Where do you measure your parts to see if you are fat? Yep...I googled that.

Aww another week in paradise! Thanks to my friend Sherry I have been inspired to document my impending weight loss regiment. I like my body, I am pretty happy with my size but with (hopefully) a pregnancy on the way I have decided to lose some weight. I hope a deficit can help me take a hit of a 40 lb weight gain if that's what it comes to.

I am starting at 148lbs. I am comfortably a size 10 with room but regularly fit my large ass into a size 8 just so I feel like I have only gained 3 lbs since I met Cyning. I have in fact gained 14 lbs and lost 4 so I am a whole 10 lbs heavier than the day he met me. Not good.

I went to a weight watchers meeting with a friend to see if that would be a good route of fat reduction for me. It is not going to work for 2 reasons:
Reason: 1) I have social anxiety which makes it virtually impossible for me to act normal in front of strangers (don't get me wrong this has it's benefits - I am the life of the party at any bar or kegger. I am unable to lower my voice for hours and I have a perpetual need to sing Karoke, even sober)
Reason: 2) I also have major issues with eating junk food to get healthy. I don't want to live on quadruple processed "Goo" you call a breakfast bar so I can feel like I am not missing out on junk food. Yuck!

I have started a journal to keep me motivated and on track.

I have decided to use a combonation of tools:

Sparkpeople.com to count calories

USDA food pyramid to remember what the hell I am supposed to be eating per day

shapefit.com to check BMI

My journal

Photos that inspire me

The Zone principles of 40-30-30

My camera and tripod to visually keep track of how things are going

e.g:

So here's the scoop:

10 weeks

20lbs

Weekly blog updates

Here we go...Come on success I can taste you!

The shanking in Mexico: part deux

As we entered Mexico the veil of cushy USA dropped with the first tank full of 3 soldiers with weapons aimed right at us (the first of many I might add) just on the other side of the border. I am not sure if we felt more safe or more in danger. At 80 mph we sailed into the heart of a very impoverished town called Rio Bravo. Cyning was in shock and awe when he saw shanty town after shanty town leading the way to the hospital.

I admit I was having a few second thoughts. The pollution was amazing, even the staunchest conservative would have been crying out for the tree hugging hippy environmentalists to do something. As we pulled up to the hospital it seemed like the preverbal palm tree and pond in the desert.

I could hear the sound of angels singing it's praises. I believe Cyning felt the same way. We walked into the reception area. Clean, comfortable, well decorated, greeted by smiling faces. Maybe we won't die after all.  Not to be pessimistic but the euphoria I was feeling could have easily been the joy of simply getting out of the minivan from hell. By getting out I mean Armin running around to open the door as it doesn't open from the inside.

Once safe inside Armin showed us to our room. Again we were pleasantly surprised by the quaintness. Armin scuttled off only to return with our hospital paper work (all in Spanish of course) so he could review it with us. We decided it would be best to at least have a translator or at the very least a medical professional review the paper work with us. Armin was offended, I could tell. I didn't care in the least. In walked the round and smiling face of our hero Dr. Levi.

Dr. Levi got right down to business. They had a cancellation for the surgery before me so he wanted to get mine done early. 

The head nurse a lovely woman with very long, very gold sparkly nails came in to assist a new young nurse in placing my IV. After a ten minute try and eventually landing it directly into my ligament (yeah it's even more painful than it sounds) I had to cry uncle. 

Side note: As a one time phlebotomist I know the importance of feeling calm and confident when you stick. But my goodness every one has a breaking point. Mine is a 20gauge needle buried deep into my ligament.

I have been less sweaty after running a 5K. I thought I was going to pass out and throw up all at once. Dr. Levi took over and patiently showed the young girl just what to do. After the IV was in he immediately ordered extra sedative. Good call Doc.

The next thing I remember is being wheeled into the operating room.

Cyning, all decked out in scrubs, came in to support me. Even with one of the worst flu's of his life with a  raging fever. What a  guy.

2 1/2 hours (and a lot of sedative) later they had me all fixed up and ready to go.

We were treated like royalty humans family. Very unlike the US medical system.

22 hours later our feet were firmly planted on US soil and on the road to recovery. We look forward to many little Meadowcrofts to carry on our political, society antagonizing mischief. 

And the world said a little prayer for Laramie County School District #1, They thought all our kids were done and gone. Muhahaahaha.

Why I am so weird......

I have a very different outlook on priorities and how relationships work. I grew up in and out of foster care and "Group Homes". Everyone always tells me "You are a survivor."  What that translates as in English: "You are weird, I don't understand you at all and I am seriously afraid you might cut me so I am giving you the closest thing to a compliment I can muster because after all you are several levels below me on the class system."
I didn't want to spend my childhood surviving. I wanted to thrive. I wanted to be one of the people that made those types of un-compliments.
Do you ever remember the feeling of being separated from your parents in a store when you were little? The fear. The panic. Will they ever find you? Will someone hurt you? Are they looking for you? Suddenly the temperature gets about 50 degrees colder and you can't stop shaking.
When you live in foster care you carry this feeling with you forever. It may not be as strong as time goes on but it is always there lurking in your psyche just waiting to influence your daily affairs to alert everyone that you are not quite the same as them. You a have a weirdness that can not be explained and makes them nervous.

The story of how I was shanked in Mexico part 1

Verb/shanked 1. prison slang for getting stabbed with a home made knife repeadedly and swiftly (e.g) "you better gimmie dat cornbread son, or you finna get shanked!" said inmate dontrelle to his cellmate About 12 years ago I was told by a half ass doctor that because I was having heart problems I should not have anymore children. This will ensure that I will not have any more heart trouble and will avoid any surgery. Great! I had my tubes tied. I didn't mind because I was single and had no prospects. In 2004 I had full open heart surgery. Thanks for the advice doc. Therefore I had my tubes tied for nothing. This past winter break I decided to have them untied. Naturally, because I can't do anything without adding adventure and danger, I choose to have this done in a border town in Mexico. The town I choose recently had 13 people massacred and the Mayor executed in town square. Why not? We drove from Wyoming to McAllen, Texas and hitched a ride with "Armin" the shuttle driver. He picked us at the airport spoke little to no English and through hand gestures and grunting informed us that the door of the dilapidated mini-van was non-functional unless someone opens and closes it from the out side. There goes our escape route. Armin pulled into a gas station and asked for $125 cash, this was $5 more than we originally agreed on. Oh well we were trapped at that point. Instead of filling up with gas he started kicking the tires and testing the tire pressure then filled the back tire up. In unison we said, "We are going to die". At a rate of 80 mph we headed into Mexico!

Hysterosalpingogram's and other things I don't want to have happen to my crotch.

Noun

1.

hysterosalpingogram - X ray of the uterus and Fallopian tubes; usually done in diagnosing infertility (to see if there any blockages)

Cost: Somewhere between $1000 to $2500

Pain from 1-10: I hear it should be about a 7

To do the procedure or not do the procedure that is the question. 

I am faced with a crossroads of sorts. I have spent several thousands of dollars to have a tubal ligation reversed should I spend more to make sure it worked?