Do you ever wonder where the weight you lost went?

I used to believe that weight is a constant in the universe. If someone lost it, someone else had to find it to maintain the balance of weight in the universe. I was maintaining other people's weight for YEARS!! Lately someone has been trying to send it back, but the past two days I have stayed on target and foiled that someone's attempt. LOL

Seriously, do you know where it goes? I do. It leaves your body in all of the functions which send things out of the body into the universe: respiration, urination, etc. Oh, boy, yesterday I was urinating in every rest stop from South Bend to Omaha! I also drank a lot of coffee and diet soda, so that had something to do with it, too, I'm sure.

Our 565 mile drive took 11 hours, the same as the 630 mile drive the day before. Of course, besides stopping at virtually every rest area, I also got stopped by Illinois' finest. I was going 74 in a 65 zone about 40 miles from the Iowa border. He pulled me over, but he was very nice. He was amused because about 20 minutes before he had pulled over a driver from Davidsonville, MD, about 25 minutes from our house in Laurel. Our license says AA county, and he had asked that driver what AA stood for and then asked us. This seemed to amuse him. He talked to us for nearly 20 minutes before saying he would let me off with a warning. Bless you, Mr. Illinois State Trooper! I then pulled off at the nearest rest area to leave some weight behind.

After that I used the cruise control for most of the day to stay about 2 miles BELOW the speed limit. I felt like the pokey little puppy on the road. The big rigs were whizzing by me, but I felt that if I got stopped again and they noticed I had just gotten a warning, it would be all over for me! I had no interest in paying a large fine or spending any time in a foreign jail. LOL

My calorie count yesterday was 1600, not as good as the day before, but still lower than I had been doing for months. Breakfast in the Microtel was a bit higher than what I have at home: Cheerios, skim milk, yogurt, and one hard boiled egg. Dinner at the Omaha Denny's was excellent and included the usual 750 calories for the Sr. Lemon Pepper Tilapia dinner. We also learned that the bacon bits that are sometimes added to the green beans are SOY! Oh happy day. However I will still ask for them not to be added because it's probably another 20 or 30 calories and a lot of sodium that I don't need.

This morning we are going to the Durham Museum in Omaha. It opens at 10 a.m., and we hope to spend about two hours there. It's a railroad museum, and Mark and I both love trains. We have to cover 475 miles today, starting around noon. I hope to be pulling into Cheyenne, WY by 10 pm. It could be longer if I have to stop at every rest area again!

On to Omaha

Slept pretty good in this little Microtel motel. The bed must have been comfortable because I woke up with no back ache. At home I almost always get up with a back ache. Hm...maybe I should get this kind of bed for our new house. LOL Since my calories were so low yesterday and I drank so much coffee and water, I had to get up four times during the night. Ha Ha! I take that as a good sign for losing weight, and I still feel wide awake this morning at 6:30 a.m.

We have to drive a bit over 600 miles again today to reach Gretna, Nebraska, a suburb of Omaha. We will have our complimentary continental breakfast at the motel and then be on our way by 8 a.m., I hope. We're going to gain an hour when we hit Illinois, so that will make our arrival earlier than yesterday coming into South Bend. The drive yesterday was very smooth. The traffic was light the entire way, and we only hit a bit of a rainstorm around the PA/OH border. It only lasted about 20 minutes, so it barely slowed us up. Although there were several construction zones with lane closures, the traffic was so light that we never encountered a single back up. I'm hoping today goes as smoothly!

Our motel breakfast will not include any eggs (I asked at check-in last night), so we bought two hard-boiled eggs at Bob Evans last night to bring here for breakfast. We wanted four, but they only had two in the restaurant. How is that possible in a restaurant that claims to serve breakfast all day? The couple at the booth next to us got omelets and fried eggs with steak as their entrees while we were finishing up. Do they use liquid eggs for those things? Well, anyway, we each have one hard-boiled egg for breakfast. Mark always has his walnuts and low-carb bars to supplement. I'll have to be careful about what else I take from the buffet. I'm planning to have another excellent day and try to regain the control that has been eluding me for so long. I'll keep you posted on my success!

Remember When...

I remember when 220 was a great weight. I was excited that I hit 220 by the day of the hernia surgery, last November 2. Today hitting 220 is NOT so great. It means that I have gained 15 pounds since the lowest number of 205 back at the end of February. It means I'm out of control.

Today we headed for California to deliver the car to Evey. We drove 625 miles, so now I'm sitting in a Microtel in South Bend, Indiana. I didn't pack my scale, so the next time I see my weight will be Friday morning, July 9. I'm going to do my best to be good until then, and maybe I'll see a loss. If all the days go as well as today, I should see a very nice loss.

Today I made excellent food choices. I had four soy sausage links (160) at home for breakfast. Four hours later, I had a mid-morning snack of a Kellogg's Protein/Anti-Oxidant Chocolate Chip bar (120 calories) which was really delicious. I had my usual 190 calories double turkey meat salad at Subway somewhere in Ohio for lunch. I had a sugar-free, fat-free vanilla latte (110 calories) somewhere in Indiana for a mid-afternoon snack. Then for dinner we went to Bob Evans next door to this Microtel. I had the special diet plate of potato crusted flounder, plain baked potato, and broccoli which was advertised as 418 caloreies. Later with TV tonight I will eat the banana I brought with me.

Calories for today: 1130. This is excellent, although there was very little exercise today. Still it's a great calorie count.

Tomorrow we will drive about the same amount of miles to Gretna, Nebraska, a suburb of Omaha. I plan to eat well tomorrow also. And the next day, and the next, etc. This should work until I get to San Francisco on the Fourth of July! Still, I hope to be reasonable and add a lot of walking.

Belated Father's Day

Mark is celebrating Father's Day with our son Lowell today. We were out of town last week, so we had planned this awhile ago. The three of us will see the Orioles play the Nationals this afternoon. The O's have won the first two games in the series, so if we win it will be a sweep. Both times the O's came from behind to win, so maybe today's game will be exciting. In any case it will be hot, possibly rainy, and loads of fun to see Lowell.

I'm up another pound today, hitting a whopping 219.4. I know I had over 2000 calories each of the past two days, and much of it was high sodium. That coupled with no longer hiking the trail for an hour in the morning like I had done at the resort is probably the reason. Today I will be eating hot dogs at the ball park. Plenty of sodium there. I'm just going to enjoy myself today with my husband and my son at the ball game and worry about everything else later. I'm not sure that's the smartest thing to do, but right now it is going to be the most fun!

Shabbat at Home

We haven't spent a Shabbat at home in a long while it seems. I spent the first part of the morning watering the flowers, as always. Flowers don't care about Shabbat.

I had my sonogram yesterday. Easy. It will be awhile before any doctor calls with any results, I guess. The GYN office is supposed to call me to set up the surgeon's appointment.

Today I am going to go play Mah Jongg after services. I haven't played since I was on the ship through the Panama Canal. I haven't played with my shul girls in MONTHS. It's going to be fun.

Mark made an outstanding dinner last night of seitan disguised as Sweet and Sour Pork. Hm...delicious over Miracle Noodles. I had a huge plate and a huge salad with way too much cheese. Guess that's why I'm up two pounds today to 218. Oh, well...this is why I shouldn't weigh in every day. It's one of those obsessive things that I do that I shouldn't. Aw shucks.

Medical Update

Although not technically related to weight loss, I am now having another medical issue that could affect my weight if I let it. Whereas the hernia surgery required the weight loss and kept me on track for six months, this problem won't exactly be weight related, and usually when I'm stressed I eat. Now I'm stressed again over a medical issue. I should NOT be stressed, but it's hard to stop it. If I let the stress get to me too much, I will overeat. I must not let that happen. I must look at this as another opportunity to do the right thing to stay as healthy as possible just in case more medical things have to happen in my future.

On Tuesday I found a lump in my left breast. I was out of town, so I couldn't get to the doctor until today. I just got home from the gynecologist. She said there is an 85% chance that this is nothing serious. I just had a normal routine mammogram and normal routine GYN visit at the end of April. It's not likely a 2 cm sized lump that is serious would show up in just two months time, but to be safe she is sending me for an ultrasound, which will take place today at 2 p.m., and then an appointment with a surgeon. I don't think the surgeon's visit will get scheduled until three weeks from now because of our summer plans, but she said don't worry about it. She said three weeks would not make a difference even if it was the worst case scenario, which she is 85% sure it is not.

So I really don't think there is anything to worry about, but overeating is my usual anti-stress mechanism. Today, at least until after dinner, I have so many chores to do that there will be little time to eat. There is edging, trimming, and weeding to be done. I have some shopping to do, laundry to fold and put away, an ultrasound to get, bills to pay, banks to visit, etc. Best stop typing and get to it.

Oh the WEEDS!

We got home last night around 5 p.m. I was shocked at the amount of WEEDS that grew in my flowerbeds in the 11 days that we were gone. It's awful. Also two of my marigold plants are DEAD. So sad. They are just dried up twigs. I really don't know why. On the other hand, the impatiens that I foolishly planted in the bright sunny front yard are thriving. Go figure. I watered everything this morning, and later this afternoon I'll be waging serious war on the weeds again.

I had a day of reasonable eating yesterday, not great (about1800 calories), but much better than I have been doing. So my reward? Up half a pound to 216 and a half. Oh, well...that's the way things go. That's why I'm not supposed to weigh in every day.

Today will be a day filled with so many chores that I don't know how I will get them all done, so there's nothing to do but get started. My reward for that will be Shabbat services tomorrow morning, the chance to see lots of friends that we have not seen in probably a month, and an afternoon of playing Mah Jongg. It really will be a great reward.

Exercise works

I'm down another pound making it 216 this morning. That's not all that good considering I had made it to 205 one day near the end of February, but it's a downward trend instead of an upward one, so I will take the small victory where I can.

This morning we did the hike again; however, this time two others went with us. We had been talking about the trail, so other people asked us to guide them. We met at 7:30 a.m. before breakfast and took them on the hike. I have never been a trail guide before, so that was a new experience. Since the other two people were also Jewish, I felt like making a Shehecheyanu! LOL

Now we are packing up because we have to check out by 11, but we are going to stay around the pool until maybe 2 p.m. before heading home. We will only be home for a few days before heading out to California to deliver the car to Evey. I'm looking forward to that, but I will have to behave myself the way I did last year. On our long driving vacation last year, we walked for thirty minutes at rest areas and ate most of our meals at Subway or Denny's where I can keep excellent control over my calories. That's my plan right now. I'm taking the computer and I promise to blog every night on the journey. I might even take pictures!

More hiking

It's Wednesday morning, and LOOK, I'm typing another blog. That's two days in a row!

Mark and I took another hour long hike yesterday morning. We went up a giant hill named Cardiac Hill (for good reason) and then entered the actual Nature Trail from the correct end, which is where we exited on Monday. LOL We stuck to the officially marked "Easy Trail" and finished in an hour. Good workout. Later a guy by the pool told us there are bears up there and the locals don't walk there anymore. Hm...not sure we believe him because two days in a row up there we never saw any bears.

I had an excellent breakfast of two scrambled Egg Beaters and two pieces of whole wheat toast with a little bit of strawberry jam on it plus black coffee. That was about the lowest calorie breakfast on the menu, so I'm planning to have it again this morning. I ate nothing until four hours later for lunch, the tuna salad platter, which was basically a big plate of lettuce and other salad veggies plus a scoop of delicious tuna salad. Not a bad choice. Then we played three games of water volleyball on teams of three. Mark was on the opposite team from me. Although my team took the first game, his team easily beat us on the next two games. Then all members of the two teams sat in the hot tub for a half hour to warm up.

I had some time to relax and read by the pool even though it rained a little. I was waiting for Happy Hour at 5 p.m. Oops!! That's when my diet plan for the day went seriously SOUTH. At the bar I ordered the $2.50 special Happy Hour drink: a Sloe Gin Fizz. I haven't had one of those in decades, but it used to be my regular drink. It was AWESOME, better than I remembered. So I had another one. Ooops. Then there was the bowl of potato chips and pretzels sitting in front of me. Another Oooops. Then there was the bag of spicy barbeque chips one of my volleyball teammates handed me. The third Ooooops. At dinner I had the grilled salmon, plain baked potato, green beans, and salad no dressing. All good. Then the final Ooooooops of the night, a very LARGE slab of apple crisp with two scoops of vanilla ice cream. I did scrape off half of the plate and gave it to my friend, so at least I only ate half of this huge dessert. Still, I think I had two-thirds of my calories for the day starting at 5 p.m. Happy Hour. Not untypical for me really.

Still, I am down one pound today, 217, most likely due to the hiking and volleyball. I hope to do the same thing again today.

One funny note: our motel room door is warped and sticks horribly. I have been unable to open it at all even banging hard. Mark usually gives it a hard shoulder push to get it open. Last night after dinner Mark was still talking to our friends, but I was feeling overstuffed from the food and wanted to go back to the room. I knew I might not be able to get in, but I was sort of determined in my mind to make it happen. Well, it happened, but it wasn't good. I gave it the hardest lunge with my left shoulder that I could, while my right hand was turning the key. The door flew open and I fell forward into the room. The chest of drawers is just inside, so I careened off that, twisted, and fell sideways onto the bed. Thankfully I only wrenched my shoulder, banged my elbow, twisted my knee, and smashed a finger. Ha ha!! Sounds like a lot, but I'm all fine this morning. I was mostly scared that I was going to hit the floor or my head on the dresser, but I was able to stop the fall with the bed. It was very scary, but HEY, I opened the door all by myself!

Nobody Left?

I have not posted in two weeks, so I don't blame people if nobody is left reading this blog, but I'm posting today whether anyone reads it or not.

I have been traveling. In May we brought Evey back from Boston with all her stuff and spent three wonderful weeks with her before she flew to California. She and Eric spent one week out there getting their new car and finding an apartment in Santa Clara. They moved in this past weekend, and it sounds like a beautiful apartment. Eric began working for Apple Computers as a Hardware Design Engineer last Monday. Evey is working this week as a substitute Athletic Trainer at the University of San Francisco, and next Monday she will start a part time job in a physical therapy clinic. Their life seems to be going very well! Next week Mark and I will begin our odyssey of delivering her car to them. We'll arrive on July 4 and get to see the San Francisco fireworks together. We'll also have a chance to visit friends, take in a baseball game, and see a few other sites.

In the meantime Mark and I are in the Poconos for a relaxing 10 days of sunning, swimming, visiting friends, and overeating. Yes, the buffet has not been my friend lately. I have been putting on weight instead of taking it off. Today is Tuesday, and I weighed 218. It's creeping back on. I have been feeling out of control for a long time now, and I don't do the things I KNOW will work. I feel somewhat self-destructive again, which is how I have spent most of my life. At least yesterday I did take a long hike in the woods on a nature trail. It was only about a mile and a half total but it was very steep. In fact at one point we had to go down a really long, very steep stretch, and I was a bit afraid I would fall. Fortunately Mark and I both made it to the bottom safely. Last week we walked a two mile trek for Breast Cancer and that was a good feeling to do that without too much trouble. We are going to hike again today, but we're going to stick to the easier trails.

We have been pre-occupied much of this time with houses. We enjoyed our week in Florida and found a fabulous house in Solivita. We put a contract on it, contingent on the sale of our house in Maryland. We have dropped the price of our current house and have all our fingers and toes crossed that there will be a sale by the end of the summer.

Next Tuesday I'll be weighing in at a motel in Omaha, Nebraska. If I don't blog before then, I'll try to put something up at least a week from today.

Many frustrations

Mark was right to be pissed off at me for eating too much all weekend. Evey also made several comments to me over the last three weeks as well. She has seen me be out of control. It's not Tuesday, but tomorrow morning I'll be waking up on the auto train, so I weighed in today. UGH. Very Bad!! 221. I am embarrassed to even type that. That is one pound over the weight that I was on the day of surgery, November 2. I am disgusted with myself and hope that I can find the strength to get back on track.

In addition, I have been sick with a terrible cold, lots of coughing, leading to the inevitable laryngitis. I couldn't go sing with the Mishkan Torah choir last night. I didn't even have the energy to go listen to it. I heard it was excellent, so I'm very happy about that.

This morning we were supposed to have an appointment with our real estate agent at 9 a.m. She called us last Thursday to set this up, cryptically saying we did not have an offer but that she had something she thought we'd like. Then she stood us up today! At 9:30 I called her and left a voice mail. When she called back at 9:45, she was at her doctor's for a routine visit. What the...??? She said she thought she had an offer but they changed their mind. HUH??? Why didn't she call and tell us that? Why didn't she keep us in the loop? Why did she stand us up and I had to call HER to find out what was going on? She is a completely unprofessional jerk!! Obviously when her six month contract is up at the end of August we will be getting a new agent.

Evey's stuff is all gone. Eric and Evey will fly to California tomorrow. I'm feeling slightly sad, but I'll see her in July for awhile. They are on such a big adventure.

Today we are starting a big adventure of our own, looking at houses for ourselves. It would have been a better deal if we already had an offer for this house, but it will still be fun.

Last summer I was very successful on my diet, despite all the travel. I hope I can get back into the routine starting TODAY!! Wish me luck!

Evey-less

We are home from NJ, and Evey is still there. Our house is eerily empty and quiet.

The party on Saturday at the Gaertner's house was fabulous. About 25 people, neighbors and family, were in attendance. Leslie, Evey's future mother-in-law, is an amazing hostess. It was an all day affair with catered food, swimming in the backyard pool, and ending with a fire pit and S'mores. Awesome. Sunday morning Mark and I joined them for a spectacular breakfast featuring homemade waffles. Unbelievable! Leslie is awesome and puts my hostessing skills to shame. Evey will do well to emulate Leslie in the cooking and hostessing department.

Mark said he was very angry with me for eating so much at the party. He's right, of course. I ate way too much at the kosher restaurant Friday night; then turned around and ate a ton of food all day on Saturday. I had at least three brownies, five chocolate chip cookies, and two pieces of cake for dessert. UGH.

For those who would like to see pictures of the event, here is the link to the Picasa web album. Just copy and paste this url.

http://picasaweb.google.com/RMSilverstein/FarewellToEveyAndEric?authkey=Gv1sRgCKe-pO_Oq6uSfw&feat=email#

Farewell Party

We are visiting Evey's future in-laws today. All her worldly possessions have been loaded into a storage pod, ready to ship to California on Monday. When we saw the size of the two pods (very small) and the piles of belongings of Evey and Eric (very, very LARGE), I had my doubts they could take everything. BUT Eric's dad is a GENIUS at fitting things together. Eric, his dad, and Evey worked tirelessly for hours, but it's all in there and ready to go.

There will be a big farewell party at her fiance's house this afternoon, complete with an outdoor tent and catering! It will be a beautiful party.

Sadly I feel like sh&t. I have had a cough and a head cold for 8 days, but yesterday it just seemed to increase in devilishness exponentially! I am achy all over, couldn't sleep, coughing, no voice left at all. I am miserable! Oh, well...the party must go on. I just hope I don't infect too many of their relatives! LOL

Eric's mom Leslie, took Mark and me to a fabulous kosher restaurant for dinner last night while the other three were loading the pod. (We brought them take out so they didn't miss out on the deliciousness.) Unbelievably huge menu, and everything was delicious. I had matzo ball soup with a matzo ball the size of NJ. Mark and I both had London broil with fried onions and mushrooms. It was a huge portion, very delicious. It came with salad bar (which included meatballs and cookies) and two sides. We each chose asparagus with mushrooms and stuffed derman with gravy. OMG we had not eaten MEAT stuffed derma in decades. So delicious, so NOT healthy!

Obviously my calorie count yesterday was astronomical, but my tummy was in heaven.

Hard day

Yesterday was a hard day. I weeded, fed, and watered the flower garden; I drove Mark to Johns Hopkins to finish up his part of a cardiac research study; we picked up a rental truck; we loaded the rental truck in 90 degree heat; and I went to a choir rehearsal. All of this with a miserable cold in my head! UGH.

Our house looks even emptier than before now that all of Evey's things, literally ALL of her things, are in the rental truck. She is on her way today to her new life. Her fiance has rented two storage pods, so they will unload the truck's contents this evening and put them in the pods along with his stuff. The pods will be shipped to California on Monday; the two of them will fly out to their motel in Sunnyvale on Tuesday. Their first order of business is to get a car, then find an apartment. Eric will begin working at Apple Computer a week from Monday. So last night was Evey's last night in her childhood home because the house will be sold before she will be flying back to the east coast. Wow, talk about stress.

I know that this will go very well for them. I have a strong feeling that this is the right path for them, but it makes it a little bittersweet for Mark and me. I wonder if all of this underlying stress from these changes is making it so hard for me to get back to my diet? I would like to blame it on that, but I faced many changes and stresses last year and yet stuck to the plan. I really believe that the fear of that surgery kept me going, and now I have no fear. It's sad that I can only stick to the diet when I'm afraid for my life. I would like to get that feeling back! I was 211 on Tuesday, but now I'm 215. I ate way too many cold lozenges yesterday, I guess.

Long time

It's been two weeks and a day since I blogged last. No excuses really other than busy. Yesterday I weighed in at 211, but this morning I was back to 212 after a big dinner out last night. I'm definitely in a maintenance phase right now. I'm not happy about it, but I'm now facing so much travel that restaurants will have to become my friends again. I did it last summer, so I have to do it again this summer.

It's a bittersweet time coming up. I will be loading the truck tomorrow with all of Evey's things in preparation for delivering her and her things to Eric's house on Friday. The two of them will be flying away on Tuesday for their new life in California. Wow.

I also set up a Facebook account, which is one reason why I have not blogged. Any spare time has been spent on Facebook. I'm not sure that's a good thing necessarily, but the novelty hasn't yet worn off.

I will be having some fun this afternoon, lunch out at a new restaurant with a friend. Evey will be with me as well, so that will be nice. I hope to eat judiciously. I'll let you know.