Why I Should Adopt Monday Bags

I re-learn constantly the consequences of the old adage "fail to plan; plan to fail" Lapband Gal has a great strategy and I assume a refrigerator. I have no strategy and snack machines.

It is Monday. I teach from 3-5:30 and 6:30-9. Normally I am good having lunch and a coffee on my drive in. When my tummy is wide open with a case of the hormones I want dinner and I want it bad. My community college offerings at this time of the night come in machine form. My choice this evening was:




Not good. Well...let me rephrase that. They were good..but that is not good. Oh did I also tell you how bad it is to carry cash? I really should not do that.

:) xxxooo

House House House

No pics yet but we were productive this weekend. We finished moving almost all of the stuff from our old place to this new one (except for a few things in the garage, charity shop run stuff and Kids to claim furniture items. We cleaned a little. David is going to broadcast the house availability for rent on his inter-company list serve tomorrow. Hopefully we can get someone who wants it for Feb and we can get out from under the lease.

Friday was a lovely day off for me, Grant stayed over as he was sick and daycare wouldn't let him come play :). He did have a fever and I guess I gave him the sickness not the other way around as first thought. After our morning relaxation coffee break (Grant played Angry birds, Grace surfed the web and so did I) We took our lunch on the road and took Grant home. Grace and I then went to visit my uncle at the rehab center. He was in physical therapy and we got to talk to him while he cycled on a stationary bike for 17 minutes and then walked across the room. He is really making progress. Friday night David and I sat in our new ugly but comfy chairs and watched a little TV. All three of us watched an episode of Midsomer Murders as Grae and I are working our way through the whole series. Then Grace went off to bed and David and I watched Kingdom (he and I are working our way through that series). Both are quite good.

On Saturday I went with Cinda and her boyfriend's mother to a Cabi party and brunch at a winery. We wine tasted, and looked at lovely clothes that I could actually try on and fit into. Ah I remember another time in my life when this would have struck plain old terror in me. I tried on Smalls, mediums and larges and the only item that I could not get on was a size 4 pair of lemon colored skinny jeans (no surprise there). Everything else I could get on and I had the unheard of dilemma of what to buy and what not to buy and what did I actually love and what did I know I could get cheaply elsewhere. In the end I purchased: a blue to orange tunic that Cinda and I both liked


and

a plum colored sweater that made everyone (including me) look skinny.

I then came home and helped David move the rest of our crap out of the old house and clean a bit. We then went back to Vancouver to visit my uncle (my aunt went home for the weekend and I didn't want him to be too lonely. We got there and he was asleep so we went and had steak out and then went back for a visit. Then it was home again for a protein smoothy and more Kingdom.

Today...we unpacked a couple of boxes, had morning leisure coffee. Visited with a neighbor and got to see what he had done with his very similar house to ours. We then went off to Ikea to look for some shelves to hack and potential cabinets to install for a bar. Cinda is now helping to care for a young woman who has high needs. She is wheel chair bound but a sweetie. Cinda took her on an outing with us to Ikea and we shopped with this young woman. she really liked watching Grace and all of the people in the store so I am glad we took her along. It was also nice to see Cinda take such good care of someone. We had another steak out for dinner (I am trying to up my iron via the beef although tonight was a fail on that score). We then came home did a smidge more unpacking, another episode of Midsomer and another two episodes of Kingdom while I surfed the web.

All in all...a very soothing while productive weekend.

A note on hormones: Women are screwed!! My hormones not only run my moods half the time but they obviously control my band tightness and it is a right pain in the arse. I am hungry as can be right now. A regular bottomless pit and my band is cooperating (well except for at Outback steak house where I fell for the $%$@$ bread). My weight is swinging up...I am fairly confident that I will go down again in a few days as the hormones change again and my band retightens. I would love to know if banded men have anything close to these problems or if it is just up to us women to suffer. In any case...it is not good.

xxxooo

Never At Goal-Always Learning

There is a lot of talk on the blogs this week about recommitting oneself to reach goal. Some have gone to what they feel is only partway to where they want to be and somehow feel stuck on the pathway. Others feel like they have somehow failed. Still others have gone to goal and bounced back up to a weight that is not acceptable.

I have frankly at one point or another been to each of these places. I also contend that they are all just places along our personal pathways to fitness. These places are not good or bad-just places. Places that we are working on and deciding whether we will stay at them or whether we will move on to another location. There are consequences and benefits to each of these places but not good or bad.

For example:

Destination 1-I lost weight to 260. At this weight the band slowed me down. I had pretty much given up bread but I could eat a cup or so of dinner, wait a while and eat some more. I circled around this place for a while. It was comfortable. I was four pounds lower than I had ever managed with diet alone. I felt some sense of control in that I couldn't really eat bread but I had a sense of freedom in the fact that I could eat slowly and then eat more.

At some point or another I figured out that I could stay at 260 or I could push things a bit more and lose more weight. A fill followed and some more changes in eating were required. The bread was still off the menu and I could still eat a meal but with this fill my meal size shrunk and stuck in my pouch for a longer period of time. There was no second round of a meal on this pathway. There were times it was difficult (of course I wanted more and sometimes I really missed the bread--and sometimes I ate it anyway and paid the price). The benefit was a new destination to a lower weight. The consequence was facing a bowl with food in it that I knew my stomach could not hold. Eventually this destination became more comfortable. My weight stagnated and it was time to think about new destinations, What changes would be required of me to get to them and how willing was I to cope with those changes.

This happened time and time again from destination to destination, fill to fill and change in eating to change in eating. All the way to what I thought was a destination. Goal...Sure I got to where I wanted to be. the magic weight of 164. For a while I pushed things to 162. I sacrificed more. I ate less and have fewer meals. The consequences at this place showed up too-In order to maintain my weight at 164 and keep my exercise level where it is (active lifestyle but not hardcore exercise regime) means that I couldn't eat much. Adding to this the fact that I like my sweets sometimes the nutrition level of the small amount of food that I ate was not of the healthiest composition. After all when you eat shortbread cookies for lunch one does not get in the appropriate amount of protein or vitamins and minerals in the long run.

So here I sit at what I thought would be goal..and it really isn't. I just found one more pathway to explore. I am not sure if this new pathway will lead me back to the same place (164 or 162) or somewhere else. What I do know is that there is no goal and even when I master what I think is this piece of the thing there will be something else to work on and I will make new goals to meet. I also know that I can choose to stay in this place and work on more vitamins and minerals (by picking the healthiest foods instead of crappy ones) or at a higher weight but in either case there are benefits and consequences no matter where I choose to stay. To some extent I choose this place because of complacency or fear or satisfaction and in some sense I still believe there is an inner part of me that fights to stay at some unknown weight that my body wants to stop at. How much I am willing to sacrifice and how much I am willing to fight that physical part of me will always remain unknown but an ongoing decision making process.

Monday Comes Around Again-

I am still sleeping my brains out all night and day. Last night I went to bed at just after midnight and woke up at noon. (I know I know...life is tough for me eh?)...the problem is that sleeping for almost 12 hours every night is just plain old unproductive. Sure it might be the result of being sick or not enough iron in my diet. I am continuing to work on the iron thing and the sick thing..well I am still quite stuffy.

Grace is now sick too (thankfully she didn't get the fever part just a couple of days of tummy upset and today the stuffiness hit her. We are a couple of miserable people sleeping and going out for coffee (she is drinking stuff minus the coffee part). Both of us had lunch at Starbucks with our 'coffee' this morning.

We came home and did a bit of talking about a book she is reading and a show we both watched on television (Midsomer murders) and then I had to go off to teach my two classes this evening.

Classes went fine (although I have a big gap is knowledge and comfort among one of my classes). After class I popped over to visit my uncle in rehab and he was in a wheel chair getting ready to go for a little walk about (So much progress lately). He is also very snappy in our conversations right now. I am so happy that he is doing better but he still has to wait for surgery in a month or two before he will be allowed to go home.

I then came home..to the upheaval of the new house (stuff plopped down everywhere). David came home from work to hang out with Grace while I went off and he didn't get a chance to do anything more as he had a meeting and computer-y stuff to do from home this evening.

I got home at 10:30 pm and David made me an cheesy egg and then some popcorn (yum) as I was still starving.

The scale says: It bounced back up to 164 shortly after the 162 drop and then I have 'forgot' to get on the thing since (I was too busy sleeping). Soo..I have no idea what I weigh right now but my tummy is hungry. I am trying to get back into my night time protein smoothy but the move, new term and sickness has me all messed up schedule-wise.

Tomorrows goals:

get up sooner
take my aunt for a Pedicure
Get Grace to knitting and actually knit while she does.
Pick up Grant and hang out while we wait for Nichole to get out of class.
Get Grace onto some math.

Its Coming Together

On Saturday we played hooky with the moving and just enjoyed our proximity to the max train. Grace went off with her friends to the art museum for the day and David and I harnessed a free day for ourselves. We got on the max train and rode it downtown. He had a Christmas present gift certificate to spend and so we mooched the afternoon in the book store where he picked up some cook books. I looked at the knitting books but resisted all but a spinning magazine.

We then walked around the Pearl district part of Portland and popped into a few furniture stores. My goal was to find a nice rug for our living room. Although there were a lot of sales on and pretty things nothing inspired me to spend on anything. We definitely did not find a rug. The only other purchase we made was some felt pads for our chairs to protect the hard wood floors.

We did manage a nice lunch downtown. I had a chopped chicken salad with barbecue sauce, corn, lettuce cheese and some ranch dressing stuff. It was good but super spicy and It hurt going down. Does anyone else have more trouble with spicy food these days?

At dinner we got back on the train and headed home. I read my magazine and david thumbed through his new books. After a stop off at home we had a look at Marshall's and picked up some red kitchen towels and a new oven mitt. We still didn't find an agreeable rug.

Today I slept in an amazingly long time (I don't know what is up with the sleeping thing. I was asleep by midnight and still slept in until noon). David delivered a coffee too me (it is really a good life eh?). We then went to take my aunt to Walmart and then had an early dinner with her at Outback Steakhouse. We came home and finally did some more stuff moving and cleaning of the old rental house. We took four trips in all and loaded up most of the rest of the stuff in the house. There is just a bit of kitchen stuff left to move and the bottom half of my china closet. There is also quite a bit in the garage still and my outside flower pots and bird baths (I am not sure where these are going to go as I really don't have much outside space anymore).

We are being inspected at the rental house on Tuesday. They come walk through every 6 month. We have not yet told them we are moving out so it will probably come as a bit of a surprise when they find the place empty. We have a lease until April but if we can re-rent the house they will knock off the remaining months charge.

This last moving stuff session made me feel a bit better about things. The final bits of stuff are coming tot he new house. I have been having trouble figuring out where to put furniture in the living room but I think it is looking a bit better now. I have already had the sofa in three different locations. I will take pictures soon so you can see things.

xxxooo

BYOC Friday

1. If money and time wasn't a problem - name a place you'd go on vacation and for how long?

It is funny you should ask this one. I was just talking to Grace about how I am dying to go somewhere warm right now. If money and time were no object I would not stop at one place. I would pack my bag with nothing but shorts, swimsuit and summery dresses. I would get on the max train by my new house and I would go to the airport with no tickets purchased. I would then walk up to the United desk and buy an around the world ticket. Apparently you can buy them and you can use them for up to a year in one direction. I would head west towards hawaii...then Australia, then Indonesia and anyplace warm until Spring has a good hold of the rest of the world. Then I would go to Japan and across Europe.

Did I mention this would be a business or first class ticket....well of course it would be.

2. This week I had a discussion with some friends about names our children or other people we know call the "nether regions". Don't hate - it's funny. So let's share them for a laugh. Any creative words for hoohaa and tallywhacker you think we haven't heard yet?

My daughters made up their own name when they were small. The front part was called their body...and the back their bottom. when I asked them why as a mom does...they just said the two words like i was incredibly dense and said..well bo'deee' means front. geez mom.

My grandson calls his bits his dingle (I have no clue why).

Being married to a Brit...I have learned that there are MANY names to call ones parts...We can be having the most normal conversation and he will either break out in a twitter or make some small statement with the commonest name invovled..and laugh.

John Thomas
Thomas
packet
package
richard
hose pipe

Oh and girl bits: hairy pie!!! is that not the bleckiest one ever??

3. Take a picture of your nails right now! Bossy, aren't I? I just had my nails done - I can't help it. I neeeed to show someone!


Mine are short for moving and I still freaking broke one!!! I am not sure I can get a picture on my computer though.

4. Tell me about the weather right now where you are!
It is raining hard but I am incredibly grateful for this because two days ago it was snowing and flipping freezing. I like the rain better. I would prefer sunshine and 70 degrees though.

5. Repeat question. Summarize your week in real life and blog land.

I blogged and read a little. I seem to be having concentration problems (maybe because my brains are being displaced by mass quantities of congestion). I feel like I have a wicked case of attention deficit disorder..too much to look at and not enough brain space to settle on anyone thing. I try and leave a comment here and there but I can tell when I am not giving enough attention to my blog reading as the comments on my own posts all but disappear.

xxxoooo

Oh Yeah Thats More Like It

Finally I can get work going around the house. I got home at 9pm but thankfully felt pretty good. After a quick pop into the grocery store for some dinner we did a run over to the house. Grace stayed up late and came with us in her pajamas :) She finally had the urge to load up her bedroom while David and I loaded a bunch of stuff from the garage including our temporary dining room table.

We filled up the truck drove it home, unloaded it and then cleared out all of the downstairs pile of boxes that have piled up over the last couple of weeks and I stayed in bed. My living room is now bare and the dining room finally has some furniture in it. The new fridge came and is in its slot. The mini dorm room fridge is back in the garage where it belongs.

Today Cinda, Grace and I hit Marshalls and homegoods to look for a garbage can, a paper towel holder, some laundry bins for Grace, a mail sorter, a cool lamp for Graces room, and two bathroom mirrors. I still need a rug for the living room and some additional lamps plus possibly a living room accent chair. I am going to take my time though and look around for both a good deal and something I really like.

stuff is happening now..finally.

xxxooo

A little Stripping in the Classroom-

I just finished teaching one class. It was OK..feel crappy but I took a Sudafed with HOT coffee on the drive in. I had a hot flash in the middle of teaching. Now I am wearing jeans, socks, a tshirt and my 'keep calm and carry yarn' sweatshirt. A crappy day calls for warm and comfy clothes I say.

Thank goodness I had them working on three problems when it hit...I broke out in a sweat and started to panic. I pulled the sweatshirt off without showing belly rolls or skin I hope. After about an hour I cooled off and got cold. Back on went the sweatshirt.

I only need the tissue in my pocket twice and I am feeling a little better.

xxxooo

The Silver Lining

1. I'm still sick. Mostly tired-and not getting our stuff moved and have to go teach...and I'm really unmotivated and want to go back to bed...Sniff... :)

2. Even though I had a melt down last night (not pretty) because everything I tried to do lead to something I couldn't do because bits of it were at the old house and I didn't want to go move anything from the old house....David went to the old house and picked up a bunch of stuff. In this stuff he got our beloved scale. I got to weigh myself this morning. (you did read that correctly...that was a GOT to). I don't hate my scale. She is my friend. She keeps me on track and rewards me when I am good...and been sick.

3. So finally I have gotten to the silver lining. 162..my all time low has been re-reached.

4. In all areas my mood is still foul...

5. is there an icon for foulness?...I cannot really click x and o's today :(

Give me a D for dehydrated.

it is 12:29 and I am awake again. I will sleep soon but I am sooo thirsty I could suck up a gallon. I have been disturbing my husband for the last hour and a half running back and forth to the bathroom to drink. I cannot just drink in bed as the water needs me up-right a little to slip down the pipes. Obviously a combination of post illness and period dehydration is in the works. I am grateful that my thirsty sensor is working though.

I discovered today that my daughters and I are once again in sync hormonally and it appears (through attitude and zits) that my 10 year old will follow soon. I surmised today that not only do women who are close-knit share hormonal cycles but could they perhaps suck a mom who is desperate to just jump over the menopause line and be done with it back from that oh so desirable place. I seem to have been at this in-between place much too long (at least 4 years now). I seem to suffer most of the mentioned side effects except the one I most desire..yup...no more red-tide, mary's gift...I am sure there are many more euphemisms to choose from. Instead of the lack of it...I have night sweats, hot flashes, grouch, tired, memory loss, instead of no tide..I get high tide :).

On another note my oldest daughter and grandson came by and visited today. She is coming down with the plague...I hope she is OK. My grandson is a very cute little man among all of us women. He had a stuffed snowman with him today that he was trying to name. He went from snowy to Mr. Flower and back again. My grandson likes to look good, play pretend and name his things in a very girly like way (which I find so similar to my daughter). There is however this aggressive/active boy aspect to him that always surprises me. Poor Mr. flower was whipped to death like a helicopter as we walked along the side-walk and the shirt that my grandson was thrilled (ok really he demanded it) to wear today got used as a napkin for turkey salad and honey goat yogurt. I am sure some of this noticing I do is just my inexperience with having anything to do with boy children, some is the sheer girly influence he gets from his mom, three aunties and grandma. and some is just him and his unique only grandson cuteness :)

We purchased a replacement fridge tonight and bought a couple of comfy chairs for David and I...They are not much to look at but I decided I am finally old enough to go with comfort over fashion...(queue in dramatic music here). We also moved my clothes over to the new place and forgot the @$$%@$^@$@ scale.

I know I am back down at goal but that was BP (before plague). I am hoping for a touch of wiggle room now only I cannot do my daily weigh in because idiot that I am I keep forgetting to bend over, lift scale, carry to car, move to new house. arck...

Happy Tuesday.
xxxooo

Happy Tuesday.

The Great Plague of 2012 Recap :)

Ok you are going to have to deal with my random mind dump. I could number them..as I do a lot lately...I could edit and make them into nice sentences or paragraphs. but nah..I am going to barf on this box.

My fever finally finished itself last night round about 1am. I was sick of bed and sick of being sick so of course couldn't sleep until 3am. I am still snotty but at least I feel like getting up. I need to get up and get myself to coffee as no one is home to do it for me. David does not get MLK day off and Grace slept over at a friends. While awake last night I finally was spooked by all of the new house noises that I was too sick to be spooked by when we moved over here. We have actually purchased a home near a restaurant dumpster. Last night was bottle night!!! Crazy. My next door neighbor had a friend leave at 3am...I heard the door bang and car start. I finally went and looked out Graces window to see the car pull away. I heard the heater kick on a few times. My computer is really a noisy clicker in the silence of the house. Oh..and at 2am I reorganized my pinterest clothing board (have any of you found this coolarific time waster yet?).

I am starting a new paragraph because it seems right:

When I first got sick something very NSV happened. My oldest daughter called and when I answered she said...wow you sound like yourself four years ago. weird..apparently I was so tired in my overweight status four years ago that I answered the phone like I was in the middle of a feverish flu...That sounds about right actually. Sad...but right.

Ok..recap over. I am pulling my carcass out of this bed, getting dressed, and going for coffee. I have stuff to do.

xxxooo

Funny Things Blogs-

I have the flu. My last bout of flu was Feb. 20, 2011...haha...I have a journal now and can look stuff up. Hot diggity. This is the first time I have actually done that. What follows is a pity party of epic proportions.

1. Low grade fever Thursday and Friday but I could function on drugs. Saturday and Sunday the real fevers began. I hit 103 last night. This morning it was 99 now I am sitting on 101. I have taken my liquid Alieve but I only get two doses a day so David has gone to the other house for Ibuprofen. Thankfully with the unfill a few weeks ago I can take pills. When he comes back I will dose myself again and hope my fever goes down again. I had a flu shot...obviously the strain that picked on me came from somewhere else.

2. We are moving still. We have now officially switched our beds and sleeping to the new place however with me in the bed...I am not participating in any of the work. As a result we had a fridge delivered today that did not fit in the space. It blocks a cupboard door. I was in my bed sniffling and moaning in feverishness. They left it and Cinda told me to come down and look a couple of hours later....I called the delivery service and they will be retrieving it on Wednesday. Both the sales guy and delivery woman asked if I was ill (obviously I sound like crap). They were very nice.

3. Other than the fridge fiasco David, Cinda, Nichole and Grant have been nice to me. I have had coffees retrieved and delivered to my bed. I have had meals made and soups purchased at the grocery store. Furniture delivered. Grant even snuggled for a few hours in bed with me. I really hope I got this from him and did not infect him when we did this. David, Nichole and Grant have risked my infection but everyone else comes in with their nose covered and leave as quickly as they can. I can't say I blame them. This sucks mightily.

4.

Update: David delivered Ibuprofin. I took one...my fever is dropping...hooray!!!!

BYOC..Its Friday

Friday BYOC ala Draz

1. Do you have a favorite traditional “birthday meal”? If yes – what is it and what is the meaning behind it? I don't have a traditional meal but we do have a family tradition that we go out. One of my very good couple friends and us go out minus the kids for just adult time. We do this for each of our birthdays. When it is a kid birthday (she has two and I have four) we go out all together (although since the oldest three have left home we don't always do each child). A couple of years ago I added to this tradition by choosing something to eat for dinner that I have never tried before. One year it was lobster.


2. If you’ve lost weight, has your style changed since you lost weight? Or what's your dream purchase when you do lose weight/hit goal?

I don't think my style has changed. I always wanted to dress like I do now only I looked like crap that way so I ended up just wearing whatever fit. My uniform pre weight-loss was tshirt, jeans, and a blouse or cardi over the top. I always loved retro and arty clothes. I now get to wear some of those clothes and it is FUN!!! The list of items that I can now wear that I could not before are: boots, knee high socks, leggings, dresses. I did dream of getting a wrap dress and I have not yet done that.

3. Pick one question of the following two to answer: Who is your favorite Muppet and why? Or who is your favorite Smurf and why?

Tough question-I guess I will have to go with the muppet because I hated surfs. Sesame street aired its first program when I started kindergarten and I LOVED it. I watched it everyday and was totally disappointed that my kids really never took to it like I did. Oddly I would say my favorite was Burt...Maybe because my siblings annoyed me? :) For some reason I liked his pointy little head and his sense of order. The count was always pretty cool too-with his slight mathiness.

4. When you buy a lotion or after bath spray or body spray or candle (not perfume) – what’s the “flavor” you always find yourself loving the most?

I am a green tea and lemon kind of girl. Cost plus has some really nice stuff.

5. Repeat question. Summarize your week in real life and in blogland.

It has been really difficult this week to stay on top of stuff. The new term has me getting used to working again. As we are in the middle of a move our internet is messed up. David moved it to the new house before we actually moved our beds to the new house. Thus far the only computer time I have had is sitting at Starbucks in the mornings for my coffee. I can read blogs on my phone but it is REALLY hard to post as I have enough trouble with typos when I am on a keyboard. The stupid little screen buttons drive me insane.

Fresh Starts

I have been too occupied this fall to spend nearly as much time surfing everyone's blog as much as I used to. I wonder if like so many of the other now missing bloggers life just starts happening and posting and reading slow down (I do not want to stop all together ever though). I have new stuff happening here and even now so far down the bandy road I still get epiphanies and make changes and tweaks to what this band means to me, what being thinner means and how I live with my lovely band. It is also the beginning of the new college term and I am back and work...I have been teaching so long I am just in sync with the rhythms of school.

1. The new term began for me tonight. I am back at the community college teaching two math classes. As always I love these students. They come with flaws, scars and variety that I did not get as much of at the university. I love trying to spark their interest and excitement in a subject that often comes with lots of baggage. The focus at the community college where I work is all about teaching...I love that. Working nights again brought on a return to the 'how do I eat dinner dilemma of old."

2. We pulled Grace back out of school and I am once again a home-schooling mom. Her teacher clearly did not like her and no child should have to spend day in and day out under those circumstances (the rude kind of not like so much so that she told me about it, I witnessed incidences of it and when she left another child said...but with you gone I will be the only one she picks on). In addition to that I had watched someone who loved learning and digging into problems and ideas stop pursuing anything on her own. She was so busy doing worksheet homework each night and after school that she stopped reading for pleasure, stopped surfing the web for interesting information. We are currently detoxing..she is having trouble concentrating on things deeply for any extended period. We are also working on Grace's diet a bit...hopefully this will help.

3. We are almost moved into our new digs. We moved a bunch of stuff over the weekend. Tomorrow the place will finally be habitable...This means...we will have internet installed and hot water turned on. :) All the other stuff is up and running. We will then move over our beds and spend the rest of the month cleaning out and prepping the rental house to change hands. We officially have a lease until April but if we can find someone qualified to take it off our hands the agency will waive our rental for the remaining period.

4. The food: I have been largely sticking to the no grain and sugar routine. The book Nourishing Traditions is a great read and we have been trying to incorporate many of the ideas from it into our diets. It is really difficult to let go of sugar and harder I think for a child that is surrounded by sweets all of the time. It helps that she is at home with me this term. We are really concentrating on protein, fruits and vegetables. I have noticed that both of us crave sweets like crazy..but it is getting better. We are both getting by with morning trips to Starbucks for sugar free drinks (she drinks vanilla without the coffee and I my peppermint mocha frapp. sugar free. She has eggs or oatmeal for breakfast. We both have eggs with cheese for lunch. She usually has a banana or a yogurt for a snack in the afternoon while I have another coffee. We were shooting for meat and two veg for dinner but now that I ma teaching on Mon and Wed. it will be that on the other days and I am not sure what I am going to do on Mon and Wed. For dessert we have a sugar free fruit smoothy with protein.

The results: I am peeing more :) and pooing too...I know I know..TMI. I feel loads better-with much more energy and a better attitude. My weight is back down to 166 as of this morning. Grace was having some tantrums (we were worried they were food related but it is hard to tell when you have what is really an only child at home whether you are raising a brat or someone with other issues that need attention). We are going with the food for now :). Grace seems to be doing much better (fingers crossed).

5. Even though I have been grateful for these things before...at other times...There are still times when I pull on my jeans, zip up a boot or pull on knee high socks that go up all the way. When It feels just as good as it did the first time it happened. I hope that gratful feeling next goes away entirely.

xxooo

Still Flitting About

Our house took a few days to close and we are busily but slowly moving in and cleaning stuff up. My daughter and her boyfriend (for a fee)..did a thorough pre-clean of our new house and we have been slowly moving a few pieces of furniture and boxes over during the week. We were planning on making the major part of the move this weekend but have discovered that the hot water tank has been turned off and that the master bathroom toilet needs some plumbers attention. That will have to wait until a weekday (cause I am not going to pay weekend rates for a plumber).

Today Grace and I did a first coat of paint in her bedroom. She did a wonderful job wielding the paint roller herself and picked out a nice beige that matches the downstairs and hallway wall paint.



My two older daughters came over and helped a bit. My oldest daughter's help came in especially handy when I stupidly dumped a decent amount of the bucket of paint off the ladder onto my left shoulder and head. She spread paper towels across the floor to make a trail for me to walk. I stripped off clothes when they finally stopped dripping and ...at this point...discovered that the hot water tank that we thought was warming up was just plain old not on. One freezing soapless shower later David arrived with a towel, a shirt to change into and a small cooler filled with hot water (bless him). It was too late for me but I used it to wash off the paintbrush and roller.

We then went out to dinner and had steak (my favorite thing to do after the unfill I had a few weeks back.). I shared mine with my grandson who ate at least 2/3's of the steak and the asparagus. I brought the potato home for breakfast.

On New Years day Grace and I went on David's (sort of) diet plan. We are taking it on very loosely but have vowed to go as sugar and grain free as possible. This pseudo paleo/atkins thing has been OK so far. I swapped my peppermint mocha frapp for a sugar free version. We have been eating lots of fruits and vegetables and as little bread as possible. One of the nutrition books we recently acquired talks about the historical and healthier habit of eating only sprouted grains so I found a package of sprouted quinoa, rice and wild rice that we had for dinner with some home-made chicken tikka masala. It was quite good.

I do feel tons better (I think both from eating more, taking my vitamins and dropping a lot of crappier foods from my diet). I have had a few cravings as Grace has for bread (which is weird because as long as I was eating sugar in my coffee the bread didn't bug me much). David says his cravings got better after a week. I hope these improve. I topped out at 169.8 on New Years Eve and I am already down to 167.1 as of this morning. I am pretty confident that I can keep this up (and give up more if needed) to get the scale back down to my more comfortable 164 zone. I have too many pretty clothes to let the scale creep up too much.

I hope the New Year is treating you all well. I will be head down in packing and carting Grace to choir camp tomorrow. I hope you are enjoy your weekend as well.

xxxooo

I'm Here

Happy New Year everyone.

For a couple of years now I have typed my goals in this blog at the start of the new year. It is funny how so many more areas of my life are ripe for new year resolutioning now that weight is not such a big issue. Although diet and exercise are not absent from my goals in 2012 they do not take all of the focus anymore. The big goal has shifted to organization (Although I haven't double checked I recall that this was on my list last year)...I think I have found a new thing to be a failure at :).


The goals:

1. refocus and keep my weight down and vitamin levels up at this looser level of restriction. I started this today with taking my pills and vitamins with water at home. I then went off and had a sugar free peppermint mocha frapp (I can give them up completely)..and it was just fine. I then came home and had 1/2 cup of an egg, potato, spinach and cheese scramble. My focus diet will be to drastically reduce the amount of crabs I ingest (mostly) focusing on sugar and grains). I will eat three meals a day at least and only eat carbs in the form of fruit and vegetable. David is doing this in a much more strict manner and with really good success.

2. Organize our crap. We have too much disorganized goods that we have yet to cull, sort and scan. Next week we are moving into a new house that will be our home for quite a long while. We need to whittle down the crap so that we fit into the place.

3. We need to use our time even more wisely. We have made improvements over the last year but all three of us suffer from schedule avoidance. We need to sleep more regularly, use our time wisely and relax fully when it is time.

I am sticking to 3 this year. No word..just the three.

xxxoooo