Back to work, for both of us...

Allen was able to go to work tonight. He isn't one hundred percent yet, but he is feeling much much better than a few days ago. Now if I can just avoid coming down with it...

Oh no!

So, Allen went to the walk-in clinic today and was diagnosed with the flu. It's a pretty serious flu because he's had it for three days now. I really do think he feels better today , but he did go to the doctor just in case he had an infection. She gave him some tamiflu and he is taking some non-alcohol cough syrup. Hopefully he will feel good enough tomorrow to go to church. We will see.

Something cool...

So today at work I was approached by my supervisor to become one of the health champions at work. I'm totally honored because it means she believes in me and my ability to influence others. What is a health champion? It's someone who helps promote the various health and wellness programs that are sponsored by my company. So, why would they want an overweight girl as a health champion? Because I'm making positive changes, because I'm real , and making real choices to make a change. She thinks that I will be able to have value input and be someone that the other people at work who are also overweight could relate to. Now she didn't specifically say that in so many words, but I'm ok with it. I think it's great because not only does it give me the opportunity to share my journey to becoming a more healthy person with others, but it will also help keep me accountable. Cool huh?

Snow snow snow!

Well, I made it to work safely today, but barely! It was very scary and took me 50 minutes to get there, but slow and steady won the race. It was an extremely long day at work. The phones were CRAZY busy, but I survived. Tomorrow is Friday, and normally that would let me breathe a sigh of relief, but I am working some over time again on Saturday. So really it's a one day weekend this weekend, but that's ok, more work=more money.

Allen wasn't feeling very much better today but he did go to work. Hopefully he can kick whatever this is and hopefully I don't get it at all. We stayed home from bible study tonight because we don't know if he's contagious and the people hosting bible study have a little girl that we wouldn't want to get sick.

Tonight I walked on the treadmill to the "workout" radio station, which I have to say the driving dance beats behind the music helped me step it up a notch, but honestly as far as music value...the tunes are pretty worthless. I think I much prefer to enjoy the Cuban party music instead.

Brrrrr it's cold outside!!!

Oh, I wanted to tell you about my new peanut butter. It's called PB2, and way lower in fat. It's actually a powder that has to be reconstituted with water to create the peanut butter, but it tastes great, is MUCH lower in calories, and close to fat free, but still has the protein of peanuts. Two tablespooons worth is only one weight watcher point, when two tablespoons of regular peanut butter is 5 points! So, it's definately worth the extra 75 cents it costs and they make a regular and a chocolate, both only one point. The chocolate tastes like a reeses peanut butter cup! MMM! :) They sell it in the health food section at HY-VEE.

Yuck!

Well, I guess Allen wasn't just tired. He stayed home from work tonight, definately under the weather. Whatever he has I will inevitably get, but lets keep our fingers crossed, because I really don't want it!

I had my weigh in tonight and I didn't lose...:( I actually gained .2 pounds. That's right two tenths of a pound. I told my mom that's it's "that time of the month" for me and she said that I shouldn't worry about the .2 lbs. Because when she lost all of her weight the first time she would always gain a little bit at weigh in during her "time". Of course I'm bummed, but not as much as I thought I would be. I have still lost a total of 5.2 lbs which is good. (I've only been at it for two weeks.) I've been eating much healthier foods. I have been exercising every day, and I feel good about the choices I'm making, so I'm not too discouraged. Next week is a new weigh in.

Tonight I listened to African music while walking on the treadmill. Interestingly enough , it's very similar to the Cuban music I listened to on Monday and Tuesday. I had to look it up, and per http://www.justsalsa.com , salsa music is a synthesis of African and European music influences. So it makes sense that the two radio stations were similar. Up beat, fun, and great music to walk to!

Whew!

Well, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, is historically one of the busiest days of the year at my job. Today did not disappoint. It was very busy! I was so glad to get home today.

Not much to report. Allen has gone two days headache free, but has been experiencing a lot of tightness. Also, tonight he said he feels like he might be fighting off a cold. I sort of felt that way this morning, but I think I was just tired. Hopefully Allen is just tired too!

Hope everyone is having a great week! Stay warm! :)

Sabor Cubano...warming up our little home one trumpet at a time!

This weekend we were able to spend time with Allen's family. It was really nice to get to see everyone. Allen helped his dad along with his brothers take care of some pesky tree limbs that needed to come down. Phil was really happy to have it done and thankfully no one was hurt. So it was a success! It was also nice for the guys to get to spend some "manly" time together and for us girls to spend some time "girl" talk.

Allen had to return to work tonight, but I had the day off so we were able to spend some extra time together which was wonderful. We went to Quincy to get dog food for Penny. (Our Walmart doesn't carry the kind she eats...) and we ate sushi for lunch. I'm always so surprised at how filling sushi really is. I know some people don't like it but we love it! I would LOVE to go to a west coast sushi bar someday.

I'm listening to aol radio while I blog...a radio station called Sabor Cubano. It's like a little Cuban party in the computer room. I like it. I walked on the treadmill to it this evening... it makes me feel like dancing and makes me think of tropical sunny days. What a contrast to outside, which is cold and rainy...bleh. Seriously this music is great. I can close my eyes and see the street party! LOVE IT!

Ummm....Cowabunga?

Well, I rode the wave again tonight, this time I did one of the real work outs, not the super easy intro express workout and I got my bootie kicked. Seriously, I am WAY out of shape. It's so pathetic, but not to be negative... I'm going to stick with it until I'm good at it. Which, if tonight was any indication , is going to be a LONG time. I'm thinking about maybe alternating nights of the aerobic wave and a beginners yoga DVD Allen and I bought A LONG time ago.

Bad news.....Allen has started his cluster headache cycle...:( . He went one year and three months without a cycle, which we're thankful for. It's the longest he's ever gone without a cycle. Please pray for him because this will be the first time he has been through a cycle at his new job. It hurts so much to see my other half in so much pain. He's such a strong man. I admire him so much.

Love you all! :) Oh yeah, my brother is now a car salesman for Hyundai, so if anyone is looking for a new car, I can get you in touch with him!

Hasta la vista.....

5.4 POUNDS! :) YEP! That's how much weight I lost this week, my first week on weight watchers! I was so excited to step on the scale to see that, it really made me feel good. People use the expression there no place to go but up from here. Well, I'm going to say there's no place to go but DOWN from here. Average weight loss on the plan is supposed to be 1 to 2 lbs per week. Slow and steady wins the race, and chances are I won't be losing five lbs every week, but I have to admit, it's a great booster to get started. Allen is proud of me. That makes me feel good!

Two more days and its the weekend! YAY! :)

Survived the Ride...

Good news! I rode my first "wave" tonight and didn't kill or injure myself. I did the 10 minute express workout twice and am sitting here sweating up a storm. I'm really excited because it's not complicated to learn, and it's definately going to give me the workout I need. It's an extremely versatile little piece of plastic. I'm very impressed...with the equipment that is...certainly not myself. I don't think I've done a push up in 7 years. LOL!

I'm going to try and convince Allen to try it, and he might in a few months after he bores from his new video game. Allen's birthday present came three two and a half months early...the video game he has been waiting for months to come out finally was released today, and like I was really going to make my poor honey wait two more months to play it. It's a game called DC Universe Online. It's an MMORP of epic proportions. Look at me, using those letters like I really know what they mean. LOL! I'm told that MMORP stands for Massive (or massively) Multiplayer on-line role playing game. This one is particularly impressive. I've watched Allen play a few of these types of games, but this is a super hero/villian game that takes place in the DC Comic Universe, with all of the superheros, their sidekicks, villians and their henchmen, along with the hundreds of thousands of online players. For someone like myself who doesn't really play these games, it's actually a very interesting game to watch.

A successful weekend...

So, I was concerned about how well I would do with the whole weight watchers thing over the weekend, but I stuck to it. I stuck to my daily points allowance AND I got to eat Roly Poly and cheesecake. Two of my favorites.

They have this whole weight watchers thing down to a real science both a physical science and a mental science. I really wanted to eat two pieces of cheesecake, but I didn't do it b/c I didn't want to have to write it down. I said no to two pieces even though I watched Allen eat two pieces. I'm really proud of making it through my first weekend on weight watchers without giving up.

(Oh and even though Allen ate two pieces of cheesecake, he is being very supportive of this. I told him I didn't care if he ate two pieces that it wouldn't bother me. :) )

Another thing I will tell you, I think I have eaten more fruits and vegetables in the past 5 days than I have in the whole past month. In addition, I have been drinking much more water. Allen is always so good at drinking water. He could down a gallon in fifteen minute I'm sure of it, but I'm a much slower water drinker. I have been making myself do it though, so I can write it down.

I know that me doing weight watchers is probably not the most interesting blog material, but I blog about our lives and right now this is what is going on. Othe than the healthy changes food wise. We bought a piece of exercise equipment called "The Wave" , the picture is up top. I haven't done the workout yet, but I have been on it a few times, and I can tell it's going to be challenging and fun!

Allen is still watching the board at work waiting for a second shift position to open up. Hopefully this will happen soon.

Well, I am off to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate (sugar free/fat free) and watch a little bit of TV. Love you all!

Money money money!

So we are getting the opportunity to work some overtime at my work and I'm taking it. I worked the allowed two hours at the beginning of the week and now I am going to get up bright and early (as soon as Allen comes home) in the morning to work five more hours of overtime. :) YAY! And Allen got an awesome raise at work! Good...now we can pay that hospital bill when it comes in the mail. :( Boo.

Waiting for the weekend...

Well, tomorrow's Friday....and it can't come soon enough! It's been a long week back to work for Allen. He can't wait until he can get a second shift job. The phones have been really busy this week, but not really as busy as I expected, so that's good.

I've started tracking my weight watcher points today, both on paper and online. My plan is to keep up with the paper tracking during the day, and then one of the last things I will do for the day is input the food into the computer, by doing so I won't be tempted to eat anything else because I won't want to log back in and update my log.

So far so good! :)

First meeting....

My Weight Watchers meeting went well. Most of the people there were quite a bit older than me. My mom was worried this would bother me, but really it doesn't. I'm going to lose weight, the meetings are part of the program, so I'm gonna go, whether there are people my age or not. I was given a lot of materials tonight to go through. Let's hope this works....:)

Something exciting....

I start weight watchers tomorrow with my mom. They have a new program and I've heard lots of good things. I don't have much time tonight to blog about it, but I just wanted to let you all know I'm doing it. I will give a report regarding my first meeting tomorrow. (and yes....the massive picture post is still on its way! )