Chaplaincy

I never thought I'd ever be a chaplain of anything, but today I gave my first invocation and benediction as the chaplain of our NARFE chapter, the Plant City Strawberry Chapter, 1224.  I was asked to do this back in January, but we didn't go to the February meeting because of a cruise.  I never did this sort of thing before, so I did some research and used some online help to craft both.  I wrote them out because I didn't want to trust my memory!  I actually enjoyed doing this very much.  Unfortunately, my next opportunity to do this will be in October.  That's crazy, but our travel schedule means we are missing every monthly meeting between March and October.  Ah, the busy life of an active retiree!

I'm down another half pound today!  I was 261.8 on the scale this morning.  Wow!  I haven't weighed under 263 since December 20, 2012.  Sad, I know.  Still, I've been doing so well lately that I'm scared.  I'm not sure why my control has kicked back in or how long it will last.  I'm glad it's here right now, and I hope I can keep it around for awhile.

I had lunch at Outback today: house salad with croutons and no dressing, steamed veggies, and baked tilapia.  Except for a lot of sodium that always seems to be in anything at a restaurant, that's probably an acceptable amount of calories....for a dinner.  Unfortunately, that was lunch, and we are going to the kosher restaurant, Cohen's Deli, for dinner.  Today's calories will be far above what I've been eating lately.

Even though I have not been writing the calories down in a book or in the phone app, I've been tallying then up on the calculator.  The last six straight days, Friday through yesterday, have been 1100 calories or less.  I have also walked at least thirty minutes each of those days.  Even if I try to eat as well as possible at the deli, I expect today's calories to top 2000, and there is not going to be a walk.  No time.  I am sure that I will be up a little tomorrow due to the extra sodium and water retention.  We'll see.  The main thing is not to let that get me down, but to focus on the progress and the knowledge that I can drop that water weight with another few good days of 1100 calories or less. 

I already explained yesterday about how many meals in restaurants there are for us coming up.  Tomorrow we are having lunch out also, but we have already decided it will be a salad at Subway, so I know that's an excellent lunch on a diet.

Meanwhile, Evey and Eric are in the air right now as I'm typing.  They should land in Sydney at 8:30 a.m. Sydney time on Friday, March 8, which will be about 4:30 this afternoon March 7 in Florida time!  I find that really hard to grasp!  All the days of activity that they have are while we are sleeping.  It is, after all, the other side of the world, so while we are having day, they are having night.  Fun!!