BAND OF ANGELS

And that's probably because I haven't been able to exercise. The Ridge pool has remained closed because the staff haven't been able to get the ph balance in order.
The pool was supposed to open last Sunday after being closed for a few weeks for its annual cleaning.
In the meantime, White Oaks has stopped its schedule to cover for the Ridge closing, so this means no swimming for me.
I've had Dorothy over to keep my metabolism up, but as for burning large numbers of calories with two-hour swims, that's been unavailable.
I hope all is in order by Monday. I've followed the food plan well, so at least I didn't gain back the weight I lost with last week's fill/defill issue.
I'm trying to be content with maintaining, but my old demon impatience is trying to take over.
I've also been suffering badly from strain in my right eye, so maybe this is God's way of keeping me out of the pool so I don't do any more damage.
I've been taking Tylenol to keep the pain down, and have antibiotic eye drops to help with healing. Other than that, I'm feeling fine.
I've been enjoying the cooler weather -- I'm a fall/winter person -- but hope to keep the furnace off a while longer to save money.
And with that, I'll get off the computer to protect my eye.
Have a wonderful weekend, my winged ones, and take time to enjoy whatever restores and soothes you.
xo

And that's just where the acid reflux has gone, plus some more pounds (see farther down). Forgive me for not posting yesterday; I was feeling so lousy after going two days without food and liquid that I was hot and then cold, light-headed and I ached in every bone and muscle in my body. Even my hair hurt.
Today, I'm halfway back to normal, and what I need in my workout with Dorothy is mainly some good stretching exercises.
I had a defill of the 0.25ccs I got last week. Although I was sure this was the sweet spot, it turned out to be a disaster.
I stayed on full fluids yesterday, with just soft food at dinner.
Today, I go back on full menu.
Nancy, the fill nurse, told me a very wise thing: "Work within the band." If Yoda had said it, it would have been something such as: "The band, within it work you must."
Great advice, it was. I need to let myself stay at this level, while following the program religiously , until I find I'm not losing weight despite doing everything correctly. At that point, it would be time for another fill. It seems sweet spots can change as one's weight drops, and often people who hit a sweet spot can stay there for months, and then find they need more saline because the sweet point has changed.
Now, as for the pounds (drum roll, please):
At week 28, I have reached 266 pounds, down 5.5 from the past week and down 81 over all. Yippee!!! However, I may not move from there much in the coming week because it was a big drop and was partly a water loss, though compared with last week's readings, my fat indicators are lower, which is wonderful. It's nice to have a silver lining to an otherwise dismal experience.
The numbers:
Weight: 266 lbs.
BMI: 52
BMR: 1838
Impedance: 361
Fat %: 52.1
Fat mass: 140 lbs.
FFM: 126 lbs.
TBW: 92 lbs.
Desirable range for fat %: 23-34; for fat mass: 37.5 to 65 lbs
This morning, I needed to take Nat to the GO for a university fair, so I stopped at Shoppers and did a BP test. This was after morning meds.
The reading was 106/62.
So, my angels, progress resumes and I've learned a valuable lesson and gained some insight. Despite the physical problems, a good week.
And may God bless you all till we meet in cyberspace again.
xo

Well, I had mixed news from Slimband. The person I needed to talk to was at a one-day clinic. And another one was there also. I discovered this after I phoned, because usually there's an immediate online response from support staff, and it was after lunch by this time.
I need to have the fill taken out tomorrow (a 1 p.m. appt. in the Thornhill side of Markham), then I must recover for at least two weeks back at 7ccs.
I had been told before that 0.25ccs was the lowest fill possible, but apparently, even though it's very difficult, they can do a fill of 0.1ccs. I was so glad to hear that, because I felt I'd hit the sweet spot when I went above seven.
So, I pray 7.1 will do the trick. I would have had it done in Mississauga in October, but the fill nurse does not have a date to be there next month.
So, tomorrow, after my defill, I will book the soonest appt I can after the recovery period to go to the Spadina clinic. I want to go in the a.m. so I can be home before rush hour.
I can take the van, but unfortunately tomorrow I won't be able to swim because of the defill, and I'll probably miss swimming when I get the smaller fill, too. By that time, I'll be back at the Ridge pool, and just wouldn't make it. Besides, I'll have to eat full fluids for the rest of the day and I'll need to get some into me when I get home.
Isn't this fun? Actually, I'm just very relieved to hear that I can get a smaller fill. I was afraid my sweet spot was going to fall into the cracks of filldom.
Little does Andy know what's in store for him tomorrow! I'm going to have him accompany me to Markham after he has breakfast with an old colleague and friend (not that they are old, just that they've known each other a fairly long time). Hmmm, I guess that really does mean they're both old.
Tomorrow night, he has to go to the Ridge for a parents' university info session (we just received the email notice this a.m.). Nat's going to be playing with the band at a parents' committee meeting that happens before the university session. So the van's going to be rushing hither and thither (hello there, my dearest unsuspecting Chris!), because someone here is also going to my brother-in-laws' house to feed their beautiful beagle and let her outside.
Plus, our dogs expect to head out right after Andy eats dinner for a walk in the woods or time at the leash free if other dogs are there for Zeke to play with. Purdy is content to be worshipped as she lies on the ground eating sticks. She needs the woods to give her exercise by running or walking through all the trees to sniff for something to get in to. Zeke just runs everywhere, but his favourite place is where there are other dogs to run and chase and wrestle. Purdy has been above all that all her life. She'll let other dogs sniff her, but she's too much of the empress of the world to acknowledge them.
My knees just don't allow me to walk with them, let alone run and chase whatever catches my fancy. But then, I've never seen fine jewellery or clothes stores in the park or the leash free.
Maybe they can be found in the Rosedale Ravine.
Anyhow, ciao (or is that chow?) till tomorrow.
xo

Hello, everyone,
I posted this message to a staff member at Slimband early this morning. I will post the answer under a new entry when I get a reply. Added note: I swam for two hours each on Monday and Tuesday. I will return tomorrow (unless I'm advised otherwise) before Friday with Dorothy, so I'm getting lots of physical exercise.

The message:

I am at 7.25ccs after having my fill last Saturday in Mississauga. I found I could eat more than 8 oz so I made that appt. I now need advice on how to proceed because of some problems.
I felt fine Saturday on full liquids, and I switched to regular foods Sunday. I believe I have found the sweet spot, because I could just get to 8 oz. and feel full.
Sunday was okay, Monday was harder to eat and yesterday was a wash. Because I swim at midday, I have to be careful how to place my meals/snacks.
After this week, I will be going back for the rest of the year to my regular pool, which has been closed for cleaning. That means breakfast and a snack before swimming 11:30 to 1:30, and then eating lunch about 2:30 when I'm home. That gives me enough time to digest before dinner at 6 or thereabouts. I then have an evening snack, very light.
But the pool I'm now at goes from noon till 2, so I've been finishing a yogurt, berry, whey powder breakfast by 8 a.m. and then having lunch about 11 or a few minutes after.
But yesterday, perhaps because I breathe in air through my mouth when surfacing and blow out through my nose, not to mention the occasional times I swallow a bit of water, I was pbing (note: productive burping; nothing comes up but it can be a prelude to vomiting, and many bandsters see it as the same thing) a lot, and could taste the tomatoes from my lunch.
I also could eat only 6 oz. at lunch, and felt a lot of saliva by the end. When I got home and had my snack, a mug of soup, I found it hard to swallow because I felt as though I were already full.
After getting the soup down (onion in beef broth, but I didn't eat the onions), I napped and felt okay.
I didn't feel like supper till 7, when I prepared a 6 oz. meal of protein and mixed veg.
After two oz., I was salivating like crazy and the food I'd eaten (very well chewed, took 20 minutes to get down) came back up then by vomiting.
I even had trouble with Crystal Light water later in the evening when I had to take three pills.
The last two were small, for anxiety, and I'm supposed to take them before bed.
The first one stayed down; the second I chewed and then swallowed a sip of water to wash it down.
I went to bed about 15 minutes later. However, for the first time in my life, I had acid reflux. It lasted all night and my throat and esophagus feel raw this morning, and I am coughing.
I decided to take it easy this morning and made a meal replacement to have for breakfast, so I could take my morning meds with it.
But I feel full and am burping, though with little liquid reappearing. I am still drinking it because I didn't want to throw up, and so I'm going to take it easy today.
But I feel this is my sweet spot, and don't want to defill. I know you can't get a fill of 1/8th of a cc, but can you get that much taken out? I'm wondering if I am one of the weird ones whose sweet spot is between 7 and 7.25ccs.
What would you recommend? Should I remain on liquids for a couple of days to undo whatever irritation has been caused by the flll and my subsequent vomiting and acid reflux?
As I said, I felt right with this fill for a day or so, then it all fell to pieces. Is it possible to get used to this level, given some time?
I am afraid to rush back to solid food because I think I still would vomit, given that the stomach may be swollen or bruised from all the changes/activity.
I am not swimming today so that I can concentrate on my intake; also, my knees are a bit tender so I can swim tomorrow. Friday is the day my friend, the trainer, comes to do weights and resistance exercises with me. Then I don't swim again till Monday.
I need your experience to help guide me through this. As I said, I want to tough it out if I can.
Thanks for your support and help,
Debbie

I got another 0.25ccs today, and the official weigh-in machine showed me at 271.5, for a total loss of 75.1 pounds. This is the lowest I've been.
If I drop again next week, then the plateau will be a thing of the past. I can't wait to get into the 260s.
Other data (for what they mean and compared with a month ago, see earlier post from Aug. 22):

BMI: 53.0
BMR: 1,862 calories
Impedance: 379
Fat %: 54.1
Fat mass: 147 lb.
FFM: 124.5 lb
TBW: 91 lb

It was with much trepidation that I stepped on the scale this morning. I held my breath as I moved the top weight along, and was very grateful when it held level at 273. I've been 275-6 almost every day for what seems like a 40-year sojourn in the desert (poor Moses).
That means a total loss in pounds of 74. However, I won't feel a sense of relief till I'm in the 260s.
Tomorrow, I go for another fill of 0.25ccs. I'm getting close to the sweet spot, so maybe this will do the trick.
Oddly enough, after doing some email consulting with Slimband folk, it might have been my swimming that helped to contribute to the plateau.
The Ridge swims begin at 11 a.m. and end two hours later, and so I was eating lunch when I got home around 2 p.m. This would leave a gap of six or so hours between breakfast and lunch. Sometimes I'd even forgo lunch and just have a snack because I figured it was getting too close to dinner for a full meal.
Although my exercise kicks up my metabolism, my body gets sabotaged by not getting food with protein every three hours, as it should. And sometimes there wasn't enough protein, especially if I did just a snack.
Plus, I usually waited for Andy to get home to have supper. That meant another long wait till there was food intake. I must eat around 5:30, but if I'm having something cooked, only Andy does it. Chris begins dinner for the rest of the family around five, and he takes over the whole kitchen: all burners in use, or at least three, plus the microwave, and either the stove or BBQ. He spreads all his ingredients around and it's impossible to cook around him.
So, I'd let Andy eat first when he got home and then would get him to fix my dinner. I prefer a warm supper as opposed to more tuna and cold tomato bruschetta mix (a frequent lunch), which I often defaulted to anyway just to get some food intake. And that gets the stomach into a rut, to the point where you eat something you shouldn't or where you get bored, and your mind takes you down dangerous roads. Plus the body expects what it gets, and it doesn't lose weight.
So having something warm meant eating after six, sometimes as late as 8:30.
But that meant finishing later, and then if I wanted/needed a snack, which I'm supposed to have (just two a day), then I'd be eating it by 10 and then have to stay up at least two or three hours to let it digest before going to bed. And when I'm up that long, I get a second wind and often would find myself going to bed at 4 or 5, if I even got to bed, just to get up at 6:45 a.m.
The swim at White Oaks, meanwhile, is from noon to 2 p.m. That means getting home after 3 because it's then time to head to the Ridge to get Nat, so she can practice her driving on the way home.
So for most of Wednesday and Thursday, I changed my meal times. I ate lunch before my swim (breakfast is always done by 7:45 or so) and ate all other meals on time.
I was a bit rushed because I let the time slip while Andy napped on Thursday morning but, all in all, it was a good day for food times.
I'll keep up the same routine when we move back to the Ridge at the end of Sept.
White Oaks doesn't have a disabled person's shower and there are not any handicapped parking spaces near the pool. They are way up by the doors into the school. I have to email the school board, ccing the town, to see if it will put in a couple of spaces down near the pool, because I've noticed all of the elderly people with canes or walkers who swim at the Ridge regularly are not coming to WO. It's too far a walk for them. The town has no control over the property because it's owned by the board.
And in the winter, those who live in the WO area and who use that pool will find it impossible to manoeuvre in the snow and ice.
So it's more for their sake that I will suggest some improvements.
My solution is to get driven there and back, by Chris mostly. Andy can do it on Thursdays. But Nat needs to be picked up right after I get in the van, except on Thursdays when she's out later because of band practice.
Dorothy's day is good because I don't have to worry about food times.
However, I'm going to have to get in the kitchen myself and try to get my supper ready myself. It's just the dang knees tend to lock and stiffen quickly when I stand for more that a couple of minutes.
With the one vehicle, Andy's been enjoying cycling to work and home, but it does take longer. In the winter, he'll have to do transit, and the last bus along Wyecroft near the Third Line leaves at 5:30 p.m. If he gets back to the plant after that, it means a fair walk down to Kerr to wait for a bus there, and then there's the wait at the GO station before moving on. So he can wind up spending as many as 1.5 hours just getting home from work.
Then it's eat, walk the dogs, maybe have a half hour on the computer to answer mail, then it's off to bed by 10 at the latest and up again at 4 a.m. As I've said before, I'd love to be able to win a big lottery and help others the way others have helped me.
I'd buy a second car and Andy could quit his quite onerous job and we could devote money and time to various causes, (other than aiding Maple Grove, my first choice would be hospital volunteering) and bring joy to the lives of others.
I'd also love to be able to finance one or two people a year for lapband surgery.
When I dream, I go all the way. Otherwise, where's the fun in dreaming?
So that's this week's news. Great thanks go out again to the Wheables for the loan of the Bug for our anniversary weekend, and to Dorothy for whipping me into the best shape of my life, even with the fat still left.
And, of course, all my angels are most gratefully remembered and thanked in my prayers for getting this whole journey started.
Enjoy the weekend and bless you all.
xo
P.S. I've emailed Yves veggie cuisine and not heard back yet, but if anyone spots the company's veggie products anyway (located in the produce, deli or frozen-food departments), would you please let me know? All we've been able to find are the bistro burgers, which I use with chili or spaghetti sauce. However, they have soy bacon and soy chicken teriyaki strips, among other things. These would GREATLY enhance my meals and give me more protein sources. Thank you very much! The website is www.yvesveggie.ca for anyone wanting to see what's available.

and I hate it!!!
My weight is unchanged from last week, despite altering foods at various eating times to fool my body into thinking things are different, and thus jump-starting it to drop more pounds.
I have to reread the Slimband section on plateaus and try to stay focused while not obsessing about this lack of movement.
Easy to say, hard to do. I had a tinge of swimmer's ear the week before this one, but then it seemed to go away. The Ridge is closed for its annual cleaning now, so we all move to White Oaks for a few weeks, which is less pleasant because there's a strong current that affects each lane, and they use only small ropes between lanes rather than the larger ones that the Ridge uses, which cut down on splashing and keep the surface of the water equal in each section.
I didn't get to White Oaks this week because of a couple of things: The swimmer's ear came back with a vengeance, to the point where my left ear felt constantly plugged and my sinus hurt. I got some Burasol and have used it frequently, so the ear has cleared and I can now get back in the pool.
This weekend I will be using our stationary bike because the weekend swim times are very short.
On Wednesday, I had someone coming at 9 a.m. to look at two items of furniture to fix, and he didn't arrive till noon, so that threw one day's schedule out the door.
Now I have to arrange for him to come back and pick the items up. He's very good, so he's very busy.
I'm gradually getting the top two levels of the house straightened and old items given away if they are still useful and in good shape, or pitched if they are in sad shape. That's how I feel this morning, in sad shape.
I'm on half the dosage of my antidepressants, so maybe that is affecting my mood -- today, at least. I see my psychiatrist again in the first week of October, so we'll see if my system has adjusted yet.
I think most of my blues come from personal and family stress. And stress produces cortisol in the body and that leads to fat retention.
My food plan should be taking care of that, along with my exercising -- it's just that at a plateau my body is supposedly adjusting internally and will eventually start losing weight once it's got itself settled.
Who knew the body had its own brain?
That's basically it for now. I'll write again before next Friday if there's anything newsworthy.
May God bless you and all you do this coming week.
xo

Well, the scale put me at 275, or 72 pounds lost. So I have lost some of the weight that I had added. The doctor's scale from last week had me a pound lower, but I forgot that it was on carpet, and that diffuses the weight and leads to lower readings.
Scales should be on bare floors, such as my own and the one the clinic uses.
I also have been making some poor food choices because I have allowed stress to take over my mind. Eight ounces of cheesies do not help the way protein and veg do. So, I'm being vigilant and much stricter. I have been adding extra anti-anxiety pills to cope with the stress, but that's not the best answer. I need to somehow deal with my stress without turning to food or meds. The trouble is, I have trouble keeping food down when my stomach is filled with anxiety, and I just produce massive amounts of bile. I am afraid of developing an ulcer.
I have issues with housecleaning and am very frustrated. I don't expect Andy to do anything but repairs because he works so hard and is so mentally fatigued most of the time. He also does the dogs, which means extra work. And I'm -- literally -- his biggest burden, both physically and mentally.
But I am going to need his help in retraining the young adults we have produced. I just don't know how to motivate them to take pride, and thus care, in their home.
I can't write about the anniversary weekend because it is about our personal life, so I'll just say it was nice to be away with no kids to come between us, and that we did what we wanted. I'm not sure Andy feels the same way because he deferred to me in all choices.
Time passed too quickly, though, and then it seemed we immediately were thrust back into the turmoil of the "real" world. My emotions on the weekend were pretty even, but I'm all over the map these days. I want peace on all fronts. Peace like I felt last weekend. But how do I recapture that? This is going to sound terrible, but I'm ready for the kids to leave the nest.
Nat will be here for some time because of university and a last year of high school. Chris, I hope, will get a job soon and move to his own place. I realize now that I had my kids too late in life. I'm ready to be on my own again with Andy. In fact, I crave it. But he was going to school while I worked, and so kids got put off till I was 32 and we were settled in a church after his ordination.
But if it had been possible, I would have started five years earlier.
Right now, I feel so tired, almost down enough to go to the hospital's psych ward.
I feel like such a burden and I feel unwelcome as a presence in my kids' lives. I believe they see me as The Big Nag Who Must Be Ignored, though I stopped nagging and just made a list of chores at the beginning of the week. That's not working, either.
I miss the days when I used to get a hug or a kiss several times a day. Even once a year would be nice now. Even to have them come into the living room and actually chat would be nice.
But those days seem to be gone. I have to harden my heart against the hurt and live the life God has given me. My dilemma is: How do I harden a heart that never gets a chance to mend? And I've always let my heart lead me, and it's got lots of pieces missing because of that.
How do I go against my own nature? My own soul? All my life, I've been desperately looking for love and never feeling good enough to get it. So many times, I've been second choice or a consolation prize.
It's like being Miss Congeniality -- I don't know how many people have told me I have a great personality. And you know in your mind that what has been left hanging there, unsaid, is the "but ...." that follows.
I'll never be what I've always longed to be -- pretty enough to win first prize. Because to me, beautiful enough is what good enough seems to mean to others, and I learned at a young age that there was always someone or something better that would spoil everything for me.
My role was to be the responsible one, the brain of the family. I so longed to be the beautiful one. I still do, even at 55. I want to be the one who isn't tossed away. Unfortunately, the notion that I was flawed was sealed forever in my mind and heart when a young man whom I had been dating seriously in my late teens told me at Christmas that he preferred one of my sisters, and asked her out. She refused. We disagree that now she once told me she could take any guy from me she wanted. But I remember because it hurt me so much, and we do remember the things in our own lives better than those who aren't affected emotionally by any personal fallout.
I believed her words then and I believe it now of other women. Looks are supposed to fade with age, but no matter how old you get, there's always someone prettier. I've been scared all my life that I didn't measure up somehow. Brains got me great marks and a career, but they don't help when it comes to my heart.
If I ever wrote a book about my experiences (and no matter how much I'd like to, my relationships would all be in ruins), my working title would be Never Good Enough. It's become part of my DNA. And rejection and my eating disorder are best friends. The more hurt, the more food.
Thank God for the band and my band of angels. Only you can save me from my demons, and save my life.
xo

This is not official -- I'll wait till Friday -- but I saw my GP early this morning (Monday) to get prescription renewals and to catch up on my health issues. He weighed me on his scale and it showed I have lost three of the four pounds I had gained. That made me feel better.
He wants me to have complete bloodwork done in two months, so that will put all the tests and my next appointment with him near the end of October.
He took my blood pressure, too, and it was a remarkable 105/70. I have occasionally felt light-headed, but for only a few seconds and usually in the pool. I had put it down to lack of food, but it may be that I will be taken off one of my BP meds.
Then we'll monitor how I do on only one, and if it stays at the same level, he'll look at reducing or eliminating the other one.
And I didn't take my walker to his office. The walk winded me a bit because it's tiring on the legs: I lurch somewhat because the knees hurt, but I figured it was a good workout for them.
So far, I've walked only a few times outside without it -- once for last Saturday's fill and once into the hospital last week to see my psychiatrist. By the time I'd been sitting for a while, they had stiffened considerably, so I made it two-thirds of the way back to the van before using a wheelchair the rest of the way.
This weekend, we are going to Toronto for our 30th anniversary, which actually is the 25th. Andy was able finally to switch his day off with another driver (the company wouldn't let him use a holiday day), so we'll leave Friday morning and go to see a movie or something till check-in time.
We'll probably have to be out sometime Sunday morning, but we can do something in the city afterward to extend our time a bit. I just hope the kids take care of the dogs properly. It's ironic that we used to worry about the kids with a babysitter; now, we worry about the dogs with the kids. They'll feed them, but they don't check water as often as we do, nor are they big on walking them or taking them to the leash free. What is usually at least an hour's outing becomes closer to half an hour, and that's not enough for Zeke. And if it's raining, heaven help the dogs. You'd think the young folk might melt if rain actually touched them. Right now, I'm mentally doing the "I'm melting; I'm melting" dialogue from the Wizard of Oz, when the Wicked Witch of the West meets her end. And I'm giggling, too.
Today, the van goes in for major work: all new tires (almost no tread on the current ones), a checkup of the electronic sensors (some functions aren't working), a brake checkup (I know there will be something), oil and filter changes and a general examination. Plus there's a lot of rust on the driver's side at the bottom of the doors, so I want advice on patching and then using Tremclad or something to stop the rust.
I'm prepared to gulp when I hear the estimate.
It's a Dorothy day, so I must get ready. I'm already hot, but I don't want to put the AC on till tomorrow. I think exercise on land should be done in a freezer room, though I wouldn't want to have any meat carcasses around me.
Perhaps an ice cream room!
xo

Today (Saturday), I had my sixth fill, 0.25ccs, to put me at a full 7 of saline in my band. There are people who end up at 10, but I'm hoping that I'm not one of them.
I felt really disappointed that I had gained 4.5 lbs from last week to be back at 277, but the other measurements I got from the Tanita body composition analyzer are better than when I weighed 277 before.
I'm going to give you some of the list of readings, and what they mean, plus last month's numbers v. this month's.
Here goes:
BMI: Body mass index. The measure of weight in relation to height (the number 30 or above is on the threshold of obesity). Last month's reading was 54.1, the same as this month's. I started at 66.
BMR: Basal metabolic rate. The minimum number of calories needed daily for breathing, digestion and keeping the brain, heart and lungs working properly. Last month's number of calories needed was 1886, the same as this month's.
Impedance: Using a low electrical circuit to measure resistance by one's body composition. Lean tissue gives higher readings because it has more electrolytes than fatty tissue. Last month's reading was 350, but this month's was 386, maybe indicating more lean tissue but probably indicating less hydration.
FFM: Fat-free mass. Last month, it was 129.01 lbs; this month was 125.01; in other words, the four pounds gained.
TBW: Total body water. Last month, it was 94.5 lbs; this month, 91.5 lbs.
Desirable range for:
Fat percentage: 23-34 per cent for a woman of my height and age. This has been the target range from the beginning. I am hoping to be 25 per cent or less at the end of the journey.
Fat mass: Translating the desirable fat percentage range into lbs. Last month, it was 38.5 to 66.51 lbs; this month, 37.5 to 64.5. This is an improvement in my goal numbers, showing the effects of leaner tissue.
Still, though, I will be changing some habits to get the overall weight down. I have been skipping some meals because of swimming, which goes from 11:30 to 1:30, then I get home about two and just have a snack. I don't eat before swimming, because of my digestive issues.
This has made me hungrier by dinnertime, which usually ends up later than recommended (5 p.m.) because I wait for Andy, and sometimes he doesn't get home till after 7. That also makes my evening snack later -- at 9 or 10 instead of 8 p.m. That food needs to digest completely before bed. So, back to early dinners.
Also, I have been going to bed later (playing on the computer) and getting less sleep because I'm trying to get up at the same time each day. I need more rest to be healthier and that will help to lose the weight, too.
And sometimes I wind up skipping my afternoon snack if I get involved in something.
Plus, I've allowed myself some larger quantities and have had more starch, with potatoes and corn. I've also had more treats.
So, no more skipping meals or snacks: I need to keep my metabolism as high as I can get it by eating every three or so hours. I'll take my morning meds with a protein shake instead of with 2 oz of sugar-free pudding. I'll eat lunch as soon as I'm home from swimming, and I'll have dinner three hours after that.
And, if I'm feeling too hungry while waiting for dinnertime, I'll have a quarter cup of fruit, which will make my bowels happier and keep me from larger dinners.
In family news, we have a new look to the living room and family room (and some vacuuming got done!). Gone is our grey-brown couch; the chintz couch has that spot now. For a bit, we now have a very lovely burgundy loveseat along the same wall (given to us by my very generous brothers-in-law, who have moved to a small bungalow from a large house with a big garage and way more storage, so they are buying new things that will fit better, and giving us their not-so-old larger things. And they have great taste). The new loveseat will move to the other side next week and be on an angle to the floral couch.
Our TV is in that spot right now, but we have a new TV coming on Tuesday, and a smaller stand being given to us by those same wonderful guys. UPDATE ON SUNDAY: We tried their stand, which was wood, and it was actually the same length as our glass one, and a fair bit deeper. It made the room look crowded; the glass one gives a sense of space. So, we're keeping our own.
The old tube TV has been giving us some trouble, which has worsened, and would cost about $300 to $400 to repair. Luckily, I have received a disability tax credit, and the money that I paid in taxes the past two years will be refunded and will pay for most of the new TV.
I hadn't realized, not having been out and about for so long, that they have stopped making tube TVs. So, we've ordered an LCD flat panel. It will go in the middle of the opposite wall from the couch. I will try to sell the old stand, which is huge because it had to take all the weight of a tube TV. It's just less than two years old, made of glass and metal, and I'm certain someone will be able to use it. It will go up on Cheapcycle next week.
As for the TV, I will sell it through Cheapcycle for the parts that work. I often see people advertising for broken sets, so there should be no problem there.
And to make things co-ordinate better, I have Sears on-sale lamp shades in burgundy, and will save the blue and pink ones for another time and decor.
Because we won't be watching TV on an angle toward the corner of the window any more, I have another Sears sale item, a small ottoman that has storage. I can keep my Leafs flannel throw in there, as well as a burgundy quilt-like cover that can be used for naps, plus those extra cushions that come with couches.
I need to get the floral couch steam-cleaned. I have a floor steamer, but it is not advisable to use it on furniture. I'm sure Sears or the Bay will have a deal soon to get three pieces of furniture cleaned, so I can get the couch and matching chair done, and the family room couch. It is exactly the same as the couch we got rid of, only the other one was 23 years old. We bought it a month after Chris was born. It served us very well, what with dogs and kids. The second one is 17 years old; we got it when we moved to Oakville.
Once again, the bros-in-law have given us some newer and better-quality furniture for downstairs, a large loveseat in dark green that is as long as the 23-year-old loveseat and 17-year-old chair that filled that space. We have got rid of those, which matched the grey-brown couches, and now have a one-year-old piece of furniture in their place. It is very comfortable for TV watching in the family room, which is co-owned by Chris and Nat.
As for Chris, he went last Monday to Google's campus in Mountainview, Calif., not too far from San Francisco. Tuesday, he had four interviews with different groups of people. He was the only prospective employee there, unlike the cattle-call interviews a couple of months ago at Microsoft near Seattle.
He applied for a specific Google job but said the interviews were geared toward finding a good overall employee. He thought he did well, and the company promised to get back to him in a week or so.
A recommendation to hire him has to go through three higher-up levels of bureaucracy before landing on the desk of the president, who gives final approval. However, he will rely on the words of his staff, and so his signature is really only a formality at that point. So, keep those prayers going that Chris is hired. He really wants the job, which would allow him to move within the company, which is always starting new projects and thus offers opportunities to gain new skills, keep the career fresh and move up the ladder.
So there you have it. Life can be a bowl of cherries, but no ice cream on top for me!
Till next time, be well and look after each other.
xo