Back to life...back to reality

Oh my goodness, these last 4 weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. A WHIRLWIND I tell ya!

My hubs and I started our vacation/long-overdue honeymoon in Washington DC.

And ended with this...

Cape Town, South Africa

Walker Bay, South Africa

Franschhoek, South Africa

And our personal fave...Kruger National Park, South Africa

With all of that amazing traveling came lots of great food.  I tried new things, like Ostrich steak and grilled Kudu.  I had beef tar tar, which I still don't get why that's even a food and I ate a leaf that our guide in the bush told me was edible and would save my life should I ever find myself lost in the bush without a cushy 5-star lodge anywhere close by. 

Bicycling

I went with The Kid and The Parents over to the lake and we rode our bikes around. It's an almost 3 mile loop around and we went around once. I would've been up for going around once or twice more but my.butt.hurt.so.bad. By the time we got around the first time, I thought I could keep going and we were about to head over by some soccer fields and try a quieter trail, but we ended up collapsing under some maple trees and people watching. I had to explain to The Kid that people watching isn't the same as creeping or stalking. I don't think she understood.

Oh Emmm Geeeeeee

Holy leg kicks batman!

Another appropriate name for this post could be: "How Leslie Sansone kicked my ASS"

Today The Hubs and The Kid took The Dog to Doggie Disneyland (Or...dog park...however you prefer to read that...) and I had the whole glorious afternoon to myself. I've got all the windows open letting the beautiful air outside come in and de-stink the house (it's been pretty closed up lately thanks to the crappy weather we've had and is in bad need of an air-out!). I'm also doing laundry.

Anyway, I was sitting here browsing our Netflix instant queue on the Wii and remembered that a few months ago when I first got back into this weight loss thing, that I bought the Leslie Sansone: Walk at Home: Walk Away Your Waistline! DVD and belt. It sat in it's box next to our recliner for the last 8 or so weeks, unopened, sealed up tight. I'd bought it after reading some posts on Weight Watchers Community boards, and after it arrived I convinced myself it was silly to have done that because hello? Walking outside is much more intense than walking inside...in place right?!

So yeah. I put the DVD in and had the option of choosing the full workout, 1, 2 or 3 miles. I thought "What the Hell...I'll do the full workout. Most of my walks outside are between 2 and 3 miles anyway, so this should be easy peezie right?! Oh, my poor distorted little mind.

She had me doing knee kicks and side steps and and and and...by about the 3/4 mile mark I was falling behind and cursing out Leslie's smug little smile.

I made it through the 1 1/2 mile mark before I collapsed in exhaustion in my chair and fumbled for the Wii remote and instant streaming of Wings: Season One.

The work out though was great. It almost felt like I did after I was done working out with my personal trainer. I just need to find time when The Hubs and The Kid aren't around so I can do it without feeling like a beached whale silly.

A day to myself!

I suffer from serious wife and mother guilt. It takes a lot to get me to be OK doing things for myself (My husband has to nag me to buy clothes for myself sometimes).

On Friday a co-worker, who's become a good friend of mine, invited me to The Tulip Festival. I almost didn't go because my dad and I took The Kid on a bike ride first thing in the morning, we did almost 10 miles. When I got home my muscles felt fine, legs were a little jelly-fish like, but the part that hurt the most was my buuuuttttt...it is still a bit on the sensitive side tonight, but I had a fantastic day with friends at the festival!!! We walked through the gardens at Roozengaarde, and visited the fields, the gift shop, had some ice cream and took lots and lots and lots of pictures!

I took 103 pictures, posted 58 to Facebook and created a new slideshow for my computer. I got to play with a friends Nikon D40 which totally made me drool. I love photography and would eventually like to work my way up to a "real" camera and take some classes on photography. Right now I use my cute little Samsung point and shoot, which I love...it's red and was a gift from The Hubs. It takes great photos and I can manipulate them with iPhoto, so I'm happy with it but boy I'd LOVE the Nikon!!!

Weekly Weigh-In 9.0

Weigh-In
Last weigh-in: 329.2 lbs
Current weight-in: 331 lbs
Change: +1.8 lbs

*sigh* Frustrated is a bit of an understatement.

This happens to me every time I am on a weight loss regiment. I'll lose 5 or 10 pounds, hit a rut and then can't get out of it. They always say there's a plateau after 10 lbs that you hit and after a week or so you pull out of it and lose another 10 lbs. My only problem is that I don't pull out of it. I stay in this rut for weeks and weeks until I get to the point where I'm so frustrated that I give up.

I'm not going to give it up this time but I'm not going to lie and say everything is great and I feel wonderful and positive and next week will be different and blah blah freakin' blah.

All you can really do is just keep going and try to work through it. We'll see how next week goes, yeah?

Doctor's Appt

I didn't blog about this when I found out, I don't think...but I found out in the last few weeks that my insurance doesn't cover even a penny of weight loss surgery. I wasn't sure they would, but I was hopeful atleast. I called the billing department and got an estimate of what my out of pocket expense would be and even if I set up payment plans, it wouldn't feasible until The Hubs is working again. That was a bit of a letdown, but I scheduled an appt with my doctor today to talk to him about a prescription maybe to help with weight loss. He was on board with it and then decided maybe I should meet with an Endocrinologist. I'm hoping that between the two of them they can come up with a plan that will help.

Pictures

Someone on the WW Community boards was talking about posting pictures to document your weight loss. That makes me uncomfortable, as I don't necessarily care to have my picture taken, let alone having it taken specifically for the purpose of judging my body. I tossed it around and decided to take the damn pictures and get it over with! So. Here they are...*sigh*

Weekly Weigh-In 8.0

Weigh-In
Last weigh-in: 330.4 lbs
Current weight-in: 329.2 lbs
Change: -2.2 lbs

I took this photo on my walk last night.

I've had such a good week. I've gotten out every night this week and exercised. OH, minus Wednesday night...but every other night this week I've gone out. Plus I've stuck to my points plan and feel pretty much back on track with monitoring and being aware of what I'm eating, how much I'm exercising and I feel like I'm back in a good place.