Friday blogger

I hate that I've become a once a week blogger. I have loads to say, just no time to say it! While I am on vacation next week, I may write some posts. I can't publish (no internet access), but I will post them when I return.

Take care!

A trifecta of excuses

Number 1: Time change has totally kicked my butt. I’ve had a hard time going to bed until 10, which has made getting up to exercise a no go. Yesterday I was able to get up at 5:30 (finally).

Number 2: Allergies? Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I had a lousy headache.

Number 3: Last week I was exhausted and worn out and miserable, and I didn’t want another week like that.

Scale remained the same, but with the minimal amount of exercise I did, that’s pretty good.

I am trying to cycle my calories – i.e. have low eating & high eating days, in an effort to move the scale. The results have been mixed: the first day I tried it I felt like crap and went home & pigged out, the second try I did great until after dinner when I had ½ a brownie and ½ a scoop of lf ice cream, and the third time I was starving, work was crazy, and I ate a bean burger.

So I dunno. Maybe I’ll give it a go again next week. Maybe I’ll just try to exercise more.

The week after next is spring break and we have rented a beach house at Edisto. I am so excited! It will be quiet, peaceful, and fun. We’re taking our bikes (it’s an awesome place to ride) and I will probably take my sewing machine and some jewelry making supplies. I can’t wait!

Have a good weekend!

Not much to report

Daylight savings time is kicking my butt. I’m having a rough time getting up in the morning. Ugh. Weight has stayed the same so far this week. Weather here is lovely. I walked yesterday, skipped Monday, and I’ll do kettlebells and walk this afternoon. Since I’m volunteering tomorrow, I HAVE to get up in the morning.

Doing the Friday happy Dance

TGIF. I am pooped! I swear I feel like I could sleep for a week!

Walking/cleaning up after/playing with the dogs at the Humane Society last night was fun but pretty hard work and tiring. And of course I desperately needed a bath when I got home!

This week I dropped the 2.8 pounds I gained last week (yay!). I’ve have gotten up and exercised every morning Monday-Friday – doing either kettlebells or the 2 mile loop. I have walked at lunch 4 weekdays and walked 2 afternoons after work. Overall, I give myself an A!

It’s supposed to rain all weekend here. I am doing shopping and going out to dinner tonight. Mom and I are hitting the farmer’s market and Costco in the morning but other than that (and getting my toenails painted – it’s that season) I plan to putter around the house this weekend.

I feel the need to be a slug!

Have a great weekend.

Do you follow recipes?

I think of recipes as guidelines rather than instructions to be followed verbatim. This morning I was putting dinner in the crockpot since I won't be home till 7 (work then volunteer at the animal shelter then pick up the boy from drivers ed). Hub is in charge of "making dinner" which means making rice to go with the dinner in the crockpot.

Have I ever mentioned I love my crockpot?

Anyway, I was making curry and I had a new recipe. But I wasn't quite sure about it (didn't sound spicy enough) so I pulled out an old tried and true recipe, then split the difference. Sadly, I'll never be able to replicate it exactly. I do write down my recipes sometimes, but my mom always thinks it hilarious when she calls to ask for a recipe and I ask which version and then begin to rattle it off b/c they live in my head.

I was grating ginger into the crockpot. Until recently I wouldn't have had fresh ginger on hand and would have been stuck using ground ginger as a poor substitute. But I read a tip somewhere about cutting your fresh ginger into 1 inch pieces and then freezing them. Well duh! Why hadn't I ever thought of that? Fresh ginger that's never withered and forgotten in the bottom of the veg drawer. It's the little things that make me happy sometimes.

Warning: MIL Whinge ahead

It's no secret that I'm not MIL's Number One Fan. I find it hard to empathize or have any patience with someone as hell bent on making themselves a victim as she is. (If you wonder how someone like that has a son like Hub, just know that she didn't raise him.)

The Saturday before moving down here she got her prescriptions refilled. In the week and a half since she has been down here, she has established a routine: sleep till noon, crochet & watch tv. She made a halfhearted attempt at seeing a doctor but when she found out where she used to go isn't accepting new patients, she didn't pursue it any farther. Now, this is a woman with health problems, among them diabetes and a broken foot that is healing VERY slowly. And stomach problems. And high blood pressure.

You think going to a doctor and seeing about 1) getting prescriptions set up and refilled and 2) seeing someone about the fact that she feels bad (her foot is hurting plus she's having a lot of body aches) would be a priority. But not so much. Oh, and she's on the new diabetes diet. I call it "a cake a day keeps the doctor away." My mom bought a small pound cake at fresh Market. She had 2 small slices. My MIL ate the rest - in one day. She also drank A WHOLE GALLON of coffee creamer (vanilla, NOT sugar free) her first week of living with my mom. Oh, and she's been busy on a half gallon of ice cream as well.

Now, I am not a medical professional, but in my medical opinion if I were to design a diet which would enable a diabetic to commit suicide via food, I think this would be it. As long as she takes care of what she needs to in order to get this apartment in K'ville, then whatever. But she isn't going to just sponge off my mom's kind nature.

Hub called yesterday & told her she needed to get off her a$$ & start taking care of stuff. My mom agreed, but in a nicer way. I told mom to keep us posted and if she hadn't made any progress by next Wednesday we'll be coming by for an in person come to Jesus.

High quality or not, they still feel like problems!

I have what a fellow blogger refers to as “high quality problems”. Not knowing whether your kids will have enough food and a warm place to sleep tonight – those are problems. Are what I have really “problems”? They feel like it.

I went to get a 2nd pair of reading glasses made. First they were put into the wrong frames, then when I got them they didn’t work. Turns out (and this doesn’t make sense to me, but whatever) when I asked for a copy of my prescription at the eye dr’s office, they gave it to me, just not for reading glasses. My insurance covers 1 pair per year, and they are useless. The dr’s office is faxing me a copy of the right things & said just take it with the glasses and tell them it was a dr’s change and they should re-make them. (It’s Wal-Rip, so we’ll see what happens.) But how frustrating! Last night I just sat & cried. Is it really that big a deal? No. But it sure felt like it.

I think it’s just that things are feeling very busy right now. Part of it is that with the boy in drivers ed and not getting home until 7, my mom isn’t coming over (and helping out) and he isn’t having time to help, and a fair bit ends up falling to me. So I got up this morning & walked, then picked up the house, did a couple loads of laundry, re-booted the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen, and colored my hair. And fixed breakfast for the 2 of us before driving the boy to school. Then I got to come to my full time job.

Despite and beer and a couple of baked tortillas with cheese, things are going pretty good. According to Gillian McKeith (on BBCA’s “You are what you eat’) to lose weight you should do 3 30 minute sessions of exercise per day. That seems like a lot, but I think she’s right. She isn’t talking anything extreme – just getting out & walking. So I am trying to do that. Some afternoons I can’t (like today I’m working late & tomorrow I’m volunteering at the animal shelter) and I don’t try to walk at lunch on the weekends (I’m a lot more active on the weekends anyway than I am at my job). But for people with sedentary jobs, I think that makes sense. But if you look at it as 1.5 hours of exercise per day, I can see how you’d want to just go eat a cookie and whimper.

I’m down a bit over 2 pounds so far this week. Woo hoo!

Whole lotta cooking going on

Good lord, I can’t believe I have ignored my blog for this long. Poor little blog, I’ve missed you!

Overall, things are going well. Scale has bounced around a bit, but is headed in the right direction. I did loads of cooking this weekend: meat for the boy to add to vegan dinners (it’s a compromise), I made seitan “pepperoni” (pretty good) and seitan chicken cutlets (really good). That’s stuff that is portioned out and in the freezer for use as needed.

Then of course I made breakfast & lunch foods, as well as some pre-cooking for dinners. Even though I did loads of cooking and cleaning, I feel refreshed after the weekend. Fun things included walking the dogs (the weather was great!) and I did my kettlebells.

The weather seems to have turned and mornings now are bearable and afternoons are in the 60s/upper 50s. Yay spring!

Snow

Yes, it's snowing again. This wasn't supposed to stick, but it is. Ugh!

Got MIL moved - it was tiring, frustrating, etc, but it's done. Her stuff is back in a storage unit until an aprtment becomes available.

Not too much to say - exercise is going well, overeating still happens, but this weekend was pretty good.