Day 74

My faves of our first "real" family photos (by Arlee Greenwood)...

I'm picking up the rest of the photos this morning so there may be a few more I decide to sneak in here. I LOVE them and am so happy we finally have something that we can print and frame, and enjoy seeing around the house.

Andrew and I have been saying forever that we can't wait to get healthy and spend money to take really nice pictures (versus the whole self timer thing that cuts out half of your face) when we're all slim and beautiful. We realized that while we're waiting, we have nothing of us for now. One year became two years, etc. and here we are now almost 6 years into our marriage without any real nice family pictures, aside from our wedding day. So we decided to splurge and enjoy ourselves together as we are now and when that day finally comes that we're "ready" to take pictures, we'll get to enjoy all these ones and not regret not having anything nice beforehand, as well as being able to see the comparisons of how we've grown.

I think if you love your family, you need to showcase yourselves in a nice picture whether you get them done by a professional, or you just go out in the yard and take them for the purpose of taking a family picture. Growing up with Mom, Dad, and my brothers, my family took all sorts of pictures for every holiday, every event, but never any professional pictures or something that said "no reason except that we love each other." Around my 20th birthday, Dad shocked me and suggested we get professional pictures taken. I have one of Dad, my little brother W, and I that I LOVE because to me it says, "We want to remember our family in this moment in time," and anything that Dad ever spent money on was something to treasure because it just did not happen. I'm sad that I don't have one with my mom, or my other brothers too. For some reason, to me there's something nostalgic and magical about having a proper photo taken--to me it says unity, love, forever. I'm so glad we did this now instead of putting it off any longer.

Day 73

I went in for my blood work this morning. The entire process of taking a number, checking in, waiting without an appointment, having blood drawn, having and EKG done, and peeing a cup lasted about 50 minutes--MUCH more reasonable than 4 hours at my last medical event. Can you tell I'm still bitter?

I suspect that I'm anemic again. Having been so tired for the last month and a half, I was getting a little worried. Usually when you start and exercise program, like I did 10 weeks ago, your body is in shock, is really tired, but then after 2-3 weeks you're supposed to start becoming conditioned to the increased work, gaining cardiovascular strength, etc. All that happened to me is I became more and MORE tired, tired to the point where I was sleeping those 3 hours naps in the middle of the day. Increasing my potassium after a workout, drinking lots of water, sleeping 8 hours a night--every suggestion I took to heart and did without any results.

Years and years ago, I was anemic. It was diagnosed through a routine physical exam from which I had no symptoms. I took iron supplements for about 6 months and then my levels were fine for about 10 years. I was even a regular blood donor--every 56 days--up until last October when my little blood drop didn't fall fast enough. See when you donate blood, you have to have just a smidgen over the normal amounts of iron in order for them to take a litre from you. At that time I was just in the normal limits. The nurses said I didn't have anything to worry about, I just couldn't give blood that day. Then holidays came around and things happened so we took a hiatus from giving blood, not thinking anything of it. Then I start this whole exercise thing and I am more tired than I have ever been. I start getting dizzy, lightheaded, sleeping 16 hours a day, unable to do my school work because I can't concentrate which stresses me out even more, started getting headaches again about a week ago. Something was not right. Then I started taking iron supplements and almost if by magic, I feel my energy returning. Fingers crossed there is a real connection between them. I'll get my lab results back sometime next week. It'll be interesting to see what happens!

Meals
1/2 dish chicken tikka masala (l/o)
approx 1 cup saffron rice
1 naan bread
4 cups of water

1 cup blueberries
1 cup strawberries
1 BabyBel Light cheese wheel
6 graham crackers
100 calorie Dairy Milk chocolate bar
2 cups of water

5 pieces of frozen pizza
4 cups of water

Exercise
None

Notes:
-I hope everyone else in the world has those days where no, you do not have one more minute in the day to exercise. I keep saying it because I'm not really choosing not to exercise; I just have NO time this week.