This week I made a little change in my life. Actually, a pretty big change. I decided that I was tired of not liking the way I felt about myself. I’ve become lazy – and I’m not a lazy person.
I’ve been lazy with activity in my life and I was finding that the smallest exertion (i.e. a play date at the LIBRARY!) was zapping all my energy.
I realized I have been lazy with my food intake, too. I eat what’s fastest, cheapest, easiest. I blame it on Bean keeping me so busy, but that’s just an excuse. There is no reason that eating a handful of grapes should take any more effort than eating a handful of chips.
I’ve been lazy with my mind, too. I haven’t read a book in ages, and I’ve always been such a good, faithful reader. At the end of the day, I say I’m so tired and just want to veg and so I sit on the couch and watch stupid, trashy television. Why not relax instead with a good book?
Sometimes, I get so bogged down thinking that life is just too demanding for me to take time to take care of myself. What the crap is wrong with me?!?! LIFE IS TOO DEMANDING?!?! Am I kidding myself??? I’m 27 years old. I’m still YOUNG! And I’m going to be young for a long time! Why am I acting like a middle-aged slob? It’s time for me to take better care of myself and to feel better about who I am.
So, this week I made some changes. I started Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred. And even though I am now walking like a 90-year-old woman and am sore in places I can’t share with you all, I am not cheating. At all. I do the entire DVD every day. I complain and grunt and sweat and curse Jillian the entire time. But I’m doing it. Not because I want people to see me differently, but because I need to take care of myself. And I need to remind myself that I am not a lazy person.
I also started eating healthier. Blah. That is almost as much fun as my workout DVDs. But I’m sticking to that, too. I figure here I am feeding Bean all this healthy, wholesome food – it’s right here, in my house! – and after I fix him a healthy something to eat, I make myself a PB&J. Or I have a few cookies. That’s just ridiculous! And lazy! So, I’ve started eating more like Bean. I don’t even LIKE half the stuff he eats – avocados (yuck!), blueberries (bahh!), sweet potatoes (ew!) – but I’m doing it because if I can teach HIM to eat healthy, then I can teach myself.
And I have started reading a lot, too. Bean and I go to the library every week and I’ve been flying through books. After dinner and Bean’s bath and bedtime, I used to sit on the couch and eat crap and drink Diet Coke. Now, I curl up with a good book, a piece of fruit, and a glass of water. I think it helps me sleep better (which is always an issue with me – I’m a terrible sleeper) and it relaxes me.
As my reward for these new things in my life, I went to Target and bought a whole new round of skin care stuff. All of these things I use anyway, but I hadn’t bought them in a while and so I treated myself to some new products so that I glow on the outside while I’m glowing on the inside.
I bought a brand new bottle of my favorite face wash, Aveeno Positively Ageless Daily Exfoliating Cleanser. I have used this face wash for a couple months now and I really like it. It smells divine and it make my face feel clean and soft.
I didn’t buy any moisturizer because I still have a whole tub of my favorite left. I love St. Ives products but I love their St. Ives Collagen Elastin Facial Moisturizer most of all. It’s really cheap ($4, I think?) and I love that it is in a tub so I can scoop out however much I need. I like it because it goes on light but it is thick enough to protect against even the driest weather. I used this all winter long in Connecticut. I put this on right after I wash my face or right before I put on my make up. It keeps my face soft. And it doesn’t have much of a smell either, which I like because I still smell like my face wash.
I bought an exfoliant, which is something that I hardly ever use. My skin is prone to redness because I’m so fair and exfoliants have always been a little rough for me. But I’ve noticed that living in Florida, I’m sweaty a lot and at the end of the day I just want to rub my skin off. So, I added this St. Ives Timeless Skin Apricot Exfoliant to my regiment. I use it every other day in my shower. I use it on my legs, too. It’s pretty rough, but after you wash it off I feel so much smoother and cleaner.
I feel pretty good about my changes. It was an easy trap for me to fall into by using being a new mom as an excuse to just sort of let myself go. But I don’t feel like myself now. And especially now that I’m staying home, if I’m not careful I’ll end up being one of those all-day-in-your-pj’s people and that’s just not me. So, time to shape up, as my Dad would say.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go lay on my heating pad until my next workout session…
Last week Bean had a cold, which means that this week I have a cold. Ahhh…the joys of parenting.
Chris is really great when I’m not feeling well. He makes sure that I get enough rest and that I am taking my medicine. He pitches in more around the house and he watches Bean while I take naps.
He would be the perfect nurse.
If only he wasn’t trying to kill me.
Chris and I handle sickness very differently. When Chris is sick, he takes his medicine religiously. Like a clock, every four hours he takes his two cold pills and they do everything they advertise for him. His coughing, sneezing, aching, stuffy head, and fever subside so he can rest. But for me, if there are any side effects from medication then I’m going to get them. You know that warning that says not to operate heavy machinery? That warning is for me. I get so woozy when I take anything. In fact, I react so oddly to medication that I have to take daytime cold pills at night and nighttime cold pills during the day. But even when I do that, it still doesn’t seem to ever make me feel better. I’m not sick for any less amount of time and my symptoms don’t go away. So, I try to not take it. It makes me loopy and it doesn’t help.
And that’s when my nurse starts to hound me. And hound me. And hound me. He calls me from work all day, making sure I’ve taken my medicine. And when I lie and say that yes I took it, just so he’ll get off my back about it, he comes home and checks the pill count. A loving, caring husband trying to get his wife better? Possibly. OR, he’s trying to keep me loopy so he can steal my last box of Girl Scout cookies…
We also differ in where we are sick. When I’m sick, I want to be in my bed. Cozy under my covers and sleeping for hours. In Chris’ house growing up, when you were sick you got a Sick Bed. A Sick Bed is a bed made up on the couch for you during the day. You go to your own bed at night, but during the day you lay around on your Sick Bed on the couch. Now, personally, I don’t want to be in my living room with the dogs and the baby and my husband and the television when I’m not feeling well. I want to hide from the world in quiet solitude. But every time I try to go to bed, like a normal sick person, Chris tries to keep me out on the couch. He forces me into a Sick Bed. Which means I sit on the couch, sick and slightly pissed off, while Bean violently pats my face and the dogs lick my feet. And when I’ve had enough and I get up to go to bed, my nurse starts whining, “Don’t go to bed yet! Not yet! Stay out here! You need your Sick Bed!” A sweet husband who wants to spend more time with his wife, even while she’s sick? Possibly. OR, he wants me to stay close so he can make sure I stay medicated and loopy so he can steal my last box of Girl Scout cookies…
Now, I am generally a good sport about Chris when he’s “taking care of me.” He takes his nursing job very seriously and he gets his feelings hurt if I don’t accept his help when I’m not feeling good. So, I take my medicine when he’s standing over me shoving it down my throat and I stay on my Sick Bed during the day when he’s home. But I draw the line at the Sweat It Out theory.
At some point in Chris’ life, someone told him he needed to “sweat it out” when he was sick one time. Ever since, Chris believes that when you are not feeling good – and especially if you have a fever – you should do the following steps in the following order:
1. Take Tylenol.
2. Put on winter, wool socks.
3. Put on flannel pajama pants.
4. Put on a short sleeve shirt.
5. Put on a long sleeve shirt.
6. Get under at least three blankets.
7. Sleep through the night.
In these conditions, you will sweat out your sickness overnight and will wake up refreshed and healthy. The thing is that the two times you don’t ever want to talk to me are when I’m either sick or too hot. So, Sweating It Out is like waking a sleeping bear with me. I’m hot and feverish already and there is no way in God’s green earth that I am going to wrap myself in wool anything and crawl under layers of blankets. I get claustrophobic and I feel like I’m dying.
The ONE TIME I did this was the first few months we were married. I thought it was soooooo cute that Chris was trying to help me get better. So, I let him feed me cold pills and I happily climbed into my Sick Bed and when he pulled out my camping socks good for weather below 30 degrees I laughed, told him he was silly, kissed him, and put on the socks. I climbed in bed that night feeling happy from all the love my newly minted husband was giving me.
I woke up at 1:00am that morning in a pool of sweat, dying of thirst, and feeling 100 times worse than when I went to bed earlier. In the middle of the night, I peeled sweaty, wet clothes and socks off of my body, dragged out my fan, and slept naked with my fan in my face for the rest of the night. I didn’t speak to Chris for three days.
Ever since, I won’t even let him hint about Sweating It Out. I don’t care if it’s the right thing to do. I don’t care if the Surgeon General of the United States came out with a statement that said, “Katie, you need to Sweat It Out.” I don’t care about any of it. I’d rather be sick for the rest of my life.
So, as you can see, I try not to get sick. It’s just better for my marriage if I stay healthy and Chris doesn’t have to be my nurse. Then, he doesn’t get his feelings hurt and I don’t have to call my sister, crying, telling her that I think my husband is trying to nurse me to death. Chris says this makes me the worst patient ever and he’s probably right. I just don’t like to be taken care of or messed with when I’m not feeling good. So for now, Chris will have to find someone else to nurse.
I’d love to see him try to sweat out Lucy. Chris would be the only grown man I know to be mauled to death by a Chihuahua-mix dog.
30Apr
I am a talker. Its just my nature. I talk to feel closer to people. I talk to keep up with things. I talk to get projects done. I talk because no one else is talking. I am a talker.
Naturally, I have had my fair share of high phone bills. In fact, when I was in high school and still living at home, my parent’s cell phone bill which included my sister and me was often delivered in a huge file folder. And, one time, in a box. Cell phones are just an extension of life for me. And now that I have my iPhone, I am never far from my own little piece of Internet Land. And – bonus! – I am also never far from ordering a pizza.Â
But about six months ago, I saw a show on Oprah that changed my perspective on cell phone usage. She did a show on the importance of not using your cell phone while driving. To be honest with you, I was so used to talking on my cell while driving that I hadn’t even given it a second thought before that show. But watching stories told by parents of teenagers who had been killed while talking on their cell phones or by drivers who hit them while talking on their cell phone really caught my attention and I vowed then and there to stop my bad habit.Â
For the most part, I have succeeded. Every now and then I catch myself answering a call or picking up my phone to call someone while I’m behind the wheel, but I almost always catch my mistake and hang up immediately. Mostly, its because of Bean. I couldn’t handle the thought of what could happen if my attention wasn’t 100% on what I was doing when I was driving. I just can’t handle that thought. And especially when I know that that situation can completely be prevented if I can just be patient enough to wait until I am out of my car to make or take a phone call.Â
And don’t get me started on texting while driving. I am a terrible texter, so I don’t do it often. But I have seen so many people drift into my lane on accident while they were driving. Thank goodness my attention was on the road and not in some cell phone or God knows what could have happened.Â
The thing is that I think people are so used to driving, so comfortable driving, that they forget that when they get behind the wheel of a car they are taking not just their own lives into their hands, but the lives of those in the cars around them. We share the roadway with all kinds of people – mothers, father, brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, best friends, neighbors, aunts, uncles, and on and on. Those people sitting in their car next to you at that red light are not just people. They have a family and a life and we need to remember that when we are driving.Â
Today, my best friend (no, not PW…my OTHER best friend) Oprah is calling for a No Cell Phone Zone in our cars. No talking, no texting, to Twittering, nothing behind the wheel of our cars today. But I’m calling for a No Cell Phone Zone EVERY DAY. Because I am on the road every day and my eleven month old son is with me. And while YOU might be comfortable talking and driving in your car by yourself, how would you feel if my son were in your car with you?Â
Today, I’m dusting off my soapbox for a cause that I am not just dedicated to, but passionate about. Talking and texting while driving KILLS PEOPLE. It isn’t just reckless behavior, it is irresponsible and selfish behavior. So I’m asking my blog readers to make the pledge today with me for a No Cell Phone Zone in their cars. Not just today, not just tomorrow, but every single time you get in a car.Â
If you’d like to take Oprah’s pledge or get more information, I encourage you to visit Oprah’s website at www.oprah.com.Â
But you don’t need Oprah. You don’t need me. Make the decision for yourself and for your loved ones. Do us all a favor and put the cell phones away when you’re driving.
21Apr
I didn’t post on my hometown yesterday. But I have an excuse. I have a doctor’s note. I have an EMERGENCY ROOM DOCTOR’S note, actually.
That’s right. What’s a trip home without a stop by the emergency room.
On Monday, I was sitting outside at a restaurant with Chris, Bean, my sister, and my sister’s soon-to-be mother-in-law. We were having a really great lunch when all of a sudden I felt a piercing ache in my chest and I started to have trouble breathing. At first, I thought maybe I was having a panic attack. I’ve had them in the past and we have a lot going on right now, so I thought maybe I was just overwhelmed. But when a minute went by and the pain got worse and I still was hurting every time I took a breath, I started to worry that it was more than that.
It was the most piercing pain I’ve ever felt and it was right up in my chest and into my back. And then it went down into my left arm and I couldn’t move. I was literally paralyzed there. That’s when everyone started freaking out and calling 911. We were, thankfully, eating next door to a doctor’s office and so a doctor came running out. Just as she took my blood pressure, I started to get woozy and I heard her say my blood pressure was 75 over 40 just as I passed out.
I don’t really remember much that happened after that. I remember the EMT and the ambulance driver putting me in the ambulance. I remember getting to the hospital and Chris saying he would meet me back in the room because he couldn’t come through the back entrance with us. Later, Chris would tell me that at the restaurant I had turned completely white and my lips were purple and that the EMT took one look at me and declared we were going to the hospital.
At the time we got to the emergency room, my chest was still in a lot of pain, but I was only having trouble breathing in fits instead of the whole time. Every few seconds, my chest would tighten up and I wouldn’t be able to breathe. But when that part stopped, I could breathe okay, I just had that piercing feeling in my chest again.
By the time we saw the doctor, the EMT was explaining that it seemed muscular or skeletal and not that one of my organs was falling out of my body, like I kept asking him.
Turns out, I had pulled a muscle in between two of my ribs. And it was starting to spasm. Every time I breathed and my ribs expanded, that muscle would start spasming and squeezing my chest, making it hard to breathe. This same muscle is apparently the one that goes into your back, too, because the entire left side of my back felt like an elephant was standing on it. And dancing. The passing out was a response to all the pain.
We were in the hospital all afternoon while they took x-rays of my chest to make sure I hadn’t punctured a lung or had a broken rib. When those came back negative, the doctor said he felt comfortable calling it a severe muscle spasm in my chest.
I felt more comfortable when he gave me 2 prescriptions for pain medication and something to stop my muscle from spasming.
In the end, I am doing much better but am still not able to move around really good. I can’t turn or twist and I can’t pick anything up – including Bean Man. They put me in a sling so that I would keep my arm still which would then keep my back muscles still, too.
Remember how I said I always show my sister up somehow whenever she has something major going on? And how I vowed that her wedding would be different? And how I would blend into the background and give her her time to shine?
Yeah, well, I was still making those promises as the ambulance drove me to the hospital, but I’m not too sure she believed me.
Get updates via Facebook |
Become a fan of Marriage Confessions
Categories
Weddings
blogging
Around the House
Changes
Childhood
Husbands
Jobs and Careers
Laundry
Lucy
Marriage
Molly
Money
Moving
New Haven
pregnancy
Random
Suburbia
The Dog Pound
travel
Vacation
Yale
Friendship
health
holidays
photography
Book
Communication
Etsy Day
Fights
Flashbacks
Florida
In the Kitchen
Letters to Chris
Operation BWYP
Reader of the Month
Southern Weddings
Stalking the Pioneer Woman
Understanding Chris
Understanding Katie
Videos
Giveaways
Out and About
Dads
FamilyBellycasts
Depression
Faith
Parenting
Just for Fun
Fun Things
31 Gifts
Reviews
Running
