Major Mistake

I got to thinking over the last three weeks that the two medications I've been taking for fibromyalgia weren't really working since I've had two bad flare-ups in a little over two months. So, I had a great idea. I decided to go off both of them.

Mistake!!!!

Now I'm really having a bad flare-up and can hardly distract myself long enough to stop clenching against the pain. My hands and feet have been so cold. That was a symptom I had 10 years ago but have not had since then.

I went to my CEA-HOW meeting this morning and haven't yet decided if that was a good idea or not. It did distract me but I may be paying for it even more than I would have if I had stayed home and rested.

I think I'll go back on the medication that I've been on for three or four years and see if that will alleviate the pain of the flare-up and get me back to where I was before my great idea.

Resting can be very boring. You young mothers may be rolling your eyes, but there it is. What can I say? I have been trying to read but can't concentrate. My last recourse is to watch TV. I think my daughters gave me "Pride and Prejudice" last year. I'll watch that. Thanks girls.

Cheers?
Mither

Every month, the 15th is like Christmas

I got to weigh myself yesterday for the 2nd time in my CEA-HOW program. I have lost 32 pounds total in 2 months. I also measured myself for the second time and have a total loss of five inches on my hips over the two months and a 7 inch loss overall this month (1" was off my bust :( don't have that much to lose there hence the frowny face)

I can actually see the loss on my hips after my shower when I look in the mirror. I saw a picture of my face last night from before all this and I was shocked. I looked like a pumpkin! I hadn't noticed the loss in my face before then.

I am still celebrating!!!

Cheers, Cheers, Cheers
Mither

Sponsoring, What A Joy!

I just have to write something about my new sponsee. She was one of the women who came to the OA meeting last Wed. and felt impressed with what I said about the CEA-HOW women who had lost 100 lbs. in the last year. She was so excited after Thursday night's CEA-HOW meeting that she asked me to be her sponsor on the spot. I met with her Friday afternoon and we talked for 2 hours about the program and what she needed to do to start. We had a 25 min. talk yesterday when she made the required call and today we talked for an hour. That was a little bit of a problem because it gave me 30 min. to get ready for church. (good thing I didn't have to wash my hair, blow it dry and curl it or I never would have made it)

My other sponsee and I talk every day for at least 15 or 20 min. She just moved here a month ago from Bear Lake and bought their retirement home in Orem. She is a diabetic and was on heavy doses of medication to control it. She had a severe sugar addiction and was into the sugar every morning and having to take medication early in the day to counteract the sugar she was eating. She was seriously depressed and hated herself for being so weak willed. She said she wanted to kill herself.

Somehow she heard about the Church's Addiction Recovery Program and came to the Monday noon meeting and heard me share about my incredible weight loss and how I knew it was the Lord doing the discipline for me. She reached across the end of the table at the end of the meeting and asked if she could join the group I was with. I was thrilled to tell her about CEA-HOW and when I found out that she was a diabetic I called another CEA-HOW woman, who had diabetes who happened to be there, over and got the two of them together. I didn't even stay to talk to her after that but she came to the next CEA-HOW meeting and was ready to start right then. I talked to her after the meeting and recommended strongly that she get a sponsor as soon as possible and she asked me to be her sponsor on the spot. I was excited to get my first sponsee just two days after I had become available. We have formed a close friendship in the three week since then. The really neat thing is that since she has been eating such a healthy diet she has been able to go off her medication completely! This program is a miracle! What blessing to have found it!

I can't wait to weigh myself in 10 days to see how much more I have lost.

I find that serving as a sponsor has been a joy. It's so fun to see these two women get so excited about the program.

Well, Love and Cheers,
Mither

Pumpkin Pie Disaster, Pancake Heaven

I got to thinking about the total failure of my sugarless pie making experience and realized that when I doubled the recipe I forgot to double the Splenda. I was thinking about it because I had called my sponsee to warn her about how terrible the pie tasted so that she wouldn't try to make it. She was surprised to say the least because she had already made the pie twice and loved it. She read me the recipe again to make sure I made it right and I thought I had. Neither of us could believe it was so bad for me and so good for her. I told her this morning what I suspected about leaving out the extra Splenda and we both felt sure that's what happened.

I'm going to make it again tomorrow for lunch and dinner. I don't dare make it today or I'll want some and that will make it hard for me since it isn't on my food plan today and I'd have to be tempted by the smell all night.

I'm leading the meeting tonight. It's a little different format than the OA meetings that I'm used to leading so I'm a little nervous. Also, I'm almost certain there will be four women that were newcomers to OA yesterday. After yesterday's meeting I told them all about CEA-HOW and the LDS 12 Step meetings and when I told them that there were three women in our CEA-HOW group that had lost 100 lbs in a year they all were very interested. They were so interested that they asked for the address of the meeting place and made it a point to drive by it on their way home. We should have an interesting "meeting after the meeting" tonight with them there.

I just thought of a recipe for blueberry and banana pancakes that is out of this world that you might like to try.

This makes two, very thick 4" pancakes. Just right for one person. I don't know how it would work if you double or tripled it but you should make it just for yourself sometime. It is like having dessert for breakfast.

1 egg

3 T oat bran

(yeah you have to buy it special but it comes in a package that would make 20 pancakes at 3 T a pop and a half a pancake would fill a little child) (Actually the package looks small compared to other hot cereal packages. It's about 6" high and3 1/2" wide and can be found in the baking section across the asile from the spices at Smith's)

1/2 banana

(I like more banana so I put in 2/3 banana - it could probably be made with a whole banana but I can't have that much on my diet unless I give up the blueberries.)

1/4 c blueberries

1/4 c cottage cheese

2 T syrup (sugarless of course - this is a diet pancake after all)

1 tsp butter

Mix together oat bran, egg and banana. Mash banana to make a thick batter. (I add 2 T water because I like it more like a batter than cookie dough) Fold in blueberries. Spread griddle with butter (you could use butter flavored Pam as well. I just like the real thing.) Cook on a hot griddle until the edges get a little crusty. Turn and cook a little longer until the center gets done. Top with cottage cheese and syrup.

This is Pancake Heaven. ENJOY!

Well, Onward and Upward Girls,

Mither

P.S. If my crustless "pumpkin pie" turns out I'll give the recipe here. It's actually more like a custard but you bake it in pie plates and serve it like pie, hence the name.

Families - Stacey and Emilee may not want to read this :)

Jan, Jen, Emilee, Daniel and kids came over last night and we had a fascinating discussion about history and nuclear bombs. You never can tell what will come up in our family. Jen never did get her taxes done.

Emilee is feeling better finally with her pregnancy. So is Stacey. I'm glad they are through the hard part of having a new baby. Now they just have to go through the summer being pregnant, feeling as big as a house at the end and then the happy nights of two a.m. feedings and days of bleary eyed struggles to manage with the new baby in the house on top of all the other kids. Who said having babies wasn't fun?

I never gave all that a second thought. I just lived in happy ignorance of the difficulty of it all and accepted it as part of the course of being a mother. Maybe they shouldn't read this blog....

As long as they don't think about it maybe it'll be easier for them. Then again, maybe they already know =)

It is worth it in the end. I am SO happy I have a large family. And I am especially blessed, incredibly blessed to have them all settled here in Utah Valley. I have friends who have children spread around the whole U.S. so they only get to see each other once or twice a year, if that. Doris and La Dawn come to mind, and there are those with only a few children that have all moved away. How sad they must be about that -- no children or grandchildren around. I can only imagine.

I made a recipe for pumpkin pie made with Splends that tasted horrible, today. There was not enough Splenda and way too much cloves. I was so looking forward to something sweet I could eat for lunch and dinner that was a vegetable and so on my new eating plan. (specifically not called a diet. A diet is something you go on and be really, really good about until you lose all the weight and then you can eat like a "normal" person again, which, in most cases I've ever known about, means you gain it all back again and then some.) Could be just semantics but OA didn't think so. I haven't heard the term used either way in CEA-HOW yet, but then the only literature we use are the AA books and two small booklets written for us specifically by people who are in the program. I'm still committed to the program, though. How could I not be when the Lord has given me the miracle of the discipline it takes to do such a rigorus program.

Cheers,

Mither