Category Archives: Challenges

May 30, 2018 · 4:01 pm

Nutrisystem Week 5 Progress Report

Slow, but steady progress in the ‘Getting the Lard Off’ project.

  • Poundage lost through Nutrisystem to date – 9.6 lbs.  Since my heaviest – 22 lbs.
  • Inches lost through Nutrisystem to date – 13.3 inches. Since my lardiest – 29.7 inches.

I’m finding more energy gradually. This helps a lot in my exercise program. Each day I’m doing –

  1. Elliptical trainer
  2. weight exercise for shoulders
  3. over-the-door shoulder pulley
  4. yoga for stretching

FabulousTraveling

Yesterday in particular I felt better than I’ve felt in a long time. I’m having to take less pain medicine for my shoulder muscles. I’m having to do fewer ice and heat sessions. I’m feeling looser with the stretching I’m doing. I’m feeling more energy to do a significant amount of cleaning, gardening, pet care, yard work, etc.

Both my husband and I have lost about 10 lbs since we started Nutrisystem. We both have health issues we monitor quarterly with our primary doctor and blood tests. We’re hoping that the next checkup in August will be a good one – showing distinct improvement. In the meantime, we’re agreed that this is something we really need to do for our long-term health and we’re happy we’ve taken the first step.

 

 

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May 30, 2018 · 10:42 am

Mother Nature is Confused

KFSM 5 News, Fort Smith AR

Mother Nature seems to think that this is July or August. I know that “I” get confused from time to time, but usually Mother Nature has her act together.

We had a nice storm early this morning that cooled everything down, but it’s already soaring again.  We gave up early, closing doors and windows and turning on the A/C. I hate to think what our electricity bill will be this month.

I told you that I was stung by a scorpion for the first time in my life a couple of nights ago – in our bed! – on the 2nd floor of the house! SHRIEK! I’m much better now. Antihistamine and ice got most of the pain and swelling to recede, though I had a couple of days of skin sensitivity, as if I had been burned. You can still see a small red place on my arm – the only remnant, other than my memories. I stripped the bed and washed everything, vacuumed the bedroom and sprayed all around, but I have to admit I’m still gun-shy.

Each year we have what we call, “Year of the ____”  This year it seems to be ticks. We’ve used our normal flea and tick stuff we get from our vet. We have now added flea collars to our two dogs and two cats. (So far, the fish don’t seem to need any help. :0) )  We do a tick check on the animals every day and on US each night.

I called our pest control folks, asking if we could be scheduled as soon as possible for spraying. When she asked what the problem was, and I told her about the scorpion, and that I wanted them to spray for everything, including elephants, inside and out. She said a man would call us back, and he did within 10 minutes, saying he was on his way to our house for us to sign a new quarterly contract. While he was here, he called the office and scheduled a tech to come spray everything tomorrow morning! You really can’t ask for better service than this. If YOU live in the Fort Smith, AR area, call Tri-Hill Pest Control Incorporated

(479) 782-2847.

Mother Nature may be confused, causing our weather to be wonky and causing bad bugs to be quite prolific already, but I feel we are in really good hands with our pest control people.

 

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May 29, 2018 · 10:39 am

Moving More, Hopefully Getting Somewhere

yourellipticals.com

I wish I looked like this woman when I’m on the elliptical.  I just finished doing 30 minutes, so I’m feeling good about my efforts.

The bad part is that the elliptical trainer is in our garage – the only flat place in our home with a bare, hard floor where it isn’t in the way. The good part is that I’m not in the bright sunshine, and my husband rigged a big, square fan on the wall right in front of the machine. Otherwise, with the temperatures here in mid-summer mode already, I just couldn’t do it.

I can go out to the garage, start the machine and the fan, clip my mp3 player to my shirt, put in my earphones, hit ‘start’ and do mindless walking while listening to some of my favorite tunes. :0)

I chose the elliptical several years ago because it’s designed to be easy on your joints. This is really crucial for me. I want to strengthen everything while not causing knees, hips, and shoulders to hurt any more than they do now. If I keep at it, plus get enough lard off, I may actually be able to LESSEN the pain in my joints!

According to articles I’ve read on the net, “when you use the elliptical, you can work the upper and lower body at the same time. Elliptical machines work the legs, chest, shoulders, back and arms. With this machine, you can complete a full-body workout in as little as 20 minutes.”

As I gulp down another bottle of water, I feel good for having gotten a good start on my day. Later on, I’ll do the over-the-door-shoulder-pulley thingie (I’m doing 100 pulls a day now – sitting in a chair)

Walmart

plus an exercise with a 3 lb weight

Walmart

to ease the tightness of my shoulder muscles, and then I’ll do 30 minutes of yoga stretching

 

to try to loosen everything else! :0)

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May 28, 2018 · 10:18 am

NOT the Way I Wanted to Start My Day

We had a busy, productive day yesterday. We hit the hay about 11:30 and had just gotten into a good sleep when I suddenly felt sharp pain on the inside of my right forearm.

I jumped up, turning on lights. I looked at my arm and there was a blister type mark. My husband groggily pulled back the sheet on the bed to find a scorpion, who jumped onto his hand. I yelled at him because he didn’t seem to realize what was happening. He finally used his other hand to swat the scorpion off, thankfully NOT getting stung. We keep foreceps on a nail on the bookshelf. I grabbed those, got the scorpion, deposited him in the john and flushed him. He was very small. He didn’t curl his tail like this one. He just ran with his body straight, trying to get away.

We pulled the covers completely off the bed, checking to make sure there weren’t any others. My husband put some ointment on my arm and went back to bed.

I was still totally freaked out. My arm was red, swelling, and aching. I felt like I had been burned! I put on my robe and slippers (remembering to shake them out first this time of year) and went downstairs. There would be no sleep for me until I could get the pain under control and the images out of my still-panicked mind.

I got on the net to find out how to treat scorpion stings. Icing it down to reduce the swelling and antihistamine for possible allergic reaction were recommended. I took two Benedryl caplets, put Benedryl ointment on the area and got an ice pack from the freezer. It took until about 3 a.m. for my arm to quit hurting enough  – and for me to finally get calm enough – to try to sleep.

This morning I am still very aware of where I was stung, but YOU couldn’t see anything looking at my arm. It still feels tender and I have a bit of aching, but no redness or swelling remains.

I’m going to pull everything off the bed again and put all through the washing machine. I’ll put on fresh sheets – giving my mind the finality that no other critters remain. I’ll vacuum the bedroom again and spray around the perimeter – plus doors and windows – with whatever bug spray we have and then finally relax.

We have enough scorpions on top of our ridge line that we just step on them and spray the area for future control. They don’t attack you or jump, and usually they’re easy to see and kill. I can count on one hand, thank goodness, the times we’ve had one in the house in the over thirty years we’ve lived here.

This is definitely NOT the way I wanted to start the day…

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May 25, 2018 · 1:55 pm

A Bit of New Life for the Garden

Today after a nice time at Lunch Bunch, we stopped at the co-op on the off chance that they might have a few plants for our garden. I found a couple of lettucy type plants that I hope will fill in where my romaine is bolting and not long for this world. I also found a plant called, “broccoli stir-fry.” Since I’ve harvested the majority of the main part of the broccoli plants and I’m not sure if I’ll get more from any of these, I’m happy that I may have another chance for more broccoli this season.

The fact that we’ve gone directly from winter to summer this year is hard on the garden, particularly for the cool-weather plants like broccoli, spinach, and lettuce.

 

 

This is one of the lettucy plants and two cantaloupe plants at which my husband was looking longingly. Since it looks like a lot of the rest of my plants have a very short life span remaining, I’m happy to try these. (The last melon type plant I tried took over the whole 4’x4′ box, so I’m going to plan for this.)

It’s WAY too hot right now to be trying to work in the garden, so I’m doing other stuff while waiting for the sun to tone it down a bit. (We’re having a high of around 90 with humidity at 61% right now – way too hot for this old lady.) I’ll try to take some pics to share later.

 

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May 24, 2018 · 10:02 am

NutriSystem – 1st Month’s Progress Report

Today we have officially finished the 1st month of Nutrisystem.

I’m particularly pleased by my husband’s progress. He is disappointed that he hasn’t lost that much weight, but he doesn’t have NEAR as much to lose as I do. He’s lost about 4 lbs, but I can SEE a difference in his tummy (though he won’t let me measure or do it himself.) The biggest thing that makes me happy is the lowering of his blood sugar number. It was 117 this morning, the lowest since we’ve been monitoring. (I saw a ‘353’ in my records). Lower than 100 is considered normal, and he actually might achieve that!

He is particularly pleased by getting to eat a piece of fruit daily. We had both given that up entirely before and it’s really a treat to welcome fruit back into our diet. There are some really nice big oranges right now at Walmart and we share one each day. We also have some apples in the fridge, in case the oranges aren’t available, plus some blackberries for fruit on his flex breakfast for the week. He has found several of the cookie snacks really good, and he likes their oatmeal. He thinks the frozen orange dream type bars better than the ones we were eating before the diet!

My Nutrisystem progress to date is 9.2 lbs and 11.8 inches gone. (My total weight loss efforts since my ‘lardiest’ are 21.4 lbs and 26.2 inches.)

Lifestyle changes other than the Nutrisystem eating plan:

  1. I gave up added salt and am buying low sodium canned veggies now.
  2. Neither my husband nor I add any sugar or alternatives to anything.
  3. I am doing more real exercise –
    • elliptical trainer – at least 15 minutes,
    • yoga 30 minutes,
    • over-the-door shoulder pulley – 5 minutes,
    • weight exercise to stretch out shoulder muscles – 5 minutes.
  4.  I’m more aware of what a ‘serving’ is – basically not enough to stick in your eye. That said, I realize that my husband and I have each eaten for 8 to 10 at each meal and that hasn’t done our health any favors.
  5. We are both consciously eating more veggies (we usually have carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes and radishes with some salad dressing with our lunch and then a tossed salad (with lettuces and spinach from our own garden!) with our dinner.
  6. I’m getting more used to drinking the 64 oz of water each day. I drink a 16 oz bottle of water with each meal and sip at the last during the day. My body seems to be adjusting to it, too. I’m not having to run to the bathroom quite so much.

We were both really happy to finally eat our way through Order #1. We were both down to things we really didn’t care for, and so cheered when we finished the last of the first order and could dive into Order #2. It was funny, though, because our first lunch we each had “White Bean Chicken Chili.” We are wusses when it comes to hot, spicy stuff, and this was almost too hot for us to eat! I read the ingredients and found they had put jalapenos in it. We could get it down by having a veggie in our mouth and then adding a bit of the chili in there, too. The flavor was nice, other than the hot, but I went to the website and took that particular choice off of Order #3 for both of us… :0)

We feel that our first month on Nutrisystem has been successful. I enjoy planning the flex dinner we’ll eat each week. (We’ll have salmon and steamed broccoli this week.) My husband is learning to put his glasses on so that he can SEE the color coded choices in his bins in the pantry and the freezer. He is also learning to actually read the directions for nuking his food, rather than just winging it. I’m still spoiling him by bringing his snacks to him (like his 1/2 peeled orange and 2 oz of nuts mid-morning) but he’s learning to be a bit independent, otherwise.

On with Month # 2!

 

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May 23, 2018 · 12:55 pm

Yesterday’s Harvest

I’m grateful for the harvest yesterday. In the picture above you can see that my spinach plants are not enjoying the heat. Lettuce and spinach are cool weather plants and I usually enjoy quite a harvest before the too-hot begins. I’ll harvest as much spinach as possible because I can freeze it.

 

The head lettuce leaves are still okay, but looking a bit stressed. These plants are happier than anything else, with the exception of the radishes, in the square foot garden right now.

 

I’m sad because the really hot-too-soon in the season weather we’ve been having is causing the romaine lettuce to bolt. I’m not sure how much more I can harvest before the leaves taste bitter and I have to compost the plants.

 

We’ll enjoy the fresh lettuce and spinach for salad each day for as long as possible. I’m not sure whether I’ll get more broccoli, but the hope is that I’ll get more from the shoots from the main plant after the center has been harvested. The radishes and onions are doing fine, although some of the green tops of the onions are shooting up and trying to make seeds. The tomato plants on the other side of the house are growing rapidly. They like the heat. I have a few blossoms, so I’m hopeful we’ll enjoy a nice crop this year.

 

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May 23, 2018 · 11:13 am

I Just Want You

ValorZone

 

Today is a challenging day for us. My husband’s computer isn’t working. Since he’s a computer analyst by trade, this is not only aggravation for him – it’s an ego thing. He got some ‘help’ from Microsoft yesterday, the result of which was that he is not able to boot his computer now. He put in a call to them early this morning and he got the message they would call within 27 minutes. He got set up in his chair with my phone, because he finds it easier than using his new one, his sugar-free hot apple cider, and his e-reader. They should have called about an hour and a half ago. To say he’s ‘upset’ is a vast understatement.

Because he can’t boot his computer, some stuff on MY computer isn’t working. Also, because of that, some things on our TV aren’t working. Because he’s using my phone, I can’t check to see if we sold any books I need to package and mail today…. So I’M not a happy camper, either.

He pressed me to change from the iMac my son set up for me back to a Microsoft Windows PC so that he would be able to fix things for me. He would set up the two computers the same, we would be able to share files, etc. This hasn’t worked out as planned at all. I am functional on my new computer, but we still are unable to share files. His computer keeps pitching hissy-fits, draining our finances and our calm demeanors simultaneously.

This definitely falls under the ‘flaws’ part of the wonderful quote above.

 

CraftyMamaGifts-Etsy

I DO want him, and have since I was 14 and he was 17. Now we’re older than dirt and STILL enjoy being together more than anything – EXCEPT when computers don’t work….

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May 22, 2018 · 9:50 am

Marriage Box

16quotes.com

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May 22, 2018 · 9:39 am

Good Question

Satchel Paige via YourDictionary

 

Complicated answer, depending on which part of you is answering –

Sometimes I feel like an old soul, my HEART feeling as if I’ve always been here soaking up emotions and feelings, personal memories and those of others I’ve known.

My MIND feels about 30 – young enough to want to experience new things, acquire new skills, read all I can, play in my art room, work in my garden or flower planters, play with our dogs, hug my husband fiercely – while having had enough experience to consider more wisely (I hope!)

At times my EMOTIONS feel as if I’m a young child – scared when I’m not sure I can handle something or I’m dealing with a worrisome thing totally out of my depth. Other times I feel very young when I’m captivated by a new thing that brings me joy, or I feel newly empowered by something I was unable to do yesterday.  I get so excited it’s hard to ‘tame down’ my enthusiasm. I find it hard to sit still and have to contain my actions to grinning from ear to ear – and maybe cheering a bit. :0)

My BODY brings me back to the reality of how old I actually am. It feels pretty good right now, after a day of rest from what we consider ‘heavy labor’ around here. Other days it tells me I’m old and creaky, stiff and sore, telling me I need stretching, exercise, ice/heat, and a nap.

Any day you think about it, your answer is different, depending on which part of you is feeling the most dominant at that moment.

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? – Satchel Paige

 

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May 21, 2018 · 10:33 am

Flex Meals on NutriSystem

Nutrisystem

 

Learning to actually LIVE with a new way of eating is very different than simply grabbing a package and nuking it. My husband and I will finish Month # 1 on Nutrisystem on Thursday.  Part of the program I like is the “Flex Meal” idea, where you learn to eat out plus learn to cook meals incorporating the new things you’re learning so that you can function in the real world.  You have one flex breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack each week, preferably on different days.

“Flex breakfast” –

  • My husband eats his regular cereal with some blackberries and milk.
  • I eat my old low-carb breakfast of 2 thin slices packaged turkey, a hard boiled egg, some shredded cheese, and a bit of butter, nuked.

“Flex lunch” – 

  • This was easy. We use our “Lunch Bunch” on Fridays. My husband has chicken fingers and I have a nice salad built from the salad bar, including hard boiled egg, ham chunks, cucumbers, shredded lettuce, and a sprinkling of cheese shreds, plus one spoon of dressing.

“Flex dinner” –

  • You can see from the chart above we’re supposed to have 1 smartcarb and 2 powerfuels.
  • What we are doing is cook something we’re really missing – but a lot less of it than we used to eat. Last week we got two thin steaks. (This was a big change because we usually get thick ones to grill.) We love baked potatoes with steak. Instead of the two ‘boat-sized’ white baking potatoes we usually get, we got two little-bitty potatoes. My husband was upset, but I asked him to just try it. He asked in a deprived voice, “Can we eat corn?” while gazing longingly at a nice group of ears. I said, “yes,” not really knowing for sure, but knowing that if he feels TOO deprived, he won’t stay on the new eating plan. I convinced him that we would share one ear.
  • I froze one of the steaks and cut the one I was cooking into two pieces. Lean beef is the ‘powerfuel.” I husked the ear of corn (smartcarb) and broke it into two pieces. We each had a little, bitty potato. (a starchy carb). After we ate last night, my husband came over and said, “You always do such a perfect job that I don’t think about saying anything, but the meal tonight was delicious.”  :0)

“Flex Snack” –

  • This is easy. We go bowling with good friends most Monday evenings. Afterwards, we either celebrate our good bowling or commiserate over lousy games by going to Braums in Fort Smith. We each have one scoop of ice cream and savor every bite. (Mine is chocolate.)

The Flex idea allows us to not feel deprived, keep fun social stuff with our friends even though we’re trying to get the lard off, and put the lessons we’re learning to the test while we’re dieting, so it isn’t just a mindless process, learning to eat this way the rest of our lives.  My husband is trying to keep his sugar under control – a HUGE change for him. (He even calls ME ‘Sugar.’) When we started Nutrisystem almost a month ago now, I gave up all added salt. (I used it on everything – even things that were known to be salty.) I’m hoping this will help my blood pressure numbers.

My husband’s weight loss is 5 or 6 pounds, but the biggest thing to me is that his blood sugar numbers are the best they’ve been since we started monitoring them in 2016. I keep a record, and we started with numbers like 353 (which is future amputate your parts territory). Today it was 122. The goal is under 100, but for the first time since we discovered he has Type 2 Diabetes, we feel we might actually get to the goal.

Official end of week 4 report Thursday. Next quarterly monitoring at our primary doc’s – August 6th. (After about 3 months on the program)

Fingers crossed.

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May 18, 2018 · 11:24 am

Embarrassed

 

My husband and I have sold used books and DVDs on Amazon for several years now. We make enough sometimes to make us feel we’re recouping some of what we’ve spent on books, allowing us to feel less guilty for buying more.

My husband opened the seller account, but I handle the packaging of the books sold, record keeping, confirming shipments online, etc.  If we only sell one book, the process is very easy. Selling 7 books in less than a day’s time makes it difficult to keep orders straight.

I told you yesterday that I went through the books in the entertainment center in our living room, listing some for sale on Amazon and donating the others to our local library. I listed several, and bagged up 7 Walmart bags of donated books that we’ll take to the library today.

Last night we sold 3 books. I packaged them for mailing and put them on our go-out table. By this morning, we had sold 4 more! I went through things carefully, printing out the shipping labels and info and packaging one book at a time so I didn’t get confused.

I made a list of what had sold and where the books were being shipped so that I could get online later today and confirm each shipment with a USPS number. (The only ones not on the list yet were the ones ready for shipping on the go-out table.)

I ran into one sale for which I didn’t have the book! I looked through the ones for sale very carefully several times. I couldn’t find it. I finally admitted defeat, wrote to the buyer, apologized profusely, telling her I didn’t know how this happened since I list books by their ISBN number. I cancelled the order and issued a refund for her money. I was embarrassed, telling my husband I was old and doofus, but was being as careful as possible.

I took the newly packaged books in to the go-out table and added the ones already packaged to my list for confirmation. THERE WAS THE BOOK I COULDN’T FIND.  You can’t UN-cancel an order. You can’t put spilt milk back into the bottle.

SO – I’m embarrassed TWICE now. I’ll wait a week and then list the ‘sold-and-order-canceled’ book again next week….

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May 17, 2018 · 11:02 am

Getting the Lard Off Progress – End of Week 3

  •  After Week 3 on Nutrisystem:  7.6 lbs
  • Total Weight Loss since my Lardiest: 20 lbs.
  • After Week 3 of Nutrisystem:  9.8 inches
  • Total since my worst wideness:  26.2 inches

My husband has lost weight and his blood sugar numbers are looking a LOT better! (I’m trying not to invade his privacy by printing numbers, but I’m really happy for him.)

Exercise:

  • I’m trying to do 15+ minutes on the Elliptical Trainer each day.
  • Yoga – 30 minutes of stretching daily
  • Weight exercise for neck/shoulder problem
  • Over-the-door shoulder pulley – 5 minutes daily of pulling
  • Ice/heat daily, 15 minutes each for neck/shoulder problem
  • Serious Intention to get up and move more, such as taking break from computer, walking out to shop or garden, then out to greenhouse, sweep garden, clean something, organization effort, etc. several times per day.

Practical Differences:

  • I’m happy that I have ‘new, smaller shorts’ on this week’s list!
  • I’m having fewer instances of having to take a serious nap in the afternoon. I haven’t gotten any younger, so it has to be I’m feeling more energy due to my new eating regimen. :0)
  • I’m feeling more in control of our food now. I keep an eye on the clock so that we remember our mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, but the rest is becoming more routine.
  • We’re eating more veggies – celery, carrots, cherry tomatoes and radishes with a bit of salad dressing with our lunch, and a salad with spinach, romaine, and head lettuce from our own garden with our dinner.
  • We don’t have the feeling hungry sensation. Though we’ll be happy to finish the first month’s supply of food (choices we’ve changed in the next order) we’re feeling generally happy with our food. We’ve found some favorites, such as their orange cream bar as a before bed snack!
  • We’ve cooked one dinner, eaten lunch out, and fixed our own breakfast, and had a snack NOT on the program this week (Flex Meals), learning how to function in the real world, learning to judge portions, and more.
  • I bagged up the food left from the first order in gallon freezer bags. We got my new group of frozen food yesterday and my husband’s this morning, and we were able to quickly put both away, keeping everything straight. :0) Now waiting for NON-frozen boxes.

Week 3 has been a success. I’m feeling motivated and happy to be getting less of me!

 

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May 17, 2018 · 10:01 am

Folding Myself Into a Paper Airplane is Good

Animal-Space.net

My neck and shoulders have been hurting/burning off and on for about 3 weeks now. I had a wonderful massage where my therapist suggested that I

  • use ice and heat alternately  (I have to force myself to do this for 15 minutes, although I know ice is good for inflammation)
  • do an exercise with a weight to stretch out the muscles between my neck and my shoulders
  • do yoga stretching
  • get an over-the-door shoulder pulley and use it to stretch out the muscles
  • STOP doing whatever it was that was causing the problem!

I’m still having problem, but 1 through 4 above are definitely helping. Since I have no clue what I did/am doing that causes me to tighten up like this, it’s a bit hard to ‘stop it,’ but it’s great that I now have an arsenal of ways to make it stop for a bit.

I received a new neck pillow I ordered (Amber ATE the one I had while I was out working with the weed whacker),  so I’m again doing all of my stretching and relaxation poses on my yoga mat.

Thanks to Sixty and Me    and their “Gentle Yoga”   DVDs (for old broads like me) with instructor Cat Kabira for teaching me ways to stretch myself out, try to relax, and strengthen my body to feel better.

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May 16, 2018 · 10:40 am

Did You Miss Me Yesterday?

thedailyblog.co.nz

We had storms really early yesterday morning. Lightning apparently hit the radio tower on a ridge line across the valley from us that brings our Internet, email, and TV, knocking it out completely for much of the day.  We felt disenfranchised, but soldiered on. :0)  I hated not being able to write blog posts, check email, look up the phone number of our Internet provider on the net in order to report the outage ( :0) ),  or do things like read what was happening on the news – or watch it on TV – since much of our TV service is tied to Internet service.

My husband went to an auction that was nearby. While he was gone, I used the time to get caught up on filing and cleaned up the office. I also started a spreadsheet that will list our ‘stuff’ in case of a catastrophic loss, such as a tornado blowing our home to smithereens or a wildfire burning everything to a crisp.

I told you that we arranged a meeting with our insurance agent recently to learn in PLAIN ENGLISH what our coverages included, what needed to be increased, what was excluded, and if the DVD with pics and information was enough should the worst happen. The end result was that we feel much more confident about our policies. We added an endorsement that would better cover the stuff in our basement. We discovered that the first thing we would have to do in case of a gigantic loss would be to fill out forms that listed, in our own handwriting, each thing we had lost, including brand name, serial and model numbers, when and from whom we bought it, what we paid, etc.  Our DVD covers a lot, but not like this.

I got a copy of the spreadsheet form we would need to fill out and I’m building a spreadsheet to mirror theirs, working on it as I get the time, working from our DVD, taking new pics when needed, listing things room by room, adding things if needed, subtracting things, etc. I would much rather have this if we need it, in the safe deposit box at the bank, than try to do this after we’ve lost everything. I started on this yesterday.  This will be a long project, but I’ll work on it a bit at a time.

We ran errands for much of the afternoon. We did what was needed at home and then discovered our Internet service had been repaired. Hooraaay!  Sad to say, I was too pooped by that time to even think about getting on the computer…

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May 12, 2018 · 11:48 am

Combination Helps

I was really tied in a knot when I got my last massage therapy session Thursday. To say I needed help was an understatement. Somehow I made the muscles that run from my neck to my shoulders and across my back hurt so badly they burn. Hot showers and pain medicine didn’t help. My wonderful massage therapist, Lynn Moody, expertly got to all the sore muscles, kneading them into relaxation.

We were agreed that I should stop doing whatever it was that caused the problem in the first place, should I ever discover what that is.

She also suggested –

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  • the stretching yoga she knows I am doing daily now
  • an exercise with a weight where I bend over, brace one hand on a table and hold the weight in the other hand, letting it hang down completely. Then move the weight in circles in one direction and then the other direction several times, getting the shoulder muscle to stretch out. Then do the same on the other side. (I’m starting with a 3 pound weight)
  • ice on the area for 15 minutes and then heat for another 15
  • get and use an over-the-door-shoulder-pulley. This is an inexpensive exercise thing that will also target the shoulders, like facing away from the door and holding one arm straight up over your head and the other hanging straight down, and then reverse. I should be able to pick this up at Walmart Monday or Tuesday of next week.

I’ve been doing all but the over the door thingie since I had my massage Thursday morning. The combination is helping. I actually had almost an hour where I didn’t feel any pain across my back last night!

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May 10, 2018 · 2:21 pm

Nutrisystem Week 2 – Progress Report

Since starting the ‘Nutrisystem for Fat Ladies’ program two weeks ago, there is less of me!

  • Weight lost:  6.6 lbs*
  • Inches Lost:  5.5 inches*

*(Couple this with what I lost before Nutrisystem – and my total loss since “MY WORST” is 19 lbs and 15.5 inches.)

My husband refuses to do anything but weigh, and he’s lost 3 lbs. He’s drinking stuff during the day, but doesn’t want to even think about drinking 64 oz of water per day. He’ll eat fruit and nuts, but fusses about anything else as his PFs and SCs each day, eating some of what I bring him, but not all. He will eat a salad, but fights other veggies, mostly, so I’m doing veggies and dip for lunch and salad for dinner. He’s on the diabetic program, and his blood sugar readings, which we take twice per week, are the best he’s had since we started monitoring him!

___________________

I’m still feeling a bit obsessed with food, since I’m setting the alarm so I don’t miss one of our ‘feedings’ at the zoo, and am fixing PowerFuels, SmartCarbs and Veggies a good part of each day. I’m still needing to ‘read the list’ of what is good, but I’m getting better at it.  I’m finding it easier to drink the 64 oz of water daily. In-between, I have a cup of coffee in the morning and another during the evening. My body is still trying to get used to the different eating regimen, but I’m gradually feeling more comfortable.

My husband and I are going to sit down together at the computer tomorrow and make final decisions about what will be in our order that will ship soon for month #2. He found he had chosen several things he didn’t care for. I’ve been letting him eat some of my choices to get him through this first month and he wants me to help him choose for next month.

I’m learning some general things on how to eat so that we can keep this weight off as we go and through the rest of our lives:

  • Eating small amounts every 3 hours during the day keeps hunger at bay. The combinations keep your tummy happy and your energy on a steady level – probably keep my husband’s blood sugar from spiking, too.
  • Making sure you get enough protein with meat, dairy and nuts, and good fruit rounds out your nutrition.
  • A little bit of bread goes a long way.
  • Meat is used as a flavoring, rather than the main course.
  • The invention of turkey – as in sausage and patties – cuts way down on calories and tastes good, too.
  • Cutting out fat, salt and sugar is a good thing and quite doable.
  • Drinking lots of water is important
  • Making a point of exercise is important for lots of reasons
  • “What constitutes a Serving” is an eye-opener
  • Learning how to eat when NOT eating Nutrisystem is a life skill important to develop a little bit at a time.

I think the weight loss after week 1 is supposed to average 1 to 2 lbs per week. I would be very happy with that. I want to get the lard off and KEEP it off, becoming healthier in the process.

On to Week 3!

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May 8, 2018 · 1:08 pm

Ain’t It the Truth!

Aging Is Not a Disease via Cindy Basnett Thurman

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May 4, 2018 · 6:24 pm

Confusion Re NutriSystem Solved

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Yesterday I happily started Week 2 of our Nutrisystem plans, carefully having made note of Powerfuels (and lists of) and SmartCarbs (and lists of), as well as what each of us was to eat at the various times of the day.

I got to the point of adding dinner into my NuMi tracker records and discovered that I was going over the calorie limit at the top! I had thought that one of the perks of the Nutrisystem plan was that you didn’t have to count calories, but it was clear that I had messed up in some way. I deleted the veggies I had planned to eat and the snack I had been looking forward to eating after dinner, staying under the calorie limit.

I contacted one of the nice people connected to Nutrisystem via the live CHAT today – one of the great parts of the program, in my estimation. She said that I needed to switch to “nutrisystem’ instead of ‘turbo 13’ as the current stage of my program. (I had thought that when the NuMi page congratulated me on finishing the Turbo week, they would make any changes needed.) The kind lady switched my program stage for me and I was off to the races again.

We ate our first FLEX meal (meals eaten off the plan to teach you how to cope with the real world and not break your new eating plan). We’re supposed to eat one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and one snack as Flex meals each week, preferably not on the same day. We ate our regular Lunch Bunch with our good friends, not wanting to change our cherished time together. My husband had his loved chicken fingers and I had a big salad and a hard boiled egg, figuring I was eating two servings of veggies and one powerfuel.

We are delighted to be eating FRUIT again!  We haven’t eaten fruit in maybe over a year, due to my husband being a type II diabetic and our trying to eat low carb. It’s such a treat! My husband’s blood sugar number yesterday was the lowest it’s been since we have been monitoring it!

We are making changes to our next order on almost a daily basis, finding things we don’t particularly care for, and other things we really like and want more of. The website makes it easy to do that.

So, my confusion and upset from yesterday was solved today. I’ll happily dive into the freezer this evening for a nice entree for each of us and probably an ice cream sandwich!!!

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May 3, 2018 · 9:54 am

Beginning of Week 2 on Nutrisystem

I ate and drank the last of the contents of the ‘Magic Red Box’ (Turbo 13) week on Nutrisystem. By the end of the week, though, due to my not paying enough attention, I guess, I was down to a bar for breakfast, a shake, a bar for lunch, a bar mid afternoon, and a ‘Hearty Beef Stew” that was the size of my eyeball for dinner (plus veggies, of course, and lots and lots of water.

I’m recording everything I eat and drink, plus my daily activities, on NuMi, their tracker, to keep me honest.

I lost almost 5 lbs (4.8) during the week, which is WONDERFUL. I just measured. It shows I’m down a bit more than 4 inches, but measurement is an iffy thing, kind of like interpretation of ‘facts’ you hear on the news, so I’ll believe it more when I measure at the end of week 2.

This morning I dived into the freezer and got the first of my actual ‘choices’ for the first month – a turkey sausage and egg muffin. YUM! I was also supposed to eat a Powerfuel, but I honestly was too full after the muffin and the 16 oz bottle of water, so I put it in the fridge and will plan to eat it later.

This week starts the way we’ll be eating for the foreseeable future. So far, my husband is resisting at least half of the veggies, isn’t trying to drink water (though he drinks unsweetened tea during the day and a sugarless apple cider hot drink) and refused the Powerfuel this morning,  He doesn’t want to talk about NuMi, much less try to keep up with it, so I won’t bug him about that. I’m going to TRY to get him to eat and drink what he’s supposed to on his Diabetic plan, but he’s a big boy and can make his own choices. That said, his blood sugar this morning was the lowest it’s been since we’ve been monitoring it and he has lost 3 lbs. !!!!!!  :0)

I will start trying to do yoga and the elliptical trainer each day now. My husband refuses to ‘exercise,’ but is in much better shape than I, so I will not criticize.

Main feelings of both of us at the beginning of week 2 – 

  • we’re both glad we started the program
  • my husband has found a few food items he wants to change on our order for month # 2, but we’re able to do this whenever we want online. They post a deadline for making changes, so we know when the last day is for changing choices
  • neither of us has been hungry, though occasionally we long for old, bad habits a bit
  • we’re happy that our primary doctor was pleased to hear we had started the program. We have a regular, follow-up appointment in 3 months, and we’re hoping both our weight losses and blood test numbers will be improved.

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May 2, 2018 · 1:01 pm

Before-After Power Company

Yesterday I told you that the Electric company guys were here to cut back trees where they encroached on power lines. This is to increase the changes that their customers won’t lose power in a storm and that they can actually get to the poles to repair any damage.

This is a trio of three evergreens essentially grown together to make one bird habitat. We had to have part of the tree cut back pretty severely several years ago when we added geothermal heating and cooling in order for the big tractors to be able to dig and maneuver. If you look carefully, you can see a power line essentially going through part of the tree.

This is one view of the ‘before’ the power company did their work.

 

 

 

After – This is a bit different view, but you can see that they really cut the top out of the trees to free up the power lines.

 

 

Here’s another ‘before’ shot, showing the encroachment of the tree into the lines.

 

After – You can see in this pic that they essentially cut down half of one side of the tree.

I’m a bit sad. I don’t know what happened with all the birds that were living there. Hopefully, they’ll survive the trauma and come back, even though their digs are looking pretty damaged. The power company didn’t come to make landscaping changes – they came to protect their power lines. We like power, and we don’t want our trees to be the cause of anyone losing theirs. We also want the men working on the lines to be as safe as possible. It’s just a sad day when trees that have been there for longer than 30 years have to be sacrificed…

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April 28, 2018 · 10:03 am

And So It Begins – Getting the Lard Off – Day Three

We started Nutrisystem on Thursday of this week, the 26th. So far I’ve lost 3.6 lbs.

The Nutrisystem people stress that you shouldn’t weigh yourself every day. They suggest once a week. I’ve always weighed myself every day, though, and I need the feedback that I’m going in the right direction, or at least staying reasonably steady. Even though this is just water loss, I feel happy that I have a good start. I have a long way to go, but losing weight is a great thing to be doing with my time each day. :0)

They also stress not to do any exercise the first week. Well, that’s all well and good, but I’m getting lots of exercise getting up to go to the bathroom all day (and many times at night, too.)  Plus, life goes on, and I need to get things accomplished around here; so, no formal exercise until next week, but I HAVE been being active.

Example – since winter FINALLY seems to be over, we took the snow tires off the Honda Ridgeline yesterday and put the regular tires on. This is a laborious project, but after doing it twice a year for several years now, we have it almost down to a science. My husband does the heavy stuff, like getting the tires onto the “wheel studs.” (I just had to ask my husband what was the actual name for those. I hate to call everything ‘thingies.’) I’m a pretty good go-fer – rolling the snow tires out of the way, rolling the regular tire over to my husband, handing him the wheel nuts, bringing him tools, putting things away, etc. It takes us about half an hour now, when the first time it took us twice that.

I also planted a 6-pack of tomato plants and several squares of radishes yesterday. Since we don’t have our irrigation system going yet, later I got a hose hooked up and watered them.  I rolled up our big fireplace rug and stored it under the stairs in a storage place and then vacuumed the living room, foyer, and office. The big thing yesterday was washing the two large dog bed covers, airing out the innards, then putting everything back together.

Add to that setting a timer so that we stay on our program for the day, eating every 3 hours, and you have much of our day yesterday.

My attitude is better since we’re finally on the road again to getting the lard off. I’m hopeful that as the extra weight comes off, we’ll feel better and better.

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April 26, 2018 · 10:14 am

NuMi

Today is our first day on NutriSystem. I’m on the Uniquely Yours (for fat ladies) program and am eating from the Turbo 13 (magic) red box. My husband is on the Diabetic Uniquely Yours for Men. I ate the Maple Sugar Oatmeal breakfast and my husband ate the Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal. I don’t care for oatmeal, but it was easy to fix and I found it palatable.

We essentially eat and drink all day –

8:30 breakfast
11:30 Snack One (first week a shake)
2:30 Lunch + veggie
5:30 Snack Two – (first week a nutrition bar)
8:30 Dinner + veggie
+ at least 64 oz of water (I’ll try for a 16 oz bottle of water for each main meal, and then one sipped during the day.)

For exercise, we’ll run back and forth to the bathroom from drinking all the water!

I have to tell you that, since my husband and I tend to use “National Tissue Week” as an excuse to go off our good eating plans, having meals (and especially portions) will be a great wake up call for us. I don’t seem to have the proper whatevers that are supposed to tell you you are full. I could eat a full meal and then eat another an hour later, so I’m also looking forward to only having to go three hours between eating.

The last time we tried Nutrisystem several years ago, they didn’t offer frozen food, and the variety of foods was less than we would have liked. Now it could be months before we can try everything! I’m also hoping that they won’t start discontinuing the options my husband has chosen, as they did last time. That was the thing that made us stop. Now they have as a major focus teaching you what is healthy to eat, what a reasonable portion is, and have you practice flex meals once each week from Week 2 on. This gives you a chance to not only learn how to choose what to eat if you eat out, but guidance as to what to eat for home-cooked meals so that you can learn healthy habits from the outset.

This morning I started NuMi, a food tracker to guide you through the program. You can input your goals, monitor your progress, record what you eat and drink, etc. One of the first questions was where I was in the program. When I input that this was my first day on the Turbo 13 week of Uniquely Yours for Fat Women, it immediately came up with what I was supposed to be eating today. I input my maple sugar oatmeal and it told me how many more calories I had allotted for the day, and showed me what else I would be eating.

I went through the quick tour, then immediately screwed up. I hit the ‘fast entry’ button for breakfast, and then decided I wanted to actually type in what I ate. I had a time getting the first entry off, but finally did it.

I hope that this program will help us, indeed, get the lard off, and teach us how to KEEP it off once we reach our goals. My husband will reach his goal before I do, but I’m hoping he’ll keep me company, continuing to use the program, or be satisfied with my new cooking choices and techniques.

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April 25, 2018 · 11:52 am

Almost There!

Our frozen stuff was just delivered by Fedex. It was nicely packed in large styrofoam coolers with dry ice, the whole cooler shrink-wrapped and clearly labeled whose was whose.

We have just finished putting things away. It turned out that our frozen snacks went into the freezer in the pantry. Mine fit in one gallon sized ziplock bag, so I didn’t have to mark anything. Of the three trays I had cleaned out in the chest type freezer in the garage, my husband’s frozen stuff filled two of them to the brim. I put some of my stuff in the third tray, and put others in gallon ziplock bags. It’s really clear whose stuff is whose, so I didn’t have to mark those, either. :0)

 

 

Today is our last hurrah of ‘free eating.’ I’m not sure how we’ll spend it.

Tomorrow morning will start the first day of our Nutrisystem plans.

 

Any time you change your eating habits violently, there will be snags. We have Lunch Bunch Friday. I’ll go to visit with my friends and have a glass of water, opting to religiously stay on the program until I get a ‘flex meal’ NEXT week. My husband has opted to get his regular chicken fingers for Lunch Bunch. One meal off the plan in the first week won’t be the end of the world. He has agreed to do this, so I’ll work on getting him to go with the program as much as possible.

Tomorrow I’ll make us a salad bowl – two cups each for each of us , so all we have to do is dip out the servings when it’s time to eat lunch or dinner. I’ll also plan to serve us a cup each of broccoli with our dinner.  (A serving is one cup of raw non-starchy veggies or 1/2 cup of cooked veggies, so this will be our 4 servings for the day.)

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“Here is a quick glance at what you’ll eat during your first week on Nutrisystem:*

  • Nutrisystem Breakfast from Turbo Takeoff Box  (Husband chooses from his stash)
  • TurboShake (for women) or Nutri-Pro Shakes (for men)
  • Nutrisystem Lunch from Turbo Takeoff Box (husband chooses from his stash)
  • NutriCurb Bar
  • Nutrisystem Dinner from Turbo Takeoff Box (husband chooses from his stash)
  • At least four servings of non-starchy veggies and 64 ounces of water throughout the day

Source: NUTRISYSTEM

(Exercise is taken care of from drinking the 64 (at least) oz of water each day. Our eyeballs will be swimming, and we’ll be running to the bathroom a lot. :0)”

I hope that you are finding ways to take good care of yourself.  Hopefully, this will be the start of our getting the lard off, moving more, and feeling better and better.

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April 23, 2018 · 5:34 pm

Good News re Getting the Lard Off!

 

I received the emails today that the frozen part of our first order from Nutrisystem is supposed to be delivered by the end of the day on Wednesday!

Immediately, my husband said, then we should start the program the following Monday.

We were on the way to Fort Smith to take our donation to the Veterans Thrift Store, so I sat there, thinking. On the way back I finally asked him, “Why do you want to wait until Monday to start?” And he answered, “Because it’s more symmetrical than starting in the middle of the week.”

By the time we got home, I said, “I really want to start on Thursday, since we’ll get the rest of the food we ordered on Wednesday and I can get it organized and stored.” (Since it has taken so long to get the two parts of what we ordered, Order #2 is scheduled to be shipped on May 13th. Starting Thursday will give my husband a chance to try several of his choices and we can still make changes until 6 pm on the 12th.)

We agreed to start on Thursday morning (assuming we get the delivery as scheduled.)

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Hooray!

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April 21, 2018 · 11:11 am

Referee

 

I let Amber out JUST as the mail lady came up the driveway. :0(

I tried to get Amber under control, but I didn’t have the zapper in hand and Amber was SOOOOO excited that someone came to see her! She was trying to jump up, her wagging tail whipping my leg. The lady was smart, throwing a dog biscuit out from her. Of course, Amber went right after it.

My husband came out then, complicating the issue. Amber started being exuberant again, acting as though we hadn’t spent hours and hours working with her. My husband got frustrated and grabbed Amber’s collar.  All of a sudden, both of them went down on the grass in a pile. I put the package that the lady has just given me down and went to help my husband up. He wouldn’t let go of the collar – being a stubborn man – and Amber wouldn’t give an inch, either.

Finally, we both held Amber down while the mail lady started back down the driveway. When she had gone far enough, Amber quieted. I felt like a referee between my husband of very stubborn streak and Amber, a big dog with small brain….

No one was hurt, but nerves were frazzled on all parts. Amber has 11 more months to do some growing up and calming down while we try to teach her to be social without being ‘deaf’ to commands and over-exuberant. (We’re told that things will get better when she hits the 2-years-old mark. ) I’m afraid there is no cure for my husband’s stubborn streak.

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April 20, 2018 · 9:53 am

Feeling a BIT Empowered Today

PersonalizationMall.com

I finally got the hang of bookmarks on the new PC!  Most of the stuff I’m doing on the new machine, including trying to write blog posts, I’m like an elephant trying to walk between two buildings high in the air on a tightrope – and I’m afraid of heights. I feel extremely awkward, brain-challenged and get frustrated really quickly.

BOOKMARKS – on the other hand – are now good. :0)

I now have all the ones we imported from the MAC, and the others imported that I had put on FireFox, on the new PC. I can now save a website to a bookmark I’ve created, change one to another section, change the name of one, create a new bookmark, etc. Yesterday I figured out how to create SUB-directories, so I was able to organize the many websites I’ve bookmarked for gardening. HOOOOORAAAAY!

One thing learned, a gazillion to go; but the empowerment has begun!

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April 19, 2018 · 11:41 am

Trying to Get Ready for Nutrisystem

The ads for men say, “Eat the food, lose the weight.” Simple, right?

I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. My husband agreed to get on the “Diabetic Uniquely Yours for Men, Custom Menu.” As far as HE’S concerned now, it’s ‘Eat the food, lose the weight.” I ordered “Uniquely Yours for Women – Custom Menu” for me.

In order to get him to try this, I had to do a LOT of prep work. We’ve been on Nutrisystem before, several years ago. We quit because my husband was irate that they discontinued all the meals he liked, one at a time. The number of choices wasn’t as good back then, and they didn’t offer frozen stuff as they do now. He’s really gun-shy after our first experience, so I’m trying to run interference as much as possible.

I finally got things so he could sit down in his chair beside me at the computer and he could choose what looked good while I made notes. At one point when we started with his order I thought it was ‘game over,’ because his lunch choices weren’t coming up when we were on the lunch ordering page. I contacted the chat expert, and we finally figured out that do to some error on my part, we had somehow gotten on the dinner page. THAT was why the things he wanted didn’t show. The chat guy, Jeff, helped us figure things out.

I then fought through trying to order MY plan. At first they wouldn’t let me use my email address with another password. I got on chat again, explained my husband didn’t want to receive any emails from them, so I had used my email to order his plan. She figured out a way around the problem, guided me through the maze again, and I was really grateful.

Nutrisystem

Since we placed our orders, I’ve been reading everything on the website, trying to figure out what to expect. You can find answers, but there is a LOT to go through to get them. I’ve finally started a notebook, printed things and put them in the notebook for quicker reference.

I found out through the reading that they ship the non-frozen stuff separately from the frozen stuff. This makes sense because the frozen stuff comes in a truck rigged to carry frozen things. I got the emails that both of our non-frozen orders were shipping today. I can’t track them yet, so I don’t know when to expect them. They’ll send more emails when the frozen stuff ships.

I have cleaned out freezers to get ready to store our food when it arrives. The non-frozen food won’t be as hard to store. I’ve figured out a system for marking my husband’s food so we don’t get things mixed up. He’s sneering at me, but doesn’t have a better suggestion, so I’ll do what I planned and see if it works.

I’m still looking for the cut-off date for changing the items on our next order is. I’m sure that we’ll find things we really don’t care for (at least we did the first time.) I want to be sure I can change our order in time that we don’t get 6 more of something we hate the next month.

I have put up ‘what we eat the first week’ on the fridge in the kitchen. I’m sure my husband will balk at eating 6 times a day, but I will encourage it, just the same. Then, if he doesn’t, at least I tried.

So far, I’m ending up brain-dead by dinner time, after working on this a lot of the day for several days now, trying to figure out what to do when we start. I’ve decided our “4 servings of veggies each day” will be salad with lunch and dinner.  Otherwise, if needed, I’ll have cherry tomatoes and celery ready to put on our plates.

I have some of our flex meals figured out. We have ice cream after bowling once a week with friends. That’s our on-our-own snack for the week. Our on-our-own lunch will be when we meet our friends for Friday’s “Lunch Bunch.” (I’ll switch to making a salad at the salad bar.) Not sure what we’ll do for our on-our-own dinner, but I have time yet. On-our-own breakfast won’t be a problem. I like that they are encouraging us to pay attention to what we’re eating from the beginning of the program, both what is prepared for us and what we choose for our flex meals.

Just “Eat the food, lose the weight.” Yeah.

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April 18, 2018 · 12:31 pm

Breaking Bad Habits – Getting the Lard Off

 

We have made a major decision on our efforts to get the lard off.

I’ve been cooking low-carb for quite a while now. We’re healthier than we were, but one or both of us keeps cheating and it’s been going on too long. My appetite is enough to kill a horse, and my husband describes me lovingly as, “Mean as a snake” when I’m hungry. He is Type 2 Diabetic (although he doesn’t admit it, thinking you’re only diabetic if you need to inject insulin). He eats what I fix him and THEN also eats no-sugar-added stuff, plus regular stuff he shouldn’t, and then gets frustrated when his A1C numbers are still too high. We had a frank discussion and decided that we have been kidding ourselves and needed help.

We were on NutriSystem before, several years ago. We did well, but we quit because they discontinued all the things my husband liked, one by one, and there weren’t that many choices.  When we quit, we put the weight right back on. :0(

Since then, they have developed a program for Type II diabetics!  There are 150 choices on his plan, plus a LOT of frozen choices, allowing the food to be a lot more appetizing. (At least they sound and look that way in the pictures.)  We ordered the first month’s “Uniquely Yours Diabetic Plan for Men – Custom Menu.”

I got the regular plan for fat ladies – “Uniquely Yours for Women – Custom Menu.” 

We used their chat service for ordering both, since we had a lot of questions and had some problems navigating the site. Both people were really helpful. Our first month’s food is on its way.

I’m trying to get organized for the new program. I cleaned out our freezers as much as possible, since both of us ordered a lot of frozen foods. It’s supposed to come on a truck made to carry frozen stuff. If we’re not here to receive it when they come, they pack it in dry ice that will keep it good for 6 to 8 hours. I think our food is supposed to come within 4 to 10 business days. I’m going to see if I can narrow it down so we can make plans.  I don’t know if the non-frozen stuff comes separately from the frozen or not.

There are several guides on the website. There was a mention of supplementing their food with salad and veggies. I’m trying to look at these, print them, and make notes on what we ordered. We decided to use the auto-delivery system, saving money, and we’re supposed to be able to change our next month’s order if we want to. I’ll have to find out when the cut off date is for that.

The low carb eating plan is a good one, but not when you stray off the plan for excuses, such as National Pickle Week, Friend’s Day, or whatever, constantly, it understandably doesn’t work well.

The new Nutrisystem plan is attempting to guide you on eating sensibly when you’re not eating the prepared foods, so you’re on your own once a week for a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner, and a snack. (We can build this into our lives fairly easily, using our “Lunch Bunch” on Fridays as our lunch out, and our bowling evening as our snack out, and then winging the on-your-own dinner and breakfast each week.

We’re hoping that there are enough choices that even if they discontinue things we like, we can substitute others. Time will tell.

I’m going to use their “NUMI” tracking software, too. I’m planning to really pay attention to the ingredients on what we’re eating, reading labels to get an idea of what we’re eating, how many calories, etc., so I can plan to carry on when we don’t need to be on the plan anymore.

We’re looking forward to actually getting the lard off, instead of just kidding ourselves.

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Filed under Challenges, Changes, DIET!, exercise, getting the lard off, Healthy Eating

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April 18, 2018 · 11:15 am

THING ONE and THING TWO at the Vet’s Office Today

Amber – 11 months old

Yesterday I received emails from our veterinarian’s office saying the Amber and Smoke needed to tell their owners that they needed their annual shots. I called the office and found out that if they didn’t need an exam, we could come any time. I said we would try to come first thing, which meant about 8:30.

 

Smoke – about 2-1/2 years old.

My husband found Smoke this morning and stuffed her into the cat carrier. Amber loves to go anywhere in the car, so we just said “CAR” and she followed us out, jumping into the car with a look of joy on her face.

Smoke meowed plaintively a couple of times on the way to the vet, but wasn’t completely freaked out, as our other cat, Abby, was, recently.

On the way to the vet’s, we saw a CALF crossing the road! Amber immediately wanted to go SEE the calf, getting the whole upper part of her body out of the window. I yelled at my husband, having to CONVINCE him that if the dog DID get out, all he could say was, “I really didn’t think she would/could do that.” AND we would have to deal with the consequences. He finally raised the windows a bit so that Amber was free to stick her head out, but nothing more.

When we got to the vet, my husband thought we should change Amber’s collar from the regular shock collar we use during the day to the no-pull collar we keep with the leash in the car. Since it’s a hassle, and I thought the shock collar would be good enough, we didn’t change and went into the vet’s office.

There were two other dogs there. Amber, of course, wanted to see and sniff each one. My husband tried to keep her under control, but she was strong enough the leash wasn’t holding well. It kept slipping because she was so strong even though he was using the zapper. I was wrong and admitted it when we got back into the car after we got the shots. We will just take the time necessary to change collars the next time.  (We weighed Amber, and she is now 94.2 lbs.)

We are still very much on a learning curve as far as taking animals to the vet. Smoke was very calm, meowing only a few times on the way home and calmed down when I stuck my fingers through the front caged door of the carrier and talked to her. Amber was fine again when she got back into the car.

LESSONS LEARNED –

THING ONE –

Only let the car windows down half way in the back when Amber is with us.

THING TWO –

Don’t let Amber out of the car until we have changed from the shock collar to the no-pull collar.

PLUS – it would be a good idea to continue to walking-on-the-leash lessons at home because when we are out in public, Amber is a BIG dog with LITTLE brain…

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Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, Changes, Family

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April 18, 2018 · 10:46 am

Bookmarks Progress!

PersonalizationMall.com

This old lady ain’t dead yet! I’m learning a LOT about how to create and manage bookmarks on the new PC using Microsoft 10 and Chrome.

I now have ONE list of bookmarks, all on Chrome. (I deleted Firefox as a browser)

I now can –

  • create a bookmark and put it in a folder
  • create a new folder
  • rename a bookmark
  • delete a bookmark

I’m in the process of looking at each one, deciding if I still want it, figuring out what folder to put it in if I want it (or create a new one). I’m actually making progress now and feeling much less frustrated.

Thanks to those of you who offered encouragement, commiseration, or wished good luck. It has really helped!

Pinterest

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Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Changes, Encouragement, opportunities

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