Losing Steam?

Lately John has been more and more difficult to motivate. No PT. Or very rarely. For the most part he sits on the sofa, watching movies. He is pretty much eating whatever he wants, and this worries me. I am by no means a shining example of physical fitness or proper nutrition for weight loss. But I am also not the one aiming for reentry to the military. I am afraid. I am afriad that he will e shipped to Iraq or Afghanistan, into a combat situation, and will not have the physical bearing to be able to keep up. He has gained a portion of the weight back that he had initially lost. I'm not quite sure how to get him motivated. Quite honestly, I should not have to. He should be doing this on his own.

Reenlistment News

We talked to the recruiters today. There is a document that is needed to get a waiver, so it is back to the paperwork. In the meantime, John fell off the wagon HARD over the holidays. We lived off of junk food while we were moving. After all, it is hard to cook when you can't find your cookware. Ha! But I was successful in getting the YMCA membership transferred yesterday, so there is nothing in his way as far as PT goes from now on. Oorah, John, get your ass in gear!

Randomness= The State of Being Random

Warning: Long, boring post of miscellaneous crap!

We started the process of searching for an apartment several days ago. I was very upset by the entire process. Every apartment in a 50 mile radius around our house is based on income. So I would call these places, only to be laughed at because my income is too great. So what do people do? I would think that substantial income would be desirable in a prospective tenant.

So when all was said and done, the last place I called had no income guidelines. We ended up securing a 3 bedroom townhouse right down the street from where I work at the hospital.

The moving process is going to be high on the suckage scale. With the exception of two days, and of Christmas Day, I have no days completely off. Christmas Day will be spent with John's family in Kentucky, so that is out the window. Some of those nights, I am only on call. However, when I am on call, I am pretty much grounded to my house. The wrath of my boss would be upon me if I was needed and could not be reached.

So here I am, completely devoid of time, and have to pretty much just open up the front door of the new place and fling the boxes into the house. But the clencher is that we have had ice and snow, rain and sleet all weekend. Right now it is fifteen degrees out there, so there is no hope of anything thawing in the near future. I am going to have to move in ice skates, which is not cute. I am certainly not graceful enough for this.

All of this stuff that has been going on has kept me from the pool. And with my work schedule the way it is over the next couple of weeks, I do not foresee it getting any easier to make time in the water a part of my daily routine. I am debating on whether I should suspend swimming until after the New Year. After all, there is a lot going on, with John's struggle with reenlistment reaching a conclusion soon, the moving, the weather, my schedule. I am afraid that I am using all of this as an excuse.

Things Were Not as I Thought....

I did as was planned. I went to the pool, and I swam. Let me tell you, it was sad! I cannot swim nearly what I used to be capable of swimming. I won't go into details in order to avoid public humiliation. But I will say that my endurance doubled the very next day. Maybe it will triple today, but who knows? Why must we get fat and old? Not fair!

For Me....

This is for me, and only me! It takes some convincing, though, and I don't think that should be the case at all. When John started this whole endeavor of reenlisting, we already had gym memberships. The problem was that the gym we were using had Nautilus equipment and nothing more. So while we are still paying for that membership, we found it justifiable to join our local YMCA. This way, we have access to all of the features that were offered at the old gym, but we can also add to the equation access to indoor and outdoor tracks for running, classes galore (aerobics, swimming, karate for the Kid, etc.). But the thing that got me the most excited was that there is this enormous heated indoor pool for my use! Why would a pool excite me? Requires some background info.

I was never athletic. I was always the nerd that did well in school. My junior year of high school, a friend persuaded me to join the swim team, and so I did. I have always loved the water. I kept it up the rest of my high school career. I was by no means going to win an olympic event, but I could do it. And it did things for me that I cannot easily explain. I felt better about myself. While I will always be on the larger end of the spectrum, everything was toned and taut. The smell of chlorine reminds me of that to this day!

So here I have access to these resources and have not used them once! My son has. My husband certainly has. But I have not. And I have this need to do something for myself for once, which is mingling with the fact that I am not happy with the way I look after seven years of marriage and motherhood. So this is a way of taking care of myself.

The first thing I have to do is locate a competition suit for fatties. If you have not had the joys of wearing any type of performance swimwear, then I need to elaborate. They are designed for comfort during workouts. Racer backs to keep the fabric off of your shoulders, preventing friction. High cut leg openings for the same purpose. And tight...very tight to make you all sleek and streamlined in the water. In other words, they hide NOTHING. I am not relishing this task. And for this purpose, they don't tend to make them for fatties. Swimmers are not usually fat, for one thing. But this swimmer is. I have located said suit. Plain black---yay! Black at least is slimming a little bit, though I doubt it will make a difference. It is on hold for me to pick up during my run-of-the-mill housewife errends tomorrow. If I add a cap and goggles to the equation I am set!

The problem is that I feel guilty. It is as if my doing this for myself will somehow subtract from how much is available to my overindulged child and spoiled husband. Heaven forbid I spend seventy bucks and a couple of hours a day on myself. Please don't be mistaken. John is all for it. He knows I need and want to do this. And as it is right now, we are mismatched. He is cute and fit now, and I am....well, NOT. So here I go. Maybe by the end of his first deployment, I will be as fit as I used to be.

Panic

The powers that be in the Navy have given John 2 targets to shoot for when losing weight. He hit the first target over a week ago. This one was the best-case scenario for John. The second target? He only has to lose 0.5 inches off of his waist or gain 0.5 inches on his neck to make it.

If he is meeting the strictest guideline, there is no way he is not going to make it.

I am starting to panic now. I mean really panic.

He meets the recruiter next Friday. It will go either one of two ways. He wants a postion at Corps School, so it may take a while to get him in, as these openings fill up very quickly. But the fact that he does not have to go through boot camp means that he will be available to leave when the first slot opens, even if it is at the last minute. He will have a 2 week "refresher", whatever that is.

I guess I am trying to say that these posts are about to get a whole lot more depressing. The wheels are turning and I can't stop them now. Navy, here we come!

Ouch!

John started complaining about his knee hurting a couple of weeks ago. He had kneeled down on our son's bedroom floor to pick up some toys and took a Hot Wheel right in the patella with all of his weight. I figured it was just bruised. He kept running 3 miles a day, and I would make him ice it when he got finished. After two weeks of this, with no improvement, he saw a doctor. It turned out that the reason it wasn't healing is that he has been running on the edge of a road that is uneven. What has caused the pain has been the uneven surface causing his knee to take the impact in a way that is not normal, and the bones that join at the knee have been knocking against each other. Ouch! Other than that, all systems are go! Everything else is perfect, and he has lost 3 more pounds since Sunday! Go, Baby, Go!

My Incredible Shrinking Husband

A day in his life: Breakfast= 1 apple, Lunch= tuna, Dinner= a salad, small piece of baked, boneless, skinless chicken breast.

PT.....More PT. Measure.

Civilian life and my homemade lasagna have made him soft and squishy in areas that he does NOT think are cute. A month ago, our good ol' Uncle Sam told him that he must lose weight to join the ranks. So he started this regimen. And he kept it up. He has, since the start of it all, lost thirty pounds and 6 inches off of his waist. And he continues to shrink. He now meets the body composition guidelines to re-up, but he continues to work at it, to get into the best shape that he can because he will not be going through boot camp. The Navy is recognizing his USMC boot camp. After all, if you can survive Marine Corps boot camp, is there a boot camp out there that you cannot breeze through?

I am so proud of him....his devotion and discipline. And let's face it: Damn! My husband looks good.

The picture to the right is an old picture of him. Just wait until I post the "After" shot!