As of yesterday afternoon, I have a new job. I accepted that new position I was offered.
I am taking the financial hit, because I decided that my burn out rate was just too high at my current job. Once my mental health is balanced again, if I need more money, I could get a part time job for a couple nights at the beginning of the week.
The new job will allow me to schedule my meds and vitamins, my meals, and my exercising without having to account for flopping from being awake at night to being awake during the day and then back. For my post-op health, this will be great. There's just too much that needs to be planned ahead now and it is too hard to do with a rotating schedule. Plus, I might even eventually have the time and energy to see friends again!
I still have another month at my current position. An email was sent out to the department welcoming me to my new position and stating my switch date was June 25. I'd bet the delay is so that I can help train my replacement.
On 3/29/11, I asked my doc to see a Bariatric Surgeon. On Dec 15, 2011, I had laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. This blog chronicles my journey from referral to surgery and beyond.
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Walking doesn't suck. Who knew?
Last week, I bought a Fitbit. It's a pedometer that tracks steps, flights of stairs, your activity level by the minute, and your sleep quality. It's quite the little contraption.
I purchased it because I needed something to challenge myself with and to help me change my old attitude toward walking. I'm not competitive with out people, because I've never been at a fitness level where it was even possible to consider being able to beat someone athletically, but I can be very competitive with myself. With the Fitbit, each day, I try to walk just a little further or go up another flight of steps.
Yesterday, I had an excellent day, exercise/walking-wise.
I didn't get up until noon-ish and sat on my butt until about 4 PM. Then, I drug my fiance to the local park and we walked quite a ways (for us, anyway), looking at the animals. Travis actually wanted to turn and head back to the car before I did. That's never happened before!! Between walking and gawking at the animals, I'd say we were out about an hour.
Then, I headed to Mom's to do laundry--yep, I'm 32 and still do laundry at my moms. :P While her clothes were finishing, before mine went in, we decided to go for a short walk. The walk probably took 20-25 minutes. There was 30 minutes left on the dryer load when we left and it wasn't quite finished when we arrived back at the house.
Keeping in mind that, between the time I woke up and when I left for the park I probably had less than 1,000 steps in, I'd say hitting over 10,000 steps was an excellent achievement! My total distance was 10,582 steps by midnight, which equals 4.01 miles with my stride length. At least 2.5 would have been from walking with Travis and Mom.
That's the most steps I've had in a day since buying my Fitbit. The fact I don't hurt from all the walking shows me how far I've come with getting fit and that I could have gone further. I'm tired, because that's more exercise than I normally get in a day, but it certainly wasn't my limit.
Prior to my weight loss, walking was painful, boring, and hard to do for more than a short while. Unfortunately, I have had a hard time losing that opinion since losing nearly 80 pounds. It's no longer hard or painful. Yeah, if I'm alone, it's still boring, but that's where my iPod comes in, right?
Right now, I'm excited about how far I walked and how easy it was. In a couple days, I may fall back into that old attitude. I felt that way for so long that it creeps back in and erases that enthusiasm easily.
Maybe that should be my self-assigned homework to work on getting rid of the old, hateful attitude toward walking and exercise. Exercise and walk often enough that the enthusiasm doesn't have time to be erased.
I purchased it because I needed something to challenge myself with and to help me change my old attitude toward walking. I'm not competitive with out people, because I've never been at a fitness level where it was even possible to consider being able to beat someone athletically, but I can be very competitive with myself. With the Fitbit, each day, I try to walk just a little further or go up another flight of steps.
Yesterday, I had an excellent day, exercise/walking-wise.
I didn't get up until noon-ish and sat on my butt until about 4 PM. Then, I drug my fiance to the local park and we walked quite a ways (for us, anyway), looking at the animals. Travis actually wanted to turn and head back to the car before I did. That's never happened before!! Between walking and gawking at the animals, I'd say we were out about an hour.
Then, I headed to Mom's to do laundry--yep, I'm 32 and still do laundry at my moms. :P While her clothes were finishing, before mine went in, we decided to go for a short walk. The walk probably took 20-25 minutes. There was 30 minutes left on the dryer load when we left and it wasn't quite finished when we arrived back at the house.
Keeping in mind that, between the time I woke up and when I left for the park I probably had less than 1,000 steps in, I'd say hitting over 10,000 steps was an excellent achievement! My total distance was 10,582 steps by midnight, which equals 4.01 miles with my stride length. At least 2.5 would have been from walking with Travis and Mom.
That's the most steps I've had in a day since buying my Fitbit. The fact I don't hurt from all the walking shows me how far I've come with getting fit and that I could have gone further. I'm tired, because that's more exercise than I normally get in a day, but it certainly wasn't my limit.
Prior to my weight loss, walking was painful, boring, and hard to do for more than a short while. Unfortunately, I have had a hard time losing that opinion since losing nearly 80 pounds. It's no longer hard or painful. Yeah, if I'm alone, it's still boring, but that's where my iPod comes in, right?
Right now, I'm excited about how far I walked and how easy it was. In a couple days, I may fall back into that old attitude. I felt that way for so long that it creeps back in and erases that enthusiasm easily.
Maybe that should be my self-assigned homework to work on getting rid of the old, hateful attitude toward walking and exercise. Exercise and walk often enough that the enthusiasm doesn't have time to be erased.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
3 months post-op and life's good
Been a good few days...
Thursday, March 15th, was my 3 month surg-iversary. Still no complications, I'm losing weight, and feeling good.
Friday, March 16th, I saw Dr. PeopleSkills for another post-op check up. Must have beed a Stepford or Pod version of him, because he didn't once call me or my stomach "big" and he said I was doing great. Yes, he said something positive! I like Pod Dr. PeopleSkills. :)
Also, Friday night, my mom and I went to see Bill Engvall, the comedian, at Eau Claire's State Theater. Very funny show. We had a great time.
Today, March 17th, I weighed myself at work and found that I've lost more than two pounds, putting me at 77+ pounds lost total. I'd been sitting at just under 75 pounds for a little while and it was so nice to blow past that. Woohoo!
And, just because I like happy thoughts:
Live, because it's more exciting. Laugh, because it's contagious. Love, because it's always worth it!
Thursday, March 15th, was my 3 month surg-iversary. Still no complications, I'm losing weight, and feeling good.
Friday, March 16th, I saw Dr. PeopleSkills for another post-op check up. Must have beed a Stepford or Pod version of him, because he didn't once call me or my stomach "big" and he said I was doing great. Yes, he said something positive! I like Pod Dr. PeopleSkills. :)
Also, Friday night, my mom and I went to see Bill Engvall, the comedian, at Eau Claire's State Theater. Very funny show. We had a great time.
Today, March 17th, I weighed myself at work and found that I've lost more than two pounds, putting me at 77+ pounds lost total. I'd been sitting at just under 75 pounds for a little while and it was so nice to blow past that. Woohoo!
And, just because I like happy thoughts:
Live, because it's more exciting. Laugh, because it's contagious. Love, because it's always worth it!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
I'm a bashful beauty, I guess.
I've been at work an hour. In that time, I've had four people stop me and make a big deal about telling me how good I look with the weight loss.
While I greatly appreciate their words, it makes me want to hide. I'd have been fine with one person saying something, but, at this point, I feel like an exhibit in a zoo or something. Does that make sense? It's too much attention for my comfort, so I plaster a fake smile on and try to get away ASAP.
I also feel bad that I'm whining about people noticing my weight loss. Who doesn't want to lose weight fast and have people notice, right? Well, I guess I'm just a complicated woman.
While I greatly appreciate their words, it makes me want to hide. I'd have been fine with one person saying something, but, at this point, I feel like an exhibit in a zoo or something. Does that make sense? It's too much attention for my comfort, so I plaster a fake smile on and try to get away ASAP.
I also feel bad that I'm whining about people noticing my weight loss. Who doesn't want to lose weight fast and have people notice, right? Well, I guess I'm just a complicated woman.
I hear it was nice out
Yesterday was beautiful! ...I hear. I slept through it. :/
I was so tired that I slept more than 12 hours, making me miss the nice weather and not getting in enough protein or water. Now, I'm super thirsty and grumpy about my wasted day off.
I was so tired that I slept more than 12 hours, making me miss the nice weather and not getting in enough protein or water. Now, I'm super thirsty and grumpy about my wasted day off.
Friday, March 2, 2012
More Positive Follow up to "Long time.."
I just posted a couple hours ago, after a 9-10 day hiatus. I felt that post was just "meh". There was nothing positive in it. I don't like that. I may over use sarcasm and bitch about things, but I'm a closet optimist. So, I found some positivity to share...
1st: I've lost 70 pounds since April 1st. That' 50 pounds post op. :D
Okay, okay, I'm actually 0.1 pounds short, but I'm all about rounding! I've been round my whole life. Smaller hips just means I need to round somewhere else.
That's a huge accomplishment to someone trying to get healthy! I'm pretty happy about that. That puts me at nearly 40% of the way to my goal weight. Fiiiiine, it's actually 37.4%, but, remember, I'm a rounder.
Being the crazy cat lady that I am, I compare my weight loss to cat food bags. Essentially, I've lost 4.1 bags of 17 lb Cat Chow when including my pre-op weight loss. Those suckers are heavy and I had four of them on my stomach and ass!
2nd: I just took a break and did some laps inside the building, to try to make up for being such a lazy ass with my exercise. I couldn't believe how fast I was able to walk and how many laps I could do! Wow.
I'd have quit after a couple before I lost the weight. I did several tonight and will probably do several more later. That is also a great feeling and something I'm very happy about.
1st: I've lost 70 pounds since April 1st. That' 50 pounds post op. :D
Okay, okay, I'm actually 0.1 pounds short, but I'm all about rounding! I've been round my whole life. Smaller hips just means I need to round somewhere else.
That's a huge accomplishment to someone trying to get healthy! I'm pretty happy about that. That puts me at nearly 40% of the way to my goal weight. Fiiiiine, it's actually 37.4%, but, remember, I'm a rounder.
Being the crazy cat lady that I am, I compare my weight loss to cat food bags. Essentially, I've lost 4.1 bags of 17 lb Cat Chow when including my pre-op weight loss. Those suckers are heavy and I had four of them on my stomach and ass!
2nd: I just took a break and did some laps inside the building, to try to make up for being such a lazy ass with my exercise. I couldn't believe how fast I was able to walk and how many laps I could do! Wow.
I'd have quit after a couple before I lost the weight. I did several tonight and will probably do several more later. That is also a great feeling and something I'm very happy about.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Long Time No Post
Wow, long time no post!
I haven't lost any weight in the last week. Holding strong at 248 pounds, which is a 69 lb loss since April 2011. I'm not going to complain about that. I've been slacking in the exercise department, so I figure that's part of it. Plus, an occasional plateau is not unexpected.
I must be losing inches though, because the pants I bought a couple weeks ago are getting too big.
I'm still cold all the time. In fact, I jacked up the heat in my office at work to 75 degrees tonight. It's almost comfortable, though a little cool yet. I could wear a sweatshirt, but I hate wearing them at work. This scrub outfit is too cute to cover up. ;)
We had a big snow storm here in West Central Wisconsin yesterday. I was suppose to work last night, but my coworker offered to switch and I'd work Thursday (tonight) instead, keeping me off the roads until the storm was over and cleaned up.
So, I'm at work tonight. Not a bad place to be, though I'd rather be at home--really, who wouldn't, if given the choice?! The thing is that I seem to be all kinds of sensitive tonight--to smell (oh, people, take a bath!), to noise (whimpering, unnecessarily dramatic, drunk families), and various other irritants that I choose to blame on missing my anxiety meds for a few days.
I was suppose to have an appointment with my Nutritionist tomorrow, but, because I work until 6 AM, had planned to swim after work, and need to sleep before I go on the yearly post-tax return pilgrimage to the casino with family, I was going to be too tired for my appointment, so I rescheduled.
They can't get me in for a month and a half! Seriously, it's a 15-20 minute appointment. She just needs to tell me I am eating okay and whether I can start branching out in food. I keep thinking, "I wonder if my appointment is still open in the morning." Doubt it. *cry*
This isn't a terribly positive post. Sort of whiny, in fact. Sorry about that. I have no doubt that there were positive things that I'd planned on blogging about, but have escaped my mind since then. I'll work on that. :)
I haven't lost any weight in the last week. Holding strong at 248 pounds, which is a 69 lb loss since April 2011. I'm not going to complain about that. I've been slacking in the exercise department, so I figure that's part of it. Plus, an occasional plateau is not unexpected.
I must be losing inches though, because the pants I bought a couple weeks ago are getting too big.
I'm still cold all the time. In fact, I jacked up the heat in my office at work to 75 degrees tonight. It's almost comfortable, though a little cool yet. I could wear a sweatshirt, but I hate wearing them at work. This scrub outfit is too cute to cover up. ;)
We had a big snow storm here in West Central Wisconsin yesterday. I was suppose to work last night, but my coworker offered to switch and I'd work Thursday (tonight) instead, keeping me off the roads until the storm was over and cleaned up.
So, I'm at work tonight. Not a bad place to be, though I'd rather be at home--really, who wouldn't, if given the choice?! The thing is that I seem to be all kinds of sensitive tonight--to smell (oh, people, take a bath!), to noise (whimpering, unnecessarily dramatic, drunk families), and various other irritants that I choose to blame on missing my anxiety meds for a few days.
I was suppose to have an appointment with my Nutritionist tomorrow, but, because I work until 6 AM, had planned to swim after work, and need to sleep before I go on the yearly post-tax return pilgrimage to the casino with family, I was going to be too tired for my appointment, so I rescheduled.
They can't get me in for a month and a half! Seriously, it's a 15-20 minute appointment. She just needs to tell me I am eating okay and whether I can start branching out in food. I keep thinking, "I wonder if my appointment is still open in the morning." Doubt it. *cry*
This isn't a terribly positive post. Sort of whiny, in fact. Sorry about that. I have no doubt that there were positive things that I'd planned on blogging about, but have escaped my mind since then. I'll work on that. :)
Monday, February 13, 2012
My Meds
Due to my own laziness/apathy/exhaustion, I've been really bad about taking my thyroid pill, anti-anxiety med, and my vitamins. Not taking the thyroid med slows down my system--metabolism, my heart, my body temp, and my mental functions (to a point)--making me more lazy, apathetic, and exhausted. It's a vicious circle.
I've been amazingly good off my anxiety med. Normally, off the med, I am high strung, waiting for something bad to happen. I never know what, but I'm primed and nervous waiting for it to happen. Since going off it, I've been moody (quickly going from happy to annoyed), but my anxiety hasn't been massive. It's there, but not overwhelming.
However, when I told my surgeon that I went off my Paxil because I'm having trouble remembering and splitting it in half to take it was making it foam in my stomach (made me feel awful), he said that right now is not the time to wean myself off. I probably won't need as much later, when I have the extra weight off and life has returned to somewhat normal, but, for now, he'd like me to keep taking it and just to swallow it whole. Fiiiine. lol
Today, I picked up my thyroid refill. I went to Walmart on a Sunday afternoon. God must have felt sorry for me, because, by some miracle, no one made me feel homicidal, which is my usual reaction to going to Walmart (especially when dealing with the pharmacy staff).
I'm determined to get myself back on track with all of my pills, so I took both my Paxil and my thyroid med as soon as I got home. I just had my first meal after midnight and took both of my multivitamins. Next several meals each get a calcium chewable. Nummy. :/
The plan is to make this all very routine. I need to create a habit of taking the multivitamins and the calcium before each meal and my Paxil and Synthroid before bed. Sounds easy enough, right? We shall see!
I'm writing this with a big, two day headache. Please forgive me if it's boring, random, or written poorly. The little man chipping away at my right temple is distracting me from quality writing.
I've been amazingly good off my anxiety med. Normally, off the med, I am high strung, waiting for something bad to happen. I never know what, but I'm primed and nervous waiting for it to happen. Since going off it, I've been moody (quickly going from happy to annoyed), but my anxiety hasn't been massive. It's there, but not overwhelming.
However, when I told my surgeon that I went off my Paxil because I'm having trouble remembering and splitting it in half to take it was making it foam in my stomach (made me feel awful), he said that right now is not the time to wean myself off. I probably won't need as much later, when I have the extra weight off and life has returned to somewhat normal, but, for now, he'd like me to keep taking it and just to swallow it whole. Fiiiine. lol
Today, I picked up my thyroid refill. I went to Walmart on a Sunday afternoon. God must have felt sorry for me, because, by some miracle, no one made me feel homicidal, which is my usual reaction to going to Walmart (especially when dealing with the pharmacy staff).
I'm determined to get myself back on track with all of my pills, so I took both my Paxil and my thyroid med as soon as I got home. I just had my first meal after midnight and took both of my multivitamins. Next several meals each get a calcium chewable. Nummy. :/
The plan is to make this all very routine. I need to create a habit of taking the multivitamins and the calcium before each meal and my Paxil and Synthroid before bed. Sounds easy enough, right? We shall see!
I'm writing this with a big, two day headache. Please forgive me if it's boring, random, or written poorly. The little man chipping away at my right temple is distracting me from quality writing.
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