Kathy Bates, Retainers, and Back Pain

It's hard to blog/journal/update all my adoring fans over the weekends. Mostly because I'm trying my best to Mom. Now, with this separation/upcoming divorce deal, I have every other weekend off from Mom-ing, but then I'm almost always doctoring. So, who knows what the future will hold? Weekend posts? No weekend posts? Some weekend posts? I am sure you're just as anxious as me to see what happens.

This weekend, I was reading an article about Kathy Bates having lost 100 pounds over the last 7 years. One of the things that struck me is that she said it took her years to be able to listen to/discover/appreciate her body's signals that's she full/satisfied/ready to be done eating. When I took ozempic, that full feeling was loud and clear. (For those of you who aren't long time followers, I tried ozempic and then ultimately discontinued it due to obscene amounts of explosive diarrhea. I also tried Mounjaro, but had the same problem.) So, now I'm trying to see if I have that signaling. Yesterday, I would have said yes. I went to a baby shower and then a dinner with friends and was so overly full, it was uncomfortable. I kept eating because, duh, I'm me, but I realized that maybe I could figure that out for myself, too. So, it'll be something I'm going to try to think of a bit more. 

Back to the baby shower. I was responsible for invitations, onesie decorating, and bringing the cake. Naturally, I got the cake from Costco because I live less than 10 minutes from Costco, a sheet cake is incredibly cheap there, and that cake is awesome. The mousse filling? Chef's kiss. After the party folks had eaten their share, I naturally left it at the host's house. Today I had to go back there because I left my wallet (without realizing it) in addition to some other goodies. While there, the host offered me to take the cake back. We decided to go halfsies because like me, the people in my household also don't need to be eating copious amounts of cake. But man, that cake is so good that I was literally salivating in the car. Thankfully we had stuff to do right away upon my return home because I would have eaten hella cake. We did have it for dessert after dinner and while putting it away, I was already thinking about when I'd have another piece. So, I decided to brush my teeth and put my retainers in to avoid eating more.

Back to today. Today, the kids and I rode our bikes to the park (can you call it bike riding if Zayd rode a motorized mini ATV? Probably not). Often when we go to the park, Zayd wants to play Monster where I run around roaring and try to catch him and Reyah. It gets some steps in while allowing me to publicly humiliate myself - such a multitasker I am! So, I usually agree to it. Today, we had a few more kids playing along because since Reyah started kindergarten, we now know the entire town of Timnath. Well, I was sprinting (for me) and caught a victim, proceeded to lift her up, and immediately felt myself throw out my back. For me, throwing out my back is a once every couple year occurrence. So, I wasn't due as I'd just done this in April and my massage therapist fixed me. She told me it was my hip flexors and did some hella painful manipulation/massage and I walked out pain free after two weeks of worsening pain. So, tonight I tried walking on the treadmill for a half hour and a half hour of stretching. It definitely helped and maybe I won't have to walk hunched over tomorrow, but it still feels like garbage. Thankfully, I have a massage planned for Tuesday. 

Tomorrow I have a long office day and so I'm hoping to eat a hearty breakfast at home and pack some healthy snacks. I realized tonight that we're very low on fruit, so perhaps tomorrow after work will be a Costco trip to stock up again in addition to a solid work out if my back behaves because the kiddos will be with Nasur. 

Thanks for following along! Some cute kid photos for your troubles.

A mishap

So today we had plans to go to Steamboat Springs. However, due to some incorrect googling, we realized a bit too late that the trip is 3.5 hours, rather than 1.5. Nasur wanted to give it a whirl, but I didn't want to drive for 7 hours. I figure we have time to go - maybe over a long weekend sometime. Instead, we opted to go to the lake. Well, we ended up going to two lakes.

Reyah got up at 7, per usual and then ended up taking a nap about two hours later. Once she woke up, we headed to the farmer's marker to get some produce. There, we learned the difference between a peach and a nectarine. The take-away? Nectarines aren't fuzzy and they have more citric acid. But they're also yummy, so we got some nectarines, some peaches, some green beans (Reyah's favorite), some zucchini, some corn, some peppers, some onion and a cantaloupe. The farmer's market is waaaay smaller than the one in Detroit, but I guess it's a good way to force us to make decisions faster.

We went home to have some lunch and then headed to Boyd Lake. When we got there, we went to the swimming area. Since we come from the land of the Great Lakes, it was a disappointment. The beach itself wasn't sand as much as it was teeny tiny rocks. And when you went in the water, it was mud until you were out pretty far and then still the lake floor was weird-feeling. We opted to cut our losses and headed to Windsor Lake.

Windsor lake was more lake-like and had some pebbles on the lake floor rather than mud. Reyah preferred this lake because it was easier to eat the dirt. After the lake, we headed home and played for a bit while Nasur grilled some hot dogs and burgers. 

After dinner, we did about an hour's bike ride, during which Reyah fell asleep. She was already in her jammies, so I can't blame her. 

Leftover breakfast burrito 

Healthier version of chocolate cake

Lunch: chicken salad on crackers

Boyd Lake

Not my favorite lake

Windsor Lake

Much nicer

Reyah running away while Nasur tried to get her dressed

Dinner: all the meat and some corn

Tomorrow we're headed to register our cars and then we'll see what we find ourselves doing with our free time. Tomorrow I'm also going to do a weigh-in. Hopefully things go well!