Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Weight: 133.2
Macros: Cals - 1,442, Carbs - 131, Fats - 51, Protein - 94, Fiber - 33
Sleep hours: 8
Vegetable/Fruit Servings: 8
Exercise: Yoga class, walking
Meditation

I'm back in the land of V/Fs. ;)

Today my car gets serviced and acquires four brand new tires! I have never been this excited before about getting new tires. Pleasures do change. :)

Today I'm also going on a day-long field trip with a girlfriend to see some early fall color down in the Arkansas Ozarks (fall arrives very late here in the Missouri Ozarks, where the colors won't be at peak for another two weeks), some shopping and lunch at a nice restaurant. It will be fun to get out, especially since today will be gloriously sunny after 5 days of clouds and rain.

Liz, good luck with your packing; how long will you be in Florida this time? DianeO, I hope you're enjoying the glamping, and please send more tree color pix. Shel, I want to hear all about your Mt. Ranier training and new technology purchases, of which I know there will be many ;). David, I won't be close enough today to come visit, but hope you're healing like a two-year-old. BonnieB, I'm sending you prayers to find peace as you and your family navigate the big changes in your lives. Devon, be healed! Pink eye is no fun and can't be gone fast enough. Cecily, have the neighbors shut their windows yet? :) Diane S, good on you for getting in motion, and yea, mammograms! Miss150, when is your surgery ... I've forgotten? ShirlAus, stay in bed and feel better soon! Lesa and all you other Romanov fans, I will check out that show. Paula, I'm so glad life is going so well for you and yours! Carbon, we miss you. And greetings to all the lurkers. Apologies and affection to anyone I missed.

Today's theme: After the rains, sunshine feels so good. :)

Weight 120.8, calories 918. Potty time needed and oh yeah, the bolognaise sauce my DSD made last night was fantastic (eaten sans bread, pasta, cheese and wine). So maybe I ate a bit more of it than I needed but I skipped all the other bad stuff!

I am not packing for Florida YET. We leave Friday for the weekend in Portland Oregon with family and the remainder of the week in Boulder, then Denver Colorado where we have a wedding a week from Saturday. Back home on the 29th to pack for Florida (we fly there on 11/4). Crazy, I know, but this trip will be very different from Europe in that there aren't a lot of demands on DH, especially not early in the day. The only pre-arranged things are the flights and the wedding. So this will be a test as to whether DH can handle traveling potentially on a cruise. After Europe I was thinking there was no way, but we will see...

We will be in Florida for a little over 6 weeks, return for 2.5 weeks at Christmas, then go back for another 4 months. The kids will probably visit during the 4 month window and SIL is unlikely to come down until after Christmas. I am looking forward to having a bit more routine and quiet in Florida for a while (oh yeah and warmth and sun).

Sunshine ALWAYS feels good (I could never live in Portland or Seattle)!

1. Within Range: Yes
2. General Wellbeing: 8 on SS
3. 10,000+ Steps: 10,138
4. Fitness: walking
5. Self-Care: No
6. Play/Leisure: Knitting
7. Interest/Talent/Skill: Planning pumpkin carving design

Dodow first night results are mixed. One is supposed to inhale and exhale with the contracting and expanding blue dot on the ceiling. It will take a bit for DC to buy into it and relax. Yesterday, we had a four hour drive to Albany for cardiac clearance for DC's upcoming urology surgery. Hotels all booked for Pfish concert, so we thought we'd try the HOPTEL (patient rooms converted to be" like a hotel" ), as Fisher House was booked too. We installed a NEST home camera over the weekend, and can check in with the dogs and talk to them. We saw the dog sitter arrive and spend about thirty minutes with them when he was supposed to be here for and hour. We took one look at the room, looked at each other, and decided to drive back home ! The camera made us miss the dogs even more !! I did get a lot of walking in "in the big city".

Sun....! Come out, come out where ever you are !

Weight: 166.4

Again very hungry yesterday, but then we went out to dinner for DSD's birthday and I could barely eat!

Does anyone know about the new Weigh****chers program? I've tried WW many times over the years and, in general, I'm a fan. Granted, it never worked for me--but I'm convinced nothing but WLS would have. When I did WW it was first fat and fiber, then different iterations of the "points" program, which essentially boiled down to calories. You were allotted a certain number of points based on your gender, height, weight, age, and then you could spend those points on ANYTHING. There was a small advantage to foods with higher fiber content, and a slight disadvantage for foods with higher fat content, but for the most part a point was a point. Well the new WW program is somewhat different in that now things that we might see as more unhealthy have a much higher point value. So in that regard, you sort of receive fewer points (although technically from what I can tell you don't get fewer points, those points "buy" you less.) They offset this by making about 200 foods free foods--things like eggs, fish, chicken breasts, vegetables, fruits, beans are zero points value. I guess the idea is to force you to eat healthier and bank on the idea that you won't gorge yourself on eggs.

It's worked for my BIL and SIL. And I think they really like it because it gives somewhat of a black and white, on program, off program list which some people need.

I cannot decide if I like it. I haven't actually tried the program so I'm being hypocritical, but if there's one thing I've learned since WLS, it's that it all comes down to calories, aided greatly by smaller portion sizes. I find I can eat anything if I eat a small portion. This is very liberating to me. But there again, I have a sleeve. At the end of the day, even "free" foods do have a "cost." My BIL and SIL would eat 4 hardboiled eggs for breakfast=0 points. (by the way, I guess eggs are okay again? I remember a while back they were essentially forbidden fruit/cholesterol) In reality, that breakfast has 280 calories. I, on the other hand, would prefer to have a mini bagel (110 calories), an egg (70 calories), and some reduced fat cream cheese (50?) and I still come in lower. Is mine as satisfying though? Mentally, yes! I see what they're trying to do. Maybe it's the type of mindset I need to adopt. I just don't like anything being "free." That's a reckless thing to tell me. What do you guys thinik?

Hmmm...Interesting. I see the value of non-starchy vegetables being zero points to steer people that way (and really those are pretty low in calories). I'm surprised that eggs are completely free, but conceptually I like the idea of the new WW program. I used them mostly when they emphasized fiber vs fat on the point system. For diet programs in general I always liked WW and I did well when I stuck with it. I even worked for them for a while to keep myself "honest" (minimum wage, and at the time with no automation when it would have made everything SO MUCH easier, but they could get people like me to do it for a little while anyway).

I would consider WW if I had enough regain in the future, though I would have to track my protein in addition at minimum. I always used too many of the points on stuff I shouldn't in the past so did not eat as healthy a diet as I should have even though I lost weight.

From my vantage point, (almost) anything that helps people get weight off is good. Like your BIL/SIL, many people value a prescribed program so figuring it for themselves doesn't highjack the rest of their life.

Now, if someone could figure out how we can all easily keep the weight off....

Cholesterol in foods doesn't drive up most people's personal cholesterol numbers. Saturated and trans fats can. Genetics matters an awful lot. (I need a t-shirt that says those three sentences.)

HELLO!

Shirl, what kind of cattle do you have? Diamond, how's your mom? B150, good luck with the Whipple planning. BB, I like to think that job offer is slow in coming only because there is a key person out of the office. It is amazing how much that can affect the speed of an offer.

A couple of weeks ago, I reported that I felt mentally better than I have in months (years?) More humor, less irritation...that sort of thing. My can-do returned. I'm happy to report that improved mindset has stuck around. So much more pleasant.

OMG, Ann. You asked about Rainier training....you don't really want to go there. But now I must spill. I just started an 8 week training plan that was put together by an on-line uphill coach. If I remember right, his background is skiing and previous (current?) jobs include training youth with Olympic dreams.

They use an app called Training Peaks so I have been playing with that. I was dissatisfied with my Garmin for something so I was FORCED to buy an apple watch and then I wanted the most precise heart monitoring so have been busy buying (and returning) various chest heart rate monitors. You get the idea.

I did some lab fitness testing and then the uphill trainer required an hour long fitness test on a treadmill at a local gym, yesterday. No surprise to me, I don't fit usual equations based on age for max heart rates, etc. (Neither do my sister or mom.)

The training time itself isn't too onerous but my daily rhythms are off. The trainer dropped my beloved HIIT class down to once a week. They don't like that type of "fad" class plus it is the wrong kind of workout for (voice drops to whisper) mountaineering.(I don't fully buy that I shall be mountaineering.) Plus, they didn't want it stealing energy that would be better vested in something like core work, pulls ups, etc.

Enough of that! DianeS, always enjoy hearing that you are squatting! I can just see your head bobbing up and down if one looks thru the window at just the right angle. Hope that DH is doing better and better. Love to all the rest of you, too!

Shel

PS, it is sunny and gorgeous in Seattle today. Rainier is out to the South and Baker is out to the North. Tis true we have lots of grey...but it just makes days like today downright flashy.

Hey Shel

We have 4 Big Angus Girls - Breeder named them - B8 -who has had 2 calves already - shes the leader of the bunch and I might say as fat as mud - would be pushing 1100lbs. Then C1, C2 & C4 (my DH calls exploder cow - ex Army so sees the humour in that) They would be between 880 - 990 lbs each. Well cared for. Then we have B8's Calf who I named Mikaela after my best friend who died of cancer 3 days after my VSG. She will be a breeder too when old enough.

Then there is a Angus Steer and a Angus x Heifer who are destined to feed our families collectively. My SIL & BIL have sheep - we used to on previous farm. So recently we were lucky enough to be given 2 whole lambs for the freezer. We will reciprocate with Beef when the time comes. Its a blessed way to live - living off the land. My other SIL grows all her own fruit n Veg plus she has Dexter cattle - which are about half the size of ours. We all share. Once we move to the farm we will also grow fruit n veg and continue to make preserves etc to share between family and friends

It makes me happy :)

Thanks for asking

Thanks for the details.....I grew up on a cattle farm (Polled Herefords) so I enjoyed your description more than you know. We would occasionally have sheep, too. Never pigs.....tho we had an official hog barn with cute little pens in within.

My brother has a regular job but has a working mini farm with various animals and crops cycling in and out. I would be terrible at that sort of thing (I am bad at maintenance...ha!) but I really appreciate others who make it work.

I have seen Dexters...super cute!

Cool names. Cows do have their own personalities, for sure. When DH and I had our "play" farm, among others, we had Old Cow (the matriarch and bully of the lot), Sad Cow (she, poor thing, kept loosing her calves- birthed one into the pond, something drug another out under the fence and munched it some-- so that, when she finally did have a calf that made it- she didn't know what to do and near deserted and rejected it) and of course, several Bad young bulls who found themselves packaged nicely in the freezer.