It's been a while

A lot has happened since I last posted.  After my Opa left us, I had a hard time with a lot of things. 

But I'm back now. 

I'm better now.

And I have a mission.

I'm working on a frugality challenge right now.  I started it this afternoon.  But I need accountability to help keep me going and doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

Which is why I'm here.

And I'm inviting anyone reading this to join in.

Too often I find myself resorting to quick and easy fixes for meals, and don't worry about the nutritional value in the food.  Or the calories.  I really need to.

I had gastric bypass surgery on March 4 this year.  I had struggled with so many failed diets, then tore my calf muscle which benched me from exercise.  Then came the diabetes.  4 finger pokes a day.  2 insulin injections a day.  Struggling with lows because wasn't eating often enough.  Then the highs came.  300+ blood sugars.  Elevated liver enzymes. My health was going quickly downhill, so my doctors recommended bypass.

Here I am, 6 months later, and 60 pounds lighter.  I lost all of my weight so far in the first 3 months, and really haven't lost much since.  But I know I need to increase my activity.  And I need to be more conscious of the choices I make in my food.  Ideally, my diet should consist of 70% protein and 30% other (mostly veg).

So in addition to eating healthy, I'm giving myself a Pantry Challenge.

Here's the rules:

1) Anything in my pantry/fridge/freezer is fair game.  Pretty much, any FOOD in my house is fair game.

2) I'm allowing myself a WEEKLY budget of $20 to put towards any meals (milk is not included in this budget because my kids go through 1/2-1 gallon per day.  When I buy milk, I try to buy it when I go to town 30+miles away, because  (like today) I was able to purchase it for $3.19 per gallon, whereas if I purchase in town 3 miles away, it's $5.35 per gallon.  This morning I bought a gallon close to home because I NEEDED it, then I bought 6 gallons when I went into the bigger town)

3) I'm TRYING to get my husband on board, but I know he wants an exception for his Coke.  Without it, he gets migraines 😢

4) USE UP leftovers.  Yes, my chickens LOVE getting treats in the form of people food that would otherwise be thrown out, but we need to be throwing out LESS.

Now to the plan:

On Friday, we met with Hubby for lunch and took a couple pizzas.  There was half of each pizza left over, and he forgot them at work.  Today he brought them home so that was supper.  Quick and easy.

Tomorrow I have to work (unless Monkey has to go to the hospital... he had a feeding tube put in about a month ago and has granulation and bleeding coming from the tube.  Waiting to hear on what the clinic wants us to do... I messaged them yesterday, called and messaged and sent photos a couple times today... but the GI doc was out.)  I made an apple baked oatmeal to take to a friend today, so I mixed up a second oatmeal -banana chocolate chip - and stuck it in the fridge.  Supper tomorrow night - just 30-40 minutes in the oven and top with milk. Mmmm.

Tomorrow morning we are also going to another small town near us to see what's coming on the Food Truck.  Basically it's a mobile food pantry.  There are no income or residency requirements.  My great uncle actually works as a volunteer with it and said that if people don't show up for it, they won't do it.  It's all surplus food that is distributed so it won't go to waste.  (Even with the people showing up they still have excess food.)  Sometimes there are dairy boxes (milk close on date, 5 lb tub of yogurt, cheese, sour cream, etc), sometimes there are meat boxes (fully cooked frozen sausage patties, bacon, meatballs, etc) and there is always fruit and veggies (corn, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and more).  There are usually other odds and ends.  Last time we got a big box (20+ pounds) of granola cereal, crackers, pina colada mix, instant mashed potatoes.  I can't wait to see what's on the truck this week!!

I'm going to start working on a list for meal ideas... tomorrow after we "meet the truck," I'll have a better idea of what is going to be on which day.  I'm hoping to post again then 😁😁😁

Let me know in the comments if you want to play along!  What meals are you making this week?

I made it!!!

Yesterday was Day45.  I made it.  But it was very difficult, especially this last week.  I almost gave up several times this last week.

I received a text message on the morning of March 10 that my Opa, my very best friend in the world, was in the hospital and wasn't doing well.  See, Opa was diagnosed with cancer Dec 16, 2016, and it had spread.  But he had been fighting it fiercely.  

But the message I got had me getting my children situated and hopping in my vehicle and on my way to the hospital in less than an hour.

I spent the entire day there with much of my family.  My Opa was on pain medications much of the time.  I was grateful to have a little bit of time alone with him while he was lucid to tell him things that he already knew but I felt I just had to say.  And to hear him tell me he loved me too one last time.

I lost my Opa on Saturday evening.  I was with him when he went to heaven.  I had prayed with him just a short time earlier.  First I had prayed God would give us a miracle.  Then I prayed God would take my Opa's pain away.  I miss him terribly, but it was worse to see him suffering so.

It was a very rough week between his passing and his funeral.  I battle with depression on a regular basis as it is, but losing him sent me into a deeper than normal depression and I had difficulty with functioning as normal.  He was my person, my one to call, the one who I could talk to about anything in the world.

I stuck with my Whole45 plan because I knew Opa would want me to.  My health was important to him.  It was something we often discussed.  We would compete when he was gone for the winter to see who would lose the most weight, or who would have the most bragging rights for exercising, or who had been to the gym the most often.

So...

I kept with the plan and pushed through.  I made it all 45 days.  Since Jan 1, when I started pushing my weight loss efforts, I've lost a total of 15 pounds. 

I've had some great NSVs (non-scale victories) too! 

• I don't have heartburn all the time. 
• My hemoglobin is usually around 12.5, the minimum for donating blood.  At my last blood donation it was over 14!
• I tried on a dress for the funeral on Saturday that I've never worn - it fit.  It was a size SMALLER than I normally wear!!
• My blood pressure, which is usually normal, is even lower.
• My black yoga pants are falling down :)
• I sleep better at night.
• I have less cravings.

As of today I can add back in my grains, dairy, and beans.  Scrappy has been talking about pizza all week so he's had me craving it, so we ordered Papa Murphy's.  Unfortunately I overdid it :(   I should know with pizza.  I don't eat it very often because it's one of my foods-without-brakes.  Fortunately it doesn't happen with frozen pizza - I'm not much of a fan of frozen pizza.  And I have a plan to get back on track tomorrow morning.

My plan now is to try to stay on Whole30-plus-dairy-grains-and-beans-with-an-occasional-treat until after my surgery.  I think it would be hard to be on plan while I'm recovering from my surgery because cooking would be difficult.  I'm also hoping to get my bicycle out soon because I want to start riding it more.  Monkey likes his bike helmet now, so hopefully I can get him to ride in the bike trailer this year!

Finally winter? and Scrappy's surgery

The house is settling down after a busy week.  I feel like I'm finally getting caught up on the sleep I missed this week, but my whole sleep schedule is out the window :/

Tuesday night I had to call the hospital to find out what time Scrappy's surgery was.  Beau was going to stay at my sister's for the night since we usually have a 6am report time and Beau still had school.  (She's already missed enough.  I kept her home all of Thanksgiving week because it was a short week and we were trying to prepare the kids for what to expect at the funeral.)  We tentatively planned for her to stay there Wednesday night too since we didn't know if the surgery would be inpatient or outpatient (it was initially scheduled for outpatient).  Very glad we, too!!

He was scheduled to report at 12:30 pm.  Most adults would have trouble fasting that long, let alone a 3 1/2 year old!  He couldn't have anything after 4:30 am, and I wasn't sure how we were going to handle it at first.  After discussing it with my hubby, we decided to keep Scrappy up as late as possible.  Then he would be able to eat later and would hopefully sleep until we had to leave.  And it worked!  He crashed about 2 am and slept until we woke him up to get him ready.  Long story short, because of an emergency being squeezed in ahead of him, Scrappy didn't end up getting taken back for surgery until 4:30pm.  We felt so bad for the little guy, not being able to eat or drink anything.  Since he got out of surgery so late, he ended up being inpatient.

Of course, he didn't want to sleep in the big hospital bed by himself - he wanted Mommy to snuggle with him.  That was one of the worst night's sleep I've had in a long time - only being able to sleep on one side, being woken several times a night either by nurses checking on him, giving him nebby treatments, or him kicking me.  I looked forward to sleeping in my own bed Thursday night.  He ended up sleeping between us so he wouldn't bump his nose on anything and so we could keep him elevated.  Here's Scraps with his Buppy (puppy-bear), who went into surgery with him

And Big Bear.

For the next 2 weeks, the little man is supposed to take it easy - no rough housing or overexertion.  Which means no playing in the snow we finally got.  I'm not sure of the official count, but as of 8:30 am yesterday we had 4 inches of snow, and it kept snowing lightly all day.

This is the view out our back door.

I was hoping things would turn around yesterday and I'd get a much-needed break in luck.  I had no plans to leave the house since Beau was home because of Staff Development Day.

Yeah right.  I should know better.

It seemed most things I tried to do yesterday backfired on me.  I went out to try to snow blow the patio, driveways, and sidewalks since hubby had been at work all day.  I tried several times but just couldn't get it started, so I gave up and shoveled some by hand.  When hubby got home, he got it started right away (apparently the circuit to the outlet wasn't turned on.  I didn't know it wasn't on).  When I came in from shoveling, I thought coffee sounded great - and then the filter capsized and got grounds in my coffee :/  Grrrr.

Comfort food for supper - potato soup and baking powder biscuits.... Made them so many times, didn't think I could ever mess those two up.

Hahaha - again, yeah right!

I was distracted talking to my buddy while I was making the biscuits - and totally screwed them up by not adding enough flour.  Of course, I didn't realize it until after I added the liquids.  So instead of light and fluffy biscuits, they were kinda flat.  At least they still tasted good!!

The conversation I'd been having all day with my kids continued after my buddy left and I was finishing up the soup.

Beau: MOOOOM!!  Scrappy is doing it again (annoying her or getting into something of hers)
Me:  Scrappy stop it!
Scrappy: Mommy! My want UP!
Me:  I'm trying to ______ (make supper).  Go play with your (monster trucks/cars/puzzles/trains)
Scrappy:  My not like you.  My want Daddy.
Beau: MOM!  He's doing it again!!
and on and on and on.

As a result of Mama being distracted, thickening up the soup didn't go as planned.  I thought it looked kind of odd as I added the corn starch to the soup - why was it foaming up so much?  And it's not thickening up - how much more do I need to add.

Then I looked in my hand - and realized I had grabbed the baking powder instead of the corn starch!  Really?? UGH!  At least the soup still came out tasting good.

Today Scrappy had a bit of a fever and hubby worked all day, so we just had a quiet day at home.  I didn't get much done today, but that's ok.  I got my workout in - I only missed Wednesday and Thursday doing them this week, but have done more than an hour most other days :)  Looking forward to TOPS weigh in next week!!

Feeling Refreshed!

I really needed to get caught up on my sleep - it's been a rough week!!  Tuesday we had all-day appointments for Scrappy, plus I had my checkup in the morning.  We had to be there at 7 am, so I'd been up since 3:30 am.  No wonder I was crashed in my recliner by 9 pm!! 

Scrappy's appointments were just his normal CF checkups, an ENT appointment, and an audiogram.  His hearing still isn't where it should be, so they decided he does need another set of tubes put in.  He will also be having another nasal polypectomy and bronchial lavage.  This will be his 2nd set of tubes, 3rd polypectomy and lavage, and 4th surgery in less than 4 years.  The ENT also ordered a head CT for Wednesday so she could see if his sinuses were congested with polyps too.  His surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday, the 18th, and is planned to be an outpatient procedure unless she does goe up into his sinuses more.  Praying for a simple procedure and no complications!!

We had to be at the hospital at 8am for his CT, so that meant being up at 5am on Wednesday.  Poor little man had to fast until after it was completed.  Second day in a row that he had to fast from midnight until his first procedure - not fun for him or for us either!!  They had to give him anesthesia to do the CT because he was terrified of the machine!  Because of this, he didn't go in to CT until 1015.  It seemed to take forever for him to come out of it.  He started vomiting up mucus and stomach acid, since his stomach was empty.  That made for a really long ride home!  About 3pm his tummy finally settled down and he came out of it enough that he could eat.

My OB cleared me at my appointment!  I couldn't have a complete workout because of the untimely 'visitor,' but my doc told me I could have the last part of my checkup done at our local clinic.  She asked if we were planning to have another child.  I told her we would like to once we got the go-ahead from her health-wise.  She would like me to try to lose a little more weight in the meantime, which I have been working on anyway, but said as long as my last test comes back ok, there's no reason we can't start trying.  I'm supposed to start taking prenatal vitamins now too in preparation.

Being at the hospital 2 days in a row took a toll on my diet :(  At TOPS this week I had a 3 pound gain.  In addition to the eating out, I didn't get my workouts in for the past week since Scrappy hasn't been feeling very well and wanted to constantly cuddle.  Today I was back at it hard again.  I was vacuuming and picked up the mat in the living room, and left it up so I could try out Zumba.  I did about 5 minutes of it and OUCH!  I'm not coordinated - I'm sure it would give anyone a good laugh!

I set up my Wii Fit to do the entire routine - 81 minutes!  Scrappy was getting a little crabby with me and wanted to play.  I told him if he can't wait patiently for his turn, he wasn't going to get a turn.  I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow.  It's going to be difficult to get my workout in tomorrow - I have class in 8-2 but am leaving early so I can go to a funeral for a friend.  Very sad for someone to die so young :'(

Another new challenge I've set up for myself in cooking - try one new recipe each week.  I get tired of the same stuff each week and am looking to branch out... Hopefully I'll get some new ideas soon!!