Stuff

I gained 3.6 pounds over the holiday/step brother visit. Glad to have things back to normal!

The holiday was good, but it breaks my hear severy time I have to leave my great aunt. It isn't that the place is so terrible (although it isn't that great) - it's just that no one checks on her and I'm not confident she has what she needs. I find it so upsetting and heartbreaking. I know we do what we can, but it doesn't seem like enough. I wish we were closer.

Hub still has no job, money is tight. Enough said.

I asked for one kinda big thing for Christmas - a new juicer. My old one is dying. It is supposed to get here Monday. Yay!

My mom is coming Sunday for the winter. Hurray!!!

Waiting for the "whoosh"

So, I've been weighing myself every day, but I record my weight on Friday, so I think of that as the "official" weigh day. Anyway, I've lost 1 pound this week. I feel like I deserve more! I've been good with my juicing, even though it's reached a point where i am bored. I ate a fair bit on Sunday, gained a pound, lost a pound, and that put me back to where I was saturday and I've stayed there all week. Grrr.

I want to lose 6.6 more pounds before Thanksgiving.

This morning I did part of my walk with Maya, then came back and did a bit more with Jordan. jordan has been tired lately, and she has short legs so I don't want to work her too hard, but she looked sad and I felt guilty. She had a fun time on the part she went with me, so hopefully she is recovering.

My stepbrother is down for a visit, which is nice because he encourages hub to be more productive. Hub gets very down when he is unemployed and ends up getting very little done until he has a job, and then he has no time! I understand, but it is frustrating to work all day and come home to a house that needs cleaning.

Hopefully I will have good news on the weight front tomorrow!

Update

The weather here is amazing. I mean, like the greatest spring day. We’ve been sleeping with the windows open at night, and closing the house up in the late morning (well, on the weekends). The dog and I have had some great walk, but this morning she declared herself tired. I was dragging her along and she wouldn’t keep up. When I asked her if she wanted to go home, she turned around and led the way the whole time. I think she’s pooped!

We got the Florida license plate for the Nissan – only $458.55. But the car has a legal license plate now, so that’s a good thing.

Not too much is new. It’s nice having Hub home – he’s here until we all go to Georgia for Thanksgiving – then he’s headed back to NC for a while. The boy is happier now that he feels he has a solution to his unhappiness with the school situation.

I’m doing okay. I’m still worried about money – I mean, no job is sight for Hub, but he’s doing all he can so I’m trying not to get too freaked out since there isn’t more we can do about it, you know?

Juice-wise, things continue along. I am bored with it, but food isn’t supposed to be entertainment. I’m getting plenty of nutrients. I do get hungry sometimes, but that’s on me – not the juice – I just should’ve planned more/better. I’ve lost 7 pounds, and I can see and feel a difference. It’s not enough for people to really start noticing, but I can tell. And I’m feeling better. The acid reflux is gone and my attitude and energy are improving.

TGIF - as usual

I lost 6 pounds this week. Woot!

Day 6

Today is day 6 of my juice fast. Have I been 100% compliant? Oh heck no! There were 2 nights when I suffered mini-meltdowns (related to the boy, not to the diet) - I ended up gaining a half pound and it hung around a day due to the melt-down's encore presentation the following night.

But overll, I've been very close. Example: yesterday am I made a green smoothie: frozen fruit, spinach, green powder, and water. For the day I made 2 quarts of fresh juice - one had fruits & veggies & other other was a "savory" style veggie juice with onion, peppers, tomato, cuke, celery, etc. Sorta like a homemade V8. I also had a small bowl of the juice off the red beans the family had for supper. Later when I wanted a little something I had a 10 oz Naked brand juice.

Today I've been pretty hungry. It's funny - a friend who is also doing a fairly restrictive diet said she was starving on day 6. I won't say "starving" but I am certainly hungry today! But if I need it I'll have extra juice.

It amazes me how much produce you consume. My veggie juice contained: 2 carrots, 1/2 a bunch of celery, a large cucumber, a yellow bell pepper, a bunch of kale, a jalepeno, 1/4 of a huge red onion, and 4 large roma tomatoes (I think that's it). Can you imagine sitting down & eating all that??? I think one of the reasons I haven't been hungrier is because I'm sure my body is pretty well flooded with micronutrients.

I am buying a good variety of both fruits and veggies. My fruit juices contains a good portion of veggies as well - today's fruit juice contained carrot, celery, cucumber, and 1/4 head of cabbage. With my lack of success thus far in finding a good farmer's market, the bulk of my produce has been coming from Costco.

I am still using my cheap centrifugal juices from Aldi. I would love to upgrade - maybe for Christmas.

As of this morning, I was down 4.6 pounds in 5 days.

I think we have a solution

The county we live in offers a “virtual school.” It offers full-time enrollment to students in grades K-12. Virtual learning provides flexibility of time and location and offers the opportunity to earn a standard high school diploma entirely online. BVS teachers and guidance counselors live locally. As a public school, it does not charge tuition fees. Also, it offers traditional face to face extracurricular activities to provide students with opportunities to collaborate with their teachers and classmates.

This should give the boy the flexibility to travel and work from here or NC when he wants to visit. He can work his schedule around times when he isn’t feeling well. (Although I hope that will disappear once he is happier). And he can have some peer interaction without the things he doesn’t like about his current school.

Application for the next semester opens December 1, he meets all the criteria, and they have no cap on the number of students they can accept. I really hope this solution works, because I can’t think of anything else that will be (relatively) quick, not expensive, and keep our family intact.