Working full-time certainly has affected the amount of time I have to update my blog! Today is my day off, and I have about 5 minutes before I go and try to cram every weekday errand that needs to be done for the next 2 weeks into one day (can you say the DMV, optometrist, bank, etc…), so here’s an abbreviated synopsis of what’s going on with the Torrences (in bullet form – can you tell that I’ve been putting together a lot of presentations at work lately? – but not necessarily in sequential order):
- I turned 41 and had a GREAT birthday which included a massage and a camping trip to Cape May (not at the same time)
- Easter Sunday came and went – we had brunch with my parents at Cracker Barrel this year
- I’ve been keeping up with my diet and exercise ‘plan’ (not really a plan – just trying to eat less and move more) and have lost a total of 26 pounds as of today
- My mystery headaches were diagnosed by a neurologist as an ‘extended migraine’ – they lasted over a month and are being treated with a medication called Topamax. The medication is helping – and as an added bonus, weight loss is a side effect! 🙂
Here are a few quick photos too:
That’s all I have time for right now…time to move on to the next errand…
Posted by Kathy Torrence on Apr 4, 2009 in
Family Stuff I’m happy that we’re well into the month of April and that winter is behind us. I always get a spiritual lift in the springtime. I don’t know if it’s the promise of Easter or the warmer weather or watching things come back to life again…I guess it’s a little bit of all of those things.
It’s also an uplifting time for me because I feel like as I’m shedding my heavy winter clothes, I’m also shedding parts of myself at the same time. I’ve now lost 23 pounds and have gone down 3 pants sizes since the beginning of the year.
March was a slow month for me for weight loss and I’m not sure why. I think when I began seriously working out, I started to build up some muscle and while I continued to lose inches, my weight didn’t drop as fast. But it still dropped…which is a good thing! I feel like I’m in a good place and am happy with my exercise routine and diet – I don’t feel deprived at all and am enjoying the feeling of accomplishment that comes after a good workout.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to workout as intensely as I’d like lately thanks to some sort of mystery headaches I’ve been having. They started about 3 weeks ago and will not let up – not even with pain medication. And I’ve tried everything from Advil, Aleve, Tylenol, Sudafed and Excedrin to prescription migraine medicine, antibiotics, muscle relaxants, nasal spray and most recently, prescription steroids (the steroids are awful – they keep me awake at night and make my heart race – AND I still have the headache!).
The good news is that I’ve had a CT scan of my head and sinuses that both came back normal. I’ve started seeing a neurologist who is requesting a few more tests which are scheduled for this week. Hopefully, they’re able to find the source and provide me some relief. Or I’d be just as happy to wake up one day with the headache gone and never find the reason – I just want it to stop.
It’s extremely frustrating for me – I’ve found myself unable to focus well at work because of the pain – and I have to force myself to exercise and continue with my other normal everyday life stuff. But as a mom, you just have to keep going and push through it, you know. And I don’t want to slide backwards on my weight loss and exercise progress – I’ve just started to get into shape!
And as usual, of course, I’ve been all over the Internet trying to self-diagnose. There’s some SCARY stuff out there! I need to just back off, wait for the test results and assume that it’s nothing serious.
I’ll post an update when I get some relief…hopefully soon.
So enough whining – spring is here! We’re going to take our first camping trip of the year this month and I’ll be turning 41 in a few weeks. I booked myself a “Stress Buster” spa treatment at a Red Door salon for my birthday – and also got myself a new pair of running shoes this morning as a gift to myself.
And just look at this cute photo of Emily I took this afternoon:
I can’t help but feel upbeat when spring arrives!
Oh – and we didn’t win the contest with our cupcakes from my last post – we came in second place. But that’s okay – I thought they were adorable!
