Let's Eat...

Warning! This post includes descriptions of delicious food...if this triggers you, read no further!

Saturday was beautiful, and I spent the day planting my tomatoes, peppers, sugar snap peas, leeks, green onions, and some herbs. The weather was almost hot, so I wore shorts and a tank top to work outside. Well, the minute those tomatoes were in the ground, it started to rain, and has rained hard almost non-stop since. And it is cold! I am so mad…my tomatoes WILL NOT grow if it rains and is cold and there is no sun. We had that kind of weather last summer...in fact, our summer sucked. So I'm hoping for better weather this year, and the sooner the better.

We went to church Sunday morning (I ushered), and then we went to my mom's house for Easter dinner. All my relatives noticed that Hub and I have both lost weight since they last saw us at Christmas. Hub and I used Easter day as our 4HB cheat day (instead of our normal Saturday). So…I ate and ate...and ate some more...and didn't feel guilty. This was really a first for me, to eat with abandon in front of people, especially in front of my mom.

I ate ham, scalloped potatoes, jello salad, rolls with butter, deviled eggs, and a piece each of 2 different kinds of cake (pineapple-upside-down and carrot), both with real whipped cream. Plus 3 glasses of champagne. I ate until I almost felt sick. Hub and I kept laughing and telling everyone that our diet requires us to eat like that. My relatives were shocked, especially my mom. She kept asking…how can you eat like that and lose weight? I said, I don't know. But I guess if you only eat like this once a week, the program works.

Normally I only weigh once a week on Friday. But out of curiosity, I weighed on Monday, just to view "the damage." I had gained 3 lbs, but no worries. I'm right back on the program, and the 3 lbs will be gone by Friday morning.

This morning, I went to a meeting and there were donuts. I passed them up without a second thought (except briefly it crossed my mind that I might have a donut on Saturday). But one of the guys said…How come you're not having a donut? I told him I was on a low-carb diet. He just looked at me, shook his head, and said…Why the hell are you on a diet?

I was flattered of course, but it is a good question to ponder in the larger sense. I've spent my whole life on a diet...the question is WHY?

I ought to be ashamed...

I forgot my wedding anniversary today. My 18th. YIKES.

A co-worker and I were driving to a meeting in a nearby town this morning, and as we chatted, he was telling me that he and his wife got married "twice" (they eloped, then got married again in a ceremony with family and friends). I asked him what date he considers his actual anniversary, when all of a sudden, a thought went through my head. I asked him what today's date was...April 21. CRAP! Sure enough, today is the date. My 18th wedding anniversary. At that moment, I felt awful.

I called Hub right away, knowing he wouldn't have remembered either. And he hadn't. But I don't expect him to. It's not his job. It's MY job to remind him in advance. I was a bit surprised when he said, "What kind of people are we???" Rhetorically, not accusatorily. More like..."Who totally forgets their wedding anniversary? How is that possible?" I said, "It's okay, we've had a lot going on," but he was pissed. Not too much, mostly at himself, and not at me.

Later, he just called me and offered to cook dinner tonight. But he is still not 100% recovered and it doesn't seem fair that he has to work to make an "anniversary" dinner for me. I know he's very lucky that I married him (*smile*) but we should both enjoy ourselves, together.

Instead I suggested we go out to a local Greek restaurant we both like and have their omelets. They are made with gyro meat, feta cheese, tomatoes, and olives. We can both have a salad and a glass (or two) of wine (and hold hands...the best part.). He really brightened up at that suggestion. That way, we will still have stayed on our 4HB diet. So that's what we are going to do. And we'll be able to save up our cheat day for Easter Sunday. (Normally our cheat day is Saturday, but Sunday we'll go to my mom's with my bro & SIL & niece. Lots of food, rolls, dessert, & such...aka Carb Central. So we're holding off an extra day.)

Anyway, I feel guilty for forgetting the date, mostly because I forgot to remind him. I know that sounds weird, but he counts on me for certain things, and this is one of them. I never want him to feel bad or guilty for forgetting. And because guilt is such an ingrained part of me (thanks, Mom), I hate "guilt" as an emotion, no matter who is feeling it. So Hub & I agreed years ago that I would just remind him because I'm usually very good at dates and such.

What is the moral of the story? Put a reminder in your Outlook calendar for a few days in advance of your anniversary. (Yes, I've already done it for the next 5 years...)

Have a wonderful Easter weekend! Don't eat too many chocolate bunnies!

This and That...

Not much going on. Just thought I'd write a quick post to keep in touch.

I'm just wishing the weather would improve so I could plant my tomatoes. I can't believe how cold it is, in spite of being mid-April. It snowed on Sunday night! This morning it was 35 degrees on my way to work. I heard on the news that it might even get into the 20s (not sure where they were talking about, maybe it wasn't in the Seattle area). At least today the sun was out for a while.

My leg still looks awful, and is covered with big dark bruise spots at the injection sites. But I'm still being patient. The tech said to give it 4 weeks minimum, so I will wait before I start to evaluate whether I'm happy or not.

I find that the longer I stay on the 4HB diet, the less I want to eat. I really don't have much of an appetite for what's allowed, so I'm eating "enough" but not a lot. I wonder if that is part of the idea, you get bored and so you don't eat? Whatever, I don't really miss food during the week, although I do enjoy my cheat day. I did weigh myself today, and I'm down 1 more pound.

Well, sorry for the boring post. Maybe I'll get inspired if the weather improves.

I'll leave you with this photo...Hub & went shopping on Sunday at an Asian market that just moved to a new location. Thought you might like to see this big fish (Opah) that they had in the fish case. It's hard to tell how big he was from the photo, but I think he weighed about 100 lbs!

Wait and See

To be honest, I’m not sure about the sclerotherapy. But for those of you who are interested, here’s what happened:

The technician was really nice, and explained what she was going to do. She said I could watch if I wanted, but I don’t really like needles. So I declined.

I had taken a couple of Tylenol about an hour beforehand, and I listened to my iPod during. The procedure really didn’t hurt very much. Once in a while, I had a feeling like I was being stung by a bee, but overall it was pretty painless.

After the procedure was over (it took about 45 minutes), I was supposed to wear some compression panty hose for at least 24 hours. The clinic doesn’t supply them, but gave instructions on what to get beforehand. So before my appointment, I went to Nordstrom and bought what I thought was the correct size based on my height and weight. In fact, according to the chart, I was on the low side of XL. I could have weighed 10 lbs more and been 2 inches taller and still been an XL. So I figured I had plenty of room for error.

Well, I could barely get them up past my knees, and I struggled so hard to pull them up that I put a big rip in the butt. I finally got the crotch up to within about 3 inches of where it should have been, but as I walked around, it kept slipping down. And my muffin top was pushed out over the top. I felt like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. lol

This was definitely the worst part of the whole experience. When I got home, I thought, No way can I wear these to work tomorrow! So I took those suckers off and cut off the panty part and just wore them as stockings yesterday and today. This seemed to work okay, but the whole compression pantyhose experience sucked. I hate even regular old pantyhose, and these were "bad pantyhose" multiplied exponentially.

Now, 2 days later, I have an ankle that looks like crap. The technician said the veins would look worse before they look better, and the part about looking worse is definitely true. But I’m supposed to give it at 4-6 weeks before I make a final judgment on the results. So I’m optimistic that it will improve as everything heals.

Tomorrow is my day off, which I'm looking forward to. Yeah, baby!

Vain about veins

Just to start off…sorry I haven't posted much lately. Everything is fine, but I have been very busy. Yeah, I know...I'm sure I am the only blogger in the world with this problem. :-)

Hub is now on Coumadin for his blood clot, and that seems to be resolving. Although he has to go in every other day for blood tests to check his INR levels, he is feeling better, and his knee is getting stronger. So my own mental state is much improved from last time I posted. (I know I shouldn't let his moods affect mine so much, but they do.) I'm back at work on a normal schedule, which also helps my sanity.

As for my diet…Well, I haven’t lost any weight in the past month, but I’ve not gained any either. I think I’m so close to my goal that it will take extraordinary measures to get there, and to be honest, right now I’m just not that motivated. (Maybe I’ll get more into it as the summer approaches…who knows?) Anyway, I’ve decided that the number I’ve chosen as my "ideal weight" is really just an arbitrary number. So I’m still following the 4HB program pretty closely, which is comfortable and not hard to do at all. I will admit I’ve slipped up a bit on my personal restriction of no fake sweeteners (it's not a 4HB restriction, just something I was doing on my own). I’ve been eating some sugar free jello (only one a day) and using Splenda in my coffee (also only one a day). I guess if that’s what it takes, there are worse things.

I’m having a procedure done this afternoon, which is totally for vanity purposes. As I've mentioned previously, I sprained my right ankle very badly a number of years ago, and it swelled up literally to the size of a tree trunk. It was so huge, it looked deformed and I wondered at the time if it would ever look normal again. I still have issues with it from time to time when I over exercise or tweak it a bit from walking on uneven ground. But for the most part, the swelling has gone down and it’s a “normal” ankle.

But there are some residual effects from the extreme swelling that took place. I have broken blood vessels, called spider veins, all over the outside of my leg that have never gone away. I actually have a very dark band of vessels around where the top of my sock hits, and a patch on the ankle bone area too. They are just plain ugly and I’m very self-conscious about them, especially when I wear shorts or a bathing suit. (Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, I just took it with my Blackberry camera.)

So…This afternoon, I’m having sclerotherapy to have them removed! I saw this on Dr Oz a while ago and decided to inquire about it. There is a fairly new solution (FDA approved about a year ago) which is used to treat them, called Asclera, which I guess does a really great job. I’ve done some research, and the vast majority of the reviews have been quite positive. I'm also having it done at a plastic surgery clinic, and they've also gotten wonderful reviews. So I'm not having it done by amateurs.

I’m a little nervous (mostly because I hate needles!) but I think I will be glad I did it. I figured I should have it done before (if) the summer weather shows up here, as it takes a few weeks for the effects to be complete.

I’ll let you know how it goes.