Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Why I do what I do

I have been super frustrated at work lately. It's like I walk into the house and instantly by blood pressure jumps like 40mmHg and I'm about the angriest person you'd ever meet. I'm not the angry person in front of the kids- I pretty much take whatever they throw at me- but once the kids are at school it's like Mr. Hyde comes out.
Anyway, the kids are getting ready for school this morning and I go into the living room to see what's going on and how the kids look before school (I get upset if the kids go out of the house looking messy). This one little guy, we'll call him Sam, is just sitting in his wheelchair listening to music. Just sitting. That is very unusual for Sam because he loves music- especially music with a beat. He usually listens for a second then starts clapping and dancing along. So it was funny to see him sitting there with his hands on his tray- not even tapping along with the NSYNC song blaring behind him.
I walk up to him and say, "What's going on, Sam?" as I put my hands on top of his hands. He looks at me, smiles, grabs my hands and starts making me dance along with the music- laughing and singing.
As the song ends, I say, "So what did you think of that song?" And Sam takes both of my hands, puts them to his cheeks and squeezes- like he was making my hands hug his face- and says, "I like that song."
I melted. And it hit me. That's why I love my job. That's why I LOVE working with this population. I love those kids.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

1600 Calorie diet

I have lost 50 pounds! I'm trying to watch what I eat and stay active. Here's that I ate today:
This morning, I had a very healthy breakfast. I had one scrambled egg (cooked with olive oil in stead of butter). One medium egg has approx 65 calories, and the one Tbsp of olive oil has 120 calories. The egg was seasoned with 1 Tbsp black pepper at 16 calories and 1 Tbsp salt at 0 calories. Then, I also had one breakfast chicken sausage that has 60 calories. Then I had one cup of coffee with skim milk at 25 calories. Breakfast had a grand total of 286 calories.
Then I went on a moderate hike with a friend at a state park and had a lovely time. Then, we came back and made lunch. We had a salad which consisted of 3/4 cup of lettuce (5 calories), 2 Tbsp Goddess Dressing (130 calories), 1/8 cup fresh sliced almonds (70 calories), and 1/8 cup dried cranberries (50 calories) The salad had a total of 255 calories. Then we also cooked some roasted garlic chicken sausage which has 140 calories. We dipped the sausage in 1 Tbsp Dill Mustard at 0 calories. We drank Coke Zero which also has 0 calories. The total calories in lunch were 395!
Total calories thus far: 681. Then, we had a Pop Tart for a snack at 200 calories. We also had a seltzer at 0 calories. Up to 881.
For dinner, we had a 4oz ground chicken burger at 180 calories with various seasonings added to increase the caloric total to approximately 209. Burgers were cooked with 1 Tbsp olive oil at 120 calories. We also had 3/4 cup of baked curly fries at 160 calories. We had more Coke Zero with dinner. Now total daily calories are at 1370.
In a little while, I plan to have a glass of Ovaltine with skim milk at 170 calories and a chocolate chip rice cake at 60 calories. That will put my total calories for the day at 1600.
Especially if I go to the gym 4 or 5 times a week and still work out at home on the other days. Here's to my continued weight loss.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Food for Thought

I met with a doctor yesterday. What I found out from him is that my chin is so small that even with an XL implant, I still won't have the results I want. What he recommends is to also have liposuction and tissue removed. The total cost for the procedure would be $6612.50.
I have another consultation scheduled with a different doctor next week. Not to say that I didn't like the first doctor. I liked him a lot. He seems really knowledgeable. He specializes in facial plastic surgery and he teaches part time at a med school in the city. But, I feel like it would be silly and risky if I don't meet with more than one doctor. So I should be closer to making a decision in 7 days.
In other news, my weight loss has hit 49 pounds! I hope to drop another pound by the weekend. I feel like I have to treat myself to something special when I hit 50 pounds, and I want to treat (or spoil) myself soon.
Also, I was just in a grumpy mood this afternoon. I knew that I wanted to change my outlook, but I didn't know what to do. I decided to go to the gym in hope of freeing some endorphins. It was a success! I do feel much better now! I don't know if it's because I feel better after exercising, or if it was more because I dropped another 24 seconds off of my mile time! It's down to 7:50! Not bad- especially considering that when I started at the gym, it was 17 minutes! Yay for me!
Hope Friday flies by... can't wait for the weekend!