New Years Eve 2018

Weight: 134.0
Macros: Calories - 2,054, Carbs - 190, Fats - 72, Protein - 116, Fiber - 17
Sleep hours: 6
Vegetable/Fruit Servings: 6
Water glasses: 2
Exercise: 10,700 steps
Meditation: Yes

First, a weather report: It's raining cats and dogs here this morning. The sound of a drumming rain on the roof is so lovely. :)

Yesterday was a Whoops! calorie day, thanks to a belated holiday gift I received yesterday - a can of salmon pate and a bag of foccacia crisps. So here's today's rhetorical question #1: WHY do I think I can moderate my eating of a trigger food (in this case, "gourmet" crackers) that someone gives me as a present, when I've already identified that food as so irresistible that I no longer buy it at the grocery store? And rhetorical question #2: How can someone as smart as me be so incredibly dumb? A different approach: In future when I'm gifted with a trigger food, I will IMMEDIATELY give it to someone else or throw it away!

Still, the scales were good to me (I'm down nearly a pound this morning). And in the TMI department, bathroom action has been excellent the last few days. I am beginning to think my body has been holding on to more than the usual amount of poop, due to all my good intestinal bugs having been killed off by those massive antibiotics I took a few weeks ago. ???

Yesterday I enjoyed another cold but nice walk with friends. Last night I got only 6 hours sleep, but I'm OK. And my eyelid looks even better this morning.

Today I'll finish filling the laundry baskets and pack them in the car. Tomorrow morning I'll head south after sunrise.

In closing, on a topic completely unrelated to weight maintenance, here's a crackerjack article on the therapeutic values of reading: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/can-readi ng-make-you-happier

Today's theme: Steady wins the race.

Often I have the strength to do #2 (throw or give), but sometimes not. I'm definitely better at it early in the day. I do use DH as an excuse to retain some stuff I shouldn't and sometimes it is just that: an excuse.

The article was interesting and I found myself in it: "avid readers who have been self-medicating with great books their entire lives". I learned to read early and loved it from the very beginning. And it is what I immersed myself in during times of pain. I remember reading constantly when my father and brother died, then reinforcing my self-medicating reading behavior to live with my alcoholic mother. And when DD was dying, I lay next to her and read at night. I read to medicate and I read for pleasure. I love that I can be in another world even if only for a little while. I can't go to sleep at night unless I read in bed until I am drowsy (in a dark room with minimal light on my paperwhite kindle of course).

I was thinking about your post cataract dysmorphia --- you had a choice of choosing what kind of sight you wanted corrected, right? Near or far? I would like lenses that make me (just me) look smaller in mirrors.....very much like the magic mirror in one the AirBNB's I stayed in. Small enough that I am pleased but not fun-house small that my brain recognizes it as fake. "Everyday reality is a lucid dream....."

About the gifted crackers. It was the gift part of it that made it so tricky. You are not dumb, you were surely hypnotized. That's why I was so impressed with DianeS driving around town to regift her sweet gifts. I was so impressed by her ACTION.

SO SO SO excited about NOLA.

LOL! Yes, that's it! I was hypnotized. Well, that explains everything!

And yes, I am having lenses implanted to correct for distance vision. I'll have to use readers and/or prescription reading glasses to read, work on computers, etc.

On your behalf, when I see my surgeon I'll ask him about the availability of magic skinny lenses. And also inquire if there are magic dewrinkling lenses.

Exactly how I did it ! Five years later, distance vision is fabulous ! Hang in there !

Dealing with treats/gifts/trigger foods: sometimes if I decide I want to indulge, I preemptively throw some out. I measure out my portion, then destroy the rest BEFORE I eat it. I refuse to feel guilty about throwing food away, and frankly, the food I'm throwing away probably isn't stuff that has much nutritional value... If it is something I have control over, but don't need to be eating, two words: teacher's lounge :) Gone in an instant!

My father still tries to pawn stuff off on me to take to school to put in the "Teachers Lounge". He's been retired for 26 years, but he remembers! LOL!

This is why we all laugh at my school and quip that teachers would be the easiest group to poison! Like you said, put it in the teachers lounge and it's gone in an instant!

LOL, I think I could name the first teachers who would go down; probably our new hires because 1. They're broke 2. Youthful metabolism, not afraid of treats 3. Still learning how to cook.

255.

Well the new year will not be met with a less than 250 on the scale. C'est la Vie! I don't mind. It was a choice. Onward. Silly me to think that during this week of in between I would get back on the stick! LOL! I had moments where I had to double check day and date, for heaven's sake!

Liz, you will like that I created lists for getting the trailer ready for our first adventure. I am checking items off as I go!

Cozy dog beds have been created in the trailer! The lower bunk is "puppy-fied" for Liza. She has a BIG wire crate with plush padding nestled in the cubby hole of the lower bunk. In front of her crate is room for a doggie bed for one of the boys, so I set that up, too. The big boy soft crates are stored along side in the space between the crate and the wall. I will pull those out at night, or if we go out. Though Ace and Lucky are trustworthy, IMO, and don't need to be crated. But it is safer for them to be in crates, should someone try to break in while we are gone (though hard to imagine at a dog show).

Some basic kitchen ware is also in the trailer, along with bathroom necessities. I want to find a small rubber backed mat for the water bowl and I want to find a small tea kettle for my pour overs. Our fancy mini Keurig arrived. I'm so underwhelmed! LOL! Ron is stoked about it. Dog food and bowls are packed, as are my show clothes. And shopping lists have been written. Our grocery list is mostly healthy.

Here is a nagging concern. The fellow who gave us the orientation used a wrench at the end of hitching the trailer to tighten something. For the life of me I can't remember what it was because I unhitched the trailer without needing to loosen anything! It wasn't until much later after unhitching the trailer that night that I remembered about the wrench. ARGH....

I must get myself ready for the day. Have to move some furniture out of my uncle's old apartment before it gets too late, get the shopping done, groom my own dogs, finish packing the trailer, and get to Walmart to pick up a sewer line for the rig so I can dump on the way home, and get the house cleaned up for BFF who is house and dog sitting while we go off to the desert. Of course, some of this can be done tomorrow, but I want to get as much done today as possible.

Ann, will you be posting regularly from NOLA? I hope so.

Greetings Simplifiers

Well at 153.5 my life is about as simple as it can get. I just don't fuss with stuff. Comes from basic laziness I think. But yesterday I did manage to get my dresser top cleared off. It was heaped with various items and I moved some other stuff around and got bedroom shelving tidied a little. Its still full of DH tools and electronic parts but art items are slightly visible. A small success for me.

Its sunny today though brisk. Maybe a dog walk in order. DH has not been walking Tesla due to his hernia. She was thrilled to get out yesterday even if it was to the pet groomers to get her nails clipped. Chip is putting on weight and needs to get out. I am already tired of everything revolving around DH hernia and we don't have a surgery date yet. Wed morning I am going to insist he get on the phone with that scheduler. Lets get on with it.

Save travels to Florida Liz. No doubt Justice will be happy to be back at home. Enjoy your dinner out. And safe travels to you to Ann. Glad the eye is improving. The NOLA ambiance will be healing.

Whew Peps, the glamper is like doing a whole second home. Lots of work. Have a fun trip to the desert.

BB when that next baby comes I bet your life expectations sort of evolve into workable ones. I used to want to do it all too and I think its part of aging to accept being comfortable with what you have. Anyway enjoy the journey. Becca has been a total joy for you (and us) and next year its a double dose. Being close in age the girls will be besties for life. We have two nieces that way. They share a room because they want to, not because they have too. They each picked a favorite paint color and then the two were mixed together to get the paint they used. A lovely sage green.

I still have more sweets to get rid of. These are the ones DH bought. I don't want to hurt his feelings. There are three boxes of Andes mints and I think he won't miss one or two of them. I am taking one to the gallery to give to customers. And NOT while I am working or I will eat them.

Steak and tomatoes last night - always a good combo. I will put some chuck steak in the slow cooker for veggie beef soup to watch bowl games.

Stay warm all. DD make liberal use of the heated seats. I used to take a heating pad to bed sometimes on cold midwestern nights. Also dogs.

Ann if you are going to eat crackers, eat the good ones with the salmon. Far better than squirt cheese on a ritz.

Cheers all. Time for more coffee. Diane S