Recovering from Hardee's; my back!; and hormones

Quick note: the previous post finally published this morning! Yee-HAW. Now, you can all pretend that you were able to read it last night, when I wrote it ;P

My diet is going okay. DietPower is giving me more calories than I feel I deserve...but I haven't been exercising much, so maybe DietPower thinks it has to allow for my total caloric intake (if I were exercising, the exercise would earn me some extra calories, leaving DietPower free to lower my allowance to balance). At any rate, on Sunday night we had Hardee's for dinner, which miraculously fit into my calorie limit...but Monday morning when I checked my weight I was a pound heavier ;_; So I tried to be better yesterday, and that, according to this morning's measuring, brought my weight back down to the "lost 6 pounds" point I was at previously.

My "projected weight" in DietPower keeps going down, which is a good sign that I'm on the right track...right now it's still well over my goal weight, but as time passes and DietPower gets accustomed to my eating habits it should be able to make a more accurate prediction. And, hopefully, if I do my part, I will be at my goal weight by this time next year!

I'm not actually sure if my goal weight is the correct weight for me or not. When I was 10-20 pounds heavier than my goal weight, back in the teenage years, I thought I was fat. Looking at old pictures now, I don't think that was the case at all. After my hospital stay in 1997-98, AJ hugged me, and then said, "You're thin." Due to chemo-induced vomiting and lack of appetite, I'd shrunk down to about 10-15 pounds over my goal weight. (I gained a lot back as I started regaining my health, though.) When I did Atkins in 1999-2000, I got down to approximately 25 pounds over my goal weight, and that seemed to be fine; I looked pretty good, if pictures are to be believed.

So when I get around that point, maybe I'll be better able to judge. I do know that I'm not interested in being a stick figure. I'd like to stay soft and curvy rather than angular and bony--and if I can keep my breasts, that would be a big plus :> (I know someone who lost a lot of weight due to bellydance, and her breasts seem to have stayed the same size--whoopie!)

I strained my back yesterday at work. Robert finally caved in and rented another office. We got some furniture and other items from a recently-closed bakery, and everything was just sort of thrown into the new room. I rearranged the furniture, then, with the help of my coworkers, moved stuff off the old, rickety metal shelving we were using and into the spacious closet in the new office. We ended up keeping one set of shelves and putting it in the closet, but Don can have the other set back.

We moved a lot of stuff, including an industrial paper cutter that has been the bane of my existence ever since Robert brought it to the office and left it in the middle of the floor. (I wrestled it into the printer table later that same day, and there it has stayed since, unused due to a rusted blade. It was a complete waste of space. But hey--it was free!) Wanda and I carried the thing carefully into the new office and put it on the extra desk.

There are three desks in there: a large executive style desk, which will be Robert's; a slightly smaller standard desk with drawers; and a tiny little workstation-style desk. None of them have hutches, so there's ample workspace. Robert's desk was arranged towards the rear of the office, facing the door. As this was a good place for it, I only made a minor adjustment, then pivoted the desk with drawers into parallel along the front wall of the room--rather reminiscent of how Robert and my desks were in the original office, back before we got all the extra stuff. The little workstation matches Robert's desk, and it actually shoves up underneath the lip of the executive nicely, so I put it there, towards the wall. It serves as extra workspace for Robert, the person who'll sit at the front desk, or both.

We also got a new (to us) file cabinet, which fits perfectly behind the closet door. From Robert's desk, looking towards the office door, the closet is to the right. The door swings open towards the back wall of the office. I was able to slip the file cabinet in between the closet and the back wall. You can't see the filing cabinet from the office door when the closet is open.

Organizing all the stuff from the shelves was a chore, but Tammy, Wanda, Audrey and I got it done. Tammy also did something that may get her into trouble--she went through Robert's stuff and actually threw some things away. I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole.

The rest of his things--the stuff that was scattered all over the floor, anyway--were dragged into the new office and piled behind his desk. The stuff inside and on top of his current desk was left there, so he'll be able to work when he gets back (we're not sure if the Internet is activated in the new office yet).

Oh, did I mention that Robert is out of town until Tuesday? Because really, this sort of crazy office arranging never gets done when he's around. He always finds something else for everyone to do ;D

I wonder what his reaction will be...

So there was a lot of shoving furniture around and heavy lifting, and later on last night I realized my back was in a world of hurt ;P It's feeling a bit better this morning after a nice hot shower, which is good.

I got up at 5 instead of 6 today, and wouldn't you know, I feel so relaxed. I should definitely resume my old schedule.

In more health news, I started taking estrogen and progesterone yesterday. I'll be taking the estrogen continually, and the progesterone for 10 days. After 10 days, when I stop the progesterone, I should have a period. This is "hormone therapy".

I'll go through six menstrual cycles--six months of therapy--to see if my body will start ovulating on its own. The therapy is like a kickstart to the ovaries. If I have any irregular bleeding during the six months, that could mean I've already started doing things on my own, at which point I'll tell the doctor and probably stop hormones. If, after the six months, I don't continue having regular periods, we'll do another six months of therapy. So we're looking at what could be as short as a few months to as long as a year and a half before we really know anything.

There is a marginal, slight, virtually nonexistent chance of getting pregnant while on hormone therapy. I wish the doctor hadn't told me that :>