Going away
28 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, Goals, Hearth & Home, parties, Weight Loss
Not me.
DH & I attended a going away party last night for a friend of ours. He’s leaving for a new job in another state. It was a nice evening and a well attended party. It was held at a bar and food was available.
Yes, that’s where this post is going. My willpower survived the night. I had large glasses of ice water with a squeeze of lemon in them all night. And this after thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to get my eight glasses of water in yesterday. 
I was back to my old habit of not stopping what I was doing long enough to hydrate even a little throughout the day.
I also held firm in my resolve not to eat anything. I sat down with friends across the room from the food. My resolve almost slipped when our friend’s mom came around (twice!) with desserts. Thankfully she didn’t bring the K bars around the second time or I might have lost my fight. Cake doesn’t tempt me, certain types of bars however (oy!).
The night went well, then DH decided to indulge in a big taco and extra chips. I didn’t cave in. I was glad that he hadn’t put cheese on those chips. Again, another weakness of mine.
If nothing else, this diet is certainly showing me my food temptations. And at the grocery store yesterday, I found myself getting ready for the second 17 day cycle even though I was only on day 5 of the first. They had whole wheat pasta on sale for $1.39 per 16 oz. box, so I bought three boxes. On the whole though, I do spend far more time in the produce section than before. I also found out that the turkey taco salad I had for supper needs to be served on iceberg lettuce. The spring mix lettuce blend I had purchased tasted horrible with taco meat. It had too many strong, conflicting flavors.
Live and learn.
That’s all for now. A nice, quiet breakfast and mountains of housework await me. If you’re also on the dieting path, keep your chin up and your calories down.
The diet again & other things
26 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Adversity, Dieting, Prayers, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, hit & run, prayers, The 17 Day Diet, turkey chili, Weight Loss
Sorry, didn’t mean to make this a diet blog. Just a quick update.
Day 3 went well. Even got in my exercise. Today I made turkey chili, no beans-they’re not allowed in the first cycle, and added extra veggies in the form of carrots & celery. You may not think carrots & celery belong in chili, but I can state, from my vast experience as a Girl Scout outdoor trainer making many pots of vegetarian chili, that they do. Plus I get to eat as many “cleansing vegetables” as I want so why not bulk up the chili, right?
Truly though, it’s the green tea that just gums up my determination. Tea in general and green tea in particular are about as appealing to me as stewed prunes. Oh well, slug it down and continue on.
A quick update on DH’s cousin. Last week was a much beter week. Mary was moved out of ICU and into rehab last Friday. She did have an infection then, but they have cured that. And since Tuesday, Jan 18th, there has been wonderful progress. Mary is more verbal. She sometimes speaks in full sentences (the Mary kind of sentences-long, complicated ones) where her parents & caregivers can only understand the first few words. The doctors say that is common at this stage. But sometimes she speaks in unprompted, full sentences that are clear. For example, her speech therapist was talking to her about the Westminster dog show and Mary said “What time is that on?”
She is off her feeding tube and is able to feed herself with a bit of help. She is also doing real well in physical therapy. She can even push the wheels on her wheelchair to move down the hall (albeit very slowly). Overall, the physical problems are healing nicely and the doctors are very happy with her neurological progress.
Thank you for your prayers up to this point and please continue to pray for this amazing young woman’s complete recovery.
Diet, Day 2
24 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss
Well I’m only on day 2 and I’ve already oopsed.
I had to go into the suburbs to donate blood this morning and ran late for my appointment. And they were busy as all get out with platelet donors (they take more set up time than whole blood), so my 9:30 time got pushed back so far that I didn’t get out of there until noon.
Since all they had for post donation snack choices was cookies, pretzels, chex mix, and raisins, I decided to just grab a water. So far so good. Then I left the building and realized that it was noon and I had not eaten since breakfast at 7:30! Tried to remember which restaurants close by would offer salad, figuring that I could add grilled chicken & ask for dressing on the side. Drove to Perkins, all the salads had tons of other stuff on them that is not part of the diet-items like ham, bacon, breaded chicken. Then I saw the made to order omelettes.
Okay, I thought, this is doable. I’ll just order an omelette with lots of veggies, skipping the mushrooms because I don’t like them on eggs. What I didn’t realize was all the other stuff you get when you order an omelette. Did I want hashbrowns or country potatoes? Neither really, but I ordered the country potatoes because my willpower wasn’t up to walking away from hashbrowns. And did I want pancakes or toast, or for an extra 49 cents I could upgrade to a jumbo muffin? Ugh! I ordered whole wheat toast.
In retrospect, I should have ordered the pancakes. I can walk away from pancakes. I didn’t walk away from the toast. I didn’t eat both slices, only one of them. And I justified it by telling myself “Well, you’ve just given blood so you needed that to fill up/replace what was lost in donation/etc.”. No I didn’t “need” it. It just tasted really good. I promise that I did not put jelly on the toast. Buttered, even sparingly as they do it, was good enough for me.
The Diet
23 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, Health, healthy eating, Hearth & Home, Monday Morning Muse, pound weight loss, Quotes, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss
“I’ve been on a diet for two weeks and all I’ve lost is two weeks” Totie Fields
Well, let’s hope that doesn’t happen to me.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written about weight loss. Mainly because I haven’t been trying to lose weight lately. I haven’t even been trying to maintain the weight that I had lost a couple of years ago.
That needs to change.
Today I started the first 17 day cycle of The 17 Day Diet. This may be the most difficult time for me. The first cycle cuts out all sugars (except low sugar fruits), all dairy (except for probiotic yogurt & fat free/low fat cottage cheese), and all grains.
Chicken & fish will be my main dietary staples, as will lots of vegetables and 2 fruit servings each day. Water will become my drink of choice rather than the drink I choose when there’s no more coffee in the pot or juice in the fridge.
Why go through this? Because I’m 5’5″ tall and currently weigh in at 210 pounds. There, I’ve said it. I am obese and I must lose this weight to regain my health. I’ve had back pain since last May that hasn’t gone away completely ever since that time. I carry most of the excess weight around my middle-which any doctor will tell you is bad and can contribute to heart disease.
I hate making New Year’s resolutions to diet simply because I feel it sets you up to fail. Think about it. Are you done with holiday celebrations just because it’s January 2nd? If your life is like mine, probably not. That’s why I waited to start this diet at a time when the party circuit would be waning. I hope that will help me to have more self control and a better attitude about the food I eat.
My goal is to lose 10 pounds per month. If I can do this, that would mean a 50 pound weight loss by the beginning of summer here in the great, white, frozen north. I would be down to 160 pounds, a weight I have not seen since I was pregnant with Ditty (for those who haven’t been keeping track-she’s 13 years old).
Exercise is also a part of The 17 Day Diet. For this first cycle, the commitment is to exercise once per day, every day for 17 minutes. And it must be aerobic exercise because that helps your body burn the weight off. It also gets you into the habit of moving your body. That’s important because you can’t lose weight permanently without developing an exercise habit.
So, here I go. Wish me luck. And if you’re the praying type, pray that I succeed. I’d like to be around to dance at my children’s weddings and dangle the still ethereal grandkids on my knees (the kind of knees that don’t hurt because they’ve been carrying an overweight grandma around for the five minutes it took to walk from car to couch).
Short weeks
16 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Homelife, Monday Morning Muse Tags: Hearth & Home, Monday Morning Muse
Short school weeks can be either a blessing or a curse. A blessing since I get the kids home an extra day. A curse because it means getting everything that needs to be done finished in less time because I’ve got the kids home an extra day.
Oh, they do their chores around the house. I just don’t care to do mine when they are home.
Breaking the rules
15 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Adversity, Homelife, Prayers Tags: brain shear, fantastic news, head injury, Hearth & Home, hit & run, Illness, prayer, prayers, university of colorado, university of colorado boulder
I’m breaking our house rule of no computers on Sunday to bring you an important update.
DH’s cousin spoke! Yesterday morning, for the first time since the accident 9 days ago, she spoke. She said “My neck doesn’t hurt” in response to a question.
I’m smiling and crying and want to leap for joy! This is such fantastic news. She still has a long way to go in her recovery, but for now at least, we can rejoice in this victory.
Please keep her in your prayers. And thank you for praying with us.
Even Less Good News
12 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Adversity, Homelife, Prayers Tags: Hearth & Home, hit & run, prayer, prognosis, setback, university of colorado, university of colorado boulder, ups and downs
Recovery, your’s or someone else’s, is fraught with ups and downs. I know this. We’ve been through this with DH’s mother. Somehow, that still doesn’t make it any easier to get news like this:
“This is Michael and I just had dinner with John in Boulder. Unfortunately, the latest is not good news. It seems as though Mary is not recovering at the pace the doctors expected her to recover. They did some further tests and found that Mary has further damage to her brain John referred to as ‘brain shear’. While there is still a reasonable prognosis for full recovery, the timetable has been moved from 3-6 months to 12-18-24 months. Needless to say this is a real setback for Mary and John & Julie are taking it very hard. If at any time they needed our prayers this is the time. John asked me to share this information and I am sure he will update the family as he is able to do so.”
I asked a nurse friend what “brain shear” is and she explained that the brain is attached to the inside of the skull. During extreme trauma, for example the violent snapping motion of a car crash, some of the connections can be severed or sheared away. The brain/body will try to regrow these connections and that it can take up to 2 years for the connections to completely regrow.
Please continue to pray for Mary and her family.
Thank you
Crashes, comas and such . . .
09 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Adversity, Homelife, Prayers Tags: Hearth & Home, hit & run, prayer, university of colorado, university of colorado boulder
We received an update on the condition of DH’s cousin. The update was sent out on Jan 5th:
“There is good and less good news on Mary. Her pelvic fracture is not too serious; the doctors believe it will heal by itself, and don’t plan surgery. Her ankle fracture is also not too bad. But since it is on the same side as her pelvic facture, she will need a very strong ankle, so they will probably put a pin in her ankle.
The less good news relates to her head injuries. She suffered a concussion and brain bleed, and was briefly (a few hours) in a coma. The brain bleed stopped fairly quickly after the accident, and the brain swelling has begun to subside. But she still sleeps most of the time. She seems to recognize Julie, me, Joe and Marguerite (Joe and Marguerite came as soon as they heard–they were the first ones to hear, and the ones who told us–and have been taking great care of her). But she is not very responsive, and hasn’t really spoken in the last two days.
The doctors are cautiously optimistic about the proespects for a full recovery. The CAT scans and MRI show no worrisome signs. They expect her to be in ICU for 1-2 weeks, then a month in a rehab ward, followed by several months of continued rehab.They say it will probably be 3-6 months, maybe longer before she is fully recovered.
I will stay here until Mary is clearly on the way to recovery–hopefully out of ICU–but then will have to go back to Tanzania. Julie will stay here as long as Mary needs her.
As for what happened, Mary was crossing in a crosswalk. Several cars had stopped for her–the law in Colorado–when one car, driven by a yong girl, swerved around the parked cars, hit Mary, and kept going. The other drivers called 911, and covered Mary with their coats until the ambulance and police arrived. Given the number of witnesses, and the fact that debris from the car was at the scene, the police believe they know who the driver was, and are about to arrest her.
Please keep Mary in your prayers. Thanks.
Love, John“
Please keep praying for Mary as she continues to try and move forward with her recovery.
Thank you.
Say a prayer please
05 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Adversity, Homelife, Prayers Tags: hit & run, pedestrian injured, prayer, university of colorado, university of colorado boulder, wednesday night
My husband’s cousin was the victim of a hit & run at the University of Colorado, Boulder on Wednesday night. She was a pedestrian and using the crosswalk when she was hit. She has serious head & internal injuries.
Please say a prayer for her recovery.
Thank you.
Happy New Year!
03 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Homelife Tags: Goals, Happy New Year, Hearth & Home, Knitting
Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!
Just signed Ditty & BooBoo up for more swimming lessons in the new year. Of course it stands to reason that I couldn’t get them both in during the same hour. Par for the course around here. So I will be spending 2 hours at the pool each Monday night. The upside of this is that with 16 hours of basically uninterrupted knitting time, I should make good progress on the sweater I plan to knit for myself. Or maybe I should finish knitting Ditty’s cable scarf first.
Bowling with friends tonight and a trip to MOA either tomorrow or Monday to fulfill a promise to the kids.
Edited to add: Oops, forgot to press publish so this post was supposed to have appeared on New Year’s Eve. Oh well. We went to MOA on Sunday and BooBoo bought more Legos at the Lego store there. The Ninjago ship is pretty cool and we made him take two days to finish it. We watched Bedknobs & Broomsticks together last night.
I’m quite glad they are back in school today. Laundry & washing the dust off the walls in BooBoo’s soon to be painted new bedroom are the order of the day. Oh, and bringing him his guitar for his lessons this afternoon. I should start a delivery service business.
