...to My New Blog. I unfortunately had to change blogs because my old e-mail account was
compromised and also THIS blog wouldn't let me change its domain
address, which is something I've wanted to do for a while. Also I have decided to separate the weight loss/fitness/"Get Off Your Broom" journey to a separate blog dedicated Just For That.
Hope to see you loves on the other side!
Height 5"4'
Weight 146.0 (-1.8)
Dress Size 14 (No Change)
BMI 25.1 (-0.3)
- 1 more tiny little point and I will be in the HEALTHY range and out of OVERWEIGHT- Yeya!!
Bust 33 in (No Change)
Waist 31 in (-1)
Hips 38 in (No Change)
Mundane Goals:
Some days I still have trouble on trying
to keep my intake around 1320 calories a day even when I "earn" more calories with exercise. I shoot for this about 5 days a week and then the other two days I'm much more lenient on myself. (These are usually the days that the Family Guy insists on take out or we are running tons of errands and have to eat on the run). As far as exercise I believe I did about 120 minutes over goal. Today is the last day of the weight loss contest that my job has been
hosting for the past 14 weeks. I think I'm coming in at second place
(lost about 10 % of body weight). I think the first place winner lost
12%, but I'm still deliriously happy and I'll take 2nd place with a
smile on my face!
Elemental/Spiritual Goals:
Earth - General maintaining of lifestyle... My goal was to be much more focused this week. And I feel that I was.
Air - Meditation, Positive Reinforcement... I
actually did get the chance to meditate a few times and I'm always
reading up on blogs, etc relating to this journey so I did good here.
Fire:
Energy (both physical and mental), Keep moving, Fighting the demon of
emotional eating, Nipping my significant future diabetes in the bud.... Well I got moving plenty and I actually had only one emotional eating
episode that I can think of.
Water: Washing away the old habits, Cleansing... Positives here.
Spirit: Continuing to cultivate the relationship with Spirit (my patrons, etc) and not just about this journey... Didn't feel very spiritual this past week for some reason.
Broom Points:15 minutes per broom, I did 320 minutes, so that earns me 21 brooms.
Thou Art Goddess Challenge (Optional):
This week's was trying to feel connected with nature while exercising outdoors. I didn't exactly do this BUT this week as we are still getting more established with The Loaf catching the bus for ECD my youngest son decided he wanted to walk around the block after the bus leaves. He kind of forced me to make it a habit but I can't count this as actual exercise because I'm too focused on chasing him and keeping him out of the street. However he stops to explore every weed and every stray cat so I kind of felt connected in that way. ;-)
Even
though this blog is kind of new I have actually been blogging for years,
particularly in the past couple of years when I was blessed and
surprised by two baby boys. Yet there is a subject that I never really
have mentioned or addressed before because (quite honestly) I was hoping
it wouldn't really affect us. It is something I have been putting on
the back burner, but a few weeks ago I got a wake up call that maybe I
can't put it on the back burner anymore.
My husband and both of my sons with him have a genetic condition called Neurofibromatosis (Type 1) . When people talk about it they usually say "NF" for short.
The
easiest way to define the disorder (short definition) is "a condition
that causes tumors to grow on nerve tissue, producing skin and bone
abnormalities." There is a broad range of things that "could" happen
such as:
seizures
headaches
brain tumors
brain blood vessel defects
learning disabilities
mental retardation
macrophely – oversized head
optic glioma (tumor of the nerve)
Lisch nodules (benign pigmented tumors in the iris)
speech impairments
high blood pressure
freckling (where skin meets skin: armpits, groin, under the breasts)
neurofibroma (may appear anywhere on skin)
scoliosis (abnormal curvature of the spine)
digestive tract neurofibromas (may cause pain, vomiting, chronic constipation or diarrhea)
neurofibroma café au lait spots (similar to dark birthmarks – may occur anywhere)
early or delayed puberty (neurofibromas may increase in size and number and may also occur during pregnancy)
pseudarthrosis (failure of a fracture to heal)
knock-knees or bowlegs (genuvalgum or genuvarum)
bone deformities
My
husband, The Family Guy, has it. He was never officially diagnosed
until it became apparent that our newborn sons had it. As a baby he was
misdiagnosed with something else (Cystic Fibrosis, I think) and he was
given a few years to live. Well, he's now 33 years old and still with
us. Beyond that his parents never had him tested or re-evaluated for
anything else, which I suppose is just as well because not much was
known about this disorder in the 70s.
And the thing is if you have a child with this there is usually no way
of knowing which symptoms (if any) may occur until school age or
puberty years. Neurofibromatosis Type 1 occurs in 1 out of every 3,000
births. For me it was 2 out of 3 births. Its generally not diagnosed at birth although there is one way it may be obvious: the classic multiple cafe au lait spots. My mother calls them the "giraffe spots".
I
met my husband five years ago at work. Someone mentioned to me, "Have
you ever noticed the spots he has all over his body?" I hadn't noticed,
but when I became closer to him I did. They are kind of hard to miss.
I
never thought anything of them, though. Neither one of us did. One
way it was and is obvious that my husband has NF is that 50% of NF cases
are affected with significant learning disabilities. He had them all
throughout his school years and he has a very noticeable speech
impairment. This stuff never mattered to me. I once had a "friend" who
asked me "Didn't you notice that something was 'off ' about him... that
something was wrong with him?" Well... no... but I realized something
was "wrong" with her fairly quickly!
As for his
childhood problems his parents didn't really seem much concerned (let's
just say his childhood was not ideal), and getting a medical history
from them is just about impossible (I've tried) but as far as we can
tell the NF case began with him (this disorder can be a random genetic
mutation). Now that his mother knows about him (and our kids) though
she is quite literally like "meh".
When our first son,
Trent (the Loaf Tornado), was born his entire forearm was covered in red
marks and he had several cafe au lait "spots" already and throughout
his life they have continued to randomly pop up.
Trent:
Trent
seems so far to have no "physical" problems except being bowlegged
which may or may not be related. But it became apparent that
on speech and communication he wasn't hitting his milestones (although
he seems to comprehend and understand just about anything). He seems to
talk and communicate on (if I had to guess) a 1 1/2 year old level.
He just turned 3. Therefore he is already going to school five days a
week in an early childhood intervention program and they already list
him as "special ed". When we had to have the meetings for his starting
of the program I submitted the paperwork for his disorder and the staff
had of course never heard of it and couldn't pronounce it. When they
asked what it was and I tried to explain they gave me the blank 100 yard
stare.
When
Miles (the Meatball Tornado) was born he had a bit of a problem. He
had trouble breathing and was in the NICU for about 10 days. He was
born with only 1 spot but by the time he left the hospital he had about
6. As he was learning to breathe on his own I noticed his chest looked a
little funny. Like Trent he has continued to grow new spots (he will
be 2 in June).
Miles:
He also has some of the little "bumps" that even his NF doctor seems unsure if they are the "neurofibroma tumors".
Last
month the boys went to see their NF doctor (for now they go once a
year). Remember how I'd said Miles' chest looked funny? Well after his
1st birthday it got worse:
And
the NF doctor said that if it gets worse when he is 2 then he will have
to be referred for cardiac care (because the chest depression will pull
on the muscles of his heart, the way I understand it), and that this is
definitely related to the NF. I have looked around online and so far
only have seen one NF parent who had a child with this (it was in a You Tube video). She referred to
it as "winging scapula in both shoulders causing his chest wall to sink
in and become deformed". It's hard to wrap my mind around this... this
is Miles... the most active of all my kids. He literally climbs the
walls. I've had to get up 20 times to pull him out of or off
of something just while writing this!
...And
it's become obvious that I can't think to myself, "Maybe my sons just
have a mild case. Maybe it won't really affect them." Yeah, maybe. Or
maybe they could face a lifetime of surgeries and illness. I shouldn't
scare myself with every scenario of what could be, but I can also no
longer be oblivious. That's the trouble with this disorder, there is so
much that "could" happen and such a broad range in the spectrum of what
"could" go wrong. I don't mention it much to people because when I do I
sometimes get the attitude of, "Well, that's what COULD happen, nothing
terrible has happened YET, right?"
I started reading up and communicating with other NF moms and some of the things they are going through. In some ways it helps me to not feel so alone, and in other ways it adds to the fear.
I
mentioned this video earlier... it's a good general indicator of what
"could be". For now we take it one day at a time and I am trying to
"let go and let God".
Bust 33 in (-1. Funny... this is the one place I DON'T need to loose inches and yet consistently do so. Bra shopping is becoming a real bitch.)
Waist 32 in (No Change)
Hips 38 in (No Change)
Mundane Goals: I have now made my short term goal (getting down to 147 lbs). I chose this number because since I have given birth in '09 and then again in '10 my weight dropped to 148 at the lowest after both births and then crept back up again. So short term goal #1 has now been met. Short term goal #2 is to get to 134, in other words to lose another 13 lbs. I chose this goal because I was 134 at the time I got pregnant with my oldest child back in '04. Getting to this number means I will have officially "lost all of my baby weight". I have been working on trying to keep my intake around 1320 calories a day, even with exercise. I seem to stick to that a couple of days and then the intake creeps back up. I need work here. Also I had 2 candy bars because of "Easter". Fail. I overdid on my exercise though. My goal is 200 min a week (about 40 min a day, five days a week). I did 360.
And, as a side note, this was the first week that people are beginning to notice I've dropped a few and that my shape is changing. :-)
Elemental/Spiritual Goals:
Earth - General maintaining of lifestyle... I feel I gave it 75% effort here... so Earth needs more focus this week.
Air - Meditation, Positive Reinforcement... I actually did get the chance to meditate a few times and I'm always reading up on blogs, etc relating to this journey so I did good here.
Fire:
Energy (both physical and mental), Keep moving, Fighting the demon of
emotional eating, Nipping my significant future diabetes in the bud.... Well I got moving plenty and I actually had only one emotional eating episode that I can think of. I happened to have a doctor's visit and on a test and showed no signs of diabetes. It wasn't specifically testing for that though, but if I had diabetes then signs of it would have shown there.
Water: Washing away the old habits, Cleansing... Eh. For the most part good.
Spirit: Continuing to cultivate the relationship with Spirit (my patrons, etc) and not just about this journey... I maybe gave this 50%. So it looks like my Earth and Spirit needs work.
Broom Points:15 minutes per broom, I did 360 minutes, so that earns me 24 brooms. Wow! Can that be right?
Thou Art Goddess Challenge (Optional):
I'd already decided that a ritual would be too much to schedule around the kids. But this coming week's challenge of exercising outdoors might be do-abe. Does a walk in a park while pushing a double stroller count?
There's nothing like watching this live on TV while living in a mobile home park knowing this is in the same metropolitan area as you are!
Two weeks ago the house next door struck by lightning... and now this! They are estimating that there were 12 tornado touchdowns in the DFW area yesterday. Miraculously there were no casualties! Still I really wish we could get a "real" house. That's not a possibility for another four years or so. :-(
Powerful tornadoes were spotted on the ground in Texas, carving a path
of destruction through the Dallas area and tossing tractor trailers into
the air before moving north through the state.
Residents in four Texas counties are being urged to take shelter in Dallas, Ellis, Johnson and Tarrant counties.
A tornado near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport ripped through a
tractor-trailer park and tossed the massive trucks high into the air and
spun them around before smashing them to the ground.
Flattened and crumpled trailers littered the area in the aftermath of the twister.
Passengers were sheltered inside Dallas Fort Worth Airport prior to the storm, spokesperson David Magaña said in a statement.
There were no reports of damage at the airport. Restaurants inside the
airport will remain open while passengers are riding out the final band
of storms.
Footage from ABC affiliate WFAA showed rooftops flying off homes.
Damage was reported at Six Flags amusement park in Arlington, Texas.
The first funnel cloud was spotted on the ground at 1:01 p.m. in Ellis County.
School districts reported sending students into emergency shelters and
urged parents to not retrieve their children until the storm warning is
lifted.
A code black was issued at Parkland Hospital in the Dallas, ordering all patients to be kept a safe distance from the windows.
Height 5"4'
Weight 149.6 (Lost about 13 lbs in last challenge)
Dress Size 14 (Went down 1 size in last challenge)
BMI 25.7 (Went down 2.1 in last challenge. Overweight, but almost to the "Healthy" range)
Bust 34 in (Lost 2 inches in last challenge)
Waist 32 in (Lost 3 inches in last challenge)
Hips 38 in (Lost 3 inches in last challenge)
Goals for Continued Success (both traditional and magickal!):
1. Continue meditation and communicating with Spirit, especially in times of emotional stress (translated: wanting to binge). And to at least work in one ritual. With my three young kiddos ritual time is VERY hard to come by.
2. Continuing utilizing The MyFitnessPal website (my lifesaver)!
3. Continuing cutting the needless snacking (better take this free sample 'cause it's free!)
4. New calorie bank of 1320 a day, exercise of course will add more to the bank to work with!
5.
Going cold turkey on candy bars (not candy, I still have
small pieces here and there but NOT the actual BARS which I used to consume
sometimes daily)
6. Exercising at least 5 days a week at an average of 40 minutes. (This would be about 13 broom points a week). I'm going to stick with the jogging in place, general aerobics, and ab work because so far that's been working great.
7.
The "Coffee and Bell Pepper" Diet (no, that's not an actual diet, it's a
joke between me and my sister that I will explain in another post).... in other words, utilizing humor in the darker times!
And This Plugs into the Elements How?
Air: Focusing on goals, Meditation, Nurturing the mind with positive and encouraging blogs, books, material relating to this journey.
Earth: Maintaining the new lifestyle, staying educated and aware of what my body needs, Revering the body as a temple and not a garbage dump.
Fire: Energy (both physical and mental), Keep moving, Fighting the demon of emotional eating, Nipping my significant future diabetes in the bud.
Water: Washing away the old habits, Cleansing
Spirit: Continuing to cultivate the relationship with Spirit (my patrons, etc) and not just about this journey.
