Sicker Than a Dog

"Sicker Than a Dog," is a strange phrase, but I find myself saying it right now. I caught some cold bug Friday night. I woke up Saturday with a severely runny nose. Fast forward to Saturday night, and I couldn't sleep a wink. We weren't adequately stocked in the cold/flu department. Unfortunately for me, the NyQuil, which normally works, did nothing to get me some Zzzz's. Another item working against me was our Walmart brand Tissue+Lotion. Those tissues may say they include lotion, but they are sadly mistaken. The tissues I was using all day to wipe my nose were just ripping my nostrils apart. The runny nose was not to be blown either. Although it was runny, it was also clogged. When I tried blowing my nose, my eyes turned red and my ears popped...and the tissues were nearly empty.

The fiance went out Sunday morning and became my lifesaver. He purchased the following items:

REAL tissues for a bad cold
DayQuil
Vick's Vapor Rub Cream
Chicken Noodle Soup
Heat Pad for my neck and back
Hall's Cough Drops

I stayed home from work today. I'm coughing up stuff finally and my nose stopped running after all those wonderful drugs and tissues were brought into my life. I love my fiance SO MUCH. He's been a trooper throughout this entire weekend. He was busy refereeing for youth football on both Saturday and Sunday. He's hopefully coming home from work soon, and I'm excited to see him. We had tornado watches all last night and today's wind has been harsh. The temperature dropped from a high of 74 yesterday to a high of 60 today. That kind of change almost always equals inclement weather.

As for me, I'm going to continue keeping it easy. They want me back at work tomorrow, so I need to make sure I get plenty of sleep tonight. I rarely, if ever, get sick from colds or anything else. When a virus or bacteria cracks my immune system, it's usually pretty strong. God bless breastfeeding!

New Body Image Attempts

Since I've been taking some time off from "work," I've had the freedom to skip some meals. At work, I have a strong desire to eat at lunch time. It's a 30 minute break in the day, and I see people leaving to go out and buy fast food or smell people reheating their dinners in the lunchroom. It's really, really hard to resist eating. Well, being at home for several days this week, it's enabled me to drink a low-fat latte in the morning and wait until at least 4 or 5 pm to eat my daily "meal."

I've also been doing a food diary. I don't actually count calories. I just honestly try to record everything I eat each day whether it's a meal or a quick snack. Counting calories usually doesn't work for me once I go out to dinner at a family restaurant and can't gauge my calories for the meal. When that happens, I can no longer trust the calorie counting.

So, I just record what I eat. The following day, I look back on what I ate and write a score rating like: good, bad, average, horrible, etc. After I score my day, I write a short summary of what I did to earn that score. If I have a horrible day, I write that I had various people invite me out or I overdid dessert.

If I know my eating was horrible yesterday, I feel guilty all day. I avoid snacking on free donuts at work or whatever. I think skipping meals is actually working for me (again). I used to skip meals all the time.

My wedding is just around the corner. I'm not expecting miracles in the weight loss department, but I would like to try.

RIP Karol H.

My best friend's mom died tragically yesterday morning. She was 54 years old. I spent endless weekends at my friend's house growing up, so her family is my family. Her mom took a nasty fall onto her face which broke blood vessels behind her eye and into her brain. This wasn't something anyone could have predicted or sensed. I was in complete shock when my friend called me with the news. I broke down in tears and convulsions. My fiancé and I raced out to the hospital she was airlifted to. I just needed to be with my friend and her family. We spent the rest of the day crying and remembering Karol. Friends drove in from far away to be with my friend, Ashley, today.

It's a truly sad chapter in our lives, and I wish there was something I could do to help their family get through this pain.