Category: stepson

What Happened to the Weekend?

Did everyone else’s weekend fly by in the blink of an eye, or was it just me?  And since I’m just now writing about the long-gone weekend on a Thursday afternoon, obviously the week is steaming past pretty quickly too.

Easter weekend was beautiful, and much too short!  We didn’t go to church.  I don’t get into that whole thing about needing some puke-pastel new dress for Easter mass.  When did Easter turn into a church fashion show, anyway?  I am not into organized religion at all.  I consider myself spiritual, but once you add the human factor to it, it’s just ruined to me.  Too much chest-pounding, attention-seeking, grandstanding, self-gratification, self-satisfied judging, gossiping, etc., while everything about simply being a good person to others gets mostly, if not entirely, lost.  Not sure why I got onto that tangent, but there you go, my sermon about religion, for your reading pleasure.  Now go in peace.

Before I knew it, I was back at work on Monday morning, convinced we had missed a day somewhere over the weekend.  That afternoon, my older stepson sent me a text, asking if I wanted to do something together when I got home from work.  I was surprised.  What red-blooded 19-year-old wants to hang out with his old, boring, nerd of a stepmom?  (Just kidding.  I’m totally cool.  At least I like to think so.  Not sure anyone else does, though!)

The three of us (my stepson, me, and my equally cool husband) got together after work and had a good time, blowing off steam and being silly and just having fun.  I enjoy just watching the two of them together, laughing and carrying on.  They get louder and louder, trying to one-up the other.  It’s amazing we’ve never been escorted forcefully from any establishment.

Good news: I am breathing freely, no longer popping decongestants like candy, and have had no issues with my foot for at least a week.  This weekend I’d like to gently, slowly, and cautiously ease back into running, which will be light jogging until I’m sure that god-awful pain is not going to come back!

Injuries

No workout last night: my heel felt sore, and I didn’t want to aggravate it.  I iced it and rested it, and I will try again tonight, a low-impact workout.

Must be the week for injuries.  My younger stepson missed school after having his jaw slammed accidentally during a game.  He said it was very sore and that he couldn’t rest due to the pain, but assured me he was going to see a doctor later that day.  We didn’t hear from him after the doctor appointment, so my husband called him and found out why: Mother-of-the-Year had informed her beloved son that she had “important things to do”, so she never made an appointment to take him.

Unbelievable.

Yeah, don’t worry about that injured jaw, or his obvious pain, or his health and well being.  Lord knows Psycho’s meaningless job didn’t need her, since she is essentially just an oversized paperweight there anyway, with roughly the same responsibility load as the wastebasket.

The only time I know for sure the kids are safe and properly taken care of are when they are with us.  They’re largely left to their own devices in their other home, and to be honest, I feel better with them taking care of each other than being subjected to Psycho’s “parenting”.

Well, I hope the kids have a good weekend and a fun Easter.  They are off school today for Good Friday, and I hope they enjoy their day.  Mostly, I just hope they survive the next week and stay in one piece before they are here again, when I finally can be sure they are okay.

My Future Marine

Today I was forced, against my will, to attend a work event.  I can’t stand social events for work.  Chit chat, mingling, networking…I hate all of that crap.  A meal was served during the program, and I didn’t know ahead of time what it was, so I knew it was going to be a high-risk situation.  If I pack my lunch, I have total control over what food is even available to me.  An event where food is served?  Not so much.

Luckily the meal itself wasn’t terribly tempting.  It looked and tasted like it had been sitting a while before it hit my table.  I picked at the chicken and ate a few pieces of grilled squash.  I didn’t like anything else.  Cooked carrots and most other vegetables are just oozy slime to me.

During the entire meal, though, a delectable, tantalizing slice of cheesecake posed seductively before me, topped with whipped cream, calling my name like a brazen temptress.  Have I mentioned that I absolutely adore cheesecake?  All I’ve wanted to do all week is eat, eat, eat, and now this!

Before I knew it, I picked up my spoon and grabbed a small bite.  I had hoped it would taste terrible, but no such luck.  It was amazing.  I have been resisting temptation all week.  Didn’t I deserve a little treat?

Maybe, but I still put the spoon down and firmly told myself “no more”.  I don’t need the Weight Watchers points or the calories (18 Weight Watchers points and 400 calories in one slice, in case you were wondering).  I was honest and logged my one bite, and I was relieved I didn’t have to log the entire slice!

You may have noticed that I re-launched the My Marine Boot Camp Challenge on the right side of my blog.  When I was struggling so much, a challenge was just another burden and stressor.  It wasn’t helping or motivating me at all.  Now that I feel like I’m ready to move forward, I decided it was time to get back to my challenge.

My stepson had an injury not long after arriving at boot camp, so he hasn’t been in a regular platoon until now.  So, if I am understanding correctly, his 12 weeks start now, not when he left last month.  We miss him a lot, but maybe focusing on this challenge and accomplishing some personal weight loss and fitness goals will make the time he’s gone go by a little faster.

So, starting now, consider me in boot camp too (albeit a much easier version that what he is enduring).   Here’s to me being a lot stronger, fitter, slimmer, and lighter before my future Marine sees me again.

 

Weight Watchers Warrior

I did a lot of thinking yesterday.  Now, usually, that is a dangerous thing.  But last night it seemed to lead me to a good decision. 

I had been kicking around the idea of joining Weight Watchers again.  My husband reminded me that last time, I got bored quickly with the meetings and quit going.  That’s true.  The first meeting or two, I was gung-ho, excited, enthused, practically tossing confetti and lighting fireworks as I strutted eagerly into that room.  Pretty quickly, though, it just felt like yet another chore on my to-do list, and I didn’t want to go anymore.

But there’s no denying that the points system helped me eat so much better.  I didn’t have a choice.  When a soda is about 9 points, and I have maybe 30 pounds for an entire day, I learned pretty quickly that I had to scrap the soda and the junk if I wanted to actually eat.  Counting calories is easier, but it’s obviously not motivating me to make better choices.  I’ve struggled long enough trying to get back on track on my own.  It was time for a change.

So I marched into work this morning, having decided I would join online only, that I would invest in a few months of access to the app and food-logging tools, that I would spend the money and the time to do this for myself, and hoorah and yippee, and…the Weight Watchers site had a server issue and was down.

What the…?  Are you freakin’ kidding me?  I finally decide to take a big step and do something to help myself, and their website isn’t working?  Is this some cruel practical joke of the asshole Internet gods?

It’s all good.  I tried a little bit later, and I was able to sign up.  So I am now a committed, full-fledged, all-in Weight Watchers warrior goddess again!  Too bad they don’t sell armor in their online shop. 

Maybe I can train my cats to enforce my WW points.

I set up the app and am getting used to their system and points again.  I logged my breakfast, just to get back into the habit, and ohhhhhh boy, let’s just say I really need to make some serious changes, and fast!  Is it bad to have only point left for the day at 11 AM?  Ha ha.  Just asking for a friend.  Yeah, ummm, not for me. 

Another change I made, in line with the kinder, gentler approach I mentioned: for now I am eliminating all weight goals, charts, logs, contests, challenges, etc.  Putting pressure on myself is not motivating right now.  I will keep the My Marine Boot Camp Challenge image on my page, since I still intend to support my stepson by losing weight while he is gone, but I’m not measuring a certain number of pounds in a certain number of days.  It will just backfire on me right now.  Maybe down the road, I will feel ready to jump into challenging myself, but for now, it’s all about being kind to myself and gaining my strength back up, emotionally and physically. 

Hurry Up and Wait

False alarm!  My stepson did not leave for boot camp yesterday after all.  I am not feeling overly confident about the Marines’ ability to schedule, plan, or coordinate much of anything right about now.  His swearing-in was just like this too: hurry up!  Get here NOW!  It might start at 10 AM, it might start at 4 PM, but you better arrive around 7 AM and sit in an uncomfortable waiting room with no idea what is going on and no one willing to tell you.  On second thought, might be today, might be tomorrow, hell, might be exactly forty-seven days from now, who knows?

If they can’t put together a competent ship-out to boot camp, how do they operate during a war?  Maybe their tactical plan is to confuse, irritate, and discombobulate the enemy until they collapse of sheer exasperation. 

My poor husband drove over 6 hours total yesterday for mostly nothing, then got up early and went right back to the processing station this morning.  I got up early with him and hunted down an old, cheesy-but-wonderful workout called Cardio Boot Camp Live.

I adore Billy Blanks.  Who doesn’t, right?  I used to have the DVD’s from this workout set, and the resistance bands, but I don’t remember what ever happened to them.  I used light weights instead of the bands this morning.  So another morning workout in the bag for this week.

I’m still struggling with my eating habits, but I am just trying to do a little better each day.  Which at this point is “not as horrific as yesterday”, but hey, it’s a start, right?

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