Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Weight: 136.8
Veggies/Fruits: 11
Macronutrients: Cals - 1,342, Carbs - 142, Fats - 36, Protein - 94, Fiber - 34
Green SmartPoints: 25
Water: 1
Fitbit Recorded Sleep: 7'38"
Exercise: 85" yoga class (went extra long) and 10,100 steps

The scale continues its downward slide. This morning's weight is 0.6 pounds from my goal of my original 100-pound weight loss. Will be interesting to see what the WW scale says tomorrow. I'm getting pretty close to my WW goal on the WW scale, too.

My ??gout?? toe continues to feel better this morning; it's no longer red and doesn't really hurt, but is still a bit swollen. No problems at all with walking, so that's good.

And again today I have nothing important to say. What is wrong with me?

Nothing important means no disasters, so think of it as a positive thing.

Weight 128.8, WW blue points 6 (with lots of zero point foods). I didn't mean to go so low on points but it just happened yesterday. I wasn't hungry at any point. As long as I avoid wine it is pretty easy to follow WW especially here when I'm busy. Last year I was home so much I found myself snacking a lot. Not much time to snack now except in the evenings and I have a couple of zero point desserts that I love. I also was drinking wine way too often. As I've mentioned before the wine problem isn't entirely the calories/points, but it is the eating I tend to do after a glass or two. Incidentally, the WW leader told us last week the the most tracked beverage on the WW app in 2019 was wine.

I dropped the Honda CRV off yesterday to have the rear bumper/lift gate fixed after the rear end crash last May. The insurance company is paying for a rental so I have a brand new black Chevy Traverse, which is a honking big SUV. My friend said it's like a mafia car - LOL!

It has been super hot here (no complaint). We are taking the honking big mafia SUV to the beach today.

Enjoy hump day!

Yes, you're right ... no disasters is such a good thing.

Your posts sound so good to my ear. I'm glad you're finding so much to do down there and being so active. I'm also tickled about your WW success.

Thank you! Yes busy is good. A wise friend who was widowed last year said I should plan at least one activity per day.

Good morning. Yesterday was a win. Calories were not super low, but I refrained from sugar ALL DAY LONG. That in my book is a big win. I did, however, have a detox headache by the afternoon. Umm... that ought to be proof enough that sugar is addictive to some degree.

Weight was down a pound or so today.

Dinah, who weighed only 11 ounces 12 weeks ago, now weighs 16 pounds! Isn't that amazing?

Great workout for chest and upper body yesterday: one legged push ups on Bosu ball, inclined chest press, inside chest press, chest scoops, Chest flies followed by tricep pull downs, both of the last two for sculpting. The workout and two ibuprofen kicked the headache to the curb.

Ella was dropped off early at the vet hospital for her spay procedure today. I was a bit late getting there and was a bit late getting to work.... Thank goodness for late start Wednesdays! That's exactly why I schedule things like this on Wednesdays!

Had a meeting with the school superintendent today before late start. A casual type of thing. She wanted to follow up regarding an email I sent to her about district morale and climate. It was a good conversation and was very pleasant.

I am needing more coffee today. I'm usually a one cup in the morning guy. Must be in need of a bit of a jolt today! LOL!

I had a moment of gender enlightenment this morning. I've never equated my own feelings of inadequacy when I compare myself to male models to the well documented issues women faced for years in various media ads featuring "perfect" women. Kind of a "duh" moment, but I'm glad I had it. I suppose since I don't see women in a sexually objectified manner and take each one on her own merits and individuality, I didn't truly make the connection to how similar we must all feel or felt at one point in our lives.

Happy Hump Day!

I suppose that as teenagers most of us, regardless of gender, orientation, identification, etc., all had feelings of inadequacy.

Except for those skinny ***** majorettes, of course.

Seriously, I'm sure that lots of straight guys have had those feelings, as well. After all, they're human beans, too.

And, of course, there are the feelings of WTF?! everyone has as they age and rapidly start to look considerably different than they did as young adults or even middle-aged folks.

Cough!

Just yesterday at Walmart I watched a well dressed, well-groomed older woman (probably in her mid-80s) being pushed in a wheelchair by a relative. I was fascinated by her shrunken face and her frail body and tried to imagine how she might have looked as a young woman in full bloom.

Curious, do you have a teacher's union and tenure? We do in Minnesota, and there are always critiques that it enables bad teachers to keep their job, and teachers don't try as hard once they're tenured etc. I don't find that to be the case very often, but I do agree I have the rare colleague whom I look at and think, there's obviously no joy in this for you, how do you make yourself come here every morning? But one thing I do think tenure creates is brave teachers. It's easier to speak up. I've gone toe to toe with administrators over what I thought a student needed, and it sure makes it easier to do knowing I have tenure. Just wondering if you have that protection too, or are you even braver and can speak truth to power without a union behind you?

Yes, I do have a union and tenure. I sometimes feel like one of those old teachers who is slacking by on tenure, but I know I'm not. I simply have an older teacher's wisdom, experience and knowledge that precludes me from jumping on each new educational miracle cure that comes down the pike!

I have been a "brave" teacher for many years. I was on the bargaining team, then advanced to lead negotiator for several years. I am not afraid to speak up for what I believe is right for both students and teachers. That is basically why the superintendent wanted to see me. I sent her a note on Friday commenting on how some teachers are experiencing punitive consequences and that those cases are far less isolated than she might understand. It was a very positive conversation and about sharing information.

I have secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) laughed for years about our statewide teacher union always touting it wants what's best for the kids... For heaven's sake... it's a white collar labor union. Yes, the union does want what's best for kids, as long as it's not at the expense of teacher salaries, benefits, work conditions, etc....

Now I will say, happy teachers make a much more positive impact than a Dour Doris hating every minute teaching remedial mathematics down the hall in Room 127.

Weight ?

Well it happened, I fell off the wagon Monday and Tuesday. I was doing okay until midday Monday and then I just thought, f$&# it and ate all the "fun" things I'd been doing so well at keeping around and eating moderately. And I broke my fasting streak too. Yesterday was more of the same. Today I stayed in bed until 11, mad at myself and not interested in starting the day (though I did get up at 6:30 for Ferg pill time and his breakfast and go outside time at 7:30, but I went back to bed). I didn't bother weighing today. Interesting how eating like that makes me feel so bad about myself and is so depressing.

But I am back on track with both food and the fasting hours today. I'm not sure what those two days were about, maybe frustration that at a pound and change a week now it's going to take a while to get where I should to be? And frustration with tracking everything. And frustration with life in general. Even though I know I'm very lucky in many respects and I'm so grateful for that, it's been a very lonely one.

Blah. Enough of that. Just thought it was important to be honest. When I'm "good" I'm very good. When I'm not, I take that to extremes too.

You are not alone, my friend! We all tend to be our own worst enemies, I think. So proud of you for getting back on the horse today. It usually takes me much longer than a day to pull myself together. I'm mighty impressed by your fortitude.

There have been times that I have imagined being in bed having dramatic withdrawal from eating crap food, writhing and feeling sorry for myself. It's part of my cycle, I think! It's kind of comical when I stop to think about it, but the fact remains that it's a real feeling and there is part of me that could rally around that needed rest and reset. The fact that you were able to stay in bed and take that time to regroup and reset is really awesome.