Life according to me…

March 30, 2008

Observation

Filed under: Uncategorized — Melanie @ 10:35 am

I don’t have babies anymore!!!

I know - DER MELANIE - but seriously…

We have been trying to take trips to the park or at least go outside once every day. Yesterday we tried a few parks and at one, we walked around the grounds and checked things out. As we walked from one end to the other with no stroller, leashes, no holding babies in my arms - I realized that my kids are growing up. We walked in a little group and everyone listened and stayed right by me. It was so neat.

They play on playgrounds, they make friends, they play independently of me…I don’t have babies anymore. I had babies for over 7 years, give and take the time between Elisa and the twins…so this was a major observation and realization for me. It’s bittersweet - a little sad because I do miss the baby stage sometimes (rarely!), but then again this is SO VERY REWARDING because the past four years have been very intense in the parenthood department in my home. I have been waiting for this time and plan to enjoy it the best I can before they are off to school!

So we move to the next stages of raising toddlers - moving into becoming preschoolers - they will be starting pre-k in the fall when Elisa starts 3rd grade, so I will just have Maria home full time come August - what an adjustment that will be! I hope to be able to take as many courses as I can once they are in school so that I can finish school by the time the twins start kindergarten- or shortly thereafter.

Amazing how the family progresses. Gotta enjoy it before we are on to the next stage, ya know? :)

March 25, 2008

so far…

Filed under: Uncategorized — Melanie @ 9:23 pm

Here are the stats after my 2nd dietician visit:

I have been adjusting my eating habits since my diagnosis on March 13, with the full out dieting commencing after my visit last Thursday, March 20. Since my visit on March 13, (last time I was weighed) I have lost 2.8 pounds! Small but positive victory. Very motivating.

On other notes - I have felt so much better lately than I had the previous weeks. I have more energy! My feet aren’t expanding into soccer balls nightly and my legs aren’t throbbing as much. My carpal tunnel is still giving me fits to the point where I have to take notes on my laptop instead of on paper which I don’t like at all - but I am getting used to taking notes on the laptop and being that I can type, I think I am doing just fine. I still miss my pens and notebooks. :( I can stay up past 11:00 at night if I want to and get up and get moving the next day. Tomorrow I am going to try to get up and go for a walk. I need to get exercise built into my daily routine so that the fat will continue to burn and I can slim down and feel even better.

I am learning so much about how the body processes food and why I am feeling the way I am. Just the stats on sugar alone are making me so glad I have made some of these changes. The stuff can be really harmful - and being as I have family history, am ‘fluffy’ and already have this insulin issue - diabetes can be right around the corner if I don’t do something about it now and so I am. It sounds so cliche’ but it really is the truth - you have to be careful! Cheating on this diet for me could be dangerous - could push my body right towards diabetes and I am trying to avoid that at all costs. So, whatever - I have divorced sugar and simple carbs from my life, possibly forever, and I don’t feel bad about it at all. Protien, as my dietician says, is my new best friend. And I heart it so! :)

March 21, 2008

edited to add..

Filed under: Uncategorized — Melanie @ 9:07 am

of course, i gotta start this bird-food eating the same day i get RAGING AUNT FLO visiting. i’m so tired i have to force myself to blink because i don’t want to. ugh!

yeah, hoping the blog will move towards more of a daily chronicle than just reports here and there. we’ll see how it goes. i suppose i should go drink some water…and find some midol…I LOVE BEING A WOMAN!

oh, on another note, my kids are currently addicted to this show and it’s cracking me up!

ok, off to drink 15 gallons of water…bye!

March 20, 2008

The forced lifestyle change

Filed under: Uncategorized — Melanie @ 8:56 pm

So, since I went back to school at UCF I have felt like crap. Seriously. My carpal tunnel came back something fierce. My feet started swelling. I have a hard time catching my breath when I go for long walks or up stairs with my backpack on. Migraines were about once a week, and I was getting dizzy and tired all the time. It was agonizing. I was also EXTREMELY tired, like I had taken on this impossible task - when it’s just a few days of classes. It has been hard to manage and on top of all those symptoms, no matter what I did or did not eat I was still gaining weight. It was feeling pretty awful.

A year or so ago I had bloodwork done and got an elevated blood sugar level and needed to begin acting like I have a possible sugar problem, but never did. Well, I went ahead and took a blood sugar check at a friend’s house after having dizzy spells and shaking and headaches all the freakin’ time - and it was considerably high. So, I thought, great, I have diabetes. And no insurance. Wonderful. Insert a week of sulking and worrying and not knowing what to do. Well, it gets better!

For starters, being a student at UCF has this glorious benefit of the UCF HEALTH CENTER. I made an appointment for a checkup in the hopes of getting a referral to a dietician who could help me with my eating and hopefully help me lose weight. Well, I sure got more than I bargained for! When I went in for my appointment and said, I think I have diabetes, the doctor said, well you need to see our diabetes specialist and in came my current angel, Mr. Cronin, PA. He is a diabetic himself with 20 years experience as a diabetic specialist and spent lots of time going over my medical history and symptoms and things of that nature, and set me up for a bunch of labwork that came at a great discount since I am a student, and gave me great info and set me on a path to getting things worked out. It took me a few tries to get the labwork all completed, but I did and as it turns out, I have:
impaired glucose tolerance/hyperinsulinism/hypoglycemia…pre-diabetes. Say that three times fast.

This is good news, as I don’t actually have diabetes yet. With the right diet, exercise, and weight loss, I can prevent diabetes - hopefully. One of the tests they did indicates I have had elevated blood sugar levels on an average over the past few months, but hopefully losing weight and eating right will help fix that and my next test will come back at a lower number. Mr. Cronin was SO helpful - after a week or so of feeling like I had this diabetes and no way to face it, going to him really made a difference. Of course, I still had swollen feet and was super tired all the time - and still am - but I am finally on a path to fixing it MEDICALLY and not just by following here and there advice from other people. I appreciate all the help I have gotten to this point, but one thing my dietician told me today is that nobody else has the same type of body and issues that I do, so what they recommend may not exactly work on me. Now I have people who can help who know my issues and have seen my lab results and can give me specific advice on how to get better.

Here is what the dietician explained very clearly and delicately today in our initial consult:

The elevated insulin is because of being overweight - insulin can’t work really well through fat, so it takes more energy for the insulin to work and get the sugar that my body requires actually to my cells. This is causing more sugar to be in my blood on average, but it makes my body work harder to try to regulate it - it’s like a vicious cycle, because the sugar is eventually stored into fat and makes the pancreas work harder which causes more insulin…and more sugar in the blood. My body needs more insulin to process blood sugar due to my size, but once it is processed, my blood sugar drops because my body doesn’t know to stop producing insulin - causing the hypoglycemia. It all made sense when she explained it but it may not right now. :) In order to give the pancreas a chance to rest, she has put me on a strict South-Beach-Phase-2 type diet consisting of fiber, fruit, whole grains and PROTEIN, which she said would be my new best friend. The complex carbs, protein and fiber are harder for the stomach to digest and use up their sugar in the stomach which means it doesn’t go to my bloodstream NOR does my pancreas have to create more insulin to process it. I’m not drinking anything but water for the next week or so at least, and I have to drink half of my weight in ounces. Which means if I weigh 150 pounds, I have to drink 75 ounces of water per day and so on and so forth. No diet drinks, no splenda, no sugar substitutes. If I am still hungry after my meals, I have more water. I have half of a serving of the normal carbs a person has at a meal - so half a bowl of cereal instead of a whole one, or once slice of bread for a sandwich instead of two. It is all very interesting and the appointment today turned out better than I thought it would - I was so afraid I was going to get a bunch of changes I just could not afford right now, but this plan is really feasible, I have plenty of protein and options for it with WIC and stuff.

I also have to keep a food journal and continue to monitor my sugars in case they drop too swiftly. I have a specific meal plan for if they drop too - so I have things in order for the time being, mostly I am to eat every 3 hours and stop eating 4 hours before bed. I am very committed to doing this and went and spent $40 and got enough fiber/fruit/veggies to hopefully get me through a week or so. We’ll see how it goes!

I just want to feel better, lose weight, and be able to teach my kids healthy eating and lifestyle habits. I am sick of being so heavy and am so pumped about having a definite plan and doctor and specialist to help me through this. I’m GONNA BE HOT BY SUMMERTIME, WATCH OUT!!!!!!! ;)

March 10, 2008

to make my FAVORITE place EVEN BETTER!!!!

Filed under: Uncategorized — Melanie @ 1:42 pm

101 FUN THINGS TO DO AT WAL-MART
i don’t necessarily agree with all of them, but they are funny nonetheless!

1. Take shopping carts for the express purpose of filling them and stranding them at strategic locations.

2. Ride those little electronic cars at the front of the store.

3. Set all the alarm clocks to go off at ten minute intervals throughout the day.

4. Start playing Calvinball; see how many people you can get to join in.

5. Contaminate the entire auto department by sampling all the spray air fresheners.

6. Challenge other customers to duels with tubes of gift wrap.

7. Leave cryptic messages on the typewriters.

8. Re-dress the mannequins as you see fit.

9. When there are people behind you, walk REALLY SLOW, especially thin narrow aisles.

10. Walk up to an employee and tell him in an official tone, “I think we’ve got a Code 3 in Housewares,” and see what
happens.

11. Tune all the radios to a polka station; then turn them all off and turn the volumes to “10″.

12. Play with the automatic doors.

13. Walk up to complete strangers and say, “Hi! I haven’t seen you in so long!…” etc. See if they play along to avoid
embarrassment.

14. While walking through the clothing department, ask yourself loud enough for all to hear, “Who BUYS this junk,
anyway?”

15. Repeat Number 14 in the jewelry department.

16. Ride a display bicycle through the store; claim you’re taking it for a “test drive.”

17. Follow people through the aisles, always staying about five feet away. Continue to do this until they leave the
department.

18. Play soccer with a group of friends, using the entire store as your playing field.

19. As the cashier runs your purchases over the scanner, look mesmerized and say, “Wow. Magic!”

20. Put M&M’s on layaway.

21. Move “Caution: Wet Floor” signs to carpeted areas.

22. Set up a tent in the camping department; tell others you’ll only invite them in if they bring pillows from Bed and Bath.

23. Test the fishing rods and see what you can “catch” from the other aisles.

24. Ask other customers if they have any Grey Poupon.

25. Drape a blanket around your shoulders and run around saying,”…I’m Batman. Come, Robin, to the Batcave!”

26. TP as much of the store as possible.

27. Randomly throw things over into neighboring aisles.

28. Play with the calculators so that they all spell “hello” upside down.

29. When someone asks if you need help, begin to cry and ask, “Why won’t you people just leave me alone?”

30. Make up nonsense products and ask newly hired employees if there are any in stock, i.e., “Do you have any
Shnerples here?”

31. Take up an entire aisle in Toys by setting up a full scale battlefield with G.I. Joes vs. the X-Men.

32. Take bets on the battle described above.

33. Hold indoor shopping cart races.

34. Dart around suspiciously while humming the theme from “Mission: Impossible.”

35. Run up to an employee (preferably a male) while squeezing your legs together and practically yell at him ” I need some tampons!!”

36. Try on bras in the sewing/fabric department.

37. Try on bras over top of your clothes.

38. Attempt to fit into very large gym bags.

39. Attempt to fit others into very large gym bags.

40. Say things like, “Would you be so kind as to direct me to your Twinkies?”

41. Set up a “Valet Parking” sign in front of the store.

42. Two words: “Marco Polo.”

43. Leave Cheerios in Lawn and Garden, pillows in the pet food aisle, etc.

44. “Re-alphabetize” the CD’s in Electronics.

45. Make a trail of orange juice on the ground, leading to the restrooms.

46. When someone steps away from their cart to look at something, quickly make off with it without saying a word.

47. Relax in the patio furniture until you get kicked out.

48. When an announcement comes over the loudspeaker, assume the fetal position and scream, “No, no! It’s those
voices again!”

49. Pay off layaways fifty cents at a time.

50. Drag a lounge chair on display over to the magazines and relax. If the store has a food court, buy a soft drink; explain
that you don’t get out much, and ask if they can put a little umbrella in it.

51. While walking around the store, sing in your loudest voice possible “sex and candy”.

52. Try putting different pairs of women’s panties on your head and walk around the store casually.

53. Leave small sacrifices or gifts in the hands of the mannequins.

54. Nonchalantly “test” the brushes and combs in Cosmetics.

55. When two or three people are walking ahead of you, run between them, yelling, “Red Rover!”

56. Look right into the security camera, and use it as a mirror while you pick your nose.

57. Set up another battlefield with G.I. Joes vs. G.I. Janes.
(Red lipstick might give an interesting effect!!!)

58. While handling guns in the hunting department, suddenly
ask the clerk if he knows where the anti-depressants are. Act
as spastic as possible.

59. While no one’s watching quickly switch the men’s and
women’s signs on the doors of the rest room.

60. Fill your cart with boxes of condoms, and watch
everyone’s jaws drop when you attempt to buy them.

61. In the auto department, practice your “Madonna” look with
various funnels.

62. Hide in the clothing racks and when people browse
through, say things like “the fat man walks alone,” and scare
them into believing that the clothes are talking to them

63. While walking around alone, pretend someone is with you
and get into a very serious conversation. Ex: The person is
breaking up with you and you begin crying “How could you
do this to me? I thought you loved me! I knew there was
another girl, but I thought I had won. You kissed ME
darling.” Then act as though you are being beaten and fall onto
the ground screaming and having convulsions.

64. Go to an empty checkout stand and try to check people
out.

65. Get a stuffed animal and go to the front of the store and
begin stroking it lovingly, saying “Good girl, good bessie.”

66. Go over to the shoe department and try on every pair of
shoes, not putiing one pair back. Take the paper from the
boxes and throw it in various aisles.

67. Ask other customers if they have any Grey Poupon.

68. In the makeup department, spray yourself with every
perfume there is, then walk up to a boy who is with another
girl and start flirting with him in that annoying, ditsy way.
“hi!!!! (giggle) What’s your sign?(giggle).” When the boy
shows no interest, start hitting on the girl the exact same way.
“hi!!!! (giggle) What’s your sign?(giggle).”

69. Get boxes of Condoms and randomly put them in peoples
carts when they don’t realize it!

70. Walk around the perfume department with a bottle of
super strong perfume and spray people as they walk by. Lean
in and sniff them then jump back and wave your hand in front
of your nose and saying “Oh god, your over powering the
perfume!!”

71. Hit on the elderly.

72. Hit on 5 year olds.

73. In the food aisle, pretend like there’s a little bug, slowly
move your head to the right, then swing your head to the left
as if your trying to follow it. Slowly lower your head to the
ground, then start spinning around in circles stomping like
crazy. Then finally yell out “Yes!!! I got it!!! Wow, that was
the biggest Cockrouch I’ve ever seen, i think it was pregnant!!!
Hey look, there’s another one!!!” Then Repeat.

74. Repeat 73 with a can of bug spray.

75. Crawl around on the ground and pretend that your a cat.
Meow when people walk by, rub up against their legs, etc.

76. Ride around on those electric cars and pretend that your a
prissy English Man. Say things like “Cheerio, good man.” to
people who walk by. And don’t forget to have perfect posture.

77. Start grunting like Beavis and Butthead while chasing your
friends up and down aisles trying to run over them with those
electric cars. Make sure to tell your friends to act like they
don’t know you.

78. Spend all your money riding on those little rides for
toddlers. Fit the character; if your on a hoarse, then pretend
that your a cowboy, etc.. And If a little kid comes over
wanting to use it, start barking at them until
they run away crying.

79. Have silly string fights with a friend. Hide behind
customers and “accidentally” hit the people instead of your
friend.

80. Excessively use anything thing that says “Try Me”.

81. Start pocketing any and all free samples.

82. Draw mustaches on all the pictures and mannequins.

82. Walk up to the customer service and when they say
“Hello, how may I help you?” say “Yes, I’ll have a Quarter
Pounder with cheese, one strawberry shake, a large order of
french fries and a diet coke.” And when they start to talk, say
“Oh, to go”. Then when they say that they can’t give it to you
say “Oh, This is because I’m gay isn’t it? I’d expect this from
Caldors, but not Walmart. People who are gay are just like
everyone else your know. You digust me” Then walk away
mumbling to yourself. If your a guy, try to act as valley- girl-
like as you can

83. Start to madly scratch yourself and walk up to people asking where the rash cream is because your family and all your friends seem to have a rash too.

84. When your alone, have loud conversations with your “multiple personalities”. Have an English man, a Southern
person, someone from New York, a Grandma, and a 5 year old girl all at the same time. You have to use accents. They should
sound like this: “Great idea good fellow, we shall have a jolly good time.(English)” “Look, oall I wanna do, is wok ta
Stawbucks and git a cawfee(New York)” Etc.

85. Start “dancing” like mad. Basically, just wail your arms and legs around like your having some kind of massive
seizure.

86. Try on crazy costumes and walk casually through the store.

87. Stick your arm in your jacket and suspiciously start to leave the store. Get really tense and start to lean over as your
walking through the doors as if your suspecting the alarms to go off. Then when it doesn’t go off, let out a big sigh. Then quickly look around you to see who’s watching and run away as fast as your can.

88. Balance EVERYTHING you see on the tips of your finger, your nose, your forehead, and the top of your head while
singing the circus song.

89. Put jockstraps in the lingerie department

90. Put lingerie in the men’s department.

91. Put super sexy lingerie in old men’s carts when they turn around.

92. When your alone, start screaming help and yelling that someone is trying to rape you. Then when everyone runs over,
start crying and saying “All I ever wanted was a little attention” Then run away crying.

93. Spend hours staring at a little blinking light. After a while, start saying blink everytime it blinks. Don’t look away, just
stay mesmerized.

94. Walk up to a lady and calmly say “Help me. The voices in my head are telling me to do naughty things.” Then clap your
hands over your ears, fly yell head around and start screaming “NO!!! I DON’T WANT TO HURT THE NICE LADY NO
NO NO NO!!!!” Then suddenly stop, look her straight in the eyes, and Calmly say “I…will start…a fire…” The pull out a
zippo and start laughing hysterically in an evil way. But don’t light the zippo, just hold it closed.

95. Light a match under a spinkler.

96. Walk up to someone and say “Oh, so your back for more. I warned you never to come back here. Wait here while i go get
my shot gun”. Then walk away.

97. Walk up to a guy and say “Oh my god, is it you? Oh my god it is!!! I haven’t seen you in so long!!!!” Then kiss him.
Then slap and him say “Why didn’t you ever call me??” Then walk away. Much more affective if you’re a guy.

98. Stand next to a mannequin and pretend that your a mannequin. Try to hold the same position for as long as
possible. Then finally as someone is walking by, check your watch and say. “Finally, my shift is done. I really don’t get paid enough to do this”.

99. Start singing oldies songs in to megaphone.

100. Act like your about to cry and ask people “Have you seen my mommy?”

101. Steal a Walmart shirt. The possibilities are endless.

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