I’m getting kind of bored with Xanga.  If it weren’t for having a lifetime account, I’d just give it up completely.

Our chorus had our regional competition this past weekend.  We took first place in our division and 5th place overall!  The chorus I almost joined didn’t take home any awards.  I am glad I chose this one! Here I am holding our trophy!

Here we are in the hotel finishing up one of our contest songs while we wait for the bus to take us over to the auditorium (I’m the one with the big head just to the left of the director’s right hand):

Thought I’d update.

Last week I went shopping at Kohl’s – found some great stuff but spent $500.  The good thing is that I got $100 in Kohl’s cash so  I took Roger with my $100 in Kohl’s cash back to Kohl’s on Sunday.  Found $220 worth of stuff for him (A pair of running shoes, three shirts – two of them came with tee-shirts) all half price so total was $110 and with my Kohl’s cash, we only had to pay $10.

My new drug regimen seems to be working, almost too well. My Endocrinologist put me back on Actos – he said it is used also to treat fatty liver because the main cause of fatty liver is insulin resistance and that is precisely what Actos fights.  He also put me on a new drug (injectible) called Victoza.  This drug replaces a missing hormone that helps my food digest more slowly and keeps my blood sugar steady.  Side effect is nausea.  I started out with .6mg for a week.  Just as my body was getting used to it (nausea abated) I had to double the dose – 1.2mg.  I was on that a week and again, just as I was getting used to it, I had to up it to 1.8mg.  The sample pen was almost empty (about 3 days worth left) so I took my prescription up to be filled.

Turns out this drug is supposed to be pre-approved by my insurance company before it is prescribed.  So when I went to pick it up, it wasn’t ready.  I asked how much it was without insurance. <THUD> $500! So I said I’d wait.  I called my doctor today and it was approved, so Roger just left to go pick it up for me.

Anyway, this stuff works WELL.  Almost too well.  I’ve reduced my basal insulin by 30 units and have only had to take meal insulin once in the last two weeks.  Problem is that I am waking up a lot with low blood sugar (45-55).  And about 2-3 hours after breakfast it is low (45-55).  It seems to want to stay at around 70-80.  I think that is too low (but it would make for one hell of a good A1c!!)  When I called my doctor today I told the receptionist what was going on and she is going to talk to the doctor and call me back.  Or, rather, call Roger.  I can’t find my freaking phone!

Weight loss has tapered off.  I’m down 16 pounds.  I can’t eat less, so I have to move more.  It’s time to join the gym.  I think we’re going to do the family plan.  I am also going to hire a trainer.  Maybe by this time next year I’ll be a healthy weight.  (I almost said I’d be normal, but we all know that ain’t gonna happen LOL)

Allergies have been kicking my butt.  Finally broke down and got some Claritin-D.  That stuff works WONDERS.

And just for grins, I bought a long hair wig.  Will probably wear it to the next hippie fest with my tie-died Rare Earth tee shirt.  My hair was this long when I was 20 years old.  Hasn’t been this long since.

Either my  house is haunted or there are critters in my walls and attic.  Who do I call?  Ghostbusters or Pestbusters?

I just got a very nice white embossed thank-you card from Kohl’s thanking me for my recent purchase.

Doesn’t matter that it was all done via computer.  It’s still a nice customer relations gesture.

This past week I went to see two specialists.  First to an endocrinologist.  He put me back on Actos and added Victoza.  The Victoza is an injectible drug that simulates a hormone that I may be missing that causes my stomach to empty out slower thereby making me feel full longer.  It also seems to suppress my appetite.  Just in the first week I’ve lost an additional 3 pounds so I’m down 14 from my highest weight.

I also went to see a gastroenterologist.  The reason is because of my fatty liver.  He did some physical checks and said it doesn’t seem to be enlarged or anything and if I can get my diabetes under control, I can probably get my liver back to normal.  In the meantime, no alcohol (which isn’t a problem since I rarely drink anyway) and no acetominophin (Tylenol) which means no more borrowing Roger’s Vicodin if I needed it (which I haven’t done in months)  Other than that, I never used Tylenol because it never really worked on me for any kind of pain.  I used aspirin exclusively until ibuprofen was turned into an over-the-counter medicine.

I have been noticing all week that I do feel full sooner, I eat less, and have no desire to continue eating – for example, dessert.  At home after dinner I usually head to the cookie jar and grab a couple of cookies but I haven’t had the desire to do that.

THIS is what I

needed!  Something that would make me not want excess food. 

It’s going to be slow going, but I want to get down to a healthy weight.  Here is what I looked like at 25. 

I don’t want to get that small.  I was thin but not very muscular.  I’d rather have an athletic body than a skinny one!  If it looks photoshopped it’s because it is.  I took out the background and just filled it all in with the color of the wall I was standing against (which, believe it or not, was supposed to be ‘white’ but was covered in smoke and nicotene – I smoked back then.)

I wonder what the scores would be of many of the people here who write long entries if they submitted their entry to the Bullshit Meter?

http://www.blablameter.com/index.php

Most of my entries came up with “Your text shows no or marginal indications of ‘bullshit’-English.”

Just out of curiosity, I plugged in the Gettysburg address.

“Your text shows only a few indications of ‘bullshit’-English.”

Probably because of the era.

Haha, maybe I should put in my divorce decree.

Got my sister Debbie all moved in.  Damn she has a lot of stuff LOL  She is also a smoker so every time I open a crate I get a huge whiff of old stale smoke.  I’ve been laundering her clothes and linens as I come to them.  I also cleaned up all of the crystal stemware she had on an open shelf.  They had so much smoke film and dust on them even the dishwasher didn’t get them clean.  I don’t think a smoker can appreciate this much until they’ve quit smoking and realize that everything they owned used to be covered with smoke film and smelled like stale smoke.

But it will be nice once we get everything all put away (or stored) and she begins to feel like she really lives here and isn’t just a guest.  She’s come for the weekend many times and said she felt more at home then than she does now, maybe because she could make herself at home then and then just go home when the weekend was over.  Now it IS home and she can’t leave to go home because she’s already there.  Send that one to the department of redundancy department.

We bought her a new bed.  It’s sooooo pretty.  Here is a picture:

She bought a nice quilted bedspread for it in off white with pastel blue and yellow flowers.  It looks so much better than this fuchsia comforter!

And in other news… My stepdaughter is going to a hairstyling academy.  She just redid my hair for me.  I’m no good at self-portrait, and had to take it in the mirror because when I tried to just aim at my head with my phone, I was taking pictures of my left boob or the floor or the opposite wall – everything but my head.

And in my health journey – I’m down 11 pounds from my highest weight.

This picture was posted on our chorus web page.  I have the biggest head in there!  Sheesh. (Front row with white notebook and multi-colored shirt)

OMG My body has gone to hell.  In a hand basket.

Sitting here at my computer every day I don’t notice the little things that are slowly going downhill.  Well, except for being stiff when I get up. 

Before I lost my job in 2004 (and I consider that the big turning point in my health – I was 30 pounds lighter and much more physically fit) I used to walk 6 miles a day.  2 from the train station to the office.  2 at lunch.  2 back to the train station after work. It was fun.  Sometimes I’d leave the office and 4:30 and not get to the train station until 7:30 because I had to walk down the Magnificent Mile to get there. (And pass two ‘malls’ – Chicago Place and North Bridge).  But I always enjoyed my walks.  Sometimes I’d listen to books on CD.  I was also a member of a health club that was part of a hospital complex.  I would go there every night after work.  Monday, Wednesday and Friday I would do a full body workout (strength training) and Tuesdays and Thursdays I’d just do Aerobics.  I worked with a trainer once a week.  Although I needed to lose a lot of weight and was diabetic, I was pretty fit – I had definite sculpted muscles that you could see in my arms, legs and shoulders.  And under the keg there was a six-pack.  My abs were stronger than they had ever been in my entire life. 

I never got back that energy after I lost my job.  First thing that had to go was my gym membership ($85 a month).  Next thing that went was the lady who came to clean every other week.  I did try to keep up my walking and was successful for a while, but eventually that fizzled out, too.

Okay, so I’ve had 8 years to get myself back on track and instead I’ve gone to flab and gained back 40 pounds (although I’m down 10 from my highest point.)

My doctor has been on me to be a little more aggressive in my weight loss efforts and getting exercise. 

First things first.  I needed to get used to taking my meds like I am supposed to – until it becomes a habit and forgetting them is not an option.  Done.

Next I had to get used to eating differently.  I’ve become LotsaStuffIntolerant.  Milk and most dairy products make me ill.  Beef makes me ill.  Animal fat makes me ill.  So I’ve gone ova-vegetarian.  No more dairy – now I get my dairy from soy (cheeses), coconut (coffee cream) and almonds (almond milk for cereal).  I’ve switched to eggbeaters instead of eggs.

I have lost some weight – I think that thinking about other alternatives, like surgery, made my body put on the brakes and say “um. no way.” and so I lost some weight.

Finally got the treadmill out and started walking on it half an hour every morning. This is where the OMG comes in!  I used to walk 3.5 to 3.7 mph on my walks.  I could walk 4 to 4.3 mph on a treadmill for short bursts (like maybe 3 or 4 minutes).  I am now walking 2.6 mph.  TWO POINT SIX.  That’s slower than when I first started walking back before when I was so out of shape. (back then I started at 3.0)

So it’s like I’m in a hole that I have to climb out of just to land at ground zero. 

But I am determined that I am going to live to my mid-eighties at least (although if I could keep my health I would want to live forever), so I guess every little bit is one step closer to being healthy enough to make it that far.