For the past three weeks, we have been hooked on this game, and this song has become one of our favorites from the playlist:
Since I started with my current account a year ago, I’ve only taken advantage of the availability of Xbox 360s on the floor a few times. I tried Halo, but that isn’t really for me. I just couldn’t shoot that well. I tried Viva Piñata too. I liked it, but didn’t get to play too much because our agents would rather borrow other games (like UFC). Then there was Guitar Hero. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. It was like the day would not be complete without us borrowing the console, setting it up in our bay, and then playing a few songs.
I’m still at Medium level. Wondering when I’ll finally get up a notch to Hard.
I love the melody of Mr. Brightside, and another The Killers song too – Human. Here’s the band’s video (which is way better than the recorded one of a player playing the song on Guitar Hero World Tour):
I’ve never thought of owning another gaming console since we last owned a Play Station (the first edition, the gray one) years ago. But having games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band make me just want to own one again!
Alfred’s friend gave him his old Play Station 2, it’s the fat one and needs to be serviced. We’ll take it to Greenhills one of these days and see if it still can be repaired. I’m sure though that we won’t be spending on a GH or RockBand. We just don’t have that money lying around. There are cheaper alternatives though, I wonder if they’re any good?
On a totally unrelated note… Have you seen the 2010 Starbucks Planner? Have you seen their new cakes and breads just in time for Christmas? I plan to have a separate post about this but I just had to say – this season is killing my weight loss dream! As in! I am supposed to stay away from all the sugar in the coffee, and from the cakes. But I’ve been to Starbucks two days in a row! Talk about sabotaging my own plan.
I might just have to follow the boyfriend’s suggestion: take a weight loss diet pill! No no no! Not just yet.
We’re now entering the fourth week of our own edition of The Biggest Loser at work.
It started out with 10 contenders. We’re down to eight. By the end of this week (Week 5), we’ll be cutting off two more.
I’m afraid that I might actually be one of the two. Haha. I didn’t weigh in at all last week, which isn’t such a big deal because it was a non-elimination week anyway, but that meant I also had no idea of whether I lost additional weight, or gained back the three pounds I lost previously.
Which wouldn’t be much of a surprise really. After all, I have not done any exercise, no additional mobility. I have been eating less, and a little more healthy too. For example, I’ve taken to bringing lunch to work on some days. It’s either greens, or sandwiches. And I’m talking about salmon and tuna spread with lettuce, pickle relish and cheese, on wheat bread. If I take my free lunch at the office pantry, I ask for only a fourth of the normal rice serving. Then go for vegetables and the fish or chicken viand available. Or at least I try to.
I also didn’t visit Marie at all this week. I was feeling quite cold kasi, and didn’t feel like subjecting my body to even colder temperatures. But tomorrow, I might go.
Something that might actually help me lose weight though, is that my bowel movement seems to have some regularity to it now. As soon as I get home from work, my body somehow recognizes the scent of home and is ready to go. Haha. But seriously, that’s probably a sign that my metabolism is finally gaining some momentum. Gone are the days when I think it’s normal to let a day go by without doing number 2 in the toilet. Okay, sorry if I’ve grossed you out right there…
Going back to The Biggest Loser…
I think I mentioned here before how this was something we started at work after I had challenged one of my agents who was overweight just like me. He’s a guy and was one of the first to go. In fairness to him, he did lose a significant amount of weight on the first week, and I also saw how disciplined he was in what he ate. We had pizza at work twice that week, and he did not eat any. He was with us, but he took no bite of it. The problem was when he had gone out of town with his wife’s family, and he couldn’t say no to the food. He came back and was back at his starting weight.
I feel bad though, because as the brains behind this mini contest, I could have taken a more pro-active stance in encouraging everyone on their path to wellness. I guess it’s not yet too late, and I could still do that e-zine I thought I’d put up for everyone. So tomorrow, I’ll interview the biggest loser from the first elimination round so he can tell everyone how he lost the ten pounds in two weeks.
Then I also must rethink what else I can do to further my weight loss. Otherwise, I might just have to turn to more drastic and invasive means to lose all this fat in my body. Weight loss surgery Mexico style, or lapband or bariatric surgery might be my only options! Yikes.
Today, I visited a place I haven’t been to in a year and a half.
Back in December of 2007, my parents paid for a passive slimming program for me at Marie France. That’s big money too. Money that wasn’t just laying around. But I didn’t stick to the program for long, despite my good intentions. PCOS became my excuse, and then work came in the way too.
Yesterday, just as I was already really planning to go back, I received a text message from my new MF consultant, following up on my next visit. I decided to go ahead and visit them after work this morning.
She told me about another program that will really help speed things up for my weight loss. She gave me a ten-minute trial too, before my wrap treatment. I love it. It’s like getting a rigorous massage. I could just imagine how it would feel when done all over your body. It’s supposed to wake up all of your fats, loosen them up and make it easier to melt them away. When combined with the cold wrap, it hastens the weight loss.
The thing is, even with the 20% discount, I just cannot afford it. And I doubt if my parents will pay it for me this time around. I can’t blame them, after all, it has taken me almost two years for the first program.
So, dear Marie France, won’t you take pity on me and give me the program for free? I will forever mention you in my blogs and promote your services to every obese and overweight person I meet. Haha 🙂
Or, can someone tell me how I can raise 1500 US dollars to pay for the additional treatments? Better yet, if you can just send it over to me, I would be eternally grateful! Insert laughter 🙂
I am tempted though, to find out if there any products being sold in the market that will allow me to have cold wrap treatments at home. I am prone to believe that nothing else but the cold temperature of the wrap makes that treatment special. The cold allows your body to work overtime to counter the temperature and generate body heat. And it burns fat to do that.
As for this new treatment I tried today? I think getting a full body massage daily would be cheaper. I just have to specify to the masseuse that I need it to be hard, and I need her to pour all efforts where the fat concentration on my body is.
Why am I thinking of all these? I need a lot of help to lose weight. I am determined to win the pot for our fun biggest loser challenge. But I’m too lazy to actually do a lot of workout. Haha 🙂
I dug through my archives and found this photo, taken February 8 and 9 of 2008, which mark my last visits to MF:
In the past four weeks I have been a regular at the St. Luke’s Medical Center to finally get to the bottom of the severe headaches that I’d been having. I’ve lived with headaches for a long time. A year and a half ago, they got sooooo bad my parents advised me to go to the ER and have it checked. All I got from that trip was a prescription for Arcoxia, which for awhile I always carried a pill or two with me – just in case.
A friend at work commented that Arcoxia has some side effects, so I decided to stop taking them for my severe headaches. Our company doctor prescribed Celecoxib. Because it was just like Arcoxia to me, I didn’t pick up the habit of storing Celecoxib. Instead I’d just pop an Advil or Biogesic as soon as I feel a headache coming on (which is useless to me when the headache is already there when I wake up).
So anyway, because the frequency of the headaches have increased, I decided to go ahead and consult a doctor after an episode that lasted more than a day.
The Medicard physician referred me to a neurologist and also ordered blood work to be done.
The blood work which included a glucose test and a test to check on my cholesterol levels, among others, proved to be negative for anything that may be causing the migraine. I was healthy, not borderline diabetic, normal cholesterol levels (thank God!). The neuro ordered a neck xray and prescribed meds. When I came back the next week and reported that I was still having headaches, he ordered a brain scan.
So in the middle of our cleanup in the aftermath of Ondoy, I had a CT scan done. I had never been hospitalized in my life and I have never had an IV drip. But I’ve had two in the past two weeks. The contrast for the CT scan is injected through an IV tap. Ugh, that scared me more than either of the two scans. Anyway, I went back to see the doc with the results of the CT scan, and the recommendation was to have an MRI done to take a closer look on the soft tissue that was found where it wasn’t supposed to be. Did this scare me? The doctor didn’t give me any reason to be scared or worried. But what he wrote on my medical certificate and the recommendation for MRI was what got the boyfriend really worried. It was also because of those that I didn’t say anything about it to my mom, nor did I blog about it. To consider thalamic tumor, or something like that, he wrote. While he was writing this he told me – I’ll just indicate this so Medicard will approve the MRI. Don’t worry, sana negative. – Not very comforting. Haha.
A few days later I went to have the MRI done. I am not claustrophobic but I nearly freaked out for having to be in there for so long. I had something over my head to keep me still. The exam table (or whatever it’s called) was less comfortable than what they use at the CT scan section. They piped in music through a headset they provided but that did not help keep the noise of the machine out of my head. It was making uncomfortable noise! And I couldn’t make myself open my eyes, I was too scared. I felt that I might panic even more if I did. The first stretch was about 45 minutes or so. Then they took me out and inserted an IV tap (it was faster this time around) and injected in contrast fluid. Then I was back in for another 20 minutes or so. All in all the procedure took over an hour.
I do not wish anyone else to experience having an MRI unless absolutely necessary. It’s just not a wonderful experience.
The staff of the two units at the SLMC were all wonderful though – and I’d like to thank each and every one of them.
I went back to the hospital yesterday. I peeked at the MRI results and it all looked normal except for one line. The doctor checked it out, asked me questions, and then was all too happy to say that the MRI result was definitely good news. He mentioned that the CT scan results just gave us more headaches, but the MRI shows no sign of the mass of soft tissue. With all that had to be done, at least we are sure that I have nothing in my brain to worry about. 🙂 Thank God I didn’t have to pay for any of those scans!
I am to continue my medication for the next two months though. I’m not expected to have any severe headaches while I’m on it. I have had few headaches since I started taking it, but none that were unbearable or head-splitting. The doctor did tell me though that the medicine (valproic acid) is known to cause weight gain. Oh no, I do not need another reason to gain weight. He said that there’s a similar drug that causes weight loss, but his patients have been reporting side effects like feeling a creeping sensation on their limbs. Haha, nah, I don’t want that. Let’s just hope then that I’d have the discipline to work on not gaining any more weight.
So according to doc, it’s really just migraine and nothing else. I’m right back where I started, I guess.
More and more, I find that the photos I take throughout the week become prompts for my blog posts. I think that’s awesome 🙂
Yesterday found me back at the hospital for the neck xray. While awaiting my turn, the boyfriend was wrapped up on the PSP, while I was so fascinated by the bright red fire alarm box at St. Luke’s X-Ray section.
It was a stark contrast to the recently painted white walls. Certainly, I didn’t notice this fire box when I had a nasal xray back in April. Hmm, so that means I’ve had three different types of xrays done to me in the past six months. Chest, nasal and then the neck yesterday. Interesting. I never saw the plates for the previous ones but yesterday I peeked in at the radiologist’s screen in his private enclave to get a quick glimpse of my neck. Haha 🙂
So I haven’t gone back for the results. No rush since my next appointment with the neuro is on Friday. We did swing by the Pathology Department to get the blood work results.
So what’s the verdict? I’m not sure.
I think my fasting blood sugar is within normal range, but the results for the first and second hours of the OGTT are definitely above that level. What it means exactly, I am yet unsure. I will visit the physician within the week. Another obvious result is that uric acid is high, and maybe cholesterol too.
If all those is not enough to convince me to shape up or die, I don’t know what will. Still, it’s so darn difficult to convince yourself to exercise when it can really be so tiring. Haha! 🙂
Time to jump on the stationary bike, or maybe even the ellipticals. Also time to consider bringing comfortable walking clothes to work with me so it wouldn’t be so uncomfortable walking home. And yes, time to say hello to my old friend Marie France.
