In Which We Have to Get Healthy

But first an update. I promised one. We DID, in fact, get the youngest's room under control. All toys are now on the shelves in her closet or stored in the garage for rotating later. The 137 baby dolls turned out to only be 16, but I feel that is a sufficient number for a young mom to handle. They are on a shelf. All that is in her room is her play kitchen, her $12 new-to-us baby care center, and that shelf of babies. Her clothes were organized too, but then we were blessed with 2 garbage bags of hand-me-downs that I thought we might put away for later.

So far, they have all fit.

How did she get so big? She's 6 1/2 and these are all size 8s.

Sniff.

Anyway, onto our health journey. We are not young like we once were and it is past time to be very serious about our health.

1. I believe I have mentioned changes at husband's work which means that we now pay health insurance and prescriptions out-of-pocket until we meet the deductible. This makes you strongly consider "do I NEED to go to the doctor?" Which is not how it should be.

2. I have had pain like back when I had ulcers/gastritis 7 years ago and also found a lump in my abdomen. Obviously, that is scary. I visited the g.i. doc, got scheduled for blood work, an ultrasound, and an EGD. So far, we have spent $1500.

3. I could have spent that money so many ways.

4. But it was good to have because now I know that I have a. 2 small ulcers b. a small hiatal hernia c. a slightly enlarged liver (fatty liver) and he thinks the lump is probably a hernia too. He will look at it more at my follow up next week.

So, add that to us not being able to afford the out-of-pocket diabetes meds for husband, and you've got a situation that requires action.

On New Year's Eve, we started eating Trim Healthy Mama. I did this plan back in 2014-2015 and lost 30 pounds. I know it works. And after I lost all that weight, a few things happened:

(there are a lot of lists today, huh?)

1. My Dad went into the hospital for 6 1/2 weeks and I took care of Mom, transportation, running back and forth, and our kids (youngest had *just* turned 3 at the time). Dad ended up passing away at the end of the summer so then of course....grief, grieving children, Mom, funeral, everything.

2. About 3 weeks after Dad's funeral, we took our second-born to the doctor for allergy testing. We found out she was allergic to...well, earth. But mostly soy. So, I spent months. MONTHS. Learning to not kill her when I cooked and grocery shopped.

3. Clearly, my THM ways went by the wayside.

So that is why I now have 40 pounds to lose. And some exercise to do. I have been walking nearly every day for a week (I forgot Sunday). It's a good way to start out. And our eating has been excellent ever since Dec. 31. It will take a bit for the weight to start dropping off, but it will.

And I'm taking meds for the ulcers.

We have gotten husband off of his short-acting insulin and one pill.

I think we are on the right road, headed in the right direction.

And we really don't have a choice. I desperately want to be healthy and energetic and to finish raising these girls. Plus my husband needs me as well. I need to be here for these people.

Signing off,

In Which I Have a Pain in the Neck

Well, actually make that two pains. I will tell you about each one.

1. An ACTUAL pain in my neck. 

Remember I had that horrible headache on Christmas day? well, it was Jan. 2 before I could get myself to my atlas chiropractor. She's so wonderful. I knew my atlas was out of place and I was right. It took 2 trips to get it back in place but my head hasn't hurt since. Headaches are so awful and they can truly be debilitating. I don't know how people live with them. I'm a little worried each time my neck hurts or I start to have a headache but I know there are other reasons for headaches and neck aches. It's not always going to be my atlas. I wouldn't even mind going to the chiropractor that much, but it's pretty far from our house. After having that much pain, I am very thankful to be pain free!

2. Cooking. And planning what to cook. And buying the food to cook. And cleaning up from the food we cooked. And doing it all again in a few hours.

So, some changes at husband's work resulted in some insurance changes, which resulted in us having to pay out of pocket for medicine this year. My husband has Type 2 Diabetes, which means his meds would cost us about $1,300 a month. Clearly, that's not do-able. So ever since New Year's Eve, we have been working on getting him off of some of his meds. 

The way I decided to do this was with Trim Healthy Mama. I know the plan. I know it works (I lost a lot of weight about 3-4 years ago BEFORE my dad died and BEFORE we found out our second-born daughter had food allergies. After that, I concentrated on learning to cook for her allergies and gained a lot back. Sigh) So we started THM and he is already off of his short-acting insulin! We are so happy about that! However, if the cost is not monetary, the cost is time. 

I am fixing THM breakfast and supper each day for him as well as planning and packing snacks and lunch. That's everything he eats, seven days a week. It's a LOT. Big deal you say? Perhaps you do that already. But there is never a time he can just grab some to-go food to give a break or just buy something at the convenience store when he's hungry. There is not a time for me to sleep in, either. This morning he did fix his own scrambled eggs and I got to sleep until just after 7. It was heavenly. 

It affects our lives greatly is what I'm saying. We have to go to bed earlier so we can get up earlier so we can do all the food things. 

The good news is that in comparison to all this meal stuff, homeschool is a breeze! We had our second day back today and its going fine. More on that later. 

I'm going to read a little now before I start cooking the next meal. 

P.S. I'm so busy I don't even post pictures on here! If you want to see what's going on with Project: Family, follow me on Instagram! 

Signing off,