Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Exhausting heat...

During June, July, August, and part of September, I live in this furnace called "Texas".  Man, the heat just wipes me out each day.  I usually spend about 30 minutes outside walking the dogs about 4 or 5 times a day.  I get enough of a heat blast that it completely zaps my energy.  Of course, it does not help when my feet and knee hurts.  I am not sure what is going on with those parts of my body, but the pain is annoying.  I think it is time for some Tylenol Arthritis pain medication.  I have been taking Aleeve and getting no relief.

It has also been a very exhausting week at work.  Most of my issue there is various people and their poor planning.  I often shake my head and wonder what is up with them.

My blood sugar had been pretty high the past few days.  I got lucky today.  When I tested this morning, it was 183.  After dinner, 207.  That is about a 24 point difference, which is decent.  Granted, the numbers are not below 150 in the morning, but it is progress from what the numbers had been.  I just need to keep doing what I have been doing - eating better.

If my feet and knees would quit hurting, I would be more motivated to exercise.  As it stands, I hate just walking the dogs.  Speaking of walking the dogs, I will need to do that again shortly.  Bo has gotten into the tendency of waking me up at 3:30 AM to go pee.  That is annoying - getting some really good quality sleep and someone interrupts me with loud barking and panting.

Time to quickly walk the dogs to get them potty before heading to bed.  I was going to work on my Toshiba laptop and get Fedora 16 installed.  However, I think that can wait until tomorrow morning.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Life and home a mess...

I think about it a lot, but I haven't really been able to put a lot of thought behind it - organizing my life and home.  Right now, both are a complete disaster area.  I bought some books on organization for my Kindle and I have been "trying" to read them.  Between work and dealing with the dogs, I barely get any "me" time.

As you know, I am trying to get back in the saddle again with eating properly.  For example, I fight with myself all of the time about getting something out to eat.  The lazier side of me wants to just run out and grab something.  The healthy side of me says that I have soup, salad, and etc already here - eat that!  So, I am sitting at the computer writing out my argument with myself.  LOL

I have so many things I *need* to do and *want* to do.  I try to merge time for all of that during my weekend.  Unfortunately, it seems my time gets spread very thinly.  I should look at the positive.  For instance, I managed to get the following done yesterday:

  • 5 loads of laundry washed and folded
  • Emptied the dishwasher of clean dishes and loaded up with the dirty dishes
  • Cleared a slow draining drain in my bathroom
  • Gathered up some of the clutter, sorted through it, and trashed what I no longer needed
  • Cleared out stuff collecting by the ice machine in the kitchen
  • Got started on installing Oracle11g R2 on to my Toshiba laptop that I installed Fedora Core 16
I should look at that list and be proud.  Unfortunately, I still have a ton of clutter to clear, more clothes to wash, I need to vacuum desperately, and that is just the beginning.  I never seem to have time to do the things I would really like to do such as go swimming, play glow golf, and go to the movies.  (Well, after this past Thursday night in Colorado, the movie thing might be somewhat off-putting)

I do not want to be considered a "hoarder."  I just never seem to have time to put into running what I have planned.  I get side-tracked a lot and I need to get back to telling myself "Focus!  You can do this and don't run off to do something else with someone - you are just escaping!"

With that all being said, time for me to bid adieu to my computer for a little while and get back to the grind.  Time to try out the slow cooker bags for a meal of Chicken and Mushrooms.  Hope it turns out good.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Horrific events...

Thursday night in Aurora, CO, a man went into a movie theater and started shooting people.  There is no reason at this time for why the man did this.  There is no reason why 71 people were injured and 12 died.  It happened.  It is difficult to wrap one's mind around why it happened, but the fact remains - it did.

During dinner, my friend sort of compared it to 911.  The "eerie-ness" of the event.  I had briefly thought about that on my way to pick up this friend, but not really spent a lot of time on the matter.  The whole thing makes me a little wary to go to the theater again.

I won't deny that the incident was senseless or shocking - it is.  However, I wonder how many of these individuals are out there lurking.

Earlier in the week, same friend mentioned that a woman we know who had fought breast cancer received some pretty tragic news.  The cancer has spread to her brain.  I felt so much sadness because this woman seemed like such a kind, caring person.  My friend who has fought through breast cancer as well found out she has emphysema.  She had just wrapped up radiation therapy and dealt with chemo.  To make matters worse, she does not have much medical insurance and her situation is becoming dire.

As I drove home that day, I turned on the radio and it was playing Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is".  It gave me an image of sitting on a pier by a lake, having a talk with God and asking "Why all of this pain and suffering?" His answer:  That's just the way it is.  While I realize the message in that song is not to accept things just because that is the way it is, for some of life's tragedies, it is the only answer.

There are no real answers for all of this.  We have to cope with what life gives to us and figure out how to handle it or handle it better.  I suppose coping and such is part of God's plan or lessons we learn from life.  We do not have to like it, but they are there. 

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Back in the saddle again...

A month and half ago, I get the best news I have had in a LONG time.  I am finally making strides in lowering my A1C, my cholesterol and triglycerides (if I spelled those right the first time, I would be amazed) are in normal levels.  Granted, my A1C was still high, but I had dropped it about 4 points - that is tremendous.

So what do I do?  I celebrate a little too much for the past month and half.  Only to compound the problem more, this past month was my birthday.  My motto - everyone deserves some cake on their birthday and I had my share.  I fell off the wagon.  It happened.  Well, I tried to be better, but my will at times was the very worst.

So there - I have beaten myself up for it.  As in the movie, Elizabethtown, I am only going to allow myself about 5 minutes to wallow in self-abuse.  Did it and now, I am going to move on with life.

I am slowly going back to my new, healthy eating ways.  I try to cook as much as I possibly can.  Why?  Well, I know exactly what is in the food I am going to eat.  I know how much salt, sugar, and other ingredients I have used.  This information is SO important for me to make sure I regulate my sugar intake.  I realize that for me a sweet potato has better nutritional value than a regular potato.  I thank my mother every day for providing the opportunity to eat foods that most won't, such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and etc.  Even today, I try to open myself up to trying new vegetables and fruit.  Since my mother's passing, I found that I really like squash - not just zucchini and yellow squash, but butter nut and spaghetti.

My most serious downfall is going out to eat with friends.  There are some places where I can get a really healthy meal.  Most of the time, that is either a steak or seafood restaurant.  The other day, I was invited to a party at BJ's Brewery.  There was free food, but it was tortilla chips with salsas and cheese dips.  No go there.  Breaded chicken tenders - no go.  Potato skins - another no go.  Finally, mini pizza with thick crust - definite NO. 

I sat with some friends and drank unsweet iced tea.  I was good with that because I would go home and fix something to eat.  One friend was dear enough to get me a slice of the veggie pizza, but I turned it down.  I did not go for the pizza in the first place because I did not want to tear off the toppings just to eat them.  Also, pizza is not pizza without the crust.  Had it been thin crust pizza, that would have been no issue.  I figured for me trying to get back on the road of healthy eating, it was better not to tempt fate.  I knew I would eat the crust otherwise.

Last night, when I went to eat with a friend, we went over to "Whole Paycheck" to see about some baby heirloom tomatoes.  None were to be had, but I ended up getting some mango, kiwi, regular heirloom tomatoes, nectarines, and some guacamole (my cryptonite).  My friend has type 2 diabetes, but she never went to the nutritional classes (as far as I know, she refused to go because she could get the info by reading books).  I heard a lot of "this is good for us" or "why pick that?"  Most of what I bought is pretty fiberous, so course, those foods are good for "us."

My biggest problem with this friend is that her diabetes is not anywhere out of control as mine and she is in the process of renovating the inside of her house.  So, she wants to go out to eat a lot.  I am trying to curtail that sort of thing because when I cook, I know what I am putting into the food.  Also, I am trying to save to get a house.  Limiting my eating out actually saves me money.  My job is to learn to say "no" a little more often to her.

I am back and working hard to do the right thing.  Sometimes, it is easy, but other times, it is hard.  I am just trying to take one day at a time.