Along with Reagan having the nick name of Reaganator, I’ve now given her another nick name, Min Pin. That name usually refers to a Miniature Pincher, the dog. No, Reagan doesn’t remind me of a dog, but her comfort thing, and sometimes the only way she will go to sleep is by pinching the back of my hands. She’ll sit on my lap with her back to my chest, my arms wrapped around her. She’ll grab my hands and start pinching, kind of gently. Within minutes, she’s out. I’m not sure what it means that she takes comfort in my discomfort, but if it gets her to sleep, I’ll deal with it.
Monthly Archives: March 2009
weight loss update, week 28
I haven’t posted on this for quite awhile, I kind of got tired of the dieting thing and took a break. Then the scales reminded me of why a diet is necessary for me. It’s way to easy to slip back into the old habits of eating whatever I want whenever I want.
After getting myself somewhat back on track, I dared to get on the scales again today. I was pleasantly surprised to see a loss. Total weight loss in the 27 1/2 weeks I’ve been on this journey is 38.2 pounds. And apparently the Pilates does work, because in the past few weeks I’ve lost a total of 5 inches. 1 off the chest, 2 off the waist, and two from the hips. I almost wish I had taken my measurments when I started this whole journey, but maybe it’s best that I didn’t see those numbers!
Pilates
A couple of days ago I remembered a Pilates DVD I bought in 2003. I remember the date because it was a few months after Zale and I got married and I was trying to find an “easy” work out. I wanted to lose some weight, but I didn’t want to work too hard for it! 
Someone that I worked with loaned me one to try. So I did, I tried it and kind of liked it. Especially since we were living in apartments at the time and that was a work out I could do at home. This was before the treadmill and the elliptical came along.
Anyway, I needed to return the DVD to my co worker, so I found one at Best Buy that has 35 work outs on it. Everything from beginner (that’s me) to advanced. I think I used it one time, maybe twice, before it ended up at the back of the DVD collection not to be seen again until I got this weird notion in my head to dig it back out and add to my work outs. I’ve gotten a little board of my step aerobics, haven’t spent any time on the treadmill or the elliptical in awhile, and haven’t made it to the racquetball court in a couple of weeks either.
After I found it, I put the DVD on top of the DVD player so it would be in plain sight and I wouldn’t forget to use it. Finally, last night, after everyone had gone to bed except me and Reagan (who had a late nap and wasn’t showing any signs of winding down), I put the DVD in and set it to do the 5 minute beginner work out. I figured I could do anything for 5 minutes. And it wasn’t that bad. I was really surprised that I actually started to sweat during that 5 minutes, but I felt pretty good, so I moved on to the 10 minute beginner work out. After that 10 minutes I briefly thought about moving on to the 15 minute beginner work out, but was starting to feel a little tired and thought I’d save it for today.
When I woke up this morning I was VERY glad I didn’t do that 15 minute work out. Almost everything from my sholders to my ankles hurts and is sore. I’m guessing some evil, sadistic, person who was out for revenge created this pilates thing. No wonder I shoved the stupid DVD away and did my best to forget about it for all these years.
I know, I know, no pain no gain and if I’m this sore it just means I need to work out more and keep using it. I know all this, I just don’t like it. I don’t like it AT ALL!
technical difficulties
I haven’t posted anything in a couple of days because I wasn’t sure what was going on with my blog. March 20th was the one year anniversary of this blog. WOW, has it really been that long???? Anyway, when we started this blog we weren’t quite sure what to name it. Zale suggested ecallie.com, which I liked, but then someone else said calliesblog.com. I liked that one better. BUT, we had already purchased the domain for ecallie. It was just $15.00, so we went ahead and purchased the domain for calliesblog.com as well.
Since it was time to renew the domain, we decided to drop the ecallie.com domain , I don’t use it anyway, and just renew calliesblog.com. Since we started with ecallie, it created a little snag with WordPress, even after changing that to be the primary domain. But a quick e mail to their support center and it looks like it’s going to be taken care of. Now if we could just figure out how to make some money off this blog! How cool would it be to join the other mommy bloggers that actually make an income from sharing their thoughts and family adventures with the internet? Happy blogging!
Wait by Russell Kelfer
I don’t know who Russell Kelfer is, or when he wrote this poem. A very good friend e mailed it to me and I had to share. This is an amazing poem, and I don’t know about you, but I felt like it was speaking directly to me. I hope it blesses you too! Jerri, thanks for sending this and sharing it with me!
Wait by Russell Kelfer
Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . .
And the Master so gently said, “Wait.”
“Wait? you say wait?” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.
“My future and all to which I relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?
I’m needing a ‘yes’, a go-ahead sign,
Or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.
“You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m weary of asking! I need a reply.”
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,
As my Master replied again, “Wait.”
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting for what?”
He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . .
and He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.
“I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint.
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.
“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.
“You’d never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.
“The glow of my comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask
>From an infinite God who makes what you have last.
“You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I’m doing in you.
“So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait.”
best date night ever
Friday night my Mom took all three kids to spend the night at her house (thanks Mom & Andy!). Zale and I debated for quite a while over what we wanted to do. We knew we wanted to get out of the house, but being broke and all we really didn’t want to spend a lot of money. And, with being on our diets, we didn’t want to eat something that would counteract our hard work.
But, we had coupons for Mexican food, Hardee’s, and Sonic. So pretty much whatever we ate wasn’t going to be very healthy. And we REALLY needed a date night. We finally decided to go eat Mexican food. After that we rented a couple of movies and headed home.
We ended up watching both the movies and stayed up talking and laughing for a couple hours. All of sudden, Zale says, “I want Waffle House.” I laughed thinking how crazy would that be to go to Waffle House in the middle of the night, especially since we hadn’t even been out to a club or anything. But next thing I know we’re in the truck headed to Waffle House at 3:30 in the morning. Then, we went to WalMart, ’cause it was open. At this point, why not!? It was great, we’re walking through WalMart at 4:30 in the morning, just browsing and talking about what items we need to start picking up for our trip to Hawaii in June. See, we’re planners, huge planners. Which is why Friday night was so unusual for us. We actually played the whole night by ear, no plans, just enjoyed that time together.
It was great, it reminded me of when we were dating. We talked and laughed and just enjoyed each other. It was so nice to really reconnect!
update to work out diary
I haven’t really had a chance to do as much blogging as I normally do, so I thought I’d try to play catch up. Dad and I have been able to play racquetball a few times since our trips to Arkansas have stopped for awhile. They were really good work outs and once again I told Dad that at no time were camera’s EVER allowed in or near the court. I can only imagine how goofy and pitiful I look. Especially chasing after that stupid blue ball. For some reason it wants me to chase it all over the court.
I know, you’re thinking that’s the whole point of the game, but I’m not talking about hitting the ball with the racket. I’m talking about after the ball is dead and you have to pick it up to serve it or throw it to the person who is serving. Dad has the ability to hold out his hand and the ball just flies into it as if they both have Velcro or some kind of magnet. Me, not so much. I have literally chased that little blue ball from one end of the court to the other, just trying to pick it up. It’s just embarrassing. During a lesson a couple of weeks ago, Dad actually had me practice throwing up the ball and catching it. Like I said, embarrassing. You’ve heard the term, “you throw like a girl”? Well, I throw worse than a girl! I know there are women out there who are wonderful athletes and have great arms, but I did not get that gift.
Tonight I arrived at the Civic Center earlier than Dad, so I went ahead and got the court and started hitting the ball, and chasing it around. I had already stretched and gotten warmed up by the time Dad got there. It was a REALLY good work out. Sometime after we had gotten started in the lesson, Dad tells me to put the racket down. That’s NEVER a good thing!!! He told me lay flat on the floor, now I’m getting really scared. Then he had me do these leg lifts where you put both legs straight up in the air, bring them down slowly and hold them for a 10 count half way back to the floor. I don’t remember exactly how many we did, but he told me we had done enough because he didn’t want my face to explode. Apparently it was pretty red. Needless to say, Coach gave me a very good work out! You would have thought I had been playing in the rain as badly as I was sweating.
About a week ago I dusted off my old step bench that I use to do step aerobics on 10 years ago or so. It helped me lose quite a bit of weight then. I thought if I put it in the living room as a reminder, I could do it 10 or 15 minutes at time throughout the day to help keep my metabolism going. It’s a bit of an eye sore, but it works. Some days I’m able to use it three or four times, where other days it’s only once or twice. The challenge is keeping the girls from getting under my feet, and some times I have to hold Reagan while I do it. Now that’s a work out!
week 24 of weight loss journey and new goal
I was having such a hard time keeping the weeks straight and doing the weekly weigh in thing, that I finally looked at a calender. I determined the date that I started, wrote down all the weigh ins, and then counted the weeks. So this is week 24 and I have lost a total of 36.2 pounds. Considering I’ve not worked out as consistantly as I would have liked, and that I took some weekends off of my dieting with all the travel we did in the last month or so, I’m pretty happy with 36.2 pounds.
I have a new goal now. It doesn’t look like I’m going to make my goal of being at my target weight by my birthday next month, and I’m okay with that. But last week I found out that I will be joining my husband on a trip to Maui, Hawaii in June. Zale won an all expenses paid (flight, hotel, food, everything) trip for a litigation school, in Maui of all places! We were hoping I would be able to go too, but they don’t pay for the spouses flight, or the added expense to the hotel room (at discounted rates), or their food, other than a group lunch before the classes start. I’ve been to Hawaii before (not Maui) and with our financial situation I just accepted that he would be going alone. He didn’t want to go alone and even talked about not going himself if we couldn’t afford for me to go. I told him that was crazy, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and he was going even if I couldn’t.
So last week, much to my surprise, I found out that Zale had forwarded the information to my Dad. Dad then called Mom and asked if she would split the cost of the flight with him. She agreed, they’ve paid for my flight and I get to go to Maui with my husband!!!! I have the best parents ever!!!!!!! Thank you so much Mom and Dad for making this possible for us! We haven’t been on a real vacation together, ever, so this is going to be amazing!
Now if that isn’t motivation for me to get to may target weight, I don’t know what is. To be in Maui, in June, on the beach, swimming suits will be a must, and I’ll handle that much better if I’m at my target weight!
