Weekend Warrior # 15

Weekend Warrior # 15

by | Jun 5, 2017 | Weekend Warrior

Here we are at the end of another weekend.  I have been non-stop busy since the last edition, and am hoping things slow down (just a little) for the next few days.  I write this because I am feeling a little drained of energy.

Friday night was so long ago, I honestly don’t even remember what I did.  That is how busy the week was.  Saturday I slept in a little and got up to volunteer for the Boston Terrier Rescue Canada group. BTRC is run completely by volunteers, and they do whatever they can to raise funds.  I was working in a canteen at a local cat show.  The SPCA was hosting it and asked us if we would like to help out to split the profits between the two organizations.  The message went out late in the week, and I picked my time slot, and off I went.

Let me say, first of all, that I am really proud of myself for looking at all of that food, and ONLY buying an apple.  I paid for it and enjoyed it.  I ended up with pizza to take home, and it was supper.  It has been a while since I had to stand on my feet for a few hours.  Although I was glad to have a chair for a couple of necessary but short breaks, I managed OK.  I do have nerve pain in one leg and I have finally figured out that my hip flexors are the root cause.  If it comes down to it, I tough it out, but I can be in a lot of pain while I am doing so.

 

What does a person do when they go inside the Cat Show after the volunteering is done?  Well, if you are me, you look at EVERY cat you can see, and you buy new cute little socks with cats all over them.  I wanted the cute change purse too, but I am on a budget and that means I can’t always get everything I want.

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My new kitty cat socks!

I bought something practical.  I can always use more cute socks.

Today is Sunday.  I slept in later today, I needed it.  We had been invited to a friend’s house to play board games.  It was set as a potluck.  I decided to make His & Hers Lasagna.  His lasagna is traditional.  Mine is THM Lazy Lasagna.  No noodles and yes it has spinach.

 

He helped me with the prep and assembly.  I made some guacamole dip and we brought Nacho Scoops for that.  It was good.  The best part is that there are leftovers of the lasagnas and the guacamole.  So I have lunches prepped for the week right now!

We played Cards Against Humanity first.  After supper, we played Ticket To Ride, Europe.  It was a lot of fun, once we all knew what we were doing.  The board game looked like this when it was all over.

Ticket To Ride Europe Game

Ticket To Ride Europe Game

It was a busy weekend.  I didn’t get a lot of cleaning done, but we got the prep cooking started for the week.  That’s a wrap for this weekend!  What did you do?

Relay for Life 2017

Relay for Life 2017

by | Jun 3, 2017 | Events

Relay 2017 2

Relay for Life 2017. Tish & Matty

I attended Relay for Life to participate in the Zumba at Relay.  My Zumba instructor does this every year, and when I am able to attend extra Zumba classes to support her and to get me moving more, I go.  I actually met her at Relay several years ago.  I have come a long way with my Zumba since then, and I will be continuing to go to Zumba as long as I am able to go. I do what I can, and I am feeling the rewards of stress relief,  getting stronger and healthier.

So many people are affected by the ugliness of cancer in their lives.  Relay is a fundraiser to help find a cure for cancer, but for many people, it is more than that.  It is a chance to reflect on loved ones who have lost the battle.  It is a chance to support people you know that are fighting cancer.  It is also a chance to celebrate with those who have looked cancer in the eye and beat it.  Sometimes more than once.

Members of my family have had cancer.  It is something I have learned to live with while trying not to live in fear of it.  I have been spending some time with a good friend who is not going to win her fight with cancer.  It is hard to face as a friend, but it must be even harder to face as a person with terminal cancer.  It makes me sad to know that her time is limited and that her family and friends will feel this too.  It is hard, sometimes, to know what to do or say.  We are becoming better friends because of this terrible thing that is happening to her.  We were friends before, but it is important for me to make sure that I am available to spend time with her now, while she is still here and able to enjoy the company of our friendship.

I went to Relay and did Zumba there.  I did not participate in anything else.  My focus this year was to go and have a good workout.  I promised another friend that passed away that I would take care of myself, and although it wasn’t cancer that he died from, in going I am keeping my promise to him.  The first few classes I went to after he died broke my heart.  I cried.  I fought to finish the classes, and I am still keeping my promise to him every time I go.

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They found a Rebel who was unable to convince them of the health benefits of Zumba at Relay.

I didn’t see the Storm Troopers in the crowd this year.  They were at Relay, but I am guessing Darth Vader ordered them to not participate in Zumba.  There were a lot of people there. I saw some angel wings, costumes, masks, and a little girl in a princess dress.  When Zumba was over, there was a song still playing on the speakers.  We all stopped, and the little princess walked over to me and wanted me to hold her hands and keep dancing.  So I did.  I don’t know her story, if she was sick, or if she was there because of someone else.  I knew I didn’t have a choice in the matter.  When a princess approaches you in a crowd full of people and wants to hold your hands and dance, well, you hold her hands and dance in a circle until she wants to stop.  I don’t know who she was, except that she was a princess for Relay.  I don’t know why she chose me in a crowd full of people, but she did, and I wasn’t prepared to walk away.  That is why I attend Zumba at Relay.  You never know what kind of memory you will take home with you, and it somehow makes you feel that even when it seems like the ugliness of cancer is at its scariest, if you are able to support a friend or hold the hands of a princess and share a dance, there is a glimmer of hope.  Be present in your life, and do good unto others while you are here.  Which left me with the message I am carrying in my heart.  Hope.

Most of the pics are from my friend Matty.  There are two from Fredericton Relay For Life 2017 Facebook Page, all shared with permission.  Why do you Relay?

Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 15

Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 15

by | Jun 1, 2017 | Trust Your Gut

 

Trust Your Gut is a series of stories about real people with weight issues, and complications arising from those issues.  It will explain what the person is facing, what their options are, what they have decided to do to take action, and why they chose the path they are on.  Each person’s story will be based on truth, so it won’t all be happy, but it will be real.  The goal of this series is to get people talking about options that are available for people who have weight issues, on either end of the scale.  If you would like to contribute to this series, there is a contact form linked on my Home page for this blog.  I know there are people out there that want to help people like them; as I do.

 

The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name.  If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story.  The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors.  I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.

This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.

Here is  Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 15

Up to now, I have been sharing my story and the stories of others with their issues regarding weight.  That means if you are reading this week’s story, and have been since I started writing, you know that I am struggling.  Sometimes week to week other times day to day, but it could literally be bite to bite.  I wake up thinking about food.  I go to bed thinking about how tired I am or am not, and this is usually related to what I ate that day.  When I dream about food, it wakes me up to go test my blood sugar.  If it is OK, then it was just a dream.  Sometimes it is my body telling me that I need to get a glass of juice.

Today was no different than any other Wednesday.  I got up, went to work, went to Zumba, and then I came home.  Where I knew I had meat in the fridge, both cooked and ready to be cooked, but I could not bring myself to start making a healthy meal.  I wanted the easy way out.  I sent an SOS to my husband for fast food.  I was tired when I got home today.  Bone tired.  I decided that I would nap until he arrived home.

Sometimes it is the only way to accomplish everything that you need to do, taking the easy way.  But taking the easy way is not the healthy way to live.  I am living proof of that.  The easy way is not the path less travelled.  The easy way is the way to childhood obesity and the epidemic that I happen to be a statistic of, the Type 2 Diabetes crisis that is blowing up all over the world right now.  If you continually choose the easy meal, the easy snacks, the sugar, the preservatives, the chemicals and the toxins you will not live a healthy life.  It isn’t possible.  It’s called junk food for a reason.

What is the alternative? Hard work.  If you put in the time and effort into yourself, it will pay off.  It doesn’t matter if you stray from the path when life happens.  What matters is that you value yourself enough to go back to the path you have chosen to follow because you strive towards living a healthier lifestyle.  There are always going to be days when you are too tired to cook.  I have had days where I am so tired and hungry that I can’t even decide which restaurant I want to go to.  The main thing is that I don’t give up forever.  I keep trying.  I keep pushing myself to do better.  And I keep celebrating every little success along the way.

I cannot stress the importance of planning ahead and prep cooking enough.  If I had made that casserole last night, I would have had supper planned, and this helps me to make healthy choices.  Sometimes I am too busy.  I planned my lunch today but found I was very cold at work, so I bought soup and BBQ chips to give my circulation a little kick in the pants with some mild spices.  Would I do that again tomorrow?  Not unless I felt the exact same way I did today.  I am usually bundled up in layers at work, but there are limits to what I am able to wear and what they will allow me to wear to stay warm at my desk.  Today I was maxed out on layers, and still cold.  I did what I needed to do to adapt to the day.  It worked.  Tomorrow may be a different story, yesterday I found it a little cold, but tolerable.  Today I could not get warmed up.  This is a side effect of having thyroid disease, sometimes I am cold when I should be warm.

When I am out of ideas for lunch, I plan scrambled eggs and cheese.  I can cook it in the microwave, and I can eat vegetables with it.  I almost made that for lunch today, but I changed my mind and made good old PB&J on sprouted bread.  I am not the biggest fan of this sandwich, so I am using regular peanut butter.  I bought the kind that has no sugar,  which must be stored in the fridge.  It was left too long and dried out.  So for the few times that I make it, I am using regular peanut butter.  When I decide to make something that has a need for peanut butter that is on the plan, I will buy more that is made with just peanuts and salt.  I use sugar-free jam.  The sprouted bread is on the plan.  2 out of 3 ain’t bad, to quote a song by Meatloaf.  I ate my sandwich after Zumba class, to hold me over until the fast food was here to eat.

If you are struggling like me, then neither of us is alone.  It can be a solitary journey if you are hiding behind closed doors or sneaking around to feed the monster inside.  I am calling it what it is.  A monster that is obsessed with food, and thrives off of sugar.  It does not mean that I am a monster.  It does mean that I have to fight it. The harder I fight, the smaller it will be.  It will reflect on the outside what is happening on the inside.  And that is where the beauty hides.  The beauty that is inside all of us needs to be nurtured and loved.  It will flourish and bloom if we give it the attention that it deserves.  When this happens, you start to glow from the inside out, and the monster shrinks inside.  Just as the monster scares your inner beauty, the glow from that inner beauty outshines the monster if we let it.  As someone who loves to sparkle and shine, I am going to focus on that for the next week, and see where it takes me.

Trust Your Gut is the weekly series that I have decided to publish on Thursdays.  I think it is time to  give it a hashtag of its own.  Help me to get the word out to other people that may need to read these stories and know that they are not alone.  Help me to reach out to other people that want to help by sharing their own stories.  All it takes is an idea to create something big that matters and can help people.  I am starting that now.
Together we can help people, just like you and me.

#TrustYourGutThursday and #TYGT

Weekend Warrior # 15

Weekend Warrior # 14

by | May 29, 2017 | Weekend Warrior

I am so PUMPED after this weekend!  I HULK SMASHED IT!  Without turning green and angry!  What a busy, productive weekend!

Friday night I was at Relay for Life, specifically for the Zumba at Relay.  Expect a story this week to tell you all about that.  It had some real special moments, and there are some great pics to share.

Saturday was cool and rainy and drab.  Hubby worked this weekend, so I got up and got the car.  Got a few groceries on the way home and got some cleaning done.  I did some laundry and ran the dishwasher.  Nothing picture worthy.  I found out that I lost a pillow sham (and the puns did find my post about it on my personal Facebook page).  This caused a full stop on the kitchen cleaning and started a full-on search for the missing sham.  No house elves were found wearing said sham, either.  The search continues.  Maybe, just maybe it is in the towel area over the washer and dryer?  It was not in the linen closet where it should have been (I am in the middle of reorganizing that mess since yesterday) or maybe it is under the bed ( I tried to look but with my knees, I try not to get down on my knees on the floor) and I am running out of places to look.  I am sure it will reappear.  I am crossing my fingers about that one.

Sham on me my cousin wrote.   It was never a real pillow it was just a … 😉 was left by another friend.  The puns keep me laughing while I tear my home apart to find the culprit of the whole sham.

I got inspired while in the master bathroom working on the linen closet to do something I have been thinking about for a long time.  I have been wanting to purge my makeup.  I do not wear makeup every day, but as a collector, I had gathered quite a stash.  It was neatly organized in 3 wicker baskets on my counter, gathering dust.  I panicked about tossing it all because I might need some of it for a special occasion or something in the future.  My budget does not always allow for this type of purchase.  The last time I bought makeup it was January 2016.  I have had some product since the wedding in 2010 or even before that.

I will be writing a separate blog about that adventure.  It happened Sunday.  I got up and put a roast beef in the oven right away.  I set the timer for 3 hours, it was frozen going into the pan.  I had planned to get ready and go to church before the makeup shopping event.  I mean, it could have been an event, it was a big thing for me.  I decided that I did not want to rush, and had breakfast and got ready for my day.  I postponed church until this evening (I actually went and was not late).  The makeup event happened-details will be in a separate blog.

I got home, sliced the beef, made sandwiches, ate 1.5 sandwiches and rushed out to church.  I then fit in a few small errands on the way home, finished the last half a sandwich I made earlier, made 2 sandwiches for my husband, picked him up from work and rushed off to see Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2.  It was a fun movie.

I have yet to finish my next submission for a well-known publication that has a deadline this week.  That will be tomorrow’s priority.  I have started writing it already, but it is not ready for the beta reader yet.

There you have it!  Non-stop, action-packed, super busy weekend!  I got some cleaning done, in tandem, from one end of the mini home to the other, all day Saturday.  I want to an extra Zumba class, for a good cause.  Spent time with friends Friday and again today.  Different friends on the different days.  I even fit in a movie with my husband to finish it off! Sorry, I’m a little late getting this one published this week, this is the first chance I had because I wanted a productive AND fun weekend to write about.  Mission accomplished!  HULK SMASHED IT!

Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 15

Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 14

by | May 25, 2017 | Trust Your Gut

 

Trust Your Gut is a series of stories about real people with weight issues, and complications arising from those issues.  It will explain what the person is facing, what their options are, what they have decided to do to take action, and why they chose the path they are on.  Each person’s story will be based on truth, so it won’t all be happy, but it will be real.  The goal of this series is to get people talking about options that are available for people who have weight issues, on either end of the scale.  If you would like to contribute to this series, there is a contact form linked on my Homepage for this blog.  I know there are people out there that want to help people like them; as I do.

 

The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name.  If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story.  The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors.  I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.

This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.

Here is  Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 14

Getting back on track is easier said than done.  It takes determination and effort.  I have missed a few Zumba classes.  I went today.  I was eating anything and everything, the last few weeks.  I prep cooked earlier in the week.  My insulin is now working well enough to lower my doses again.  Some days it is a fight just to get motivated to do what I should be doing.  Other days I feel prepared to tackle everything.  I am gearing up for another run at living a healthier lifestyle.

Last week I was watching the scale climb.  This week it is starting to go down.  I am working hard to try and stay on plan as much as I can, and it is working.

The last few months I have been consciously trying to drink more water.  It is a good idea, not just for me, but for everyone.  It would be better if I enjoyed drinking water.  I have to force myself to drink water, sometimes.  I have a drinking buddy, my straw!  I need to get it in quickly or I won’t drink as much water in a day.  Straws certainly help with that.

It is time to get out the measuring tape again.  Still, nothing to report.  With the last few weeks of being sick, I will have to take the number on the scale moving down as my encouragement.  It is good that it is going the right way again.

My heart rate was steady in class.  I do love that I can check it.  Now I have to keep a better focus on what I eat and how much insulin I am taking because my body has come around to responding to it well, again.  That happens when I work hard.  I feel better so I want to do more and I do that and I feel even better.  It is possible.  Just not when I am sick. Everything goes out the window when I am sick.

I did go to the doctor last week.  He gave me a different antibiotic.  I bought a probiotic to take with it because we all know the warnings about what happens when you take one antibiotic, and now I have had to take two.  It has been a little challenging to keep track of when I have to take what medicine.  The good news is that it appears to be working, and worth the trouble.

This week I am feeling more optimistic.  When I feel like doing things, there is a better chance that they will get done.  I am finally feeling like trying again.  So lesson learned.  When my sugars are skyrocketing out of control, it is not me, or what I am or am not eating; I am probably sick.  Which is good to know, because I don’t remember this happening when I was off work with my infected knee.  There is a good reason for that. Painkillers.  I was on some heavy-duty painkillers.

I am sleeping better this week.  Quality sleep is also important in the struggle to live a healthier lifestyle.  If you are well rested, it will boost the energy.  Again, you can do more.  It can snowball in the right direction.  It is happening for me right now.  It can happen to you too.  If you need help, ask. Don’t be afraid.  If you don’t ask for help, it might be too late.  We are all worth helping.  We are all worth loving.  Believe it.  When you believe that you are worth investing your own time and energy into, good things will happen for you too. One change becomes two, then three and so on.  What change are you going to work on this week?