Our doctor's appointment went very well yesterday.
First, she was completely unconcerned about Mark's 815 (normal is under 500) Absolute Eosinophils number. She said it was probably some small thing that would resolve itself. Hope she's right. His carbon dioxide number was only 1 above normal, so that's in the margin of error. Again she's unconcerned. She did get his Metropolol prescription problem resolved, so he should get that med and enough for our trip so he doesn't run out.
My weight on her scale with clothes and shoes was 268.8, less than my scale at home showed, so I was pretty pleased. That was about an 11 pound loss from her records, so she was happy. She was unconcerned about my elevated numbers and neither am I, so we were in agreement on that. She actually checked my phone to see how many steps I'm taking and encouraged me to be sure I got a minimum of 5,000 a day and then go up to 6, etc. I am usually averaging about 4500 a day, some as low as 2,000 and some as high as 12,000 (at theme parks!), so it should not be hard to do. I told her I would do it. Mark reminded her that my days of water aerobics don't show up as steps but that I do have those days of exercise, so she was pleased to hear that.
My only issue is something I've had for about 25 years but has increased in frequency and intensity lately. That is called olfactory hallucinations. In other words, I smell nasty, stale cigarette smoke where there is none. I remember it happening when I used to drive to work in the early nineties. It didn't last long, was mostly in the car, and wasn't too horrible. It also didn't happen too often. Unfortunately, it has increased a lot lately, maybe over the last six to either months. So she has given me a referral to a neurologist who she said would probably order an MRI or CT scan to be sure there's nothing bad going on in the brain. I have googled it, and it can be nothing, just some odd crossed wires. But it can also be Parkinson's Disease or brain tumors, so it's worth ruling out the worst possibilities. If it's nothing major, I just have to live with it. UGH. A few weeks ago it was very strong and lasted nearly three hours to the point where I was feeling nauseous constantly smelling it. I have to call and make an appointment for September.
My weight this morning was 267.4, so getting back to the 266.4 that I saw Saturday morning. I am still hoping a few more might evaporate by Friday morning when we head to CA.
Sometime between now and 1 p.m. a Service America man should come to repair our fridge. The ice maker is always a problem. This is the third or fourth time we have had to have it repaired. It makes ice, but it won't dispense it. The motor has been replaced twice. The service technician has told us that it was a Whirlpool design flaw, so if we ever get another fridge, I'm looking for a different type of ice maker. Also the light went out, but when Mark tried to replace it, he got flickering light and a loud buzzing sound. He read that it is a sign of an electrical panel problem that will probably need to be replaced. So that's two things we are hoping he can fix today for the same $55 co-pay.
I'm planning to go to water aerobics today while Mark stays home for the technician. Yay for me and for exercise. Other than that I'll be home all day doing my favorite things of reading, TV, and the jigsaw puzzle. I never tire of those activities.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Monday, July 30, 2018
Plans changed. Weight gained.
The good and the bad....
Saturday was lovely. We went to shul; Mark read Haftarah; I got another lady who is joining my choir, making THREE new ladies this season. Then the afternoon was lovely at home with reading, puzzling, and TV.
Our plans changed yesterday for the good. We were supposed to meet friends at 1 p.m. at Hollywood Studios to ride all the new rides in Toy Story Land with her and her disability pass. We also had some Fastpasses and planned to eat a grilled cheese sandwich at Woody's Lunch Box, the new quick service restaurant. Well, the thunderstorm chances were in the 80-90% range from 1-6 p.,m., so we bailed on all of that. We found another date for that, cancelled our Fastpasses, and stayed in the house the whole day. It did, indeed, rain hard in the afternoon.
I spent nearly FOUR hours answering questions on 23 and Me for the Ancestry/Health kit that Lowell sent me for my birthday. There were over1500 questions on the website that were optional to answer in order to help with data points for research. I didn't realize there were that many or that it would take that long, but I just kept going and going. It showed me how far along I was in a percentage, and as it got into the 70% and up range, I was tired of doing it, but I just kept thinking I wanted to get to the end. I'm a fast reader and answer those types of questions fairly quickly, yet it took me 3 1/2 hours. I can only imagine that it could have taken six hours for some people. That's why almost no one probably does all those questions. Mark didn't do any. Then I spit in the vial and got it all ready to go in the mail today. Lowell and Mark already did theirs and Evey returned her of a refund. I'm excited to get my results. I don't honestly expect to find out anything terribly interesting or earth-shattering, but I'm still excited to do it.
The bad is that I have gained two pounds since Saturday morning. I reported weighing 267 Friday morning, and then Saturday I was 266.4. I was VERY happy about that. But Sunday morning I was 268.4 and this morning I'm the same. My calories on Saturday were 1433 with 5,058 mg of sodium, so I thought it was water retention and would be gone this morning. So I wasn't too upset Saturday with the gain; however, this morning I'm STILL 268.4 even though yesterday my calories were only 1359 with 2300 mg of sodium. I was sure the water retention would be gone. It isn't. In fact when I went to bed I was over 271, so that was alarming. Then this morning I was just back to the 268.4, same as Sunday morning. This is upsetting and incomprehensible.
I'm especially sad about it because at 11:15 this morning Mark and I both have our family doctor check ups and weigh-ins. At my April 30 visit my weight at their office, with clothes and shoes on (because for some reason they won't let us take our shoes off anymore) was 279.2 This morning starting out at 268.4 I'm going to weigh myself dressed and with shoes before I leave the house and then see how much more it is on their scale in the office. It should still look like I lost a few pounds but not as many as I had hoped it would be.
All my blood work was good. My glucose was 109; LDL was 100; and triglycerides were 179. All of those are slightly elevated, but they are still around what I usually seem to get and reasonable to me. At the end of April, the doctor doubled my Lipitor dose from 10 mg to 20 mg, so I was kind of surprised that the LDL and triglycerides didn't go down more than that. Still, I'm not terribly worried about any of it. My cholesterol ratio is 3.5, which is excellent, and my total cholesterol is well into the normal range. In fact the triglycerides are down from 193 last time and LDL is down from 108, so maybe the extra Lipitor is working. I'm not at all worried. And my glucose, although always elevated over the 99 upper limit for normal, is what I've been running for off and on for years. Sometimes I'm under 99 and sometimes I'm not. This time I'm not. Last two times were 113 and 112, so this wasn't too bad. The last time I was in the normal range was April of 2017 when I had a 97. This is all considered pre-diabetes, but I'm just not worried about it.
Mark had two elevated numbers that are way more concerning than mine. These two things he never had elevated before: carbon dioxide and absolute eosinophils. So we are interested in seeing what she says about those. We are hoping she orders some tests to track down the reasons for it. It could be something quite innocuous like a fungal infection, easily treated, or something as horrible as various cancers. We need some answers for this!
After we get home from the doctor, we can watch some TV and relax before I head over to the synagogue for choir rehearsal tonight. I had to cancel last Wednesday because there was no one who could open the door for me. We are making that one up tonight because now I have some one with a key who is coming! We are also meeting on Wednesday, so it's kind of a busy choir week, but since we leave for Evey's house on Friday, I need to rehearse whenever I can. Three new ladies! Wow. They have a lot of work to do to get ready for the High Holidays.
PS. I have just weighed in on my home scale with clothes and shoes after breakfast so that I can compare it to what it says at the doctor's office. My scale now says 270.8, so up 3.4 with clothes, shoes, and breakfast consumed. Tomorrow I'll record what the doctor's office scale said.
Saturday was lovely. We went to shul; Mark read Haftarah; I got another lady who is joining my choir, making THREE new ladies this season. Then the afternoon was lovely at home with reading, puzzling, and TV.
Our plans changed yesterday for the good. We were supposed to meet friends at 1 p.m. at Hollywood Studios to ride all the new rides in Toy Story Land with her and her disability pass. We also had some Fastpasses and planned to eat a grilled cheese sandwich at Woody's Lunch Box, the new quick service restaurant. Well, the thunderstorm chances were in the 80-90% range from 1-6 p.,m., so we bailed on all of that. We found another date for that, cancelled our Fastpasses, and stayed in the house the whole day. It did, indeed, rain hard in the afternoon.
I spent nearly FOUR hours answering questions on 23 and Me for the Ancestry/Health kit that Lowell sent me for my birthday. There were over1500 questions on the website that were optional to answer in order to help with data points for research. I didn't realize there were that many or that it would take that long, but I just kept going and going. It showed me how far along I was in a percentage, and as it got into the 70% and up range, I was tired of doing it, but I just kept thinking I wanted to get to the end. I'm a fast reader and answer those types of questions fairly quickly, yet it took me 3 1/2 hours. I can only imagine that it could have taken six hours for some people. That's why almost no one probably does all those questions. Mark didn't do any. Then I spit in the vial and got it all ready to go in the mail today. Lowell and Mark already did theirs and Evey returned her of a refund. I'm excited to get my results. I don't honestly expect to find out anything terribly interesting or earth-shattering, but I'm still excited to do it.
The bad is that I have gained two pounds since Saturday morning. I reported weighing 267 Friday morning, and then Saturday I was 266.4. I was VERY happy about that. But Sunday morning I was 268.4 and this morning I'm the same. My calories on Saturday were 1433 with 5,058 mg of sodium, so I thought it was water retention and would be gone this morning. So I wasn't too upset Saturday with the gain; however, this morning I'm STILL 268.4 even though yesterday my calories were only 1359 with 2300 mg of sodium. I was sure the water retention would be gone. It isn't. In fact when I went to bed I was over 271, so that was alarming. Then this morning I was just back to the 268.4, same as Sunday morning. This is upsetting and incomprehensible.
I'm especially sad about it because at 11:15 this morning Mark and I both have our family doctor check ups and weigh-ins. At my April 30 visit my weight at their office, with clothes and shoes on (because for some reason they won't let us take our shoes off anymore) was 279.2 This morning starting out at 268.4 I'm going to weigh myself dressed and with shoes before I leave the house and then see how much more it is on their scale in the office. It should still look like I lost a few pounds but not as many as I had hoped it would be.
All my blood work was good. My glucose was 109; LDL was 100; and triglycerides were 179. All of those are slightly elevated, but they are still around what I usually seem to get and reasonable to me. At the end of April, the doctor doubled my Lipitor dose from 10 mg to 20 mg, so I was kind of surprised that the LDL and triglycerides didn't go down more than that. Still, I'm not terribly worried about any of it. My cholesterol ratio is 3.5, which is excellent, and my total cholesterol is well into the normal range. In fact the triglycerides are down from 193 last time and LDL is down from 108, so maybe the extra Lipitor is working. I'm not at all worried. And my glucose, although always elevated over the 99 upper limit for normal, is what I've been running for off and on for years. Sometimes I'm under 99 and sometimes I'm not. This time I'm not. Last two times were 113 and 112, so this wasn't too bad. The last time I was in the normal range was April of 2017 when I had a 97. This is all considered pre-diabetes, but I'm just not worried about it.
Mark had two elevated numbers that are way more concerning than mine. These two things he never had elevated before: carbon dioxide and absolute eosinophils. So we are interested in seeing what she says about those. We are hoping she orders some tests to track down the reasons for it. It could be something quite innocuous like a fungal infection, easily treated, or something as horrible as various cancers. We need some answers for this!
After we get home from the doctor, we can watch some TV and relax before I head over to the synagogue for choir rehearsal tonight. I had to cancel last Wednesday because there was no one who could open the door for me. We are making that one up tonight because now I have some one with a key who is coming! We are also meeting on Wednesday, so it's kind of a busy choir week, but since we leave for Evey's house on Friday, I need to rehearse whenever I can. Three new ladies! Wow. They have a lot of work to do to get ready for the High Holidays.
PS. I have just weighed in on my home scale with clothes and shoes after breakfast so that I can compare it to what it says at the doctor's office. My scale now says 270.8, so up 3.4 with clothes, shoes, and breakfast consumed. Tomorrow I'll record what the doctor's office scale said.
Friday, July 27, 2018
One more week
It's been a difficult week for my weight loss. I ate out for one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner. Yet, every single day I programmed all the food I would eat for the day before I took single bite in the morning. I gave very close estimates, if not the exact amount, for the meals in restaurants. I stuck to the plan and ate nothing I didn't program. I admit there was not a lot of exercise. Here are the calorie intakes for each day starting with last Friday and going through today.
Friday 1452
Saturday 1245
Sunday 1367
Monday 1293
Tuesday 1327
Wednesday 1368
Thursday 1290
That's the calories that would be included in this week's weight report.
Today I will be eating 1332.
Losing weight at this stage in life is very hard. I am sure the answer is more exercise, but it seems harder to work it in now the I'm retired and in Florida, which makes no sense. Right? I play too much Mah Jongg! LOL
Last Friday I reported my weight at 271.2, which was still up from the Friday before, which was 270. I was trying to undo the damage in Buffalo! Still my weight today, drumroll please, is 267!! That's a loss for this week of 4.2 pounds. I'm over the moon happy!
Now I have one more week before we fly off to San Jose to see Evey and Eric. My birthday will be out there, and Evey very kindly sent me the calorie counts for the homemade chocolate banana cake and the homemade peach ice cream she is going to make for me. 300 calories for a small slice {1/16th) of cake and 220 calories for the peach ice cream, "a nice scoop." Well, that's about the calories I eat for dinner! LOL So, I will admit that I told her I plan to throw all my dieting know-how out the window on my birthday. I'm going to eat all the cake and ice cream I want. LOL
There will be other meals in restaurants during those ten days, including a big brunch with my friend Laverne and her husband Kelly, in the Presidio in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. That's going to be fun. Since I have eaten in restaurants many times now on this renewed weight loss plan and been successful, I think I can handle it. I feel more confident about my restaurant meals than I ever have before. In fact, last night at Bonefish Grille, I planned in advance to eat Caesar salad with salmon, then changed it to Rainbow trout with broccoli and asparagus after I ate too much lunch. They put bread and oil right in front of me, and I did NOT TOUCH IT! That's probably a FIRST.
Between now and next Friday, I will be eating out on Sunday, for sure lunch and maybe dinner, at Hollywood Studios. Hopefully, all the walking around will burn off some of the calories. Lunch will be super high because it's going to be a grilled cheese sandwich at the new quick service place in Toy Story Land. Tuesday we are supposed to go to SeaWorld, and I have no idea if that is going to involve a meal out or not. Then Friday we board the plane, which will involve lunch and dinner either on the plane or in an airport. That begins 10 days of meals away from home, although some will be at Evey's house and be ok.
Once we get home on August 13, we are only home for five days before heading to the east coast of Florida, specifically Amelia Island, for an ELEVEN day road trip that will involve eating all meals in restaurants or hotels. THAT will be a challenge! I do plan to pack my scale and weigh myself every morning because I do NOT want a surprise like 8 pounds up in three days in Buffalo! Geez, that may be a record for me. Although I may have mentioned this before, that the first time I realized I could gain a lot of weight very quickly was when I was 18. We took a 14 day trip with my parents to Florida with a 7 day cruise. I am not making this up....I gained THIRTY pounds in 14 days. That averages out to a little over 2 pounds gained per day. I weighed 173 when we left and 203 when we returned. It was the first time I went over 200 pounds, so I was very upset. I immediately lost some of the weight in the first month back, getting down to 185, but then I was in college and ballooned over four years to a graduation weight of 245. So, yeah....I gained SIXTY pounds in the four years of college and began a seriously life long pattern of yo-yo-ing.
If I can get down to the low 200s and STAY THERE this time, I will consider it a miracle.
Friday 1452
Saturday 1245
Sunday 1367
Monday 1293
Tuesday 1327
Wednesday 1368
Thursday 1290
That's the calories that would be included in this week's weight report.
Today I will be eating 1332.
Losing weight at this stage in life is very hard. I am sure the answer is more exercise, but it seems harder to work it in now the I'm retired and in Florida, which makes no sense. Right? I play too much Mah Jongg! LOL
Last Friday I reported my weight at 271.2, which was still up from the Friday before, which was 270. I was trying to undo the damage in Buffalo! Still my weight today, drumroll please, is 267!! That's a loss for this week of 4.2 pounds. I'm over the moon happy!
Now I have one more week before we fly off to San Jose to see Evey and Eric. My birthday will be out there, and Evey very kindly sent me the calorie counts for the homemade chocolate banana cake and the homemade peach ice cream she is going to make for me. 300 calories for a small slice {1/16th) of cake and 220 calories for the peach ice cream, "a nice scoop." Well, that's about the calories I eat for dinner! LOL So, I will admit that I told her I plan to throw all my dieting know-how out the window on my birthday. I'm going to eat all the cake and ice cream I want. LOL
There will be other meals in restaurants during those ten days, including a big brunch with my friend Laverne and her husband Kelly, in the Presidio in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. That's going to be fun. Since I have eaten in restaurants many times now on this renewed weight loss plan and been successful, I think I can handle it. I feel more confident about my restaurant meals than I ever have before. In fact, last night at Bonefish Grille, I planned in advance to eat Caesar salad with salmon, then changed it to Rainbow trout with broccoli and asparagus after I ate too much lunch. They put bread and oil right in front of me, and I did NOT TOUCH IT! That's probably a FIRST.
Between now and next Friday, I will be eating out on Sunday, for sure lunch and maybe dinner, at Hollywood Studios. Hopefully, all the walking around will burn off some of the calories. Lunch will be super high because it's going to be a grilled cheese sandwich at the new quick service place in Toy Story Land. Tuesday we are supposed to go to SeaWorld, and I have no idea if that is going to involve a meal out or not. Then Friday we board the plane, which will involve lunch and dinner either on the plane or in an airport. That begins 10 days of meals away from home, although some will be at Evey's house and be ok.
Once we get home on August 13, we are only home for five days before heading to the east coast of Florida, specifically Amelia Island, for an ELEVEN day road trip that will involve eating all meals in restaurants or hotels. THAT will be a challenge! I do plan to pack my scale and weigh myself every morning because I do NOT want a surprise like 8 pounds up in three days in Buffalo! Geez, that may be a record for me. Although I may have mentioned this before, that the first time I realized I could gain a lot of weight very quickly was when I was 18. We took a 14 day trip with my parents to Florida with a 7 day cruise. I am not making this up....I gained THIRTY pounds in 14 days. That averages out to a little over 2 pounds gained per day. I weighed 173 when we left and 203 when we returned. It was the first time I went over 200 pounds, so I was very upset. I immediately lost some of the weight in the first month back, getting down to 185, but then I was in college and ballooned over four years to a graduation weight of 245. So, yeah....I gained SIXTY pounds in the four years of college and began a seriously life long pattern of yo-yo-ing.
If I can get down to the low 200s and STAY THERE this time, I will consider it a miracle.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Half pound gone.
I was able to do the water aerobics yesterday before the downpours started, and I ate 1368 calories. That pesky half pound that found me yesterday morning is now gone. I weighed 267 again this morning. Nice.
Tonight I'm eating dinner at Bonefish Grille with the synagogue Sisterhood. They have calorie counts on their menus, and even my Lose It! app has all of their food programmed. I'm going to eat an entree Caesar salad with added grilled salmon. Lose It says that's 825 calories, although their menu says it's only 770. Either way, it's fine. I will not order appetizer, alcohol, or dessert. This allows me to have normal breakfast and lunch and even popsicles and cherries for late night snacks.
I would love to be under 267 tomorrow morning, but there will be WAY too much sodium today. I suspect I'll be back up that half pound. Maybe by Saturday or Sunday morning I can get under that number.
Meanwhile, I have to rush right now to get showered and dressed and out the door in half an hour to play Mah Jongg again. I'll have lunch at home and just relax until about 5 p.m. when I'll head north to Orlando for the dinner out.
Tonight I'm eating dinner at Bonefish Grille with the synagogue Sisterhood. They have calorie counts on their menus, and even my Lose It! app has all of their food programmed. I'm going to eat an entree Caesar salad with added grilled salmon. Lose It says that's 825 calories, although their menu says it's only 770. Either way, it's fine. I will not order appetizer, alcohol, or dessert. This allows me to have normal breakfast and lunch and even popsicles and cherries for late night snacks.
I would love to be under 267 tomorrow morning, but there will be WAY too much sodium today. I suspect I'll be back up that half pound. Maybe by Saturday or Sunday morning I can get under that number.
Meanwhile, I have to rush right now to get showered and dressed and out the door in half an hour to play Mah Jongg again. I'll have lunch at home and just relax until about 5 p.m. when I'll head north to Orlando for the dinner out.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
On the way to water aerobics
At 10 a.m. we will head out for water aerobics. I haven't been since last Friday when it started to rain five minutes in to it. Looks like the weather will hold out better today.
Yesterday's Mahj tournament was a hoot. We had a made up card full of hands from various years going back as far as 1975, hands I had never seen before. Unfortunately, they collected the card back at the end of the day. Everybody struggled for the first round of play just trying to learn the card. I won one game at the second round and again at the third round, so I felt pretty good.
Lunch turned out to be great. They were serving pre-made Chef's Salad, dressing on the side, roll and butter, and the biggest chocolate chip cookies I ever saw. I did NOT take a cookie. YAY for me and my will power. I asked the lady in charge what lunch was going to be before the event started and mentioned I was vegetarian. She told me it was Chef's salad, so I was thinking I'd just take the meat off, but five minutes later she came back and said the kitchen was making me a box without meat. Fabulous! It was a huge plastic container of Romaine lettuce with a hard boiled egg and about 1/3 cup of shredded cheese on it with a few slices of cucumber and tomato. I ate one small roll with half a pat of butter and that was IT. I made a good day out of a day with a meal out of the house. I'm proud of myself.
Even though the day was great and I programmed all the calories, 1327 out of the 1470 I'm allotted, I was still up a half pound this morning to 267.5. It can't be water weight because the sodium was only 1926 mg, well in range. So I don't really know why I'm up that half pound. I hope that with the water aerobics today and calories at 1413 our of the 1470 (but with 190 of those covered by exercise), I'll see a loss again tomorrow before going out to Bonefish Grille for dinner with the synagogue Sisterhood. Sodium will be 2700 mg today, so that's a bit over the range. If anything causes a gain today, I'm betting that will be it.
Yesterday's Mahj tournament was a hoot. We had a made up card full of hands from various years going back as far as 1975, hands I had never seen before. Unfortunately, they collected the card back at the end of the day. Everybody struggled for the first round of play just trying to learn the card. I won one game at the second round and again at the third round, so I felt pretty good.
Lunch turned out to be great. They were serving pre-made Chef's Salad, dressing on the side, roll and butter, and the biggest chocolate chip cookies I ever saw. I did NOT take a cookie. YAY for me and my will power. I asked the lady in charge what lunch was going to be before the event started and mentioned I was vegetarian. She told me it was Chef's salad, so I was thinking I'd just take the meat off, but five minutes later she came back and said the kitchen was making me a box without meat. Fabulous! It was a huge plastic container of Romaine lettuce with a hard boiled egg and about 1/3 cup of shredded cheese on it with a few slices of cucumber and tomato. I ate one small roll with half a pat of butter and that was IT. I made a good day out of a day with a meal out of the house. I'm proud of myself.
Even though the day was great and I programmed all the calories, 1327 out of the 1470 I'm allotted, I was still up a half pound this morning to 267.5. It can't be water weight because the sodium was only 1926 mg, well in range. So I don't really know why I'm up that half pound. I hope that with the water aerobics today and calories at 1413 our of the 1470 (but with 190 of those covered by exercise), I'll see a loss again tomorrow before going out to Bonefish Grille for dinner with the synagogue Sisterhood. Sodium will be 2700 mg today, so that's a bit over the range. If anything causes a gain today, I'm betting that will be it.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
18 gone since May 30.
This morning I'm down two more pounds to 267. I'm pretty happy with that. Although I did not write it in a blog, I did log it into Lose It! on my phone that on May 30 I weighed 285. So from then to this morning, I have lost 18 pounds. YAY!
Yesterday I never sat down to write a blog, but it was a mostly ordinary day with one exception. We got up very early in the middle of a huge thunderstorm to go down to Quest for fasting blood draws. Fortunately, by the time we had to get out of the car to go into the lab, the rain had dwindled to a light shower, and it was over when we came out. In the morning, I played Mahj and won one game. In the afternoon, I didn't win at all, but we cut the game time short by 90 minutes because another thunderstorm was threatening. Nobody wanted to walk home in the storm, so we quit about 2:30. Actually no storm ever came, just threatening wind, dark skies, and thunder. By the time we all got home, it was sunny and bright the rest of the day. LOL That's Florida for you.
The rest of the day I literally sat in my recliner watching hours and hours of TV. HAHA! Not the best use of the hours from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., I know.
I also talked to my brother Mark last night for nearly an hour. He is a great one for making phone calls. Of all my siblings, he's the only one who calls frequently when it's not my birthday or some holiday. Even our kids don't call as often as Mark. I love that man so much! I'm lucky to have these wonderful siblings.
One of the reasons he called is to invite us to go on a New Year's Eve cruise with him and his wife Carol, whom we also love very much. The cruise is six days and will extend through her birthday, so it's a double celebration. The cruise is on Carnival Ecstasy out of Charleston, SC, so I am VERY interested in going. We have been on the Ecstasy before and loved it. We have never sailed out of Charleston, but I love the idea of sailing out of a different port. I'd love to spend six days with two of my favorite people and to honor Carol on her birthday. Mark wants to make it a surprise for her! How cool. We have the time, but do we have the money? That I'm not sure of, but it might just have to be something I charge and figure out how to pay back later. I REALLY want to do this. I have to talk my Mark into doing it now. LOL
Today I'm playing tournament Mahj with a large group, sponsored by the New England Club. They are using a specially created made-up card that includes hands from many cards of the past. That should be fascinating. I'm picking Susie up at 9:45 this morning for it. There is lunch included in the price, and I have no idea what it is going to be. I don't even know if there's going to be anything vegetarian that I could eat. When Hadassah sponsored the tournament, I had no doubt that there would be something dairy for us all to eat, but this is the New England Club. For all I know, there will be clam chowder and lobster roll. LOL! Well, the good news is that if the food is mostly all unkosher, then I won't eat it and won't gain any weight. There will probably be a salad or some vegetables at least. I almost hope that salad and veggies is all I eat this afternoon. I'll let you know tomorrow!
Yesterday I never sat down to write a blog, but it was a mostly ordinary day with one exception. We got up very early in the middle of a huge thunderstorm to go down to Quest for fasting blood draws. Fortunately, by the time we had to get out of the car to go into the lab, the rain had dwindled to a light shower, and it was over when we came out. In the morning, I played Mahj and won one game. In the afternoon, I didn't win at all, but we cut the game time short by 90 minutes because another thunderstorm was threatening. Nobody wanted to walk home in the storm, so we quit about 2:30. Actually no storm ever came, just threatening wind, dark skies, and thunder. By the time we all got home, it was sunny and bright the rest of the day. LOL That's Florida for you.
The rest of the day I literally sat in my recliner watching hours and hours of TV. HAHA! Not the best use of the hours from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., I know.
I also talked to my brother Mark last night for nearly an hour. He is a great one for making phone calls. Of all my siblings, he's the only one who calls frequently when it's not my birthday or some holiday. Even our kids don't call as often as Mark. I love that man so much! I'm lucky to have these wonderful siblings.
One of the reasons he called is to invite us to go on a New Year's Eve cruise with him and his wife Carol, whom we also love very much. The cruise is six days and will extend through her birthday, so it's a double celebration. The cruise is on Carnival Ecstasy out of Charleston, SC, so I am VERY interested in going. We have been on the Ecstasy before and loved it. We have never sailed out of Charleston, but I love the idea of sailing out of a different port. I'd love to spend six days with two of my favorite people and to honor Carol on her birthday. Mark wants to make it a surprise for her! How cool. We have the time, but do we have the money? That I'm not sure of, but it might just have to be something I charge and figure out how to pay back later. I REALLY want to do this. I have to talk my Mark into doing it now. LOL
Today I'm playing tournament Mahj with a large group, sponsored by the New England Club. They are using a specially created made-up card that includes hands from many cards of the past. That should be fascinating. I'm picking Susie up at 9:45 this morning for it. There is lunch included in the price, and I have no idea what it is going to be. I don't even know if there's going to be anything vegetarian that I could eat. When Hadassah sponsored the tournament, I had no doubt that there would be something dairy for us all to eat, but this is the New England Club. For all I know, there will be clam chowder and lobster roll. LOL! Well, the good news is that if the food is mostly all unkosher, then I won't eat it and won't gain any weight. There will probably be a salad or some vegetables at least. I almost hope that salad and veggies is all I eat this afternoon. I'll let you know tomorrow!
Sunday, July 22, 2018
8+1=9
This morning I hit 269. I've lost all 8 from the trip plus one more. I haven't been 269 since January 31 of this year. I'm pleased, but I'm not finished! I've still got a long way to go, but I haven't felt this motivated and in control in a very long time. Although 205 was my lowest back in 2010, 240 would feel great right now. I'm only 29 pounds away from that goal.
Between now and August 3, when we leave for California, I can stay on track. I just have to try harder when we are traveling so that I don't come back from a 10 day vacation having gained 10 or more pounds on the trip. That would be a special disaster since we will only be home about five days before going on another 10 days road trip to the northeast coast of Florida.
We had a lovely time at shul yesterday and a lovely afternoon and evening at home.
Today we are going shopping at the Winn-Dixie with a huge kosher section. We may also go to the Trader Joe's not far from there to look for some low-carb, low-calorie, parve hamburger buns. We have never been to that Trader Joe's, so that will be fun, although shopping for fun food is no longer something I should do!
Today is National Peuche Fudge day. Penuche fudge is also known as brown sugar fudge. Mark read about it and shipped a box to Evey and to us. I have programmed one ounce of it for a snack tonight. It will have 114 calories in it. My day is all programmed today, so I expect weight loss to continue.
Between now and August 3, when we leave for California, I can stay on track. I just have to try harder when we are traveling so that I don't come back from a 10 day vacation having gained 10 or more pounds on the trip. That would be a special disaster since we will only be home about five days before going on another 10 days road trip to the northeast coast of Florida.
We had a lovely time at shul yesterday and a lovely afternoon and evening at home.
Today we are going shopping at the Winn-Dixie with a huge kosher section. We may also go to the Trader Joe's not far from there to look for some low-carb, low-calorie, parve hamburger buns. We have never been to that Trader Joe's, so that will be fun, although shopping for fun food is no longer something I should do!
Today is National Peuche Fudge day. Penuche fudge is also known as brown sugar fudge. Mark read about it and shipped a box to Evey and to us. I have programmed one ounce of it for a snack tonight. It will have 114 calories in it. My day is all programmed today, so I expect weight loss to continue.
Saturday, July 21, 2018
It's all gone
This morning I hit the 270 mark, the number that I was a week ago Friday before leaving for Buffalo. So I gained 8 in three days and lost 8 in five days. Wouldn't it be nicer if it was the other way around? LOL
Some of our plans fell apart yesterday. We did have a nice breakfast out yesterday with Barb and Ed, although my veggie egg white omelet came as regular eggs swimming in olives. If you know me, you know I HATE olives. I asked for a menu to check that I missed them in the list of veggies, but I was right. Olives were not one of the veggies listed, so I sent it back. Also the decaf coffee was disgusting, so I made the waitress bring me a regular coffee. Should have known from that experience that the day was going south.
After breakfast, we walked over to the pool to do water aerobics. The sky looked ominous! It started thundering with visible lightening in the distance after only five minutes of exercise. We all got out of the pool. As soon as Mark and I got back in the car, the pouring rain started. We went home for a few hours before we had to go back to work in the library.
Working in the library turned out just fine, and once we got home, nothing else went awry.
At first, I thought I was going to hate the dinner that Mark picked to make, a summer salad from the Diabetic Living magazine. It was grilled salmon on a bed of fresh spinach with Feta cheese, raspberries, walnuts and a homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Well....I don't eat any of those things except salmon and spinach.
I was thinking that it would be a boring dinner with just grilled salmon on fresh spinach, but I added some grated Parmesan cheese and a bowl of mixed green salad from a bag to make it more filling. It was delicious. Also the Publix challah was especially delicious, so the dinner was better than expected.
This morning I was so happy to see 270 on the scale! It shows me that I CAN eat out and still lose weight, although it's scary for me. I have a history of making poor choices in restaurants, but this week, Monday through Friday, I ate THREE meals out, two lunches and a breakfast, and I still lost weight. I really must keep that in mind when restaurant opportunities come up again, and they WILL come up again.
From yesterday through next Friday, I will be eating out twice, one lunch and one dinner. I'm considering cancelling the dinner since it's not 100% necessary. The lunch is part of an all-day Mah Jongg tournament on Tuesday, so I cannot change that. I can hope the lunch is something that I can eat (vegetarian or fish) and not too high in calories. I'll let you know!
Have a good Shabbat. We are heading out to synagogue in a few minutes. When we get home, we will enjoy the rest of the day indoors, doing my usual things: jigsaw puzzle, reading, watching TV.
Some of our plans fell apart yesterday. We did have a nice breakfast out yesterday with Barb and Ed, although my veggie egg white omelet came as regular eggs swimming in olives. If you know me, you know I HATE olives. I asked for a menu to check that I missed them in the list of veggies, but I was right. Olives were not one of the veggies listed, so I sent it back. Also the decaf coffee was disgusting, so I made the waitress bring me a regular coffee. Should have known from that experience that the day was going south.
After breakfast, we walked over to the pool to do water aerobics. The sky looked ominous! It started thundering with visible lightening in the distance after only five minutes of exercise. We all got out of the pool. As soon as Mark and I got back in the car, the pouring rain started. We went home for a few hours before we had to go back to work in the library.
Working in the library turned out just fine, and once we got home, nothing else went awry.
At first, I thought I was going to hate the dinner that Mark picked to make, a summer salad from the Diabetic Living magazine. It was grilled salmon on a bed of fresh spinach with Feta cheese, raspberries, walnuts and a homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Well....I don't eat any of those things except salmon and spinach.
I was thinking that it would be a boring dinner with just grilled salmon on fresh spinach, but I added some grated Parmesan cheese and a bowl of mixed green salad from a bag to make it more filling. It was delicious. Also the Publix challah was especially delicious, so the dinner was better than expected.
This morning I was so happy to see 270 on the scale! It shows me that I CAN eat out and still lose weight, although it's scary for me. I have a history of making poor choices in restaurants, but this week, Monday through Friday, I ate THREE meals out, two lunches and a breakfast, and I still lost weight. I really must keep that in mind when restaurant opportunities come up again, and they WILL come up again.
From yesterday through next Friday, I will be eating out twice, one lunch and one dinner. I'm considering cancelling the dinner since it's not 100% necessary. The lunch is part of an all-day Mah Jongg tournament on Tuesday, so I cannot change that. I can hope the lunch is something that I can eat (vegetarian or fish) and not too high in calories. I'll let you know!
Have a good Shabbat. We are heading out to synagogue in a few minutes. When we get home, we will enjoy the rest of the day indoors, doing my usual things: jigsaw puzzle, reading, watching TV.
Friday, July 20, 2018
Almost there.
I gained 8.2 pounds in 3 days. I've lost 7 of them in 4 days. Always takes longer to take off. Sigh.
This morning is my official weigh-in day, and I weighed 271.2 on the scale. So my report for the week is that I'm UP 1.2 pounds from last Friday. Oh, well....better than up 8.
Even though I ate lunch at the Chinese restaurant yesterday, I still lost this morning. I calculated the calories for the Schezhuan Tofu and rice as carefully as I could. Then I worked everything else around that. So I was pleased with that.
Today we are eating breakfast out at Cheeks with Ed and Barb. We've done it before. They have a very nice breakfast there. I usually get an egg white omelet, English muffin, and fruit. Not too bad. I can plan the rest of the day around that.
I won three games of Mahj yesterday, a great morning. And our Congressman Soto's Town Hall in Winter Haven was cancelled at the last minute because his plane was delayed due to bad weather. Oh, well....instead we watched a movie from 2013, The Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio. It was very long, but very good.
After breakfast out this morning, we will do water aerobics, eat a packed lunch by the pool, then work in the library until 4 p.m. It's going to be a lovely day.
This morning is my official weigh-in day, and I weighed 271.2 on the scale. So my report for the week is that I'm UP 1.2 pounds from last Friday. Oh, well....better than up 8.
Even though I ate lunch at the Chinese restaurant yesterday, I still lost this morning. I calculated the calories for the Schezhuan Tofu and rice as carefully as I could. Then I worked everything else around that. So I was pleased with that.
Today we are eating breakfast out at Cheeks with Ed and Barb. We've done it before. They have a very nice breakfast there. I usually get an egg white omelet, English muffin, and fruit. Not too bad. I can plan the rest of the day around that.
I won three games of Mahj yesterday, a great morning. And our Congressman Soto's Town Hall in Winter Haven was cancelled at the last minute because his plane was delayed due to bad weather. Oh, well....instead we watched a movie from 2013, The Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio. It was very long, but very good.
After breakfast out this morning, we will do water aerobics, eat a packed lunch by the pool, then work in the library until 4 p.m. It's going to be a lovely day.
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Kennedy Space Center
Mark and I got up at 6 a.m. in order to hit the road shortly after 7 a.m. We pulled up at KSC about 9 a.m., just as KSC was opening up.
I had bought a cheap deal from TravelZoo to go there. It took awhile to exchange the voucher for actual tickets and then a longer while to get through security and into the Visitor Center, but it was all worth it. We had a blast!
In fact, there is so much to do there that we couldn't get it all done, even though we entered about 9:50 a.m. and stayed until 6 p.m. We were exhausted and happy, so happy that we upgraded our tickets to an Annual Pass that will include free parking in the future! We will be back to finish the things we missed. What a great Visitor Center!
I was down another pound this morning to 272.6, but I expect some to be back tomorrow. I had an excellent salad for lunch, but Mark and I shared a large French fries with that. Then I had a bag of barbecue chips on the car ride home because it was nearly six hours after lunch. I was quite hungry by then. Oh, well....dinner was carefully planned and at home.
We had considered packing our own lunch, but at the last minute, Mark decided we would buy lunch there. He wasn't sure we could take a lunch in to the park. Now we know we can do that, so maybe next time we will pack it. On the other hand, the salad was fabulous and not expensive. Now our annual pass will even get us 10% off everything we buy there, including food.
I didn't go over my calorie allotment if you factor in some of the walking. I hope that helped.
Mahj tomorrow morning and then Chinese food out for lunch with the ladies. So I am not sure about my weight Friday morning when it counts. We shall see.
I had bought a cheap deal from TravelZoo to go there. It took awhile to exchange the voucher for actual tickets and then a longer while to get through security and into the Visitor Center, but it was all worth it. We had a blast!
In fact, there is so much to do there that we couldn't get it all done, even though we entered about 9:50 a.m. and stayed until 6 p.m. We were exhausted and happy, so happy that we upgraded our tickets to an Annual Pass that will include free parking in the future! We will be back to finish the things we missed. What a great Visitor Center!
I was down another pound this morning to 272.6, but I expect some to be back tomorrow. I had an excellent salad for lunch, but Mark and I shared a large French fries with that. Then I had a bag of barbecue chips on the car ride home because it was nearly six hours after lunch. I was quite hungry by then. Oh, well....dinner was carefully planned and at home.
We had considered packing our own lunch, but at the last minute, Mark decided we would buy lunch there. He wasn't sure we could take a lunch in to the park. Now we know we can do that, so maybe next time we will pack it. On the other hand, the salad was fabulous and not expensive. Now our annual pass will even get us 10% off everything we buy there, including food.
I didn't go over my calorie allotment if you factor in some of the walking. I hope that helped.
Mahj tomorrow morning and then Chinese food out for lunch with the ladies. So I am not sure about my weight Friday morning when it counts. We shall see.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Down over four pounds in one day. YES!
As I suspected, much of the 8 pounds gained in three days was water. I dropped 4.4 pounds yesterday, down to 273.8. I did have a very good day, logged in everything on the app with no cheating. I also gave away the box of sponge candy we bought in the airport. I ate several pieces Sunday night when we got home and two pieces yesterday morning, which I logged in. The website said two pieces are 170 calories, even though the pieces vary wildly in size. LOL I ate one big piece and one little piece, so I figured it averaged out correctly.
I played Mahj in the morning and in the afternoon. It was a lucky day for me as I won three games in a row in the morning and also won two games in the afternoon. Lots of fun.
Today I'm going to water aerobics at 10:30, eating a packed lunch at the Cove, and getting my mani/pedi at 1 p.m. Once that's over, I'll go home for reading, working on my puzzle, and watching TV. It's supposed to storm in the afternoon....what else is new in Florida in the summer....so I like sitting on the lanai during the storms working on the puzzle. My buffalo puzzle is coming along nicely once I got the outline finished!
Today I will be eating all my meals from home, and I will be logging in all the calories. The water weight is probably gone, so the remaining 3.8 pounds are probably actual fat, so they might take more than one day to get rid of. Tomorrow we are doing a big road trip over to the east coast to tour the Kennedy Space Center all day. We will leave at 7 a.m and hope to be home by 8 p.m. for a late dinner. We are going to pack our lunch instead of buying high fat/high calorie/high sodium food in the food court. It's the smart thing to do!
Thursday I'm eating with the morning Mahj group at a Chinese restaurant, so that's high sodium and high calories for sure! I am a little concerned what they will do for my "official" weigh-in on Friday morning. I'll try to do very well today and tomorrow in preparation.
I played Mahj in the morning and in the afternoon. It was a lucky day for me as I won three games in a row in the morning and also won two games in the afternoon. Lots of fun.
Today I'm going to water aerobics at 10:30, eating a packed lunch at the Cove, and getting my mani/pedi at 1 p.m. Once that's over, I'll go home for reading, working on my puzzle, and watching TV. It's supposed to storm in the afternoon....what else is new in Florida in the summer....so I like sitting on the lanai during the storms working on the puzzle. My buffalo puzzle is coming along nicely once I got the outline finished!
Today I will be eating all my meals from home, and I will be logging in all the calories. The water weight is probably gone, so the remaining 3.8 pounds are probably actual fat, so they might take more than one day to get rid of. Tomorrow we are doing a big road trip over to the east coast to tour the Kennedy Space Center all day. We will leave at 7 a.m and hope to be home by 8 p.m. for a late dinner. We are going to pack our lunch instead of buying high fat/high calorie/high sodium food in the food court. It's the smart thing to do!
Thursday I'm eating with the morning Mahj group at a Chinese restaurant, so that's high sodium and high calories for sure! I am a little concerned what they will do for my "official" weigh-in on Friday morning. I'll try to do very well today and tomorrow in preparation.
Monday, July 16, 2018
Home after a lovely trip.
Our three day weekend trip to Buffalo was marvelous.
It started with being very impressed with JetBlue and their extra space seats. They also have Dunkin' Donuts coffee and full sized snack bags to choose from.
When we arrived, 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, we met Ellen for coffee at the Starbucks across the street from the airport. That was lovely. It had been quite a few years since we had seen her.
The Hilton Garden Inn at Lafayette Square in downtown Buffalo was just one block from the Hotel Lafayette where the wedding reception was held, and a bus was provided to take us to and from the church. It goes without saying that the wedding and reception were fabulous. Mark and I were the only family from the bride's mother's side outside of her immediate family. The bride's mother, Nancy, is Mark's first cousin. Her two siblings, their spouses and children, and Nancy's mother (Mark's Aunt Flor) were the only ones there from Nancy's side, besides us. The rest of the bride's side at the wedding was from her dad's side and their friends. So we were pretty glad we came to represent the rest of the Silverstein side of the family.
Sunday morning we spent an hour enjoying Lafayette Square and then walked three blocks down to Niagara Square. There's a lot of history in those few blocks! I took a lot of pictures, but I still haven't figured out how to share them on the blog. Sorry.
Now for the bad news. I reported Friday morning that I had lost a bit over four pounds for the week and headed to the airport weighing 270 even. I had worked really hard to lose that weight last week and was feeling pretty good about it.
So drum roll please......here's my weight this morning. 278.2.
UNBELIEVABLE!!! A GAIN of 8.2 pounds in three days.
Sure, there were meals in restaurants. There was even one cocktail at the reception. There were some snacks. I knew I was eating a lot more than I would at home sticking closely to my diet, but I thought I would just be up about 3 pounds. This gain was worse than I have ever done on any cruise! It is hard to imagine gaining approximately 2.7 pounds PER DAY. This may be a new record for me.
There's nothing to do now but start over.
It started with being very impressed with JetBlue and their extra space seats. They also have Dunkin' Donuts coffee and full sized snack bags to choose from.
When we arrived, 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, we met Ellen for coffee at the Starbucks across the street from the airport. That was lovely. It had been quite a few years since we had seen her.
The Hilton Garden Inn at Lafayette Square in downtown Buffalo was just one block from the Hotel Lafayette where the wedding reception was held, and a bus was provided to take us to and from the church. It goes without saying that the wedding and reception were fabulous. Mark and I were the only family from the bride's mother's side outside of her immediate family. The bride's mother, Nancy, is Mark's first cousin. Her two siblings, their spouses and children, and Nancy's mother (Mark's Aunt Flor) were the only ones there from Nancy's side, besides us. The rest of the bride's side at the wedding was from her dad's side and their friends. So we were pretty glad we came to represent the rest of the Silverstein side of the family.
Sunday morning we spent an hour enjoying Lafayette Square and then walked three blocks down to Niagara Square. There's a lot of history in those few blocks! I took a lot of pictures, but I still haven't figured out how to share them on the blog. Sorry.
Now for the bad news. I reported Friday morning that I had lost a bit over four pounds for the week and headed to the airport weighing 270 even. I had worked really hard to lose that weight last week and was feeling pretty good about it.
So drum roll please......here's my weight this morning. 278.2.
UNBELIEVABLE!!! A GAIN of 8.2 pounds in three days.
Sure, there were meals in restaurants. There was even one cocktail at the reception. There were some snacks. I knew I was eating a lot more than I would at home sticking closely to my diet, but I thought I would just be up about 3 pounds. This gain was worse than I have ever done on any cruise! It is hard to imagine gaining approximately 2.7 pounds PER DAY. This may be a new record for me.
There's nothing to do now but start over.
Friday, July 13, 2018
Shuffle Off to Buffalo
My weigh-in this morning is great. I weighed an even 270, for a loss this week of 4.8 pounds. It doesn't get better than that!
We packed last night, so by 10 a.m. we will head to the airport. Our flight on JetBlue leaves at 1:12 p.m.. By 5 p.m. we will be meeting our long time friend and faithful blog reader, Ellen, at the Starbucks near the Buffalo airport. Can't wait!
I am not taking my computer on this weekend trip, so there will be no more blogs until Monday morning. I'll certainly be reporting my weight in that next blog. I'm going to try my best not to gain during the trip, or at least not gain too much. We will be eating all meals out starting from lunch today through dinner Sunday. That's a lot! If I'm up a few pounds Monday morning, at least I'll have the rest of next week to get back to 270 by next Friday in order to report that I stayed the same for the week. I'd accept staying the same this week. Over the next two weeks I will only be eating out once, lunch next Thursday at a Chinese restaurant with the Mah Jongg ladies. Unless something unexpected comes up, there are no other scheduled meals out for two straight weeks once we come back on Sunday.
We are looking forward to the wedding of Mark's cousin Nancy's second daughter, Lauren. We went to the wedding of her older sister, Heather, about five years or so ago. This wedding will be in the same Catholic Church as that one. It was a very big, beautiful old church. It's always fun to see Mark's extended family. We rarely get together with them. This should be a delightful trip.
Safe travels to anyone else reading this blog who may be traveling this weekend. Write to you again on Monday.
We packed last night, so by 10 a.m. we will head to the airport. Our flight on JetBlue leaves at 1:12 p.m.. By 5 p.m. we will be meeting our long time friend and faithful blog reader, Ellen, at the Starbucks near the Buffalo airport. Can't wait!
I am not taking my computer on this weekend trip, so there will be no more blogs until Monday morning. I'll certainly be reporting my weight in that next blog. I'm going to try my best not to gain during the trip, or at least not gain too much. We will be eating all meals out starting from lunch today through dinner Sunday. That's a lot! If I'm up a few pounds Monday morning, at least I'll have the rest of next week to get back to 270 by next Friday in order to report that I stayed the same for the week. I'd accept staying the same this week. Over the next two weeks I will only be eating out once, lunch next Thursday at a Chinese restaurant with the Mah Jongg ladies. Unless something unexpected comes up, there are no other scheduled meals out for two straight weeks once we come back on Sunday.
We are looking forward to the wedding of Mark's cousin Nancy's second daughter, Lauren. We went to the wedding of her older sister, Heather, about five years or so ago. This wedding will be in the same Catholic Church as that one. It was a very big, beautiful old church. It's always fun to see Mark's extended family. We rarely get together with them. This should be a delightful trip.
Safe travels to anyone else reading this blog who may be traveling this weekend. Write to you again on Monday.
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Getting so close and Happy 4th Anniversary to Lowell and Emily.
This morning I weigh 270.2, so close to making it back to the 270 that I reported Sunday morning. I can't wait to get back into the 260s.
I looked back at my record of weight that I keep in a notebook. In January of this year I was in the mid-260s, so I'm just trying to undo the gains over the winter and spring. In July of 2014 I was 255, so I am trying to undo a lot of damage! LOL
Today after morning Mah Jongg, I will be eating lunch out with two lady friends at the Solivita Bistro. The only thing i can choose to eat there is a veggie flatbread pizza and small salad. The flatbread, last time I ordered it, had very thin crust, so that's helpful. Then I'm going to one of their houses for more Siamese Mahj (two players only) in the afternoon. She said she'd have dessert and wine. I have begged her not to put out any dessert, not even fruit! There will be wine, and I can probably program one glass in to my day.
I'm having a small breakfast and low calorie dinner in preparation for this higher calorie lunch date.
Tomorrow we fly off to Buffalo for the family wedding on Saturday. I will put up a quick blog in the morning to post my official week's weight. I hope it's UNDER 270 despite the flatbread lunch. Wouldn't that be awesome!!!
Meanwhile it's Lowell and Emily's fourth wedding anniversary today. They spent the last two days at Williamsburg and Busch Gardens in VA. Lowell only worked Monday this week in order to have the rest of the week to play and celebrate. Tomorrow they will take themselves out for a lovely anniversary dinner. Today they are driving home from Virginia and will pick their dogs up at the kennel. They are having so much fun on their Roller Coaster Summer. Instead of a huge vacation somewhere this year like their big driving tour of New England last summer, they are hitting up all their childhood theme parks. They bought season passes to their closest one, Six Flags Over America. They also have gone to Hershey Park for a day, and now they've knocked off Busch Gardens. They have King's Dominion left, and I'm not sure if there are others. They seem to be having a great time reliving their various childhood memories. I'm so happy for them both.
I can't post any new pictures anymore, but all the old ones are still there for me. So here are a few pictures of Lowell and Emily on their visit to us and WDW last summer.
I looked back at my record of weight that I keep in a notebook. In January of this year I was in the mid-260s, so I'm just trying to undo the gains over the winter and spring. In July of 2014 I was 255, so I am trying to undo a lot of damage! LOL
Today after morning Mah Jongg, I will be eating lunch out with two lady friends at the Solivita Bistro. The only thing i can choose to eat there is a veggie flatbread pizza and small salad. The flatbread, last time I ordered it, had very thin crust, so that's helpful. Then I'm going to one of their houses for more Siamese Mahj (two players only) in the afternoon. She said she'd have dessert and wine. I have begged her not to put out any dessert, not even fruit! There will be wine, and I can probably program one glass in to my day.
I'm having a small breakfast and low calorie dinner in preparation for this higher calorie lunch date.
Tomorrow we fly off to Buffalo for the family wedding on Saturday. I will put up a quick blog in the morning to post my official week's weight. I hope it's UNDER 270 despite the flatbread lunch. Wouldn't that be awesome!!!
Meanwhile it's Lowell and Emily's fourth wedding anniversary today. They spent the last two days at Williamsburg and Busch Gardens in VA. Lowell only worked Monday this week in order to have the rest of the week to play and celebrate. Tomorrow they will take themselves out for a lovely anniversary dinner. Today they are driving home from Virginia and will pick their dogs up at the kennel. They are having so much fun on their Roller Coaster Summer. Instead of a huge vacation somewhere this year like their big driving tour of New England last summer, they are hitting up all their childhood theme parks. They bought season passes to their closest one, Six Flags Over America. They also have gone to Hershey Park for a day, and now they've knocked off Busch Gardens. They have King's Dominion left, and I'm not sure if there are others. They seem to be having a great time reliving their various childhood memories. I'm so happy for them both.
I can't post any new pictures anymore, but all the old ones are still there for me. So here are a few pictures of Lowell and Emily on their visit to us and WDW last summer.
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Off to Animal Kingdom
Despite all the sodium in yesterday's food, I lost half of the three pounds that found their way back on Sunday. This morning I weighed 271.4, so that's a good thing. Friday morning will be my official weigh-in report, shortly before we drive to the airport to fly to Buffalo for the family wedding. I'm looking forward to reporting a number under 270! I would be very happy to see that again. I don't expect to stay there because we'll be eating out so much for four days, but it will be the beginning.
I started the Lose It! app to help me lose weight back in March of 2012 because my weight was creeping up and up from my lowest of 205 in March of 2010. I weighed 263.2 when I set up the app. Since then, I have dropped as low as 232.4 in October of 2013 and as high as 295 in March of 2016. The graph in the program is ridiculously crazy looking, sharp ups and downs and ups and downs constantly.
Well, at least right now it's back on a downward track.
I played Mahj yesterday and won 5 of the 6 games I played. I was actually embarrassed to win that last one. The two ladies I was playing with were not happy about it. LOL Susie won one game and Barb won zero games, so it was a little awkward for me to win five. The Mah Jongg gods or Karma or whatever will even it out though. LOL There will be weeks when I'm the one not winning any games. That's how it goes.
After playing, I was going to go out shoe shopping for some white sandals to wear to the wedding. I didn't go. I hate going out to stores anymore. Mark hunted for my other shoes for me, but he didn't find them either. He did find the silver sandals I wore to Lowell's wedding. They are a little higher than I like, but they will be my fall back. Then I also ordered white sandals from Amazon. They'll arrive tomorrow. If they fit and feel great, they will get a lot of use! If they don''t, I can ship them back for free and use the silver sandals. Instead I stayed home the rest of the day doing the things I enjoy: reading, working the jigsaw puzzle, listening to Mark read another portion of the Torah, listening to our book on tape (haha tape! NOT. It's digital on the phone!), and watching TV.
I ate 1375 calories for the day, but there was no exercise.
Today there will be four or five miles of walking at Animal Kingdom in 93 degrees of humid heat. We are heading out at 10 a.m. to go see a noon performance of Robotic Walkers at Pandora. These are men in robotic machines like the ones used in the movie Avatar. Then we will have lunch out at the Pandora quick service restaurant called Satu'li Canteen. We haven't been in that area of the park in a YEAR. We went there last summer with Lowell and Emily when the Pandora land opened. That restaurant is very nice. They have a fried mahi mahi or a fried tofu that we can eat. Each one says "choose your base and sauce." As I recall, the base could be noodles, grains, or salad. I don't remember the sauces, but I'll probably skip them. I'm hoping to eat tofu on salad so that my calories won't be too bad. I think the day will be okay although sodium might be an issue again.
After seeing the robots and eating lunch, we have fast passes for the safari ride (still hoping to see the baby hippos), the show Finding Nemo, and the Navi'i River Boat ride back in Pandora. That means we will make a big circle around the entire perimeter of WDW's largest park. That will be a lot of walking! We will probably also have time to go up some of the animal paths. I wouldn't mind trying to go back to see the twin baby tigers again. They aren't such babies now, more like adolescents, but last time they were laying on their sides sleeping. With the heat today, I'm sure they will be sleeping again this afternoon.
I started the Lose It! app to help me lose weight back in March of 2012 because my weight was creeping up and up from my lowest of 205 in March of 2010. I weighed 263.2 when I set up the app. Since then, I have dropped as low as 232.4 in October of 2013 and as high as 295 in March of 2016. The graph in the program is ridiculously crazy looking, sharp ups and downs and ups and downs constantly.
Well, at least right now it's back on a downward track.
I played Mahj yesterday and won 5 of the 6 games I played. I was actually embarrassed to win that last one. The two ladies I was playing with were not happy about it. LOL Susie won one game and Barb won zero games, so it was a little awkward for me to win five. The Mah Jongg gods or Karma or whatever will even it out though. LOL There will be weeks when I'm the one not winning any games. That's how it goes.
After playing, I was going to go out shoe shopping for some white sandals to wear to the wedding. I didn't go. I hate going out to stores anymore. Mark hunted for my other shoes for me, but he didn't find them either. He did find the silver sandals I wore to Lowell's wedding. They are a little higher than I like, but they will be my fall back. Then I also ordered white sandals from Amazon. They'll arrive tomorrow. If they fit and feel great, they will get a lot of use! If they don''t, I can ship them back for free and use the silver sandals. Instead I stayed home the rest of the day doing the things I enjoy: reading, working the jigsaw puzzle, listening to Mark read another portion of the Torah, listening to our book on tape (haha tape! NOT. It's digital on the phone!), and watching TV.
I ate 1375 calories for the day, but there was no exercise.
Today there will be four or five miles of walking at Animal Kingdom in 93 degrees of humid heat. We are heading out at 10 a.m. to go see a noon performance of Robotic Walkers at Pandora. These are men in robotic machines like the ones used in the movie Avatar. Then we will have lunch out at the Pandora quick service restaurant called Satu'li Canteen. We haven't been in that area of the park in a YEAR. We went there last summer with Lowell and Emily when the Pandora land opened. That restaurant is very nice. They have a fried mahi mahi or a fried tofu that we can eat. Each one says "choose your base and sauce." As I recall, the base could be noodles, grains, or salad. I don't remember the sauces, but I'll probably skip them. I'm hoping to eat tofu on salad so that my calories won't be too bad. I think the day will be okay although sodium might be an issue again.
After seeing the robots and eating lunch, we have fast passes for the safari ride (still hoping to see the baby hippos), the show Finding Nemo, and the Navi'i River Boat ride back in Pandora. That means we will make a big circle around the entire perimeter of WDW's largest park. That will be a lot of walking! We will probably also have time to go up some of the animal paths. I wouldn't mind trying to go back to see the twin baby tigers again. They aren't such babies now, more like adolescents, but last time they were laying on their sides sleeping. With the heat today, I'm sure they will be sleeping again this afternoon.
Monday, July 9, 2018
Up three. Yeah.
I knew my weight would be up today even though I only ate 1291 calories and walked FIVE miles around Epcot over the course of 8 hours in the park.
Unfortunately, the sodium content was 4,721.5 mg, so I'm sure most of those three pounds that I'm up are from water retention. I was not that thrilled to see the scale say 273 this morning after saying 270 yesterday.
Sigh. Today will be even worse. Today there will be 1334 calories, no exercise at all, and 5,961 mg of sodium. That is WAY worse.
The sodium is so high because we are eating something called Fried Egg Spaghetti tonight. We've had it before, and it's delicious, but we had never calculated its nutrition facts. It's not from Diabetic Living. So it calls for 1/2 cup of grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Depending on what calorie-counting program I use, the calories and carbs vary wildly for that cheese. Tonight when Mark actually grates the cheese he bought, which came with nutrition labelling, we will know more carefully. It looks like it might be less than what CalorieKing claims. I certainly hope so. It will save me calories and sodium.
Meanwhile, we had a lovely time at the movie and Epcot. We saw three new attractions at Epcot, the Guardians of the Galaxy stage show, an interactive Coco exhibit in Mexico, and a new Canadian band called Blueberry Grass Band. We also rode four rides together, plus Mark did an extra one on his own while I shopped. It was hot and sweaty, 90 degrees, but I drank four bottles of water. Not enough to sweat out or wear off the extra water weight from retaining the fluids. My body is crazy!
Today I'm playing Mah Jongg this morning, and then I'm going shoe shopping. I thought I had nice white shoes for the wedding next weekend, but I can't find them. A few years ago, I rounded up a giant bag full of shoes and gave them to Goodwill. I find it hard to believe that I'd give that pair of white shoes away, but they aren't in the closet. I must have given them away. Sad. Now I need to go find something appropriate for the summer afternoon wedding next Saturday.
Tomorrow we are eating lunch at Animal Kingdom, so I'm sure the sodium levels will still be high. Sigh. Thursday I eat lunch out again. I'm not expecting Friday's weigh-in to look too good. Then we fly to Buffalo.
This is why I find losing weight now very, very hard. Even when I only eat two meals out in a week and add some exercise here and there, it's not enough to lose any serious amount of weight. I get frustrated. So far, I'm holding steady on my resolve and my will power. Every article you read about will power says the same thing. It cannot last forever. I have to see if I can make it last longer than EVER before!
Unfortunately, the sodium content was 4,721.5 mg, so I'm sure most of those three pounds that I'm up are from water retention. I was not that thrilled to see the scale say 273 this morning after saying 270 yesterday.
Sigh. Today will be even worse. Today there will be 1334 calories, no exercise at all, and 5,961 mg of sodium. That is WAY worse.
The sodium is so high because we are eating something called Fried Egg Spaghetti tonight. We've had it before, and it's delicious, but we had never calculated its nutrition facts. It's not from Diabetic Living. So it calls for 1/2 cup of grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Depending on what calorie-counting program I use, the calories and carbs vary wildly for that cheese. Tonight when Mark actually grates the cheese he bought, which came with nutrition labelling, we will know more carefully. It looks like it might be less than what CalorieKing claims. I certainly hope so. It will save me calories and sodium.
Meanwhile, we had a lovely time at the movie and Epcot. We saw three new attractions at Epcot, the Guardians of the Galaxy stage show, an interactive Coco exhibit in Mexico, and a new Canadian band called Blueberry Grass Band. We also rode four rides together, plus Mark did an extra one on his own while I shopped. It was hot and sweaty, 90 degrees, but I drank four bottles of water. Not enough to sweat out or wear off the extra water weight from retaining the fluids. My body is crazy!
Today I'm playing Mah Jongg this morning, and then I'm going shoe shopping. I thought I had nice white shoes for the wedding next weekend, but I can't find them. A few years ago, I rounded up a giant bag full of shoes and gave them to Goodwill. I find it hard to believe that I'd give that pair of white shoes away, but they aren't in the closet. I must have given them away. Sad. Now I need to go find something appropriate for the summer afternoon wedding next Saturday.
Tomorrow we are eating lunch at Animal Kingdom, so I'm sure the sodium levels will still be high. Sigh. Thursday I eat lunch out again. I'm not expecting Friday's weigh-in to look too good. Then we fly to Buffalo.
This is why I find losing weight now very, very hard. Even when I only eat two meals out in a week and add some exercise here and there, it's not enough to lose any serious amount of weight. I get frustrated. So far, I'm holding steady on my resolve and my will power. Every article you read about will power says the same thing. It cannot last forever. I have to see if I can make it last longer than EVER before!
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Another pound. Woot! Woot!
270 this morning blinked happily on the scale at me! I am grinning from ear to ear.
Today we are heading out at 9 a.m. to see The Ant Man and the Wasp. Evey and Eric saw it yesterday and really liked it, so we expect to enjoy it.
Then while driving to Epcot, which is only about ten minutes away, we will eat our packed lunch. Our plans are to see a new concert performance back at the America pavilion, ride three things on fast passes, and head out around 7 p.m. for a late dinner of hot dogs and beans. It's a quick dinner, which is why Mark picked it for tonight, because neither of us love eating dinner at 8 p.m., but I'd rather do that than eat out!
I do have to eat two lunches out this week, Tuesday and Thursday. Then Friday we are flying to Buffalo for the family wedding on Saturday, so ALL of my meals will be out starting with Friday's lunch through Sunday's dinner. That's SEVEN meals in restaurants, so I am hoping I can just stay the same through that weekend. It's going to be tough, and I'll probably be depressed if everything I lost the last two weeks is back in just those three days. Then we are home for three weeks before flying to California, another fun trip that will involve some eating out. When we stay with Evey and Eric, we eat a lot of meals at home, so not every day is in a restaurant. When we return, we are only home for five days before starting our road trip from Amelia Island to St. Augustine and then the NARFE FedCon in Jacksonville. That's an 11 day trip with all meals in restaurants. In fact at FedCon our meals were paid in advance because the whole conference eats its lunches and dinners and one breakfast together, no control there.
But I'm not whining. I'm just laying it out not just for blog readers but for myself to think in advance about how I'm going to handle it. My real goal is to be significantly lower in weight, like maybe 20 pounds by October 3 when we head north for the Canadian cruise. I'd love to get below 250 for that. Ultimately my goal is to get to 220 by mid-March for the Asian trip, but that's going to be HARD because there are FOUR other cruises between the Canadian and Asian cruises. LOL!!!
There were some notable cruises when I did not gain any weight and just stayed the same. There were some notable ones where I gained between one and two pounds per DAY on the cruise and then didn't lose any of it before the next one came up. LOL YEAH! That's how I have gotten where I am today on the scale. LOL Not smart but when drinks are free for the whole cruise, it's so hard not to order them multiple times a day. I know it's empty calories, but on a cruise ship, it feels so right. HAHA!!!
There are about 8 months total between mid-July now and mid-March when we fly to Hong Kong. In theory, a person can lose about 8 pounds a month when keeping the calories between 1200 and 1400 every day. That would be 64 pounds, which would mean weighing 206 for the Asian trip. That's what I weighed in 2010 when we took off for our big retirement trip with the train across country and the 29 day cruise. I gained 10 pounds in the 7 week trip, which was damn good. Well, I can't lose that much because there are going to be two land trips and five cruises before that. I have a more modest goal of losing between 25 and 50 pounds, probably closer to the lower end. Still, every pound is important towards making me more comfortable and more healthy.
Today we are heading out at 9 a.m. to see The Ant Man and the Wasp. Evey and Eric saw it yesterday and really liked it, so we expect to enjoy it.
Then while driving to Epcot, which is only about ten minutes away, we will eat our packed lunch. Our plans are to see a new concert performance back at the America pavilion, ride three things on fast passes, and head out around 7 p.m. for a late dinner of hot dogs and beans. It's a quick dinner, which is why Mark picked it for tonight, because neither of us love eating dinner at 8 p.m., but I'd rather do that than eat out!
I do have to eat two lunches out this week, Tuesday and Thursday. Then Friday we are flying to Buffalo for the family wedding on Saturday, so ALL of my meals will be out starting with Friday's lunch through Sunday's dinner. That's SEVEN meals in restaurants, so I am hoping I can just stay the same through that weekend. It's going to be tough, and I'll probably be depressed if everything I lost the last two weeks is back in just those three days. Then we are home for three weeks before flying to California, another fun trip that will involve some eating out. When we stay with Evey and Eric, we eat a lot of meals at home, so not every day is in a restaurant. When we return, we are only home for five days before starting our road trip from Amelia Island to St. Augustine and then the NARFE FedCon in Jacksonville. That's an 11 day trip with all meals in restaurants. In fact at FedCon our meals were paid in advance because the whole conference eats its lunches and dinners and one breakfast together, no control there.
But I'm not whining. I'm just laying it out not just for blog readers but for myself to think in advance about how I'm going to handle it. My real goal is to be significantly lower in weight, like maybe 20 pounds by October 3 when we head north for the Canadian cruise. I'd love to get below 250 for that. Ultimately my goal is to get to 220 by mid-March for the Asian trip, but that's going to be HARD because there are FOUR other cruises between the Canadian and Asian cruises. LOL!!!
There were some notable cruises when I did not gain any weight and just stayed the same. There were some notable ones where I gained between one and two pounds per DAY on the cruise and then didn't lose any of it before the next one came up. LOL YEAH! That's how I have gotten where I am today on the scale. LOL Not smart but when drinks are free for the whole cruise, it's so hard not to order them multiple times a day. I know it's empty calories, but on a cruise ship, it feels so right. HAHA!!!
There are about 8 months total between mid-July now and mid-March when we fly to Hong Kong. In theory, a person can lose about 8 pounds a month when keeping the calories between 1200 and 1400 every day. That would be 64 pounds, which would mean weighing 206 for the Asian trip. That's what I weighed in 2010 when we took off for our big retirement trip with the train across country and the 29 day cruise. I gained 10 pounds in the 7 week trip, which was damn good. Well, I can't lose that much because there are going to be two land trips and five cruises before that. I have a more modest goal of losing between 25 and 50 pounds, probably closer to the lower end. Still, every pound is important towards making me more comfortable and more healthy.
Saturday, July 7, 2018
The loss was a day late.
This morning I was very excited to see 273.4 on the scale, a drop of 1.4 pounds from yesterday and the same for the week plus a day. I'll take it.
Today will also feature all meals well-planned and eaten at home. Tomorrow we are going to a movie and Epcot, but we will eat a packed lunch in the car on the drive between the two, and with any luck we are going to come home for dinner. Monday will be all meals at home. Tuesday we are going to Animal Kingdom and possibly also Magic Kingdom. One or two meals will have to be at one of the parks. Wednesday will have all meals at home, but Thursday will have lunch out with Susie after playing Mahj. So this week will also have its challenges of 2-3 meals eaten in restaurants. This past week I felt I made pretty good choices in the restaurants. I hope I can say that again at the end of this week.
Today we are going to the synagogue, and then we will stay home the rest of the day. I love that kind of day. I really enjoy being home because I read, work my jigsaw puzzle, and watch TV. It's so relaxing and fun.
Have a great day wherever and whoever you are.
Today will also feature all meals well-planned and eaten at home. Tomorrow we are going to a movie and Epcot, but we will eat a packed lunch in the car on the drive between the two, and with any luck we are going to come home for dinner. Monday will be all meals at home. Tuesday we are going to Animal Kingdom and possibly also Magic Kingdom. One or two meals will have to be at one of the parks. Wednesday will have all meals at home, but Thursday will have lunch out with Susie after playing Mahj. So this week will also have its challenges of 2-3 meals eaten in restaurants. This past week I felt I made pretty good choices in the restaurants. I hope I can say that again at the end of this week.
Today we are going to the synagogue, and then we will stay home the rest of the day. I love that kind of day. I really enjoy being home because I read, work my jigsaw puzzle, and watch TV. It's so relaxing and fun.
Have a great day wherever and whoever you are.
Friday, July 6, 2018
Missed the target
Yesterday I thought I'd lose a little for this morning's report. I weighed the same yesterday morning as last Friday, but unfortunately, I am up six-tenths this morning to 274.8. I am not happy about it. I was especially good all day yesterday, logging it all in and eating only 1316 calories. The only thing I can think is that the Bacos and Parmesan cheese on my salad plus the frozen dinner had too much sodium. The sodium content for the day was 3200 mg, which is well over the daily recommended limit. I might drop it today because I'm eating all the meals at home, and it will be another good day. My pre-planned day includes 1465 calories, 1966 mg of sodium. Also, if it doesn't rain, Mark and I will head to the pool to do the 40 minute water aerobic routine.
Mark had a great appointment with the family doctor. We really like her! I thought there was going to be no reason for it other than they wanted it because he was in the hospital. I was wrong. His insurance had denied the 150 mg twice a day of his heart med, Metropolol. We didn't know because Mark didn't return AETNA's phone call. The doctor got a letter from AETNA and had noticed that the Resident doctor at the hospital had written it for the WRONG MED! There is Metropolol Tartrate and Metropolol Succinate. He always takes Tartrate, which CAN be given at 150 mg twice a day, but the prescription was for the other kind, which CANNOT be prescribed at that higher dosage. Our family doctor found and corrected the problem. She called in a prescription for enough 75 mg tablets for him to take two in the morning and two in the evening. That was totally worth the visit.
Also his BP was great in the office, 130/70. He almost never gets numbers like that at home, so now we are thinking his machine at home isn't calibrated correctly. That is something we can look in to and fix or buy a new one.
Other than that I played Mah Jongg and won two games; I worked on my jigsaw puzzle and found many pieces; I read my book; I listened to the Star Trek audio book with Mark for an hour; and we went to the movie at the Ballroom. The movie was Phantom Thread with Daniel Day-Lewis. It was nominated for several Academy Awards and won for costumes, but it was WEIRD. We both decided we liked it just because it was a little quirky and weird. Not our usual type of movie, but we were glad we went.
It doesn't look like it's going to rain, so we will head out to water aerobics about 10 a.m. Then we will work in the library from 1-4 p.m. If it's not raining at 4 p.m. when we get out of the library, we might hang out at the pool a little while before going home for Shabbat dinner. Tomorrow we will go to the synagogue for services and then have a lovely, lazy day at home afterward. Sunday will be a movie and Epcot, so there will be plenty of walking for exercise. I am just hoping some weight leaves over the weekend. Wish me luck!
Mark had a great appointment with the family doctor. We really like her! I thought there was going to be no reason for it other than they wanted it because he was in the hospital. I was wrong. His insurance had denied the 150 mg twice a day of his heart med, Metropolol. We didn't know because Mark didn't return AETNA's phone call. The doctor got a letter from AETNA and had noticed that the Resident doctor at the hospital had written it for the WRONG MED! There is Metropolol Tartrate and Metropolol Succinate. He always takes Tartrate, which CAN be given at 150 mg twice a day, but the prescription was for the other kind, which CANNOT be prescribed at that higher dosage. Our family doctor found and corrected the problem. She called in a prescription for enough 75 mg tablets for him to take two in the morning and two in the evening. That was totally worth the visit.
Also his BP was great in the office, 130/70. He almost never gets numbers like that at home, so now we are thinking his machine at home isn't calibrated correctly. That is something we can look in to and fix or buy a new one.
Other than that I played Mah Jongg and won two games; I worked on my jigsaw puzzle and found many pieces; I read my book; I listened to the Star Trek audio book with Mark for an hour; and we went to the movie at the Ballroom. The movie was Phantom Thread with Daniel Day-Lewis. It was nominated for several Academy Awards and won for costumes, but it was WEIRD. We both decided we liked it just because it was a little quirky and weird. Not our usual type of movie, but we were glad we went.
It doesn't look like it's going to rain, so we will head out to water aerobics about 10 a.m. Then we will work in the library from 1-4 p.m. If it's not raining at 4 p.m. when we get out of the library, we might hang out at the pool a little while before going home for Shabbat dinner. Tomorrow we will go to the synagogue for services and then have a lovely, lazy day at home afterward. Sunday will be a movie and Epcot, so there will be plenty of walking for exercise. I am just hoping some weight leaves over the weekend. Wish me luck!
Thursday, July 5, 2018
On target for a loss this week.
This morning I still weigh 274.2, the weight I reported last Friday. Today I'm eating all my meals at home, and I plan to keep the calories ultra low. I'm hoping that tomorrow morning I will be a smidge lower than today. There have been wild swings up and down in weight this whole week due to all the eating out times. I'm pleased it's downward at the end of the week.
I stuck to my plan yesterday with just a few small exceptions. I had a glass of Reisling at the restaurant in addition to the whiskey. I ate a small slice of cake at the party plus a small scoop of ice cream, four tiny pretzels, and two small gummy candies. I switched from the trout to a vegetarian dinner at the restaurant that was actually a few calories more than the trout, but it was DELICIOUS!
All in all, I had 1613 calories yesterday, off set by 40 minutes of water aerobics in the morning. Best of all, the sodium content all day was low, which helped get rid of water weight.
The 50th Anniversary party was great yesterday. We picked up the pair of beautiful Disney champagne flutes with their names, date, and 50th engraved on it. They looked beautiful. In 8 years, we will have our 50th, so Mark and I had some fun trying to think what we might do when that day comes.
Today I'm heading out in just a minute to play Mah Jongg. We couldn't go to the monthly NARFE meeting because Mark has a follow up appointment with the family doctor at 1 p.m. When I get back from Mahj, we will head up to the doctor, eating lunch in the car as we go.
Got to run to Mahj. Have a great day.
I stuck to my plan yesterday with just a few small exceptions. I had a glass of Reisling at the restaurant in addition to the whiskey. I ate a small slice of cake at the party plus a small scoop of ice cream, four tiny pretzels, and two small gummy candies. I switched from the trout to a vegetarian dinner at the restaurant that was actually a few calories more than the trout, but it was DELICIOUS!
All in all, I had 1613 calories yesterday, off set by 40 minutes of water aerobics in the morning. Best of all, the sodium content all day was low, which helped get rid of water weight.
The 50th Anniversary party was great yesterday. We picked up the pair of beautiful Disney champagne flutes with their names, date, and 50th engraved on it. They looked beautiful. In 8 years, we will have our 50th, so Mark and I had some fun trying to think what we might do when that day comes.
Today I'm heading out in just a minute to play Mah Jongg. We couldn't go to the monthly NARFE meeting because Mark has a follow up appointment with the family doctor at 1 p.m. When I get back from Mahj, we will head up to the doctor, eating lunch in the car as we go.
Got to run to Mahj. Have a great day.
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Love my ring.
My new ring fits perfectly and looks fabulous! If I ever figure out how to post a picture on here again, I will post a picture.
We ended up eating lunch AND dinner out yesterday. We had lunch at Blaze, a Build Your Own Pizza place at Disney Springs. We actually just shared a Veggie pizza, plus we each got a side salad. Since Blaze is a chain, I was able to find the calories online and log them in. 647 is my best estimate.
Dinner was at a great place called Harbourside in Winter Haven with our friends the Lemleys. It's a lovely fish house on a lake with great views. We had been there once before with other friends a few years ago, so we knew it was good. I made good choices. I ordered no alcohol, no appetizer, and no dessert. I ate my piece of garlic bread from the basket, and for the entree I chose grilled grouper with vegetables. All entrees came with a side salad of mostly lettuce. Mark had a small baked potato, and he gave me half of it. All of the foods were incredibly SALTY! Delicious, but more salt than I would use at home.
I did my best to program those calories into the phone app, and it looks like I had about 1047 for dinner and a total of 1924 calories for the day, 417 over my allotment. This morning I am up six-tenths of a pound, which I think is not bad at all considering the sodium levels!
Today we are eating dinner out at Seasons 52 with the group of 12 celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Judi and Peter. Then we are going back to their house for dessert afterward. Later today I'm going to try to plan in advance what to order just like last night. There WILL be alcohol tonight, though, because Judi and Peter are paying for everyone's alcohol orders! LOL
After tonight's dinner, there is only ONE more time over the next 7 days when we will be eating out. It should be a great week, and I'm hoping for a new pound or two to leave. I just hope I'm not up too much more tomorrow after tonight. We will be going to water aerobics together this morning, and there will be a small amount of walking around at Disney Springs to pick up the gift we ordered yesterday for the anniversary couple. I'm hoping that helps mitigate the calories a little bit.
Meanwhile Happy Fourth of July to everyone.
We ended up eating lunch AND dinner out yesterday. We had lunch at Blaze, a Build Your Own Pizza place at Disney Springs. We actually just shared a Veggie pizza, plus we each got a side salad. Since Blaze is a chain, I was able to find the calories online and log them in. 647 is my best estimate.
Dinner was at a great place called Harbourside in Winter Haven with our friends the Lemleys. It's a lovely fish house on a lake with great views. We had been there once before with other friends a few years ago, so we knew it was good. I made good choices. I ordered no alcohol, no appetizer, and no dessert. I ate my piece of garlic bread from the basket, and for the entree I chose grilled grouper with vegetables. All entrees came with a side salad of mostly lettuce. Mark had a small baked potato, and he gave me half of it. All of the foods were incredibly SALTY! Delicious, but more salt than I would use at home.
I did my best to program those calories into the phone app, and it looks like I had about 1047 for dinner and a total of 1924 calories for the day, 417 over my allotment. This morning I am up six-tenths of a pound, which I think is not bad at all considering the sodium levels!
Today we are eating dinner out at Seasons 52 with the group of 12 celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Judi and Peter. Then we are going back to their house for dessert afterward. Later today I'm going to try to plan in advance what to order just like last night. There WILL be alcohol tonight, though, because Judi and Peter are paying for everyone's alcohol orders! LOL
After tonight's dinner, there is only ONE more time over the next 7 days when we will be eating out. It should be a great week, and I'm hoping for a new pound or two to leave. I just hope I'm not up too much more tomorrow after tonight. We will be going to water aerobics together this morning, and there will be a small amount of walking around at Disney Springs to pick up the gift we ordered yesterday for the anniversary couple. I'm hoping that helps mitigate the calories a little bit.
Meanwhile Happy Fourth of July to everyone.
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Bling, Bling
We are heading up to Lake Mary this morning to the jewelry store (really her house!) to pick up my blingy ring that I ordered a few weeks ago. This is my $1744 ring that I got with the $1800 gift card that I won at the raffle for the Jewish Pavilion. I wish I had taken a picture of it when I ordered it because I barely remember what it looked like except that it's white gold with lots of diamonds!
I ate only 1160 calories yesterday, and I weighed 274.2 this morning. YAY! That's what I was last Friday, and that was my goal for this morning.
Now I need to get through dinner out tonight and tomorrow night in order to report 274.2 or even a little less on Friday morning. We shall see.
Mark's cardiology check up went very well. All of his questions were answered very well, and the doctor said he is doing great. The only "bad" news is that he should probably remain caffeine free for the rest of his life. He is making a pot of decaf every morning now, and I'm making myself one regular Keurig before drinking decaf the rest of the day. Not the worst news in the world. LOL
I ate only 1160 calories yesterday, and I weighed 274.2 this morning. YAY! That's what I was last Friday, and that was my goal for this morning.
Now I need to get through dinner out tonight and tomorrow night in order to report 274.2 or even a little less on Friday morning. We shall see.
Mark's cardiology check up went very well. All of his questions were answered very well, and the doctor said he is doing great. The only "bad" news is that he should probably remain caffeine free for the rest of his life. He is making a pot of decaf every morning now, and I'm making myself one regular Keurig before drinking decaf the rest of the day. Not the worst news in the world. LOL
Monday, July 2, 2018
The Works and up again
This morning at 8:30 a.m. I have a long appointment at Nature Hair that we call The Works. That means not only the usual pedicure, manicure, and facial waxing but also hair coloring, highlights, and trim. It takes a long time to do all that, so that's why we are starting early because I want to be home in time to go with Mark to his follow up cardiology appointment.
We had a wonderful time at Universal Studios yesterday. We really liked the movie, Jurassic World. Those two hours flew by. Then lunch at the Hot Dog Hall of Fame was a hoot. There were stadium seats from a variety of defunct stadiums, including one from the old Yankee Stadium. Then we used the new Virtual Line to go through the two new rides. The Virtual Line is a lot like a fast pass except that there are only three rides available on it in the park, and you have to be IN the park to activate it. Fast passes, which work for all the attractions in the parks, can be made 60 days in advance for people booked in a hotel or 30 days for other people with a ticket to the park. We walked in and did the two rides right away and then drove home. By 6 p.m. we were home. It was a wonderful day.
Although I stuck to my calories, trying to count the lunch as best as I could, I am up another pound today. So Friday I reported that I was 274.2, but this morning I am 276.8, up 2.6 pounds. We walked over four miles at the park, too. This is why weight loss is so incredibly frustrating for me. If I'm going to gain 2.6 pounds over the weekend, I would have preferred to have eaten a lot more. LOL
So today I will eat all my meals at home. I can keep the sodium lower, which is what I'm still hoping this is, but tomorrow and Wednesday we have the two big dinners out. If these two pounds don't drop off by tomorrow morning, then I think I'll be reporting a big weight gain on Friday morning for this week. Disgusting.
We had a wonderful time at Universal Studios yesterday. We really liked the movie, Jurassic World. Those two hours flew by. Then lunch at the Hot Dog Hall of Fame was a hoot. There were stadium seats from a variety of defunct stadiums, including one from the old Yankee Stadium. Then we used the new Virtual Line to go through the two new rides. The Virtual Line is a lot like a fast pass except that there are only three rides available on it in the park, and you have to be IN the park to activate it. Fast passes, which work for all the attractions in the parks, can be made 60 days in advance for people booked in a hotel or 30 days for other people with a ticket to the park. We walked in and did the two rides right away and then drove home. By 6 p.m. we were home. It was a wonderful day.
Although I stuck to my calories, trying to count the lunch as best as I could, I am up another pound today. So Friday I reported that I was 274.2, but this morning I am 276.8, up 2.6 pounds. We walked over four miles at the park, too. This is why weight loss is so incredibly frustrating for me. If I'm going to gain 2.6 pounds over the weekend, I would have preferred to have eaten a lot more. LOL
So today I will eat all my meals at home. I can keep the sodium lower, which is what I'm still hoping this is, but tomorrow and Wednesday we have the two big dinners out. If these two pounds don't drop off by tomorrow morning, then I think I'll be reporting a big weight gain on Friday morning for this week. Disgusting.
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Universal Studios
The morning that Mark had his takotsubo we were supposed to go to Universal Studios, so today we are going to try again. We will see the new Jurassic World movie at the theaters at CityWalk first and then go into the park to try to do two new rides, Jimmy Fallon in NY and Fast and Furious. We shall see how that works.
Meanwhile, we had lunch at the synagogue yesterday because when we went we did not know that two couples sponsored a luncheon in honor of their anniversaries. I skipped all the bread products and cream cheese. I took a small amount of tuna salad and egg salad and put them on a big salad. The only carbs were in the form of a bowl of vegan cholent, which had root veggies and beans in it.
Unfortunately, since Friday, I am up almost two pounds, so I guess I didn't do as well as I had hoped yesterday.
Today we are eating lunch out at CityWalk at a place called the Hot Dog Hall of Fame because Mark saw that they served a Hebrew National kosher dog. It comes with a dairy sauce and blue cheese dressing on it, so then it's not kosher, but those things can be left off. I'm just having mine plain with some raw onions on it. It comes with fries, so I'll have to be careful not to eat too many of them. There's a lot of sodium in a meal like that.
We are eating dinner out Tuesday and Wednesday, so this is not going to be a great week.
It's frustrating to lose a bit over four pounds in one week and put two of them back in one day with three meals out looming in front of you for this week.
Maybe all the walking around the park will help.
At least I can console myself with the fact that I meticulously logged in every calorie and stayed at or below the allotment of 1517 calories per day.
Meanwhile, we had lunch at the synagogue yesterday because when we went we did not know that two couples sponsored a luncheon in honor of their anniversaries. I skipped all the bread products and cream cheese. I took a small amount of tuna salad and egg salad and put them on a big salad. The only carbs were in the form of a bowl of vegan cholent, which had root veggies and beans in it.
Unfortunately, since Friday, I am up almost two pounds, so I guess I didn't do as well as I had hoped yesterday.
Today we are eating lunch out at CityWalk at a place called the Hot Dog Hall of Fame because Mark saw that they served a Hebrew National kosher dog. It comes with a dairy sauce and blue cheese dressing on it, so then it's not kosher, but those things can be left off. I'm just having mine plain with some raw onions on it. It comes with fries, so I'll have to be careful not to eat too many of them. There's a lot of sodium in a meal like that.
We are eating dinner out Tuesday and Wednesday, so this is not going to be a great week.
It's frustrating to lose a bit over four pounds in one week and put two of them back in one day with three meals out looming in front of you for this week.
Maybe all the walking around the park will help.
At least I can console myself with the fact that I meticulously logged in every calorie and stayed at or below the allotment of 1517 calories per day.
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