Home Again

Thanks for the comments Caroline and Bunny-I frankly had decided that no one really read the blog so had shifted my traveling related posts over to facebook (It is full of family, friends and colleagues from work so I do not talk diet there at all).

So Germany and even Dresden turned out to be beautiful and history rich cities (even if most of Dresden was a rebuild). I do not yet understand why Dresden specifically was targeted by the UK in the war but looking at the pictures i got in a book that showed photos after the war and after the rebuild were quite something. I walked at least three miles a day. We were with a woman who had just had back surgery so there were taxis called frequently to go to dinner or back and forth form the conference but I chose to walk to wherever we were going and took random walks around town everyday.

We took two day trips from town. On Monday there was a stern wheeler ride up to a fortress/castle 20 minutes by train up the river but 4 hours by boat :) Then on Tuesday three of us took the train to Prague for a schlep around town to see what was there. Both of these areas were beautiful and I have a few pictures (still in the camera). My camera battery chose to die early on in the Prague trip so I think I only have two pictures from that day. I will of course get them on here eventually!!

All of the walking kicked in my weight loss again. I got on a scale the night before we left Germany and I had maintained my weight but at the time my ankles were blown up like a pair of balloons so I figured that once i got home I would show a loss and I was correct. I have lost a pound and expect to lose another tomorrow (fingers crossed).

The day after I got home we packed up the car and drove up to Seattle for a Paulo Martini concert that I had stupidly agreed to before I left. By the time I took a nap and woke up again to go to the late night concert I felt positively ill with jet lag. The concert was good but all I could focus on was how tired i was!

Then on Monday I had to go down to work and catch up on everything that was left neglected while I was away in Germany. There is one benefit to having jet lag. I wake up in the wee hours of the morning when no one else is and am getting plenty of quiet time to get stuff done uninterrupted.

Another development is that while I was gone David has apparently sold the house! A real estate agent called, came over to show it to a large family and they are apparently in love with the place. I am torn as I would like to have all of the home fix it over with but I also would like to continue to enjoy my nice new kitchen and wood floors! The agent is coming over with an offer tonight. Unless the offer is appallingly low we will take it and move into an apartment while we look for just the right piece of property to build on (if such a place exists).

Bunny-I usually try to have one protein shake per day (although I get lazy and do not always). I drink vanilla whey protein powder (all of the others including nasty old slimfast taste horrible to me). I mix one scoop of the whey powder with about 1 cup of milk and a handful of frozen fruit in the blender. It gives me almost two cups of an ice-cream like treat that allows me to get in enough grams of protein for the day. I usually have the drink in the evening because when I have tried it in the morning it does not stick with me as long as real food does. For my three meals a day I try to eat real food.

This morning I have had 1/2 a cheese sandwich with lunch meat and will probably have 1/2 a grilled cheese for lunch (although I will sometimes have a bowl chunky soup. For dinner I have 1/2 cup of whatever is cooking but avoid the pasta and potato (I periodically try these to my peril).

Oddly since I got home on Friday my stomach has gone all strange and I am having to relearn what is OK and what is not OK. I have had two stuck episodes since I got home on things that have up to now been OK as long as I eat them slowly. I am not yet sure if the problem is that I have tightened up, if I am relaxing because i am home and getting sloppy or if the food i can eat has changed.