10/24-10/25/2009 It IS in the Water!

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’ve added a pound or two, a couple, a few, SOME pounds since we left here last April. We were driving so much and therefore just sitting for the best part of a LOT of the days we were gone that it was inevitable. Do you hear me??? It was INEVITABLE!

So now I’m working on getting these pounds off. I’ve been riding my bike, walking the perimeter of the park (I’ve been told its 8/10’s of a mile around and we go twice) with my friend Wendy in the evenings and I’ve cut out HALF of my Pepsi’s….which is HUGE! I”m drinking Crystal Light Iced Tea like crazy. I’ve cut out a lot of the chips and salsa that I had been eating. There used to be two sittings each day with the chip bag and salsa jar, now I have some for lunch on some days and that’s it. My M&M consumption is waaayyyy down, so I’m trying, really, really trying.

On Saturday I was out riding my bike and stopped at Sandy & Carl’s for a minute. I never got off the bike, just sat there and balanced myself with my tippy toes on the ground. Hey, I never said I was TALL! So I find out from Carl who was sitting on the porch that Sandy went to town and he was sitting there with his neighbor. We talked for a minute and it was time for me to take my leave. There is a very small decline in the their drive way, very small, barely noticeable, until…..until one tries to back down the driveway while sitting on the bike, balancing with tippy toes and turning the wheel on the bike all at the same time. Do you know where this is going? The next thing I know I’m flat on my back in the street and the bike is laying on top of me. It happened like it was in slow motion and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. Carl and his neighbor come running and get the bike off of me. I laid there for a minute or so feeling soooo stupid! They helped me to a sitting position and I sat there for a minute. I felt a small twinge in my back and I thought to myself, “Oh no, please, not the back” They got me up the rest of the way, we talked a minute more and off I went. I was a little sore if I turned too fast or too far so I had made up my mind that some hot tub time was in my future.

I spent some time at the pool working on my tan, the farmer’s tan I had going is now officially gone! I’m pretty much evened out.

After dinner I met Wendy at the hot tub and spent about an hour sitting in the front of one of the jets on the small of the back. Oh, that felt good!

Now I haven’t mentioned Bob at all so far. He was having a “computer day”. He spent the entire morning, afternoon and evening on the computer. He was researching this and that and playing poker and just having a needed day of rest. A lazy day. He was certainly entitled to that.

After my time in the hot tub I decided to go for another walk and ended up at Earl and Marilyn’s for a visit, While I was there Marilyn took her blood pressure which she has to do several times a day and when she finished I asked her to take mine, just for the heck of it. My numbers came out good, low 120’s over 79 each of the three times she took it. What had me concerned was the pulse rate. It was 95. I visited some more and went home.

SUNDAY

I got on the scale this morning and was dismayed to find that the number was going UP rather than down. This didn't make sense because I can see in my face that I'm losing. I thought about it and remembered that muscle weighs more than fat and I’ve been walking and riding my bike and attributed the higher number to building muscle. It sounded good at the time.

I found that I was having a hard time getting my shoes on where I normally just slip my feet into them and go. Then I tried to make a tight fist and found that I couldn’t and that I could “feel” my wedding band and there was a snowballs chance in hell that I was even going to get it off. Yep, you guessed it, I’m holding water, big time! I thought about it and realized that I had not gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom for the last two nights and was barely going during the day, I couldn’t figure out why this is happening, especially since I’m drinking so much water.

I went for an afternoon walk and stopped in to see Marilyn to have her take my blood pressure again. Good numbers, but again my pulse rate was 95. Maybe this is my normal. I really don’t know.

After I left there I walked over to visit another friend, Ginny and found our friend Donna there too, I told them what was going on with the water retention and my pulse rate and they asked me what water I was drinking. Ahhhh,,,,,found the problem! I’ve been making my iced tea with tap water instead of the water from the reverse osmosis machine in the Cantina. I had heard to use that water instead but I thought it was because of the taste of the water, which I didn’t find bad at all with the Crystal Light powder for flavoring. I guess since I’m not normally a water drinker I didn’t pay any attention as to the WHY of not drinking it. Come to find out, the water here has a very high sodium content. Salt! No wonder I’m retaining water. Now I’m going to be using the machine water so I should start losing this water retention within 48 hours. I’m hoping so because its at the point that if my skin had seams they would surely tear and I would just leak water all over the place.

As far as my pulse rate goes its the thought that since I’m holding so much water that my heart is working harder and therefore my pulse is faster. I don’t know, I’m gonna give it 48 hours for the good water to kick in and keep an eye on it. Marilyn told me to come by everyday and she would take my blood pressure and get the reading for my pulse.

Sunday evening we took advantage of the Domino’s $5.99 pizza special going on and had pizza while we watched the last of the Yankee’s/Angel’s games. It looks like our Phillies will be playing New York in the World Series. Bring it on New York, bring it on.

Up to date again. Whew!