Good to be home

We had two days of driving: Silver Spring, MD to Savannah, GA in 12 hours on Monday; Savannah to home in 6 hours yesterday. It was great to be driving through our neighborhood and pulling up in the driveway. We weren't looking forward to all the work to unpack the car and do laundry, but it was still great to be back home.

I only had a few hours in the house before I had to go to the Guys and Dolls rehearsal. I was sitting at home and wishing I didn't have to go out last night, but once I got there I was very glad I was there. As always, it was so much fun to sing with the group. I have some catching up to do since I've missed two rehearsals. I'm only going to attend two more rehearsals before missing two more and then there are only two left before the concert. Geez! It's going fast.

For anyone who is in the area who might be reading this blog, I will be singing my "Believe" solo on the Friday night performance. That would not have been my choice, since I don't know if Mark will want to come out to the show on Friday; however, I wasn't here the last two rehearsals, so the other two ladies who share the solo with me picked their dates, and I got the leftover! Oh, well...I get to do the descant part on another song and the "Route 66" ensemble all three nights. The show is in the Starlite Ballroom on December 2, 3, and 4 at 7 p.m. If you are in the area and reading this, I hope you will come!

Today we are going to continue in vacation mode. We are going to St. Cloud to take the Eco-Safari Coach tour. I'm sure there will be details and pictures posted tomorrow.

Now, for the really bad news. I gained 7.3 pounds during the 15 day vacation. Obviously, when I am allowed to eat whatever I want, whenever I want, I WILL gain about half pound a day. No wonder I once weighed 322 pounds. I guess the real wonder of it all is that I didn't weigh a lot more than that. This morning is Wednesday, but I weighed in as if it was Tuesday since I was in a motel in Savannah, GA yesterday morning. So...when I left for the trip Tuesday morning, October 18, I weighed 252.2. This morning...259.5. YES! Almost 260. In fact, I changed my little write up about myself on the profile (blurb under my picture, which I also changed today) to reflect this weight gain. I'm disgusted. The question is, "Am I disgusted enough to get back on track?" I hope so.

This morning I did my morning exercise routine given to me by the lymphedema therapist. I have not done it in about a month. I just have gotten lazy. I also wrote down what I ate in my diet diary. I haven't done that in months and months. I ate 3 links (120 calories and one or two links less than I have been eating) and 1 yogurt (110 calories). Good start. Now I need to be careful when we eat lunch out. I can hit a Subway easily, and tonight's dinner is our spaghetti on shiratake noodles. Unless I graze through the kitchen while watching TV tonight, this should be a good day. You know I'll talk about it tomorrow one way or the other.

There are so many reasons not to gain weight. The two most important ones are that the lymphedema could potentially flare up and get worse and that I could tear the mesh in the abdomen from the hernia surgeries. I MUST keep those horrifying scenarios in mind each time I want to eat something inappropriate. Also there are other reasons: more energy, more mobility, ability to stand and walk for longer periods of time, fitting into clothes, higher self-esteem. Yes, there are so many reasons to behave and lose weight, and absolutely NO reasons to continue to eat out of control. Of course, eating out of control sometimes feels out of my hands, too. I do it because it must surely release all those pleasant endorphins in the brain and make me feel good, at least temporarily, like a drug. So here is day ONE, yet again.