04.27.07
It’s been a week of hell
It’s been an entire week since the sleep dr has me on the sleep schedule of 11pm to 7am. He put me on it last week when I went to see him thinking that he can force my body to accept the new schedule. How freakin long is my body going to take to adjust to the damn thing. So far, on average I’ve been sleeping about 4-5 hours per night because I cannot go to bed before 11 and cannot get up after 7 and sleep like shit in between. At least when I was going to bed so early before (9:30pm) I was getting more chances to get a couple more hours in.
I have to keep a sleep log also, which is why I know how much sleep I get. Get this though, I can’t look at the clock in the middle of the night, at all, or it can easily turn into a ‘clock watcher’ kinda night (where you do nothing but watch the clock, like those people who don’t want to sleep through an alarm and end up not sleeping at all). So I have to guess at how long I’m awake in the middle of the night based on my own personal observation, and knowing how many times I woke up (average is about 3). Waking up and rolling over to go back to sleep is no biggie, but waking up for ½ an hour at a time is seriously disturbing. I did have one night where I only woke up once, and it was considered a good sleep for me, although only about a rating of 4 out of 10 for feeling ‘rested’ as I felt I could definitely have slept a few more hours.
I’m exhausted today though, I feel my fingers are heavy, my lids are heavy, of course my ass is heavy, but my brain won’t function either. I have to do something mind-numbing like laundry, but laundry requires 3 flights of stairs each time I start a new load, and that prospect isn’t looking appealing. It does have to be done anyway.
What’s most annoying is I get so exhausted like this and then don’t sleep well, or don’t fall asleep for quite a while. I guess I’m getting enough sleep to survive, but not enough to really function well. I’ve pressed the backspace button so many times since starting this blog that I’m surprised it’s not wore out.
I used to think it was just occasional insomnia that was the problem, but it may be I’m not getting the proper amount of continuous sleep in a night. Did you know sleep issues can cause the body to not lose weight? I didn’t know that.
Man I’m tired.
04.22.07
Elliptical update
This is an update to our elliptical buying trek of a couple of days ago where we had a great salesperson and a so-so salesperson. I’ve always said that service is a big factor in how we decide to purchase things. If it be vehicles, groceries, computers or elliptical, if you piss me off or annoy me too much with your sales tactics, I won’t buy from you. Hell, I even switched grocers because the old one had a snooty manager who never left her office.
So, the ellipticals we had our eyes on were the Precor and the Vision. Both dh and I talked about it a lot, after all, it’s a big purchase, and we both figured the Precor wasn’t worth all the money. The ramp isn’t something we thought was comfortable to ride on, nor were there any other bells and whistles to speak of to put it up over $700 more than the Vision.
Dh went back to the sales guy at the Precor place (won’t advertise for his store) and asked to seriously try it out. After all, there’s no sense in us making a judgement based on a few seconds of attempting it, so he jumped on it and ran for a bit. He said it was rather uncomfortable still and not what we wanted. So dh asked for our deposit back (we put $250 or so down so as to ‘reserve’ one of the last 2 Precors at the sale price that he didn’t know when it would end – which now I’m starting to think was just a sales tactic to begin with 
). The guy then tried to talk dh into checking out the other models they have, the rear flywheel ones that we already told him were not of any interest to us (we prefer front fly wheel to rear fly wheel), and that it’s a bit of a pain to do a ‘return’ (which is another lie). At this point the guy finally conceded and started running the return through. Dh is pretty good at reading body language being in sales and he could completely tell that this guy was seriously put out that he didn’t get this sale. Well duh, part of the reason you didn’t get the sale dumb ass is because of #1. your sales ‘attitude’ (lie as much as possible) and #2. you didn’t listen to what we as the customer needed. He just figured he ‘had’ this sale and was put out that he was so wrong.
Dh walked out of there and we threw out all of that product’s catalogues, we won’t buy from there. He went back over to the other place we went to, the Physique Fitness store and met up with the very helpful sales girl we had over there. This is what a great sales person she really is, she’s very up front, doesn’t try and sell us the top model, and sends us to another place to try other brands out! Yep, dh got talking to her how he was browsing other places and was thinking of heading to ~another fitness store chain~ to try out ~such-and-such~ brand and she said, ‘oh, I know the guy that runs that store, he used to work here, ask for so-and-so and he’ll really be able to help you out’. This was all after dh seriously trying out the Vision X6100 we really liked and praising it, and she still sent us to another store. I am just so impressed with her honesty, and actually dh mentioned that the way the product is present by the sales person makes an enormous difference and then complimented her subtly (the poor guy didn’t want it to come off as flirting 
).
That night he came home and we talked it over completely and figure we’re going to buy from her no matter what. The product is really good and she was just so considerate of what we needed. Price is a big factor, but not as huge as service as we’re willing to spend $2000, but not if I don’t think the service is worth it (well, and the product).
So, now we’re in a bit of a bind as we would like the fun and helpful extras on the higher end model of her brand, but aren’t sure if it’s ‘needed’ kwim? So, here’s another table of comparison.
| Item Comparison |
Vision X6200HRT | Vision X6100 |
| Price | $2120 | $1696 |
| Stride Length | 20 | 20 |
| Extras | Foldable, METS (which according to the manufacturer is an oxygen monitoring system!), % Heart Rate, Target Heart Rate (which is a program that changes the intensity of the work out based upon what you heart rate is compared to the target heart rate, a really big bonus), the display is much easier to read, and variable footpads | Heart rate monitor, foldable |
| Programs | 9 plus 4 customizable programs (user) | 6 (I was wrong on my previous table) |
| Resistance levels | 16 | 16 |
| Downfalls | The price is again the most obvious. Is the extra programs, the THR monitoring and such worth more? | No THR programs, and LCD display (harder to read). |
I’m leaning toward the higher end model if only because of the THR program is such a bonus to fat persons as it helps us to lose weight during our workouts while keeping an eye on our heart rates. That is such an issue because it doesn’t take an overweight person much to get our heart rate up, but the heart rate % to aim for is 65% of your maximum heart rate (I think), which is where it is the most efficient for burning calories while still maintaining the little thing I like to call breathing.
Both of us think we’re going to go with the higher end, but want to talk with our sales lady to see if she has any opinions on the THR and the display. We are sure we’d get an honest answer from her, not just one looking for a sale. So, by tomorrow, we should be bringing home a new treadmill!
04.19.07
An eventful day
I went to my first appointment at the sleep clinic and they are testing me for sleep breathing disorders of some kind. Everyone knows about the apnea one where a person actually stops breathing altogether throughout the night. Did you know there’s another kind called Hypopnea where the breathing is subdued by quite a bit, but not shut off completely? I really didn’t know that.
On May 8th I get to go and bring my equipment home to strap myself in to be monitored for sleeping disorders. Yep, it’s a take home version. I think he set me up with this one because I don’t have episodes of falling asleep during some activity in the daytime (like reading, watching TV or driving), which is fine with me. I’m torn though, I’m hoping there is some results this way as it will help me figure out why I sleep so badly (or why I’m tired in the day), but a part of me doesn’t want a positive result as it means I’ll probably have to wear one of those awful CPAP machines that are much like wearing a scuba mask to bed. I won’t know until my follow up May 31st. What he did give me to do was kind of discouraging as it’s something I’ve always done. I am no longer allowed to read in bed, the only things I’m allowed to do in bed are sleep and sex (and I asked him directly about this and it got a smile from the stoic faced man). That and I have to stay up until 11:00pm now. That is the earliest I’m allowed to go into bed to sleep 
. I’m not used to that. Dayum it’s going to be hard. I have to pull my books out of the room, and when I go to sleep I have to cover the clock portion so as to forbid myself from looking at the clock. Oh I don’t think so. I already said I’m not a clock watcher but dammit if I’m not ever going to know what time it is.
After the appointment, I did some shopping and had an awesome lunch with dh. We then decided we’d go looking for ellipticals. We have talked for a while about getting an elliptical when he gets his next bonus as we both feel the treadmill isn’t doing us any favours. He is quite often in pain after a run throughout his back, and I’m just plain old bored with it. His next bonus is supposed to be coming in the next few weeks so we thought we’d go this afternoon and check it out.
We went to only 2 places within a short driving distance of dh’s work so he didn’t miss to much, plus I had very little time to spare to get home to the kids. Arrived at the first place and was greeted warmly by a lovely young woman who was very helpful, considerate and understanding of our needs. Let me explain here first that I’m often bought by a salesman’s pitch if I feel I’m not being pressured and that they are genuinely wanting to help. I truly felt that with this woman, and was very pleased with the product itself (yes, I’m actually advertising because I was so impressed with it).
The next place wasn’t as pleasing. The gentleman was knowledgeable, but put me off when he tried to tell us that stride length doesn’t matter. Uh, yeah dummy, it does matter when a shorter stride isn’t comfortable as it can make a person compensate during the workout and make it hard on certain parts of the body, like my dh’s injured back (old injury). That put me off him, but he did show us some great ellipticals, expensive, but very good product (again, impressive product).
Here’s a comparison I drew up.
| Item Comparison |
Precor EFX 5.17i |
Vision X6100 |
| Warranty | Lifetime Frame & magnet, 10 year parts and service, 1 year labour | Lifetime frame, 3 year part and service 1 year labour |
| Price | $2425 | $1696 |
| CR Rating approx. |
78 | 64 |
| Stride Length | 19 | 20 |
| Extras | Crossramp® technology (includes 14 levels), better water bottle holder, crossramp allows for greater workout | Heart rate monitor, foldable |
| Programs | 6 | 4 |
| Resistance levels | 20 | 16 |
| How it felt | A little awkward due to it being slightly different than a normal elliptical, and seemed short in the stride. | Very comfortable, much moreso than the Precor. |
| Magnet system | Magnet doesn’t move, but the electrical current creating the magnetic force is changed to adjust resistance. |
Normal magnetic resistance. |
| Salesperson | Eh, didn’t really care for him. He kept walking away to show us something else without waiting for us, and he’d be talking away, meanwhile we can’t hear a freakin thing he’s saying. | Very impressed. Without even asking for a discount, she gave us $200 off the normal price. |
| Downfalls | The price is the most obvious. That and neither dh or I are sure if our bodies felt good riding the damn thing. Dh noticed his knees as well as I did, mine were cracking as I worked it, which is not a good sign. | I actually can’t think of one really except that the warranty is a lot less than the other one. |
What I’m pretty sure of is we’re most likely to pick the second option. Not only is the price more in our range, but the product is more of what we need plus the sales pitch was more pleasant, that’s a real catcher for me. I’m hoping we can just pick it up tomorrow and set it up. It’d sure be nice to add another workout to my weight loss regime.
04.18.07
My children are imps I’m sure
They’ve been absolutely unbelievable today. It’s been unreal. They did well after school and then went outside to play with our rain/snow. It’s fine by me, but after about 30 minutes I looked outside and to my horror they were covered from the neck down with mud. Not by accident as they would have me believe, but laughing, slopping mud.
Normally this wouldn’t me an issue as mud is no big deal in the summer time. Did I mention that it’s only about 1° C (32°F) outside and there’s no hose out back to hose them off as it is still cold enough outside at night to freeze it? So in essence they would have to bring those disgusting clothes in through my house. Not bloody likely.
I had them strip partially outside, yes, while shivering, then put all their things in garbage bags. Waste? Yes, but it ain’t touching my floors nor am I getting muddy. Straight to the shower to scrub their stuff. My eldest’s (Bing) jacket is not supposed to go into the laundry. A jacket, less than 3 months old, is going to look like spew now because they couldn’t contain themselves.
It’s not just the mud, they’ve done nothing but mess around the entire night and be hyper. This isn’t normal for my kids. Punk (youngest) admitted to having candy of some sort at school. I know one thing for sure, their Easter candy is gone and I may write a note to the teachers requesting they not give them candy at all. They even seem to be coming down from a sugar high, but I was not the one to give them anything. You know the signs, break downs for nothing, sudden snapping at your sibling immediately after laughing with them.
They’ve been running around my house half naked due to the mud excursion, I almost wonder if their nakedness is contributing to their condition: ‘I’m free!’ kind of mentality. Please don’t make me go back to reality. *sigh*
04.16.07
God Bless the self check out
After shamelessly shopping at ~a big box store~ I sauntered to the check out counter in no hurry very much expecting to wait in line as is usual in this store. A few months back self check outs were installed in this store and it has made a huge dent in the amount of time I wait in line.
After laughing at a woman’s loud comments to her three y/o dd (“honey, when you’re older I’ll explain to you why I never shop at ~said store~” yeah lady, right, you’ll be back next week, I guaran-freakin-tee it, this is Canada, big box stores aren’t plentiful) I started unloading my cart and scanned my items and was out of ~said store~ in less than 30 minutes. With a cart load of stuff that surprises me. I even took time to find some cards for people which is 10 minutes alone, so for me to be in my truck driving away 30 minutes after arriving is shocking nonetheless.
Yes, I get that these types of things are taking over the jobs of people. Actually, considering no one wants to work at ~this store~ they aren’t taking over anyone’s jobs. In fact, they help the people do their job better because they are under less pressure to cram the cattle through as fast as they possibly can. The cashier’s demeanor is more pleasant as a result of installing these job-stealing machines.
Granted, if this were not a big box store, but a smaller store where these were actually replacing people, I’d be less likely to be happy about them. In our town, we are experiencing a major labour shortage where ~breakfast style restaurant~ has had to close at 3 in the afternoon everyday because they have no staff to keep it open later. It’s not even a matter of cost, but a matter of convincing people to work for $10/hour in a town where the lowest price house is around $300k. I kind of feel bad for employers as even the teens in our town don’t want to work for less than $10/hour because they know the next guy will pay that. Granted $10/hour doesn’t pay for much around here but for a kid with no bills but a cell phone, that is good money. A lot of employers have even been resorting to other tactics besides money to help lure people to work there. One advertised locally that they would pay a $300 per month living allowance to employees. And probably also the reason ~major fast food chain~ now pays a small amount toward tuition (I really mean a small amount too, it’s a couple of cents per hour worked, but it’s better than a kick in the ass with a frozen boot).
Speaking of housing costs here, I’m just in awe of the amount people are asking for houses that are as old as ours (around 30 + years) and haven’t fixed them up. Based upon what others are asking, our house would sell for around $375k. That seems unreal to me as it’s an old 4 level split with minor cosmetic updates. The location is prime though, plus that and our town seems to be a prime place to live. Considering that just under 4 years ago we purchased it for $170k and today we could sell it for $200k more is just an unreal return on investment. Although I’d move from here in a heartbeat if I could find the right ranch to live on near the mountains, but that’s another dream.
04.13.07
TGIF FCOL LMAO
What is with … shit I don’t even know what it’s called to abbreviate a sentence like that!LOL! Of course if you’re internet illiterate, I’ll translate – TGIF for crying out loud laughing my arse off – and if you don’t know what TGIF is, shit where’ve you been?LOL!
You know what I just figured out? I read too fast. Yup, ever heard that complaint? Probably not, but I do, I read too fast. It’s from my dad’s side of the family, both my grampa and my dad are avid readers, but they don’t just read a lot of books, they read them very quickly (500 + wds per minute is my average of a normal book, give me Charles Dickens and it slows down a bit, but not much), but also comprehend it completely too. I’m also a person that has collectible books for me, meaning books I absolutely love and collect in hard cover edition so that I may read them over and over again. And I do. I’ve read Harry Potter series 4 times, Lord of the Rings yearly since I was about 16 as well as Clan of the Cave Bear series about 5 times. Here’s the issue I have. I read them so fast that I am left wanting more after I’m done. When I read the last Harry Potter book for the first time, I read all 607 pages, that’s approximately 242,800 words in a day and a half (most publishers seem to try for about 400 wds per page). But that’s not of constant reading, that was about 8 hours max of reading (I was on holidays camping, leave me alone 
). So why is that a problem you ask? Well, when I buy a new book, I like the idea of relaxing to read it, spreading that relaxation over quite a few days. Now the Harry Potter book was an exception because I was so into it, plus being on holidays, I could spend a good chunk of time reading it. But, if it were a regular moment, not on holidays, it would’ve been finished in about 3 because I read at least an hour each night, sometimes more. You throw in my occasional insomnia problems and I can finish a book in a night.
My current book series obsession passion is Clan of the Cave Bears. 700 beautifully written pages chalked full of, no, crammed full of information relating to the story, but is factual about the prehistoric ice age. The information is so immense, huge, immeasurable that I tend to read it a tad slower. Not much, but a bit, but it’s still not slow enough to drag the lovely story out for days on end. All it does is make me bitter that Ms. Auel hasn’t got the 6th book out yet. She writes slower than most, not because she can’t think up the story line, but because she cannot be throwing in information that isn’t right in history, so her research is unbelievable and is always credited in the book itself. It can take her 10 years to write a sequel, like it did for ‘Shelters of Stone‘. I’m sure everyone has a love of some book that they dream about, but this one has always had me enthralled and I always wanted to make it into a movie. Not see it made, but actually make it myself because it’s so rich and would be such a challenge. Little did I know that the first in the series had already been made in 1986 called ‘Clan of the Cave Bear‘. What’s really funny and ironic is that the person I always chose to play the main character did actually play her in that movie. I think another reason I’ve always loved this book is it’s finally about a female lead whose intelligence and strength leads her way where no man could even possibly go. But, this is one of very few where women’s roles within the book are so prominent it would be impossible to ignore. I call it an obsession, or a passion, but it can get out of hand very quickly. I actually want to start drawing again and using her book to construct what the ‘Clan’ looks like in my mind. I don’t think they look exactly like Neanderthals, but similar.
I’m actually thinking of starting the series again just to force myself to slow down a bit. Considering how much I love the story, it wouldn’t phase me to read it again, but I think it would be challenging for me to slow down. Maybe I could start keeping track of the amazing plant usage within the story as well as the characters themselves. Sounds like a plan to me.
Oh, update on the adoption thing. The report is almost finished and will be completed by Monday to be submitted to the agency for review and approval. My adoption worker and her supervisor will then get a copy, as will we, and we will then be waiting for approval from them (which can take a week or two as everything is mailed – The ‘agency’ and my adoption worker are not the same entity, nor even in the same city). Yet more waiting, yippee.
As a post script, did you notice I advertised there for amazon? If you read my blog, you know I don’t advertise, not even for my own university, but I truly believe in helping people gain access to books and amazon is cheapest, besides, I can’t link to my library, then you’d know whereabouts I live 
.
04.11.07
I’m still buried alive
But I’m kicking. We arrived back from our Easter visit to my il’s with more clothing than what is normal for any child. I knew my sil loved to shop, but I didn’t know it was that much. She has 1 daughter who’s 12 and is also fashion conscious (as opposed to my oblivious nature to wear purple crocs, pink pants and a light blue shirt with a brown vest – cringing yet?) and they went through her closet alone. I came home with 2 garbage bags full, plus a box full and am just amazed that from 1 child came enough clothing for my 2 to fill their drawers. I’m not really complaining, but I should have been washing laundry last night and was instead working through the clothes to make sure all was kosher as my niece is allowed to dress older than I allow mine (short-shorts and half tops included).
So now I am buried trying to dig myself out of the avalanche from Mount Laundry. 2 are going through right now and I have 5 waiting upstairs, plus a small load of bedding. The only issue is my pretty new washer that washes beautifully (if not wrinkly) washes clothing in 69 minutes. I guess there’s a catch to using half the water and a quarter the energy use of a normal washer.
Easter was really good though, we had such a great time. Arrived Saturday afternoon after a bit of a midunderstanding and visited the night away with also watching tv 
. Sunday was spent in church with his family and then Easter dinner at his other sister (he has 3). She did a great job, and had help from his oldest sister. We had deep fried turkey, isn’t my favourite, but still fine, ham, potato casserole dish, and salads, beers and rum smoothies (fresh fruit and rum, who knew!). The next day we travelled to visit my grandparents. My grampa isn’t well so we make sure to visit as much as we can. She took us out for lunch while my grampa slept (congestive heart failure and diabetes means he can’t eat out, plus he’d get too tired). Travelled back to il’s town to find them MIA so we had to eat out again.
All-in-all it was a great time, except my pants are tighter, yet again. And because we got home so late last night I couldn’t attend my first meeting.
I’m going to write some more, but it’ll be on my Weight Watchers blog.
04.06.07
No nuances of a workable title
I don’t really have a title for my ramblings today. It’s Good Friday, an Easter rite that has my religion in a way celebrating the death of Jesus. Should I be joyous? I have no idea, but I’ve not been in a good mood for a while.
I’m pms’ing a bit, but that isn’t the extent of my mood. I think my mood has to do with the resolve that I cannot fight this weight battle alone anymore. I think in my mind, I’ve kind of given up, which is why I no longer fight the urge to eat until I want to throw up (I don’t, I’m not bulimic). I also no longer care what I eat and how much. That is what lead me to Weight Watchers. Not that they are a magic pill that’ll magically transform my cravings to more manageable desires, but I believe it’ll be a tool that will finally work for me. It will force me to weigh and measure everything in order to be within a point value for the day. I have a scale, I have measuring cups, I just have to learn how to use them properly.
Most would balk at the idea of paying $16/week to attend meeting to learn this type of stuff. I know my husband does. He did his usual, ‘but it’ll cost … ‘ kinda crap, but he didn’t really say it in an argumentative kind of way, but just an informing kind of way, which is highly unusual for him. I think he knows he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, nor does he feel I will spend that kind of money unwisely. I’m doing this for my health, and in the end, he’ll benefit too with a wife that doesn’t get as tired on hikes, one that fits into all her clothing, as well as looking hot in a great pair of jeans . He’s been a very wise man not to say anything, but I know he wishes I was still slim like I used to be. I was never ’skinny’ never wanted to be, but I was extremely fit, and I know he misses that. In a way, so do I, but I’m the one who has to work for it, not him.
I’m determined, it’s not a bold, unfaltering determination, but I deep down desire to finally rid myself of this excess weight, and I just feel this is the right decision for me to do this. I just have to make the moves to do it. I just want to point out that this better work not only because I’m paying for it, but because I actually advertised on my blog a brand name, I never do that.
