Monday, January 2, 2012

First Progress Report

Alright, I'm three weeks in now.  The first week went great and I immediately started seeing results.  Then shit hit the fan and my life became absolutely insane.  Many of you know what has been going on but for those of you that don't...here's the quick rundown.  My mom had surgery to remove her gallbladder on Thursday, December 16.  We thought this would help her feel better after she had gotten out of the hospital right before Thanksgiving.  By Sunday the 19th, she was back in the hospital and was admitted to ICU that night.  We found out that during the gallbladder surgery, her small intestine was punctured and she had gone into septic shock.  The doctor did surgery to wash her out and inserted drains to get rid of the infection.  And this is where all normal routine for me went out the window.


After Mom's surgery that Sunday night, I went to court in the morning and then immediately went to Indy to see how she was doing.  The next morning I drove back to Chicago to work a few days then headed back to Indy on Thursday for my regularly scheduled Christmas plans but with an added day to be at home and check on Mom.  Mom stayed in the hospital and I stayed with my brother and his family until December 27 when I had to come back to Chicago.  My time back home was short lived though when I received a phone call on the 30th that I needed to come back as Mom was in ICU again.  So I left work mid-afternoon and drove back to Indy.  I stayed there until January 1 and am back home in Chicago again.  The good news is that Mom is out of ICU and in the med/surge wing.  We are hoping that she won't be in the hospital for too much longer.  This is going to be a long road to recovery but I want nothing more than for her to leave that hospital.


So with all of the driving back and forth and the stress of having my mom/best friend laid up in the hospital, my attempts at regular exercise and healthy eating were nonexistent.  I made a great effort to avoid fast food restaurants while driving back and forth so that was a positive.  And with being so busy, I pretty much cut out all snacks.  So despite the craziness, I still managed to lose weight.  I am down 5 pounds from where I started.  I'm proud of the loss but I'm hoping that I can be a little more consistent now and continue on the track of losing.


Now that I am back in Chicago and Mom is on the mend, I'm hoping I won't have to drive down there until after I get back from vacation.  That means that regular workouts start again tomorrow morning.  I'm going back to my masters swim team this week.  I also begin training for my first half marathon of the year this week.  I'm also making a great effort to NOT go out to eat and will be cooking myself healthy meals for breakfast and dinner and will be doing simple sandwiches and veggies for lunch.  I leave for Cancun in ten days so if I could shed another pound or two before then, I would be pretty happy.  (Cancun will not count so I anticipate gaining a little bit of weight...I'm going to take advantage of our all-inclusive!)  But I am thinking positive and seeing how things go.