The Saturday 7

I don't think I have that much to report this week.

1. My whole family came down with colds this week. Today, I added a migraine to the mix and have been absolutely miserable all day. Levi has started coughing so violently that he makes himself puke, so that's fun. I decided to see how long my kids would watch TV if I didn't stop them. They started at 7 a.m., and so far they haven't stopped. #momoftheyear #migraineparenting (Justin had an all-day tournament today, so I was single parenting. Not very well.) Fortunately, we're getting our sickness out of the way the week before the wedding. With Covid everywhere, it's frowned upon to be hacking our guts out in public places. (Puking at weddings is also probably a faux pas. Hopefully Levi will be over his cough by next Saturday!)

2. Keto is going miserably, as expected. I seriously question the sanity of people who do this as a lifestyle choice. Haha. I understand that many people with health problems derive major benefits from cutting out carbs and sugar, but it is so incredibly limiting. I've still only lost 7 pounds, and it's definitely not worth it. But at this point, I have one week to go and I'm trying really hard not to sabotage myself by quitting in the last week. I honestly have to talk myself out of it every 15 seconds. This is the week that matters the most. 7 days 'til I squeeze myself into a dress for the wedding. I spent all day Wednesday trying on dresses, which reminded me why I need to keep dieting. Apparently I should've given myself more than a month to lose my belly.

3. Honestly, I do think today for the first time that my belly looks smaller than usual. It's just frustrating to be making such drastic changes and seeing so few results. The way I've been eating this week is straight up unhealthy. I have been legitimately starving myself. Whenever my stomach growls I tell it, "Sorry. We don't eat anymore." I've been staying around 1000 calories a day and less than 18 grams of net carbs. I always feel light headed and weak. My muscles hurt. But dangit, I said I was going to do it for 4 weeks and I'm going to do it! I'm just so sick of meat and eggs and cheese, that I don't really even want to eat for the next week. #woeisme 

4. Tomorrow is my birthday and I don't even care. I've come to realize that my favorite thing about birthdays is taking the week off of cooking, going out to eat for every meal, and gorging myself on Dr Pepper and french fries and sugar. Without those joys to look forward to, it's just another day - especially since we're not even getting together with my family since we're a bunch of sickies and everyone needs to stay healthy for the wedding! I've been thinking about cheating and at least having a donut tomorrow. What's a birthday without donuts?

5. My college classes are going well. 3 of them are easy. The history class is proving difficult, but I expected that. It's a lot of reading and watching of gruesome videos, but there are no assignments. He keeps referring to an exam, but just keeps assigning more chapters to read and no tests. I'm getting real nervous that there's going to be a huge comprehensive exam coming up over the 140 pages of textbook material I've read in the past three weeks. Not to mention the videos. I'm trying to take thorough notes, but I'm going to be wading through material to answer the exam questions. At least it's open book. This week, I read horrible stories from the African slave trade and Salem witch trials. It makes me very thankful that I was born white in 20th century America. 

6. Reading huge swaths of history at a time is also great for perspective. Really, the U.S. has only been a nation for 250 years. That's chump change in the grand scheme of history. It's fascinating and terrifying to have entire countries and cultures reduced to a couple of sentences in my history book. "The Mayan people were highly intelligent, developing extensive irrigation systems, temples, and social classes, but after 2,000 years, they were overtaken by the Aztecs." That's a made up paraphrase, and probably not even accurate, but you get the gist. What will history books 2,000 years from now say about America? "They were a people driven by the American dream - that anyone can achieve wealth and prosperity by hard work and ingenuity. Built on religious ideals, their faith soon fizzled and they became a pagan nation, conquered by the Chinese a mere 300 years after developing their empire." Hopefully I'm not here to see it.

7. I didn't take very many pictures this week. 

I attempted to get my hair cut on Wednesday, so I took this "before" pic, but everywhere I went was completely booked. Maybe next week.

Goodwill treasures

I joined my kids in rotting our brains today, drooling over 3 back to back episodes of the Great British Baking show. I don't even need dessert at this point. I'd settle for bread!