee I would exude when telling everyone in the park, "They even save you sometimes from needing to comb your hair at all!"
I've toned down since then, but I sure wish I had one tonight so I could point out to the hapless stranger who will have the seat next to me that they keep you cooler too, by a few degrees! :)
Back in prehistoria, you know, my childhood, I didn't like caps. They seemed so "just for boys" that I couldn't bring myself to use them. I wasn't a tomboy. I was the library geek, and proud of it, so I had to maintain my image!
Now don't ask me when the change occurred, (I think it was that bright bright day on 6/5/2003, at 9:17 in the morning, right after my cereal of Golden Grahams and grapefruit) but suddenly I loved them! I couldn't get enough. I was going up to strangers on the street and asking them, "Did you know that you can wear these things and they'll keep the sun out of your eyes?!" I would go into grocery stores and tell the cashiers, "They prevent a lot of sunburns! Though you do still need to watch out for long hot days." I couldn't wait to go to the bank managers and proclaim, "Sometimes you don't even need sunglasses!" The parking lot attendants were tired of me repeating the claim, "It's even okay for ponytails, just stick it through the hole in the back!" Don't even get me started on the glee I would exude when telling everyone in the park, "They even save you sometimes from needing to comb your hair at all!"
I've toned down since then, but I sure wish I had one tonight so I could point out to the hapless stranger who will have the seat next to me that they keep you cooler too, by a few degrees! :)
Life is happy!
You'll never guess what happened! Somehow, in the week since I last weighed myself, I've lost 15 pounds!!!! 15! In one week! How does that happen? Is it safe? Who cares?! I'm happy! Scratch that, I'm ecstatic, blissful, ebullient, even! No need to investigate, just to enjoy
237, 1.25% less total weight, 3.5% to goal
Psych! Actually, it's only been one pound, but that in and of itself is a super happy thing. I've got such a happy positive attitude right now, even with the loss of those few extra hours of sleep this week, that nothing can pull me down. So don't try to kill my buzz, okay, or one of these days, Alice, one of these days!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
On the path
I'm exercising this morning by walking on the Jordan river parkway. More than halfway done and I'm feeling tired and good at the same time.
It was super hard to get up this morning. It was so tempting to just crawl back in bed. Even my new motivator of saying, "is that what Active Karen really wants?" almost didn't work because the answer would have been yes. The only thing that saved me was the realization that I'd only have one more hour of sleep anyway, which didn't seem worth it. I would have missed this feeling of accomplishment, what a loss! Four days of Active Karen, and counting!
It was super hard to get up this morning. It was so tempting to just crawl back in bed. Even my new motivator of saying, "is that what Active Karen really wants?" almost didn't work because the answer would have been yes. The only thing that saved me was the realization that I'd only have one more hour of sleep anyway, which didn't seem worth it. I would have missed this feeling of accomplishment, what a loss! Four days of Active Karen, and counting!
Friday, July 1, 2011
Tired. For good reason
So I was reading over some posts, and realized I've been a downer lately. My apologies to anyone who might be reading it. I'm really trying to be positive. I really am. I know from experience that it is gargantuanly higher odds to lose weight when you're positive vs negative.
I've wanted to be completely open and honest, because part of my weight journey this time has to be admitting to my problems. Which causes me to be a little depressed to have to admit to it. But at the same time it's liberating to talk about it.
Which leads me to my next admission: I have sleep apnea. I've known for at least 4 years now. And I know it's weight related. And hereditary. My dad has it too, though he has not admitted it, even though we have all heard it over the years. He snores loud, then stops, and it's the silence that is scary, until 5-20 seconds later, he takes a huge intake breath that wakes him up.
This is why I know I have it too. I snore. Another admission, though this is common knowledge already to those in the know. :) Lately I've been waking up 5-10 times a night with a big breath. For just a split second every time, I can feel how my body was trying to compensate for lack of oxygen . Usually I'll only be conscious for about 10 seconds or less, but sometimes I can't fall back asleep. This is doing a lot of havoc to my sleep cycle and ability to feel rested.
Here's the other admission which is even more..., well, deadly. I have a condition, which I think is either acid reflux or something similar. My throat sometimes burns when I wake up in the morning. But worse than that is when I'm experiencing acid reflux in a big way at the same time as the apnea kicks in. In the few seconds that I haven't taken a breath, the acid gets a chance to take hold of my whole throat. I wake up gasping for breath. My wind pipe is contracted to the tiniest little hole that I can barely suck any air in through. While getting as much air as I can (which is not much), I am also pulling the acid down into my lungs. It is completely horrifying to be alone in the middle of the night with no way to breathe and my throat is burning and I don't know what damage I'm doing. Then I can forget about sleep for at least an hour or more after that. I am thinking too hard, coughing too much, and too terrified to go to sleep and have it happen again.
It happened last night for the first time at the new house. I probably haven't experienced it since 8 or 9 months ago. I try not to think about it, so every time it happens is such a traumatic experience.
To make a long story short (too late!) it is one more reason that I need to wake up and pay attention. No more putting it off. If I lose the weight, I will at least lose the sleep apnea, and hopefully also the reflux. One of these times it's going to be just that little extra bit worse that gives me permanent health problems, or worse. If I have no other benefits besides losing the apnea, and the resulting good night's sleep, it will be worth it.
I've wanted to be completely open and honest, because part of my weight journey this time has to be admitting to my problems. Which causes me to be a little depressed to have to admit to it. But at the same time it's liberating to talk about it.
Which leads me to my next admission: I have sleep apnea. I've known for at least 4 years now. And I know it's weight related. And hereditary. My dad has it too, though he has not admitted it, even though we have all heard it over the years. He snores loud, then stops, and it's the silence that is scary, until 5-20 seconds later, he takes a huge intake breath that wakes him up.
This is why I know I have it too. I snore. Another admission, though this is common knowledge already to those in the know. :) Lately I've been waking up 5-10 times a night with a big breath. For just a split second every time, I can feel how my body was trying to compensate for lack of oxygen . Usually I'll only be conscious for about 10 seconds or less, but sometimes I can't fall back asleep. This is doing a lot of havoc to my sleep cycle and ability to feel rested.
Here's the other admission which is even more..., well, deadly. I have a condition, which I think is either acid reflux or something similar. My throat sometimes burns when I wake up in the morning. But worse than that is when I'm experiencing acid reflux in a big way at the same time as the apnea kicks in. In the few seconds that I haven't taken a breath, the acid gets a chance to take hold of my whole throat. I wake up gasping for breath. My wind pipe is contracted to the tiniest little hole that I can barely suck any air in through. While getting as much air as I can (which is not much), I am also pulling the acid down into my lungs. It is completely horrifying to be alone in the middle of the night with no way to breathe and my throat is burning and I don't know what damage I'm doing. Then I can forget about sleep for at least an hour or more after that. I am thinking too hard, coughing too much, and too terrified to go to sleep and have it happen again.
It happened last night for the first time at the new house. I probably haven't experienced it since 8 or 9 months ago. I try not to think about it, so every time it happens is such a traumatic experience.
To make a long story short (too late!) it is one more reason that I need to wake up and pay attention. No more putting it off. If I lose the weight, I will at least lose the sleep apnea, and hopefully also the reflux. One of these times it's going to be just that little extra bit worse that gives me permanent health problems, or worse. If I have no other benefits besides losing the apnea, and the resulting good night's sleep, it will be worth it.
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