I didn’t wake up on time this morning.  I went back to sleep twice.  I reset the alarm and even when it went off the second time I just ignored it.  I am going to wait and go this afternoon instead.  Now I just have to push myself to be sure I do not blow it off.  I know if I get it done in the morning I don’t have to worry about anything else getting in the way of my workout time, but man…I LOVE SLEEP, especially  morning sleep.   By nature I am a night owl.  My body and mind hate the morning time.  I think I was destined to work nights and sleep days.  Too bad the rest of the world isn’t on that schedule.

Not much else going on.  Halloween is this weekend and I look forward to giving out candy and scaring kids.  I love to put on a costume and scare the kids when they come up to the house.  Is that evil?  I can be dark at times, but hey they are getting free candy!  They need to give a little to get some.  lol

Okay, I changed the look of the site back to the old design.  The new design just looked too messy to me for some reason.   I like this design better because it is organized and clean.  Let me know which you prefer.

Seems like it was just Monday a day or two ago.  Amazing how quickly time flies.   I over did it last week and regretted it on Friday.  I could barely move!  I took Friday off and then went back to the track on Saturday.  I also went again yesterday just because my boys wanted to go over to the high school to play football.  Funny thing though…it is about a mile walk to get there and they whined the entire time about how tired their legs were and how they didn’t want to walk.  As soon as they get there they run around for almost 2 hours.  Of course on the way back home they whined about how long the walk was and how I should go get the car to pick them up. Once they arrived home they went outside for another hour on their skateboards.  Go figure.

Got my butt out of bed at 5 am this morning to go do bleachers for an hour and then walked an hour with my neighbor.  Weighed myself and didn’t lose a pound!  I was bummed, but I am trying not to let it bother me.  I will just keep going.  It is just nice to see results to help encourage me to keep going.

Ivan and Amy…was so happy to see you are joining me in my misery of getting up early to exercise and eating kale!  It is nice to know I am not alone.   I have been up every morning before 5 am to get to the track, but once I am done I end up back in bed because of the headaches in incur as a result of the exercise.  I am determined to keep going though.  My doctor thinks it will get better in time, so I am going to give in 30 days and see if I am any better off. 

 The kale…well…I don’t think I will ever like the taste of it, but I hide it in with the rest of my salad.  I do love knowing that it is at least worth the terrible taste because of all of the great health benefits.  So…I will keep eating kale. 

Technically, this week has been horrible.  I had two computers go out on me in the same week.  How does that happen?  I must have pissed off the computer gods.   Anyway, it is late and I need to get some sleep because 5 am comes way too soon.  I just wanted to jump on here quick and keep up with my writing.  I know when I write I do much better with my routine.

Night~

I decided to commit to getting up at 5 am each morning to go to the track before I go to the office each morning.  Today was my very first day and it was not fun!  I jumped right out of bed, but I really didn’t want to be up.  Once I arrived at the track I sat in my car for a couple of minutes contemplating if I should go home since there were a few drops of rain hitting my windshield.  I was looking for any reason not to have to get my butt in gear.  I jogged 1/2 mile and walked 2 miles.  I have to go slow because I am afraid of getting headaches.

I figure if I work my way back slowly I have a better chance of being able to stick with the program.  Right now I have a dull headache and I am hoping it doesn’t get any worse.  I absolutely have to do this even if I get the headaches because if I don’t, I will keep gaining weight.

So tonight my goal is to get to bed by 10 pm, so I can get ample rest before I get up at 5 am tomorrow.  Even if I don’t fall asleep I want to be in bed by 10 pm each night.  Sleep has always been a sore spot for me.  Five hours is the norm for me.  I have decided to at least rest for 7 hours a night even if I do not sleep that long.  It will be interesting to see if I can make this a habit because I have tried this like a million times in my life and it just hasn’t ever happened.

My other big change is I have decided to start eating kale every day.  If you haven’t tried it before, kale tastes like a yard weed. It has a real earthy taste…not so yummy.

So why am I going to torture myself? Kale is high in calcium, lutein, iron, and Vitamins A, C, and K. Kale has seven times the beta-carotene of broccoli and ten times more lutein.  It is also a high fiber food.

Okay, I am about sick of everyone being sick.  I have somehow avoided getting it thus far and hope I can continue to avoid it, but it drags on forever and everyone has it.  The schools should just shut down for a week and start over.  Every kid I see is hacking and coughing with runny noses and no understanding of how to be courteous to others who are not sick.   I am ready for spring already.  I really do hope the winter is not like this.  Maybe we can get past all the flu stuff early.   Maybe this long weekend will help give kids some extra rest and recovery time. 

Okay, enough about that.  Tomorrow I am going to start running, well jogging, again.  I am hoping if I can just go at a very slow, steady pace that I will not get a headache.   It is probably wishful thinking, but I have to try.  If I do not do something I am going to gain all the weight back I worked so hard to lose.  So, at 5 am I will be up to go to the track to run tomorrow and then at 6 am I will walk with my neighbor for another hour.  Yes, that means I will be out there for 2 hours each morning at unmentionable hours.  I am totally NOT a morning person, so this should be interesting. 

I would also like to start walking bleachers instead of just walking the neighborhood.  I have to talk my neighbor into this because she is very new to exercise and not very keen on picking up the pace.  But for tomorrow I will start with an hour of jogging followed by an hour of walking.  I just hope the morning isn’t wet or cold.  The weather has been very unpredictable lately.

My son went to the doctor and he official has the Swine Flu!  Great, huh.  It has been a long week.  At first I thought it was just the flu, so I wasn’t going to run to the doctor with him.  Each day he seemed fine and then at night his fever word come out.  Next morning he would wake up seemingly normal.  I kept him home for 3 days before finally taking him in.  Tada…the doc tells me it is the swine flu and then prescribes the medication to get rid of it.  Lovely!

I decided to call his school to let them know since they made such a big deal about it.  The nurse wasn’t too alarmed. She just said he needs to stay home 24 hours after the fever is completely gone and then he can return to school.  I asked if there are many cases and she said a bunch.

No one has died locally, but I have heard of cases in other parts of the state where children have died, so I am not taking it lightly. Now to just get him better without catching it myself.   Is it summer yet?  Wait…we haven’t even started winter yet.

I woke up really tired this morning.  I stayed up to watch a movie last night and regretted it this morning when the alarm went off.  I wanted it to be Saturday, but wanting it didn’t make it happen…unfortunately.  I did get my butt up and go walking with my neighbor though.  

I have actually been blogging again for a whole week.   I know they say it takes 30 days to make something a habit, so let’s hope I can keep it going long enough for that to happen again.

The mornings are darker and darker.  It makes it difficult to walk, but I will hate it worse when it starts getting dark at 5 pm after the clocks change.  I really wish they would just do away with daylight savings.   Why mess with mother nature.  Just let it be.  

I woke up with a headache, so I may go back to bed for another hour to see if I can head it off.   

Well it is Monday morning again!  First off, Hi to Amy!  Glad to see you are still stopping by.  I hope you are doing well.  My son is sick!  He has the flu and because of the paranoia of swine flu they require anyone with a fever to stay home for 7 days.  I don’t know what they expect parents to do, but most people I know cannot take 7 straight days off of work for a sick child.  Then think about someone with 3 kids.  The first kid gets it this week and then before you know it, you are missing 3 full weeks of work to take care of each child.  I realize the swine flu is serious, but we need to be realistic.  What really gripes my butt is on Friday I came home to find my son’s friend at my house with the flu!  That is how my son caught it.  I was so irate that the boy didn’t have enough sense to go home instead of coming here to infect my household.  So two days later my son gets the same symptoms: fever, cough and severe chills.  Lovely!  I cannot afford to be sick right now.  Not that I ever want to be ill, but things are so hectic right now that it would be a very bad time for me to miss work.   Damn duck flu! 

My son told me yesterday that he hates fat people.  It really bothers me that he would discriminate against someone just because of his or her weight, but the reality is, he is not alone.  In this world, many people discriminate against overweight people.  It doesn’t even have to be severely obese people. I tried to talk to my son to help him to be more compassionate, but I don’t think it worked.My son is also paranoid about being fat himself.  His father is severely overweight and he does not want to become like him.  The interesting thing is his Dad was once a bodybuilder who took very good care of his body.  Now he has about a 58″ waist.   It is very sad.  My son hasn’t ever been fat himself.  At one point he carried a little extra weight and had chubby cheeks and that devastated him.  He is adamant about never gaining again.  Today he is thin and extremely fit.  I am sad that he has this view of others, but thankful that he is taking care of his own body.   

I was reading an article this morning that says scientists believe we are not eating any worse than we were 40 years ago, but the difference is that we live sedentary lifestyles today as compared to 40 years ago.  But…what about all these new chemicals, additives and preservatives?  Don’t they have an impact on our weight now?  I have to say I find it difficult to believe that it is only our lifestyle and not our food choices that make us fat.   Things like high fructose corn syrup, new artificial sweeteners, etc have to play a role in all of this.  These chemicals are not making us thinner, that is for sure.   Now I remember being a child and being outside from dawn to dusk playing with the kids in the neighborhood and riding my bike for miles without a break.  Today the only race the kids have is to the video game chair.  But…I also ate fruit for snacks and didn’t eat packaged food every day.  Mom cooked real meals and we ate…the dreaded leftovers, which is something my kids gripe about.   Today it is microwaved meals, drive-thrus and lots of packaged advertised “low calorie” foods.  These low calorie foods are laden with garbage.   I believe we need to get back to the basics of eating fruits, veggies and real foods that do not come from a can or a package.  Then we need to start walking instead of driving everywhere.  That would make a great impact on the lives of millions in America!