by Tish MacWebber | Mar 26, 2018 | Weekend Warrior
In this Weekend Warrior, I am writing about following some advice. I was told, “Give Yourself A Break.” I wrote an article that was along the same line of thought recently. I am going to write more about that on Tuesday.
This past week was all about that. Right up until tonight, Sunday, the end of the weekend. I have had a reason to slow down. This week, I had to stop my normal day to day because of a complication of my Diabetes, I am not going to discuss it here, but it is the reason I took a week off from Blogging.
From time to time, I have struggled with what to write about. Thankfully, it isn’t something I struggle with every week. Most weeks, I am ready to go. But if you are reading along, sometimes the posts are not as meaningful, or well thought out as they could have been. That is a sign of a hard week.
If I am writing just for quantity, to be writing on a schedule, I am going to inevitably not have the high quality of stories every single week. Sometimes I have written late but still wrote something. It was not the case this past week. This past week I took time off.
Now that I have that all explained, I will move on to the weekend. Yesterday I went to work. I had to make up some time. Other than that, I spent time on social media. It was a quiet weekend like I needed. While I was at work, I made the best of it. I bounce in my chair all week long, because I can listen to my Spotify at work. It has been a game changer for me. I love music, and it makes everything better.
Today I slept in really late. When that happens, I just think I must have needed the sleep. After the week I just had, I can’t feel guilty about needing extra sleep. I just relaxed all day and finished by watching the Junos.
Self-care is not selfish. People need to learn to stop for just a minute and take a break. I have been pushing myself to do more. I am up for the challenge, but it’s not a race. I will set my own pace and go steady. That way I will not quit because I have burned out. Rather I will have longevity because I stop every so often to take care of myself. Slowing down before the sharp turns is a good plan, to stay on track.
On that note, it is late. I am fine giving the weekend the win this time. I needed to focus on my health. That is more important than having an epic weekend. This week. Next weekend is not yet written.
#WeekendWarrior
by Tish MacWebber | Feb 23, 2018 | Trust Your Gut
Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Me and my Chin. My chin is something that I am focusing on a lot these days. It is puffy. I almost wish I could blame it on having the mumps, but nobody wants to have the mumps. Although as I am sitting here, I am noticing that my glands may be a little swollen…lol. Nope, not the mumps. Fluid retention is much more likely what I am dealing with. I don’t know anymore if it is a 12-pound chin anymore. I do know that it is not a chocolate chin. I am not indulging like I was before. That being said, things do sneak in, and I have less willpower when it comes to certain sweets. I am working on that. I am going to have to ask someone to stop bringing so many home. If they aren’t here, I won’t be into them.
It has dissipated, some. It is not affecting the shape of my face as much. I know that what I am doing is working. I did some prep cooking last week, and I ate my healthy lunches for most of the week. I slipped today, but have lunch planned for tomorrow to get back on track. It is OK to be human, and go off the plan on occasion. It is not good to do it all the time. That is how someone like me gets into trouble.
I had a change come over me last week, and it was for the better. I was trying again. There was a week or two where I just wasn’t trying, and now I have this chin problem. I am very aware of it, and it is something I want to disappear. I want it to not be puffy. I need to refocus again this week and think of my chocolate rewards. Chocolate diamonds.
I think I will weigh in before next week, to see where I am at. I either weigh a lot or avoid the scale. I have been avoiding it of late, so I think it is time to see what is happening. I have made my fresh start, and there is nowhere to go but…down. I refuse to go any higher on the scale. I hope it is nice when I take the step onto it. If not, well, that really won’t be too much of a surprise.
I haven’t been to Zumba as regularly as I have wanted to be lately. Transportation issues are the main reason, sometimes if I have the car there is a storm. I don’t like asking for rides when the weather is so iffy. I will be asking more in the spring. I am really hoping that we can swing another car soon.
I wouldn’t be lying if I said that I wasn’t excited about a discussion I had with my husband earlier in the week. He is finally ready to consider getting a dog after our vacation. I really hope that it works out because I need a reason to become more active. Sadly, I am not motivated to do it if it is just for me, I need a reason. A dog would be that reason. I would have to go for more than one walk a day. That would help me to become healthier. It would fill my heart. Finally, it would make me happy to do something I have wanted to do for a long time. Have my own dog. Even though I am certain that it will like Roy more than me. He has a way with animals. I just love them like my family.
I will let you know if the scale was good, bad, or ugly next week.
#TrustYourGut
by Tish MacWebber | Feb 2, 2018 | Trust Your Gut
Trust Your Gut this week is going to focus a little on Type 2 Diabetes. Sometimes, I don’t feel well. When that happens, I take a guess at what is going on.
Let’s take today, for an example. I stayed a little later after work to run to the grocery store and to get some wine. Then I got a ride home. I shovelled the driveway, steps and walkway. There wasn’t a lot of snow, it wasn’t heavy, and it wasn’t too cold or windy. Half an hour later, I come inside. I take off my layers and am I glistening. Yay me for doing some exercise. Then I noticed that I was perspiring from my scalp.
That is not good. I had a reason, but from my scalp usually means a low. So I was going to treat it, but I thought, well I should know how low it is so I know how to treat it.
It is a good thing that I Trust My Gut. I wasn’t having a low, my blood sugar was high! I was surprised and glad that I checked. I knew I didn’t feel confused. I wasn’t weak, or faint. I was a little out of breath from exercising with the snow and shovel.
The lesson this week is that it is ALWAYS better to check first. I could have been adding to the problem, instead of solving it. I did have carbs at lunch, and that was what was going on. So it makes sense, even though I thought that it was the opposite. I had been exercising, and I was overdressed, so I was really warm.
Tonight I am going to make burgers. I am craving burgers, and this way I can control what I am eating. There is no extra junk in a burger if you make it at home, just a tasty meal that helps to avoid the lazy route of getting fast food. Now don’t get me wrong, I am still working on the plan, but sometimes it is good to have a regular meal. I got some buns, and cheese slices. I haven’t made homemade burgers in a while. I also grabbed frozen fish burgers last week, and I will keep 2 buns for the last 2 fish burgers. Just to have something different to eat.
Cheeseburger pie and Big Mac Salad will always be in my meal rotation, now. I have decided to make taco salad for SuperBowl Sunday. We ate chili last week, and I suspect the Nacho Queen (yours truly) will make some nachos over the weekend. I love to have a plate of nachos as a meal. When I don’t know what I want, there had better be nachos I can make. I am eating the blue corn nacho chips these days, sometimes even the organic ones if they are on sale. They are great with an avocado dip I get as a treat sometimes. I go on kicks and eat them every other day sometimes, and other times I go a month or two without them. When I have all the ingredients, it is an easy, filling meal to make.
Well, I am off to make supper, Roy will be home soon. I want to get ahead of the prep cooking someday and get some cheeseburger pie in the freezer. It is a really good idea to have it ready for that next burger craving when you don’t want to go off the plan…
#TrustYourGut
by Tish MacWebber | Jan 26, 2018 | Trust Your Gut
Trust Your Gut this week is going to be positive. I got on the scale again, and I am down from my trip in the wrong direction. I was down a pound less than since the last time I checked and was going the right way again. It went a little wrong there, for a bit. I am finally starting to get things going in the right direction, again.
I think it does have to do with me packing more lunches and eating at home more. Not that I always eat the healthiest things, but there is more control when you are making things for yourself.
I am probably starting to adapt to my new schedule. Well, that goes out the window on Sunday. The good news is that I am going to be back to my regular schedule. For now. That can change, and it is one of the things that I will have to adapt to if it does, but I really hope that it works out well for me.
I am figuring things out creatively and using my brain to get results. I have more self-confidence because I am finally starting to believe that I can make the changes I need to change what is happening in my life. I will not change everything all at once, but I notice that I am making a larger effort to do the things that matter again.
Maybe the Shrinker is helping. Ooh, cayenne. Sometimes there is a little too much, and it is hard to make myself drink it. But I force it down if it is too spicy, because it still mostly tastes good, and I do think it is helping. I was also happy to find a new type of chocolate chai tea to add to it when I run out of the tea bags I had in the back of the cupboard. I am starting to use the recipes and knowledge I had learned when I started THM, and I am confident that if I don’t go too far away from it, I will start losing more weight.
Speaking of losing weight, I am kind of upset about one thing. The first place I see it is on my chin when I am retaining fluid, but you will never guess where I seem to lose it first. My fingers, of all places. My ring slid on a little easier today. Now if you remember, being able to wear the engagement ring and my wedding band comfortably on my ring finger is a Non-Scale Victory that I am working towards, and I felt a little bit closer to that goal this morning. Small blessings are not to be taken for granted, even if they seem annoying when you look at the big picture.
#TrustYourGut
by Tish MacWebber | Jan 24, 2018 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
Treasure Seeker Tuesday will cover a few different points this week, readers. I hope they make you think about things that you are struggling with in your own lives.
Today I do not feel very well. I either ate something that did not agree with me, or I picked up a virus at the hospital yesterday. I had to go for the ophthalmologist appointment. As a person with type 2 diabetes, side effects can be devastating, if you don’t keep on top of the disease. They dilated my pupils, and then they froze the eyes. That last part was so that the ophthalmologist can put a lens directly into my eyes so that she can quickly determine whether or not the next step is necessary. So far, I have been lucky. I do not need the common treatment called Photocoagulation which is a form of laser treatment, at this time. I am working hard on keeping my sugars in control, and that is keeping the lasers away. For now. You can learn more about this treatment here.
I am a creative, which means that I do rely on my eyesight. I am going to be getting progressive lenses as soon as we save up enough to afford them. I really notice a difference lately, and the general eye test at the appointment yesterday confirmed that I need to make this a priority. If I lost my eyesight, it would be devastating to me. I don’t know how I would continue my jewellery business, without it. I don’t know how I would be able to work outside of the home, but I do know that I would want a seeing eye dog. I am sure that I could find a way to continue writing verbally, with a voice recognition software program. But it would be a hard thing to learn how to deal with. I hope I never have to look going blind right in the eye.
I have also found that I am struggling with my winter blues this year. I was watching a video last night in one of the groups I am in, for writers. It is a supportive group, and there are a lot of great people there. I enjoyed the video and commented. It was about courage as a writer. People don’t realize it, but a lot of authors are terrified of sharing their work with the general population. There is a fear of rejection, negative criticism, and failure that brews together and holds some people back. This video was addressing this topic, and Debbie Burns is one of those brave people that put things out there, and the emotions do show that she cares deeply about helping other authors get their stories out. I write quite freely here, on the Blog, but there are times I have hesitated before pushing that publish button. On Politics and World Peace #This was an example of this. I didn’t know where to put that open letter to the leaders of the world after I wrote it. I hesitated. I asked for advice and was told that the Blog was the right place for it. So I pressed publish, and off it went!
Another example of this was my first ever Trust Your Gut story. I took the leap. I shared my own weight and medical description of being morbidly obese for the first time. I had a difficult time going public about being a type 2 diabetic, and I thought long and hard about sharing that information here. One person in my life has never been told, and unless someone tells her, she will remain in the dark about it. That is my wish. She is my grandmother, and has since stopped using her computer, and has trouble remembering things now. I didn’t want her to feel bad about giving me desserts as a child. I don’t want her to worry about me. I am doing just fine, and managing it the best way that I know how.
In terms of what I got out of watching the courage video yesterday, the word I chose to create changes in my world with was to simply just start. No further explanation was given at that time. I know that I have a lot to do, and I know that I need to start working on the things that I need to do; so that I am going to be able to feel like I can spend the time doing what I want to do. It is a vicious cycle that I fall into every winter, and I need to start something to make changes and feel like I am making progress. I decided that I need to make the “List of all Lists” and write down all of the things that I need to get done. As long as I am working on those things, I can give myself permission to be creative. This way I am not limiting my needs to be creative, and it also helps me to work on one or several other tasks that need to be done. I will write that list when I am feeling better.
If you are an author and want to learn more about Debbie Burns and her facebook group, you can sign up for it here. I like being a member, and maybe I will see you on the inside.
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
