SBF2: Reboot boogaloo...wk of May 10

lotusfromthemud

starting....

lotusfromthemud

Have done my translation for the day. Frustrating. It's interesting how the little turn of phrase or conjugation error instantly makes you sound like a five-year-old. I'm trying to just keep doing it and not be too hard on myself.

I don't excel at not being too hard on myself.

It's a sunny, but cold/cool day. My goals fitness-wise are to walk to the health food store and back, go to stretch/strength class followed by boxing. I'm still looking for a way to balance my workout schedule without giving up any of my favorite classes. It's tricky. Also, I need to get in my other hour of studying before the gym.

My new, super-strong under the tongue liquid B12 is a little crazy. It makes me nauseous about half an hour after I take it, and sort of tingly.

Yesterday, I discovered a gluten-free (no flour of any kind) brownie recipe that I sort of wish I hadn't discovered. There's actually nutrients involved in it, so that's good...but I easily ate half the batch yesterday for breakfast/lunch. That's how I spent my "feast day" this week. I posted the recipe on my FB.

My mindful eating challenge of the week is to ask myself "what food do I want to experience?" I'm trying to really mindfully prepare my food, since I have the time. It's my final nine days of my self-challenge. I'm trying to appreciate the entire process, from shopping to cooking to eating. It makes a big difference, but man is it time consuming. I was thinking about cavemen yesterday...and how if you didn't find it or kill it, you didn't eat it. Everything is so easy nowadays. Too easy, maybe.

sort of tingly boogaloo.:flowerforyou:

mechanicmom

Good morning Pebbles!
How is everyone this morning?

I have another busy day. I'm looking forward to one not so busy. Lots of cooking and baking to do. Going to the funeral today. Maintenance guy coming over to work on the house. Hoping to hear news about M.
I am going to try to get a walk or DVD in at some point. Don't know when. That's my goal for the day. My goal for the week is to get my eating under control. I am going to log today, and try to log again the rest of the week. I got burned out on counting but I need to do it again for awhile. I'm out of control!

My day in a nutshell boogaloo!
MM

Bobbie145

Hello! Good Monday to you all! Busy day at work. Looking foward to "summer vacation". I'm going to cut down on court appearances and work from home a good bit. I've gotten the sitter squared away for a few hours each week so I can make an office or court appearance or two. I think it should be fun! Sure feels better than last summer did! Too much work last summer with trying to teach, too. This will be waaaaay better.

I'm hungry. Going to go and make some spaghetti.

Spaghetti, boogaloo!


Bobbie

yoginimary

Just a quick hello. Had fun in Dallas. I need to work on my commuter challenge team - we are now in 4th place! Dang 3rd graders.

Today: teach yoga, bike errands.

Competing with 8 year olds, boogaloo!

mechanicmom

Mary, are you faster than a 3rd grader? That's good that the kids are involved in a physical activity, though I'm sorry it put you in fourth place.

Bobbi, good for you taking a little time off. I hope you enjoy your summer!

Yesterday was not the best day of my life, but it wasn't the worst. Just glad it's over. I didn't have time to log, didn't have time to exercise (Although I think cooking for two hours straight counts for something). Today I will try to log and eat better. I will also exercise even though I am fighting a case of the don't wannas.
We got news on M yesterday. We have to wait another 16 days to see if M's grandma is getting guardianship over her. :grumble: Apparently the people met yesterday but nothing can be said until there's a court hearing. Why they didn't set the court hearing up a month ago for the end of the thirty days beats me. I honestly just felt like beating my head against a wall yesterday because this has been so frustrating. So we wait...some more. We will have to update our homestudy which was very stressful and intimidating, but the good news is that we think it can be done over the phone this time. So hopefully in 16 days we will have a court date and we will go to Russia in June. Andrei is going to see if he can check on M for us this week. That will be nice. I wonder if she remembers us at all. Sigh.
I guess that's it for now. Happy Tuesday! (I've been confused since yesterday thinking today is Monday. ugh)

Being stretched like taffy boogaloo!
MM

lotusfromthemud

Hang in there, MM...no news is good news, right...not as good as you'd hoped, though. Waiting sucks.

Yesterday, I had a weird reaction to my allergy medication, and got very very bad vertigo and fatigue. I ended up sleeping for three hours in the afternoon and skipping the gym. I did get a little walk in, but even that was tricky. I seem to be better today (which is why I'm pretty sure it was a random reaction to the medication). I'm going to quit taking it, and try another kind (since they're all over the counter nowadays, which is good.)

Today, I made it to Zumba this a.m., even though my feet got heavier throughout the class (low energy...PMS maybe? who knows?)

I may go to yoga tonight at the gym if I feel up to it. There's a rehearsal at my house tonight, so I might need to flee. Other than that, one study session down for the day, going to do the other one at the coffee house later.

Mary, I'm jealous of the biking. I've actually been eyeballing a wall in my kitchen, wondering if i could hang a bike rack there. (again, it's mostly getting the nerve to bike here...very not bike-friendly city...when I visited my brother in Colorado this summer, there were bike lanes on the freeway, seriously.)

Vertigo boogaloo.:flowerforyou:

cp005e

Hey everybody. Being back at regular work after a week away on special assignment has been exhausting - and it's only Tuesday! Allergies may be giving me trouble, too - I just can't get going this afternoon. But, I decided that was no excuse - so I went ahead and registered for another session of dance class. One of the teachers I like is teaching, so even though I missed the first week (last week) and I may miss more in June (more work travel), I decided that just committing to it and going as much as I can will make me feel better about myself than skipping out completely. I hope I'm right about that. Oh, and I just realized I forgot to do pushups yesterday - darn. Guess I'll do them during Biggest Loser.

I had my first PT appointment yesterday. Nothing ground-breaking, as it was mostly an evaluation/assessment. She gave me some stretches and did a few minutes of ultrasound on my ankle. It seems like it's hurting more now that I'm doing the stretches, though... :huh: Next week I'll have 2 appointments.

MM, sorry you are still waiting for any real news. That sucks. Mary, I'm jealous too! I'd like to get a bike again, and figure out when I could actually use it. I wonder if riding to work is realistic for me - all the roads between my house and my office are busy and/or narrow. And I wonder if I'd have to change clothes all the time... hmm. V, sorry for the weird vitamin/medication reactions - I hope that's all it is and you feel better. So do you definitely have the summer off from teaching? Bobbie, that's great that you have the flexibility to make a somewhat lighter load for yourself over the summer - sounds nice!

Off to dance class, boogaloo. :flowerforyou:

mechanicmom

Good morning,

V, I hope you are feeling better today.
CP, glad to have you back. Good for you signing up for the dance class and going!
Mary, are you riding today?
Bobbi, how are you doing?

I am a little frustrated at myself. I am really struggling with not eating as much and not eating bad foods. I know I've been doing better than I was a couple of months ago (sugar cookies were an exception) but apparently I am still not doing great. I feel like I am only getting bigger and bigger. The scale is no help. I've been working out regularly for a month so I thought I'd see a change by now. It was strange that the first week I could tell I was shrinking, and then all of the sudden I was gaining again. Maybe too much wheat or dairy in my diet? I realize though that I can not defeat this under my own power. I just don't have it right now. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'll just keep working out and I think one of these days it will just click. I have not had time to log like I wanted to. Well, I didn't really want to and maybe that's the problem. :laugh:
Goals today: get a work out in and try not to eat lunch out!
Counting down the days boogaloo!
MM

yoginimary

I was asked to sub today, so I probably won't get a ride in, unless I ride to yoga tonight - possibility. We have rain (yeah! & boo!) forecast through the weekend, so the riding could go way down.

I act as the family travel agent. I like to plan stuff. Right now, trying to keep it all in my head, is getting to me. Mostly because we are trying to get things for points (from reward based credit cards, you cash in points, transfer points, do all this stuff to get free train tickets, but you have to keep checking up on it). I'm also trying to remember my schedule for the rest of the month - it's all written down, but there are things that can be done anytime, and I'm trying to fit those in - in my head. So my brain is leaking.

Today - teach and take yoga - maybe biking to class.

Brain leakage, boogaloo!

lotusfromthemud

I know just what you mean about brain leakage. I had literally planned out the rest of the summer's plan of attack with my studies (in order to check three major things of the big list by October) and then....

I got an email that I have to report to work on Thursday. My brain is full of "what ifs?" that stem from this complete lack of respect. (at least I know I'm not alone...but yeesh) I'll just do one: "what if, since the semester is two weeks in, I assumed (logically) I wasn't working, and went to see my mother for a month?" Boo to it. My employer/university is like a bad boyfriend who only has a relationship with you when it suits him. Ugh. I had plans for Thursday...and I have to cancel them. In protest, I'm logging here before I study. I'm such a rebel. Insult to injury, it's not even a teaching gig...it's grading, and invigliating exams. All of the misery of teaching, with none of the reward! Anyway, vent over. It's only a few weeks. Still, I wanted to go to Zumba.

Today, I'm probably going to try for the weights class. I'm trying to cool it a bit on the workout doubles. With allergies/stress, my body is flagging in energy a bit. Can't push it, I guess. I think the plan will be to double on Mon and Fri (these are the only two days that I look at the schedule and really like both classes and teachers and don't want to chose just one.)


just a few weeks boogaloo.:flowerforyou:

cp005e

Arrggh, sorry, V - I feel like I jinxed you! At least it won't take up your whole summer.

I made it to dance on Tuesday, and that was about it. I didn't get home from work until 8 last night, and then I passed out on the couch around 9:30 (I'm usually up till 11 or 12). I'm going to blame the allergies, and ennui - I am hearing a lot of bad attitudes at work lately and it's a bit disheartening. But, I have so much to do that I can't spend much time dwelling on it... this is going to be a long (and short) summer. At least I got a couple of days of vacation off for Memorial Day/my birthday. Yay! :bigsmile:

If I get out of work early (yeah right), maybe I'll try to go to Zumba tonight - otherwise elliptical or my recent standby, nothing. At least I have been getting my walk in everyday. If only I could get up in the morning... these days I am just so wiped after work that I don't want to put one more thing in my brain, including a workout. So I need to figure out how to make it through the summer without losing all my fitness and gaining weight. (fingers crossed, I still seem to be pretty much maintaining - maybe have gained a pound or two since I stopped running)

Finding time and brainpower, boogaloo. :flowerforyou:

( *giggle* I went to type in the code for the flower emoticon and I accidentally typed :slowerforyou: :laugh: I am easily amused.)

mechanicmom

CP, hang in there! :flowerforyou: How's your ankle been doing? Are you starting PT soon?
Mary, just reading your post made my brain hurt.
V, Sorry you have to work now. How disappointing. :frown: At least it's only a few weeks. :flowerforyou:

I don't know if you all saw my post of FB. Looks like we may have lost M. :brokenheart: It's not definite until the 27th. M's g'ma has "weekend" guardianship. It means she takes M home on the weekends and returns her to the orphanage during the week. This means M is no longer adoptable. Russian law has put the weekend guardianship into effect just to keep other nations from adopting these children. :grumble: We have not given up on M. We've seen God do some amazing things throughout this adoption so it's not over yet! But we are preparing for the worst. If we do lose M, we will immediately get another child referral. IF everything goes well with that child, I think we would be able to have her adopted in a matter of a few months since all of our paper work is done. My first prayer: that God brace us for whatever news may come. My other prayer: to have a child home by Christmas. We did get some blessings during all this as well. Someone from church gave us $1000! That's enough for a plane ticket, round trip! And we will have to update our home study which we thought would cost $250 and the lady would have to come inspect the house again. It turns out she can do the update by phone interview and it will only cost $75. So that was also a blessing. I've noticed that almost every time we have gotten bad news, there have been other blessings coming in too.

On a work out note, I hurt my neck/shoulder/back. It didn't start hurting until I went to bed last night so I have no idea what happened. It was bad enough to keep me awake though and it hurts just as bad this morning. So today may be a day off, or if it doesn't rain I may go pull weeds (with my left hand ) in the front yard and move some mondo grass to the front. If it's raining I will do the rockin' buns taebo. Oh and grocery store today.

Remaining hopeful in spite of the pain boogaloo.
MM

yoginimary

I'm so sorry about M. I'm glad you can count other blessings.
I hope your work situations improve, V & CP.

I'm making more and more reservations so I no longer have to keep them in my head (now they are in email )

Our bike team is in 4th place, but I'm first on the team. We want to finish in the top three - so we have to show those Elementary school kids a thing or two (or at least complain that they are cheating by using "teams" as individuals). There's no prize for third place or anything - it's just a pride thing.

Today: bike to library and maybe store, teach yoga. I had three people on Tuesday, so that's a class attendance improvement of 50%.

Travel planning, boogaloo!

lotusfromthemud

Morning pebbs,

Had my first day of "guard duty" (test monitoring). One student was either A. on something, or B. just totally freaked out. He dropped, hit his head, paramedics were called, drama ensued. I turned to my colleague and said "well, that wasn't boring." Guess I shouldn't have let my CPR certification lapse. Got handed a big stack of stuff to organize/start marking. Word has gotten out that I'm the OCD spreadsheet queen, so that's the job I got. (very happy with this...literally a lighter load as others have to grade great big listening journals...over fifty each, and they have to do it in a week and a half.) So, all in all, not bad. I feel much better about it today...almost too good, too calm and too unexcited. Also, got out and home in time to go to Zumba in half an hour (hoopah!)

MM, I am so sorry...but I know that you are so strong and will get through this. Sending you strong thoughts.

CP, "slower for you" may be just what I need. Do what you can...hope you can find time for everything.

Mary, get to biking.:laugh:

Bobbie, a lighter workload sounds like heaven. Enjoy the space while you can.

Slower for me boogaloo.:flowerforyou:

Bobbie145

Hi, girls: Week has flown by again! Not a lot of court, so I thought I could get a lot of stuff done at the office. Why does it never seem to work out that way?!? Trying to watch what I eat. Doing pretty good. Getting in some crunches and weights. I hope that will continue to do the trick until I get the motivation to pick it back up again.

Motivation, boogaloo!


Bobbie

mechanicmom

Good morning,
V, what a dramatic day you had yesterday! I am glad you should have a lighter load this semester.
Mary, I hope you get third place!
Bobbi, doing something (crunches and weights) is better than nothing! Some times we all need a break or a change in our routine. :flowerforyou:
CP, I will not be doing my push ups today. Still having back problems.

My upper back still hurts, strangely enough. I don't even know what I did. :grumble: I like to do upper body strength workouts because I see a difference pretty quickly, but I haven't been able to do anything in a couple of days. Maybe it's time to switch pillows again?
I didn't work out yesterday. I assume I was depressed, but I didn't really feel down in the dumps like I have before. It was more like I just didn't have any energy. I am going to try to get everything done this morning that I need to get done and rest this afternoon. I hope I can work out but I'm not going to force myself.
I have decided to get off sweets for two weeks, starting yesterday. It wasn't too hard yesterday, but my lady time is coming up so I know it will get difficult at some point. I still eat fruit and chew sugar free gum but that's it. I would like to get back into having only one dessert a week after that. If I have it on a Sunday, no more sweets until the next Sunday or later. I've got to get my sweet tooth under control.
Oh and we are sending a letter/pictures to M's grandma to try to plead our case. We don't know that it will do any good but we've got to try.
So today: no sweets, cleaning house, try to get lower body work out in, and Alex's OT coming tonight.
Hope you all have a good day!
TGIF boogaloo!
MM

yoginimary

Happy Friday!

We are going to a semi-nice place for dinner tonight. I'm going to work on eating slowly. I'm reading a book called "The End of Overeating," so that's helping me slow it down and think more about my food. I need to find a book to read that is not about yoga or eating. I guess I should look up books on Seattle and Vancouver - or maybe even fiction.

Plan today: teach yoga, get train ticket (have to go to the station), bike errand if it stays dry, and clean house.

In my effort to contain my eating, I'm trying to stop eating before I normally would. Does that make sense? So tonight, I would normally order the full artichoke manicotti. So the question is: do I order half or do I order the full (for a mere $3 difference) and order a to go container at the same time? Thoughts?

Trying to cut back, boogaloo!

lotusfromthemud

Morning, pebbs,

Today, my exercise goals are some light cleaning and the challenging yoga class. The Zumba class yesterday was fun, but it wasn't Zumba. At least, my understanding of Zumba (no Latin dance to speak of, more hip-hop aerobics feeling. I won't miss it on days I can't go, but it was semi-cool to have steps I didn't know to try to learn, and I was surprised when I saw the calorie burn was pretty high, must have been all the jumping.)

Other than that, I'm going to try to get my two hours of studying in, and maybe go for a walk (the sun is out for just about the first time all week.:bigsmile: )

I have a new blog, explaining the weird calmness that I'm feeling right now. It is so weird to me that feeling calm feels weird to me. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I'm usually wound so tight that to be relaxed and peaceful feels foreign.

Sunshine boogaloo.:flowerforyou:

lotusfromthemud

Oh, and Mary...it depends on what you're more comfortable with.

I like to order the half of stuff, and I find it almost always fills me up. My favorite place to go to is this small bites/appetizer/tapas place. It's perfectly normal to order a round of food, and then, if you're hungry, order another. I often find I don't need the "another", but if it were there, I would eat it. And, I would eat it even if I had to take it back out of the to go container.

yoginimary

So we ended up going somewhere else. The lovely artichoke manicotti place was booked until after 8. Dinner was boring - but rather than having dessert, I had peanut butter/banana/honey and it was good.

We got some great rain last night and the temperature is cool. I'm going to the Farmer's Market today, getting my train ticket, flocking someone (fundraiser - you put flamingos in their yard), and then riding as many errands as possible. The first three errands are all downtown and further away (and I can't carry that many flamingos on my bike, though that would be funny). I missed any biking yesterday, so I need to make up for it this weekend. Someone pushed me out of first place! Hard yoga class is also on the schedule. Two hours, yeah! Might bike to yoga - depends if husband is coming. We are meeting my brother and my SIL for her 40th birthday at 7:15, so it's cutting it close to ride bikes - though it really only adds 5-10 minutes. The place they chose for the birthday dinner doesn't excite me, so I'm not worried about how much I'll eat. I'm more worried if I'll get anything to eat - only 1 salad didn't have meat on it!

So those are the details of my day

Chatty, boogaloo!