January 13, 2007

Today is the first day of my new blog and the start of a new life style. I'll be blogging about my family, dieting, quitting smoking, making art and anything else that crosses my mind. My daughter, Heather suggested this and is designing my site.

To begin with I'll know I'll be talking alot about dieting and quitting smoking because right now I'm just beginning the life style change (and that's what it's got to be). Let's start two weeks ago.........I began the Atkins diet weighing 235 and stuck to it faithfully for one week in which I lost 9 pounds. Then my daughter Heather, who's four months pregnant and lives in Oklahoma, had to have an emergency appendectomy Thursday, the 4th and the next day her husband Fletcher's father died of a heart attack. Russ, my husband, had to drive 14 hours to pick them up and bring them home to Georgia for the funeral and to recuperate. Needless to say, last week I didn't stick to the plan, but I'm beginning again today, except for Heather's leftover Oreo Blizzard which I polished off this morning. I only regained 4 of the 9 pounds last week so that is good and I begin again today weighting 230.

Today I also began taking Chantix(varenicline), a drug prescribed by my doctor to help me quit smoking, a major life style change (I'm a real addict!) I've only taken one dose but it seems to be working as I don't have any cravings, but I do have an incredibly bad thirst and my mouth drys out if I don't keep drinking something. I'll try to drink more water as I usually drink tea sweetened with Slenda.

I really enjoyed the week with Heather, Fletcher and Keanu (age 2) in spite of the unfortunate reasons for them being here. I miss them so much! They are hoping to move closer to home soon, so I'm hoping it'll be close enough for me to drive myself and not have to depend on Russ. I can't drive long distances because I have sleep apnea which causes me to fall asleep at the wheel. This is something else I hope to change with weight loss.

I'm somewhat of and artist and I'm hoping to include some of my artwork on the blog site. Most of it will probably be portraits of my precious grandson, Keanu, affectionately know as Pnut.