I woke up to a big surprise this morning on the scale. 136.0!!! I don't know where that came from but I'm taking it!
I had a health scare over the weekend. On Thursday night, I woke up in the middle of the night with itchy feet. It itched so bad that when I scratched them, it would burn and my feet would feel so hot. I keep washing my feet thinking that something is causing an allergic reaction. Then on Friday night, I got hives from my feet to my knees. It was all red, burning, and itchy, I showed my husband and he said he noticed my feet are swollen too and he thinks I am having an allergic reaction to something. I couldn't figured out what it could be because I've never had an allergic reaction to anything before except one time when I was in Belize, I was allergic to one of the tropical plants in the water, but I certainly wasn't near any of that here.
On Saturday, all my joints in my ankles, knees, wrists, toes, fingers, shoulders, and elbows started to hurt really bad. It hurted so bad that I couldn't even change my daughter's diaper or picked her up. I felt like I was a 60 years old with arthritis.
I tried taking Benadryl, Advil, Claritin, etc. None of them were helping at all and I kept getting worse. My feet and hands were getting numb each day.
Finally I called the doctor on Monday and had her see me in the afternoon. She did some bloodwork on me to make sure I don't have Rheumatoid Arthristis or Lupus. I'm hoping I don't have those. But she suspected that bacteria are still in my body from the strep throat and flu. I hope she is right about that.
She gave me steroids for 6 days to help with the pain. The meds started working as soon as I took them and I feel great now. I feel like I had so much energy yesterday and I was busy cleaning out the closet and my daughter's closet plus laundry. I had so much laundry to catch up on because I couldn't do anything for a few days with those achy joints. I think my doctor is right about the bacteria still lingering in my body and I will see her next Wednesday to go over my blood result.
I was actually worried that the steroids were going to make me gain weight and I even asked my doctor that, she said no it can't because it's only for 6 days and that only happens if you are on it for months. So I was glad to hear that but I certainly wasn't expect to see the weight go down so quickly overnight on the first day of the meds. I hope it stays there from now on.
Now time for me to get to work and start checking those blogs. Hope everyone have a great Wednesday!
Hi Guys! Sorry I wasn't here right away to blog and comment on yours. When we got back from our vacation, our daughter got sick with a strep throat and then I got the flu. Then my husband got the strep throat and a pink eye. What a wonderful way to start the new year!
I did gained 3 lbs while I was away but I lost all of that by now and I hit a new record of 138.0 today. I've been watching my food and I took my daughter to the park everyday to get some sunshine and air after being sick in the house all week. Playing with my daughter at the playground sure is a workout and I can see it through the scale today.
January and Febuary are my favorite months in Florida. The weather is warm and sunny almost everyday and we enjoy being outside more. So I have been on the computer less and outside playing. We have to enjoy it now because it goes by so fast before the hot weather starts coming back and we ended up staying inside most of the time with the AC on.
I've been busy planning a birthday party for my daughter in March. We have to reserve a spot in a park now because it goes out fast and when I reserved a spot yesterday, it was the last Saturday in March available. I was soo happy that I got the date I wanted and I felt like it was left open just for me.
We plan to have a BBQ and volleyball with some kids playing at the playground. I will have a Cinderella theme for my daughter and thinking of other ideas as well. This is the first birthday party we're doing for my daughter and I'm really excited about it.
I've been looking into preschool for my daughter as well and I went to tour a kids gym place and it was huge. My daughter wanted to start playing right there but they were done for the day and I'm trying to convince my husband to let her enroll 2 times a week. It's quite expensive but I think it's worth it for her. She loves to interact with other kids and she becomes bored easily at home. There's only so much I can do to entertain a 2 years old.
Well I will try my best to catch up on your blogs today. I know I have well over 200 EP blogs to read in my google reader. Hope everyone have a great Thursday.
I'm flying tomorrow morning to Newark, NJ where my parents will meet us and drive up to the Poconos. I will be there for a week and back in Florida just before New Years Eve. I will not be able to read blog or comments while I'm away, but I will have a lot of catching up to do by the time I get back.
I'm feeling a lot of better, just a slight sore throat but it's slowly going away. I was getting so impatient with my body that I ate half of a raw onion last night. LOL! I never did that before but I know it works! Thank goodness you can't smell bad breath through blogs!
I was surprised to see that I am still at 138.5 this morning even though I am eating regularly now. I am going trying my best to maintain when I am gone. Mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies are going to be hard to resist but I will allow myself to have 1 a day. She only makes them once a year, so I will indulgence alittle but carefully.
What I am hoping most of all is to stay healthy. It's freezing up there in the 20's and since we Floridian aren't used to that temperature, we can get sick more easily.
I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends and I am going to leave you a pretty Floridian Christmas card for you all.
A funny Christmas Quote:
In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'
~ Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
A favorite Christmas song by Josh Groban that I like to share with you.
A lovely Christmas quote:
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
I have been sleeping most of the day yesterday because I was achy and feverish with a terrible sore throat. It was hurted so bad that it was painful to swallow anything, even teas and soups. I had hot fluids all day yesterday and slept on and off. I even had a slice of toast but that was like swallowing a bunch of needles!
I wasn't surprised to see the scale go down to 138.5 this morning. I didn't eat much and the scale tends to go down whenever I am sick. Maybe I should get sick more often?? Nah. I hate being sick anyways.
I am feeling better today but throat still hurts. Fever and achy body are gone, so now I can move around more instead of laying on the couch all day. I got tons of laundry to catch up on before my trip on Saturday to north.
I watched the Biggest Loser last night and wow, the results were amazing from all the contestants. I'm thinking about checking out Jillian Michaels' books at the library because it's obvious with the black team that her method works. I'm eager to watch the new season in 2 weeks because it looks like Jillian vs. Bob and Kim is not there. I'll be happy to see her gone.
This is the first season I have watched the Biggest Loser and now I'm curious about the past seasons. I plan to check out the library in the summer time to watch the other seasons.
I hope you all are healthy and well and not sick like me.
Positive Attitude Quote:
Happiness is Controling Your Thoughts
As soon as you recognize that you are able to control your thoughts, happiness will come within your reach.
Read lots of books, all sorts of books -- poetry and fiction, books
about Africa, the Middle East, American history, individuals who have
done great things and terrible things, the environment, women around the
world. Then find people with whom to discuss the new and startling ideas
that begin to percolate in your brain. Who knows what will happen next?
You might find yourself at a demonstration or running for the school
board. You might start to like someone who always seemed weird before.
You might save a street or a salt marsh or a person.
All because of a book.
Kathia Pollitt, Columnist for The Nation and author of Learning to Drive
and Other Life Stories.
It's amazing how reading a book can change your life and your outlook on life. I have read so many different fitness and health books like You: The Manual with Dr. OZ, The Best Life, The Abs Diet, etc. I don't strictly follow one book but I feel I understand more about my health as I kept reading different health books. I don't believe we should only follow one book and ignore the others. We have the freedom to chose and think for ourselves on how we want to take care of our health. I follow my feelings if something doesn't sounds right or unrealistic, then I don't do it.
I read a vary of topics on books and I love reading historical fictions. There's something about escaping to the past and learning about our ancestors' lives. I start to appericate family history and where we come from.
My daughter has been sick with an ear infection in her right ear this weekend. I took her to the doctor on Friday morning and an ear infection and fluids were discovered in her right ear. This is her only 2nd ear infection and that's a good thing. I heard a lot of kids suffer from ear infections and I really feel for them because they can be painful.
No workout last weekend and today. My throat is a bit scratchy and it's cold in Florida! It went down to the 30's but we will warm up to the 70's during the day. The weather has been really weird lately. Saturday night, it was lightning and thundering like crazy with tornado warnings, then we got the wind chills advisory the next night. Really weird. I'm finding it weird with all the snow coming so early too up north.
This week will be a quiet week for me. I will just be cleaning up the apartment and doing laundry. We will fly up north on Saturday for Christmas vacation and then be back on Decemeber 30th in time for New Years Eve. Packing at Christime time is always hard for me because I have to think about the cold weather up north and not bring my flip flops and sandals. It's like going to a whole new world when we go north lol.
Well I better go and check on you guys. My google reader is just growing bigger by the seconds. Also here are a few health and fitness articles that are interesting to read.
I received a not so happy news from my husband on our health insurance policy after I picked him up from work yesterday.
The company decided to change the policy from $20 co-pay to $2,500 deductible. This means we have to pay everything like doctor visits and medicines in full until we meet the $2,500 deductible. Once we meet the deductible, everything else is free. I was not happy. We don't even pay that much for medical and this will be a huge dent on our budget.
My husband told me how one of his boss had health problems and constantly go to phycial therapy and doctors. So she was thinking of her own health and change the policy to suit her own needs. That is fine, but that policy does not work for everyone. I know there are some workers at my husband's job that have 4 or more kids that they have to pay out of their own pockets. My husband wished that his boss would allow everyone to chose the policy that works for them instead of picking one policy.
We will have to make a lot of cuts on our budgets next year which include family visits to the north and vacation. I'm trying not to be very negative about the situation but it's hard to ignore that gnawing and disgusting feeling because health is very important in our family.
On a good note, I got to walk 3 miles again yesterday. Someone had asked me how long it took me to complete my 3 miles walk last Monday and it took me 57 minutes, but yesterday I finish with 51 minutes. I hope to continue to finish with less time by walking a bit quicker.
Food is good this week. I packed my own lunch with me when I go to the YMCA to keep eating healthy and save money as well. There are some days when I am walking in the mall that I start to think rationally to myself that maybe 1 piece of cookie won't hurt or a small cinnabon but then I think to myself that I didn't work that hard with my walking to have it ruin by a cookie or cinnabun. So I kept walking by and drank my water. I did have my emergency snacks with me but it's all in my mind how I make food choices. I have no problem at home but going out is a big issue for me. I think this will take a long time for me to overcome that rational thinking.
Okay, I think I am going to leave my positive attitude quote to think about for the day and keep on looking forward.
Positive Attitude Quote:
Life is an Adventure
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
I favor reality shows in which people do things that require skill,
talent, or daring: crab fishing, singing, clothing design, Latin dance.
The popularity of these shows suggests I'm not the only person tuning
in. Generally, the harder the participants have to work, the more
interesting the process.
Even when cameras aren't rolling, people love to watch others work hard,
learn skills, and take risks. Remember the old Peanuts cartoons in which
Lucy mooned endlessly over Schroeder, whose only interest was the piano?
That stereotype is based in truth: People who are mastering something
that fascinates them become fascinating to others. If you want to
capture people's attention, put your own attention on something that has
nothing to do with them: oil painting, cooking, wildlife rescue. The
more you get lost in what you're doing, the more interesting you'll
become.
By Martha Beck, author of The Four-Day Win.
I love this quote! I also think this is why EP blogs are soo interesting as well because people are doing a lot of challenges to lose weight and we watch and wait to see what happened. If they are successful, then we follow in their footstep.
A lot of us also like to watch The Biggest Loser and we learn from their experiences too like their struggles and overcoming their weaknesses. I'm really looking forward to seeing TBL tonight and see who wins. I believe they all are all winners since they have all lost weight succesfully.
I had an interesting conversation with my friend yesterday who has a passion for photography. She explained to me that she doesn't want to do studio photography but she has great interests in taking pictures of children with special needs. She wants to make a photography book and calendar of them. It was her dream to do something like that. I thought it was neat how someone view children with special needs like a beautiful art instead of deformed, worthless piece of life. Sadly, many people think that way, but not my friend. She thinks they are beautiful. I hope she continues to follow her passions and dreams to come true. I will be sure to buy that book and get an autograph from her.
Anyways, back to weight loss. Yesterday at the YMCA, I did the elliptical machine for 10 minutes and then I decided that I was going to try walking for 3 miles at the incline of 4 and 7. I started at incline 4 for 10 minutes and then raised it to 7 for 10 minutes. I went back and forth every 10 minutes until I reached 3 miles.
Wow! What a workout. I decided to try this because I read on a forum somewhere, I forget where, that this girl said she walked 3 miles every day and I wondered to myself if I could walk 3 miles and I did! At the first mile, I really thought about giving up because I was getting tired, but I kept going. Then I got my energy back and I was able to keep going. I burned 350 calories on the treadmill alone plus 93 calories from the elliptical machine. That's 443 calories burned! I don't think I ever burned that much calories at the gym but I felt sooo great all day!
This morning is a different story. I'm soo sore, but I will manage just fine.
I went to a christmas party last Saturday and I was really bad. I had 9 cookies and 2 chocolate macadamia candies. It was really bad but to my surprise, I didn't gain anything the next day. I was chugging down that water after the party and I guess that helped.
This party was mostly senior citizens. My husband, daughter, and I were the youngest ones there. We have these 2 friends who are like grandparents to us and we just love visiting them. They are soo positive about their life.
I met a man who was visiting from out of town and he told me how he loved this group so much because everyone was laughing and telling jokes. They were all having such a great time. He told me when he visited other elderly groups, they were always complaining about their health and what they can't do, etc. He felt depressed after leaving them, but he felt great at this party. It took me a moment to realized what he said was true. I told my husband on our homethat I wanted to look at life in a positive way like them and he agreed.
Adding positive quotes on my blog has really set my day off to a great start and I hope it does the same for you. Now I'm going to check on all of you and send some positive vibes to you all.
Positive Attitude Quote:
The Highest Ambition
To do something, however small, to make others happier and better, is the highest ambition, the most elevating hope, which can inspire a human being.
Finding novel ways to use your talents makes you feel more competent and
results in a boost to your self-esteem.
- Christopher Peterson Ph.d (Woman's World)
I believe we all discover our talents when we try something new and succeed at it. Even if we failed the first time, we keep going until it becomes a talent within us.
Here on EP, a lot of us discover a talent in us when we start our journey of losing weight. We discovered that we can learn to control our portions, run 5 miles in 10 minutes, walk a marathon for a charity, become a fitness instructor at the gym, wake up at 4am to workout, to do strength training until it hurts, and most of all, reach our goals.
When you put your mind and heart into changing your lifestyle, you find things in you that you never thought you had! I believe this journey we are all on helps us find who we are and become a better person for the world and for ourselves.
I remember 2 years ago, I had this desire to learn how to knit. I didn't have anyone to show me and I was afraid to ask someone to teach me. I decided that I will learn how to do this on my own, so I found a book that teaches how to knit and bought the supplies I needed. I sat down and followed the instruction carefully and slowly. I practiced over and over until it became natural to me that I don't need to look at the instructions anymore. Each time I learned a new stitch, I felt so proud of myself! It was a great feeling and I kept going. There were several bumps on the road, but I kept thinking about that great feeling I had when I figured out the stitch in knitting.
This is the same way when we learn new exercises and different food in our diet. If we look at this journey as developing new talents, it pushes us to want to do more.
I thought to share you what I will be making for my friend for her upcoming birthday in February.
My friend always wanted me to make her a shawl, so this is what I will be making her. This will also be a new thing for me to do lace knitting, but I feel confident enough to make it for her.
I hope everyone is healthy and well this weekend.
Positive Attitude Quote:
Life Lessons
The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.
For what? Anything! "Counting your blessings puts you in a positive
frame of mind immediately," says Peterson. In one study, volunteers who
counted their blessings every day felt less stress and more optimism
than a control group that did not. In a similar study, people who kept a
weekly gratitude journal for six weeks felt more satisfied with their
lives compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral happenings in
their journals.
- Christopher Peterson Ph.d (Woman's World)
I'm so grateful for my weight loss yesterday and my opportunity to be able to go to the gym and workout. I felt great all day from my workout and it was really nice to see my friend again after not seeing her for 2 months.
I did the elliptical machine for 10 minutes and then the treadmill for 30 minutes walking uphill at incline 7. I need to rebuilt my muscle again after not working out at the gym since September. Traveling and being sick can mess up your routines and it's hard to get back into it, but I'm glad I did go yesterday.
The gym was very quiet and a lot of new people working there. It was nice because you have many more choices on picking out which machine you want to use and I like to be closer to the TV to be able to read the closed captioning.
I finally got to the bookstore at Barnes and Noble to pick up a few things and I looked up Shelley's article in the Health magazine. Way to go Shelley! You look awesome!
I also want to say thank you all for your wonderful comments yesterday and encouraging me to keep going! I'm going to check on you all now.
A Christmas Photo for you.
Positive Attiude Quote:
Learn, Live, Hope
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
I'm happy to report a .5 loss today on the scale this morning to 139.0. I'm off to the YMCA today to workout and meet some friends this afternoon. I will be back later.
