Being Sick - Restriction Changes - Exercise

Being Sick
After two solid weeks of sickness I am finally feeling more normal! Talk about miserable. Coughing non-stop can really, really make the band difficult. I was really tight and it's hard to eat slow (or at all) when you have a clogged and/or runny nose. So, I was eating a lot of things that go down easily.

Restriction Changes
I feel like my restriction from my last fill has "kicked in" after I was sick? I got sick a week and a half after my last fill. At first I didn't really feel anything, but now I actually feel restriction again like I haven't had in a long time. Certain items like bread which I ate before in small portions, are becoming harder and harder to deal with and I've been avoiding them all-together. I think I'm at around 6cc in a 14cc band - my surgeon doesn't like to be specific about it because he says that he doesn't want us to get stuck on a number, it's not about the number, it's about how it's working. I totally agree, but it's annoying not knowing. LOL

Exercise/Personal Trainers
I really don't like the venue of a gym for exercise - I've been making expensive monthly donations for quite some time now and not going. I don't completely hate exercise,  I just need to find things that are both fun and easily scheduled into my life. For instance,  I really enjoy my wii fit because I can do it at home (which saves me time and wardrobe changes) and because I can watch my own TV while I step and the time just flies. I just bought a lift kit that makes the board higher and sometimes I add some 3 lb hand weights to tone my arms.

I don't hate the gym for normal reasons. I hate dumb things like the smell, the environment, the sound, the time it takes to get ready and go... I dread it. When I can just come home and exercise, I don't dread it. I thought about getting a treadmill, but my home is too small - there is NOwhere to put one!

But, I can't do wii step forever and I need to be doing more. I need to either use my gym membership or get rid of it and do my own thing. I'm not sure what I should do. I'm torn... I thought that maybe a personal trainer would give me some direction, accountability, and motivation. My husband would probably not like the idea simply because he'd be like "But, we can go together", but it's not the same thing. I need an outside party to be accountable to. I can't quite articulate why, but it's just not the same when you go with a spouse and I would just end up feeling inadequate to him and annoyed with myself, ya know? But, I don't know that a personal trainer would make me like it any better.

Now that the weather is getting better, I'm looking forward to going to the park and trying out a little slow jogging. The park here has a dirt trail where I can kind of drag my feet a little and do a sort of scuff-along jog that I can't do indoors. Does that make sense to anyone else but me? That method allows me to get more cardio and it doesn't hurt my knees so bad because it's not as much impact on them. Now that daylight savings time is almost back, it'll still be daylight after work and I can go out there while others are around.

Have any of you ever hired a personal trainer? What was your experience like?

A New Year

One of my goals for the year is to keep up with the LB blogging world again. I got side-tracked during the holidays, but I am going to do my best to not only blog again, but to read blogs again. I get the most out of keeping up with you guys and commenting. Even if I only get to contribute to my own blog once a week, I want to keep up with everyone else, because it keeps me focused and reminds me of what I am trying to do with my life.

Over the holidays, I did not lose anything. But, I did not gain, so I am actually pretty pleased about this. In my job, I get a LOT of time off for holidays during this time of year. I have been out of work since Dec. 15th and today is my first day back. It really KILLS eating routines. I am a creature of routine and normally would have been on a better non-work routine, but I was so incredibly sick over the holidays. If I wasn't running around and traveling, I was sick. I had the cold from hell and I am just now feeling like a normal person.

All the coughing and nose-blowing has my port area irritated...has that every happened to any of you? It's just a little sore from using that muscle, I guess.

While I was congested, I barely ate a thing. I couldn't taste, and besides that, I think the band was much tighter than normal because I couldn't get much to go down. Our lovely Christmas dinner was wasted on me. However, I ate enough homemade peanut brittle to make up for that later. So many goodies this time of year! But, I think in a weird sort of way, I got it out of my system and I am so ready for getting back on track now.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season and I am looking forward to catching up with everyone's journey while looking ahead to a great 2011! Happy New Year, everyone! :)