1. I am back from my Barcelona vaca. Suffice it to say 16 days was a bit long to travel with my mom. I think I could have sent her back on day 8 and spent the remaining 8 days on the beach.
2. I am back a work and am not happy about it. The bright side is that we are on summer hours so I work a few hours longer Mon - Thurs and then we get Fridays off for the next couple of weeks.
3. Weight gain sucks....when I got back from Spain I was up 15 lbs from my most consistent weight. (Not all 15 came from the trip) Clothes didn't fit right, I felt sluggish, and just plain gross. The Chicago challenge has helped me get my butt in gear and I am down 7 lbs now but it makes me wonder. When I felt that way in the past, what was my reaction? Did I even recognize when I was gaining weight? Was I so out of touch with my feelings that I would just buy larger sizes and move on? Whatever I did then, I am so glad that I am not doing that now.
4. I joined Weight Watchers....several other bloggers have talked about it and I just felt like I needed some structure. One of the biggest differences for me between the band and the sleeve is the idea of restriction. With the band, if I ate too much I would FEEL it. Things would start to get uncomfortable and sometimes if I really overdid it there was physical pain. The sleeve doesn't do that. I get full, but that never stopped me before surgery so I am really having to work on listening to my body and recognizing fullness and stopping. If I am really paying attention to what I am doing, the sleeve works great! I feel full after a serving of food and can be satisfied for 2 - 3 hours. But no foods are restricted...there are no foods I cannot tolerate. That's where WW comes in. Just a little extra structure to help me with my choices.
5. I peed behind one of the bushes near these ancient Roman aqueducts....deal with it.
6. I gave up sugar. Since my fantastic diet of Cokes with real sugar and gellato while in Spain didn't do me any favors, I figured it was time for a detox. I am on day 8 and things are going pretty well. My favorite sweet replacement right now is fresh cherries.....sooooo good!
7. I've got to choose another 1/2 marathon to complete before 2013. I promised myself when I did my first one in 2011 that I would do one a year no matter what. Well....2012 is half way over, my running condition is no where near where it was in February 2011 and it is freakin' hot outside. I guess I better pick something in November or December and hope that October isn't too brutal temp wise so I can train outside.
8. I miss my dad a lot....and it comes at me unexpectedly sometimes....which is to be expected.
9. My mom is a hot mess. She was bowling last night and slipped and fell backwards, hitting her head, and knocking herself unconscious. When she came to, she was feeling nauseous. So the paramedics were called. They checked her out, said everything was fine, and left. All the while my niece and nephew were there with her freaking out. They are 9 and 11 and my nephew is autistic which just kind of exacerbated the whole situation. Not sure what I am going to do with my mom but since my dad passed it is almost like she is a different person.
10. Can't wait for Chicago. Happy Thursday all!
