Think I Quit

Did you think I quit my blog? Actually things around my house have been very busy. And there have been issues that have just kept me from getting on and writing. So.. gosh what can I say about the past month. Well one of the biggest has been this hypothyroidism of mine. I had my thyroid removed when I was 15 years old, so do the math... I have been on thyroid medication for over 40 years. I have taken Synthroid, the generic Synthroid, and Armour. The past five years I have been on Armour because it is both T3 and T4 hormone and it worked very well with me. However, the past year has been difficult for pharmacies to get Armour. I think it is a marketing scheme by drug companies.. only my opinon. So... my doctor had to switch me to synthroid.. only I was taking the generic. I have been on Synthroid before and when I took it, I took 150 mg. But my doctor was reluctant to start me on such a high dose because if it was too high, I could have a heart attack. So he wanted to start me on 50. I begged and pleaded until he agreed to 100. I knew this would not be enough, but I complied with his wishes. You have to wait a few months to have it checked because it takes awhile for this to show a proper reading. I knew it was not enough- weight gain, loss of energy, feelings of anxiety and depression, loss of concentration.. and mainly no zest for life. So, exercise has been quite a chore for me. I have mainly been doing walking. Now let me give you a condensed version of how the TSH works. I hope I get this all right.. you have a little organ called the hypothalamus in your brain- it tells all these other organs like the thyroid gland, the ovaries, etc to produce hormones. Well, if the hypothalamus is producing a high number of TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), it is saying to the thyroid..give me more thyroid, this is not enough, and you would be considered HYPO thyroid. And if you have a very low number like a negative, then your brain would be saying, " this is too much, don't produce anymore." This would be you were HYPERTHYROID. When you have your thyroid gland removed, you are immediately hypothyroid and you have to take thyroid medication because your body cannot produce it. And if your TSH is a high number, then you are not getting enough.. hence, increase the dosage. The normal lab results for TSH should be .5 to 5.0. And most women operate best when it is 1.0 or 2.0. So you want to know what mine was???? 45!!!!! Yes, no wonder I have felt so out of sorts. So hopefully I will be getting my new dosage- so far the doctor has not called it in, and it will take a few weeks to a couple of months to get me back on track. I hope that was not too boring. But I hope this is also for anyone who thinks that they need an antidepressant when maybe it is not that, but rather thyroid medication that they need. You will have the same symptoms.

My family owns a beach condo. It has been under construction since Hurricane Ike ( 09-08). I spent my first night in it last Friday night. So I have been trying to make many decisions about what is needed and how to get it ready to rent. This has been a very stressful series of events- making these decisions and hoping you are making the right ones. Not to mention the expense and loss of revenue that has caused. I think my family will try to use it as much as we can, and hopefully as the market gets better in Galveston, we can sell soon.

When I returned yesterday my husband had to give me some terrible news. One of his work associates that is about 58 died in his sleep. This man was a friend and well respected man of my husband's company. And it was a big wakeup call to my husband. I hope he will get on the bandwagon of healthy eating and exercise.

My little granddaughter is walking and she is such a doll. I am so glad that I have Skype so I can see her regularly. My youngest son just got his Aggie ring. This is a really big deal for anyone who graduates from Texas A&M. He will graduate in August, we are so excited. My mother is happy in her independent living retirement home. What a great relief for me that she is so happy. And... with my mother's hearing problem, I had to take care of lining up all repairmen (plumbers, electricians, AC man, sprinkler man) because she cannot communicate over the phone. It was like I had an extra house. I am free from that. My husband has a grat garden planted. We even have lettuce that came back from last fall. I have a kitchen herb garden. The only trip I have planned right now is a wedding in Austin and my unome friends will be meeting in Sugarland (by Houston). The office where I just retired has called me to work a day in May. That sounds good to me. So, I will soon be going back to Galveston to get that taken care of and then I hope to make a trip up to Dallas to visit my little granddaughter. And I sure hope that I am soon feeling more myself so I can do some exercise-maybe get back started on my P90X.

Ohhhh.....Oooooo (as in boo)

Oh gosh... ohhhh....oooooo...woke up this morning not feeling good. I found in my pantry a quart of venison we had canned a few seasons back. When I looked at it, I told Dh that I thought maybe it would be bad to eat because it had too much head space.. about 2 inches. And this is where bacteria has a chance to grow. He told me to smell of it before I warmed it up. Well, that is what I did, and it smelled okay. It tasted very good. This morning I woke up with nausea and he woke up with the runs. I asked him if he was burping, and he said he had "hot burps." Sorry, that almost makes you sick to read it. So.... here I am lying in bed wondering if I am about to have more serious effects from this tainted meat. I did go get a big gulp of Pepto Bismol. So far, my only symptom is the nausea, but my stomach is doing lots of gurgling. And I am not hungry at all!!!! So let my experience be a reminder to you. If you are in doubt.. throw it out!!!

And here I was thinking about starting my P90X back today. Last week I think I said I walked 4-5 times. This week I have made it about 3 so far.... 3 -4.5 miles each time. I know that is not going to get me where I want to go, but it is better than nothing. It is not that I dislike any kind of exercise, but it just seems like I am always wanting to spend my time doing something else. I have been cleaning and restaining my kitchen cabinets. Now I have only cleaned and stained two doors and I have two more down that I have cleaned. I have a huge kitchen with lots of cabinets. I don't know if I will do all of them are not. But the lower ones below the kitchen sink looked terrible. This is just a huge job. I think I will just do this one wall of lower cabinets right now and start back at another time. I also want to make a couple of cute little dresses for my granddaughter and get out in my yard. I am not very good at posting photos of things. Maybe I will try to do that today since I am lounging here feeling bad.

And I am so terrible at being consistent with my food journaling. I know that that is the true road to successful eating. You keep that diary and you are so aware of mindless eating as well as keeping yourself accountable. Especially if you have to add it all up at the end of the day. From my experience, this is my opinion.. there is nothing magic. You must either cut your calorie intake or work and expend more energy to burn more calories. It is simple math- you must create a calorie deficit. Of course, if you are weight training alot, you need to have plenty of protein, and if you are doing hard cardio, you need plenty of carbs to have the energy. And you must not skip meals and go below 1200 calories or you will lower your metabolism too much. But eating balanced meals with fat, carbs, and protein-nutritious food that will keep your hunger satisfied is important. I love http://www.sparkpeople.com/ I would go back to it, but a friend has suggested that I try http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ So, I did. She has been doing it. In 10 days she lost 5 lbs. She eats around 1200 calories a day and she is also keeping her exercise journal. So she is going to be my accountability partner. Some of you might want to try this. I am telling you.. if you do it.. it will work. You can make it like a game.. adding and subtracting. You add the calories by the food you eat and you get to subtract by your physical activity-they do it for you. One of the problems that I do encounter with this is if I eat a casserole.. that is kinda hard to figure. I just try to do it this way-ex. chicken and rice- I figure how much chicken I had- 2 oz, rice- 1/2 c, cheese-.5 oz, cr of mushroom soup-2T. You know try to do it that way. Okay, I am on my way to get my camera and see if I can get some photos downloaded.

Springtime?

So just a couple of days ago at the so-called end of winter it was in the 80's here in the deep east Texas pineywoods. Actually this past week the walking weather was perfect..not too hot... not too cold..not too still...not too windy! I mean absolutely perfect. So that is what I did-walked and walked. I think I ended up going 4 days this week. I might have even gone 5. I know for sure I went 3 miles on two days and 5 miles on two days. So I know I got in at least 16 miles. I did not make any of my workout videos. My dh is now convinced that he needs to do P90X because some of his friends are having so much success with it. What does that mean? Was I a failure at it? I did it for 70 days. I worked hard on it even though it took me longer... about 120 days or so to do the 70 days. Is that why I held no credibility with him? I worked hard... sweating, hurting, pushing play, pushing pause, plugging along, but finishing each session. I was so diligent those 70 days. No, I did not do 90 days in 90 days. But I have to say that I was still not a failure. Because I feel like doing any exercise makes me a winner. And I will just say just because I have not been so focused on my execise routine the last few months does not mean that I ever gave it up. So anyone reading this... keep going. Jump in where you are. Dh says he is going to begin using my DVD's. I hope he does. I hope he beats me at it. I hope he does not give up. I hope he makes it the entire 90 days. I hope he feels what I felt when I was doing it. Maybe I will get started back with it. I had been thinking about it anyway. I go back and forth with my eating. My biggest problem is still the fiber- not enough fruits and vegetables. I am going to continue to work on that.. along with drinking plenty of water. Tonight I did get lots of fiber though but it was in the form of whole grains. I had eaten breakfast out with a friend yesterday and we had the multi-grain pancakes. I wanted to duplicate these for my husband, so I went to www.allrecipes.com I found a recipe that resembled these. I did make some alterations. I used my freshly milled whole wheat, I used yogurt instead of buttermilk because I did not have any bm, I used brown sugar instead of white, and I used applesauce instead of oil. In this recipe it also calls for oatmeal and walnuts. I ground both of those in my food processor. OMG.. they were absolutely delicious. I had one great big one without any butter and a small amount of syrup. DH had three with lots of butter and syrup. What an inexpensive and healthy meal despite the high carbohydrates. It made so much batter, I think I will cook some in the morning and then freeze them for a quick breakfast or snack. Oh.. but back to the weather.. yesterday was the first day of spring.. and today the temperature was in the 30's with snow! Yes, snowing today in east Texas. No walking for me today. I have enjoyed the day staying warm and eating pancakes!

Who Am I ?

Sometimes I just wonder who I am. I want to be so many people. I love going back in time and living life the old-fashioned way. I read others' blogs about how they are living like our grandparents did and sometimes I think that is me... that is what I want to do. Where I know where all my food comes from.. butchering your own meat, growing your own vegetables, making your own soap and clothes, being so self-efficient. Now I know some of you reading this are thinking, "you've got to be kidding." But what I am saying is.. just knowing that your own hands did most of this work. That you were involved from the beginning of making whatever. That should this whole world go into utter chaos, you would be able not only to survive but thrive. And then... I love our modern conveniences.. I love air conditioning and central heating... a washing machine and a dryer, a dishwasher, television, internet, a comfortable automobile. I love beautiful textiles and how they are made into gorgeous furniture,draperies, and bedding. I love the primitive look and the antique look, but I love the coastal living and the "pottery barn" decor. I have friends that have traveled the world and I have friends that seldom leave the county and all of them are intelligent and know things the others don't know. I love to save money and see ways that I can cut back more and more.. it is like a game. But I also like to go and spend money too. I love to exercise and sweat and know that I am doing my body good, but I like to be lazy on a rainy day and cuddle up under a homemade quilt and read a book. I love to read blogs about what other people are cooking, sewing, and making and view all their photographs as they go about it. I love to be around people and talk and listen, and I also love to be alone in my own thoughts. So gosh.. who am I?

Last Week and My Birthday

Last week included about two workouts. I am really trying to think if I did two or three. I did the Jackie workout on Monday and then again on Thursday. I went on a two hour bike ride on Friday. Actually, we did not go that far.. it was a slow ride so my quads did not bother me.. but oh my gosh.. my butt!! Sitting on a thin bicycle seat for two hours when you haven't done it in over a year is sooooooo painful. It hurt me while I was doing it, and it is still bothering me now. I think you just have to get your rear-end used to sitting on a seat. The more you do it, the less it hurts. So Saturday was my birthday, and I got treated all week long- lunches, breakfast and dinner. Well, actually I cooked my own meal on my birthday- The Pioneer Woman Cooks chicken fried steak. Her cookbook is so good. Certainly not lowfat, but so good. And the chicken friend steak is the best! My dh, oldest ds, and a longtime friend joined us for dinner. And since I am on Facebook, I probably had close to 100 birthday greetings. I got several cards from friends and family members. My daughter even got my dh to get me a gift this year. Well, I pressured her into doing that. But I got a Pandora bracelet and dd gave me my first charm for it. My mother gave me a gift certificate to get another charm to go on it. All in all, I had a great birthday.

On a sad note... a young girl who graduated with my youngest ds was tragically killed in a four wheeler accident. I am so sorry for this family. For her.. she is now with the Lord. But for those left behind she has left a big hole in their life. You know death is one thing you are not going to bypass. At some time it will happen to all of us. I hope you are all prepared. You don't have to guess. You can know without a doubt that you are not going to miss Heaven. If you feel like this is a bunch of hogwash.. this Jesus stuff... then just say " I don't know what I think, so Jesus if you are real... then reveal yourself to me.. because I do want to believe you are real." He doesn't want anyone to perish. When he reveals Himself to you, repent, tell him you are a sinner and want him to come into your heart and save you.. and mean it. You don't have to give anything up to be saved... He will do that work once you begin to follow Him. Let me tell you friend... it is quite a ride!!!

Tired Today

I was just plain tired today. I was out last night for Ladies' Game Night. I did not have time to get my dishes cleaned up after making the snack I was taking. So this morning I had the dishes to clean up. I unloaded the dishwasher and then settled down to read my emails while I had a couple of cups of coffee. I should have done my Jackie video this morning but like I said, I was tired. I made a few phone calls, hemmed a dress I am making for my gd. I was reading on the internet about different recipes and then got in the kitchen and diced up alot of vegetables for a chicken pop pie, only it was a ham popped pie because I am trying to clean my freezer out. I started reading on a book, The Secret Life of Bees. So all day today was not exactly productive. I also instead of putting the homemade piecrust on the pop-pie, I used crescent rolls. It was still good. I am about a third of the way through the book. But tomorrow, I need to be more productive.

New Rooster Lamp

One of my friends was going to get rid of this lamp in an estate sale. I asked to purchase it, and she gave it to me. I love it. I have a 25 watt bulb in it so I use it as a night light in the kitchen.