weekend – Page 15 – Stained Glass Butterfly

Three Day Weekend

Almost quitting time! I’m excited to get this three-day weekend started. For starters, my stepkids will be home for the holiday, and we have a few surprises for them.

Also, my fiance tried very hard this morning to convince me to play hookey and spend the day with him, even sweet-talking with heartfelt promises of visiting the garden center (he knows how to get to me! Ha ha). But alas, I am swamped at work, so off to the office I went. I’m looking forward to spending the weekend with him and the kids, and leaving work right here on my desk!

Tomorrow morning is weigh-in, and I already know it will be a gain. That’s what slacking off and eating like there’s no tomorrow will do. This weekend will be a great time to relax, reflect, and really ponder what I need to do differently.

As I set up the Weekly Weigh In page of my blog, I entered every Saturday from now until the end of this year. I was sort of excited to see that the very last day of this year is a Saturday and a weigh-in day. How perfect is that? I need to keep in mind, with every food choice I make and every time I want to skip a workout, what kind of number I want to see on the scale that final weigh-in day of the year!

Doing Nothing

I weighed in Saturday morning before heading to the garden center and prepping for a day of yard work: 206.4, a small gain of 0.2 pound from last week. Hmmm. I really wanted a 2 pound loss, not a gain of any kind, small or otherwise.

I worked out six out of seven days, so my issue is not exercise. I already know my eating habits need improvement, and I’m sure the gain is due to drinking soda and snacking. A little here and a little there won’t hurt, right? Well, it all adds up, and this week was a perfect example of exercise not cancelling out bad eating habits.

Other than that, we had a great weekend. I spent a sweaty, humid afternoon digging in the dirt on Saturday while my fiance mowed the lawn. I planned to clean the house on Sunday, but he suggested that we just spend time together on Sunday and relax. Relaxing is not something I do well! I always have a to-do list, always have a mental checklist of things I need to get done. But I figured, why not try it?

We slept in late, went out for breakfast (okay, brunch), then spent the rest of the day just enjoying the house and the yard and spending time together. At one point I got up to trim the potted plants on the porch and water them, and he laughed and said “You don’t know how to just take a day off.” That’s true, but I was trying. I finished up and came back to snuggle with him and marvel at the wonder of just doing absolutely nothing.

Of course, we will make up for it today. When I get home from Spinning class, we will need to clean the house and tackle everything we didn’t do yesterday. But it was still definitely well worth it!

Exhausted

I had a gain of one pound at my weigh-in on Saturday. To be honest, I was shocked it wasn’t more. But really, have I sunk so low in my expectations that I’m going to be happy with not gaining as much as I thought I would, instead of actually expecting for and working for a loss?

This past weekend the kids were with us for the first time in a month. They were with their egg-donor, Psycho, for Easter. We had a great time Friday night, catching up and laughing and carrying on. On Saturday we planted the vegetable garden, and the elephant ear that my youngest stepdaughter and I planted last time they were home finally made an appearance and is starting to grow.

Then…Saturday night, my youngest stepdaughter said her head itched. My fiance checked her hair, and she had lice. He checked the other kids, and it was unanimous: all of them had lice. Turns out, they have had it before, and their illustrious mother, Psycho, never bothered to tell us. Mother-of-the-Year just dumped them off for the weekend without a word or warning. She told my youngest stepdaughter dismissively that her head only itched from medicine that she had to take, and she never even checked to see if it was lice again.

As usual, my fiance and I double-timed and did her parenting for her. We treated their hair, comforted them that it wasn’t their fault, and stayed up until 2 AM washing all sheets, blankets, clothes, towels, etc. in hot water; spraying their hats, stuffed animals, and our furniture; vacuuming mattresses and furniture and rugs; and making damn sure every square inch of the house was treated, cleaned, and sanitized.

We got the kids into their freshly washed beds, then stayed up a bit later, making sure we had done everything imaginable to prevent it from happening again. The kids were upset, embarrassed, and we had a lot of reassuring to do.

The saddest part was, we had to explain to the kids what to do when they got back to Psycho’s, because everyone in the house knew she isn’t going to lift a finger to help them. We had to teach them how to check each other’s hair, remind them they need to do that for the next week, remind them not to use their brushes, combs, or hats at their other home until they’ve been treated, and so on. Problem is, if Psycho doesn’t give a damn, it’s all for nothing. They will just pick it up again over there and bring it right back.

“Furious” doesn’t even begin to cover how I feel about it. Kids catch lice, sure, but repeat episodes because Psycho is too lazy to put any work into protecting the kids is beyond pathetic. Thing is, she’s so childish and petty, she is probably amused and proud about letting the kids bring lice into our new home. She feels like she got us back somehow, made us pay for being happy and getting a house in the first place. And if the kids were hurt in the process? She doesn’t care, as long as she didn’t have to exert any effort and let us handle it, like we always do.

Lack of sleep is going to make it hard to work out this evening, but I signed up for a Spinning class right after work and still intend to be there. There will be no celebrating for not gaining as much as I thought I would this week. There is going to be a loss at my next weigh-in, no matter what else happens this week!

Motivated

The weekend went by so fast! My stepkids were home, and those weekends always fly by. My boyfriend took them to a burger joint for dinner Friday night, so I stayed home and worked out instead. I used to go with them, and I wanted to go with them, to be honest, but with weigh-in the next day, I didn’t want to pig out.

I went running Saturday morning while the kids were still sleeping. I am trying to ease from treadmill running to outdoor running, since I have been battling shin splints when I run outside. My first step has been running on a nice, smooth, level, flat high school track. I ran 4 miles, then headed home for weigh in.

Another loss: down 1.8 pounds to 191.2. I was really hoping to be out of the 190’s, but with an annivesary dinner plus a lunch out this past week, I am happy to have had a loss at all. I’ll take it!

I worked out Sunday morning while the kids were eating breakfast. I try to time my workouts so I am missing out on as little as possible.

I could tell my younger stepson was not happy when it was time to drive them back to Hickville and our weekend was over. He is typically loud, energetic, and bursting with jokes, but he got very quiet and withdrawn. It’s almost like the better the weekend we have, the harder it is at the end for them. Nine years into this, and I still rage about how unfair this is to them.

My boyfriend told me later that my stepson asked him, “Is she trying to lose weight?” My boyfriend told him yes, that is why they see me working out and working out so hard. My stepson said, “Well, it shows”. My heart nearly burst with pride that he noticed and said something about it. That was, without a doubt, the biggest motivation I’ve had in a long time. I am determined to make them proud of me when they see what I can accomplish when I really put my all into it.

Thank You!

After getting back into a workout groove this week, I have hit a brick wall in the form of my work schedule: I worked both jobs yesterday, again today, and long shifts on both Saturday and Sunday. I set the alarm for 5:30 yesterday morning with the intention of fitting in a morning workout, but let’s just say that sleep deprived and stressed out don’t add up to feeling up to morning workouts! I didn’t even bother pretending I’d work out this morning.

Now, all weekend, I need to shove a workout into what little time I have, after working a full shift and being undoubtedly exhausted when I get home, with my stepkids home and naturally wanting to spend time with them. Sounds fun!

On top of it all, I woke up today with an upset stomach that hasn’t gotten any better yet. My boyfriend asked me to have lunch with him today, and I feel like I have hardly seen him this week, we have both been working so much. So I am going, even if I have to sip chicken broth to keep anything down.

Tomorrow morning is weigh in, and I hope the workouts I fit in earlier this week help me have a loss this week. I feel like I have been eating better. Not perfect, but better, more aware of what I am putting into my mouth.

I didn’t want to end this post without thanking every one of you who have taken the time to read my nonsense and to leave such supportive, uplifting comments. They really do mean a lot to me. Thank you so much!