2014 was a pretty good year

This morning on my way to work, I was reflecting on the past year.  The Good, the Bad AND the Ugly.  So here’s some of the highlights (if you’ve been following me, some of this is old news to you)...along with a some random photos

Good:  Great actually...Seahawks won the Super Bowl!  Need I say more?

The Final Score...Seahawks YEAH!

Bad: Buster tore his ACL in August and had to have surgery.  That little dog is my own personal money pit, but totally worth it, of course.

Caged and Coned after surgery

Good: Buster’s surgery went splendidly, and we have had no other expensive incidents to deal with the rest of the year.

Good: My work group moved into another building, away from the main City Hall, and I just love it there.  They haven’t started the remodel at City Hall yet, so we could be there awhile (hope hope hope).  I love the fact that this is an old house that used to be a mortuary in the 1950's.  Several people who have worked here claim to have seen or heard ghosts.  So far, I haven't, but I'm interested!  

My Cubicle with a View (of the cars on the street )

Bad:  I was in a semi-serious traffic accident in October.  I was on my way home from visiting my mother, driving 60 miles an hour on the freeway.  Out of the blue an older guy veered into my lane and hit me (not once, but 3 times…I think he had some kind of medical event, as he was very confused as to who hit whom).  Fortunately, I was able to control my car throughout the whole thing, and neither of us was hurt.  Otherwise, I might not be here to tell the story.
  
Ugly: Unfortunately, my 2007 Acura RDX, also known as "Ruby", who I loved dearly, was totaled.  I spent the next 2 months driving Hub’s pickup truck because I didn’t want to deal with renting a car through the insurance company.  They were being difficult and of course wanted to give us a pittance for Ruby.

Poor Ruby

Good: just last week got my replacement vehicle, a slightly used 2014 Audi Q5 TDI (diesel), which is pretty nice.  We always name our vehicles, so my husband came up with the name Maudi (Maude + Audi = Maudi...get it? lol) 

This is not my actual car, but she looks like this (from Google images)

Good: We had some lovely trips:
Palm Springs in February

Tootie's Barbeque in Palm Springs...it was featured on Restaurant Impossible
We ate there a few times

Cruise to Alaska in May with Hub's high school chums

Blue glacier

Our just completed trip to Florida/Caribbean/Puerto Rico. 

Stone crabs in Florida...yum!

Kennedy Space Center...impressive

A new friend in Puerto Rico

Another Friend in Grenada...he stared at us while we took photos
as if to say..."are you looking at me?"

Can't go to the Caribbean without going to at least one rum factory

The harbor in Saint Lucia

BOSS excursion (Breathing Observation Submersible Scooter) in St. Thomas...so much fun

Bad: My mom’s health and memory continues to slowly decline.  So, I’m spending more time with her.   

Ugly: Unfortunately, she has started accusing me of some really odd things, which have also been very hurtful.  It’s like she’s failing, but is still cognizant enough to know what to say to really push my buttons.

EXTRA GOOD:  Last, but definitely not least…Intermittent Fasting (IF)!
Discovering this way of eating has been a godsend for me. For the first time in my life, I am not obsessing over my weight.  It's been stable throughout vacation and holidays.  In the new year, I want to lose a bit more.  I'll elaborate on how I intend to do that in a separate post.

So there it is...a bit of a retrospective of 2014.  I am looking forward to 2015...hope you all are too!

Ummm...?

Not sure what to say about this store in San Juan PR, except it made me laugh when I saw it.

No, I didn't go inside.

On Vacation and Doing Great!

Hi out there to anyone who is still reading. Wow, it's been almost 2 months since I last posted.

Hub and I have been on vacation since November 20.  We spent a week in Florida, then went on a weeklong Caribbean cruise, and are now spending a week in Puerto Rico.  I feel like I've been away from home forever.  (Actually I'm getting a bit homesick, mostly for B, I think.  I'm looking forward to HOME, going back to the office, and getting back on a "normal" schedule...although with the upcoming holidays it might not be totally normal for a few weeks)

So, in spite of this lengthy time away from home, I've been pretty much sticking to my IF window for eating.  Actually it's been easy, because Hub gets up late.  So we don't eat until at least noon; then as the day goes on, we usually are done with food by 7:30.  So the eating window has expanded a bit.  However, with all the traveling, we don't eat much in the afternoon.  So from a practical standpoint, the amount of food I'm eating is less than if I weren't sticking with a modified IF plan.

I am eating more carbs than usual...a few desserts, a few beers, etc.

My favorite beer so far...PITON from the island of Saint Lucia

The real PITONS and the namesake of the Beer

But the bottom line is...my pants still fit just fine; in fact they feel a bit looser than when we left.  Probably all the walking, and keeping busy. 

I'm very happy with that.

So, when I get home next week, I'll post an update with a few more photos. 

Right now we are off to the Rio Piedras Market in San Juan, PR.

Take care, everyone!

After 4 Months of Intermittent Fasting

Hello out there!  I wanted to give a quick update on my progress with Intermittent Fasting.

I have fallen into a very comfortable routine.  Here's my eating schedule Monday through Friday:

• I have coffee in the morning with heavy cream and some coconut oil.  The fat in the cream and coconut oil seems to keep me from being hungry all morning. 

• Sometimes around 11:30, I do get a bit hungry.  At that point, I analyze whether I "need" to eat (do I feel shaky?) or am I just "feeling hungry"?  If I'm shaky, I eat a few nuts, a piece of cheese or an Atkin's bar.

• If I'm "just" hungry, I ignore it (even if my stomach is growling a bit).  The amazing thing is, if I ignore the feeling of hunger, it usually goes away. I often find it's 2:30 or 3 pm before I realize "hey! it's time to eat something!"

• So, after 2 pm, I will have some yogurt and a piece of fruit; or cheese and some fruit; something like that.  Something light.

• Then I eat dinner at around 7 pm.  That's usually a large bowl of soup, or salad with protein, or low-carb pasta with protein.  I don't worry about how much I'm eating, I just eat until I'm full, then I stop. I have found that I get full pretty fast...the amount of food I can comfortably eat is much less now. 

• Usually I don't eat anything else in the evening after dinner.  But sometimes I am still hungry, so I might even have a small dish of (full fat) ice cream.  In general, however, I do try to not eat anything after 8:30. 

• On the weekend, I'm a bit more lax about the times, the amounts of food, etc, but in general I still don't eat until after noon. We eat out with friends on Saturday night, and I eat whatever I want.  I also usually have a few cocktails or glasses of wine (Hub drives :-)), and dessert if I want it. 

In addition to the eating schedule, I have been working out a few times a week.  HIIT (20 minutes of cardio); and light weights and some ab exercises.  I shoot for 4 times a week, but I've been averaging 3 times a week.

So, that's about it.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE NOT THINKING ABOUT FOOD for most of the day.  No packing a lunch, or a bunch of "small snacks" as I used to have to do.  (Ugh, I used to hate that, so sometimes I'd skip it and end up eating fast food crap.) Then not worrying about calories, etc, at night is great.  Hub tends to cook low carb so I guess that probably has assisted in the weight loss.  

I still don't weigh myself, but I wanted to keep some kind of record of my progress.  So in June, just as I was starting IF, I took some photos of my midsection; and I just took a few more photos a few days ago.  Here are the results:

I have a (tanning booth) tan in the second photo, but still, I think the results are pretty obvious.  My stomach flab and love handles, which have always what I dislike the most about my body, have gone down significantly.  (And I actually seem to be developing abs!  I haven't had abs since I was in my 20's.)

In the first photo, I was wearing 14's.  Now I'm comfortably wearing a size 10. 

Anyway, I'll just be keeping on.

Hope all is well out there in Blogland!  

Crazy comments about steam showers

Well, a few weeks ago I was laughing about how I was getting so many hits on my blog post entitled "I Feel Like I'm On Drugs."

Not laughing now.  Just annoyed.  I've started to get a lot of spam comments on all my posts.  The ridiculous thing is, they are mostly about "steam showers."  No clue as to why, but this morning alone, I've had 30 comments related to steam showers.  They don't show up on the blog as they go into my spam comment folder, but they do show up on my email and I have to delete them from there.

So, I am enabling the word verification feature.  I hope everyone who reads and comments will continue to do so!

Thanks!

PS. Update: Just for your viewing pleasure, here is a sampling of the dozens (almost hundreds) of comments I've received in the last 3 days:

That is similar to my enclosure i actually got a hold of only recently, extremely satisfied with it for anyone on the fence  when it comes to acquiring one, get it done, you will not regret it

Simply adore all these steam showers

Fantastic site lots of terrific steam shower info here

Terrific steam showers, my family had one of these built  about five years ago and so it could do with modernizing, would never buy a bland old traditional kind of shower again

My Partner And I not too long ago setup our steam shower unit, best item we have decided to buy in a long while, children and relatives think it's great, can't see myself turning back to traditional showers ever again

Was actually trying to find just a traditional shower enclosure during which I stubled onto this fabulous site, wouldn't have any idea there was any such thing as a 'steam shower enclosure', really, might possibly just may have to have one

Many thanks for this web page, can blissfully say we currently have a steam shower of our own and we love it

A great deal of wonderful guidance on this great site, really need a steam shower unit in my bathroom

And so it went...on and on.  Kind of funny, really.

Update 2:  99% of the spam comments I was receiving were from "Anonymous."  So, instead of word verification, at Launna's suggestion, I'm just changing comment parameters to disallow anonymous commenters..  No word verification at this time...we'll see how it goes.  

All. Is. Well.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs this morning. I'm one of the folks on his blogroll, and it made me realize it's been 4 weeks since my last post. Four weeks...A month!

So I figured I'd give a quick update:

All is Well.

On the home front, this summer has been hectic.

As I mentioned earlier, Buster tore his ACL and had to have surgery.  He's doing great now, but is still not allowed to go up or down stairs, or get up on the furniture for at least another month, so we have to carry him up and down the stairs to go outside...thank heavens he is a small dog!  I can't imagine having to do this for a large animal.  (He is getting spoiled...the Little Prince now EXPECTS to be picked up and carried everywhere, even when it's not necessary.)

We've been taking him on at least one long walk a day and he isn't limping at all.  The surgeon did recommend he get underwater treadmill therapy, but it's expensive and time consuming, so we decided against it.  My rationale is as long as we take him on a good walk everyday and continue massaging his leg and doing his range-of-motion exercises, he'll be fine.  So I don't feel guilty (well, a little guilty, but that's the Catholic in me).  We're still having him sleep in his pen, just so he can't wander around at night and perhaps hurt himself.  He actually seems to like sleeping there, and it's so much more comfortable for Hub and me without him on the bed; we might just have him sleep there from now on. 

We had visitors off and on for the last month; the last two just left a week ago.  They were my Hub's sister and her daughter, who is a typical(?) 16 year old.  (Was I ever that dramatic at her age?  I can truthfully say...No, I wasn't...because my mother would have slapped me.)  Another was Hub's very strange nephew who is completely lacking in social skills.  Needless to say, I "had" to work a lot while they were here.  My job kept my sanity.   

At work, my office building will be undergoing a major remodel; so they needed to move some people out temporarily (for probably a year).  My group volunteered, so the 4 of us will be moving into "the Annex" next week, which is an old house next door to our building.  We are a really cohesive group, we all get along great, so I think it will be fun and a welcome change of scenery.

My mom continues to have various health problems and I've been spending some extra time with her (this is in part why I don't have time to take B to water therapy).  Her memory is getting really bad, and I can see that within a year she may need to move to a memory care facility.  In a way, we are closer now, because she seems to have lost a lot of her "critical" self, so she's nicer to me and not constantly commenting on my looks and weight.  So, in spite of my having to repeat myself or listen to her tell me the same thing over and over, she's easier to get along with.  

I'm still doing IF, still losing weight, although slowly now. But the bottom line is I'm in this for the long haul. This is a new way of life for me (well, not so new anymore...I've been doing it several months now).

I'm still feeling content and calm and normal and HAPPY.  My food obsession is gone. I don't feel deprived ever, because I'm eating pretty much what I want...during a 6 hour window.  When I say "pretty much what I want," that means for the most part I "want" healthy stuff because that's what makes me feel good.  Stuff like protein, nuts, salad, veggies, occasionally a little fruit.  (I've also found that I tend to get full really quickly.)  We don't eat out much, but when we go out to dinner, I usually order a salad.  Last Saturday night I had a steak salad, and last night I had an ahi tuna salad.  I'm not eating much sugar or white flour, but it's because I really don't crave it anymore.  And the less "white stuff" I eat, the less I want.

From the IF life: 
Keep (insulin) levels low by not eating sugar or foods that quickly break down into the bloodstream (processed foods, breads, cereals, pasta) Just say to yourself every time you are about to put sugar in your mouth, “I don’t want to burn any fat for the next 3-4 hours”...as that is exactly what you are telling your body with your hormonal response from the ingestion of sugar! 

I've actually started to say that to myself, and it really works to help me avoid eating the white stuff.  Funny how such a small thing yields such positive results, both physically and mentally.

Another philosophy of the author of the IF life is "Do activities you enjoy…. But stop some excessive pre-planned cardio routine that you “think” is burning fat….when the complete opposite may actually be going on."

This also makes a lot of sense to me.  I've started doing some light weights to tone up, but I don't do much cardio anymore.  Twice a week, I do the HIIT, but mostly I just try to be active around the house...gardening, cleaning out the closets...things that give me a little workout and also accomplish something that makes me feel productive.  Nothing too dramatic, but I'm seeing results there too (and my house is getting organized). 

Well, that's about it.  The weather here has been beautiful for most of the last month, this weekend the temperatures have been in the 80s.  However, you can definitely feel the nip in the air at night.  So I guess technically our summer is over.

Hope all is well out there in Blogland!

Drugs...LOL!

I don't have a lot of followers and I'm not used to getting a lot of page views.  Typical number for me is 5 up to maybe 20 a day.  Once in a while 30, but for me, that's a lot.

I finally figured out how to get more page views...

Use the term "drugs" in the title.

I'm not getting any more "real" comments than usual (although I am getting a few more "spam" comments on that post which I see in my email but which go directly into the spam folder).  

But the number of page views has  gradually increased each day since I wrote that post...and today so far I have received over 200 views on that post alone.

I'm sure whoever is reading it is pretty disappointed when they actually see what the post is about. 

Buster's HOME

Just brought B home from the hospital.  Right now he is sleeping in his new "digs," an x-pen that will keep him confined so he can't try to climb up on anything, or slip on our hard wood floors.  Other than when he goes outside to visit Mother Nature, or when he has physical therapy, he'll be in this pen for the next few weeks.  He also has to wear a "cone of shame" so that he can't bite or lick his stitches.  But he's such a trooper.  That poor little dog has been through a lot in his 10 years of life, yet he is always so stoic and brave.

You can't see the stitches because they are on the inside of his thigh

Buster and his cone

He can see out the window so he can still keep an eye on his domain

I did take the opportunity of talking to the orthopedic surgeon to ask about something that has bothered me for years and for which I've felt guilty...whether the long (I mean hours looooong) walks he and I used to take when he was young could be related to all these joint problems he has now (elbow dysplasia, bad hips, and now this).  I've always worried that I wore out my dog!  She eased my mind and said in fact all the walking probably kept him from having more serious problems earlier in life.  She showed me on the x-ray how, although his hip bones are horrible, they are surrounded by super strong muscles. She said it was obviously from lots of exercise as a young dog...and even though he hasn't been able to walk very fast in the past few years because of the elbow dysplasia, Hub and I still take him to the park almost every day and watch his weight very carefully.  Plus he gets a glucosamine treat and fish oil every day.  So that made me feel better and actually kind of proud of being such a good pet mom.
 
So yesterday I was still a bit crazy in my eating, mostly because of the stress of B having surgery.  I ate 2 candy bars in the afternoon for almost 800 calories, but because I wasn't in the mood to eat much of anything else, I think my calories were still only around 1500 for the day.  I still do eat emotionally on occasion.  But it's rare now and I can see that it's usually related to a specific stressful event, rather than a daily mechanism for just coping with everyday life in general.   

The bottom line with IF is that you eat less because you don't eat as many times a day...it's not a magic bullet.  Let's be honest, caloric restriction is really why you lose weight. But it just seems to work better for me than multiple small meals a day, even if the calorie totals are the same.

So, now that B is okay and home, today I'm back on track and it feels good to be back in "the Zone" as Launna recently posted on her blog.  This morning, while I was getting the pen out of the basement for B, I found another box of clothes that I put away a few years ago because they were too small.  I spent a few minutes trying them on...they still don't fit.  But now it's because they are too big! I missed the "just right" phase...but no complaints here!

It's a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest and looks to be a lovely weekend.  I hope everyone is enjoying the summer before it's gone!  Before we know it, autumn will be here!

Buster's Having Surgery

Buster started limping on Saturday, not using one of his back legs.  But he really didn't seem in pain.  He was his same cheerful self, wanted to play with his stuffed squirrel, was eating fine.  So while I was concerned, I wasn't freaking out.  After he had the ruptured disk 2 years ago, the neurologist told us he would always be prone to back trouble, so I thought perhaps his back was bothering him a bit.  I thought it might get better, but in fact it kept getting worse.

 
So I took him back to the same wonderful specialty vet clinic today, and the good news is it wasn't his back.  The bad news is, he ruptured his ACL.  But again, the good news is the problems is very common in small dogs and is totally fixable. 

So he will need to have surgery, and we scheduled it for tomorrow.  I figure the sooner the better.  (The bad news is the surgery is very expensive but...oh well.) 

So, along with that, my mother has also been sick (nothing serious) so I have been dealing with her and with her inability to remember anything, including not taking her medication properly.  Plus she is just very argumentative and generally not very nice to me.  I know it's not really her fault, but she is trying my patience big time. 

And I have a tooth that is bothering me.  The tooth has already had root canal and a crown many years ago, and my dentist thinks it is probably cracked.  So I will probably need to have it pulled and an implant placed.  More $$$.  I'm lucky I have dental insurance through my job, but I don't think it will cover the whole cost.

Anyway, in spite of all this, I've mostly been sticking with the IF, and am still losing weight.  Today I did go a bit off plan because I had a hectic day and decided WTF, I just need to eat and not worry about it.  Too much stress to be focused on food (or the lack thereof.)  So I'm okay with that.

Well, time to get to bed...have to get up early to get B to the vet by 7 am.   

I Feel Like I'm On Drugs...

And believe me, I know what being on drugs (speed, LSD, mescaline, you name it...I was a wild hippie girl in college) feels like...and this is BETTER than that...because the experience doesn't end.

This Intermittent Fasting is almost scary.

In 8 weeks, I have gone from:

• Lethargic...to energized throughout the whole day

• Pants from a (tight) size 14...to a loose size 12 (I haven't ventured into 10's yet...that's next!)

• A waist of 36 inches...to a waist of 33; shirts that were too tight fit fine now or are even BAGGY; a bra that I was too small 2 months ago fits perfectly now...no "overhang" at all

• Uncomfortable in the night with constant joint pain...to sleeping like a baby

• Hungry all the time...to almost never hungry!  (Sometimes I have to make myself eat)

• Cranky with even a tendency to be nasty to friends, family, and co-workers...to "Ms. Nice" with a pleasant attitude regarding almost everything, including stupid/silly/irritating "stuff"

• Craving junk food...to wanting nuts, salad, vegetables, protein (and fat! yes, FAT!...Give Me FAT!  I'll elaborate in another post)

• So TIRED in the morning...to getting up a half hour before I need to!

Seriously, this IF way of life is so EASY for me.  Right now, it still doesn't feel normal, but I'm going to enjoy it.  I feel like I have been given a SECRET, one that I've searched for my whole life.

As they say on Duck Dynasty (yes, I love that show), I feel...

Still Doing the IF Life

Gosh, almost 3 weeks since my last post.  Just been truckin’ along, doing the intermittent fasting thing.  It's been about 6 weeks now.  It’s hard to describe how well this is working for me.

• Pants that were tight a month ago…I’ve put them away as they are WAY too big now (maybe I should just give them to Goodwill?) 

• The bursitis in my hip, which I've had for at least 4 years, is GONE!

• My skin seems clearer and tighter, not just on my face but my whole body.  (At least that's my perception.)

• I feel calm, happy, and in control almost all the time.

• I’m basically eating one "healthy" meal a day (salad, vegetables, protein, maybe a few carbs), and at that meal I get full so fast that I don’t really eat very much.  

• Rather than eat (or crave things to eat, like candy), I find I do other things now when I’m stressed at work…take a short walk, take a 15 minute nap in my car, or if I really do feel the need to eat, I eat a few almonds.

• If I do feel I really want a treat on the way home, I  might stop to have a small scoop of ice cream at Baskin Robbins...and there's no guilt involved!  It's my time to "feed" and if that's what I want, that's what I have.   

I just discovered a new Intermittent Fasting site by a trainer whose name is Mike O'Donnell.  It's called “The IF Life."  I enjoy this guy’s approach.  ("Do or Do Not!  There is No Try!"  which is one of my favorite Star Wars lines.)  Compared to Dr. Mercola, he's a fun read. 

I’ve also just purchased his book called Burst Workouts.  He says you don’t even need 20 minutes to stay fit, just 10-15 minutes few times a week.   You don’t even need to leave your house to go to the gym.  Oh, yeah! That's my kind of workout!  I will admit I haven’t been working out lately, but that’s mostly because we’ve had company and I haven’t had the time.  Next week, I intend to start doing some of the exercises he suggests. 

Another piece of this is I’m still in therapy once a month.  The interesting thing is I almost can’t think of anything to talk about that is weight-, body image-, or “mom-” related anymore.  I still have a few childhood trauma things that we are working on related to a physical disability that I have and the embarrassment it caused me growing up (yes, kids are cruel).  But this is such minor stuff compared to the eating disorder oriented stuff.  I feel I’m getting better all the time in all aspects of my life!

It's been really hot here lately (at least for the PNW), in the high 80's and low 90's...so we gave B a really close summer haircut.  He hated the haircut while we were giving it to him, but now he feels so much better and so perky!  Everyone fusses over him on how handsome he is, which he of course LOVES; and he's much easier to rinse off after he takes a dip in the lake and then rolls in the sand.

My handsome "cool" boy

Finally…here’s a lovely picture I took a few days ago off our deck…I hope everyone is having a great summer.  Enjoy it while it lasts! 

Red Sky at Night!

Intermittent Fasting

About 2 weeks ago, I was bemoaning (to myself mostly) that it seemed no matter what I did, I couldn’t lose weight. I have been eating pretty carefully and working out pretty regularly for the last few months but I’ve been stalled.  I chalked it up to years of disordered eating and age. Mentally, I know I don’t need to lose a lot...In fact I’d be fine if I didn’t lose anything…I recognize that now after years of therapy.  But the fact is I’d feel better if I were a bit thinner.  So it was just frustrating. 

And I was always hungry.  I thought that this insatiable hunger might be due to hormone changes.  Even on those days when I would bring my food (which consisted of several small healthy meals) to work, it did seem like I was prone to minor binges late in the day.  Meaning I’d want sweets at the end of the work day.  Often times, in spite of the regular eating, all I could think about was candy.  On my way home, if I needed stop at the grocery store for something, I’d find myself unable to resist the urge to also buy a candy bar.  Or sometimes I would stop at Baskin-Robbins.

A while back I had started on the interval training recommended by Dr. Mercola.  I get his daily email, so I was looking at some other articles on his website.  Then I came across an article on Intermittent Fasting.  I had heard about IF before, but since I had been long indoctrinated into the culture of eating frequently “to keep the metabolism fired up”, I had never thought IF was for me.  After all, I’m a fairly normal weight and the idea of fasting somehow just seemed wrong, unhealthy even.  But as I said…I was SO frustrated with doing the same “healthy” thing for years and it didn’t seem to be working for me.

So (with the awareness that I have to be VERY careful about descending into eating disorder behavior), I decided to try IF.  There are several different variations of IF, but the one that sounded like it would be easiest for me and my schedule was the “feeding window” or “scheduled eating” approach (which is the one that Dr Mercola uses).  You only eat during a certain period of the day.

I decided to try the 6 hour window (2:30-8:30).  I figured I’d feel terrible and hungry and cranky…but the fact is, I’m loving this!  From the first day, I have felt great.

My routine now (Monday through Friday) is:

• A large iced coffee with cream from McDonalds on the way to work at 7:30 am (I take my vitamins with it)
• In the afternoon (after 2:30), if I really feel like I need it…some nuts or an Atkins protein shake.
• A healthy dinner (which means minimal processed carbs and no junk!) around 7 pm, and (maybe) fruit with yogurt for dessert around 8 pm
• Lots of water and tea during the day.
• Sometimes during what would normally be lunchtime, instead of eating, I take a short nap in my car.  I wake up feeling refreshed and ready to go back to work.

The weekends are bit more challenging:

• I eat a light lunch around 2 pm, and dinner around 7 pm.
• I have 2 glasses of wine or beer on Saturday.  

So, here are some of my thoughts:

• I feel liberated from worrying about food during the day! I don’t have to think about what to take for lunch, purchasing it in advance, preparing it, packing it.  I love just getting up and ready for work, and walking out the door.  During the week, I’m busy at work and don’t even think about food.
• On the weekends, I keep busy doing housework, gardening, walking Buster, so the different schedule is not too problematic.
• It’s also liberating that I can look forward to really enjoying my dinner without guilt or worrying if I’m eating too much.  (I’m starting to wonder if eating several times a day was stoking my appetite, rather than my metabolism.)
• My mind is clearer than it's been in years.
• My joints are hurting less and less.  The bursitis in my left hip, that I've had for years...is gone.  
• My cravings for sugar are GONE! 

But you may be wondering the results of the main reason I started this…weight loss?

Well, the answer is…I’ve lost weight easily.  I don't weigh myself, so I can't actually guess as to the amount, but my pants are getting looser and looser every day.  My stomach is getting flatter...every morning I wake up looking forward to seeing the physical change.  Shirts I couldn't button a few weeks ago, fit fine now.   The best part is it’s been effortless and actually enjoyable. 

If you are interested, just do a web search on "Dr Mercola intermittent fasting."  The science behind IF is very compelling.  You have nothing to lose but your cravings and excess fat.    
 

Happy Father's Day, Dad

I posted this photo on my Facebook yesterday...

My Dad died in August of 2007.  I still miss him and think about him every day.

My dad and me around 1980 in the middle of a cold Iowa winter

This is one of my favorite photos of us. It is from a Polaroid instant photo that I was able to digitize earlier this year, on my new scanner. The Polaroid was deteriorating badly so the fact that I was able to preserve it before the whole image was lost was wonderful.

Feeling Cranky II

10 things that have annoyed me since Saturday evening:

1. Teenage girls who constantly play with their hair during Mass.  Young lady, your hair is either long enough to put in a ponytail...or it’s not.  Pulling back your hair into your scrunchie every 60 seconds is not going to change that.
2. People who picnic in the park where Buster and I walk, but who just leave their garbage on the ground instead of putting it in the trash receptacles.  Who does that????
3. A co-worker having a loud, lengthy phone conversation, on speaker phone no less, in an open cubicle office setting.  How does she expect others to concentrate on their own work or hear their own customers on the phone?
4. One of my peers at a regional meeting I attended this morning regularly pontificates on basic industry concepts in detail as if everyone else in the room is a newbie (believe me, there are no newbies in the group); so today there was not enough time to talk about one of my issues because Mr.  K-I-A hogged the meeting.
5. People who use the word “basically” in every sentence.  Yes, same guy as number 4.  Basically, that is a really annoying affectation!
6. Going to McDonald’s drive-through after the above meeting to pick up something for lunch.  Ordering a Bacon Ranch Salad with Grilled Chicken but discovering when I get back to the office that I was given a Southwest Salad with Crispy Chicken.  And the Southwest Salad has CORN in it… I.HATE.CORN!  I was starving so I picked out the corn and ate it anyway.  
7. An answering machine greeting "orated" by a little kid.  Dear Customer, you called me this morning, angrily demanding an answer on a question about your project.  I’ve just spent an hour researching your problem.  Now I'm supposed to leave a message on your answering machine when you had your 3-year-old darling recite the greeting in unintelligible toddler speak?  Sorry, I’m not in the mood. 
8. Incorrect use of ITS vs. IT'S several times in an announcement that was just posted on our website.  If you don’t know the difference...please ask someone before you hit "publish."
9. Strangers who pass by my cubicle after coming out of a meeting and who then peer over the divider at me, as if I am an animal at the zoo.  Rude!
10. People who empty their car ashtrays into the parking lot at City Hall.   See number 2 above…WHO THE HELL DOES THAT?  I didn’t actually see who did it, otherwise I would have said something.  I just saw the pile of cigarette butts in the parking lot.  Disgusting! 

Okay, I hope that’s it for today, but there are still a few hours left until I go to bed so anything is possible.

This is a Fowl Post

Ducklings, Eagle, and Crows

We have a new batch of baby ducks that swim by with the mother duck about 10 times a day.

We also have an eagle who is very keen to have the baby ducks for dinner.  He will hang out on our dock for hours just waiting for a meal.

But the mother duck is smart and hides the babies under the dock until the eagle goes away.

But the local crows HATE that eagle...



Isn't nature amazing?

Catching up...

Sorry I've been gone for...over a month!

During that time...

• Hub and I went on a 7 day Alaska cruise with some friends (fantastic! I even saw the Sawyer glacier calve)
• Hub had cataract and retina surgery (successful)
• Worked outside a lot in the beautiful weather (my yard looks great)
• Baby sat for Kermit and Olive (fun as always)
• Had company for a week and was very glad when he left (old friend of Hub, he smoked and was a real slob...ugh)
• Switched from Google to Bing (Google's lack of respect for Memorial Day turned me off)

Here's a mish mash of photos from the last month:

The Sawyer Glacier...the calf is the big blue piece in the front

Our cruise ship...Celebrity Solstice...upon our return from the glacier

Red Dog Saloon in Juneau...a real tourist trap...it was so crowded we couldn't get in

Docked in Skagway

 

Towel elephant...our last night on the cruise

Home again...Buster and Olive resting side by side...a rare occurrence!

Buster and Kermit ganging up on Olive

Looking forward to a nice summer...I hope the great weather keeps up!  

Feeling cranky

I had a minor medical procedure last week, and I'm having some residual pain. The doctor says I "should not" be feeling pain still, but I am.  The doc says people typically have a pins and needles sensation for a few days, but for me the feeling is knives and ice picks, and it's been almost a week. 

I'm taking some pain meds (Tylenol with codeine #3), but I hate taking them because they wreak havoc with my digestion (if you know what I mean).  And they sap my motivation to work out.  So I'm in a cranky mood.  I just want to feel normal again.

Easter was fine, the food was delicious, but my mother complained non-stop to me about it.  Along with all the traditional food we brought, Hub also made a new dish he'd been wanting to try ("Paula Deen's Cheese Grits").  When I told her it was grits, she very loudly proclaimed "Oh, Ick!!!!" and wouldn't even try it.  Yes, she's never had it, but she didn't like the name, so she wouldn't try it.  (If I had talked like that as child or refused to try something, she would have beat me...literally.)  Fortunately Hub is a bit deaf, so he didn't actually hear her say that.  When I quietly asked her if she could at least be polite, she told me I couldn't tell her what to do.   

Sigh...Whatever.  What's next..."you're not the boss of me"?

It's getting to be almost unbearable spending time in a group setting like that.  I'm relatively okay when it's just the two of us, but at family gatherings, she's such a loose cannon as well as an attention hog that I'm always on edge wondering what rude or crazy thing she will say next.

This weekend, Buster and I went to a Norwich Terrier "puppy party."  Buster got to see his Auntie Pam and Kermit and Olive.  B, K & O are all in the older crowd now...I remember when they were all puppies and so crazy.  Buster would run and run non-stop for 3 hours and I would have to catch him and hold him to make him calm down.  He still enjoys these events, but now he is mostly happy to sit on my lap and observe the chaos, rather than play, and I can tell he is ready to go home after about an hour and a half.  I think all those young "kids" wear him out.  My baby boy is 10 years old now...I don't even like to contemplate him getting older. 

That's Buster toward the end of the video, the one with the limp

He seems a little lost, which makes me sad

(For some reason the video shows up when I view the post on my laptop but not my iPad.  If you cannot see it on the post, here's a link to where I posted it on my YouTube Channel...but Blogger will not let me just imbed it here from YouTube.  I guess that's technology...shrug.  BTW, it's a public channel so you are welcome to look at ALL my videos there, they are mostly of of Buster! *smile*)

Hope all is well with everyone out there in BlogLand.  Take care. 

Happy Easter!

I am very fortunate to live in a beautiful location.  For the most part, I really like our house, which Hub bought new back in 1971, long before the area was developed.  At that time, the house was really more of a "cabin" in the boondocks, and Boeing was about the only large employer in the area.  This was before Microsoft, before Google, before Amazon.....before the tech era and before the crazy real estate boom of the 1990's which has spawned the trend toward building of huge McMansions.  So the house is a modest older home in the middle of a lot of newer development, and we've done a lot of major remodels and updating over the years.

My favorite room in the house is the kitchen.  We remodeled it in 2005 and added large garden window in front of the sink.  The window looks out on the lake and our neighbor's flowering cherry tree, and right now that tree is so heavy with blossoms. 

So, I have African violets, orchids, and a variety of small plants in mini-terrariums in front of the window.  The plants love the location too…they bloom all year round.  Right now one of my orchids is gorgeous…this is the 3rd time he has bloomed in 2 years.  I thought you might enjoy seeing some photos (amazingly...these were taken with my iPhone).
 

Hub has spent the day smoking ribs for tomorrow's Easter dinner at my mom's, and we'll also be making potato salad, cole slaw, and deviled eggs.   My brother will be making corn bread and crustless cheesecake for dessert.  My niece has MS which seems to be exacerbated by wheat products, so she follows a gluten free diet.  So for family holiday meals, Hub and I are very careful that everything we make is wheat free.  Although he and I generally try to eat low(er) carb, we normally don't worry about minute amounts.  So we even checked the barbecue sauce to make absolutely sure.  Fortunately, food companies are getting very good at labeling their products "gluten free."   

We are going to Easter Vigil mass tonight, mostly so we don't have rush around tomorrow finishing the cooking…oh, and so we don't have to compete for a seat with the CEO's (people who go to church on Christmas and Easter Only…I just heard that term today for the first time and I thought it was pretty funny).

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, and if you celebrate Easter, have a blessed Sunday. 

This and that...

So far I haven't called Mary.  I do wish I had her email so I could send her the information about Beth without having to talk to her…but I don't have her email.  Oh, well, I'm still thinking about what to do.

I spent Friday with my mother, and her memory is getting very bad.  She has also developed an annoying habit of constantly asking me if she is getting on my nerves. (Is that what's called self-fulfilling prophecy?)  I repeatedly told her that she's not getting on my nerves, but she kept asking again and again.  I finally told her...Yes, Mother, you ARE getting on my nerves by asking me over and over whether you are getting on my nerves!  Then, we laughed about it a bit, but I can see this is going to get worse as time goes on.  As usual, we'll have a family get together on Easter, and it will be fraught will tension, because I'll just be waiting until she gets mad about...whatever.  It will probably be something stupid, like last time...she didn't like one of the desserts, but I thought it was good....so she very indignantly declared that she has a right to her opinion, and left the dinner table in a snit.  Fun times.

The weather has been beautiful, I spent Saturday working in the yard.  So much to do!  After I took Buster to the park on Sunday, he got his spring/summer haircut.  "The Haircut" is always a big ordeal, as he is very uncooperative (he turns into a rag doll, won't stand up, just generally a big baby).  But he was getting too uncomfortable to walk much, because he would be too hot with his big fur coat…and he was getting so furry that he looked like a big puff ball.  Now you can see how handsome he is and he's very perky now when he goes to the park.  So even though he hates the haircut, he seems to enjoy the feeling of being fur-free. 

Before...Mr. Fuzzy

After...Mr. Clean

(Buster takes the worst pictures.  The minute any camera comes out he turns into a whipped pup...you'd think we were beating him.)

Right now Hub is watching Bizarre Foods, which is just disgusting.  I can't even describe what they are eating without wanting to puke.  So I guess it's time to go to bed. 

Advice please

I’m wondering what to do about a situation that has come up.  I’m thinking about it a lot, so I guess you could say I’m struggling a bit. This is a rather long drawn out story, so I hope you'll bear with me. 

Background:

When I started with my department in 1988, I worked with a woman (I’ll call her Mary) who had been with the department since 1980.  Mary had some emotional issues...she was nice most of the time, but she could be a bit paranoid.  She often thought people were against her or didn’t like her.  But she and I got along fine, and I considered her a friend.

Around 1996, another woman came to work with us (I’ll call her Beth), and Mary and Beth hit it off.   They became extremely close, actually the three of us would do a lot of stuff together.  However, Beth had many emotional issues herself and was a bit unreliable.  Turned out she was not suited for the job, and she ended up leaving our department after about a year.  Since she and I were friends too, we stayed in touch, although sometimes it was hard because she could be so flaky.

In 1998, a supervisory position opened up in our department, and several people applied for it, including Mary and me.  It was a competitive process involving testing, interviews, etc.  Mary thought that since she had been with the department longer, she should get the job.  Instead, I was offered the position.

Mary was devastated and angry at everyone, but especially me.  She felt that she deserved the position, but for some reason I was being shown favoritism.  She told me that I must have done something unethical to get the position.  She even implied that I had … uh…used my feminine wiles to get the job.   Which was ridiculous, but as I said, she could be paranoid.  From that time on, she gave me the silent treatment.  She would only respond to me when necessary, and then in very terse terms.  Yes, no, etc.  She didn’t work for me, so for the most part I could avoid having to deal with her directly; but our cubicles were right next to each other, and the negative energy emanating from her caused me a great amount of stress.  Sometimes I could even hear her talk about me on the phone, and she wasn't even careful about whether I could hear what she was saying.  She'd say things like "...it's too bad you can't trust someone you thought was your friend."  I don't know who she was talking to, but it was pretty obvious she was talking about me.  This went on for two years until Mary retired in 2000.  She moved to the other side of the state and we had no contact after that.  That was just fine with me...I was just so relieved to not be subjected to her moods.

I still had contact with Beth, but it was pretty sporadic.  She lived near me, so we would occasionally walk our dogs together.  She was still off-and-on friends with Mary too, and Beth would tell me how Mary was still furious with me, how I had stabbed her in the back, and what an awful person I was.  

In 2008, Beth moved (without me even knowing) and I had no idea what had happened to her.  She didn’t answer emails or phone calls. I never could figure out where she went, but had heard rumors that she had moved to Oregon. 

Fast forward to 2011. Beth passed away unexpectedly at the age of 58, officially of a heart attack, but who knows...   Unbeknownst to me, turned out she had been living in an apartment not too far from my office.  I was on vacation at the time she died, so I didn’t hear about it until I got back from vacation, by that time the funeral was over.  Since we weren’t close anymore, I wasn’t really too upset and didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it.

Fast forward again to yesterday.  I got a voice message from Mary who said she had been trying to get in touch with Beth, and when she was looking on line trying to locate her, she saw that Beth had passed away in 2011.  In her voice mail, she sounded very upset and wanted to know what had happened and asked me to call her.

So, after such a long drawn out story, my question is…What should I do?  Her call has brought up some strong feelings about how she treated me.  Should I call and tell her what happened to Beth and just leave it at that?  Or do I bring up, 14 years later, how cruel she was to me?  Or do I just chalk it up to her emotional instability and let bygones be bygones?

Any thoughts or input would be appreciated. 

The Evils of Sugar…DUH!

I know all about you, sugar.  I know you are not my friend.  I used to binge on sugar and then purge.  Now, if I eat too much, you make me feel weird, shaky, weak.

Since I've cut out almost all sugar in the past few weeks, I've been feeling great.  When I do eat a little sugar (like a teaspoon of lemon curd in my Greek yogurt), the effect is minimized because of the protein in the yogurt.  Or on Saturday night, when I have a bowl of ice cream (I allow myself one small to medium size bowl per week), it's after I've eaten dinner.  So, I'm not obsessive when it comes to eliminating sugar, but I try to be very moderate and careful when it comes to how and when I eat it. Because I know better, and I know how my body reacts to too much. 

Yesterday, I packed my regular food for the day (Greek yogurt, two pieces of chicken, a Quest bar, and a salad), and on the way to work I drank a big bottle of water with fresh lemon, currently my normal breakfast beverage.  (I don't…can't…usually eat until around 9:30...the idea of food first thing in the morning makes me ill.)  I was feeling great and being very productive at work. 

Around 9 am, I ventured up to the front counter to pick up some plans.  And on one of the work tables there was...a huge box of donuts.  Not just any donuts...someone had brought in two dozen Top Pot donuts. 

I am and will always be a sucker when it comes to a Top Pot donut.  Top Pot is a local company that makes the best donuts in the world.  I can resist any other donut...Krispy Kreme, Dunkin, you name it...but not Top Pot donuts.  And very specifically…glazed old fashioned donuts.  I won't eat any other kind.  

As I gazed at the donuts, I was really hoping not to see "it."  But there it was…among all the other donuts in the box was one glazed old fashioned.  I looked at it, it looked back (I swear)...but then I turned and I walked away to the front counter and picked up the plans.  But on my way back, as I passed by, I looked at it again…and then I took it.  And I ate it, and I savored it, and I enjoyed it.

And then I felt like shit.  Not guilty, or emotionally like shit.  I've learned I can indulge in something I like occasionally without feeling like I'm a failure or a bad person.  But physically, I felt horrible.  Because I had eaten the donut on an empty stomach, the sugar started coursing through my veins, and I immediately started to feel shaky.  I had to go into a meeting right then, so I sat in there having hot flashes.  When I had to speak to the group, I felt very insecure and almost fearful that I was going to say something stupid.  My voice quaked and sounded kind of raspy.  I noticed I was even having minor heart palpitations.  

When the meeting was over, I ate a piece of the chicken I had brought, hoping to feel better.  But it was too late.  The damage was done.  The rest of the day, I found myself feeling distracted and irritable.  Not only that, I was craving more sugar, and found myself eating a few pieces of candy from the candy dish on someone's desk.  Then at home, although I had a wonderful (healthy) dinner, I was still famished.  I wanted sugar….more sugar.  Sugar, Sugar, SUGAR!  Grrrrrr!  It was as if there was a monster inside me.

That was the absolute best illustration and reminder that sugar and I are really not compatible.  I hope to never again feel the way I felt yesterday…and the great thing is, this is totally within my control.   In a way, I'm almost glad it happened.  I start thinking I am "normal" and this was a stark reminder to me that I'm not normal, at least not when it comes to sugar.   

Lesson Learned!

A New Approach

Since we got back from Palm Springs, I decided it was time to get serious about my health.  I consider myself relatively healthy currently, but there are definitely improvements that could be made. 

But this time, I wanted to take a different approach to exercise. 

I’ve spent my whole life either exercising too much, or not exercising at all.  Because of my eating disorder, exercise was not about health, it was about being thin, or punishment, or a whole host of strange reasons.  There was no middle ground…no moderation.  I was either crazy into exercise, hours at a time, every day without a break…or I was a couch potato, rebelling against my previous self-imposed torture.

As few months ago, I signed up to get Dr. Mercola’s daily email on health topics.  Hub has been a follower for a long time, and he would talk about some of the things in the email.  So since it was free, I signed up too so I could better follow what Hub was talking about.   Dr. Mercola has some interesting ideas on many subjects.  I started looking at his fitness recommendations, one in particular is called Peak Fitness. 

The idea is that you only have to exercise for 20 minutes 3 days a week to get the maximum benefit.  This appealed to me, because I had gotten to the point that I hated to exercise; again, exercise had always been long, grueling sessions.  But this was different, not only do you just have to exercise for 20 minutes 3 days a week, you CANNOT, as in are NOT ALLOWED to, do this program everyday!  Your body requires more time to heal in between these sessions than normal cardiovascular workouts. 

Basically it’s interval training.  You exercise as hard as you can for 30 seconds (to the point that you don’t think you could go another second), then at a more moderate pace for 1:30, repeat for a total of 20 minutes.  So far, I’ve done this 3 times, and it goes by SO fast, mentally it doesn’t seem difficult.  It’s a major workout, and I’m exhausted afterwards, but I don’t dread it, like I dread “regular cardio.” 

I’ve done it once on a treadmill and twice on an elliptical…I think the elliptical works better.  Too soon to see results, but I can see myself doing this for the long term.  I also bought an app for my iPhone called Interval Timer, which has made it even easier.  Coupled with light weights a few times a weeks, I think I’m headed in the right direction.    

I’ve also been following some of his nutritional guidelines…basically a Paleo based diet, which is fine because I’ve been living mostly low-carb the past few years anyway.  He’s death on sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup, and doesn’t like most sugar substitutes either.  He recommends that the carbs you do eat are complex carbohydrates such as beans, nuts, and vegetables.  He advocates for full fat dairy products, as long as they are made from milk without hormones.  This is great, because I hate low fat dairy, and LOVE half and half, full fat Greek yogurt, cheese, etc.  He gets a little over-the-top for my taste at the advanced level, but his “beginner” recommendations are easy and sound.

Anyway, I’m completely over my post-vacation cold, I’m feeling great, and enjoying a renewed commitment to my health.  After all, I’m not getting any younger! 

No SOAP...but VODKA!

Gosh, has it really been 3 weeks since my last post?   

So, a lot has happened in those 3 weeks…we went for a week in Palm Springs to get away from the weather.*  The trip was on the spur of the moment, I was fortunate to be able to get the time off from work; Buster's Auntie Pam was available to babysit; and we used miles to purchase the airline tickets. 

We rented a small house in Cathedral City with a pool.  Everything was provided, kind of like a hotel, except no bars of soap!  When I called the management company they said, "Oh, we don't provide bars of soap."  Whatever, it wasn't a big deal.  But it WAS weird, considering when I opened the freezer to look, there was an almost full bottle of vodka.  Soap…no, vodka…YES!

Not "just" vodka, but good vodka...Belvedere!

The house was small but the pool area was great!

A friend of ours came from San Francisco and shared the house with us for a few of the days.  We also have quite a few friends who have retired and moved there so we had a pretty packed social schedule…it was fun!

One night, we went to see the Palm Springs Follies…this is their last season, due to the downturn in the economy, people just aren't going to see them like they used to.  Which is sad, they are wonderful.  The Follies basically are older folks who were professional dancers in their prime; when they retired in Palm Springs, they joined the Follies.  Let me tell you, these people were an inspiration.  Everyone was at least 55, the oldest showgirl was 78 and was gorgeous, and the oldest gentleman dancer was 84 and very spry. 

They didn't allow any photography in the theater so I got this photo off the internet...this dancer was in her 70's.

We also went up on the aerial tramway, on a particularly beautiful day…

View of Palm Springs and Coachella Valley

All in all, we had quite a lovely time, sunny and 80 every day (aside from 2 big dust storms they had while we were there; during one they even had to close some major roads due to lack of visibility.)

Unfortunately, I came down with a head cold...but at least it didn't start until the last day when we were on our way home.  It seems I get a cold every time I travel even though I am very careful to wash my hands all the time and not touch my face.  I think part of the trouble this time was the dust, which made me sneeze a lot, and I think opened me up to any virus passing by.  Nothing like coming back from a vacation, working for half a day, then being off sick for 2 days.

So I spent the weekend on the couch.  (Didn't even do Kyra's Virtual 5K that I signed up for a while back...sorry, Kyra!)  Today I was in a REALLY boring building code class all day; tomorrow is another code class, this one on hazardous materials (not so boring, I am interested in this subject).  Wednesday it's back to normal work, except I am waaaaay behind and have a lot of catching up to do.

I love vacations but to tell the truth, it's good to be home.

(*Tragically, as a result of the non-stop rain, there was a horrible mudslide about an hour north of Seattle…several people were killed, and there are still many people missing...please pray for these victims and their families)