Strep and Zoloft

So today’s fun news, nephew has strep. This is the son of my sister in law who is my daycare provider. Fingers crossed that David and I have antibiotics coursing through our veins, shielding us from yet another ugly infection. I don't want to be sick...AGAIN. I have friends who are coming over to visit on Monday who have had to cancel 2 times due to illness. I have a friend in San Francisco who has a 3 month old baby I’ve not seen since she was born due to my kids’ constant illness. I've canceled on her at least 5 times, I have lost count. I feel like telling people "We'll see you in May!"

The kids are home with dad for the duration of the week. He just called to tell me they woke up from their 3 hr nap (sweet!) and what should he feed them. Chicken nuggets and a banana was my suggestion.

The husband and I talked about a lot of things last night; moving to Sacramento (something we had considered for the last 2 years, but then he got this job), moving back to the old house, etc. Given the current depressed job market in the Sacramento area, I’m not sure how realistic this option is, but I think it might make more sense for me to look for a job as I am probably more marketable than him and might be able to find something quicker (my college degree/long job history in real estate industry/administrative background vs. his years as an independent contractor in sales blah blah blah), then hope he can find a job in the area so that I can stay home eventually. Obviously, lots of options are on the table and we're looking at all possibilities.

We could have our house on the market in a few weeks. It's super cute now that we fixed it all up, but we'd probably have to do a few more things if selling it. I'm not sure how much we'd get for it, but probably more than enough to buy a decent house in Sacramento. Just need a job there, so if we're going to go that route, I have to actively start looking.

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I started the day completely gung ho to attend a Weight Watchers meeting and sign up. I have put this off so many times, I did not want to let the latest developments keep from moving forward with my plans for 2009.

Well, then I forgot to go to the meeting this afternoon. So much for focus!! Truth be told, with the cutbacks at work, I am actually busy for the first time in a long time and it completely slipped my mind. I am going to try and go tomorrow…

I’m really starting to feel better physically as I near the end of the weaning process from Zoloft. I’ve gone for walks 2 times this week with plans on more working out Friday and over the weekend. My goal for the week was to workout 3 times and I think I’ll reach it.

There were many contributing factors to my weight gain - lack of exercise & sleep, constant illness, major stress and eating bags of potato chips in one sitting being the primary ones – but Zoloft played a huge part in the perfect storm. I didn’t even realize what was happening while it was happening. It sounds weird, but I think it affected the pleasure center in my brain, turning it into overdrive, making me throw caution to the wind and allowing all my addictions and impulsive behaviors to take over, food being the primary one with shopping a close second.

When I think back, after I had pneumonia and was placed on Zoloft by the pulmonologist, it was then that my will power started to go off the rails. Don’t get me wrong, Zoloft saved my life, emotionally, but I'm so glad to be off of it. I was living in a brain fog, but given that I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown at the time, that was probably a good thing. I don’t think I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown anymore. At least not today. Tomorrow? We’ll have to see.