No Pain No Gain (Or Loss)

7.5 lbs lost so far. And let me tell you I'm feeling every fiber in my arm muscles today. Literally, I can't lift my elbows higher than my chest. And we won't even begin to discuss how much my ass hurts. The incline on the tredmill was 10.0. And I must make funny faces because my trainer kept laughing at me. My muscles were so tired last night it was impossible to wash my hair. Or style it this AM so its up in a clip and I don't care how I look. Well I do... but not about my hair. I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow and I don't want to be at work. Plus I'm a little queesy due to my headache despite my hour of acupuncture this am so maybe I'm also a little crabby.

I'm not sure why we booked a 9:00AM flight but maybe that will mean we'll be able to hit a park or see friends for dinner tomorrow night. Or laze by the pool because its supposed to be 85 in Florida tomorrow and it was 32 this AM in Chicago. If we had rain we could have had snow. Or take a really nice nap - in fresh sheets on an enormous bed.

But here is my dilemna - what shoes to bring. I'm not a "shoe person" like my Mom and Sister in Law are. That being said though we are bringing just our carry ons and I'm concerned I'm not going to have enough room for my shoes. I want to bring my shape ups and gym shoes but then I need flip flops and flats to match my Snow White Costume. Thats 4 pairs! Craziness. The nice thing about staying at our timeshare is we have a washer and dryer in unit so we don't have to bring 7 outfits. But I do have to bring work out clothes. The entire trip is planned around eating so in order not to backslide I have to get out of bed and hit the gym before we go to the park.

We are very much looking forward to this trip. Aside from our honeymoon this is the first real vacation we have taken by ourselves. I don't count blizzards as vacation - unless they are the kind in a cup. We mapped out our days and even decided to thrown in a trip to Universal Studios and Medieval Times - all bought with timeshare points! I've lived within 20 minutes of a Medieval Times for 15+ years and have never been! So have a good week and I'll be back with lots of yummy looking pictures of food and wine (and tequila).

I did good!

So apparently 80 lbs might be too lofty of a goal! And that didn't come from me. It came from the trainer. And at my 1st personal training session last night my trainer Patrick told me I did good and I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was.

WOAH! Seriously?? Yeah me. So I just thought I'd share. That and I lost 5lbs in the last 3 weeks! And I'm actually looking forward to going to the gym tonight.

Biggest Loser

So I've decided to share my goals with my blogger friends. I talked about trying to look good when you don't FEEL good and I'm hoping this latest committment to myself will halp me look AND feel good. I am loosing (catch the positive affirmation there?) 80 pounds. By The end of May when we go to Walt Disney World with my husband's family. Short term is 20 pounds by our December trip to Las Vegas. I have some halter tops in my closet I'd like to wear when we go.

So how do I plan on getting there? Well I'm using weightwatchers.com to track my points and activity. I rejoined Lifetime Fitness. I'm in not 1 but 2 Biggest Loser Contests. One at work that goes until the week before Thanksgiving and another with My husband, and his Sister and her boyfriend. This one goes until the trip and the prize is $360. At the moment I'm not that excited about the money. My drive is coming from the ability to shop in stores I've never shopped in as an adult. To go into the Disney shops and pick out any sweatshirt I want and not worry if its going to fit.

I took a picture of me from my sophmore year soccer uniform and put it as my walpaper on my cell phone. The original went up on the refridgerator. Thats the other part - I'm only buying healthy nutritious food.

I've put in my planner the fitness classes I want to take - such as Latin Fusion (seriously this kicked my butt last week we crunk'd, can-can'd, jai ho'd, and macarena'd our way through 60 minutes. I take my gym bag with me and have an extra change of clotehs in it just in case. I also got up on Sunday BEFORE friends came over to work out.

And while I would love to hire a trainor my free sessions are just going to have to do for now.

My biggest challenge is going to be going to the Disney Food and Wine Festival in 11 days. But we are going to work out in the morning and wear our shape-up to the parks. Who knows maybe I'll find some healthy food that I love that I would not have tried.

So please cheer me on. As i'm taking this part of my health back. I may not be able to will the Sarcoid into remission but I can will myself back into a size 10 jean.

Cheerful Outfit

Yesterday I had this awesome encounter with a patient of ours. He needed help with some insurance claims which means I'm the person who would help him. I walked in the treatment room and he STOOD to great me. His wife said "Oh! You're the person I spoke with on the phone. So nice to meet you." This patient had a partial nephrectomy for kidney cancer. Turns out his son took out a cancer policy for this "just in case". Thats such a cheerful outfit! You've been so helpful. We appreciate all that you do! I was glowing by the time I was finished. I went off to lunch on a cloud! And it got me thinking - Am I that kind of patient. Am I complimentary enough to people who do their job correctly? Do I remember them and tell them so. Do they leave feeling euphoria after interacting with me? Or do I wallow in chronic illness and need to take a lesson from the cancer people who seem to always have the best outlook? I had a guy tell me "This should be fun.'" in a very sincere voice after I collected $2000 from him for Prostate Cancer surgery. I know this morning I had a nice chat about tequila with my acupuncture doctor. And his staff is always sweet and compliments my wardrobe. But I see them every week. When I was first diagnosed with Neurosarcoid I read the book "Model Patient" by Karen Duffy. It was a great point of view for me to read but certainly not everyone will get her humor. She talks about trying to look nice and be nice and really OWN your illness. Good advice.

So I always try to LOOK good when I don't feel good. Sometimes this is easier said than done. Especially, since I often can't wear make-up (which makes me feel pretty) due to my dry eye issue. (Which hopefully will be fixed tomorrow as we are trying new eye plugs.) But I try to look as put together as I can. How about you?