Only 16 days... I lost count...YIKES!!!

I guess that I lost count somewhere along the way during our travels. Two weeks from tonight I'll be having supper with my friend Teresa and some wonderful stitchers who love our cross stitch designs. (My kids still think that it is hilarious for Mommy to have fans!) 16 days from tonight, I'll be up on stage painted green...Yikes!!

It felt awesome to get back to the gym today and my whole upper body can vouch for the fact that it was a great workout. I truly love weightlifting in a way that I never took to team sports. Perhaps it is the loner in me who remembers what it was like to always be the last kid picked for teams. Perhaps it is because I am Type A enough to love seeing if I can match or improve on what weights I did the last time. Perhaps I am also narcissistic enough to love watching the evidence of my body being sculpted by my own efforts in the mirrors as I work out. For whatever reason, this has been a real adventure and certainly not something I intend to abandon completely once this is done.

I also discovered the hard way that I am allergic to something that is in the protein powder mixes. At first, I thought it was only a reaction to the whey powder in the newer supplements that I'd bought. I had a rather severe reaction in Charlotte to a protein smoothie I bought at a cafe to the point where it became tricky to breathe. (Kind of like Nick does with chocolate!) Thursday morning, I had a protein bar that I bought from the New Balance tent sale which produced a similar but milder reaction, so I was pretty positive that it must be the whey. Today, when it came time for our smoothie snack, I was careful to use the soy powder supplement... but again the same throat tightening that is definitely NOT cool. I wonder if it is actually one of the amino acids that I am allergic to? I shall certainly check it out with my family doctor soon, but it looks as if it will be more protein from natural sources like meat and nuts... Sigh! I can still make the protein shakes with the frozen fruit, yogourt and skim milk, but they are a bit harder to justify without that protein boost.

Isn't it also funny how hard we can be on ourselves. I have been so positive about how things are shaping up for this crazy dream and then tonight, after the workout and a healthy supper, I found myself thinking how much further along I had hoped to be. Being in the USA for 10 days away from a kitchen where I could cook my own meals certainly made it harder to stay on track, and yet I absolutely refuse to do anything weird chemically to lose extra water etc. I can still remember the death of one male bodybuilder about 15 - 18 years ago. He'd taken lots of diarrhetics to try to lean out before a competition and his kidneys shut down completely so that he died very suddenly. I am willing to limit myself on some things for the sake of this dream, but not to put myself at risk. After all, once this is over, I have to start planning for 50!