New Year, New Start - January WISH Challenge

We’re headed to the beach this weekend and I already have some things for the cooler to bring so we have healthy meals and snacks. We will still eat out occasionally, but one of my favorite things to order (and a local specialty) is Maryland Crab Soup-the tomato based one with lots of vegetables and crab meat. It’s not supposed to be as cold so we should be able to get out and walk-love to walk on the boardwalk off-season.
 
Woohoo Wednesday: I am just happy that so far I am still doing well with tracking. Since the initial weight loss over the Weekend I did not see any movement on the scale though. And the amount of Food I ate also trended upwards. Need to work on that! But I still feel very motivated and am trying to make good choices and stick to them. One issue for me is definitely trying to figure out when to eat what and I have decided that I do Need a substantial Snack in the afternoon to eat sensibly. I have to try to come up with ideas that are easy to bring to work, don't Need heating, are easy to prepare and are tasty. I remember someone once said that if they had Unlimited Money for weight loss, they would spend it on a private Chef and I often wish I had one, too!!
 
I am having a good day so far. We had a meeting with DD's teachers about her anxiety. We are all on the same page now and have a good plan in place for DD. UGH 7th grade girls are so stressing. We are getting there with DD. She gets wrapped up in everyone else's drama by trying to help them. Then it ends up stressing her out, her anxiety goes through the roof and she gets really up set. So working on getting her to understand when to help and when not too has been rough.
 
My Woohoos from Wednesday
I am finally back to the weight I was a week before Christmas exactly. So it can only go down from here. I was able to fit in the chair though I had fat from my legs squeezing between the arm of the chair and the seat at the children's speciality clinic today. They were able to find me another chair from their break room to sit in for the hour long appointment. I will say more on this in a bit don't worry.
We finally have a plan and a general time line for hopefully finding out what is going on with 12 year old daughter.
Mother in law called regarding ideas for almost 15 year old daughter's birthday and wanted to know what plans we had in place for a party and did not once mention about how messy the house was when she stopped by the other day. Still working on getting it cleaned up because it needs to be done.
We had a nice lunch at Wendy's as a family after the medical appointment. I had a junior bacon cheese burger, and a bacon and cheese baked potato along with a soft drink which I ended up taking home along with my full size apple pecan salad (managed to get 3 packets of pecans too since when I had DH go up and get me a 2nd packet. (What's with this order half size get 1 dressing 1 pecan order a full size get 2 dressing 1 pecan stuff anyways) he came back with the one he took up to show them and 2 more. Awesome. I had my salad for my supper along with a few almonds as a snack later.

So here is what is going on with 12 year old daughter she has apraxia which can have a number of different causes some of which have other issues with them including one that can have heart issues once puberty is reached. 12 year old daughter is also developmentally delayed and shows signs of a number of different disorders which have a genetic cause but is not clicking all the boxes on any one of them so it is hard for her medical team to give us more answers. We looked at doing genetic testing about 6 years ago but at that time due to genetic testing in general being so new it was not unusual for insurance companies to refuse which ours was included in those who refused to cover testing.
There was a program through the state that we live in but only if your income was less than 200% of the federal poverty level which while we were above that we did not have the 3-4K plus sitting around to do the testing so we decided not to at that time. Fast forward to last June and we were really encouraged to look into testing along with us and her primary care provider being given pressure from some of her care team that she has x. Well signs of x can also be signs of z and while there is a pressure in my area to diagnois kids with x because insurance has to cover certain therapies for kids with x. Not that would do me any good with 12 year old because while we have insurance because DH's employer is self insured and just has it administered by an insurance company we technically don't have insurance and are in a grey area that means things normally required to be covered in my state are not and only those thing required by United States Congress or that the company decides to cover beyond those requirements are covered.
In June we were referred hospital in my state for children that does genetic testing. Unlike a lot of other children's hospitals the one in my state only treats residents of the state I live in. Part of this is because the program does get some state funds to help families pay for services not covered by insurance and part of it is because until recently there was only 1 doctor and 1 genetic counselor now there are 2 genetic counselors but still only 1 doctor. I got a letter stating that my 12 year old (11 at the time) was referred to them by her primary and to call and make an appointment only to learn that the outreach clinic for my area which covers over 20 counties and the rest of the outreach locations for comparission cover 3-7 counties was booked up and that we were actually being put on a waiting list to be notified sometime in the fall to be able to call and make an appointment.
Early November I get the call that I can call and make an appointment but because it came in just before closing of office hours I had to wait and surprise no answer so I leave a message and call back when I don't hear back within 24 hours the next day so this goes on for over a week and I finally get a call from a different person than the one who left the original message that they were sorry they were finally able to get messages. Come to find out that sometime between the Thursday I got the call and the Friday that I returned the call the person who originally did the scheduling and who called me to let me know I could call and schedule quite so instead of getting a call back by the latest on Monday I left another message on Tuesday and again on Thursday, the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the week after that and again the next week on Tuesday before finally hearing back on Wednesday almost 2 weeks later. I was able to make an appointment for the later part of January specifically on either the 21st, 22nd, or 23rd. Due to other things in our schedule I choose the 22nd in the early afternoon.
The appointments with the genetic counselor and we thought the doctor would be there instead we saw a nurse practitioner as they have hired 2 of them to go to the outreach clinic and do the physical exam noting significant and sometimes subtel signs of a genetic disorder. This is done while the genetic counselor interviewed DH and myself along with some input from now today Friday 15 year old. Then at the end of that they used a special computer and dialed in the genetic doctor who was 4.5 hours away to join in with us and he had the NP check a few more things. Right now we are looking at about a month before we start the testing. Frist a general report of findings is written up and this is given to us, her primary and a copy sent to our insurance outlining what testing is needed initially and why.
After that they told us that typically it takes 2 weeks for insurance to tell then yes, no, or we need more information. Once we have that then we will get a call to make an appointment for the blood draw. That is going to be fun but I am going to have DH and 15 year old there to help hold her so hopefully it does not take 3 clihic staff and myself-I held my phone up playing a movie for her-to get it done.
I was supposed to go to a livestock committee meeting that evening but got home laid down to take a short nap and when my alarm went off turned it off and started doing some stretches and fell back asleep sleeping until about 20 minutes into the meeting and still had a 20 to 30 minute drive. So I stayed home.
Thursday the girls and I went to a 4-H family orintation, and then ran some errands including getting 15 year old a blender for a day early birthday present that she picked out and wanted. She actually gave me an uttimatium either she buys it ( in which case I would hear about how she had to spend her money), I buy it, or she gets told she is getting one for her birthday (in which she told me later that we still would have bought the one and she would have held onto the receipt and when she got the one for her birthday we then could have gone and returned the one we just bought for her-haven't decided if she was going for extortion or insurande policy that she got one there).
Anyway off to the laundrymat to get some laundry done, come home get ready to go do photos followed by a lunch and then since DH is working tonight figure out what 15 year old wants to do as my and her original plans we started discussing last night that included going to the Y but not sure what time have changed due to DH telling me when I got a hold of him early this morning as he got off work that he was working tonight.
 


Doing a quick check in... it's been one heck of week. I'd like to say all the standing and walking and bending and stretching has done me good, but I feel like I've been run over by a truck. Plus I have not been sleeping well and my allergies have been running rampant all week, so I am ready to go home! OK, enough complaining.

Lots of good conversation going on this week, wish I'd had time to join in. Hope all have a wonderful weekend - see ya next week.

PS - I did have a ginormous crab cake for dinner one night... yummy!
 
I am really happy to report that I lost nearly 2 pounds my first week back to healthy living. I went to the gym twice and was mainly making good choices. Had a couple of hiccups, mainly while battling a migraine. So, all in all good.

Now I am in town trying to find cheap pants. All my old pants died at the same time and need replacement. But I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on clothing in a size that I desperately want to leave
 
Friday and Saturday update.

Friday was 15 year old's birthday and it didn't go as she would have wished. First of all DH decided to sign up to work that night and since she feels that she was not wanted due to our not being married when we found out she was coming and some controversy caused by DH's sister's reaction to our getting engaged and married. Let's just say she did not approve of him marrying me but supposed she had to allow it because I was expecting. She has made it very clear including go so far as to not purchase holiday gifts for 15 and 12 year old on the years we do not spend the holidays with DH's side of the family that she is not pleased that DH and I are still together. She is working on the if he sees that his kids are getting hurt he will blame me and choose to end our relationship as a couple. Needless to say there were a number of you wouldn't have forgotten to take off or you wouldn't volunteer to work an extra shift on 12 year old's birthday made. He is going to have to do a lot to make things up with her. She even made the comment to me that if I was working I would make sure I was off for 12 year old's birthday but not for her's and that did hurt.
After we got done doing laundry we came home and after stopping by my parents house so that I could have 15 year old run in the payment for the car from the loan my parents gave us and get her and DH's birthday presents we got ready to go get pictures done. We had one a package that was our sitting fee and a 16x24 wall portrait. We were offered additional items at a significant discount and they showed us an update your wall portrait to a larger size and you get this many 8x10 sizes and can choose to get your large portrait as a canvas wrap or framed and a CD of the poses we choose. Even with the discount and the fee we paid for holding our spot for the sitting it was going to be over 2 grand. We did spend a little bit and got our picture framed by them but it was not much more than what we had paid to hold our spot. We had pictures done in early December with my entire family-my parents, siblings and their families and even with my parents getting pictures of all of us, my family, my brother's family, (sister did not see reason to get one of just her), us kids, the 2 of them, and the grandkids plus brother's family got at least one photo of their family (We would have too if we had not had this one scheduled so close as it was originally supposed to be early January but we had to reschedule due to the shoes I ordered because since payless closed you can not find wide width shoes in my area and even medium width can be a challenge for dress shoes taking longer than we expected to get here and I could not wear my sneakers in the photos due to them being pale pink and they said to not wear light colored shoes unless everyone was and we were wearing light colored clothes due to your eye being drawn to the lightest thing in the photo and not wanting it to be your light colored shoes. DH and I got some holiday cards to send out which I am still in the middle of addressing so they can all go out together. I am over half done and hopefully we be done by Sunday evening. If I get them done in time before DH leaves for work on his Sunday shift I will send them and have him pop them in the postal service box at the post office either on his way to or from work and if not they can go out from there on Monday. We don't mail things from the mail boxes at the road because we have had problems with the carrier either not stopping at all even though we have the flag up to indicate we have mail to go out or stopping and putting what we mail was to be delivered to us that day on top of them and not taking what we were mailing so we just send it with whoever is going to town next. DH doesn't normally go close to the Post Office but can go that way, my sister can go that way into work if she is working at the office, brother and sister in law both go right past there, almost 17 year old niece is driving and could run that way either going to or from school without it being too far out of the way, my parents can usually get to a post office when they are running errands or have appointments, and I can get to one when I am out and about running errands so it's not like someone is having to make a special trip into town to mail a letter. Now when we have a package that we need to sign for and don't happen to be home and get the notification card that is a different story since the route we are on is out of the main post office in our area and that is 20 minutes one way in a part of town we don't have other places we normally need to go to so it's a 40 minute drive out of our way plus time there so all together I can plan on at least an hour when I need to go down there.
After pictures we went to the bank so that the girls could each withdraw money from their savings accounts so they could go and purchase a switch and some games. 15 year old got the switch but 12 year old bought some games to go with it. Eventually hopefully we can help them get a 2nd one and some of the games so if nothing else it is easier when it comes time for at least 15 year old to move out on her own. 12 year old due to disablilities may never be able to live independently unless it's in a group home and personally I would rather it not go that way so hopefully if it gets to the point that DH and I can not care for 12 year old 15 year old can or other family will be willing and able to step in and help. While we were at the bank we added DH to 12 year old's account as he was not with us when we set it up and we either didn't have the time or he was not with us duing lobby hours for almost the entire year and a half the account has been open.
After the bank we went to the mall so DH could take 12 and 15 year old into the store to get the items they wanted to purchase. When they came out 12 year old had managed to put a hole right in the middle of the chest area of a really nice hooded sweater. Needless to say no one was amused. I am hoping a friend of mine who knits might be able to figure out how to repair it. Since DH was going to be going to work we had brought both vehicles into town and left the one that only he can drive over at his parents house which is close to his work. We went over there and 15 year old went into get her birthday present. Normally all of us would have gone in and had a visit for a while but since there was the hole in a really inappropriate spot in 12 year old's top I stayed out in the car with 12 year old. DH went in and I am assuming said why we were not all coming in and visiting.
The girls and I started heading home with the plan that we would change 12 year old's top and I was going to change mine because what I wore for pictures was a bit warm as it warmed up both in tempature and the wind stopped blowing which was bringing the how cold it felt even lower than the actual tempature. I had started to get warm. 15 year old mentioned that since I was just going to use the drive up at the credit union to make a payment for a different car that we got in February 2019 and had the transmission go out in October 2019 with the cost of repairing it being more than the car was worth that why didn't we just go to the credit union and make the payment and then go home so they could play on the switch. We did stop at a fast food place of 15 year old's choice and got something to eat so that we did not have to make something at home.
Saturday we went to the Y and got a membership for all of us. I had a fitness membership through DH's work but since we are not involved in a 4-H club that meets in the smaller town we are not running there as much and while the one I had allowed me to use several facilities around the country due to both my weight and health issues I need to do the majority of my workouts in a pool. When I started out there was a place in both the smaller town in the one direction and the larger town in the other that had a pool and for a while there were even 2 places in the larger town. There is no longer a place with a pool in the larger town that accepts the fitness program I had through our insurance. 15 year old was wanting us to get her at least a youth membership at the Y so she could go with her Best Friend on the weekends. Due to where friend lives friend only goes on the weekends most of the time because by the time school gets out for friend and the trip is made into town there is not a lot of time.
I added up the cost of what I had currently and what it would cost to get 15 year old a youth membership to the Y and what I was paying for mine it was only $22 more to go with a family membership at the Y and then DH and 12 year old could go as well. Though I don't know how much they will use it though 12 year old seemed to enjoy going "swimming" or more acurately walking around in the water holding a kickboard and resting her chin on it when she was not being a baby koala and holding onto me. At least she has gotten out of screaming and doing a death grip around the neck. We are going to be looking into swim lessons for her in the near future though we are going to have to set different goals. For example on level 1 normally there is going under water with 12 year old's sensory issues that is not going to be a good idea though I am going to talk things over with her occupational therapist and see if we can work together with the Y swim instructors to set some goals. Right now I am thinking if she could get where she was comfortable enough to float on her back and maybe learn a little bit beyond that.
After swimming we went to Golden Corral for a day late birthday dinner for 15 year old. I had a nice salad bowl of cottage cheese with some pears and pineapple, a bowl of cream of brocolli soup to which I added some crutons and some parmasan cheese on top, a plate of 2 pieces of baked fish, some steamed cabbage, and some steamed carrots and a yeast roll, and finished off with a slice of carrot cake, some cornbread dressing, and a baked chicken breast. I had a large sweet tea to drink but didn't finish all of though I did get it topped off before we left to enjoy at home.
Currently it is almost 3:30 in the morning and I have been working on the computer and adding to this post while waiting for 12 year old to finally get ready for bed though currently she is in the kitchen crying because she should have been in bed hours ago and is so tired she is fighting sleep. She finally came into the front room and we got her into her nightie so hopefully she will go to bed soon. I did tell her she could get a sleeve of crackers for a snack. She is not getting all of them though I will give her a few. She had some fruit and pepperoni slices, a big plate of macaroni and cheese, an ice cream cone and some items dipped in the chocolate fountain along with a cookie and 3 cartons of chocolate milk.
 


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Good morning, and happy Monday!
I can’t believe it’s the last week in January-
As I read over the posts of the past couple weeks, I am really struck by everyone’s positive energy. I am also impressed by the sense of how so many of you realize a healthy lifestyle is not a quick fix, but an ongoing process. And we might not always make the best decisions, but we keep on plugging along.

So, how are you feeling as the month winds down? Are you on track? Do you like how the month went for you?
What are you feeling positive about as we start this last week?
 
I am making much healthier choices meal-wise. I have tried a few new recipes and have gone back to some old favorites. We tried fresh Atlantic Char last night and loved it-very similar to salmon but a little milder. My snacking is under control again. I have a bag of dark chocolate pieces in the freezer and have one at night,
I am still at the beach and weather has been good enough to get out and walk every day. So hope to see a loss on the scale when I get home.
 
Sorry I wasn't around Thursday and Friday. I have been sick and honestly I forgot completely. Need to go back to the doctor.

I am bit disappointed that my health attempt this month end up with me being sick to be honest, my mood is bit low
 
So, how are you feeling as the month winds down? Are you on track? Do you like how the month went for you?
What are you feeling positive about as we start this last week?
I am a little frustrated with myself. I know what I need to do in terms of my snacking/eating. But I just keep making the wrong choices. So the number on the scale has been going up a little instead of down. Now I do know that it’s just one number...one measurement. Yesterday was my day to do my other measurements again. I am down about 2 inches total (1/2 inch here and there). So that made me feel a little better. But this last week I am going to be very strict with myself about the snacking and not eating out!
 
Sorry I wasn't around Thursday and Friday. I have been sick and honestly I forgot completely. Need to go back to the doctor.

I am bit disappointed that my health attempt this month end up with me being sick to be honest, my mood is bit low
Sorry to hear you have been sick. Your body might be telling you that it needs rest. Take time to relax and get better! Try to find something to lift your mood. I hope it’s a sunny day for you. ☀️ That always helps me. :hug:
 
So, how are you feeling as the month winds down? Are you on track? Do you like how the month went for you?
What are you feeling positive about as we start this last week?

Since I only started the month a week ago, I am still full of Energy and Motivation. So far the first week has been good and I feel like I am in a good place to make that last week Count. I habe prepped carrots to take to the Office with me as a Snack for the first three days of the week and brought some high Protein Puddings and put them in the fridge at work. We recently got a fridge that I can use to store Things in and I just Need to get into the Habit to load yoghurts and stuff like that in there every Monday.

Sorry I wasn't around Thursday and Friday. I have been sick and honestly I forgot completely. Need to go back to the doctor.

I am bit disappointed that my health attempt this month end up with me being sick to be honest, my mood is bit low

Hope you feel better soon!
 
I feel like I am doing ok. Last week was not good. A lot of stress and then not feeling great. Friday and Saturday I was dealing with a migraine and it came back last night. Not as bad though. I do still have a headache this morning. Hopefully the mortin works. I did make some not great choices over the weekend but over all not bad. I am back to working out today and back on track.
 
Sorry I wasn't around Thursday and Friday. I have been sick and honestly I forgot completely. Need to go back to the doctor.

I am bit disappointed that my health attempt this month end up with me being sick to be honest, my mood is bit low
Sorry to hear this-this time of year is awful for getting sick around here. Hope some rest and a bowl of soup (yours or someone else’s) has you feeling better soon.
 
Holy cow, it's the last week of January already! What is motivating me? Well, 60 days from now I'll be in the middle of my WDW trip! Traveling last week and feeling generally crappy all week really drilled in the need to get myself together and get back on track... and with the better part of two months to go before the trip starts, that leaves plenty of time to turn it all around.

I spent the weekend doing as little as possible, to give my body time to heal. I did drink copious amounts of water to get re-hydrated, because that was one of the problems from last week.

I've also done some serious thinking, and have decided I need to do some counseling, to get my mental health back where I'd like it to be. I've really been spinning in to deep holes of unworthiness, and need to work thru that. I've started saying internal mantras about being enough, whenever I start to spin, and that is helping, but I really want to work thru it with guidance. There's a therapy technique called EFT that involves a pattern of tapping that I've been quite interested in, so I've made myself an appointment on Friday to go see someone about it. It's over on Vashon Island, so I'm going to take the day off.

For today it's back to the grind, with a lot of things to accomplish,
 
I think most annoying is that I was sick from the begging of December to mid January and decided to get on with things. I was trying to pull dusty old carpets and move furniture so we can be home for Christmas and we couldn't find any help on short notice. I took my son to the doctor, we have health insurance covering the bulk of doctor fees and my son got antibiotics. I was fin3 for a week only and I am back sick with high temperature and asthma like caught (and I am not asthmatic) 39c/102f and second dose of antibiotics and steroids and I am just annoyed I didn't go earlier. I would never let my husband or my sun get on with it when feeling sick, why do I do this to myself?

Hopefully after the steroids I will feel ok, it's such strange thing. I am out of breath after few stairs for example, so strange. Sorry for ranting, I feel really annoyed I keep saying I will put myself in the picture when looking after what everyone else need or not but in reality i don't have the habit to think about myself. Once my child was looked after in December, it was my only concern - I did not spare any care for myself.

sorry for the moody post and thanks for letting me rant
 
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Take care of yourself @HappyGrape. It sounds like you had something like DD. High fever for about 4 days and a really nasty cough that won't go away. I know how you feel about letting things get worse when you are sick. Back in November I was having horrible headaches and my neck hurt really bad. I was getting congested again (just got over a really bad cold a few weeks earlier). I continued to work out and keep doing what I needed to do at home instead of rested. I ended up going to the doctor after about a week and when my neck got so bad I couldn't move it at all. I ended up with a really bad ear infection from the cold I had. I was on antibiotics and a steroid. I took about a week or so and finally rested before getting back to working out. It is hard being a mom and taking care of everyone.

I hope you feel better soon.
 

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