It's Almost Time...

Remember this image? Well it's time to do something about it.

Monday is the day our family has chosen to reboot our healthy living lifestyle. With exams and holidays and birthdays, etc., we have kind of let it slide for the last few months...and it shows. I am back to my pre-surgery weight, and that's obviously not good.

So what's the plan? It's pretty simple. We are starting a 3 step plan to make sure I don't bonk out completely and fail when I head back to work Monday (which is also the start of our very busy tax season). We are going to start out Sunday night with a (dreaded) weigh-in and measurement check, and then it's on to step 1 Monday morning.
Step 1: 

Go back to our paleo lifestyle starting Monday, January 9th. When we started back in March of 2011 it worked wonders for the whole family, helping my lose weight and "curing" my PCOS symptoms. My husband lost weight, leaned out, and lost his shaky feeling he would get from not eating at times as well as some other health issues. My son's ADHD and ASD symptoms even decreased. It was amazing!

I found this cute little flowchart someone made about paleo eating and wanted to share it in preparation for next week. The only things we are allowing ourselves that is not paleo is coffee, and that's only for a few more  weeks.

Step 2:

I purchased a Groupon for Extreme Fitness that gives me a two month membership and two personal training sessions for $24. I figured this was a great way to test the waters and see if I was motivated enough to actually go to the gym and workout. The personal trainer option is nice but unnecessary since my husband is actually a personal trainer at Extreme Fitness, so he`s be working me out anyhow... apparently he has big plans for me... /cries. I plan on starting this January 16th, one week after starting the paleo lifestyle.

Step 3:

Give up coffee on Monday, January 23rd. This gives me one full week of paleo eating, plus one full week of exercising (hopefully) and paleo together, before shocking my body yet again and giving up coffee...this is going to be a toughie...

So that's the plan...let's see how everything goes!

See you Monday!

I`m Not Dead...Just Floating...

You know that P!nk song, I`m Not Dead...yeah...that`s where that came from.

So...I`m Not Dead...Just Floating...but I`m almost ready to get grounded again...soon...

I have a very stressful final exam for Calculus on January 7th, and until then nothing else matters. But as soon as that is over and done with I will be back here...because me and the scale are going to have words...and then I might cry a little (or a lot)...and I am going to need some moral support to get back to where I want to be..

I`ll see you then!

It's Been A While...

I'm not going to make a huge blog post today, but I wanted to at least address my whereabouts for the last little while since kind readers have been emailing me to see if everything is OK.
It wasn't...but it's better now.

I fell into a huge slump. I was feeling very ill, all the time again. I was at a loss what to do. I couldn't go to the gym because I felt so ill. I fell behind on diet as well because to be honest, I just didn't have the energy to care and put any effort into making healthy meals so we often purchased takeout or frozen foods that were easy to just warm up. I haven't weighed myself in months, but it can't be good.

Eventually the pain got so bad that I couldn't handle it any more. So I went back to the doctor. She sent me for a follow up ultrasound. It showed that the larger fibroid had grown. In 6 months. Not good. The doctor was slightly baffled because apparently fibroids usually don't cause pain unless they are in a bad spot. After talking between the doctor and the specialist that was finally appointed to me (the same one who did my previous surgery) we decided that it would be best to have the fibroid removed.

I went in for an abdominal myomectomy on November 15th. I had to live with the pain (prescribed heavy painkillers to help dull it) until that date. I missed a lot of work because of the pain. I hate missing work, so this made me miserable. To top it off I now have to take 6 week off to recover from the surgery before I can go back to work. The good news is they removed the large fibroid, plus 3 others, together with a cyst they found on my ovary. No wonder I was in agony. Man, I hope this worked.

Today marks the first day of my 3rd week of recovery. I am almost bored out of my skull. Luckily I have lots of books to read, homework to do, and crochet projects to finish. And of course my video game.

Hmmm...this post came out a little longer than I intended. Oh well...that's where I am at right now. I go back to work in January and I really hope I can slowly start back to the gym and change my eating habits so I never have to go through this again.

To end on a somewhat higher note, I wanted to share some pictures of the crochet squares I have been working on for the Bernat's Mystery Afghan Crochet Along project. Alas, the uploader doesn't work so well...so if you have Ravelry look up gwenythlove or if you are a Facebook friend I have an album there. I'll share one pic because that is all I can get to work right now. Enjoy!

Summer15 Update

What a great weekend I had! For once (in a long time) I felt like I was productive! I didn't accomplish everything I wanted, but I did accomplish more than I usually have lately.

First off, I'm down another 0.7 pounds! How is that for awesome?

That's right...that's me! 10 pounds lost from January 1st, 0.7 pounds lost from last week, and 4.6 pounds lost since the start of Summer15. Pretty sweet. I'm not sure if I'll make the 15 pound goal for Summer15, but I am super happy with what I have accomplished to date.

I am still struggling with the diet aspect quite a bit. There are so many things I am not supposed to eat, and I am having a really hard time sticking to it. But I do feel like I have tried to wean out as much as possible, when possible. I have picked up some books to hopefully help out with these issues, including The PCOS Diet Cookbook. I am eating the tomato and onion salad right now while I am typing this up!

I started a new course at school. I am forcing myself to stay focused and remain on schedule. I highlighted each portion a different colour and wrote the date beside it that it should be finished. The course "technically" starts September 1st. I managed to complete the whole first lesson this weekend. Lesson one didn't have to be done until September 14th so I am already about 23 days ahead of schedule. Booyeah!

I thank the carnelian bracelet. Michael and I stopped in at the Fifth Wheel in Bowmanville for breakfast on the way to pick of my son from his grandmother's trailer. I ran into the variety shop there to pick up a Birthday card for my mother. I saw these little gem bracelets and immediately became intrigued by the carnelian one because it said it helped with creativity, concentration, energy and motivation. Yup! Sounds like things I could use!

I know it most likely isn't really the bracelet, but every time I look at it I am reminded to do what I must do...so maybe it does work!

Summer15 Update

I am sooooo close to being the lightest I have been in a long time. I am .2 pounds off my previous lightest weight of 158.5. I know I can do this!

So this puts me 9.3 pounds since January 1st, 3.9 pounds down since the start of Summer15 and 0.9 pounds down form last week. Rocking!

Some of the food choice changes I have been making are obviously working very well, as much as I grumble about them. I haven't done much exercise, and I have made some poor food choices this week, but overall I think I did really really good, and I guess it shows!

I have really started enjoying preparing some healthier meals ahead of time for work. My favourites are the breakfast grains from The Biggest Loser Simple Swaps: 100 Easy Changes to Start Living a Healthier Lifestyle and the Tabbouleh from The Low GI Handbook: The New Glucose Revolution Guide to the Long-Term Health Benefits of Low GI Eating (New Glucose Revolutions).

After having a week off from exercise due to illness I went super hardcore when I went back to the gym Tuesday (after having a long holiday weekend). I went a little too hard...not only did I raise my heart rate over the point where the treadmill could read it (it screamed at me 199%+) but I also damaged my knee. I should have known better. I really wrecked it back when I was 16 and doing parades with my Drum Corps. I was told since I refused surgery that it would always be sensitive and I would have to take care of it. And here I go jogging out super hard on a treadmill with about 50-60 extra pounds on me from when I originally hurt it (I was maybe a good 90 pounds soaking wet back when I was that age).

So yeah...duh...and hence the no further workouts for that week. I was in agony just walking up some stairs to get to work. Ugh.

I also sucked out at my goals. I had only 3 goals this weekend, and I didn't complete even one. But on the other side I did spend quite a few hours shopping with the other half to help him put together some nice new ensembles for work (more updates on that soon, just waiting for the official news). I'm telling you, men complain about shopping with women...but shopping with a picky man is no picnic either!

I also had a nice conversation with the other half about my education and am pleased he agreed to let me go back to taking two courses at once since I really only raid once a night now. There were of course some specifications:

1) No more costly extensions.

2) Course must be staggered so as not to have their finals close to one another.

3) Only one of the course may have both a final and a midtem, the complimentary course must be all assignments or assignments with a final only (so as to avoid overlapping of exams).

I am quite happy with this. I will be signing up for my next course (Computers and Management Information Systems) on Wednesday. It is an assignment only course. I can't wait! This will give me some brain breaks from the hideous Taxation course (which has to be completed my November - ugh).