24 Hour Detox: The Day After

After nearly 2 weeks of eating out, eating on the road, and/or eating crappy hospital cafeteria food... I was feeling, well, crappy. I was sluggish. My head hurt. And my GI tract was staging some kind of revolt. I've been eating pretty well since early February, so if nothing else, this was proof that my body actually liked it! But I needed to do something to get myself back on track. I needed a reset of sorts. I needed to purge out all the nastiness and restore the natural organ systems and functions that the human body is already equipped with when it isn't overloaded with junk and stress. So I decided it was time for a detox. I prefer the word "detox" over "cleanse" but you can call it whatever you want.

There are plenty of commercial plans and systems out there, numerous websites and books, countless opinions and so-called expert advice about how and where and when to do this kind of thing. Frankly, a lot of it seems kind of sketchy to me. I find it hard to believe that switching to a liquid diet or cutting out entire food groups for several days to a week at a time is truly healthy. I'm aware that there are special situations in which such extreme measures might be necessary, and in those cases, I think it's especially important to be under the care of a health or nutrition professional. But that's not me, and I was not interested in anything extreme. So I went with something that I was comfortable with and thought I could handle: a modified 24-hour juice detox.

We have a juicer (that my husband bought off an infomercial) and we go through various phases of using it. It actually works quite well and is relatively easy to use, so I'd like to get back in the habit of using it more consistently. Nathan doesn't really drink juice, but you can use it to make homemade popsicles, which I am hoping will be a big hit over the summer. Anyway, because we have the juicer we also have a couple of recipe/idea books, one of which includes sample plans for a 24-hour juice detox. I chose recipes from this book and then modified them a bit. Mainly, I tried to incorporate more protein and some healthy fat into the day but adding things like Greek yogurt and some avocado. I also allowed myself some hard boiled eggs (NOT mixed into the juices). I just felt like it was important to have something to balance out the natural sugars in the fruit. I scheduled my detox for a day that I was working from home (it would NOT have been practical for me to do this at work). I did still have coffee before getting started, but I limited myself to just 2 cups (you aren't supposed to have any caffeine, but I refuse to give that up completely!). Nathan was with me in the morning and evening, but went to daycare during the day. Paul was also on shift all day, so it was nice to have the house to myself and not be tempted by anyone else's food! Here's how my day looked:

Breakfast
I chose a citrus blend (oranges, lemon, and lime) and blended the juice with some Greek yogurt to thicken it up, add a little protein, and fill me up more. It was thicker than regular juice, but not quite smoothie-level. The citrus made for a pretty tart but very refreshing taste, which definitely perked me up. Citrus juices provide vitamin C, as well as some of the nutrients needed to help absorb it. Furthermore, these juices are a great source of citric acid, which is great for pulling toxins out of the body.

Lunch
For lunch I went with a savory-herb tomato blend. The juice base was just tomatoes and then you mix in freshly chopped basil and parsley. I put the tomato juice in the blender and added 1/2 an avocado before stirring in the herbs, which made it a little thicker and quite filling. The book recommends adding a dash of Worcestershire, which I forgot to do, but it was fine without it too. Tomatoes are a great source of antioxidants; and the parsley also adds some nutrients, in particular iron. I also had a hard boiled egg for lunch, mashed up with some dill, paprika, and a dash of onion salt for flavor.

Dinner
I went with a mix of veggies and fruit for dinner: apples, green grapes, fresh ginger, and beetroot. This was the most fun to make and it smelled great (fresh ginger is potent!). It was actually pretty tasty too. Beets are really good for detoxing the kidneys (and have many other benefits). I'm not typically a big fan of them, but in juice form I don't mind. Grapes are a good source of vitamin E, which acts as an antioxidant. Apples have potassium, more vitamin C, and are also useful for lowering cholesterol. And of course ginger is great for settling the stomach. I also had more hard boiled egg with dinner, which helped fill me up more.

Nighttime Tea
My recipe book included herbal tea blends to make and drink before bed. I went with one that used lemon zest and mint leaves. This was probably my least favorite of the day - it just didn't have much flavor, and what flavor it did have was kind of bitter. Maybe I made it wrong? I drank it anyway, but I'd probably try a different one next time.

So now for the results...

Yesterday
I felt pretty good all day yesterday, and by early evening I could honestly say I felt fantastic. I had energy, but not the bounce-off-the-walls kind. It was more of an "absence of fatigue" kind of energy, sort of peaceful and calming actually. I was never really hungry except at lunch, but that may have been because I lost track of time and made my lunch juice kind of late. And who knows - I might have felt it more if I hadn't supplemented my juices with eggs and whatnot. My stomach definitely felt more settled than it has been, and I didn't miss the sluggish feeling that often comes from eating a heavy dinner.

Overnight
My juicing book suggested that drinking the right juices at dinner and before bed could help improve sleep. I've been sleeping pretty poorly lately, so I don't know if it was the detox or the relaxed evening (I skipped working out because they don't recommend it while on restricted calories, plus I took a nice bath and read a magazine), but either way I definitely slept great last night! I had no trouble falling asleep, and the only time I recall being awake was when my dog was snoring loudly :)

Today
I woke up feeling pretty good this morning too. I wasn't starving, by any means, but I was definitely ready to eat solid food again. The book cautions against extending the detox beyond 24 hours, so I was happy to comply and made myself a toasted mini bagel with whipped cream cheese and a spicy vegetarian sausage patty for breakfast. And yes, I had my coffee as well :) It's still early in the day, but I think I'm going to go ahead and call this experiment a success. It was fun and easy, and I really do feel pretty great. I definitely want to try doing more juicing on a daily basis - maybe even replace 1 meal or snack a day with juice. My recipe books also give suggestions for what to do with the pulp (both fruit and veggie types) so I will try to plan accordingly. I've already been mixing some into Nathan's yogurt for added fiber and I'm going to use the tomato pulp in a pasta recipe this weekend. I feel that I accomplished what I set out to do, which was to "reset" my body and it's natural detox systems.

And now... time to enjoy this holiday weekend! Well, after I get through the workday, that is...

My Favorite (New) Nathan Things

Nathan is growing and turning into such a little man these days! It occurred to me that I haven't done a post just about him in a while, so here goes... A list of recent highlights and changes and fun new updates:

1. He loves hats. Loves them. He has all kinds of hats - winter/stocking hats, baseball caps, beach and/or safari-style hats. Most recently, we bought him both a fedora and a newsboy cap. A fedora on a toddler?! OMG so cute. Practically the first thing he does every morning is point to his hats and then pat his head, asking to wear one. Sometimes the silly boy even piles on a couple at a time. 
2. He is becoming more and more of a bookworm. We've been reading him books since he was only a few months old (my MIL is a retired librarian and my mom used to teach elementary school so we have TONS of books). These days, he likes to clear all his books off "his" shelf in the living room, rummage around in them, and then bring us one to read to him. It makes me so happy when he sits in my lab while I read and points to things on the pages. I also love watching him read with Daddy.
3. He loves going outside and "asks" to all the time by running to the backdoor and banging on it. In fact, we've had a couple of minor tantrums lately when he wanted to go out but we said no. I love that it's finally getting nice enough to do this on a regular basis! He likes riding around in his wagon, picking up sticks and leaves and other miscellaneous things, and watching Gibbs (our lab) race around the backyard. 
4. He gives kisses (most of the time) when asked. It's more of an open-mouthed head-bang, but it's adorable and I love getting kisses from my little boy :)
5. This may sound strange, but I kind of love his "fake cry". This is something he does when we say no or refuse to give him something, but he isn't really upset about it so he does this pretend cry instead, like he's testing us to see if we'll cave in... Seriously - he's not even 15 months old yet - where does he come up with this?? It's pretty funny though. He'll scrunch up his nose and squint his eyes and kind of whine at us, but the whole time there's a sparkle in his eyes like he's trying to trick us. It's nothing like his real cry, so we're not fooled in the least. But it does crack me up :)

That's all I can think of right now. I will close with some recent favorite pics:

 Snazzy man all dressed up for church in his fedora :)

 

 Out for a walk in his wagon with a dragon hat and a stick!

So... Where Was I?

Sometimes life just happens and you have no choice but to roll with it. My last post was 2 weeks ago (March 31) and my grandmother was undergoing a heart catheterization at the time to further evaluate her congestive heart failure and narrow down the treatment options; they discovered an artery that was 85% blocked and needed a stent. On April 3 she had an endoscopy to check for signs of internal bleeding that could raise her risk level if she were to have the stent placed (therefore requiring blood thinner). Within a couple hours of the endoscopy, she was taken by ambulance to the local hospital in acute respiratory distress; she was intubated and then transported by ambulance (they wanted to airlift but weather was bad) to another hospital in a larger city where her cardiologist's team resides. I left work around 3 pm, drove home, picked up a suitcase that Paul had packed for me, and drove 3 hours south to meet my uncles at the hospital. My mom is Grandma's medical power of attorney, but she lives several states away and couldn't get a flight out until the next morning and she needed me to be there to update her and help facilitate Grandma's care. I spent all night in the hospital with my uncles and Grandma. It was one of the worst nights of my life. She was unable to be sedated while intubated because the sedatives made her blood pressure drop too low, so all night long we watched her thrash and gag and fight the tube down her throat.

By the time my mom arrived on the 4th, they had taken the tube out and Grandma was breathing on her own but still in the ICU. She had pneumonia, her blood sugar from her diabetes was extremely high, her kidneys were struggling, and we learned she had had a small heart attack which was most likely the cause of her respiratory distress the previous day. I spent the remainder of that weekend at the hospital with my family (we did eventually get rooms at a nearby hotel that offered discounts to hospital visitors). It was a long, physically and emotionally exhausting weekend. I needed to be there with Grandma and to help my mom and her brothers with all the paperwork and decisions, but I missed my husband and my son (thankfully my in-laws were able to step in and help with Nathan while Paul was on shift that Saturday). There were many conversations about death, dying, and end-of-life care. I work in the field of oncology - this is nothing new to me. But this is really the first time that I was intimately involved in discussing, explaining, and ultimately documenting someone's wishes and advance directives.

I returned home on April 6 (after a semi-disastrous experience trying to implement Grandma's DNR orders and advance directives - thanks to unfortunate timing and a very upsetting, highly inappropriate interference from a medical resident who handled it quite poorly). Grandma remained in the hospital and my mom stayed nearby (with help from her brothers) for all of last week while they continued to evaluate and stabilize her condition. Last Friday (April 11), Grandma underwent a procedure to place a stent in the artery that was blocked; at the same time, they were able to complete a sort of temporary repair to one of her heart valves that is causing the trouble. Friday afternoon, Paul, Nathan, and I drove back down to the hotel by the hospital and spent the weekend there. We returned home yesterday evening, and Grandma was also discharged and sent home. This is not the end of the road, there will be more to this story. Likewise I have so many thoughts and feelings about all the events that have transpired over the past 2 weeks, but I'm not even sure where to begin. For now I think I will let it all just simmer...

I set new mini-goals on March 12, and it's time to check-in on my progress (or lack thereof). It has been a difficult 30+ days. Shortly after I wrote about these goals, all 3 of us got very sick. My mom came to visit just as we were recovering; having her around was very helpful, but it did change up our routine a bit. Then, less than a week after she left, all the drama with Grandma began. Where does this leave me? In need of a re-set button - ha!

1. Fitness. I was supposed to workout at least 5 days per week, including at least 1 run per week. I definitely did not meet this goal. I worked out zero days while sick, then squeezed in 1 run and 1 long hike while mom was here. I may have averaged 2 or 3 workouts per week the rest of the time, but all the traveling and hospital time definitely did NOT help. There were no other training runs either :( So... mini-goal for the next 30 days? Same as before. I really need to keep this up and make it a priority. The number on the scale hasn't budged much lately, but I can tell a difference from February in terms of strength and endurance, as well as how my clothes fit. I definitely don't want to backslide!
2. Healthy eating. Another fail :( My appetite in general has been horrible ever since I got sick. And all the stress has only made it worse. When I do eat it's because I know I need to, but junky stuff is all that appeals to me unfortunately (ice cream! CHIPS!). I was supposed to be planning meals, shopping ahead, and tracking my calories in MFP. Being sick screwed up planning and shopping for the first half of the month; then once I did plan and shop ahead for the second half, I ended up being gone for a large chunk of it! I also pretty much gave up tracking calories while at the hospital. We were either eating high-calorie restaurant food (whatever was nearby and convenient) or crappy cafeteria food, and always at weird hours of the day/night. If there's anything positive to say about this mini-goal, it's that I can definitely tell a difference in how I feel by NOT achieving it: I feel like CRAP. I'm sluggish and tired and my whole GI system is whacky. I need to get this under control again. Mini-goal going forward: 1) resume meal-planning and preparation, 2) resume tracking calories in MFP, and 3) figure out some kind of detox to do for the next week or so to get my system straightened out! 
3. Education. I'm not even going to get into detail about this. The story is the same as with all my other goals: sickness + family crisis + unplanned travel = ZERO achievement. Going forward: I must spend at least 2-3 hours per week on my capstone/thesis. No if's, and's, or but's about it!
4. Organization. I had aimed to spend 1-2 hours per week on organization and special projects, and I have to say, this is the one mini-goal I might have actually achieved (or come close to anyway). I wrote about my closet/wardrobe project in another post, and I'm still very happy with that progress (although my "donate" pile is still taking up space in the corner of our bedroom, so that needs to be gone). I did not get to work on my photo projects at all, so I'm going to keep that as a goal for the next 30 days. I think I will also set a mini-goal to tackle the "office" room and do some serious sorting and purging in there 
5. Finances. So I set goals to 1) eat out a maximum of 3 times (FAIL), 2) set aside cash for weekly expenses to help with budgeting (tried to do this for Paul's meals on shift and gas money... and then FAILED when the hospital visits interfered), and 3) reconfigure how our paychecks are split for direct deposit into various accounts (never even tried to do this so... FAIL). I think I will keep this simple: for the next 30 days, my goal is to work with Paul on pricing out various aspects of our upcoming home renovation so we can get a more precise estimate from our contractor and hopefully get the ball rolling on our construction loan! I really should do a separate post about all of this anyway, so stay tuned!

The moral of the story here is that sometimes you set goals, and sometimes, despite your best efforts or intentions, you wind up getting derailed anyway. I'm not even that disappointed in myself. Do I want to do better? Yes. Will I pick up and try again over the next 30 days? Definitely.

Scrambled Thoughts

I'm having one of those days where there are just way too many thoughts swirling around my brain that I cannot even process them, let alone concentrate long enough to get anything done. I went for a walk earlier to try to burn off some nervous energy (and take advantage of the first truly warm day we've had). It did help calm me down, but I still can't focus. So now I'm here. Maybe if I write out a list of all the things occupying my mind it will help?

Today I am thinking about...

• My grandma. We learned in December that she has congestive heart failure secondary to 2 wonky valves in her heart. She's having a couple of procedures today to further evaluate the situation and narrow down her treatment options. The plan was for me to drive down and be there when this happened so I could help keep track of all the information and relay it to my mom (who is medical power of attorney). My mom's brothers are both there, but neither are particularly savvy about medical stuff, and neither communicate with my mom well about these things. Unfortunately, thanks to a series of poorly communicated messages, neither my mom nor I found out this was happening today in time for me to get down there. So now she and I are both in our respective homes, impatiently waiting for updates on the situation. It's so frustrating!
• Work stuff. I'm supposed to be starting a new position in my office, but it's taking the HR department F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get things moving. In the meantime, there are a lot of unanswered questions about what I will or won't continue to do, what I can or can't tell my co-workers about the status, and what will or won't happen with my old position. Basically I'm just in a permanent state of limbo, and have been for over a month now (my boss was originally pushing for the new position - and salary - to be effective March 1). A raise will be nice, but mostly I just need to know either A) keep doing my doing current job as usual for X number of weeks, or B) drop everything and start on new job projects.
• Renovations. I think I've mentioned on here that we are planning to start some major home renovations this summer. We've had the contractor do a walk-through and he is coming back tomorrow to give initial estimates and timelines. He was originally supposed to come today, but had to reschedule. I don't think we'll probably be able to do everything on our wishlist at once, but we need to see the breakdown and bottom line in order to figure out what we can afford for now. Also we'd really like for things to start in mid-June, so we need to get going on stuff like financing, packing up things to put into storage during construction, etc.
• Our cell phones. After 10+ years as customers of Sprint, we have finally made the switch to Verizon. And it was - and continues to be - an ugly process. The last straw (after months of problems and horrible customer service) came last week when a service tech in the store managed to erase 1000+ pictures from the memory card in my phone, including ALL of Nathan's first year of life that I'd taken with my phone. New cell phones stress me out (having to re-set options and figure everything out), and on top of that we're in a messy battle with Sprint to get part (if not all) our cancellation fees waived in light of their numerous failures to provide the services we paid for. We've been "disconnected" from their customer service department mid-call so many times I can't even count. It gets my blood pressure up just thinking about calling them again, and Paul's even worse. I have to send him to the garage to talk to them so he doesn't wake Nathan up from all the yelling. I just want to close the door on this fiasco and move on...
• Parenting a toddler. I feel so unprepared for this stage of his life. I spent so much time reading about and planning for a baby, but now he's a toddler and I'm realizing I should have kept reading! Did you know you're supposed to brush their teeth as soon as they have them?? I didn't. At least until I visited my dentist and they happened to mention this to me. And yes, I realize that in the grand scheme of things, he's probably going to be just fine in spite of my negligence concerning his oral health between the ages of 6-13 months :) Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder... what else am I missing? And then there's the things I know are coming sooner or later... Potty training! Preschool! Temper tantrums and terrible two's! For the most part I think I do fine focusing on how fun and exciting it is to see him turning into a little boy more and more. But when other things in life start to overwhelm me and raise the stress level, I start to freak out about this stuff too.
• Trying again. To have another baby, that is. This is a big one. For a while it seemed so far off in the future, it was easy to shake our heads and say "not now". But lately it's been coming up more often. Paul's insurance will probably change the end of 2014. Right now we have amazing coverage for IF stuff with his current plan, so do we try to take advantage of that and use it before it changes? Am I ready for that roller coaster again? We have frozen embryos still, so that's good. But it's not a guarantee obviously. And how does that even work with the numbers (how many do you thaw, how many do you transfer, how many times do you do it, etc).? I know we're not quite ready to do this again, but I also know we can't wait forever to give it a shot. So when is the right time? After all, that's partly why we're tackling the renovations this summer, so that they're done before we start adding more hypothetical children to the mix!

That's a lot of thinking. And those are just the big things. I'm not sure if I feel better yet, but at least now I can say that I let myself dwell on each one separately for a short time. I hope that means I can sleep tonight instead of tossing and turning for hours like I have been lately...

Project: SIMPLIFY!

A while back I heard about Project 333 and I was intrigued. Recently I read about it in more detail here and started seriously considering whether I should try it. It's essentially an experiment (lifestyle change?) in which you are encouraged to condense your wardrobe to just 33 items over a 3 month period or season. My top takeaways from reading about the concept include a) less stuff = less stress, and b) fewer but smarter wardrobe choices helps focus on what you truly like and what looks best on you. It's about simplicity.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. Life is complicated enough right now! Marriage, parenting, owning (and soon-to-be renovating) a home, work-life balance, planning for the future... these are all complicated and sometimes challenging things. Getting dressed every day does not need to be complicated; and yet how many times lately have I found myself standing in front of my closet, half-naked, frantically pulling out pants to find a pair that fits or flinging shirts around in search of a top that doesn't accentuate my "problem" zones? I've already adopted an approach to my week that involves putting together outfits ahead of time for the days I have to be in the office (typically 3 days per week). Unfortunately, I'm not always consistent with doing this, and even when I do, I still encounter last-minute stress when I realize something I picked out either doesn't really fit or look as good as I imagined it would.

A key "rule" of Project 333 is that you have to choose quality items that fit well and look good on you now. Since my mom was here visiting, I decided this past weekend was a good time to tackle the initial phase of this project. Disclaimer: While I like everything suggested in the original Project 333 and think it's a good goal to work towards, for the time being I'm doing my own modified version of the experiment. There are a lot of reasons for doing my own version: 1) I'm in a weight-loss situation where I still need to lose about 20 more pounds, 2) I may be transitioning into a new job soon, which may require some upgrades to my wardrobe for certain aspects of my work, and 3) I'm learning that it's harder than I expected!

Here's what I've done so far... it's still a work in progress (and probably will be for a while!):

• The original Project 333 says to include "accessories, jewelry, outerwear and shoes" in your 33 items. I don't think I'm quite ready to do include those yet (which would mean paring down my clothing choices even more), but I did go through my shoes and purses and have a pile of each ready to donate. I also pulled out some jackets that I haven't worn in years. My next goal will be to figure out what my basic shoe and purse options are/should be, and then see which ones need to be tossed/replaced. I'm not going to mess with jewelry right now (I don't have tons of it anyway), and the only other accessory I really use is scarves, which I use as layering pieces in the winter.
• I've gone through my closet, hope chest, and dresser drawers. I packed away all fall/winter pieces (even though it SNOWED another inch here last night... ugh!) except for some sweaters and a couple of shirts that I already knew I didn't want to keep. My plan is to go through these items in more depth when it gets closer to fall again and I am further along in my weight-loss plan (hard to anticipate what will or won't fit several months from now). I then sorted the remaining spring/summer items into "work/going out/nicer" clothes vs. "lounge/home/recreational" clothes. I think technically some of the items in the latter category are supposed to be part of the 33 as well, but again, I'm starting small for now! From there, I pulled out anything that I knew I didn't love or wear often enough. If it was in good shape, it went into the donate pile; if it was in poor shape, it got tossed.
• I then tried on almost all of the remaining spring/summer clothes (both categories) and was pleasantly surprised to find myself fitting into several more pre-pregnancy items! I'm currently down about 7 or so pounds since early February, and while I haven't been measuring I can tell I've lost some inches too. As a result, I was able to pull out some of my "bigger" items that are actually too loose now and don't look right anymore. For now I'm packing these away in a separate container; someday if I have another baby I may need them postpartum again (or if I don't I can donate them later). I also made a small pile of items that I really love but that don't quite fit yet. This may also be against the rules, but they're quality pieces that I would really love to wear again if I reach my weight-loss goals. I'm not keeping them out with my current rotation of clothing (they're going into another storage container for now), but I'm not getting rid of them either!
• Lastly, I went shopping.Yes, shopping. After getting rid of several things, I was better able to identify the holes in my remaining spring/summer wardrobe (like plain, black dress pants). There was a sale at the outlet mall, so mom and I hit it up and I was able to find some reasonably priced replacement pieces to fill in the gaps. I was good though, and limited myself to key basics that have multiple uses. I also bought only things for spring/summer, even though fall/winter stuff was on clearance (going to make myself wait until I know what size I am when the time comes). 

So... to sum it up, here's what it looked like when I got started:

Piles galore!

And here's how it looks at this point:

Less clutter = no more cramming hangers to make everything fit!

 

I'm definitely not down to 33 items total yet (I count about 46 right now), but I'm making progress! My donate pile is probably about double that (no joke!). Also the way I'm doing it, my current wardrobe will actually cover me for 2 seasons or approximately 6 months, so I feel pretty good about that. My current work/going out/nicer clothes consists of:

•  6 pairs of pants
• 4 dresses
• 5 skirts
• 22 shirts & tops (everything from sleeveless to long-sleeved-but-lighter-fabric)
• 7 cardigans or layering pieces (may put away for fall/winter when it warms up more)
• 2 pairs of jeans

I already feel less stressed when I open my closet door! And now... I'm going to go workout because I totally slacked off while my mom was here and I don't want to undo the progress :)

Sick, Sick, SICK!

It all started last Tuesday... I noticed that evening that Nathan was coughing some, but he seemed fine otherwise so I blamed it on the weird weather/temperature fluctuations. The next morning he was coughing more, but that was all still. When I picked him up from daycare that afternoon, Ms. G mentioned that he'd been coughing off and on all day and felt a little warm (according to one of those temperature strips he was around 99.1 or so). As soon as I got him home it became evident that he was really not feeling well - he was clingy and crabby and coughing quite a bit. That night I busted out the vapo-rub and gave him a dose of Tyelonol before bed. My MIL was already on standby for back-up child-care in the even the was too sick for daycare on Thursday, so we went ahead and told her to come over until Paul got back from his class. By Thursday evening he was sneezing and congested and definitely running a fever. I also went to bed with a bit of a "tickle" in my throat...

Friday morning I went in to work (Nathan was once again with my in-laws for the day and Paul was doing an extra day shift at the station). I felt kind of icky but nothing extreme. And then all of a sudden, around 10am, I suddenly felt very sick. I was shivering uncontrollably, dizzy, hot, nauseous, achy, etc. I tried to eat something but had to stop after a couple of bites. My head was pounding and it felt like waves of achy-pain were washing over me. I was also parched and polished off an entire 750ml bottle of water in 20 minutes. My office-mate was out for the day so I shut my door and sat on the floor (so I wouldn't fall out of my chair). I realized I was in no shape to drive myself home, so I called Paul and begged him to see if he could get out of work and come get me. A co-worker brought me more water while another co-worker notified my boss that something was wrong. She took one look at me and said I was pale as a ghost. Paul picked me up around noon and by 1:00 I was home and in bed under a pile of blankets, still shivering.

I slept until after 5pm (getting up only once to pee and take more Dayquil). I crawled out of bed long enough to see Nathan (who was a miserable, snotty, congested mess of a little boy) and eat a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a handful of saltines. I was back in bed before 9pm. Every single part of my body hurt. I slept fitfully Friday night - drugged up on Nyquil I was hot and then cold and then hot again. Saturday morning Paul went in to work late so he could wait for B to come over and help me. I seriously don't know what I would have done without her there! I was completely useless - mostly lying in a heap on the couch or on the floor. Nathan was disinterested in eating, so congested he couldn't drink well, refusing to nap, and blowing snot on EVERYTHING. She made me oatmeal and more chicken noodle soup, loaded my dishwasher, changed diapers and wiped snot. At one point she even sent me to bed while she entertained Nathan. Best. Friend. EVER. She stayed until after he was in bed.

Sunday Nathan woke up before 6am (which is like, a good hour and a half before he usually gets up), so I dragged myself out of bed and tried to get him to eat breakfast. Paul got home from his shift and commenced coughing and blowing his nose everywhere. Nathan was in better spirits but still refusing to eat or nap, which eventually lead to what we like to call "fragile baby" syndrome. This is when he is SO tired and SO off-schedule and SO out of sorts that every little thing makes him burst into tears. Paul did his best to keep Nathan entertained and happy while I launched some serious anti-germ warfare on our house... I sanitized every surface I could think of that might be harboring the germs. I scoured the kitchen from floor to ceiling. I opened the windows a crack (even though it was below freezing out) and tried to get as much fresh air moving as possible. Around 3:30 or so, my MIL (also sick) picked Nathan up to take him to their house for a bit so Paul could join me in the cleaning effort (and so we could have a break from whiny baby which is way less tolerable when you're also sick and miserable). Cleaning sucked and I wanted to just be sitting or napping instead, but I pushed myself to rid the house of as many germs as possible. And then took more Nyquil and passed out for the night!

As of this morning... I'm better but not great. On a scale of 1 to 10 (-8 being where I was on Friday), I'm maybe at a 2 or 3 now. Paul is sick but I'm pretty sure he's got more of the upper respiratory-type stuff like Nathan had (I'm afraid mine was the flu). Nathan is better except for some residual snot. I haven't seen him yet (I'm still at work, waiting for my mom's flight to get in) but the report I've heard from daycare is that he ate pretty well and took 2 good naps today so... fingers crossed we maybe finally have this all out of our systems???

Progress (Mostly)

Tomorrow will be one month since I posted about my 30-day mini goals, so I thought I should give a status report and make plans for the next 30-day period...

1. Fitness. My original goal was to work out at least 5 days a week, and I'm happy to say I've been successful with that so far! I'm down about 4-5 pounds (as near as I can tell) and my clothes are starting to fit differently, so that's exciting. I now have to wear a belt with both pairs of my "big" size jeans... yay! So, I'm going to keep this goal for the next 30 days, with one change/addition: at least 1 day each week I have to go for a run (preferably outside). I hate running, especially on the treadmill. And I have NO desire to run races on any sort of regular basis (I did enough of that in high school track). Nevertheless, my friend B and I have signed up for a "race" in June. It's a 5K and I won't lie... I'm only doing it for the fun stuff you get (a bloody mary at the finish line?! yes please!). Anyway, I need to train for it, so I think incorporating a minimum of 1 run per week as part of my workout routine for the next 30 days is totally reasonable. B and I plan to do some training together, and I can bring the little man and the jogging stroller as well.
2. Healthy eating. My goal was to use the Pepperplate app to plan meals on a biweekly basis. I also added in using the MFP app to track calories. So far the meal-planning is going okay... the app isn't working as well on my phone as I'd hoped (I'm not sure whether this is an app problem or a phone problem). I'm having issues with the shopping list (which was one of my favorite features!), so that's disappointing. And on top of that, our schedules have been all over the place lately, so some of the meals I planned didn't work out in the end. But on a positive note, I've been putting together some freezer meals to help save time during busy weeks! I'm going to continue trying to plan meals and shop/assemble things ahead of time over the next 30 days. I just may go back to my old paper calendar method if I can't get the meal app to work like I'd hoped. As for MFP, I've been using it for about 3 weeks now and I think I'll continue tracking calories for the next 30 days. As I'd feared, it has become a bit of an obsession for me, so I need to be careful. I'm appreciative of the perspective it's given me on portion sizes and intake vs. output; I'm hoping that another 30 days or so will help train my mind enough that I can eventually wean myself off of it :)
3. Education. My goal was to a) find a new adviser for my capstone/thesis project, and b) spend some time researching my topic and beefing up my proposal. So far, I've identified, and met with, my new adviser. Success! I have not done any additional research. So... I give myself a C+ for these goals :) Going forward, my goal for the next 30 days will be to spend at least 2-3 hours per week on my capstone/thesis. I may revise this to be more specific once my adviser and I have set a more detailed timeline for the project. 
4. Organization. My goal was to spend at least 1-2 hours per week sorting, de-cluttering, and/or organizing something. I didn't really keep track of the exact amount of time, but I have made a lot of progress in this department. I think I may actually be addicted to purging of stuff. I filled the back of my Subaru and made one trip to Goodwill last week. So far this week, I have another GIANT bag full of clothes ready to go. If our home remodel takes place as planned this summer, we'll be packing up a large portion of the upstairs living area to put into storage for several weeks. In light of this, I definitely need to keep the momentum going and try to purge as much extraneous stuff as possible before we get to that point! So, over the next 30 days I will continue to spend 1-2 hours per week on organization. I also want (and need) to tackle some long overdue photo projects (albums and scrapbooks to fill/complete, frames to update, etc). My mom will be here for a week, so I'm hoping to devote some time to this while she's around to help with Nathan, etc.
5. Finances. This was a two-part goal: a) I wanted to figure out the best way to use our tax refund, and b) I wanted to make a list of future big-ticket purchases/expenses and prioritize them. I give myself a B+ on this. I did not get around to making a list of big-ticket purchases/expenses. We did, however, file our taxes and receive a nice little refund. After several hours of calculations and spreadsheets (I'm such a nerd with this stuff), I came up with a plan which allowed us to do the following: 1) pay off 2 credit cards + make a larger payment on a 3rd, 2) pay 4 months ahead on our auto insurance, 3) pay off about 2/3 of the remaining balance on a personal loan through our credit union, and 4) pay the deposit on our house rental for our vacation in June. In the process, I also created a plan which will put us on track to pay off all remaining debt aside from the mortgage and our cars by next summer. This is HUGE for us since we both brought more debt than either of us care to admit into this marriage. Having a light at the end of the tunnel will motivate us to stick with it, but we'll also need monthly reminders to keep focused. So, for the next 30 days, the goals will be: 1) Eat out a maximum of 3 times, of which only 1 can be a nicer, more expensive meal, 2) set aside cash for weekly expenses to help with budgeting, and 3) reconfigure how our paychecks are split for direct deposit into various accounts in order to maximize savings, stay on budget, and still have a little wiggle room for fun stuff! :)

So there you go... Overall I'm happy with the progress I've made so far, and I'm feeling good about this next set of mini-goals. Now, if only Mother Nature could make it her goal to STOP SNOWING AND GET ON WITH SPRING WEATHER...