Saturday 27 April 2013

Chicken Chili

This was my new recipe this week! It was something Christina had at daycare earlier in the week and loved so I thought I would try it too. Super delicious and super easy. It cooks in the slow cooker all day and at the end you cook some quinoa on the side and mix it together. I don't have a recipe to link to this post but it was just 3 chicken breasts, a can of tomatoes, can of kidney beans, can of black beans, can of corn and jar of salsa. Chicken goes in first then cover with all the rest. Cook for 6 hours on low then pull the chicken out and shred it. Put the chicken back, in stir and serve.

I managed to exercise 5 times with two of those being runs. It feels so much better to be out doing things again and feeling good.

On the weightloss front I lost 1.5lbs which is just over my goal for the week.

I have not had pop despite a trip to the movies last night. It has been offered several times but each time I chose water instead.

Overall it has been a good week. We are off to the gym tomorrow morning and then Adrian and I are going to see Guys and Dolls at The Shaw Festival:). Looking forward to another great week ahead!

Saturday 20 April 2013

A bit of an update!

Recovery from tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy is on average two to three weeks for children and a month or more for adults.  Christina is 9 days post op and is almost 100% back to herself.  The main reason for this surgery was her giant tonsils.  She did not have recurrent infections.  In fact she has only had one throat infection and that was only three weeks before surgery.  Her tonsils were just so huge that she would snore so loud it could be heard in another room and they believed that she had sleep apnea.  The hoped outcome is that she will no longer snore and will sleep without any interruptions.  In the end this should improve her mood, behaviour and eating habits.  She fit the definition of sleep deprivation almost to the letter.  She had trouble focusing, mood changed at the drop of a hat and she never seemed full.  So now that we are well on the way to healing and sleeping better the truth will show.  Already I can see an improvement in her eating but that may just come from the fact that it still hurts to eat.  Her focus has been somewhat better and she is listening better.  She's still not sleeping perfectly because her throat drys out and hurts but another week should do it and we can start to really determine if her wildness is nature or sleep deprivation.  I don't want to see too much of a change in personality but with her starting school in a few months I need her to be able to focus better and listen better.

As for me I got up and ran this morning.  I went back and forth on what to do and decided running was less work than going to the gym.  It was a cold and ugly run with lots of walking but I did it and am damn proud of myself.  Two days ago it was over 30c and today it was -4c with the windchill.  My lungs don't like the cold but held up pretty well.  The problem I ran into was the wind.  I failed to look at that part of the weather when I checked the temperature.  It was a very strong wind that didn't let up and would almost stop me in my tracks when a gust would come up.  I walked alot of the part that was into the wind and used it for an extra push on the part that was with the wind.  I then decided to sprint the last 100m or so just for fun:)  I wanted to see how fast I could go!  I'm a turtle runner for the most part, slow and steady.  My average pace is around 9mins/km.  For that last 100m I ran 7:15mins/km!!!  I'm pretty proud of that and the fact that I didn't die when I stopped.  Tomorrow is swimming for the girls and I think Christina might be well enough to go back.  I think I would like to go early and work out before they swim:)

Friday 19 April 2013

Here We Go Again:(

I'm so frustrated with myself yet again.  I have got to get my shit together and get this journey headed back in the right direction.  I have no more excuses!  I'm loading up on new recipes, cleaning out the fridge and cupboards and going grocery shopping.  I will get things under control.

On the good side of things I may have fallen off the wagon a little but the positive is that it's not so far off that I have gained a bunch of weight and feel totally horrible.  March was a terrible month full of stress and way to much happening.  As a result my recurrent stomach trouble flared up, and I mean bad!  The plus side of that was that when I went to the doctor he didn't just fluff it off like my old one would have.  He adjusted my medication to help calm the problem and ordered some tests to see what else might need to be done.  The stress ended and with the medication change this week things have felt pretty good.  Tomorrow I will test it all out with a run or early morning trip to the gym.  It's supposed to be cold and I'm feeling like a wimp so the gym is looking probable.  I have also decided that I am going to work with some personal goals and see how that works out for me.  Of course I'll share them here since it has always kept me accountable in the past.

1.  Try at least one new recipe a week.  If anyone has a good one they want to share or knows good blogs to check for recipes please pass them along!

2.  Stop drinking pop!!  I've always been a big pop drinker and I know it is terrible for me.  In the past I have tried cutting down or only having it on special occasions.  This time it just needs to go!

3.  Exercise no less than 4 days a week.  I would like to make it daily but with kids and other obligations I know that won't always be possible.

4.  Be happier just being me!  I have spent many years hiding the real me in certain situations and I think that is detrimental.  I have a totally different side that people who aren't close to me just don't get to see often.  I will let that side out because it's a fun and often hyper side!

5.  Lose 1lb per week.  It has taken me 35 years to reach the weight I am now and I have no disillusions that I will be able to lose it all in a couple of months.  It's just not possible.

So there we go.  Hopefully I can get back on the blogging wagon a bit too and keep things up to date.  I stopped posting because I started to feel like I was always posting the same story about how pathetic I was being.  No longer!!  It's all up from here!

Friday 12 April 2013

Surgery #2

Christina had her tonsils and adenoids removed yesterday and it went very well!  She is behaving quite well today too.  I was worried because she is a very energetic child who does not sit still very well.  She also does not stop talking most days.  Today she isn't talking much at all and it sticking to the couch.  She's still her silly self but just in a calmer way.

Her surgery was done at the brand new hospital which was a little exciting and a little scary.  With any new place there are bugs to work out and things that come up that you just can't plan for.  Our day went very well though with only minor bumps along the way.  They have state of the art equipment and great ways to keep the family informed while someone is in the operating room.  Each patient is given a tracker number and there is a screen that tells you where they are during surgery.  This is fabulous as long as the person responsible for updating it at each step remembers to do so.  We missed talking to the doctor after her operation because we went to get coffee and when we came back the screen said she was just at the prepping stage.  We went across the hall to drink our coffee because you aren't allowed to have anything in the waiting room (infection control purposes).  Less than five minutes later we went in and found out that she was done and the doctor had been out but since we weren't there we didn't get to see him.  Fortunately everything went as planned an there was nothing to worry about.  The only other minor bump in the road came when she left recovery to go back up to the Childrens Daystay Unit.  I was with her in recovery but Adrian was out in the waiting room.  No one told him we were going up.  Again we were fortunate that we had been told about an hour in recovery then she would go up.  When an hour passed with no word he asked and found out we were gone.  It was only about five minutes after we had gone.

Overall our experience at the new hospital was great.  All of the staff and volunteers were wonderful to deal with and we left feeling we got the best possible care we could.  Every step of the way we were asked for feed back from the volunteer assigned to us and we gave lots.  The biggest issue right now is communication as far as I'm concerned.  Practices changed to make things more efficient but people need time to adjust to change and things are still new.  I'm proud that we live in an area with such a great new hospital and that they are forever improving the way things are done to best serve the patients.