Sunday May 21

Greetings

This a long weekend, Queen Victoria Day. Never mind that her birthday was not on this particular day nor that the good People of the United Kingdom don't celebrate it, we get a long weekend, so yay!!!!

When I was a child this was the official day for the first ocean swim of the year even if the water had ice cubes floating, and in some circles this is the first weekend, at least here along the coast, that you could seriously start putting a garden in as hopefully the danger of frost was passed.

However I went for a walk but only for an hour and whether it is because the sun was sooooo warm the arthritis was very painful and have been in bed. Not nice.

14 miles!!!! I would be dead!!!!! And Dave your workshop is amazing! Ella, what can one say except, " Have Fun. " Egg foo sounds delicious!

Better stop the chatter but this is what happens when one 'rests' during the day. Dang!!

have a restful day.

Happy Queen Victoria Day to all of our Canadian family ! Carbon, so sorry your arthritis is causing you such pain. Positive healing energy headed your way.

Attacked the remaining bare spots in the back yard with topsoil and seed, after I was done in the front yesterday. No more flowers or plants !! I'm done... if I try to add anything else, it will be smooched when it starts to thrive and grow. Kind of like our sleeves. Have to plant under the ultimate capacity of the garden boundaries, just like we need to eat under our sleeves. Less is more works for lots of life !!

Had some great sushi and a crab Rangoon for dinner with DD. Weight stable, despite the soy sauce and rice. I'm pleased that I mostly stuck to my plan.

The pool guy is going to try to be here this afternoon, to open things up for the season. Water level is extremely low, so hoping that doesn't mean a new liner !

Have a great day !

"Less is more works for lots of life."

Good observation. Yes, it does.

Enjoy your long weekend! We get ours next week. On Cape Cod, Memorial Day can be cold and raw or a warm beach day. Hopefully the latter.

Weight 116, calories 1035.

Today I may try to cut Dow/pull out bushes in the front of the house (including a huge arborvitae that is trying to lie down). DH says we should stake it! No way - it was too big in the first place which is why it can't handle the snow in the winter. The other 2 bushes I need to remove are a type which never should be put in front of the house - they grow too wide and high even with annual pruning, so they have to go.

The people caring for MIL say she has days to weeks to live (no more). At 97 her body is too tired now. No surprise after seeing her on Friday. Plan is to work with case manager and hospice to get her back home tomorrow. DH may stay with BIL in the area once she is at coma stage. Living 90 minutes away and DH not able to drive complicates logistics.

Have a good Sunday!

I find it very hard to watch DH aggressively prune and rip out plants that I have grown attached to. But (heavy sigh) he is almost always right.

I am glad hospice (and family) are there for your MIL.

157.2 Yowza

Idk what to think about this. On the one hand, I know my rings have been tighter, and my feet swollen. I think this is water weight. On the other hand, I've been much more relaxed about my eating the past few days, and not working out. But can that really result in 2.5lbs. weight gain in just a few days?!! I hate this battle so much. Today's weigh in totally ruined the weekend, makes me feel like I'll never survive this if a couple days of eating can undo weeks of hard work! I know I'm not thinking right, but that's my initial reaction.

And I don't even feel like I've overdone as much as I could/other people do!

Let's see, let me try to recreate

Friday:

B: Granola bar and coffee

L: Very hungry. Ate grilled cheese and ham sandwich (the whole "half") and a few bites tomato basil soup, and 1/2 brownie

D: 1/2 taco salad with salsa dressing (not the kind with tortilla bowl, but tortilla strips)

Went to see Lion King and had 2 glasses of wine there. (Show was GREAT!!) Waiting for DSS's plane, DH and I got a drink (old fashioned)

S: burrito (bc DSS hadn't eaten)

--okay, so obviously this is more, and less-nutritional than I typically eat. Especially the alcohol. During the last few weeks of weightloss, I've mostly cut out alcohol. But the thing that scares the crap outta me is how much more I could and have eaten (like pre wls). I did not eat all my lunch. I didn't even have a whole brownie! My dinner was half or less of the salad.

Saturday: (graduation day)

B: granola bar and coffee

L: Half hamburger and few fries

D: Cheese fries-shared with table, house salad with blue cheese (not all), split steak and sweet potato with husband (maybe 2 oz. filet) and 2 coconut shrimp, 1/4 c. sweet potato, and small piece "graduation cake"

No alcohol. Not great choices, but not large servings.

And now I'm getting ready for surgiversary, and to go on vacation. How do I maintain a lower weight and not hide from life? I'm doing better with choices (except for last 2 days) but how do you go eat with people and make good choices? Ugh I do not have that much discipline, I guess :(

Oh the humanity! That is totally water weight. And if you can feel it in rings and feet then it is other places, too. 2.5 lbs of water in just a couple of days? Absolutely.

There is nothing to un-do. Drinking more fluids helps pull off that retained water.

About eating with other people for fun and making good choices, I am interested in seeing what others have to say. I seem to do best if I concentrate on the "fun" and the people. I don't save up calories for the event because hunger (real or head, it doesn't matter) pivots my attention to food, food, food.

And tho you noted you had no alcohol in last few days, I do think about vacation and gatherings as including alcohol. I haven't started drinking alcohol post VSG because I don't care about it and I worry that DH over-drinks. And while my closest group of friends drink, it is never part of the fun. For example, no one ever says "lets do shots." I think this lack of focus on alcohol helps me.

FYI (just because this is an on-line forum where it is easy to mis-communicate) I have ZERO problem with anyone else drinking alcohol at all. (Well, except, perhaps for DH but we don't have time for that!)

Hmmm...eating with other people for fun. I rarely overeat around other people BUT I will have a glass of wine or 2. THEN that wine (especially if I have 2) causes me to snack when I get back home. So I've been trine to limit myself to one and that seems to more or less keep me in line.

Love the insight about what happens afterwards. Even without the alcohol, I am more likely to eat what I don't need when I get home.

I just logged my past 2 days of food in MFP. I'd like to think I was overestimating the calories, but at the least I don't think I underestimated them too much. I didn't calculate Thursday, which was also an indulgent. But Friday was about 2200 calories, and yesterday nearer 2000. And while I'm shocked I am capable of eating that much, especially when still halving my mains, it definitely was eye opening to see how many ways calories can add up. Bad choices at half plate aren't soooo terrible by themselves, but add snacking and alcohol, and you get 2000+. But I'm more confident that it has to be mostly water. From calories, I don't think I could've gained more than 1/2-1lb. of true weight over the past couple days.

I definitely struggle most with social eating. DH and I are both very social people. And it's just nearly impossible to lose weight when you eat out much. It's difficult enough to maintain with that lifestyle. I know it can be done, I'm just still searching for how to do it.

Shel-thanks for the note. I'm not opposed to alcohol, and even having several drinks (so long as one is not behind the wheel, or it's altering relationships, etc.!) but it is definitely counterproductive to my weightloss goals. There simply isn't room for those calories, especially since the food I have available to eat at places where I'm imbibing are not typically diet-friendly. And then if I drink more, I eat more, and drink more. Not to suggest this happens often--I rarely have more than 3 drinks, and typically 2 is my limit. But 2 glasses of wine was becoming too common for me so I have tried to eliminate weeknight drinking. It's just such a part of the social scene, I guess. I feel so awkward not eating or drinking when others are. Like early out after surgery when I thought everyone was watching my every bite (or lack thereof). I'm sure it's all mental, but still.

And now we are headed to an all inclusive on Wednesday. I don't know how to feel. I'm already letting the scale ruin next week. I don't want to be like this. Normal people go on vacation. Normal people even gain weight on vacation. Not all is lost for them. But it's a very tricky road to navigate. There is a bit of feeling like giving myself a free pass to overeat on vacation because the scale is up. Hoping this nonsense makes sense to someone else?! Plan: I'm going to try and pump the water and eat more fruit/veg/chicken/fish for the next 3 days until vacation. Hopefully that will convince me that this was primarily fluid retention, and I'll leave on vacation in a better mood. Then, while on vacation, my only goal is to not eat more than I need to be sated. Will I drink? Of course. Maybe even more than I neeed (bc *****ally needs alcohol?). Will I eat the poorer choices? Probably. Buuuuutt, I want to not eat dessert just because it's there and it's an all inclusive and I paid for it. Or get more because it might taste good. I think it will be harder in practice, which is why that's my only goal.