Saturday January 23, 2021

I hadn't given a thought to fortified cereal. I was a big cereal eater pre-sleeve, but not since. I suppose at that point, I'd rather take a pill than load up on the carbs! I loved Cream of Wheat as a kid. I remember the yummy texture vividly!

You know me, I enjoy the Healthline website, so here you are:

Increasing Iron absorption

You and me both! I read that too. I was thinking if I was having this much trouble at 1600 calories imagine what someone who can only eat 1200 to lose would encounter...

I have to take iron supplements- I just can't get enough without that.

It was a winter paradise here today! Sunny skies (mostly) and not too cool. Upper 50s to low 60s. It was indeed very pleasant in the sun this afternoon.

I spent the afternoon cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. Oh, it felt so nice to clean. Sometimes it just feels good, doesn't it? Other times it can be a real chore, but sometimes I really do enjoy it. Today was one of those days. When I'm in that type of cleaning mode, furniture gets moved, baseboards are washed, etc... Hoping to do a little bit more tomorrow, but my cleaning mojo wanes quickly.... No promises!

Covid news in California is looking pretty dismal.... sigh.... at the rate of vaccination progress in our "great" state, it is projected that the majority of Californians who want the vaccine will all be vaccinated by MID 2022. Really???? WTF? In the USA during the last week the Covid death rate averaged 1 death every 30 seconds. That's 2,880 deaths per day. According to the NY Times death toll was over 3000 per day Jan 15-22. I struggle with the enormity of those figures.

Talked with the NUT about losing weight. I DID NOT get the go ahead, however. I did get encouragement on how well I'm doing, etc... and an assignment to really investigate, "What would weight loss look like for Peps?" The NUT is fairly convinced that if I go into "diet mode" it will only be a matter of time before the Eating Disorder gets fed up and releases the Compulsivity Kracken. Of course, those are my words, not hers, but you get the picture... So, I have to figure out a way to lose weight that takes the dysfunctional diet aspect of losing weight off the table.

So, I decided to weigh myself this morning. I weighed 273.1. Five weeks ago I weighed 273.1. BINGO! I have found my maintenance mojo at this elevated weight. Because I have been faithfully tracking for weeks and weeks I have a good reference on what it "looks" like to maintain this weight. Found a couple of decent on line calorie calculators and put in stats. Looks like for "rapid" weight loss of 2 pounds per week I'm looking at about 1800 calories per day. Trainer and NUT don't want me lower than 2,000 on workout days, so that seems pretty doable.

I am counting calories today and maybe one or two days next week, during the school week to get a baseline on how I distribute my calories. Today my breakfast was a 2 egg scramble with chicken breast, chopped spinach, 1 string cheese, and 1/2 a mini avocado with a slice of Ezekiel bread. Additionally I had 1 tsp of avocado oil, and 1 tsp of Kerrygold butter. Calories were 550ish. Lunch was lighter -Whole milk Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1 TBS chopped pecans, 1/4 whipped cream, and 1 apple. Lunch was about 350 calories. I have about half my calories left for the day. Hmmmm..... a larger lunch would probably have been a good idea. Oh, well...

And that, dear friends, is where I am today. It is a fine place to be!