Whatever I Feel LikeGosh!

I’m dusting off the ole blog here to acknowledge an important milestone. Today I celebrate 7 years of sobriety and freedom from compulsive over/under eating. When I started on this journey 7 years ago, I had no idea how much my life would change for the better. The only thing I knew was that I couldn’t stop eating and gaining weight and that I needed help.

I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to maintain a program of recovery to keep abstaining from all those sick behaviors I engaged in for so many years. I’ve got a very powerful Higher Power and an incredible network of friends who are walking this path with me. Together, we’ve all made it possible.

I treated myself with extra care today just as a way to commemorate and also as a reminder that today I need to always practice self care. Here’s a list of things I did:

• Finally broke out that Free Drink card at Starbucks on my way to work – Decaf Venti Americano, baby!
• Prayed and read from my daily meditation book
• Savored my breakfast and lunch, relishing how much I truly do enjoy the tastes of my nutritious food
• Brewed myself some Seattle’s Best Organic Twilight Decaf in the French press this afternoon (apparently coffee is a treat for me!)
• Called someone who is struggling with alcohol on my way home from work
• Made dinner for me and the boys (Rob had to work late) and enjoyed the dinner conversation with them
• Made breakfast for Rob & I for the last day of the week (we did 4 days already on Sunday)
• Packed my breakfast and lunch for work tomorrow
• Took a long, long, long hot shower
• Gave myself a hot oil treatment on my hair
• Put my pajamas in the dryer before putting them on. Bliss.
• Slathered moisturizer on my face & neck
• Loved on my doggie

I also plan on taking myself to bed early to read a bit before going to sleep because I need to get up earlier than normal.

Here’s to another 7+ years of continued recovery from alcoholism and compulsive eating… and all the rewards that come with those things. I never knew life could be so happy, joyous, and free!

I heard two lines that made me absolutely laugh out loud this week. I’m going to share them here, but you have to promise you’ll reciprocate. Promise? Pinky swear? Okay, then read on.

First was a random guy at the PodCamp Philly conference. I was talking to him after a session and he asked what I did (for a living). I briefly explained my role and as I handed him my business card he said, “So being beautiful is just a part time job for you? It looks like you’re doing it full time.” Hahahahahaha! I still don’t know how I kept a straight face after he said that.

And last night Aric plopped himself down on the couch and promptly declared, “A girl looks her best on the 1st day of school. If she doesn’t look good on the 1st day, forget her because she is going to look AWFUL by the 2nd week.” Apparently there was a middle schooler he had his sights set on who went steadily downhill in the looks department since that first day of school.

Now, tell me something that made you laugh this week.

A few weeks ago I had my blood drawn for my semi-regular physical. There was a mix up with the scheduling, so I wasn’t able to get the actual physical until today. It seems like so long ago now because I’ve had so many other health issues crop up since then. At least today I was able to discuss the issues with my neck and shoulders along with getting the physical.

The doctor gave me a copy of my blood test results – she was blown away by the numbers. When I told her that I don’t eat sugar, flour, wheat, or caffeine she said those things definitely explained my results. Here are some of the numbers:

Triglycerides: 43
Total Cholesterol: 124
HDL Cholesterol: 58
LDL Cholesterol: 57
Glucose: 76
Sodium: 142
Potassium: 3.8
Chloride: 109
Carbon Dioxide: 25
Calcium: 8.5
Protein: 6.2

I didn’t know that things like potassium, chloride, and carbon dioxide were even tested. I’m not sure what it means if these levels don’t fall with normal ranges, either. The one concern she mentioned was that my calcium is a bit low. This makes sense since I don’t eat dairy, save for the recently incorporated clarified butter. I am working on getting the dairy back into my food plan slowly, and will get this re-checked in a month. There were two other items that showed up “out of range” (on the low side) and they were my total cholesterol – which she assured me was a very good thing – and my platelets – which she didn’t mention. I need to research what that means, if anything.

It felt good to be able to answer her questions in a healthy way. “Do you smoke?” – No. “How much alcohol do you consume?” – None. The only thing that I need to work on is being able to say, “Yes, regularly!” to the “Do you exercise?” question. So now that I’ve been given a clean bill of health aside from my neck and shoulder pain from the accident, I should be due to get hit by a bus any day now.

As far as my neck and shoulders go – she said it’s normal to still be in pain two weeks after the fact. If I’m still in pain in 2 more weeks, then she will send me to physical therapy. Here’s hoping that doesn’t have to happen.

I had my mammogram and ultrasound this morning and already received the results: I’ve got a cyst that is dissolving on its own. Great news! I get to have a follow up ultrasound in three months to make sure the cyst is gone, and that’s about it. I’m very relieved, although I wasn’t too terribly concerned that this was going to be cancerous. I knew that having a painful lump was a good sign.

This was the first mammogram I’ve ever had, and I was pleasantly surprised with the experience. I’ve heard so many horror stories about the amount of pain inflicted by the machine, so I was scared. However, aside from a small amount of pressure, it wasn’t painful at all for me. I guess since my boobs are basically just lumps of skin that get miraculously held up by my bra, there isn’t a lot of actual tissue to serve as a pain receptor. I shall complain about my sagging granny boobs no longer. Okay, maybe just a little less.

…jiggety jig.

The vacation ended on a much better note than the one I last left. After that post, the music came to town. Thursday night was Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes and they really brought their A game. I’ve never seen a concert where the band played continuously for 2 hours, pausing only to interact with the audience for a few moments at most. Not only were they untiring, but they were also extremely tight – Johnny would hum a bar or two and the rest of the band immediately went into a flawless rendition of each song. If you get a chance to see these guys, take it!

By Friday my neck and shoulders were feeling better and the sun came out! We spent about an hour or so in the ocean and it was beautiful. Of course, 1/2 hour after we got in the water, the clouds started rolling in; we stayed as long as we could and got out just in time. As we were walking up the beach to our condo, the rain started. It was kind of funny to see everyone leaving the beach en masse. After we got back to our apartment and changed, Rob, Connor, and I were playing a game of Uno when Aric told us there was a rainbow over the beach. He wasn’t kidding – this was one of the most amazing rainbows I’ve ever seen in my life. It was a small rainbow – spanning just the width of our condominium building and little more – but that was part of why it was so spectacular. And after a few minutes, a double rainbow appeared.

I took about 20 pictures of this rainbow because I really felt it was signifying a change for the better for us. Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I’ll take what I can get. Here are some more rainbow pics [don't worry, I didn't upload them all].

Friday night was the first night of the Verizon Wireless American Music Festival where a number of bands play in 3-4 different locations all along the beachfront. We chose to see The Influence and The BoDeans. Rob and I both really enjoyed The Influence. They’re a local Virginia Beach band with a heavy Pearl Jam influence. The BoDeans were sharp as anything – I don’t think a single person missed a note or a space in any song. They entertained the heck out of the crowd, but the crowd proved to be too much for us. It was hot – no ocean breeze blowing – and people were getting drunker and stupider by the minute. We decided to leave and walked down to catch the end of Starship’s performance. We were both glad we picked the concert we did because from what we heard of Starship, we weren’t impressed at all.

Saturday night was the Billy Idol concert that we planned on going to, but ended up not getting there. We were just tired and wore out and not in the mood for dealing with a huge, drunken crowd again. We did some last minute shopping for souvenirs and gifts with my mom then listened to a couple of songs from Eddie Money and Warrant. Both were equally bad. Embarrassingly bad. The cool thing was that as we walked down Atlantic Avenue between 24th and 31st street, we heard Billy Idol’s opening song, “Eyes Without a Face” – his stage was all the way down on 5th street! I can’t imagine how loud that concert must have been up close. Rob already blew an ear drum at the Southside Johnny concert, so he would have been in no shape to handle the sheer volume of Billy Idol. I’m still a little bummed that we didn’t make it, though. From what we heard in the distance, he sounded awesome. I need to look for some reviews and pictures of that concert online – I know they must exist.

We came home on Sunday and I think it’s safe to say that everyone – kids included – were ready to be homeward bound. I’ll write more details and post more pics of the trip in the coming days. This post is long enough. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite photos from the trip – view it in large size for complete awesomeness.