My idea of marketing -- is begging

Yeah, I know I have been HORRIBLE at blogging here. Work is crazy, life is crazy (how crazy is life? read about it here). Meanwhile I have been blogging for work here. I have to admit it's nice to blog for work, I feel like it's part of patient education which is one of the most favortist part of my position. I love talking to our patients about what to expect, how to take care of themselves and giving them encouragement.  The center's blog is an extension of that.  Our latest entry was about Mindful Eating. Have any of you thought of Mindful Eating? Our counselor talked about it at our support group and it makes so much sense. I think as over weight/obese people we sometimes feel like we aren't allowed to enjoy our food -- it's a guilty pleasure -- a lot of us (me included) call pictures of decadent desserts "food porn" porn....Mindful Eating gives us permission to enjoy our food, be in the presence of it and by doing so we end up eating less because we've used all our senses. So really more art than porn. Even before this subject came up I would notice our registered dietician would eat her lunch on a plate (a real one, not a paper one) in the kitchen.  I eat my lunch out of a baggie at my desk which is hardly a way to connect with food, enjoy it with my senses and get any kind of satisfaction. It can also be messy

Hmmmmm....

She's also got a great body and is super healthy.

Me, not so much.

Now, I know that's not the ONLY reason she looks the way she does, there's hard work and genetics involved -- but it's one of her tools.

I like how Mindful Eating helps establish a relationship with food, rather than trying to brush food under the rug and make it a dirty little secret.  We all need food, we should be allowed to enjoy it. If you want to read more about how it works...click here I also included other sites.

So, yeah, blogging for work = fun. Not blogging at home = big frowny-face.

We had a marketing meeting yesterday and I heard a lot of "Tracey needs to...." (ok, not a lot, maybe once or twice -- it's not really about me -- sigh, as much as I think it should be) -- so I said, "Tracey's a nurse, Tracey doesn't know much about marketing).  Looks like Tracey needs to get it together and figure out marketing really quickly.  I spent the wee hours of this morning trolling Facebook pages to "like" and now I'm going to try my version of marketing which is begging....please please like our center's FaceBook page. I do most of the updates and I post informative, inspirational and sometimes funny information so it won't be too painful to like us.

Okay -- August -- I will be better about blogging.

I promise...well sort of...

bariatric recipes - ground turkey tostadas

OH MY GOSH -- I SUCK at blogging...as an apology, here's a gift -- a recipe for tostadas. I even took the time to take a picture.

Serves 8
Pre-heat oven to 350
Spray a baking sheet with pam
Heat a can of vegetarian refried beans with some ro-tel tomatoes and then add
chopped zucchini (1), red pepper (1) and half a cup of diced onions to bean mixture and take off heat.
Layer on top of tostadas
Brown 1 lb ground turkey breast with taco seasoning
Layer on top of beans
Layer with 4 oz of shredded cheddar cheese
and top with 1 tbs of salsa

Bake for 15 minutes and serve
Calories for each tostada: 273
protein 20.9 g
Carbs 25.7 g
fat 9.4 g

I am a year out past my surgery -- more on that after my "official" one year appointment.

Hope ya'll are doing well!

squeezing another post in for May

Wow, two whole posts in May --- I'm on a roll!

Let me tell you, my schedule is freakin' crazy! One kid in competitive baseball and another starting swimming -- ack!

So I was looking in the mirror the other day -- which is a mistake because then I look at all my flaws (and I have a lot of them!)....and I notice I have darkening skin on my upper lip (gotta love those hormonal changes that effect skin pigment) and then I notice two deep creases coming down from my nose, below my cheeks and out -- and that pronounced my upper lip and mouth area even more -- then I realized.....

I look like a monkey.

I am monkey girl.

On a more positive note, Jason and I just had our 21st anniversary...look what he sent me at work:

Gotta love the pictures of the different bariatric surgeries behind the flowers -- what can I say I work in the bariatric department.

But back to the flowers...he did good didn't he.

What did I get him
Nothing
I suck as a wife -- but note schedule above.

Well, 21 years, I can't suck that much ;-)

It's Friday -- whoot. Have a wonderful weekend!

Has it been a month already? and Wednesday Weigh In a day late

Such a bad bad blogger.
It's been hard getting used to my new job...and baseball season is in full gear...and throw in karate with the other one...and trying to carve out time with my husband....leaves little time for..well ME.

such is life.

People say I'll miss these days.

I'm not convinced.

So, weight loss stats:
Starting Weight: 320
Last Recorded Weight: 219
Today's Weight 214
Weight lost in the last two months 5 pounds
Total Weight Lost: 106

Five pounds in two months -- oy. I'm going to go ahead and tell myself what I would tell other people...it's still down, it's not up.  Don't let this be discouraging.  You can do it. Rah Rah Rah.

I have my pom poms out and I'm doing a high kick right now...cheering myself on

Not really, I'm actually in my red with white polka dots pj bottoms, my nursing honor's society sweat shirt, which is white with purple greek lettering, and bright neon green socks.  I obviously don't feel the need to be super sexy or even color-coordinated when I go to bed.

So I really really like my job.  Love, love helping our patients. Love putting together nursing education around bariatrics. Although my first class was nursing self-care, because if nurses aren't caring for themselves they aren't able to take car of the patients.  I'm also revamping the bariatric online modules for the hospital...which is lots of fun. What I don't like? Data...I don't like collecting it, I don't like analyzing it and I don't like presenting it to the powers that be. ugh how do you number-people function -- bone-numbing boring! My other issue ....and you other moms who work outside the home will get this....I'm torn.  I really do love my job, I feel like I'm doing good---but I miss my kids.  It's hard right now because summer is about to begin and I'm going to be at work, my kiddos are going to be playing....this makes me a little sad that I'm not playing with them. And my poor husband...I'm so lucky he stays with me even though I've been barking orders at him about where we have to be and when, getting upset he's not the parent I am...he's a dad...just because I'm sad the boys aren't getting the attention from me doesn't mean he needs to parent like I do...I'm the snuggler, the make healthy meals with whole grains, lean proteins and vegetables and pack in the cooler...he's the rough-house play and stop at Taco Bell after a game and assume some wilted shredded lettuce is vegetable enough for growing boys....This is a guy who sent me flowers at work for Nurse's Week.  And even though I appreciate our differences, I am taking it out on him that I'm not the mom I want to be. And maybe since we've been married like forever and together an eon before that he just smiles and hugs me. Does he just not know he could have it so much better, or does he just love me?  I don't deserve him. But I'm sure glad he's mine.

sigh

So...even though I haven't been blogging here I have been blogging on our website here, here, and here.  Another fun part of my job....getting paid to blog...not so bad.

You'd think I'd have more to report given how long it's been since I've last blogged.

But no.

I could share with you baseball stats and the new karate moves of the smaller one -- but well that's boring.

Have a great Thursday! And Yay, three day weekend coming up-----so nice.

Random Stuff

Yesterday was hellish....it's TOM (is that TMI?), sometimes I get so tired during that time....I mean that can't think, it feels like you're walking through cotton, can barely move one foot in front of the other bone numbing tired.

And I wish I was exaggerating.

I still had to work.  Then take kid number 1 to PT.  Oh why? Because I basically suck as a mother and a nurse.  He twisted his ankle while I was at work so my mother-in-law drove him to the ED in the hospital where I work and I met them down there.  He was expressing 8/10 pain, while he was doing this I was behind his back shaking my head and rolling my eyes....she gave him some Advil and off to x-ray he went. No break (yay) but after a couple of hours he still insisted his pain was 8/10 -- which freakin' screams 'drug seeker' even if that drug is Advil....and given my family history with alcohol and drugs AND the experience I have with certain patients (jaded much?) I dismissed his pain and did a lot more eye rolling.

Well, it's not a sprain, it's freakin' nerve damage.

So yeah, 8/10 pain, totally appropriate.

Oh and my insistence on ice -- worst thing evah!

Yes, I am the mom/nurse that sent the same kid to school with Pneumonia and told him to suck it up -- this was after three days of keeping him out of school. The school nurse called and suggested I take him to the doc...he was out the rest of the week.

He's so going to need therapy....but all during PT last night he kept asking the PT to remind me I was wrong about the ice -- and he had that grin on his face -- I think he'll be alright.

Oh back to last night, before PT was Chipotle, because did I mention I was tired? I had chicken with fajita veggies and black bean bowl -- no rice, no cheese and mild salsa with a little bit of guac. -- another digression here -- what are your favorite diet/bariatric friendly meals when going out? This might be a future post :D -- okay then after PT we went to Dairy Queen since a percentage of the proceeds from last night go to the elementary school where the youngest goes.  I love those nights because it's fun to see other school families supporting the school and the local community. I did not order anything, but did take two bites of the younger's blizzard...chocolate covered pretzel blizzard um YUM.

Then got home about 8, crawled into bed of no less than three blankets and armed in a sweat shirt, pajama bottoms and thick warm socks -- when will it be Spring....my gosh it's been so cold! And promptly fell asleep.  I didn't even get to see how they finished the remodel on whatever was on HGTV at that time.

This post is totally random, because I'm also about to share with you something random and funny that happened to be the other day:

 random doc told me I looked like Susan Sarandon...which I don't -- but I'm wondering is this a compliment, because she's pretty or NOT because she's like older than my mother (she was born in '46 -- my mom would kill me if I told you when she was born, but it was after '46) here's how it went down...
doc: you look familiar
me: yeah, i have one of those faces
doc: no you really look familiar
me: I don't think we've met before
doc: (hmmm, starts to leave room, comes back) Susan Sarandon, you totally look like Susan Sarandon
me: wow, never heard that one before (my mistake, because now doc being a doc has to be RIGHT)
doc: (proceeds to ask all those around us) she looks like Susan Sarandon doesn't she
people around doc, who don't want to tell doc he's wrong: yeah, sure (look at me like he's nuts)
me: well, that's not a bad thing, I think
doc -- apparently satisfied and leaves so I can have my meeting

The celebrity I usually get described as is Ricki Lake (I have no idea how she spells her name) and not the skinny Ricki either.  But hey, I'll take Susan -- she's very pretty -- and I'm going to go with he meant a younger Susan Sarandon :D.

It's FRIDAY

woot
Have a great weekend blogland friends.

What? Two Posts in a week?

Another what did I eat in a day....it happens to be a good day -- well sort of! 

So I'm giving up my presweetened yummy goodness creamer and going for the fat-free half and half and sugar free hazelnut syrup.  It's good...it's not the same, but it's good.

I had to work until 8 pm last night so I had to pack everything with me.  I really do believe one of the keys to success in this weight loss journey is through planning.

Breakfast as I got in to work (well a little after since I forgot my lunch bag -- so much for being prepared -- thankfully I have an awesome husband and he brought it to me) -- two turkey sausage patties and blueberries and strawberries.

 The registered dietician gave me this idea, plain greek yogurt and your favorite dip mix which for me is a dill mix, sometimes I go with a ranch mix. Then some cut up vegetables.  I love veggies and dip but needed my protein with it and this was the way to do it.  It's also a way to get some of that yogurt in without going sweet.

 Has any one tried these yellow grape tomatoes...OMG they are so sweet and so yummy and I love these black bean burgers -- I try to a couple non meat meals in during the day - especially plant based ones with eating so much protein it's hard to get in those fruits and veggies and as any mother knows we need those fruits and veggies..

 Because part of my day was sitting in meetings, this was a good grab and go snack.

These are all my meals that I took to work with me.  I'm glad I work in an office with a fridge and a microwave, it does really make it easier to follow my mean plan....Because those 12 hour shifts on the floor would take much more planning....and definitely wouldn't be able to take time to eat my meals as it would be shoving nuts in my mouth between patients.

Confession -- even though I planned grab and go for my meeting, I stopped by the hospital cafeteria and bought a medium chai latte. It's a bit dangerous because you just have to swipe your badge and they take it out of your check.  I burned my tongue though so that was my penance.

What this day netted?
874 calories
122 g of carbs
63 g of protein
and
drum roll
82 whopping grams of sugar (damn chai latte -- it was really good though)

Wednesday Weigh In -- um not

Ugh, I've been off the reservation BAD about my eating and I'm afraid to get on the scale.

Today is another day!

And I woke up with the best of intentions of getting my flabby body on the elliptical and just.couldn't.do.it.

I'm in a funk and am having a bit of a hard time getting out of it.  Sometimes it just takes so much energy to work full time, be a mom of kids in activities, a wife, running the household, being a friend. Frankly, I've been sucking at all of these things.  Also sucking at taking care of myself.

My sister has fallen off the wagon and is drinking ... drinking a lot. This might have something to do about it?

A new job? I have no idea what I'm doing -- I hate that. Being smart is my thing.  Because it isn't being pretty or sexy (I'm not ugly, I'm just not, whoa, check her out awesome -- more bring home to your mother pretty and appropriate -- the kind of pretty where women and gay men find me pretty - Lesbians and straight men, not so much).

bleh
ugh
meh

Soooo, today I'm going to work hard in getting out of my funk. It's going to be a really long day at work -- which will give me an opportunity to NOT eat in front of the TV after work until bed time.

I did get my hair done yesterday -- I went short -- I love it. Here's a picture. Keep in mind, I really suck at those mirror shots -- not really a skill I'm feeling a need to perfect though.

Now that I have cheek bones and a jaw line again I feel good about going short.

Here's to restarting, getting back on that horse, starting over and getting it done!