Angels Among Us

These last few days have been extremely hard, so I'm just going to try to summarize everything and then move on the best I can.  Last Friday was my Grandma's funeral.  While she was ready for God to walk with her in heaven, it's never easy to lose someone you love.  The night before, while I was at her visitation, I received the news that a church member whom I had numerous grad classes with and who is a fellow school administrator had passed away from injuries he sustained in a car accident the day after Christmas.  I attended his visitation last night.  Just this morning, a close co-worker and another administrator lost her daughter after a 3 year battle with Leukemia.  The school day was just.... numb.  That's the only word I could think of for it.  I'm numb.  I cry and mourn for the family, but I just know that their daughter is up there dancing with angels and free of the pain and the frustration she endured for so long.  There are certainly beautiful angels up in Heaven watching over us.

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So to catch you up, I'm now on day 8 of the new "me" and doing pretty well.  I'm down from 190 to 184.8.  I've kept my resolution of being active every day so far.  I started taking A.C.E. on the 5th and it has helped me tremendously with my food cravings.  I honestly don't even think about eating and I don't really crave any foods.  I drink a lot more water because it does make you thirsty and I have managed to crave water and thus, I have cut my diet Pepsi consumption down from 10 cans a day to usually only 1!  I'm amazed.

I did promise pictures....

On Saturday morning I got up to try out swimming for the first time in a long time!  The local HS has a pool and usually has adult lap swim.  I was in the car at 7:45, but had to turn back because I forgot....

Once I went back home and picked these up off the table I left them at, I was one my way!

I got there and it was...

EMPTY!

I saw the coach in his office so I went to ask him if there really was adult lap swim and he said no, the guy who is in charge is out of town.  BUT he was there and didn't care if I got in to swim as long as I was out at 9am when his team got there.  What a nice guy!  I told him I knew I wouldn't last a whole hour and promise to be out of there in time.

Swimming is a lot like riding a bike- you remember how to do it, it just requires muscles.  I was exhausted after just a few laps.  My arms hurt and my neck hurt from turning it to breath.  I swam for 25 minutes only and got out.  It was then that I saw this:

It would have been nice to know that there were dates that were closed, but I guess I lucked out since the coach let me swim anyway.  

I drove home happy that I got there and did it.  Now I just need to go more often!  My goal is to do a sprint triathlon this year.  I need to get in shape for each part of that though.  I can run (slowly), I can swim (slowly), and I can bike (not very far!) 

Today... well, with all the sad news I had to try really hard not to run to food for comfort.  While I did have some comfort foods, I do believe I stayed close to my daily calorie allowance.  I only had 500 calories by 4pm.  Then I had 3 frosted sugar cookies that were donated to my after school program.  When I got home I was working on making my daughter's cake pops for her 1/2 birthday tomorrow.  I had a few nibbles of chocolate that I am sure added up.  However, I think between the cookies and chocolate I maybe got 600-700 calories?  It's completely a guess, but I really don't think it was too horrible. Of course, I didn't eat "good" food, but I also didn't have 5000 calories like I would have in the past.

Tonight I walked with an incline of 6 on the TM at a 3.8mph for 2 miles.  Then I got on my bike trainer (which I think I finally got set up right) and rode for about 15 minutes.  I wish I had an odometer on it, but I don't yet.  It's on my list of "to buy" items.

Well, that's it for now.  This is pretty long anyway and I need to collect my thoughts before bed.  I'll be back soon!