Today was another rainy day. Enough with the rain already!! It's been raining for almost 2 weeks now, and I am craving Vitamin D in the worst way!! My garden isn't sure if it's even growing season right now or if the seeds should still be hiding away underground where it's slightly warmer. The poor tomato plants may be stunted. I think the boys and I are feeling stunted. WE need the sunlight and warmth. WE need to get out and play in the sun. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with the kids playing in the rain and the mud, but with the temps only being in the 40's, it's not quite warm enough for that.
Today we spent the day doing some cleaning around the house. I focused on the paper clutter under the cleaning plan that I'm following. As I may have posted yesterday, I'm not planning on following the 40 week plan over 40 actual weeks because I'd like the house to be clean before that. I'm going to try to abridge the plan to make it through a little faster. I don't know how fast, it depends on each step, but we'll see what happens. Anyway.. here's the plan that I'm following.. https://organize365.com/organize-365-podcast/ I'm new with listening to podcasts, but I started with podcast #1 and am going from there. I came up with a total of 6 Sunday baskets!!
I know they're not all "baskets" but I just used whatever was handy. I didn't get through all of them today because I was playing single parent while hubby was at the shop all day, but I did get through 3 of them! I did a quick sort - his, mine, kids, and trash piles. Then a more thorough where I went back through all my stuff and opened it and decided if it was keep, shred, or recycle. If it was keep, I had to decide where it was going to go or what I was going to do with it and put it in the appropriate file/pile. Turns out most of the stuff I went through was either shred or recycle. I think that's what I'm going to find when I go through the rest of the stuff, which I'm hoping to do tomorrow.
Breaking the cleaning down into these smaller manageable pieces is really helping me. Normally when I work on this stuff, my anxiety gets to me and drives me crazy because I get too overwhelmed and I need to walk away. But so far this is working!!
There is another podcast I found that is breaking down organization into little pieces, and I'm working that into my routine too. It builds on itself. It started with the first night - spend a couple minutes just picking up the bathroom before going to bed. Put everything in the bathroom away where it goes, wipe down the sink/counters, pick up stuff on the floor. That way in the morning the bathroom is clean when you go in there. Now they added on Step 2 - pick up and put away 5 things before you go to bed. Just 5 things you see sitting out that aren't where they belong, and put them away.
I talked to a friend of mine today who I had lost touch with for a while and has now moved back to the area. She is a personal trainer and I was asking for some advice because I'm getting desperate now that I've been diagnosed at pre-diabetic and have osteoarthritis in my knee. I was doing my workout today - Hip Hop Abs - when the 2 oldest kids decided they had to start fighting and no one wanted to watch my Monkey, so I had to quit halfway through. It's really grating on me when they have to fight like that ALL the time. She only has 2 days of school left, so I'm sure they're going to be fighting A LOT....
I survived the weekend. It was very difficult though! At TOPS I was down 3 pounds this week, which is encouraging. When I see progress on the scale, I have more motivation to keep it up. I've been trying to push myself to get more motivated and exercise more too.
And now that I have the motivation to go to the gym, I can't. They are closed for remodeling until Wednesday :( And I've also found out that a friend of mine goes to the same gym, and we've been missing each other just by an hour out there. We're going to try coordinating to go together for accountability and motivational purposes.
I have a confession to make. I had been down a total of 27 pounds not too long after we had lost Baden. But because of the stress and depression I've been fighting with, I have gained almost all of it back. As of last weigh in, I am a total of 5 pounds below my starting weight at TOPS, which is my highest weight ever. And I'm not happy about it. I do know that being on the 'diabetic diet' does have significant weight loss effects just from when I was on it when I was pregnant. However, unlike when I was pregnant, I have been able to incorporate exercise into the mix.
Hitting the gym has also helped to deal with more of my stress too. All the pent-up energy from being angry or frustrated I redirect to my workout. Since the weather is a bit cooler now, I'm going to try to get out walking in the neighborhood. Unfortunately I won't be able to multitask and do my reading while I'm walking, so I'll have to make up for that somehow.
I've been trying to plan out my meals to help with keeping my carbs in check. Saturday I had class and packed a lunch of stir-fried veggies and a little rice to take with me. For supper we were invited to the campground to eat with my parents and family. Unfortunately most of what was being served was not on my menu. I brought my own pork chops and a summer squash since, in addition to the low carbs, the dietitian said "low salt and low fat." They were serving ribs, corn, potatoes, and cornbread. I can have potatoes, but I didn't realize they were being served in a creamy gravy. I took some anyway and scraped most of the sauce off and also had a half ear of corn. I did take a little bite off of my husband's cornbread, just so I could have a taste.
I'm very proud of myself for not giving in and breaking down. I did it again on Sunday for lunch when we went to the family reunion too. I'm still amazed I was able to peel off and give up my crispy chicken skin (my FAVE!!) to my husband. A few tablespoons of tater tot hotdish, some applesauce, some musk melon. Like I said, I'm surviving. It's amazing how easily I've been saying no to some of the things I really love.
The hard thing to give up is my Coke. If I don't have any, I end up with a horrid migraine. So I've allowed a compromise: I use one meal's carbs toward one can of Coke, usually in the morning because I have that and some eggs for breakfast. My doc has suggested that giving up caffeine will help with my fluid retention problem. But fall is coming and I love my coffee. I just can't bring myself to drinking decaf. I think I should be OK as long as I don't add a bunch of carbs in sweeteners/creamers to it. I'll have to check my Coffeemate, since I have 2 bottles of it.
I suppose - I need to try to get motivated for the day. Scrappy has preschool orientation tonight and starts preschool on Thursday. I need to get some laundry done, maybe throw him in the tub, and I really should get my house cleaned up and catch up on dishes. I can't wait until we start (and finish!) construction so I have a place to actually PUT things! And I can't wait to get my new office since our contractor has decided to put another room on the 2nd floor!! This just isn't moving fast enough for me :( Oh well, good things come to those who wait, right? Right?
is going to be starting tomorrow. I went to meet with the dietitian today. Exactly what I thought would happen was confirmed.
I got a phone call from the doctor's office last night. When he ordered the blood draw, they measured my A1C, which has to do with blood glucose. My results came back at 6.1, which they told me is at the top of the normal range.
Today the dietitian told me that it puts me into the classification of 'pre-diabetic.' I already knew that my chance of Type 2 is higher because of having gestational diabetes with my last pregnancy. Now, being pre-diabetic, I'm back on the diabetic diet.
Except it's not a diet.
It's a permanent change.
Goodbye pasta, mac and cheese, and instant mashed potatoes :( Only a total of 45 g of carbs allowed per meal. But the carbs add up quick, considering there are carbs in milk. I need to start looking up recipes that are low carb/no carb. This is going to be HARD!!! And giving up most of my soda too! Just one can a day.... better start stocking up on the Mio and generic brands of it too!! (Can't have Crystal Light cuz it has aspartame, which gives me migraines.)
Well, gotta get some homework done now. Did some canning today - 21 quarts of spaghetti sauce! Lots more tomatoes to do tomorrow after TOPS too!! Gonna be a BUSY day :)
