Sinus infection from H.E. double barbie legs

Oh where or where have I been? The question is, where HAVEN'T I been this week? This week was full of family, celebration, food, long walks, tissues, and pain.

It's no surprise that I have the sinus infection of all infections...apparently you're prone to that when you have extremely narrow nasal passages and very messed up sinuses. Why would I know this about myself? Oh you know, being that singer lady I am, I had to get scoped by the ENT to find the cause of all my vocal health issues. Apparently it had more to do with my inferior sinuses and nasals passages mixed with some sweet acid reflux than my actual singing technique. Hooray for that, but boo for the queen of sinus infection.

Way TMI, I know. Can I just try to explain what happened to me tonight and then I will write about my miraculous zero pound weight gain this week after eating out 6 times for 6 different celebrations?

So this sinus thing is painful and my nose is raw with a capitol R. Lame. I bought some OTC nasal decongestant and thought it would help with the raw nose thing (less blowing = less raw nose) Well before reading the full instructions I just tipped my head back and gave a couple squirts up each nostril. Seriously, seconds later I thought my nose was on fire. I made a big scene, it was going down my throat, I was spitting, blowing, throwing water up my nose, and begging Dan to help me. I got my netty pot and started rinsing with cold salt water trying to clean out that stupid decongestant and it was not working. Soon I was bawling like a baby because my throat and sinuses felt like they had exploded and were on fire all at the same time. It was the strangest feeling I've ever felt. Anyone else have this happen? It was horrible. Still, 2 hours later my nose and throat are burning, not as bad, but still uncomfortable.

Enough of my nasal health. I have been so busy. There were a couple days I was home for 20 minutes and then at night to sleep. Hence the absence. I was so excited to write each day about all the health challenge topics. Oh well, I do have to say I did pretty awesome except for the artificial sweetener day. I totally forgot to see what the health habit of the day was and had a sugar free hard candy and some diet pepsi at lunch. Oh yeah, and I had 2 fried mozzarella sticks at McGrath's fish house at my graduation dinner.

Oh yeah, PS I officially graduated with my master's of music this weekend. I technically graduated in December but the real celebration was yesterday.

Without turning this into a novel, I ate out 6 times this week, yes, 6. It was graduation, early mother's day, annual cousin's lunch at Los Hermanos (love my cousins, my BFF's!) friend lunch, AND Dan's birthday dinner. How in the heck did I manage to stay the exact same weight?

Let me tell you what I did. I took a 20 minute walk after each meal. I exercised 20 minutes before bed 3 nights this week, and on one of the days I stopped at a park in between lessons to do a 20 minute walk at a park.  Tonight I did my regular 30 minute exercise and then I walked for an hour after our meal. I also made a goal to not pig out at any of these events. I ordered what sounded good, I ate food that is not "on program" but I enjoyed the conversation, the company, the celebration, and of course every bite of food. I also ordered a regular soda one day to see if I drank less than if I ordered a diet drink. Guess what? I drank WAY less regular sprite than diet coke. I'm not a soda drinker but when I order a diet drink at a restaurant I seem to drink a gallon of it! Crazy.

The biggest triumph is that as the week went on, I noticed I ate less and less. The first lunch was me shoving my face full of every last bite of taco salad...and then I felt like I had a brick in my belly the whole day. The next meal I wanted to avoid that but I still overate. By the 3rd meal, I was done with feeling bloated and stuffed and just ate until I was satisfied and took the rest home. I was surprised at how appealing salads were to met on the menu. I ordered a salad at every restaurant this week except at McGraths, where I had steak and shrimp. Mmm....I just like how I feel when I avoid mass quantities of carbohydrates. I know if I eat a bunch of pasta or bread I will feel tired, bloated, and grumpy for the rest of the day.

It was so awesome to celebrate with family AND food and come home without having to unbutton my pants. People who don't overeat when they are happy and celebrating might not understand, but for me, when I am having a good time and I am not conscious of how much I am consuming, I consume WAY more than I do when I am focusing on how the food is making me feel. This is a big step for me. I hope I can continue this. It was kind of hard to figure out how much food fills me up now. It used to take a lot more food to make me full and so it took a couple tries of eating how to figure how much it takes these days. The best part is that surprisingly I didn't gain ANY weight. I still ate out tonight so who knows what tomorrow's number would be if I was weight tomorrow, but at any rate, I didn't gain this week.

Here's to another week of healthy lifestyle choices! Hopefully I'll be feeling better and having a little more time to update. Let me know how you're doing on the challenge!