Apr 28
The Erika on the right in the photo above doesn’t know she’ll have the stomach flu in a couple days. That’s why she’s smiling so much.
Anyway, gastroenterological woe aside, great weight loss success this week. In my blog post for Fitness Together Sammamish this week, I talk about how it’s possible that I ate a metric ton of food during a Passover celebration and still managed to lose weight. If you feel like it, please check it out!
Apr 27
Oh my gosh, you guys. Stomach flu. It’s no joke.
I’ve had the stomach flu before, and it has been and always will be my most dreaded disease. I hate throwing up, so much so that I would writhe around in panicked nauseous terror rather than relent and just let it all come up. I hate hate hate vomiting.
2 AM on Tuesday morning found me waking up out of a very deep sleep, with a horrible grinding sensation in my stomach. Disoriented, I wondered what was up before remembering that someone I know recently had stomach flu. And so did her son. And her son played with my son and that means…OH NO NO NO.
At that exact same moment, Aidan woke up crying. I tried to pry myself off the floor of the bathroom to get him when I heard Wes say from Aidan’s room, “I think we have a flu baby.”
Aidan and I proceeded to spend the next three hours painfully awake, alternating between throwing up and changing outfits. Every time I’d get him sleepy his stomach would up and ruin everything. Poor guy, he was miserable, I was miserable, he was upset watching me be miserable. It was awful.
I had what I think of as a quintessential mom moment, though, so there’s that. I was trying to change Aidan’s outfit when my stomach decided to execute the emergency evacuation plan. I grabbed a trash can to catch the result of said evacuation, keeping one hand on Aidan so he wouldn’t roll off the table and hurt himself.
He started crying, probably because his mommy was retching into a trash can. Between heaves, I reassured him that mommy was just fine, even working up a few smiles here and there. I think moms have a special super power that enables them to be awesome even when they’re abjectly miserable.
Honestly though, yesterday was the longest day of my life. That’s the drawback of being a stay at home mom, there are no sick days. My head swimming from a fever, sleep deprived, and unable to eat even Saltines without feeling sick, I still had to take care of Aidan. Not only that, but I had to run four loads of laundry just in case we needed more clothes to be sick on.
The only bright side of this whole thing is that this probably bodes well for my weigh-in on Saturday, huh?
Apr 25
I don’t know what to do, you guys. Please, allow me to spill out my insecurities for you all like so many insubstantial packing peanuts.
The source of my angst is my writing. Or, rather, what to do with my writing. Did you know that Amazon has become a kind of publisher all their own, making it possible for writers to publish their own stuff and sell it on Amazon, without going the traditional self-publishing route of paying to print 1,000 copies of your book and hoping they all sell?
Well, they have really stepped it up. The Internet is making the democratization of publishing possible, and I’m vacillating between riding that wave and sticking with making traditional publishing work for me.
The Amazon thing is mighty tempting. People could buy my book in book or eBook format, and it would have a cover and ISBN number and everything. The only drawback is, I’d have to do all the marketing. Whether my book sinks or swims is entirely dependent on how well I market it and whether or not people want to read it.
And therein lies my angst. I’m not averse to pounding the pavement, spreading the word to anyone and everyone that my book is out there. What I am averse to is my book being out there…And no one caring.
Oh, I have nightmares about that. Of being self-deluded enough to think my writing is ready to be made public only to have most people think it’s Amateur Hour. Of my book mouldering away on Amazon with no one buying it. Of having concrete, absolute proof that my writing sucks.
If my insecurities were packing peanuts, I have reason to believe I could fill a reasonably large swimming pool with them providing it wasn’t too windy outside.
Apr 20
You can tell how far apart the pictures have been taken by examining the length of my roots...
I have to make this post quick because I have a baby with a cold who’s decided a thirty minute nap is sufficient even though it is NOT. I can’t state that unequivocally enough. Thirty minutes? Is insufficient.
Anyway, I lost weight this week, almost called it quits on the whole eating well thing because apparently I am insufficient, and then I blogged about the whole thing for the Fitness Together Sammamish blog. If you feel like finding out how that whole shindig shook out, maybe you’d like to take a little trip over to their blog?
It’s here. And below? A penguin getting tickled. You’re welcome.
EMBED-Ticklish Penguin – Watch more free videos
Apr 13
I have to start this week’s quest update with a story. A story about temptation.
I have been assaulted by cupcakes in the past few days. Literally assaulted. Like, every freaking where I go, there’s a luscious cupcake staring me smack in the face, smelling its yummy smells and luring me into perdition with creamy frosting. I blame birthdays. We celebrated a couple in the family over the weekend, with the last birthday getting celebrated on Monday night.
Tuesday afternoon was my personal training session so I climbed into my car, eager to put Cupcake Alley behind me to head for Greener Salad Pastures. And what should I find in my car?
A cupcake.
Wes took one on Monday night with the intention of eating it later, and then forgot it in my car. It had sat there all night, filling my car with the transcendent smell of chocolate, peanut butter, and TEMPTATION.
I sat there staring at it, like it was a rattlesnake that might bite me. Moving slowly, I reached for it, careful not to move too quickly lest it cram itself in my mouth. Carrying it into the house, I set it on the counter and then turned, my hands shaking with the exertion of being so close to peanut butter buttercream and not eating it.
I managed to make it to my personal training session without further incident, but it was a near thing.
And that just about sums up this week in weight loss. It turns out that cupcakes are still fan-frigging-tastic even after you’ve lost 27 lbs.
But, I have lost 27 lbs., which means I lost weight this week, which means I had only a brief interlude with the no good very bad weight loss plateau. Huzzah! For details on what I did to defeat the horrible weight loss plateau, check out my blog post for Fitness Together Sammamish for this week!
(for Kindle)
(printed book)