08/01/18, Hump Day

Lesa, it is great to have you back ! I'm looking forward to reconnecting. Hopefully over time more and more silent participants in VSG maintenance will chime in and share in a way that works for them. When people used to ask me for a brilliant math teacher to tutor their child in math, I responded in a way that few expected. I'd smile and say that what they were really looking for was a teacher who initially struggled with math, but developed strategies and skills to overcome that initial block. Strong math teachers often have no ability to task analyze the stumbling blocks many students face...they just "get it". Those who learn and grow from their struggles and know how to apply that knowledge have powerful insights to share, as do many of you.

The PB balls suckered in DH, and they are gone and won't be repurchased. Not sure how many grams of sugar in them, but they were just sweet enough to be seductive. On the healthy success side of things, I made fabulous stuffed zucchini last night, scooping out much of the innards of zucchini halves and filling them with mashed black beans, an egg, onion, garlic, green pepper, cumin, S & P and a bit of Panko. Absolutely out of this world. The next time, I'm going to add some porta bello mushrooms. Still easing DH into a veggie burger, but he loved this !

Have a fabulous 1^st !

Weight: 135.8
Macros: Cals 2,335, Carbs 250, Fats 84, Protein 103, Fiber 25
Sleep hours: 7.5
Vegetable/Fruit Servings: 5
Exercise: Yoga Class

Last night I attended an Asian themed dinner at a pub that was served with craft beers. I drank maybe 10 ounces of beer and just discovered, while loading everything into MFP, how high-caloric and high-carb craft beers actually are. Wow! I'm glad I'm not a beer drinker. And while the food portions were small, the calories in five small courses still added up. Yes, I enjoyed the company and met some nice people, but I'll be so glad when my social calendar involving food chills out.

Today it's aquarobics, packing (for the weekend family wedding), and an early bedtime, since I must leave for the airport tomorrow morning at 6am.

But before I go ... Diane S, you said something the other day about wishing you could meditate, but that you didn't think you could concentrate well enough to do so. I wanted to let you know that I felt the same way several years ago, although I also thought that meditating might help me concentrate better.

Turns out, meditation has nothing to do with concentrating. Turns out, meditation is simply about sitting and breathing. Sometimes I count backwards from 100. Sometimes I use a mantra. Sometimes I just breathe. The only point, for me, is to sit for X minutes (in my case it's 15 minutes, although most people I know who meditate do so for 20 minutes) and slowly breathe in and out.

I use the timer on my phone's clock app that announces with a peaceful little song that my meditation time is over. Sometimes I look at an electric candle. Usually I meditate with my eyes closed. If I find myself ruminating (which always happens several times during my meditation), I return to focusing on my breathing. If my nose itches, I scratch it. If I get curious about how far the sun is up, I open my eyes to find out. But mostly I just sit there and breathe. I don't float out of my body. I don't levitate. I don't experience nirvana. Maybe some people do. But I haven't. So far, at least. Those actually aren't my goals.

I've done it for long enough now that I no longer judge my "meditation performance." My only performance metric is did I sit and breathe slowly in and out for 15 minutes? A friend who's been meditating longer than I have says that sometimes when her meditation time is up she opens her eyes and says, "Well, that was ****!" And laughs. In other words, it doesn't matter what happens.

I really can't explain why or how I think this is helping. But somehow it does help me. It grounds me every time I do it. It makes me smile. Over time it is helping me to appreciate how simple things can be, despite how complicated I am committed to making everything most days.

There are many good videos on YouTube about how to meditate. If you're interested in exploring it further, here's a short video (less than two minutes) that offers some simple getting-started advice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkoOCw_tp1I

Today's theme: Another day ... yea!

Weight 118.2, calories 1236. Not bad but a lot of them were post-dinner when I don't need them. I need to drink decaf at night more as it seems to help.

Ok, so I hate when I think there is something I want to say the next day but then forget what it was. Oh well, it will come back or it won't.

On teaching math, I was a math major and it all just makes perfect logical sense to me. Which is why I could never tutor my kids when they were struggling. I just couldn't get past the "But it is so obvious" feelings. My worst math teacher was like me, though the math book we used (and she wrote for a PHD) was great. I did get an A in the class, but many of the students did very poorly because she couldn't teach what she knew.

I just put a few bids in on Poshmark clothes. I don't need them, but...

Today is yoga and Justice walking. I'm not sure what else.

Have a wake up Wednesday!

Good morning

i failed grade 1 math and have never ever caught up. A huge mystery. But was a fluent reader age 4 so I guess that is something. I have a feeling though that my world would be more ?"interesting"? if numbers made sense. Sigh.

hope that the ear tubes help

and yes, welcome Lesa. Good to hear from you.

Welcome back, Lesa!!!! (and nice to see the rest of you, too!)

I'm off work today. I was prepared for a hike (with a new record of at least 6 different maps!) but then I changed my mind and decided to travel to the Fingerlakes in New York state where I would stand and yell "SADIE, SADIE!" and Sadie would find me and take me to the peanut butter balls where I would eat just one. HA! I would eat the whole damn bag.

But, Chuck beat me to them. So. Here I sit. Without balls. Again.

Back to reality. I could have hiked, but decided last night I need to spend a day of adulting. I didn't set an alarm and slept 11 hours. I'll enjoy mundane chores today and will have a clean house by the end day.

I have been eating more often than I should. My easy 11 hours of sleep (I could have gone longer) tells me I need more sleep when I up my activity. Time/work/recess/adulting balance is so freakin' hard.

Dave, I best wishes for that sweet Adalyn.

BB, you will figure it out with BB's care. There are so many stages to kids lives and (as I believe Ann said) what you decide now doesn't need to be The Solution til she is 18. I enjoyed having a .8 and even .9 schedule for years.

I would encourage you to keep your law chops fresh-enough, tho, so you can step back into work force and support you and Nugget if it was ever needed. But, that is just my perspective of health care fields. I have seen many women who stopped working that eventually needed to return to work. But, their skills were past rusty so they weren't able to return to previous jobs which was a massive loss of pay. Keep in mind, they NEEDED wages at this point. It wasn't for fun.

Of course it is almost always women who find themselves in this situation, so certainly a gender issue. But, lost skills are lost skills, even tho your credentials are still behind your name. Sadly, employers would rather higher someone fresh out of school.

I'm off to find my kitchen counter,

Shel

Thank you so much for welcoming me back!! I appreciate it more than you know. It does feel good to be a part of a group who understands what you're going through!!

I've had an absolutely lazy morning. Lots of coffee and down time. I slept late, too. Not much happening in my world. Puttering around the house and may venture out to work in my pot garden.

The stuffed zucchini sounds delicious. I think I'll try that soon.

Math is not my strongest subject. I remember having a HS student tutor me when I was in college algebra so I could transfer to university. I always said that's why I taught 2nd grade. Heh!

Our anniversary is in October and we booked a short trip to New York over fall break. This is motivation for weight loss. It sure doesn't fall off as quickly (turtle slow) but Miss150 has given me hope. (I'm sorry Your name escapes me right now). And, I'm adding more veggies and fruit.

Must get up and get busy!

Greetings Wednesday Wonders

Forgot to weigh today. Oh well, the same pounds will be there tomorrow. DH was up early as the eye doctor office had a cancelation. He is having some problems after his cataract surgery and really wanted to get in. I am hoping it can be resolved with a new prescription and not replacement lenses which means surgery. Of course he has been all over the internet and diagnosed himself.

More fires in Mendocino county. We are not affected except that many of our firefighters are off helping the other counties. But the road to Sacramento is closed as of now so we would have to take an alternate route (winding road = carsick for me) to this weekends dog shows.

Excavating the kitchen counter Shel - thats my job today too. That and studio payroll and gallery banking.

Thanks for the tips on meditation Ann. I think I mentioned I once went to the buddhist temple here for their meditation but they had so many rules about what to do and how to not disturb others it made me nervous. Better on my own which is my nature anyway. So I will give it a try.

Shel wouldn't it be great if we could just transport ourselves like Star Trek to various places. Getting around town and the planet in general has become such a hassle. We wish to take a Europe cruise but so hate the flight since its hard for us to get to an international airport. Yeah, first world problems. I will stop *****ing.

Again, welcome back stephanie plum. Stay with us.

There have been tv commercials about not wasting food lately and not filling the landfill with tossed food. Geez, another thing to be politically correct about. Just when I have finally gotten over the guilt of wasting food. I buy veggies to have them available but sometimes cant' eat them before they have to be tossed. Yeah, we compost what we can, but can't always. In a household of two sleevers, food waste seems inevitable. Anyway, I hereby declare I am not going to feel guilty about it. Another first world problem.

Diane O, glad the peanut butter balls evaporated. And I was just looking at porto bello mushrooms the other day, wondering if DH would eat them. At a restaurant I once had one marinated and served like a steak and it was so good!

Well, thats about it for this trekkie. Grateful for a bit of rain even though we have no lack. Diane S

Hope that DH has a spontaneous eye healing or maybe it is just "dry eyes" or, like you say, just a need for a fresh prescription.

Our region is watching your region with with some fascination but mostly horror.

We had a run of 80 degree sunny days. In the beginning, everyone pretends to like the warmth and sun but eventually there is collective grouchiness. Many don't have air conditioning so that is more than understandable. But, even those with air conditioning 24/7 grow weary of that every. single. day. We need green moss between our toes.

But now....with last year's wildfire smoke still in our nostrils, we watch your area light up.

Redding (!!!!) is so very much like many small cities around here. We also care about wildfires in the wild. But, there is something so shocking about the inability to control a fire's march into a city.

(My recent audiobook said that people can not fully see an issue until it impacts us two-leggeds. Particularly two-leggeds with money. That was the book's whole point, to tell the tree's story from a two-legged view so we wouldn't lose interest.)

There is a new answer when one innocently asks "how are you doing with the weather?" More often than not, I get a lecture on "just look at what is happening in CA, it is going to be our new normal." I no longer ask about the weather.

We are supposed to have a solid return of rain next week. I hope the Eastern part of the state also gets it. There are fires, but nothing yet like last year or what your area has now.

I do not throw up, vomit, hurl. I have not since VSG. My body does something far more insidious. It happened yesterday. It hasn't happened in such a long time, driving home I felt like crying. We went out for dinner after doing some shopping at Chez Target (Threshold label - best bed sheets ever, btw...). We went to a place that we used to frequent when we lived in Walnut Creek. It was fun to be there. I ate too quickly. The dish I chose had a wonderful spicy broth, chicken and beef and noodles, which were prepared al dente. I looked at my dish and realized I had probably eaten too much. In about a minute the discomfort started. I kept it together until we left the restaurant and then my body knew it was safe and the regurgitation began. This lovely process kept up for over an hour. GROSS!

I chuckled after the umpteenth time spitting out the window, "Well, I guess I still have some restriction left!" Ron in all seriousness said, "My God, you never eat much at one time. I don't think your stomach has gotten bigger. How could it? They took so much of it out!" LOL!

I am feeling a bit defeated in the change department. The long distance nutritionist thing doesn't seem to be working out. Just emailing back and forth. Childcare issues for her are problematic this week. Not holding my breath at this point. We've been talking back and forth for more than a week and have still failed to schedule a time. I am also in between trainers and have not heard back from supposed new trainer. Maybe this is all pointing to the universe saying, "Devon, you can do this on your own. This is the time to prove it to yourself." However, when I generally do these things on my own I go into "Diet Mode" or all-or-nothing thinking. Maybe the universe is giving me a chance to gift myself the opportunity to do it myself WITHOUT falling into those old pattern of behavior traps. I don't know.

What I do know is that today is August 1st! No grooming of dogs, other than my own, for the next 31 days!!!!! Yesterday I also said goodbye to a client of 13 years. Nice guy, but there have been issues on and off with his wife. As he left he handed me the payment for both dogs. When I got inside I counted the ca****hought to myself, "Yeah, this is why you were one of the ones I let go." Is that bad? Heck, it's the truth. Anyhow, letting that client go puts me down 8 dogs since March. I figure that's pretty good. By the end of the year, I may let one or two more go to make it an even 10. Just depends on my schedule.

Schlepping today because I feel like it's my first real day of vacation! lol! Leaving for Atlanta for the weekend on Friday morning at O dark thirty. Supposed to rain there all weekend. Booooooooooooo!

Weaning begins today. Lots of rags will be involved!

Happy August to you!

Weirdo thought about being on your own. Stay with me here...I'll start by with my DD's refusal of a math tutor to help with SAT review this summer. (She has been thru the usual programs, by the way). She felt sure that she could stay on task and wouldn't get stuck in effort, or sidelined by wasteful tangents, or even lost on a problem she couldn't figure out.

I felt sure that ANYONE would have trouble sticking to a self-study program. I equally worried that DD would think she was a failure if she didn't stick to her overly-aggressive schedule and then just give up. (Gee, I wonder why I think that....)

Eventually, her old spelling tutor from years ago agreed to be her self-study coach. This is about the only person I could think of that DD would agree to work with. They get together in person every 1-3 weeks but otherwise she keeps in contact with DD thru texts.

You have loads of practical knowledge. Maybe you just need a self-study coach. A bit of accountability. A bit of a cheerleader. Never judgmental. Always on your side.

Like I said, a weirdo thought....