Monday, Monday

Where did the week go? I don't know about you, but I did NOT spend my week at the gym. No, I spent my week doing regular everyday stuff and trying to keep a lid on the antibiotic-induced nausea. (Zantac was helpful with that.) I went to the gym one day and felt really weak, so much so that I left after 20 minutes and canceled my appointments for the rest of last week.

Today I went back and did a 30-minute light workout with my trainer. I feel lame and can't believe how much this single infection has knocked me down. But today is my last dose of Cipro and I know I'll be able to get back to where I was at the gym. But this experience has been eye-opening.

My weight is up a bit but I'm having a lovely tomato, mozzarella and basil salad for lunch so I think with increased veggies and staying strict on my protein/veggies/little to no carbs routine I'll be able to turn things around.

More importantly, my sweet sweet dad is having a health scare and I am completely freaked out about this. He's only 62. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. We love him so much and we want to keep him healthy.

I'm a Hot Mess

I haven't been able to shake my infection, I'm achy and uncomfortable. My doctor hooked me up with some Cipro and my mother tells me that should knock me back to normal in the next day or two.

In the meantime, I've been eating everything in sight yesterday and today. I think it's partly emotional. I'm sick and a little overwhelmed with the usual household stuff, school stuff and the planning I need to do for summer. (Does anyone else feel like a freakin' cruise director when you're trying to get kids' activities and camps organized?) Also, Hubs is in the Middle East on business and I'm not thrilled about it.

But I'm asking myself: Why does a person eat when she's not hungry? Especially with the band, there's no excuse for that bullshit. It's taking away the whole benefit of having a band. Frustrating. It's a little tricky, because if I wait too long then I eat too fast and all hell breaks loose with my band. But I'm clearly eating when I'm not hungry, possibly out of habit or boredom or whatever.

You've all given me some good tips about shaking up my routines to get out of bad habits and create new ones, and I need to put those into practice. Like, now.

Guess What I Brought Home From Disney World?

One point eight pounds.

Not horrible, not great. I can deal with it.

The Inconvenient Truth (About the Band)

The truth is: This band of mine can be damn inconvenient sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love it and what it does for me, and I'm grateful to have it.

But my band really sent me off the rails this morning.

Over the weekend my band was inexplicably tight. It was a bummer, but it was not unmanageable. I didn't actually throw anything up, I just felt realllllly uncomfortable and slimed so I stopped trying to eat. But then my morning tea wouldn't go down smoothly and I got a little dehydrated because I was scared to have much of anything. Miraculously, last night things got a little better and I actually ate dinner.

And then this morning, for the first time in at least a decade, I woke up with a raging urinary-tract infection. I'm gonna go ahead and blame it on being dehydrated.

I have a 5.15 am pickup tomorrow for my kid's Disney trip. I went to a CVS MinuteClinic this morning, told them my tale of woe, peed into a cup and left with a large-ish bottle of liquid antibiotic. That may or may not cause diarrhea, but probably will clear up my UTI.

Then I went to my surgeon's office, where my doctor heroically ran to meet me after he left the OR. He very kindly withdrew a couple drops, taking me from 5.6 cc's to 5.45 cc's. He wanted to do a little more but I wanted just enough so I wouldn't get in trouble in humid Orlando. He was very nice and sympathetic.

I am slightly feverish and shivery and my kidneys are sore and it hurts to pee, but I'm hopeful that once I get the second dose of antibiotic in my system tonight things will turn around.

What Would You Do?

Yesterday I had a nice lunch and last night I sat down to dinner and couldn't eat more than 1/3 of an artichoke and some wine. Nothing else at all.

This morning I couldn't finish my tea, although by lunchtime my band had opened up enough for me to get some protein.

Tonight at dinner: Nothing.

Now, my band has been fine for the last couple of weeks. I did notice it was tighter when I was in humid Florida last month, maybe because I retain water and it makes the band tighter? Don't know, really. But this leads me to my dilemma: I leave at dawn Tuesday to take my son on a big Disney trip. I'm starting to get really nervous that I'll get there and not be able to get liquids down because it's so hot and humid in Orlando.

I called my practice today, and my surgeon is not on call this weekend. I'm going to call Monday morning and beg them to take me for a 0.1 cc unfill. I'm worried my surgeon will think I'm doing this because I'm going on vacation (although, really, who goes to Disney for the food??) and give me a hard time.

If I can't get in Monday or if he won't do the unfill, I'm not sure what to do. I did a halfhearted search for doctors in Orlando, just in case, but didn't find anything.

I'm thinking about trying to get a syringe and needle and, if things get bad, just have my mom try to do it. She's a nurse, so she knows her way around needles. She could probably figure it out, right?

What do you think? I'm kind of freaked out about this. We're only going for four days and I don't want to ruin my little boy's big trip.

Weight Watchers Update

Today was my weigh-in for Weight Watchers (the online version). I've been tracking as well as I can; it's tricky when you're not at home. But most days I've made an effort to faithfully log what I eat.

So far I've lost 3.8 pounds in nine days. I'm happy about this, although I think it's inflated because I was pretty bloated at my initial weigh-in. Also, these are pounds I've been gaining and losing for months now. I'll bust out the HOO AHH when I start seeing new numbers. I need to lose another 1.6 pounds to hit a new low.

But I'm seeing the loss as an encouraging sign.

One thing I'm noticing is that this new Points Plus plan really pushes fruits and veggies. I've been so-so with veggies since my surgery and reallllly bad with fruits, so this is a good thing for me. Right now I'm polishing off six ounces of blueberries. Guess how many points that is? ZERO, bitches. Guess what else is zero points? Artichokes.

I had three great workouts this week, which is good because I won't have any formal workouts next week. On Tuesday I'm taking my five-year-old to Disney World for his "only child" trip - no big brother bossing him around and no little sister bugging him. We'll be walking up a storm, so I'm not worried about missing those gym appointments. I'm a little worried about the food, but I'll make the best choices I can and give it my best guess when I log everything.

I just really need to get a handle on the nighttime eating. Let's break it down:

Problem One: I don't have dinner till the kids are in bed; then my husband and I sit down and eat together around 8.30 pm. When I eat with the kids I find I'm rushing so much to get stuff for them that I often get stuck because I'm not chewing enough or waiting between bites, so I sit with them and just have a glass of water while they eat.

Problem Two: I have a hard time ending my meal. I just want it to go on forever and ever.

Problem Three: Because it's a quiet time in the day and it's when my husband and I can actually talk, nighttime eating has become associated with relaxing.

Problem Four: I often have wine with dinner, so my defenses are down and it's easy to eat more than I should.

Bad habits all around. I'll have to figure out how to find a happy medium here. Additionally, I need to get rid of whatever died in our basement crawl space because the smell is starting to waft up through the floorboards.

(That's unrelated, but it's disgusting enough that I felt it merited a mention.)

Happy Friday everyone!

Someone Has a Problem With Nighttime Eating

Oh heyyyy there. You still up? Me too. Just enjoying a glass of wine, couple (six) olives, a little (two ounces) cheese, maybe a chocolate or two.

This is what's totally fu**ing up my weight loss.

BOOBS Hit New York

I had an amazing whirlwind weekend with some of the band girls. Gilly and Joey came from far, far away for a shopping trip meaningful visit with friends. They spoiled my children with totally awesome gifts, and my boys asked this morning when they were coming back to play Legos.

We gallivanted all over Manhattan and took in some of the booze sights the city has to offer. We found delicious, band-friendly food in (relatively) small portions - Cuban, Mexican, Greek and Starbucks. We walked through Central Park and Rockefeller Center and Washington Square Park and the Union Square Greenmarket. Times Square met Gilly and honestly I don't know who was more excited. We swanned through Bergdorf's and gaped at the mob scene in the Apple store. We went to the thee-uh-tah and saw a horror show called Play Dead that nearly killed me and hilarious improv at Upright Citizens Brigade. In one of my favorite moments, a Tiffany employee complimented my silver necklace and asked if I'd bought it there. He flinched a little but took it like a man when I told him the necklace was from Target.

Also, we chatted a bit.

Because years ago I swore I would "live the experience," rather than racing to record every moment, I took virtually no pictures of any of this. So you'll have to take my word for it.

We ended up with 19 BOOBS at the NYC blogger brunch on Sunday, which lasted for nearly three and a half hours. Awesome guacamole, fab margaritas and waiters who seemed slightly puzzled when they cleared plates that were still mostly full of food. I FINALLY was able to meet Dinnerland, who had her surgery the same day I had mine. People, she is even hotter in person than she looks on her blog. And super fun to talk with.

Thanks to everyone who came to the brunch, and especially to those of you who traveled from far and wide by car, bus and train just to spend a few hours with us. It was great.

Finally, I have a couple questions for the wise women (and men) of blogworld:

1. Do you take Biotin for your hair and nails? Have you found that it helps? What dosage do you take each day? I've seen 500 mcg, 1000 mcg and 5000 mcg tablets. No idea which one to take.

2. Do any of you read any great interior design blogs? I'm looking for inspiration.

Weight Watchin' and Green Wearin'

The scale has been stuckety stuck stuck for weeks and months now, and has inched back up to 209 this week (see CHOCOLATE post). I weighed 209 in August, people. Not a lot of movement here.

A couple friends have been telling me how much they like the Weight Watchers Points Plus program. I know it's time for me to start better monitoring what I'm eating. I'm doing pretty well with exercise and I'm not losing, so the problem must be with my eating.

Well, guess what? IT IS the problem. I'm allowed to have 30 points and all the fruit I can eat every day (plus activity points and weekly bonus points). Yesterday I slavishly documented everything I ate and guess what? Fifty-two (52) points. Much of that involved sugar.

So. We've identified the problem and a possible solution. Now I just need to stay focused.


In other news, HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! If you have a minute, check out this New York Times story from a few years ago about an Irish teacher who shows her Bronx students how to do Irish step dance. Be sure to watch the video - it makes me tear up every time.

Wedding Bells - Please Help!

A couple years ago my friend Jessica's grandfather shot and stabbed her mom to death in their yard. I didn't know Jess at the time, but she joined my book club last year and I really adore her. She's a funny, sweet girl who is so positive and upbeat despite a shitty childhood and then this nightmare.

Jess just got engaged and is trying to figure out how to pay for her wedding. (The local paper wrote a story about her the other day.)

She and her fiance entered a Crate & Barrel contest, and if you have time, I'd love it if you could vote for them. Here's the link. Contest ends March 31, and the leaders have more than 3,000 votes.

Thanks a million!