New Year's Eve

So, I started out yesterday as a good girl... ended the day as a bad girl. But... Not going to beat myself up... these social gatherings will be where I consume most (if not all) my excess calories. But that's what the excess calories are for.

Tonight, we'll go to Brooke & Roy's for NYE. More drinking and unaccountable quantities of chips, dips and appetizers. But, I'll start the day off right. Stay in control until this evening. The real bummer is... we got to wear jeans to work and they are tight. NOT GOOD!

Coffee: 3
SB cereal bar/banana 5
Vitamin water 1


Total: 9
out of 22

No exercise to speak of, although my knee is feeling pretty good today! I can't do anything until the stitches come out.

2nd day after surgery

Suregery seems to have gone well. I didn't have to go under general anesthesia. We (surgeion, anesthesiologist and me) decided on using a really strong sedative and then a lot of local anesthesia in the knee. Recovery was much better this go round.

Today was my first shower after surgery. I feel almost human again. I am in some pain and the pain meds are messing up my stomach. That's a good thing, I guess, maybe it will keep me from eating while I can't be active. I'm also thinking twice about taking any more pain medication ... also a good thing.

I saw the incision for the first time today. Almost 2" long on the top of my knee. There goes the Miss Texas crown for sure now. My leg looks like a road map. Joe Namath would be proud. I have to say, I'm a little upset about the scar. But, it can't be helped now.

It turns out that the screw that was sticking up disentigrated as soon as the surgeon tried to handle it. There was a cyst that had developed over the back side of the screw he felt could have been causing the pain. So he removed that. I'm not sure what the difference is between a cyst and scar tissue. But that's how he described it. I guess I'm "cyst lady". Every part of me develops cysts eventually, I guess.

So, suffice it to say. I didn't make my goal 4 days in a row this last time. So, I'll start over on day one writing down every bite I put in my mouth. I could probably remember what I had to eat on Saturday, but Friday is kind of a blurr. I remember a sleeve of Ritz crackers and a Fresca.

So... Sunday, December 30th:

pot of coffee with skim milk and sweet & low.
1 tsp International Coffees chai latte mix in my coffee so... let's say 3pts for coffee
banana 2
SB cereal bar 3
1/2 turkey sandwich
1 slice wheat bread 1
3 slices deli turkey 1
1 Tbsp mayo 3
Progresso veggie soup (advertised as 0 pts, but 2 servings per can) 1

Okay, this is Monday ... after the fact...let's see how bad I was last night. I met Brooke at Costco this afternoon...bought coffee, VitaRain (0 calorie vitamin water) and some stuff for supper tonight.

So Brooke & Roy cam over I made enough in case the kids showed up too. Here's the run down of the rest of the evening's intake.

4 glasses of red wine (good red wine)... 8 points
crackers Ritz/Wheat Thins with that awesome creamy jalepeno artechoke dip
small filet minon (bacon wrapped, but didn't eat the bacon)
1/2 twice baked potato made with butter (real) and cheese
salad with green goddess dressing 3 points
2 sugar cookies w/icing

so there... it is documented... although I wouldn't really know how to count the points. What is listed above adds up to 25 points. I get 25 additional points for the week. I'm guessing between last night and tonight... I'll probably be over that. :-( But there it is... in black and white. Accountability (somewhat, as I do not have amounts here on all things... chips, dips, etc. are hard to quantify... that's why they are soooooo dangerous). But I knew that already.


Total: 25
out of 22

Obviously no exercise today.

LY!LY!

Day 2 - last good workout

I probably won't have a chance to blog tomorrow. I go in for my procedure to grind off that screw in my knee tomorrow morning 7:15 a.m. So, I got in a GOOD workout this morning. It may be a few days before I can get on my elliptical again.

I'm reading a book (reading may be an overstatement, let's call it scanning) called the "4 Day Win." Basically, the concept is you can do anything for 4 days. So, I set a rediculously easy goal to reach each day... I get a little reward each day I achieve my goal, and after 4 days in a row, I get a more substantial reward. The problem is, the reward I want is food related... that's going to be the tough part for me.

Goal each day: Account (in writing) for everything I eat.
Reward each day, some sort of BC facial or manicure treatment before bed (I need a better reward, this is actually more like work to me.)
4 Day Reward: a new pair of shoes

I did my 45-minute workout this morning. 5 minutes of yoga to stretch/warm up
10 minutes of inervals (high-low intensity) on my elliptical.
10 minutes of upper body weights, 10 minutes of abs/core
10 minutes more on elliptical
100 crunches mixed with some pillates moves for cool down

We'll call this my standard morning workout... the only variation will be whether I concentrate on upper or lower body weights each day. It should alternate.

Here's the rundown on today's food intake:

Pot of coffee w/S&L & skim milk 1
SB protien/cereal bar 3
banana 2
20 oz water w/Life Water 1
med apple 2
laughing cow lt cheese, wassa cracker 1
20 oz iced green tea
WW turkey dinner 4
frozen steamed veggies 2
sm diet Coke
2 svg (14) pringles light sour cream/onion 2
2 Wasa crackers 0
2 Tbs hummus 2
diet coke
1c Kashi Lean cereal 2
1/2 c skim milk 1
8 0z water

Exercise -2 (probably low ball estimate, but we'll leave it)
Total: 22 (out of possible 22)

So, for 2 days, off to a pretty healthy start. I was hungry when I went to bed last night, but I drank a big glass of water. Oh yeah, yesterday I also drank 40 oz of green iced tea during the day. That should help too!

End of the day... I kind of grazed late in the day.. but, nothing too terrible. I made good choices and I have met my goal of writing everything down. Nothing to eat or drink after midnight tonight until after my surgery tomorrow... maybe I'll lose a pound. ;-)

LY!LY!

Fitness for the new year

okay... just what I'm sure everyone wants to read about (who am I kidding no one wants to read ANY of this crap). But, I'm going to write about my healthy lifestyle initiatives here. Ta DAH!!! Exciting stuff. Of course, no weight or measurements listed.

Well, yesterday was Christmas so, we got a bye on eating healthy. Jimmy and I met Brooke & Roy at noon and played tennis for 1.5 hours. FUN! Then we went to their house for dinner. We played with the BAY-bee.

Here's what I had to eat:
Of course my usual pot of coffee with skim milk and sweet & low)
2 Pillsburry Cherry Turnovers
Pop Tart (later)

1.5 hours of tennis (STARVING after tennis)
ham & cheese sandwich on wheat bread w/Miracle Whip
light Pringles (sour cream & onion) probably many more than one serving maybe 2 servings.
just a few of Jimmy's Fritos.

Brooke cooked Mexican for dinner. 1 chicken/sour cream enchilada, 1 cheese enchilada, rice, refried beans (yes, in bacon grease)
2 no bake cookies
1 very small piece of carrot cake
2 large bloody mary(s) so 4 oz vodka Peppar
1 beer chaser (XX beer, not light)

Oh my God! No wonder I'm so fat!!!

---------

Okay... here's today: Wed. 12/26/2007
Opened the office at 6:45 a.m. so no workout (yet)
4 cups coffee w/sweet & low & either skim milk or the single serving creamers (35 cals each)
1 SBeach protien/cereal bar
1 banana
Life Water w/vitamins (about 40 cals because I dilute the bottle, too sweet otherwise)

Lunch today: WW smart meal 4 pts
big serving of raw carrots 1 pt
diet Coke

also made 20 oz of iced green tea to sip at my desk....
I'm feeling better already!

Goal for tonight: measure 1 c of cereal.

did it.. 1 c Kashi Crunch cereal (measured) 3 pts
1/2 c skim milk 1 pt
WW yogurt a little later for a snack.

Total: 19 points
Out of 22 total

No exercise... will work out in the morning!

All in all, a good day. I lived up to my commitments today.
Goal setting tomorrow.

LY!

Christmas Morning 07

It's been a nice Christmas. I only have today off, so we did the Christmas thing on Sunday in Hamilton with Jimmy's mom & dad, then late lunch with my family. All the kids were wild... it's Christmas, you know.

My mom got us all digital picture frames and that's what we got Jimmy's mom & dad and my mom & dad. They are nice! I'm going to fill up the 2G memory card with dig pictures. I'm more than half way there. It is nice to see allllllll the pictures of our life over the last (almost 6 years) scroll through while we are sitting on the couch. Joy & Jenn have the same frames. I got the kids all digital cameras... but Kodie already had a nice one. I don't know if the boys will even LOOK at them. Oh well, they'll have dig. pictures for their frames if they want them.

Played two singles matches this week. Lost both. I shouldn't have lost to the guy, but I can't seem to make enough winning shots. Played Darlene again and she played "lights out" tennis. Even she said she was playing some of the best tennis of her life.... great... She would hit a short shot, draw me to the net, then lob perfectly over my head. UGH! I'll bet she did it like 50 times successfully. Every time she did it, I'd swear, I'm not coming to the net again! But... I get going forward and have to go to net... too hard to stop.

I like my new racket, but it has my forehand a little off. Backhand and serve are getting more accurate, however. I'll figure out the forehand again. It's all in my head anyway. I got off work at 12:30 yesterday, then Jimmy and I ran a couple of errands then we went to play tennis for about 1.5 hours. Hit the ball machine 300 shots a piece, then played a set. I got 2 games. I get a little discouraged, I just should be a better tennis player by now. I had a tough time moving yesterday, though.

That's probably it for the tennis for a couple of weeks. I have my knee surgery on Friday morning. I open tomorrow morning, work Thursday and then off for my surgery on Friday morning, Cade & Jenn get here Friday night. That will be a whole other blog subject next week.

LY!LY!

Who really cares about my tennis game anyway?

So who the heck reads this stuff? Does anyone care but me. I guess it is like a private diary? Of course, my mama told me never to write anything down I wouldn't want published in the newspaper. It's good advice that has served me well over the years, so, I wouldn't count on anything too controversial in this blogspot.

As I covered last time I am anti-drama anyway... so... I suppose I'll blog about my tennis game or the latest crochet project. I do intend to document them here. Maybe even I'll find this interesting in 20 years. By that time not only will my short term memory be gone (it's not too swift now) but my long term memory will be shot as well and I'll enjoy reading these meaningless ramblings as an old woman who can't remember where she put her teeth.

So, my tennis game sucks. But that doesn't really seem to bother me. I just want to play. You would think as important to me as it is to play and as often as I play (I try for 3 times a week, but it's not really working out) I would be pretty good. Right? Well... think again.

I had knee surgery 05/05/05 - ACL reconstruction on my left knee and I have had pain ever since. The surgeon is sooooooo proud of his good work. I'm like, "dude! I hurt! Every day! What's up with that?"

The last straw was a couple of weeks ago. I played a singles match with a woman who had the same surgery about the same time... of course she beat me... her knee feels fine. She plays 3 times a week (daytime tennis player - a whole other blog topic) and when I asked her who her surgeon was she said it was my guy!! What are the odds of that? When I told the surgeon this story... and that I was in terrible pain for 2 days after that match.. he asked, "who won?" I could have decked him. I calmly said, " of course she won... SHE'S NOT IN ANY PAIN!

It turns out, there's a little plastic screw sticking up out of my knee, "I guess we could have turned it a time or two more," the surgeon admitted. It's causing inflamation and bursitis. As if to make me feel better, the surgeon also informed me that if I weren't so active, I'd probably never know that screw was there. It's biodegradeable you know.

The bottom line is, they can fix it with another minor surgery, open up the old scar and grind down that screw. I told the surgeon if he can get it done by the end of the year, I would consider it because I've certainly met my insurance deductable. I can't believe I'm considering it. Friday, December 28th I'm scheduled to have my 4th surgery this year. sheeeeeesh!

I hope I turn into a 4.0 player after that... or at least feel like one.

Later!

LY!

I'm Grinning Too Hard

I'm Jill, and I live in Hutto-America a not-so-little suburb of Austin, TX. How I got here is amazing to me. But, suffice it to say, I'm just a little happy about it. I'll tell a little story about the title of this blog.

When I was going into my junior year of high school, my sister, Joy, was going to be a freshman. And we were at church camp that summer. Yes, I was (still am) a giant, uncool nerd. Anyway, we had had a great week at camp. And, I should tell you we are Methodists, so of course camp is co-ed. It was the last night of camp, friendships were renewed, many hours of 4-square, etc. and of course the DANCE (as I said we are Methodists) on the final night.

After a great week and the big finale of the dance that was always a huge build up, Joy and I made it back to our cabin all googly-eyed over a boy and the magic of the evening. And once we got into bed (bunk beds, Joy on the top bunk) the lights went off and everyone got quiet.

Soon, I heard a terrible gurgling sound from above me. The bunk bed was ... shaking? I felt a panic ... I heard a gasp for air coming from my sister's bunk. "Joy!" I said loudly. "Are you okay?"

I waited just a few more seconds before I jumped to my sister's aid when I heard, "GASP!...GURGLE...GURGLE........GAAAAAAAAAASP!.... I'M GRINNING TOO HARD!"

Some days... that's just how I feel! Amazed that I actually made enough good decisions in my life (finally) to be truly happy.

I highly recommend it... DECIDE to do what it takes to make yourself (and those you love) happy. Not happy? Fix it! Know how to fix it? Be grateful!

Of course, this simplified, drama-free lifestyle my husband and I lead also lends itself to happiness... but... that's a conscious decision too.

More about me later! Think I'll go grin on the couch with my husband!

LY!Y!