Mama Update

Not much is going on with Dermot, so this post is about me. October 1 was roughly my one year anniversary of taking better care of myself. I was actually in a bit of funk regarding my weight at that point, so I didn't post. I had gained a couple of pounds in one week, and I just wasn't happy with things. But I have gotten over that hump. So as of this morning, I have lost 84 pounds! I have had to go from 30 minutes to 45 minutes of working out and I'm eating less. That whole deal with portion sizes really does matter. I have gone from a 3X to a L - sometimes a M. These are still plus sizes and my main goal is to get into misses clothing sizes. I would love to be able to walk into any store and find clothes, but we'll see. My wedding band also now fits on my forefinger. In fact, I can sometimes get it over my thumb. For right now I'm just happy that my health and energy has improved. I had an EKG and I've had blood tests and they are all good. Actually, none of them were bad before because of the vegan thing, but my sugar had started to rise. The sugar is actually what scared me enough to lose weight. I'm now at that place where I lose .5 to 1 pound a week, on average, and that's hard to live with when I started out at 3-5 pounds a week. Of course, a half pound a week still means 26 pounds in a year. I just need to be satisfied with any loss.

I also went to a dermatologist for the first time in my life. I have always had skin problems. I am extremely sensitive and dry. I thought it was just the Irish thing, but I think it's even beyond that. The rosacea is what got me to go to the doctor, but he's taught me a lot about skin care. I am one of those women who never did anything for my skin. Whenever I would get in a place where I wanted to take care of my skin, I would buy products that ended up hurting me. So earlier this week I went to the doctor and he told me that I have to use moisturizer every day, and that I need to be very careful about my cleanser and moisturizers. He told me to go see the skin care center they actually had in the middle of the doctors' offices. I was there for 1.5 hours. I had been hoping to wear makeup again, but when I went to MAC and I bought a bunch of makeup last January, it ended up hurting my skin. I am that sensitive. So I spent just under 200 bucks on moisturizers, cleansers, and makeup. I hope that I am not being swindled. I never know if people are making this stuff up about it being so great for your skin, or if they just think I'll be happy because it's more expensive. So far, though, so good. It's not irritating my skin. The doctor also gave two more medications to add to the topical I was using because my face still hurts when my rosacea flares.

In work news, I just found out that I was granted a travel award from a professional society to which I belong. I'm at an institution with no reward structure. I understand why they have chosen that path, but it's hard to adjust to. As grad students, there are tons of opportunities for awards, recognition, and money. As a research professor or even a professor at a 4 year school, there's research money, recognition, and awards. There's very little out there for people who just teach. A lot of schools have students vote for their favorite teachers, but we have an all for one, one for all philosophy at my school. So, anyway, I am very excited about this award. I am not going anywhere fancy (Tarrytown, NY), but it's a conference that is entirely about teaching psychology. It should be a great place to meet other local psych professors. Hopefully I can also pick up some new tricks. This is also great for me professionally since I am still trying to get tenured. It will look nice on my resume.

Finally, a little bit of Dermot news. He's just the funniest kid ever. This morning he was jokingly mad at his daddy and he called Ethan "penisy". I guess that was an insult in his self-made language. We just laughed and laughed.